The first recorded email

The first recorded message ever to be sent across the Internet transmitted at 10.30PM on October 29 1969. The message was written by Charley Kline and supervised by UCLA Professor Leonard Kleinrock and consisted of the letters 'lo'. The transmission was supposed to read 'Login' but due to a system crash only two letters made it through! The message was successfully resent an hour later.

Windows live

I have several hotmail and windows live ID, now I can link them all together. It's really cool function.

Google search experience

Same keyword, same google, but different search results every time.

Some people are continually complaining about not finding things on Google, a common one is "I searched xyz yesterday and found a cool site, searched that again today and can't find it again why?"

I would like to ask too, but why?

What's the difference between ghosts and ghouls?

This two words have same initials and even the first three letters, "Gho", both refer to a kind of spirits. What's the difference between ghosts and ghouls?

Ghost-A ghost is said to be the apparition of a deceased person, frequently similar in appearance to that person, and usually encountered in places he or she frequented, or in association with the person's former belongings. The word "ghost" may also refer to the spirit or soul of a deceased person, or to any spirit or demon. Ghosts are often associated with hauntings, which is, according to the Parapsychological Association, "the more or less regular occurrence of paranormal phenomena associated with a particular locality (especially a building) and usually attributed to the activities of a discarnate entity; the phenomena may include apparitions, poltergeist disturbances, cold drafts, sounds of footsteps and voices, and various odours."

A ghoul is a monster from ancient Arabian folklore that dwells in burial grounds and other uninhabited places. The English word comes from the Arabic name for the creature: ghūl, which literally means "demon". The ghul is a devilish type of jinn believed to be sired by Iblis.

Ghoul- Ghul is also the name for a desert-dwelling, shapeshifting demon that can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyena. It lures unwary travellers into the desert wastes to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children, robs graves, and eats the dead. Because of the latter habit, the word ghoul is sometimes used to refer to an ordinary human such as a grave robber, or to anyone who delights in the macabre.

I now know how to say "ticks" in English

It's always a trouble to express what you know in another language. Cow ticks, for instance, I am so familiar with this parasite, when I started herd my buffalo as early as I was seven. I pressed my face on the buffalo's large stomach while it was grazing on the grass. I was so fond of doing this that a tick went into my ear, and died there. several weeks later, I felt uncomfortable in my ear and went to barber, he dropped some vegetable oil into my ear and picked it out using an ear picker.

But I never know how to say in Mandarin, that is different with my mother tongue which is also a Chinese dialect. When I moved to England, this creature always sneaks through my thought, keeps me wondering how to say it in English.

To day I went to shopping, read a leaflet from Sainsbury's Pharmacy counter, which tells you how to treat pet lice,flea and ticks. Wow!

Google Gear: Offline access is unavailable

I installed Google Gear for offline access to Google Docs, but I got an error message:

There was an error loading data from Google Gears. (Error 3)
Offline access
is unavailable. Please keep your browser open and go back online before
continuing to edit. If this problem persists, you may need to uninstall and
reinstall Google Gears.

I didn't reinstall, and don't know what's wrong with it. While ticks "Work offline", no error message shows up.

If you are reading this post, and found out the cause, please leave a comment here.

Post Video from YouTube to Wordpress Self-Hosted Site

There is a new feature which can post youtube video directly to blogger and other blog/site. I tried to setup, and found no problem to add blogger and wordpress.com blog, but I failed to add wordpress self-hosted blog.

I trying to post a video from YouTube to my blog site (dalriada.summerhost.info) , so I have registered my username with Wordpress.com to get an API Key. On the "Add a Blog/Site" page in Youtube and under "Specific Blog Host Requirements", I have entered all the requested information, including my new API Key, but get the following error message:


"An error has occurred. Message: Unknown"

Then I tried other usernames and passwords and even my email address as username according the prompt message, no lucky so far.
Can someone please advise on what my problem could be?

eBay: Would possibly accept an offer for this item?

I listed my item on eBay for auction, I received a message asking for offer:

"Hi,I'm sorry to bother you,I was just wondering if you would possibly accept an offer for this item? "

What's that mean? I of course will accept what ever offer through auction, but I guess this guy may asked me to sell the item off eBay.

I replied him:

"Thank you for your enquiry, but I am a new seller, don't know how to do it except for listing the item for biding. May I sell my item outside the auction? May I withdraw from the listing, and if I can withdraw, shall I still pay for the listing fee? If I accept your offer, how may I get paid, I don't know.

If you don't mind, please tell me how to process without through eBay?"

Then I search eBay help, I found one titled "End your listing early", that is quite explicitly forbid sell item off eBay, as it is considered as fee fraud:

"Cancelling bids and ending a listing early in order to sell the item off-eBay. You should be aware that as well as avoiding fees, you risk fraud by selling items off the eBay website. If a member writes to you to ask you to sell away from the eBay website, please report them to us."

I couldn't report this guy to eBay, literally, he doesn't ask me to sell the item off eBay, just as me if I "possibly accept an offer".

Haha!

fedex parcel number found click "track package" for information

Whenever I open my Gmail, there is a pop-up like information bar on the top of my explorer near the tool bar. it says: "FedEx parcel number found click 'track package' for information". This information bar disappear in several second, no where to click on.

I searched for any explanations on the Internet, but the only most likely one I could find is a package tracker plug-in.

I am sure I haven't installed such plug-in as package tracker, have any idea on this?

Can I sell Amazon gift certificate?

I did a survey for a gaming project, they promised me £10 Amazon gift voucher. Today I received this promised "voucher", actually, it's an electronic code.

I won't buy a book from Amazon, but could I sell this on eBay?

Here about "how to redeem the gift certificate", fine print No. 4, "The gift certificate has a cash redemption value of 0.001p and is not transferable or assignable. " But there is not name or email associate with the gift voucher.

Dell XPS M1710 gaming laptop

I bought a laptop last week, it's Dell XPS M1710, really cool.

The flashing lights looks like UFO in the dark, but lesser effect during the day. I think I am going to be used to it, and I really hate to waste electricity! But I didn't know how to configure the LED lights, so I did a bit search, and found this review.

Actually, the light colors are configurable with up to 16 color options for each light via a Dell included QuickSet program, so does other options include turning off. I found the program through start --> All programs --> Dell Quick set --> system --> gaming options, this let you select LED colors and intensity for the various LED zones.

It's not easy to find the way here. And I couldn't completely turn off light on the keyboard, only thing I can do is turning it darker.

I only want the cool effects for some situations, bu I don't want to waste money through some redundants unnoticed.

My daughter's poem

My daughter Brenda is 3-year-old. On a Sunday afternoon, my hubby was mowing the lawn in our garden. Brenda was watching. Then the humming noise of the lawn mower stopped. When I went into the garden to line-dry my clothes, they were sitting on grass side by side.

"What are you doing?" I asked.
"chatting. Brenda is a poet!" my hubby said.

The following was what she said to her daddy:

It's a nice day
I like sunny day
I like rainy day
I like windy day
I like snowy day
I like stormy day
I like everyday!