For instance, the finger print recognition lock at my condo is super convenient to get in and out without keys, but it's equally annoying when the scanner breaks down at 2 in the morning and you are back from a weekend party without reasonable sobriety. This happened a few times and after repeated negotiation with night guards to remote-release the lock, this was by far the best motivation to curb recreational alcoholism. :) Equal luck applies to household appliances, office air-conditioner, escalators, all of which brought me unintended health benefits alike, after all, I had to manually sweep my floors, sit and work in a sauna, and run up and down stairs until order was restored.
Sometimes it's the manual intervention too - for example, the Internet will mysteriously stop accessing foreign email accounts and VPN once or twice a month, usually coinciding with some blurry political or social atmosphere and you are stuck with domestic news and friends until further notice. :) Luckily, it all comes back in a few hours or days.
Nonetheless, imperfect design always inspire unconventional wisdom. My extended family recently moved to the new "best living" suburb outside of Beijing boasting nice new condos, new science and tech office parks and open green space, and were ecstatic to usher in the new subway extension. They were only to discover the amount of residents far exceeded the capacity of the new subway, and the trains were filled like a rail-ride home during Deevali in Mumbai on the mere first stop of the three-stop transit line. During peak hours there is even a line of office workers outside the station just to get on the escalator into the stop. :)
Solution? Locals were quick to help. Now outside their condos there are lines of local resident drivers with their own cars offering a ride of 10-20 kuai (about 1.5-3 USD) for the following services: 1) To shuttle you to the nearby Science Park if you were a poor office peon who didn't hop on the train at dawn; 2) To take you back upstream to Stop 1 so you can get on the early rush if you live near Stop 2 or 3 and out of competing luck. On my last day, despite strong faith required to overcome suspicion in getting into a beat-up VW Santana with a man in his pajamas, (he obvious lives at the condo since the pickup was inside the gates, and, um, pajamas I said), the friendly neighborhood subway shuttle was a pleasant surprise :)
Why is it like this? I can't tell you myself, my guess is the combination of build fast use fast culture in the past decade, plus, there is money to be made in building things, there is wealth to be sustained in repairs :D
Lastly, I inadvertently discovered the mystery of the finger scanner. I came home one day and one local granny was scanning her thumb at my building after grocery shopping. The scanner didn't take her finger print, and next thing I saw was she furiously banged and punched the scanner with her Farm-Fresh mineral water bottle. I swore my eyes widened to a @_@ and I rushed up to help, cleaned the scanner pad meticulously with my scarf and viola, it read her like magic. Btw her name was Grandma Xu and she lives on the third floor, I remembered that diligently cause, if the punishment for poor scanner not recognizing her thumb was bottle in the head, I can't imagine what happens if I didn't recognize her face next time I walked by. :O ;) Oh well, despite minor annoyances and sometimes major entertainment, I'm living on, and getting merrily along.
If it doesn't work, we improvise
