Computing & Internet

Faster, Better Hotmail

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I received an announcement from Windows Live Hotmail yesterday regarding their improvements on their email service, popularly known as just Hotmail.

According to the team, they plan to make Hotmail 70% faster than what we have now, in terms of loading and less clicks to reach our inbox. Please just give me a direct landing page to my inbox and headline news on one side so that if I have the time to read online news, I could access it on the side and not have them thrown in my face.

Anyway, I hardly access my Hotmail directly on the web because I use Outlook Express or via my iPhone. I get all my email without the frills. But one improvement I really would like to see with Hotmail, because it is my primary email, is faster load times and no more missing email! I know that each email passes through a couple of servers, or maybe more, but the culprit is highly likely Hotmail. If I get ALL my mail without delay, I am very happy already.

Blogging

Be Careful Of What You Blog

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Last evening, blogger Syed Azidi Syed Abdul Aziz or more popularly known online as Kickdefella or Sheih to his friends, was arrested. I think in this case, it is not so much as a “crackdown” on bloggers because this guy works for the opposition and he happens to be a blogger and used his blog as a machinery to spread messages like flying the Malaysian flag upside down to protest against certain Government policies.

I did not actually read that post; I think it’s still on his blog, but I think that what he meant was putting up a banner of an upside down Malaysian flag on our blog or something like that. I am not sure how successful his campaign was because of all my blog hopping to Malaysian blogs, I have never actually seen anyone put up such a banner. Maybe I did not go to enough political blogs, or blogs of politically aware bloggers, or blogs of Kickdefella’s supporters, or maybe Kickdefella actually meant flying a real Malaysian flag upside down?

One thing though, as a blogger of three years, I know that there are always spies going around blogs, reading and making notes of our “wrongdoings” and maybe even purposely misreading our meanings. And then some people may even hold our readers’ comments against us. Whatever the case, we must always be careful because once a post is published, it will be cached and I have read that search engines like Google will remember your text forever.

Of course, if we are somebody “powerful” or with real political background and backing like Dr. M or Uncle Kit, then it’s different. Being armchair politicians, it’s better to watch your words. And I always believe that it is not necessary to show ones true feelings in words or in real life.

Computing & Internet

DPM Najib Goes Cyber

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Did you already know of our DPM’s new website? A few months ago, just before the General Election, he commissioned someone to set up a website for Pak Lah, now he thinks that he should have one himself.

If you do not know it, here is the address. http://www.1malaysia.com.my/
Some people think that the website is unfriendly.

Just out of curiosity, I went to check what the website is all about. Oh, yes, it’s a website not a blog. Someone should tell him that blogs are all the rage now, and not a static website.

Anyway, right smack in the middle is a video of him with a welcome message. I tried to stream it but the buffering is terrible until I feel nauseous. Maybe there are too many people all trying to watch his video.

If you expect more, I have to tell you that you would be disappointed. It’s a bare bone website with just that video on the landing page, his biography in .pdf format, which I purposely mention because don’t we chronic web surfers just hate to open up web pages in .pdf format without prior warning?

And there are a few pages of photos and photos of him, as if this is a photo gallery. Hey, Flickr does this better. I would also like to mention that there are two pages of comment forms, one in Malay and one in English. Is that even necessary? I checked, there’s no comments page in some other foreign Asian language.

Check it out and let me know what you think? Like RTM, right?

General

Banned Books

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I was telling my cousin how I did not have time to read anymore since I discovered the internet. She said that, she on the other hand, has been reading more because living in London is so expensive, she tries to stay indoors as much as possible so reading has been her new hobby. She told me that she buys UK books. It’s convenient to shop online plus she gets huge savings as well.

I know of Borders but have never shopped with them but out of curiosity, since it was mentioned, I checked what they have. I am so delighted to know that they carry a range of banned books! You know, these are books that have been banned in the country when they were first published but Borders not only sell them, but sell them at up to 40% discount too!

In this list of banned books, I don’t deny that I have already read quite a few, including The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, which I have to say, is a very good book, Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews and Animal Farm by George Orwell.

However, one book that I have always wanted to read but could not find it in local stores so far and available now on Borders UK is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. I really should read it to see why it has been banned in the first place. Curious here!

*** This post was brought to you by Borders UK ***

Computing & Internet

StatCounter Glitch

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Last night, I was checking my traffic statistics (I use StatCounter), when to my horror, I could not view any of my projects. Everything returned a zero. It was like a new account without any project name, traffic numbers or visitor paths.

I was shocked, obviously, because I thought that I was too sleepy and may have somehow pressed the “delete all” button. In fact, I think there is no such button, except for deleting individual projects.

Anyway, I was still a little perturbed and logged in and out of my account only to see the same blank page. I checked the blog but it was still the same old post without an update on the glitch. I HOPED that it was a glitch.

Luckily I had the sense to check the forum and someone had already posted on the issue. Thankfully, I was not alone and I felt better. Our accounts were restored about ten minutes later. Well, it could have been quicker but it felt like ten minutes I did not check the time.

Computing & Internet

Trusted Internet

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While blog hopping last night, I came across Melih Abdulhayoglu’s blog which talks about Trusted Internet. As a blogger, webmaster and ecommerce owner, I am all for trusted internet.

If you have read my recent blog post about how an email was misdirected to me even though the email address was actually another legitimate address, all the more I strive for a trusted and secure environment in my own sites, particularly my ecommerce site because if something like that could happen to a large email provider, which, by the way, they did not acknowledge, I could only ensure that I have Trusted Internet in my own sites where I have direct control.

I think that right now, not many people realize how important Trusted Internet is. By the way, I believe that as responsible webmasters, we must all make our own sites secure so that web browsers and users will be accorded the safety and security, the right of every web user.

However, I think that as we move forward, advancing in technology and being more mature and responsible web users, Trusted Internet what we expect to have in every site, keeping our personal or financial information safe and secure, particularly when we shop online. Commercial website owners should take the lead. For more information, visit http://www.comodo.com/corporate/manifesto.html

Computing & Internet

Streamyx Combo Promotion

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I received a call from Streamyx yesterday because they are having a Streamyx Combo promotion. Right now, I am only subscribed to their 512kbps package, paying RM66 per month but comes with lifetime warranty for the modem.

This new promotion that was offered to me is their 1MB package PLUS phone line rental. I will have to pay RM110 per month and enjoy lifetime warranty of modem too. Phone calls made will be charged the normal (existing) rates.

Actually, I have wanted to upgrade my speed for a long time since my package was subscribed such a long time ago that this was the fastest they had. Recently, I enquired about the 4MB package but was told that my area does not support that speed. It’s cheap, though. Only RM160 per month, compared to 1MB at RM110, a difference of RM50 per month only but with four times the speed. Bah, so this is what we get for living outside of Kuala Lumpur.

Anyway, I did not upgrade as the difference between 512kbps and 1MB isn’t all that great and I did not want to void my lifetime warranty of modem but since their new promo comes with lifetime warranty for modem as well, I might as well upgrade. Anyway, subscribing to a Combo package at 1Mb speed would only save me about RM14 monthly, compared to subscribing to a 1MB Streamyx package and pay for a phone line separately.

Random Thoughts Off My Mind