KAZEY JOURNAL

I woke up around 3am this morning, and well I was supposed to have a meeting at 4am with Owukori and Edward, but as I started with my normal daily routines, first check my mails, second check my server and third check my offline messages, I discovered that I could only connect to sites, starting with www, and that was not even certain, I couldnt access some sites at all, especially the subdomain ones starting with http:// only.

That means I couldnt access my mails at google. I opened MRIC , I tried to connect and still as I am talking, I cant. Went to my internet login page, I tried to re-connect, It did connect but the problem is still there. Now Internet why are you doing this to me ? I wondered. I think I would have to call the internet guys later in the morning, but today is Independence day, and I hope they would come to work.

I am really pissed, I dont know what to do. My hands are currently tied. I cant browse to sites that are subdomain based. I am really fedup. I was even welcome by my body system with Flu, I hate flu.

Is it DNS related? I really dont know

When it comes to bringing Nigerian bloggers together, in terms of either via communities or by using a directory system, we do still have a little way to go. When I see Nigerian indigenous sites currently concentrated into discussing primarily about Sex and Romance related issues etc I get a little bit worried. That is especially when you get under ages getting personal opinions and feedbacks from inexperienced and unreliable sources. And the troubling part of it, is that the filtering is only done at the discrepancy of the moderators. In this avenue, people express themselves and get feedbacks that are more personal and misleading than factual. In fact sometimes we don’t know how it may affect the life of that under aged individual in sense of differenciating, what is good to what is bad. Indeed we have lost our sense of direction and goals to unite Nigerians as one. And I know many of you understand what I am saying. We should speak the truth when it needs to be spoken.

Thus I shouldn’t forget my main aim and propose of this blog entry, forgive me for my diversion. Although I was trying to explain something there about general communities but I guess, it’s just the deep inside, troubled part of me ,that needs to express itself. Currently we currently do have a directory system for Nigerian bloggers at Weblog Ring but actually it does not present 100% Nigerian blogs. There are enlisted blogs of expatriates staying in Nigeria but not Nigerians and also some personal websites, that are not blogs at all. But then again we shouldn’t ignore to commend the well done Job, by Tim Akimbo of Cowblock. He had a good intention and still have one, but i guess his tasks and responsibilities are too enormous that he really does not have the time to keep it progressing. But still it is well presented, and I still encourage all Nigerian bloggers to get enlisted at Web blog ring, because that’s the only directory that present’s Nigerians blogs properly with a goal.

So well it shouldn’t end with a directory alone I said before, we should have a forum for Nigerian bloggers and also an aggregated content for Nigerians, to keep us regularly updated about other Nigerians blogs. And therefore I developed a site based on that and I call it the Nigerian Bloggers which can be visited at http://www.nigerianbloggers.com, although I have tried names such as lokoja as suggested by Gbenga Sesan, to give it the touch, but it was unfortunately, already taken. So Nigerian Bloggers features an Aggregator (An aggregator is a program used for watching feeds from news sites, blogs, podcasts and videoblogs or vlogs; also known as an RSS aggregator or News Aggregator. An aggregator generally assembles a number of user-specified XML content feeds into one easily readable webpage, client application or device.) and a Forum currently totally for Nigerian blogs for Nigerians staying anywhere. I did the enlisting entries, manually, to ensure that all the sites are by Nigerians.

There is currently, as I was blogging, a total of 615 headlines from 63 sources. The Aggregator is updated hourly and the Forum would be the venue for Nigerian bloggers to meet and discuss on issues pertaining both blogging and general issues. I am thinking of embedding a chat room in the future, but I am still contemplating on that. But nevertheless I am opened to suggestions, feel free to do that. I would be very greatful.

Nigerian Bloggers is currently looking for volunteers to maintain the site and moderate its forum, therefore if you think you are up to the task, do drop me a mail, and I would be delighted to review your application.

Although I have received some hate mails in regards to Nigerian Bloggers, some of the mails , telling me they they are currently working on the same solution and the others telling me that I shouldn’t do it, for the reason that is best known to them. Well I would say, that’s their way of expressing themselves. To all those that have encouraged my little effort to make a difference, Thank you. I would always note that and would always show my gratitude. And to all those that think I have stolen your ideas, well I would like to say, keep it real. It only took me, one week to bring it into reality. What matters is the implementation of ideas, not having the ideas itself, and this idea is 100% mine. I got inspired by Malaysian bloggers aggregator. And I said this and would always repeat, this is a non-profitable venture. Peace and Long Live Nigeria.

Nigerian Bloggers at http://www.nigerianbloggers.com was primarily developed as a venue to unite all Nigerian bloggers arround the globe via syndicating their content and also via discussions through its forum.

Last time i blogged about an alternative to withdrawing paypal for malaysians. I said Virtual Bank card was a good alternative. Now i withdraw what i have said. They do have a bad support. I would post my experience with them as soon as possible. Please dont say i did not tell you.

Hurrah!! I suppose to have two test tommorrow, Digital systems and Database Systems. Thanks to the haze, the test are cancelled.

Coughs. Dem the weather is affecting my lungs.

Everybody please stay indoors or leave Cyberjaya. People are leaving Cyberjaya. Should I go to KL? nah i got stuffs to do in Cyberjaya. hehehe.

Leave for Cyberjaya Campus

Dear VPs/Deans,

This is to inform that I am declaring the Cyberjaya Campus to be closed for two days (11th & 12th August 2005) because of the worsening haze condition. The API index is now 197, 3 points below the critical level. The unhealthy level is 100-200. Above 200 is critical. All staff and students are hereby given leave for the 2 days.

The Melaka Campus shall operate normally

Kindly take note.

Ghauth.———————————————————————-
from
CITS

Source: School Online Bulletin

The haze in certain parts of the peninsula was at its worst yesterday. And the bad news is that the situation will not improve in the coming days.

According to the Meteorological Department, the dry weather will continue until October.

Current wind directions are not expected to change until the inter-monsoon season in two months’ time.

The only hope of seeing some haze-free days will be when the fires in Sumatra are put out, according to the department’s deputy director-general (forecast) Dr Yap Kok Seng.

He said some rain could be expected towards the end of this week although the next few days would be dry.

Visibility in most parts of the Klang Valley dipped to as low as one kilometre.
Source: The star

HAZE SNAPSHOTS

Haze expected to continue for the next few days

Wind patterns not expected to change until October

Rain expected only in the weekend

Visibility in the Klang

Valley down to between 150m and 2km

Visibility in Straits of Malacca down to 1km

Ban on open burning in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya

Ports suspend operations as ship runs aground

NGOs call for transparency on air pollution index

Road users should exercise caution and turn on headlights

I went to Alamanda, today with Marseille, and we shopped like nuts. The cart was actually quarterful. Well after that, we decided to take some pictures, which i have already uploaded some. Check it out and please comment. It is dark, but atleast we are not that invisible. hehehe
The pictures

I was reading Elliots back’s blog recently and I came upon a very interesting post, he had on the secrets of optimizing adsense. Well he actually tripled and double his income simultaneously with that technique.

Well below is his testimony, and advise.

Over the last week, my clickthrough rates have more than tripled. My daily earnings keep rising and rising–this week is twice last week’s earnings. You’d think there are secrets of the Adsense masters to get more clicks, more traffic, more impressions, and better cpc. Well, there are no secrets–just a few types:

Color: Choose colors that coordinate well with your blog layout. For example, all of my google adsense ads have no colored borders and match the background color. This is important–don’t alienate your readers.

Position: Position really is everything. You need to put your ads where they can be seen–on the top, the left, or the right, and always above the fold.

Variety: There are at most three ads on the site: one link-ad underneath the meta part of a single post, the all-generic sidebar ad, and on select posts, an ad block. It’s good to have several distinct types of ads on your site. Visitors that might ignore one may click on another!

Audience: You need to make sure you’re putting ads on pages that see heavy traffic. So, I use a wordpress plugin to tag a post with an < !–ADSENSE–> block and automatically insert my advert. That way I can specifically place an ad where I want it on a highly-trafficed post. Another thing I do is automatically append an adsense block on a post with very little content. I may also introduce ads in my feeds.

Doing these basic things has improved the profitability of my blog considerably. Don’t be afraid to experiment with Adsense, or be aggressive. Just don’t scare off readers.

Well most of the stuff in his tips, are already implemented on my blog. I guess we all learn by experimenting. If you havent implemented any, please experiment it. It really works.

Yahoo launched a free Web audio search service that helps users find, hear and buy everything from music downloads and podcasts to interviews and newscasts. It seems that yahoo is into giving free stuffs, first it was konfab now it is a web audio search service.

Yahoo Audio Search, at http://audio.search.yahoo.com, is still in testing and gives users access to more than 50 million audio files as Yahoo beefs up its entertainment offerings.

For example, a search for “Green Day” yields a list of the band’s albums, song samples and links to download services, including Yahoo’s own music service, Apple Computer Inc.’s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iTunes, Rhapsody from RealNetworks Inc. (RNWK.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Napster Inc. (NAPS.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

The service also taps independent publishers and the Web, helping users find such things as music videos, reviews and photographs of the artists.

I came upon an interesting article from Paul Graham’s website, and i decided to share. Here it goes.

The three big powers on the Internet now are Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft. Average age of their founders: 24. So it is pretty well established now that grad students can start successful companies. And if grad students can do it, why not undergrads?

I am 21, by the way

Like everything else in technology, the cost of starting a startup has decreased dramatically. Now it’s so low that it has disappeared into the noise. The main cost of starting a Web-based startup is food and rent. Which means it doesn’t cost much more to start a company than to be a total slacker. You can probably start a startup on ten thousand dollars of seed funding, if you’re prepared to live on ramen.

This is very true, infact i have had problems with people evaluating my business plan, in that relation.

(more…)

I have been on the lookout for blogs that would provide well filtered and reliable up to date information, ranging from reviews to latest news, from the web hosting industry. But due to the junky nature of the internet, I could not really find one and therefore, I decided to build one to satisfy the need for one. I named it “Web Hosting Blog” under the domain http://www.hosting-blog.com.

To begin with, I brushed on a little of what, I plan to do. But here it is again.

Starting a web hosting company, and running one, has never been easy. The need to know and the potentiality of the market are still not well presented, especially with the current saturation of the market.

The ever-increasing demand for a reliable and affordable web hosting service, as new potential customers emerge and the old ones migrate from one web hosting provider to another, seeking for a better service has been phenomenal.

Web Hosting Blog compiles and provides, current news, updates, tips, information, reviews and marketing strategies from the web hosting industry with a neutral standing.

So why not pay it a visit, and surely you would come for more. Visit Web Hosting blog now !!