What is LinkedIn.com?

What is LinkedIn? Well, I must confess that I didn’t know about it until my friend BigMoneyList.Blogspot.com guided me through it and let me see what LinkedIn has in his own profile. I would say it was rather an exciting tour through his profile and I was mesmerised with the level or type of network he has in his profile.

With LinkedIn, a professional person can create his/her profile with working experiences in a way to meet other professional people, or wait to get some job offers that will come pouring to you from around the globe. It is a great place to meet people. Scott has dedicated an entire blog to LinkedIn. I highly recommend you visit his blog. 

InterviewChatter gave a good summary of information in the blog as follow:-

1. What is LinkedIn?

2. One Value of Your LinkedIn Profile

3. Book Review:I’m On LinkedIn Now What?

4. LinkedIn Connections - “Now What?”

5. LinkedIn Connections “Now What?” P.2

6. LinkedIn Connections - Degrees

7. LinkedIn - Blast From My Past

8. LinkedIn Answers

9. Create More Value With LinkedIn

10. LinkedIn - Jobs & Hiring

Scott's latest post on:-

9 Ways to Get Linked Out on LinkedIn

I talk a lot about how to make effective use of LinkedIn — today let’s look at some ways NOT to use LinkedIn. Here are nine sure-fire ways to network like a schmuck and achieve exactly the opposite effect you’re probably going for:

1.    Use the canned invitations. Really — they’re there for your convenience. A lot of thought obviously went into them already, so why should you put any more effort into personalizing your invitations? Everyone loves to get an “I’d like to add you to my professional network” message.

2.    Any time you see an interesting profile, invite them to connect.Regardless what LinkedIn recommends, nobody really uses it just to connect with people they know. It’s just like a MySpace friend request — everybody does it. Don’t bother to contact them first — no need. Just send them one of those default invitations.

3.    While you’re at it, invite everyone from all your Yahoo! Groups and other discussion lists and forums. One common interest is more than sufficient reason to connect on LinkedIn, isn’t it? Don’t bother to contact them first either. Just send them one of those default invitations everybody loves so much.

4.    Ignore those silly contact settings. If you’ve got a business deal or a job inquiry, you know better than they do whether they might be interested — they couldn’t possibly have anticipated this particular opportunity. Just call it an “expertise request” or a “request to reconnect” and then tell them why you’re really contacting them.

5.    Turn off all email notifications and just use the website. Once every week or two is often enough to handle things — there’s never any urgency to things coming through LinkedIn. If people need to contact people in a hurry they should use the phone and contact them directly, not get introductions through LinkedIn.

6.    Use Answers to grow your network. What better way to connect with lots of people? You can’t directly ask for connections — that will get your question deleted. Try something more subtle, like “How can I best find other open networkers who are willing to connect with me so I can get thousands of connections?”

7.    Answer as many questions as you possibly can in as many different topics as you can. Don’t worry about putting too much thought into them — just get your numbers up so you’ll show up as a top expert. And just by the law of large numbers, you’re bound to get a few “best answer” designations. No one will wonder why you have so much time on your hands.

8.    If you’re a recruiter and someone makes an introduction request to one of your candidates, tell them what your fee is. It doesn’t matter that other people make introductions for you for free — you’re a professional — you do this for a living.

9.    Ask all your contacts for recommendations and offer them one in return - especially all those people you don’t know who agreed to connect. Just write something generic about what a great guy/gal they are. That’s what reciprocity is all about!

 

Interesting isn't it? So go join LinkedIn and add me into your network! 

Buffett said: I've Never Seen So Much Fear

When everyone is living in fear of the US economy, Warren Buffet is enjoy his shopping in this mega sales season.

From Newsmax:

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor known for scooping up huge companies in dire straits, has his work cut out for him now.

By the standards of even his own long career, the octogenarian investor says he's never seen people so fearful over money.

"In fact, in my adult lifetime, I don't think I've ever seen people as fearful economically as they are right now," he told Charlie Rose in a PBS interview that aired as the Senate voted on a $700 billion bailout package.

Buffett lives by his oft-repeated mantra, to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. "It's that simple," he tells Rose.

But what's going on now is on an entirely different scale, Buffett says, because now things are beyond simply tanking stocks. Credit markets are seizing up and money market funds are at risk, factors which touch many more lives than the ups and downs of the Dow.

Americans, investors or not, should be very concerned about what happens next, Buffett warns.

"They've seen 8 percent of the bank deposits in the United States get moved very skillfully, I might say, within the last couple of weeks from institutions that they thought were fine a few months ago to other institutions," Buffett says. "They are not wrong to be worried."

As for the bailout plan now moving from the Senate to the House for a vote, possibly by Friday, Buffet is optimistic, despite calling the current situation an "economic Pearl Harbor."

Buffett compared the U.S. economy to a "great athlete" who has had a heart attack.

"It's flat on the floor, and the paramedics have arrived. And they shouldn't argue about whether they put the resuscitation equipment a quarter of an inch this way or a quarter of an inch this way, or they shouldn't start criticizing the patient, because he didn't have a blood pressure test or something like that."

"They should do what's needed right now. And I think they will."

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Microsoft's new slogan is, "The Search That Pays You Back!"

Check out this Live Search Cashback.

Double Dollar qouted:

Microsoft wants to pay people to use its Live search engine and buy products through Live Search cashback. According to Microsoft, the initiative to attract users by paying cash is an attempt of the company to convince the advertisers that Microsoft has a viable plan for competing with Google in the growing market of online advertising.

Machinist qouted:

But Live Search Cashback isn't a gimmick at all. By giving me more information, and by passing money from retailers to me, Microsoft is fighting Google on very Googly terrain: usability, and the quality of search results.

Check out the detail explaination from Machinist on how it works.

101 responses on Nuffnang's poll

Thanks to Nuffnang's default poll on age, gender and occupation, I have managed to track the age, gender and visitor's occupation who visits my blog. 

Now, I have 101 responses on my poll, thus I would like to share with you all the categories of visitors that reached my blog. 

And, the results are shown in the picture below. 

(Click to enlarge)

I would like to say my thanks for those who have spent some time in answering the poll. 

Have a good day ahead!

How To Choose A Digital Camera For Beginners

How To Choose A Digital Camera For Beginners

How To Choose A Digital Camera For Beginners (from videojug)

How To Choose A Digital Camera For Beginners. The second part of VideoJug's tutorial on picking the correct digital for a beginner. Expert advice on buying the right digital camera for your wants and needs.

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Step 1:

Why digital?

Digital cameras have several advantages over film cameras:
You can see the photos straight away. 
You can save them onto the camera. 
You can adjust them on your computer. 
Your photos can then be printed out, stored on your computer, or shared on the web.

---

Step 2:

What do you need the camera for?

The broad range of digital cameras on the market today reflects the broad range of needs that digital photography can meet. Are you a point and shooter who needs a broad range of automatic settings? Are you an accomplished photographer who demands complete control from your camera? Or are you someone in between, who wants a camera they can grow with? This film has been made for the novice photographer who wants a fun camera that can take the strain out of good quality pictures.

What to look for:

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Step 3:

Comfort & Weight

Pick up the camera and hold it. Does it feel comfortable to hold? Don't buy something too bulky if you want to carry it around in your pocket. There are a good range of compacts available for beginners, so there's no need to settle for something too heavy.

---

Step 4:

Viewfinder

There are 2 types of viewfinders used on digital cameras. 

You can use a small glass window found at the back of your camera. This is an optical viewfinder. Not all digital cameras have one.

Digital cameras usually have LCD viewfinders. This is a screen that is larger than the optical viewfinder. It makes framing a picture very easy and shows the image after you have taken it. The best LCD's are the ones with highest numbers of pixels, as this means the image you see more closely resembles the image you've captured.

LCD screens are difficult to use in bright sunshine and can drain a set of batteries - so look for a camera with both an optical and LCD viewfinder.

---

Step 5:

Resolution

Digital images are made up of a grid of dots which each contain the information for that part of the picture. These dots are pixels. The more pixels, the sharper the image. 

A megapixel is one million pixels. The current range is from 1.3 megapixels to around 22 - and the price rises with the pixels. 

But remember the high end pixel counts only really pay off if you print enlarged pictures and only if the printer you use can cope with that much information.

---

Step 6:

Lens

Get a good optical zoom lens. It will allow you to go in much closer and give your photo more detail. 

Watch out for 'digital zooms' as they only crop the picture and blow up the remainder. As there are now less pixels in the picture, the quality suffers.

---

Step 7:

Camera Modes

There are some conditions which make it difficult for a camera to capture a good image on its normal settings. Almost all of these conditions are to do with light - either too much or too little. A digital camera which has preset camera modes can save you the bother of having to delve into shutter speeds and iris settings to get a better picture.

Common modes include:
"Party" or "night" mode which allows photographs for darker scenes
"Portrait" mode in which the camera attempts to blur the background of a shot to bring the subject out of the picture
"Landscape" in which the camera tries to show detail in background and foreground.
And "Sports" mode in which the camera uses an increased shutter speed to try and freeze moving objects.

---

Step 8:

Extra Features

In addition to these camera modes, some models include extra features which increase the types of pictures you can take with your camera.

"Movie" or "Video" mode allows a stills camera to take moving video pictures for short lengths of time

"Stitch" mode allows the photographer to combine several shots to create one very wide shot. This is a great function for getting those panoramic views.

Another feature to look out for is a remote control. A remote control will allow the photographer to join the photo while still having control of the moment it's taken.

---

Step 9:

Flash

For a fun loving point and shooter, a flash is essential to make sure you can see your subject in dark conditions. 

Many modern flashes come with a feature known as red-eye reduction. Red-eye is the name given to the phenomenon when a camera flash is reflected in the retina of someone in a photo. As this unfortunately tends to make your nearest and dearest appear like something out of a horror film, this feature is a good option to look out for.

---

Step 10:

Autofocus

Autofocus limits the risk of blurring objects and losing detail. Have a go with the camera and see how the autofocus works. 

On some cameras it can take longer to focus as the mechanism is slower - which is annoying if you want to catch a moment. With some models you can press the shutter release button halfway to get the focus ready before you take the shot. Check if the camera you want has this function

---

Step 11:

Storage

Digital cameras use memory cards to store images. The larger the memory on the card, the more you are likely to spend. Most cameras use Smart Media and Compact Flash memory cards, and these can be bought as an add-on.

---

Step 12:

Image transfer

Cameras come with a cable to link up to your computer which allows you to transfer the images. This is easy, but there are faster ways of doing it. 

A memory card reader is quicker, as is a flashpath device which lets you plug the memory card into your computer. Be aware that some computers come with memory card reading hardware already built in.

Software

Although images can be viewed on the camera itself, computer software enables you to edit and print your photos. Every camera comes with a software package for your computer. Follow the instructions to install. You may also want to invest in a new printer to print good quality photos at home.

You can report crimes happening in your surrounding on this site

Crime rates have increased this year and it has caused much nuisance endangering public and peace. I was involved in one last year, where I’ve nearly get mob by 2 Indians or could be 2 Bangladesh who plans to hack my car window whilst riding their motorcycle. I was around a road (currently the mob and snatch thieves are happily carrying out their skills) nearby my housing area driving to my destination, when I saw 2 individuals on a motorcycle looking suspicious talking to each other and pointing to both a car in front of mine, and mine. Luckily, I’ve managed to escape from this mishap, speeding like mad (as long as my car could handle it) and broke away from them. The most terrifying experience was to see one of them bring out a huge hammer where you use to hack down walls in constructions and chase after me.

This is so dangerous and it happened so nearby my housing area. I couldn’t imagine if any of my neighbour kids were running around freely playing somewhere nearby. What would happen to them? Kidnap for ransom?

Anyway, I’ve stumbled upon a site where you can report any crime to them via a helpdesk online. It’s call Crimes in Malaysia or CIM.

Googleburgers, looks good to eat?

It's an array of Krispy Kreme doughnut burgers at the Google cafeteria at the company's New York office. Looks good?





"-_-









or something from superstar Paula Deen?

Edward Skading with F&N Dairies (M) Sdn Bhd -lawsuit

This morning, I went into a blog I've always read but didn't visit for quite some time and stumbled on a topic he blogs about. He talks about a blog he stumbled upon.

Check it out here. (look at the photos too)
http://consumersrighteousness.blogspot.com

So, I've went in and check on it. I got to say this guy has the gut and time to fight for what he believes in where mostly Malaysian will just close one eye and move on.

This is taken from his blog on what he quote about his intention of his blog.

Welcome to my tiny rectitude space. My name is Edward Skading and I am a senior citizen of Malaysia. I am absolutely responsible for this open debate weblog and the subject contents are my personal opinions. All documents, letters and photos posted or pasted on my weblog are legitimate, factual and justifiable. It’s a truthful account of the events transpired between F&N Dairies (M) Sdn Bhd and me, pertaining to my consumer grievances on the contaminated Tea Pot Sweeten Condensed Milk, produced by F&N Dairies (M) Sdn Bhd. All transpired communications and correspondences between F&N Dairies (M) Sdn Bhd (management staffs, lawyers and consultants) and me are not or shall not be deemed private and confidential, although the words are printed on the documents. There is no privacy or non disclosure agreement established between F&N Dairies (M) Sdn Bhd (management staffs, lawyers and consultants) and me. Therefore, the documents, letters and photos are not restricted from generalised use. Also, there is no copyrights restriction on any of the contents. The only reason why this weblog was created is to hold an open (public) and transparent dialog/debate with F&N Dairies (M) Sdn Bhd's over my consumer grievances. The objective of this open debate weblog is to defend my integrity by exposing the truth based on facts, as well as to attain resolutions for my consumer grievances. This open debate weblog will be removed when the objective is met. The subject of this open debate weblog and whatever published in here are also on matters of public interest (especially to all people residing in Malaysia). I am also in a quest to seek accountability, reliability, transparency, efficiency, assurance, governance and thoughtfulness from the food producer, F&N Dairies (M) Sdn Bhd. The intent of this weblog is not to tarnish or damage the good standing and creditable image of F&N products and its organisations. During the dialog/debate, if F&N Dairies Sdn Bhd can prove with truthful facts of any incorrectness or inconsistency in this open debate weblog, I will immediately remove whatever deemed reasonably necessary. If you are a reader of this open debate weblog and happened to be a consumer or stakeholder of F&N products, please be informed that I am not hampering your opinion, support, belief and creditability over/about/for F&N products. Put it this way, “I am not influencing you to boycott F&N products. You are mature enough to have your own opinion”. Everyone has an opinion about something these days. While as a reader or contributor to this open debate weblog, it is fine for you to express an opinion or comment while this dialog/debate takes place, but please ensure what you write (say) are sincere and accurate remarks. I will not hesitate to remove any comments which are not accurate and true about/against F&N Dairies (M) Sdn Bhd or me. You must back up what you say. Thank you.

Will Google Adsense ban you for using Stumbleupon?

It is hard to believe that Stumbleupon can actually get AdSense account ban for invalid impression fraud!

Apparently, many bloggers that practised Stumbleupon experienced such a case with Google AdSense when they received an email telling them their account is banned. Why? It appears that, Google detects massive traffic source from stumbling would not have visitors clicking on the ads thus generates very low CTR, results in unintentionally making impression fraud.

Did anyone of you receive such email before? Perhaps it was caused by Stumbleupon that caused your accounts to get invalid ad impressions, since Google never tells you why you were banned anyway. I guess having too high CTR or too low CTR will be a problem to you.

I am new to the Stumbleupon function, thus I went to find a review of it before I tried stumbling. That’s when I came across a few articles reviewing about it with some horror Google stories behind. Creepy!

Excessive link exchanging offences Google Link Schemes?

I had just started on this blog recently and was trying hard to attract traffic to the site, as many as possible, by trying everything that can draw the traffic online.

Then, I came across a blog, who practise religiously on trying to get everyone to link back to him by dropping comments on other blogger’s site. Let say, if there is a list of 500 bloggers out there, apparently he commented on every one of their post and asked them to link to him! Until, a few of them asked him back wouldn’t this causes some AdSense frauds? What if AdSense Google smacks him?

Well, he did a great research on whether Google will find it as a fraud to have a sudden traffic on a new site within 2 weeks period or the asking for linking back to him. What he came by was the policy from Google about Link schemes and some 90% of his humble opinions.

1. Links intended to manipulate PageRank
2. Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
3. Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
4. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

Alright from the item 3, it applies directly to him….but, I think at that point of time he was not advertising any Google ads, thus the policy does not affects him. He is now advertising Google’s ads though, after he achieved the ‘almost Technorati top 100’ goal, I guess.

A good start up! Increase the traffic before getting the Ads-ball rolling. (why didn't I stumble upon him earlier?)

Then, he teaches us to install blogroll, another social networking to get more networking links, which in turn gain you traffics (without breaching Google’s policy I guess). Very good idea, indeed. In this case, we can think of using Purk or Twitter as well.

Do you go against this idea or you think it is possible without affecting the policy?

Top 100 Most Beautiful Places In The World

I was searching for beautiful places for my next holiday visit, and I came across one site that features Top 100 beautiful places in the world. I was surprised on the compilation and ran through the list myself. Check out the list below that I’ve took from the site (site compiled the list with photos of each place).

1. The Inca city of Machu Picchu, Peru
2. The Iguazu waterfalls, Argentina, Brazil
3. The Tadj Mahall, India
4. The pyramids and the sphinx, Egypt
5. The great canyon of Colorado, United States of America
6. Migrating animals in the Serengeti park, Tanzania
7. The Nabataea city of Petra, Jordania
8. The Great Wall, China
9. The Victoria waterfalls, Zimbabwe, Zambia
10. The great coral reef, Australia
11. The city of Angkor, Cambodia
12. The Amazonian virgin forest, Brazil - Peru
13. The Niagara waterfalls, Canada - United States of America
14. The salar of Uyuni, Bolivia
15. The Abu Simbel temple, Egypt
16. The Halong bay, Vietnam
17. The Bora-Bora island, French Polynesia
18. Pagan, the thousand pagodas plain, Myanmar
19. Sand dunes of the Sahar, Morocco - Mauritania - Mali - Algeria - Niger - Libya - Chad - Sudan - Egypt
20. Fjords and the Preikestolen cliff, Norway
21. The pre-Columbian pyramids of Teotihuacan, Mexico
22. The Ngorongoro crater, Tanzania
23. White immensity of Antarctica, north pole
24. Lunar scenery at the south of Altiplano and the colourful lagoons (Colorado and Verde), Bolivia
25. Mount Everest, Nepal - China
26. Bali island, Indonesia
27. Muslim fervour at Mecca, Saudi Arabia
28. Karstic peaks at Guilin, along the Li river, China
29. The Galapagos archipelago, Ecuador
30. The Perito Moreno glacier, Argentina
31. The blue mosque in front of Hagia Sofia, Turkey, Istanbul
32. The caves of Carlsbad, United States of America
33. The carnaval of Rio, Brazil
34. The rice terrace fields of Banaue, Philippines
35. Venice and its canals, Venice, Italia
36. The Cappadocia and the Goreme valley, Turkey
37. Moai statues of the Easter island, Chile
38. The Vatican and the Saint Peter’s basilica, The Vatican
39. Aerial view of Rio bay, Brazil
40. The Potala, dalai-lama’s palace, Tibet, China
41. The Maya city of Chichen Itza, Mexico
42. The Yellowstone national park, United States of America
43. The Piana rocky inlet and the Girolata gulf, France
44. The Coliseum, Italia, Rome
45. The limestone basins at Huanglong,
46. The Mezquita of Cordoba, Spain
47. The Giants’ Causeway, Northern Ireland
48. Milford sound and the Mitre peak, New Zealand
49. The Buddhistic temple of Borobudur, Indonesia
50. The Kilauea and the Hawaii volcanoes, States of America
51. The frescoes of the Sixtin church, Vatican, Rome
52. The Hassan II mosque, Morocco
53. Florence, the duomo and the ponte vecchio, Italia
54. The Acropolis and the Parthenon, Greece
55. The Registan at Samarkand, Uzbekistan
56. The Versailles castle, France
57. Big Ben and the Parliament Square, United Kingdom
58. The Meteors : monasteries built on rocky peaks, Greece
59. The Mont Saint-Michel, France
60. The royal palace and the Wat Phra Kaeo, the emerald buddha temple, Thailand
61. Hindu fervour at the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi, India
62. A Nil cruise between Luxor and Assuan, Egypt
63. The Eiffel tower, France
64. The colorful waters of the Jiuzhaigou river, China
65. The Kremlin and the Saint Basil the blest cathedral, Russia
66. The Komodo island, Indonesia
67. The Louvre museum, France
68. The Alhambra, Spain
69. The Canaima park and the Salto Angel waterfalls, Venezuela
70. The Aeolian islands and the Stromboli, Italia
71. The Plitvice park and its waterfalls, Croatia
72. The Neuschwanstein castle, Germany
73. The Reims cathedral, France
74. The Uluru giant monolith at Ayers Rock, Australia
75. The Baikal lake, Russia
76. The Wulingyuan rocky peaks, China
77. The Karnak temple, Egypt
78. The statue of Liberty and the Manhattan view, United States of America
79. The Sagrada Familia, Spain
80. The Meidan-e Imam at Ispahan, Iran
81. The city of Prague, Czech Republic
82. Giant sequoias, United States of America
83. The Tasmania island, Australia
84. Chorus of lights at Las Vegas, Etats-Unis
85. The pagoda of Shwedagon, Myanmar
86. The emperor Qin I’s mausoleum and his terracotta army, China
87. The city of Sydney and the opera house, Australia
88. Nightlife on the Djemaa Elfna square, Morocco
89. The Badshahi mosque at Lahore, Pakistan
90. The parliament of Budapest, Hungary
91. Baalbek, Lebanon
92. The forbidden city in Beijing, China
93. El Tajin, Mexico
94. The Burj al arab hotel, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates
95. Sigiriya, Sri Lanka
96. The mosque of Djenné, Mali
97. The golden gate bridge and the San Francisco bay, States of America
98. The Kennedy space center, United States of America
99. The Ermitage winter palace, : Russia
100. The PETRONAS towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Now tell me, if you have the money to travel but not rich, which one will you choose from the list to make a visit? The list above can be your guidance to select your next trip in Matta-fair.

for photos for each place -->> SITE