What I learned in COM212B

COM212B：Hypermedia on Prezi

A great class that I will never forget its lessons. 

Consumption tax in Japan

The government's plan for raising consumption tax to 10% has been discussed over and over again recently. The reason of doing so is because this country is in debt. Some people might concern that If the government don't raise taxes, Japan would probably end up like Greece. I just wonder how the government could have piled up so many debts. If most countries are in debt, where did the money come from?

Personally, I was hoping that the government should cut down the wasteful spending instead of raising consumption tax. (wasteful spending such as constructions that were not necessary but only for the purpose of showing off to other countries...; I'm not sure if this is creditable or not, but I heard this issue from one of my class discussions) I'm worried to face to the rise in consumption tax, but it's inevitable from the point of Japan's current financial situation.

According to this article, it looks like Japan's consumption tax is going to stay at 5% for at least a couple of year, what a relief! Though I'm still interested in what do people think about the issue of raising consumption tax to 10%. Let me know what you think!

Paul the Octopus

Paul the Octopus is famous for his remarkable ability to predict the outcome of FIFA world cup football matches by choosing between two boxes with the flags of the competing countries on each box. Paul has has correctly picked the result of all three German games so far (winning against Australia and Argentina, and upset by Serbia).

For the match between Germany and Spain, Paul picked Spain over Germany. As a big fan of Germany, I hope that animal is wrong this time (though I personally do not fully believe in this kind of 'supernatural' prediction...). 3:30A.M., July 8th, be ready to stay up all night, rooting for Germany!!

Google Docs Survey Tool

While I was asking for some recommendations of good online survey websites, one of my friends simply answered "use Google Docs!" I didn't know that Google Docs is able to create an online survey until then.

Here are the steps of creating a survey by Google:

Creating a form from your Docs list:

1. Click Create new > Form.
2. In the form template that opens, you can add any questions and options you'd like.
3. Click Email this form once you've finished adding your questions.
4. Add the email addresses of the people to whom you want to send this form.
5. Click Send.

Not only users can send this survey by e-mail, but they also can embed the survey in their websites or blog. (But users should consider the corresponding layout carefully)
Google Docs automatically collect data into spreadsheet, and allow users to view in chart forms, which I found quite helpful in that I do not need to create pie-chart from excel. In addition, Goggle Docs also provides more than 100 survey templates!

Here is the survey I made for my final research paper for English Composition class: click here
It will be nice if you can fill it out for me (since I have to collect 100 results!), and I really appreciate it! :)  

My website is online!

Plates of Happiness

After looking at services provided by webs, google, and weebly, I chose to use weebly in the end.

Weebly is easy to work with, but the disadvantage I discovered was that its templates are difficult to modify. I've chosen this dinning table template because it is simple and easy to read. However, I don't like how the header will show up in every other sub-pages. I tried to modify it but I couldn't. If I remove the  header with a picture of "space.gif" on the other pages, the header on the index will be removed as well... This was one difficulty which I encountered while I was constructed my website.

Please take a look at it! Plates of Happiness

VoiceThread Reflection

VoiceThread is an online multimedia  service which allows you to create slide shows with images, sound/voice, videos, and documents such as powerpoint. You get to explain your slide one by one by recording feedbacks, typing text message, or even doodling it! It is also collaborative because other users can leave comments on every slide of your voicethread document with both text and voice.

I spent a long time on brainstorming the topic of my voicethread. I did not want to limit myself on business and economics, so I was thinking of something that is related to every one of us, and the issue of global warming came into my mind. I know people have been talking about it for a long time, but the truth is that people understand this issue, yet they might think that the others will do something about it, so it does not matter if they put their effort in making the environment better. (But they do not consider of "the others" would also think the same way as them....) This was how I came up with my topic- Save the Earth! I collected all of the pictures which I found appealing from the internet, and before uploading them to voicethread, I reorganized the picture folder to make the pictures in the order I wanted. I put a title and some comments on each slide ( I also tried to doodle on the images, but I found out my writing was terrible without using graphic tablet.)



Here is my voicethread:


Most of the comments I received were insightful, and they reflected that the viewers were being alarm about this issue. I asked a couple questions (in the title of the slides) near the end of my voicethread, but people happened to not seeing them, so I did not get what I was expecting before. On the other hand, the discussion that occurred through the comments in this voicethread generated some new thoughts which might take further considerations; thus, I learned from these comments as well.

VoiceThread is a very useful tool for exchanging information in that it provides everyone an opportunity to give his/her personal opinions. It's a great tool of communication and education. Some people might consider that because everyone can create and make comments, perhaps there are chances  that wrong information would be spread out, and people who have no knowledge about the topic would just believe the wrong information. However, I think that even though someone mistakenly post wrong information, others who have some knowledge of it are likely to leave the right info. as comments to this certain voicethread. Limitations of the voicethread would be the amount of VT (voicethread) documents for an account. Thus, if teachers or educators want to have more VT documents, they have to pay for the premium account because one free account can only hold 3 VT files. (if you have 10 e-mail address, as a result you could have up to 30 VT files, but the problem is that you need to change your account info. from one to another...)

iPhone 4

While every one in Japan is still crazy about iPad, Steve Jobs unveiled iPhone 4 at 2010 WWDC (Apple's worldwide developer conference) on June 7th.

here's a short video about the full specs of it:


Basically the iPhone hardware is getting a major upgrade, I like how it finally allows multi-tasks (but I still hope it will allow flash as well....). The higher-definition iPhone screen is pretty cool as well. The battery life is also extended to 40 % more talk time which is 7 hours talk, 6 hours 3G browsing, 10 hours WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 300 hours of standby.

But the most amazing feature of new iPhone 4 is the FaceTime (video calling with using both back and front facing camera); however, it is only iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 with WiFi connection, that is people can't use FaceTime to call to the others who don't have iPhone 4.  

It'll be available on June 24th. Are you gonna get one? Are you not gonna get one?
I think Softbank is soon going to get the most cell-phone contracts signed again, beating up docomo and au.

Keeping Track of the Buzzwords From the New iPhone Launch

Apple Unveils iPhone 4

Cloud Computing

I've been seeing this phrase in many business magazines since last year, talking about how small business became successful using the concept. So what is it anyway?

"Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand" (Wikipedia)

It is simply a substitution for doing business nowadays economically because the traditional ways of doing business is too complicated and expensive.  

Here is a video clip explaining the fundamental ideas of cloud computing:



Not only for business use,but cloud computing can also apply to personal needs.It helps to break the bondage of being forced to use only a single computer. The cloud is a metaphor for describing the internet; cloud computing is a means of using the internet for your computing needs. For example, we can use the basic cloud computing applications such as Google document and the delicious bookmark site without install any software, and all the actions take place on our browsers, and we can access to them by any computer as long as we have internet connection. 


However, there are also disadvantages like when we don't have access to the internet, we can't use this service. One thing that I concern the most about is the issue of privacy (both for persoanl use and for business use). As I explained above that using cloud computing means doing a lot of actions on the internet, so our information is shared by other computers (or at least the server). If there's a sudden closed down of the provider, or the provider accidentally deletes all the data on it, or even worse, selling customers' private information, we're screwed. 

Google's playable version of Pac-Man

We all know that Google changes its 'appearance' on certain special days, such as Christmas.

This time ,Google celebrated the 30th anniversary of this arcade game called "Pac-Man" by changing its logo to a playable version of Pac-Mac last Friday (5/21).

The layout of the maze spelled out the word Google and also by pressing the insert coin button, Ms. Pac-Man (control with W,A,S,D) will appear and you could play both characters simultaneously. After you finish the game, Google then lead you to Pac-Man's 30th anniversary search page. 

Google originally planned to remove it back to the classic Google search logo after two days or so, but it turned out to be incredibly popular, that even people around the world spend almost five million man-hours playing it (I contributed some amount as well :) ). As a result, Google decided to keep this entertaining page forever. 

http://www.google.com/pacman/ (check out and play!)

Take control of your finance today!

a sample picture of iXpenseIt.

I want to introduce an amazingly useful application on ipod touch/ iphone.

With iXpenseIt, you can simply record your income and expense anytime you want- don't need to bother with the paper work anymore!

What I found it's handy is that it can switch to any currency, and immediately shows you how much money you have left until the end of this month (if you set a budget line). It can also transfer these records into pie-graphs or bars.

After using this for the first two months, I realized that I can handle my monthly budget better. :)

Link to this app (US) (JP) !

Japan - The Strange Country

This is an amazing video about Japan from a perspective of foreigner, but the creator himself is actually a Japanese designer- Kenichi Tanaka.

Video description by Tanaka:
"This is my final thesis project. I created info-graphic, motion piece. My objective is to make Japanese people to think about that everything happening here in Japan, isn't that normal. So I created this video from foreigner's point of view, rather than Japanese people's point of view. By the way, please don't call me racist, because I am one of short, small eyes Japanese ;P "



I love the way Tanaka designed the whole clip with graphs and data which are easy to follow. It's very entertaining, but also made me (as a foreigner) understand this country more. Although I think Tanaka focused too much on the negative sides... that might make this video appear to be offensive to his fellow countryman. Otherwise, I really like this video!

Here's Kenichi Tanaka's blog: http://kenichi-design.blogspot.com/

Update: I just found out that the English ver. does not contain the entire clip, so if you want to watch the very end of this short movie, check this out in Japanese. :)


Japan - The Strange Country (Japanese ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

The Grande at Starbucks to buy!

The Grande at Starbucks to buy!

I haven't had a chance to dig into business and economic news recently, so I'd like to recommend a book which talks about the philosophy of business: The Grande at Starbucks to buy! (スタバではグランデを買え! ―価格と生活の経済学) written by Yoshimoto Yoshio.

It's a book for beginners of economics, and the content is fairly easy to follow because it discusses the examples which we will face in our everyday life. For instance,  issues such as whether to buy a bottle of tea at a convenience store or a supermarket;  why does the price of  TVs, digital cameras and DVDs become cheaper gradually; the myths about the complicated plans of cell-phone; which size of coffee to buy at Starbucks is better;  the secret of 100 yen shop.....and more.

I'd like to demonstrate one of the idea about in this book:
Should we buy a bottle of tea at a convenience store or a supermarket?
 
The reason for selling the exact same thing with different prices is the difference of the transaction cost between a supermarket and a convenience store (or a vending machine).
Why do people buy a 150 yen bottle of tea from a vending machine in front of the supermarket when they can get a 98 ten bottle of tea from the supermarket?

Well, here are the reasons...
1. If you are in a rush, and the line of the checkouts is very long....then you'd probably buy your drink from the vending machine.
2. Even though there are not many customers in the supermarkets, you'd prefer to buy your drink from the vending machine if you are in a rush.
3. You might feel embarrassed of buying only a 98 yen drink at the supermarket.
4. You feel lazy to go into the supermarket and look for your drink.

Many reasons, right?
For you, these reasons serve as the transaction cost. That's why there are still a lot of people buying drinks and products from vending machines and convenience stores.In other words, by reducing the transaction costs of the customers without lowering the actual prices, shops still can attract customers to purchase. In fact, this makes better profits for the shops.

It's a pity that there's no English translation of this book (though I read it in Chinese!), but please check out more details here.

Is ECFA a helper or a killer to Taiwan's economy?

The issue of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) has been discussed in everyday news recently in Taiwan. Though, the TVs and the news are talking about it, many people (well, my friends) seem that they don't exaclty know what ECFA is about.

I searched on wiki in order to get a background information:

"Taiwan needs to remain globally competitive in the face of globalization and the signing of FTAsAustralia, the ASEAN bloc, Japan, South Korea and mainland China. The political status of Taiwan prevents it from signing FTAs with neighboring economic powers."

(original source from wiki)


ECFA is the aggrement about reducing tariff between Taiwan and mainland China. The main purpose is to expand the export market, to create more opportunities of employment, and to promote the economic prosperity in Taiwan.

President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-Jeou

On April 25, there was a televised debate about ECFA and related issues (such as the intense political issue with mainland China) held between President of Taiwan, also as a chairman of Nationalist Party, Ma Ying-Jeou, and the chairwoman of Democratic Progressive Party, Tsai Ing-Wen. President Ma has stated that Taiwan must sign ECFA to prevent it from being marginalized in the ASEAN(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region. Tsai considered that signing ECFA would only make economy in Taiwan even worse, and might bring up political issues with mainland China. (Here is an article in English about the debate.)

I've watched this 142 minutes debate on youtube during the golden week. Although President Ma had been very persuasive on his speech, he did not think about that signing a free trade agreement with only "one nation" (mainland china), is also bringing Taiwan to marginalization. (Due to the fact that Taiwan could not join FTA is because of mainland China...) On the other hand, if the government does nothing about it, Taiwan would probably lose its economic status in the wold soon.

If ECFA is signed, will Taiwan lose its right of anti-dumping to China?
Due to the principle of reciprocity in WTO, China could asks Taiwan to import China's Crops without tariff as well.

After Mexico signed NAFTA(North American Free Trade Agreement) with the United States, 1,300,000 peasants in Mexico lost their jobs, 7,500 enterprises went bankrupt.

Will Taiwan become the second Mexico? 

(ECFA will be finalized and signed presently sometime in June, 2010.)

SuperFreakonomics

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance is a book written by an economist Steven Lettiv and a journalist Stephen J. Dubner. It's a sequel to "Freakonomics". 

First of all, I'd like to explain "freakonomics"; it's a made up word of "freak" and "economics". I found it very attractive while I was trying to find some books related to economics over the spring break. I thought this book might give me an easy-to-understand introduction about economics, BUT I was wrong. There is a very big difference between the theme of this book and the general economics. 

Levitt is a very lovely economist; he doesn't use the complicated theory model which most people can't understand to solve the problem. He finds out the common mistakes in daily issues, and explains them with his simple concept of economics.

This book totally challenges the conventional ideas on certain issue, so highly recommended! :)
I'm almost half way through the book, and perhaps I'd like to read "Freakonomics" as well. Let's hope that I could finish reading it during the golden week.

(further information: SuperFreakonomic)

Oh, and here is a short introduction about the book, enjoy it!

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