Credit Card Debts: Cause and Prevention

Nowadays, you can buy anything without carrying a big amount cash of wallet. Credit card has provided us convenient ways for shopping, online buying or even booking seat in airplane. Most importantly, for a Malaysian, credit card provides 'Safety First' so that we could avoid criminals' nasty plans.

As time goes by, the 'swipe' habit had sadly bring nightmares to credit card holders. The moment we realized, the 'snowballing' interest payment almost disrupt everyone's peaceful mind and their financial plans. Before tackling these problems, we must know the causes lie behind the credit card debts.

Causes:-

1. Wrong perceptions among the people.
If you want to apply for credit card, you need a stable income. Different credit card types (eg, Silver card, Gold card, Platinum card) require higher income stability. Thus, peoples usually use that to prove themselves as 'better' or 'higher status' than others. Men are usually forced to apply at least 1 credit card, due to the 5C ( car, cash, condominium, certificate & CREDIT CARD ) requirements of 'hooking' girls, making themselves more miserable when comes to financial debt.

2. Poor financial management.

Many ladies spend money like water when it comes to shopping. Men are not much of a difference when it comes to paying bills after have a dinner with girls or friends. Many people thought that credit card is fast money and 'free' when it comes to spending. Because everything is taken care by bank in the first place, people usually will not worry about their daily cash flow. Once the bills arrive in a month, headache comes, money flies~.

3. The card rewards

The lending bank usually use different kinds of rewards, especially travelling rewards, to "encourage" card holders to spend more by collect points. Unluckily, the allure of this awards eventually gets you deeper and deeper into debts. In the end, the money you spend on credit card point is enough for yourself to travel any places you would like to go (somehow cheaper if you made a late credit payment).

Prevention is better than cure. Here are TIPS for credit card holders:-

1. Keep the Right Perspective
Credit cards do not mean anything, neither to prove you are financially stronger nor higher status. It's just a PLASTIC CARD (of course, with a magnetic strip...). Instead of holding various types of credit cards, you have to reduce the number of credit cards. It is a wiser act to own the card which is most important to you. Keeping an equal perspective regarding credit and cash helps you well enough to be more aware and more keen on spending too much. If you treat your credit card as if it’s also cash, the less unaware you become of your spendings.

Anyway, CASH payment is always the best. It's better use your 'current' wallet rather than your future income.

2. Do a footprints on each credit cards

Before you own a credit cards, it's recommended to do some homework. List out every credit cards policy, interest rates, free interest payback period and make a comparison. Find out which credit card gives you the lowest interest rate or the longest free interest payback period. Remember, just choose the exact card which serves you well. Furthermore, you will be more certain and aware your payment debts when you only holding one credit card rather than a handful of credit cards with different balances, different expiry dates and different interest rates. This usually will lead to confusion when you make your payments at the end of the month.

3. Strengthen your financial control and management

A well-planned financial management scheme can help you to become a more prepared and more organized consumer. With a great management plan, you won’t even want to choose to pull out your credit card from your wallet. One of the most crucial factors of credit card debt prevention is paying on time. People who can control their finances and manage their card payment schedules are the ones who rarely acquire credit card debt.

Last but not least, think carefully before using credit card. Once you use it, make sure you pay on time. If you can't assure whether you can do it, then just use 'cash on hand'. It is wise to be 'debt free' rather than to spend on something you cannot afford it.

(Taiwanese credit card debtors show up at the street in order to seek help from government to help them get out of debt pool.)

Review on "Favourite passwords used online"

First of all, this post is for a review on a blog entry made here So here goes. As a summary, this post posted on Feb 18 is mainly about a short statistics of what is the most frequently used passwords online. It was stated that 16% likes to use their name as their password, 14% used numbers in order... meaning 1234 or 12345678 and another 4% uses the word "password". The other usages are like qwerty, iloveyou, and others.




To say the truth, I am very much not surprised by these choices of combination as passwords. These passwords are easy to remember, simple, easy to type, or in other words "good for the brains". One would definitely NOT forget it (forgetting it is simply.... unacceptable...), so the good thing is, you wouldn't lose access to the destination you are heading to. Sounds good doesn't it... so the reason to use these passwords are pretty much obvious. In fact, this problem does not only occur on the net, it also occurs on the ATM machine. Most people prefer to use their IC number, birthdates, or numbers on their ATM card as their pin codes. The reason to this is also the same 3 words which is "easy to remember" However, the consequences of using these passwords are at the same time disastrous. People who don't even know you can simply hack into your account and manipulate your information. And for those who use their name or IC number as passwords, the people who KNOWS you can simply hack into your account. (So yes, I'm saying look out for the people around you). There has been many cases whereby friends had stolen ATM cards and withdrew the money without much hassle at all.

Of course when such problem arrises, many people have somewhat came up with a "solution" or suggestion to curb this problem. One of the examples given in the post was "choose a password that is longer than 8 characters with one capital letter and one symbol". Other suggestions are usually "include numbers and symbol in your password", "use words that doesn't bring any meaning as your password". More methods to keep your passwords safe are explain here. All of these suggestions seem pretty much useful to avoid people from knowing what is your password. The bad side? Even you yourself cannot remember what's your own password! In order to solve this problem, most people started writing notes and keep them under their desktop, keyboard, sticking it at somewhere(like the picture on the left) and so on.



As far as my own experience, I've lost my password, I cannot remember what it was, and usually when you are trying to retrieve your password they have this "question" thing asking things like what is your favourite food/pet's name/ etc, and I can't even remember what I wrote for the question. And the conclusion is I totally lost access to that website. Solution? Start new account...

So yes, I totally agree that creating difficult passwords such as aS^hlo$54 is a super good password but that only happens if and only IF you can remember it without having to refer it from other places. Simple? Think again, I can hardly even remember which password i use for different website access, what more a wonderful password which is made up with symbols and capital letters...

Alert!! Online Security Threat!

Hackers nowadays are genius! Planting trojans, worms/keyloggers, hacking into computers and stealing information becomes their number ONE hobby in their life! Some do it out of fun and some with nasty intentions.

The worried ones always find ways to stop hackers from intruding into their private information and destroying their data. They go from anti-virus programs such as AVG, Norton Antivirus, Kaspersky and lots more anti-virus programs. As technology upgrades, the threat level increases too.

WiseGeek shares the TOP 10 Online Security Threat which are:

1. Web servers and services
2. Workstation Service
3. Windows Remote Access Services
4. Microsoft SQL Servers (MSSQL)
   
5. Windows Authentication
6. Web Browsers
7. File Sharing Applications
8. Local Security Authority Subsystem (LSAS) Exposures
9. Mail Client
10. Instant Messaging

Are our data still safe?? How to mitigate these threats?
In my opinion, mitigation is almost impossible. However to avoid, there are ways such as:

Installing firewalls

Lots of software developers have created firewalls. Then firewall works similar as a police traffic, checking network traffics and block unauthorized passages and only permitted ones. However, I personally find firewall sometimes quite annoying and a waste of time. Especially in stress and tensed moments when you need to access into a site urgently and then there comes the firewall message stating whether to allow access or not. It can be a little irritating at times. But to protect from harmful threats, firewall comes to the rescue! However, sometimes it didn't really work because our "itchy" fingers might click and authorized the access of harmful sites.

Encryption

For example when using Paypal, while transferring information, people can tap into the line in which the data is transferring and steal it.When Computer1(C1) is sending to Computer2(C2), and before it reaches C2, the hacker can tap into the line to steal the data. Usually before sending a data or important information out, it is advisable to encrypt your data. In case if someone did tap into the line and steal the data, he will not be able to understand what he had stolen unless he has a program which can decrypt it.Otherwise, in Paypal for example, if the hacker succeeds in stealing your number and passwords, he may finish up your money on any online transactions. Last time it is not safe to use ATM and online transactions but nowadays, if people want to transfer money from one account to another, they will receive an SMS to confirm the transaction. Upon confirming the transaction with sms, then it will proceed in transferring the money. But! not to worry~ Lately Microsoft and other online transaction has already performed data encrypting in order to save and ensure customer's data is safe.

Protect Your Data with IP Security
Can data be protected using IP Security? Of course it can be done! IP Security can protect your data when it's in transit provided both the sending and receiving systems have to support it. Windows 2000 and later Microsoft operating systems have built-in support for IP security. Worry not, because IP security operates at a lower level of the networking model. There is this program called Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) which IPsec uses to encrypt data that are sensitive and confidential. It can operate in tunnel mode, for gateway-to-gateway protection, or in transport mode, for end-to-end protection. Therefore, we can be assured that our data is quite safe through IP Security.

Password Protected Documents

Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader provide such functions allowing user to set passwords on confidential documents. With the availability of these functions, our data can be deemed to be safe. However, keyloggers can be embedded in spyware allowing private information to be transmitted to an unknown third party. A keylogger is a program that runs in the background, recording all the keystrokes. Once keystrokes are logged, they are hidden in the machine for later retrieval, or shipped raw to the attacker. The attacker then scrutinize them carefully in the hoping to find passwords, or possibly other useful information that could be used to compromise the system. This leaves our data not safe anymore.

All in all, as much as developers has become smarter to develop more programs to save us, the hackers have also became smarter to creating ways to continue stealing data. It's a battle of who is improving faster than the other to outsmart them.

How to Safeguard Our Personal and Financial Data?

Finally, PTPTN loan released...... This time I decided to pay the student bill through Public Bank E-banking service. The next day after class, I entered the computer lab, at the moment when I was accsessing Public Bank website to make online payment, my friend stopped me... He advised me to make such online transaction by using own's laptop as to keep my personal data from being tracked and stole by unknown party. I puzzled and thought to myself, "How come I have never thought of this issue?" Readers, have you ever thought about that?

In this E-century, information technology has become more and more advanced. It is very important for us to focus our attention on safeguard measures when using online transaction, who knows somebody who has evil motive is keeping an eye on your credit card information and might steal it?

There are several ways to safeguard online transactions:

1. Keep your firewall or any security software up-to-date to ensure no information to be seen by unauthorized people as we usually would not be able to know how safe the transaction processing is.
   
   
2. If you were to use credit card for online transaction, use the one which has the lowest limit, so that even if unfortunately, the credit card is being stolen, we loss only a small amount.
   


3. Try not to keep all your log in information in the computer, instead record the information in daily notebook or paper and keep it in a secret place.
   


4. When signing up for the online transaction account, create a longer or more complex password (e.g.: a password with both alphebets and numbers) to strengthen your data security.


5. Be cautious when your come to the payment stage, calculate the amount that you need to pay beforre you click on the "ok" button for payment as the bad motive person would catch your uncautiousness and change the figure of amount you need to pay. For instance, suppose you have to pay only RM 699.00, someone who has bad intention may change it to RM 969.00.




6. Make sure that you send your payment information to a right and secure site. Legitimite website will always come with "https' instead of "http". Besides, there will be a padlock symbol at the bottom of the screen.
   
   
   
7. At the top of the webpages, most of the time there will be a "pop up" bar requesting you to send some personal information through email. Bear in mind that not to trust such instruction.



8. Choose to conduct online transaction with those websites or company that have good reputation and have strong security policy to ensure customers' personal information are confidential.
   

In my personal point of view, Public Bank is practicing a good online security policy whereby all information of customers are encrypted using the 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) from MSC TrustGate Certificate Authority. In addition, the registration procedures of first time users are thorough. Users have to register e-banking service via Public Bank's Automated Teller Machine(ATM), which is to get a pin number as the first time log in password. The password can be changed when logging in to the website later on. PBeBank.com Authentication Code (PAC) will be sent through sms whenever payment were to be made. PAC is a 6 digits authentication code acts as additional security on our transactions and update our personal information.

In 25 June 2008, Kotak Security Limited also introduced similar "security key" to safeguard online transaction.

Related Links:

1. http://www.prlog.org/10083168-kotak-securities-introduces-security-key-to-safeguard-online-transactions.html
2. http://www.ehow.com/how_4880323_keep-online-transactions-safe.html
3. http://www.pbebank.com/en/en_content/info/security.html
4. http://www.pbebank.com/en/en_content/info/pac.html

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

Nowadays, Internet brings us a lots of convenience, especially buying online products, making online transactions, etc. We do not need to drive out anymore to spend our car fuel and energy. However, everything is not perfect. Knife can made out a good dishes, but also misuse to kill somebody. What i going to discuss now, is PHISHING.

Phishing is a process of luring users to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, password and credit card details by putting on a deceptive appearance as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. It is usually carried out by sending an e-mail and the e-mail will direct the user to visit a Website where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is fake whose look and feel alike, is a set up only to steal the user's information.

Example of Phishing methods















Sometimes, the phisher will use another tricks to cheat by sending e-mail with promotion package, discount affair, low price to bait so that we might give out our personal information in order to 'buy' these products & services. Human being easily be tempted when come to financial benefits. What we have to do is, THINK CAREFULLY before we made a decision.

There are several simple actions and reminders to tackle and avoid those phishing acts:-

1. Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information.(they typically ask for the personal informations such as username, password, credit card numbers, etc.)
   
   
   
   
2. Don't use the links in an email, instant message, or chat to get to any web page if you suspect the message might not be authentic or you don't know the sender or user.


3. Avoid filling out forms in email messages that ask for personal financial information.


4. Always ensure that you're using a secure website when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser.


5. Remember not all scam sites will try to show the "https://" and/or the security lock. Get in the habit of looking at the address line, too.





6. Consider installing a Web browser tool bar to help protect you from known fraudulent websites. These toolbars match where you are going with lists of known phisher Web sites and will alert you.



7. Always update your web browser to latest version. Latest version usually come with stronger phishing filter and other features. Beside that, ensure that the phishing filter always activated.



8. Regularly log into your online accounts. (Don't leave your account too long to login and check, one week once is enough.)
   

An Example of E-commerce Failure and Its Causes

Kozmo.com was established by Joseph Park in the year 1997 in New York. He developed the idea of "delivery in less than one hour" and "FOC (Free of Charge) delivery" regardless what product has been ordered. (It sounds so good when I am hungry yet lazy to travel outside for food!) It adopted "bicycle delivery" to deliver the goods ordered by customers. The company was making losses for every order, but it was getting more and more popular and reached at 30% growth in sale per month. Until January 2000, it expanded from six markets and six locations to 11 cities and 22 locations, such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C etc.

When Kozmo started, its only product was videos. By the end, the product lineup had expanded to include the 4 major categories which are Entertainment (videos, games, DVDs, musics, books, newsstand), Basics (personal cares, sundries, medicine cabinet, household, tobacco), Food ( snacks,meals, softdrinks, beer, gourmet), Specialty (Electronics, executive, home accessories, bath, toys, flowers)

However, sad story of Kozmo.com came over when it had to close down due to:

1. Cost-effectiveness: In order to satisfy customer and make itself competitive, Kozmo.com charged its products at a lower price, in addition, promised to deliver small products free of delivery charges. However, this affected the profitabilty of the company whereby it could not support the high cost of delivery.


2. Insufficient funding for merger: Kozmo.com was dealing a merger with Los Angeles- based PDQuick, an online grocery, however, because of the funding promised by investor did not meet, the merger collapsed. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-255710.htm/


3. Employees' job satisfaction declined: It is good that the company emphasized on benefits of customer by satisfying what they want. However, it seemed like torturing the employees whereby they have to deliver the products ordered to the customer within a very short time. Customer's need has gone beyond what the company can provide: One of the employees of Kozmo.com said:"I was asked by one customer, who had the flu, if I would walk her dog," said Andy Verdano, who was fired from Kozmo during a previous round of layoffs. "After I said yes, I was told that she started placing small orders three times a day, right around dog-walking time.http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/04/43025


4. Failed to deliver on time as it has pledged on, which was one of the important dilemmas. In order to accomplish this promise, Kozmo.com has to forecast the demand of customer; neither stockpiling too much till the stocks tie up the most liquid cash, nor too low that misses the order. Forecasting inventory demand is a very challenging and difficult part to be achieved. http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/7598.html?wlc=1245220913

Google Changing Everything?

Classic Google Homepage

Google, undoubltly, is a shinning star, a best known "dictionary", instead of just being an Internet search engine. It has been identified multiple times as Fortune Magazine's #1 Best Place to Work, and as the most powerful brand in the world (according to the Millward Brown Group).

Google carries its mission as "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" [1]. Over the past decade, Google had enhanced the ease of information-gathering, lowered research costs and made creativity effectively cheaper and easier. Today, students wait untill the last minute to Google assignments ( Oops, it sounds like it is referring at me :P). Shoppers google-ed products and prices before purchasing. One columnist suggested that Google is so vital in our lives that it's a deity of sorts, everywhere and all-knowing.

Indirectly, Google had brought us to a higher level of Information Age, where everyone not need like our grandparents, went to library or school few miles away from home to find the learning materials, journal articles, etc. Now, we just Google and wait till it pops up in front of our monitor screen. It's all at your fingertips!

Google has developed several useful applications that improves our life quality. Google Map is a map searcher that shows the road routines, building locations of your country. If you wonder how to get to your destination, probably a strange place or places you never been before, key in the address, Google Maps will tell you the destination by offers walking times, walking distances, route connection times and ride times. Google also shows actual photographs of the route that you will take and a picture of the stop I should get off at. As a Sarawakian, this helps me a lots when i was studying at Kuala Lumpur to ensure i wouldn't get lost.

Google revolutionized email with GMail. The concept behind this GMail is: NEVER DELETE ANYTHING. This concept was unheard of before GMail because none had a service that could search thousands of emails intelligently and efficently. When GMail first began the invite only beta testing in 2004 each user was give an unprecedented 1000 megabytes of storage space. No other public email server even came close to 1000 megabytes. The most popular Microsoft Hotmail offered a measly 2 megabytes and Yahoo 4 megabytes (Hansell, 2004). In addition to a rediculous amount of storage Google offered integrated services within the email client. GMail scans each message and display relevant data. If an address was included in the email GMail would automatically display a miniature map of the location and offer driving directions if the address was located in the city [2].

So far now, these are the most significant where Google changes the quality of our lifes. Even though it doesn't wholly changes everything, but it create a sequence effects and impact through our life and living environment. I believe, Google will plays a greater role in the future as well.

Learning E-Commerce? Learn from the best

Back then, computers run on an internet speed of 56K (kilobits per second). We required 20-30 minutes to complete downloading one song and we wouldn't complain. Here we are in Malaysia knowing so little about the vast internet and people on the other side of the world has already started building their own business that had earned them millions and even billions today.

No doubt I am referring to Amazon.com. Amazon.com is perhaps known as one of the largest E-Commerce sites in the world. I am sure the name of this website is familiar to everyone. Jeffrey Preston Bezos (even his name shakes me a little), the founder, President, CEO of Amazon.com has brought the business world to new heights. Amazon.com was growing so fast that even analysts and Jeff himself could not imagine. The founder of Amazon.com was born on 12 January 1964. He found Amazon.com at the age of 30 in year 1994.

Amazon.com started off as a mere shop selling books in a two-bedroom house selling just books. Jeff set up his "shop", "work station", or whatever you wish to call it with minimal amount of investments. They started penetrating different markets and started selling more than just books. Amazon started selling music CDs, videos, toys, electronics, and more.

You've seen his accomplishment, it would be a joke if anyone wouldn't want to be Jeffrey Bezos. However, not many has managed his achievement. Below are the few factors that contributed to his success.

Think Ahead
The best explanation that suits this would be the reason Amazon.com is called Amazon. Why didn't they call themselves as Books.com or Shelves.com or ReadersHaven.com? He named the site as Amazon.com simply because it resembles a wide area and did not restrict himself to just books or reading materials.

Use Emerging Technologies
Technology has been something that has been growing faster and faster every second. One may use it as an advantage towards them but at the same time it can backfire and cause a serious fall in your own business. Jeff saw that internet users was growing exponentially and used it to his advantage. In fact, thanks to the internet, Jeff was able to set up his very own business with minimal cost. He didnt need a large shop or physical sales persons. This had definitely saved him a lot of money in his setting up.

Change
People who refuses to change with the environment are most certainly to fail in the current era. The current era is fast moving and is rapidly changing. In order to succeed, one needs to keep up. In the case of Amazon, they widen their range of products as already mentioned earlier to keep up with the needs of customers. They quickly changed into "Earth's Biggest Bookstore" to "Earth's Biggest Anything Store". Amazon has a constantly evolving product line and this had caused their competitors to be having problems catching up.

Customer Orientation
"To become the world's most customer-centric company. The place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online." This was the vission of Amazon. They have a great emphasis on the needs of customers and they worked relentlessly to provide their customers with a great experience. Amazon has opened their ears and listened very closely to their customers.

The History and Evolution of E-Commerce

A Brief History of E-Commerce

The Evolution of E-Commerce

Online buying is becoming very popular today as compared to a decade ago. People now are more confident in online order fulfillment, security of personal data and easier online return options. The online payment process is another significant component in making e-commerce happen. Easier online payment process easier leads to easier shipping process. Once a shipment is at the right track, they can trace where the goods are to make sure the goods are on their way to customers. As youngsters became more computer savvy and adventurous they venture into e-commerce by blogging and selling products especially on women clothings, accessories, shoes and bags are rising.

Nowadays, we can access to the Internet anytime and anywhere using broadband. Once consumers tap into broadband, on-demand services would grow faster and soon people would rely heavily on the Internet to purchase goods. With the new wireless broadband introduced by P1, P1 W1MAX is going to change the way we think about e-commerce.

Web 2.0 also contributes to e-commerce by attracting business people to Web-based networking services can be incorporated into business-oriented electronic partnering tools tailored to the interests of different industry sectors. Now, what is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0

Formed during a "brainstorming" session between Tim O'Reilly and MediaLive International, Web 2.0 is the second-generation of Internet-based services that let people collaborate and share information online in new perceived ways i.e. social networking sites and communication tools.
The picture above illustrates the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is about providing tools that connect between people instead of machines. One of the most highly publicized features of the Web 2.0 era is the rise of blogging. Personal home pages, personal diary and daily opinion column have been around for quite some time. The Internet has become a participatory, interactive medium that behaves more like a conversation than an electronic brochure. We can now share pictures through Flickr, download movies from BitTorrent, express thoughts and feelings through personal blogs and so on.

Related links:

• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/40249.html
• http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/history.htm
• http://www.cybertech-pub.com/downloads/excerpts/reference/ecom.pdf
• http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
  

About Us

Hey all! Welcome to E-Commerce: At Your Fingertips. I'm Koay Kheng Jen. My name is too long difficult for you to remember, so just call me Jen. Before I came to know about Internet, my hobbies were playing piano, making craftworks from anything (bits of cloths, bottles, beans, etc.), cycling, reading novels and collecting sweet wrappers! Yup! you read it right! Sweet wrappers! Too bad.. no pictures of my masterpiece because it's not with me now, it's at my hometown, Penang.

After I found out about the Internet, my hobbies changed a little. Now, I spent more time on the computer. And it's difficult to pull me away from the computer because I'm like GLUED to the computer! So, what GLUED me to the computer?

Facebook is one of the reasons! Facebook keeps me connected with my friends and family. I often click on their profiles or view their pictures to see updates about them. Besides that, Facebook has games such as Pet Society and Restaurant City which keeps me entertained while waiting for other pages to load.

I never fail to pay a visit to The Star Online. I really love The Star Online because it is easy to access and saves my pocket money! You need not have to pile up stacks of newspapers at home to collect dust! And you will get the same news as published in the newspapers and sometimes even more because it updates its news online from time to time.

I also check on WBLE to view updates on my course subjects, download assignment questions, and view information shared by students and lecturers.

8tv.com.my is another website that I visit when I am away from home. I do not a television with me. So 8tv.com. my allows me to watch drama series during my free time.

Last but not least, I would like to express my love to Google!! I love Google because Google has helped me a lot in searching for materials for assignments and presentation; finding scholarships and education loans; and providing maps so that I could locate my destination before travelling!

~Life has been so much easier since the birth of Internet~

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Hello. First of all welcome to E-Commerce: At Your Fingertips. Let me introduce myself. I am Lim Shi Jin a.k.a Justin. This is my work station.

If you have a CCTV in my room it will most likely look something like this round the clock...

This work station of mine is where I spent basically around 40% of my time everyday, the other 40% is used to sleep, and the remaining shall be used for unnecessary activities(bathe, toilet, meals, etc.)

Now you'll be wondering what does it take to spend 40% of time. All it takes is http://www.facebook.com/, mafia wars, restaurant city, http://www.dota-allstars.com/, dota, counterstrike, http://www.narutofan.com/, http://www.friendster.com/ TheStarOnline, Bleachtorrents, http://www.google.com/, Brother's Blog, **breathes in** Other blogs, YouTube, CrunchyRoll, PowerRangers, Hotmail, Msn, wble.utar.edu.my, http://www.utar.edu.my/, http://www.mininova.org/, and so on and so forth...

Oops I forgotten one... Now I have to add in http://at-your-finger-tips.blogspot.com/. That's pretty much about me. I'm still wondering if this "work-station" of mine is going to blow up one day due to overload... What will I ever do without you =/

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Unconsciously, that picture came into my mind.."Ooi Soo Yan!" That's my essay writing book, distributed by the teacher. The moment I opened it, I was extremely happy because I saw an 'A'. That was the first time I got an A for my essay writing! It motivates me a lot! I need encouragement and motivation to give me the drive to perform. I am a person who gets panic and pressured easily; especially when I got stucked in assignments. What a tiring life! One way of releasing my pressures is through writing diay, which helps me to 'vomit' stress.

As technology became more advanced, I started blogging. I created a blog in Friendster.com. Besides, I use MSN Messenger to share information and daily life experience with friends. I vist Yahoo.com and Hotmail.com everyday to check out e-mails received. Sometimes there are humourous e-mails that bring laughter and help release stress.

Ever since I've became a Christian, I visit Daily Bread(a religious website) recommended by my friend, to seek God's teaching and I enjoy it! It helps me to grow spiritually. Do visit this website if you are thirst of God's words.

I love International Dance very much! Thus, Youtube.com is the main website I visit to enjoy various dances. Google.com has become the most useful source for me to search for information on my study need. Besides, baking is my ambitious field, I often search for pastries' recipes from Google.com. I am so looking forward to having my own bakery. These are the few cakes that I've baked for my friends during their birthdays:

I've thought of going straight for vocational studies after high school, instead of furthering my studies to university. After thinking farther, I think I should involved in business related studies in order to accomplish my dream. Thus, now I am here in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), currently pursuing Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) Accounting. E-Commerce is one of the subjects that I will be taking this semester. Ah-huh! Suddenly I am thinking of opening an "online bakery"! It's time to learn more about E-Commerce to realize my dream. I wish that I could hold the knowledge of E-Commerce at my fingertips. And of course, it would be the same for you too.

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I'm Wong Ha Yung, you can call me Billy. I got my first cry on 10th September 1988 in Dr. Ong Specialist Hospital. I grew up in Kuching, Sarawak, a very peaceful and lovely place. Instead of staying at home watching television and doing homework, I prefer outdoor activities such as hiking, expedition and camping, which are closer to Mother Earth. I have been a Scoutboy since 13 and a voluntary army at 20 and it has become part of my identity. Scouting makes me independent, think more and I enjoy the process of learning about teamwork, leadership, organizing activities and managing troops. Voluntary Army training makes me a person who appreciates brotherhood and friendships. During the training, I faced a lot of difficulties and tough tasks that usually a normal person cannot carry out. Another hobby that I would like to share is online!

Ever since I got my laptop a week before I came to Kuala Lumpur to further my studies at UTAR 3 years ago, I've been addicted to few websites. The website I visit most is Malaysiakini.com. Malaysiakini.com is an e-newspaper which provides latest politic issues in Malaysia. Since the 308 election, Malaysian politics has become a hot issue in every corner of mamak stalls. This website is independent, without governing under any political party; provides the most realiable and unbiased news and comments.


Chinese.wsj.com is an online Wall Street Journal newspaper in Chinese which reports the latest financial news, editors' opinions and readers' comments. It covers financial issues in China, North America and Europe.



Kennysia.com is one of the famous blogs in Malaysia. He is also from my hometown, Kuching. This guy has an incredible sense of humour and jokes that cheers up lots of people. He is also a mad traveller who has travelled up to 10 countries, sharing his experience with us.


As a Christian, I also visit Christian SourceNet, which provides spiritual and theological learning materials that helps me to learn more about my religion and beliefs.

Undeniably, the website that I visited most is Google.com. Google.com provides the fastest search engine in the world, which allows me to find my learning materials and information easily and conveniently. It also provides various functions such as Google Maps, Google News and Google Scholar which makes my life easier and always connected to the world.

Last but not least, hope you enjoy my profile!