It's my LIFE!

To summarise the whole story, Microsoft‘s Bing search engine will power the Yahoo website, AND Yahoo will in turn become the advertising sales team for Microsoft‘s online offering. Cool uh? :p

Microsoft’s Ashley Highfield’s said the following,

It brings scale and innovation to the search market.

Watch the following video to find out more.

Yahoo has been struggling to make profits in recent years, but last year it rebuffed several takeover bids from Microsoft in an attempt to go it alone.

Yahoo shares closed down 12.1% on the day, while Microsoft shares moved up by 1.4%.

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer said the 10-year deal would provide Microsoft’s Bing search engine with the necessary scale to compete.

Mr Ballmet said the following,

Through this agreement with Yahoo, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company, Microsoft and Yahoo know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.

In return for ceding control of its search engine, Yahoo will get to keep 88% of the revenue from all search ad sales on its site for the first five years of the deal, and have the right to sell adverts on some Microsoft sites.

Yahoo’s search team, meanwhile, will have to brace itself for job losses over the next two years. Some staff will transfer to Microsoft, others can stay on with Yahoo, but redundancies would be unavoidable, Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz told the BBC.

As for Yahoo, they said the deal would benefit their users and advertisers.

Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz said the following,

This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of internet innovation and development

The deal became possible after Yahoo’s co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down as chief executive of the company late last year.

Tim Weber, business editor of the BBC News website commented the following,

Only a Yahoo outsider like Ms Bartz could do such a deal. She has no sentimental attachment to what was once the core of Yahoo, its search business. Microsoft was helped by the fact that at long last it managed to develop a search engine – Bing – that is a credible alternative to search giant Google.

Yahoo said the deal would boost annual operating income by $500m and secure $200m in savings.

The tie-up will give Microsoft and Yahoo a combined market share in the US search ad market of about 30%, while Google would still be the dominant force with a share of about 65%.

The negotiation ends years of back-and-forth negotiations between the two companies.

Microsoft originally offered to buy Yahoo in January 2008 – with an offer worth about $47.5bn, but Mr Ballmer later withdrew that bid after Yahoo’s then boss, Mr Yang, demanded a higher price.

Yahoo instead opted for an online advertising partnership with rival Google, but that tie-up was later abandoned because of the risk of a protracted battle with regulators over competition issues.

So that’s all! Isn’t it surprising to hear this two competing companies to seal a web deal together? Quite interesting – anything can happen in the business world.

I guess I shall try out the BING search engine too, and see how great it actually is.

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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Tackling the world’s woes as outlined in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

That’s what over 300,000 students from around the globe tried to do when they took part in the world’s premier student technology competition, the Microsoft Imagine Cup.

And two Singapore teams impressed the judges with their projects.

Team Woolgathering from Singapore Polytechnic came in second place in the Photography category.

In their photo essay, they had highlighted the use of green technology in helping to overcome the excessive reliance on fossil fuel.

Also coming in in second place, though in what’s called the MashUp category, was Team Planet KY from Nanyang Polytechnic.

They had come up with a website that gathers the latest environmental news from RSS feeds around the world.

One of the team members for Team Planet KY and his mentor speaks with Jeremy Koh.

Reducing extreme poverty, fighting disease epidemics like AIDS, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

These are among the eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organisations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.

And the need for a sustainable environment was what prompted Team Planet KY to develop an interactive Virtual Earth News system.

Team member, Kong Wen Bin, explains why.

“We feel that those are things that are all around us, our surroundings. And also my teammate James and I know that the environmental-related news from all over the world are generated by news agencies everyday, and all these information are available over the internet. And what we think is that all these information can be very valuable resources if we know how to make use of it.”

Hence the team decided to make use of MashUp technology, which is an interactive web application, to gather the latest environmental news from RSS feeds around the world.

All the news is then presented on one platform – Microsoft Virtual Earth – thus allowing for easy access of environmental news.

“All these scattered pieces of information, they do not convey the aggregate health of our earth when read in isolation. So we have this idea of mashing up environmental news with Microsoft Virtual Earth so we can reinterpret all the information and present them in a visual manner, so that users of our application, at one glance they can see what’s happening to our earth.”

And Wen Bin says their own experiences formed the inspiration behind the idea.

“We want to know more about the environmental issues but we find that it’s quite difficult, because environmental issues have a very big range, like air pollution, water pollution, earthquake, etc. And all these information are available on many different websites. So to keep ourselves updated on our own earth, our surroundings is quite difficult.”

But while coming up with the concept is easy, putting it into practice isn’t a piece of cake.

“The most difficult thing throughout the whole project is to create our web service and make it very accurate. Because sometimes the news can mention a lot of countries or something and the information might not be very accurate, so we have to do checking at the back end site. And also we want to make it run as fast as possible because everything is live, so we get live data from RSS feed, etc. We don’t want our audience to wait too long, so we spent a lot of time enhancing our VeNews application, so this is a big challenge.”

After four months of working on the project, Wen Bin and his team mate finally came up with something they’re happy with.

“We don’t have to update it time to time, because all the RSS feeds are updated by the website which provides the news itself. So we just have to leave it there, but the news are all very updated.”

And this concept brought Wen Bin and his teammate all the way to Cairo in Egypt, where they presented their ideas to an international panel of judges.

“When we hear the announcement i was very very happy and excited. I just jumped out of my seat, hold the Singapore flag and ran all the way to the stage.”

No official reasons were given for why they came in second place, but it’s believed they did well due to the site’s usability and practicality.

For instance, schools can use it to teach subjects such as Geography, while corporations can use it as a guide in making decisions.

Individuals, on the other hand, can use it to keep themselves updated on environmental issues.

Mdm Kang Siew Hwa is Team Planet KY’s mentor and lecturer from Nanyang Polytechnic.

“From this four month period, i realised that these two students really apply the things they learn from the Diploma in Multimedia and Infocomm and in this case, they can actually apply what they learnt to pick up the new technology.”

And Mdm Kang thinks more of such competitions should be held so students can widen their exposure.

“Actually it’s good for this particular competition to be held so that all the students can explore new technology and apply what they learn outside the classroom. So it challenges the students to better prepare for the future. Whethe they win or not is not so important but it’s the experience they have.”

But beyond just putting into practice what they’ve learnt, there are also other reasons for participating, as Wen Bin elaborates.

“The experience is very valuable to us. While we’re young, we want to take part in more competitions and make our resume even better.”

——

Source: 938Live News – Current Affairs – Local

The above is the full story of the interview conversation which was on air this morning at 7.10am and 9.10am. I’d like to say a big thank you to all who supported & went to listen

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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Last week, I was interviewed on regarding my experiences going through Imagine Cup 2009 and my feelings about going to cairo, egypt, and winning the 2nd place worldwide, doing Singapore proud. The conversation was recorded and will be air on 938Live tomorrow.

As regarding the exact timing, it will be at 7.10am and 9.10am. By then, you guys would be able to read up on the full story of the interview together with pictures at www.938live.sg, just look under Online News > Current Affairs-Local will do.

Thanks in advance to everyone for the support!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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One of the most interesting and unique word in the English language today, is the word “fuck”. This is not a joke; relax and read on before you think that this post is offensive.

Out of all the English words that begin with the letter ‘F’, only the word “fuck” is referred to as the “F” word, and it is recognized globally. Thus it is the one magical word. Just by its sound can describe pain, pleasure, hate, love, and many more. “Fuck”, as most words in the English language is derived from German, the word “Fuieken”, which means to “strike”.

Before I continue, let’s load this short few minutes video which summarizes the post’s contents:

In English, fuck falls into many grammatical categories:

• As a transitive verb -> Jack fucked Sally.
• As an intransitive verb -> John fucks.

Its meaning is not always sexual, it can be used as:

• An adjective -> Jason is doing all the fucking work.
• As part of an adverb -> Shirley talks too fucking much.
• As an adverb enhancing an adjective -> Jane is fucking beautiful.
• As a noun -> I don’t give a fuck.
• As part of a word -> absofuckinglutely or infuckingcredible. (these 2 words exist in dictionary, click on the word to view them on the online dictionary)
• And as almost every word in a sentence -> Fuck the fucking fuckers.

As you must realize, there aren’t too many words with the versatility of fuck, for example, when in situations such as:

• Fraud -> I got fucked at the used car lot.
• Dismay -> ahhh fuck it.
• Trouble -> I guess I’m really fucked now.
• Aggression -> Don’t fuck with me buddy.
• Difficulty -> I don’t understand this fucking question.
• Inquiry -> Who the fuck was that?
• Dissatisfaction -> I don’t like what the fuck is going on here.
• Incompetence -> He’s a fuck-off.
• Dismissal -> Why don’t you go outside and go fuck yourself…

I’m sure you can think of many more examples.

With all these multi-purpose applications, how can anyone be offended when you use the word, “fuck”. We say, use this unique and flexible word more often in your daily speech.

It will identify the quality of your character immediately.

Say it loudly and proudly: FUCK YOU!

——

Edited from original post

Tags: General, Joke by Wen Bin
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How could someone be so inconsiderate and selfish, NSmen are going through trainings to protect our homeland, Singapore; and there are people calling them “SMELLY GREEN THINGS” – that is so ridiculous.

Seriously, when my friend told me about this issues a few days ago, I was so worked up! In fact, both of us were very worked up – not because we are going to enlist to NS in the coming October 2009, it is because we felt so ashamed that there are actually such people in Singapore.

For those whom don’t know what is NS – it stands for National Service, here in Singapore, every male citizens whom have reach the age of 18 have to serve the army (be a soldier) for two years.

But not to worry, I believe that such people only takes up a mini-little-minor part of Singapore; Singaporeans may be labelled as love-to-complains & etc, but I strongly believe that not all Singaporeans are so inconsiderate like this “mum of two childrens”.

Enough said, let’s see what the woman said:

Isn’t it very inconsiderate and unthoughful for someone to comment such things? It made so many people angry, not just me! It have even made newspaper reporter to write bout this, even Asiaone also write it. Here’s what Asiaone has reported:

A Netizen who claimed to be a mother of two girls made a post in an online forum recently, demanding that NS men be banned from taking public buses because they are dirty and smelly.

The post drew furore from other forum members, who have called the poster insensitive and disrespectful towards NS men.

The Netizen, who goes by the username JusticeLegal, described an unpleasant bus ride on 10 July which prompted her to propose the ban.

JusticeLegal said that she was bringing her children home from Downtown East when a group of “army boys” boarded the bus with them. The NS men were sweaty and smelled, and soon the Netizen’s daughters were “making sick faces” at her.

The Netizen proposed that SAF ban soldiers from taking the bus, reasoning that the pay NS men get should be enough to pay for taxi rides.

She also said that the soldiers, having just returned to Singapore from Tekkong, might have contacted “germs and viruses” and might spread the diseases to others.

Calling the NS men “smelly green things”, JusciceLegal said in her post that her two daughters should be spared the eyesore.

If she had a grandson in the future, the Netizen said that she would teach him to be a responsible citizen and take a cab, or wait for her to fetch him.

The forum thread, which has since attracted some 900 replies, was started on 17 July. A large majority of replies expressed anger at JusticeLegal’s comments with many saying that the Netizen should at least recognize the contributions of NS men.

And seriously, the comments made by users are harsh, but I find that they CAN be even more harsh, it is really hard to not feel worked up after reading such stuffs.

Some comments made by readers, duntellumyname says the following,

I still can’t believe I served 2 yrs of NS to protect people like this… …(shaking head in disappointment)

Can I suggest something to u, JusticeLegal: If you and your pampered daughters insist on taking PUBLIC transport for some reason or another and you are afraid of the stench or being ‘touched by those smelly green things’, you can either: 1) WAIT for the next bus that no NSFs r taking or 2) Wear a full-body Bio/Chemical suit with mask each time you take a bus.

I am inclined to think that Option 2 will be more appropriate for you due to your paranoia of being infected by germs/viruses. In that case, I would like to suggest that you can complete your protective bubble/personal space by intensively sterilizing and sealing up your home and wearing full-body protective equipment as long as you are …..

And reader xiaoekin here commented in chinese (sorry to non-chinese),

真的是人咋败类，社会的垃圾，寄生虫。。不知道她的头脑里装了什么东西。。 是垃圾吗？？肯定是！！！要不然会说那种话。只有没教养，没智慧，没头脑，自以为是的人才会有 那么的想法。

没有想过她的老公当初当兵时也是流了很多臭汗，为国家贡献。。。

国家真的是白养这种人。。。丢国家人的脸。。。。失败！！！！

我也是为了要骂醒这个女人才注册的。。

Actually he/she is saying some harsh words saying that the “mum of two children” is very inconsiderate & etc, her husband has been through NS too. And that she make the whole country felt ashamed and lastly, the most funny part – he/she specially registered an account just to post this comment to scold this “mum of two children”!

- Read more comments -

I shall end my post here, I hope that people would think before they say such inconsiderate things.

Tags: General by Wen Bin
5 Comments »

Seriously, by sending your computers to repair shops is exactly the same as sending your personal information to unknown strangers, and not only that – you’re taking a risk of being overcharged as the techician/repair man misdescribe the fault of the computer.

Come on, if you are a computer experts, would you send your computer to repair shops? You are trusting them, and I can guarantee you that >90% of them are abusing the trust!

Sky News test on several computer repair shops and seriously, the investigation reflected badly on some of the industry’s major names.

In one case, passwords, log-in details and intimate holiday photographs were all copied onto a portable memory stick by a technician. In other shops, customers were charged for non-existent work and simple faults were misdiagnosed.

An investigator from the Trading Standards Institute said he was “shocked” by the findings. The investigation was carried out using surveillance software loaded onto a brand-new laptop. It operated without the user being aware that every event that took place on the computer was being logged.

Richard Webb, an e-commerce investigator for Trading Standards, said the following:

It’s a big abuse of trust. They know you won’t be able to tell what they’ve done afterwards, they know you’re putting your trust in them and unfortunately, as we’re seeing, there are too many people willing to abuse that trust.

Seriously, it is very disappointing. In fact, I know about that initially too, I don’t trust any repair shops – I trusted too many and I find myself mistrusting them. Here in Singapore, there is a rather big computer shop named PsycoPassive (FAKE NAME), when I know nothing about computer, I repaired my computer there many times.

After I know computer, I realised that I have been cheated many times – my compaq brand motherboard using DDR2 ram have been changed to a very old motherboard (not branded) which uses DDR1 ram, and during that time, the technician guy tell me that my motherboard very old, thus the ram I using also old, cannot be used on the new motherboard that they got for me (which costs 300~400 sgd??). Thus I buy the DDR1 ram. And during that time, I don’t know what is DDR in the first place, let alone ram. Note that in market, DDR1 ram is more expensive than DDR2 ram..

There are still many cheating case which took place in PsycoPassive where they told me my power supply spoil, fan also spoil, etc. So after I changed new ones, I brought back the old spoiled parts. And later on when my friend look at it at my house, he told me that they ARE WORKING fine. And he even test it to let me believe his words – it did work. Not spoiled.

And everytime I go to a repair shop, they would say motherboard spoil (come on, if just simply let them earn the service charge, too little, and other parts spoil also not much let them earn. So normally they want you to change motherboard which affects the other parts) and seriously, most people believe it; because we don’t know computers! We are not trained in that aspect and we don’t have any knowledge or technical skills to start with.

Come on, get my computer working already! I just need it to be fine and running, so that I could do my work/play games/etc! Just fix it man! AND.. I don’t care what is the problem, you tell me I also catch no balls, just fix it for me and I pay you the money!

Believe it or not, the above quoted is the thinking of most people whom has no knowledge about computers. I die also won’t go back to PsycoPassive (FAKE NAME) already.

Enough about my experience, I have quoted some of the stuffs being mentioned in the main news, let’s see:

The most serious offender was Revival Computers in Hammersmith, West London.

Shortly after identifying the real fault, an engineer called our undercover reporter to say the computer needed a new motherboard, which would cost £130.

Tests carried out by our internal Sky engineer after the diagnosis revealed there was nothing wrong with it.

The surveillance software then recorded one technician browsing through the files on the hard-drive, including private documents and intimate holiday photos, including some of our researcher in her bikini.

As he snooped through the files, he is seen smiling and showing the pictures to another colleague.

Later on in the same shop, a second technician loads up the machine and also looks through the photos, which are inside a folder clearly marked ‘private’.

He then plugs his own portable memory stick into the laptop and copies files, including passwords and photos, into a folder labelled “mamma jammas”.

Inside one of the documents copied to the memory stick was a text file containing passwords for Facebook, Hotmail, eBay and a NatWest bank account.

Once the technician had discovered this information, he opened a web browser on the laptop and attempted to log into the back account for around five minutes.

The only reason he was unsuccessful was because the details were fake.

This is so scary. Don’t be so naive to think that this only happens in London (this investigation took place in London); this happens in all over the world!

Interested in the original news article.

Cheerios!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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For the last few months, Facebook has been regularly posting promotional videos to its Career site, introducing prospective applicants to all the neat things that go on behind the scenes.

Today they’ve uploaded a particularly interesting, detailing the launch of the company’s Video feature. It’s been known for some time that Facebook Video was the result of one of the company’s famed Hackathons, but getting the chance to watch some of the first clips to appear on the platform is pretty darn cool. There’s also one nice piece of data tucked away in the video: Facebook saw over 1 billion video views last month. That’s still far less than that 1.2 billion YouTube sees every day, but it undoubtedly makes Facebook one of the top video sharing sites on the web (it’s also the largest photo sharing site).

Amazing huh? Let’s watch this video:

It’s quite inspiring!

Tags: Facebook, General by Wen Bin
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The solar eclipse that will take place on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 will be a total eclipse of the Sun. It will be the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting at most 6 minutes, 39 seconds. Below is the picture showing some information regarding the solar eclipse which I found on NASA website:

Isn’t it exciting? We are going to experience and see something so rare that I guess, if we miss this opportunity, we will not have another chance this life!

As what NASA has predicted, tomorrow’s (22 July 2009) solar eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the 21st century, and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132.

For people who don’t know what is Solar eclipse, here is some information I got for you:

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially covered. This can only happen during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from the Earth. At least two and up to five solar eclipses can occur each year on Earth, with between zero and two of them being total eclipses. Total solar eclipses are nevertheless rare at any location because during each eclipse totality exists only along a narrow corridor in the relatively tiny area of the Moon’s umbra.

A total solar eclipse is a spectacular natural phenomenon and many people travel to remote locations to observe one. The 1999 total eclipse in Europe helped to increase public awareness of the phenomenon, as illustrated by the number of journeys made specifically to witness the 2005 annular eclipse and the 2006 total eclipse. The most recent solar eclipse occurred on January 26, 2009, and was an annular eclipse. On July 22 2009, the next total solar eclipse will occur.

In ancient times, and in some cultures today, solar eclipses have been attributed to supernatural causes. Total solar eclipses can be frightening for people who are unaware of their astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to disappear in the middle of the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes.

So what are you waiting for? Go and set your alarm to wake up at 8 am and watch the sky!

Alternatively, you could turn on the TV, turn to channel U (Singapore channel) to watch the “LIVE” telecasting, the timing is 8am to 11am.

Cheerios!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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Yes! I have finally received my first cheque from Nuffnang! I have took picture of the cheque itself, here you go:

Although the value of the money may not be very much, but to me, it meant a lot – it is the first time I ever earned money through blogging and putting up advertisements on my blog, thus it is a whole new experience for me

I love to blog, you know – I enjoy blogging! I want to update my blog with interesting and attractive stuffs everyday, and I do see myself growing and my blogging skills did improve; I got friends whom have feedback to me saying that he or she enjoyed reading my blog – this gave me a lot of encouragement!

I don’t expect myself to be famous blogger like XiaXue or Dawn Yang or many others, I just enjoy the feeling of sharing the stuffs which I find them interesting, and recent happenings which I want to bring attention to my readers! And hilarious jokes, meaningful stories, etc! Like my blog’s motto – my blog talks about:

talks about everything under the sun

Once again, thanks Nuffnang for giving me the opportunity and allowing me to earn small bucks while doing things I enjoy doing! I will continue to work hard. I mean, blog hard.

Cheerios!

Tags: General, Random by Wen Bin
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The Twitter document leak fiasco started with a simple story that personal accounts of Twitter employees were hacked. Twitter CEO Evan Williams commented on that story, saying that Twitter itself was mostly unaffected. No personal accounts were compromised, and “most of the sensitive information was personal rather than company-related,” he said. The individual behind the attacks, known as Hacker Croll, wasn’t happy with that response. Lots of Twitter corporate information was compromised, and he wanted the world to know about it. So he sent us all of the documents that he obtained, some 310 of them, and the story developed from there.

It’s clear that Twitter was completely unaware of how deeply they were affected as a company – when Williams said that most of the information wasn’t company related he believed it. It wasn’t until later that he realized just how much and what kind of information was taken. It included things like financial projections and executive meeting notes that contained highly confidential information.

We’ve already said a lot about all of this and the related “server password = password” story that was discovered by another individual last week. But we’ve got two more stories to tell. The first, this post, is exactly how the hacks took place, based on information gathered from hours of conversations with Hacker Croll. The second is what was happening behind he scenes with Twitter as the story unfolded. We’ll post that later this week.

When the story first broke the true scope of what had taken place and how it occurred was not understood. Various bloggers speculated about the cause of the attack – with some placing the blame on Google while others blaming the rising trend of hosting documents in the cloud.

We immediately informed Twitter of the information we had in our possession (and forwarded it to them), and at the same time reached out to the attacker. With some convincing, the attacker responsible for the intrusion at Twitter began a dialog with us. I spent days communicating with the attacker in an effort to gain insight into how the attack took place, what the true scope of it was and how we could learn from it.

We’ve waited to post exactly what happened until Twitter had time to close all of these security holes.

Background

In the security industry there is a generally accepted philosophy that no system or network is completely secure – a competent attacker with enough time, patience and resources will eventually find a way into a target. Some of the more famous information security breaches have relied on nothing more than elementary issues exploited by an attacker with enough time and patience at hand to see their goal through. A classic example is the case of Gary McKinnon, a self-confessed “bumbling computer nerd” who while usually drunk and high on cannabis would spend days randomly dialing or attempting to login to government servers using default passwords. His efforts led to the compromise of almost 100 servers within a number of government departments. After McKinnon spent a number of years trawling through servers looking for evidence of alien life (long story), somebody within the government finally wised up to his activities which lead to not only the arrest and attempted extradition of McKinnon from the United Kingdom, but a massive re-evaluation of the security methods employed to protect government information.

A more recent example is the case of Kendall Myers, who after being recruited to work for the Cuban government by an anonymous stranger they met while on holiday in that country, set out to obtain a high ranking position within the State Department specifically to obtain access to US government secrets. Kendall dedicated his entire life to obtaining state secrets, and up until he was recently caught by the FBI had successfully passed on secret information and internal documents to the Cuban government for 30 years. He relied only on his memory, his education credentials and sheer dedication.

Source: techcrunch

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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A picture speaks a thousand words.

Tags: Joke, Random by Wen Bin
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Many people know how to eat fruits, but not many people know how to eat fruits in the correct way.

Eating fruits doesn’t mean just buying fruits, cutting it and popping it into our mouths. It’s not as easy as most people think. It is important to know how and when to eat.

So, what is the correct way to eat fruits?

The most important thing to know is to eat fruits with an empty stomach – that is, don’t eat fruits right after meal!

If you eat fruit with an empty stomach, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD. Let’s say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so, due to the breads.

In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil.

So please eat your fruits on an empty stomach or before your meals! You have heard people complaining – every time I eat watermelon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats up, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet and etc – actually all these issues will not arise if you eat them with an empty stomach. The fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas and hence you will bloat!

There is no such thing to say that, as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruits, you have the Secret of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.

When you need to drink fruit juice – drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don’t even drink juice that has been heated up. Don’t eat cooked fruits because you don’t get the nutrients at all. You only get to taste. Cooking destroys all the vitamins.

But eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body. Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprised when your friends tell you how radiant you look!

KIWI: Tiny but mighty. This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.

APPLE: An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C thereby helping to lower the risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.

STRAWBERRY: Protective Fruit. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.

ORANGE: Sweetest medicine. Taking 2-4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessens the risk of colon cancer.

WATERMELON: Coolest thirst quencher. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. They are also a key source of lycopene – the cancer fighting oxidant. Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & Potassium.

GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation.. Papaya is rich in carotene; this is good for your eyes.

I hope that this article is informative!

Cheerios~

Tags: General by Wen Bin
5 Comments »

Microsoft has won back its crown as the top consumer brand in the UK! Whooo~!!

The 12th annual top 500 Superbrands survey has revealed the winners and losers during this economic downturn.

A list of about 1,400 brands was considered by a panel of experts, with more than 2,000 UK consumers taking part in a vote.

At number two was Rolex, while Google slipped two places to third. Lego and Coca-Cola were new to the top 10.

The results, as always, return some surprises, with this year’s notable high achiever being Encyclopaedia Britannica Stephen Cheliotis, Centre for Brand Analysis

Other brands which have kept their top 10 places include the BBC, British Airways and Mercedes-Benz.

Last year, Microsoft lost the first place to internet giant Google. This year, Apple has made it into the top 10.

Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of the Centre for Brand Analysis, which carried out the research on behalf of Superbrands UK, said the following:

“This year’s survey reaffirms some of the downturn’s winners and losers, with fast-food chains and supermarkets doing particularly well.”

The results, as always, return some surprises, with this year’s notable high achiever being Encyclopaedia Britannica.”

TOP 10 SUPERBRANDS 2009/10

1. Microsoft
2. Rolex
3. Google
4. British Airways
5. BBC
6. Mercedes-Benz
7. Coca-Cola
8. Lego
9. Apple
10. Encyclopaedia Britannica

Some of the brands which showed the strongest year-on-year improvement in the survey include McDonald’s, which rises 227 places, Burger King, up 189 places, KFC rising by 164 and Domino’s Pizza, which moves up by 144 places.

The highest new entry into this year’s list was Krispy Kreme doughnuts, indicating demand for relatively low cost treats in the downturn.

Stephen Cheliotis also said,

“Actually making the top 500 itself is an achievement – the competition amongst brands for consumer attention and share of wallet is intense and growing fiercer.”

Recovering from last year’s plummet in the survey were the supermarkets, although only Sainsbury’s broke into the top 100.

TOP 10 SUPERBRANDS 2008/09

1. Google
2. Microsoft
3. Mercedes-Benz
4. BBC
5. British Airways
6. Royal Doulton
7. BMW
8. Bosch
9. Nike
10. Sony

Recovering from last year’s plummet in the survey were the supermarkets, although only Sainsbury’s broke into the top 100.

Morrisons and the Co-op have both entered the top 500 for the first time.

Royal Doulton has lost its top 10 position, but still remains ahead of giants like Vodafone, Audi, Nokia and Cadbury.

Source: BBC News

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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Dragonica is quite a nice game. Well, how should I put it? It is known as a merge of the features in World of Warcraft (WOW) and Maple Story.

Note that this “merging” description is something I read on newspaper, not something I said myself.

Dragonica is a 3D action side-scrolling MMORPG by Barunson Interactive. It is a free to play game with cash shop.

Well, to put it more simple, it is a side scrolling game just like Maple Story, but not really just “left & right”, it also have “up & down”, allowed your characters to move to different lanes. This makes the combat style somewhat similar to Grandchase, you guys know what I mean if you guys have played it before.

The skill tree is similar to what WOW has, and the comprehensive market and feature is also similar to WOW. It even have feature which allow people to “Find Date” and also “Blind Date”. haahaha. Of course, not something I will use! :p

As for job classes, well, still the same old 4 basic kinds of classes every MMORPG games would have – Warrior, Magician, Archer, Thief. However, for next job advancement, they provided 2 options for each classes, like for example, a Thief can choose to be an Assasin or Jester. Note that 1st job change is lvl 20, which is consider quite fast compare to other MMORPG games, which normally require players to play until lvl 30 for the job change.

It has a cool PVP system which can support up to 5v5(thanks ArticFir3 for the correction) and it works in a way similar to Grandchase, again. Users join room, press on the “READY” button, then wait until the host click on “start game” to start PVP.

One thing to point out is that they uses cute graphics just like maple story, just that in Dragonica, everything is more cute in the sense that they are 3D graphics and of course, the graphics is so so so much better (well, we could see that the developing company put in effort) than any other side scrolling game!

The quests system is like, there is this main storyline to follow (trust me, the story is quite cute :p) and also other sub storyline which is known as optional quests I must say. Dragonica also has a Medal features which acts like an achievement page which allow users to know of their progress and such, for example, if you killed a boss (for example, Vega) for 10 times, it award you with a medal called “Vega Veteran”; if you kill it for 20 times, you are awarded with a medal called “Vega Expert” and so on.

(Above screenshot: random shot in town (this is not my character))

If YOU are looking for a free MMORPG game to play and like the features which I mentioned above, come on, Dragonica is the game you are looking for!

Oh man, why am I doing free advertisement for Dragonica? Well, because I started playing it 2 days ago, and I like it very much. I’m a level 23 Assasin now. I don’t play frequently though, so if you guys are playing it and want to add me, feel free to leave a comment & I will add you in game

Feel free to add the note stating “Please delete this comment after reading” and I will delete it off after I add you in game, this is to ensure that your IGN will only be seen by me, and not any annoymous people.

Cheerios!

Tags: Game Reviews, General, MMORPG by Wen Bin
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Well, who says 2D animations cannot be as interesting as 3D animations? I have prepared some videos to prove YOU wrong!

I strongly believe that no matter what kind of animation it is, as long as it conveys the message to its audience saying that, “Yes, I got a story to tell!”, then this animation work is a successful one – regardless of it is 2D or 3D, it doesn’t really matter much.

Enough said, here’s the 2D animation I would like to share with you guys:

And this one is more of a 3D animation I guess:

I hope you guys enjoyed the videos!

Cheerios~

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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Microsoft made the impossible to become possible during the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009 held in Cairo, Egypt. All of us whom are there to experience everything made us felt so touched and the feeling is totally indescribable! The whole event was awesome.

One of the speaker (I’m so sorry I forget his name, he said it during Opening Ceremony) shared with us that everyone should have a dream to success, without this dream to success, one could never success. However, to dream and not work towards success, the dream will always remain to be a dream – thus, we have to work hard to realize our dreams! I find it so true…

It is very inspiring when I see them making the impossible become possible, for example:

- To prepare the stages, lights, speakers, chairs, and many more – everything in the middle of a historical museum for the Opening Ceremony! This made me felt so happy – I have attended many ceremonies, and see many things; This is the first time I ever see such a grand and modern ceremony in the middle of such a historical museum venue. The experience was great!

(Above picture: “S” for Singapore~~!!)

(Above picture: Having our dinner~!!)

- Another thing I must definitely highlight to you guys is that Microsoft actually built a huge studio-liked world stage for the “World Festival” on the 7 July 2009, where they announces all the award and category winners! Guess what? They built it in the middle of a dessert, with the great pyramid of Giza as the in the background of the stage~!! In addition to that, it’s a FULL MOON NIGHT! Whooohoo~~!!

(Above Picture: Taken with Karol, the 2nd place winner whom tie with us~ cool)

(Above picture: They arranged 2 such big screens on both side of the world stage!!)

Guess what? The moment I got off the bus and look at everything that Microsoft had prepared for us – I felt so inspired; my belief towards the saying of “Everything is possible” become even more firm.

If MICROSOFT could arrange everything & even built such a grand venue for the world festival in the middle of a dessert, why can’t WE, STUDENTS,  make good use of technology to change the world?

Everything is possible! As long as we have a strong belief, we could achieve everything we want. However, it is not easy. Everything come with a price, and everything needs time and effort in order to success.

Perseverance, endurance, determination, all these keywords are the key to success – that’s what I strongly believe in.

Here’s my return for the hardwork that I have put in since March:

I am so glad that I participated in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009 Egypt – I learned so much things which I never thought of learning, I experienced so much things which I never thought of experiencing in life, I see so much things that I never thought I could see – pyramids, sphinx, etc, everything! I even met and interacted with so many people from all over the world (more than 70 countries) and exchanged email and Facebook from some of them!

(Above picture: taken with my Roommate, Nicolas Donner from France)

(Above picture, taken with Team I’M A PC, Our Microsoft Singapore’s IDE, Ms Pratibha, and Team Woolgathering)

(Above Picture: Taken with Azhar, SP team lecturer, and the guys from NYP’s Team Infusion)

The whole experience that I gained from this trip is so inreplaceable. The people I know and things I experienced through this awesome trip.. everything is so going to be kept clearly in the bottom of my heart!

Be it things which cannot be measured by price (all the experiences in life, all the eyes opener & etc) or things which can be measured by price (air tickets ALONE cost $1440 SGD, let alone the 5 stars hotel & etc)

I appreciate everything very much~!!!

I’d like to dedicate my biggest thanks to Microsoft & everyone whom make everything possible! YOU GUYS RAWKS BIG TIME!!

————-

Fellow students, what are you guys’ still waiting for? Sign up for the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2010 Poland now!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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Team PlanetKY of Singapore won the 2nd place worldwide in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009 competition, MashUp category!

I would like to say a big big THANK YOU to all of you whom have been continuously supporting us, helped us invite your friends, and also for believing in us! We wil never achieve where we are without the help from all of you!

Please continue to help us by spreading our group’s URL to your friends, let them know about PlanetKY & our mashup application, the VENews. And also, tell them that we have tutorial which teach them how to create simple mashup applications.

Come & change the world with the PlanetKY!

For more photos please visit my Facebook and feel free to visit the photo album of all the other Team Singapore representatives for even more photos!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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CAIRO, Egypt — July 7, 2009 — After an intense competition among finalists chosen from a pool of more than 300,000 students from more than 100 countries and regions, Microsoft Corp. announced the winners of Imagine Cup 2009. Celebrating first place, Romania’s Team SYTECH won the worldwide Software Design invitational, South Korea’s Team Wafree won the Embedded Development invitational and Brazil’s Team LEVV It won the Game Development challenge. Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition, empowers students to unlock their creative genius and build solutions that tackle real-world issues facing society today.

Team SYTECH from Romania (at left) took first place in the Software Design competition. Coming in second was Vital Lab, from Russia (center), while Virtual Dreams from Brazil (right) earned third. Looking on is S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division for Microsoft. Click for hi-res version.

“The creativity and imagination that students poured into their projects this year was incredible,” said Joe Wilson, senior director of Academic Initiatives, Developer & Platform Evangelism Division at Microsoft. “Many of these projects have the potential to have a serious impact on how we address society’s most pressing issues. We hope that all of the students who participated this year will continue their pursuit of creating technology in the service of making the world a better place.”

The software design, embedded development and game development finalist teams created applications, devices and games using Microsoft technology based on this year’s theme: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.”

A total of 444 students from 149 teams representing 70 countries and regions competed in the Imagine Cup 2009 Worldwide Finals in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, IT Challenge, Robotics and Algorithm, MashUp, Photography, Short Film and Design. In addition to the main categories of competition, there are several Achievement Awards this year: the Interoperability Award, Unlimited Potential Design for Development Award, Unlimited Potential MultiPoint Education Award, Accessibility Award, Accessible Design Award, Parallel Computing Award, Tablet Accessibility Award, Live Services Award, Windows Mobile Award, and the H.E. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award, sponsored by the first lady of Egypt through the Cyber Peace Initiative (CPI).

The winners were announced in a gala awards ceremony this evening at the base of Egypt’s historic pyramids as part of the Imagine Cup World Festival, a celebration drawing Imagine Cup competitors, mentors and other key attendees from around the world. The following are the top three finalists by invitational in finishing order:

Among the enthusiastic winning teams was LEVV It from Brazil, here waving to the crowd after being given their award for first place in the Game Development division. At left is S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division for Microsoft. Click for hi-res version.

Software Design

Embedded Development

Game Development

Robotics and Algorithm

Team Wafree from South Korea won the top award in the Embedded Development competition. Click for hi-res version.

IT Challenge

MashUp

Photography

Short Film

Design

In addition to the category awards, 10 Achievement Awards were presented.

Interoperability Award. The Interoperability Award is designed to recognize the software application that best leverages out-of-the-box Microsoft technologies and blends them with other technologies to connect people, data or diverse systems in a new way. This award was won by:

Unlimited Potential Design for Development Award. This award challenges students to create a software solution that can be accessed from a basic mobile phone and designed to meet the needs of end users who earn less than $8 (U.S.) a day. This award was won by:

Unlimited Potential MultiPoint Education Award. This award encourages students to unlock new ways for the PC to help address universal education goals. This award was won by:

Accessibility Award. Students are challenged to design a technology solution that leverages people’s diverse physical and cognitive abilities. This award was won by:

Accessible Design Award: Students who participated in the Design competition were awarded additional recognition for a technology solution that best addressed accessibility needs. This award was won by:

Parallel Computing Award. Parallel applications can open a door to the future, and this award challenges students to use parallel technology to solve the world’s toughest problems. This award was won by:

Tablet Accessibility Award. The objective of the Tablet Accessibility Award is to create a new education application that uses Tablet technology while expanding the possibilities for how a user interacts with the computer. This award was won by:

Live Services Award: This award challenges students to create a technology solution built on Microsoft’s Azure Services Platform to solve the world’s toughest problems. This award was won by:

Windows Mobile Award: This award challenges students to use Windows Mobile technology to solve the world’s toughest problems. This award was won by:

H.E. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award. Sponsored by the first lady of Egypt, this award was given to the project that best intersects the following: the Imagine Cup 2009 theme, “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today”; the Millennium Development Goals; and the objectives of the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement and the Cyber Peace Initiative. This award was won by:

Next year’s Imagine Cup 2010 Worldwide Finals will take place in Poland, a country with a track record of producing highly skilled IT students as well as successful Imagine Cup entrants. Registrations for Imagine Cup 2010 open tomorrow, July 8, 2009. More information about Imagine Cup can be found at http://www.imaginecup.com.

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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Hello everyone! It;s 4.03am in Singapore, and it’s 11.05 pm here in Cairo, Egypt! I’m taking a break now!

For those who don’t know, I came to Cairo, Egypt to represent Singapore in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009, MashUp Category. It is a great opportunity for international exposure, to learn and share knowledge with top grade students from all over the world! In addition to that, they are all very friendly people, we could just chat in the lift without knowing each other’s name!

By the way, for those whom are interested to know, Singapore has teams which got into the finals in 4 different categories namely, Embbeded Development Design (Nanyang Polytechnic), Software Design (National University of Singapore & Singapore Polytechnic), Photography (Singapore Polytechnic), and MashUp (Nanyang Polytechnic).

So back to the topic, I’m talking about the trip. Okay, I’ll start with the flight – it was a 11 hours flight (doesn’t include waiting time when plane stops at Dubai airport). I managed to watched 2 movies and played some games. The 2 movies that I watched are ”17 Again” and ”Dragonball: Evolution”.

Basically, I enjoyed watching ”17 again”, which can be meaningful if one can understand it’s main idea, and it’s interesting and hilarious. However, the movie ended too quickly. I give a 7.5/10. Whereas for Dragonball: Evolution, I find that it is totally pointless and nothing much to look forward to.. overall i must give a 1/10 to be kind.

After arriving at the airport, we took bus to the hotel – InterContinental Citystars Hotel Cairo, which I believe is a 5 stars hotel and it looks like a totally different place in the middle of Cairo. It is connected to the biggest shopping mall in the entire Cairo, called the Citystars Mall if I’m not wrong; and it is very big – named as ”Cairo’s Capital”. Inside the mall, it looks very similar to how it is like in VivoCity for instance.

I would not buy any suvenirs back if this is the case, no point buying somethingwhich we can buy in Singapore! I am looking for unique and memorable items such as a keychain with mummy design or something. And it must be worth buying as well, no point buying something ”made in China” when I’m in Cairo! I shall see bah.

Back to the bus ride from airport to hotel – I saw a lot of people riding donkeys to transport their goods, which is cool! I never seen a donkey walking on streets before. And something I must say is that, in Cairo, the cars drivers are really brave in the sense that they just cut lanes without any fear at all! There is no traffic lights in the whole street and you can hear car honings sound all the time.

Okay, yesterday, on the 3 July 2009, we went to the Citidel for visiting and for opening ceremony. Citidel is a museum now, which used to be a military camp by Mr Mohaamad Ali (not sure spelling).

The opening ceremony was a great eye opener for me! Microsoft Egypt actually set up props and stuffs to make us, all the audiences, felt like as though we are in a studio, but in fact, we were sitting outdoor in the middle of an ancient place, surrounded by stones and rocks! Isn’t that cool?

Right now it is 11.29pm, 4th July 2009, in Cairo, Egypt. This marks the end of my 2nd day here, and I am very thankful already. I am very thankful to Microsoft for giving me this opportunity to come to Cairo, Egypt, to learn, share, and interact with all other 400 students from all over the world, to play a part in this one in a life time experience, to get to visit the very ancient artifacts remaining in the world (I’m looking forward to 5th July, cultural day where we are going to visit pyramid etc), and also to enjoy ourselves after all the hardwork that we put in! And also, the fully paid air tickets, hotel bills, inclusive of breakfast, lunch and dinner, all thanks to Microsoft being generous!

I think there’s roughly like over 200,000 students which took part in Imagine Cup 2009 and only 400 make it here, in Cairo, and my team is one of them – I’m really happy and excited. No matter what is the results of the competition, I tried my best and I’m happy with my effort, I really enjoyed the process So I’d consider myself as a winner as well!

Speaking of interacting with other students, I get to met Nicholas Donner, my room mate from France. He’s a nice guy. And also, I have managed to met up with all the other MashUp category’s finalists from Poland, Brazil, United States, Philipines, and Sri Lanka. They are all very friendly people as well. All of them are from good universities, which is really cool!

I’m extremely tired after all the work the whole day. I shall catch some sleep soon. Good nights everyone!

Till I blog again. Cheerios.

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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I don’t know why, but I’m extremely excited about the flight to Cairo, Egypt tonight, at 10:40pm! Perhaps it’s because it’s my first time going to travel alone and for competition purposes, and taking a plane somemore :p

Luggage – clothes, medicines, etc, all ready and packed! Later go buy a few more things such as toothpaste etc can already. Feel so excited man!

I will be reaching the airport terminal 2 at around 8:30pm tonight. I’m feeling SO TIRED and yet can’t fall asleep, or rather, can’t sleep because Mdm Kang (my team mentor) is meeting me at anytime before 2pm (latest) to pass me some stuffs, thus I got to wait for her.

I’m so tired! Wake up early morning at 7:30am to meet Mdm Kang initially, then she postpone until afternoon & at the same time, allocated some tasks for me to do. Now finally free to blog~~

You know, this post is going to be so disorganised and yes, I know that; because I’m just like ranting and ranting on things randomly~~ As there is a possibility that I won’t be available and won’t be blogging for the next 7 days until 9th July 2009 when I’m back to Singapore! So people, read more now while you still can. LOL!

I am so hungry now! But cannot go out because don’t know what time lecturer coming! LOL! Arghs.

Till I blog again!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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