ASIA BUZZ
	Asia Buzz: Crying Shame The destruction and pillage of Cambodia continues - Wednesday, July 12 2000 Asia Buzz: Free Spirit Napster goes where no man has gone before - Tuesday, July 11 2000 Asia Buzz: The Name Game What would Confucius say? - Monday, July 10 2000 Letter from Japan: Turf War Why in the world are there American troops in Japan? - Friday, July 7, 2000 Asia Buzz: Death Row The New Economy -- where liquidations are a spectator sport - Thursday, July 6, 2000
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	Intelligence The story behind today's news from the editors of Asiaweek

I'm sure many readers got a random card from Bluemountain.com and wondered why it got sent to them. Is the sender, often anonymous, trying to tell you something with that ironic, "Thanks for a Wonderful Job Well Done" e-card when you know you screwed up? So imagine what it's like when you -- the groovy funkster lavishing your indulgence of Limp Bizkit (a (band from Jacksonville, Florida, for those not in the music loop) -- keep getting beamed Britney Spears' 'You Drive Me Crazy.'

It's a simple idea. The Yourmobile people in Santa Monica -- they are related to Globalmusic.com -- compose a simple melody that equates to, say, the theme from 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.' You tap in the details of your mobile phone -- the number, make (it only supports Nokia at the moment), model and carrier, and send the signal. If Yourmobile is working properly -- my experience is that it's a hit-and-miss affair -- the ring tone will be zapped into your phone within seconds.

I've had a lot of fun with it -- and I'm not a fun guy of the wacky screensaver persuasion. I loaded my Nokia 8210 with the 'Mission Impossible' theme, perhaps subliminally appropriating some of the Cruise cachet (take a look at the pic above and you'll see what nonsense that remark is). And I had an almost instantaneous response. I was in a Hong Kong travel agent this week when my wife called me. I had trouble fishing the phone out of my pocket and the office got the full MI-2 ensemble, sadly sans Mr. Phelps. The response from the agency office girls was amazing: "wahhhhhhh!!!, Mission Impossible!!! Wahhh!!!" (giggle, giggle, giggle).

Imbued with my new sense of cool, and first mover advantage, I've taken to testing the jingle at every opportunity. The suits in the Qantas business class lounge in KL (note to editor; free upgrade) were rather less impressed, although one chap in Diesel and Armani said, "wow, now that's a cool ring tone!"

Yourmobile has about 3,000 tones to choose from -- national anthems, '60s through to current pop hits, classical (including 'Ride of the Valkyries' and 'Flight of the Bumblebee'), movie/musical/TV soundtracks (think James Bond) etcetera.

Mobiles phones these days have enough bells and whistles to be able to tailor tones to specific caller ID's, so the potential is, to quote Britney again, awesome. What about the theme from 'Jaws' for your mother-in-law? Or Toni Braxton's 'He Wasn't Man Enough' for the ex-boyfriend who is hassling to get you back? Perhaps Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' for the current love of your life? Or the Temptation's 'Ain't Too Proud To Beg' if you're all out of love, or work as the case may be? The list is endless. So is the ability to annoy others.


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