I just read Fortune’s 100 fastest growing companies 2009 and a little bit surprised knowing that Research in Motion is in number 1 position. I don’t have much to say; but here is the top 10 list:

1. Research in Motion (Canada)
2. Sigma Designs (US)
3. Sohu.com (China)
4. Ebix (US)
5. DG Fast Channel (US)
6. CF Industries Holdings (US)
7. Shanda Interactive Entertainment (China)
8. Arena Resources (US)
9. Bruker (US)
10. Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (Canada)

I have this one also in my Google Reader’s bookmark for a while; but haven’t had a chance to post it.

BusinessWeek always publishes “The Most Innovative Companies” list every year. Here is the top 10 companies who made to the list this year.

1. Apple (USA)
2. Google (USA)
3. Toyota Motor (Japan)
4. Microsoft (USA)
5. Nintendo (Japan)
6. IBM (USA)
7. Hewlett-Packard (USA)
8. Research in Motion (Canada)
9. Nokia (Finland)
10. Wal-mart Stores (USA)

Although I’m not a Canadian (yet); it’s nice to see a Canadian company made to the list.

What I like about his talk is the picture of “Evolution of Man” (see below). This is how we’ll end up if we don’t control out diet.

And here is a funny cartoon about our current financial crisis. The cartoon is from Slate Magazine.

I’ve been tagged by Dian to write 10 facts about me. So let’s start.

1. I do not speak Chinese although my ancestor is from China. My grandfather is originally from Fujian province in China.
2. I enjoy cooking. Interestingly, I learnt how to cook after I left my home country, Indonesia. Before that, I didn’t even know how to cook rice.
3. I love photography (link to my Flickr account). I bought my first DSLR camera last Christmas.
4. My favorite food is gudeg. It is always the first food that I eat each time I visited Yogyakarta. It’s about 1 hour from my home, Magelang. Unfortunately, I can now only eat gudeg once a year.
5. I met my wife for the time at Sentosa Island, Singapore on September 5, 2004. We were on the same tour to the island.
6. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a medical doctor. Never thought to be an engineer.
7. I had only $3,000 when I started my study in Germany. It was sufficient to cover 6 months of living cost only. How could I survive? I had part-time jobs at Fraunhofer and then Sony International Europe.
8. My first full-time job was at Nokia Germany. The R&D center where I used to work has been shut down by Nokia due to high labour cost.
9. I have never invested in the stock market until I was 31 years old. I made a nice 50% profit in the first year and lost all my profits in the second year.
10. I have never met Dian in person. Btw, Dian is a blogger who tagged me for this stupid posting.

Now the fun part. I have to tag 10 other bloggers: Abigail, Jess, Safaroni, Shu Xiang, Sony Lin (those are all my cousins), Celine, Owen (my niece and nephew), Laura, Cien2, Wiryanto.

The rules:
1. Each blogger must post these rules
2. Each blogger starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves
3. Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their ten things and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose ten people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged and to read your blog.

• Health care system in Canada is free.
• 10 months waiting to get appointment with surgeon to get x-ray.
• 18 months waiting to get appointment for surgery.
• If you want to get in front of the line, work as volunteer for the communities.

PS: When I got a dermatofibroma surgery in Canada last year, I had also to wait about 6 months. First, I had to make appointment with dermatologist, which took 2 months. Then, I need to make appointment with the surgeon, which took another 2 months. Finally, I had to wait for the surgery, which took 2 months again. Anyway, this is what you get for free service.

Well… I wish I had a spam filter in my postal mail box.

Today (August 17) is the independence day of my home country, Indonesia. It was 62 years ago when our founding fathers, Soekarno and Hatta, declared our independence.

My teacher at school told us that Indonesia was colonized by Dutch for 350 years and then Japanese for 3.5 years. During the colonial period, the Dutch monopolized the sources of nutmeg, cloves, pepper, etc. They even established Dutch East India Company (VOC) to control the trading. Anyway, I don’t remember all the details of our history. In fact, I didn’t like history subject when I was in the high school.

I left the country around 7 years ago because of political and economic crisis. Although I still miss my home country, but it was a good decision for my future. The country is still struggling with political and economic problems until today.

Happy Independence Day to Indonesia!!!
(Picture is courtesy of hartanto.)

Just for your information, during my trip to Europe, I visited three of the candidates, i.e.:

• Colosseum in Rome, Italy.
• Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
• Neuschwanstein castle in Schwangau, Germany.