Electronic Currency

Electronic currency (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic money, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refers to money which is exchanged through electronic. This involves use of computer networks, internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_currency

There are several benefits by using e-currency service on the internet such as e-gold and paypal.

1. The e-currency can be used on the internet related commercial purposes such as online shopping and doing personal investment via internet.
2. The using of the e-currency services for example e-gold and paypal created a new way for people by not only using their credit card as the only payment method on the internet. This because sometime there a risk to provide your credit card information to the merchant that you do not know them very well and they are stay in another side of the earth .
3. The e-currency service companies such as e-gold ,paypal and EMO can provide both the buyers and sellers the convenient way to trade just by clicking the confirm button in the computer.http://giexc.com/

DXSynergy is a private market where there are variety of e-currencies are exchanged for each other. DXSynergy is a central currency service for all of these other e-currencies. There are two main parts to the system today which are DXPortfolio and DXMerchant. When you first start a business, you can begin doing e-currency trading in the DXPortfolio side. After few months, you may get into the DXMerchant side. The DXMerchant side takes more time to manage but you can earn higher profit and bonuses than the DXPortfolio.

Nowadays, DXSynergy (DXInOne) has just started rolling out their other products and services to the world, so visit the DXSynergy site to see and learn more about those new services. http://www.dxout.com/

Prepaid Cash Card - TnG

Prepaid cash card also known as stored-value card. This is a kind of card that has monetary value preloaded onto it and is usually rechargeable. It is plastic and has a magnetic strip on the back. Consumers can use stored-value cards to make purchases, off-line or online, just as the way they used their debit or credit card. The only difference is people can obtain this prepaid cash card without regard to prior financial standing or having an existing bank account as collateral (King, Mckay, Marshall, Lee, Viehland 2008).



As for Malaysian, the most popular brand of prepaid cash card is definitely the Touch-n-Go card (TnG). TnG was developed by Teras Teknologi Sdn Bhd and the first TnG system was installed and use at JLN Pahang Toll Plaza on 18 March 1997.

Nowadays, TnG is an electronic purse that can be used as a mode of payment for highways, public transportation, parking at selected places and theme parks. Each time a consumer uses TnG, the electronic card reader (RFID) will deduct the exact fare or charges from the value stored inside the card. Consumer can top-up or reload the card with a predefined amount to continue using it.

TnG enhances the speed of paying for low value but high frequency transactions. It is also very convenient because consumer no longer need to prepare for small change or queue at the cash lane to complete the transaction.

Below is the flow of TnG transaction:

1. Customer buys or reloads the TnG
2. Rangkaian Segar banks the prepaid money into a trustee account
3. Customer uses card to pay
4. The prepaid value in the card is deducted to pay exact fare
5. The CCHS system will automatically capture, process, update and store all electronic transactions
6. Trustee will pay services providers the exact amount DAILY

To read more regarding TnG, visit the following links:
- http://www.touchngo.com.my/index.jsp
- http://www.eis-tech.net/?p=12

Review on e-tailing: Using Touch n Go card to buy fast food in Malaysia will be a reality

Recently, Touch n Go card is expanding their applications and services towards the retail purchase starting with the focus on fast-food industry and lately with other industry. The company is forecasting about 5 to 10% of car holders to use the card for retail purchase.

Touch n Go card is very convenient in terms of reducing the burden of wallets full of coins and thick notes. It offers users to top-up smaller amount which might help users to control their expenses compare to credit cards which can be used up to minimum RM1000.

As we look into the other side of the coins, Touch n Go might be inconvenient for heavy spending users. They might continue with their credit cards.

In fact, Touch n Go card is weaker than credit card in terms of security measures by only providing a RFID chips, whereas credit card provides 3 safety pre-cautions including magnetic strip, smart chip and safety number.

Another issue is that if we lose our Touch n Go card, the credit inside the card is burned, however for credit card loss, our money is secured in the bank once the lost of credit card is reported to the bank.

In conclusion, Touch n Go card can really save the burden of our pockets and wallets, but they will face many challenges in competing with credit card providers.

Please refer to the source of the issue here. <click here>

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

Since the credit card business is getting more and more competitive, the rules and policies to apply a credit card is easier compare to olden days. Therefore, credit card debts happened.

Causes:

1. Expenses more than income: If people spend more than their income, definitely they are in debt. For instance, recently the petrol price is hiking up, if people continue spending like before with their same salary, obviously they will be forced to step into a deep credit card debts' hole.

2. Poor money management: Credit card provides us future money to purchase what we want easily, but without good budget, people tend to buy recklessly and forget about the accumulated bill plus interest at the end of the month.

3. Using credit card as cash: Yes, it's convenient to use credit card to purchase anything anywhere. That is why people tend to use credit card instead of cash, thus increasing the debts in daily basis.

Prevention:

1. Use cash instead of credit card: If we purchase with cash, the feeling of the tangible cash is running low in our wallet or bank account will lead us to the feeling of how little money we own. So, it might help the credit card user to control their expenses.

2. Create a budget: Individuals must create their own budget in spending. Necessity comes first followed by other items. That is how we reduce debt and save money.

3. Education: Educate youngsters on how to manage their pocket money during their school times without over-spends is a way to prevent them to fall into credit card debts problems.

4. Cut up your cards so that you are not tempted to use them. Save only one card for emergency purposes.

Review on Internet Security: More than 1 million computer viruses in circulation now (April 11,2008)

Recently, there were more than 1 million malware including computer viruses, worms and Trojans circulating in the internet from the Symantec bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report. These might be resulted from a huge numbers of new malicious codes being created by the cyber crime groups.

One of the reasons is criminals increasingly using Trojans as their main tool to gain access to other computer and use that route to download and install a variety of other malicious programs. Besides, some malicious installations happen when websites are visited or programs, such as online games are started up. There is also a growth in professional digital criminal underground, these experts are expected to be paid to steal information and aiming for new victims.

Besides, most of the malicious codes are targeted on Microsoft Window's based PC. These malware will utilize popular communication tools to spread worms by sending through email and instant messages, Trojan horses dropped from websites and virus-infected files downloaded from p2p connections. Malware will also seek for vulnerable systems, making their entry quiet and easy. In fact, there are 90% of people using Microsoft Window's platform, so it is very risky if we let our Window's systems vulnerable to attack without any proper safeguards.

Please refer to the source of the issue here. <click here>

How Safe Is Your Data?

Generally, there are three situations that expose us to the risk of data loss or data stolen:

1. Malicious attack from internet
Nontechnical attack is when perpetrator uses deception or persuasion to trick users into revealing their personal information or conducting actions that compromise the security of their network. Technical attack is conducted using software and systems knowledge or expertise, such as spyware, malware, viruses, worms, and Trojan horse.

2. Stolen hardware

Data stored on laptops, external hard disks, CDs, and other portable storage devices are loss and exposed to potential abuse when the hardware are stolen.

3. Faulty hardware
Without proper backup systems, any data stored in the computer will be loss permanently if the hard disk becomes faulty and unrecoverable.

Now, let’s have a quick view of a few cases where the users’ data were stolen.

· April 2007, University of California, San Francisco (due to hacker)
The University’s server which contained confidential information such as names, social security numbers and bank account details of 46,000 students, faculty and staff was hacked into.
· April 2007, Georgia (due to stolen hardware)
A company lost a CD consisting 2.9 million Georgia residents’ names, social security numbers, addresses and members identification for recipients of Medicaid and other medical programme which belonged to Georgia Department of Community Health.
· 2006, Own experiences (due to key logger)
My brother’s MSN and his online games’ accounts were hacked. This unknown person was using his MSN chat room, messing around with his games’ characters and spamming mails using his hotmail account.

For more cases, visit:
- http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2007/05/identity-theft-cases-on-stolen-laptops.html
- http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/12/11/193220.php
- http://www.bio-itworld.com/BioIT_Content.aspx?id=74012

In conclusion, as an internet user, we must be very careful in handling our data. Hence, proper anti-virus, anti-spyware and strong firewall programs are necessary. Frequent data backup and data encryption are also very important.

For more prevention methods, visit:
- http://ezinearticles.com/?10-Simple-Tips-to-Prevent-Data-Loss&id=385794
- http://wordprocessing.about.com/od/troubleshooting/a/dataloss.htm

Safeguard of personal and financial data

We can protect our personal and financial document against potential fraud by eliminate our own paper trail. A shredder can work for a few sheets paper at a time. We can also contact a commercial shredder to do it if we have a large quantity of sheets. Likewise, we can also review the monthly statements which can alert us to possible fraudulent charges. We may also find legitimate charges for services which are redundant or unnecessary. We must always guard our social security number by make sure that anyone asking for our social security number is really needs it and do not print the social security number on checks or high visible places.
Besides that, we should choose the PIN number wisely. A combination of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers will be more secure. While using the Internet, we must be cautious from become a victim of a phishing scam. So we should verify any request for personal information before you give out any sensitive data. Anti-virus software, firewall and anti-spyware software must be installed in our computer and always keep them up to date. These can protect us against viruses and Trojan horses that may steal or modify the data on your own computer.

Phishing

Phishing is a scam in which the attacker sends an email purporting to be from a valid financial or E-Commerce provider. The email often uses fear tactics in an effort to trap the victim into visiting a fraudulent website. The particular website looks like the valid E-Commerce or banking site. The victim is instructed to login to their account and enter sensitive financial information such as usernames, passwords, account IDs, ATM PINs or credit card details. Subsequently, this information will be sent to the attacker who then uses it to engage in credit card and bank fraud.

However, it is easy to prevent a phishing scam. For example, do not open the link and key in your personal information when you received an email from a bank that you have never opened an account. Besides, a phishing scam always has a lot of words misspelled because sometimes the scammers operate a phishing with a second language and poor grammar. So you can realize it is a phishing if you look at the message carefully. Another way to prevent is examine the link provide to see whether does it really go where it appears to go. For instance, the scammer will tell you that you can access to the government’s top secret database at www.topsecretxxx.gov but if you click the link you will find that you have been entered to another web site.

Successful of Ebay

Ebay is one of the success e-commerce in online trading. It is a software program that allowed people to list various interest and various degrees of item in one spot. It allowed people to be able to look at what is available for sale and bid on and buy those items.

Besides that, Ebay allows people to approach with some very lovely and special childhood memories. For instance such as collecting baseball cards to toy soldiers to Barbie dolls to doll houses and so on. It allows people to make that connection and relive a lot of those very vivid and very fond memories that they have from an earlier period of time. Another factor to consider which lead to the successful of Ebay is making people feel comfortable and enjoy the experience of the shopping bazaar. They enjoy the hunt and looking around for merchandise through online shopping. Likewise, the buyers also enjoy the competition of the bidding process since everybody like to bargain.

Subsequently, the environment of trust and safety also one of the factor that make Ebay become so successful. It creates an environment of trust and safety that will allow the users to come back over again and over again. This will enable the tyro online shopper can come to that particular site and feel comfortable shopping there. Thus they can get a good price and a bargain and getting the merchandise that they want.

What Can E-commerce do?

E-commerce is becoming more and more popular. Businesses are all trying to get their products online. More and more consumers shift themselves to online trading. Why are these happening?! Below are some points regarding this issue.


1st: Reduce cycle time
By having an e-commerce website, business can operate 24 hours. This can reduce unnecessary mailings and phone calls from customers and to suppliers. Besides, by eliminating middle man, businesses now can sell directly to their customers. This can reduce both the transportation time in between producer, middle man and consumers, and also the profit margin of a particular product! Workflow automation can eliminate the traditional way of order processing which consumed a lot of time. Nowadays, shipping, stock level, stock site, and payment verification are all done automatically in real time!

2nd: Improve employees’ empowerment
Employees who are working with e-commerce technology are normally self-managed. They have the authority to made decisions as they do not have a direct superior supervising them. Moreover, some employees even have the permission to maintain or setting up a creative website for the company. Besides, companies also empowered their workers to response to customers’ enquiries (email) without having to report to their manager. With the database, intranet and extranet, employees have more authority to access to corporate information as compare to those old days.

3rd: Facilitate customer support
With an e-commerce website, companies can now provide their customers a more advance customer support system. For example, most corporate websites provide online FAQ (frequent asked questions) section as a self-help customer support. If the customer cannot find his answer in the FAQ, he can also send an email to the contact link that is posted on the website. Normally these emails will be answered in a short period. Besides, some websites will also have their companies’ hotline posted on their websites. Customers may call the hotline and be served by the operator.

The Failure of Kozmo.com

History:
Kozmo.com was founded in 1997 by investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang. The company began as a service that deliver videos by bicycle messenger to Manhattan customers who ordered them online.


Factor of failure:
Kozmo.com had raised more than $250 million, but the company was unable to generate enough revenue to cover its costs. In 1999, the company had $3.5mil revenue, compared to $26.4mil losses. The problem occurred when its business model included offering a costly home-delivery service for free. This offer covered a very small order such as a DVD and a pack of gum which it was impossible to turn a profit. As a result, it made the customer satisfied and excited, but it drew losses to the company.

At last, they began to charge $1.99 for every delivery of orders under $30, hoping that the company can escape from financial problems. However, it was too late to recover due to the huge losses encountered by the company.

“We built out a delivery system that worked,” recalls former Chief Operating Officer Skip Trevathan. He added that Kozmo.com was profitable in four cities, but there were seven more cities that made losses. Therefore the company faced financial crisis and closed down.

There are other E-commerce failure for instance, Webvan failed because it expanded its business too soon and Pets.com failed because of spending on high advertisement costs.

The Evolution of E-commerce

What will appear in your mind when people mentioned about e-commerce? Most of our answers will be online trading, online transactions or others similar answers. However, did anyone know that originally e-commerce was only used for commercial transactions between companies using EDI and EFT?

In the late 1970s, EDI and EFT were introduced, allowing companies to electronically transfer their commercial documents such as purchase orders and invoices. Later, when the use of credit cards, ATM and telephone banking became popular in the 1980s, the e-commerce technology evolved and involved more financial based transactions. However, at this stage, e-commerce was used mainly for B2B transactions.

From 1990s onwards, e-commerce has additionally included ERP, data mining and data warehousing. At the same time, e-commerce has become more popular among the general public. Between 1998 and 2000, many businesses in United State and Western Europe have developed their own website. By this stage, B2C transactions are being introduced to the public when big companies started to offer their products and services on the World Wide Web.

Some examples for the early adopters of e-commerce are:

• Pizza Hut (1994) http://www.pizzahut.com/

  

• Amazon.com (1995) http://www.amazon.com/
  
  

  

• Dell (1995) http://www.dell.com/

• eBay (1995) http://www.ebay.com/
  
  

  

Nowadays, e-commerce has become more and more acceptable to the public and more forms of business transactions such as B2B, B2C, C2B, C2C are created, and being widely used by the public and companies.

Dragon

My name is Chang Ken Huat. I come from Sabah Sandakan, a natural city. Sandakan is famous with seafood and tourism. We can have a great seafood meal in Restaurant Hai Shang Wang. There is also a chelonian island names Pulau Seligan. We usually can see the chelonian born its egg between 8pm to 11pm or we can dive into the sea to see variety of colorful fishes. Besides that, we can also visit to Sepilok to see the Orang Utan and the monkey with a long nose. Sandakan is also famous in Crocodile Farm. There are thousand of crocodiles inside the crocodile farm. The largest crocodile inside has a length of 21 feets and four people have been eaten by it.
I am staying at Scotpine now. My hobbies are gym and playing computer games such as Warcraft but the game that I like the most is still the racing game, Need For Speed. I enjoy all the time during the race in the game with super car and high speed. Therefore, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche are all my dream cars even though I know that this is impossible for me to get these cars. The sport that I like is Taekwondo. I can train my willpower during the sparring session which can lead me to become stronger when I face some attack from others as well as the setback in my life. Besides that, I can also use it as self-defense. I have won one gold and bronze medal in my secondary school. Sometimes I will also workout with my brother, Tan Nooby, a future bodybuilder with a crazy brain.
The Top 5 websites that I visit the most are:
1. http://www.utar.edu.my/
I check my timetable and result there.
2. http://www.google.com/
I use it to search the information about my assignment.
3. http://www.hotmail.com/
I use this website to check my mail.
4. http://www.airasia.com/
I always use this website to check the fare price from here to my hometown.
5. http://www.youtube.com/
I search for it for video clips and songs.

Self-introduction

My name is Dunston Rufus Har… Currently, I live in Forest Green Apartment, but my hometown is in Nibong Tebal, Penang. My hobbies are playing various computer games and sometimes I write Chinese calligraphy.

The top 5 website that I usually surf is WBLE, Google, The Star, Malaysia Today and YouTube. WBLE is of course the top visited website because there is where every student retrieves the information for their subjects. Followed by Google, which is a very good website to search for information or answers for our assignment. The Star and Malaysia Today are free-of charge information that updates my knowledge about social issues. Recently, our ex-Prime Minister also set up a blog (http://www.chedet.com/), providing us some covered up issues within our nation. Other than words and story, I also visit YouTube to get those video clips which we are unable to reach if we stick to Malaysia’s mass media.

One of my top 5 internet activities is communicating. I communicate with friends by using MSN live messenger and visiting website such as Friendster and Facebook. Besides, I play games online too, such as MMORPG games and DotA in Blueserver. Playing online games link me to players from different countries. This is a way to make friends and know about the world outside in this cyber era. Following activities are those I have mentioned earlier, reading news online, journals and articles for assignments and streaming video online.

I think that’s all about me, further information is in my profile. You can click on my name under the “Contributors” column to view it.

"I am who I am"

I'm Chan Nei Yan and i have already filled up the author's personal profile, such as hobbies and others. So, let's talk about something that you can't found in the profile!

I was born in a sweet family consists of 6 members, where i'm the 2nd child in the family. When I was small (less than 7 years old), there were almost 15 family members living under one roof. But nowadays, my aunties and uncle have formed their own family and no longer living in this HOME. I miss those days~

Oh ya! I forget to introduce my hometown. I was from Sandakan, Sabah. It is small but not as small as you think. At least it is a lot bigger than Sg Long :) Anyone interested to visit Sandakan may contact me for information regarding interesting places in Sandakan and where can you eat all those yummy seafood in my lovely hometown.

Lets talk about the top 5 websites that i visit the most:
1) http://www.google.com/
I like to search using Google for assignment information, wallpapers, or just browsing aimlessly.
2) http://www.airasia.com/
I visit this site a lot as I need to monitor the price of air ticket so that i can go back to Sabah at the lowest cost.
3) http://www.hotmail.com/
This is where i registered my main email account. So, I'll check my mail every now and then.
4) http://www.bubblebox.com/
This is a mini games website and of cause, i play mini games.
5) http://www.utar.edu.my/
Every UTAR student must visit this website right? I need to check my results here, exam timetable and all sort of ACADEMIC stuff.

Summary of my online activities are checking mails, searching information, communicating, checking price for air ticket, and looking for horror movies information.