My Friends

Friendship is a relationship and concern between individuals and provides positive emotional support. Friends care for one another and look out for each other. In order for a deep understanding to occur between friends it requires opening up about personal things, listening carefully, and being loyal to one another (Kheterpal, 2008) Friendship and association are often thought of as spanning across the same continuum and are sometimes viewed as weaknesses. The study of friendship is included in the fields of sociology, social psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and zoology. Various academic theories of friendship have been proposed, among which are social exchange theory, equity theory, relational dialectics, and attachment styles.

Value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating the following on a consistent basis:

• The tendency to desire what is best for the other
• Sympathy and empathy
• Honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one's counterpart
• Mutual understanding and compassion; ability to go to each other for emotional support
• Enjoyment of each other's company
• Trust in one another
• Positive reciprocity — a relationship is based on equal give-and-take between the two parties.
• The ability to be oneself, express one's feelings and make mistakes without fear of judgement.

My 1st HongKong Trip

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km² (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. 

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty.The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the currentculture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.

Under the principle of "one country, two systems", Hong Kong has a different political system from mainland China. Hong Kong'sindependent judiciary functions under the common law framework.The Basic Law of Hong Kong, its constitutional document, which stipulates that Hong Kong shall have a "high degree of autonomy" in all matters except foreign relations and military defence, governs itspolitical system. Although it has a burgeoning multi-party system, a small-circle electorate controls half of its legislature. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the head of government, is selected by a Selection Committee / Election Committee with 400 to 1200 members, during the first 20 years.

Off to Taiwan :)

The history of Taiwan is one of endless change, and the continuous arrival of new cultures bringing new traditions, ideas and philosophies.

There has been human habitation on the island for the past 10,000 years. The earliest aboriginal tribes most likely originated from other parts of Asia, such as the Philippines. Taiwan has always historically been on the periphery of the great Chinese Empire and in the 15th Century the first immigrants arrived from Fujian in China.

They were followed by a Northern Chinese people called the Hakka, who had fed persecution in their home counties. These two groups were to spread and create a new Taiwanese society.

In 1517 Portuguese sailors landed and named the island “Formosa” meaning Beautiful- and they were followed by the Dutch, who came in force and invaded in 1624.

They retained a colony on Formosa until 1661 when they were expelled by the armies of Ming general Cheng Chengkung. The island then became a Manchu territory in 1682, and then a province of Fujian called “Taiwan”and in 1887 a Chinese province.

Taiwan was returned to Chinese control at the end of the War and was re-occupied by the Kuomintang (KMT) the United Ruling Party of China. In 1949 the coming of communism saw a split between the KMT under the leadership of Chiang Kaishek and the new People’s Republic of China.

Chiang Kaishek and the KMT moved to Taiwan, with their own flag and constitution, creating modern Taiwan in the process.

e-business

E-business (electronic business), derived from such terms as "e-mail" and "e-commerce," is the conduct of business on the Internet, not only buying and selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with business partners. One of the first to use the term was IBM, when, in October, 1997, it launched a thematic campaign built around the term. Today, major corporations are rethinking their businesses in terms of the Internet and its new culture and capabilities. Companies are using the Web to buy parts and supplies from other companies, to collaborate on sales promotions, and to do joint research. Exploiting the convenience, availability, and world-wide reach of the Internet, many companies, such as Amazon.com, the book sellers, have already discovered how to use the Internet successfully.

Increasingly, much direct selling (or e-tailing) is taking place on the Internet of computer-related equipment and software. One of the first to report sales in the millions of dollars directly from the Web was Dell Computer. Travel bookings directly or indirectly as a result of Web research are becoming significant. Custom-orderable golf clubs and similar specialties are considered good prospects for the immediate future.

With the security built into today's browsers and with digital certificates now available for individuals and companies from Verisign, a certificate issuer, much of the early concern about the security of business transaction on the Web has abated and e-business by whatever name is accelerating.

IBM considers the development of intranets and extranets to be part of e-business. e-business can be said to include e-service, the provision of services and tasks over the Internet by application service providers (ASP).

http://www.brooksbrothers.com/

The new iPad

The new iPad arrives today in nine more countries, including Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa, and Thailand.

This marks the fourth phase of Apple's staggered rollout.

The new iPad debuted in the U.S., and nine other nations on March 16. The tablet travelled to an additional 25 countries, mostly throughout Europe, on March 23. And last Friday saw 12 more nations on the receiving end of the latest iPad.

The iPad is now available in 56 different countries, or 58 markets altogether if Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are included in the mix.

Sales of the tablet have been unsurprisingly strong. On Tuesday Apple revealed that it had sold 11.8 million iPads during its second fiscal quarter, a 151 percent jump from a year ago. Analysts, though, had been expecting slightly better, in the range of 12 million to 13 million.

"We can't make enough" iPads, Chief Financial Officer CFO Peter Oppenheimer said on Tuesday "We're selling as fast as we can make them."

One of the few countries that seems blase about the new iPad is India, at least according to one report.

Apple doesn't run any of its own stores in India yet. Instead, its products are sold by resellers and retailers with a wide range of brands.

At one Indian store today where the iPad wasn't even on display, the only sign of life waiting outside was a bull intent on getting a suntan, according to IBN Live.

Eventually one customer popped in about 30 minutes after the story opened, buying a 32GB iPad. But the store did tell IBN that around 100 customers had pre-ordered the new tablet.

Apple has long been struggling to gain traction in India but is still facing a lackluster market in the world's seventh largest country. Price is seen as a major factor. India is flooded with a huge number of rival tablets, according to IBN, many of them costing significantly less than even the cheapest iPad.

Wait times for the new iPad have fallen to five to seven business days in the U.S. and other markets. But consumers in the U.K. and other European countries still face a wait of one to two weeks.

Here is review of the new iPad : 

http://reviews.cnet.com/ipad-3/ 

Investment Plan

Investing basics: the perfect investment would be safe, provide income and grow. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. Instead you have to understand investing basics so you can combine investments (which is called building a portfolio) to achieve the right combination of safety, income and growth.

Investing Basics Step 1: Determine What's Most Important To You The first step to investing is to determine which of the following results are most important to you: Safety Income Growth The ideal investment would provide them all: it would be completely safe, it would provide you with a sufficient level of income to keep pace with inflation AND your principal would grow. That “perfect investment” does not exist. Instead, the investment world looks like the triangle in the top right corner. As you move toward one corner of the triangle you move away from the other two. If you want an investment that is safe, you have to be willing to accept less income and growth. If you want an investment that produces consistent income, you have to understand that it will not grow as much. If you want an investment that grows, you have to be willing to accept less safety.

Investing Basics Step 2: Determine Your Time Horizon Short term: money you will potentially need within 1-2 years. Mid term: Money you will potentially need within 3-9 years. Long term: money you will not need for 10+ years. For short term money, you should choose safe investments. For mid term money, consider a balanced fund. For long term money, choose growth investments, like index mutual funds. Keep in mind, even if you will need income from your investments within a few years, your time horizon is your life expectancy, so a portion of your investments would still be allocated toward growth.

To invest with discipline, you must understand what investments provide which results, and combine them in the right proportions. Like cooking, if you know what you are doing, when you put the ingredients together in the right proportion, you get an outcome that you are happy with. Once you have the recipe right, all you have to do is follow it.