A little Google surprise (trick)

I was told that I would find a little surprise if I try to type the words below in Google.

Follow these instructions carefully until the surprise happens for you, don't skip or read through them first!


1. Go to Google homepage


2. Type d in the search box ('D' or 'd' doesn't matter)


3. Type o


4. Hit 'spacebar' once

If the surprise still hasn't happened yet, continue on...


5. Type a

See it yet? Maybe a little bit more...


6. 'Spacebar'


7. Type b


You should be able to see the surprise by now. Like it? :p

This is not Farmville. It's your own REAL farm.. but online.

Ever played Farmville on Facebook? Apparently, it is the #1 Facebook app by Zynga (who also created Café World and Mafia Wars in Top 10) now with over 73 million users - that's more than twice the size than that of the #2 app. These virtual farm games are getting quite popular even on the iPhone. The most popular in the iTunes App Store is the Tap Farm by Streetview Labs, currently at #35 in Top 50 Free Apps.

I've been playing one myself called iFarm by PlayMesh. I spend time picking out crops that would make me the most profit, and I keep coming back to check on their growth even if it's at 3am - because everything is real time, if you leave a harvested crop for too long, it wilts.

How about playing one that actually returns you with REAL edible harvests? Doing it pretty much the same way as in those farm simulation games mentioned above (except you DO have to pay for this) - pick your crops, plant them, water them and finally harvest them - this creative Italian company will deliver your harvests to your doorstep within 24 hours! Interesting eh?

Unfortunately, this fun and innovative service only operates in Italy right now. And you control your own farm (or "garden") via your web browser. But I wouldn't see it being a problem to establish such services in the United States, where city people are becoming more health-conscious, "cheap" "organic" "home-grown" food would appeal very much to them as well. An even better idea - remotely control your farm on mobile even while traveling! Or send a box of love-filled tomatoes to your family!

Read more
Remote-controlled farming for city dwellers: tailor-made, no-fuss vegetable gardens

Same Name - Same Logo - Different Company

I signed up for Social Mention alerts to inform me of any "Cellcity" presence out there in the online social community.

BTW, every company should be doing this - keep track of brand name mentions and keywords - stay connected with your potential customers the quick and easy way. Social Mention is a handy tool for brands to monitor and analyze their influence/presence in the social media - blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc.

So anyways, I received an alert this morning, which brought me to this page. It's a Facebook Fan Page for a US wireless retailer called Cell City. Despite the name being identical to my current company in Singapore, trust me that we have no relations to this US company at all. Having the same name is actually still quite acceptable - 1. the name has not been patented and 2. as we are both in the wireless industry, it's not hard to think of our businesses as "a cellular city" or "building a city in the cellular world" - thus "cellcity". You can't really tell if anyone did copy the other. But to have the same logo (or very very similar) is a little freaky.

Cellcity @ Singapore:

We have been using our logo (plus a couple very minor variations) for at least a year now. I particularly liked the little city landscape captured in that "cellphone" on the right of the text. And what's also so neat about it is the iconic properties of that "cellphone" shape.

Cell City @ US:

This logo is taken from the Facebook page I found. Almost identical to ours, except for the font type and color (tbh, we had this shade of golden yellow/orange in our earlier variations), plus they used a real cellphone image for the icon with the signal sign instead of a city landscape. Other than that, the style of the text (bubbled letters and how "cell" is white and "city" is colored) and the idea/position of the cellphone icon are identical. This logo was uploaded onto the profile May this year. Another logo was used previously if you check out their Profile Pictures album.

Not really pointing fingers here as I don't have any actual evidence of plagiarism here (who came first??) But just a "sigh" at the professionalism of either designers or companies. It's one thing being inspired by another company's logo, but it's another thing when you actually copy 80% of it, tweak the remaining 20% and take it as yours. Hard for me to believe that these 2 examples are actually genuine and original concepts from two different designers for two different companies. Can you?

我叫MT!? LOLOL

wx and I recently fell in love with this World of Warcraft animation done by 核桃 in China, titled I'M MT (ch: 我叫MT). The animation is awesome - the characters and scenes are very well portrayed, plus the opening and ending themes are nicely written too!

The story is funny and cute (& of course based on the game wow). It started out as 5 lowbies (ie. low level toons) who met each other and decided to group up to explore their first instance (ie. dungeon). Each of them are of a different class (warrior, shaman, hunter, rogue & mage). But being the lowbies and the noobs (ie. new and unskilled - stupid) they are, they are met with great dangers (& great laughters) both inside and outside of instances - eg. being ganked by a higher level enemy player. The main character is called MT (warrior) who aspires to become the best MT - MT stands for "main tank", who is to hold the overall aggression of a boss in a fight. Pay attention to the opening theme lyrics, the role of MT is well portrayed there. What's also interesting for us is learning how to use the chinese equivalent game terms. Really hilarious!

Jokes are primarily for wow players, you need a basic understanding of the game to appreciate things. But watch it anyhow, they are cutee!!

Here's the 1st episode (total 4 as of 10/2):


Check out I'M MT's official website for more goodies.

Thrilling.. a Singapore Blogathon 09!

update - blogathon afterwords:
Sometime in between there were negative comments made online about the Blogathon. Well, @twistedian wrote up a wonderful response to that. Kudos to Ian!

update - blogathon finale:
Congratulations to those who have won and big hug to all who survived! :D
@victortan did a good roundup of the blogathon.

update - blogathon online:
Follow #bthon on Twitter OR featured microsite on TANGS.


Hmm okay I've been lazy so stopped blogging for a while, it's bad cause now I have so much content piled up!! But here's something exciting for the bloggers and people who follow blogs. A 24-hrs Blogathon!! Tonight @TANGS!



Quick overview of Blogathon 09 on YouTube. Plus, some behind-the-scenes photos from @patlaw.

These are the ten bloggers featured:

• Claudia


• DK


• Fashion Nation (Dottie/Stephie)


• Greenlaundry


• Hillary Chan


• Jayden


• Nadnut


• Nicholas Aaron Khoo


• Sheryo

Some people say blogs are outdated!? I think not really! I feel it's very different from Twittering or Facebooking, and they should be maintained separately but inter-connectedly. Watch live how these ten top Singapore bloggers do it! Show them your support! Vote for your favorite blogger!

Definitely head down if you're free tonight. ;)

More details on Blankanvas.

MJ forever "alive" on the web..

I came into office last Friday morning, logged onto my TweetDeck and was overflowed with "MJ" or "Michael Jackson" tweets. Some positive and some negative. I read around to find out more about that piece of breaking news.

For a celebrity, who just passed away and who shined with fame and influence to the music industry, I thought it was basic courtesy to not speak ill of the dead (even if you seriously didn't like/appreciate MJ's work). But apparently, some people enjoyed making jokes out of the incident. Kudos to Tremendous News! for standing up to those insensitive peeps. (I figured I shall be more polite than those ppl here.)

On the contrary, there are many great tributes to MJ distributed on the Internet. One very much commendable job is the BillieTweets!

Found on imeem: Better on the Other Side - a tribute to Michael Jackson featuring The Game, Usher, Chris Brown, Boyz II Men, Mario Winans, and Polow Da Don.

Michael Jackson may be gone forever, but traces of his music and dances will continue to be shared amongst everyone who remains, on the World Wide Web...


Find something MJ on the Internet?
Leave a link in comments!

@ IMU, June 15-22

Now that the ad:tech show is over, I've got something even more exciting in store for me, starting next week. :)

A 1-week free training program at
Inbound Marketing University (IMU)!

I can't believe it. This is like the ultimate opportunity I can get to learn all about this whole online marketing thing at once. & it's FREE! The best thing about online courses is how everything can be archived. Makes it very convenient for people from different countries and time zones to participate. Students and professors can come together to form "study groups" on the forums and even use Twitter during class time to live-stream their questions, answers and ideas using the hashtag #IMU.

Have very high expectations for this program. A great training experience, and a chance to "interact" with industry experts like Chris Brogan. Also has a certification exam which adds immense value to this program.

Class schedule online.

Will blog more about the process when the courses start.

100 followers on Twitter

Yay hit 100 followers today! (Actual count now is 115 as I'm writing...) Well this may not be significant to many twitterers out there, but it sure is a milestone for my personal development! Been learning A LOT from my tweeples about this great tool the social media as a whole, and many many things. Hope to share some of the stuff I learnt here soon.

Start Go Green on Earth Day

For Earth, every day is Earth Day.

Hit on Google's homepage today and thought "Ooh what's the special occasion today?" It's Earth Day! So I started to tweet a bit about Earth Day. Found some go green/eco websites and tips. Followed few new "green" tweeples. And sad to realize, Singapore is still a quiet city in this aspect.

Some Singaporeans simply do not possess the mindset to go green. And this is reinforced by @AngMoGirl's experience today where she witnessed rejection when a lady asked to have her lunch packed in her own to-go (takeaway) box. Kudos to the lady who brought her own lunch box! Been away from Singapore for few years, I really thought the BYOBD (Bring Your Own Bag Day) was a good change and a good start. I do see shoppers who bring their own shopping bags to NTUC, but seriously not many. And I could imagine a group of those who did not bring their own bags whine about the 10cents they are "forced" to pay for each plastic bags. And reading @AngryAngMo's blog, "Anti-Bring Your Own Bag Day" as one of the top 10 worst consumer behaviors is just not surprising after all.

I don't know what are the best ways to promote green living. It's really up to the person whether they want to do things the better way. But I thought it's not a bad idea to sell money-saving together with energy-saving or the 3Rs - reducing, reusing, and recycling. Especially in Singapore, where I believe most people are more money-minded than eco-minded. I recall receiving a handy booklet in my mailbox couple months back. The booklet contained many tips and guidelines to everyday live, such as save money, look for jobs etc (basically the govt's effort to help its people ease off recession). One of the tips is on air-conditioners: Set temp to 25° for optimal usage and save $X/month (I need to check on the actual number) for every degree you increase! Budgets are tight these days, so these are great tips to follow and really save on money. What's more, it saves energy at the same time!

I think companies should also encourage eco-living in their workplaces. If it's made a "rule" in office, maybe people will start taking similar measures when they are at home (vice versa). There is a corner in my office right by the door, like a small waiting/reception area, whereby most of the time it's empty. But we never fail to switch on the lights in that corner. Whenever I'm the first few to reach the office, I would deliberately leave those lights out. But strangely the next person who comes in will switch it on. I still don't know why, perhaps to light up our big logo hanging by that wall? And I just saw lights in the conference room were left on for the morning. (Sue beat me to switching them off tho :p)

Eco-living is actually beneficial both ways. Helps the Earth, and helps us save some bucks. So why not do it everyday? For one, I reuse plastic bottles that I fill up with water at work. Use the back side of unwanted printed paper for notes. Even in the toilets, I always see the rubbish bin overflowing with crumpled paper towels at the end of the day. Paper towels literally used up every day before 5pm. It's there for our convenience, but we shouldn't abuse it. Dried your hands with a paper towel? Why not bring it back to your office to wipe your desk? Or tear a piece into two so you can save the other half for later. It's all so easy to do, we just need to put our mind at it!

Useful links:

• Earth Day | TreeHugger
• 8 Easy Ways to Start Being Green | Earth911
• Go Green Family Guide | Earth911
• Green Your Shopping | Earth911
  
• Got 5 Minutes? Do One of These 5 Green Acts | Planet Green
• The Social Media & Web Guide to Going Green | Mashable
• Go Green: Energy-cutting apps for your PC | CNET

P.S. Blizzard should implement an Earth Day festival in-game. :)

wordle

Here's a neat little tool that generates nice tag clouds (or "word clouds") out of a website url.

www.wordle.net

R u the Energuy?

Very interactive game with a great purpose from the canadians!

How to play: Pull the Energuy by the wrist. Point up, down, left, right throughout the 5 rooms and click on objects you think are not energy efficient. For every correct answer you get (20 in total), the Energuy performs a little dance, move, somersault etc. Pull him harder and he can even fall down or hit the ceiling!

Scoring: Show how environmentally-minded you are within 2 minutes. Then on the results page, mouseover each object you found to learn how it can save you money!

If you have a desperate eye on your monthly bills like me, this provides you some great tips on how to save energy ($$). Start with little tweeks in our daily lives, and live in a greener world. :)

Killing trojans..

Yesterday my sis's com was infected with trojan. Eeew. Her desktop has changed to a blue background and Of cos, her special IT support (me) has resolved it for her. The trojan came with an anti-virus software imposter. There are many rogue software like this Antivirus XP 2008 [list]. Once installed, it will generate random files into your system and put up fake alerts informing that your system has been infected with virus.. many of them. The tactic is to scare the user into buying the fake product. Yes, it is kind of scary. How the hell did the computer manage to infect so many viruses in 1 click? Googled it and found Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on this website. It's pretty good and most importantly, it's FREE.

How we ended up with this crap?? Haiz.. here comes the moral of the story. There's no such thing as watching FREE movies, FREE Olympics online. DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY SUSPICIOUS UNKNOWN PROGRAMS. My dad did a similar stupid thing earlier. He downloaded a player to watch free movies online. Killed some of his system files and explorer could not start up. With the help of my dad's ex-colleague, we found out that the problem is caused by some trojan and adware. Previous scans did not pick those up. The website suggested this 360 Safe software (chinese) but did not completely remove all infected files. There were still registry keys that were corrupted. Rechecked with Malwarebytes and got everything fixed.

If you're feeling geeky and have time, this website gives instructions on how to manually remove these counterfeit anti-spyware programs.

new avatars!!

At last my love!! Our avatars are done!
Ain't they adorable??

my hunny:

me:

Last month at work

...and counting down to my sis's EDD (Expected Date of Delivery). =)

Woot finally.

I'm recreating my online portfolio and adding in projects from work. Too lazy to revamp my website right now, so using webjam as the temporary solution. Erm.. looking back now, seems like I haven't achieved much over the past 8-9 mths!! =D haha ha ha T_T *shhh keep this to yourself wink*

First, the Squirrelville video. Just a couple of weeks back, I heard that some executives at Only Green 4 Me saw my video series and wanted to hire me on some projects. Unfortunately, I could not offer you any more details about this company, their "website" does not help either. But apparently they are our first distributor for Innovolt products. Whee.

Then comes the "major" website upgrades. Mainly involved changing the organization of the content, adding in new content, and giving it a newer look (home page: product views, animated banner, "buy now" link; connecting website to webstore). This is the so-called Generation 2 website: commercialized.

Other personal developments include:
1) building professional relationships with different vendors. The webstore is the first, where Michael and I worked on getting it set up with CoreXpand. Then comes the problem with the actual selling online. Securing credit card transactions, authorizing transactions online, and processing the authorized transactions.. Selecting the compatible Gateway, hiring the right merchant bank.. Was fun getting involved in the decision making/problem solving process, even when I was only just assisting. The second one was sort of a project I initiated. Well.. they approached me first but I went on with the discussion and finally received a proposal from the company. Search engine optimization is what the company PointMetrix does. While no decision has been made yet, I think I'll send in a note before I leave to remind them of the proposition. Looking to totally revamp the website, so further actions will only likely take place after the Generation 3 upgrade.
2) getting things done... and follow up!! 2 major events. Assisted in getting peripherals designed, printed, and ready for the show. First, the ITEX show in Vegas - feb (sadly, I did not go on the trip). Then, our official launch event, with a press conference and reception - apr. Very basic principle that you already follow in elementary school: meeting deadlines. Now the key is to follow up. It's something that my dad has stressed repeatedly in the past before.. then my eldest sis as well.. and now my boss too. So reeeeaaally important. Following up with the people from ITEX (that was Michael's job) then the people who we invited for our event - I did a newsletter for that which my bosses thought was fantastic and very much impressed.

Being the youngest in the office, I think my colleagues and bosses dote on me much. My bday celebration.. "slacked" hours :x ..and always praising me for good work oO I've seen ppl come and go.. Blanche and Madhav, always bringing to the office joy and laughter. I've seen new ppl joining the team.. Michael and Tania, then Alyssa, Lanecia and Jason. Kudos to Michael for the help and snacks and photos (!!); Tania for getting me paid on time =D Seen people grow, and more kudos to Michael for his work attitude and capabilities. Sometimes I get inspired.. *sometimes* And now, it's my turn to say good bye..

My last tasks on this job:
1) Finish up the addition I wantED to make to the website. So I can put it on my portfolio too. IMPT!!
2) Finish up the product brochure that I started *ahem* week*s* ago.
3) Listing ideas and next steps that I feel is required for a Gen 3 website. Generally modularity and flexibility is of highest importance. Then comes the theme and content upgrades.. I've had those ideas but didn't have time to make it happen.
4) Train Alyssa to perform some of the routine tasks I'm on.. web admin, email stuff, IT stuff..

My family is coming June 15!! =D So time is running low.. and there's packing and many other things to settle.. cat stuff, visa stuff, air tix, money... T_T

Last day of work: June 30.

talkster: free international calls

Hmm... not sure if this is worth it unless both parties have monthly plans with xx amount of minutes to use.

Basically, it's like Skype To Go, where you are allocated a local number to call, so you're always paying at a local rate when calling overseas. But with Skype, you still have to pay $/min and a connection fee. Talkster is free!

With Talkster, both you and the person you're calling will be given a local number through text msg. To make the call, dial that number, ask that person to hang up and dial his/her number then you two will be connected through Talkster! Bit complicated eh? Here's a little animation to help you understand how it works. In this case, both parties will be paying for the call, but at their own local rates. So it's essentially free if the minutes is included in both parties' cellphone plans, rather than paying $/min (some local rates can be expensive).

Of course, nothing is absolutely free. Talkster needs to earn its money, and that is through advertising. Prior to connecting the calls, both parties will hear a 10sec local ad. But what is 10sec compared to "unlimited free" talking?? :D

So "busy" at work!! XD

Today at work:

I did shopping! Newegg.com has some great deals on USB flash drives. Got a 4GB one at only $17 (+shipping) for the company. Figured that while I'm at it, I might as well shop for one myself. And so, the shopping list just grew longer...

For myself:
Cute Mickey Mouse head-shaped USB flash drive, 2GB for $23. Even more expensive than a 4GB one, but for the design!! Can you figure out where the USB connector is?? =D

For baba:
Sleek looking 4GB flash drive for just $14! I like the white and green one better, but they were out of stock. Ah well.

For tim:
Heh another cute one and 4GB! In the shape of a Robot. $21 good buy!

P.S: Just had a haircut too. ^^

crunchyroll@work

What are the advantages of bringing your own lunch box to work?
1) You can save $$.
2) You don't have to commute to anywhere. Just stay at your desk!
3) The privilege of staying at your desk is so that you can enjoy your mini theater during that 1-hr lunch break.

I just started watching this Taiwanese drama (those so-called 偶像剧), "They Kiss Again". Some of you may be more familiar with the chinese title, 恶作剧2吻. It's a sequel to the Taiwanese version of Itazura na Kiss (aka 恶作剧之吻 or Mischievous Kiss), originally a Japanese drama (adapted from manga) starring Kashiwabara Takashi and Sato Aiko.

I actually never liked Taiwanese drama. Just not used to the way they talk, their dialogues, despite having lived in Taiwan for 2 years. But this is actually the second Taiwanese drama that I've watched. And I like this one. Not too cheesy, at least for now. In the first 2 episodes, 湘琴 (Kotoko) and 直樹 (Naoki) went on their honeymoon! And it was sooo sweet. It was that feeling that hooked me on to this drama. The life of newlyweds.

Envious.
Indulgence.
Imagination.

Happy Holidays from Squirrelville!

Stories from Squirrelville, Ep.4

http://www.innovolt.com

Stories from Squirrelville, Ep.3

http://www.innovolt.com