Criteo auto blogroll removed

Hoping to get some traffic, I had installed the Criteo auto blogroll in the side bar of a few of my blogs. I have finally decided to remove them as I didn't see any significant traffic from the sites listed. Moreover, I was quite annoyed to find links to blogs I didn't particularly like.

Many of those blogs didn't link back to my blog and some didn't even have a Criteo widget - meaning they were getting free advertising space on my blog. I would rather put in links to blog I like.



There are two advantages of removing useless widgets:
1. Your blog is less cluttered
2. It loads faster

Posting our blog feed on Facebook

Blogger firdaus zahari a.k.a FaKE left me a request. He wanted to know how to put up our blog feed on Facebook.

It's really easy.

1. Open the Notes application on Facebook

2. Take a look at the bottom of the right hand side bar between the Facebook ads and the notes from your friends.

3. Click Edit import settings » under Notes Settings.



4. Enter the url of your website of feed/RSS in the space provided.

5. Click 'Start Importing' and you are done.

Fake Problogger twitter page?

Yesterday, I received an email notification from Twitter telling me that Darren Rowse (the famous Problogger) is now following me on Twitter. I am already following his twitter page and know what it looks like.



Darren uses "Problogger" as his twitter name whereas this guy used his full name "DarrenNRowse". When I checked a couple of minutes ago, he only had 4 followers. It has now increased to 18.



Fake or spoof accounts, especially of celebrities and famous people, on Twitter is not new. Someone faked the Tibetian leader Dalai Lama sometime back, attracting more than 2000 followers in just a couple of days before it was finally suspended.

Update: 21 Feb 2009
just found out that the page has been suspended.

Entrecard contest

If you are an Entrecard user, you might find this news interesting. Blogger Wayne John is running a contest where one lucky winner will take away 10,000 EC credits. In order to enter, all you have to do is add you link to Link Listings



You can get an extra entry as well, by writing about the post like I am doing here.

Samsung launches solar phone

Samsung has launched a phone made from recycled plastic and with a solar panel on it's back at the at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Called Blue Earth, all I know is that it has a touch screen.

There is no info about when it would be released or the price.

Guy Kawasaki suspended from Twitter

I received an email today saying that Guy Kawasaki (yes! The Guy Kawasaki ) is now following my updates on Twitter. However, when I clicked on the link provided I discovered that his account had been suspended "due to strange activity".



Wonder what happened.

Update: His Twitter page is up again.

Waterproof shockproof camera from Panasonic - the Lumix DMC-FT1

I am a fan of Panasonic digital cameras and have had a Panasonic Lumix for a long time. Unfortunately my old camera had some problems and I bought myself a cheap Kodak to replace it.

Just found out that Panasonic has come out with their first waterproof digital camera. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 is shockproof and dustproof as well. It is 3.0 meters waterproof and 1.5 meters drop shockproof.



This 12.1 megapixel camera has a 28mm Wide-angle 4.6x Optical Zoom LEICA DC Lens and 1/2.33-inch High-resolution CCD.

Have no info about the price though. I wonder whether this is the same as the model which was announced recently in the US - the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 which is expected to be available in April 2009 with a suggested retail price of $399.95.

Pet Society on Facebook

Facebook celebrated it's 5th birthday this Wednesday and it's growing from strength to strength.

I guess one of the reasons this online social network has become so popular are the wide choice of applications that anyone on the network can sign up for, depending on their interest.

Definitely, the most popular applications are the games. Apart from Knighthood, my favourite game on Facebook, I have a few others on my profile. This includes Pet Society, a virtual world where your pet lives, eats, meet friends, play and buy stuff. In case you are wondering how the developers make money from these game, just take a look at the Pet Society website. You can buy t-shirts, mugs and loads of other stuff. Once you open their application on Facebook, you can also visit the bank to buy coins using Paypal and other means of payment. You can then use the gold to buy stuff including virtual wallpaper and seasonal decorations.

This is but one of the interactive games from Playfish.com. Other popular games include "Who has the biggest brain?", "Word Challenge" and more.



Unfortunately, this has become my daughter's favourite game as well and I would have to let her play with it every day after coming back from school. Looking at the bright side, she has a better understanding of money - how to earn it, spend it and more importantly - saving it.

If you are on Facebook, do check out the game.

Bad buy on eBay

I have been able to grab a number of bargains on eBay and I thought that this Binatone MR620 Quad Two Way Radio, was one of them.

The batteries were dead when I got the walkie talkie and left them on the charger units to recharge overnight. Woke up in the morning and it seemed to be working fine when one of them died off after about a minute.



Naturally, I was really pissed off and left a neutral feedback on the seller's profile (I should have left a negative). The seller contacted me much later and she said that he/she would be willing to give me a refund. However, that was the last I heard from "ohhelsbels".

Tried contacting Binatone - no replies from their customer service.
Tried contacting a rechargeable battery reseller - no reply. I guess they don't have batteries for the particular model.

I sometimes wonder what the hell's wrong with businesses in this country. No wonder they are going bankrupt one by one.

Now I am stuck with a pair of useless gadgets. I plan to get a replacement rechargeable battery when I go back to Malaysia next time. Some of my friends has assured me that I can find a replacement battery for any gadget back in Kuala Lumpur.

There are a number of great personal license-free two-way radios in the market with an average range of up to 3km (some like the MOTOTLKR T5 walkie talkie has a range of upto 6km²).

Of course you may wonder why we need a 2 way radio in this age of mobile phones.

You should be aware that some place don't have mobile phone reception. Plus, there's no monthly bills to worry about and no contract either.