Hmmmm .... random stuff, stuff i found, cool stuff, funny stuff, lame stuff, stuff lah! ... boing boing boing!
Here's what they do.
People use search engines billions of times a month. When they look for
something related to your offerings, Pinstorm make sure you’re found. In
simple words, we connect your prospects to you.
Yahoo Inc.'s progress in launching a new Internet ad sales system could be a turning point for its shares as investors bet on faster revenue growth, analysts said on Wednesday.
Yahoo shares rose 8 percent on Wednesday and lifted rival Internet sector companies after it said its new system, dubbed Panama, would be fully introduced in the United States as of February 5, about a month ahead of Wall Street expectations.
The ad system brings Yahoo in closer league with Web search leader Google Inc. , honing the technology that allows advertisers to pay for search terms based on their popularity.
Panama also helps advertisers target the ads sent to specific audiences on the Web or rotate ads based on their effectiveness, capabilities Google has offered for several years.
"Yahoo has not executed as well as Google, has not had as strong a software platform for advertising, but they're still a very strong No. 2 player and that's worth something," said Global Crown Capital analyst Martin Pyykkonen.
"I'm not forecasting any kind of wholesale shift here, that all of a sudden Google is going to fall by the wayside ... but I do think they (Yahoo) will narrow the gap," said Pyykkonen, who rates both company shares "overweight."
If Panama gained momentum, Yahoo's revenue growth could rise to a high-teens to low-20s percentage rate by the end of 2007, Pyykkonen said. That would outpace Yahoo's own forecasts for full year growth, issued on Tuesday -- which fell below average Wall Street estimates.
A legal fund will be set up soon as a means to provide financial assistance for bloggers who face legal action such as the defamation suits taken by the New Straits Times Press (M) Sdn Bhd (NSTP) against bloggers Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan.
Speaking at a press conference held by the Centre of Independent Journalism (CIJ) here, Ooi said the legal fund, an initiative by fellow bloggers, will be managed by those with a good reputation.
“The proceeds would not only be used to protect bloggers against suits but also to provide training workshops in the field of investigative journalism for bloggers – subject to the approval of the trustees.”
According to Ahirudin, possible trustees for the fund include the former Prime Minister’s daughter Marina Mahathir and former NSTP group editor-in-chief A. Kadir Jasin.
On Thursday, the court is to hear an inter-parte application for an injunction on Ahirudin, while Ooi’s inter-parte application hearing will be on Jan 30.
The Prime Minister said these laws were enforceable and bloggers must bear in mind that they could not hide or take advantage of the Internet to do something that was against the law.
“They cannot hope to cover themselves or hide from the laws,” he told Malaysian journalists at the end of his three-day working visit here yesterday.
He said bloggers, just like newspaper journalists, must be responsible for what they wrote or risk facing legal action from others.
Abdullah was commenting on the legal action against bloggers Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan by the New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP), its deputy chairman Datuk Kali-mullah Masheerul Hassan, Group Editor in Chief Datuk Hishamuddin Aun and former Group Editor Brenden John Pereira.
He raised the question of “what was freedom without responsibility,” saying that laws must be respected.
On the lack of proficiency in English among teachers and lecturers, he said there was a need to improve the curriculum and methods to teach English in schools.
He added that Malaysians must understand that English was an international language.
Abdullah was responding to questions from journalists on the declining standard of English in Malaysian schools and universities.
Earlier, Abdullah told Malaysian students at the London School of Economics of the need for Malaysia to be competitive, pointing out the paces already made by the Chinese and India.
Malaysians have been asked to develop their websites on local web hosts instead of foreign counterparts, to avoid having to face disruption in Internet service such as the one experienced by many after the Dec 26 earthquake in Taiwan.
Internet service provider (ISP) Telekom Malaysia (TM) business chief executive officer Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said the recent incident showed a considerable number of local sites were not hosted locally and were thus affected by the disruption in international telecommunication links.
“Malaysia has more than sufficient capacity for web hosting services and it would be timely for us to collectively have a change of mindset with regard to our local capabilities in hosting Malaysian content.
“I would like to encourage all organisations and individuals to host their websites locally not only to leverage on the country’s strong infrastructure for hosting services but also to be more self-reliant to ensure that disasters like this do not have such impact on them,” he said in a Jan 5 statement.
Zamzamzairani said this would be in line with the purpose of the Malaysia Internet Exchange to improve domestic traffic and keep it within the country.
The earthquake had damaged international telecommunication cables, thus cutting off telecommunication services between Malaysia and Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the US.
In the statement,TM said the 7.1-magnitude earthquake off Taiwan resulted in a major breakdown of five cable systems, including Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2).
“All these cable systems route the country’s Internet traffic, with the bulk of it going through APCN2 (submarine cable fault between Shantou, China and Tanshui, Taiwan and between Lantau, Hongkong and Chongming, China which route the main bulk of Internet traffic for Malaysia),” it said.
Traffic had to be re-routed through Europe and China to the United States,with the assistance of TM partner carriers in Europe, China, Hongkong and Japan.
Clive Chen, 23, a freelance web developer for businesses and individuals, said most of his local clients preferred Malaysian web hosts such as the Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems (Mimos).
“This is because local web hosts are ‘closer’ and hence, faster (bandwidth) whereas if they choose host websites from say,the US,they would have to go through a ‘further’ distance which inevitably has more activity and traffic in between,” he said.
Even so, there are others like blogger Kenny Sia, 24, who opted for international hosting.
“Cost is a major factor for sure, when it comes to choosing a web host. International ones give you five times more storage space and bandwidth for the same price,” he said.
Privacy is another concern. While both local and international web hosts can hack into the e-mail accounts of their customers, it is less likely to happen on an international web host, Sia said.
“As for the fear of services being disrupted during instances such as earthquakes, I don’t think it’s a problem for me. After all, earthquakes don’t happen everyday,” he added.
Sia spends US$5 (RM17.74) a month for 55GB of storage space despite the two-second ping (response) time.
Localhosts can be slightly faster – 33-millisecond ping time – but usually at a higher price.
Local ISP TM Offers a promotional price fo RM988 a year for 1,000 MB of space.
This is a summary of my trip to Bangkok for the Revenue Management Conference (organized by Eye for Travel). Click on the links below ... to view the individual POSTS.
Day 2
Day3
[L to R : Matthew (previously Westin KL, now in Wynn Macau), Judith (Le Meridien KL), Peter (Ritz Carlton KL) and me ]
We also met folks from Equatorial - Ricky Ang (worked with him during my Rasa Sayang days) and Avil. And there was Chris from Berjaya Hotels & Resorts too!
Now... tell me which hotel you know in Malaysia provides you Mangosteen in your room in a Fruit Plate!! I tell you the Oriental Bangkok sure knows how to anticipate your needs.
Oh yeah, I was totally delighted when walking around Siam Paragon, i discovered my favourite overseas restaurant .... Tony Roma's!! So so cool!
When i walked through the Lobby of the Pan Pacific Bangkok, the doorman ushered me to an elevator that brought me up to the 21st Floor.
This is a shot of only 1/3 of the entire Verandah that faces the CHao Phraya river.
The Breakfast spread was good. 
The Oriental Bangkok's lobby is beautiful. Its not the High Tech type of a hotel. Its a nice colonial type of hotel. With a history going back more than a hundred years. 
Went over to Sala Rim Naam. Such a beautiful restaurant that serves Authenthic Thai Food. They also have a Thai Cultural Dance show each nite.
The tables & chair is unique. Cos when you seat down, your legs actually goes beneath the table. Pretty cool huh. Hope u can see it in the pic above, cos the ambience was quite dark.
We also went over to the Mandarin Oriental Spa. It was a beautiful SPA with 14 rooms and loads of cool spa stuff!!
Its amazing that The Oriental Bangkok has this cool Shuttle Boat that crosses the Chao Phraya River. The Oriental Hotel has a building opposite the river with the Spa, Restaurants and a Cooking Class and Fitness Centre.
And this Free Shuttle Boat also brings all guests to the Sky Train. So its a pretty cool transport by the hotel. I love the Oriental Bangkok!
[tags : delephant fun stuff]
So off i went on this Walking Journey. (Bear in mind in KL ... i would drive to everywhere and not walk one metre). So here i was holding a tourist map and walking from the Pan Pacific hotel heading towards the Suan Lam Night Baazar.
When waiting for my boat journey, i asked one of the people there how far is Suan Lam from the Pan Pacific hotel. He said... its very close ... only 300 metres.
Looking at the Tourist Map (and we all know that Tourist Maps are not drawn to any particular scale) Everything either looks to close together. So off i started walking on the side pavement of RAMA IV Road heading towards where Suan Lam was drawn on the map.
I think it was more of a 3 Kilometre walk than a 300 metre walk (Mebbe in Thai 1 Metre is 1 Kilometre). Anyway ..... after walking a bit, i tend to realize that the road was very dark, and that i dont see any tourists or worse yet any lights.
Mind u, i was still walkikng next to the Rama IV Road, the road was congested, with cars horning, carbon gas and a smelly lake on my left which i think could be thicker than jello; which gave off a weird smell.
Hmmm .... this ain't touristy at all! I am sure Bangkok Tourist Office would have done something better.
I stopped, rechecked my map .... and sure enough, the Circle areas by the Concierge was ahead. Just after the Lumphani Park.
Okies..... since i have already flown all the way to Bangkok .... I turned back to see if i could still see the Pan Pacific Hotel.... no where to be found. Hmmmm.... 300 metres he says .... hmmm
I braved it... and walked on a bit ..... and then suddenly at the corner of the Lumphani Park, on the left ... i saw the EYE of Thailand!! (just like our EYE back in KL)
CIVILIZATION!! Thank GOD!!!
Finnally, so many mat sallehs and tourists and people, and MUSIC ... (yes prior to that was only car honks). So i turned left and walked in into the Suan Lam Night Bazaar.
Okies... i ended up not buying anything. Lots of things for sale ... lots of tourist stuff. Things we can find in Petaling Street i guess. So walked around.
The above picture is the inside arch of the Suan Lam Night Bazaar.
Hmmm .... lots of makan and beer gardens.
So after making a round ... with me legs super sore (cos i walked 300 metres!) ....
I headed home to my lovely Oriental Bangkok!! Can't wait to soak my legs in the Bathub!
[tags : delephant fun stuff]
When i arrived at the Oriental Bangkok, i was greeted by many people. 
The Link : http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/dclient/d/img/ostrich_liam.gif
