MP Penny Low caught fiddling with phone in the midst of National Anthem

Okay, PAP MP Penny Low was caught fiddling with her phone in the midst of the National Anthem during the National Day Parade 2011. But then does this warrant a big hoo-ha? I don't think we should be making a mountain out of a molehill.

Twitter allows image uploading now

Micro blogging site, Twitter, has finally allowed the ability to upload an image right from its Twitter page, without having to use alternatives like Twitpic, etc.

Learn more on image uploading on Twitter here.

Riots in Tottenham and London

The country has gone crazy. There are looters going around shopping areas smashing windows and stealing. They are setting fire to cars and buildings. They shut down stratford today. This is where all of the Olympic buildings are. It is mostly young people now just causing trouble.

How it started? A man was shot by the police on Thursday in Tottenham. It has gone to the Independent Commission for investigation. They said he had a gun and shot at the police and then he got shot. Others say he didn't and it became a bit of a race issue. However, the riots started out of a peaceful demonstration by his family and friends outside of the police station because they weren't getting any answers. They weren't involved and have separated themselves from the violence. That is it. It just moved around London for no reason. They are blaming the economy/police/racism etc. But the bottom line is that large groups of youths are moving around rioting and doing all this!

» Tottenham riots: a peaceful protest, then suddenly all hell broke loose | Guardian News
» London riots: Timeline and map of violence | BBC News

FREE Starhub TV viewing from 8 Aug 9am - 10 Aug 7am

StarHub celebrates 46th National Day with 46 hours of free viewing from 8 August, 9am to 10 August, 7am. Enjoy more than 130 channels on StarHub TV and all 32 channels on StarHub TV on Mobile.

Free Admission to Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari and Singapore Zoo on National Day

In celebration to Singapore 46th birthday, Wildlife Reserves Singapore has decided to share the joy to all on this joyous Aug 9. Admission to Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari and Singapore Zoo shall be FREE for all August babies born or residing in Singapore.

» Happy 46th Birthday! | Singapore Zoo

WEEKLY ADDRESS: Creating Jobs and Getting All Americans Back to Work

President Obama outlines a number of steps that can be taken right away to create jobs and help grow the economy.

The transcript of Obama's weekly address can be found here.

WEEKLY ADDRESS: Creating Jobs and Getting All Americans Back to Work

WASHINGTON—In this week’s address, President Obama called on Democrats and Republicans to work together to grow the economy and get Americans back to work. The President has outlined a number of steps Congress can take right now to spur growth and create jobs, including extending tax cuts for working and middle class families, cutting red tape to encourage new businesses to grow and hire, passing trade deals that will support tens of thousands of jobs, and giving our out-of-work construction workers opportunities to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Washington, DC

This week, Congress reached an agreement that’s going to allow us to make some progress in reducing our nation’s budget deficit. And through this compromise, both parties are going to have to work together on a larger plan to get our nation’s finances in order. That’s important. We’ve got to make sure that Washington lives within its means, just like families do. In the long term, the health of our economy depends on it.

But in the short term, our urgent mission has to be getting this economy growing faster and creating jobs. That’s what’s on people’s minds; that’s what matters to families in this country. And the fact is, this has been a tumultuous year for the economy. We’ve weathered the Arab Spring’s effect on oil and gas prices. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami’s effect on supply chains. The economic situation in Europe. And in Washington, there was a contentious debate over our nation’s budget that nearly dragged our country into financial crisis.

So our job right now has to be doing whatever we can to help folks find work; to help create the climate where a business can put up that job listing; where incomes are rising again for people. We’ve got to rebuild this economy and the sense of security that middle class has felt slipping away for years. And while deficit reduction has to be part of our economic strategy, it’s not the only thing we have to do.

We need Democrats and Republicans to work together to help grow this economy. We’ve got to put politics aside to get some things done. That’s what the American people expect of us. And there are a number of steps that Congress can take right away, when they return in September.

We need to extend tax cuts for working and middle class families so you have more money in your paychecks next year. That would help millions of people to make ends meet. And that extra money for expenses means businesses will have more customers, and will be in a better position to hire.

Yesterday, I proposed a new tax credit for companies that hire veterans who are looking for work after serving their country. We’ve got a lot of honorable and skilled people returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and companies that could benefit from their abilities. Let’s put them together.

We need to make sure that millions of workers who are still pounding the pavement looking for jobs are not denied unemployment benefits to carry them through hard times.

We’ve got to cut the red tape that stops too many inventors and entrepreneurs from quickly turning new ideas into thriving businesses – which holds back our whole economy.

It’s time Congress finally passed a set of trade deals that would help displaced workers looking for new jobs, and that would allow our businesses to sell more products in countries in Asia and South America – products stamped with three words: Made in America.

And we ought to give more opportunities to all those construction workers who lost their jobs when the housing boom went bust. We could put them to work right now, by giving loans to companies that want to repair our roads and bridges and airports, helping to rebuild America.

Those are a few commonsense steps that would help the economy. And these are ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans in the past. So I’m going to keep calling on both parties in Congress to put aside their differences and send these bills to my desk so I can sign them right away. After all, both parties share power. Both parties share responsibility for our progress. Moving our economy and our country forward is not a Democratic or a Republican responsibility; it is our responsibility as Americans.

That’s the spirit we need in Washington right now. That’s how we’ll get this economy growing faster and reach a brighter day.

Thanks for listening, and have a great weekend.

Dr Tan Cheng Bock adopts a dog from SPCA

The race is on! Will we see the rest of the President hopeful adopting cats and dogs from SPCA soon? Creative publicity campaign.

Potential President hopeful aspirants - Why to be next President?

Double Dip Recession or Depression?

Double Dip Recession or Depression? Peter Schiff, the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital says Depression. This follows the recent debt ceiling increase in U.S. and debt issues in Euro Zone.

» Double Dip Recession? More Like Depression Says Peter Schiff | Yahoo! Finance

Dr Tan Cheng Bock video on his National Service (NS) experience

Dr Tan Cheng Bock came forward telling his own unhappy and unfair National Service (NS) experience.

Burger King Lunch $avers - $4.50 per meal

For the first time ever, there are seven BK Lunch $avers ready to fill your tank for each day of the week and available for the mere price of $4.50 from 11:30am – 3pm.

Speedy Instant Pages on Google Chrome

The latest stable release of Google Chrome now comes with Instant Pages enabled by default. When you click on a search result on Google, the page will appear to load faster.

In the following video below, Google has demonstrated the speed difference between one with Instant Pages enabled and the other without it enabled.

On top of the Instant Pages feature, latest Chrome also comes with a print preview feature along with a built-in PDF viewer and an easy option to print to PDF. I personally feel this print preview feature very useful.

» Instant Pages on Google Chrome | Google Chrome Blog

Samsung Galaxy Tab advertisements challenge iPad

Samsung Galaxy Tab new advertisements challenge iPad in the area of being "Faster", "Thinner" and "Lighter".

Faster

Now Even Faster. Make buffering a relic of the past, with the Samsung Galaxy Tab's lightning fast processors handling even the largest of video files with ease. So next time a wayward toddler threatens to erupt, save yourself the embarrassment of a restaurant tantrum and see the Samsung Galaxy Tab's performance for yourself.

Thinner

Thinner Than Ever Before. 8.6mm is not a lot of space to work with even in the best of conditions, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab does what other tablets can only dream of, twice as fast, in the sleek design you've come to expect of all Samsung Galaxy Tabs. Just remember to keep a pencil handy if prying hands are to be kept at bay.

Lighter

Lighter. Weighing in at a dainty 565 grams, The Samsung Galaxy Tab is as light and portable as they come. Whether you're late for an important meeting or just carrying it around town, the Samsung Galazy Tab will feel like it's not even there -- and you'll never get fired again. Now find us another tablet which can promise that.

Cross post Google+ posts to Twitter

About 2 weeks ago, I posted an article on using Agent G to do cross post from Google+ to Facebook and Twitter and updating Facebook from Google+ without extension. There is now yet another method to cross post from Google+ to Twitter but this time using ManageFlitter.

All ManageFlitter needs is you providing them with your Google+ profile URL and allowing Twitter account access. There is no need to include anyone agent/bot into a circle when making a post; what's needed is to make a post to Public (I see this as a limitation). The tool also provides an option to cross post only if #twt hashtag is included. Though ManageFlitter only does cross post to Twitter, there is always a workaround to get it to Facebook by using Selective Tweets but this means wasting yet another few characters in the limited 140 characters Twitter message space.

Related Readings:

• Publish Sync - Cross post Google+, Facebook, Twitter posts
• Agent G: Cross post from Google+ to Facebook and Twitter
• Update Facebook from Google+ without extension

Google +1 buttons to be 3 times faster

An update on the +1 button is going to make sharing 3 times faster.

First, we’ve begun to roll out out a set of changes that will make the button render up to 3x faster on your site. No action is required on your part, so just sit back, relax, and watch as the button loads more quickly than before.

In addition to the improvements made to the button, we’re also introducing a new asynchronous snippet, allowing you to make the +1 experience even faster. The async snippet allows your web page to continue loading while your browser downloads the +1 JavaScript. By loading these elements in parallel, we’re ensuring the HTTP request to get the +1 button JavaScript doesn’t lead to an increase in your page load time. For those of you who have already implemented the button, you’ll need to update the code to the new async snippet, and then you should see an overall improvement in your page load time.

To generate the new async snippet, simply visit the +1 Configuration Tool.

» The +1 Button: Now Faster | Google Webmaster Central Blog

Should you be buying Google +1's?

Soon after Plussems started selling Google +1's, many went into buying Google +1's. The question on should we be buying Google +1's soon come into the picture.

In my opinion, I feel buying them is not advisable because seeing hundreds of +1s a week but none the next is not going to help.

Buy Google Plus 1's

Like that also can?!?!

A new search engine optimization firm called Plussems is offering package deals on Google +1 button clicks. Plussems, which is owned by SEOShop.biz, is selling 50 clicks for $19.99, 250 clicks for $69.99, and 2,000 clicks for $359.99.

According to Plussems,

1. All +1′s come from people with a google account that has been verified by phone (Phone Verified Accounts)
2. All +1′s come from real people. No bots are being used!
3. All +1′s are being given by manually going to your website and clicking the +1 button
4. It’s untraceble because the +1′s are being given from different IP’s
5. All +1′s are given dripped over a couple of days so it looks natural

Microsoft creates "Gmail Man" to encourage moving from Gmail to Office 365

Microsoft created a character called the "Gmail Man", acting as a postman who reads people's mails and does not care about privacy in a purpose to coming out with targeted ads. This is an attempt to convince businesses to choose Office 365 instead of Google Apps. Google moving in on its rival's turf as it picks up enterprise email business with Gmail at the expense of Microsoft Exchange must have got the Redmond crew "hot".

This video could be a response to Gmail's Email Intervention campaign.

Facebook for Business

Facebook launched a new microsite to educate how Facebook can be used to improve a business. Do visit Facebook for Business if you are looking to extend your business coverage.

Gmail Email Intervention - Getting your friends to move to Gmail

Google Gmail has staged a marketing campaign on its Gmail - Email Intervention, trying to move users from other platforms e.g. Microsoft Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail to Google Gmail.

Email Intervention provides 3 email templates that can be used as the email body for the intervention email blaster.

1. Straightforward: I'm here to help

I’m writing this note in order to help you. I know you’re still comfortable with your old email program, but I’d like to invite you to try Gmail -- I’m pretty sure you’ll like it better. Gmail has world-renowned spam protection and innovative features that help you filter your mail, get to important messages more quickly, and search your entire mail history in seconds. You can even do cool stuff like video chat or call phones directly from your inbox.

All you have to do is have the courage to make the change, and I’m here to help. Are you ready?

2. Concerned: I'm worried about you

I’ve been your friend for a long time, so please know that when I say this, I am saying it from the heart.

I’m worried about you. Year after year goes by and you’re still using that outdated email program. I can’t sit idly by and watch how this is affecting you and those around you, so I’m staging an email intervention and I’m committed to helping you make the switch to Gmail.

Think about it: is there any good reason not to enjoy superior spam protection, instant search, nested conversations and cool stuff like video chat or the ability to call phones directly from your inbox?

So I say to you, bluntly but lovingly: I realize change can be scary, but it’s time to switch to Gmail. Do it for me, do it for everyone else in your life, but most importantly, do it for yourself.

I believe in you.

3. Outraged: You're embarrassing me

If you had something stuck between your teeth or tissue paper stuck to your shoe, you’d want me to tell you, right? Well, today I have to speak candidly to you about something even more embarrassing: your email address.

Yeah, I said it. It’s time to give up that email service you got when you first discovered the Internet and make the switch to Gmail.

I mean, think about it. Everyone else has tons of storage, instant search, nested conversations, even cool tools like video chat and the ability to call phones directly from your inbox.

Everyone but you, that is.

Seriously. I’m sorry its come to this, but you’ve left me no choice but to stage an intervention. Trust me, I’m doing you a favor. You don’t really want to be the only one who just doesn’t get it, do you?

No. You don’t. You really don’t. Time to suck it up and switch to Gmail.

Staging an intervention is simple:

1. Visit emailintervention.com
2. Sign in and automatically identify who from your contacts has yet to make the switch, or just enter a friend’s email address manually
3. Choose from one of three intervention message templates (“straightforward”, “concerned” or “ embarrassed”), and add your own intervention video if you’d like
4. Send a customized email and follow up as needed

Start your Email Intervention now!

» Save your friends from outdated email—help them switch to Gmail | Official Gmail Blog