If you read a lot of blogs, then you have probably seen the terms feed and RSS very often.

You may ask what are feeds? What is RSS? What are feed readers? How do I subscribe to feeds?

This is a beginner’s guide to understanding feeds and subscribing to them.

What Are Feeds?

A feed is just a channel that is used by readers to pull content from websites.

Most websites use the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) format. RSS will convert a website article or blog post into a format that is readable by feed readers.

What Are Feed Readers?

Feed readers / RSS readers are the software that you use to read website feeds.

The advantage of using feed readers are:

1. The software automatically checks for the latest updates
2. The software tells you which items you have not read
3. You can organize feeds in categories or tags
4. You can save articles for future reference
5. You can easily share feed items with friends

Feed readers come in online or offline versions.

Online feed readers require you to login to a website to read all your subscriptions in one place. The advantage is you get to read your subscriptions from any computer.

Offline readers will download your subscriptions into your computer / mobile device. The advantage is you get to read your subscriptions offline.

How Much Does It Cost to Subscribe?

It’s absolutely free.

Why I Love Subscribing to Feeds

Personally I find it really convenient to subscribe to feeds because:

1. I read a lot of blogs and sites. It will be too tedious for me to visit over a hundred websites daily to find new content
2. I don’t have time to surf the web every day. If I subscribe to a feed, I won’t miss a single article
3. I get to categorize feeds, so I can set aside some feeds to read only when I have the time.
4. Having all items in one place allows me to quickly process hundreds of articles a day.
5. I can read articles using my favorite fonts and font sizes

Why Bloggers Love Subscribers

You might be wondering why it’s such a big deal to have subscribers. I’m sharing honestly from a blogger’s point of view:

1. Subscribers allow me to estimate the size of my readership. Honestly if I have 1 or 2 subscribers, I really have to think twice about continuing to blog.
2. Subscribers can be used to gauge the quality of website content. More subscribers means people want more of your great content.

How Do I Subscribe to a Feed?

1. Find the website’s feed. Normally there will be a RSS icon or an invitation to ‘Subscribe’. For example, this blog’s feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Adino
2. Click on the link and it will bring you to a subscription page.
3. If you can’t find the feed link, sometimes try to put in the website url (e.g. http://www.adinochang.com). Some feed readers can discover the site’s feed automatically.
4. Choose a web-based reader like Google Reader, Bloglines or My Yahoo.
5. That’s it!

Alternative Method to Subscribe to Feeds

I prefer this method because it’s slightly faster.

1. Find the website’s feed. Normally there will be a RSS icon or an invitation to ‘Subscribe’. For example, this blog’s feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Adino
2. Select a suitable feed reader. I like Google Reader.
3. Find the ‘Add Subscription’ button and paste in the feed link.
4. Add the necessary tags and you’re done!

What If I Don’t Like Feed Readers?

If you don’t like feed readers, there is usually an option to subscribe via email too. This option may be suitable for those of you who prefer to centralize your workflow to your email inbox.

You can easily do that too, usually by looking for a ’subscribe by email’ link and clicking on it. For example, you can get my blog posts through email.

Some sites require you to fill in a form, and confirm your email subscription.

Conclusion

I hope this short guide will help to enrich your blog reading experience.

Feel free to share your blog reading methods in the comments below.

Finally, please add my blog feed via RSS or email.

Photo By: n0seblunt / CC BY 2.0

Technorati Tags: RSS, How To, Feed Reader, Guide, FAQ

If you remember, I actually wrote a post on the 3 year total cost of iPhone ownership.

I was so tempted, because I am a DiGi subscriber, so I crunched the numbers.

iPhone Comparison Chart for DiGi Plans

If you compare this Digi iPhone plan vs the Maxis iPhone plan, it would seem that the DiGi plan offers cheaper phones, but will cost more in the long term.

Of course, the DiGi plan gives you more voice minutes, more messages, more bandwidth and no charges for exceeding monthly bandwidth quota.

I don’t know… I’m still very undecided. One day I will almost walk into the store and sign up. Other days I hesitate.

It’s not that I don’t have the money… but four or five thousand would look really comfortable in Rachel’s education savings account, instead of a gadget in my pocket.

There were these few Facebook games that got me hooked, specifically the wildly successful Country Story, Pet Society and Crazy Planet by Playfish Games.

At first, I was just playing for fun. You know, trying to do fun things. Silly things.

Then the competitive side of me started to take over.

I wanted to climb the rankings. I wanted to be first.

Little by little, day by day, I spent more time on Facebook playing these games.

I would pore over the online forums to read strategy guides. I logged in every day to make sure I watered my plants, fed my pets or got my metals.

I would sneak out of bed to harvest crops.

You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get the gold betting trophy. I still shiver when I think about it.

I even started playing with Poey Chin’s Facebook account.

From 15 minutes a day, I started spending 2 to 3 hours a day on these games.

The quality of this blog suffered.

I quit playing the games a few weeks ago. One day I just woke up and didn’t have the urge to play any more.

I’m sure you noticed that I’ve even been more talkative on my blog lately.

So, no more. No more addictive Facebook games for me.

(As I write this, Playfish has just released a new poker game. Sooo tempted!)

What will I do with my free time? Maybe I’ll get an iPod touch to play games.

Perhaps you have already created an account but have never saw any use for it.

This is a beginner’s guide for Twitter.

Step 1: Create an account

Browse over to the Twitter website, and click the ‘Sign Up Now’ button.

Fill in your details and click confirm. If successful, you will be asked to search your Gmail or Yahoo contacts for friends who are already on Twitter.

Otherwise, you can just click on the “skip this step” link.

You can skip the suggested accounts as well.

You have created your Twitter account!

Step 2: Update your settings

Use the settings link to setup your account preferences.

Some items to update are your time zone, your website URL, a short description about yourself and your city.

Most important of all, you should upload a picture of yourself.

You may also want to change your email notification preferences.

Another option you may select is to restrict your messages only to your followers.

Step 3: Follow

Click on the ‘Find People’ link at the top right corner of the screen.

Key in a name, email address or Twitter account name in the search box.

Click the follow button to follow that person. The  follow button has the icon of a person with a plus sign.

Following someone means you will be able to see their twitter updates. Think of it like a subscription.

There will now be messages in your Twitter stream!

One of the coolest things about Twitter is finding and following your favourite celebrities.

Step 4: Post your first Twitter update!

Many beginners (including myself!) do not have any idea what they should update, or tweet about.

It is actually up to you. Generally, you would tweet about the cool websites you are visiting, your thoughts and feelings, or interesting happenings in your life.

Think of it like a micro-blog.

Warning: Unless you choose to secure your Twitter updates, they are visible to public, and can be picked up by search engines!

Some tips:

To reply someone, just key in that person’s Twitter account name before your message.

@adinochang Yes, I agree with you about durians. They should put them on Christmas trees!

• Remember to put in some context to your answer. Otherwise your other followers will not know what you are talking about!
• Replies can only be seen by people who follow you and the person you are replying to.

To send a private message to someone, use d followed by the person’s Twitter account name

d adinochang Ok, we go ahead with the durian robbery at midnight

To retweet means you are republishing someone else’s Twitter update. There are no standards, but generally it looks like:

RT @adinochang: Why can’t I have a holiday today? | Look on the bright side, weekend is almost here!

• I like to place a vertical line, then add my own message after that.

To shorten website addresses, you can use is.gd to generate a short URL. This is important because you only have 140 characters per message.

Step 5: Install a Twitter Client

You might want to install a Twitter application so you don’t have to view your Twitter updates from the website.

A popular client for your PC or Mac desktop is Tweetdeck. I prefer to use TwitterGadget because it sits in my Gmail window, which is open all the time.

The choice is up to you. There are even browser extensions for Twitter clients!

There are clients for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and mobile phones as well.

Step 6: Create and Subscribe to Lists

A new feature in Twitter is the list. A list is a collection of Twitter accounts. Anyone can create a list. You can follow lists like you follow a Twitter user.

List messages will not appear in your Twitter stream.

I like lists because they help you organise the people you follow into groups. It is also a quick way to find new people to follow.

Bonus Tip: Beware the bots!

There are people abusing the Twitter system to get a large number of followers. The objective is to spam these large number of followers to get income.

They may use bots (automated programs) to scan Twitter for messages with certain keywords. Then, it automatically follows that person, hoping to be followed back.

There are those who follow hundreds of random people per day. This is a common tactic to gain a large number of followers.

Just be careful who you follow (make sure it’s a real person). You don’t have to follow someone who follows you.

You can block spammers and bots so they don’t bother you again. Just go to your followers list, and choose the “block this person” button.

Conclusion

I hope you found my guide useful. Take a few minutes to get on Twitter and join the fun! Do follow my account @adinochang.

Have you started using Twitter? How do you use it? Do you have any suggestions to add to this list?

Feel free to discuss and share in the comments.

Last week we were shopping for milk powder when I came across one tempting me in the toys section.

I thought it would be a fun toy (for me), so I chose one that seemed sturdy enough, and looked at it for a few moments.

“No la,” I said to myself, “I shouldn’t”

“Why not?” said the plastic snake in the shelf below.

“Poey Chin doesn’t want me to waste time on toys and games”

“Did she really say that? Wasn’t she only talking about computer games?”

I reached out to touch the small package.

“You see? Doesn’t it feel good? It’s an educational toy. Surely Poey Chin will approve of it.” the plastic snake coaxed.

I was carrying Rachel in my arms at that time, so I passed the little plastic package for her to hold.

“See Rachel, do you like this toy?”

We went back to Poey Chin at the milk powder section, and I said: “Rachel wants to buy this toy”

I don’t know how it got “approved”, but here I am with my very own Rubik’s Cube. Would you believe that this is the first time I’ve owned one in my entire life?

It’s not an original, but manufactured by Dian Sheng.

It came with an instruction booklet which I threw away. Only one word to describe the instructions… FAIL. I turned to the Internet for answers.

Right now I’ve managed to get one side done, and I’m working on the middle layer.

As you can see from the photo, I’m trying to get six squares of red and six squares of green, etc.

The middle layer seems to be 3 times harder to solve compared to just one side. Solving just one side involves thinking in two dimensions, but solving the middle layer requires you to track the squares in 3 dimensions!

Once I solve the puzzle, I might try to put up some sort of guide on my blog.

Unfortunately it is harder to describe how to do it, compared to actually doing it. Maybe I think so because I am not completely sure what I’m doing haha.

I know it seems very childish and I’m quite excited. But do forgive me, I didn’t have a chance to play with this when I was young!

You can play this flash game for free. Just click play.

While you’re waiting for the game to load, I wanna share that I’ve become interested in Beatles songs. I finished reading Shout!, a biography about the band. Then I went on Amazon to check out the previews for their albums. Who knew that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and even Ringo Starr wrote so many catchy songs?

I wanted to buy some of their MP3s but sadly it’s not available outside of the US. Wonder if anyone has a Beatles CD they want to get rid of?

I can’t get by a day without reading about the latest iPhone applications or read how some blogger is using their iPhone.

Each time I see the word iPhone, I go to YouTube and start looking at iPhone reviews. Just wishing, just longing for one.

And then I will go to the Maxis website to look at their iPhone plans, and continue wishing, continue longing…

The Figures

I looked at several options.

1. First of all, I had to decide which model of iPhone I wanted. It came down to two choices, the iPhone 3GS 16GB or the iPhone 3GS 32GB.
2. Next, I had to choose from one of the Maxis rate plans. The best choices for me were:
   - A supplementary phone line with iData 1 plan (250MB usage per month)
   - A supplementary phone line with iData 2 plan(500MB usage per month). The iPhone is slightly cheaper if you lock for 2 years.
   - A Hotlink prepaid account that comes with 500MB free data per month for 12 months.
3. I estimated that the phone would last for 3 years (before I was compelled to upgrade) so I calculated the cost over 3 years.
4. I put the numbers in a spreadsheet, which looks like this:

iPhone Comparison Chart for Maxis Plans

To summarize (in case you are not a numbers type of person):

1. The difference between an iPhone 3GS 16GB and 32GB is RM500.
2. You have to pay an extra RM100 to reduce lock-in period from 2 years to 1 year.
3. Over 3 years, you pay RM220 extra to get 500MB bandwidth per month, which is a fair deal.
4. The iValue plans cost the most, but would not suit me since I won’t be making calls

Why Do I Want One?

Looking at the thousands that I have to spend, the next question I asked myself was, why do I really want one?

My answers were:

1. App Store applications look really interesting (especially the games!)
2. I can use it while I’m waiting, or when I’m travelling
3. GPS
4. Camera
5. It’s got cool factor

The Next Best Thing

The next natural step for me, was to take a look at the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch can also run App Store applications like the iPhone.

The obvious benefit for me was I didn’t have to sign up for any new phone lines or data plans. I could happily remain as a Yellow Fellow.

With a price difference of RM3550 (the 3 year cost of owning an iPhone 3GS 32GB versus an iPod Touch 32GB), what extra value does the iPhone provide?

1. It has phone, texting and MMS functions
2. GPS
3. Compass
4. Camera
5. Free OS Updates
6. Slightly faster performance

BUT, the features I really wanted were:

1. App Store applications (the iPod Touch can do this)
2. Mobility (ditto)
3. GPS (I already have a semi-useful GPS)
4. Camera (I already have several digital cameras)

The Killer Question

It is already quite obvious by now, that I don’t really need an Apple iPhone. The iPod Touch will meet my requirements quite nicely.

Which leads me to one last question.

Will I have time to use it?

Taking a serious look at my current life style, I really don’t have time to spend on another device.

The last thing I need is another gadget to divide my time and attention.

Final Decision

And so it is with a sad and heavy heart that I have to pass on the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPod Touch.

At the most, I could get the cheapest iPod Touch 8GB just for fun. But probably not.

With the facts staring at me, it’s hard to justify spending the money.

Perhaps things will change in the future. I will see if I can justify spending on an Apple Tablet.

One last thing. I hope no one will misunderstand me. I don’t mean that the iPhone or iPod Touch are not good devices to buy. I want one sooo much!

It’s just that in MY situation, at this point of time, I can’t afford one.

I’ve been watching late night reruns of the Transformers on Astro channel 611 for the past few weeks.

Somehow, the cartoons don’t looks so cool any more.

Nostalgia

It’s strange how I can still remember name of the characters after 20 years. I have even forgotten some of those characters existed!

I see Ramjet, SeaSpray, PowerGlide, Omega Supreme, Grimlock, the Insecticons…

So it is with a warm feeling of nostalgia that I remember the cartoon.

My mind drifts to memories of my childhood, of playing Transformers and watching cartoons at my grandmother’s house. I remember playing with my cousins.

I even remember my old Transformer toys.

I remember how I used to drag my parents to the toys section in the mall to stare at Transformer toys, wishing, just wishing I could have all the toys I want.

Nowadays I drag baby Rachel to Toys R Us, pretending to get toys for her. But when nobody’s looking, I stare at the Transformer toys, wishing, just wishing I could have all the toys I want.

Cracking the Illusion

Then I start to see the imperfections.

I see how the animators got a bit lazy. If you observe, you won’t see all the transformers transforming. The camera zooms in to one robot transforming. Zoom out, and everyone has transformed.

You also notice “re-used” animations. Why do all the poses look so familiar? Why do they walk the same way? Why are transformations viewed from the same angle?

Once I even saw StarScream change colour from red to blue, back to red between shots.

I understand that these are normal tricks of the trade used by animators in the old days when everything was drawn by hand.

But this wasn’t the Transformers I remembered. My memories looked much better than this. My childhood visual memories seem to be like high definition, and what I see is like a 16 bit GIF animation.

Why? Why? Why?

In the second season, the transformers have moved into a city. There, they get involved in mundane things like foiling car thieves.

And then you watch a scene where they have a battle inside a shopping mall.

In one episode, things get philosophical when the transformers are accidentally transported to an alien world where they become toys for an alien boy. In the end, the Autobots fly back to earth in one of the boy’s toy rockets.

I wonder how many millenia it will take for them to arrive back on earth, on an inter-stellar flight with a chemical rocket.Maybe they modded it with hyperdrive.

Then there is the classic question… why don’t you kill each other if you hate each other so much? Why spend precious seconds gloating rather than make the killing blow?

Where does Prime’s trailer go when he’s in robot form?

How do the transformers grow and shrink?

I Still Like Them

All these minor issues aside, I continue to enjoy watching the Transformers cartoons. At the very least, they bring back some nice memories for me.

The imperfections I mentioned are only cosmetic and surface layer. The core concept of robots that can transform is still very interesting, proven by two blockbuster movies.

After all, nothing can be perfect, and in all fairness to the hard working people who worked on this, they did get better as their success (and budget) increased.

Technology was also a limitation, and we cannot expect old cartoons to look like our modern cartoons. After all, even movies were in black and white in the old days. But we can’t say that those black and white movies were no good.

It may seem like I’m contradicting myself, but I’m just trying to view the topic from both sides.

+Level Up!

INT + 1D6, WIS + 1D4, STA -1D24 -6, DEX +1D21, STR = 0

*blink blink* What just happened?

I think I’ve just leveled up as a geek. I can’t believe I wrote a 650 word post on the Transformers.

And threw in a durian joke somewhere, too.

P/S: I’m currently catching up on M.A.S.K. re-runs at YouTube!

Apple will release their latest operating system, Mac OS X Snow Leopard on August 28th.

You will be able to get an upgrade copy of Snow Leopard for RM109, or $29. You could get it for even less if you bought your Mac recently.

From what I’ve read, Snow Leopard is Apple’s answer to Windows 7 (which will be released in October 2009).

Looking at the features, I don’t see drastic changes on the user interface. Most would agree that Apple has worked to improve the features they already have, rather than adding new features.

Check out this comparison between the Windows 7 upgrade path and the Snow Leopard upgrade path. There are 66 different upgrade combinations in Windows.

Just 3 combinations for the Mac

What’s New

1. 64-bit OS. This allows faster processing and the ability to use huge amounts of RAM (up to 16 terabytes, or 16,000 GB!). Nearly every built in app has been rebuilt in 64-bit.
2. Better thread management for multi-core CPUs. This means your dual-core or quad-core CPU can function more effectively, and be used to do tasks at the same time.
3. OpenCL allows applications to utilize the full power of graphics processors.
4. QuickTime X. A new version of media player.
5. Chinese character input via multi touch trackpad.
6. Improvements to Expose and Stacks.
7. Built in support for Microsoft Exchange email.
8. Faster bootup and shutdowns. While this is well and good, bootups and shutdowns were already fast in Leopard.
9. Smaller footprint, which means Snow Leopard will use less disk space on your computer.
10. Improved Services menu that can match the right service options with the current application (I hardly use this feature).
11. Improved iChat that uses 1/3rd of the bandwidth.
12. Safari 4 (you probably got this already)

Read the detailed list (and screen shots) of Mac OS X Snow Leopard refinements.

Windows 7

Allow me to briefly detour to explore the new features in Windows 7.

From what I understand, it has many exciting features as well. Some of them are:

1. Improvements to security management console
2. A new task bar, that will function almost like the Dock
3. New features added to Aero interface (looks really interesting!)
4. Improvements performance for multi-core processors
5. Built in support for virtual hard disks
6. Windows Powershell, which is a administration console
7. Easily disable features you might not need, such as IE or Windows Media Player.

An upgrade will cost you between RM420 (Premium) to RM770 (Ultimate)

Will You Upgrade to Snow Leopard?

Personally I don’t see much value in upgrading the OS. If it has been running fine all this time,  then I don’t need to spend some money to upgrade.

I may want to, but I don’t need to.

In my case, I don’t see how any of the new features justify an upgrade.

I think I will wait for others to upgrade, read about their experiences and then I will decide.

How about you? Will you upgrade? Have you upgraded? Share your experiences here.

(Originally published on my frugal blog on July 7 2008)

If you’re bored of Solitaire or Minesweeper, I have found another way to find full version computer games.

I have written before about downloading free games.

Wikipedia actually has a list of commercial computer games released as freeware. If you take a look at the list, you will find a list of computer games released in the 90s.

I found downloads for games like Railroad Tycoon, Simcity, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Star Control II.

To download the games, look for the download or developer website link under the External Links header in the individual game’s wiki entry.

The Frugal Beagle loves Wikipedia!

Photo: Jordi Soro

I have added something to my wish list.

Most of you would have heard of the iPhone, which is Apple’s super cool smart phone. The iPhone is not officially available in Malaysia, but here is another device which is just as cool.

The iPod Touch can do everything an iPhone can do except take photos and make phone calls.

What I love about the iPod Touch is you can run Java applications just like the iPhone, and you have the same multi-touch interface.

In case you are wondering, what sets the Apple iPhone apart for other touch screen PDAs and smart phones is the multi-touch interface, which means it can detect more than one touch at the same time.

This allows you to do things like ’squeeze’ a picture to minimize. There are rumours that the new MacBooks may come with a multi-touch trackpad.

This iPod also has limited motion sensing capabilities which detects motions like tilt and shake.

While I don’t really care for the music playing capabilities, I am intrigued that Apple is trying to push the iPod Touch as a portable gaming system like the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS.

I’m wondering if can replace my aging PDA.

It even comes with a microphone so the hardware is actually capable of supporting a voice over IP application.

It retails for RM1800 the last time I checked, which means that the chances of me getting one will be almost impossible.

iPod Touch

I need your advice!

Many many people have reported to me that they have trouble accessing my blog.

Some of the embarassing comments I received are:

1) Are you hosting your website at your home computer? Why always down?

2) Did your blog get banned by the government?

3) I tried accessing your blog for several weeks, but can’t.

4) You banned me from visiting your blog?

5) Very difficult to access your blog. Always down.

Sometimes it happens to me too, and I have to refresh my browser a few times to get in. I figure it has something to do with DNS, because my web host claims no problems on their side.

I’ve tried using wp-cache plugin which improved things somewhat, but the problem is still there.

Any advice on what else I could try? Any software I can install to troubleshoot this problem?

I hate this problem because I think I’m losing traffic, irritating my readers and getting less ads revenue.

What if one day Google’s spiders can’t access my blog?

In the mean time, I have no choice but to advise my readers to either try again a few minutes later, or sign up to automatically get my posts in their RSS reader or by email.

Should I change web hostess? I have received a few suggestions for new hostess(es?) but I’ve read some bad customer reviews on those sites so I’m not confident to switch.

Photo: Mike Thorn

It cost me RM5,299, which according to Google is US$1624.

I carried the box quickly to the car park, and headed for home. On the way to the lifts, I could see many people staring at my iMac box. I think most of them didn’t know what it was (probably thought it was a TV or a monitor).

Some gave me an envious look. Now I got a taste of what it feels like to drive a BMW.

So I arrived home and put the box near my computer table. Immediately Uncle Adino and Baby Patrick climbed on top of the box, because they were so excited. Their tails were wagging and all.

Warning: This post contains many photos so be patient while they load.

The next photo shows my computer table, and my current computer setup. There’s my Dell Inspiron 5100 in the middle and a pair of speakers beside it. I want you to look at the mess of cables under the table.

The next photo shows you the size of the iMac box compared to a Nintendo Wii box.

When I opened the box, there was a small rectangular cardboard box which contained the keyboard, OS X installation CDs and manuals.

The next photo shows my new iMac 20″ sitting on my new computer table. I think the iMac just made my computer table look bad.

I realize that it looks like the table is bending under the iMac’s weight, but that’s not so. The table is warped because it wasn’t assembled properly.

I have to mention that the iMac’s keyboard is slimmer than a cracker biscuit! There are even two USB ports on either side of the keyboard!

All this excitement made me hungry.

This photo shows the back of the iMac 20″. As you can see, there is only one cable that fits to the back of the Mac.

Okay I’m cheating. The keyboard, mouse and Ethernet cable have not been fitted.  If you accidentally trip on the power cable, it is designed to come off cleanly.

The screen swivels up and down to adjust for different viewing heights.

Another shot of the back of an iMac. It looks gray because I used my camera flash in this shot to reflect the Apple logo.

This is the Super DVD drive on the right side of the screen. It supports writing dual layered DVDs.

The setup is complete. I’m averagely tall in height (179 cm), and the monitor towers over me, which is great. No more neck pain from looking down on the screen.

A top down view of the iMac.

The iMac comes with a small remote control. I thought they bundled a free iPod by accident!

Using the remote control will open up a media menu, which interfaces with iTunes to play all your music, pictures and movies. I guess the iMac can be used as a media centre too.

The iMac posing beside my Dell Inspiron 5100. My old laptop looks like those X-wing starfighters that have been laser scorched through many space battles.

The Apple startup screen.

The iMac played a welcome video, and I continued snapping away like a tourist.

When I was creating a user account, I suddenly saw myself on screen. The built-in webcam activated to capture a user profile picture. I took a picture of the computer taking my picture.

My first pose. Note my messy hairstyle.

I decided to go with this photo until I got a haircut.

I spent the whole of Sunday installing applications, transferring my files, testing out the different hardware components and getting used to the Mac interface.

I have to say that it takes some getting used to. But the interface is really Cool (with a capital C).

It’s not that difficult to learn how to navigate around. If you know what you want to do, then there is a Mac way to do it.

I’ve fallen in love with my iMac, and so has Poey Chin.

I’ll write a technical review of the iMac some time next week, after I’ve used it for a while. I will describe the hardware specs, the applications, and the experience.  Look out for that post soon.

A detailed blog post will be up some time next week, but here are some teaser photos for you while I spend time familiarizing myself with OS X.

This blog post was written with my new iMac!

P/S: How come WordPress doesn’t recognize Mac’s Return key as an automatic paragraph? Wordpress problem or Safari problem?

Update: Safari 3 problem… I’ve downloaded Firefox 3 already. Cannot stand it…

My needs are simple:

1) Space saving
2) Good quality
3) Should not be obsolete for another 5 years

Okay, maybe my needs weren’t so simple after all.

Requirement 1 means most desktops are out of the picture. My condo is cluttered enough, and both Poey Chin and I agree not to add to the mess.

Requirement 2 is important because I don’t want to buy something cheap but have it break down after using it for one year.

Requirement 3 means I don’t mind paying a bit more right now, to get something that will last for a long long time.

At first I was looking at the various Dell laptops like Izzie, then I seriously thought of getting the Mac Mini, which is a cube shaped computer that can sit in the palm of your hand. It costs just RM2300 for the entry model.

I did a detailed study among the different specs, options and prices, and it came down to three choices. The Dell desktop is the cheapest, but it would violate Requirement 1. Lower range Dell laptops are cheap, but I doubt they meet Requirements 2 and 3. Higher range Dell laptops were my best bet.

And then, I came upon the Apple iMac. Oh yes, the iMac. I think it stands out in a class of its own.

This is the whole computer (without power cable and mouse). Minimal cables and space.

This is the keyboard. Drool….

Right now I’m deciding if what I should get. A Dell, or an iMac.

Update: Thanks to Precious for letting me know about the Dell Hybrid, launched yesterday. You can order it from the Dell Malaysia website. A machine with comparable specs to an iMac entry level will cost RM700 less. Sigh… so hard to choose.

A certain percentage of you dear readers are using the Safari web browser, so I think there are a few Mac users amongst you. Can you tell me if I should go ahead with buying the iMac? Every review I read online either worships or hates the Mac.

This sounds a bit like the “Which car should I get” post I wrote a few months ago.

I am leaning quite heavily toward the iMac. In fact, I will go and purchase it this Sunday from the nearest Mac City.

P/S: Anyone know a way to get discounts for a new iMac 20″ 2.66GHz? Current retail price is RM5300 *ouch*

Photo Credits: Apple Computers

1. In this photo, Izzie is sitting on my dining table. I got the sun-burst batik from Kota Kinabalu’s Filipino market two years ago.

2. This is not the blue screen of death, it’s just a shot that I took while she was waking up. On the left you can see my baby Patrick tissue box. Outside my window you can see my underwear hanging to dry.

3. A close up of Izzie. Look at those curves.

4. I chose this angle to get a halo effect. Angelic and awe inspiring.

Well, so far it’s been great. She hasn’t given me any troubles so far. Not even so much as a whimper.

Some have asked me if Izzie is my new girlfriend.

No, she’s not!

She’s just a toy

I’ve been living in a state of confusion for the past few days.

It’s like I’m living in that zone between dreams and reality. You know that place you’re in right before you wake up? You’re aware that you’re dreaming but you are just enjoying that dream.

More than that, I feel like I’m between something old and something new.

Don’t worry, I’m not on meth or pot. I don’t take any drugs (unless you count those sleeping pills the doctor gave me for my cold on Sunday). Ahh, the blessed void of drug-induced sleep… so comforting, that yellow pill.

But I’m digressing (digressing tigressing with agression fashion). Okay that last sentence made me look like I’m really high.

My department has loaned me a brand new Dell Latitude D530 for 6 months to use on a project which requires a bit of traveling offsite. You can still smell the chemical wash used to clean the components!

I spent the last two days installing all sorts of tools and software on the new laptop, and transferring my files from my desktop PC to my laptop. I had to get used to working with a smaller screen and a tiny keyboard.

I don’t know what came over me, but I completely wiped my desktop PC clean of all my stuff. Hoping that they will let me keep this laptop after six months

I love it because it’s so light. My current laptop at home weighs almost 5 kg I think. When I bought my Inspiron 5100 5 years ago, it was called a mobile desktop. But then it’s still running fine even up till today.

What I love the most about my (loaned) new Dell Latitude D530 is the amazing speed. It will be used for software development, so it comes with a Core 2 Duo 2GHz CPU and 2 Gigabytes of RAM. It has a 110GB hard drive and comes with all the standard wireless features.

It starts up Visual Studio in like 3 seconds *tear drop flows down my face* Think of all the seconds I’m going to save!

Then there is the wi-fi feature, which allows me to connect to a hotspot near my office that allows un-restricted (and un-monitored) web browsing. Facebook anyone? N, I’m kidding… I don’t play games at work.

I know, there are better notebooks on the market right now… but I get to use it for free! So happy!

I’m naming my temporary Dell laptop Izzie after my favourite character on Grey’s Anatomy.

P/S: Talking about Facebook, I’ve been getting some invitations from people I don’t know lately. If you’re one of my readers, please let me know or I will think it’s spam or something.

Disclaimer: All Facebook invitations from females are also subject to approval by my lovely wife. So don’t put up your pretty glamour photo

Photo: Sanja Gjenero

This means that any email server that is using the Streamyx internet connection will not be able to send out any email using port 25 any more. This will mainly affect companies, web domain owners with Malaysian web hosting companies, and people with personal web servers at home.

The solution offered by TM is to allow mail servers to send mail through an open relay server. That means you send mail to TM’s server, and they will forward your mail for you.

Web mail like Gmail, Yahoo and Windows Live Mail are not affected.

What does this mean to you?

1. Privacy of emails is compromised. If you didn’t know, emails do hop around from server to server on its way to your recipient so the risk of someone intercepting your email has always been there.The issue is you emails now make a stop to TM’s server. Which makes it very convenient for any censorship or snooping don’t you think? And I can’t imagine TM staff being very good with their security practices.
2. If this move was to stop spammers, won’t spammers use this relay as well, and we will end up at square one? Any competent spammer would just switch ports anyway.
3. Wasting time for support and reconfiguration if you are a network administrator. Especially with the last minute announcement / mandate.
4. Webmasters like me who have their domain hosted locally also kena. I got an email from ExaBytes to instruct me to change my email program to use port 26.

Quote from the Terror-Man website, quotes added by me:

Telekom Malaysia Berhad wishes to inform its customers about TM’s initiative in combating spam in its Internet Protocol (IP) network to improve our quality of service.

Recently, many anti-spam organizations have blacklisted a large number of IP addresses from TM’s network. Due to this many customers have been unable to send emails from their mail server to companies who might be using database from the abovementioned anti-spam organizations.

These spamming activities by a small group have affected a large number [?] of our customers, regardless of the nature of their Internet usage.

Therefore, TM is taking immediate action to address this issue. Effective 3 December 2007 [this should read: right now], TM will block OUTBOUND Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) traffic or port 25 for all out going e-mails from dynamic IP addresses. Only Outbound SMTP traffic from smtp.streamyx.com and smtp.tm.net.my will be allowed

With this implementation, Streamyx customers who have their own mail server will not be able to send e-mails. As an alternative, TM is providing an open relay server for these customers who use dynamic IP addresses.

Jeff Ooi has written a blog post about this topic where you can find the latest updates.

Sigh… yet another reason to move my webhost overseas.

P/S: As I re-read my post I realize that I have a TM ad running from NuffNang on my left sidebar… check it out as they are running a 1 million ringgit contest. Just download a form and fill in a slogan for a chance to win 1 million, a car, or other cash prizes!

Let me tell you a story today.

Beckham, a web developer was tasked with redoing his company’s customer information portal. Using this website, customers can login to check their orders and commission points.

The old system was a legacy ASP (no, not the snake. It’s Microsoft’s version of PHP) system that looked like it came out of a college project or patched together with text book examples. The source code was poorly documented, all the spelling was wrong and there was inefficient code every where.

Beckham was actually assigned the task of improving the user interface with features such as drop down menus and new reporting features, but he took the initiative to do a major code revamp (mostly because he’s a bit of a coding standardization freak).

He spent countless hours and late nights working within the ASP and JavaScript limitations to come up with a system that is a hundred times (no, a million times) better than the previous one.

Beckham observed various security holes in the system and implemented an encrypted cookie verification system. To prevent brute force hacking attempts he opened the application in a popup browser window so that Javascript could close the window at will. He added counters for SQL injection.

The system rolled out, and complains started coming in about users not knowing how to allow popup windows to open and enable cookies on their browsers.

With each complain, Beckham’s colleagues pressured him to revert to the ‘old way’.

Beckham’s blood pressure boiled with each new stupid complaint he heard. He was being pressured and made to look bad by a few users who did not bother to figure out how to open popup windows.

Beckham thought at the back of his mind how ironic that these n00bs would find every way to change browser settings to surf porn sites, but won’t even try for a business site.

In the end, he spent two days and nights modifying the entire system to revert to a non popup design and minimizing the use of cookies. Mind you, this came with a lot of displeasure from Victoria.

The best quote was from one of his colleagues, “Let me check with my expert friend how to do this”.

Beckham nearly tackled his colleague from behind for such a blatant dismissal of his coding talent. “Expert friend? Do you think I just came out of programmer school?”

Last month, the company management reported that the website had been hacked. A major critical red alert was called in the IT department, with all the bosses coming to breathe down Beckham’s neck. You would imagine that the company safe had been broken into or something.

“Shut down the Internet,” they said in a knee jerk reaction. Like Beckham had the power. Apparently the website says “Hacked by Godzilla”.

Beckham calmly informed his boss that it was the user computer infected with the Godzilla virus (it says Hacked by Godzilla on the browser title bar).

A team of security “experts” was hired the next day to do an audit of the entire company infrastructure.

Various recommendations were proposed (by the way no major loopholes were found), among them using https security with SSL authentication.

Beckham wanted to scream “If the bunch of blinking n00b users can’t even figure out how to enable cookies and allow popups, what do you think will happen when we FORCE THEM TO INSTALL A CERTIFICATE?!”

Last night Beckham was so frustrated that he got in a quarrel with Victoria. He regrets that he hurt her feelings. He got so stressed he couldn’t even sleep properly.

Part of him feels like giving up and just restoring the old system. At least everyone will be happy. After all, they are all so 1997. If it comes to that, Beckham will also think of a transfer to another team who will appreciate his talent.

But Beckham remembers that all sorts of web users are out there, and they are equally frustrated too when they can’t use the system.

Beckham is resigned to the fate that things may never change, and people may never want to improve. Perhaps it was a mistake staying with ASP. Perhaps he should have moved to an AJAX design.

Perhaps, Beckham has an over inflated view of his own talents. Maybe he just isn’t that good after all.

And Adino says… The End. That was an interesting story wasn’t it? I wouldn’t want to be in Beckham’s shoes.

Nope, not at all.

Dooce Disclaimer: Any similiarities to persons real or otherwise are accidental.