Moved to Zurich, Switzerland!

Ok, a retrospective post; but nonetheless it deserved its own entry. So on Wednesday, June 26, 2006, I moved into my temporary flat in Zurich, Swizterland. Located on the third floor of 139 Seefeldstrasse, Seefeld 8008. Me and all my bags were taken to here by my cou-cousin Nicole - thank you very much!

So, what did it feel like? well - v.strange. I went shopping at the local Coop - you wouldn't believe it, but whammo - my first cultural faux pas - I had no shopping bags! In Switzerland, it is definatley a BYO only option, so completely overestimating the goods I had, I purchased 4 shopping bags! Also realised that you pack your own, and rather quickly because people are waiting for their goods to be put down the lane - phew, made it, only just! I then went to the local kiosk and bought an English newspaper.

V.impressed with flat, a nice 65 square meters, 1 beddie, and balconie on both sides - whoa hold on ... I can see into apartments - very Vertigo like; briefly transfixed at cute blonde neighbour having a smoke, and other neighbours having a chat - weird!

Bunkered down with 'International Herald Tribune', a steal? at only 3.60 CHF, and watched, the rather boring only-English-TV-channel CNN TV (think business news 24/7).

Started to get v.anxious about going to work the following day, but equally was excited to find the locations, meet everyone, see my desk, etc.. Nonetheless, distinctly recalling going out to the balcony and staring out into the red-blue sky ... thought to myself - what the hell have I done?

World Cup - and what it means to me ...

Ok, well I am about to head off to see every Australian game (yes, me and my mate got tx!) for the soccer/football World Cup 2006 in Germany and I thought I would recollect the experiences in my life that relate to this, this is a long blog! (well it is covering 20+ years of memories!):

1. first memory 1982, Buochs, Nidwalden, Switzerland; staying at my Aunt's house, I remember playing soccer with the local Swiss children - everyone wanted to be on the Argentinian team - me included! In conjunction with this, I collected a sticker book with all the teams, and stadiums in which the games were played. I didn't actually watch any of the games (as there was no TV in Warsaw, Poland where I was living at the time, but to those who are interested, here are the details of World Cup in Spain 1982) Not surprising, the next year in 1983 when I returned to Australia, I started playing soccer at school (with some handy skills on the left wing).
   
   
2. second memory 1993, Canberra, Austrlia; the attempt by Australia to qualify for World Cup 1994 in USA. Not a very vivid memory except I do recall that defensive midfielder Paul Wade (Australia's captain of the time) had to tag Diego Maradona! of Argentina (at the time, Australia's opponent to qualify for the World Cup). On aggregate, Australia lost 2-1 - I'm surprised in hindsight that the scores were that close.
   
   
3. third memory - 1997, the one that everyone remembers the second leg of Australia v Iran, Melbourne - the score being 1-1 from the first leg in Iran. Now, I had just finished Honours at the Australian National Univeristy (ANU) and was celebrating with my girlfriend at the time (Naomi) in the region of the NSW coastal town, Batemans Bay. And guess what, there was no SBS (the Australian broadcaster who had the rights) TV coverage in the area!!!! So, I ended up listening to the most important game of Australia's soccer history on the radio. Anyway, all my friends were revelling it up for being the end of the academic year, and at 2-0 (Australia winning), I stopped listening and went and joined them, happy in the knowledge that Australia had made it through to World Cup 1998 in France ... oops! (for the record, Iran made a remarkable comeback to 2-2 and won on the away goals rule).
   
   
4. fourth memory - 1998, Melbourne, Australia; having just moved to Melbourne, to study at the University of Melbourne, a good friend of mine (Adam) invited a couple of classmates to his house in Elsternwick to watch a previously video-taped game from France (I recall it was Brazil v Scotland); those who attended - Adam, Georgia, Simon, Jacinta are still my best mates today - gold!
   
   
5. 2002, Melbourne, MCG, Australia; again at the final qualifier for World Cup 2002 in Japan/South Korea, being at the ground and watching Australia win 1-0 against Uruguay with a penalty - you can imagine the crowd went off! These celebrations were premature - later Australia got thrashed in Montevideo, Uruguay 3-0 in the second leg.
   
   
6. And lastly, 2005, Elwood (random pub), Australia; watching with my touch football team Australia grimly hang to a 1-0 scoreline for the majority of the match, and subsequently winning it on penalties - the pub heaved that night with the celebrations - well briefly at least, as I had to go home and go to work the next morning ;)

source and copyright holder is AFP, URL is http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/photos/index.html?aid=245411&d=1

So now to the World Cup; if I get a chance to get some internet time, I will post here to my World Cup travel journal!

A friend recommended a book ...

Last Friday night I was out in the city with a few friends at the Phoenix bar, on Flinders Street (probably my favourite bar for catching up with friends in Melbourne, although Cookie bar, on Swanston Street comes a close second - both have excellent ambience, drink selections, and food selections!).

Anyway, an interesting discussion ensued about books. You know the one ... where a person that you respect talks about a book that he/she read and then offers a brief description about what the book is about and why you should read it.

Argh! now a couple of days later, I find that I am trying to recall the book, the title, who the author is. Let alone if I actually remember the book, how will I ever remember to read it?

Now this is the important - if a friend has recommended a book, isn't it one of strongest compliments to pay he/she the respect of his/her opinion and read the book! I know, I know, time considerations, etc. but given that I am holiday - it is probably now or never in terms of doing this - so I have created a tada list.

Now to track down my friends and ask them to reiterate what book they mentioned on Friday - yes too many beers were consumed ... for me to recall the exact title ;)

Who moved my blackberry?

Ha! I ordered this book 'Who Moved My Blackberry' Lucy Kellaway, a couple of months ago and I was reminded about it tonight when I was reading another blog. I read it a while ago and give this a book a distracted 10/10. That is, it won't change your life, but if you are seeking some light reading and work in a coporate culture - it is absolutely fantastic. Basically, it is told in first-person email. You only see the emails that manager 'Martin Lukes' writes to his boss, fellow managers / workers, family, friends, etc.. It is a complete satire and a book that will make you cringe every time you ever receive an email on 'culture change', 'hedgehogs', etc.. If you have some time, a caption is here ...

wotif.com part 2

So, wotif.com listed on Friday; from what I could see it hit the ASX boards just above $3 and finished the day on $3.32 for a 66% premium to its listing; not bad capital gains for 1 day!

wotif.com

Tomorrow leading online o/night overnight accomodation Internet site wotif.com lists on the ASX following its IPO. So what is wotif.com? well it is essentially a broker between consumers and accomodation providers. It details what accomodation is available when, for what locale, and for what price. This is displayed through a price matrix of accomodation / price. So what about the financials?

• some comparisons have been made to SEEK which listed on the ASX last year at approximately $2.00 and is currently trading at $4.60 and a price earnings (PE) ratio of 42! (wow, only found this out tonight - it must have some exponential earning per share in the pipeline, although this would be nothing compared to the PE of Google)
• wotif.com has a 35% of market share of o/night accomodation in Australia; with some capital behind it, brand flooding may occur such that its market share is substantially increased (and typically with e-commerce, branding is 'winner takes all' - for example, Amazon, SEEK, eBay, Google, etc.)
• wotif.com is offering a 4.5% dividend yield; not bad returns even before any capital gain is factored into the equation!

So, WTF (yes I know v.funny) lists at 12.00pm - if you have some spare investment monies lying around, it might be worth an investment; this is the preliminary commentary on the IPO pre-listing:

Wotif.com's (WTF.AU)

A$172 million IPO has closed heavily oversubscribed with the shares priced at A$2.00 - the top-end of the indicative range. The general public has missed out with institutions scaled back to as little as one fifteenth of their requested allocations.

Boot Camp

I am now participating in my third boot camp. Ok, so what is boot camp - essentially it is a regular group-based fitness regime. About two hundred people (at least in the Paramount Boot Camp, that I am involved in) turn up three times a week to different locales in Melbourne to complete a aerobic, anaerobic, and a team challenge. The times are Tuesday - 6.00am, Thursday 7.30pm, and Saturday 7.00 am (the tough one). In conjunction with this, there is some advice on what to eat when, and why. So why am I blogging about this - well I am just sitting at my desk warming up after a 6.00am start this morning with near-zero temperatures in Melbourne! And I thought it would be a good idea to jot down some of the 'mantras' of boot camp:

'If nothing changes, nothing changes'

'To achieve you must first attempt'

'The only easy day was yesterday'

'If not now, when?'

Ok, my feet now almost have some sensation returning; time to go to work ;)

Google Calendar

I know, I know another post on Google! I was demonstrated by a colleague of mine of the power of Google calendar and as always I am impressed. Ok, so what is good about it:

• simple, easy-to-use interface and the ubiquitous Google-like drag and drop
• ability to have multiple calendars (i.e. one for friend's birthdays, one for personal appointments, one for work, one for holidays etc.)
• integration into Google maps
  
• an exposable API, such that you can use other people's calendars (e.g. loading a FIFA World Cup fixture list!); I created a Hawthorn Hawks AFL 2006 Fixture list for all the Hawthorn supporters out there ;) - just search for 'Hawthorn Hawks' in the public search option for calendars
  

So yes the strategy to move 'office' like functions to the internet continues; so when is Google going to release its wiki/word processor?

PS: I lost my car key for 2 hours yesterday so couldn't collect my Macbook PRO - unbelieveable!
PPS: If anyone needs a gmail account to access the Google calendar function - just email me.

Macbook PRO - its arrived!

Ok, just got the call; my Macbook Pro is here. V.excited - suddenly all social committments may be put on hold!

Must see movie ...

Ok, I am not the first, nor will be the last, but I thought I would join the blogosphere to support the upcoming movie - 'The Inconvenient Truth'. I had just read about the 'Climate Crisis' in last month's Wired and recently in the Age. This is a movie about the global environment and what humans are doing to the planet (let alone what is going to happen when China and India become industralised over the next 10-20 years!). It is presented from the eyes of Al Gore who I honestly don't know much about, but having read some background about him, I think he is truly inspirational.

What I am frustrated about is Australia's ambivalence to these issues, principally:

• why do we not hear from the Greens (third strongest political party in Australia and supposedly biased to environmental issues)
• why is Australia not part of Kyoto?

I have been impressed, however, with the speed that the nuclear energy argument has arrived on Australia's political scene, it is this (and hopefully many other) environmental debates that Australia should demand of its politicians. Rant over ;)

Following a stock broker or DIY investing

Ok, ok, I have been investing in the stock market for a couple of years now. Through this time, I have been assisted by a stock broker from Macquarie Bank; now there is a lot of conjecture as to the cost / value of using a stock broker over do-it-yourself (DIY) self-service share investing (e.g. e-Trade, Comsec). Ok so what are the costs?

• 1.25% on every trade both buying and selling

Yes thats it! Note, there are no management fees, ongoing maintenance fees, or commission related fees if the investments outperform. So where is the value in having a stock broker?

• Latest, greatest Macquarie Bank research (e.g. Daily Bulletin)
• Offers to other financial products, and other types of investments
• Comment from the stock broker in terms of market direction, good companies to invest in, investment strategies (e.g. dividend stripping)
• Communication / partnership with the stock broker in terms of obtaining financial short-term, medium-term goals
• Exclusive rights to Macquarie Bank led IPOs (indeed I just been offered a parcel of wotif.com, something for this weekend's blog)
• Access to Macquarie Bank customer events (ok, not too many have been held, but the last one was hugely fun at NGV)
• And lastly, having fun shouting 'buy, buy' on the phone while you are at work ;)
  

So I would definately advocate having a stock broker if you are going to invest in the stock market - it definately enriches the experience of investing.

Ouch - batten down the hatches - its going to be a rough day

Wow; woke up today to see the following world stock markets performance o/night:

DOW JONES -1.8%
FTSE -2.9%
DAX -3.4%
CAC 40 -3.2%

Ouch - maybe some of the shares I have been watching will finally become affordable. Its definately going to be an interesting May/June. And ... I hope this is only a correction ;)

You can do it :)

I have a developing cold (i.e. sore throat) at the moment and it is a miserable rainy afternoon in Melbourne today, so I am staying in, keeping warm, and obviously writing too many posts! I just thought I would say that I have become interested in personal development/motivation over the last couple of months (probably because I have been assessing/re-assessing what the hell I am doing at the moment). I think I have been lacking some direction/goals, recently. This has significantly changed in the last 6 months (and definately will do so in the near-future!), here are some of the sources I have found for personal development/motivation:

(1) Family/Friends/Partners; the best advice anyone could tap into (indeed, I was recently termed a 'sounding board' by one of my friends); these people are your mentors, peers, and influences. Don't keep your ideas, hopes to yourself - share them with your friends so others can share in your experiences, adventures (e.g. a good friend just completed the 100km walk - this was a great achievement, but even more so because she had shared her prpearations, fears, and expectations with all her friends).

(2) Environment; I try and surround myself by people, activities, stories that are empowering; there are a lot of people which you can be inspired from. Books like 'Its Not About the Bike' - L.Armstrong (the cyclist) for the rewards of unbelieveable discipline, and No Opportunity Wasted - P.Keogh (the Amazing Race guy) for the rewards of travel , and lists (I now have a life list)! I like plans - I am a planner - plans bias one to look forward, lead to hope, goals, motivation, drive, and *potentially* acheivement. And if that ain't enough watch 'Touching the Void' - simply awe-inspiring.

(3) Personal; have goals, tell others, toss them about, and then go for it. 1 year ago I had significant knee surgery (all I could think at the time was that I wanted to attend my first boot camp as soon as I could walk again). I did it, and have now attended 3 boot camps in the last year. Sure my knee hurts, indeed there is not a day when I don't notice the reduced flexibility, the stiffness, etc. however, whenever I want to go faster all I think of is - there was a time that I thought I would never run again - so take this time that you have now and push through!

And now as a result of writing this blog - I am going to create my life list (what a bloody good idea) - if you are interested you can look here (remember it is a work in progress and I was getting hungry and needed some lunch).

David Gray - 'Life in Slow Motion'

Well, a couple of weeks ago I went to David Gray's concert (I was offered a free ticket) and I must admit that having owned and rated 'White Ladder' in my top albums that I enjoy listening to, I was unexpectantly looking forward to it. Well, it was v.good; Dave didn't say much, but the performance was v.enjoyable. It was also a good chance to listen to some of his other songs - and using Apple's iTunes I purchased Dave's 'Slow Motion' album this week. It is fantastic! excellent, intelligent lyrics (it mentions Elysium in one of the songs - cool), and v.good melodies.

Delays, and more delays ...

Well somewhat disappointed with Apple at the moment. Last week, I went to my local Apple reseller and to purchase a Macbook Pro 17' and was told that there are none in Australia!!?? So now, I have been put on a waiting list and it might not be until end of May until any stock arrives - annoying!

Environmental investing in Australia?

Ok, some people know that I am interested in ASX. A thought that has bubbling in the background for a while now is whether I want to start investing in the environment.

I have not always been actively interested in the environment, but like many others, I am starting to be aware that it really is time that individuals (prior to corporations, governments, etc.) take some responsibility for how we live and our environmental footprint (anyone interested in this may want to look at the May 2006 issue of Wired - it has some fantastic articles on the subject).

Anyway, I digress - so how do I invest in the environment in the ASX. Well, a v.good candidate which I heard about a 1-2 weeks ago is Babcock + Brown Environmental Investment (BEI). BEI has interests in a number of companies: Denco, Natural Fuels, Southern Oil Refining, Earth Power Technologies. So what do these companies do, well there is management of:

Bio-Ethanol Plant(s) - produces ethanol (E85 - ethanol 85%); ethanol can used as a fuel for automobiles (indeed in Brazil, 40% of fuel is provided by bio-ethanol); it is based on the principle of extracting ethanol from crops such as sugar, corn.

Bio-Diesel Plant(s) - produces diesel; based on the principle of extracting diesel from vegetable oils (e.g. soybeans) and animal fats (e.g. lard).

Waste-Energy Plant(s) - produces electricity; based on the principle of converting organic food waste to electricity/fertiliser (via bacteria - anaerobic digesters)

These plants are based in US, and Australia. In the long-term, this may be one alternative to investing in renewable energy.

The price of BEI is displayed below:



I have not purchased this yet, but definitely one to have on the watchlist.

Google again - this time, the translator - it ROCKS!

Ok, this weekend my mother who lives in Canberra emailed my relatives in Switzerland in High-German (carbon-copying me in the email); some of the transcript is below:

'Mark ist natuerlich gluecklich'

I having never studied Swiss-German before had no idea what was being said. So what did I do, well as always when confronted with a problem I turned to the Google - and voila babel fish produced. Google language tools were able to translate German-English and vice versa. Result I was able email my Swiss relatives with a full-German email (see below; indeed it even corrected my Mum's spelling errors!) ... now if only this was mobile ...

'Natürlich glücklich - ich mag den!'

Macbook PRO 17'

Wow! woke up this morning to (1) an email from Parkes stating that the Macbook Pro 17' has been released and (2) this being confirmed by Google Homepage - Appletalk Australia portal. Well, I had planned to purchase a Macbook Pro in early May (to leverage off Duty Free GST concessions and to reduce my taxable income - will talk about this next blog) - so suddenly which model do I buy?

Alternatives to consider:

candidate A - (aka workhorse)

15'4, 2GHz, 1440x900 resolution, 2.5kg: a v.handy laptop which is not small and not large. Up until now, it was the only spearhead of the Macbook Pro family - a ream of Macintosh software. Advantages - good, reliable, work-man like computer, ideal for generic use (eg. Microsoft Office); disadvantages - not many, 1680x1050 resolution is standard for laptops (so its resolution slightly sub-par); $4400 with 2.16GHz

candidate B - (aka behemoth)

17', 2.16Hz, 1680 x 1050 resolution, 3kg: alternative to a desktop. I must admit I prefer larger laptops - why? well I am not highly mobile with work, but occasionally need to travel to work with a laptop, travel interstate to visit family, or indeed just want wireless connection on the weekend getaway. With a larger laptop one can watch TV/DVD on it, have ++ real estate for applications (eg. IDEs, multiple applications, games), and they are typically fast (i.e. have fast processors, etc.)!

Well upon investigation, some differentials which are appealing with the 17' model - 120GB HD (+ 20 GB), 3 USB ports (+ 1 port), 5.5 hours battery life (+ 1 hr), 800 firewire port (ok stretching it with this, as I presume I will never use this), and default (+.16 GHz processor).

candidate C - (aka project X)

It is inevitable that Apple will release an iBook/Macbook Pro which will be a lightweight laptop (i.e. 12', less than 2kg). I wish it was out now, but since not, I cannot consider it - I saw the 12' iBook and thought it was ridicuously small (thats not going to fit me watching episodes of Prison Break!).

Currently, favouring candidate B, as I have only 5 weeks to purchase ... will visit Apple store mid-week to investigate.

Bye, bye blue

DSC00642, originally uploaded by markyjones.

Well, it is a sad day - 24.04.2006, I sold my Subaru, MY05, World Rally Blue, WRX. Owned for 19 1/2 months (purchased September 10th, 2004) and sold for $33K.

Interestingly, I read an article in Smart Investor, April edition, 2006 which quantified the cost of a car, in terms of the loss of its value (i.e. depreciation) daily. From the article, the cost of other cars (and the cost of what my car ended up being) were:

evils of depreciation ...
Porsche 911	$111.23/day
BMW 330i	$49.59/day
Holden Commodore VZ	$37.12/day
(my) Subaru MY05 WRX	$15.17/day
Hyundai Accent	$14.77/day

Some interesting concepts are raised by this including what a car actually costs? This is what I broke it down to being:

and more costs!
insurance	$4.50/day
registration	$1.70/day
petrol	$1.70/day
services	$0.85/day

Sheesh! so according to this my car cost approximately $25 a day - thats more than what I pay for rent - that is a fairly expensive total cost of ownership (TCO) - and I haven't even mentioned the environmental costs - something for a later blog.

I will say this, however, it was a great ride - see you later subie ;)

Web 2.0 ~ beta site

Ok, for those non early-adopters the second movement of the Internet is here (Web 2.0) - but how can you tell? well these are the characteristics of a Web2.0 site:

Rule 1 - if the web site doesn't have beta in its description then it is not Web2.0! According to dictionary.com beta relates to preliminary or testing stage of a software or hardware product; 'a beta version'! I can't wait until business adopts beta projects. As mentioned in this 37 signals article, beta mode is where new companies want to be. That is, focusing on core funcion and then delivering it quickly (with the possibility of errors). Phew, I can't wait - no more deliberation on the correct colouring of table border X, text box Y; I wonder what the requirements gathering/documentation artefacts are for a Web2.0 project - no doubt there is a project collaboration tools (aka Basecamp, Writeboard), central repositories (aka Wikis) where all content is stored dynamically, and sophisticated issue trackers (aka Jira). Bring on this paradigm shift!

Rule 2 - very quick response user actions, and UI functionality not associated with the web (e.g. drag-and-drop); underpinned by AJAX, asynchronous request/responses. I haven't developed an AJAX web layer, but are we all going to become procedural Javascript developers (yuck!)

Rule 3 - an inability to bookmark any page apart from the initial page

List of Web2.0 sites I use: GMail, Google Groups, FlickR, RememberTheMilk, Ta-da Lists, Del.icio.us, and the latest Google Calendar!

I will have a look at Google Calendar over the next week; now when will Google Maps be available for Australia!

TAGS: Web 2.0, Google, Ajax