ChanKelwin.com

After receiving much innocent blows from its so-called “fair competition” rival (hereinafter called “The Competitor”), Nuffnang has finally decided that enough is enough. I wonder what took them so long? Their principle that “the truth will prevail” and not to react to any of the earlier attacks is much to be proud of. However, there is a difference between being nice-nice, and being foolish-nice. Therefore, their decision to defend themselves against the latest allegation couldn’t have come at a better time.

The latest “circus” started with the article published in In-Tech on 29/5/2007. The problem with it was that some of the information published does not reflect the latest information of The Competitor. The truth is, The Competitor’s requirements have changed so often in the past few weeks that even I don’t bother to fully update myself.

Christy Lee’s (the reporter) explanation for the difference in information (5/30/2007 1:04 PM):

For the record, I’m a very careful reporter. I checked the Advertlets site right before I submitted the article to make sure I got the facts right — since Josh told me he was doing major changes.

And how were I to know that the very next day Advertlets put up different models and features?

It’s like one day I check it was 100, the next time then 50, and now no requirements… sigh, make up your mind already!

The man behind The Competitor still wasn’t too happy with it and ended up ranting about it with his fairy. It isn’t wrong to let loose frustration or disappointment to a friend in private, like suggested by a commenter named “billy” (6/1/2007 1:35 PM):

By the way, does anyone realise that it was a private conversation between Joyce and Josh, as such, I think it was perfectly alrite for friends to gripe to each other about things that they’re not happy about.

However, once you have agreed to publish them in a blog…

*Fairy* says:
can i just put this conversation up?
Josh Lim says:
wahh…hmm.
yeah can

…that “private conversation” can no longer be considered as private but it is yet another public attack on Nuffnang. Also, I notice that the fairy tale conversation is so perfectly scripted that I can’t help but to wonder, “Was it staged?”

One day later, blogger Nyx picked up that fairy tale conversation and gave her views on that matter.

Is it just me or has anyone ever realised that there has NEVER been a time when Nuffnang ever allowed itself to get into a full blown mud-slinging debate with Advertlets?

But over and over again, Advertlets will wage war against all and sundry regarding “how much better Advertlets is against Nuffnang”…

The “circus” started to get so wild that it was enough to attract blogger Jeff Ooi to pick up the story as well — Pillow fights(?) between two blog ad aggregators. Coincidentally, merely hours after Jeff Ooi exposed the “circus” in his CNET Asia blog, the man behind The Competitor apologized. Attempting some damage limitation exercise?

I seriously think that The Competitor should stop monkeying around and get down to serious business, like building up awareness and strengthening the market for local blog advertising. Mind your own business, or risk seeing (probably) both of you fade away under the shadows of your true competitors — the mainstream advertising companies.

(A post full of no life jokes with some information not to be taken seriously — you have been warned)

UPDATE: I notice some people did not get some of the jokes in this article. Therefore, I am “labeling” them carefully.

If you haven’t read about it, Nuffnang was featured in The Star (InTech) yesterday. A few bloggers that was mentioned include Chan Lilian, Gareth Davies and Jeff Ooi. <JOKE>Somehow, I felt that they left out one “key” blogger in this article — ME.</JOKE> I know I don’t have a place beside any of these big names but I’m sure a few posts that I wrote about Nuffnang might be interesting. If that is not enough, why not have some desert?

Anyway, I noticed some information in the article is inaccurate has changed. I don’t blame them because at the rate things are changing “over there”, any information could be stale in another week.

On an unrelated note, Kenny Sia has been made “Nuffnang Featured Blogger for the month of June”. If you haven’t heard of the guy (highly unlikely), head over to the above link to get a “summary” of who he is and what he has been blogging about. I was surprised that he mentioned about the “FIFA World Cup football tutorial”. The last time I read, there was some controversy about it. Not exactly sure about the whole story though.

<JOKE>Lastly, a highly reliable inside source told me who “Nuffnang Featured Blogger for the month of July” could be.

Maybe not.</JOKE>

Nuffnang posted up some photos of the gathering the other day. Just when I thought I left the event without a single decent photo of myself among the crowd, I was surprised to see myself in 2 photos that they posted. One of them was taken in the cinema hall itself. Therefore, everyone looked so small. However, I am quite recognizable in the photo below.

If anyone of you plan to do some guessing, I suggest picking one of the “good looking” ones. You don’t want me to remove your comment, do you? (just kidding) *dodges flying objects*

A while back, I posted 2 pictures of my first attempt on macro shot photos. Looking back at the photos, somehow they look dull and slightly blurred. I have seen photos taken by some others that looked almost “alive”. I know that practice makes perfect. Also, I do not want to be like the idiom, “bad workman blames his tools”. However, I am sure that the camera used must have some impact on the quality of the photos as well.

Check out these great photos of a “sky goddess” taken by ShaolinTiger. They looked so real and alive that I wished she was in front of me as if she was in front of me. The amount of details and the richness of the colors are just magnificent. If those photos were taken with my camera by me, they may look like a portrait colored with crayons.

I also found some photos taken by kahwoon — colourful food. The mango and tomato looks ready to be eaten. I especially admire his courage to whip out his camera in a supermarket or grocery store to take those photos. At least I think that is where he took those photos. Where else can he find so many fruits and vegetables?

There are so many function to control in the camera such as shutter speed, aperture, focal length, exposure and ISO. I normally set all possible settings to automatic in my camera. That is because I don’t even know what some of the functions do. I admit that I am just plain lazy to go figure out and experiment. Anyone out there willing to give me a crash course?

The photos below show one of the reason why I chose the Panasonic DMC-FZ3 over the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7.

1X optical zoom (no zoom)

3X optical zoom

12X optical zoom

Gone are the days of binoculars

So I was at the biggest blogger gathering in Malaysia organized by Nuffnang last night. I reached quite early at around 8pm. I immediately searched for the Nuffnang booth and found 2 lovely ladies sitting behind the counter. I recognized Wen-Qi (from Timothy’s blog), so I went over and passed my IC to her. I asked if the girl beside her was Samantha and she said “No”. Only then did I know that Samantha=Wen-Qi … Wen-Qi=Samantha. My apologies.

Around 10 minutes later, I met up with Timothy. Finally, I get to meet one of the brains behind Nuffnang. We chatted for a few minutes before he returned to serve the other guests and VIPs. Below is part of our conversation …

Timothy: *staring at me*

Kelwin: What?

Timothy: Oh, nothing. It’s just that you look different from what I thought you would look like.

Kelwin: Errr…what do you mean?

Timothy: Well, since you are a Tech blogger, I thought you would look like … you know …
*uses thumb and index finger to make a circle on both hands and putting them around his eyes indicating spectacles — geek*

Kelwin: *laughs*

Anyway, the movie was great. However, I did get lost here and there throughout the movie (spare me the rod, I haven’t watched Dead Man’s Chest). A big thank you to Exabytes for sponsoring a set of popcorn and soft drink.

Bloggers that I saw (and could recognize) are Earl-Ku, Zeo, Wingz, Jeff Ooi, Timothy, Shireen, Jayelle, Suanie and ShaolinTiger. However, bloggers that I approached and had a conversation with are only Timothy, Shireen and Jeff Ooi (reason below). In the cinema, I sat on the right maybe 1/3 from the back. Shireen was sitting in front of me. On my left was a guy who said he has a blog at Anakdatuk.com (if I’m not mistaken).

All in all, everything was great. So why did I say it was a disappointment? I took a 3 and a half hours bus to join the gathering hoping to chat with at least a dozen people (bloggers), shake at least a dozen hands and take at least a dozen photographs. In the end, I spoke to 3 people, shook 3 hands and took 2 photographs. To rub it in, those 2 photographs were self shots of my gf and I.

Yeah yeah, I know — my fault. For the whole night, my gf was like, “Why don’t you just go up to them and socialize a bit instead of sitting here in a corner?” I was like, “Errrr…shy mah”. She gave me that bored stare and gave up persuading me. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-social or anything. It’s just that, it takes some time for me to “warm up” with new faces. Once everything is nicely warmed up, that is when the “hell” in me breaks loose.

I wonder if I would still be that lucky to get a place for the next round of gathering. Or am I just a “waste of space”? I still feel a little disappointed up to now. Arrggghh…whatever. My fault. *goes back to room and stares at the wall*