Get back the Start Menu in MS Windows 8.1 with the free IObit Start Menu 8

Microsoft has removed the Start Menu since version 8 of the Windows operating system. The Start button at the bottom-left corner of the screen now acts as a toggle between Windows Desktop and the Metro UI interface.

If you are using MS Windows 8.1 and you miss the Start Menu in previous versions of MS Windows, you can get it back with 3rd party software.

I use IObit Start Menu 8 to achieve this, as it is free, and very easy to customize and use.

This is what you can get with IObit Start Menu 8 installed in Windows 8.1:

The appearance of Start Menu can be configured to use the Default Theme, Classic Windows 7 Theme, or the Windows 8 Theme.

You can also select your favourite Start Button, as it is configurable.

Similar to the Start Menu in Windows 7, you can customize how the links, icons and menus look and behave on this Start Menu.

With this, you can get back your user experience in using Windows operating system the same style as before.

FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 soccer match schedule

The FIFA World Cup Brazil has just started and will last for one month until 13 July 2014.

You can look up to the schedule of all its matches in this website:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/index.html

The time shown on the webpage is Brazil local time. Just click on "change to your time" to switch it to your local time. Remember to adjust the date yourself because the date shown on the webpage will remain as the date in Brazil.

Impact of Malaysia GST to Investors

Malaysia is expected to implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 1 April 2015 at the initial rate of 6%. The cost of a lot of things will be affected, including investment vehicles and products.

I believe nowadays everybody deals with banks. How the GST will impact our deposit, interest, loan, credit card, bank charges, etc.? Refer to the table below.

The next of our concerns is our investment in the local stock market and unit trust funds. The brokerage and clearing fee will be affected, but not the stamp duty. The impact on unit trust funds is more severe, so your fund manager has to work much more harder to bring you a good profit after minus all the charges and fees and now the additional GST imposed.

How about insurance policies? Your premium paid to life and education policies will not be imposed with GST, but it seems that most if not all other insurance policies are affected. Note that general insurance products including car insurance, house/fire insurance, accident insurance, etc. will be affected too.

For those who invest in precious metals (gold, silver), jewellery, collectibles, etc., if you trade with the physical product, you are affected.

If you trade with a gold/silver investment account with a bank without touching on the physical product, you are probably not affected.

A 6% GST of PAMP Suisse 100g gold bar selling at RM14,000 will be RM840, quite a big sum.