Dsi and Ipod touch

I am in the midst of deciding whether I am going to upgrade my dslite to a Dsi or my fifth gen Ipod to an ipod touch.
Both of these devices served me well for their own respective functions.

An Apple dilemma

I was checking out the new Ipod releases today and I am starting to ask myself this question, "When will people start to realise that the Ipod is just another music player?".

Being an Ipod owner for more than 4 years, I personally enjoyed my 5th gen video Ipod. However, I guess I am just looking for something more groundbreaking from Apple. In fact, I was waiting to buy an touchscreen Ipod back in 2006. Unfortunately, it didn't happen back then.

Although we have the Ipod touch 2g today, I guess the Iphone 3g overshadowed its ipod breathren in many ways. If the ipod touch were to be released before the Iphone, it could have been a huge hit.

Guillotine and I

"Guillotining" was a service provided by my school's printery. That was what I observed on the paper box that was used to store my new notes for my finm 7406 in the 2nd half of the semester.

When I saw the word, I can't stop myself from imaginning the time when they used the guillotine during the French revolution. One "Swoof" and the head of the executed is gone. What if the printery in France was responsible for performing the guillotine service back then?
After looking up on the entry about "Guillotine" on wikipedia, the guillotine was said be retired as a public execution tool after Napoleon. But it brifely earned a spotlight in Hitler's sight during world war 2 and many of them were made to execute Hitler's opponents.

Anyways, back to the story, the guillotine that we all know is just a paper cutting board today. However, I just can't help myself from looking for ambiguos naming of words since it proves to be a good source of material for stand comedy.

Busy Busy Busy

My schoolwork is starting to pile up on me in this few weeks. Ricardo models, H-o models, heterosdasticity, barra-jarque test, F-test, locational arbitrage, hedging, bonds, security, MBS, Kangaroo bonds ..... You name it and it may probably on the list. However, I am starting to get a feel that this is definitely what 

I am doing better comparatively than programming( I am a bad programmer:( ) 
Anyhow, besides my heavy school word, I was kinda hooked up on Nintendo's fire emblem series. It is a turn based strategy game which started back in the late 80's. However, the series is still alive and kicking after 20 years. I guess it stands the test of time. Here is the little Japanese ad of the first game in the 80's.

Waiting for my blue tooth headphones

I ordered my Sony Bluetooth headphones lastweek and I am still waiting for my postman to deliver it to my doorstep.

The reason that I chose to purchase the wireless headphones is to try out a wireless mobile music listening experience on my 2+ year ipod.

It has been a while since I last posted. In fact, I am writing this post through a dashboard widget by google. 

Being a past CS student, I feel kinda spoiled but bored of becoming a consumer of what the new tech that is out now on the market. For example, I am not so hyped about the new 3G iphone.( I won't mind getting it free, though)

I am currently trying to improve on my cooking. I have tried recipes on frozen musells and frozen scallops and they all seems to be pretty eatable. I am sure an ecosystem of recipes and ingredients can be developed in order to make our life as a working adult so much easier. 

Starting to get use to my new Oz environment

I haven't blogged for a while since Jan. I have moved to Brisbane for my graduate school and I am glad that I am out of Malaysia for a while. However, I did feel somewhat sad that I have to leave Malaysia. Well, I felt somewhat similar to the time when I left SF like 2 years ago. I guess I am just missing the people who treated me well while I was in Malaysia.

After 3 weeks of school, I am starting to get use to the Australian Uni environment. Although it is a little different than the US college system that I experience as an Undergrad, I feel like they have a more academic focused program in UQ.

Besides school, all I have been doing here at Brisbane is just grocery shopping and browsing the web at home. I hope I can get to find something new to do at this place because this place is boring!! Anyways, I did enjoy the grocery shopping experience since we have a woolsworth and a coles nearby. I get to compare prices in this two places when I am trying to purchase orange juice. I get a feel of arbitrage when I am comparing prices of OJ before making a purchase at the lowest price among the two and I sure wish I can resell it back to the other grocery store who might buy it back with their higher retail price for a slight profit. It is just a thought.

A movie that is so so for the story but amazing in their music score

I went to watch Sweeney Todd- The demon barber of fleet street with my family on Sunday night and I enjoyed the musical performance of the movie casts and I really hope that we will see more musical movies in the future. The story of Sweeney Todd seems to be a mix of "the Mask of Zorro" and the Count of Monte Kristo. In other words, the story is sub-par. The gory effects of the movie are pretty similar to the horror movies in the 70's. Just Imagine evil dead. I hope you get what I mean.

Anyways, I am planning to reserve some tickets for CJ7 and I hope I will be able to get it done before Feb 7th.

A Blessing may be a Curse vis o' vis

I have been reading the news lately and I noticed that we have a short supply of cooking oil in Malaysia. Cooking oil is one of the essential items in the Malaysian household. The lack of supply of cooking oil will certainly affect the livelihood of Malaysians.

When I read the news, I am trying to relate the lack of supply of cooking oil to the high crude palm oil(CPO) price in the world market since palm oil is one of the key ingredients in the making of the cooking oil. As of today, Malaysia is one of the largest palm oil producers in the world. With a high CPO price in the world, Malaysia will be more than willing to sell it to the world market. However, the high price also spells higher cost for cooking oil producers who depends on palm oil to produce their final product. With a higher cost, the cooking oil producers will have to cut down their production in order to cut down cost and to maintain a certain level of profit in order to justify their cooking oil production operations.

As a result, the lower supply of cooking oil may not meet the demands of the Malaysian market. Malaysian consumers were rushing for their cooking oil due to the fear of the lack of cooking oil. In order to cut down the fear of the lack of cooking oil of the Malaysian citizens, the Malaysian officials decided to rationalized the supply of cooking oil. Well, when someone rationalize a market, it may help the market in the short run but it may have some side effects in the long run. Well in the short run, Malaysian consumers will be able to purchase their cooking oil supply at a controlled prices in a controlled amount. However, the rationale of cooking oil may not spell good for the cooking oil producer since, according to the papers, they were required to fulfill a certain amount of cooking oil in order to satisfy the demands the market. In other words, they will be required to take up more loss in their profits in order to fulfill their orders. If things turned bad, I am sure the cooking oil producers will try to either stop their productions or they will be force to look for some other alternatives for palm oil in order to produce more cooking oil that satisfies the Malaysian consumers that brings in a justified amount of profits.

I guess the case study looks quite similar to the many hyper inflation scenarios that we have seen occurred in the world. We were lucky that there are still many other alternatives for cooking oil, such as olive oil etc., that are available in the market. As long as the Malaysian consumers realized the true picture, they will have to try to change their consumer habits on their cooking oil options. After my naive analysis, I hope that we have more options for our gasoline supply because, after more than 100 years, we have yet to find another alternatives for crude oil. If no alternatives is discovered in the next 50 years, our children may not be able to sustain the level of economy comfort that we all enjoy today.

One of my purchases in my HK trip

In my past trips to Hong Kong, I used to try to shop for video games. However, in this trip, I had all the video games supplies that I need. As a result, I have decided to shop for some sneakers for my graduate school in Oz. I used to be a big sneaker when I was in college. I remembered that my first purchase on Ebay was for a pair of air jordan xiii. Those were some nice kicks. However, those sneakers didn't last longs. I wore those sneakers for like 2 years or so and the sole was out of shape. As a result, I threw them into a dumpster.



Back to my story. I was able to check out this website, www.hk-kicks.com. I used to check this website when I was really into sneakers. The site gives some useful information about what's new and the place to get a pair of nice kicks. At first, I saw some special sneakers. They were called the Nike Air Woven. The unique part of the Nike Air Woven is that the shoe is weaved with suede which I personally find interesting. Well, I get to see weaved tissue boxes and weaved fruit baskets everyday but the idea of a weaved shoe really hit me.

I was able to spot a pair at Lane Crawford. However, the pair of Nike air woven is a size 9 while I am a size 10.5. What a bummer! I heard many stories about the average Asian foot size is like from 8-9.5 inches and there are many times that the size of the foot of each individual is dependent on the average weight and the height since the feet is one of the main tools that the human use to support their weight. I am not sure if this is one my weakness that I should change but I must say that persistence is part of my personality. When the time I can't get something that I am interested, I may pursue it until I can get it. As a result, I went to the sneaker hotspot in Hong Kong, Mongkok(MK in short). The place is a good place to look for common sneakers like air max, air Jordans and other sneakers. I guess the Nike Air Woven was rare. I was not able to find it in Mk. As a result, I tried Juice at Causeway Bay and I walked around Tsim Tsa Tsui to look for a store called 'Exit'(I didn't find the store but I guess I learn more about Tsim Tsa Tsui). After my search, I was not able these pair of sneakers because the air wovens that I found were too small for me.

Since I can't get the air woven, I have decided to go for a pair of Nike air foamposite one. The original Nike air foamposite ones were released in 1997 which is a decade ago for Penny Hardaway when he was hot back then. I tried to bid for those shoes on ebay when I was in SF. However, the price was always out of my reach. Anyways, I have decided to get a pair of foamposite one retros as a consolation for my failure to get a pair of Nike Air Woven. I was able to get a pair of size 10.5 at MK and, believe me, this pair of sneakers is definitely the priciest sneakers that is in the market. However, I believe that my purchase was good because I get to own a pair of these rare kicks. However, the thing now is I will need to decide when I will try on these sneakers since these sneakers were expensive. Anyways, I will wait until the time is right!!

Hk Trip was too good to be true!

Happy 2K8 everybody! I came back from my HK vacation with my mom on January 1st and I must say it has been one of the best vacation that I have had for a while. First of all, I was able to travel around HK like I did in SF with the MTR. In addition, I was able to enjoy many great food with thanks given to my Uncle Danny and his family( They were definitely a great host).

Besides the vacation, I was able to take note of some observation on this most capitalistic city of China and I must say it is not easy to live as a Hong Kong resident. When I was there, I noticed that the power supply for the Hong Kong Island is controlled by Cheung Kong which is controlled by Lee Kah Shing and his family. In addition, the Lee family also controls the Park'N'Shop chain grocery store in Hong Kong through their Watsons group. In other words, I had a feeling that they control a lot of the major necessities of the people of Hong Kong. I am not sure if this is a good thing but this truly reflects that "Capital is King" in modern market economies.

"Treat people the way that you will like them to treat you"

"Treat people the way that you will like other people to treat you" is a golden advice that I have learned for the pass few years. There are times people treated others in a good manner and they were treated in the same way in return. Of course, there are many exceptional cases. However, I remember my father told we should always treat people in a good and fair manner. I guess with the principle of "margin of safety", there is nothing bad about treating people well without thinking about how people will treat us in return.

The reason why I brought up this phrase is because I am currently witnessing some family matters that involves the application of the phrase. Well, let's say it was somewhat of a tragedy to see things happened this way and I am lucky to say that I will be able to learn from what I have witnessed. Anyways, in this family tragedy, a cousin of mine was forced to have a divorce with his wife due to financial constraints and, as a result, his only child will have to live with his mother for the rest of his life. At this moment, the only advice that I can give to this little nephew of mine is to grow up "strong" since he represents the forth generation of my maternal grandfather's family. Sometimes, I feel that kids who are involved in a divorce are the most unfortunate people in the world. These kids may have lost the family love that most people fail to realize how lucky they were to be brought up by their mom and dads. However, as long as these kids are able to grow up strong and to learn from the realities behind their parents' failed marriage, they will be able to cherish their marriage life more dearly than others.

The fruits of my labor

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Rediscovering my Asian History Interest

Recently, I have been reading heavily on Word War II History materials. Well, at first, I was trying to reread "Hirohito:The making of modern Japan" but I found another good book which is "Bankrupting the Enemy" that is written by Edward Miller off Amazon.com .

Anyways, after reading this book about the financial wars between the USA and the Japanese Government. I have discovered a number of details that I have never thought about the in these two great participant in the second World War. For example, there was this act in the US after World War I that was created to restrict the US from the directly involving herself in a foreign war. The rationale for the creation of this act is to prevent the US from getting herself in war because some of her greatest financiers like Jp Morgan etc. had provided vital loans to the warring nations and the financiers begged for the US government's involvement in the war because their financial interests was in stake. This little example makes me think about the many financial interests that the US government takes into account before they involve themselves in a war which seems to disregard their position as the "Good Guy" in a war.

In addition, the book gives a good picture on the economical analysis of Japan by the US government. The economical analysis was carried the calculate the the economy of Japan at the time and the impact of the potential financial embargo of the US on Japan which aims to bring "Japan on its knees" for her aggression on China. I find it fascinating for the research of the US government because it was able to try to learn about their enemy before they go straight into a financial war that may eventually lead to war with Japan. I wonder if the Chinese government of today may have the same profiles of the many countries of the world. The Chinese government seems to resemble the US on the early 20th century because they were both the largest market of the world of their time. It is definitely not be a good to be the bad side of China today because a potential embargo by China on a country that is heavily dependent on its export to China will definitely "bring the country to its knees".

Anyways, I am looking forward to re-reading this book because it seems to provide a good insight on how governments used their financial weapons in a war against their enemy.

Year 24, the second 12 year cycle of a human life

In the Chinese Zodiac, there are 12 different animals that represent each individual year. My Chinese Zodiac happens to be the 12th animal which is the boar. By looking back the past 12 years, many things have happened. In these past 12 years, I was able to finish most of my education which includes my elementary education, secondary education and my college education. In the process, I believed that I was able to go through many changes in my personal life that I think not many people will be able to experience in their lifetime. Although it was sad to see many good things comes to an end, I am sure that I will be able to take these many bitter and sweet experiences that I have gained over the past 12 years and I am confident that better things are on their way for me in my next 12 year human life cycle.

"Chew in the Good, and Spit out the bad"

This phrase has been used on my MSN personal message for a while. I really admire this phrase because it really reflects the really essence of human evolution.

A few years ago, I have read "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa that talks about Toyotomi Hideyoshi who was the second great man in the Sengoku period in Japan. In this great book, it talks about the many foreign influence that Japan has encountered during Oda Nobunaga's era(Tensho period).

At the time, the Japanese merchants were concerned about the impact of the influxes of foreign goods and foreign cultures into the Japanese society. In the book, it talks about a conversation in between Oda Nobunaga and a well known Japanese Merchant. In the conversation, Nobunaga was amazed by sugar which was brought in by the "Gaijins" to Japan. When Nobunaga was enjoying some desert made with sugar, the merchant points out that the sweetness of a dessert has been greatly increased with the application of sugar and there maybe some harmful effects on the human body if the dessert was to be consumed in a long period of time.

After listening to the merchant's observation, Nobunaga used the phrase "Chew in the Good, and Spit out the bad" to describes the Japanese should hold when they accept foreign influence into their traditional cultures and values. In other words, the Japanese needs to learn from the west, to adapt the best from their foreign business partners and then innovate from what they have learned.

YesAsia Sucks for their response time!!

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Nuclear power in Malaysia

With the incoming energy crisis, many countries like Malaysia are planning to tap into alternative energy in order to hedge against the high oil prices that may hit up to $100++ in the coming years. However, I have a little skeptic about the proposal to tap into nuclear power to generate the require energy to replace fossil fuel in Malaysia.

First of all, the cost of building a Nuclear plant is definitely not cheap. It can cost up to a couple of billions of dollars to build up the plant and a commitment on maintenance should always be kept in order to avoid a radioactive leakage like the one that happened in the states in the early 90s.

Secondly, in order to produce Nuclear power, the country will have to seek out nuclear power source such as Uranium. However, with the popularity of Nuclear power in first world countries, the price of Uranium has sky-rocketed in the recent years. In addition, Uranium is definitely not a renewable power resource. It is hard to imagine the feasibility of the plan to establish a Nuclear Power Plant if the source of Uranium is not secured.

Thirdly, although hydroelectricity may not be as efficient as Nuclear power, I think the Malaysian people should really consider evaluating the many ways to use their available energy resources efficiently. Well, with the Bakun Dam, I believe that cheaper electricity should be made available to the people and the Malaysians should really look at what they have before jumping ahead and commit to a huge project like building a Nuclear plant.

Lastly, like many third world countries in the world, Malaysia may not receive any positive remarks for building a new Nuclear Power plant in this world. With Iran as a good example, I am sure Malaysia may receive the same negative treatment that Iran is receiving today. Of course, I am not saying that by establishing a Nuclear Plant, a country will go on and develop their own weapons of mass destruction. However, Malaysians should really consider the potential of new trade barriers to first world countries and the pull out of multi national corporations in order to protest against the construction of the power plant in Malaysia. The effects should not be undermined since it will not only damage Malaysia's image but it will also seriously affect Malaysia's economy which is heavily dependent on the export of their industrial products.

In my opinion, other energy resources should be chosen ahead of Nuclear power. With Malaysia's geographical location on the equator, I believe that solar energy and maybe potential energy from rain should be harvested in order to supply the growing energy demand for the Malaysian economy. Although solar panels have not reached the level of efficiency to produce a massive appeal to the public, I am sure, with a healthy allocation of r & D resources and the expertise of the world scientific experts, Malaysia may become a pioneer and the world's leader in developing solar energy.

"Theodore Rex", a book about the adulthood and the prime of a Great Man

After getting this book on Monday, I can't stop reading it. Mainly because I was eagerly waiting it to arrive after I have read the first book like a week ago. Anyways, I was able to finish it today and I must say that this book actually paints a good picture about a man who has done many great things as the leader of the New World.

Well, first off, he was able to kick start the navy built up for the US Navy.

Next, T.R has started the construction of the Panama Canal despite the many obstructions like the resentment of the Colombians to honor their pre-agreement with the Roosevelt administration that the U.S has received .

Then, T.R has started his plans to accept the African Americans who are qualified to work in the administration as a Federal worker for the US. government. Although many southerners cannot accept the "love" that the president showed to one of their colored friends, T.R was willing to take a chance on his political capital to maintain his stand on his policies.

Another thing that T.R did was he started to pull the public attention the many Trusts like the Beef Trusts, Railroad Trusts that was dominating the US economy at the time. The Trusts were actually a combination of the many major and smaller similar companies to formed up a corporation that will allocate a number of shares that will entitled the dividend of profits based on the size of the companies. In other words, the trusts were controlled by the major corporations like Standard Oil and others. As long as the big corporations were able to control the major entities like oil supply and railroads in America, the people were at times held at ransom when the trusts were free to charge at their will. During his administration, T.R fought hard to establish the anti-rebate bill and many other departments to administer the activities of the Trusts.

Lastly, T.R has started his natural resources conservation program in the US right before the end of his presidency. In his opinion, the conservation and the correct utilization of the rich natural resources of the American soil is vital for the future generations of Americans which I find quite resounding to the lack of such a program in many countries today.

"Fast Food Nation" and "The Jungle"

While I was reading Theodore Rex, I started to recall this book "The Jungle" that talks about the unsanitary conditions of the meat packing plants in America in the early 20th century. Although some people say that the novel is a political driven novel, I seemed to see some similarity in "The Jungle" and "Fast Food Nation". In "Fast Food Nation", it talks about the fast food industries in America and it also talks about the many inhumane treatment of the fast food industry on their employees. I believe that "Fast Food Nation" is similar to "The Jungle" in a way to raise the publics consciousness on the "wage slavery" phenomenon in a market economy. Personally, I feel that "wage slavery" has been an issue that not many people is willing to discuss and to talk about in an open air debate. Many people today are forced to follow their employees' order in order to make their end's meet.