Mt Rinjani

Going off to a 3D/2N trek onto Mt Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia and another 3Days of frolicking on the beaches, more or less a reward for the anticipated calf-stretching (or maybe back-breaking) hike up the live volcano. So no post from 23-28 Nov. Am praying for good weather (no flash floods => mudslides) and that Rinjani remains calm and not spew fire at us. Hopefully, she had already vented the year's store of anger in May earlier... Unfortunately, we are not going to go to the summit because we decided that the trek should be leisurely and we are not ego freaks who want to conquer anything. So it's up to the crater lake for supposedly amazing views and a nice soak in the hot springs during the 3D stay up there. Holga is coming along (not Chelsea unfortunately cos gotta pack light) and will post photos soon. The itinerary is here => http://www.lombok-network.com/rinjani/lake_trek.htm

Millenium Trilogy

Best crime thriller I have read in the longest time, multiplied by 3, since there are different plots involving the same set of characters in 3 separate tomes. Stieg Larsson was a Swedish writer (he died in 2004) and a well-known expert on antidemocratic right-wing extremist and Nazi organisations. His first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, featured some characters who were Nazi fanatics. "The Girl" in the trilogy refers to Lisbeth Salander who is a twenty-something delinquent prodigy with tons of tattoos, a photographic memory and an uncanny abstract reasoning power. I read the first book in 2 days, most of the time with my heart thumping along as the protagonist Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist, and his spiky spunky research assistant Lisbeth, first introduced here and would become the lead in the subsequent books, went digging into the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Swedish wealthiest families, over forty years ago. I am now into the second book, The Girl who played with Fire, which features sex trafficking and a murder mystery, and I can't wait to get my hands on the last one, The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest, supposedly a direct sequel to the second book.

Free!

Free - The Future of a Radical Price is a book by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of the well-known tech mag Wired, about how fast-evolving technologies, especially the Internet, have caused production and distribution costs to fall to low levels previously unthinkable. This has given rise to a growing number of free goods and services, challenging the old economic certainties that we are used to, and allowing producers to creatively redefine their markets, package and market their products and reach out to consumers and grab their attention. Instead of talking about the currency "money" as the basis of the old economy, we will be soon talking about the "reputation" economy, and the "attention" economy, currencies which are becoming increasingly scarce and hence much sought-after.

Why do bloggers blog and Twitter users tweet? Not for money but to be heard and known. The challenge later is to figure out how to turn the reputation and attention gained into money. But first, there is no need to worry about a business model. Instead, build something people want and put it everywhere for free. Free is the best way to reach the biggest possible market and achieve mass adoption. The following 10 principles of Free summarise his ideas:

1. If it's digital, sooner or later, it's going to be free. Free becomes an inevitability as price falls to marginal cost.

2. Atoms would like to be free too but they are not as pushy about it. (Atoms being physical products, as opposed to "bits" which are virtual) - Free is so psychologically attractive that marketers will always find ways to invoke it by defining their business to make some things free while selling others.

3. You can't stop free - So businesses should take Free back from the pirates and sell upgrades to regain their market share.

4. You can make money from free - People will pay to save time and lower risk. People will pay for things they love, for status etc. Free opens doors, reaching new consumers. It doesn't mean you can't charge from them. (Hence, it is important to gain a reputation and grab their attention first)

5. Redefine your market - Creatively redefine your business, give away products and make money around them.

6. Round down - If the cost of something is heading zero, Free is just a matter of when, not if. Why not get there first, before someone else does? The first to Free gets attention, and there are always ways to turn that into money.

7. Sooner or later, you'll compete with Free - Your choice: match that price of your competition and sell something else, or ensure the differences in quality overcome the differences in price.

8. Embrace waste - If something is becoming too cheap to meter, stop metering it.

9. Free makes other things more valuable - Every abundance creates a new scarcity. When one product or service becomes free, value migrates to the next higher layer. Go there.

10. Manage for abundance, not scarcity - When resources are cheap, you don't have to manage the same way. Shift from traditional, control management scarcity thinking to a "Fail Fast" mentality.

Customise your Google search page!

My firm had a newbie this week and he is a rather good techie. One of the fun things he shared with us was Shinysearch.com, which is a portal that allows users to customise (to some extent) the look of their Google search page. Not sure how well known this already is, but it sure beats a boring white screen anytime! Click on images for a larger view.

Lomo 4 - Walk in the Park

Timely warning.... (see below)

Somehow this giant tree was uprooted/fell/struck/i-don't-know-what-happened.

Wall of dirt clinging on to the massive network of roots.

Lomo 3 - Da Urban Life

Double exposure. The plastics transparent chairs produced a startling effect when captured by Holga.

The sci-fi looking weirdos are actually wind blowers specially designed for outdoor cafes battling with the Singapore heat.

Lomo 2 - Random Shots

Lomo 1 - Nana, my neighbour

Her great joy is waiting for someone to pass her at the door and give her a good rub.

Chotto scary eh, these two shots? Love these random effects.

Lomo 1-4: Holga 135, fuji sensia 100, multi-color flash, x-processed

Mah Own Library Seal

What are the consequences of owning many many books? You start buying books you already own without knowing you already own them. The solution then is to make an effort to sort out your stash. Designing a database has always been something I wanted to do but it is both tedious and time-consuming. But the thought of having my own nice little library (and me being the only member) is always coming back to me, egging me to get on my butt and start building one. Then one day, along came this idea of having my own seal on all the books that I have, just to get my library construction plans going for a start. So I trooped down from my office and went to MRSign and got them to come up with a template. They delivered the product after a week.

Polaroid shot of the seal on a page. The book is branded forever! Muahahaha...

This chunk of chrome steel weighs a lot more than it looks. Just imagine I could kill someone with a wallop on the head.

The customised template

SnowyMonkey's B'day & X'mas present

I am finally giving in after a one-year struggle with myself. I am saving for a Lomo Lubitel 166+ camera, a fully manual twin lens reflex camera originally from Russia (but now probably made in China), that costs about HK$2730 (S$500+). It's cheaper and lighter than a Rolleiflex or the atas German Hasselblad, which are all out of my reach. Well, with my financial status now, a Lubitel is out of reach until I accumulate my birthday angpows at the end of the year.

Specs via official lomo site