成功之道,分享,享受生活

「分享」贏來滿足
各位先生女士，分享對我來說確實無比重要。我的住所是我家族為各成員興建的一座房屋，我和六個兄弟以及他們的家人同住。雖然我會獨自選擇經營項目，但在項目成功開展之後我會與家人分享。每讀到一篇好文章，如果我把這文章送給可能有興趣的朋友和家人閱讀，事後總覺得特別舒坦。
事實上，有好東西，趁自己用得着的時候與別人分享，那種滿足感不是比等到自己沒用處的時候才送給別人更強嗎？試想想，曾經多少次你恨不得馬上與人分享一個特別精彩的笑話或一齣電視喜劇？
成功的另一個重要先決條件是衝勁，一股推動你向目標進發的勁頭。一個成功的人面對困難永不會退縮，反而會加倍努力以達到目的。換句話說，一個人必須要有堅定的意志然後可以達至預期的目標。
意志堅定，成功就已經有保障。沒有意志，沒有奮鬥精神，任何人都不可能成功。相反，一個人只要有意志力，就算沒有任何其他資源，都一定會成功。
今天，我們可以從單車比賽名將蘭斯．阿姆斯特朗 （Lance Armstrong）身上得到啟發。阿姆斯特朗克服了睾丸癌，創造了環法大賽七連冠的奇迹。阿姆斯特朗專心致志於單車運動，他的意志確實值得我們的年青人學習，而年青人就是明日的希望。
時間當然也是成功的其中一個要素。工作繁多，時間有限，你自然應該要早起。無論前一天多晚睡，每日我必定早起，因為早晨清新的空氣有利思考，有助引發一些新的念頭。不過，你們不要誤會，我不是急性子，我不會因為希望省時而趁廚房正忙着為我做主菜的時候就先把甜品吃了。雖然如此，你可能因為花費太多時間或者因為拖延而失去機會。機會固然多，但機會不可能一次又一次地來敲你的門。在經歷過磨練之後，你將會知道該鼓起勇氣，當機會到來就牢牢把它抓住。我們都應該做樂觀的人，於每個難題裡都看到機遇；我們不應該做悲觀的人，不應於每次機遇中看到難題。
我們千萬不要被一些習慣負面悲觀思考的人擾亂我們的情緒，因為這種人會奪去你最美好的夢想。我們應永遠記住文字的力量，因為你聽到或者讀到的每一個訊息都會影響你的行動。你每做一件事，都要深信自己一定能成功；信心是你實現豐盛人生的基石。

享受生活旅途
這種行事的勇氣，將有助你簡化事情。我的意思是，當你有構思的時候，你一定要想一個理由將構思付諸行動，而不是去找一個理由按兵不動。有些人雖然很想去做一件事，但最後總會想出千百個理由，結論是不可行。其實，他們只需要找一個理由，證明構思是可行的。蕭伯納曾經說過：「你看見事情，你會問，為什麼是這樣？而我就夢想從未發生的事情，然後問，有何不可呢？」蕭伯納一生成就非凡，箇中道理還不夠明顯嗎？
一個成功的人，不一定孤單寂寞，終日爭權奪利。我素來堅信生活要平衡，在許多方面，生活平衡其實有助推動我在事業上達至成功。
因為我是個勤勞的生意人，我的太太自然要承受各種各樣的困難。她忍受孤單，無私奉獻；她給予我信心和力量，幫助我度過許多艱難的時刻。我的太太可以稱得上是我成功的主要原因。家庭生活對一個人在事業上的表現影響至深，所謂「每個男人的成就背後都有一個值得自豪的女人」，實不為過。
因為分享，成功自然會降臨在你身上。成功就是他人對你所作的努力表示贊同，顯示你的奉獻精神獲得嘉許，被視為是有益於社會。扶輪社的座右銘是「服務愈多、獲益愈大」，這就是成功之道。
作為扶輪社員，我有幸能遵循扶輪社的座右銘。誠如約翰．赫斯所說：「偉人有四個共同點。他們語調溫和、不怕勞苦、志向堅定，對自己的能力有無比的信心。」
「生活是旅途，不是終點。」不過，我們應該享受這旅途，不應該總是將快樂視為遙遠的目標。旅途上，我們難免不斷搜索、不斷刺探、不斷渴望，但我們同時應該要享受這旅途，而且一定要享受，不應總是問什麼時候才會到達。也許我們都應該首先成功做到這一點。
謝謝大家。
本文摘譯自夏利里拉集團主席夏利萊博士於本年十一月十四日在香港浸會大學之公開講座發表演說，題為─「成功之道」。

成功之道-信報財經新聞

承蒙浸會大學頒授榮譽工商管理博士學位，本人深感榮幸，謹此致謝。我對浸會大學有着深厚的感情，由開始認識到現在為止，我對浸大有許多美好的回憶。尤其使我感到欣喜的是，浸大在短短的時間內，已經發展成為香港最出色的大學之一，實在令人驚歎。

在座可能有人還記得，數個月前我曾經以「領導才能」為題，與大家分享我的個人心得。要成功就不能缺少領導才能，今天我要講的題目就是「成功之道」。許多人會埋怨成功總是與自己擦肩而過，而實際上大多數人都不會分析自己的事業發展方向去斷定這方向是否正確。我們必須記住，只有渴望成功的人才會獲得成功。

我可以肯定，你們當中許多人都接觸過不少以「成功」為題的書籍，由成功（也有不怎麼成功的）人士撰寫。這類書有如雨後春筍般遍地都是，記載着不同領域人士的成功事迹。這類書籍，除了一本之外，其餘我都沒讀過。原因是我的一位朋友送了我一本保羅．格蒂（Paul Getty）的成功故事，還力勸我一定要讀。大概因為盛情難卻，所以，在有關「成功」的芸芸眾書中我讀了這一本。

達成個人目標
讓我印象深刻的第一點是，保羅．格蒂對於「成功」的定義跟許多人的想法完全不一樣。大多數人都會將金錢視為是評量「成功」的主要指標，這種現象在香港尤為普遍。可是，我們必須記住，金錢並不是唯一的考慮因素。在各個不同的領域，例如文藝、醫學、建築、科學、體育等等，都有該領域的佼佼者。問題是，領域與領域之間的界別多不勝數，我們該如何簡單地為「成功」下定義？

要找答案，我們可以查閱《簡明牛津英文字典》。這本全球最成功的字典將 Success 解釋為：「成就、達成目標」，對我來說，「成功」就是達成個人定下的目標，就是那麼簡單。
你一定要設定目標，然後朝着目標進發。要能夠起步，一點點的運氣對你會有幫助，所謂：「好運是鍥而不捨的代名詞」，所以運氣並非純屬偶然。要達成目標，除了運氣，還需要努力付出、誠懇的態度、自發的精神、遠大的眼光以及抓住機遇的勇氣。

要有這許多因素，我們方可能談論成功。事實上，「成功」永遠都是一個指標，用來評量你在通過一切努力之後能否達到你當初所設定的目標。

我不會過分信命，但我肯定你們都明白，你個人的命運並不全是由你個人主宰着。命運並非偶然，而是一種選擇。命運不是等回來的，而是爭取得來的成果。

機會、機遇、一點點的運氣（你甚至可以稱之為神靈的安排），三者合起來決定了你的成敗。多年的經驗使我相信，我對這三個因素堅信不疑證明是正確的。

許多人似乎以為，這世上有開啟寶藏的通關密語，但事實上，成功之門不會因為「芝麻開門」這句咒語而打開。要達至成功，一定要靠努力和機會。在你感到沮喪之前，我應該提醒你，這世上有的是機會。我自己就已經完成了好幾個人生目標，也還有許多我希望完成的目標。也許我應該先談一談，到目前為止協助我達至成功的各種因素，好讓你們明白我的意思。

明修栈道, 暗渡陳倉

Today, I watched a TV programme in CCTV4. It was talking about one of the historical Chinese stories: Thirty-six Startagem "三十六計". Ther are thirty six stories in the Thirty-Six Stratagem. The programme talked about one of them. That is "Openly repair the gallery roads, but sneak through the passage of Chencang", in Chinese "明修栈道, 暗渡陳倉". I like the original passage in Chinese as follows.

“示之以动，利其静而有主，益动而巽。”from wikipedia

In there, 巽 is one of the symbols in "易經", which means wind. The whole passage means to do something silence to distract your enemy and move to your target as fast as wind. Why wind? Wind moves fast and silent.

Think how to apply in daily life.

Stagflation

Stagflation = Stagnation + Recession + Deflation

Our Shanghai Vacation Trip

I've just completed my Shanghai vacation trip yesterday. This trip started on 15 November. We stayed in Sofia Hotel at Nanking East Road. Sofia is not a top hotel but it is okay with its facilities such as breakfast. The room is quiet small indeed. But it is at the heart of shopping center in Shanghai, that is Nanking walker street (南京步行街) .

We stayed there for three nights that was starting as usual walking about the Nanking Street. Since we arrived there in the afternoon. We tried some wen tun. I think it is not expensive. At night, we went to my working place in the past, i.e. Xuhui district. Of course, I booked a table for two at the Shanghai old station restaurant (上海老飯店), that is the one you can see a train inside the restaurant. I was there once time before, everything seems no changes. What did we try? I recalled some appetizer such as smoking fishes (I don't know how to describe it in English), drank chicken, and a shrimp dishes, also spicy and sour soup. I should say it is not too bad. The restaurant itself, the interior is much attractive as it displays many antiques, and one of them shows a very interesting Chinese poem that we'd taken many picture of it.

Second day, as usual, we wake up late in the morning and had our breakfast at about 1030. Breakfast is in western style mainly and those serving people didn't hear our Chinese, of course, we were speaking in potungwah already and they liked us to speak English. The view at the restaurant is good as you can see street view of Nanking road, and some historical western style building.

We went out for lunch just after our breakfast. So every time, we went out for food, my feeling was full only. This time we went to another Shanghai restaurant called "王加沙" at Nanking Street West. The famous dishes is siu long bao, it just likes people who says how good a steak is, "the siu long bao is very juicy". There is a kind of very big siu long bao, it is served with a strew to drink the soup.

After the very nice meal, it had a biggest event of this trip. My wife went to shopping and would like to buy some clothes for her uncle's daugther wedding party. Where we go? We went to the infamous "茂名南路" where many boutique are there especially for traditional Chinese lady dress "kei po". We went to there by taxi and just get off at the Cathy Pacific cinema. We went to the most famous shop there called "金枝玉葉". The lady there was not very kind to us. They spoke loudly in Shanghais that we don't understand. The clothes is very beautiful. I think it is a kind of Art and of course the price is high as well. It costs about RMB1,500 in average. We went to another nearest shop "花樣年華". There were three saleswomen there. When you say there are three women, in Chinese, it means there is a market a.k.a very noisy. One of the sales was very aggressive, asking my wife to try almost six clothes. Every time, my wife changed the clothes and came out to have a look. They said something like "Very fit to your body, just like customized made, very nice... blah blah blah." Finally, we brought three clothes for about RMB3,000. One of it needed to be modified and we collected it in the following day.

We went back to hotel first and then came out again to meet our University friend and my ex-colleague and having dinner at yuen yuen restaurant (圓苑). It was a nice meal. I mean the environment was good. However, the food was too salty or too sweet. The old station restaurant at Xuhui is better.

Then, we started our third day in Shanghai. In the morning, we went to meet my ex-colleague for lunch and then went to bank trying to close my bank account. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my bank book so that they didn't allow me to close it but just took out all the money from the account. In the afternoon, we went to buy some souvenirs. We bought some Chinese style candy and a big piece of Chinese style "Kam Wah Ham".

That night, we went to "王寶和" to taste Shanghai Crab (大閘蟹). It was very delicous and really full. I think we shall go to Shanghai every year to taste this.

On last day, we went to "豫園" and tried "寧波湯圓". Then we went to Xin tin di for lunch. We flied back to Hong Kong in the afternoon. And of course, we tried "永和豆漿" first then we took Maglev that take only 7 minutes from Loong Yeung Station to the Airport.

This was our trip. Next station could be Soeul or Japan again.

Comments from Prof. Roubini about coming finanical market

I've just read RGM and found a new article from Prof. Roubini about his view on current economy crisis. His comments is same as before that there will be stagflation in 2009 or it will last for at least for 12 months from now. Bottom is not yet reached and the aggregate demand curve will drop due to drop in investment, commodities and wages. The article is titled "The Dismal Outlook for the US and Global Economy and the Financial Markets". It is worth to read. He has pointed out the future outlook, the environment is getting worser. He wrote the following:

So serious risks and vulnerabilities remain and the downside risks to financial markets will dominate over the next few months the positive news. So beware of those who tell you that we reached a bottom for risky financial assets. The same optimists told you that we reached a bottom and the worst was behind us after the rescue of the creditors of Bear Stearns in March, after the announcement of the possible bailout of Fannie and Freddie in July, after the actual bailout of Fannie and Freddie in September, after the bailout of AIG in mid September, after the TARP legislation was presented, after the latest G7 and EU action. In each case the optimists argued that the latest crisis and rescue policy response was “THE CATHARTIC” event that signaled the bottom of the crisis and the recovery of markets. They were wrong literally at least six times in a row as the crisis - as I consistently predicted here over the last year – became worse and worse. So enough of the excessive optimism that has been proven wrong at least six times in the last eight months alone.

I agree with him as I can see there are many so called optimists in Hong Kong predicting HSI will rise up to 17,000 within weeks after China anounced the 280 billion US stimulus plan. Unfortunately, I think some people trust that still.

However, the question that I am very interested to know is "How to invest during deflation?" During defaltion, everything's price drops.

Finally, I've found a blog telling some things about what to do during both inflation and deflation. In short, during deflation, property is the best. During inflation, cash is king, then gold could be considered. However, I don't know what is CD as mentioned in the article. Will find out what it is.

The following is list of investment during inflation and deflation mentioned in the blog.

Investment Themes For Hyperinflation

• In hyperinflation the last place one wants to be is in cash.
• Commodities in general are a standout.
• Gold is a standout.
• Precious metals are a standout.
• Property is a winner.
• Equities are a winner.
• Treasuries are distinct losers if not an outright short.
• Foreign currencies
• Energy

Investment Themes For Deflation

• In deflation, debt is the enemy.
• Risk is to be avoided.
• Cash is raised.
• Treasuries are sought out as a safe haven.
• CD ladders offer a good investment structure.
• Gold, acting as money does well.
• Select equity shorts or PUTs are a standout.
• Renting as opposed to owning a house should be considered.
• Currency plays

1 dollar GDP growth

Just read a daily report written by Mr Cho from Hong Kong Economic Journel. He said that 1 dollar (should be US dollar) GDP growth in first tier countries is equivalent to 4 to 5 dollars credits in financial market. In the past, a big portion of GDP growth was driven by credit in US. But now, in recession, GDP must drop and thus credit needs to be dropped too.

This means it is difficult to get money from the bank to buy things meaning difficult to do business.

Predictions about China Large Fiscal Stimulus

Government of China has announced the ten-stimulus plan on 9 Nov 2008 that will provide 4-trillion yuen (about US$586 billion) investment on infrastructure, low-cost housing, supporting rural villagers and reduces tax. The purpose is to ensure the eight percent growth rate in 2009. Some analysts said it was unneccessary since there was no financial problem happening in China. Simply the situation is not the same as in US. Some said it was good to have. Of course, in any case, you will say no, if someone buy you lunch.

These are predictions made by 林行止 today in Hong Kong Economic Journal on 11 Nov 2008.

第一、國際市場多項商品期貨的價格，必然由於國內再加大基建規模令需求大增而上升（油價聞聲升百分之三點八、黃銅升百分之八），那些內地有出產及生產的，因為本地需求轉殷、出口量下降，國際價格自然上揚；而若干內地無所出而必需從國際市場購買的，在供應不可能突增的條件下，價格亦必然攀升。值得注意的是，在眾多僅僅於三數個月前金融海嘯未至時供應管道出現嚴重的所謂「瓶頸問題」一度令價格飛漲的商品，其價格極可能在衰退陰影下再次飛躍。這種很快便會顯現的價格趨勢，為快將出現的通脹打好再度肆虐的基礎。

Point 1: Price of goods will rise again due to increase of demands. Although there is recession, trend of price is increasing and this establishes a ground for inflation.

第二、大量投入，可望維持失業率於「可接受」水平，內地的消費市場應該好轉，因為投入產生的乘數作用會推動總體經濟發展；今年第三季中國ＧＤＰ增幅百分之九，比今年首季增幅達百分之十點六固然大為遜色，較去年同期的百分之十點○一亦有所不如；第三季增幅為三年來首次跌落單位數字。如此增幅，是所有成熟經濟體系不敢想像的高速增長，但中國有就業人口太多（鄉民大量湧進城市找工作）必須解決的困難，保持高增長是唯一壓低失業率的途徑。

Point 2: Investement increases and then employment rate decreases. This helps to absort the massive man power generated from the villages (annually 240k? people from village to city not including new graduates) and avoid high employment rate.

第三、以中國的現行制度，自私人性很難滿足，因此貪腐之風極可能變本加厲，此次出台的「十措施」（十招），包括取消對中小企及對商業（其實是國營）銀行的貸款限制，雖是對症下藥，但「取消限制」等於增加貸款部門的酌情權，因此，這些措施不僅會形成更巨額的足以禍及日後經濟發展的「應收未收賬」問題，而且必然會令貪污之風更猖狂！

Point 3: Ease access to credits meaning money loaning is relaxed and this gives more chances corruption happening in China.

Finally

Finally, I am now waiting in the business class lounge in tao yuan international airport at Taipei. My flight will leave the airport at about 1600 and I have plenty of time to try beef soup noodle and meat dumpling. I also drink a can of taiwan beer.

This should be the last time to come to here for work. As usual, people in the hotel asked me the next trip to Taipei when I signed my credit card recipt. I replied them this time: "I don't know, and will call to book later on". In my mind, I think I am no longer need to book a room next time there. Perhaps, next time, I will come with my wife for vacation.

I would like to say thank to my colleague Fynn for his help. He spent his morning time helping me handling my bank account. This guy is special and he has many stories in his mind and those stories should be his real experience otherwise he should be a very creative people. Frankly, I asked him to write a book to record down all what he experience, and it should be very interesting to read.

It was nice to know and meet a Hong Kong people in Taipei who has been living there for three years. By the way, his favourite slang is "小你老母". He said many others, but this one was what I'd heard many times within every hour.

Another colleague that comes to my mind is yingtz who worked with me since I joined the company. I didn't know him until we went to Eastern Europe for an impossible mission. We had very good experience travelling different countries in that area. Yes, this was him to ask searching where was table dance in warsawa and we found one there. I can recall he enjoyed very much that night. We travelled together in most of my business trip.

After this journey, as predicted by the fortune teller in 2006 summer that I would be separated from the wife. I think this should end the curse. However, no pain no gain. After this journey, I've gained lot of new friend, met interesting people from different countries and definitely it has widen my eyes much.

The most important is that it is experience myself what it is in these places in the Earth. For me, it has been very unusal. I think this is life, and it is quite colorful whenever you look back someday. Have you experience your life yet?

Any much unusal thing is coming, I wishes to see what it is.

I'm really enjoy to work in this company but unfortunatly, there is no prefect thing. As someone reminded me this job by its nature not considering any technical skills is for someone who is single and not going to marry, young and pro-active. Pracitcally, this can only be done for a few years, one year is enough for me. I've heard some taiwan people would travel for this life until retriement. This is too exhausive. For us, the someone, finally, wants stable life.

Although we cannot control things to happen, we can positon ourselves to places that it looks stable. The rest should leave to your destiny. Again, I think I've made a good choice to join this ocmpany.

Say good bye to Taipei

Today is my last day with the taiwan based company. This company is very big and special that it gives me a ground not even to exploit what I've learned in my University studies, but also putting me to another levels which is what I feel. This also gives me a very good opportunity to me so that I can open my eyes to see the world. The world is really big and it is full of fun to explore it during my search on map database. I have been in many countries in Eastern Europe. Starting from Hong Kong, then I flied to Germany, visited Croatia, and ran to Warsawza. I was also been in Moscow, and Baltics, as well as Cluj, a city in Romainia. The most beautiful city is Praha in Czech. You can listen many good music there in some very old church. This is interesting without doubt as I didn't meet a friend of mine in my own city who has travelled for so many cities as I did.

More funny thing is that I have a chance to meet GIS specialist, Land Surveyor and spatial experts all over the world, perhaps, most in Eastern Europe. I've found that we have a common lanugages that other people cannot understand too. This is a good experience and I've found common thing happening in different part of the world that open source GIS system is growing very fast. Another common thing is that most map providers would use ESRI ArcGIS for data editing. This gives me a signal that ArcGIS is still a very powerful in map production.

This is not the end as another interesting experience is to build a car navigation system. Although I managed this kind of project or product before, this time was different as my counterpart was not usual. He was a Professor in Mathematics. I really admired his talent and ability. But there is nothing prefect in the world that smart people is normally stubborned or you can say they are difficult to communicate.

Sometimes, I felt people focused on talking more than real works.

Well, my next stop is the Government and hope I can see more and of course, I would like to apply what I've learned in data modeling, web mapping and other technologies in my works.

看到張五常教授的文章

張教授說,,期望地球風暴會很快地平息是不切實際的看法''

中國的形勢很不妥. 很麻煩. 如沒有足夠的重藥, 未來三個月很可能出現工廠倒閉潮.

原文

12 simple ways to supercharge your brain

This is extraction from yahoo.com. I think I've done about four only. I drink apple juice during my flight time. I sleep very well. I always exercise my mind by blogging, reading books and listening music. I also practice tai chi that is a kind of mediation but just whenever I am in Hong Kong.

I may need to encourage my wife to encourage me to do the rest.

Here are some things you can begin doing as soon as today to begin the great brain tune up:

Eat Almonds
Almond is believed to improve memory. If a combination of almond oil and milk is taken together before going to bed or after getting up at morning, it strengthens our memory power. Almond milk is prepared by crushing the almonds without the outer cover and adding water and sugar to it.

Drink Apple Juice
Research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) indicates that apple juice increases the production of the essential neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain, resulting in an increased memory power.

Sleep well
Research indicates that the long-term memory is consolidated during sleep by replaying the images of the experiences of the day. These repeated playbacks program the subconscious mind to store these images and other related information.

Enjoy simple Pleasures
Stress drains our brainpower. A stress-ridden mind consumes much of our memory resources to leave us with a feeble mind. Make a habit to engage yourself in few simple pleasures everyday to dissolve stress from your mind. Some of these simple pleasures are good for your mind, body and soul.

• Enjoy music you love
• Play with your children
• Appreciate others
• Run few miles a day, bike or swim
• Start a blog
• Take a yoga class or Total Wellness routine

Exercise your mind
Just as physical exercise is essential for a strong body, mental exercise is equally essential for a sharp and agile mind. Have you noticed that children have far superior brainpower than an adult does? Children have playful minds. A playful mind exhibits superior memory power. Engage in some of the activities that require your mind to remain active and playful.

• Play scrabble or crossword puzzle
• Volunteer
• Interact with others
• Start a new hobby such as blogging, reading, painting, bird watching
• Learn new skill or a foreign language

Practice Yoga or Meditation
Yoga or Meditation relives stress. Stress is a known memory buster. With less stress, lower blood pressure, slower respiration, slower metabolism, and released muscle tension follows. All of these factors contribute significantly towards increases in our brainpower.

Reduce Sugar intake
Sugar is a non-food. It’s a form of carbohydrate that offers illusionary energy, only to cause a downhill slump once the initial burst has been worn off. Excess intake of sugar results in neurotic symptoms. Excess sugar is known to cause claustrophobia, memory loss and other neurotic disorders. Eat food without adding sugar. Stay away from sweet drinks or excess consumption of caffeine with sugar.

Eat whole wheat
The whole wheat germs contain lecithin. Lecithin helps ease the problem of the hardening of the arteries, which often impairs brain functioning.

Eat a light meal at night
A heavy meal at night causes tossing and turning and a prolonged emotional stress while at sleep. It’s wise to eat heavy meal during the day when our body is in motion to consume the heavy in-take. Eating a light meal with some fruits allows us to sleep well. A good night sleep strengthens our brainpower.

Develop imagination
Greeks mastered the principle of imagination and association to memorize everything. This technique requires one to develop a vivid and colorful imagination that can be linked to a known object. If you involve all your senses - touching, feeling, smelling, hearing and seeing in the imagination process, you can remember greater details of the event.

Control your temper
Bleached food, excess of starch or excess of white bread can lead to nerve grating effect. This results in a violent and some time depressive behavior. Eat fresh vegetables. Drink lots of water and meditate or practice yoga to relieve these toxic emotions of temper and stressful mood swings.

Take Vitamin B-complex
Vitamin B-complex strengthens memory power. Eat food and vegetables high in Vitamin B-complex. Stay away from the starch food or white bread, which depletes the Vitamin B-complex necessary for a healthy mind.

Reference: 12 simple ways to supercharge your brain

Stagflation, Stag-deflation

Prof. Roubini mentioned about Stag-deflation in his RGE Monitor web site. He said that in coming years or a period of time, not yet defined, there will be Stag-deflation. To understand what is Stag-deflation, then you may need to know how price level relates to output. According to Roubini, Stag-deflation means Stagnation and Deflation happen at the same time. This means low output and low price level. The effect to the society is low employment rate and price of good becomes cheaper. This is in constrast to Stagflation that means Stagnation and deflation happen at the same time. When this happens, price level increases but output stays at low level meaning low employment rate. This happens until economy becomes better, price rise again, and output rise again.

Therefore, to make output back to normal, companies shall cut cost and the most effective way is to cut headcount and layoff employees. Government needs to increase expense while Government needs money to spend. Officers in Hong Kong Government has indicated a big deficit next year. There are only three ways to increase Government income. 1. print more money, 2. rasie taxes, 3. borrow money. I think Hong Kong Government cannot go for 1 and 3. Will they increase tax to get money or just do nothing?

Let's see what happens.

平溪,十分

剛看到tvbs-g介紹平溪,十分美食. 即刻去tvbs website.

http://popblog.tvbs.com.tw/blog/yummytvbs/

記下呵!

sustainable development of GIS in Hong Kong

What is sustainable development of GIS? It is about a framework or strategy or a pattern that can enable any potential GIS users to enjoy and make use of the power of GIS with indefinite future. Development of GIS is to solve daily geographical problem in the community, for example, production of digital map database, dissemination of map database, enable potential map database users to build up GIS, and enables them to perform analysis and discover geographic pattern with minimize efforts and resources. To understand how to make GIS development becomes a sustainable task, we shall have well-understand about what components are required to build a GIS system. Here, I am not talking about building a GIS software, but an application that can make use of GIS concept and technologies to solve geographic problem. In general, a GIS system is composed of software, hardware and human resources. Software means a GIS software that is available in the market that meets at least minimum requirements of your organization. Hardware is typically server based system or even a desktop hardware system. Human resources is about project management professional, GIS specialists and GIS programmer who understand very well about the software and hardware so that they can define methodology, schedule, technique as well as specifications to implement the GIS system.

To make thing becomes sustainable. One method is to enable those resources that we pour into the system becomes re-usable. Another method is to minimize the cost of spending for acquiring resources. To do this, we shall have technology. If we have technology in hand, and we can have sufficient skills to manipulate technology, technology itself can help us to minimize resources and ensure scalability with inexpensive components. In fact, this is not a new concept and it has been realized in Google search engine. Google is a technology company that they have capability to develop a invincible search engine and the entire system is scalable to a very large matrix with cheap machine and even free software, i.e. Linux.

The key to the road of sustainable is technology. Using technology is not a trival task to many people as it has risk embedded somewhere. Applying technology is not a straight forward thing that you can enjoy success within one month or even a year. Applying technology requires people immense into it and to keep thinking to tackle any obstacles in front.

In this case, it is obvious that to build a sustainable GIS system, one shall have technology, more than that is courage. In addition, one shall have knowledge to handle technology with open source software platform. Once people gains knowledge to open source software platform, it is about opening your potential to the sea of massive computing power as there is no longer restriction to run your server or program on Wintel machine. Operating system license could be lowered to nothing. As the level of gaining knowledge of an open source software platform that means to enable specialists and programmers not only to build new components/modules on it but also they can perform system tuning without asking your GIS vendors for changes and bug fixing without timetable and commitment.

However, in current technology in GIS, there are different architectures of it and it can server different purposes. In general, there are desktop GIS and web mapping. In recent years, GIS development on web mapping especially in open source arena is very popular and it has reached a mature point that can be depolyed for production use. There are many open source web map software in the market now and the most popular are including mapserver, geoserver, openlayer and ka-map. On the other hand, for desktop GIS, brandname software is still having their advantages.

In case in Hong Kong, the Government can start consider open-sources web mapping software so that it can lower resources and make GIS becomes an afforable and if it comes true, more and more people can use it.

monitor HSI if it reaches 10676 in 5 to 7 weeks.

過去歷史低位必需Re-Test。10676點必須面對考驗，企得住再算。通常需要五至七星期。即五到七星期內恒指唔再創新低，10676點先算係 強力支持；即最早明年1月，最遲明年3月先知道本周10676點係咪見底（只有1987年10月股災，Re-Test喺三十四個交易天後便出現）。投資者 唔使估底，只需等候Re-Test便可。如喺五至七星期內恒指低於10676點，即最近幾天只係一次強力反彈。有咗呢個武器，你便唔使加入估底行列。

Monitor HSI:10676 if it will reaches again by December. If HSI drops lower than 10676, then it confirm there is rebound starting on 28 Oct and 10676 is not a bottom.

A happy weekend

On this Saturday, I went out for a whole day. Many thanks to my colleagues in Taipei call me come out for fun. Starting at 1000 in the morning, we went to one of my colleagues owned shop for chatting and drinking Chinese tea with some snacks. Talking, chatting, eating for almost two hours, which is not common in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, normally, we go out to yam cha that you need to eat more than talk. The time is very leisure and the feel is good though I am quite tried to talk too much.

At noon, we went out for meal in Wing Hong Street (永康街), a famous food street in Taipei. That was a Taiwanese-style Japanese restaurant serving BBQ food that located almost opposites of a open space carpark. The food is very good as it cooks just after you make a order. However, it is a kind hot as sunshine was at our back. Then at about two, we went to play badminton. Interestingly, we'd spent almost 3 hours together to pick the racket and to reach the badminton hall in Lo Chau (廬州). Since our guide forgot where it is and we drove around and around, asking pedestrian and police. My colleauge told me in this area, people normally speaks in local Taiwanese but not Chinese that makes them some worry how to communicate. I wonder if they don't know Taiwanese. Finally, a Taxi driver pointed us to right direction and a old man confirmed us there is a badminton hall. Yet before we met the old man, we suspected for a while there was no badminton hall in the area.

Well, we played for over 1 hours and my whole body is very pain now. Very good exercise and fun. Then we went back to Taipei city for dinner at a BBQ and hot pot restaurant just behind my staying hotel at eight o'clock. It is very convienence for me. That restaurant is good and it costs us NT$480 per person with unlimited food. They also server Hagen Dias and Japanese ice-cream too. Very full and joyful dinner this night and I'm really happy to meet those friends there and have a very good time.

From BBQ and Hot Pot in Taipei

I am still wondering the chance for me to work in Taipei and to meet so many exciting and interesting things and people there. This is a very interesting and different experience that makes my life has more stories to tell.

Error executing POSTGIS DECLARE (the actual query) statement

What is this?
-----8<-------8<-------
msDrawMap(): Image handling error. Failed to draw layer named 'bc_voting_areas'. prepare_database(): Query error. Error executing POSTGIS DECLARE (the actual query) statement: 'DECLARE mycursor BINARY CURSOR FOR SELECT asbinary(force_collection(force_2d(the_geom)),'NDR'),OID::text from bc_voting_areas WHERE the_geom && setSRID('BOX3D(1421927.909699 176424,2103636.090301 687278)'::BOX3D, find_srid('','bc_voting_areas','the_geom') )' Postgresql reports the error as 'ERROR: column "oid" does not exist LINE 1: ...inary(force_collection(force_2d(the_geom)),'NDR'),OID::text ... ^ ' More Help: Error with POSTGIS data variable. You specified 'check your .map file'. Standard ways of specifiying are : (1) 'geometry_column from geometry_table' (2) 'geometry_column from (sub query) as foo using unique column name using SRID=srid#' Make sure you put in the 'using unique column name' and 'using SRID=#' clauses in. For more help, please see http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/ Mappostgis.c - version of Jan 23/2004. msPOSTGISLayerRetrievePGVersion(): Query error. Error executing POSTGIS statement (msPOSTGISLayerRetrievePGVersion():select substring(version() from 12 for (position('on' in version()) - 13))
-----8<-------8<-------

I try to connect PostGIS using Mapserver with sample database from PostGIS. My map file is as follows:

# Start of LAYER DEFINITIONS ---------------------------------------------
LAYER
CONNECTIONTYPE postgis
NAME "bc_voting_areas"
CONNECTION "user=postgres password=postgres dbname=tester host=localhost port=5432"
DATA "the_geom FROM bc_voting_areas"
STATUS ON
TYPE POLYGON
CLASS
COLOR 255 255 200
END
END
# End of LAYER DEFINITIONS -------------------------------

I have verified the above layer definition thousand times and don't know what happen.
Then, I have to read the error message again and again to see what can I do. Just spot a strange message "ERROR: column "oid" does not exist LINE 1:" meaning the system is looking for "oid" but it does not exist. I go to check the table. Bingo, no "oid". It seems this is the cause, but why there is no "oid" populated?

Finally, thank to the Internet, I've found the following message:

> New version of Postgresql (8.1) does not create OID column by default
> when creating a table (oid is globally unique identifiers used by
> Postgresql and also used by Mapserver to uniquely identify a row of
> result).
>
> My solution was to enable oid-generation in postgresql, by editing the
> postgresql.conf (in the postgresql/8.1/data folder)
> Search for "default_with_oids", uncomment the line and set the
> variable value to "on".
> Then, regenerate your postgis tables.

Then I check the postgis documentation again and find a section called "Using Mapserver". I think I should have read it before starting the test.

The cause is that there is missing oid and I need to create it for mapserver as it requires oid to work properly. Then I run the following two commands to create and index oid in the bc_voting_areas table.

1. alter table bc_voting_areas add column oid serial;
This command adds a new serial column called oid in the table.

2. create index bc_voting_areas_oidx on bc_voting_areas (oid);
This simply creates a new index.

I can output a map with the following link finally.

http://localhost/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?map=/ms4w/apps/postgis/postgis.map&layer=bc_voting_areas&mode=map

Cheers... Keep exploring postgis, postgres and mapserver.

The Rules Of Life

股聖、Dennis Gartman及Puggy Pearson）都係投資界泰斗，他們訂下九大守則，投資者只要遵守便「麥克、麥克」。(信報財經新聞, 2008.10.07)

前三條由股聖所訂。一、唔好輸錢。一旦面對虧損便設法減少損失（我老曹將佢改良為止蝕唔止賺）。

二、股票市場設計係將金錢由經常性買賣者手中轉到有耐性投資者戶口中。平時遠離證券行，唔好經常炒出炒入。

三、投資者需要的是氣質（Temperament）而唔係智慧。例如獨立思考、對自己有信心而唔係過分自信及控制個人情緒（我老曹改為有智慧不如追逐趨勢）。

另外三條由Gartman所訂。一、屋內永遠唔會只有一隻曱甴。正係福無雙至，禍不單行。去年8月次按危機後，至今金融機構接二連三出現問題，證明永遠屋內唔會只有一隻曱甴。

二、喺牛市中可長線持有，熊市中只宜拋空（我老曹改為牛市中不妨做好友，一旦熊市來臨便持盈保泰，因我老曹冇膽拋空）。

三、只有基礎分析與技術分析一致先入市，投資集中優質股，入市時機用技術分析。

最後三條由Puggy Pearson所訂。一、20／80定律。無論喺賭場或期指市場，贏家只佔20％，輸家佔80％。要成為20％少數，必須明白Top Down或Bottom Up策略（何謂Top Down？例如去年10月股市見頂後便保持睇淡，直到出現一浪高於一浪為止；何謂Bottom Up？即股市見底後便保持睇好，直到出現一浪低於一浪為止）。利用Pearson嘅方法，各位唔使經常問我老曹熊市幾時完？喺恒指一再出現新低環境下只宜 Top Down。

二、學會管錢。好似賭錢咁，冇理由鋪鋪買，只有形勢最有利時先賭，同時限注（例如熊市中，只動用30％資金，牛市中才動用70％資金）Keep It Simple；唔好賭你輸唔起嘅錢，賭錢時要輕鬆而唔係搏殺；明白風險與回報關係。一如沙蟹，當形勢有利時去盡D，形勢不利時要識投降（唔好忘記止蝕沽盤）。

三、了解自己，嚴守紀律。大部分人賭錢往往輸死而唔會贏死。理由係贏錢時縮，輸錢時賭氣。成功賭徒及成功投資者便相反，就係贏錢時去盡D，一旦輸錢便縮。

上述三位都係當今投資泰斗，值得各位學習。只要善用九大方法，保證你六十歲退休時富有。

Error parsing Geometry

I follow a postgis workshop document to learn postgis. There is a instruction to insert three records manually and then do some calculation with a operator "ST_Distance".

However, whenever I use it, it returns an error. I don't know why but I suspect there is problem in the SRS.

It is just a simple query:

create table points ( pt geometry, name varchar );
insert into points values ( 'POINT(0 0)', 'Origin' );
insert into points values ( 'POINT(5 0)', 'X Axis' );
insert into points values ( 'POINT(0 5)', 'Y Axis' );
select name, AsText(pt), ST_Distance(pt, 'POINT(5 5)') from points; < This returns error in parsing geometry. Why?

給老婆看的文章

親愛的老婆,

請細看,下次做facial時請留意:

美容、瘦身業的銷售方法-行內人 (信報財經新聞, 2008.10.2)

近年美容、瘦身行業發展蓬勃，行業利用較為特別的宣傳、推廣和銷售方法，以下介紹一些和顧客相關的方法，供大家參考。

在宣傳和推廣方面，大多起用廣為大眾熟悉的名人作公司代言人，特別是演藝界人士，由於他們有不少支持者，所以較容易引起潛在顧客關注公司的產品和服務。
優惠

在宣傳過程中，公司通常會以一個較低價錢來吸引顧客惠顧，這是一個「全包價」，令到顧客感到十分優惠，但通常他們忽略了這些超低價錢只是吸引顧客接觸公司的第一步，有了這個接觸，公司便盡力銷售其他服務，而這些額外服務或產品，價錢大多十分高昂，令顧客以數十倍的價錢來購買一些原先沒有想過要的東西。超低價的服務其實附帶很多限制。

為了達到銷售目的，銷售人員會盡量把顧客與外界隔絕，把他們留在狹小房間內，鼓勵顧客拿出信用卡，並提出可免息分期，變相增加了顧客的承擔能力，在這些壓迫銷售環境下，不少顧客也會中招，買了一些昂貴但沒需要的服務。

為了保障自己，不少合約條文都是以保障公司為原則，個別不良商戶或其銷售人員，更可能口頭承諾提供優惠甚至誤導顧客，及後顧客投訴時，才發現這些優惠或原先承諾根本不存在或無效。

另外，一些較常用的優惠手法是套票或綑縛式銷售，即要顧客購買或多次使用相同服務，即套票，平均價錢十分低；而綑縛銷售是讓顧客以平均較便宜的價錢使用不同類型服務，目的是讓顧客感到有着數。

由於購買了套票，顧客是會重複接受服務，公司當然不會放棄繼續向顧客銷售其他服務和產品，目的當然是增加銷售。
顧客需要

更有趣的是，一般套票是有期限的，即在指定時間之前使用，否則無效。有些公司並沒有放棄持有逾期套票的顧客，仍十分積極去約見這些顧客。見到顧客後得知他有興趣用套票的話，便給予適量的續期，但顧客須補回一些費用。此外，若顧客對套票服務沒有興趣，公司銷售人員會轉為銷售其他服務或產品，同樣是壓迫銷售，以及利用套票剩餘價值來購買其他服務和產品。購買愈多新服務和產品，折扣愈高，希望顧客有買得愈多愈平的感覺。

這些美容和瘦身公司的不良銷售方法當然不值得推廣，但他們以套票、綑縛式銷售，並積極接觸顧客，不斷向他們銷售，他們對顧客需要的了解，可給其他公司借鑒。當然公司不要介意向長期和忠心的客戶提供價錢上的優惠，以保留好客。

Brilliant people and competent people

I've just read an article about commercial software vs. open source software. For open source software, those users are expected to have much knowledge in problem solving. For commercial software, you would definitely rely on vendor to solve your problem. Unfortunately, my experience tells me they always fail or they cannot provide you a best solution. Interesting, but I don't admit it as mentioned in the article that commercial vendor is likely to make simple problem harder to solve and so telling you they are the only one who can solve the problem. Well, it gives a good reason to use and buy their software.

I worked in two GIS vendors before. I think this could be one of the strategies to sell, and it should be a good one. However, to use this strategy you should have a idiot customer and they do have much money in their pocket willing to spend as well. Recalling my experience, there is an example in my mind. Vendor A solution became obsolete and that vendor B approached them. However, Vendor B didn't has solution and still made the deal.

To build a system, you have to solve many difficult problem technically or psychologically. What I mean psychologically is about people management. Anyway, I agree with the writer of the article that there are two kinds of people and there is a very nice division of work.

For hard/difficult problem, we need a lot of people to solve it, right? The answer is "No". We need a few brilliant people to solve hard problem, and we need a lot of competent people to implement solution. As in very large map database company likes the most biggest one in the world, just only a few brilliant people can control definition of database scheme, design and workflow, the reminding tasks would be done by a pool of competent Engineering people.

Having a crowd of developers with no clue what to do is just ineffective and definitely more costly. Having a few developers with a strong sense of direction is what we are striving for.

In any case, when choosing software, do think, do research, not just hear what the Sales and Marketing people tell you.

Do "Think" is much useful than hard working and this is the difference between brilliance and competence.

Comparison Between Open Source and Commercial Software

Loading data into Postgis

Recently, I've tried to use Postgis and understand how it works. Perhaps, I can use it in the future. Postgis is not a standalone program but it is a spatial extension of Postgres, which is an open source object-relational database system.

To load data into Postgres with Postgis, I have the following is ingredients.

1. Postgres 8.3.4; It can be downloaded from http://www.postgresql.org/
2. A shape file data. You can use any shapefile you can find it anyway.
3. A compatible windows environment, I use my notebook running Windows XP for this test.

Steps:
1. Install Postgres;
During installation of Postgres, it will ask you to define superuser password. I define it by myself, otherwise, system will create a very secure password for you, which is impossible to remember. In addition, system will ask you to create a new window account for services control.
2. Using Application Stack Builder in Postgres to download and install Postgis.
You need the superuser password to complete this task.
3. Prepare environment to run
i. Copy the following files from Postgres to a c:\temp\pgtools
comerr32.dll
country.sql
gssapi32.dll
k5sprt32.dll
krb5_32.dll
libeay32.dll
libiconv-2.dll
libiconv2.dll
libintl3.dll
libpq.dll
pgsql2shp.exe
pg_dump.exe
psql.exe
shp2pgsql.exe
ssleay32.dll

ii. Copy the shapefile to c:\temp

4. Run the following command converting shapefile to postgres sql
>shp2pgsql c:\temp\country country > country.sql

After this, a country.sql will be created.

5. Run the following command to load the sql into postgres
>psql -d postgis -h localhost -U postgres -f country.sql

After step 5, you can open pgAdminIII to check your database and you will find a new table called "country".

回味

今天去食日本料理"丼喀滋(台北忠孝店)". 我吃的是浦燒鰻漁定食,很有日本風味,口味適中,很適合大人小孩,白飯很好不知道是哪家白米說,吃過鰻魚後,真的有ㄧ分錢一分貨的感覺.

定食中,還有一味"蒸蛋".這味"蒸蛋"令我回憶起亞嫲的"蒸水蛋"和"真羅白榚".想到即刻加白飯吃到飽.

不過"蒸水蛋"和"真羅白榚"就真係不能忘記,只能回味!

經濟災難十二步

魯賓尼並非占卜師，手中沒有水晶球；他的悲觀預言，不過建基於對金融業和經濟的長期觀察（其論點可於www.rgemonitor.com下載）。

「溫故」有助「知新」，先在這裏回顧魯賓尼年初提出的金融災難十二步。

一、美國陷入有史以來最嚴重的樓市衰退，樓價將從高位下滑二至三成，蒸發掉美國家庭4000億至6000億美元財富；

二、金融機構損失遠遠超逾次按相關的2500億至3000億美元，因為在2005年後批核的按揭貸款，約六成透過包裝轉售，不斷散播「病毒」，形成虧損「黑洞」；

三、無擔保消費貸款將出現巨額虧損；

四、債券保險商信貸評級遭下調；

五、商業房地產市場崩盤；

六、大型地區或全國銀行破產；

七、濫用財務槓桿進行收購的私募基金集團面對巨額虧損；

八、企業掀起債務違約浪潮；

九、「影子金融體系」分崩離析；

十、股市進一步下瀉；

十一、金融市場流動資金乾涸，銀行同業及貨幣市場無一幸免；

十二、投資虧損、資本萎縮、信貸收縮、非自願性清盤及以「出血價」沽清資產的惡性循環勢難避免。

至少有八項（一、二、四、六、九、十、十一和十二）已一一應驗。

信報2008.9.29

A very big lizard

This weekend I visited my colleague home near xinchong, which is a rural area of Taipei city. The house is big and there are many pets including one dog, two mouses like creature, three birds, and surprisingly, one lizard.

The lizard is real big and it is more than 1.5m long. When you look at it closer, it likes Gorzilla in the Movie. My two other colleagues were very frigthened with it. They kept away from it by standing as far away as they can in the living room. I tried to take picture of it with my digital camera. And surprisingly, it liked my camera and it kept follow it, and tried to touch it with its tougue. This is why I can take so many photos but most of them is out focused. 

Later, one of my colleagues was brave enough to touch its tail and it suddently jumped to me. Gee... This is really funny, they jumped far away too. His owner told me that it likes me so to jump to me. Frankly, that lizard's outlook is so so but it is very calm and nice.

From 薔蜜來襲到宜蘭

1914-2008

My Grand Mom passed away peacefully on this Monday in the hospital. She was borned in 1914 September in lunar calendar in Boa On. Her life is tough. She brought up two children, one is a girl and one is a boy. At 2008, she had been 93, and the family tree has been developed to more than 10 branches in three generations. At the same time, her body was so tried to support her life.

The day before Monday, Berlina, wing and I were visited her. She was so conscious and the Nurse told us she can leave the hospital on Monday. Berlina also prepared some soup to Grand Mom. This was also my first time to try her masterpiece. GM was so kind to taste it and she was satisfied with that I guess. This happened in Sunday.

One day after, I received a call from dad calling to hospital urgently. When I went to the hospital on Monday morning, she had been collected to a monitoring machine showing heart beat, respiratory response, a pleth that I don't know what it is. The Nurse said the situation got worse this morning. I recalled, I slept very hard that night as well.

Some relatives came and wait for her leaving. She breathed very difficultly. Just like climbing a very steep mountain, you need to wait to take each step. We thought she can still hear what we said. We kept telling her to relax and leave all the thing, no worry about us, nothing to remember and don't be afraid. In fact, I thought she had been waiting this time for long long time after she lost her ability to walk, to talk and to serve food herself one by one.

The Nurse was very kind to tell us that our Grand Mom was leaving us. She also asked us to call all relatives to come for three times.

Very slowly, RR dropped from twenty to ten, pleth turned from some readings to a question mark, heart beat counter started to drop from sixty something to forty, then twenty. Slowly, very slowly, RR almost dropped to zero and you can difficulty notice there was any more breathing. It had been stopped. The monitor started to make alarm and all the signal dropped to zero. Everybody was very sorrowed about this. However, it is also a relax to Grand Mom that she can leave her mal-function body and fly.

I would say it is better for her to leave. She did it and she did it very peacefully and silently. She is smart and brave.

Lastly, I wishes my Grand Mon to start new life on the other side of the door.

阿水師豬腳

I went to "阿水師豬腳", just next street block in 忠孝東路四段. I ordered one pig knuckle rice and one fish ball soup. Total costs is NT$130. It was a good dinner, very full, the pig knuckle is very soft for serving.

I then went to a nearby bookshop reading two magazines. This is a taiwan bookshop culture that people likes to read book in bookshop without anybody disturbing you as you didn't pay for your reading. I saw some children sitting on the ground although it is a very small bookshop. After reading magazine, I went to buy ice-cream from Mac Donald. When you ask for ice-cream they will ask you whether you want a hand carry one. Oh yes, I want a hand carry one, it cost NT$15. After that, I went to buy a can of Cola costs me NT$20, five dollars expensive than the hand-carry ice cream cone.

This was my dinner today.

Where am I go for dinner tonight?

Different day, but same question to me. After office, need to eat, where to have my dinner tonight? Just surf urmap and find a taiwanese restaurant called "阿水師豬腳" serving pig knuckle. See see what it is...

珍惜

當您知道什麼是珍惜時,可能您己嘗到失去的味道.

What is love?

I think this question is common and everybody may have thought about it even you cannot got any answer. Someone says love is scarify, some people says love is sharing.

Just see a movie and it may help to answer the question of love between two people, you and me.

Before watching the movie, think about who really loves you.

Two bad things in Czech

I come across to bad things in Czech. First one is about money exchange, second is about restaurant here.

Today, I was out of cash and I have to exchange some more CZK. Since today is Saturday, all the Bank is not opened.

I went to a local money exchange agent to exchange my 100 Euro. They changed to me 1,659 CZK. I forgot to bring my previous statement to check the rate.

After I checked the rate when I back to hotel, I found my statement that recorded the money exchange rate from a local bank yesterday. I realize that 100 Euro should change me about 2,300 CZK. What's the hell the profit margin is so high for the money exchange agent?

I never change money again in such local agent forever!

Another story is about restaurant. I was seeking restaurant last night and entered one restaurant near the old city square. I picked the menu by myself and the waiter asked me to take a seat anywhere I want. Then I sat there for 5 min without anybody came to take the order. What's next? I left.

Praha, Prag, Prague

It has been the third days I am here in Praha. This is my second time to come to here. Last time was in March after Cebit in Hannover. The difference is that I come to here alone this time for a few meeting here.

I stay closed to Old Town and by a 5 min walk I can reach the old town square to see the infamous astronomical clock.



What is my impression of Praha so far? Anywhere there are tourists. I think one of the most important income is from tourists here. Food is mainly either bread or meat and can fill a standard westerner stomach. Normally, I can finish half of the dish only.



But for the above big dish, I finished it all as it was really good.

Beer is famous here. Starting from the first dinner, I have started to order beer when the waiter asks me "what do you want for drinks?" Then you may need to tell him, if you want "Light or Dark" Beer.

Although, I need to work whole day in every weekend, today, I find an interesting activity here is to attend classic concert. There are many and normally it starts at night about 1900. The entrance fee is about CZ450, which is about HKD225. The concert is lasted for 1 hours with about two performances. I plan to see this on coming Saturday.

Google Maps Hong Kong Version

I've just realized there is a Google Maps for Hong Kong that was announced a few days ago. Checking the map data, they provides road network which is no surprise, many photos, no surprise again, DTM, at low resolution, this is fine. Then, satellite photos, this is tradition from Google Maps. No surprise too. Well, there is building footprint for the whole territory. This really shocks me. I thought if Lands Department supplies that. The answer is negative and I cannot find any LandsD logo. The only map data suppliers are MapKing and TeleAtlas. For China portion, it should be from Mapabc.

At present, there are a few web mapping application in Hong Kong. The most famous one should be centermap (www.centamap.com) who uses map database solely from the Government. In fact, they need to pay for the map database usage by number of map clicks. This is a successful partnership and Centamap is also free to public. After all, resources putting in developing the map database can help the public.

Finally, after years of operation, both centmap and the Government encounters a competitor. The impression of Google is always creative, young, high-tech and aggressive. Google maps can provide routing function plus linkage to real time image from TD that is what I think the most critical function to people like me who drives in Hong Kong. Of course, if I have a iPhone 3G, it will be good to surf the google.maps outdoor. By the way, I think my tomtom720 is sufficient enough to guide me at this moment. Honestly, considering the map quality, the system performance, functionalities, and so on, I cannot find any good reason not to use Google Maps as my default web map portal.

I heard that the TIS will be launched a few month later. Why don't they need to spend so much money and year of time to develop something that someone has been done at high quality. Any officer would be creative enough to think about buying map from Tele Atlas instead?

http://maps.google.com.hk/

BTW, I've just tried the Hong Kong version again. The routing result is wrong as it does not consider direction of traffic flow. Clearly, someone didn't do his job well.

Oh... Dear... One day left

Oh, just realize I need to go to Airport on tomorrow early morning at one o'clock. I was thinking I would leave on Sunday and I can stay in Hong Kong for another Sunday. I realize now I was dreaming.

Just thinking a plan to go to Sai Kung for a leisure meal. Oh... forget it...

On my coming Sunday, I will be in Moscow not Sai Kung, Hong Kong. Where will you go on your Sunday?

What's my life in taipei this time?

This is a two-weeks trip staying in Taipei same hotel here. This time I explore more about places, about people and about foods.

1. My colleagues took me to hiking, a hill near "南港". See picture. It was very hot but it was very nice too as we climbed up to top of the hill that higher than 101 tower;


2. I bought a tomtom 720, and more important with help from my friend. I've got three gifts including a cap, a cushion and a very nice t-shirt. It costs NT$14,400, in which NT$400 is additional charges for using VISA; Very good tomtom, I will have a field trial in HK. Stay tunned. I will have a detail report on this usage.

3. I learned the meaning of "把妹", but I didn't learn how to. This is my one and only one Hong Kong colleague who taught me. I will ask him again...

4. I discovered more good restaurants this time. Japanese noodle is my favourite. Japanese Curry Pork rice is also good here. Average expense for each meal is about NT$150.

5. Finally, I had a chance to go to MaoKong. After the hiking, we went there by car, not by cable car. Very nice dinner and had my first time tasting the very details and stylist tea tasting there.

6. I also bought a Bluetooth module that for me to play with WiiRemote. I will get a wiiremote from somewhere. hee hee.

Next trip will start within one week.

Hypo-C

Oh, my honey has been trying the Hypo-C since July. Is that really good?

Next week I will know...

My next trip is...

I am planning to have another trip to Estonia, one of three countries in Baltic Area, and also Moscow... If possible, I also like to go to Belarus, if really need to go.

Have a nice trip.

香港要奮力自我提升

Today, there is a news about a trend that telco would move their call center back to Hong Kong from Mainland China. The reason behind is because people in China earn more, while Hong Kong people earn less than before. The gap between Hong Kong and Mainland China is getting smaller.

What I can see is that competitive edge of Hong Kong is disvanishing. In 70s to 80s, Hong Kong can still be a entreport or middle man for China trade. In 90s, due to Government policy, value property in Hong Kong grew at very high level rate, people can easily make money. And now, one year after the first ten-year celebration of handover, Hong Kong is slowly losing it position. How can Hong Kong keep growing?

Today, there are much more challenge than before. With much more opening policy between Taiwan and the Mainland, Hong Kong position is less and less. Some people say that when the two Chinese Government move closer, it creates another opportunities for Hong Kong since the overall market has been increased very much, although the market share is less. The market size is indeed bigger than before. However, to my little knowledge, I cannot see how Hong Kong can share any market in between. Why still need to via through Hong Kong to do business?

To drill down this thinking, there are some points in my mind. Firstly, the geographic location is not as good as Taiwan. Secondly, Hong Kong internal market is at tiny size. This makes Hong Kong cannot create products for herself but need to compete in the world market. In other words, there is less opportunity for grow since there are too much competition. Thirdly, new generation of Hong Kong are not like people in China and Taiwan who are much outgoing, or they are used to work far from home.

In the past, Hong Kong people working in Hong Kong to serve the world. In the future, most properly, Hong Kong people might need to work in other countries or any places in Mainland China or even Taiwan to serve the world. However, I think, work hard, work efficient and fast are still the cutting edges of Hong Kong people. Let's see what happen in coming 10 years.

The following news is extracted from Ming Pao dated on 04 July 2008.

明報專訊】電訊業在內地所設立的客戶中心，有迹象開始回流香港，這個轉變極具象徵意義，因為如果趨勢持續，本港固然會增加一定數量的工作機會，卻也反映本港和內地的差距進一步縮窄。這種情况，應該視為一個警號，催迫着香港要奮力自我提升，說明如果香港停滯不前，有朝一日會被其他內地城市趕上甚至超前。

短期增職位 長遠失優勢
從1980年代開始，由於內地成本低廉，本港先是製造業陸續北移，經濟結構向服務業轉型，發展至1990年代中以來，很多銀行、服務業、零售商甚至飲食業，基於營運需要而設立的電話客戶中心，都搬到內地或東南亞，其中以深圳 和廣州最多。不過，近期CSL耗資在屯門 購入工廈單位，用作成立新客戶服務中心，預計約聘用200人，另外CSL發言人坦言會考 慮把內地的客戶中心搬回香港。客戶服務中心協會則認為，迹象顯示客戶中心開始回流香港，有可能成為趨勢。

各個機構的客戶中心回流，原因不盡相同。有基於服務需要，包括客戶中心的工作轉型，由以往只是收電話傳遞信息或回答簡單查詢，到現在則要推銷服務和產品，本地口音的親和力，有助提高銷售額。另外是遇到內地的長假期，客戶中心雖然不會停止服務，多少也要讓員工放假，但客戶的查詢不會特別減少。此外，若有客戶不懂如何前往有關公司的維修中心或零售店，需要客戶服務中心的職員教搭車的話，亦一定是香港員工較優勝。

此外租金和薪金差距縮窄，應該是重要原因。過去客戶中心聘請一名內地員工，大學畢業學歷，薪金約1000元，現在已經增至4000至5000元，與在本港聘請中學畢業的員工，薪金差距已經不大，加上內地近年保障僱員的勞保、社保和勞動法等規定，使得僱主成本大增。另外在內地設客戶中心，要租用商業大廈，與本港在工廠大廈就可以營運，租金成本差不多。客戶中心主要是基於這些原因回流。

本港經濟朝着高增長、高增值和高附加值的方向發展，現在學歷要求不高、缺少附加值和技術含量低的客戶中心回流，其實與香港經濟的發展方向背道而馳。這樣的轉變說明廣東經濟急速發展，人民收入增加，生活好轉，值得欣喜；本港則因為這類工作回流，增加就業機會，對於一些人來說是好消息。不過總的而言，此事對於香港應該是響起警號。

不進則退 香港必須力爭上游

這些年來廣東發展勢頭迅猛，經濟欣欣向榮，今日廣東與30年前比較，已非吳下阿蒙，現在發展到電話客戶中心也要回流香港，究竟是廣東發展太快抑或香港進展太慢？從實際情况看來，應該與兩者都有關。這些年來，香港原有支柱產業進展有限，一些行業（例如貨櫃運輸）的優勢，也已經拱手讓出；回歸11年以來，本港經濟沒有新的增長點，對此，有識之士早已引以為憂。

回歸之後，有人提出過香港的4個5年城市階段論，主要「預測」回歸後第一個5年，香港是中國最好的城市；第二個5年，香港是中國最好城市的其中一個；第三個5年，香港是中國比較好的城市；第四個5年，香港是中國比較好的城市的其中一個。這個「預測」如果成真，是大喜事，因為這樣的中國將會富裕到不得了；但是從香港本位而言，如果漠視客戶中心回流所顯示此消彼長的實質，則到哪一個第五年，世人驀然發現，香港只是中國其中一個城市而已，也就不以為怪了。

今年生日在台北

剛過去的週五是我的農歷生日。其實都差點忘掉，幸好老婆每天都提醒我。原本沒有什麼計劃，最後跟同事一起食晚飯。世事真巧！雖只是巧合，我很感謝他們安排。

GPS in Hong Kong

Recently, I had a chat with friends and professionals about GPS in Hong Kong. In recent years, there are two breakthroughs in GPS chips, one is the sensitivity has been improved much meaning signal reception have been improved in poor signal area. In other words, for areas that cannot recieve signal in the past, you can get position now. Second breakthrough is the cool start up time. We have Quick Fix II now, depending on the environment, it could provide fix within 4 seconds now. In the past, you need to wait for 20 to 60 seconds.

However, the final problem is building canyon, which I can see it could be fixed in while nobody will make it as a product in coming five years. This is the major problem of applying GPS in Hong Kong. Technically, it is due to a phenomenon called multiple path. Solving multiple path problem could be a good topic in the university. I guess, there is no simple answer. Even if there is answer, it will be very costly. This also means the very unique GPS problem in Hong Kong cannot be solved in short time. GPS applications including tracking or car navigation system could not become population in coming future.

However, if there is auxillary position system could be developed, then we don't need to wait researchers to solve the multi-path problem.

日落和手信

昨天剛好看到日落。夕陽無限婦好，只是近黃昏。夕陽是一剎那消失，時間亦是一樣。






以下係我利用保貴的時間和心意買比老婆的Ahava同virgin olive oil。

特拉維夫的Hall of Independence

星期六的早上，約好導遊在酒店大當會合。原本計劃只到耶路撤冷，最後決定加碼到死海遊泳，嘗一下躺在水上看報紙的感覺。大約九點，從特拉維夫出發，導遊先帶我們到Hall of Independence，剛好今年是以色列建国六十年，當然要到這裏看一下。



原來明年即零九年是特拉維夫建成的一百周年。希伯來文的特拉維夫(Tel Aviv)是沒有具體意思的，但"Aviv"在希伯來文中的意思是小山。

以色列式野餐

以色列的海岸線很長。沿著海岸都是沙灘。沙灘面對著的是地中海。這天是星期四，對以色列人來說是一個星期裏最後的工作天。上帝用六天創造世界，星期六完成創作。以色列人將星期五六作為休息日，星期天才是一個星期的開始。

星期四，我們被邀請參加人家公司的派對。原來在沙灘舉行，此沙灘當然不是香港那種，它的外形長相跟澳州的黃金海岸有點似，只是少一點燈光和人氣。來到海灘，人家事無已打好地鋪，大概有三分之二的籃球場大。再放上棹和椅。一位以色列朋友跟我說，很見遠處的燈光距離我們五公里就是加沙(Gaza Strip)。我想唔係禁近下，萬一射飛彈來走去邊，我問他，他說飛彈射程40公里，好係頭上過，叫我地唔駛驚。後來又話講笑喎，加沙邊有這麼多燈。

這個沙灘，風很大，浪很激。如果在這裡享受露天風呂，都叫是人生快事。不過我們從七點多吹風吹到差不多十點正。很高興，期待己久的晚餐終於有著落。食完暖返D就閃返酒店休息下。

牛爸爸牛肉麵

真係好好食。終於試到正中台灣牛肉麵。



麵質很自然，湯底很好渴，不含味精，牛肉是一流的，很柔軟，差不多有一種入口即溶的感覺。不能以筆默形容，價錢相宜，一碗牛肉麵含綠茶一杯都只是台幣一百五十元正兼不收服務費。個字"正"。
地址:大安區忠孝東道四段216港27弄16號，最近忠孝敦化捷運站3號出口。

再次出發

今天台北明天香港後天特拉為夫。旅程又再開始，未來仍是不可預知。正如叔本華所說，昨天己經過去，已成事實不可改變，明天是未來，不能預知。我們只能掌握現在，活在當下。

今天都算有個交待，算是完全解決或半解決某些事情，明天繼續安心上路。

特拉為夫對我來說就等如問號。但我相信很快會找到答案。

讀書的藝術

剛看到一本書，作者說讀得太多書會壞腦。何解？作者話讀書只是將作者的想法或經歷重複，讀者不須思考就得到知識。他認為人的思考方為重要。如果永遠重複別人的思想就會失去創作力。所以當讀完一本書後，應將之全部忘掉免得影響創作力及思考力。

作者是誰？叔本華(Arthur Schopenhauer)，19世紀德國哲學家。他的思想解析人生的本質。現在看他其中一篇中譯作品名為: 雋語與箴言，Counsels and Maxims 德文 "Paranesen und Maximen"是處世智慧錄 (Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life "Aphorismem zur Lebensweisheit") 的第五章。

下次再寫多一些叔本華的思想給大家複印一下。