Wall Street & Pirates of the Caribbean

Nah, it's no longer Caribbean but Somali & Pirate Bay!

Quest blogs about them being jailed in Sweden, I mean those 4 men from Pirate Bay, that is.

As for the Somalis, well, we'll have to wait for the soldiers to do their work, I'm afraid.

Greed, the backbone of the movie Wall Street has now come full circle after 20 years post showing of the movie. We have the collapse of the credit market in Wall Street, we have the pirates along the coast of Somali & we also have piracy in the internet world.

I'm not so much interested in Wall Street or the Somali's pirates. This is something which is beyond most ordinary citizens' control or say. The internet offers another angle though. Collaborated effort is the essence of the internet. Well, at least the spirit of collaboration is what the internet is all about. YouTube is one good example of how much more life can be with it. Once in awhile though, when YouTube gets a BIG hit, embedding is being turned off. As with the case of Susan Boyle on Britains Got Talent. This however, is something everyone got to watch. I've seen it 3x today & every single time, I'm truly inspired! As of this writing, there has been over 25 million hits!

Today's Read: Pirate Bay Verdict (BBC), 'Talent' star keeps singing, raves keep coming (CNN)

Today's Video: Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent [The video which got everyone talking & raving around the world!] (YouTube), Burst bubble (CNN)

Alibaba, Facebook, Twitter ... C2B

Alibaba, Facebook & Twitter are some of the successful stories of the internet age. These are companies which may or may not be public companies, yet they all have a large following. Who are behind these successful companies amid the world recessionary environment?

I found some answers from Business Week. 













Today's Read: Twitter, from poor man's email to innovation leader (Reuters)

About IP (Intellectual Property)

When I was in Shanghai, I attended James' law course on IP at Fudan University.

It's a hot topic in China now, including a case last year where Microsoft had computers of users of pirated Windows software experiencing blackouts (for chinese speakers, an indepth discussion on this matter can be found in Brainstorm sessions with experts from the IT field).

I'm not against IP at all, in fact, I'm all for it since I build websites of my own.

What is interesting though is that the benefits from an open platform is being hampered in the western medias more so than in the chinese medias (in the name of profitablity, I'm sure). It is a surprise to me, to say the least! I'm not merely referring to hollywood productions or the entertainment field. I'm referring to productions by CNBC, CNN, Reuters instead. These are all commercial entities. Granted, it has its shareholders to account to, wherein some or most of the Chinese medias are government funded, a case in point is CCTV or CBN. For educational purposes though, I learn a great deal out of these medias which have many of its programs streamed onto the web on a daily basis. I've a lot more (free, as in not paid, which in turn becomes FREE, as in dissemination of ) information streamed out of China than I've about the West (main stream media, I mean). WE may be living in a free society, but we are definitely all made to pay for them!!! This is especially true of CNBC, CNN & Reuters! That essentially means (at least to me, it means) having unequal disadvantage when it comes to information processing. Information & the timely acquisition of information for investment's decision making means a lot of difference when it comes to the finance arena! This goes against fair competition, I believe. In some ways, I do feel that there is more fairness among the common people in Shanghai than there is among the New Yorkers. I might be wrong, but that's how I've been feeling & it bothers me that I feel so!


Getaway to Austria, a foreign language (ie. English in this case) travel program by ICS (International Channel Shanghai) broadcasted on Apr. 11, 2009

Today's Video: Gone with the wind (Quacor)

Web TV

It just occurred to me today that it'd be very miserable for me to live life without Internet & broadband these days. I spend a majority of my waking time connecting with others via the Internet, either for work or for leisure. I begin the day browsing through sites like Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC, Yahoo, Gmail & Hotmail. As I get to work, I am still dependent on a broadband connection to read mails from co-workers & clients. Sometimes when work is slow, I am able to stream some videos from the net & watch them online. It could be TV programs (like some talk shows from Shanghai's China Business News (CBN) or Chinese series from Shanghai Media Group (SMGBB)) that were prerecorded or real time TV broadcasting (from CNBC & CNN Live). My main source of information is no longer from the TV or newspapers but instead it's from the web. In fact, there are so much resources out here that sometimes it is overwhelming to digest all there is out there! I'm very sure many of you agree with me on this.

Life has certainly changed in the last 15 years or so. WE will even more dependent on online interactions when the netbooks begin selling for less than $200 in a few more months. I can no longer imagine living life without the web! Can you? I probably will be in cold turkey if I'm out of the loops for 3 days! The first thing when we go on holiday is to make sure we lug our laptop with us. Either that, or our mobile. Upon checking into a hotel, we'll check with the front desk for broadband connection or wifi (these days, many 5* hotels make us pay for it!). It is now an essential, to own a laptop, I mean. The same goes for our smartphone. Life is never the same again!



Today's Video: Die Reise Der Pinguine (Marche de l'empereur, La) (Quacor), 筑梦2008 (Quacor)

Spring Momentum

It's that time of the year again when cherry blossoms brings in the Spring. Japan (especially Kyoto) is most beautiful at this time of the year. It's short-lived though, simply 2 to 3 weeks span each year when the Japanese celebrates life & its vulnerability. I love Japan at this time of the year. Been to Japan more than a dozen time, yet I never did once get tired of it. I guess I must have been a Japanese in my past life!

During my last journey to Kyoto, I had some rare encounters with the geisha and maiko. I even had myself dolled up as one & went around the temples for an hour or so. It was terribly difficult to walk on those Japanese Geta sandals! It was extremely fun & memorable to dress as a geiko though :-) I'd definitely do it again IF I get the chance!

Today's Video: Cherry blossoms captivate Japan, Best job in the world!, Michelle Obama immortalized (Reuters)

Panamera Delights

The much awaited Shanghai Auto Show will debut the Porsche Panamera. China has certainly come a long way... having a German car making its first world debut in Shanghai!

During my 2 year stay in China, the country has been on the course of mass producing its very own commercial aircrafts, bullet trains & solar cells. The time has certainly arrived for the Chinese. It's no longer a case of simply Made in China. It is foraying into high tech sector & a Made in China that equates good quality (albeit not the best) with value.

Another interesting finding is that internet activities & e-commerce have increased tremendously in this country. It now boasts the highest internet users in the world after surpassing U.S. in 2006 with more than 1.3 billion users. Of the Top 50 sites with highest traffic, Chinese sites account for 6 of them (Baidu, QQ, Sina, Google China, Taobao & 163).



Today's Read: Flying Cars - An Idea whose time has never come (NY Times), Asia markets rise on Japan stimulus, China lending (Yahoo), Swedish church unveils Lego Jesus statue for Easter (Seattle PI)

Today's Video: Mossberg Solution: Bump Top Make Your Desktop 3D, Walt Mossberg reviews the 'My Book' Drive (WSJ)

Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons will be in theater May 15

I was very impressed by the novel Angels & Demons when I read it many years ago. Even more so than The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown did a remarkable job with weaving tale of mystery & murders. I'm looking forward to the movie which will be released in theater next month!

Today's Read: Antimatter, America's Outback: Southern Utah, American Idols Big Tease

Today's Video: Angels & Demons - Science vs Religion Featurette, A new Jesus (National Geographic)