KOH KHO KING

PhotoMalaysia server under emergency maintenance

Posted on May 12th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

I received many emails today from members of PhotoMalaysia, asking why their accounts being suspended (it is not) and why PhotoMalaysia site is down (true).

PhotoMalaysia is undergoing an emergency maintenance that must be carried out at the moment.  This is not in our schedule actually, as we normally would inform our members in advance before the down time. However, this must be carried out in order for us to continue serving.

Please bare with us for the down time of PhotoMalaysia. Things are under control and PhotoMalaysia will be back to serve more securely, faster browsing and better services soon!

Yours sincerely
KOH KHO KING
Co-Founder / Administrator
www.PhotoMalaysia.com

1 comment.

New ShaShinKi.com ads banner at PhotoMalaysia.com

Posted on March 14th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Family.

I have just edited and uploaded a new ShaShinKi.com ads banner advertised at PhotoMalaysia.com.

I just love the red…very pleasing red to me…

0 comments.

RTM 2 Interview of PhotoMalaysia Exhibition 2008 - What Now? Malaysia After 50

Posted on February 25th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

RTM 2 Interview of PhotoMalaysia Exhibition 2008 - What Now? Malaysia After 50

0 comments.

BlogMalaysia.com

Posted on January 31st, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Blog.

I relaunched BlogMalaysia.com last week, after a database corruption and lost over hundred of entries in BlogMalaysia.com.

What is BlogMalaysia.com?

It is a website that list out all the URL address of bloggers in Malaysia. More like a yellowpages.

After the relaunched, I reconfigure the system to allow only registered members to post links. Why register? By registering an account at BlogMalaysia, member can later login to edit the Links if there is any changes to the descriptions or new URL of your blog. Without registration, this cannot be done and can’t be edited by the blog owner. In long run, this is a better way than having blog owners contacting me each time they want to change or edit their blog information.

It has been a week + since I relaunched the site…so far there are 13 members/links registered. Almost like one new member a day…hmm…not as fast as I would have hope for.

I have been promoting BlogMalaysia.com at PhotoMalaysia.com and ShaShinKi.com, these two websites have many visitors daily. I have thought of using paid advertising to promote the site…but it is a bit burden for me at the moment…so will let BlogMalaysia.com grows by its own for the time-being…

If you have a blog and are reading this…do head over to BlogMalaysia.com and register your blog there. It is Free and it promote your sites to more visitors and audience without having you to pay a cent.

0 comments.

PhotoMalaysia Exhibition at The Star Newspaper

Posted on January 17th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Yes, PhotoMalaysia Exhibition at The Star Newspaper today at The Star - Metro section! Centre page spread to one and a half page.

Thanks to PhotoMalaysia member - magic - who is also The Star photographer - for covering the event.

You can dowload full PDF file at:

• pm-star.pdf

It is definitely another milestone for PhotoMalaysia introduces itself to the Malaysia audience. Hope 2008 will be a big grow year for PhotoMalaysia!

Original news at:

• http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40759

0 comments.

PhotoMalaysia @ New Straits Times

Posted on January 13th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

As informed by our forum member, silentshutter, we are proud that PhotoMalaysia has once made itself to the major newspaper, New Straits Times, New Sunday Times, on 13th January 2007 in Malaysia!

Scan/Photo by: azerak01

• http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/S…le/index2_html

0 comments.

BlogMalaysia.com - Malaysia Bloggers Directory!

Posted on January 12th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Blog.

BlogMalaysia.com - Malaysia Bloggers Directory!

What’s the hottest thing on planet now?

Yeah…blogging…

A new phrase in the late of 20 century, so very popular now in the 21st century.

What is blog? It is more like a diary, a personal webspace to post one’s thought and sharing. Blog becomes so popular with the boom of internet and many free blog space given out by big companies (eg. Google).

For those who have their own domain, the most popular free blog management software out there is probably Wordpress. Yes, free but so feature rich! Yes, I am using Wordpress for my blog as well. It manages my blog nicely, and the new version has some simple but practical WYSIWYG features for me to type my blog entry sufficiently.

Now…back to the title of this post - BlogMalaysia.com!

I got this domain from Brian (founder of PhotoMalaysia.com) last year, after Brian decided to discontinue free blog offering and let the domain expired. The domain was registered by Brian in July 2004, and was expired on July 2007. Brian has to pay a little extra money to renew the expired domain after it expired (US$10 or US$15 penalty?) and renew with one year fee (US$8.99) to get back the domain, and later transfer it to me. For me to receive the domain at my registra, I have to add another year of subscription. Of course I paid all the suspenses. For me it is still very cheap to get a nice domain name. Quite impossible to register such domain name again nowadays, as most are already grabbed by others.

So, what am I going to do with the domain? My personal blog? Nah…I don’t want to use that domain name as my personal blog. I actually plan to make a Malaysia Blog Database or Directory, with as many Malaysians blog URL as possible. I found a nice software for the project, and found a nice template design for it…but not as perfect as I hoped. Modification and study structure of the software are a must, if you want your site to be unique and looks good, you need to pour in your effort.

I did a basic design for it few months ago…and try to gather as many bloggers info as possible to key into the database. But one thing I knew, I can’t survive like this. I don’t want to key in the info myself, I want bloggers to come and register their URL themselves at BlogMalaysia.com!

How? Honestly I have no idea. It is hard to promote a new site…very hard actually. Online forums will definitely not allow me to promote BlogMalaysia.com for free, and I do not have a budget for advertisement (maybe I shall find some budget for advertisement…).

Today, since I was quite free and have the mood (most importantly), I revisited BlogMalaysia.com and did some changes to the template design. Below are some of the improvements that I have done in the last couple of hours (yeah, learn something new too):

• Edited site preview with previews from new source (previous girafa preview is no longer available).
• Make site preview image clickable to the actual URL. I have wanted this feature since day 1, but don’t know how to do it. Today I manage to solve it out myself.
• Make Latest Links clickable to the actual URL. Was having problem previously with broken links.
• Added favicon.
• Added little “” mark to each line in the right sidebar. This makes the side bar easier to view and click.

I shall think of what to add next…if you have any suggestion, feel free to comment.

0 comments.

PhotoMalaysia at Sinar Harian Newspaper

Posted on January 11th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

PhotoMalaysia 2008 Exhibition “WHAT NOW!” has been reported in a tabloid, SINAR HARIAN, on 10th January 2008.

Original news posted by PhotoMalaysia member, salimdom, at:

http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40356

(correction in the news: PH Chan (maxby) is the director of the exhibition project, but the founders of PhotoMalaysia are Brian and myself. )

High resolution picture can be read at:

http://shashinki.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/photomalaysia-sinarharian-highres.jpg

0 comments.

PhotoMalaysia Exhibition Launched!

Posted on January 9th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Yes, it was launched tonight! No…I wasn’t there but I am as excited as everybody!

Here’s a photo took by one of our forum member (magic), which is also The Star photographer:

(Photo by Glenn Guan. Original photo posted at:
http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30546&page=10)

The exhibition has already been featured in Malaysia TV (RTM2 on “Hello On 2” program), and I heard NTV 7 will air the news about the exhibition as well.

Of course, not forgetting Malaysia largest English newspaper, The Star, will also publish the news about the exhibition in their StarMetro Central in a couple of days time.

I am really proud for the commitment and dedication PhotoMalaysia members have contributed to the exhibition.

Lastly, if you are interested in seeing the evening before the launch (preparation of the exhibition), go to:

http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40127

I saw Megumi photo there!

(can you spot where is Megumi? The same photo I have posted here before…)

(photo by sean eng)

Do drop by Central Market Kuala Lumpur if you happened to be in KL between now and 27th January 2008!

2 comments.

PhotoMalaysia 2008 Monthly Photo Competition Prizes

Posted on January 5th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Can’t afford a Canon Selphy printer?

Dream of a Canon EOS 40D + lens?

Here’s your chances (13 times)! Participate in PhotoMalaysia monthly photo competition and you can stand a chance to win the following prizes!

For more info, visit:

http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39937

0 comments.

Google Adsense Experience…3 months later…

Posted on January 3rd, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Computer / IT.

I have restarted Google Adsense in September 2007 - this time for real and of course, with all honesty. Do not click on the ads yourself!

Site…

My main site that listed my Adsense content is PhotoMalaysia.com. I am the co-founder of PhotoMalaysia.com, so I have full control over it for the ads and daily operation of it. Of course, also because I now take the burden of funding the server rental cost, which hit over RM5k or US$1.5k a year.

Back to Adsense…I would like to share with you some of my experience of how I notice the increase in revenue after I make some changes to the placement and contents of my Adsense ads.

Miracle Skyhigh Profit? Dream on…

Initially, I have high expectation from Adsense. After hearing and reading lots of success stories with Adsense, I was hoping that PhotoMalaysia can generate high income for me after I put up Adsense there. I was wrong…at least initially.

Do not expect your members to click ads in your site if you do not place them strategically. Warning: DO NOT ASK OR PROMOTE OR INVITE YOUR MEMBERS TO CLICK ON THE ADS! THIS IS NOT RIGHT AND ILLEGAL AND WILL RESULT YOUR ACCOUNT BEING TERMINATED!

My Statistics

My revenue from Adsense in September (starts from 5th September 2007) is just US$15.78, with total 293 clicks and 235,263 page impressions. For me, this is quite disappointing since I was hoping to get hundreds of dollars from Adsense. So I did not work further with Adsense in October and November, since I thought Adsense did not help much…so I might as well try selling ads myself.

September 2007 revenue:

• Total earning (USD): US$15.78

October 2007 revenue:

• Total earning (USD): $28.82

Yeah, October is better than September by nearly double! But still…not much…

November 2007 revenue:

• Total Earning (USD): $25.05

Hmm…less than October…seems like it is going to be static at average US$2x.xx if I am not going to do anything.

Another reason for me to go back to Adsense is because selling ads yourself isn’t easy. I don’t get many advertisers myself…and my ads are selling at low price too. So, might as well try Adsense again…since many have successful story with it.

One thing I notice in Adsense report is Page Impressions. It tells you how many times the ads is being served at your site. Put it in simple way, the higher the impression, the more frequent the ads being shown at your site. The more frequent the ads being shown, the higher chance people will click on it. Also take note that while the total click for November is less than September, but I got higher revenue in November because I got higher page impression in November.

So, I come to a simple and short conclusion: I should put more ads in strategic locations in PhotoMalaysia.com.

More ads yes…but what about strategic locations?

Have you seen websites with lots of ads and are mainly driven by Adsense than the content of the websites themselves? Yes, there are many. As a visitor, I immediately got put off by those ads driven sites. I don’t want PhotoMalaysia to be like that. I don’t want to hit my members with lots of ads and making them angry or feel distracted. Ads should serve its purpose of attracting customers but not frustrating viewers.

Do remember that a forum is driven by members, not the otherwise. Your forum will not be forever hot and active if you pushed your members away.

With that in mind, I carefully choose locations for my ads. Of course, Adsense ads are pretty nice looking and doesn’t really make people vomit. The best thing I like about Adsense is how relevant the ads is to your website. No gambling or porn ads as well. Definitely good and suitable for my photography forum.

So, in December I have added some new Adsense ads toPhotoMalaysia.com. You can check out my ads location in PhotoMalaysia.com, must easier than having me describe each and everyone here. In general, for high hit pages, I put ads on top, bottom and sometimes middle (for those lengthy page). Frame up my ads so that they melt and look nice with the website.

So…how is my December revenue?

December 2007 revenue:

• Total Earning (USD): $37.61

Yeah, hit over US$3x.xx. Better than the previous few months.

Now, starting year 2008…I have added up some extra ads locations, mainly in the Photography section (Gallery) in PhotoMalaysia. We got quite a number of hit in Photography, so hopefully it will drive more members to Adsense.

Another note to Publisher. I notice that Image ads though is more attractive, but it can only serve ONE ads per time in that particular space. So, it is good to have multiple ads in some high hit pages with both image and text ads (I set my site to let Adsense determine it for me).

Final words…(temporary)

I must admit that I am still very new to Adsense. There are still lots of things for me to learn and find out, which can only be learn through experience. I will report and post my findings from time to time…sharing this most successful and largest ads campaign in the internet ever (period).

0 comments.

PhotoMalaysia Exhibition 2008 - What Now? Malaysia After 50.

Posted on January 2nd, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

PhotoMalaysia will have its first ever exhibition in Central Market, Kuala Lumpur from 9th January 2008 to 27th January 2008!

Exhibition detail:

• Date: Jan 9 (Wed) - 27 (Sun) 2008
• Time: 11am - 7pm daily (closed on Mondays)
• Place:
  The Annexe Gallery
  2nd Floor, Central Market Annexe,
  Kuala Lumpur,
  Malaysia
  Tel: 03-2070 1137 or 03-2274 6542

The Opening receptions:

• Place: Central Market Annex (top floor)
• Date: 8th January 2008 (Tuesday)
• Time: 8pm

Public members especially photographers and PhotoMalaysia members are welcome to visit and participate in the opening ceremony!

You can find more info of the exhibition at:

http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39780

This exhibition is organised by:

• PhotoMalaysia
• The Annexe Central Market
  

Sponsored by:

• Canon Malaysia
• ShaShinKi.com

Yeah…ShaShinKi.com is one of the sponsor!

1 comment.

Sony Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24-70mm F/2.8 ZA SSM

Posted on December 20th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Saw photos of a interesting lens today, Sony Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24-70mm F/2.8 ZA SSM!

Sony DSLR has been of interesting mainly because it inherit the previous very high quality Minolta legendary glass, and of course not forgetting the partnership with Zeiss to specifically produce ZA series of lenses for Sony Alpha mount. Zeiss lenses in autofocus! Something like a dream comes true for many! German glass (Leica, Zeiss, Schneider…etc.) has always thought to be more superior than Japanese glass. How true is it I am not sure, but I sure am interested in this Zeiss if my pocket is deep enough.

Let’s see the two photos I saw in PhotoMalaysia forum (original source unknown):

A few things I found interesting in this lens.:

1. SSM

SSM in Sony means silent wave motor, which means the lens has built in motor, which is great! First in Zeiss!

2. 24mm

Yes! Latest zoom lens in this focal length in Canon and Nikon and now Zeiss has gone wider to 24mm! Great!

3. Full frame lens

Yes, this is a full frame lens. Very possible that Sony will come out with a full frame DSLR soon. Rumors that Nikon D3 full frame sensor is co-design with Sony, so very possible Sony will use the same 12.1MP full frame sensor in their full frame professional DSLR. Minolta has a 9 series professional SLR in their range, Sony will definitely utilize the technology and design from Minolta. My prediction is that we shall see full frame professional DSLR from Sony within year 2008 before Beijing Olympic.

4. Boxed

Yes…if you notice the box in the photo above, which means that the lens should already been in production or available to some! (if the photo is genuine).

5. F2.8 Aperture

Yes, F2.8 constant aperture. I just love fixed aperture lens, which immediately shout to you: PROFESSIONAL GRADE!

I must admit that the design and look of the lens is very sleek and clean. It looks simple, fat but clean. No busy badge or sticker here and there. I wonder how long will the lens extend from zoomed, it would be a dream lens if the length of the lens remain constant during zooming, which I hate in Nikon and Canon similar lenses.

If only Zeiss can make AF lenses for Nikon, that would be my dream lens to get!

2 comments.

Photo taken by Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30

Posted on November 20th, 2007 by foong.
Categories: Family.

Sometimes I do read the posts in Photomalaysia forum and other forums set up by my husband. There are so many professional photographers sharing their great photos with technical explaination, particularly the equipments they used to take the photos, how to set their equipments in order to have such effects, etc etc..

(more…)

2 comments.

No Canon 5D MK II…here I come Canon 7D!

Posted on October 15th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

It seems like there will be no 5D MK II from Canon, instead they go with a new digit:

7D

As recorded in UPC database in USA:

http://www.upcdatabase.com/item.asp?upc=0013803086706

Here some specs:

• 12mp
• 5fps,Up to 21 RAW files
• dust removing system
• 15-point TTL CMOS sensor
• Center point additionally sensitive with lenses of F2.8 or faster
• 96% frame coverage
• Viewfinder Magnification: 0.71x
• 3.0 ” 640�480 TFT LCD (920,000 pixels)
• ISO 50-3200 extended to 12800 and 25600
• DIGIC III, 14-bit
• Canon EF lens mount (not EF-S)
• Live View Mode
• Similar design to 5D, possible of sharing the same battery grip!

Surprisingly cheap, US: $ 1,899!

9 comments.

Digital is FREE CLICKING? Think again…

Posted on October 15th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Many bought a digital camera and said that it is FREE to Click! Think again…

I have clicked around 7k shutters on my D200 since I first bought it new (many are craps). It costs me RM5.5k for the D200.

If I were to sold it now at RM3.7k, I lost RM1.8k.

RM1.8k divided by 7k clicks, each click costs RM0.26. NOT CHEAP at all!

I guess I will have to continue clicking it until the cost per click drops to a more “reasonable” value…

0 comments.

SPAMS!!! Akismet!

Posted on September 20th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Computer / IT.

I notice that my site got many comments recently…Oops…should I say SPAMS! Yeah, many are spams…with a few are from genuine users that left appreciation comments on my blog.

Got tired of deleting spams, and knowing that they will only get worse once they found you…as all are posted by bots (inhuman). I searched at wordpress site, and I remember last time there was a nice spam combat plugin…found it: Akismet!

Not sure how good is it, but instead of using Captcha, I think I want to try Akismet first, since it is very popular. Captcha can be good…only if those bots are not very smart (Captcha at vBulletin forum software site is very powerful and complicated, yet my forum (PhotoMalaysia) still got many new spam bot registration daily. So I have to implement extra question for verification to avoid bot registration. Those spam bot’s OCR is just way too good!).

Akismet, hopefully not going to disappoint me…

4 comments.

Internet Explorer 7 Fonts not sharp (IE7)

Posted on September 14th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Computer / IT.

I noticed something strange today when I use IE7 to browse PhotoMalaysia.com. Yeah…I just installed IE7 yesterday in order to tackle some browser issue which happens on IE7, so was “forced” to install it. I am a FireFox user, the best and perfect browser in the world (period).

So, what exactly is the problem with IE7? The first thing I notice is that everything seem blur on IE7. The fonts are not sharp…as if my spectacle is under power. Makes my head dizzy…

On the same site, when I browse with FF2, everything is “normal”, sharp and clear.

Is my mind playing illustration magic? I thought some would not believe what I am saying, so I make some screen capture of the same site using both browser and compared them side by side. See below for yourself:

It seems that IE7 cannot interpret the text colour correctly. Making single colour text into multiple colours, hence the unsharp effect.

I checked with some other sites, all same, so it is not a site issue but rather an issue with IE7. I am glad that there are choices other than IE7…my favorite is still FF2:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

3 comments.

Nikon Capture NX Version 1.2 Update

Posted on August 18th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Nikon has just released an update to their award winning software:

Nikon Capture NX Version 1.2

Improvement / Changes:

• Speed improvement when opening images.
• When any of the operations listed below are performed, “Updating image” is now displayed in the image window title bar. Enhancements and other operations can still be performed while “Updating image” is displayed.
• An image is opened.

(more…)

0 comments.

Giant Onion in Japan

Posted on August 4th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Family, Photography.

Have you seen such a big onion before? I have not…and it really surprised me when I first saw them…yeah…have to buy them home to take some photos.

Those onions in Japan during Summer time are really SWEET! Yes! You just got to test it yourself to understand the sweetness of them! Fried with eggs are just Yummy!

“My wife wearing PhotoMalaysia Polo Shirt holding the onions in the kitchen”

0 comments.

Older »