Saw this one while waiting for my connecting flight at Suvarnabhumi Airport here in Bangkok, Thailand. At first glance, you’d really think they’re just one of those typical metallic phone booths you see all around. A closer inspection can catch one’s curiosity a bit further.
Archive for May, 2007
I’m off to Lahore, Pakistan today for another week of workshop. That’s actually 3 days in Lahore and another three in Karachi. This last couple of days have been an adrenaline-rush for me.
Right after I came back from Singapore last week, I had to go to the Pakistan Embassy to apply for another visa. Since I got my invitation on a very short notice, I wasn’t prepared with the right documents. Now, I needed a new NBI Clearance with DFA authentication. I thought, what’s that and why do I need that? I never needed that the last time I applied for a Visa.
So, I went back to Carriedo at the NBI head office to apply for another one. Since it was for travel abroad, it takes about 3 working days to process it (and I thought you can get it in a day now). I already used up all my NBI clearance including the personal copy so a renewal application is no use. I had to pull some strings to fast-track that. A friend of a friend who works there helped out and I was able to get it the following day.
Turns out the one I got still needs to go thru the Department of Foreign Affairs for authentication. I called in another friend/client who works in their legal department to help out. I got it a day after. Off to the embassy that Wednesday.
But, I’m leaving on Thursday so I was hoping for a miracle and a little gift to the officers inside would do the trick of an overnight approval. To my dismay, it didn’t work this time.
A few phone calls from my sponsors in Islamabad did the trick and before end of office hours yesterday, I got my visa.
Phew, why do I always get into such trouble all the time? Read my previous encounter here. Ok, there’s the boarding call now.
First saw this laptop pillow last January during the Blog Parteeh. One of the sponsors (Microwarehouse) gave away a Belkin Cushtop. From then on, I’ve been looking to get one for my Compaq Presario V3000.
I found a couple at the Apple Store in Mall of Asia and they cost around Php2,100 each. A tad bit on the expensive side, IMO.
Then I saw the same one on sale at the Challenger (Funan Digitallife Mall @ Singapore) and since I also subscribed as a member, I’d get an additional discount plus the GST discount and it was down to just Php1,500.
This pillow is really great. Tough but light enough on the lap which allows further elevation for line of sight. Most of all, the heat from the laptop is dissipated properly with more than enough insulation for the lap.
I just checked my Feedburner account again and looked at the email addresses of those people who subscribed to my feed via the Feedburner Email Subscription. While I only have 421 active subscribers for that part, I discovered there are actually 1,147 total subscribers and 99% of them are unverified.
That’s 726 more people who subscribed but did not confirm their subscription. That means only 37% of those who inputted their email address actually did the final step of approving their subscriptions. So now, what do we do with these 726 pending subscriptions? Here’s some really obvious ideas:
- Just click cancel, at least for the really old ones. The list shows the email account and the date when it first subscribed. If it was more than a month, maybe it’s time to purge them from the data base.
- Wait a little bit longer. At least you know there are people actually trying to subscribe.
- Email them personally. You can send them a personalized follow up email telling them that their RSS email subscription was not completed and they may re-subscribe again if the confirmation email is already lost or deleted.
You might want to check your Feedburner or Feedblitz subscriber details too and see if there are pending subscriptions to your blog as well. The email list is also good for checking out who have been subscribing to your feeds (hint: corporate email domains).
Most bloggers I read that sports dual monitors on their desktop say that it’s good for productivity. So, when I found out that the Samsung 19″ 940BW I bought 5 months ago dropped to just Php11,500, I got another one exactly like it.
I already got a dual-DVI PCI Express card (Powercolor X1550) I got from the Funan IT Mall, all I need to do is hook it up on the PC, plug the two LCD monitors and my screen real estate will double to 2400 pixels wide and 900 pixels tall. Alas, the motherboard does not support PCIe so I will have to delay this new set up. The other monitor in the picture is hooked up on my laptop for now (where I’m watching the new series Masters of Horror).
And about doubling that productivity thingie, I think not. It’s even distracted me from doing all the work I need to catch up on.
I’ve been maintaining an AdWords account for myself and several other clients for sometime now. Though I never really needed any support from the AdWords team, it’s good to know they’ve open up a Tagalog AdWords Team in their Singapore office:
Dear AdWords Advertiser,
With the recent opening of our Google Singapore operations, we are looking forward to being closer to our customers, users and partners. We now have a team of AdWords Specialists who are dedicated to our AdWords advertisers in the South East Asia region, providing support and helping answer any questions you may have regarding your advertising campaigns.
You can reach our team by emailing adwords-tl@google.com. We will try our best to get back to you within one business day. As our team and local operations grow, we hope that you can also grow with us.
We appreciate your business and look forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
The Google AdWords Singapore Team
I have heard that Filipinos have been sent to the Google Singapore office to start working on Tagalog support. I believe they still have an opening for that too.
Serdar Yegulalp performs an exhaustive analysis of two desktop operating systems — Ubuntu and Windows Vista — which eventually led to his findings that Ubuntu still fails the “Granny Test”.
… Ubuntu works best at handling ordinary day-to-day applications that don’t require a particular operating system to work well, whereas Vista is more polished, and contains a number of convenient features that most of us can’t live without. In short, although getting close, Ubuntu doesn’t yet pass what Serdar calls “the Granny test,” of being easy enough to use to pass muster with the general population.
After installing Ubuntu on my desktop PC and toying with it for a week, I still find myself booting back to Windows not only because all of the apps that I use only runs on XP but because all of the newer hardwares that I plug into the system just basically works with it without me lifting a single finger (or something close to that).
But there’s at least as much about Ubuntu that I find disheartening or frustrating. There are still too many places where you have to drop to a command line and type in a fairly unintuitive set of commands to get something done, or edit a config file, or — worst of all — download and compile source code. For a beginner, this last is the kiss of death, because if compiling code fails, a beginner will almost certainly have no idea what to do next.
Maybe someday, after a few more major versions, Ubuntu will get there and finally pass that Granny test.
I must have seen/read thousands of spam comments in my lifetime. Almost 99% of them are easily spotted, flagged by Akismet or Spam Karma 2 or left in moderation. A few are becoming really creative lately to the extent that the copy would seem like it came from an intelligent being.
Nevertheless, none thus far have been as creative as this one:
Helga | sveta@cepk.info | uswis.info/wasteland-bdsm | IP: 69.123.158.121
Please, do not delete the given message. Money obtained from spam will go to the help hungry to children ugand
May 28, 3:24 PM — [ Edit | Delete | View Post ]
How charitable. How humane.
So, what’s the best spam you’ve ever had?
While of you may have already heard about the libel case against me was dismissed last month, I wasn’t able to properly announce it here in my blog. We were waiting for a possible motion for reconsideration to elapse before bringing it out into the public. Here’s a short summary of the entire event:
Back in August 2006, we got a demand letter from a law firm. This firm represents a certain Joel Aquino (JEA) who runs a company called WebCom. Apparently, one of our web hosting resellers has a client that runs the forum greedyolddumbass.com. In that forum, several ex-employees of WebCom were making libelous comments against JEA and his family. They wanted us as the webhost to prevent and desist the posting of such comments in the forum.
Within a week, I sent out a reply to their firm that we are only a web hosting company and have no knowledge of this issue. Besides, the website/forum have already moved out of our servers and we no longer have any control of it in any manner as the hosting provider. Thinking that it was all that and the issue has been clear, we forgot about it.
September came and we got a subpoena from the Pasig RTC identifying my company and members of the forum for alleged libel. I think we got close to half a dozen subpoenas in the span of 4 or 5 weeks. When we submitted our counter-affidavit, I also filed a perjury case against the complainant for misrepresenting us as administrators or operators of the forum when it was clear in our earlier communication that we are just the hosting provider. All three cases were then consolidated (2 libel cases and 1 for perjury).
Then, came months and month of clarifications, appearances at the fiscal’s office and a lot of waiting.
Now that it’s all over and the case against me was dismissed (they found probable cause to charge the other two respondents of libel), I can only take a good deep breath and put this behind me. I’d like to thank all those who helped me thru this — the guys at BlogHerald esp. to J Angelo who set up a legal fund, the people at NUJP for offering help, other lawyers who heard of my case and sent in their offer of support, my readers and fellow bloggers. My thanks goes to fellow blogger Atty. Fred Pamaos and his partners at the JLP Law Offices for getting me thru this. Hat tip to all the journalists who gave moral support and “welcomed me to the club“.
It’s called PayPerPost Direct and it’s basically a direct competitor to ReviewMe. I got a couple of emails from a certain Chris Abraham asking me to switch from ReviewMe to PPP Direct.
Hey there,
I noticed that you’re a ReviewMe blogger who charges advertisers $310-per-post to blog about them on YugaTech. Doesn’t it bother you that ReviewMe is taking half of your money? There is no reason why you should lose such a large cut of your proceeds when it is your blog driving the traffic.
On behalf of the gang at PPP I wanted to help you get rid of ReviewMe as the middleman and do it direct with PayPerPost Direct, www.payperpostdirect.com. PayPerPost Direct would allow you to keep $279 for that post rather than the paltry $155 ReviewMe is paying you.
Check it out at http://www.payperpostdirect.com. Feel free to ping me any time if you have any questions - or for any reason, for that matter. The official announcement is on the PPP blog, http://blog.payperpost.com/2007/05/payperpost-direct-overview.html.
Cheers,
Chris
–
Chris Abraham cja@well.com +1 (202) 352-5051
http://chrisabraham.com http://cabraham.com
At first I thought it was spam but the story is true and though the guy does not directly work for PPP, he could have been hired by them to scout for ReviewMe publishers.
I wrote about an entry about the Marisyl Castillon vs. Michael Turner outsourcing fiasco back in August last year. I thought that issue was already done and been dealt with until I saw this news report from the local TV Patrol down south.
See YouTube video from SEOLuv below:
Here’s a crude summary translation of the TV report (done in Visayan language):
“About Php1.3 million worth of computers was seized from the office of SEO Builders upon the order of a Cagayan de Oro RTC judge. They were taken from the possession of Marisyl Castillon which included 27 computer sets allegedly owned by her former boss/partner Michael Allan Turner. SEO Builders is registered with the DTI under the name of Castillon“.
Okay, I’m not really good at Bisaya but it turns out that Mr. Turner wants all of his investments back and now the sheriffs will take custody of the properties in question. Castillon refrained from making a statement and insist that she’s more focused on continuing the service to their customers.
Update: Read more about the story from Michael Turner on his blog.
I have an old external generic drive case which I got at a cheap price of around Php560. Its now handling a 160GB Seagate HDD which I use to transfer media files from one workstation to another or to my laptop (the 54Mbps LAN just wouldn’t cut it). So, when I saw this Western Digital 500GB My Book at a sale price back in Funan IT Mall, I grabbed one right away.
I was un-boxing it last night while taking pictures…
The thing looks like a black XBox 360. Been transferring files from the old hard drive to this one in the last 24 hours and it’s still just over half way there. Though this one runs at USB 2.0 speeds, the old one is hooked up on a USB hub which seems to be downgrading the transfer speed to USB 1.0 or something.
After reading an old entry on “Proiritize Profitable Projects” over at Shoemoney.com, it reminded me of all the would-be, have-been, could-have-had projects I’ve collaborated with so many diverse, talented and highly-motivated people both in the blogging and non-blogging world. The precept of people prioritizing profitable projects applies almost 99% of the time and I would sometimes add it with a dash of “instant gratification first“.
This reminds me of an old research where kids were given a piece of chocolate. The catch was that they can eat the chocolate right away but won’t get anything more. However, if they waited 15 more minutes, they’d get an additional prize in a form of another piece of chocolate. It was later found out that kids who waited longer for the second piece of chocolate would have more chances of succeeding in their future careers than those who did not wait and ate the first chocolate immediately.
So, which kid are you?
Another series of Digg banning its users, this time targeting those who digg stories but do not read them. An email is sent to users after getting banned:
Your account was banned for the rate of Digging activity you’ve engaged in. We’ve determined that the time in which your Diggs happen, it isn’t possible to actually read the stories. Please read each and every story before you Digg or bury a story. Once you agree that you will Digg/bury more responsibly and read the stories, we will unban your account.
I think it’s unfair. I think more than half of the people actively digging on Digg aren’t really reading them stories. I don’t always read the stories myself especially when I’m in a rush but I do digg them for later. It’s like bookmarking a story or a URL for later reading.
Besides, Digg IS a social news and bookmarking site isn’t it? So, what’s so wrong with bookmarking them stories? When you listen to the Diggnation podcast, you would hear either Kevin or Alex referring to Digg as social news and social bookmarking. However, lately they’d change it and now refer to it as just a social news website.
Hmm, maybe they don’t want people to use Digg for bookmarking. So why not add some link there which says bookmark or maybe add a link to del.icio.us instead? My account hasn’t been banned yet for not really reading them Digg stories. Or maybe I’ll get one of them emails soon, eh?
It’s heaven for the gadget freak. The Challenger retail store at Funan Digitallife Mall in Singapore is the place to be when shopping for the latest tech toys and gadgets. All six floors are dedicated to top of the line stuff at rock bottom prices. I must have wiped out my entire credit line at HSBC in less than an hour.
On our first night at Singapore, I saw this feature of a gadget shop on cable TV. The unique this about this Challenger is that it has two pricing schemes — a regular price for the one-time shopper and a discounted price for members (I spared no time in subscribing as a member. Just SG$30 for 2 years.). To give you an idea of how much some of the stuff there, here’s an estimated list I got from memory:
Compaq Presario V3000 (Code Duo 1.73GHz, 14.1″ WXGA, 120GB HDD, 512DDR2 RAM) - Php31k
Dell 22″ Widescreen Flat LCD Monitor - Php15k
Nokia N95 - Php33k
That Presario laptop is about Php49k here in Manila, a 22″ Samsung LCD is Php25k last time I checked and the Nokia N95 is around Php44k. Yay, I almost bought that N95. On top of that, you get a rebate from GST of around 8% if I’m not mistaken. You just show it in the customs at the airport and they’ll give you back some cash for all your receipts. Some gadgets like the iPod Nano, the Nintendo DS Lite and the Sony PSP are somewhat the same price as we have here. Will do a rundown of gadget reviews in the next posts.
Someone asked me why I’d always want to go to the zoo whenever I visit a country. Aside from testing my photography skills (or the lack thereof) for wild animal shoots, I wittingly replied “Show me your country’s best zoo and I will tell you how well-fed your people are“. Just look at how the Manila zoo tigers are so skinny.
Here are some of the shots I got using my Canon Rebel XT with the Sigma 70-300mm APO DG-Macro. The animals are between 10 to 20 meters away so a telephoto lens is a must here.
The Singapore Zoo is indeed one of the biggest and most beautiful zoo in the world. The shot of the flowers and the lake (Singapore’s water reservoir) was taken using the Canon 10-22mm.
The zoo is about 15 minutes by taxi from the city center (we stayed at the Geylang area) and costs about SG$15. Entrance fee is $15 with optional $5 for a ride-all-you-can tram.
We’re about to leave Georgetown here at the heart of Penang. Next stop is Singapore for a couple nights of tours and sight-seeing. The stay in in Penang, Malaysia has been the best so far of my entire trips out of the country.
Free wifi hotspots everywhere I can even sniff out a couple from the 22nd floor of my hotel. Starbucks is just at the ground floor and they have free wifi hotspots too.
The places, people, hospitality and food are great. Well, except the for the curry spiked ones. The beaches are just a couple meters away but never had to time to check them out. Still, Penang is one state I’d be glad to come back to in the future.
On the last day of our workshop, I was requested to do a session on SWOT analysis of party websites or blogs. All delegates from 10 countries took part by participating in identifying the 4 elements in SWOT analysis. To those who don’t know what a SWOT is a planning tools which means - internal strengths, weaknesses, as well as external opportunities, and threats.
One can do this on a blog too and its a good way to assess its current state for further development. Here’s a sample:
Strength - professional blog theme, regularly updated entries, own, domain and hosting, mostly original content, clear niche, good uptime/fast load time, relevant topics, etc.
Weaknesses - poor & commonly used fee theme, no about page/author, too much ads, no personalized domain, poor CMS/blog software, etc.
Opportunities - add RSS/email subscriptions, forums/message board, regular newsletter, blog contests and promos, schwag giveaways, better site search, other non-invasive monetization options, add a podcast.
Threats - readership retention rate, search engine indexing/delisting, hacking, blog burn-out, etc.
Some items can be a strength if properly done or can be a weakness if not executed correctly. This is somewhat of a bigger overview. If you track back on our previous entries under the problogging category here, you’d see more details discussions there.
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