YugaTech | Philippines, Technology News & Reviews » Daily Dose

Happy New Year to all YugaTech Readers!

yuga — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:42:55 +0000

Time flies by so far. In a few hours, it will be 2010 already. So, just before the clock strikes twelve, I’d like to greet everyone a Happy New Year!

I’d like to thank all loyal YugaTech readers as well as all the agencies, partners, sponsors and advertisers of the site. The year would not have been a great success for the site if not for all of you.

I’m off to lit some firecrackers so I’ll leave you with this cool mash-up called “Blame it on the Pop“.

Happy New Year!!!

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Shooting with the QTube Crew on QTV 11

yuga — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:04:02 +0000

We did a taping for a new segment of QTube last week and another one this afternoon. The segment will focus on new gadgets and starts airing this Thursday.

Last week, we taped the segment for the Blackberry Storm and today we did the Asus Eee PC T91.

So while they’re fixing up the house, I thought I’d take my own shots of them and feature them here.

Makes me realize again how much easier it is just being a blogger. With TV shows like these, it takes a lot of people and a lot of time to do one segment.

You can catch the show this Thursday evening (around 10:15PM) on QTube.

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Merry Christmas from YugaTech!

yuga — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:27:01 +0000

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Incheon International Airport rocks!

yuga — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 09:47:12 +0000

Last week, I wrote about them blogger-friendly airports I’ve encountered in the last couple of years. Well, I’d like to add Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea on top of that list.

The Incheon Airport combines the best of Hong Kong IA and Changi Airport in terms of space, passenger-friendliness, accessibility and geeky leisure.

It’s geek paradise here — tons of open wide space and comfy chairs (good for sleeping too), free high-speed wifi all over, great bargain shops and a lounge that rocks. Food prices aren’t bad either.

At first I thought this section here was a restaurant or something until I realized it’s the a free lounge where people can stretch out in a corner, hook up their laptop and wait for boarding.

Each corner sofa comes with a small table for your laptop and drinks. Most tables have laptops hooked up online that you can use for free (here’s one with a Macbook tied up to the table). Under the sofa are individual power plugs and a LAN port (if you don’t have WiFi laptops.)

There’s a compartment below the sofa you can use to store some of your valuable stuff (don’t know where you can get the keys). Best of all there are about a dozen WiFi hotspots that are blazing fast. Did one with SpeedTest below and it gave me 10Mbps down and 2Mbps up.

If there’s any other airport I’d rather be stuck with waiting for hours, the Incheon Airport will be it. Too bad it’s only open between 7am and 8pm each day so I don’t know if they cut the WiFi beyond that.

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Does it feel like Christmas already?

yuga — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:10:40 +0000

I have nothing to write about today but I’d like to share this little milestone I had last night.

So just a quick note to my regular readers here — Happy Holidays!

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Blogging the Time Zone

yuga — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:33:54 +0000

Since I arrived here in Gummersbach City a couple of days ago, my blogging time has changed a bit as there’s a 7 hour difference between here and the Philippines.

So I’m writing this post at 7AM here but the sky is still dark outside and it doesn’t get any sun until 8:30 or so. Here’s a pic of my work table.

Took a panoramic shot out the window yesterday from my 7th floor room. Click on the thumbnail to see larger view. Walked downtown yesterday and the place was deserted.

They say Sunday is a mandatory rest day and no one’s allowed to work or man the stores.

Really small quite city with a population of about 54,000.

Here’s a photo of the Theodor-Heuss-Akademie on the top side of the hill where we’re housed. First time I saw the sun since I first came here last year — it’s still chilly at around 6 degrees.

The wifi in the building has now reached the upper floor rooms so I’m glad to get some blogging time in the evening and early mornings.

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Blogger-Friendly Airports

yuga — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:29:52 +0000

In my travels abroad in the last three years, I’ve gone thru dozens of airports and only a few of them are really what I could call “blogger-friendly”. I think airports should have free wifi as part of their standard service to travelers.

So which airports are really blogger friendly? My top picks are Hong Kong International Airport and Changi International Airport in Singapore.

The Hong Kong Int’l Airport has free wifi all over the place, has a number of easily accessible power sockets for plugging your laptop and the departure gates are also open so you can surf all you want before boarding. There are also computer kioks with broadband internet you can use if you don’t have a laptop.

On second is Changi Airport in Singapore with free wifi but not so many places to plug in your laptops. The Wireless @ SG service now require visitors to sign up before getting the wifi service (the registration form though is confusing — couldn’t figure out the format for the required mobile number field). The departure gates are also separated from the shops via security gates. There are quite a number of PC kiosks around with internet.

The NAIA 2 terminal could have made it as a runner up had their so-called free wifi was working. At least, they now have that exclusive desk for laptop-users to use for re-charging. There are about 5 PC kiosks (probably sponsored by Samsung) which promises free internet use (though there was none when I tried using them).

I remember the Soekarno-Hatta Jakarta International Airport also had free wifi but power plugs are sparse. The Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand is also nice but free wifi is spotty.

To the frequent blogger travelers out there, which other airports do you think are blogger-friendly?

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Flying to Germany

yuga — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:57:54 +0000

Will be flying to Germany today on a two-week workshop and some traveling. This is the same one I moderated last year. It’s looking to be a yearly thing for me.

As such, expect the next couple of weeks to be a bit spotty in terms of blog posts. Blog posts will also be peppered with a little bit of non-tech too as we travel around Deutschland.

I also left my public mobile number at home to avoid too much charges on international roaming (someone will be answering that phone so you can also leave a message). I can still be reached via email but response will be sparse (so bear with me if it’s urgent).

I’ve left several scheduled posts in the next couple of days to fill in the gaps that I’m really away. I have this feeling I will be on Twitter most of the time so you can follow me there too.

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GE Money Bank ATM crashes

yuga — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:28:29 +0000

For the past week, all ATM machines of GE Money Bank went offline because of a system-wide crash. The bank has been frantically fixing the problem ever since.

The problem started when the bank scheduled a system update which resulted into a crash.

The problem is that, according to a source, all ATM card PINs have been disabled. Was at one of the branches a couple of days ago and saw people coming in to have their new ATM PINs released to them.

GE Money Bank released this notice to the public:

ATM services have been restored, GE Money Bank ATM cardholders may claim their new ATM PINs at their branch of account starting Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 for Metro Manila branches, and Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008 for provincial branches. ATM PINs for payroll accounts may be claimed at their respective HR departments by Nov. 5, 2008. The old PINs are no longer valid. However, online services are still unavailable.

GE Money has close to 30 branches nationwide.

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Moo Mini Cards: An Expensive Lesson in Proofreading

yuga — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:30:27 +0000

I’ve been an avid fan of the Moo cards ever since they went online. The business/calling cards are of high quality and each one is unique so even if they’re coming in from London and are a little expensive, I ordered 3 boxes.

With all that excitement, I forgot to proofread my submission.

It’s an expensive mistake. All 300 cards have a typo with the mobile number.

Now, either I throw them away or invest in a nice White-Out and spend hours cleaning out the errors. Maybe the latter.

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Win a trip to Disneyland, Hong Kong with Asus

yuga — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:24:07 +0000

Asus is giving away free trips to Disneyland, Hong Kong for every purchase of a new Asus Eee PC 701 — that’s a 3 days 2 nights vacation for you and 3 of your family members.

Starting July 22, 2008 every purchase of an Asus EeePC 701 (2G or 4G) will entitle you to a raffle entry. Just write your name, address, signature, and contact information on a sheet of paper, along with a photocopy of the sales invoice, billing statement or delivery receipt and a cut out portion of the box where the serial number is indicated and send/mail it to 14 United St., Bo. Kapitolyo, Pasig City, 1603.

A total of one of eight (8) lucky families of four (4) will win a free vacation to Hong Kong and visit Disneyland. Promo starts July 22 and ends August 15, 2008.

Note: Current SRP of the Asus Eee PC 701 is around php14,000. Check out the specs here and read my review here.

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The Typhoon that busted my DSL Modem

yuga — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:23:45 +0000

In the years that typhoons have hit Metro Manila, none have dealt much damage to electronics at home. That’s until Typhoon Frank hit Manila this week-end. It’s all Frank’s fault – the metrowide blackout busted my DSL modem.

When the power went back on, everything seemed normal except for the SpeedStream 5100 ADSL modem that PLDT provided with my line. The damn thing just won’t turn on again. Nothing, nil zilch. Must have been fried or something.

Already reported to PLDT Customer Service about it and they promised to replace the modem with a newer model. Hopefully, they’d deliver it soon — like tomorrow.

If not, I’m looking into getting my own backup DSL modem. Anybody know where I could get one for cheap?

For the meantime, I could be spending some Php300+ a day on Smart 3G.

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US Airports searching inside laptops?

yuga — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:34:51 +0000

If you’re traveling to the United States and happen to bring your laptop, iPod or other electronic gadgets with you, airport or border authorities can actually search for data in them.

The Guardian UK has the story:

Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you’re entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days. Customs and Border Patrol has not published any rules regarding this practice, and I and others have written a letter to Congress urging it to investigate and regulate this practice.

But the US is not alone. British customs agents search laptops for pornography.

Various reasons may prompt this thorough security check — unlicensed softwares, pirated music, porn videos, terrorist plans? Who knows what else they could be on the look-out.

My previous visits to other countries haven’t gone this far. At the Changi Airport terminal, they’d ask passengers to take out their laptops from their bags and separately run them thru the scanners. Worst experience I had was at the Karachi Airport in Pakistan where airport police turned my luggage inside-out, leaving my clothes and laundry on the floor.

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Twitter by the Numbers

yuga — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:24:44 +0000

Twitter has a relatively nice growth in the past year. Amidst the cloud of hype, some numbers are finally making their way out into the clearing. Pretty interesting stats.

The numbers will speak for themselves. By March 2008, Twitter has:

Total Users: 1+ million (1.3 million by April 2008 according to Silicon Alley)
Total Active Users: 200,000 per week
Total Twitter Messages: 3 million/day

That 200k users per week sending out 3 million messages per day boils down to 105 messages per day per active user. That’s a ton of twittering per day! According to TC, the active users doubled in just 2 months — 100k per week in January 2008 — a quick jump from 50k/week back in April 2007. No wonder Twitter has been reportedly suffering from numerous downtimes recently.

Twitter is also testing some ads and is on its first dibs into making some real money.

Twitter Japan has been spotted to ad streaming ads on the right side of the website — advertisers moving to where the conversations are. From the looks on that screenshot, Toyota just became the first advertiser on Twitter.

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eBay to sell Skype

yuga — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:47:56 +0000

After just over 2 years of acquiring VoIP service Skype, eBay may be selling off the unit if it does not find anything of significant use for it in its core business. If that happens later this year, Skype could be the largest single useless acquisition ever.

According to the Financial Times:

The comments from John Donahoe, who took over at the end of last month, are the most direct indication yet that Ebay is thinking of scrapping the ill-starred acquisition. It paid $3.1bn, but wrote down the value of the business by $1.4bn last year after concluding it would not match earlier hopes.

Ebay originally believed that Skype would oil the wheels of its online markets by making communications easier between buyers and sellers, while also supporting new business models such as “click to call”. Nearly three years after the acquisition, however, Ebay has yet to prove Skype can help its other businesses.

Skype reportedly had $126 million in revenues for the 1st Quarter of 2008, a 61% growth from same quarter last year. Top that with an additional 33 million new users for a total of 309 million worldwide.

That’s a relatively impressive performance in itself but the $2.4 billion (acquisition price devalued later on by eBay) service may not fit well with eBay’s plan to expand its growth.

If that happens, some bigger player could come into the scene. Google perhaps? Google Talk isn’t doing any good so buying Skype may be a good move.

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Updates, updates… and more Updates!

yuga — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:43:44 +0000

A deluge of updates from popular gadgets to freewares and stats. Check them out after the jump.

WordPress 2.3.3 is now out with some bugs fixes and an urgent security release.
Microsoft also announced that Windows Vista SP1 is out. Hope this Service Pack fixed all the kinks. There are still some issue with Vista drivers though.
Apple quietly announced as 16GB iPhone and a 32GB iPod Touch. Should be released worldwide within a month. US SRP is both at $499 but I guess the price would jump to Php25,000 to Php30,000 when it reaches the shops. There’s also the Pink Nano for Valentines.
Google just announced some new security services to their Google Apps, c/o the recently bought security company Postini.
Intel made some more clarifications on their recently announced Silverthorne mobile processor.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Social Sites Don’t Deliver Big Ad Gains“. I’m sure this is not a surprise to anybody.
Opera Mobile 9.5 is announced, with Flash-support, widget-ready and Web 2.0 enabled. Opera tops the mobile browsers again. Even Apple’s Safari browser for the iPhone/iTouch doesn’t support Web 2.0 sites natively.
Amazon has this new program called Paper Click Ads.

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A very Merry New Year!

yuga — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:51:31 +0000

I’d like to greet everyone a grand new year. 2007 is so last year. Let’s all welcome 2008.

Here’s to another fruitful year to everyone!

P.S. Too bad there won’t be any World Pyro Olympics this year.

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Merry Christmas to all!

yuga — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:31:23 +0000

While the night is young and I still have time, I’d like to greet all my readers, friends and fellow bloggers a very Merry Christmas!

Malipayun nga Paskua sa inyo nga Tanan!

Hope everyone’s having a great time with friends, family and loved ones.

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Calling all Wii Gamers!

yuga — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 05:33:58 +0000

If you own a Nintendo Wii or maybe even a Wii Fanboy, you might be interested in guesting for GMA 7’s Unang Hirit show tomorrow morning (Monday) at around 6AM.

Just bring your Wii and games so you can play them on the set during airtime. There will be a crew that will pick you up and your stuff before call time. If interested, call or text Aubrey of Unang Hirit at 0906.315.86.94 (m) or 9827777 loc. 3028.

See you there.

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I was there.

yuga — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:03:39 +0000

Oh, man. Was there that fateful afternoon yesterday. I really didn’t know what to do that time.

Just got out of the Shangri-la Hotel, Makati at about 1:30PM with Jayvee after attending the Sharp Electronics Press Launch. Since my car was parked at the underground of 6750, most of my encounters where with Glorietta employees still busy doing their jobs despite the rush and ensuing panic.

I asked the lady at the parking gate why they haven’t been let go for the day considering the imminent danger. She was wondering of the same thing too.

When I got out on the street, it was packed with people — shoppers, employees, policemen, traffic enforcers and tons of vehicles trying to drive away from the scene. So was I.

Actually, I wanted to go out of my car, take the digital camera I brought with me and go to the scene to take some shots.

Alas, it was impossible since I got trapped in heavy traffic and another client was already waiting for me for our 2PM meeting. I didn’t blog the whole afternoon as I did not want to add to the confusion and hysteria. It was also my way of paying respect to the victims that have passed away during this tragic event.

May their souls rest in peace.

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Weird customer service policy at Octagon Computer

yuga — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:11:36 +0000

I’m sure everyone has had their share of computer store nightmares. I know I do. Here’s a couple of stories sent to me by a reader about his experience with Octagon Computer SuperStore.

Just like most PC retail stores situated in the malls, these storefronts are primary there to drive sales. The after-sales support, well that’s another thing altogether. Runel from Cagayan de Oro shares his story:

I bought a PC from them (Octagon Cagayan de Oro) last February and it runs good but then five months after the PC was slowly have problems. It came to the point where in the PC no longer boot. So I brought it to their store and and they run some test. After that they said that I have to used a power supply with bigger wattage and so I did bought one. The next day, the PC is back again which would not boot so again I brought to their store. This time they said they will test my Graphics Card and then they said it may be the cause of the problem. While I am not contended on what they say, I looked for ways to test it with my own. I bought another Graphics card to test it. But still the problem was never resolve. Finally they said, they will ship the motherboard to Manila to replace it as they say.

From the time of the problem till the time they said they will ship it to their main office was almost a month. And so, I let them brought the motherboard to their main office to replace it. They said they will call me if it will arrive. They haven’t gave me any service PC. One month and half later, the package arrived. When I got there they said that they have to send it back to Manila because the box is correct with the wrong Motherboard model. I was really pissed at that time. That was really a negligence of those whoever packed that box. Till Now they haven’t gave me back my motherboard. What a shame on them, a big company with a zero customer service attitude.

Here’s another story by a foreigner who bought a PC for his Filipina wife at Octagon Computer in Ozamis City.

I could understand that the PC retail industry in the Philippines is a cut-throat business and one way of streamlining their customer support is to centralize it. But, if all provincial branches have to send every defective parts to Manila to be serviced or repaired, then there is something wrong somewhere along the service chain. I will not be surprised if other larger PC chains are doing the same.

One technician from a PC store here in MOA once told me that a lot of distributors and suppliers have become stricter in implementing stock warranties that it becomes counter-productive and practically anti-customer service.

I would suggest to Runel that he send a letter to the management of Octagon asking for an explanation on how or why this kind of service policies are observed in their branches. The other advise, and this is generally what I usually do and tell others, is to charge it to experience and never come back.

What about you guys? Any similar experiences you wanna share?

[tags]octagon computer store, octagon superstore[/tags]

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2008 Beijing Olympics and Other Links

yuga — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:02:55 +0000

I would have wanted to go to the 2008 Beijing Olympics next year but it looks like those much coveted tickets are very, very hard to get by so I’m scrapping that plan on my wish list for 2008 (that’s where all my Mabuhay Miles credits would have gone to).

On the other hand, I’d like to point you to Marcos Antonio Torres and his quest to be one of the 8 to participate in the Expat for Olympic Torchbearers. He’ll need all of your votes here.

If you’re an Olympics fan and want to get some souvenirs for the event, check out this commemorative cellphone of the Olympics mascot Fuwa Huanhuan. Looks like a customized Series 40 Nokia phone to me.

And speaking of phones, the LG Viewty (LG KU990) looks like a nice iPhone alternative. I’ve been getting a lot of emails from people looking to buy the iPhone. Maybe I should put up an unlocked iPhone business on the side? Btw, Nokia also launched the first UMA phone in the world with the N6301. The Unlicensed Mobile Access phone is dual mode which can do calls over GSM and wireless LAN.

Jobert of World Famous in the Philippines has recently launched Coffee Spark, a Digg-style community powered by open-source software Pligg. Out of the box solutions like Pligg are cool as they allow people to think of new stuff and run it with very easily. It’s like WordPress as an all-around CMS.

A new blog, The SPICe Campaign (Stop Philippine Internet Censorship Campaign), helps promote awareness and provide information about Internet censorship in the Philippines.

On the CPU front, AMD just announced it will release three-core chips for the desktop next year. This is after they’re planned introduction of Phenom (quad-core) into the consumer market. Will these 3 core chips be a Phenom chip with one core disabled? Sounds odd they’d go back and do triple cores now. Maybe the quad-core market isn’t that ready yet. Or they want to recycle those quad-cores with one core busted.

On the other side of the river, Intel will re-introduce the Santa Rosa Refresh which is an update to its current Centrino laptop platform. It’s a Penryn chip at 45nm technology. Intel’s Montevina mobile platform on the other had will also incorporate WiMAX support for laptops.

Also, check out Intel’s version of the future of the iPhone featured at the recent Intel Development Forum.

This week-end’s topic to ponder: Is Apple the new Microsoft? (Mike Elgan, Computerworld)

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Will WikiPilipinas redefine what is notable?

yuga — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:01:36 +0000

When WikiPilipinas officially launched last week, the proponents of the project explained how they envisioned to carry the idea of a free online encyclopedia and cook it into something that will have a Filipino flavor.

What those ingredients are to make it truly Filipino that we can call our own is something I can’t still fully imagine. But my questions which hasn’t yet been answered is –Will WikiPilipinas redefine what is notable?

Eugene said there’s no point to have a separate WikiPilipinas acting as a duplicate Wikipedia. My curiosity is leaning more on the notability guidelines. According to Wikipedia, the guidelines for what is notable and what is not may be summarized as follows:

A topic is presumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.

“Significant coverage” means that sources address the subject directly in detail, and no original research is needed to extract the content. Significant coverage is more than trivial but less than exclusive.

“Reliable” means sources need editorial integrity to allow verifiable evaluation of notability, per the reliable source guideline. Sources may encompass published works in all forms and media. Availability of secondary sources covering the subject are a good test for notability.

“Sources,” defined on Wikipedia as secondary sources, provide the most objective evidence of notability. The number and nature of reliable sources needed varies depending on the depth of coverage and quality of the sources. Multiple sources are generally preferred.

“Independent of the subject” excludes works produced by those affiliated with the subject including: self-publicity, advertising, self-published material by the subject, autobiographies, press releases, etc.

Satisfying this presumption of notability indicates a particular topic is worthy of notice, and may be included in the encyclopedia as a stand-alone article. Verifiable content not supported by multiple independent sources may be appropriate for merger with another article.

If the contributors to Wikipedia think that a certain page for a certain person, place or event is not notable, it is proposed for deletion and eventually purged. There was a huge debate before over at Wikipedia is Google Engineer Matt Cutts is notable enough to have an entry in Wikipedia. It was argued that it wasn’t really him but his sensitive position as Team Lead of Google Search Spam that gave him prominence.

In contrast, WikiPilipinas does not have a notability guideline. Does this mean that anyone can just come in and add an entry they feel is relevant to the common Filipino or the Philippines in general? Now that WikiPilipinas contributor community is Filipino-centric, will notability be slanted towards that direction? I think it will, but should it?

As pointed out by Rico over at BBN, will everyone who has a Friendster account be entitled to a WikiPinas page? If so, then WikiPilipinas could be expecting 5,000,000 entries/pages for all the Filipino Friendster users.

It still remains to be seen as the community of contributors grow. If the notability guidelines is finally put up, it will be interesting if the entry for Sharon Vidal Mercolita will stay or eventually get deleted. And when that time comes, we will definitely know if WikiPilipinas will truly be relevant.

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Inbox Zero: Approach to Email Management

yuga — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:45:53 +0000

Those of you, like me, who’s also having a hard time managing their email inbox, you might also be interested to watch this video. Merlin Mann, a well known productivity guru and creator of the popular 43 folders website talks about Getting Things Done, the importance of getting your inbox to zero, and strategies for dealing with high volume email.

Jeremy Zawodny summarizes the presentation into this list:

Delete: just get rid of it (or archive it)
Delegate: get someone else to deal with it
Respond: if it takes just a few minutes, do it right now
Defer: put it on a todo list, archive it, and deal with it later
Do: handle whatever the email actually needs you to do

My usual approach for some time now is to “defer”. However, this often puts me in a pickle since the ones I defer always end up being completely forgotten and unanswered for months until I get reminded of it by something else. Manolo even scolded me before telling me to get an assistant to answer my SMS and emails (now that’s pushing it really far ).

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Surviving a Libel Case

yuga — Sun, 27 May 2007 09:23:29 +0000

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“.

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Off to Penang and other link destinations

yuga — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:08:10 +0000

We’re boarding in a few minutes on Singapore Air to Penang, Malaysia. Will be back next week but will stop over for a night at Singapore to do some sight-seeing and gadget shopping. Thanks to all those who left a comment and gave suggestions.

Here are some other online destinations you might want to check out. Got them from my inbox the last couple of weeks:

Rhea just got her own gorgeous MacBook and is asking for suggestions on what to name it. Just leave a comment and you could win a Php500 worth of gift certificates from UCC.
Noemi just uploaded the missing episode 8 of the BoBCast (Sleepless in La Union). The girls have been egging me to host it here but the nature of our discussion in that episode is far off from my regular topics here. Thanks to Noemi for graciously hosting it on her blog.
Anton Shekker, the pro photographer extraordinaire, is having a workshop on “Basic Creative Photography Workshop” which will start this June. Registration fee is Php2,000 for all of the 4 sessions. Email allan.florendo@gmail.com if interested.
Infinishare Technologies just released version 3.0 of the PurpleNova.
The future of search is at hand — Google Searchology.

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Is technology slowly enslaving us?

yuga — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:41:42 +0000

Well, at least some of us who are hooked to it. When we planned to go here in Bohol, half of us promised not to bring a laptop (except me and Marc). We can’t live by without hooking up online (thanks to Globe & Smart 3G) and doing our usual rounds of checking email and reading feed readers.

Not only it has become a part of our daily routine but because our “work” requires us to do so. It did not come as a surprise that at one time or another, even those who said they won’t not go only would grab a quick look and do a post or check their emails for some unexpected or urgent emails.

The Band of Bloggers at Payag Restaurant, Tagbilaran City, Bohol

Are we just net addicts? Maybe. Or I think it’s because most of what we do is so dependent on technology. Let’s just look at the email. Before, we used to send out snail mail and it would take weeks and even months to for an exchange to come around. We had tons of time to write back. Now, it has bee reduced to minutes, even seconds thru email. Well, that would have been great right? Of course, yes, mostly yes.

But and that’s a big BUT , multiply that exchange by the dozen or worse, by the hundreds, and you’re practically swamped — unable to respond to email communications in a timely manner. In my case, I have unanswered emails as far back as 4 weeks ago.

Maybe I’m just disorganized and lazy, I don’t know. All I know is that they’re all piling up on me and like many others out there, I cannot virtually live without it. Is technology really slowly enslaving us?

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I got a 1.0 in U.P.!

yuga — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:27:24 +0000

During the iBlog 3 sessions in the afternoon, while were having a quick snack in the lobby when a young kid approached me and introduced himself as a UP student.

He explained that he sent me several email questions before for a thesis paper he’s doing about internet marketing and online advertising. The clincher was that he got a 1.0 for it! Wow, I felt that I’m sharing that 1.0 mark with him. And to think that I used to be just a C student back in Ateneo, getting that 1.0 in UP Diliman was joyous first for me. That there made my day.

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BDO Cash Card ATM Serious Defect

yuga — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:57:00 +0000

A blog reader texted me this morning about an incident he had with his Banco de Oro ATM Card. He then pointed me to his blog where he recounted the incident:

ooops!
banco de oro’s (BDO) atm system lets
BDO cash card international cardholders
make balance inquiries and withdrawals
without the need for their personal identification number (PIN)!!!

*after inserting my card in a BDO atm machine
at Sotto St., Makati, to make a balance inquiry,
i mistakenly pressed the OK button before entering my PIN.
to my surprise, the machine took me to the selections menu
where i successfully made a balance inquiry and withdrawal !!!

this is a BIG concern for all such cardholders…
either the cards are defective
or bdo’s security measures aimed
at preventing fraud and theft
are flawed or have been breached.

bdo people! please look into this matter immediately!

*the anitokid asked four of his friends
to try their respective bdo cards
and all had the same results! tsk.

If you have a BDO card, do try it yourself and see if this also happens to you. The problem could be in their system ands not he cards. When it does, report it to their customer service asap.

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Note to self on April Fool’s Day

yuga — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:53:07 +0000

Just making sure that I don’t fall for the same jokes on April 1 next year, I’m posting this note to self:

Watch out your email on March 31, 2008 at 23:59:59. Better yet, create a filter that all emails coming form that time and in the next 24 hours to be labeled “Possibly an Aprilk Fool’s Joke”.
Don’t always believe that your favorite blog has been hacked at exactly April 1, just after the clock strikes 12.
If it’s too good to be true, then it’s not true.

That’s it. Hopefully, I won’t get fooled again next year, though it was fun while it lasted. Actually, I was able to fool a friend myself, just before the day ended. :p

Belated Happy April’s Fool to everyone!

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