iPhone in the Philippines

We all know that iPhone arrived in the Philippines the day after it was released in the U.S. However, it is only in the past two months when this gadget became available in the country at a less prohibitive price.  It came out at around PHP35000 unlocked a few months back. That’s around US$800 when you can get it at $250 in the states.  But the recent rally of the Philippine peso has brought the price down.

Here’s the current price that I saw.

1. Greenhills - PHP25,000.00 (my officemate just got one from a dealer there, cash!)

2. TipidPC.com - PHP24,000.00

3. eBay.ph - PHP25,000.00

4. Auction.ph - PHP20,600.00

Well, I know I can’t buy that for Christmas of 2007. It’s simply not in the priority list.  But I want one and it has to wait…. hehehe.

Spam on my Gmail

I have a gmail account that I’ve been using for quite some time already. I treated it like a business email and do not devulge it on online registrations that require email. I have another gmail account for that. So for more than a year, I’ve been using my email with no problems and most importantly, NO SPAM!

For important registrations that need real name, I use my ‘business email’. But that’s very rare, only for very important and serious registrations. Unfortunately, spam emails selling everything from viagra to flowers began to arrive early this year.  When I checked my latest transactions, I was surprised to see that my latest registration was with a very popular and leading online payment service that only made their service available here in the Philippines recently.

I can’t name it but I know most of you know that company. Basically and naturally, that would be my suspect. It’s a shame if indeed that company forwarded my email to spammers. Or maybe the spammers were able to snoop into the company’s database. That’s another scary scenario.

And oh, don’t ask about my 9-year-old email account. It receives over a hundred spam everyday. hahaha…

Fire Drill at a 53 Story Building

Ever tried walking down the stairs 53 flights down? Well, I haven’t tried that yet but at 46 floors, I’m sure the experience will not be that far. That’s exactly what I just experienced the other day. And I would say it isn’t easy.

We were already pre-informed that there will be a fire-drill between 2pm and 5pm last Tuesday. A number of my officemates already went down at around 2:30pm. I also did but after almost 30minutes outside the office, I decided to come back. For some twist of luck, the emergency bell rang a couple of minutes after I sat on my chair. I should have already had the hint as I saw several managers walking out of the elevator but I just brushed it off. Definitely a bad move.

It was a slow walk 46 stories down especially from midway down to the ground. I didn’t have any workout for ages so you can imagine how hard it was for me. My lifestyle has not been active the past months. It wasn’t easy as it seems even if you say that we are going down. I can’t imagine if it was on the other direction.

And the drill finished without any incident. That’s the good news. As for me, my legs were aching even after a day. It’s a good forced work-out, though.

Swearing Can Boost Morale @ Work

OK, I knew it! I’m a believer. But before we go further, take a look at the research by a professor in University of East Anglia. Click Here for Details

Several years ago, me and my former teammates jokingly swear at work. We do that regularly and it really feels better. Someone even called the team Samontenista taken from the surname of my officemate whose every sentence either starts with bad word or ends with it or worst, both.

Swearing somehow releases the stress and allows us to take more challenging roles. Of course you have to work harder and smarter. Swearing just helps to lighten the mood and we don’t really mean it. When the composition of the team changed, I scaled down on doing it. The environment changed, I suddenly found myself surrounded with younger teammates and more conservative types. But I do blurt out once in a while. I’m still thinking of returning back as full member of Samontenista! haha…

TIN Verification in BIR

Before you read my personal ramblings, here’s how to do it.

1. Go to BIR Portal and click on eTIN.  The link is on the left sidebar, you may need to scroll down a few pages. The direct link is https://ereg.bir.gov.ph/ereg/welcome.do.

2. On the taxpayer group, choose the second option which is PROFESSIONAL (Self-employed) and click on submit. Don’t bother other options, this is all you need even if this doesn’t apply to you.

3.  Key-in the required info : LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, MIDDLE NAME and BIRTHDAY. Make sure you do it right.

4.  Your TIN will be displayed in the screen if a match is found.
 

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Estrada Pardon : Big Insult to Justice System

I’m deeply saddened with the recent actions of the Arroyo administration on Erap’s case. We all know that the disgraced president was convicted of plunder beyond reasonable doubt. Why, all of a sudden, this administration who pushed for the prosecution of the plunderer is the same administration that is planning to free Estrada out of his detention?

Let me state, however, that I do not totally disagree with the pardon to the plunderer. For humanitarian reasons, they can let Estrada free BUT NOT NOW!. I personally feel that doing this would put to waste all the hard work of the solicitor general (Marcelo), the procecution team and everybody who risk their lives and security of their families. That’s totally unacceptable.

The decision of the Sandiganbayan very clearly showed that he committed plunder by amassing P545 million from illegal gambling payoffs and a P189-million commission from stock market purchases using the SSS and GSIS funds (for Belle Resources and EPCI). And yet he would have all these offenses wiped out from the record, and make it appear that he did not commit any crime against the people whose interest and welfare he was supposed to promote and protect as president.

Another thing to consider that I can’t really take is the pronounciation of Sec. Puno that what they offered to Erap is an absolute pardon. He further explained that it means Erap can go with his loot. Damn! What’s is this court proceedings all about, then? A sarswela?

On a separate interview by Inquirer on the acting justice secretary Devanadera, absolute pardon means restoration of civil and political rights of the convicted. Are we talking about Erap running for president again? And then knowing his appeal to the so-called “masses”, he will definitely win and then back to old business…. women… drinking spree in Malacanang… kickbacks… official intimidation… and a lot more until the civil society will go back to EDSA for the nth time and we go back in circle. Instead of moving forward, we’ll go back to square one.

Erap has not even showed remorse of what he did. He has not expressed any repentance and admission of guilt and probably never will.

I’m just hoping that all these are not for compromise agreement. An agreement that in the remainder of Arroyo’s regime, there will be no more impeachment. An agreement that after her term ends in 2010, there will be plunder case waiting for her. Or is it?

Free Bus Ride in EDSA by UNTV

You read it right, there’s a free bus ride in EDSA. I’ve just seen it this morning and I was quite surprised. But of course, you have to find that bus first. Haha. I saw it along Ayala Ave. at around 9:30am. It’s currently plying the Monumento-Ayala(Leveriza) route and it’s damn too good to be true.

The bus is sponsored by UNTV, a UHF channel. It has advertisement all over but given that a lot of buses plying the route are plastered with all kinds of advertisements from soap to tv programs, the sight isn’t new at all to the commuters.

I think it is a clever and noble move for the television channel. It benefits both the company and the commuting public. For the public, a free ride. For the company, it’s a free advertisement. Well, not really free since they’ll have to pay for the driver and the fuel but that’s just a penny compared to traditional advertising. And with a less known channel like UNTV, this type of gimmick is a good move.

I hope other companies will follow suit. It doesn’t matter if it is another channel, major or not. If there will be more of free buses that will serve the public, the better. I also believe that it will help ease the traffic in the route. These type of buses doesn’t need to stay in one area and wait for eternity to get two or three passengers. That will cut the travel time along EDSA.

Nankang: New Tires, New Experience

Just got a new set of tires this morning(185/65 R14) in T. Mapua near Blumentrit. It’s a second set that I bought this year and it’s a replacement for the GoodYear Ducaro  I bought last January. The other set that I bought 18 months ago is also Ducaro. I still use them on my rear wheels and is also nearing replacement. I didn’t really like Ducaro but that’s the only available in all Servitek that I visited. If I have my choice in Goodyear, I would have gotten an Eagle NCT. I was informed that this model is already discontinued.

Unfortunately that time, it is only Goodyear or Continental for me. Continental became out of the question because of its high price. The reason why I didn’t like the Ducaro is because the first set I bought sometime in 2005 didn’t last well. The thread had some flaking that the sales asssistant cannot explain when I showed her. And then the last straw came when I blew up my tire when I hit an open manhole somewhere in Lacson ave (formerly Forbes). It didn’t blow up right then and there but it needed a piece of stone at the side of the gutter that finished it off. It only lasted 3000 km for me though the set on the rear has just past 10,000kms.

The new tires come from Nankang. They are made in Taiwan and though I would have preferred one that is made in the Philippines, I can make do with something made in another tropical country. Heck, the owner of the tire store is also using Nankang in their Pajero! It cost me P1800 a piece and since I’m only replacing the front tires, total cost is P3600. Oh, no freebies there.

I’ll see if this will last longer than Ducaro. If it will serve for 20,000km, I’ll be a happy man!

NASA uses WordPress

Interestingly this afternoon, I saw in the WordPress News an item titled “NASA on WordPress”. Matt announced that one of the research center of NASA has their official website running on wordpress. To see for yourself, just look at http://center.arc.nasa.gov and it’s even explained here

It’s definitely a very creative website and I liked their layout very much. For sure it was similar with other templates out there but NASA-Ames’; theme definitely rocks! At first glance, you wouldn’t believe that it is a wordpress site. Though it is not the first time that NASA used a free software (I knew of another NASA center using drupal), it is still interesting to know that they used WordPress.

Kudos to the WordPress team!

SoftLayer Downtime

This website has been down for several hours. I was so frustrated that I want to move into a new hosting company. I’m still looking around for a new one but I already have a shortlist.

This is currently hosted with HostingFest and I would say that their support services is really good. You can be assured of quick response on your query and the staff are very helpful especially Nasir and Dormosh. However, their data center has been experiencing problems and it has becoming more frequent. That’s the really sad part of it.

The latest about the problem is discussed at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=598699 . This is the cause of the downtime this morning.

If you can recommend a new one, just post your recommendation in the comment box. Of course, I don’t want one that has their servers placed in SoftLayer.