From Princeton's University Channel:

• Beyond Freakonomics: New Musings on the Economics of Everyday Life
  Steven Levitt, co-author of "Freakonomics" and professor in economics at the University of Chicago, discusses his latest research
• The Sun Also Rises: How a Recovering Japan Could Change Asia
  Bill Emmott, former Editor-in-Chief of The Economist
• Working Across Cultures in a Global Company
  Dominique Thormann, senior vice president, Nissan North America Inc.
• Lessons from China in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
  Madame Li Guanzheng, Commissioner, Beijing Municipal Education Commission and President, Beijing Association of Education, and Mary Conneely, Regional Director of Regeneration, London Learning and Skills Council.
• Pakistan's Role in Regional Peace and Development
  Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology's MITWorld.

• Earth's Most Customer Centric Company: Differentiating with Technology
  Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com
  Robert Frederick, Manager of Amazon Net Services
• When to Seed, When to Harvest: The Four Quads of Innovation, Growth
  Michael L. Eskew, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, United Parcel Service
• The Akamai Story: From Theory to Practice
  F. Thomson Leighton, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Akamai
• The Power of the Network to Change the Way We Work, Live, Play, and Learn
  John Chambers, President and CEO, Cisco Systems

Find more great lectures in this collection.

Labels: Economics, movies

I'm soon hosting a Magnum Night.

For those who don't remember. Magnum is a private investigator (P.I.) in Hawaii. His lifestyle represents every man’s dream. He comes and goes as he pleases, works only when he wants to, has the almost unlimited use of a Ferrari 308 GTS as well as many other luxuries, keeps a mini-fridge with a seemingly endless supply of beer, comes into contact with countless beautiful women (who are often his clients or victims in the cases he solves).

While waiting for the Magnum Night, enjoy the title music:

Magnum, P.I. was first aired in 1980.

Labels: movies, Patrick

From the classic Milton Friedman television series Free to Choose (1980):

Hong Kong never stops. There's always some business to be done, some opportunity to be seized. Its long been a tourist center and a shoppers paradise and it's now one of the business centers of the East. It's the ordinary people of Hong Kong who benefit from all this effort and enterprise.

This thriving, bustling, dynamic city, has been made possible by the free market indeed the freest market in the world. The free market enables people to go into any industry that they want; to trade with whomever they want; to buy in the cheapest market around the world; to sell in the dearest around the world. But most important of all, if they fail, they bear the cost. If they succeed, they get the benefit and it's that atmosphere of incentive that has induced them to work, to adjust, to save, to produce a miracle. This miracle hasn't been achieved by government action by someone sitting in one of those tall buildings and telling people what to do. It's been achieved by allowing the market to work. Walk down any street in Hong Kong and you will see the impersonal forces of the market in operation.

And so it is today. 26 years later.

Hong Kong today is among the richest countries of the world. Just behind Austria. But unlike Austria, Hong Kong keeps growing. Surpassing those countries who discourage working with overblown regulations and high taxes.

After watching the first volume Free to Choose, continue with the remaining nine. Irresistible!

Volume 2: The Tyranny of Control
Volume 3: Anatomy of a Crisis
Volume 4: From Cradle to Grave
Volume 5: Created Equal
Volume 6: What’s Wrong With Our Schools?
Volume 7: Who Protects the Consumer?
Volume 8: Who Protects the Worker?
Volume 9: How to Cure Inflation
Volume 10: How to Stay Free
Want more? Enjoy Milton Friedman on Limited Government

Milton Friedman died Thursday Nov 16th at age 94.

Labels: Asia, Economics, movies

Arriving in Hong Kong, a busy Indian approached me to have a look at his "hotel". What he showed was a shabby, tight room with no window in the 7 floor of Chungking Mansions. But I remembered this house. It's where Wong Kar Wai shot Chungking Express. This movie has two stories. The first, rushing thru Chungking Mansions and the second, a bit slower let's Valerie Chow playing a busy Air Hostess break up with Tony Leung the Cop 663. Who will, after suffering, meet the sweet Faye Wong.

This movie represents everyday Hong Kong life. Just like Chungking Mansions. Flashy, shabby, crowded, lovely!

Labels: Asia, movies

Taipei is known for their night markets. You can shop around. Look at shirts, DVD's, PDA's... everything! True, it's a bit chaotic. But just go with the flow. Try noodles, tasty fruit juice and those delicious rips. Lovely!

Watch closely. After cooking, he pours the soup in a plastic bag. Ready to go!

Labels: Asia, movies

Labels: movies, Patrick

The first one, looking at the traditional side of Japan, offers great hints on how to eat Sushi.

The second presents a snapshot of contemporary Japanese TV culture.

Labels: Asia, movies

I just installed the video upload tool from Google (new for Mac and Linux). Where I found a disabled upload destination chooser. It seems like we will soon be able to upload more than just videos.
After all Google's goalis to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
In the meantime I keep converting those analog data to the digital world. Since that's the goal of iload.at.

my uploaded videos

Labels: movies

Google just started a new service called Google Video Upload Program.

Very impressive stuff!

You can upload your home videos and share them with the rest of the world.

Now if you are looking for a way to convert those old movies on VHS, Video8 or Hi8 cassette ready for google or DVD, try iload.at

My Videos via Google

Labels: movies

Although Ms. Su Li Zhen (Maggie Cheung) was hard to spot, Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) searched for her since Kar Wai Wong's In the Mood for Love. He looked for her in Gong Li, Faye Wong and Ziyi Zhang which sums up to pretty much every famous Chinese actresses. Sadly he never found 2046.
Find the DVD or the Soundtrack.

Labels: movies

all movies

Labels: movies, Patrick

With the 4th of July ahead, I thought it is time to watch Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. At first I was surprised that this documentary won the first price in Cannes this year, but now I have to admit, "i'm lovin' it".
Although I can't agree with some of his conclusions. I like the way he leads us, especially Americans themselves, to remember and think about some very important issues.
Going thru numerous points of why the "war-president" is wrong. Moore, at the end, finds a wonderful quote* on what may be the true reason: "It does not matter if the war is not real. For when it is, victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, but it is meant to be continuous."
"A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance, this new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or east Asia but to keep the very structure of society in tact" *...George Orwell's 1984

Labels: movies

After a quick introduction from Samuel, we see some fun rides after our BBQ. It was quite a relaxing weekend.

Labels: eat+drink, movies, Patrick

Two years ago I wrote about Wong Kar-Wai's wonderful romance In The Mood For Love, where a man and a woman, played by Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, having a melancholy, platonic affair.
This year Wong Kar-Wai brought back the same people for a film about HongKong in the year 2046.

Surely we can't wait to see Maggie Cheung in Christopher Doyles Camera.

Labels: movies

mov, summer quarter, good bye Marokkanergasse, scheduling and OR

• As shown at derbaum.com, I brought back some fun movie clips: Wiesenski, Caribbean and The Secret Ingredient.
• During this summer (June 20th till Aug 17th) I'm going back to Stanford to study Physics.
• That's why I give up my apartment in Marokkanergasse. It was good place, but now I have to move on.
• Currently I'm working on an LP on scheduling, which I may inlcude in future version of Caltella. In short, this should find an optimal schedule for one or more person, regarding a certain task, with the goal to maximise spare time.
• Looking at the above task, the field of Operation Research seems very interesting to me. A field where I can combine my interst in math, economics and computer science.

Labels: Economics, movies, Patrick, Stanford, TU

We did it again! A quick fun movie about our new years party in the countryside of little Austria.

It all started with a pre party on the 29th of December and we partied until the new year.
Thanks to everybody for joining!

Labels: movies, Patrick

I didn't add a new story since more than a week! Why?
Well I spend a week in Romania.

We, Cornelius, Daniel and I, started our trip on Thu (4th April) very late and came back yesterday (10th April).
We didn't plan to stay that long. But unexpected things turned up, so we became prisoners of Romania. But let me start from the beginning. After a night of driving we arrived the first city in Romania, Arad just in time for breakfast. We looked around a bit before we drove on to Timisoara where the unexpected happend. While we drank a coffee in a bar somebody stole Daniels passport. Ops, we can't drive out of Romania without a passport. So we had to go to Bucharest and find the Austrian Embassy. On the way to Bucharest we stopped in Sibiu and Brasov where we spend the weekend. It took until Tue (9th April) to get a new passport. Anyway, now we are back and yes we had a good time!

Labels: movies, Patrick