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Keeping Facebook and Other Social Network Sites Secure

Facebook is one of the most popular online social networks now the fact that we are able to interact with friends, family, associates and even friends of all these people easily, plus all the interesting Facebook games, make the site one of the stickiest too. Even when at first I did not like the fact that I could make friends with friends of friends, I find myself spending more time on Facebook, only because of the games, or better known as applications.

At the same time, all these also make Facebook vulnerable to spam, malware attacks, phishing and other security threats. I know that there are many people who would expose their Facebook profile to strangers because they need more friends, more crew, a larger house or mob, to level up in the various games but this also puts us at risk to phishing attacks or identity thefts.

I came across an article this morning on a French website, SecuObs.com, thankfully the article is in English, which listed out ten Don’ts using Facebook. I think everyone who is registered with Facebook, whether an active user or not, should give this article a read and then take a fresh look at how we use Facebook and the information, contact details and photos we share on Facebook, and other similar social networks like MySpace, Friendster and even Twitter.

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Gmail Loading Issues & Solution

I used to have no such problems with my Gmail accounts until I switched to Firefox as my default browser. i found that about half the time, the loading bar that we see before the Gmail inbox is displayed cannot finished loading. It gets stuck halfway or around the 90% mark and then either shows me the blank page forever, or lets me know that the Standard view of Gmail could not be loaded and I could opt to access the basic HTML version of Gmail.

Sometimes, I would opt for the simple view but found that there are many features that could not be used and it doesn’t work too well. For example, when using the Google search bar at the top of Gmail, my whole page gets taken over by Google search results when it would be better to open the results in a new tab or browser window.

Anyway, I was searching for a solution when I came across this Gmail Help page from Google that solved my problem. http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=8767. It looks like this is a known issue with Gmail and many people are experiencing the same problem though none of my friends are!

If you are also facing similar Gmail loading issues making you unable to access your Gmail, and I know how frustrating that could be, follow the simple steps provided in this page and hopefully your problem would be solved. .

Posted in Computing & Internet | 1 Comment »

Charter Ultra60 Mbps High Speed Internet

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I first read about charter ultra fast 60 that’s currently available in St. Louis, Southern California and Northeast USA, I am so envious. Ultra60 is said to be one of the fastest high speed internet service in the United States. Luckily, the service is fast expanding to other areas as well and is said to completely cover all of Charter’s service areas by the end of next year. I am sure many of us are waiting for it to reach us!

As someone who spends a lot of time online for work and entertainment, internet connection speed is everything to me. Although cable internet is slightly more expensive than DSL, the thought of having 60MB of bandwidth that takes away my frustrations and sufferings using a slower internet connection is worth it.

Like I said, I spend a lot of time online working but at the same time, I am also a chronic MMORPG player. I NEED the fastest connection out there that I could get. When not working or playing games, I like to stream dramas online. Slow connections kill the joy of watching a good show with endless buffering and sometimes I have no choice but to download the file. THAT takes forever to complete! With Charter’s Ultra60 Mbps service, it would probably take me just a couple of minutes to download an episode of TV serial. Wouldn’t I love that!

While some people may think that they could get a similar broadband connection with DSL, I beg to defer. Cable internet technology is so much faster and more stable. Besides, cable is not distance sensitive so you don’t have to live close to your provider’s nodes to enjoy the best speeds.

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Have You Checked The Status Of Your Maxis IPO Application?

Many people have written in to me via my blogs to ask how to check the status of their Maxis IPO applications. Well, as mentioned in a previous post, you can check it online at http://www.mih.com.my with your old IC number or MyKad number. If you are using your MyKad number to check, do make sure that the format to use is xxxx-xx-xx with dashes.

Even though my application for Maxis IPO has been successful, I have not received any notification via mail. I have to say that there has been too much work, too little time for the people at Malaysian Issuing House, hence the delay.

A reader asked me for alternate ways to check the status of his Maxis IPO application since the website of MIH returned a negative result and he did not receive anything in the mail. If he had been unsuccessful, I gather he would have received his bounced application in the mail already, just like my aunt.

I told him that besides checking the status of his Maxis IPO online at http://www.mih.com.my and waiting for the postman to bring the news, he could also call up his remisier or dealer’s representative to ask or just call up the stock brokerage firm and provide them with his CDS account number.

Maxis will be listed on KLSE tomorrow at 9am so if you are planning to make a quick buck on opening day itself, you should find out the status of your Maxis IPO first thing tomorrow morning, if you haven’t go any news until now.

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Checking Gold Price Online

My friend told me that she’s doing fairly well investing in gold. She checks for the price of gold online first thing in the morning and she said that when she sees the price go up, she will be in a better mood the whole day!

Buying gold for investment is so easy nowadays, I feel like I have missed the boat. Did you check the price of gold today? It’s already more than US$1140 per ounce. I feel it’s wasted because I have been looking out for it when it was still US$800+ per ounce. It’s too bad that I failed to take action then, just a few short months ago.

Anyway, the price of gold is too high now that I am unable to go into the market anymore. However, I am eying silver now; though not as valuable as gold but there’s money to be made there since the price of silver still hasn’t sky-rocket yet.

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Google Analytics Offer: RM100 of Free Advertising on Google AdWords

I received an email from Google Analytics and they are offering Malaysian users RM100 AdWords coupon to try out the service. With Google AdWords, we are told that we could bring in targeted leads which would lead to better sales.

This Google AdWords offer of RM100 is ony valid until 30th November, 2009. Thereafter, the value of the coupon will drop to RM70. This coupon, presumably each Google Analytics user has a unique coupon code, will only be valid until 31st December, 2009.

I haven’t check this out on the website of Google AdWords yet and wonder if I could claim this coupon code first before creating a campaign but I guess that is not possible since Google wants us to spend and try out the service and not claim it and leaving the credit in our Google AdWords account unused. So meanwhile let me think of what ad campaign I would like to create first.

Posted in Computing & Internet | No Comments »

Gizmo5 Acquired By Google

Google continues to extend its reach not only on the world wide web but also in web - mobile communications with the acquisition of Gizmo5. Gizmo5 has been in the centre of attention lately when Skype announced its intention of acquiring it should they lose the legal battle with its founders but that has been settled now. That’s probably why Google jumped in.

Gizmo5 engineers will now join the team at Google Voice. Although new features have yet to be announced, it is expected that they will be competing with Skype who holds 80% market share currently.

As a Gizmo5 user, I am of course, pretty excited about what’s to come from the Google team but let’s hope there wouldn’t be too many bugs and that we will continue to enjoy the features that Gizmo5 has offered us all along. Anyway, Gizmo5 no longer accepts new sign-ups so if you do not have a Gizmo5 account then that’s too bad.

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