andrew's blog of amusing stuff » Others

Secret Santa

andrew — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:51:18 +0000

It’s Xmas season again! I am always looking forward to Xmas, as there’ll be a departmental Christmas Dinner organised by the colleagues working in the same department as mine. We tend to make this very formal and yet fun. Everyone will have to wear their evening wears (that is black tie for men and dresses for the ladies). We also have this tradition of having the Secret Santa activity during the dinner, whereby everyone of us will have to get a gift (with upper and lower limit on the price).

During the Christmas dinner itself, we will gather all the Secret Santa gifts from everyone and put numbers to it. We then select a number from a pot blindly and the number we get will determine which gift we will receive!

There are other ways to play the Secret Santa activity too! One possibility is to pre-assign a work colleague to everyone secretly, and you will have to select and buy a gift to this person without telling him/her who bought it. This is a better idea as we can buy a gift that suits the person’s personality, though it will make it less fun. I still prefer the random Secret Santa gifts option.

Do you have a Secret Santa gifts exchange event every Christmas at your workplace? Share your stories with us.

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Visiting the UK?

Web Hosting

andrew — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 23:24:38 +0000

With a huge number of web hosting companies out there, choosing a good one can be a daunting task. Therefore, it is always good to read reviews and see what others think about their web host. By choosing the most popular one, we know that our time and money invested in our website will not be ruined by a bad web hosting company.

Perhaps a good place to start is by going checking a web hosting review website. Read up on their customer reviews and do a side-by-side comparison of the price and what’s being offered by each company. Pay only for what you need; it’s always easy to be tempted by all the extra features that you might not even need (but will have to pay an extra amount to get them)!

Good luck hunting for a web host!

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My Life As A Hot Woman

andrew — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:47:35 +0000

You know, not everybody has the chance to be a hot woman. But with the advancement of technology these days, anything is possible right?

So, from an ugly male –> hot female is not impossible. You know what I mean?

I’ve decided to go for a sex-change operation. I know it will cost a lot of money but I think it’s worth it. A lot of procedures to go through at the moment, such as changing my passport, getting a medical checkup and all that.

What do you think? If you believe everything I’ve written just now, well done. You’re officially my best friend. =)

I came across this story on digg.com, about a man’s experience of being a hot woman. Don’t be put off by the photograph on the front page, but read through the story – it’s pretty interesting! Don’t be put off by the 9-pages, either. Not easy being a hot woman, eh? With great beauty, comes great responsibilities.

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Happy Chinese New Year 2007!

andrew — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:11:20 +0000

Happy Chinese New Year to all! This is my 3rd Chinese New Year away from Malaysia, so yeah…another year without red packets for me. The celebration here in the UK is obviously much less than in Malaysia (and the saddest thing is, there is no public holiday!). Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the celebration and have a great year ahead!

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World Record for the Longest Kebab

Can you balance two person with your head?

andrew — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:00:19 +0000

Well, a weird question you may wonder, but there’s one person in the UK who can actually do that. In fact, he can even balance a whole damn car with his head! Don’t believe me? Check out the photos below:

His name is John Evans and his achievements were listed in Guinness Book of World Records. Check out his website here: http://www.headbalancer.com/

Remember, don’t try this at home.

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An amazing story of a remarkable father

andrew — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:32:01 +0000

BOSTON (CNN) — When Rick Hoyt was 15, he communicated something to his father that changed both their lives. “Dad,” the mute quadriplegic wrote in his computer after his father pushed him in a wheelchair in a five-kilometer race, “I felt like I wasn’t handicapped.”

Rick, now 37, has had cerebral palsy since birth. But he has always been treated simply as one of the family, included by his now-divorced parents in almost everything brothers Rob and Russell did.

Source: CNN

When I first read the story, I still managed to hold back my emotions. But after watching the video, I couldn’t hold back anymore. It’s very touching. It’s remarkable what love can do to a person. Watch the video and you’ll understand…

For those who don’t know what cerebral palsy is:

Cerebral palsy is a non-progressive disorder, but secondary orthopaedic deformities are common, such as hip dislocation and scoliosis of the spine. There is no known cure for CP: medical intervention is limited to the treatment and prevention of complications possible from CP’s consequences. Overall, cerebral palsy ranks among the most monetarily costly congenital conditions in the world to manage effectively.

– Wikipedia

TeamHoyt - Their website
A Moving Story of one Incredible Father – Another video link

Hope this story inspire you in some way.

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Extension Problems with Firefox 1.5.0.6

andrew — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 06:54:29 +0000

Seems like I’m having some extensions problems as soon as I upgraded my Firefox to the latest version, 1.5.0.6. Adsense Notifier and GMail Manager doesn’t seem to work. Did some Google search but no one else had the same problems.

Anyone had any problems with theirs as well? Any solutions?

Cheap Domain Names from GoDaddy

andrew — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:41:59 +0000

How to get cheap domain names from GoDaddy.com?

$6.73 per domain

Method 1:
1.Purchase a Domain Name Appraisal (At the main page, go to Catalog and then look for it)
2.Add a Domain
3. Use a 10% off code (save10)
Screenshot:

Method 2:
1.Purchase a Online File Folder Economy (At the main page, go to Catalog and then look for it)
2.Add a Domain
3. Use a 10% off code (save10)
Screenshot:

How much bandwidth/space do you really use?

andrew — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:01:48 +0000

I find it quite strange when so many people are willing to pay so much for a huge disk space and bandwidth for their web hosting. To be honest, how likely are you to hit 1GB of disk space usage and 5GB of bandwidth per month if you only have a blog with a decent amount of traffic?

To give you a rough idea, let’s take a look at BLORC, the free blog hosting project started by boringest and me to complement our paid hosting project, BlogAsian.com. We are currently hosting 30 blogs (and counting) under BLORC since its launch in January 2006 and here’s the breakdown of our average monthly usage:

Disk space used: ~700MB
Bandwidth usage/month: ~4GB

So tell me, how likely it is for your blog to exceed the usage of 30 blogs? Bear in mind, we do host popular blogs like techgurls and seonoob, which has PR4 and PR5 respectively. Don’t fall to web hosts tactics, don’t pay for what you don’t use. That is why BlogAsian.com never does overselling and our basic plan starts at only US$15/year (400MB diskspace and 8GB bandwidth/month), and you can always add-on more space/bandwidth if you need to.

Note: This is to answer questions directed to us about the reason why we are offering low diskpace and bandwidth at a low price. I hope you guys understand now.

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Advertise Here

BlogAsian.com offers referral incentives

andrew — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:33:00 +0000

Some of you must have heard about my web hosting project with boringest at BlogAsian.com. Now, to celebrate our coming 1st anniversary, we are offering US$5 for each person you refer to us!

Well, some of you may think US$5 is too little, but first take a look at the prices of our hosting plans:

Basic Plan:
* 400MB space
* 8GB bandwidth
* US$15/year

Medium Plan:
* 800MB space
* 16GB bandwidth
* US$25/year

Pro Plan:
* 1600MB space
* 32GB bandwidth
* US$40/year

Our basic plan is actually less than RM60 per year! If you are our Basic Plan customer, you only need to refer 3 customers and you can earn enough to cover your hosting fees.

For more info, just visit our main site at http://blogasian.com. Do contact me if you have any questions.

Blogasian.com features:
* US-based Linux server with 2 Gig-E (~1000Mbps) and 1 OC-12 (~621Mbps) connection.
* Dual Xeon servers with minimum 1GB RAM.
* cPanel website administration system with Fantastico included.
* ClickBe! pre-designed website template solution included.
* 99.7% uptime.
* CGI-bin, MySQL, PHP

My Newly Revamped Site

andrew — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 17:57:35 +0000

Oh my god, I actually spent the whole day customising this site. And with this post published, I managed to maintain my all time low record of 1 post per month since May, LoL!

Well, I’ve been really busy lately… will let you guys know what I’ve been up to, soon. Still have a couple of things to adjust for this theme. What do you guys think?

Also, I kinda lost my sense of writing direction. Not really sure what I’m supposed to do with this blog. At first, I started this blog as my own record of useful information, then it became a blog for sharing information and some amusing stuff that I’ve came across. After that, it became money oriented and then….hiatus. LoL! Maybe, I will go back to my original intention of starting this blog. See how it goes.

Anyway, if there are still people reading this ….do give me a shout on the comment box. Cheers!

2DayBlog World Cup 2006 Competition

andrew — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:31:58 +0000

World Cup is swepping the world with its one month on-going fever. To make it more exciting, 2DayBlog management is organising a 2DayBlog World Cup 2006 competition for everyone. i-Phone Network is the main sponsor for the prizes and competition

And the first prize is IPod Nano. Just answer simple question on their site. Good luck.

Link: http://www.2dayblog.com/blog/2dayblog-world-cup-2006-competition/

Crocodile mauled a chainsaw

andrew — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 23:57:43 +0000

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – A 4.4 metre crocodile mauled a chainsaw a worker was using Friday to clear up debris left by a tropical storm that lashed northern Australia. While the croc and worker were both uninjured, the saw’s woodcutting days are over.

Source: Canada.com

The croc was uninjured?? What kind of chain saw is that? Or perhaps a better question would be, what kind of crocodile is that? Mauled a chainsaw and not only walk away unhurt, but also left the chainsaw badly damaged.

Salute the croc, man!

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Hide Text – Convert text to an image

andrew — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 09:37:59 +0000

You might find this useful, if you don’t want your personal blog entry to be found by Google. Hide Text is a site that lets you convert any text to an image, which you can linked to or download from.

The FAQ from their site:

* How long will my files be stores?
Forever, at least if they’re accessed once per year.
* Are there any limits of how much text can I throw in?
We threw in some some complete books from the gutenberg project, and they work out just fine.
* This is all swell, but how do I know if you guys are not peeping into my stuff?!
We’ve got better things to do, really. We’re just not interested.
* Why did you make this site?
We made it for ourselves and figured it could be useful for everyone.
* Is anything logged here? Are the files really deleted?
Yes, they’re just deleted and nothing is logged here.
* Why am I reading this?
Well if you don’t even know, how could we?

How to get a free IPod Nano [Part 6]

andrew — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 10:50:38 +0000

It’s been about 2 months since I signed up for this free IPod Nano thingy. Please read my previous part of my quest in getting the free IPod Nano here: Part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Here’s the latest update:

- 3 person has turned green, 2 more to go! (need 5 people to turn green – which means approved)

Screen shot of my account.

Here’s a summary from the earlier parts on how to get a free IPod Nano:

1) Sign up at freepay.com (with my referral ID, just wanna be honest with you).
2) You need to sign up with one of their sponsors. But you don’t have to pay anything if you choose ScreenSelect Free 21-day Trial. So choose that! (I did the same). Choose e-Fax free trial if you’re in the US or Canada.
3) Get 5 friends to do the same thing!
4) Cancel the trials before the end of the free period to avoid charges. (I cancelled mine last month and I’m still eligible, so there).

That’s it. As simple as that.

How to create FavIcon from Pictures

andrew — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 14:14:43 +0000

I want to share this website for creating FavIcon from any pictures you like. FavIcon is the picture next to your URL in the address bar of your browser (like the black ‘a’ next to my blog’s url).

Would you like to display your own icon on the browser address bar when visitors view or bookmark your web page?

Now it’s easy to create icons for your web pages with FavIcon from Pics. Simply select a picture, logo or other graphic (of any size/resolution) for the “Source Image” and click “Generate FavIcon.ico”

Enjoy~!

FavIcon From Pics Link

Firefox Referral Program Now Available!

andrew — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:53:21 +0000

Logged in to my Google Account and found out that the Firefox Referral Program is now available internationally! As you can see, I’ve installed the code on the right sidebar —->> ( I hope this arrow is useful in some way :P

When a user you’ve referred to Firefox plus Google Toolbar runs Firefox for the first time, you’ll receive up to $1 in your account, depending on the user’s location.

So you can get up to $1 for each Firefox download from your site. It’s quite an easy money isn’t it? But up to $1 depending on location, so it could be $0.01 for some countries? Damn cheeky…. Anyway, the code is available for those who have Adsense account with Google (just go to Referral in your account). If you don’t have an account, sign up for Google Adsense now (see the link on the right sidebar again?)

More details about the referral program here:

https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=25889

So what are you waiting for? Go download Firefox and enjoy the speed and security! Say no to IE…

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Free Blog Hosting – WordPress included!

andrew — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 14:15:28 +0000

Blorc.com is giving away free web hosting, especially for bloggers. You’ll get the following for free:

-200MB space
-2GB bandwidth
-cPanel & Fantastico
-No ads required on your site at all!
-You can also host your own domain on our site or use our name: xyz.blorc.com
-Use any blogging software you like

The only thing you need to do is to post 200 constructive posts in Blorc forum (http://forum.blorc.com/) and then request for your free hosting, simple isn’t it?

Here’s the specification of the servers, very fast:

-Linux servers located in the US.
-Connection to the servers are from TimeWarner Gig-E (~1000Mbps) and UUNET OC-12 (~621Mbps) and by the end of this year, another from Level 3 Gig-E (~1000Mbps).
-Dual Xeons with 2GB RAM.

Get your free blog hosting now….limited space available.

Link: http://forum.blorc.com/

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Skype Button for WordPress

andrew — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 14:00:35 +0000

For Skype Bloggers, check out this plugin. It will create a “Call Me” button on your WordPress blog.

Why would I want it? Well, (almost) all WordPress users have a Skype account, and some of them want to make easy for their visitors to contact them . You could go to that website, enter your name, choose the design you like, copy the HTML from the tiny textarea, open up some file from your theme folder in a text editor and then paste that HTML into that file. And then do it all over again if you want to select a new button style. Or you could simply download this plugin, enter your Skype ID, choose the design you like, add a single line of code into a template and be done. If you want another style, then just go back to the options, choose it, save and it’s done.

If you still don’t know what Skype is, read more about it here: Link

The many faces of Google Doodle – by kids

andrew — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 22:31:34 +0000

The Doodle 4 Google competition was open to schools located around Google’s new London headquarters in October 2005. Pupils from local schools were invited to send their interpretation of the Google logo, following the theme, celebration, date or celebrity of their choice.

Source: Doodle 4 Google

The drawings by the kids are nice! I really like them. Somehow, the drawings brought back some childhood memories to me. So innocent and so pure. Do take a look at the other drawings here.

Unique Way to Propose…Online?

andrew — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:16:58 +0000

One person did it by proposing on a blog. Next, a proposal via a search engine.

So, if you really want to be unique, and if you’re really a computer ~~geek/nerd/~~ addict, and……if you really want to do it online…..find a different way to be original.

The guy who did it on a blog is a Taiwanese, so his site is all in Chinese language. It’s here. Ah Knight wrote it in his blog about this proposal.

As for the search engine proposal, he did it via “Ask Jeeves”. Blewtooth has the story on his blog.

How do I plan it should go down? Continuing after what I said above, she types in her name into Ask Jeeves. What if she asks me why? I lie and say that her recent CBS News TV coverage of her at the League for Hard of Hearing (her job) is showing up under her name at Ask Jeeves. So she does the search and bam!, up comes that result that asks her to marry me. At that time, while I kneel behind her, I pull out flowers and the diamond ring from the surrounding draws. She turns the swivel chair around and I ask her to marry me. What happens next, that is for the story page, but if I had to guess… The ring is so shiny it temporarily blinds her, and I have to drag her to the local hospital.

Happy proposing!

Everyone can now earn money from their website – Google Adsense Referral Program

andrew — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 22:19:21 +0000

Everyone can now earn money from their website..

Google has just introduced a referral program for their Adsense advertising solution. Since Google earned a huge profit from advertising, this is no surprise…but a good news for web publishers, bloggers, you name it!

It used to be so difficult to apply for Adsense, but now….everyone can apply for one.

Ok, more about the referral program. You can place the banner on your site, and when people sign up from clicking your banner, you’ll get $100. Well, not exactly….you have to wait for that person to earn $100 from their Google Adsense first… before you are eligible for $100 reward. Ah! Good marketing skills, Google!

Adsense publishers, get the referral link from your Adsense Account, under the tab “Referral”.

To the rest of you, feel free to sign up from my banner, ya.

Domain Name price war [Part 2]

andrew — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 14:12:57 +0000

This is an updated version of the price war analysis for domain name purchase which I did a while ago. I’ll also provide useful tips on how to get cheap domain names… So basically, I will only discuss about the price, not the level of service they are providing. Read on!

___________________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Domain
Domain names from Yahoo! only $2.99. You may purchase up to 5 years, making it a total of only $14.95 (around RM 57 or GBP 8). No special method, for a limited period of time only though. Normal price was $4.98 per year.

___________________________________________________________________________________
Aplus.Net Domain
$6.95 for the first year, $7.95 per year thereafter. Only accepts credit card. Live chat support.

___________________________________________________________________________________

GoDaddy.com

The famous domain name registrar. They are having a very cheap promotional period now, as you can see from here: www.GoDaddy.com . However, there is a catch. You need to make a non-domain purchase. But you may get as low as $4.19 for the first year, which is still very cheap compared to their normal $8.95 per year domain. Follow the steps below to get your $4.19 domain name:

1) Go to www.GoDaddy.com .
2) Choose the domain name you wanted (1-year) and proceed to checkout.
3) Insert the code “david” under promotional code.
4) Continue shopping, and choose SMTP relay (go to their main page at www.GoDaddy.com , go to the bottom of the page and choose Catalog, and look for SMTP relaying.
5) Proceed to checkout.
6) After payment, remember to cancel the SMTP relaying under your account!
7) That’s it!

Hope this analysis will help those who are interested in buying domain names.

Free + Reliable Web Hosting Plans?

andrew — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:46:30 +0000

Fancy your very own WordPress blog? Want a reliable + free web hosting?? Let me show you how!

The specifications:

* 20MB space
* 200MB bandwidth
* 1 MySQL database
* cPanel & Fantastico
* FTP
* Support WordPress, Nucleus, b2evolution, etc
* No ads!
* You are allowed to put up your own ads in your website!
* We can host your domain too/you can use our subdomain: username.blorc.com

Get it here—> http://blorc.com/phpBB2

Step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Join the forum here: http://blorc.com/phpBB2
Step 2: Post 5 non-spam forum posts.
Step 3: Request for the hosting plan.
Step 4: FREE webhosting for you!
Step 5: Remain active in the forum….of course you have to.

Easy right?

On the other hand, if you would like to try my US$2 per year hosting plan, visit: http://blogasian.com/. It’s only RM7.60 per year…come on!

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How to get a free IPod Nano [Part 5]

andrew — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 10:26:05 +0000

Please read Part 1, 2, 3 and 4 articles before you continue reading.

Anyway, here’s a summary on the earlier parts on how to get a free IPod Nano:

That’s it. As simple as that.

Anyway, it’s been almost a month since I’ve signed up, and I’ve only got 2 people signed up under me. I need 3 more! So those of you who are staying in the US, UK or Canada….I need some help here. (Remember to choose e-Fax Free Trial instead of ScreenSelect if you’re in the US or Canada).

The latest update on my status: I’ve cancelled my ScreenSelect Free Trial just one day before the end of the 21-day free trial period, and guess what? My status on freepay.com is still green! (which means I’m still eligible for the free IPod even though I’ve cancelled the offer). It has been almost 1 week since I cancelled it. Take a look at this:

Until today, I did not pay a single cent/penny yet. But I’ve enjoyed 2 free DVD rental though.

So if you’re staying in the US, UK or Canada ….sign up now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, ok?

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Test Your Reaction Time

andrew — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 16:10:49 +0000

How fast are your reactions?

Here’s a chance to test it. And at the same time, you get to shoot some sheep. But don’t worry, no real sheep were harmed in this test.

I only managed to get the rank “Bombing Bobcat”. How about you?

Play the game here: Link

The result of war in Iraq

andrew — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 12:02:01 +0000

I came across this site, containing pictures of the result of war in Iraq. They are pretty graphic, so…visit the site at your own risk.

Some people just don’t understand that peace cannot be gained by violence. So, is it much peaceful there in Iraq after the war? To me, it seems like there are more and more suicide bombings.

Why can’t they take Mahatma Gandhi as an example?

Link

100 best products of 2005

andrew — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 16:24:25 +0000

PCWorld has the list. Go take a look.

Hmm..how many things on the list have you got? It’s strange though..to include Google as a product (and it’s not on the top spot, don’t worry). I see it more like a service instead of product.

Go update your shopping list now.

How To Increase your upload/download/ratio in torrent trackers

andrew — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 10:12:47 +0000

I’m sure most of you are bittorrent users. Or maybe, I’m over generalising. Anyway, for bit torrent users, sometimes, you might come across BT sites that require you to sign up on their website, and maintain a good upload/download ratio in order to download stuff from them. However, here’s a trick to bypass that….by making your upload/download ratio very high so that you can easily download anything you want.

Check out the guide here: Link

Try at your own risk.

Reducing spam by icon generator?

andrew — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 08:39:32 +0000

These are the two websites for generating email icons. So instead of publishing superman@hotmail.com or superman@gmail.com, your email address will be displayed on an image (so it’s not clickable and spam robots won’t be able to get your email address).

Here you go:
http://services.nexodyne.com/email/index.php (for Hotmail, Yahoo, GMail, and many more)
http://gizmo967.mgs3.org/Gmail/ (for GMail only)

Well, some people might say that these websites will sell your email to unknown 3rd party….to be honest, I’m not sure (even if they have a privacy policy, but who knows right?). If that’s the case, I guess the safest way to protect your email is to just type it as superman[AT]godzilla[DOT]com if you’re going to publish it on the internet.

andrew's blog of amusing stuff » Others

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