Stressed out by choices?

I recall a childhood when life was really simple. It was the pre-digital age. If you wanted to listen to the radio, you just had to find the volume and the dial knobs. In this digital age, you'll have to be acquainted with a few steps before you can enjoy music coming out of the speakers. As for choice of media, we used to have vinyl records, which were (much later) replaced by cassette tapes (which existed for almost one generation before being replaced by CD's). These days, we have a huge variety of digital media and formats with which you can play on a mobile phone, a media player, a PDA, a GPS, etc. It seems like anything mobile has a music player built into it.

I think we have to be careful not to be so taken up by choices that we fail to appreciate the very reason for our quest in the first place. Do we really need to seek out the best player we can afford before we start to enjoy the music? Do we need to have the best home theatre system before we can indulge in a movie at home? If we do, then the pre-digital age people must be a very deprived lot. Yet I think people at an earlier time and age had just as much enjoyment as we do now... without being burdened by all the choices they never had.

Why short term share trading is a losing game

Buying shares is supposed to be an investment into the potential growth of a company in its ability to make even more money. Nowadays people trade in shares hoping for a short term increase in the share prices. When everyone starts to do that, it makes mockery of the word "investment" and it makes a fool of the players because ultimately the winners are the brokers and the fund managers.

Why is it a losing game? Let's assume there is a fix amount of money on the table. The players buy and sell frequently among themselves..... somebody loses, somebody wins. This goes on and on. The broker skims off a percentage for each trade. Ultimately the amount of money on the table gets smaller and smaller. Who do you think is the eventual winner?

Mass rally in KL is good feedback

There's hope in the future for Malaysia after all, as evidenced by the recent mass rally in KL. All the different races are coming together as one nation, albeit to protest against the government. This rally proves that the different races can be united against a common cause. The non-violent nature of the rally proves that Malaysians are peace-loving citizens. Even the cause of the rally is just a simple cry for help. What parent would punish a child who cries when he is hungry?

Any government that truly practices democracy should be proud of this display and look to it positively as a FREE and GENUINE feedback on its policies and its performance. In Australia, the government spends millions of dollars in consulting fees to conduct surveys on how well received their policies are. Sometimes the survey results are inaccurate, as evidenced by the Workchoices surveys done before John Howard lost the election. An expensive lesson indeed. Surely if such a mass rally were held in Australia, the government would surely take notice and take action.

John Howard's view of Kevin Rudd

From The Herald Sun today, on what John Howard says of Kevin Rudd:
"The absolutely dishonest and pathetic attempt by Mr (Wayne) Swan and Mr (Lindsay) Tanner and Mr Rudd to ... demonstrate to the Australian people that they had inherited an economic mess from the former coalition, that they had inherited high inflation and runaway spending, they have no shame," he said.

To be fair to John Howard, the signs of economic prosperity were present during his government. Now, whether this is due to his "brilliant economic management" or due to prevailing world economic condition is another thing. The fact is that world economy is now beginning to undergo a downturn, and coincidentally at the time when Kevin Rudd took over. Kevin needs to do what is right now to put Australia in a stronger position.

To be fair to Kevin Rudd, his government did inherit a lot of things that needed changing (Workchoices, for one) in order to tackle the challenges of an economic downturn. To call it a "mess" or to simply call it "necessary changes" is subjective; call it what you will, but something different must be done. Again, to be fair to Kevin, he did inherit high inflation and big spending which were not used on building infratructure. To continue Howard's policies will lead to ever increasing foreign debt and, God forbid, eventual bankruptcy.

In my opinion, Howard should retire in grace and let Kevin do his job. For goodness sake, someone please give John Howard a medal or a title because I think that's what he's really after: a pat on the back.

iGoogle and Google Desktop

I cannot understand why anyone would want Google Desktop if he can have iGoogle. I must be missing something. Google Desktop has to be installed and personalized on your computer, whereas iGoogle is akin to having your own personalized login webpage. Both give you the same ability to install or remove the Google gadgets, so what gives? With my iGoogle set up, I can go to any computer, log in to my account, and see all the apps I have installed, including Gmail, Calendar, Google docs, weather, Pick of the Day pictures, news feeds, etc.

If you have not tried either, I suggest you give iGoogle a go. You'll be surprised what you have missed out. While you are at it, switch to Firefox browser. Oh yeah, sign up for the Foxmarks bookmark synchronizer too. Download OpenOffice as well. Er.... maybe you can now drop Microsoft a note to say you won't need them anymore. Yes, if you do all of the above, you may be ready to switch to Linux and not feel any great loss.

What would a bloke blog 'bout?

My son says I am too prejudiced to write fairly on a given debatable topic. But that's what a blog is for, isn't it? I mean, my blog is where I put my own thoughts and opinion down in writing. What good would it be to write about what others think? Or to give a balanced and politically correct view? Nah... I think I'll stick to doing it My Way.

Ubuntu, u wud too, or wudn't u tu?

I often wondered what would it take for Linux to completely win over Windows aficionados. I admit I have not fully immersed myself into Linux yet, but reading ahead on the experience of others I can imagine Ubuntu is on par with Windows as far as the average user's experience is concerned. Yes, there are still concerns about open-source support reliability and security, real or imagined. That aside, what would it take for a typical home user to switch OS?

I believe the most important deciding factor for a would-be convert is SPEED. Of course stability is important, but that has come to be expected of any new software. Speed is what will make people go through the psychological barrier of adopting a different OS. I want reduced boot up time. I want fast browsing speed (without upgrading my PC). I want nifty click actions. The battle between Windows and other OS's will not be whether there are more software developers for Windows than there are for Linux. After all, Linux offers all the usual applications with the ease-of-use that is expected of everyone: browser, email, word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, media player, audio, video, and picture editing, etc. More development of the same applications would not make much difference to an average user; a FASTER application would. (Watch how Asus is set to conquer market share with their instant-on "Splashtop" stripped down version of Linux built into the motherboard)