While many has attributed to Ronald Reagan’s mantra of “small government”, the fact is the current ballooning National Debt started from his administration. The Debt/GDP ratio after World War 2 was 117.5% and was gradually brought down to 32.5% during Jimmy Carter’s administration. After Reagan took over, the Debt/GDP ratio has gradually shot up to the current estimate of 102%.

It’s important to note that during Clinton’s administration the Debt/GDP ratio was brought down a little; His first term at -0.7% and his second term at -9%, only to be increased by George W. Bush to a whopping 27.1% and Obama’s estimation of 18.6%.

Source: Wikipedia

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

By this Sept. 2011, US Debt Ratio against the GDP will be a mind boggling 102%, that is $15.476 trillion. That makes them the largest debtor in the world, larger even than the whole European Union. Whether the people vote for a Republican or a Democrat government, they will never solve this major economic issue if they don’t go back to the basic. Cutting social programs where it is needed, is just a sound bite and won’t improve on the budget deficit. What they should cut is Military spendings which are ballooning year by year (Eisenhower was right about the “Military Industrial Complex”) and Foreign Aids to undeserving regimes like Egypt. The billions that poured in to that country probably ended up in some Swiss account belonging to Mubarak’s Family.

Ron Paul was spot on, when he said in his speech at CPAC 2011,

“Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country and giving it to the rich people of a poor country.”

I am no economist, but it don’t take a layman like me to see there is a major problem going on with the United States, if they carry on maintaining its status quo. The politician should should stop becoming a “busy body” about foreign affairs and start talking about their own affairs. Perhaps they should start reading back  George Washington’s farewell address to the nation on how important it is for the country to avoid the accumulation of debts.

“As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible: avoiding occasions of expence by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expence, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear.”

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

With the recent announcement of the synergy between Microsoft and Nokia, it created a whirlwind of discussions in the tech scene. I will add some of mine here.

The irony is Microsoft and Nokia used to be the king of the hill in the mobile scene not so long ago and how things have change against them with the eruption of iPhones and Androids into the market. There was a time when many devices runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile and by today many has defected to the Android camp. Clearly as a software company, Microsoft needs a hardware partner in order for them to market their Window Phone 7 and at the same time, Nokia being a hardware oriented company, clearly understand that their Symbian OS is no longer able to compete with new generation “Touch Screen” based mobile OSes. Both understood that if they still stick to the status quo, they can no longer survive in the long term. A partnership is perhaps the wisest choice.

Some interesting note is that the current CEO of Nokia, Stephen Elop was Microsoft’s Head of Business Division prior joining Nokia in September, 2010 and within a few months he has managed to moved Nokia into Microsoft’s camp. Coincidence? Perhaps it is or perhaps not, but we can conclude that they truly need each other in order to survive and compete with iPhone and Androids. One of the best title on this and creatively put was “Nokia “Elope’d” with Microsoft”

Would this strategy backfire? Time will tell but currently there are more negative feedbacks than there are positive ones judging from the comment made on Nokia’s blog. And Nokia’s shareholder might not be too happy knowing that their newly hired CEO sold out their company to his former boss.

And for you geeks out there, here is your final treat.

Courtesy of HP

Since Apple redefines what a tablet ought to be with its iPad, many competitors rushed to introduce their non-existing tablets and claimed that they will be the next “iPad Killer”. Started off with Microsoft preempt announcement of their new “Slates” by  HP running on Windows 7 over at CES2010 (I will come to HP later) which failed miserably. Next, RIM announced their yet to be release Playbook, followed by various players announcing their Tablets running Android. Samsung has a minor success with their Galaxy Tab. Basically as of this writing, Android Tablets are running a version of its smartphones siblings and are not truly designed for tablet until Honeycomb Devices are launch with the first announcement being made by Motorola XOOM.

By now, most of us have seen the demo of RIM’s Playbook, Android pre-Honeycomb devices and Motorola XOOM running on Honeycomb. While impressive with their choices of hardware and software features that try to outsmart the iPad, they lack any new innovations and basically trying to cramp features that most of us don’t care for or features that try to imitate iPad’s successes.

HP, in my opinion is smart enough to drop Windows 7 from its tablet strategy and bought PALM and together with it, the WebOS. Recently they have announced their new TouchPad using WebOS. While I can’t comment on the platform itself at this early stage, two features did caught my attention and I truly believe it to be an innovative idea that is different from the rest of the pack.

1) Touch and Go technology

Courtesy of HP

If you own both TouchPad and Palm Pre 3 smartphone, you can basically sync the sites you are reading from the Tablet to the smartphone by touching the two together. This to me is a great feature to have. Imagine while reading some sites on the TouchPad and you decide to go away a while, and you can automatically continue reading it from your smartphone on the go. This feature also extend to phone calls and SMS if you decide to answer those on your Touch Pad.

2) Wireless Charging

Courtesy of HP

While this technology is nothing new, you normally have to get an additional 3rd party charger attachment to your devices such as iPhones or iPad. And I am glad HP TouchPad is built-in with this feature although you have to purchase the additional dock. According to SlashGear once the TouchPad is on the dock it automatically kicks into an “Exhibition mode”:

Thе tablet іѕ context-aware, knows whether іt’s аt thе office οr аt home fοr instance, аnԁ ѕο automatically shows information – photo slideshows, a calendar, dock-specific apps οr јυѕt thе time – suited tο іtѕ location.

That said, I think TouchPad still needs more refinement in order to play catch up with the iPad. The recent demo did show some sluggishness even when running on a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and I believe there are more fine tunings to be done prior to its release. One thing HP did get right is the inclusion of front facing camera and not the back facing camera like most other iPad competitors have. Back facing camera just don’t make sense and including it is like giving an additional feature that most users don’t care for. In order for TouchPad (and other platforms) to really have a chance to compete seriously with iPad’s phenomena success, they first must have a decent App Store and lots of software applications to support it. Without it, there can be no long term success.

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

Here are some interesting facts on how much return (compounded annually) you would get if you have invested in some technology stock over a five-year period:-

Apple – 38.8%

Oracle – 30%

IBM – 17.37%

Google – 11.12%

Microsoft – 2.74%

We have no doubt Apple has been a top stock performer judging from their success after success new product launches from iPod, to iPhone and iPads. However it is surprising that Oracle and IBM actually fair better than the darling stock, Google over the past five years. As for Microsoft, it is not a surprising result. Even pioneers like Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer is cashing out slowly.

Source from Information Week

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

Courtesy of DVice

The answer is Gallium. Its melting point is only 29deg Celsius and will literally melts in your hand.

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

I have no idea where the original source of this is, but it is funny. Hope you enjoy it.

It all started in Ancient Israel A revelation with an Incredibly Big Message (IBM): Well, you might have thought that you knew how the Internet started, but here’s the TRUE story … In ancient Israel , it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot. And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com. And she said unto Abraham, her husband: “Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?” And Abraham did look at her – as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said: “How, dear?” And Dot replied: “I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah’s Pony Stable (UPS).” Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent. To prevent neighbouring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was called Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures – Hebrew To The People (HTTP) But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secrete himself inside Abraham’s drum and began to siphon off some of Abraham’s business. But he was soon discovered, arrested and prosecuted – for insider trading. And the young men did take to Dot Com’s trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS. And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. And indeed did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates’ drumheads and drumsticks. And Dot did say: “Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others.” And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or eBay as it came to be known. He said: “We need a name that reflects what we are.” And Dot replied: “Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators.” “YAHOO,” said Abraham. And because it was Dot’s idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com. Abraham’s cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot’s drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God’s Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE) And that is how it all began.

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

Ever wonder what is the meaning of those 16-digits code on your credit card?

via Mint

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

One useful lesson here; never trust your twitter or facebook accounts with your friends let alone your love ones.

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

With Apple announcing CDMA versions of iPhones for Verizon, my prediction is that Android will likely take a hit and iPhones will catch up to be the no. 1 smartphone in the market. Why? Verizon websites says it all……

You can clearly see that Verizon placed iPhone as an individual product and lumped all other Android and Blackberry devices as just Smartphones. This clearly proof how important iPhone is to Verizon.

Posted from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.