HTNet - A Notepad of Tech, Business, Science and Self Improvement

Today is March 8; International Women’s Day. Which makes me feel very glad that I’m a man because I get the other 364 days of the year

On a more serious note, we should really take a few minutes to read the linked Wikipedia article about International Women’s Day to appreciate its inception. Whether we admit it or not, women play an equally important part in the development on mankind in science, business, management and sociology among others.

I’d like to take the opportunity on this momentous day to give a shoutout to two women bloggers who continually give me inspiration and enjoyment over the years.

Read the rest of International Women’s Day »

My morning at work was pretty much uneventful until about 11:50am today. That was when the building I was in shook. It wasn’t that bad, more like having a minor headache. However, the building management advised us to evacuate the offices. Mine was on the 14th floor.

It turned out to be a minor tremor resulting from an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale which hit Padang, Sumatra.

What were my prized possessions that I brought out with me? My notebook computer and my car… of course I brought along two of my colleagues who I bumped in along the way and we had an early lunch

Indonesia’s decision to enter an exclusive agreement of sharing H5N1 virus strains samples with Baxter International is controversial to say the least.

This move comes very soon after Jakarta announced that they will stop sharing information relating to the bird flu infections on the grounds of intellectual property protection. This, in my opinion, is a case of valuing money above lives.

While many are dying in Indonesia resulting from bird flu, its government could somehow overlook this fact and focus on making a quick buck through some “exclusive agreement”. How this deal helps Indonesia to protect this infectious property of theirs remains to be seen. This reeks of an opportunistic move that could go very wrong.

Baxter denies coaxing Indonesia to implement this move.

FT and the BBC has more coverage on this news.

You’d probably expect an animal to be long gone after being shot and refrigerated for two days. However, Perky the duck, continues to beat the odds despite being “temporarily dead” twice on an operating table. From the BBC:

“The first time she stopped breathing a quick thump on the chest brought her back,” Ms May told the BBC News website.

“But once the surgeon started sewing her back up she stopped breathing again, this time for 15 seconds.”

When a second thump failed to bring Perky round, veterinary surgeon David Hale tried manipulating the duck’s beak, before using a needle to shock her into consciousness.

At one point the duck was given pure oxygen through a face mask, Ms May said.

“At that point the vet turned and said: ‘I’m sorry, she’s gone.’”

The room fell into shocked silence as those present took in the news, but then Perky raised her head and began flapping her wings.

The PDF specs which has been around for a long time, will soon be released as an open standard, according to this press release by Adobe. Quoted from the press release:

“Today’s announcement is the next logical step in the evolution of PDF from de facto standard to a formal, de jure standard,” said Kevin Lynch, senior vice president and chief software architect at Adobe. “By releasing the full PDF specification for ISO standardization, we are reinforcing our commitment to openness. As governments and organizations increasingly request open formats, maintenance of the PDF specification by an external and participatory organization will help continue to drive innovation and expand the rich PDF ecosystem that has evolved over the past 15 years.”

The question that begs answering would be why now? Adobe has skirted around making PDF an open standard for ages. Probably, in some was or another, Microsoft’s push for XPS adoption has probably got something to do with it… although Adobe probably won’t straight out admit it, of course