It is not difficult to lend out money. That is the reason credit card companies and banks big or small are using it to generate big pot of cash to pay off their loss from their mortgage crisis. They give our “free” loans to trap consumers to take out more debt. Then they charge them with high fees of anything imaginable or unimaginable to rag in cash. It is not just credit card fees. The banks also charge whatever fees they can dream up in saving accounts, chequing accounts. Here is a great Frontline documentary about the issue.
Dubai is also a good example. Banks are giving away money because it was a hip thing to do in the Middle East oil rich countries. Dubai’s debt is so big that it can just stop paying and all the banks can do nothing about it but absorb the losses and charge it to their customers by raising their fees again. It is nice to be rich (or appears to be rich). They can take the money and run.
November 30th, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General |
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I exchange the netbook this morning. It may be difficult to find help. The tech guy came and took a look at it. Yep, it did not even boot up. He said it was a software problem. Well, I know that.
“Do you have the recovery discs?” he asked.
“No, they do not give out system discs now.” I answered. I thought techies should know that.
“It is a software problem. I have other things to do.” He left without doing anything. I stood there for a while. A older gentleman from the computer section asked me whether he could help me. I explained the situation. He asked the person at the customers service why the tech guy did not finish his job to fill in the paper work and give me a new netbook.
This older gentleman is from Indian decent. He said to me, “Only immigrants like us have any work ethics. These young folks do not work!” 
He obviously saw that I am an immigrant too.
It seems he is correct in this case. The young techie cared less about customer service. It may not be his job descroption to file the paper work or go to the back to fetch a new machine for me, but he did not even ask people from those department to help. He tried to avoid any work that he can avoid. he might have thought, ” I am hired to fix computer hardware. Since this is a software problem, not my department.”
It is the people skills that get people hire. Some generation Y does not understand responsibility and hard work.
November 27th, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
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I bought a new netbook yesterday. I ordered it online and picked up the box in the store. I tried to start it up. It was trying to installing Windows. Then… in less a one minute it stopped and rebooted itself. “File XXX missing… please reload Windows… ” It did not come with any install discs. It is a netbook. It does not even have a CD drive! How can I reinstall the OS? It is nothing but an expensive paper weight. I telephoned the store. All they could say was to bring it in and have their techie check it out. I just want a refund. It is time to switch to a Mac!
November 26th, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
General, Technology |
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Have anyone learned their lesson yet? The Wall Street Journal reported that the housing price in Asia is reaching a bubble again. It was less than two years ago the whole world was going into the most severe recession in recent history. Every central bank in the world was trying to pump money into the system. I do not know what the system is. Whatever the “system” is, it is now awash in cash. With ultra low interest rate, all the money is now going in gold, and real estate. How can one justify a condo is selling for US$55.6 million, or US$9200 per square foot?
The government tries to do good by pumping out money like there is no tomorrow. It never really helps the common people. It helps those who are not affected by the recession to speculate on borrowed money to make more money. In the end, the bubble will bust and those speculators will come back to the government again and ask for another bail out so they can bet again.
If easy credit is what make the world goes around, maybe the world has to stop for a while to recover back to sanity.
November 5th, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
General |
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It has been a while since my last blog. Many things happened since then. School started. The union called for a strike. I had my first taste of protesting in front of the Provincial legislature. It was then called off at the last minute since a deal was struck. I have to vote to accept the deal tomorrow. It was a very stressful fortnight. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1148436.html
The claim to be labour friendly NDP government gave over 341 million to the universities a year before they need to. They also set in the budget more than 80 million to buy back land that no one wants. This mismanagement leads to a big budget deficit. In turn, the NDP then claims there is no money to give a cost of living adjustment even though they gave all the teachers in the province a 2.9% increase. The number just does not add up. The NDP depends on the support of labour unions and public sector unions. I doubt that it will ever get a second term four years from now.
Well, at least I am still working this week. It would not be nice if I have to walk the picket.
October 22nd, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General, Politics, Social |
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I have not been posting on my blog for a long time. I spent two weeks in Hong Kong. I visited a mega-church by their standard there. It is also the strangest church I have ever been in my life. First, everyone had to go through a body temperature test. I was then given a sticker to certify that I did not have a fever. It depends on which term one would like to describe this policy. They are either paranoid about the H1N1 swine flu, or they are vigilant about it.
I then tried to go to the sanctuary. I introduced myself as a first time visitor. However, no usher told me which floor to go. The church building is a multi-storey building. I had to go to read the floor directory and followed the crowd to the 6th floor. I was given a bulletin that had nothing to do with the morning service. I did not know at the time that there were two bulletins, one for the morning service and one for the weekly scripture reading. I was given the scripture reading one. There was no welcome, no handshake. I felt that I was totally transparent or invisible. Right at 9 am, all the doors were closed. No one was allowed in anymore. The woman on the pulpit announced that if anyone needed to leave at any time, he has to take all his belongings and not be allowed to come back. I was glad that I went to the washroom before the service started.
The music was great. The worship band was very good. The worship team could really lead the congregation sing. The guest speaker spoke. He delivered the most wonderful sermon I have ever heard. I had to leave because of a personal commitment. I wrote an email through their church’s website and thanked them. I still have not heard anything back.
I went there again the second Sunday. I shook hand with a person and he introduced himself as one of their elders. He seemed friendly but he might need some training in his welcoming skills. It was a communion service. There was no sermon. The whole service was based on scripted scripture reading, prayer, hymns, meditation, etc. It was good.
I do not think that church care much about any visitors. They may be glad that if there are visitors but it has growth so big that they do not know who they are. They also do not seem to care if there are no visitors at all. I supposed they have enough of their own to care for anyway.
The message and the worshipping spirit were definitely apparent at both services. I felt the spirit was moving there. However, I did not find the people friendly at all. Overall, I did learn something. Best of all, the sermon was the highlight of my visit this time.
August 28th, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General, Religion |
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In the mind of some Christians, their beliefs and understandings of God are the only correct ones. If anyone has a different image of God, they will all end up in hell.
I was searching in youtube on the opinions of the book “The Shack”. I cannot believe those negative comments. “How can God be portrayed as an African woman?” “How can Jesus be seen as a Middle Eastern man?” “How can god be so friendly with us?” Folks, it is a novel! William P. Young never claims it is theology! No wonder why the media portrays Christians as a close minded bigots. God is bigger than anyone of us can quantify. For those critics, give it a break, relax and have non-combative day!
June 8th, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General, Religion, Social |
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I gave not much thought about Obama after he won the election. It is different this time. I do not quite understand the ruling of this judge. It just defiles any logic I know. If the news is reported correctly, she rejected the result of the examination just because one racial does not come out on top. The ruling did not find any evidence that the examination is racially biased towards one race or the other. The ruing only deals with the outcome of the examination simply does not fit the racial balance of the expectation of the officials and politicians.
I thought the judges are supposed to obey the existing laws and leave all politics aside. Apparently, the judges did not do that. If her logic holds, do the judges have to have quota to convict a predetermined percentage of blacks, whites, Asians, and Hispanics? If the outcome of convictions do not meet the criteria of the political taste, does the court have to throw out all its verdicts?
Examinations for a position are supposed to select the best of the candidates. If the examination is fair, one should accept the result. If the officials have to retest and retest until they achieve their desired racial mixed, than the examination becomes unfair because there is an inherent racial bias. The citizens have the right to demand the unbiased top achievers to be promoted, not a predetermined outcome.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124354041637563491.html
May 29th, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
General, Politics, Social |
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It took me more than 24 hours to install Adobe CS4. My desktop has never installed any Adobe products except Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player (the free stuff). I decided to use CS4 for all my photo editing, web page construction and page layout. The installation process stalled when the progress bar reached installing Adobe Acrobat. It just hung, stopped, nothing. I restarted the installed by quitting and reinstalling the suite. Two hours later, the installation finished.
Then the fun part began. All the programs in the suite worked except Acrobat. It asked me for the serial number. I typed it in but Acrobat refused to accept it. I phone Tech support. A person with an Indian accent and very noisy background answer the phone. He told me my serial number was correct but my Adobe Reader interfered with the installation. I could not believe an Adobe product would interfere with another Adobe product. I uninstalled Reader but that was no help. He then told me to uninstall CS4 and reinstall. He said he would phone back in 20 minutes. He never did.
I phoned back to Tech support. The other person told me to do the same thing. There was just no help.
Next day, I reformatted my C drive and used my image backup to revert my computer to half a month ago. I tried to install again. The same thing happened again. The installation just stopped when it was installing Acrobat. I phone tech support again. The person told me a different way to remedy the problem. He told me to download a CS4 clean script from the Adobe web site. I had to uninstall all Adobe products. Then I used that script to scrub to clean all the registries that had anything to do with Adobe. I had to clean level 1 to level 4 of CS3 4 times for each level. WOW!!! I never even had CS1 installed. Why are there so many junks in my registry from Adobe? I did all that. Then I had to create a new Adobe user to install Adobe CS4. This process took me more than five hours! I finally had CS4 installed. So far it is still working.
The whole process took me three evenings and one afternoon. Adobe, this is NOT acceptable. I googled yesterday to see am I the only one who experienced this problem. I was glad that I was not the only one. Adobe, it may be a good job creation project in India. It is not good for business. Why does Adobe have to put so much junk in the registry? Does anyone have the same experience?
May 2nd, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General, Technology |
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The media made Obama the savior of the world. The media agrees and praises everything he said. The multi-trillion budget which the US government will spend whatever they do not have to buy up failing banks, insurance companies, auto-makers, etc. is considered good government policy. The democrats preached against Wall streets, big banks, or any big businesses are bad for the poor people. They are the ones who are subsidizing the big guys now. People forget that US already has multi-trillions of debt before this recession. The extra debt will be added on to the existing debt. Does his administration really know how to handle the debt bomb?
March 2nd, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General, Politics, Social |
2 comments
I cannot imagine what 3.6 trillion of spending power and 1.75 trillion of deficit. It seems the Americans have no problems about the spending that kind of money. Obama is still hailed as the biggest hero of out times because he has the courage to spend all the money that the country does not have.
He is not afraid about the lender, mainly the Chinese. Usually, it is the rich to lend to the poor. This paradigm has shifted. The majority of the Chinese population is still poor. They are the ones who are financing the reckless spending and waste of the Americans. It does not matter the Republicans or the Democrats, the budget and trade deficits keep on growing.The government and the people just cannot cut the habit of overspending.
GM and other American automakers are asking to bail out again. The government has not choice but to cave in and hand out billions again. No matter how much the automakers take, it will not revive that sector unless they solve their structural problem – labour, pension, and health care cost are just too high.
It will take a structural reform for the society to change the spending habit. The generation Y believes the society owes them a good life. This may be a good time for them to learn they have to do something to make a living.
February 26th, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
Politics, Social |
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The Gaza situation is not getting better. Israel got blame for attacking Hamas because the was firing rockets into Israel towns. There are protests around the world by the Palestinians groups and supporters in various cities against Israel. The United Nation sends help to the Palestinians. The BBC reported that the UN aid is now seized by the Hamas.
Where are the people who were protesting against Israel now? If they are truly concern about the the Palestinians who are suffering in Gaza, should they be protesting against the Hamas? If it is a war crime for Israel to attack Hamas, should confiscating food and medical aid from the Palestinians by the Hamas be the real war crime? I have not heard of one protest against the Hamas yet.
February 4th, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General, Politics |
one comment
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Church in a mall
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Praise time
The church I am attending is moving. The new church building is far from completion. The former building was sold. In the mean time, we are meeting at the mall.
We have to set up all the chairs, AV equipment, lighting, etc. and tear down everything every week. It was interesting to see close to or over 1000 people met at the aisle of a local shopping mall for just over an hour, put everything back, and saw all the shops open for business. Those who worked and shopped at the mail must have seen something strange about this congregation. If this is a church, where are the strain glass windows, the organ, the wooden pews, the cross?
I am glad we can demonstrate to the public we can worship God without a building. God is in the marketplace and in our lives.
February 1st, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
General, Religion |
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I watched the HBO documentary “The trials of Ted Haggard”. It was an very personal look at the days after this pastor fallen from grace. I have a few observations.
First, I can understand the reaction from the church elders. The church board of overseers fired him. I am not surprised by their action. Haggard preached on the the sin of homosexuality in all these years. He became a laughing stock of the community. Haggard reinforced the image of hypocrisy in the fundamentalist movement. He preached one thing and he practised the opposite. He was a liar and a deceiver. Haggard admitted to that. It was obvious that Haggard had to leave the church he founded.
Second, this is the point I did not understand from the documentary. It stated that Haggard signed an agreement that he would leave the State of Colorado. I can understand the elders of the New Life Church want Haggard get of out of town. American is a free country, Homosexuality is not a crime. Haggard and his family should be free to choose where they reside. How can a church dictate a person who has not committed any crime not to step foot in a State? What can legally prevent Haggard to live in the State of Colorado?
Third, I do not understand the hatred of some of the members of the New Life Church. The members were deceived by Haggard. They were angry and shocked. In comparison, Haggard’s sin is not telling the people that he had homosexual thoughts and tendency. Haggard admitted that his struggle of homosexuality and his belief in the Bible. It then manifested into voyeur acts of hiring a male prostitute, buying drugs and inducing another male member of the church. Those were all morally corrupt behaviour. I do believe that Haggard has to truly repent from his acts. He apparently repented from his action. He put the blame squarely on himself. He was trying to say nice things about all his accusers.
Fourth, we have to admit that human sexuality is complex. No one can explain how or why a person is a homosexual. Why does the fundamentalists highlight homosexuality as the number one sin? I know churches that open up to prison ministries. They accept convicted criminals into their congregation as the lives of the ex-convicts turn around. Homosexuality is not a crime (at least not in this country). It is not even classified as an illness. If Christians can accept repented ex-convicts into their congregation (as they should), why they cannot accept a person who struggle with their sexual identity (it is not even a crime)? If the concern is hypocrisy, we have to look deep inside. Jesus told the teachers of the law who bought in a woman caught in adultery, “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” The crowd left. Jesus never condemned the woman. He just gently said, “Go and leave your life of sin.”
What would Jesus do with Ted Haggard? I believe he would said the same thing.
January 30th, 2009
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General, Politics, Religion, Social |
one comment
As the world wide recession is deepening, we can now witness the greatest American export. It is the financial crisis the US give to the whole world. Thanks to the innovation of the American financial brains trained in elite business schools, they dreamed up fancy schemes to make money for the investment banks and (of course) themselves. Now the whole world is in deep trouble. Those who came up with all these financial products never got punished. Instead, they received millions of bonuses and bail out money from the government to stay afloat (so that they can do it again).
The Chinese Premier is correct when he blamed the source of this financial crisis squarely on the US. The western media scream at the Chinese and its government if they smell any wrong doing by the Chinese. I did not hear or read much screaming by the western media pounding on the American financial institutions, government, regulating agencies, or its elite business schools on causing this financial crisis.
January 29th, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
General, Politics, Social |
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It was wrong for the Chinese to have a lip sync during the Olympics but it is just fine for the world renounced musicians to play to taped music. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/arts/music/23band.html?scp=1&sq=taped%20music&st=cse
The media criticized whatever the Chinese are doing – Tibet, Olympics, currency, international trade… It seems that whatever Obama does is just fine.
January 26th, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
General, Politics, Social |
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I am glad that the Chronicle Herald published an opinion to question why there are so many hate reports on Israel. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorial/1101439.html The people who condemn Israel never questioned how many rockets the Hamas fired into Israel. Israel left Gaze since 2005. Hamas never wants peace. The purpose of the organization is to destroy the existence of the State of Israel. If the Hamas leaders really want their own people to live in peace, they should fund economic development, not rockets and guns.
Taiwan broke away from mainland China in 1949 after the civil war with the communists. The Nationalists in Taiwan could have use their resources to fire rockets to the mainland. However, they used their energy to build a sound economy. Today, it is one of the major economic powerhouse in Asia. By the same token, China used its might not to fight Taiwan, but to build its economy. It is now the second largest economy in Asia.
There is a lesson to be learned. If a country stops its hatred against its enemy and uses its resources to develop a sound economy, its people will benefit.
January 18th, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
General, Politics, Social |
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It seems that the anti-Semitic sentient is well rooted in the labour movement. Canadian Union of Public Employee (CUPE) demand all Ontario universities to condemn Israel. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorial/9010217.html
The union does not condemn Hamas’ firing rockets into Israel’s territories. As far as I know, Israel withdrew from Gaza since 2005. Hamas basic doctrine is to deny the existence of a Jewish state. In the union’s stand point, Hamas has all the right to kill Israelites but Israel has no right to defend its citizens. I do not want to debate who is right. I just want to ask whether a union which collects its mandatory dues from its members should use the funds to advocate an anti-Semitic agenda.
January 12th, 2009
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Dragonfinger |
General, Politics, Social |
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I finally look at some available themes for Wordpress. I decided to change my theme for a few weeks. I like this Christmas theme.
December 20th, 2008
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Dragonfinger |
General |
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This is in the front page of the local newspaper. http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1096408.html
I saw those lobster fishermen selling their catch for $5 per pound yesterday. I bought a few since the price was right. Lobsters were selling for over $7 per pound at grocery stores.
Those fishermen said they could only get $3 per pound from the buyers in their home town. They have to come to Halifax to get a better price. It is a win-win situation for both fishermen and consumers. They can get a better price for their catch and the consumers save some money for a good dinner. I do not hear the lobster fishermen asking for bail out. (At least not yet!) They somehow figure out a way to increase their income without asking the taxpayer for money while the ordinary consumers benefit from their work.
The story is quiet different for the auto industry. Both the management and workers make good salary. They do not want to lower their expectation or change their lifestyle. According to some reports, the auto workers refused to take about a wage cut. The union demanded a bail out. There is no guarantee that the Big Three will even survive even the government gives them billions. The management will come back for more a few months later for more money. Taxpayers, consumers, workers and the industry itself will all be losers.
The Japanese automakers are not doing that much better. Honda still makes a profit but it announced a 10% cut in wages. I have not heard of Honda or Toyota asking for a bail out. No wonder the North American auto industry cannot compete with the Japanese.
December 17th, 2008
Posted by
Dragonfinger |
General, Social |
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