Overview - - Mobile phone -Sony EricssonK610i?-?

Whilst paying my bill for Globe at the SM North Cyberzone we chanced upon this sweet bugger currently offered at temptingly for extension plans. We have long been planning to get an extension since its actually more practical. Just that the offered options were not too tempting.

We asked if they have one in stock and fortunately they have one, and assured we could the unit right outright if we sign up for the extension. I couldn't wipe the grin on my lovey's face. The phone was a beauty, and not as bulky-ugly as the other current crop of 3G phones. They don't have the red one in stock tho, but it seems the cover plate can be replaced in the future.

Comparing this to my old T610 back in the day, its way wicked. Built in support for RSS feeds!, working SSL enabled pop/imap client (Gmail works nicely), 2 megapixel camera (which beats the Treo 650 camera to a pulp), Flash lite support?. Will try the Yamigo/Yahoo (IMPS) interface later. Very, very light, has bluetooth and verly usable speaker phone function.

Was itching to try the video call since our apartment seems to be covered by 3G. "Seems", since we sometimes see the 3G icon, and sometimes we don't. Hope they lower data rates tho. Something like Smarts 10/30mins or lower will do :D

Barney!

Barney!
Originally uploaded by nocs.

It really does capture a kid's imagination. If Jolibee would only push it, I think he can be as popular worldwide as Barney.



Ah kids, gotta love em. Every drooling kiss washes away our fears and brings renewed hope for the unstoppable future.



Treonox

- Singing out of tune happy birthday songs. Happy Dad. Good times. :-D

Google Maps Flight Sim!

Shiny!

Was hovering above the streets of London and HK. You can also choose to navigate around the moon or mars with the little bugger.

Even the kids love it!

Whats next? The things you can do with open platforms! :D

Discovery of the week: Journler - O'Reilly Mac DevCenter Blog

Been using Journler for the past few days and in a word "ROCKS!".

Way better than my previous method of puting it in a word document and organizing via directories. With this app, you have on unified repository of your notes which can embed URLS, PDF's, regular files, pictures etc. Integration iLife makes your digital life a bit more easier. Supports keywords/tagging and allows you to blog (supports blogger/wordpress) and email from within the app. You could also insert audio (great for meetings) and video if that pleases you.

My typical usage would be in writing down notes for research, and dragging a bunch of URL's there, link related files lurking in the hard drive. After which I could now draft the formal document on another word processor. The Journler fits this workflow perfectly and allows you one stop flexible repository of notes.

I seem to notice that the Mac community has a lot of high quality GTD-ish and digital life organizing apps. Most of them free! The high level of integration between apps is also quite noticeable. All in all helping a lot in the productivity department.

And before I forget, Journler is donationware!

Apple - Apple - Mac OS X - Leopard Sneak Peek - iChat

And oh, I like the new iChat theatre feature too. No not the philandering background feature (hehe). Rather the one that allows you to show your presentation. That would be great for "distant teaching" (tm). Or doing remote presentations for that matter. You can also use it ala VNC (screen sharing), and remotely control another mac while perhaps guiding the other person on the other end of the conversation.

Another shiny tool in making the world flat!

Live from WWDC 2006: Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget

Thats it folks!

Keynote over.

Things I liked in the upcoming Leopard! (sneak peak)

- Time Machine: Automatic incremental backups for dummies.
- Spaces: Virtual workspaces at last! No need to envy X11/Xorg window managers.
- Widget toolkits: Drag and drop widget creation.

And yeah! Macpro! Drool on... Dream on...

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

VMware announces Mac client!

Woot!!!

I hope it supports the PPC architecture.

Btw, WWDC in a few hours! Hasta La Vista? Could it be??? What is Steve up to this time? Your guess is as good as mine. :)


Chaaiirrrssss!!! I would like some pop corn too.

Testing Journler

ADVANCED USAGE

If you need to pass special options to Java, please set the resin3_flags option
in /etc/rc.conf, see examples below:

# Prevent Java from opening an X11 display

resin3_flags="-Djava.awt.headless=true"

# Increase memory limit of the Java virtual machine

resin3_flags="-Xms32m -Xmx256m"

# Run Java with remote debugging turned on on port 8000

resin3_flags="-Xdebug -Xnoagent
-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=8000"

Mayon eruption %u2018imminent,%u2019 over 70,000 face evacuation - INQ7.net

Alert Level 4!

Worried at my folks in Legaspi and my in-laws in Ligao. Hope it doesn't do much damage. But the danger is real, a volcano on the verge of eruption is not a tourist attraction! Just look around at the rocks/boulders scattered along Legaspi, Ligao, Camalig etc., to get a grip on how far the range of Mayon is.

Active FTPD

For the record, there is not much to love about hosting companies who stubbornly insist that their FTP daemons only function correctly if your ftp client uses the active mode. Double worse, its the only way to update the site. WTF? why not just use good ol ssh protocols if your line of reasoning is you want it to be secure. Its a a PITA for us accessing the net with a NAT gateway.

Shinnier than tho!

From the site:

Keepin' it Real: Pushing the Desktop Metaphor with Physics, Piles and the Pen


Wonder how the Java looking glass 3D desktop is coming along. With decent GPU's almost standard with any new desktop/laptop computer now, we need a new way of interacting with the desktop.

Genetics

Genetics

Janro has fever today, sad we couldn't do our nightly playtime bonding. Hopefully he gets well asap. Doctor also confirmed that like me, he also has asthma and adviced we buy a nebulizer. We bought one at Watsons at SM North after much deliberation which one (Sunrise or Omron) to get. We settled for the Omron due to its readily available parts and lifetime service warranty. We also noticed that it doesn't heat as much as the Sunrise branded one, so hopefully that translates to longer compressor life. Haven't used a nebulizer except the one at the hospitals. I grew up relying on disc based ventolin rotadisk most of the time, also since my asthma attacks isn't so often. Hoping Janro's asthma would still go away, or at least not the severe type.

Hopefully the fever goes away soon. The apartment ain't the same without my two kids running around.

Btw, he is turning two this coming August 12: "Mga Ninong at Ninang..."

Quickies

Life as usual goes faster than a speeding bullet.

Was happy that Janro, who will be a two year old in a few days, can now be undertood more clearly to have a real conversation. Previously we would just do baby talk coupled with hand signs and funny facial expressions.

Rojan, growing smarter each day is loving all the online games on nick jr website. Also now has an average of 4 wpm (proper typing) according to Mavis Beacon. She can do the home row keys with ease, and she's progressing to the top and bottom rows.

Managed to figure out liferay to a non-root context. The trick is to unjar portal-ejb.jar edit portal.properties (portal.ctx) to your liking, then create a new portal-ejb.jar. Next edit your web.xml root path, then modify the index.xml. That should do it. Only tested this on Resin by the way, Glassfish next.

On another news, noticed that all the G-pass interfaces on Magallanes and Kamuning MRT station having a nice red X sticker on top. Bummer, was itching to try it out a while ago.

treonox
- mobloggin' on a southbound train.

Tech Perks

Am currently viewing Mt. Mayon via a live feed from a friends webcam thru Yahoo. Hope the eruption won't be as the devastating as the one that ruined the town Cagsawa.

The Philippines is flat. Shiny!

G-Pass (mis) adventure

G-Pass (mis) adventure

Saw the Globe G-Pass Ad yesterday on TV. So just a few minutes ago I asked the cashier at the MRT North vending station if I could buy one. Surprise, "hangang Cubao pa lang yon", the kind lady answered. I looked around and noticed that indeed this station doesn't have yet the G-pass interface.

That means G-pass usage is still limited, and that you can't enter on a G-pass enable station and alight at stations like MRT north station where the interface is not yet in-place.

Curious how the reloading of G-pass would be implemented. Via G-cash at the MRT stations? Or via OTA? Either way, if its going to on top of SMS infrastructure, its still bound to the issues I discussed before.

Cmon' Smart, (*hint*, *hint*, *hint*) you have the debit card-swipe thing, join the fun!

And before I forget, interface-wise, I still think Smart money has the edge over G-Cash. They are just not as aggressive on the innovation front.

treonox
- on a southbound train, daydreaming on a flat world m-conomy.

NEC VERSA P8100 Minisite

I accompanied my neighboor to Microstation at Shangrila to help him decide what laptop to get. Along the way he told me that a just-arrived stock of NEC Versa P8100 in that store. The specs were much better than any of the current sub Php 40K laptop's he showed me before. I was even skeptical at first. Not until I saw the lappy.

The 15" screen was gorgeous! Wide screen, and was glass like. It has a DVD writer and all the ports you could wish for. It even has an SD card slot and build quality "seems" sturdy enough, not much flex on the keyboard area. No pre-loaded OS tho. Has a B/G capable built in wifi. The battery was a standard 6 cell one, which was the only one item that didn't beat the Lenovo/IBM model he canvassed (Php 36K) that included an 8 cell? battery. After inspection I found out the video chip was of the Intel kind and not the NVidia one described on the NEC site. At any rate it was still rather a good buy.

The Aquarium: GlassFish on FreeBSD

Just saw this on the Aquarium (Glassfish weblog). Kind of funny seeing my picture there. A friend of mine has commented before that from a different angle, it looks like am poking something in my nose. Hehehehe. I guess time to replace that that avatar. Makes me remember when a stranger asked me if am mobileindie.com. Weird and disorienting in some ways. :D

On the other hand, I direly need to manage my sched in order to continue with my Liferay experiments and Glassfish on the FreeBSD platform. The Liferay really just needs a few tweaks for it to use context path rather than stubbornly insisting to be on the root context. And so far the Glassfish running on FreeBSD seems to go along well like good ol' isaw and cheap red wine.

OS X VM

Doing a "du -sh /" on an OS X terminal forces the VM to reclaim inactive memory. Should be adding this to a crontab if not for the fact that it would make the disk spin at regular intervals. Hmmmmnnn...

Philips SHE9500

Philips SHE9500

A week ago, I replaced my el-cheapo in-ear phones with a pair of Philips SHE9500 that went on sale at Astrovision at SM North (at 1.4K, formerly 1.8K). The previous in-ear I blogged before was clearly lacking in bass. Am not a bass head but the bass on that thing was really inaudible even after a week of burn in period. But what really prompted me to buy a replacement was the earbud that comes it with it was made of hard rubber that's literally intolerable for prolonged use.

Back to the Philips SHE9500, level of detail was awesome! I could clearly hear the guitar pick hit the strings as Eric Clapton does his stuff unplugged, or that chuckle at the end of Norah Jones song, or the varying delays and distortion mixed with haunting melodies of Radiohead, the exasperation in Ely Buendia's voice in Ligaya, etc. I could go on and on. The thing makes you jump with joy that you ripped your audio in higher bitrates. Added bonus, bass was tight and not wasn't exagerated at all like some drivers do.

Noise isolation was quite good. Not too sealed that you won't hear the loud honking sound of a car approaching, although I still won't recommend using it while crossing the street or driving a car. But just enough to block out street noise, or the idiot talking rather loudly on a jam-packed train.

Build quality was also decent. Not as flimsy as the Sony Fontopia models I have seen at Park Square 1. Overall am pretty happy with the in-your-ear music experience that this thing delivers.

treonox
- humming "If I could be, who you wanted... If I could be, who you wanted..." on northbound train

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Dave Birch: Upwardly mobile

I think this summarizes my thoughts on where m-commerce fits. It doesn't fit very well with face-to-face transactions. Rather, its a disruptive technology that allows an individual to participate in a FLAT WORLD ECONOMY (TM).

And what does G-Cash and Smart Money need to do in order for it to fit in a flat world economy? Or at least titilate the current generations mind to use the technology?

In some angles it already has gotten its feet wet, but really, there is no point in pursuing a lock-in model when the trend is collaboration and participation. Gone are the days that proprietary technologies are the in thing. Look around, the successful models that have the fastest adoption rate are the ones that fit in a flat world domain.

In the example given on the link above, can you guess who was trying to explain that model to a bunch of close minded cellco executives circa 2003?

The world is flat. Adapt or die.