Bernie’s Ramblings

Went away last weekend to Bali. Surprisingly, I felt that there wasn’t enough time for this photo trip, due to the many popular photography sites such as Uluwatu, Tanah Lot, the trip to Mount Batur and also Kuta beach itself. Wished I had more time there. Brought along all my lenses - 30mm f1.4, 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 and 10-20mm f4-5.6, resulting in a variety of shots from ultra-wides to telephotos.

Having used sharper lenses like the 30mm, I’m starting to find the 18-200 a bit of a disappointment at times (usually mid range, wide open) where it’s down right too soft. I’m no pixel peeper but this is just too much. Lucky that at 200mm, it’s sharpens up a bit. Even the 10-20 renders sharper images most of the time (though definitely not as good as the 30mm).

Here’s to hoping I can somehow afford a 70-200 or 50-150. Btw, this is the Inna Grand Bali Resort where I stayed my first night in Bali.

Don’t believe me? Check out the sessions - BarCamp wiki / BarCampMalaysiaScheduleSessions. If that’s not enough to entice you to join, check out these sponsors:

Convinced? Register here for free. I’m going.

Funny video of Bill Gate’s last day in Microsoft. Found it @Engadget which declared June 27th as a Bill Gates day (whatever that means). I reckon they’re pretty big fans of the Big G.

It’s a simple dish. You dip sticks of meatballs, seafood, veg into boiling water until they cook and choose from a choice of sweet sauce, peanut spiced sauce or garlic chili sauce. You eat standing too. Sounds like a poor man’s food eh? Wrong, because these sticks of food can rack up quite a bill if you’re not careful (hint: keep a count while you’re busy eating)

Malaysia’s not perfect. The government could be better, price of cars is ridiculous, racial policies, etc. But one thing it has going for it is the food. Being multi-racial, we get to taste foods from different cultures.

More food for thought:

An average office clerk may own a second hand 1300cc proton Iswara costing $7,000 (rebate = $625) while the Datuk’s children can own a fleet of 10 new cars of BMW, Audi and Volvo all less than 2000cc costing $2 millions and get a total rebate of $625 x 10 = $6,250!

And what of those that are too poor to own a car? These group of unfortunate people also feels the pinch because of the increased inflation because of the petrol price. Dare I say that it is actually these folks that is burdened the most, yet get the least?

Prime example of fool-hardy decision making if you ask me.

Here’s food for thought (gracias to Jamie for forwarding the email from which this came from):

Ahmad is a fisherman. He sells a fish to you at $10 which is below the market value of $15. Let’s assume that he caught the fish from the abundance of the sea at little or no cost. Ahmad claims that since the market value of the fish is $15 and he sold you the fish for $10, he had subsidised you $5 and therefore made a loss of $5.

Question : Did Ahmad actually make a profit of $10 or loss of $5 which he claimed is the subsidy?

Answer:Ahmad makes a profit of $10 which is the difference of the selling price ($10) minus the cost price ($0 since the fish was caught from the abundance of the sea). There is no subsidy as claimed by Ahmad.