Have you ever wondered why is it that every time you watched Bollywood movies, you always found people dancing around poles? Well…it turns out that Indian people really…really like poles. They even invented Pole Gymnastics. If you happened to be a pole dancer, there might be some techniques you can learn here

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It has been a long time that I wanted to take Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) Exam, but I couldn’t take it until recently. Most of the reason were time and the courage to bite the bullet and do it.

Google Analytics IQ allows individuals to demonstrate proficiency in Google Analytics. It covers web analytics techniques and Google Analytics implementation, administration, and analysis tools.

So for those of you who were preparing for Google Analytics IQ Exam, I would like to share some tips. I’m not saying that you would get 100% after following my tips, but at least you would get 94% (just like me). Without further ado, let’s dive in.

Google Analytics IQ Exam Format

First you need to know the exam format. You could take Google Analytics IQ Exam online at http://google.starttest.com/ Here, you need to purchase “Google Analytics Individual Qualification – US English” package for $50. If you get a voucher coupon code, get it ready when you are about to pay for the exam. The Google Analytics IQ Exam itself contains 70 multiple-choice questions that you need to answer within 90 min (1.5 hour). In order for you to pass this exam, you must score 80% at the least. You needed only 75% to pass the exam in the past, but Google has changed it.

If you want, you can pause the exam and come back to it later for multiple times, as long as it is still within 120 hours (5 days) after you started the exam. You could also marked questions and go back to them later while you are taking the exam. After 90 min elapsed, Google Analytics IQ Exam window will stop your activity and grade your exam.

Multiple choice questions could be tricky, especially when it asked you to choose more than one answer, so really study the materials first until you really understand the theory, the reason behind it, and its application.

Google Analytics IQ Reference Links

Second, it is an open book exam where you can gather all information from any source and use them while taking the exam, so I would like to list several links that would be really helpful both for learning and reference while taking the exam.

• Conversion University Help. This is an absolute MUST resource that Google provided special for those who are preparing Google Analytics IQ Exam. It comprises close to 3 hours long video online tutorial of every topic that you would see on the exam. I would dare to say that this tutorial contains EVERYTHING you need for the exam, so focus on it.
• Google Analytics Help. The “What can we help you with?” search bar is essential to find some reference material quickly. I used it a lot while taking the exam. Google.com is a good place to search Google Analytics materials, but it will lead you to other sites that might have unrelated Google Analytics content, so Google Analytics Help search would help you better since it will only refer you to Google Analytics support materials or user-submitted materials.
• Google Analytics. Open your Google Analytics window. If you don’t have one, you would probably want to sign up for it first, and play around with it little bit before taking the exam, because you would need to know the kind of reports that Google Analytics has, how to access them, and what information would you get from each report.
• Google Analytics’ Official Youtube Videos. If you want to learn more about the real application of Google Analytics and what’s the best practices for implementing Google Analytics for your site and business, Google Analytics Youtube channel is the perfect place
• Tool: URL Builder – Analytics Help. When you are asked to create a tagged-URL, this little tool will help you to construct a proper URL-tagged link.
• Google Analytics Tracking Code API. This is a good place to get more detail information on some GA Tracking Code questions.
• Regular Expression (Regex) IP Address Exclusion
• Metric Definitions

Google Analytics IQ – Learning Focus

The exam was pretty thorough in covering all materials about Google Analytics, so the learning focus here is more about topics that I wasn’t really familiar when studying for the exam. You might already know the topics below pretty well, but if you were a newbie like me, you would probably need to focus on these topics.

• E-commerce tracking – method used to track e-commerce transaction, when to use e-commerce value and goal value
• Filter setup – Regex for IP exclusion and link parsing, match type, order of execution
• Cookies – type of cookies, expiry
• Multiple domain and sub-domain tracking
• URL tagging – what tags being used and how to use them
• Pageview and event tracking – which one is better, how to set them up
• Google Adword integration

If you are serious about taking the exam and dive-in deeply into Google Analytics world, I would recommend you to buy these two books from Avinash Kausik and one book by Brian Clifton.

Conclusion

At the end, it all depends on how well you prepared for this exam. I was preparing for about one week to take this exam. Some of you might need more time, and some of you might need less time to ace this exam. One thing that will help you is to take this exam during quiet time when you won’t be disturbed by your surroundings or other tasks. You need to realize that you are under 90 min time limit here. I know that you can pause the exam, but if I were you, I want to finish the exam once and for all. I mean…it took me 30 min to convince myself to begin the exam, so I don’t want to go through that “mental agony” again. You want to finish the exam in one take, while all the materials are still fresh on your head.

I would also use this time to thank you several websites that helped preparing me for this exam: Danny Ng, WhiteRabbit at Thinkerati.com, and Heidi Strom Moon. These fellas helped me to muster up my courage to take this exam. Granted this exam is not SUPER comprehensive like a CPA exam; but still, this is my first certification ever…so it’s a big deal for me. My hope is that I can guide you along to the right direction just like these websites did for me.

If you passed the exam, you will receive a Google Analytics Qualified Individual digital certificate like the one below. Good luck with your exam. I hope I can help you little bit in preparing for it. Let me know how it goes for you. If you took the exam before and think that I need to add something to this preparation page, feel free to leave comments below.

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In case you didn’t know what in the world is Google Call, you should probably start by watching this video.

Google Call is Cheaper

This new little neat feature that Google just released couple days ago was so popular that over 1M calls was made 24 hours after it was released (Source: Google Tweet). I think it was so popular just because of the fact that you can make a FREE online call to any US and Canada phones, and it will remain free at least for the rest of this year. The cost to make international calls is not bad either (Google Call Rates). For example, it only costs me $0.03/min (3 cents) to call to Jakarta, Indonesia. This rate is actually comparable to my traditional calling card’s rate. I think Skype, who offers similar services, will be blown pretty hard by Google this time. As for comparison, Skype Call will cost me $0.041/min (4.1 cents) to call to Jakarta, Indonesia. As you can see, Google Call is much cheaper than Skype Call. One hour phone call through Google will cost me $0.03×60=$1.8/min, whereas Skype Call will cost me $0.041×60=$2.46/min (or roughly 36% more).

Google Call, Google Chat, and Google Voice Integration

The only downside right now is that you can only use Google Call through your Gmail’s Google Chat.

I don’t know if this fact will change in the future or not. I would assume that mobile phones will soon be able to take advantage of this VoIP calls considering how many new mobile apps being created daily. It just depends on Google’s and Carrier-specific policy. If you didn’t find the Google Call button in your Gmail’s Google Chat, don’t worry. It happened to me also. Just wait for couple days. Google is slowly rolling out this feature to its customers. One little caveat, you have to set your language setting to “English (US)” in order to use this service, at least for now. Even though you live outside U.S., you’ll still be able to use this service to call US & Canada phones as long as you set the language setting properly. FYI, if you subscribe for Google Voice, your Google Call will show up using your Google Voice’s number on the receiver’s caller ID, and it will use the same number every time you make calls. It’s kinda neat because other people can save that same Google Voice number on their address book, so your name will show up next time you call them.

Google Phone Booth

Don’t worry. Even though Google Call is not available through our phones now, Google Phone Booth will be available shortly in the airports or colleges near you. I thought this was only a joke. It turns out it wasn’t. The article said that Google will roll out Google Phone Booth within few weeks. This phone booth will look exactly the same like your traditional phone booth. The only difference that it will use internet connection and Google Call to place a call, instead of the conventional telephone lines.

Let me know what do you think about Google Call, especially when you found one of these Google Phone Booths popping out in your area. Happy calling!!!

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I found this video from a friend of mine who posted it on her Facebook page. It is about a dog in Chile who found one of his friend got hit on a busy road and tried to save him.

Despite of the busy road, this dog kept trying to walk into the middle of the freeway to rescue another dog. The amazing thing about this whole story was that the dog was dragging the other dog not by its mouth but by its claw around his neck. Little by little, he dragged the other dog to the side of the road until some workers spotted them and rescued the injured dog.

If a dog can help another dog like that, how much more we, as a human, should do the same, or even better. After watching this video, I was reminded by this verse.

“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” – Proverbs 18:24

I know it was hard sometimes to help others, especially when you were not in the position to help, but that’s actually when we can make a difference. When you are well off, perfectly healthy, and everything is good, you won’t have problems to help others. It is when the hardships come that we are reluctant to help others. I just want to encourage you to help others as much as you can. This piece of advice is for me too. I realized so many times in my life that I should help others, but I didn’t. Can you show yourself as a true friend who sticks closer than a brother?

To close, I hope this passage can remind you what love and compassions really are.

“Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” – Romans 12:9-21

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For those of you who had a blog on Blogger (mine was in stevensentosa.blogspot.com) and want to import them to your new WordPress blog, I have an easy solution for you.

Do you know that WordPress has its own built-in importer for your Blogspot blog?

Wordpress Blog Importer Tool

Blogspot Import

One drawback was that you have to set the categories all over again. If your old and new blogs have same categories settings, you don’t have to worry, because WordPress will map each new imported posts to their corresponding categories. However, in my case, since I have different category settings, I have to remap all my new imported blog contents to their right categories. It’s not a big deal if you only have 100 new additional blog posts, like in my case. However, if you have thousand of new additional blog posts, it will be quite a headache.

Most of the old blog posts that I imported to here are in Religious, Funny and Cool Stuff category now and dated back in 2007 when I first wrote blog posts. Check them out. I found some of the posts were really funny and cool, like “Some Important Laws that Newton Forgot” and “Amazing Billiard Tricks“. Since I posted them a long time ago, I didn’t even remember that I have ever published them on my old blog. LOL.

I also found that some of the pictures from the new imported posts are not linked correctly, so some pictures won’t show up. I will try to fix this gradually since they are so many posts. If you found one, please message me @StevenSentosa.

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After battling with myself for almost a year whether to get a netbook or not, I finally came to a conclusion 3 days ago, and that was to buy this bad-ass netbook, ASUS 1018PB-BK801. You may have seen this model before from Engadget; however, the ASUS 1018P that I got from Best Buy was not exactly the same with the one that Engadget described as a netbook with Intel Atom N455 and USB 3.0 ports. Apparently, Best Buy came up with their own version of ASUS 1018P, which is 1018PB. The model looks the same. The only different was the internal specifications. And for now (as of 07/15/2010), the only place you can get ASUS 1018P is from Best Buy in-store only. Their online stock for ASUS 1018PB is on backorder now.

FYI, I actually considered also ASUS 1005PE, ASUS 1005HA, and Toshiba Mini N305. But, I finally decided to go with ASUS 1018P (1018PB in this case). It doesn’t get as long as 14 hours battery life like in ASUS 1005P, but I don’t think I will use my laptop without plugging it in to power outlet that long either. The biggest plus point for ASUS 1018P is its unique design. As far as its capabilities, it is about the same like other netbooks.

ASUS 1018PB-BK801 Specifications

• Intel Atom N450 1.66Ghz
• Operating System: Windows 7 Starter Edition
• 10.1 inch display screen (1024×600)
• 1 Gb DDR2 memory
• 250 Gb HDD
• 3 USB ports
• Wireless B/G/N
• 10 hours battery life (4 cell Li-on battery) – ASUS Li-Polymer Battery Pack C22-1018. Rating: +7.4v, 6000mAh, 44Wh.
• Price: $350

Pros:

• Sleek aluminum design. Check out some pictures of my ASUS 1018P below. You’ll see how sexy this netbook is.
• Really thin (0.9″) and light (2.4 lbs.)
• Long battery life. I got at least 7 hours of battery with normal usage (browsing, streaming videos, and word processing). Best Buy’s website says that it supposed to last for 8 hours and 16 minutes.
• It actually can play online streaming videos well. I’m talking about 360p videos here. It can play 480p just fine, but you will find slight choppiness here and there. When I was in Best Buy, I also tried out ASUS 100PEB, which is one of the one I considered also, and it played online streaming videos really poorly, especially if you are playing 480p videos. It was really lagging.
• It has a webcam lens cover that you can slide on and off. This is really good if you want to cover your camera for quick without having to turn off the camera completely, just slide the cover.

Cons:

• Battery life meter is unstable depending your usage. I guess this is understandable. When you start working on something heavy on your netbook, the battery life will drop. Under normal use, the battery life will back up again to what it supposed to be.
• The left and right mouse clicks were little bit stiff. You have to press it hard when you want to click something.
• Microphone original settings was not really good. (see “Microphone Quick Fix“)

As you know with Win 7 Starter Edition, you can’t change the desktop background, which I think ridiculous. Luckily, ASUS provides you with the solution for that. Along with its ASUS Eee Docking, ASUS provides you with its own System Utility Setting add-on which you can get at ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/EeePC/Utility/SystemSetting_Setup-1_1_0_8.zip to change your desktop background in Win 7 Starter Edition. This add-on is only working for ASUS computer, so if you are trying to install it on other brand computers, I don’t it will work.

Some software that you might need for your netbook:

• CutePDF (http://www.cutepdf.com/)
• OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/)
• Image Resizer (http://imageresizer.codeplex.com/)
• EeePC System Setting Utility (see the link above)
• Avast Anti Virus (http://www.avast.com)
• Media Player Classic (http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/)

My old ASUS N61JQ-X1 will no longer feel lonely now. It found a new friend, ASUS 1018PB-BK801. Man…I got dizzy now with all these model numbers in my head.

[UPDATE 07/19/2010] – Microphone Quick Fix

I was testing my microphone for skype call today, and it was awful. My voice sounds too “crispy.” I don’t know how to describe it, but it was not good. To fix it, go to your Microphone Properties -> Enhancement. Its original settings were to set Immediate Mode, DC Offset Cancellation, and Noise Suppression on. Now, change your settings into the settings bellow. It should fix the problem.

Microphone Properties

Picture Galleries

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Arggh…I can’t believe it. Rueben Morgan and his Hillsong team will perform live just 5 minutes away from my house a week from now, and I missed the chance to get the ticket since it’s already sold out.

They will perform for their “A Beautiful Exchange Tour,” Saturday, 24 July 2010 at Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church and the ticket price is $25.

This live performance is actually to promote Hillsong’s latest album “A Beautiful Exchange.” Here’s a preview of their album:

I have been imagining something like this, but I guess I just have to wait for another chance.

I have this crazy idea though, how if I go to Mount Pisgah church next week wearing my jogging outfit, ask them if I can go to their bathroom, and immediately slip into the crowd and watch the concert? hmm….sounds like a good idea, right? but I’m sure they are already prepared for that. Plus, I don’t think it’s the right way anyway, but I’m running out of idea here. Maybe you could give me some “good idea” here.

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Being a student for almost seven years and a teacher lately has brought new perspective of note taking. It used to be that I took notes because my parents or my teacher asked me so. The initiative of taking notes came from someone else. As I grew older, I began to realize the importance of taking notes in my classes, meetings, workplaces, and even in a church service. From something that was “ordered” by someone else, taking good notes is now becoming a necessity. I start to realize that without taking a good note, I won’t be able to succeed in my life.

I know that taking notes doesn’t have to be on a piece of paper. It could also be a “mental” note. This method is fine and needed from time to time. It’s good for quick retrieval, but you will forget the details if you are only relying on your mental note abilities. Therefore, I will focus more on taking notes in a piece of paper, especially in a class lecture settings. By no means does a student need to be in a classroom setting for these tips to be useful. They’re helpful if you’re attending an online school as well.

Before we start, I want to lay down one simple objective of taking good notes. To me, a note contains every main details that your instructor lectures. It should be thorough enough that when you recite your note, it is as if you are repeating what you instructor was saying. Pretty simple, isn’t it? ok, here we go.

1. Choose the right paper

The paper that you choose suppose to be not too thin that your ink bleeds and not too thick that it’s hard to fold.

Use ruled paper instead of the plain one. It will keep your handwriting straight and easier to read.

2. Choose the right pen

There are many different types of pen you can choose. I like to use ballpoint pen, especially the one with round end, not the pointy one. The round-end pen writes better. It glides as you write. This feature is useful to speed up your writings.

3. Use abbreviation

If you like to tweet or text, you know what I’m talking about. Abbreviation makes your writing faster. Granted that everyone has their own style of abbreviating, and it’s completely fine. Make your note personal to you. Unless you are writing notes for someone else, you can make up your own abbreviations. Just make sure you know what they are and be consistent with them.

4. Use pictures

People says pictures speak thousand words. This is true. Sometimes you can draw something to explain one paragraph in handwriting. So why are you using words if a picture is sufficient?

5. Write neatly

This is a really important point. When you write something, you want to be able to read it again next time. That’s the whole point of taking notes. So if you write poorly, you will be having a hard time to read it in the future. Here’s some tips to write neatly.

6. Stay awake

Keep yourself awake; otherwise, your handwriting will be a mess. Most students know what I’m talking about. Have you ever tried to write a note when you were sleepy? Yeah…not a good idea. Your handwritings will be like chicken-scratch with no shape and form whatsoever. Here is some tips on how to stay awake in the class.

7. Understand your teachers

What do I mean by that? It’s simple. You should know your teacher well enough to know which part of his/her lecture is important (HINT: more likely to be on the test) and which one that is not really important. I’m not saying to take partial notes. I’m just saying to take better notes at the important parts of the lecture.

If your teacher speaks really fast, use more abbreviations. If your teacher like to jump around on his topics, organize your notes to accommodate that. And so on….

8. Copying someone else’s note is NOT recommended

Unless you are sick (I mean a genuine sick), there’s little option other than to copy someone else’s notes. Other than that, try to take notes by yourself. Why? It’s because when you write your own notes, your brain is taking notes also at the same time. It’s like taking notes twice. Your brain will retain information better after you heard the information, wrote it on your notes, and saw the information as you write it.

9. Don’t just write, understand what you wrote

Writing is good, but understanding is better. Try to connect the things that you wrote in your brain. Make them relevant to you. This is also a good time to ask your teacher if something is unclear to you. You want to understand what you wrote when you look at your notes in the future.

10. Organize your notes

Separate your notes into sections. They could be by subjects, dates, instructors, time, etc. Find what works best for you. Don’t be hard on yourself. Make it easier for you to find your notes.

Hopefully my tips would help you become a better note taker. Which one works the best for you? Do you have your own tips you would share with us. Please leave comments below.

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Tomorrow, 4th of July, is a big day for all the Americans. We are going to celebrate the Independence Day. Some of you will travel and meet your families, some of you will watch the fireworks show, and some of you, including me, will have nothing to do tomorrow. You are just relaxing and hoping the weekend will go for eternity.

Whatever your plans are, you need to remember again what Independence Day truly is. Here’s a YouTube video to remind you to some of the famous quotes given by the previous US presidents and to give a tribute to those who sacrificed themselves for the freedom that we enjoy every day in US. Happy the 234th birthday for US!

Photo courtesy of Irish Shreve Garrott and video courtesy of TaylorX04.

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In this past couple days, I have been playing around with WordPress 3.0 and decided to give the new theme “Twenty Ten” a try.

So far, I’m pretty pleased with the way it looks. It lacks the theme setup like those in Thesis theme; but overall, it is much better than WordPress’ old default theme.

Also, since I was trying out a new tool called Windows Live Writer, you might see two new temporary posts in your RSS Reader. It will be something like this.

I’m really sorry about those temporary posts. When I was setting up Windows Live Writer, it apparently made two attempts to access my blog’s native settings and look, and created  two temporary posts like these. Please ignore these two temporary posts.

Another main reason why I changed the theme was also because my old theme, Arclite 2.02, didn’t seem to work well with Windows Live Writer. FYI, Windows Live Writer is a tool to access your blog from the convenient of your desktop software. Instead of going directly to the site’s dashboard, all creating and editing of blog posts can be done through your desktop software. It also has the ability to preview the post right in the software, so I don’t have to go back and forth, and refresh the preview page to see how the post look after I made any changes.

I  am giving Windows Live Writer a try now. I liked it so far. It’s really easy to use. It has a lot of plug-ins, and I don’t have to worry losing my copy again now when the Internet connection drops, because the draft post is saved on your computer instead online.

I hope you like the new look of My Internet Corner. As always, I welcome any feedbacks that you might have regarding this new changes.

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