Facebook in Malay

Facebook is now available in Malay (Bahasa Melayu).



This is a remarkable enhancement for users in Malaysia. As is stands, Facebook claims to have over 600,000 users in Malaysia. I wouldn't be surprised if this number triples very quickly, now that the language barrier has been removed.



Bravo, Facebook!

Your waiters are horrible!

Old Town White Coffee, service tonight was really bad. No kidding. Don't think we'll be back anytime soon. Hope you like the coins.

Why do I have to wait so long?

Waiting to catch an earlier flight out of Singapore. Mine's booked for 9:15pm. I arrived at 6:15 and there are 75 people on standby for the 7pm and 8pm flights on both MAS and Singapore Airlines. The ground crew is giving me the runaround with inaccurate information - some say line up here, some say take a ticket, yadda yadda.

Should I start screaming?

Obviously they don't have a clock

My HP laptop is not working again. All this despite having it's mother board changed last week.

I'm back at the Service Centre today. Waiting for it to open. I may have to start knocking on the glass window soon.

If you're adding a debit card to your PayPal account, READ THIS TOO!

Follow up to my last post.

A little bird over at Visa has helped to explain the missing $1 in my case with Standard Chartered:

You can definitely find a whole lot of explanation on what is credit cards vs debit cards on Wikipedia. Basically, a debit card is linked to your savings account which is your money while a credit card is like its name - everything is on credit and the bank waits for you to pay them.

I believe the $1 transaction is what we term as a status check transaction which is used to validate if the card number entered is valid and "alive". Because this is a debit card, the amount is generally deducted from your savings account immediately and should be reinstated if its a status check transaction and usually does not take up to 30-days (but this depends on the bank).

Suggest that you get the SCB ppl to check if they have paid Paypal or the bank behind Paypal. If they have not done so, then SCB should credit the amount back to you immediately. If they have paid PayPal, then they should get in touch with PayPal (or the bank behind PayPal) to reimburse back the amount to them. All in all, I do not believe that the cardholder should be punished for all these discrepancies. SCB should have followed up on these disputes and it be minimal inconvenience to you.

If you're adding a debit card to your PayPal account, READ THIS FIRST!

There may be a limitation to adding debit cards to your PayPal account. In my case, I was charged a fee of US$1 (MYR 3.27), and have to now go through a time consuming process to have it refunded.



It's been 30 days since I was charged that fee in error. With both the bank and PayPal shrugging their shoulders and unwilling to take ownership of the problem, I've been left in a lurch.

On January 10, 2008, I added my Standard Chartered debit card to my list on PayPal. A day later I realised I was billed for US$1 by PayPal. Here's what PayPal had to say after I sent them an email:

We noticed that you have concerns about the MYR 3.27 (around US$1) on your card ending with 1219. By checking, we found that you added this card on Jan 10, 2008.

Please note that for any cards you add to or edit on your PayPal account, our credit card processor will place a temporary charge USD1 on your account as part of the credit card authorization process. The authorization will stay only briefly on your card and will stay in a "hold" or "pending" status. The transaction will be removed from your account within a few minutes to 30 days depending on your bank. You may see an authorization even if the card was not approved. Please do not worry. You can contact PayPal customer service again if this charge remains after 30 days. Thank you.

As usual, Standard Chartered was not aware of this problem, and was also not able to provide more information on the "temporary charge" policy. They however, advised me to wait out the 30 days as specified by PayPal, and then contact PayPal if the reversal / refund was not made by that time. In typical Standard Chartered style, not very helpful.

I've waited for 30 days, and have now sent another email to PayPal to highlight this case.

Here's my guess as to what's happening: Unlike credit cards, most debit cards do not have the feature of making a temporary charge. This is similar to what "they" do to your card when you use it at a petrol station, i.e. the bank will block off RM150 irrespective of whether you are pumping less fuel. However, you never see this transaction on your statement, as it's just a temporary charge.

Come to think of it, a little bird at Visa tried explaining this to me over the weekend, but I've lost track of the exact terms and process flow. I'll try to get her to help with a brief explanation for everyone's benefit asap.

Till then, remember to check your statements!

Is Tune Card stealing your money? - Update (1)

It turns out that scamboy's missing RM1 isn't due to any Tune Money hiccup. It may however be related to a debit card limitation.



I faced a similar problem with PayPal and my Standard Chartered debit MasterCard recently. Will blog about that soon.

Kudos to the Tune Money team for their quick response to scamboy's enquiry. However, it's a pity that their email support response-time remains unreliable. The current path to a quick response is to email Tengku Zafrul directly (tengkuzafrul@tunemoney.com), but I sense that this feedback loop will have to be improved significantly, and soon!

Standard Chartered stole my money!

UPDATE: Got a call from the bank today (February 11). Turns out that the "chip card fee" is simply the ATM card fee. It is an annual fee, and NOT a one-time fee (that was what they told me over the phone yesterday!) While I understand that the fee is regulated by Bank Negara (capped at RM8), I am disappointed that it was not mentioned / communicated during the card activation process.

Yes, I've just been cheated by Standard Chartered, again. That's a harsh claim to make, but I believe it should stand that way.

My Standard Chartered eSavers account was billed twice for a "chip card fee" amounting to RM8 per transaction (RM16 in total). All this happened, the day before Chinese New Year.

Here are my points of contention:

1) What's up with the fees? Standard Chartered claims to be leading the pack with a savings account without any fees. That's what you see on their banners and billboards. This "chip card fee" is supposedly unlike the typical annual fee for ATM cards, as it is billed only once upon activation. I'll bet my bottom dollar that you won't find this fee advertised on the brochures or terms and conditions on their website. More importantly the bank officers never informed me of this additional fee. Again, it's not the amount that I am questioning but the way this fee has been stolen from my account.



2) Why was I charged twice? This is a serious error caused by your (Standard Chartered) banking infrastructure / systems. If I had not logged in (online) to check my transaction history, I would have missed this critical error. Your customer service officer informed me that this was an error on the part of the bank, and that the case would have to be escalated for a waiver. Another 3-5 working days before this is resolved. Terrible customer experience, don't you think?



I've had just about enough headaches with this free eSavers account. I guess you definitely get monkeys when you pay peanuts.

Standard Chartered, you better buck up if you want your presence felt here in Malaysia. As for now, I'll just stick with the local favourite. Enticing me with a 7% rebate on petrol, and 3x the interest rates just doesn't cut it anymore.

*p/s: It seems as though I've been having some bad luck with financial institutions as of late - is it just me?

• Standard Chartered debit MasterCard headache
• Tune Card stole my money!

Is Tune Card stealing your money?

I just received an alert from scamboy via the comment thread on 10 things I dislike about Tune Card.

It seems that his Tune Card is now mysteriously short of RM1.



I am still awaiting feedback on whether this case is genuine, and similar to the one I faced before. If it is, then this is more than just a one in a million glitch.

If you do have a Tune Card, I would urge you to check your account balance immediately. You could be missing more than just RM1.

Related posts:

• Tune Card stole my money!

Standard Chartered debit MasterCard headache - Update (1)

It took Standard Chartered over 16 days to resolve my disputed debit card transaction.

That's ridiculous considering that the usual process takes between 3-5 working days. While the officer handling my case was polite and patient, I do believe that there were serious miscommunication issues between the customer service team and product managers.

The questions I raised in my last blog post (and letter to the bank) have yet to be answered, but here's what I've gathered thus far:

1) RM100 refund: what is the status of this process, and exactly how long would I have to wait?

16 days. The process usually takes up to 5 business days if you're lucky.

2) Debit card limitations: can debit card transactions be voided? The information I have received from the Customer Service hotline has not been consistent.

Yes. Debit card disputes are treated just like credit card disputes.

3) Customer Service runaround: Why was I given the runaround? Mr.
Kunen indicated that the the fax was only received on Tuesday, the 22nd, when I had sent it 72 hours earlier. I am not aware of whether fax machines are available in most homes, but I had to go to a local copy centre and paid RM1.50 just to have my document faxed.

Still waiting for an official response.

4) Implications to interest earnings: I stand to incur losses to my interest calculation until the refund is made. What is the bank's stand on this matter, and will I be reimbursed?

Supposedly, yes. According to the officer I spoke to, the bank will calculate the interest for the days in question, and credit the interest into my account. Depending on the amount, you're unlikely to be able to decipher whether or not this happens as you won't see it until the end of the following month. It may just be small talk.

Related posts:

• Standard Chartered debit MasterCard headache

Standard Chartered debit MasterCard headache

My recent letter to Standard Chartered. I'll post updates as it develops.

Dear Standard Chartered,

I am writing with regards to a disputed eSavers debit MasterCard transaction. This email also outlines my experience thus far, as this matter has not been resolved, 10 days after first calling in.

On a recent trip to the local petrol station, I had the unfortunate luck of being there when their outdoor credit card system was offline. I then proceeded to the counter, and asked for a full tank. However, the sales assistant claimed that their indoor credit card system could only charge a fixed amount, instead of the usual credit blocking. She proceeded to charge RM100, and advised me that she would void the transaction if I pumped less.

My bill turned out to be RM94. I got the initial transaction voided, and signed a new sales slip.

I proceeded to call the Customer Service hotline to follow up on the status of the RM100 refund. I called once on the 14th, and again on the 16th. On both these occasions, I was told that the amount would be refunded within 3 to 5 days, as it was a standard procedure for the bank. I was advised to call again if the amount was not refunded by the 18th.

As the amount had not been refunded, I called again on the 19th, and spoke to Mr. Kunen. This time around, I was told that the debit MasterCard did not support voids / refunds, and I was supposed to have received a cash refund on the spot from the merchant. After clarifying my case, I was advised to fax in my voided transaction slip for further investigation. I was specifically told that the case would be
investigated within 3 business days. Despite the inconvenience of having to fax the necessary documents, I managed to do so within an hour of that phone call. I also called the Standard Chartered hotline again to confirm receipt of the document, and the personnel on the line acknowledged this.

Sadly, when I called again on the 22nd, I was told that the documents had just been received, and would take another 3 business days to process from that point. Mind you, this was a Tuesday, over 72 hours since I had faxed the document.

I am extremely disgusted with the runaround thus far. It's been 10 days since the transaction took place.

I would be grateful if Standard Chartered could clarify the following issues:

1) RM100 refund: what is the status of this process, and exactly how long would I have to wait?

2) Debit card limitations: can debit card transactions be voided? The information I have received from the Customer Service hotline has not been consistent.

3) Customer Service runaround: Why was I given the runaround? Mr.
Kunen indicated that the the fax was only received on Tuesday, the 22nd, when I had sent it 72 hours earlier. I am not aware of whether fax machines are available in most homes, but I had to go to a local copy centre and paid RM1.50 just to have my document faxed.

4) Implications to interest earnings: I stand to incur losses to my interest calculation until the refund is made. What is the bank's stand on this matter, and will I be reimbursed?

I had assumed that after consolidating my accounts and switching to Standard Chartered, I would enjoy a superior banking experience. I now hesitate to use the bank's facilities altogether.


Sincerely,

Praveen Rajan

Also read Melissa's recent poor experience with Standard Chartered:

• Melissa Lai: Oh Lordy Lord! I am now a complainer
• Melissa Lai: Poor Customer Experience with Standard Chartered

Tune Card stole my money! - Update (3)

Issue RESOLVED - 12 days since I first blogged about the missing ringgit.

Tune Money has credited RM1 back into my account. Mind you, they credited this amount, so it's not just a user interface / web issue.


Yesterday I decided to send another reminder, but this time I copied Tengku Zafrul, CEO of Tune Money. Thanks to a little bit of luck, I managed to guess the correct email address.

Within 27 minutes, Tengku Zafrul responded, and got the ball rolling. Just over 12 hours since that email, the issue has been resolved - AND on a Sunday!

The thread below captures our communications over the weekend. Scroll down for a surprise.







And then, to cap it all off they spoil it with a typo-filled email response, from "Custtomer (sic) Service" a.k.a "Portal. Helpdesk":


In summary:

• Number of days to resolve: 12
• Number of public holidays during this period: 2
• Number of emails I had to send: 5
• Number of phone calls I made: Not at 78sen per min!
• Number of hours spent: Countless
• Reason / explanation for screw up: None given

I'm glad this matter has been resolved. To the team that responded, thank you! However, it does raise lots of questions pertaining to the quality and efficiency of the Tune Card / Tune Money service, 45 days since launching in November 2007. I will leave that to your judgment.

Lesson to be learned: If you're on Tune Card, or any other ATM / debit card for that matter, do check your transaction records frequently. In a recent comment, Adrian Oh summarises the impact of how banks can potentially profit out of these hidden scams:


As for me, it's Strike 3. I've taken the Tune Card out of my wallet. On to better things.

Related posts:

• Tune Card stole my money! - Update (2)
• Tune Card stole my money! - Update (1)
• Tune Card stole my money!
• 10 things I dislike about Tune Card

Tune Card stole my money! - Update (2)

It's been 6 days since my last post and still NO RESPONSE from Tune Money.

My account is still missing RM 1.

What's up?!

Related links:

• Tune Card stole my money! - Update (1)
• Tune Card stole my money!
• 10 things I dislike about Tune Card

Tune Card stole my money! - Update (1)

It's been 3 days since my email to Tune Money regarding a discrepancy in my account balance. I did not receive any response from them, despite the 48-hour commitment.

I then proceeded with a reminder today via email. Received a phone call from their customer service team within 15 minutes (good), followed by another clarification call 15 minutes later.

From Bad to Badder:

• It's going to take 3-5 working days to investigate the case of the missing RM1
• I forgot to include my account number in the initial email (my bad). Perhaps the email experience can be made better by using an online feedback form that automatically sends the username / account number
• The lady over the phone asked me to disclose my account balance when seeking clarification. I didn't, and neither should you

Poor experience thus far. If I were running Tune Money's web experience, I would make sure that we tracked the blogosphere, and responded fast to every viewpoint. Make someone accountable, and track Technorati, Google Blog Search, etc. You need to know what's happening on the ground - for a no-frills Internet-driven debit card, blogs can make or break your reputation.

Strike 2. One more and you're out of my wallet.

Related links:

• Tune Card stole my money!
• 10 things I dislike about Tune Card

Where is the Ground Floor?

Part 6 of the 6-part series: Photos I Wish I Had Posted In October (PIWIHPIO)

The most confusing elevator in KL is located in Starhill. No points for guessing why!



More: View all photos from the PIWIHPIO 6-part series

Tune Card stole my money!

Here's a screenshot of my balance and transactions over the last 30 days. Can you spot the discrepancy?



Simple math:

• I started with RM50
• They deducted RM9.99 for the annual fee
• Instead of a balance of RM40.01, I only have RM39.01

I haven't used my Tune Card for any purchasing transactions and I don't see anything amounting to RM1 in Tune Card's fees and charges. Perhaps my RM1 is just hiding on Christmas day.



Let's see how they respond to my email. It doesn't help that their standard turnaround time via email is 48 hours, while customer service calls cost a premium charge of RM0.78 per minute (from 7am to 6.59pm).



Note to Tune Money: to conquer online, you have to address me by my name - that's a cardinal rule. Looks like I'm just another customer today.


Related link: 10 things I dislike about Tune Card

10 things I dislike about Tune Card

Dear friendly people of Tune Money,

I just signed up for the Tune Card, after receiving confirmation via your Customer Service team that I can transfer funds from PayPal. Well, I will leave that bit for another time. Here's a review of my experience thus far.

My experience with the application, collection and activation process has been far from perfect. I am sure that this is all part and parcel of "growing up", so here's a list of improvements that I believe will make the experience a more pleasant and memorable one for your new users.

1. Treat first-timers like gold: After clicking Apply Now and acknowledging the T&C, I am taken to a page with login fields. Then I notice the secret passage way for first-time customers. What's up? The average user will always assume that signing up means a fresh application process, irrespective of whether your million-dollar back-end system ties all products to a single username.


Solution: scrap the extra click, and find another way to accommodate existing users.

2. Make your forms smarter: Have you seen it lately? SIX steps, and it's probably the longest forms I've filled since Google thought us all about simplicity goodness.


Granted you are in the business of money, where trust and security is paramount. But then again, why can't you break the norm and simplify or at least make the experience better?

Solutions:

• 6 steps - what are they? Can you tell me up front?
• Tune Money ID - make this the first focus if all applications ride on a single username. Perhaps then it would simplify the task of saving and continuing with my form at my convenience
• Test your form in Firefox - it's broken in some places where Javascript is required. Savvy users won't spread a good word if your forms break
• Hide what is not necessary until it is really needed. E.g. "Tick here if Permanent Address is same as Mailing Address". Perhaps just show me the additional fields if I need it

3. Username & password validation: Gosh, this is worse than the other local banks I am with. And NO, having more conditions for the password isn't going to make it more secure. People will just create the weakest string and write it down on a post-it. Bruce Schneier covers the topic of real world password security. I'd suggest picking up some pointers from him.



4. Security questions: "What is my dream car?" But what if this changes next year when Ferrari gets bought over by Proton? Stick with factual and historical questions. Ask Citibank - they've done a good job with this.



5. Popup madness: Seriously, have you seen how your site works with popups? It's horendous, and the inability to switch back to my main window for reference is a nightmare.



6. Remind me, it's free: I opted to collect my card from the local post office. Why not remind me via email - perhaps once it's ready for collection, or 24 hours before the targeted collection date. Fortunately, I put this down on my Nokia calendar.

7. Make it a real surprise: I would have preferred if I had the chance to open up the envelope myself. Instead, it turns out that the post office clerk has that first right. Supposedly, they have to tear off the bottom half of the confirmation slip. Think about it - most of your users are likely to be first time card holders. Why not give them that great feeling of opening up the envelope, and pulling out their Tune Card - wouldn't that be nice?



8. The little things count: Look at the mess I had to take home. The envelope was ripped because it was glued to the stack of papers inside. Moreover, the fee sheet had to be ripped out. I am sure this is just a minor anomaly, hence a heads up here for your attention.



9. Activation process: Show it to me upon login. The screen below is a few extra unnecessary clicks away.



10. Personalised emails: Just like how your team is pioneering real faces on your ads, why not put a real person behind the email replies and notifications?




I do believe that Tune Card is on to something good and great. Here's to its continued success. In the meantime, I hope it doesn't let me down with the things I want it to do for me =)

Simplicity versus Complexity

This image shows homepage screenshots of Google and Yahoo! between 1996 and 2005. Google has maintained it's simplicity over the years, while Yahoo! has chosen to be a complex directory of links.



Take a pick, it's your cup of coffee.

Credit: MIT

Simei, Sin Meng & SMRT - Update (2)

My letter to SMRT has been published verbatim in the Singapore Straits Times ST Forum.



Read: SMRT taxi driver made customer's day with kind act

For context:

• Simei, Sin Meng & SMRT
• Simei, Sin Meng & SMRT - Update (1)

Simei, Sin Meng & SMRT - Update (1)

I just received a response from SMRT, acknowledging receipt of my email.



Hope it makes Mr. Teo's day =)

For context: Simei, Sin Meng & SMRT

Simei, Sin Meng & SMRT

I just got back from a weekend with my best friends in Singapore. Here's my letter to SMRT (a Singaporean taxi operator) regarding a taxi journey on Sunday.

Dear SMRT,

The following email highlights my recent journey with an SMRT taxi, of which the experience exceeded my expectations despite the initial dissatisfaction.

My partner and I boarded the taxi with registration number SHB5507S near Neptune Court, on Sunday, December 16, around 2:15pm. The intended alighting point was Simei Street 1, which I mentioned to the driver upon boarding. Being weekend travelers from Kuala Lumpur, we were not familiar with the routes, but were happy that the driver asked us if it was okay to use the CTE, of which we duly acknowledged while stating that we preferred the fastest route.

As the journey progressed the meter fare and travel time exceeded our initial estimates. We then realised that the driver had taken us towards the Sin Meng area. At this point the fare was already about $12+, as compared to $8 when we traveled earlier in the afternoon (Simei - Neptune Court).

Upon clarification that we intended to go to Simei and not Sin Meng, the driver was unable to provide us with a travel time estimate, but assured us that he would get us there in the fastest time. At this point our itinerary was in disarray as we had spent over 20 minutes in the taxi, and were due to board a bus out of Singapore at 4:30pm from Novena Square.

Upon finally arriving at our destination in Simei, the meter fare was around $23. The driver apologised for the inconvenience, and offered to accept a fare similar to what we had paid for the past journey. We offered $10, but he refused and only took $8.

We were comforted by this act of genuine kindness, and acknowledge that even though it was an inconvenience, it could have very well been an honest error.

We would like to thank the driver for making the journey a memorable experience, and for getting us to our destination safely. Many a times we hear stories of unfriendly and dishonest taxi drivers, but not on this encounter. I believe this SMRT experience under the circumstances is a worthy benchmark to emulate.

It is definitely a "uniquely Singapore experience", and we look forward to riding with SMRT again on our next visit.

Thank you,

Praveen Rajan

Look & feel

Spruced up this blog over the weekend. Long overdue. Hopefully it's easier on the eyes now.

What do you think?

The best way to design Excel charts

If you've resolved 300 billion requests without downtime, you better be jumping about it!

Click the image to view it in its original size, or read the OpenDNS article about their recent achievement.



I've enjoyed reading both the OpenDNS blog and their newsletters (pity, it's not archived). They're doing a really good job at keeping the community active and participative. Bravo, guys!

By the way, if you haven't already started using OpenDNS, get started now.

The Nokia 6300 is a can of worms!

What's the point of using a camera phone when you can't take landscape shots by default?

Just realised this on my Nokia 6300. If I had known earlier, I would have opted for something else. Bummer.

Excerpt from MobileBurn:

As there is not a dedicated camera key, users will have to use the 6300's 2MP camera in a portrait orientation. This makes it slightly less comfortable to use, unlike other handsets where users can hold the device in a landscape orientation just like how they would use a normal camera.

I just wet my pants

The oh so lovable Google Reader has released a search function!



Read more: Find a needle in a feedstack with Google Reader

CrossLoop: great product, but is it a trojan horse? - Update (2)

The problem I was facing with CrossLoop / AVG has been RESOLVED.

If you're still facing similar problems, please try updating your AVG. Mine worked with CrossLoop using program version 7.5.476 and virus database 269.10.6/900.

Thanks to the teams at CrossLoop and AVG that were behind this, and many thanks to everyone that shared their experience via comments on this blog.

A great product listens to its users -- kudos to CrossLoop!

Related links:

• CrossLoop: great product, but is it a trojan horse? - Update (1)
• CrossLoop: great product, but is it a trojan horse?

CrossLoop: great product, but is it a trojan horse? - Update (1)

Just received a reply from CrossLoop with regards to a recent problem. No solution until AVG fixes it!

I am DISAPPOINTED. Read the email reply below.

While I trust that they have taken great steps in ensuring tight security, why are they offloading the problem to me? It may have been a better approach to take proactive steps to address this matter, either with AVG directly or by acknowledging it as a possible problem, on their website. I would consider AVG as a very popular free anti-virus software; this type of problem, irrespective of whether it is AVG's error, limits the CrossLoop user experience significantly.

This is what CrossLoop had to say in their email reply (pasted as-is):

Greetings from Crossloop tech support,

Thank you for using Crossloop and for the report! We appreciate your support. It has been brought to our attention that AVG Software is identifying our file CrossloopConnect.exe as a Trojan Virus. This is a mistake on their part. We at Crossloop are very serious about security and have done everything in our power to make Crossloop safe to use. Please go to the following page of our Web Site if you would like to read about our Security model http://www.crossloop.com/security. Please note that no other antivirus software identifies CrossloopConnect.exe as a virus. Please report this mistake to AVG so they can correct it.

Regards,
Joseph Stark
Tech Support
Crossloop Inc.
Joes@Crossloop.com
www.Crossloop.com
Stay 'in the loop" @ the CrossLoop Blog http://crossloop.typepad.com

Rule #1 with customer / technical support: "Never offload your problems onto your users!"

Related links:

• CrossLoop: great product, but is it a trojan horse?

CrossLoop: great product, but is it a trojan horse?

I've been using CrossLoop a lot lately for screen-sharing. It has helped in cases where remote troubleshooting is required, and firewall settings are cumbersome to change.



What is CrossLoop:
CrossLoop is a FREE secure screen sharing utility designed for people of all technical skill levels. CrossLoop extends the boundaries of VNC’s traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It only takes a few minutes to setup and no signup is required.

Strangely, AVG (v7.5.476, Virus DB v269.10.2/894) has been detecting my instance of CrossLoop as a trojan horse. CrossLoop now refuses to work. Has anyone else faced a similar problem?



*p/s: sorry for the geeky post!

Read this if you own a personal blog

By personal blog, I am referring to a blog where your identity is known to your readers.

I've come across many blogs with interesting blog titles usually in a mould similar to something like "The Chronicles of Praveen".

In most cases, I add these personal blogs to my list of feeds on Google Reader. Now, it's easy to sift through feeds when you're faced with only a few. But when I have to read through over 50 personal blogs, it makes more sense to have it named after the blog author's name as it sticks in my mind more than the trivial title that the author may have chosen. It's a good thing I can edit the feed name via Google Reader, but this is time consuming.

So if you're reading this post, and own a personal blog, why not use your real name as your blog title? Taking the example above, it may be better to rename it to what you see today with my blog: "Praveen Rajan".

Here's a screenshot of what my Google Reader looks like with a little "renaming" for some blogs:



Moreover, there's a better chance that your name / identity will be indexed and rated higher by search engines.

Just a thought, not a directive =)

The next revolution for images on the web

Sometimes it's the simplest innovation that sparks a (gold)rush. I like this new technology from AdBrite which is aptly called the BritePic. Likewise, Techcrunch claims that the technology will redefine the img tag. Check out the demo video below:



What all this means is that you can now embed additional *stuff* on images / photos, which would mean more ways to monetize one of the greatest bandwidth-hogging items on the Internet. Watermarks, logos and ads beneficial to advertisers / copyright owners, and additional community features such as sending to friends, linking, embedding and zooming (nice!)

Here's one I just created. This is a photo of my buddy, Edmund, who celebrated his birthday yesterday. He had a blast of a party in KL! Try zooming in to see his sweat beads.


Related links:

• TechCrunch: Redefining the img tag
• BritePic: official website
• AdBrite: official website

Sayonara Symantec, Hello AVG!

I was hit by a Trojan.Dropper over the weekend. Somehow, a file I downloaded from the Ares P2P network slipped past my Norton AntiVirus. The trojan horse was designed to make use of the Symantec email proxy to send out spam. Thankfully, my email proxy was not configured, as I switched to using Gmail fulltime in 2005.



Norton couldn't detect this trojan horse, even after a full scan (2 hours, million+ files). Trend Micro's Housecall couldn't detect it either. I finally settled on the free edition of AVG, which managed to detect the infected files, and saved the day!

Tip: Install at least 2 different anti-virus programs on your machine. Configure one to be your primary / default for auto-protect and emails. It may come in handy in situations such as these where a second opinion (scan) is required.

How Google Apps killed my Tuesday

I spent the last few hours trying to sort out my email accounts spread across a few domains. The objective was to centralise everything on Google Apps (now open to everyone), and then try and manage my assorted email accounts from a single Gmail / Google Apps account.



I'll spare you my headache, as I didn't achieve what I set out to do. So here's a list of things I wish Gmail and Google Apps could have told me much earlier:

1. You can't POP email from another Gmail / Google Apps account (SNAG!)
2. You can't use the slick Gmail for Mobile J2ME Java-app with Google Apps (SNAG!)
3. The only real mobile app that works with Google Apps is targeted at the BlackBerry (for now) (SNAG!)
4. Mirroring is possible by using Gmail / Google Apps' forward as a copy (JOY!)
5. The "on behalf of" bug is solved with Google Apps -- but you still won't solve it if you're managing multiple "From:" addresses within a single account (SNAG!)
6. The custom URLs for each Google Apps module (e.g. http://start.praveenrajan.com) works as a redirect to a Google domain rather than an actual alias (SNAG!)
7. It is possible to ask for more free accounts for your Google Apps domain. I now manage 2 domains, with 50 and 100 user accounts respectively (JOY!)
8. When importing / exporting contacts between two Gmail / Google Apps accounts, it forgets to take the Groups with it -- I had to create all my contact Groups from scratch (SNAG!)
9. Managing 300+ contacts on Gmail is a PITA! Why can't I duplicate an email address across contacts?(SNAG!)
10. If you've got over 1,000 messages, there's a simple way for you to apply an action on all items -- upon selecting all conversations on the page, the app reveals an option to Select ALL conversations in the Inbox / with a particular label (JOY!)

Final score -- 7 snags, and 3 joys!

I didn't achieve my objective of centralising and mirroring all my emails. However, I still maintain that switching to Gmail / Google Apps is a great way to boost your productivity. I've been managing my assorted collection of personal and work-related emails on Gmail since 2005 and there's no turning back to my days with Outlook and gigantic PST files.

By the way, Google Apps is a great suite of software for small/medium businesses, and I'd recommend checking it out despite the little snags published here.

Related links:

• Google Apps: Official website
• Digg: Gmail Sends Out Email "On Behalf of", Not "as" a Personal Email Address
• Gmail Help Discussion: Accounts "On Behalf Of"
• Gmail Help: Gmail options for your mobile
• Gmail Help: Does the Gmail for mobile application support Google Apps mail accounts?
• Chris Pirillo: Outlook 2003 Sucks Ass. Bigtime.

Smart way to get users to complete their profile

Here's how Geni did it. Simple and sweet!

Geni indicates your progress in completing your profile by displaying it in a large percentage format, e.g. -- Your profile is 30% complete.

Profiles are usually lengthy and cumbersome, but this seems to be a simple way to incentivise users to complete it. I like how they've gone the extra mile to tell me how I can complete it faster, with breakdowns of what they consider to be important sections.

Nice work, Geni -- keep it up!



Related links:

• Praveen Rajan: Tracing my family tree with Geni