April 20

Pinoy geek pr0n site

That for me is the CD-R King website, which provides me with my near daily fix for cheap affordable gadgets. I find it frustrating that every time I buy something overseas (through my unwilling co-employees stationed abroad) CD-R King releases a similar product with half of the price I paid.

The site has a page which explains why their prices are cheap (e.g., direct to the supplier, no credit card processing, no flashy advertisements and marketing,etc.) which makes sense but I still can’t shake the notion that some of the items there are really knock-offs from that big sleeping dragon of a country. Just look at the MP4 player category. But most of the items are of good usable quality and that makes it OK in my book. And it isn’t as if the shop is passing them off as the real thing because it is more probable than not that the products are branded with the CD-R King logo.

My only gripes with them are that

  • buying the stuff in their website is a hit-or-miss thing when you actually go to a brick&mortar shop. I have had experiences of visiting 3 branches to no avail even though their site listed it as on stock.
  • their “online stock inquiry” is a joke. I understand that they are probably undermanned in that area since there are only 2 of them but I would expect to have a response within the day, or at least an email facility for such inquiries.
  • their online tech support is slightly better but leaves too much to be desired. they treat their customers are ignorant users which can be irritating if they are just rehashing what you have already said. as of last count there are four of them that could be online at any given time but don’t expect them to give you a pretty quick response.

Item reviews from their wares are pretty much available but only if you are willing to trawl along several local message groups. I am toying with the idea of posting my own reviews on stuff that I have bought or at least planning to buy in case somebody is also looking at the same thing.

ciao!

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April 14

–metrobankOnline_sucks;

Metrobank’s eBanking interface rates a notch better in my book since it now supports Firefox, where previously it only supports IE and *gasp* Netscape. The stupid ActiveX control that was previously required (which effectively locks the interface to IE) is also gone. Actually that is the first clue I had since I transferred to another PC at work and was curious why I didn’t get the irritating prompt about the ActiveX installation.

The office network prevents me from uploading the screenshot but you can test it for yourself. I did it with the beta 5 of Firefox 3. 🙂

Kudos Metrobank Online! But I still despise you for that 10-character password requirement. 🙂

[edit] I finally grabbed a screenshot while in Archer (my Arch system). The picture is using “Bon Echo” which is a rebranded Firefox browser. The version is 2.0.0.14.

MetrobankOnline in Linux!

ciao!

Category: FLOSS, Garbage, Reviews, Technology | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 9

I want one but not at the cost of an arm and leg…

I want a sub-notebook, preferably the up and coming Asus eee 900 so I am keeping my eyes and ears open for how much this baby is going to retail here in the Philippines. I already got approval from my chief auditing officer (aka the Wife) that I can get one for my birthday and the recent cash flow makes the possibility of owning one sooner more of a reality.

The first generation eee PC retailed here in Manila at around the Php20K mark (or roughly US$500) due to importation taxes and such. The local retail price is a jump of 25% of the original and press release value of only US$400, which for the sake of those not tracking sub-notebook discussions is not a reality until just recently. If one is enterprising and patient enough, a similar model can be bought at a lower price but my guess is that you will have to forgo the shop warranties (aka hand-carried through customs). Nevertheless the appeal of the eee PC comes both in its portability and low price, but with some compromises like smaller screens, no bundled optical drives and solid state hard drives (which means you can bang it more without risking the data in the drive, the screen and other parts are another matter). As a local tech journalist puts it, the eee PC is changing the playing field for portable computing.

I have been salivating with getting my hands on a sub-notebook that it has been an addiction to track news about the various developments and players in the sub-notebook race to the bottom. Last Monday night I was looking for a side-by-side spec comparison between the eee 701 and 900 models when this link from a local computer store caught my eye because it was already showing a price tag for the 900 model. I assume that this is a pre-selling quote but the figures gave me quite a start: Php33,800 (~US$805) for the 8GB SSD+2GB RAM model, and Php37,800 (US$900) for the 12GB SSD++2GB RAM configuration. WHAT!

With that kind of money I could already get one of those 14.1″ laptops but I will forgo some of the portability aspect. Or maybe get the 701 model instead but I really want something with a larger screen. I just can’t rationalize spending that much for the eee PC 900 given that the first wave of this model might ship without the new Intel Atom processor just to beat the recently launched HP Mini-Note and the upcoming Acer EEE-killer models. My personal favorite for an alternative sub-notebook unit would still be the MSI Wind PC but with no announced shipping date I am still on the fence on whether I am willing to wait for it if the eee PC 900 is not economically practical for me.

ciao!

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April 3

A bird in hand is worth more than flock in the horizon

I love mangling sayings. 😀

Last March 28, I had a very good and very disappointing event. I almost became a millionaire!

My wife and I had this private joke that I will someday hit the jackpot but since I rarely place bets I will just be lucky to pick up a winning ticket in the street. Just imagine a newspaper/tabloid headline stating “One lucky millionaire from a picked-up stray ticket” and then the following day will have a news item about a person who committed suicide for losing a winning lottery ticket. /lol

I keep on saying to my wife that I will place my bets but long queue lines never ceases to turn my interest off. At the sight of a long queue in the Lotto terminals I usually revert to sour graping that I won’t win anyway and I will just place my bets the next time. Nobody can blame me since my luck in chance drawings is almost dismal. One time I attended a dev seminar during a stormy night. Only five attendants were able to come and they raffled 3 books. I was one of the two persons who came away empty-handed. 😀

Before the holy week I was frequently in the northern office that is close to a mall. I was there for meetings and there is a Lotto terminal on my way to MRT. Since the queue was very short and the jackpot price was greater than Php 150 million then I made good with my pledge and place my bets. The first time I painstakingly selected my set of six numbers out of the 49 possibilities. On the day after the draw I checked my tickets and I usually have my smattering of single hits per frame.

On the Tuesday of the holy week I was once in the area so I placed another bet. This time I just opted to go for the lucky pick method wherein the lottery terminal picks the six numbers for me. I am thinking the actual draw is random so why not match it with a random way of selecting numbers? The disadvantage of lucky picks is that the numbers are usually so close to each other but who can say that it won’t be the actual numbers to come out of the draw?

By the time of the draw (March 27, since there were no draw during the Holy Week) the pot had already reached more than Php 200 million. On the morning of the 28th my wife said that the news announced that nobody won the jackpot. I left my ticket in the office so when I arrived I gamely checked how many consecutive numbers I got this time through the results posted in this site. The drawn numbers were pretty close (7-21-24-27-42-43) that my eyes were immediately zoned into the fourth frame since I got the last two numbers. I went back to the site and noted the numbers 24 and 27 which I also had on the fourth frame. Wow, so I won Php500! Then my eyes went to the first number on my ticket and it was a 7! I already have five out of the six numbers and my heart was now racing. And then when I looked at the last number my world slowed to a crawl. After that, the closes way to describe my state of mind was that I was in The Zone. The last number was a 21 and I had a 39!

After a minute my mind went out of The Zone and all hell broke loose. I think it was only natural to feel a bit disappointed since who doesn’t want to get Php200M+? That is a dream come true for anybody. Money can’t buy happiness but having lots of it does help. 🙂 With that money we would be able to start my dream of having my own bee and rock lobster farm. And maybe sleep in a bed of money. 😛

After a few minutes I calmed myself down and tried to analyze the situation (like what I sometimes tend to do). I can be disappointed or I can look at this as the first time I have won anything other than a gift certificate from the company. I prefer to do the latter. At least this way I now have a means of getting that sub-notebook to which I now have become fixated for weeks. And we can now buy that 32″ LCD TV that we were planning to buy with my mid-year bonus. 🙂

Sleeping in a bed of money is still a dream, but at least I got a bit of that dream into a reality. I guess if I change my winnings into five peso bills then I can still make that bed of money come true. But it will still be a small bed. 🙂

ciao!

Category: Garbage | 2 Comments on A bird in hand is worth more than flock in the horizon
March 4

Pesky SMS ads unsubscription (at least for SMART/TnT)

I am sick and tired of getting these SMS information pushes about some crap service/downloads that I don’t need. The thing is I can’t remember of actually subscribing to them. What is annoying is that this specific push channel that comes from the 6960 number keeps on sending truncated messages that comes in groups of three and have no unsubscribe information. I am usually in vibra mode and there is nothing more irritating when getting three buzzes for crap information.

When I was assigned in Denmark, I got a “helpful” SMS push about how to unsubscribe by sending SMS messages. Since I was using roaming then, it was not practical to send a couple of messages as each one costs about Php15 a piece. Unfortunately I somehow deleted the messages so I am back in square one.

Today I got some spare time and energy to hunt down how to get off this list. Fortunately the telco website has this FAQ which basically instructs the user to do the following:

  1. Send the word CHECK to the number sending the SMS pushes. You will receive a message about the services your number is subscribed to.
  2. Send SERVICENAME OFF to the number to stop SMS pushes. Or you can send STOP ALL to terminate all services from that channel.

Let’s see if it works…

ciao!

Category: Garbage, Technology | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 3

Cya around Joypo

I wasn’t able to say a face-to-face goodbye to my “adopted” protege when she had her last day in the company since my wife and I are leaving for our annual vacation to Bohol and I was working from home the previous day. I never liked good-byes anyway and it isn’t like I will not be communicating with her after her stint with the “COMPANY”. 🙂

I have already experienced leaving a company and, many times over, have experienced being the one left in the company. Each one is hard but this one is special so I decided to write a homage to Joypo. I can’t say I am devastated since I am actually happy for her. I don’t know if its eagles or condors, but some birds teach their young how to fly by dropping them off from the safety of their nest. I won’t grab the whole credit for mentoring this specific hatchling but I think it is my due to say that I have some contribution in kicking her quiet @$$ over the edge. 🙂

For those interested, her name is not really Joypo. I have this habit of encoding the names in my phonebook and that is the name I gave her number. It is actually my wife who coined the codename because when she first talked to Joy she said she is very respectful that she inserts “po” (the Filipino term for respect) multiple times in a sentence that she started referring to her as Joypo. We have a lot of friends named Joy so it gave an easy to recall distinction. 🙂

Enough of the segue. Let me just list down the reasons why this lone wolf has taken an interest in taking this hatchling under my spiny wing:

  • She was my real first subordinate. My supervisor then advised that I need to learn how to manage somebody if I want to better my chances of getting promoted to a lead position. Joypo was my first victim. 😀
  • Since our work as all-around tech support and interim project infrastructure admins were very technical in nature and requires some hefty lifting (computer miniaturization was not that prevalent back then), I was actually expecting to get a male subordinate. Instead I got this wiry lass. But she proved me wrong by being my yardstick of what qualities a “DevArch” apprentice should have.
  • She was my gender equalizer. I still laugh about the amount of flak I received when I actually made her lift and transport whole workstations from one cube to another. I just shrugged my shoulders to my “critics” and said it is part of the initiation for the team. Every devarch should experience lifting and moving workstations. Funny thing is that it became true. 😀
  • I vowed that any devarch apprentice should just have the technical capabilities and I will handle fitting them with horns needed when coordinating with external resources. Joypo, with her uber-religious background, gave me a challenge. I think I was able to grow her some sharp horns. Unfortunately she also uses them on me. /lol
  • I admire her guts. She actually gave me a prayer book. ME! A PRAYER BOOK! I wasn’t an agnostic back then but what the hell? I think I still have that prayer book in my cabinet. No offense Joy, I just have this habit of not being organized when it comes to my possessions. I value the thought more than the actual physical object. 🙂
  • I value her honesty and inputs even if she doesn’t think so. Once I asked her if she thinks I am a good leader. She bluntly replied “Opo, kahit nakakainis na kayo minsan (Yes, even if you are sometimes irritating)”. I couldn’t feel more validated and prouder. 🙂

I think I am obligated to talk her out of leaving but I don’t think that makes sense coming from somebody who has left a previous company for greener pastures. I would only do such thing if I don’t think the person has thought things through but I had no doubt Joypo has already weighed all the possibilities.

So see you around kiddo. This industry is too small and too connected to be a stranger.


Me and Joypo in her farewell libre 🙂

ciao!

Category: Garbage, Work | LEAVE A COMMENT