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Old 10th July 2010, 23:33   #16
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Oh revamp of Nikon! I was planning to buy D90+accessories any time. Dont know what to do now.

You can at least tell us that %age wise difference between price in India and there. I would be interested in the cameras only. If its ok with you.
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Old 11th July 2010, 00:33   #17
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When i first read land of Silicon, was bit puzzled and started imagining something else but then cleared my mind and started reading the thread, Do post some pics too would love to see them....
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Old 11th July 2010, 07:25   #18
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Does Nikon story mean, some thing is brewing on the Canon front as well?
Should we expect it?
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Old 11th July 2010, 10:42   #19
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Birth of Sand to Silicon industry in Taiwan

Most of us know that semiconductors are the Heart & Mind of any electronic gadget. Semiconductors enable a better lifestyle for all of us providing access to information, entertainment and services.

Here are couple of videos on the semiconductor manufacturing.

Philips Semiconductors Video


MEMC video


Our own "Technologist" Aaggoswami's thread.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadget...d-silicon.html

Here is a PDF that explains the sand to silicon process (this is proudly found on www, thanks to the authors).
L09a_4345_Sp02.pdf

Taiwan is currently the heartland of semiconductors in Asia.

TSMC (#1), UMC (#2), Vangaurd (#7) are the foundrys from Taiwan
In 1987 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company became the world's first merchant foundry who will manufacture the ICs for any customer and pioneered the outsourcing of IC manufacturing.

Prior to TSMC, all the semiconductor manufacturing was being done by Integrated Design and Manufacturers (IDMs) like IBM, Texas instruments, Philips, Siemens, Intel etc.

TSMC was founded by Philips in co-operation with Taiwan government in 1987, Philips sold it's last shares in 2008 when Philips exited semiconductor business completely.

Here is a part of the story published in the media at that time

Quote:
Philips' investment in TSMC is one of the best investments ever made in the semiconductor industry.

In 1986, the Taiwan authorities were floating the idea of a silicon foundry in which the world's existing chip firms could invest in return for capacity. The offer was open to all, but only Philips took it up.

It is believed that Philips made no financial investment in the project, contributing instead its process technology, chip design capability, and its fab-building and manufacturing expertise.

Now TSMC is worth over NT$1.5trn (US$50bn) on the stock market, and Philips has not only been able to raise regular sums by selling off bits of its equity stake over the years, it has also had 20 years of dividends from its share of TSMC's profits.

Philips has never given a final reckoning of the returns it has reaped from its share in TSMC but past transactions suggest they are very significant.
In 2003, Philips raised €908m on a sale of TSMC shares in 2005 it raised a further €570m further sales raised €1.3bn and $6.5bn. Now it's about to pocket a final $390m.

This is why it has been one of the greatest investments in semiconductors ever made.
Philips not only created Taiwan semiconductor industry, but also Singapore semiconductor industry. Together with TSMC and Economic Development Board of Singapore govt, Philips created System on Silicom Manufacturing Company in Singapore.

I still believe Philips (Siemens and IBM are the other two) is the smartest company in the world ever played the semiconductor game. They entered the business at the right time, innovated lots of things, made the best out of it and exited at the right time, most importantly made tons of money.

Another simple but great contribution of Philips to the world of electronics (among over 200000+ patents) is Voice codec, which converts voice into digital bits (in software) that can be transmitted over the wireless medium. This enabled the invention of Mobile Phone. As Philips
invention was core of the technology, philips made it into a open IP to enable the growth of the wireless / mobile industry.

I had the prevelidge of working for them for over 10 years, some of the most learning (and the best) years of my life.

It is rumoured that Philips also wanted to set up the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India during early late 80s and early 90s.
It is also roumoured that due to lack of support from Govt of India, the idea could never start off.

Imagine Indiacould have become a country not only known for software and outsourcing, but also for semiconductors and hardware. A missed opportunity for us Indians i would say.

Last edited by StarVegabond : 11th July 2010 at 10:47.
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Old 11th July 2010, 12:52   #20
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Quote:
If one is truthful, one need not be consistent. Consistense is more of a quality needed when one is not truthful
Though I cannot admit its completely right, I would say, one must remain consistent on certain things especially on the circumstances what Star underwent explaining to children.

@Star - yes, this is really going very interesting; sorry I cannot rate them once again today
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Old 11th July 2010, 20:25   #21
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Before we jump into the Taiwan Sand, let us look at the background of Taiwan.

CIA World Fact book, states background of Taiwan as below

Quote:
In 1895, military defeat forced China to cede Taiwan to Japan. Taiwan reverted to Chinese control after World War II. Following the Communist victory on the mainland in 1949, 2 million Nationalists fled to Taiwan and established a government using the 1947 constitution drawn up for all of China. Over the next five decades, the ruling authorities gradually democratized and incorporated the local population within the governing structure. In 2000, Taiwan underwent its first peaceful transfer of power from the Nationalist to the Democratic Progressive Party. Throughout this period, the island prospered and became one of East Asia's economic "Tigers." The dominant political issues continue to be the relationship between Taiwan and China - specifically the question of Taiwan's eventual status - as well as domestic political and economic reform.
Total Georgraphy: 35,980 sq km, land: 32,260 sq km, water: 3,720 sq km, coastline: 1,566.3 km

Population : 23,024,956 (July 2010 est.)
Avg Age : 37 years
Age Profile : 0-14 years (16.2%), 15-66 year (74%), 65+ years (10.8%)

Literacy rate : 96.1% people out of 15+ year old population can read-write

As per CIA Fact book

Quote:
Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy with gradually decreasing government guidance of investment and foreign trade. In keeping with this trend, some large, state-owned banks and industrial firms have been privatized.

Exports, led by electronics and machinery, generate about 70% of Taiwan's GDP growth, and have provided the primary impetus for economic development. This heavy dependence on exports makes the economy vulnerable to downturns in world demand. In 2009, Taiwan's GDP fell by 2.5%, due primarily to a 20% year-on-year decline in exports.

Taiwan's diplomatic isolation, low birth rate, and rapidly aging population are major long-term challenges. Free trade agreements have proliferated in East Asia over the past several years, but so far Taiwan has been excluded from this greater economic integration, largely for reasons of diplomacy. Taiwan's birth rate of only 1.2 child per woman is among the lowest in the world, raising the prospect of future labor shortages, falling domestic demand, and declining tax revenues. Taiwan's population is aging quickly, with the number of people over 65 accounting for 10.8% of the island's total population as of the end of 2009.

The island runs a large trade surplus, and its foreign reserves are the world's fourth largest, behind China, Japan, and Russia. Since President MA Ying-jeou took office in May 2008, cross-Strait economic ties have increased significantly. Since 2005 China has overtaken the US to become Taiwan's second-largest source of imports after Japan. China is also the island's number one destination for foreign direct investment. Taipei has focused much of its economic recovery effort on improving cross-Strait economic integration. Three financial memorandums of understanding, covering banking, securities, and insurance, took effect in mid-January 2010, opening the island to greater investments from the Mainland's financial firms and institutional investors, and providing new opportunities for Taiwan financial firms to operate in China. In January 2010, Taipei and Beijing began the first round of cross-Strait negotiations on an economic cooperation framework agreement.
GDP : $717.7 billion (2009 est.), $736.1 billion (2008 est.), $731 billion (2007 est.), country comparison to the world: 20
GDP Growth rate : -2.5% in 2009
GDP Per Capita : $29,800 (2009 est.)
GDP Composition : agriculture: 1.6%, industry: 29.2%, services: 69.2% (2009 est.)
Labour Force : 10.92 million (2009 est.), agriculture: 5.1%, industry: 36.8%, services: 58% (2008 est.)

Population below poverty line : 1.08% (2008 est.)

Industries : electronics, communications and information technology products, petroleum refining, armaments, chemicals, textiles, iron and steel, machinery, cement, food processing, vehicles, consumer products, pharmaceuticals

Exports : $203.4 billion (2009 est.), $254.9 billion (2008 est.), country comparison to the world: 19
Export Partners : China 26.6%, Hong Kong 14.4%, US 11.6%, Japan 7.2%, Singapore 4.2% (2009 est.)

There are 42 airports, 1582KMs of railways, 41279 KM of roads, 3 sea ports, 102 sea carriers in this tiny island alone

1 year of military service is compulsory between the age 19-35.

for more details refer below link.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/tw.html

Last edited by StarVegabond : 11th July 2010 at 20:29.
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Old 11th July 2010, 20:45   #22
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42 airports? Do they even have that much land for runways? OMG. This is amazing.
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Old 11th July 2010, 21:05   #23
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^^^ Why not? Even if they have each airport measuring 15 Sq Kms, they have used only 630 Sql Kms which is just 1.95% of their total geographical land.
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Old 11th July 2010, 21:20   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aargee View Post
^^^ Why not? Even if they have each airport measuring 15 Sq Kms, they have used only 630 Sql Kms which is just 1.95% of their total geographical land.
Don't think Taiwan is a complete flat land. Remember the table top Mangalore incident? And then one needs to have place for the factories, homes, place for storing things which are shipped by 3 ports.

Plus there should be minimum distance maintained between two airports.
So it is an amazing feat. Imagine Bangalore having 40 odd airports! And each runway having 200 speed breakers as it runs through streets with houses on either side!
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Old 11th July 2010, 21:23   #25
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^^^ Be it whatever MX6, Mangalore is not Taiwan & people work over there. The unemployment ratio below 4% & their GDP 5% explains it all. And 5% GDP for that entire tiny island. Ok, enough of OT & I better stop hijacking Starvegabond's thread.
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Old 11th July 2010, 21:29   #26
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I just checked Airport charter website. It says Taiwan has 22 airports.
I was comparing airports because, 2/3rds of taiwan is mountainous. Only the west side has gentle sloping plains. So was wondering how they managed to have 42 airports. Seems like it's only 22 airports, of which 10 are purely military bases. Only 12 serve civil aviation. That's more of an acceptable figure.
Still it's an amazing utilisation of space. Another place that had an amazing utilisation of space was Singapore!

@Star. Have you captured any of the beautiful east side of taiwan with all those hills and rivers and all that?
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Old 11th July 2010, 21:40   #27
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Some interesting data.

Are you sure the average age is 37 years? It seems pretty low for a well developed nation. Any reason for low average age?

Also interesting to know that China is the biggest business partner despite having political problems.

Its very interesting to know that they have 1 year compulsory military service. Not many countries have it. Egypt is another one to have it which I know of.

Last edited by TaureanBull : 11th July 2010 at 21:41.
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Old 11th July 2010, 22:27   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TaureanBull View Post
Are you sure the average age is 37 years? It seems pretty low for a well developed nation. Any reason for low average age?
Yes, I am fairly confident of the accuracy of info on CIA website. always see very young people in Taiwan, but India is younger than Taiwan.
37 years avg age is an indication of the maturity of the society. India is sill <30 years avg age, we still a long away away from the maturity.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TaureanBull View Post
Also interesting to know that China is the biggest business partner despite having political problems.
Yes, Economics, Money and welfare of the people is of much more focus than the conflicts. People are not very emotional or egoistic. That is also one of the reason why we need to develop better people to people and economic relationship with our neighbors. When people have gainful occupation, they have lesser time to indulge in conflicts.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TaureanBull View Post
Its very interesting to know that they have 1 year compulsory military service. Not many countries have it. Egypt is another one to have it which I know of.
It is important disciplining way of training young people. Even though India
does not have compulsory military service, we have enough avenues for young people to experience the disciplined life of the armed forces e.g. NCC, NSS etc provide the opportunities if young people use those opportunities well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MX6 View Post
I just checked Airport charter website. It says Taiwan has 22 airports.
...
...
So was wondering how they managed to have 42 airports. Seems like it's only 22 airports, of which 10 are purely military bases. Only 12 serve civil aviation. That's more of an acceptable figure.
...
...
@Star. Have you captured any of the beautiful east side of taiwan with all those hills and rivers and all that?
the number 42 is from the CIA website, it include the currently used as well as unused airstrips, it includes paved and not paved one.

Here are some glimpses of the area you are talking about. I have attached an map of Taipei Domestic airport. Currently this is used for domestic + military use. International airport (CKS) is outside the taipei city and takes about 30 minutes drive.

005 Taipei Songshan airport aerial view
Name:  005 Taipei Domestic Airport.bmp
Views: 1289
Size:  971.9 KB

006 Street outside the Songshan airport
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-006-street-outside-taipei-domestic-airpor.jpg

007 a closer look, did you spot the pandas
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-007-closer-look.jpg

008 View of the river and flyover from the Niehu business district
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-007-view-niehu-district.jpg

Last edited by StarVegabond : 11th July 2010 at 22:34.
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Old 11th July 2010, 22:55   #29
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Star - I keep watching a program on Travel & Living which is based totally on Taiwan. I really liked Taiwan after seeing a few episodes of that program.

A few things i could remember from that program about Taiwan:

1. Oyster farms. And eating those fresh oysters straight from the farm.
2. Agarbathi production is big, i guess. All the buddha pagodas need them in plenty
3. mangroves in plenty

Nice thread!
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Old 12th July 2010, 21:31   #30
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Next day, i was to reach the office building before 8 AM, which i did without any problems. Taipei is 2.5 hours ahead of India. Since it was my first night in taipei during this tirp, i used the wake up call service to ensure that i get up on time. By the time everyone turned up, and we started the journey it was 8:30 AM

008 this is the bus to the beach, recognizing it was never a problem
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-008-bus-beach.jpg

009 the Sarathi
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-009-sarathi.jpg

010 it was a double decker bus, the first floor was for passenger seating
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-010-first-floor-passenger-seating.jpg

011 and the ground floor for the luggage room
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-011-ground-floor-luggage-room.jpg

012 the bus was fully equiped with the TVs, music system, public address system, refrigerator, water dispenser etc.
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-012-fully-equiped-tv-screens-music-system-pa-system.jpg

013 it was a comfortable journey for the team
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-013-comfortable-journey-team.jpg

014 Navigating the city traffic, peak office going traffic
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-014-navigating-city-traffic.jpg

015 hitting the expressway
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-015-hitting-expressway-towards-north.jpg

016 some glimpses on the way
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-016-some-glimpses-way.jpg

017 maze of highways everywhere
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-017-maze-highways-flyovers-through-hills.jpg

018 we were heading towards Wanli
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-018-we-were-heading-towards-wanli.jpg

019 then we see the first glimpses of the beach on the right hand side
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-019-then-we-see-first-glimpses-beach.jpg

020 it turned out to be a male beach (rocky)
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-020-turned-out-rocky-beach.jpg

021 have a re-look, some amount of sand exists
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-021-have-relook-there-some-sand.jpg

022 a view from different angle
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-022-view-different-angle.jpg

023 a lone rock in the sea
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-023-lone-rock-sea.jpg

024 view of the opposite shore
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-024-view-opposite-shore.jpg

025 route map followed total distance of approx 35 KMs took one hour drive
Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan-025-route-map.jpg

We reached our destination Ocean Vista and Spa hotel by 9:30AM

First time i have used "cropping" as a technique to improve the photographs. Most of the pictures have been taken from the inside the airconditioned bus while moving. i am still learning to take pictures.

Our meetings started immediately and it was a very hectic day till 7:00 PM.
after that we checked in, went it to our rooms. For the first time in my life i was sharing a room with a foreigner. Even though i have been attending such meetings since over 12 years now, most of the time it used to be one room per person while being abroad, and some times twin sharing but mostly among Indians only.

after we freshened up, it was dinner time followed by karoake time, coming up next...
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