Archive for the ‘Blogs, Internet & Social Media’ Category

5 Must-Watch Covers of Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years”

I noticed a video of guitar cover of Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years, so I looked up for more of the same song’s covers on Youtube. Surprisingly, there are a lot of covers done by the Youtube community.

Then, some were really impressive, so I decided to share a few of them here on my blog. Plus, it’s a very nice song. BTW, the videos below are not sorted in any order.

#1 A Thousand Years by Christina Perri (Cover by Heather Janssen and Josh Lehman)

#2 A Thousand Years by Christina Perri Cover by alicemusicality

#3 A Thousand Years- Christina Perri (Cover) by vickiilee

#4 Piano cover of A Thousand Years-Christina Perry by mzemmali

#5 Christina Perri – A Thousand Years – Jun Sung Ahn Violin Cover

In my opinion, all of them are really amazing especially vikiilee’s cover (yes even though the last two videos are just music). I hope embedding five flash based videos here won’t crash your web-browser :P But do enjoy the covers! If you have made a cover on this song too, do share with us in the comment section.

Now I wonder if the young Malaysian Esther Koh will be doing a cover on this song soon. :)

How to Bypass the MCMC File-Sharing Websites Block

Ban no more!

In late May, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission ordered Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Malaysia to block ten file-sharing websites, with the likes of Warez-bb.org and ThePirateBay.org topping the list.

Copyright StarGraphics 2011

It’s frustrating to many, though it seemed to not have bothered normal internet users. I’ve heard complaints from a few friends too, saying that they couldn’t access to Megaupload. To be honest, I wasn’t affected as I’ve been using public DNS since I first learned about them few years back.

Yes, that’s the fix. The public DNS servers are the fix to bypass the block by the MCMC. The public DNS servers allow you to surf the websites without any obstacles. In fact, there shouldn’t be any obstacles (censorships) on the internet at the first place.

However, not everyone knows about it. This post is intended to tell you how – to bypass the block, and set yourselves free on the internet. lol.

I’m showing screenshots on Windows 7; it should be the same on Windows Vista, but a bit different on Windows XP.

—

Step 1: Go to Network and Sharing Centre and click on Change adapter settings (on left side menu)

1

 

Step 2: Right click on either Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection. (you could repeat the procedure with the other connection after finish hacking the first)

3

 

Step 3: In the properties window, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on the Properties button.

4

After clicking on the Properties button you shall be able see this window:

5

 

Step 4: At the bottom column, switch the radio button to ‘Use the following DNS server addresses:’ and key in your preferred DNS server addresses (see below for choices of free public DNS servers addresses).

6

Once you’ve entered the DNS server addresses, click OK and you’re done. :)

—

For the public DNS server addresses, you could use the popular ones like Google Public DNS server or the OpenDNS’ public DNS. Following are the DNS server addresses by both Google and OpenDNS:

Google public DNS server addresses:
- 8.8.8.8
- 8.8.4.4

OpenDNS public DNS server addresses:
- 208.67.222.222
- 208.67.220.220

I’ve been switching between Google public DNS and OpenDNS so there isn’t really a problem to go for either one of the above DNS addresses, though OpenDNS claims to have more features against the former. For more free public DNS server addresses, check out the original blog post of Free Fast Public DNS Server List by Vivek Gite.

Well, this isn’t rocket science but if you need help you could always drop me an e-mail and I’ll see what can I do to help out :)

 

Credits to/Read more: Vivek Gite, Google Public DNS, OpenDNS.

Why The Slowness of Loading Facebook in Malaysia and How-to Speed It Up

The connection to Facebook.com has been getting slower and slower since the terrible disaster that battered Japan last week. According to TM the underwater cables have been affected by the earthquake, causing slow internet connection especially when connecting to sites hosted in the USA.

wtfffffff

I was trying to fix the Sponsors page for Memoirs 2 FB Fan Page and the slow connection really got on my nerves. Thus, I googled a bit and found out there’s actually cure to the slow connection speed to Facebook.

 

All the miseries can be solved in five simple steps:

1. Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\
2. Open hosts file using Notepad
3. Add the following line: 203.106.85.66 www.facebook.com
4. Save it.
5. Enjoy Facebooking smoothly!

Note: If you doubt that the IP address above is safe, instead of [203.106.85.66], add the line ‘static.ak.fbcdn.net www.facebook.com’ into the hosts file and save it. [static.ak.fbcdn.net] is a Facebook CDN server, which simply means Facebook owns the server.

Disclaimer: I did not geniusly come out with the solutions above. It was discovered by HeHeHunter and I initially saw this from LiewCF’s tech blog. Lunix and Mac users can check out either of the blogs I’ve mentioned for details. According to HeHeHunter, the IP address [203.106.85.66] is actually Facebook Mobile’s local server. Therefore, it is safe.

Sources: LiewCF, HeHeHunter

Update April 2011: As of today the connection to Facebook.com has returned normal. You could use this trick as back-up in the future :)

  • By Steven
  • Blogs, Internet & Social Media
  • One Comment

Paypal to Open Support Centre in Malaysia

If you’re an active netizen you should know what Paypal is even if you don’t use their service. Well, you might not be excited but the wait is finally over for Paypal customers in Malaysia as Paypal is going to open a regional customer support centre in Malaysia!

In other words, they’re gonna have their very first office in Malaysia. We could even have Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin for Paypal’s customer support!

Their new office will be based in Kuala Lumpur and they’re currently hiring for plenty of positions (300 positions in the next 3 years). So, if you’re interested or if you’re unemployed, do give it a try (and let us know how is it like to work for one of the largest online payments and money transfer service provider).

And to Paypal Inc., selamat datang =)

 

Sources: Bernama, LiewCF

  • By Steven
  • Blogs, Internet & Social Media
  • One Comment

FB.com Purchased for $8.5 million

The American Farm Bureau Federation earned $8.5 million from sales of ‘a couple of domain names’ and it is believed that the buyer of one of dozens of their domain names, FB.com, was Facebook.

In November last year, Mark Zuckerberg announced the revamped Facebook Message that allows users to use the domain name @facebook.com. With the release of @facebook.com domain to the public use, the company’s staffs will need another domain names for themselves – hence the purchase of FB.com.

In a report by Reuters blog, the Farm Bureau officials said in an annual meeting that they have earned $8.5 million ‘by selling a couple of domain names,’ and at the same time we look back at a report by Mashable, the American Farm Bureau Federation sold Fb.com to an undisclosed buyer, but it was then revealed that Facebook is the administrator of the domain name.

And FYI, Fb.com is more than 40 times more expensive than Facebook.com, which they have paid for $200,000 in August 2005.

No wonder Facebook Paid is trending on Twitter eh? Because Facebook Paid $8.5 million for FB.com! Big business is big.

 

Sources: Mashable, Reuters blog, Techcrunch

  • By Steven
  • Blogs, Internet & Social Media
  • No Comments