Avocado plant in water

I have three avocado plants growing in water. I wanted to try growing them in water instead of soil. I have seen someone in the internet who grows his avocado plant in water and is growing well. He has concocted the nutrient recipe for the avocado and added to the water. He didn't reveal the formula and I think maybe can dilute the fertilizer to a ratio that is gentle on the plant. When I planted the seedlings in soil, I have to prune them to stop them from growing too tall. When I grow them in water, I'm thinking whether I need to prune them because I'm not sure whether this will hurt the plants.

Growing avocado in water

I have used a bigger bottle for the root to grow longer. My initial intention is to prevent the root from splitting open. However, this does not help and the root still split open. Two small roots have grown downwards. Overall, the seedling looks healthy and I will probably wait from a few more days before I start to prune the seedling. It has about seven leaves and it should be right for pruning now. 

Avocado roots

Avocado roots

Google AdSense Alternative - PropellerAds

On 6 May 2015, I signed up to be a publisher for PropellerAds media. I'm using PropellerAds as an alternative to Google AdSense. In this post, I will update the impressions, clicks, CPM & income from this Ads Network. There is nothing confidential about this and I think it gives transparency when reviewing the best Google AdSense Alternatives for my audience and followers.

So far, I have tried Google AdSense, Infolinks, RevenueHits, Bidvertiser, Chitika and Adclx.com. Of course Google AdSense gave the most revenue, followed by RevenueHits, Infolinks, Chitika and Bidvertiser. I have to drop Adclx.com because it is not generated any clicks and the impressions that it captured are pathetic. You can click on the above ads networks to see my review on other posts.

Today is 16 May 2015, 10 days after I signed up for PropellerAds. I'm getting earnings of US$0.194 for 776 impressions and 8 clicks. The $ forecast for May is US$0.60. This is the estimate value based on current statistics rate.

PropellerAds Dashboard

If you have a few sites that you want to add to the PropellerAds media network, you can add them easily. Look for the Sites tab on the left, just under the Revenue. Click "+Add new site". 

• Step 1 - Enter the domain information
• Step 2 - Verify the domain
• Step 3 - Success

PropellerAds Add new site

Once you have submitted the correct domain information, you will see that the status is pending and your website will be reviewed. You will be notified via email within 24 hours. Normally, you will receive email notification within 12 hours based on my experience. Please make sure that your website is online and does not contain any adult content.

PropellerAds Domain Status

You need to be patient and check your inbox and your Junk email folder for any notification from PropellerAds Robot.

In most Ads Networks, there is this referral program which gives 5% from publishers' revenue who registered via your referral link. I think this is a good idea to increase your income through referral. With a vast network of friends, bloggers, co-workers, social media friends, everyone can benefit from this. Spread the word about PropellerAds and earn money!

PropellerAds Referral Program

There are two drawbacks that I see in this alternative.

1. The minimum payout amount is US$100.00
2. There is no payment via PayPal

PropellerAds Payment Method

The minimum payout amount is still reasonable. However, I think that it can be flexible to reduce it to US$50. Payment via PayPal will be great since a lot of Ads Networks are using payment via PayPal. It would be perfect if PropellerAds can consider reducing the minimum payout to US$50 and allow payment via PayPal.

I think publishers who joined last year or early this year, there is an option for PayPal payment. But it was subsequently removed and I hope it can be put back.

Google AdSense Alternative - Adclx.com

Someone recommended me Adclx.com in one of my blogs, Google AdSense Alternative - Bidvertiser. I decided to give it a try.

Sign up to be a publisher is easy. However, the User Interface (UI) for the Adclx.com website is quite bad. The response when login, is very slow and non-responsive at times. Though the UI is also very simple and offers not much details.

I have setup two parent blocks which are medium rectangle (300x250) and Adunit type is Text/Banner. I cannot remember when I signed up but I think it must be at least one week ago. For more than a week, I have only 40 impressions in total from the two blocks. I have no click at all. This is very pathetic. I have at least 10 times more impressions from other Ads Networks.

Adunit based statistics - Adclx.com

I have emailed the Support Desk for help and clarifications twice but there is just no reply from them. I wonder whether they are serious to get publishers onboard. I don't think I'm going to waste my time on this one as I don't think there will be any improvement to the revenue.

Sorry Andy, I'm going to give this a miss.

Third Avocado Plant - Third Pruning on 14 May 2015

My third avocado plant is now sitting in my study room near the window. It has catch the western sunlight every day but not strong light. The leaves have all moved to the direction of the light and you need to periodically rotate the pot to let the leaves expose to equal amount of light.

I have let the avocado plant to grow at least 5 leaves before I prune away the rest. Today, I notice that the new branch has grown 5 leaves. It is time to prune the third avocado again. This will be its third time.

Third avocado with new branch

I have used a cutter to prune away the new leaves.

Using a cutter to prune the branch

Third pruned area

A small branch can be seen at the 2nd pruned area but from the lower leaflet.

A small branch from the 2nd pruned area

Rinnai RD-600CG gas dryer cleaning

I have this Rinnai RD-600CG gas dryer from City Gas since 2007. It is almost 8 years old and had replaced the capacitor and the rubber belt 1 year ago. I clean the filters after each drying session. Our clothes have fibers that will dislodge and will be trapped by the filters. Even after many washings and dryings, you will still see the lint on the filters. You will see plenty of lint when you are drying towels.

After one wash, the typical amount of lint is shown below. Hot air will flow through the filters and the lint will be trapped on them. If the lint is not removed, the air flow will be blocked and the drying process will take longer. There are two filters in the gas dryer. In fact, there is another filter which is on the outside of the dryer. This one is for the air inlet to the dryer. You will need to clean this filter which is underneath the gas dryer.

Filters in the gas dryer

Remove the cover (with the movable filter) by your fingers. You need to pull the cover towards you and the cover will come off. 

Remove the filter cover

There is another filter behind the removable filter. 

Lint trapped in the gas dryer

The lint is quite difficult to remove by your fingers. There is a trick that I used and that is to wet your fingertips with water and you can easily remove the lint using your wet fingers. Just rub it around the filter and the lint will accumulate into a small crumb or ball. 

Lint trapped on the removable filter (rotating)

Remove the lint using fingers

Removable filter cleaned

Again, using your wet fingers, you can easily remove the lint from the fixed filter. A lot of people did not realize that you need to remove the lint from this filter. The instruction manual said that you need to clean this periodically but I think you need to clean this after each use. You can see that after removing the lint, the holes for the air outlet are clearly visible and not blocked. This will reduce the drying process time.

Cleaning the fixed filter in the gas dryer

Fixed filter cleaned

After the removable filter has been cleaned, you need to assemble the filter back to the cover. The orientation of the filter is important. The Chinese character "後" on the filter means "back" or "behind". So this side with the Chinese character or the PP should be facing you and when you put the cover back the Chinese character or the PP should face the fixed filter. I have never put it wrongly so I don't know what is the effect of it if it is in the wrong way.

Put back the removable filter onto the cover (note the side)

Filters cleaned

It is always better to clean the filters after each cycle of drying. I notice that the drying cycle gets longer if the lint is not removed. The drying process requires dried hot air to flow into the clothes/towels and then carries the moisture away from the clothes/towels. If the lint has blocked the filters, the moist air cannot be removed from the chamber effectively. This will reduce the drying efficiency and the dryer will require more energy and time to dry the clothes/towels.

See my blog on Rinnai RD-600CG gas dryer repair.

Unboxing WD Elements USB 3.0 1 TB

I wanted to buy another external hard disk to store my data and photos. I have 3 internal hard disks that I run my operating system and another 1 TB WD old external disk. This WD disk has been partitioned into two formats, one with Mac and the other is NTFS Windows Format.

The old WD disk is a 3.5"' external hard disk which requires a power supply. It is big and bulky. I would like something that does not require an external power supply and is USB 3.0. So, I have decided on the WD Elements USB3.0 1 TB 2.5" external hard disk. I went to hardwarezone to compare the prices of the WD Elements disk from different shops and Cybermind seems to be the lowest at $79 including GST.

I went to buy it on Thursday and the shop attendant said that I should run it for 30 days without registering the warranty online. If the disk has issues within the 30 days, Cybermind will replace it one-for-one. After 30 days, you can register online.

The WD Elements portable storage comes in a box. Unboxing is easy and the disk is protected in another packaging in the box. After unboxing, you can find the documentation for warranty, the USB3.0 cable and the disk. Nothing fancy in there.

It is very light and I plugged the USB3.0 into my Mac USB3.0 port. It connected immediately. I cannot copy the OSX files over as the disk is in NTFS format. There are some files in the disk. There is a WD Smartware Pro Free Trial. I copied all the files to my Mac and then format the disk to Mac OS Extended (journaled) using the Mac Disk Utility application. Later I learned that you can buy the Paragon NTFS for Mac 12 software to remove the barriers between HFS and NTFS. Once installed, you can create, delete and modify any files and folders on a NTFS formatted drive. Well, too late, I have formatted my disk to Mac OS.

I copied a 143 GB folder from my Mac to the WD Elements disk and it took 24 minutes using the USB3.0 connection. I'm not sure whether this is fast or slow. But I think it is satisfactory. There is no sound from the disk. 

The box

Back of the box

Opening the box

Content in the box

Harddisk & Cable

The disk

The port

USB3.0 cable

Backward compatible with USB2.0

Google AdSense Alternative - Chitika

I had started putting Chitika ads in my blogs since Nov 2014. Initially, I had about $0.01 to $0.03 revenue per month from Nov 2014 to Feb 2015. After Feb 2015, I did not receive any revenue even though I had similar impressions (average 850 impressions per month). I did not get any valid clicks since Mar 2015. Below is the Advanced Report from Nov 2014 to Apr 2015. I had given Chitika a go for at least half a year already and the results were disappointing. My revenue is $0.08 for half a year. Even if I continue with Chitika on my blogs, I don't think I will be able to reach $1 for 10 years. This is one of the worst ads networks that I have used. I wouldn't recommend this unless you have a lot of valid clicks from the US traffic. The Asian or European traffics that I have generated did not give me enough impressions and valid clicks that materialized into revenue.

Chitika ads almost took half of the ads that I have in all my blogs. I will gradually reduce the ads and put more from revenue generating ads networks.

Chitika Report - Nov 2014 to Apr 2015

The default channel gave the most revenue or rather all the revenues came from the default channel! No revenue from mobile ad, highlight and hover app.

Chitika Report - Channel

I'm not complaining on the revenue because I know that my traffic is mostly from Asia. However, recently, my blogs are gaining traction with traffic from US. I should be looking at some revenues from the US because in my other ads networks, there are already revenues from the US traffic. I'm wondering why Chitika does not reflect this. Should I email Chitika to check with them?

I have not checked my "https://publishers.chitika.com/ads/settings" for quite some times. Today, I click on the settings and see My Domains. I have two domains which under the DTL column are showing gold-pending level domain. Most of my domains are silver levels and only one is bronze. I have no idea when they have been gold-pending as I have not clicked on the My Domains for at least 2 months. Let's say it is in gold-pending level today (7 May), I want to see how long does this take to reach gold level domain. Even if it is gold level domain, I wonder when it will drop to silver level.

Gold-pending level domain