All posts by The Artist

Technology

Gizmo5 Acquired By Google

Leave a comment

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.

General

Soft Job Market

Leave a comment

My friend, Sara, lost her job a few months ago and until today, has not found a suitable job yet. She said that she is not fussy and would work for a lower position and lower pay but sometimes, she is told that she is overqualified; sometimes she is told that she doesn’t fit the bill.

Whatever it is, Sara is quite dejected and said that perhaps it is time to reconsider taking up a course. Sara doesn’t want to ‘study’ but to pick up a skill. She said that she may enroll in a Cosmetology School since she has interest in the beauty industry. However, she is worried that she may be too old to start a new career.

Whether she is too old, I cannot say but then sometimes it is good to take a different path in life if one has reached a dead end for the time being. Didn’t we hear too often that we should take a step back to move two steps forward?

Computing & Internet

Troubleshooting Firefox

Leave a comment

Within a day, my Firefox browser has crashed at least five times and that is way more times than I am happy with. Yesterday, I installed a few items on my computer; two are Firefox add-ons, SpeedyFox and bug489729. One is an upgrade to AVG version 9.0. I also installed Adobe AIR and a Twitter desktop notifier called Snitter. A couple of days ago, I also installed Java Runtime to upload photos to Facebook.

With all these new stuff added, I can hardly pinpoint which is the culprit that keeps causing my Firefox browsers to crash. If there’s one thing I hate, totally hate, it’s TROUBLESHOOTING. Sure, I could roll back but then it would mean rolling everything back.

Oh year, SpeedyFox is supposed to help make Firefox run faster, and start up three times faster, but I don’t feel it at all. In fact, Firefox continues to start up so slowly, I think I have to wait at least three minutes for it to pop up on my screen and with the constant crash, you can imagine how irritated I am right now.

bug489729 works well and I no longer accidentally open my tab in a new Firefox window but I feel that since its installation, switching tabs is a tad slower compared to previously. Again, I cannot be certain if this is the cause. I guess I will just have to disable it and see if there’s an improvement.

Perhaps I’ll just rollback everything, if I am frustrated enough with these multiple Firefox crashes.

Computing & Internet

Windows Live Messenger Download & Install Problem

Leave a comment

I have been facing log in problems with my Windows Live Messenger lately so I decided to upgrade my program this morning. Actually, I have been having the prompt to upgrade for weeks now but didn’t have time to do so. Anyway, I did it this morning but to my dismay, I couldn’t complete my download and neither could I install the program.

I faced the same problem even when I downloaded the Windows Live installer onto my computer and then download Windows Live Messenger, unchecking the other Windows Live Essentials. I don’t need them and I don’t want them. I just want Windows Live Messenger but then I couldn’t even download it, let alone install it.

I would be happy with my older version of Windows Live Messenger, or even with an older MSN instant messenger, if only I could still log in to it but I guess I will have to do without it now since I am too lazy to follow the various solutions found online for people who are facing the same problems as I am with downloading and installing Windows Live Messenger now that it comes in a package deal.

I HATE IT!

In The News

1% Lower Income Tax For Top Earners

Leave a comment

The recent unveiling of Budget 2010 saw a proposal to lower income tax by 1% for top income earners. I find it laughable that some people see this as a “goodie” for the masses but let’s be frank, how many of us earn that much to be taxed to the maximum to enjoy this goodie?

Did you know that if we lived in Las Vegas, we do not have to pay income taxes at all? I found this information on the website of a Las Vegas CPA firm. The reason that there are no city or state income taxes is that Nevada earns enough tourist dollar from the casinos and other attractions.

Well, of course I am not hoping for 0% income tax even though we also have casino and race courses but I think that seeking lower income tax across the board is reasonable. Don’t you think so?

Computing & Internet

Twitter Status Update Desktop Notifier

Leave a comment

I have been searching high and low for a small application that would allow me to get Twitter status updates of my contacts on my desktop. Simply put, I would like to be notified of my friends’ tweets on my desktop without having to log in to Twitter to check. It’s something like TwitterFox, which I would gladly try out, except that I read the list of user reviews and apparently, the Firefox add-on is now full of bugs after a change of name to EchoFon.

I don’t really need a Twitter client on my desktop that allows me to tweet and get my Twitter status updated on the web, but if it does the trick I would be willing to try. Someone told me that TweetDeck will give me what I want I’ve checked out the screenshots and it looks too complicated. I just want to be updated on my friends’ tweets on my desktop, with the ability to filter out the people that I don’t want to get an instant tweet update on.

If anyone knows of something like that, please drop me a comment. or better still, if you know programming, I am sure this is something many people would want!

General

Check Status Of Maxis IPO Application

4 Comments

It’s balloting day today for Maxis IPO and if you have applied, especially if you have applied for Maxis shares with the blue form, or better yet, green form, which is reserved for Maxis One Club members, let’s not talk about the red form with is for bumiputeras, then I am sure you are pretty excited about the outcome.

My friend, who is totally new to buying shares, let alone applying for IPOs, registered for a CDS account especially to apply for Maxis IPO which was offered to him, a Maxis customer, for restricted balloting. He asked me how he would be informed if he was successful. Would Maxis send him a text message?

Well, I don’t know about the text message since I have never received any text messages for all my successful IPO applications but then I have never applied for any IPOs from telecommunications companies. As far as I know, successful applicants will receive a notice via post from the Malaysian Issuing House (MIH).

But the web savvy people like us could check the status of our Maxis IPO applications, whether we are successful in the balloting or not, via the website of Malaysian Issuing House (MIH) at http://www.mih.com.my/ Click on IPO Results Enquiry and submit your old or new IC number or company registration number, if you are applying as a company. Then select the IPO that you have applied for from the drop down menu.

Of course, although Maxis IPO balloting is today, we wouldn’t be getting instant results. Just wait a few days before checking since we may be on the reserve list. Good luck!