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Monster Acquires Yahoo! HotJobs

In line with Yahoo!’s new policy to let go of web businesses that are outside of their core focus i.e. news, entertainment and communications, the company will be selling their online job board, HotJobs, to Monster. Yahoo! acquired HotJobs for $439 million approximately eight years ago but is selling it to Monster Worldwide Inc. for $225 million only.

The world has been struggling with a recession since 2008 that saw many people losing their jobs. I would think that this is a good time to revive an online job board like HotJobs. It is an old brand and would not have difficulty in gaining trust from online job seekers but at the same time, large corporations have found an easier and cheaper way to fill positions in their workforce by utilizing social networks.

It’s quite sad, you know, seeing how Yahoo! is losing chucks on investment from their sell-off or closure of other web entities but I guess they know their business better than anyone else. I personally hope that I do not have to use any of these online job boards to look for a job any time soon!

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Buy Twitter Followers On eBay

If you are a web savvy person, you probably have a Twitter account. However, if you are like one of the millions of ordinary people you probably do not have a huge following. Well, I myself have less than ten people following me, half of whom I don’t even know! But I don’t mind because I don’t use Twitter all that much. I only use it to fee my Facebook status.

Anyway, there are people who are trying to make money from Twitter and how much one could command very much depend on the size of followers. If you are looking to expand your Twitter followers, perhaps you should check out eBay.

Yes, don’t be surprised that you can now buy thousands of Twitter followers on eBay cheaply. Granted, these are just shell accounts which not much activities and when you spew sponsored tweets, no one would really take notice. After all, these are fake accounts but they serve the purpose of making up the numbers. Are you desperate enough? LOL

Posted in Computing & Internet | 1 Comment »

Google’s Social Search

Google has kicked off their “social search” feature that supposedly will gather information from our social network profiles like Facebook. Some of the information pulled may include our name, photos, our friends, the pages or groups or applications that we are a fan of, etc.

Of course, although Google may now have this ability, it is up to us to make the necessary changes of how much information we want to be listed on Google by adjusting our privacy level at the account control panel or settings of the social network profile.

There are pros and cons whether we want to be on Google or not. I think the main thing that we have to take into consideration when we decide to allow or disallow Google to list our social network profile, is what we use the profile for.

In any case, it is good to occasionally check that your privacy settings are as your have saved them. You know, sometimes updates would switch your settings to default. That could be pretty unnerving. LOL

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Brighter, Larger Exit Signs

I thought I would give my parents a good time by treating them to a movie one evening recently. I didn’t want to be a “lamp” and go along too so I sent them to the cinema and left. It really has been a long time since my parents went out on a date.

Anyway, my parents told me that while the enjoyed the show, the cinema was not very conducive. You know how elderly people have to visit the toilet in the middle of the show and because the cinema hall was pitch dark, my parents had trouble seeing the exit signs. Obviously! Even at the end of the show when the lights were switched on, the exit signs were not that visible because of the dim lights.

I think I am going to write in to the cinema management to let them know that their cinema isn’t very friendly to senior citizens and they should put up large photoluminescent exit signs instead of what they have installed currently.

Another good idea is to install Self Luminous Exit Signs where the signs would still light up even when there is no electricity power. That would be an excellent solution for a dark cinema hall.

I am not sure if the cinema management would take up my suggestion but I hope that they will for the sake of their senior moviegoers.

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Apple iPad

Apple announced its latest innovation today, called the iPad. It’s a huge screen that could be an eBook reader, an electronic photo frame, a portable music and video player and a web browser all rolled into one. Of course, to list out all its amazing functions would be too tedious but you can just think of it as the large version of an iPhone minus the phone part.

A friend told me that he had wanted to buy a Kindle for his niece, a bookworm, but now that the iPad is here, he may upgrade to the iPad instead. However, the iPad is more than twice the price of the Kindle!

Also from what I read on the website of Apple, the wi-fi version of the iPad will only be shipped this March while the 3G version will only ship this April. I wonder if the 3G version will also be wi-fi capable because I don’t want a gadget that has an exclusive connectivity only. If the 3G version also is wi-fi capable, then it is worth considering. Let’s just hope the price will adjust lower a little. Hehehe…

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Important Updates, Update Reminders, Security Alerts and Security Verifications

Over this past week, I have been receiving numerous messages from major banks in Malaysia with the subject header: Important Update, Update Reminder, Security Alert, Security Verification or something or other with just an urgent or important tone.

The most common “banks” are Maybank, CIMB and Public Bank. Of course, when I use inverted commas on the word bank, you will know that these email messages are not from the real banks. They are phishing attempts and I am glad that my email spam filter managed to catch all of them!

Do know that a reputable bank will never send you an email and for that matter call you on the phone requiring you to disclose your log in details and other credentials in an unsecured environment.

And even if a bank or financial institution suffers a lapse of judgment by doing so, you should NEVER click on any link provided, for your convenience, in an email. Access the website directly from your browser by typing in the address in the address bar manually. If you are using Firefox, the browser will let you know that you have accessed a trusted website by showing green on the address bar.

Take care of your security online!

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Google Threatens To Pull Out Of China

Much has been said about Google’s threat of pulling out of China completely after facing censorship and cyber attacks from the government over the past few years. Who will win in this battle; Google or China?

I think the ones who will lose out are the people in China. The ones who will suffer the most will be expatriates and returning Chinese who were educated overseas. The internet is supposed to be borderless and I am sure these people expect to use the same internet services that they have used while overseas.

On the other hand, it is not so bad for Chinese people who have not been overseas and exposed to the freedom of the internet. To these people, the web is like a playground where they seek entertainment and friendship, unlike many of us who make use of the internet to help us work better.

I think that in the end, the lack of freedom of the web in China will drive away many returnees to seek employment overseas or to start up businesses in countries where they have a better chance of succeeding. This in turn will create brain drain in China.

What do you think?

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