Irritating Calls...

I bet a lot of people received a call from an 'unknown caller', which appeared at their mobile phone screen, and a female caller will say she called from a company. She will then say you had won thousands of ringgits, house, or even luxurious cars. 

I for one received this kind of so called 'spam call' quite a few times before. The most noticeable is a call from a Chinese national company during first day and first minute of the university life!!! Imagine that when the lecturer was going to start the lecture and suddenly a female caller from "XXX公司" and said that she is promoting some kind of product which I don't care to listen. Then, I straightaway and ask her that where she get my number, which she refused to tell me. After that, I told her that I am busy man and have no time to entertain her. However, the operator was quite persistent. She keep explaining that I might win something luxurious if I bought one of the products. In no time, I just hang up the call and switch off my phone. 

Another same type of call that I received is also occurred during lecture. This time they say I had won a scholarship worth hundreds of thousand in ringgit. This time they SMS me first before try to call me. By the time they try to contact me, I block their calls.

All this while I know about people are trying to scam through calls, but I never thought that I could be one of the target. For where and how they obtain the numbers, I have no idea. I won't be surprise at all if they simply key in the number and try their luck.

Remember, there are not free lunch in the world, we have to work hard for it.

Spoilt of Choices... :P

Since long ago, I used Mozilla Firefox as my first choice browser. However, Firefox lagged quite often recently, as consequence, I tried to close and then reopen it. But, it was futile because the browser still running in the background. Hence, I have to end the process manually in Task Manager. This problem had been reoccurring for about 2 weeks. Now, I think I had found out the problem. It might due to an application that I quite frequently used in Facebook. If I did not use that specific application, then Firefox will not have any problem. Although the cause was identified, it did not stop me from seeking an alternative browser.

After seeking advices from friends, I tried Opera 10. As saying goes, 'Don't judge a book by its cover', my first about impression about the design is not as artistic as Firefox or IE. But, just after I randomly search something, it surprise me quite a bit. The download speed is faster than Firefox. All thanks to "Opera Turbo", which will increase the data download speed and reduce the number of unnecessary data to be downloaded. The user can either set the "Opera Turbo" into automatic mode, which will activate it if the connection speed is slow or just keep the "Opera Turbo" on whenever he use it. If the connection speed is constant and fast, then we can disable it also. However, the downside of this function is that it will decrease the quality of the images after the page is loaded because of the images was compressed during the loading process. Opera 10 also has basic widgets that other browsers do not have. For instance, typical games such as crossword , brainkrieg etc. are available for the user to play for free. Furthermore, I like the way designers design the panel which can enable users to search for bookmarks, history, widgets, downloads, and notes. Also, users can sign up for "My Opera" for free to blog and share their photos to friends. Too bad that I had a personal blog, if not I will try it out. All in all, Opera 10 is all-in-one browser which enables users to search, blog and share photos.

Besides that, I also tried Google Chrome. Google Chrome is like any basic browser but it was faster than Firefox and in fact, it was as fast as Opera 10 with the turbo mode on. When it comes to downloading videos, I think Google Chrome has the slight edge over Opera. Unlike the Opera 10 and Firefox, most of the customization can be done in one button. Therefore, it is more user-friendly. Overall, the layout is simple but better than Firefox.

Currently, I have 4 browsers (IE, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera 10). I had decided to use Opera 10 as my first choice browser as Google Chrome is only just launched recently and Opera has a better security record. However, I do not know whether I want to remove Google Chrome and Firefox or not. Seriously, I'm be spoilt for choice. By the way, I still thinking about whether I should tried out Safari 4 or not :P