Thursday, 26 May 2011
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Patek Philippe - Nautilus
Patek Philippe's story
In 1839, Antoine Norbert de Patek and François Czapek founded Patek, Czapek & C° in Geneva. At the 1844 Universal Exhibition in Paris, Antoine Norbert de Patek met Jean Adrien Philippe, inventor in 1842 of a pocket watch with stem winding and hand-setting, and offered him the post of technical director as soon as Czapek's contract ran out. In 1845, Patek Czapek & C° was dissolved, and Antoine Norbert de Patek, Jean Adrien Philippe and Vincent Gostowski founded, in Geneva, Patek & C°. In 1851, the three men changed the company's name to Patek Philippe & C°.
1868 Creation of a key-wound watch with brass bracelet.
1887 The Calatrava Cross became the company's registered logo.
1902 The Gondolo Chronometer name was registered.
1914-1930 Creation of grande complication and très grande complication watches, certain of which, with astronomical complications, were sold to James Ward Packard. These included the first two most complicated pieces by Patek Philippe: one, made in 1916, with 16 complications and another, made in 1927, with 10 complications.
1915 Creation of the first ladies' wristwatch with five-minute repeater.
1925 Creation of the first ladies' wristwatch with perpetual calendar (inspired by a pendant watch).
1933 Henry Graves Jr. purchased what was then the most complicated watch ever made by Patek Philippe. It was sold again in 1999 for $11 million.
1936 Creation of an astronomical wristwatch with perpetual calendar and retrograde date.
1940 Special order for a wristwatch with a pulsometric chronograph and world time.
1959 Creation of watches with second time zone.
1974 Creation of the Calatrava model.
1981 Launch of the Nautilus model.
1982 Creation of the Ellipse d'or model.
1989 The Calibre 89, the world's most complicated pocket watch (33 complications), was unveiled to commemorate the company's 150th anniversary.
1996 Launch of the self-winding wristwatch with annual date.
1997 Launch of the Aquanaut model.
2000 Launch of the Star Caliber 2000 (21 complications) to coincide with the third millennium.
2003 Unveiling of the 10 Day Tourbillon with COSC certification.
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Corporate Survival Risk Peaks At Three Years.
Public companies face the greatest threat to their survival in the third year after their Initial Public Offerings (IPO), a new study finds, challenging the conventional wisdom that companies lower their mortality risk with each passing year.
The risk of bankruptcy or closure actually peaks at 6% three years after a public listing, professors at Indiana University conclude in a new study of the survival rates of U.S. firms from 1985 to 2006, cleverly titled 'Firm Mortality and Natal Financial Care.' The researchers found that 50% of U.S. public companies will go out of business within 15 years after going public, or if you include the possibility that a firm is acquired or merged, 50% of public companies will cease to be independent within 6 years of their IPO.
'Generally one would expect your mortality risk to decrease over time, but we have that blip in year three,' said Utpal Bhattacharya, an author of the study and a finance professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. 'When an IPO comes out, these guys have enough managerial smarts and capital so they are sort of well stocked to make sure they don't die in the next moment. They can survive for two years or so, but after that their stock is depleted.'
The researchers looked exclusively at 'involuntary' deaths of companies (like those that shut down or file for bankruptcy), rather than firms that went private, or were merged. Bhattacharya says it isn't quite possible to use actuarial techniques, like life insurance companies do for human mortality rates, because all humans die someday while companies can live for hundreds of years. They estimate that the average U.S. company survives for 14 years after its initial public offering, but the 'half-life' or numbers applying to 50 percent of companies can be calculated more definitively.
If a firm survives until its second year after an IPO, its mortality rate, or the likelihood of it dying in the next year, is 6% on average. However, companies that were backed by a venture capital firm or worked with investment-bank underwriters that were highly ranked in league tables peaked at just 3%, Bhattacharya said. The difference, Bhattacharya found, is not simply that VCs and top bankers pick the strongest companies to back, but also that they made them stronger through advising, monitoring, financing or other interactions along the way. Venture firms typically stay involved with companies long after an IPO, cashing out only about 70% of their investment within two years.
The risk of bankruptcy or closure actually peaks at 6% three years after a public listing, professors at Indiana University conclude in a new study of the survival rates of U.S. firms from 1985 to 2006, cleverly titled 'Firm Mortality and Natal Financial Care.' The researchers found that 50% of U.S. public companies will go out of business within 15 years after going public, or if you include the possibility that a firm is acquired or merged, 50% of public companies will cease to be independent within 6 years of their IPO.
'Generally one would expect your mortality risk to decrease over time, but we have that blip in year three,' said Utpal Bhattacharya, an author of the study and a finance professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. 'When an IPO comes out, these guys have enough managerial smarts and capital so they are sort of well stocked to make sure they don't die in the next moment. They can survive for two years or so, but after that their stock is depleted.'
The researchers looked exclusively at 'involuntary' deaths of companies (like those that shut down or file for bankruptcy), rather than firms that went private, or were merged. Bhattacharya says it isn't quite possible to use actuarial techniques, like life insurance companies do for human mortality rates, because all humans die someday while companies can live for hundreds of years. They estimate that the average U.S. company survives for 14 years after its initial public offering, but the 'half-life' or numbers applying to 50 percent of companies can be calculated more definitively.
If a firm survives until its second year after an IPO, its mortality rate, or the likelihood of it dying in the next year, is 6% on average. However, companies that were backed by a venture capital firm or worked with investment-bank underwriters that were highly ranked in league tables peaked at just 3%, Bhattacharya said. The difference, Bhattacharya found, is not simply that VCs and top bankers pick the strongest companies to back, but also that they made them stronger through advising, monitoring, financing or other interactions along the way. Venture firms typically stay involved with companies long after an IPO, cashing out only about 70% of their investment within two years.
Saturday, 7 May 2011
THINK HAPPINESS: An Open Letter to the Prime Minister
THINK HAPPINESS: An Open Letter to the Prime Minister: "My dear Prime Minister, I refer to your speech at the rally of your political party yesterday. As a first-time voter under the age of 35, ..."
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
China Telecom Employees Hack Verizon iPhone?
Users concerned that Verizon Wireless' iPhone 4 wouldn't be usable with overseas carriers may have a 'pleasant surprise' coming.
Employees of the Guangdong branch of China Telecom teased users this week with a post on its microblog saying they were working on a way to crack Verizon Wireless' CDMA iPhone, suggesting users might be able to use the device on China Telecom's network.
A post signed the 'Apple Lab Team' on the Sina Weibo accountidentified as belonging to the Guangdong branch of China Telecom said Tuesday the 'CDMA iPhone 4 has made its first call in China' without a hitch. Preceding posts included a photo of a Verizon Wireless iPhone beside a tag labeled China Telecom Guangdong, then a photo of the device displaying the home screen for Cydia, a software application that allows users to find applications and software packages for jailbrokenApple devices.
'Guangdong Telecom's first iPhone 4 has been successfully jailbroken,' one post said. The 'Window's version of Greenpois0n didn't work,' it said, referring to software used to hack Apple's operating systems. 'A switch to the Mac version of Greenpois0n was a success.'
Jailbroken iPhones have been common for a long time in China, where Apple was slowto officially launch the device for the first time, and where official versions are difficult to come by because of supply issuesand buying restrictions. Users can bring locked iPhones home from overseas and have them jailbroken and unlocked for use with the carrier of their choice, or purchase a jailbroken iPhone from a local seller.
While it's unusual for a telecommunications carrier itself to openly encourage such behavior, local branches have been known to take matters into their own hands.
While China Telecom operates a CDMA network, China's two largest carriers China Mobile and China Unicom, both operate GSM networks that are compatible with iPhone models released before the most recent Verizon Wireless iPhone 4, meaning only the latter two could provide voice services to iPhone users. But China Unicom was the only one of the three that could provide higher-speed 3G data services to iPhone users because it operates a compatible WCDMA 3G network. China Mobile's 3G network used a homegrown Chinese standard called TD-SCDMA, and China Telecom uses CDMA-2000 technology.
As a result, China Unicom has lured some customers away from its rivals and, in retaliation, the Beijing branch of China Mobile launched a website last November providing instructions for users on how to activate the devices with China Mobile's service instead, though without 3G service, and began providing a special serviceto help users cut their SIM cards to fit the iPhone 4's smaller microSIM card slot.
A China Telecom official said the test call written about on the microblog was done by individuals within the company and did not represent an official company action. A company spokesman declined to comment on whether China Telecom is in talks with Apple to officially release a CDMA version of the iPhone in China, but the company has said in the pastthat it would be interested in carrying the device if a compatible version were to be made available.
Meanwhile, China Telecom was left out of the mix until recently because all iPhones released prior to the Verizon Wireless iPhone 4 could not be used on its CDMA network. And even if the CDMA iPhone were to be officially launched in China, the world's largest mobile market by subscribers, Apple would likely need to reengineer it to include a SIM card slot and make other changes in accordance with Chinese regulations, the way it has had to reengineer previous models.
It's unclear if the China Telecom employees are using a Verizon Wireless iPhone with a Chinese phone number, because while China Telecom devices use the same network technology as Verizon Wireless, devices used on its network typically require a SIM card while most Verizon Wireless devices do not. If they are using a China Telecom phone number, the 'Apple Lab Team' has not revealed a way for regular users to follow suit.
An article on Sina's Web portal said the current test is being done only by China Telecom's Guangdong branch, but 'insiders' say they are waiting for the company to develop a unified plan of. In the meantime, the employees' microblog says to stay tuned for more 'pleasant surprises.'
Poor in singapore can't afford food
In a nation where ministers and head of state receive more than 10 times the salary of US president, the middle and lower income groups in singapore feeling the pinch in rising costs.
Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong
Salary as Prime Minister $2million yearly
Salary as Finance Minister $1.2million yearly
Variable Bonus: 6months salary minimum yearly
Full Medical Benefits - Private Specialist Consultant on regular standby - Yearly cost to tax payers $200,000
Security cost: Approximately $1.5million yearly
First class travel and stays at top hotels when he travels on business trips
United States of America
President, George Bush: Increased to US$400,000 on Jan. 20, 2001, with US$50,000 expenses
Vice President, Richard Cheney: US$202,900
Cabinet Secretaries: US$157,000 - 186,600
Shaha Ali Riza, Paul Wolfowitz's girlfriend - $193,590 (she now reports to Liz Cheney, daughter of Richard Cheney in the US State Department
Condoleezza Rice - $186,600
United Kingdom
Prime Minister: US$170,556
Ministers: US$146,299
Australia
Prime Minister: US$137,060
Deputy Prime Minister: US$111,439
Treasurer: US$102,682.
One Nation Under Lee (complete video)
A 45 minute documentary on Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore and one of the world's remaining strongman. The film was seized by Government officials when it premiered at a private screening on 17th May 2008. Directed by Seelan Palay.
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