Experimenting with the blog formatting

I have been working on this blog formatting for the past few weeks. The outcomes are:

• New comment form by Haloscan.com
• New recent comments (sidebar) by Haloscan.com
• Expandable post formats
• Adds picture into the blog post
• Re-position the adsense ads
• Bookmarks (Sidebar) by Bookmarkz
• Daily cartoon (Sidebar) by Andertoons.com
• RSS Feed on personal blog (Sidebar)

Computerphobia among the cops

Source: TheStar, 29th June 2007

Sarawak Police Commissioner revealed that there are police personnels who are afraid of using the computer - Computerphonia (one of the term that I used to teach basic computer concept).

During his rounding of the police stations in the state, he found out that boxes of newly-purchased computers were left unopened and stacked neatly in the storeroom.

Remedial actions to be taken - comprehensive training programmes and technical support will be provided to all the district police stations.

Personal opinion:
Well, I believe this does not happened only in the police stations as in this situation but also in most of the organisation where illiterate computer users are really afraid of using the computer for the fear of mishandling, destroying and corrupting the files and programmes stored in the computer. Constant trainings and application workshops will be helpful to solve this problem. Who says uncle and auntie cannot blog? Search the Internet and you may find some blogs authored by the aunties and uncles.

My durian post backlinks

Seem like my durian post is geeting more attention as compared to other posts in this blog, hehehe.

Here are two backlinks on the earlier post of buying durian with credit card. Enjoy reading.


JY~S plans to use cards to buy chili and vegetables from pasar malam beside her plan on Buying Durians with credit card??

Colors City thinks that by Moving towards e-commerce world, rompak cases can be reduced.

Tapping the Internet for supplementary resources in teaching

Should teachers tap into the Internet for supplementary resource in teaching? This is one of the suggestions posed by Penang Education director to teachers. Beside this, he urged teachers to equip themselves with necessary skills, knowledge and understanding on how to use ICT effectively in the classroom.

Although the Internet contains a huge pool of information, extra cautions need to be exercised to ensure all the materials used are accurate and authenticated. I used Internet extensively to search for relevant news and updates for my lectures and discussions. Of course, I would only use the materials from reliable sources.

Normally, I browse through the interesting and related topics using the RSS feeds that I subscribed such as BBC News Technology and NewYork Times Technology. I would then share of these in my E-commerce blog, hopefully some readers and my students will be able exposed to the latest developments and applications on e-commerce. Previously I posted these entries on my old blog.

Beside the e-commerce blog, I also tried e-Forum and mailing list such as YahooGroups. Currently both features are incorporated into the Web-based Learning Environment systems which I just started to use it this semester. I would find that all these ICT facilities help to enhance the learning and sharing processes for both the students and lecturers.

My First Adsense Cheque

I just received my first Google Adsense cheque two weeks ago and only until now I’m blogging about it. The cheque accounted for the earning up to end of April 2007. It is a figure that has been accumulated for almost 17 months since I first putting up the Adsense ads.

Wow…so long, paiseh le, amateur mah and I'm still learning what is blogging. Yes, it has been a long long wait since then and the patience finally paid off. It’s also proved that this business model is actually working.

The first nine months earning was very low as it is a reflection of the traffic to my blogs. Slowly, it picked up until the balance reaches USD100. Google Adsense will only pays you when the balance reaches USD100 either by cheque or electronic fund transfer for selected countries (Malaysia is not in the list yet).

Hopefully the second cheque will be coming within a shorter time compared to the first one.

Google Adsense is one of the popular and established affiliate advertising in the market now. It matches ads (most of them are CPC [cost per click] as well as a bit of CPM [cost per thousand impressions] - refer to e-commerce revenue model) to your site's content, and whenever your visitors click on content the advertisers will credit the money into you account.

It is easy to become a Google Adsense publisher.
Step 1 - Sign up
Step 2 - Log into your account, customize your ads and copy and paste the HTML code into your website or blog.
Step 3 - Targeted ads will then appearing on your website or blog.

Enjoy blogging!

Related posts:
1. Google adds 2 new referral links - Google Apps & Google Checkout
2. Google Adsense rounded corner ads

Google Adsense rounded corner ads

Beside the normal square corners available in the Google Adsense content ads, now two more options are available namely slightly rounded corners and very rounded corners.

Traditional square corners and Slightly rounded corners


Very rounded corners

Personally I prefer the slightly rounded corners as it looks more professional. Seems like Adsense ads is getting more professionally designed now. Currently I'm using borderless format as it blends with the background nicely.

New SMS scam

"Tahniah, simcard anda memenangi hadiah cek tunai RM15,000 plus reload kredit RM250 dari peraduan DiGi. Sila hubungi 006281343842239, terima kasih" (Congratulations, your simcard has won RM15,000 in cash plus reload credit of RM250 from a DiGi contest, please contact 006281343842239, thank you).

Beware, this is a new SMS scam circulating in the market now. According to the Digi officials, the number belonged to an Indonesia mobile phone. Digi also highlighted that these SMS were not sent by them and urged the public not to fall to this prey.

Source: TheStar, 26th June 2007

Beside this, previously there was the Akademia Fantasia SMS scam too. Dear folks, just be careful of these SMS.

e-Payment in Nigeria

The non-cash payment is increasing in Nigeria and this provides potential for e-commerce growth in that country. As the e-payment solutions become available for its consumers, acceptance level for e-commerce has increase.

New Label - E-commerce Business Model

A new label has been created for entries related to the e-commerce business model where new and innovative e-commerce business models being discussed. You can find the label at the side bar - E-Commerce Business Model.

Among the entries are:
1. Buying durians with credit card
2. OpenTable.com - Online restaurant reservation
3. DIY eye glasses online shopping
4. MyShape.com - buying clothes online that fit the measurement
5. Online funeral live broadcasting
6. Video on G-Cash application - mobile payment systems

Buying durians with credit card - new e-commerce business model

Fancy of buying lot of durians and pay by credit card?

An innovative e-commerce business model is in place in Penang when a bank approached 3 durian stalls to provide credit card payment facilities for their customers.

The 3 stalls are located at Jalan Van Praagh, Relau and Mt.Erskine. For any transaction above RM40, customers are able to enjoy such credit card facilities.

The stall owners said that buyers who use credit cards are buying more especially towards the end of the month. It is also safer for both the buyers and sellers as it helps to reduce the cash carried.

Source: TheStar, 23 June 2007.

What will be the next e-commerce business model? Nasi lemak stall accepting credit card? Satay stall, mamak stall, chee cheong fun? If you have any innovative e-commerce business model, feel free to share with me.

I did read some news that credit cards also being used during the wedding dinner as well as funeral services.

One of my reader, PK suggested paying taxi using credit card. What do you think?

Google loses the Gmail appeal in Germany

In the trademark appeal case on Gmail trademark in German, Google was unable to turn the earlier ruling which was ruled against them. The result from this appeal court will finally let Giersch mail to continue using the Gmail trademark in German.

Source: CNet News.com - Google loses Gmail trademark case in Germany


Previous entries:
1. Domain names Dispute: Gmail vs G-mail
2. China: Gmail vs Gmail.cn

2 more Internet scam sites blocked by SC

Beside the 6 websites blocked 2 weeks ago, Securities Commission (SC) blocked another 2 more sites as part of its investigation against illegal investment activities websites in Malaysia.

The latest 2 websites are:
www.danafutures.com
www.planet.time.net.my/KLCC/danafuture

As an ongoing investigation, SC may close down more websites as SC has identified more than 60 websites involve in the illegal cyber investment.

Fequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on Do Not Invest in Illegal Investment Schemes is currently available at the SC's website - www.sc.com.my

Previous post:
Crackdown on Internet Scam in Malaysia - 6 sites blocked

Source: TheStar, 23 June 2007.

Pentagon's e-mail being attacked

One of the Pentagon's e-mail systems was hacked and it triggered the Pentagon to take off 1,500 e-mails accounts offline. However, the system does not contain classified information on military operation. Pentagon being one of the most advance military organisation in the world receives hundred of threats to its computer systems either from the young or adventurous hackers to the terrorists.

What is the best prevention method? Just ask US Defense Secretary and his answer is: "I don't use e-mail."

Source: BBC News - Cyber attack on Pentagon's e-mail

Internet and computer games as an addiction?

Do you agree with this statement that Internet and computer games are categorised as an addition? I would have agree for computer games as there are people who are really addicted to it especially for the online RPG gamers. But for Internet, American Medical Association has plan to classify it as an addiction.

On computer games, some scientists say video games is useful for learning as it promotes analytical thinking, team building, multitasking and problem solving.

Cybercafe operators argued that online games are actually doing youths more good than harm, in that the games even keep them away from getting involved in drugs or crime activities.

Zimbabwe introduces WiFi

After Togo introduced the high speed Internet connection, another African country, Zimbabwe is introducing WiFi Internet connection.

African countries are picking up in the Internet connectivity with more WiFi and broadband services available. It would be interesting to follow this trend of development.

Other related stories:
1. Togo launched high speed Internet connection
2. Nigeria's communication satellite launched by China
3. The costliest Web access on Earth is in Africa

Growing threat from mobile malware

Familiar with PC viruses? Now, mobile devices can also be infected with mobile malicious software (malware).

Currently, there are a few hundred mobile viruses as compared to hundreds of thousands of PC viruses. Although this fugure is small but don't forget that there are more handphones in the world as compared to the PCs and laptops.

Potential threats:
There is potential for cybercrime to occur in the mobile networks such as the social engineering activities like deceptive phone calls and SMS persuading users to provide their personal and financial information.

Other potential threats for mobile users are spyware sneaked into the phones and monitor voice and text traffics, user's web surfing as well as intercepting passwords and account numbers.

Prevention:
User to install security packages available for the mobile devices similar to anti-virus or firewall software in the traditional PCs or laptops.


(Source: TheStar InTech, 21st June 2007, Mobile malware a growing threat)

Google adds 2 more new referral links

Google has added 2 more new products referrals for its publishers namely Google Apps (Communication and collaboration tools for businesses and organisations including Gmail and more) and Google Checkout (A faster, safer way to shop online).

Major applications for Google Apps includes Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and Docs & Spreadsheets. If a customer signed up for Google Apps through your referral and use the account for more than 4 consecutive weeks, then you will be credited USD$5.00. Read the Google Apps explanation from the Google website. Tour and demos are also available here.

Google Checkout provide a fast, safe and convenient for online shopping. Basically using Google Search to find the merchants, with a single log-in, customers can buy from many stores that offer this services. (An article from Google Checkout blog - Find it with Google, Buy it with Google Checkout). The referral will receive USD $1.00 if the signed up customer completes a transaction of at least $10 within 90 days. (New buyers purchase). A short video tour of Google Checkout can be accessed here.

A sample of the Google Apps and Google Checkout banners can be seen at the sidebar.

Personal Notes:
Frankly, the design of the banners seem a bit plain and lack of colourful images. There only a few choices of banners being available for the time being.

These CPA (cost per acquisition/action) models may seem attractive but in my opinion, I'm more concern with the conversion rate. I'm afraid that it will be slow and tough time getting for the conversion to take place. How many of the customers are using Google Checkout to purchase things from the merchants? Just wait and see how its progress. Anyhow, its fun to know that there are new referral options provided by Google.

YouTube launched 9 local version sites

YouTube launched 7 new sites in 7 countries namely Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Poland and Nertheland. Besides, 2 more English sites were added for Ireland and UK. This is part of its localisation strategies.

The nine new sites are:
Brazil - br.youtube.com
French - fr.youtube.com
Ireland - ie.youtube.com
Italian - it.youtube.com
Japanese - jp.youtube.com
Dutch - nl.youtube.com
Polish - pl.youtube.com
Spanish - es.youtube.com
UK - uk.youtube.com

Coming soon, Germany. May be in the very near future there will be Bollywood from India plus Mandarin sites for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Not forgeting the Korea site too.

At the same time, Google has bought over Zenter, a small company that makes software for creating online slide show. Official announcement is available at the Google blog. Another presentation-creation service, Tonic Systems was also acquired by Google recently. These moves are meant to strengthen Google's Doc and Spreadsheets applications.

OpenTable.com - Online restaurant reservations

Over 7000 high-end restaurants, mostly in New York and San Francisco now use OpenTable.com - a dominant services offered for restaurants to manage reservation and improve customer services, an innovative e-commerce business model.

With OpenTable.com, reservation become very convenience for customers as it can be conducted outside the business hours, beside being free. It also provide one-click cancellation. Customers are also able to leave some important message to the restaurants in his or her reservation.


This e-commerce business model services started in 1999 but it didn't have a smooth endeavour. At first, the idea of paying a dollar for a diner is being thrown away by the restaurants. It took three years for them to seat its one-millionth diner. Now, it seat two-million diners each month.

Any idea on how this e-commerce business model can be implemented in Malaysia especially for high-end restaurants in Kuala Lumpur?

Source: The New York Times

Read this article from NewYork Times, Technology - Restaurants Reservations Go Online

JohnChow dot com - Blogging Mogul

From an entrepreneur to a blogger and now being the blogging mogul - This is John Chow with his making money online tips and sharing.

From a novice blogger who came across this blog by accident (I can't really remember exactly how I get to his blog) to reading his blog is becoming a daily ritual - This is me.

His blog, beside tonnes of money making tips, also contained lots of latest IT and applications reviews, foods and a little bit of traveling. Just like attending some daily 10 minutes tutorial lessons where there is new knowledge being taught in his almost daily updates.

Not only that, you can also learn a few hands-on applications in your blogging endeavour. This is what I am experiencing now. I tried a few of the tips and it did work in some way especially on being focus on the niche topics, consistency in blogging and replying comments by other readers. Recently he created an e-book entitled Make Money Online With John Chow dot Com, sharing his personal experiences on his money making endeavour. You can download it to become your study guide.

John Chow dot com not just an ordinary blog that helps you make money, it also enriching your blogging experiences. For me, blogging is now a fun thing to do. Sharing backlinks with its readers is indeed a brilliant idea. When you review his blog, he’ll link to it and you can expect a lot of traffic coming to your blog.

More traffic means you can share your ideas and thoughts with more people. In this way, your blog can serve its purpose and value.

London - Leading WiFi Financial City

Among the top three financial cities, London is ranked ahead of New York and Paris as the leader of top WiFi city.

It experienced growth of 160% for the last 12 months in term of the number of wireless access points. There are a total of 7130 access points in London, 6371 in New York and 827 in Paris.

In London, 94% ot the wireless access points are for businesses and 6% for public. New York would have 85% for businesses and 15% for public. Paris is 89% businesses and 11% public. Majority of the wireless access points were using advanced form of encryption.

For a more detailed reading, click here - London leads in city WiFi race. The survey's reports are available at the RSA Security website.


Related links:
1. Chicago become WiFi city

MYNIC is giving out 20% discount promotion

MYNIC, the Malaysian domain names administrator, is currently giving out 20% discount for any new domain name registration or renewal for a period of 3 months. This price promotion is in conjunction of our nation 50th celebration of Independence. It starts on 5th June and will ends on 5th September 2007.

The prices is now discounted to RM80 (for 6 categories) and RM32 (for .name.my)

Crackdown on Internet scam in Malaysia - 6 sites blocked

Crackdown on the illegal online investment and cyber scams has started!

The joint authorities of Securities Commission, Bank Negara, Malaysian Communications Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and CyberSecurity Malaysia are tracking, identifying and blocking the related illegal investment scams websites.

So far 6 websites out of more than 60 identified websites were blocked of it Internet access. More to come soon.

The 6 websites are:

• abbfund.com or abfund.com,
• cfdventure.com,
• swedenfund.com,
• uebond.com,
• esuissefund.com or efef.com.pa, and
• ecashfinance.com.

Besides, AB Fund's offices were raid by the authorities on Monday with documents, equipments and servers being confiscated away for investigation.

Source: TheStar, 13th June 2007

Bid shiling - a jewellery store fined USD400,000.

Bid shilling is a situation where sellers arrange to have fake bids placed on the item they sell to artificially jack up the price higher compared to bids in the normal circumstances. If the legitimate bids does not meet their expectation, they may pop in to sell the item to themselves in order to put up the item for auction again to get a higher price.

By doing this, consumers will have to pay a higher price on the products that they bidded. This will be very unfair to them, 20% illustrated in the case below.

An example of this:
A jewellery store was fined USD400,00 for directing its employees to secretly place bids on the their products auctioned at eBay in order to increase the bidding price. The company and the merchant was also barred from participating in any online auction for 4 years.

Its action actually helps to jack up the price by an additional 20% by placing 232,000 illegal bids over a one-year period. These bids itself can be accounted for almost USD5 million.


Beside bid shiling, another type of e-auction fraud is Bid Shielding. This is used by the buyers instead if the seller.

In bid shielding, phantom bidders were used to bid at a very high price when an auction begins. However, all the phantom bidders will pull out at the last minute to enable the bidder (friend of the phantom bidders) who bids with a very low price wins. The bogus bidders acted as the shield to protect the low bid of the bidder by scaring off real bidders

New Label - Malaysia

I have created a new label for all the entries or posts related to local content - Malaysia.

Feel free to click if you are interested to look for any Internet and E-Commerce related posts in Malaysia context. Currently it covers around one-third of all the entries posted in this blog.

You are being watched at work - Terengganu Government warned

For more than 1000 staff in the state administration building, they have to be on their toes and 'acted' as all their actions at work are being captured now with the installation of CCTVs at several undisclosed places at their workplaces.

Terengganu Government acknowledged that there are 16 unit of CCTVs being installed for security purposes have been recording their workers' movements in the office to check on their workers whether their are performing their office etiquettes. It was added that this will be able to enhance the delivery systems and efficiency of the state departments and agencies. There will be another 26 units being purchased, making it a total of 42 units.

Some of the employees lauded this initiatives as they felt it will further motivate them to work harder as their supervisors or superiors will be watching over them. The Cuepacs President welcomed this idea as long as it helps to enhance productivity, efficiency and discipline among the employees.

Source: TheStar, 11 June 2007


Personal opinion:
I am more concern about the employees privacy and the possibility of the recording being misused by some irresponsible employers, just to mention the recent case in Penang where a technician was seen focusing the CCTV on the thighs of a reporters during a full council meeting rather than recording the meeting procedures.

North South Highway traffic: Just a click away....

If you intend to travel by North South Expressway, click before you start your engine. It may help you to avoid being caught a few hours in the jam.

Now, real-time visuals on certain busy stretches are available on PLUS website, www.plus.com.my, for motorists to view. This is indeed very useful especially during the holiday exodus as well as weekend traveling.

Stretches with real-time visuals shown on PLUS website are Damansara, Sungai Buloh, Bukit Lanjan, Seremban, Air Hitam, Jelapang and Juru.


Note: Could we have more visuals from other frequently-jammed stretches like Bukit Beruntung, Rawang, Senawang and Sg Besi too? Would this be helpful...at least I guess a little bit.

Singapore to launch anti-spam law

Related entries:
1. Spam king arrested in US
2. Malaysia is ranked 5th as spam zombies
3. Spam - Firm ordered to pay £750

Europe: 122 millions Internet users in everyday

Facts on Europe's Internet penetration:

Net Penetration:
1. Netherlands - 83% of the country online
2. Norway - 70%
3. Sweden - 70%
4. Denmark - 68%
5. Finland - 65%
6. UK - 62%
.
Spain - 39%
Italy - 36%
Last Russia - 11%
Average - 40%

Personal Note: Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are the forerunners of the Internet users and applications in Europe as well as in the world. The e-banking systems are very established with more than 85% of its population prefer to use e-payment systems rather paper cheques. Russia, beside being a large country, and some of the ex-communist countries are still picking up on the Internet peneteration.

More facts can be read from here - Europe online "24 hours" a month

No more gambling advertisments on Google

Gambling sites such as casinos, bingo and poker were banned from Google UK's Google Adword advertising network all this while. Now you can add gambling sites such as non-cash games and gambling tutorials to this list.

Result from the search on this issue:

"Google has always prohibited the advertising of things like bingo, poker and online casinos. However having looked at this issue very carefully and considered the views of our users, we have decided to extend our policy.

We will no longer take ads for sites that promote gambling related content or gambling tutorials or whose primary purpose is `playing for fun', gambling or casino games of skill. While we respect people's differing views on gambling - and support freedom of expression - we believe that this new policy is simpler for everyone to understand and more in tune with users' wishes."

The perils of reward cards

Reward cards offerred by the financial institutions can be very enticing as it gives consumers some monetory returns as well as goodies. However, there are some hidden traps and problems that consumers are going to encounter.

Source: TheNewsRoom

Spam king arrested!

Spam King, Robert Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle, US for sending out millions of junk mails. He is one of the world's biggest spammers, using "zombies" to send out millions of his e-mails.

Between Nov 2003 to May 2007, he was responsible for tens of millions of unsolicited e-mails promoting his own company, making USD$773,000 and frequently changed his web addresses to avoid being caught.

He will become the 1st person to be prosecuted for sending out spam e-mails in US under the Federal Laws against identity frauds. Possible penalties - USD$250,000 fine and maximum of 65 years jail.

Source: BBC News Technology - US arrests Internet "Spam King"

High Speed Internet Connection in Togo

This is an article obtained from TheNewsRoom, a site with the viral mashing technology that allows licensed news feeds and stories to be mashed from TheNewsRoom and legally embedded on website or blog. The content can then be also be redistributed from your website to infinite website too.

Other related stories:
1. Nigeria's communication satellite launched by China
2. The costliest Web access on Earth is in Africa

SMS money back to Philippines

Maxis and Globe Telecom (Philippine) launched the world 1st mobile-to-mobile money transfer service between two countries, through mobile phone service messaging (SMS).

For 20,000 Filipino Maxis subscribers, they can transfer up to PHP6,500 (RM500) per transaction for a fee of RM5 per transaction and 15 cent per SMS. A maximum of RM10,000 can be transferred in a day. (Wow, just imagine how much can be earned from the transaction fees if a person transfer RM10,000 a day - [20 x RM5 = RM100] + [20 x 0.15 = RM3] = RM103. This is equivalent to 1% per transaction. If the total transaction for a day is RM1 million, then Maxis can earn up to RM10,300 per day. )

Upon receipt of the SMS, money can be withdrawn from Globe's GCash 6000 outlets in Philippine.

Coming soon, another good news for 150,000 Indonesian mobile phone users in Malaysia. A similar service will be launched too for them.

Source: TheStar, 31st May 2007.


Previous entries:
1. Video - Actual example of G-Cash applications
2. G-Cash: Mobile Payment Systems - The Philippine's Experience