I’ve been putting off this post for quite some time but I’ve finally managed to capture all the stuff I need for the 18th Photo Quest spearheaded by Flip of Heresomewhere. I’m proud to say that I’m the first Filipino (even the first Asian!) to participate in this project.

The idea is to photograph five ordinary objects that most people will easily find and then post them in our respective blogs. We then submit our links to Flip, who lists all the participants and provides the permalinks where we can view their submissions. At the end of the month, the links to the old quest will be moved to the Photo Quest Archive, which Flip calls the "sanctuary of the common." Poetic isn’t it?

I learned about this while blog surfing (in blog Explosion, as I recall) and I came across Anna’s blog which talked about it in passing. I emailed her and she gave me a link to Flip’s site, and I was instantly hooked. Getting to see mundane objects being highlighted in a game played across the world through blogs is quite refreshing and gives a new perspective in viewing the everyday things around me.

Our assignment for this month was to photograph something I’ve collected, a flag, something I’ve grown, a shoeshelf and a tree stump.

I’ve had my postcard collection for years and it was fun browsing through all 250+ of them to select the ones to photograph.

Since we live near Malacanang, the seat of power of the Philippines, I decided to photograph some flags I found there. There’s a whole row of Philippine flags and it took me a while to photograph one since I was waiting for the breeze to unfurl it completely. Here are two images for you:

I don’t have a green thumb and I don’t have much time to try gardening so I decided to photograph a gumamela (scientific name: Hibiscus rosasinensis) that grew around our area.

Our shoeshelf isn’t much to look at but here it is anyway.

Finally, there aren’t any parks near us and my alma mater, UP Diliman, is full of trees but there aren’t any tree stumps there so I settled for this tree, which had its branches cut off.

Bonus pic: It’s technically not a tree stump (so is my previous picture) but I think it tells a much more fascinating story than the one above. This tree, for some reason, fell over and toppled a nearby telephone pole (I hope it didn’t ruin their phone connections).

There are my entries for the June 2005 Photo Quest. I hope you come back again to see my next batch of photographs.

Until then,

Jocie (a.k.a. Gimikera)

BlogPulse is an automated trend discovery system for blogs. BlogPulse
applies machine-learning and natural-language processing techniques to
discover trends in the highly dynamic world of blogs. You can make
researches of your own using the Blog Pulse Trend Tool. For an example, the graph below correlates the number of posts concerning "Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo" VS "wiretapping" for the period of the last two months.

The purpose of this entry is two-fold: to  inform my readers about a nifty application that  can help them in managing their Gmail account and to help define what a widget is. If it’s your first time to hear the term widget, it just means that it’s a web gadget or a mini-application that is usually simple and practical to use. That can certainly characterize this nifty application that I read from www.scue.co.uk.

Download 220kb

Got this invitation from my favorite forum, USTExchange:

We invite you to the Grand USTExchange.com Eyeball Party which will be held during the Blast 4! Online Consortium Kick-Off Event at the Club 650 in Libis this July 2, 2005.

The USTEx Grand Eyeball will be the ultimate EB for its loyal
members, many of whom have been posting for years and some who have
recently enjoyed the alluring conversations and camaraderie with fellow
members in recent months.

It will feature the opportunity to meet other posters in the Forums
and a chance to win in several contests organized by USTEx and its
sponsors.

Lastly, an opportunity to meet other Forum members of the other community websites, namely those from Atenista.Net, GreenArcher.net and Peyups.com, will take place as the other websites launch simultaneously their respective EBs.

All these will take place in a day-long affair of fun as the EB
party wraps up just in time for the night activities that include an
inter-school concert, a fashion show and a trance party until the wee
hours of the morning.

The Grand USTExchange.com Eyeball is on July 2, 2005, from 2pm-5pm, at the Club 650 in Libis.

Tickets are reasonably priced at P100 each and will also be sold at the entrance.

 
 

Kitakits!

Via USTExchange

Daniel Tynan claims to have unearthed two stone tablets that can help deliver us from the evils of nasty viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.

I. Remember thy antivirus software and keep it updated. It’s
not enough to have the software installed (if you don’t have an antivirus
package, stop reading right now and get one); you also need to keep up with new
viruses as they emerge.

II. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s attachments. You
get a message you think is from a friend with what looks like a cool file
attached, so you click on it. Next thing you know, you’re Typhoid Mary, spewing
out infected e-mails to everyone in your address book. That’s how the Sobig.F
worm spread–and it happened so quickly that millions of copies got out before the
antivirus companies could update their databases.

III. Avoideth bogus file downloads. Be wary of any Web site
that requires you to download software to view a page, unless it’s something
familiar like a Flash plug-in or Acrobat Reader. The file may contain a virus,
a Trojan horse, or some auto-dialer that calls pay-per-minute numbers via your
modem and racks up huge charges.

IV. Smite spyware and pop-ups. Like Trojan horse programs,
spyware secretly installs itself when you download software like file-swapping
applications; it tracks your movements online and delivers ads based on where
you surf. Pop-up ads can also exploit security flaws in Internet Explorer, like
the recent Qhost Trojan that hijacked users’ browsers after they viewed an ad
on the Fortune City Web site.

V. Thou shalt foil spammers. Unsolicited commercial e-mail
is more than just a nuisance; it’s also a major source of virus infections. In
fact, some versions of Sobig are designed to turn infected PCs into zombie
machines that can be used to send spam. A good filter like Symantec’s Norton
AntiSpam ties your antivirus software might miss.

VI. Keep thy operating system patched. E-mail-borne worms
and other scourges like to exploit security holes in your software–namely
Windows and other Microsoft programs. These days Microsoft issues so many
critical updates to fix these flaws that many users ignore them. Don’t. Last
January, the Slammer worm exploited a vulnerability that Microsoft had fixed
more than six months before. But thousands of infected computers–including some
at Microsoft–didn’t have the patch installed. Run the Windows Update program
once a week and whenever Microsoft issues a warning.

VII. Maketh a rescue disk and keep it handy. When things go
bad, a boot or rescue disk is your first step to recovery.

VIII. Be not taken in by false claims. There are more
hoaxers than hackers on the Internet, and more bogus “e-mail virus alerts” than
actual viruses. Even real virus threats are typically blown out of proportion
by the media.

IX. Honor thy firewall. A firewall is like a bouncer for
your computer–it checks every ID at the door and won’t let anything in or out
until you give the thumbs up. So a hacker can’t access personal information on
your hard drive, and a Trojan horse keystroke logger (a stealth program that
monitors the characters you type) can’t steal your passwords and transmit them
over the Net.

X. Maketh backups and keep them holy. Simply put: Back up
your data files at least weekly (daily if you’re running a business). Even if
you fall victim to a virus or hacker attack, you’ll escape with only minor
damage. Fail to keep a recent backup though, and you’ll go straight to hell – at
least, that’s how it will feel.

Via Yugatech.

I tried it in my own browser and it did kinda speed up things…

1.Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally
the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you
enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up
page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3.
Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it
“nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This value is
the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it
receives.

Via Pure-essence.net

Mood: Still mournful about the loss of my Smart Amazing Phone but also blessed for being able to celebrate another amazing year

I was pretty excited about celebrating my 24th birthday at the Gateway Mall, the newly-opened high-end mall boasting of an elegant steel and glass architecture right in the heart of Cubao.

I was even more excited because I got to reserve a place in the most beautiful spot in Gateway Mall — the Oasis. Imagine a 450-square meter floating garden complete with flora and fauna as well as 60-foot Royal Palms and Japanese koi residing in its fishpond. This lush tropical paradise is being managed by Pizza Hut Bistro, the first of its kind in the country.

The open-air garden called The Oasis in Gateway Mall is home to these mighty Royal Palms 

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Together with our neighbor Meg and her friend Beth, as well as Joseph’s girlfriend Janice, we rode the LRT to Araneta Center-Cubao station, which was already conveniently linked to Gateway Mall. We were several minutes early so we could have time to enjoy the scenery at the Oasis.   

My family at The Oasis (June 19, 2005)

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The Oasis was soaking wet because of the rain that suddenly poured. The manager told me that the people who were dining there had to run for cover inside the mall and they had to finish their meals standing up since Pizza Hut Bistro was already filled to capacity. Incidentally, June 19 was also Father’s Day so I was glad that I had reserved our place the week before.

Fountain at The Oasis

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Capturing the beauty of The Oasis

Jocie the photographer

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Lyra and Anthony came together and we also took the time to snap some silly pictures in The Oasis.

Leo then arrived and I didn’t recognize him at first because of the huge amount of weight he lost. Jasper arrived and he was shocked too by the dramatic weight loss of Leo, whom he met way back during their ROTC days.

Eloisa came to Gateway Mall straight from work (she had overtime that Sunday) and we shared the same fate yesterday since her wallet also got stolen. The crook had managed to open her backpack unnoticed and took her wallet. Fortunately, her cellphone was secure in her pocket.

Maui arrived and I found out that she was living in a condo in Makati with her brother who was taking up Nursing. I told her about the open climb to Mount Daguldol and she expressed her interest in joining future activities like that.

Blockmates Maui and Leo

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Joseph and Meg got a kick out  of taking photos of themselves using the murals behind us as their background.

I like the effect of the mural since it gives the illusion of having
another restaurant behind us when in reality, it’s just a wall.

(It’s really just a tarpaulin decorated wall!)

The crew found out that I was celebrating my birthday so after they served the dessert sampler, they also served a (free) slice of cheesecake with a lighted candle and decorated it with chocolate syrup letters "Happy Bday." To top it all off, they sang a wacky birthday song that really made my night.

Time to blow out the candle! 

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After all the great food, great conversation, and great company, it was time to go home, filled with thoughts about how to celebrate my 25th birthday next year.

To all those who went, thank you for coming!

Update: I pointed out a Smart Amazing Phone to my mother and she urged me to get another one. The saleslady sweetened the deal by including a 16Mb memory card and I couldn’t resist…can’t wait to fill my new SAP with new memories! =)

Early Tuesday morning of June 21, I was shocked to hear the news that  Jaime Cardinal Sin was dead. Suffering from multiple organ failure, the former Archbishop of Manila died at Cardinal Santos, the same hospital where my best friend Lyra works as a PT.

Last Friday, my officemate Roger invited me to go to Manila Cathedral where Cardinal Sin’s body was located for public viewing. We planned to go after work and we were supposed to meet Roger’s college friend there. We left at around 8:30 P.M. from Ortigas and arrived at Quiapo about an hour later.

Quiapo Church was decorated with banderitas (colorful banners) as part of the celebration of St. John the Baptist’s feastday. We couldn’t help ourselves from taking photos of the centuries-old church.

Where’s Jocie

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We then took a ride to Intramuros and got off in front of Manila Cathedral. I had expected to see a lot more people attending Cardinal Sin’s wake especially since he was a fairly controversial figure in his time.

For me (and probably most of us in our generation) thought only of Jaime Cardinal Sin whenever the term Cardinal ever comes up. And why wouldn’t we know him when he figured prominently in two EDSA Revolutions and was cited in the Reader’s Digest as having one of the most ironic names in terms of chosen careers (Cardinal + Sin, get it?).

Yet above all these, Cardinal Sin represents the monolithic influence of the Catholic Church on the destiny of the Philippines.

My last encounter with Cardinal Sin. The first was during EDSA Dos.

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Jaime Cardinal Sin may have passed away but those with positions of responsibility in the Catholic Church will, either covertly or overtly, still have a certain amount of control over the course of history of this country.

Yuga’s post about Tabbed browsing in IE6 floored me since I thought this feature was exclusive to Mozilla Firefox. It turns out that Safari and Opera also allow multiple tabbed windows in just one open browser application. This results in less clutter for your desktop.

We use Firefox in the office and I think it’s a great alternative especially for its pop-up window blocker. However, I’ve been having problems recently since my browser windows would suddenly close without my knowing it (at least with Internet Explorer you would get a notification when an error occurred) and slow connection speeds.

It turns out that Internet Explorer 7 will support tabbed browsing and RSS, which is great news for those loyal to IE. While waiting for it, though, you can download the latest version of the MSN Toolbar at http://toolbar.msn.com/. Once you’ve downloaded and installed the toolbar, restart IE and you should see the new tabbed-browsing toolbar.

To add a tab, click on the Add Tab button. A new tab will then appear, and you can proceed to load the new tab with the page you want to visit by typing the URL in the address bar.

To close a tab, right-click on a tab and select Close. To close all other tabs except the current one, right-click on a tab and select Close All Other Tabs.

You can learn more about tabbed browsing in IE6 from Wei-Meng Lee in his discussion here.

I read a post from Yuga’s blog that Edsamail’s servers were down so I did my own investigation on what happened to this popular email service provider. I was concerned since I paid for a subscription for their email service and I had yet to backup my emails there. When I checked their site, it would no longer open and their listed phone number was no longer operational as well.

Yuga did his some investigating and checked out their domain registration  and found it was still due on
March 2006. He did a ping and traceroute to their nameservers both from his PC and from 3rd party online sites and got no results. A DNSReport of the domain showed both DNS servers are unreachable.

Since my building was right next to Edsamail’s office in Ortigas, I dropped by Orient Square to inquire about their email service. It turns out that they moved to Makati and the lady at the front desk gave me their new address and phone number.

I called them up and a voice recording confirmed that their servers were down and that their IT team would be installing newly bought hardware sometime from June 22-24. I then talked with thir operator who said that their servers crashed due to hardware problems but they expect the problem to be resolved by tomorrow.

She also said that once the system is up, subscribers will get 10Mb of email storage but given that the price of renewing with them now costs P660/year (up from their original of P365/year), I don’t think I’ll be availing of their service from now on. Besides, I’ve got around 10 emails in Yahoo (translating to 10Gigs of email storage), several 2Gig accounts in Gmail and unlimited access to the Net in the office so it’s really not that necessary.

If you’re not familiar with Edsamail’s service, read on…

Edsamail revolutionized the industry because of its innovative concept. Unlike most free web-based email providers, Edsamail does not require
users to log on to a website to check and send email. Instead, they
merely install the free Edsamail starter kit CD in their PC’s CD-ROM
drive. All you need is a PC with the right specs, modem and telephone. With no ISP (internet service provider) required, Edsamail quickly became the preferred email service provider of most Filipinos.

The company released up to three free versions of their software but the latest version had to paid for at a rate of one peso daily (P365/year). Their office used to be located at the 7th floor of The Orient Square in Ortigas Center. They moved last November 2004 to this address:

    
Unit 4 Bldg B Karrivin Plaza #2316 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City

Tel. No.  7295551 / 7295735

Edsamail founder Marco Urera