Computex Taipei 2008

Computex Taipei 2008 is one of the biggest computer events in the world. The other one CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. This year I've got opportunity to visit Computex Taipei 2008 in Taipei City, Taiwan.

The event organizer has working well to make this event successful. They provide complete informations, they also provide free shuttle buses from Taoyuan International Airport to the 5 event locations. Yes, the event is so big, so it takes 5 different locations to be held. 4 are near Taipei 101, the highest building in the world (will become number 2 when Dubai's tower launched), and 1 location in the new Nangang Exhibition Center, also in Taipei City.

This picture shows how big the event is. This just only in 1 place. There are 4 places more as big as this one. The exhibitors show and launch their new products. Several big companies participate to this event, like Asus, Acer, Intel, AMD, Microsoft, etc. But unfortunately, Apple Inc does not participate to this big event.


There are a lot of hi-tech parts producers in Taiwan that seek new partner and distributor around the world to sell their products. Almost all of computer manufacturer in the world outsource their product to Taiwan's companies such as Quanta. In the event, I found memory producers who offers "blank" memory module, and we can sell them with our own brand. Also "blank" camera producer in there. They offer "blank" products with latest technology as in the well known products we know. Hi-tech parts are widely produced in Taiwan by small to large companies.


So, being computer's part producer is not hard job. Just seek hi-tech parts producer in Taiwan, and put your own brand to the product, you are ready to be a producer. They offer latest technology, best price, wide range of models, etc. From hi-tech chip to cables, from hi-tech board to connectors, from network parts to software. What do you need ? Just visit the event, and seek your new supplier !

How to teach our daughters to understand about our financial condition

I have 2 lovely daughters, 8 years old and 1 year old. Just like another parents, I and my wife hope that we can give our daughters a better quality of life than ours. We've experienced the same feeling with other parents when see our big daughter want to be equal with her friends. For example, her friends were dropped to the school by riding a good looking car. But we don't have a car, we only have a motor cycle. Sometimes our daughter said "I want to be dropped to the school by riding a car". Oh yes, we want to have a car to give same condition as our daughter want. But, we have no that ability yet right now, so we have to handle this situation wisely.

I and my wife always take a special time to be in relax situation with our daughters, so we can talk in a relax condition. As a father, I've tried to explain about how parents manage their money and provide their family's need, including need of food, transportation, also life style. I've explained to our daughters, why several parents choose a simple and humble life style and others choose more exclusive and eye catching life styles. And the most important things is, which life style that I choose as their chief. I choose a simple and humble of life style. I teach our daughters how to see money and stuffs in a good perspective, how to manage needs and make priorities, and how to reach our need in a wise way. Children must know that it's hard to get money, but easy to spend money, so they should know how to spend money wisely.

Back to the case, when our daughter need to be dropped to the school by riding a car just like her friends, we've wisely made her to get new point of view, that riding a motor cycle has an advantage point such as fast, simple, and also better than take a walk to the school. She also has to understand about the financial status of her family, that our money is limited, and we have to spend it wisely. In other side, we're also show that as their parent, we're trying to give the best for them, including show our effort to provide a car for us to go together as family. It makes our daughters feel that their parent give enough attention to their needs, and also makes them show their response in good attitude and character.

Parenting is a non-stop teaching activities. And as parent, we should be an excellent samples for our children. Children always see what are their father and mother do as their models.

Jessica Alba : The Most Beautiful Woman in The World

One of beautiful Hollywood star that attract my attention is Jessica Alba. One of popular celebrity magazine honored her as "The Most Beautiful Woman in The World". I'm quite agree with the statement, because her beauty is so natural. She's still young, full talented, and still beauty even in pregnancy. Yeap... I think I like her :)

Dog, Fish, Cat, and another Pets

Life is becoming harder and harder. People are going to be stress and depressed. We're now living in stressed society. We're need to relax, but sometimes we have no time to relax, or we can't stop thinking and sleep peaceful.

Many studies found that interacting with pets can help us to fight the stress and depression. In some research, scientists are using pets to help patients recovered.

I have a friend that got vertigo disease, was recovered by looking fish in the aquarium every evening. The motion of the fish helped her eyes and brain to get better coordinated and the attack of the vertigo was significantly decreased.

We have 7 dogs in our home (hehehehe). My sister loves dogs very much. The dogs help her to be stronger facing the complicity of life. As my personal view, she can handles a lot of depression-potential problems that occurs in her life.

I love fish than dog. But in fact, I also have a female dog in my own home. We have no cat, but my grandma love cats very much. Having pets need a commitment to share time, attention, money, and also love to share. That's why having pets can help us to maintain nice behavior and develop good character. So, why not trying to have one ?

Understanding credit cards and the business behind

This is an article based on my experiences using credit cards.

The basic idea of credit card is to make payment procedure easier, faster, and saver. How come ? By using credit cards, people should not carry huge amount of cash, which is placed them into criminal's target. Just sweeping the card and sign the bill, the payment was made.

But, now using credit cards can places the card's holder in a big trouble. Why ? Because they lost control of shopping, and forget that the amount was used should be paid back as soon as possible.

The due date

Every card has a print date and a due date. Print date means the date when bank prints the bill of all transactions was made by a particular card and send the bill to the card's holder. The bill should be paid before the due date. If the card's holder pays all of the total amount printed in the bill, the case is closed. But if the card's holder can't pays the total amount of the bill, he/she can pays only at minimum payment or more. The minimum payment currently is 10% of the total amount of the bill. The rest that hasn't paid yet will be charged by interest.

The interest of credit card is very high, currently is around 3.25% - 4% per month depends on bank's regulation. This interest is being main income of the bank that issues the card. Another incomes for the bank are annual membership fee, late payment penalty fee, cash withdrawal fee, joint venture card payment fee with another banks, and so on.

Cash withdrawal fee is special one. The amount of interest is higher than ordinary (shopping) interest. Currently, the cash withdrawal fee is around 4%-4.5% of the amount of cash withdrawal. If your withdrawal amount is too small, there is a minimum fee applied. Once you withdraw some cash, the day after the withdrawal day will counted as interest. So, there is no grace period for cash withdrawal in credit card usage. You should pay it back as soon as possible. Watch out !!

The Debt Collecting

If the card's holder can't pays the bill, the amount of the bill will be higher and higher. I think the bank has already spare some percentage of non performing loan to cover its business. So, what will bank does if you can't pay the bill ? Bank will hires a debt collecting company to collect the debt from you. As I know, if the debt collecting company can collects some money from you, 50% will belong to them, and 50% will belong to the bank. The debt collector will uses any ways in order to collects the money from you, including psychological pressure to you or even to your family. They have to push you to pay the bill.

How to use credit cards wisely ?

Some people decide to not to own any card at all. But actually we can use credit cards wisely. First, choose credit card from a well known issuer bank. Read some reviews and customer's complain in the newspapers or internet related with credit cards. Second, hold only one or two cards from high reputation banks, no more. Remember, each card will charges you an annual membership fee. Third, use the cards for emergency use or frequently scheduled expenses only. It means you're already budgeting some amount of money to pay the expenses. Paying using credit cards just to complement the way to pay in cash. So you should pay total amount of the bill and this will avoid you from interest. You have to do this consistently.

May be the bank will offers you some discount programs or other promo in order to make you spend more money and increase you credit card usage. But still, you have to control your expenses using credit cards.

The advantages of using credit cards

Based on my experience, using credit cards in order to buy airline's tickets will give you more advantages. Because if you buy a ticket using credit card, you will be covered by some amount of insurance. Another experience is when my family member has to be hospitalized, credit cards would be helpful in that kind of situations.

So, don't be afraid to have a credit card. What you should have just control and discipline of using credit cards. Peace !!