JPMORGAN FANTASYFUTURES

This is abit late but it looks interesting. FantasyFutures - JPMorgan's online global derivatives trading game.

FOOTBALL: ENGLAND OUT OF EURO2008

It is extremely disappointing that after Russian's defeat that they are still unable to qualify. They just need a draw and they still could not achieve it.

Actually, they don't have any reliable strikers and they are always an over-rated team.

I hope they will improve to qualify for the World Cup. McClaren was sacked as a result. Bookmakers' favourite is to have Jose Mourinho succeeding as new coach. Fabio Capello also showed his interest.

"There are too many foreign players and the players are used to another way of playing,' he said of England while commentating on Italy's 3-1 win over Faroe Islands on Wednesday."

Don't blame Arsene Wenger for not enough talent in the EPL, it requires a collective effort by every club. Arsenal are the victims of the accusation because they have the least English players among the top clubs. I do believe in having a quota of let's say 3 English players at least to protect the future of potential young stars. There is a need of balance because in other leagues, such problems don't exist.

MY FIRST FULL TIME JOB

After much delay, finally I started work officially today. I had submitted all the necessary forms required. It is shameful that I only start work at such an old age. I need to start saving!

Happy birthday mom!

BEE MOVIE

As a fan of Jerry Seinfeld, it is a crime not to watch this movie. It is extremely uneasy to portray him as a bee. It talks and behaves like him too. It is just so weird to me. I was abit worried how the movie will turn out to be since Seinfeld is about jokes only. As well as the jokes he made are for adults and how do you entertain kids as well in this movie? Since animated movies focus on storyline and nice renderings, I thought it will not fit. Surprisingly, both compliment each other pretty well although I may say that too much focus is put into dialogues. Kids would prefer more action and simple dialogues. Seinfeld, like in his sitcoms and stand-up comedy, observed human behaviour and habit in this movie too, the weird and wrong ones. Apart from him, there is Renée Zellweger as the lead actress, Chris Rock is the mosquito, Larry King is the Bee Larry King, Sting is Sting and Oprah Winfrey is a judge.

The movie runs your imagination wild by showing off the advanced civilization of bees in the hive. It was well created and I love it. The yellow and black colours with most things yellow turned out to be fine. The jokes used in the movie are not too complicated so I guess it will attract most audience but perhaps a little too much for young kids. I guess they will only appreciate the nice renderings and the cute side of the characters.

The view perspective from the bee's angle is also done quite well. We are taken into their flight scenes and how they move around with all the huge objects and humans in the world. I feel that it was done really well since I can put myself well in their shoes. Speaking of shoes, they do wear nice looking shoes. Hehe! I like the part when Seinfeld was looking through his wardrobe for something to wear as he said to himself, yellow and black, yellow and black, yellow and black and suddenly, ah ha, black and yellow!

The graphics were fine, although not the most impressive I ever seen but acceptable. The way they render hair and fur is well done. Since we go into the detail of a bee, whatever that don't require so much detail becomes critical. One of the examples is the texture of the fabric of the pillow case. Seinfield also made some wild scenes like the bee going to court to fight against humans in the court where they accuse them of stealing their hard-earned honey as well as how they helped plane in an emergency landing. I thought this movie is good enough for the movies but not the best out there. If animated films is not good enough for you to go to the cinema, buying the DVD is just fine too. Watch it just to relax yourself.

Bee Movie

GENERATIVE COMPONENTS

A senior colleague has been sharing with me about this parametic modeling system for a long time. I saw how cool he tried it out and I am sure this tool is extremely powerful and exciting for architectural and engineering design. Right now, it is related as an extension to Microstation. It can create some incredibly wild shapes and still keep relationships of the whole thing captured and extremely accurate.

Bentley

Be

If I have the time, I will explore this stuff. Been ages since I last touched Microstation.

THES-QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2007: TOP 200

The results have been released.

Those in bold are some famous choices of universities for this region as well as people I know who graduated or still studying there.

You can find out the full details of the methodology used for the ranking in the link below:

TOPUNIVERSITIES

- Peer Review – 5101 academics responded to the 2007 Academic Peer Review Survey
- Recruiter Review - 1482 international companies responded to the 2007 Graduate Employer Surrvey
- International Faculty Ratio
- International Students Ratio
- Student Faculty Ratio
- Citations per Faculty (citation data supplied by Scopus)

The ranking as follow:

1 HARVARD University United States
2 University of CAMBRIDGE United Kingdom
2 University of OXFORD United Kingdom
2 YALE University United States
5 Imperial College LONDON United Kingdom
6 PRINCETON University United States
7 CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology (Caltech) United States
7 University of CHICAGO United States
9 UCL (University College LONDON) United Kingdom
10 MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
11 COLUMBIA University United States
12 MCGILL University Canada
13 DUKE University United States
14 University of PENNSYLVANIA United States
15 JOHNS HOPKINS University United States
16 AUSTRALIAN National University Australia
17 University of TOKYO Japan
18 University of HONG KONG Hong Kong
19 STANFORD University United States
20 CARNEGIE MELLON University United States
20 CORNELL University United States
22 University of California, BERKELEY United States
23 University of EDINBURGH United Kingdom
24 King's College LONDON United Kingdom
25 KYOTO University Japan
26 Ecole Normale Supérieure, PARIS France
27 University of MELBOURNE Australia
28 ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE France
29 NORTHWESTERN University United States
30 University of MANCHESTER United Kingdom
31 The University of SYDNEY Australia
32 BROWN University United States
33 University of BRITISH COLUMBIA Canada
33 University of QUEENSLAND Australia
33 National University of SINGAPORE Singapore
36 PEKING University China
37 University of BRISTOL United Kingdom
38 The CHINESE University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
38 University of MICHIGAN United States
40 TSINGHUA University China
41 University of CALIFORNIA, Los Angeles (UCLA) United States
42 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Switzerland
43 MONASH University Australia
44 University of NEW SOUTH WALES Australia
45 University of TORONTO Canada
46 OSAKA University Japan
47 BOSTON University United States
48 University of AMSTERDAM Netherlands
49 NEW YORK University (NYU) United States
50 The University of AUCKLAND New Zealand
51 SEOUL National University Korea, South
51 University of TEXAS at Austin United States
53 HONG KONG University of Science & Technology Hong Kong
53 TRINITY College Dublin Ireland
55 University of WASHINGTON United States
55 University of WISCONSIN‐Madison United States
57 University of WARWICK United Kingdom
58 University of CALIFORNIA, San Diego United States
59 LONDON School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom
60 HEIDELBERG University Germany
61 Katholieke Universiteit LEUVEN Belgium
62 University of ADELAIDE Australia
63 DELFT University of Technology Netherlands
64 University of WESTERN AUSTRALIA Australia
65 University of BIRMINGHAM United Kingdom
65 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (MUNICH) Germany
67 Technische Universität MÜNCHEN Germany
68 University of SHEFFIELD United Kingdom
69 NANYANG Technological University Singapore
70 University of NOTTINGHAM United Kingdom
71 DARTMOUTH College United States
71 UPPSALA University Sweden
73 University of ILLINOIS United States
74 EMORY University United States
74 University of YORK United Kingdom
76 University of ST ANDREWS United Kingdom
77 University of PITTSBURGH United States
77 PURDUE University United States
79 University of MARYLAND United States
80 University of LEEDS United Kingdom
80 University of SOUTHAMPTON United Kingdom
82 VANDERBILT University United States
83 University of GLASGOW United Kingdom
84 LEIDEN University Netherlands
85 CASE WESTERN RESERVE University United States
85 FUDAN University China
85 University of VIENNA Austria
88 QUEEN'S University Canada
89 UTRECHT University Netherlands
90 PENNSYLVANIA STATE University United States
90 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan
92 RICE University United States
93 University of COPENHAGEN Denmark
93 University of MONTREAL Canada
95 University of ROCHESTER United States
96 University of CALIFORNIA, Davis United States
97 University of ALBERTA Canada
97 GEORGIA Institute of Technology United States
99 CARDIFF University United Kingdom
100 University of HELSINKI Finland
101 University of LIVERPOOL United Kingdom
102 GEORGETOWN University United States
102 National TAIWAN University Taiwan
102 TOHOKU University Japan
105 University of GENEVA Switzerland
106 LUND University Sweden
107 University of COLORADO United States
108 MCMASTER University Canada
109 DURHAM University United Kingdom
110 University of VIRGINIA United States
111 MAASTRICHT University Netherlands
112 NAGOYA University Japan
112 University of WATERLOO Canada
114 University of AARHUS Denmark
114 University of BASEL Switzerland
114 University of OTAGO New Zealand
117 University of CALIFORNIA, Santa Barbara United States
117 Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de LAUSANNE Switzerland
119 University of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA United States
120 OHIO STATE University United States
121 University of SUSSEX United Kingdom
122 TEXAS A&M University United States
123 Université Catholique de LOUVAIN (UCL) Belgium
124 University of GHENT Belgium
125 NANJING University China
126 HUMBOLDT‐Universität zu Berlin Germany
126 University of WESTERN ONTARIO Canada
128 Hebrew University of JERUSALEM Israel
129 NEWCASTLE University, NEWCASTLE Upon Tyne United Kingdom
130 Technical University of DENMARK Denmark
130 EINDHOVEN University of Technology Netherlands
132 KOREA Advanced Institute of Science & Technology Korea, South
132 Université Pierre‐et‐Marie‐Curie ‐ PARIS VI France
134 University of ARIZONA United States
135 University of FLORIDA United States
136 KYUSHU University Japan
137 University of ABERDEEN United Kingdom
137 INDIANA University Bloomington United States
139 SIMON FRASER University Canada
140 University of CALIFORNIA, Irvine United States
140 University of ZURICH Switzerland
142 University of MINNESOTA United States
142 Universität TÜBINGEN Germany
144 Universität FREIBURG Germany
145 University of BATH United Kingdom
146 Freie Universität BERLIN Germany
147 University of LANCASTER United Kingdom
148 WAGENINGEN University Netherlands
149 CITY University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
149 Queen Mary, University of LONDON United Kingdom
151 HOKKAIDO University Japan
151 University of NORTH CAROLINA United States
151 TEL AVIV University Israel
154 Université Libre de BRUXELLES (ULB) Belgium
155 University of Science and Technology of CHINA China
155 University of NOTRE DAME United States
157 Ecole Normale Supérieure de LYON France
158 CRANFIELD University United Kingdom
159 MICHIGAN STATE University United States
159 TUFTS University United States
161 KEIO University Japan
161 WASHINGTON University in St. Louis United States
163 ERASMUS University Rotterdam Netherlands
163 SHANGHAI JIAO TONG University China
165 Universität STUTTGART Germany
166 University of CALGARY Canada
166 VIENNA University of Technology Austria
168 Universität GÖTTINGEN Germany
168 MACQUARIE University Australia
170 HELSINKI University of Technology ‐ TKK Finland
171 University of DUNDEE United Kingdom
171 Universität KARLSRUHE Germany
173 University of BOLOGNA Italy
173 University of GRONINGEN Netherlands
175 University of MASSACHUSETTS, Amherst United States
175 University of SAO PAULO Brazil
177 University of CAMPINAS (Unicamp) Brazil
177 University College DUBLIN Ireland
177 RUTGERS, The State University of New Jersey United States
180 University of READING United Kingdom
180 WASEDA University Japan
182 Rheinisch‐Westfälische Technische Hochschule AACHEN Germany
183 Università degli Studi di ROMA ‐ La Sapienza Italy
184 Université Louis Pasteur ‐ STRASBOURG I France
185 University of LEICESTER United Kingdom
185 University of TWENTE Netherlands
187 University of ANTWERP Belgium
188 University of CANTERBURY New Zealand
188 University of OSLO Norway
190 University of SURREY United Kingdom
191 RENSSELAER Polytechnic Institute United States
192 KTH, ROYAL Institute of Technology Sweden
192 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Mexico
194 University of BARCELONA Spain
195 Radboud Universiteit NIJMEGEN Netherlands
195 QUEENSLAND University of Technology Australia
197 CHALMERS University of Technology Sweden
197 KOBE University Japan
199 University of WOLLONGONG Australia
200 University of CAPE TOWN South Africa
200 RMIT University Australia

As for Malaysian universities, Malaysia BOLEH!

246 Universiti MALAYA Malaysia
307 Universiti Sains MALAYSIA Malaysia
309 Universiti Kebangsaan MALAYSIA Malaysia

No problem, we don't care about the university standings since we manage to send an astronaut to space by paying Russia with their technology and their facilities to do scientific experiments that can only be conducted in space for the sake of human progress.

FOOTBALL: LIVERPOOL'S 8 GOALS RAMPAGE

The title says it all. Just when I thought the 7 goals Arsenal scored against Slavia Prague was something, this one is even crazier. Liverpool won the match 8-0 against Besiktas and gave Rafa Benitez a fantastic way to celebrate his 50th European match for Liverpool. This season has been so far extremely bad for Liverpool. They underperform both in the domestic scene as well as in Europe. Benitez has always have better results in Europe but this season is the worst since he became the coach. They may not make it into the knock-out stages if they don't win their remaining two matches. The only good news for them this season is that they are given the approval to build a new 60,000 seat stadium in Stanley Park.

Elsewhere, Valencia were defeated with Koeman in charge against Rosenborg. FC Porto beat Marseille 2-1. Lazio won while the 'play beautiful football only' Real Madrid and Olympiakos drew. Celtic beat Benfica while AC Milan won comfortably against Shakhtar Donetsk. Like Real Madrid, Chelsea only managed a draw against Schalke 04 with the same scoreline of 0-0. I realized that there are many difficult to pronounce clubs in this season's Champions League.

FOUR CHINESE MOVIES TO REVIEW

BU NENG SHUO DE MI MI / SECRET
The people remarked to me before I decided to watch this movie that it has a very touching story. Well, I just have two comments for this whole movie after watching it. Fake robotic acting skills and predictable storyline. I can't get 75% of what Jay Chou is talking, murmuring throughout the storyline with his expressionless face and expressionless voice. The only thing which saved the movie are the visual effects. I thought they were well done. The lead actress looks like my Shi Jie! Apart from that, an average movie for me.


NARAKA 19 / DEI YUK DAI SUP GAU TSANG
The worst ever movie I ever watched in my life! Watch it to purposely kill yourself out of boredom! I almost did until I realized that it is not worth it! Haha! Don't be cheated that it is supposed to be a horror movie. It is a big joke. I think even I can direct and produce a better movie without any acting background.

It comes first as the worst movie I ever watched in my life, followed closely by a Korean horror movie I watched some years back during Chinese New Year with a lot of bathtub scenes and followed by the Bridge to Terabithia.


881
881 is the title given to the movie referring to the same pronounciation of Papaya in English. Basically, this is a movie about the Papaya Sisters which consist of Small Papaya and Big Papaya. They teamed up to perform at the getai (song stage) during the Hungry Ghost Festival singing Hokkien songs. Well, there are many Hokkien jokes and conversations here so you can appreciate the story better if you understand Hokkien well.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie coming from someone whose Hokkien is just at the basic level. However, it is not the type of movie I felt that you must catch or you will regret your entire life. It is good to go for a laugh.


BROTHERS / HING DAI
Brothers is a story about two brothers who are destined to kill each other to take over the father's business when they grew up. It is something predicted by the monk which forced the father to separate the children at a young age. Well, the story is about getting even with one another, revenge and fights in the gangs. Andy Lau and Ka Tung Lam played the roles of irritating cops who always spoil the day for the gangs, thus bringing with them some elements of humour to the storyline.

I will rate this movie as average. The bigger names are given less role time as if this movie is purposely made to give opportunities to the younger and less famous actors. Well, it is still much much better than Bu Neng Shuo De Mi Mi and Naraka 19 hundred times over. You will also get to see the pretty Yi Huang (Betty Huang) starring as the girlfriend of the elder brother, played by Kiu Wai Miu. The younger brother is played by Eason Chan and the father is played by Zhiwen Wang.

LIFE IS SHORT

I just attended a funeral service yesterday. It is probably the second time I see a real dead body after my grandpa's when I was 15. It is definitely sad and shocking to see someone close to us dying unexpectedly. I received the news through SMS and I was shocked, speechless for a long time when I opened the message. I keep asking myself whether I am dreaming. Things just happened so fast you don't have enough time to digest.

It is in this kind of experience that we are reminded that life is short and we should never take for granted the people we are close to around us, especially our beloved ones. This is because you never know when it will be the last time you will ever see them. Therefore, no matter how difficult they are to us, the most important thing is we treat them well.

During the service, many questions go through my mind. Am I good enough to everyone around me? Do I have to have a grudge against anybody around me and unwilling to forgive anyone? Is it worth it? Has anger always get the better of me?

The sermon is about the burden we carry once we are born to this world. The burden of parents worrying the child during pregnancy when the child is born. The worry about accidents as they start to move around. The worry about which brand of milk powder to use. As they enter school, they worry about which school to apply to. They worry about the homework and examinations. As they enter their teens, they worry about the children choosing the wrong life partners. As they graduated, the parents worry about them finding jobs. Then, the worry about their economical support in this ever-rising living standard of the world. As they get married, they worried about their grandchildren. The cycle will continue until death.

Basically the sermon is about the burden of being a human being. How much life on earth is a struggle from the day we are born until death. That we find no peace and happiness in this ever-increasing stressful and pressured world. That you will find peace in Christianity for your current life now on earth as well as the life after that.

My whole brain is replaying back my memory of all the time we spent together in the past. It is like my brain is showing a quick recap, a movie playbacked of things happening live at the scene. You look at the place and you can see yourself and the person spending time going through the place in the past.

After attending the service, I still keep alerting myself whether I am dreaming. Even as a friend, it is so hard to accept the reality. How much more for family members and relatives of the deceased? It is definitely even harder for them. Sometimes, I stood there speechless when offering condolence greetings. I really don't know how best to comfort them. The only words I managed to utter out of my mouth is "Be strong".

Life is short my friends. Live life the fullest and fruitfully. Appreciate the people around you more and always thank God for everything you have. Nothing is permanent and eternal in this world.

FOOTBALL: THE FORM OF CLUBS UP TO NOW

Let's start with Arsenal since they are probably the most consistent and best performing club of the season thus far if you compare all 3 major leagues in England, Spain and Italy. Their latest win in the Carling Cup match away to Sheffield United just now is a further evidence that Wenger's youth policy is starting to pay off and is still grooming the next new generation for the current first squad starting eleven. Apart from the expected great performance by Fabregas, Adebayor is stepping up to be the biggest surprise so far. Arsenal are not missing Henry at all. The only pity is VanPersie is out injured after similar form. Although his policy does have its own critics by Platini and Blatter, I guess they just want to take the opportunity to say something now that Arsenal is on form. Jealousy perhaps?

Among the many complaints, I do see some point in the only English player in Arsenal to be the major point to criticize for destroying English players' chances to be good footballers. Well, at least there should be some law in place to have at least 3 or half the starting 11 to be of the nationality of the league they are playing in. Many said the current England national team's ability is badly damaged because of how the league is not promoting younger generations of English players. I cannot agree absolutely that it is the main reason for such an effect but I do believe it does contribute. Then again, the Premier League is so commercialized now and nothing is more prioritized than earning money.

Blatter
Platini

Whatever it is, after a 1-1 draw against struggling Liverpool the other day at Anfield, they will face Manchester United at home this weekend. It will be the match to watch for the weekend! Manchester United are doing fine, chasing the invincible Arsenal closely at the top. Chelsea are slowly regaining back their form after a shocking Mourinho exit. A few hiccups after the Drogba interview of wanting to leave, they finally settled with Grant having Lampard and Drogba on fire. Even Shevchenko is scoring again last night during the Carling Cup match against Leicester. Time will tell if they will gain back to their good form again.

The other big issue of the current season is the sacking of managers at this point of time. Bolton, Tottenham, Sevilla and Valencia all fell victims to it. All of them are more or less suffering without managers. Tottenham got Ramos from Sevilla and started with a win against Blackpool in the Carling Cup just now.

Real Madrid are now in the rotation system under Schuster but many players are still not getting much chances under him as I feared early in the season. People like Saviola, Baptista and Soldado. The defence is having a lot of injury problems and Robben is again as always injury-proned. In fact, many of the new players bought are injured. The just notched a huge win against the managerless Valencia who will have Koeman as new coach soon. They will face another managerless club, Sevilla this weekend. Their performance thus far, apart from Sergio Ramos and Raul, has been extremely inconsistent. They need to adapt to the rotation system under Schuster fast in preparation of facing bigger teams like Barcelona.

Barcelona are now worshipping Messi, not Ronaldinho anymore as he spends more time Samba partying. Messi is definitely the only person outside Arsenal who is on form. Barcelona do have their own injury worries in Deco and Eto'o but they are still winning. Henry is adapting and will need some time to get back to his best.

AC Milan. How do you rate them with their performance so far? Can we discard them as a major force to be reckoned with like last season? The pattern seems similar but last season, they rose up to become the Champions League winner after a bad start. They just won against Sampdoria with a 0-5 victory. They have the likes of Montella and the on-loaned no.99 bad boy Antonio Cassano. Many commented that Milan have an extremely old squad and the forwards are not getting enough action to attack. We will just have to see as last season proves that nothing is over until it is over.

Inter Milan. They are doing well, more reliable and consistent now. Figo is still playing and I am rooting for him 100%. I do miss him in Real Madrid after he was forced out because of the commercialization of David Beckham. Adriano is playing again, which is good for Inter as they have more options apart from Cruz and Ibrahimovic. I believe they should be able to do well again this season if they keep up their performance.

Roma are also doing quite good following Inter at the top of the table. I will be taking a close look at them as Real Madrid's Cicinho had been sold to them and Giuly as well from Barcelona. I'm a fan of Cicinho and am extremely frustrated he was forced out as well. As for Juventus, they came back to the Serie A and sit in third now at the top of the table. Let's see how well they will be doing now that they are back.

INTEL'S 45NM PENRYN CPU: 4 GHz AIR COOLED

A sneak preview of the future CPU which shrinks from the current 65nm to 45nm.

With consumption of less energy, outstanding overclocking potential, less noise and more speed, this will definitely be a breakthrough that is worth waiting.

Intel's 45nm Penryn CPU: 4GHz Air Cooled