This magic eye is fantastic. I've never seen any such 3D effects in text, only in graphics such as this. I love it.
Tip: Watch it with crossed eyes and adjust your eyes a bit until it becomes two layers.
Would you believe that it's easier to open a credit card account than to close one?
I heard stories from some of my friends complaining about the banks questioning them whenever they wanted to close a credit card account. But I didn't experience it until last weekend. I have an extra credit card that I got last year just to take advantage of 0% balance transfer offer from a bank I don't want to name. I want to close it now because it has been nearly a year and they are going charge me annual fees. Also the balance transfer was finished months ago. I hardly used that card.
So I went to the bank on weekend to close the account. I was asked why I wanted to close it. After that, the lady tried to ring a department in charge of credit cards, I suppose. Later I was told that the department was closed on weekends and I needed to come back on weekdays.
I went there this morning again. I got questioned again by another teller. After that, she rang to that department and I was told that someone wanted to talk to me. The lady on the phone asked me why I wanted to close it. I said I hardly used it and I didn't want to pay the annual fees for a card I wouldn't need. She said I could close it if I wanted to but if I wanted to stay on with them, they would waive the annual fees for another year. Well, how could I refuse it? Although I wouldn't need it, I will still keep it for one more year for free!!!
I learnt a few things from this experience.
Note: I do pay back anything I owe on time, so they are not earning interests from me either.
Yesterday I was looking for some wallpapers of fast cars and I found these two sites with high resolution and high quality pictures.
Dieselstation.com
Desktopmachine.com
Here are my two favourite pictures of Bugatti Veyron. They look so dynamic and moving while you watch. View them in full screen. Fantastic!!!
While you're working with your computer, Windows crushed and you get the following message to choose whether to report the error to Microsoft or not.
Microsoft Office Program has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost.
Restart Office Program
For more information about this error, click here.
Although it may be useful for Microsoft to fix the bugs, I personally don't like it because :
- it is annoying to see the message pops up all the time; and
- I don't know what kind of personal data it will send to Microsoft.
You can choose to disable error reporting totally. Here are the steps to do that.
- Go to "Start" then "Control Panel".
- Open "System" then choose "Advanced" tab.
- Click "Error Reporting" as shown in the follwing picture.
- Check "Disable error reporting" as shown below and click "OK".
Now you're ready to go!!!
Read More......
Layout in the Beta Blogger is quite a complicated process. It's very different from the old layout and your previous knowledge of HTML too.
This morning I wanted to add a meta tag in the new Beta. I generated the meta tag with Any Browser. But whenever I inserted the tags to the new template, it showed an error message saying "Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly. XML error message: The element type "meta" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "" .
After trying for many times, I found out that I needed "/>" instead of ">". Who would have thought that it was necessary? I wonder if it is part of XML, the area which is new to me.
Here is the list of sites offering Myanmar MP3 for free download. Enjoy!!
http://www.myanmarmusiconline.net
Myanmar Music Online - a very good site with many albums
http://www.myitzuri.com/
Myanmar Music Videos (part of Ayinepan)
http://www.myanmarmp3.net/
Free Myanmar MP3 songs
http://ayinepan.com/music/
Ayinepan Myanmar Music Videos
http://www.innwa.com/dev/mp3/takae.asp
Myanmar Music Videos
http://www.myanmarworld.com/AudioMusics.htm
Free Streaming Myanmar MP3 with extensive range
http://music.all-channel.com/
Myanmar MP3 (Music All Channel)
http://myanmarmp3album.com
(former http://mp3.mmblogs.net/) Myanmar MP3 Albums
The Bugatti Veyron, the fastest and most expensive production car ever built, will make a special appearance at the 2008 Melbourne Motor Show for three days only.
With a top speed of more than 400 km/h and an estimated Australian price of $2.7 million, the Veyron makes all other supercars look slow and inexpensive by comparison.
The special show car has been brought to the Motor Show in collaboration with the organisers of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide and Trivett Bespoke Automotive, the Australian importer/dealer for Bugatti.
Veyron’s specifications and performance are breathtaking, with a top speed of 407 km/h and 0-100 km/h acceleration in just 2.5 seconds – it can do the 0-200 km/h run in just 7.3 seconds.
Its 16-cylinder, 8-litre engine produces a massive 736 kW (1001 horsepower in the old measure) which it transmits to all four wheels through a seven-speed sequential automatic transmission.
Luxury and performance details abound, with a cockpit that recaptures the glory days of hand-built classic Bugattis and features such as a large spoiler that deploys above 200 km/h.
The pop-up spoiler doubles as an air brake at higher speeds, adding to the tarmac-tearing power of the massive carbon ceramic disc brakes to stop the car from 100 km/h in just 31.4 metres. Watch a Bugatti Veyron in action.
Veyron is built around a carbon fibre monocoque body shell and features magnesium, titanium and aluminium components to keep its weight down to just under 1900 kg.
To put the Veyron into perspective in a world of more "everyday" supercars, the Bolwell Nagari to be launched at the Motor Show also features a carbon fibre monocoque, but is half the weight and likely to be one-tenth the cost.
Address: Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Clarendon Street, Southbank (Melway Map 2F, Ref A9)
Show Time:
Note:Veyron will appear at the Motor Show from 5pm to 10pm on Friday, then from 10 am to 10 pm on Saturday and Sunday, 29 February to 2 March.
Admission: Adults $18.00; Children (5-15) $10.00; Children under 5 Free; Concession $14; Family (2 adults, up to 3 children) $44.00
Source: www.motorshow.com.au
Narrator in Windows Vista can be very useful for some people and could be very annoying for others too, especially if you don't know how to disable it. You might spend hours trying to turn off the Narrator permanently.
Here are some easy steps to turn the Narrator on or off.
- Go to "Start"
- Click "Control Panel"
- Press "Ease of Access" then "Ease of Access Center"
- Under "Explore all settings", select "Use the computer without a display"
- Check "Turn on Narrator" to enable or uncheck "Turn on Narrator" to disable it.
- Select "Save"
Emotiv EPOC "brain-computer interface device", a neuroheadset that allows the wearer to play videogames simply by thinking has been unveiled at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and will go on sale in late 2008.
The Emotiv EPOC has 14 neurosensors that branch off it like fingers sitting on the sides of the temple and top of the head.
The device can detect conscious thoughts, areas of brain activity, facial expressions and even some emotions such as frustration, shock and anger, and will cost about $US300 when it is released.
I can't wait to see it!!!
The Emotiv EPOC has 14 neurosensors that branch off it like fingers sitting on the sides of the temple and top of the head.
The device can detect conscious thoughts, areas of brain activity, facial expressions and even some emotions such as frustration, shock and anger, and will cost about $US300 when it is released.
I can't wait to see it!!!
Read More......
What is your current browser homepage?
A lot of people use MSN as default homepage, which is set by Microsoft when you install Internet Explorer. The users of other browsers might probably be using default homepages most of the time. Or the manufacturers’ sites such as Dell, etc. Is that the most efficient way?
I personally believe there are many downsides with using default homepages. First of all, when you open your browser, your default homepage may not be the page you want to go. You will have to type the address (or choose from Favorites list) for your destination page. It takes time – at least a few seconds of your precious time.
Secondly, it takes a while to download and display your homepage especially if you’re using slow connection or the destination sever is busy. There goes your precious time again every time you open a browser.
Some of you might choose ‘Blank’ homepage to work around. But in that case the “Home” button from your browsers becomes useless as you’ll see only a blank page if you click it.
Why don’t you create a HTML page for your own homepage? You can put a list of all the sites you visit daily there such as news, banks, schools, emails, blogs, etc. You can also categorise the links. All you need is a program like Front Page. You still can use Word if you don’t have Front Page (just save it as Web Page instead of doc). Here are the steps.
- Create the list of all the sites you visit daily in Front Page with the links.
- Save it to somewhere safe. C:\ will do. Let’s say the file name is myhomepage.html .
- Open myhomepage.html and choose Tools > Internet Options > General. Click “Use Current”.
Now you’ll have your own customised homepage that is faster to load and more useful than most of the default homepages.
Let me know how it is.
Note: You can put Wikipedia search box, etc too. Read More......
By default, Windows XP Start menu has got some delay to respond your cursor. Here is a simple registry tweak to remove (or reduce) the delay.
- Click "Start"
- Choose "Run"
- Type "regedit" without the quotes
- Go to the registry location "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop" and find "MenuShowDelay". (If it doesn't exist, create new with this value name and String data type.)
- Open it and change value data to "0" instead of default value "400". (You can choose 100 if you don't want it to respond too fast)
- Reboot your PC
Note: You should keep a backup of your registry before doing any changes.
Fresh from my shower, I stand in front of the mirror complaining to my husband that my breasts are too small.
Instead of characteristically telling me it's not so, he uncharacteristically comes up with a suggestion.
"If you want your breasts to grow, then every day take a piece of toilet paper and rub it between them for a few seconds".
Willing to try anything, I fetch a piece of toilet paper and stand in front of the mirror, rubbing it between my breasts.
"How long will this take?" I asked.
"They will grow larger over a period of years," my husband replies.
I stopped. "Do you really think rubbing a piece of toilet paper between my breasts every day will make my breasts larger over the years?"
Without missing a beat he says, "Worked for your butt, didn't it?"
He's still alive, and with a great deal of therapy, he may even walk again.
Although he will probably continue to take his meals through a straw.
I am sure most of you must have used Skype at least once. But I think many Skype users do not use Skype with a cordless phone. Here is a technique I’ve been using with Skype for more than a year. Try it and it can save you a lot, and you don’t have to sit in front of your PC any more.
You only need two things: a USB Skype VoIP to PSTN (RJ11) adapter (shown in picture) and a cordless phone. It doesn’t cost a lot. I paid less than $60 for both.
Here are some of the benefits you can get (although some of them may differ in each model).
Important: Check system requirements carefully before you buy!!!
We finally decided not to upload any more free Myanmar ebooks. We'll still leave the existing ebooks for download since we don't want to trash our efforts away, but there won't be any more new ebook from now on.
Converting ebooks was a good experience for us and we appreciate the interest we received from Myanmar booklovers. But.....
1. There is not a strong copyright law in Myanmar so we could keep copying if we want to. But regardless of copyright issue, we feel that it's not ethical to do so. Burmese writers have to struggle for their living, and even an author of 30+ successful books doesn't get rich in Myanmar. So if we keep copying their works like that, we would be financially damaging them. Why should we hurt our favourite authors and give them financial hardships? Instead, we should be supporting them so that they could create much greater works.
2. Most readers of our ebooks are outside Myanmar and we are very sure that every single one of them can easily afford to buy these Myanmar books, since each book costs less than a bottle of Coke. It is not fair for struggling Burmese writers if we're reading their books for free while we're paying a lot for books like Harry Potter, and the author is a multi-billionaire. It should have been the other way around if we didn't have to worry about copyright laws.
It was not an easy decision to make, but we are sure it is a wise and ethical decision. I hope our visitors would not mind about that, but acknowledge the fact that Burmese authors desperately need to make a living more than other authors do.
Thanks.
To all Myanmar book lovers,
Than Lwin e-zine 5 (Dec 2005) is available at Thanlwinainmat.
There is a blog for Than Lwin (Link), where a special discussion under "Youth & Future Country" is going on.
Today I read the news about a 15 year old boy called Ram Bahadur Banjan, who has been meditating in a Nepalese jungle for "six months" without food or drinks, and thousands have flocked to see him daily, with some believing he is the reincarnation of Buddha. As a devoted buddhist, I feel this is outrageous and such an insult to Buddhism. How stupid these people are to believe that he is the reincarnation of Buddha?
Here are the reasons why I do not believe he is the reincarnation of Buddha.
1. Buddha has already attained Nibbana, the end of suffering and rebirth. What is the point of Nibbana and Enlightenment, if there is still suffering and rebirth after Nibbana?
2. Buddha will never reincarnate. Let's say he does, then why does he have to meditate again to be enlightened after he has been enlightened for more than two thousand years?
3. Why does this boy has to be kept from public at night? Does it suggest he may be eating or answering the call of nature at night?He's supposedly been that way since May 17 — but his followers have been keeping him from public view at night.
4. Buddha already realised that the middle path is the only path to Nibbana, and he abandoned "the suffering practice (without food)". Since then, he had eaten food in moderation. So why would the real reincarnation of Buddha adopt "the suffering practice" again? Why should one follow "the suffering practice" to attain Nibbana after even Buddha discarded it? Why should true believers of Buddhism worship people who is trying to attain Nibbana through "the suffering practice"?
So what about the fact that he can meditate without food or drinks? Since he can't be monitored around-the-clock, it is very hard to say that he lives without food or drinks for six months. As I said earlier, there could be a secret passage through which food and water is supplied to him at night and people will not notice at all. I suspect these so-called followers too. They could probably be trying to deceive people and they are already making a lot of money so far. If one day after the group has made enough money, the boy could escape through a secret passage, and all of these people may be left believing that he has been enlightened and vanished!!!
There is a slight chance that he is really meditating without food or drinks. But that is possible only if he has gained some kind of will-power or Ja-na (Zan) via meditation, and is enable to control his metabolism. That needs to be proved too.
To conclude, this is more likely to be a scam than a true story of meditating without food or drinks, let alone the reincarnation of Buddha. Even if anyone can meditate without food or drinks for six months, that person is not the reincarnation of Buddha or another Buddha (Sammasambuddha, who attains Buddhahood without any teaching from another person, and who can teach others to escape from Samsara). He could be an Arahat, but I absolutely doubt that too since he is not taking the right path.
Anyway, I can't wait to see how this boy will turn out soon.
What about your views?
Last week, I received a security device from HSBC Bank. It looks like a key chain and it has got a LCD display and a button. Whenever the button is pressed, it will generate a time-sensitive, single-use six-digit Security Code for you to use when logging on to Internet Banking. That code is needed together with user ID and password. It takes more process to log in now, but I think security has been greatly increased. The best thing is it's totally free.
Once-celebrated Chitika is under fire since they have disappointed most publishers with the new audit system. Some bloggers like Ingoal lost 96.28% from the audit. There are many complaints and discussions around too. According to the audit, you won't get paid for the clicks from "invalid countries" such as China and most Asian countries, and for repeated clicks from same IPs.
Fortunately, Chitika introduced "Alternate Ad" similar to Adsense. So visitors from invalid IPs will be presented with "Alternate Ad" you specified (Hopefully). This is the code you need to add to your existing Chitika code. (You can add this from Chitika if you're creating new codes.)
ch_alternate_ad_url = "XXXX";
You can add this line to the code (anywhere after the line with ch_client but before the line with /script). You need to replace the XXXX above with a valid URL like "http://yourdomain.com/alternateAd.html". The replacement Ad should be same size as the actual Chitika Ad, otherwise it will be cropped out.
But mind you, you cannot use Adsense as your alternate Ad, and this won't help you with clicks from repeated visitors :-(. I'll have to get one for my blog too.
I’ve seen many people who are so scared of keeping credit cards. One of their reasons was spending the money that you don’t have will financially damage you. On the other hand, some people are very proud of their credit cards. At one of the yahoo groups, I noticed some members boasting which credit cards would give you a better impression when you shop (they were not talking about Gold or Platinum, but from which bank such as Citibank, etc). And they tried to get those credit cards for the sake of impression.
I believe both are extreme ideas. In fact what can give you a better impression than spending your own money, like paying cash for your car or house? Besides, I doubt that a credit card from one bank can give you a better impression than that from another bank. Having said that, credit cards are not necessarily bad if you know how to handle them. There are good debt and bad debt, and if you carry only good debt, it can even give you a financial leverage.
I have a credit card and I want to share some of the tricks I use to earn money from my credit card. Yeah, you heard it right. The money I earn from banks by using this credit card is more than the annual fees I have to pay.
If you read my previous post about Savings Account, you will notice that I can earn nearly 5% per annum interest from my debit account. I keep all the money I would need in short term in that account as long as possible. I use my credit card for almost all expenses, such as rent, groceries, bills, miscellaneous expenses, etc. But I do keep track of my balance and I do make sure that I pay full amount of the closing balance every month so that I don’t have to pay any interest. So I never let any credit go past the “grace period” (the interest free period).
Here are the numbers in your credit card statement you need to give full attention to.
As you can see from the picture, if you don’t pay the bank the minimum amount ($50) by the due date (3 June 2005), the bank would send you a warning since you’re breaking the agreement to pay a certain amount back every month. But many people do take it wrong that they will be alright if they pay only the minimum amount. That will surely lead you into more debt since the bank is charging you a massive amount of interest for the rest of the balance; 9% to 19+% depending on the banks.
Since I don’t want to get charged any interest, I do make sure that I pay the “Closing Balance” back during the period (Statement Ends --> Payment Due Date). I just set a low limit for my card and the available credit in my card is nearly $50 any day of any month. I have compulsory expenses every week and every time I need to pay rent or shop, I deposit some money to my card and use it within days if not hours. It’s like I pay for the old balance and get a new balance that I can keep for another grace period (nearly 45 days). Since my monthly expense is around the “Closing Balance”, my credit balance keeps rotating every month although the available credit is nearly zero, and I don’t pay a cent for that.
I admit that I have to pay annual credit card fees about $60. So how do I earn the money back from banks? Instead of paying the debt straightaway like some cautious people & debt-haters do, I take advantage of the “grace period” and keep that money in my debit account. If I could keep only $1200 from credit card in my savings account for the whole year at 5% per annum in this way, the annual fees is paid off. But I do rotate more credit than that by paying rent & bills of some close friends too :-).
Another good thing about using my credit card is I can gain a point for every dollar I spend. When I have enough points, I can claim cash back bonus from the bank. Last week I redeemed 20000 points for $100 cashback. Woo Hoo!!! I still can claim $50 soon too.
So every year I can earn $100+ for using a credit card. You might say it’s not a lot. But, hey, while everyone is paying to use a credit card, I get paid for my credit card & for using someone else’s money in the smart way. It’s totally legal and ethical, and I have the convenience of using a credit card too.
To sum up,
1. Not every credit card is bad, if you know how to manage it.
2. If possible, pay the “closing balance” before the “grace period” and avoid high interest.
3. Rotate your balance & take advantage of “grace period” as I do.
4. Shop around for the best credit card with longest grace period, most bonus points, cheapest annual fees & lowest interest (if you can’t pay the balance).
5. Do not use your credit card for the sake of bonus points.
6. Do not use your credit card for the things you can’t afford to pay in cash within the grace period. (I use it for compulsory expenses that I would have paid in cash otherwise.)
7. Do not keep many credit cards, since "more credit cards = more annual fees".
8. Keep it secure!!!
Don't let banks rob you. Rob them instead!!!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
