Singapore Education System Blog

I have heard about currency trading and investing but was not well-versed in this market. Who knew that the Euro may someday replace the United States dollar as the “currency kept in reserve by the world”? I certainly did not. Of course, you see, most of what Jamaine Burrell talks about in his book, “The Complete Guide to Currency Trading and Investing,” is stuff many of us do not know about until after years of experience in the market of Foreign Exchange (or Forex). This book is especially good for novice investors, who need to have complicated investing concepts explained. The great thing about Burrell’s tone is that he is not condescending, or “dumbs down” the material. He clearly covers most every complexity about Forex and does so with a professionally instructive voice.

I was particularly interested in this book, especially as our nation is facing a weakening dollar, because I hear so much nowadays about the foreign markets and how many are investing in and trading currency. Apparently, the Forex market really is an accessible investment that can pay the investor quite well if he or she knows how to get involved in the Forex market and understands how it works.

That is why I felt Burrell’s book was so helpful for me. It explains how the Forex market works, why the United States is such an important player in the world market, how to get involved, and does a great job illustrating the many indexes, factors, and issues that contribute to currency-value fluctuation and the overall global economy. Read…

I found this book to be just ok – it covers the basics of Linux and many important/frequently used commands but I am remotely satisfied with this book because the author focuses on stuff that many users probably will find less useful. The learning curve is quite steep if you’re relatively new to Linux – the author is describing very basic stuff like GNU, Linux file systems, simple shell commands and such, and then suddenly rushes into complicated shell programming and scripts.

Few examples from this book that I know I will never use but who knows, other users may find that:

-This book is great if you’re into emacs and vi(m) since it dedicates over 100 pages on these two text editors but I prefer using nano so for me these chapters were more or less wasted.
-This book is great if you’re into shell programming.

Why spend 100+ pages on vim and emacs when at least some pages could’ve been dedicated to a Security Section that this book doesn’t have? Perhaps emacs and vim are important because programming requires a good set of text editors..? Read…

First, Soros is a very savvy financial genius. I’m always amazed when people try to take shots at him. It’s like saying Bill Gates doesn’t understand technology. When Soros talks, listen. If you don’t understand, listen some more.

Reflexivity is Soros’s pet theory. He outlined it in the Alchemy of Finance. Basically the idea is that events can become self reinforcing. How does that relate to the mortgage collapse?

The mortgage bubble and collapse was just like any other. Banks and other institutions noticed that lending money was profitable when the economy was expanding. All the loans seemed to be turning out well. The banks were printing money and decided to loan more and more. As more credit became available, the economy continued to perform strongly (the easy availability of money spurs on the economy) causing existing loans to perform even better. Banks were enticed to lend even more. All the while, institutions of all stripes continued to pile on leverage as their investments blossomed. Eventually someone decided to take their chips off the table. All of a sudden, credit came into question. Institutions started to de-lever, worried that they wouldn’t be able to get their money off the table fast enough. No one would extend more credit. Money became scarce. Loans defaulted. The housing market crashed. Read…

Mr Lee Kuan Yew – or LKY – as he is fondly referred to by both admirers and critics, has been a controversial figure as easily discernible in the oxymoronic titles he is often given, such as “benevolent dictator” and “enlightened despot”. But to call him such names without heavy qualification is to utter a painful half-truth.

“The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew” aptly displays the range of LKY’s sensitivity, insight, and wisdom harvested not only from his personal experience from WWII onwards but also from the experiences of others. As a young Singaporean who has lived in Singapore all her life I thought I was very familiar with this iconic figure who I had often read about from his speeches, newspapers and textbooks. However, his memoirs displayed another angle of his personal self which is rarely seen in the media.

I think it’s a waste that not many young Singaporeans have read this book. Perhaps they should. His writing is powerful but easy to read, and I found myself reading it into the small hours of the night. This book would also appeal to you if you’re interested in Singapore, its policies, and its history. Read…

The title for this review is taken from that old joke about what are the three greatest lies every told…. one being, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.” Quite frankly, after a week of working with the nuances and demons, along with some of the neat stuff, of Vista, I find myself less apt to recommend this version of Vista (Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (SP1)) than I was even three days ago. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

By now, Vista is over a year old, and Microsoft has just issued its last Service Pack (SP3) for XP, and support for Windows XP with Service Pack 3, according to Microsoft’s support page, ends 12 months past the 3/30/2008 release date for regular folks like you and me (developers and businesses get 24 months of support).

Of all the Operating Systems (O/S) introduced by Microsoft, Vista has been dissed more than any other, at least to my memory. Vista has really felt a terrible backlash from the business community, namely because it requires at least 1 GB of RAM to run and 15 GB’s of disk space to install (versus 128MB of RAM and 1.5 GB of disk space needed for XP Professional to operate). This coupled with most businesses feeling that Vista doesn’t have enough improvements to warrant an upgrade has even lead to many businesses balking at even buying computers with Vista installed on them. You may remember how Dell had to go back and start re-offering XP on the computers after they fazed it out after Vista has been on the market about six months because of new computer sales dropping because of Vista. Read…