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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Google Maps on Android - Mapping the indoors

Google Maps for Android adds a new feature that will now not only show you where you are and help you find the directions outdoor on the street, it now also provides you where you might want to go when you're indoors. Yes, I repeat is indoors.


Announced in the Google LatLong blog,

When you’re inside an airport, shopping mall or retail store, a common way to figure out where you are is to look for a freestanding map directory or ask an employee for help. Starting today, with the release of Google Maps 6.0 for Android, that directory is brought to the palm of your hands, helping you determine where you are, what floor you're on, and where to go indoors.

Detailed floor plans automatically appear when you’re viewing the map and zoomed in on a building where indoor map data is available. The familiar “blue dot” icon indicates your location within several meters, and when you move up or down a level in a building with multiple floors, the interface will automatically update to display which floor you’re on. All this is achieved by using an approach similar to that of ‘My Location’ for outdoor spaces, but fine tuned for indoors.

For now, Google has partnered with some of the largest retailers, airports and transit stations in the U.S. and Japan, including:
  • Mall of America, IKEA, The Home Depot, select Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, Daimaru, Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi locations and more. Watch an IKEA demo here.
  • Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Narita International (NRT), among others.
  • JR and Tokyu Corporation

Click here to find the list of participating stores.

Demo showing navigating in an IKEA store


» A new frontier for Google Maps: mapping the indoors | Google LatLong

Monday, November 28, 2011

Burger King - 50 cents waffle cone - Limited time only

Burger King Singapore is now offering its waffle cone at only 50 cents, starting from today with no other terms and conditions.

This offer is a limited time offer.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

JaxtrSMS - Free Mobile Texting. Local And International

JaxtrSMS allows sending of free mobile texting messages to all in your address book whether they have the app or not. The feature of "whether they have the app or not" is going to put this mobile app an advantage over its peers.

The mobile app supports many platforms including

Black Friday Walmart, 24 Nov, No order

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Security Testing - ASP.NET Web Applications

The following are some of the tools (non-exhaustive) to conduct a "Security Test" on ASP.Net web applications. Do share with us the ones you are using too.

HTTP Proxying/Editing
  • Burp
    An intercepting proxy server for security testing of web applications. It operates as a man-in-the-middle between your browser and the target application

  • Web Proxy Editor
    A multithreaded fast proxy checking software. This software is able to support SOCKS4/SOCKS5/HTTP/HTTPS proxies.

  • Paros
    Through Paros's proxy nature, all HTTP and HTTPS data between server and client, including cookies and form fields, can be intercepted and modified.

  • WebScarab
    A framework for analysing applications that communicate using the HTTP and HTTPS protocols.

Security Scanners
  • Nessus
    Features high-speed discovery, configuration auditing, asset profiling, sensitive data discovery and vulnerability analysis of your security posture.

  • N-Stealth
    Provides checks to enhance the overall security of your web server infrastructure, using the most complete web attack signature database available in the market such as cross-site scripting.

  • Nikto/Wikto
    An Open Source (GPL) web server scanner which performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items, including over 6400 potentially dangerous files/CGIs, checks for outdated versions of over 1200 servers, and version specific problems on over 270 servers. It also checks for server configuration items such as the presence of multiple index files, HTTP server options, and will attempt to identify installed web servers and software.

  • HP WebInspect
    A web application security assessment software designed to thoroughly analyze today's complex web applications. It delivers fast scanning capabilities, broad assessment coverage and accurate web application scanning results.

Password Crackers
  • L0phtCrack
    A password auditing and recovery software, packed with powerful features such as scheduling, hash extraction from 64 bit Windows versions, multiprocessor algorithms, and networks monitoring and decoding.

  • RainbowCrack
    Crack hashes with rainbow tables.

Other Security Tools
  • SSLDigger
    A tool to assess the strength of SSL servers by testing the ciphers supported.

Performance Testing - ASP.NET Web Applications

The following are some of the tools (non-exhaustive) to conduct a "Performance Test" on ASP.Net web applications. Do share with us the ones you are using too.

  • Web Capacity Analysis Tool (WCAT)
    A lightweight HTTP load generation tool primarily designed to measure the performance of a web server within a controlled environment.

  • IIS Log Parser
    A powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data

  • NetStat
    A command-line tool that displays network connections (both incoming and outgoing), routing tables, and a number of network interface statistics.

  • Performance Monitor
    A simple yet powerful visualization tool for viewing performance data, both in real time and from log files.

  • Microsoft Network Monitor
    A protocol analyzer that allows you to capture network traffic, view and analyze it.

  • Redgate ANTS Performance Profiler
    A tool that provides .NET code profiling, integrated SQL and File I/O analysis, and powerful visualizations give you the most complete picture of your application's performance.

  • Fiddler
    A Web Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer and the Internet.

  • Firebug
    Integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse.

  • Google Page Speed
    Evaluates the performance of web pages and get suggestions on how to improve them.

  • Yahoo YSlow
    Analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

  • Visual Studio Team Foundation Test Suite
    An edition of Visual Studio that provides capabilities to perform various forms of testing.

Experts Exchange: A Different Kind of Community

Experts Exchange is a technology help site that's been online since 1996. This short video provides a look at what makes the community different.

How to get to Johor Premium Outlets (JPO)?

Located on a 18ha site, Johor Premium Outlets (JPO), a Iskandar Project, is scheduled for a soft launch opening on 2 December 2011. JPO, modelled after Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in the US, located in Johor Kulai area not too far off the Singapore-Johor Tuas Second Link, offers a huge collection of designer brands ranging from Armani Exchange to Zegna at big discounts.


Directions on how to get to Johor Premium Outlets (JPO) can be found here. In case you are lost, here is the GPS position: 1º 36’31” N 103º 37’59” E or key in "senai north toll" in your search bar of your GPS.

On Google Maps, the piece of land JPO is supposed to be on is still a barren ground (yet to be updated).

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Google Refine - Power tool for working with messy data

Google Refine is a power tool for working with messy data, cleaning it up, transforming it from one format into another, extending it with web services, and linking it to databases like Freebase. It comes as a desktop application and can run without Internet connectivity, hence, you can be rest assured that your sensitive data is kept in your local disk.



You are the Apple of my Eye【那些年,我們一起追的女孩】預告片

Pro-Israel NSF posts online criticism against Islam

Just when the young PAP (YPAP) member Jason Neo 'racist' online posting on his Facebook page stereotyping a bus load of young Malays as young terrorist trainees is still fresh in our mind, yet another similar case under the Sedition Act is reported - this time against a NSF by the name of Christian Eliab Ratnam.

Picture of Christian Eliab Ratnam. Source: The Sunday Times [via]

A Nov 20, 2011 post on The Sunday Times "NSF posts online picture of text criticising Islam"

The national serviceman, identified as Mr Christian Eliab Ratnam, had posted a picture of text claiming, among other more inflammatory things, that Islam is not a religion but 'an authoritarian, political doctrine which imposes itself by force'.

Mr Ratnam's Facebook account has since been deactivated. But an edited screenshot of his posting was put up on TOC on Friday evening. It drew swift condemnation of Mr Ratnam from netizens.

TOC later ran a statement from Mr Ratnam apologising for the posting. It stated that he was not affiliated with any group nor did he wish to cause disharmony.

This is the second such investigation in recent days. Last week, police commenced investigations into one Jason Neo for an offensive caption of a picture of Malay children in a schoolbus, which he put on Facebook.

Checks on the Internet found that Mr Ratnam appears to support pro-Israel and Jewish causes.

Screenshots and a cached version of his Facebook page showed an image of Israel's flag and the symbol for the Israel Defence Forces. He was also a member of a Facebook group for Israelis and Jews living in Singapore.

In a Facebook group called 'anti-feminist empire', Mr Ratnam made a posting that directed readers to another group, started by his wife.

Called 'Submissive and Obedient Wives (For G-d and Husband)', the Facebook group advocates that a wife submit, obey and revere her husband. It quotes extensively from the Bible and Torah.
Strong anti-Islamic sentiments on Facebook. Source: The Online Citizen [via]

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Delectable Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 on Samsung Nexus

Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone with the latest Android 4.0 or codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, has released its official video ad. The video ad is a simple showcase of all of the new features in Android 4.0, including NFC, panorama photos and face recognition.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus video ad


Camera and Panorama


Android Beam


Simple Multi-tasking


For more detailed review on the first impressions on Galaxy Nexus Android 4.0 smartphone, read here.

ThinkUp - Understand your social networks

ThinkUp is a free, open source web application that captures all your activity on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

With ThinkUp, you can store your social activity in a database that you control, making it easy to search, sort, analyze, publish and display activity from your network. All you need is a web server that can run a PHP application.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Young PAP Jason Neo racist comment

Young PAP (YPAP) member Jason Neo quits after being accused over 'racist' online posting. The religiously and racially offensive caption to a photograph which he uploaded on his Facebook page is shown below.

Source: The Online Citizen [via]

His caption said: 'Bus filled with young terrorist trainees?'. This posting, which was made in February before he joined the PAP, went viral recently. Will Jason Neo be charged?

» PAP Youth member quits over 'racist' online posting | AsiaOne

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Facebook brings back Recent Stories in News Feed

Facebook has finally brought back Recent Stories in News Feed after public outcry against recently launched Top Stories first.

This update allows you to choose from two options to organize your News Feed content: "Highlighted Stories First" or "Recent Stories First", with the former being the default option.


Recent Stories First: Stories will appear in the order they were posted. Highlighted stories will be marked with a blue corner.

Highlighted Stories First: Highlighted stories you haven't seen yet will appear at the top of your News Feed. (If you don't see highlighted stories, it's because there aren't any new highlighted stories since your last visit.)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Rick Perry reveals top 10 excuses for his mental lapse on The Late Show with David Letterman

2012 U.S. presidential candidate Rick Perry drew a massive blank Wednesday night during CNBC's “Your Money, Your Vote” GOP debate. On stage in Michigan, Perry attempted to rattle off three federal government agencies he would eliminate, but failed to remember number three: “Commerce, education and the … uh, um, what’s the third one there. Let’s see … ” The mental block lasted about 40 more seconds before Perry uttered, “Oops.”

His stumble was on YouTube here.

Then the same man Rick Perry himself appeared on Thursday night on The Late Show with David Letterman to poke fun at himself, jokingly firing off 10 excuses for why he flubbed his talking points during Wednesday's on-air GOP debate. This is indeed lame.

Rick Perry stumbles on agencies he would eliminate

2012 U.S. presidential candidate Rick Perry drew a massive blank Wednesday night during CNBC's “Your Money, Your Vote” GOP debate. On stage in Michigan, Perry attempted to rattle off three federal government agencies he would eliminate, but failed to remember number three: “Commerce, education and the … uh, um, what’s the third one there. Let’s see … ” The mental block lasted about 40 more seconds before Perry uttered, “Oops.”

Thursday, November 10, 2011

How to add Google+ badge on your website?

Read this https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/

Adobe officially cease support of Flash on mobile devices

Following report from ZDNet revealing high possibility of Adobe announcing cessation of their Flash player support on mobile devices, Adobe made an official announcement on its blog to confirm the rumour.

However, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers.

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook. We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations. We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations.

» Flash to Focus on PC Browsing and Mobile Apps; Adobe to More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5 | Adobe Blog

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Adobe to cease support of Flash on mobile devices

ZDNet reported sources close to Adobe that the latter will cease development of Flash on mobile browser, shifting its focus on HTML5 instead.

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.

This is a blow to Android since Flash support is seen as an advantage over Apple iOS devices. Steve Jobs refusal on bringing Flash to iOS devices is due to it being unreliable, insecure and slow to be used on mobile devices. So, the late Apple wizard is right after all.

» Exclusive: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5 | ZDNet

A Look At Google+ Direct Connect For Google+ Pages

Along with the big announcement of Google+ pages yesterday, a search-specific feature called “Google+ Direct Connect” was also announced. The Google+ Direct Connect functionality will help to give Google+ pages more visibility in the search engine results pages when custom operators are used.

Read more here.

Foreign workers gawk openly and shoot videos of bikini girls at Sentosa

As seen on Stomp, foreign workers were seen gawking openly, staring at bikini-clad women on Sentosa beach at close range. Some were even caught taking videos using their mobiles. Is Sentosa becoming a circus? This is really negative to Singapore image.





Foreign workers free show at suntan beach-goers in Sentosa


More photos from Stomp here.

Foreign workers seem to be swarming to Sentosa to stare at bikini-clad women on the beach.

A netizen "Cheryl" related to the Stomp website a recent experience with this phenomenon.

When Cheryl was at the beach on Sunday, 6 November, she witnessed a large number of what appear to be foreign workers ogling at three Caucasian women.

The three women, sun-tanning in bikinis, eventually left with disgusted looks on their faces.

According to Cheryl, locals now refrain from going to the Sentosa beach as large swarms of foreign workers are turning up there every Sunday.

The men are said to gather around the beach and ogle shamelessly at the bikini-clad women in the area, making them very uncomfortable.

One time, Cheryl and her friends, clad in bikinis, were taking photos at the beach when they were suddenly surrounded by many foreign workers. The men sat and stood around the group of women, then began using their phones to film them.

Recalling the incident, Cheryl says that she and her friends had felt like circus performers to be ogled so openly by the men.

They are disgusted that this is happening in Singapore, and she believes that such a phenomenon will form a bad image for tourists when they use the beach.

» Beach-goers harassed by foreign workers? | inSing.com

Monday, November 07, 2011

Compare Water Filters

As published here. See the price jump for Amway's E-Spring.

  Aquasana Culligan Brita Seagull Everpure AquaPure Amway
Model No. AQ-4000 SY-2500 On Tap IV – X-1 WFA12 / S54 AP8000 E-Spring
Retail Price $179 $699 $48.40 $900.25 $499 $347.45 $1336.65
Repl

cost/ capacity
$70/

2000 lt
$165/

4500 lt
$27.50/

380 lt
$165/

4000 lt
$114.50/

2835 lt
$108.90/ 4000 lt $359.25/

5000 lt
Per Ltr Cost/Use 3 cents 4 cents 7 cents 4 cents 4 cents 3 cents 7 cents
Removal Chlorine >99% 97% 99% 99.99% 97% >95% 98.90%
Removal Lead >99% 99% 99% 99.99% 97% no data 99%
Removal Mercury >90% 99% >90% 99.99% no data no data no data
Removal Cysts 99.99% >99.95% 99.99% 99.99% >99% >99.9% 99.95%
Removal TTHMs >99% >95% No 99.99% no data no data >99%
Removal VOCs >99% >95% No 99.99% no data no data 99.8%
Removal Lindane >99% 99% 99% 99.99% no data no data >99%
Removal Alachlor >98% 98% no data 99.99% no data no data >99.4%
Removal Atrazine >97% 97% 92% 99.99% no data no data 88.8%
Removal Benzene >99% 99% no data 99.99% no data no data >96.5%
Removal TCE >99% 99% 99.8% 99.99% no data no data >99.8%
Removal MTBE >97% 90% no data 99.99% no data no data >96.6%
Removal Fluoride 40-60% No No No No No No
Undersink system Yes – optional Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes – optional

Michelle Chong 《一泡而红》 Already Famous Movie Trailer

SMRT CEO continues to raise netizens' ire

Amidst so many people complaining the unbearable over crowded trains, notably increase numbers of train faults and delays, feel of a drop in service level, and all of these when transport fares are actually rising, the SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa actuallly spoke to the media "I don't see anything significant in the number of disruptions and delays".

Is she trying to tell us all these disruptions and delays are acceptable and planned? We commuters shouldn't be making a fuss out of these and just move on with our lives? Such tactless remarks came from a CEO level executive is all the more disappointing. Has she ever even tried taking a train herself?

Very disappointing even from a shareholder's perspective.

» SMRT continues to raise netizens' ire | inSing.com

Firefox 8 officially available tomorrow on 8 Nov

Firefox 8 will be officially made available on Mozilla's site on November 8th, but technology blog GHacks discovered that the Firefox 8.0 final version is already available for download for Windows, Mac, and Linux on Mozilla's FTP servers.


Firefox 8.0 is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux from Mozilla's FTP server at the link here: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/8.0/

Sunday, November 06, 2011

SiMi Clock Widget - Excellent, Neat, Clean, Minimalist

SiMi Clock Widget is a simple minimal Clock Widget for Android devices.

Some screenshots:


Download SiMi Clock Widget now at Android Market.

Google launches "How to Go Mobile" site to help businesses

Google has launched an initiative called “GoMo” Tuesday that aims to help businesses go mobile. Google formally launched a mobile site development portal dubbed HowToGoMo. It is a place where you’ll find the resources you need to learn about what makes a good mobile site and to start building one.

Here's what you'll find at howtogomo.com:
  • See what your customers see:
    Enter a website address into the GoMoMeter and see what your site looks like on a mobile phone. The GoMoMeter will analyze your site and give you customized recommendations on how to make your site more mobile friendly. You can even download a free customized report!

  • Learn about why mobile matters:
    Cool infographics and the latest data will help you learn more about mobile trends and why mobile-friendly sites really matter.

  • Get inspired by great examples:
    Look at the mobile sites of businesses who are doing it right and learn how to make your site better with our ten mobile site best practices.

  • Find a mobile site builder who can help:
    Check out our list of mobile site developers who can help you build your mobile website.

Google has included an animated video in its blog post to explain what it’s up to:


» GoMo: Helping businesses create a mobile friendly website | Google Mobile Ads Blog

Saturday, November 05, 2011

4 ways to do Mail Merge using Google Apps Script

Interesting article on the use of Google Apps Script to do mail merge.

Google Analytics Social Interaction Analytics - Integration with ShareThis and AddThis

Last week, the Google Analytics team announced an official integration with social sharing services ShareThis and AddThis.


To enable the integration for all of your AddThis buttons, you are now just one line of code away, and ShareThis users don’t have to do a thing. If you have Google Analytics installed, and you are using a ShareThis widget, simply login into Google Analytics and check out your new social reports!


Using this latest Social Interaction Analytics, you don't even have to write _trackSocial hooks.

» Optimize Engagement using AddThis and ShareThis with Analytics | Google Analytics Blog

Remembering the 80s

An interesting post - 100 Things We Love About The 80s.

Order Kopi like a professional by knowing the linguistics

Ever wonder what does kopi o, kopi siew dai and kopi kosong mean? The following image will bring you through a comprehensive tour the meaning of all its permutations.


Google integrates YouTube into Google+

Google announced the integration of YouTube into Google+.

Already, users are able to share YouTube videos on Google+ right in YouTube, however, the functionality is now integrated right in Google+. Google+ users will now see a small YouTube tab at the right hand side of their screen now when logged in just like the following.

YouTube icon on Google+

It's no secret that YouTube is filled with tons of great content (from inspiring speeches to music videos to honey badgers). We wanted to bring YouTube directly into Google+—as well as make it easier to watch and share your favorites—so we're launching a YouTube "slider" in the stream.

How does it works:
  • Mouse over the new YouTube icon at the top right of Google+
  • It'll slide out and ask, "What would you like to play"?
  • Enter whatever you're in the mood for (like a topic or a musical artist)

Search on YouTube in Google+

YouTube's Google+ video player showing playlist

In the video playlist, you can +1 a video you like or share it with your circles. Even if the video playlist window is minimized it is still possible to pause a video or skip to the next video directly from Google+.

Playback control

» Shipping the Google in Google+ | Official Google Blog

Android Fragmentation

I hope the guys from the Android team do something on the fragmentation of Android devices.

Source: PC Magazine [via]

Bill Gates, not Steve Jobs, is the real hero

Steve Jobs was a great CEO, but Bill Gates has moved beyond technology and is trying to save the world. Why isn't he getting more recognition?

I'm not sure about the "idolize" part. But it certainly is time to acknowledge that devoting billions of dollars of his own money in an attempt to cure malaria and other diseases that plague the developing world is at least as important as inventing the iPad. OK. I'll stop being coy. It's more important. That doesn't make Jobs any the lesser. It's simply a matter of values and perspective.

» Bill Gates, not Steve Jobs, is the real hero | InfoWorld

Idolize Bill Gates, Not Steve Jobs

Both leaders are highly admirable, but Gates used his talents in ways that stretch further beyond the business world, says Harvard scholar Maxwell Wessel.

Since 1994, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation amassed an endowment of over $31 billion in funds to fight the world’s most difficult issues. But it hasn’t merely accumulated funds, the foundation has already given away over $25 billion. Those aren’t trivial numbers. In seventeen years, the foundation has raised and given away more than one-tenth of Apple’s extraordinary market capitalization. While the developed world takes things like clean water, basic healthcare, and the availability of food for granted — there are billions of human beings that don’t have such fundamental resources.

» Idolize Bill Gates, Not Steve Jobs | Bloomberg Businessweek

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Gmail new design interface

Gmail has started rolling out it new design to all users, after releasing a sneak preview on it about 2 weeks ago. If you have seen the preview, you shouldn't be surprised at the roll out.

New features
  • Modern look
  • New themes
  • Clean conversations
  • Improved search
  • More control
  • And much more


» Gmail’s new look | Official Gmail Blog

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Google Reader rolls out new Google+ design

Google Reader finally spot a new design that is close to Google+.


This new design looks neat and clean and spot the “Like” button replaced with the +1 button, allowing users to share content to their Google+ accounts. It would have been better if there is a way to keep articles denser just like what Google Docs have (ability to set density to Comfortable, Cozy, Compact).

» New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing | Official Google Reader Blog

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