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Optimizing Facebook Fan Page Design

2012-02-11T05:44:00.001+08:00

Optimizing Facebook Fan Page Design

Posted: 10 Feb 2012 09:17 AM PST

Lately I have developed a new fan page for my band. I will use internet marketing approach to market this band name. One of the method is through social media platform such as Facebook.

This is kind of note for myself, but I think others will also benefits from the little information provided here.

Profile Picture

The first thing after creating the Facebook fan page is uploading the profile picture.

The maximum, optimized size for the profile picture are 180 pixels for the width and 540 pixels for the height of the image.

Here is the example of what I put in the profile picture for my fan page, Sun of the Dawn.

As you can see, it’s not just a “profile picture” but also serve as “banner” for this page.

The next thing is to optimize the photo strip on top of the wall post section.

Photo Strip

Facebook, as of February 2012 randomized the order of the photo strip every time your refresh the page. So making an arranged photo strip doesn’t work anymore. But that doesn’t mean you can’t optimize this area.

I simply upload different photo which still meaningful to the page.

The optimize photo size ratio is 97×68. Whether it is 97 pixels x 68 pixels or 970 pixels x 680 pixels. When this ratio used, the cropped thumbnail will be shown correctly in the photo strip.

Here’s how my fan page photo strip look like.

Page Tab App

I use two page tab app.

They are, Static iFrame Tab and Hosted iFrame – Home Icon

I use Hosted iFrame to host the image that I will use in the Static iFrame Tab.

Static iFrame tab offers more flexible html codes in the app, while Hosted iFrame is kind of limited but have a strong feature to host the images in SSL enable server.

Page Tab Ideal Size

The ideal size is 520 pixels width and 800 pixels height so the iFrame won’t scroll within the iFrame. It is ugly if that thing happen.

After you design your page tab, simply upload all the image assets to Hosted iFrame and then paste the html code onto the Static iFrame. Settings page. Disable the Hosted iFrame tab from your fan page, don’t worry it will still work.

Here’s how my page tab look like for non-fans. (People who not yet like the fan page.)

I’m giving incentives to the people who like the fan page by giving them free music download.

Here is the page look like when the visitors already liked the page.

As you can see, there’s a Facebook register form below the Sound Cloud media player.

It is actually an integrated Facebook-Aweber form.

I use Aweber because it is the best email marketing software so far. I’ve tried many but didn’t like them so much.

So since people who can like are the people who already login into Facebook, the capturing process is easier by letting the visitors to click, REGISTER without typing their name and email address.

Beside, email address that people use for Facebook, I believed is the email address that they really use.

Want To Learn About Internet Marketing? I’ll Enlighten You – Reply Here

2012-01-21T05:33:00.001+08:00

Want To Learn About Internet Marketing? I’ll Enlighten You – Reply Here

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 01:08 AM PST

I heard you, you want to learn about internet marketing but you don’t know where to start and you don’t know what to do.

Or you just need a guidance and workflow to follow?

Let’s make this the shortest post in this blog.

Reply here with what you need, and I’ll try to make a post dedicated to you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2011-12-25T06:05:00.001+08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 12:27 AM PST

Here, I want to wish everyone who visit this website a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

May all of you are full of bless and and become more successful in the coming year.

Have You Update To WordPress 3.3?

2011-12-16T06:18:00.001+08:00

Have You Update To WordPress 3.3?

Posted: 14 Dec 2011 08:20 PM PST

I already update several of my blogs using WordPress 3.3. What I can say so far is I like this update and I do not found any issue at all.

There is a web application that I build based on WordPress version 2.0 still works fine in this version 3.3.

To Blog or Not to Blog

Image by cambodiaforkidsorg.

Have you update your blog to version 3.3? If not why not? I always update to the latest version since I usually don’t find any issue with theme or plugin compatibility. There was a time where the issue is with the server-side but that is because of poor maintenance of the server or if the plugins and the theme that caused any error, please asked the plugin and theme author to update their software as soon as possible too.

There’s reason for every update.

Here are some of the update features for WordPress 3.3.

Easier Uploading
- File Type Detection – A single upload button
- Drag-and-Drop Media Uploader
Dashboard Design
- New Toolbar in the dashboard, combining the Admin Bar and admin header
- Responsive design for some screens, including iPad/tablet support
- Flyout menus, providing single-click access to any screen
New User Experience
- New feature pointers, helping users navigate new features
- Post-update About screen
- Dashboard welcome area for new installs
Content Tools
- Better co-editing that releases post locks immediately
- Don’t lose widgets when switching themes
- Tumblr Importer
Under the Hood improvements
- Use the postname permalink structure without a performance penalty
- Improved Editor API
- is_main_query() function and WP_Query method
- Remove a number of funky characters from post slugs
- jQuery 1.7.1 and jQuery UI 1.8.16
- A new Screen API for adding help documentation and adapting to screen contexts
- Improved metadata API

Put “More” Tag Even Though Your Post Is Short

2011-12-03T05:14:00.001+08:00

Put “More” Tag Even Though Your Post Is Short

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 12:53 AM PST

This gonna be a very short post.

Image: Glorious Treats

This is all of it.

But on your blog homepage, or archived page, it will show the “More” or “Read More” which lead to another clicks on your page and open the comments section.

Why Seasoned Supplier Is Bad For Your Online Business

2011-12-01T06:01:00.001+08:00

Why Seasoned Supplier Is Bad For Your Online Business

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 08:17 PM PST

If you read the post about checklist to build an e-commerce site, you can see that I’ve trying to set up an online store to sell a DSLR camera online.

But the project have been abandoned until today because I don’t have the confirmation from the supplier yet about all the products that they can supply to me before I set up the online store.

Let say I just find an official image from Canon or Nikon and put it at my online shop. Then there’s online buyers find my online shop and then try to order it through me but I cannot fulfill their need. Not only I lose the business but also I lose the reputation.

I lose the business because I cannot supply the desired camera to my buyers hence I cannot make any profit.

But words of mouth is a strong and viral. The buyers might lurk in some online forum discussing about their online shopping and some other user mention my online shop but then the disappointed potential buyers that I turn down will have to say that I don’t keep stock, etc.

Before you can actually afford to keep stock, it is good not to do any business with seasoned supplier. Of course for your business future.

Professional Photographer With His DSLR Camera

Image by cinemakit.ru

My Plan For The Domain Name

After doing the keyword research for the best possible domain name, I’ve bought the domain name, dslr-universe.com.

Since the store project failed, decide to develop the domain into a niche blog about DSLR instead. Perhaps not a big one but I will make sure it will be filled up with quality information about digital single lens reflects cameras.

The Potential of Softwares Industry Today

2011-10-13T05:06:00.001+08:00

The Potential of Softwares Industry Today

Posted: 12 Oct 2011 08:23 AM PDT

I admit, the piracy is the major drawback for developers to actually venture into this industry. But just how many software company shut their business and started selling tangible item such as Prada or LV bags?

Tangible products of course have their own target market and their place is very important. But today, we are on digital and electronic age where demand for a software is as high as a demand for a tangible products.

The Risk

Do you ever heard the words “indie” which actually stand for independent. In this term the best meaning it can present to us is independent software developers.

If you ever to think to venture in this industry, start today and not tomorrow as tomorrow will never make it place to come.

Can we look back how other great people are starting out?

Let’s look at the Ebay founder, Piere.

He started Ebay as a one man operator and it’s just for his own personal use. But then just look how big it is? I’m talking about the Ebay foundation, the script, the softwares.

Also other example, Windows, OSX, or Google. They all started small.

Since they are small, actually there is no real risk at all! Wasn’t that a good news for you?

The Potential

Can’t you read back in the Risk part? How big they can be? Take a look on another example like Angry Birds.

With this in mind I will try to venture into this industry and come out with a very simple product for the first time.

With this post published, I already sketch a “raw” plan. I’ll update about it here too later.

When Someone Attack Your Online Reputation

2011-10-01T06:17:00.001+08:00

When Someone Attack Your Online Reputation

Posted: 30 Sep 2011 10:57 AM PDT

Public Relations always the least thing that people always think and they tend to ignore when it comes to create a “web presence”. People usually focus on this thing so-called, “internet marketing” without actually having a proper PR (Public Relations) plan.

PR plan is essential before you actually start your “internet marketing” campaign. Because from brand recognition and good PR plan, your marketing effort will work more effectively and any attack on your reputation will be easily handled.

Other words of PR is reputation management.

Target Publics

Image: Sheelamohan

Maintain a Good Online Reputation

Maintain a good online reputation is a challenging task. Bad feedback from one of your customer may create awareness to other customer who actually experiencing the same problems but decide not to take actions.

Relationship

Image: Rawich

When they see other people taking action by making public statement in social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Google+ they may feel called upon the case and join the group to form a massive army that will ruin your reputation.

Why Should You Care?

Having a bad reputation doesn’t help your business grow. Usually, the negative reputation will stay even after you solve the problems. It’s a scar which visible for a long time frame.

Boycott might happen and making you lose your current customers and future customers.

There must be something wrong to cause such riot online. If it was an attack from your competitors, the riots and rumors might not last even a week. So, you better find out what actually happen on your side first before taking any action and give any commentary.

Think Like a Big Ship and Think The Crisis as a Wave

How big is the crisis?

What happen if you ignore it, what happen if you over reacted?

Big ship don’t get shaken by tiny wave. If it’s tsunami yes, you should be afraid.

When there’s tiny waves hitting on your ship, take a look what happen. If there’s any storm ahead? Should you change direction to avoid the storm?

The tiny waves represent the voices of the people who are dissatisfied with you, don’t ignore. See what the caused. Sometimes, it’s a warning of a coming storm. (Bigger problems who might sink your ship)

But sometimes it’s just a strong sea wind or sea current.

Wrecked Ship

Image: Cecilia

When you notice a big storm coming in your way, make a wise turn and avoid it. It’s better to avoid a storm and not try to face it with confidence. Remember Titanic? Yes, it was hit by glassier but only if the captain make a wise turn, it will not sink.

Turn To The Right Direction

Making a turn is not just turn your ship to just anywhere. You might not know that you’re turning into a hard coral reef which also sink your ship. So study the environment before you make the turn.

What happen if I turn there, if here, there? Ask that.

It is always nice to be calm and don’t make decision in unstable emotional state. Anger and disregard will affect your wise decision. Remember that. Stay calm.

And remember, why you should change your direction for a small silly wave?

You cannot make everyone happy, but try not to have faulty on your side based on the target public on your PR plan. At the same time, try to hold on to your policy as much as you can before make a change, if that change is deadly needed.

Be A Friend – Be Helpful Then The Money Will Come

2011-09-21T05:11:00.001+08:00

Be A Friend – Be Helpful Then The Money Will Come

Posted: 19 Sep 2011 08:41 PM PDT

If you are into a quick cash, fooling your visitors by placing ads at the place that they will click accidentally this might works very well to increase your revenue.

But tell you what, that won’t last long before people are actually sick of it and leave.

Then you will have to fool a new visitors over and over. I know, you’re saying the internet have a very large users. But what if you do it ethically and real business will come later? My point is to become the authority in your particular niche.

Helping Friend

Image: Ambro

During my first year of indulging my self in this so-called internet marketing, I try a lot of “tricks” to increase my revenue. But as I grow my mind-set towards entrepreneurship, I change my strategy from using tricks into building a relationship.

First Step is Public Relations

The very first important step is to create a good reputation of you online. You want people to connect you with something good such as, “he’s a good seller”, “he’s helpful”, “her ideas and works always are fine quality”.

When trying to build a relationship, you must expose your self and your name to as much as possible to your audience. That’s mean before you actually even think how your reputation look like, you should think who is your audience that you will present yourself to.

In internet marketing and affiliates world, this called “niche”. Yes, niche is the people, the audience that you will present the audience to, not the topic itself such as “fat loss”, “stop smoking” or anything.

Tactics & Strategy of Public Relations

One of the strategy, the most effective is to be useful than to persuade. The tactic is if you writing a blog, write something how to solve their problems instead of blasting them with sales pitch. Be transparent as possible. Try to be friend, friends will believe what friends say than some strangers on the internet saying something.

Then The Marketing is Done

After you’ve built your trust, build your relations with other people who you can now call “friends”, you can then promote what the product that will help to solve their problem, or at least ease the problem a little. Keep in touch after that and always make them feel that they need your advise again, another time.

When they asked for another advise, it’s time to suggest them another product which may help them to solve their problems or it’s just to fulfill their desire as a fan service.

I know this sound kinda evil thing to do to your real friends, but that’s how business grow. Then you must keep in mind, what you do not want to recommend to your friends, do not promote it in the first place. (I’m talking about affiliates)

Changing Into New Theme

2011-09-17T05:04:00.001+08:00

Changing Into New Theme

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 07:16 AM PDT

After Mystique theme change its roadmap. I found out that it’s not the best theme anymore. I like the old one but everything have change.

So I change all my websites which powered by WordPress into using Genesis theme series.

Outsource ASAP If You Can’t Do It

2011-08-28T05:02:00.001+08:00

Outsource ASAP If You Can’t Do It

Posted: 26 Aug 2011 08:53 PM PDT

It is good to do things yourself. But always refer to what is your objective and main goal. Most people lost in the information overload of learning something rather than actually choose the route that achieve their goal and objective. This is what happening to me during my early involvement in the internet marketing world.

Instead of making money, I end up doing trial and error in everything that does not really contribute to my online business development. Like for example, I try to make money from blogging. But instead of writing up more content, and doing the search engine optimisation I end up more on changing and tweaking the blog design. Try all the cool plugins exist in the WordPress repository and all those things, which does not actually helpful in achieving my goal, making money from blogging.

So do the same thing happen when I first trying to setup my own e commerce online business. I end up “playing” around when I suppose to develop a good platform for me to sell things online.

But of course there’s a good side of doing all these not necessary things. I gain a new knowledge. But the important point here is, I didn’t achieve my goal and I didn’t make money from blog. So that new knowledge is pretty useless in this case. If you really do not know what should you do and you don’t have people to ask, since you’re trying to establish your online business empire I suggest you do it professionally. Seek an appropriate service marketing agency to help you.

Beside that, you can also try adwords de google. This is not for a new beginner actually and you suppose to consult people with depth knowledge about PPC before actually venturing into this route because PPC campaign will make a hole in your pocket if you do it wrongly.

I Will Stop Providing Support & Update For Guan Image Notes Plugin

2011-07-18T05:02:00.001+08:00

I Will Stop Providing Support & Update For Guan Image Notes Plugin

Posted: 16 Jul 2011 08:47 PM PDT

Guan Image Notes plugin has been derived from Demon Image Annotation version 1.0.

During that time, me and my team were developing a website which needs this functionality. But when our roadmap change and we doesn’t need this great feature anymore, I no longer provide any updates or support for this plugin.

However, it will stay in the WordPress plugin repository for those who still want to use it or perhaps one day I will look back to it.

But in this near future, I don’t have any plan to do an update for the plugin since I was busy with my other projects which at the moment is developing a tourism based Iphone app.

I am sorry for any inconvenient caused by me.

Up until today I got more than thousand downloads for the plugin. Thank you very much for using my plugin but I’m sorry for not being able to give anymore support or update in this near future.

Planning To Setup Anime Song Internet Radio

2011-05-29T07:02:00.000+08:00

Planning To Setup Anime Song Internet Radio

Posted: 28 May 2011 09:21 AM PDT

After I have been infested with the Nyan Nyan song. I become crazy and looping the song for two days straight. I even rearrange the song using Logic Pro and got myself a good loop to use. Haha.

Then I have an idea to setup an internet radio where the internet radio will play all anime songs collections that I have instead of just lying around in my hard drive.

But thinking about the cost of web hosting which can support streaming, I think I don’t have problems with that and in fact I already have a web hosting which can support unlimited bandwith transfer. Because it’s streaming, I don’t have to put large files in it. Perhaps just amp3 files with 64kbps bit rate? I think that’s good enough.

Now thinking about the names. I really want to go for .fm domain extension but it will be too expensive. Damn it. Okay, let’s just make it like this, if I can afford that .fm domain that’s mean the destiny have decide that I will setup an anime song internet radio. If not, that’s mean I just have to go for the generic and cheap .com then.

It will not covering all anime songs that exist but only to the collection that I want.

The interface, website of the internet radio should look like iTunes for fancy and cool looking.

That’s my idea for now.

The Real Pure Nyan Nyan To The Fullest!

Posted: 27 May 2011 06:46 PM PDT

Okay, this is not about Azunyan figure that I posted at ONE-Precinct | Another World. This is something more evil that. Why did I say it’s evil? Well, something evil make you addicted such as, smoking, alcohol, and drugs.

This one is the real and pure nyan nyan to the fullest! Because I can’t stand the addiction! I’m going crazy! Damn it…

This will to poison you to death…

Now, for those who read this post and watch the videos.

The nyan nyan ni hao nyan song will haunt you forever if you not circulate this post.

Just like the chain letter, you know how the cursed works…

I’ve told ya, it’s evil. Don’t believe me? Try ignore this.

Got An Invitation To Participate The Extensive IOS Developers Course

2011-05-28T07:03:00.001+08:00

Got An Invitation To Participate The Extensive IOS Developers Course

Posted: 27 May 2011 09:53 AM PDT

Just right after I’ve made a decision to self-taught on how to make my Iphone games using Cocos 2D, I got an invitation to take part in the Extensive IOS Developers Course.

The course is fully funded by the government of Malaysia. What I have to bring is just my self, my personal needs and at least an Ipod Touch. No problem for me. Good thing that it also done during my semester break so I don’t have to be in such dilemma.

The program will take place at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Another state, but since my state is special, I don’t need a passport to travel outside my state but people from other state must use a passport as if they are travel to other country.

One more wise investment that I didn’t regret even thought I feel quite guilty is to get a Macbook Pro instead of bringing home a DD Yui Hirasawa. That’s mean I have the right machine to install the one and only officially supported Apple SDK and use it for my Iphone app development.

Just for your information, IOS Developers Course is a course to learn how to develop an app (software) for Iphone, Ipod Touch and Ipad which use an operating system called IOS. The development will be using a Software Development Kit (SDK) called XCode. I’ve attend the basic course, here. That basic course was also fully funded by the government. I must be so lucky then.

Problem With SL-NTFS Cannot Enable Write

2011-05-26T07:08:00.001+08:00

Problem With SL-NTFS Cannot Enable Write

Posted: 25 May 2011 07:31 AM PDT

SL-NTFS is a third-party application that enable native read/write ability on OSX. It’s actually just a panel setting which integrated inside the System Preference on your Mac.

One day my Macbook Pro cannot write on the external hard disk drive (HDD) that I regularly use. I’ve enable the native read/write ability through SL-NTFS and this problem still persist even though I’ve already restarted my Macbook Pro several times.

But reading through the official website, I think the fault is the HDD herself, I named the HDD as Erio Touwa.

I remember I just unplugged the HDD while using Windows without proper eject. That was because the Windows freeze and I am so impatient.

So I plug back the HDD into my sister’s old Windows driven laptop because she still use it, I don’t bother to turn on mine and there’s a window asking me to fix the disk.

So I let it to scan and automatically fix the drive.

After the fix finish, I eject it properly and then plug it back on my Macbook Pro and voilà! It works.

The native read/write are now enable one more time.

I hope this article will help someone who have the same problem.

Nami Oppai Mouse Pad

2011-05-21T07:08:00.001+08:00

Nami Oppai Mouse Pad

Posted: 20 May 2011 08:24 AM PDT

So I got this Nami oppai (bust) mouse pad with me. Want?

The oppai feels like real indeed. It’ just that Nami don’t scream no matter how strong I squish her oppai…

(I know how real oppai feels okay… so for those of you who don’t have the clue how they feel, buy this oppai moused pad. )

Nami Oppai Mouse Pad

The irony is… I DON’T USE MOUSE!

Site Visit To Propose Coconut Processing Plant Site

Posted: 20 May 2011 04:49 AM PDT

Just a site visit to the proposed Coconut Processing Plant construction site.

Playing With Photo Booth With My Imouto And Yuu

2011-05-18T07:02:00.001+08:00

Playing With Photo Booth With My Imouto And Yuu

Posted: 17 May 2011 02:17 AM PDT

My sister is kind of girl who like to take photos. Well, all girls that I know are like that. So we play with the Photo Booth software that come pre-installed with the Macbook Pro I got recently. The camera is actually 640×480 = 0.3 Mega Pixels but the photos displayed are sharp, clear and crisp to eye and in my opinion web publication. For printing this will be very bad quality.

Here are me and my younger sister (Imouto mean sister in Japanese. ) and also Yuu.

Playing With Photo Booth With My Imouto and Yuu

My Faith For My Selected DAWs Are Shaking

2011-05-17T07:04:00.001+08:00

My Faith For My Selected DAWs Are Shaking

Posted: 16 May 2011 11:48 AM PDT

Lately after I got my Macbook Pro, I can count that I only turn my old Compaq Presario V3000 laptop for once. There I have a lot of essentials softwares that are useful for me such as Cubase 5. I’ve played and producing music using Cubase 5 since I first exposed to this digital music production thing.

I like Cubase 5 interface and they are easy to understand and to learn. I also have a lot of VST plugins that I’ve collected from the internet. Now most of my time are using OSX on my Macbook Pro. I don’t think I will enjoy myself downgrading to my old laptop where the hardwares are already out of phase.

Reading all around, Cubase 5 are not so stable on OSX since it was primarily programmed in Windows and then ported into OSX system. Ported software might not be as efficient as it original software. Speculation said that. Well, I have MS Office for Mac and comparing those two system, I like how MS Office for Mac look like. This mean that speculation are not more than just rumors and someone’s humble opinion.

Why Don’t Try Them All

I’m not yet being so serious into music production but I will. So I made my mind, why not try all of them. Most of the DAWs offer full version trial and I really think I should do it and not just reading about other people opinions. They might be fan boy, they might write a biased review about the software that they use because they personally like it. Well, everyone have their own taste and preference such as I like to eat chocolate cake while my girlfriend like to eat strawberry cake. But I don’t mind having the best both world if its worth it.

But for now, I have two big DAWs in my mind. Logic Studio 9 and Cubase 6. I will try both of them in my Macbook and I hope I really can produce music on the go while waiting for my girlfriend having her time shopping and try all the outfit in the shop but end up buying only 2 or three. Woman. But I think her approach is good and that’s what I’m doing.

Do you produce a music too? How is your method? Still on analog or have you move on to Digital Audio Workstation?

Cocos 2D For Iphone Vs. Game Salad Vs. Corona

2011-05-16T07:03:00.001+08:00

Cocos 2D For Iphone Vs. Game Salad Vs. Corona

Posted: 15 May 2011 11:12 AM PDT

In my previous post, I’ve done a research and end up with two choice which is Cocos2D For Iphone and Game Salad. But after a few more readings, I decide to try Corona SDK as well. But I end up choosing Cocos 2D, let me share why.

Game Salad

It’s like a flash game designer. Where you create the game “frame by frame”. At least that’s how it look like to me and for your information I hate developing games in Flash. So pissed off with the user interface I decide to do some more research on the internet about how other developers/users of Game Salad perform.

It seems that this game engine are being left out by many developers which moving into whether Cocos 2D or Corona.

Corona SDK

This game engine promise ease of use and less lines of coding. I’ve download the unlimited trial and give it a try too. I’m impressed by how simple to develop a game using this game engine.

But this is actually only a simulator. Too bad. This SDK actually only simulate all the codes that have you write on that piece of .lua files. I don’t find any other option like for example to export, import. It’s basically just drag and drop everything into a folder project and you edit them directly and see the changes in Corona SDK simulator in real time. One word. LAME.

Cocos 2D For Iphone

Not only its free. The community seems active and helpful but I have never yet socializing with them. So far this is just the assumption that I made after looking at their forum.

Cocos 2D serve as “plugin” for Xcode.

It integrated into Xcode and get ready everything as if it is official release from Apple. The only thing different from existing Xcode is that you don’t have to code basic function like for example displaying an image. But just call them using the existing function hook.

My Route, Hand Code, Cocos 2D

I’ve decide to go for Cocos 2D route. Because the working environment are very similar to what I use to do while developing websites in php. So Beside, the usage of Xcode give me the feeling of “official” and surety for the future compatibility.

Surveying Game Engine For My Game Development Project

Posted: 15 May 2011 06:49 AM PDT

The programming languages that I know are only PHP and C++. I self learned PHP while taking a formal lesson on C++. There are many ways and possibility for me to write a game using this two languages. Yes, we can make a game for Iphone using php too but of course we need something to interact in between such as Adobe Air for mobile to make it happen. While C++ is a full fledge native programming language that is officially supported by Apple.

Game Engine Make Suppose To Ease Our Coding Part

Game engine is just like a framework, parent theme, template functions that are ready to use, tweak and modified to build the game of my dream. But of course, nothing is too easy when it come to game programming.

So for time, cost and performance effectiveness, I decide to use ready-made game engine to base my game.

Unity 3

This is a great 3D game engine, the features built-in in this game engine are way too overwhelming for me. I don’t need this great engine for a starter let alone the price is very expensive for a new beginner like me. It have all component from graphic renderer, audio renderer, physics and even for MMORPG.

SIO2 Engine

This is another 3D game engine. Even though we can achieve 2D effect easily using this game engine, it also way too overwhelming for my first game. This game engine also provide all in one solution for the component such as graphic renderer, audio, physics and etc.

This game engine look promising for me. They even provide tutorials for beginner. They offer trial version but when you’re about to publish your game at Apple Store, you have to buy the certification for $364.99 hence eliminate this game engine from my consideration.

Bork 3D Game Engine

When I reach the homepage, they feature a golf game and it seem this is their orientation. The license for indie game developer is just $49 which is affordable for me. But from the website and forums it seems that they don’t have a user-friendly resources and the forum does not seems to have many posts.

I’m afraid when I find problems and need a solution, none can help me?

Cocos 2D Iphone

The project was initially hosted at Google Code and the activity is high. In fact when I first lurking around the internet about making game for Iphone, I stumble their website naturally. This mean if I stumble into problems, I may have a lot of free support and example codes.

This game engine is free to use and under MIT License. Honestly I do not understand what is MIT License mean and how I should comply to their license terms and condition if I want to use this engine to make a paid Iphone app.

What important is the game produced by this engine are almost similar to the game that I try to make. Not too simple, not too advance.

This game engine is in my consideration list.

iTorque 2D

This game engine offer a user-friendly SDK. But the one time fee of $99 kinda turn me off. Why I should pay another $99 as an indie game developers? At first I thought this will be a good choice beside Cocos 2D Iphone. But now it’s out of my consideration list.

It’s not that this game engine is bad, at the moment I can’t afford it. That’s all.

ShiVa 3D Game Engine

ShiVa 3D Game Engine look promising too. The showcase games features on the sites are good and there’s some of the game known to me. Yes, installed on my device.

It stated there the software are free for unlimited time for Windows and MAC OS under parallel. Lol, that’s mean this software are coded for Windows. But the usage status license is not known to me and I don’t bother to dig more. They should make it clear how to use their development tool for commercialisation.

Oolong Engine

Hosted at Google Codes, the activity is medium and I don’t see many developers around. But looking at them they are look like people who use Linux while most people use Windows. No, the software was mean for OSX. What I mean is they are creative people, believe in free software and their engine is just like Linux OS, where you can derive them yourself.

Which mean it’s not mean for me. I just don’t have time to figure out what I want. I need to be recommended. If any Oolong Engine developers read this, you should perhaps make it more user-friendly. There’s big potential in Oolong Engine by the way.

Airplay

They clearly stated that they support and mean to make game for Iphone. This is so convenient information. But the license fee make me backing off. Perhaps another time.

Game Salad

I heard about this game engine even before I decide to make this research, that’s mean this is quite famous and I hope there are a lot of support that I can find on the internet.

They said their game engine is free, that’s a good enough to hear. They seems to be very easy to use and they stated on their website it is designed for a designer and not programmer. Sound just like something for me. But when I look at their pricing price, what!? They only have two model. Free and Professional. The free version still enable IOS Publishing but the Professional at $499.00 offer more rugged feature liks Game Center, and iAd which what I actually want to add in my games.

This will be in my considered list.

My Choice

It seems that I will go for Cocos2d for Iphone and also Game Salad. This mean research done. I’ll keep posting here for my own record and also sharing is caring. I hope this writing are somewhat useful to others who might find this article from any search engine.

Between Cocos2D for Iphone and Game Salad, I will try to make a “Hello World” game using it to find out which one will be my preference. I believe in love on first sight.

My Macbook Pro Have Arrived

2011-05-13T07:07:00.000+08:00

My Macbook Pro Have Arrived

Posted: 12 May 2011 07:51 AM PDT

Finally after 5 days since the checkout date, the Macbook Pro that I ordered have arrived. It was shipped using DHL from Singapore.

Sleek Design I Like It

I like the sleek design. It’s so simple and I like simplicity. Simplicity is the best. It was made from aluminium case but I am not sure about the wrist pad area. It does feel and sound like plastic though. Perhaps it was a fiber glass or carbon fiber or something like that.

It’s Quite and Cool

I like this new Macbook Pro (MBP). It’s so and I feel almost no heat at all. I like it. It makes me more productive when not hearing the noisy fan sound on my old laptop. I try to find where is the fan hole but I can’t find it. From the schematics diagram about how I can upgrade the HDD and the RAM it seems that the fan is built-in and the airflow come out from the lid? Cool design indeed. I don’t care actually as long as it does not have heat problem and the it’s not noise.

I hate hearing the “zzzzzzz” sound when the fan spinning inside my old laptop. It’s so annoying and I can’t work efficiently if it was at night. I like to finish my work at night because the night is peaceful and so quite that my brain functioning at it’s highest clock frequency. Tera Giga herts, actually more than that.

Gaming? Haven’t Tested Yet

I don’t get this MBP with gaming experience in mind. If it’s gaming I’ll get an Alienware MX17. But this is for work and productivity but of course as this will be my only and main notebook, I will at least need 1 game installed. Fortunately they have Starcraft 2 for MAC. But I don’t think I will be able to play it on full settings since the graphic card on this MBP is not that great.

Suitable For University Student

I am media student. Hence I always “must use” OSX softwares such as Final Cut Pro. But in our assignments, we also must type our assignments using Microsoft Office software, a Windows-based software. This software already been ported in OSX platform and we will not have any problem with this matter.

But to university student who are in engineering stream, most of the engineering softwares are developed on Windows. So you can actually install Windows dual-boot using Bootcamp or Parallel, these two softwares enable us to run Windows program on Macbook but in my opinion because the Windows softwares running on a Macbook are actually being emulated, hence it won’t give full performance in hardware efficiency.

Will I Leave Windows and Never Look Back?

I can’t. We live in the world where more people are using Windows powered machine and softwares. I might not want to use it anymore but I can’t force someone else, perhaps my clients in my future company to stop using Windows.

How if one of the requirement are “must use Windows”? Then I will lose. Beside, Windows market still bigger than OSX if we want to compare to.

No pictures but I bet who do not know how Macbook Pro look like must live somewhere under the hood.

Checklist To Build An E-Commerce Website

2011-05-10T05:08:00.001+08:00

Checklist To Build An E-Commerce Website

Posted: 08 May 2011 11:12 PM PDT

This is basically just a to do list for me to remind myself what to do for the project selling DSLR camera online. But of course this will help other people who would like to start their own e-commerce website too.

Domain Name & Hosting

Bought a domain name already and just add it to my existing web hosting account as an add-on domain. When this website have proven herself worthy, she will be moved out and have her own dedicated web hosting account. That’s my principle. That’s why I’m getting a huge web hosting space which enable multiple add-on domain for this purpose.

Magento As CMS

I’ve chosen Magento free edition as the CMS to handle this e-commerce website. I am not fond of it because she’s just like a “fancy girl” which need a lot of resources to keep up. But I’m looking forward for this business to grow into a big business that I decide to use Magento, where she indeed can handle big e-commerce website and look professional.

But for other project which I intend to make it more niche, I like using Open Cart as the CMS.

Payment Method

For now, the payment methods that I will use is Paypal, local bank transfer and Cash On Delivery. But in the future, I will try to get my merchant account so I can process credit cards directly on my website.

Paypal can process credit card for you, but mind you. You want to stay away from Paypal as far as you can. Not just because of the buyer’s protection policy but also their fees.

Listing 10 DSLR Cameras For Starting

This is a very niche website where I will sell only Nikon DSLR camera as a starter. But because I have a vision that I will also sell other type of camera in the future, I did not get a domain name like, Nikon-DSLR.com. It will be very limited. This project is not my priority so I’ll do it in real slow and will try to list 10 DSLR cameras for the starting.

On-Page Search Engine Optimization

This is a must thing to do if you want to success in your online business adventure. It’s like a minister is recommending you to work on some reputable company but you, yourself did not show the best attitude and aptitude to be accepted into the company. The minister is off page search engine optimization while the company is Google. If you can understand this analogy, good then you’re a winner among your competitors already.

On page optimization for e-commerce are more complex than simple WordPress blog. Let alone Magento, I still a new beginner if it’s about Magento.

Off-Page Search Engine Optimization

Off-page SEO are something like links building, press release, article marketing, and there’s a lot more. But I will only follow my method.

Keyword Research, well this is the most important thing to do before we should start any off-page SEO.

Links Building – I will create 100 back-links everyday to the homepage of my e-commerce website. Of course, I will outsource this task. It’s not worth my time to do it myself.

Article Marketing – Is kind of link building but better.

Google Search Product List Listing – A free service by Google for e-commerce owner.

Submit to all major search engine;

Google
Yahoo
Bing
Alexa

Feed syndication.

Google Adword Campaign

When you checked the “This is e-commerce website.” in Google Analytics. Google will send you an Adword voucher by mail. I’ve been given this when I setup a small e-commerce website using Open Cart not long ago.

Banner Ads On Famous Photography Websites and Blogs

This is a good strategy to expose the website to audience. The intention is not to convert them to become buyers but just to seed an awareness of the existing of my e-commerce website among my prospects.

If it’s convert, what better than that.

Video Marketing

Not some stupid slide show video. But real footage and review about DSLR cameras. Un-boxing, tips and tricks maybe?

Honestly I’m not expert in photography, but don’t forget I’m entrepreneur. We don’t need to be expert to venture into the field that we want. We find an expert to help us.

Setting Up Photography Blog or Portal For My Customers

I’ve been successfully setting up a user-generated content in the past and I believe I can do the same thing in photography fields. I just need to target on my targeted demography and then make friend with them before make them my loyal fans and followers.

Sound like a plan to be a rock star. Well it’s indeed.

There all of my plan. Hopefully everything will be executed smoothly and reach the end of the road map. For dear readers, you can use this as your framework to start your own e-commerce website too. Remember, when you don’t know how to do it like such as installing the Magento into your webhosting, OUTSOURCE.

Well good luck to who read this and to myself.

Seriously Taking Action To Develop Iphone Apps

2011-05-09T07:07:00.001+08:00

Seriously Taking Action To Develop Iphone Apps

Posted: 08 May 2011 02:06 AM PDT

After finishing the “Become an XCoder” mini course organized by local government, I did not let the government waste their money organizing the course for nothing. I feel very thankful to the local government especially our local politician, Dato YB Lee Kim Shin for organizing the course.

Actually I’ve been invited to the same course from a reputable Iphone app developer from United States too. But he charge USD$299 for every participants excluding hotel and flight, passport and Visa of course. Being able to attend similar course for free just seem like a dream come true. Thanks to my uncle too for signing up my name on the course co-ordinator to make it happen.

Ideas For Game = Checked

I’ve many ideas ready to be ported into making an Iphone app. Let’s hope the idea will sell and of course make a huge return and profit to me.

Modern Chess, this idea is to change ordinary chess playing into something new and rpg look a like but still need a good strategy and deep thinking just like chess. Yes, you can say this is a turn based strategy game genre.

Cafe Tycoon, the idea inspired from Dinner Dash but of course I’ll add some value added feature and some other unique idea to make it different from Dinner Dash game.

Chicken Crossing The River, this is very simple idea. I am look forward this app will be addictive and can place itself at par with Angry Birds.

Puzzle Game, some puzzle game. The brain behind this idea is my dad. My dad and I always play brain twisting puzzle together. I mean he gave me some question and I try to guess how to solve the “mystery”. This sure becoming hits or at least dominate the free apps section. Hopefully.

Graphics, Sound Tracks, No Problem

Fortunately I can do graphics and also I can compose a sound track using Cubase. I will use this skill on my advantage and hopefully I can create a good master piece of music and character design for my games.

Macbook Pro On The Way To My House, Yeay!

So after a struggling in my mind whether to get a Macbook or Macbook Air, unexpectedly I end up checking out with Macbook Pro. I’m waiting for my Macbook to arrive next week. I purchase it at Apple Online Store using the education price since I’m still a university student. So I am eligible for it. Definitely.

Establishing My Own Company

2011-05-08T07:02:00.001+08:00

Establishing My Own Company

Posted: 07 May 2011 04:11 AM PDT

I’m already 23 years old and I still don’t have any achievement which can make me proud of myself. I can’t afford to buy my own house, or my dream car Porche 911. But before that I will try to get a Honda City first. After I get these two cars, then I’ll get Mazda RX8 because it’s sportive and if I have wife and kids, I’ll be a cool dad driving a sport cars with my family around the town. No, Porche 911 is too small for a family ride.

Becoming Entrepreneur = Becoming People Who Do What He Said Not Just Dreaming

Becoming entrepreneur doesn’t mean a day dreaming for an early 20′s guy like me. It just mean the maturity of thought were bloom inside me and I’m glad I did. And I’m more glad that my face stay young no matter how mature my brain are.

Being an entrepreneur is not just about making money. It’s about being able to complete a task on time and being serious about what you plan to do and not just think about it. It’s about sense of accomplishment.

Unison Raid Enterprise

The company will have two directors. Actually this is not the best solution but since the other director is my younger cousin which have respect to all my thought, I will be the “brain” and he will be the other who will cover the hole in my brain cell networking, if you get what I mean.

Why I said two directors is not good is because it never a good idea to share a company with other people. During the hard time, or if some miss understanding occur, the company future is at risk. So I will take this as a leap stone. If I can manage this, meaning I will manage a bigger company later days on my own.

However the names have just been submitted and we still don’t have the reply from the company registrar about the approval. It will take times around 14 business days they said but let’s just wait and hopefully the name is available.

Wish me a good luck.

Selling DSLR Camera Online

2011-05-08T05:03:00.001+08:00

Selling DSLR Camera Online

Posted: 07 May 2011 05:48 AM PDT

Recently I have made a word deal with my friend which have connection directly with Nikon Malaysia. Actually the deal start with me trying to find an entry-level DSLR for myself. I am very new to DSLR photography and I think it is the best for me to get an entry-level DSLR camera first so I won’t waste my money if I lose the passion after a failure.

Change Passion Into Business

I was asking him the price and it seems that the price given to me is far below the retail market price. So I thought its a good idea to sell it online with a bit lower than the market place. Hmm, while enjoying to a photography as one of my hobbies. I can make money at the same time. That sound good to execute.

Spying On My Competitors

When I voiced out my wish to sell the DSLR Camera online to that little friend of mine, he did not disagree with it but warned me that there’s a reputable competitors that I have to compete against.

I’ve check on his website and he have about 69 thousands of back links pointing to his e-commerce website selling all branded and DSLR camera related items. I’ve no problem if I wish to overcome his back links number. It is indeed about back links and no other else, oh wait. Reputation.

So I make a further research of who is this guy and I’ve found out that he is a man with Dr. titles and was a very reputable photographer in Malaysia. That’ll make the competition not fair. I’m no one but let’s see if I can get just a few sales or placed #2 on the search engine will be enough for me and I’ll slowly build my fan base and my customer base using all internet marketing strategy and knowledge that I know.

Wish me a very good luck in here.

Determining The CMS For The E-commerce Website

I’ve been using Open Cart and have hesitated to use Magento. But this time I have a strong urge to use Magento as my E-commerce website CMS. Magento offers more reputable look and functions. In my opinion this is a good decision.

This will be a slow process as the learning curve for Magento is deep because Magento is not mean to be user-friendly.

After setting everything on page, then I will start the off page SEO. I’ll try not to hide my marketing strategy but there’s still something I need to hide in the name of “trade secret” which I cannot show so that if you become my competitors, you will not be able to outrank me because you didn’t know this little “trade secret” that I kept for my self.

How To Achieve Faster External/Portable Hard Drive Transfer Speed

2011-04-29T07:02:00.001+08:00

How To Achieve Faster External/Portable Hard Drive Transfer Speed

Posted: 28 Apr 2011 01:46 AM PDT

Hisashiburi, it’s been a while since I post here.

Today I want to share some tips how to make your external HDD to have faster transfer speed. I hope this post will be useful in anyway. I made this post based on my own experience and findings. They might not be as accurate as real computer science people might explain but the most important thing is that it’s works.

Factors That Compromise The External HDD Performance

Before you try to speed up your external HDD performance, make sure you read this part to understand what is the factor that may affects the external HDD performance and from here you can adjust your external HDD to suit your usage and the performance that you want.

Heat

Heat always the enemy of electronics component. That is why processors and graphic cards are equipted with heat sink and fan(s) to cool down the system. You might notice that when you over-clocked your system the heat might rise beyond the cooling system capacity and there’s glitch in performance of your computer. Not only electronics, even the car, if the engine is too hot, they can’t give top notch performance on the street.

In my case, my external HDD is Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500 Gigabytes and I bought a separate HDD enclosure to build my own external HDD, the brand is eGear. The build is great and have a good quality but I’m wondering why my HDD transfer speed are so slow. So I blame on the printed circuit board (PCB) of the enclosure.

But when I take off the casing and just use the PCB and the HDD exposed and connect it to my laptop, it works very smoothly. To experiment, I put back the enclosure casing and the speed was compromised again.

USB Port BUS Speed

There’s no way that your external HDD can perform faster than the USB Port Bus Speed. In my case it is my notebook’s fault. When I copy things from my notebook into the HDD, it is very slow. The speed sometimes only up to hundreds kbps which is not tolerable. Not just about the transfer, even the write and read process are also very slow. But when I use another notebook with better hardware or the latest notebook with USB 3.0 capable, the HDD works fine with no issue at all.

Insufficient Power

My external HDD is the portable 2.5″ HDD. It is mean for notebook and laptop and also netbook (They are the same thing Wiguan!) but you can also use it as external HDD. Unlike the external 3.5″ external HDD, 2.5″ external HDD does not need external power supply. But they sometimes supplied with the “Y” USB cable which you have to plug-in into another USB port side by side to give enough power so that the HDD can give optimum performance. If you only plug one end of the USB, your HDD might work slower than when you plug two of the “Y” end. Beside that, please also note that each USB port does not have equivalent voltage unless stated by the manufacturer.

HDD Format?

Yes and No.

FAT32 format give you fast performance on low spec notebook and computers because of it simplistic data management. But for 500 Gigabytes HDD it will become inefficient and there are a lots of draw back than the advantage that I can think.

FAT32 Advantages

One of tha advantage of FAT32 that you might consider is that it works on all platform and operating system. Not only it works on computers on every OS you can name such as Windows C.E. Windows 95, Windows 98 and up to Windows 7, it also can run on UNIX, Ubuntu and also the fancy OSX Mac computers.

To make it more appealing, FAT32 also the format which readable by most handheld device and handheld OS such as Symbian and Android. But of course there’s no way you can plug-in your external HDD to them.

FAT32 Disadvantages

FAT32 format have the disadvantages where it cannot transfer files bigger than 4 Gigabytes even if you still have a lot more of free space.

FAT32 also only can hold up to 65,000 files. Which mean if you have 65,000 files of 1Kb which make only 65 Megabytes. After this entries have been filled up you will not be able to add more files even though there’s still 400 Gigabytes more of free space you have on your 500 Gigabytes HDD. This is the biggest drawback that I will not use FAT32 as my HDD format.

exFAT is also known as FAT64. The only difference between FAT32 and exFAT that I know is exFAT can now transfer files more than 4 Gigabytes. Uh, wait there’s more. exFAT will not be readable on Windows XP and lower, and also OSX. I am not sure about other OS though.

NTFS

NTFS is the common format for HDD and in my opinion you should choose this format. NTFS offer more complex and efficient performance and data management for your HDD. There’s no entry limitation or transfer file size limitation such in FAT32 and exFAT. But MAC cannot write on NTFS, they can only read and copy files from NTFS HDD and not copying files or make a change of files in the HDD formatted with NTFS.

But that is not a big issue because you can install a free software which enable you to write and read NTFS HDD on your Mac just like how Windows do.

NTFS file format also readable and writeable on Ubuntu. So there’s no problem at all when using the NTFS file system.

Allocation Unit

I tell you, this is the most important setup when you first format your HDD. I last time make a mistakes to choose small allocation unit (1024b) which the major reason why my HDD is slow. When I change the allocation unit to maximum, (64Kb) the same slow HDD works very smooth and fast on the same low spec notebook that I have. But what’s the catch?

Bigger allocation unit mean there will be less space on your HDD. For example if you set your allocation unit to 1024b, perhaps the size of your HDD will be 475 Gigabytes but when you use 64kb allocation unit size you only get 456 Gigabytes only. Well for me that is only a very small sacrifaction which is worth every bytes.

That’s all my post, I hope it will be useful for whoever might read this after looking for them at the internet.