Anyway speaking of IE6, there are lots of memories to talk about. Here are what we did together…

Geocities

Before web, I was a mIRC geek Long after mIRC, it seems that everyone has a IRC channel website, which prompted me to learn web design with, Geocities

Table and more table

After a few month fooling around with Geocities WYSIWYG system, I finally took the time to learn about HTML, which is all about… Table. I still remember how I struggle to remember what tr and td do… Until I found out Microsoft Frontpage was a great tools dealing with all the table It was HTML 1.0 and 2.0 back then.

Firefox

Well, all thanks to IE6 then I finally found Firefox an alternative that works pretty damn well. Especially on the security wise. Back then, IE6 doesn’t block pop-up and very easily got into malware and adware, which I ended up formated my computer, which running Windows 98 back then, it was easy to install the whole system though, taking that the drivers aren’t that much back then.

Hopefully, IE6 percentage will come down soon. As I checked the stat IE6 taking 40% of overall 100% IE browsers Well, I don’t support IE6 nowadays anyway…

Facebook fan page

Look in dept about the fan page, it is in the link named “Advertising“, Facebook has already classified Pages as an advertising tool. The last thing you would need to do is to promote the Page using their advertising program, which of course so specific that you can choose country, age, sex and even profession.

Facebook update

The good thing about social media is the news goes faster than satellite. Promotion? Create a heat topic? Teaser ads? All up to the updates. The last thing you need is a psychologist and a good copywriter

Facebook game

It was named as game so users will stays on the page for some times. That is the golden time for the advertiser to advertise anything they wanted. Look at the game you’re clicking in Facebook, do they have some banner shinning in front? That’s how it works, first, create any games, you play it and spare it and everyone looking at it. The con is that game is harder to target into specific group. But it works for the advertiser in long-run.

I am still seeing and research on Facebook. I believe the value of Facebook is on the advertiser and the user database

Monopoly

Let’s be clearer, wired broadband only done by TMNet, Streamyx. Not only it doesn’t have any competitor, it is also government owned company. With current corrupted politic scene, I believe I don’t need to elaborate too much on this one.

Limited demand made no progress

Malaysia laws has a lot of grey area. Nobody want to step into the laws, not because Malaysian are kind-hearted, it is because you can’t get anything back even years. Most broadband users I know just put patient on the first line, not to even call for support, because we all know that it is useless.

I have had enough with Malaysia broadband, I really do feel helpless, I tried Streamyx, Celcom and P1, none of their connection are close to “stable”. Seriously, if not because of Malaysia passport that can go around the World, I would dump it and went for another better country. Bet you not, Indonesia broadband is way better than Malaysia, though they are still a little expensive. But hey, they are much more stable than any of Malaysia broadband, still worth it.

Blue LED is on

But it just not connecting. Ubuntu works for the first few weeks and after that it just not working with Celcom, and the warning just shows that cannot establish connection.

Disconnection warning pop up

After a minutee3 or so, the pop-up warning came in. I am now feeling it’s very annoying. I did not encounter this problem since my fresh installation. And now it suddenly comes out.

I am a little fed up with Ubuntu and Celcom. I think sooner or later, I might go back to all the basic. Windowsx XP + Streamyx and done my frustration with all those setting and etc and stop learning anything new at the moment. Especially Operating System which really time consuming

I don’t know how truth it was that Celcom broadband can be setup to use only HSDPA or WCDMA speed, doesn’t matter where you are or if you exceed 5GB bandwidth. They said this can help improve stability and a certain speed anytime anywhere. So I hook up with the 3G USD stick modem and check into it…

Currently I’m in a famous tourist island, which I reckon there should have the best of everything. So running with WCDMA and HSDPA speed here is not something to be surprise. But back in Puchong, that is where the test begin Another few more days to go

Keep testing

Testing to make sure everything is in good condition is a good idea, but having too much testing or changes doesn’t seems so good. I ended up all the testing goes into Spam folder. I don’t know why. As far as I know, the server IP is one factor, the content is another factor, and last but not least, keep sending the same is also a spam. So overall, they are actually spamming my mail and when my mail recognised it as spam, what about other mails that using the same free account as I do?

Design wise

Since it is a newsletter, it is totally up to one to think how to use their newsletter, by design-driven or content-driven. That company wants both, and I bang my head right away. Being clear of what you want to do with your newsletter is important. If you think newsletter works as a reminder, and wanted to attract back the client, try content-driven with some images/icons? For instance, most companies sent a very well designed newsletter for their first timer, the rest is text-base (with a nice html signature), which work out as fine as anything else. Simple, quick, on target, that’s newsletter.

Email addresses

Maybe it is my fault, I should have created another newsletter engine for the testing. They change their email so frequent that I cannot update with them. So each time they’ll send a bunch of email addresses that needed to be deliver. So everytime I have to delete all the addresses to test a thousand times then only I add all addresses again just to send once. Hassle, they don’t believe in web version, so I’ll have to do it step by step for an approval.

Sigh, getting jobs in IT field nowadays getting harder and harder. I wish I could be in IT instead of web. Like people always assume. We, the web designer are computer savvy, everything related to computer and Internet can be solved. Seriously I really need to educate these people, especially they always thought I am a programmer, funny huh?

While working at home, I do WordPress theme and structure WordPress to be a CMS that works on almost any type of website. For me, a system that helps me speed up the job is essential. I choose to follow 960 grid system simply because:

Flexibility

Due to the accuracy of the overall width and each grid, I am able to work with 1 column to 5 columns design without a doubt. The best is, I don’t even need a calculator sometimes

Adjustable

As stated above, not only it can be so flexible, I manage to change the overall width within minutes of style sheet adjustment.

Sure one web designer would argue that this grid system limited the creativity of web layout. But hey, it depend on how you work on the element. I myself don’t like to play with the element, so I tend to look for the easiest way out of my design. However, some important element like background, icons, font type can be very useful and enlighting if used correctly though.

Like I always mention, all I want a stable connection, not fast connection. Slow connection is also fine with me, I am totally fine with slow connection since I’m only working on php files everyday and email reading. Streamyx get disconnect every now and then, but P1? disconnect me everyday. I honestly doubt they can help Malaysia broadband as stated by all those media, they just not yet experience this.

…in 1998, the members of L0pht testified in front of the US Congress that a committed team of hackers could take down the entire Internet in 30 minutes…

Taken from here

Interesting reading. Though I believe security has been getting tighter and tighter. I shit you not, nowadays, everybody, I repeat everybody is using the internet on daily basic. Internet surfing, business emailing, social interactive and the list go on. All these cannot be done without the help of Internet. And if taken down the internet can happen in 30 minutes, you might stop reading after this entry. It’s like zero radius sinks with a gallon of water suddenly shrunk into the hole and never be seen again.

Anyway, things that interested me was, where the hell has these hackers gone? Heh… Probably serving in the military to tighten Internet security.

However, this is a mutual beneficial. But then again, soon or later, banner ads gonna float all around the internet. Well, it happening now. There was this city banned all the advertisement on city, which is not a so-good-idea. My point is, are internet coming to the end of luxury and leisure? No more Votive candle holders on table having a great video on YouTube eh?!

Correct! My housemate who is also a student tell me very clearly that he wanna play games, that’s why he get a laptop. He was true to his word, he has been spending hours and hours on game, let alone the time rushing the last minute graphic work for the next day. I understand that computer bring the convenience and combination of entertainment and education. But it ends up on entertainment more than education.

However, in order to make himself look more smart because of internet, he told me lots of stuff about this and that, but everything that he said, he can’t feel it, he can’t learn from it. In the end of the day, everything that he read from the internet ended up becoming his thought of the day only. What’s the point?

People said the generation born between 90′ – now is the IT generation, who are gonna use computer as their main source of knowledge and entertainment. Let’s rephrase it if possible eh?