My First Post In 8 Years!

It's hard to believe that eight years have passed since my last post in 2015. Time truly flies, doesn't it? A lot has happened, and so much has changed. Thankfully, I managed to get through the Covid-19 pandemic.

During this time, I mourned the passing of my beloved Dad, which remains the saddest period of my life up until now.

In 2018, I achieved my long-time dream of crossing the iconic Abbey Road crosswalk. I brought my entire family along for the experience.

Currently, I am still engaged in affiliate marketing for part-time income, earning roughly around $3,000 per month. However, my income took a nosedive in 2022 when people began to feel the impact of extended lockdowns, dampening sales. Fortunately, it has started to pick up recently, and I am hopeful that it's on a forward trajectory from now on.

Overall, advertising has become a bit more expensive compared to before, and it's certainly more challenging with the increasing number of people entering the online marketing business these days.

Problem Accessing HTTPS Sites with my HTC One M9+ ~ Solved !

One day without warning I found the Chrome browser app on my HTC One M9+ unable to access any HTTPS sites. I kept getting the following message every time I tried accessing HTTPS sites:


"This webpage is not available".


I can access regular HTTP sites without any problem but just the HTTPS sites that I'm having this issue. I can't load banking sites and can't even do Google searches anymore whereas I could still do searches with Bing as Bing does not use HTTPS.


Other apps such as Play Store, Youtube etc. also could not load their content even though I'm connected to the internet. Previously they were all working fine and now its just stuffed.


The Singaporean HTC support personnel contacted me and suggested I tried my SIM card on another smartphone to see if the card is causing the problem. I tried that and found my card seems to work fine on other smartphones, no problems with HTTPS sites there. I could do Google searches and visit banking sites like Maybank2u etc. without any problems.


I then visited two Celcom Bluecube centres about the problem. The first one told me that the problem has something to do with the HTC server and asked me to check with the HTC dealer who sold me the phone. The dealer was no help at all and promised to check with HTC and call me back but never did. The second Bluecube I visited which was at the Spring Shopping Mall told me that some new HTC updates had caused the problem. The personnel there checked my SIM card on her own phone and again it was working fine. I in turn tested her SIM card on my HTC and it was fine too. She suggested I visited the HTC service centre nearby.


Totally puzzled and hopeless I visited the HTC service centre located near the Dyak restaurant and related to the service personnel there about my problem. Instantly, he knew what was causing the probem. He says it was due to my cellphone still using 2G to connect to the internet even though I may have 3G selected. So he proceeded to delete all the 2G access points from my cellphone. Once that was done, lo and behold my phone could access HTTPS sites again, my Play Store will now run once more and I can do Google searches again. I was so relieved, and thanked and complimented the guy for fixing the problem that had lasted for a month. I told him how he was far smarter than the HTC support personnel from Singapore who until now still has no solution to the problem.


Anyone having the same problem as me on your HTC One M9+, let me share with you the steps to fix the problem:


1. Goto Settings > Mobile data > Access point names
2. Delete everything there with the name containing 2G.


That's it and your phone will no longer encounter the problem and your worries and frustrations caused by the problem ... gone.

How To Cancel Facebook SMS Subscription For CELCOM Users

A few weeks ago I was tricked by Facebook into a SMS subscription. During the login stage, I was led to believe that giving my cellphone number to them would improve the security of my FB account. They however did not make it clear that this would be a SMS Subscription and that the subscription would be auto-renewed at one Ringgit (RM1) every week. Ok, so RM1 seems a small amount but small can add up to a big sum. Besides, I or like anybody else would like to be clearly informed upfront if we were to be charged for something beforehand. But that FB did not do but rather they were pretty sneaky about it.

For a few weeks after that I didn't know how to cancel the damn subscription. Finally I found the answer on someone's Facebook discussions. So here is how to cancel the Facebook SMS Subscription for CELCOM users:

SMS Text: STOP FB
Send to: 32665

Note the text to send need not be uppercase.

After you have the sent the text, you will receive the following reply just as I did:

"RM0 Your Facebook SMS subscription has been dectivated. To subscribe again text F and send 32665. Thank you."

I recalled just feeling so relief when I saw that deactivation message. All in all, never mind the few ringgit I've lost, I'm just quite surprised that Facebook of all people would resort to such cheap tactics to gain some revenue. Shame on them.

Creating Shortcut To Windows Device Manager

I use the Windows XP Device Manager a lot so obviously it's a hassle for me everytime to go through several clicks of the mouse to open it. To make life easier I created a shortcut to the Device Manager on my desktop where I could get to the Device Manager with a single double-click. This is how I created the shortcut to the Device Manager:

1. Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select New > Shortcut
2. In the dialogue box I entered "devmgmt.msc" without the quotes into the field provided and clicked Next
3. I then entered any description, a meaningful one of course like for e.g. Device Manager and clicked Finish.

And that's it. So now everytime I need to access the Device Manager I just double clicked on the shortcut on the desktop and voila there ... the Device Manager box right in front of me.

If you find this tip useful, don't forget to thank me.

Solution to the xxxxxx uses an invalid security certificate problem

I got the following error message on Firefox.

xxxxxx uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate expired on 21/12/2010 11:59 AM.

(Error code: sec_error_expired_certificate)

I found from online sources that a very quick fix to this was to temporarily change the date on the computer. And I did just that. I changed the system date on my PC from 21 December 2010 to 21 November 2010.

Having done that I refreshed my Firefox and to my delight the error message was gone. I then switched back to the current date.

So that's a really quick and very effective way to fix the invalid security certificate error.

My Acer Aspire One Battery Will Not Charge - Problem Solved

I haven't touched my Acer Aspire One netbook for several months. A few days ago I tried to power it on but... nothing. The battery has obviously dischared by itself after being left idle for several months. So I hooked it up to the power socket and charged it overnight. To my surprise the next morning, my Acer Aspire One netbook still will not power on as the battery has not been charged.

The following evening I brought my netbook to the shop where I bought it and explained the problem to the shop owner there. He says the battery is damaged and need to be replaced. And it would cost RM200 to get a new battery. I gasped at the steep price. No way I'm spending that kind of money. So I went back home.

It was only a week later I started to do a search on the internet on my problem just to see if anyone else is facing the same thing and what solutions they have for it if any. What I found solved my problem. The solution is to update the BIOS of the Acer Aspire One netbook. It does sound scary to me at first the thought of updating the BIOS as I have never done it before. But I'm glad I did in the end as it worked. My Acer Aspire One battery can now charge again. Here the steps to update the BIOS as I found on the internet which I followed to the tee:

To perform the update to the BIOS:

1. To download the latest BIOS for the netbook, go to the Acer support website here.

2. Once at the Acer support website - Drivers & Download page, click Netbook -> Aspire One.

3. Select your product model which will be either AOA110 ot AOA150.

4. And then below, choose the "BIOS" tab.

5. Click the orange "Down" arrow to download the BIOS.

6. Insert a USB flash drive into a USB port on the netbook.

7. Open the .zip file you downloaded and extract the two files: "3310.fd" in the Dos_Flash folder and "Flashit.exe" onto the root directory of the USB flash drive

8. Rename the BIOS file from "3309.fd" to "zg5ia32.fd".

9. Ensure that the AC adapter is plugged in.

10. Press and hold down the Fn and the Esc keys together and press the power button.

11. The unit's power light will blink once.

12. Release both the Fn and Esc keys.

13. Your netbook screen will stay black for 1-2 minutes.
Don't worry as it will restart. If it doesn't after 3 minutes, then just un-plug the USB flash drive and plug it back in again and press power button

14. When the unit powers on, the BIOS will be updated from the USB flash drive

15. The battery should now be able to hold a charge from now on.

That's it! And you have just saved yourself RM200.

Note: These instructions are only for the Acer Aspire One AOA-110 and the AOA-150 netbook series and should not be performed on any other model.

Alan Wilder Joined Martin On Stage For 'Somebody'

If you're a Depeche Mode fan then this will be big news: Alan Wilder joined Martin on stage for 'Somebody' at the Royal Albert Hall, London, February 17th 2010. He played the piano. He and Martin hugged after. He even hugged Fletch after. It was an unannounced thing and caught everyone by surprise. And what a nice surprise it was. Here are the videos of the historic moment:





Note: A high quality video will be up on Depeche Mode's official website in a couple of days time.

Solution To eBay's "Sorry, you've hit a speed bump!"

Just this morning I was trying to make an immediate payment to a seller for a Dvd I purchased today in eBay but hit the following cryptic message from eBay during payment processing: Sorry, you've hit a speed bump!

Tried several times throughout the morning to make the payment but every time I encountered that annoying useless message.

Finally, I found a workaround and successfully made the payment. Here is the method:

1) Logged in to your PayPal account
2) Click "Send Money"
3) Click "Pay for eBay Items"
4) At this point you will be asked to log on to your eBay account if you're not logged in yet. Log in to your eBay account.
5) You will be presented with a list of eBay items that you won.
6) Select the eBay items that you want to make payment for and then click on "Pay" button


That's it ! The payment will be successfully made.

How To Download YouTube Videos

Here is a simple trick to download and view any videos from YouTube

As you probably know, by default, Youtube doesn't allow users to save/download its videos.

However, with the simple steps outlined below you will be able to save/download a YouTube video to your computer and later share it with your friends or keep it as a collection.

Steps to save/download videos from YouTube:-

1) Highlight and copy the YouTube video URL that you see next to the video.

You can do this by clicking on the URL field (like below), right-click your mouse and select 'Copy'


2) Go to this website: http://keepvid.com/ and paste the video link that you copied from previous step in the field there (like below) and click 'Download' button next to the field.



3) Some download links will appear. Click the Download link for the quality you prefer.

4) Save as "video.flv" to your computer. (Note: You can replace "video" with any name you like, just override it)

That's it !

Congratulations! You have just learned a simple trick to download any YouTube Video you like and play it anytime you want. You don't have to worry about YouTube removing your fav video anymore.

If you think this tip is useful, spread the word !

Can't See Adwords Ads In Firefox ... Solved

I recently noticed that my Firefox stopped displaying any Google Adwords ads in the Google search engine results pages or in any other pages actually. I started to think back to what I have just recently changed to my pc or Firefox that might have caused the problem. I hit a blank. Then I searched online for an answer to this problem.

I promptly found the answer within 2 minutes. I credited this page for the solution to the Adwords ads not showing in Firefox problem.


The Google Adwords ads not showing was due to the AdBlock Plus add-on which I installed recently. It was blocking the Adwords ads. According to the solution on that page, I'd need to find in the upper right corner of my Firefox browser a red stop sign with the initials ABP and then to click on the down arrow right beside the stop sign. After that to click on "Disable on google.com" which I followed. I refreshed the Google search results page next and there they are finally, the Google Adwords ads.