Zite Integrates into Flipboard and I discover a Dude Who Spent 18 Hours in a Starbucks

I love Zite because it learns to show me the news that I like to read. I also like Flipboard because it's presents news in a nice layout. I had wondered when will Flioboard do the inevitable after it acquired Zite - 2 become 1. Well, I'm sorry to say I found out about it only today because I've not used Zite for a long time. I could hardly finish my Feedly "Must Read" news!

I might have been too lazy to post this but the newly formed Flipboard-Zite relationship actually thought I would like to know a Huffington Post dude's experience when he decided to spend his 18 hours in a Starbucks, from open till close. Well, Flipboard-Zite was right. I did read the whole thing and now you could, too, if you decide to click here.

Shaun the Sheep's Shirley

Thought this cute little bubbly toy would be great for The Mini so we got it through McDonald's Happy Meal. I certainly didn't expect it would pique (and this, too, caused me to do a Google search... peak, peek, pique) my curiosity to do an online search for Shaun the Sheep. From Wikipedia:

Shirley is the largest member of the flock. A gentle giant, she is usually seen placidly eating, though she's intimidating enough to have defended Shaun from Pidsley the cat. She's so big that large objects routinely disappear into (or are deliberately hidden in) her fleece, and she quite often gets stuck herself, needing the other sheep to push, pull or even sling-shot her out of trouble. However, her size can also come in very handy when what's needed is a battering ram or similarly immovable object.

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Mar 7, 2015 at 4:00am PST

Dial-Up Lives On

#169270422 / gettyimages.com

Dial-up internet access still has a lifeline. AOL still has 2.3 million users. I wonder how's the situation here in Malaysia.

via Technology Tell.

GIF of a Vine of a video of a flipbook of a GIF of a roller coaster

I suppose the title is as complicated as the whole process of making this GIF of a Vine of a video of a flipbook of a GIF of a roller coaster.

via Colossal.

The Vertical Web

I used to think that I would be surfing the web or doing stuff with the phone in the horizontal (or if you will have it, landscape) orientation. However, once I got my very first smartphone, I had been using it vertically almost 99% of the time.

I seldom use my iPad horizontally either (for web surfing) so I was amused that I've never given much thought to this behaviour until I came across the Mashable article just now. I'm not surprised that the web is getting better in the vertical format because tablets and smartphones are taking over from desktops and laptops. Besides, monitors are getting larger and higher resolution at pretty affordable prices these days.

I don't think I'll be changing the orientation of my desktop monitor (not that I have much of a desktop considering the USB ports no longer work and its CPU is a very slow single core Pentium 4) to portrait anytime soon but who knows? How do you read your stuff on your smartphone or tablet? Will you be turning your LCD monitors by 90 degrees?

via Mashable.

Tech Rivalries Through Advertising

Gee wiz! Microsoft vs Google, PS4 vs Xbox One, Samsung vs Apple, Microsoft vs Apple, Nokia vs Apple, Amazon vs Apple, and even Jaguar vs Mercedes. Interesting rivalries through ads rather than courtroom drama compiled by Hongkiat.com. I really laughed out loud watching these guys going at each other.

Frozen Fractals

A great photo that I saw while reading Flickr's latest blog post about new embedding that I must share before going to bed:

Disorders Caused by... the Internet

It's only a matter of time before someone (in this case that someone is somebody in TechHive) does a compilation of all the common disorders caused by the Internet and I'm proud to tell you that I'm only suffering from less than half of these:

1. You keep thinking that your phone is ringing (or vibrating) in your pocket. - urgh! I'm a patient.
2. Nomophobia (derived from "no mobile phobia") where you panic whenever you don't have  your phone with you. - Guilty as charged!
3. Dizziness or nausea when online.
4. Social depression caused by envy because your online friends only talk about their happier and cool lives.
5. Constant urge to access the Internet. - I admit this!
6. Online gaming addiction.
7. Paranoid that you may be suffering from the diseases you read online.
8. Lazy to utilise the brain because everything is at the tip of your fingertips... errr or rather Google.

Wait till someone talk about what the smartphone is doing to us... we are doomed as we know it!

Tech Slangs Updated to Online Oxford Dictionary

The online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary updated its vocabulary list including some words that've been widely used to describe the current technology world and some of the fun words are:

• Digital detox (noun – informal) - A period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world.
• Emoji (noun – plural same or emojis) - A small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication
• Geek chic (noun informal) - The dress, appearance, and culture associated with computing and technology enthusiasts, regarded as stylish or fashionable.
• Hackerspace (noun) - A place in which people with an interest in computing or technology can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge.
• Internet of things (noun) - A proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.
• Phablet (noun) - A smartphone having a screen which is intermediate in size between that of a typical smartphone and a tablet computer.
• Selfie (noun – plural selfies – informal) - A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

 via TechnologyTell.

Will our Malaysian government find reasons to start Internet censorship?

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek on the state of our Internet freedom:

I see the misuse of the liberty given to users as reaching a critical level. It is about time we act firmly and sternly to restrain it.

I’m sure the press could’ve misquoted him as it was always the case because I’m sure our government will not back out on their word to provide censorship free Internet.

via The Malaysian Insider.

GIF Creator Honoured

For the first time today I found out who created GIF: Steve Wilhite.

Working at CompuServe in 1987, Wilhite used his knowledge of compression technologies to create the GIF format that allowed for color graphics to be used efficiently in the days of dial-up Internet access. 

He was just honoured a lifetime achievement award at the Webby Awards.

via DPReview.

Petition to SAVE Google Reader!

Lets see if this petition can change Google's mind and safe Google Reader (go here if you are not sure what's happening)! As of this posting, there are over 120,000 signatures.

via Android Community.

Google Reader - The End Is Near

I was caught by surprise when I read that Google will discontinue Google Reader, the most used Google product EVER... for me, at least. I was in a state of shock and at a lost. My one and only source of news collection will be no more come 1 July 2013. I guess I shouldn't be because I've read somewhere before that RSS is at a decline but still...? HORRORS!

I've been using Flipboard and Feedly on my iOS devices to grab my Google Reader feeds and thankfully, Feedly will be offering a seamless transition as Google Reader sets into the horizon on the first day of the second half of 2013. Feedly has a Google Reader API clone called Normandy that will do all the work in the background. Alternatively, Google offers a way to get all of its Reader's data via Google Takeout.

Whichever way, RIP Google Reader for being there for so many years. :'(

picplz 1 Lightbox 0 - Photo uploads from desktop

I know picplz and Lightbox are both mobile photo sharing apps where their primary task is to share photos taken by mobile phones but I like to upload photos taken with my digital camera, too. I would prefer to upload to flickr but I'm stuck with the 200 photo limit because I'm just too stingy to go for the pro account. Then there's Picasa but that one's got a 1GB limit... or something like that and yup, too stingy to pay for more space.

picplz and Lightbox are the only ones at this moment where I can upload photos and hot link to this blog (because if I upload photos to this blog directly, it also eats into the 1GB limit that it shares with Picasa) with no visible space limitation.

Oh yeah, previously I also upload to twitpic but then there was some controversial stuff there so I stopped that. Then there was yfrog but both twitpic and yfrog don't got no filters to play with. :P

Now comes to the point of this post - I can't find any options in Lightbox for me to upload photos from my desktop. I can only upload through the Android app. picplz allows me to upload through its desktop web page so it wins this round over Lightbox. picplz 1, Lightbox 0.

Here's my latest upload to picplz (enhanced with my favourite Russian Toy Camera filter), mistakenly taken with my non-mobile phone camera:

Where to Submit Gmail Suggestions

I've been using Gmail for years now. Previously, I've got various e-mail but now, I'm using Gmail to gather all my other mails using POP. Unfortunately, Yahoo! Mail does not provide such a service. The last time I checked, Hotmail or Live Mail does not have that, too. Not sure about now.

Recently, I tried clearing my mailbox and was trying to sort the mails by size but I couldn't find the filter to do that. Went searching briefly online. There doesn't seem to be such an option in Gmail at the moment. I tried to send in my suggestion for that this morning but I couldn't find the link to do that either. *SHY!*

Now I found it and would like to share it with everyone that comes by. You can submit suggestions at this link: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py

There are already a list of common suggestions where you can just click on the "Suggest it" button. Sorting by size is one of them. There's also an option to suggest other things, too, under "I have another idea" right at the bottom.

What's New in Firefox 3.5

Update 30 June 2009: Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is now available for download at its main page here.

Some interesting features coming our way in Firefox 3.5:

Some of the new features are speed - at least twice as fast as Firefox 3.0 (hope it does Google Reader as good as Google Chrome!), more advanced private browsing (Internet Explorer 8 has something like this) and history control, open recently closed windows (Google Chrome has something like this) and some cool Open Video thing that I've no idea about.

via Mozilla Links.

MMS Working

Ah! At last I've got MMS working on my (ahem!) newly acquired phone. I've tried calling Maxis a couple of times and they've sent me settings that supposedly auto install into the phone but it did not work. I was also taught to try *100# but that did not get me any settings either. What to do? Went to Google and typed "maxis mms settings" and was brought to some Maxis & Me phone settings website.

After going through some keying in of my mobile number so that Maxis could send me an SMS with a verification code which I then typed on the website, I got the message that there were no settings for my phone. After that, a manual setting page popped out. Keyed in the MMS settings manually and tested it out with my buds. Phew. It worked! But I did find out that my phone can't play *.3gp files nor can it save that kind of files when my bud sent it over via MMS. Might as well since it can't record videos. :(

More Streamyx Slowness

Just reached home last night and tried out the internet. Just as what my friends said, it's slow. I did not even get connected for half an hour but I think that was another problem. The Streamyx slowness is this (via Star Online):

Streamyx broadband users will have to bear with sluggish surfing speeds until March 5 due to technical problems, according to a statement by Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM).

The statement said there has been a disruption of TM’s Internet services since Feb 18 due to circuit faults on the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) between Malaysia and the United States.

Due to this, customers using Internet services may now experience slow browsing while accessing content hosted in the United States, said the statement.

Additionally, customers using Internet Protocol services such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other critical business applications linked to the United States may also experience some service degradation.

To alleviate the problem and ease the congestion, some links have been rerouted, TM said.

Previously about Streamyx here.

Simple English Wikipedia

I get very lazy to search words in dictionaries even though I don't understand them. Well, if I am online, I might just go define: word in the Google search bar but if I am reading a physical article (no, not ebooks), I normally don't bother. To my delight, Wikipedia's got a version written in simple English! The main page even says it! "The Simple English Wikipedia is for everyone! That includes children and adults who are learning English." :D

The guidelines when contributing to this simple English version:

• Use easy words and shorter sentences. This lets people who know little English read them.
• Write good pages. The best encyclopedia pages have useful, well written information.
• Use the pages to learn and teach. These pages can help people learn English. You can also use them to make a new Wikipedia to help other people.
• Simple doesn't mean little. Writing in Simple English means that simple words are used. It does not mean readers want simple information. Articles don't have to be short to be simple; expand articles, include a lot of information, but use basic vocabulary.
• Be bold! Your article does not have to be perfect, because other editors will fix it and make it better. And most importantly, don't be afraid to start and make articles better yourself.

And guess what? I got to know about it from xkcd. ;)

Blardy Spammer

Another day, another bunch of spam. I think I've received millions of spam mails already and today I am in the mood of putting one here for all to view. Being spam aside, this mail sure needs a lot of formatting!

Business Proposition‏
From: Mr Song Lile (galeriatambemgalicia@iol.pt)
Medium riskYou may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as unsafe
Sent: Tuesday, 27 Jan, 2009 1: 53 PM
To:

--
Good Day, Greetings of the day to you,although you may be
skepticalreceivingthis email as we have not met before, I am Mr. SONG
LI(Executive Director andChief Financial Officer) of the Hang
SengBankLtd.,nevertheless I have abusiness proposition involving the sum
of$19,500,000.00usd in my bank which Iknow we will be of mutual benefit toboth
of us, and I believe we can handletogether,once we have a commonunderstanding
and mutual cooperation in theexecution of themodalities..Should you be
interested, please forward thefollowing to me:1.Full
names,2.Occupation,3.Private phone number,4.Currentresidential address. Via
this emailaddress:{mrsonglbk24@yahoo.com.hk} Yourearliest response to
this mail
willbe highly appreciated. Mr Song Lile

________________________________________________________________________________
Crédito até €15.000 com prestações decrescentes.
Conheça o Crédito Pessoal Capital Mais e peça uma proposta on-line.
Saiba mais em: http://www.iol.pt/correio/rodape.php?dst=0901052