I am pretty sure by now that you guys know that I have two directories which accept listings. One of them is a Singapore small business directory while the other is a general web directory which only accepts PR4 and above sites. What this means that these directories are niche, catering only to a specific group of people. However, it seems that no matter what, there will definitely be spammers who think that they can get away with it. In my Singapore small business directory I have people submitting websites that are not located in Singapore, forums, blogs, chat sites, sites which offer free MySpace Layouts and so on. I mean seriously, these are not even business or business-related websites at all and they expect to get listed?

For my the other directory, the general web directory, I would understand that not all doing the submission understand what Page Rank is, and I do get a lot of submissions. However, the amount of spam I get is also impossible. Of nearly 100 over submissions per day, around 5-10 listings will get approved. And a lot of these sites are really the spammy ones like selling all sorts of enhancement drugs and stuff. One look at the site and I ticked on the delete option. There are even those sites whose URL is really long and ridiculous, I too sent those to the rubbish bin. But yet, they still continue to pour in. And you can’t stop them. You can try of course, but in the end you will just give up.

I don’t understand what drives these spammers. Although it doesn’t take a hell lot of effort to submit a website to a directory, but the thing for spamming to work, spammers must do a lot of submissions because their sites will mainly get rejected. So just think of the effort needed for it to really work. So why bother in the first place? Won’t it be better for spammers to create content rich sites instead? The chance of getting rejected when submitting to a directory is less too. Won’t that get a better result than spending time and effort to submit a spam site?

Don’t know what is Virtual Network Computing (VNC)? In basic terms, it is sort of like remote computing. Let’s say you are at your office and you need to access your home PC. You can use this software or technology to access your home PC’s desktop and do whatever you want like you are physically there. But of course, you can’t insert a floppy or insert your USB thumbdrive, but I hope you get the idea. It allows you to “virtually“ control your mouse, keyword and access your PC through the network or Internet with a graphical interface.

So now you know what VNC is, you can appreciate the usefulness of this software/system. You can see on your screen exactly what is shown on the other PC’s screen. You can control and access several PCs from just one location, without the need to be physically present. Think of yourself as a king controlling everything from his castle without even the need to leave the comfort of his servants.

What you need is actually two pieces of software. You need a VNC Server and a VNC Client. So, for the PCs you want to remotely access to, you need to install the VNC Server. And on the PC you need to control your other PCs from, you need to install the VNC Client software. Of course, you will need to open up your firewall (if you have) to allow access to the Server PCs. For each PC you need to access, you will have to run the client software to access the server.

There are two very popular flavors of VNC. One of them is RealVNC while the other is TightVNC. I am currently using TightVNC as it is very powerful and have tons of features which I really need. However, I find that TightVNC is not very stable. Not stable as compared to RealVNC. RealVNC gave me no problems all the while I have been using it, although it has less features. And if you need the more advanced features, you need to purchase the Enterprise Edition. Anyway, TightVNC is backward compatible to the original version, so you can use TightVNC Client to access RealVNC Server but any feature not supported by RealVNC cannot be used.

I am really getting weaker by the minute. I am currently down with the flu. My entire nose is blocked and I can’t breathe through my nose properly. Yes, I have to breathe through my mouth and with my throat so sore, it looks like it’s going to be a tough day or me today. I really don’t know why, but it seems that I am getting sick every few months. Usually with flu, sore throat or a bout of fever. Not too serious (keep my fingers cross) but still, I can feel that I am getting weaker and weaker every day. I remember the time when I was as fit as an ox and when I didn’t fall ill for years. Even with a little cold and a runny nose, I can still continue doing my work without any problems. Those were the days when I was much younger. Now, I understand what my parents meant when they say getting old isn’t fun at all.

Today I wake up feeling all sore and tired. And when I start doing my stuff, I feel that my eyes are about to give up on me. And once in a while, my fever will start to act up, making me feeling cool and feverish at the same time. Add to that, the weather in Singapore is now on the chilly side and it has started raining for a few weeks now. Not really good for my current condition and I have to spend all my time covered with a blanket and some hot tea for protection. Perhaps I caught the flu because of the bad weather? Well, no point to figure that out now, I just have to be careful now.

Well, maybe I should start exercising? I always tell myself that I should exercise constantly. But somehow, when I get back home from work, I feel so damn tired. You know the feeling right? I can’t even bring myself to change my clothing, let alone run a few miles or go to the freezing swimming pool. Plus, I sometimes have to bring work back home to do. Life can be tough sometimes. All these adds up and in the end, I just gave up on the idea. Sad as it may sounds, I think I will continue to get weaker by the day. And what I have just said is exactly what a lot of people in Singapore are saying. Especially those working in Singapore’s hell workshops. Anyway, if I do start to exercise, I will update this blog less often and you guys will suffer for it. I guess you guys owe me. Wuhahahahaha!

According to the Big Bang Theory, Google as created sometime between 100 million to 20 billion years ago. Based on my measurements, these figures are pretty inaccurate but these are the best we have, so we will stick with it. What happened was that there was a cosmic explosion out of nothingness called a “singularity” that hurled all sort of crap (plus some rare useful stuff) in all directions and later joined together to create the “Internet“. Then a stray meteoroid came along and somehow it attracted even more crap. It later became very big and formed to something we now called Google. It is big enough to have it’s own gravity and can affect all other meteoroids nearby. The amazing thing about this meteor is that due to the pressure built up by the layers and layers of crap it has accumulated, it sometimes would splew out blackholes that will eat everything along it’s path, including blackhat SEO guys and even link sellers or even those keywords stuffers.

Now, we all know that Google is the best place to search for crap. It has been working very well for sometime now. Although there are other meteoroids out there, none come even close to absorbing as much crap as Google, so I think most people will just use it. You have to be aware of the blackholes created and learn how to avoid it. Other than crap, you can sometimes find useful stuff on Google as well. But of course, that is very rare.

This Big Bang Theory suggest that the Internet is always expanding and thus absorbing more and more crap out there. So from this theory we know that Google is expanding as well. But what we are afraid is that if Google gets more and more crap, it will get more and more dense and finally form their own singularity and thus may just explode in our faces. We won’t want that too happen as we will all get crap splatted on our faces. Not to mention the noise made by the explosion. It disturbs us so. But based on my very complex calculations, it will probably take Google maybe 5-10 more years before it gets this big to cause us problems, so I tell you guys not to worry.

What d you guys think of it? Very thin piece of LCD panel and designed by our beloved Dell Computers. I sort of like it. Cool design and if you have it, I am sure that it will be the talking point of every conversation in your house. The panel itself is only 0.5 inches in depth which should be able to fit any table you have. Even those ridiculous concept computer tables you will find in the stores now.

I wonder how much will it cost when it comes out for the consumer? And from the picture above, it seems that the glare of the monitor is really bad. And I am sure that the backlight is weak compared to conventional LCD monitors. So it may not be suitable for those areas with direct glare from sunlight. Furthermore I wonder if a small breeze were to blow on this panel, will it be able to handle this breeze? Or will it just topple over? Nowadays a lot of LCD Monitors do not have a stable base, and I find them pretty flimsy (probably much cheaper). I once had an 17″ Dell LCD monitor a while back and it’s base was solid. I was not afraid that it will topple over easily. But now, I am really worried. And they just look so fragile.

For more information on this monitor, please refer to this blog post.

But what the heck, that is exactly what my blog is! My blog is in fact pointless, that’s so very true. It’s for your enjoyment and nothing more. Sure there are some good information on it (I hope), but overall most of the blog posts are not of any significant importance to anyone, not even me. I am just hoping that these posts will be interesting enough to attract viewers and readers to the blog. If you are blogs with “points”, I am pretty sure that there are a lot of blogs out there that should have some usefulness. There are technical blogs and all those serious blogs for those in suits and ties, but most will sleep after reading a few words anyway.

Anyway, I am not insulted or anything but I just need to be clear that this blog should not be taken seriously. Most of the stories are exaggerated and even fake, created out of my imagination. So if you read a story on this blog which you find to be ridiculous and not possible or even stupid, it probably is. Don’t need to get too work up about it. It’s better to just read my blog, and then forget about it.

I am also thinking of creating very unique and interesting names/titles for my blog posts which should attract some more visitors. Although some of the titles may not be related to the actual content of the blog post (hey, it’s rare though), I guess it works very well. People are attracted to the unique blog title, but when the story is different from the title, they are not pleased. I have to agree on this, it’s time for me to have a better title for my posts.

Maybe I should create a disclaimer for this blog? Sometimes some people take things way too seriously and they can’t figure the difference between a joke and what not. But if you find my blog post interesting, then please leave a comment about it.

As reported by Reuters. Yes, that’s a hell lot of money involved. I guess this is good news for both directory owners and those people involved in selling domain names. The high price paid for this domain is sure to boost sales and prices for both directories and domain names in the near future. And everyone in the domain name business is talking and possibly drooling over it. Business.com is just a business directory but the name alone is a very good draw for investors. I mean what is easier than typing business.com when you are searching for businesses? But in all seriousness, it is really worth that much? I doubt that even Microsoft.com is worth US$360 million and it is a very pretty well-known domain name. But I could be wrong, it could be worth more to Microsoft Corp but I doubt it will be worth US$360 million to others.

I don’t understand how can someone spend so much on a domain name. Sure, it is very easy to remember but if you think carefully, Google.com and Microsoft.com are not particularly easy to remember domain names either. But we all know it and I am pretty sure most of us can type out the domain name without much problems (I hope). It’s just that both Google and Microsoft had spent millions of dollars in name branding and these names are now stuck in our heads. So won’t it be cheaper to promote and brand your own name itself of getting such a domain name?

But well, I am not a millionaire. If someone has so much money to spend on a domain name, he/she probably had done something right and who am I to argue? Maybe he/she is seeing something that we mere mortals don’t? X-ray eyes or some psychic ability that can look deep into the future? Perhaps he has some grand plans for this domain name? Who knows?

And anyone knows how much my domain name (autho-rity.info and autho-rity.com) is worth? Do you guys think that one day, it is possible for someone to pay US$1 million for my domain name? Nothing compared to the ridiculous amount paid by RH Donnelley Corp though, but I guess it is enough for me.

I have started a round of web directory submissions today for this blog. I have submitted to about 50 over directories and hope to do 50 more tomorrow. But the bad thing about doing directory submission is that it gets tedious after a while. I find it very boring to keep on visiting web directories and keying in the same old thing over and over again. I don’t have the patience for it. Some directories make it very difficult for their users to submit their sites, like being slow or adding too many confusing advertisements or even hiding some buttons. Well, I guess then this makes for a good place to advertise your directory submission service, right?

Anyway, the purpose of this round of web directory submission is to help improve my rankings for the terms “Authority Sites Blogs”. Although I don’t think this term is very popular, it should get me some traffic to this blog and hopefully to my Authority Sites Directory. And looking at the current SEO craze, it seemed that a lot of people are interested in finding out which site is an authority site. I hope that my Authority Site Directory will be a good resource for them. And I am starting to update my Authority Sites Directory again which should improve things somewhat. What do you guys think?

I also hope that this round of directory submission will also kick some of my pages out of supplemental index. Looks like a lot of pages are still in supplemental index even when I have cross linked the pages. Somehow the internal cross links didn’t really help my site, especially my directory. Perhaps I should have crossed link my pages earlier, before these pages went into supplemental. Think external links should work better.

Anyhow, let’s see what improvement will there be after this little round. If all goes well, I will continue to submit my sites to even more directories. Who knows, maybe one day my site will rank number one for some very popular terms? And maybe, just maybe one day, big directories will be begging to be allowed to be included in my very own directory?

Bet you guys never heard of this site before, right? It’s not that well-known and it’s now only at Beta. Well, RobotReplay is actually a web analytics script just like Google Analytics. They take information from your visitors and compile them into a user friendly interface for you to see how well your site is performing. It also tells you where your visitors are from and which pages of your site is the most popular. What makes RobotReplay different and unique is that it records and plays back your site visitors actions. Sort of like a video recording of your site with different visitors moving their cursor and clicking on your links. Very nice huh?

The advantage is that you can use this information to see which links or area of your site attracts most of your visitors. And where your visitors eye tend to look at. So if a particular area is where most visitors would look at (by checking which area their mouse pointer is pointing at), perhaps that is a good place to have your important links or even your advertisements where they would be more likely to be clicked. You also can use this script to see where your visitors get bored and leave your site so that you can improve on the usability of your site. Furthermore, they have this form replay function where you can see whether your forms is too tedious for your visitors or not. Good for testing out what kind of detailed information your visitors would be willing to provide to you as well.

The possiblity of this script is endless. You can use this replay to do many things to improve your website. Although it is not meant for Search Engine Optimization, but a website is all about the human visitors, not about Search Engine. Improving user experience will attract even more visitors to your site.

And furthermore, this script is free. All you need to do is to sign up and install a little script on their site and the watch their recordings! It is no hassle either.

Yes, Cold Rock Ice Creamery is now available in Singapore! It is located at Holland Village and you should go down and try it. Well, I still did not yet have a taste of this supposedly superb style of ice cream (hey I am a busy man), but I am glad it is finally here. Singapore’s Ice Cream scene is pathetic, and I hope that competition and awareness will improve it. I mean, look at the hot weather of Singapore. Ice Cream should be a staple diet for all Singaporeans, but instead we neglect it and eat the crap Walls “Ice Cream”, half of which comes way too frozen even for us to bite. I want to eat the ice cream not ice block. Everytime I see someone eating Walls Ice Cream, I have to resist the urge to go and smack them hard in the face.

Okay, enough of my Walls bitching, we are here to talk about Cold Rock Ice Creamery. Basically, Ice Cream Chefs took the idea of mixing different variety of ice cream flavors and ingredients like nuts, cookies, candy, sweets and even fruits together from them. So, you get to choose a few flavors and choose your “mix-in” and let their staff mix them into a blend for you. Currently they have 35 flavors (like bubblegum, Tia Maria, Caramel mud cake and Honeycomb) for you to choose from and 49 “mix-in”s. You will have to let your imagination and creativity wild to enjoy all the different combinations! Not to mention, the hole that will be left in your pocket.

On their website, they have a little video showing how their ice cream is mixed if you are interested. Anyway, I don’t think it is difficult to do. All you have to do is get a rather creamy ice cream or two, add some candy or whatever, and then stir them around. The trick is the Ice Cream. If you have those made by Walls, then either you have to use a hammer or you will to wait till it starts to melt which would be yacky. But I guess most Singaporeans don’t have the time or even the energy to do all the mixing so this should attract quite a crowd. They also serve shakes, ice cream cakes, waffles and smoothies at their shop. Ahhh…..me love ice cream. Yum yum.