Commodity exchanges?

People today are so into exchanges. We have stock exchange, money exchange, currency exchange, commodity exchange. Oh yeah, coming to that. What are the commodities of today? Paper? Wood? Currency? Stocks?

What about human innovation and creativity? Ideas born of a personal itch? Cool ones that help scratch other's itches? Well here's a cool idea: idea exchange

Sounds pretty fun and interesting. However I do wonder what kind of environment and type of business would this be most helpful in?

Focus vs Multi-task

Can they coexist?

Focus:
1. Close or narrow attention; concentration
~ The Free Dictionary @ http://www.thefreedictionary.com

2. The concentration of attention or energy on something
~ WordReference.com @ http://www.wordreference.com

Concentrate on 'something' instead of 'many-thing' ? =)

More interesting, what is multitask?

Multitask is the verb of multitasking and multitasking means:
The concurrent operation by one central processing unit of two or more processes
~ The Free Dictionary @ http://www.thefreedictionary.com

Hmm.... so that begs the question of are human brains to be considered a form of 'central processing unit' ? After all, humans are suppose to be able to function in a parallel form and multitask. Very interesting thought on that. I wonder what recent progress has been made in trying to replicate human brain function by simulating single unit neurons and linking them together in software.

So idiotic

Life is good,
Life is great!

I feel like such a complete idiot but what the heck, at this stage, in this situation, I'm game for anything, even try out this one heck of a corny trick called positive verbal self reinforcement thingy.

Darn.

Challenge thyself ...

... to something ye ain't ever done before and ye shall reap bountiful.

Or so I would like to think. This time it's a real challenge. Well... I feel this time it will be different. My entire life, I've always been so super positive until I fell a long long distance. Then I became the opposite. This time, I believe I've learnt a great lesson which will always temper my extremes and remind me to be moderate. No doubt I have much more to learn but I am very thankful that in all aspects of my life, I've always been lucky to be given many many chances to learn and to grow. Given many opportunities to learn about a great many things ranging from those philosophical in nature to more pragmatic issues of our daily life.

Recently many things have been happening around me. I only wish I could have done more if I had grown up faster, earlier and be able to do the things I wish I could. However, I am not going to sit here and let regret pull me down. That has never been my nature. ;-) Just that there are other factors which pull me down, slow my growth but not regret. Yes I do regret, but I do not let it bog me down. Well, there are some who will definitely disagree with me but I believe what I say is true. Just that I have a very very big mouth which likes to complain... a lot... loudly... constantly... annoyingly. =)

Another day in my life. Life goes on as usual.

Dr. Mahathir, in person

I was at MPH Midvalley on Sunday enjoying myself browsing through a plethora of books when suddenly a commotion occured near the main entrance. At first I just ignored it as it doesn't seem to involve me. However more and more people seem to be enthralled by some incident or person at the entrance and it piqued my interest. So I amble over to see what was the matter.

Lo and behold, our beloved ex-prime minister, Dr. Mahathir was there. Everyone was crowding around him wanting to take his signature and to take photos with him. Well, I then decided rather wisely to just go back to my books. At that stage, I really really wished to just go up to him to shake his hand and thank him. However seeing the poor man swamped by the public stopped me from doing it. Alas, all my efforts to keep away came to nothing when he just popped up next to me browsing at some of the bestsellers on display.

Obviously the crowd followed along. He stood barely half a metre away and I was so so tempted to just say hi and thank you and to shake his hand. I so so wanted to but I stopped myself from doing it. I do not know what came over me. Maybe just some insane part inside wanting to seem cool and not so flustered as the rest of the crowd was who were running around like little school kids at their first party. Anyhow, I missed out an awesome opportunity to thank the great man personally.

However, no regrets. I am happy to be able to say I have seen him 'up close and personal' ;) so to speak. Where ever you are, what ever you do, Dr. M, here's a heartfelt thank you and good luck to you. The brief moments you spent with us did touch many of us Malaysians. I am proud to say I am a Malaysian first, foremost and always.

su - Windows version

Having been a slightly more advanced Windows user for years, I learnt a brand new thing today. I was actually looking around for some information on some issues I'm facing at work but stumbled upon this and it's too good an issue to pass up for bloggin. Especially since I'm still very dry of ideas. ;-)

Now, in Linux and also Unix spin-offs, there has always been tighter security in the shape of user login. All users must log in to use the OS and different users have different rights and permissions. The usual best practice for advocated for security reasons is to use the system under a normal user account and change to superuser for administrative purposes. Linux has a simple way of changing to superuser, or any other user in fact, by calling the su function to switch user.


As for Windows, starting from Windows 2000 (I do not know about Windows NT as my experience does not include that), anyone who wants to use the OS must also log in. However Windows also provides the option to directly boot up and log in for a system with a single user. What I've always done is to create a single user on my system and assign it to the Administrators group. This is because I like to experiment and will keep changing settings and applications for which a normal user might not be able to do. Unfortunately that means my system is less secure since a 'superuser' will log in automatically on boot-up. It was rather troublesome to keep the single user as normal user because there was no easy way to temporarily change to a user with administrative rights to install applications and the like.

Now I have found my answer. Ironically from an institute of higher learning which I've always perceived as being full of theory and empty of practice. =P

Have a look at this topic to be found in the Indiana University, University Information Technology Services' Knowledge Base.

'In Windows 2000 and XP, what is the Secondary Logon service?'

I've seen this service in the list of services of my PC but never took the time to find out more about it. Always just left it there by default. Now I know.

Yeah, I Got No Life. That's Why My Sorry Bum Is Plonked Right Here

Then again, we are all entitled to certain basic choices and freedom....... or not? That's a rather common and interesting presumption by many. What are we entitled to? In what context? Based on what? Anyhow, what I wanted to share is.....

Sometime back in October, my friend posted this 'Speed and It's Evil Twin'. Then I stumbled on these two and I had a really really good laugh. Been some time since I could afford that. Am so thoroughly enjoying myself right this moment. Have a laugh.

Xiaxue started on December 13, 'Ever felt like you have an invisible friend?'
Then Kenny followed with this. Oh man, this is a really great one. =D

Lost and Found: What is GNU?

Well, I just found out, or shall I say rediscover the meaning ofGNU. All I could remember about it is the recursive acronym part. GNU is Not something. Well, I found it today. GNU is Not Unix. =D

Also had quite a bit of education in accounting AND difference between Open Source, Free Software and a whole multitude of different types of licenses. Whew, it's all so confusing.