Horea Matei - Arta simplitatii

The European Parliament - where reality beats the fiction

2011-01-29T11:37:00.006+01:00

MEP Cristian Busoi forbids a sculpture exhibition, that he initiated himself, after eventually understanding (hours prior to opening) that those sculptures represent "intimate details of woman body" likely to offend the feelings of some fellow MEP's.
Looking at Cristian Busoi's profile, one can easily understand he is not too familiar with the female anatomy, but most tax payers may not understand how such characters unable to first think and then act accordingly, find their way up to the EU Parliament?

What if such a guy initiates a large scale project, only to realize months and millions of Euro later, that his initiative is total bullshit? Or, on the contrary, it's the right thing to do, but he will not back up his own initiative because it is meeting resistance based on debilitating arguments?

Everyone should judge by himself the "offending" character of Ovidiu Vuia's sculptures, as well as the opportunity for further sending people like Busoi, EBA, Becali, Vadim and others, in the European Parliament.
It's about intelligently spending our money and defending our interests, after all.

Addendum:

Thanks to MEP Cristian Busoi's official website we find out that the golden Egyptian jackal is actually a grey wolf and a swan that got stuck in the icy waters of a lake in Bacau has been saved :)
Hi Cristian, thanks for existing, thanks for warming seats and filling toilets in the European Parliament. You are certainly worth your 20.000€/month budget.

Bucharest - Pitesti Highway

2010-08-29T19:06:00.001+02:00

Con's: over 100 km highway you can withness the most extreme manoeuvres, mainly performed by cars from Bucharest.

Pro's: 20 km before Bucharest you start witnessing chain accidents of 8-9 cars, mainly from Bucharest.

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Pavements

2010-08-25T09:19:00.001+02:00

If somebody ever complains again about Brussels being the city of pavements, I recommend them to visit Sofia. Totally not advised to travel by car unless you want to destroy your car in no time.

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The special one

2010-05-22T23:48:00.004+02:00

It is a lot more convenient to accuse someone of being arrogant instead of admitting that he's simply a genius, conscious of his geniality.
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A big iPode, a small book or a lack of efficiency?

2010-01-30T16:34:00.003+01:00

The iSlate has been released and it's called iPad. Fine.
It costs half the gossip price. Excellent.
It doesn't support multitasking, has no HDMI port and doesn't support Flash. Hmm, that's a pity.
It's nice and appealing. Ok, you know what, the crisis is not over - this shouldn't be an argument.

Sooo, what do we have here?

For the detractors - A big iPod which is no match for a mini laptop because it's not doing multiple tasks.

For the enthusiasts - A small library, where you can fit your books, newspapers, photo's and access some online stuff like websites, games and other entertainment applications.
It seems Apple themselves market the thing as the very best way to browse the internet, which may be quite an accurate statement.

For me - A potentially useful device, surrounded by a totally useless black frame, that adds 50% more volume to the useful volume. This thing is supposed to be the ultimate ultra-mobile device, so why the heck do I need to carry around 50% more volume than needed? Ah, technical constraints? Well, then thanks but no, thanks. For the time being I prefer spending 300€ on a mini PC that offers many more features, rather than 400€ on an iPad that doesn't bring anything new, after all.

Urban skiing

2010-01-30T11:38:00.003+01:00

120€ (fine) for 20 minutes skiing and becoming an international star. Sounds like a good deal :)

Un chinezism romanesc

2010-01-22T22:12:00.002+01:00

Originalul (spuneti-i "PUMA", "Adidas", "Reebok", cum vreti):

si chinezismul ("PLIMA", "Adidos", "Reobek"):

Facebook - show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are

2010-01-17T19:32:00.009+01:00

The title of this post may not be the most relevant. It could well be "Facebook - the perfect tool for revealing stupidity" or "Tell me how many friends you have on Facebook and I'll tell you what kind of an idiot you are".

The facts:

These days, Romanians have been shocked by one of the most atrocious criminal facts in decades: at least 4 persons have been tortured, beaten and buried alive or thrown in canals, after having been used as legal administrators of a number of companies who's only creation purpose was extensive frauds by various means.

The suspected mastermind of the atrocities, Sergiu Bahaian, had 1.634 friends on Facebook, at the time of his arrest, among whom:

- Gheorghe Hagi (Maradona from the Carpathians) - 3.369 Friends on Facebook
- Tudor Chiuariu, former Minister of Justice - unknown nb. of friends on Facebook
- Honorius Prigoana, son of Romanian Parliament Deputy and business magnate Silviu Prigoana - 3.830 friends on Facebook
- Prince Radu Duda of Hohenzollern-Veringen, son in law of King Michael of Romania - 5.000 friends on Facebook
- Sorin Oprescu, major of Bucharest - 76 friends on Facebook
- many other famous or less famous people, not worth being mentioned, as the principle is the same.

Q: What do all these "friends" of such a character have in common?
A: They are stupid or for the least, naive.

In search for popularity or votes, these guys are ready to link their name to as many as thousands of so called "friends", with absolutely no selection criteria.
Apart from the obvious fact that nobody is able to have more than, let's say, 2.000 acquaintances, not to say friends, that one could remember of, the main question is:

"Why the heck would they need to be "Facebook friend" with so many people?"

If you are a public person and looking for fans or followers, then create your website, keep a blog and stay in touch with your followers, but don't f...ing invite criminals at your table.

I'm wondering how would these guys explain their friendship link with Sergiu Bahaian otherwise than "I'm a true peacock and I usually accept everybody as a Friend on Facebook" or, in other words: "I'm an idiot...".

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Revolutia bunului simt...

2009-12-21T21:02:00.006+01:00

Revolutia bunului simt a inceput!

Cu Mircea Badea. Care a refuzat invitatia sa-si ridice premiul de la gala "Zece pentru Romania" pe motiv ca el nu e ziarist.
Bravo baiatu'! Asta nu iti amelioreaza cu nimic prestatiile zilnice de pe Antena3 cand, intre noi fie vorba - ma simt nevoit sa schimb postul, dar cel putin ai dat un exemplu de bun simt.
Fiecare "gura-sparta" sa-si vada de locul lui si de nisa lui.
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How to map in Windows, a HDD connected to Airport Extreme

2009-12-21T20:40:00.004+01:00

After spending some frustrating hours trying to map my hard drive (connected by USB to an Airport Extreme router) in Windows, here is the solution:

Airport Extreme doesn't support NTSF partitions. The disk has to be formatted in FAT32 or HFS.

Hope this helps frustration-fellows as here-below:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/airport-networking-wireless-technology/107084-how-connect-windows-pc-external-hard-drive-via-airport-extreme.html
http://forums.techguy.org/apple-macos/557743-connecting-external-hard-drive-airport.html

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Doi ratati

2009-12-05T15:32:00.008+01:00

Base refacut2
Vezi mai multe video din Blog

Cand se intalneste intaiul marinar al tarii cu intaiul postac al tarii, rezultatul este un surogat de interviu, de o calitate demna de lumea a treia.
La aceasta ora ambii se felicita ca au dat lovitura.

Malev steals from luggage ?

2009-10-11T20:53:00.009+02:00

I decided to write this post following a sad incident with Malev, the Hungarian national air company, that has never been addressed or follown up by them.
I hope this will be indexed as good as a previous post related to the Hungarian motorway vignette and make enough people aware of what they could get exposed to, when travelling with Malev.

The introduction:

Some two weeks ago, my mother in law took the airplane back to Cluj, via Budapest, after a wonderful week spent with us in Brussels. The Malev offer (about 140€ and five hours from Cluj to Zaventem - return ticket) was very appealing, especially when you know how difficult it is to fly on the route Cluj-Belgium.
She gets to Budapest, she goes for the transfer and while boarding in, she is literally obliged not to take any hand luggage. Not very happy, but, fine... what can she do? In the rush, she forgets to remove the valuables from her hand luggage.
She gets to Cluj and, you guessed, money is missing from the luggage.

Development:

She goes over to the Cluj Airport authorities to fill-in a complaint and there she mets another person in the same situation. The reaction of the airport staff: "No, not on the Malev-Budapest route, again!". It looks like this kind of incident is as common as the flight itself.
In the next days, she follows the story up with the Malev office in Romania while I wrote them an e-mail.
Result: no reaction.

Conclusion:

Despite the very often occurence of theft from luggage on the Malev flights, as described here or here, the company doesn't take any action.
Moreover, they don't reply to customer complaints.
It is of course a frustrating situation, but let's not underestimate the power of information, these days. See Dave Carroll case and the United Breaks Guitars song :).
Now, I wouldn't like to spend my time writting a song or poetry about Malev stealing from luggage, but nobody will keep me from suspecting the involvment of the company in these facts, for as long as not only they don't cover any damage or don't get back to their complaining customers, but they even push people to giving away their hand luggage in a rush, just like in a dirty pick-pocket trick.

Suggestion:

If you were victim of a similar situation, don't hesitate to refer this post on your own blog. This will increase the awarness of internet surfers and hopefully the situation will somehow get fixed, sooner or later.
If you think of taking a Malev flight, think twice. Your end cost for the travel may well end-up being more expensive than any other business class trip.

Good luck!

Cand populismul ne conduce

2009-08-02T10:57:00.004+02:00

Ce inseamna populismul?
Dezvoltarea si mentinerea unei imagini pozitive fara un substrat real, din dorinta de a da bine pentru cat mai multa lume, cu scopul de a atrage sustinerea unei majoritati in anumite structuri sociale sau politice (comunitati diverse, partide, primarie, guvern, tara, etc.).

Altfel spus, populistul respinge cu naivitatea idiotului doua principii fundamentale de viata:

1. Pomul se judeca dupa roade (nu dupa flori) iar omul dupa fapte (nu dupa vorbe).
2. Poti minti un om o data, poti minti o mie de oameni o data, de doua ori, de trei ori, dar nu poti minti pe toata lumea la nesfarsit.

Ipoteza de lucru:

Intr-un oras de dimensiuni medii (400.000 locuitori) vin doua firme cu intentia de a construi doua centre comerciale, intr-o parte si in cealalta a orasului, pe langa multe alte centre mai mici sau mai mari, construite sau in curs de constructie.
Prin natura lucrurilor, aceste doua firme sunt in competitie economica, atat intre ele, cat si cu celelalte firme de pe piata.
Proiectele fiind complexe, este nevoie de diverse contracte, avize, permise, etc.
Tot prin natura lucrurilor, este evident ca cele doua firme vor incerca sa-si faca treaba cat mai repede si, accesoriu, sa isi intarzie rivala.

Scenariul 1: Povestea se deruleaza intr-o tara civilizata, un stat de drept, cu traditie democratica. In Europa de Vest, de exemplu.

Vin ambele firme, incep demersurile de achizitie a terenurilor, obtinere de aprobari si avize. Se vorbeste in presa, se descopera eventuale mici nereguli care se rezolva pe cale amiabila sau eventual prin procese rapide in instante. Jurnalistii mentin un discurs decent si echilibrat, pentru ca defaimarea, calomnia si insulta se pedepsesc grav. Autoritatile isi fac datoria si elibereaza doar acele avize pe care legea le permite sa le elibereze, merg din cand in cand la masa cu cei doi investitori, iar in mai putin de doi ani, ambele proiecte sunt finalizate. Primarul se mandreste cetatenilor cu realizarile mandatului sau si este reales.

Scenariul 2: Povestea se deruleaza intr-o tara bananiera, condusa de o dictatura. Africa, America de Sud, Orientul Mijlociu, unele parti din Asia...

Vin ambele firme, dau fiecare cate o spaga unde trebuie si ambele proiecte sunt finalizate in mai putin de un an. Nu tu jurnalisti, nu tu primari, avize sau nereguli.

Scenariul 3: Povestea se deruleaza in Romania, mai precis: la Cluj.

Vin Paszkany si Dascalu si incep munca de prospectare. Vrem sa facem Iulius Mall si Polus Mall. Bun. Ia sa vedem de unde luam terenurile... Aaa, de la primarie si de la Universitatea de Agronomie. Nasol, ambele sunt proprietati ale statului, cu zeci de stapani. Nu-i nimic, demaram procedurile legale de achizitie. Afla presa si incepe sa dezvolte subiecte de scandal, pentru ca la noi defaimarea, calomnia si insulta nu se pedepsesc prea tare, ba mai mult - da bine la popor.
Din gura presei, apare in ecuatie si micutzul Boc. El are sarcina de partid sa adune cat mai multa simpatie, asadar poa sa se intample orice, numai sa nu apara rau in presa. Presa stie asta.
Automat, Dascalu si Paszkany se gandesc ca bah, legea oricum nu pare sa aiba prea multa valoare, o spaga unica si sanatoasa nu putem da ca nu suntem intr-o dictatura, vezi doamne, asa ca hai sa rezolvam lucrurile prin presa. Zis si facut, se obtin avize prin presiuni mediatice, lucraturi underground si mai putin pe baze legale, se mai sponsorizeaza PDL-ul, PSD-ul, PNL-ul, etc. si se gata proiectele in 3 ani.
Nimeni nu iese prea bine. Se dovedeste ca Boc e un demagog si un om de paie care, ghinionul notru, a ajuns si prim ministru. Paszkany este urmarit penal pentru chestii care oriunde altundeva ar fi considerate lobby sau PR, iar pe Iulian Dascalu l-a prins criza mondiala si criza generata de Boc cu toate ouale in acelasi cos - respectiv in imobiliare.

Concluzie: justitia functioneaza greu, presa este fie aservita fie motivata de abordari scandaloase iar politicienii promoveaza populismul.

Ce e de facut, din perspectiva omului de rand? Pana nu demult, ai fi putut spune "Da-i dreacu, n-au decat sa-si faca matrapazlâcurile, oricum eu nu pot face nimic, asa ca mai bine imi vad de treaba". Ei bine, lucrurile se schimba din momentul in care constati ca o duci din ce in ce mai greu si ca matrapazlâcurile respective te afecteaza mult mai tare, mai direct si mai rapid decat te-ai fi asteptat.
Partea pozitiva este ca in momentul de fata, in politica exista un echilibru de forte foarte bine distribuit, astfel incat fiecare vot conteaza.

In consecinta, singurul lucru care ramane de facut este sa judecam oamenii dupa fapte si nu dupa vorbe si sa-i votam pe cei care demonstreaza ca au facut si vor sti sa faca in continuare lucrurile mai bine decat ceilalti.
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Zoso cenzureaza

2009-07-07T22:31:00.007+02:00

Zoso a devenit de ceva vreme imaginea micului blogger independent si rebel, citit si adulat de multi naivi, printre care si Emil Hurezeanu, care zice-se ca l-ar fi numit fenomen, in niste circumstante neclare.
Anyways, Hurezeanu l-a mai adulat si promovat si pe Basescu, cu care se judeca acum.
Revenind la subiectul principal, zoso cenzureaza. Pe cei care il critica, pe cei care ii demasca frustarile si mai nou, pe cei care emit opinii contrare anumitor articole ale lui, cu tenta politica cel putin dubioasa si mirosind a campanii mascate de formare de opinii.

Mai jos, un exemplu de articol in care 7 comentarii din 14 sunt cenzurate, putem fi siguri ca nu pe motive de limbaj vulgar, pe care autorul nu ezita sa il foloseasca in orice ocazie.

Pana aici, nimic nou in peisajul socio-cultural romanesc, face fiecare ce poate si cum poate, insa in momentul in care un astfel de personaj cu un oarecare talent scriitoricesc innascut si ale carui expuneri sunt urmarite de zeci sau sute de mii de tineri permeabili la idei mai mult sau mai putin bine intentionate, la idei provenind din interese mai mult sau mai putin politice sau economice, e bine sa se stie un lucru:

Zoso nu este ceea ce ar vrea sa fie. Zoso nu este independent, zoso nu este un curajos, zoso nu este nici creativ nici inteligent.
Zoso este exact ceea ce pare: un tip cu anumite frustrari care se agraveaza pe zi ce trece, un tip care mai scrie si la comanda, un tip care nu are curajul sa spuna cuiva in fata ceea ce spune pe blog, un tip total lipsit de creativitate la un nivel care sa depaseasca nivelul OTV, un tip de inteligenta omului care se complace in a aborda mereu aceleasi si aceleasi subiecte care in esenta se rezuma la un singur lucru: "toti sunt prosti, eu sunt destept".

Referinte:

Zoso si-a luat viteza
Zoso sucks
The blogfather cenzureaza

Abramburica

2009-05-09T14:40:00.005+02:00

Din punctul de vedere al lui Google, noua Abramburicã, desi mai uzatã, a detronat-o pe vechea Abramburicã, spre disperarea multora.

World War III - the battle for the Universal Currency - part 1

2009-05-05T08:21:00.007+02:00

Here is a definition by Wikipedia about what World War 3 could mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_III

As expected, everybody thinks World War 3 is about a devastating (nuclear) conflict at global scale.
On my opinion this is far from even being likely to happen in the current geo-political and social context.

One should not forget that the triggers for World War 1 & 2 were well defined ambitions of a few political regimes to dominate geographical areas through territorial expansion, combined with the weakness of certain political systems, on the edge of collapse (austro-hungarian and tsarist empire).

The situation nowadays has totally changed. Political control over new territories is a bad business case, as it brings more hassle than benefits. Only think of the American occupation of Iraq. It has actually always been the case, but in the past there were less ways to get benefits from a certain region, unless your armies were occupying it.
Nowadays, the fast moving merchandise and information (in other terms: globalization) makes it possible to control and benefit from "occupied" nations or territories by far more subtle means, such as: strategic technology, strong currency, strategic resources, etc.

Since strategic resources are mostly related to the control of geographical areas and strategic technology can be very volatile in times when anyone could virtually research and develop anything, the last big battle is about a Universal Currency.

We won't go any further in this first part, unless with the recommendation for a few relevant articles, to further understand the matter:

Definition and history of a Currency by Wikipedia
The petrocurrency
Petrodollar warfare
Dollar hegemony
US dollar hegemony has got to go - by Henry C K Liu

a few readings that will help understand the considerations in part 2 of this post, yet to come...
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Buying highway vignette's in Hungary

2009-04-27T22:11:00.003+02:00

Hopefuly this post will get indexed properly and prevent many readers from getting frustrated or feeling robbed when travelling through Hungary.
One day you will thank me for that.

Here are the facts:

1. If you get to Hungary by car, the road vignette is mandatory. However, make sure you have some 1.200 Forint (about 4€), to be able to pay for the minimum 4 days vignette.
Failing to pay in Forint or by card will put the price up to as much as 7-7.5 €, if you pay with Euro, Lei or any other currency, that are generally accepted in border areas.

2. You are in Hungary, you drive towards Austria and you stop at a gas station for refilling your tank. You get to the counter and the seller asks you if you don't need an Austrian vignette. You say "Yes, why not, why should I stop again in Austria...?".
Well, this good idea will cost you more than 4€, as the Austrian vignette (normal price - 7.9€ for 10 days) is sold 3.500 Forint (~= 12€) in Hungary, regardless of whether you pay by card or cash, in Forint.

Hope this helps. Also hope this helps authorities uderstand that too much is too much and some kind of control of the phenomenon is needed.
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Romanii, Obama si Monarhia

2009-04-11T11:26:00.004+02:00

In momentul in care am aflat ca principele Radu si-a anuntat candidatura la presedintia Romaniei, m-a dus gandul la o diversiune FSN-ista, pentru ca dupa orice logica sanatoasa, o astfel de candidatura nu ar fi facut decat sa canibalizeze din voturile lui Antonescu.

However, ca in orice business plan serios, fie el si inscaunarea pe tronul prezidential a unui principe, studiul de piata ocupa un rol esential. In cazul de fata, studiul de piata Hotnews, la aceasta ora se prezinta astfel: Basel - 28%, Radel - 28%, Antonel - 20%, Mirciulica - 3%, Gigel, Vadimel si oricare alt schizofrenel - restul de 20%.
That's amazing, vorba lui Carl Hooper :)!
Cine s-ar fi gandit vreodata ca Mircica ar putea sa decada in asemenea hal? Sau poate PSD-ul si sustinatorii lui nu citesc Hotnews. Sau nu citesc. Nimic. Ever. Most likely...

Sa revenim la titlu.

Se pare ca in spatele candidaturii principelui Radu ar fi, cine altul decat Conu Dinu, iar in spatele conului Dinu n-ar fi exclus sa fie multe alte personaje suficient de influente incat reusita acestei candidaturi sa fie o certitudine. Vom afla asta in momentul in care Betsy Myers, directoarea de campanie a presedintelui Obama va deveni sau nu, directoarea de campanie a printului Radu.

In lumina ultimelor evenimente din Moldova, a crizei economice si a spectrului de instabilitate care planeaza asupra regiunii, ca granita estica a UE, nu este exclus ca mai marii lumii sa urmareasca stabilizarea zonei prin reinstaurarea unei monarhii parlamentare in Romania.
Marile schimbari se intampla atunci cand populatia este predispusa la schimbare, conjuncturile internationale o permit, iar marile forte strategice o accepta.

Ceva imi spune ca dinspre Obama sufla vant de Monarhie si altceva imi spune ca dinspre Basel sufla vant de capitulare.

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The Wiki model extended to business

2009-04-04T12:15:00.004+02:00

Google announces the launch of Google Ventures - a Mio. 100$ venture capital fund aiming at supporting remarkable private business initiatives from any industry.

It seems like the most logical and natural growth opportunity for Google, who is reaching saturation in terms of revenues from online search.
If you look at the concept as an "Outsourcing plan" for R&D and Project Management activities, the idea is outstanding. Why managing internally teams of american or western european programmers or managers, when chinese, indians, eastern europeans or south americans may come up with better ideas, higher motivation and besides all, share your risk and bear some of the costs.

My bet is that in 5 years time, Google Ventures will generate more profit for Google Inc. than the current activities.
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Hai ca se poate!

2009-03-29T14:09:00.004+02:00

Agentia Nationala de Administrare Fiscala renunta anul acesta la sistemul de trimitere, respectiv primire a declaratiilor de venit prin posta.

Altfel spus, in era comunicatiilor electronice, ne intoarcem pe vremea lui Ceausescu, atunci cand se statea la coada la orice.

Partea pozitiva: doar astfel putem spera sa scapam de Basescu si de FSN mai repede decat mai tarziu.

Hai ca se poate!
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Rain in the month of March

2009-03-06T23:27:00.003+01:00

Ploaie in luna lui Marte - Probably the most inspired and well-known poem of the volume "A vision of feelings" by Nichita Stanescu, on a music composed by Nicu Alifantis.

English translation gracefuly offered by Anna.

Enjoy!

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The global revolution

2009-02-21T19:51:00.009+01:00

Definition: A Revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.

Theorists see the development of revolutions as a two-step process:

1. Some change results in the present situation being different from the past.
2. The new situation creates an opportunity for a revolution to occur. In that situation, an event that in the past would not be sufficient to cause a revolution (ex. a war, a riot, a bad harvest), now is sufficient – however if authorities are aware of the danger, they can still prevent a revolution (through reform or repression).

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Back to reality:

We have a financial crisis a lot bigger than anyone ever believed.
Following the financial crisis, we have an economic crisis, bigger and bigger every day.
These two together are largely enough to fulfill the criteria for a first step towards Revolution. Things are definitely not what they used to be one year ago. At this stage we are yet, still far from the worst.

Since few days ago, we have an event that could definitely cause major changes in the near future:

U.S. authorities forced UBS to disclose the banking records of 250 american clients suspected of fiscal evasion. After complying and paying some $780 million fine to the U.S. authorities, UBS is now summoned to hand in 52.000 records of american clients, suspected to total about $15 bilion of un-taxed assets.

So far so good, the tax laws should be applied to each and everyone, but...:

1. The US has long tolerated offshore fiscal paradises, for many objective or subjective reasons.
2. The UBS decision to comply came after a serious threat by the U.S. to cancel the Swiss Bank's license to conduct its hundreds billion operations on Wall Street.
3. Many other states that thrown huge amounts of money on financial markets in the desperate attempt to saving or relaunching their economies, are now seeking to re-balance their accounts by fighting tax fraud and tax havens by the same oportunity.

Let's now start analyzing the consequences of the above facts.

By accepting the US claims in spite of the Swiss constitution that guarantees the banking secret, UBS and the Bern government give a significant blow to the myth of Switzerland as a safe place for money of any kind.
The impact could be huge, as one third of worldwide offshore money (money hold in accounts outside their country of origin) is actually deposited in Switzerland and totals about 5 trillion dollars.
Typicaly, the holders of Swiss bank accounts are wealthy individuals or organizations likely to react and transfer their (significant) wealth to other destinations, more rapidly than the average person.

By taking such measures against a Swiss bank and especially blackmailing with the removal of Wall Street license (a scenario similar to Ukraine's blocking of the russian gas trafic), United States put the Wall Street stock exchange in a very bad light. It will be only legitimate for many institutional investors to think that their dependence on the NYSE is harmful in the long term and seek for diversification.
If transactions on the NYSE decrease, quoted companies could start looking for better financial markets, thereby further decreasing America's power on global finance level.
With an estimated $70 billion yearly loss due to tax evasion and several trillions invested by fiscal paradises in the american stock exchange, the game may not be worth the candle for the U.S..

At this moment, the major shareholder of UBS is the Government of Singapore (Singapore being a tax haven and banking haven itself).
With the American "attack" on UBS, there will certainly be increased presure for massive migration of funds towards alternative havens, like Singapore for instance.

The nowdays increased speed of circulation for financial information and transfers make it almost impossible to address the question of tax havens otherwise than at global level.
For as long as one single tax haven will remain operational in the world, fighting against the others will only be detrimental for the country who does that.

After all, the existance itself of tax havens and their enormous turnover, only prove that taxation systems and the management of state budgets are still far from being optimized in many countries, including the U.S..

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Back to the Revolution:

If up to this moment the financial crisis was the result of bad financial management and lack of good regulation, the future economic revolution could be even more dramatic, with large amounts of capital fleeing from one region to the other and generating impossible to calculate effects.
The lack of trust and the greediness of governments to recover losses generated by the greediness of investors and banks which were not let die at the right moment, could throw our whole world in an economic war quite similar to a world war that we had over the last century.

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Voteaza ca prostu' - Voteaza Apostu

2009-02-15T14:02:00.003+01:00

Un mic gand, nu dintre cele mai bune, catre echipa de campanie a lui Sorin Apostu care in aceasta zi de votare impinge penibilul si ilegalitatea pana la maxim, dand telefoane de stimulare asa-ziselor "liste de sustinatori" ale lui Sorin Apostu - in realitate un spam odinar, unde "lista de sustinatori" este de fapt cartea de telefon a municipiului Cluj-Napoca.
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ImoMarket - the return to free of charge Ads

2009-02-14T16:05:00.005+01:00

As of today publishers who post up to 3 simultaneous ads on ImoMarket will not be invoiced anymore.

When we launched ImoMarket in 2005, we followed the same principle of offering our services free of charge, for about 1.5 years, the time to develop a system able to invoice Ads per click and per day of activity.
During this period ImoMarket has grown to more than 10.000 visitors per month and about 20-30 new adverts were received every day.

We hoped that by introducing payable services we would manage to filter all old or multiple ads for the same property and position ourselves as a premium brand, on the online real estate advertising market.
To a certain extent our goal has been achieved but could not compensate the reverse effect of traffic drop, due to less advertisers coming in, thus less visitors looking for properties.

At the end of the day, our whole Business Case comes back to the same question: "How to create acceptance for our online marketplace?"
The answer is as simple (or as complex) as answering the question of "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?".
In other words, if you don't have enough ads on your site, then why would visitors come to you and if you don't have enough visitors then why would advertisers post on your site?

There is probably no clear recepy for that, otherwise any online entrepreneur could end-up developing a new E-bay.

We therefore stopped asking ourselves philosophic questions and decided to go for a more pragmatic approach.
It has been said that "there is no free lunch" (an idea that I would very much like to further develop in a future post on this blog). Well, if in general "there is no free lunch", then it would mean that a free lunch is something very scarce, that could easily attract many consumers.

So, let's give "a free lunch" under the form of up to 3 free-of-charge advertisments on ImoMarket and publishers will hopefuly appear.
This will hopefuly attract more visitors and the "chicken and the egg" cycle is started-up.

We think that this is, by the way, the only way to go in the current online environment, with more and more sites striving to attract users that are less and less willing to pay for basic services.
Most Internet success stories over the last years - Google, Youtube, Facebook, Linkedin, Skype, E-bay, Virtual Earth, only to quote a few of them, are based on the same holy principle: basic services are free of charge.

Some people will now wonder - what about ways of getting revenues? Before getting into polemics on this subject, let's stick to the main idea:

Posting real estate ads on ImoMarket is now free-of-charge!

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Banci romanesti - Internet Banking

2009-02-11T17:07:00.008+01:00

Am ajuns sa testez si internet banking-ul de la Alphabank. Nu m-a impresionat deloc pozitiv.
Pe alocuri, pare copiat de la Banca Transilvania.
Ajungi in aplicatie si in loc ca primul lucru pe care il vezi sa fie conturile si soldul lor, vezi o bãlãrie de mesaj de bine ati venit.
De acolo incolo incepe arta cautarii acului in carul cu fân.
Totul este incalcit prin niste butoane de meniu din stanga, soldurile, extrasele de cont, tranzactiile efectuate, totul se face prin generarea unor rapoarte, in loc sa fie accesibile direct in pagina, cel putin pentru operatiunile mai recente.

Personal, sunt un utilizator infocat al internet bankingului si pana acum am avut de lucru cu aplicatiile de la Alphabank, BT, Volksbank si OTP.
OTPdirekt este de departe cel mai bun internet banking din cate am vazut in Romania. As spune ca, din punctul meu de vedere, devanseaza chiar si unele aplicatii ale bancilor straine (ex: Fortis).

Venind acum la originea lucrurilor, nu pot sa inteleg cum de institutii economice cu posibilitatile bancilor noastre se complac in a-si chinui clientii cu niste aplicatii de smuls parul din cap.
Nu inteleg de asemenea, cum clientii acestor banci se complac in a-si manca nervii cu astfel de programe. Nu inteleg, e un fel de-a spune. E oarecum similar cu satisfactia omului care in 1988 isi cumpara Dacia 1310 TLX, dupa ani lungi de asteptare si era fericit sa aiba un buton (de decor) in plus, fara sa-si imagineze ca la o masina adevarata butonul ala si face ceva.
Daca pe vremea lui Nea Nicu aveam de ales intre Dacie si pantofi Clujana, acum har domnului avem de ales intre vreo 40 de banci active in Romania, care mai de care bune si mai interesante (dupa spusele lor).

Ei bine, este uluitor sa constati ca pana si in conditiile in care nimeni nu îi tine legati de o banca sau alta, consumatorii isi aleg bancile pe motive extrem de subiective ca: imagine de marca, numar de sucursale, etc.

Linkuri utile in acest context:

SEOpedia forum - internet banking topic

ImoMarket - Banci romanesti

ImoMarket forum - Banci din Romania

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Pusca si cu buza lata

2009-02-08T22:49:00.004+01:00

Purtătorul de cuvânt al Guvernului, Rares Niculescu, s-a ales cu buza umflată in urma unui scandal la Romantic Club, in Cluj Napoca.

Urasc barfele de genul asta si nu comentez evenimentul in sine, dar nu ma pot abtine sa nu remarc ca atunci cand esti purtatorul de cuvant al Guvernului Romaniei si Europarlamentar, nu te duci la chefuri in Romantic (clujenii stiu de ce), iar daca totusi te-ai dus, esti capabil sa porti un dialog civilizat chiar si cu cel mai bolovan dintre bodyguarzi, cel putin la nivelul la care sa n-o iei peste ochi.
Nu vreau sa-mi imaginez ce s-ar fi intamplat daca in loc de o discutie cu un bodyguard, Purtatorul ar fi trebuit sa faca un anunt delicat in problema conflictului israelo-palestinian.

Conu Dinu fata cu reactiunea

2009-02-07T20:08:00.006+01:00

Realitatea TV, Sambata 7 Februarie 2009, ora 20 - Emisiunea Zona de impact, invitat Dinu Patriciu.

Conu' Dinu este unul dintre putinii oameni foarte bogati din Romania, pe care criza i-a prins calare pe un purcoi de bani. Probabil nu intamplator ci ca urmare a unor cunostiinte si a unui fler remarcabil in afaceri.
Omul vorbeste in cunostiinta de cauza in domenii precum economia, managementul si comertul international.

Ei bine, eu nu inteleg ce il impinge pe omul asta sa mearga la Realitatea TV, sa se aseze intre o proasta si un rârâit, ca sa fie intrerupt la fiecare fraza, in cel mai pur stil al jurnalismului de cacat practicat de Realitatea TV.

Poate ca unii telespectatori chiar ar fi vrut sa-l asculte pe Patriciu, nu pe o proasta sau pe un rârâit care nu au nimic de spus.

Deblocarea pietei imobiliare - posibila opera a guvernului Boc

2009-02-06T00:23:00.003+01:00

Citesc astazi cu interes urmatorul articol pe Realitatea.net, care spune in esenta ca, pe langa alte masuri gandite mai mult sau mai putin cu capul de catre eroul Boc, taxele pe proprietatile imobiliare (cladiri si terenuri) vor creste anul acesta cu 24.3% fata de anul trecut.

Dupa cum spuneam intr-o postare din luna Mai 2008 pe ImoMarket, unul dintre motivele principale ale scaderii preturilor pe o piata imobiliara sau de crestere a volumului de tranzactii este costul fiscal al proprietatii, adica impozitul pe care proprietarul trebuie sa-l plateasca statului, pentru proprietatile imobiliare detinute.
Astfel, daca pana acum calitatea de proprietar imobiliar presupunea plata unor impozite, incepand cu 2009 aceste impozite se vor majora cu aproape 25%, ceea ce este un lucru relativ bun, avand in vedere nivelul scazut al fiscalitatii imobiliare din Romania.
Aceasta majorare a impozitelor ii va forta pe unii proprietari (aflati deja sub presiunea devalorizarilor generate de criza economica si financiara) sa vanda unele proprietati nerentabile, la pretul pietei, contribuind astfel la deblocarea pietei imobiliare.

Iata cum, din dorinta mai mult sau mai putin constienta de a drege busuiocul la nivel de deficit bugetar, prin marirea tacita a uneia sau alteia dintre taxe, Guvernul Bãsenel & Bocãnel va avea o contributie pozitiva la deblocarea pietei imobiliare prin fortarea unui numar mai mare de tranzactii.
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Prost sa fii noroc ca existi - partea a 2-a

2009-02-05T15:05:00.004+01:00

Ca urmare a inceperii derularii recente a programului rabla nemteasca Hotnews ne informeaza ca Dacia este pe locul 2 in topul preferintelor in Germania, in cadrul acestui program.

Pasul urmator este o sedinta de infatuare publica a romanilor: vedeti bah, ce tari suntem? (noi cei multi si prosti care am facut tot ce ne-a stat in putinta sa dam in cap industriei auto romanesti, incepand cu salariatii care anul trecut cereau majorari salariale de 60%, continuand cu iRealitatea TV si campania lor impotriva taxei auto si sfarsind cu Basenel si Bocanel care nici acum nu au inteles ce se intampla).

Prost sa fii noroc ca esti si ca traiesti pe acelasi continent cu nemtii.

Bancul cu Nica:

2009-02-04T00:04:00.006+01:00

Ni care-i ministru' :)

A se clasa in categoria "Guinness Boc" of records, a celei mai mari frecvente de rotatie a cadrelor la nivel de guvern.

Viitorul presedinte al Romaniei

2009-02-01T12:00:00.004+01:00

Potrivit unui sondaj INSOMAR citat de Realitatea TV, daca maine ar fi alegeri, 59% dintre romani ar vota cu Basescu, 13% cu Geoana iar 8% cu Oprescu.

Am o mare nedumerire pe care tot am incercat sa mi-o explic, fara sa reusesc: Oricata lume ar pleca/fugi din Romania, acolo ramane un procentaj constant de prostime - 80%. How come?

The Blaxi girls they like to party like nobody, like nobody...

2009-02-01T01:25:00.007+01:00

That's it, Romania has the right recepy for winning Eurovision 2009. The song is simple to remember and enough of a kitch, to stire the attention of all neighboring countries from the Balkans. Elena is more than good looking and together with a full set of famous Elena's (one, two, three) that Romania has or is ready to export as a brand image, they may well come back from Moscow not only with a trophy but even with the ammended plans of the South Stream project.
Since the times when valuable artists like ABBA, Céline Dion or Toto Cutugno were winning Eurovision are long passed, the Romanian choice seems most reasonable and will only delight millions of European viewers, of what has now become the least of a music contest - Eurovision.

Blaxi girls (ranked 2 with "Dear Mama") - you didn't lose anything.
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Yes... Week-end !

2009-01-30T18:09:00.007+01:00

Barack Obama (ce nouveau "brand" de la politique américaine) - une vision à long terme.
Michel Daerden (ce Serge Gainsbourg de la politique belge) - une vision à court terme.
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Financial crisis impact on Mobile Operators

2009-01-29T13:14:00.007+01:00

According to a recent article from TMCnet, the financial and economic crisis starts affecting the Mobile industry.
It is however good to notice that, contrary to Manufacturers, Mobile Operators seem to be less impacted.
Why would that be? Would that not be more natural that, given the crisis, people reduce their traffic-related expenses, rather than handset-purchase expenses?
Or, would that not be natural to see a severe drop in Operators revenue? The maximum yet recorded (at least that I know of), is mentioned to be a 25% revenue shrink in some Indonesian Mobile Operators. Others have even improved year-to-year figures.

So, what's the explanation of such resiliance?

According to some models that I tend to believe, Mobile Operators should be looked upon as Commodities Suppliers, exactly like an Energy, Water or Gas company.
For a long time I thought this view was only applicable as far as differentiation is concerned (i.e. - doesn't make a lot of difference between air-time you buy from Orange, Vodafone, AT&T, Telia, NTT DoCoMo or whoever else).

Surprisingly, the "commodity" atributes apply to dependence as well, meaning that our lives depend more and more on mobile communication and those services are actually not the first ones we are ready to cut-off in case of consumption budget shrink.
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The "Do nothing" strategy explained

2009-01-27T19:07:00.003+01:00

I recently became very surprised to realize that something as powerful as the "do nothing" strategy has not yet earned a place of itself in a a popular encyclopedia like Wikipedia.
Moreover, typing a simple Google search "do nothing" doesn't reveal any valuable example of this way of acting.

As a fervent admirer and a convinced practitionner of "do nothing", I decided to expose at least two good examples that could help my readers acquiring better understanding of how to "do nothing" and ultimately guide them towards a higher and healthier level of wisdom.

In business management or survival techniques, we have the following (fictious) example:

You are flying an airplane, over a remote region of Canada, together with other passengers. Due to an engine problem, you are obliged to a forced landing, in the middle of nowhere, in a cold area, surrounded by snow, lakes, swamps and 200 km's away from any potential human settlement.
The question is: what do you do next, knowing that you are left with several objects such as: a compass, 2 sleeping bags, that much food, a torch, etc. ?

After duely assessing the situation, the good answer to the question is that you should "do nothing" else than sit down on your ass, and wait for rescues, as there are more chances to get saved by others than to save yourself by willing to do something smart, when you stand absolutely no chance. On the contrary, in such cases you are more likely to perish in this unfriendly environment.

The second example is another famous one, taken from the military:

During his campaign in Gaul, Julius Cesar with his 50.000 troops managed to surround and besiege the fortress of Alesia, where 80.000 men were garnisoned.
About 3 to 4 weeks later, not being able to push Alesia into capitulation, the Roman army got encircled itself, by some 250.000 Gauls coming as a relief force.
In such a precarious situation, many would have attempted to break through, either towards the fortress or outwards, through the gross of the Gallic army.
Well, Caesar didn't do any of that, he simply "did nothing", until the "outside" Gallic army, desperate to free-up their fellows from the fortress, launched several suicidal attacks on the Roman positions.

There are many other good examples, worth being mentionned, of the DO NOTHING strategy but I leave it to my readers to find them by themselves.

Meaning of the story: the DO NOTHING strategy is to be applied whenever the complexity of the environment or the situation is such that no predictable outcome can be foreseen. It is also applicable whenever your "oponent" or oposing force (be it a person, a situation or a state of facts) is likely to act towards its self-consumption or self-destruction.
In the worst of the cases, you will have preserved your energy and ressources, to be able to survive and act in a better way during the further developments.
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Prost sa fii, noroc ca esti

2009-01-26T18:17:00.000+01:00

La inceputul lui 2009 Guvernul german decide sa ofere o prima de 2500 € celor care isi caseaza masina (mai veche de 9 ani) si isi cumpara una mai noua de 1 an.
Inainte de sfarsitul lui Ianuarie 2009 apar primele semne ca programul "rabla germana" se bucura de un real succes, nemtii inghesuindu-se sa-si caseze masinile vechi.

Ne intoarcem putin in timp:

In Martie 2008 angajatii Dacia intra in greva, cerand cresteri salariale de 60% si scandand lozinci anti-frantuzesti.
In toamna lui 2008, la presiunea media si a altor partide politice, Guvernul Tariceanu elimina taxa auto.
Octombrie 2008 - vine criza.
Octombrie + Noiembrie 2008 - se inmatriculeaza mai multe masini second-hand decat in tot anul.
Decembrie 2008 - industria auto romaneasca e grav afectata, Dacia isi intrerupe temporar activitatea iar guvernul tripleaza taxa auto.
Ianuarie 2009 - 7000 de angajati Dacia ies in strada scandand lozinci pro-franceze si impotriva eliminarii taxei auto.

Ianuarie 2009 - Guvernul german initiaza programul "rabla germana", scotand de pe piata masinile second-hand atat de ravnite de romani si re-lansand exporturile Dacia in Germania.

Concluzie: Prost sa fii, noroc ca existi.

Here I am

2009-01-24T18:44:00.000+01:00

Here I am! I have a blog.
Good stuff.

Nu mai ramane decat sa-l impodobesc cu constructii mentale de o ingeniozitate aparte.