Zuckerberg Soars up Forbes List of Richest Americans

If Mark Zuckerberg had a dollar for every user on Facebook ... oh wait, he does. He has lots of dollars for every user on Facebook.

Zuckerberg's net worth surged by US$4.9 billion over the past year, to $6.9 billion, putting him at number 35 on the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans, which was released Wednesday. That was up from 135th place last year.

The Facebook founder's wealth was swelled by private equity deals that put the company's value at about $23 billion, Forbes said. His education is listed on the site as: "Dropout, Harvard University." Oops? Is it?

Zuckerberg wasn't the only person to profit handsomely from the growth at Facebook, which sailed past its 500 millionth user in July. Dustin Moskovitz, who left Facebook in 2008 but retains a stake in the company, is on the list for the first time, in 290th place, with a net worth of $1.4 billion. He's also the youngest person on the list, at 26. (Forbes says he's eight days younger than Zuckerberg.)

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin also made the Top 400 for the first time, with personal wealth of $1.15 billion.

Another Harvard dropout, Bill Gates, retained his place at the top of the list, expanding his wealth by $4 billion from last year to $54 billion. Larry Ellison has to be content with third place again, behind investor Warren Buffett. Ellison's Oracle empire has helped him to amass a fortune of $27 billion.

Other tech leaders in high places include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who share 11th place with $15 billion each. Steve Ballmer and Michael Dell each slipped two places on the list, to 15th and 16th, with fortunes of $14 billion and $13.1 billion, respectively.

The rich got richer this year overall, Forbes said. The top 400 earners in America had a combined wealth of $1.37 trillion.

By the way, the 'official' movie of the founder of Facebook will going to hit the box office soon , who are on the waiting list with me? Check it out: The Social Network :D

iPad refresh due first quarter of 2011 (Really?!)

Despite the usual denial from Apple, it seems as though they are on target to release the sequel to this years biggest tablet, the iPad.

Some of the Taiwan based component suppliers of Apple revealed they believer the shipments for the second-gen iPad will begin next year, according to DigiTimes. With that in mind, it would indicate to us that Apple will announce the iPad at the end of Q1 2011.

DigiTimes publication reported that four iPad suppliers, TPK Touch Solutions, Wintek, Cando and Chimel Innolux were in the process of completing validation by Apple for "ultra-thin, glass-based touch panels". With those terms used, it would seem that the next-gen iPad could've been on the treadmill this last few months and maybe lost some weight, maybe starting to look a bit thinner too.

There was a report a week ago, based on a conversation with an "Apple insider" that stated they were releasing a new version of the iPad for the holiday season. It would include a video camera for it's video conferencing over Wifi, FaceTime. The Apple insider added: "A version of the tablet device with a built-in video camera and support for the new FaceTime video conferencing standard has already progressed to the advanced testing stages, according to a person with proven knowledge of Apple's future product plans".

He also noted: "The publication also noted that "although Apple's historical product cycles would beg to differ, that person familiar with the company's plans claims that as of last month, there was an ambitious push inside Apple to verify the refresh for a possible launch ahead of this year's holiday shopping season."

Well, we all can sit here and debate the existence of knowledge about an upcoming product, with the millions sold in iPad's, Apple would be crazy not to release another. So the questions are, will it look the same? will it include a camera? will it be lighter/smaller? will it cook and clean for me?

The usual questions will be answered very soon. By the way, products' improvement always be a good idea to go with but not the case for a guy who just got his iPad in hot hands now @@ (Ok, it's me)

Source: TweakTown

Bill Gates speech: 11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school

Here is a note which I stumbled across recently, I think it would be great to share with you all :)

Bill Gates speech: 11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Extension: Asian Science Camp 2010

Yup, like what I promised in my last thread, here are some more interesting stories and experiences happened during Asian Science Camp 2010 that I intend to share with you all :D

-I was so surprised that Ritesh and his friends knocked my room's door when I was sleeping at HBCSE. I don't even know my blog is getting higher page rank in Google right now~Thanks for you support! :D

-I felt so lucky that I had the exclusive sightseeing at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education which other partipants didn't have. Thanks Mohit from India for the best hospitality.

-When I was first log-in to the Facebook in India, it required me to pass throught a security progress which was a seven/five(I forgot already) 'Face-recognized' questions. I was compelled to recognize my friends' faces in 'Tagged' photos in order to get access to Facebook. Quite funny but I really witnessed the effort of Facebook team in privacy control.

-I bought a four-hour wifi-internet service in Tunga Hotel, but eventually they didn't charge me when I checked out~ Haha^^

-Continue the last stories, it seems quite difficult or impossible to get free internet service in Mumbai even at airport or hotel. Hmm, same with what I saw from some statistics reference.

-When we were using the internet service in provided computer room after dinner, one of Kazakhstan participant came close to ask Hong Kong friends about the Cantonese phrases. We taught him some 'interesting' phrases and he kept talking those 'interesting' phrases to his friends, we all burst out laughing at that moment! "样衰~" XD Even when I'm recalling it recently, I still can't help laughing about that~Haha, Full of funs and joyfulness, really a precious moment :D

-I felt very sorry that I was sleeping during some lectures or camps @@ Quite regret afterwards.

-I was so excited that ASC just like a platform full about sharing ultimate goal. Met with the people who holding the same idea and spirit was such a wonderful interaction. We exchanged our prespective in education system, development of countries and so forth. It led me to an ever profound comtemplation, I really learnt a lot. P/S: I saw someone who brought along the Common Application during ASC :D Some guys had already gained the admission to those my dream schools and some of them will going to strive for the upcoming Fall intake. It directly caught up my sight with familiarity which was the same progress I just underwent last year.

-I was so regret that I spent too less during the journey in Mumbai. Because when I exchanged India Rupee back to Malaysia Ringgit, I finally realized that the currency loss would make such a big 'impact' to my money ==


-Sorry for all the dude's invitation at that last crazy-dancing night. I try to make myself into dancing pool a short period, but I was really exhausted in both physcially and mentally. Especially as my lovely Hong Kong friends were leaving, really missed you right that time :D


-Special thanks to Hong Kong friends. Michelle, Cherry, Kelvin, Kimchi, Hong. You were so impressive, lovely, kind and helpful. Full of jokes and laughs when meeting with you all. Keep it up! Looking forward to meet with you again :)

-Credit all the friends, teachers, lectures and all the people from various countries who I met during Asian Science Camp 2010. Sorry for couldn't listed down all of you as it will be a 'long' list to go with. Hope you all receive my truly gratefulness & appreciation.

-Special thanks to my team members, they were Kaushik (India), Shaun Lim (Singapore), Kelvin (Hong Kong), Han Yu (China). You guys were so amazing! I shared my experience in poster preparation, Han Yu started citing out the idea, Shaun implemented it by using scientific evidence, Kaushik provided with solutions in our system's hindrance, I found out more informations through internet to reconstruct it and of course I won't never forget Kelvin's picture-cutting effort(Haha, just joke! Kelvin helped us a lot during group discussion and internet searching! :D). We just had few short meetings and ended up all the things within three hours in last minute of time~ Such a high efficiency work! And our effort eventually appreciated by judges as a Bronze Medal, cheer it up guy! :D

-For those my friends who curious about my poster presentation, here you are:

'Photo-Chemiosmotic Cells: Green Energy Redefined': Designing of a solar powered cell based on cyclic photophosphorylation and chemiosmosis in plant thylakoids, using relative charge concentrations across a hydrophobic membrane.
Quote from Shaun Lim :D

The whole structure and the theory of my topic can refer to the attach
photo which showing the obvious explanation with diagram of our ideal system: