Jan Leow's Blog Page

Using blogger layout

Using blogger layout system is a little bit more difficult but it has added features the old template style do not have.

I finally came around to switch my CH website blog to the new layout system and it took me the better part of a day to get the look and feel similar to the previous template.

I could try making it 99% similar looking it would take too much work. I guess an 80% similarity is good enough. The color theme still matches as per the nav menu. I opt for a wider right side bar after all quick blogs tend to be short so a narrow body might be better suited. Besides it is using a fluid width template so it doesn't matter if my right takes up more space.

The Blogger new layout is a little tougher to get working but I was able to do it much faster than before by using this go blog layout template and modify from here. Just a matter of changing colours and alignment adjustment and there you have it!

Always updating stuffs

I'm always updating stuffs on my website. Sometimes it is just minor, like correcting a little typo here and there for those more important articles and pages. And other times to create meaningful links between related post so that visitors to your website might want to read further after landing onto one of your pages. Seems like a never ending job. But that's how it goes if you want to make website that is useful and the best perhaps even rival against your competitor for the coveted top spot in SERP.

Just like now I'm thinking how to use Google Blogger new layout, so how do I port over the old tabled web page design to the CSS tableless template? This might require some thinking about, and there may be some layout that may not fit. But as long as the general look and feel is there, I should be able to cobble up a web page template that should look similar to the previous one.

If I managed it, my SBI site would probably start using the tableless CSS template too. But I probably be unlikely to update my 250+ pages one by one like I did previously. Just way too much work!

And why should I port over? To take advantage of Blogger's new features not available in the older HTML template style. And ya, it may be a pain to code XML style, but it would certainly be worth it to gain the additional features!

Domain Expired

Oh, dear! Bluehost sent an email saying my domain would be renewed for free by giving me a free coupon. But I noticed they didn't renew my domain at all it is already 1 day pass expiration date. Bluehost support couldn't do anything and said I should check with the billing department. Since it was Sunday I will have to wait till Monday for a reply. No choice but to send in a ticket and hope they will set the correct expiry date. I think any moment now my website will be down. Let's hope they can do it on time!

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[update 21/6/2010]
Thank goodness! Bluehost managed to resolve this issue quickly! My domain was not down at all. Bluehost is not too bad when it comes to customer service.

Bluehost prices has been increasing lately. Probably cost has increased. For example if you take a yearly web hosting service, it is now $8.95/mo, up from previous $7.95/mo. And if you want to take up their $6.95/mo offer, it used to be for a 2-years period, now it is 3-years. Well, since I'm going to be with them for a long while, I went for the 3-years webhosting and save some money.

And they use to give whois privacy for free, now it is chargeable, just like godaddy, exabytes, etc. Oh, well, this service is nice, but not necessary. Just use a stonger anti-spam for that public email.

What Makes A Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea.

The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight.

The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need.

Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ... Dad.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

Today at church we are celebrating father's day and the children church gave a nice Father's day presentation.

And of course we have the Father who is in heaven who look out to us.

Father's day celebration first started in June 1910 in honour of fathers though mother's day had been celebrated for a longer time. It became very and spread throughout the world

Happy Father's Day!

Streamyx is down yet again!

Welcome to boleh-land where nothing works right. Malaysia is vying for high income develop nation status and yet the simplest of things like a decent broadband internet connection still cannot achieve. Yes, I'm kvetching again at the lacklustre Streamyx service.

I was having off then on connection whole day long. At first I thought it was my PC, but then I realised it was TM/Streamyx fault. The connection sputtered on like a lame duck. I have to force click several times on a link to get a web page to refresh. Trying to do some work was a slow process.

And finally this evening while trying to update a web page, TM/Streamyx finally died out. And no amount of forcing the line would get me a connection.

Hurmph! Where's the competition to force Streamyx to improve their service? If this is the way TM is going about their broadband connection, you have better think twice about signing up on their UNIFI service. It ain't cheap and Malaysia broadband service is one of the expensive one around this region due to lack of competition. Monopoly is no good. It just shows it can't improve its services when the competition is sleeping with their promotion.

So where is that garish potong wayar ad to spur Streamyx to improve its broadand service connection?

Windows Messenger Error Code 81000306

Again I got Windows Live Messenger Error Code 81000306 in my Windows Vista. Which means I could not connect to the Windows Live Messenger server. There was this fix that I did some many months ago, and it still works.

 

- Click start
- Type: cmd (but don’t hit Enter)
- Right-click cmd.exe when it appears under Applications
- Click Run As Administrator
- Type the following: netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
- Press enter

 

It should work without rebooting. I must have turned on the TCP during one of the Windows update or something. But this didn’t help me on my office new Ricoh Aficio 2027 Multifunction copier printer scanner. Though I could send print jobs to it, but the scan jobs would not send to my PC. Still trying to figure that one out.