Category: General

Phew! Finally I had the nerves and courage to update the ppsplit website, although there are nothing much to look there, but i’m pretty sure it is better than the previous default website :) For the uninitiated, ppsplit is my personal project page which I is hosted by Sourceforge.net.

You can access the ppsplit project page here : http://ppsplit.sourceforge.net

Blog or weblogging have been a popular thing now on the web since the Instant Messenger hype back few years ago (which in turn succeeds over IRC, waaayyy back) and ever since that, many of the big-time company taking part in the blogger’s world, the list includes “legendary” online company Google-owned bloggers.com, Lycos network (through tripod.com) and Microsoft-owned MSN.com (yes, MS into blog too!). Now not wanting to lose the internet market share, Yahoo! seems to follow the footsteps of other giants. Considered one of the influential web portal in the internet, Yahoo! surely dont want to be left behind in the bloggers world, not when everybody starts to embraces it!

Recently Yahoo Inc. have introduces Yahoo 360, which can be accessible through http://360.yahoo.com. Currently on Beta version, only invited users can register the service and enjoy its experience. Built in through the theme “Share what you want”, Yahoo 360 aims to bring its portal closer to its user by combining what’s the users felt as best of the web service. This includes sharing
Blog, Photos, Profile, Reviews and Blast (kinda like Friendster and Myspace stuff).

I guess Yahoo! dub it Yahoo 360 because it covers everything that the web users frequently use today such as blog (blogger.com, blogdrive.com), Photos (fotopages.com, myphotoalbum.com, ofoto.com), Blast ( Friendster.com, Myspace.com) and Profiles (NameDatabases, Ringo). I some of the services offered through the Yahoo 360 have been offered by Yahoo quite some time ago. I guess Yahoo! strategicly use this opportunity to re-introduce those services in order to enhance web experience (and revenue!) of the internet users.

Personally I believe, Yahoo! being a prominent online company, Yahoo! seems to be a bit late to introduce its blog features, considering its rival Google.com (through Blogger) and Microsoft (through MSN) have started their services quite sometime ago. More seriously, Google.com have firm establishment in the Blog businesses when blogger.com become almost a de facto standard among blogger aside from it close rival blogdrive.com.

No date have been associated with Yahoo 360 services, but we can expect that it will be launched soon, considering that it would be an advantege to launch the service while blogging trend is still hot right now.

References
1. MSN Spaces
2. Blogger/Blogspot
3. Blogdrive
4. Yahoo! 360

MyCert have issued a warning regarding emails circulating within our constituency. The perpetrator is trying to convince the Hong Leong/Bumiputra Commerce/AmBank Group/Alliance Bank member to verify their email address via suspicious url. The sender is using seemingly legitimate email address from bankinginfo.com.my.

Internet users are urged not to click on the given url, and to delete the email immediately upon reading it.

Technical note :
The perpetrator seems to exploit a ‘feature’ in the popular google.com search engine in order to redirect users to a fake website which is used to gather information about the unsuspecting users.

The google url given in the email in turn will redirect users to
http://da.ru/ redirection service to their fake website. They use the old-school url encoding/decoding method to mask out their true url to the average users.

Here’s the original alert issued by MyCERT :
http://www.mycert.org.my/advisory/MA-092.052005
The discussion about the matter can be read in :
Forum ITTutor.net

Blogging have been increasingly popular among office workers these days, and most of them are reportedly to be blogging during office hours which enrage their employers at a certain degree, and making them impose certain restriction for blogging. Well here’s an article which i stumbled with, that discuss with the deals of how to keep blogging during office hours while making money at it.

Original Source :
http://www.kuro5hin.org

Many bloggers enjoy writing about their place of employment. This Internet rage is making a lot of employers upset, as bosses want their nice little drones to keep churning out products & services without all the pesky independent thought.

But it is very important that people all over the world journal their workplace opinions on-line every day, since these “job-blogs” serve to expose those in authority who exploit others for gain. When you get right down to it, though, blogging about the nine-to-five hours makes “The Man” nervous, and that’s good enough.

Here are some techniques you can use to safely and effectively maintain a blog about the useless idiots (i.e. everybody except you) at your place of work without getting fired and, more importantly, gain money and fame. Follow these suggestions faithfully and you’ll have a blog-site that’ll draw in thousands of readers every day and you’ll earn the fear, respect, and bribes from co-workers and managers who don’t want to be the next fascinating subject in your popular on-line diary! When you get right down to it, though, the sole purpose of the Internet is to tell complete strangers everywhere how much you hate the real people around you and the embarrassing things you know about them, just to give you a fleeting sense of smug self-satisfaction, isn’t it?

– Blog Everything You Find Annoying About Your Job.
– Blog With A Cover Window Ready
– Stay In The Office ‘Rumor Mill’.
– Examine The Contents Of Other People’s Desks When They Leave The Office.
– Take Covert Pictures Of Your Co-Workers & Boss For Fun Blog Commentary.
– Hack Into Workplace Computers For Incriminating Evidence.
– Point Out Your Company’s Fiscal Weaknesses.
– Refuse To Stop Blogging About Your Work, Even If Threatened With Dismissal.

In Conclusion: if you get fired for blogging about your job, sue the bastards on any legal precedent having to do with “Free Speech”. Collect the settlement. Find a new job. Blog about your new job. Get fired for blogging. Sue. Collect settlement. Repeat. You’ll be rich in no time, and maybe you will have enough funds to start a company of your own! You’ll have to hire employees, though…uh, wait a minute…

This article was originally written by internetslacker and was published on http://www.kuro5hin.org, For original version please click here

Hari aku bukak paper, sekali aku tertarik dengan satu lagi ruangan forum susulan dari episod Dilema Pelanggan Kecewa dan Dilema Pelanggan Kecewa II. Maka terimalah Dillema Pelanggan Kecewa III, dibawakan khas oleh Forum Utusan Malaysia

Lagi pelanggan kecewa perkhidmatan TMNet Streamyx

Saudara Pengarang,(1)
SAYA ingin merujuk kepada surat balas dari Rosli Abas, System Engineer dari Subang Jaya yang cuba memperbetulkan kesalahan maksud yang telah digunakan oleh Pelanggan Kecewa dari Gombak.

Saya rasa hal-hal yang berkenaan tidak perlulah dipanjangkan lagi kerana bukan itu maksud sebenar yang diluahkan oleh Pelanggan Kecewa.

Apa yang diharapkannya adalah perkhidmatan yang ditawarkan mestilah menepati dan memenuhi syarat-syarat yang telah dijelaskan.
(2)
Untuk makluman, pakej TMNet Streamyx bagi RM99 akan dibekalkan dengan satu set modem ADSL dan kelajuan pengaksesan sehingga 1 Mbps.

Saya adalah pelanggan TMNet Streamyx dengan pakej RM88 dan layak mendapat satu set modem ADSL secara percuma yang ketika itu sedang dalam promosi.

Apa yang saya kesalkan adalah saya telah mendaftar pada 8 April 2005 dan hanya boleh membuat sambungan Internet pada 4 Mei 2005 tetapi akaun saya telah diaktifkan secara automatik pada 19 April 2005.

Saya teramat kecewa dengan perkhidmatan yang diberikan terutama pada Jabatan Perkhidmatan Pelanggan TMNet kerana lewat untuk menyelesaikan masalah saya.
(3)
Saya juga menerima nasib yang sama seperti Pelanggan Kecewa kerana ditolak tendang ke sana dan ke mari sehingga saya sendiri sudah memutuskan untuk membatalkan hasrat saya untuk melanggan perkhidmatan ini.

Terima kasih saya ucapkan kepada Saudara Ismail dari TM kerana akhirnya saya dapat juga mengakses Internet pada 4 Mei 2005 dan beliau mengatakan masalah ini berpunca daripada kecuaian pekerja TM untuk membuat jumpering.

Sesudah itu, saya cuba menguji kelajuan muat turun dan muat naik antara sistem komputer saya dengan pusat TMNet Streamyx.

Alangkah terkejutnya saya apabila mendapati kelajuan pengaksesan Internet jauh lebih rendah berbanding jika kita menggunakan TMNet dial-up (56 kbps).

Kelajuan capaian internet saya cuma pada kadar 128kbps hingga 150 kbps untuk muat naik dan 30kbps hingga 50 kbps untuk muat turun.
(4)
Ini jauh lebih rendah daripada pakej yang ditawarkan oleh TMNet iaitu pada kelajuan 1000 kbps untuk muat naik dan 512 kbps untuk muat turun.

Adalah releven jika TMNet memberikan alasan pengguna tidak akan mampu untuk mencapai kelajuan seperti itu kerana kita masih lagi menggunakan wayar kuprum berbanding jalur optik untuk prestasi maksimum.
(5)
Saya berharap agar pihak TMNet Streamyx janganlah hanya pandai membuat janji kosong dengan menyediakan kelajuan pengaksesan tinggi sedangkan mustahil untuk pengguna mendapatkannya.

Cadangan saya adalah pihak TMNet Streamyx seharusnya menyediakan rangkaian jalur optik kepada pengguna sekiranya betul-betul mahu menawarkan pengaksesan berkelajuan tinggi.

Jika tidak, jangan mengeluarkan produk-produk sebegini yang hanya boleh didapati di segelintir tempat dan pelanggan seperti kami dibiarkan tertipu dengan iklan-iklan dari pihak TMNet Streamyx. – BUKAN SYSTEM ENGINEER, Shah Alam, Selangor.

Analisis :
1. Kandungan lebih kurang sama dgn post asal
2. Post ini cuba memperbetulkan post Pelanggan Kecewa I (1)
3. Kedua-dua Pelanggan Kecewa I dan III pakai streamyx pekej 1Mbps(2)
4. Nasib Pelanggan Kecewa III lebih baik sebab dia tidak lupa topup prepaidnya(3)
5. Kedua-dua Pelanggan Kecewa I dan III, kecewa dgn kelajuan streamyx(4)
6. Pihak TM membuat janji kosong kepada Pelanggan I dan III, isk2 (1)
7. Streamyx kat Shah Alam pun bermasalah?

Anda digalakkan membaca siri sebelumnya iaitu Dilema Pelanggan Kecewa dan Dilema Pelanggan Kecewa II di blog ini untuk lebih memahami triologi ini.

p/s : Cerita diatas bukanlah cerita rekaan semata-mata, ia adalah kisah benar-benar berlaku dan kebenarannya tertakluk kepada penyiarannya dalam ruangan Forum Utusan Malaysia. Sila komplen ke ruangan Forum Utusan sekiranya anda mendapati cerita ini tidak benar dan mempunyai unsur-unsur pembohongan dan tipu daya.

Email forum utusan : forum@utusan.com.my, email yang mempunyai attachment tidak akan dilayan.

Sejak-sejak peristiwa penjenamaan semula TM Berhad, pihak TM telah mengeluarkan pernyataan seumpama jaminan “anda tidak akan lagi dilayan seperti nombor”. Ironisnya, kes perkhidmatan streamyx yang mengecewakan kebelakangan ini telah mengundang rungutan dan ketidakpuashatian dikalangan pengguna, dan apabila pengguna membuat laporan, suatu siri nombor akan diberikan, dimana pengguna perlu menghafal nombor tersebut untuk memudahkan pihak TM membuat rujukan. Jelaslah sekarang ini, walaupun selepas penjenamaan dan slogan baru, “pelanggan masih lagi dilayan seperti nombor” at least untuk pelangan Streamyx.

Kenapakah pihak TM masih tidak lagi memberikan maklum balas kepada umum? khasnya di Forum Utusan, memandangkan isu ini pertama kali diutarakan di sini?

Mungkinkah triology ini akan bersambung? kita tunggu episod seterusnya….

Remember my previous post about the matrix ascii movie on the web?

Now with HasciiCam, you can even stream your live video on the web using only ascii! This does not only provide extreme coolness on your website, but the streaming itself consume only little bandwidth, thus saving time and effort to view them on the web instead of conventional method.

HasciiCam itself uses AA-lib engine to convert the video frame into their respective ascii representation before displaying them on the web using the html refresh method, no javascript or dhtml are involved! Thus maximizing the browser type that your web streaming can support.

And for those who are wondering, HasciiCam is a Free Software under GNU/GPL License and supports GNU/Linux operating system, but it is not supported under Microsoft Windows platform, though (sorry). But as the case of the flexible GNU/GPL License, you can always write your own HasciisCam clone for Microsoft Windows using by porting its concept and source code, as long you as you accepts the terms of the GNU General Public License.

The requirements for running HasciiCam are :
1) GNU/Linux operating system
2) AA-lib library
3) Webcam or videocard supported by video4linux
4) a webserver

For those who are impatient and want to get started with the video streaming right away, you can download dyne:bolic LiveCD GNU/Linux distribution, which does not require installation and saves you the hassle of setting up your HasciiCam.

Happy streaming!

References :
1. HasciiCam Project
2. dyne:bolic GNU/Linux
3. AA-lib project
4. Webcam supported by video4linux (partial-list)

p/s : for more information about webcam/videocard supported by video4inux, please check your vendors website or google it!