Wasn't really too interested to install Safari until I saw the above where Apple claims Opera loads HTML even slower than IE & Firefox!!! How could the fastest browser in the world be that slow? Are the results doctored or is the benchmarking software inaccurate? So I installed it and then tried loading Apple's Start Page:

If you see the pic above, you would have noticed that Opera loaded 1st, and Safari only managed to load the navigation bars. Note that Safari had the head start first with its default start page, then I went on to Opera to enter the address!!!

Also while checking for memory consumption, it seems that Opera while running more functions consumes less memory than Safari! Not to mention I'm running Mail + Feeds + several UserJS scripts in Opera!

So if you wanna test it yourself, try here - Opera 9.21 & Safari.

Forte: Wide-angle lenses, amazing macro mode, lotsa settings to tinker around, optical image stabilization, small, wide range of ISO settings: 100 –> 3200!

Achilles' heel: "Watercolor effect" when blown up to 7 Megapixels (esp. on higher ISO settings) - overcompensation by image processor I guess, but not so visible if you print it out. Night pics w/o tripod impossible with ISO > 200!

Anyway, some sample pics for those interested:

Basically in Pandora, you get to choose what you wanna listen to and Pandora intelligently seeks out the "genes" of the music you like and picks a random song which you may like. You can further finetune your music selection list by giving a thumbs up or down for the music it plays, and boy, I've been discovering like new songs and artists almost everyday!

If only we can do this in Malaysia, that would be so great!

Saw an article on how to disable snap.com previews permanently, but in firefox.

Here's how to do it in Opera 9:

-Tools -> "Advanced" tab.
-Click on "Content" on the left.
-Click "Blocked Content" button.
-Add http://spa.snap.com/*

Done. Snap Preview begone!

No restarts required.

I'm on the Basic Plan (512kbps) and here are some screenshots of the downloads (average speeds):

http download:

BT:

Anyone has any idea on how to speed up http downloads? OpenDNS doesn't seem to help much, EventID 4226 patcher helped abit - is there anything I missed out?

Anyway, since the internet's so slow here, I've started reading now and the book called "Why Do Men Have Nipples" seemed pretty interesting. Here's something funny:

WHY DOES YOUR PEE SMELL WHEN YOU EAT ASPARAGUS?
Asparagus contains a sulfur compound called mercaptan. It is also found in onions, garlic, rotten eggs, and in the secretions of skunks. The signature smell occurs when this substance is broken down in your digestive system. Not all people have the gene for the enzyme that breaks down mercaptan, so some of you can eat all the asparagus you want without stinking up the place. One study published in theBritish Journal of Clinical Pharmacology found that only 46 percent of British people tested produced the odor while 100 percent of French people tested did.

the Brits will love this.

1. Open Outlook Express and Import from Outlook.
2. Open Thunderbird and Import from Outlook Express (if you skip step 1, the files can't be uploaded by gExodus for some reason)
3. Find your Personal Folder for Thunderbird to find your Mbox file which contains all the file (e.g. Inbox - note no extensions at all to the file)
4. Download gExodus and just fill in the blanks. Note that you might need to change GMail's SMTP address to gsmtp183.google.com but best to check it here.

I believe some of you out there who're using Opera might experience an embeded YouTube video which might not load when viewing a blog once in a while. Here's how you can fix it:

From the Opera forums:

This is an example of a typical YouTube code to embed in your blog:

The problem here can be solved by just removing the "type=" parameter in the embed tags.

Confused? Don't worry!

Thanks to FyberOptic, he created a UserJS script to fix this, just go here to download it - Link

If you're not sure how to use UserJS scripts in Opera, refer to this article - Link.

1. Login to your Adsense account.
2. Click on the "My Account" tab.
3. Search for the part that says "Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up", click on the edit link:

4. Under the textbox that says "Site Name", delete everything there and that's it!

Of course this is no guarantee you're 100% safe from the kaypoh ones in the blogosphere but it's just another way to cover your tracks, especially those who put up hate blogs and put up ads somemore!

How do I know that? Well, Adsense not only provides an avenue for bloggers to make money but can also be used to find out more information about the publisher and this is how you do it. At the end of the Adsense ads there's something which says: Advertise on this site.

Click on that and it'll bring you to a place which shows the name of the blog, e.g. for my own it shows something like this:

Well, alot of people do not bother to edit the settings for this option in their Adsense account, so if they didn't change it, you'll be able to see their original blog when they signed up for Adsense. So, I'll let you guys have some fun today and here's another post on how to change the settings in Adsense if you're interested to know =)

- TrueVector service shutting down by itself several times when ZoneAlarm is running
- Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) when trying to reinstall it
-etc

But thanks to SlyFox in Zonealarm forum, I found the solution. I skipped some steps and here's what I did:

1. Download a new copy of the zonealarm file –> Link

2. Goto Start Menu –> All Programs –> ZoneLabs –> Uninstall Zone Labs Security but don't left-click it! Right click instead and select Properties.

3. Now in the box that says Target: "C:Program FilesZone LabsZoneAlarmzauninst.exe" change it into this:

"C:Program FilesZone LabsZoneAlarmzauninst.exe" /clean

*Note that the /clean part is together and is one space away from the quotation mark ".

4. Double-click the Zonealarm icon in your tray. Under Overview section, click on the Preferences tab and uncheck the part that says "Load ZoneAlarm at startup". Close it once you're done. If your download has finished, disconnect your LAN cable/internet connection.

5. Now, goto Start Menu –> All Programs –> ZoneLabs –> Uninstall Zone Labs Security and left-click on it. It'll start uninstalling and click YES to all popups that come up. When finished, it'll ask for a reboot. Click Yes.

6. After you've rebooted, you'll need to check to see if the following files are deleted (if they're not delete them):

- Delete the WINDOWSInternet Logs folder
- Delete Program FilesZone Labs folder
- Delete the WINDOWSSystem32Zone Labs folder
- Empty the WINDOWSPre-Fetch folder (i.e. delete everything inside the folder)
- Empty Recycle Bin

Reboot again.

7. Now once you've rebooted, install Zonealarm again and it should all be allright now.

*Note that all your previous settings e.g. trusted zones, program permissions will be deleted! If you prefer to be safer, follow SlyFox's longer method here

Forget what I've said, go download Kerio Firewall, but i think their ad filtering needs some tweaking. Even my surfing speed increased significantly after removing Zonealarm and installing Kerio!