Entrepreneur I Am

We had the sub prime, then the credit crunch, according to some experts, the next bomb to explode in our face is the Credit Card Crisis. “Credit lines will continue to be reduced across the system, but the velocity at which it is already occurring and will continue to occur will result in unintended consequences for consumer confidence, spending and the overall economy. Lenders, regulators and politicians need to show thoughtful leadership now on this issue in order to derail what I believe will be at least a 57% contraction in credit-card lines.”

Add this to the already fragile US consumer spending along with its huge multiplier effect and you get the idea. This will be like rubbing salt to the fresh wounds that is Asia’ export driven economies. Actually a correction it would be akin to rubbing gunpowder and lighting it on fire truly decimating any hope of a rebound in demand.

Such is the state of our current economic recession that “an increasing number of woman an increasing number of women are offering to sell their eggs at U.S. fertility clinics as a way to make money amid the financial crisis. Nicole Hodges, a 23-year-old actress in New York City who has been out of work since November, says she has decided to sell her eggs because she desperately needs cash.

“I’m still paying off college. I have credit card bills and, you know, rent in New York is so expensive,” Hodges, who has been accepted as donor and is waiting to be chosen by a couple, told Reuters Television.
A 2007 study by the society found the U.S. national average payment was $4,216. Payments by clinics in the Northeast were found to average just over $5,000, while those in the Northwest averaged just under $3,000.

Sadly for us guys, donating your sperm only gets you $60. So next time if any of your female friends talk about Female Inequality, tell them it sure aint fair for guys, we have to do more work to donate sperm

In today’s economic climate, every government is doing their best to not only show a brave front, uphold the facade as well as try to portray themselves capable of taming this wild bear. It is therefore very interesting seeing the difference between the various news coming out from US as well as China.

In the US it’s bungled misinformation while in China, it’s controlled misinformation. Premier Wen Jiabao has come out saying that China’s 8 percent growth target for this year is within reach, indicating the government doesn’t see the need to increase a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) economic stimulus. It’s “possible for us to meet this target,” Wen told delegates in his annual speech to China’s parliament in Beijing today. The nation needs to “reverse the economic slide as soon as possible.”

I guess if you believe in it often enough, pretty soon it becomes true is the order of business in China. Yet the big question is can China truly contain this increasing bleak recession. With exports plummeting, property prices still too high, millions of workers jobless, factories closing all be solved by just turning around exporting to stimulating internal consumption?

The whole world is watching and hoping that China pulls THE GREAT ESCAPE OFF, hopefully dragging some
of them along for the ride. Such is the irony that we see ourselves in.

According to an article by the Times Online, there have being widespread unrest in China since the current economic recession started.

According to the report, "In southern China, hundreds of workers blocked a highway to protest against pay cuts imposed by managers. At several factories, there were scenes of chaos as police were called to stop creditors breaking in to seize equipment in lieu of debts.

In northern China, television journalists were punished after they prepared a story on the occupation of a textile mill by 6,000 workers. Furious local leaders in the city of Linfen said the news item would “destroy social stability” and banned it. "

To me, it is really no surprise that there is some form of social unrest. with tens of thousands of factories closing down or already closed, the results are obviously the millions of pent-up workers being laid off.

However, that being said, I feel that this report exaggerates the extent of social unrest. I was up in China recently and did not find the extent of unrest to be as widespread. Besides most of the factories powering the export market of China has being ongoing since last year and if anything were closing down since last July onwards. I believe that the impact has being spread across the past few months. 

There is a definite problem brewing but not to the extent that was reported. The press in Hong Kong i feel would have reported much more of this if such "riots" and "unrest" were as prevalent. Still it does make you think hard about whether China can really sustain its current projected growth and appease their massive population

I do not know which is scarier, Google flagging all their search results across the entire world as malware or how important Google has become over the past few years to everyone in the Internet.

As with all things computing, I think we all need our backups. Yahoo and Microsoft stands to gain the most from this.

You can check out the google Error page here. http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=45449&topic=360&hl=en&ei=EGWESb6YMYaR-gbTu40o&sa=X&oi=malwarewarninglink&resnum=1&ct=help

After almost a year errr.. millennium in Internet speed, Google has finally unveiled what my beloved Jotspot has evolved to.

Welcome to Google Sites, One stop for team information, a nice and friendly headline but does it compare as well? It is hard to say how good it is during my short trial of the service since I absolutely loved Jotspot.

Google Sites seems to be a very easy system to use though it does lack a lot of the "advanced" features which I like about Jotspot. Ok, Jotspot was more complex and was the system I was weaned on so I’m really lazy to learn a new one.

Is Google Sites a good thing? For a free app, you bet! Though it still needs to be seen how good this is compared to the real enterprise apps such as Lotus or Sharepoint. As a free entry to this space, Google Sites does have a lot going for it with the Google branding.

——–Edit——–

It seems that you need to be an administrator of your domain before you can sign up for Google Sites Beta. That’s 1 strike against Google apps then since most folks do not own or control their own domains. Let’s hope this changes in the near future.

After all, Google Site is in beta

I considered myself quite well traveled especially in regards to China; however either I have not being following the latest interior designs or my bosses must start sending me on trips every week or so.

Just 2 weeks ago, I visited the city of Jiangyin for a business trip attending to a vessel discharge and stayed at a 4-star hotel. This was what greeted me when I stepped into the room.

For those who see nothing wrong with this picture, either I must be very traditional in thinking and/or modesty is no longer fashionable. Being that it is a glass panel separating the restroom/bathroom with the main open area of the hotel room itself. You can literally see whatever anyone is doing inside while the person doing his/her business can see through to the bedroom.

*I can see usage of above if you are into Kinky stuff, but sadly for poor old me this is a business trip and I spend my nights alone :-p

Well IMAP on Gmail as I mentioned in my last post was an excellent idea. However, I forgotten how slow IMAP can get when you have something like 20-50,000 emails like I do on my office email.

Sure every task only takes at most a few seconds; but those seconds does add up. I have tried the following to see if I can at least squeeze some more speed out from the current setup, but nothing seems to quite work well. Below is a simple review of the various clients I tried

1. Microsoft Outlook

The constant cache header became so irritating that I felt I was not really working, but more like just browsing my email. Eventually I decided enough was enough and move on.

2. Outlook Express

Well, it does have its charms however the lack of a index searcher makes this quite unwieldy for my needs

3. Mozilla Thunderbird

Often touted as the best open source email client out there. It has some strengths yet it was never as fluid as I wanted it to be. Also, checking on the index search part for this was another nightmare. I might have to install an external application such as Windows Live Search (Note, I hated it) and/or Google Desktop search for this.

4. Windows Live Mail (Beta)

Although still beta, Windows Live Mail felt very polished. The speed was bearable, however getting it exactly the way I like it before prove again to be unattainable. I think Microsoft has a winner here as this truly looks like a successor to Outlook Express. Just sadly, it wasn’t for me.

Well, so it was back to my old Setup. The one good thing is that Gmail IMAP still allows for POP access. My current setup is listed below for those who are wondering

POP SETUP

1. Microsoft Outlook 2003
2. Lookout for Outlook version 1.3

Index search, speed and everything I need. Maybe I am just getting old and lazy to learn a different setup. As long as it works as they say.

I have to say this has being a godsend! Gmail has finally broken the biggest hurdle in regards to email for me. IMAP is a godsend for many of us. I leave the official Gmail Blog to give you the details

“For the past few years, we’ve offered POP access, which is similar to IMAP but lacks one critical feature: your changes made on other devices aren’t seen in Gmail when you log back in. Instead you are presented with a list of unread mail, and you must re-read and re-sort everything. For this reason, as soon as I started at Google, IMAP was one of the first things I asked about. Since then, I’ve seen countless blog posts, requests, chats, and just about everything else asking, “Are you guys ever going to do IMAP?” Well now I can say: Yes. Yes, we are doing IMAP. In fact, we are doing it for you for free on all devices and platforms.

As we roll out the feature over the next couple of days, you will be able to use Gmail at work, in your car, or just about anywhere on any device, and actions you take will be automatically synced with Gmail on the web (and remember it works the other way too: anything you do on the Web will be seen on your phone or in your mail client). Just click the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab in your Gmail “Settings” and turn it on. (Psst. If you don’t see the “IMAP” in the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab, then check back soon. We are giving it to users as fast as we can).”

Now it seriously might not look like much for people who have not used IMAP before. With IMAP, you can sync your email across your phone, any computer and have everything the way it was. You can even have 10-15 person working on a single email say “support@abc.com” and everyone can see the changes/replies. Now that is the power of IMAP. Is there any downside to this? Well if your internet connection is slow, you might experience some sort of issue, other than that, it is pretty much all groovy.

Here’s to Google!

Well, certainly being one of the most hectic years ever for me. I expect it to get even more so. One of the ventures I have being helping out with has actually gone the last mile and has as of this moment in the process of getting approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a listing.

Essentially an IPO of sorts. I will probably be moving on and working for this new entity and should be based out from Hong Kong subsequently, with frequent travel around Asia especially China. Life is funny sometimes, you win some and you lose some. My new job is one of the oldest trade in the world (no .. not that kind) and it will not exactly be a far thing from what I am doing now except with more wheeling and dealing.

The only issue is that I have to relocate to Hong Kong, although Hong Kong isn’t exactly a remote place it is still a bitch as I have tons of friends, family and all sort of entanglements that I will be moving away from to a city where traffic and pollution is a bitch to deal with. Still there are many many plus points, FOOD IS ALWAYS GREAT IN HONG KONG

Here’s to everyone chasing their dreams, I know I am

Adding another twist to this story, The boss of a Chinese toy firm involved in a huge safety recall has committed suicide, Chinese media has said. Zhang Shuhong, who co-owned the Lee Der Toy Company, was reportedly found dead at his factory in southern China. About 1.5 million toys made for Fisher Price, a subsidiary of US giant Mattel, were withdrawn from sale earlier this month. Many were made by Lee Der.

Although I tend to leave conspiracy theories to books and television, one can’t help but think whether Mr Zhang was ultimately responsible for the huge recall of toys. Growing pains as I mentioned is an inevitable thing; for China, the path is just a little more slippery.

If you need proof that Hope springs Eternal. There is nothing more prominent that the Iraqi Football team. Against all odds, they have went on a fairy tale and brought home to Iraq the Asian Cup. A squad made up of Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish players, all whom have lost a relative or a friend in the conflict. Their pain is fresh and thus their victory is even more dramatic amidst such extraordinary circumstances.

After all as their coach says, This victory “has brought great happiness to a whole country. This is not about a team, this is about human beings.”

Recently, my last post was about China’s growing pains. Guess the pains are not stemming from direct capitalism, but more from ethical point of view as the pressure mount to perform well at a job.

The “fake pork bun” scandal which was widely reportedly worldwide was a hoax created by a worker at a television station. This only goes to show you that workplace pressure and stress is certainly at an all time high in China. Resulting in workers who try to succeed at all costs leading to such cases whereby they might resort to said unethical behavior in order to excel.

In a way, this is partly a social problem as it reflects on China’s rapid advancement in terms of Capitalism without the proper education or rite of passage. However that being said, it is miles better than having unethical businessman who are willing to subject other fellow beings to risks for the sake of earning a tidier profit.

China has had many growing pains issues over the past decade. With all the copyright infringements and the various “replica” items being made. However, there are lines which just should not be crossed.

I think the recent “Fake Pork Buns” which has being the talk of town in Hong Kong is a very good example of what needs to be addressed quickly in China. According to reports in Beijing, CCTV aired a report about how vendors in China are mixing cardboard into pork buns.

Using a formula of 60% cardboard and 40% fatty meat along with a healthy dosage of chemicals to make it mushy and a healthy sprinkle of salt. Such unscrupulous vendors are able to make a very healthy margins of RMB1,000 per day selling such items. What was worst is that the vendors in question explained that this has being the industry standard for years and have being in place for 10 years?

You can see the investigative report here.

To me, this ranks right up there with the fake baby milk powder scandal. However that being said, China is definitely trying to move in the right direction and incidents such as this are probably part and parcel of growing pains

So I bought a ticket to Phuket sometime last year which I totally forgot about. It was a good thing it somehow appeared on my Outlook Calendar. So I am now off in Phuket chilling out at Patong for 2 days.

Life in Phuket however does tend to be very commercialized. Head down to the beach and you will see trongs of tourist from all over the world. Then there are the gogo bars, the seafood restaurants and all sorts of ameneties. Of course, everyone is hoping to find “The Beach” where everything is still pristine.

Myself, being a city person, I tend to think different in a way; I enjoy the social comforts that commercialization and civilization brings. I am weak and feeble minded. Give me my Braodband Internet Access, soft beds, air conditioned rooms and a nice toilet. I can head outdoors when I want to

After a whirlwind of a trip to visit my companies’ mines in Indonesia, I am back in civilization. As much as I love hanging out in some remote part of the world where life idly passes you by, work does beckons. What I always love about such trips is the part where you get humbled by Mother Earth and how dependent we all are in this information age. You tend to always rely on the lowest denominator of communications. In those remote mine areas where there is barely any telecom reception; I relied on good old SMS. Drop a message in your cell phone and then pray for the window of opportunity whereby you get signal and it gets send out.

There was a satellite phone but the costs were so crazy that it is not worth mentioning.

On another note, the trips also tests what my feeble city body could endure. Below is an example of what I had to “endure” to reach those mines.

Day 0
Late night Flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Hotel

Day 1
8am Flight from Makassar to Luwuk, Sulawesi
12pm landed in Luwuk, car ride to Mine site no.1
3pm Hit mine site no.1 did some work till
6pm Left mine site no.1 to visit mine no.2 on a 15hour car ride

Day 2
10am Hit mine site no.2. Did work the whole day till

Day 3
2am in the morning, take a ferry to Mine site no.3
12pm Reach Mine no.3 after a 10hour choppy ferry ride
3pm Left Mine no.3 and rush to Luwuk Airport (200km covered in 1hr 15 mins)
5pm+ Flight from Luwuk back to Makassar, Sulawesi
8pm+ Flight from Makassar to Jakarta, Indonesia

Overall, I truly enjoy such trips once in a while as you get to think more. By doing so, you get to clear your mind of a lot of distractions and spend most of it on thought process and strategic planning. However, I doubt I can stand a month or 2 of such . After all, I am addicted to the NET

I am a firm believer in underpromise, overdeliver. When you overpromise or when the hype becomes too great, that’s when you will get some backlash over your product. Of course, in this case, it seems that the iPhone is meeting most of the expectations but failing at some others.

Wall Street Journal took the iPhone for a spin for 2 weeks and came away mostly positive in their feedback on the iPhone.

Overall, it gave a much needed scale down over what the iPhone is capable of. A good phone probably, just not quite up there yet. Here are the good firstI have to be honest that I was quite surprised the battery life was so good in the iPhone surpassing my skeptical expectations. But then again, it still isn’t replacable making it one of the failings if you ask me.

The on screen keyboard is supposedly quite good and according to WSJ, comparable to a Treo, now that is again another surprise factor to me. Lastly, the “sturdy” glass used instead of plastic was another triump apparently leaving very few smudges and was “scratch proof”. Not saying I am skeptical, but it defintely has not being abused enough if you ask me.

There are however a couple of rough edges such as simple things like cut and paste being lacking. Overall, I still don’t buy it and i do not like iTunes as an interface either.

Well, I am currently posting this in the middle of a pristine beach (sort of), soon to be turned into a jetty. Sadly, most of my business revolves around some form of destruction. Trees have being cleared for the mining operation. The world is indeed getting smaller when even in the most remote parts of the world, the internet becoming increasingly important and is an ever present part of daily life. Will hopefully post some pictures when I get back since i am on a lowly 56k here.

The New York Times has a great article today about Michael Bloomberg and the possibility of him running for President. Their take is that not only should he run, he should also lose but win a few states, thus effectively making him the power behind the throne so to speak.

Although, I am quite sure it would is a slim chance with Bush effectively making it extremely difficult for any Republican to be elected. You can’t rule out the implications and the amount of might such a person would wield. He would not be subjected to the checks and balances of the Presidency nor have to handle the daily running. In balance, however his powers are of course not as far reaching. Still for people like Mr Bloomberg, the amount required is but loose change and most certainly, he would be hoping for such a scenario to appear next year with himself in the driver seat.

I received the following below from a company regarding their vessel which had the below under their “CARGO EXCLUSIONS” or what we call, cargo in which their vessel will not load. What is really interesting is in Paragraph 3. YUP. The first word is KRYPTONITE. Either I have being failing my Chemistry or this guy is a real big fan of Superman. Popular Culture at work overtime here.

ALL CARGOES OF CORROSIVE NATURE, INJURIOUS/INFLAMMABLE/DANGEROUS/HAZARDOUS GOODS, SUCH AS ACIDS, EXPLOSIVES,
BLACKPOWDER, BLASTING CAPS, BOMBS, DYNAMITE, TNT, ARMS, DETONATORS, AMMUNITONS, WAR MATERIALS OF ANY KIND, NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND/OR THEIR WASTES, RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS AND/OR THEIR WASTES, RADIO-ISOTOPES.

AMMONIUM NITRATE, AMMONIUM SULPHATE, ASBESTOS, ASPHALT, BITUMEN, BORAX, TAR, PITCH, CAUSTICS SODA, MOTOR SPIRIT, GASOLINE, PETROLEUM OR PETROLEUM PRODUCTS IN BULK (EXCEPT ORDINARY CALCINED), NAPHTHA, PESTICIDES, CALCIUM CARBIDE, CALCIUM HYDROXIDE, CALCIUM HYPOCHLORITE, CARBIDE, CARBON BLACK, CLAY IN BULK, CHARCOAL, SPONGE IRON, DIRECT REDUCED IRON AND IRON PELLETS, FERROCHROME, FERROSILICON, GREEN PETCOKE, BULK CEMENT, HOT BRIQUETTED IRON, IRON SULPHATE, MOTOR BLOCKS, MOTOR SPIRIT, RAILWAY WAGONS, LOCOMOTIVES, YACHTS.

KRYPTONITE, CHILEAN NITRATES, CHLORIDE OF LIME, COBBLESTONES, CONCENTRATES, “CREOSOTED” GOODS, “COPRA” OR ITS PRODUCTS, FLUORSPAR, GRANITE BLOX, ILMENITE CLAY, KAOLIN, LIMESTONE, MANIOC PALLETS, MINERAL SAND, NEEDLE COKE, OXITON, PENCIL PITCH, PONDS SOLIDS, POTASSIUM NITRATE, PYRITES, QUEBRACHO EXTRACTS, QUICK LIME, SHAVINGS, SILICA SAND, SILICOMANGANESE, SODA, SPENT OXIDE, STONES, SULPHATE IN BULK FERTILIZERS UNDER IMDG CODE TURNINGS, PRODUCTS CONTAINING PHENOL AND CARGOES FOR WHICH VESSEL REQUIRES APPENDIX B CERTIFICATE, TURPENTINE OR ITS PRODUCTS, ZINC ASHES/INGOTS AND ALL DANGEROUS GOODS/ COMMODITIES AS LISTED IN THE LATEST IMO/IMDG CODE.

LOGS, LIVESTOCK, BONES, HIDES, HOOVES, MEAT BONE MEAL, FISHMEAL, RESINS, COCOA, COFFEE, COTTON, JUTE, TEA, TOBACCO, SUNFLOWER SEED, SUNFLOWER SEED PELLETS, CANARY SEEDS, OILCAKES, OIL SEED CAKES/OIL SEED MEAL, OIL SEED PALLETS, PALM KERNELS, SEED CAKES/SEED MEAL, BULK GRAINS, RICE BRAN, SALT, SUGAR, WHEAT BRAN, WHEAT FLOUR, ANY BULK CARGO INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION, ALL KINDS OF OILY EXPELLERS SUCH AS SUNFLOWER SEED EXPELLERS, COTTONSEED EXPELLERS, NIGERSEED EXPELLERS ARE EXCLUDED.
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Who says work has to be boring all the time eh?