What my mp3 player is playing over and over and over again:
Everything lyrics by Michael Buble.
You're a falling star, You're the get away car. You're the line in the sand when I go too far. You're the swimming pool, on an August day. And You're the perfect thing to say.
And you play your card, but it's kinda cute. Ah, When you smile at me you know exactly what you do. Baby don't pretend, that you don't know it's true. Cause you can see it when I look at you.
[Chorus:] And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times It's you, it's you, You make me sing. You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.
You're a carousel, you're a wishing well, And you light me up, when you ring my bell. You're a mystery, you're from outer space, You're every minute of my everyday.
And I can't believe, uh that I'm your man, And I get to kiss you baby just because I can. Whatever comes our way, ah we'll see it through, And you know that's what our love can do.
[Chorus:] And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times It's you, it's you, You make me sing You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
[Chorus:] And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times It's you, it's you, You make me sing. You're every line, you're every word, you're everything. You're every song, and I sing along. Cause you're my everything. yeah, yeah
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
Let us calculate.. A text file has 1 byte for each character. So a thick novel, with 1,000,000 characters should take about 1MB of space.
Have you counted your email size? A normal e-mail (minus headers & antivirus codes) would take up about 1KB (1,000 chars).
Now pictures.. In a computer, each pixel comprise of three primary colors (red, blue, green). Each pixel requires 3 bytes. This means that if you use an average monitor (1024 x 768), you would take up memory: 1024 x 768 x 3 = 2,359,296 bytes!
An average color picture can take up space between hundreds of KB to a few MB. How many characters does that equal to?
I guess we should now change the term to "a picture is worth a few million words" :)
MC for Study Meeting on SMEs' Productivity for International Trade and Competitiveness 12-15 June at Bidakara Hotel, Jakarta Indonesia
Some time ago I had been asked to MC this event.
The participants are prominent members of the small business community and government officials from countries in Asia. There are 18 participating countries and when I looked at the positions, they are either a director of company or a finance director of a bank, or a director from government officials (dept of commerce, industry, etc).
Last week on Thursday, I had an emergency call telling me to go to the ministry’s office. Again it was a recording session. Many of our ministers are not fluent in English (meaning they speak zilt English). So when they have a speech in front of international audience, their subordinates contact people like me so that I can read the script, make grammatical corrections, then record the speech. yes. I actually talk to a microphone and my voice is recorded. The minister then listens to the recording and tries to mimic my intonation, pronunciation, etc etc. Its not as easy as it sounds. I have to record several copies, fast speaking, then medium, then slow. Anyway, yesterday was the 1st day. The opening at the ministry office was a success. It was my 1st time as an MC. The Indonesian govt officials said to one another (I heard this later) “its just like in the TV”… They thought I was from the department of foreign affairs. It felt good getting approvals from people. The minister finally realized that it was my voice on the tape. Yes, he does not know whose voice is on the tape. His subordinates do not tell him. I think its because of the need to have leverage. The minister only knows that what he needs is provided. Does not matter how. This arrangement works fine with the subordinates. This way the minister is dependant on them. Anyway, I also received several congratulations from the participants saying the speech was very good.
After reading the participant list and looking at their fingers, quite a few of the business ladies seem to still be single. One in particular, from thailand, is very beautiful. Also very intelligent on the fashion sense. With a black suit and long pants, she would be the image of the business woman definition. It is no wonder that many of the guys (some very old) try and hit on her. It was very entertaining to watch these old geezers try hehehe…
As the most beautiful woman at the event, she had the task of giving a gift to the minister so I had to get the name correctly. Her name was [censored] (read: [censored]) so I got the chance to start a conversation. I asked how to pronounce her name. Smiled, thanked her, then went back to my seat.
On the bus going back to the hotel for the main meeting, I chatted a little bit more with her. With a lame line I said: “hello, I was just wondering… did I pronounce your name correctly?” “Yes, it was correct “[censored]”". “Well, thank you. I’m glad.” Turn my back and sit again.
A few moments later she asked me "do you know a place to have a massage?" "massage?" "yes, traditional Indonesian massage. In Thai, traditional Thai massage is very in right now. I would like to try a traditional Indonesian massage." "ok, i'll see where you can go to find such a place."
That is the pre-event events I will post the main events in my next post.
Looking at the graph, you can see there is a significant increase of tempe's stock value in the last 3 months. The big players have been very careful in raising the stock value with an average of IDR200 per day. A minor setback was, raising a stock's value from IDR200 to IDR2,700 in 3 months cannot be overlooked by everyone. The mailing list was full of questions on why this stock just keeps on rising.. What novices fail to recognize was that there was no fundamental explanation on why this stock just keeps on making records after records of stock value. These novices kept on thinking that the price is too high now.. wait till it drops. Buy on weakness, was the theory used. But that never happened. Tempe just keeps on movin along.. Suddenly, there was a talk of "retail" stock investors joining forces to buy this stock and at least help maintain the price level. These Indonesian retail stock investors gambled and as shown on the graph, bought so many shares (transaction volume doubled) on March 31 which caused the stock value to rise from IDR2,800 to IDR3,250.
With bluechips and most second liner stocks moving down or sideways, a blue colored stock rising 16% raised more eyes. After the weekend, on June 4, more gamblers joined in and Tempe again rose to from IDR3275 to IDR3,925 (+20%!). The mailing lists at the end of the days was filled with questions "is it still ok to buy tempe?". The majority said "still good". So yesterday, the bullish buying continued and tempe opened at IDR4000, reached IDR4650 by noon.
The news at noon proved to be decisive. There was gossip that TMPI was about to be taken over by MTDL (metrodata). TMPI wants to stock split at IDR3000. The last and final news was the JSX administration stated that investors should be cautious because Tempe's rise is abnormal since there had been no real fundamental information to backup the bullishness.
With that, in 1 minute (yes! one minute!), TMPI became Taman Makam Penjudi Indonesia. The stock nosedived to IDR 2,950. The effect to those gamblers was like a head shot. By then, the system automatically rejects any bids (this is the proper policy when a stock rises/falls to much). So people were panic selling trying to cut loss. This ended at IDR2,950 because of the autoreject policy.. Those that bought the stock at noon and had meetings, then came back to the office surely cried.. Try explaining to your family that you lost 50% in 1 minute. Very very cruel.
All I can say is THANK GOD I RARELY PLAY WITH micro stocks...
