Packet One has recently extended its WiMAX service launch promotions till 31st December 2008.

The most attractive offer in the promotions is of course the free modem which is worth RM999. Nationwide access fee of RM10 per month has also been waived (you need this enabled for your account if you intend to use WiMAX services outside of your registered service address).

Besides that, there are some fee reductions in the personal 2400 plan and both 1200 and 2400 business plans. Normally business plans will certainly be more expensive than personal plans but now they have the same subscription fees, business owners should seriously consider this once in a lifetime offer. The fees shown above are recurring meaning you only have to pay subscription fees according to the advertised fee until your 1 or 2 year contract expires. You can also opt to sign up to P1 W1MAX service without contract but you would have to forgo the promotions, they are only available for contract subscribers.

This extension of the promotions is indeed a wise and sensible move by P1. Many internet users are dying to try this new Internet service but unfortunately many places in Peninsular Malaysia do not have WiMAX services coverage yet. Hopefully P1 will cover more areas in the coming months so that more internet users could benefit from this promotions.

Have you heard of WiMAX yet? Do you wish to subscribe to this service (hoping to have better internet connection)? Or are you satisfied with your current internet connection? Do you prefer fixed line or wireless internet access? Do you mind sharing with us what connection you are using now?

Nowadays video marketing is the in thing and almost every big company out there that can afford it are doing it already. Even some talented individuals are producing their own videos, either to spread a message or to further their causes.

Some of the videos or advertisements produced never make it to the (now flat) silver screen while some are celebrated by television viewers and even nominated for awards.

In my native country, we can usually expect to see pretty interesting videos with the theme of unity during major celebrations like Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Independence Day.

Petronas has been the leader in producing creative, touching and meaningful social advertisements. However in recent years, some bigger local companies are also contributing to the cause. Companies like TM, P1 and TV3 are producing their own videos and they hope to attract as many viewers as they can on the most popular video sharing site ever, YouTube. The average daily number of videos viewed in YouTube is above 100,000 videos (an unofficial estimate in 2006).

I especially like this new video below - Iklan Raya Wimax 2008



P1 W1MAX is seen as a strong competitor to TM's Streamyx broadband service. They certainly are equal in efforts to reach online video viewers. Check out the video above and follow the link back to YouTube to view other social advertisements produced by companies like TV3, P1, Petronas and also TM. TM's Raya 2008 video is very meaningful too :)

Perhaps I should also try video marketing in my future online projects. I will compile and share the report of the results with you if I find this method of marketing worthwhile.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslims.

A few weeks ago I got to know that Exabytes will be launching a new look website and I am one of the lucky 100 bloggers who get to preview and review it first. It is just one of the perks enjoyed by bloggers nowadays beside free event invitations and movie tickets. Don't you want to start blogging too?

Anyway, back to the topic in hand. At first look, the new Exabytes website does not differ too much from the current one. It is not a complete redesign, and I believe it is a modification and improvement to the current design which has been serving them so well all this while. Look at the screen shot below before proceeding further (click to enlarge).


Don't they look similar? I think the new website is still based heavily on the old design and from the way things look, I guess the same designers are involved in the new website project.

Overall
To Exabytes' credit, the new website is as attractive as the current one. Exabytes website design team are extremely creative and they have used various objects in their advertisements such as an obese man indicating the gigantic size of webspace offered in one of Exabytes' web hosting plan, or a huge truck or a road sign. The designers like to keep the site simple and fast-loading, the images used are attractive but no flash is embedded. To achieve the effect of moving texts, they use either animated GIF files or Javascript. The navigation options are well integrated and are user-friendly. Links to important information and core products of the company are prominently displayed. There are plenty of payment options provided for the convenience of customers. The search function utilizes Google search engine to search Exabytes' website for content.

Comparison with old website (the current one)
First of all, it seems that the old website is using fixed width layout while the new one is a fluid width layout (I am not sure, have to check the code before confirming). This results in a better positioned layout of the new website, it is properly aligned in the middle point of your browser. As for the old website, there is too much empty space on the right hand side of the main layout (refer to the arrow in the screen shot above!). Some navigation links are also removed from the topmost area and integrated into the main navigation bar or footer links. Another most noticeable and excellent addition to the new website is the "Express" pull-down menu for quick selection of web hosting plan suitable for different individuals. This is especially helpful for people who have no idea what plans to sign up to with the budgets that they have. Lastly, the form for interested websurfers to subscribe to Exabytes' newsletter is also displayed prominently, on top of the page and just to the right of Exabytes logo, this feature certainly help individuals to keep themselves updated about Exabytes happenings and offers.

Comments and Suggestions
Have to do this in a numbered list, to get my points across more accurately.

1. Reduce file size of animated GIF file, your logo-cards.gif alone is about 300kb!
2. If necessary, your team could try using Flash instead of animated GIF (not sure if it helps to reduce the file size and server load though).
3. Improve the layout of your blog, the old one feels more like a daily journal of a supervisor rather than a blog. You could probably publish more useful information in that blog, anything related to web hosting, not just Exabytes, that will help to market your brand. Insert more social networking and bookmarking widgets and buttons, install a community feel to it and make people return for more information even if they don't currently need a webhost.
4. Put in an accessible direct line telephone number in your contact page. A personalized and instant support will immediately convert a prospect into a paying customer.
5. I can see from both old and new website that your designers like to keep the site colourful, attractive, simple and not too much of text. I appreciate that, but if they could add some AJAX like during search results loading time, it will make your site so much more professional.

I think that is so much input that I could contribute so far. The website is far from complete, many pages are not ready yet, perhaps I could do a more complete review when the new website is ready to launch. In the meantime, look out for these gems of the pages when the new website layout replaced the current one:

http://www.exabytes.com.my/about/testimonials.php
http://www.exabytes.com.my/about/awards.php
http://www.exabytes.com.my/about/

These pages may or not be there when the new website is launched. If you managed to access these pages when they are available and like them, please do comment on this post what you think about those pages.

I wish to take this opportunity to wish Exabytes all the best in its quest to be one of the best web hosts. It is already our national champion and I am proud of its achievement as well as the resourcefulness shown by its CEO, Mr. Chan Kee Siak, kudos to you!

Just found out about this Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition Internet Tablet today. Yes, I think in the future all smartphones and PDAs will be called Internet Tablet or if some companies want to be creative, they could name their gadgets ezyTablet or something.

You can look at the specifications of this Internet Tablet through the above link. While many people are in a frenzy to own iPhone, I am looking queitly for something better. No doubt, iPhone is a cool gadget to own, especially when it has an unrivaled touch screen feature (no offence there, Samsung!). However, apart from that, the technologies in it are not really new or unique (surely other phone company's motion detector feature is much cooler than just touch screen).

Now look at this Internet Tablet. I especially like its WiMAX capabilities and full QWERTY keyboard. This would be blogger's dream gadget. They could enjoy mobile internet, they could type blog posts easily with the QWERTY keyboard and they do not stain their screens with their fingerprints.

Imagine being able to enjoy IPTV and TV on demand, have access to anyone in the world with VOIP and able to live blog about any events that you desire, anytime, anywhere thanks to WiMAX's capability to deliver high-speed internet access and related applications.

I am seriously considering to get this gadget for myself because WiMAX services have been launched in Malaysia. Unfortunately like many other phones and gadgets, this tablet is only available for sales in USA. I supposed this WiMAX equipped tablet costs about $500, seems like a good price but if it ever reaches Malaysian shore, I bet its price would be inflated, just like iPhone (do you know that Malaysians pay more than $500 for the first generation iPhone?).

Anyone frequent between US and Malaysia and could possibly buy and sell me this tablet at cost price? I am not even sure that Malaysian simcard will work with it, though.

Question of the day: Given a choice, would you like to own an iPhone, this Internet Tablet, HTC phones or other iPhone wannabes like Samsung Omnia, LG Secret?

No, the title is not a question, and this is certainly not a ranting post, rambling on about why Advertlets is a bad advertising network, so on and so forth.

I repeat, I have no intention of bad-mouthing Advertlets. Instead the title of the post is a statement, a shockingly electrifying statement after I discovered the possible reason why I am not making good money off Advertlets advertising network.

If you are even remotely interested to join this advertising network and make some decent money off it (sorry to foreign bloggers, I think this advertising network currently accepts only Malaysian and Singaporean bloggers) or you yourself are not making good money off this network, then please read on.

Let's look at how much money I have been making from Advertlets since joining them in February 2008.

Click on the image to enlarge but in case you cannot see the amount of money I earned, it is RM0.642 and that is the total since February 2008, that amount is about $0.20. In between February and now, I have dropped the Advertlets ads on my blog for 2 to 3 months because I was discouraged by the low earnings. It is even less than what I am earning from My Search Funds (now known as homepages friends).

I began thinking that it was weird that I do not receive a single advertiser since signing up with Advertlets. Then when I visited the support section of Advertlets site, I found this:

Question: Do I need to have at least 50 demographic poll submissions to get advertising on my blog?

Answer:Nope. Nada. No. The demographics submissions has always been more of a recommendation than a requirement - however, you will not be eligible for ALL advertising opportunities available IF your demographics submissions are NOT filled in.

Generally, the more demographics submissions you have the higher your chances. Some advertisers like to use demographics to determine which blogs they should advertise on, especially if its a product/service that applies to one gender. However, some would like to reach a larger audience, with some targeting options (eg, as long as they are Malaysians).

Please read the bold text of the answer part. Now I know what is the use of the poll code given by Advertlets. Apparently, if we have a complete demographics submissions profile (minimum 50), we have a higher chance to be selected by advertisers to run their campaigns. I will be blogging about the types of campaigns advertisers could run through Advertlets in another post. The answer above seems to imply that bloggers who have not completed 50 demographic submissions will not have their profiles available for network wide advertisers to choose from. It is sort of you are an invisible publisher with Advertlets, where they do not list you in their internal list of publishers to be chosen by advertisers.

Duh! No wonder I don't get a single advertiser yet, going to work on that...

I have not inserted the poll code into my blog template yet, but now that I know the importance of demographics submissions, I proceeded to add it immediately. You can see the widget (or gadget?) on my sidebar under the title "Help Me Get Advertisers".

If you have some time to spare or appreciate knowing about the importance of demographics submissions from this post, kindly help me fill in my demographic submissions. If you did that, and would like me to return a favor by submitting YOUR demographic submissions (even if you are in nuffnang network :) ) or commenting on your blog post or dropping on your EntreCard widgets, do leave a comment here please.

Thank you to anyone who read up to this point. Hope we all have a better chance to make money now, have a nice day by the way :)

Well eventually I did learn more about WiMAX. From a techie's perspective, a broadband internet connection plus WiFi is absolutely not the same as WiMAX (which is also wireless). I admit there are some differences between the two but whenever friends enquired me, "What is WiMAX?", I'll like to keep it rather simple, just what consumers need to know, my reply - "WiMAX is a new technology which promises faster (and more stable) internet." The technical part, I will just leave it to the service provider and people who are involved in the industry.

Apparently, my opinion is also shared by the marketing department of a certain WiMAX service provider. The people in the department decided that they should keep their advertisement simple and appeal to potential customers in the most pleasant and inviting ways, which means no hard-selling or sending salespersons to (persistently) persuade you to sign-up to their services in supermarkets. Here's how they decide to appeal to the consumers:

Bollywood WiMAX

Commentary: Have you encountered the frustration of being disconnected when you are viewing a live internet broadcast or when you are chatting happily away on your Instant Messenger (IM)? Free yourself now and get connected when it matters and even when it does not...

The Flasher

Commentary: (Imagine sports commentator Hasbullah Awang) Ohh no! The Flasher is doing it again, this is outrageous! Ohh no, not again, please not again. Especially not in Central Market! Hehe :)

Do you enjoy watching the WiMAX advertisements? I wonder whether there will be more of those coming. Perhaps to continue the momentum through humour, Phua Chu Kang can be enlisted to say his favorite phrase - "Best in Singapore, JB, and some even say in Batam!"?

Currently I installed 4 different browsers on my computer: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. If I were to install Opera, I would have 4 of the most popular internet browsers, Chrome is the odd one but perhaps not for long.

The browser war is heating up now. There is a new challenger in town: Google Chrome. I will summarize what I feel and know about each of this 5 browsers below.

Internet Explorer (IE)
I have already updated IE to version 7, there is a new version coming out soon, IE v8. We have all read about the security flaws of older versions of IE, in particular version 4 and version 5. However, although I rarely use IE anymore (seriously, who's not using Firefox daily now?), on the rare occasions that I fire up IE, I can feel that Microsoft has put substantial efforts into improving IE. Version 7 is very stable and fast, it has tabbed browsing support and I regret to say that my IE now looks much cleaner than my Firefox, it has only the necessary toolbars and no other bulky add-on. Let's see what Microsoft can come up with IE v8 :)

Mozilla Firefox
I believe Firefox is the industry standard browser now. One of the reasons why this browser has enjoyed one of the fastest improvement is due to its open source license. Various programmers, users and add-ons builder contribute to the improvement of this browser. Not necessary the best looking browser in terms of interface now, also crashes occasionally. However, Firefox has unrivaled amount of useful add-ons, which makes it extremely powerful and can be customized according to individual users' needs. The no. 1 most popular browser for several consecutive years. Shame to say, I have very much abused the add-ons and installed a few additonal unimportant toolbars, to make my Firefox look bulky and clogged.

Safari
The browser names just get weirder and weirder, no? Who know's maybe there will be some new ones called Chocolate Fudge, Elephant Pie or even Ice Lab? OK, I made up all those name but I think the last one is pretty cool, anyone want to develop the name, please ask for my permission. Safari is produced by Apple, and like its other gadgets, the interface of Safari is the most beautiful among all browsers (my opinion). Some independent tests also indicate that Safari may be twice as fast versions of Firefox 2. I don't use it that much, period.

Opera
Opera has been pretty successful, look at how it maintained its position as the top 4 most popular browsers despite being in-direct competition with technological giants like Microsoft, Apple and open-sourced Mozilla Foundation (which has enjoyed substantial funding from search engine giant, Google). However it is currently only enjoying a very small slice of the browser users market. At first Opera is sold as a shareware, but I suppose to remain in the top 4 most popular browsers category, Opera has to be offered free of charge to consumers. There is little hope for Opera to regain more userbase, its best hope is to cling on to the top 4 most popular browsers category while going all out to be recognized as the best mobile Web browser.

Google Chrome
This browser has been secretly developed for over a year and no word about it got out at all until early September 2008. Still in beta status, heavily based on Mozilla Firefox's codes. It could have been prettier but like most other Google tools, I guess usability is more important to them than aesthetics. One of the advantages is that each browser tab is opened by separate memory threads, making it more stable and less prone for the main browser window to crash (and thus prevent loss of data). Chrome is predicted to be involved with a fierce three way struggle with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox in the race to be the top and most popular Web browser.

Do you like reading about Web browsers? I will write more about Web browsers in general, I am also planning to write more in details about Google Chrome and Opera.

Question(s) of the day: What is your favorite browser? Why?

In recent times, the price of commodities are rising and rising. Despite the reduction of world oil price, we all know better that the inflated price of other commodities would not be following the oily big brother down this direction.

You know, about a decade ago, there was a campaign in my beloved home country, which translated into English would roughly sound Zero Inflation Campaign. It was rather successful and I was curious why the current crop of leaders do not aspire to implement similar campaign again. Perhaps in the 21st century, zero inflation is not possible? Well, I suspect given the record high inflation rate this time around, zero inflation may not do much good either, we should instead strive for a reduction in the price of the commodities, just like in the good ole times, somehow we need negative inflation now.


Anyway, back to our topic. There's some good news, out of nowhere, Exabytes is offering discounts up to 70% in its hosting plans products. Apparently, Exabytes would be moving out of their present location to a new office. Congratulations to them! By the rate at which they are expanding and their (seemingly) good management and promotions, I can see only 1 local webhosting company giving them any challenge at all in their quest to dominate Malaysian webhosting scene. I have not done any extensive research into this, it is merely a hunch, but I might blog about the other company in other posts.

The hosting plans at discounted prices are limited and if you have been planning to get a reliable hosting, you should probably grab your chance now, which will only be available up to 15th of September. Here's a preview of what's left:
EBiz Plus Plan - original price USD68/yr, now only USD49/yr (Coupon Code: MovingPlus)
EBiz Gold Plan - original price USD116/yr, now only USD99/yr (Coupon Code: MovingGold)

The EBiz Plus plan is sufficient for a starting personal blog and some small projects (up to 3 domains or so), you don't want to be stingy and invest in Exabytes student package, that will only retard your growth. For the more ambitious, EBiz Gold plan will hold strong even if you are expecting a few millions visitors per month. You can view the features of both the plans here.

Finally, to take opportunity of this promotions, I have signed up with Exabytes as an affiliate. I will get paid a certain amount of money as commission for referring you to buy Exabytes' web hosting plan(s). If you like what you have read and are planning to buy a hosting anyway, why not buy it through my affiliate link below to benefit me?

Rejoice people, Independence Day of Malaysia is just around the corner!

This time around, we will not only be celebrating the independence of our beloved country and the exploits of Datuk (soon-to-be-conferred) Lee Chong Wei in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

So what else are we celebrating? Malaysians have plenty to celebrate indeed, Avril Lavigne's concert will be going on, the oil price has been reduced and last but not least, the stranglehold on local internet service held by TMNET (a subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia Berhad) might finally be broken by the imminent launch of WiMAX in Malaysia.

While the major WiMAX players have been rather quiet, P1 W1MAX is flexing its mighty muscles everywhere. YTL e-Solutions Berhad is expected to launch its WiMAX services in these few days.

What? You did not hear about P1 W1MAX yet until now? They are ubiquitous, their modem has been featured on a local Chinese daily, they have a pre-launch trial for consumers in the most recent PIKOM PC Fair and they officially launched their WiMAX service on 19th August 2008 in Mandarin Oriental, KL.

Unfortunately I have not been able to attend the event despite being invited by virtue of owning a (self-proclaimed) popular blog. However, I have included some photos of the event below, just to show you how grand the event was. I wish I was there. Special thanks to Danny Foo for giving me permission to post his photos of the event here.

Yes, you probably have heard about it. Taking opportunity of the recent PC Fair, one licensed WiMAX provider has offered WiMAX for trials to the speed-hungry internet users who don't mind spending more (or not?).

During my foray in the crowded convention center (KL lar), I failed to spot the said WiMAX provider, but I see that many people are holding that particular company's paper bag, I wonder what other goodies are offered. Err, go find out yourself lar which company is that, bad mood already, did not get to find out about the trials' terms and conditions.

So WiMAX is inevitable now, Streamyx (TM) better take notice! What are the possible effects of WiMAX in Malaysia?

1. Increased competition among internet service providers (TM, Maxis, Celcom, Jaring and the WiMAX providers).
2. Increased internet user base (especially those in the rural areas).
3. There will be increased money spending and business on the internet.
4. More offline job opportunities to support the online activities.
5. ASTRO & Cable TV will face competition too, online TV and streaming content will become popular.
6. Free internet connection in public places? ("Yes, I have a dream, ...").
7. More gadgets and devices will integrate wireless connections.
8. Possible Internet-on-the-Go services via WiMAX.
9. Better technology makes human lazier, resulting in obesity, bad health, ...
10. Perhaps there will not be much effects after all, WiMAX in its initial implementation will closely mimic wireless broadband, its full effects in the near future remains to be seen...

Err, above effects due to WiMAX implementation are purely my own opinions, you can disagree. To the less tech-savvy, I have this message for you: Aiya, let WiMAX come lar, nothing much to concern you lar (unless you have been looking for a faster and more stable internet service).

I see one licensed WiMAX provider company making great efforts to conquer the market, what about the others? Do you hear anything about them?

I love Malaysia. I am a 23 year old Malaysian Chinese. I have spent about 20 years in total since my birth in the country. Therefore, yes, perhaps I am biased in my opinion. Malaysia is my country of birth, my place of origin and I love Malaysia indefinitely.

Our country will be celebrating her 51st Independence Day on August 31st, 2008. Congratulations!

What I love about Malaysia?
I have seen the outside world, I have stayed and visited other foreign countries and I have heard about other cultures as well. However, deep in my heart, I have no doubt in my heart that Malaysia is the country I love. Malaysia is unique in her own ways.

Malaysia is made up of 3 major races, yet unity and co-operation spirits is often found during the most difficult time. The mamak stalls are allowed to operate 24/7, you may find some stalls in other countries closing as early as 5pm or 9pm the latest. Due to a variety of races in our population, we celebrate many different festivals regardless of race and religion. We exchange presents during Christmas, we offer ang pow and duit raya to younger generations, etc. We are a greedy lot too, we love to eat, we never seem to pass up an opportunity to have nasi lemak, roti canai, satay or cha kueh tiau. We can do whatever we want in the country as long as the activity is legal, we have unrestricted freedom in practising our religions and rights. I am especially proud of Malaysia's active participation in world issues (in United Nations and also among Islamic countries) to make the world a better place to live in. It is also comforting to know that Malaysia is still producing the world's best badminton players years after years. Mentioning sports, I also would like to congratulate our youngest Datuk for the award - Datuk Nicol David, she has been raising the profile of our country for numerous times and is one of the most recognisable sports figure in our country.

I think that would be enough, there are other things about Malaysia which I love but I would like to keep that to myself.

Ohh, by the way, I think I am also proud that Malaysia has an ambitious and strong-willed entrepreneur in quachee, he is the man behind the book above and he is involved in many businesses and entertainment industry too. He is the owner of www.themalaysiapage.com and the site is currently running a contest where 100 copies of the above book (worth RM51) will be given away. Quachee, keep up the good work, would certainly hope to meet and know you one of these days!

Are you Malaysian? What do you love about Malaysia? If you are not Malaysian, what have you heard about Malaysia? What is your experience in Malaysia?

Last week I received an email from one Amy Liu from the marketing department of Blogged.com. According to her, BobbyT Blogging To a T was recently reviewed by the editors of Blogged.com and they have graciously awarded it a score of 8.2 out of maximum possible 10 in the Technology/Computers category of Blogged.com. She also stressed that the score is quite high and is an achievement. Needless to say, I am surprised and pleased to have my blog recognized in a certain way.

The score is given based on certain criterias: Frequency of updates, relevance of content, site design and writing style. Considering the age of this blog and the fact that it is a 1-man blog, I am quite proud to display the score chart below (in comparison with the 9.9 score of slashdot.org in the same category).

Blogged.com is a site aiming to discover as many blogs as possible, present interesting content to blog readers, review and categorise blogs accurately and finally make life easier for blog authors and readers and to realize the potential of blogs as new free media.

Feel free to look around Blogged.com to discover more interesting blogs. You can participate in the rating of blogs and you can also add comments for certain blogs that you have visited. If you are a blog author, you can also submit your blog(s) to be reviewed and categorised. Who knows, you might attract many more new visitors to your blog.

Thank you Amy Liu for informing me about the rating I have received. Keep up the good work, Blogged.com :)

Since the announcement of licensed WiMAX providers in Malaysia, a fast and furious competition has ensued between the service providers to be the first to roll out WiMAX services to the end users.

The four licensed WiMAX providers in Malaysia, namely Bizsurf, Packet One Networks, Asiaspace Dotcom and Redtone-CNX Broadband have prepared for almost 2 years to introduce WiMAX services to the general public.

WiMAX is a relatively new technology and service in Malaysia, as such nobody can be certain regarding the future of WiMAX. The main concerns are:

• do the licensed WiMAX providers have enough experience to implement WiMAX services nationwide?
• will the pricing of the WiMAX services be affordable to a majority of the population?
• what are the effects of WiMAX to conventional broadband and wireless internet services?

With so much at stake, the licensees will probably adopt one of the following strategies:

1. Be the first to offer WiMAX services and gain first-mover advantage.
2. Sit back and let someone else be the first, duplicate the success of the first mover and avoid mistakes made by it.
3. Be indifferent to other licensees' moves, introduce WiMAX services when it is ready, according to the company's plans.

Of special interest to consumers is the pricing for WiMAX services. Will it be cheaper or slightly more expensive than the current internet services (broadband and wireless inclusive)? I personally think that initially, WiMAX services would certainly be more expensive than the average Streamyx package, I estimate the price to range between RM120-150 per month.

Whatever the pricing may be, it won't come cheap IMHO because there is the cost of WiMAX modem to consider. The WiMAX service providers may charge a 1 time fee for the modem or they may charge monthly subscription fees. Considering the history of the internet packages in the country, it is highly possible that the WiMAX providers would also require consumers to sign a contract, tying them to the service for a fixed amount of time (minimum 1 year perhaps?).

How much do you think WiMAX will be charged? How much are you willing to pay? I am anxious to try WiMAX and willing to pay a slightly higher price if I could be guaranteed to receive a fast and stable connection. What about you?

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or the technology better known as WiMAX is expected to be widely adopted anytime soon and will be replacing the conventional modes of internet connectivity (the likes of wired broadband, WiFi and even HSPDA).

Why is WiMAX preferred?

1. WiMAX is essentially a wireless digital communications system, that naturally explains its advantage over wired broadband internet connection.
2. WiMax (IEEE 802.16) is superior to its predecessor, WiFi which uses the 802.11 specifications (WiMAX has wider range, higher speed and less interference effects).
3. WiMAX is also more cost effective to deploy than cables to each house especially in rural areas.
4. During emergency and for security purposes, WiMAX's advantages are undisputed (being far-reaching, it can also be easily set up through fixed or mobile transmitters).

How WiMAX works?
To the end users, there is not much difference in using WiFi and WiMAX. They only have to get WiMAX enabled devices and as long as there are WiMAX services and facilities around, they should be able to experience good internet connection. For further information on how WiMax works, check the following articles:

• HowStuffWorks "How WiMAX Works" (general information)
• WiMAX technical information on Wikipedia (for tech-savvy consumers)

Future Development
World leaders and technology analysts are convinced that WiMAX has plenty to offer and will be adopting it in stages as the wireless networking standard. In mid-2006, Sprint Nextel announced that it would be investing about US$5 billion in WiMAX technology over the next few years. Meanwhile computer developers, led by computer chip giant Intel are preparing to release computers integrated with WiMAX receivers. Other multimedia applications are expected to be enhanced by WiMax.

It has been quite some time since I have entered a contest through this blog. This time the MoneyBites Contest caught my attention and since the entry method is rather easy, I have decided to join in the fun.

MoneyBites is a blog about how to earn online. Unlike other contests out there, this contest is very easy to join, all you have to do is to write a simple blog post about the contest (just like this one), link to MoneyBites with the required anchor text, and subscribe to MoneyBites RSS feed through email.

There are 3 great prizes up for grabs:

1. $50 cash via PayPal
   
2. $20 cash via PayPal
   
3. $5 cash via PayPal

If you have multiple blogs, you can write unique post on each blog to increase your chances of winning the prize on offer. Winners will be selected using a randomizer.

No contest will be easier to join than this one! Hurry up now, the contest is ending on 15th July 2008. Good luck :)

Do you know how to register a domain, sort of your own dot com (and other TLDs too)? It's pretty easy actually, provided that you have your own credit card or other online currency accounts such as PayPal, Moneybookers, etc. Registering a domain with a domain registrar is as easy as signing up for a free email account. Of course, you also have to have money in your online currency accounts before you can purchase and register domain names under your name.

It is essential to choose good domain registrars, you don't want to have trouble registering, renewing or transferring your domains later on. Some good domain registrars are GoDaddy, NameCheap, Domain.com and Name.com. You might want to google them, read up on them and check their reputations before dealing with them.

Well actually Name.com is not that famous. However I have been using them for a few months, I have registered 3 domains with them and their support so far has been excellent. So I can personally testify to the excellence of their service, experienced or newbie webmasters alike should really try them out.

Why do I recommend them so much?

I'm glad you asked. There are a few reasons actually, I will present them in point form, it will be easier to read that way:

1. Affordable price. The new domain registration on Name.com is one of the most affordable, even without any discount coupons. For a new dot com, the fee is only $5.99, subsequent renewals are $9.99 per year per domain, which is pretty standard among all domain registrars. Now, try to beat this price!
2. Domain registration comes with free WHOIS protection. Some webmasters need to protect their personal information with WHOIS protection, otherwise anyone on the internet can easily find out his or her home address. WHOIS protection can easily cost up to a few dollars each year with other domain registrars, while some offer it for free for 1 year. Name.com actually offers WHOIS protection for free every year (please correct me, I might be wrong here...)
3. Free Google Apps. Google apps are provided for free for new domain registration on Name.com. A total of 6GB email space is given in this package together with other useful tools such as organiser, web space, calendar, etc. If you do not have a web hosting, but still wish to have a personalized email, something like name@familyname.com, you could easily have that by registering a domain with Name.com, only $5.99 for the first year and $9.99 for the subsequent years! Up to 200 email addresses (each 300MB) can be created for each domain name.
4. They have excellent support team. I have emailed them multiple times, not because their service is unstable or anything, I just needed some guides to configure the name servers and DNS settings. Each time I emailed the support, they would reply back to me within 12 hours maximum, I did not really keep track of the time they took to reply, it was an estimation but I am really impressed with their support team. Moreover, they do not simply point me to more help files when I ask them questions, they actually read through my questions and advised me the best solutions available. Kudos to Name.com's support!
   

Well, that's about all I could say about Name.com. Note that I am not affiliated with them in any way, I am just one of their customers, a very satisfied one.

If you have $5.99 to spare and wish to register a domain now, why don't you try them out? If you are unsatisfied with their services, you can easily transfer your domain name over to other domain registrars, but I bet you, you won't be unsatisfied :)

Would you like to be a part of history? Would you like to help set a Guinness world record of the most downloaded software in 24 hours' time?

I am already part of the history in making, there are nearly 5,000,000 million completed downloads as I am writing this post.

Mozilla Firefox is the world's most popular browser and Firefox 3 final is the latest version just recently available for download. The new version has many new features, various add-ons, improved security and productivity.

In appreciation of users' participation in the download day mission, users can download their own personalized Firefox 3 Download Day certificates, like the one above. How long has it been since the last time you were awarded with a certificate? Now, you can be a part of history, you can download the certificate, leave it to rot (together with your harddisk), or you can print it and even frame it!

However, before you start installing Firefox 3, be warned that older versions of add-ons, extensions and integration modules from other softwares may not be 100% compatible with it. I have several add-ons which are not compatible with Firefox 3 and also my download manager integration module is also disabled due to incompatibility issue. There are also some minor changes with Firefox as a whole (big ugly icons in the address bar, bigger browsing area, etc), which might take some time for us to adapt to.

So, my advice, if you are highly dependent on Firefox add-ons and enjoying your surfing experience with older versions of Firefox right now, you should proceed to download Firefox 3 (just to help set the world record!) and only install it when you are sure that the add-ons and integration modules have updated versions as well which are compatible with Firefox 3.

Have a happy day downloading and (not) using Firefox 3!

Now I am not an experienced webmaster or blogger. I have only been blogging for like 6 months. In my quest to have my own domain and hosting, I have read many reviews, recommendations and advices regarding choice of web hosts and features to look out for. I shall offer my thoughts about shared hosting here.

If you are looking to get your first domain and hosting, I recommend that you buy a shared hosting. The prices of shared hosting may range from a few dollars to over $100 per year. You will want to choose a company with good reputations, I can easily name more than 5 hosting companies which you can trust the fate of your websites to: Hostgator, DreamHost, LunarHosting, HostMonster, IXWebHosting and BlueHost.

There are many things to consider before getting a hosting account, such as:

• how many domains are allowed (usually 1 main domain, several add-on domains)
• stability of the host (all hosts I mentioned above have close to 99.9% uptime, I think)
• bandwidth (different people may have different needs, depends also on type of sites)
• support (most top hosts now have live chat support, phone support, support ticketing sytem)

So far I only have experience with normal website hosting, I think most hosting companies would offer separate package for other types of hosting such as file hosting, image hosting, proxy hosting, etc. As for normal website hosting, the features that you should expect to have on a shared hosting account are:

• cPanel (most popular control panel for hosting account)
  
• PHP
• MySQL
• Fantastico
• Stats
  

I have personally purchased a shared hosting account from Hostgator. It is not the most affordable hosts around, but it has received many positive reviews in recent months. I can testify to its promise of 99.9% uptime and good support (there is a live chat support available). I have not tried other hosting companies but I have read enough reviews about them that I am confident to list them as my personal top 10 choice of web hostings.

Finally, if you can afford it, do seriously consider the hostings which I have mentioned above. Paying slightly more to ensure the stability of your sites is a good investment. I will also let you in on a secret, I mentioned those hosting companies not only because their prices are affordable, their hostings are stable and their supports are excellent. I mentioned them because they leave an impression on me, some of them have great sign-up offers to attract customers such as free domain, free advertising credits (Google AdWord and others), free setup and other free gifts. So, shop wisely, take your time to evaluate your options, ask for advices from more experienced folks and select the best shared hosting package for yourself. Good luck buying your own hosting :)

Fancy another freebie eh people? Yes, there is indeed another giveaway and this time it is a free ebook called "Get Started Blogging".

Unfortunately, this ebook is not written by me, as much as I would like to claim so. This ebook is written by Germz, you can actually get it free by subscribing to his newsletter.

I have actually read through his ebook, it is good, there is solid information in it and is definitely useful for bloggers who are just starting out.

A big part of the ebook concentrates on the Wordpress blogging platform which is widely used by blogs all around the world. However this book includes other general blogging topics as well, which are:

• niche (what it is, on choosing a niche)
• obtaining a blog (what it is, Blogger and WordPress)
• installing Wordpress (with screenshots)
  
• optimizing your blog (plugins, themes, SEO)
• content of your blog (different kinds of content)
  
• monetizing your blog (affiliate marketing, private ad sales)
  
• advertising your blog (sort of marketing your site)
  

Are you interested in the ebook? You should get it now, there is nothing to lose, it is free after all! OK, I know not every free thing is good, but this ebook is definitely worth getting, you can check other people's testimonials to the ebook before downloading it.

Free things are just great, aren't they? Free ebook with useful information is even better. I figure I should also write a few ebooks, but I may give them away for free like Germz, or I may decide to sell them. What do you think? Should I write ebooks? If you were given the chance to choose the subject of an ebook to be written, what subject would you like it to be?

The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks and Techniques is available for download for free on SitePoint. The book is originally sold for $29.95 and is not one of those hastily assembled sub-standard ebooks on the internet.

Authored by Corrie Haffly, this book is intended for web designers and anyone who wishes to acquire a passing knowledge about graphic manipulations. I have not gone through the book yet, but looking at its Table of Contents, it is quite a good book for learning Photoshop and other graphic manipulation programs (most programs have similar features and functionality).

If you have tried to learn Photoshop on your own to no avail and are reluctant to fork out money upfront to buy a proper book, then consider getting this free book which is available for download as a PDF file. You would need a PDF reader to view the book, you can use yet another freebie, the Foxit Reader to view PDF files. Even for those who are already quite familiar with Photoshop, you might still learn a thing or two from this book, or you could just keep it on your hard-drive for future reference or pass it along to interested friends or relatives (you are probably not allowed to distribute it online as a free download though, do check with SitePoint or the author regarding your distribution rights).

You will do well to quickly download the book now because the free offer does not last forever, this giveaway only lasts for 7 more days (ending June 13th, 2008). Get it now!

In conjunction with Exabytes 7th anniversary, I have written an open letter to them. Hopefully someone from Exabytes will read this open letter and give me feedback by commenting here. Here's my 7 paragraphs, 577 words open letter to Exabytes to express all I want. Happy 7th Anniversary!

Hi Exabytes,

I did not know you 7 years ago. I started knowing you since early 2008, that was when I decided to start blogging.

I believe you are one of the best Malaysian hosting companies now, there are others out there but I could not name any off-hand. Maybe my knowledge is limited, or it so happens that Malaysians like to talk about you.

People say you are the best in Malaysia because:

1. Your hosting is reliable.
2. You have excellent and extra-fast support team.
3. Your data centers are based in Malaysia and US, thus ensuring fast access of websites for Internet users based in Malaysia.
   

Although I did not know you in your early years, I have read quite a lot about you and also how you were initially set up. The founding story of Exabytes is indeed inspirational and will be a good motivation for any Malaysians who wish to emulate your success.

Now you are celebrating your 7th anniversary. You may have expanded, have more workers, assets and also customers now than the yesteryears but I believe these days do not count as your glory days in terms of customer satisfaction. I may be wrong but I believe that customers were really happy with your service during your 4th and 5th year in business. Then just few months before your 7th birthday, everything goes wrong - customer complaining about the uptime of your servers, the same customer saying that using shared hosting on Exabytes might affect a site's search engine ranking and finally customers protesting against your new policy which prohibits content related to homosexuals.

Exabytes, why don't you take this opportunity (in view of your anniversary) to put back emphasis on things that matter? Moving forward and expansion are important but you must not lose sight of the importance of maintaining the quality of your services, of which you are highly reputed in the past and a large part of your reputation is based on server reliability and excellent support team. Besides that, regarding the enforcement of the new anti-homosexual content policy, I am sure that your intentions are noble. However you might want to get a professional lawyer to rephrase your policy and you need to distinguish between homosexual adult material and safe content involving homosexuals. Allegation of discrimination against homosexuals is certainly one thing you don't wish to be associated with.

Dear Exabytes, you have established yourself as a reliable hosting with good support and your price is among the most affordable. These are the things that distinguish you from your competitors. Don't forget your roots and continue with the good work you have put in the last 7 years, don't let it go to waste! I am not your customer and have not used your hosting before but if people were to ask for my recommendation of a reliable Malaysian hosting, I would mention your name without a second thought. As for international market, unfortunately you probably would not be my first choice recommendation, there are really attractive offers out there and there is still work to be done if you want to be ranked among the best international web hostings. However, I believe you are not that far off from the big players up there. Make me and other Malaysians proud, I would certainly be happy if one day I could recommend you as the best hosting for international market as well.

Happy 7th Anniversary!
BobbyT

Hi, been quite some days since the last post here. I was busy with a lot of things: buying some webhostings and domains, learning the ropes of self-hosting and WordPress and literally doing marketing with other web entrepreneurs.

Also I have been planning to change the Blogger template for quite some time now and finally you can see the template of my choice here. However the "upgrading" of the layout is not 100% done yet, there is still a lot of stuffs to clean up, re-arrange and modify and add. I hope to finish tying the loose ends with the layout soon.

In the last few days, I managed to grab 2 great hosting offers, 1 is a personal account while the other is a reseller hosting account and I got both of them at a killer price. I am not sure what to do with the reseller hosting yet, either give out some free accounts or sell some cheap hosting packages, or use it myself. Seriously I have got more hosting accounts than I can use right now, and recently I was informed that I have won 1 year hosting + domain from a contest I joined.

OK, this is an unofficial questionnaire. I have not decided to sell hosting packages on the reseller hosting but I may depending on the response to the questions I have here.

1. Would you like to have your own blog with your own dot com?
2. What price are you willing to pay per year for blog and domain hosting?
3. If you were going not planning to have your own blog, would my offer of USD3/year hosting and domain entice and perhaps change your mind?
   

Obviously, my hosting will be able to support forums, PHP, MySQL, etc. but I am thinking that most people will prefer having just a blog. My hosting has up to 400GB bandwidth, I will be selling at least 10 accounts if I decide to sell. Some simple calculations, if you were to buy a domain to be hosted with me, the total might only come up to $10USD per year. Interested?

Would like to know your opinions about this. Meanwhile I will keep a watch on the hosting server, to see how stable it is and I may post the report few days later. Also I have 3-4 good posts being lined up and at least 1 or 2 freebies for you guys soon, so don't forget to check this blog again tommorow or the day after tommorow!

Some of you might be aware that besides maintaining this blog, I also earn money online by providing article writing and rewriting services. Therefore I am especially alert when there is important news regarding this trade. Few days ago, I stumbled upon an online tool to help rewrite an article, to make it unique. The tool has a most curious name - BadArticle.

Unfortunately, this tool will only work with Internet Explorer 6+ onwards and requires prior installation of Microsoft Word 2003. I am lucky that I have both.

I wish to test out this article rewrite tool, to see how much of a threat it is to us, freelance writers who make partial income from rewriting jobs. Below is a sample text which I feed into BadArticle and the rewritten text. Note that BadArticle will only start to rewrite an article having a minimum size of 1000 (characters or space, I guess, each line break is worth 2 characters). My sample text is padded with some random sequence of alphabets so that I can use the tool.

This is a sample article written by BobbyT to test out the BadArticle rewriting tool.

Search Engine Optimization experts have mostly agreed that having unique contents will usually rank sites higher than others with duplicate contents. Therefore it is vital for webmasters and
bloggers to type out their own unique posts, or hire an article rewriter to do the job.

Well there is another alternative, there are automated article rewriters which will convert an article into a unique post. Who needs human to do the job when we have an obliging piece of computer laying around? Now you can feed whatever articles you want into BadArticle, it will produce (hopefully) unique articles out of them.

How to test whether BadArticle has done a good job or not? Use copyscape, feed it the article produced by BadArticle, if there is no duplicate found on the Google index, then that particular article is fairly unique.

Here is the rewritten text:

This is a model term written by BobbyT to analyze out the BadArticle rewriting tool.

Search Engine Optimization experts have typically approved that having rare filling will generally rank sites higher than others with duplicate inside. Therefore it is essential for webmasters and bloggers to print out their own single posts, or hire an condition rewriter to do the job.

Well there is another alternative, there are automated clause rewriters which will convert an critique into a rare advertise. Who wishes creature to do the job when we have an obliging example of notebook laying around? Now you can nourish anything articles you want into BadArticle, it will construct (hopefully) exclusive articles out of them.

How to examine whether BadArticle has done a good job or not? Use copyscape, nourish it the thing produced by BadArticle, if there is no duplicate found on the Google symbol, then that particular section is justly sole.

From my analysis, there is a total of 153 words in the text and BadArticle replaces 31 words from the original text with alternative words. 31 words out of 153 total words is a change of about 20%. The rewritten version is not really intelligible but I am partly at fault here. BadArticle provides for users to change the suggested alternative words on the fly before it outputs a final rewrite, which I did not mainly because I want to demonstrate the true capability of this tool without human intervention. Another reason why the rewritten version is not that good is because of my uncalled for preferences for out-of-context verb such as feed and adjective like fairly which could carry many meanings.

If any of you intend to use this tool for unique articles, I would advise that you proofread and revise the rewritten text before publishing it, your readers would probably misunderstand your meanings if you just blindly use the rewritten text without revision. Based on the performance of this tool, I shall conclude that article rewriters would not be out of job for a long time to come, yet. However, BadArticle is a new tool and is probably being improved even at this moment when you are reading this review. Besides, what more could you ask for from a free tool and service?

Test BadArticle yourselves, don't just listen to my unqualified assessments! Get unique now!

Free Article Spinner
Free Article Rewrite

How long have you been reading blogs? Do you follow blogs that blog about blogging and related topics? If you have been reading blogs that blog about blogging for quite some time, you should have realized one common thing about all those blogs. Most, if not all, organize contests in their bid to attract more visitors and followers and improve their site rankings.

There are many blogs that blog about blogging, so there is no shortage of information available. Besides, if every other blogs are running contests, and one blog doesn't, it will certainly lose out in comparison with the others.

This is in contrast with the situation in the yesteryears, where blogs about every niche are pretty scarce and they are more valued by their own groups of readers. Although the number of blog readers at that time were small, those who follow blogs do so with pure interest and sincerity. They do not follow blogs just because there are weekly lucky draws or monthly contests with great prizes to win.

So, does this mean that a blog with good content won't be followed if it doesn't run contests? No, definitely not! The blog readers still have a tendency to follow the blogs with good content, but between 2 equally great blogs, it is more likely that they will participate in the one with more activities and great prizes to be won.

Am I for or against contests?
This is not a simple question. When everyone is organizing contests, they will be a tendency by some people to concentrate purely on organizing bigger and better contests, to the point of neglecting the original direction of their blogs. As a result, there will be more posts with no useful information (or so called spam posts) online while production of beneficial or resourceful posts are halted or delayed. However, the running of contests is still under control so far, there are no excessive contest posts yet (among millions of pages in the internet!), and there are certain bloggers out there who still refuse to buckle to peer pressure and continue producing useful posts, ignoring fancy gimmicks of the competitors. Considering this, I am in favor of contests at this moment, they attract attentions, convert blog readers to loyal followers and when there are more followings, there will be improvements, among the blogs that blog about blogging as well as in blogosphere in general.


I guess you guys will forgive me for talking too much about contests on this blog after I dedicated this whole post to explain why I am in favor of contests. Anyway, do check out the above contests if you haven't heard about it, I am one of the sponsors ... Try to spot the prizes that I offer :)

What is your opinion about contests? Do you favor contests or are you against them? Why? Share your views with us please, we will like to know.