Yahoo is shutting down MyBlogLog

Yahoo is shutting down MyBlogLog and termination will be done on 24th May 2011. As an option, Yahoo has suggested that we move on to try out Yahoo Pulse. I have been using MyBlogLog for some time and I’ve tried Yahoo Pulse, but still I prefer MyBlogLog better.

The reason is simple. MyBlogLog provides the services I want but Yahoo Pulse do not. I have much control over MyBlogLog and the service is built for the benefits of users. I get to promote my blogs, gain traffic and built tags and backlinks to my blogs. Yahoo Pulse does not give much freedom to users to do such things. Yahoo Pulse wants users to interact and participate but does not gives anything in return for users. For Yahoo Pulse, Yahoo has much control over it. Users can only follow the path designed accordingly. At MyBlogLog it feels like Yahoo drops you in an island and you’re free to do almost anything.

P/S: I just hope that somebody out there will purchase MyBlogLog from Yahoo and keeps the service alive. I’m sure with some modification and changes, MyBlogLog and become big and profitable. There is absolutely no reason to just shut it down.

The things about Warranty

As a consumer, the so call warranty seems to becoming an enemy instead of a friend. Back from the time when the word warranty introduced, it sounds like a guardian who protects customers from any faulty in a particular period. Now customers need to pay extra for extended warranty. Worst of all, the word warranty becomes a method to persuade customers to buy products.

At the beginning, warranty is a risk bare by sellers so that customers feel safe using the product. That means a certain period of time, any faulty will bear by seller. Sellers need to be confident with the products as those are the promises saying that their products are good. Customers don’t have to worry about anything within the warranty period. That’s considering a guarantee from the seller. Those products definitely won’t have any problem within the warranty period. Some of them even work fine for a long time after the warranty period expired.

Nowadays they give customers a very long period of warranty. Not because the products are able to stay good for that period, but it’s a method to boost sales. There is absolutely nothing to do with products being a good boy within the warranty period. For some sellers, I still able to accept the one to one exchange if the product happens to broke down within the warranty period. For this, they already calculated the cost of possible faulty products and included into the price of the products sold. That means sellers are able to earn more than enough to pay for the faulty products.

The worst case of making use of warrant by the sellers is exchanging parts or products for free but customers need to pay for the labor cost. In this case usually the period of warranty given is long and there is nothing to do with products being good within the warranty period. Some warranty even goes until 5 to 10 years. They impose such a long period of warranty because they want customers to go back to them when there is something wrong with the products. One of the good examples for such case is cars. In order to keep on enjoying the warranty period, customers need to send in their cars only to the appointed service center. There is one guarantee that customers will see clearly which is there will certainly something break down within the period of warranty. There will definitely a need to exchange faulty parts and the labor cost will be expensive. The labor cost includes the cost of the spare parts and the revenue. At the end of the day, service center is still a business to make money. There is no such thing as free services and warranty which does not required payment. In other words it is just another business trick to make money from customers after sales.

P/S: The true meaning of warranty is that customers are guaranteed without any faulty within the given period. Besides if products are well design without any problems, there is no need for warranty. Spare me the warranty and just give me good products.

This is Why I Never Quit Drinking Coffee

I love coffee. Sometimes when I’m rushing my assignment, I can go until 4~5 cup of coffee a day. I suppose that might be a bit too much coffee for a day but I just can’t stop myself. When I’m busy, I just don’t count how much coffee I had. By the time I realize and start counting, I’m already at my 4thcup of coffee. So whenever I see an article discussing about the benefits of drinking coffee, I’ll read it, repost it and discuss about it. It’s a way to make me feel better for having too much coffee. Here’s a blog post title “5 health reasons to not quit coffee” from Yahoo Shine. Oh I love my coffee.
Below are 5 of the reasons listed:

1. It protects your heart.
2. It diverts diabetes.
3. Your liver loves it.
4. It boosts your brain power.
5. It helps your headaches.

Especially for the last two reasons which boosts brain power and reduces headaches, I kind of had lots of experience about it. For the other three reasons, I suppose there is no way to feel it directly. Well, at least I won’t be worry too much for drinking too much coffee.