FORTHECLUELESS

Ping Servers - If Your Streamyx Connection Is Out

2010-10-31T10:22:00.002+08:00

I learnt a new thing today all because the Streamyx Servers were causing problems again. I realised since the past two days that I could not connect. This has been a recurrent problem which I made several reports earlier on. Each time, I was told that there was a problem with my modem - and duly, I changed every time.

Finally, I ran out of modems to change and I decided to press on for a solution via the 100 number called to Streamyx Tech Assistance. Then only did I find out that the cause was not in the modem but a hang session at Streamyx. You won't want to know how much I have wasted money on modems - at times, I thought "What the heck, just snip off Streamyx Broadband and move on to another service provider instead."

In the recent case, there was yet another hang session, and the Tech girl at Streamyx helped me through and taught me a bit which I will also teach you if you are in Malaysia and using Streamyx.

Do a Command Prompt (Run: cmd)
Then ping anyserver you know, ie. type in ping http://www.streamyx.com and see what the return results are.

According to the girl, you chould receive no more than 85ms return rate for local site and not more than 500ms for a foreign site.

If you see your ping return rates over the figures I just mentioned, called 100 and see what help they can give you. Do not change anything - not your modem or computer - it could be the fault is not even yours but Streamyx.

Streamyx Lines Out Till After Oct 19, 2010

2010-10-15T22:21:00.001+08:00

IF you are reading this and your Streamyx line is going slower than a tortoise, do a ping test.
Go to Run and Type in cmd. Then type in ping(space)www.streamyx.com and see if the return rate is more than 1000ms. If it is, then you are not alone.
I just checked with the TM Helpdesk and was told that there is a problem with all outgoing traffic to the US. Either the return rate is taking too long or there is packet loss.
This situation will be back to normal, he said. And told me that if I don't believe him, I can call 100 and ask another HelpDesk person.
Asked what is wrong, the Tech chaps says "Tak Tau". What do you mean 'Tak Tau?' Where is Customer Service?
In times like these when you need to get a connection fast, maybe you should rethink other alternatives. Like WiMax, for instance? Or Celcom Broadband? Maxis? What do you say?

Now Facebook wants your browser space!

2010-05-05T14:46:00.000+08:00

Everone wants your browser real estate. See what Facebook did today? Yep, a button to make it your homepage. Smart, dont you think?

Tough Not To Like Google

2010-02-14T09:36:00.001+08:00

IT's not difficult to see why people like Google. It's simple, thoughtful things like this Year of the Tiger logo that endears many to the grestest search engine in the world.

In Malay, Adsense May Not Make Any Sense

2010-02-04T08:04:00.005+08:00

Pictures are worth thousands words. Here's one screenshot that will tell you even more.

In plain English, the headline above says if you want to be a Malay, use Adsense. But I am sure the meaning is not that, of course. Some AI is at work here, no doubt. And this is what I am afraid of when my fellow countrymen do not know how to use the English Language properly in many years to come - just like Google's Ad makers' use of Bahasa Malaysia in this case.

I wonder where the NGOs that were rallying against the use of English in the teaching of Maths and Science in Malaysia months ago are now. Are they not concerned that the world is not using Bahasa Malaysia properly?

Free Calls - An Ad Model Here?

2010-02-03T13:33:00.005+08:00

I was not the least surprised to see this story from NYT. I knew it would happen sooner or later - that phone calls can be made free in return for ads, depending on whether the industry is daring enough to venture into it.

The NYT story is different, of course. It's about an iPhone app that gives you free calls if you are willing to listen to ads in exchange. If you want free calls, minus the ad, according to the story, you pay US$10 a month. You can read more here: Free Calls, if You Don’t Mind Ads.

I am wondering free call model of a different kind. The phone user subscribes to the phone service who engages advertisers for mobile ads. For each add displayed (giving the advertisers the eye-balls in terms of return-of-investment (ROI) ), the subscriber gets air time in exchange.

The benefit for the advertiser would be monumental since mobile phone companies have the statistics of all subscribers and can zoom in by any category they have identified in their existing registration system, such as income-level, race, age groups, or even locality. Imagine the reach it would give the advertiser using this mode to target its users. Users may argue that they would not like adverts but if they finance their phone bills, what is there to complaint?

How it will work can be similar to that story in NYT. Well targetted ads wait in queue at the network base. Once the subscriber dials a number, and gets connected, he listens to the ad for say, 20 seconds, before being allowed through. As this was going on, the recipient of the call is also notified by the computer about the caller details and his call so that the recipient does not hang up in frustration.

Karmic Cycle of Information?

2010-01-11T06:18:00.001+08:00

Been tracking the death of some newspaper websites and came upon this - an interview conducted by the Sustainable Journalism Org with Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens. Could it be the future-form newspapers should and will be reborn in?

Stepehn says anyone contemplating a journalism start-up should think of getting a mobile presence first and then think of a computer application that plays off the app, not the other way around. Indeed, if he were starting the Geek Squad today, it would not be providing support for computers, it would be all about tablets and mobile devices.

See the full Leonard Witt interview transcript here and the YouTube hosted video interview here

Mainstream media houses under threat of diminishing returns should pay attention to the Four Screens Stephens is talking about.

IE8 Slow To Load Fix

2009-12-23T09:54:00.003+08:00

Do you run IE8 on XP? Chances are that you might come to a point that it takes over 15s to load the application. I found a tech sheet that says you can overcome the problem by going to Command Prompt and insert regsvr32 actxprxy.dll command.

To do this, go to START and click RUN and type in cmd.

After the DOS black dialogue box jumps up, type in this: regsvr32 actxprxy.dll and hit enter. A dialogue box will jump up and say that the operation is successful.

Restart and your IE8 should work like a dream.

Good Job Celcom Marketing Comm Dept!

2009-12-13T11:45:00.004+08:00

Once a while, you come across a good marketing communication strategy to get feedback from customers. Last week, I found this:

It is an interactive terminal's screen in English and Malay allowing customers to key in feedback immediately while waiting for their transactions to be carried out by the customer service personnel. It is not a very lengthy process, only six questions I think, asking you to rate the servioe and helpfullness of the counter staff, among others. I think government agencies should have this installed to collect feedback and improve service. KPI alone is usually insufficient.

TIP FOR JOURNALISTS #1 - Use Google Maps To Check Distances

2009-11-16T08:52:00.004+08:00

If you are a subseditor or a copy editor, not knowing certain localities can be a problem For instance, the other day, one of my colleagues asked me how far is Merang from Marang in the state of Terengganu. I said I dont know but roughly we could check it together and establish the validity of some facts in the story he was clearing. I asked him to go to maps.google.com and search for Marang, Terengganu. Then, within that search results, seek the distance from Marang from Merang. And in less than 2 minutes, he had what he wanted. Using tools such as Google Map can make editing jobs easier. Watch this space as I give you more tips.

View Larger Map

Sony Recalls Vaio Adapters in US

2009-10-29T10:58:00.004+08:00

Found this today:

Sony Recalls Computer AC Adapters Due to Shock Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Sony VAIO Computer AC Adapters

Units: About 69,000

Manufacturer: Sony Electronics Inc. of San Diego, Calif.

Hazard: Insulation inside the AC adapter can fail over time, posing an electrical shock hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Sony has received four reports of adapters short circuiting. No incidents occurred in the United States. No injuries have been reported.

Description: The recalled AC adapter model is the Sony VGP-AC19V17, which was supplied for use with the following Sony products:

BRUNEI ONLINE Site Is In Trouble

2009-10-23T08:47:00.005+08:00

Saw this when Googling for an interesting story about a trainee who was denied entry to a teachers' college because she was fat. Among results returned for the search was Brunei Online's (see pix below) - along with the Google Search warning - This Site May Harm Your Computer.

I hope the webmaster is aware of this and make the checks for any malware that is being identified from their servers. Else, they might lose visits without even knowing why. It could be an innocent heuristic script or it could be some hideous software that is prompting the warning grading.

MAYBANK2U SCAM ALERT!

2009-10-20T13:48:00.005+08:00

I was pleasantly surprised to receive this email from Maybank to say that I needed to unblock my Maybank2U account. I did not have such an account and when I decided to receive the email, I decided to do my own sleuthing (very easy actually) and see where the spammer might be hiding. below is the text in the email:

from Alert Maybank2u
dateTue, Oct 20, 2009 at 8:59 AM
subjectMaybank Unblock Account !
mailed-bybounce.secureserver.net
from - alert-online@maybank.com.my

Unblock Account !
We have been unable to access your login identity in m2u database files.
Maybank has encountered a problem and you need to authenticate.
Please login at maybank2u to restore your account access.

We are sorry for the inconvenience !

The mail allegedly came from Maybank2U hyperlinked here: http://111.red-79-148-110.staticip.rima-tde.net/

I decided to trace the IP to reveal the real culprit. See the report below:

The original sender was from Abu Dhabi,

I am alerting you guys to the possible scam to get your passwords if you have Maybank2U. Do not click on any link. I

f you need to change any personal details, go to the bank and do it from there.

If not, then call up the bank's Online Maybank2U section and ask for clarification - if indeed they had sent the email.

If it turns out to be a scam, just tag the email as Spam so that your system takes care of it even before it reaches you.

The email sender, in this case, used the IP address at: 83.111.123.165 from United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. Further check revealed that the server was owned by the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, under its Ministry of Labour. Let's hope if there was anyone from that organisation, he/she is alerted to this scam.

Meanwhile, if you have a Maybank2U account, I suggest you be extra careful when using it to transact.

To check IPs or mail trace, go http://www.ip-adress.com

Use This To Track IPs

2009-10-15T05:44:00.001+08:00

Some fellas try to be funny with you, sending spam mails and doing stuff through the Net? You can get back by going to this site: http://www.ip-adress.com/ip_tracer/ to track that person down.

The site has several useful links for checking remote IPs, tracing emails (good to nab spammers) as well as the occasional speedtest. Of course, as you hit the site, your IP is also tracked. Keep the link in your bookmarks - it could prove useful one day.

Oct, The Day The Bar Code Was Invented

2009-10-07T17:39:00.002+08:00

Today Google came up with a creative front for its Google Search page. Marking the invention of the barcode, it uses this:

Creative, isnt it?

Free FLV Converter

2009-09-16T18:03:00.003+08:00

I used to use RIVA's flv converter to convert flv Youtube movies into other formats playable on handphones and laptops until the software started acting up and would not convert Youtube flvs. I had almost given up hope of finding a truly useful one until today when I googled for "flv converters" and came across http://www.flv-converter.org/ . The file to be downloaded is also very small and the interface quite pleasant to look at. I have so far successfully downloaded flvs and converted them into avi and mpeg formats.

Here is a screenshot of the interface:

If you like, you may download from its site here:

STREAMYX WOES

2009-08-23T06:22:00.003+08:00

Looks like we are never going to be on the internet superhighway fast enough. Every alternate week, Streamyx is getting erratic. This time it is the pits - downloading a 5MB file takes me over 7 minutes. Look at the report - what do you think? Streamyx had better buck up if it wants to stay relevant.

Blogger's FTP Image Publishing Returns To Normal

2009-08-18T08:19:00.003+08:00

Barely having posted 24 hours about the complaints I received on Blogger not publishing to FTP servers, I am please to inform readers of this blog that everything has returned to normal, at least where I am from. If you are facing FTP publishing problems, let me know.

Blogger Not Uploading Images To FTP Servers?

2009-08-17T06:24:00.003+08:00

I received two comments this morning of Blogger not being able to upload images to FTP servers. One came from Scott Johnson and the other from Tony Chai. When I faced the problem, I waited a few days before posting any image. I suggest if you are facing any such problem you wait for Blogger to rectify it. Meanwhile, you should also check with your service provider and see if they have acted any firewall that prevented the remote postings.

My suspicion is that because of the spam of DOS that are going around (read: Twitter), chances are that service providers and hosts are more careful of any remote posts. I would think that they have upgraded their security solutions and this couls play a small part in remote FTP posts.

Solution: Get a helpful host like Pair.Com which I have used without fail. Their link is here: Pair Networks.

Yahoo! Geocities To Close

2009-07-11T11:17:00.004+08:00

Haven't you heard? Geocities will be closed. For over a decade, Geocities has kept millions of sites around the world running, mostly free of charge. Today, Yahoo which acquired Geocities some years ago, has decided to close all the sites down.

Read this:
Important notice: GeoCities is closing.
Dear Yahoo! GeoCities customer,

We're writing to let you know that Yahoo! GeoCities, our free web site building service and community, is closing on October 26, 2009.

On October 26, 2009, your GeoCities site will no longer appear on the Web, and you will no longer be able to access your GeoCities account and files.

What You Need to Do
If you'd like to move your web site, or save the images and other files you've posted online, you need to act now by choosing one of the following options:

Move your site to Yahoo! Web Hosting.
We know your files are important to you, and we want to make moving to Web Hosting as easy and affordable as we can. For a limited time, you can move your files automatically, take advantage of terrific features like a personalized domain name and email, even redirect your GeoCities web address to your new site all for only $4.99 a month for a full year.

For more information and complete terms, please see our special offer now.

Download your files to your own computer.
With your pages and images saved offline, you can re-create your site with any hosting provider.

To quickly download your published files, visit your GeoCities web site, right-click on each page, and choose Save Page As... from the menu that appears. Choose a location on your computer to save your files, then click OK or Save. Learn more about downloading your files.

Don't Wait
Please be aware that after October 26, your GeoCities files will be deleted from our servers, and will not be recoverable. If you'd like to save your files, you must download them now or move to Yahoo! Web Hosting. If you need assistance, please visit the help center.

We want to thank you for being a GeoCities customer, and hope you continue to enjoy our other Yahoo! services.

Best regards,

The Yahoo! GeoCities team

If you have a site under Yahoo Geocities, do as they advise or you may not be able to retrieve anything like this writer did many years ago when Geocities was sold to Yahoo.

Microsoft, Mac, here comes trouble

2009-07-08T22:35:00.005+08:00

In 2007, I blogged that Google might be working on some operating system. At the time, speculation had it that Google might be working on something for use in computer operating systems - the domain traditionally held by Microsoft, Mac and to some extent, Linux.

Today, this speculation has materialised. Google was indeed working on an extension of its Chrome and is planning to use it for netbooks. Will it stop there? Who knows...?

Excerpt:

Google's blog announces a natural extension of the Chrome project: an operating system for netbooks. "Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. (...) Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on
top of a Linux kernel."
Read more here:

New Face Of Journalism?

2009-05-11T06:03:00.002+08:00

In the old days, if you can write, have a nose for news, chances are you will land a job at a newspaper office. Later, when the demand exceeded supply, media houses put up the bar - you need to be able to write, have a nose for news, and a degree in journalism or mass media/communication.

With the development in new media over the years, as web now dominate and even killed a few traditional print media for good measure and will continue to do so, a new skill is required from journalists. As can be seen here, journalists who are not computer savvy, are on their way out.

Adsense Going Interest-Based, So Update Your Privacy Policy!

2009-03-23T05:56:00.003+08:00

Adsense is getting more intelligent, and if you have not received your notification from Google, here it is:

We're writing to let you know about the upcoming launch of interest-based advertising, which will require you to review and make any necessary changes to your site's privacy policies. You'll also see some new options on your Account Settings page.

Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user's previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. "sports enthusiast"). To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network. As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the "sports enthusiast" interest category. To learn more about your associated account settings, please visit the AdSense Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310.

As a result of this announcement, your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please review the information at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557 to ensure that your site's privacy policies are up-to-date, and make any necessary changes by April 8, 2009. Because publisher sites and laws vary across countries, we're unfortunately unable to suggest specific privacy policy language.

For more information about interest-based advertising, you can also visit the Inside AdSense Blog at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/03/driving-monetization-with-ads-that.html.

What do you do if you display Adsense on your site? Easy - just get your Privacy Policy Updated. Don't have one? Well, you can get one here

New Media - Dont Get Carried Away

2009-03-15T08:34:00.004+08:00

Malaysian newspapers are embracing new media like crazy, especially after the dismal performance of traditionally preferred political parties during the March 8, 2008 elections. Many blogs have had a field day, beating traditional online news left and right.

With a revenue model yet to be seen - even Facebook which is into is 6th year is struggling - one wonders how Malaysian papers are making ends meet where Online news is concerned. How much do we invest in preparation of something like new media which has yet to consolidate and show exactly where the dough is coming from? Is it manpower? Facilities? Both? How do we provide the balance sheet to show the investors at the end of the day that we should rightly be in the black than red?

Journalists, too, should pay heed to what they do best - seeking out and writing news. Sure, there are plenty of things to use right now to get your news online. Throw a stone into the internet abyss and you will hit an upcoming, potentially going-to-be-the-hottest social media tool with ease.

Do you start learning every software and using every single bit of stuff out there - perhaps even at the detriment of your own skills as a conveyor or analyst of news? Give me some views.

Google Glitch - THIS SITE MAY HARM YOUR COMPUTER!

2009-01-31T22:58:00.004+08:00

If you have been searching Google, you will notice that the results of ALL sites have been marked as harmful. I am perplexed by the results which led me to think that there might be a glitch somewhere in GOOGLE's Search Engine.

See the attached image below:

Even Google has earmarked Google Search as harmful! How Embarrassing!

Other Search Engines seem to be performing OK.

If you insist on clicking on the site links, Google redirects you to this page:

Conclusion: Even Google Can Make Mistakes!

Trojan Heur in CoverItLive!

2009-01-17T06:25:00.004+08:00

I was shocked when I tried using CoverItLive on a computer running Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. Access was denied when a Trojan named Heur was detected, identified, blocked and removed.

I had been talking about this piece of software in an earlier post and am surprised. I do not know yet what this trojan does and if you do, please tell me. You may read more about Heur here.

The image below is my Kaspersky's detection warning.

Cover It Live!

2008-12-22T07:29:00.001+08:00

A new 'live' blogging tool has hit the internet superhighway and taken off like a cyclone. It allows you to not only blog about an ongoing event like an election, but also allows you to use multimedia features to peg your blogging to. These multimedia tools include audio, video and images, but also incorporates interactive tools such as easily set up polls and reader comments which can be moderated. The most beautiful of this is that it allows multi-post blogging capability. To know more, visit the website here.

We introduced it at the office for blow-by-blow blogging needs and the reporters are adapting quite well to it. One of the good things about new media technology is that the younger set find it easier to pick up while the older generation are a bit sceptical. With Coveritlive, I think the makers of the software have made it quite simple to use and pick-up rate is less than 20 minutes for newcomers to understand. Why this is so is easily understood.

Remember the days when ICQ was introduced? Well, this interface is similar to messaging service except than in messaging service, you talk to one another. Later when ICQ introduced conferencing, you could 'chat' with several people at one time. Look at Coveritlive as the ICQ (or any IM). Instead of allowing conversations between people who are 'talking' to each other, it also allows 'eavesdropping' by readers. And the beautiful part of it is that these readers are allowed to comment on what the administrators are chatting about and join in this community.

At the heart of Coveritlive is the code snippet which allows the 'chat' template to be easily posted on websites. Like YouTube, you just cut and embed on any site you want and you have an entirely 'live' coverage of any event - whether you call it blog or chat is up to you.

This is exceptionally good when doing Live Blogging (or online reporting) of events such as sports, races and elections for instance. The only bug I see is perhaps the instantaneous posting of each message/blogpost is dependent on line. Otherwise, you could do a lot with Coveritlive - including embedding pictures, and other multimedia stuff.

CIMB SPAM - BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU RECEIVE THIS

2008-12-14T09:20:00.004+08:00

SPAM FROM CIMB!

The above is an email purportedly sent by CIMB, a Malaysian bank. I detected it recently and decide to post it here. This is a very advanced email spam waiting to snare you into giving your account details and if you did, you will lose everything and CIMB will not know anything or be liable because it did not send the email.

Look at the red arrows. The top arrow shows the purported email (directaccess@cimb.com) and the bottom one shows the so-called copy right - just to lend legitimacy to the spam. Below this arrow, you see a DO NOT REPLY message, which should set off your alarm bells.

There are hyperlinks on instruction 1 and 4 in blue, but fortunately, it was disabled when the mail dropped into the server. (You can disable all these links from possible spammers by disabling HTML on your email and choose only PLAIN TEXT for email display in your mail settings).

I hope by posting this, CIMB will be alerted. I have yet to see anything on their site - www.cimb.com.my -. Will it be like the Petronas Scam I warned about earlier? I really hope not if the Public Relations (Community and Corporate Image/Branding departments) people are reading this.

DISASTERS - Keep The Info Flowing Freely AND Easily Accessible

2008-12-09T10:40:00.003+08:00

There were complaints among reporters - that information were hard to come by during the recent Bukit Antarabangsa landslide tragedy. Victims, understandably, were reluctant to speak to the press. The authorities were also similarly Press-shy. As a result, all sorts of speculation were rumoured - including that of massive looting that went on when house owners were asked to evacuate for their own safety at the disaster zone. Even the police chief had to appeal to the public not to spred rumours about the looting as he instructs his men to secure the abandoned homes and look out for looters.

Today, a smart company has got an information centre up and running and from its effort, perhaps the disaster management committees of the future could put the setting up of an information base as priority in disaster relief. A centralised info centre will keep everyone enlightened and update on the true situation.

Skali, an e-business enterprise, has taken a commendable step to assist the disaster relief by using Blogger to set up their web presence here.

Operating from the Burger King outlet next to the Petronas service station, it is spearheaded by its CEO.

According to Bernama, the team would provide food and drinks to people affected by the landslide as well as vital information from its SMS alerts.

"We inform the affected residents from our database of more than 300 house owners on information like when they can move into their homes or the status of the electricity connections. We are always in touch with the authorities so that the information is authenticated"

In any crisis, information - correct information - should be made available to all. Public relations mangers should think about it in the aftermath of the Bukit Antarabangsa Landslide Tragedy

BUKIT ANTARABANGSA LANDSLIDE: How RTM can use the citizen media to assist reporting of disasters

2008-12-08T07:23:00.002+08:00

Yet another tragedy happens at the Ulu Kelang hills, 15 years later after the collapse of the Highland Towers which took 48 lives. This time, two posh housing aread were affected - 14 bungalows lost their foothold to crashing earth and 4 lives were taken at 4am in the morning of Saturday Dec 6.

While the news was related quickly by the Online portals of mainstream media and updates equally efficient, the national media, RTM, was rapped by its minister Shabery Cheek.

BUKIT ANTARABANGSA TRAGEDY: RTM rapped for slow updates

KOTA BARU: Upset with RTM for being slow in disseminating news about the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide yesterday, Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek has directed the national network to provide regular updates on natural disasters in the country.

The information minister said the move would allow the public to get the latest information on disasters like yesterday’s landslide.

More at the minister's blog here

In a later post, the minister said RTM would interrupt several programmes to bring in the latest report on the landslide to give a clear picture on the incident to the public.

“I have asked RTM to give the latest report from time to time and stop several other programmes,” he told reporters after attending a briefing on the flood situation in Kelantan at the Kota Darul Naim, here.

The Bernama radio, however, has done quite admirably, with updates and interviews done regularly, to provide listeners with the latest.

In tragedies and disasters like this, mainstream media (not online) could have ploughed the blogosphere for material - the latest, people-reported information to beef up their news and updates. If there were videos uploaded by those who were at the scene, by all means, get them up while your television or radio newscrew try to get your own filming done and getting them back to the office. Places to go in times like this are Youtube and Google Blog Search. Right keywords will yield most interesting results and might save your day and your job.

For Online news portals, this is also the time to maximise the reach of your brand and corporate identity. Instead of using your own video servers, why not use embed your logo on the video and upload them to Youtube for viral distribution and saving your own server bandwidth? There are simply more traffic in Youtube that you can ever do on your own domain name and it makes good sense to tap them and make your site known to these new markets as well.

Below is a good video done by an eyewitness. It is not even a video but a compilation of photos strung together as a slideshow. Tells a different story of the tragedy and makes good study for online media, don't you think?

How Gleneagles Intan Hospital Deal With Spam Mail

2008-11-07T22:05:00.006+08:00

I once received a forwarded email about some poison perfume sample which caused the death of seven women upon inhalation and exposure. It was purportedly sent by a person who claimed to be an employee of Gleneagles Hospital Limited, on behalf of the hospital, in order to warn the public as these seven women were supposedly admitted and treated at Gleneagles Hospital.

How does a PR person deal with such hoax and spam? Apparently, the hoax did not end at emails but also in SMS. Apparently, the PR arm of this hospital had been proactive and well-versed on crisis management and proceeded to set up a webpage on its main domain to explain itself and the hoax. Showing its concern, the hospital wrote:

We understand the panic and mystification that this email has caused and the public's need to seek verification and consolation from a reliable medical institution such as ours. Thus, we would like to highlight that we have never admitted or treated such patients and have never been aware of such incidences. We would also like to categorically state that this email did not originate from our Hospital and / or any of our employees, current or otherwise. In addition, we declare that no one was ever at any time commissioned or authorised by the Hospital to deliver and circulate such warnings. Further to this, we would also like to point out that our registered company name is Gleneagles Hospital (Kuala Lumpur) Sdn. Bhd. (Co. No. 198498-T) and we were never at any point known as Gleneagles Hospital Limited as claimed in the email.

If you like to read more, go to Gleneagles website.

Another bigger company than Gleneagles, Petronas, seemed to have adopted a silent stand over the phone scam that has been circulating like Urban Legend. This site, which was alerted by the scam a year ago, decided to post the message of the spam here.

And because of that, many other phone owners - as far as those in Singapore - have written in here to comment and voice their displeasure. Petronas has a Scam Notice on recruitment here but unfortunately the company did not include the phone SMS scam, which I believe is doing more damage to the national oil producer's image.

This is not good for public relations and the faster Petronas's public relations department do something to control the damage the scam is doing to its image (not to mention gullible phone users), the better.

Using Videos To Tell Stories Online

2008-11-04T07:43:00.004+08:00

One of the biggest mistakes newspapers going online when it comes to using videos to tell stories is to try to buy and use the best in the market. While budget may permit expensive indulgences, one needs to be reminded that web limitations certainly will not do justice to near-Hollywood productions.

Here are some tips on what to look out for if you decide to use videos to tell your story.

Choosing Equipment:

Size and Price: You don't need monstrous shoulder-mounted videos used by TV news crew to record videos unless you aim to stand out in the sea of media people at press conferences. Smaller palm held ones are just as good these days, cheaper and offers much mobility. They also offer easier playback and can be set up in a jiffy. Bigger doesn't mean better recording and the bigger ones often do no better than the smaller video devices, including cameras and camera-phones like the Nokia N95. Besides, do you need really hi-tech video cameras to record videos for posting onto video sharing sites like YouTube which has a relatively small viewing window?

Audio Playback: While you don't need top-of-the-range video cams, you need a decent audio recorder. Of course, if your video recording equipment offers good playback, that would be the most ideal. But if it doesnt, then you may need to get a good microphone with good pick-up. This will ensure that your natural sounds on your video is crisp clear. These microphones will allow you to record in a variety of situations such as one-to-one interviews or in groups such as press conferences. A note of advice when using microphones is to remember to switch it on when doing video recordings. You will be surprised to find how many videographers forget to switch it on only to find out their folly after returning to the office.

Stabilising Devices: Tripods are a must in a good videographer's bag. They help steady the video when filming sit-down interviews. Used well, they will not make your video appear as if you were filming while on a boat or in an earthquake. Image stabilisers, a recent development in cameras and video recorders, are devices that help prevent blurred images from camera shake. Most mid-range priced video recorders come with image stabilisers. Get recorders that have this feature installed if you can afford it. It will be worth your money spent.

Display Screens: Most video recorders have flip display screen. This is extremely useful if you are a one-man videographing unit. Flip screens allow you to record yourself such as when doing commentaries and recording videos.

Software: There are a number of free and paid softwares for editing videos. Best known among free ones is the Windows Movie Maker which not only allows you to edit but also do enhancements such as transitions, subtitles, credit lines, etc to produce a somewhat 'professionally done' video pieces. But of course, if you wish to have better ones and can afford them, Adobe Premiere Elements, Ulead VideoStudio and Final Cut Pro are good choices - allowing you to do more than just cutting the frame sets on the recording.

Facebook Now Available In Malay

2008-10-28T07:24:00.001+08:00

Selamat Datang ke Facebook dalam bahasa Melayu.
Kini penutur bahasa
Melayu di seluruh dunia boleh menyertai Facebook. Berhubunglah dengan semua
rakan anda, tidak kira apa bahasanya.
Gunakan Penjejak Rakan
untuk mengetahui sama ada lebih ramai rakan anda telah menyertai dan jemput semua rakan
berbahasa Melayu anda untuk mendaftar.

This is amazing but not unexpected. Facebook is now available for the Malay speaking - about 26 million of them in Malaysia alone.

Check it out. This is what I call smart web development. If Facebook's algorithms have been programmed right, the conversations can be turned into its database of the Malay lexicon. Now, I just hope the Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka is smart enough to capitalise on this to champion Bahasa Melayu and promote it worldwide.

What Blogger Is Doing To Fight Spam

2008-10-26T06:54:00.003+08:00

I just discovered a good feature Blogger has introduced - an anti-Spam Blog feature. If you wish to read more about Spam Blogs, go here.

Basically, what it does is that an automated feature on all blogs hosted by Blogger (or elsewhere and managed by Blogger Dashboard) detects any possibility of a blog becoming a Spam Blog. Once it detects or identifies your Blog as a potential Spam Blog, it sends you a notifcation at the blog's registration email, locking your blog, and urges you to act within a specified period to unlock the blog - failing which your blog will be deleted.

Among the things implemented are:

It keep spam blogs out of NextBlog and the "Recently Published" list.
The same classifiers are used to require an extra word verification field on the posting form for potential spam blogs, making it harder for spammers to set up automated systems to do their posting since human intervention needs to complete this step.
The Flag as Objectionable button is introduced in the Navbar which lets readers notify Blogger of problem blogs and put them for review them and take appropriate action

This is an interesting development for Blogger towards creating a more socially responsible blogging commune on the web, especially when Blogger is the biggest host of blog community. Whether this control over spammers is in line with the Internet spirit of free speech is another matter, however. At the very least, from a public relations aspect, this anti-Spam Blog control will garner goodwill from Internet-users and keep spamming rogues at their wits' end.

However, it is interesting to note too that many blogs have been set up to host objectionable content, particularly porn, disguised under 'ADULT MATERIAL'. One wonders what Blogger is doing about it next,

Please Login/Register - Dangerous Words You Should Use Sparingly On Sites

2008-10-16T17:59:00.003+08:00

A decade an a half ago, during the big rush to get to the Web, one newsportal I know had these two words prominently displayed on its landing page:

Please Login
(below these, in finer print, are)
If You Have Not Registered, Do It Here

As a result of this, users were turned off.

Indeed in the days of Internet infancy, particularly among Malaysian websites, the urge to gather visitor/user information was immense.

Most website owners thought that if you were to ask users to register or log in, it would allow you at least to get the users' profiles in exchange of the service you provide.

It was a feeble attempt at datamining in those days. The only portals that have successfully used it were the free email providers and chat rooms, where the need to have access far outweighed any afterthoughts on the part of the users. Others who have applied the Login requirement have successfullly driven off their potential return visitors, I believe.

Today, the Login/Register requirement is still being used thoughtlessly, without considering the implications. If you are a public relations practitioner in charge of your company's website, or a webmaster tasked to craft your firm's portal, think again if you should put up the Login/Register barrier gate at your front door.

Unless you only want registered users to use your site, I suggest provide alternatives for all visitors.

Allow limited access for sampling of your site's content. For more access, a Login/Register requirement can be imposed. This will allow the user to decide if he wants to register or not.

When you set up a Login/Register requirement, you will need additional resources such as a backend database to serve login information. Can you afford this? Maintenance costs will also be higher.

You will also be bound by privacy laws that require you, the service provider, to protect any personal information. Any leaks or spams resulting from it can and will attract legal actions.

If you have not realised it, datamining using Login/Register feature may not be accurate. Have you ever registered with a fake access information just to see what lies beyond the locked front door of a website? If you have, then don't you think some people will just do the same and the data you have just mined could well be adding to your server garbage?

In conclusion, use Login/Register feature sparingly and intelligently. Unless you really need it, don't even think about it!

And if you really need users to register to log in, make the registration simple - emails and usernames will do more than a string of text fields from your cat's name to your granny's social security number.

Great Copy Makes Interesting Ads

2008-10-16T17:32:00.008+08:00

Since the day Bernbach sold the Beetle to the world in two words "Think Small", the war for eyeballs has more or less centered around good advertising copy. Sometimes it is more than two words, sometimes a mouthful of a sentence.

But ask any copywriter worth his/her salt, he/she will opt for a catchy heading than rivers of text.

Good headline for ad copy can sometimes say more than a truckload of text. Look at these ads below and you will get what I mean.

(In Malaysia, back in the 70s when Maggie is trying to gain a foothold, it was the jingle "Maggi Mee, Fast To Cook, Good To Eat" that created the brand recognition both on TV and across the airwaves on radio.)

In advertising, a little exaggeration is allowed. If your product is good, you can brag to the world. Such is the case of this ad by Horlicks:

This little girl is telling you that you can be healthy if you drink Horlicks. Subtle and effective, doesn't it? I remember this concept being used by one cod liver oil peddler in Malaysia in its TV ad.

The advertisement shows an empty classroom with only one boy student seated facing his teacher. The teacher asks for the names of other students and was told, each time, that they were absent. All except the boy, who had apparently been fed with cod liver oil, had taken medical leave because they were ill.

Who says you need a frightening ad to send the message that drugs are harmful, just like you see on Malaysian TV and billboards? This one says everything about starting them young on anti-drug campaign. The problem with using nursery rhymes like this, in Malaysia, is that not many may understand it.

Tainted Milk Scandal: Chinese Public Relations Crisis

2008-10-06T05:49:00.005+08:00

This piece of news came more than three weeks after the first baby died of complications suffered from the side-effects of consuming melamine-tained milk. AFP reported it:

China tries to contain tainted milk fallout

BEIJING (AFP) — China attempted Sunday to contain the fallout from the tainted milk scandal, announcing a new survey of dairy products showed no traces of melamine and promising to subsidise farmers hit by the scare.

The latest test of more than 600 batches of liquid milk from 27 cities across China showed they were free of melamine, the industrial chemical at the centre of the dairy scare, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

Products made by 75 brands were sampled including prominent ones such as Yili, Mengniu and Bright Dairy, the paper said, citing the nation's product safety watchdog.

It was the sixth round of tests in China since the milk scare broke last month, according to the watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Why this came such a long time after the first case was detected and the news was allowed spread like wild bush fire, albeit uncontrolled, was perplexing. From where I am sitting, the only assumption is that the Chinese authorities did not activate its Public Relations mechanism fast enough. Now that the fallout has reached global proportions, it will be quite a task to try to manage it, except let time be the greatest healer.

Like I said earlier, improperly managed crisis can turn into great disasters. This is one fine example.

Melamine-laced Milk Scandal - Lessons For Malaysian PR practitioners in Crisis Management

2008-09-30T06:05:00.004+08:00

The Sanlu Milk Scandal happened several thousand miles away in China and most of Malaysia's milk and milk-products manufacturers are not in the direct line-of-fire.

When the news broke some three weeks back, many were not even aware of the intensity of the fall-out - only to find themselves hit smack in the face when governments started withdrawing samples for testing and subsequently removing the suspect products off the shelves.

In Malaysia, the alarm bells rang only after Singapore had removed samples of milk and milk-related products for testing and the authorities started taking samples - 53 at first and 132 the next 24 hours - and testing them. Most of these products are household brand names. Only 7 test results were released the first 24 hours of the first sampling but the fact that these were safe and melamine free did not mean much. What about those that were tainted? Till today, the ministry did not reveal much except to say that some products are melamine-free and some questionably "within standards".

While the announcements of the testing and results were commendable, and the public relations section of the Ministry of Health must be congratulated for quickly setting up a web-based operations centre here, the usefulness of the portal was very much limited to learning which products are safe.

Consumers don't want to know which are safe. What they need to know is which are not, and if this is available, they can avoid them.

Not all products were released at specific intervals daily - for instance, there were no results released on Sept 29, two days before the main public holiday of Aidil Fitri. For two days subsequently, offices would be closed as people go on their national public holiday. Would the researchers continue working on the tests and release results daily? One wonders!

Since last week, however, the companies whose products have been taken for sampling have been kept extremely busy. While some were savvy enough to initiate crisis management countermeasures, others were still waiting for the crisis to blow over - which it would given enough time.

In the wake of the Singapore testing, one of the earliest to come up with press ads to declare their products safe was Kraft, which produced the highly popular Oreos. Dutch Lady launched its countermeasure one day earlier than the Oreos advertisement with a press conference but the news (which was carried by major news distributor Bernama) was more than a investor-relations move than building consumer confidence.

Dutch Lady Not Affected By Tainted Milk Scandal In
China

PETALING JAYA, Sept 23 (Bernama) --
Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, one of Malaysia's leading dairy companies, does not expect any negative impact on its earnings or dividends following the tainted milk scandal in China, said managing director Hans Laarakker Tuesday.
"We believe, with the strong brand that we have and also the measures being taken, there should be no negative impact on
sales or our market share," he told a media briefing here....
More here

Couple of days later, that week's Friday, this writer had the privilege of interacting with an almost frantic public relations consultant of a prominent brand of milk and milk products. This US-based company produces infant formula mostly.

The call came at about 11am asking if a press release on the company's stand on the whole milk contamination issue had been received by the office. It was sent by fax, I was told. When I said "No, we received nothing of that sort", she sounded exasperated with a noticeable tension in her voices that I could almost swear that the first thought that flashed through my mind was that she failed to send any material and were now making up for it.

I told her she should have checked the previous, when the fax she claimed was sent. Doing so hours before the newspaper was printed would have been a less stressful thing to do.

At 11am the following day, it would take at least another 19 hours before her client's statement could see light of day - if at all editorial space provided such an opportunity.

Why not set up the notice at the client's website? And how about taking up and advertisement to ensure that the statement was published? And thereon suggested various things she could, as a public relations consultant for a multinational, could do with some creativity.

The Sanlu Melamine Laced Milk Scandal, when the fallout had done its damage, could perhaps be best remembered as one event that has tested the capabilities of public relations practitioners in Malaysia in the face of a crisis.

The ignorance of public relations practitioners of the speed with which information (and misinformation) travels in cyberspace and the need for urgency for action in the age of media convergence, can clearly be seen by the lack of the use of web tools and other tools to reassure their publics.

I do not remember seeing a Google advertisement stating products were safe by any company. Social networking tools like YouTube (reinforcing the company's safety standards, perhaps?) or Facebook (company-moderated group to discuss concerns?) were not used at all to disseminate information about companies that were in some way affected by the bad publcity generated thousands of miles away.

Crises turn into disasters when companies and their public relations people do not know how to manage it. The public relations practitioner is dutybound to safeguard the company's corporate image and the goodwill it has earned over the years. Not knowing how to respond, to act rather than react, during a crisis, or worse, ignoring it altogether, is suicidal - to both the practitioner's career and the future of company he/she represents.

I identify two main reasons for the slow engagement time.

One: the public relations person is ill-trained to handle crisis if he/she was roped in based on good English, some reporting experience and had not undergone a course in proper public relations.
Two: The PR arm or personnel was placed in the backseats of the marketing function (as marketing communications) and was unable to react sufficiently fast enough because of corporate red-tape.

How much a company and its earnings will suffer (whether or not its products are contaminated) is yet to be seen. But for not doing anything if its products are milk or milk related, the company stands a good chance of ending up in the book of bad public relations case studies. For the public relations practitioner who did nothing, it is time to look for another job.

Is Phemie Dull A Possible Scammer?

2008-09-25T06:19:00.004+08:00

I received this email offering to place ads on my site. Naturally, I was happy to oblige but the subject line piqued my curiosity. It was a FWD message and sure enough, when I tried replying, the address was from another person/being.
Below is a screenshot. (If you have received the same on your site, let's build reference links to each other by adding comments to this post).

I have googled for Phemie Dull and guess what appeared here. I have reported it to Godaddy and waiting their reply. Keep your eyes on this article for updates if you own a domain and have been approached by Dull.

What Companies Like Readers' Digest Can Do To Save The Trees

2008-09-22T14:28:00.004+08:00

I wrote about how my letterbox has been inundated with junk mails from companies like Readers' Digest some time back. I have received some response from readers one of which was released at the post. The reader wants to know what can be done.

Well, if I am the Readers' Digest CEO, I will ask my marketing man to stop spamming mailboxes with junk mail. In this time and age, this simply does not work. If he fails to listen to me, I will then make him deliver the junk mails to all my subscribers in the Asia Pacific and let him realise how much paper have been wasted and how many trees had been cut down because of the junk promotional mails. If again he is undaunted, I will fire him and employ someone more in tune with this time and age - especially where global marketing had gone on the web.

For the readers, however, I think the best instance is to cancel your subscriptions to Readers' Digest for spamming your mailbox with physical junk mail. By not respecting your privacy, and intelligence, why should you keep it alive?

It is perplexing to know that despite the computers being used to link all front and back operations, Readers' Digest apparently did not bother to check its database to see if the intended recipient of its mailers was already a subscriber and therefor there is no need to bomb his mailbox with a Life-time Chance To Win $2,000,000 contest forms of various sizes. This persistent unsolicited mails more certainly do not speak highly of its marketing intelligence. Perhaps, you'd be better off reading National Geographic.

Educational Excellence is Just Mind Over Matter

2008-09-15T22:51:00.001+08:00

The University Sains Malaysia was conferred the APEX University status recently, acknowledging its superiority among the rest of public educational institutions in Malaysia. But where English is concerned, I would not hold my breath - as seen in the congratulatory chest-beating which ran in the local print media.

And if this advertisement is anything to measure its education excellence by, then the past products of the varsity should take a hard look at their slips. Afterall, educational excellence is purely mind over matter. If you dont mind, it doesnt matter. And if it was you alma mater, then you should correct the matter. Mater I mean - before you run another ad.

Have You Changed Your Maybankard Yet?

2008-09-12T15:56:00.004+08:00

Old card (left) and new card.

If for some reason your Maybank ATM card is faulty, then by all means change that Maybankard. Otherwise, stick to the old one. I will tell you why.

Couple of months back, my five year old Maybankard began to show trouble. It was apparently so old that its own ATM didnt recognise it. And I cant withdraw money as I please. Sometimes it worked like a charm, sometimes I wish I owned another bank's card. So I changed it.

I went over to one of the many Maybank outlets in the city and the process was fast. Within minutes the new card was ready, the old cut snipped into two by a very sharp pair of shears, and I got a spanking clean card - with debit facilities, too. That means if I want to use it to buy things, and as long as the amount I spent equals the amount I have in my account, I just need to pass the card over to the counter girl to be swiped for payment. No questions will be asked.

Reason I changed to the new card was because the Maybank girl told me there was no more yellow-and-black cards. They had been discontinued. So, unwillingly, I changed. And now I am sorry I did.

I did not think much of it till I returned to the same outlet, accompanying a friend to change her card. Guess what: Another Maybank girl over the counter asked her which card she would like to have: old yellow-black Maybankard or the 'Cherry Faced' Maybank Debit Card. Either way she would have to pay RM12.00 for transaction fee. So, I asked what's the difference. The Maybank girl replied:

"You can use the new card for purchasing things. You can't with the old card.

"But if you lose your new card, someone finds it, he/she can spend up to RM500 and you can't do anything about it." Why? "Well, above RM500, the spender would have to key in the pin number."

Apparently, there is no special security measure like getting the spender to key in the pin number for any amount of spending below RM500. So, if you lose your card and I find it, I can spend up to that spending limit before you can get me - or if you report the loss first. Stupid, isn't it?

I suppose if you are young and naive, and stupid, you would want to have the card that may cause you to be RM500 poorer if Father Fate decide to pull a fast one on you.

But then, I suppose owning one debit card can be a bragging right for some people but to me, the old card, which requires Pin for transactions, is a much smarter alternative. If the bank cannot come up with tight security features, why bother coming up with the new card?

Blocked Sites Online Again As Malaysian Government Says It Will Not Block Blogs or Websites

2008-09-12T09:27:00.005+08:00

Well, that has been some piece of good news. Yesterday the Malaysian Government has agreed not to block sites and blogs. Well and good. Someone up there must be thinking straight and saw the light.

Why resort to such futile exercise when you know that it is virtually (pun intended) impossible to actually block sites and even if the futile exercise was partially successful, the best it did was to make the blockers look like 'gobloks'?

The authorities should in fact put thinking people on its board, not some trigger happy clerk ready to shoot down all and sundry and throw the morality book at anyone without thinking of the fallout - or how their consequences would reveal their lack of knowledge, skill and expertise where cyberspace is concerned.

I am saying this because over the past few weeks, this writer has been alerted to the fact that someone representing the authorities has been sending out mails to site publishers asking them to explain why objectionable content was put on their site.

These objectionable content, mind you, are not porn. Nor are they text-link ads publicising some pyramid "Pak Man Telo" or "Labu Peram" schemes - which in my opinion would have made better and more logical target for showcauses.

The objectionable content are non other than alcoholic beverage ads. In case you have not noticed, there are some sites showing the objectional content - some brown bubbles blowing off the page and when clicked take you to the intended homepage and god help you if you are forbidden to click on such stuff.

I cannot write which alcoholic beverage company lest I myself commit the same sin of spelling out the objectionable content. And I won't tell you which publisher showed the ads, lest I embarrass them as well.

But I was told that any one who displayed the harp brand beverage advertisement now has to contend with replying to a showcause - the severity of which I have no knowledge except from what has been told to me. heck, I don't even know if it is true, but pray share if you have heard that it is.

Come to think of it, the powers that be have yet to really understand the meaning of globalisation and cyberspace.

Is there law against alcoholic beverage? Or is it merely that morality thing again which we often like to throw upon others?

I think there needs to be a rethink for all internet governing bodies in Malaysia.

Ban scams and other dubious ads but not ads like alcoholic beverages which have gained worldwide acceptance.

Ban cigarette ads if you must - and look stupid - but you can safely leave beer ads alone. At best it makes you look silly, yet again.

Watch Out For This 'Maybank' Scam

2008-09-07T17:06:00.006+08:00

I have never trusted internet banking as much as some of you do. To me, it is very easy to intercept internet transactions and if you have no means of securing your transaction, and verify every cent that goes through your phone lines or wireless, I suggest you be careful.

Just received this scam today from a phishing site. The scammer apparently uses an email harvester to get my email and in so doing got itself trapped as content of this post.

Here is the gist of the letter sent from this email:

Maybank Group using a disguised email link(serviceverifyprove_at_maybank2u.com.my) :

Dear Valued Customer:
Your Maybank Account info needs to be verified to allow you have
access to online banking
So we have issued this warning message to you,
This message is sent from our secure server to verify your
Maybank Account info as there have been a multiple error logon
and Maybank failure.
Your access to online banking has been limited temporarily for
security reason's by Maybank2u Online Banking Service.
Verify your account now and enjoy the benefits of Maybank2u Internet Banking,
Follow the steps provided to your on this link below
http://may2u-banking.com/login.html
All information must be followed as been directed,

Just look at the highlighted link.

If you conduct online transactions ever so frequently, switch off your HTML displays in all your emails.

Most of these scammers use the link pointers to disguise their location. Click and you will be brought to another site from which the scammer will trick you into entering your username and password.

Meanwhile, you may visit Maybank's list of phishing sites which have been identified. I hope they add this one just mentioned.

Proton's Overpriced 'Original' Bumper Bummer

2008-09-05T17:54:00.003+08:00

How much is an original Proton Iswara bumper?
Answer: RM470 if you purchase it at any of the Proton service centres - Proton Edar or EON.

But if you choose to have it fixed elsewhere, the price ranges anywhere from RM240 to RM270, depending on whether or not the person fixing it wants to charge you any more than he should. That's the price - excluding workmanship, which amounts to about RM50 to RM80.

Why I am writing about Proton's overpriced bumper is perhaps a way of rationalising why the company is not in the good books of consumers and why many prefer third party products.

I surprised by this since because of a personal experience. I was almost willing to pay RM470 (excluding duit pasang - installation fee) at a Proton Edar outlet recently when fate would have it that they did not have stock, on a Saturday evening. Instead, the mechanic fixing it decided to purchase one from a spare parts dealer and got me an original.

I wonder why the huge margin - a total of RM230 to be exact, and that's not even including installation fee. How much does it cost to order an original bumper from Proton and keep it in the godown anyway? RM230 more a piece? And you expect do business with the gullible? No wonder people say Proton parts are expensive!

When parent companies do not keep an eye on their dealers, or sanction unreasonable pricing, they lose their business in no time. And in the case of Proton, they should wisen up. They should find out what is reasonable pricing and what is cut-throat pricing. And if originals cost X amount of money, do not double it. This is bad marketing sense, and when your tricks are exposed, you you public realations image goes down the drain.

Now, Why Would You Want To Block Internet Sites?

2008-08-30T07:54:00.005+08:00

I don't believe it but it's happening. The Malaysian Authorities have actually gotten Internet Service Providers to block one internet blog-cum-website because of its alleged offensive content. Without much foresight, the service provider actually blocked the domain, and in so doing, not only revealed its stupidity to international ridicule, but also exposing the lack of knowledge among the powers that control one of the leading authorities on Malaysia's future in the cyberworld.

The ban, which raised furore in cyberspace, has spilled into the streets to become topics of conversation at sidewalk cafes and hawkerstalls.

If the aim was to deny access to the said site by the self-styled moral guardians so that those who did not know what it was - and therefore would not be exposed to the site's allegedly vile content - then the authorities had failed miserably.

What it succeeded, though, was to make fools of its board of directors and how little they knew about their jobs and the internet. What the ban did was to actually trigger much more publicity on the site and increased traffic to it - not to mention of course, revealing 101 ways how you cannot ban access to any internet site unless you pull out the transmission lines with which you are connected to the world. And in a small way, the ban revealed why such as an important authority that regulates cyberspace laws should have people who are tech-savvy and internet-literate work there so that they would not continue to turn the Government's faces pink in disgrace.

If you have forgotten, several countries had tried the same trick of banning internet sites. Years ago Thailand tried on Youtube and failed. Pakistan tried, too, with some success - especially in raising more furore among the international community on the country. Of course Myanmar did, and succeeded, quite disgustfully, when it actually pulled the plug out of the wall. And as sure as pop-ups, some crazy tech-illiterate person/s or organisations would forget all these silliness some years down the line and try the same trick again so that you and I could get a good laugh.

Laughs aside, the bigger worry now is not how to wipe the embarrassment off the faces of those responsible for the ban but how to justify the actions of the MCMC, the authority which ordered the ISP Steamyx to deny user access to the site Malaysia Today.

What should keep the decision maker sleepless now is how to explain its own contravention of the Bill of Guarantees of the Malaysian Multimedia Supercorridor which assures non-censorship of the internet, among others.

And I heard rumblings from one online newspaper that the bloggers are now in the cross-hairs. Just don't you try banning Blogger...

Disabling Windows XP Services

2008-08-28T06:14:00.006+08:00

I was facing some problems with my XP recently and had been going around seeking assistance. Apparently some poorly configured drivers during an application installation had contributed to a week of loss work and frustrating start-ups, some of which were initiated by XP itself.

The Event Viewer had revealed that most of them were services related and that led me to plumbing the web and tech forums to seek answers to one big question I had:

How much of the services on XP do I need and which ones can I stop at start-up?

The snooping led to this compilation which I found at BloggerDigest. I am displaying it here for my own easy access and if it helps you somewhat, feel free to provide feedback.

How To Disable Unwanted Windows XP Services
Security and performance are the two main concerns, that Windows XP users (similar to Windows Vista and Windows 2000) need to seriously understanding these 72 Windows services.

Windows service is essentially a Windows programme running in background and because of this, Windows service takes up system resources throughout its execution. While Windows security is not hardened, some of these Windows services might easily expose security vulnerability (such as Alerter, Remote Registry, etc).

This guide covers 72 Windows services, to show Windows XP users (as well as Windows 2000 or Windows Vista users) to determine which Windows XP services can be safely disabled.

Note: Not all Windows services can be disabled. Some are critical to Windows XP, and should not be disabled. However, you may re-enable them by booting Windows XP into Recovery Console mode.

Alerter
Function
Notify system users or programs about any administrative alerts that raised in Windows XP.
Status
Can be safely disabled at all time.

Application Layer Gateway
Function
Provides support for application-level protocol plug-ins for Internet Connection Sharing and Windows Firewall.
Status
Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger, etc, rely on this service to operate. If there is a firewall enabled to safeguard Windows XP, it is safe to enable.

Application Management
Function
Provides program installation related services.
Status
Disable this service will disallow non-administrator users to perform program installation related activities.

Automatic Updates
Function
Enables the download and installation of critical Windows updates.
Status
You can safely disable it, and manually trigger the process by using Windows Update online service.

Background Intelligent Transfer
Function
Transfers files between clients and servers in the background using idle network bandwidth.
Status
If Automatic Updates service has been disabled, you may want to disable this service as well. However, you may not able to download some of the programs from Windows Live, if this service is disabled.

ClipBook
Function
Enables ClipBook Viewer to store information and share it with remote computers.
Status
This service can be safely disabled, as most users don't utilize this feature.

COM+ Event System
COM+ System Application
Function
Supports System Event Notification Service by providing automatic distribution of events to subscribing COM components.
Status
These two services can not be disabled!

Computer Browser
Function
Maintain an up-to-date list of networked resources, such as network shared drive and printer, and supply the list to programs that request it.
Status
You may safely disable this service if you're not going to share any resources to the network.

Cryptographic services
Function
Provides three management services
Catalog Database Service, which confirms the signatures of Windows files
Protected Root Service, which adds and removes Trusted Root Certification Authority certificates from this computer
Key Service, which helps enroll this computer for certificates.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time. Automatic Updates and Task Manager rely on this service to Function properly.

DHCP Client
Function
Allow Windows XP to automatically obtain IP address, WINS server information, routing information, etc.
Status
There is no reason to enable it, if you're using fix IP, or no DHCP server available in the network.

Distributed Link Tracking Client
Function
Ensures shortcuts and OLE links to work properly when the target file is renamed or moved, by automatically maintain links in NTFS file system.
Status
Depending on your wish, this service is safe to disable at all time.

Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Function
Coordinates transactions that span over multiple resource managers, such as databases, message queues, and file systems.
Status
For most home users, this service is safe to disable at all time.

DNS Client
Function
Allows Windows XP to communicate with canonical names rather than numeric-based IP address, by resolving and caching DNS names.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time, to facilitate Windows XP communicate over the network, especially on a network environment with domain controller.

Error Reporting
Function
Allow error reporting (to Microsoft) for services and programs running in non-standard environments.
Status
You may enable this service only when you are frequently encounter system or program crash.

Event Log
Function
Enable event log messages raised by Windows-based programs to be viewed in Event Viewer.
Status
Unlike Error Reporting service, this service should be enabled at all time to assist you resolving system failures, audit system security logs, etc.

Fast User Switching Compatibility
Function
Enable fast user switching feature that introduced in Windows XP.
Status
Although fast user switching is good, but it consumes huge system resources, both memory and CPU. So, it is better to disable this service for performance reason.

Help and Support
Function
Enables Windows XP Help and Support Center to run on this computer.
Status
Depending on your wish, if you feel comfortable without consulting Windows XP help, then you may safely disable it.

Human Interface Device Access
Function
Enables generic input access to Human Interface Devices, which activates and maintains the use of predefined hot buttons on keyboards, remote controls, and other multimedia devices.
Status
This service can be safely disabled to free up more system resources to critical services.

IMAPI CD-Burning COM
Function
Manages CD recording using Image Mastering Applications Programming Interface (IMAPI).
Status
This service can be safely disabled, as most Windows XP users are using Nero burning software for CD/DVD burning.

Indexing Service
Function
Indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers and provides rapid access to files through flexible querying language.
Status
If you don't frequently searching files using Windows search Function, or you can tolerate with slow searching Function, then you can disable this service to free up some system resources.

IPSEC services
Function
Provides end-to-end security between clients and servers on TCP/IP networks.
Status
Don't disable this service, if you're connecting over an IPSec secured connection.

Logical Disk Manager
Logical Disk Manager Administrative
Function
Detects and monitors new hard disk drives added to Windows XP, and sends disk volume information to Logical Disk Manager Administrative service for configuration.
Status
You may enable these two service only when you are going to add new hard disk drives to Windows XP, rather than turning it on at all time.

Machine Debug Manager
Function
Supports local and remote debugging for Visual Studio and script debuggers.
Status
Disable this service if you don't perform program debugging processes.

Messenger
Function
Transmits net send and Alerter service messages between clients and servers. Note, this service is not related to Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger.
Status
This service is safe to disable, if you disable Alerter service.

Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
Function
Manages software-based volume shadow copies taken by the Volume Shadow Copy service.
Status
Disable this service if you don't perform Windows Backup.

NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Function
Enables an authorized user to access you computer remotely by using NetMeeting over a corporate intranet.
Status
You should able to justify the reason of enabling this service, that allow remote users access to your Windows XP.

Network Connections
Function
Manages the network and dial-up connections, such as network Status notification and configuration.
Status
This service should be turned on at all time, if your Windows XP is connected to network or Internet.

Network DDE
Function
Provides network transport and security for Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) for programs running on the same computer or on different computers.
Status
This service is safe to disable, if there is no such need for your Windows XP.

Network DDE DSDM
Function
Manages Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) network shares.
Status
Disable this service, if you don't use DDE network shares.

Network Location Awareness (NLA)
Function
Collects and stores network configuration and location information and notifies applications when this information changes.
Status
Enable if this service, if your Windows XP has Internet Connection Sharing or Internet Connection Firewall enabled.

NT LM Security Support Provide
Function
Provides security to remote procedure call (RPC) programs that use transports other than named pipes.
Status
You may enable this service, if your Windows XP needs to log on to pre-Windows 2000 computers or domains

Performance Logs and Alerts
Function
Collects performance data from local or remote computers, based on pre-configured schedule parameters, then writes the data to a log or triggers an alert.
Status
Unless you are in the midst of fine tuning Windows XP, you may safely disable this service to free up system resources. This service has potential to impact Windows XP performance after running for some times.

Plug and Play
Function
Enables a computer to recognize and adapt to hardware changes with little or no user input.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time. Disable it will cause Windows XP becomes unstable.

Portable Media Serial Number
Function
Retrieves serial number of any portable media player connected to Windows XP.
Status
Disable this service will cause protected content unable to download to the device.

Print Spooler
Function
Manages print queues and load files to memory for later printing.
Status
You may safely disable it, if you don't have a printer attached to Windows XP.

Protected Storage
Function
Provides protected storage for sensitive data, such as private keys, to prevent access by unauthorized services, processes, or users.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time.

QoS RSVP
Function
Provides network signaling and local traffic-control setup Functionality for QoS-aware programs (Quality of Service) and control applets.
Status
You may enable this service, if you're using QoS aware applications.

Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
Function
Creates a connection to a remote network whenever a program references a remote DNS or NetBIOS name or address.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time, in order Windows XP to communicate successfully over the network.

Remote Access Connection Manager
Function
Manages dial-up and virtual private network (VPN) connections from your Windows XP to the Internet or other remote networks.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time.

Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Function
Manages and controls Remote Assistance.
Status
You may safely disable this service, if you don't want remote users to access to your Windows XP via Remote Desktop.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Function
Allows processes to communicate internally and across the network with each other.
Status
Don't ever disable this service! Disable this service will cause Windows XP fail to boot up.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Function
Manages the RPC name service database, which is similar to DNS service for TCP/IP.
Status
This is also a critical service, which should be turned on at all time.

Remote Registry
Function
Enables remote users to modify your Windows XP registry settings.
Status
Editing Windows Registry is dangerous! Unless you could justify the reason of enabling this service, Remote Registry service should be disabled whenever possible.

Removable Storage
Function
Manages and catalogs removable storage media (such as USB mass storage drive) and operates automated removable media devices.
Status
This service should be enabled if you frequently attaching removable storage media to Windows XP.

Routing and Remote Access
Function
Enables multiprotocol LAN-to-LAN, LAN-to-WAN, virtual private network (VPN), and network address translation (NAT) routing services for clients and servers on the network.
Status
Unless you're running Windows XP as server, this service is safe to disabled at most of time, for most Windows XP users.

Secondary Logon
Function
Enables starting processes under alternate credentials.
Status
Disable this service will disable Run As features.

Security Accounts Manager
Function
Stores security information for local user accounts.
Status
Disable this service will cause Group Policy objects, DHCP, etc, to fail Functioning.

Server
Function
Allows the sharing of Windows XP resources, such as files and printers, as well as named pipe communication.
Status
If you don't want remote users access to Windows XP resources, or attack via Windows XP hidden share (such as C$, D$, IPC$, etc), you may want to disable this service at all time.

Shell Hardware Detection
Function
Provides notifications for AutoPlay hardware events.
Status
If you don't want Windows XP automatically pop up auto-play dialog box, you could safely disable this service.

Smart Card
Function
Manages access to smart cards read by Windows XP.
Status
There is no reason to enable this service, if you don't have smart card reader attached to Windows XP.

SSDP Discovery
Function
Used to detect UPnP devices found on the network.
Status
Disable this service, if you don't have UPNP devices attached to the network.

System Event Notification
Function
Tracks system events such as Windows logon, network, and power events. Notifies COM+ Event System subscribers of these events.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time, especially Windows XP powered laptop (to receive battery related events).

System Restore
Function
Performs system restore Functions, such as saving periodic checkpoints.
Status
This is one of the system resouce sucker. Although, it is useful in the case of system failure. If you can tolerate with system failure or you could restore Windows XP to Functioning state via Norton Ghost image, then you may safe to disable this service.

Task Scheduler
Function
Configure and schedule automated tasks on Windows XP.
Status
Disable this service will disable scheduled tasks from running automatically. However, according Microsoft, this should remain enabled at all times.

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Function
Provides support for NetBIOS over TCP/IP and NetBIOS name lookups.
Status
This service could be safely disabled, if you don't share Windows XP resources.

Telephony
Function
Provides Telephony API (TAPI) support for programs that control telephony devices and IP-based voice connections.
Status
If you don't have a modem attached, or connect to Internet via modem, you may safely disable this service.

Telnet
Function
Enables remote users to log on to Windows XP and run programs, via various TCP/IP Telnet clients
Status
There is no obvious reason to enable this service, especially if you don't want remote users access to Windows XP.

Terminal Services
Function
Allows multiple users to connect interactively to a Windows XP.
Status
You may safely disable this service, if you don't allow remote users access to Windows XP.

Themes
Function
Provides user experience theme management.
Status
If you are using Windows Classic theme, you can safely disable this service to boost Windows XP performance.

Uninterruptible Power Supply
Function
Manages uninterruptible power supply (UPS) connected to the Windows XP.
Status
No reason to turn on this services, if there is no UPS attached to Windows XP.

Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Function
Provides support to host Universal Plug and Play devices.
Status
If you disable SSDP Discovery service, you may safely disable this service as well.

Volume Shadow Copy
Function
Manages and implements volume shadow copies used for backup and other purposes.
Status
You may safely disable this service, if you don't rely on Windows Backup.

WebClient
Function
Enables Windows-based programs to create, access, and modify Internet-based files.
Status
This service can be safely disabled, if there is no such need.

Windows Audio
Function
Manages audio devices for Windows-based programs.
Status
Disable this service, if you don't want your Windows XP to speak at all!

Windows Image Acquisition
Function
Provides image acquisition services for scanners and cameras.
Status
No harm to disable this service, if there is no such need.

Windows Installer
Function
Adds, modifies, and removes applications provided as a Windows Installer (*.msi) package.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time, in order to perform Windows update.

Windows Management Instrumentation
Function
Provides a common interface and object model to access management information about operating system, devices, applications and services.
Status
This service is critical to Windows XP, and should be enabled at all time.

Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions
Function
Monitors all drivers and event trace providers that are configured to publish Windows Management Instrumentation or event trace information.
Status
This service is not as critical as the Windows Management Instrumentation service, but is worth to enable at all time.

Windows Time
Function
Uses NTP protocol to synchronize Windows XP local time with NTP server.
Status
Enable this service, if you want to synchronize Windows XP time with a NTP server.

Wireless Zero Configuration
Function
Automatically configured WIFI (802.11) network adapters.
Status
This service should be enabled on laptop that supports WIFI connection.

WMI Performance Adapter
Function
Provides performance library information from Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) providers to clients on the network.
Status
This service should be enabled at all time.

Workstation
Function
Creates and maintains client network connections to remote servers.
Status
This service should be enabled, when running Windows XP on a network environment.

Broadband Speed Test

2008-08-27T23:23:00.003+08:00

I wrote about the poor broadband speed I am experiencing a while back several posts. I decided to not jump to conclusion that Streamyx service sucks, so I went on the prowl and bumped into this broadband speed test. Boy, was I in for some surprises.

Indeed, the broadband speed (download) was near what was promised but the upload was only one half. Look at the test results and you will see the shockung truth. If you are looking for a good speed test, this one is it.

WOS site is now up and running, and known as MoWeS

2008-08-26T07:59:00.006+08:00

I blogged about the CHSoftware site recently and what a waste it would be if the site was shut down. Well, I am glad to say here that the site is back online.

WOS or Webserver on a Stick has also been given a new name: MoWES which in their own words, means:

MoWeS stands for the three letter abbreviation Modular Webserver System and makes it possible, to run a webserver based on Apache, MySQL and PHP from an USB Stick or any other writable media (harddrive, flash cards etc.) without installation under Windows

Self-financed sites like this, where open-source people gather for a good cause to give other lesser abled and lesser skilled people a chance to work on and enjoy various technological breakthroughs, are hard to come by.

Not many people - out of the goodness of their hearts - want to spend money and possible un-recoupable man-hours to improve the lives of others.

Whenever I come across sites like MoWes, I count my blessings and pray that they continue to do their good work on the net. Their efforts, which often go unnoticed, are what keep the spirit of the Internet alive and the wheel of experimentative technology rolling forward.

For that, this small Netizen say "Thank You".

Petronas MAS Phone Scam - Guess Who Gave Away Your Phone Number

2008-08-19T22:58:00.004+08:00

Updated: Aug 19, 2008!
It appears that the Petronas scam has gotten beyond Malaysian shores. Judging from the comments from across the Causeway, I think this issue needs to be examined and investigated in-depth by Petronas. All the numbers are given and one wonders how and why the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) failed to nip the problem in the bud. Surely by triangulation, the scammers' location can be identified, his/her identity revealed and the irresponsible person caught and severely punished. How difficult is that in this age and time when even nasty SMS-senders have been caught and charged?

This blogpost first appeared on April 10 (content as per below). I decided to upgrade this post to see if more discussion here will somehow spur the authorities into action and get the scammers using all methods possible. If possible, the authorities should also get those who sold phone number datas to third parties - especially loyalty schemes and card memberships.

Barely two weeks after I highlighted the unsolicited offer from a bank given to RealRewards members, I am hit with this.

This time, it was a RM14,000 (about USD5,000) offer from Petronas MAS - whatever that acronym means in terms of legitimacy - that my phone SIM card has won.

I wont insult your intelligence by explaining what this might be. And I certainly hope anyone who receives similar messages would be wise enough not to dial the number listed.

But I am highlighting this here so that the authorities concerned could nab the suspect who probably has a list of scammed victims tucked up somewhere.

In case the authorities are wondering how, the phone number of the responsible is up there in the pictures.

I won't be calling the scammer but I do hope our Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will call him/her up pronto.

Better, give him/her two tight slaps on my behalf for sending unsolicited offers and announcements to me.

To Petronas and MAS staff reading this, please inform your legal department and sue the pants of the fella who send this spam on your behalf. The number is up there for your taking.

The Relevance of Google Page Rank and Malaysian Advertisers

2008-08-18T06:37:00.004+08:00

I HAVE long thought that Google Page Rank is important to the success of a site, and if you are ranked between 5 and 7, your site is indeed important and if you are anywhere lower than that, you are not so important in a world where Google rules. And this concern was amplified some time last year when this site was zeroed by Google, as did some other pretty popular sites.

Although there are a number of the sites which are hardly worth the time spent on, simply for their senseless regurgitation and repeating of content from the bellies of other sites, they have been given some respectable pageranking for some strange reasons.

So, I have decided deep-plumbing Google about the importance of its Page Rank so that I can gain insight into the heart of the problem. And this effort has turned up some pretty interesting things about Google Page Ranks and how people out there could have been misled by its misplaced importance. I will share with you some of my findings here.

One of the earliest papers arguing the accurancy of the Page Rank is that of Google Watch which posted an article by Daniel Brandt (founder and president of Public Information Research, Inc). While search engine optimisers argue whether or not they should use PR as a yardstick to measure their site's success, lesser mortals like you and me should read what Google Watch has to say about Page Ranking in its article: PageRank: Google's Original Sin .

The most recent update was on June 26 2004, four years ago, which capped the conclusion on Page Rank (and I quote):

The consensus among observers is that PageRank is not nearly as important as it was up until mid-2003. Many sites with good PageRank are not doing well in Google, and many with poor PageRank are ranking well for keywords that are important to them. These days, the keywords in the anchor text of external links are more important than the mere fact of the link itself. (In its classic form, PageRank was computed from links without any consideration of content.) Finally, the Google toolbar indication of PageRank -- which has always been too crude to be of much use -- is no longer even reliable.

It has always been the case that large sites with average or below-average PageRank have a difficult time getting all of their pages indexed in Google. This is one area where PageRank may still play a role. But for the most part, this essay is out of date. It remains posted here for historical reasons.

I remember getting quite alarmed about the Google Page Rank of a certain site dropped and how I failed to get a response from the people at Google Singapore. No one wanted to say anything and the public relations people representing them gave a promise that was never delivered. In the end, I was no smarter than I was in the beginning when I wanted to find out what the basis for the Page Rank system was.

My query then was to have an understanding of how a site can be made better to conform to Google's crawling needs and ease of search for users looking for related materials, and if Google Page Rank played a part in this, I would like to know why. But with the futility of my effort, I turned to Google itself and sure enough, there were more answers than I could possibly digest - and enough for me to make a layman's conclusion over PR.

I am now questioning the relevance of the Google Page Rank after having read so much about how it could be flawed - and I also wonder if the Page Rank button on my Google Toolbar serves more than a decorative purpose.

If you wish to plough through the many papers that I have found, please do so here:

Google PageRank: Biased and fundamentally flawed?
How PageRank Works & Why the Original PR Formula May be Flawed
The Weight of Google PageRank in Ranking (one of the earliest on PR)

and a whole lot more here

Footnote:
Having said that, how do Malaysian companies that want to make their online adspend more worthwhile pick the best sites to advertise in?

Well, I think the best is still to get a site traffic report and if possible, keyword searches. If you are targetting a generic crowd, go for the highest I suppose. And if you are looking for more focussed hits, keyword search reports will do just fine. Apart from that, if you still want to amuse yourself, use PR to guide you.

Streamyx is Really Screwed

2008-08-17T07:48:00.004+08:00

I didn't believe it at first and now that there is no other factors to consider, I will say it out loud. Streamyx is in trouble!

Look at the download screenshot which I took of 15 times when downloading from various sources - this is the No 15th, taken from a downloading test of AVG's latest AV from popular site Download.com.

Judging from the transfer rate of 15kb/s you would think I was using a dial-up. You could'nt have been more wrong. And I suspect the broadband is nothing but hotair - although I must admit it was fast when I first susbcribed.

In the face of stiff competition, I just hope TM's Streamyx service will buck up. If it doesn't, it will definitely fall flat on its face! It is among one of the earliest service providers and has had a monopoly of the market for a good many years. Jaring don't count much as it is already hobbling towards the sunset of its existence. Not keeping up with service quality and promises to customers will kill any business in no time and I think anyone worth his/her pay at Streamyx should be very worried. If they haven't, probably they have not put their ears on the grounds and listen to the rumblings of their customers. Which is also why they have not heard the thundering footsteps of their competitors hot on their heels - if they have not overtaken them (Streamyx) yet!

And if Streamyx fails to see stiff competition coming, it should shoot itself in the feet because it is simply no good having the promotions all about town when quality and aftersales service are not up to mark. When you promise your subscribers/clients, you have to deliver. It doesn't matter if it is a 1MB or 512K. Heck, your client is not going to give you the two cents and they will move on, brudder!

Next week, Packet One will launch its WiMax in the city. Another launched its service in Klang Valley two weeks ago. And I have spoken to industry players and the common mnn in the street. The people are excited - especially the latter.

Guess what is the common thread running through their complaints and why they are considering service hopping?

Are the Malaysian Public Relations Industry Ready for IT Age?

2008-08-17T06:31:00.000+08:00

I have been watching the Public Relations industry (PR) in Malaysia for quite a while - more than two decades to be exact. And I have been following the development not within but from outside, as a media person than a practitioner where I would (and did) get the change to connect with and interact with as many PR practitioners in as short a time as possible.

From the days when the IT age was still in its infancy in the mid 80s till today, some 20 years mind you, little has changed although all PR personnel today use computers and not the clanky IBM typewriters their predecessors do in the days of yore. Some of the younger PR person, I suspect, have never even seen an Olivetti Traveller (an indispensible too for journalists on the go) which the IT Age has left behind in the rusty corner of antique stores of today.

Yet, many PR persons today have not moved on in terms of their working habits - you only need to attend press conferences to fathom the frustration I see and the amusement I feel each time PR practitioners dish out stacks of papers wrapped in the unmistakable Press Kit folder.

Sometimes, you might get a CD, happily, but the delight often were reduced to disappointment when the CD is nothing but a company product catalogue or a corporate video - useful but not that really useful if not armed with an electronic press releases and a folder full of digital pictures in various formats for both print and electronic. Some Press Kits even carry the almost extinct 4R photographs or even Kodak Ektachrome slides - don't be surprised.

What the IT use failed to carry through to their PR work I failed to understand. If one uses computers at the office, what is it that when PR officers handle press conference failed to understand that journalists also use computers and therefore a soft copy is more welcomed that stacks of hard copy? If you think I am making a mountain out of a molehill, think again.

I recently was invited to a press conference of a telecommunications company launching a recycling project. When I arrived at the venue, I was greeted by a PR staff and handed over the customary Press Kit folder with sheets of paper within - from the background of the project to the CEO's launch speech. And when it was over, I was again handed a plastic goody bag. And I had just listened to how much the company cared for the enviroment and would spearhead this recycling campaign.

If I had been the CEO of the company, I would have recycled the media liaison person for having such a short foresight. For Pete's sake, wouldn't a CD containing all the information in that Press Kit be better? And cheaper too! If you can, even a thumbdrive with your corporate logo emblazoned across, would be more useful as journalists could recycle it after using the content. Why waste paper if you so much as talk about recycling?

If you are a current PR practitioner, I think it is time to think about proper use of IT. Today's media convergence has made the practice of public relations more sophisticated but not necessarily difficult. If you are trained in PR, then the onus is upon you to be at the cutting edge of technology, especially information technology. If not, you will be left behind by the media industry which is also there at the front row.

The PRice to pay for PRice Undercutting in PR Biz

2008-08-14T08:16:00.004+08:00

I was having lunch with a lovely former journalist who is now a proud owner of a public relations firm of potential. During the lunch, the topic of conversation turned around the subject of public relations and the media.

While the PR business is growing and will continue to grow in a developing country like Malaysia, already the ugly side of the business is emerging. She mentioned how price undercutting was robbing her of clients and how some organisation who engage PR firms based on promises of how they could do more with less.

I find this rather disturbing and every PR person who walks through the doors into my office is viewed with suspicion - is he/she waiting to pounce on unsuspecting editors and journalists, to sweet-talk the editor into giving the coverage the PR person has promised his/her client? For that reason, each PR material I scrutinise based on its merits. And if I so much as sense it was merely carpet bombing of editors on the editorial floor, (ie. send all releases to all desks in the hope of securing coverage) down go the release into the dustbin, waiting in line to be thrown away by my Indon cleaners.

The trouble with price cutting, I told the PR practitioner, is that it demeans people who actually work very hard to do their jobs as public relations practitioners - not make-up artists for any organisation. This means, the PR practitioners know the meaning of public relations, and how to best carry out dissemination of information in the spirit of garnering goodwill from the publics (yes, publics - not public ) in the interest of the company. This is not the same as getting come cheap publicity just because they are pally with the editors.

The PR officer who knows his/her job, is not only able to disseminate information well for use by the media, but is also able to measure the success of a campaign and provide follow-up analysis to the client - even if it is a piecemeal project. In marketing terms, this is after-sales service - you inform the client what his campaign has achieved and how he can strengthen his market share.

And for all the work a good public relations practitioner does, clients should also bear in mind that these activities, all measureable and quantified, cannot come cheap. And if anyone who offers this cheap promise should be asked to show hoe he/she would do it. They should not be given the job even if it was recommended by your PR director if the offer is not of merit.

If you are the CEO of any company who intends to engage any PR practitioner for any campaign, then you will have to know what PR is all about and what public relations practitioners do. Listening to PR pitches without this basic knowledge and only looking at the bottom line of the moment is like walking blind-fold into a minefield that may cripple a new product line or blow up and undo years of good branding and image building efforts.

Google Releases Its Gadgets On Blogger Layouts

2008-08-13T21:51:00.002+08:00

Blogger gets better by the day and as you are aware, they have released the Gadgets for you to use. If in the past you only had a few widgets to play with, mostly HTML/Text stuff, now you have practically everything Google developers (and users) have developed over the years. From weather to astronomy gadgets and tic-tac-toes, and what-have-yous. Check out this latest feature - and clutter soon to hit Blogger sites!

How To Record Sound Off Your Computer

2008-08-09T14:23:00.001+08:00

There will come a time when you need to record sound or music which is playing off your computer. The low-tech method is to play the sound or music and then activate your sound recorder, and play the mike near the speakers. This is good when the quality of sound is not that important to you. Sometimes you get other feedback as well as the uninvited echo.

However, if you need to get a clear recording off your computer, like for instance you need to capture a radio stream, you will have to do something better. The devices are all within your XP and Vista.

Here is how: Click on the Speaker symbol on your taskbar.

In the Master Volume window, Click Options > Properties

There are 3 things you need to do here:
1. Select Line-In from the drop down.
2. The pick Recording
3. Then Check the Stereo Mix Box and Save.

There you are. Now, you can test playing a song from a CD/DVD drive or from within your computer. Then open your Sound Recorder and see if it records.

Hope you find this useful. Write to me if you need additional help.

Beijing Games Via YouTube

2008-08-08T21:02:00.007+08:00

August 8 is an auspicious day and the Beijing Olympics has just been launched at 8.08 Beijing Time.

The event is witnessed live all over the world via satellite television and land based transmissions. What which would be unthinkable two decades ago is happening right before our eyes, thanks to high-speed connectivity.

On the internet, while there is no many direct streaming, the Olympics organisers have instead put up a wide selection of video clips on the many Games that will be contested during the duration - thanks to YouTube.

This is a fine example of how a non-news website embrace the new media through a social media once thought to be fun tool for youngsters to upload their favourite pop concert.

You don't need hi-tech infrastructure to broadcast to the world, no need for high-speed servers and large bandwidth. And you don't need to spend a bomb just to get your message across or search for specific target audience. Just use existing technology and if you don't try to re-invent the wheel, you will get there faster.

Check out the website here. There is plenty to learn for those embarking on online journalism or new media, whichever fancy name you prefer to call it.

Meet The Nut Graph - New Kid On The Online News Block

2008-08-08T08:16:00.000+08:00

If there is anything you can see as a direct result of the March 8 general elections, where the ruling coalition took a beating because it ignored the influence of online news alternatives (blogs and YouTube etc), it is this: the online news business in Malaysia is relatively unexplored and its market undertapped. Otherwise how else would you explain the emergence of new online news sites?

Other than the 10-year-old Malaysiakini, which has positioned as the alternative media quite successfully, there is little to quench the thirst of the Malaysian public looking for alternative news sources except for blogs and some forums here and there.

Joining the early bird Malaysian Insider , which took off a week before March 8, is NutGraph, scheduled for roll-out this month.

According to the posting at its landing page Nut Graph: "promises to provide insightful analysis into the news in and outside of Malaysia. Featuring seasoned journalists and well-known columnists, The Nut Graph will connect the dots for readers to make sense of politics and pop culture."

If you don't know what a Nut Graph is, visit the Wikipedia. It states: "In journalism, a nut graf (sometimes spelled nut graph or nut 'graph, and also called a billboard) is one or more paragraphs, particularly in a feature story, that explain the news value of the story."

It is an interesting name which incidentally also points to a niche market yet unexplored by Malaysian online news sites. Which direction Nut Graph will take, only the founding team knows.

From the banner on the site, it would appear that it strives to be another website attempting to make sense of Malaysian politics and pop culture. The Malaysian Insider has proven itself quite successful handling the former (especially with little interference from the Government), so I guess there is no harm in Nut Graph extending its ambition a little wider to include the latter in terms of news scope.

I cant wait to see what engine Nut Graph will use to manage its content. Will it be Wordpress as it did the Malaysia Votes site - which incidentally was founded by two young but prominent journalists who are also on the Nut Graph's helm? Or will it follow the footsteps of the Malaysian Insider and use Joomla instead? It should be interesting to watch.

However, what is even more interesting to see is that now the share of the revenue pie is already shrinking, and to be shared with the traditional brand-strong online edition of print media and the existing online media (ie. Malaysiakini, and the blogs).

The reason online sites did not take off the past few years is because there is no profitable revenue generating business model. Except for pinching pennies out of the ad clicks (read: Adsense), and cold calling prospects, there is very little online news site can hope to earn from their news generation - however interesting that may be.

So far, only Malaysiakini has succeeded in getting paid subscriptions and it should now be in the black quite contentedly if its traffic, as trackked by Alexa, is anything to go by as seen from the graph below.

Malaysiakini - look at its traffic rank after the March 8 spike. And just below it, coming up pretty fast, too, is the Malaysian Insider.

If you remember correctly, Malaysiakini opened its doors to all and sundry a week before the elections and soon closed them shut after the results were out. And from the graph, it takes very little to guess how many readers stayed back and who is probably laughing all the way to the bank.

The new media business will definitely hot up from now on, especially with the going-ons at the political front.

Will this spell the end of the traditional print media or will it evolve into something even better? No one knows. Let's site back and watch the fun and more compete for your eyeballs, including yours truly.

YouTube - Video No Longer Available

2008-08-05T07:00:00.004+08:00

When YouTube started, I was wondering when the service would be facing problems caused by increasing demand, especially of proportional increase in bandwidth needs and rising costs in infrastructure.

I think after three years, the hugely popular video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips, is beginning to show its slip.

Created in mid-Feb 2005 by three former PayPal staff, the San Bruno-based YouTube, which uses Adobe Flash technology to display user-generated video content, now not only has to contend with copyright challenges caused by users uploading unauthorised content, but also availability problems.

Never mind the fact that Google has acquired it two years ago - but the usual We're Sorry This Video Is No Longer Available message which was virtually unseen in days of old is now popping up ever so frequently - and even when the video is still up there on YouTube.Could it be because the infrastructure is lacking or cannot keep up with the demand?

If you have been embedding your videos or those taken from YouTube, you may have seen this above image popping up. Unless you are tech-savvy - or interested - you probably will move on to another site or link when the Video No Longer Available message hits you in the face.

Although there are several discussions on the YouTube forum such as this one, which suggests that it could be a glitch caused by malformed client side server requests, I suspect the problem has something to do with the server's side. Afterall, the [EMBED] scripts are generated by YouTube and probably the only customisation users do is the screen resize, which logically should not cause the Video Not Available message to pop on.

Right now, there appears to be selective 'disappearance' of available video. I have tested a few and some, despite being 'Not AVailable' play again when you refresh your webpage. Some just stay dead.

For public relations purposes, and generate goodwill, I suggest you insert a cautionary line at the bottom of your video embeds if you are using YouTube until the problem is resolved.

Put this: "Please Refresh If Video Is Not Available." It may not solve YouTube's problem, but at least it will not cause your visitors to be angry with you or think that you did not use updated content.

Robb Montgomery's holding a 'Camp Video Journalism' course

2008-08-03T14:52:00.002+08:00

Robb Montgomery has written to inform that Visual Editors will be organising 'Camp Video Journalism' next month in Chicago. This is a three-day Camp VJ workshop .

Details:
Location: Chicago Sun-Times
Organized By: Visual Editors Event
Description: Chicago workshop in Video Journalism
Dates: September 24, 25, 26

An idea about this event:

WOS Site Out?

2008-08-03T08:28:00.003+08:00

IN December last year, I wrote about webserver on a stick and how useful it was for testers like myself. The mobilty and portability provided me with the ease of working on various Apache-server based softwares without having to lug a laptop around. Just plug and play from any already-running computer terminal.

I also mentioned about chsoftware.net which provided the fantastic software WOSmixer which allowed me to mix and match content management softwares and databases, from Wordpress to OsCommerce and the likes.

However, I returned to the website recently to check for latest update. There were none. According to the on-site posting, the site is being upgraded. Dated July 23.

When or if it would come back, I don't know. I suspect the site has been discontinued, as many good sites have been due to finances or lack of interest. It has been two weeks since the last posting was displayed. It is a pity such a good site had to go if it has really been discontinued.

I have written to the innkeepers and have yet to receive any reply. Hopefully, someone who has been this blog who knows them would alert them of my concerns - and probably thousands who visit their site intermittently.

Meanwhile, if you need to configure a webserver on a stick, check out T2's website. There is a tutorial on setting up Wordpress using Xampplite which you could use to also install other Apache-oriented softwares.

WiMax is here - albeit limited

2008-08-02T17:58:00.001+08:00

Packet One Networks (also known as P1) created history today - having launched its WiMax broadband service in Klang Valley, albeit several areas in the city as well as on the suburbs, and Subang Jaya.

This writer was told that the company's focus is on homeusers who have long been frustrated by the persistently interrupted and slow broadband access - land line or wireless. And the move, spearheaded by the CEO Michael Lai himself, is timely and smart, especially after the traditional providers of broadband access had not lived up to the demands of users nor has kept up with industry needs. Lai should know having led the TMNet as its head honcho until two years ago.

With the launch, and hopefully the promises that follow the roll-out soon would be matched by the accessibility and speed - not forgetting an impeccable customer service.

With the shift towards the Internet and multimedia, the highest disservice P1 can do to itself is to fall short of expectations - just as many of the service providers have proven themselves to be and what P1 can take tremendous advantage of.

From what was seen at the launch, which this writer was privileged to attend, the future looked bright for this company - but if only it paid heed to the wants of its users, especially in the Klang Valley, where many are globetrotting yuppies who have been frustrated by slow connections and persistent denial of access and connectivity.

If P1 places its customers above the bucks that would roll in to its coffers, then its shareholders should laugh all the way to the bank.

If not, then another service provider will be hot on its heels. In fact, another had launched a similar service just a day earlier. And with competition, Malaysian Net users will most certainly benefit - not only in costs but also service. Now, let the broadband war begin, seriously!

Citizen Media - The Future Has Been Cancelled

2008-07-20T06:48:00.003+08:00

The IFRA workshop I wrote about on June 12, entitled: Citizen Media - The Future Is Here! has been cancelled as I was recently informed.

The cancellation appeared in the notice at the IFRA website.

According to inside information, there was insufficient number of participants, hence the cancellation. Three top industry personnel were scheduled to speak at the event to be held in the heart of Kuala Lumpur for two days starting July 22. They are:

JEAN K. MIN - OhmyNews as a director of international division
PAUL BRADSHAW- creator of the Online Journalism Blog (http://onlinejournalismblog.com)
KEVIN SITES - Yahoo's first ever correspondent with a website of his own – Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone (http://hotzone.yahoo.com/).

It is a shame really. If you remember, the last IFRA citizen media workshop which was also held at a leading hotel in Kuala Lumpur failed to showcase Jean K. Min despite the brochure stated that he would be attending.

I was at the workshop and was only told that Min was not attending less than an hour before the workshop was to start. This time I was really looking forward to meeting him, and Bradshaw, but no chance again. Although the other participants were no less interesting, I felt 'cheated' because there was no explanation 24 hours prior to the event.

Anyway, this posting is to let you guys know that the IFRA workshop is OFF.

How To Promote A New Movie Launch Online

2008-07-05T02:35:00.000+08:00

I often receive new movie releases via fax, the information from which I would be using Online. And many times, I had to call up the movie distributors and tell them to give me an electronic version, with all the releases written in a text file and stills in jpeg formats.

Today, I have fewer problems with public relations and marketing communications teams representing movie distributors and cinema chains. They stop sending me faxes and mail flyers containing anything from discs to posters. And I am thankful.

But if you are announcing a new movie, and think of sending your releases to an online newspaper or magazine, there is something you should think about - how about including a link to the movie's trailer?

Go talk to your computer guys or your principal's tech team. Ask them for an 'embed' script which you can include as your public relations material.

If you have never seen this script, or known one, it is a code snippet which, when inserted into a website, will allow it to display the movie's trailer hosted remotely. You know, just like YouTube?

Including a code snippet for a trailer will certainly make a story more memorable than just a text-and-picture story on a web page. Afterall, multimedia is what the web is all about!

The End Of Print Is Near?

2008-07-04T08:11:00.003+08:00

LA Times is cutting jobs . Other newspapers in the US and across the world are probably, too, as the world goes into a recession as Warren Buffet predicted months ago.

With world economy in tailspin, cost cutting measures are the next logical step to be taken, even by newspapers. And why not?

As information sources explode, led by the Internet, it will be pretty tough for the common man in the street to digest all there is in a 62-page newspaper in what's left of his 24-allocated hours daily - tougher if he was subscribed to broadsheets than tabloids.

And as advertising budget shrinks, higher copy-to-ad ratio will mean more stuff to fill empty pages - meaning increased workload and staffing for the publisher and more stuff for the reader to digest. And will he or she suffer from information flatulence?

With the shrinking purchasing power, any consumer with access to television, radio and, at work, the internet, newspapers will but come last in one's information food chain. You simply don't have the time to read everything and even if you did, someone will outread you anyway when the midnight newsreel hits the tube.

Out of this, if newsprint costs can still be absorbed, the free paper models will likely to come up tops. Very unlikely its circulation will drop although justifying the actual readership figures will be tough - if not impossible - if not audited creditably.

In Malaysia, where one paper has successfully increased its prices without highly tangible loss in revenue the past 12 months, rising newsprint and other costs that have begun biting into its profits.

With the recent fuel price hike, costs will be a favourite topic for discussion in management meetings - not so much as editorial content. Whether this will result in cost-cutting measures such as lay-offs, as its overseas counterparts have undertaken, will depend on how much shareholders' reserves it has built up over the years and how well hedged is its newsprint stock.

Word on the ground has it that many vernacular broadsheets have also mulled size reduction - from broadsheet to tabloids - something many would have frowned and gone near so much as a thought a decade ago. How many would fold up will be anyone's guess.

The only saviour for the newspaper, where I am watching from, is to jump into cyberspace. This will be extremely easy for established names and those who were on the bandwagon decades ago. For the new kid in the block, just trying to climb out of search engines' sandbox will be a tough one.

Of course, with cost being the main consideration, online policies that are clearly thought out and intelligently laid out will go a long way to hedge the newspaper against future woes - be it costs or staffing or technology.

Google Retiring Referral Ads

2008-07-01T22:03:00.001+08:00

Finally, the word is out - Google Adsense will retire Referral Ads which it introduced about a year ago. If you have been using Referral Ads, time to go back to the server and templates and start changing the ads. Replace them with the traditional Adsense ad units or else come August end, you will have a blank space staring at your face - matched by the drop in ad revenue from Adsense.

If you want to know more, read about it here.

TMNET into webhosting now?

2008-06-26T19:48:00.004+08:00

I don't know if desperate times call for desperate measures. I just received this from an apparent TMNet sales person:

12GIG of web hosting space
unlimited email accounts
free Content Management System (CMS) website, a DIY web-solution
free E-Commerce Shopping cart with check-out counter & order page
free Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) & ticketing solutions
free blogs software for your website to improve search engine ranking
free Discussion Boards & Forums
free Guestbooks
free site counter
free ticketing support counters for your website visitors
free mailing list management software
free FAQ management software for your website
free templates for you to setup your website within minutes
free polls and surveys
free project management softwares

RM199 per year
(normal cost: RM299 per year)
can be activated within 24 hours
Offer ends: 07.07.08

From the offer, it looks like TMNET is hard up for business. Whether it is a good deal or not, it depends on your needs. But if you are hosting a blog, on Blogger, and knows that the domain can be made to point to Google and Blogger servers, I don't think you will need it.

Still, I think TMNET should not have sent unsolicited mail offer to me. This is known as SPAM - in case they do not know what web ethics means.

Chance for e-commerce developers to win some big prizes

2008-06-25T21:07:00.003+08:00

Check this out:

eBay today launched its Developer Programme in Southeast Asia with inaugural competition with a contest offering up to SGD25,000 up for grabs.

According to a circular to eBay members, the Developer Programme, which started in 2000, now has approximately 70,000 members and offers developers.

This contest is geared towards local developers in Malaysia to build e-commerce applications for eBay and PayPal.

The following prizes are up for grabs:

1st prize: SGD $10,000
2nd prize: SGD $8,000
3rd prize: SGD $5,000
Special Merit Prizes
Best Community / Viral Application: $1,000
Best Interactive / Visual Design: $500
Most Fun Application: $500

For details, check out eBay Malaysia

Media Strikes Back - Boycotts Press Conferences

2008-06-25T07:56:00.004+08:00

At a time when the media should be given access to information so that they can write the truth to keep the public informed, the Malaysian Parliament decided to restrict their access to one section of the House. The Parliament lobby, from which many great news pieces have been filed, was yesterday cordoned off and journalists were given a small area.

On Friday,a new ruling limiting only five reporters from each media organisations to cover Parliament proceedings was imposed due to security reasons.

As a result, the media struck back with a boycott of press conferences - two press conferences by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and one by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi were only covered by the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), Radio Televisyen Malaysia, TV3, Berita Harian and foreign wires personnel.

Considering the live transmission of Parliamentary proceedings made earlier this year via national television, the current ruling is indeed perplexing. The Parliamentary administration shuld perhaps explain its recent action, especially at a time when greater transparency is demanded of the government.

The latest piece on the boycott is that Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Senator Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has urged media personnel to cease boycotting parliamentarians following their being denied entry into Parliament's lobby. He added that the media should be given ample opportunities to cover parliamentary going-ons.

And one hopes that the going-ons include those at the lobby.

Bugged By Press Releases? Use an Online Depository

2008-06-24T06:18:00.007+08:00

One of the many irritating items in a news office is the Press Release. You receive tonnes of them monthly and almost 75 percent gets spikes or thrown down the trash chute the moment they arrive on the table INBOX. While some of these are welcomed, even anticipated, many, for the sheer marketing slant taken by the sender, have little use except as scrap paper.

In the online age, why not consider an electronic depository for Press Releases? Paper is becoming more expensive - doesn't it make sense to have your PR agencies send electronic releases rather than cost your news organisation in Fax paper?

So far, I have not come across any visible depository for press releases in any of the big newspapers I surf online. Why this is so is up for speculation. I think many organisations only rely on specific emails, ie to the editors, the letters section or even comments column.

Online news agencies would benefit tremendously, and save their inboxes from email spam, by having a form set up for press release depositing. A simple form will do, with drop down menus for the section or person it is intended for, subject matter (weather it is an announcement, press conference or a product launch), photo upload submissions, and content text fields for other informations.
If there is additional need to prevent spamming, a Captcha tool to verify a manual submission can help curb spam.

With the fuel price hikes, setting up an online Press release depository can help in cutting costs for your news organisation. All it needs is a little bit of educating the public relations officers dealing with your organisation...

Blogging Minister Calls For Probe Into Blogspot Blogs

2008-06-15T17:43:00.006+08:00

Saw this piece of news on the Malaysian News Agency.

It concerns a certain minister in Malaysia whom anonymous bloggers decided to take a potshot at - in this case, two potshots. According to the story, reproduced here:

Ali Rustam Wants Police To Investigate False Blog

June 15, 2008 17:22 PM

MELAKA, June 15 (Bernama) -- Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam wants the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to take appropriate action against those who had created false blogs in his name.

He said the false blogs are http://mohamadalirustam.blogspot.com and http://mohdalirustam2.blogspot.com.

"My actual blog is www.mohdalirustam.com," he told reporters here Sunday.

More here

This is certainly an interesting development for blogging. Eversince the March 8 elections, practically everyone who can pronounce and spell B-L-O-G-G-I-N-G wants to blog.

And anyone who blogs, do so at Blogger or Blogspot, probably thinking that doing so qualifies them the title 'blogger', little knowing that the common noun has also now become a proper noun and possibly a trademarked brand name.

How the police will be able to track down the owners of the 'fake' blogs will be interesting to watch although it will not be very difficult given the cooperative nature of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). However, trying to get Blogspot to reveal the identities of the bloggers might be a tad tough.

The real blog.

Yahoo joins Google in Internet Advertising

2008-06-13T10:11:00.001+08:00

Just came across this at the NPR website

Yahoo, Google Team Up in Online Advertising - by Wendy Kaufman
Morning Edition, April 10, 2008·
Yahoo and Google are launching a small experiment in which ads selected and delivered by Google would appear on Yahoo searches. That would probably give Yahoo more cash, because Google generates more revenue per search query than Yahoo.

How this will benefit the biliions of Google Adsense users will soon be known.

Right now, according to Xinhua, the partnership could mean a boost of up to US$800 million dollars.

Will it mean a consolidation into one entity to tap the huge online advertising revenue?

Will Anti-Trust laws of the US be used against this merger?

Already there is news that Herb Kohl, chairman of the U.S. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, plans to investigate the competitive and privacy implications of the merger.

And how about Microsoft, which US$44.6-billion unsolicited offer to take over Yahoo was spurned by the latter, react to this?

Citizen Media Workshop @ IFRA

2008-06-12T13:37:00.001+08:00

Last year, I was fortunate to attend a workshop on Citizen Media organised by the IFRA. I went there for one reason - someone from OhMyNews was there to share his views. However, to my chagrin and surprise, the person did not come. And we were only told an hour before the workshop - because I asked.

This time around, I was again notified of yet another Citizen Media workshop. This time, again, Jean K. Min's name appeared and he is "confirmed" (sic) to facilitate, together with Paul Bradshaw. Kevin Sites has also been "invited".

The tentative venue is either Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.

However, I have yet to decide. At Euro 1,300, it would be a second slap on the cheek should the OhMyNews guy cancel at the last minute - just like the last chap did in 2007.

You may be wondering why I was focussed on OhMyNews. Well, it is one of the more successful citizen papers around then, although there are more to date.

Blogger Can't Upload Images to FTP servers

2008-06-11T20:02:00.006+08:00

Latest!: Uploading to FTP issues resolved. To commentors Taniel and Scott Johnson, I hope your sites are okay by now. Blogger has yet to reply to my query, so I guess this is one of those glitches that happen from time to time, perhaps, some maintenance work which dragged on a little bit longer than expected. In any case, I will continue to monitor the situation and the minute the system fails, I will alert them.

Since June 8, Blogger has not been able to publish/upload images to FTP servers. This issue occurred last year and was somehow resolved.

At the moment, the status of the problem is unknown and so far, at Blogger support forum, there have been several complaints. Blogger support has been informed by this blogger. Check back for details and share your experiences if you have encountered any with FTP publishing.

Emails - What Should You List On Your Contact Page

2008-06-09T17:40:00.005+08:00

Recently, I was asked why not all emails of my company's staff are listed on the website's contact list.

I replied: No, not everone is interested to have his/her email listed.

Why?

Because most of those whose contacts were given on the site did not want their emails listed because their mailboxes will eventually be cluttered by spams ranging from electronic press releases from over-exuberant PR officers who doesn't understand emailing ethics to Viagra peddlers selling tiny blue pills online.

If you are manning your company's website, chances are that you will be faced with this decision of whether to list which email address, how many and where.

So, here are some tips:

First rule of thumb is to list the departmental email address which can be accessed by the person/s on duty. For instance, support@my.company.com or techassistance@mycompany.com or ceo@mycompany.com

Second rule of thumb is to check with the person/s whose email would be displayed on your website whether they want it listed. Why? Well, there is no point listing an email address if there is no commitment from the owner or person who has access to it to at least go through it once every day, if not every 48 hours.

Third rule of thumb, if you need to list emails of all staff, use Captcha-assisted forms to direct emails to appropriate persons/departments. This will cut spam and is good public relations practice.

And don't forget to inform the sender when genuine emails would be replied and make every effort to do so at the promised duration.

These are among things you should consider when listing emails on your website's contact page.

Importance of Pointing To New Pages If Upgrading To New Site

2008-05-24T04:45:00.005+08:00

One of the most bitter lessons anyone who owns a website or blog can learn is to lose visitors when upgrading to a new site or domain.

If proper planning is not done within the first week, the drop in visitors can get quite bad. In fact, within hours of moving, site visits can go down as much as 95 per cent, and may never pick up to more than 25 per cent over the next seven days as search engines try to index your site. This experience was shared by a fellow website owner recently - despite my having cautioned him not to ignore the need to point to the new site, he did just that. Lucky for him, his website was small, about 300 pages in total. But because it was a company website dealing with travel products, his statistics suffered.

I am writing about this - although I cannot reveal the site owner's domain for professional courtesy - to perhaps give you some tips how to avoid the same mistake.

Before moving to a new site, after having transferred your old content to the new server, make sure you have clearly and accurately point the relevant pages to the corresponding ones at the new site. If the content is similar, I propose you delete all the old content on that old page and insert a courtesy note and the hyperlink. You may do this manually or using a software. Generally, software redirects after the visitors encounter an error page and this pointing is done server-wide. I find doing it manually better since you point individually to the new corresponding page.
At the new page, put a note to get your visitors to renew his bookmark to overide the old. Most people forget this and a reminder will be good.
Get the search engine to re-index your site and have a sitemap inserted in your server. Overide the old sidemap as well.
Dont forget to have to have a ROBOTS.TXT file inserted at the old server pages instructing bots not to index them. Better, in each old page, have a NO INDEX, NO FOLLOW snippet inserted.
How long should you keep your old pages in the server? Well, have a look at your server logs and see if a majority of your new traffic comes from the new site URLs. If it is, say 90 per cent, then you can safely delete the older files. This can be any where from 1 week to a month. My friend was lucky, he did his in matter of 8 days.
Be polite and personal when writing redirection instructions. You can be witty, but be personal. Standard Error Page redirections are cold because they are automated. You can change all that message to suit your needs - just as the webmaster or host how to change the Error 404 message. Again as in my friend, he requested visitors to his old pages to please click on the new link. In a few short lines, he told them why he had to move, and asked for their cooperation to bookmark and was even brave enough to have a share button on the new site. Within matter of 8 days, not only had the site recovered, his traffic grew beyond what was recorded at the old site. (At the moment of writing, he has gained back the dip but still wondered if he should leave the old pages intact - and I advised him to leave it for another 8 days).
Once the new site is up, if the domain had been changed, make sure all your physically attached marketing tools reflect the same. This include domain names on your office stationery and advertisements.

If you have done the above well, there should not be any reason why your traffic will drop even after you moved sites. As a site owner, it is important you learnt to read server logs and site meter reports.

Google now allows third party ads!

2008-05-23T17:39:00.002+08:00

There are good news and there are excellent news. This one below is definitely excellently good for web publishers:

Greetings from Google!
We're happy to announce that the Google content network nowaccepts display ads served from qualified third-party vendors.During this initial release, only ads in English are eligible,although we look forward to offering more options in the future.
By accepting third-party ads, we can attract a greater variety ofadvertising on the Google content network, which we believe willresult over time in increased revenue for publishers and morerelevant advertising for end users.
If you're currently opted in to image ads, you're already able to receive third-party ads. ...

Designing Your Contact Page

2008-05-23T06:07:00.003+08:00

I found this of the BBC Wales website. This is an excellent example of how a simply designed Contact Page that give you lots of food for thought and ease of use. Take a look:

BBC Wales specialist correspondents
To contact via
E-mail all can be found at BBC.CO.UK- add this onto the end of their
name.
Correspondents coordinator
Steve Duffy - 02920 322099 Email:
steve.duffy@ Fax: 02920555960
Arts and media correspondent
Jon Gower -
02920 322306 Email: jon.gower@
Education correspondent
Louise Elliott/Julie Barton - 02920 323283 Email: louise.elliott@

This was found at a newsgathering site and I think it is pretty well-done simply because the editors name and emails and phone numbers were listed. The reason readers are asked to insert bbc.co.uk after the @ after their names is to reduce spam, which is wise.

Another good contact page belongs to one of the top papers in the UK - The Guardian. Here is how it looks like:

Things to consider when designing your Contact Page:

a) What is the make-up of your readers/clientele - do they use emails a lot or phone and faxes are preferred. You may put all three in, or limit to just phone calls, if emails are a problem with your end of the line.

b) If setting up emails and spam is your concern, then have Captcha Code activated forms to keep spammers at bay. If this is not possible, perhaps do what the BBC contact list did. Either give just partial address, ie. "name@" and instruct your readers/clientele to insert the "com[any.com", or add a no-spam line before each name and instruct your email writer to delete it before sending. Such as: no_spam(removethis)_name@mediahouse.com

c) Keep hyperlinks out of emails to stop spams at the gate. Mail harvesters love these hyperlinks.

d) Only give desk info if your editor is particularly susceptible to voilent calls. For instance, your crime editor may be put at risk if his name and contact is out, so you might like to just name the contact as Crime Desk, with appropriate fax, phone or email.

e) Many media houses think they are so well known that they do not need a map. I think otherwise. Giving a map of your headquarters and branch offices, including advertisement placement offices is good public relations.

Importance Of The Contact Page - Tip For Newspaper Owners

2008-05-22T05:54:00.004+08:00

If in the past, space constraints in print restrict putting in all your desks editors' names and their phone/fax numbers, web now affords you more freedom.

However, I still find editors who frown on putting your contact page on your website, despite its advantaged. Why this is so beats me but I am sure there are personal reasons to this, oft thinly veiled as professional reservations.

I think with the expansion of media houses in the age of converging technologies and information dissemination through a plethora of media platforms, to give a general line and expect the phone receptionist to direct calls to the appropriate department or person is suicidal - especially since every call is a potential news lead which will undoubtedly find its way to your rival if frustrated in its attempt to reach the correct desk or editor.

Media owners and news managers who continue to ignore this fact do so at the own peril, perhaps even put their jobs at stake - never mind the ill-will that could be generated where public relations is concerned.

Where the contact list is positioned is not nearly as important but as a matter of good public relations, it should be at the top right hand corner, prominently displayed.

If, positioning is a problem, then the footer is just as good provided the contact link can be seen clearly and not just linked to a general form email.
Unless your media has a highly technology conversant clientele, form and hyperlinked emails do not nearly draw as many feedback as you would like it. Besides, the chore of having to log in, checking mails and replying takes plenty of time.

In the next installment, I shall discuss what should go up in the contacts page and show you some well-designed ones.

MPI - Workshop Examining Role of Media in Era of Convergence

2008-05-21T10:22:00.001+08:00

I am now attending the Workshop on Media in the new Era of Convergence organised by the Malaysian Press Institute Gerry Thurston of the Thomson Foundation of the UK.

The senior media man who claims to have 30 years of experience in journalism started the day's session on the look of things to come and the challenges facing traditional print media.

Among these, he examined the challenges facing the media organisation, the traditional editorial department and the journalist himself.

Seeking feedback on the Malaysian media scene, Thurston asked what is the greatest hurdle faced by Malaysian news organisation. I feel that the biggest is the skills a journalist facing media convergence should have. As it is, many journalists in the business today are not multi-tasking journalists and even as you read this, I am not sure if the institutions of higher learning training journalists have subjects related to multimedia on their syllabuses.

Google Sticks Malware Warning On Tourism Malaysia Website

2008-05-16T22:19:00.008+08:00

Guess what? I was searching for the term: Visit Malaysia Year 2008. (See accompanying graphic.)

The second item on the list which turned up was a reference to Tourism Malaysia - but wait a minute! Google has highlighted it as a SITE NOT SAFE TO VISIT!

If I was the Tourism Minister, I would have called up Google and asked what the world's most intelligent search engine meant by sending out a Malware Warning?

Is it trying to sabotage the Nation's effort in promoting tourism? Conspiracy theories abound if you want to put your idle mind to work...

In any case, I clicked the link - despite the Malware Warning and was duly brought to this page (see below).

I was particularly attracted to this message:

Or you can continue to http://www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/ at your own risk. For detailed information about the problems we found, visit Google's Safe Browsing diagnostic page for this site.

I decided not to risk it but visit the diagnostic page instead. Guess what I found?

What is the current listing status for www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/?

Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 1 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 1 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 05/01/2008, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 04/27/2008.

Malicious software includes 1 scripting exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 4 new processes on the target machine.

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including 852599.cn.

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?
Over the past 90 days, www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/ appeared to function as an intermediary for the infection of 1 site(s) including skmethodist.edu.my.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?

In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

Boy, was I relieved. But how many people have browsed to Tourism Malaysia's website through their bookmarks? I wonder.

This is probably an anomaly - maybe some virus infection of sort. Afterall not all sites are virus-free.

However, with the Tourism Malaysia being the authority for travel to Malaysia, I hope its webmasters and the Minister in charge are aware of the current quagmire it is in and take remedial steps.

Otherwise, it may be on the receiving end of bad public relations and broken goodwill.

Will someone alert the good minister?

Video is Going To Take Over? - Now You Can Post Video Comments on Blogs!

2008-05-16T06:19:00.004+08:00

I was alerted to this: video comments for video blogs. Until now, it is almost impossible to stream video comments to blogs, and some video blogs - many of which use YouTube. However, I was informed of this plugin - disqus

Basically, the blogowner signs up with Disqus and installs the plugin. When video blogs are posted, other Disqus users reading the comment can post their video comments. It's just as simple as uploading your video content to the web and embedding the script onto the comment box - if only you were allowed to, but now can.

This development is interesting in that now, people can talk to each other - albeit the interval between the debut of the first and current comment could be anywhere between seconds to weeks or even month. Listening and watching is certainly more believeable and interactive. It also offers a more personal experience and certainly more engaging - except for the commentator when moments of awkwardness can be quite debilitating unless you have gotten use to talking to your monitor.

Be that as it may, I am certainly looking forward to see how this develops. I am sure the people at Google in Blogger would have thought of it and somewhat restrained themselves for reasons best known to them. I will be looking forward to see if video commenting will drive the traditional write-and-post off the internet superhighway.

Right now, the plugin has been created for Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, Movable Type, and Tumblr. This is a fair amount of support it has given itself too, considering Wordpress and Blogger controlling at least two-thirds of the blogosphere where content management is concerned.

However, within disqus itself is a social networking system, and this makes it quite attractive. Nothing drives a device as quickly as its own community. Now, if only Facebook will want to integrate it into its system.

What I am worried about is how now spamming can and most certainly will be taken to a new level. Imagine spams in the form of video ads plonked onto your websites or blogs. And what about pornography - how can it be prevented?

Where web advertising is concerned, now, will someone create video ads that you can insert between your video comment? That is most certainly an interesting thing to think about!

Google Search Applications Launched In Malaysia

2008-05-16T06:02:00.006+08:00

It's about time. Three years ago, when searching for a good search engine for websites, I wrote to Google Inc asking if it was available for the Asia Pacific. I was a bit disappointed when told that the search applications were only available for Europe and the US then.

Yesterday, Google's PR agency wrote to me saying that they had launched the products in Malaysia - the Google Search Appliance™ and Google Mini™ in Malaysia.

The Mini

Google Appliance

Local firms can now benefit from Google's search technology to plough their database and websites. According to what I am told, Ingram Micro (Malaysia) has been appointed sole distributor for Google Enterprise for Malaysia. Indeed, this will be interesting to see, how we are moving to the next level.

At the moment, there are no price lists yet - and I am wondering why the PR firm appointed by Google did not put it in the release.

Local Varsity-College To Offer Course In Blog Writing

2008-05-12T17:59:00.005+08:00

HAS Malaysian academicians gone bananas? I just found out that a prominent institution of higher learning is planning to hold a course in blog writing.

I have heard of all sorts of writing courses and this is the first time about a varsity-college wanting to hold a blog writing course.

VC Ibrahim

Quoting the vice-chancellor Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah:

UiTM Willing To Offer Course On Blog Writing, Says VC

SHAH ALAM, May 12 (Bernama) -- Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) is willing to offer a course in blog writing in an effort to produce more professional and ethical blog writers, its Vice Chancellor Datuk Seri Profesor Ibrahim Abu Shah said.

He said the move would also be in keeping with current developments, where a majority of the society were being drawn to the alternative media.

"Currently, we do have blogging studies in our curriculum and this will be enhanced further by introducing a course on blog writing.

"I feel that the Communication and Media Studies Faculty is ready to conduct the course and I fully support this move (to introduce blog writing course) as it is time for us to help produce bloggers who are not only professionals, but with ethics," he told a media conference after opening a seminar on Media and the 2008 General Election, here Monday. ...

And he adds:

although academic qualifications were not an asset for those wanting to become blog writers, there were certain ethics which they should adhere to in expressing their views to avoid them from writing on matters which were negative and seditious.

and

"Everybody can be a blogger but we cannot simply write as we like because there are certain rules to be observed, like whether the words used are ethical and the subject matter is true or otherwise" he added.

Come on, are you serious? Pardon my ignorance, has blog writing ever been held anywhere in a college or varsity? What are you going to teach these people? the mechanics of writing? The ethics of blogging? Or simply SEO techniques?

The part that says you cannot write anything and ethics is a really a tacit contract bloggers observe if they belong to a blogging commune, or use free bloghosts. Because if they don't, their blogs may be removed, the chances of removal highly dependent on the blog host's TOA.

I think the Prof's slip is showing when he mentioned about writing negative and seidious content. The internet is a free world, although unconditional freedom of speech is still frowned upon. However, if a blogger is bent on being unethical and raising issues bordering sedition or falsehood, how are you going to enforce your regulations or ethics on him/her? Do not for a moment forget that anonymity still reigns supreme where internet is concern and self-censorship is more likely the order of the day. trying to hope that varsity churned out bloggers would toe the ethical line is a big dream.

Having said all that, perhaps, what UiTM can probably teach, I feel, involved three areas:

a) Blog Writing - How to write in the best and more read language, and that's probably English.
b) Template Design - How to use basic coding to shape one's blog so that the elements will allow for easy reading.
c) Search Engine Optimisation - How to use tools to promote one's blog content.

- and with a heavy emphasis on SEO because that is where the wheat is separated from the chaff. SEO tuned blogsites are easily crawled than slam-bang-g'bye-maam firebrigade churned up sites. And I doubt if there was any UiTM academicians who can teach these, particularly the last item

ALternatively, institutes of higher learning like UiTM should stick to their core business - teaching the traditional academia. They should not be overly impressed by blogging just because everyone else thinks that it was responsible for the ruling coalition's defeat in the March 8 polls .

Blogging is merely a tool for informational exchange. The reason it has become popular is because blogwares have made it so much easier to write, present and manage content, and prompt interaction between the writer and his audience. Throw in audio and video as well as social bookmarking tools, you have yourself a successful business model.

For all we know, the blog's evolution could still be ongoing. The way I see it, writing blogs may even one day give way to video blogging when bandwidth becomes cheaper and broadband penetration reaches 100 per cent.

Who would want to read when they can sit back, switch on their computer, login and watch? Think about it!

Vinton Cerf is coming to Malaysia

2008-05-12T07:57:00.005+08:00

Father of the internet, Vinton G. Cerf (64), is coming to Malaysia. I have just been notified. He will be giving a special press conference, in his capacity as vice-president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, some time next week for the WCIT2008.

I am hoping to meet this man, check out what makes him tick, and what he sees for the future of the Internet. Maybe we will learn something.

Meanwhile, if you are checking for the website (www.wcit2008.org) for information on WCIT2008, don't bother. The last time the site was fully functional was May 4. The website has been down since, returning error messages. At best you will be only accessing a cached version - thanks to Google.

It isn't funny of course, to be the organiser of the event and yet not have your website fully functional. I bet Vince will have something to say about this. I think whoever the organiser is, and hopefully not the Government, he/she will wise up before news breaks out. Even if the website has shifted, a reroute link should have been in place.

For the public relations officer in charge of this, or the PR company in charge of the WCIT account, please get your act together and tell your bosses what implication this non-functional website address does.

Now everybody wants to blog!

2008-05-06T19:45:00.005+08:00

If you can identify collective silliness, I am sure you would have spotted it by now. It's this blog phenomenon that has taken the Malaysian cyberspace by storm. What used to be taboo is today worshipped upon.

The latest being the Information Ministry that wants to use blogs to disseminate information.

Excerpt:

Information Ministry Plans Blog To Disseminate Information

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Bernama) -- The Information Ministry is planning to use blogs as a medium to disseminate information to the people, its Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said.

"The ministry is planning on using blogs as a bridge to provide information and solicit views on issues raised," he said in reply to a question by Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn (BN-Alor Gajah) during the Dewan Rakyat session, here today.

Ahmad Shabery said he already had discussions with several bloggers to get their views.

If in the 70s the ministry used Land Rovers with hailers mounted atop, today it wants to use blogs. But why blogs?

Doesn't a website serve a similar purpose? Can't website do the same work if you maintain it with regular content updates as you would blogs? Didn't you know that websites can have categories and RSS features like blogs? Just how difficult it is do disseminate information through websites than it is through blogs? Just ponder a moment.

Many websites can be run using content management softwares like Joomla or Drupal and these do allow blog-like features to be put out. Not only that - extend its reaches with other tools including video and audio embedding. Some of the features are much better than traditional blog engines and improved with sheer technical knowledge.

Blogs are for individuals to pen their thoughts and views, and at the worst extreme, ready to be criticised, and even sued and jailed. Some of these serve a purpose to organisations or groups, allowing collective views to be shared on a single platform manned by several like-minded bloggers.

For ministries, I think it is better to stick to the current websites. Just maintain them as you would blogs and add in the diseminative features such as Email, RSS, Categories, Tags, etc. Either send your traditional webmasters to courses on blogging and how to use the social media tools or employ tech savvy new ones out there - if you can do away with the red tape and get them on Government payroll.

Another reason is, your organisational URL is already well-known by the bots and mainstream search engines have already indexed most. In case you don't know, a new blog URL takes time to be discovered and taken out of the sandbox. You think it is easy to blog and diseminate informtion? Think again.

Watch Out World, Here Comes Dr M, the blogger

2008-05-01T17:43:00.006+08:00

FORMER Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, 82, has started blogging at his own domain name, http://www.chedet.com, using the Blogger platform.

He has put to shame many so-called political bloggers who don't even know how to connect with their own domain name, let alone use an independent blogware.

[I expected to see www.chedet.com run on Wordpress but with the Blogger-in-Draft being developed fast, I guess Dr M has made a good choice as Blogger-in-Draft's feature would rival Wordpress's any time.]

Western policymakers had better watch what they are saying now that their No 1 Critic is well-connected to cyberspace, courtesy of Blogspot. The site www.chedet.com will be eagerly followed by Malaysians, especially those who loved his wit and sharp tongue. His views should be equally interesting to read on cyberspace. Whether he will talk only about politics or world affairs or add his observations on life in general will be eagerly awaited on cyberspace.

Now, to digress, one wonders if Dr M is the oldest blogger in Malaysia - and in keeping with the record-pursuing habit of Malaysians, if his name should be entered as the Oldest Malaysian Blogger on Malaysia's Book of Records. And if it is, who then would nominate him. Afterall, if we can have the Tallest Sandwich or Longest Lemang, what's so strange about the Oldest Blogger?

It will also be interesting to see how the longest-reigning Prime Minister talks to his readers and if their views would be published on his blogsite if they are not - as he stated on his blogsite - "anonymous postings and those containing profanities and obscenities..."

XML sitemaps and your site's indexing success

2008-05-01T09:50:00.000+08:00

A sitemap, simply, is a layout of your site, sort of guideposts or signboards show the way to the various sections. You think of them as signboards containing the URL pointing to each section down the road.

In the past, sitemaps were created for users to see an overview of a site, pick and choose the links, no matter how deep, easily with the click of a button.

However, as websites grow on the internet and become more complex, search engines look for better ways to crawl sites and index more efficiently.

In 2005, Google launched its own protocol to crawl sites via sitemaps that are written in XML. This allowed Google bots (search engine robots - (tiny programmes that visit your site and go back to report) to track changes on the websites more efficiently.

Note however that sitemap is not a SEO tool and has no effect on general site ranking. What it does is to allow search engine bots to index your site more efficiently. In the case of Google, sitemaps allow for better pageranks.

How to create XML sitemaps?

There are several ways but I am going to show you two easy ways out of this:

Use an online xml sitemap generator .

Download a sitemap generator here and do it on your PC. (This requires installation on your PC. I have not used it but from the reviews, it appears to be quite popular. Judge it for yourself. )

Once your sitemap is created, upload it into the root directory of your site, ie. www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml Then submit to to Google

Reader's Digest Is Better Off Not Sending Junk Mail

2008-04-29T19:18:00.005+08:00

The cover letter. Reads stupid, isn't it?

Every now and then, Reader's Digest, to which I am a long time subscriber, comes up with some bright ideas. Sometimes, not too bright ones.

And when they do, you really wonder if you should just terminate the subscription for making you feel so stupid to have subscribed to a magazine that apparently don't give two hoots about your intelligence and continues to insult it with vehemence with junk mails promising you would be an instant millionaire if you act now on its offer.

This recently happened to me, again and again, with the company promising that my name had been entered for some stupid lottery-like thingy that promised instant riches. Reading between the fine lines, it actually wanted me to purchase some silly reading material and the junk mail set up was so good that had I acted on it, I would have realised that I had been had. Of course, to get to the fine line, I would have to sift through some deliciously crafted literature that was design to floor the greedy in two blows.

It set me thinking, why should such an organisation resort to such junk mail and if they realised that I would gladly terminate my subscription given half the chance of additional irritation, and encourage 20 of my friends to do the same?

It must be a marketing manager's idea, of course. But what the heck? You know how many trees you have to down to make that much of paper to print your junk on? These junk mails are nothing by an attempt to hoodwink the gullible and the greedy.

Wouldn't it be better for public relations and good will to ask, periodically, in a marketing survey, if such junk mail was welcomed? And perhaps, how many of such junk mail had actually resulted in a sale and if the cost was actually worth braving bad publicity for?

And if not, perhaps junk the person or department that came up with the silly idea of flooding one's client's mailbox with unsolicited literature that could one day prompt him/her to actually cancel his/her subscription?

The junk mail. How many trees have been cut to produce these? What about the environment as a result of discarding these garbage?

Top Malaysian hosting service provider stops forwarding emails to Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, Streamyx, TMnet and others

2008-04-23T18:16:00.003+08:00

This writer has just been informed that Exabytes will no longer permit email forwarding to the following free email providers:

Yahoo!
Gmail
Hotmail, and other popular mail servers

as well as local ones such as tm.net.my and streamyx.

According to my informer, this move is due to "free email service provider having applied stricter anti-spam policy in their mail servers."

Meaning, if they detect any of Exabytes customers setting their forward emails to these servers, and the account receives lots of emails, the free servers will consider it an attack on its servers and will stop future forwards, including those from Exabytes itself to the account holders.
And the result, blacklist Exabytes mail servers from sending mail to them, ie causing legitimate email to be blocked.

I wonder why this is happening to Exabytes when other international hosts also face similar problems.

I do know of a Canadian host as well as a San Franciso-based hosting service which are widely used by Malaysians who have email forwarding to the said services and are not experiencing any problems that made them change email hosting policies like what Exabytes just did.

Perhaps someone out there care to explain?

Tips For Politicians Who Blog - Tip 1

2008-04-23T06:10:00.008+08:00

Welcome to the world of blogging. If you are a poltician and are thinking about reaching your masses through blogs, you are smarter than your contemporary who is still reluctant to find out what a blogger or Blogger is.Chances are that if you are doing it yourself, you are a whole lot smarter than he/she is but I doubt you would be doing the blogging yourself.

More likely, you would have paid someone to upload your thoughts, ramblings and grievances - especially if you dont have the time and luxury of funding. In fact, those of you who have the funds may even consider someone to ghost-write, especially if your writing skills are not that great and the muse seems elusive most of the time.

Be that as it may, this piece is for the poor politician who cannot afford a secretary to dictate speeches to, who can ill-afford to pay a ghost-writer, and who is brimming with ideas and enthusiastic enough to blog hands on. This one is for you, no charge. (Those who are rich enough are also welcome to ready and copy these ideas, no charge, because I am trying to fulfil my social obligations and accrue good cyber-karma)

Tip Number One: Use your own domain name.
This is personalising your cyberhomestead and ensure that no one else buys it and later on make a mockery out of your name. If they do, then it leaves you with little to do except take legal action - which will then generate more publicity and show how you are paying the price for that ignorance.

Having your own domain name will also prevent cyber-squatters from grabbing your name and selling it back to you at a hefty profit because you were not smart enough to purchase it first when you exposed your name, thoughts, rambling and grievances. And believe you me, when you get to be famous, say like Mike Tyson or Mike Jackson, they will get you if you want your name back on cyberspace. Heck, even if you are not as famous, cybersquatters still know politicians can afford it and come after you.

So, go get your domain name today. Don't blog under whatisname.blogspot.com or whatshername.wordpress.com or any blogging.com for that matter. It should be yourname.com if someone else have not cybersquatted on it.

So who wants to blog now?

2008-04-21T18:09:00.005+08:00

Just when you thought blogs were losing their appeal in Malaysia, to be replaced by more interesting and hip social media on the web like Facebook (where you could Poke and Super Poke, or play Scrabulous), politics have given them a new lease of life.

Believed to be largely responsible for the ruling coalition's losing the general elections, blogs have now attracted a large group of politicians who see blogging as a means to interact with the masses - nevermind why it took them so long to realise the interactivity of blogs.

Here are some politician bloggers with their new found toys:

http://drchua9.blogspot.com/
http://www.drkhir.blogspot.com/
http://weechookeong.blogspot.com/
http://mykuli.blogspot.com/
http://www.shahrirsamad.blogspot.com/
http://www.muhammadmuhdtaib.com/
http://azalina.wordpress.com/

There is no need to elaborate who they are - their names are dead giveaways and if you have not figured them out, then you probably not a Malaysian, in which case, this piece will not mean a thing to you.

One thing is certain from this exciting development - that most of those who blogged are either deadly ignorant or just pennywise simply because all of them used free blog services - this writer has nothing against using free blogging services, of course.

Heck, if you are an amateur, then you are excused for using the services of Blogspot, Wordpress or Typepad.

But if you are a politician, surely for branding purposes you would want to have a custom-made blog with your unique domain name on it. You know, like when you have a company, you just don't want to use a hotmail.com or a yahoo.com email address.

Why? Pretty obvious isn't it? You simply don't want to look unprofessional. Or cheapskate hanging on to a free homstead.

Politicians should at least attempt to look professional, even on cyberspace. You cannot give the impression that you cannot even afford a USD20 annual domain fee, let alone a paid hosting service.

So, if you are next to want to blog, and a politician, consider what I have just said here for your public image - register a domain name. Please!

Then get a hosting service.

Personalise your blog so that you don't look low-yah. Or cheap. That way, your writings would carry more weight, and perhaps taken more seriously.

Oh, by the way, a blogger is one who blogs. Not one who uses Blogger in case some of you don't know it yet.

You can also use Wordpress, Typepad, Blogsome and more.

How RTM Can Improve Its Landing Page - And How Others Can Learn From Its Mistakes

2008-04-21T06:05:00.015+08:00

This is a review of the Malaysian government owned broadcasting station RTM. The RTM owns two TV stations and several radio channels, everyone broadcasting almost 24 hours a day. These are some areas its website's landing page can be improved upon.

1) Do Not Run Live Video ON Your Landing Page.

It may appear hip and enviously modern, but running videos straightaway on your landing page is never good just yet simply because of loadability - not all browsers are capable of playing it at once. I have seen this at work with disastrous results. One of the most annoying things is to have the browser asking you to download a software plugin so that you could view the movie. No one likes to install anything on their PCs. Asking them to do so is a turn-off, unless of course you have something really, really special for viewers. Use thumbnails instead. If viewers are interested, they can click to view. If not, they go on to something else - and at least they will stay longer on your site and not just click out.
Tip: Go visit YouTube. Learn how they display video.

2) Don't Use Silly Javascripts

Some picture-intensive websites just love to mark their territories and show how smart their webmasters are by embedding annoying little pop-up message boxes that tell you not to download their pictures because they were copyrighted materials. (In the past, they used to do this through watermarks and they still do.) Now, they disable your RIGHT CLICK. Websites are better off without these. If anyone wants to download your picture, there are at least five ways to do this, regardless you like it or not. So, try not to insult the user's intelligence by javascripting your site with the Do-Not-Copy-Anything-From-My-Site-Or-Else. You are broadcasting to the world now, remember that.
Tip: Savvy users use Print Screen to copy pictures from websites whether you like it or not. Aside from that, Mozilla also allows its Firefox to copy images. If you don't believe me, launch Firefox and see for yourself. And of course, you can use other powerful graphic softwares like Photoshop, if you wish.

3) Mind Your Language

If you have a bi-lingual site, make sure you truly assign the designated section to that language. If you are speaking Bahasa Malaysia, then all links and text should point to and be in Bahasa Malaysia. (And if it is the England, then it should be in the Inggeris-lah.) If not, it really doesn't mean much to say this is for Bahasa Malaysia and there is the link for the English Version.
Tip: You are broadcasting to the world. If it is English, then use all in English so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.

4)Try Not To Use Thumbnails For List Items

Bullet lists such as [ol] and [ul] are the best for listing items for obvious reasons. But no one can stop you from using thumbnails if you wish to beef up your site's graphics content. But wherever possible, try not to repeat any thumbnails that appear too big (above 10px by 10px) otherwise you run the risk of having clutter on your landing page. Missing thumbnails run havoc with little Xs all over your page and this make you look real bad.
Tip: Stick to bullet lists - they are faster to load, less cluttering and can be seen in all browsers. Besides, thumbnails will end up like misplaced Xs if the viewer decides to disable graphics in his browser. Very, very ugly.

5. Best Viewing Practices

If your site is best viewed using a certain browser or if it has been optimised for Firefox or IE, at a certain screen resolution size, then stating it somewhere on your site is good public relations. You give your reader a choice whether to use a better browser or stick to the current one. At least he will be informed and not think that there are some missing parts on your website or that there is something wrong with your site or his computer.
Tip: You can place this best viewing practice at the bottom or top or anywhere else, but to make it less intrusive, the bottom of the page is fine. If it was my site, I would prefer it to be at the most prominent position possible, ie. above the taskbar. Better still, optimise your site for all browsing platforms so that you don't need to put up this message.

Who says the Newspaper is dying?

2008-04-17T06:13:00.007+08:00

Could you imagine accessing and reading digital newspapers from kiosks like this using coins or smart cards? They can be set up at transport hubs, waiting lounges, and even newsvendors for the public to browse and read news of the day. Initial investment might be high, but the long-term revenue model certainly can be considered.

THE recent vote sway during the Malaysian Elections that caused the ruling coalition to lose many of its seats in Parliament and State Assemblies have been attributed to new media, specifically online news portals, and non traditional media

Several online news portals have been set up days before the election and have gained some success in attracting web traffic.

With declining street sales of newspapers, and adspend moving online, established publishers are looking towards investing in cyberspace to hedge their core businesses. Many are now zooming in on the internet news content, to discover new business models online as print news industry quietly goes into menopause.

But the truth is, the NEWSPAPER IS NOT dying. Print is, and certainly the next decade, but definitely not the newspaper - at least not those that you and I know - as a news casting tool.

If you have not looked beyond the new media hype, please do. Shut out the noise generated by this preconceived ideas that the only way to survive is on the net.

Spend a moment and think about the newspaper as the dissemination tool. It really doesn't matter if the newspaper is in its physical printed form or digitally accessible alternatives which were born several years ago.

Pay attention to the production process - up to just before printing takes place. Yes, the digital version of a physical newspaper produced by desktop publishing softwares that can come in all shapes, sizes and capabilities. Then think Adobe Acrobat viewing. Indeed the newspaper has evolved, in case you have not noticed.

Printing plants may be dying and their ink well may dry up, and demand for physical newspapers could drop over the next five years or even earlier, but not the demand for digital newspapers viewable through all sorts of devices of tomorrow.

I think this term will continue to live in the new media tools that will emerge, if they have not already. Yes, I am talking about viewing devices which can be as small as a PDA screen or as big as a A2 size touchscreen panels at information kiosks you see at supermarkets. Or even bigger ones. These are where the new newspaper will emerge as a born-again member of the new media.

The viewing technology are already and Adobe has one of the biggest yet - known simply as Adobe Digital Editions.

Not only you can use it to read and manage eBooks and other digital publications, it also works online and offline and supports PDF - and XHTML-based, including Adobe Flash (SWF formats) for multimedia interactivity. Best of all, it is downloadable for free. And guess what, it is only one of the many out there that is being developed at feverish speed.

And you still think the newspaper will die?

Site jumped 2 mil in position! Alexa Glitch?

2008-04-17T06:06:00.004+08:00

For the past two weeks, Alexa showed this site to be some 6 millionth position down under.

Surprise, surprise, today it's gone up by 2mil plus to the current traffic rank of: 4.7mil.

What caused the surge? An Alexa glitch or something more interesting that I don't know of?

Scheduled Publishing - Blogger Is Now One Up Against Wordpress

2008-04-16T21:45:00.008+08:00

Blogger is experimenting with Blogger-In-Draft - an upgrade that equips the world famous blogging engine with a pre-publish feature that comes standard with Wordpress. On Blogger, this is known as Scheduled Publishing.

Prior to this, no matter what Post Options you pick, ie. the dates to publish, Blogger just goes ahead and publish your post. Even if you date your post two years from now, Blogger publishes it with glee, making you look like a bloody fool if you go ahead with it.

The lack of a pre-publish feature makes it quite a chore if you want a regular publishing of posts, especially if you are running a syndicated blog-column or some people call it blog-lum where daily posts are required. You simply have to log in daily and publish the posts you have saved in draft. Some trouble, isn't it? And if you can't log in, your posts' continuity is dead.

Now, with this scheduled publishing system, Blogger has gone up one notch against Wordpress. It should now be the perfect blogging tool for bloggers, as it even allows much, much more flexibility than Wordpress where 'free hosting' is concerned. You can get a hosted name and point it to Blogger and your blog posts will happily reside in Blogger servers for free. Not with Wordpress, you can't.

Apart from that, Blogger allows you a certain degree of tweaking of the templates under its free hosting. Not Wordpress. You can design all you want but Wordpress doesn't allow you entry into their servers unless your hosting is paid to any of the Wordpress hosts.

Now what I would be interested in is for Blogger to come up with tweakable posts, ie. you can have various posts on any category, designed to be static or dynamic. You know, those elements that you can arrange on a template, anywhere you like. In short, turn Blogger into a content management system that Wordpress has already become. Now, if that happens, it would be awesome!

eBay Malaysia, Would You Please Buck Up?

2008-04-16T08:26:00.005+08:00

The more I discover about eBay Malaysia, the more I am wondering who is behind the marketing intelligence team that powers the world's most popular brand name in internet shopping. I don't mean the one on eBay.com but rather the regional version, specifically Malaysia.

I just discover this splendid error which made it look pretty foolish for an international giant who is trying to penetrate a local market but forgot to do its homework.

Look at the picture below.

Where is Federal Territory? Anyone living in Kuala Lumpur knows it is impossible not to know that Federal Territory should be on this drop down list.

It is a drop down window for region of the applicant's origin. Kuala Lumpur has been left our - or specifically, Federal Territory, within which Kuala Lumpur is in. How can this oversight be left standing in the sign-up? Will anyone notice?

Certainly I wouldn't want to turn this blog into an eBay FAQ. Nah, wouldn't want to waste my time spotting errors on their site. Unless I am paid and which I am not.

So, eBay Malaysia or eBay.com.my, please buck up a bit? You have spent so much on your site upgrading recently. Surely you cannot afford to miss these fine details.

Free Offer That Paid Dividends To Alternative News Portal - Malaysiakini

2008-04-14T19:17:00.009+08:00

One week before the Malaysian general elections on March 8, online alternative news portal Malaysiakini.com offered free access to its content. Prior to that, it was on subscription basis, RM15 per month. There are also various levels of subscription, including a package deal with Wall Street Journal subscription thrown in as well.

Free reading is limited to a paragraph of breaking stories and some sections such as opinion but not editorial. It is the only subscription model that seemed to have survived the times since its inception on November 20th, 1999.

The decision to offer free reading during the election period seemed to have paid off although the website paid a price for this generosity when its servers crashed from the sheer weight of its users on the night when the election results were out.

Today, having gone back to its original subscription mode, it has not only retained its pole position in cyberspace where online alternative news is concerned, it has also drawn new readership as apparent from the following charts reproduced from Alexa.com.

Current Rank - Jumped Triple

Pageviews - Improved Six Times

Reach - Improved Five Fold

From the above, one can safely conclude that Malaysiakini's free offer was a smart marketing strategy. Although other Malaysian news sites saw improvement in traffic, it is now able to tap into its newly converted subscriber base since it charges subscription and other sites are not.

The question now is:

Will people who wish to read about Malaysian political news on the web want to pay similarly? And will more online news portals sprout to tap the market share of subscribers that Malaysiakini has?

eBay Malaysia Had Better Be Serious About E-Commerce!

2008-04-11T21:04:00.005+08:00

Ebay Malaysia had better be serious about ecommerce.

I attended an Ebay Malaysia luncheon recently and was pleasantly acquainted with Dan Neary and gang. I was pretty much impressed by the menu, but I was even more attracted to the preview on eBay that followed.

Although I had an eBay account, I never thought I would want to do any transaction, simply because I didn't really trust it. I joined back then because it appeared then that it might be useful. Somehow, I didn't do any selling or buying simply because there were other alternatives, those that I considered pretty secure.

But that short lunch talk bought me over and I decided to take the plunge several weeks later. Boy, was I in for a rude shock - trying to register was hell since eBay Malaysia kept saying a legitimate credit card was wrong!

To make matters worse, the so-called Live Help was no help at all. Despite stating that it would be available from 8:30 to 4:30 Mon-Fri, no help was forthcoming and I found myself waiting silly for one to come - on a Friday several times between the stipulated times.

As I checked further, I realised that the PayPal registration link returned a 404 .

How can eBay make it so tough just to sign up to trade? I understand not everyone faced this problem; I could just be unlucky.

But isn't there a system audit to ensure all links are working and all services up to notch? How can Live Help be of no help at all and dead links still alive on an ecommerce sign-up page?

Perhaps the public relations department people (or do you call them community relations now?) can do something after reading this.

A persistently failing system is definitely bad public relations and dirties the corporate image. Where ecommerce is concerned, it is really really bad for business!