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My Gadget: Richard Oh Functionality, Practicality Matter
Courtesy of Richard OhRichard Oh is a man of many businesses
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Courtesy of Richard Oh
Richard Oh is a man of many businesses.
He is an author, filmmaker and owner of the Reading Room Jakarta, a library café located in Kemang, South Jakarta.
He has published three novels: The Pathfinders of Love (1999), Heart of the Night (2000) and The Rainmaker’s Daughter (2004). Together with former Plaza Senayan president director Takeshi Ichiki, he co-founded the Khatulistiwa Literary Award (renamed the Kusala Sastra Khatulistiwa in 2014) in 2000 to honor the best works in Indonesia’s literary scene, both in prose and poetry.
As a filmmaker, he has released several films, including Terpana (Transfixed, 2016).
Currently, he is working on an ambitious project to make a film based on Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s 1950 novel Perburuan (The Fugitive), which depicts Indonesia during Japanese occupation.
The film, bearing the same title as the novel, is slated to be produced by the end of this year. In the meantime, he is working on a “more accessible” commercial film, which will be released before he starts producing Perburuan.
“I use digital gadgets that can help me communicate and finish my projects. Most of the time, however, I use these gadgets for my hobbies, like streaming films through Netflix or reading e-books,” he said.
For Richard, functionality and practicality, not lifestyle, are his only considerations when choosing and using gadgets. This is why he remains faithful to his old gadgets even though they are all about 10 years old.
“I don’t want new digital gadgets just to look cool. That’s a waste of money,” he said.
MacBook Pro
I bought my laptop 10 years ago, and it’s still usable. I have formatted the notebook so I can write [film] scripts using Celtx software and edit my films. The color is also very simple: the notebooks come only in grey, silver, black, etc. I like simple colors. If someone gives me a notebook or cell phone in gold, I probably wouldn’t be interested in using it.
iPad
I also can’t remember exactly which series is the one I own now. I prefer iPad to Kindle in reading e-books because iPad’s LCD screen features more colors than Kindle. I prefer e-books to physical books for the sake of practicality.
iPhone 5s
I like this one because the size is neither too thin nor too wide, so I can put it safely in my pocket without fearing that it might slip away. I haven’t traded this phone in for the newer generations of iPhones because the latest iPhones are too thin and too wide. To be honest, I’m not great at keeping my stuff from slipping out of my pockets, so the old style is better.
