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Monday, June 27, 2005 |
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India's Rise in Technology Services (tidbits) CNET just did a special on the Indian Technology Industry. Here are some links: - India's Renaissance in the Technology Industry, and where it is going - India's History in the Technology Industry traced back to 1946 9:13:35 PM  comment [] trackback []
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Sunday, June 26, 2005 |
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Giving our School Children Skills (tidbits) I attend a lot of seminars and events, and am also a frequent speaker. At a most recent conference on the state of IT education in our country, I heard a gem of a thought that got me thinking. According to the speaker, Fr Jomar Legaspi of Learn .PH Foundation ( a foundation funded by Microsoft to bridge the digital divide) about 30% only of the students in our public high schools go to college. That means 70% of those drop off and therefore will have to rely on what they have learned thus far to get a decent job and earn a living. And yet, everything in our high school curriculum now is geared towards equipping the person to tackle college. It consists of a lot of subjects like math, reading, sciences and the like, while not emphasizing the acquisition of practical skills. There is a separate agency that you could enroll afterwards if you drop out, and could not proceed to college. He ardently asks why the practical skills have to be taught outside of school inside of when the person is still in school? I am taking this up because I am convinced that in many countries, this is the same scenario, and there may be a need to do some educational reform to insure that people in developing countries who don't have a ghost of a chance of ever entering college can acquire the skills that he needs in the first few years in school to be a productive citizen of his country. I would welcome any comments.
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More Statistics on China (tidbits) Added to my previous compilation comparisons of China and the US, here are some more Chinese statistics from Time Magazine that might be of interest. ( currency in US dollars)
Communist party officials disciplined for corruption in 2004: 170,850 Percentage of counterfeit seized in the US that is of Chinese origin: 66% World ranking in terms of automobile deaths: no. 1 Percentage of Urban Chinese with college education: 5.6% in rural areas: 0.2% Estimated rural chinese that have never brushed their teeth: 500 million Estimated number of smokers 350 million Number of skyscrapers in Shanghai in 1985: 1. Number in 2004: 300+ Population in Shenzhen in 1980: 50 thousand. In 1990: 1.67 million. In 2005: 12 million Retail sales: in 1996, 250 billion; In 2004 over 600 billion Total Exports: in 1999: over 200 billion; In 2004 over 550 billion Direct foreign investment: in 1999: 40 billion; In 2004 over 60 billion Car ownership: in 1999 about 10 million; In 2004: over 25 million
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Friday, June 24, 2005 |
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Still Mentally Agile? (tidbits) Here is a small exercise I got from the June 2005 issue of Reader's Digest to test your mental agility. Count backwards from 100 in sevens: for example, 100, 93, 86, etc. Try to time how long it will take for you to get to 1. If you're under 40, you should manage it in less than 20 seconds. If you're 40 to 60, under 25 seconds...
6:23:56 PM comment [] trackback []
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Tuesday, June 21, 2005 |
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Big Outsourcers, Small Outsourcers (tidbits) Its not only the big companies that are outsourcing. Mom and Pop shops are also. More and more western companies are turning to places like Sri Lanka, China, Philippines and Eastern Europe to make clothes, jewelry, trinkets and even software programs. Computers, the Internet and modern telecommunications are making it possible for start-ups to market their goods to customers anywhere in the country and the same infrastructure also enables them to find workers and plants tens of thousands of miles away in countries they will never visit and in factories they will never inspect... <more>
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Saturday, June 18, 2005 |
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Most Visited Sites in INQ7 (tidbits) I chanced upon an article on Inq7.net, Philippines's most visited and awarded site on news reporting, and they listed their top 10 articles most visited. I was a little bit appalled to see that 8 out of 10 were articles were about entertainment which contains updates and gossips about movie stars and other trivia. I guess the country will fare better once its citizens decides that there is more to life than entertainment.... Our preoccupation in life and where we focus our lives and energies determines our fate and success, and maybe the reason the country has not taken off economically is the failure of policy makers to properly inculcate values and cultural direction to its citizens.
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Friday, June 17, 2005 |
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The American Criminal Legal System (tidbits) Michael Jackson was declared innocent. According to this news commentary, it was more than beating the odds -- it was a peculiar case. It is said that a vast majority of criminal cases in California and elsewhere is now resolved by pleas. As such, acquittals also are becoming rare. For instance, in 2002, it was reported that in California, out of 236,471 felonies, only 766 or less than 1% were acquittals, and the overall conviction rate is about 83%. In Santa Barbara County, where the Jackson case was heared, the convinction was even at 87% percent. And out of 2,407 felonies, only 3 were acquitted. One of the takeouts here is that district attorneys don't prosecute unless they have a more than 50% chance of winning <more>....
10:58:20 PM comment [] trackback []
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Thursday, June 16, 2005 |
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Open Source Marketing (tidbits) A new e-book ( actually only 15 pages and free), which lauds the success of Open Source Movement, have coined a new term of marketing called 'Open Source Marketing'. Ironically, one of its primary examples on how to do this was Microsoft's Channel 9, and its team of bloggers.
8:34:13 PM comment [] trackback []
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Good Enough is not Good Enough (tidbits) Seth Godin, famous author of numerous books which are among the most thought provoking, has a new post in his blog which he laments that today's generation virtually have a prevailing attitude that does not encourage the pursuit of excellence. He labels the attitude as the Seduction of Good Enough ( he has always had a way with words). Many of the products are just 'good enough'. People are so busy that they just want to get by.... Are they overwhelmed, overworked, or just losing motivation? Are we still rewarding excellence in many areas, or are people just become jaded?
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Saturday, June 11, 2005 |
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The Increase of Millionaires Worldwide (tidbits) Here is an interesting joint study made by Cap Gemini and Merill Lynch. According to their World Wealth Report, the number of High Net Worth Individuals ( or rather US dollar millionaires since the criteria is the individual has a net worth of at least 1 million US dollars excluding that of his primary residence) increased by 600,000 in 2004 to post a new high of 8.3 million. For the first time since 2001, North America, with a growth of over 7.3% now has more millionaires than Europe with 2.7 million compared to 2.6 million. Asia Pacific posted the There are only about 300,000 millionaires in Latin America, and another 300,000 in the Middle East, while another 100,000 came from Africa. However, due to strong oil prices, the growth of Middle East wealth was the most significant at almost 29%. By country, Singapore has the number 1 growth at 22% ( now with 48,500 millionaires), followed by South Africa at 21% ( now with 37,000 ) and Hong Kong at 18.8 % ( now with 67,500 millionaires). The United States has the most number of millionaires at 2.5 million. The full report can be downloaded here.
4:47:42 PM comment [] trackback []
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growth of 8 percent to more than 2.3 million.|
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Friday, June 10, 2005 |
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Marry for Love? (tidbits) Stephanie Coontz, in her book, "Marriage, a History" contends that the widespread belief that you marry for love only started to be prevalent in the Western world 200 years ago. Before that, people (especially Asia) have always married to arrange child rearing, to pass on property, and to organize their life. Until then, most choice of partners were not left to the couple; it was the parents and other respected community elders that made the match. 'Marriage was just a way to turn strangers into relatives, of making peace, of making permanent trading connections.' In fact, in early China, a Chinese aristocrat would have one wife and several mistresses. There was no concept of jealousy -- in fact, it was the wife who actively looks for her husbands mistresses. As Head Wife, her power grows as her husbands satisfaction with her selection grows, and as she have more mistresses to command under her. And surprisingly, most of these marriages lasted -- although it can be arguably said that many might not have been unions made in heaven. No expectations -- no disillusions. Only that it was part of the way society works. Now, Koontz says, with the unprecedented concept of love, more and more people every year are separating. Marriage, it seems, have become a commitment to stay together -- until someone better comes along, or until somebody starts to think that they are actually better without it. Thus, she concluded, the concept of romance have actually gone a long way to wreck family stability. Where would the institution of marriage go next?
6:18:16 PM comment [] trackback []
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Wednesday, June 08, 2005 |
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Fire Safety Procedures (tidbits) I am staying in the hotel room, and noted their 'in-case-of-fire' instructions, and thought it would be great to share this. First, they noted that 42% of all hotel and motel fires are started off because somebody smoked in bed, so generally, refrain from doing so. If there is a fire outside the room, and you find that you are trapped, the following are good guidelines to follow ( note that most people die because of smoke poisoning and this is the first thing you should avoid): a.) Inform somebody of the fire immediately. b.) Fill the bath with water. Soak all sheets and towels with water. Cover the cracks to prevent the smoke from coming in. c.) Put a wet towel in front of your face. Swirl a wet towel in front of your face to get rid of the smoke. d.) Do not break or open the window unless you can exit there or the smoke is unbearable. More air may cause the fire to spread more quickly.
10:04:10 AM comment [] trackback []
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Monday, June 06, 2005 |
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Booksellers ponders change in bookbuying habit (tidbits) Booksellers noted that less and less people are browsing the shelves. They come in, ask for the title they want, buys it when there, and goes out when it is not there. This has some implications on how to market their products moving forward ...
7:36:11 AM comment [] trackback []
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Apple Shifts to Intel (tidbits) You win some, you lose some. Just as Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony plans to shift to IBM's processors, Apple does the other way around, and is rumored to consider Intel's chips.
7:33:00 AM comment [] trackback []
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Sunday, June 05, 2005 |
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Interesting Comparisons of China and US ( tidbits) Before I start, I just gathered from Time Magazine that Time Warner still makes over a million dollars a year from royalty payments on the song, "Happy Birthday to You !" which was composed in the 1930s. At any rate, Time Magazine ( May 16, 2005) reports on some interesting statistics also in comparing the American and the Chinese economy. In terms of personal finances: China United States - Disposable income per capita $1,138 $29,372 - Savings Rate 23% 1.2% - Debt as percentage of disposable income 30% 110% - Home Ownership 81.2% 67.8% That means that while the Chinese earns less, they save more, has less debt, and more of them own their homes. Annual Expenditures: China United States - Clothing $232 $1,749 - Dining Out $159 $2,276 - Beer Consumption 21 liters 84 liters Overall, the Chinese still consume much less than the American consumer. Only 8 out of every 1,000 driving age Chinese owns a car, compared to 940 per 1,000 in the US. In contrast, there is an estimated 2.27 millionaires in the United States, and still about 236,000 in China. In terms of mobile phone ownership, only 54.6% in United States owns cell phones, but 90% of the Chinese do. More Americans ( 61.8%) though, owns computers compared to the Chinese ( 27.8%)... Over 94 millions Chinese now surf the Internet, and last year 2004, over 29 million trips were made by the Chinese overseas.
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Last update: 7/5/2005; 5:51:40 PM .
