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Why I Prefer CIMB Over RHB For My Western Union Transactions

It has been almost a year since the first time I successfully withdrawn Google Adsense earnings through Western Union. I made the withdrawal at my local CIMB Bank branch. It was a very pleasant experience. I was served almost instantly and the counter staff was very polite.

From then until now, I made several other trips to the bank to withdraw my Google Adsense earnings. My favorite bank to withdraw from Western Union is no other than CIMB Bank and here is why.

Withdraw Adsense earnings through Western Union at CIMB bank

The only other bank I use apart from CIMB is RHB Bank. I have only used RHB’s services for Western Union transactions twice. The first time was when I wanted to cash out my second Google Adsense payment. The truth is, the experience wasn’t anything to shout about. I had to wait at least twice longer for them to process my payment compared to CIMB.

I vowed never to return again. But I did.

The second time was just a few days ago. The reason why I did was I thought that my first bad experience could have been just a one off case. Furthermore, I went into CIMB only to be told that their Western Union was offline. So, I didn’t have any other choices.

I spent close to an hour in RHB that rainy afternoon — around 50 minutes or so. Although most of the time spent was to wait for my turn, the time it took to process my payment wasn’t that quick either.

On my last trip to CIMB, I was in and out of the bank in no more than 15 minutes.

I really have no idea why it takes RHB so long to process a Western Union transaction. Maybe they have tighter regulations to follow? I don’t know. However, one thing I do know is that I am never stepping my foot into any RHB bank for a Western Union transaction ever again.

Well, never unless CIMB is offline.

Are You Gonna Nang My Innit?

I am lucky enough to have attracted someone who wanted to be a guest blogger in this technology blog. However, this person does not wish to disclose his/her identity yet under certain circumstances. After reading the guest post, I agreed to publish it in my blog.

Please note that the post below is a guest post. It wasn’t written by me. However, I do share some of the sentiment brought up in the post. Critics and comments are highly welcomed to help improve the services and purpose of the said website.

***** Guest Post Begin *****

Innit. The latest system available from Nuffnang which promises to drive traffic to Nuffnangers. It’s definitely a very promising move and caring at the same time as traffic fundamentally is the core subject in determining a person’s blog earning or more specifically in this case, one’s Nuffnang’s earning.

The reason it’s caring and controversial at the same time lies on its aim of increasing traffic volume. Advertisers pay more for higher traffic blogs, no doubt. Hence, by increasing blogger’s traffic in a legitimate way, it helps the bloggers to have a much wider exposure and hence advertisers paying them a higher premium in return, more or less a deliberate attempt of a win-win situation from both ends.

However, this key feature isn’t exactly an easy task. How do you deliberate exposes the blogs to a whole new level in spite of the existing available means?

The platform the current bloggers in the Malaysia and Singapore region relies on their own Project Petaling Street and Ping.Sg. So, the million dollar question is, what makes Innit standout to outperform the existing platforms?

From the prevailing Innit outlook, it looks like another format of Ping.sg. Though Ping.sg is more or less restricted to Singapore bloggers, Innit caters for only pure nuffnangers.

This is the dilemma, both ping.sg and PPS both are the bigger pie of audience but Innit is merely an intersection faction of either, which in a way means their exposure can be in fact less than the 2 older platforms, i.e. less audience. This is then quite worrying, because the main selling point is driving traffic, and traffic relies on audience. Of course, the positive note from it is that it’s a combination of both regions of nuffnangers…

For the PPS users ( since they don’t use Ping.sg ), Innit’s “nang” function does offer a breath of creativity. Where users can see which is the most attractive or “digged” the most. But then again, noticing the “nang” trends, it just relates to us the same psychology effect of whether you get the necessary traffic from PPS, it’s mostly based on the “attractiveness” of the title of the entry. But isn’t this the same logic that’s being apply to PPS users as well? By default, most nuffnangers are PPS users also…

Therefore, Innit doesn’t actually offer what we don’t already know from driving traffic when in fact it applies the same principle as PPS and Ping.sg.

To conclude, the most fundamental aspect at the moment that would really make Innit stands out is how enthusiastic are the Nuffnangers, are they going to be the force to distinguish themselves from the existing PPS and Ping.Sg users and make the nuffnang community readership beyond our common logic or comprehension ?

So, this post is gonna be on Innit, I wonder if it’ll be “nang”ed ?

***** Guest Post End *****

Since it is almost 5 am, I couldn’t really think straight right now. I do have my own opinions regarding Nuffnang’s Innit as well. I will put them in the comments area or update this post once I have the time.

If you haven’t already, please nang this post.

Remove Dusts On Heatsink Solves CPU Overheating Problem

I noticed my CPU was running at very high temperatures a few weeks ago. Just the other day, I decided that I had enough with the CPU overheating problem. I took out a screwdriver and proceeded to removing the heatsink from the motherboard. The screwdriver wasn’t used to unscrew any screws (there isn’t any screw to the heatsink and fan) but to help remove the fan from the “cage”.

It has been many years since I last did anything like that. It took me a few minutes just to remove the heatsink and fan! Once I have successfully removed it, I was staring at the motherboard where the heatsink and fan used to be and felt really strange. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what was the problem.

Motherboard without a processor

Can you spot the “problem”?

That is when I realized my real problem has just started. I turned the heatsink that I was still holding around and found what I was looking for — my Pentium 4 processor. The processor was stuck firmly onto the bottom of the heatsink. It was as if the two were “glued” together by the thermal paste applied in between them. The overheating problem must have sealed them together.

Processor stuck to heatsink

I tried to separate them with my hands but they were dead stuck to each other. I had no choice but to continue with my plan to clean the heatsink and fan while leaving the problem to be solved later.

I removed the fan that was attached to the top of the heatsink. It was my first time doing it so I proceeded cautiously. I didn’t want to hurt myself but more importantly, I do not want to drop it causing damage to the processor. I was shocked when I saw the condition of the heatsink.

Heatsink covered with dusts

No wonder the CPU was overheating! There was a thick layer of dust covering the top of the heatsink. The air blown into the heatsink was somehow disrupted by them. I removed the thick layer of dust with a few pieces of tissue paper. You have no idea how much dust they were.

Heatsink looks as good as new after cleaning off dusts

That is a spanking clean heatsink. There are still some dusts in between the heatsink plates but I have removed most of them. It was time to solve the processor problem now. The only option I had in my mind at that time was to carefully place the heatsink back onto its slot. Since the processor was stuck to the heatsink “in the right position”, theoretically, the processor would slide into its slot correctly too.

It was still a huge gamble because the processor pins could easily bend when I am sliding it back and forth hoping that it would slide into its slot. When I was quite certain that the processor was in place, I had to “lock” the heatsink and fan into its slot. This will then push the heatsink firmly down. I said a short prayer before doing this because if the processor wasn’t in place, all of its pins will be bend causing maximum damage.

An error message greeted me when I booted up the computer. It mentioned that “CPU wasn’t found”. I thought I must have caused some damage to the processor or it wasn’t in place properly. However, I also noticed that it was able to detect the presence of a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz processor. I knew there was still hope. I entered BIOS and exited it while saving the changes. My computer booted up like normal the next time around.

Operation Successful

Everything is back to normal now. I notice that my CPU is running at a much lower temperature as well at around 50 degrees most of the time. It used to run at 60-70+ degrees previously. My CPU fan speed can now reach over 3,000 rpm compared to previously when it was stuck at only 2,700 rpm max.

Speedfan stats

This little clean up saved me from buying a new heatsink. If you have CPU overheating problems as well, you can try cleaning your heatsink and fan. Just make sure you know what you are doing before attempting to try this though. You do not want to make things worse.

Withdraw PayPal Twice Successful

I got my Public Bank Visa Electron card early this month. The first thing that came into my mind was to withdraw my PayPal funds immediately. Just when I was about to withdraw my PayPal funds, I notice that my name printed on the screen (full name) doesn’t match the name printed on my debit card (partial name).

PayPal expanded number required

I looked for an option in the system to edit my name printed on the screen to reflect the one in my card. There isn’t such an option but I found something else instead. I noticed the phrase, “Expanded Use Number needed” for my debit card. I was worried that my withdrawal will be rejected if I do not complete the expanded use option first. That is why I postponed my withdrawal later.

A few days later, Joyce mentioned that her PayPal withdrawal was successful even without completing the Expanded Use process. That is when I immediately made my withdrawal.

I applied for Public Bank E-banking service and opened a savings account. That way, my e-banking application can be approved immediately. I was told that applying for the e-banking service for the debit card only may take weeks to complete. Anyway, the advantage of connecting the savings account and the debit card is that I can transfer funds from the savings account to the debit card (and vice versa) easily. To top it up, it is free of charge.

Withdraw PayPal Funds Into Debit Card Successful

To date, I have made two withdrawals from PayPal successfully. The first withdrawal was on the 12th November and the second one five days later. Both transactions were approved without any problems.

PayPal withdraw successful

The conversion rate for the first withdrawal is 3.3068. That is very low. The conversion rate for the second withdrawal is 3.3285. The difference is about RM10.

Public Bank ebanking statement shows PayPal funds received

Withdraw $500 Or Not To Withdraw?

Earlier, I read some concerns about withdrawing big amounts with a new debit card from PayPal. The advice given was to withdraw small amounts first and to make some transactions with the debit card before withdrawing. In my case, I made two big withdrawals without any problem.

However, as Hongkiat puts it, getting your PayPal account limited is like having chicken pox. You are sure to get it. Therefore, do not allow it to disturb you too much. Just withdraw your funds like how you would like to do it. It is advisable to withdraw a maximum of $500 each time (or as much as you have) to save on the $5 transaction fees incurred for each withdrawal. $5 is about RM17. Think about it.

Nuffnang 2.0 Launched And Nuffnang Check Received

This post was written and saved as a draft for two days now. Instead of editing it, I will just post it up as it is.

**********

I had a sneak peak of Nuffnang 2.0 two weeks ago and was fortunate enough to give it a test before the launching date. Nuffnang 2.0 has been launched officially early this morning. I promised Timothy that I will be testing out the system after the launch but have to shamefully admit that…

…I was fast asleep (probably with saliva oozing out of my mouth) well until 7 in the morning.

Welcome to Nuffnang 2.0

A brief summary of what Nuffnang 2.0:
A complete redesign and rebuild from the ground up using the previous model as a reference with additional functions added to the backend of the system. One of the more prominent changes is the new social blog aggregator called innit.

innit: Nuffnang's own blog aggregator

innit looks and feels pretty much like Digg. Since this is the initial launch, you shouldn’t expect much (if any) advanced features in Digg that is incorporated in this new system. So far, it works pretty well with all the basic features in place. Digg has its own digg it! while innit has its innit it nang it! If you ask me, I say that the name innit somehow doesn’t feel right with nang it. Maybe the nang it! should be changed to innit or innit be changed to Nang.

I don’t know. It just feels/sounds a little strange.

First Nuffnang check received

Anyway, I got my first Nuffnang check (a few weeks ago)! It is not much but hey, at least I am making some money. Unlike others who place a few banners in one blog, I only place one type per blog. I guess that is why I am not earning as much or as fast as some of my peers.

There has been a lot of hoo-haa going on about how Nuffnang isn’t “delivering”. In my opinion, when a relationship doesn’t work out, the problem doesn’t always lie on one side. Both sides have their own part to play.

Many also forget that Nuffnang is still considered new and shouldn’t be compared with big timers like Google. I read some people are angry over the fact that when they are not served with ads, the Nuffnang logo is “advertised for free”. If you look back at the earlier posts, this was brought up before. When you help advertise Nuffnang, it gains more exposure. When it gains more exposure, more advertisers will invest thus increasing the chances of you getting an ad.

You scratch my back and I will scratch yours. If you don’t like the way it is now and expects a Google Adsense-like experience, drop the banner and join later when Nuffnang becomes bigger. HongKiat tried both Nuffnang and Advertlets at the start but ended up throwing both banners out the window. If you think placing another banner from some other companies at that slot makes you more money, drop the banner. Please stop whining.


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