This is a continuation of the P1 WiMAX Experience post I wrote before.

During the P1 WiMAX Experience event, time was allocated for the invited guests to have an open discussion with P1 representatives regarding the Internet services in Malaysia, the ISPs, WiMAX services and also role of P1 as the first provider that launched WiMAX internet services in Malaysia.

P1 was represented by 3 staff members, namely Billy Lee (Technical Officer), Christina Tang (Director of Brand/Marketing Communications) and Kenny Wong (Chief Marketing Officer - CMO). They impressed upon us that P1 values sharing session and discussion with consumers are one of feedback methods for them to improve their product and customer services.

Here are some of the P1 plans which was shared with us:

1. P1 WiMAX coverage is rolling out in Alor Setar
2. By year end, P1 expects to cover at least half of Klang Valley.
3. Unfortunately, Kelana Jaya may only get a taste of P1 WiMAX around December 2008 or first quarter of 2009.
4. USB modem will only be available in the first quarter of 2009.
5. An online application will be provided so that users can monitor their monthly bandwidth usage.
6. A package for heavy users is being considered right now.
   

If you do not already know, P1 will be implementing a fair usage policy in their P1 WiMAX services, meaning that subscribers download/upload speed will be managed so that all users across the network will enjoy satisfactory connection speed. In the fair usage policy, there is also a bandwidth cap of 20GB for subscribers of (bandwidth) limited plans.

However, from the tone of P1 representatives and rumours which I have heard from Malaysian internet user forums, the fair usage policy is not strictly enforced at this moment because the subscriber volume is still relatively low compared to the maximum capacity that could be supported by P1's impressive facilities.

At the end of the discussion, most guests understand the need for the fair usage policy but apparently some bloggers still feel that 20GB per month is inadequate for heavy internet users. To our astonishment, P1 tried to gauge our respond towards a package for heavy users, "Would you subscribe to a package for heavy users?"

Da-hhh. So apparently they knew our main concerns. Unfortunately, the representatives did not give further details regarding the package for heavy users, for now we can only assume that it is under consideration and may or may not be offered. I am sure the market response would very much influence P1's decision, so you might want to try emailing P1 if you are a heavy user who would like to have a customized package.

As for me, I am glad even if P1 has only briefly considered the possibility of offering customized plans for users with different needs. I suppose this is a good sign, we finally have an ISP which would listen to consumers' voices and do whatever it can to improve its services and consumers' internet experience.

Next I shall be discussing fair usage policy as well as bandwidth cap neutrally. Is there anything you would like to ask P1 or would like P1 to acknowledge or know about? Please share it with us here.

I had an opportunity to attend P1 WiMAX Experience event about 10 days ago. I managed to secure an invitation to the event because of a fellow blogger friend who attended P1 W1MAX Launch back in August.

The purpose of the event is to showcase P1's superior services and products. I also later learn that it was the opening day of the P1 Packet Hub. During the P1 WiMAX Experience, we were given a tour around the main lobby, the brand-new office, as well as a short peek into employee's facilities and the service monitoring room.

The main lobby or customer service center is located on the ground floor, it is very well decorated, there were many fancy souvenirs, banners and comfortable seats and sofas spread around the space. Now anyone interested can just walk into the customer service center, try out any of the 3 P1 W1MAX speed packages on offer and talk to customer service for enquiries regarding the services.

P1 is among the most proactive WiMAX provider in Malaysia. Before departing the ground floor for higher floors, we got a chance to laze on the comfortable sofas. Apparently that is a cue for us bloggers, industry experts, members of the press and other invited guests to have an open discussion with P1 staffs regarding the issues of internet, ISP(s), wireless internet services, P1 W1MAX, WiMAX and the roles played by P1 in the industry thus far. I have noted down some important points from the discussion but I shall post them in another blog post.


Lastly we were given a glimpse of the service control room which is a high priority and security room. We were of course, not allowed in there, we have to see the settings of the room through a glass partition.

Well the tour was fun and the P1 staffs are really friendly and accommodating. When I started this blog, I have never expected to participate in any blogger events or meetings. However I suppose a blogger needs to interact with other members of the society and keep himself updated on all happenings, otherwise he will be outdated. I fully support such events, so if you know of any, kindly do let me know!

Oh by the way, I forgot to visit the toilet of P1. I wonder if it will be as sophisticated as the rest of the building or as pretty as the RM5 or RM7 "premium" toilets in KLCC and Midvalley.

Have you attended any blogger gatherings or events? Would you like to attend one? If there is another event by P1 or other companies, do you want me to invite you (if it is possible)?

QuaChee is a blogger, an entrepreneur, a model, an actor and a friend (if I may say so). He has achieved many things which some youngsters could only dream to attempt.

Recently QuaChee has published a tourism book called 50+1 Malaysia - a book about interesting places, food, people and events in Malaysia. It is not the first book published by QuaChee, he has published another book called Batik Inspirations in 2005.

QuaChee is obviously a very busy person and his business requires him to travel to and forth between Malaysia and her little Southern neighbour, Singapore. He is one of the few entrepreneurs which I look up to mainly because he gives personal attention to his contacts and would correspond directly and he is rather humble too. I also love what he is doing, rarely would a young Malaysian promote our beloved country as much as he did in his work. Besides, I just sort of think that the life of an entrepreneur is rather exciting, absolutely different from millions others who work 9-5 shift every weekday. I have at least one other personal friend with similar life, perhaps I should interview both of them and other entrepreneurs and write up a blog post to share with you insights of entrepreneurs' life.

By the way, QuaChee will be having 2 talks this weekend. Here are the details of the talks:

I LOVE Malaysia Lah
So often than not, living in Malaysia, we have 101 complaints about this country. But beyond all these, Malaysia is a beautiful country from places, food and even people. And to say I LOVE Malaysia is no understatement. It is afterall, home.
15 NOV 2008 (SAT), 2pm,POPULAR @ Sunway Pyramid

50+1 Malaysia: The Journey & Things You Might Not Know
Did you know we had over 100 book covers? And that the book title was something different in the start? These are just the few things we faced. If you are interested to learn more on the journey of publishing this book and insight to the publishing industry, this talk is for you.
16 NOV 2008 (SUN), 2pm, POPULAR @ IKANO Power Centre

The talks are free and I am especially interested in the second talk. You know I have this crazy idea of being an author/writer of at least 1 book before I grow senile. Besides, I am sure QuaChee will be glad to entertain anyone who likes to have entrepreneurship advices from him.

So I urge all youngsters, even working adults and the press especially to attend these events. This talented patriot deserves every bit of support for his tireless efforts to promote Malaysia. Hopefully his talks will be covered in the newspapers! QuaChee has demonstrated that life and work can be meaningful, if you wished your life could be more exciting and that you could make a difference in this world, maybe these events would be a good first step... :)

As a non-US citizen, it is not easy to be accepted into any any advertising network (especially those affiliate network). Most advertising networks would require their publishers to have a decent-looking website before approving them as members while others would conduct a 1-to-1 interview on the phone to find out how their publishers intend to "sell" their affiliate products or services.

By chance, I stumbled upon Motive Interactive. It is an advertising network specialising in CPA offers but other monetizing options for publishers are available too, including CPM, CPL, etc.

Some advertising networks do not provide support to their publishers whatsoever, they just give out some codes and expect publishers to do the rest, there is no stats tracking, no stats report, no direct affiliate manager and feedbacks between publishers and advertisers. The same cannot be said of Motive Interactive. At first I was reluctant to apply as a publisher but after corresponding with Motive Interactive's support staff, he convinced me to join, elaborating that their network is different and he even showed me a preview of their new Advent 2.0 platform.

The Motive Network will be powered by Advent 2.0. Advent 2.0 is specially created to cater to increasing demands of advertising industry and it is highly scalable and adaptable should any unforeseen changes in the future arise to maintain its competitive edge.

The key features differentiating Advent 2.0 from other networks' platforms are:

• it provides ad serving and impression tracking capabilities (beneficial to publishers and advertisers alike).
• the data model, code model and system processes are designed by industry experts with years of experience building high volume performance advertising and lead generation networks.
• it contains advanced features other platforms do not have - multiple payout support which includes commission based sales, individual publisher and advertiser allocations and lead routing to multiple advertisers and buyers.
• it has real time and batched lead processing as well as very flexible and powerful data
  handling and validation capabilities.
• it has a clean, streamlined user interface that empowers publishers to get to the offers, creative, statistics and campaign information they need quickly.
• publishers have access to tools to measure important campaign performance metrics across all time periods, campaigns and payouts in multiple perspectives including 'effective' perspectives like eCPM and eCPL.
• it has simple, but powerful filtering capabilities for offers, campaigns and performance statistics.

Even when my affiliate manager was 'selling' the platform to me, I was in doubt despite learning about the efficiency of the Advent 2.0 system. Realizing the shortcomings of words, Motive Interactive decided to come up with the following 'preview' video of the system.



Well, a picture paints a thousand words and a video paints a thousand pictures. Hence I am convinced that The Motive Network might just be the affiliate network which might help me make money and I am now looking for best offers in the Motive Network to promote. Once I make some money from Motive Interactive, I shall share my promotion methods here, hopefully people who decide to use my methods would sign up as my referral to enable me to benefit from some referral earnings.

Motive Interactive's referral earnings program is 5.5% lifetimes referral earnings. This payout is among the highest in the industry. The referred publisher must continue to generate commissions without a lapse of twelve (12) calendar months in order for the referrer to continue receiving the 5.5% commission from that publisher each month.

By the way, before ending this review, my affiliate manager informed me that Motive Interactive is now actively seeking for top affiliate marketers, especially those who could generate publisher commissions higher than $10,000 per month. To encourage those internet marketers to try out the new Advent v2.0 system, the following reward system is devised.

Rewards are paid each month based upon a publisher's commissions for the previous month. The reward payout starts at 1% then increases to 2% the higher the tier. The current payout tiers for the rewards program are as follows:
Top affiliate marketers out there, you'd do well with $10,000-$25,000 rewards, not to mention the commissions already in your pocket if you could sell so much of Motive Interactive's affiliate products, they would love you so much!

So, I'll be taking off to see what offers could I promote soon. Thank you to my affiliate manager, Luke, you have already opened my eyes to the possibilities eventhough I have not earned much from affiliate network, yet.

Click here to join as one of the publishers of Motive Interactive

Have you joined any advertising (affiliate) network as a publisher or advertiser? Are you satisfied with the service? What do you think about Motive Interactive's new Advent 2.0 system?

Bustathief.com is a community-friendly fraud information site. Its tagline is "Protecting you and your finances".

Indeed, on the front page of the site itself, is a permanent "sticky" page detailing how to effectively report fraud. Strategies and methods to get your money back and cautioning others about scams are provided in that single post. There is also a list of agency which will accept fraud complaints and do whatever they could to nail down the culprits and recover your money.

Scams are one of the worst crimes ever, both in the cyberworld and reality. Scammers pounce upon human's greed and are opportunistic leeches - they strike indiscriminately whenever they sense an opportunity, regardless the victims are rich or poor, young or old and whether they urgently need the money or not. Scammers are hated both by the whitehat and blackhat people, instead of working hard to earn honest money, scammers prefer to take the easy way out and swindle and cheat innocent people.

Bustathief.com strongly advises and calls for people who have been (almost) scammed to come forward, share their stories and report fraud. By doing so, you may not get your money back but you are providing a great service to other people so that they do not fall victim to the same scams again. To make it easy for people to share their stories, Bustathief.com hosts an online form for visitors to submit their stories.

Various types of scams are neatly organised on Bustathief.com, featuring categories and posts such as Consumer Scams, Identity Theft, Investment Scams, Mail Fraud and Credit Card Fraud. Besides these useful information regarding the nature and modus operandi of various scams, Bustathief.com also has interesting articles about making money online and how to optimize articles for maximum search engine visibility.

To avoid getting scammed and for other street-smart online tips, do visit Bustathief.com. Let's co-operate as a community and help to reduce scam cases. Make the cyberworld and our world a safer place. You could help by linking to this site now...

This community friendly message is brought to you by BobbyT. Have you visited Bustathief.com? Do you like it? Have you been scammed before? Do you have any tips to share with us to avoid being scammed online?

This is the sort of time when I would really chant, "Gooooooooooooooo Daddy!"

Yes, GoDaddy is at it again, there's some sort of inexplicable coupon code which will enable each customer to register a dot com (.COM) at the low price of $2.19!!! I have just got myself a domain, within first 5 minutes of getting to know about this coupon code. Be warned, most of the time when this kind of things happen, it will not last long! So, use the coupon code below to get a major discount for 1 new .COM domain:

199TEST

Comments on my blog posts and thanks appreciated if I helped you in any way with this post.

Lastly, I don't claim credit for the discovery of this coupon code, read about it on The University Kid today, just have a hunch to visit it, normally I don't visit it everyday. I guess that just means that there are gems to be found almost every other day on The University Kid. Thanks TUK!!!

What domain did you register using this coupon code?

I guess this is a pretty stale news by now but I still would like to talk about the recent Entrecard and its economy makeover.

On 29th September, I received an email from Entrecard. Apparently it is having an overhaul of its economy and redefining the value of its credits as well as setting some rules on what is allowed and what is not when it comes to credit transfers. Here's a quote from the email I received from Entrecard management:

1. Buy credits for less: Entrecard is now selling 1,000 credits for $6.00. You can buy them here: http://entrecard.com/r/buy_credits
   
2. More pricing increments: Instead of prices doubling every time, there are now a few more steps. The new price points can be found on the Advertising page in the wiki, here: http://entrecard.com/docs/doku.php?id=advertising
   
3. Members are not allowed to sell credits: This goes for ebay sales, posts in the Marketing forum, and posts on other forums. If you have references on your site to the sale of credits, please remove them immediately, as it is now against our terms.
4. Credit transfer limits: Members are allowed to make a maximum of 14 credit transfers a week, up to a maximum of 1,000 credits, whichever comes first. This means you can still run contests where you give credits away for free, and under 1k per week. Note: This does not affect linked blogs, you can transfer unlimited credits between linked blogs.
5. Transfer tax: From now on, all transfers, including transfers made with our new payments API, will be taxed at a rate of 12.5%. The taxed credits will be sold to members (see #1).
6. Blogs cannot be unlinked: Once you link a blog, it's there for good unless you ask us to delete the blog from your account. This prevents linking/unlinking to get around the credit transfer limits, and it also stops you losing access to a blog if you unlink it in error, which happens a lot.
7. No more coupons: You are no longer allowed to send coupons.
8. Shop closed: Except for Entrecard upgrades (Featured Status, Fast Pass) the Entrecard Shop is now offline until further notice. Please do not request a seller token until the shop returns. When it comes back, it will be bigger and better. We'll communicate more details nearer the time.

I don't see eye to eye to this new rules set by Entrecard, many original Entrecard users are not happy either when many changes were made in regards to its economy several months ago. I would like to respond to each points presented above (the number corresponds to the number of the points found in the email sent by Entrecard):

1. Buy credits for less (1000 for $6)? I think the Entrecard management has been oblivious to the fact that 10,000 EC were selling as low as $1. No doubt we can buy from Entrecard but their price IS not low.
2. No comment here, just that publisher would be earning very little EC from now on.
3. Nice, so now there is total monopoly when it comes to sales of EC. However, I think some users would ignore the warning and continue to sell EC from underground.
4. I actually welcome this new rule. From now on there will be less worthless contest offering thousands of EC which does not worth much anyway!
   
5. Entrecard gets EC each time an advertiser buys ad from a publisher, they also impose tax on EC transfer. The EC will go directly into their account to be resold for $6 every 1000EC. Perhaps this is enough to pay for server fee?
6. No comment, maybe it is the logical rule to impose?
7. Many people will be affected when coupons are no longer allowed, people who run contests and other people who offer EC for visitors who participate in their events.
8. Shops are closed, many interesting items will also be pulled. Gone are the days when 1000EC can be sold for $10 and when 7000EC could buy you a year of Linux hosting. Wonder when the shops are opened again, will it be as good as it were.

Entrecard has been on the decline for quite some time now (I hope I don't get into trouble with the management for saying this) but I guess necessary steps are undertaken to help revive its glory. However, with the gigantic amount of EC still floating in the market, I think it will take quite a long time before the economy is steadied and Entrecard Credits will be a valuable commodity again.

Don't worry Entrecard, I have been with you for 9 months now. I hope to still be around to see you regain your glory, hopefully sooner rather than later :)

What do you think about the recent Entrecard makeover? Has it affected you? How? What is the ideal way to run Entrecard and regulate the use and value of its credits?

Coming up next: BobbyT will be discussing about Entrecard's partnership with OIO Publisher :)

If the tons of features of self-hosted WordPress themes do not sway your heart and make you wonder whether you should remain on blogspot or not, then certainly the sight of this premium WP theme will tempt you dearly.

I almost immediately fall in love with The New Yorker theme when I set my eyes on it! I have always wanted to build a news website (one of my childhood ambitions is to be a journalist) but I lack the technical skills to build such sites from the ground up. Imagine how glad am I when feel that my dreams might just come true soon with this The New Yorker theme. The New Yorker theme has just been released less than a week ago.

Click here to view a live demo of The New Yorker Premium WP Theme in action

Reading the information about the themes, I found that it can be easily installed like most WP themes and yet it boasts having many sophisticated features not found in other themes. From the screen shot, I suppose we can say that this theme has the magazine looks. Although I have not tested the theme myself, I think we can set some posts or pages to display permanently on the front page (making them the "featured" news). Apparently the theme 136 settings in its control panel (wow!), dynamic drop-down menu system, 37 widgetised areas (can be increased to even more, I suppose) and integrated banner management and dynamic video block.

Considering all those sophisticated features and the aesthetic features of the theme itself, it is hard to believe that it only costs $39 to buy. From the usage information I find that I can add thumbnail or image to every post and I can also add some videos to posts whenever I fancy. That's really power and freedom in my hands (or themes, if you prefer :D).

Truth be told, never have I ever imagined myself being able to have my own news website like the screen shot above. I know having a wonderful WP theme does not get me to my goals just yet, but it will be instrumental as a means to an end. I really wish to have a professional news website, either serving and interacting with a large or small community. Whether the website succeeds or not, that should be another story for another time but I suppose it is the experience of running the website that really matters, and I would rejoice if part of that experience involves working with this wonderful theme. I would try my best to get my hands on this theme, perhaps you should too!

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 mod