For the record, I’ve been using billmyclients.com for almost two years without any issues.

Here’s the company’s mailing address:

Bill My Clients Inc.
PO Box 9381
Shawnee Mission, KS 66201

Currently, I have canceled my account with billmyclients.com and I do not expect to use them again.

Note: Keep in mind that these issues started about two months ago.
Here are some of my reasons for canceling this service.

• inaccessible website 24/7
• can not login with my login information
• login attempt produces database crashed
• 800.269.1357 (voice) – IVR (interactive voice response) loops the caller infinitely
• email inquiries are not answered
• questions@billmyclients.com, help@billmyclients.com, ideas@billmyclients.com

If their service is restored, would I sign-up again? NEVER!

The collapsed of their infrastructure was unannounced and blatantly callous.

Lastly, I need to figure out a way to access to my list of clients and other historical data. Despite billmyclients.com short-coming, it taught me one lesson: always be prepared for a dotcom failure.

First Draft by Tom O. Chhuong

September 10, 2001. Dark clouds looms in the sky. Thunder roars above the Sri Padmanabhaswami Temple.

A monsoon abruptly storms into Kerala mid-afternoon. Citizens of Kerala run into their homes.

On a rural road outside of Kerala, a man and his family are speeding down a single lane rural road in a 2001 Blue Range Rover. The heavy rain slams into the car’s windshield like a hail storm.

Inside the vehicle, the husband and wife are arguing about where to send their oldest’s son to college.

The Range Rover is traveling about 70 MPH on the wet rural road. The windshield wipers are furiously and reluctantly wiping away the heavy rain.

An old man and a young boy with their water buffalo are walking on the shoulder of a road. The old man noticed a speeding vehicle in the distance and quickly pulls his son further away from the road.

Inside the Range Rover, the arguing family unknowingly speeds by a man, and a boy with their water buffalo.

The angry husband slams his fist against the steering wheels as they passed the old man and the boy. He yells, “He’s going to Cambridge and that’s final!”.

The wife doesn’t reply. She sits quietly with tears in her eyes.

They stopped arguing. Silence fills the vehicle for a few seconds.

The husband feels bad about yelling at this wife and turns to her to apologize.

The husband utters, “Honey…I’m…”.

His wife stars into the heavy rain and blinks to clear her eyes.

In front of them, a poor man and woman exits the forest after hearing the roar of a tiger. The woman is running with a crying infant bundled in some old blankets.

The strong rain and wind knocks a palm tree onto the road. The wife screams, “Honey, watch out!”

The husband turns left to avoid the palm tree and slams on the break. The vehicle skids out of control, hits the palm tree, and becomes air bound.

The vehicle hits the road and spins uncontrollably into the couple crossing the road.

The spinning vehicle knocks the poor family back into the forest and kills both parents instantly. The infant is thrown several feet away from his dead parents and cries relentless.

The vehicle has been flipped on the passenger’s side. The windshield has been broken.

The tops two wheels are slowly spinning.

The heavy rain continues to pour on the damaged vehicle and the muffled sound of the crying baby echos through the forest.

Stay tune for more…

The possibility of bringing smaller asteroids closer for the purpose of studying and mining them can of course be debatable and quite plausible since small asteroids do not pose a great threat even if they do end up hitting the Earth. Larger asteroids, however, are a whole different story.

Altering the course of an asteroid of even around a mile in diameter would take much more precision and energy than working with smaller ones. Murphy’s Law, “If anything can go wrong, it will”. A slight miscalculation could easily cause the asteroid to tumble to the Earth.

Normally, I would agree that the prospect of mining a giant asteroid could potentially bring a lot of money and that would be an excellent outcome that is seemingly worth the risks. However, in my opinion the Chinese are slightly too eager because their decision could affect the course of the entire human civilization.

If something goes wrong, in my opinion, it would be best to keep the project on a smaller scale for now, instead of aiming for the bigger rocks, and to consult experts from all over the world before trying anything.

Reference: http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4767

If you have the latest Android smartphone, you may have seen or used the Google Voice Search feature. I have an Android smartphone, and I’ve used it infrequently over the past few months.

When I saw this feature on my Android, I’d figured it was only a matter of time before Google implemented the same feature on it’s homepage.

Today, I noticed the Google Voice Search on Google’s homepage.

Here’s a screent shot of this awesome feature. http://bit.ly/k2xxtQ

But if you haven’t seen it, here’s how to enable Google Voice Search in your Chrome 11 or higher. Google Voice Search will not work in FireFox, Safari, or Internet Explorer.

1. login to your Gmail account
2. click here: http://bit.ly/jCb6FZ
3. click on “join this experiment”
4. go back to Google’s homepage
5. speak out loud into to your built-in mic or headset

Enjoy!

That was my initial reaction when I read that New Kids on the Block were joining forces with Back Street Boys. When I was younger, I’ve heard many songs by NKOTB and BSB, but I would never imagine for a second that they would somehow work together.

For those of you don’t know, NKOTB was a highly popular American boy band back in the late 80s’ and early 90s’. Personally, I still like Michael Jackson’s songs more than these guys.

They were known for song such as “Please don’t go girl” which gradually climbed to #10 on the Billboards Hot 100 Singles Chart.

From what I’d recalled, NKOTB was accused of lip syncing by an associate producer. These allegations caused the band to lose popularity very quickly. However, they acted swiftly by signing live on the Arsenio Hall Show, and admitted to some backing vocals whenever they performed live.

The media frenzy and public backlash, among many other things, caused the band to break up in 1994.

Despite their negative publicity, I’m impressed by NKOTB determination to make new albums and tour with pop sensation Lady Gaga, and the Back Street Boys.

According to straight.com, NKOTB and BSB will be releasing a new album on May 23 which would contain some of their most popular singles like “Step by Step” by NKOTB and “As Long as You Love Me” by BSB.

Admittedly, I liked some of the old songs from NKOTB, and BSB, but I don’t see myself running to Target to pick their new album any time soon. How about you?