How to unlock iPhones 3G

iPhones 3G that was released last 11 June was bundled with AT&T providers. There have been many attempts to create a software that would be able to unlock the iPhones 3G so that it can be used with other GSM cards. "iPhone Dev team" has been working on find the ways to unlock the phone.

Some Brazilian teams have been releasing the iPhone 3G video proof on unlocking the phone. I read a blog as well that has been promoting a iPhone 3G unlocking software. Well, it seems that the developer has been better and better in predicting the locking rules/validations.

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How to transfer video from Youtube to iPhone

For you iPhone users that are youtube or google video addict, you might want to transfer the videos into you iPhone to view it offline. You can do it by using the third party software. I have seen someone post the Youtube to iPhone transfer Software.

It is free to try. But ofcourse you need to pay a little money for full capabilities after trying it. Anyway, it is always good to try before buying. Get the software.

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Webcam gives blank screen on my YM

I use my friend's laptop that is having embedded webcam in the top of the monitor. I wanted to use yahoo messenger (YM) with webcam but it just give me a blank screen. The other party that is viewing my webcam says the same.

Curious with what is happening, I tried to open skype and broadcast the webcam. It is no problem. Anybody in the skype can see me. So what is going on??? It is not because of the webcam... it must be something with the ym.

I look in ym support and says that one of the reason is because lack of light. Webcam is very sensitive and therefore it could give a blank display if lack of lights. Naaa.... it works with my skype. Afterwards, I found the site where I can test my webcam for compatibility with ym. It is here: how to test my webcam. It still does not work. However that pages tells me:

Where's the Contact Customer Care button? With so many improvements to Messenger since the version you're using (lots more features and reliability), we figured you're ready to move up. So get your upgrade and with the new version, rest assured if you have questions, you’ll find that friendly button on its help pages.

I tried to upgrade to ym 8.1 and it works. If not, I do not know what to do anymore. Maybe trying to check for webcam drivers.

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Push your subordinate to the limit

I was talking to one of my colleagues that I can trust on. He was giving me tons of advise in the work. I admired his experiences being in the different project in different countries. Our conversation was about how I felt that I had a subordinate that some of his works are done by me and I was complaining a little about it.

My friend told me that it was my fault. I created a work environment that making my subordinate comfortable with his current tasks. Any additional tasks that are given to him would result into complaints. And all of these were my fault. My friend added that it is a human nature that are reluctant to a change. He gave an example that during weekend without plan, he will fell tired and just want to stay at home. If all of the sudden, your son or spouse ask you to do something, you will be reluctant to do it. This applies as in work environment.

In summary, my fried told me to impose additional tasks to my subordinates with proper planning. Adding the task step by step with proper planning will result into less resistance. And the additional tasks will become his daily routine that he will be comfortable with. My friend added "If your sub-ordinate complains, just disregard it and push him to the limit. Tell who the boss is!".

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Spaghetti Wiring

I was visiting my friend's office who are in charge of checking PocketPC (Hand Held Unit) before distributing them to respective reading center to be used by readers. When I saw the PocketPC chargers in his office is very un-organized, he defensively said "Sorry for the spaghetti wiring, It is just temporary. I will organize them later".

Well, I was thinking in my head. Why he did not organize it in the first place before using them to charge PocketPCs. I am sure that the time he will spend now to organize the spaghetti wiring will be longer. Hmmmm... anyway, it is his work space. I dont have a right to tell a person how to work. If he is comfortable with the way he works and as long as it is not affecting my work, why should I care?

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Bring down the cost of your international call

You must have heard about prepaid phone cards for international call with much cheaper prices as compared to making an international call from cellphone or land line. Why can those providers selling those services at very cheap price? Well, with the advanced technologies, they are able to forward your call through internet connection . Depending on the speed of internet connection that the providers have, it will determine the quality of your international calls.

With many prepaid card players nowadays joining the business, they tend to have cost cutting in the speed of their internet connection. Thinking that they have just started and would not need big bandwidth of internet connection. To their surprise, many customers use the services at the same time. This will congest the bandwidth the the quality of calls are terrible. Customer could easily move on to other prepaid phone cards if they have found unsatisfying results from 1 provider.

As new customer, you might confuse on which prepaid card are most suitable for you. Providers are targeting the customers based on countries to call. One card can be very cheap to call to Europe but quite expensive to call to Asia. It goes vice versa with another providers. Try to googling or look at prepaid phone cards to compare which card that are suitable for your need.

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Surviving Toilet

I am sorry to put this picture online my friends. I just can not help it when I see this toilet in one of the offices I visited for my work. To my surprise that people on that building is still using this toilet. Amazing.... I hope this is just temporary but the from the way it looks, it seems that the toilet has been in that condition for a long time and the building management seems does not care about it.

I know that there are other toilet that are in good condition, but not to replace this??? I just do not get it.

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Just put 3 things in your ppt slide

When you are doing a presentation, try to make only 3 ideas per slide. And just put the main points. I have seen in the presentation that presenters put tons of information in the slides. I know that he/she wants to put it there so that when the slides are printed and given as a hand out, it will contain all the information in the slides. BUT it is not a good way to do presentation.

Remember that the presentation is all about showing some slides to help you maintain the flow of discussion and give better pictures of your explanations. All the details should be kept away from the slides. It could be in your notes and you can give away your notes after the presentation finish. It is important not to give your detailed notes before the presentation otherwise your audience will be busy reading your notes (well... maybe only some of them read it).

The slides should contain limited ideas and could be helpful if chart or images are shown regarding the main points. If you are presenting about the sales, you could just put in your slides regarding the progress of your sales in terms of charts. Use bold colors to emphasize the progress or decline. It will catch your audience attention and trigger them to want to know better your content of your presentation.

I hope this simple tips could help you doing better presentation.

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I hate this worry feeling

The past few days, I have been worrying about my work. I worry about what is going to happen in the next meetings, in the next reports, in the next activities. Why do I worry? I am not sure. Maybe because I know that there is something that I could not handle in my work. And I am afraid that someday there will be a problem and I will be blamed because of it.

I just hate this feeling. I could not do my activities normal. I get no enthusiasm to do an activity. I hate this feeling because it lead me to a depression and stress. I know I need to get rid of this feeling. But forgetting about the problem will not help me. It will just help me for a while until I realize that the problem is still there. I need to cope up with my work and to handle them fully. I think that is the time that my worry is done.

What do you do if you worry too much?

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Got this Lenovo T61

Last week I got a new laptop from my company. It is IBM Lenovo T61. Finally, I need to let go my old laptop Toshiba satellite which I do not know what satellite model it was.

Black color with slim rigid body makes Lenovo T61 looks professional. Overall it is a good laptop powered with Intel Centrino Pro. I have heard a lot about Intel Centrino, Intel Centrino Duo, Intel Centrino Core Duo, but I do not know what is Intel Centrino Pro. I did my homework by googling it and I found out that Intel Centrino Pro is similar with Intel Centrino Duo.

My laptop comes with 2GB RAM and installed with Windows XP. With this combination, the laptop runs faster. I am not planning to move to Windows Vista anytime soon because I do not want to waste my 2GB RAM to be slowed down because of windows Vista.

I satisfied with this laptop, however, after a week using it, I found something that in my personal opinion really annoying:

1. Batterry is a little extruded at the back of laptop. I do not know why IBM has to design it this way. I dont mind with the look, but every time I lift my laptop (from the front), the back part of the laptop get pressured with the table. I am afraid that in time, this will make the battery loose from the body (laptop).

2. Keyboard sounds is annoying when I type. When i try to type fast, I apply more pressure to the keyboard pads. The sounds it loud from my opinion as compared to other laptop that I have used. I notice that space bar is the one making a lot of noise when pressed.

3. USB port is vertical. The USB port is designed vertically on the right and left of laptop. Since the body is slim, I find it difficult to put my USB to the USB port. Especially with my USB flash disc that a little bulky, I need to lift and put something under the laptop so that it can be fitted. But I thing this is normal problems that we encounter with USB port for the laptop.

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Thinking of Getting New Internet Connection

I might be moving to a new apartment next month. I loved my current apartment because it comes to an internet connection through ADSL line that was installed by the owner. But since they have raised the rent unreasonably, I need to find one that I can afford.

In the new apartment, there is not internet connection yet. This is my homework to choose the best internet connection that I should avail. Currently, I am thinking either to have dial-up, DSL, cable ISP or Wireless. Dial up is the cheapest one when I tried to ask around internet provider in my area. However, the bandwith they provide for upload and download is very small. Well, what can I expect from the budgeted internet fee.

DSL and cable ISP seem to be more expensive but you can use DSL or cable ISP for making VOIP phone calls on your laptop or PC. I use voip calling a lot and I seldom have problems with the quality when using DSL in my current apartment. Cable ISP seems to be very interesting and some of the company offer a package with very low prices. Bad thing is that the provider is still not serving my area. Well, just need to wait until they do. In the meantime, I will look for another type of connection.

Wireless connection on the other hand is quite unique. It requires me to pay some deposit of the equipment that will be installed in my place. Basically, they will install an external antenna and some cables. And for this, they asked for a deposit. The deposit amounts is usually 3-4 times the monthly fee for the internet connection. In the long run, wireless connection seems to be a cheaper alternative withou sacrificing the quality of your internet connection. However, the internet provider should do a survey on my apartment if I can get a direct signal. High building could block the wireless internet signal.

I might spend 1-2 days more to test the best connection. I have some friends that are using connection other than DSL. I will bring my laptop and test the upload and download speed in their place. This could be a gauge for me to decide later on.

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Creating an effective report

I have been creating many reports for my work. Either daily, weekly or monthly reports. I realize that because of the repetitions, the reports are often being ignored by my boss. For example in this weekly report, I stated that we have problem in the progress because of lacking of 1 human resources. By the time this problem appears in every weekly report, the problem becomes unnoticable.

Recent conversatio with my friend, he was giving me some inputes on how to make effective reports that gets attention on upper management to do action. I can summarize what my friend said to me into several points below:
1. Start with the problem. He said that it is more effective to start the report showing all the negative sides. After that, we can show all the positives sides. In the end, what takes attention of bosses are the beginning of the report.
2. Rephrase all the problem in every report (if not yet solved). Repetition is a good technique to remind upper management or other parties about the points that we want to convey. In addition, rephasing it in every report can greatly catch the attention when somebody reads the report.
3. Show problems in organized ways. Try to group by maximum of 3 points. Reader of the report could easily grasp the information if the information is groupped into smaller piece.

I hope this little conversation with my friend could help you in creating reports that catch the attention of the reader to do action.

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Crispy food - Fact or BS

After long hours of working and tired, I tried to check my emails while enjoying a cold glass of juice. I saw this forwarded email from my friend. I do not know if it is true or somebody just tries to "attack" poor vendors in developing countries. If you know the fact, please let us know by leaving in comments.

Subject: Please READ this....this is insane!

Dear All, please read this.....

This is a TRUE STORY ...and also someone told me it happened to her in Kedah ..Tunjang..I think…. It happened to us too, in PERLIS (titi chai kangar..the pasar malam area where they always sell GORENG PISANG at noon .)

My uncle saw them frying GORENG PISANG & they added the STRAWS ( which we use to drink water) and melted them into HOT OIL before frying anything...That’s why, the GORENG PISANG, GORENG UBI..etc all stay very crispy for hours....

And, my uncle could not explain why, and he asked them, they just keep quiet and then when my uncle told my mom, then we realized this is how to make the foods crispy…..
My mom said, be careful of Thailand stuffs too e.g.: Crispy Ikan Bilis, Crispy fried onions …..which if u leave in the open air for hours, it’s still crispy..

Like in CANADA, we only have rain 5-times or less a YEAR. So, if we leave our bread in open air overnight, the next day it will be really crispy or dry because the environment here is very dry. But in Malaysia, it should not happen because there is too much moisture.

The world is changing! I read some news….oh my my... not only the Chinese are wicked but everywhere... here the news comes... I have been to Cameroon highlands with my family, it was 3 pm ++ We are hanging around the market area, we saw many hawker stall doing their business, suddenly something attracted me...
One of the stalls, there was a big wok of oil, there was a half-5-litre empty plastic oil bottle on it. It's melting slowly in the hot frying oil... I freaked out, I thought it was an unintentional act by a 7-yr-old girl .... But when I looked closely, I saw a pair of chopsticks stirring the bottle. Immediately, I asked my family to come and check it out... At that moment, the parents of the girl who were present, were looking at us ferociously.

Oh my god... They are using melted plastic to fry food...
The reason is the fried foods will not soften after sitting out for sometime due to plastic.

We experimented and did as below:
One without plastic, the food is kind of soft after a while and then add plastic, and fry the same thing once again... It crispier than KFC !!
Please stop eating this hawker's fried food...This is their secret recipe...

Pls forward to all your friend..
DO NOT EAT CRISPY FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
esp from the hawker !.. Try leave it in the open air for hours and see..

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Do I Need to Get a Cash Advance?

Every now and then, we caught up in the situation where we are short on cash. Whether you have consumed up all the salaries for the month or just you have invested your money in some investment types that you could not liquidate in when you need.

To have a loan from a bank is a tedious process especially if you just need small amount of money that you can re-pay it on the next payday. To ask for a loan from a family or friends could be very embarrassing. This is where cash advance institutions can help you. There are many financial institutions that could give you a cash advance with fast approval. Most of them could be applied online as well and the loan will be transferred to you bank account. This could eliminate the hassle of going physically to their office.

The question that could get into your mind is "What is the best institution that could give a cash advance?" Well, it is better to see their review and comparison in the trustsource.org there they give rank to cash advance institution. The rank is taking into consideration of real customers that have applied to the institutions listed. So, it is fair.

If you are still new with this type of loan and you like to learn more how the process and minimum requirements, you can take a look at the site at the "Cash Advance Guide". It elaborates How cash advance payday loans work and the common requirements asked by the financial institutions.

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DePaul International Students in Action

I got this flier from a friend of mine who are taking MBA in DePaul University, Chicago. She is a member of DePaul International Students Organization and will be having an

Food & Culture Fair 2008 event.

The event are promoting different culture and food from countries that the international students came from. What interest me is the free food :D Well, if I am around, I must attend this event.

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Do your homework to choose Webhosting

I have been buying domains to practice my web skills during my leisure time. When I bought the domain, I need to have a hosting service as well to store all of my files to be published on the domain. At the beginning, I used to buy cheap domain. You will not image that with only $10/year, I could have a hosting service with more than 1G storage. After sometime, I started to realize that the hosting is slow in certain time. To make it even worst, some period it was down. I could not access my site and my files stored in their hosting. I tried to contact their support but I only received a reply after waiting 4 days. What a support? But at the back of my mind, I said "What can I expect from a very cheap service!"

Starting from that moment, I learn my lessons. I move on with another hosting. Even it is not as cheap as my previous hosting, I could find affordable price with great reliability and support. Try to googling to find a guide to web hosting . Read the articles and the feedback from the customers. It is always better not to read the customer testimonial from their page. Find the customer comments on the forum by googling the company name.

After doing your home work, I hope you can find best web hosting that fit your budget and requirement. Aaah by the way, before buying the services from them, it is advisable to contact them just to inquiry something. This will test if they respond to you promptly. If they have a live support, try it.

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Interactive Advertising

I have seen many ads in the sites with interesting moving images stored in gif files. Some are also putting video advertising to give more duration to the movie ad. But this could slow down the ad being displayed in the site or blogs.

What interest me is the ads that I have seen recently. Well, I might have seen that a long time a go but did not bother to notice it. Until recently I had nothing to do and start looking at the ads. It surprises me that the ad were interacting with my mouse movement and clicks. The ad was basically saying me to do some mouse movement and clicks to reach a goal. To give you a concrete example, I saw an ad that told me to move the airplane (inside the ad area) and shot the missiles. When I move my mouse over the ad area, the airplane moves as well. And if i press a click, it fires. Hehehe... I played a little until finally I reach the end and my browsers open a new window saying a congratulation. Of course, after that congratulation, there are some sales page that the company wants to sell.

Overall, I like the idea of interactive ad. It gives a user to notice the ad longer and try to read the sales letter afterwards. Good job you... advertiser.

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Blue Lagoon in Malta

If you never heard Malta, it is a country located in Mediterranean Sea, just between Italy (South of Europe) and Libya (North Africa). Based on Wikipedia, this small country has 404,039 population. However, as I heard from people there, the population can grow up to 500,000+ in summer. Well, basically because tourist visiting this Maltese island for holidays.

2 years ago when I visited Malta in summer I saw many students from Spain, Italy, France and other European countries spend their summer in Malta. Aside from spending summer vacation there, they would like to practice their English as well because Malta is well known as English speaking country in Europe (aside from UK of course). Even some of the students had their summer classes in Malta sponsored by the government of their origin country.

One of the tourist attraction in Malta is the Blue Lagoon beach. It is located a tiny island roughly half way between Malta and Gozo. I took a small boat that travels every 30 mins to the Blue Lagoon. The beach is beautiful and very clean. It is jam packed with people who want to enjoy the blue water beach there. Just like other European beaches, women are wearing minimum (two piece) bikini to expose more their self to the sun.

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Let us improve your credit rating

Have you been into situations that your loan application were reject because your past credit rating? It is quite frustrating when your past credit rating make your life difficult in applying any type of loans. If you are in this situation, most of the time that you will bluntly applying for loan offer that you found in mall or in your mailbox saying "Any previous credit rating will be accepted". Well, take care of the offer and do not decide taking any loans without comparing them first. There are still a lot of financial institution that can help you repair your bad credit loansby giving reasonable loans in the beginning. Through time when you always pay the monthly mortgage on time, your credit rating is improving and the financial institution will increase the budget for your loans.

Most of the vendors would give you an convenient to apply it it online. You can find the comparison of financial vendors that you would like to apply at User Guide to Bad Credit. Simply choose your loan category, either: Credit Card, Personal Loan, Home Loan, Auto Loan and many more. You will be directed to the list of financial institutions that could help you even if you had a bad credit rating previously.

The idea is to start improving you credit loan. Take advantage of their offer. Apply them and start paying your loans on time.

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China is struck by 7.2 magnitude earthquake

Just early in Friday morning, a quake hits at 225km southeast of city of Hotan in Xinjiang province. According to the U.S. Geological Survey the earthquake is 7.2 magnitude. Until I read the news just now, no reports of casualties were reported because the area surrounding of earthquake is not very populated.

Well, I hope there is no casualties. It really sad to read this kind of story. Further details can be read at bloomberg.

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Tattoo Removal Side Effect

I read an article from medicinet that around 10% of Americans has permanent tattoo. Unfortunately, 50 % of those people want their tattoo removed after a period of time. The question raised is

What are the side effects of removing permanent tattoo?

It depends on what techniques are going to be used to remove the tattoo. Using traditional methods such as excision, dermabrasion or salabrasion are obviously could cause more side effect of heavy infection. Well, the past few years, laser technology has been popular way to remove tattoo. This laser treatment minimize the side effect of tattoo removal. Below are the minimal side effects to tattoo removal by lasers. Even these are minimal side effect, you should know it well before taking the decision.

1. Upon removing tattoo using laser, there is a risk of infection in the tattoo area. It means that there is a small chance that the laser burn will leave you with a permanent scar.

2. As laser has burning capability, you might have the treated skin paler than the surrounding skin. Or you might have the treated skin is darker than the surrounding skin. In medical term, they call risk of hypopigmentation for the first case and risk of hyperpigmentation for the latter case.

The side effect of tattoo removal sometimes depend on the color of the tattoo. It is not because the color affect the laser behavior. But because the color could determine the length of laser treatment. Some colors can be easily removed and some colors need more treatment.

In the end, it is better to consult to a experienced physician on laser tattoo removal because the treatment could be different from one case to another.

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Outsource the technology and focuss on your business

4 years ago, I was working on the company that is having an IT outsourcing project on a huge retail company. I was still could not understand why such big company had to outsource some shopping cart development to another company. One day, I met one of the top executive from that electricity and I shot him with a question that had been bugling my mind. He smile and replied to me. "I know that hiring directly some IT employees to do the job can be cheaper. But that is not our line of business. I need to spend more on recruiting activities, understanding the technology, training the employees, have another team to do quality check, and many more cost that would arise for building IT team". We just want to focus on our business.

That statement opened my mind. I understand now why many outsourcing companies are having more and more projects. With related to Shopping cart software for example, I found this site ashop is offering a similar services. It has a ecommerce software that are ready to be implement at no time. The light package that costs only $49 per month is giving a total solutions for companies that would like to start promoting and sell their product online. This is even a lot way cheaper than hiring an employee to do the job for it.

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Kota Bunga Cipanas - Weekend Trip

Cipanas is located not far from Jakarta. It is only about 1-2 hour drive from Jakarta. However, if you caught in traffic, you might spend 3-4 hours. If you have been visiting Puncak, then Cipanas is right after Puncak if you drive from Jakarta. Cipanas usually becomes a top pick for Jakarta residents to have a weekend hang out. Located near pucak makes it is a cold place especially during mornings and nights.

What interesting in Cipanas is mostly because the villa complex or subdivision. Many developers build an exclusive subdivisions that are bought by middle and upper class to have a rest house in Cipanas area. Kota Bunga for example. Kota Bunga subdivision is designed with different architecture designs from around the world occupying a huge subvision in Cipanas. In weekend, you will find a lot of families, especially, with children are enjoying walking around this exclusive subdivision. They have even have many playgrounds with different designs to enjoy.

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Discrimination for Bad Credit Rating People

It is a fact that Credit Rating is considered important for Americans. Once you have a bad credit rating, it is difficult for you to take another home loan, personal loan or even to apply for credit cards. Every time you want to apply for new credit cards, the financial institution will ask your credit rating. Once it is considered bad credit rating, they will not consider your application anymore.

If you think that the world are against you, it is normal because most of financial institution takes an extra careful steps to avoid bad debt. However, there are still some financial institution that can give you a second chance. They will consider your credit card or other loans application even if you have bad credit credit cards. This is your change to improve your credit score. After getting approved, try your best to pay on-time to have a good credit rating.

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Why I just know it now? Adidas Batik

2 days ago, I got an forwarded email about this Adidas Batik. What really interest me is how Adidas incorporate the batik design into sporty look. Batik is usually related to something traditional from Indonesia. But Adidas really makes it stands out for batik sporty looks.

I was looking at the images and it was written small below the image "FRESHMAG.COM". Curious of those adidas batik product, I was opening the site. To my surprise, that site was talking about these adidas batik products on October 2006. Whheeew... it is sooo old products... but why I just knew it now? Freshmag site was referring to a link in overkillshops. I really wanted to know the price and if it suits my budget, I would like to have the cap and jacket. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the products anymore even if I have searched their archives.

Well, I tried gooling a while but with no luck to get the prices. If some of you know where I can check the price and order these adidas batik product, please let me know. Thanks!

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4 More Years To Pay My Mortgages

I am not a bit updated with financial news, but last month news were populated with the down of stock that were caused by mortgage related problem in US. Why does it affect the stocks? I just assume that problematic of mortgage payments showed an indication of slower market in the region.

It reminds me about my house mortgage that I am currently paying monthly. It is still going to me an expenses for next 4 years. So far, I am always on time in paying my Commercial Mortgages. And I am assuring to have saving at least to pay my 6 next payments in advance. Just to make sure that If I am forced to leave the company immediately. This will give me take to find new job without big pressures.

I was reading a new related to home owners were treated unfairly on mortgage news. What interesting about that article is some mortgage companies still charge fees for customers that already in bad credits. How can they afford to pay more fees that in the first place they have been having problems paying the mortgage? To be objective as well on the topic, I have seen that some people really put their income to the limit. Taking Commercial Mortgages without properly plan the income and expenses can be quite a burden in the long run. We are always going to face some unexpected expenses like medical bills, education bills, etc.

My point is that plan ahead and wise about your mortgage, so that you can still enjoy the travels like me :D

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Bromo and Semeru Mountains

In celebration of Indonesia Visit 2008, I would like to share my journey before to Bromo and Semeru. It is one of my memorable experience if I might tell you honestly. I was really exhausted to do the trip but it paid off after looking the scenery there.

Bromo is located in East Java. If you travel by air, you need to land in Surabaya city and continue with land transportation to Ranu Pani Village. The village is small but full of facilities because it is well known for tourist spots in East Java. From the village, you can visit the view deck where you see the Bromo mountain with 2329 meter altitude and at the back of it, you can see the Semeru mountain with 3,676 meter altitude. Semeru mountain is the highest mountain in Java island.

If you want to take a closed look at Bromo and Semeru volcanoes, you need take a 4WD jeep to reach there. Make sure you consult first with the local government for the safe time to visit because Bromo and Semeru volcanoes are considered an active volcanoes. When traveling to approach Semeru (called as well as Mahameru), you would find interesting sites and scenery to enjoy. It was a good visit for me.

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Shopping Cart for Online Store

Recently, I was contacted by one of my friends who wants to setup his online store. He has been having a furniture store and really eager to expand the business online. He is one of the smart friends I have and I know that he can learn to build his online store.

However, I recommend him not to build the site by his own. It will take a precious time for him to do these details while he can focus on other things. I was telling him that building the sites could be easy, but to integrate the shopping cart and to resolve technical problems (if any) could be time consuming. Not to mention that the Search Engine Optimization method that he should implement.

There were many ecommerce software available online and affordable. This software comes with shopping cart that is integrated to the site. It will be time saving and my friend could focus on marketing the product online.

One example of shopping cart software is Ashop. Ashop gives total solution from site template that we can personalized, free emails, shopping chart, and the most important is 128 bit SSL checkout security. Security is one of the top priority to kept the customer fell safe doing online transaction.

In addition, the vendor gives full fraud alerts and web promotion services for the site. I tell my friend to give a try on this product. At least he can try the 10 day free trial to test if it fits of what he plans to have in his online store. If he likes it, he can start investing on the total solution in affordable monthly payment and focus on the product marketing instead of building the online store.

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Lembang Tea Walk

Year 2008 is the year of Visit Indonesia. Most of tourists know Indonesia because of Bali. However, there are many other places worth visiting in Indonesia. In you are business man and visit Jakarta, I could mention some areas near Jakarta that you could visit on weekends without traveling to far from Jakarta.

One of the place is Lembang. Lembang is near Bandung, it is about 150km from Jakarta. With the Cipularang High Way, you could reach it easily in 2 hours. Lembang is well known for it's nature scene. You can enjoy the beauty of tea plantations. You can ask around to find some waterfalls in Lembang. It is worth visiting to chill out and escape from your daily routines.

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Windy Sahara

Sahara desert is very nice place to visit. This is my third time going to sahara desert. The only difference is that my third visit was on January. It was not a good time to go there, but I wanted to experience sahara in "winter". I wore a winter cloth because it is cold and windy.

I went with my 2 other friends and we stopped at the border of sahara to have lunch. While cooking, we had noticed that the wind is so strong. I can feel already sands in my mouth every time I open my mouth to talk.

After lunch, we decided to go deep into the desert. Well, it is not so deep because we already feel that the wind blown hard. It was even difficult for us to open our eyes because all the sands were blowing directly to our eyes. We needed to find places in high sand dunes so that the effect of sand flying is reduced.

It was really a different experience being in sahara dunes during windy seasons. Although we could not to sit down and make a tea in sahara desert, we really enjoyed being there and feel windy sahara.

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Just Curious of This Service

A friend of mine this his affiliate link to register in this 1on4 site. The site basically provides free services to help your site in search engine for your chosen keywords. What's the catch? Nothing actually from the info I read in the site. They are now still in beta. That is why they offer free services and it will end until end of March 2008.

After March 2008, the company will open the keywords for bidding. The highest bid will enjoy the luxury of services that the company tried to offer. To make No 1 in 40 search engine based on keywords provided. The company states that it will not charge the customer if they can not provide what they have promised.

Well, for me... it is nothing loss to try. I have submitted one of my sites and I would like to see the results. If you want to try, you can join free using my affiliate link. At least I can use some of the credits to bid after end of March 2008.

Click here to join. (aff)

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Images hosted in photobucket is out of limit

I used a theme from B-theme and all the images are hosted in Photobucket. Unfortunately, photobucket gives a limit for free images hosting. Due to many people are using this template, the bandwidth excesses the limit.

Well, I am still waiting a response from the theme creator if he/she will give the images that we could host ourselves. Otherwise, I might change the theme to avoid this problem again. The theme is well designed, I like it. But I have no choice if the theme maker could not give any solution on this problem.

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Nasi Goreng Special

Wow.... I miss nasi goreng (fried rice) all of the sudden. I used to buy nasi goreng from the walking vendor (abang-abang) that passes by in front of my house. If you notice it, it seems to be easy to make it. Just fry chopped garlic, onions and put rice with "kecap manis" (sweet soy sauce). But when I try to make it my own, the taste is very different. Well, maybe the seller puts more vetsin/msg/any flavoring... hehehe....

To make it special, nasi goreng is usually served with fried egg, and "emping" (cracker from melinjo seed).

Wikipedia defined nasi goreng as:

Nasi goreng is the Indonesian version of fried rice - that is what it means in Bahasa Indonesia. The dish is often accompanied by additional items such as a fried egg, fried chicken, satay, or krupuk (fried crackers / chips made of shrimp or vegetables). In many restaurants, when accompanied by a fried egg, it is sometimes called the nasi goreng special.

Below is the pic of nasi goreng that I liked :D ... hmmm.. looks yummy right?

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Google Earth Version 4.2

Today I finally upgraded my Google Earth into ver. 4.2. At first running of updated Google Earth application, I noticed the "Show tips" at the start up and it is saying"

Tip: Viewing the sky

New in version 4.2: explore stars, constellations, planets, galaxies and more. To view these objects, click View > Switch to Sky or the Sky button:
New in version 4.2: explore stars, constellations, planets, galaxies and more. To view these objects, click View > Switch to Sky or the Sky button:
Display or hide these objects by checking items in the Layers panel. Click a placemark in the 3D viewer to learn more about an object.
Learn more about viewing the sky in Google Earth »

Well.... so far, I am not interested to view the sky and other galaxies... hehehe.. In any case, I just keep the show tips to appear every time I run the application just to know what I am missing in the new version.

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Too many frauds out there... check their reviews!

You might notice that there are a lot of online casinos websites are present! Most of them are doing aggressive campaign in advertising. They are willing to pay some money to search engine experts to have their site are having high ranking in search engine results. However, it is true as well that some of them are fraud online casinos. Either they just exist to steal your credit card details or they control the algorithm so that in the end, you might not win. Even if the probability to win you computed is greater, but you tend to loose.

That is why a site like online casino topic comes into a picture. This site gives reviews to existing online casinos to make players more comfortable to play online. They monitor each activities from online casinos to separate the good from bad ones. Online casino are supposed to entertain us during our leisure time. And online casino topic will try to ensure the fair play and detect fraud.

The site is also informative enough for beginner because it give an informative page on how to play the game. The rules are explained in easy documentation for us to understand. Try to spend time reading the review before you choose. Some of them are even giving bonuses for you to play with.

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Pagudpud other interesting sites

Pagudpud located in North of Philippines (Ilocos Norte) is well known of its beach. Pagudpud was named because during old days, most of the area should be travelled by foot. Most of local people will say "Pagud" - tiring and "Pudpud" - the sandal would tear off. I am not sure if it 100% true, my friend from Philippines just told me that.

However, aside from the white beaches, it is also a town with many art crafts. I like d the most when I visited the pottery place, where I can see a "burnay" in the making. Pic below is when a "manong" - old man was molding a pot. Insteresting huh?

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