All posts by The Artist

General

Studying Online

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I was just talking to a friend about an education fair that will be held in the capital city later this month and we both wondered if there would be any institutes of higher learning offering online degree courses.

I know that getting a degree online is not for everyone but for working adults, it is a good option to consider since we could still continue to work and support the family but at the same time, schedule our studies and upgrade ourselves.

Shouldering a new commitment is always tough but I think it would be worth the effort when we consider the Return On Investment (ROI) that a paper qualification could provide us.

I think it would be a good move for me, seeing that I already am spending so much time logged on the internet. I should seriously think about getting an education online as well.

This post was based on information provided by Blogitive.
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Computing & Internet

Beware of Twitter Phishing Websites

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Twitter has just released a warning that they have discovered a Twitter-look-alike website that is in fact a phishing site aiming to gain access to your Twitter account. According to Twitter, if you have received an email informing that you have a ‘direct message’ and you are required to log in to your Twitter account, take a good look at the URL that came in the email.

The best, like I said, is to go to whatever website directly from your web browser and not log in by clicking on links that are in emails, even if you may know the sender. I know, it’s convenient but it’s risky as well.

Twitter also reminds us to change our Twitter account password if we felt that our login credentials have been compromised. Actually, we should always change our password to all important websites. Sigh… I am lazy as well!

Computing & Internet

Phishing Email from “Google Calendar”

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If you are a user of Google Calendar, you may want to take note of this alert. Apparently, phishing email purportedly from Google regarding re-verification of Google Calendar has resurfaced.

Right now, it’s unknown how many people have gotten caught by such a phishing mail but I understand that the email and “Google Calendar” verification website are pretty believable because the email has the real name of the recipient except that the website is peppered with plenty of grammatical errors. This itself should be a pretty good give away.

Anyway, if you have received such an email asking you to verify your details once again or risk having your account terminated, I suggest that you log in to your Google Calendar straight from your browser and not via links that come in via email. If there are any system administration messages, you should see it when you log in to your account.

Computing & Internet

Google Alerts Gone Haywire

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I read in a webmaster forum that many members have been complaining about receiving irrelevant Google Alerts for their specified keywords. This became more pronounced over the holiday. Some members claim that these are from spam pages that have no mention of their keywords at all.

Well, I used to subscribe to Google Alerts too until I kept receiving alerts for old pages that do contain these keywords, but these are pages that I have already seen before subscribing to the alerts. When I subscribe, I had the logic that I would only be alerted to NEW web pages mentioning my specified keywords moving forward but unfortunately that did not happen.

It got so bad with the old webpages that were no longer relevant, especially with coupon codes of particular merchants, that I decided that I could do without these alerts. After all, they don’t help but just wastes my time checking those old alerts. LOL

I guess this is just one of the many Google products that is good but flawed even after so many years.

General

Neuro Linguistic Programming

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Sometimes I feel like I have a “lack” because I did not have a tertiary education. My friend, Warren, who is like my personal cheer leader, would tell me that it’s all in the mind and that I could achieve whatever I want, even if I sometimes feel like I MUST put in double or triple the effort that my peers are putting into their careers.

I subsequently learnt that Warren subscribes to Neuro Linguistic Programming, or more popularly known as NLP, which is a way of influencing the way people think and how people can change their mindset on many issues, particularly personal barriers.

Prior to this, I have no idea what NLP is all about, though thinking back, I realize that Warren sometimes applied what he learnt on me. The creator is actually Dr Richard Bandler but Warren read many books on NLP by Paul McKenna, who is UK’s non-fiction best selling author of all time.

Books by Paul McKenna are not easy to come by here but I was informed of this largest resource website and forum of NLP where NLP instructors, authors and practitioners participate online and sometimes offline to exchange ideas, offer help or advice to members. This website, like I mentioned, has a forum section and it is very active with over ten thousand members, from ordinary members to trainers and authors who are there to share what they know with each other. I think that the popularity of this forum stems not only from the fact that it is free to join as member, NLP is a seriously interesting technique.

The website of Neuro Linguistic Programming also offers a review section, interviews with trainers in mp3 format, articles on NLP and many other features. It also has an events calendar where members could keep tab on what’s happening in the coming months.

If you are new to NLP, like me, you must check out this free resource site of Neuro Linguistic Programming.

Blogging

Vietnam Cracks Down On Bloggers

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Vietnamese authorities have warned bloggers to just blog about mundane everyday stuff like the weather and their dog, what they had for lunch or dinner and not write about anything controversial that would cause discontent or conflict among the people or disrupts social order.

Vietnamese officials have also sought the help of Google and Yahoo! for their co-operation, presumably to disclose to Vietnamese officials on the activities of web users in Vietnam that are against the rules.

We all still remember how Yahoo! provided information to Chinese officials which led to the imprisonment of a Chinese dissent. While Yahoo! was put in a spot and forced to do so if they wanted to continue to do business in China, I believe that Vietnam does not hold such “power” to force Google or Yahoo! into disclosing personal information of bloggers in Vietnam.

Let’s hope that Vietnamese bloggers would have a fair arena on the web to voice their thoughts and opinions and not get into trouble with the authorities like Malaysian bloggers.

Computing & Internet

Obama Shirtless Pictures

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My friend, a problogger in Malaysia, once taught me that the art of gaining traffic from organic searches is to keep blogging about the keyword of the day. Duh, I tell you, I know that but I am certainly not as dedicated as her. Plus, I am not into stuffing my posts with the same daily keywords multiple times in short paragraphs. Bleh.

Anyway, the other day, I was pretty surprised that it seems like the whole web world was searching for pictures of Obama shirtless. I know, I know, he is going to be the President of the United States next month but what’s the big fuss of him shirtless and so what that there are such pictures, or not, of him on the web? I’d rather see photos of Amy Winehouse topless anytime.

As a blogger for about three years now, I am sometimes surprised with the curiosity of web users who at the same time, all want to see or read about the same thing. LOL I know, I sometimes do that as well when curiosity gets the better of me but this time, I don’t have the urge to see Obama shirtless photos at all. Do you?