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

Personally, I don’t have any fantasies of living by the sea. This is probably because I’m already living pretty damn near to Stulang Laut anyway. I’ve also bought an apartment which faces the Strait of Johor, so I don’t really fantasize about seafront living… I just live it

However, what I do fantasize about is owning my own cool-looking pod. If I had the bucks, I’d get myself a piece of seafront cliffside land and build myself a Neptus 60 Cliff Habitat. Now that’s a really cool looking house, don’t you agree?

However, the housing refinancing on that beauty would probably cost me a soul and a half

Here’s the belated WCS entry for last week:

• PhoneBin: See photos submitted directly from camera phones all over the world. Due to the nature of some pictures, this site might be NSFW
• Poom: What’s a WCS entry without featuring Flash time-wasters. Poom is quite an addictive game that requires good hand-eye coordination… and a non-jerky mouse.
• Creativity Techniques: Got a creative block? Try some of the suggestions here to get your creative juices flowing again.
• Free Programming and Computer Science Books: Because knowledge wants to be free
• Strange and Unexplained Anomalies: Can’t get enough of X-Files? Then you would probably want to check this web site out.

That’s all for this edition of WCS. Like always, feedback is always welcome

Believe it or not, the popular MP3 audio compression format is now celebrating its 10th birthday. After all this time, it is still the undisputed king of digital music format, even with the advent of rival formats such as WMA, Ogg Vorbis and Real Audio, among others.

This Data Compression News Blog article has a well-written coverage of this event. Here’s some excerpts from the article:

In 1992 MP3 was in fact so far ahead of its times, that the industry considered the technology far too complex for practical application. It turned out, however, that its development was the bottom line advancement in audio coding - no other coding method so far could uncrown MP3 as the standard for digital music on the computer and on the Internet.

More discussion of this event on Slashdot.

Currently, one of the most profitable online revenue tools for webmasters would be Google’s AdSense programme. Google has managed to combine semantic keyword rankings and on the fly advertisement generation into an amazing science in itself. Before you proceed reading this article, you might want to get a brief overview of Google’s acquisition of Applied Semantics as well as an overview of the AdSense programme itself. This is not compulsory, but it will definitely help you understand AdSense better, and thus use this knowledge to maximize your revenue.

Read the rest of Making Sense of AdSense »

Some of the more shocking and vivid London Bombing videos seen on the news around the world are captured from mobile phones. The BBC is showcasing a few right here. Here’s an interesting quote from the linked article:

The use of mobile reporting in mainstream news is a sign of the changing relationship between journalists and non-journalists, and is proving a powerful way to report events before TV cameras arrive.

It has been called “open source news” or citizen journalism and was well-used during last year’s US election campaign.

Open source news? Heh, I get people just have to stick IT buzzwords on things which are not even related. I think I like the citizen journalism phrase better, although come to think of it, journalists are citizens too, right?

By the way, speaking of mobies, I am seriously considering getting a newer one. Right now, I’m thinking of getting either a Nokia 6680 or the S600i from Sony-Ericsson. Which would you suggest and why?