Zhongg Internet Digest

Scammer targetting Paypal and Bank of America users

zhongg — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:43:17 +0000

We’ve recently received 2 emails seemingly from Bank of America and Paypal. The contents of the email is quite well crafted to resemble an authentic message. Upon closer inspection the sender is actually from new-service@yahoo.com. Both emails are posted below with the links sanitized. You can see it’s actually quite convincing and less technical users could be deceived if they’re careless.

Gmail actually moved the Paypal email to ‘Spam’ while the Bank of America email managed to slip past the system.

Paypal

Unauthorized Account Access

Dear valued PayPal member,

It has come to our attention that your PayPal account information needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records on or before June 30, 2007.

Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

To update your PayPal records click on the following link:
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

Thank you,
PayPal Update Team

Accounts Management As outlined in our User Agreement, PayPal will periodically send you information about site changes and enhancements.

Visit our Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have any questions.

Bank of America

Upgrade Your Account

Dear Bank of America customer,

In order to be prepared for the smart card upgrade on Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards and to avoid problems with our ATM services, we have recently introduced additional security measures and upgraded our software.

The security upgrade will be effective immediately and requires our customers to update their ATM card information. Please update your information by following the link given below.

http://www.bankofamerica.com/OnlineBanking/index.jsp

We are committed to delivering your quality service that is reliable and highly secure. This email is one of many components designed to ensure your information is safeguarded at all times.

Please do not reply to this message. For any inquiries, contact Customer Service.

Copyright 1999 - 2007 Bank of America. All rights reserved.

Email, Paypal, Scams, Security

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How to listen to Pandora outside US (with 5 simple steps)

zhongg — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:16:03 +0000

Pandora is an excellent music service bar none. When they decided to limit the service to United States only, we died a little inside. Just when we’ve almost gotten over our grief, a simple guide intervened and showed how to access Pandora’s service outside US.

In the past we’ve been through a number of non-working guides, fortunately this isn’t one of them. As this guide is being typed, our dear old friend Pandora is playing for us

Steps

1) Download and install Tor
2) Start > Tor > Torrc ; Paste the following at the bottom and save:

StrictExitNodes 1
exitnodes desync, 0xL37N1Tor, agrippator, whistlersmother, lefkada, bettyboop, croeso, TorLuwakOrg, nixnix, inap1, redpineapple, cronic, sasquatch, slowturtle2

3) Download tor.pac and place it at your C: drive
4) Configure your browser:

Internet Explorer
Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings
Check ‘Use automatic configuration script’ and fill the textbox with: file://c:\tor.pac

Firefox
Tools > Options > Advanced > Connections > Settings
Check ‘Automatic proxy configuration URL’ and fill the textbox with: file:///C:/tor.pac

5) Run Tor (Start > Tor > Tor)

There you have it; after running Tor, you are able to access Pandora’s service.

Note: It will take a few minutes for Tor to configure itself; the following message will appear once the configuration process is done:

[notice] We now have enough directory information to build circuits.

References

Summarized from http://openpandora.blogspot.com
Tor website
List of Tor active nodes

Guides, Hacking, Online Services, Pandora, Radio

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The Internet is for Porn - The Musical

zhongg — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:10:33 +0000

Time does sure fly, it’s been a week since we last posted. We’ll make it up to you guys (and maybe girls) with this one. Promise

Over here at Zhongg Internet Digest, our primary topic of interest is the Internet; but did you know that about a third of the Internet downloads are pornographic in nature? While we don’t know where the figure comes from, it does make sense. If sex sells, then Internet is the largest marketplace.

To illustrate this, Avenue Q has composed a musical titled ‘The Internet is for Porn’ and that’s just half the cake. The other half comes in an anime (Chobits to be exact) music video edited especially for this song. Not Safe For Work, explicit lyrics and sexy images (no nudity) … you have been warned.

Watch the anime version

Hilarious ain’t it? We found more where that came from,

Watch the Mac version

Lyrics

Kate Monster: The Internet is really really great.

Trekkie: For porn.

Kate Monster: I’ve got a fast connection, so I don’t have to wait!

Trekkie: For porn!

Kate Monster: What?! There’s always some new site,

Trekkie: For porn.

Kate Monster: I browse all day and night.

Trekkie: For porn,

Kate Monster: It’s like I’m surfing at the speed of light!

Trekkie: For porn!

Kate Monster: Trekkie!

Trekkie: The internet is for porn.

Kate Monster: Trekkie!!

Trekkie: The internet is for porn.

Kate Monster: What are you doing?!!!

Trekkie: Why you think the net was born?! Porn, porn, porn.

Kate Monster: Trekkie.

Trekkie: Oh, hello, Kate Monster.

Kate Monster: You are ruining my song.

Trekkie: Oh, me sorry, me no mean to.

Kate Monster: Well…If you wouldn’t mind, please, being quiet for a minute, so I can finish?

Trekkie: Okie dokie

Kate Monster: Good!

Kate Monster: I’m glad we have this new technology!

Trekkie: For porn.

Kate Monster: Sigh

Trekkie: Oops…

Kate Monster: Which gives us untold opportunity!

Trekkie: For porn!… Oops, sorry….

Kate Monster: Work from your own desktop,

Trekkie: For… mmm…

Kate Monster: You can research, browse and shop….until you’ve had enough and you’re ready to stop!

Trekkie: FOR PORN!

Kate Monster: Trekkkie…

Trekkie: The internet is for porn.

Kate Monster: Nooooo…

Trekkie: The internet is for porn.

Kate Monster: Trekkiee….

Trekkie: Me up all night honking me horn to porn, porn porn…

Kate Monster: Trekkie.

Kate Monster: That’s gross! You’re a pervert!

Trekkie: Ah, sticks and stones, Kate Monster.

Kate Monster: No really, you’re a pervert. Normal people don’t sit at home and look at porn on the Internet.

Trekkie: Ohhhh?

Kate Monster: What?

Trekkie: You have nooo idea! Ready normal people?

Ready.

Ready!

Ready…

Trekkie: Lemme hear it!

Chorus:

The Internet is for porn.

Trekkie: Sorry Kate.

The Internet is for porn.

I masturbate!

Trekkie: All these guys unzip their flies for porn porn porn.

Kate Monster: The Internet is not for porn!

Porn porn porn!

Kate Monster: Hold on a second!

Trekkie: What?

Kate Monster: Now I happen to know for a fact that you, Rob, check your portfolio and trade stocks online.

Rob: That’s correct.

Kate Monster: And you, Brian, buy things on Amazon.com.

Brian: Sure!

Kate Monster: And you, Gary, keep selling your possessions on Ebay.

Gary: Yes I do!

Kate Monster: And Princeton, you sent me that sweet online Birthday card.

Princeton: True!

Trekkie: Ohhh, but Kate, what do you think he do after? Hmmm?

Yeahhh…

Kate Monster: Ewwwwww!

Chorus:

The Internet is for porn,

Kate Monster: Gross

The Internet is for porn,

Kate Monster: I hate porn,

Trekkie: Grab your dick and double click for porn porn porn.

Kate Monster:I hate men.

Porn porn porn porn!

Kate Monster: I’m leaving!

Porn porn porn porn!

Kate Monster: I hate the internet.

Porn porn porn porn!

The Internet is for..

The Internet is for PORN!

“Grab your dick and double click” … priceless quote

Funny, Humor, Internet, Porn, Video

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Bloggerwave.com - Yet Another Paid to Blog Service

zhongg — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:02:42 +0000

We’re on a mad testing spree, testing out all the paid to < insert something > services. This time, we’re getting paid as well - two birds with one stone. Onwards with the review.

*This is a sponsored post*

Bloggerwave is one of the lesser known paid to blog services in the blogging scene. Hailing from Denmark, Bloggerwave opened its doors early this year.

After registration and approval of Zhongg.com, we’re presented with 2 opportunities - each worth $10. Apparently, the opportunities given to you are based on your blogs’ Alexa score and Google PageRank.

Now, there are 3 types of blog post available for the opportunities
- Review
- Buzz
- Opinion
The post you are reading now is of the ‘buzz’ type. Unfortunately, no guidelines has been set as to what exactly defines the post types. Only a 50 words is required for the post, that’s about half what of other services requires (range from 100-200) - which is great

At the moment, it Bloggerwave appears a tad incomplete. The blogger dashboard area is quite empty; with only the top earners information in place. Top earnings are in the range of $100+ . No mention of the minimum amount to cash out.

Bloggerwave has much to do in order to catch up with the likes of ReviewMe and PayPerPost. For us bloggers, one point stands out - with just two 50 words blog posts, you can earn $20.

Bloggerwave

Blog, Money, Paid to blog, Reviews, sponsored, Websites

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How to easily remove information from Google cache

zhongg — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:11:44 +0000

A friend of ours wanted to remove certain personal information from Google’s cache of a website she registered with. It was located at her profile page. We helped search the procedures for removing data from their cache. Took quite awhile to sort through the various instructions but we finally obtained the steps and she successfully got the personal information removed.

Here we share all that we have learnt through the process which requires only 2 simple steps.

Step 1) Modifying the page

Depending on your needs, there are 2 types of cache removal:
A) Permanent
To remove google’s current cached copy and prevent any further caches:
Add a meta noarchive tag after the tag on the page.

B) Temporary
To remove google’s current cached copy (The updated information will be cached again after 3 months):
Change or remove the related information on the page.

Note:
If you don’t have access to modify the page, contact the person in charge.
If you can’t contact the person in charge, skip to step 2.

Step 2) Request Google to remove cache

1) Go to Webpage removal request tool. You’ll need to log into your Google account.
2) Click “New Removal Request”
3) Select “Information or image that appears in the Google search results.”
4) There will be 3 options to choose from, select one of the 3 and proceed.

Additional Information

To prevent Google and other search engines from indexing the page:
Add a meta noindex tag after the tag on the page.

To remove your site from Yahoo search engine, contact them via
http://help.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_search_support

References

Google’s instructions for removing cached copy
Noachive tags
Noindex tags
A more thorough guide

Google, Guides, privacy, Search engine

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The Ultimate List of Malaysian Food Blogs

zhongg — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:55:25 +0000

It’s time again for another linkfest episode. Since the previous linkfest - where we brought you 31 Malaysian Tech Blogs - was so well received, we’ll do it again. This time, it’s going to be about Malaysian Food Blogs.

As Malaysians, there are few things in life that are more important than food to us. It is no wonder that the number of Malaysian food bloggers around are far more than tech bloggers. How much more? We scoured the Internet for hours to find the answer. We found 65 ACTIVE FOOD BLOGS! That’s more than 2 times the amount of tech blogs we found earlier.

Due to the insane amount of blogs we had to go through, the list you see below is not ordered. Our selection was based on the activeness and scope of the blogs. Therefore, we had bypassed some blogs that haven’t been updated in a long time or not really focused on food. Some of the food blogs are more inclined to recipes so we grouped them under ‘Recipe Blogs’. We’re happy to report that the Malaysian food blogging scene is booming; with a lot of quality food blogs out there. Thanks to them, our stomachs were growling throughout the searching process .

Time to update your blogroll. We present you 65 Malaysian Food Blogs

Food Blogs

Recipe Blogs

http://fingerineverypie.typepad.com
http://www.audreycooks.com/audreycooks
http://food-fusion.blogspot.com
http://www.hungerhunger.blogspot.com
http://mylocalcuisine.blogspot.com
http://hipfood.wordpress.com
http://foodie.parisbeaverbanks.com
http://www.meltingwok.com/index.html
http://malaysiataste.blogspot.com

Experience tells us that there are a lot more food blogs yet to be found. So if you’re one of them, feel free to drop a comment and we’ll gladly add you to the list.

More blogs:
http://gluttonqueen.clareng.com/
http://culinarycravings.blogspot.com/
http://sembangntalk.blogspot.com
http://masalaheaven.blogspot.com/
http://www.friedchillies.tv
http://welapfud.blogspot.com

Blog, Food, Linkfest, Malaysia

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Google would love if you post comments on Zhongg

zhongg — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:25:28 +0000

We’ve finally gotten to implementing a DoFollow plugin on Zhongg.com.

For the less technical ones, comments are normally configured as NoFollow. Meaning google won’t include the link when calculating your PageRank (some silly ranking thing for websites ). Basically, you’re out of luck if you post comments just to get more links to your website.

Being the generous PageRank 1 (First!) website that we are, we’ve generously allowed everyone to leech off the little remaining self esteem that we have as a website. Just post a comment and Google will love you long time. Yahoo will kiss you and Microsoft will slip into a sexy lingerie just for you.

There’s a catch though, you need to post regularly - at least 3 comments - to enable the feature for your comments.

For those interested to implement the plugin, get Linklove here.

More plugins of this nature

Blog, Plugins, Search engine, Wordpress, Zhongg

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SwitchPlanet.com - Free Stuff Trading

zhongg — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:53:13 +0000

*This is a sponsored post*

Today, we’re going to take a look at SwitchPlanet.com, a stuff trading service. With their mantra “use more … waste less!”, SwitchPlanet proudly proclaims,

SwitchPlanet is a social media trading website where members can switch their old DVDs, CDs, Games and Books with other members for free.

Social tools such as friends, groups and forums are available to help members communicate between trades.

Members also support various charities via our SwitchFunds program.

SP is a great way to enjoy media/entertainment for the cost of postage.

Inventory

True to their words, SwitchPlanet indeed has a wide array DVDs, CDs, video games and books available for switching. Under each type of items are categories to help you navigate to your choice of items. Currently, DVDs and CDs are well provided for - with many of the categories being in the thousands. Selection of books and video games lag behind in terms of availability but are slowly catching up. Stuff range from old to rather new-ish; don’t expect to find recent blockbuster DVDs.

Majority of the items available are accompanied with a good amount of information and an image. Also included is the amount of people that have and wants the item. To begin the switching process, check an item that is available for switching.

Switching

The switching process is done via ‘SwitchBucs’(SB), an internal currency with an exchange rate of 1SB=1USD. Wait a minute… I thought it was free? Indeed it is free when you look at it from a providers’ perspective. See, each item available for switching are actually priced with a certain amount of SwitchBucs; e.g. a Spiderman 2 Special edition DVD would cost you 40SB. So when a person wants to switch with you, 40SB will be deducted from him and then added to your account. With 40SB at hand, you can use it to pay for other items you want.

Here’s where the non-free part comes in - when you want something but have no SB. Perhaps all you have are junk that nobody wants. So anyway, you have no SB and Spiderman 2 Special Edition is taunting you with a 40SB price tag. Click on the ‘want it’ link and SwitchPlanet allows you to exchange 40SB with 40USD. You get 40SB to switch with your object of desire.

As you can see, it isn’t ’switching’ per-se, but rather an exchange of SB to facilitate trading (since members have no way of cashing out on their SB). Members are stuck in a perpetual cycle of switching; which isn’t necessary a bad thing as it sustains the inventory database with frequent switches.

SwitchFunds

The SwitchFunds program is a system that allows you to donate to various charitable organizations as a gesture of appreciation for the free service provided. We think it’s a great addition to the good they are doing by reducing wastage.

Concerns

Our primary concern would be the lack of information regarding purchase of SwitchBucs. We spend a lot of time looking through the help section as well as exploring every link to get some info on that. Finally, we were able to locate it via simulating a ‘want it’ process. How we wished there was a more accessible way to just get some SB!

Another issue we faced was the inability to choose a country and state outside of US or Canada. There was no mention of other countries being restricted. We finally chose ‘Military posted to Asia’.

Summary

SwitchPlanet provides a useful platform for people who don’t mind trading their stuff with others. While an initial purchase of SB might be needed for some, most of the members can get by with constant switching the way it was meant to be. A lot of money could be saved if you switch wisely.

We hope you find the review informative.
link to SwitchPlanet.com

Beta, Online Services, Reviews, sponsored, SwitchPlanet, Web2.0

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Get your complaints heard - Complaints Websites

zhongg — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:54:23 +0000

The Internet never cease to amaze us. Time and time again, we’ve encountered websites and web services beyond your imagination. With the dawn of the Web 2.0 age, social driven media is stronger than ever; with sites like Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Lastfm, and the like, filling the headlines. Today we take an alternative route to see the negative aspect of social media, which really points to the nature of human itself. Complaints.

Let’s be honest, we complain on a regular basis. There’s just no end to it, people and things always seem to piss us off. Whether it be your day job as a cashier or people in cinemas with their freaking mobile phones on loud mode (You people suck!), complaints are everywhere. We need a place to let it all out, and what better place then the Internet where we can do it anonymously? We bring you 3 websites whose sole purpose is to share complaints.

BossBitching

The name speaks for itself. From the site: “Boss Bitching is a user driven social content website that allows anonymous postings of stories about bosses.” Here is where you can read or post your own complaints about bosses. Looking through their archives of sob stories, there’s quite a number of sad chaps out there with horrible bosses.

Our favorite part is how bosses are organized:

The Credit Stealer (17)
The Criticizer (18)
The Insensitive (33)
The Micro Manager (29)
The Tyrant (33)
All Purpose Asshole (138)

All Purpose Assholes are always in abundance.

Other people will then rate your complaints - Boss is a Prick, Sounds Bad or Stop Complaining. Occasionally, others will post comments to pity or rebuke the poster as they deem fit. Though there isn’t much to it, these souls will at least get their complaints out of their system. Bonus points for helping job seekers identify horrible bosses.

link to BossBitching

JobVent

Looking at the bigger picture, we have the company itself. JobVent is where (ex)employees vent their frustrations about companies they’ve worked with. JobVent is rather upfront with the facts - real company names are posted. There’s even a chart listing the best hated and loved job (some posters apparently post their admiration instead of complaints…ugh).

Each complaint is attached with ratings of the job:

Pay
Respect
Benefits
Job Security
Work Life Balance
Career Potential / Growth
Location
Co-Worker Competence
Work Environment

These factors will then be added together to be used to determine how good or bad a job ranks among others.

Compared to BossBitching, JobVent’s coverage is more extensive. The site is also more useful due to the name of the companies being revealed. This will allow potential job seekers to gauge a company’s performanace and also to brace themselves for the worst. A useful feature we would like to mention is the RSS feeds for each company, so that current employers and employees alike can keep up to date with the latest vents

link to JobVent

MyBiggestComplaint

We’ve covered enough work-based complaints, moving on to general complaints. MyBiggestComplaint is one of the newest websites to join in the Complaints 2.0 madness. At MyBiggestComplaint, anybody can post up their complaints - with pictures and videos too. Complaints range from “Erectile Dysfunction Ads During Family Sporting Events” to “Automatic Flushing Toilets”.

A quick complain form is there for when you need to let some steam out immediately. This will save you from registering. Complaints are tagged and anyone can reply to them. Rating is done simply using the 5 stars system.

Among the websites we’ve checked, MyBiggestComplaint has the best interface and relevancy to the general public. Even if you choose not to participate, there are a lot of interesting and funny reads out there.

link to MyBiggestComplaint

Notable Mentions

BossBitching, Complaints, Social Driven, Web2.0

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TheFunded - Funding for Entrepreneurs

zhongg — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:53:36 +0000

TheFunded is a site about - you guessed it - getting funding for entrepreneurs. A considerable amount of entrepreneurs are bound to need funds for their business ventures. This is no easy task, what more if you’re just a young startup taking a first step into the unknown world of funding. Fret not, at TheFunded you get first hand experiences and advice from veterans.

The site says:

TheFunded.com is working to be the leading source of funding information for entrepreneurs. Help us to help you by reviewing and commenting on funds.

Venture capitalist and the lot are a sensitive bunch, so it’s no good for any sane entrepreneur to go about shooting his/her mouth off. With that in mind, TheFunded goes the extra mile to provide high level anonymity to its members so that they can share information with peace of mind.

Each posting rates a company (on a scale of 0 to 5) by:

Track Record
Operating Competence
Pitching Efficiency
Favorable Deal Terms
Execution Assistance

All these factors will go into the overall rating of a funding company. Members can choose to agree or disagree with the comments posted.

TheFunded is aiming to be *the* go to place for funding information. This ambition is not just limited to the US, but it covers the world. This makes TheFunded relevant to entrepreneurs everywhere (there’s even an entry for Malaysia!). Comments posted goes pretty personal to sometimes mentioning the venture capitalist involved. Our reviews covers only the basics; TheFunded has many more great features such as the news, opportunities and advice section. If you’re an entrepreneur in the making, you can’t afford to miss this one.

link to TheFunded

Entrepreneur, Funding, Industry news, Reviews, Social Driven, Startups, Web2.0, Websites

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