Buy iPad 2 or wait for iPad 3

Should I buy this version or wait for the next version? It is always the question we ask ourselves.

In the case of iPad2, now there is a one-day Black Friday discount, 41$ less. So should you buy it?

Well, it depends. If you really need an iPad now, then sure go for it. If not, it is better just wait. The good thing about Apple is we can easily predict the product cycle. iPod refresh every year, Macs every 9 month , and iPad, every 11-12 month. You can expect a new version comes out in the spring WWDC conference (March/April). Sure, there is a price drop now; however, due to the raise of competition in tablet field, it is not hard to speculate a price drop in the new iPad 3 (or at least, the price will not raise). Now, you must ask yourself, do I satisfy with all the features iPad 2 has? If you answer yes, then you can purchase it before midnight. If you are a high-tech person like me, and cannot afford to buy iPad2 and iPad3, then maybe you should wait. i guess the new version worth 41$ and 4 months waiting (if the price do not drop). Only four month to go. We have waited for 8 months now, I guess we can wait for four more month. And when iPad 3 comes out, I would probably wait in the line like thousands other people did.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here, voila how to play with turkeys.

Ingredients

• 1 (12 pound) whole turkey
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon ground sage
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Clean turkey (discard giblets and organs), and place in a roasting pan with a lid.
2. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, garlic powder, dried basil, ground sage, salt, and black pepper. Using a basting brush, apply the mixture to the outside of the uncooked turkey. Pour water into the bottom of the roasting pan, and cover.
3. Bake for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thigh measures 180 degrees F (82 degrees C). Remove bird from oven, and allow to stand for about 30 minutes before carving.

How to Carving:

History of Thanksgiving

In Canada

Main article: Thanksgiving (Canada)

The Order of Good Cheer, 1606 byCharles William Jefferys, (1925).

The origin of the first Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to the explorer Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving celebration was not for harvest, but in thanks for surviving the long journey from England through the perils of storms and icebergs. On his third and final voyage to these regions in 1578 Frobisher held a formal ceremony in Frobisher Bay in Baffin Island in present Day Nunavut to give thanks to God and in a service ministered by the preacher Robert Wolfall they celebrated Communion, the first ever service in these regions. Years later, the tradition of a feast would continue as more settlers began to arrive in the Canadian colonies.

Oven roasted turkey

The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving can also be traced to the French settlers who came to New France with explorer Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century, who also took to celebrating their successful harvests. The French settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest season and continued throughout the winter season, even sharing their food with the indigenous peoples of the area. Champlain had also proposed for the creation of the Order of Good Cheer in 1606.

As many more settlers arrived in Canada, more celebrations of good harvest became common. New immigrants into the country, such as the Irish, Scottish and Germans, would also add their own traditions to the harvest celebrations. Most of the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving (such as the turkey or what were calledGuineafowls originating from Madagascar), were incorporated when United Empire Loyalists began to flee from the United States during the American Revolution and settled in Canada.

In the United States

Main article: Thanksgiving (United States)

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth By Jennie A. Brownscombe (1914)

In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition traces its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. There is also evidence for an earlier celebration on the continent by Spanish explorers in Texas at San Elizario in 1598, as well as thanksgiving feasts in the Virginia Colony.The initial thanksgiving observance at Virginia in 1619 was prompted by the colonists' leaders on the anniversary of the settlement. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. In later years, the tradition was continued by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623. While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.

According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.

Olympus Scandal

A big camera firm, Olympus, is in deep trouble. It involved in financial report management. The company tried to cover billions of losses. The most scaring part is that the problem existed for many years now, and the secret passed on from CEO to CEOs. Even the auditors were involved. This brought a problem to the Keiretsu. Should the Keiretsu continue to exist, or should the Japanese market opens to other firms. Because the Keiretsu exist, the secret can be kept for so many years, everyone's benefit is involved. And this could be a down side of the Japanese market. In US, a dozen of laws were passed after the Enron scandal, it is highly possible that Japanese government will also implement new laws to fix the financial report management problem. Michael Woodford, formal Europe olympus CEO, was fired because he stepped up against the financial report management. When Mr. Woodford met the formal vice-CEO, and asked him who he worked for, the formal vice-CEO answer the CEO, not the BOD or shareholders. Now, the Olympus stocks have dropped 75%, how far will it go? No one knows. One thing is clear, the company is facing a lot of charges of bad practice, and legal issues.

Ref:
Japan NewLine
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/business/global/olympus-says-its-panel-sees-no-link-to-criminals.html

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes Galveston. Paul serves on the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Financial Services, and on the Joint Economic Committee. He is the chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology, where he has been an outspoken critic of American foreign and monetary policy. -Wikipedia


Nice man, he proposed congressional pay cut. As stated in the letter, by a 5% cut, it will safe 50M in 10 years. Greet idea since the congress members do earn a lot, and there is a threshold for salary. Once the salary reaches that threshold, the money over that line will not increase the quality of life. Moreover, don't need to mention all other kinds of revenues they can get. However, it would be hard, since most people don't want to have a salary cut. On the other part, Ron Paul could get a huge support from the Americans; it will definitely help him for the election. Being said, 50M will not make a huge difference, there must be other ways to reduce the deficit. For example, increase GDP.


To decrease the deficit, we can use this formula:
GDP = (Export - Import) + (Infrastructure Investment + Government expense + Consumer spending)


-Export/import = can't really change it.
-Invest on infrastructure
-Decrease Government expense, of course, it is had to cut military expense, USA is a huge target. And the education is expense enough, hard to squeeze anything out of that without affecting education. Only fields they can cut are public service and pay checks.
-Consumer spending is fairly easy to control by changing control bank's interest rate. But now, the interest rate is already 0.250%, how low can they go?


To conclude, the only way out is to increase infrastructure investments, and cut on public services (salary, medical care, public transport, etc.) and pay check (take away pensions if necessary) Obama's medical care plan might get delayed as well. Well, good for democrats, because people will start blaming Republicans if the medic care plan get aborted.


Ref:
Wikipedia
http://www.thestatecolumn.com/texas/ron-paul-calls-for-congressional-pay-cuts-signs-letter-to-debt-committee/
http://www.global-rates.com/interest-rates/central-banks/central-bank-america/fed-interest-rate.aspx

US new tax proposal by Rick Perry

Rick Perry, republican Governor of Texas who aim for US president, proposed a new tax plan for US. According to his plan, the tax rate will be flat, everyone pays 20%. Most people have doubt on it because the middle class could be affected, and the rich people will definitely benefit from it; rich people can save up to 15%. This new tax plan requires a huge cut on US' budget, will it be realizable? "pledged to not cut any benefits of current Social Security retirees or those about to tap into the system. But to do that, and cut the budget to 18 percent of G.D.P., would mean cutting at least one third of the remaining federal budget, said James Horney, the vice president for federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research group in Washington." (New York Times) Everyone knows that US' debt is so much that we can make a mountain higher than Everest. At this difficult period of time, the treat of economic crisis, of the terrorist attack, and of the huge debt, the plan is unlikely to be possible.

Ref:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/politics/perry-plan-would-grant-big-tax-break-to-wealthiest.html

Apple TV review

Just got Apple TV second generation two days ago. I thought it would be a great machine; however, it is just so so. It can actually stream 1080pi movies through iTunes, so don't worry if all your movies are 1080pi. The image looks great, but the player (iTunes) can only accept a small percentage of movie format. It limits the amount of the content can be played. Of course, it is possible to solve the problem by using a video converter converts other format videos into mp4, but it cost a lot of time. If you have a iPad, then you can explore the whole potential of the Apple TV. As publicized, the mirror play is one of the main feature. It expand the utility of Apple TV. Don't worry, the new Apple TV will not be out within at least one year. Apple TV has just been introduced into euro market, so it is our insurance. It is also possible to jailbreak Apple TV, and it can turn it into a browser. Even more powerful, there are apps that can allow you watch online TV/Movies for free. Who needs NetFlix anymore? By the way, NetFlix Canada is not as good as what we learned in class, the selection is so few. Maybe its long tail effect is way too long.

Threat of Kindle Fire on iPad

The official release date of kindle fire would be 15 Nov. This device costs only 40% of the cost of an iPad. Amazon has a 10$ loss on each device they sell, they except to use subsidize product adoption strategy to occupy the market. Amazon expect to earn this loss back by selling more e-products. Amazon officials forecast they could sell 5M devices in Q4. If it was true, and Apple's iPad sell has been impacted, it would be a good news for Apple fans. The competition will always be with customers. If the sales of iPad declined in Q4, then Apple will definitely drop the price of iPad. CNET estimate each iPad has a production cost at 330$. Apple had to give a huge jump in response of Kindle Fire at March 2012. So far, Tim Cook do not consider Amazon as a viable competitor for Apple, but who knows what is going to happens since the price of new kindle is so attractive.


Ref:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20120294-64/kindle-fire-forecast-bumped-to-5m-units-in-q4/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/10/17/bloomberg_articlesLT7PXA0YHQ0X.DTL