Heya, did you know you can now directly withdraw your money (usually in USD) from PayPal directly into your bank account of your choice in Malaysia? PayPal was a pain all these while because they do not allow Malaysians to withdraw money out easily. Instead, Malaysians have to live with the fact that money can be withdrawn to a Singaporean bank and then TT to a Malaysian bank or withdraw to a debit card. Both are big hassle and stunted e-commerce growth for Malaysia for a while.

But hey, you can withdraw it out now. Easy as pie. Here, let me show you how.

First, Login into your PayPal account and go to My Accounts and Withdraw menu.

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Second, choose Withdraw to your bank account.

Third, you have to create a bank account. Here, you have to fill in the details of your bank account. I have an HSBC account, so I filled in as below. Tip: Click on the Details link for a reference chart.

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Forth, once you are done, it's time to withdraw your money! Fill in the amount of money you would like to withdraw and click on the Continue button.

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Fifth, the rest of the steps are just confirmations and you are done. Isn’t it easy as pie?

Important things to know. PayPal charges 2 fees for your withdrawals.

  • Currency Exchange. PayPal uses their currency exchange rates which more than likely be favours their transaction.
  • If you withdraw anything less than RM400. An additional RM3.00 will be charged to your transaction. (see screenshot)
  • image







tiger

We would like to wish all our readers a very Happy Chinese New Year. It is the year of Tiger and may your year be a roaring success. Roar!







image When using reportviewer control on the web page. By default, the reportviewer has a fix width and height to 400px. But how do we change the value of width and height?

The answer I get from some forums, some said that set ZoomMode=”FullPage”, some recommended to set SizeToReportContent=”true”. Even with the 2 suggestions, I still cannot solve the problem.

The final answer I get it works is:

<rsweb:ReportViewer Width="100%" SizeToReportContent="true" AsyncRendering="false" … ></rsweb:ReportViewer>

AsyncRendering=”false” is the key. It will render inline HTML instead of using IFRAME. I have tested it from Internet Explorer 7.0, Firefix 3.0 and Google Chrome. :)

Be careful when setting the AsyncRendering property. Check out the explanation from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms252090%28VS.80%29.aspx

Good luck and happy programming!

Answer from: http://www.sqlmonster.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/sql-server-reporting/15508/ReportViewer-control-and-scaling-issue







image Did you know that by default, you are unable to save a file larger than 4gb onto your thumbdrive? As technology improves, thumb drives nowadays come with very large spaces but are defaulted to disallow files more than 4gb of size.

Granted, file sizes more than 4gb are quite rare, so not all of you will face this problem. Even so, sooner or later, we will encounter this problem so it would be good to be prepared.

The solution is quite simple. Just follow a couple of steps below and your thumb drive will be ready to accept ANY file sizes.

Technical box: Thumb drives by default are formatted as either FAT16 or FAT32. Being a very old technology, the maximum file size a FAT32 can handle is only up to 4gb. To solve this, all we need to do is to reformat the thumb drive to NTFS format. (a format that Windows XP has been using)

Step One. Plug in your Thumb Drive.

Step Two. Right click on My Computer Icon and select Manage

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Step Three. Select Device Manager. Find the your USB Thumb Drive to the right. Right Click that and select Properties.

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Step Four. Go to the Policies Tab. Select Optimized for performance. Click OK to continue.

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Step Five. Close all windows. You are done with the settings. Now you have to format your Thumb Drive. IMPORTANT: Make sure you have nothing in your Thumb Drive that is important. If you do, save it on your desktop first.

Step Six. Open My Computer. Select your Thumbdrive. Right Click and Select Format. IMPORTANT: Make sure you read Step Five before continuing, you have been warned!

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Step Seven. In the Format window, you can now select NTFS as the File system. Doing this will finally allow saving file sizes that are more than 4gb onto your thumb drive. Click Start to continue and wait for the formatting to complete.

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And you are done! Go ahead and try saving a large file onto your thumb drive. Note that you have to do this once for every thumb drive you have. So just repeat the steps above and you will be fine.

Another important note: Once you have selected NTFS as your File system for your thumb drive, you MUST now select Safely Remove Hardware before you remove your Thumb Drive. Failing to do so will cause files to be corrupted on your thumb drives.

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This also proves one thing I have been telling my friends all these while, if your thumb drives remained in its original file format of FAT32, there is absolutely NO NEED to Safely Remove Hardware before you unplug your thumb drives.

Three Cheers to those who have been clicking on the Safely Remove Hardware all these years.

 

 

(photo by existentist)







tagcloudWon’t it be fun if your website has an animated Tag Cloud with the tags flying within a box. Can’t imagine? You may check out from HieuUK’s web site (at the Tags section on your left)

When I first saw this on the web site, I was immediately attracted with this little animated tag cloud. So I decided to research on how this little widget works.

What I have discovered the tag cloud he made was using SWFObject.  “SWFObject is an easy-to-use and standards-friendly method to embed Flash content, which utilizes one small JavaScript file.

Step One, get the swfObject.js from Geoff Stearns http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/.

 

<script type="text/javascript" src=”swfobject.js"></script>

Step Two, embed the tagcloud.swf file using the SWFObject.

 

var widget_so7565612 = new SWFObject("…/tagcloud.swf”, "tagcloudflash", "202", "200", "9", "#ffffff"); …. other scripts

One thing I respect the most is the way he designed the tag cloud to be very flexible. Just look at the possible modifications.

  • Ability to change the box size
  • Ability to change the background color
  • Ability to edit the tag name one by one including its hyperlink, its font size, etc.

I would also like to highlight that any tag name with html code is written with URL Encoded Characters. For example: <a href=’http://google.com/’>Google</a> is written as

%3Ca+href%3D’http%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com%2F’%3EGoogle%3C%2Fa%3E

Wow! That’s all. It is the most wonderful tag cloud I have seen so far. If you decide to implement this on your website or blogs, please do let me know in the comments below!







image The problem with search engine is they only show you what is the most relevant to your search query. It doesn’t take TIME into consideration. Well, maybe it does, but not as flexible as you want it. Here is why.

For example, if you type Penang into Google, you’ll get to see all links that is related to Penang. You’ll get tourism links, maps, wikipedia entry and a couple of hotel guides to make your stay in Penang pleasant.

 

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What if you want to know what happened in Penang recently? Do you type What Happened in Penang? Or Penang Happenings? You’ll get unrelated results! Take a look.

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Nothing important right? The first link actually gave you link that comes from the year 2007. That is exactly not what you wanted. What if I tell you there is a way around this? Take a look at the screen shot below. I asked Google to show me web pages that are created only within the last 24 hours. Won’t that give me the latest news and happenings in Penang? Take a look.

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Oh look. Very recent happenings in Penang. Now, that’s more like it.

This is, of course, not limited to Penang. You can search for any location in the world. What if you want to know the latest election results of your country? Latest promotion in your local super mall. Latest news on your favourite celebrity?

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Haha, even the latest torrent in Mininova is displayed. Latest YouTube of her and latest lyrics of her songs too. If are her fan, you’ll be very excited to check it out right?

 

Tell me how to do it

Now, how to make this happen? It is actually very simple. It is one of those hidden options within Google which is rarely visited and appreciated. This is what you have to do.

image Step One. Beside the Search TextBox, there is a link called ‘Advanced Search’. Click on it.

 

image Step Two. In this page, look for ‘Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more’. Click on it to see more options. The one you are looking for is called 'Date: (how recent the page is)’. Select ‘past 24 hours’.

Step Three. When done, click on Advanced Search button and you will be brought back to the search result page with all the fresh results.

image Step Four. Now, beside the Search Button, you’ll see the Date selection choices, so you can continue to use it. It will go away after a while, so you have to go back to Advanced Search to find it again.

 

So there you have it, the easiest and best way to search for the most recent news on just about anything you are interested in. Now go ahead and search for your blog’s name and see what you get!

(photo by TheGiantVermin)







image Got this over email and it made me burst out laughing. One of those gems you get from forward mails. Let me know if you laughed too. If you do, you must have worked as IT support sometime in your life.

Take a look.

 

 


Customer:     "I've been ringing 0800 2100 for two days and can't get through to enquiries, can you help?".

Operator:     "Where did you get that number from, sir?"..

Customer:     "It was on the door to the Travel Centre".

Operator:     "Sir, they are our opening hours".


Customer:    "Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?"

Operator:     "I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand who you are talking about".

Customer:    "On page 1, section 5, of the user guide it clearly states that I need to unplug the fax machine from the AC  wall socket and telephone Jack before cleaning. Now, can you give me the number for Jack?"

Operator:     "I think you mean the telephone point on the wall".


On another occasion, a man making heavy breathing sounds from a phone box told a worried operator:
"I haven't got a pen, so I'm steaming up the window to write the number on".


Operator:      "I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop".

Customer
:     "OK".

Operator
:      "Did you get a pop-up menu?".

Customer
:     "No".

Operator
:      "OK. Right-Click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?"

Customer
:     "No".

Operator
:      "OK, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?".

Customer
:     "Sure. You told me to write 'click' and I wrote 'click'".


Operator:          "OK. In the bottom left hand side of the screen, can you see the 'OK' button displayed?"
Customer:         "Wow. How can you see my screen from there?"


Customer:  "I deleted a file from my PC last week and I have just realised that I need it. If I turn my system clock back two weeks will I have my file back again?".


Operator:         "Ridge Hall, computer assistance; may I help you?"

Customer:        "Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."

Operator:         "What sort of trouble??"

Customer:        "Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away."

Operator:         "Went away?"

Customer:        "They disappeared."

Operator:         "Hmm So what does your screen look like now?"

Customer:        "Nothing."

Operator:         "Nothing??"

Customer:        "It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."

Operator:         "Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out??"

Customer:        "How do I tell?"

Operator:         "Can you see the C: prompt on the screen??"

Customer:        "What's a sea-prompt?"

Operator:         "Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?"

Customer:        "There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type."

Operator:         "Does your monitor have a power indicator??"

Customer:        "What's a monitor?"

Operator:         "It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on??"

Customer:        "I don't know."

Operator:         "Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that??"

Customer:        "Yes, I think so."

Operator:         "Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall.

Customer:        "Yes, it is."

Operator:         "When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one??"

Customer:        "No."

Operator:         "Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable."

Customer:        "Okay, here it is."

Operator:         "Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer."

Customer:        "I can't reach."

Operator:         "Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is??"

Customer:        "No."

Operator:         "Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over??"

Customer:        "Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle - it's because it's dark."

Operator:         "Dark??"

Customer:        "Yes - the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window.

Operator:         "Well, turn on the office light then."

Customer:        "I can't."

Operator:         "No? Why not??"

Customer
:        "Because there's a power failure."

(photo by Mzelle Biscotte)







image As we join more and more social networks, more time will be spent on checking them. Most of these social networks have one thing in common, the newsfeed (made famous by Facebook and now copied many many times over).

Newsfeed’s purpose is to show you a stream of activities happening all over the network. Since you are only linked to your friends, or people you would like to follow, the newsfeed is very relevant and unique to you. This, in theory, is the very core reason why everyone goes back again and again to a social network. We just HAVE to know what is up with our friends, don’t we?

But to check status presents another problem, we don’t want to check it every other minute just to see if there are new updates. Our keypresses would be like ‘alt-tab’ ‘F5’ … wait … ‘alt-tab’ back to whatever we are working on. We want the updates to be sent to us as soon as there are new ones.

imageI found a desktop software that does just that. And not just for one, but many famous Social Networks. The most prominent ones are Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. I am sure in future updates, this software will link to even more Social Networks.

The best part I like about this software is that it consolidates all updates into one single feed. So be it from Twitter or Facebook, it will be displayed in a single list sorted by date and time. That make sense to me, after all, I want to know what happened at what time, doesn’t matter to me where the information is coming from.

This software is called AlertThingy. How to get it up and running? No worries, just follow the step-by-step below and you’ll be on your way.

Step One. If you haven’t got it, install Adobe AIR first.

Step Two. Download and install AlertThingy.

Step Three. Once installed, launch the application and the first button you should click is image. It is a setup button.

image Step Four. In this page, you can begin to subscribe to the Social Networks that you have an account it. Click on each Social Network, enter the relevant information Some Social Network requires your to authorize the access (example: Facebook). No worries, no Username and Password will be required, so it is safe. You just have to login at Facebook.com itself and not through this application. By the way, there may be more than one authorization required, so don’t be surprised when you have to click on ‘Allow’ again and again.

Step Five. Give it an account name for each Social Network. Just type anything you want here, it is just for your own use.

Step Six. Once you have added all Social Network you are connected to, you are done. Open the application (it will be situated at the bottom right of your taskbar.)

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As mentioned, all updates will appear in one single list sorted by time. Very convenient.

Do note that this application is not just to view updates, but also to update INTO your Social Network too! Just Click on the image buttons. Different Social Network will look different, so you have to try it out for yourself.

image One final note, a community is never complete without having someone that loves to spam. So if you want hide someone’s status updates, just click on Options, Filter and choose ‘Less Interesting’.

 

There you go, hope this application brings more productivity to you in terms of less time spent on refreshing and waiting for updates! By the way, if you have Twitter account, please follow me at http://twitter.com/laskersaw.

If you are using any alternative application, please do let me know at the comments.

(photo by Joe Shlabotnik)