Download Vids From YouTube and Convert to format of Your Choice

Special request from Laura B. :D

Comedy Break

Let's laugh some more!!!

Need more distractions

It's the end of year, where there are so many obligations (year end parties w/ clients, friends, colleagues, etc etc etc), yet the more distractions I have the more I focus on my studies, the past couple of weeks or so ago, I had no distractions and I was procrastinating, procrastinating and doing some more procrastinating...

If anybody can give me any advice or pointers on how to manage my time better when I have too much time let me know, I'm open to all suggestions. It's such a ironic paradox for me, do you guys have the same problems also? The less time I have, the more I get done and the more time I have the lazier I get :( Perhaps we all perform better under pressure? Well I hope everybody has a happy holiday and a wonderful New Year.

My philosophy make your New Year's resolutions now so that by the time Jan 1st rolls around you've brainwashed yourself into it.

As for Asian people, we have the Lunar New Year, (you know what I'm talking about), so if our friends get on us about not keeping our promise we can say that it's not our New Year, it's a Roman calender and that we follow the Asian calender :)

University of London External System - EMFSS Study Weekend at LSE

For those of you going to the study weekend, please let us know how it went :)

Flash Cards for your iPod or PSP

Pretty good resource

Four XSS flaws hit Facebook

Moral of the story, please be very vigilant with your computer/net security.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2308&tag=nl.e539

Project XSSed, the clearing house for cross site scripting flaws has just released details on four flaws affecting Facebook’s developers page, iPhone login page and the new users registration page, potentially assisting malicious attackers into adding more legitimacy to their campaigns. With yet another critical XSS flaw hitting Facebook in May earlier this year, what’s the potential exploitability of such flaws if any in the wake of the ongoing Koobface worm’s rounds across the social networking site?

It’s worth pointing out that in both of these cases there were no known cases of active exploitation, perhaps due to Facebook’s quick reaction upon being notified of them. The very same lack of active exploitation was also present in several other cases throughout the year, namely, the recent XSS affecting Google’s login page, and the multiple HSBC sites (still) vulnerable to XSS flaws. And if we are to exclude the XSS worm at Justin.tv which infected 2,525 profiles in July, active exploitation of such flaws is no longer favored compared to the less noisy social engineering tricks exploiting the weakest link - the Internet user social networking with a false feeling of security.

Take Koobface for instance. It scaled so efficiency without exploiting any social networking site specific flaw, only through social engineering tactics forwarding the entire spreading process to the already infected user, which in a trusted environment of friends proved to be a successful form of spreading. Despite the possibility for active exploitation of such flaws in phishing and malware campaigns, cybercriminals appear no be no longer interested in such noisy approaches, at least not while attempting to spread malware across social networking sites. Among the main reasons for this is the fact that their entire campaign would be based on a single propagation vector, which when taken care of through technical measn would render their campaign useless. Instead, just like the Koobface gang continues to do, they mix the social engineering vectors by abusing legitimate brands as redirectors to the malware infected hosts serving the fake YouTube videos.

The Web in general is an entirely different topic, since I can easily argue that the long tail of SQL injected sites can outpace the traffic that could come from a single high-page ranked site that’s participating in a malware campaign. Case in point - the recent Internet Explorer zero day flaw is currently being served through SQL injections affecting vulnerable sites across the Web, a pretty logical move on which I speculated given the fact that it was originally used on Chinese forums and sites only.

For the record, the Facebook security team has been notified of the recently published flaws.

Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail systematically abused by spammers

Stay vigilant on your computer security, change your password every 60 to 90 days, have a good firewall program, etc etc etc. And DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT open any attachments if you don't know the SENDER!!!

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2293

With the industry’s eyes constantly monitoring the usual suspects’ use of phony hosting providers, another market segment within the underground marketplace has been developing beneath the radar, aiming to build a malicious infrastructure (Spammers targeting Bebo, generate thousands of bogus accounts; Malware and spam attacks exploiting Picasa and ImageShack) through efficient CAPTCHA recognition.

The latest MessageLabs Intelligence annual report for 2008 indicates that on average, 12 percent of the spam volume that they were monitoring in 2008 came from legitimate email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail, followed by its September’s peak of 25%. Earlier this year, more vendors emphasized on this ongoing development, citing machine learning CAPTCHA breaking techniques as the cause of it. In reality though, the very same humans that CAPTCHA was meant to identify continue undermining it as an anti-bot registration measure.

Researching the market segment throughout the year (Microsoft’s CAPTCHA successfully broken; Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail’s CAPTCHA broken by spammers; Spam coming from free email providers increasing; Spammers attacking Microsoft’s CAPTCHA — again; Inside India’s CAPTCHA solving economy) it’s time to assess the current situation and speculate on the upcoming efficiency model.

“In 2008, spammers developed an affinity for spamming from large, reputable web-based email and application services by defeating CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) techniques to generate massive numbers of personal accounts from these services. In January, 6.5 percent of spam originated from these hosted webmail accounts, peaking in September when 25 percent of spam originated from these sources, averaging about 12 percent for the remainder of the year.”

Three of the most popular free email providers continue being systematically abused by cybercriminals so efficiently, that they often top the charts (Gmail; Yahoo; Microsoft) of major anti-spam organizations such as Spamhaus. Despite that the affected companies are aware of this ongoing abuse, some of their mail servers have such a bad reputation due to the outgoing spam that it would be hard not to assume that sent email may not be reaching its destination. Moreover, BorderWare’s ReputationAuthority.org also comes handy when assessing the reputation of Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. Who’s got the worst reputation varies, but for the time being, Microsoft’s web properties appear to be ahead of Gmail and Yahoo’s.

Is the supply of pre-registered accounts at these services driving the market, or is the customer’s demand that’s actually driving it? Whatever the case, supply is pretty efficient for the time being. For instance, I’m currently monitoring several web based bogus account registration services, with an average price for a thousand accounts at any of these email providers of $10. That’s right, for $10 a spammer could get his hands on a thousand pre-registered email accounts if we are to exclude the discounts offered for a bulk purchase. And whereas I still haven’t been able to establish a relationship between these services and Indian CAPTCHA breakers, theoretically, the supply of bogus accounts offered by a Russian service could be in fact outsourced as registration process to human CAPTCHA breakers, and the service itself acting as an intermediary. Whether it’s the use of malware infected hosts, or through human CAPTCHA solvers, the hundreds of thousands of accounts offered for sale remain there.

et’s talk about efficiency. A research paper entitled “Exploiting the Trust Hierarchy among Email Systems” released earlier this year, and surprisingly receiving zero media attention, shows a proof of concept allowing the researchers to not only bypass Gmail’s messages limit for bulk messages, but also, abuse Gmail’s email forwarding function in order to successfully deliver emails classified as spam by relaying them through white listed Gmail servers — now DomainKeys empowered :

“The presented vulnerability enables an attacker to bypass blacklist/whitelist based email filters and freely forge all fields in an email message by having Google’s SMTP servers tricked into behaving like open SMTP relays. We were able to confirm that this vulnerability is indeed exploitable by assembling a proof of concept (PoC) attack that allowed us to use one single Gmail account to send bulk messages to more than 4,000 email targets (which surpasses Gmail’s 500 messages limit for bulk messages). Although we have limited the number of messages in our example to 4,000+, no counter measures took place that would have prevented us from sending more messages, and for that matter sending an unlimited number of messages.”

What this means is that the potential spamming speed achieved through a single automatically registered Gmail account could be greatly increased. From another perspective, a bogus account wasn’t worth as much as it is worth today, since it allows automatic access to all of the company’s web properties allowing spammers and cybercriminals (Cybercriminals syndicating Google Trends keywords to serve malware) to abuse them even further. CAPTCHA is dead, humans that were supposed to recognize it killed it by starting to recognize it efficiently and monetizing the process.

The bottom line, ask yourself the following - how many incoming anti-spam solutions can you think of right now, and how many outgoing anti-spam solutions are you aware of? Before spam comes it has to go out first.

Dancho Danchev is an independent security consultant and cyber threats analyst, with extensive experience in open source intelligence gathering, malware and E-crime incident response. Dancho is also involved in business development, marketing research and competitive intelligence as an independent contractor. He's been an active security blogger since 2007, and maintains a popular security blog sharing real-time threats intelligence data with the rest of the community on a daily basis.  

Major Web browsers fail password protection tests

Please update your anti-virus software and get a decent Firewall program

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2305&tag=nl.e539

That nifty password management feature in your favorite Web browser could be helping identity thieves pilfer your personal data.

That’s the biggest takeaway from the results of this test which shows that all the major Web browsers — including IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome — are vulnerable to a total of 20 vulnerabilities that could expose password-related information.  Among the problems are three in particular that, when combined, allow password thieves to take passwords without the user’s knowledge.  They are:

1. The destination where passwords are sent is not checked.
2. The location where passwords are requested is not checked.
3. Invisible form elements can trigger password management.

Google’s shiny new Chrome browser was among the worst offenders.   According to the study,  Chrome’s password manager contains multiple unpatched issues that “form a toxic soup of potential vulnerabilities that can coalesce into broad insecurity.”

Apple’s Safari for Windows browser was also failed a majority of the tests (click image for full version):

For the test results, click HERE

For 3rd year students

For those of you looking for a job after graduation, I discovered this on Facebook, don't know how good these guys are, but check it out and register, especially for you 3rd year students


http://www.careers.lon.ac.uk

The WALL

I HIT IT!!!! The inevitable wall...it happens all the time whether it's weightlifting, studying, sports whatever whatever, athletes hit it, even relationships hit it, we even hit it when we get to a certain age. At first I thought it was the drinking binge that made my motivation go down, then I realized I hit the proverbial wall...I know when I hit the wall in weight lifting I do less, I'm used to 12 week quarters or 20 week semesters in the US, here it's a full year so as in weight lifting I would do less, I have lessen my workload in studying, work, drinking etc. So here's my recommended solution, we're in the beginning of December now and we should start doing revisions around the beginning of April, so that's about 120 days now, 3 to 5 page of the text & SG per module/subject will be a total of 720 to 1200 pages per subject, so for those of you feeling burned out, or feeling like you hit the wall, just read only 3 to 5 pages of the text per subject you should be find in a couple of weeks and then once you get the rhythm back go back to what you were doing 10 to 20 pages a day, every other day, etc. Then when the motivation wanes again, go back to 3 to 5 pages a day, this should help you get past the wall, hope this was helpful.

What I Do On Those Days

The last couple of weeks were crazy, too much client meetings, booze, client meeting and more booze and catching a bad fever (getting cold here).

Been falling behind on studies and kinda losing motivation, anyways, to get through this I've been going through at least 3 to 5 pages of each book just to keep the flow going. I know these things come in waves, keep reading a little bit until the motivational push comes back and read a lot and then taper down, etc.

Please check the Maths & Econ post

Hi everybody, just uploaded some helpful videos for math and econ. So please check out the blog if you're taking math, I want to give mad props to Florida Community College at Jacksonville for the Math Video and Rose State College for the Econ video

I'm so stupid plus my apologies...

Hello everybody, the past week was crazy, anyways, I was wondering why I was fatigued and had no energy the last week. Thursday afternoon I went to the doctor's and he told me I had a fever of 39 degrees. I hate cold weather!!!!! If I ever emigrate again, I'm definitely going to a warm weather country!!!! Because of this I fell a week behind in my studies...I just want to apologize to my study mates and to all of you that are following this blog. It's Saturday, I feel fully recovered except for my throat, it's still a little scratchy with the occasional cough, I hope everybody else is keeping up with their studies :)

My Rough Weekend, and a special thank you

Hello everybody, this is an apology letter to following my blog. Last Friday the products we ordered were supposed to come in but it never came in, and then my forwarder finally emailed me saying that the products will be a day late...So we drank that night, like college students, Saturday the products came in, but the forwarder on our side made a mistake in the entry of the BL #, so we drank like college students again. Sunday, my girlfriend and I went out, we drank like college students and then yesterday (Monday) the products finally cleared customs so my buyers and I drank til 4:00am, so I fell behind in my studies :( ... 3 days behind schedule. I want to thank Laura, Nor, Sonoko, Wendy, Bal, Chiara, Lorna, Anna, Moho and countless others, sorry if I didn't mention you for the motivation, if I didn't have y'all I probably would have gotten discouraged and probably would have procrastinated even more thinking, hey I'm behind anyways...Thanks to the study mates, I have to push harder to catch up with everybody, so once again thank you for all your kind words and no matter what crap I go through we all should know we have people that are there for us every step of the way and that we're all in this together...Hope everybody had a great weekend and to those of you in the US, have a great thanksgiving.

Humour Break, part 2

This is hilarious, it is so funny: Hope this is a good comedy break from your studies :)

Email Access From an Email Client (Outlook, Thunderbird, Zimbra, etc)

I emailed the IT dept asking how we can access our email from a client and this is their reply: So for those of you that are tech savvy, here's the bad news

Dear Joon Kang

Due to technical problems we had to disconnect the functionality for
forwarding emails, this should be working in the New Year. 

Regards

EISAStudent Support


-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com [mailto:xxxxxx@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 November 2008 15:46
To: EISAStudent Support
Subject: Portal Pilot: Feedback

This message was generated from an HTML form submitted to
the generic form handler at: www.londonexternal.ac.uk
The data came from the form at:
http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/contact_us/portal_feedback.shtml
The browser making the request came from 58.238.17.15.
The current date is Fri Nov  7 15:45:31 2008.


name         :  Joon Kang
email        :  xxxxxxxx@gmail.com
subject      :  Email via Email client
suggestions  :  How can I access my email via Mozilla Thunderbird (pop3)
or Zimbra Desktop?
send         :  Send Feedback

Mad Props to Book Depository

After my drama with Powell Books, the Ethnicity book I ordered from Book Depository arrived in my mailbox today. I have to say I'm very happy with them and the cool thing is that they have Free Worldwide delivery, to see if your country's on the list, click HERE, sorry Lorna, I don't see Jamaica here, good News Laura, Trinidad & Tobago is on the list. Anyways instead of ordering through Amazon, order directly from their site, click HERE for the free worldwide shipping :) Once again I recommend them highly, quick and prompt service.

Once again, a summary of my recommended book vendors:

Better World Books:
Website
FaceBook FanSite

Buckeye Bookshop (or find them on Amazon)
Their Direct Site

The Book Depository (Free Worldwide Shipping)
Website
Free International Shipping Country List

My resolutions w/ Powell Books, Amazon vendor

Here's the email exchange, I got a refund on my order:

They really acted in bad faith, lied and exercise bad business practices, see how they claim they never got the email with the claim I filed with Amazon, they're full of crap, Amazon forwards a copy to the vendor and the claimant...

Hello Joon Kang,

We have processed a full refund to your Amazon Accounts group for the apparently lost-in-transit package for Powell's
Order #6840412.

We apologize for any misunderstanding, but I do not see an email query from you dated November 1, 2008.

We understand how frustrating this shipping issue with the lost package must be.

Best wishes,

Barbara

As you can see, the date of the last correspondence was October 24th, I sent an email to your company on the 1st of November and received no reply, then I filed a claim with Amazon at the same time, and received no response from your company, this is really bad business practice, it does not take this long for me to receive post from the US here in South Korea, be honest and tell me when the package was postmarked. You're claiming it was the 3rd of October, if it's not the 3rd of October then you acted in bad faith and I demand a refund.

Any further questions please call me at my US number (310) 651-8206

Powells.com wrote:
Hello Joon Kang,

Do I understand that you do not have your Book for your Powell's Order #6840412 (Amazon Order Marketplace Transaction ID: 736-8880365-4002530)?

If you have not received it by November 14th, we will process a full refund through your Amazon Accounts group for you.

Please do respond to this current email if you have not received this order. (I have copied our previous response email from my co-worker to you below).

Regards,

Barbara
Powells.com

We are sorry that you did not see our email with which we did respond to you on October 24, 2008...

I copy it here:
..........................................................................................
From: Powells.com
Reply-To: Powells.com
To: JYH
Subject: Re: FM: Order enquiry from Amazon customer lseexternal@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:46:05 -0700
Message-ID:
In-Reply-To: <26853752.16455991224873766518.JavaMail.em-
build@lux-mm-relay.amazon.com>
X-About: marketplace.uk.onelove69@gmail.com

Hello,

Your order was shipped on 3 October. We ship directly to you from the United States. Shipments to the United Kingdom average 14-24 business days for delivery. Shipments elsewhere average 14-24 business days for delivery.

Packages are air freighted to the destination country where they are then deposited into your local postal system. Occasionally customs can cause delays that extend beyond the 24 business day timeframe, however most packages arrive within about 6 weeks of the ship date.

Best regards,

Emily
Powells.com


-------------- Begin message ---------------------

WHAT IS THE DISPATCH DATE OF THIS BOOK AND HOW DID YOU SEND THIS? BOOKS I ORDERED FROM OTHER VENDORS THAT DISPATCHED ON THE 6TH & 7TH OCTOBER I HAVE RECEIVED BY THE 14TH OF OCTOBER AND THAT INCLUDES ORDERS WITH VENDORS FROM THE USA AND CANADA.

I WILL FORWARD MY COMPLAINT TO AMAZON AND WILL POST ON MY BLOG THAT'S READ BY MANY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON EXTERNAL STUDENTS NOT TO BUY PRODUCTS FROM YOU.

Some Example Bad Reviews About Powells.com

As you can see I'm not the only one. It will be my duty in life that no UoL External students will suffer as I did with incompetent sellers, remember you can't believe all the good reviews, because sometimes these are planted by the seller, it's the bad reviews that tell a lot about the seller.

Bad Review #1
1 out of 5: "Back broken, book out off its back."
1 out of 5:"** WARNING! FRAUDULENT SELLER! *** Seller does not deliver orders and refuses to respond to enquiries once payment is made! DO NOT BE FOOLED BY POSITIVE FEEDBACK POSTED BY THE SELLER FROM DUMMY ACOUNTS!"

Bad Review #2
2 out of 5: "Hasn't arrived yet... i'm still waiting!"

Bad Review #3
2 out of 5: "hasn't arrived yet!"
2 out of 5: "hasn't arrived yet!"

Bad Review #4
1 out of 5: "If there was a zero star, I would have checked that, I received orders from other vendors at the same time, the first 2 emails were a cut and paste reply and the 3rd and subsequent emails were not replied to..."
2 out of 5: "this was advertised as 1952 edition but was actually 1974"

Bad Review #5
1 out of 5: "Still not received this item,service disgusting item was a birthday present for my wife on 12th Nov and was ordered in plenty of time"

Stay the hell away from this vendor from www.amazon.com

http://www.powells.com
powellbookstore

These people are total as*h*les. Here are the first 2 emails I sent them and here's the lame ass reply they sent, then the next 2 emails I sent they don't reply, and then after I file a claim and a complaint with Amazon, and then magically 7 days later the book shows up at my door. Because of their B*llS**t, I ordered the same book again, so I'm demanding that they pay return shipping and to credit my card right away, according to them and looking at the post mark it was not shipped on October 3rd. Because all the books I ordered from Canada, UK & the US Amazon on October 6th, I received a week and a half later. So anybody ordering from Amazon, stay the hell away from powellbookstore

Dear Joon,

Thank you for your message.
As my coworker Pam mentioned, your order was shipped on October 3rd. We ship directly to you from the United States.

Shipments to South Korea average 14-24 business days for delivery.

Packages are air freighted to the destination country where they are then deposited into your local postal system. Occasionally customs can cause delays that extend beyond the 24 business day timeframe, however most packages arrive within about 6 weeks of the ship date.

Best regards,

Emily
Powells.com


Previous correspondence follows:

Dear Pam,

My order number is 6840412, I still have no signs on this book. I have
received 3 books today that I order on or before I placed the order with
your company. I would like to know the status of my order. Thank you
in advance.

Thank You,
Joon Kang
http://uolexternal.blogspot.com

Powells.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Your order was shipped on October 3rd. We ship directly to you from the United States.
>
> Shipments to South Korea average 14-24 business days for delivery.
>
> Packages are air freighted to the destination country where they are then deposited into your local postal system. Occasionally customs can cause delays that extend beyond the 24 business day timeframe, however most packages arrive within about 6 weeks of the ship date.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Pam
> Powells.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Previous correspondence follows:
>
> Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.
>
> A potential buyer has sent you the following message about an item you have for sale on Amazon.co.uk, or about your store at Amazon.co.uk. Please respond to the individual directly by replying to this e-mail. For your reference, the buyer's e-mail address is lseexternal@gmail.com.
>
> Order ID: 736-8880365-4002530
> * 1 of Ethnicity (Key Concepts) [Paperback] by Fenton, Steve
>
> Important Notice: Only dispatch to the address shown in your seller account. Do not honour buyer requests to dispatch orders to any address other than the one provided by Amazon.co.uk. Do not accept any payment method other than Amazon Payments. Payment for the sale may be withheld if these guidelines are not followed.
>
> -------------- Begin message ---------------------
>
> The Dispatch estimate:3 Oct 2008, yet I have not received any email stating it was dispatched, please let me know when it will be dispatched.
>
> Thank you in advance.
>
> -------------- End message ------------------------
>
> Note: Amazon.co.uk may retain copies of all forwarded e-mails, and takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for the content of any messages forwarded to you.
>
> Amazon.co.uk will never e-mail you and ask you to disclose or verify your Amazon.co.uk password, credit card or bank account details. If you receive a suspicious e-mail with a link to update your account information, do not click on the link--instead report the e-mail to Amazon.co.uk for investigation. Go to amazon.co.uk/phish to find out more.
>

For you BBC Radio Fans, a cool Yahoo Widget

Download link for Yahoo widget:
http://widgets.yahoo.com/download/

Download Link for BBC Player
http://widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/bbc-radio-iplayer-plus

Mad Props to this Website, The Best Online Dictionary ever

I have to say this is the best online dictionary I have discovered, it has multiple definitions, especially math, it was especially helpful in understanding Economic terms that I couldn't find elsewhere, click HERE to go there. I love it.

Here's excerpt of an example of one of the definitions I looked up, for the complete rundown here's the LINK

transitive

6 dictionary results for: transitive

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

tran⋅si⋅tive

   /ˈtrænsɪtɪv, -zɪ-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [tran-si-tiv, -zi-] Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

1.	Grammar. having the nature of a transitive verb.

2.	characterized by or involving transition; transitional; intermediate.

3.	passing over to or affecting something else; transeunt.

4.	Mathematics. noting a relation in which one element in relation to a second element and the second in relation to a third element implies the first element is in relation to the third element, as the relation “less than or equal to.”

–noun

5.	Grammar. transitive verb.

---

Origin:
1550–60; < class="ital-inline">trānsitīvus, equiv. to L trānsit(us) (see transition ) + -īvus -ive

For those of you that live in the US, how to get through the airport quicker

www.tsa.gov

Is your flight on-time, late or delayed, click on the link below.
www.flightstats.com

What's the wait time at the airport, here's you link:
http://waittime.tsa.dhs.gov

List of Airports w/ Free Wi-Fi
www.smallbusiness.com/wiki/free_wifi_airports

Find power outlets in various airports:
http://airpower.jeffsandquist.com

E - Book lovers Blog

Discovered this blog by accident. Anyways, this gentlemen has a lot of e-books you can download, some light reading, some heavy reading and some things in between.

Click HERE for the link, his latest offering US News & World Report, check it out.

Other helpful resource blog, It's called the Free Science Video & Lectures blog, I borrowed some of this posts and put it up here, but this is more towards Science (he was a Science major). Through him I learned about a lot of resources and we check in with each other email wise...Anyways I will post what's relevant to our major and modules :)

Click HERE for his link.

A reply to Jen's comment

Hello Jen,

Thank you for your kind comments, I will upload related lectures for sociology HERE

Just point your mouse over the mp3 box and right click and choose save link as (for Firefox) or save target as (for IE users)

Let me know if there are other lectures or videos you're interested in.

What the LSE degree will say debate

This is my reply on Yansa, on this TOPIC

My older brother always told me, the paper may get you to the interview but it's not going to guarantee that you get the job. Through my own experience, I always find it that a lot of people really don't know how to interview. This is why back in the days in the US, I always got the job over people that were more qualified than me "ON PAPER" because of my superior interview skills and interpersonal skills. Nowhere have I read in this forum about the importance of interpersonal skills and learning about basic things about other cultures, such as basic greetings in multiple languages, knowing about the foods, clothes, pop culture etc. I also don't see the emphasis on being a well rounded and balanced person, such as playing instruments, learning multiple languages, volunteering and giving back to society. If you do these things you'll be changed as a person and it will show in the way you speak and in your mannerisms and how you treat other people. This is why respect is just a concept to many people, they just don't have a grasp of the reality of what respect really means. It means doing all the things I mentioned in the prior paragraph and more, then you will gain an understanding and appreciation for "WHAT IT TAKES" to be good at something and your words will carry weight in the interview and with people you meet. Whatever the degree states is secondary to fulfilling yourself as a person, then you will earn the respect of the interviewer and get the job over the person who is supposedly better than you "ON PAPER".

My reply To Anonymous, I'm really really sorry for the rant.

Someone that knows nothing about somebody has so much to say. In the US, there's a famous saying, "Everyone's a critic." If you don't like it, you don't have to come, probably barely passed your tests. You don't know anything about me but you have so much life advice for me. I don't even give advice to my best friends, because they're grown, they know what they're doing, yet you can give advice to a total stranger, I don't know, but I did you the courtesy of highlighting your quotes and replying.

For the people, that do appreciate and like my blog, I'm sorry for the rant, but I hate critics #1 (most of them accomplished nothing in their life) and I hate internet critics who don't have the courage to identify themselves (BTW I know who it is, but since I'm a respectful person, I won't out you, I don't believe in throwing people under the bus)

Highlights of anonymous' quotes:

1. "If you have too much energy, go learn to play a guitar, go run, play a sport"

I do play the guitar, bodybuilding is one of my biggest passions, I weight lift religiously, I know a couple of pro bodybuilders I can call anytime, email anytime, I'm very well known in the Korean bodybuilding scene, I've been on TV, here's the clip HERE I run my own trading business and I've stated many times I started this for my own selfish reasons so I have access to my own notes when I'm out on client meetings and when I can't carry around my backpack with my books, so I can study anytime anywhere.

2. "Trust me, put your effort in your studies. Otherwise, start working and earn some money rather than wasting time like this."

See comment #1. You probably barely passed all your test and you're hating because you lack the discipline and the motivation and you're taking your frustration out on me. Say it to my face, identify yourself. Otherwise I don't care what anybody has to say if they can't put a name & face to what they post on the net. I call people like you "INTERNET TOUGH GUYS, OOPS, INTERNET TOUGH PEOPLE OR INTERNET WARRIORS" I created this for my own personal notes, if there's a side benefit, that's bonus.

3. " hope you take it as good advice rather than someone trying to denigrate you. "

Isn't it funny, when people try to denigrate us or insult us, they always have the disclaimer, "I'm not trying to insult you or denigrate you, it's for your own good." I laugh when I hear or read this because normally people that have so much advice usually are the unhappiest people and have a chaotic life and have the most drama. You know I'm right people, next time you see someone that has so much advice, look at their life. I'll bet you statistically 95% of them have miserable lives and they probably don't have any control over their life :)

5. "I'm a fellow uole student(3rd year). Off the bat, I don't mean to degrade what you're doing. But from your posts, I somehow get the feeling that you have this initial enthusiasm that is going to peter off in the coming months.

Once again she opened with "I DON'T MEAN TO DEGRADE". This disclaimer always means "I'm going to degrade you." LOL, The enthusiasm will peter, your enthusiasm petered off, so don't use your reality my reality. You're probably the many people, the many faces in my gym that enthusiastically joins a gym and quits. You're probably the many people that start to learn an instrument and quits. You're probably the person who starts to study a new language and quits. I play the guitar, taught myself the piano, taught myself how to type (70 wpm, thank you very much), taught myself MS Excel, MS Access, Dreamweaver, podcasting, Japanese, Spanish (still working in progress), Korean.

4.  "These are some wise people on yansa and they are not terribly pleased with your excessive posting there. People like frankie don't post often but have a lot of useful stuff to say."

Don't include other people in your argument, you're not their represntative, congress woman, if they have something to say, then they should say it.  And they're wise because you say so?  If they don't like it, there's a thing called a REPLY button on my posts, use it or is it because you fear my reply knowing that I will OWN you with my superior reply

OK, I'm sorry for posting alternative textbook resources, links to lecture and video sites that may be of help to many other students, since I felt it was helpful to me, it would be helpful to other people, I believe in sharing so we can all do good.  Maybe you're a selfish person that likes to keep helpful information to yourself and your little clique, I'm sorry I'm not cliquish.  Gee, I'm really really sorry for posting a video on how to use technology to your best advantage (subscribing to podcasts, etc).  

People like you are such hypocrites because if one of your clique members did the same exact thing I'm doing, you'd call them a genius, doing a great thing.  IF I was in my 20's perhaps I would try to appease, you're talking to a guy in his 30's that's been in the military, played organized sports, grew up in 2 countries, lived in 4 countries, speak multiples languages, you think you can insult, denigrate me.  

You can tell a lot about people by what they say.  For example, if a person tells me, "you made a mistake, don't worry about it, let's fix it."  This tells me this person is a person with a strong work ethic and understands reality and doesn't have normative thinking and they understand what hard work it takes to be good at anything.

Whereas a person, that says, "You should do this, do that, do it that way, do it that way."  This tells me you never did anything in your life, so you don't know what it takes to be good at anything because everything you tried or started you gave up, you lack stick-to-it-ness.

She stated "I don't meant to degrade, denigrate, insult" 3 times, so don't you think, it's an insult, denigration, and degradation comment? If you don't like it, don't come, if you don't like what's on TV, turn the channel, if you don't like what's on the radio, turn the knob. Eesh, critics.

Once again I'm sorry for the rant, once again the criticism didn't bother me, it's the fact this person wants to talk crap behind the veil of "ANONYMOUS" without having the courage of identifying themselves and not owning up to what they have to say.

BTW - I know who you are, and if you deny it, then it makes you a bigger coward for not being able to own up to what you have to say.

Once again, I'm sorry, really sorry for the rant.

Normally I don't want to use this as a commercial endorsement pulpit but...

Hello everybody, for those of you that live in Asia or the Bahamas or the islands where getting Western textbook is not easy where we can't just go to Borders or something to get the book, where we rely on online shopping. I just want to say I had a great experience with the following vendors from http://www.amazon.co.uk and http://www.amazon.com

I would have to give mad props to Buckeye Bookworm, a vendor from the US Amazon site, I ordered Globalization from them, the order shipped out on the 7th of October and arrived here today (Oct 14), a week after it shipped out. Plus the owner handwrote thanks and signed his name AND...he gave us a bookmark. Way to go, mad kudos to you, buckeye bookworm, sorry to say USC kicked your school's butt :) Highly recommend. Another thing, although I bought the book used, the book is in great condition. If you need any kind of books from here, the owner's name is Jeffrey Catron and his email address is toto43211@yahoo.com

I ordered Survey Methods in Social Investigation (for Stats) from Abe Books, they said the book was in good condition. Yes, they stated it was an ex-library book, I understood that. This book is not in good condition, they just relaminated the cover and re-glued the pages to the binder, and the pages have that you know yellow look when pages get old.

In other words, don't just believe the reviews you read on Amazon about a vendor (especially the positive ones), look for the negative reviews, they will have a far more telling tale than the positive ones.

For example, I ordered ethnicity from Amazon UK (used) from Powell (powell.com, I guess) they claimed to have shipped it out on the 3rd of October, yet I got all my other books that I ordered on the same day, today, yet there's no sign of Ethnicity.

One more plug for a great used/new book website: http://www.betterworld.com their shipping cost is only $3.97US worldwide, if you can afford to wait 3 weeks to get your books, by all means order from them.

A new community on Yansa for BSc Management majors

Hey guys, with the limit of my blog and email, I created this community HERE so we can post our homework, discussions, answers, etc here, let's meet here for discussions

The European Union and the Challenge of Globalisation

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events - Matti Vanhanen
Matti Vanhanen is prime minister of Finland. Prior to this served as defence minister and he has been a member of the Finnish Parliament since 1991. Finland currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Migration and Social Transformation

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events - Professor Stephen Castles
Growing interest in migration research reflects the politicisation of international migration but this could lead to policy-driven research, cut off from critical analysis.

The Two Faces of Asia: bridging the gap between high growth economies and the poor

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Despite impressive growth over the past few decades, the Asia Pacific region is still home to two-thirds of the world's poor. In many Asian countries, the gap between rich and poor is widening and policymakers are faced with extraordinary challenges

Multiculturalism and Secularism

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Can multicultural inclusivity extend to religious minorities? Can it do so without conflicting with secularism? Tariq Modood is professor of sociology, politics and public policy at Bristol University.

COMEDY BREAK!!!

For all of you studying hard or needing to start studying hard, let's take a moment to not take things too seriously and take a laugh break, hope this video will facilitate that :)

Syllabus for October for all the units I'm taking

A shoutout to all my study buddies (or is it mates in the English vernacular?), sorry I speak American not English :P so please bear with me :(

Anyways for syllabus on how we're going to study, click on any of the subject below and if you would like to join our study group send me a PM by clicking on of the links below:

My Yansa profile

My Facebook profile

Please if you do an add friend on my FB profile, please write a message letting me know who you are!!!

Anyways for the syllabus just click on any of the subjects you're interested in and it'll take you to that page :)

02 Intro to Economics
04a Stats1
05a Maths1
21 Principles of Sociology
25 Principles of Accounting

The Economist's Best MBA Programs 2009

WMBA 08 Executive Summary 2 - Upload a Document to Scribd

For those of you looking into a DISTANCE MBA Program

The Economist Magazine (their economist intelligence unit) ranks the best online MBA programs, just click on any of the contents to take you to the page

Main Page

The Ranking

No longer the poor relation

Distance learning special: Advantages and disadvantages

Distance learning special: How to choose a school

BLOG: Your views - You can read what the readers think

The latest issue of the Athens Newletter Take Aim Issue # 7

Athens Take Aim Issue 7 - Upload a Document to Scribd

UoL External Students Groups

Just wanted to give a shout out to Yansa message board and Facebook Group UoL External Students and everybody at LinkedIn our LSE External students group: To join any of these groups please click on the group you wish join below.

Yansa UoL external students Forum

Facebook UoL external students Group

LinkedIn LSE external students Group - emphasis and focus on LSE External Students

Hope to see you there

UoL external students will get email accounts & VLE access starting this year

If you don't believe me this is the literature I got along with my study materials

Email & VLE & Online Resources For UoL External Students - Upload a Document to Scribd

Study Plans

Hey guys, here's my study plans, still didn't get my Soc & Accounting texts yet, but I've been listening to the UC Berkeley lectures, please click on any of the subjects below for the referencing sociology lectures :), these links will have the downloadable or streaming mp3 s :)

Theories of Laws & Society 

Lectures on Weber

Lectures on Durkheim

Durkheim and Weber; The Division of Labor

Lecture on Karl Marx

For accounting, I go here to watch the video from Indiana University Kelly School of Business

Accounting Video Lectures

Once I get all my texts, I will use the schedule to do the following:

Mon/Wed/Fri - I will study Econ, Stats & Math

Tues/Thurs/Sat - I will study Accounting and Sociology

Sat & Sun - I will review.

My personal study strategy:

Read the chapter once (skim) the first time, the second time, I will read the chapter again with a little more attention to detail (not super detail), then listen to a lecture or video, then read the chapter a third time taking notes (by hand).  After taking the notes by hand I will post the notes and put it on MS Word, then I will post it on the blog.  So by the time I posted notes, I read the chapter 3 times and heard or watched a video lecture.  I hope this will be helpful to me and you guys.

A universal account for Scribd

Hey you guys if you want to download pdf files that I uploaded, I created a general account where anybody can log in without the need to register :)

ID: uolexternalstudent
p/w: lseexternal

Here's the video

Email Accounts for ALL external students

This is from the 2007 survey. I couldn't upload the whole survey so I just converted the pdf to a jpeg image and uploaded page 5, it's under the Development of e-resources header

Survey Page 5 - Upload a Document to Scribd

How best to use your past exam papers to your best advantage

If you want to download this click HERE

Exams 32008 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Exams 32008

Test taking tips from LSE

Power point presentation on pdf, more info here

Session7_Exams2_March2006 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Session7_Exams2_March2006

Structuring Your Essay

LSE Learning Center <- click on this link for more info

Structuring Your Essay, Nov 2006 from LSE - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Structuring Your Essay, Nov 2006 from LSE

201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview

201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview