A Shattered Life

Over the last couple of months there’s been a lot written about new ad network - WidgetBucks. As with any new player in the ads market, there has a lot of varied opinions shared about them and a lot are skeptics. This new entrant promises a better conversion of your traffic.

Here’s some advantages:
1. You are paid for both CPM and PPC. And when they say CPM(Cost Per Thousand Impressions), they are claiming that they pay as much as $3-$6 CPM. That’s almost three times the traditional ad networks. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is paid at a high of $0.45.
2. You get $25 sign-up bonus and that’s halfway to the $50 payout.
3. Rich Media ads. No boring texts.
4. Affiliate programs. You get 10% of your referred members for full 12 months!
5. Can run with adsense.
6. Easy Sign-Up, Easy Setup.
7. Pays thru PayPal.

So who are behind WidgetBucks? Here’s a quote from Darren of Problogger, here’s what Matt Hulett (CEO of WidgetBucks) has to say.

WidgetBucks was created by Mpire.com , the online meta-shopping service that brings together all the most popular online marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, Shopping.com, Wal-Mart, Target, Gap, and thousands more — into one single site. We blend all that historical pricing information with our pricing analytics and other proprietary technologies to create what we like to call the “Kelly Blue Book” for online products. We are able to tell people what they can expect to pay for that product they are interested in — and then help them take the next step in buying it. Mpire has been around since 2005 — and after originally focusing on offering eBay selling tools, we turned buyer-focused just over a year ago. Today, Mpire.com is getting between 800,000 - 900,000 unique visitors a month. So WidgetBucks fits into our strategy of distributing our pricing analytics across the Web, almost like thousands of little mini-Mpire’s being hosted on publishers’ sites.

However, there are also a lot of people that says it is a scam. SEO.PH
has some threads
. There’s a lot more in DigitalPoint Forum. I think that’s normal for every new entrants. With all the things said and posted everywhere, they are all something that we’ll have to see later.

I signed-up for it the other week and started using it only yesterday. I’m using it now in at least two of the sites that I maintain. So far, adsense still provides me a better income but maybe that’s because my adsense placement is better than my widgets that are primarily placed on the sidebars.

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.

In the latest drama in the 2007 World Pool Championships in the Araneta Coliseum in the Philippines, the local favorite Francisco “Django” Bustamante lost to Peach in a match colored with controversy in the 20th rack with Bustamante leading 10-9. It was a painful exit for Django who thought he already won the match when he pocketed the Nine in the combination with ball 3. However, the referee had to resort to the replay of the shot as it appears that the Nine ball was first hit. It was a possible foul that would turn the tide in favor of the Englishman.  

After careful review of the video from different angles and a private meeting with the two players, it was decided that the shot was a foul. The Nine ball was re-placed in the center table and Peach had a ball in hand. With all the remaining balls evenly spread across the table, the englishman cleaned them up to force a tie at 10-10. Since WPC has a winner’s break format, Peach had the opportunity to break for the last rack. With his precision soft break, he was able to clean up table and clinch the win to the dismay of Filipino fans.

This leaves the Philippines with only two remaining players in the race-to-11 quarterfinals. As of posting, Philippines’ Roberto “Superman” Gomez is playing against Chinese-Taipei’s Kuo Pong Chang leading by 3-0. The other remaining Filipino player is Juven Bustamante.

This is the second time World Pool Championship is staged in the Philippines. Romy Alcano won the championship last year but he bowed out this time at the round of 32. Efren “The Magician” Reyes also lost to the Russian player on the same round.

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…

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.
 

Read the rest of this entry »

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?

I’ve been searching for ages to find a better way to remote access my home PC from wherever I am. There are promising applications and techniques that can be found in the net like VNC and DameWare Remote Control but using them over the net is quite a problem. There’s just too many highly technical security settings that you need to setup before you even use them and I’m not very keen on learning those things as that’s just, well, ‘too technical’ for me. I’m no longer that interested in such kind of things. To make it the story short, I’m still stuck with my problem — no remote connection to my PC.

Until I read about LogMeIn. It’s like a gift from heaven as it perfectly fits the bill and with additional benefits. It’s a subscription-type browser-based service that allows you to remotely control your internet-connected PC. And setting up the connection is easy with just few simple steps as shown below. You don’t even have to go beyond Step 3!

1. Log into your account
2. Add computers to your account (follow on-screen wizards to install it on a local computer, or deploy it remotely)
3. Manage, access and monitor computers in your account using the LogMeIn IT Reach web-based tool kit
4. Optional: create Master Administrators who will share in the management of remote computers, or Secondary Accounts so end users can have simple remote access to their PCs
5. Optional: create computer groups, assign alerts, and schedule tasks for computers in your account

LogMeIn has several types of subscription and I’m currently using the 30-day trial of the IT Reach package, their top of the line. There’s another one, Pro which is the mid-level and lastly, the free version that only allows you to control your PC remotely.The free subscription is a no-frills service but that not necessarily mean it doesn’t do its job. It does and with flying colors.

Below are some of the features (I cropped out the rest).

For this month of September, LogMeIn is offering a USD39 promo per remote PC for one year subscription. But for now, I’ll try the Free version first. I’ll do a shakedown for the week and I’ll let you know later for any update. If tests will be successful, I’ll recommend it for remote tech support to my friend. For the moment, here’s some screenshots.

Feeling that my car isn’t in good shape after experiencing steering problems at 110kph upwards. My steering wheel starts to shake violenlty when I reach that speed. A couple of months back, I only feel that at 120kph and since I rarely reach that speed unless I’m at the superhighway, I just ignored it. But after my last visit to Goodyear Servitek in Otis early this year, the problem persisted and got even worse.  I didn’t dare go back to that servitek branch nor on the other service shop that sounds like ‘quick fix’. That other shop is the previous machine shop that looked into my problem and my money was rapidly drained without any improvement.

Finally, I had the opportunity to visit Cruven to fix this problem. That shop is popular with their injectable suspension rebuilding system among others. Suspension is their expertise so I thought I might give them a try. Besides, I got good reviews of the company. Honestly, I was surprised by their service.

Immediately after arriving, three personnels attended to my car. Another surprise is that they don’t use computerized machines, just plain old school alignment and camber correction tools. But make no mistake as when they checked, it confirmed that my frontwheels are misaligned that it veers the car to left. There’s also some correction on the camber for the frontwheels. When they checked the rear wheels, they found out that it is inclined to the inside. That’s where they took sometime to finish as they have to manually file some holes due to lack of adjustment mechanism for my car. 

Alas after three hours, they are done. I tested it and lo and behold, the veering to the left or right is gone.  As for the shaking, I’ll see that when I use the highway again. I’m more than satisfied with the workmanship.

Camber correction and alignment onl cost me P900.00. I would say that it is well worth it. Simply, there’s no comparison to other known shops that I went to. Another thing I learned here is that not all computerized provides good results. Sometimes going manual is better.

Next week, I’ll accompany my brother for his car to Cruven. So if you have same problem or any suspension problem for that matter, try Cruven System.

Sen. Legarda has made an attack on one of the Philippine port sites. I’m specifically talking about the very popular BoyBastos.com. The GMA news program 24-oras has made a report on this while local broadsheets and tabloids also followed suit. Same thing with some radio programs.

With unexpected deluge of visitors to the site, the administrators decided to temporarily take down the site. But I think the real reason is the fact that local authorities may already be investigating. So for security reasons, they need to temporarily suspend the service. Here’s what you’ll see in their website.

Hehe. Actually, the site is still up. You only have to know how to access it. Let the authorities find how to enter the site. I just ‘accidendally’ accessed some contents. Nothing much, though. I’m just not sure what you can get if you are a member. Take note that the site is consistently on top of the charts that tracks local websites. So they are really popular.

 What’s very intriguing here is that if you look at the whois entry of boybastos.com, you’ll see Loren Legarda as the registrar. So, is it the reason why she is so pissed off?

Very Funny! Let’s see where will this end.

It excites me when any of my projects delivers its supposed purpose and actually contributes to an entity’s growth. That’s what just happened when I was informed by my sister that C&G Medical Supplies‘ website has just found its first client. The website is not really intended to generate sales but more of a tool for our existing clients to browse the products we offer. So any other entity who come to visit the site would be a big plus. The website was found by a prospective client from Bukidnon through Google. A meeting has already been set and some people is already scheduled to fly to Bukidnon (via Davao where there’s another client as well as in CDO).

Read the rest of this entry »