Google going after LinkFarms!

It's great news that Google is going after website owners who try to make money by filling up their websites with Google ads but little content.



What's surprising about this is that Google is like saying they don't mind making less money (websites actually pay them for the Adwords that they post on their sites) in favour of clearing up the web of junk.



I salute Google efforts to clean up the internet.

Dell Ubuntu more expensive than Dell Windows

Last week Dell began shipping computers with Ubuntu linux on them.



That's a revolutionary move from Dell but it's curious why the Linux pre-installed machines costs more (slightly) than the Windows-installed machines.



The reasons I think would be:

• Since Linux will invariably need more support, Dell is protecting themselves with a little 'padding' as they anticipate customers will start calling them on Linux problems.
• Those junky pre-installed 'free' software actually makes money for Dell. The Windows software makers actually pay Dell a dollar or two to have it pre-installed for customers. With Linux there's no crapware for Dell to install.

What do you think?

Google buys Feedburner for USD 100 million

By now everybody knows this.



I guess Google will really know more about me than me myself. Not only do they know my search habits but they also know what I read online! That's really evil if you ask me :)

Wish I was in Penang

This is world police champion, Ismail Ahmad, who is one of the favourites to win Malaysian National Closed 2007. I usually go and watch the National Closed tournament even though I have never played. This time I cannot attend since it's in Penang and I can't get leave from my employees in KL. :(



This year will be interesting as no titled or really strong players are taking part except for a handful like Ismail Ahmad. So although the quality of competition may have dropped, it will be interesting to see if any 'dark horses' can steal the show and become the new Malaysian Chess National Champion for 2007.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Health Concerns

Malaysia's prime minister felt weak and appeared to totter during a public function and had to be held up by officials, raising health concerns about the 67-year-old leader.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi later dismissed rumors that he had fainted while attending the outdoor function in the northern state of Perak, and attributed the incident to heat and lack of sleep.

~ full article on The Star.

I have my own dot com!

Finally bought my own webhosting with my own domain name.


What else ? It's www.AndrewOoi.com

It runs on the latest WordPress 2.1.3.

Seize the moment: a FIAT ad with chess players.

A very funny FIAT ad, with Chess as a main subject. The ad slogan "Seize the moment" is applied by a chess player about to be checkmated, in a very surprising and funny way. Anuncio de FIAT con el ajedrez de tema. El eslogan publicitario "Agarra la oportunidad" es aplicado por nu jugador de ajedrez que está apuntito de recibir jaque mate. Muy gracioso y sorprendente.

A short video for my ADCS Students

I've been giving Java tuition for a long time.

Here's one of the common past year paper on Link List that I usually explain to my students:-

Click here to listen

cheng beng

cheng beng
Originally uploaded by andrewooi.

Reached puduraya 8.30pm in time to catch the teluk intan bus back to hometown.

GilaChess Migrated to WordPress

My chess blog was migrated from Blogger to WordPress platform. WordPress is a blogging software which has much richer features than Blogger. I liked Google BlogSpot but I needed to use my own webspace instead of relying on Google free blogging space.

It was a very easy process as WordPress already had the necessary tools for the migration. It took only 10 minutes to setup WordPress and migrate my old post from Blogger to my website.

The new URL is http://chess.maribelajar.com.

I've also changed the title from GilaChess to Chess Improvement.

My old Chess Blog:



My new Chess Blog:


http://chess.maribelajar.com.

Malaysia vs Singapore Friendly Chess MAtch 2005

Malaysia vs Singapore Friendly Chess MAtch 2005
Originally uploaded by andrewooi.

17th Singapore vs Malaysia

First Round detail results

Category	Age	MAS	SIN

B	8	0	4

B	10	2	2

B	12	1.5	2.5

B	14	0.5	3.5

B	16	2	3

B	18	1	2

B	20	2	2

G	8	0	4

G	10	2	2

G	12	2.5	1.5

G	14	1	3

G	16	2	2

G	18	1	3

G	20	0	4

M	-	2.5	3.5

V	-	2.5	1.5

W	-	2.5	1.5



Malaysia  : 25

Singapore : 45



Second  Round

Malaysia  : 25.5

Singapore : 44.5



Overall



Malaysia: 50.5

Singapore: 89.5

Pictures and other details to be posted later.

Curretly posting this from a train!!

First day in Indonesia

Indonesia Day 1

3.10pm leave for Sentral station

3.30pm bought tickets for the express

3.45pm took the KLIA express from Sentral station reached KLIA in 28minutes.

Air Asia arrived without incident at Hatta airport at 7.10pm.

Got 'hassled' by taxi runners who wanted us to take their taxi. Wanted to take the Blue Bird because it uses the meter so it would not cost a bomb.

The last time I was here at Hatta Airport, Blue Bird cost 100,000 Rp plus 16,000 surcharge. We finally found the counter outside the Airport near the Mc Donalds. Seeing this the runners reduced their taxi charge from 100,000 to 200,000 Rp without surcharge. So we took the runner Taxi which was a Volvo cab. Well it was a big mistake as when we reached the Hotel he changed the fare to 150,000 Rp. So it was a good lesson for me. Take the Blue Bird cab from the proper Blue Bird rep counter. Avoid the 'independant' people who walk around looking for suckers like me.

The counter is just outside of Mc D. (note to self so that I won't forget this next time if I ever come to Indonesia again)

---

9.05 checked in.

9.15 got into our deluxe room (upgraded)

9.30 tried to walk to nearest food court at Sarina from Hotel.

10.00 Too far so we settled for Mamak style food. Had Soto Ayam with Taufu. Drinks 'teh botol'. Total cost: 27,000Rp.

10.30 back in Hotel room.

watched TV while preparing this blog

1am sleep.

Off to Indonesia Again

Last minute work emergency requires me to go to Indonesia for the 2nd time this year.

This time I'll go prepared.I still remember how Digi does not support SMS roaming. I couldn't even receive an SMS from home.

I bought a cheap 017 Maxis starter pack for RM8.80. I only have RM4 for this month but that's all I need to receive SMS.

Pretty complicated as sending SMS FROM Indonesia is RM2. So in order to save I'll get an Indonesian prepaid card from Telkomsel. It's about RM 20 there. So sending out an SMS from there to Malaysia is cheaper. This would mean lots of SIM card switching as I only have one handphone :(.

Also bringing over my bluetooth enabled PDA there so all the pictures I take from my handphone can be transferred to PDA and uploaded to this blog easily.

Anyway, looking forward for the trip as well as feeling a bit nervous as the workload is pretty high. I only have 4 working days to complete my work there.

Benefits of Lecithin

Benefits of Lecithin:

* Breaks up fats and cholesterol, Excellent for a healthy heart
* Highest Phosphatide concentration available (98% or more!)
* Rich source of GLA (Gamma Linoleic Acid)
* Helps the body utilize Vitamins A,D,E and K
* Excellent for memory, concentration and recall
* Cleanses liver and kidneys
* Helps the body absorb nutrients

Why am I posting this here. Well just as a reminder to myself.

I've been taking Lecithin in capsule form consistently for months and have noticed profound improvements in my mental stamina.
Particularly in gruelling one day chess tournament where I'm usuall mentally exhausted near the end of the tournament.

However lately from my own chess results, I've seen a marked improvement.

I've finished 11th place 3 times !!! Previously I'd be usually hovering around 30th position.

Imagine or not, I'm a firm believer of letcithin. Anyway, not to turn this into a commercial sounding blog, I won't even mention the brand I'm taking :)
It'll remain a secret in case my would be chess competitors are out there reading this...

Chess in Singapore Schools

Chess is being offered as part of a curriculum early to Singaporean kids.

Neighbourhood schools these days are producing not just academically capable students but talented ones too.

One activity some schools are offering to nurture talents is chess.

For instance, chess is part of the curriculum for all Primary One students at Gongshang Primary.

The principal of Gongshang Primary School, Daisie Yip, said: "It's really to train them through a game, through a fun way, to be analytical. The best take-away would be when I plan the next move, I'm actually thinking 2-3 moves ahead.

read rest of article here (Channel News Asia)

Joined Malaysian Blog Directory

I added my blog into the Malaysian Blog Directory.
Great!! As the title of my blog starts with 'A' I'm right at the top can be seen without scrolling the page :)

Sunday Chess at Wilayah

Can't wait to enter the href=http://gilachess.blogspot.com tournament at Wilayah Persekutuan this coming Sunday. It's been 3 months since I've played any serious (or friendly) chess games.

Pictured above is two of my chess friends Vicky and Francis at the same venue some time back.

Going to PC Fair 2005

PC Fair 2005 will be in an hour's time.

I'll be going this time to get
Screen protector for my PDA
CD-Rs
Mic and Headphones for podcasting
Optical Mouse

I just hope it will not be too cramped like the previous PC Fairs.
Will be going just after it opens to avoid the crowd (hopefully)

Andreessen: PHP succeeding where Java isn't | CNET News.com

The simplicity of scripting language PHP means it will be more popular than Java for building Web-based applications, Internet browser pioneer Marc Andreessen predicted Wednesday in a speech here at the Zend/PHP Conference.

That article warms my heart as PHP is my favourite language of choice for web programming.

Don't get me wrong as I don't have anything against Java. In fact, I have been teaching Java for several years and it's been my bread and butter for all that time.

However I've never used Java in work. PHP is still no. 1 in my books.

Java is just too slow and unwieldly for many things that I want to do.

In Brief: Zend Core for Oracle available | InfoWorld | News | 2005-10-12 | By InfoWorld staff

In Brief: Zend Core for Oracle available | InfoWorld | News | 2005-10-12 | By InfoWorld staff:

"Zend Core for Oracle accelerates the building and deployment of mission-critical, PHP-based Web applications. Zend Core for Oracle also offers an updated PHP 'OCI8' driver to connect with the Oracle Database, providing enhanced reliability, stability, and performance for Oracle Database-driven Web applications.

Oracle offers free downloads of the products from

http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/php/index.html.

Zend Core for Oracle is also available at http://www.zend.com/core/oracle. "

This is very timely as I was looking for a way of using PHP+ORACLE on AIX 64 bit platform.

It was a big headace doing this "by hand" on Linux and finally a friend of mine, Yan, solved it by installing the RPM version.

Then, at work they wanted it to work on AIX and since we have the Linux step-by-step, the AIX installation "should be easy" as AIX is similiar to Linux (so they say).

How wrong we were!! The installation steps were full of problems. Compiling PHP + OCI8 libraries just couldn't give an error-free result. After weeks of wasted time on failed installation, Zend package is a saviour. Just had to run install and voila! We had what we needed.

Thank you Zend!!

PS: Zend COre is FREE!