TV is bad for your kids

Was watching some parenting programme on the idiot box some time back and the expert on the show mentioned that too much TV can result in a host of behavioral problems in children. This include short attention span and hyperactivity among others.

I felt a bit guilty because I had been letting the TV babysit my daughter - putting on the cartoons for her while I did my thing.

My wife and I recently decided to cut down on her TV viewing and substitute it with some other activities.

Last Sunday, we were able to get some great bargains and our purchases included 3 boxes of Jigsaw puzzles (almost brand new with their original boxes). You will be surprised when you hear the price - 10p each. 2 of the jigsaws were for me (500 pieces each) and another for my daughter.

We had lots of fun. And before we knew it, we had spent hours without no TV at all. That day we only put on the TV at night after the kids had gone to sleep.

When it gets warmer, I plan to have some outdoor activities for her.

Tags: games jigsaw kids

Site statistics tools

On my site I have the following tools, which give me info about my site statistics:
1, Sitemeter
2. Onestat
3. Alexa

Most statistics tools require you to upgrade to a paid service in order to obtain detailed statistics.

Most of us are concerned how people get to our site. In other words, what are the Top search queries that lead visitors to our site.

Just found out that I could obtain this info using Google Webmaster Tools. You can also see a list of pages on your site that have links pointing to them from other sites. It also tells you whether your site has any Web crawl errors including dead links.

Try it out for yourself. However, you need to sign up with a Google account before you can try out all the goodies and there are loads.

A humble request for those of you which still have Webstats (the free version) on your blogs. Please get rid of it. Haven't met anyone who likes pop up ads.

Nut cracker video

My daughter found some almonds. These were still with the hard outer shell and cracking them open to get to the sweet kernel inside proved to be quite a challenge. I don't have a nut cracker so I had to make do with what I had - pliers.

Somehow it seems tastier than those which comes with the shell removed.



The trick lies in putting the right pressure. Too much force and you crush it into pieces.

Tags: Almonds Nutcracker

Upgrading our home lighting

While buying a house or even when renovating an old one, one of the things that is often overlooked is the lighting. When we first moved into our rented house here in the UK, we were not really happy with the lighting. Fortunately, the owner allowed us to install our own light fittings (with his approval of course).

Home Lighting Fixtures are really important and they can effect the entire look and feel of a room and even of the entire house. A unique lighting scheme can make your living room more cozy and relaxing. On the other hand, the kitchen lighting have to be different to help you perform task more easily there.

Lighting should be planned to complement your lifestyle. So, make sure you choose the right home lighting plan that suits your needs as well as your pocket.

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Loans for home improvements

Winter is nearly over here in the UK and this is the time of the year when people usually take up loans for home improvements.

This can be a big project like adding an extension to the house or a small one like refurbishing the bathrooms. Often all this are reasons to take up a secured loan or home improvement loan. Secured loans are usually the most popular and refer to those loans that are backed by property of some sort that is used to guarantee payback if the person defaults on the payments.

It is now normal to refinance mortgage to reduce the total amount we might end up paying. People often decide to go for remortgages as they have become wiser with their finances. They don't stick to one company anymore as they realise that mortgage rates fluctuate along with the economy.

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Vulnerable wireless networks

There was an interesting program on TV yesterday. I was really shocked to learn that a person armed with a wireless enabled laptop with some software, which can be easily downloaded from the Internet, can break into a wireless network in minutes. The network they hacked into was a so called "secured" one with a password, like ours.

You might be surprised at the number of people who leave their home wireless networks open, without any passwords. In my own neighborhood, I can see at least 2 unsecured home networks, which means that anyone with a wireless card can access the net using the open network. This unauthorised access is called leeching.

If you are a generous chap with plenty of bandwidth to spare and leaving the network intentionally open to allow other unfortunate people to access the Internet, I salute you. However, if it's unintentional, it can be dangerous. It's not only the fact that people are taking up your bandwidth, some malicious people can actually see what websites you visit, your travel plans, what you buy and even your credit card details.

The leach might not be your neighbour's tech savvy teenage son but a guy with evil intentions in a van parked outside your house.

So is your wireless network secure?

Tags: Leeching Security Wifi

More than one credit card

How many credit cards do you really need?

I have just one credit card. It's not a platinum card or even a gold card, it's a basic card, which I signed up for during a promotion.

It's really surprising when I learn that people have 4 or 5 or even more credit cards. I mean, why do you need to sign up so many for? if you spend more, then maybe you should upgrade to one with a higher credit limit.

While I was writing this my wife came over , read what I had written and said "I have 3 cards". So I posed the question to her.

Well she listed out the reasons:
- Lower credit limit of the first lead her to take a second one. She just couldn't let the first one go because of the loyalty points she had already accumulated.
- 0% balance transfers also help to reduce the interest on the cards.
- The third card was taken up during a promotion in order to grab some prizes, plus it didn't have annual fees, meaning free for life.

Some credit cards companies even offer cash back for credit card loyalty.
Just remember to compare credit card offers.

Take care not to fall in the credit card debt trap. Use them wisely.

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Won the SEO challenge

Found out yesterday that I have won the SEO challenge #1 organised by the WangCyber forum.

The objective of the contest was to reach the highest ranking possible on Yahoo and Google search engines results for the phrase melayu boleh using legal SEO methods.

I didn't think I could win because I entered the contest quite late. However, my post Melayu Boleh went straight up to #4 on Google 2 days after I published it. Subsequently, the day after that, it disappeared completely from the results pages. It was a roller coaster ride with my position going up and down. I even went up to #2 on Google.

On Yahoo, it took quite a bit of time but slowly but steadily climbed up to the 5th position. It's actually at #4 today. I guess this is due to the different ways search engines spider websites.

How did I do it?

I have some advantages over the other participants which gave me that extra edge:

1. I have been blogging for a little over 3 years now and my page rank is quite high - between 4 and 5. Any post I write is automatically ranked higher.
2. My blog is in English. A lot of the other participants' blogs are in Bahasa Malaysia and thus, their reach is quite limited.
3. I have been doing this professionally for quite sometime now.

As many of my regulars know, I had started a project called the "Melayu Boleh project" that asked people to help me to get on top of the search engine results, by linking to my post.

And a lot of people did link back to the post.

You can do what ever you want but if people don't link back to you, your site won't go up on the results page or if it's up, won't stay there for long.

Thanks to Mohd. Suhaimy, netpreneur and founder of the Wangcyber forum for running this contest (I will contact you soon) and Eches for informing me about the contest. He came third in the contest.

Tags: Melayu boleh Malay SEO

Search engine rankings

Some of you might recall that I had recently joined a challenge, which I call the Melayu Boleh Project. It was really amazing because just two days after I wrote the post, it went up to the fourth ranking in Google search results for the phrase "melayu boleh".

Unfortunately, just a day after that, I found that my blog post was nowhere to be found in the search engine results. I am happy that it is #21 on Yahoo!

I learnt a few things from this SEO exercise. You may get up there quick using some tricks (legal) but it does not guarantee that you can stay up there for long, especially if it is a blog post.

Surprised to learn that searching for "Melayu boleh" and "melayu boleh" give different results.

Anyway, I am contented with the fact that my post is #2 when you search for the phrase on Google for blogs.

UPDATED: As of 18 Jan 2007, my blog post is #2 on Google and #19 on Yahoo!

Tags: Melayu boleh Malay SEO

Learn a new language

At present I can speak four languages. However there are two languages I would really like to learn. One is Cantonese and another is Spanish.

Cantonese is one of the Chinese dialects and most of the Chinese people living in Hong Kong. The reason I want to learn it is that most of my Chinese friends in Malaysia speak this dialect and I am sometimes left in the left wondering why they were all laughing whenever someone would tell a joke. Somehow it was not that funny when translated.

Spanish on the other hand is one of the most popular languages. According to one source, it is the 2nd largest language in the world in number of speakers (after Mandarin Chinese). It is the official language in Mexico and many South American countries.

To learn a new language, we can either enroll in a language class, buy audio cassettes + book and learn it in our free time or you can go to Zen cart, which provides complete digital versions of well known language courses from the FSI (Foreign Service Institute).
At only US$29.99, these are quite cheap as compared to the other above options.

And I just found out that they have Cantonese basic and Spanish courses available for download.



Tags: Courses Language

Newbie in the UK

Most Malaysians who come to UK for the first time have some idea of what to expect here but they are unprepared for a lot of things and sadly, apart from some guidelines provided on the Government websites (which unfortunately doesn't tell you much), there are several things we had to learn on our own - by trial and error. Definitely not a very good idea. They also fail to mention other small but very important details.

So given below is a checklist for UK newbies, with some very important tips:

1. Accommodation: Make sure you have a place to stay before you come here. Malaysians usually put up with a friend for a few weeks and then look for a house or apartment to stay.

This is not advisable but gives an opportunity to shop for good bargains. The Internet does not always give us a lot of important information, such as the distance to the nearest school, shops or safety of the locality. My wife took the opportunity to attend a conference in London and have a quick look around Coventry a month before all of us moved here. The various accommodation provided by the university were a bit too pricey for our liking (around £600) and We were lucky to have friends who helped find and book a house for us (only £400) before we arrived. Most Malaysian families here in Coventry reside in the Foleshill and Stoney Stanton areas. Probably due to the fact that there are a number of Halal shops and 2 mosques in the area.

Nobody told us, but we were informed that we would have to pay a council tax (around £1400 annually). I know! That's an awful lot of money. Fortunately, our land lord informed us that we were exempted from the tax as we are students. We only had to go down to the City council office and fill up a form providing the necessary documents (letter from the University and our passports).

2. Vehicle: The public transport here is really efficient. However, not having a vehicle of our own really restricted our movement, such as going to the car boot sales. You can't tumpang your friends forever. We finally bought a 2nd hand Ford Escort (1.8 litres 16 v) for £700/ Many people look at the price of the car and go: "Wow! That's cheap" but there are several other things (and costs we need to keep in mind). First of all is the car insurance, which in our case came up to £450. We also need to look at the road tax and the MOT. The later refers to the mandatory test of safety and roadworthiness aspects of vehicles in the UK. The MOT test for our car is due in January next year and we are praying that we won't have to replace any parts. It is not just the price of car parts that we have to worry about. It is the service charges, which are worrying.

At first I thought we could rely on public transport but I soon realised the importance of having our own car after getting soaked to the skin in the rain once, while taking the kids to the clinic. This brings me to one of the most important things you need to do when you get here.

3. Registering with a GP: People may find it hard to believe, but so far, from my experience, the health care services in Malaysia are way better. The first problem we faced was trying to find a health centre that would accept us. A few days after we moved into the house, we went to the nearest clinic. They turned us away saying that they didn't have any application forms ("and we can't say for certain whether the doctor would accept your application"). The second one said that they were not taking any more new people. Fed up, I called up the NHS helpline and got a list of clinics (or surgeries) in the area. We finally got one, which were accepting new applications but about 10 minutes drive. The whole process of registering was quite easy. On the positive side, the service is totally free. So far, we have been to the Surgery twice - Once to register and the last one for the kid's vaccination jabs (which should cost us at least RM600 in Malaysia). Both times, we never got to see a doctor. It seems like the nurses handle everything, unlike in Malaysia where the nurses are only supposed to help the doctor.

I think these are the 3 most important things that all Malaysian newbies in UK need to think about. There are more but that's another post.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Spy in your computer?

If you had a feeling that your computer habits were being monitored by someone than you are probably right. Over the years I have accumulated a fair amount of software and games on my computer. Many of these were freeware (u don't have to pay) or shareware (you can use for a while). I was of course surprised when I got pop ups out of nowhere.

A cartoon jumping up and down offering to help me (my sister downloaded it). Many of these carry hidden software called "Spyware, malware, or adware. Read this article in the MSN website about the dangers we may be downloading on our computers.

If you want to check whether there are any hidden spyware, malware, or adware on your computer, download Spybot Search & Destroy available for free. However, make sure you read the tutorial (Help).

This software has been tested and I give my approval.