//beconfused

Here are some tips to make your laptop last longer:

Dim your screen – Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance. Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra battery juice.

Cut down external devices – USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your laptop battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.

Run off a hard drive rather than CD/DVD – As power consuming as hard drives are, CD and DVD drives are worse. Even having one in the drive can be power consuming. They spin, taking power, even when they?re not actively being used. Wherever possible, try to run on virtual drives using programs like Alcohol 120% rather than optical ones.

I would like to highlight the last point. I see a lot of people watching anime from CDs when they could in fact just copy it over to the harddisk. It saves that bit of electricity to let you watch an extra episode of your Ouran Host Club anime. So do take note.

Finally, if you’re not using your laptop, just switch it off, the screensaver doesn’t help much. Using a laptop to listen to MP3 is a complete waste of electricity too. Be a little more energy saver, borrow a book from a library or just listen songs through a music player.

More tips at FriedBeef

[via Digg]

If you’re a regular visitor to Digg, you will know and understand that somebody had to say this sooner or later… Here are 20 words you can use for your headlines instead of the word AMAZING…

1. Unimaginable
2. Unanticipated
3. Phenomenal
4. Remarkable
5. Unbelievable
6. Breathtaking
7. Tremendous
8. Unexpected
9. Spectacular
10. Unthinkable
11. Unforeseen
12. Significant
13. Stunning
14. Startling
15. Splendid
16. Wonderful
17. Overwhelming
18. Stupefying
19. Staggering
20. Unpredicted

I’ve got to use some of these words. I keep using amazing, awesome and blah blah. It sounds kinda boring already.

read more | digg story

My previous blog post got picked up by Mallr, a website that I haven’t heard before till 20 minutes ago.

The above is the all-famous Digg.com.

Here is the similar Mallr.com.

Mallr.com has a similar interface to Digg.com, just uglier. The developer has to work on the colors (just like I have to work on my blog’s colors) and resolve some bugs. If you try to vote with Mallr, Mallr throws you an error while Digg actually gives you the field to log in.

Mallr has a tiny community and viewership is crucial to the success of these social bookmarking websites. And they need a bunch of people who love to bookmark. It needs to position itself different from Digg to be successful or it would be just the Mallr of nobody-knows-where. Perhaps promoting tagging in the website may help.

The ability to blog from Digg is great too, although I always edit my post after I blog from Digg to add the categories and pictures and stuff. Mallr could have something similar.

The great thing about Mallr is that it is quite regionalized (or perhaps localized). I see local (Singapore) websites and news more which is a good place for Singaporeans to gather. The problem with Digg is that it’s just too American and I wish there were more news about Asian regions too. I will definately keep Mallr under my radar for a while.

The sign-up process is easy, the profile update is quite user-friendly but not as friendly as Digg. There’s a lot of work to do and it’s sinful to copy too much from Digg. It might be successful in the future. I haven’t got a chance to find out more about Mallr. Do comment here if you have more information about Mallr.

So you have del.icio.us? del.icio.us is some sort of bookmarking tool. What I really like about del.icio.us is that you can add bookmarks at my camp’s computer and be able to browse through those bookmarks. It’s much alike StumbleUpon, Windows Live Favorites etc. del.icio.us is a Yahoo! company. Add me to your network!

You can also browse through my tags to see if you find any interesting links. Have fun!

1. Learn something when you’re free If you are free, bring along a book. It can be a Japanese language book or some self help book. Learning doesn’t stop during national service. Some people practice mathematics in camp, I am not that smart, I do read Japanese For Dummies sometimes.
2. Try to find ways to book out Family problem? Share with your superiors. You want to learn driving? Tell them too. It always feel good to book out unless you’re staying really really far from camp. I used to have physiotherapy every week and I just love booking out for a short while and walk around a mall.
3. People watching One of my hobbies actually. There are so many people in camp, so many friends around you. I just thought it’s interesting to watch how they react to events and get themselves out of troubles. I felt I learnt something most times when watching people.
4. Countdown to your ORD You probably shouldn’t start too early or it would be depressing. I just started this: from my blog, I learnt the number of days left. I write the days left on a Post It note and paste it on my wall each time I go to camp. To know how many times I go to camp, I just count my Post It notes! It’s fun and a total wastage of good paper. It just delights me how many days I spend in camp before I ORD.
5. Talk cock That means talking about all the things that don’t matter. Life should be more fun than just talking about the latest developments of GST in Singapore and Shin Corp. Talk and laugh about things that just don’t matter – like your friend losing a green sock and a white one too and that day have to wear the two colors as a pair.
6. Eat slowly I don’t get why people are eating so fast. Take it easier, take your own sweet time to eat, you can badmouth your superiors too to make things interesting. If you’re rich, eat at the canteen, the food takes a damn long time to arrive and you can talk 15 minutes with your buddy.
7. Do something totally silly Each time my friend goes to the toilet, he makes sure he collects a new roll of toilet roll back to the bunk. I did that in the past. I had 7 in my cupboard once. Stocking up for the future.
8. Say Good Morning to familiar faces I want people to wish me a good morning so I wish them first. It’s a classic greeting and it makes people smile. Why not?
9. Volunteer to call people It takes a damn long time to call people up and time passes quite fast. When everybody’s busy and there’s a job to call up people – grab it. I like to hello people on the phone and it’s such a good time waster. My friends usually complain about things and I take ten minutes to listen to their complaint. I certainly don’t mind.
10. Relax and let your work pile One thing I learnt in army is that it doesn’t matter if work piles up. Can’t finish your admin work? Leave it for the next day. If you finish your admin work, the commanders would just find more to entertain you. When you see your commander is busy, go help him with his work. Leave your work undone and he won’t blame you because you helped him right? The thing is that a lot of admin work is actually not require and is usually forgotten if you don’t work on it after a week.

And to think that I was complaining about inefficiency in my unit when I first got in.

I found these lightbulb jokes in Reader Digest. I’m quite sick of light bulb jokes actually but these light bulb jokes made me laugh so I’ll share with you guys.

Journalists’ Jokes

Q: How many sub-editors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: We can’t tell whether you mean “insert a new lightbulb” or “have sexual relations inside a lightbulb.” Can we reword it to remove ambiguity?

Q: How many art directors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Does it have to be a lightbulb?

Q: How many proof readers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: The last time this was asked it involved Art Directors. Is the difference intentional? It seems inconsistent.

Q: How many writers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Why do we have to change it?

Q: How many editors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: It was supposed to be in place last week!

Q: How many publishers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Three.. One to screw it in and two more to hold down the editor.

Q: How many marketing directors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: It isn’t too late to make it neon, is it?

Q: How many advertising directors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: We’re not sure because the client might change it tomorrow. Cut some editorial anyway.

Sent in to Reader Digest by Adeline Loh. Published on page 95 on September 2006 Reader Digest.

Chong Kok sent me this list, I don’t really remember all of these things, do you guys remember them? I don’t remember watching He-man and Silver Hawk. I don’t remember The Count’s laugh too. What’s Bin1 Fen1 Ba1 San1?!

50 things known to a Singaporean teenager

1. You grew up watching He-man, Transformers, Silver hawk and Mickey Mouse. Not to forget, Ninja turtles and Smurfs too.
2. You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during recess time. You will squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you, and brush your teeth with a coloured mug. The teachers said you must brush each side 10 times too.
3. You know what’s Bin1 Fen1 Ba1 San1 is all about.
4. You know what SBC stands for.
5. You were there when the first chinese serial, the Awakening was shown on TV.
6. Internet? What the hell is that? So you thought a decade or more ago.
7. You find your friends with pagers and handphone cool in Secondary school.
8. SBS buses used to be non-airconditioned. The bus seats are made of wood and the cushion is red.! The big red bell gives a loud BEEEP! when pressed.There are colourful tickets for TIBS buses. The conductor will check for tickets by using a machine which punches a hole on the ticket.
9. Your favourite actor and actress is Huang Wenyong and Xiangyun. Next is Lee Nanxing and Zoe Tay and the Aiyoyo woman.
10. You’ve probably read Young Generation magazine. You know who’s Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.
11. You were there when they first introduced MRT here. You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to see the scenery.
12. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.
13. Gals are fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.
14. You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street.
15. You longed to buy tibits called Kaka (20 cents per pack) and Ding Dang (50 cents per box), that had a toy in it and it changes every week not forgetting the 15 cents animal crackers and the ring pop, where the lollipop is the diamond on the ring.
16. You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel 5 never had enough cartoons for you.
17. All that you know about Cantonese is from the Hong Kong serials you watched on TV2.
18. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven are probably the thickest story ! books you ever thought you have read. Even SweetValley High and Malory Towers.
19. Civics and Moral Education was 好公民 (Hao3 Gong1 Min2).
20. KFC used to be a high class restaurant that serve food in plates and let you use metal forks and knives.
21. The most vulgar thing you said was asshole and idiot and the most extreme was ’super white’ – you just couldn’t bring yourself to say the hokkien relative.
22. Catching was the in thing and twist the magic word.
23. Your English workbooks was made of some damn poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow.
24. CDIS was your best friend.
25. The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellised characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you maths.
26. Waterbottles were slinged around your neck and a must everywhere you go.
27. Boys loved to play soccer with small tennis balls in the basketball court or play something that uses tennis ball to hit other players known as “HUM TAM BOLA” during recess or after school
28. Hopskotch, five stones, chapteh and zero point were all the rage with the girls and boys too…
29. Science was fun with the balsam and the angsana being the most important plants of our lives.
30. Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, eternalized in our minds from the textbooks. Even Mr. Wally.
31. You did stupid exercises like seal crawl and frog jumps.
32. Every Children’s Day and National Day you either get pins or pens with “Happy Children’s Day 1993″ or dumb files with “Happy National Day 1994″.
33. In Primary 6, you had to play buddy for the younger kids like big sister and brother.
34. Chinese teachers were always old, boring and damn fierce looking.
35. Your form teacher taught you Mathematics, Science and English.
36. The worksheets were made of brown rough paper of poor quality.
37. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.
38. Famous Chinese singers were only Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai.
39. School dismissal time was normally around 1 pm.
40. There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost everyday.
41. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $3 or more for pocket money everyday.
42. During class gatherings, parents always tag along in case someone gets lost at Orchard Road.
43. You freak out when the teacher tells you to line up according to height and hold hands with the corresponding boy or girl.
44. Handkerchiefs were a must for both genders.
45. Collecting notebooks and all kinds of stationery was a popular thing.
46. Autograph books were loaded with “Best Wishes”, “Forget Me Not”, and small poems like “Bird fly high, hard to catch. Friend like you, hard to forget”.
47. Class monitors and prefects loved to say “You talk somemore, I write your name ah!”
48. There were at least 40 people in one class.
49. Large, colourful schoolbags were carried.
50. You brought every single book to school, even though there was one thing called the timetable.

The list has been reformatted. It’s quite true for half the list. Quite a good list though.