Business

Business
Mindset and Freedom

Real Estates

Real Estates
James Cameron Bought Farmland in New Zealand

Paper Assets

Paper Assets
以一卖烧饼的故事来描述股市

Virtual Properties

Virtual Properties
Internet VS Mobile

微软与孟山都 The Case of Windows and Monsanto

2012-03-12

微软当初为什么让中国人免费地去盗版?

刚开始它不管,那是它的最大阴谋。因为它的系统构建得非常完善之后,它生产出来的产品一定是最高效的,而中国人免费盗版使用它的视窗,可以把视窗在中国的潜在对手全部淘汰出局

当中国人想做一个类似微软视窗的软件时,发现自己根本不是盗版的对手,因为盗版不要钱,品质又好。自己开发需要成本,你卖的软件就要收钱,要收钱,别人就不买了,因为他们可以免费盗版微软视窗。

因此微软前七年不收钱主要的目的就是淘汰中国竞争对手。淘汰之后呢?那就开始整治你了。两个办法:

一、透过美国政府向中国施加压力,透过法案让你非付钱不可。
二、在视窗上面放一个黑屏,如果你是非正版的话,一下屏幕就被黑掉了。

透过这些方法逼迫你付钱。到最后,你能不付吗?不能。因为它已经席卷了中国市场,它可以予取予求

现在,我们说生产的转基因水稻都没问题。为什么没问题呢?因为免费给你用。你以为他们不知道我们在侵犯知识产权吗?不是不知道,而是时候未到等转基因水稻摆上中国人的餐桌后,它才透过美国政府施加压力,开始收专利费



背景提示:

转基因作物是未来农业发展的趋势,哪个国家先种植推广,哪个国家就会掌握农业的先机。传统的育种方式已经走到尽头,未来必然是转基因作物的时代。

2008年,中国政府启动“转基因生物新品种培育”的科技专项,目标是要培育重大转基因生物新品种,促进农业增效和农民增收,提高农业国际竞争力。

问题是什么?转基因食品的整个研发流程竟然是不透明的,甚至你用了什么样的专利,我们也不知道,一切的研发过程,都是在极其秘密的情况之下进行的,这一点是不能接受的。

科研的流程必须透明化,公开化。老百姓有权知道,因为这关乎我们这一代以及下一代的生存问题。

你发现你吃的粮油、大米、玉米全部都是转基因。而且这些鸡、鸭、牛、羊、鱼、猪、蛋、乳副食品吃了转基因玉米所做的饲料之后会产生什么病变,我们不知道。至少以小白鼠的例子来看,它的数量会减少,身材会剪短,体重会减轻,这是肯定的。我们吃了这些副食品之后会是什么结果呢?我们也不知道。人自己吃转基因玉米呢?自己吃转基因水稻呢?会是什么结果?会对我们的民族有什么伤害?我们统统不知道。这种危害远远超过清朝末年的鸦片。

注:“孟山都的鬼影”摘自《郎咸平说新帝国主义在中国2》一书(page 165&166),而“南韩偶像梦工厂”则摘自黄国华的《钞票的重量》一书。

ABCD of the commodity trading world - ADM (Archer-Daniels-Midland co, US-based agribusiness giant), Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus

For more info, check out Raj Patel's The Value of Nothing

Smart Factory Ads

2012-03-11

km radius illustration and psf price comparison of nearest offering in the advertisement:

Landmark 地标

2012-03-10

First we have Palm shape Sepang Gold Coast - http://www.sepanggoldcoast.com/,
then we have Hibiscus shape - http://www.thehibiscus.com.my/,
now we have a ship shape hotel:


Danga Bay

2012-03-08

Bukit Gambang Resort City

2012-03-07

The newspaper ads of the integrated resort city in Morib - Bukit Gambang Resort City :

The Power of Media and Social Network

2012-03-06

I give your private information to corporations for money. And I'm man of the year. - Mark Zuckerberg; I give private information on corporations to you for free. And I'm the villain. - Julian Assange.



Source: http://www.wealthwire.com/news/liberty/2801


Facebook alone has almost negated the need for the FBI and CIA surveillance infrastructure completely as was detailed in this Onion spoof which is mostly just funny because it is true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0

Properties Update

2012-02-25

The closing gap
By about September last year, buyers no longer became very interested to buy; they got tired. They were buying at prices that they think should be lower than what they would have paid a year ago.

Owners began decreasing their prices until an equilibrium point, where asking prices and transacted prices began matching around December last year. "Because of the wait-and-see attitude of buyers, a lot more sellers began thinking, 'Oh oh, is this the end of the cycle? Am I hitting about 90% peak? Let me release the properties.'"

Residential properties packaged within mixed use developments will fare particularly well, believes Kho. “The products that are doing well are the self sustaining products where you got retail, residential, hotel and shophouse components all together.

Investors, especially the foreigners, will ask, ‘How is it going to sustain itself? Why would someone want to live in this location?”

Take a look at another real estates related news - Johor: Somerset Puteri Harbour Taken UP

ALL units of Somerset Puteri Harbour in Nusajaya Johor, which were recently previewed to Singaporean investors, have been sold out. Since then, these waterfront serviced apartments, which are to be managed by Ascott International Management (M) Sdn Bhd, have been previewed in Kuala Lumpur. This preview saw 120 of 132 units being taken up.

As part of the luxurious waterfront development of Puteri Harbour, Somerset Puteri Harbour Iskandar is near quayside lifestyle stores, fine dining restaurants, alfresco cafés and an indoor theme park featuring popular children’s characters such as Hello Kitty, Thomas and Friends, Barney and Bob the Builder.

The 204 serviced residences have a gross built-up area of 575,000 sq ft and a gross development value (GDV) of RM180 mil. The price ranges from RM720,000 to RM4.5 mil with unit sizes from 762 to 1,496 sq ft. The built-up of the penthouses starts from 3,650 sq ft.

http://www.somerset.com/malaysia/nusajaya/somerset_puteri_harbour_iskandar.html

More properties for Malaysians
Even though 59% of Malaysian respondents believed there was a property bubble in Malaysia, 62% were still keen to purchase a property within the next six to 12 months.

Malaysia was the most popular choice for property investment by 41% of Singaporean respondents, followed by Australia (19% of Singaporean respondents), and the US (10%).

Singaporeans are cashing in on a market where prices of equivalent properties are significantly cheaper compared to the Singapore market and returns on investment are also high.

The closing gap
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/304148

More properties for Malaysians
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/304151

Somerset Puteri Harbour sees robust sales
http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/property/209325-somerset-puteri-harbour-sees-robust-sales.html

Capitalism VS Socialism

2012-02-24

Edited from the comment by G.Sivalingam in "Is Capitalism at Fault?":

To allow capitalism to work, the insolvent banks or banks riddled with high non-performing loans and lack of capital should be allowed to fail and go bankrupt and exit out of the system. This is what should happen under perfect competition.

However, it seems that most governments are not in favour of a capitalist system where the driving force is "survival of the fittest". What has in fact failed is government and the state which allowed or even facilitated greed and weak corporate governance to triumph over the economic system in allocating scarce economic resources.

What the government did was to encourage the banks to take excessive risks at the expense of the depositors and taxpayers, which the government preferred to call it a "workout" instead of a bail out. The vast misallocation of funds hurt the pockets of the taxpayers.

In other words, when banks made profits, they kept it. When the banks lost money and became insolvent the government through the taxpayer compensated them for their losses.

The banks lived in a beautiful world or a "cloud-cuckoo" land. This is what they sarcastically describe as privatising the benefits and socialising the costs.

In other words, banks operate under state socialism and a welfare state as they get welfare payments to bail them out when they go bust. Workers operate under the harsh conditions of free market capitalism. There is no welfare state for workers.

For the ordinary folk it is survival of the fittest and capitalism as usual. But for the banks it is protection and government support.

This is not capitalism but a state sponsored or guided economic system or in other words the economic system is a political construction to keep the political system stable and in equilibrium.

From conspiracy point of view, could this be part of slavery In The 21st Century?

Elitist puppeteering has a name

With his deep connections in economic and political circles, it could be Soros if there’s anyone who knows what’s coming next. Here is a comment from "The New Soros Plan on How to Save Italy and Spain":

Never mind that their profligate spending, overregulation, and inability to recognize the boom-bust cycle engineered by central banks lead to this crisis. The plan is essentially one long punt to give these so-called leaders a chance to come up with further band aids to save their own jobs. And with that Soros admits his desire for fiscal integration; the very next step toward centralizing statist power. Elitist puppeteering has a name, and it's George Soros...

Prior to that, Soros had also warns of violent riots In America, Financial Collapse, and Government Clampdown:

In his book The Crash of 2008 and What It Means Soros warned that no matter what governments did, there was no way out of the trap in which the world – namely The United States – finds itself:

"So what does the end of an era really mean? I contend that it means the end of a long period of relative stability based on the United States as the dominant power and the dollar as the main international reserve currency. I foresee a period of political and financial instability, hopefully to be followed by the emergence of a new world order."


However things may go, it would be good that in the rush to implement popular schemes that could boost electoral ratings, such important public policies must ensure that short-term spending must not come at the cost of the country's future generations, as what Tricia Yeoh pointed out in her column.

The internet revolution, the tech boom, the invention of the PC and Microsoft and Steve Jobs' inventions convinced us that incessant technological changes will save capitalism and ensure its survival. However, after four years of the sub-prime crisis in the United States erupting into the global financial crisis we are wondering as to the future of incessant technological changes saving capitalism and making it triumph as the dominant economic system in the world. There seems to be a glimmer of hope with the possible listing of Facebook.

Sources:
The Rising Cost of Living
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/304029

Is capitalism at fault?
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/301025

The New Soros Plan on How to Save Italy and Spain
http://www.wealthwire.com/news/global/2588?r=1

Soros Warns of Violent Riots In America, Financial Collapse, Government Clampdown
http://www.wealthwire.com/news/liberty/2566?r=1

Notes:
Merit based system - listing is based on the merits of the case to be decided at the discretion of those in power or those in the listing committee.

Disclosure based system - listing is decided on the basis of the track record of the company seeking listing.

Education Should Be Free

2012-02-21

True education was to be restricted to the son and daughters of the elite. For the rest, it would be better to produce skilled workers with no particular aspirations other than to enjoy life. ~ G.Edward Griffin, The Creature from Jekyll Island

Above statement was mentioned when studying education and freedom. Below are some related points happening in the real world, excerpt from an article from The Sun Daily newspaper.

As far as young people are concerned, they could play an important role. Young people in campus, they have no responsibilities. And they are full of hope and aspiration.

But what the government did – which was very bad – was burden young people with debts. The moment you enter campus, you are in ... I was so shocked! RM40,000, RM60,000 debt. Come on! You are only 22 and you have a RM40,000 debt? Gila! So they tie you up, you know?

After paying off PTPTN (National Higher Education Fund Corporation) loan, pay for a car loan … then a house. So all your life is about trying to pay debts. Sowhen are you going to have your life, man? When are you going to pack your bags and go to Latin America? You will never do that, isn’t it? When will you pack your bags and go (to the) North Pole? You can never do that!


Education Should Be Free

This is what former student activist, writer and socio-political observer Hishammudin Rais' view on whether education should be free:

Education is the nation’s investment in the population. It is about having a better and more knowledgeable population. Having better citizens. So if youwere trained as a doctor, you serve the nation; youwere trained as an engineer, you serve the country. So that is what it is all about. How come studying from Standard 1 to Form 5 is free, but when it comes to college or university you have to pay? I don’t understand that.

In fact, student activists should now know what exactly they are fighting for. To be on the street, not knowing … is a very stupid thing. I don’t think anybody in their correct mind will go to the streets not knowing why they are there.

Source:
Poetry is in the streets
http://thesun-epaper.com/tue/21022012/index.html#/7/zoomed

Old Newsstand VS New Newsstand

2012-02-17

An interesting ads found at The Edge Financial Daily newspaper:


Old Newsstand New Newsstand
Must Go Early
Real People
Limited Copies, may be sold out
No Back Issues
Buy other Sundry Goods
Early Delivery
Multimedia Links
Open 24 Hours
Archive Library
No Sundry Goods. ;P

Worth noting is that for digital version, user experience may vary with different tablets. Though there may be some issue here, the march of technology is definitely unstoppable.

Another eye catching line about the business model would be statement at the ads bottom:

Read it for FREE thanks to BMW and SP Setia Group (Property Developer)

What say you? :)