Amazing creativity shown in this video - However, I was expecting the PCs to gang up on the Mac, and not the Macs to gang up on the PCs since there are still more PCs than Macs.
YouTube - Benoit Mandelbrot thinks we’re all screwed
YouTube - Benoit Mandelbrot thinks we’re all screwed.
It gets into this situation. I am skeptical of any good news regarding the current crisis the world is in, and is tired of hearing more Doomsday news and call-outs.
In the end, there’s so many directions the future can lead us to from this crisis. Nobody have the confidence to predict what will happen to the entire market. There might be wars, riots, jobless rates etc. But somehow or rather, people will survive it. That’s where our world starts all over again.
The advice I follow is - Be yourself and live life normally. Live within your means. You are not safe hoarding up on cash because inflation rates might shoot up. Your currency may devalue. There may be chaos and unrest.
You are not safe spending all your money either - I won’t need to elaborate more on that. You might think it’s a good time to buy stocks cheap, but this crisis is unlike any other crisis - The confidence in financial markets, and financial institutions are at an all-time low.
Posted in Society.
Talking Business - Avoiding a Financial Collapse, Indian-Style - NYTimes.com
Talking Business - Avoiding a Financial Collapse, Indian-Style - NYTimes.com.
Some key quotes from the article. Probably I need to research on where MAS stands in our monetary policy. From what I see on the surface so far, they are doing a pretty decent job.
“Indian banks are not levered like American banks. Capital ratios are 12 and 13 percent, instead of 7 or 8 percent. All those exotic structures like C.D.O. and securitizations are a very tiny part of our banking system. So a lot of the temptations didn’t exist.”
“A lot of Indians, when you push them, will say that if you spend more than you earn you will get in trouble. Americans spent more than they earned.”
“Savings are important. Joint families exist. When one son moves out, the family helps them. So you don’t borrow so much from the bank.”
Seventy percent of the banking system in India is nationalized, so a strong regulator is critical, since any banking scandal amounts to a national political scandal as well.
The Madoff Economy - NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Columnist - The Madoff Economy - NYTimes.com.
Was reading through this article and it crystallized what I felt back in university. While reading my texts, I felt that there was too much “financial” and “money” magic in this industry. This article did a better job at describing what I should also have questioned during that time.
Probably I would have been attracted to the industry if there was not such a distinct differences on the prestige between the front-office, middle-office and back-office.
With the severity of this recession/depression, it will be weird for finance students to study and extrapolate the equity market trends and returns over the next few years. Chances are, finance students will have to study the market all over again.
That being said, I still believe in the fundamental value that the banking system provides to the economy - In terms of identifying the lemon companies, and also to provide a basis for valuing the company.
The fundamental flaw with equity market theories, or with any public companies, is the increasing pressure to deliver year-on-year profit growth. The underlying cause of this flaw can be attributed to capitalism, which states that the welfare of an economy can be measured by tangible and material consumption of the people in the economy.
The emphasis on consumerism to sustain a market based on capitalism is not feasible, and increasingly what I witness is a market trend towards a “buy more, buy more! Consume more, consume more!” mentality that is pretty retarded. People move away from their inner sense of peace and tried to seek comfort in the pursuit of material consumption.
The movie “Fight Club” summarized it well when it quoted that people have evolved to “work in jobs that they hate, to buy things that they don’t need, to impress people that they don’t like.”
Light Fixtures for your home
I think one of the things that most people fail to consider when getting a new apartment is how they want to furnish the lightings on their homes. Very often, you think about the type and kind of furniture that you want, the colors of the walls, and the different accessories that you want to install in your home.
While surfing around, I found a site that sells light fixtures online. I didn’t realize the variety of home lighting fixtures that are online - such as pendants, chandeliers, and wall scounces etc.
Probably I can get a chandelier for my future home? 
They have a few categories for various kinds of lightings out there - Though it seemed to be pretty much the same, you might want to check out their kitchen light fixtures , ceiling light fixtures or probably some bathroom light fixtures ?
How about getting a candle holder? Hmm..
Posted in ZA.
Building a Smarter Planet
One of IBM’s initiatives to help make life a little better for the world.
Posted in Technology.
My Career Journey begins here!
From the lack of activity on my blog - You can sense that I have been somewhat held up with other stuff in my life. Career Planning, Job Searches, Job Interviews, Training, switching web hosts, and catching up with my friends. 2008 was a year full of FUD. I didn’t expect this to happen to me, but I think I went through a mini quarter-life crisis. Thanks to Yili, Kenneth and Alvin for being with me through this rough patch.
Switching from Macintosh to Windows Vista
The news:
Some of you might have already known that I made the switch a few weeks back from Macintosh to Windows Vista. I went to the PC show with my girlfriend, and we purchased a pair of laptops together - We each purchased the NEC Versa E6300 14” laptop together for S$1199.
- Windows Vista Home Basic
- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7250 @ 2.0 Ghz
- 3GB DDR2 Ram ; 160GB Storage Space
- 6-in-1 card reader, with Bluetooth
- A 2.0 Megapixel Integrated Web Camera
What I was using
I was using an iBook 12” PPC running OS X 10.4 for the past 4 years, and my girlfriend was looking out for a desktop since she don’t think she will be bringing her computer around. It was an odd choice for me because I had always been on the look-out for another Macintosh replacement, and had reservations about switching back to Windows, remembering the horrible user experience I had with Windows ME (my last OS before I purchased my iBook).
What prompted me to switch
- NEC’s claim that they are the best in Japan. I thought any company who was that confident to claim that should have some form of backing for what they mentioned. I trusted them, and till now they have not disappointed me. I know I have just fallen as a sucker for marketing campaigns I guess.
- I believed the purchase was value-for-money (I’m not the only one). I always thought the cheapest laptop I can get will be at S$1500, and I will rather top up $100-$300 for a MacBook with equivalent value. However, the cheapest Macbook I could see then was around S$1700. Sadly, the $500 makes a difference because I’m broke, and I badly want a new laptop. I spent 80% of my non-sleeping time at home with my computer, and I bring them around wherever I go.
- I witnessed for myself how running XP on Parallels and VMWare on the Intel Macintosh does not work well with my Windows mobile 6.0 phone. I needed a compatible system to synchronize files, photos and contacts with my HTC Touch.
- I thought it will be pretty cool to have the same laptop with my girlfriend together. It might just “synchronize” us together.
- Apple releases new versions of their OS too fast for my liking – Leopard (10.5) does not impress me. The only outstanding feature Leopard I see that’s different from Tiger (10.4) was Time Machine, and I seriously cannot imagine myself using that application.
- I heard rumors that Apple is going to refresh their notebook lines again in June, with the Intel Montevina (Centrino 2), and made with more eco-friendly materials such as air-craft grade aluminum and stainless steel. Maybe I should just wait a few more months for them to refresh their design?
I have written down a list of my Vista experiences after the switch, and will update more on it soon! Hopefully, it will be helpful for anyone who’s considering switching operating systems (either way).
Posted in Updates.
Secrets to smart decisions when you graduate from college
It is true. You search and sniff out information that is most relevant to you. As someone who’s going to graduate soon - I thought this article brought in an alternate view point to my life.
The question I have is - Isn’t it difficult to get jobs that you are neutral in? How many of us “acted as if we were interested” just to get the job that they want?
Secrets to smart decisions when you graduate from college » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk
Posted in Updates.
Django Vs RoR
My personal preference goes for Python rather than Rails.
Ruby was too… magical for me to understand at times; and it was too magical for me to comprehend how they worked at the back. I missed the database schema migration on Rails though. Unit testing was done easier.
Django is written in Python, which for the most part is comprehensible to me, except for certain introspection and meta-programming involved when I tried to write form modules on Django.
Posted in Technology.
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