General – Page 14 – Chiperoni ku Basel

Excellent talk.

Presenter Laura Fitton says good content is noticed and forwarded even if there are only a few followers.

Another strength of Twitter is that it supports multi-interfaces and devices. Not limited to a browser.

3 May, 2009

Calculating Present Value

Note to myself. Of no public interest whatsoever.

An exciting topic that is virtually knocking me off my feet.

Present value of a future payment is the amount that one must have today to yield that payment at the future date, given the opportunity rate.

One way to calculate this is to use present value tables.

How much is the present value of receiving 4 million US$ in 6 years at an interest rate of 10% paid at the end of the 6 years?

The present value is calculate (amount received at end of period) * (opportunity rate for 10% and 6 years)-
Equals 4 million * 0.564 = 2.265 million US$

If it’s an annuity, i.e. a series of receipts or payments of the same size are received/made at regular intervals, then use present value table for annuities.

For example regular payments of rent 1.4 million US$ at the end of each year for 6 year at an interest rate of 10% have a present value of 1.4 million * 4.355 = 6.097 million $$$.

Alternatively you can use the Excel/OpenOffice function PV:

Syntax:
PV(rate; numperiods; payment; futurevalue; type)

29 April, 2009

Spontaneous photo walk

thru Basel.

Photos can be viewed in my Flickr stream…

19 April, 2009

Malawi Cell Phone Numbers Change on April 1

Malawi cell phone numbers have changed:

Zain:
Add 099 and the remaining 7 digits.

TNM:
Add 088 and the remaining 7 digits.

3 April, 2009

Calling Malawi from Switzerland

Online bookmark:

Check Teltarif.ch for the cheapest telephone rate to Malawi.

Yesterday I couldn’t remember the name of the cheapest Swiss “callthrough” provider… and googling for something like “Billiger telefonieren Malawi” just lists tonnes of German “call-by-call” sites.

BTW, Swisscom costs CHF 1.40 per minute.

3 April, 2009

Better Connectivity for Africa

Under Sea Cable Arrives in Africa - Appfrica

I really wish this would become reality:

“For me it is so good,” says Sondoto Kobia of Kenya. “I went to sleep yesterday barely being able to get out my emails, but this morning I uploaded a two-hour video of my sons graduation to You Tube in only 10 minutes! I’ve also heard from a number of family members who moved all over the world to places like Spain, France and Washington D.C. The phone is ringing, that’s probably one of them now!”

If only this were real…

1 April, 2009

At the supermarket:
A man gets in line behind me at the supermarket check-out, dumps his groceries with a big thud on the conveyor belt, leans over to get the divider (don’t know what to call it in English, but you need them in Switzerland ‘cos without them the cashier will carry on scanning even if there’s a big space in between). He looked like he was in a bad mood. The bar code on one of my items was not readable. The cashier decided to get another copy to scan. And you could feel his mood worsen. But he didn’t say a word. Didn’t pull a face. Waited patiently in the queue. But when he packed his bags the items landed in there with a big thud.

But I guess on bad days, you’re bound to be in the queue that takes the longest.

I had a good day today. Just in case you’re thinking there’s an analogy. Remember: It’s important to keep a positive attitude on days when everything seems to be turning bad.

Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.

As you think in your heart, so are you!

Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition!

Via Mlle A. of handmade2.0, I read this blog post, which I recommend. Instead of blaming the economy, start changing the way you do things. Try stuff.

Tweak. Document. Repeat.

Alles wird gut.

Never give up.

25 March, 2009

Mad about March

I like March. It’s my favorite month of the year.

I like the blue Baselworld flags. Remind me of the first time I ever came to Basel. All hotels were booked out. I stayed in the Basel youth hostel in St. Alban, a part of town that I really like.

23 March, 2009

FAILing

For future reference:

It’s not stupid to have a stated goal of starting several ventures that will fail, or asking three stupid questions a week, or posting a blog post that the world disagrees with. If you don’t have goals like this, how exactly are you going to luck into being remarkable?

26 February, 2009

About northern France

Finally got round to seeing “Chez les Ch’tis”

Funny.

I was laughing out loud.

It’s the Small Gestures

In a world full of advertising and sales pitches, it’s the little things that count.

Like a handwritten note on the bottom of the fitness center’s invoice:
Bisch fleissig

The owner of the fitness center is a tough business woman. No discount. No rebate. No nothing. But she does build relationships. Which is the right approach.

I mentioned in my previous blog post that building communities is hard work. And I mentioned the Flickr example. While googling for the quote, I stumbled across the fact that George Oates was fired at Flickr in December 08.

While I don’t want to delve into something I know nothing about, I just can’t help feeling that this is a bad marketing move. And maybe Flickr is indeed being pruned for sale.

19 February, 2009