Narrowband.org

[Edit@1331hrs: The author in Case Study 3 has edited his entry in a bid to inject a dosage of originality back into his blog. I consider this as a sporting gesture and I appreciate that. I’d like to also acknowledge angel for her kind support!] Perform a quick search on Google with keywords “impak maksima” and “yi nan wang”, chances are you’ll see Narrowband.org listed on the first page of the search results. My point is, these are among the top keywords that helped bring traffic to Narrowband.org lately. To many bloggers out there, traffic also means revenue. You know what I’m talking about?

Now, just so you know, I write my own contents. I construct my own sentences, I carefully choose my words and I come up with my own examples to illustrate my points. If I borrow some content from somewhere else, I acknowledge my source. Conversely, when someone uses my idea, words and examples without permission, I can get a little upset. Also, the fact that the contents are arranged in the same order as how I’ve written them irks me to no end. And I get particularly upset too if they use my contents to earn some income. I call them plagiarizers.

Let’s do Case Studies. You may click on my original entries and compare for yourself. In the following snapshots, I’ve circled (in red) the sentences that I feel are very similar to, if not exactly the same with mine.

Case 1
Originally on Narrowband.org: Spirit of Love - The Taiwanese Hokkien Series (Published on May 12th, 2007)
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[Edit@30th May 2007: The slideshow has been updated with a newer version. Some rearrangements have been made, and all transition, zooming and encoding settings have been improved for better quality.] When the invigilator announced, “Students, you must stop writing now,” I saw many of my coursemates shook hands, and bade each other farewell. It was quite a sight, knowing that some of us may not be seeing each other again. Some others, however, will be working together in the same company. In any case, what’s for sure is that everyone will be leaving the university with mixed feelings: a heavy heart, a tinge of sadness, a little bit of joy, and maybe some sense of pride. I, for one, will definitely miss my former housemates and friends, the times we spent together and the happiness they’ve given me. I’ve had some of the best moments in my life with this bunch of people.
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For the few of us, it had always been RedBox (and sometimes GreenBox) Karaoke. Yesterday we decided to go to Neway in 1U for the first time. It was also possibly our last outing together in a long time to come.

After getting our POTC3 tickets, we went upstairs where Neway was located. I simply loved our room. It was so much more spacious than most of the other karaoke outlets I’ve been to. And the TV… gee, it couldn’t be any bigger!

It was either an LCD or plasma TV (frankly, I can’t really tell in dark), and the images were razor-sharp. So in terms of AV and comfort, that place was simply great. We spent about 4 hours there singing our hearts screaming our lungs out.

Karaoke Audio Recordings

Below are several selected recordings, together with their original equivalent. Be warned, listen at your own risk! Faint-hearted ones might want to think twice before clicking ‘play’.

(Note: For an uninterrupted play, you need to be actually viewing this page. If you’re surfing another opened tab in your browser or another window, the audio may stop playing.)

Song No.1: 原来你什么都不想要 (yuan lai ni shen me dou bu xiang yao) by 阿妹 (a-mei, 张惠妹 - zhang hui mei)
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You’ve probably seen Ice Age, Monsters Inc., Shrek and all the other high-grossing 3D animated films and wondered when will Malaysia ever come up with films of that kind. This year, we can look forward to an all-Malaysian production, Geng: The Adventure Begins (although Shrek 3 is also in my must-watch list… hehe), which will write history by being Malaysia’s first-ever full-length 3D animated feature film.

Note: You may also watch its Youtube equivalent here.

The film is well-positioned as the first-of-its-kind in Malaysia with its animation milestone coupled with its showcase of the Malaysian culture in a rural setting. Its main characters are mostly in the younger age group, so it’s not that difficult to portray a muhibbah sort of diversity among them. It’s also a safe approach because I think the main breakthrough here is none other than the 3D animation in the film. The storyline may not be like one of Yasmin Ahmad’s works, but its good entertainment nonetheless with occasional funny bits throughout (as far as one can tell from the trailer), which should appeal to a wide range of audience.

The people behind the film are mostly graduates from the Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM) in my university, but none of them are known to me. I was told about this film by a friend, who is from One Academy and an animator for the film. Check out its website http://www.gengthemovie.com/ for more information and background. You may also download a high-resolution trailer of the film there. Geng is definitely a cause for cheer for our local film animation industry, and I hope it only paves way for even more locally-produced 3D animated films in the future. Are you excited yet?

More and more people are setting up their own blogs to write and share their thoughts, opinions, experiences and even skills with their readers. There are a number of things that I wish I could tell all new bloggers when setting up a blog. Here are 11 things I have in my mind:-

1. Get a Hit-counter!

One of the first things you might want to do when you first set up your blog is to get a hit-counter to monitor your traffic. The earlier you install your counter, the better. This is so that you won’t miss the first few visitors who visit your blog.

Personal tip: Stay away from Webstats4u.com (aka Motigo webstats, formerly known as nedstats), because your visitors will be annoyed by ilead.track.it popups.

2. Use a Nickname

I personally know many bloggers who choose to use their own real name or initials when they blog, which is fine, really. Short, given names are okay but full names? I would suggest to use your full name only when you understand what you’re doing - because it takes away your anonymity online and that’s irreversible unless you start afresh again. On the other hand, if you start off by using a nickname, you could gradually shed away your cloak of anonymity whenever you’re comfortable.

3. Blog Selectively

Think carefully before publishing an entry, because (and I always stress this) no matter how personal or private you claim your blog to be, it is always accessible to virtually anyone in the world who has an internet access. Whether it is something very personal, controversial, or offensive, be aware that in the cyberspace, you’re never alone. Your contents could be indexed and cached by search engines, or reproduced in forums, other blogs, or heck, even newspapers! So you think removing an entry solves everything? Not really. Unless you understand and do not mind the consequences, think twice before you write.

Related example: Last year, a teenage Singaporean blogger, Wee Shu Min had to remove an offensive entry just one day after publishing, because it drew a flak from thousands of people worldwide. She admitted that she didn’t expect to receive so many readers overnight. Indeed, her average daily hits was never that high. (It’s a long story but if you’re interested, Wikipedia could help you out. And yes, her original text is there too.)
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Earlier this week we met up at Waterlily in Puchong for dinner. A birthday cake was bought too.

Can you spot the posers? :p

We sat outside and dined watching the beautiful sunset. The table was quite small, so we all sat hip-to-hip, which was still OK until the food arrived.
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There is an important decision to be made. One which could potentially determine which industry I’ll be in for the next 30-40 years of my life. I am now smacked right in between university life and working life, and I have mixed feelings about being where I am. The various possible routes seem promising in their own right, and I’m hearing and reading this same line more than ever before: “It all depends on what you want (to do) in life”. Frankly, sometimes I even feel a tinge of regret for having applied for more than one position. But that’s really what everyone does these days - it’s an art of survival in this unforgiving rat race.

The interview experiences have been invaluable. There is much to learn from each interview opportunity, which is useful for future interviews. I have, however, stopped applying after realizing the complications I’m throwing myself into. Salary is obviously taking a backseat here, because if I were to decide based solely on that criterion, my life would be so much simpler. I wish I had someone to turn to for advice, someone like Isaac Mendez who could paint the future. By the way, I came across an interview by Guy Kawasaki with Penelope Trunk, titled Career Guidance for This Century. It’s a great interview, although I disagree with the Sexual Harassment part (#3).
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[Addendum (June 21st, 2007): I noticed that this entry has been getting quite a bit of attention. I’d like to clarify that the blinking LED had this pattern: 3 amber flashes, followed by 1 green, and they just repeated that way; 3 amber, 1 green, 3 amber, 1 green, and so on. -End of addendum-] I can personally attest to that. I had my notebook’s battery replaced last year, a few months after the warranty had expired. That replacement set us back by some RM400. What was the problem, exactly? Here:

Notice the icon in my taskbar? It says that my battery was charging (I had the AC adapter plugged in, and switched on). However, the amber (which appear reddish) LED kept blinking - meaning something was not right with the battery. How did this affect me? Well, the battery couldn’t be fully charged. On top of that, it could only power my notebook up to about an hour, before I needed plug in my AC adapter to continue using.
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Yes, I bought a brand-new Ferrari F430 last night, complete with a 6-speed Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) and packed with 490 horses under the hood. Or at least that’s what I believe it has.

Yes, the saleswoman decided to throw in a custom-made ‘narrowband’ plate for me too.
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It’s official: Lewis Hamilton is leading the World Drivers’ Championship. He finished third in his debut race in Melbourne, followed by three consecutive second-place finishes in Sepang, Bahrain, and just about an hour ago, in Barcelona. That, my friend, is a kind of performance that many could only dream of achieving. The commentator said that we were often told to ‘manage our expectations’ and not pile too much pressure on the 22-year old British rookie (similarly echoed by Bernie Ecclestone). But if he goes on finishing in the podiums like that, it’s rather difficult to ‘manage our expectations’!

(Acknowledgment: Image courtesy of F1-Blog.co.uk)

I say what we’re looking at here is a champion in the making, because his performance so far has been no less than mind-blowing. Today’s race also saw the retirement of Kimi Raikkonen due to mechanical failures - what a disappointment, but that’s motor racing. Tough luck! Massa was top-class, having started from the front of the grid and went on to win the race, his second consecutive victory. ESPN Star Sports had been erratic today - I don’t know about the earlier part of the race (was in Italiannies for dinner) but the Chequered Flag programme was plain crap. There was no coordination at all.

Anyway, I have said this before and I’m going to say it again: F1 is getting more and more exciting with each completed race - something we haven’t seen in a long time. And I daresay that Lewis Hamilton contributes at least 75% to the excitement. He makes it seem all too easy to finish in the podiums, and in doing so he makes everyone go “Wow!”.

By the way, here’s a quotable quote by Lewis Hamilton:

I compete against my brother on the new PS3 F1 game and he’s very competitive. He likes to be a McLaren driver, so I am Kimi Raikkonen. I can’t wait for the new game so I can be myself!

Lewis is also considering moving to Monaco, home to many F1 legends. Ah!