20th Birthday to our World Wide Web

Wow, this year WWW is celebrating the 20th birthday with a rough count of 186.7 million websites. ST Singapore trawling through the websites and have the following for your happy browsing.

1) http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/

This site is a portal for local parents to gather and exchange tips and ideas on bringing up baby.

2) http://www.nymbler.com/

A site dedicated to naming your newborn. Click on a name and you not only find out its meaning, but also a chart showing when the name was most popular in the last century. Baby Name Wizard (http://www.babynamewizard.com/ ) may be easier to find on search engines, but it loses points on originality.

3) http://www.dailypuppy.com/

There may be plenty of pet websites online, but nothing grabs you like the puppy dog

eyes of this one.

4) http://www.foodnetwork.com/

A site where you can watch full episodes of vrious cooking shows.

5) http://www.epicurious.com/

Whether you are scrambling for a cake recipe or need to decide on what wine to take to a dinner party, this site will have what you need. No lack of recipes - over 100,000 for your selection. A tresure trove of information on food.

6) http://www.tastespotting.com/

With more than 700 pages of pictures of delicious food that stimulate your salivary glands. The site is a compilation of recipes from the Web and each picture is a link to the website or blog where the recipe resides. You can submit your food site or blog, make sure with inviting imae of the dish.

The editorial team behind Tastespotting will review the submissions and post those that have the most eye-catching pictures and the most useful links.

7) http://www.sparkpeople.com/

Spark People is a weight-lose website for those who need moral support. The site has a community of 5.5 millions member and it encourages you to shed kilograms by dieting and exercises.

8) http://zenhabits.net/

The site is updated daily with features cover topics on finance, happiness, family and parenting. An extract from the blog “There is no greater sin than desire, No greater curse than discontent, No greater misfortune than wanting something for oneself. Therefore he who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” - Lao Tzu - great sharing.

9) http://failblog.org/

Fail blog relies on users putting up occassionally embarrassing, silly or co promising pictures or videos for a good laugh. Fail blog will entertain, especially if you have had a bad day.

10) http://www.fmylife.com/

While sites like Post Secret ( http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/ ) have people baring their soul and confessing their innermost secrets anonymously, this is more of an instant stress therapy.

11) http://www.oddee.com/

A blog with over 1 million readers a month, Oddee features the odd, bizarre and strange things of our world. Be amazed!

12) http://www.evernote.com/about/what_is_en/

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Did we mention that it's free?

13) http://www.scanr.com/

It's like having a digital scanner in your pocket ! Scan documents to turn them into digital files you can store, share, and fax. Scanr lets you convert these images into PDF or text files instead o fJPEG format, which storage is a problem and they would be unsearchable.

14) http://www.geni.com/

Geni is a private place for your family to build your family tree. There are. of course, some social networking aspects too.

15) http://www.notcot.org/

The site is a collection of pictures that are not only pretty to look at, but also link to other sites. These pictures and links are contributed by netizens aroung the world, but curated bya team of editors who decide what is good enough to go on the site.

16) http://www.love-lines.com/index.html

This website lets you discover what the rest of the world is feeling through their blogs and internet postings. It takes a while to familiar the navigation.

17) http://www.musicovery.com/

An entertainment website. An online music service that helps you discover songs.

18) http://www.digitalbits.com/

The Digital Bits keeps track of the home-video market, with news and reviews of the latest and upcoming releases from the United States.

19) http://www.kontraband.com/blog/

As the name suggests, this site hosts clips, jokes, pictures and games tht are best viewed when you are alone, but there is nothing illegal or pornographic here.

20) http://www.newsarama.com/

SItes like Comic Book Resources (www.comicbookresources.com) offer something similar, but Newsarama makes everything easier for non-geeks to understand.

21) http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php

TWOP - commonly known. More than just a review of the latest episode of hit shows. TWOP is a site with updates on what took place in all episodes aired to date.

22) http://digg.com/

You won't find editors at Digg - Digg collates the articles posted by users around the world. Users collectively determine the value of content and rate the worthiness of the article by "Digging " them. Think of Digg as the equivalent of a music countdown show that ranks the top hits bsed on listeners' votes.

23) http://hacknmod.com/

This site teaches you how to take a working product and modify it.

24) http://my.afterdawn.com/

This website offers free software download alternatives, from digital music players to programs that catalogue your DVD collection.

Online Meetings Made Easy & Twitter

Today 25th Mar 2009 - my first time to logon online meetings with my group's discussion using GoToMeeting, an online meeting programme.

We can use the webnair schedule for free training online for your groups or members, providing better cutomer service to our groups and members. Please take a few moments to check out these new technology and share with us your experience. If chance permits, register and attend one of the Webnairs meeting. I encourange anyone who can attend to try it out. Share with us your experience.

Following are some of the advantages of conducting Webnair conference :

• Create and host your own professional Webinars from day one – no experience required
• Reach hundreds of people at once – right from your PC or Mac®
• Save money with free VoIP and integrated phone conferencing
• Includes GoToMeeting® for smaller meetings
• Online Webinars and teleseminars - for trading purposes

Another area that I hope to learn more about Twitter.

What is Twitter ? Is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called "tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers and are searchable on Twitter search.

http://help.twitter.com/portal

Need to find the time to look into this feature and understand more on how about it.

Drop me a line to share with me if the about topics of interest to you.

A checklist of 10 basic skills in Internet Marketing

Came across this articles from one of the Internet Marketing Guru, Jo Han Mok. The top 10 basic skills one should master, if you're dead serious about being able to set up websites that can really crank out cash.

Getting Started Skill #1: Registering a domain and getting it hosted.

Getting Started Skill #2: Basic Cpanel understanding and administration. (setting up email accounts, checking traffic stats, etc)

Getting Started Skill #3: FTP (By far the most ’scary’ for most newbies possibly cos the term file transfer protocol is a tad initimidating, although once you get it, it’s as simple as drag and drop.)

Getting Started Skill #4: Understanding how autoresponders work and how to set up mailing lists

Getting Started Skill #5: How to create an opt-in form

Getting Started Skill #6: How to create a properly formatted sales letter with proper tabling

Getting Started Skill #7: How to create a payment button/link and thankyou page

Getting Started Skill #8: How to set up a blog using fantastico

Getting Started Skill #9: How to create a PDF

Getting Started Skill #10: How to add video/audio to your webpage

Other basic web graphics editing skills using Adobe Photoshop, FrontPage, Dreamweaver or NVU will enhance your website design further.

For newbie, it might be intimidated by all these skills. However, with the "CAN DO" mindset, after much practice, one should be able to execute the above skills confidently.

"Taking action now" and "not procrastinating " and also to be realistic in your expectation of having big returns are just as important factors needed to be in Internet Marketing business.

What do you think? Feel free to leave your comments.

More About Singapore

A Global survey has found Singapore to be among the countries where it is cheapest for expatriates to raise their children.

Singapore emerged fourth cheapest, after Spain, India and China, in a survey by HSBC Bank International of 870 expatriate parents across 14 places, ie : Spain, France, Germany, Canada, Singapore, US, Australia, India, China, Belgium, Hong Kong, Netherlands, United Kingdom & UAE.

My next issue on water and sanitation. Singapore is emerging as a compelling example worth emulating by several countries in Asia and other parts of the world.

Thirty years ago, Singapore also experienced the same sort of water problems that many Asian developing countries still face. Not every country can afford to provide 24-hour piped supply in the home. For example, in most cities in India, municipal water supply is still available, on average, for less than four hours a day.

In one to two decades, Asian developing countries are likely to face a crisis in sanitation and wastewater manangement Several cities in Asia are not fully equipped with sewers.

Wastewater treatment is not merely for cleaning up the environment. Treated wastewater can also complement the water supply needs of the population. With the new generation of membranes and affordable technologies.

Singapore has shown that it is now possible to treat wastewater at 25 US cents ( 38 Singapore cents) per cu m. Singapore's reclaimed water, known as Newater, meets 15 per cent of he country' water needs; this is expected to inrease to 30 per cent by 2010.

Hopely, Singapore's effective sanitation, water strategies offer viable growth models and Asia can tap Singapore's water expertise.

Do you have a point a share ?

Singapore to Johore Bahru and to Danga City Mall in five minutes

How would you like to travel to Johor Baru and to the newest mega mall, Danga City Mall, by train ? KTMB has started from Monday, 5 January 2009 running eight daily trips to and from Singapore to Danga City Mall ( four departing from its Tanjong Pagar station here and four returning). The trip to Danga City Mall is just five minutes from town centre.

Metrojaya department store is its anchor tenant in Danga City Mall, which is a seven-storey shopping centre with 92,900 sq m floor space. With about 500 shop units , you can find bowling arcade, eateries and clothing outlets to satisfy your shopping & leisure quests.

Singaporean shoppers who make regular visits to the city have thus far favoured the City Square mall and shops in the heart of the town. With another option from KTMB, shoppers now just need another 90 minutes, including the time needed to clear immigration checks at the border, to get to Danga City Mall,

This month, promotional tickets will go for S$3 (RM7) for a single trip to the mall and RM3 to return here.

KTMB trains can carry about 200 passengers on each run, but can take up to 1,000 per trip by adding carriages.

According to Johor 's Tourism and Domestic Trade committee during a press conference recently, KTM's aim is to improve transportation between Singapore and Johor. Other areas such as hotels and places of interest like fishing wharfs and Lego-land Malaysia theme park are planned for the area.

With about 10 million travellers entered Malaysia from Singapore between January to September, seven million of them Singaporeans, it is definitely a big market to tap into.

Are Property prices set to fall further in Singapore ?

All signs point to buyers getting their ways and are also playing a waiting game, believing that sellers will blink first. According to some properties agents, it used to take about two or four weeks to sell an apartment. Now some apartments on the market for more than three months still not taken up.

Presently the private property prices have indeed fallen, some by as much as 25 per cent over the past year. ST Life did a check on 10 condominiums across the island to compare the difference between their highest and last transacted prices. Apartments compared are similiar in size, floor level and direction. The article appeared on Saturday, 17 January 2009.

1) Yishun Emerald, Canberra Drive : Dec 2007 - S$555k down to Oct 2008 at S$406k @ $543 psf and $397 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,023 sq ft - percentage drop : 26%

2) Cairnhill Crest, Cairnhill Circle : July 2007 - S$3,985k down to Oct 2008 at S$2,920k @ $2,300 psf and $1,685 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,733 sq ft - percentage drop : 26%

3) The Bayshore, Bayshore Road : July 2007 - S$819k down to Oct 2008 at S$695k @ 810 psf and $687 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,012 sq ft - percentage drop : 15%

4) Grandeur 8, Ang Mo Kio Central 3 : Aug 2008 - S$899k down to Nov 2008 at S$747k @ $733 psf and $609 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,227 sq ft - percentage drop : 16%

5) Avila Gardens, Flora Road, Loyang : Aug 2007 - S$812k down to May 2008 at S$681k @ $614 psf and $515 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,324 sq ft - percentage drop : 16%

6) The Sea View, Amber Road : Nov 2007 - S$2,368k down to Nov 2008 at S$2,249k @ $1,438 psf and $1,366 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,647 sq ft - percentage drop : 5%

7) Newton Suites, Newton Road : Feb 2008 - S$2,4143k down to Dec 2008 at S$1,809k @ $1,950 psf and $1,462 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,238 sq ft - percentage drop : 25%

8) The Centris, Jurong West Central 3 : Jan 2007 - S$635k down to Dec 2008 at S$564k @ $596 psf and $530 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,066 sq ft - percentage drop : 11%

9) The Raintree, Bukit Drive : May 2008 - S$909k down to Oct 2008 at S$839k @ $716 psf and $661 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,279 sq ft - percentage drop : 7%

10) Tanglin Regency, Tanglin Road : Aug 2007 - S$980k down to Nov 2008 at S$930k @ $884 psf and $839 psf resp. for apartment size of 1,109 sq ft - percentage drop : 5%

Analyts are predicting further uncertainty in the economy and home prices may fall another 10 to 20 per cent. On the other hand, it's tougher to secure bank loans now. Banks are more cautious these days. During good times, loan would be approved within 24hours. Currently, it can take as long as two weeks. The loan quantum is also down from 90 per cent to most usually offer 80 per cent. Loan quantum refers to the size of a loan in relation to a property's market valuation. There has been cases where the bank's valuation of an apartment is lower that what a seller is asking for.

Accordingly to industry insiders say loan are generally smaller or harder to secure for the following people :

1) Those on commission-based income or are self-employed, compared to employees on fixed salary.

2) Applicants who are single, compared to married couples with dual income.

3) Those who have just started work.

As the saying goes, CASH IS KING. In times of economic stress & you are in a better cashflow position it is more prudent to consider a smaller loan to ensure that you do not over-extend yourselves and in my opinion, banks are more willing to approve such loans.

Do you have a point to share about the property prices of your country ?
I welcome your comments on my blog.

Paris' Eiffel Tower in Tokyo ?

No, no, this is Tokyo Tower, which resembles Paris' Eiffel Tower but failed to gain the global recognition of its Parisian twin, standing at 333m-tall with orange and white stripes, was once the world's tallest self-supported steel structure., Tokyo Tower turned 50 in December 2008 and in recent years, it has become harder to spot the tower among the ciyt's growing number of ever more boldly designed skyscrapers. In 2011, it will lose its distinction as the city's tallest structure to a new television tower, the Tokyo Sky Tree which, at 610m, is nearly twice as high.

Nippon Television City, the owner of Tokyo Tower plans to renovate the Tower and hopes that it will survive another 50 years of glory history.

Do drop us a line and share your comments with us.