Throughout Canada, the maintenance of the status quo that the credit cards companies, such as VISA and MasterCard, grab outrageously high transaction fees is apparently not in the cards any longer.

My realization of my own ignorance has gone up a notch.

For one thing, it has dawned on me just now that I still don't really grasp why the U.S. government initiated and kept its war, together with its allies, in Afghanistan, against the backdrop that many civilians in the U.S., Canada and other Western countries seriously oppose it, and how the average people in Afghanistan have lived since the Taliban had assumed significance within the country.

Sometimes the lure of consumption unhinges, or undermines, an individual's ultimate potential, and drives him beside his reason.

My opinion regarding Intel has dropped some notches over the last few years.

Their technical competence, their relevance, and their handling of suppliers seem to be slipping. Well, their top brass will feel knots of uneasiness, especially against the promising ARM chip technologies and the cheap chips from AMD, in the forthcoming years. Here is some quote from http://goo.gl/FD6ze :

ARM Holdings Plc, the top designer of processors for smartphones, is pushing into chips for server computers and aims to start eroding Intel Corp.’s dominance in that market in 2014.

Server manufacturers are already looking at chips based on ARM’s technology, Chief Executive Officer Warren East said last week in an interview. The designs will help create lower-power computers, which will make data centers more efficient. Still, the effort will take years to bear fruit, he said.

Through douban.com , I reconnected with my past self in some senses.

Tender feelings have been called to drift up.