Delirium Propaganda

If you are not too familiar with the Internet, or have recently thought “Hey, it may be easy to make money over the Internet”, or just thought it would be good to make some money over the Internet on a part time basis, have a read on this article first.

First thing first, I am not selling you anything. Yes, many of you may have read this before, and end up buying some crap stuff from the same site that says this. Well, you will not find a link to buy anything from here, you are assured of that.

If you ever want to make some money online, you would have searched for some sites which will teach you how to. Chances are you are swamped with MILLIONS of web sites or pages that tells you you can make tons from the Internet.

Remember this, with ONE success story, there lies THOUSANDS of failures. In the end, who makes the money? The guy who created the story does, whatever the story is. You will be given a story that tells you about how successful a person is, he bought his luxurious apartment, or house by the sea, drives the latest flashy sports car, show off his bank statement etc. etc. They will even throw in “freebies” and tell you that if you don’t buy the product before XXX time, they will increase the price to XXX.

WAIT, before you even fall for those tricks, HANG ON TO YOUR HARD EARN CASH!

Before you become the next sucker, do have a read on this article.

So call “successful” internet entrepreneurs always attract you to buy their products with ‘baits’. The above examples are some of them, many tell you it is easy to make money over the Internet. How do people make money? Simple, get you buy their product, and get you to sell their product.

They usually offer you a commission of anything from 30 – 70% of the product cost, however rubbish the product is. I am amazed and appalled how many fall for these tricks.

Simple example, one guy sell his useless information product (if you search hard enough, you will find more than enough FREE examples over the Internet telling and teaching you the same tricks) to you. He will always include the opportunity for you to make loads of money too. No product to sell you say? No problem, you can sell for his product, and he will give you a HUGE and GENEROUS 70% commission.

Lets do the math here (for easy calculation, I have rounded the figures):

He sells you the product for $30 (usually they will use $29.97 or something like that). He makes $30.

He ask you to sell his product for him, offering you 70% commission. So you work hard like hell to product the crap product and you get $21 and he keeps $9, you are getting a great deal you would say?

After telling your mum, dad, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunties, uncles, close friends and even enemies to buy that crap, you sell a few copies. You run out of people to approach and you drop off, and your sales never made it to the minimal threshold for payment. The crap creator KEEPS the cash.

Even if there is no minimal sale to get your commission, someone down the road which bought that crap will wake you up. You become public enemy making the say $100 in commission. Even if you are successful and make several thousands of dollars, the crap creator still keeps $9 per sale, and remember, more and more suckers will try to sell his crap for him, and all will end up the poorer.

He just need to have people like you to keep trying to sell the product. At the end of the day, if he has created crap, and suckers like yourself decide to buy his product, and worse, sell his crap, he will be laughing all the way to the bank. Everyone who buys the crap will end poorer off.

AND THEY WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO BUY THAT HOUSE BY THE BEACH! THIS IS MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING AT ITS BEST. ONLY THE TOP TIER MAKES MONEY.

Question: What is the different between this crap creator and a con artist?

I will discuss this in more details soon. For the time being, before you even take that hard earn cash from your pocket, think twice, if you are convinced that it is a good product and worth that cash, think again. Think again and again, until you convince yourself that product is in a piece of crap.

Just dont take out the cash from your pocket so easily.

Have you been checking you sites lately? Are you wordpress-based sites or pligg-based sites losing visitors for no reasons?

If you web sites relies on database to run, for example,you are running WordPress, or perhaps Pligg, and your sites suddenly does not load for no reasons, and if you are on Hostgator, well, I have the solution for you!

No thanks to Hostgator, who AFTER MY COMPLAINT, informed me they “migrated the server my sites are on to MySQL 5.1″.

Apparently, this version of MySQL supports 7 characters or less for the username (and no, I found it out myself, they did not tell me a thing!), so if you are encountering database connection like I did, you can try to edit your config file to change the usernamer to a shorter one (7 characters or less).

Hostgator did not even send out an announcement on this “update”. My sites (including this one, in total about 15) which relied on databases were all not running for at least a week, and if it had not been one of my users who informed me via my private email, I would probably still be kept in the dark.

Double thumbs down to you, if I have the time to relocate all my sites, I would definitely have moved out from your service.

Google Browser - Chrome - Now in Beta!

I always like to support the underdog. When Yahoo! was dominating the search results, I was looking for alternatives. When NetScape was dominating the browser market, I was looking for alternatives. Microsoft is dominating the operating system market, I am STILL looking for alternatives.

We all know how Internet Explorer came along and threw Netscape aside. We all know how Internet Explorer 7 has made a lot of us switch to FireFox. (By the way, I still dislike FF 3, still sticking to FF 2.x) We all know Google came along and Yahoo became No. 2.

Through the years, Google has grown into a mammoth giant. It practically dominates the searches conducted over the Internet, and practically controls the Internet advertising pie.

Now it seems Google wants more. They have released Google Chrome for beta. If all goes well, Google Chrome will be de-facto browser for most Internet users. This would also mean Google Apps can be easily deployed to users of Google Chrome. If Google is smart, they will not overload the users with huge files, slow loading browsers like Microsoft (who apparently forgotten why and how they overtook Netscape and put Netscape to its tomb) did. I tend to feel Google is not that silly. They are known to provide tools that works, and works quickly, minus all the frills that no one uses anyway, hear hear Microoft.

Microsoft has got to be worried. What this means to the average user is the influence of Microsoft over our desktop will diminish, GREATLY.

Will we see an open-source operating system by Google soon? It could be in the pipeline for all we know. If that happens, it would mean serious trouble for Microsoft. Finally they have a competitor who can compete in terms of size and influence. It would be good for all end-users like us.

Or would it? Remember Microsoft did provide us with a slew of software applications (did anyone say MS DOS?) which made our lives easier, until it grew too big for its own good.

Microsoft has been trying to fend off Google with limited or zero success for years. That speaks a lot for Google’s own strength, and also its vision. I see a lot of similarities between the two. Microsoft in the 80’s versus Google of today.

Would Google go down Microsoft path and grow too big for its own good? Let’s cross our fingers and hope not. In the meanwhile, enjoy your Firefox while it lasts. It is a project funded by Google.

I had to make a trip to Hong Kong from AUG 21 2008 to AUG 25 2008.

Looking forward to my first trip to Hong Kong since 2000, I booked Cathy Pacific, since it is their national airline. I departed from Singapore’s Changi International Airport, flight CX 706.

When I reached Hong Kong Airport, I had to walk for more than 1 kilometer (ok, maybe I exaggerated, but it is a darn long walk) to reach a place where the direction boards pointed me to go up and down several elevators, before reaching a place when I had to board a presumably terminal transfer train service. Hey, I am supposed to arrive at Terminal 1 arent I? Apparently not it seems. I was later told by a local I met I should have reached another terminal, or did I?

I was on MSN with a friend at the hotel the following day (another bad story) and he told me he faced the same problem previously, he experienced worse since he was travelling with a 2 yr old toddler and his wife. Imagine if you are traveling with older folks, they would have taken double or triple the time than me to complete that walk, although I am not exactly young!

Once I alighted from the transfer train service, I had to walk another 5mins or so. I had to follow the crowd as the experience was totally differently when I previously arrived in HKG.

I finally reached the custom check point, and the queue was relatively short, but the wait was definitely not! The custom officer took their time to scan through all visitors, security is important, presumably tightened security with the Beijing Olympics going on.

The officer attending to me took almost 10 minutes, asking me questions like when was my last visit, and whether I had “any other form of identification issued by my government”. I had to produce my ID and my driver’s license and was finally given a 90 days visit period, not that I am going to stay that long.

I finally got out of my gate. It took me approximately 45minutes from the time I stepped out of the plane to reach the outside world. So much for one of the busiest airports in the world.

I touch down HKG at 2205hrs, and reach the hotel only around 2345hrs. I took the airport express to Kowloon. Well, the cab driver doesnt understand English, and couldnt make out where is Novotel Nathan Road, which apparently was a recently refurbished hotel.

He had to use his call-set to make a call back to his home station to check where it is. Well, Hong Kong cabbies still need to improve on their attitude. I took the cab quite a number of times during my stay, NONE of them impress me in terms of politeness, maybe except the one I took from the hotel to the airport on the last day.

I remember checking from Novotel Nathan Road’s web site, and it showed FREE Internet Access (it no longer does) on its web site, and it showed on the advertisements in the inflight magazines that they provide FREE wireless broadband access. Well, it costs (for wired access, there are no mention of wireless access, nor could I scan any with signals strong enough to connect to) HKD 98 for 24hours access, and HKD300 for 7 days access. I would have chosen another hotel, as I know I would need to be on the net very often during the few days. End up paying for the access on day 2.

The line connection was not user friendly as stated on the hotel info papers lying on the table when I checked in. Luckily I am IT savvy, I got connected finally after several tries (by the way Novotel, your home page hangs when I finally connect to your home page when in the hotel room, I had to close the window and re-open before it runs smoothly).

Around 12.45midnight, I switched on the TV, my goosh, there is an announcement saying Typhoon Nuri is approaching Hong Kong, or Code 8 Typhoon to the Hong Kongers, and Hong Kongers are adviced to stay indoors. The news also said all businesses and schools are to be closed due to the typhoon.

By the way, no announcement for English speaking visitors (yes, I surfed the 20+ channels), I understand Cantonese which is a plus for me.

There goes my plan for the next day. In the morning, I woke up, switched on the TV and was shown a Code 9! There goes my plans for this trip I thought, and the entire day was spent in the hotel doing literally nothing but watch TV, and accessing the Internet. Despite being inside my hotel room, I can see very very heavy wind and rain. I brought the Typhoon to Hong Kong!

On the TV news programs, I saw many (over 400 if I remember correctly) flights being cancelled, frustrated passengers stranded at the airport (which was Aug 22 2008). I told myself, I am glad I am not stranded at the airport!

The following day was much better, nicer weather so I can get what I need to do done. I made a point to check with Cathay Pacific whether the flight is on schedule, and was assured it was.

Checked the news on TV, darn, the queue at the airport, I told myself, I am glad I am not there. The newscaster announced there was approximately 2000 in the queue at the highest point. Let me tell you from experience (the following day), there should be easily 4000 – 5000 in the queue if the queue is that bad as shown on the TV. Why lie?

One visitor from Malaysia said when interviewed, “I came from Malaysia, this is my first visit to Hong Kong, first time I experience Typhoon. I thought this is the first time Hong Kong experience typhoon, but I was told it is not. If it is not, why such poor management?” (the last sentence “if it is not, why such
poor management was censored off in later repeats of the same news segment).

Another (apparently local) said “I queue for 3hours, and now you tell me I am in the wrong queue, why didnt you announce or show sign boards?”

I thought they are being overbearing, little did I know I will be thinking of the same thing the following day.

I told myself, I am glad it will be another 24hours to the time I depart, it should have given Hong Kong airport more than sufficient time to sort out those stranded at the airport and those who are going to fly off.

The following day, I took it upon myself to arrive at the airport earlier, MUCH earlier, around 12noon to be exact. I reached the airport (took a cab directly, didnt want to be late by taking the airport express) at 11.40hrs. My flight was for 4.15pm.

Checked the departure display boards, no mention of my flights yet. Looked around, no sign boards announcing any delays or queue, so decide to go check out an eatery for its Wanton Noodle (which I missed because of the bad weather).

Another visitor whom was with me was departing for ShangHai on China Eastern Airline, checked in without any hassles, less than 2mins in fact. I thought to myself, I am glad I am not going to be in the queue like they had yesterday – DAMN WAS I WRONG!

Arrived early, but no announcements no sign boards. So I stood near the flight announcement board staring intently, eagerly waiting for my flight to show. Finally saw 711 available for boarding at aisles B, C, D, the listing was made at around 2.05pm.

Trying to be smart, I went to aisle B, since it has lesser people, to check in. Was told by two commercial security officers that I can’t do that as it was reserved for Marco Polo, First Class and Business Class travelers ONLY. Fair enough I thought, I asked where I should queue then, they said “C”.

Was walking towards aisle C when I noticed a long queue, and security officers are there to cordon off the area (literally). I was stopped by one of them and told to wait, I asked why? He did not reply. So when they finally “released” the area for people to pass, I asked if I can join the queue, he replied no. I asked why? Again no reply!

By now, I am already quite heated up, I took to him and ask if you do not want me to join the queue here, at least tell me where I should join the queue. Another officer come over and pointed me a queue at least 400m away. I told them off and said “You guys should have just replied instead of making me stand here like an idiot for the past 5mins and refusing to answer my questions!”

By the way, the commercial security officers were from AESCO apparently.

I had to join the queue at the end of the mezzaine floor between the arrival and departure halls. The queue is DAMN long and the wait was very very slow.

Worse is the air-con is not working properly, I can see travelers like myself perspiring. We are not allowed to get off the queue to drink or to visit the toilet, as it would mean giving up your queue and you have to join the end of the queue again. I seriously pity those senior travelers and travelers with little kids with them.

The AESCO security officers and police officers was expressionless, and sarcastic. When a person in the queue complained, one police officer manning the queue told him off “You should have come tomorrow”. What kind of attitude IS THAT? Is this the way you guys want visitors to remember you by Hong Kong? Don’t you know you are representing Hong Kong where you are in a Hong Kong Police uniform?

Another security officer told a visitor “You should check with CX personnel inside”. Firstly, why didn’t Cathay Pacific deploy its own officers to manning the queue and to answer questions then? Secondly, how can we ask questions when we cannot leave the queue?

Frustrated people starting complaining, little toddlers started crying. I saw an old couple exchanging angry words (apparently they are Hong Kongers since they spoke in Cantonese). The man told the wife to jump into the ocean, for her asking him to go overseas at this time.

I started joining the queue at 2.20pm, there was 6 lines of queue at mezzaine floor, moved upwards, and when reach the departure check-in aisles, there was another 4 lines of queues. Each row has approximately 100 – 120 people! At this time, there are easily 3000 people in the queue.

Why didnt Cathay Pacific open at least half of aisle B to check in the travelers is something I cannot understand. There was hardly any queue there! The check-in aisles at C was not 100% manned, at least 4 stations were empty. Another question, why so when you have thousands of people waiting to check-in? Why were there no sign boards, no Cathay Pacific staff to do announcements, airport staff to make announcements etc? Totally unbelievable, and this from an efficient Hong Kong airport!

When I reach last line of the queue, it was already 3.40pm, my flight is 4.15 and I have not checked in yet! There was a man in the queue who kept pestering the Cathay Pacific staff, who finally allowed us to check-in first (thanks to that man, but hey, you should be more hygienic, stop biting your finger nails and smelling it, at least not in public).

There was at least another 400 – 500 people still in the queue, although they may be queuing for another flight.

After check-in, it was a mad dash to Row 29 where the flight is departing.

I boarded CX711, given the seat 59x. The two seats beside me was empty, another seat behind me was empty, another two in front of me were empty. I cannot help but think there are people who had missed the flight because they are still in the queue.

I thought that was the end of the ordeal, well, I am wrong. When the plane took off, during the ascendence, water dropped from the air-con duct. There was a girl sitting on the same row as me who was soaked! The flight stewards or stewardess didn’t even offer her a change of seats (remember, there were quite a number of empty seats)!

Luckily the rest of the flight was relatively smooth, I touched down to Singapore’s Changi International Airport Terminal 1, cleared custom, got into the cab, in less than 20minutes total.

Thumbs down to you Hong Kong, for your poor handling of the check-ins, and the police officers manning the queue. Double thumbs down to you Cathay Pacific, for your poor handling of the back-logged travelers. While I will visit Hong Kong again, I will definitely not be flying Cathay Pacific, not anymore. The cabin crew needs improvement, although I must say both my CX flights were captained by very able pilots, the take off ’s and landing’s are good.

Anyone remembers Agloco? It was one of the more innovative idea a couple of years back. Sign up, put up a toolbar, surf the web, click ads, and everyone shares the profit. Interesting idea. I did not sign up, I did not subscribe to the idea.

If I recall correctly, the idea never took off, it (the toolbar) did not come out of “testing stage”. It never worked. Am I wrong on this? Please do correct me if I am.

Now the domain name seems be re-directed to no-where. A search for the term on Google turns up over 2 million links, many still touting Agloco. Different methods and ways of “promoting” the concept.

Another one bites the dust. When it is too good to be true, it is not. At least someone is sitting on a premium name now, at least for a few months the name will stay premium.

Recent talks of Microsoft trying to buy Yahoo! has made me wonder. While it makes commercial sense to Microsoft, and perhaps Yahoo! shareholders, it makes absolutely no sense to us, the users.

Its common knowledge that in terms of accuracy and speed of search engines, it is rank in the order of Google, Yahoo and Live (or whatever they call it). That is the result of the market share of each company in terms of searches. Will the “merger” of Microsoft and Yahoo searches produce more accurate searches for the “new” company or search engine? Very doubtful indeed.

Mr Icahn’s mind is made up. It is up to minority Yahoo! shareholders to make their voices felt. Microsoft should concentrate on getting their products and services more user-friendly. Update their search algorithm to make it more search friendly (how many times have you searched for something on their platform and decides that Google’s searches produces more accurate results – though it is getting less accurate these days, but that’s another story.), and produce more accurate results?

Why would Microsoft wants Yahoo! ? Due to Yahoo! Mail? Social sites? Advertising potential? I currently use Yahoo! Search Marketing for my ad links. If Microsoft successfully buy Yahoo, I can see the demise of Yahoo as a search engine, and Google totally dominating – not something I would like to see really.

In business sense, Microsoft has done the right move. On the other hand, they will just waste money. Google will just grow stronger and the “new” merged search “giant” will just grow smaller, in terms of advertisement revenue, in terms of search market share. Only one guy will be left laughing.

Developing an eCommerce site is very complex, requiring many hours of hard work and preparation. When the much anticipated launch date finally arrives it is always good to know that everything will work out perfectly.

Mckremie web hosting offers all the solutions needed to run a successful eCommenrce website. The Professional plan is best suited for such sites since it provides a robust hosting solution for the very affordable price of only $14.95mo. This package includes 2000Mb disk space, 250GB of Transfer, cPanel Control Panel, FTP Accounts, file manager, statistics programs and a convenient backup manager tool for keeping your precious data secure. Mckremie is the only eCommerce web hosting you will ever require given that they are completely dedicated to providing the finest service possible.

If any problem arises you can always rely on their extremely friendly 24/7 Support team that are always ready to lend a hand. For a more personalized assistance there is a customer service number you can call for immediate help.

When inquiring about professional hosting there is only name worth remembering, Mckremie hosting solutions. Give your business the competitive edge it requires, leave the hosting to the professionals and relax as they take care of the rest.

[tags] hosting, complex, hard, work, professional, solutions, business [/tags]

Just a few days ago I wrote a post about how CNET had rated Microsoft’s Vista Operating System, one of the Top Ten terrible Tech Products of all time. Today CNET wants to make it all better by offering free advice to Microsoft on how to improve their much despised product.

The first suggestion is rather interesting and I’m sure it will be the one that receives the most approval from Microsoft. Going open source is the first step to success and has CNET put it “the only real solution to fixing Windows’ slew of issues”. I can see where they want to go with this but for some reason I don’t think it will happen, call it a gut feeling.

Make things simple, sell only one Version of Vista. Simple is good but in Europe that can result in expensive law suits. To be totally fair, I don’t really think Microsoft has much power over this issue. European anti-monopoly laws are a bitch and Microsoft has learnt that the hard way.

Don’t try be the big chiwawa of the internet, stick to software and be happy. I really agree with this point in many ways. Microsoft despises Google and has been on a buying spree to see if they can make a dent, especially in the online Advertising market. They don’t strand a change of beating Google and should stick to what they know best, developing crappy OS.

The last suggestion is an important one but I don’t really know if relevant. We all know that nearly everything is migrating to the internet but developing a Web based OS doesn’t seem like the best solution for the current problems. Even if they do release such a product wouldn’t they still have the original problem at hands? Fix this one first and then start something new.

[tags]CNET, Google, Advertising, Market, Microsoft, OS, Operating, System, Vista [/tags]

We all know how tedious it can be to find the right financial services to suit our specific needs. Today I’m proud to introduce Franklin Debt Relief, an outstanding site that will provide all the financial assistance a person might ever need.

Franklin Debt Relief specializes in such areas as credit card debt settlement and debt settlement or what is commonly known as debt negotiation. With a wide range of tools and a complete resourceful site filled with useful information to assist you, finding a solution to your financial problems has never been so convenient. A good place to start would be the credit card consolidation help and debt consolidation help section.

The site will also lend a hand by providing efficient solutions that can save you from declaring bankruptcy. This usually consists in reducing monthly payments or formulating a solution in which all debts are combined so that only one monthly payment is required.

Franklin Debt Relief can provide all the financial support an individual might require. With such an outstanding service at your disposal taking control of your finances has never been easier. Trust only the best, give Franklin Debt Relief a try and benefit from the service you deserve.

[tags] Franklin Debt Relief, finacial, bankruptcy, services [/tags]

Travelling is one of those things that I personally can’t live without. Since I can remember, the thought of discovering new places, visiting new cities and learning new cultures was a dream that I would have to fulfil. Luckily I’ve been able to accomplish some of my travelling desires but a true explorer is always on the lookout for new adventures.

I found an interesting site that contains a lot of useful information about China that could really help if you are planning on visiting Beijing. The site offers a lot of good details like where to go shopping, find the best restaurants and even how to find car parking in Beijing. There is so much to see and appreciate that creating a list of things to do beforehand is the best preparation any person could possibly have. This site will provide all the information needed so that when the time comes to visit Beijing all you have to do is enjoy yourself.

Remember that being well prepared is the best way to take complete advantage of a trip. Read the various suggestions and relax whilst appreciating everything the beautiful city of Beijing has to offer.

[tags] city, Beijing, China, shopping, travelling, trip [/tags]