My New Blog Template

My recent change of blog template lasted for only 3 and a half months. Why then I change the template again?

From this - My previous blog template

Well, there was some technical glitches caused by the blog template that I used. The domain where the author store the blog template associated images has exceed the bandwidth. Thus it caused some weird images appeared on my blog affecting the visibility on some of the contents.

To this - This was ugly, right?

Hey, this is not my fault.

As this is beyond of my technical capabilities, I decided to surf the Internet to look for another new blog template and I found one that I would like to try. Spending almost one afternoon to upload the new blog template as well as reorganise the widgets and layout. The end result is.....

The new look

There are still some minor technical issues on formating and widgets which need to be solved such as the Haloscan comment widget, the alignment of the columns (Firefox vs. IE) and etc.

Tech Tags: Blog Template

Most popular item purchased online - Books

According to the survey conducted by Nielsen Online, 41% of the 26,312 online users from 46 countries responded that they had bought books online, an increase from 34% from 2 years ago.


The top global book buyers are: (Percentage of the Internet user buying books online)
1. South Korea - 58%
2. Germany - 55%
3. Austria - 54%
4. Vietnam - 54%
5. Brazil - 51%
6. Egypt - 49%
7. China - 48%
8. India - 46%
9. Taiwan - 45%
10. UK - 45%

How about Malaysian? Did anyone of you buying books online? Does it reflect the reading culture in each country including Malaysia?

Google to invest in Malaysia?

Has Google decide where to set up its data center facilities in Asia? According to our Prime Minister, our Malaysia huge ICT market is an attraction for the Google Inc. as compared to India or Vietnam. Malaysian are also the highest users of Google application in South East Asia.

Beside, the government's development plans are also in line with the company's expansion programme. If Google did choose Malaysia as part of its expansion plan, this will definitely create a big boost for Malaysia's ICT industry.

Tech Tags: Google Malaysia

5 bad habits for getting into debts

With the increase in credit card debts throughout the world, it would be wise to look into the causes of these phenomena.

One of the main reason is the spending habits of the cardholders.

1. Expenses is higher than the income.
Spending more than the earned income is not a good idea. Credit card is one of the mean to ease this worry with the formula of spending now and pay later. Card holders have the option to make the full payment or minimum payment each month. Of course, the latter will be the obvious choice in this situation. With no saving, borrowing will be the only option and this will contribute to a bigger deficits in long run until the credit card limit was maxed out.

2. Spending money that you don't have.
Credit card provides future money that not owned by the cardholders. It is the best instrument to make purchases for being convenient. However at the same time, each transaction conducted is equal to a new debt being created. Balances remained at the end of each month will be charged with high interest. In this way, the debt will continue to grow.

3. Using credit for ordinary purchases.
Some users use credit card for daily purchases such as food, petrol, clothes and entertainment which will indirect creating new debt on the daily basis.

4. Using credit when you have cash.
Whenever the users use the card rather than cash, they relied on the principle of buy now and pay later attitude and this will lead to uncontrollable expenses. Using cash in fact helps the cardholders control their expenses.

5. Using debt to pay debt.
Using credit cards to pay off other cards are not helping as well as it will shuffling the debts around. This in fact will increase the debt with the additional interest rate plus the existing incurred debts.

Tech Tags: bad spending habit credit card debts

Electronic Commerce - Blog Carnival (17th January 2008)

Welcome to the January 17, 2008 edition of electronic commerce. (Vol 2, No. 2, 2008)

Dianne M. Buxton presents 12 Yr Old head of Household Helped By My Power Mall posted at manifestingsuccess, saying, "This article reveals a program for making money every time you shop on line. No cost to use, a real income builder that is designed to take advantage of every expense you have! The company gives % to needy kids, non-denominational."

Mark Riffey presents Does your business run at the speed of trust? posted at Business is Personal, saying, "During our campout this past weekend at Lake McDonald in Glacier Park, I had an incident that reminded me of Covey's article about the "speed of trust" which if you think about it, speaks to everything from day to day business to systemic health care issues in the United States..."

Ron Ruiz presents Virtual Boyfriends posted at The Business Ideas-Making Money Blog, saying, "Even though she intended for the “Boyfriend In-A-Box” idea to be a funny, tongue-in-cheek item, she ended up selling over 200,000. She forgot about the idea until she was contacted by Hollywood who wanted to turn the concept into a movie."

Richard Lee presents Uhhhh? WOW! posted at Richard Lee, saying, "Just 3 days ago… I wrote about how I was sliding down in the rankings...Oddly enough… I seem to have popped back up to el numero uno. Hey… I’ll take it."

James D. Brausch presents Four Types Of Systems posted at jamesbrausch.com.

Kenton Newby presents Can You Really Make Money Showing People "How To"? posted at KentonNewby.com, saying, "I had a talk with a family member the other day. He commented that he just didn't understand how you can make money showing someone "how to". Do you have that same blind spot? Let's consider an example and I'll let you do the math and be the judge."

Ed Rivis presents Make Money Blogging. posted at Ed Rivis, saying, "Anyone can make money from blogging. The primary models for money-making blogging activity are:1-Get paid to advertise third party products and services.2-Advertise your own products and services.3-Both of the above. Read more..."

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents How To Use A Toilet! posted at Rebecca Dean.

Charles Eglinton presents eBay Seller Contingencies posted at AuctionIncome.com - eBay Bidding Tips & Selling Tips, saying, "Do you have a contingency plan in place? From an ebay auctioneer, yet still relevant..."

Thomas D. Brownsword presents Business Action Update: December 14, 2007 posted at Business Action Steps.

Stephen Dean presents Copywriting Technique: Blow It Up… posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

Matthew Paulson presents Don’t Buy a Warranty on Your Next HDTV Purchase posted at American Consumer News.

Ian Richardson presents Would you like an Ezy way to manage multiple Wordpress Blogs? posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.

Kingsley Tagbo presents How To Improve Your Skills And Get A Lucrative Job posted at HOW TO LEARN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FAST OR GET A JOB EASILY.

Mark Riffey presents Is your staff impatient with newbies? posted at Business is Personal.

Ron Ruiz presents A Salute to Entrepreneurs! posted at The Business Ideas-Making Money Blog.

Steve Oliphant presents Saturday - getting things done. posted at Steve Oliphant's Musings.

James Alenteal presents Five reasons Why Blogs & Content Marketing Beats SEO & PPC. posted at James Alenteal's Conversion Rate Clinic, saying, "Two Classic Marketing Models -- One Depends on blogging."

Hill Robertson presents Sometimes External Links are Bad posted at Hill Robertson.

Mark Riffey presents Independent bookstores wouldn’t bore me like this posted at Business is Personal.

Danogo presents Learn the Proven Money Making Keys to Successful E-commerce posted at Danogo.com - Discover. Inspiring . Media, saying, "Outlines the critical factors used by sites like Amazon and eBay that can be used to put together an online money making business."

MommyAuctions.com presents How Listing Your Items on an Auction Site for Moms Can Help Your Business posted at Mommy Auctions.

James D. Brausch presents Training Your Customers posted at jamesbrausch.com.

Blogging

James Alenteal presents A subtle conversion rate & response booster from 3 masters. posted at James Alenteal's Conversion Rate Clinic, saying, "Article on increasing blog & website opt-ins."

E-commerce

trachtman2 presents The Net Impact Roadmap; E-Commerce Guide: Giving Stuff Away is Tougher than It Looks posted at The Net Impact Roadmap, saying, "Giving away free items and how this strategy can help your E-Commerce web site."

Cindy King presents Prepare For International Markets posted at Get International Clients.

Kenton Newby presents Benefits of Being in the Physical Information Product Business posted at KentonNewby.com.

Richard Lee presents The One Thing You MUST Learn To Succeed In Any Business posted at Richard Lee.

Woody Maxim presents The launch, the new release, and the workshop posted at Woody Maxim.

Tero Mäenpää presents What is EDI? posted at What's up with e?, saying, "To clear our what is EDI and what standards there is in B2B world."

Jay M presents Re-evaluate and measure your marketing strategy in 10 steps posted at 4 entrepreneur, saying, "It is time to re-evaluate and measure your marketing strategy"

Internet

bennie presents What technological things should you have? posted at Technology Matter, saying, "A list of cool technological things you should have."

Jim Sansi presents Onlywire The One You Need? posted at The Kaizen Business.

Jim Sansi presents 2007 A Year In Review posted at The Kaizen Business.

Chas Masterson presents Search Engine Myths Exposed! …Actually Myth-Busters Exposed. posted at Chuck Masterson.

Stephen Dean presents Tapping Michel Fortin’s Brain Volume 2 posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

Ian Richardson presents Abbott & Costello - "Who's On First?" - A lesson to the Internet Marketing Crowd posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.

IM Z2H presents FREE - The easiest way to make money I’ve ever seen! posted at Internet Marketing Zero 2 Hero Blog, saying, "One of the quickest, easiest ways to make money online I've ever come across. I've written a quick post with a link to this gobsmacking report so everyone can get their own copy. (It's 100% free and doesn't require any email sign-ups.)"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of electronic commerce using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: electronic commerce, blog carnival.

World Thinnest Notebook - MacBook Air

The world thinnest laptop was revealed by the Apple boss Steve Job during the MacWorld Expo keynote address in San Fransisco.

MacBook Air

Thickness: 0.16 - 0.76 inches (0.41 - 1.93cm)
Cost: USD1,799. (RM5,850)
Weigh: 1.3kg.

Other Specs:

• No DVD/CD Drive.
• 80 Gigabyte hard disc drive.
• 13.3 inches wide screen display
• 1280 x 800 pixel resolution
• 12.8 inches wide and 8.95 inches deep
• Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo chip running at 1.6GHz

Tech Tags: Apple MacBook Air thinnest laptop

10 warning signs of credit card debts

If.....

1. You are not in control of your money.
2. You have begun charging essentials like food and daily expenses to your credit cards.
3. You make only minimum payments on your credit card accounts each month.
4. You are at the limit of your credit cards.
5. You have too many credit cards.
6. You are unsure how much you owe creditors.
7. You are living on paycheck to paycheck.
8. You are taking cash advances from your credit card to meet your expenses.
9. You start to receive calls from banks.
10. You are being served with legal notice.

Then, you should start getting advise with your finances as all these are signs of getting into the credit card debts.

Each year, more than 1,000 cardholders in Malaysia has been declared bankrupt for failing to pay their credit card debts. Thus, to prevent from being saddled with the credit cards debt, cardholders need to use the credit card wisely.

Bank Negara Malaysia (National Bank of Malaysia) has establish the Credit Counseling and Debt Management Agency (Agensi Kaunselling dan Pengurusan Kredit) to provide counseling and advice on financial management, debts management programs and financial education for free of charge.

Tech Tags: warning signs credit card debts

New Tiered Interest Rate Charges for Credit Card

In line with Bank Negara Malaysia's objective to promote prudent financial management amongst credit card members and to inculcate good financial discipline, a new tiered interest rate structure has been introduced this year.

This scheme is designed to reward prompt paying customers with a lower interest rate. Instead of the flat rate of 18% per annum (1.5% monthly) charges, two additional rates are being introduced.

• 15% (p.a.) or 1.25% (monthly) for all the 12 consecutive months of prompt payment in the past 12 months.
• 17% (p.a.) or 1.42% (monthly) for 10 or 11 months of prompt payment in the past 12 months
• 18% (p.a.) or 1.50% (monthly) for less than 10 months of prompt payment in the last 12 months.

This scheme will be implemented from 1 July 2008 onwards by all the banks in Malaysia.


Personal opinion:
I believe this is a good move by the Bank Negara Malaysia as the number of credit card debt is increasing for the past few years. Such initiatives will helps to motivate the card members to pay promptly to enjoy the lower interest rate. It would be sweeter if the rate can be lowered in the future.

Tech Tags: credit card interest rate

Top 5 technology trends for 2008

2007 is the year for Facebook, iPhone and Wii. I decided to give Facebook a try towards the end of last year and I'm truly addicted to its applications and contents till now.

How about 2008? What are the new technologies that can change the way people lives this year?

These are the top 5 technology trends for 2008:

1. Web applications going off line

New applications will be available to take rich web content and make it available off line. Example:

• Air (Adobe) ebay's application enable users to do the auction setting off line and the listing will be automatically posted in the web when the user connects to the Internet.
• Silverlight (Microsoft) have the ability to build desktops applications and run it in the web browsers.
• Gear (Google) allow web content to be taken off line too.

2. Ultra mobile PCs

Asus launched the EEE model last year (weighted less than 1 kg and cost below USD 400). It is expected to achieve 5 million units sales in 2008. Ultra mobile PCs will be operating on flash memory instead of hard disk. Samsung is already coming up with a flash memory card of 128G. Apple may also launching an ultra mobile Macbooks this year.

3. Internet TV

With the improvement on the broadband connection especially WIMAX, there will be more Internet Protocol TV services available in the market. In UK, competition become more intensified with BT Vision, Virgin Media, O2, Orange and BBC's iPlayers are vying the UK market share on IPTV.

4. WIMAX

There WIMAX revolution is expected to go big in Europe. The ability to deliver the high speed broadband over a long distance is going to change the web technologies and cyberspace tremendously.

5. Mobile VOIP

With Voice Over Internet Protocol, telephone call rates will be reduced dramatically. Skype launched the VOIP last year which enable users to make calls from PC. Nokia also came out with four new models which incorporated the ability to use this technology.

Tech Tags: 2008 technologies trends IPTV WIMAX

E-discipline for schools in Bentong

13 secondary schools in Bentong, Pahang will be implementing a shared e-discipline systems where students disciplinary records will be stored.

Purposes:

• Enable school authorities to identify the problematic students and their academic performance.
• Enable parents to check on their children's performance and progress in school.

The program was written by a teacher in a secondary school.

Next step? Will it be implemented at colleges or universities?

Electronic Commerce - Blog Carnival (3rd January 2008)

Welcome to the January 3, 2008 edition of electronic commerce. (Vol 2, No. 1, 2008)


Mark Riffey presents Independent bookstores wouldn’t bore me like this posted at Business is Personal.

Hill Robertson presents Sometimes External Links are Bad posted at Hill Robertson.

James Alenteal presents 5 reasons Why Blogs & Content Marketing Beats SEO & PPC. posted at James Alenteal's Conversion Rate Clinic.

Thomas D. Brownsword presents Business Action Update: December 14, 2007 posted at Business Action Steps.

Steve Oliphant presents Saturday - getting things done. posted at Steve Oliphant's Musings.

Ron Ruiz presents A Salute to Entrepreneurs! posted at The Business Ideas-Making Money Blog.

Mark Riffey presents Is your staff impatient with newbies? posted at Business is Personal.

Kingsley Tagbo presents How To Improve Your Skills And Get A Lucrative Job posted at HOW TO LEARN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FAST OR GET A JOB EASILY.

Ian Richardson presents Would you like an Ezy way to manage multiple Wordpress Blogs? posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.

Matthew Paulson presents Don’t Buy a Warranty on Your Next HDTV Purchase posted at American Consumer News.

Kenton Newby presents Can You Really Make Money Showing People "How To"? posted at KentonNewby.com.

Stephen Dean presents Copywriting Technique: Blow It Up… posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

Thomas D. Brownsword presents Business Action Update: December 14, 2007 posted at Business Action Steps.

Charles Eglinton presents eBay Seller Contingencies posted at AuctionIncome.com - eBay Bidding Tips & Selling Tips.

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents How To Use A Toilet! posted at Rebecca Dean.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of electronic commerce using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: electronic commerce, blog carnival.

Happy New Year 2008

Wishing all my readers "HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!"

For probloggers and amateur bloggers, hope to see more quality, awesome and tonnes of blog posts and at the same time hope you guys and gals will be able to double or triple you online income this year.

My blogging objectives:
To blog on a more consistent rate with more e-commerce related posts.

Happy blogging!