Invite The World

The long version of the title of this topic is: Apple paid $3.3 billion in income taxes worldwide in 2011, on $34.2 billion in before tax profit worldwide in 2011.

The above figures were quoted from The New York Times (April 28, 2012) by Tim O’Reilly in his very insightful article that I found on Google+ (see links below).

I share this article because I agree to the fact that in today’s business one has to think GLOBAL, and the story shows how Apple has worked this out so perfectly for them.

Take this Apple story as an example:
Imagine this (I use “imagine” because I am certain no one will really “consider” it): If Apple were to manufacture iPad 100% in the US, I would guess that 99% of those who now have an iPad might not have had one in the first place.

1) How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes (April 28, 2012) (Link)

2) Apple’s Response on Its Tax Practices (April 28, 2012) (Link)

3) Tim O’Reilly’s article on Google+: (Link)

Wanna meet up for an inspection tomorrow? Your $450M renovation project is ready…

When I first texted the above news to members in my circle I got some questions back. So I would like to first explain a little bit before moving on:

1) The building to be inspected: BC Place in Downtown Vancouver. An event entitled BC Place Community Weekend is being held during the weekend April 28-29, 2012, and the admission is free. Pardon me if I have used jargon of our industry in real estate sale: I play the open house event as “house inspection” by owners of a construction work they had paid to complete.

2) The renovation project: The work to rebuild with a retractable roof that has costed British Columbia taxpayers $450M ($450,000,000). So the word “your” in my initial invitation would mean us taxpayers that could include you and me.

BC Place open house - a screen shot of the BC Place website

No matter what your comment would be on the spending, BC Place is part of our life and as part of the community and the Province, I encourage everyone to take a chance to enjoy a moment of it!

Link to photos:
Photo Album at Google+

For months I have been worrying about reaching the free storage limit of my Gmail account. It was approaching the 70% mark *and counting*! And you know what – the worry was so real that it in effect had made it a practice of mine to keep staring at the bottom-left of the Gmail screen whenever I log in – see image in green box below. (For me, deleting read messages from my inbox is not an option – I keep all messages since day 1.)

And today I have a huge relief! I just noticed that my storage usage has reduced to 49% only, and that the storage limit has increased to 10240 MB (10 GB) from its previous 7.5 GB. And this has in fact just officially happened on April 24, less than two days ago!

My current usage at the time of writing this post (image):

Competition is G!

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This is a follow-up on my earlier post titled “The 2012 MAC Golden Cube Event”. In that post I said I hope to get a copy of the group photo that was taken at the end of the event…

With the help of Melanie Briggs, Sales Director at MĀC Marketing Solutions, I got the great picture of that magnificent view! My BIG thanks to her and her great team!

I am glad to be able to share this great picture – Over 300 REALTORS waving hands to you!

Wonder how the new Port Mann Bridge would look like when it’s done? Well, that could only be found out when it is completed sometime in late 2012 or early 2013.

However, for a preview of the “product” there is an album of photos I took earlier this month…

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The Second Annual MAC Golden Cube Awards dinner was held on April 16, 2012 at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, British Columbia. Glad to be part of the event that evening! Over 400 guests were seen at the meeting (my guess only, haven’t got the exact figure from the organizer).

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Have just learned from tonight’s TV news and would like to share this great project with you – The Google’s “Art Project”. This is where you could view 30,000 HD images of works of art from over 150 museums across 40 countries…

What is the Google’s ‘Art Project’? Here’s what Googleartproject.com/faqs/ has to say:

The Art Project is a collaboration between Google and 151 acclaimed art partners from across 40 countries. Using a combination of various Google technologies and expert information provided by our museum partners, we have created a unique online art experience. Users can explore a wide range of artworks at brushstroke level detail, take a virtual tour of a museum and even build their own collections to share. With a team of Googlers working across many product areas we are able to harness the best of Google to power the Art Project experience. Few people will ever be lucky enough to be able to visit every museum or see every work of art they’re interested in but now many more can enjoy over 30 000 works of art from sculpture to architecture and drawings and explore over 150 collections from 40 countries, all in one place. We’re also lucky at Google to have the technology to make this kind of project a reality.

Want to have a tour of The White House? Click this link to start:
http://www.googleartproject.com/collection/the-white-house/museumview/

To explore the Google’s Art Project click this link:
http://www.googleartproject.com/faqs/

This might be belated information but just in case some of you are still not aware of the changes…

Recently there have been some changes made to the HOV lane on Highway 1 in Metro Vancouver area. If you only occasionally use the busily under construction highway, the following information might be of advantage to you for your next trip:

• The end point of the East-bound HOV lane has changed. It is now ended at close to Exit 44, just before getting on the Port Mann bridge towards Surrey.
• The effective time of the HOV lane has changed. Current effective time is: 6 a.m. through 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. That’s right: There is NO restriction on the use of the HOV lane during Saturdays and Sundays.

New Port Mann Bridge under construction, viewed from 116A Avenue:

I have just set up my Google Plus profile today! What an experience and what a feeling!

I’ve been using Google’s Gmail for long and only in the recent years to notice that many new “add on” services were coming out of Google. And all of a sudden I just came to notice that I was sooo outdated from those social media stuffs. I have had a Twitter account and a Facebook account for quite some years already but have only been rarely posting to them. After having read few books on social media recently, and especially having made up my mind about doing something with my International Mahjong® stuffs, I now decided that I should be more participating in the online community. I have so far set up two blogs and my profile at Google+. To many of you this might just be a piece of sesame; but it’s already a lot to me. However, it’s really fun!

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