Getting the gardening itch

It's warmer now-a-days and you can feel that Spring is on the way. Seeing the barren backyard really spoils my mood every morning and I am thinking of doing something about it.

To tell the truth, it's 100 times better now as compared to when we got here. There were thorny brambles everywhere with all short of junk underneath it. To say that the backyard had been neglected would be an understatement. It was like a junk yard. We were so turned off by the sight of a jungle in the backyard that we were thinking of moving out after a few days. However, our landlord cleared up most of the mess along with his father.

You would be surprised to learn what turned up under the vegetation. Several empty bottles of beer, furniture, dustbins, carpets, bricks, tiles, toys and loads of other junk, even a traffic cone. My landlord had to make several trips to the tip and even after that I loads of junk turned up which I got rid along with our household rubbish.

I was able to salvage a composting bin which was in good condition.

We burnt off the dried brambles and grasses on Guy Fawkes day.

Anyway see the transformation of the backyard:

When we first arrived


Nov, 2006


Jan, 2007

Today I planted some roses.

Tesco is having this gardening promotion and today I bought a 6 pieces gardening set for £5. My first project would be to prepare a herbal garden. I prefer to grow something I can eat.

Software for contractors in Florida

I am trying to help with the pre-launch buzz of MyOnlineToolBox. For your information, MyOnlineToolBox.com is a site specifically targeted to contractors in the Home Repair and Remodeling industry. The company hopes to carve a niche for itself in South Florida's contracting industry. This will not be easy as this industry is highly competitive.

However, the company believes that they have a winning product and as pointed out on the home page of the website, this home repair and remodeling solution was:

"Built by contractors for contractors"

Basically, this online service will allow users to enter customers, create and share schedules, work orders, estimates and invoices for a small monthly fee. Users can also share job information with customers and other contractors, find job leads and receive payments online.

This product was recently featured in the Business section of The Miami Herald, "Web tool could renovate the contracting industry".

Even though the article points out that it might be difficult to convince the contractors who are "still suspicious of technology...", I feel that this innovative product will gain acceptance soon. This is due to the fact that it is quite convenient as this service doesn't require a large investment, nor contracts, or even commitments. All that is needed is Internet access to be up and running.

The company is interested in finding out a few things in order to develop the site further, namely:

1. What specifically compels the repair/remodeler to try a new product/ solution?

2. Where do they look to learn about new repair/remodeling industry products/ solutions?

Feel free to leave your suggestions or answers here.

MyOnlineToolBox was developed by and powered by Pompano Beach-based ServusXchange LLC., a Business-To-Business information technology developer. The Company was founded by Mr. Brian Javeline, Mr. Philip Tonks, and Mr. Michael Carson. The company is a spin-off operation of Accelerated Computer Technologies, Inc. (ACT), a U.S. corporation also based in Florida and founded in 1986.

Egyptian blogger jailed

Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, an 22 years old Egyptian blogger has been jailed for 4 years after he criticised the al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak in his blog. He will go down in history books as the first Egyptian blogger to be prosecuted in the country.

Abdul Kareem (sometimes Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman) who blogs under the alias Kareem Amer, was a former student of the country's top Islamic University. He was expelled from the University early last year.

The University is very popular with Malaysian students too.

Amnesty International has condemned the jail sentence and called for his immediate and unconditional release.

Related Link: Free Kareem!

Tags: Abdul Kareem al-Azhar Amnesty

Cisco wifi products popular with businesses

Was talking about wireless or wifi network solutions with my friend who's a network engineer and discovered that their company uses Cisco products.

I was curious because I knbow of a few other guys who also use Cisco networking solutions in their office. This includes voip and video conferencing.

Cisco is one of the World's largest suppliers of secure networking equipment and network management for the Internet. Even though their products are comparatively more expensive most businesses prefer their products. Besides the high quality products, there is another reason for this - their great support.

While going through their site, I came across this video on the architectural approach in the data centre. In this 4 minute video, Dante Malagrino explains how their Network Architecture facilitates the adoption of new IT strategies. Check it out

Tags: Cisco Wifi

Plug for Zaza

Our dear friend Zaza has been blogging since April 2006 in her blog "Handling Holland". She writes about how she's coping with life in a foreign land, as a housewife and as a mother to cute little baby Aidan.


She was a successful entrepreneur in Malaysia running her own gifts business before packing it all up to follow her husband (and our friend too) Hardy to Holland.

She is really really kind hearted and we will always be indebted to her for a very special favour. Zaza you know what I am referring to.

Hardy you are a very lucky guy.

Related posts:
- Majlis Bertunang
- Akad Nikah in Johor
- Traditional Bersanding in Johor

Tags: Zaza Holland

Why go for a SEO company

Today, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become the hottest thing in the Internet business and companies offering SEO services have mushroomed. Almost everybody is getting into the act, offering some sort of service related to improving search engine rankings.

However you must be aware that many of these so called SEO experts are individual webmaster and designers who lack the experience and most importantly, the resources to deliver good results for competitive keywords.

According to the Bay Bay Street SEO Company, an SEO expert is "someone with extensive studies in search engine indexing algorithms and experience in applying SEO techniques to Web sites."

I recommend that you go for SEO Companies which are specialized in this area and have the experience in delivering search engine optimization strategies. In the end, you will find that the results do indeed justify the cost of hiring an SEO company. On the other hand, you will also find some great freelancers out there who can deliver similar results if not more than the SEO companies for a fraction of the cost charged by the companies. This is because they have lesser overheads to cover. Several of these have worked with bigger companies before deciding to strike it out on their own. It is a good idea to check out the portfolio of these "SEO experts" as well. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Gene detectives on BBC

Gene Detectives is a new series on BBC 1 (Channel 101 on Sky) at 9:15 am. In the show, genealogy expert, Anthony Adolph helps people track down long lost relatives.

We are shown three possible candidates, one of which is the missing relative. I am pretty sure the producers of the show knew who the real relative is but they keep the secret hidden till the last moment. Of course they can tell us straight away who the real relative is but then it won't be that interesting and they won't have a show either.

It's quite emotional and nice to see fathers reunited with daughters and sisters with their long lost brothers.

Anyway, I was recently contacted by someone who had the same family name as mine. The guy has traced back his branch of the family back to 1760. He had traced back the family name back to a little place called Brandon in Suffolk, England, where they had lived from 1800 onwards until about 1965.

It's really surprising because that means that we have two families with the same surname on almost opposite sides of the planet - one is obviously British and another Asian (my family).

Tags: BBC Genealogy Gene detectives