Life Book

Forwarded Email: Motivation Words for U & Me

2008-09-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Job Interview

2008-09-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

A businessman was interviewing applicants for the position of Divisional Manager. He devised a simple test to select the most suitable person for the job. He asked each applicant the question, “What is two and two”?

The first interviewee was a journalist. His answer was “twenty-two.”

The second applicant was an engineer. He pulled out a calculator and showed the answer to be between 3.999999 and 4.000001.

The next person was a lawyer. He stated that in the case of Jenkins vs. Commr of Stamp Duties (Qld), two and two was proven to be four.

The last applicant was an accountant. The business man asked him, “How much is two and two?” The accountant got up from his chair, went over to the door, closed it then came back and sat down. He leaned across the desk and said in a low voice, “How much do you want it to be?” He got the job.

Present Value and Future Value

2008-09-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

In Financial Reporting(F7), we have to learn many words associated with "Value".

First we have "carrying value", which is the value of an asset stated on the company's balance sheet. This is followed by many more; "fair value", "market value", "current value", "present value", "future value", etc. There might be more because I could not recall all of them right now.

Out of these "value" family members, what confuses me most is "present value" and "future value". Having little background knowledge in investment terms, these two words sometimes confuse me.

Luckily this article, "Understanding the time value of money" from investopedia.com clearly explains the meaning and the use of these two words. So if you are someone like me who has no knowledge of these basic things, read the above article here and you will see light at the end of it.

If you are studying ACCA F5, ...

2008-08-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

In June 2008 sittings, F5 was the one with the lowest passing rate among all fundamental level papers. The current passing rate of 28% is even lower than that of the previous sitting. With that in mind, students should realize that this particular paper demands quite a lot of efforts.

You can compare the passing rates of F5 with other papers in the following table.

There are a few things I would like to highlight if you are going to attempt F5 in this coming exam.

First of all, the thorough understanding of the topics under the syllabus is critical. In addition to textbooks and exam kits, you may read through online articles published on Student Accountant. For your reference, I list them down in the following.

These articles help improve your level of understanding on the subject matters.

Another thing is that, in the exam hall, time manageement is crucial although this is so not just for this paper. I didn't have enought time to complete the whole paper on jun 2008 sitting. About 30 marks of the paper was left answered although this is partly due to my lack of exam practice.

These are just some minor tips I could share with you as a student who attempted F5 in the last sitting. Hopefully these bits of information plus your hard work guarantee a pass for you in F5.

Blog Intro

2008-08-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce to you two blogs in this post.

The first is focused on accounting and ACCA related stuff. I came across this site while making a Google search about some ACCA topics.

The second is mainly on Insurance, finance and current affairs in Singapore. The blog owner is a retiree from NTUC Income who completed 30 years as a Chief Executive.

Good Day

Exam Results

2008-08-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was filled with excitement and anxiety expecting ACCA exam results. I was anxious because I was convinced that I will fail F5 after coming out from exam hall with approximately 30 marks left answered. In the end, around 12:15pm Singapore time, the exam results were out and i was released to learn that I did not fail any papers. I was happy that I cleared both F4 and F5 in one time while, at the same time, I was equally sad that some friends did not get through certain papers. I sincerely sympatize with them as it's tough to muster up enough spirit to try another round again. It reminds me of a quote by Sir Winston Churchill.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal."

For me, this quote is useful in a time when we are emotionally down.

Anyway whether we pass or we fail, we got to try to move on and get geared up ourselves for the next round. As Churchill continued to say, it's the courage to continue that counts.

Forwarded Email: Marriage

2008-07-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

Forwarded Email: Knowledge

2008-07-29T23:06:00.001-07:00

Scrap Value in Reducing Balance Method

2008-07-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

The topic in this post is related to ACCA F7 Financial Reporting subject. I will try to highlight a concept which is sometimes overlooked by students with respects to a depreciation method called reducing balance method.

What is Reducing Balance Method?

We all know that the reducing balance is a depreciation method which is used as an alternative to the commonly used straight line method. This method assumes that an asset loses more value during the earlier years of its life. Consequently, a depreciation rate (%) for reducing value is used, resulting in less value being lost each year. It is often used for tax purposes, but less often in published accounts.

What is often overlooked?

Although students have the understanding of the method and know how to use this method to depreciate a certain fixed asset, what is often overlooked is whether this method takes into account of the scrap value of the asset. For example, if a reducing balance of 25% is used to depreciate an asset, some students are often unsure if this 25% considers the scrap value(the residual value) of the asset at the end of its life.

The Fact

The fact is that this 25% is derived after taking into consideration of the scrap value. Let's take an example. The cost of the asset is $20,000. The scrap value is 2,000. Life is 8 years. If we input the given information in the following formula, we will get to the answer of 25% reducing balance.

1 - n √(s/c) ,

where

n is life,
s is scrap value,
c is cost.

25% is derived after taking account of the scrap value $2,000. If the scrap value is zero, the depreciation will be 100% which will never reduce the cost of the asset. Thus what is clear is that scrap value is critical in deriving the reducing balance percentage and that without the scrap value, the method will be very unlikely to be used.

Conclusion

The reducing balance method always uses the scrap value.

99 Years Lease

2008-07-10T00:48:00.000-07:00

Does this question ever cross your mind before?

"What is the legal position of HDB owners in Singapore after the lease of 99 has run out?"

The fact is that real property in Singapore is classified as leasehold or freehold which applies to both landed and non-landed properties. Freehold property is held by the owner in perpetuity (unless another MRT line is extended to your neighborhood and your property has to make way for it). Leasehold properties typically run for 99 years but may also extend for up to 999 years.

Let's assume that either 99 years or 999 years period is running out tomorrow. What is going happen to the owners? Are they supposed to quietly pack their things and move out quickly? Will the government of Singapore enforce its rights and ask the owners to move out immediately? Is there any binding legal case in a Singapore court which is related to this enforcement before?

Although it can be said that Singapore Government retains the right to take over the property on the expiry of the lease period, chances are that most properties are likely to be extended or renewed so that Singaporeans can continue to live there. In fact there is no legal case that is tested on this topic yet and thus nobody is certain about this whole situation. Since Singapore gained Independence about half a century ago, this issue is still in the grey area. Let's watch the story unfold over the times.

Friday Vs Monday

2008-07-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

Politician and accountant

2008-07-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

It is easy for a beggar to tell the difference between a politician and an accountant. If he asks a man for money for a meal saying that he hasn't eaten all day and the man replies, "Sorry, no. But things will be better for you tomorrow" - that man must be a politician.

If the beggar asks the same question and the man replies, "Sorry, no. But I am interested to know how your financial situation compares with the same period last month" - that man must be an accountant.

Note: The source is here.

Friendship

2008-07-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ah Beng

2008-07-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

Ah Beng bought a new mobile.
He sent a message to everyone from his Phone Book & said,
'My Mobile No. Has changed.
Earlier it was Nokia 3310. Now it is 6610'

=============================
Ah Beng : I am a Proud, coz my son is in Medical College.
Friend: Really, what is he studying.
Ah Beng: No, he is not studying, they are Studying him.

=============================
Ah Beng : Doctor, in my dreams, I play football every night.
DR: Take this tablet, you will be ok.
Ah Beng : Can I take tomorrow, tonight is final game.

=============================
Ah Beng : If I die, will u remarry?
Wife: No! I'll stay with my sister. But if I die will u remarry?
Ah Beng : No, I'll also stay with your sister.

=============================
Ah Beng : People consider me as a 'GOD'
Wife: How do you know??
Ah Beng : When I went to the Park today, everybody said, Oh, GOD! You have come again.

=============================
Ah Beng complained to the police: "Sir, all items are missing,
except the TV in my house."
Police: "Why, the thief did not take TV?"
Ah Beng : 'I was watching TV news."

=============================
Ah Beng comes back to his car & find a note saying "Parking Fine"
He Writes a note and sticks it to a pole, "Thanks for compliment."

=============================
How do you recognize Ah Beng in School?
He is the one who erases the notes from the book when the teacher erases the board.

=============================
Once Ah Beng was walking he had a glove on one hand and not on other.
So the man asked him why he did so. He replied that the weather forecast announced that on one hand it would be cold and on the other hand it would be hot.

=============================
Ah Beng in a bar and his cellular phone rings. He picks it up and
Says 'Hello, how did you know I was here?'

=============================
Ah Beng : Why are all these people running?
Man - This is a race, the winner will get the cup
Ah Beng - If only the winner will get the cup, why others running?

=============================
Teacher: 'I killed a person' convert this sentence into future tense
Ah Beng : The future tense is 'you will go to jail'

=============================
Ah Beng told his servant: 'Go and water the plants!'
Servant: 'It's already raining.'
Ah Beng : 'So what? Take an umbrella and go.'

=============================

Net Share

2008-07-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

It has been one of my habits that I will just right-click a folder and share it in the event that one of my colleagues need the documents inside that folder. Over the years (or months, to be more precise), I would end up sharing a number of folders from my PC.

It happened that I wanted to unshare those folders this morning for no apparent reason, I manually searched and unshared them in my windows XP PC. Guess What? The list of sharing folders kept getting fewer and fewer as I removed them from sharing one by one. But I end up with three folders still displaying in my list of share folders in the network but I could not remember the location of those folders so that I could de-share(not sure there exists such a word though) them. I made a search in my PC for a few minutes but no success. Fortunately one of my colleagues came to my rescue. :D

His way is easy.

Just click on Start Menu, and launch Run dialog.
Type cmd and OK.

In the command prompt windows, type net share

There it goes. you will see a list of the folders that you shared from your PC.

We may quickly go to root folder and unshare them now. :)

ACCA F4 Tips

2008-07-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

I have taken the exam sitting for ACCA F4 and F5 on June 2008. F5 was a killer paper for me and I really did bad. As for F4, I did pretty well and have enough confidence that I will pass this paper. In this post, I would like to share some tips on how to prepare for ACCA F4 which I think should guarantee you the pass.

The exam format of the current F4 paper does not give you options, you have to answer all questions. If you are aiming for perfect marks, you have to cover all topics under the syllabus to be equipped with enough knowledge to answer all questions. If you cannot cover all topics, read on this post for some tips.

First of all, we will divide the whole syllabus into 5 main topics: Singapore Legal System, Contract Law, Company Law, Tort Law and Corporate Governance. Out of the above five topics, Contract Law and Company Law are considered two big topics and covers a number of areas. The coverage of the other three topics are relatively lighter. The questions will be based on all those areas and the main obstacle faced by the students in attempting this paper is the huge amount of memory work to be able to remember many facts from all those topics. Students are expected to remember case names from Contract Law and section numbers from Company Law in addition to the rules of the Laws. If a student does not study regularly from the beginning, it's nearly impossible to clearly remember all the topics in the exam hall.

Secondly, we will try to put our focus areas in preparing for the exam. Since the exam questions are to be based on all the above five topics, you can exclude one or some of them from your focus areas. Let's assume that you will exclude Company Law from your focus area, you can just read through the company law to roughly know about the rules of the Law. In my opinion, reading through the rules of the Law is easy since the Law is basically based on common sense. You are not supposed to remember sections names or subsection names from Company Law. Or you can exclude Contract Law from your focus area, ie., you are not supposed to remember all the English case names or local case names. But you are still required to know the rules of the contract law. Again, in my opinion, knowing just the rules of the law is easy to remember since they are all common sense. The need to remember those case names with some foreign names is a challenging part. In summary, I assume that you can either exclude Contract Law or Company Law from your focus areas.

Thirdly, since you have already excluded one of the big topics from your focus areas, you are supposed to cover up all details about the rest of the topics to guarantee you a pass. This includes remembering all the rules and sub-rules about the rest of the Laws. To be more precise, you are supposed to cover up the topics that you have chosen by thoroughly studying them from Exam Kit, Text Book and Lecture Notes.

In summary, by the time you go to exam hall, you know that in the worst case scenarios, you will be able to answer most of the exam questions but could probably miss a few. But missing a few questions while doing well for the rest of the questions could probably guarantee the pass for this paper.

Law for General Knowledge III

2008-06-11T00:59:00.000-07:00

Although it can be argued that a large portion of the topics which students are required to study does not necessarily appear applicable in real life, I believe that what we have learned in the textbook might sometimes be of some use in reality. You can guess why I am saying this at the very first line of the post. Yes. I have something which I would like to share with respect to this point. Read on.

A prominent notice at the entrance of a public park reads:

"The management of the park bears no liability for any death or personal injury to any person visiting the park."

Majority of people in Singapore often go out to a neighborhood park for leisure or exercise ,especially during the weekends. Public parks are therefore supposed to be in a reasonably well-maintained condition for the safety of the general public.

When such a notice is displayed at the entrance of the park, one might wonder if the Law practically allow the management of the park to bear no liability upon the occurance of certain unfortunate incident. I would not be able to know the legal position of the injured party unless I have studied some topic in this area. In the context of ACCA F4, I have come to realize that a party cannot by any contract term or notice exclude or restrict his liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence to any person, meaning the management of the park cannot escape liability for negligence so far as personal injury and death are concerned. The management must therefore exercise due care in its running of the park - it must take reasonable steps to ensure that visitors to the park do not suffer physical harm or injury. So for example jogging tracks should be suitable for their purposes, and netting should be provided where fruits or branches are known to fall off from time to time. The essence is taking such care as is reasonable in the circumstances. If the park is negligent and the negligence causes injury or death, the park is still liable even tough there is a prominent notice which seeks to avoid such liability.

Getting to know about this rule will not possibly enable one to go out to court and win the law case by himself, but knowing this enables a person realize his rights upon encountering such a case.

Note: This was an application-based exam question from ACCA F4 (Corporate and Business Law).

Are you curious?

2008-05-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

Ever wants to find out who is hosting a certain web site? Just type the url of the site at whoishostingthis.

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Ever curious to know detailed particulars about any web site? Please proceed to whois. The information you will see there is extensive including the domain's registrant's details, administrative details and technical details since this is the information that is required whenever anyone registers a domain name.

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Ever wants to find out what your ip address is? Just go to whatismyip.

StreetMap@Singapore

2008-05-26T01:39:00.000-07:00

I think we are aware of the recent legal case between streetdirectory.com and Singapore Land Transport Authority. It's not my intention to delve into this legal affairs on what happened between them. But streetdirectory happened to be the one place that I relied on in finding the directions or getting the maps and so on.

Since the company is currently resolving the legal case, they are unable to bring the maps back. Luckily we have alternative. Although user experience is somewhat different from streetdirectory, this alternative is more than good enough. We can use this site to achieve the same objective of using streetdirectory. The site is the official website of the Singapore Land Authority ("SLA"). It is owned and operated by SLA. It's free of charge and you will not see any advertisements.

In fact, I wanted to post a copy of their map here but who knows what will happen in doing so? :D

16 Triggers for selling

2008-05-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from It's When You Sell that Counts by Donald L. Cassidy. I found it at a forum and I kinda like it. I hope you like it too.

************************************************************************

The company-related reasons to sell are:

Sell if the news cannot get any better.
Sell if things did not go as planned.
Sell when the broker's advice goes from 'buy' to 'hold'.
Sell if company fundamentals are getting sick.
Sell on the rebound in the aftermath of material, unexpected or discrete bad news.
Sell in certain cases when expected news is delayed.

The market-action reasons to sell are:

Sell when the stock reaches the target.
Sell on an unsustainable upward price spike on big volume.
Sell when a portfolio shows all gains.
Sell if the stock is lazy money and likely to stay that way.
Sell using above-market limit orders, letting the market come to the investor.
Sell with a stop-loss order, but never remove or lower it.

Investor-related reasons to sell are:

Sell if you would not buy the stock again today.
Sell after gloating or counting the chips.
Sell rather than hope against hope for a 'maybe' bailout.
Sell and step aside on a personal losing streak.

If you regularly sell stocks in a disciplined manner, say after periodic 6-monthly reviews using the signals above, you are likely to end up with a good deal of cash even before the market moves into a bear cycle. Relatively few of your holdings will survive the 16 triggers noted in the lists above.

Those stocks that do survive will tend to be high-quality growth issues that have continued to perform fundamentally and have not run up to unreasonable price levels. Some experts refer to these as core holdings or 'businessman's-risk' foundation stocks. They are stocks that have given consistent indications they can be held through good and bad in the market.

So if you are periodically reviewing and cashing in as prescribed, and if your buying discipline rejects new positions when valuations get too pricey, you will anyway end up holding only relatively few stocks as the market gets toppy - and even before it turns down. That, of course, protects your capital.

Exam Mania

2008-05-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

Exam Docket is out today. The exam venue is Anglo Chinese JC @ Dover. I wondered why it is not Expo this time around. I feel as if exam timer is ticking faster and faster then ever. It's 16 days away from the exam dates. Time to check some exam tips out there in the net.

The Google search generates 36700 pages for the search keyword "June 2008 ACCA Exam tips" but only one link is relevant for my search. Thousands of students are going for this exam , yet the tips are amazingly limited. Probably this is what ACCA is about. Gotta study everything.

By the way if you need a little motivation from ACCA, you can go here and hope they mean what they say. Or you may just see below.

They Make it Look Easy

2008-05-15T00:58:00.000-07:00

If you are well versed in Myanmar Characters Keyboard Layout, this post might be of little use to you. You are not familiar with Keyboard Layout to type Myanmar Characters but you are willing to do so, then use the below technique.

First you go to this site. Then type Myanmar Characters in Burglish. Then let's assume we want to type "Myanmar" in Myanmar Characters. You can follow the following easy steps to achieve this.

I guess they really make it look easy. Great credit goes to the guys who put in efforts and time to create this.

Adsense Tips

2008-04-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

I have written a post on how to remove adsense widget from your blogger homepage that is to just display the ads when the current page is showing either an individual post or posts under a certain label. Please click here to browse to that post. In that post, the subject matter is that the adsense unit happens to be the widget displayed on a right panel of my blog.

Last week, I tried to show the ads units after every individual post body. I followed the guidelines from "Tips for New Bloggers" to achieve my objective. I did archive the objective but with a defect that the ads do show up only after some posts. I could only view two or three ads units in the same page which contains 5 posts or more. Probably the adsense code was intelligent enough to limit the maximum number of ads units to be displayed in one page.

Thus, I decided to remove the ads if the current page shows more than one posts, meaning the ads should be displayed only in a page which contains a single post. Here, I assume that you have already followed the steps from "Tips for New Bloggers". The next thing to do is just insert conditional check in red color as follows. This check ensures that the ads unit(s) displays only when the page type is item, ie ., the individual post. The ad(s) will not be displayed on the home page or a label page.

You can view the effect of the check in this site. Click on any single post title, you will see the ads. Go to homepage or click on a label, you will not view any ads after the post body. I hope it works for you too.

June 2008 ACCA Exam Timetable

2008-04-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

Mon 2 June--------------F6------P6
Tue 3 June-------------- F4------P7
Wed 4 June--------------F3------F8
Thu 5 June-------------- F9----- P4
Fri 6 June--------------- F2----- P5
Mon 9 June--------------F5----- P1
Tue 10 June-------------F7------P2
Wed 11 June-------------F1------P3

Ref : Timetable @ accaglobal.com

Men

2008-04-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

A man is dating three women and wants to decide which to marry. He decides to give them a test. He gives each woman a present of $5,000 and watches to see what they do with the money.

The first does a total makeover. She goes to a fancy beauty salon, gets her hair done, purchases new make-up and buys several new outfits and dresses up very nicely for the man. She tells him that she has done this to be more attractive for him because she loves him so much. The man is impressed.

The second goes shopping to buy the man gifts. She gets him a new set of STRONG golf clubs, some new gizmos for his computer and some expensive clothes. As she presents these gifts, she tells him that she has spent all the money on him because she loves him so much. Again, the man is impressed.

The third invests the money in the stock market. She earns several times the $5,000. She gives him back his $5000 and reinvests the remainder in a joint account. She tells him that she wants to save for their future because she loves him so much. Obviously, the man was impressed.

The man thought for a long time about what each woman had done with the money.Then he married the one with the largest breasts.

Men are Men!!!

Money Doesn't Grow On Trees

2008-04-08T02:34:00.000-07:00

Do you think it's easy to imagine yourself as Albert Einstein and try to solve out some quantum physics puzzles? I think not. It is in fact not difficult to figure out. Just try to put yourself in his shoes and imagine how pitiful you will be sitting at a desk over which papers are all scattered over, struggling with some totally unknown formulas.

It is in fact so not because you are putting yourself in the shoes of the world famous scientist. We are very uncomfortable in such situations because we are making the thinking and imagination process from a perspective of someone else whom you yourself are not. I had a personal experience about it , which I would like to share with you guys. I was browsing in the library and found this book titled "Money Doesn't Grow On Trees". The book is intended for helping out parents who would want to teach their kids on how the financial world operates. I was interested in it since it is a bestselling one whose underlying objective is to teach kids about money which, in my restricted view, are somehow irrelevant. I borrowed it with the view that I would give a try to this book since my parents did not systematically teach me about this topic in my younger days anyway.

It turned out that it's a crazy idea. After reading through a few chapters(the reading process involved me having put myself in the shoes of parents), i felt like "Geez! I can't do it anymore". I stopped reading it right away. Since I am not a parent, it was just too touch for me to play the game of parenthood. So, in my opinion, if you are not a parent yourself, you had better avoid this book. However, if you are a parent with some young kids, this book I think can give you some insight on how to let your kids know some basic rules about money. I think this book is one of best guide for parents who want to teach their kids the value of money and personal values.

Life In Slow Motion

2008-04-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

Three turltes, Joe, Steve, and Poncho, decide to go on a picnic. The picnic site is miles away , so they take 10 whole days to get there.

By the time they arrive, everyone's hungry, so Joe takes the stuff out of the picnic basket. He takes out the drinks and realizes that they forgot to bring a bottle opener. Joe and Steve beg Poncho to turn back home and retrieve it but Poncho refuses, knowing that they will eat everything by the time he gets back.

After two hours, they manage to convince Poncho to go, swearing that they won't touch the food. So, Poncho sets off down the road, slow and steady.

Twelve days pass, but no Poncho. Joe and Steve are hungry, but a promise is a promise. After three more days pass, Steve starts getting restless. "I need food!" he says with a hint of dementia in his voice.

"No!" Joe retorts. "We promised."

Five more days pass. Joe realizes that Poncho probably skipped out to the dinner down the road, so the two turtles weakly lift the lid, get a sandwich and open their mouths to eat. But then, right at that instant, Poncho pops out behind the rock.

"Just for that, I'm not going."

Smile Detecting Camera

2008-04-04T22:31:00.000-07:00

I heard about this new SONY camera at a lunch table from a colleague. He said that certain cameras nowadays can detect smiling faces, and instantly capture the image upon the detection. It made me realize how much I am lagged behind the technology of modern digital cameras. Of course I quickly checked out about this since I am excited by the notion that the cameras nowadays are becoming more and more intelligent.

He was right! This new(well, just for me) sony cyber-shot DSC- T200 automatically allows you to capture your happy moments. All you have to do is simply choose smile shutter from scene selection, then press on the subject to be taken. The camera automatically detects the smiling face and closes the shutter. To detect the different degrees of smiles by your subject, you can set sensitivity level to "HIGH" ( to detect faint smile), "MEDIUM" (for a normal smile), or "LOW" (for a hearty laugh). If there are more than one subjects in the frame, you can press on the touch screen to select the main one.

Though this is an innovative approach , I guess users might face some inconveniences with the gadget since this technology is relatively new. I think this is true with all new techy things. Like it or not, you have to try it out yourself.

Law for General Knowledge II

2008-04-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

Citation in Law Reports

The citation generally described below can be referred to when you are reading a Singapore Law Report.

Cases which are found in reports are cited in a particular manner. The standard form of citation is to write the name of the parties involved, the year the judgement was delivered, the law report series in which it is reported and the page number of the volume.

Hence a typical citation appears as : John V Mary [1994] 3 SLR 719, meaning that this case is to be found commencing on page 719 of the third volume of the Singapore Law Reports published for 1994.

When reading a law report, it is important to note the parties involved. In civil cases, the first party is the plaintiff - the person making the complaint. The plaintiff is the person who initiates the legal proceedings while the other party is the defendant. In criminal cases, the first party is the public prosecutor (abbreviated to "PP") , acting for the state, and the other party is the defendant. For both and civil appeals, the first party is the appellant and the other party is the respondent. Hence, at first instance, a defendant's name appears second. If he subsequently appeals, his name will appear first as the appellant.

Convenient Eye Shadows

2008-04-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

This is the extract from the email inbox. I think I like the idea behind this product.

Count-down to the End of my ACCA Exams

2008-03-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

ACCA Study Materials

2008-03-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

If you are new to ACCA, you might not be familiar with the available choices of ACCA study texts in the market. As far as i know of , we have FTC Kaplan and BPP Professsional Eduction to choose from regarding the study materials. They are both recommended in MyACCA service from accaglobal.com.

Students can choose either one of them. The study materials might include study texts, revision kits and even pocket notes from other sources.

As for me, I have been using Kaplan text books since I am attending ftcKaplan in Singapore. I have not tried any study materials from BPP, so I cannot make any comment. Although not popular, there is another brand named Get Through Guides which some students claimed that their course materials are simpler and easier to understand.

Hope this post gives you some thoughts about the choice of study text for acca!

Myanmar Fonts All In One

2008-03-11T23:21:00.000-07:00

I have listed some Myanmar Fonts I have been using in the list below. I hope this post saves the troubles of the need to look around the web to look for them. The font list below is prepared to the best of my knowledge and it is not a complete list. Please do not hesitate to share the fonts which are not listed here so that I can add them in.

Desperate Students During Exams XII

2008-03-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Deal or No Deal Game

2008-02-25T04:05:00.000-08:00

I have been busy lately and I am unable turn to this blog for a while. That is why I decided to post what I consider a light post .Here I am sharing a fun flash game to play if you have time to kill, and if you are a fan of this Deal or No Deal Television Shows.

Just click on the image below. It will bring you to the game at NBC site.

Pleo

2008-02-05T04:04:00.000-08:00

I could not choose any particular word to describe how cool this little robot is. His name is Pleo. He was engineered by a group of robotics specialists, animators, technologists, scientists, biologists, and programmers. He is a proof of how advanced robitics industy is in 21st century.He is also a milestone in software engineering development. He is designed to emulate the appearance and behavior of a week-old baby Camarasaurus. He will learn from its experiences and environment through a sophisticated artificial intelligence and develop an individual personality.

He has emotions and awareness to his environment. He can lay down, and he can shake hands with you. He can sing and hear you. He is sometimes happy and surprised. At times he will be sad and vexed. Pleo is intended to be a fun experience for everyone. You can discover about him at http://www.pleoworld.com/.

Messenger for your Office

2008-02-05T03:06:00.000-08:00

Are you looking for a simple instant messenger that can be used in your office?

If you are, I suggest you try using ipmsg. This application is developed by H.Shirouzu. As mentioned in the readme file, IP Messenger is a pop up style LAN message communication software for multi - platforms. It is based on TCP and UDP/IP. This software does not require server machine. Either a single file or a folder can be transfered using ipmsg. It is simple, lightweight, and free software.

Why do i like this application?

1)I just like the simple "seal" feature which you can find at the right bottom cornor of the applicaiton. This can be used in sending message to another party to determine whether the recipient has viewed your msg. If you send the msg with the checkbox on, you will receive a notification when the receiver views the contents of your msg.

2) No need for the server to manage the application.

3) No need to install it. You can just run the exe you downloaded. The application will be up and running in a few seconds.

4) You can press CTL+F to open search user box in send window.

You can download this application at this site.

Learning English in a Fun Way

2008-02-04T02:39:00.000-08:00

I discovered about this tool from a friend. Anyone, who likes to have some fun while trying to expand the horizon of English language Vocabularies, might find this tool useful. It's a wordmaster from BBC which a flash game. You need to install the flash plugin from the Macromedia website.

The image below is a screen shot of it. You can try this tool at BBC website.

You will see a few other tools similar to this in nature (eg, football quiz, countdown quiz) which are designed to aid your learning of English language . Yes, they are fun to play too.

Boss is calling

2008-02-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Think twice before you would decide to use 3G mobiles phones. It comes with some disadvantages as in the this advertisement video clips.

Enjoy~

Dont Touch My Car

2008-02-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

Lesson Learned: Don't touch things if they do not belong to you. Owners are not likely to accept your behavior. This clip is old but still funny.

Enjoy~

Googlelization

2008-01-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

This is neither a technology review nor a Google promotion. Part of this post is dedicated to how my daily life has been revolving around Google and its applications. Another part is on how I think some of the world's biggest companies should review their way of earning revenue albeit this is just another humble view of mine.

Let's start with gmail.

Gmail & Me

Well, these days, more often than not, I usually start my days checking emails in gmail. It became a habit of mine to check emails in the morning when I arrive at my office. This is a habit of mine that acquired from my previous jobs since I was supposed to check office emails early in the morning. But in my current job,(please don't be surprised) I have no office emails to look forward to. Yes, I have no work email account in my current job. Please do not ask me what on earth I am doing in this job without an email since this is not my main intention of this post.

Let's get back on track. I was saying I start my days with gmail. When I was first introduced to web mail, I started with yahoo mail. I was about 18 years old then. Please do not surprised that it's already 18 years old when I first used a web mail. I came to Singapore from a relatively less tech-savvy nation. It was yahoo when I started using web mail but a few years later, gmail was born with google's cool promise of 1GB storage space. If I remembered correctly, it might be one of the reasons why I switched to gmail from yahoo. Since then I stick to gmail till now. For no apparent reasons, nowadays I prefer to use gmail than any other web mail for personal use. Well this is just about gmail and me.

Well. let's move on to the next application that I am often using.

Gnotebook & Me

I always ask myself, "What's wrong with Google marketing people?". They have names like Gmail & Gtalk. They do invent names like Google Earth & Google Notebook. Why don't they use all uniform names like Gmail, Gtalk, GEarth and GNotebook, etc? Well, of course you would have guessed what I mean by GNoteBook in the title. I am referring to Google Notebook. For simplification purpose and easier reference, I hope you don't mind me using Google Notebook as gnotebook.

Well. With this naming conventions apart, I just want to say that this gnotebook is something very useful for me. Firstly, logging in to Google Notebook is pretty simple. You can just use your Google Account user name and password. This application is all about collecting, organizing and sharing information from the web. It's has got features like sorting by label and date, search through your notes, and shares your notes to others, etc. It's well-documented about its features and capabilities. I will leave that part for you to Google it. What I will be highlighting here is how I personally find this application useful.

I used to have this inconvenience that I forgot to bring my note book(here,I really mean a book which contains pieces of papers, not a laptop)to work and I can't remember what is written in it. Because I am already at work then, I could not possibly go back home to take it back to work.But with gnotebook I no longer have that trouble. It does not matter whether I am @ work or @ at home, my note book is just a few clicks away. Nowadays I would jot down things to this online notebook rather than putting pen to paper.

Moreover, as I blog, I visit other blogs including my friends' blogs. All those blogs contain links to other blogs which in turn have links to other blogs. As I browse all these blogs, links after another, I would jot down some info, urls and links when I come across useful and enjoyable information. You are not expecting me to just subscribe those nice blogs or bookmark them straight away , are you? After some time, I would revisit them from the information I jotted down in my gnotebook. Yes after some visits, I would eventually subscribe to a particular blog and the information that is in the gnotebook will become less useful. Well this is all about notes, right? The notes will eventually be erased after it has served the purpose, right?

In addition to that, I keep all my friends' email list in this. When I want to send an email to multiple recipients, I would just copy them from the notes to gmail.

These are just a few usable examples about gnotebook. I am using this application for some other purposes too. Although it's a simple application from Google, I am quite happy that I am using it. Let's end our topic about gnotebook and me here. We will move on to another topic.

Blogger & Me

I have been spending some of my free time trying to modify the design of my blog's template & preparing topics to post to my blog. Although those tasks are rather time-consuming, I enjoy doing them. Blogger nowadays is user-friendly in many ways that it allows label categorization; it auto-saves the draft post periodically; it allows you to purchase a custom domain right from their site; users can extend the template and so on. If you have a Google Account, you can easily login to blogger using the same account just like any other Google services.

If you are a blogger(not a service from Google, a person who blogs), you can hardly resist not using Google Analytics for which somehow helps you to track the behaviour of visitors. You also might have to deal with another Google service called Google Pages if your blog is not running on your own host. As for me, I would upload animated gif files, video files and some images files to Google Pages, then I would just link them from my blog. The story does not end here yet. I am also using Google Reader in connection with the way I visit other blogs including my frineds' and some other which I liked. I adds subscription to those blogs and this would ensure that I would know when those blogs have made any changes. But I do not subscribe to news sites from Google Reader since they update a number changes everyday and I rather go visit the news site if I feel like I want to. Well under this titel "Blogger & Me", I wrote about Google Analytics, Google Pages, and Google Reader because they are all related to the way I blog.

I am thankful to Google folks for their great contribution to online community.

To Be Continued.

Easy way to download video from YouTube

2008-01-26T20:50:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to download the videos from youtube which I really enjoyed watching them.
I luckily came across with the post from my friend's site which tells you how to download flash videos in an easy manner. You just need to install download helper which is an add-on to the firefox browser and the flash player. Equipped with these two softwares, you are on your way to save all your favourite movies from youtube or similar contents.

You can check the detailed steps on how to get done in the following links at Michale Sync. Thanks Michael for this post of yours.

Enjoy~

Remove Adsense Ads from Home Page

2008-01-25T01:57:00.001-08:00

Objective: Customize the template so that adsense ads will only be shown when clicked on archive, post or label. The ads will not be displayed on home page.

This is the image you will see before changes.

This is the image after you have made the changes.

You can follow the steps below to achieve this.

1)Sign in to blogger.

2)Clik layout.

3)Go to Template.

4)Click "Edit HTML".

5)Click "Download Full Template". Save the xml file into your harddrive for backup purpose. In case problems occurred after we edited the html, you can upload back this backup file.

6)Click "Expand Widget Templates".

7)Identify the widget that you ads are in.

8)The ads widget code block should be similar to the sample code as follows.

line1.<b:widget id='HTML5' locked='false' title='Test'
type='HTML'>
line2.<b:includable id='main'>
line3. 
line4. <b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
line5. <h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
line6. </b:if>
line7. <div class='widget-content'>
line8. <data:content/>
line9. </div>
line10. <b:include name='quickedit'/>
line11.</b:includable>
line12.</b:widget>

9) Add the following code between line2 and line3.
<b:if cond='data:blog.homepageUrl !=data:blog.url'>

10)Add the following code between line10 and line11.
</b:if>

11)This will ensure that the page element, which is wrapped between these lines, will be displayed in all pages except homepage. So your ads will be shown in all pages except the home page.

12)Test your pages if you archive your objectives.

13)If you want to remove the dots that is below your empty page element, copy and paste the following code into your template.

#HTML5 {
border-bottom: 0px;
}

14)This code will remove the border of the page element. At this stage, you should be able to remove your ads at the home page and the borders sourrounding the page element.

Traffic for Blog

2008-01-19T23:52:00.000-08:00

Url Submission

I have submitted my blog to some blog directories in an attempt to increase visitor count. I am not sure it helps a lot but I want to share the links that I have submitted to.

http://myanmarblogdirectory.blogspot.com/
As the name subjects, this blog directory is solely intended for Myanmar bloggers.

http://www.sharbar.net/
This blog directory is also a Myanmar blog network center. The listing for my url have not appeared there yet at the time writing this post but I have submitted the url a couple of hours ago.

If you are a Myanmar blogger , submitting your url to the above two lists should give your site enough exposure in the web, especially to other Myanmar bloggers.

I have added the url to some other sites which I do not think is generating traffic to my site. In my opinion, many of the sites up there in the internet which let you add your url are not very useful. With this experience I gained from this process, I think there is no point spending a lot of your time and effort to add your site to those site directory lists. The vast majority of traffic came to my site from google.

How to drive traffic for blogs

I am not going to reinvent the wheel. I find this post which I came across from Digital Dreams is quite useful and informational for new bloggers like us. It covers cool tips on how to increase traffic for your blogs.

Cats & Music

2008-01-18T10:18:00.000-08:00

Let's see how cats respond to different types of music.
Enjoy~

Slow Rock

Heavy Metal

Hip hop

Country Songs

Indian Songs

Note:A big thanks to Michael Sync for this post. :D

Vocabularies Related to ACCA F4

2008-01-18T08:52:00.000-08:00

If you are studying for Corporate and Business Law Paper, one of the most challenging aspects in preparing for the exam would certainly be the thorough knowledge of the legal jargons. Since we are not using those words in our daily life, it's difficult to remember them. The problem is that if we cannot remember them, we shall not be able to throw efficient and relevant words into the exam answer sheet. Although the examiner might not be expecting us to phrase every individual sentences in the answer sheet like a professional lawyer would, my opinion is that it's best to memorize the relevants words as far as we can and try to use them in our answer during the exam.

With that objective in mind, I am listing the vacabs that a F4 student should be aware of in this post. I would be trying my best to update the list on the weekly basis and hope to complete it in four months time.

Script in Progress

abrogate(v)cancel or abolish sth

accord(n)a settlement or a comprimise of conflicting opinions

affidavit(n)a written statement, made by sb who swears that it is true, that can be used as evidence in court

albeit(conj)although

assent(n)agreement or approval

confer(v)give a degree, title, privilege , etc to sb

coroner(n)an official who investigates any violent or suspicious death

delve(v)try very hard to find information about sth

deprave(v)make sb morally bad

ejusdem generis-of the same kind

enactment(n)a law

entrench(v)establish sth/sb very firmly with the result that change is very difficult or unlikely

equity(n)the application of the principles of natural justice in particular circumstances where the existing laws would not allow a fair or reasonable result

expressio unius est exclusio alterius-the express mention of one thing is the exclusion of the another

forbearance(n)patience, restraint, tolerance

fraught(adj)filled with something

horticulture(n)the art, study or practice of growing flowers, fruits & vegetables

hefty(adj)large and heavy

injunction(n)an official order

legislate(v)make laws

legislature(n)a body of people with the power to make and change laws. The legislature is the main lawmaking body in Singapore which comprises of the President and Parliament.

litigant(n)a person involved in a claim or dispute brought before a law court

mercantile(adj)of trade and commerce

noscitur a sociis-a thing is know by its companion

obiter dictum-a saying by the way

onerous(adj)demanding much efforts

oust(v)remove sb from a job,sometimes to take his/her place

perpetuate(v)-make sth continue

perish(v)to be destoryed, to die

presumption(n)a thing that is considered to be true

proscribe(v)state officially that sth is dangerous or forbidden

purport(v)claim

ratify(v)make a contract officially valid usually by signing it

ratio decidendi-rationale for the decision

realm(n)a field of activity or interest

redress(n)compensation for a wrongdoing

repeal(v)withdraw a law officially

rescind(v)withdraw a contract & declare that it's no longer valid

slate(v)plan that sth will happen at the specific time

stipulate(v)state sth clearly and firmly as a requirement

stunt(v)prevent sth/sb from growing or developing properly

supervene(v)occur as an interruption

tantamount(adj)equal in effect in sth

tenure(n)the right to remain permanently in one's job

tort(n)wrongful act done negligently but not involving a breach of contract for which a civil suit can be brought

tribunal(n)a group of people with the authority to settle certain types of dispute

unconscionable(adj)excessive, greater, or longer than is reasonable

unequivocal(adj)clear

unfettered(adj)not controlled,free

vitiate(v)spoil the quality or reduce the force of sth

wager(n)a bet

waive(v)choose not to insist on sth in a particular case, even though one has a legal or official right to do so

Please let me know if you find out any error.

Pieces of Advice for ACCA First-timers

2008-01-15T00:43:00.000-08:00

If you are new to ACCA and are contemplating to choose ACCA for your study in Singapore, the pieces of advice below might be of some help. This post is intended solely for students who are about to embark on the course of ACCA or who are attempting ACCA exam for the first time. If you do not fall into the above category, you may skip to another post. ;)

1. If you are deciding how many papers you should attempt at one sitting,I would suggest to take all three fundamental papers. I had no problem managing Paper F1,F2 and F3 in one sitting. I noticed some friends of mine taking up to Paper F4 starting from Paper F1. However you ought to be dedicated enough and revise course materials on weekly basis.

2. Regarding about the perception that you should only register to courses which will be conducted by good(your friends told you so), my belief is that the most important factor is you yourself. Although the above perception might hold some truth, you will pass the exams only if you study.

3. Take at least one day leave prior to the actual exam day for each paper unless you really feel you dont need to.

4. During the exam days,leave home early ,possibly around 12 pm so as to avoid any inconvenience. At least try to reach Expo Mrt station 30 minutes earlier than the exam time, since it probably takes 10 to 15 mins walk from the mrt station to the exam hall.

5. You should find the location of your seat upon arriving the exam hall.

6. Bring a watch along in case your seat is at the far rear part of the exam hall from where the clocks hanging on the pillars at the far end of the exam hall.

7. Bring a jacket just in case you feel cold in the exam hall.

8. You need a calculater for f2 and f3.

9. Bring the ACCA student registration card and exam docket for verification.

10. Eat simple and hygienic food during exam period.

11. Practise past exam papers. It is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

All the best for your exams!

Note: I found the image I am using in this post from Google Image Search. The copyrights of the image remain with the original creator.

Law for General Knowledge I

2008-01-10T23:02:00.001-08:00

The One Bite Rule

It was in the law lecture class when i have heard of this one bite rule for the first time. I have never owned a dog in Singapore and never noticed that such a rule exists until then. The meaning of this is that common law shielded the owner of a domestic animal from civil liability to the first victim of each of his animals. This absolving principle came to be known variously as the "one bite rule," the "first bite rule," or the "first bite free" rule.

The rationale of the one bite rule was that domestic animals by definition were not injurious, and therefore liability could be predicated only on the defendant's knowledge that a particular animal had a propensity to behave in manner that was injurious to humans. Again, the rule applied to any type of injury, whether or not a bite.

At first I thought this rule reveals the benevolent side of the law. Our lecturer told a joke to us, "You guys should make sure that it is your enemey whom your dog bites for the first time , not your friend cos it's a free bite." His joke was successful to a certain extent and students laughed. So did it.

But if you look at this law from another perspective, you will sense that there are some serious flaws. What if the extent of the injury is very serious? The victim bitten by the dog who bites a person for the first time still have to pay medical bill and he or she still suffers. By the time this law was made in England, the environment and the situation will probably make this law look flawless, but in modern days we are living in a more materialistic world and medical bills are relatively less affordable. Every owner of dogs are aware that victims are going to suffer as a result of the vicious attack by the dog even if the dog has never done such an act previously.

Thus in my opinion this rule ought to be amended. If you dig a litter deeper into this issue, you shall notice that several states of US have amended this rule. I am not sure whether this law has been amended in Singapore but if not yet, I shall give a thumb up to anyone who tries to change this rule.

Note: I found the image I am using in this post from Google Image Search. The copyrights of the image remain with the original creator.

Hurray to Open Source

2008-01-09T01:10:00.000-08:00

If you are someone like me who does not believe in the business model of some software vendors making users pay more and more every time a new version of a softwore comes into life, Support Open Source Model.

Open Office

Just as it reads in their home page: OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.

Mozilla
The award winning web browser from Mozilla is another big player in the open source field with million of users. As u might guess it right, this is my favourite browser.

Open Source Projects by Google

I believe Google is a strong believer in the open source concept. You can check out a number of projects by Google here.

Linux

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Developed under the GNU General Public License ,
the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone. Click here to find out more about the operating system that is causing a revolution in the world of computers. You can find another linux version here in ubuntu.

OpenNETCF

If you are a mobile application developer, the open source projects from OpenNETCF might be of some use.

Gimp

While virtually all computer graphics professionals use Adobe Photoshop to do their artistic work, Photoshop is a pricey and proprietary application. If you're looking to do graphics design on a budget, or perhaps want a software package that is less resource-intensive than Photoshop, check out open source alternatives ; the GIMP, SodiPodi, and Inkscape.

Blender

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Notepad++

My favorite light-weight notepad alternative! It is a free source code editor for Windows. The project is hosted on SourceForge from where it has been downloaded over six million times.
Here you can find all the informations about Notepad++. It is Notepad++ project site. The source codes and binaries are distributed here.

MySQL
As claimed on their website, this is the world's most popular open source database.

TortoiseSVN

TortoiseSVN is a very easy to use SCM / source control software for Microsoft Windows. It is implemented as a Windows shell extension, which makes it integrate seamlessly into the Windows explorer. Since it's not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like.

Eclipse

Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. A large and vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities, research institutions and individuals extend, complement and support the Eclipse platform.

These are some of the open source software that are somewhat familiar with me. For a more extensive list of open source projects you can check it out here in www.ohloh.net.

Why I think Learning Business Law is fun

2008-01-08T01:54:00.000-08:00

Well..our classes(ACCA Paper F4) are normally quite a crowed ones in terms of student count and most of us are going there after knocking off a hard day of work. In these circumstances, it's understandable that some people find it boring attending the law class which covers numerous topics starting from contract law to accountant's liability issues. But strangely enough, it is quite on the contrary for myself.

I just love knowing more about law since I value the existence of the rule of law. Maybe I just love to know how the rule of LAW is being treated in the country in which I reside. I am the type of person who ,in my own humble opinion, judge the reliability and trustworthiness of a particular government on the way how the government treats the country's law.

I would like to ensure myself that my government is not taking away the property I own in an unjust manner. I would like to be convinced that my government will not take over the business that I invested in in an unlawful manner for no apparent reason. I would like to be sure that the rights of our citizens are protected by the Law, just like the obligations of any wrongful act by the citizens are punished or compensated. These are basically the desire of any human being which rooted from the deepest depth of our sense of security.

I believe that the knowledge of a country's LAW will enable me to know more about how the rule of LAW is passed by our government which in turn will enable me to know more about the rights and obligations of citizens like us which govern our daily activities. Thus I find it interesting to study some of the country's law while I am actually studying the accounting principles.

Let me share another aspect of why I think learning this module is fun. Our lecturer usually conducts the classes in the most entertaining manner that he can be. He shares us some interesting stories as and when conveying the legislation matters. Some of the stories are quite funny , yet they are true stories. I will share those funny stories in my next posts.

To Be Continued.

Desperate Students during exams XI

2008-01-07T01:05:00.001-08:00

Desperate Students during exams X

2008-01-07T00:57:00.000-08:00

Desperate Students during exams IX

2008-01-07T00:55:00.000-08:00

Desperate Students during exams VIII

2008-01-07T00:52:00.002-08:00

Desperate Students during exams VII

2008-01-07T00:52:00.001-08:00

Desperate Students during exams VI

2008-01-07T00:49:00.000-08:00

Desperate Students during exams V

2008-01-07T00:48:00.000-08:00

Desperate Students during exams IV

2008-01-07T00:30:00.000-08:00

Desperate Students during exams III

2008-01-07T00:20:00.001-08:00

Desperate Students during exams II

2008-01-07T00:17:00.000-08:00

Desperate Students during exams I

2008-01-07T00:14:00.001-08:00

ACCA Past Exam Papers

2008-01-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

I sometimes get lost finding the link to download ACCA past exam papers due to the long hierarchy of accaglobal web site and thus I decided to post the links to those locations in this post for easir access.

The Previous ACCA Qualification (Until June 2007 Exams)

Paper 1.1
Paper 1.2
Paper 1.3

Paper 2.1
Paper 2.2
Paper 2.3
Paper 2.4
Paper 2.5
Paper 2.6

Paper 3.1
Paper 3.2
Paper 3.3
Paper 3.4
Paper 3.5
Paper 3.6
Paper 3.7

The New ACCA Qualification (Starting From Dec 2007 Exams )

F1 Accountant in Business

F2 Management Accounting

F3 Financial Accounting
F4 Corporate and Business Law
F5 Performance Management
F6 Taxation
F7 Financial Reporting
F8 Audit and Assurance
F9 Financial Management

P1 Professional Accountant
P2 Corporate Reporting
P3 Business Analysis
P4 Advanced Financial Management
P5 Advanced Performance Management
P6 Advanced Taxation
P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance

Roller Skating

2008-01-02T01:05:00.000-08:00

Beginner Guide: You might find this useful.

Tips and Tricks: inlineonline, inlinewarehouse , skatescool, and rollerblading tips

Skating Mistakes: Top ten skating mistakes

Fitness Facts: Some info from rollerblade.

Wiki: Some facts from wiki about roller skating.

Animated Skate Lessons: You can find about it in the left panel of their site.

How Tos : This link basically consists of everything you need to know about rollerskating; how to clean roller blades, how to jump on inline-skates etc.

Shopping: Lots and lots of resources that you can purchase a pair of skates from. You sure can google it.

Where to Skate: As far as i know of, East Coast Park is by far the best place for the sport. It provides you the longest horizontal path for the skater. But if you prefer a more adventurous experience, you can opt for Yishun Park. If you are the beginner, you can practise at the base area of the park which is a circular round and horizontal. If you are no longer a novice, the park has got two uphill slopes, of which one is a gentler slope and the other not so gentle one, for you to try your balancing act. You should not try the slopes if you are not skilled enough because it is risky. You should start with horizontal ground at the entrace of the park. I suggest you should be fully equiped with protected gear if you are gonna try there.

Learning Mandarin

2007-12-30T18:26:00.000-08:00

I have been learning how to speak Mandarin in the past few months and I would like to share my experience regarding this. At first I planned to join some Mandarin Speaking Classes conducting at my neighbourhood community centre. By the way I am blogging from Singapore. But I was told by a friend that he faced some problems trying to understand the tearcher's English. Thus I decided to learn it on my own using CD-ROM course for Mandarin and I bought some CDs from Kinokuniya BookStore which I think will be suitable for me. The first few brands did not really work on someone like me who do not have prior knowledge about the language. We (the cds and me) just did not click each other.

But the current one I am using has been of great help to my Mandarin Learning Curve. The program started from basic and simple lessons to advanced ones in a very organized and detailed manner. The way it introduces the language to the user and the way it explans things are quite understandable. I think this is especially suitable for us who did not know abc about Mandarin. If you are interested in it, you can check it out here. I hope to hear your comments and opinion.

Happy Mandarin learning!

Note: I found the image I am using in this post from Google Image Search. The copyrights of the image remain with the original creator.

AdSense Misery

2007-12-30T00:09:00.000-08:00

I could not post more than 3 ads in this blog and was confused. With the help of a google search, here is the solution I found out in google's adsense help centre.

Aid for an ACCA F3 Student II

2007-12-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

If you are a student accoutant currently studying ACCA F3 Financial Accouting, I hope this post has got something helpful for you. If you are an experienced accountant, well i guess the topic in this post will be something trivial to you.

When I first started learning about double-entry bookkeeping, I had a little trouble trying to decide whether accounting item should be in debit or credit. For example , if the business purchases a motor vehicle by cash , I know that the two accouting items are motor vehicle and cash, but I couldn't easily decide which is debit or which is credit.

So I tried to get a way to easily identify this and I got myself this easy way as follows.

************
****AID****
****EID****
************

That means if Asset Increases, it is Debit. Likewise, if Expense Increases, it is Debit.
Since we only have Assets, Liability, Capital, Income and Expenses, if the rest of them increases, it is a liability. Let's re-use the example above. If the business purchases a motor vehicle by cash, the two accounting items are motor vehicle and cash. In this case, we know that both a motor vehicle and cash are assets. We also know that motor vehicle increases, so it is debit(AID), but as for cash, it decreases and it is credit.

So we get ourselves as follows:
Dr Motor Vehicle 3000
Cr Cash 3000

Hope this helps you.

Cool Joke

2007-12-26T07:14:00.000-08:00

The following post is from my friend's blog: michaelsync.net. I really liked this joke and hope you guys like it too.

Title: Young and pretty lady wishes to marry a rich guy. Fantastic reply from a financial person

A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?

I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here. I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York. My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden (?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I’m here humbly to ask a few questions:

1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls who doesn’t have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys
4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)

Ms. Pretty
**************

Here’s a reply from a Wall Street Financial guy:

Dear Ms. Pretty,

I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyze your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of ‘beauty’ and ‘money’: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a ‘trading position’. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term, same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or ‘leased’. Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.

Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in ‘leasing’ services, do contact me.

signed, J.P. Morgan

ACCA F1 Exam Experience

2007-12-26T06:59:00.000-08:00

I attempted ACCA F1(Accountant in Business) exam in december 2007. What surprised me the most is that quite a number of exam questions are based on the knowledge which I have never studied before. To be honest, I diligently studied Kaplan textbook for this module. It actually covers quite a lot of topics in its 600 over pages altogether but i feel it does notcover enough topics for the exam. I have checked with my friends who attempted the same exam and they did have problems too.

Many questions that came across my mind during or right after the exam.

Are those exam questions which I did not know how to answer really in the context of the syllabus?
If they are not, what is the purpose of the examiner?
If they are, why Kaplan textbook does not cover them?
Is an acca student supposed to study more than one textbook?

I attempted f1, f2 and f3 in december 2007 and my expectation before the exam was that f1 would be the easiest among them but it turned out to be totally wrong. Well that is the case with me at least!

Aid for an ACCA F3 Student I

2007-12-25T07:31:00.000-08:00

The difference between having an easy life studying ACCA F3 and the tough struggle againt it mainly depends on your understanding about one of the most basic accounting concept named double entry accounting. Although, at times, this might seem quite trivial to some people, I firmly believe that the understanding of this is the most basic and the most important step to take for every student accountant before embarking the journey of financial accounting. Let's dig in a litter deeper into what I am talking about.

Double Entry Concept

Each transaction that a business enters into affects the financial statements in two ways; e.g, a business buys a building for cash. This transaction have two effects on the financial statements.

1. There is an increase in buildings.
2.There is a decrease in cash.

To follow the rules of double entry bookkeeping, each time a transaction is recorded, both effects must be taken into account. These two effects are equal and opposite such that the accounting equation ' Assets - Liability = Capital' will always prove correct. Traditionally one effect is referred to as the debit side and the other as the credit side of the entry.

A quick reference to wiki about this is here.

Please let me repeat again here. This is one of the most important keys to unlock ACCA F3.

ACCA F2: Formula Guide

2007-12-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

Things you should remember before entering the exam hall for ACCA F2 or before you start practicing Past Exam Papers: This is some kinda acca f2 formula guide.

************************************************************************************
Material
************************************************************************************
1) Reorder Level=Maximum Usage * Maximum Lead Time

2)Minimum Stock Level=Reorder Level - (Average Usage * Average Lead Time)

3)Maximum Stock Level=Reorder Level + Reorder Quantity - (Minimum Usage * Minimum Lead Time)
************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************

************************************************************************************
Variance
************************************************************************************
4)Sales Margin Price Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Sales Qty x Actual Selling Price
b. Actual Sales Qty x Standard Selling Price

5)Sales Margin Volume Variance in Absorption Costing is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Sales Qty x Standard Profit Margin
b. Standard Sales Qty x Standard Profit Margin

6)Sales Margin Volume Variance in Marginal Costing is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Sales Qty x Standard Contribution
b. Standard Sales Qty x Standard Contribution

7)Material Price Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Qty Purchased x Actual Price
b. Actual Qty Purchased x Standard Price

8)Material Usage Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Qty Usage x Standard Price
b. Standard Usage for Actual Production x Standard Price

9)Labor Rate Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Hours Paid x Actual Rate
b. Actual Hours Paid x Standard Rate

10)Labor Efficiency Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Hours Worked x Standard Rate
b. Standard Hours for Actual Production x Standard Rate

11)Variable Overhead Expenditure Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Variable Overhead
b. Actual Hours Worked x VOAR

12)Variable Overhead Efficiency Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Hours Worked x VOAR
b. Standard Hours for Actual Production x VOAR

13)Fixed Overhead Expenditure Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Fixed Overhead
b. Budgeted Fixed Overhead

14)Fixed Overhead Capacity Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Budgeted Fixed Overhead
b. Actual Hours Worked x FOAR

15)Fixed Overhead Efficiency Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Hours Worked x FOAR
b. Standard Hours for Actual Production x FOAR

************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************

************************************************************************************
Labor
************************************************************************************
16)Halsey's Scheme to calculate bonus.

Time Allowed - Time Taken
-----------------------------
2

17)Rowan's Scheme to calculate bonus.

Time Taken
----------------- x Time Saved x Time Rate
Time Allowed
************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************

************************************************************************************
Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
************************************************************************************
18) C\S Ratio

Contribution per unit
------------------------
Selling price per unit

19) BEP(units)

Fixed Cost
-------------------------
Contribution Per unit

20)BEP($)

Fixed Cost
-------------
C/S Ratio

21)MOS($)=Budgeted Revenue - BEP($)

22)MOS(units)=Budged Sales Units - BEP(units)

23)MOS(%)

Budgeted Sales - BEP Sales
--------------------------------- x 100
Budgeted Sales

24)Target Sales Units

Fixed Cost + Target Profit
------------------------------
Contribution per unit
************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************

The Joy of Tech III

2007-12-24T02:08:00.001-08:00

The Joy of Tech II

2007-12-24T02:06:00.001-08:00

The Joy of Tech I

2007-12-24T01:55:00.000-08:00

Good Partner I

2007-12-24T01:35:00.000-08:00

Good Partner II

2007-12-24T01:27:00.000-08:00

Corporate Lesson V

2007-12-24T00:17:00.000-08:00

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Corporate Lesson IV

2007-12-24T00:15:00.001-08:00

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A rabbit asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. A fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very high up.

Corporate Lesson III

2007-12-24T00:12:00.000-08:00

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish." "Me first! Me first!" says the admin clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world." Poof! She's gone.” Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life." Poof! He's gone. "OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."

Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.

Corporate Lesson II

2007-12-24T00:06:00.000-08:00

A priest offered a lift to a Nun. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest apologized "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Corporate Lesson I

2007-12-23T23:58:00.000-08:00

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you $800 to drop that towel." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 dollars and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies. "Great!" the husband says, "Did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?"

Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

The GodFather 1972

2007-12-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

One of the best movies i ever watched so far. I love the storyline and the characters. This really is a true drama with some gunshots , some insights into American gang culture, revenge, family ties, success and business dealings.

Check this out in wiki here.

Note: I found the image I am using in this post from Google Image Search. The copyrights of the image remain with the original creator.

About

2007-10-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

This blog is about everything I want to share with online community. I will be sharing my views, my thoughts and everything else which probably will make you sleep. :) The current focus area is on my learning experience revolving around ACCA. Yes I am a student-accoutant studying ACCA Skill Level Papers.

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I can be reached via hanlynnkyaw@gmail.com or you can drop comments on this post should you want to contact me. Thanks for visiting my blog.

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2007-04-22T00:12:00.000-07:00

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