Sunday, January 30, 2011

納吉:擁親商環境 大馬為最理想投資地點

更新: January 31, 2011 02:26

納吉:擁親商環境
大馬為最理想投資地點
(阿布扎比30日訊)首相拿督斯里納吉披露,大馬將開放給所有外來投資者,並強調大馬有與其它國家建立良好合作關係的良好潛能。

他推廣大馬為一個最理想投資地點,以說服海外商家投資在大馬。

納吉今日于阿布扎比“投資大馬2011”論壇上發表主題演說時,這么指出。

“不管從什么角度切入,我國經濟都能提供外資者良機,因為我們擁有一個親商的環境。”

納吉稍后也見證大馬政府與阿拉伯海灣合作理事會(GCC)成員國,如沙地阿拉伯、阿聯酋聯合國、科威特、巴林和歐曼所所簽署有關經濟、商業、投資和技術合作備忘錄。

納吉也說,這項與阿拉伯海灣合作理事會所簽下的合約,將是大馬與該合作理事會之間一項突破,具體落實兩國在2011年3月推行自由貿易協議(FTA)的建議。

他補充,隨著政府推出新的經濟策略,包括更具彈性的回教金融方案,將能有效提升和刺激國內經濟的復甦。

未來IT新趨勢:智能手機‧社交網絡‧新創公司

未來IT新趨勢:智能手機‧社交網絡‧新創公司

* 科技
* 新媒體

2010-12-29 14:10

歐洲最大規模的互聯網大會——巴黎LeWeb,最近在巴黎北郊聖丹尼Docks展覽中心舉行。而3個以字母“S”開頭的熱詞:智能手機(Smart Phone)、社交網絡(Social Network)、新創公司(Startup Company),成為參加這次互聯網大會的各路網絡高手談論最多的話題。

第一個S:Smart Phone
智能手機大行其道

如同武俠小說中的武林大會,來自60多個國家兩千多名與會高手都帶著各種各樣的網絡利器,其中使用最多的是智能手機。從iPhone到各品牌智能手機,會場的各個角落,隨處可見在低頭擺弄智能手機的人。

會上的發言人三句話不離手機,無論是大公司還是小企業,智能手機的網絡應用是發言者必談的話題。法國電信奧朗捷公司首席執行官斯特凡納裡夏爾在大會上圍繞智能手機進行了發言,從iPhone的銷量,到2013年法國電訊將開通4G網絡,再到蘋果和基於谷歌Android操作系統的智能手機間的市場競爭,無所不談。

谷歌公司推出的手機推送訊息服務也將個人手機終端作為重點。黑莓和諾基亞手機也推出極具個性化的手機應用服務。今後,智能手機的應用程序有望完全由用戶自己開發,手機將與人們的生活融為一體。

第二個S:Social Network
社交網絡無孔不入

互聯網2010年的關鍵詞恐怕首推“社交網絡”。臉譜(又稱面子書)、推特Twitter等在LeWeb互聯網大會上受到廣泛追捧,這些公司的負責人發言時,聽眾也最多。而很多自主創業公司都在開發這些社交網絡的後續應用業務,許多受年輕人熱捧的網站也都與社交網絡有關。

社交網絡娛樂、遊戲、交友的延伸功能五花八門,一家叫做“珍珠樹”的網站將新聞訊息、部落格、社交網絡等匯集在一起,友好的界面充份體現了無限互聯的網絡概念。社交網絡越來越成為人們獲取訊息和娛樂的主要選擇之一。

第三個S:Startup Company
新創公司銳不可擋

新創公司指那些白手起家,而且還沒有進入市場運作的高科技網絡公司。蘋果、谷歌等大公司都曾經是新創公司,最終成為世界著名IT企業。

在本次互聯網大會上,新創公司成為人們討論的焦點。大會還專門舉行了新創公司競賽,最後兩家法國公司、一家以色列公司和一家瑞士公司勝出。這4家公司無一例外地涉足社交網絡領域,吸引了相當的人氣。

新創公司靠的是創意,這些公司的創始人中不乏二十多歲的年輕人。互聯網是年輕人實現夢想的平台。在經歷經濟危機之後,西方國家失業率居高不下,不少年輕人很難找到理想的工作。互聯網讓年輕人既能娛樂,又能創業,辦一個新創公司又何樂而不為呢?
星洲日報/新媒體‧整理報導:李昱龍‧2010.12.29

Friday, January 28, 2011

生吃雞蛋

生吃雞蛋

* 星雲
* 副刊

2011-01-27 21:05

小學一年級時,鄰座的女同學常在休息時間,從書包裡掏出一顆雞蛋和一支小的硬吸管,用吸管輕輕在蛋殼上敲個小洞,把碎蛋殼撥乾淨,再把吸管插進雞蛋裡,嘴含著吸管的另一端吸起來。我記得第一次看到她生吃雞蛋,驚訝得像見鬼,怎會有人生吃雞蛋?回家跟老媽提起這事,還沒開口問她生雞蛋好不好吃,就聽到她一臉鄙夷的說,生雞蛋細菌多,沒煮熟吃很不衛生,還囑咐我千萬不要學。

後來我忍不住問那位女同學,為何要吃生雞蛋、好不好吃?我記得她說那是她家裡養的雞下的蛋,她媽媽要她吃,說吃生雞蛋很營養,卻想不起她說好不好吃。只是,隔了這麼多年,我始終忘不了她用小吸管吸著雞蛋時一臉滿足的畫面。

【世華‧社會】40%埃及婦女經常暴打丈夫,“剩女”問題更趨嚴重!

說雞蛋不能生吃,卻把生雞蛋加在熱飲中。小時候常見姑姑早上泡麥片給祖父當早餐時,打了顆雞蛋在麥片裡。我常好奇的想去攪拌,看雞蛋在熱騰騰的麥片裡會起甚麼變化,但總是被姑姑阻止,她說讓雞蛋在麥片裡泡熟些。有一、兩回祖父忙得沒時間吃早餐,我終於有機會嚐到麥片加蛋的滋味。雖然吃過半熟蛋,但把生雞蛋打在熱飲中吃,是完全不一樣的滋味,麥片香加上一股蛋香,甜中微腥,味道還不錯。

蛋白,像浮雲一樣散開

嚐過了麥片加蛋後,老媽告訴我還有味道更好的,給我做了美祿加蛋。美祿是我的摯愛,每天必喝的飲料,想不到加了雞蛋,別有一番滋味。老媽的做法有些特別,她把生雞蛋打在杯子後,再把泡好的美祿倒進鍋裡煮到沸騰,才迅速的衝入杯裡,把雞蛋給淹沒了,叫我擱幾分鐘再喝,待蛋白泡得發白、微微凝固再以調羹攪動,如此一來,蛋白好像浮雲一樣散開,巧克力色的美祿中有白有黃的,煞是好看,唇齒之間可以感受到雲朵似的的蛋白和腥甜的蛋黃滑進喉嚨深處,口感豐富。但,這類加蛋的飲料似乎都泡得很濃,喝多了會膩,久久嚐一回就夠了。

其實,說穿了是我對鹹食比甜食感興趣,鹹的熱食加生雞蛋,像加蛋的熱粥、打顆生雞蛋在河粉上的月見河,當時的我倒是常吃不膩。小時候有一陣子,老爸常帶我去世紀花園的路邊攤吃早餐,其中有一檔海南籍老伯伯賣的肉粥,是我至今吃過最好吃的肉粥。老伯伯的肉粥除了肉碎、豬肝、豬腰、油條等材料,上頭大方的撒了蔥花和蔥油酥,還在碗底加了顆生雞蛋。老爸是還沒吃粥前就先攪拌一番,蛋黃弄破了,把一碗粥從白色變成淡黃色。而我卻有不一樣的吃法,我習慣先吃掉1/3碗粥後,才攪拌底下的雞蛋,讓粥變得黃澄澄,先後兩種不同滋味也。可惜,後來路邊攤被逼遷,再也吃不到美味的肉粥加蛋。

如今大家都說蛋黃膽固醇高,熱飲熱食加生蛋已鮮少再嚐,更何況是生吃雞蛋。就不知那位女同學是否還有生吃雞蛋的習慣?
星洲日報/副刊‧文:鹿見不平‧2011.01.17

Monday, January 24, 2011

Japan to cull 410.000 chickens for bird flu

Japan to cull 410,000 chickens for bird flu
二零一一年一月二十四日 晚上六时四十四分

TOKYO Jan 24-- An official says bird flu has been detected on a farm in southern Japan and its 410,000 chickens are to be culled.

Miyazaki agricultural official Masuhiro Nozaki says five dead birds on the farm were confirmed infected with the H5 strain of bird flu late Sunday. Nozaki said more tests were under way to determine whether it was the virulent H5N1 subtype.

Nozaki said Monday that Japan will send some 160 ground troops to Miyazaki to help local authorities contain the spread of bird flu.

Taken from Kwong Wah Jit Poh

China province faces worst drought in a century

China province faces worst drought in a century
二零一一年一月二十四日 晚上六时四十五分

BEIJING Jan 24 - China's eastern province of Shandong is facing its worst drought in a century, with nearly a quarter of a million residents facing drinking water shortages, while more snow is expected in the south, state media said on Monday.

In the Shandong cities of Linyi, Rizhao and Weifang, the dry spell has lowered reservoirs so dramatically that authorities are using fire trucks to deliver daily drinking water supplies to residents, the China Daily reported.

Shandong's provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters has warned that the number of people affected could rise to 300,000 from more than 240,000 at present unless the region receives some rainfall soon.

Premier Wen Jiabao toured the central drought-hit region of Henan at the weekend and pledged that the government would build more facilities to conserve water this year, the Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily said.

Parts of northern, central and eastern China have been gripped by drought for more than three months, with deterioriated conditions in in major winter wheat regions.

Drought has affected winter wheat crops in 17 percent of growing areas in the northern bread basket and dry weather is forecast to extend until spring, the government said last month.

Parts of southern China have been hit by freezing rain and heavy snow, affecting crops and disrupting traffic. A fresh cold snap with freezing rain and snow is likely to hit southwestern China in the middle of this week, the People's Daily said.

The extreme weather coincides with a government campaign to fight rising food costs -- the main driver of Chinese inflation -- which have picked up again in recent weeks.

Beijing looks likely to break a 60-year record for the latest date for its first snowfall of the season, with little prospect of a snowfall next week, the People's Daily said.

Taken from Kwong Wah

财女风情:人生财富大扫除

财女风情:人生财富大扫除
2011/01/24 3:12:04 PM
●罗凤琴

人生里有不同的范畴,如个人、家庭、工作、教育、娱乐、起居、人际关系、金钱、健康、精神健康等等,一个平衡的人生才会健康快乐。

大家有时间,也要为自己的人生的财富做个总结。人生的财富分很多种,金钱,健康,爱与快乐。

那么,人生的财富该做些什么样的大扫除?

第一:情绪大扫除

人类有很多的烦恼,情绪是最大的问题。把那些对您的生命毫无贡献的负面情绪通通都扔掉,腾出空间给正面事务,继续往前进。

因为积极的思想,是最有价值的资产。

当念力形成念波,心中想的,嘴巴说的,会形成一种磁场,来吸引相同频率的同类,我们常讲“心想事成”就是这个道理,我们内心把持有什么就会展现什么;想的负面,行动就消极,想的很正面行动就积极。

厄运往往是自己消极思想和惰性形成的,反之,开放而乐观态度能造成良性的循环,制造出更多的幸运,更多的机会。

正所谓拥有好念头,就会有好思路,有好思路,就会有积极行动;有积极行动,将创好结果。

第二:饮食大扫除

许多人以为多吃一点,就多一点营养,其实并不尽然。

所谓“祸从口出,病从口入”,很多人身体的毛病,都是因为吃得不当吃出来的。

其实饮食方面,只要能控制个人对垃圾食物的欲望,注意食物的营养含量即可,只是现代人只顾忙着赚钱而没有正确的生活观,而胡乱饮食。

熬夜、暴饮暴食、烟酒无度、生活没有规律等都是现代的杀手。

人生仅此一回,身体也只有一个,在追求财富自主的同时,捍卫健康的身体才是最重要的。

因为健康的生活习惯乃是创造财富最基本的原则,有了健康才能活得更久更快乐自在。

第三:金钱观大扫除

赚钱不难,花钱不易。

赚钱和花钱只是同一规律的正反运用而已。

累积资产并不是件难事,许多人之所以做不到,乃是因为他们理财基础不健全。

记着,存钱是为了控制金钱,而不是被金钱所控制。

若你说没钱可存,那是因为因为存钱的公式用错了,“收入-支出=储蓄”的存钱公式,证明是不可行的,你应该改变思考模式,应从“收入-储蓄=支出”的观念来存钱─有了钱把一部分的钱先储蓄起来,剩下的才拿来消费。

我们要摆脱一种老观念──尽你所能赚钱,随心所欲花钱,然后才存下剩余的钱。

做好了大扫除,就可以开开心心,轻轻松松的迎接农历兔年的到来了!

希望你一年过得比一年好,并祝你健康、平安、快乐!

Malaysian bloggers earn up to RM 1 million annually

Monday January 24, 2011
M’sian bloggers earn up to RM1mil annually
Other news & views
Compiled by Izatun Shari

BLOGGERS and blog operators these days are able to chalk up revenues of up to RM1mil annually, according to Berita Harian’s front-page report.

According to the daily, bloggers, who post their personal accounts are now exploiting their blogs for business transactions or advertisement placements, earning an average monthly income of RM70,000.

The daily highlighted blogger Mira Abu Bakar, whose highest monthly income revenue through advertising revenue was RM12,000 in 2008.

Mira, who has been operating her blog Redmummy.com since 2005, earns an average monthly revenue of RM2,000.

She admitted that she had to declare her side income with the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) as she was unaware about it until she received an audit.

An IRB spokesman said online businesses including via Facebook were bound by the Income Tax Act 1967 and their income were taxable just like fixed income.

Nuffnang (M) Sdn Bhd manager Nicholas Chay said hat revenue of a blog depended on the number of viewers and visitors at a certain period.

He said popular blogs could earn huge profits because advertisements or product reviews posted.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Najib to be first PM to visit "Lost World "Maliau Basin

Thursday January 13, 2011
Najib to be first PM to visit ‘Lost World’ Maliau Basin

KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will be the first prime minister to visit the internationally- acclaimed Maliau Basin, dubbed as the Lost World.

Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman, in disclosing this yesterday, said Najib would open the Maliau Basin Studies Centre and witness the signing of several memorandums of understanding between local and international groups involved in research at the untouched rainforests of Sabah.

He said Najib would also launch Project Safe undertaken by Sime Darby in the area during his visit to the 30 sq km basin of pristine forest off the east coast.

Musa said Najib would arrive in Kota Kinabalu on Jan 28 and was scheduled to check on the Kota Kinabalu International Airport deve­lopment, open the new Taman Perdana in Tanjung Aru before joining the Chinese New Year celebrations at Gaya Street the same day.

On another development, Musa said the state cabinet had given the go ahead for the RM6.5bil eco-nature integrated resort on the 1,000.5ha land in Karambunai about 35km from here.

The state cabinet, he said, was briefed by developer Karambunai Corporation Berhad among others at the meeting yesterday.

The project was one of the 133 entry points project that was announced by Najib under Budget 2011.

Musa said developers of the integrated project said it would help create 20,000 to 50,000 jobs when completed in 10 years.

Monday, January 10, 2011

First Online service with promise ot store your pictures and data forever

Published: Tuesday January 11, 2011 MYT 9:47:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday January 11, 2011 MYT 9:54:51 AM
First Online service with promise to store your pictures and data forever

SAN FRANCISCO: Like every other dad with a digital camera, Kai Pommerenke started taking lots of photos after his daughter was born. But the more he researched, the less convinced he became that he could ensure those pictures would still be around when she grew up.

Hard drives crash. CDs and DVDs warp. Companies that store your photos online can go out of business.

Rather than trust his most treasured digital mementoes to technology he saw as all-too-fallible, a team led by the University of California, Santa Cruz economist last month launched a nonprofit he calls the first online storage service to guarantee your data forever.

"People definitely have a false sense of security," Pommerenke says.

"Digital data is fragile. You have to do something active in order to preserve it."

The era of the analog photo has ended. Just before New Year's, the last photo lab in the world to process Kodachrome film stopped taking new rolls. That same weekend, Facebook said its users uploaded 750 million photos.

But as our keepsakes all become encoded in bits and bytes, experts agree with Pommerenke that the risk of losing that data to the digital equivalent of a house fire runs higher than losing a shoebox of old prints to the real thing.

Digital preservationists say that no one can really guarantee that data will be preserved forever. Even for a boutique service like Pommerenke's that aspires to uphold best practices, computers have not existed long enough to be certain. You do the best you can, the experts say, but check back in 100 years.

And the concern does not stop at photos. Audio, video, text, blogs, status updates - anything kept in a digital format is vulnerable.

Universities and the Library of Congress have spent years investigating the best ways to archive their ever-growing collections of digital data. Pommerenke worries less about preserving important cultural or business information and more about saving the memories of milestones that make up a life.

His service, Chronicle of Life, aims to ease that worry by devoting the same level of care to personal digital files that large institutions give to their own data.

Pommerenke says his service will perform daily, weekly and monthly backups of all data to servers spread across the U.S. and in Ireland. Software checks all data regularly to make sure the files users uploaded have not been corrupted.

If specific file formats such as the now-ubiquitous JPEG format used for digital photos ever become obsolete, Pommerenke promises the service will convert all uploaded files to whatever the new standard has become.

More than any other measure, digital preservationists cite the importance of keeping multiple copies of data in multiple places. (An initiative led by Stanford University to preserve libraries' digital data is called LOCKSS: Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe.)

Even then, relying only on your own media such as hard drives, CDs or flash drives have their own pitfalls.

"Time alone is a factor in your data breaking down," says Bill LeFurgy, who manages digital preservation projects for the Library of Congress. "The lifespan of most physical media is pretty limited."

Backing up data to an online service can help avoid the issue of media breakdown, but relying on a company to keep files safe carries its own risks.

"They may promise they're going to do this for a long time, but it's not assured," LeFurgy says.

Chronicle of Life claims to overcome this problem by working as a nonprofit. While companies can change their business models at will if they're not making money, Chronicle of Life by law must commit all the money it raises to its promised mission of preserving data forever, Pommerenke says.

Yet even a nonprofit must raise enough money to keep operating. Chronicle of Life charges one dollar per megabyte of data stored, about the size of an average digital photo. Users must buy at least 10 megabytes.

That's a huge markup over the cost of storage on today's hard drives or flash drives, which run to a small fraction of a cent per megabyte. For-profit companies offer unlimited online storage of photos and other data for much less.

Chronicle of Life's pricing serves as a reminder that Pommerenke intends the service as storage for a carefully chosen selection of a person's most important files, not an all-purpose backup. Three-quarters of all payments received go into an endowment that sticks to conservative investments like government bonds to make the service self-sustaining.

The fledgling service needs 1,250 users on top of the money already raised to make Chronicle of Life financially viable, Pommerenke says. Most of the money spent to run the service pays not for the storage space on far-flung servers but for the human labor needed to monitor and manage the data.

"All bits will die. You have to copy it. Otherwise you'll lose it," says Tom Coughlin, a Silicon Valley data storage consultant. "You have to keep it moving."

Even then, LOCKSS program director Victoria Reich says human error typically outstrips technical issues as the primary cause of data loss.

Whether the problem is human or hard drive, Coughlin says that as digital technology allows for the convenient creating, sharing and keeping of more information than ever, preserving information for the long term has become more complex than ever.

He points out that some of the most primitive data records of all - the clay tablets of ancient Sumer and the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt - survived for millennia with virtually no maintenance at all.

"I think what we've shown is that with some good practices it is possible to keep this information alive," Coughlin says. "But it's a much harder job than, say, maintaining the pyramids."

___

Online:

Chronicle of Life: http://www.chronicleoflife.com/

National Digital Information Infrastructure & Preservation Program: http://digitalpreservation.gov/

Thursday, January 6, 2011

意大利‧破2008年糧食危機水平‧全球糧價創新高

意大利‧破2008年糧食危機水平‧全球糧價創新高

2011-01-06 15:35

聯合國糧農組織(FAO)指,包括奶製品、肉類、食糖、穀物和油等食品指數,已連漲6個月,創下紀錄新高,導致今年恐糧價將進一步狂飆。(圖:法新社)

(意大利‧羅馬6日訊)聯合國糧農組織(FAO)週三指出,受到糖價、肉價高漲的影響,全球糧食價格上月創下紀錄新高,更突破2008年多國爆發糧食危機時的水平。總部設在羅馬的FAO追蹤55種食物商品的指數,包括奶製品、肉類、食糖、穀物和油等,發現該指數連漲6個月,並於上月達214.7點,突破2008年6月創下的前次新高紀錄,其中糖價與肉價指數,雙雙升上新天價。

2008年6月的食物商品指數曾達到213.5點,當時全球爆發缺糧危機,相繼在海地、埃及、喀麥隆等引發暴動;去年,莫桑比克民眾也因不滿政府調漲麵包與水的價格,引爆至少13人死亡的警民衝突事件。

情況令人憂慮

FAO專家表示,當前情況“令人憂慮”,但強調2年前糧食危機在多國引發的暴亂,尚未有重演跡象。

FAO去年11月曾警告,除非全球穀糧“大幅”增產,否則今年糧價恐進一步狂飆。

但該組織資深經濟家阿巴斯安現在表示:“不幸地,穀糧價格在面對諸多不明朗因素下,仍可能進一步走強。南美洲農作物生產若受到威脅,糧價將有極大上漲空間。”糧價上漲勢令全球各國今年入口糧食開支創新高,去年,全球糧食入口費用逾1萬億美元,是歷來第2次錄得如此高的水平。

衝擊多國市場
澳洲水災影響食品供應

從去年6月到11月,全球的小麥和大米價格已上升了26%,而難以預測的惡劣天氣,是促使穀物價格大幅上升的主要因素之一。

糖價去年已連續第三年上漲;受到阿根廷旱災影響,芝加哥玉米價格去年狂飆52%,創下4年來最大漲幅。去年的嚴重乾旱,就迫使俄羅斯暫停小麥出口。而澳洲從去年底以來,多省發生水災,使小麥、食糖和煤炭等商品的價格持續上漲,並已經開始影響出口食品價格,對印度、孟加拉國和日本等國的市場造成衝擊。

經濟學家表示,澳洲農作物遭受水淹,嚴重影響市場供應,麵包、水果和蔬菜等價格上漲壓力很大,部份食品價格將會上漲50%,其他商品也將更貴些。
星洲日報/國際‧2011.01.06

Cup Noodle

My friend got a contract to supply cup noodle to refugees camp in Australia.

This is a childhood friend who has migrated to Australia many years ago. He is operating a sundry shop in one of the islands in Australia.

I said I knew a friend who is doing international trading for many years and probably can supply him with cup noodle.

He needs 5 containers a month. That is a big volume. He is not happy because some suppliers like to increase price after the first shipment.

I called my Singapore friend and he told me that US dollar was down 3 percent but the raw materials like Flour's price is up by 75% and palm oil also is up by 70 %, therefore no local manufacturer wanted to do this business because of the uncertainty of the price for the raw materials.

I called my friend who is still holidaying in Malaysia. He asked to quote spot price for 1 carton and he wanted to order 4 containers load and he is willing to pay cash.

My Singapore friend attempted to quote him and will get the shipment from Vietnam.

Whether I can be successful in this deal, I am no sure yet. My Singapore friend is checking and I hope I can conclude the deal and make some money out of it.