Make your Windows PC into WiFi hotspot with open source Virtual Router

Have you been to a place (such as hotel room, meeting room, training room, etc.) where no WiFi service is available, and instead LAN connection is available for Internet access, and you need to connect a number of your gadgets (such as handphone, tablet, etc.) to the Internet?

With the Virtual WiFi and Wireless Hosted Network features introduced in MS Windows 7 (also available in its successor Windows 8 as well), you are able to make your laptop or PC with wireless network card into a WiFi hotspot to share its Internet access with other WiFi connected devices (computer, handphone, tablet, printer, camera, etc.)

Virtual Router by Chris Pietschmann is a small Windows application that make use of this Virtual WiFi and Wireless Hosted Network features in Windows 7 and above, to provide a very simple and fool proof way for you to make your laptop (or PC with wireless network card) to be the WiFi hotspot. It is open source and free for download and use under Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL).

With Virtual Router, you can wirelessly share any Internet connection (WiFi, LAN, Cable Modem, Dial-up, Cellular, etc.) of your computer with any WiFi device (Laptop, Smart Phone, iPod Touch, iPhone, Android Phone, Zune, Netbook, wireless printer, etc.) These devices connect to Virtual Router just like any other WiFi access point, and the connection is secured using WPA2 encryption.

This small application is so easy to use that, you just need to define your desired SSID and password, and select the network interface to share the Internet access, then click the Start Virtual Router button.

Connected devices will be shown in the Peers Connected panel.

The device will be connected with WPA2 data encryption, and get a DHCP assigned IP address.

Click here to go to the download webpage of Virtual Router.

10 things you should never say during presentations

Mr. Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten shared in his blog about the 10 things you should never say during presentations, which I found is very inspiring.

Here are the 10 no-no, and I believe most of us had said some or all of such sentences in our presentations before. Watch out!

• I’m very jet-lagged / tired / hungover
• I’ll get back to that later
• Can you hear me? Yes you can!
• I can’t see you because the lights are too bright
• Can you read this?
• Let me read this out loud for you
• Shut off your phone / laptop / tablet
• No need to write anything down or take photos, the presentation will be online later
• Let me answer that question right away
• I’ll keep it short

Why Boris thinks that those sentence shouldn't be said during presentation? Click here to read the source article in his blog to find out more.

Win a Samsung Galaxy S6 or HTC One M9 or LG G Flex 2 in Choose Your Own Next Gen Android Giveaway

Pocketnow is currently holding The Choose Your Own Next Gen Android Giveaway for you to win a next generation Android smartphone.

 The winner gets to choose whichever of the following phones they want:

• Samsung Galaxy S6
• HTC One M9
• LG G Flex 2

It only takes one step to win: submit your email address in the giveaway website. Click here to enter The Choose Your Own Next Gen Android Giveaway website.

Official Giveaway End Date: 20 March 2015 11:59pm (PST)

EPF declared 6.75% dividend for 2014

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja, KWSP) Board, with the approval of the Minister of Finance, has just announced a dividend rate of 6.75% and RM39.08 billion gross investment income for financial year ended 31 December 2014, which is an increase of 11.66% compared with RM35.00 billion in 2013.

The 6.75% dividend amounted to a total payout of RM36.66 billion where RM5.41 billion was required to pay every one per cent of dividend rate for 2014. This was 10.53% higher compared with RM4.91 billion paid for every one per cent dividend rate for 2013, in tandem with the rise in contributors’ savings.

 

EPF global investments, forming 23% of total assets, had contributed 33% towards their total income for 2014.

 

The 2014 gross investment income was mainly driven by Equities in the domestic and global markets covering both emerging and developed countries. The asset class recorded an investment income of RM22.91 billion in 2014, up 17.37% compared with RM19.52 billion in 2013, and contributed 58.63% to the total gross investment income in 2014. Almost half of the income of the equity investment is derived from EPF’s global portfolios.

Majority of the EPF’s investment assets were placed in low risk fixed income instruments as this asset class provided a stable stream of income in the long run.

 

Loans and Bonds contributed RM7.57 billion in income, compared with RM7.51 billion in 2013. This rise was attributed to the performance of the global portfolios by both internal and external fund managers. Malaysian Government Securities and Equivalents recorded RM6.59 billion in income, registering a rise of 6.14%, compared with 2013. Meanwhile, Money Market Instruments posted an income of RM619.65 million.

 

Real Estate and Infrastructure contributed RM1.39 billion in investment income in 2014. This inflation-linked asset class, which the EPF has started invested in since 2010, has over the years been showing encouraging performance and is a 22.31% increase from 2013.
 

As at 31 December 2014, the EPF’s total investment assets stood at RM636.53 billion, up 7.91% from RM589.87 billion in 2013.