HTNet - A Notepad of Tech, Business, Science and Self Improvement

I’ve yet to find some time to fully focus on a topic to write about. Hell, I don’t think I can focus on an idea for more than 30 minutes. Probably one of the earlier nicotine withdrawal symptoms I’m having… and I’ve only quit for about three days.

And yeah… I got rid of my old 7250 and got myself a Motorola SLVR L7; my first bluetooth enabled phone. Such a late adopter I am, eh?

Once my body has tuned itself better with my new lifestyle, I might be able to write something that’s more meaningful.

I’ve decided to awaken blings.info from its state of dormancy and relaunch it as a totally different service altogether. blings.info is no longer a blog, but a URL redirection service, not unlike tinyurl.com.

I’m experimenting with some AJAX on the site and expect to have some problems here and there, but nevertheless, blings.info is working.

So, if you have some really long URLs you want to make shorter, head on to blings.info; Bringing Links to a General State of Informativeness.

I’ve been spending the past few days reading up on and experimenting with WordPress Widgets. It’s a great way to accessorise your WP installation without having to mess with the theme files.

Installing WordPress Widgets is a simple and straightforward process. Be sure to read the README file that will guide you through it. Once you have the WordPress Widgets plugin installed, you should then read the documentation on how to widgetise your theme. You could also explore the WordPress Widgets blog for more widgetry goodness.

I absolutely love the simplicity of customising your sidebar via widgets. I’ve managed to replicate my old sidebar layout almost exactly using widgets. Of course, I needed to experiment in widget writing, so I created my first widget called HTNet Meta. It’s almost exactly like the default Meta widget bundled with WordPress Widgets, but without the cruft of linking the URLs to my site’s entries and comments RSS files.

For those of you with interests to create your own widgets, you should definitely read Widgetizing Plugins as well as the Widgets API documentation.

After widgetising Tuned, I must say I’m quite happy with the results (not that there’s anyone else who’s interested in my theme anyway). The only widget I’m not totally happy about is the RSS widget that I’m using right now. Perhaps I should create one that integrates the functionality of feedList, my preferred feed display plugin.

On 11th April 2006, I was conned into making a purchase of things which I would not have bought under normal circumstances. It was the infamous “scratch and win” scam you read quite regularly in the news but with a twist of ingenuity by the scammers. To put it simply, the act they put in pulling up the scam would definitely qualify for an Oscar nomination.

I may be intellectually gifted, but this incident proves to me that I need to study human behavioural patterns more… especially for cases where the person is hell bent on gaining at the expense of a fellow human being. Yes, it has been proven that there are areas for which I need to improve and fast.

The company that pulled the con job on me is called Wijaya Marketing Sdn Bhd. Since that day, getting as many people to find out about this scamming company has become high on my priority list. Furthermore, I will assist fellow victims to get even with Wijaya Marketing through legal means. Hence, the creation of Wijaya Watch.

Wijaya Watch is my online presence to document my fight against the scammers, Wijaya Marketing. I will not rest until this fraudulent company is destroyed along with its founders.

If you’d like to help me in my quest, please link to Wijaya Watch in your blog or web site. I would appreciate every bit of publicity I can get from you.

Thank you.

First and foremost, a simple introduction for HTNet’s non-Malaysian visitors; TM: a monsterous Malaysian GLC, which holds an almost total monopoly on fixed telephone lines and broadband internet access in Malaysian. If you think these guys can’t be good, you’re absolutely right. To put it simply, they’re like Microsoft, minus the innovation and R&D.

Anyway, TM decided to slap a poor guy with a bill for RM806.4 trillion (roughly US$212 trillion)! Unsuprisingly, Yahaya Awab was shocked when he received the bill… it’s just slightly below ten times of Malaysia’s GDP.

I’ve heard about hundreds of tales regarding the incompetence and stupidity of TM, but this one is the best one ever.