Thoughts In Binary

Was where we went to, Holy Week 2010. Why? Because we did not have any plans, and like I “tweeted” (yes, I have Twitter), we almost ended up in Puerto Galera. Naujan is about two hours away from White Beach via automobile. The only reason we got to know of this unheard municipality is because of our third wheel, Reeza ni Sir A, of whom whose family hails from, who at the last minute suggested we go to instead—since Sir A could not come.

Going to Naujan, we took our usual Puerto Galera route with minor modifications—figure out a way to go to Alabang, bus from Alabang to Batangas Pier, Batangas Pier to Calapan via roro (minor modification), then 45-minute jeep ride to Naujan town proper.

So what the hell is in Naujan? Nothing, really. Although the bore was mainly caused by us not having a car to go around by. Literally minutes before leaving, I googled for some exciting scenery and found out about some lakes and falls—all of  which ended up in our hindi napuntahan, next time nalang list.

To cut Naujan some slack, here are some of the things I’d never forget: They had naturally-hot water coming out from their pipes. It was really hot and it made me say “Ang kulit ng tubig dito” a dozen times. They had this nice, clean and huge probinsya “plaza” (as in “kita tayo sa plaza…”), where the locals gathered and mingled on an almost daily basis. The town is dead by 8:00 pm, so if you have an inuman session and run out of beer, sorry.

What else? The beach, or rather, the dagat is referred to by the locals as “Black Beach.” Typical dagat for me, but just imagine how the two girls I was with reacted. In fact, we were foreigners in an unforeign land, simply because we had Likas Papaya skin. Oh before I forget, the standard ulam order in their “restaurants” was Php 30. Dirt cheap, and so does a pack of Marlboros (Php 30. Php 34-35 in a typical Manila sari-sari), which left me really, really dumbfounded.

So, that’s it? No, I have to end this post in a high note. And this, said in nothing but pure honesty, so help me, God, is the truth and nothing but the truth. The locals, I love you guys. You are the best. As cheap as the food already was, we could have survived even without our wallets. Food and drinks everywhere, food just after we’ve eaten, and lodging good for three separately (which we did not take, obviously). Plus, the locals can drink. Good thing I have some summer practice. Special shout out to the Gayos and Balita families.

Click below for photo coverage.

Here goes part two.

Manila Auto Salon 2009

The end-of-the-year “ber” months are filled with great car shows. The Manila Auto Salon is probably the biggest, and is a personal favorite because of its location—SMX Convention Center. Convenient, spacious and cold, which makes tambay easier (Jesus). We went for two consecutive days, just so we could photograph more promo girls. Still, we were late as hell, but I think I did quite good.

Bumper to Bumper 2009

Like I said, full of car shows. What I did not know, however, was that I was about to experience a different form of babe fix. Like you wouldn’t believe, FHM had this sort of FHM Girls showcase, which coincided with the awarding of Ms. Bumper to Bumper. Although there wasn’t anyone there I haven’t seen before—Abby Poblador, Arra Castro, Jem Milton, Paulene So, etc., it was still quite exciting to see them live in skimpy bikinis. Hey, I love cars, in fact, most of the time I go in support of someone (club), but I’m getting tired of car commentaries. So, to sum it all up, Arra Castro is really, really cute.

bilyar.NET 2009 Christmas party

Hey, I own bilyar.NET. Yes, I do. But I haven’t been attending or showing myself for the longest time. It is in good hands and I trust my partner and moderators. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have some Christmas pool fun with the boys. It felt good to give away all those prices, and award some trophies, plus I made some new friends. And, best of all, I played some kick-ass pool.

Saosin live in Manila

Holy humongous crap, this was 2010 already. It is already quite late to blog about this so let me just include it here for archiving. The extent of my Saosin dunong begins and ends with Translating The Name. I know they rocked and all, and blew everyone’s brains with “Seven Years,” but I was just not able to keep up. Weirder still, I only knew of the concert on the day itself. So, if not for my cousin, Boy Paketing: Ang pinaka umiidolo sa Saosin kahit ako nagpakilala ng Saosin sa kanya, who would’ve gone even if didn’t go, I wouldn’t have seen Papa Cove.

So, that’s it for now. I will be back soon for sure. By the way, some of the photos are not linking to their corresponding gallery albums yet. I still have some sorting to do, so, wait for that.

Greetings motherhackers. It has been 319 days since my last update. Below are what I would have written about if I were still an active blogger. May this post inspire me to write more this year.

Losing my belly

I really wanted to blog about this journey inch by inch, but I just couldn’t find the will to blog. Last year, I started to exercise regularly. What started out as a way to kill time when it was the kumander’s turn to “solo”  the internet became a full on obsession. I went to the condo’s (more on that later) free gym at first, then I “upgraded” to Slimmer’s World—I have had a lifetime pass since 2003 so it just made more sense. I started with a 37 1/2-inch belly (tape measure on belly button), and ended with a record 29 1/2 inches. I went to the gym religiously, 4 times a week, from April to October. I was successful at trimming an inch every 3 weeks. I do not have an “after” shot, but you’d know what I’m talking about if you know me personally and have seen me recently. Photo below was taken around May.

Condom living

Whoever decided to abbreviate condominium as “condo” had no sense of humor. 2009, for us (kumander), was the year of the “condom.” I liked how so much—mall, bank, food, etc., was so accessible. I liked how easy it was to keep track of everything, I liked how condom personnel took care of a lot of stuff. I liked how the building did not “sleep,” especially for a night owl like me. I did not like the overpriced association fees, and not having a car most of the time (it was “broken” for most of 2009). I actually liked cleaning and washing the dishes. I’m weird like that. Oh, and I liked living in such high (literal, 9th floor) a place. We rented a 2-bedroom (really small bedrooms) in Las Piñas.

Two monitors and a snake

My almost yearly laptop update ended last year. I ditched the old “lappy” for a desktop powerhouse. I have read and always wanted to try a dual monitor setup, and last year I experienced how effective it really was when kumander brought home a 19-inch Samsung from work. I hooked it up as an extension for my laptop, and voila. Now, I don’t think I could go back (working) to a girlish, single monitor, small-screened, weak ass laptop. I have two Samsung 733NWs with a combined total resolution of 2880×900. Oh, and about that snake, click here to see what I found lurking beside my desk.

Triangle tires

These are some cheap ass tires. China-made but, well, it works. I have been using this sporadically since October last year. To give you an idea of how cheap these are, my 18-inch 225/40 cost only Php 3,000. If you know about cars and tires you would really appreciate this. Anyway, to quote the guy who sold them to me: “Triangle pero bilog.”

To Naic, Cavite, with love

How I wish I could remember more about this impromptu trip. One thing I could not forget though was, when we woke up the next day, after all the drunkenness, there beside our house stood the ocean. The people were really great, considering I had no right to be there in the first place. Another thing I remember was talking to them about all these great “nature” places we could not go to because of our schedule. We plan to go back there this summer, and, maybe I’d write a more exciting post.

Jesus, I did not realize this would turn out to be an epic post. Part two tomorrow.

August 2008

Added one to my age. Was forced to celebrate my birthday when all I had planned was to mukmok at home. Sid’s, the bar where I spent my birthday eve, has been closed since. It is now known as Sub Zero – a suckish music bar wannabe with the tagline, “The cool place for hot music!”

Got a mountain bike for my birthday.

September 2008

Started my health quest. Biked everyday. Felt stronger everyday – I increased my distance (route) and length (time) daily. Literally, I got stronger. I even managed to cut down on my smoking by a couple of sticks per day.

I bought a desktop torrent slash media rig as an additional personal birthday gift. To this day (February 6, 2009), I’ve downloaded 640 GB worth of “piracy.” Good stuff. I also badly want to ditch my laptop and settle for a desktop workhorse for this “internet” thing.

October 2008

Of course whilst ditching this blog, I started blogging on Bebot, Bebot! almost daily. I now know for sure that Bebot won’t make me rich. It will be big someday but the ratio of workload to growth is tight. I will stick with it because there, I can get away with really short posts.

I also tried blackhat. For the first time, I experienced having a site banned from Google’s index. Quite exciting I have to say. I learned that in blackhat, although you think less, repetition will bore you to death.

November 2008

Did some CPA affiliate marketing – actually made a few and learned a few. It sucks that in AdWords, the guys is the U.S. have direct account debit whilst I have to stick with whatever limit my credit card gives me. Them who make $10,000 per day might be spending as much as $5,000 per day on AdWords and the like. How the hell can I do that with a Php 70,000-monthly limit credit card.

I might have already stopped biking mid-November. I don’t know why. I’m just ningas-kugon like that.

December 2008

I’m a sucker for the holidays. Everything just feels different. I wanted to be part of the long vacation so I stopped working as well, only my vacation was a lot longer. Har, har.

People, barkada, a lot, went home last December. I’ve reached this point in my life where I’d rather stay at home or drink in someone else’s than go out. Surprisingly, it was quite cool to hit the bars once again.

January 2009

Farewell, The Alabang. My stuff is now split into three different places – The Alabang, because we haven’t finished cleaning up the junk, Bicutan, where my family now lives, and Las Piñas, where I skipped the “bachelor pad” idea and went straight to “living-in.” Yeah, well, it’s nothing new for me and my girl, but still, I feel like such a grown-up!

To be continued…

Download torrents from your router, PC turned-off

Regular chats with my cousin keeps me up-to-date with the world of computers; funny how that turned-out to be, I, being the one with a computer degree. We were discussing how torrents ruled our lives, so I segued my plan to dedicate a 24-hour system for download goodness. “Ah, torrent rig?” Whoa, you mean there’s a term for that?

He then led me to a flat-out better solution: a router that can download on it’s own. The Asus WL-500g Premium, which among it’s counterparts, seems to hold the most-coveted “sweet spot.” Advantages over having a dedicated torrent rig? For starters, no computers will be left turned-on, ergo, less electricity, less hassles, less gastos, etc.

Besides, the WL-500g boasts a ton of other useful features like file sharing, wireless printer sharing (and webcams), and (sharing) anything that can be plugged-in via usb. All for around Php 3,800. You do need to hook-up and external hard drive to store downloaded files, so maybe add up another “G” if you don’t already have a portable hard drive. Anyway, let me just lead you to the detailed TipidPC.com discussion on router-downloaders.

Imagine that. Download-overload at it’s finest. I’m definitely saving up for this one. Although still, the most-extreme of my dreams is to dedicate a second internet connection just for downloading. Drool.

June 9, 2008

Funny how and where we ended up yesterday – pseudo Independence Day – after finding out our Enchanted Kingdom passes – set to expire on June 12, 2008 – was already worthless. Enchanted Kingdom had gone back to operating only on weekends, so June 8, was the last Sunday of our tickets – technically, yesterday. Pissed, I decided to spend the rest of the day in always-makes-me-happy Mall of Asia. Feeling very old-Manilaish, me and my girl started talking about “tripping” on Luneta Park. Then the more reasonable, more fashionable “Let’s just go to Ocean Park” thought came. “Luneta Park, we shall return.”

First time ko

Manila Ocean Park is only halfway there – the whole left wing is still unfinished. Anyway, I’m not one to review parks, let alone “ocean parks,” so let’s just continue with the story of my “Independence Day” holiday. We had assumed the park would be packed, so low and behold, we had a good hour and a half of waiting just so we can line up to buy tickets. Once #641 was called, we fell in line like one would in a Meralco bayad center. Tickets cost Php 400 each, Php 350 if you’re below 4 feet or something.

Oh, I remember the 2 buwayahs who had wanted to sneak up on everyone (who patiently waited in line for hours). “Manonood lang kami sandali,” said one buwayah to the ticket collector, whilst flashing his “gold card.” “Sandali lang po sir.” It was then the security guard’s turn to deal with the men in uniform. What seemed like a very polite conversation resulted in the buwayahs being ejected from the premises. Good job Mr. Security Guard, not everyday you see that happen.

Here come the “fishies.” I’ve never been a fish dude, even though I’m surrounded by Arrowana enthusiasts my whole life. I’ve presumed my stint there would be a look-and-proceed type process, but I admit to being awed by the really big and weird creatures. It’s not everyday you see sharks, and crabs who can eat you alive. Other than that, they’re all just fish to me. Colorful, ugly, really-ugly, Nemo, and Flounder. Construction of the aquariums is nice, like the “under the water” walkway, but had it been my first time in one of those then I would’ve been more amazed.

The layout is alright especially just after the main entrance. You’ll encounter this tropical-jungle type facade which includes some pond-like aquariums and a waterfall. After that, it’s just aquariums and darkness. Then there are gimmicks to attract more attention. I remember in particular the small pond which allows people to touch the fishes. This foreigner in front of us took advantage of the fact that her camera is waterproof. Then someone made this very attention-grabbing but not-funny hirit of doing the same with his SLR. Unfortunately, the girl did not understand; so did we, probably.

Then there are boat rides – small boats with clear flooring – above the shark aquariums, and a fish foot spa; none of which we tried. Of course, these are not covered by the entrance fee – typical. The fish spa looked really interesting though, check out the picture I took and commentary here.

Before finally exiting the premises, they’d make you go through the classy restaurant and the souvenir shop. No exceptions, you really have to walk by the people eating and then through the store. The dinner buffet, if I remember correctly, costs Php 250, and has a romantic view of the ocean. The souvenir shop is well, typically overpriced but has better quality items (than most). Only then would you end up back into the main circular lobby, which is also by the way filled with foodcourt-type stalls.

Since only half of the park is finished, I wonder if admission would also double up upon completion. I also wonder what other creatures they plan to house in there. Although come to think of it, I saw no dolphins, nor octopussies.

The park is directly behind the grandstand. There are no signs, none that we saw of, so far. There are parking lots on either sides, and one is just beside the enormous Floating Hotel and Restaurant – now in my “to visit” list. All in all we spent almost 3 hours there – including waiting, eating and yosi breaks.

Remember, the Ocean Park album in the gallery tells the same story, with color, so I’m quite surprised you read up to this point. Next up, some videos in my YouTube channel. June 9, 2008 ended in Mall of Asia to check out more helmets and for dinner, so all in all, I had a great one.

Internet ends in year 2012

I just came across this very interesting, weird, insane, and anger-provoking issue called “Net Neutrality.” Maybe you’ve heard about it, maybe not; assuming the latter, let’s take a minute here to discuss the gist of Net Neutrality. Basically, it’s more exacting to say that the issue at hand is “a battle for Net Neutrality.” The “net” or the internet, is neutral at present time. Net Neutrality is what we have now. In the future, specifically in the U.S., giant ISP providers the likes of AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp are planning to offer internet subscription packages patterned on cable television.

Imagine this ad for cable television today – “Subscribe to SKY Cable and get 100 channels including Star World, ESPN, and all the major networks.” Now imagine this ad for internet subscription in the future – “Subscribe to SKY Internet and get access to over 1000 websites including YouTube, MySpace, etc.” Some sites might even be exclusive to other ISP companies the way the way Solar is to Destiny.

The internet would then have lost it’s great stand, it’s fight. The last great free frontier. The level playing field, where nobodies shit on somebodies. Insane and impossible right? Think again. In the U.S., Google and Microsoft, the proponents of Net Neutrality (obviously), lost to a 269-152 vote in the House of Representatives, rejecting the Web companies’ bid for a ban on new fees – new subscription charges brought about by carriers.

Read all about it, make yourself aware. For starters, here’s Wikipedia, and a good article with graphic examples, predicting 2012 as the year all ISP companies adapt this TV-like subscription model – or, The Year That Internet Ends. Nothing better than a global strike led by everyone from geeks to pornstars. Shall we?

160 GB Portable Hard Drive; Price drop

Storage is cheap; there is really no excuse nowadays to shy away from bigger storage devices. Backups are imperative; I estimate about half of my life’s worth in files lost due to backup unavailability – system crashes, confiscated digital media, etc. Hard Drives have always been in my “to buy” list, I postpone it regularly due to it’s lack-luster “cool new stuff” appeal. This time I prioritized necessity.

I bought this sleek portable hard drive for Php 3,350. Wait, I could have bought it for Php 3,350 in black, but I chose a more expensive colored unit from the next store – Php 3,500. I belive you could buy this thing from TipidPC.com sellers currently for as low as Php 3,000. 3 months ago, this exact same model was selling for Php 5,800. I know, I could have bought an equivalent of 320 GB worth of storage by going the 3.5″ SATA hard drive – external hard drive casing route, but I knew I wouldn’t be happy. I don’t like the idea of plugging it in an outlet – it totally defeats my quest for “ultimate mobility.”

Yes it looks like a Passport, hence; and it is also as small as a passport, just a little thicker. It comes with a couple of programs for easy one-click backups, password-protection and the works – all of which I didn’t even bother install. I see small physical changes from the then-bluntly called “Western Digital Passport,” for instance, the “WD” logo is now situated on the lower right – as opposed to the center. There’s really nothing much more to say about this thing – it’s as boring as it gets. But it serves it’s purpose well, plus it’s small enough, fast enough, and true to it’s plug-and-playability. Buy one, store away.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0

Now that AVG is the most popular Anti-Virus, and I assume that you use nothing else, it’s time for another version upgrade. See, AVG is notorious for making it seem that they are discontinuing their free edition anti-virus for users every time they release a new version. Thing is, free-version users need only to wait for the last couple of days prior to expiration before they release the official download links for the free version. AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 is expiring tomorrow – meaning they will stop giving regular virus database updates and software updates for version 7.5 users.

Now they have the links for the free version exposed and obvious in their website. Simple go here, click on Continue to AVG Free download, click again on Continue to AVG Free download, then click on Download AVG Free 8.0. But wait, let me save you some time by saying I encountered some problems downloading the installer from Download.com – I reinstalled using the the downloaded installer from AVG’s server. I have no explanation for this whatsoever except that the file sizes from the two servers are off by a hundred bytes or so. So there you go, just install the new version and it will take care of all the “upgrading.”

One sleek 12.1″

Is this the hottest, cheapest 12.1″ branded laptop in the market today? I think so. At Php 35,950, it’s closest rival would be Acer’s Aspire 2920Z which costs Php 39,900. It’s already ahead in the price category, so let’s see what else this sleek machine has to offer. And to think I bought a slower Php 39,900 worth 14.1″ Acer exactly a year ago.

The shopping spree

I recently crashed my company-given blue laptop, so while I was out shopping for a new memory module (the culprit), I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful Compaq Presario B1200 – the one I always wanted – in a cheaper, downgraded version. It tickled the impulse buyer in me. Bank was already closed, plus I needed a day’s worth of research, so to quote Douglas McArthur – “I shall return.”

Truth is, there wasn’t really much stuff in the internet about the B1256TU (fairly new), so the next day I shop-hopped Town Center to find out the best deal for the B1256TU. No luck, prices were exactly the same (as expected). All except 1 shop had it in stock. I couldn’t base my shop of choice on anything, so I tried to base it on store aesthetics. I landed on PC Live, the newest, most organized computer store in ATC. I was just about ready to cough up plastic when I heard the salesman say something about a free memory upgrade. Wait a minute, so stores sold it for the same price, but what about freebies?

Halt. I had to check what the other stores offered. PC Live was willing to upgrade my memory to 1GB and give me a 1GB flash drive. I told exactly that to Electroworld but they couldn’t top PC Live’s offer. They were however, willing to give a Php 2,000-worth printer. One last, most cluttered shop left – Silicon Valley. They had the same RAM upgrade, with a 2GB flash drive. They came out on top, but I told them PC Live offered the same thing and asked if they could give me a 4GB flash drive. So 40,050 pesos and 0 centavos later, I went home with a new laptop, a new copy of Windows XP, a 4GB flash drive and was happy. But would I be satisfied?

Specifications and a comparison

In the spirit of competition, I’ll consider both laptops – my Compaq Presario B1256TU and the Acer Aspire 2920Z – in it’s base form. No free upgrades or add-ons. The B1256TU has a Core Duo T2370 1.73 Ghz, 1MB L2 Cache, 533Mhz. FSB processor – same as the Acer 2920Z. They both have 512MB RAM, 1.3 MP webcam, 8X DVD±RW, 80 GB hard drive, Bluetooth, card readers, the works, and all that jazz. So what else is left?

Aside from being cheaper by Php 3,950, the Compaq is a lot more gorgeous. Don’t get me wrong, I love Acer and I love their new Gemstone design as well, I just feel that they didn’t quite get it on the 12.1″ version. In my opinion, it looks a little bulky and feels like a toy. The Compaq is just plain sexy and sleek with it’s black theme and carbon fiber-looking design. By the way, both units don’t come stock with operating systems.

Insignificant rants

You already know how much I adore this laptop so I’ll just do a short summary of what could have been made better – borderline unimportant. For starters, the touchpad feels sticky. It has this certain gloss to it so my finger sticks instead of slides. The whole design is “takaw-gasgas” like a Mac, especially the shiny black plastic surrounding the screen. Being an OC, it bothers me knowing that scratching is inevitable. However, it’s what makes it sleek-looking.

Two USB slots on the left side are too closely situated with the power adapter slot. This makes inserting USB stuff like flash drives difficult. The unit does not come with drivers. Drivers are to be downloaded from HP’s site. It’s slow as hell and it took me 6 hours to download a 6mb file (no exaggeration). The laptop was obviously designed for Windows Vista, so I encountered some problems installing Windows XP, especially with the SATA hard drive.

Final thoughts

What else… It came with a free microfiber-type cloth which won’t scratch the finish. The laptop bag is nice, but is quite big. The sound from the headphone jack is quite ok (important to me), but Acer’s is better. The quick launch buttons are like the ones from an elevator’s – touch sensitive. I’m not seeing any firewire but I don’t really care. So all in all, I’m really, really satisfied and happy with this purchase. After all, in line with Robert Kiyosaki’s philosophy, I don’t shy away from buying stuff that will help make me money.

I’m quite surprised though how Compaq suddenly offered budget laptops. If at all, we should probably be thanking Acer for starting the budget class slash barebones category of laptops. But Compaq beat Acer in the 12.1 category this time. I wonder if Acer will start slashing prices once again. I also wonder what’s in store for next year’s laptops. At the rate I’m going, I spend the same amount of money (circa 40k) every year, and just see what upgrades I get. To sum up this year from last year, I got an additional core (processor), 512 more RAM, Bluetooth, a smaller screen, a 1.3mp webcam and a dvd writer. All for the same amount. Cool huh?