Cyber-Bargains

Lelong! Lelong!! Lelong!!! We, Malaysian would normally heard this word very frequently in the market especially in our night market or pasar malam.

"Kame"(came) From China-KFC

In Lelong, the safety and interest of both the buyer and seller are protected. Why i said so?

First, there is a rating system for sellers. The seller can only gain points to increase its own rating from the buyer who bought goods from them. In the other way, the seller's rating will drop if he is dishonest with its sales. So, if we as a buyer want to determine the trustworthy of the seller, we can always refer to its ratings. The higher the rating means the seller is trustable. Of corse, it is not always seller will cheat the buyer. It will happen the other way as well. To prevent this from happen, all the users including buyer and seller required to register a account. To register the account, important details like name, telephone number, id number are required. This is to ease the investigation to fraud sales or any conn case.

And lastly, there is also a brilliant system in Lelong. It is called the Safe Trade. This system is to eliminate every risks between the seller and buyer. In this system, when a buyer and seller agree to their trade terms, the buyer will pay to this Safe Trade. Then, Lelong will infrom the seller to ship goods and when the buyer receive its goods and approve the payment. Then, the seller will get its money from Lelong Safetrade. However, there is surcharge of 2 ringgit per transactions to be bear by the buyer.

Lelong's Safe Trade

Will i buy stuff through Lelong or any other bidding sites? Is the stuff offered there cheaper? Is there more variety of stuff available there?

I can answer you that i rather drive myself to the nearest mall to opt for the stuff i want. This is because i don't trust online selling yet. Online sellers seem like want to make a large fortune by marking up the prices of their goods. Besides, i would only pay for the stuff which i have seen with my own eyes and touched with my own hands.

Therefore, shopping mall still is my choice and Lelong is a place merely for me to waste my time.

Today, E- Learning industry is diverse. Numerous universities have developed profit oriented E-Universities offering courses and degree programs. E-Learning involves the use of Web-based technologies to deliver a broad range of learning solution whereby learning materials can be easily accessed from the web. Students can communicate among each others using e-mail, chat, or discussion forum. E- Learning has provided lots of advantages and disadvantages as follow:

Pros

E- Learning offers economies of scale. Technology-based solutions tend to be more scalable than traditional teaching methods. Besides that, E- Learning also provides conveniences and time flexibility. Students can easily access to the Internet to get online resources or other materials anytime and anywhere whenever they can access to the Internet. E-learning has becoming vast popular among students living in developing and non-developing countries. They can afford to get higher education degrees by saving extra expenses for traveling, living accommodation, foods and others fees.

Cons

On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages in using E-learning.

One of the disadvantages is lack of face to face communication with tutors will lead to misunderstanding among tutors and students. This will significantly affects students with low ability especially when they find difficulties in using the new technology and online software.

Also, students will feel isolated and left behind than other students. Further more, it takes more time for tutors to provide individualized feedback especially when they encounter Internet connections problems. As comparing to the traditional methods, tutors can easily understand the students’ needs meanwhile the students also can inquiry if they face any problem immediately.

There are many advantages in using E-Learning programs meanwhile there are varieties of disadvantages too. We should always consider the easiest way to study. Students that find it difficult in using E-Learning programs might stick to the traditional method and vice visa.

Prepaid cash card is simply means you have to put in certain amount of money into your account and then you can use it via a card to buy stuff. Sounds simple?

The most popular prepaid card in Malaysia is probably the Touch'n Go.

Touch'n Go was introduced back in 1997 and i was the first few people who had this kind of card. Many people were still "alien' to this kind of card which can be used to pay toll. This showed how "ulu" was Malaysian at that time. Cos our neighbor Singapore had this kind of system back in don't know how many century back <---exaggerated!!

This dude had to "gostunt" cos got no enuf credit..Damn it!!

Later, Touch'n Go has expanded its services like we can use it in the bus, train comuter and even pay for parkings in some selected malls.With this card, the speed of paying for low value but high frequency transactions is enhanced and it is also freaking convenient.

We no need queue like them with this card.

However, i find that the conveniency to reload the credit of Touch'n Go is very bad. Yea, we can reload it in certain toll plaza, selected petrol station and some Maybank atm's. But why can't we reload it in the largest 24 hours convenient store in the world 7-11? I hope the management of Touch'n Go heard this and could provide us more places to reload the credit.

The other kind of prepaid cash card emerged rapidly is the Debit card. This card is basically same as the credit card but you can only spend the balance of amount in the account. This means you have to think and check for the balance whereas for credit card, you spend then only you think!

Girls want Credit Card not Debit Card!! Definately a smarter way to control your girlfriend's spending.

With debit cards, there are a lot of advantages for the consumer. We can carry less cash than ever.

Secondly, those kiasi or kiasu people who don't want to overspend or get headache when the credit card statement arrived can have this card.

Lastly, for youngster especially boy who wants to attract chicks can have one too.Because there is a chicks magnet rating which i created myself. But at last, all u gotta have is a Big P!

Chicks magnet--> ATM< debit card< credit card< car< apartment< BIG PENIS

I hope in the future, Malaysian could have a perfect and flawless prepaid cash card system. This could prevent pickpocket crimes from happening.

PS to thief: Sorry thief, i only have few plastic cards for you!!

Money originally is in the physical substance ie, gold, silver and copper. Today, the normal transaction is pay in the form of notes and coins. Besides from the notes and coin currency, currency now has slowly emerged into the form of electronic currency with the rapidly changing computerized world.

Electronic currency refers to the money which is exchanged only electronically. Obviously, this will involve computer networks, internet, and digital stored value. Direct deposit and electronic fund transfer are the examples of electronic currency. Electronic currency will function on the principle that every deal affects only two sides, for instance one is payer, and another is the receiver.

In general, there are two types of electronic currency which are online and offline electronic currency. Online electronic currency means the users need to interact with bank through modem or network in conducting a transaction with a third party. Offline means the transaction conducted need not directly involve a bank. The bank can know what everyone bought, where they bought it, when they bought it, and how much they paid for both online and offline electronic currencies.

In traditional currency system, people need to carry a bag which is full of currency notes, using vehicles for transferring, depositing or withdrawal of funds from one place to another. They may fear of getting lotted when carry this bag. On the other hand, electronic currency system need not fear of getting lotted because the transaction ie transfer fund is carried out online and not physical substance. This can increase in public confidence in using the electronic monetary system.

Other benefits of electronic currency system are convenience, and it able to increase efficiency of transactions ie shorten the transfer fund period. Besides these, it also can create new business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities on the Internet.

Although electronic currency system can provide many benefits as stated above, there is a major disadvantage to electronic currency which is security. For instance, the user of electronic currency system is misplaces his/ her private key. There is a possibility that a person may use it to withdraw funds from the bank. With the private key given, the person is able to withdraw the money. The money withdrawn will never be able to recover back from bank.

The world’s first mobile payment service has been launched in Malaysia. One of the examples is Maxis Fast Tap whereby it integrates mobile payment services which use Near Field Communications (NCF) technology. Its not only allows communication at short range but also offer a wider range of features that enable credit cards. NCF technology offers consumers an easy and convenience way to secure transactions by only using a mobile phone.

Mobile Money is another example of E-mobile payment that addresses the limitation of cash, cheques and credit cards. It enables registered users to pay goods and services anytime and anywhere. The consumers no need to carry money or credit card to make transactions. They only need to use their mobile phone to make online booking such as cinema ticket. By using mobile payment system, it helps to eliminate the hassle to queue up for paying the cinema tickets fee especially during weekends and holidays.

E-Mobile payment scheme are an attractive alternative from both the perspective of cost and convenience. On top of that it also fulfills consumer needs and enables them to search for large number of merchants easily. It has overcome the problem whereby consumers need to shop from one place to another. Also, it abilities to attract a large number of consumers has benefits both merchant and service provider. Even though mobile payment system is still a very new strategy, but I believed that it will gain acceptance of all Malaysian soon as it will bring benefits for our society.