Making a video out of your Facebook Timeline

A marketing agency Definition 6 collaborated with Facebook to produce a browser tool Timeline Movie Maker that transform your Facebook Timeline into a video.

Do try Timeline Movie Maker now.

Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal to win Australian Open

Victoria Azarenka beat Maria Sharapova to win Australian Open

'Dr Doom' Nouriel Roubini predicts financial meltdown to last a decade

Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed 'Dr Doom', who successfully predicted the sub prime crisis in 2008 is now predicting the current financial slowdown could last a decade unless Europe radically reforms itself and the United States gets serious about its own overwhelming debt deficit.

He painted a grim picture of the euro zone in recession and key emerging markets in China, India, Brazil and South Africa slowing down. The biggest uncertainty is the possibility of a conflict with Iran over its nuclear programme - which could lead oil prices to spike to US$150 per barrel, and lead to a global recession, he said.

Calling for a major change in policy priorities, Dr Roubini said: "We have to shift our investment from things that are less productive like the financial sector and housing and real estate to things that are more productive like our people, our human capital, our structure, our technology, our innovation."

Slow growth in advanced economies will likely lead to "a U-shaped recovery rather than a typical V", and could last up to 10 years if there is too much debt in the public and private sector, he said.

At a panel discussion yesterday, Dr Roubini also said Greece will probably leave Europe's single currency within 12 months and could soon be followed by Portugal.

» Fallout from financial meltdown could last a decade, says 'Dr Doom' | TODAY Online

Northern Lights (Solar Storms) Auroras in Northern Norway

Northern Lights (Solar Storms) Auroras in Finland

Google prompting all to read new policy when log in

When you re-login to your Google account, Google is now prompting you to read its new unified privacy policy. Come Mar 1, 2012, Google will be unifying its current more than 70 privacy policies into one single privacy policy. Google urges us to take a few minutes to read its updated Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service now.

Infographic: Apple's billions

McDonald’s 1-for-1 Prosperity Burger

McDonald is now offering a time limited offer from 27 to 29 January 2012 for its 1-for-1 Prosperity Burger. To redeem, simply flash the coupon on your mobile device.

Twitter able to block tweets and accounts but tweets must still flow

Twitter announced on Thursday that it is now able to block tweets and accounts from appearing in specific countries to comply with governments' request to censor information. Before that, Twitter can only block globally.

As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.

From Twitter, it will not block tweets and will stay reactive. It will review and will withhold specific content when requested and necessary.

When an account is blocked in a specific country, users of that country will see that blocked profile as below:

And when a tweet is withheld instead, the tweet will be seen as below:

What If Twitter has misidentified your country? You will then have to update your country in the Account Settings.

For more information, read Twitter's policy.

» Tweets still must flow | Twitter Blog

More options for Google+ badge

Google+ announced more options for Google+ badges.

You can configure a badge with a width that fits your site design and choose a version that works better on darker sites. You'll also see that Google+ badges now include the unified +1 and circle count that we added to Pages last month.

Start creating your Google+ badge now.

Bill Gates annual letter shows his philanthropy work

I always admired the current chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates. He is a man full of heart for the world. Yes, I believe many know this man - once richest man in the world but lost, or rather gave away, the title to a Mexican business man. If not for his giving away billions dollars for charitable effort so far, he would have retained his richest man title.

In his annual letter, he pledged to give more in 2013, investing in agriculture hoping to feed the still many poors in the world, without enough food to pass a day. In effort in polio was noted to be a success with only one such case reported in India in year 2011.

Apart from his annual letter, you may also wish to watch the video below on an exclusive interview by the ABC News.

Google unifying 70+ privacy policies into one

Come Mar 1, 2012, Google will be unifying its current more than 70 privacy policies into one single privacy policy.

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

For current privacy policies, click here (specific product policies at the right side. New coming unified privacy policy can be found here for preview.

» Updating our privacy policies and terms of service | Official Google Blog

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace launch "Don't be Evil" bookmarklet

Social networking sites Facebook, Twitter and MySpace together launched the "Don't be Evil" bookmarklet in response to Google including its Google+ pages in its search results. Google+ integration into search results has been criticised by competitors that it is not displaying the most relevant social network for an individual, and rather, it's simply promoting their (often less relevant) Google+ page.

The "Don't be Evil" bookmarklet attempts to put focus back to the user, looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+, and showing them instead.

There are two methods to trying out the "Dont' be Evil"

1. As a bookmarklet
   
   Go to Focus on the User (www.focusontheuser.org), click on the "Try a More Relevant Google", and then drag the "Don't be Evil" bookmarklet to your browser's bookmark toolbar. Next time you perform a search that displays social results, click the bookmarklet for improved social results.
   
   
2. As a Chrome extension
   
   Install this browser extension to automatically run our bookmarklet every time you go to google.com.

Watch walkthrough here.

» The Don’t Be Evil Bookmarklet Makes Google’s Social Results Useful Rather Than Simply Promotional | LifeHacker

Apple's unbelievable first quarter earnings

Some numbers from the Apple's first quarter earnings as summarised by Mashable.

• Apple sold 37 million iPhones in the quarter, a 128% jump over the comparable quarter in 2010.
• iPad sales hit 15.4 million, a rise of 111%.
• Mac sales were 5.2 million, an increase of 26%.
• Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, a number which is down 21% as the iPhone cannibalizes sales of more limited-function devices.
• Apple now has $97.6 billion in cash on hand.
• Revenues from iTunes hit $1.7 billion. More than 140 million apps and pieces of content were downloaded on Dec. 25.
• There are 1.5 million iPads being used by educational institutions.
• iCloud has 85 million users. There are now 550,000 apps available. Developers of such apps have earned more than $4 billion, $700 million in Q1.
• Apple Stores produced $6.1 billion in revenues for the quarter. The average revenue per store was $17.1 million vs. $12 million last year. There are about 22,000 visitors per store per week.
• Apple’s revenues for the quarter were higher than the company’s revenues for its entire fiscal 2009.

» Apple’s First Quarter Earnings: The Unbelievable Numbers | Mashable

YouTube statistics - 4 billion daily views, 1 hour of video uploaded every second

Wonder just how much content YouTube is generating? According to the latest statistics, daily views is at 4 billion and in every second, an hour of video is uploaded.

To put all these numbers into perspective, YouTube has launched a new website - onehourpersecond.com. Here's a short sample:

» Holy Nyans! 60 hours per minute and 4 billion views a day on YouTube | YouTube Blog

IMAX Born to be Wild

Shown on the Omni-Theatre here. Just too bad that it is only 2D.

Screening Period	Showtimes	Duration	Film Format	Official Website
15 Aug 2011 to 29 Feb 2012	Showtime Listing	Approx. 40 Mins	IMAX 2D	Website

How to extract tar ball (tar.gz, tgz) using command line?

If you have a tgz or a tar.gz archive, you may use the following to extract its files using command line interface.

Extract to current directory.

tar -zxf yourtarball.tgz

Extract to a different target directory.

tar -C ~/owndirectory -zxf yourtarball.tgz

Starhub: 140 channels free-of-charge for 6 days

Starhub is offering over 140 channels of exciting entertainment from 20 January (12pm) to 26 January (12pm), all for FREE in conjunction with the Lunar New Year.

Do enjoy!

SingTel: Free mobile calls, SMS, MMS and mio TV during Lunar New Year

SingTel announced on its website 48 hours of free local mobile calls, SMS and MMS from 23 Jan 0000hrs to 24 Jan 2359hrs.