For the past few months, most of my traffic comes from Facebook, because of this Facebook status placard photo.

It has been spreading worldwide, becoming popular among Malaysians, and even the Gulf countries, since we are Muslims.

Privacy concern?

I have been getting lots of Friend Requests on Facebook and so has my wife. This is really bugging me. I’m sorry I don’t accept most of the friend requests. I keep Facebook to people I know. You may follow me on Twitter or my official Facebook Page.

Being evergreen?

I’m not sure how long this will be going viral on the net. But what I know is that it will be evergreen because people will always think we were just married last Friday, as stated on the placard, Friday at 9.41pm.

Some couples also used the relationship status card on their wedding day but inserted their wedding date as well, making it look outdated if it is circulated like our photo. Well, I think I made a good move since I just put the day without our actual wedding date.

People using our picture for tazkirah – about relationship on FB

This is a good thing. I know many people like to announce their relationship on FB without realizing they are telling the whole world they are doing vices.

I don’t mind people using our picture as long as it brings good connotation, to remind others, to make aware of only ‘announcing your relationship once its legal and lawful’.

The Speed Dial 2.0 is not just about giving you the screenshot of the website as the new Speed Dial extension also works as a widget. This is how my Opera Speed Dial 2.0 looks like:

There are four widgets which I currently use. They are:

1. Timeline
A Twitter timeline. It only shows 3 latest tweets. Details.

2. Facebook Preview
It is a simple Facebook widget that shows the number of Friend Requests, Unread Messages and Notifications. Details.

3. Gmail on Speed Dial
It shows unread email in my Gmail inbox. Details.

4. oClock widget
Time is gold. I love the HTC style clock on my PC. Details.

Speed Dial arrangement

I don’t like too many dials so I just make it a 4×3 layout.

In the first row, I’ve put the social network links which are Twitter, Hootsuite, Facebook and Google Plus.

In the second row, is my reading section. This is where I put Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Google Reader and Tumblr links.

The third row is reserved for my blogs, WordPress stats and the clock widget.

There are many reasons why I love to use Opera besides the new Speed Dial 2.0. Sometimes I just leave the Speed Dial tab open all the time so that I can view all the updates in a glance.

Why I upgraded?

This machine used to run Windows XP. Then I wish to try Linux and that’s why I installed Ubuntu 11. But then, I feel less productive working in Ubuntu environment, mainly because I still can’t run Photoshop and Illustrator efficiently.

At that time, I still have dual boot Windows XP. That’s how I managed to survive with the design and graphics stuff. I made up my mind to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Since I’ve been postponing the upgrading session, out of the blue, Windows 8 DP was released. Since it is free for now, I guess I should give it a try.

Installation process

I downloaded Windows 8 DP from the official Windows website. Here’s the link in case you want to try it.

Since I don’t want the hassle of installing with DVD or USB drive, I found a way to install directly from the ISO mount. You might as well use this simple trick to install Windows 8 DP on your PC. The installation won’t take much time and all I can say is that I have successfully installed Windows 8 DP from Windows XP.

By the way, this is the specification of my computer. Mind you it’s not a new PC. It’s a used one that I got on eBay. It’s a Pentium D, first generation dual core processor with 1GHz memory.

Drivers issue
There are some problems with the graphic display since Windows does not install the device driver. I managed to rectify the problem by installing Intel (R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver. Other drivers work like a charm.

First Preview: Metro UI

This is new. This is what you’ll see once you logged into Windows. Apparently Metro UI and the desktop mode works together. Imagine this. When you click on the start button, you won’t be able to view the list of your installed programs. Instead, the Metro UI will open up and your apps or softwares will be displayed there.

If using a tablet has the Home button, while using a desktop, you can press the Windows button, usually between the CTRL and ALT button on your keyboard.

Anyway, since this is Developers Preview, which means, developers are encouraged to develop apps for Windows, then there are not much apps available. It is good that it comes with plenty of basic apps and games. Otherwise the Metro UI will look empty and be quite useless.

That’s all for now. I’m going to enjoy my first ever legal Windows copy on my PC for the next few months.

According to the their blog, Whatsapp for Nokia Symbian client was released in July 2010.

Its has already been a year since the release. I’m such a slowpoke on knowing this. Anyway, I’ve been using the Nokia 6120 for the past 5 months since staying in Australia.

I decided to give the Whatsapp for Nokia a try and installed it on my phone. It didn’t take long to download it from Ovi Store. The size is only 1.82MB.

After registering my phone number, Whatsapp accessed my phonebook to identify people on my contact list who also has Whastapp on their phone. I like the bubble chat interface but it looks a little bit cramped because of small screen size.

Cost per text

I just started using this app. From the network usage, the total number of sent and received texts are 146 and it’s only 1.06MB. It is like 1 text costing me 1.3 cents, rather than sending a normal text which costs 25 cents. It won’t take much bandwidth for each chat message. On my Vodafone, the cost for 1MB used is only $2.

Problems

You must have unlimited data plan or otherwise using Whatsapp is going to be pricey. To me, it is quite economical to be used and I’m thinking of changing to a better prepaid plan.

Since the app always tries to stay connected to the internet, it pretty much drains the hand phone battery. In the Nokia forum, to solve the problem is by uninstalling the app.

So, I guess that’s my review. My point is, you don’t need to get a smartphone such as an iPhone or an Android to use Whatsapp. Even an old candy bar Nokia classic can connect to Whatsapp. If only I knew earlier, I could have saved a lot on my monthly prepaid.

To get Whatsapp on your Nokia phone, visit Ovi Store for more information.

UPDATE: HOW NOT TO CONNECT TO NETWORK ALL THE TIME
Here’s a simple trick how not connect to the data network all the time automatically.

1. Go to Menu – Settings – Connection – Access points
2. Edit each of the access points
3. Under Prompt password, choose Yes

By right, each time your phone wants to connect to the data network, it will prompt a login popup. This simple trick also can help you to save your battery. If you feel like using Whatsapp again, just change the Prompt password to No again.

This is my third time running Ubuntu on my PC. My first time running Ubuntu was in 2007. It was just from a test disk because I still needed to use lots of graphics software such as Adobe Suites and 3D Studio Max.

The second Linux is Jolicloud, which I installed on my netbook in 2010. Finally in year 2011, I have the confidence to try Ubuntu on my primary machine.

Why I changed to Ubuntu?

1. Because I use my computer mainly for internet, blog, social networking and a little bit of website design and coding.
2. My PC is an old one. Its not compatible with Windows 7.
3. I want a new feel on this old machine.
4. I’m sick of getting Windows-targeted viruses, worms, malware and the like.

Even though I’m running Ubuntu, I still have Windows XP to run alongside. I just can’t figure out how to run Photoshop on Ubuntu.

I’ll continue in my next post to share with you why I prefer Ubuntu over Windows.

If you have tried Ubuntu, please share with me your experience in the comment section below.

Salam. As an avid public transportation user, I love to write about this topic in my blog. In this entry, I’d like to share about the public transportation in Newcastle. The most popular one is the public bus, which I’ve been using frequently to get to work.

Timetables and punctuality

In most of the bus stops, there will be a time table showing when the bus will arrive. At a main bus stop where there are five or more buses, they will install these informative signages.

Based on my experience, the bus is 99% punctual and that makes it reliable for the people to use the public buses to work or even shopping.

The bus drivers also have the same timetable with them so that they’ll know whether they arrived at the destination on time or behind schedule.

I don’t have to wait and waste my time waiting for the bus because I can simply refer to the timetable and plan my journey ahead.

Planning your journey online

Most of the time, I’ll refer to the Transport Infoline website. All I have to do is just enter my location and destination and they will list how I can get there by bus or rail as well as the estimated time.

In conclusion, the public bus system in Newcastle is quite reliable by just having a systematic timetable. Timetable alone is not going to work. A good town planning with a good public transportation can improve the livability rank of a city!

Hope that one day Malaysia can become world’s most livable cities.

P/S: Next I will write about the rail system.

I just want to share with you that this is how it works here in Australia. Most of the broadband have usage caps. You can check the Internet Service Providers’ websites such as BigPond, Optus, TPG and ours, Internode.

Our plan caps is 150GB and there are four people in this house sharing the broadband. The speed is ADSL2+ but it’s only about 2.4Mbps which is slower than Unifi. From my Speedtest, the average speed is only 1.2Mbps.

Once we have reached the 150GB quota, the speed will be shaped to normal speed (not sure probably 512kbps). Other plan has peak and off-peak caps. I’m glad Internode offer ‘anytime’ usage which is not bound to peak and off-peak hours.

Tracking our usage

Its good to know that there is an app that can track our monthly usage. It’s called Monthly Usage Meter (MUM). From the screenshot, you can see that there is another 28% of 150GB quota and we’ve only used 108GB.

Regarding my surfing habit, I still watch videos on Youtube and Vimeos, download torrents besides using the internet for daily surfing and social networking.

Well, there’s nothing to worry about the caps on home broadband if Telekom, Maxis or YTL want to have them on home broadband starting from a 30GB quota. For me 30GB is OK for one person. But how about the whole family?

I hope by the time I return to Malaysia, the broadband will be reliable yet affordable for all!

Social Network Sites

1. Facebook

Besides letting your friends know where you are, the Facebook ads is location targeted. So its good for advertiser to promote their stuff to the right user.

2. Twitter

Sometimes when people viewing your Twitter profile, they will see the location. Don’t leave your potential follower in the dark when seeing the coordinates on your Twitter profile. (You can copy paste the coordinate in Google Maps to locate them anyway)

3. Foursquare

Check in right away from your phone. It is more fun because you can be the first among your friends that checked in to new places and get more point faster.

4. LinkedIn

If you are working in a new place, don’t forget to update your location as well.

Google Sites

5. Google search – makes it easier for you to search local content. Google has auto-detect based on your IP but you still can fine tune it anyway.

6. Google Maps – set your default location so that its easier for you to find your way in the new place everytime your open Google Maps.

E-commerce Sites

7. Paypal
Only one personal account per country. I have one personal account in Malaysia and the other one in Australia. Update mailing address is necessary as well.

8. Ebay
Login to the country specific ebay website. Update your preferences so that Ebay will list your item according to your location. Not all item provide international delivery. It is necessary to update your mailing address so that the item will be delivered right to your door step.

Blog or Website

9. Your blog or website

Let your readers and visitors to know your location in your about section.

10. Google Webmaster Tools
Set the geotargetting of your blog or website so that Google can index your website locally.

The internet is getting smart with geolocation or geotagging stuff. They can detect your IP address and your location. But sometimes, there are things that you can do it manually.

Salam. I bought an iPhone 4 for my wife last month. So after we have been using it for a while, I think its worth it. Wanna know why?

No upfront

I was tempted when I was comparing the plans between Vodafone and Optus. The cool thing about the plans is that there is no upfront needed to get the phone!

So we went to the shop, signed up and got the new iPhone without paying a cent. We only had to spend a couple of minutes to sign up for the 24 months contract.

Unique caps plan

Basically, we are only paying $49 monthly cap. Yet the plan offers a $500 credit value and 1.5GB data. Plus it provides unlimited mobile access to social network experience which includes Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

Its worth it!

After using it for more than 1 month, I think its worth it. I don’t think I can afford to get an iPhone in Malaysia with our telcos plan, excluding DiGi which offers a bank loan with their plan. Celcom iPhone is coming soon but let’s see how they are going to offer it.

Well, the iPhone is for my wife. I want to get an Android phone because I want to get the best of both worlds!