How many of you have heard of this kind of home security technology that uses your fingerprints as key?

That’s right. Doors that use keyless lock!

I am not much into these kind of smart-home technology where you clap (for example) to switch certain electrical appliances or set the room temperature automatically because to me it makes us too dependent on electricity. Not a good idea in regions where power is not very stable – like here.

But I thought this technology of using only the owner’s fingerprint to open and lock doors is very useful. Imagine having less keys to carry around. And remember the moment when you forgot to bring the house keys only to find that nobody is home?

Or in my case, staying late at night to open the door for my husband when he has to work late.

Another cool feature of this keyless lock is that you could program the lock to give access to certain people during certain times only – which means that you don’t have to worry about outsiders holding a key to your home to be used for unauthorized entry at other times.

Price-wise, I am actually surprised that this technology is quite reasonably priced. From this particular site, they offer the cheapest keyless lock for less than $200 (with free shipping to the USA too). Not bad, don’t you think?

And just like some movies, there are also locks that use fingerprints and PIN code for added security.

Anyway, I am not comfortable enough to use this for my main door yet, but I would certainly consider using this for internal doors like the bedroom.

What about you?

I was once told to get into the stock market on a free lance basis since I have access to the internet the whole day and can therefore monitor the movement myself.

The problem is, I have no interest in learning about stock market and I know nil.

This is a pity as we do have some relatives (retired uncles) and friends who dabble in this on a free lance basis and have made some money and it is enviable when they announce that they have made some killings – perhaps not in the last several weeks I’m sure.

But there are any of out who happened to read this post, here is a useful site called Better Trades which might help you understand more on the stocks and options market. Based on the explanation of the kind of service that BetterTrades offers, even the most ignorant or sceptic may pick up some knowledge or even the confidence to try trading stocks and options.

This site offers various educational materials from DVDs to live internet coaching to seminar as well as giving access to the latest market information.

So check out the stock market basics and go through their options glossary to get the idea of the kind of tips and tricks you can get from this site.

When I visited my local public library last week, I saw a poster on the website of the “Brunei Library Association”.

However, while the idea is commendable, the result is far from inspiring. Perhaps it is still under development and hopefully it will be continually updated to live up to its tagline : “Ultimate Resources For The Aspiring Librarians”.

When that happens, I will be pleased to help spread the word around.

Speaking of librarianship, I have an ex-colleague who was offered the opportunity to work in the technical side of cataloguing (making materials easier to find and sort) which she is not so keen on. For the benefit of non-librarians, it takes a certain personality to excel in this area and even I will not willingly go into it.

However, I encouraged her to go for this post and then later find ways to seek transfer to departments that suit her strength more. Besides she plans to join this career networking site where she might find openings that interest her more.

In fact, if you did not know it, Climber is actually a useful career networking site which works by connecting professionals from any industry to potential employers. And obviously, the advantage of being headhunted through career networking site like this is that the pay is usually higher than if one were to applied for a job (as much as 15% on average). Membership is free.

Last week in the capital city, there was a briefing session on an American MBA program specially designed for managers and high level executives.

While many other MBA programs can also claim to cater for top executives, this one no doubt is definitely meant for company CEOs and those with equal power and authority.

Because the fees itself is already a cool $1++K. In US Dollars!

And this is not including the cost of traveling to various campuses around the world every few months which the stunned-to-silence-audience was told can work up to B$100K per year.

On top of that, you’d need to take one week leave to attend a study session every 5 weeks.

From the brochures, this program is definitely great and hugely beneficial. But it is by far the most expensive MBA programs that I have come across.

Even if you can afford the monetary side, I cannot imagine your boss will be too thrilled to have you take study leave for around 3 months in a year. Unless of course, you ARE the boss.

But those who have the time but not the money, you can perhaps try to look for student loans.

This particular loan provider seemed to offer really good service such as student loan consolidation where students can combine their study loans and pay lower interest rates. However, I am not sure if their private student loans service covers non-American students or most importantly, this kind of amount.

Anyway this particular MBA program did sounded like a wonderful program to join but unfortunately, the cost is simply too high.

Recently, a friend and I were discussing about another friend who seemed to be going on a lot of holidays abroad – despite being a government officer in Malaysia.

We decided that the government department where this person is working is a clear indication of how he is able to spend thousands of dollars on those holidays.

But at the same time, I also think that it is a question of priorities.

A lot of people do not go for holidays not because they cannot afford to, but because they do not want to spend money on holidays. I know many people around me who earn big income or those who retired with fat bank account but are content to stay home because to them, holiday is a waste of money.

Yet, there are folks, such as our government officer friend who may not seems to have that kind of money and yet are able to travel probably because, he makes holiday a priority and plan for it.

The other thing is of course, being smart about holiday planning.

Gone are the days when one are the mercy of travel agencies. These days, as long as you are IT literate, you could get plenty of amazing deals on the internet from free seat flights to free room stay. In fact, I bet these people who likes to travel make it a point to check out every travel site that appears in the internet such as this newly revamped portal for cheap flights based in Australia.

Apparently, this site has been around for years but lately they have been aggressively marketing their specialty service which is flights sourcing from airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Qantas and United Airlines.

The difference about this site as compared to the other travel sites is that it focuses on the Asian and Oceania market so for most of us who can only travel within the region, we are not distracted by names like Houston or Zurich but we’ll straight away see destinations like Bali, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Anyway, when it comes to the questions of who can actually afford a holiday – I say all of us are. It’s all a matter of priorities and smart planning, don’t you agree?