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Just came across a very interesting BBC broadcast this morning that demonstrated the power of Social Media in today’s politics.

A professor of technology was interviewed on BBC and shared her findings. She had recently conducted a study on Trump’s tweets to try to get an idea of the man behind the messages. She was looking to determine which were from Trump himself or if they are from his campaign team. Analyzing the Meta feed, she found that the tweets were either from Apple or Andriod machines. Looking at the language, it seems that those from Andriod were more similar to Trump’s personal style. Coupled with the fact that he is usually actively tweeting at night (having real-time verbal wars with the enemy of the moment), she is 99% sure that the real Trump is using an Andriod phone as the weapon of choice.

Looking at the history of the messages, the professor said that it was revealing to see that Trump was a very active user of social media, using it to enhance his campaign messages effectively. He was able to feel the pulse of the country via his tweets and pick on topics that would endear him to his supporters. By emphasizing and then encouraging  them (eg. immigration, oppressed majority etc), he was able to get an upper hand against his Republican opponents, as he zeroed in on what matters to the masses. He just needed to fan the discontentment with implied innuendos without going into any specific details to win the Republican nomination.

This is backfiring on him now as we enter into the final stretch of the Presidential elections. The lack of details is starting to cause doubts about his capabilities. Saying “I am the man to fix it” so many times is like crying wolf. I bet some Republicans are now seriously considering whether to skip or void their votes, rather than being forced to vote on party lines.

Alice Cooper just threw his name into the hat with the slogan : “A Troubled Man for Troubled Times.” Maybe he will shock everyone in Nov by getting more votes than expected…  😉

http://globalnews.ca/news/2897747/alice-cooper-makes-a-political-bid-to-run-for-u-s-president/

 

 

Do we appreciate our parents enough and understand what sacrifices they went through to bring us up?

In order to fully appreciate a parent, one has to become a parent themselves. Holding that little bundle of joy that depends 100% on you makes one feel the heavy responsibility, of having brought another living being into the world. If you are told that you need to give up your life to save your own flesh and blood, I bet that most parents would not hesitate more than a few seconds to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I remember that my sisters and I really loved the chicken dish my mom used to cook occasionally when we were young. It was made up of only the smallest part of the chicken wing, the sharp tip. Years later, she scolded us when we questioned why she didn’t make it anymore. With only my dad as the sole breadwinner and 8 of us in the household, she had to stretch her food allowance budget. Periodically, she would save enough to buy us a little meat for dinner. The wing tip only cost $1 for a big pack and that was the only meat she could afford.

My parents are in their 80s now, still blessed with good health and mobility. We cherish them even more now, as we reach middle age and confront our own mortality. With the limited time we have left with them, we go out of our ways to create special moments for them and make it a point to spend more quality time together.

 The quote below is ironic of a child not valuing his parent and then suddenly realizing how wise they are :

 “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” – attributed to Mark Twain

 

My condolences to the family of SR Nathan, a true son of S’pore who had given his all to serve the country. He lived a rich long life long till 92 and had an exciting memoir that we normally only read about in storybooks. RIP, Sir.

Came across this fast company article over the weekend which does resonant so much with some of the thoughts I have penned down on this blog over the last few months.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been increasingly accepted as an important factor for our success and happiness. This applies not only to work but also in our relationships and all areas of our lives. I just want to highlight the 7 points in the article and add in my comments – the fast company link is pasted below for your further reading pleasure.

1. Focus on the Positive                                                                                       Positivity is an importance weapon to attack life’s up and downs. When you are being served lemons, make lemonade.
2. Surround yourselves with Positive People                                                     Negativity is contagious, avoid it like the plague.
3. Able to set Boundaries and be Assertive when necessary                             Know who you are and what you want. Do state your stand when required
4. Forward thinking and willing to let go of the Past                                          Letting go of regrets and moving on with life – so many great experiences ahead to overwhelm bad past events
5. Always look for ways to make life more Fun, Happy and Interesting           Enjoy everything you do, life is like an interactive game for you to make happy thoughts and experiences
6. Choose our to expend their energies Wisely                                                     Pick your fights carefully. Learn from past mistakes and strive not to repeat them
7.  Continually Learning and Growing towards Independence                            Be a lifelong learner, always be open to new ideas and never stop absorbing new knowledge

http://www.fastcompany.com/3028712/7-habits-of-highly-emotionally-intelligent-people

 

What exactly is friendship nowadays?  Some simply define a good friend as someone you have known for more than 7 years.

In this day and age of social media, it is so easy for one to make friends or even unfriend someone at the flick of a finger. While you can easily expand your circle of friends exponentially (no thanks to FB, Snapchat and Whatsapp), have we lost the ability to treasury true friendship the old fashion way?

To me, a close friend is someone who has weathered life’s high and lows together, have many shared life experiences, never takes you for granted and is a trusted confidant. Each of us has many circles of friends that may overlap but then we only value those that are closer to our hearts. Over time, we can tell the difference between the superficial ones versus the keepers. It is a 2-way street where both parties recognise the importance of maintaining the relationship. Constant actions are needed to nurture this unique friendship and regular reciprocation is required.

As we move through the journey of life and into our twilight years, I hope that one can reflect back on the past and identify the special persons who have shared their lives with us. We will reminisce about past events, laugh for umpteen times at the same jokes and generally have a warm fuzzy feel good sentiment in our bellies whenever we catch up. These are the ultimate friendships to hold on to.

 

 

I will try to make a bold prediction : The Fed will not raise rates again this year.

The Fed started cutting rates (ZIRP) during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to save its economy. Then it started buying bonds to flood the markets with funds to boost demand. After 8 years, global growth is still weak. Most central banks continue to be in a rate cut mode – New Zealand being the most recent. The printing of money had allowed hot money to flow to all asset classes like property, art and wines.

The Fed pioneered the pumping of funds into the system and most countries are learning from them – Japan, Europe and China being the biggest now. Negative rates (NIRP) are now punishing savers and resulting in more reckless borrowing. Deflation persists as consumers are not convinced that things are getting better, preferring to save for rainy days ahead.

I am certain that the Fed will be the first central bank to hike rates again in the future, after doing so last Dec. This is because the US is far ahead of the rate cut game that the rest of the world and marginally stronger versus most countries. But all signs point to a still fragile US economy which is not likely to improve much further this year. Most companies are still announcing profit warnings and excessive borrowings are causing fault lines to appear for sectors like commodities, where prices are still weak. Politically, this is also an election year which will happen in Nov.

Yellen cannot afford to kill whatever little strength the economy has now, nor add on more volatility to the already confused market. The rate hike will be talked about in future FOMC meetings to manage the markets, but it is likely that we will only see concrete action in the 2nd half of 2017 at the latest.

 

The current sentiment of the US elections looks to be tilting towards Clinton, due to the self-inflicted injuries and own goals that Trump is ever so capable of doing it to himself.

What that had previously worked for him to earn his Republican nomination against his opponents has come back to bite him in the backside. His no holds barred and take no prisoners attitude to crush his competitors took the media by storm then and they loved it. This new, never tried before style of street fighting brought into the political arena had attracted the disenfranchised white lower middle class who felt that their needs have been ignored for years.

Now that it is only him against Clinton in the final 100 meters of the race, this style is cracking at the seams. He cannot stick to the script and his foot in the mouth moments are happening regularly. The media has turned against him and like a trapped animal, Trump will do what he knows best and fight back viciously, damn the consequences. The Republican elites are experiencing their “Oh my God, what have I done?” moment and trying hard to distance themselves. There is zero party unity and things are going to get worst. Only the hardcore Trump fans (read : white lower class male) will be left. The more educated and privileged Republicans may simply abstain from voting to preserve party loyalty.

Between a candidate that lied and the other one that has the potential to blow up the whole country, who will you choose?

 

 

I was asked to shop for a laptop for my son for school use recently. Hence I did some research for a few days before going down to the tech mall to purchase one.

The more I read into laptops reviews, the more I was amazed at the choices that are now available. Prices have been progressively dropping but new ones are getting ever more powerful, leaving workstation PCs in the dust. One can now do almost anything on laptops and portability is a given. Thanks to the Apple MacBook Air revolution a few years back, you will realize that most manufacturers are now producing Apple Air look-alikes.

In terms of the power of laptops, the CPU should be at least an i5 and with a minimum of 8 GB RAM, preferrable DDR4. Hard disk (HD) drives are so yesterday now. A serious road warrior must have Solid State Drives (SSD) instead of HD as boot up times will improve tremendously to less than a minute. A minimum SSD capacity of 256 GB or more is ideal.

Based on the specifications I wanted, the pricing is generally around the $1,000 to $2,000 range. Every 3 to 6 months I wait, the prices will drop by a few hundred dollars easily. That is how competitive the market is now. About 5 years ago, I asked a global laptop manufacturer what their profit margins were. His answer shocked me. Only 1 to 2% !!!

The China manufacturers are coming on strong in this area. Lenovo (formerly IBM) and XiaoMi are leading the charge, with the Taiwanese names (Acer, Asus) close behind.

I finally settled on a Lenovo laptop that is as thin as an Apple Air and in Champagne Gold too!

It has only been slightly more than a week since Pokemon Go was launched in Asia. Boy, did the fever catch on fast…

We are starting to see hordes of ardent fans roaming the country at ungodly hours of the early morning to stalk unique monsters. Some loyal fans are even ganging up to fight the “cheaters” at the gyms – those that had a head start in the game via other countries in early July or use non-honest means to level up quickly.

The story of how this game was created makes an interesting read too. The creators apparently showed an advert 2 years ago that simulated a similar game experience. They were the ones that developed Google maps. Then as a precursor, they created a game more than a year ago that encouraged players to map out important sites around the world. This formed the database for Pokemon Go PokeStops which were activated immediately at 4 million locations around the world. How neat is that!

Because of the sheer permutations of the gameplay, it is not possible for any two individuals to share the same experience. Multiple strategies can be deployed for limitless endgames. The whole population of planet earth can theoretically play together at the same time. The developers have also just hinted at more add-ons at a later stage – the possibility of clans for group faceoffs and the ability to trade amongst trainers.

Over the weekend, we had 2 enjoyable PokeStop hunting sessions with our kids before dinner. This game is one of the first to bring the young and old together, the serious gamers with the casual players and uniting families for a common objective. Our boys had meaningful strategy discussions with us as we shared good quality time together.

The missus and I need to do a serious catch up to our boys. We are now only halfway towards their Level 20…

My heartfelt congrats to Joseph Schooling, you made us all so proud of your first Olympic gold, which was also our nation’s first in our young history!