Harry Chen Thinks Aloud

Spotted on: Nintendo family tree T-shirt.

My first computer was an Intel 80386 PC. That seems to be an ancient machine to many teenagers today. However, comparing to Antikythera Mechanism, my 80386 PC is a computer from some Sci-Fi movies.

Antikythera Mechanism is a device probably used for calculating astronomical position. It’s believed to be a creation of the ancient Greeks at 150-100 B.C. The artifact in the photo was found among the Roman shipwrecks nearby the island of Antikythera in 1900. Recently researchers have examined this ancient computer with high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. Read the rest of this entry »

Spam-in-blogs are getting smarter, I think. Today I received to two comment posts that seem to be legitimate, but after a closer look, both them are spams.

Post 1 — in response to “Google Earth Can Be a Political Weapon“.

Hi All Experts, Does anyone use google earth images as ground image planes for use in aerial scenes. I know how to stitch them together but are there any tools or tricks to make sure that the images are at the same height, angle and such to make sure they stitch well. I know in the pro version you can get bigger images but im not going to pay for the pro version when i could stitch multiple images together…

Post 2 — in response to “Attention College Students, Here comes iTune U“.

I just got my 2000t and all of my songs are skipping in iTunes, and I cant figure out why. If someone could help me out and tell me how to fix this I would really appreciate it because its driving me crazy. Thanks for the replys.

Both of these spams came from a user whose URL points to http://gameburn.org, which looks like an ads-directory web site.

My theory is that the spam-bots that post those messages actually do content analysis.  Post 1 targets blogs that mention Google Earth, and Post 2 targets blogs that mention iTune.

Has anyone else experienced this type of spam messages?

Today most of us can use cellphones to make free long-distance calls, send text messages and take pictures. What else can you do with cellphones in next few years? BusinessWeek article Upward Mobility paints a not-too-Sci-Fi picture of our mobile computing lifestyle.

The article begins with the everyday life of a young woman in Korea.

Park Hyun-A is someone you might want to watch. A 21-year-old student at Korea University in Seoul, she’d like to be a marketing executive for a telecom or fashion company someday and enjoys playing matchmaker for friends looking for the perfect mate.

But what’s really intriguing is the way Park uses her Samsung mobile phone. Each day she waves it over a reader at a turnstile in the train station to pay her fare. Then, during the long ride to school, she flips open the screen and rotates it 90 degrees to watch satellite tv. On the same screen, Park pages through an e-book version of Joachim de Posada’s Don’t Eat the Marshmallow…Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life. She sends an average of 66 text messages a day, snaps pictures of cute guys and sends them to friends, and plays an online game in which she runs a virtual fruit store.

Read the rest of this entry »

Video games existed since the 1980’s, but little has changed in the way we play them. With the launching of Nintendo Wii, this is all about to change. This is not a Wii technology review but my thoughts on Wii’s innovative technology and how it may change the way we play and perceive video games. Read the rest of this entry »

Frucall.com is a new phone call service that does real-time shopping price comparison. While you are in a store, to find out how much an item sells in online stores such as Amazon, call 1-888-do-frucall (1-888-363-7822). Enter the item’s barcode number. Few seconds later, Frucall will read the prices to you.

Frucall also allows you to bookmark items. Once an item has been bookmarked, you can view them later online. At present, all services provided by Frucall are free of charge.

I tried the service to lookup a GFCI (barcode: 078477147641). The reported sales price ranges $14-$20. The service’s response time was acceptable — no long delays. Frucall may be a handy service for the coming holiday shopping season.

I wonder how Frucall plans to profit from this free service? Maybe it gets commissions from online stores when items are sold via Frucalls, and sells advertising minutes to be played during each Frucall.

Spotted on: Marshall Loeb’s Daily Money Tip

A rare US stamp, estimated to be worth $500,000, was mailed with a Florida absentee ballot during the U.S. 2006 mid-term election. The stamp is a 1918 Inverted Jenny stamp, which depicts a biplane that was accidentally printed upside-down. Only 100 of those rare stamps have ever been found. Last year a block of four Inverted Jenny stamps sold for almost $3 million.

No one knows who was the owner of the stamp because th ballot was sent without a returned address. According the news report, the stamp is now Florida government property, and the ballot was disqualified because of missing voter identity.

Source: Yahoo! News

If you plan on adjusting your investment portfolios in the near future, here are few ideas from Merill Lynch strategists:

• Buy large-cap stocks in developed markets
• Invest in media, military-related and technology companies
• Choose AAA-rated corporate bonds
• Investing in dividend-paying foreign stocks and Japanese consumer stocks
• Avoid retailers (except discount retailers)
• Trim exposure to financial, energy and commodities stocks

Source: Ten investing ideas for the next 12 months

Warning: don’t blindly follow analyst suggestions without knowing how changes will affect your own portfolio. For example, don’t sell your index funds and buy HPQ and GOOG just because they on the analysts’ buy-recommendation list.

The above ideas make great sense given today’s economic and political outlooks. However, I doubt all 10 ideas in the article will remain as sound suggestions in the next 12 months. No one is really good at predicting the future. Even the most experienced analysts sometimes can be wrong.

The key is to define and study your own investment strategies. Consider analyst suggestions as suggestions not instructions.