Taoyuan Nights

Many of you will have heard of the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ $99 laptop project. I’ve had my eye on the OLPC for some time, but it was never clear that I would ever be able to actually buy one. Unfortunately (for me), the OLPC project is targetting developing countries, and is not selling to [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNO6G4ApJQY
It seems this is a genuine ‘news’ report from the US shown on Fox. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

“Happy Corner is then performed along with a song parodying Happy Birthday to You, with the lyrics changed to “Happy Corner to You”.
Happy Corner. It’s not what you might think. More here at the Taipei Times.

Other blogs:
Michael Turton on insider trading in Taiwan.
DoubtingToShou on the joys of the recent stockmarket drops + a story about [...]

Here are some thoughts I’ve been musing over for many months, since I first arrived in this country.
Point 1: Old people are screwed. Can’t get a good return from the bank on their lifelong savings, because of low interest rates. Can’t effectively invest in assets like housing and stocks (prices are sky high, since people [...]

28179328 (match all the digits for the grand prize of $2 million NTD).
18220444 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits starting at the right hand side).
26888640 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits starting at the right hand side).
37661297 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits starting at the right hand side).

Ok, this is just for fun – stick with it, and you will see just how crazy the world of finance can seem.
1) Recently, a consortium of banks (Fortis, Santander, and RBS) offered £48 billion to buy ABN Amro.
2) According to the words of RBS’s CEO, Fred Goodwin: RBS has a 38% share of that [...]

You can now easily find the Nintendo Wii in Taipei – for example, in K-mall (near the Taipei Main Station) and also at malls nearby many MRT stations.
The normal Wii is typically priced at $7999 NTD. If you look around, you should be able to find places selling it with a modchip pre-fitted for [...]

Do you ever find yourself wanting to access your email from both home and the office – but at the same time, hating the crappy webmail client that seems like the only way of doing it? In fact, there is a much nicer solution than ‘POP3′ email (outlook express), or webmail, which surprisingly few people [...]

I recently came across this interesting collection of photos of unusual protests in South Korea.
http://www.who-sucks.com/people/the-exciting-world-of-south-korean-protests
I wonder, has anyone ever compiled a compendium of unusual Taiwanese protests?

Sometimes, when you’re talking about investing, you use the word ‘friction‘ to describe the costs that are associated with using stockmarkets. For example, if you’re investing in the US, Taiwan, or anywhere else, you must pay a stockbroker money to buy or sell shares, and move money and share ownership around on your behalf. Additionally, [...]