I Had A Dream....

Google just launched their PayPal equivalent service - Google Checkout.

If you know me, you know I hate buying things online. Similar to a Stone Age man who is afraid of fire, I am a computer age man afraid of online transaction. I would rather walk 10 blocks and go into a store rather then click on that shinning online paying form.

It is perhaps an unjustified fear. Somewhat akin to how people felt about paper money without gold backing at first. Money is all about trust. This form of exchange in goods is like magic. If collectively enough people believe in it, then money holds value. If not enough people believe in it, it is just a piece of paper with numbers on it.

Finally here comes Google, someone I trust to hold my digital account. No longer will I have to walk in the nice outdoors for an hour, enjoying the birds and breeze, just to arrive at the store and buy my CDs and my cold drinks. No longer. Now I just have to sit on my comfee computer chair and move my index finger.

The first thing I should buy online should probably be a treadmill, I foresee a drastic decrease in physical activity. Maybe I should buy an even more comfortable chair too, seeing how I will probably spent more time sitting on it.

I have an odd priority on purchase. Many people would rather spend lots of money and buy a nice car. Not me, a Honda Accord is plenty good. I spent money depending on how much time I spent using the product. Car I use maybe an hour a day, so it simply has to be functional. Chair I sit in 5 hours a day, so I buy the best I can. Bed I slept in 1/3 of my life, so buying the best bed is important. Computer I keep on 24 hours a day, so I build my own to my specification. Strange how most people I know just use any bed and chair but try to buy the shiniest car.

Speaking of computer, there is a rumor Microsoft will shut down windows that doesn't have the latest GWA validation. Strange move, Vista isn't even out yet. I doubt people will go out and buy a new copy of XP at the end of XP's life cycle. Hopefully people will use this chance and upgrade to Mac and OSX. Dare I hope maybe even upgrade to Linux? Give Ubuntu a try people, it is free. Ubuntu is one distribution of Linux; the name is of South African origin and roughly means "Humanity Towards Others". How cool is that? Fits in perfectly with the open source spirit of Linux.

Lately I have been very interested in learning bits and pieces of different languages. Too bad I don't have a gift for them, only interest. There is an insane desire to move to Japan just to immerse myself in their culture and language. I am a pretty lazy person, without the environment at my back and a knife at my throat the chance of me being fluent in Japanese is nil. Sink or Swim. I have always excelled under pressure and necessity. I grow complacent when comfortable. Dropping myself at a strange country will be painful in the short run but productive in the long haul. At least that is how it turns out the last time at another strange country - namely US.

Some languages I am interested and looking into at the moment: Japanese, Spanish (supposedly easy to learn), plus another European Language: possibly German, French, or Russian.

Lastly, there is a faint but hopefully dream at the back of my mind. Barely a whisper. If only Google starts their own credit card! Google seems to have a talent for picking out corruptive service and breeze a breath of fresh air into the service. Does anyone remember email storage being 2MB anymore? That was before Gmail brought the standard up to 2GB. Anyone remember skipping the first page of search result due to useless spam and ads? That was before Google Search. Even the blog you are reading at the moment is from Blogger, a google service. (sigh, I wish Blogger has LiveJournal's tag function, friend listing, and calendar though...). If Google starts their own credit card company, they can start the trend of reasonable interest. No more 18% interest rate if your payment is late by 1 minute. A bank only pays you 2% interest for long term saving. 18% interest rate charged by credit card company is almost criminal. I personally stick with debit card and cash. Now if only Google starts Google Credit~! I would then feel safe knowing that they play fair.

Sigh, someday, I hope.