One of the things that is important for your financial wellness is to get a good financial advisor.  Of course, you can pretty much do everything on the internet yourself - buy stocks, weigh mutual funds, and others, but the important thing is you should know where to go for advice.

IN financial management, that is key.  Good advice is expensive, but bad decisions can be disastrous.

The most important of course, when seeking advice is to know who to listen to, and when to listen to.  That means that even the best financial advisers can be wrong  ( Remember the quip that if your stockbroker knew what stocks are surefire, they would be buying it on their account instead of being your stockbroker!)

Let me share to you my own experience.  Two years ago, I happen to invest some money and therefore got to talk to Read the rest of this entry »

5 Disruptive Technologies To Watch In 2007 - News by InformationWeek

In 2006, we saw the leading virtual server software vendors begin to give away their products. In 2007, more and more IT shops will consolidate their servers using virtual machines.

The concept behind virtual servers is simply stated but hard to implement: take a single server, divvy it up into separate “virtual” machines, each with its own memory, virtual hardware and drive images, and other resources.

Apparently, the ease and portability of many video/sound capturing devices is creating new issues.  There used to be a time only James Bond has these kind of secret video devices — now it is in the hands of almost anybody.

Growing rumpus over Saddam execution footage | The Register

The Iraqi authorities have launched an enquiry into “unofficial mobile phone footage” of Saddam Hussein’s execution last Saturday after the graphic video surfaced on the internet within hours of his hanging, the BBC reports.

China: Two more years to Internet No. 1? | News.blog | CNET News.com

China says it now has over 130 million Internet users. Over 50 million Chinese have broadband.

China continues to trail only the U.S. in total number of web users. Doing some quick math with China’s 2006 Internet growth rate of 30 percent: It could surpass the U.S. current total of 210 million users sometime in 2008. I’m assuming the U.S. is maxed out, that Internet growth here will be slender. Few countries in the world surpass 70 percent Internet use, which is where the U.S. stands now.

China deploys head-banging snakes for earthquake prediction | The Register

The bizarre behaviour of snakes is being used as an earthquake sensor in China. The serpents, a winter delicacy in the south of the country, apparently freak out up to five days before a tremor.

Nanning earthquake bureau director Jiang Weisong told the state-owned China Daily: “When an earthquake is about to occur, snakes will move out of their nests, even in the cold of winter. If the earthquake is a big one, the snakes will even smash into walls while trying to escape.”