What is RSS?

How do you normally check for updates from your favorite websites and blogs? In other words, how do you know if I have posted a new post on my blog?

Well, the answer is simple. You will have to visit the sites using your browser and check them one by one. You’ll perhaps spend a few minutes looking for new updates and move on to the next website. So, just image how much time you need to spend if you have to visit 10 websites a few times a day just to find if they have updated.

More websites emerge every day. So is there an easier way to keep “in touch” with the latest updates from these websites? The answer is RSS!

RSS icons

So what is RSS?

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. RSS is a simple technology designed to distribute content from websites, and deliver these “feeds” directly to your reader which is usually referred as RSS Reader.

How does RSS work?

Let’s take a simple example of the way your email work. When someone sends you an email, it will be delivered to your inbox. In order to read your emails, you simply need to open your inbox. Simple! 🙂

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Telekom, Streamyx promotion, and a new telephone

I know this is gonna be lame, but I thought it’s still much more interesting compared to showing me how you eat durian or showing me how you dig your nose! Hahaha…

I haven’t been to a Telekom office for years. Nobody wants to do so because we all know how torturing it’s to find a parking these days and there after the waiting for your number to be called. But today I was forced to go for a new line for my office. Bear with me for my lame story, I will see if there’s nice chicks to show you or not.

Telekom

I was totally surprised to see that there weren’t too many people today! Thank God, my number was 3 in the line… must be pretty quick this time! While waiting I had a great time check out the place… looks like they had renovated the USJ branch (Last I was here was probably a year ago).

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Make money from Google Knol

What’s hot on the Internet since the past few days is that Google is preparing to launch a new service call Knol, a free tool to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. For now, the tool is still in development and is still in the first phase of testing.

Knol

What’s interesting is that the idea is perhaps not new, as they are very similar to what Wikipedia and Squidoo are offering. The general Internet users will get a chance to contribute to the articles on Knol if you are knowledgeable on the subject. Some speculate that this will be the end of Wikipedia when Know is fully launched in full force. Just like now where first page search is full of Google’s properties such as YouTube, Google Images, and other Google products. Google can definitely put more weight on Knol and have Knol pages appear higher in search results compared to Wikipedia. By then Wikipedia’s traffic will suffer and users interest might just switch to Knol.

A point worth mentioning is Knol will allow revenue sharing through AdSense ads placed within the contributed articles. I believe this itself will be the most attractive feature to get lots of contributed articles from everyone of us. Indeed, yet another channel for us to make money online! Soon.

Read more detailed analysis on Techcrunch: Google Knol: A Step Too Far? and Mashable: Google Introduces the Knol.

Playing games on iPhone

Since my colleague got himself an iPhone, I have been eying for this gadget for a long time. That celaka colleague of mine always shows off his iPhone in front of me. He shows me how he could use the phone to hack into some open WIFI networks and get online, how cool it’s playing games on the phone, how he browses the Internet with the Safari browser, how cool is the touch screen, and more…

Anyway, for the sake of sharing iPhone information with my readers, I took the opportunity and took a few pictures of the Labyrinth Game while he’s playing it just now.

iPhone game

The game’s interface may look pretty simple and straight forward, like a board game for a 3-year-old, but it’s absolutely fun and enjoyable to play! The game play uses gravity – just move the iPhone and the ball follows gravity. Your goal is to direct and guide the ball through the maze to the destination. But beware, avoid and don’t drop into the pit holes along the way!

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New Google AdSense styles

I was updating my blog when I noticed a new type of AdSense ad appearing here on Kongtechnology.com. It has two small up and down buttons. I was so tempted to test it but not sure it will cause any unnecessary problem or not so I didn’t do it in the end. Instead I tried it on another site and sure enough when clicked they will scroll the ads. AJAX style.

Check out the following screen shot.

New AdSense

In fact before this I saw another slightly different style where the arrows are in triangle shape and no background color. But blame it on my itchy hand. I refreshed the page and it was gone. Couldn’t take a screen shot and show you.

WP Themes Plugin reported that there’s another variant which scrolls sideways.

Looks like AdSense is testing this new style on a number of blogs and websites. But the most important question is will this be effective in increasing CTR? And impressions? Also, will Google let us select this as an option in AdSense setup?

P1 wireless broadband, it’s damn slow!

Yoyoyo, today is a public holiday, instead of resting at home or go patoh, I decided to test out the new kid in wireless broadband in Malaysia. It’s none other than P1 Broadband which I have signed up at the recent PC Fair in KLCC. Take about fast service, I received their password the next day. All good.

I am now at one of the dedicated hot zones in Bandar Puteri, Puchong for this purpose; Simply Penang. The other two dedicated hot zones are Hai Siang Kopitiam and Min Xian Restaurant. Check out the coverage map in Bandar Puteri below.

Wireless map

Simply Penang has a few power sockets which you can use for your laptop. The first socket I tried didn’t work out as the socket was I little loose. Luckily the friendly waitress… who by the way is pretty and quite a looker, helped me with another socket. For my whole 1 hour plus here, I totally enjoyed looking at her. Wahahaha…

Simply Penang

I ordered myself a glass of ice blended chocolate… looks nice, tastes even better. Cool and refreshing. Ready to give the much hyped P1 a spin!

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All the big broadband providers in Malaysia

UPDATE 8 April 2009
Check out the all new P1 WiMAX USB Modem. It’s so small and sexy you will want to bring it with you all the time… and flash it when you see some hot chicks around.

P1WiMAX

Click here to read more.

Looks like many of you are interested to know what are the big broadband providers in Malaysia, or at least those who are happening and actively promoting their broadband services. Easy, they were in the recent PC Fair. I have not only seen them, I have took a few pictures too. Check these pictures out.

Streamyx broadband

Streamyx. Although Streamyx is still the market leader in Malaysia, at least in terms of number of subscribers, but they are still very active in promoting their services. Remember the “Merdeka RM77” promotion? I think they are scared the other players are catching up.

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PIKOM PC Fair 2007 KLCC

I have just got back from the year end edition of PIKOM PC Fair 2007. Held at the KL Convention Center, next to KLCC. The venue is good as it’s big and new, definitely much better than the old PWTC. But the traffic was damn heavy this afternoon, for a moment I thought some street demonstration was ahead of me! Freak me out as I was wearing orange today! Totally forgot that orange is a sensitive color these days!

Anyway, after some bumper to bumper delay on the road, I finally reached PC Fair in one piece.

Christmas girls

The crowd was hugh as expected. People from all walks of life from around the country flocked to this most talked about IT fair of the year. I pushed my way through the crowd, … and was happily greeted by the above Christmas girls from Ricoh. Haha… not bad, very Christmas feel. Red and with the Santa hat! Looks like a good PC Fair start. 🙂

Twinhead

A few big players such as Twinhead, Ricoh, Samsung, Epson and Olympus were in the first hall. The Ricoh girls were … ah, but wait till you see the Epson girl.

Epson

There, a very friendly and helpful girl from Epson. She was obviously bored standing there for the whole day distributing brochures. When I asked her for a photo, she agreed almost instantaneously and gave her best and sweetest smile for my camera. She was like the girl from next door, little or no makeup at all, young and innocent look. I was delighted. 🙂

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Check out SmarterMail Professional RSS reader

I do not usually use webmail to read and manage my emails. I prefer using Microsoft Outlook, all my various email accounts from the various providers are all configured in my Outlook… this includes those from Gmail, Yahoo and my own hosted domains. Remember, Gmail has recently opened its IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) feature? This allows you to use Outlook or any email client on multiple computer… I guess. 🙂

Anyway, today I was a little itchy and tried poking around the webmail system that comes with my web hosting account. We are using SmarterMail Professional. All the features are pretty basic… but what interests me is the RSS Feed reader function.

SmarterMail
Click on the above image for a bigger view.

Looks like these days RSS Feed reader is so popular it can be found anywhere, even in a webmail system.

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Can’t login to your own WordPress?

There is nothing worse than cannot login to your own WordPress blog… By login I mean logging into the wp-admin control panel where you can manage your posts. You have so many interesting articles you want to post, but all of a sudden your own blog denies your entry! How can, you are the Admin, the boss of the blog, remember??? As much frustrated as it can be, that’s exactly what happened to me today!

The error message was:

Error 403

We’re sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /wp-login.php on this server.

Your Internet Protocol address is listed on a blacklist of addresses involved in malicious or illegal activity. See the listing below for more details on specific blacklists and removal procedures.

Your technical support key is: 3c31-b82c-1288-62ac

You can use this key to fix this problem yourself.

After Googling it only I know the culprit was Bad Behavior – a very popular WordPress plugin which prevents spambots from accessing your blog by analyzing their actual HTTP requests and comparing them to profiles from known spambots.

As detailed in the Bad Behavior site, since the past two days many users have found themselves blocked from their own blogs while using recent versions of Bad Behavior. A third party blacklist which the plugin queries recently began sending false positives for any IP address queried. To fix this problem, you will need to download the latest Bad Behavior 2.0.11.

That has fixed my problem and headache, and should fix yours too. No need panadol when we come to blogging. 🙂