Zaki Yamani World

Around Ikhwan's Five Year Old Birthday

2007-08-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

Well, on the 20th of July 2007 (what a nice date it was: 20072007), Ikhwan turned 5 years old. No birthday party this time. But as usual we have some cakes, sweet and candies for the kids. Ikhwan got a remote control robot, Marsya received a doll model while Alya got a small keyboard piano.

My new Site : www.zakiyamani.com

2007-06-19T07:40:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, I'm moving to my new domain and hosting. Check out my new "ZakiYamani.com" which is using wordpress platform. Well, I'm still green in wordpress. I'm sorry because the site is still not perfect yet. I'm improving it on a constant daily basis (after work off course....).

Thought For the Day 3

2007-05-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

.....Have the Name of God on your tongue, in your breath, ever. That will invoke His Form as the inner core of everything. That will provide you with His company, and contact with His boundless energy and bliss. That is the “good association” which gives you maximum benefit. Converse with God who is in you; derive courage and consolation from Him. He is the Teacher who is most concerned with your progress.....

....You are engaged in service and undertaking various spiritual practices. What benefit have you derived from these activities? Only when good feelings emerge from you, you get rich rewards. After sowing a papaya seed, you cannot expect a mango fruit. As is the seed, so is the tree. Likewise, as is the feeling, so is the result. Good and evil are based on your feelings. Hence, develop noble thoughts and spread the message of love to the entire world. Cultivate the feeling that all are your brothers and sisters.....

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Size Does Matter!!!

2007-05-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

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Adsense Video....Cool

2007-05-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Google is coming out with a more attractive and aggressive ads than the text adds. It's the new "Adsense video". I cannot wait to insert those video ads in my blog but I have to wait for a while. It's still under testing. However, check out the information from Google Inside Adsense below:

You've heard the expression "Content is king." We completely agree, and we also realize that these days website content is much more than just text -- it's also video. That's why we're excited to announce that this week, we're launching a pilot with a small group of publishers to test streaming video ads in their online video content. With this pilot, publishers control when the ads play in their videos and choose which videos get the ads.We know there's a lot going on in the world of video, and you may be wondering how this relates to other video
initiatives we've announced in AdSense. Here's a brief clarification:

- Click-to-play video ads: This is a video ad type on our content network. Any publisher opted into image ads and using one of the supported formats may see these click-to-play video ads on their sites.

- AdSense video distribution and sponsorship: We ran 2 pilots that allowed publishers to choose video channels (short-form video clips bundled with video ads) to display on their sites.

- In-stream video ads pilot: This is what we're announcing today - we're extending AdSense to online video content. Publishers in this test will be able to define at what point in their videos that streaming video ads will appear. (MORE)

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Mars Starts Using Animal Products

2007-05-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

When it comes to chocolate bars, my wife will get crazy. She love chocolate bars a lot especially Cadburry, Snickers, Mars etc. With news release that some of chocolate bars will stop using vegetable fats, that is not a good news for us to hear. My favourite, which is Maltesers is also in the list of chocolate that is no longer suitable for vegetarians.....Check out the article below adopted from BBC NEWS.

Masterfoods' brands are household names

Some of the UK's best-selling chocolate bars, such as Mars and Twix, will no longer be suitable for vegetarians.

Also affecting brands such as Snickers and Maltesers, owner Masterfoods said it had started to use animal product rennet to make its chocolate products.

Masterfoods said the change was due to it switching the sourcing of its ingredients and the admission was a "principled decision" on its part.

The Vegetarian Society said the company's move was "incomprehensible".

'Extremely disappointed'

Masterfoods said it had started using rennet from 1 May and non-affected products had a "best before date" up to 1 October.

Rennet, a chemical sourced from calves' stomachs, is used in the production of whey.

It will now also be found in Bounty, Minstrels and Milky Way products, and the ice cream versions of all Masterfoods' bars.

"If the customer is an extremely strict vegetarian, then we are sorry the products are no longer suitable, but a less strict vegetarian should enjoy our chocolate," said Paul Goalby, corporate affairs manager for Masterfoods.

The Vegetarian Society said it was "extremely disappointed".

"At a time when more and more consumers are concerned about the provenance of their food, Masterfoods' decision to use non-vegetarian whey is a backward step," it said in a statement.

"Mars products are very popular with young people and many will be shocked to discover that their manufacture now relies on the extraction of rennet from the stomach lining of young calves," it added.

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Make A MILLION In 3 Years

2007-05-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

§ Would you like to make a MILLION in three years?

§ Would you like to be paid cash for your products?

§ Would you like to get involved in a business giving a near 100 percent passive income?

§ Would you like to be in a business with low running costs?

§ Would you like to be in a business where you do NOT have to hire any employees, worry about salaries, overtime, work force planning, bonuses and EPF issues?

§ Would you like to be in a business where the demand is high and the supply is very limited?

If you answered ‘yes" to any of the above questions, then this is for you.

The answer to ALL of the questions above is swiftlet farming or better known as bird's nest farming.

Well, what exactly are swiftlet farms? Swiftlet farms refer to modified building or specially build structure for the purpose of providing breeding places for birds known as swiftlets. When swiftlet breed, they build the nests for their young using their saliva. It is this saliva that the Chinese around the world are willing to pay top dollars for. What's more important, swiftlets reside in only a few countries in the world, and Malaysia is one of them!

For many years, swiftlet farming has been providing lucrative and unbelievable returns to those who know the secrets of the business. For example, the projected returns from a 2- storey standard shop lot is in excess of RM300,000 per year. This successful business model has been replicated many times by the privileged few who guards the secrets fiercely for obvious reasons. What's more, swiftlet farming is legal and has the endorsement from Federal and State governments.

Due to popular demand, we are organizing a workshop for those who want to find out more about swiftlet farming. This is a workshop that we guarantee you have never seen before. It will cover all the topics you needed to know to kick start your own swiftlet farms. This is also your rare chance to meet up with the Guru of Swiftlet Farming, Dr. Christopher Lim, who is also the author of the best selling "Make Millions from Swiftlet Farming - A Definitive Guide".

Dr. Lim is a well respected figure in the field of swiftlet farming on top of being a full time Consultant Physician and Kidney Specialist at various reputable institutions and hospitals in Malaysia. He is a much sought after speaker in both local and international swiftlet farming workshops. Over the years, he has assisted many in owning their dream farms. More importantly, he is a successful farmer himself - he manages two highly successful swiftlet farms. Further, when he started his farms, he was not even residing in Malaysia!

By attending this workshop, you will be able to understand the ins and outs about swiftlet farming. Learn first hand from Dr. Lim about his vast experience in swiftlet farming. Do not miss this opportunity of a lifetime!

When: Saturday 7 July 2007
Where: Holiday Villa, Subang Jaya
Time: 9 am - 1 pm
Speaker: Dr. Christopher Lim
Fee: RM490
Group Discount (2 or more pax signing up at the same time): RM400 only. (Please call us at 03-7880 1051 for group discount sign ups.)

This program will soon be full. Act quickly and join an already impressive list of investors and business people at this powerful and unique program.

BOOK YOUR SEATS NOW to ensure your spot. To do so, simply register online at www.MillionairesPlanet.com/Swiftlets.htm or call us at 03-7880 1051 and we will do the rest.

We look forward to sharing this remarkable event with you!

Yours sincerely

Azizi Ali
Millionaires Coach
www.MillionairesPlanet.com
P - 03 7880 1051 F - 03 7880 8051

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Interesting huh.....Art or Furniture?

2007-05-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

The Obelisk ( wOw )

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Thought For the Day 2

2007-05-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

".......One needs to keep watch over one’s thoughts, because they form the basis for one’s actions. When one’s wishes are fulfilled, one is content. When they are not realised disappointment ensues. But no one inquires into the causes for such divergent feelings. Failures are the result of one’s own shortcomings. When the heart is pure, actions will automatically yield beneficial results. Our thoughts are the cause of the success or failure of our efforts. Hence one must utilise thoughts in a proper manner. When one’s thoughts are sublime, the results one achieves are also sublime.........."

"........When defeat and disappointment stare you in the face, you must not give way to weakness or despondency. Never condemn yourself as inferior or useless. Analyse the situation and find out the reasons for defeat so as to avoid it next time. You should have muscles of iron and nerves of steel. Then your resolution will generate the necessary confidence, and that will win over opposition. For the crop of life, courage and confidence are the best fertilizers. Be like lions in the spiritual field, rule over the forest of the senses and roam fearlessly with full faith in achieving victory...."

Alza Price

Our Weekend Activities

2007-05-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

Today, we woke up late. Well, it's Sunday!!! Later in the afternoon, we went to some show houses. They're beautiful. I wonder, went we'll be living in such a spacious and luxurious house like that. The cost of the house is nearly 1/2 a million MYR. mahal beb....

Don't be mistaken. That's not my car. It's the new Toyota Camry and I fancy it so much. I hope I can own it within 18 - 24 months time. Hopefully.

By the way, hari ini aku memang tak banyak main dengan internet. Just buat 5S (kemas-kemas la...ala konsep Jepun tu) Aku ISO kan dokumen2 aku la....Hari ini memang kena buat evaluation sikit dan review balik semua planning dan kerja aku. Kalau tak review, ntah-ntah ada yang tak kena, terlajak, buat waste time aku je.....Puas hati aku dapat kemas-kemas sikit benda-benda dan dokumen aku yang bersepah sikit2.

Frust juga semalam sebab manchester united kalah...Tapi nak buat camna, telan je la...besok kat tempat kerja, mesti member-member enemy Man-U standny nak mengutuk aku....Takpa,,tabahkan hati...

Akademi Fantasia 5, aku memang dah agak si Milah tu yang menang....Memang dia start takde momentum masa mula-mula AF5 start dulu...tapi last-last power pulak....di tambah pulak dengan iringan lagu my Heart.....perhhh tangak feeling pulakk....

Hmmm kena standby, besok nak pergi kerja. It's another new week. I'm going to optimize my time and work.

Semua benda yang ada dalam kepala sekarang

2007-05-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

Dah berapa malam aku tidur lewat. Semalam aku tidur jam 2 pagi. Before that aku tidur jam 3 pagi. Adalah projek/kerja yang aku buat. Memang besoknya aku kena pergi kerja, tapi aku ada target yang aku kena capai this month. He he...macam target sales lah pulak....eh...memang iye pun.....

Sebenarnya bukan senang nak senang. Asyik pikir macam mana nak buat itu ini. Nak bersama family dan harmoni. Nak tambah rezeki dan sebagainya. Dalam pada tu, aku pun tengah pikir nak sambung belajar lagi. Huh....!!! macam-macam la....

Sekarang ni dahla tengah clash pulak 2 program....Akademi Fantasia 5 final dan juga F.A cup final Manchester United dan Chealsea. Dua-dua program nie lewat pulak habis....tak habis-habis lagi walaupun dah jejak 12 tengah malam....Sapa lah nak menang....nie....??? Bola dah jejak extra time dah nie...

Aku punya saham pulak dalam bursa KLSE nie...masih hold lagi....pelik jugak lah walaupun indeks komposit nampak ok...tapi kebanyakkan saham2 murah dan sederhana nie....tak aktif sgt....nasib baik aku tak jadi beli marco warrant hari jumaat lepas pada harga 11.5 sen seunit.....kalau tak mesti aku jadi lagi tension sebab closing Jumaat lepas pada 10.5 sen....pheww....!!! Well, let's just hope saham-saham aku nie akan jadi ok la....Patut la member aku dan analisis cakap bulan May nie....memang tak berapa Ok sikit....indeks nampak ok pun pasal blue chip ok.....

Pasal projek aku nak sambung pHd pulak.....ingat nak commercializekan project freeze concentration yang wife aku pelopori tu....tapi bila aku tgk2 dan cari info sikit pasal cooling system dan kos operating cost yang terlibat, rasa macam payah pulak.....tapi aku nak try selidik dulu la....takkan main give up cam tu je....malas aku nak pikir topik lain nak buat.....Aku nak kena check lagi sekali feasibility dan commercial viability project separation tu....

Itu hari, makan dengan member aku yang dah naik pangkat jadi manager....macam2 benda kita borak while makan....memang fruitful dan pack dengan ideas.....idea nak cari duit la......bagus juga sekali sekala keluar dan spent time dengan different people.....kekadang aku bergaul dan mix dengan geng executive yang lain, hampeh.....asyik mengarut je...tapi at least release tension gak....daripada duk pikir pasal kerja...je kat kilang aku tu....

Aku memang nak maintain blog nie asalnya in english...tapi aku take time la nak tulis dalam english....kena control grammar, spelling dan macam2 lagi....So aku decide utk tulis je dalam BM dan selit2 dengan English.....So, lagi cepat la aku taip....apa yang ada dalam benak aku, aku taip je.....Tapi lepas aku baca comment daripada Paula Mooney dari USA dalam post beberapa hari lepas...aku sungguh terharu, sebab dia masih membaca dan memberi komen terhadap post aku....maybe after this, it is difficult for her to read my post.....Sorry Paula....

Dah 3 malam gak aku duk tanda report design project student UITM nie....itu antara sebab minggu nie average time tidur aku dah jadi 1.30 pagi.....he he....nasib baik dah siap aku kasi marking....rasa macam jadi lecturer pulak.....dah la tu kat kilang aku supervise sorang lagi practical student.....

Well...life goes on....We must to do our very best to succeed in everything....without ignoring our faith and God.....Yes, we are busy, but still we must allocate a portion of our precious time for our love ones....our spouse, kids, parents etc....

Thought For the Day

2007-05-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

...Evil qualities like desire, anger and hatred may arise in you at times but they should not be allowed to take root in the mind. When someone comes to your doorstep with his baggage, if you receive him and start exchanging pleasantries, he will immediately enter and settle down in your house. On the other hand, if you ignore him completely, he will seek lodging elsewhere. Likewise, when evil thoughts arise, just ignore them. On the other hand, if you entertain them, they will rule over you. When you come across something evil, do not look at it, talk about it or listen to it; just ignore it. You should permit entry into your mind only that which is sacred. Do not allow evil to enter. Only then can you attain peace....

.....Whatever you seek in the external world is present in you. There is nothing outside which is not within. When you open your eyes, you are able to see thousands of heads. Once you close your eyes, you cannot see anyone. From this, it is clear that all that you see with your physical eyes is transient. So long as the physical eyes are functional, you are able to see the world. Once they become non-functional, you cannot see anything. But there is something that you can see whether you open your eyes or shut them. That is Divinity. It is changeless and eternal. It has neither birth nor death. In fact, you are the embodiment the same divine principle. Understand this truth.....

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Kurang Masa Tapi Banyak Kerja

2007-05-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

Aku punya perancangan dan projek yang nak di buat punyalah banyak. Masalahnya aku tak cukup masa nak buat dan laksanakan. Maklumlah, kerja dah makan masa banyak sangat, lepas tu travelling pulak tu, berapa jam satu hari!!! Tapi, macam mana pun aku kena try usaha buat semua benda yang aku plan tu.

Cabaran aku sekarang ni adalah untuk belajar pakai soholaunch untuk design website. Aku ni bukanlah dari komputer background. So, memang problem sikitlah nak design site. So, selama nie belajar sendiri la....If only aku ada tok guru yang boleh ngajar aku buat site, jimat masa sikit siut...

Aku pun nak maintain blog ni dalam bahasa melayu + english....supaya aku boleh main type je apa yang ada dalam kepala otak aku nie....kira type jari tak berenti la.....

Aku punya investment kat BSKL pulak hold je sbb market tgh down la pulak....so, maintain je lah investment aku dalam tu. Harapnya later aku boleh lah earn something like 500++ monthly from saham aku tu...InsyaAllah....at least membantu la sikit urusan dan beban kewangan yang semakin menghimpit zaman moden nie....

Tadi, dua bijik keta aku bawak pegi cuci sekali dgn ikhwan dan marsya....Dah lama nak bawak cuci, tapi tak sempat....So, aku tak kisah sangat nak tengok Akademi Fantasia masa tu, lepas balik rumah around 10 lebih malam baru aku join tgk AF5 dengan wife aku. So, tadi tu, cuci Kancil aku yang baru lepas accident....Nampak ok la Kancil tu....tapi bunyi clucth memang hampeh dan tak sedap betul....memang kena bawak pegi service la.....kat Perodua service Taman U nanti....

Target short term adalah utk cepat2 settlekan site ChemicalEngineering101.com aku...Bila la aku boleh launch.....???

Life Goes On Stories

2007-04-16T05:29:00.000-07:00

I'm really busy nowadays and I don't like it. A lot of jobs and reports have to be done at work. My boss suddenly resigned. My down line staffs have their own "mystery" problems of taking MC (medical leave) at strategic time. Sometimes, I don't have enough manpower on a shift to run the plant (but we still run the plant). Luckily my eyes are a little bit fine and OK. I can feel the improvement and it's not as stress as last week.

Last Saturday, on my way home from work, I stopped at Shell station to buy the Star newspaper (to see and read some business and stock investment stuff!!!). Unfortunately, the paper was not available. I don't understand why the Star always run out of stock almost everywhere except at Jusco Mall Taman University (where they have tremendous amount of the Star newspapers). Well, that's not the story I want to tell here. As I drove my car to the main road (Pasir Gudang highway), an old man waved to me from outside. He approached me. I lowered down the window. He asked me nicely whether he can take a lift to the Carrefore / Jalan Kota Tinggi intersection. He said that he have been at the petrol station for few hours already. Initially I was not sure whether to offer him a lift or not. Who knows maybe he's a stranger with bad intention!!! But, after observing him, i felt pity. I welcomed him and he hoped into my Waja (after I cleared all the papers and documents which were lying unorganized on the seat. I threw them to the back seat.

In the car, we chatted. He came from Kluang to Johor Bahru to seek for work. He arrived the day before and spent the night in a mosque at Permas Jaya. He intended to visit and stay a few days at his cousins home, but his cousin have moved. I asked him whether he have family or not? His wife had past away few years ago and his 2 children were already married and lived with their family. His kids are doing just enough to support their family. So, he cannot depend on his children financially. He still have to work at the age of 63. He added, he was earlier at Shell to seek for some work, not long, just a day or two, to buy some food and perhaps return back to his home town (if he cannot meet his cousin, where he can have shelter). I really pity him that moment. I wish I can help him financially or other ways. But, I must help myself and my family first...

We reached the junction and I dropped him. Before he left, I gave him some money (enough to buy a good lunch) and the only food stock that I have in the car i.e. a packet of half filled "kuaci" (seed). I'm glad I helped him a little by giving him a ride and some money. I hope he is safe and healthy and can find a job and meet his cousin (well, i don't know how!!!) and can survive. I hope his kids will take care of his father...

Limited Time

2007-04-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

I already have my own domain name and I really wanted to work on it. Unfortunately, I have limited time to learn and explore WordPress and manage my domain account. Nowadays, my work seems to conquer most of my time. I'll be working on my blog progressively bit by bit. In the mean time, I'll still be using this platform to blog, until I'm ready for a change.

It's now 8.45 pm and I better get some sleep because in a few hour times (1.00 - 5.00am), it's my turn (my shift) to be a "security guard" at my housing area!!! Well, it's a social obligation and the communities are working together to ensure peacefulness of our territory.

Some Adjustment

2007-04-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

I'm sorry for not posting anything in the past few days: Several reasons are

- My eyes are too tired to face the laptop as I've been staring the monitor for 9 - 10 hours at work doing my monthly reports. When I reached home at night, my eyes are already very weak to blog. Watching TV or focusing my eyes to read the newspaper also add some stress to my eyes. My wife have covered me by posting the Guatemala Earthquake incident. But she too have her own commitments and are only capable to cover me once in a while. That's why associating with a guess blogger is important and can ensure continuous flow of our blog content. I'm planning to do so. Anybody want to be a guess blogger?

- I'm in process to switch from blogger to WordPress platform. This blog domain is http://zaki-yamani.blogspot.com. If you go to http://zakiyamani.com, you can see my new WordPress blog, but it's not ready yet, simply because the reason mentioned above plus I have to learn and explore WordPress. I need to get a new WordPress theme that can suit my taste and look nice and pleasant for readers. That may take some time to establish.

- Here comes the new weekend and we're heading to my in laws house in Kuantan. Hence, I'm not going to be able to do some blogging or other internet activities. There's no internet line connection in the house. There'll be some cyber cafe but I must check on the availability of my time to do so. Meeting family and relatives, chatting and keeping up to date, that's the reason of us heading there this afternoon. The last time we went there was last January.

Wrapping up: I hope you can wait and hold on. In a few weeks time (few weeks because I'm a part time blogger!!! a full time engineer...) , I'm pleased to the fact that of switching to my own WordPress blog having my own domain name and my own email address: zaki@zakiyamani.com. Hmmm...I like it.....

Photo of the day - A sinkhole in Guatemala

2007-04-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala - A 330-foot-deep sinkhole killed at least two teenagers as it swallowed about a dozen homes early Friday and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood. Officials blamed the sinkhole on recent rains and an underground sewage flow from a ruptured main.

The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths, and authorities feared it could widen or others could open up.

Rescue operations were on hold until a firefighter, suspended from a cable, could take video and photos above the hole and officials could use the documentation to decide how to proceed.

The dead were identified as Irma and David Soyos, emergency spokesman Juan Carlos Bolanos said. Their bodies were found near the sinkhole, floating in a river of sewage.

Their father, Domingo, was still missing, according to disaster coordinator Hugo Hernandez.

Malaysia Stock Exchange Investment Blog

2007-04-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned earlier in post that I'm working on stock trading investment. I've just invested in a company last Friday. I prefer not to reveal the amount of units that I've purchased and the company. Some tips (trusted information) said that the particular company's stock price will increase up to 200% (based on the project awarded by the government), but we don't know yet how long will the process takes place. I just hope, I'll get some damn good clean profit of at least 10% or more in 1-2 weeks time. I've already injected a couple thousands MYR in my trading account. I plan to invest in another 1 or 2 companies.

In conjunction with that, I started another blog in March entitled SAHAM 8993, which will share some informations, tips and updates related to the Malaysian stock market. I don't have much knowledge about the trading and investment industry (I'm still fresh, green and virgin!). Therefore, my colleague who has been successful in accumulating substantial wealth will be the main contributor for the blog. I hope it will be informative for those who want to learn, or already indulged in the industry and want to get hot tips and latest news on what's happening in the Malaysian stock exchange.

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Photo of the Day - Man Down, Goal Down

2007-04-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Losing 1-0 to Blackburn, Manchester United also lose defender Nemanja Vidic to injury (a dislocated shoulder). However, Manchester United managed to won 4-1 after scoring 4 goals in the second half. Goals by Paul Scholes (61), Michael Carrick (73), Ji-Sung Park (83), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (90). What a fantastic match! GettyImages

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Photo of the Day - Run Around The World

2007-04-01T05:31:00.000-07:00

In this file picture, Robert Garside runs on a beach in Kochin City, in the southern Indian state of Kerala 20, April, 2003. More than three years after he finished an epic journey across six continents, Garside has been officially recognized as the first person to run around the world.
On Tuesday, he will become the first person recognized as having run around the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Garside traversed the world over five years and eight months, crossing 30 countries on six continents and covering more than 30,000 miles(48,000Kms).(AFP/File/Ravi Raveendran)

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Brand New Nokia E90 Coming Soon

2007-03-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

Why have a separate notebook and mobile phone when one device can do it all? Well, almost. The Nokia E90 Communicator is the latest in the company's line of fold-open smartphones with QWERTY keyboards and come with wealth of connectivity options, including both quadband GSM and WCDMA (with 3G and HSDPA for high speed internet on to go), WiFi connection for hotspots and proper HTML browser (use FireFox for clearer, faster and better browsing). You can stay connected with E90 where ever you are.

If you need to do work or blogging!!!, E90 allows users to open and edit office documents which runs on Symbian OS v9.2 so you can expect a level of application sophistication close to a notebook PC.

And furthermore, there are two colours to choose from, cool black (excellent choice for your corporate husband and boyfriend) and hot red (suitable for your wife or girlfriend). E90 will be available soon. Check out more from Nokia.com.

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My Chemical Engineering World Blog Position in Search Engine

2007-03-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

I wanted to search and check the position of my Chemical Engineering World blog (another blog that I owned which is more technical) in Google and Yahoo. To my surprise, Chemical Engineering World is at position at #4 in Google and #1 in Yahoo search when I search using "chemical engineering blog". The same blog appeared at #4 in Google and #8 in Yahoo when searched using "chemical engineer blog". I'm very pleased with the present blog's position so far, but I must improve the position of it in Google search engine.

In addition to that, Chemical Engineering World blog position is at #144 (page 14) when I searched using "chemical engineering". It is a more general term/key word that most people would search when seeking information about chemical engineering. I give up searching the blog's position at Google because I cannot find it until page 37! I definitely need to improve on the position when using this broader keyword (chemical engineering) in those search engine.

In order to have better position in the search engine, we have to include/mention the keyword repeatedly in our post, if possible in the title as well. The more keyword we have, chances of having a better rank in the search engine is higher. Then, I will always ping the blog from Technorati to refresh my blog content.

Conclusion: Ultimate goal is to be #1 in Google and Yahoo search engine for the keyword - "chemical engineering".

Chemical Engineering World at #4 in Google
(search using "chemical engineering blog")

Chemical Engineering World is at #1 in Yahoo
(search using "chemical engineering blog")

Chemical Engineering World at #4 in Google
(search using "chemical engineering blog")

Chemical Engineering World is at #8 in Yahoo
(search using "chemical engineering blog")

Chemical Engineering World is at #144 in Yahoo
(search using just "chemical engineering")

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A Part Time Blogger Concept

2007-03-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

I go to work very early in the morning, and return home when it is already dark. Everyday, I arrive home and have a wonderful home cook dinner prepared by my wife (I'm lucky that my wife's cooking is marvelous and she loves cooking for me). I play a little bit with my three beautiful kids. Sometimes they're noisy playing around and sometimes they quarrel with each other. Well, they're just small innocent kids.

Before taking shower, I'll switch on the laptop and modem. After shower, praying, having dinner, I sit at the table with my right hand initially maneuvering the mouse. My eyes are laser focus reading emails and my favourite blogs. After about an hour or two, both of my hands are one the keyboard, posting something for the two blogs that I maintain (this blog and Chemical Engineering World). I will try my best to post on a daily basis for each blogs with such a limited time. To be frank, it is easier for me to post in Chemical Engineering World because of the daily working experiences and continuous learning process that I gained as a chemical engineer in an oil processing factory. However, posting for this blog, is quite a challenge. Actually I can post a lots of things happening around me, my family, friends and community. However, I don't want to be stressing too much on my personal story because I fear the readers will be bored with it. I plan to be more focus on the content for this blog and I want my readers to benefit from it big time. Therefore, I have decided to narrow down this blog scope to 'blogging tips', 'making money' and 'anything that linger in my mind'. Let me explain the concept of the blog.

Blogging tips: I'll be discussing and sharing blogging tips that I learned and experienced all this while as a part time night blogger. It may cover areas such as increasing traffic, SEO, marketing, link exchange and much more. I'll be doing some link love with other established bloggers around. I welcome some link exchange as well. Just mention it in the comment area and we can be in a win-win position. Ultimate aim is to improve our blog rank.

Making money: Everybody wants to make money. Hence, I'm going to share my journey on making money online via blogging, affiliate marketing etc. I'm new in the industry (just discovered and began blogging last August), but thank God, I already received my first Google cheque last two weeks. My wife had a big smile on her face after the discovering the cheque. She already bank-in the cheque on my behalf. Now, I'm on my way to receive my second cheque. I noticed making money via blogging has an exponential effect. I could still remember how difficult it was for me to learn editing html, script code etc without any help. I went through it by try and error. Well, I'm still learning. It's a continuous process. This is part of the 'making money online'.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm now involve in the stock market investment. This is a great and fantastic area to make big bucks. However, again, we need to learn the market, formulas, tricks, technique and networking with other traders and brokers to get early and accurate information. There's a risks in stock market investment. Therefore, we need to be cautions on our decisions in buying and selling stocks. This is part of the 'making money off-line'. More of the off-line making money stuffs are to be grabbed out there. I'll share some of them in this blog later.

Anything that linger in my mind: This is the portion where I'll post whatever I'm thinking. It can be personal experiences, family outing, movies, vacation, food and beverages and many more. Sometimes, just posting about blogging tips and making money could be boring. Why not I include some piece of 'anything that linger in my mind' to spice up the world!

As I end this post, my wife is already asleep. She's exhausted and not feeling well after a very hectic day. Marsya, my first daughter has already slept as well. Ikhwan and Alya are still actively awake! For your information, it is already 1.05 am in the morning. I've been the laptop's best friend since 8.30 pm just now (that's why sometimes my wife complaints...). Tomorrow, I'm going to wake up at 6.00 am and drive to work at 7.00 am still being sleepy (the distance between my home and my work place is about 50 km and usually it took my one hour to reach there).

I can say this is my daily routine as a part time blogger, in progress to be part time stock market investor and full time chemical engineer. Not to forget, a full time husband and father. I'm tired and sleepy but I could not sleep without posting to this blog. OK, now that I've completed this post, I want to have some sleep. Adios!

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Getting Traffic To Your Blog

2007-03-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

There are tonnes of techniques driving traffic to your blogs. Just google the keyword "increase traffic", or "traffic tips", or others, you name it, you'll get hundreds of blogs and websites teaching you techniques to increase traffic. Some of them give out free tips, free e-books, free newsletters, and others. Most of the time, there are too much to read and digest (if you don't have all the time in the world). Even if you are given 24 hours a day without sleeping, there are still too much of informations to learn and absorb, and our fatigue eyes could not stand staring the monitor.

Hence, I include some of the vital strategies/tips to increase traffic to your blog which I borrowed the some of the original content from Seth's Godin blog. Well, those are just 25 basic stuffs not to be missed out for bloggers.

Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
Break and announce news.
Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
Share linklove and expect some back.
Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
Do email interviews with the well-known.
Answer your email.
Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit).
Post your photos on flickr.
Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS or to email.
Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
Point to useful but little-known resources.
Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers (eg. blogging/gadget).
Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
Write posts that each include dozens of track backs to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
Utilize forum. It's a great package to maintain your readers.
Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
Ping Technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.

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Thought For the Day

2007-03-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

A close colleague of mine at work that I respect email a very meaningful thought (below). After reading it, I felt connected and could relate myself to the message. I believe everybody reading it will feel the same. As we grew older, our physical/body keep changing slowly, progressively, but our self remains the same. Sometimes, we wonder and think, am I for real? Is true I'm already 20 years old? or 30 years old? or 40 years old? When I'm going to die? How will I die? I already have 3 kids, but yet sometimes I act like a child? But I am still my self. And I shall remain like this even after having grandchildren. In this short life, we should live in a meaningful way. We should be good to ourself, family, relatives, friends and communities. We should live happily even though we don't have everything we desire. Sometimes, we struggle financially but we still have a wonderful family to support and love us. We are still ourself!

"Suppose there is a plate, tumbler and spoon made of silver. Their names and forms are different, but silver is common to all of them. Names and forms change but silver remains unchanged. Likewise, a child becomes a boy, then a man and later on, an old man. The form keeps changing but the spirit remains unchanged. Do not repose your faith in the body, which constantly changes. Body is like a water bubble; mind is like a mad monkey. Do not follow the body, do not follow the mind. Follow the conscience. Conscience is the “Self”. Have total faith in the “Self”. You are bound to face problems if you rely on the body, the mind and the senses. However, so long as you live in this world, you have to discharge your duties using your body and the mind as instruments."

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Transformers Movie Teaser

2007-03-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

Transformers Movie

2007-03-25T05:35:00.000-07:00

I went to the cinema with my wife today, just the two of us, alone. Nowadays, it's difficult for us to watch movie because our three kids are still small to join us. Luckily, we have a good and trusted maid to take care of them while we were out. We don't have any movie in particular to watch. We just went there, scan through the movie listing, and decided to watch a Malay movie called "Mukhsin".

However, a teaser theatrical triller shown before the movie (Mukhsin) really caught my attention. The sound effect, stunt, action and fire power made me wonder what movie is this?
To my surprise, it is Transformers the movie and it is not a cartoon. Transformers was my favourite robot cartoon series since I was small. I always watched and sketched most of the robots. My robot heroes back then were Hot Rod (race car), Blaster (stereo cassette player), and of course Optimus Prime (commander of the heroic Autobots).

It's going to be a super great movie and I know it definitely will be simply because Steven Spielberg is the man behind it. The movie is going to played this July and look forward watching it.

When Transformers The Movie cartoon was played in the 1986s, I immediately grab hold of the video and watched them repeatedly. My guess, I have watched the cartoon movie almost 30 times or more. I even have the DVD now at home (which I borrowed from my younger brother), and my 5 year old son is always playing it. I believed, he has been watching it for more than 10 times already. Like father like son!

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Google Checkout Referal

2007-03-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Now, in addition to AdSense, AdWords, Firefox with Google Toolbar, and Google Pack, you can now refer your users to Google Checkout through AdSense. Checkout gives your users a faster, safer, and more convenient way to shop online.

Every time you refer a user to Google Checkout, you make a little money. It's a simple process that includes all of three steps:

(i) You place the Checkout referral button on your site.

(ii) Someone clicks on the button, signs up as a buyer with Google Checkout using a valid U.S. credit card, and completes a purchase of at least $10 through Checkout within 90 days. (The current $10 minimum purchase corresponds to existing $10 promotion for new buyers, so this amount may change in the future.)

(iii) You earn $1. Please note that Checkout referrals are currently only available for U.S. publishers (which means a lot of publishers around the world including me could not yet take this opportunity), and Google Checkout is currently only available for buyers with a U.S. credit card. We hope to make both Checkout and Checkout Referrals available in more countries soon.

It costs nothing to sign up (in fact, you'll even get a $10 bonus) and it'll make shopping online a easier. For more information, please read Jack Chou post in Inside Adsense: Referals, Now with Google Checkout. As a publisher outside U.S., we look forward to use Google Checkout.

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Making Money by Investing

2007-03-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

I finally met my broker yesterday after work. The broker was a young man, aged 24, majoring in business administration, recently graduated from Multimedia University, a private university in Malaysia owned by Telekom. He explained some basic stuff about the stock investment market as well as some regulations related to it. I listened tentatively and asked few questions to ensure I really understood everything. He was very helpful and well verse on the industry (or maybe I'm fresh and still green?!).

When asked, how much am I willing to invest? I answered, as a beginner (still new and plenty to learn and absorb), I'm ready to gamble (not the correct word); invest MYR 2,000.00 (that's after discussing with my secretary and accountant, which is my intelligent wife). That figure is not that much, but it's still valuable money that we can use for paying off some of our accumulated debts (ops...did I talked too much?). I'm going to bank-in the money this weekend to my stock account and will further decide on which company to "take over!!!" ha ha....

I hope, with some research and a little bit of luck, I can gain some profit from the stock market. Wish me luck and pray for me.

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Learn Website Traffic From The GURU

2007-03-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

"I'm having very poor traffic",
"Nobody is coming to my site",
"I'm frustrated with the number of unique visitors coming to my blog",
"How can I increase my traffic?"

Can you associate the above statement with you? If yes, you need to check out HarpZon. This is the ultimate blog discussing about "IDEAS AND TIPS TO INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC". I stumbled upon Harpzon about three weeks ago. It is a brand new blog packed with various information on techniques to improve website and blog traffic. In addition to that, Mitchell Harpz, a 24 year old good looking lad, a successful entrepreneur (interspire.com), a dedicated owner of the blog, discussed and shared some of his personal life and blogging experiences. Check out how tasty his breakfast was and some healthy tips which is practical to follow.

For a new site in the blogging world (can be considered blogging industry now!!!), I must say I'm impressed with the number of readers Mitchell managed to attract. In fact he is very generous to compile and give out a free copy of "Blogging Traffic Blueprint". I downloaded the blueprint, comprehend and digested it yesterday. I highly recommend the Blogging Traffic Blueprint for any bloggers having burning desire for better page rank and a flux of traffic.

Mitchell has also introduced a cool and brilliant concept called link love. He gives opportunity to other bloggers to review his blog (positive or negative....anything will do..) and in return, he will provide a back link to the reviewer's blog, which will somehow help to increase traffic.

Harpzon is now one of my favourite blog that I must read everyday (exception if I'm going outstation or vacation or my modem is spoilt). I cannot afford to miss any new multiple content published daily by him. I hope Mitchell will continue posting quality fresh content that will benefit and enriched his loyal hungry readers like me. And I wish him more and more success in future.

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Preview: United Internationals

2007-03-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

A plethora of United players will be in international action as the Reds take a break from domestic football (adopted from Redview 23th March 2007 Issue 149). I don't really care about the International game. I'm just interested watching Man United achieving another treble this year and not Chelsea stealing a quadruple...

Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick and Ben Foster all trained with England at the new Wembley on Wednesday, ahead of the crucial qualifiers against Israel and Andorra. Kieran Richardson could go one better, and be the first United man to play there when England's Under-21s host Italy in a friendly on Saturday.

Two United players will go head-to-head next Wednesday when Serbia host Portugal. Before that, Nemanja Vidic and Cristiano Ronaldo will play away to Kazakhstan and at home to Belgium respectively. Ronaldo must be careful as his opponent have bad intention to get him down under 2 minutes!!!

Jonny Evans, currently excelling on loan to Sunderland, has been called into the Northern Ireland squad to face Liechtenstein and Sweden.

John O'Shea and Darron Gibson are involved for the Republic of Ireland's matches against Ryan Giggs' Wales and then Slovakia. Wales' second game is against San Marino next Wednesday.

Edwin van der Sar's calf injury keeps him out of Holland's qualifier against Romania but he'll be assessed again before the clash with Slovenia. Tomasz Kuszczak is in the Poland squad to face Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Ji-sung Park is in the South Korean squad for their friendly with Uruguay, while Dong Fangzhuo has been called up by China for their games against Australia and Uzbekistan.

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Heart Attacks And Drinking Warm Water

2007-03-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

This is not just about warm water after your meal, but also about heart attacks. This really make sense. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, and not cold water. My parents drink warm water as well after meal. Maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating!

Nothing to lose, everything to gain!

It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this "sludge" reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal. That's why now, I'm drinking hot tea with less sugar (I love it when my wife made me hot tea with perfect temperature and correct dosage of sugar concentration) or warm plain water for lunch or dinner.

A serious note about heart attacks: You should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.

You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and
be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.

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Importance of Good Blog Entry Titles

2007-03-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

Having an excellent content alone will not guarantee the success of our blog. We need to have a combination of factors to create a good blog such as a keyword selection and suitable post title. The reason that titles are imperative is because of how we scan information and make snap decisions on whether to dig into a story further or not. I found a very good article made by Dave Tylor from The Intuitive Life Business Blog. He has brilliantly explained the importance of having a good blog entry titles. I need not to elaborate further, but it's worth reading. At least, I learned something about "targeting search engine" with Dave's "cellphone" versus "cell phone" example.

Part of Dave's insights....

"Obviously, there are specific words that are always going to draw your eye, and these are used - ad nauseam - in advertising. The most common? Sex. Yes, you know you already saw that on an informal scan of the page and have had to come back to this paragraph to see and identify the context, right? Uh huh.

Should you use these high engagement words in every headline on your site so you can maximize the chance of engaging readers? No. Just like seeing twenty adverts that each suggest you'll become sexy and have gorgeous fun-loving friends if you consume that particular product, you'll just end up creating fatigue in your readers and it will backfire as they recognize that what you're doing is trying to manipulate them rather than help them identify whether a given article is worth reading or not." Continue reading HERE

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Red Alert

2007-03-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

Manchester United Asian Tour ticket offer is now made available for the red devil die hard fan. I wanted to part of the tour but perhaps later when my kids grew older. It's difficult to drag them all around when they are still small. Oh boy....I'll miss the match....

Get more details from:
http://www.manutd.com/newsletters/20070314_Asia/default.html

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Centre of the Earth

2007-03-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

These are some amazing beautiful pictures of the centre of the earth emailed by my friend. I am not sure of its location, but it sure is beautiful.

Amazing, isn't it.

What Does Blogging Means To Me?

2007-03-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

I discovered blogging less than a year ago. That time, I don't know what does the word 'blog' means. I soon realized that blog was derived from the a combination of "web" and "log", which became "weblog", and finally "blog". Blogging gave people like you and me a platform to express and share ideas, opinions, thoughts, knowledge and more than that too. Anybody can create a blog and compose whatever they want.

I wish I knew about blogging earlier. I love to write and post articles in magazines and bulletins. I was always directly involved in publication since primary, secondary and tertiary education (using my mother tongue language). Now, that my work place does not provide me any means to write, they just want me to work and work and work. Hence, as soon as I discover blogging, I immediately sign up under Blogger and start posting. My first blog was Chemical Engineering World. That blog is progressively getting some attention from fellow chemical engineers around. Initially, it was not easy managing that blog. Slowly, I learned positioning some script code the hard way by try and error. It took me some time to learn and grasp the technique and skill. Now that I'm comfortable with blogger, the new Blogger was released. To be frank, I'm not comfortable playing around with the new Blogger, but I'm glad they introduced "Labels" to categories our posts. I'm still struggling to adapt with the new Blogger and you can see that my adsense and other ads are not optimumly positioned. I'm still working on that.

Another good think about blogging is the income that can be automatically generated from it 24/7. Earlier, I never thought that blogging can become that generous. I must admit, some successful blogs out there inspired me to create and produced a good quality content blog. Yesterday, while reading "I've made $4,375.75 online! Here's how you can too...", I discovered more ways and tools to monetize our blog. It really open up my eyes reading Paula's teachings. If you have not read that article, you better spent 10 minutes reading it. It's a great post and I'm glad Paula share it with her readers.

Enough about blogging and making money. It's already late at night and I still have a job to take care tomorrow. I'm going to work harder to improve my blog with some little time that I have at night. Thanks to my wife for understanding and supporting me. For my readers, thank you for reading my blog. I hope you'll find it useful and enjoy it very much.

p/s: Besides Google Adsense, try AuctionAds to monetize your site.

Utilizing Carets

2007-03-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

I came across this interesting and useful technique while I was reading the computer tips and technique newsletter from Worldstart.com. I think it might come handy especially when we are handling, editing and saving documents routinely. Check it out below.

Here's a quick one for you! If you often save different versions of the same file in different folders on your computer, you should try using this simple tip. I promise, you won't be disappointed!

When you go to save the file, after the regular name, type ^1 behind it. This makes it a version one. To get the caret (^), hold down the Shift key and hit the number six on your keyboard. For the second version, type ^2, after the file name. For the third, type ^3 and so on.

Now, go and do a search by clicking the Start button, followed by Search. In the search criteria box, type ^ (just the caret). When the search is finished, you can sort your list by name by clicking View and then Arrange Icons By > Name.

You now have a list of all the files you save “in versions" and in order, by version number. You can now delete the ones you don't need. That's pretty convenient, isn't it? Give it a shot!

Life Without the Internet

2007-03-19T07:40:00.000-07:00

We lost the privilege and luxury of internet for 4 nights. Now I realize that, it (the internet) is not just a privilege or luxury, but instead a necessity! I felt lost without internet, not knowing what to do. I gives me a hard time to think of what to do to kill the time, because 75% of my waking hours at home is usually filled with facing, starring, touching and embracing the laptop. That three quarter fraction of time was left vacant for that four nights when my modem was badly injured by the lightning. Therefore, I decided to use that space of time to do some cleaning, organizing, and sorting out my study room which can also be called a store (storage of documents, papers, books, newspaper cuttings, boxes, paper bags, stationaries, cards, letters, bills, stamps, etc). Well, I did some small modification on the house arrangement as well (with my wife's help + opinion + discussion = decision on how to rearrange). We did some furniture re-arrangement, some cleaning and sorting. At least I'm glad I managed to do something useful while not on-line.

I still need to do some catching up on with my favourite blogs. There are still a lot to read and digest. My wife did a great job in handling the modem situation and get us us back on-line as soon as possible. That's why I managed to published this post tonight. Thanks baby....

Ooopppssss....

2007-03-15T23:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry...I didn't know that he has already posted something for you guys on the lightning thing. Anyway, you guys heard it from both of us already.

On hold

2007-03-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

I am writing on behalf of my husband here. Unfortunately our modem and laptop have been struck by lightning yesterday and now we don't have a means to access the internet at home. Due to that my husband will temporarily not be posting in this blog because that's the only way he acceses the internet (blogging is strictly not allowed in his company). I am writing this from my office because he asked me to. We are truly sorry. He's really down now because he loves blogging so much. We are doing everything we can to handle this. We've called the internet provider and will soon have a replacement for the modem. As for the laptop, thank God it's fixed already.

Spoilt Modem

2007-03-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

I returned home and switch on the laptop and modem as usual. To my surprise, both the laptop and modem could not turn on!!! I checked and inspected them together with my wife and luckily the laptop was OK. However, we tried everything to start the modem but it just would not be allright. We suspected that the lightning has caught and spoilt the modem. My wife called the network company immedietly after that, and hopefully within 24 hours we can get a new set of modem (a replacement - it is under contract) and continue blogging as usual at home.

This post was published in a cyber cafe nearby my work place.

Some Updates

2007-03-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

I still feel some headache but it is lesser than yesterday. My fever has also reduced. I have not surfed the internet for few days because of going to KL and also because I was sick yesterday. As a result I have to catch up reading all my favourite blogs. Up to now, I have not yet read all of them yet, but I'm going to read them. And I'm going to post comments as usual on Paula's site, a good blogger friend and loyal reader of this blog.

So, here's a little bit something to share about what's happening around me for the pass 1-2 days:

1. My company credited some money - encashment for replacement leave - I work during public holidays. Not bad. I received MYR 300++.

2. I called my broker just now and say hi. I'm going to try my luck on stock and investment.

3. I gave my wife some assistance on her slide that she prepared just now for her Ph.D first stage examination tomorrow. She's an expert in a last minute work.

4. I have not really eaten for 2 days due to lost of appetite. I tried having Mcdonalds for dinner and I managed to finish my BicMac Meal.

5. I have loads and loads of unfinished business that I have to attend to at work and I'm wondering when will it be over???

Not well

2007-03-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

Zaki is currently unavailable because he is now a little under the weather. His temperature is 38C/100F. He spent the day without eating anything today coz he lost his appetite. He just took the fever pills and went straight to bed. He will not be posting anything here for a while. I hope he will recover soon enough and be with you guys as usual. Get well soon honey.

Taking A Break

2007-03-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

My family and I went to Kuala Lumpur (KL), capital of Malaysia, last Saturday and we took the opportunity to meet up with some friends and visiting places. I can't really recall the last time we went to KL. What I know is, we always don't have enough time to spend in KL. Furthermore, we are traveling with 3 small kids of mine, which make it even difficult and troublesome to travel longer hours. Sometimes, I wish I can spend one or two weeks in KL, visit everybody and every places that we desire. However, that cannot happen now, I hope it can be achieved later in the future. KLCC is one of Malaysia's landmarks that we went to. Yes, we went there, but I think we only cover 15% of KLCC. Thanks to the kids, they went mad and restless. They were exhausted and just want to sleep!

Suria KLCC is a great place to spend money

My wife, kids and her fifteen- years- have- not- met friend

My wife took this photo. I have very few photo's of myself because I was busy capturing other people's photos

To the rest of our friends in KL whom we do not visit, we're sorry. We have very limited time to spend. We'll visit you guys later. Hope you guys understand. Cheers.

Credit Card vs Car Craze Contest

2007-03-09T05:41:00.000-08:00

I received my Manchester United Credit Card replacement yesterday and I'm glad having it. That credit card is important to me because I pump my fuel using this card, filling up my petrol at Petronas station. Me and my wife chose Petronas because they are having "Prizes galore in the Petronas Car Craze Contest". Six cars and other great prizes are offered for the customers who spend minimum MYR 30 at their stations. I pray and hope I'm the winner of one of the cars contested. Fingers crossed.

Blessing In Disguise

2007-03-09T05:08:00.000-08:00

Today I received a small compensation from SOCSO (Social Security Organization) (cheque) following the accident that I had during my plant shutdown. SOCSO basically is an organization that provides a comprehensive social security protection for Malaysian workers.

I was surprised to receive the cheque, mainly because the process is faster than I expected (just over 1 month). They gave me MRY708.00 from the nine-day medical leave (MC) given to me due to the temporary disablement that I experienced. Well, that's not bad. Of course the money will be a lot of help to me and my family. It's not that hard to spend that little amount of money..ain't it. I can't wait.

Paula's Link Love Makes Me Smile

2007-03-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

Check this out, Zaki Yamani World in Paula Mooney's blog. I was overwhelmed and happy when I saw Paula's writing about my blog. I really enjoyed and loved reading it. Thanks Paula...

Fixing Our Defense

2007-03-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

We did some minor adjustments to our gate yesterday. We fixed this nice green PVC netting to inhibit unknown adolescent dog from entering our house (obviously an adult dog won't fit through the gate bars). Previously, last weekend, a lost wandering teenage dog entered our drive way via the gate and destroyed 2 of my healthy grown chili plants. I was so furious after realizing my beautiful chili perished after the dog's attack.

Somehow, on another occasion, the same little dog came in again and attempted to get close to my youngest daughter, it was nearly licking her. Luckily, my wife managed to grab hold of Alya and chased the dog away.

It's not that we don't like dogs. Dogs are cute and adorable but being Muslims, we are prohibited from touching them. We don't want to go through the trouble of washing our affected body parts with seven earths to cleanse it. Well, that's what our religion has restricted us. I hope nobody is offended.

It was quite a troublesome process to fix it and I thank my wife for helping me twirling the steel wire to attach the netting to the gate. However, watching it nicely fitted to the gate makes me forget of how irritated I was when it seems like it will never end earlier. It looks quite nice, isn't it.

Man United 1-0 OSC Lille: Farewell Larsson strike

2007-03-08T07:37:00.000-08:00

Yahooooo, finally Manchester United made it through to the final eight in the UEFA Champions League after winning the clash against Lille yesterday. I did not watch the live game (too exhausted to stay up late at night), but managed to get a glimpse of the sweet victory which might be the last strike ever produced by Henric Larson for Manchester United. The Swede has become a great and lethal United front, and he will be surely missed when he return to Helsingborg. Enough about Larson, United must march on, look forward and work its way to grab the prestigious UEFA Champions League Cup. Glory-glory Man-United.....

A FINAL GOODBYE

Henrik Larsson says goodbye to the Man Utd faithful in the best possible way, by scoring the winner against Lille. The Swedish striker is off home in a week, and United will miss him.
GettyImages

THAT'S WORTH A 10.0

Flying winger Cristiano Ronaldo, goes... flying, in the 1-0 win over Lille. The Portuguese international was booked for this effort, but did set up the goal later on.
Empics

As the Chili Grows...

2007-03-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

I have been practicing planting and nursing chili for for about 4 months in my house compound. I was thinking to purchase or rent a piece of land, to plant chili, tomato and other crops on it. The agricultural industry is a very profitable sector and I want to become a part of it. The Malaysian government is giving a full support to farmers cum entrepreneurs to boost the industry. They even give out grants and loans to help the beginning farmers to start up or expand their business.

I started planting my first seed of chili last November. It grows from a tiny little green creature (small photo) to a beautiful big chili tree now. It's fun and aspiring watching it grows. I can't wait for it to give us its first fruit. I have quite a few of them that survived despite of lots that died. I hope to become a successful professional farmer despite of my chemical engineering degree. What a change of career, isn't it?

When The Power Combine

2007-03-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

The past two months were scary for the dwellers of Bandar Pulai Jaya. We hardly have a nice comfortable sleep. Few houses were intruded by robbers at night and early morning. There were cases where the robbers hurt the house owner besides stealing their cash, jewelry, hand phone etc.

One month ago, a meeting was held to discuss and form a group called "Kawasan Rukun Tetangga (KRT)" which roughly means "Peace Neighborhood Territory". The group will organize shift of security rounds to monitor and watch over the neighborhood at night. I have been in the shift (1 to 5 am) twice since KRT was formed. It's quite tiring though to have the same people doing the rounds weekly. Not all residents of the neighborhood participate, which is quite unfair.

Therefore, yesterday, we had another meeting (photo) at the basket ball court in the play ground in front of my house, hoping that everybody will turn up, basically to discuss methods to improve the existing KRT group. We tried to gather as much house owners to participate in the group. I hope more people will join to ensure peacefulness of our neighborhood.

Two WAJA's

2007-03-06T05:41:00.000-08:00

After the accident, I temporarily lost my Kancil (it's at the workshop undergoing some operation). I turned to my father and begged him to lend me one of his cars. He let me use his Proton Waja for a while. Now, there are two Waja's in our drive way and we lost some spacious area for my kids to play around. Anyway, I really thank my father for lending me the car.

My New Sandal

2007-03-06T04:59:00.000-08:00

I lost one half of my sandal during the accident last Wednesday. Having just another half is useless. Therefore, my wife get me a new pair, which looks good, comfortable and cheap - MYR5.90. However, I realized that I cannot where my socks wearing this sandal. Well, I use to where socks in car before going to work. I will only wear my shoes at my work place.

My Delicious Home Cook Dinner

2007-03-06T04:40:00.000-08:00

I had a home made dinner of "Nasi Ayam" (Chicken Rice) specially prepared by my wife last last Sunday. I really love and admire her cooking. This was the fourth Nasi Ayam dinner I had this week, which means I'm already addicted to it. According to my wife, it is not expansive to prepare a meal like this. If I'm not mistaken, my wife told me that the cost of dinner is below MYR10 only. It's really cheap and easy.

My Technorati Ranking

2007-03-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

I really put more effort improving and developing this blog since last month. The Technorati ranking shown above is basically for my record. I hope it can have better position next month. My Chemical Engineering World site, has a slightly better ranking then Zaki Yamani World.

The ranking based on Alexa.com for both sites are as shown below. However, ranking based on Alexa.com is not really representable.

Accident Location

2007-03-04T03:46:00.000-08:00

My father expressed his desire to see the location where I had the accident. So, I brought him and my mum as well as my family to the scene. I went down, to search for my wallet and spectacles, which were washed away from my car in the river (the water level has reduced extensively) after the accident, but I found nothing, as expected.

I fell quite high and luckily I'm OK.

Later, we had some refreshment and had some "cendol" (icy coconut milk served with sugar syrup and sweet dumplings) and "cucur" (fried seasoned dumplings).

Indian Wedding

2007-03-04T03:16:00.000-08:00

My family and I attended my colleague's wedding yesterday at Dewan Serbaguna (Multi- purpose Hall) Taman Johor Jaya, Johor. It was our first time attending and experiencing Indian cultural wedding. They served Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisine for the multicultural and multi races guest who came. What a beautiful country I'm living in. It's a warm feeling being in a place where all of us can have a good time regardless of our race.

Check out the Nasi Minyak (butter rice) come with hot red chicken source, beef curry, some sweet sour pineapple mixed with cucumber and some slices of fresh oranges (click on the photo to see how delicious this meal is). It was a colourful and wonderful wedding when two hearts became one. The audio was not bad at all but it was definitely Indian traditional music.

Indian tradition - I don't know how to explain this

Me and my family posing with the newly married couple and my boss's family

Paula Mooney: The Wheel in the Sky Keeps On Turning...

2007-03-03T19:19:00.000-08:00

I met Paula Mooney's blog in John Chow Dot Com recently and since then I've been reading her blog. She came out with an idea called Link Love, which I can say it's almost the same as John Chow's backlink concept.

There are tonnes of updates and informations dedicated in making money and improving site in her blog. As far as I can see, she is really dedicated in maintaining her blog. She provide brilliant and useful contents on a daily basis. Sometimes, she post twice a day. That type of commitment is extremely good to make a fantastic readable blog.

She have great relationship and love to be in touch with her readers. That's one strong point I can see from her and I really like. The blog have a lot of features to improve it's ranking too. I must learn from her to improve my site.

However, there are few things that I am not really in favour about her blog. I think the blog is crowded with a lot of photos and other informations. The arrangement, especially the bottom half of the blog is not properly organized and the spaces are not fully utilized. I believe, if Paula can improve on this, her blog appearance will become more attractive and cute. Keep up the great job Paula. I know you can do it!

Liverpool 0-1 Man Utd: O'Shea Stuns Anfield

2007-03-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

Great Hot Sizzling News: Manchester United produced a smash and grab 1-0 victory at Anfield that could well see them clinch the title. It was a great game with some nerve wracking drama as well. Paul Scholes saw red and United were left with 10 man at the 85th minutes. However, substitute O'Shea made the difference by scoring the only goal on injury time. Now, Manchester United is 12 points ahead of Chelsea and I'm smiling.

The Accident

2007-03-02T19:50:00.000-08:00

I'm a very careful driver especially when it is raining. Previous experiences made me very cautious and a slower driver then before. Although I have tried my best driving safely, still, I could not avoid myself from accident. We have to be extra careful, because there are still reckless drivers on the road.

My car inside the river. Rain has stopped and the water level has reduced by the time this photo was taken. Earlier, the water nearly covers the top of the car because of the heavy rain.

Another angle of the car from top of the river bank.

The experience gained on last Wednesday afternoon, driving on my way home in a heavy rainy day, will be an unforgettable one. A speeding van hit the rear side of my car (kancil) and the momentum was transfered to me. I lost control and drifted swiftly. I still remembered, I've time to think what's going to happen to me? What am I going to hit? Is it going to be tree branches next to the road? Is it going to be some metal rail installed by the road side? Am I going to be injured badly? Am I going to die? What will be the faith of my family when I'm not around?

This was the van that slammed my car.

The front part was damaged and the left front door cannot be closed.

But, instead, I felt into a river!!! The car toppled few times before it landed in the water. Immediately, water rushed inside the car and fortunately I'm conscious. I fear the car will go deeper into the river and forced to follow the current of the river. I opened the door and got out of the car. At one moment, I thought about all my personal belonging. I attempted to get back into the car to retrieve my wallet and hand phone. However, I cannot feel or see them. The car was half filled with water. Then, I decided to rescue myself first, fearing anything worse might happen.

The car is being pulled up. It's a very tough process.

The uplifting process continued.

I tipped my head and saw two man on top of the river bank (5-7 meters high). They shouted and asked me whether I'm OK or not. I signaled them that I was OK. I climbed up and they helped me up. One of the men was the one who hit me.

This was the part of the grass area that I passed through before diving into the river.

The car just touched the river bank. It was already dark.

At that moment, I'm entirely glad that God have saved me from unwanted injury. I experienced some knocks on my head and a few minor injuries (that's why I went for the medical check-up). I called my wife (using the guy's hand phone who hit me) and first I have to calmed my wife that I'm OK. I asked her to come and be with me.

The car was successfully lifted to ground zero.

I lost my wallet, spectacles, another half of my slippers, and a lots of soaking wet nearly destroyed magazine, books, notes etc.

The rear window was broken. It's just sad to see my car like that.

CT Scan and Medical Check-Up

2007-03-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

I went for a medical check up, just in case to check that I'm OK (I had an accident on Wednesday and got some bruises on my head). I went to Puteri Specialist Hospital and was attended by a Eurasian doctor (nothing special about his ethnic). The nurse took my blood pressure and body temperature. Later the doctor examined me and asked me to go for an X-ray and CT scan. I've experienced X-ray before but not yet a CT scan.

After an hour of waiting, the doctor called me and said that everything is OK. Guess how much does the bill cost just for that CT scan? It's MYR480.

Another Tragedy

2007-02-28T07:48:00.000-08:00

Year 2007 started with a tragedy of me having getting hurt during the shutdown. Today another tragedy occurred. I had a massive car accident. I'll write about it later. I'm too drained and tired.

Anyway, you can check out my wife's version about the accident.

Zaki Yamani World In JohnChow.com

2007-02-27T04:04:00.000-08:00

I'm really honored that John Chow has included me in his "Review My Blog - Batch 24" post. Can you see my name inside his blog? Do you know who is John Chow? For me, he is my blogging idol. He has made a very successful and lucrative blog in just one year having more than 3000 subscribers (by the time this post is typed).

How can my blog be inside John Chow's blog? Simple! Basically, I made a very sincere and honest review about his blog, "John Chow's Supremacy", sent him an email giving the review link. In return, he included my blog inside his. This will hopefully publicize and increase the traffic to my blog. Thanks John, I really appreciate it.

I'm also very delighted to see my blog today because I saw John Chow's face, in mybloglog area. I hope, after this, more people will drop by and read my blog. I hope all of you enjoy and benefit reading my content.

WorldStat.com

2007-02-26T05:55:00.000-08:00

Few months ago, I stumbled at a computer/software/hardware website called worldstart.com. From first glanced, the site seemed to be nice and simple. However, as I explored the site deeper, I discovered tonnes of computer and IT related info. It also offers the best computer tips and software deals in the internet.

Various Computer tips including using the internet, get more form email, desktop enhancement, system tune-up, computer terms, shortcuts and keyboard tricks and a lot more can be found. In addition to that, you can get free gorgeous wall paper, offered with calender or without. I have subscribed with Computer Tips - World Stat Newsletter, and I learned a lot of computer tips, tricks and updates from the newsletter. The newsletter is full pack with computer tips, news, updates, contest, auction, story and they are delivered almost 3-5 times a week. I really recommend this site for those who want to learn and be updated with computer related stuff. Check out worldstart.com.

Free Blog Optimization

2007-02-25T00:45:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite blog, Earningblog.com, is giving a way a very marvelous offer. Xion, the publisher is going to select 3 blogs, and give them a back link, to increase the selected blogs' traffic. The blogs will be a case study in Earningblog.com too. I have registered my blog in his comment area. I hope Xion will pick my blog as a case study. I really hope so. It will surely increase visitors to my blog.

Manchester United 2 Fulham 1

2007-02-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

It was a match that I should not miss, unfortunately I can't enjoy it. I was working late due to the plant shutdown. Eager to know the result, I called my beloved wife, asked her the result. It was 1-1 with 24 minutes to the final whistle. 20 minutes later, the phone rang and there came a joyful message: Manchester United 2 Fulham 1 with 4 minutes to go. I did not know who scored or what drama was displayed at Craven Cottage, but the result surely made me smile. Arriving home, after late dinner, I check out the updates in Soccernet.com. Scorers were Brian McBride (17), Ryan Giggs (29) and last but not least, the on-form Cristiano Ronaldo (88). Go Man-U!!! I love U...

New Domain Name

2007-02-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

I’m considering having my own domain name for this blog. Thinking and choosing a suitable name is quite difficult for me. That’s why earlier, I found it difficult to name my kids. I thought of using “www.zakiyamani.com”, but at one glance, it seems to be not commercial enough. I know some famous blogs around are using their own name such as www.johnchow.com, www.Liewcf.com, www.Isnaini.com, www.supriardi.com and others. While some decided to use other interesting name such as www.earningblog.com, www.takemorerisks.com, etc. Domain name key words are imperative and useful for crawlers. However, it really doesn’t matter what name it is if the blog is very successful and well known among ‘netizens’. Everybody will read and subscribe the content if it is a tremendously well maintained blog. Well, that is one real big fat challenge I’m facing now, to create and consistently deliver quality content to my readers. I don’t think I’m capable of serving multiple posts like John Chow. But, I will do my best, and first step is to get a real independent domain name.

Blog Renovation

2007-02-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

Seeing and admiring other interesting and attractive blogs made me want to improve my own blog. Instead of using typical dull white colour template previously, I spent about 3 hours searching for a three column template that suit the new beta blogger. As I browsed the internet, I found tonnes of various templates and the designs are brilliant. However, I decided to settle with this template, which is provided by blogger but upgraded from 2 column to a three column template. Not bad I guessed. This template looks neat and pleasing to my eyes. I will slowly and steadily improve this template to make it look nicer and better. This is part of my goal this year to seriously blog and share a large junk of my thought.

My career blog, Chemical Engineering World, is not very neat, seems to be very crowded and packed with technical informations!!! I have to improve that blog as well. One at a time.

Take More Risk

2007-02-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

I came across an interesting blog created and maintained by a 23 year old lad who enjoyed web design, alcohol and buffet. His name is Matt, from Belfast, Northern Ireland (I have been there - believe me, it's a fantastic place with damn beautiful scenery, especially beside the sea. Been there while I was studying in UK). I stumbled upon his site when I visited John Chow's blog. The name selection was catchy and interesting: Take More Risks. I scanned through his blog, adsorbed some mind blowing ideas posted and left some comments. I'm going to subscribed to his blog content. However, I wonder, why his site does not have adsense or other monetize machine?

Hospitals pick hi-tech clipboard

2007-02-21T08:45:00.000-08:00

It is a very brilliant invention and the timing is perfect. We need this type of revolutionary product to speed up the medical treatment. I came across an article from the BBC site about the electronic clipboard that is now gaining popularity. I wonder when can the clipboard arrive in Malaysia? The post is adopted from http://news.bbc.co.uk.

An electronic clipboard that has the potential to save lives has been unveiled.

It is hoped the device - known as a mobile clinical assistant (MCA) - will cut the time doctors and nurses spend on paper work. It could also improve patient safety and speed up treatment times. The portable device lets clinicians access patient records at the bedside, write notes and order essential tests in real-time. One senior doctor described it as one of the "most exciting developments in my 25 years in medicine". Read more from http://news.bbc.co.uk.

An in-built camera allows nurses to add pictures to patient records

A clipboard for 21st century medicine?

"Quick diagnosis means quicker treatment for patients" Staff nurse Jenny Quilliam

STRESS

2007-02-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

Are you in stress? Everybody experienced stress. Maybe at work or maybe at home. I received an interesting article about stress from my colleague. It's a long informative and well written article describing about stress management. I shall share some of the insights, which I adopted from the article.

Which of these is stress?

* You receive a promotion at work.
* Your car has a flat tire.
* You go to a fun party that lasts till 2:00 a.m.
* Your dog gets sick.
* Your new bedroom set is being delivered.
* Your best friend and his wife come to stay at your house for a week.
* You get a bad case of hay fever.
* All of the above.

ALL OF THESE ARE STRESS

If you are used to thinking that stress is something that makes you worry, you have the wrong idea of stress. Stress is many different kinds of things: happy things, sad things, allergic things, physical things. Many people carry enormous stress loads and they do not even realize it!
WHAT IS STRESS?

We are all familiar with the word "stress". Stress is when you are worried about getting laid off your job, or worried about having enough money to pay your bills, or worried about your mother when the doctor says she may need an operation. In fact, to most of us, stress is synonymous with worry. If it is something that makes you worry, then it is stress.

Your body, however, has a much broader definition of stress. TO YOUR BODY, STRESS IS SYNONYMOUS WITH CHANGE. Anything that causes a change in your life causes stress. It doesn't matter if it is a "good" change, or a "bad" change, they are both stress. When you find your dream apartment and get ready to move, that is stress. If you break your leg, that is stress. Good or bad, if it is a CHANGE in your life, it is stress as far as your body is concerned.

Even IMAGINED CHANGE is stress. (Imagining changes is what we call "worrying".) If you fear that you will not have enough money to pay your rent, that is stress. If you worry that you may get fired, that is stress. If you think that you may receive a promotion at work, that is also stress (even though this would be a good change). Whether the event is good or bad, imagining changes in your life is stressful.

Anything that causes CHANGE IN YOUR DAILY ROUTINE is stressful.

Anything that causes CHANGE IN YOUR BODY HEALTH is stressful.

IMAGINED CHANGES are just as stressful as real changes.

Let us look at several types of stress -- ones that are so commonplace that you might not even realize that they are stressful.......

Emotional Stress

When arguments, disagreements, and conflicts cause CHANGES in your personal life -- that is stress.

Illness

Catching a cold, breaking an arm, a skin infection, a sore back, are all CHANGES in your body condition.

Pushing Your Body Too Hard

A major source of stress is overdriving yourself. If you are working (or partying) 16 hours a day, you will have reduced your available time for rest. Sooner or later, the energy drain on your system will cause the body to fall behind in its repair work. There will not be enough time or energy for the body to fix broken cells, or replace used up brain neurotransmitters. CHANGES will occur in your body's internal environment. You will "hit the wall," "run out of gas". If you continue, permanent damage may be done. The body's fight to stay healthy in the face of the increased energy that your are expending is major stress.

Environmental Factors

Very hot or very cold climates can be stressful. Very high altitude may be a stress. Toxins or poisons are a stress. Each of these factors threatens to cause CHANGES in your body's internal environment.

Controversy mars United win

2007-02-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

Manchester United flew home clutching a priceless Champions League lead and left behind a storm of controversy that included a furious Lille coaching staff, who attempted to haul their players off the pitch before the final whistle. Lille keeper Tony Sylva was still lining his wall up when Ryan Giggs calmly stroked his free-kick into the top corner seven minutes from time to secure a 1-0 win. Read more about it (Adopted from soccernet.com).

Google Now Reporting Subscribers

2007-02-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

I noticed recently, a few blogs such as JohnChow.com, LiewCF.com and Earningblog.com have their readers increased drastically. I commented about the increased in Johnchow.com readers yesterday. Today, I read LiewCF.com post about the reason his readership increased. I gaved some of the reasons and one of it is adopted from feedburner.com blog.

Starting with our Saturday February 17th subscriber reporting, FeedBurner publishers will be able to see how many Google Reader and Google Personalized Homepage subscribers they have. (Thanks, Google!) This information will show up in tonight's subscriber reports (meaning that most of you will start to see the data on Saturday morning, U.S. Central Time).

What does this mean? This is one more data point to help you understand how many people have asked to receive your feed (aka "subscribers"). For those who are interested in the particulars, the number that Google is reporting is the total number of Google users who've subscribed to your feed in Reader or with Personalized Homepage.

While the subscriber number reflects overall interest in your content, keep in mind that there are plenty of other metrics within FeedBurner that help you more fully understand distribution and consumption. Now would be a good time to remind you that you can track clickthroughs for each item in your feed, and each item will show a breakdown on an aggregator-by-aggregator basis to help you understand which clients drive the most traffic to your site. Our TotalStats service measures Item Views (actual reads of your feed items) and Reach (number of unique people who viewed or clicked on your content). And our free StandardStats website metrics will provide you with numerous additional details on your inbound traffic from aggregators.

Want to build your subscriber numbers with Google's services? Make subscribing easier for your visitors. Look for the Google subscription button as an option in both our BrowserFriendly and ChickletChooser services for FeedBurner feeds in your account. Both give you the ability to offer Google as a subscription option in your feed and on your website with just a few clicks.

John Chow's Blog Supremecy

2007-02-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

I visited John Chow's blog today and could not believe the number of readers/subscribers who stay loyal reading his content. In December 2006, I discovered and immediately felt very attached reading his blog. If I'm not mistaken, he has about 1200 - 1300 readers that time. Now, mid February, there are already more than 2200+ readers. What a magnificent progress he has achieved. An achievement that other bloggers truly desire (including me).

I'm still green in the blogging world. There are tonnes of information and traffic strategy for me to catch up and put into practice. I found John Chow's blog the best place to learn everything about successful blogging. The Review My Blog and Get A Free Linkback concept is a brilliant idea. Generally, it helps average and beginning bloggers (like me) gaining some exposure.

I’m so impressed with the commitment and dedication displayed by John. Just imagine multiple posts a day. And the posts are excellent, even when he is rambling or sharing his fine dining experiences. Is he having a fine dine everyday?

As a full time chemical engineer, I hardly have the time to surf. When I do have the time, Johnchow.com will always be the site I check out after opening my Google account. It has already become a daily routine for me, so predictable even to my wife. For other bloggers out there, if you have not heard or notice the emergence of John Chow, a.k.a Dot Com Mogul, I highly recommend you to visit his site. You won’t regret it.

John, thanks for providing us such a fantastic blog!

My Wife's Blog

2007-02-19T18:17:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly, my wife is now interested in blogging. She now have her own blog entitle zakizura.blogspot.com. The blog is basically about all her thoughts, our story, her feelings and family too. Part of the blog name is my name, and the other half of the blog name is my wife's name.

Beckham Makes His Old Trafford Return

2007-02-19T17:56:00.000-08:00

As a ManU fan, I'm receiving the official newsletter from Manutd.com. The following post is also taken from Redview 15th February 2007, Issue 144.

David Beckham will be back at Old Trafford next month after being named on the all-star Europe XI squad list to face United in the Jubilee Charity Match on 13 March.

Becks, who gave the Reds 11 years' service before departing for Real Madrid in 2003, will be joined by Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.

"I'm happy I'm going to play on March 13th," said Becks. "It will be something special to go back to Old Trafford, and I'm really looking forward to it."

The special match marks two jubilees: Manchester United's half-century of involvement in European competitions; and the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which laid the foundations for a united Europe.

It is being staged by the Manchester United Foundation and UEFA, with support from the European Union. All the proceeds from the celebration match will go to charity. Click here to book tickets.

Ronaldo Loves Life At United

2007-02-19T17:49:00.000-08:00

For your info I'm a Manchester United die hard fan supporter and I'm a member to the Manchester United Fan Club. Therefore, I'm also receiving the official newsletter from Manutd.com. The following post is taken from Redview 15th February 2007, Issue 144.

Sir Alex Ferguson has urged United fans to ignore any speculation linking Cristiano Ronaldo to a move away from Old Trafford.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have been touted as possible destinations for the Portuguese winger, but the United boss says he can't see it happening.

"I'd dismiss it, to be honest with you," Sir Alex told MU Radio. "Cristiano loves it here.

"He's in his best spell, he's improving and progressing fantastically as a footballer. He's a great lad and there's no way you could see him not being happy here. Without question, he loves it here."

Sir Alex was quick to point out Ronaldo's contract runs until 2010 and slammed those who claim the 22-year-old needs to be on a bigger stage.

"Why would we sell Cristiano? We have as much right to be at the top of the footballing tree as Barcelona. We have the same ambitions as them.

"We may not have a 90,000-seat stadium but we do have 76,000 in every week. I don't know if there's another club in the world like it. There are so many positives about Manchester United. You wouldn't want to leave here."

Bye bye Netscape and IE. Welcome Mozilla

2007-02-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

I am so happy today that now I am using Mozilla Firefox as my internet browser. I don't know what's wrong with my internet explorer and Netscape navigator. The problems on using those 2 browser makes me really mad and crazy!!! Luckily my cleaver and lovely wife took the initiative and downloaded the Mozilla Firefox. Now, all the problems that we face earlier while using the internet has disappeared.

Chinese New Year and Fire Cracker

2007-02-17T08:55:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the Chinese New Year night. As expected, at 12.00 midnight, there were a lot of fire cracker being fired-off. Our house location seems to be strategic as we can see a lot of colourful and wonderful fire crackers ignited and exploded in the air. We enjoyed it very much and do not need to pay anything to view and witness the beautiful scenery.

Blog Feed

2007-02-17T07:24:00.000-08:00

Feed by feedburner or other feed tools are essential to reach our readers. I'm using it as well, and I'm still learning to fully utilize the feed burner. Below is an article from the Inside Adsense
Team regarding feedburner.

Does your site have a feed? If not, you may be missing out on a substantial number of repeat visitors. An increasing number of users are using feed readers to keep up to date with their favorite websites. You've worked so hard to create that quality content, and feeds can
help you grow your audience as well as let your current readers take your site with them wherever they go.Google Reader and the Google Personalized Homepage are examples of feed readers that allow your users to keep track of updates to your site -- and starting today, it's
now possible to track the number of users subscribed to your site via these two feed readers.

Here are just a few examples of AdSense sites
which also offer feeds:
- Information resources NewsMax and Hybridcars.com publish feeds of their most recent stories.
- Taquitos.net, a specialty site focused on snacks, publishes feeds with the newest snack reviews. - Blogs like Inside AdSense publish feeds with the latest posts.There are many resources online to help you implement feeds on your site. You may wish to start with sites for Atom and RSS, the two standards compatible with most feed readers. Many popular CMS and blogging
platforms like Blogger.com already have feed functionality built in, so your site may even have a feed without you knowing it. In order to provide the best experience for your users, the Google Reader team has also put together some tips for feed publishers. This document covers feed best practices, common implementation pitfalls, and various ways to promote your feeds. Whether you're creating your feeds from scratch or have been publishing them for a long time, we encourage you to take a look at our tips to make the most of your feeds. If you have any
questions, please get in touch.

Posted by Nick Baum - Google Reader
Product Manager

Massage

2007-02-16T06:18:00.000-08:00

As usual, everyday is a tiring day for me especially when I'm involved in a bad traffic jam after a long day hectic work. I'll be very exhausted and will surely asked my wife to massage me. It felt good whenever her soft finger run through my head and body. The blood circulation flowing inside made me feel very relax and in somewhere else. I loved when she run her fingers and rubbed it on my face. It also strengthened and solidify the bond which has been established earlier within us. Thanks my dear. Do your wife massage you? Do you massage your husband?

Pasir Gudang Kite Festival 2007

2007-02-10T14:01:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since we went out for leisure in a one unit family. We went to this Pasir Gudang Kite Festival 2007 yesterday. There were a lot interesting and attractive kites flying in the Pasir Gudang Park air space. It was an extraordinary scenary. Various shapes, creativity and speed can was displayed. Check out the official site: www.kitefestpasirgudang.com.
Check out other photos in Ikhwan's, Marsya's, and Alya's site.

This was taken by our bibik (maid). Simply to show that we've been to the Kite Festival in Pasir Gudang. We'll there were a lot of people and you can see it from the background.

This brilliant photo was snapped by my lovely wife. Even I could not manage to get this angle when I attempted to snap her photo.

See, I could not get a good shot on the photo. I failed to get a good photo of my wife. It's about the timing, angle and luck. The one in yellow cap and dark t-shirt is Ikhwan, my son. The one in red cap is some chap who's enjoying the day whom we don't know. Well, there were a lot of people there....

They just brought down this giant kite. It took them at least 15 minutes to get it touch the earth surface, and a lot of people too.

My wife and kids, Ikhwan, Marsya & Alya...

Making Money From Blog

2007-01-22T05:39:00.000-08:00

The power of bloging can be magnificent. It would not just let you enjoy posting, but it also can give you some lucrative side income!!! Just see JohnChow's blog. His blog is simply fantastic and his commitment in providing great content in just amazing. If you want to see how much John Chow made last December, read the following:

With traffic down by over 145,000 page views, you think income would be down by a proportionate amount. However, I’m happy to report that despite the huge drop in traffic, the blog still beat the record $2,123.93 November income. Here is the December earnings breakdown.

Google AdSense: $693.36
Vibrant IntelliTXT: $420.73
TTZ Media: $152.91
Text Link Ads: $508.50
FeedBurner Ads: $345.60
ReviewMe: $200
Direct Ad Sales: $105.00
Affiliate Sales: $195.00
Free Stuff: $168.95
Grand Total: $2,790.05

Read more about his comment, analysis and tips about his experience HERE.

Refer users to new products to generate more revenue

2007-01-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

I adopted the following article from the Google Adsense Help Center in order to help myself and others get some info on how to generate more revenue from referral Google referral products.Hopefully we can gain some useful tips and input from it.

Referrals is a feature of AdSense that allows you to increase your revenue while increasing your users' awareness of useful products and services. By adding a referral button to your site, you can direct users to products like AdSense, AdWords, and Firefox with Google Toolbar. When your referral connects a user to one of our referral products, you can generate more earnings while helping new web publishers improve their internet experience.

Our step-by-step instructions make it easy to add a referral to your site in minutes. Note that the referral products available to you may vary depending on your location or language - you can find a full list of the referral products available for you by visiting the AdSense Setup tab and choosing Referrals as the product.

Tips for successful referrals:

Actively endorse the products you refer. Unlike with AdSense for content ads, we encourage you to endorse referral products by calling attention to the button or text link. If you believe in the quality of the product that you're referring, feel free to let your users know! Of course, in line with our policies, you may not click your own ads nor encourage conversions for deceitful reasons.
Treat referral units as site content rather than traditional ad space. By integrating text links or buttons into related content on your page, you can improve the experience users have on your site, enabling them to easily find the referral buttons you discuss in your content.
Experiment. Try various text links and button designs to see which performs best on your site. Our policies allow you to place one referral unit per product, for up to four products total, on any given page.
Customize your text links. Our policies allow publishers to alter the font and size of the text link using standard HTML "font" tags around the link. However, the font size changes must be reasonably necessary to match the theme of the site. Unreasonable or abusive changes will constitute a violation of our program policies.
Choose relevant products to refer. For example, if you have a site about blogging or web hosting, an AdSense referral unit may work best on your site. The referral product that is most relevant to the content of your site will always perform best.
Rotate referral units when you rotate content. Always check to see that the relevance of your referral unit is not diminished by your change in content.

Kid's Blog

2007-01-18T07:27:00.000-08:00

I thing yesterday is one of the most important and significant day in my life and my family's life. Nothing big had happen except I created three blogs for three of my small children. I just got the idea yesterday night and I quickly implemented it. I can post what ever activity, progress, drawing, photos, videos of my kids inside their individual blog. Later, when they grew older and understand, I will handover the blogs to the respective person. For the time being the blogs are all very new and only contain their very basic info. The blogs are IkhwanFirdaus, MarsyaSyazweena and AlyaHumaira.

Quick Quiz on The FA Cup

2007-01-18T07:08:00.000-08:00

Test your knowledge of United's record in the FA Cup (Taken from Redview 15th February 2007, Issue 144)

Scroll down to Fanzone for the answers.

1. How many times have United won the Cup?
2. Which team did United beat in the 2004 final at the Millennium Stadium?
3. Who scored United's first FA Cup goal of the 2006/07 season?
4. How many FA Cup finals have United reached under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson?
5. Which non-league team took United to a third round replay last season?

************************************************
Quiz: 1) Eleven 2) Millwall 3) Henrik Larsson 4) Seven 5) Burton Albion.

Stuff People Write on Money

2007-01-17T05:43:00.000-08:00

It's interesting to see what people write or scribble on a dollar note money. I found this site somewhere and it's just cool to see people creativity. Check out the site HERE. s

Free the Werewolves

School Project. Please let me know where this travels

Abe Lincoln with new hair

Apple - iPhone

2007-01-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

I just cannot resist to have the Apple - iPhone inside my blog. And for that I just include the latest and newest gadget toy handphone from Apple here. I wonder when can I own one of it. Perhaps after receiving my bonus!!!

MAHA EXPO 2006

2007-01-16T05:50:00.000-08:00

Last November, I went to MAHA EXPO 2006 (Malaysia Agriculture Holticulture Agrotourism) which was located in MARDI (Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Well, I went there not for official business, but rather gathering some information and adding up some new and fresh knowledge inside my brain cell about the agro-bio industry. There were thousands of people pouring into the exhibition which is the largest in Asia. It was very difficult for me to walk my way through the exhibition booth. I learn some new technology on growing some crops, got myself some info about the available loans and supports for interested parties who want to developt the agricultural business, and lots of more informations. It's basically a growing exciting sector to venture. On overall, i can say that MOHA 2006 is a very brilliant event conducted by the Malaysia's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), but it definitely need to improve few things such as handling such a huge
gigantic visitors and directions etc.

Hardcore Gaming Room

2007-01-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

As I browse the internet, I stumbled with another good tech blog. It's called TechEBlog.org. There are a lots of cool stuff inside it. The site content immediately caught my attention and as a person not from the IT or gadget/networking/internet background, I learned and know a lots of thing from this site. Some of the crazy activities that hit me is 5 Hardcore Gaming Rooms You Don’t Want to Sleep in

You know you’re a hardcore gamer when…you’ve got twelve monitors dedicated to just playing MS Flight Simulator, a full-sized DDR machine sitting in the corner, or calling a mountain of Coke bottles your bed. View the rest after the jump.

Some of you like games, and some of you like games. Here are the dwellings of your brethren: Ahandful of game rooms that show cool gaming rooms are less about owning all the consoles, but more about cramming it full of stuff.

Techzoogle - Tech Blog

2007-01-16T05:25:00.000-08:00

I found out an interesting tech/gadget blog from one of the blogs that I subscribed. If you don't have a lot of time to surf and browse the internet for some tech and gadgets, you should check out Techzoogle.com. Some info about the tech blog:

Techzoogle is a blogocentric site tailored to the latest technology, trends, gadgets, computer and software. We pride ourselves by reporting and reviewing products and sites in a user-friendly and non technical way. Written by technology enthusiasts, Techzoogle is part of MJM Net Inc., a Technology/ Engineering company.

If incase you love to write and publish some cool stuff about gadgets, computers, network, internet etc....you can always contribute your articles to Techzoogle.com.

Apple iPhone

2007-01-13T00:36:00.000-08:00

This is a very interesting new cool toy. In Malaysia, rumours said thst it will be around RM 2046 before tax, for 8GB version. The 4GB version is at a slightly lower price. I can't wait to own one.

Macworld 2007 Apple announced the long-awaited iPhone - a widescreen iPod, a mobile phone, a mobile Internet terminal, a digital camera and a portable PIM organizer all-in-one. Some of the most exciting features of the iPhone include the OS X it runs on and touchscreen control with multi-finger gestures with no need for a stylus whatsoever.

Apple iPhone

Equipped with 4 or 8GB of integrated memory, the Apple iPhone has got more than the needed storage space to bring your photos, videos and music to life straight into your palm. It's much like iPod in that respect and features a large 3.5" touchscreen TFT display with a resolution of 320x480 pixels. But unlike an iPod it can take pictures with the integrated 2 megapixel camera. It even has an accellerometer which allows it to tell whether you are holding the device in landscape or portrait mode so that it can turn the display orientation correspondingly. And all that mobile virtuosity comes at the meager thickness of 11.6 mm.

Audio player • email client • maps • stocks

A quad-band GSM/EDGE mobile (sorry, no 3G/HSDPA support), the iPhone is a truly amazing smartphone that can not only make and receive calls, but can also store your contacts, tasks, notes, calendar events, etc., as well as synchronize them seamlessly with the PC. If that's not enough the device also has Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0 support. Some sweet highlights of the device are the Proximity sensor, which turns the display off when you lift the iPhone to your ear, as well as the Ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the display's brightness.

Web browser • virtual QWERTY keyboard • in-call menu • voicemail

The other strengths of this multimedia device are more or less Internet-oriented, since the iPhone offers exceptional web browsing capabilities thanks to the Safari web browser with integrated Google search plus the Google Maps application that can take you all over the world - unfortunately without a GPS receiver. The user experience can be further enhanced through the use of various widgets, well-known and loved by all users of the Mac OS X.

Photo viewer • browsing music albums

Apple would be offering the iPhone to end customers in USA through the Cingular networks. Unfortunately, the device is expected to become commercially available in June 2007 only after it's approved by the FCC. Market availability in Europe is expected no sooner than Q4 2007, and as late as early 2008 in Asia. Initial pricing in Cingular networks will be 499$ for the 4GB model and 599$ for the 8GB one - both with a two-year contract.

Check out the iPhone in http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Good Blog Not Easy to Create

2007-01-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

It's not going to be easy for me to create a successful blog that have many loyal readers. I have to keep faith and confidence that I can do it. I'm learning a lot of stuff inside the cyber world. I do not mind exploring the internet and learn some SEO stuff as well as some interesting gadgets. But the problem is I cannot stand looking at the monitor for so long. It really irritate my eyes. I need to do something to release the tension in my eyes.

I have seen some other blogs using the blogger platform which is really catchy, interesting amd neat as well. Blogging Secret is one kind of blog that attracts my attention because of two reasons: One is because it has three column, platform looks like wordpress, while the second one is because of it has a lot of subsriber/reader within a short period of time. It has really good content and I'm trying my best to adsorb his content.

Two days ago, I also joint mybloglog. It is a bloggers community in the virtual world. I registered myself and set Chemical Engineering World as my official blog inside mybloglog. I know that maybe I'm considered quite late in joining mybloglog. But, it really does not matter as long as I found that I get some traffic to my blog. I hope more bloggers will join my community and find my sites interesting. Well, I hope so. It's really my journey to be a successful part time blogger.

Air Mahendran

2007-01-07T21:43:00.000-08:00

This is Air Mahendran. The fair is very cheap. Roti canai, capati, tosei, fried mee, Fried rice,maruku is served. It's a better alternative for you to fly....Want to try???

My Tibia & Fibula Condition

2007-01-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

It’s already four days, since the accident occurred (I wrote this post inside my word on Saturday doc because i don't have the internet line temporarily). After the wound dressing last Thursday, the stitches are now exposed. The wound and stitches need to be dried and oxidized but precaution still need to be taken. However, on Friday morning, my left foot became swelling. And I found it a little bit difficult and uncomfortable to walk compared from previous days. No wonder the doctor gave me additional 5 days MC for me. When the doctor initially mentioned “5 days”, I was surprised. However, now I know that the 5 days are really required for me to heal completely. I hope I can have a speedy recovery. I cannot see my ankle!!! because of swelling.

Creating A Good Blog Challenge

2007-01-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of time in front of the laptop to improve, enhance and upgrade the standard of my blog. I want the visitors and readers to benefit and get some valuable information from any my experience sharing. It also took me a lot time and effort to re-arrange the blog view. I want the blog to look nice and welcoming. It's not an easy process. It will definitely take some time. I hope I can at least keep on perfecting the lay out of my blog from time to time. I really wish my blog will have a lot of subscriber and follower. That shall be one of my target this year.

Blog Motivation

2007-01-02T23:55:00.000-08:00

I’m so excited to read JohnChow.com blog. I really think he is a great and successful blogger. He has a very interesting, informative and casual blog. I cannot deny that I envy his blog. I want to have similar achievement like he has in the blogging world. His blog and his effort motivates me to be a better blogger. That shall be part of my 2007 New Year resolution. I hope everybody following my blog will benefit from it. I would also welcome any comments and suggestion to improve my blog. Good luck Zaki…

Rest and Heal

2007-01-02T23:47:00.000-08:00

Due to the injury that I had yesterday, I decided not to go to work. The doctor gave me 3 days MC. Therefore, I shall continue work on Friday. It’s difficult for me to take my bath because the bandage on my left foot should not be wet. I must keep it clean & dry before my next visit to Hospital Penawar on Friday. I informed what happened yesterday to my senior colleague and my bos. My colleague understood the situation and asked me to rest. However, I was surprised because my bos asked me whether I can drive or not. He wants me to go to work!!! I don’t know what he was thinking. I have two deep cut in my left leg tibia. The bottom has 3 stitches, while the upper one has 6 internal stitches and 7 external stitches. So, now, I’m at home, resting with my kids, consuming some antibiotics and some pain killer pills. I hope the wound can be better as soon as possible.

Life & Death

2007-01-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

Today, I met an accident in my work place. it hurt me really bed. I have 2 serious wounds on my left leg. Went to the hospital and get some medical attention. While I was waiting to be stitch by the doctor in the emergency ward, a car suddenly park outside the emergency ward and sounded the horn vigorously. A 15 year old boy was unconsious and immedietly brougth inside the emergency ward. His relative/friends, i did not know, rush in and asked the doctor to help. I was pushed a side for a while. The doctor and his medical staff check the boy. I watch and heard everything. And then, the moment that we fear most happened. The boy was declared death after 2-3 minutes. It happen before my eyes. His relative/friends shouted and cried loudly finding hard to accept the death of the boy. I kept quite. The doctor told me that, most of the time, the person that die is the one who is normally healthy. They'll die from accident. In this case the boy health is ok but a very fierce asthma suddenly attacked him. And it's too late for treatment.

What a night I experience....

New Years Resolution

2007-01-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

It's the year 2007 today. A lot of people is enjoying their holiday. Unfortunately for me, I have to work, because my work place which is a factory/plant is having it's maintenance job. Like everyone else, I also have my own new year targets. I have categorize them into few divisions. And for the first time,I I'm going to involve my wife and kids inside my new year resolutions and plans. I categories the target into: "personal career target", "financial target, and "family target". I would like to keep the first two targets for myself first. However, my third aim is actually to have more time with my family and be able to go for a local and outside vacation with them. I hope I can reach the targets. And I know I have disciplin myself in order to achive my 2007 goals.