With Hawaiian Telcom now having the fastest internet available in Hawaii, they are stepping up one more time by providing over 100 wi-fi hot spots around the state. This is big news, because their wi-fi will be free to subscribers of Hawaiian Telcom’s internet service. Now you can take your laptop to one of the many locations to use the internet.

Some of the locations that provide this service are Ala Moana Center, Restaurant Row, Downtown Honolulu, and all Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf locations in Hawaii (Source: Honolulu Advertiser). Certain areas on Oahu will also receive the service, such as Kailua, Hawaii Kai, Manoa, Ewa Beach, and Pearl City. They also didn’t forget the neighbor islands as well, so they will provide service at Kapa’a on Kauai, Kona and Hilo on the Big Island, and Kahului in Maui.

Compared to Oceanic Cable, who offers only 40 locations around Oahu, Hawaiian Telcom is really upping the ante with the high speed internet customers.

I think Hawaiian Telcom is looking to better themselves, especially having very poor service ever since they took over Verizon as the phone and DSL provider in Oahu. So far, things seem to be going great for them, and for them to expand into Oceanic Time Warner’s market is a big step, since Oceanic has most of the high speed internet subscribers. With lower charges for internet, more free wi-fi locations, and having the fastest internet, Hawaiian Telcom might persude more than just a few subscribers.

Reading the Midweek newspaper one day, I laughed after I read this article about the Superferry.  Below is the excerpt (Source: Midweek):

“Here’s what Braddah Bash (as in Cala-) has to say to residents of Kauai who protested the arrival of the Superferry:

Mahalo for da aloha, li’ dat, when us Oahu guys try come Kauai on da Supahferry.

Not!

OK, OK, so we know you special, eh - Kauai is da one island Kamahemaha da Greates’ nevah wen’ conquer. Jus’ one leetle remindah, tho: Your chief joined da kingdom, and now you part of da state. Fo’ real! E komo mai!

And da folks you protesting against an’t’rowing rocks at is us Oahu peoples - local kine folks like you, yeah?

From what I saw in da paper an’ on top da TV, you t’ink we make less traffics if we fly ovah on one airplane and rent one car, ‘stead of taking da ferry wit’ our own vehicles. You know, ‘as kinda like my auntie - to make her coat less heavy, she cut off da buttons and put’ em in da pockets …

Speaking of pockets, I kinda wonder who’s slipping some kala in your pockets fo’make you ac’ so lolo …

‘An what, you want us protest when you try come Oahu fo’shop Ala Moana? Better watch it, we get plenny more peoples den you. So you like see one protest, ho, we show you one protest…

‘Kay den…”

Now that speaks the truth doesn’t it?  It makes sense on all points when we talk about how the Kauai people have been reacting to the Superferry.  I agree with Dr. J with his article when he said it was ridiculous that they were hitting the cars of the people who were arriving to Kauai.  And they were also letting out the air in the tires.  What are you doing?  Do you think those antics will keep people away from your island?  Most of those people visiting are all LOCAL, with some Kauai people visiting their relatives.  Really, how mature are you?

And I also do agree with the protest with what Bruddah Bash mentioned.  Do you want us to block you from Ala Moana Shopping Center?  Do we even remotely try and keep you from living or playing on our island?  So what’s the big deal in keeping us off your island?  And he does make a good point…we do have many more people than you.

I also agree with Bash about the car issue.  What’s the difference with renting a car and bringing our car over to Kauai?  We aren’t leaving it there.  We’re gonna take it back with us.  And you have to bank on people visiting your island for the island to survive economically.

Please don’t make it big deal when it only seems that you are all protesting just to protest.

According to KHON news, about 6 thousand pounds of marijuana was found in a remote location in Kauai at Mount Waialeale.  The net worth of all the plants is about $6 million.  Authorities have been watching the suspects this summer, and finally decided to do the bust this past Friday after recording all their activites on camera.

Five people were arrested for being involved in this drug operation.  In fact, a father and son, along with the son’s wife and the wife’s brother were all arrested.  One of their friends also helped and was part of the arrest. 

This is ridiculous.  Not only is promoting and selling drugs a stupid way to make money (at the expense of others), but growing them within the family is even worse.  The father might serve 20 years to life, while the others can spend 10 years to life in prison.  They’ve also destroyed their own lives because of something so stupid.  Everyone besides the father are in their mid-20s.  They are too young to spend the rest of their life in jail.  Then again, I do believe that it’s better to put those people in jail since they are hurting the community.

Hopefully justice will be served.

Wow. I really wasn’t aware how strongly the people from Maui and Kauai felt about the Superferry to be honest. Living on Oahu, I must have been just over-excited about the Superferry and at the same time insensitive to what others islanders thought about the ferry. So I would like to start with my apology to everyone on Maui and Kauai first of all. Please do forgive me if my previous articles were insensitive.

A large number of protestors showed up today at the Nawiliwili Harbor in Kauai, and the ferry could not even dock and had to return to Honolulu. In Maui, the Sierra Club, Maui Tomorrow, and the Kahului Harbor Coalition filed for the temporary restraining order, and the judge granted a temporary restraining order banning the Superferry from the Kahului Harbor for 10 days. People on Maui and Kauai have been concerned about the lack of the environmental assessment and potential pollution, traffic, and endangerment of the wild animals.

I am not sure why the Hawaii Superferry decided not to conduct the environmental assessment which is usually required for this kind of project and how they got away with it. I am yet to see their side of story, so I will hold my judgment at this time. However, there would not have been this kind of protest and discontinuation of their services if they had done everything they could to convince the locals. Frankly, they should have conducted the full environmental assessment without rushing to get the ferry operational as soon as possible regardless of the financial and economic consequences.

Sadly the passengers who were waiting for the ferry to go back to Honolulu got the worst end of the Kauai demonstration. The demonstrators were yelling and swearing at the waiting passengers, banging on their cars, throwing coconuts at the cars, and some demonstrator even attempted to deflate the tires. I do strongly support the cause of the organizations who protested against the Superferry, but they definitely could have taken a different approach toward the passengers. It is not the passengers’ fault that the Superferry did not conduct the environmental assessment. They succeeded in preventing the Superferry from docking in their harbor. What they should have done is to tell the passengers why they were protesting or to hand out fliers or brochures to persuade the passengers into boycotting the ferry in the future in support of their cause.

There is absolutely no excuse for the violent behaviors that they showed today, and I would refuse to support any groups pushing their ideas through violence no matter how important and righteous their causes are. The protestors need to understand that many of the passengers were the fellow islanders who live on Oahu, and I guarantee that most of the passengers did not even understand why they were protesting. Educating the public is definintely a better alternative to threatening them to get their support to the cause. Violence will only result in further violence and division of our great islands. Insteading of preaching aloha to the tourists who come to visit our islands, why don’t we practice aloha amost us first? Then we can get unimaginably wonderful things done together, like fixing the problems of the Hawaii Superferry…

Lastly, I condemn the Hawaii Superferry for their irresponsibility in protecting the beauty of our islands and sincerely hope they will take any necessary actions to convince the residents of Maui and Kauai and put this all behind as soon as possible.

After reading my original article “Super Ferry Me“, so many people asked me when the Hawaii Superferry starts their service. All I could tell them at that point was that they were accepting a reservation for the dates between early September and January 15th. Finally Hawaii Superferry announced that they are going to start their services on August 28th, 2007! If you want to be on board of the Hawaii Superferry Alakai for her historical maiden voyage, you better hurry up because they started accepting reservations from today (8/11) at 6:00 a.m. Who knows, you might run into some of local celebs. You can always brag about it to your grandchildren in 20, 30 or 40 years from now that you were one of the passengers for the maiden voyage.

Here is the comment by Mr. John Garibaldi who is the Hawaii Superferry President and CEO. “We are excited to announce Alakai’s inaugural voyage on August 28th. Our crew and the Alakai completed route familiarization trips and certification process with flying colors. We take great pride in the unique inter-island travel experience that Hawaii Superferry will offer passengers and look forward to our maiden voyage.”

You can make a reservation by either going on line at www.hawaiisuperferry.com or calling 1-877-HI-FERRY (877-443-3779) from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. HST, seven days a week.

Von Voyage, everyone!

According to the Honolulu Star Bulletin, about $15,000 in fake money is circulating in Hawaii.  The counterfeit money actually came from the Crips and Bloods, a well known gang in Los Angeles, and has leaked some of its fake money onto the islands.  There has been at least $4 million worth of counterfeit money in the Los Angeles area.

The bills have turned up in Waikiki and Pearlridge, and has even passed onto other neighbor islands.  The Secret Service has also noticed that people have been using the counterfeit money to purchase items and then to return the items later to receive real money.  This way, they are getting rid of their fake money in return for real money.

It was also reported that the fake $100 bills have been made with high quality paper that is close to the real paper used to make official $100 bills.  The printing is also very close, if not exactly the same.  The bills are also sprayed with chemicals so pens that stores use to check for fake bills will not be detected.  As you can see, the operation looks to be pretty large.

Below are ways to spot a counterfeit bill (source: Honolulu Star Bulletin):

» Look for security threads. Genuine currency has red and blue fibers in the paper, not just printed on the bill.

» Check the watermark by holding the bill up to the light. Real $100 bills will have a watermark with the face of Ben Franklin that can be seen from both sides of the bill.

» Look for distinctive and sharp printing in the portrait, border and treasury seal.

Call the police if you suspect a fake bill.  Just beware especially if you use large bills like that.  Fortunately, I don’t use $100 bills, and usually don’t have enough money to aquire them, so I’m safe.  =)  But to you others, watch out!