Saturday, January 26, 2008

Googlelization

This is neither a technology review nor a Google promotion. Part of this post is dedicated to how my daily life has been revolving around Google and its applications. Another part is on how I think some of the world's biggest companies should review their way of earning revenue albeit this is just another humble view of mine.

Let's start with gmail.

Gmail & Me

Well, these days, more often than not, I usually start my days checking emails in gmail. It became a habit of mine to check emails in the morning when I arrive at my office. This is a habit of mine that acquired from my previous jobs since I was supposed to check office emails early in the morning. But in my current job,(please don't be surprised) I have no office emails to look forward to. Yes, I have no work email account in my current job. Please do not ask me what on earth I am doing in this job without an email since this is not my main intention of this post.

Let's get back on track. I was saying I start my days with gmail. When I was first introduced to web mail, I started with yahoo mail. I was about 18 years old then. Please do not surprised that it's already 18 years old when I first used a web mail. I came to Singapore from a relatively less tech-savvy nation. It was yahoo when I started using web mail but a few years later, gmail was born with google's cool promise of 1GB storage space. If I remembered correctly, it might be one of the reasons why I switched to gmail from yahoo. Since then I stick to gmail till now. For no apparent reasons, nowadays I prefer to use gmail than any other web mail for personal use. Well this is just about gmail and me.

Well. let's move on to the next application that I am often using.


Gnotebook & Me

I always ask myself, "What's wrong with Google marketing people?". They have names like Gmail & Gtalk. They do invent names like Google Earth & Google Notebook. Why don't they use all uniform names like Gmail, Gtalk, GEarth and GNotebook, etc? Well, of course you would have guessed what I mean by GNoteBook in the title. I am referring to Google Notebook. For simplification purpose and easier reference, I hope you don't mind me using Google Notebook as gnotebook.

Well. With this naming conventions apart, I just want to say that this gnotebook is something very useful for me. Firstly, logging in to Google Notebook is pretty simple. You can just use your Google Account user name and password. This application is all about collecting, organizing and sharing information from the web. It's has got features like sorting by label and date, search through your notes, and shares your notes to others, etc. It's well-documented about its features and capabilities. I will leave that part for you to Google it. What I will be highlighting here is how I personally find this application useful.

I used to have this inconvenience that I forgot to bring my note book(here,I really mean a book which contains pieces of papers, not a laptop)to work and I can't remember what is written in it. Because I am already at work then, I could not possibly go back home to take it back to work.But with gnotebook I no longer have that trouble. It does not matter whether I am @ work or @ at home, my note book is just a few clicks away. Nowadays I would jot down things to this online notebook rather than putting pen to paper.

Moreover, as I blog, I visit other blogs including my friends' blogs. All those blogs contain links to other blogs which in turn have links to other blogs. As I browse all these blogs, links after another, I would jot down some info, urls and links when I come across useful and enjoyable information. You are not expecting me to just subscribe those nice blogs or bookmark them straight away , are you? After some time, I would revisit them from the information I jotted down in my gnotebook. Yes after some visits, I would eventually subscribe to a particular blog and the information that is in the gnotebook will become less useful. Well this is all about notes, right? The notes will eventually be erased after it has served the purpose, right?

In addition to that, I keep all my friends' email list in this. When I want to send an email to multiple recipients, I would just copy them from the notes to gmail.

These are just a few usable examples about gnotebook. I am using this application for some other purposes too. Although it's a simple application from Google, I am quite happy that I am using it. Let's end our topic about gnotebook and me here. We will move on to another topic.


Blogger & Me


I have been spending some of my free time trying to modify the design of my blog's template & preparing topics to post to my blog. Although those tasks are rather time-consuming, I enjoy doing them. Blogger nowadays is user-friendly in many ways that it allows label categorization; it auto-saves the draft post periodically; it allows you to purchase a custom domain right from their site; users can extend the template and so on. If you have a Google Account, you can easily login to blogger using the same account just like any other Google services.

If you are a blogger(not a service from Google, a person who blogs), you can hardly resist not using Google Analytics for which somehow helps you to track the behaviour of visitors. You also might have to deal with another Google service called Google Pages if your blog is not running on your own host. As for me, I would upload animated gif files, video files and some images files to Google Pages, then I would just link them from my blog. The story does not end here yet. I am also using Google Reader in connection with the way I visit other blogs including my frineds' and some other which I liked. I adds subscription to those blogs and this would ensure that I would know when those blogs have made any changes. But I do not subscribe to news sites from Google Reader since they update a number changes everyday and I rather go visit the news site if I feel like I want to. Well under this titel "Blogger & Me", I wrote about Google Analytics, Google Pages, and Google Reader because they are all related to the way I blog.

I am thankful to Google folks for their great contribution to online community.

To Be Continued.

Easy way to download video from YouTube

I have always wanted to download the videos from youtube which I really enjoyed watching them.
I luckily came across with the post from my friend's site which tells you how to download flash videos in an easy manner. You just need to install download helper which is an add-on to the firefox browser and the flash player. Equipped with these two softwares, you are on your way to save all your favourite movies from youtube or similar contents.

You can check the detailed steps on how to get done in the following links at Michale Sync. Thanks Michael for this post of yours.

Enjoy~

Friday, January 25, 2008

Remove Adsense Ads from Home Page

Objective: Customize the template so that adsense ads will only be shown when clicked on archive, post or label. The ads will not be displayed on home page.

This is the image you will see before changes.










This is the image after you have made the changes.










You can follow the steps below to achieve this.

1)
Sign in to blogger.

2)Clik layout.

3)Go to Template.

4)Click "Edit HTML".

5)Click "Download Full Template". Save the xml file into your harddrive for backup purpose. In case problems occurred after we edited the html, you can upload back this backup file.

6)Click "Expand Widget Templates".

7)Identify the widget that you ads are in.

8)The ads widget code block should be similar to the sample code as follows.

line1.<b:widget id='HTML5' locked='false' title='Test'
type='HTML'>
line2.<b:includable id='main'>
line3. <!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
line4. <b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
line5. <h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
line6. </b:if>
line7. <div class='widget-content'>
line8. <data:content/>
line9. </div>
line10. <b:include name='quickedit'/>
line11.</b:includable>
line12.</b:widget>

9) Add the following code between line2 and line3.
<b:if cond='data:blog.homepageUrl !=data:blog.url'>

10)Add the following code between line10 and line11.
</b:if>

11)This will ensure that the page element, which is wrapped between these lines, will be displayed in all pages except homepage. So your ads will be shown in all pages except the home page.

12)Test your pages if you archive your objectives.

13)If you want to remove the dots that is below your empty page element, copy and paste the following code into your template.
#HTML5 {
border-bottom: 0px;
}

14)This code will remove the border of the page element. At this stage, you should be able to remove your ads at the home page and the borders sourrounding the page element.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Traffic for Blog

Url Submission

I have submitted my blog to some blog directories in an attempt to increase visitor count. I am not sure it helps a lot but I want to share the links that I have submitted to.

http://myanmarblogdirectory.blogspot.com/
As the name subjects, this blog directory is solely intended for Myanmar bloggers.

http://www.sharbar.net/
This blog directory is also a Myanmar blog network center. The listing for my url have not appeared there yet at the time writing this post but I have submitted the url a couple of hours ago.

If you are a Myanmar blogger , submitting your url to the above two lists should give your site enough exposure in the web, especially to other Myanmar bloggers.

I have added the url to some other sites which I do not think is generating traffic to my site. In my opinion, many of the sites up there in the internet which let you add your url are not very useful. With this experience I gained from this process, I think there is no point spending a lot of your time and effort to add your site to those site directory lists. The vast majority of traffic came to my site from google.


How to drive traffic for blogs

I am not going to reinvent the wheel. I find this post which I came across from Digital Dreams is quite useful and informational for new bloggers like us. It covers cool tips on how to increase traffic for your blogs.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Cats & Music

Let's see how cats respond to different types of music.
Enjoy~


Slow Rock













Heavy Metal












Hip hop












Country Songs












Indian Songs













Note:A big thanks to Michael Sync for this post. :D

Vocabularies Related to ACCA F4

If you are studying for Corporate and Business Law Paper, one of the most challenging aspects in preparing for the exam would certainly be the thorough knowledge of the legal jargons. Since we are not using those words in our daily life, it's difficult to remember them. The problem is that if we cannot remember them, we shall not be able to throw efficient and relevant words into the exam answer sheet. Although the examiner might not be expecting us to phrase every individual sentences in the answer sheet like a professional lawyer would, my opinion is that it's best to memorize the relevants words as far as we can and try to use them in our answer during the exam.

With that objective in mind, I am listing the vacabs that a F4 student should be aware of in this post. I would be trying my best to update the list on the weekly basis and hope to complete it in four months time.

Script in Progress

abrogate(v)cancel or abolish sth

accord(n)a settlement or a comprimise of conflicting opinions

affidavit(n)a written statement, made by sb who swears that it is true, that can be used as evidence in court

albeit(conj)although

assent(n)agreement or approval

confer(v)give a degree, title, privilege , etc to sb

coroner(n)an official who investigates any violent or suspicious death

delve(v)try very hard to find information about sth

deprave(v)make sb morally bad

ejusdem generis-of the same kind

enactment(n)a law

entrench(v)establish sth/sb very firmly with the result that change is very difficult or unlikely

equity(n)the application of the principles of natural justice in particular circumstances where the existing laws would not allow a fair or reasonable result

expressio unius est exclusio alterius-the express mention of one thing is the exclusion of the another

forbearance(n)patience, restraint, tolerance

fraught(adj)filled with something

horticulture(n)the art, study or practice of growing flowers, fruits & vegetables

hefty(adj)large and heavy

injunction(n)an official order

legislate(v)make laws

legislature(n)a body of people with the power to make and change laws. The legislature is the main lawmaking body in Singapore which comprises of the President and Parliament.

litigant(n)a person involved in a claim or dispute brought before a law court

mercantile(adj)of trade and commerce

noscitur a sociis-a thing is know by its companion

obiter dictum-a saying by the way

onerous(adj)demanding much efforts

oust(v)remove sb from a job,sometimes to take his/her place

perpetuate(v)-make sth continue

perish(v)to be destoryed, to die

presumption(n)a thing that is considered to be true

proscribe(v)state officially that sth is dangerous or forbidden

purport(v)claim

ratify(v)make a contract officially valid usually by signing it

ratio decidendi-rationale for the decision

realm(n)a field of activity or interest

redress(n)compensation for a wrongdoing

repeal(v)withdraw a law officially

rescind(v)withdraw a contract & declare that it's no longer valid

slate(v)plan that sth will happen at the specific time

stipulate(v)state sth clearly and firmly as a requirement

stunt(v)prevent sth/sb from growing or developing properly

supervene(v)occur as an interruption

tantamount(adj)equal in effect in sth

tenure(n)the right to remain permanently in one's job

tort(n)wrongful act done negligently but not involving a breach of contract for which a civil suit can be brought

tribunal(n)a group of people with the authority to settle certain types of dispute

unconscionable(adj)excessive, greater, or longer than is reasonable

unequivocal(adj)clear

unfettered(adj)not controlled,free

vitiate(v)spoil the quality or reduce the force of sth

wager(n)a bet

waive(v)choose not to insist on sth in a particular case, even though one has a legal or official right to do so

Please let me know if you find out any error.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Pieces of Advice for ACCA First-timers

If you are new to ACCA and are contemplating to choose ACCA for your study in Singapore, the pieces of advice below might be of some help. This post is intended solely for students who are about to embark on the course of ACCA or who are attempting ACCA exam for the first time. If you do not fall into the above category, you may skip to another post. ;)

1. If you are deciding how many papers you should attempt at one sitting,I would suggest to take all three fundamental papers. I had no problem managing Paper F1,F2 and F3 in one sitting. I noticed some friends of mine taking up to Paper F4 starting from Paper F1. However you ought to be dedicated enough and revise course materials on weekly basis.

2. Regarding about the perception that you should only register to courses which will be conducted by good(your friends told you so), my belief is that the most important factor is you yourself. Although the above perception might hold some truth, you will pass the exams only if you study.

3. Take at least one day leave prior to the actual exam day for each paper unless you really feel you dont need to.

4. During the exam days,leave home early ,possibly around 12 pm so as to avoid any inconvenience. At least try to reach Expo Mrt station 30 minutes earlier than the exam time, since it probably takes 10 to 15 mins walk from the mrt station to the exam hall.

5. You should find the location of your seat upon arriving the exam hall.

6. Bring a watch along in case your seat is at the far rear part of the exam hall from where the clocks hanging on the pillars at the far end of the exam hall.

7. Bring a jacket just in case you feel cold in the exam hall.

8. You need a calculater for f2 and f3.
success
9. Bring the ACCA student registration card and exam docket for verification.

10. Eat simple and hygienic food during exam period.

11. Practise past exam papers. It is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

All the best for your exams!


Note: I found the image I am using in this post from Google Image Search. The copyrights of the image remain with the original creator.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Law for General Knowledge I

The One Bite Rule

It was in the law lecture class when i have heard of this one bite rule for the first time. I have never owned a dog in Singapore and never noticed that such a rule exists until then. The meaning of this is that common law shielded the owner of a domestic animal from civil liability to the first victim of each of his animals. This absolving principle came to be known variously as the "one bite rule," the "first bite rule," or the "first bite free" rule.

The rationale of the one bite rule was that domestic animals by definition were not injurious, and therefore liability could be predicated only on the defendant's knowledge that a particular animal had a propensity to behave in manner that was injurious to humans. Again, the rule applied to any type of injury, whether or not a bite.

At first I thought this rule reveals the benevolent side of the law. Our lecturer told a joke to us, "You guys should make sure that it is your enemey whom your dog bites for the first time , not your friend cos it's a free bite." His joke was successful to a certain extent and students laughed. So did it.

But if you look at this law from another perspective, you will sense that there are some serious flaws. What if the extent of the injury is very serious? The victim bitten by the dog who bites a person for the first time still have to pay medical bill and he or she still suffers. By the time this law was made in England, the environment and the situation will probably make this law look flawless, but in modern days we are living in a more materialistic world and medical bills are relatively less affordable. Every owner of dogs are aware that victims are going to suffer as a result of the vicious attack by the dog even if the dog has never done such an act previously.

Thus in my opinion this rule ought to be amended. If you dig a litter deeper into this issue, you shall notice that several states of US have amended this rule. I am not sure whether this law has been amended in Singapore but if not yet, I shall give a thumb up to anyone who tries to change this rule.

Note: I found the image I am using in this post from Google Image Search. The copyrights of the image remain with the original creator.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Hurray to Open Source

If you are someone like me who does not believe in the business model of some software vendors making users pay more and more every time a new version of a softwore comes into life, Support Open Source Model.


Open Office
Just as it reads in their home page: OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.


Mozilla
The award winning web browser from Mozilla is another big player in the open source field with million of users. As u might guess it right, this is my favourite browser.


Open Source Projects by Google
I believe Google is a strong believer in the open source concept. You can check out a number of projects by Google here.


Linux
Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Developed under the GNU General Public License ,
the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone. Click here to find out more about the operating system that is causing a revolution in the world of computers. You can find another linux version here in ubuntu.


OpenNETCF
If you are a mobile application developer, the open source projects from OpenNETCF might be of some use.


Gimp
While virtually all computer graphics professionals use Adobe Photoshop to do their artistic work, Photoshop is a pricey and proprietary application. If you're looking to do graphics design on a budget, or perhaps want a software package that is less resource-intensive than Photoshop, check out open source alternatives ; the GIMP, SodiPodi, and Inkscape.


Blender
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.


Notepad++
My favorite light-weight notepad alternative! It is a free source code editor for Windows. The project is hosted on SourceForge from where it has been downloaded over six million times.
Here you can find all the informations about Notepad++. It is Notepad++ project site. The source codes and binaries are distributed here.


MySQL
As claimed on their website, this is the world's most popular open source database.


TortoiseSVN
TortoiseSVN is a very easy to use SCM / source control software for Microsoft Windows. It is implemented as a Windows shell extension, which makes it integrate seamlessly into the Windows explorer. Since it's not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like.


Eclipse
Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. A large and vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities, research institutions and individuals extend, complement and support the Eclipse platform.


These are some of the open source software that are somewhat familiar with me. For a more extensive list of open source projects you can check it out here in www.ohloh.net.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Why I think Learning Business Law is fun

Well..our classes(ACCA Paper F4) are normally quite a crowed ones in terms of student count and most of us are going there after knocking off a hard day of work. In these circumstances, it's understandable that some people find it boring attending the law class which covers numerous topics starting from contract law to accountant's liability issues. But strangely enough, it is quite on the contrary for myself.

I just love knowing more about law since I value the existence of the rule of law. Maybe I just love to know how the rule of LAW is being treated in the country in which I reside. I am the type of person who ,in my own humble opinion, judge the reliability and trustworthiness of a particular government on the way how the government treats the country's law.

I would like to ensure myself that my government is not taking away the property I own in an unjust manner. I would like to be convinced that my government will not take over the business that I invested in in an unlawful manner for no apparent reason. I would like to be sure that the rights of our citizens are protected by the Law, just like the obligations of any wrongful act by the citizens are punished or compensated. These are basically the desire of any human being which rooted from the deepest depth of our sense of security.

I believe that the knowledge of a country's LAW will enable me to know more about how the rule of LAW is passed by our government which in turn will enable me to know more about the rights and obligations of citizens like us which govern our daily activities. Thus I find it interesting to study some of the country's law while I am actually studying the accounting principles.

Let me share another aspect of why I think learning this module is fun. Our lecturer usually conducts the classes in the most entertaining manner that he can be. He shares us some interesting stories as and when conveying the legislation matters. Some of the stories are quite funny , yet they are true stories. I will share those funny stories in my next posts.

To Be Continued.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Desperate Students during exams XI

Desperate Students during exams X

Desperate Students during exams IX

Desperate Students during exams VIII

Desperate Students during exams VII

Desperate Students during exams VI

Desperate Students during exams V

Desperate Students during exams IV

Desperate Students during exams III

Desperate Students during exams II

Desperate Students during exams I

Thursday, January 3, 2008

ACCA Past Exam Papers

I sometimes get lost finding the link to download ACCA past exam papers due to the long hierarchy of accaglobal web site and thus I decided to post the links to those locations in this post for easir access.

The Previous ACCA Qualification (Until June 2007 Exams)

Paper 1.1
Paper 1.2
Paper 1.3

Paper 2.1
Paper 2.2
Paper 2.3
Paper 2.4
Paper 2.5
Paper 2.6

Paper 3.1
Paper 3.2
Paper 3.3
Paper 3.4
Paper 3.5
Paper 3.6
Paper 3.7


The New ACCA Qualification (Starting From Dec 2007 Exams )

F3 Financial Accounting
F4 Corporate and Business Law
F5 Performance Management
F6 Taxation
F7 Financial Reporting
F8 Audit and Assurance
F9 Financial Management

P1 Professional Accountant
P2 Corporate Reporting
P3 Business Analysis
P4 Advanced Financial Management
P5 Advanced Performance Management
P6 Advanced Taxation
P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance


Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Roller Skating

Beginner Guide: You might find this useful.


Tips and Tricks: inlineonline, inlinewarehouse , skatescool, and rollerblading tips

Skating Mistakes: Top ten skating mistakes

Fitness Facts: Some info from rollerblade.

Wiki: Some facts from wiki about roller skating.

Animated Skate Lessons: You can find about it in the left panel of their site.

How Tos : This link basically consists of everything you need to know about rollerskating; how to clean roller blades, how to jump on inline-skates etc.

Shopping: Lots and lots of resources that you can purchase a pair of skates from. You sure can google it.

Where to Skate: As far as i know of, East Coast Park is by far the best place for the sport. It provides you the longest horizontal path for the skater. But if you prefer a more adventurous experience, you can opt for Yishun Park. If you are the beginner, you can practise at the base area of the park which is a circular round and horizontal. If you are no longer a novice, the park has got two uphill slopes, of which one is a gentler slope and the other not so gentle one, for you to try your balancing act. You should not try the slopes if you are not skilled enough because it is risky. You should start with horizontal ground at the entrace of the park. I suggest you should be fully equiped with protected gear if you are gonna try there.