Random Considerations

iPad review

2010-04-19T03:06:00.000-07:00

The first time I saw the iPad I was sure I would not be getting one. Feature wise, it doesn't have anything that is not present on the iPhone or the iPod touch. However I soon realized that I was underestimating what a huge difference the bigger screen would make, particularly in the app-department. You have to admit that there are certain things you cannot do on the iPod's smaller screen. Unless you don't value your eyesight, you won't be reading entire books on an iPhone or iTouch. The same applies to extensive browsing, reading emails, news, magazines and reading or editing documents. All of which the iPad does extremely well. Also, the fact that developers now have more screen estate will allow for better and ,hopefully, more productive apps. It is probably a bit too early to say what kind of apps will be released, but the potential is definitely there and there are already many interesting apps available for this device.

Browsing
Internet browsing on the iPad is an absolute joy: Websites are rendered almost instantaneously and pinch and zoom on a large screen is something that needs to be experienced. Unfortunately there is no Flash on iPad's Safari, which means that you can't watch videos on most video websites. Having said that, I found that I'm not missing flash that much; YouTube and other video sites have their own free apps which allow you to view all the videos you want.

YouTube
I have to admit that the iPad's YouTube app is a lot better than the new UI which has been recently applied to the website. It's simple and straightforward and the links at the bottom allow you to quickly navigate to the videos you're looking for. Commenting and rating videos is also possible although I really don't like that you can't reply to comments.

Email
If you use the mail feature on the iPod Touch or the iPhone, then you would already be familiar with the interface. This feature hasn't changed much but now it makes good use of the ample screen estate to display a column showing all the mail in your inbox. I find this very useful for going through mail without having to switch screens. Typing email is also very easy now thanks to the large on-screen keyboard. Speaking of which, I find the keyboard very easy to use. It does take some getting used to but when you become familiar with it, typing becomes a breeze, especially if you're using it in landscape-mode.

iBooks
iBooks is what got me interested in the iPad in the first place. I had just bought the Kindle when I realized how much better the iPad would be for reading eBooks, so I quickly canceled my order with Amazon and waited for the iPad to be released.

I was a bit concerned that the iPad's LCD screen would be a bit too much of a strain on the eyes, but I've been reading many books on this device and I have to say that it's a very comfortable experience.

Photos
The iPad is great for viewing photos. I particularly like the pinch and zoom features which allow you to expand albums or peek into its contents.

iPod
As with the iPod touch and the iPhone, you can sync all your music to the iPad. It works great but I didn't like that they removed the cover-flow feature.

While I am thoroughly enjoying this new device, I understand that the iPad is not for everyone. This is not a PC or a Mac; you cannot install and use the same programs you use with regular computers, it does not multi-task (not yet anyway) and, like I said earlier, it does not support Flash. However, if you simply want to read email, browse the internet, read books, magazines and newspapers, then this would be the perfect device for you. I see a lot of potential for the iPad but at this point, only time can tell us if it would be a success.

Homemade ricotta - recipe

2009-10-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

Ricotta is Italian for 'recooked' and the name derives from the fact that ricotta is made from the recooked whey that is left over from cheese-making. Therefore the cheese made with this recipe is not exactly ricotta; however the texture and taste is extremely similar and so can be used as a substitute for ricotta in many dishes such as lasagna and desserts. It's extremely easy to make and it's so good that you have to try making this at least once. It's extremely important that you use full fat milk or else you will get a very small yield. You can add some cream to the milk if you want a creamier and larger yield of cheese.

Ingredients

800ml full fat milk
6 teaspoons lemon juice
salt to taste

Supplies

Pan
cheese-cloth (or you can simply use a handkerchief)
Sieve
Bowl

Method

Pour the milk in the pan and put on high heat. Stir continuasly so that the milk does not burn or form a crust. When the milk get slightly foamy around the edges of the pan, take the pan off the burner.

Add the lemon juice to the milk and stir thoroughly. Put the pan on the burner again and stir until the mixture boils. Turn off the burner and you will see that the milk has separated into curds and whey. You can use vinegar instead of lemon but the taste of the actual cheese will be slightly different.

Let the mixture stand for about 15 minutes. In the meantime line the bottom of your sieve with the cheese-cloth (I did not have any cheese cloth so I used a clean handkerchief) and put the sieve in a bowl.

Pour the mixture into the cloth. The curds remain in the cloth while the whey drips into the bowl. This might take a while depending on the type of cloth you're using. I usually let it drip for 5 minutes. Do not throw away the whey; it is full of nutrients. You can use it for boiling pasta or give it to your pets.

Pick up the four corners of the cloth and squeeze the ricotta slightly to get out the extra whey. The drier the ricotta, the firmer it will be.

You can now place the ricotta inside a small container such as a cup and add a pinch of salt. If you are using the ricotta for desserts you can opt out of using salt.

There you have it: home-made ricotta. Enjoy!

Robert Shoesmith - Problem halved

2009-09-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Robert Shoesmith is a a bin collector working in Coventry but he might soon start cashing-in big-time after the release of the iPhone app: Problem Halved. Click here to download the application.

iPhone 3.0 Software review

2009-06-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Ok this is a quick review. I've just downloaded the iPhone 3.0 software and I'm just posting some screenshots of the new features (some of them at least). Here goes:

copy and paste finally available.

new app allows you to record audio

you can now send up to 5 images, from the album, in one email

Spotlight. Search through all the files in your iPhone/iPod Touch

Typing an sms in landscape mode.

The Happening - movie review

2008-12-22T10:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, to start off this review let me just say that I loved The Sixth Sense. It was pure genius and the twist at the end became an instant classic. I also liked The Village and Signs. Believe it or not I also enjoyed watching Lady in the Water. I believe that most people don't appreciate an imaginative story-line and that's why there were so many bad reviews for the latter movie. I'm just saying all this to let you all know that I like M. Night Shyamalan's story-telling style. It's slow but effective.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to watch The Happening and let me tell you that I am so glad that I watched it on DVD rather than wasting time and money at the cinema. The Happening is dreadful, stupid, terrible, spectacularly bad...horrible even. I can't believe that they decided to screen this movie. I sat there not wanting to believe what I was seeing. Yes, it was that bad. Like previous movies by M. Night, it was slow but it was definetely not effective in any way. Let me just start by mentioning the acting. I've seen many of Mark Wahlberg's films and in most of them he managed to deliver above average acting; he was great in The Departed. Now I don't really know what happened to him in this movie. He just whined. I'm thinking that the director forced Wahlberg to act bad on purpose for some artistic reason. The rest of the acting is pretty much bad but not as much as Wahlberg's. All the characters were two-dimensional stick figures scrawled by a 2 year old kid. There were moments where I felt like walking up to the screen and try shaking some life in the characters.

Next comes the story. Its about trees having decided to kill off people. The only reason for their decision that was offered by M. Night was that this was an act of nature and so no one can ever know why this should be happening...hmmm. And there's also a small minor story-line involving the wife hiding a big disturbing secret from her husband. By the end of the movie we learn what this secret is: eating dessert. Seriously? Yes. Seriously?!!? YES!

The rest of the movie just dragged on like a wounded kangaroo on a deserted asphalt-track. I kept waiting for the punch-line or a twist or, at least, a half decent ending. It never happened…

Photoshop Beauty Contest

2008-12-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

Contest ends on: 16th January 2009

Hi Everyone. I've decide to start issuing photoshop beauty contests. All you need to do is download the above image (might take a while to download) and make the girl look like someone on a magazine cover. To download the image first click on it to view it in a higher resolution, then right click and choose 'save'. Then just send your image to this email address:

I will review your pictures and post the winning entry on this blog. Good luck everyone!

Six Feet Under - Review

2008-11-05T05:40:00.000-08:00

I've just finished watching Six Feet Under: a series that deals predominantly with the theme of death. Life is also a main theme in this show where we get completely sucked into the lives of a number of intricate characters. Six feet under is a masterpiece created and produced by Alan Ball.
I must say that watching the series has been an emotional ride unlike any I've ever been on. The actors, especially Lauren Ambrose, managed to deliver a stellar performance throughout all the episodes and the viewer cannot help but become emotionally invested with the characters. The five seasons eventually culminate into a finale that has never been seen before on TV. It was heart wrenching, it was smart, it was perfect, it was all so emotional. I doubt that there will ever be a show that delivers such drama, it's a definite watch and truly a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.

LOST Review

2008-09-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

I'm an obsessed LOST fan, actually 'obsessed' is a bit of an understatement... lost-freak-who dreams about lost every night...that's a better description hehe. What I like about Lost? Well mostly cos it's such a high concept show: there is so much going on, so many mysteries that never seem to get any answers (though I hope that we'll be getting some answers soon) and the characters are so complex and intriguing. For any one who's been living under a rock these past few years: Lost is a show about a group of survivors from a crashed air plane, who end up on an island. But this is no ordinary island, there are polar bears running around, monsters made out of smoke, mysterious whispers heard in the jungle, visions of the future, dead people coming back to life...and then there are The Others: people who have been living on the Island before the survivors' plane crashed. If you haven't started watching Lost yet, I highly suggest that you do so, you can download them as Torrents or from P2P programs like Ares or eDonkey. or you can buy or rent the DVDs (you'll find seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4 on DVD).
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (the executive producers of Lost) have stated that every thing happening on Lost has a logical explanation that does not involve science fiction or the supernatural. This is one of the reasons why I like Lost so much...I really need to know how they're going to explain the smoke monster, Jacob, the whispers and many other things. Although with all the things that happened in Season 4's finale...there is no way that the explanations involved are not supernatural or science fiction in some way...unless they say that everything that was happening on the island were the delusions of a crazy person, but I think that they already covered that theory in a previous episode concerning Hurley.
I can't wait for season 5 to start (early 2009). I'm betting that we'll finally know what the smoke monster is...they came very close to explaining it in Season 4. Anyway, if you haven't started watching it I highly suggest that you do, it's pure entertainment..TV can't get any better than this.

Crystal reports on ASP.NET

2008-08-18T01:21:00.000-07:00

After spending 2 days straight searching for a way of displaying a crystal report on an ASP.NET web page and giving up 2 times I finally managed to display the crystal report on a web page (Here I'm using vb.net but this can be easily converted to other languages). For this particular example I'm using a dataset as a datasource for the Crystal Report.

Click on code to see a larger version:

Convert String to Byte Array

2008-07-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

The following is a post I found from here

Figured this might come in handy for someone (or at least for me later on when I go looking for it). Below is a simple method for converting a given string to an array of bytes. Wouldn't be nice if you could just do something like this: Return myString.ToByteArray()? The String class already has ToCharArray, why not ToByteArray?

VB.NET
Imports System.Text

Public Shared Function ConvertStringToByteArray(ByVal stringToConvert As String) As Byte()

Return (New UnicodeEncoding).GetBytes(stringToConvert)

End Function

using System.Text;

public static byte[] ConvertStringToByteArray(string stringToConvert)

{

return (new UnicodeEncoding()).GetBytes(stringToConvert);

}

Mulholland Drive - my personal views

2008-06-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided to watch the acclaimed cinematic art-piece by David Lynch: Mulholland Drive. I have to say that while I was watching it, this movie made me very uneasy particularly in the last 1/3 of the film. And when I was done watching it I was like: WTF?! However I couldn't get my mind off it and after spending a lot of time mulling over the story-line (or story-lines) I finally understood (part of the whole thing) and I was completely blown away. After watching this movie I can honestly say that David Lynch has become one of my top favorites film-director/artist.

The story line of this film is very complicated to explain, so I won't even try doing that here. I suggest that you first watch the movie and then come-back and read this if you-re still interested. What I'll try to explain is the metaphors and double-meanings underlying the whole story. The following is an explanation of my personal views on things, people, objects, occurrences etc relevant to the move...so be warned that to the Director (David Lynch) these things may have had completely different meanings. But since this is a work of art, the whole movie is up to the interpretation of the viewer, so here goes:

The dream sequence
The first 2/3 of the movie is a dream sequence, all occurrences that happened here were happening in the imagination of Diane, the main protagonist. David Lynch does not make it clear in any way that what was happening was not real. Everything seems perfect in Diane's imagination: beautiful Hollywood, friendly people... Camilla as a clean slate (with her amnesia) so that she would be easy to possess and love. It's important to know that important people and objects from reality were also seen in the dream sequence although they were not given the same attributes as there real counter-parts. For example the hit-man who killed Camilla in reality also made an appearance in Diane's dream. The fact that in the dream he was portrayed as an inept contract killer might show that even if Diane was the one who told him to kill Camilla, she still hated him for the fact that he killed her lover, so portraying him as very clumsy and inept might have been a way for Diane to get back at him.

Reality
The last 1/3 of the movie. If you don't notice the transition between reality and imagination, you're going to be really confused once the story reaches this point.

The blue box
To me the blue box represents reality: ugly, harsh, depressing reality. Everything outside the box is in the imagination of Diane. When Rita opened the box she was sucked into reality and we could finally see what had really happened.

The blue key
The blue key looks very different in reality then how we first saw it in Diane's imagination. It signifies Camilla's death. I think that this also signifies reality in a way. When the key was finally associated with the box the dream sequence ended and the ugly truth became apparent (or not). It's also important to note that the key plays a major part in the reason for Diane to start her dream. When Diane saw the key, she was wrecked with guilt and this triggered her imagination.

Club Silencio
I seriously don't know but I think that this is the moment that divides reality from imagination. It's the only part in the movie where what's real and what's not is actually talked about. The man on the stage tells his audience that everything is unreal and the music and songs they were listening to were playbacks from a tape-recording. Also this is the moment when Diane and Rita found the blue box.

The monster
This part is really difficult to explain. The monster signifies the moment when Diane met with the hit-man at the Diner and made the decision to kill her lover: Camilla. In the dream sequence, the monster was associated with another person: a nameless man who always dreamed about meeting the monster. The monster was this man's worst nightmare. In the real world, this man existed and he was in the same Diner as Diane on that faithful day. Diane made eye-contact with the man at the same moment she made the terrible decision; that was the exact moment when the monster came into existence. In her dream Diane dumped that feeling on the nameless man and she transferred her fear onto him.

Betty
Betty is the name Diane gave herself in her dream. Betty was also the name of the waitress in the Diner. I think that the decision she took in the Diner made her hate herself and in a perfect world she wouldn't be herself and her name wouldn't be Diane...so she took the first name she saw: written on the waitress' badge.

The Psychic neighbor
When the neighbor saw Rita/Camilla with Diane/Betty she warned her of big trouble. I think that the neighbor signifies Diane's rational thinking in the dream telling her that everything was perfect: she was finally a great actress, had people who loved her and admired her talent...and she was really happy just like how she was the first time she came to Hollywood. The presence of Rita/Camilla was going to ruin it all...again. She wanted to stop herself from doing the same mistake all over again.

Well that's it. I admit that there are many, many more things which I haven't mentioned but the above are all points which I spent a lot of time mulling over in my mind. Anything else that I left out is either very easy to understand or impossible to rationalize.

Eva Longoria with no make-up

2008-06-02T11:43:00.001-07:00

Click here to visit my photo-editing site. I found a picture of Eva Longoria without any make-up...I guess its true that no one's really perfect after all. Anyway I decided to work some PhotoShop magic on her and here's the result. I offer photo editing service for very cheap prices so don't forget to visit my site.

A day in the life of Paris Hilton

2008-06-02T00:52:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what life is like for Paris Hilton? I mean she is a celebrity and has an ego the size of a planet sure but I think that she has totally earned what she has...and I'm not talking about her money, what I'm referring to is her celebrity status, she really worked for that. What I find myself wondering about is if she actually planned it all or if it happened by accident while she blundered away through her daily life. She'd wake up one morning and be like:
"hmmm good morning Paris, ahhh the sun hurts my eyes...too much partying again. Wait who's this sleeping besides me? Criss Angel?! OMG that's hot...not as hot as my celebrity tits and snitch...I think I'll flash them some more at downtown LA tonight and make sure the paparazzi get clear celebrity shots...hmm that's hot. Speaking of my snitch, I think I'll allow Rick Solomon to release the sex-tape after all, what the heck, he needs the money I need the fame. Loves it. I'll make sure to play the angry victim afterwards and make people love me some more...I'm such a good actress and damn that's hot. I think I'll play the victim a bit more and drive while I'm dead drunk and make sure that the police catch me this time grrr. I'll be sent to prison and that would mean more media coverage on poor Paris Hilton. That would be super hot...damn now if that bitch Britney Spears wouldn't continue stealing the spotlight...although I would never shave my head. I like my bleached blond hair so much. That's hot..."

set a record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours

2008-05-30T02:43:00.000-07:00

Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours - it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

Help set a record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours, through a monumental worldwide event known as Download Day. Here’s how you can help: Host a party to download Firefox; you provide the people and we’ll provide the party favors. Get the word out; tell your friends, your neighbors, your grandma, anyone and everyone to participate in Download Day. You can also put a “Download Day” badge on your blog, profile or website.

Most importantly go to the Download Day website and pledge to download Firefox 3. By signing up you will receive an email to remind you to download Firefox 3 when it becomes available. With your help the Firefox community can go down in history.

By the way, the official date for the launch of Firefox 3 will be posted here soon - so check back! Join the community and this effort by pledging today.

IPhone 2

2008-05-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

All Mac-fans might already know that there's a new iPhone in the works. Of course nothing's official but, as always, there's loads of speculations: there is still going to be an 8Gb version, the glossy back will be replaced by a black glossy back (I have to agree that it looks nicer and I'm sure that finger marks will be less conspicuous too :) ), the new iPhone will probably support 3G and GPS too. Can't wait!!

Slicked-Back-Hair

2008-05-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

Will wonders ever cease to amaze? Apparently in America there is currently a rally organized by men who like their hair slicked back. They are really angry at the way Hollywood portrays men who choose this hairstyle. I have to say that I never really noticed this...but now that they mention it a lot of movies spring in mind which show men with slicked-back-hair as untrustworthy villains. such movies include Charlie's Angels (the movie), The Matrix...and others. Apparently, such movies make people automatically tend not to trust men with slicked-back-hair. I guess they do have to right to protest, people should learn not to judge people by their looks...but wouldn't it have been easier if they just changed their hair-style?

What's wrong with Religion?

2008-04-15T06:21:00.001-07:00

Many people who know me are aware that I have issues with religion, and I'm not referring to any type of religion. In my opinion, all religions are dangerous, some more than others, but it is my sincere belief that the world would be a much better place without any form of religion. I admit that there was once a time when I seriously wanted to believe in all the magics that tried to answer the most fundamental of human questions, but for me this was impossible. I even took my A-Level in religion so as to try and understand how such feeble and childish beliefs are still popular in this age of reason (BTW, I passed my A-Level with a B-merit :)). My education on the subject further proved to me how insane the whole topic is. But I still wanted to believe, I mean if everyone around me believes and has faith, then why can't I? Surely there is nothing wrong with faith?
One day I was zapping through the channels on TV and a documentary on Auschwitz happened to get my attention. I must say that I was very familiar with the historical happenings during the Nazi reign but I had also never seen what had really happened, the visuals were horrifying...it was the ugliest thing that I had ever seen in my entire life. I just couldn't understand how people could do things like this to other people. There are still many people who follow Nazi ideologies; how can there be people who are so evil? The truth is that these people aren't evil at all, they don't hide a set of horns under their hair, they don't take part in satanic rituals during their weekends and I'm sure that they don't have a taste for human flesh. These are people who like the smell of flowers, like chocolate, hate Monday mornings, love watching funny movies and enjoy a Saturday night-out with their buddies. They also happen to have a strong belief that they're superior to some other people because of their lineage, the way they look etc... Nazism is an ideology, a belief based on strong human emotions and these people have been raised up in an environment that respects that kind of ideology. This is exactly what's dangerous about religion; faith being the basis of most, if not all religions, asks people that they should belief in something completely without including reason and rationality. This is all well and good if you want to believe in something but if you're making a whole society believe in something which goes against all reason then yes I have a big problem with that. If you're throwing rationality out of the window, and making everyone in a society do the same, you'll soon get incidents like children dying because their parents refuse blood transfusion, religion being taught in schools instead of science, suicide bombings, holy wars, women being punished/killed because they have been raped (don't tell me that there is any rationality behind this one), hanging homosexuals, burning people at the stake, shooting women for showing an inch of their skin etc etc. A society following rules written down in an archaic piece of literature is something very scary and people should have nightmares about it.
We are finally advancing into an age of reason and the fact that people are still blindly believing what they're being told to believe instead of reasoning things just highlights the vast difference between static ideologies and the more dynamic ones which engage people in complex cognitives processes.
Many people justify their faith by saying that it gives them meaning and that it somehow teaches them love and compassion towards one another. This is very true and if you seriously believe that then I would certainly not stop you but it's also true that to feel connected with the ultimate meaning of life and be loving towards your neighbor you don't need to believe that God impregnated a woman with magic. These are the the irrational beliefs that make people dangerous because they are things that require absolute belief and it's so easy for others to make fun of these beliefs. You can't expect a Muslim to believe in a virgin birth, and you can't expect a Christian to believe that if you sacrifice your life to Islam you will be rewarded with 72 virgins. In short, religion divides people by making them believe in things which aren't real, it stops them from forming real moral values; who would you think is doing a good deed? Christians who spend there life helping the needy because they wants to go to heaven and please their god? What about people who choose to help the needy because they truly believe that there actions will make a difference to the better? Religious people usually do their version of good by following the rules that they've been taught. If one of these rules allowed people to kill each other because they had black hair, I am 100% sure that there will be people who will actually do it. This is exactly what happened with Nazis, they really thought that what they were doing was right...it's not the people who are evil, but rather it's the ideologies that are truly evil. And anyway, I don't see why people are still searching for the true meaning of life and everything, it's so obvious that the answer is 42.

Making money with Adsense and Blogger

2008-04-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I read some posts on a random blog about Google's Adsense and while I admit that it all sounded too good to be true, I decided to try it out...so off I went to the Adsense site and created my account. Setup was really easy (seeing as I already had an account with Google's Gmail) and I managed to place my first adverts on a Freewebs website I already had. I thought that this would be enough to start earning cash with Adsense...I was dismally disappointed. So I started thinking of creating a better site where people are most likely to visit for information...a bit more research and I realized that the best informational sites are blogs which deal with one particular subject. Blogger.com is a free, easy to use, blog facility by Google. If you already have a Gmail account, setup is extra-easy. My first Blog was about dieting...more blogs followed (this being one of them). The following are some pointers that might help you earn some easy-cash with adsense:

Increase hits to your website. This is without doubt the most important thing to consider since the more visitors you get, the more clicks you receive. You get more visitors by promoting your blog and by exposing as many direct-links to your blog as possible. This will make it possible for search engines to rank your blog. I found that the best way to do this is to register yourself with a forum that is relevant to your blog, and include a direct link to your blog in the signature, so that each time you place a post on the forum, there will be a direct link to your blog.
Make people re-visit your blog. You do this by writing high-concept, well-written, relevant and interesting posts. Also you need to make your visitors understand that you are interested in them and in what they think, you can do this by replying to any comments that your visitors leave on your blog. You might also consider leaving comments on your visitors' blogs. By creating a good relationship with your visitors you will be able to exchange links which are then placed on either blog (another method of exposing your blog and to let search engines rank your blog).
Make interesting posts. As I have already mentioned, your posts need to be interesting so as to stop visitors from hitting the back-button on their browser and to encourage visitors to visit your blog again. Interesting posts must not have grammatical mistakes, should be concise, straight to the point, relevant and, if possible, include some humor. Also, posts which include relevant pictures and video clips are more interesting than posts which are only text-based. So make it a point to include at least one picture in each post.
After you start receiving huge amounts of visitors (5000 visitors a day can be considered as really good), you need to increase your CTR (click through rate), i.e. how many visitors click on the adverts. The higher the CTR, the more you earn. Once I earned $3 from just 2 clicks because the first 2 visitors to my blog clicked on an advert. On another occasion, I received less than $2 from about 50 clicks, simply because many of my visitors did not click on the adverts. To increase your CTR, you must include keywords in your posts that generate relevant ads. For example, if your blog is about dieting, make sure that you mention the word 'diet' as much as possible in all your posts. To increase your CTR you must also place your ads in the appropriate place on your blog. For example, adverts at the bottom of a page are known to result in a very low CTR simply because people do not see them.
Be patient. If you've never done this before don't expect to start earning from day one, in fact, don't expect to start earning unless your blog is about 2 months old. Make frequent (at least one every 2 days) relevant posts with relevant titles, include as many relevant keywords as possible, and expose the blog's link in as many online places as possible so that search engines will be able to find your blog.

I cannot really say how much I earn from my blog because Google AdSense does not allow it's members to divulge their earnings. Suffice it to say that for now I'm not complaining although there is still a lot of improvement to be expected. Also I'm still in the process of promoting my blogs so I'm expecting a lot more visitors than what I'm getting right now, which will obviosly mean in more income :)
That's it I guess, happy blogging and good luck!

Tomorrow won't come soon enough

2008-04-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had that feeling when you wake up in the morning and you totally don't feel like going to work and you can't really look forward to the end of the day because you'll know that after the day's work you'll have to go to work again the next morning and the morning after that? Come Thursday and you start school which is better than work at least cos you'll be with your friends and there are no major responsibilities...but still school is not real freedom...can't wait for the weekend...but wait! Saturday is another school day :( which only leaves Sunday...a whole day of freedom...if only I didn't have to waste the whole day working on my assignments and hope that I'll be able to finish them in time. Monday starts again and it's back to work and I really don't feel like going. It would be so much better if I stayed in bed and maybe continue that dream where I won the lottery, opened a business that started self-sustaining from day one and spent the next 10 years of my life spreading my genes around, got married 15 times to the hottest models, had a palace all of my own, spent another 10 years living on a deluxe giant-yacht, spent my last years living in a Californian suburb where all the resident's dreams have come true and yet the lawns are as green as any other suburban paradise and all the picket fences are white-washed every day and all that needs to be done is wait for that single moment right before I die when my whole life flashes in front of my eyes and it'll be like watching the best movie ever.gtg now, have to get back to my work

Movie Review: The Mist

2008-03-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I managed to get hold of The Mist on DVD. I have to say that this was one of the best movies I've ever seen. The Mist is a movie adaptation of Stephen King's novel with the same title and it was directed by Frank Darabont. This isn't the first time that Frank directed a Stephen King movie; many of you might recall The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, both of which are in my top-ten list of favorite movies. Frank Darabont did an excellent job with The Mist...it couldn't have been any better!
I've identified Frank Darabont's variable list that are included in most of his movies:

Create characters which the audience can identify with
Make the audience love the good characters (the good guys I mean)
Make the audience really hate the bad characters
Be ruthlessly cruel with these characters (both the good as well as the bad characters)

With The Mist, Frank Darabont touched all the above points, particularly the first and the last one. Frank's aim is to make you feel as many emotions as possible. While watching this movie I felt these emotions (strictly in the following order):

Helplessness
Despair
Fear
Deep seething rage
Joyful contempt
Fear
Joy
Total helplessness
Heart-wrenching sadness
Shock
Sorrow

If you don't feel at least four of the above emotions while watching The Mist, you might try visiting your GP to see if you're really human. I need to point out that I HATED the ending, a big shocker, yes, but it was so very sad and so unfair I couldn't think straight for the rest of the day.
There is a back-story to the whole thing, mostly dealing with monsters in the mist but the movie is so smart and so character driven that you hardly pay any attention to it. Basically the story revolves around a group of people who become trapped together when an unnatural mist surrounds the grocery store they're in. Soon they realize that there are lurking dangers in the mist and anyone trying to escape dies a horrible death. However the dangers inside the grocery store far surmounts the dangers outside and we get to see how fear and crazy-talk can make people do unspeakable things to each other (think: Jews being killed in concentration camps, suicide bombers, holy wars, witch-hunts etc). This movie highlights the dangers of Faith and why a society should never base their values on what's written in archaic books or the ramblings of power-thirsty, attention-seeking dictators: rules+irrationality=disasters.
Frank Darabont created the best on-screen villains ever: Mrs Carmody. I am a very peace-loving person who opposes any kind of violence, but seriously, if I was one of the people in that grocery store I would have enjoyed torturing her ass off. I hated her so much, she was so evil and I just loved hating her every time she opened her mouth.
This movie is a must see (though if you're a religious republican you're gonna hate it, trust me), and even though the ending is 100% not cool, I guess Frank used it to draw any remnants of unsurfaced emotions from the viewer, and with that, he receives a big A+ for meeting his goal.

Why some people refute Evolution

2008-03-17T03:48:00.001-07:00

Many people, particularly US Republicans think that there is a huge issue on the Theory of Evolution. This results from widespread misinformation particularly in America where the Republican party uses Jesus as their poster-boy to lure in votes from the religious. People refuse to believe in it for the following reasons:

They don't really understand what evolution is.
Their relatives and friends are against evolution, so they are against evolution as well.
If the introduction of the bible is wrong than that means than everything else in the bible is wrong too so they refute evolution no-matter how much much sense it makes or how much proof there is in favor of the topic ( check this link).

People who don't understand evolution often have the following misconceptions on the topic:

If people evolved from apes, then apes should have become extinct.
The Theory of Evolution is a theory and theories are just that because there is not enough evidence to suggest otherwise.
They think that there isn't enough proof in favor of evolution.

I will resolve the above misapprehensions here:

Life began million of years ago (about 2.7 billion years) and is mostly made up of the following: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. All these were abundant on planet earth during those times. Science knows more or less how life started and they have successfully created life in laboratories; and I'm not talking about eggs and sperm here, I'm referring to creating living organisms from completely inanimate materials. The first organisms were uni-cellular and very basic (a lot like the modern amoeba). These organisms evolved to adapt to the diverse forms of environment: first the sea, then earth and finally the sky. You will find living organisms who are adapted to living in waters which are above boiling point or living in the coldest regions of the earth and other places that were previously thought impossible to support life. So how do organisms evolve to suit their environment? This mostly happens thanks to mutations. Mutations are small changes that occur spontaneously to the genes. This happen in the very early stages of conception. Mutations can be helpful or they may be harmful. An example of a harmful mutation is albinism. Although albinism occurs a lot, you rarely find albinos in the wild. This is because albino organisms are not well adapted to living in most environments...albinos are often victims of predators since their white color makes them easily recognizable. However, albinism is quite popular in domestic animals since they are not susceptible to natural predators. On the other hand, mutations can be very helpful with allowing a species to continue its existence. A good example is the peppered moth. Originally, the vast majority of peppered moths had light coloration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-colored trees and lichens which they rested upon. However, due to widespread pollution during the Industrial Revolution in England, many of the lichens died out, and the trees which peppered moths rested on became blackened by soot, causing most of the light-colored moths, to die off due to predation. This is the best example of evolution. Of course evolution under normal circumstances usually takes millions of years.

People did NOT evolve from apes. But both apes and people evolved from a common ancestor. Also, there is no reason why apes should be extinct since they are perfectly well adapted to living in their own environment just like humans are perfectly adapted to their own environment. If you get a group of people and throw them in a jungle they will find lots of problems with coping with the new environment and most probably will not survive for more than a few weeks. It is important to understand that evolution is not a linear process, i.e. it usually branches out in different directions so more than one species can originate from the same ancestor. Consider horses and zebras. They both have the same common ancestor but none of them died out; they're both thriving and well adjusted at living in their own environments. Or take dogs and wolves as another example; wolves are the ancestors of dogs. Poodles and Labradors both share a common ancestor which is the wolf. continuing with dogs as an example, this is one of the best ways for people to understand evolution since it is an artificial rendering of evolution. Dog breeders choose the traits that they want to make evident in later generations, example if they want a dog with short legs, the dogs with the shortest legs are always bred until eventually, in later generations, the right height is reached. However it would be highly uncommon for animals with short legs to thrive in natural environments. I just can't understand how people can argue with such strong evidence.
Evolution is a Theory yes, just as gravity is a theory. The only reason they are theories is because they are still waiting for proof to show the contrary of what it is that they are stating. In other words, there is still nothing that proves the contrary of what they are saying. All proof shows that gravity and evolution are 'Good' theories, but there will never be enough proof to make it stop being a theory. Many people think that the term "Theory" in science has the exact same meaning as the same term used in every day speech. To better understand what science means by the term "Theory" you'll have to understand the Scientific Method, which explains the occurrence of a natural phenomenon. First someone (usually a scientist) comes up with a hypothesis which is equivalent to any other idea. As soon as the hypothesis is publicized other scientists will bombard it with experiments in an attempt to disprove it. Think of a computer program undergoing testing. If the results of the experiments do not disprove the hypothesis, then this becomes a theory. to read more about this click here.

Also I really hate it when religious people come out with a phrase like "There is a lot of proof against evolution...bla bla". Then they fail to mention what this proof is. Excuse me! If you think that way: You're wrong. There is no single piece of evidence against the Theory of Evolution. If you don't want to believe it and you rather believe in fairy tales than you are just a self proclaimed STUPID.

Cheating in exams or tests

2008-03-17T01:56:00.001-07:00

I assume that anyone who is sitting at a test or an exam would want to pass. I hope that you all take your exams seriously and study well for them. However, having a backup plan in case you forget what you studied can be a big nerve-calmer...Obviously, for the following cheats you will need to have notes so there is still some 'studying' involved. Therefore the first step is to make notes.

Make notes in point form.
get notes from relevant books or notes jotted down during classes.
work past papers and include the answers in these notes.
identify trends common in past papers, i.e. identify which questions appear in more than one past paper. These are the most important.

Now the next step is to find ways and means of getting access to these notes during the exam. Do one or more of the following:

print the notes in fine print and hide these in your pocket / in your shoes. During the exam skim through the paper and identify the questions to which you don't know the answers. keep these in mind and ask for permission to go to the toilet. When you get there open the notes and identify the answers..now dash back to your seat before you forget the answers, jot them down quickly in point form and then use these points to expand them into proper answers. This is the best way and probably the safest way of cheating during exams.
If you use admittance cards for exams: scan the card in high resolution then use Photoshop or any other picture editing software to insert notes between the lines of text on the card. Print the card and cut it in the same size as the original card. Make sure to match the colour of the ink and that you do not overcrowd the card with notes. It's best if you only use this method if the cards are not checked. I've used this method and it worked but the school I go to never checks the cards, we just put them on the desk during exams.
I love this one: Get a Coke bottle or any other beverage bottle, carefully remove the wrapping from around the bottle. Make sure that you leave the wrapping intact. Scan the wrapping and use Photoshop to remove the words in fine print (y'know the words that tell you how many calories, vitamins etc are present in that particular beverage). Now use fine print to type down as many notes as possible. Print it (on glossy paper if you want to be extra careful) , cut it out and stick it back on the bottle. Make sure that the bottle is not empty. Leave the bottle on the desk during the exam and sip some of its contents from time to time to add more realism and conviction. If the invigilators ask you to remove the bottle, just tell them that the stress of the exam makes you feel parched. I tried this cheat twice and it worked perfectly! I was sitting in the front row and the invigilator was just a few feet away from me and she never noticed a thing! If I passed those 2 exams it's all thanks to this cheat.

For the following method you will require the help of two or more people: Buy a big eraser, the bigger the better, and during the exams write a question on the back of the eraser (example: Question 2 b) with a pencil. Now make a signal which you and your friends have agreed upon (example: tap your fingers on the desk or cough twice). Your friend will now ask you for the eraser from which he/she will read the question you wrote down. Your friend will now rub off your question with his/her finger, write the answer and pass it on to you. If the invigilator becomes suspicious, quickly rub off the text on the eraser with your thumb so as to eliminate all proof. It's best if you practice this before the exam and try not to make the whole charade obvious to the casual viewer.
Another method is to get an old watch, dismantle it and behind the time hands put a small circular piece of paper with notes in fine print. Wear long sleeves for extra security. If you need to access these notes during the exams just lift your sleeve and casually look at your watch as if you're checking the time. Again don't over-do it and don't make it obvious. It's best if you do this while the invigilator is looking away.
Etch notes on one side of a pencil or on a ruler. Use a sharp razor to do this and don't etch too deep, make the etches as fine as possible so that not even the casual viewer can see these.
Get a translucent pen and dismantle it. Print notes in very fine print and wrap this around the part that contains ink (it's best if you use glue for this). Now put the pen back together and give a light coating of varnish to the pen so as to make it less translucent.
if you are using a calculator for the exam do the following (the calculator must be black): get a black pen/marker and write your notes on the back of the calculator. These will be practically invisible unless light shines from a particular angle.
Get an arm band (such as the ones joggers use to fix iPods to their arm) and wear this under your sleeve. now get a rubber-band (a wide one and needs to be extra stretchy and extra long) and write notes on it with a pen. attach one end of the rubber band to the arm-band and stretch it to your hand, loop the other end through one of your fingers and read the notes from the rubber band. in case an invigilator gets suspicious, unloop the rubber band from your finger and the rubber band snaps back into your sleeve so there will be no proof of what you were doing (unless they make you undergo a strip search...but I think that that would be in breach of some civic rights).
You can also convince someone to take the test instead of you. Find someone that looks like you, give them your ID card and pay him/her for their service. This cheat is often underlooked but works fine particularly when large groups of people are sitting for the exam. The ID card isn't "really" checked since people often appear completely different in ID photos.

That's it I guess, enjoy. The thrill of cheating during exams is priceless, it's like parachuting only less scary and there are no parachutes involved :) ...and
whateva', I do what I want...

Please keep in mind that if you get caught you'll get into a lot of trouble, so be careful and I'm not responsible for what you do...OK?
Good Luck !