Blog about Computers, Internet, News, and Movies

Internet Explorer 7

2008-12-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

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After almost 2 years and a half under development, the IE7 still insufficiently meets the web standard and barely match the features that are available in the Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Yet tabbed browsing, a built-in RSS feed reader, and a new Favorites Center are among the features that I like the most and are something that can be proud of.

Initially, I have problem to install the IE7 since it needs SP2 for the installation purpose (I just reformatted my PC). So, I spent half an hour before the SP2 was properly installed. After installing the IE7, I was requested to reboot, which is unprecedented in any browser installations (usually it only requires to restart browser). The emergence of IE7 with tabbed-browsing really make my life easy in term of taskbar space and managing multiple pages in one browser. I just realised despite there are hitches in IE7, I've been using it almost equally as frequent as I do with other browsers for the last couple of days. (Avant and Mozilla)

Wordpress 2.0.5

2008-12-25T06:11:00.000-08:00

Wordpress 2.0.5 is ready for grab. For those who is still using 2.0.4, you might consider to upgrade since the current version holds 50 bugfixes. The following feature - "default category is no longer checked by default" will not be available in this latest version and is expected to come out in the 2.1 version.

I guess I wont do any upgrade for this blog. I've two blogs running in 2.0.4 and 2.05 and it seems that my current theme is not compatible with the current version of wordpress. I rather get myself familiar with wordpress before doing any upgrades and most probably hold my breath for 2.1 release. More news on wordpress 2.0.5 on

Mark on Wordpress and 205 Ronan

wordpress

Random post plugin

2008-12-25T06:10:00.000-08:00

This plugin might serve you great service in the future as your blog posts grow in size. The probability of readers drop by on your blogs and looking for old posts in the archive are very small. Instead of letting old posts buried in your sacred archive, why not use this great plugin to rejuvenate new breath to the old posts, put them in circulation at your recent posts.

How to implement this plugin? It's just a piece of cake. It took about an hour for me due to the lack of programming literacy. It is dead easy once you know how to play around with the parameters.

1. Visit this plugin site (Random Plugin). Activate it in your blog.

2. Put the following code into any pages that you like it to be appeared. As far as I'm concerned, I put it in single.php

<!--random posts plugin-->

<h3>Random Posts</h3>
<?php random_posts($limit="4", $len="30", $before_title='<li><b>', 
$after_title='</li></b><br>', $before_post='<blockquote>', 
$after_post='</blockquote>', $show_pass_post, $show_excerpt=true); ?> 

<!--random posts plugin-->

You may change the parameter to suit your blog and the parameters' descriptions are included in the plugin compressed file. I hope you will find this plugin to be useful.

IE7 addons

2008-12-25T06:09:00.001-08:00

Do you want to have better management for your new Internet Explorer 7? Try to take a look at IE7 Add-Ons. The addons are divided into four categories (Security, Time Savers, Browsers and Entertainment). Find the right plugin from the wide range of addons to suit your needs. Some of them come free while the rest come at a price.

PayPerPost for blogger

2008-12-25T06:09:00.000-08:00

This is another opportunity to add additional source of your multiple incomes.

PayPerPost.com, The World's First Consumer Generated Advertising Network, announced today that their first blogger has surpassed $1,000 in online advertising income. Colleen Caldwell of Tampa, Florida is the enterprising blogger to first reach the mark using the online advertising service on her blog . Colleen has been using the PayPerPost system for about seven weeks. Read more

Basically it works like in the above chart. All you need to do is signup at PayPerPost site. After your blog is approved, you can start looking for PayPerPost Opportunity(wide range of topics) and write review of the chosen topic. Once your content is approved, money will make its way to your Paypal

account :). For the time being, I can't signup since my blog was just setup (it requires blog of 90 days old or more) Check your blog for the eligibility to participate at PayPerPost

Google Alerts: Keep your blog updated

2008-12-25T06:05:00.001-08:00

Combing every inch of the enourmous internet network for particular topics or keyword might be time consuming. Now Google Alerts can be fully utilised to keep your blog current. All you need to do is to sign up at the Google Alerts page, setup the keywords that you want to receive from either (news, blogs, web, groups or comprehensive sources) and the alerts will be sent right into your mailbox. The frequency of alerts will be depending on how often you like to receive the alerts.

I just setup Google Alerts to receive breaking news and tips for my blog and it's good for anybody who has niche market that hunger for latest updates. Be aware of how often you would like to receive the alerts as it might crowd your mailbox. One alert a day will suffice my needs. That is one way to ensure delivery of good content to the audiences.

Freaking cute lil girl

2008-12-25T06:05:00.000-08:00

Very impressive "performance" by this cute little girl at that age. You dont have to speak or understand the language she sang, the hand gestures and her face expression speak for itself. It truly shows good understanding of the lyric. I've seen this video long time ago, but it just came into my mind to share this great video with all of you. Freaking cute!

[youtube]BwoSjd6UAAI[/youtube]

Add your blog to browser search

2008-12-25T06:04:00.001-08:00

This is a tutorial on how to add a blog into a browser search engine by taking advantage of the Opensearch technology. For the time being, this feature is only available in Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer 7.

1. First you need to create an XML file. Copy the following code into a notepad and save it as myopensearch.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<OpenSearchDescription 
xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
  <ShortName>YOUR_BLOG_NAME</ShortName>
  <Description>YOUR_BLOG_DESCRIPTION</Description>
  <Url type="text/html" 
  template="http://YOUR_BLOG_PATH/index.php?s={searchTerms}"/>
  <LongName>YOUR_BLOG_LONG_NAME</LongName>
</OpenSearchDescription>

2. Before you "save as" the myopensearch.xml file, you need to modify few parameters accordingly.

- YOUR_BLOG_NAME - change to your blog name (i.e. Eches Blog)

- YOUR_BLOG_DESCRIPTION - brief description of your blog

- YOUR_BLOG_PATH - Your blog path (i.e http://blog.eches.net or http://eches.net/blog/)

- YOUR_BLOG_LONG_NAME - your blog name

3. Once the modifications are done, upload the file to the root directory of your blog.

4. Go to the theme editor under the presentation (via admin screen) and open header.php. Find the following code.


<link rel="pingback" 
href="<?php bloginfo('pingback_url'); ?>" />

5. Insert the following code right below the above code. Change the YOUR_BLOG_NAME and YOUR_BLOG_PATH to your blog name and your blog path accordingly.

<link rel="search" title="YOUR_BLOG_NAME" 
href="http://YOUR_BLOG_PATH/myopensearch.xml" 
type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" />

Save the header.php and get ready to see it in action.

Note: I owe credit to LiewCF: How to Create an Autodiscovery Blog Search for Web Browser

Drive more traffic with these plugins

2008-12-25T06:04:00.000-08:00

These plugins would be useful for those who just started to have blog and want to have decent traffic into their blog. So far, most of the visitors of this blog are generated from these plugins.

1. SimpleTags

-This plugin will create technorati tags at every end of your post. Install and activate this plugin, and insert the following code to create technorati tag.

[tags]microsoft, internet explorer 7, ie7[/tags]

Download SimpleTags

2. Social bookmark

-This plugin will put 24 social bookmarking websites (i.e. del.icio.us,stumbleupon, technorati) at the end of every post.

Download Social bookmark

They might look like trivial plugins but they create big impact on getting traffic and creating regular visitors.

Increase Adsense revenue by filtering MFA sites

2008-12-25T06:03:00.000-08:00

Have decent clicks and traffic but the revenue generated is way too low? Now, you should take a closer look at what type of ads that appear frequently on your website. I came across this forum (Digital Point forum) where they discussed about the increasing number of made-for-adsense(MFA) sites that have been swarming their google ads space.

Two weeks ago, I discovered a great site showing the MFA sites' url. I added the links to my Competitive Ad Filter since there was no url before. I check my AdSense revenue daily and found out that my earnings were increasing.

Basically these MFA sites consist of massive number of google ads and lack of content and they promote their sites via google adwords at low bidding prices (i.e. 7-topsites.com).

One way of preventing these sites from appearing in your sites is through Competitive Ad Filter. Yes, it is time consuming to go through all of your sites but it really pays off. This site (Ads Black List) is worthy to be visited as it compiles a lot of MFA sites. You can submit your websites url and keywords of your site to find the MFA sites that are associated with your website.

Personally, I rather monitor my websites on regular basis as I can precisely filter out the MFA sites that frequently appear on my sites and for what it's worth, Competitive Ad Filter only permits 200 submissions. So, you need to be selective not to choose MFA sites that might not harm you adsense revenue at all.

Monetise you site with Feedvertising

2008-12-25T06:02:00.001-08:00

You might already get well paid from multiple sources of revenue from your websites. But don't you want to maximise your profit out of your traffic as generally, a significant portion of your sites visitors are constituted by those who subscribe your RSS feed. They might not or rarely drop by your websites and contribute less in your total revenue. However, Feedvertising will take care of this scenario and shed you light on how to enhance your current revenue.

This Feedvertising by Text Ads Link offers you additional income stream by utilising advertisements via the RSS feed. Sign up an account at Text Ads Link, submit your website to be reviewed and once approved, get ready to harness your revenue from the feed subscriptions. The step-by-step measures to setup the Feedvertising is explained in great length at Feedvertising tutorial, complete with flash video.

I will update about feedvertising as I myself just registered with Text Ads Links and if you already have experience with Feedvertising and would like to share it, you are most welcomed to do so.

Beethoven: Fur elise with twist

2008-12-25T06:02:00.000-08:00

I was watching my old friend's video playing piano when this video caught my attention. This really is a brilliant piece of Fur Elise, played well by sbazzle, the pianist and the submitter of this video. Beethoven himself might be screaming to get out of his grave to see this young lad. I enjoy watching his video a lot of time and I hope he will not be discouraged by few negative comments thrown on him. Keep posting more videos of this quality. Enjoy the video.

[youtube]tQIuE_mdFdk[/youtube]

Windows Vista packaging revealed

2008-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has recently revealed next generation packaging for its next generation software, Windows Vista and Office 2007. The following is the sreenshot of the packaging. See more pictures here.

Personally, I'm impressed by its packaging. Life-long use is an interesting term that add values to the reliability of windows legacy and its rounded sleek design really lure users into using this product for the rest of their life.

Nick White, Vista product manager, writes on the Vista teamâ€™s blog: â€œthe new packaging is designed to protect the software inside for life-long use. Our plan is to extend this packaging style to other Microsoft products after the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office system.â€

One thing worth to point out is as far as the licensing is concerned, how can one single copy last long enough? Hopefully, Microsoft will plan to offer new cd-key which can be purchased online, say someone wants to install Vista on other computer.

Spoofing bug in IE7

2008-12-25T05:59:00.000-08:00

A new loophole that can be used by crooks to their advantage was found in IE7. This loophole is claimed by security experts to be able to expose the users to the phishing scams eventhough it is well known that Internet Explorer 7 has been investing a lot of money in the security of this browser.

This issue, however has been rated as "less critical" by secunia, a company specialises in alerts and advisories against vulnerabilities to companies worldwide. Read full story about this issue here

Source: Zdnet: News

4 USB port mounted on illuminated mouse pad

2008-12-25T05:57:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thinking of having extra USB port at your mouse pad? not an ordinary mouse pad but illuminated one! This fancy mouse pad really draws people's attention as it provides solution to the insufficient number of USB ports that are usually fully occupied and it's cool!. This mouse pad can be powered by an AC adapter or via USB and illuminates blue light around the mouse pad.

Source: Chip Chick

Faster surfing with FasterFox

2008-12-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

Wanna have better experience surfing on the net? FasterFox is one of Firefox extension offers few features that can speed up your surfing on the net.

You can go for "Turbo Charged" preset for maximum performance and if you would like to have better control over this extension you might want to custom the settings. Under custom setting you will see few other option tabs that are:

1. Cache - giving room to set the memory capacity and cut the unnecessary re-downloading of information.

2. Connection - Increase the number of connections to server for more simultaneous downloading items.

3. Pipelining - multiple requests to the server without waiting for the previous requests.

4. Rendering - faster loading upon clicking the forward and backward button.

5. Popups - give better protection from the clever web developer's popups.

I've installed it in my Firefox browser and I can feel the difference as compared to Avant browser. You can easily get it installed in your firefox by going to tools > add-ons in your firefox browser or if you want to get more information about FasterFox, head to this link. Maximise your surfing experience to the fullest with FasterFox.

Make money from your links!

2008-12-25T05:50:00.000-08:00

LinkBucks (beta) offers you to generate money from links that are available in your sites. You can even make money from the links that you post in any forum! Sound great? Read on.

How it works?

After your page loads, your links are automatically and seamlessly converted into ones that make you money. This is because the site the link goes to will include a banner that you get paid for. You dont have to pay a dime to setup all the links instead you will be paid from clicks of those links.

How much LinkBucks pay you?

Basically money is generated from the number of impressions made or/and from the banners/advertisements at the top of the targeted sites. Currently they pay you $1 US for every 5000 top banner ad impressions, and $1 US for every 3500 intermission ad impressions.

Are you worried about the ads content? You dont have to as you can filter all the adult content sites. Regarding the payment, you will be paid once your account balance reaches $5.00 and it can be requested to be paid via Paypal or ePassporte.

My experience/opinion -

Say for some reasons your account is suspended or in the event of server down from LinkBucks end, it is definitely your nightmare as it affects links all across you websites. If along the way, you decided to change all of the links back to the original(real) ones, it surely takes ages.LinkBucks claims the ads would be unobtrusive and hopefully they will be displayed in the way intended. For what it's worth, just now, I found a glitch at my account where it shows error page.

Anyway, please bear in mind this is beta version and things will get better as all the glitches and hitches are fixed. If you have any opinion or would like to share your experience with Linkbucks please leave some comments in this post.

Tiga: Clean theme for wordpress

2008-12-25T05:49:00.000-08:00

I was looking for new theme to try on, when "tiga" theme caught my attention. It's a familiar word in Malaysia which mean three. I headed to the tiga theme's blog and as expected, it's a wordpress theme made by a malaysian. I found this theme appealing because it gives you better control of your theme through the admin screen (i.e the width of the theme) and its simplicity.

For someone who is new to wordpress, this theme will give you a good headstart and keep your spirit up. The following is the series of the tiga theme screenshots and I bet you would fall in love with this theme.

Go straight on to the tiga theme's blog to see the theme live.

Blogger Beta: Feature complete

2008-12-25T05:48:00.000-08:00

Blogger have announced that their Beta version is â€˜feature completeâ€™. For all bloggers out there, prepare to get excited with a new ride of your blogging journey by taking full advantage of the major improvement that has been done on Beta version.

Most importantly, the addition of FTP to the beta means that account migration will soon (like Really Really Soon) be available to all Blogger users -- it's currently just enabled for blogspot users. Thank you all for your patience with the recent outages and networking problems - they'll soon be a thing of the past!

The addition of FTP will serve great use to all bloggers as it provides greater control of blogs. I'd be interested to hear some experiences from those whom have been blogging with Blogger Beta.

Improve CTR: Video next to Adsense

2008-12-25T05:47:00.000-08:00

The addition of images next to Google Adsense ads is generally known will increase click through rate (CTR) and Tips.com.my adds up a new way to increase CTR - Video next to AdSense ads!

From the following screenshot, it can be seen that a YouTube video is nicely placed next to the AdSense advertisements and the chosen video suits to the page content - wedding. It might give you better impression because very few sites using this layout (This is the first site I came across to put video next to Adsense ads.)

The YouTube video can be easily resized to fit the page layout by manually changing the width and height of YouTube code.

Source: LiewCF

Adsense earnings in Firefox status

2008-12-25T05:45:00.000-08:00

Adsense Notifier enables you to look at you adsense account stats automatically. For those who keep looking at their adsense accounts every minute to see if they got clicks, this plugin will surely give you great relief. This plugin is now made available for the new Firefox 2.0.

Alternatively you can also try Google AdSense Widget and Adsense Status. Basically, The Google Adsense Widget is purposely designed for the Yahoo Widgets engine whlist the Adsense Status(it's been on the net for quite some time) is a plug-in for the Google Desktop sidebar.

Yahoo! Talent show

2008-12-25T05:43:00.000-08:00

The largest talent show ever is kicking off this coming monday, 13th November 2006 on Yahoo!. You don't have to come to any audition to show off your talent, all you need to do is just submit your talent video online and it will be showed in front of million of yahoo visitors. It's not only fame that lure people into this talent show but a $50,000 is also waiting for the winner of this contest. So, guys! Hurry up, the clock is ticking away and as of I wrote this post, you got 3 days 6 hours and 10 minutes before the submission dateline. Check the eligibility guidelines at Yahoo! Talent Show. To add fuel to the escalating heat let us enjoy this inspiring video from Funtwo.

[youtube]2xjJXT0C0X4[/youtube]

Adsense ban

2008-12-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

I just flipped through a forum when I stumbled upon a case where his adsense account is banned for fraud clicking eventhough he claimed he didnt do anything that constitutes Adsense TOS infringement. This is one of the most undesirable scenario that has been plaguing the Adsense publishers community, and as usual Adsense leaves the publishers with no empty spaces to clarify or even correct the mistakes. At least, it should show some mercy, maybe by providing ticketing system to sort this out, but obviously this kind of measure will open new loopholes to the crooks to take advantage of this system. This is something that Adsense don't want to afford.

A lot of new publishers swarming into Adsense system daily and the ban of some "small" publishers (like me too) wont affect the Adsense reputation among its competitors. The bottom line is, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Instead of sticking to Adsense why not try newly emerging Pay Per Click programs. Most of them provides lower minimum payment which is highly favoured by many small publishers. Here is some list that comes across my mind. I will update later as my tiredness does not permit me to roam the internet much longer.

1. AdGenta

2. CrispAds

3. Text Ads Link

4. Bidvertiser

5. Peak Click

6. Ad Center

7. Yahoo! Publisher Network

For mftwck69, I hope your determination will not be deterred by this "little" hitch, as who knows, you might fry bigger fish soon. All the best mate!

ReviewMe: Another Pay Per Post program

2008-12-25T05:41:00.001-08:00

Another Pay Per Post program (ReviewMe) emerges, giving bloggers more room to get extra money by writing sponsored post. The ReviewMe claims bloggers would be able to get $20 to $200, and it will depend on the Alexa and Technorati rankings, traffic, Page Rank of the bloggers' websites. Bloggers are required to disclose the written post as a sponsored post and interestingly the reviews does not neccesarily need to be positive.

The signup process is simple. Submit your site for review, and once approved you will be entering the ReviewMe marketplaces. You can accept or reject an offer made by the sponsors.

I rather wait for sometimes and see how this new kind of program evolves and revolves around the blogsphere before deciding to join into this program. If you really into this program or other programs that are much alike and having some experiences about how these programs generally affect your blog or website,please share them with us.

The Backward Bowler

2008-12-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

I found this awesome dude who is renowned as the best backward bowler. He scores on average 184 and his best score so far was 279. Well, I'm only able to get highest 130 (play as normal people) and scoring 279 when doing backward is totally outrageous.

[youtube]EN75R4uvIYY[/youtube]

Firefox extension: Fast Video Download

2008-12-25T05:38:00.000-08:00

Have you ever found interesting videos in youtube or metacafe and some time later they have been removed for unknown reasons. Yeah it's frustrating. How can we get them? There are few methods on how to retrieve the video but I will show you the easiest way to do that; Fast Video Download.

This is another useful Firefox extension to those who are making collection of the videos out of youtube or any other video sharing sites. Basically you need to install this plugin into the Firefox browser and after restarting Firefox, the plugin will be at the bottom left corner. Simply click at the Fast Video Download icon and a small window will popup asking you where to save the video file to.

You need to download and install FLV Player in order to play the video file (i.e. youtube_video.flv). Now you are ready to play the you favourite videos directly from you computer!

Notes: Fast Video Download can save embedded video files from following video-hosting servers:

Angry Alien, Anime Episodes, Anime Forever, Bad Jojo, Blip.TV, Bo-Funk, Bolt, Break.com, Current.TV, Daily Motion, eVideo Share, Google Video, Grinvi, iFilm, Libero.IT Video, My Space, Put File, Streetfire, Totally Crap, You Tube, V-Social and Vidiac.

Sometimes it might produce "no data" error, just put another try (click again the icon) and it should be working.

Wordpress theme: Unwakeable

2008-12-25T05:34:00.000-08:00

Unwakeable is another theme that caught my attention and it is somehow influenced by K2 0.9.1 and unsleepable.

The author of this theme adds some functionalities to it such as Digg This Reloaded, Digg Integrator, WP-PostRatings, WP-PostViews, WordCount and WP Admin Bar. If you are choosy about design of a theme (like me), then this clean simple theme might suit your need. Head straight on the Unwakeable theme site to see it live.

IE Tab: Firefox extension for web developer

2008-12-25T05:32:00.000-08:00

I just installed IE tab and I found it comes handy to me especially when I do some tinkerings on my blog and I want to see how my blog changes to the modifications. The Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox will sometimes display different things for the same, say HTML code.

Running 2 browsers simultaneously might be a good idea, but this practice consumes more memory and since I always run few more programs like Adobe Photoshop and MATLAB, it usually took my computer to its knees. For web developers this firefox extension will be helpful as you can see how your webpage displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.

Me: I hope they will develop plugin that will integrate Opera and other major browsers under one roof; Firefox!

Iwebtool: How’s your web performance?

2008-12-25T05:31:00.001-08:00

Previously I need to go to Alexa to check for web ranking, get to go to PR Checker to see some websites' PR, and visit Domain Pop to see how many backlinks my blog have. A lot of sites need to be visited.

However, Iwebtool.com give me a better way of checking my web performances where almost everything about web analysis has been included in a single page. This web also provides wide range of tools for SEO purposes. You can examine the keywords density, PR prediction for your site and a lot more from this site.

Do you have any better places for web analysis? Share them with us!

BlogExplosion: Will it break Adsense TOS?

2008-12-25T05:31:00.000-08:00

I just registered with BlogExplosion a couple of days ago after being advised to signup to this program in order to get more traffic. Recently I have time to check my submission status. The registration process went well with no hassle but as I was about to get myself familiar with its system, something struck my mind. BlogExplosion system is very much the same as autosurf system where you need to visit a site in a timely manner to get a credit before you are brought to a new blog site for next viewing. It also operates more less the same way as Adsense-Xchange but obviously the Adsense-Xchange has clearly violated Adsense TOS by having click exchange.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across an Adsense publisher in a forum who get involved in autosurf system and has been given warning regarding his involvement with autosurf activity (he got Adsense ads in his website). Luckily he only got warning, but many have been banned for the rest of their life for multiple reasons. I sent an email to Adsense support and I'm still waiting for the reply.

Apparently you can simply remove the Adsense ads for the duration of participation in BlogExplosion, but for me, that means losing few dimes everyday. Can somebody enlighten me about this issue or do you have any idea about this?

Lisensa: Copyright management service

2008-12-25T05:30:00.001-08:00

Copyright registration and management service for blogs called Lisensa is launched by Top10Media, an active group of content companies with its primary target to help bloggers to syndicate out their blogs content to third parties who are going to use it legally.

It's not an enforcer like Copyscape that searching for copyright infringers, rather, it makes easy way for bloggers to choose an appropriate commercial licensing options or non-commercial options and simultaneously obtains a license to republish content for commercial pruchasers. Basically Lisensa automates the conversation between the copyright holder and the commercial purchaser. The service is free and it will take 10% of fees generated.

Source: TechCrunch

Bloglines Plumber, kewl!

2008-12-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

I tried to login into Bloglines account but what I got is an error page notifying about server down at the Bloglines end. I think it's a cool "error page".

Digg Dugg: Add dynamic to your blog

2008-12-25T05:28:00.000-08:00

Digg Dugg is the plugin that I came across while searching for digg plugin.

This plugin syndicates all kinds of stories from digg.com and lists them in your blog. Various options allow you to fetch stories from specific users, friends, topics, the digg search, and the Popular/Upcoming sections of digg.

This is a good plugin because it adds dynamic to your blog especially when your running out of time to update your blog or all of sudden your ideas run out of steam. I've tried to implement it in my blog, the content appears briliantly, unfortunately I couldn't find the right place to fit it into my blog space.

You can find more ways to manage the Digg's feeds by visiting Digg Dugg plugin's site.

5 commons tips to speed up your computer

2008-12-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine just reformatted his computer and few days after, he quite stressful as his computer run a little bit slower. He also wondered why his C drive partition is almost 3 quarters full out of 20 GB. Summing up all the size of the folders will result in great descrepancy with the size retrieved from partition C properties.

Well, these are 5 tips that I always use to speed up my computer and it also explains where those space chunks have been lost to.

1. Turn off all the windows effects

This is the feature that will enable Windows XP to look sleek with fade in fade out effect and crisp menu. Turning this off will decrease the drain of your systemâ€™s memory. You can easily turn off this feature by pressing [Windows] + [Pause/Break] to launch the Systems Properties dialog box. Then, click on Advanced tab and you will see three â€˜Settingsâ€™ buttons. Click the one related to "Performance" (at the top).

The dialog box called Performance Options will pop up. Under Visual Effects tab, select â€˜Adjust for best performanceâ€™ and click Apply. This will effectively turn off all the windows effects.

2. Turn off System Restore

System Restore uses a lot of space in C partition and reduces computer performance. You can turn this off by pressing [Windows] + [Pause Break] to open system properties. Click on System Restore tab, and select "Turnoff System Restore on all drives" and click "Apply".

If you wish to use this feature make sure you do the following. Right click on C: partition then click on properties > disk cleanup and it will take a minute or two (depends on your computer performance) before "disk cleanup" window popups. Once it popups, click everything in "disk cleanup" tab and go to "more option" tab. There are 3 "clean up" buttons and click on the one related to System Restore. Click OK to effectively clean up the old restore points and the space consumed in various places in "disk cleanup" tab.

note:It will delete all restore points but the recent one.

3. Defragment your disk drives

Defragment your drives once in a week and it will speed up your computer since data can be accessed much more faster. To access the defragmenter, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.

4. Virtual memory Optimisation

The virtual memory is the amount of space used for Windows XP as if it were RAM. By default, the space is taken from C drive which explains why a lot of spaces seem to be "lost" from the C drive. In order to speed up your computer, you need to set such that the space for virtual memory is taken from other physical drive or is taken from other drive partition.

To access the virtual memory setting, press [Windows] + [Pause Break] to get to the system properties dialog box. Go to "Advanced" tab, click on the Performance "setting" and again go to Advanced tab in "Performance Options" windows.

Make sure â€˜programsâ€™ is selected for both Processor scheduling and Memory usage. Now under Virtual memory, click on change.

Select the drive where the page file is currently present (usually C drive), select â€˜No Paging Fileâ€™ and click on â€˜Setâ€™. Now select the drive where you wish to place your page file (other partition drive or other physical drive), and select â€˜Custom sizeâ€™. Enter the exact numbers from the previous setting in dialog boxes and click on â€˜Setâ€™ (i.e. the minimum size and maximum size from page file setting of the C drive). Click on â€˜Setâ€™ button.

Now click OK and restart the computer. Up to this step you will now notice a lot of spaces in you C drive have been "retrieved".

5. Update Windows

Keep your computer updated and it's highly recommended that you use Windows XP Service Pack 2. This will ensure unknown security to be resolved and fixing the stability problems, hence stable system.

Please let me know if these tips helpful to speed up your computer performance.

BlogExplosion: Reply from Google team

2008-12-25T05:25:00.000-08:00

Few days ago, I've talked about does the involvement in BlogExplosion constitute Adsense TOS infringement and I just received reply from Google team regarding the issue. Here the reply goes.

Hello Azman,

Thank you for your email and interest in the Google AdSense programme. I understand you would like to know if employing systems such as BlogExplosion is permitted by the AdSense policies.

While we cannot advise in regard to particular surf systems, please keep in mind that usage of third-party programmes paid or provided with other incentives to visit your site is strictly prohibited by our Terms & Conditions and Programme Policies. Such programmes may include, but are not limited to auto-surf (according to your description, BlogExplosion seems to be falling in this category), pay-to-surf, pay-to-read or pay-to-click sites.

For detailed information of our Terms & Conditions and Programme Policies, please visit:

https://www.google.com/adsense/terms

https://www.google.com/adsense/policies

For additional questions, I suggest you visit our AdSense Support site at http://www.google.com/adsense_help. If you're unable to find an answer to your question on our site, please feel free to reply to this email and I'll be glad to assist you.

Sincerely,

Otilia

The Google AdSense Team

Speedy Links: November 15 2006

2008-12-25T05:24:00.000-08:00

How to Design Your AdSense Ads

My 50 favorite blogging resources

Free Icons: Web 2.0 Logos by Utom

How to Position AdSense Ads

Successful Blogging Tips from The Blog Gurus

Google Adds Skype To Google Pack

Firefox Extension: Google Makes Surfing Easier

2008-12-25T05:22:00.000-08:00

Google has launched yet another brilliant product, Google Browser Sync Extension. This new extension for Firefox synchronises bookmarks across several computers and in addition to that it also saves passwords, history and cookies. I think this new product is better compared to Foxmarks Extension.

Google again proves that it always deliver products that are actually desirable and have real-life applications, rather than products that only give a short excitement to its customers.

Build your own Google search engine

2008-12-25T05:21:00.000-08:00

Have you ever dreamt of having your "personal" search engine? Now it's a dream comes true. Instead of having personalised google.com search, you can have your own name encrusted with google colours on top of your "personal search engine". Cool huh?

Visit FunnyLogo.net to have your own search engine.

Frying eggs with your EggsBox 360

2008-12-25T05:19:00.000-08:00

Technology is getting hotter but how hot and to what extent it will be? Well, this video will show you some features that can not be found in the official promotion of Xbox 360. How about making cheese omelette with Xbox 360?

[youtube]oLabckoPC0g[/youtube]

You can see yourself the time taken to completely cook the eggs. Outrageously fast! I will be waiting for PS3 to see what it can cook, maybe a whole chicken turkey for the Christmas, who knows? I'm looking forward to see somebody to cook breakfast while playing Need For Speed Carbon ;)

Youtube: Video plugin incompatibility

2008-12-25T05:18:00.000-08:00

I just realised that my feedburner is not accessible when youtube video is attached to a post. Weird? It never happened before. I will check into this matter later, got 4 hours lectures this morning and afternoon.

[Updates] - I've removed the youtube video from my current post but it didnt do any good. sigh*

[Final Updates] - Yeah! It seems the problem is coming from feedburner end. I've checked few other blogs and they experienced the same problem too.

Yahoo And Google Launch Sitemaps.org

2008-12-25T05:17:00.000-08:00

Sitemap.org has been launched recently by the collaborative effort of Yahoo! and Google. The existence of this website will surely make things easier for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their websites. The current collaboration is expecting other search engines to join in and an open invitation has been issued by Google and Yahoo! to realise the vision.

Tim Mayer states in an exclusive video interview with WebProNews

â€œThis is something we are announcing tonight at around 9 PM tonight (Las Vegas) Google and Yahoo have gotten together to provide webmasters and publishers a unified way to send their content â€¦ let our search engines know about new and existing content.â€

For me, this is a long-awaited moment and I believe all webmasters are also sharing the same sentiment and Im am hoping more search engines will be joining this colloboration.

Go to Exclusive Video: Yahoo And Google Launch Sitemaps.org to get full interview of Vanessa Fox of Google and Tim Mayer of Yahoo!

Speedy Links: November 17 2006

2008-12-25T05:16:00.001-08:00

- 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers

- How to Setup WordPress Locally on Your Mac

- Ten Tricks That Make Your Webpages Load Faster

- How to Get Your Blog on Techmeme?

- Submit Your RSS Feed to Google BlogSearch and Bloglines.

Delete individual URL from Firefox and IE

2008-12-25T05:16:00.000-08:00

Every link that you type in the address bar will be stored in History and those links can be deleted all at once by clearing the history. Have you ever tried to delete individual URL from Internet Explorer or Firefox? You can't simply hit the delete button to remove it.

A faster way to delete individual URL from Internet Explorer adress bar is by using

IE5 Address Bar Editor (it can be used for IE7) or StompSoftâ€™s Digital File Shredder Pro.

Anyway, I prefer to do it manually. I'll show you how to do it in Firefox first because it's just a piece of cake. The Internet Explorer is the tricky one because it involves the modification of registry.

Mozilla Firefox

1. SHIFT-DELETE the url and you are done!.

Internet Explorer

1. Close your IE.

2. Run regedit.exe from Start > Run.

Note: It is advisable to backup your registry by exporting that key or value(s) to a .REG file before performing the changes.

3. Go to the following key : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs

4. Delete all numbered URLs that you donâ€™t want to appear in IE address bar. If you delete only certain keys, make sure you rename the URLs in sequential order starting from url1 otherwise you might corrupt the other URLs.

5. Close regedit.exe

[via]: Raymond CC

New ground-breaking Intel Core 2 Quad

2008-12-25T05:15:00.000-08:00

It has been a couple of week since the new ground-breaking Intel processor Core 2 Quad was officially released and I just realised it's already in the market! Here are the two excerpts taken from TechSpot and Hexus.net.

Get more detail pictures, specifications and all the facts about this processor from the links below.

Currently, there are four Core 2 Duo processors which were released at the initial launch (E6300, E6400, E6600 and E6700). There is also the Core 2 Extreme processor dubbed the X6800, though it offers very little in the way of performance over the E6700. There is said to be four new Core 2 Duo processors on the way that will run on a 1333MHz FSB and will all feature the larger 4MB L2 Cache. They are the E6650, E6750, E6800 and E6850, though we are not here to discuss these processors today. Rather, we are here to examine the new Kentsfield micro-architecture which is based on a quad-core 65nm design.

Maxtor One Touch III - 500 GB massive storage

2008-12-25T05:14:00.001-08:00

It has been a year and a half since I'm using two external hard disks Maxtor One Touch II (200 GB each) and it's now reaching the bottleneck of its capacity. Everybody wonders; 400 GB of massive storage and they are almost full, what the heck I have in there. Well, I collect a lot of TV series; 24, Prison Break, Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Discovery Channels, Desperate Housewives, The Apprentice, Naruto and TV series list goes on. I also have bunch of DVD quality movies, wide range of softwares ranges from Electrical & Electronic Engineering to internet applications and few latest games. That might might explain why those two machine are now running out of breath.

With the space usage reached the warning level, I started to survey at Amazon and Dabs. The growth of space is almost exponential but the prices barely increase, which is good for consumer like me :). I look at this particular product, the Maxtor One Touch III - 500 GB which is around Â£160 (inclusive VAT). It's quite expensive and with same amount of money you were only able to buy 200 GB of external HD, that was 2 years ago. I would wait until next year where the price gradually starts to decline. I hope by the end of the second quarter of 2007, the price would decline to Â£120 (fingers crossed).

Look at its shape, for me, it's less appealing to Maxtor One Touch II. But who cares, as long as it can take large sum of data, and it's not choking, that's good enough.

Product Features

Automated OneTouch backup

7200 RPM spindle, 16 MB buffer for fast drive performance, seamless data exchange, and instant access to your files

500GB capacity stores 225,000 photos, or 21 hours of DV video, or 4,950 hours of music

Plug and play. Simply connect using the USB 2.0 cable and get up and running fast

Easy-to-use interface simplifies drive management, security, and backup scheduling

Technical Details

Model: F01H500

Item Package Quantity: 1

Hardware Platform: PC

Device Type: Hard drive

Form Factor: External

Drive Type: 3.5-inch ATA

Capacity: 500 GB

Spindle Speed: 7200 RPM

Buffer: 16 MB

Seek Time: 9.0 ms

Interface: USB 2.0 (1.1 compatible)

Interface Transfer Rate: 480 Mbps

Sustained Transfer Rate: 33 MBps

Operating Temperature: 41 to 95 degrees F

Dimensions: 5.3 x 2.6 x 8.5 inches

Weight: 3.2 pounds

System Requirements: Pentium III, 500 MHz equivalent processor or higher, Windows 2000/XP, 128MB (256 recommended) RAM, CD-ROM drive, Internet connection (for system updates)

Warranty: 1 year

Get more detail about Maxtor One Touch III at Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo Edition Review.

Kiwi!

2008-12-25T05:14:00.000-08:00

This is a top notch animation with the unexpected twist. ( I thought it was a happy ending lol). It sends out a powerful message; you can realise your dream if you do everything you could. Enjoy the animation!

[youtube]sdUUx5FdySs[/youtube]

Beatbox: Wicked vids

2008-12-25T05:13:00.001-08:00

I stumbled upon an incredible video of Gustavo BeatBox imitated "My Hump" intro and yesterday was the day I learnt what beatbox is all about. Basically, Beatbox (also known as human orchestra) is the vocal percussion of hip hop culture. It really strectches your imagination to the fullest to appreciate of what these guys are capable of doing. Enjoy the video and I will list down few more links. (outrageously interesting!).

[youtube]KqPnexhPA7Y[/youtube]

Australian Idol

Gustavo Beatbox - My Hump

Beatboxing family

Kenny Muhammad (Human Orchestra Promo)

Sweet couple doing beatbox

Rahzel - The Godfather of noise

You can find more about art of beatboxing by searching at youtube. (use these keywords; beatbox, gustavo and rahzel)

Firefox 2.0 Trumps IE7 at Anti-phishing

2008-12-25T05:13:00.000-08:00

In a current development of anti-phishing effort, Mozilla Foundation claims anti-phishing tool in Firefox 2.0 has trumped similar tool used in Internet Explorer 7. The study found Firefox 2.0 had blocked 81.5% of all phishing web sites, while IE7 only able to prevent roughly 66.35%.

IE7 adopts a system of asking the user when the browser is installed whether or not he wants to allow the browser to auto-check all web sites against a Microsoft database. On the contrary, Firefox, in its default setting, uses a blacklist of known phishing sites that is stored on the user's computer and updated approximately every 30 minutes. Firefox users can opt to turn auto-detection, in which case the browser will check web sites the user visits by checking them against a database maintained by Google, the company said.

More info about this study available in the following links.

- Mozilla Claims Firefox Beats IE In Finding Phishers.

- Firefox outshines IE in phish fight.

Wordpress plugin: Easy announcement

2008-12-25T05:12:00.000-08:00

Easy Announcements is a simple plugin yet serves you great service especially when you have new annoucement to be made to your readers. It's strategically placed right at the top of your first post. This position is easily noticeable and effectively deliver your message as wide as possible to your visitors.

The question is why I dont have it? I just found this plugin and it requires a little bit of html. It's easy to setup, of course. Unfortunately, I'm a design freak, so I won't put it on display without proper decor. I am thinking of using a little bit of CSS for the decor and my illeteracy of CSS will sure take me ages to put it up and running in the way intended.

The good news is you can see the screenshot of the easy announcement plugin below, but why not head straight on to the site of this author (Cypherhackz) to see it live! The plugin is in the red faded box. Looks cool yeah with the right CSS tinkering.

Sunset at the north pole

2008-12-25T05:09:00.000-08:00

I found this breathtaking picture from blogiseverything.com.

Firefox extension: Link Alert

2008-12-25T05:08:00.001-08:00

Hate being tricked into clicking on a link that is a document? Link Alert fills a gap that web developers should be doing; give you insight into the type of link you're about to click on. Link Alert changes your cursor depending on what kind of link you're hovering over; Words, Excel, PDF, email, and so on.

Alternatively you can also useTarget Alert. It places appropriate icons next to all the downloads or links on a page as soon as the page is fully loaded, as opposed to finding out when mouse-hover over the link.

It's important to point out that there is limitation associated to Link Alert. This plugin is very depending on the extension of the given links. So, should links to PDFs are in the form of http://www.abc.com/23442323/ they will not be tagged. Anyway, it's a brilliant piece of plugin.

Wordpress tips: Post in advance

2008-12-25T05:08:00.000-08:00

This is a great feature that I overlooked eversince I started blogging but InfoMalaya has enlightened me about this feature through this useful post. Obviously if you were going on holiday, you can still put your blog in a blogging "mode", let it updates for itself and this will ensure your loyal subscribers/visitors to receive seamless useful infos over the period of your absence. Iâ€™m sure most people know about this.

Here are steps taken to have a post in advance:

1. Write your post as usual.

2. Go to Post Timestamp (at the bottom right sidebar).

3. Edit the time and tick the Edit timestamp box.

4. Publish your post.

5. You are done!

Paid post may harm your Google rankings

2008-12-25T05:06:00.000-08:00

I came across this issue, when I visited Digital Inspiration blog. He mentioned that the participation in controversial programs like PayPerPost (see my review on this program) and ReviewMe (my review on this program) might put a blog in jeopardy in term of Google search ranking.

The following is Matt Cutt comment on paid post programs.

You want my links for traffic.. totally fine..just don't make it so they affect search engines..so that's why we say use nofollow..or use a redirect which is through robots.txt

Digital Inspiration has effectively depicted and explained the situations of how and why we might get penalised for writing up a paid post by presenting a simple example. Basically, all you need to do when provide backlink to other websites (sponsors of paid posts) is to insert rel="nofollow" in

<a href="http://www.abcde.com" rel="nofollow">

See further explanation at Digital Inspiration.

By doing this, the search engine bots will completely ignore the external links (not helping spam site in Google search rankings) and this help you from being penalised by google.

How much is your blog worth?

2008-12-25T05:04:00.000-08:00

I found this interesting thing from Business-Opportunities. If my memory didn't betray me, I've seen this blog long time before, but I didn't appreciate it as much as I do right now. Head straight on to "How much is your blog worth" page and check how your blog perform in the evaluation.

My blog is worth $9,032.64.
How much is your blog worth?

Speedy Links: November 25 2006

2008-12-25T05:03:00.000-08:00

Seo Tips

- How to Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines

- Search Engine Optimization for E-commerce: A Tale of Two Shoppers

- PubCon: Contextual Advertising Optimization

Windows: Hidden music track

2008-12-25T05:01:00.001-08:00

I just finished watching Bill Gates blooper when I found a video on how to find music track used for Windows XP installation. It's a 5 minute length of music. Watch the following video to learn how to retrieve the music track.

[youtube]cQqZoX0RUbU[/youtube]

RadioBlog in friendster

2008-12-25T05:01:00.000-08:00

I've been searching in many forums and blogs to find a way to embed radio blog into friendster. I don't know why it took ages for me to realise that there's nothing I can do about that, unless I can change the path of config.xml in radioblog.swf. Obviously you can't edit the properties of any *.swf.

Basically the failure is due to the path set in the radioblog.swf is not pointing to the exact location of config.xml file(by default, it will search at the root of domain i.e friendster.com and apparently config.xml doesn't exist in there). Now the playlist is embedded at the main page of Eches Network, and it looks fine to be there.

My Page Rank Prediction: 5

2008-12-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

It's been quite some time I haven't checked my blog stats (Backlinks, Link Popularity, PR prediction etc). My PR prediction during my last time check was 3 (3.2). Well, I didn't expect much as my blog was just launched (a month or so), getting as much as 3 for next PR update would be good enough but to my astonishment my recent PR prediction is 5 which is way too good :)

Yeah, I know the accuracy of prediction is not that good but it motivates me to keep posting on regular basis.

Meebo: Web Messengers for tight firewall

2008-12-25T04:59:00.000-08:00

Meebo is one of many web messengers out there that gives me a way to get around tight firewall around university computers. I prefer to use Meebo as compared to others because IMs password will be encrypted before it is sent to particular IM services available in Meebo. So, rest assure that no one will intercept your password.

Currently, Meebo supports ICQ, Jabber, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and MSN Messenger. With Meebo you can run multiple accounts simultaneously and it's free!

Centred columns

2008-12-25T04:57:00.000-08:00

I'm happy today because finally I'm able to centralise all the three columns (my blog) with the much needed guidance from Abhijit Nadgouda. To be accurate, the coding had been done entirely by him (I'm not involved in re"coding" of this theme at all), I just tinker the files modified such that it resembles my previous design. Zillion thanks to Abhijit for spending his time on this small blog. It's very much appreciated :)

Windows Vista Wallpaper Pack

2008-12-25T04:56:00.000-08:00

I found this goody via Brajeshwar blogand it seems to be a complete set of Windows Vista wallpapers. The wallpapers are so gorgeous that I downloaded the Vista wallpapers set right away and for what it's worth, it's 27.8 MB in size. I put a few pictures of them below. So, how do you think? Damn cool! :)

Firefox password security hole

2008-12-25T04:55:00.000-08:00

If you were a person who lets Firefox saves your passwords, you might want to consider the downside of doing this routine. New exploit known as Reverse Cross-Site Request (RCSR), can expose passwords saved at a website (weblog or forum) that allows user-contributed-HTML codes to be added.

This security hole exposes Firefox users to greater vulnerability as compared to Internet Explorer 7, eventhough RCSR attacks are highly targeting the Internet Explorer 7.

A recent large-scale attack using RCSR targeted MySpace.com users and was first reported by Netcraft 10/27/2006. That incident involved fake login forms on the MySpace website inviting users to type in their username and password.

Chapin says worsening the problem is the fact forms can be completely hidden from view. After saving a website password in Firefox, it's possible for that password to be transmitted to another website by unwittingly clicking on an invisible image link

You can see yourself how this exploit works by visiting this link. Enter any username or password (random alphabets and numbers will do) and you will be brought to a new site with youtube video embedded in that new page. Take a closer look and you will notice that if you click on the video you will be brought to, fortunately, google search page (phisher can redirect your password to their website).

Yeah, it's scary indeed. Even you are well aware of this issue, the chance is still there for you to fall into this trap, as these login forms are having professional look and appear to be "official" and "original".

Source: P2pNet

Post Earlier for Higher AdSense Click Values

2008-12-25T04:54:00.000-08:00

H.S. Ayoub has a brilliant tips on how to get higher Adsense Click Values. This method effectively increases his daily earnings since trying it.

I found that if you post an article on your blog very late at night, maybe at midnight or a little later, the revenue per click generated during the next day is higher, by almost 50%

Why? I thought about that question for a few days, and the best theory that I could come up with was that the advertisers with the highest per click budget show up on top of all the other ads early in the day, but their budget limit is reached quicker.

By the afternoon the higher paying ads shut off untill the next day, while the cheaper ads now show up on top of the ad block.

His observation is done based on U.S. eastern time (-0500 GMT). This tips might not work to everyone as it depends on the niche and visitors but it's worth to give a try.

Source: Problogger

Xerox Announces Self-Erasable Paper

2008-12-25T04:53:00.000-08:00

I found this, well I can say, a long waited and exciting finding; Xerox's scientists have invented a way of printing paper which only lasts for a day. This finding must be most welcomed by all environmentalists as it appears to be the best alternative to save more wasted paper in the office, hence save more trees. Currently, the erasable paper is being developed to a system that is commercially viable and is still in on-going research. This promising product is expected to hit the market within couple of years.

The specially created page can be used over and over again max 50 times. Xerox started work on the special after researchers studied how offices used paper. "You could see there were these documents people only use once or twice or for the day, and then theyâ€™re gone. You start to classify them. And from that, you could see that two out of every five [printed pages] are for daily use," said Paul Smith, a lab manager at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada. The paper is coated with special chemicals and once the paper goes through the printer it is exposed to a light source causing the text to on the paper to fade. It normally takes 16 to 24 hours for the text to fade but passing the paper through the printer quickens the process.

It reminds me of my Professional Studies coursework :)

source: New Launches.

Change Feed Icon colour

2008-12-25T04:51:00.000-08:00

This really is a simple Adobe Photoshop tutorial; change the colour of your feed icon to fit your wordpress theme colour.

1. Save the above icon into your computer and open it with Adobe Photoshop.

2. Right-click on the icon layer in layer palettes and select blending option from the menu.

3. Tick and select on Colour Overlay. Change blend mode to color (from normal)

4. Set the colour of your wish and you are done with the feed icon colour!.

5. Resize it to fit in your blog; Image > Image Size.. or [Alt]+[Ctrl]+I

Wordpress tips: Floating feed subscription icon

2008-12-25T04:50:00.000-08:00

Do you notice feed subscription icon at the top left corner of my blog? As you scroll down this blog, it moves along too. Here is the few steps taken to realise this cool "effect".

1. Add the following CSS code into your CSS file.

Code:


#mini-nav { width: 20px; position:fixed; top: 180px; left:5px;} 
* html div#mini-nav { width: 20px; top: 180px; left:30px; position:absolute; } 
#mini-nav img{ margin: 0px; }

2. Put the following HTML code whenever you want it to be appeared. If you it to be in every pages of your blog, you might need to put the code into few files in your current theme directory (e.g. index.php, category.php, page.php etc)

Code:

<div id="mini-nav"> 
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/YourBlog" target="_blank">
<img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/images/feed.png" 
alt="Subscribe Me!" title="Subscribe Me!" /></a>    
</div>

Note: Change your feed URL and your image path accordingly and you are done!

Credit to: Cypherhackz

Technology: Massive storage in a piece of paper

2008-12-25T04:49:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought about storing your massive data on a piece of paper? Impossible! Well it's not entirely impossible now as a Kerala(India) student, Sainul, has developed a technique known as "Rainbow Technology" whereby data can now be stored on ordinary paper.

Basically, the principle underlying this technique is to use geometric shapes such as circles, squares and triangles for computing combining with various colors and preserve the data in images instead of using conventional way; the application of binary bits (zeroes and ones). A lot of questions might come across your mind right now; how the data can be retrieved, how's the transfer rate of data and many more.

To start with, all the data need to be converted to a common format called â€œRainbow Formatâ€. In order to retrieve the data back, all you need to have is a scanning drive (had been developed for the purpose of demonstration). This new ground-breaking technology apparently has a lot of advantages. The storage devices will be shrunk drastically and the biodegradable nature of this storage device will surely show a promising future to our environment.

Quoting a research study carried out in the US in 2003, he says the entire static data in the US would require $5 billion (Indian Rupees 230 billion) for storage with the current storage devices. But Rainbow based databank could reduce the cost to Rs.3.5 million. He says he could construct databank with almost 123.60 Peta Byte (PB) capacity.

Peta byte? Yeah, we are now moving on to a new realm of terminology. ;)

Source: ArabNews

Feedburner Tips: Change text in Feedcount chicklet

2008-12-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

Do you know that you can actually modify the text in feedcount chicklet? Here's a quick tip to modify the chicklet. All you need to do is append the following code to the end of image URL.

&label=fans

Before: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/EchesBlog?anim=0

After : http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/EchesBlog?anim=0&label=fans

a

Source:: Digital Inspiration via Cypherhackz.

Yahoo Messenger Status Plugin

2008-12-25T04:47:00.002-08:00

Do you want to share the song you are listening to with your buddies in Yahoo messenger? Here's YStatus Plugin, a small plugin, that will update current song played in Windows Media Player at your Yahoo Messenger status bar. This plugin works perfectly on Windows Media Player 11 and Yahoo messenger 8.1. Download it here.

Windows XP: Create A Real Hidden Files

2008-12-25T04:47:00.001-08:00

I used to create hidden files in windows 98 by typing certain commands in DOS but this method is no longer working for windows XP and I thought there's now way of creating such files anymore in windows XP until I found this video. It shows in detail, step-by-step on how to create the real hidden file.

How To Create A Real Hidden Files - video powered by Metacafe

I have no idea yet on how to delete the file. Do you have any idea?

Funny: Karate master blooper

2008-12-25T04:47:00.000-08:00

He tried so hard to break the boards with his forehead but to no avail and started blaming people around him. Maybe he should go for soft boards or faulty boards. lol =)

Karate Master Bloopers - video powered by Metacafe

Speedy Links: December 5 2006

2008-12-25T04:43:00.001-08:00

- How to Build Community on Your Blog By Giving Readers Jobs

- AskCity Launches. Itâ€™s Cool.

- Adsense Income Calculator - Calculate Your Adsense Earnings

- 99 Windows XP Run Commands

- 10 Ways of Knowing if You are a Blogaholic

Download youtube videos(flv) as AVI files

2008-12-25T04:43:00.000-08:00

There are few softwares that will enable you to convert the youtube files (*.flv) into any extension of your interest (*.avi, *.mov etc). However, there a lot of hassles need to be through before it can be done. It's either a shareware (only small fraction of video is converted), keygen is not working or missing piece of codec.

This site, FLV Online Converter, seems to be the best alternative to those buggy softwares. Go to this site, enter the full URL address of the videos you are interested in. Select the video extension and the process will begin. I've tried to convert videos available in youtube and the conversions were done successfully :).

I tried to convert flv files in google and metacafe too but it's not working. Do you have any other places that offer the same service for google and metacafe videos?

Wordpress Plugins NOT To Install

2008-12-25T04:42:00.000-08:00

Connected Internet lists down 4 plugins that should be avoidedto ensure no slowing down in server performance. This post might worth reading for bloggers who have a lot visitors come around on regular basis. It's worth to mention that there might be few more plugins out there that are not well written and consume server resources unneccesarily. Do you notice any? Let us know.

How To - Design Your Own WordPress Theme

2008-12-25T04:41:00.000-08:00

Bloggingpro.com points out a good site (texto.de) to be visited if you are about to start designing your own wordpress theme. This tutorial will be of great help if you know a little bit of xhtml and css but have no idea how to connect them together. I personally really want to put a try on this tutorial, unfortunately, I don't have time to play around with the codings given. Hopefully, the Christmas break will provide me some space to have a go in this detail tutorial.

Ok guys, check this site out and hopefully it helps you in realising your very own theme.

Firefox & Yahoo Easter Eggs

2008-12-25T04:38:00.001-08:00

These are the two old Easter Eggs that some of you do not realise at all. Let's start with Firefox first. Try to type in "about:mozilla" in Mozilla Firefox browser (definitely won't work in Internet Explorer 7) and see yourself what appear right in front of you.

There is no need to strain your eyes to read the "spiritual" text called the "Book of Mozilla" from the above picture as the following is the exact excerpt of the "biblical" text.

And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced.

But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird.

The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire

and thunder upon them. For the beast had been

reborn with its strength renewed, and the

followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15

Now, let's get to the Yahoo! easter egg. Try to click on the exclamation mark (!). You won't notice anything unless you turn your speaker on. Do you hear what I heard? :)

Speed up your computer with a single click

2008-12-25T04:38:00.000-08:00

I bet you must have once in a while experienced computer running slow for no apparent reason. Sure, everyone does unless they are running high end computers. This tutorial will show you how to get over the problem with a single click!

Read this first before starting the video as I'm afraid some of you will get scared before putting a try on it. Basically, this tutorial doesn't teach you to delete any files, but it shows you to free up any idle process running at the Windows background. This is a clean tutorial on how to speed up your computer and it won't put your computer in jeopardy. Ok, here's the video.

Clear Your Windowsxp Memory With A Single Click! - video powered by MetacafeWhat do you think of this tutorial?

Topic/Niche reigns the CTR rates

2008-12-25T04:36:00.001-08:00

I found an interesting article at Webmaster SEO on how niche/topic of your blog affects your CTR rates.

Here is Luke's experience and quick tips to improve CTR rates.

One thing Iâ€™m learning and experiencing at the moment is Web, SEO, Technology, Webmaster readers are a real Tech savvy bunch. Why will this make me have a low CTR (Click Though Rate) you ask? The more Tech savvy the user is, the more chance that the user can identify whatâ€™s Advertising and whatâ€™s not. Chances are unless the Advertising is super relevant they wonâ€™t click on the Advertisement. What can be done to curb this?

- Advertisements that pay per impressions instead of clicks

- Blend your Advertisements to look like they are a part of your site

- Adding a donation button. Many Blogs that donâ€™t make much from Advertising will have a donation button. No one will donate I hear you saying!. Even if 1 in 1000 people donate 5 dollars, it can pay for the hosting

- Other methods of revenue such as Paid Posts, Selling Links, Donations.

Me: Currently, I've 3 websites up and running, it seems to be true that the more tech savvy a user is, the less the chance of you getting a click.

FLV converter: Youtube, Google, Daily Motion, Metacafe & Grinvi

2008-12-25T04:36:00.000-08:00

I wrote about FLV Online Converter a couple of days ago, but this service is only limited to Youtube video. Today, I found a more universal FLV converter (~~VDonwloader 0.3~~) Update: Vdownloader 0.51. It works in almost free online video streaming services (I've tested this software in Youtube,Google,Daily Motion, Metacafe and Grinvi).

Go to the video streaming site, say Youtube, pick any video of your choice and paste the URL address to the Video URL. Select the video format (AVI, MPEG and PSP). Once the downloading process is done, it will automatically convert the file to the video format chosen and you are done!

Tricks:Search for free softwares,music,ebooks etc

2008-12-25T04:34:00.000-08:00

The following video will show you how to find free mp3s, ebooks, softwares and many more from Google search. Cool! But stop blaming me if you couldn't find stuffs you are looking for. It's either scarcely available and resides in protected directories or it doesn't exist at all in the net.

Google Hacking - video powered by Metacafe

Chase away the bandwidth stealers

2008-12-25T04:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes ago I wondered myself why my website bandwidth showed outrageous usage which didn't correlate with the traffic (I'm talking about QMC online). Well, the previous post explains why this thing happen. Ok, now I'm gonna tell you what you are supposed to do to avoid this kind of activity from happening on your server.

Basically, it happens when webmasters forget to put index.htm or index.html at the directory where the downloadable stuffs reside. Putting this index.htm file might look trivial but it will protect your directory from wandering trespassers. This file will effectively redirect users who are trying to crawl into your directories to the page you specify.

Here's the simple code I use in my directories across my domain. Put the following code between <body> and </body> inside your index.htm or index.html.

<script language="javascript">
window.location="http://yourdomain.net/front.htm";
</script>

Set the URL to where you want the users to be redirected to and they won't be able to freely sneak into your particular directories. For server with limited bandwidth, this code is proven to be effective to avoid your bandwidth from reaching its bottleneck unneccesarily.

Speedy Links: December 10 2006

2008-12-25T04:32:00.000-08:00

- Do You Publish Full Text Feeds Or Partial RSS Feeds?

- How Comments Can Make You Lose Readers

- Update: Christmas Free Advertising

- Fox says that linking to sites that host illegal tv shows is illegal

- Bypass Windows Vista Activation

- A Simple GMail Filter That Keeps Your Inbox Free of Junk Email

- MENJ, another Malaysian full-time blogger

- The Worldâ€™s Longest Alphabetical Email Address

Industrial project

2008-12-25T04:31:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been busy doing my industrial project, final year project and Intelligent Control coursework sigh*. So, I'm afraid I won't able to keep this blog updated for few days, BUT I can see the silver line looming in front of me next week..yeah winter break is coming :)

" align="left" />Here's part of my work over the weekend; the logo and the company website. First and foremost thanks to Am Basheeri for helping me out in designing the logo and the header. Don't they look sleek and professional? Sure they do ;)

Company website

Online Questionnaire

Currently, I'm running an online questionnaire for Crash Flash, a video live feed device, enhanced with digital encryption, purposely developed to determine person at fault in the event of car accident.

I hope you can spend some time to flip through the questionnaires. Your responses/feedbacks will be of great help towards the completion of this project and are very much appreciated.

Google clarifies policy on Images Near Ads

2008-12-25T04:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a week I didn't write anything on this blog. So here I am with news from Google that's not really pleasant to be heard by Adsense publishers. Google finally clarifies its policy and the bottom line is images next adsense ads are no longer permitted.

The following is the excerpt from Adsense blog.

Ad and image placement: a policy clarification

We've recently received a number of emails from publishers asking how we feel about the placement of images near Google ad units. There's been some confusion on this issue, and so we turned to our policy team to set the record straight.

Can I place small images next to my Google ads?

We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn't actually being offered. That's not a good experience for users or advertisers.

Publishers should also be careful to avoid similar implementations that people could find misleading. For instance, if your site contains a directory of Flash games, you should not format the ads to mimic the game descriptions.

What if I place a space or a line between my images and my ads? Would that work?

No. If the ads and the images appear to be associated, inserting a small space or a line between the images and ads will not make the implementation compliant.

Does this mean I can't place ads on pages with images?

You can definitely place Google ads on pages containing images -- just make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors. For example, if you run a stock photography site with a catalog of thumbnail images, don't line the ads up with the thumbnails in a way that could be misleading. Consider using a full border around your ads or changing your ad colors, for example.

What do unacceptable implementations look like?

Here are some examples that wouldn't comply with our policies.

[via] Problogger.net

Open multiple Yahoo! Messenger

2008-12-25T04:28:00.000-08:00

Here's the trick that shows how to open multiple Yahoo! Messenger. It's cool if you have multiple accounts that need to be opened simultaneously. Some of you might get scared when it comes to open the regedit, but rest assured, it won't do any harm to your computer system. It works perfectly in my computer. :)

Multiple Yahoo Messengers - video powered by Metacafe

Wrath of the nature

2008-12-25T04:27:00.000-08:00

Amazing Lightings.

Amazing Lightnings - video powered by Metacafe

How to uninstall Windows Media Player 11

2008-12-25T04:26:00.000-08:00

I've been using windows media player 11 for about a month and this piece of software sucks big time. Now, I change back to windows media player 10. I learnt that some people are wondering on how to uninstall it, so I post this short post to show you how to do that.

1. Open your "Add or Remove Programs" and click on the "show updates" at the top of the pop up window.

2. It will list down all the updates each of your program. Scroll down to Windows XP - Software updates and you will notice windows media player 11 amongst other updates.

3. Remove all the updates associated to windows media player 11 and this action will require you to restart your computer.

4. Windows will require you to install the previous media player version (10) and you are done!

10 Reasons Why Blip.tv is Better Than Youtube

2008-12-25T04:24:00.001-08:00

Digital Inspiration has a lengthy post about why we should put a try on Blip.tvfor video sharing instead of existing video sharing services (e.g. Youtube and Google video). Even though Blip.tv is new and still in beta version, the features offered and quality served, shows a promising alternative to the existing video sharing providers.

Support for video formats

Youtube lets you upload videos only in standard formats like the Windows AVI, MOV or the MPEG format. Blip.tv practically supports all possible video formats including the popular Flash Video (flv) format which offers better compression while maintaining the video quality.

Limitations on Video File Sizes

Youtube imposes a 10 minute or 100 MB restriction on files sizes but blip.tv has no such limitation. It is suggested that you can large AVI or MOV videos to FLV files locally and then upload them to blip.tv because FLV files are small in size and will upload very quickly.

Video Playback Options

Videos uploaded on Youtube are first converted to Flash Video and visitors can playback stuff only inside the Youtube branded Flash player. Blip.tv provides a host of options here - visitors can either watch videos in the default flash format or even in the original format that was used at the time of uploading the video.

Automatic Video Backup

What happens when you upload all your important videos to Youtube and the site breaks down for few hours because of a network outage ? Your video will remain inaccessible during that time but blip.tv has this useful option where your videos are parallelly uploaded to the Web Archives as well. So your videos are backed up without you having to do anything.

Video Thumbnail Image

A proper video thumbnail image is very important for grabbing the immediate attention of the visitor - looking at the content and quality of that tiny image, most visitors to video sharing sites decided whether they should watch the video or not ?

Youtube doesn't allow custom thumbnails and makes one automatically from the center frame of your video which may or may not be a good choice. Blip.tv lets you upload thumbnail images so that your videos look good even in the search results. Very cool.

Video Download Options

Youtube hates when people download videos from their site. Infact, they even sent Cease & Desist notice to TechCrunch for writing about a tool that makes it easy to download stuff from YouTube.

Blip.tv, on the other hand, make it very easy to download video. They also allow you download videos in the original format with the same quality - just right click the video link and choose save as. No confusing bookmarklets are required.

Detailed Site Statistics

Youtube shows content owners very minimal stats about their videos like what's the current rating, how many times the videos was played and which sites are linking or sending viewers to that video. Blip.tv provides detailed stats about your videos including how visitors found your video, what format they preferred and where did they watch it - in the feed, some blog or on the main blip.tv website.

Viewer Comments

Both Blip.tv and Youtube allow visitor comments but in Youtube one has to register before leaving a comment. How many times do you comment on a blog that requires registration ? Very rare. Same holds true here as well. The feedback is sort of limited with Youtube, blip.tv has word CAPTCHA to block spambots.

Video Descriptions

Video descriptions on Youtube are fairly limited to plain text and URLs but blip.tv supports rich text formatting for video descriptions like any other blog post. They provide a web based text editor like Wordpress and you can also put pictures in them. Again, this is essential to get visitor attention or to achieve good rankings in the search engines.

Video Quality

The most important part - Videos uploaded on Youtube are automatically compressed and resized to the 320x240 format. Blip.tv maintains the original quality of the video and they do not resize the video clips. They encourage content owners to upload different formats of the same video suitable for downloading, watching on the internet or on cellphones.

The most life-like android, Repliee

2008-12-25T04:24:00.000-08:00

I came across this android which very much resembles to human appearance. This android can detect the presence of physical contact as it is equipped with piezoelectric sensors. Currently, the movement might not well versed, but I wonder how technology will shape the androids in 10 years time.

Cool javascript trick

2008-12-25T04:21:00.000-08:00

Paste the following code in your address bar, especially on a website that have a lot pictures of the same size. As far as my computer is concerned, this piece of code works well in my Firefox browser 2.0 but not in Internet Explorer 7.0. It might work the other way round (works in IE7 but not in Firefox). Hopefully, it will work on either of those browsers.

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName("img"); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+"px"; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+"px"}R++}setInterval('A()',50); void(0);

7 bugs in Windows XP

2008-12-25T04:17:00.000-08:00

As far as I'm concerned this is an interesting discovery. :) None of those gives you the extra edge over using Windows XP, but it's fun to know about these bugs.

7 Bugs In Windows XP - video powered by Metacafe

EverGreen: Clean your memory card readers

2008-12-25T04:16:00.000-08:00

A set of memory card reader cleaning card was introduced by EverGreen which will effectively remove those dust and dirt from memory card. It might sound ridiculous but it will ensure you to get the most out of your memory card reader and avoiding you from unnecessary reading issues.

You can also get memory card cleaner from Amazon at the price of Â£ 4.99

Product Features

- Can eliminate memory card read/write problems experienced with your handheld equipment

- Ensures that your memory card slot remain dirt free and improves usage life

- Uses patented material to remove all traces of dirt on contact within the memory card slot

- For Secure Disk and MultiMedia Digital Cameras and Card Readers

Clickbank: Unexpected sales

2008-12-25T04:14:00.000-08:00

I always wonder how people make decent money through affiliates. So 2 months ago I setup a website, provides reviews of few selected product, proven to be effective in increasing sales and traffic. I didn't bother much about how much sales I could get from the review, I just wanna get the flavour of starting an affiliate website. Once the site's up and running I leave it for about 2 months.

Few days ago, out of the blue, I check my Clickbank account, just to keep it active and see the goings-on and changes in Clickbank. I'm about to leave Clickbank when the following screen caught my attention.

Yeah, it's not a big shot but I didn't expect to get any sales at all. This sale really inspires me to rummage through the Digital Points forum, looking for tips and advices to effectively start an affiliate marketing. Wish me luck for the coming 2007 :).

Movie: Transformers

2008-12-25T04:13:00.000-08:00

Plot Outline: Dueling alien races, the Autobots and the Decepticons, bring their battle to Earth, leaving the future of humankind hanging in the balance.

Transformers will hit cinemas this summer 2007 (July). I've seen the transformation, seamless I would say and it's awesome! For those who are looking for the high-quality trailer of Transformers you can download it here.

Download Transformers trailer

Visit the official site: Transformers movie.

[via: Arephyz.blogspot.com]

25 amazing facts of Earth

2008-12-25T04:12:00.000-08:00

These facts are collected from the Amazing facts of Earth. Here the list goes. Sources include the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with other SPACE.com reporting.

1. What is the hottest place on Earth?

Count one wrong if you guessed Death Valley in California. True enough on many days. But El Azizia in Libya recorded a temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on Sept. 13, 1922 -- the hottest ever measured. In Death Valley, it got up to 134 Fahrenheit on July 10, 1913.

2. And the coldest place around here?

Far and away, the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius) at Vostok, Antarctica , on July 21, 1983 .

3. Where is the worlds highest waterfall?

The water of Angel Falls in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).

4. What is the largest volcano?

The Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii holds the title here on Earth. It rises more than 50,000 feet (9.5 miles or 15.2 kilometers) above its base, which sits under the surface of the sea. But that's all volcanic chump change. Olympus Mons on Mars rises 16 miles (26 kilometers) into the Martian sky. Its base would almost cover the entire state of Arizona.

5. What was the deadliest known earthquake?

The worldâ€™s deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1557 in central China. It struck a region where most people lived in caves carved from soft rock. The dwellings collapsed, killing an estimated 830,000 people. In 1976 another deadly temblor struck Tangshan, China. More than 250,000 people were killed.

6. How far is it to the center of the Earth?

The distance from the surface of Earth to the center is about 3,963 miles (6,378 kilometers). Much of Earth is fluid. The mostly solid skin of the planet is only 41 miles (66 kilometers) thick --thinner than the skin of an apple, relatively speaking.

7. Has the Moon always been so close?

It used to be much closer! A billion years ago, the Moon was in a tighter orbit, taking just 20 days to go around us and make a month. A day on Earth back then was only 18 hours long. The Moon is still moving away -- about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) a year. Meanwhile, Earth's rotation is slowing down, lengthening our days. In the distant future, a day will be 960 hours long!

8. Where is the lowest dry point on Earth?

The shore of the Dead Sea in the Middle East is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) below sea level. Not even a close second is Bad Water in Death Valley, California, at a mere 282 feet below sea level.

9. What is the longest river?

The Nile River in Africa is 4,160 miles (6,695 kilometers) long.

10. What's the driest place on Earth?

A place called Arica, in Chile, gets just 0.03 inches (0.76 millimeters) of rain per year. At that rate, it would take a century to fill a coffee cup.

11. What is the wettest place on Earth?

Lloro, Colombia averages 523.6 inches of rainfall a year, or more than 40 feet (13 meters). That's about 10 times more than fairly wet major cities in Europe or the United States.

12. What is the largest canyon?

The Grand Canyon is billed as the world's largest canyon system. Its main branch is 277 miles (446 kilometers) long. But let's compare. Valles Marineris on Mars extends for about 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers). If added it to a U.S. map, it would stretch from New York City to Los Angeles. In places this vast scar on the Martian surface is 5 miles (8 kilometers) deep.

13. Which of the Earthâ€™s oceans is the largest?

The Pacific Ocean covers 64 million square miles (165 million square kilometers). It is more than two times the size of the Atlantic. It has an average depth of 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers).

14. What is the largest lake in the world?

By size and volume it is the Caspian Sea, located between southeast Europe and west Asia.

15. How hot are the planet's innards?

The temperature of Earth increases about 36 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) for every kilometer (about 0.62 miles) you go down. Near the center, its thought to be at least 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit (3,870 Celsius).

16. What's the deepest place in the ocean?

The greatest known depth is 36,198 feet (6.9 miles or 11 kilometers) at the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific Ocean well south of Japan near the Mariana Islands.

17. What is the fastest surface wind ever recorded?

The fastest "regular" wind that's widely agreed upon was 231 mph (372 kph), recorded at Mount Washington, New Hampshire, on April 12, 1934. But during a May 1999 tornado in Oklahoma, researchers clocked the wind at 318 mph (513 kph). For comparison, Neptune's winds can rage to 900 mph (1,448 kph).

18. What is the worldâ€™s deepest lake?

Lake Baikal in the south central part of Siberia is 5,712 feet (1.7 kilometers) deep. It's about 20 million years old and contains 20 percent of Earth's fresh liquid water.

19. What is the worldâ€™s largest island?

Greenland covers 840,000 square miles (2,176,000 square kilometers). Continents are typically defined as landmasses made of low-density rock that essentially floats on the molten material below. Greenland fits this description, but it's only about one-third the size of Australia. Some scientists call Greenland an island, others say it's a continent.

20. How much would seas rise if the Antarctic Ice Sheet melted?

The Antarctic Ice Sheet holds nearly 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of its fresh water. If the entire ice sheet were to melt, sea level would rise by nearly 220 feet, or the height of a 20-story building. Scientists know there's a melting trend underway. The United Nations has said that in a worst-case scenario -- depending on how much global air temperatures increase -- seas could jump 3 feet (1 meter) by 2100.

21. What is the longest mountain chain on Earth?

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which splits nearly the entire Atlantic Ocean north to south. Iceland is one place where this submarine mountain chain rises above the sea surface.

22. On average, how much water is used worldwide each day?

About 400 billion gallons.

23. What percentage of the worldâ€™s fresh water is stored as glacial ice?

About 70 percent. And if you had to replace it all, you'd need 60 years of the entire globe's rainfall, and then you'd have to figure out a way to freeze it all.

24. What is the highest, driest, and coldest continent on Earth?

That would be Antarctica.

25. What is the hardest of all minerals?

Diamond, the one that becomes emotionally useless after a divorce but still retains monetary value.

[source: space.com]

Optical illusion: Mr.Angry and Mrs.Calm

2008-12-25T04:10:00.000-08:00

If you watch the below images from your seat in front of the computer, Mrs.Calm is on the right and Mr.Angry is on the left. Now try to move 12 feet away from your computer screen and tell me what you see. They switch places!

This proves that we may not be seeing what is actually there all the time.

[credit: This illusion was created by Phillippe G.Schyns and Aude Oliva of the Univ. of Glasgow]

Security: Internet worm drops in New Year e-mail

2008-12-25T04:09:00.000-08:00

Latest email spam dubbed "Tibs" by Kapersky, disguised as an attachment named postcard.exe or postcard.zip, is spreading with the subject line "Happy New Year". Once it is launched, it will replicate and attached itself to other e-mail addresses by accessing the infected computer's mailbox. This worm is capable of disabling few computer security features and is able to hide itself from computer users.

The "Happy New Year" e-mail is just one variation on holiday spam. On Wednesday, security firm McAfee issued several warnings, including one for an e-mail with the attachment ChristmasBlessing-4.ppt, which installs software that allows the spammer remote access to the infected computer.

As with all e-mails, users should use extreme caution when opening attachments, VeriSign warns.

Sigh, a bad "gift" for new year ;)

[source: CBC]

Greeting to 2007

2008-12-25T04:08:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to Eches Blog's readers. Updates has been slow for the past 3 weeks due to establisment of other websites of my own, studies, blog and friends. Hopefully this year, I have a better time allocation. Thanks to those who are regularly coming to this blog and I wish you had good time celebrating New Year. :)

Japanese Bees Against Hornet Predators

2008-12-25T04:05:00.001-08:00

I just finished watching 6 minutes documentary on how Japanese bees and European bees are defending themselves against hornets. Well, I'm amazed by the coordination performed by the Japanese bees in order to effectively defeat the hornets.

Basically, the Japanese bees will engulf the hornet collectively and starts to pile up upon the predator into a densed ball, leaving the predator with no space for escaping. At the same time the bees produces high frequency vibration by vibrating their muscles. The vibrations will eventually produce an escalating heat at the core of the ball (the predator).

When the temperature at the core reaches 45 Â°C, the predator cannot stand with the heat and die. Remarkably, bees survive up to 48 Â°C! I hope the following video will give you a better insight of bees' defense mechanism and better appreciation. Enjoy!

[via Hemmy.net]

Best soccer bloopers video

2008-12-25T04:05:00.000-08:00

From many soccer bloopers videos, this is the video I like the most. The background music is catchy and the clips compiled in this video makes me laughing out loud. Are you interested in the song played (Always look on the bright side of life - Monty Python)? You can download it from the link at the bottom of this post. Enjoy the video! :)

(Download song: Monty Python - Always look on the bright side of life)