Wednesday, April 30, 2008
What me worry?
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Take The Guesswork Out Of Investing
Thus, if you had invested a lump sum of $1200 initially at $20 dollars per share, that's exactly what it would be worth 12 months down the track. However, with dollar-cost averaging at work,
Take it easy.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
In the news today
What I'm Listening To: Frou Frou "Details" (2002)
Friday, April 11, 2008
Just in case you didn't know.
Be aware!
Jetsam
How to subscribe to my blog.
What is this you ask? Well the link above is called an Atom feed, and the icon is an RSS feed. Need more info? This is from Wikipedia:
"RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts. An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays."
So essentially, you download a program through which you can "subscribe" to as many feeds as you want, and each time any of those sites are updated, it is sent straight to that program. This removes the need for constant checking of websites, and allows you to receive the latest news from various sources instantly and all in one place.
I am currently subscribed to the Bangkok Post, SBS World News, The Barefoot Investor's articles, and The Elders RSS feeds.
So how to subscribe? You first need to download a program to syndicate the feeds. I use Sharpreader, and I'm pretty happy with it. It runs in the background and anytime something new comes in, it flashes up a little unobtrusive alert so you know. To install it, go here to download the "installer" (see top of page). Once you have installed it and opened it, it will look like this without any of the feeds you can see there:
Now, to subscribe to a feed, you must first right-click on the RSS icon, or the Atom link as they are shown above, and choose "copy shortcut" or "copy link location" (whichever your browser throws at you).
Then, in Sharpreader, click File, and choose the top option "Open RSS Feeds". Then it will ask you to "type the internet address" of the feed into a box. You right click into the box, and paste the link you copied earlier. Ensure that the "subscribe to feed" box is ticked, then press ok.
Voila! You are now subscribed! You can do the same thing with my Atom link at the bottom of the page, or by copying the links to any of the feeds I mentioned I subscribed to earlier, or in fact any RSS or Atom link you see anywhere on the web! How cool!
You don't have to use sharpreader, I just demonstrated with it because it works for me and is easy to use. Most programs will be much the same.
To check your feeds when you start your computer, just open Sharpreader like any other program, and it will then be open in your taskbar just next to where you see the time on your desktop. Double click this icon to open it again if it tells you there are new feeds, it will stay running and checking in the background! You get the latest headlines and what not delivered straight to you.
One thing about sharpreader, if you just click on the new feeds as they are shown in the image above, it will give you a summary of the content in the window below. To open the actual webpage in Sharpreader, just double click the feed. This way you can see the new info in context.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me.
Enjoy the wealth of new information at your beck and call!
Jetsam
PS: If you have a suggestion for a computer tips article, just let me know and I will see what I can do ;)
To boycott, or not to boycott?
Also, regarding the current protests around the torch relay, come on people... Look, protest all you like, but please don't get aggressive and try to extinguish the torch or disrupt its passage. Please also refrain from booing and what not as it goes past. Imagine how the athletes who you so revere feel carrying the torch that you are directing all your hatred towards. These are people you love, who view this as one of the great honours of their lives. Don't take that away from them. Sure it makes the news, but for all the wrong reasons.
The picture: so many white faces...who are they, and will they be seen again?
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Un-muzzle the dragon.
"There are many abuses taking place in China today. Our campaign focuses on these four key areas:
- Unwarranted Internet and media censorship
- The death penalty
- Repression of human rights defenders, and
- Torture and detention without trial"
The website has a cool function where you can enter in censored search terms like "SARS" and "Tienanmen" in Chinese, in Chinese Google and Yahoo search engines to see what comes up in comparison with entering the same in English over here. I further tested this censorship by copying and pasting the Chinese characters into the outside-China engines to see what the differences in results were. Try it out yourself, it's interesting (find this function on the right hand sidebar of the Uncensor homepage).
When it is back online (it is currently undergoing maintenance), http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/ is another great site which tests websites that are blocked through Chinese servers.
What can you do? Inform yourself first, then spread the word however you can, and sign the pledge on Uncensor. Help to flood the Chinese servers with censored search terms.
Personally I have great hopes for China's future in the world, so I am doing my bit to encourage the land of the dragon to discard the chains that hold it back in the eyes of the developed world. Am I being ethnocentric? I don't think so, being Chinese has nothing to do with being restricted in the information you can access. This is a relatively modern phenomenon in a culture that has been around for thousands of years. China was once arguably the most knowledgeable and well-informed culture on Earth; I would like to see it be so again.
The Chinese government loves its people, and sees this censorship as protecting them from destructive elements. This isolation will not work forever though, as it is like a bamboo cage that flexes. The people can glimpse through the bars at the world as it really is, and as they become aware, the less confident they will be that their government's love is protecting them instead of limiting them.Yours with hope,
Jetsam
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
How to easily reduce the size of pictures.
I am often asked by friends and family how to reduce the file size of digital photos in order to send them over the Internet. It seems a pretty common request so I hope detailing my method here might help some other people too.
The problem: You have a number of photos to send to a friend, but your funky new 12 megapixel digital camera has taken all the photos at such a huge resolution that it takes forever to send them as email attachments. The issue is the filesize. Pixels are the individual tiny dots that together make up your picture. This is why when you zoom in too far on a picture, it begins to look grainy as the distance between each pixel is increased. A megapixel=a million pixels, and the more pixels in a picture, the better it looks as more dots means more detail.
Our problem is that the more pixels a picture has, the bigger its file size. To find the file size of a picture (measured in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes etc), right click on it (in Microsoft Windows) and select "properties" from the menu that comes up.
It should look like this:
The "size on disk" is the file size of the file you right clicked on (in this case 136 kilobytes (KB)).
The bigger this number is, the longer it will take to send over the Internet. Most peoples' email account will only allow a certain sized attachment to be sent each time. If it is taking too long to send your email, it is time to reduce the file size.
To do this we need a program that will let us reduce the file size easily. The one I recommend for sheer compatibility and user-friendliness is Irfanview. Download it here. If you "open the file from current location", just follow the instructions. If you "save file to disk", find where you saved it when it has finished downloading and open the file, then follow the instructions.
After you have installed Irfanview, find the pictures you want to reduce. Right-click on the picture, and click "open with". In that menu should now be Irfanview. Click it. Your pic should now be opened in Irfanview, and look something like this (your pic is where the black is):
Now, to reduce the filesize of the image we have to go into the "Image" menu which is along the top bar to the right of "Edit". Click it. From the drop-down menu, select "resize/resample".
You should now see this:
Now, the idea here is to reduce the picture size so as to find a balance between file size and quality that suits you. To do this, click the circle that says "set new size as percentage of original" and enter a percentage. For example, if you want the new size to be 50% of the current, enter in 50. It doesn't matter which box you type it in as the other will change to compensate.
When you are done, click OK.
FAQ:
Q: "shock, horror! My picture is too small!"
A: simply reopen your picture in Irfanview, you haven't saved it so it will be unchanged.
Q: "what the...my picture is the same size! Silly Jetsam!"
A: It's not actually, you just have Irfanview set to display the image within the window you have open so you can see it all. To change this and see the real size of your image, select the "view" menu, click "display options", and click "Fit window to image (1:1)".
Q: "Gee, now I see. But my picture is still far too big! I can't see it all!"
A: go through the same resize process again until you are happy.
Q: "OK, I'm happy with the size, what now?"
A: Now all you have to do is save it. To keep your original high quality image, do NOT just click "save". This will overwrite your original. Preferably click "File" "Save As" then save it to somewhere where you will find it (If you want to save it into the same place the original is, you will have to change the name of the smaller image to differentiate).
If you have done as I have described, you should now have an identical image with a smaller file size. Right click it the new reduced picture and select "properties" to check the new file size.
At this stage it should be a good size to email, just don't try to send too many at once. If it still takes too long, reduce it some more, or if you don't want to, write them to a CD and send it in the mail :P
If you have any questions about the method I have described, leave a comment! Feedback will help me to modify this and future posts to make them easier to understand.
Yours in geekiness,
Jetsam