Mobile Phone Users Joke

Image source: Techcrunch

Hmm I can't help but laugh when I saw this caricature from my ex colleagues. Truth is, I am a nokia user. So I'm out of the picture... wahahahha. Ok ok I used to own a blackberry bold and thus will disagree that bb is such a dinosaur... but then the one I own currently for work is really such an antique that I can't deny I feel like a dinosaur every time I take it out. I am sorely tempted to transfer my company mails to my nokia except my own nokia has its moods to in receiving mails. But it is definitely much classier than my bb.

Anyway my ex colleague has also switched from HTC to iphone4 already. I cannot deny that iphone4 has more redeeming points than iphone3 and thus is attracting my attention even. And I cannot deny that I'm getting tired of apps only catered for iphone.. and perhaps bb (of which my antique bb cannot support). Just yesterday, xL was again giving me another reason to buy iphone4... that there is an application called viber which can make audio calls using your data usage. Haha but that means I must pay GPS data still. Well if OZ decided to give 12 GB plan just like SG does then I will be fully sold. But till now, hmm, let's wait for 2011 "p

iPhone

Was with jap lover friend today and somehow the topic lead to iphone.. and I remember when iphone 3 came out, both of us did not want it because there were just too many people and I did not subscribe to the hype. Of course I don't regret it because iphone 3 is really as lousy as my current E72. The only plus point is there are just too many useful applications catered for it!!! So unfair right? What can I say when the hype is there. Even my Melbourne room is biased to have an ipod docking station...

It does makes me angry I don't have one now haha...
So I was checking about iphone 4 and seriously, I'm so amazed by the camera quality of it. So much better than my E72... and I was sorely tempted to get one now.. especially when hp is joining apple soon and was saying she wants one too. Sigh, should I really follow the crowd and get my first apple stuff..

Looking back, I had wanted
a Macbook Air
a ipod touch

And I did not get any in the end still. In fact I did not even get any laptop yet though I have already set my eyes on a touch tablet. And I ended up getting a sony walkman in the end after my first volunteer stint in GE run and seeing the ad.

Though it was not very suitable for running as in I felt it will pain my ear after prolong use. But it really gives me a 'Look No Wires!' feel...

Moi HP Laptops craze

First stop, Sex and the City 2 which made a big hoo-huh when it switched from Mac to HP. Articles were crying aloud for THE betrayal e.g. here and here (oh I forgot about the famous CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn't work on a PC and that Aidan is a PC guy whereas Carrie is a Mac gal. Ok never mind that technically it is wrong to use the word PC, it should be Windows i.e. Windows vs Macintosh.)

And it showed especially for Samantha with the Touchsmart PC which I think I happened to be playing while visiting a Digital corner in Esplanade Exchange (to be blogged perhaps when Rubie is alive and photos could be edited and I have some spare time?)

HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam edition showed up too in the Abu Dhabi trip.

Then in the current Mediacorp show Unriddle that I'm interested to watch (haha once in a while, I do fancy Mediacorp productions and this one hasn't been too bad), HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam edition showed up again.

But then my ultimate favourite is still none other than this... HP Touchsmart TM2...

The descendant of HP TX2 which I had set my eyes before but decided not to buy it because it was an AMD.

My ideal specs for HP TM2
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-430UM (1.20GHz,3MB) + 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5450 switchable graphics
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

Unfortunately the one in SG is a i3 with 2GB ram. Given that TM2 is so much prettier and irresistible and with my Rubie giving me so much problems, I just can't help wishing if only I can get my dream specs!

Dropbox

Dropbox official Site [register now and get 2gb worth of storage space]


Pwnstar was introducing me his dropbox which in his words is a great service considering he has already maxed out to obtain a GRAND total of 10 GB free of space.

Just want to share with my readers this free service which is gaining popularity as cloud computing gets prevalent around the world. Basically, just signing up this free service gives you 2GB worth of storage space on their sever which are as secured as the algorithms used by banks and the military.

What is so good about this storage space is that you can easily backup/share your files with anyone around the world. Simply upload the files on your own Dropbox storage space, go to Sharing and share the folder. Then simply send out invites to this folder to your friend's email and now they can access the same file. Download and upload speed are extremely fast so go ahead and share large files.

I am intending to use it to share photos and some works... once I get my Rubie to stop "ba-gonging". It has been a week and I seriously feel so handicapped that I wish I can just die now since I cannot kill Rubie. Because seriously, an IT person without a PC/Lappie is like a crippled person and isn't she better off dead than alive?


(Sidetracked: Just realised Rubie has been with me for 3 years 4 months 7 days. I wish Rubie can be with me longer though.. *cross fingers*)

So while I'm still wondering about life and death, you can consider dropping by
Dropbox official Site [register from this link and you get an additional 250mb]. Have fun sharing and backing up!

To change the order of page head

To change the order such that your post title will be displayed first followed by the blog address, search for

<head/>


Then include the following codes after it.

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title>
<b:else><title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title></b:if>


P/s: At the same time, please remove

<b:include data="blog" name="all-head-content"></b:include>

to override the default setting and let search engines read your blog.

Summarised your blog post

After the Jump is a Blogger feature which lets you create a summarised blog post that will expand only when you click the "Read More...". I decided to use this feature for Bflygal Trails.

Image source: Blogger Support

Just use this icon to create the jump break in your blog post and you will be able to create summarised blog posts.

However, if you customised your template like me, you have to amend the customised template.
1. As usual, to access your blog's layout, go to Layout > Edit HTML tab.
2. For precaution, you can choose to backup your template by clicking "Download Full Template" at the top of the page. This is an XML version of your template which you can upload later if anything went wrong.
3. Click the "Expand Widget Templates" checkbox.
4. Search for
<data:post.body/>

in your HTML layout.
5. Paste the following snippet directly below it:

<b:if cond='data:post.hasJumpLink'>
<div class='jump-link'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url + "#more"'><data:post.jumpText/></a>
</div>
</b:if >

6. Save your template by clicking "Save".
7. View your blog. You will be able to see summarised blog posts with "Read More...".

P/s: Consider trying out this trick too...
Creating thumbnails related post

Butterfly Lappie

Image Source: HP

To me, butterflies symbolize LOVE, FREEDOM, INDEPENDENCE and TRANSFORMATION.
Together we bring life, color and personality to the computer world, creating fashionable technology for modern women."
- Vivienne Tam, September 2009

Gosh Butterfly Lappie... by Vivienne Tam, 酷毙了！
If only it is touchscreen.. or maybe I should say thank goodness it is not touchscreen else I'm probably 600 USD poorer now.. phew!

Oh and since we are on the topic of butterflies.. I was finding an old post on it that I liked alot (realised I wrote alot on butterflies, had a hard time finding)...

It is said that a butterfly is not a caterpillar or a better or improved caterpillar; a butterfly is a different creature.
- Nido Qubein’s "Be a professional butterfly" in Straits Times, Feb 14 2009

Improved caterpillar.. no way.. BUT I still wonder why butterfly is called butter that fly still...

Anyway to share a few more sayings...

壶中天地
The saying "Heaven and Earth in a Jar" (壶中天地) is a Chinese idiom derived from a story of the Yuntai Taoist Temple caretaker Zhang Shen from the Donghan Dynasty (25-220) who always carried a liquor vessel, and called a realm inside the jar the "Jar Heaven." Thus, people called him the "Jar Gentleman."

About three hundred miles away from Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, there is a Yuntai Mountain, which is a sacred place in Taoism. According to records from Taoism, Zhang Daoling (34-156), who was called the Zhengyitian Teacher, brought 370 of his disciples to Yuntai Mountain to cultivate.

Soon after, he saw that the temple didn't have a caretaker yet, so he then assigned disciple Zhang Shen to be the Temple caretaker. Under Zhang Shen's careful management, the Temple became more and more prosperous.

There was a gentleman called Shi Cun who strongly wished to cultivate in Taoism and to become an immortal. He heard that Zhang Daoling assigned a deity called the Jar Gentleman as caretaker in the Yuntai Temple, so he went there to learn from the Jar Gentlemen. There is a remarkable story behind his nickname.

It was discovered that Zhang Shen carried a liquor jar with him all the time. Whenever he chanted an incantation, there would be a realm displayed inside his jar with a sun, a moon, stars, a blue sky, earth, mountains, woods and grasslands, flowers, temples and houses, etc. Even more mysterious was that every night, Zhang Shen would put his jar on the floor, and slip into the jar to sleep after chanting incantations to enjoy his deity realm. He called his realm inside the jar the "Jar Heaven." Thus, people called him the "Jar Gentleman."

In the several thousand years of Chinese history, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism formed the colorful divine culture in China, and passed on many cultivation stories. People that do not believe in gods may think these are fairy tales or myths, but they are actually true historical events. Modern people use "A Realm in a Jar" to describe a Taoist heaven, or a realm that is beyond the dusty everyday world. If we can change our rigid ordinary mentalities, then maybe we can find ourselves in another realm, like the "Heaven and Earth in a Jar."
Source: The Epoch Times (Issue 310)

I'm in a very good mood today even though the headache still exist. Because I'm very sure I'm choosing life and not the other way. Off to my 壶中天地 :)

Stimator

$5,959,965


Check yours?

Was scanning through Rockfu for hacks when I saw this post on how much your website is worth. As quoted from the blogger:
www.geocities.jp ( 240,060,058 )
rapidshare.com ( 232,005,675 )
geocities.com ( 231,406,791 )
google.com ( 229,262,975 )
www.google.com ( 227,857,480 )
www.livejournal.com ( 226,694,124 )
www.yahoo.com ( 220,623,655 )
yahoo.com ( 219,082,998 )
Source: Rockfu

So out of curiosity I had to value mine even though it is not a true estimation because I'm afterall under a big umbrella - Google-Blogger. And indeed, as I went through its calculation of:
Calculating Domain influence value...
Calculating TLD success value...
Checking structural value..
Retrieving web rankings values...
Retrieving traffic volume value...
Retrieving social bookmarking value...
(I gave up trying to record all the steps because it was too fast i.e. I scored 0 value for those haha)

At first the value was dripping slowly then suddenly at "Retrieving traffic volume value", it zoomed up by a few millions and rack up my site with a value of US$5,959,965. Told you being under a big umbrella has some worth. One thing for sure, Google crawler will visit all its subsidiaries haha.

Let's see how my Grasstales value. US$5,959,736. Ok that is good news not because it rack up high but because I can safely assume all bloggersites will be around that value. Truth is, I rather this site be unknown haha.. and for my eyes only. (okok and for a few friends I value because sometimes I'm just too lazy to msn/email/write to them.. a post can tell them that my eyes/fingers/brain is still functioning.)

Website marketing

Visitors are an essential must if you host a site. After all a writer must have readers, a business must have customers, an idol must have fans.

So how do one get visitors? Through Search engines. Search engine has always been an interesting topic especially after how Google actually became famous for its search engine algorithm. However, till today, the way search engine works is still less optimized than how our brain searches for information. Thus it has always been an interest in the AI world to make search engine emulate how our human brain searches for information.

Of course the other angle is to adopt the search engine marketing strategy and tweak your sites to increase the visibility and hit list of the search engines.

This is called search engine optimisation (SEO). It is a process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines by editing the content and HTML coding to increase the relevance of specific keywords and removing any obstructions to the search engine indexes. There are also sites that do search engine optimizers (SEO). They are the experts who dispense professional advises on the best methods to adopt to get your site ranked in the search engine.

So what are some of the search engine marketing methods used?
- Choice of keywords: Use simple english words e.g. "heart" instead of "cardiac"
- Title, description of meta tags

But note, do not use keywords that are irrelevant to your webpage. This is called spamdexing or black hat SEO. If found out by the search engine, you may become black-listed.

Konami Code

Source: Wiki

Konami Code reminds me of something like easter egg that I used to "play" with M$ applications. It is known in Japan as the Konami Command (コナミコマンド) and is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games. Hmm no wonder they used the alphabet A & B.

It is making a comeback with websites putting it in to give it a special effect, e.g. Facebook. Other sites with Konami code includes this: http://konamicodesites.com/ which will give you a list of sites that is powered by Konami Code too.

I like the glare effect. It is like how I used to visit Google to see the theme page or Neopets too. I like seeing effects, makes life interesting haha.

So what is the Konami code?
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Enter

Have fun!

祝大家牛转乾坤迎新年

Did not send out this Chinese New Year greetings in time as work lappie got into major problem that I ended up reformatting .. and trying to download an installer not realising that I already had it in hand (wasted a day arghh).. and almost wanted to go back office during PH (luckily I didn't as there is no M$ software in office either)... All in all, I can only say, actually it is a good thing that the work lappie crash because the M$ software has a 3 months limit to download the "Microsoft Office system backup discs for medialess license kits" (and to tell you the truth, I'm actually very grateful they added the download option because the forums only mention ship-to cd which will probably take me 1 month to get it?). And I learnt now that Medialess License Kit Office is an OEM version, totally different from Trial version and require the backup to accept the Product key. I'm still thinking how to do an image so that next time I can just restore image and saves me more time (had wanted to do some work during PH but work lappie "ba-gong"). Oh another tip I learnt, was to partition my hdd which I did the first day I got work lappie. At least my data was intact.. phew!


Hmm at the same time I shall post out the Vday greeting because I hope I do not have any time to muse anymore haha... I need to catch up on my work.. and my training...

Acknowledgement:
Both images were taken from Facebook - Friendstock which is currently so buggy that I do not feel like posting the hyperlink. In fact I got half a mind to stop playing that game already. Initially started to understand how "stock" market works in a simplified version. Everybody came into the game anonymous in some sense. How do one attract investor? How do one justify his stock is worth this value. In the end, there were a few rules to follow e.g. you should boost yourself to up your value, you should say thanks to all who help you along. Then there are times you get sold and you wonder why the investor did not wait? And when you got sold at loss even which demoralise you and the stock. And then there were raiders who can up your sales quickly to get fast cash. Yes, I suddenly realise that Friendstock is just as scary as real life stock market especially when the stocks start plummenting. Hmm...

Web 2.0 and Hate groups

Source: Todayonline

"The Internet continues to be exploited by people who espouse hate in many different ways -- anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers, racists, homophobes and terrorists," Wolf said on the opening day of the two-day event hosted by the French embassy.

Lauter cited the case of an Oklahoma woman who was shot dead this month, allegedly by a member of the white supremacist Ku Klan Klan, after being recruited through MySpace. The woman was killed after she apparently changed her mind and tried to flee a Ku Klux Klan initiation rite, according to police in Louisiana.

Blogs, social networks, video sites and instant messaging.. welcome to the 21st century. In today's Web 2.0, a world of mobile computing and always-on connectivity. IT has become a tool for love and for hate. For every site you try to close down due to the hate message, another is created instantenously.  Sigh I feel so helpless and trapped in this IT world... a world that without it, might render me useless.  I am addicted to what Web 2.0 can offer me, and saddened by the double edge sword that it posed.  Interesting to note, a few days ago, I decided to reduce the information leakage in Facebook... time to remove more stuff..

Herod's Lost Tomb

Source: TodayOnline

National Geographic announced on Tuesday that its first game, "Herod's Lost Tomb," would come out this month ahead of the December 2008 issue which features an article on the biblical figure known for his architectural exploits.

Interesting... I might dl to try because one, I haven't play games for a REAL long time and two, it's National Geographic = educational right? Haha...

For the record, I am actually watching a children chinese educational series now... though I admit, my limited chinese is tested.

To Speed Up Firefox

Source: Digital Life (Oct 1 2008) from DL reader Deshawn Toh

1. Fire up Firefox
2. Type “about:config” into the address bar 
3. You will see a warning: "This might void your warranty..."
   Click the button that says "I'll be careful, I promise!
4. Scroll down and look for the following entries
   network.http.pipelining: Set value to "true" by double clicking that line
   network.http.proxy.pipelining: Set value to "true" by double clicking that line
   network.http.pipelining.maxrequests: Change the value from 4 to between 8 and 30 (This means it will make 8-30 requests at once.)
   
   Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.
   
   
5. Lastly right-click anywhere in the brwoser, select "New" and then "Integer". Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Additional Tip:
Install the add-on, AdBlock Plus (from mozilla.com) to prevents time-wasting ads and banners from loading.

Disable "Virus Scan" in Excel

Source: Tech Guy

After so many months of trouble-shooting it, I think I finally found the reason why my Excel keeps hanging. Sighz don't know if I should attribute it to Vista problematic nature.. Anyway I read that usually is the Norton Security Scan that is handling the office scan. Finally found in this post that AVG also has a office scan...

The dll in-charge of the office scan is avgoff2k.dll

To un-register it:
regsvr32.exe /u "(path)avgoff2k.dll" where (path) refers to the directory that stores the dll

To register it again:
regsvr32.exe "(path)avgoff2k.dll"

ASP.Net - Close window after download prompt

Source: Madalina's Blog

I spent the whole morning before I finally found my solution in this blog. Eternally grateful for such a simple solution considering I tried everything from javascript to startupscript.

As quoted:

So what is the answer? It is simple yet not easy to be found - because you always have in mind the premise that the user must have the option of Opening/Saving the file. The answer is:

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=" + [file].NewFileName);

How come? Well, if you select Inline, the application will try to write the file directly to the browser. If the browser has a plugin for that type of file (for eg PDFs) the file will be opened in the new window. (Y) If the user wants to save it, the plugin has a menu bar and options for saving on disk. If the browser does not have a plugin for the file, the Open Save dialog will appear and upon any choice the new empty window will be automatically closed.

adapted from Madalina's Blog

MacBook Air

I so want that lappie!

K I'm speaking in Singlish.

Anyway the specs as follow:

1. 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display that has a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution
2. It weighs about 3 pounds, and sports a thickness of 0.16-0.76 inches. It's 12.8 inches wide and 8.95 inches deep
3. 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache
4. 800 MHz front-side bus
5. 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
6. 80GB hard disk drive with Sudden Motion Sensor
7. Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
8. Micro-DVI port (includes Micro-DVI to VGA and Micro-DVI to DVI Adapters)
9. built-in iSight video camera
10. built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
11. one USB 2.0 port
12. one headphone port
13. one Micro-DVI (to connect an external display)
14. multi-touch TrackPad with support for advanced multi-touch gestures including tap, scroll, pinch, rotate and swipe
    
15. 45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter

Estimates that with wireless networking turned on, the MacBook Air can get about 5 hours of battery life.

Losing 1 GB each day

Reference: PC Mechanic Forum

Everyday I started my computer (running on Windows Vista), I realised my C drive loses space.. at first, I did not really bother. But it got me worrying lately when my drive is slowly losing .. 1 GB... a day. Then yesterday I went to clear all the registry and stuff and took note how much GB free space I have. I left the computer running the whole night and woke up in the morning to see that I have once again lost 1GB. I was really wondering if I got any hidden files eating my free spaces. A search on all files modified/created since yesterday did not yield much results. Decided to search for my answer. Luckily the first hit, I found someone that had exactly the same problem as me.

Apparently the process that is eating my free space is the system restore.

To go to system restore:
1. Go to "My Computer"
2. Right click "Properties"
3. Select "System Protection"

As quoted from the help:

To store restore points, you need at least 300 megabytes (MB) of free space on each hard disk that has System Protection turned on. System Restore might use up to 15 percent of the space on each disk. As the amount of space fills up with restore points, System Restore will delete older restore points to make room for new ones.

15% of space is alot if your harddisk is big. Anyway the guy had some useful commands which must be run in command prompt. I also don't know the GUI interface of restricting the storage space.

Command to list the current ShadowCopy storage allocated:
vssadmin List ShadowStorage

Command to resize the amount:
vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /On=C: /For=C: /Maxsize=4GB

Hmm.. I went to delete all my system restore points anyway and gained back 12 GB. The thing that is boggling me though is that ShadowStorage says it will only used a maximum of 6GB in my hdd. Too bad I did not run the command previously to see how much it used.

Anyway I decided not to resize the amount yet. I want to re-monitor the situation. But I better blog it down so that I know how to restrict it next time.

IpodTouch

I saw something cool yesterday. Really cool. It was metallic. It was slim, really slim. And I couldn't take my eyes off it. The only thing I knew about it, was it belonged to an Apple product. The apple logo.

Later on, my classmate told me about this particular product that has Wi-Fi to surf the net. WHAT!! To surf wirelessly. To be able to read adobe pdfs. I had only seen it can deliver music haha, cos the guy was listening to music with it. This is too good to be true...

And this morning, I realised it is one of the lucky draw prize for my management party. The party that I had intended to skip. Afterall I might have school that day. God, why do you have to put me up to such temptation... it is the only gift that caught my eyes (yeah, I don't mind admitting the rest of the gifts are "useless" TO ME kies haha). Darnz, the temptation is just too great... Arghh... To go or not to go?

p/s: Was asking my colleague last year, what was I bio-ing too.. and he told me is another ipod variation. Sigh it only shows that the lucky draw prizes have never really attract me much. Funnily, he is once again bio-ing the LCD TV haha, the top prize.

Social Computing

Source: Digital Life (July 24 2007)
Author: Grace Chng

Tomorrow’s workers will not just work, they expect to chat, watch videos and listen to music – during office hours.

Indeed the author cannot be so right about this phenomenon. Lately I was discussing with my colleague about work efficiency. He said nobody can work 90% efficiently, not even a new guy with bursting enthusiasm or one who is subjected to probation.

At first I thought it impossible as it is a known fact that most forty-something managers would expects nothing but 100%. Ok that is exaggerating but I am definitely sure they do not tolerate any of those multi-tasks that had just been mentioned.

As I pondered, I finally realised why a colleague of mine used to be unable to fathom why we could not spend 100% of our time working. That is until we “convert” her and showed her why sometimes chatting is a necessary evil. It allows one to take a break without being too obvious.

And no wonder why people used to “envy” me listening to music. I never knew it is an act of multi-task that would render me as “not working 100%”. I just knew I had to listen to music. Because I belong to the era where I watch TV, chat over the internet and do my homework. Don’t ask me how I multi-task, I just do it. Haha. (Talking about that, lately a colleague was telling me that she can watch 4 different animes at one shot due to some equipment.. I forgot what though. And I was like so amazed because if there is anything I cannot multi-task, it is watching more than 1 animes or movies at one go. If only I can master that skill…)

The author had also mentioned that the 2 undergraduates (Tay Kang Xun and Ma Weiyi) while researching had collated a thick pile of information and put it up in wiki before seeking permission. Haha so typical teenagers! But it shows that we have now reach an era where we blog, we post in forums and most importantly, we READ these stuff. Thus what we post can and will influence consumers or business partners.

Well companies can try to block such sites but this is not going to make us work only. We will always find something else to do when we get bored. Trust me!