I've made very accurate predictions in the technology world: BYD fell to HK $13, Apple stocks crashed, Samsung thrived, Naver LINE beat Whatsapp, etc. Now I'm going to add one more. WeChat will not be a free app sooner than I think. Wanna know why?
Now I'll tell you why.
So, so what? Well, first, we need to know something. Messi is the 2nd highest earning footballer in the world according to Goal.com's The Goal Rich List 2013, in short, he earns "£251,000 a week, plus bonuses" as well as an "extremely lucrative sponsorship deals with a long-term relationship with the likes of Adidas (worth £2m a year)", just how much do you think it will take Messi to be on a 30 sec ad then? Don't know, but it's not going to be a "friendly" price for sure.
For one thing is that WeChat is owned by Tencent, a Hong Kong-listed Chinese company, and we all know "Chinese" kind of implies "cash" these days, and Messi knows this as much as we do. Thus we can deduce that the cost of hiring him will naturally be much higher than usual.
For another, sometimes even super brand like Adidas cannot get Messi to be in the ad. Don't get what I mean? Check out the video below.
What this video tells us is that you think you were watching Messi in the ad, but in fact you are watching a high school teacher playing football with his friends.
Now, imagine how much more Tencent has to pay than Adidas did to get Messi in the ad in real person. Second highest earning footballer in the world doesn't come cheap. So where should that money come from? Charging the app users would be a reasonable move.
Does Tencent have the money? Sure it has, tonnes, but does WeChat bring Tencent any actual income? Probably, but surely won't be as much as the money Tencent paid for Messi and other artists to promote WeChat.
Nature and Town coexist?
Image from Locky's English Playground
Everywhere you go, there are huge boards promoting their luxurious condominiums in the making. Unlike the colourful promotional AutoCad images presented in the brochures made by the Hong Kong developers, the designs you see on the ads in Phuket are 100% delivered to match the drawing. No tricks here.
A really new villa behind a not-so-new roadside shop
Image from Locky's English Playground
Immediately, I want to become an property owner in Phuket.
Seaview condominium
Image from Locky's English Playground
The sights of real estate development generate immense hope to the outsiders, making everyone thinks that this island of Thailand can really make gold.
But the longer the journey went, the more I felt a chill down my spine.
More flats in the making
Image from Locky's English Playground
There may not be a 7-11 around every corner, but you sure can find a piece of land or a building for sale. Street after street, construction sites after construction sites.
Image from Locky's English Playground
One construction plan more shockingly beautiful than the one before. Then how can anyone earn more building an earlier villa if the next one is always better? The business seems attractive on the service but it feels like a cliff waiting just in front.
What the use for this piece of land? Your guess won't be too wrong
Image from Locky's English Playground
In Phuket, every piece of wood or grassland you see that still belongs to Mother Nature is bound to be scraped away by heavy machinery and hammered by iron bars and concrete.
"Give me a break", says Mother Nature
Image from Locky's English Playground
There is some sort of local heritage, but it is of little importance in front of the mighty money which the valuable Phuket lands bring.
TESCO in the background
Image from Locky's English Playground
Are local investors investing in Phuket, or foreign ones? I have no idea, but sure enough, Phuket does attract planeloads of Westerners, tourism has got to be the key income of Phuket. Do any of the local people benefit from this development? I seriously doubt it.
local roadside shop with a real estate banner ad
Image from Locky's English Playground
If things continue to go the way they are heading right now, how much longer can the local shops and homes last before they all turned into modernised supermarkets and luxury resorts?
Coconut plantations waiting to be demolished
Image from Locky's English Playground
How tolerable is Mother Nature? How much development is enough? How many investors will be sorry for the move they have made?
Only time will tell.
Vocabulary: paradise -- (n) [C usually singular U] a place or condition of great happiness where everything is exactly as you would like it to be Mother Nature -- (n) [U]often humorous nature, especially when considered as a force that controls the weather and all living things scrape -- (vb) [T]to remove an unwanted covering or a top layer from something, especially using a sharp edge or something rough machinery -- (n)[U] a group of large machines or the parts of a machine which make it work mighty -- (adj) literary very large, powerful or important condominium -- (n) [C] US an apartment building in which each apartment is owned separately by the people living in it, but also containing shared areas planeload -- (n)[C] a plane of people, from -load -- (suffix) all the people or goods in the stated type of vehicle or container tolerable -- (adj) of a quality that is acceptable, although certainly not good
I used to have a strong stand as to why Android is better than iOS, and why Android devices are better than the Apple devices. I used to think people should all switch to Android devices, but now I'm happy to say, I no longer think the same. I have learnt to appreciate Apple more and the importance of having Apple in the smartphone industry. That doesn't mean I have switched away from Android or Samsung, I will still choose Android or Samsung over iOS or iDevices, but good things must be appreciated, and here's my new perspective in this technological smart mobile tug-of-war.
"People see what they want to see." -- Gregory House M.D.
If you remember that in an earlier article, I posted a video of Americans actually given an iPhone 4S while being told it was an iPhone 5 subconsciously thought the "new" phone was better, lighter and faster.
Some may think that is really funny to watch, but being capable of implanting this idea in so many people's heads, Apple had to do some miraculous marketing in order to reach this level of mindset altering. Creating Halo Effect is easier said than done, but Apple managed to achieve this with immense success.
The iPhone 5 has been mocked by many as being nothing special but longer and harder; the Apple Map was so terribly inaccurate that Tim Cook has to publicly apologise;
the design cannot be distinguished even if I look at the 4S and the 5 side by side, I even think the longer-yet-not-wider iPhone 5 looks laughable,
Which is 4S and which is 5? No cheating with the connectors!!!
Image from Locky's English Playground
The box of iPhone 5 is the best iPhone box design since iPhone! I have always disliked the earlier versions of box design, so dull, so flat, the phone's so over-enlarged, so non-minimalist, but I really like the iPhone 5 box this time as we finally see the entire phone at an angle, the shading, and the larger white background, truly minimalist for the post-Steve Jobs iPhone. Two thumbs up!
Good points must be credited.
Sharp's new 443 ppi 5-inch smartphone displays on show at CEATEC 2012
Image and caption from Engadget
But at the end of the day, why do I still choose Android over iOS? I'll reserve my answer for a little longer, but XDA Senior member Zedomax has some of my keys reasons (from 3:50) for liking Android much more.
And here's my answer now.
If you like giving more than taking or if you are someone who long for freedom, you will naturally like Android because Google Android allows sharing and the freedom of making changes as most of the codes are open-sourced. Everybody can own a copy of the software code and modify it, change it, make it fit your personally needs.
Various Themes for Android devices, install as apps
Image from Google
We Android users need not know anything about programming but yet we can do whatever we want, however we want with the Android devices we own with a few simple taps on the screen. When we go out to the streets, we compare our phones and see how UNIQUE they are in every aspects: icons, themes, layouts, sounds, live wallpapers, speed, even hardware such as metal cases and skins. We like to be different, we want to be different, we enjoy being different, and at the same time, we enjoy the right to be different. Android allows us to do all these.
Various Custom ROMs
Image from blogdoandroid
We Android developers hack our phones for love and for fun! We root our devices, play with customization, install custom ROMs, change kernels, select voltages, overclock them to push their performance to the maximum, and many more. We develop amazing ROMs, kernels, apps for the devices we love, always help out each others' technical needs and share our work with the Android community to create new software that has and will continue to rock the world! The most important thing is, anyone can be an Android developer and anyone can make a difference in the Android world because Google welcomes creativity at the base level.
Apple's doesn't.
Resurrection Remix Custom ROM
Image from Westcrip
Image from Naver LINE
We don't want limited creativity, or creativity that is build upon what is permitted by a company. We don't buy the concept of having just one way to create things -- the Apple way, we want the freedom to explore, the freedom to make changes to something we own, the freedom to simply say "NO!"
That's my answer.
I'm not saying iPhone is not good. I have grown to appreciate iPhone 5 more than ever in fact, because speed wise and design wise, it is really really good! No doubt about that.
I just think this argument between which is better should not go beyond the personal level.
I think iPhone users should love their iPhone for their preferred reasons and Android fans should learn to understand that love, sometimes, just doesn't need an explanation. The iPhone fans, on the other hand, should also realise that not everyone on this planet are satisfied with what has been presented to them while at the same time being told that "this is the best, you can't get anything better than this" and be controlled by that forever, because then there won't be any self-improvement, there will only be spoon-feeding and blind obedience.
Finally, as a summary, iPhone is good for most common users because Apple does a good enough job for those who doesn't need customization and are happy with the given default elegance, whereas Android phones are more suitable for advanced users who likes tweaking ROMs and kernels, adding new things to make his device truly unique.
Hey, the devices that you own really do tell your personalities, don't they?
Vocabulary: tug-of-war -- (n)[Cusually singular] a type of sport in which two teams show their strength by pulling against each other at the opposite ends of a rope, and each team tries to pull the other over a line on the ground implant --- (vb) [T] to fix ideas, feelings or opinions in someone else's mind miraculous -- (adj) very effective or surprising or difficult to believe altering -- (n) from (vb) [I or T]to change something, usually slightly, or to cause the characteristics of something to change easier said than done -- informal said when something seems like a good idea but it would be difficult to do laughable -- (adj) silly and not deserving to be seriously considered undeniably -- (adv) certainly true resistant -- (adj) not harmed or affected by something game-changing-- (adj) minimalist -- (adj) belonging or relating to a style in art, design and theatre that uses the smallest range of materials and colours possible, and only very simple shapes or forms
English, Chinese, Lingua Franca, Global language, world language, international language, Culture, Economics, Power
2012-06-12
13
2012-07-10
Introduction:
Lu (2008) claims that the
Chinese language (that is, Mandarin Chinese or Putonghua) faces four main
obstacles in becoming a worthy competitor of the English language as a global
language, including the difficulty of acquiring and using Chinese, the narrow
acceptance of Chinese culture, the lack of Chinese publications globally and
the hugeness of the English-learning Chinese population, all based on the assumption
that China’s growth will have an negligible effect on her premises.
Opinions:
For those of you who would like to read academic papers written by me. Hope this will be useful for those of you researching in related areas as well.
Starbucks plans to upgrade its pastries by investing US$100M in absorbing the San Francisco-based Bay Bread, this is always good news for the customers, as they need not be reminded of the red bug syrup Frappuccino that had gone through their digestive systems previously. Lucky I was never a fan of their Strawberry Frap, but in Hong Kong, will we get to try out some of the Bay Bread cakes?
Red bugs in the Starbucks syrup
Image from Red Orbit
Image from Locky's English Playground
Second news talks about a research published the National Academy of Sciences which shows that 54 Italian and 40 French dyslexic children aged 8 to 14 are shown to have increased their reading speed by 20% and the accuracy doubled when using font size 14, 5.2pt spacing texts. If this works across all races and written languages, then it will be a great news for the dyslexics. I have always found reading words too small or too big more difficult and slower, so I believe that font size and spacing do matter. Teachers should understand this and not blame their dyslexic students if they cannot read fast enough for "normal" text.
The third news reports that Hong Kong's financial secretary John Tsang warns / advises Hong Kong property buyers again to manage their risk and that further measures will be implemented to stabilise the market. Public opinions are 50-50, half thinks that housing market will fall after the next chief executive assumes duty on the 1st July, others think prices will continue to rise at 5-10% within a year. All I know is, when you need it, you can't wait. Investments need a lot of luck.
Last but not least, Apple knows Samsung is serious this time with their Galaxy SIII and has to resort to what-else-other-than patent lawsuits again to stop GSIII from selling in the U.S.! Apple is attacking GSIII for its Siri-like S-Voice speech recognition personal assistant and data-tapping (whatever that means).
So now both Siri and S Voice are powered by the same company, Nuance.
Therefore, Apple owns Siri, Samsung owns S Voice, both use service from Nuance,
In a sense, it is just like two restaurants having the same vegetable supplier but serving different customers. Is that wrong? I don't think so, Apple is unlikely to be able to win in the court with this point.
Anyway, Apple, can you stop trying to stop other brands and fight fair like a man! Killing creativity by limiting consumers' choices is just going to make more people want other phones! Stop your iSweatshop factories and make better phones to beat your competitors!
Euro 2012 will kick off in 10 hours 48 mins 47 secs. Football fans shouldn't miss the updates on ESPN!!! Time to learn to pronounce names of players in their native languages, really helps when you need to read those brand names.
Vocabulary: dyslexic -- (adj) a difficulty with reading and writing caused by the brain's being unable to see the difference between some letter shapes stabilise -- (vb) [T] If you stabilize something, you cause it to become fixed or to stop changing assume -- (vb)[T] to take or begin to have responsibility or control, sometimes without the right to do so, or to begin to have a characteristic resort to sth -- phrasal verb to do something that you do not want to do because you cannot find any other way of achieving something
Master Peter So, is one of the most respected feng shui master in Hong Kong, or probably in Asia. He is also one of the few feng shui masters who actually has translated feng shui books in English, inside those books, are a great amount of highly formal vocabulary, really worth reading even if you are not interested in feng shui, just for the sake of widening your horizon.
There are many reasons for his success, his long waist-length straight hair, his fashionable look, the sharpness and directness of his criticism, the fluent hyper-speed recitation of the Ba-zhi diagnoses, etc., but his quirk cannot sustain his fame if he is not truthful enough.
And his most truthful quote, is "the highest level of feng shui, is random guessing."
Sounds very demeaning to the great Chinese system, but his words are absolutely true.
Feng shui, as he often says, is statistics, is a collection of statistical knowledge (though impressionised rather than hard number facts) through thousands of years of observations in the human behaviour in relation to the geography of the surroundings in China. Hence feng shui can affect people's living conditions in certain good or bad ways in general, but there are always exceptions.
See what Dr. House has to say about the feng shui of his office (Season 8 Episode 5).
Surprised that westerners care about feng shui too? You'll be even more surprised after Googling English books on feng shui.
Back to my previous point, what Dr. House felt was really no joke. Feng shui is a lot about comfortability.
For example, a sudden appearance of a ceiling beam tends to make people feel uncomfortable or even sick. Sounds unconvincing, but Master So's explanation is that the beam deflects air movements downwards, thus having your air-conditioner's wind hitting the beam and deflecting to hit directly above your head, will really make you uncomfortable or even sick.
Scared by one's own reflection in the mirror
Image from
moviesblog.mtv
Another example is that mirrors should never face any doors or beds as it will cause discomfort, unrest or even poor health. His explanation is that human tends to be scared by sudden moving objects. Whether it is in the day or at night, when you open the door and suddenly you see some unexpected moving object in front of you, you will be frightened by it. That moving object is of course your own reflection in the mirror. Continually suffering from the scare of your own reflection in the middle of the night while you head to the toilet isn't a smart choice.
This, to me, actually makes sense.
Computer and monitor near the bed
Image from
seemslegit
But what is even more amazing about Master So, is that he is often caught saying that he is a feng shui master who least believes in feng shui! He explained by saying that many of the teachings from the old feng shui textbooks will not apply in the modern days simply because many things in the modern days never existed in the past, like the electromagnetic influences from the computer and the monitor next to your bed, or the power transmission towers near your home, or the bright signboards in the opposite building which flashes right outside your windows affecting your sleep quality.
Can feng shui foretell the future? Probably not. Otherwise, Master Peter So will surely try to explain future trends with feng shui when he talks about investment. The fact is, even a feng shui master himself, he hardly discusses his investments in terms of feng shui. What he does share, are his observations through the years of observations of the market movement, supporting it with statistics (or arguably, his own style of feng shui).
"Anything regarding Gods and Demons, I have zero idea!
Feng shui is statistics, not religious studies." -- Master Peter So.
Here's an article which demonstrates his firm belief in statistics.
Feng shui masters hit the investment trail
By Li Tao (China Daily) Updated: 2010-02-22 10:52
HONG KONG: While financial analysts read all sorts of indexes to form a picture of the economy, feng shui experts in Hong Kong are applying their art to a similar end.
Peter So, a popular local feng shui master, is trying to convince undecided investors not to purchase property in Hong Kong until 2015.
So said past experience showed the city's property prices rising continuously for five years and then falling over the next six. He said prices peaked in 2009, the final year of the last cycle, and were now due to tumble.
"The theory has never been wrong in the past," said So. "Apartment prices fell in value almost 50 percent between 1986 and 1991 and then rebounded to another high in 1997. They slumped again in 2003 because of the breakout of SARS, and it is acknowledged that property prices have been way up over the past few years, even though the city's economy was damaged severely by the global financial crisis."
So said the next bottoming of the property market would occur in 2015 and he had now started saving money ahead of the eventuality.
As to stocks, So eschewed predicting whether it would be a lucrative market or not this year, but advised investors to differentiate odd years from even ones when buying, a tactic he said was effective eight times of 10.
"Though the stock market is volatile, rough fluctuations still can be determined. Generally, the market rises high initially but ends low in odd years. The trend reverses in even years. This is an even year, so investors should consider buying stocks in May or June, when the market will be at the year's bottom," said So.
However, just like the mercurial markets, predictions from different feng shui masters vary, sometimes considerably.
Edwin Ma, another local feng shui master, disagrees with So about the city's property market.
"If I am to make a suggestion to my clients, I will definitely advise them to pour money into the property market this year," Ma said.
Ma anticipates a flat year in housing prices, but he said it was still worth investing since "in comparison with stocks, property prices are de facto guaranteed to make a fortune, while most stocks were not".
He added: "The stock market seemed exuberant last year, but it has become the playground only for rich people because profitable stocks were no longer affordable to most ordinary investors."
Ma said although the Hang Seng Index ended high in 2009, most investors were unhappy because star stocks such as HSBC had surged to more than HK$80 a share - far beyond their affordability. However, any cheap stocks they were holding barely made money, or even dwindled in value over the year.
Ma also warned people born in the years of the tiger, monkey or snake to be extra cautious with money in 2010.
Feng shui is an ancient Chinese aesthetics system believed to apply the laws of both heaven (astronomy) and earth (geography) to help people improve their lives. Cynics say it is based solely on anecdote or guesswork and lacks plausibility. However, feng shui is extremely popular in China and is growing in popularity in many foreign countries.
After reading the above article, I did some research myself. I found this article dated Dec 3rd, 2008, and it shows a chart and 2 tables.
From the above chart, and the table below obtained from Hang Seng Indexes,
Month-end weighted average P/E Ratio (Table 1)
Image from hsi.com.hk
if you are thinking about investing in stocks, when the current Price-to-Earning ratio (PE) is around 6.78 to 10, it is considered as a good bargain. But what about timing?
Looking at the table above, it is fair to say that roughly every 3 or 6 years (depending on how you want to see it) something disastrous will happen, the recent one is 2009, so either if history will repeat itself in a different way, then 2012 or 2015 would be the danger years, which matches what Master So said in the above article.
The duration it took to rebound seems to vary greatly from the above table, so if you read the above article on the 3rd Dec 2008, and decided to buy in stocks after the month-end weighted average PE was published in Jan 2009, this is what should have happened...
Month-end weighted average P/E Ratio (Table 2)
Image from hsi.com.hk
Which means that your investment should have lost roughly 10% till Feb 2009, but then you should have earned double by Jul 2009. Back to the feng shui issue, if feng shui is statistics, then feng shui is just the Chinese name for "Data Analysis". Master So's data analysis concludes that this year's May and June is the bottom of the market, but according to my own analysis using the data from Hang Seng Indexes...
Since 1973 till today,
Image from Locky's English Playground
January and March each have 7 times being the lowest PE month, while other months are quite even, this could mean January and March are likely to be the best time to buy stocks in Hong Kong.
At the same time, December has 12 times being the highest PE month, followed by February with 8 times, then January and July with 5 times, meaning that these months are likely to be the months at which the stocks in Hong Kong are the most expensive.
But the questions are,
How do I know which January is the highest PE or the lowest PE month?
Should I buy in January and then sell in February?
These are questions which need more analysis to be done, after I have found out, it will be my feng shui.
More on that later.
Please "Like" this entry and the English Playground if you want more of this kind.
Vocabulary: recitation -- (n) [C] saying a piece of writing aloud from memory quirk -- (n) [C] an unusual part of someone's personality or habit, or something that is strange and unexpected fame -- (n) [U] when you are known or recognized by many people because of your achievements, skills, etc demeaning -- (adj) causing someone to become or feel less respected comfortability -- (n) [U] how comfortable one's is about something or someone ceiling beam -- (n)[C] A beam is a horizontal structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. power transmission tower -- (n) [C] a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. foretell -- (vb) [T](foretold, foretold) literary to state what is going to happen in the future tumble -- (vb)[I] to fall a lot in value in a short time slump -- (vb) [I](of prices, values or sales) to fall suddenly breakout -- (n) [C] a violent escape, especially by a group, from prison bottom out-- (phrasal verb) to have reached the lowest point in a continuously changing situation and to be about to improve eschew -- (vb) [T]formal to avoid something intentionally, or to give something up lucrative -- (adj) (especially of a business, job or activity) producing a lot of money differentiate -- (vb) [I or T]to show or find the difference between things which are compared mercurial -- (adj) changing suddenly and often aesthetics -- (US also esthetics) (n)[U] the formal study of art, especially in relation to the idea of beauty cynic -- (n) [C]disapproving a person who believes that people are only interested in themselves and are not sincere plausibility -- (n)[U] seeming likely to be true, or able to be believed
