Cashflow Online Games for Your Personal Finance Literacy

August 31st, 2010 by [re-arrange] 10 comments »

Feeling bored and dull? Wanted to play something challenging? Worried about your personal finance?

Why don’t you try to play Cashflow Online Games created by the best-selling author of Rich Dad and Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki? I guess while we are in the mood of independence and freedom, playing a financial games like this might free you from the burden of the financial illiteracy as well:

If you ever read any of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series, you know that one of Robert Kiyosaki business is the educational program that he called Cashflow, where people learned about personal finance by playing a board game. Ever since I read that book last five years or so, I’ve been itching to play the games and I pray that the game will be available online for free. praying

It is now available, and yes, it is FREE. dancing

All you need to do is register with the website: Cashflow Online Games, verified your email address and boom! Play the game. Your objective is to exit the rat-race as soon as possible and jump into the fast-lane to richness; whoever that reach the goal first will win. You can play this game by yourself, or versus the computer, or versus the other online player as well.

Warning: This game is a Flash-based game and it consumes quite a high volume of bandwidth. Ensure that your network is stable and fast enough. Dial-up users are not recommended to play this game. Broadband users can still play this game, but I’m not recommending you to play with other player (since your side will be too slow to load other person’s action).

Playing this game will not make you rich overnight, but if you’re looking for a fun way to learn all those dreaded financial statements, or personal financial issues, or how to be rich and stay rich the capitalist way; this is the game for you. It teaches you about income versus expenses, assets versus liabilities, good deals, bad deals, real estates deals, business deals, as well as the stock market.

It has two version: Casflow 101 for beginner and Cashflow 202 for intermediate to advance level. I always play the 101 (since the 202 has some major bugs e.g when the stock market rises, your game can hang WTF! laughing) and I always play by myself or versus the computer due to the slow network that I have at home. I am now a level #9 Employee trying to break into the Self-Employed level. Heh heh heh hee hee

Have fun playing and happy holiday!





Malaysia, Selamat Ulang Tahun Kemerdekaan Ke-53

August 31st, 2010 by [re-arrange] 5 comments »

*Tiba-tiba mood nak menulis dalam bahasa ibunda mencanak-canak seperti keadaan senjata lelaki yang menegang di waktu pagi. LOL* laughing

Malaysia, selamat ulang tahun kemerdekaan ke-53. Sudah 53 tahun kau ya? Kalau diikutkan pada skala umur manusia di Malaysia ni, kau dah layak untuk tengok-tengok akaun EPF atau akaun pencen kau. Dua tahun lagi kau dah boleh berhenti kerja dan berehat di rumah goyang kaki atau menyusahkan kembali anak-anak kau untuk menjaga kau yang sudah mula kerepot.

Sudah banyak perkembangan kau aku lihat dalam usiaku yang masih muda dan masih tak layak untuk menjadi pewaris kau. Setakat jadi cucu tu bolehlah kot! Adakah aku gembira? Mungkin. Tapi lebihnya aku cuma rasa tiada perasaan. Indifference kata kaum yang menjajah tanah kau sebelum kau dilahirkan. Kenapa? Sebab rakyat kau semakin teruk jadinya walaupun pembangunan kau boleh tahan hebat.

Sifat perkauman semakin berleluasa. Perwatakan “holier than thou” makin menjadi-jadi. Salah sebut sedikit boleh dibawa berperang. Sampaikan perbuatan yang tak salah pun disalahkan. Tengok sahajalah kes masuk masjid. Minion-minion kau bina masjid cantik-cantik, tapi apabila orang lain nak masuk pun tak boleh, gila ke apa? Kemudian siapa yang disalahkan? Agama jugakk. Agama jugak yang diperkotak-katikkan di sana sini.

Penat kadang-kadang menengokkan mereka-mereka yang tak semenggah ni. Yang apek Cinenya nak kerek konon merekalah punca kekayaan kau, yang Meleis nak kerek kononnya akulah tuan punya tanah. Semua nak dipolitikkan. Agaknya diorang ni tak pernah tengok cerita P. Ramlee kot, yang Seniman Bujang Lapuk tu? Kau ingat tak adegan Singh sound  Bujang Lapuk tu?

You punya nasi you makan, dia punya nasi dia makan, apa salah kasi makan sama-sama?

Ini nak makan manusia sesama manusia; ish kanibal sungguh!

Entahlah, aku nak cakap pasal politik, aku sendiri pun tak pandai. Mengundi pun belum pernah lagi walaupun dah masuk tahun ketiga aku sepatutnya mengundi. Nak mengundi apanya, yang sini salahkan yang sana, yang sana salahkan yang sini. Buat pening kepala otak aku je mendengar mereka-mereka tu membebel. Aku undi diorang pun bukan aku dapat duit makan bulan-bulan. Panas je kena beratur panjang-panjang.

Aku tak nafikan hidup dalam Malaysia ni menarik. Cukup makan, cukup pakai, cukup dapat pergi sekolah sampai dah dapat kerja pun. Setakat cukuplah. Nak mintak lebih-lebih takut kufur nikmat. Tapi bila tiap-tiap hari aku baca suratkhabar ke, tengok dekat Internet ke, penuh je lah hate message sana sini.  Balik-balik bergaduh. Balik-balik buang anak. Balik-balik kes bunuh-bunuh. Sampaikan artis kahwin ke bercerai pun boleh jadi bukak hate group kat Facebook, kau tahu?

Padahal artis tu jugak yang sedap dapat bersenggama nanti. Apalahh minion-minion kau ni…

Ah, malaslah aku nak membebel panjang-panjang. Aku rasa kau pun tahu apa yang jadik dalam isi perut kau. Cuma kau tak tahu jelah kan nak buat camne? Aku pun tak tau nak buat camne. Aku pun cuma boleh berharap jelah yang minion-minion kau tu nanti duduk, ambil cermin, dan fikir sendiri apa yang diorang dah buat untuk memantapkan lagi kondisi kau yang macam hidup pun nyawa-nyawa ikan. Jangan diorang ambil cermin, fikir dan memantatkan kau balik sudahlah. Bagilah aku gembira baca akhbar-akhbar menunjukkan yang kau makin maju dan makin best untuk diduduki. Bukannya baca berita-berita yang menambahkan tekanan. Depress jadiknya camtu dowh! sad

Selamat ulang tahun kemerdekaan yang ke 53, Malaysia.

Picture credit to Google Image

P/s: So you called this, your free country; tell me why it costs so much to live? – Three Doors Down, Duck and Run





Idiot Guide To PageRank (PR)

August 30th, 2010 by [re-arrange] 5 comments »

Me and my other half was talking on the phone about blogs and bloggers when the issue of pagerank comes out. Me being techy and she being normal, of course the first question from her was: What is a pagerank?

Alamak.. *bertukar kepada tutor mode*

Definition and Explanation:

Pagerank is a ranking given by Google to all websites that is being indexed in Google. The more important a website is, then a higher ranking (out of 10)  will be given. E.g Facebook – the largest social networking websites that is being indexed in Google as #1 sites with the most users: have a pagerank (PR) of 10.

The exact way Google determined whether a page is important or not is unknown. It is believed that the algorithm calculated the pagerank based on 500 millions variable and 2 million terms and the algorithm changed over time – quote from Wikipedia.

So, since this is Google’s way of determining the importance of your page, usually PR is used to determine whether a site is a hoax, a scam, or not. That’s one of the use. Also, it gives an indication whether that sites (and it’s owner) is popular or not.

So, the simple way of understanding it is..

  1. The higher the pagerank, the easier Google put the page in it’s search engine result.
  2. The more search engine result given, the more users visiting the page.
  3. The way to increase your pagerank is to publish something useful for your keyword that you wanted to target, so that many links will share your sites and make it popular plus useful — maybe this is the easiest concept in increasing your pageranks.

Having said that, usually it is hard for a niche blog / personal blog to achieve more than 5 or 6 pageranks nowadays. It is hard but it is not impossible. Seth Godin blog has a PR7. Mine? I got 2. Obefiend’s and Redmummy got 3.

How to check my pagerank?

Two ways:

  1. Go to this web service that offers you to check the pagerank of any sites: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
  2. Install Google Toolbar and enable the Pagerank features. See video below.

Google has already put a short video explaining how to enable the pagerank feature from the Google Toolbar. Personally, I use this since it is integrated into Firefox directly:

So, was that helpful? Does it give you an idea to get your web ranked better? winking