Make Money Online Malaysia

Social Media Behavior in a Venn Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:20:00 +0000

What do you get if you mixed behavior narcissism and stalking? FaceBook. What do you get if you mixed ADHD and stalking? Tweettalk. What do you get if you mixed ADHD and narcissism? MySpace. Those are the social media behaviors illustrated in a Venn Diagram.

Mixed them all and you get Twitter. So, do it mean, Twitter users are narcissist, ADHD and stalker by nature?

FaceBook behavior

Allow you to keep track of friends, colleagues, relatives and parents. You can virtually stalk them anytime from anywhere.

ADHD behavior

You are lonely and desperately need some attention. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or AD/HD) is a neurobehavioral developmental disorder. ADHD is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone." While symptoms may appear to be innocent and merely annoying nuisances to observers, "if left untreated, the persistent and pervasive effects of ADHD symptoms can insidiously and severely interfere with one's ability to get the most out of education, fulfill one's potential in the workplace, establish and maintain interpersonal relationships, and maintain a generally positive sense of self.

Narcissism behavior

You really need to show off your ego. The term narcissism refers to the personality trait of self-esteem, which includes the set of character traits concerned with self-image or ego. The terms narcissism, narcissistic, and narcissist are often used as pejoratives, denoting vanity, conceit, egotism or simple selfishness. Applied to a social group, it is sometimes used to denote elitism or an indifference to the plight of others.

Twitter behavior

You really have plenty of time to kill.

Images: DespairWear

Cha Sa-soon sat 950 times for written driving test

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:31:00 +0000

Cha Sa-soon, a 68 years old woman from South Korea sat 950 times for a written driving test and she passed on the 950th attempt. That is probably a world record. But the main point is that she never give up. Persistence has its rewards, although she need to fork out quite an amount of money to make sure she succeeded.

A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test.

Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju, 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Seoul.

Police said Cha took the test hundreds of times, but had no specific total. Local media said she took the test 950 times.

Now she must pass a driving test before getting her license, Choi said. She told the Korea Times newspaper she needed the license for her vegetable-selling business.

Disney China to be setup in Shanghai

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:47:00 +0000

The Walt Disney Company has gotten the green light from Chinese authorities to build one of its theme parks in Shanghai. I'm sure the Disney China theme parks will have

"China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world, and this approval marks a very significant milestone for The Walt Disney Company in mainland China," said Robert A. Iger, Disney president and CEO, on Tuesday.

The agreement means Disney and its Shanghai partners can proceed toward a final agreement and start preliminary development work in the Pudong district, according to Disney.

The project would "include a Magic Kingdom-style theme park with characteristics tailored to the Shanghai region and other amenities consistent with Disney's destination resorts worldwide," Disney said.

Disney already has a Disneyland resort in Hong Kong, China, as well as in Tokyo, Japan, but Shanghai's would mark the first foray into mainland China for the entertainment company.

Disney has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Tanzania Albino Victim Of Witchcrafts

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:18:00 +0000

In this modern time, witchcraft is still rampant especially in Africa. And the victims were the Albinos of Tanzania. In the story below, four murderers were sentenced to hang for killing albino in Tanzania and harvesting their body organs. This case reflects that some believed that the albino body parts will give them special powers and as for the witchdoctors, a quick profit for them for their inhumane deed.

A court sentenced four people to death in northern Tanzania for the killing of an albino man who was targeted for body parts believed to have special powers, authorities said Friday.

The four were found guilty of killing the 50-year-old albino in the Shinyanga region and sentenced to die by hanging for removing his body parts, said Lucca Haule, assistant commissioner of police.

So far, seven people have been sentenced to death for the killing of more than 50 Tanzanian albinos, including children, in the past two years, Haule said. Dozens more are awaiting trial.

Albinism is a genetic condition that leads to little or no pigment in the eyes, skin and hair.

Body parts of albinos are sought in some regions of Tanzania and other African countries, where some believe they bring wealth and good luck. Attackers chop off limbs and pluck out organs, selling them to witch doctors.

Killings have gone up in the east African nation, which has an estimated 200,000 albinos, according to the Tanzania Albino Center.

"People believe that albino body parts mixed with traditional medicine can make people rich," said Franck Alphonse, the center's director. "It is a thriving business ... witch doctors are asking business people to bring the body parts of albinos, who are not considered human beings."

Tanzanian government officials said they have mobilized police to help the embattled population, but admit it is hard to quell the attacks.

Most happen in rural areas, where there is not enough police presence, according to the police commissioner.

"We don't have the resources in those places ... it is not easy, but we are trying to map out locations where albinos live so that we can better protect them," he said. "We are hoping the convictions will serve as a lesson for the killers to stop."

The Tanzania Albino Center educates the public and provides albinos with basic services such as shelter, medication to prevent skin cancer, advocacy and awareness. Most albinos are stigmatized and do not go to school, leading to lack of employment and means to protect themselves, according to Alphonse.

He said politicians should go after albino killers more aggressively.

"We want to see justice done to everyone involved in the killings," Alphonse said. "They (police) only pick those who slaughtered albinos, what about those who send these people to kill?"

In another news: Tanzania announces crackdown on albino murders.

On the same day a 10-year-old albino girl was murdered and mutilated, the government of Tanzania announced a crackdown on those who kill albinos and sell their body parts, reports the AFP. Sorcerers buy the body parts of albinos intending to use them in good luck potions. The girl was murdered just a few hours after the country’s president, Jakaya Kikwete, announced a heightened crackdown on these killings saying they have “stained the country’s good image.”

And the notion that albino body parts can bring good luck is just ridiculous and lazy, he said at a rally put on by the Tanzania Albino Society (TAS). “It is utterly stupid for some people to believe that albinos have magic powers and their parts can make the rich,” he said. “People should be provided with education to understand that it is only through hard working that they can prosper in life and not through selling albinos’ body parts.”

But murders of albinos in the east African nation, 26 just this year (mostly women and children), are a problem. Last year it was even reported that some people were digging up graves of albino infants to remove body parts of ritual potions. And TAS leader, Ernest Kimaya, doesn’t think authorities are doing enough to stop the tragedies. “We are yet to witness any convictions and incidents; murder of albinos are on the rise,” he said. “I have a case of one albino woman who has been hiding for more than three months after her sister was killed. This is a very serious case. We are calling upon the government to address the problem.” Kikwete said 47 thought to be involved with albino killings have been arrested this year.

There are about 150,000 albinos in the country; some families murder albino babies when they are born. An albino appointed to the nation’s parliament on a special seat is confident the murderers will be captured. “The criminals involved in these superstitious networks should know that their days are numbered,” Al Shaymaa Kwegyr said.

This is sick: Lucrative business for Albinos body part

Three men attacked and killed the young boy last December - one of a string of more than 50 albino murders that have taken place in Tanzania over the past two years.

They have the right to appeal against the death sentence - a punishment their lawyers described as unexpected.

Albino people are killed because potions made from their body parts are believed to bring good luck and wealth.

Witchdoctors in Tanzania and other parts of East Africa - especially Burundi - have made tens of thousands of dollars from selling potions and other items made from the bones, hair, skin and genitals of dead albino people.

Witchdoctors pay a lot of money for body parts.

The Tanzanian government has publicly stated its desire to end the killings.

In March, President Jakaya Kikwete called on Tanzanians to come forward with any information they might have.

Officials banned witchdoctors from practising, however many have continued to work.

Related links:
* Tanzania Albino's Center

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Indonesia World's biggest porn surfers

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:41:00 +0000

INDONESIANS are using the Internet to access pornographic websites and little else, says a minister. They are the world’s biggest surfers of such websites, Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring said although he did not provide any data. Read also Malaysian learned sex education from the Internet and Orgasm A Day For British Schoolchildren

“To date, Indonesia has the largest number of people who access porn sites,” Jakarta Globe quoted him as saying.

Tifatul is an avid Internet user. He has Facebook and Twitter accounts and also has his own blog.

He said he was concerned about the situation and this had prompted him to launch a campaign aimed at teaching people how to use the Internet as an online source of useful information.

“We’re going to encourage safe and healthy Internet use, or Insan,” he said. Insan is an acronym made from the words Internet, sihat (healthy) and aman (safe).

Tifatul did not say how much money had been set aside to establish the programme.

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How can we work more effectively with the brain

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:40:00 +0000

"People are not rational, they are social" said David Rock. Some books on neuroscience suggests that modern workplace has the possibility of reducing our brain power. What are the chemistry involved? What factors triggered it? Read below an extract from The human brain in the workplace, by Reuters.

The modern workplace is an emotionally charged landscape of constant threats and unconscious fears that can addle or even destroy our brainpower, according to three recent books on neuroscience.

The flow of brain chemicals triggered by common workplace experiences -- feedback session, anyone? -- can erode our ability to think straight, harming productivity and diminishing our capacity to solve problems or work well with others.

Yet when approached with greater regard for how our brain operates, work can also be a deeply rewarding, creative experience. Getting there, though, may require ditching some of our more counterproductive work habits, the authors say.

"One of the things organizations need to do is respect the deeply social nature of the brain. People are not rational, they are social," David Rock, author of "Your Brain at Work" (HarperBusiness), told Reuters in an interview. "The social brain is such that we are really driven to increase social rewards, and we are really driven to minimize social threats."

Rock, the founder of a company that applies the insights of brain science to leadership coaching, lists five areas in which our brain's threat mechanisms are easily triggered at work: status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness.

When we feel threatened in any of these spheres -- a superior displays power over us, rumors circulate about the future of our job, our work is micro-managed, we are excluded from colleagues' conversations, or our work is unjustly overlooked -- our brains focus our attention on the threat.

In doing so, the brain diverts scarce resources away from the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the area we use to set goals, make plans, control impulses, solve problems, visualize the unknown and think creatively -- in short, the part of our brain we use to do good work.

The PFC is the seat of our conscious thinking. Deprive it of fuel, and we make mistakes, lose our train of thought, forget key information, miss patterns and waste time. Productivity falls, and so does job satisfaction.

How can we work more effectively with the brain? Rock has some suggestions, as do the four authors of "The Brain Advantage" (Prometheus Books), Madeleine Van Hecke, Lisa Callahan, Brad Kolar and Ken Paller, and Charles Jacobs, the author of "Management Rewired" (Portfolio).

-- Become more "mindful" of what our brains are doing:

Whether we are leading teams or taking orders from above, it helps to recognize when our brains, and other people's, are perceiving threats, so we can regulate our reactions.

Acknowledging our emotions -- "I am getting angry/scared/indignant" -- helps us to think before we react rashly. One study shows we generally have 0.2 second to veto an impulse after it emerges from the unconscious.

-- Find the right level of stress:

A little stress is good for most people, but studies show a high level of stress-related chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline can kill existing neurons, and stop the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, which is important for forming memories. Better emotional self-regulation helps (see above), as do talking things over with friends, and physical activity.

-- Find better ways of giving and receiving feedback:

Offering even constructive feedback, let alone punishment for poor performance, can serve to underline the "alpha" status of the giver, writes Jacobs. Organizations that want people to learn should avoid cookie-cutter, depersonalized approaches to feedback, explore more self-appraisal by individuals and teams, ask questions rather than give answers, and strip as much status-threat as they can from the process.

-- Arrange work around the brain's energy levels:

Studies show doing more than one attention-rich task at a time decreases accuracy and performance, and memory starts to degrade when we hold more than one thing at once in our minds.

Whenever possible, we should carve out blocks of time, away from phones and e-mail, for different kinds of thinking. Wading through e-mails while seeking inspiration is a bad idea.

We can only do a few hours of high-grade, conscious thinking in a day -- we should know when our brain does it, and not fill that time with low-grade tasks that can be done when we are tired or low on energy. Prioritizing is key.

-- Build a virtuous circle. Help colleagues feel safe in those key areas defined by Rock: status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness.

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*

40th Birthday for the Muppets

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Sesame Street is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and Google is also celebrating this event. Sesame Street is an integrated American educational children's television series and a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment. Sesame Street is well known for its Muppets characters created by Jim Henson. It premiered on November 10, 1969, and is the longest running children's program on US television.

The show is produced in the United States by the non-profit organization Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), founded by Joan Ganz Cooney and Ralph Rogers.

For bloggers, the Sesame Street anniversary can be used as a blogging topics from a 40 years reviews to a photo gallery. Topic can also centered on each Muppet or the show itself.

Anyway, below are the Google Doodles on the anniversary of Sesame Street:

How to run an efficient home business

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:07:00 +0000

Working full-time from home is not for everyone – for starters, there is the potential to lose motivation, feel isolated or suffer a hit to your previous income.

Then there are the worries about your business image, how to hold meetings at home and handle being a constant slave to your phone.

But if you play your cards right, a home-based business can be a boon for your professional and personal life, say successful home operators including Marcella Reiter, of Magic Words International.

The former teacher and psychologist had something of an accidental start to her business after trying to help her young son learn some of the frequently used words in the English language. One night she stuck some words on an old set of playing cards, and began playing games.

“Instead of learning one word a week he was learning two or three a week. I realised his uptake was so much quicker than the pace of the curriculum at school,” the Melbourne mother said.

Curious, she experimented again, sticking words to cards for her young neighbour to play with. The improvement in her reading was so dramatic that the girl’s teacher called her parents in to explain.

It was then that Ms Reiter realised she had hit on a good idea, and decided to set up shop at home, creating word games and workshops which she estimates are now used in 70 to 80 per cent of all Australian primary schools.

"It’s been sensational. I had three young children when I started this 10 years ago," she said.

"I wanted to do something, never thinking of course it could get this big. I wanted to do something that was really 9 to 3ish, so I could control my own diary."

Her double garage is now the Magic Words "warehouse" and the lounge room her office, while her husband, a part-time employee and a graphic designer also work, but only during school hours. Over the holidays, the business reduces to a skeleton staff.

Ms Reiter said it was a great way to balance family and work life, but did have its temptations.

"You’ve got to be very strict trying to draw the line at not working. It’s too easy on a Saturday or Sunday to want to check emails."

Children were also the impetus for former recruitment manager Jennifer Haynes to quit her job as a recruitment manager at a mid-sized recruitment firm.

Long, inflexible hours meant it was impossible to juggle all her responsibilities, so starting up her business was a necessity, Ms Haynes said.

She resigned from the firm six weeks before she was due, and began her solo operation six weeks into becoming a new mother.

"I had a mortgage and I was a single parent and I went ‘I don’t have a lot of choice’."

In her home business, Super Resources At Work, she still finds suitable candidates for financial services roles, but her work has reduced by a third.

"One-hundred per cent of the fee is 100 per cent of my fee. I don’t have to do the volume of business that I did working for someone else,” she said.

She says it can be a battle to constantly motivate yourself to find new business, but jokes that “starvation’s a great motivator".

The people aspect of her job ensures she is never lonely, but Ms Haynes does stick to a routine and is constantly keeping an eye on the level of work.

On the other side of the industry is Michelle Mills, a former home operator who now owns Serviced Offices International. The Sydney company offers home-based businesses “virtual office” packages, which include a dedicated phone message service, a CBD address, meeting rooms and “hot desks” if home business operators need a break from home.

“We can do a whole lot of different things; we can actually arrange appointments for them and manage their diaries. We can take orders, get information,” she said.

"It gives them administrative support as well so they don’t have to be doing everything; that can be a big problem in home-based businesses."

Ms Mills said she had found women to be more forthcoming about working from home than men, tending to take a certain pride in juggling home life with business.

TIPS ON SUCCEEDING IN YOUR HOME-BASED BUSINESS

Jennifer Haynes, Super Resources At Work:

"It’s a really good life if you’re self-disciplined and if you’re able to motivate yourself. There’s a lot of flexibility but also a lot of hard work. You have to be jack of all trades; you have to be able to do everything."

Michelle Mills, Serviced Offices International:

"Home-based businesses shouldn’t try to do everything themselves...it’s actually detrimental to being successful. It’s important to focus on what you’re good at and what you can outsource elsewhere.

"The other thing is balance in your life: you can actually become a workaholic. It (your home office) has to be a permanent space where you can close the door. You have to be able to say ‘I’m now putting on my business hat and I’m focusing on my business’."

Marcella Reiter, Magic Words International:

"I think you probably do need a network of people to connect with...there are lots of groups that are around for people.

"I would say to any mums, 'do it'. It’s 10 times better. It's fantastic in terms of (cutting out) a lot of the stresses of getting to and from work, having an expensive wardrobe and finding childcare."

Source: theage.com.au

Bisphenol A (BPA) found in canned foods

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Harmful Bisphenol A or BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners has found its way into canned foods item from branded name. Consumer Reports' latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods tested contain measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA).

The results are reported in the December 2009 issue and also available online. BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because it has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease.

Federal guidelines currently put the daily upper limit of safe exposure at 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight. But that level is based on a handful of experiments done in the 1980s rather than hundreds of more recent animal and laboratory studies indicating that serious health risks could result from much lower doses of BPA. Several animal studies show adverse effects, such as abnormal reproductive development, at exposures of 2.4 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day, a dose that could be reached by a child eating one or a few servings daily or an adult daily diet that includes multiple servings of canned foods containing BPA levels comparable to some of the foods Consumer Reports tested.

In keeping with established practices that ensure an adequate margin of safety for human exposure, Consumer Reports' food-safety scientists recommend limiting daily exposure to BPA to one-thousandth of that level (standard safety limit setting practice), or 0.0024 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, significantly lower than FDA's current safety limit.

Consumer Reports tested three different samples of each canned item for BPA and found that the highest levels of BPA tests were found in some samples of canned green beans and canned soups. Canned Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans Blue Lake had the highest amount of BPA for a single sample, with levels ranging from 35.9 parts per billon (ppb) to 191 ppb. Progresso Vegetable Soup BPA levels ranged from 67 to 134 ppb. Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup had BPA levels ranging from 54.5 to 102 ppb.

Average amounts in tested products varied widely. In most items tested, such as canned corn, chili, tomato sauce, and corned beef, BPA levels ranged from trace amounts to about 32 ppb. (A microgram BPA /kg food is equivalent to a ppb level found in food, the only difference being that it's a microgram of BPA/kg of food tested versus the exposure or dose limits of microgram of BPA/kg of a person's body weight per day. So, in the example of the green beans, based on one serving of the average level from three cans tested, the average concentration is 123.5ppb of BPA in the can, the next conversion is to ug BPA per serving, 14.9 ug BPA / serving of green beans, so for a small child (22lbs or 10kg) that would calculate to 1.49 ug BPA/kg-bw and for an adult (example used in the magazine, 165lb, 75kg) .20 ug BPA/kg bw for a 75kg adult.)

The study also revealed that bypassing metal cans in favor of other packaging such as plastic containers or bags might lower but not eliminate exposure to BPA, but this wasn't true for all products tested. In addition, BPA was found in some products labeled as "organic" and some cans that claimed to be "BPA-free."

"The findings are noteworthy because they indicate the extent of potential exposure," said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of Technical Policy, at Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. "Children eating multiple servings per day of canned foods with BPA levels comparable to the ones we found in some tested products could get a dose of BPA near levels that have caused adverse effects in several animal studies. The lack of any safety margin between the levels that cause harm in animals and those that people could potentially ingest from canned foods has been inadequately addressed by the FDA to date."

Consumers Union has previously called on manufacturers and government agencies to act to eliminate the use of BPA in all materials that come in contact with food and beverages. An FDA special scientific advisory panel reported in late 2008 that the agency's basis for setting safety standards to protect consumers was inadequate and should be reevaluated. A congressional subcommittee determined in 2009 that the agency relied too heavily on studies sponsored by the American Plastics Council.

Given the new findings, Consumers Union sent a letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg reiterating its request that the agency act this year to ban the use of BPA in food- and beverage-contact materials. FDA is expected to announce the findings of its most recent reassessment of the safety of BPA by the end of this month. Bills are currently pending in Congress that would ban the use of BPA in all food and beverage containers. Industry has been waging a fight against new regulations, and California Assembly members recently voted not to ban BPA from feeding products for children under three.

Consumer Reports is advising those who are concerned that they might be able to reduce, though not necessarily eliminate, their dietary exposure to BPA by taking the following steps:

Choose fresh food whenever possible.
Consider alternatives to canned food, beverages, juices, and infant formula.
Use glass containers when heating food in microwave ovens.

Gun Dealers Making Money From Hot Selling Bullets

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:20:00 +0000

What's up with America? Sales of properties, cars and other things in the US are declining due to bad economy but bullets are selling like hot cakes. Americans have spent record-breaking amounts of money on guns and ammunition and the most obvious sign of their demand: empty ammunition shelves. At points during the past year, bullets have been selling faster than factories could make them.

Gun owners have bought about 12 billion rounds of ammunition in the past year, industry officials estimate. That's up from 7 billion to 10 billion in a normal year.

It has happened, oddly, at a time when the two concerns that usually make people buy guns and bullets -- crime and increased gun control -- seem less threatening than usual.

The explanation for the run on bullets lies partly in economics: Once rounds were scarce, people hoarded them, which made them scarcer.

But the rush for bullets, like this year's increase in gun sales, also says something about how suspicious the two sides in the gun-control debate are of each other, even at a time when the issue is on Washington's back burner.

The run started, observers say, as people heeded warnings from the gun-rights lobby that a new Democratic administration would make bullets more expensive or harder to get. Now that the shortage is starting to ease, gun-control groups are voicing their own dark worries about stockpiled ammunition.

In between, in the 12 months since last October, gun shops sold enough bullets to give every American 38 of them.

The increase in gun buying during the past year explains a large part of the increase in ammunition sales to the private market, experts on the industry say -- but probably not all of it.

They say that bullets were bought not just by new gun owners but also by those who already owned weapons. And they say bullet sales might have increased even faster if supply had kept up with demand.

Bullet makers say the reasons for these shortages include the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have made bullet components such as copper and brass more expensive.

Reason for alarm?

The high sales have alarmed some anti-gun groups. Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center said he worries about a revival of the anti-government militia movement of the Clinton era.

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Soshokukei Danshi - Japan's Newest Demographic

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:55:00 +0000

Soshokukei Danshi is a general term referring to not a conventionally minded Japanese woman, but a thoughtful, articulate and fashionably dressed young man who is a member of a large and growing tribe of Japanese manhood that is attracting the fascinated and anxious attention of companies, academics and the mass media. Two phrases have been coined to describe them: soshokukei danshi or “herbivorous males”, and Ojo-man – or “girly men”. Read also Japan's Herbivore Men Were Flaky And Weak

Although most of them are not homosexual they have in common a disdain for the traditional accoutrements of Japanese manhood, and a taste for things formerly regarded as exclusively female. Girly men have no interest in fast cars, career success, designer labels and trophy women but may wear male's bras. Instead, they hold down humble jobs, cultivate women as friends rather than conquests and spend their free time shopping at small boutiques and pursuing in Japan what is regarded as a profoundly feminine pastime: eating cakes.

Sociologists worry about the effect on the shrinking population of a generation of men who are not interested in girls. Marketeers ponder how to sell to this new, unfamiliar demographic.

The last few years have seen a range of products to cater to a broadening of tastes among Japanese men. Japanese brewers have introduced weaker beers as sales of conventional alcoholic beverages have declined. A company named WishRoom sells bras for men — designed with manly simplicity, free of lace and frills.

Not everyone regards the emergence of the girly men as completely positive. This unfamiliar demographic had come about as a result of economic decline: if young men were foregoing designer labels, expensive cars and hot dates at flash restaurants it was largely because, after the bursting of the Bubble and 15 years of stagnation, far fewer of them can afford these luxuries.

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Expand your social networking with Poken

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:24:00 +0000

Have you ever wished your social network could expand with a wave of your hand? Or, that you could scroll back in time to see who you met, where and when? Now you can! Just tap poken-to-poken, and you are instantly connected to your friends, colleagues. and potential clients. Choose how people view your contact information, and view your friends' pages on Facebook, MySpace, and many other networks. Never again will you need to scribble your email address, screen name, or telephone number on a napkin! Simply slaps the Poken.

The digital business card is not really a new idea. A hit at the recent bloggers' conference in Las Vegas, the tiny Poken hangs on a keychain, doubles as a storage drive and shares your contact details with other Poken owners. To exchange info, you hold up the tiny hand, its palm glows green, and the exchange is done. Plug the USB drive into your computer and you'll have the contact info on the profile that you've set up at Poken.

Poken takes offline social networking to the online universe and it allow you to expand your network without scouring for online friends. It's is like an offline advertising to promote one self. On a side note, Poken is only available in limited territories.

What is Poken

Poken is a technology that utilizes a proprietary Near Field Communication technology also called radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to allow the exchange of online social networking data between two keychain accessories.

Typical Usage of a Poken

A typical usage scenario consists of:

1. User meets User
2. User 'high five' his or her Poken with that of the other user. Essentially holding them against each other (such that the coils inside the token are more or less aligned).
3. The two Poken flashes green to signal that a bond was made.
4. At home, the User plugs in his or her token into the USB port.
5. The token is recognized as a standard (read only) disk.
6. The user opens an HTML file from the disk (either manually, or through the AUTOSTART.INF mechanism).
7. The HTML file contains a page which forwards the user to the Poken website. The URL forwarded to contains the Poken its unique identifier as well as the unique IDs of the most recent 64 pokens seen.
8. The website detects any new pokens seen - and adds them to the various buddy lists.

How RFID Works

RFID tags, a technology once limited to tracking cattle, are tracking consumer products worldwide. Many manufacturers use the tags to track the location of each product they make from the time it's made until it's pulled off the shelf and tossed in a shopping cart.

Outside the realm of retail merchandise, RFID tags are tracking vehicles, airline passengers, Alzheimer's patients and pets. Soon, they may even track your preference for chunky or creamy peanut butter. Some critics say RFID technology is becoming too much a part of our lives -- that is, if we're even aware of all the parts of our lives that it affects.

Related links:
* I Love Poken
* Do you Poken

Nicolas Cage in Financial Ruin

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:40:00 +0000

How could one of Hollywood's highest paid actors find himself owing $6.3 million in back taxes and deep in money troubles? The answer is easy if you believe Nicolas Cage.

In a lawsuit filed Oct. 16 in Los Angeles, the National Treasure star, 45, claims that his longtime business manager, Samuel J. Levin, duped "lined his [own] pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin."

That journey began in 2001 when Cage – whose next movie is the crime drama Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans – hired Levin to oversee and manage his business interests, investments and finances. Levin did not return calls seeking comment. A rep for Cage had no comment.

Though Cage claims it was only recently that he learned the gravity of his financial condition, the actor started selling off some of his prized possessions months ago. In April, Cage bid farewell to his Bavarian castle (read alsoTop 9 World's Biggest Castles And Palaces), selling it to his German advisor, lawyer Konrad Wilfurth.

Now he has placed other homes on the market in California, Las Vegas and New Orleans, where two of his residences – each worth at about $3.5 million – are up for auction Nov. 12, according to the that city's Times-Picayune. Regions Bank foreclosed on Hancock Park Real Estate Co., the owner of Cage's properties, for $5.5 million in unpaid mortgage debts, the newspaper reported.

Cage's home liquidation comes as earlier this month the U.S. government placed a tax lien on his vast real-estate holdings because of $6 million in unpaid taxes dating from 2007, according to court papers. In addition, the Internal Revenue Service has another lien for more than $350,000 in unpaid taxes dating from 2002 to 2004.

East West Bank also filed a breach-of-contract complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court that claims Cage had failed to repay a $2 million loan that was extended this past August.

In the lawsuit filed against his business manager, Cage says he "relied on Levin to handle his financial affairs to ensure that he and his family would have a financially secure future built on the foundation of the substantial monies Cage earned through years of hard work."

But "he is now forced to sell major assets and investments at a significant loss and is faced with huge tax liabilities because of Levin's incompetence, misrepresentations and recklessness." (Interestingly, Cage sold off his rare comic-book collection in 2002 for more than $1.6 million, a year after hiring Levin.)

Now as the actor gets ready to hit the big screen again this fall, he faces "catastrophic losses" in upwards of $20 million. The next court hearing in the lawsuit is scheduled for February 2010.

Related posts:
* Visual Guide To The Financial Crisis

Make money as Hauntrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:48:00 +0000

Can you imagine scaring people and get paid for it. The business of scaring is indeed one of its kind and is picking up shares from the economy. Those doing the scaring business are called the hauntrepreneurs and those guys know their stuffs. To attract customers, they held seasonal frightfests and build haunted houses all over the country. And they even have Haunted House Association.

Most businesses would hate to see their customers running out their doors, but in one suburban strip mall near Denver, Colorado, they are chasing the customers away -- with a chainsaw.

"We're 'hauntrepreneurs,' we like to do things that are just a little bit different," says KathE Walker, who owns four haunted houses in the Denver area.

"It's really exciting because you know you've done a good job," Walker says. "If they are running out screaming, then the actors have done their jobs, everybody has had a good time because they want to be scared. That's why they come.

"If they're not scared, they won't come back."

KathE Walker -- the capital E isn't a typo, "it's a '60s thing," she says -- laughs a lot for a woman in the business of scaring her customers. Walker, 59, runs her haunts with her husband and two grown sons.

They spend the rest of the year making props for other around the country and they throw a big science fiction convention each spring.

Despite the tough economy, Walker says, business is good. She anticipates a total of 40,000 - 50,000 visitors, each paying $14.95 to get scared. She employs about 175 people for the Halloween season.

Three of her haunts are in unused storefronts in suburban strip malls and a fourth operates out of trailers in a field near a state park. Visitors are also asked to contribute a can of food for a local food bank.

Larry Kirchner, president of the Haunted House Association, says business is booming across the country for seasonal frightfests. The association says there are 2,000 for-profit haunts across the country, plus another 1,000 houses run for charity.

Around 20 million fright-seekers will pay an average of $15 a visit this Halloween season, according to the group. That's a surprising figure to some in these lean economic times.

"We feel very fortunate," Walker says. "I know that the economy is very scary for a lot of people. The people that we aim the haunted houses at are kids in high school and college, kids that have a lot more disposable income. They're still living with their parents.

"We don't draw a lot of people that are desperate to make their mortgages. ... It's great date-night stuff. Guys love bringing their girlfriends here, they're holding onto them. It's fun."

It's fun for Walker, too. While giving a tour of Slaughterhouse Gulch, which features a series of movie monsters, she giggles as a cluster of date-night teenagers scream and run from Leatherface, the villain from the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" films.

"You make some money, obviously that's why you keep doing it," she says. "But for the most part we put a lot of money back into the haunted house so we can keep making them bigger and better. ... It can be kind of expensive. You cross your fingers each year hoping people will come."

Walker says she loves the challenge of scaring people.

"Some people come in and they say 'Oh you can't scare me,' " she says. "And they all end up running out of here, just terrified."

So what scares Walker?

"Clowns. I hate clowns. It took me a long time to finally let clowns be in the haunted house."

'Scaring people is really fun'

Walker staffs her haunted houses with teens and 20-somethings who seem to have as much fun as the patrons.

In the makeup room, Chris Parish is getting ready for his first day on the job. He'll be playing the guy chained in the bathtub from the movie "Saw."

"Today is my first day scheduled, so I actually get to get paid for scaring people," he says. "Scaring people is really fun and it's something that I love to do."

Halloween is makeup artist Michael Garvin's favorite time of year. He was laid off in July and hasn't been able to find another job, but during October he works days at a costume shop and nights making up the 35-40 actors who fill two of Walker's haunts.

"When I was really young I fell in love with Halloween and then horror movies," he said. "I love this. I'd do this just for the fun of it, but the paycheck at the end of the month is a good thing."

Caity Strother is 18 and has had trouble finding a job. It's her second year working in Slaughterhouse Gulch, where she specializes in portraying an undead ghoul.

"I've filled out probably 50 applications in the last two months and gotten maybe four calls back," she said.

Years of Catholic school have given Strother a skill that prospective employers have not been impressed by, but she puts it to good use in the haunted house.

"I get to yell at people in Latin," she says.

Scaring people for fun and money

1,000 days Countdown to 2012 London Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:05:00 +0000

Fireworks have lit up parts of the capital to mark 1,000 days before the 2012 London Olympics begin. As part of several events across the city on Saturday, the BT Tower in central London was illuminated by a fireworks display as its giant screen flashed the landmark figure. What will you do in the next 1,000 days?

With construction underway on the main stadium, velodrome, aquatics center, basketball arena, media center and athletes' village, London organizers say it has met all its targets. Though there are proposals to move badminton and rhythmic gymnastics away from their original venues to save money.

Bibles seizures in Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:58:00 +0000

Authorities in Malaysia have seized more than 20,000 Bibles in recent months because they refer to God as "Allah," Christian leaders said Thursday.

The seizures have fed fears among minority groups, which see signs of encroaching Islamic fundamentalism in the predominantly Muslim but multi-racial country.

"There is a growing sense of Islamic assertion, yes," said the Rev. Hermen Shastri, general-secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia. "There is some concern."

The Bibles were written in the country's official language, Malay -- in which the word for God is "Allah," as it is in Arabic.

However, Malaysia's government says the word is exclusive to Islam. (BT: Even the Arabs doesn't copyright the word "Allah")

Its use in Christian publications is likely to confuse Muslims and draw them to Christianity, the government says. So it has banned use of the word in Christian literature.

"Malay has borrowed from Arabic, just as it has from Sanskrit and Portuguese," Shastri said. "We have maintained the community has the right to use the word.

"But I think this has ignited a cause in the Muslim communities, who are interpreting it as a siege on Islamic beliefs."

A Home Ministry official directed requests for comment to the ministry's Publications and Quran Text Control Department, which enforces the ban. An employee there redirected calls to a spokeswoman, who in turn asked CNN to call the Home Ministry back. Calls to other departments were similarly redirected.

A Roman Catholic weekly newspaper, The Herald, is challenging the ban in court after the government threatened to revoke its license for using the word in its Malay edition. Hearings on the case have gone on for two years.

"We quote it as it is. We cannot change the text of the Scripture," Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew told CNN last year. "I cannot be the editor of the Bible."

Among the Bibles confiscated were Malay-language ones that the Bible Society of Malaysia said it had imported from Indonesia. About 10,000 others also were confiscated from Gideons International, which places free copies in hotel rooms and other places.

The Malaysian constitution provides for freedom of religion. The country has a dual-track justice system, in which Islamic courts operate alongside civil ones.

Rulings by the Islamic, or sharia, courts are directed toward the country's Muslim, who make up 60 percent of the population. But they worry non-Muslims who see them as Islamism seeping into the moderate nation's fabric.

In November, the National Fatwa Council -- the country's top Islamic body -- banned Muslims from practicing yoga. It said elements of Hinduism in yoga can corrupt Muslims.

The council also bans short hair and boyish behavior for girls, saying they encourage homosexuality.

In northern Malaysia's Kelantan state, authorities have forbidden bright lipstick and high-heeled shoes, saying the bans will safeguard Muslim women's morals and dignity, as well as thwart rape.

And last month, an Islamic court judge in the eastern state of Pahang upheld a verdict to cane a Muslim woman for drinking beer in public.

The country has been mired in inter-faith disputes as well in recent months. In those cases, many non-Muslims complain that the civil courts generally cede control to Islamic courts.

Muslims cannot convert to other religions without the permission of the Islamic courts, which rarely approve such requests.

In relationships in which a Muslim parent has converted children to Islam over the objection of a non-Muslim parent, the sharia courts usually have upheld the conversions.

And earlier this year, a Sikh family lost a court battle to cremate a relative after officials said the man had converted to Islam years before his death, though the family said he hadn't.

Related posts:
* Learning to Live With Radical Islam
* Child Executions In Iran
* Struggle of Pakistani Christians

The Bank Account of Life

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:06:00 +0000

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.

It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every “evening” deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.

What would you do?

Draw out every cent, of course!!!!

Each of us has such a “bank”. It’s name is TIME.
Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.
It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the tomorrow.
You must live in the present on today’s deposits.
Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!
The clock is running.
Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR….
ask a student who failed a grade

To realize the value of ONE MONTH…..
ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby

To realize the value of ONE WEEK……
ask the editor of a weekly newspaper

To realize the value of ONE HOUR……
ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE…..
ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND….
ask a person who just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND…..
ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have!

And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time. And remember that time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is mystery.

Today is a gift.

That s why it s called … the Present!!

Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed.

They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.

They lend an ear.

They share a word of praise, and they always want to open their heart to us.

Show your friends how much you care.

Show your friends how much you care ..... Send this to everyone you consider A FRIEND.

Typhoon Mirinae to hit Philippines

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:31:00 +0000

Philippines authorities ordered schools to close and stockpiled relief goods throughout Luzon, as Typhoon Mirinae bore down on the archipelago, where about 1,100 people have died in tropical cyclones this year.

Primary and secondary schools in most parts of Luzon were suspended, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said on its Web site today. More than 1,000 ferry passengers were stranded in ports after the government banned ships and other vessels from taking to the sea, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported, citing a coastguard official.

The typhoon’s expected landfall coincides with All Saints’ weekend, when many Filipinos travel by boat and other means to their home provinces in the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. They also visit cemeteries to pay respects to their ancestors.

The Philippines has been battered by more than 10 cyclones this year, according to the council’s Web site. More than 121,000 people remain in evacuation centers after two cyclones barreled into Luzon, the most populous island, since Sept. 26.

The Philippine National Police sent rescue boats to northern and central Luzon from Manila at 6 a.m. to add to equipment in those areas, Chief Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome, said in a phone interview.

Boats have also been stationed in Manila, he said. About 80 percent of Manila, a city of almost 12 million people, was flooded after Tropical Storm Ketsana passed over on Sept. 26.

Mirinae’s eye was 360 kilometers (225 miles) east-southeast of the city of Casiguran on eastern Luzon at 10 a.m. local time today, the Philippines weather office said.

The storm has maximum sustained winds of 150 kph, with gusts to 185 kph, and was moving west-southwest at 22 kph, the office said.

The Storm Signal No. 3 was raised for the coastal areas east of Manila and the Polillo islands, meaning winds of between 100 and 185 kph are expected. Storm Signal No. 2, indicating winds of between 60 and 100 kph are expected, was hoisted for most of the rest of Luzon.

Mirinae, referred to as Santi in the Philippines, is forecast to make landfall east of Manila after 2 a.m. tomorrow and sweep across the capital before heading over the South China Sea, according to the agency’s forecast.

The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday sent rescue divers to the eastern coast of Luzon and to areas on the western coast where Mirinae is forecast to exit the island.

As many as 800 people were killed after a ferry sank in June last year when Typhoon Fengshen slammed into the Philippines.

Related posts:
* Typhoon Lupit (Ramil) to hit Philippines
* After Ketsana Philippines braced for super typhoon Parma

Thomas Petters admitted $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:17:00 +0000

Petters Group Worldwide LLC founder Thomas Petters, charged with overseeing a $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme, admitted he knew his phony deals over electronic equipment amounted to a crime, a prosecutor said.

Petters, 52, duped hedge funds into funding fictitious shipments of TVs and DVD players for more than a decade, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Dixon told jurors in opening statements of Petters’s fraud trial yesterday. Federal agents arrested Petters after one of the executive’s subordinates alerted them to the scheme, Dixon added.

“This is one big f---ing fraud,” Petters acknowledged in a tape-recorded conversation played for jurors in federal court in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Petters, whose bankrupt business empire once included Sun Country Airlines Inc. and Polaroid Corp., pleaded not guilty to a 20-count indictment accusing him of mail and wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.

Prosecutors expect to call Deanna Coleman, Petters’s longtime assistant, to testify against her former boss. Coleman tipped off investigators about the 13-year scheme and later pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

The 2004 murder of Petters’s son in Italy sent the executive into a tailspin and he stopped monitoring the activities of his businesses, John Hopeman, one of his defense lawyers, told jurors in his opening statement yesterday. Petters blames Coleman and other subordinates for doing phony deals without his knowledge.

“It’s true that there was a big fraud at Petters Companies from the late ‘90s to 2008,” Hopeman said. “It’s also true that this fraud was committed by the government’s witnesses. Mr. Petters had nothing to do with it.”

Petters resigned from the company he founded in 1994 after Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided his headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, in September 2008. Investigators said they had evidence that hedge funds invested in phantom bulk orders of electronics for retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Sam’s Club warehouse stores and Costco Wholesale Corp.

The funds included Minneapolis-based Interlachen Capital Group LP, Dallas-based Apriven Partners LP and Ritchie Capital Management LLC in Lisle, Illinois, according to court documents filed in federal court in Minnesota.

Prosecutors allege Petters and his team created fake documents about electronics purchases to lure hedge fund into financing the purported deals. He used money raised from later deals to pay returns to earlier investors, the government said.

When investors questioned him about late payments or demanded to see equipment, Petters would concoct tales about business problems or find new investors to pay off disgruntled ones, Dixon said.

FBI officials only learned about the Ponzi scheme after Coleman, who had served as Petters office manager since 1993, tipped them off in September 2008. Investigators sent Coleman back to the firm equipped with a wire to record conversations with her boss.

Within several hours, Coleman had recorded Petters admitting purchase orders for electronic shipments were “fake” and investors didn’t know it. He also told Coleman he was considering buying the Eastman Kodak Co. and wrapping phony deals into the transaction so he could close down the Ponzi scheme.

“Here’s how we’re getting out of the crime,” Petters says on the tape, which was played for jurors yesterday.

In another conversation, Petters tells Coleman that only through “divine intervention” could they “have gotten away with this for so long.”

‘Full of Shame’

Petters also told his assistant, whom he dated for a time, that he was “full of shame” over the actions of his company and apologized for pulling Coleman into the scheme. “I am so sorry that I ever got you in this s--t,” he said in the e-mail.

Hopeman countered that while Petters was an accomplished salesman, he didn’t have the corporate skills necessary to run companies.

“He has the attention span of a cocker spaniel -- about 15 seconds,” the defense lawyer told the 10-woman, six-man jury. “He couldn’t read a whole book if his life depended on it.”

He said Coleman and other Petters Group employees had stopped making legitimate deals and kept the firm’s chairman and chief executive in the dark about it.

“What he didn’t know was that they stopped doing deals. It was easier that way,” the former federal prosecutor told jurors. “Compared to fooling everybody else, it’s not hard to fool Thomas J. Petters.”

The trial, before U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle, is slated to last six weeks, according to court filings.

The case is U.S. v. Thomas Joseph Petters, 08-00364, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota (St. Paul).

Related posts:
* Billionaire Stanford arrested for Ponzi Scheme fraud
* Madoff rich and famous Ponzi scheme victims
* How to make money with Ponzi Scheme

Eclair - The droolworthy Android 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:02:00 +0000

Google has officially unveiled the features of its new, highly-anticipated operating system: Android 2.0 (codename "Eclair"). Supposedly, there's all kinds of improvements: Searchable SMS, Exchange support, more in-depth camera controls, a better keyboard with full multitouch, a revamped browser with a better UI and HTML5 support, and it goes on.

Here's a quick overview of some of the new features included in Android 2.0, from InformationWeek:

* Support for multiple Google and Exchange accounts
* Third-party "sync adapters" allow apps to tie in to the phone's sync services
* Quick contact menus for fast access to specific key pieces of contact information
* Unified email inbox
* SMS and MMS search
* Text message auto-delete after a user-defined thread size is reached
* Significantly improved camera controls with white balance, macro, effects, and more
* Improved keyboard layout, dictionary, and algorithm based on multi-touch support
* Double-tap zoom in browser, support for HTML5
* Bluetooth 2.1 support with addition of OPP and PBAP profiles
* "Better" graphics hardware acceleration

Check out the official Google Android video below for details on what to expect in the new platform.

Related posts:
* Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 phones
* University of iTunes
* The Tide of Google Wave

Asia Liew Ya Hang is one lucky boy

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:46:00 +0000

The baby boy, who created Malaysia headlines when he was born on an AirAsia plane, has been named Asia Liew Ya Hang. His mother Liew Siaw Hsia said the Chinese name ‘Ya Hang’ means ‘AirAsia’ in Mandarin. Read also Liew Siaw Hsia Get Free Flights For Life From AirAsia

“It’s the best name I can give my son who was the first baby born on the airline’s plane,” she said in a statement yesterday.

The mother and baby are currently at the Putrajaya Hospital.

Asia Liew Ya Hang was safely delivered on board Flight AK 6506 on Oct 21 when the aircraft was about 800m in the air.

The flight from Penang to Kuching was diverted to the low-cost carrier terminal here when Liew went into premature labour.

The airline has presented Liew and the baby free flight tickets for life to celebrate the birth.

Geocities Termination Will Improved Search Ranking

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:50:00 +0000

RIP GeoCities - was a trending topic on Twitter where all Twitter users bid farewell to GeoCities. The personal Web-hosting site, launched in 1995 and owned by Yahoo Inc. since 1999, was to be shut down by Tuesday. For Yahoo!, this adds on to the fact that the Search Engine Giant is losing its grip on the Internet, after it has also previously shut down ventures, such as Yahoo! Pets and Yahoo! Live.

It's a move that will scrub from the Web a significant, albeit dated, piece of Internet history and the pages where millions first tried their hands at coding and designing. It will also improve your site search ranking whereby non-active pages from Geocities will be purged. Read also Geocities No More (an announcement made back in April 2009).

GeoCities, in its heyday, was an online hub for Internet communities, connecting related pages through "web rings" that predated the massive footprints of MySpace and Facebook by nearly a decade.

For some, creating guest books, visitor counters and streaming HTML marquee tags on GeoCities was a stepping-off point into a new digital age.

As the Web evolved, visits to the largely stagnant GeoCities declined sharply and had continued to fall in the months since April, when Yahoo announced the site would be closed.

In September, GeoCities pages had about 10.3 million unique users, according to analysts comScore Inc. That was a 16 percent drop from the 12.1 million they'd seen just a year earlier.

GeoCities was the third most-visited site on the Web in December 1998, behind AOL and Yahoo!, with 19 million unique visitors, according to a CNNMoney report.

New Media Browser From Wyzo

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Wyzo is an awesome new browser that optimizes your online media experience. Or should I say that Wyzo is just prefect for file sharing freaks. It will accelerate your web downloads, let you download torrents with a single click, discover media in your browser and much more. The Wyzo browser, which is currently in Beta development stage is operated by Radical Software Ltd, a new international Software start-up based in Jersey, UK. Some of Wyzo cool features are listed below.

Wyzo claimed to have Supercharged Downloads feature

Your downloads just got quicker! Wyzo incorporates multi-source downloading wherever possible to significantly accelerate your web downloads - supercharge those downloads!

Wyzo Integration With BitTorrent

Downloading BitTorrent files has never been easier - Wyzo lets you browse and download torrents right from within your surfing environment - thats right, no other software required!

Wyzo Quick Switch Tabs

Quick switching makes it that much easier for you to switch between your active tabs. Now, simply pressing Ctrl+Tab presents you with a highly visual, intuitive tab switching format.

Wyzo and CoolIris - Cinematic Web

Transform your browser into a lightning fast, cinematic way to discover the web. Watch your favorite movies, TV shows, YouTube and music videos right within your web browser!

Get a copy of Wyzo, free. I have downloaded and installed a copy of Wyzo on my notebook and it performed better than Chrome. My favorite browser is still FireFox though.

Non-English Domain Names

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:08:00 +0000

As you know, domain names or the http URL addresses has always been in English from day one of Internet existence. But that probably will change (the biggest changes, that is) when those in the power allow domain names to be in non-English after four-decade of Internet history. For example, www.money.com could be in 万维网钱的.com or www.topblogger.com in www.顶部博客.com. Or www.скачать бесплатно.com as in www.freedownload.com in Russian. This changes could be the next Internet gold mine as far as domain names registration business is concern. Imagine making money from the كسب المال domain.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN – the non-profit group that oversees domain names – is holding a meeting this week in Seoul. Domain names are the monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post, such as ".com" and other suffixes.

One of the key issues to be taken up by ICANN's board at this week's gathering is whether to allow for the first time entire Internet addresses to be in scripts that are not based on Latin letters. That could potentially open up the Web to more people around the world as addresses could be in characters as diverse as Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic – in which Russian is written.

"This is the biggest change technically to the Internet since it was invented 40 years ago," Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the ICANN board, told reporters, calling it a "fantastically complicated technical feature." He said he expects the board to grant approval on Friday, the conference's final day.

The Internet's roots are traced to experiments at a U.S. university in 1969 but it wasn't until the early 1990s that its use began expanding beyond academia and research institutions to the public.

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's new president and CEO, said that if the change is approved, ICANN would begin accepting applications for non-English domain names and that the first entries into the system would likely come sometime in mid 2010.

Enabling the change, Thrush said, is the creation of a translation system that allows multiple scripts to be converted to the right address.

"We're confident that it works because we've been testing it now for a couple of years," he said. "And so we're really ready to start rolling it out."

Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, Beckstrom – a former chief of U.S. cybersecurity – said that more than half use languages that have scripts based on alphabets other than Latin.

"So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world's Internet users today, but more than half of probably the future users as the use of the Internet continues to spread," he said.

Beckstrom, in earlier remarks to conference participants, recalled that many people had said just three to five years ago that using non-Latin scripts for domain names would be impossible to achieve.

"But you the community and the policy groups and staff and board have worked through them, which is absolutely incredible," he said.

Internationalized domain name (web address supporting non-English characters)

An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains one or more non-ASCII characters. Such domain names could contain letters with diacritics, as required by many languages, or characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari or Hebrew. However, the standard for domain names does not allow such characters, and much work has gone into finding a way to internationalize domain names into a standard ASCII format, thereby preserving the stability of the domain name system.

IDN was originally proposed in 1996 by M. Dürst and implemented in 1998 by Tan Juay Kwang and Leong Kok Yong under the guidance of T.W. Tan (James Seng was only recruited later after he joined the nascent company, i-dns.net). After much debate and many competing proposals, a system called Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) was adopted as a standard, and has been implemented in several top level domains.

In IDNA, the term internationalized domain name means specifically any domain name consisting only of labels to which the IDNA ToASCII algorithm can be successfully applied. In March 2008, the IETF formed a new IDN working group to update the current IDNA protocol.

China's Twitter Clones

noreply@blogger.com (BlogTactic) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:29:00 +0000

When it comes to manufacturing products, China topped other countries in copying other people products with the same specification but with lower quality and lower price. And the Internet is no different. Twitter.com, the Internet micro blogging sensation is not spared either. China have the following sites that mimic Twitter in concept and look and feel. The only thing that separate Twitter and its China's clones is the language. Read also List of Twitter Clones

The top sites successfully copying Twitter are 1. Taotao.com, 2. Fanfou.com, 3. Jiwai.de and newcomer 4. Digu.com. What’s most interesting to note is each site’s very different strategy on their quest to capture the micro-blogging market.

The point of difference then not in design, but in marketing strategy. Taotao used QQ, Fafou, went for a straight copy of twitter; Jiwai on the other hand went with more involved functions, while Digu put more emphasis on quality of members, enlisting many notable celebrities use its service, in addition to creating a “nexus” feature, allowing members to update all their micro blogging sites from a central Digu control panel.

This strategy seems to be best; Taotao’s success is based on using QQ, an already established network; Digu’s strategy is to allow updating across all platforms from Digu’s interface which also leverages established networks; ie: instead of signing up for yet another site, users are in fact simplifying communications across the board.

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