One of the domain names which I bought for a blog a year ago should be dead soon. I intended to let it die a natural cause but little did I realise that I’ve set the domain name for automatic renewal. Today, I received an email from GoDaddy saying it had renewed the domain name.
This is one of several niche blogs I’ve set up over the years but was left dormant because I could not keep up with the task of updating it.
Domain name given a CPR
It looks like the amount of US$20.61 charged to my credit card to renew the domain name will go to waste because there is no way I can continue maintaining and nurturing that blog — there are other, far more rewarding blogs which I need to take care. Nasib engkaulah wahai duit …
By the way, I bought most of my domain names from GoDaddy for the blogs that I run. For blog hosting I use Bluehost and Hostgator. Want to buy your own dotcom domain name? Go here Domain Sale! $7.49 .com at GoDaddy and make the purchase.
This Facebook thing can sometimes be a pain in the armpits, especially for people whose online world is equally long as his offline one. You know the feeling, the constant urge to log on to the social media network — updating the status, replying to the comments made to the status, commenting and maybe Like-ing the status and comments made by others, some of whom you rarely talk to offline.
For someone who must go online constantly to get a job done, having Facebook within reach is an unwelcome distraction. Imagine the time spent logging on Facebook every now and then, and lingering there for several minutes, if not dozens of minutes. Imagine the time, energy and creativity going down the drain.
This is especially fatal to full time bloggers whose life depends on their blogs or those with multiple blogs catering to various niches, who need to update them constantly to get their blogs going.
Last month, I made an experiment. I deactivated my account for one month to see if I missed anything. I did that also out of privacy concern because I was offline almost throughout the month; who knows my account might take a life of its own during my absence.
Did I miss anything during that one month? Not by a lot, I guess. As for the privacy concern, it’s real. There was an incident sometime early last year when I got stuff posted on my wall from a friend whose account had been compromised. It’s embarrassing really to see those on my wall.
I wasn’t an active user at that time. I rarely checked on my account; so the stuff remained there for many days for all to see. I wonder what my friends think of me when they saw those things posted there.
So maybe it’s time for me to quit Facebook. I’m not a particularly social person in real life to begin with, so why should I now adopt the posture of a social person online?
How to quit Facebook? Here is a Wiki on that. The guys in the footage below are discussing 10 reasons for quitting Facebook.
That’s all for now. I’ve got to log on to my account for one last time. This time for real? Hmm …
Anyone who loves old school blues ought to watch this clip featuring The Dirty Mac singing The Beatles’ “Yer Blues.”
The Dirty Mac were the late 60′s British super group comprising John Lennon of The Beatles, Eric Clapton of the Cream, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones and Mitch Mitchell from The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The band was put together by Lennon (who assumed the nickname Winston Leg-Thigh) for The Rolling Stones’ TV special, titled “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.”
Here’s is the lyrics of Yer Blues, a song by composed by Lennon and Paul McCartney:
Yes I’m lonely wanna die
Yes I’m lonely wanna die
If I ain’t dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why.
In the morning wanna die
In the evening wanna die
If I ain’t dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why.
My mother was of the sky
My father was of the earth
But I am of the universe
And you know what it’s worth
I’m lonely wanna die
If I ain’t dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why.
The eagle picks my eye
The worm he licks my bones
I feel so suicidal
Just like Dylan’s Mr. Jones
Lonely wanna die
If I ain’t dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why.
Black cloud crossed my mind
Blue mist round my soul
Feel so suicidal
Even hate my rock and roll
Wanna die yeah wanna die
If I ain’t dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why
According to an entry in Wikipedia, Lennon said in a Rolling Stone interview that he used the humorous title as something of a defense mechanism, so that if anyone criticized the song, he could write it off as a parody.
Here are numerous interpretations of the song. Enjoy!
Ultraman was still fighting his nemesis monster near the TV set when I got back from the airport yesterday. Optimus Prime was there to help and so did Bumblebee. Nobody won yet; the toys just stood there in striking poses.
You guys need help? I came close and with just a gentle flick, the monster was down. There you go, the good guys won.
Around the living room were paper planes, some had crashed landed on the floor, others below the settee and on top of the dining table. A blank paper tucked under the sofa, half folded, almost taking the shape of a jet fighter. Can you make me a plane before we go, daddy?
At one corner lay the Godin guitar, the blues had long tapered off, the amps only amplified the silence.
At another corner lay dozens of corrugated paper boxes, stuffed with household items. Stacked on top of the others and propped against the wall, the boxes formed a fort almost half way to the ceiling.
I surveyed the living room, trying to make sense of the hodgepodge. It was as though a family had just moved in the day before and not quite done unpacking. Or was family leaving and in the process of packing?
Blogging, to a large extent, revolutionises the way people acquire knowledge. By continuously blogging about a certain topic, for instance, it is possible for a person to become more knowledgeable on the subject.
Pick any topic you have an interest in exploring and learning, and start a blog dedicated to the subject and challenge yourself to at least come up with three blog entries a week.
It is important that you choose a topic that interests, otherwise you are likely to give up blogging when the going gets tough.
Your interest in a topic is what keeps you going, spurring you to read and search for more information, and in the process allowing you to learn a lot of new things.
I spent the first 30 minutes of my waking hours this morning not by working out to burn the fat at the mid-section but to try out Gmail’s latest feature, which is, a web phone call service — something like Skype, but not exactly.
The first thing I did was to sign in into Gmail, click on the phone icon on the left sidebar, and from there, I was promoted to download and install Google voice and video software.
After installing it, the Firefox browser restarted and when I got it back, I re-signed in into the Gmail account, clicked on the phone icon again and out popped a dialer. I dialed my own number and I could hear an analog-type dialing tone as Gmail tries to reach my mobile.
Some seconds later, bingo! My phone rang, showing a local Celcom number as the caller.
I can now call any phone number, either mobile or fixed line, anywhere in the world from my Gmail. Of course, I need to have a microphone hooked on my computer to be able to actually talk with the person at the end of the line.
You can try it out now, using the US$0.10 credit available when you activate the service. If you want to make more calls, you can top it up using using your credit card.
Google’s latest move, with cheap rate to boot, brings the search engine giant in head-to-head competition with VoIP players like Skype and telco operators. The rate is cheap, for instance, someone calling from the United States to Malaysia need only to pay US$0.04 for mobile phone number and US$0.02 for a fixed line number. Here is a complete list of Gmail phone call rates (for calls from the US to the rest of the world).
You can also video chat right from Gmail. See instruction below:
I find it ironic that most people who jog at sunrise are those already in their sunset — people in their golden age, panting and sweating in the dying dawn.
Then it occurs to me that the central piece of the whole irony is none other than myself… because I too am thinking of waking up early and kick-start my morning jog routine.
This old man (picture, below) is not jogging. He is just walking; in a slow, excruciating stride. Age has really caught up on him.
I’ll be joining them soon, doing the morning jog, I mean; and try to salvage whatever is left of my former self.
In any case, you can’t outrun age. It’s an unstoppable foe and no matter what you do or where you go, it will eventually catch up on you.
UK-based photographer Philip Bloom set six cameras, five of them Canon cameras and one a Nikon to take this stunning timelapse photograph and video of Monument Valley in Utah.
He used two Canon EOS 5D Mark II, two Canon EOS 7D, a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV and a Nikon D3s. The set up is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Here’s how he shot the film.
I spent a good 30 minutes of my time prior to writing this entry, watching and playing with a movie trailer about a group of people who mysteriously vanished from the city of Val Sinestra. The eerie part is that all of those who went missing are my Facebook friends.
Where have they gone to? Create your own suspense-filled trailer, featuring your own Facebook friends at Lost In Val Sinestra website. Go there now, I promise you it’s going to be fun.
The latest issue of PhotographyBB Online Magazine is now available for free download in PDF format. The magazine, as some of you might know, is a free publication with the goal of educating beginner to intermediate level photographers.
This is one of two photography magazines which I make it a point to spend time to read, from front to back. The other is Underwater Photography, published once in two months, also available for free download.
PhotographyBB magazine, issue No 30
Issue No 30 of PhotographyBB magazine, discusses social media for photographers, digital art, portrait photography, wildlife photography as well as an article on stock photos.
You can download the magazine, here. If you are new to PhotographyBB, however, you will have to register to subscribe to it, which you can do by entering your first name and a valid e-mail address.
The Underwater Photography magazine can be downloaded here. The same subscription principle applies.
The Twist & Shape stepper lies idle at a corner, not twisting, let alone shaping. For many months now since I last unpacked it, the fitness machine just sits there, collecting dusts; its sedentary owner barely aware of its existence.
His ever bulging belly, however, jolts him to his senses and now the owner — that’s me — is becoming more aware of the machine. Everyday since the past week, he gravitates more and more into the orbit of the fat burner, wondering if at forty-something there is still a way to recover the six-pack abs of his younger days.
The truth is, there is more to flat tummy than meets the eye — or, if you will, meets the belly button. Unlike a car, one doesn’t need a spare tyre and an additional circumference at the belly is costly. Think of all the new pants you have to buy because the existing ones no longer fit. And think of all the fuel you burned while going to the shop nearby because you insisted on using the car because you were just too lazy to jog-walk — because the body has become heavy.
For me, I am done with all these. From next month onward, I am going to pump away all the weight at the middle and be as skinny as an old mantis. Wish me luck. And if you ever feel like trying, here’s a video on how to lose fat at the abdomen and get a flat tummy.
Facebook, the social networking site, is the most visited website in Malaysia, according to the latest figure shown on Alexa.
This not surprising considering that over 7.666 million of 500 million Facebook users worldwide are Malaysians, according to CheckFacebook.com, a website which tracks the membership figures of the billion-dollar worth social media website.
The omnipresent Facebook... half a billion users as of July 2010
The 15 most visited websites in Malaysia this week are: Facebook, Google Malaysia, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Blogger.com, Windows Live, Wikipedia, Maybank2u.com, MSN, WordPress.com, Mudah.my, Twitter, The Star Online and Malaysiakini.com.
By the way, how much is Facebook worth? According to some estimates, if Facebook is to go public now, it could top US$30 billion.
Please bear with me for the blog entries here might seem nonsensical to you but that is how I keep writer’s block at bay — by writing whatever it is that tickles my fancies. Hopefully, in the near future, there will some coherence in the way this blog is run.
There are dozens of tools out there dedicated to creating High Dynamic Range (HDR) photographs and among the most powerful, yet easy to use, must be the new Oloneo PhotoEngine, of which beta version is now available for a free download.
Dynamic range, simply put, is the difference between the darkest and lightest area in a photograph.
HDR, therefore, is the ability to show a greater balance between the two extremes in a picture, in a sense that there will be no areas in the photos which are too overexposed or underexposed (see the clip below).
However, HDR is not the only thing PhotoEngine is capable of creating. The tool can also be used to create a certain mood in a picture, as can be seen below. The first photo is the original.
[UPDATE: The LX5 is officially announced today, July 21. Those who have tested the pre-production model came away impressed]
By now camera trend watchers would have heard of the LX5, Panasonic’s premium compact camera and the successor to the much-respected LX3. Rumours of the LX5′s impending release have been making rounds since last month. Today, stopping short of officially announcing the camera, Panasonic posted a mouth-watering specification of the LX5 at its website.
Panasonic LX5
The headline features: F2.0 Leica DC Summicron Lens, a large 1/1.63″ High Sensitivity 10 megapixel CCD with evolved sensor technology, HD Movie Recording, up to 6fps continuous shooting, 3.8x optical zoom, conversion lens compatibility, Power OIS optical image stabiliser, multi-aspect ratio (4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1). Here is the full spec.
and make the purchase.
