Travel n’ Tech Blog

In one of the worst flooding in the Philippines (particularly Manila) caused by tropical storm Ondoy (also known as Ketsana), as of latest count  more than 50 people have died and 280,000 displaced from their homes.

According to PAG-ASA, as of today, 423 millimeters of rain have fallen in 12 hours — that is more than the  391 millimeters that have fallen for the entire month of September.

Access to food, water and medicine will be of primary concern during these critical times. I urge readers and fellow bloggers to help in the following ways:

1. If you are nearby Red Cross Chapters you may volunteer. Here is a list of local chapters.

2. Donations of food (rice, canned goods), milk, clothes and medicines. Here is a list of places where you could send your donations in kind.

3. Cash donations may be sent to the following organizations: Red Cross, Sagip Kapamilya (hotline: 413-2667 and 416-0387), Kapuso Foundation.

Red Cross

1. CASH or CHECK
Please send cash or check donations to the PNRC National Headquarters in Manila. Checks should be made payable to The Philippine National Red Cross. We can also arrange for donation pick-up.

2. BANK DEPOSIT
Account Name: The Phil. Nat’l. Red Cross

METROBANK
Port Area Branch
Peso Acct.: 151-3-041-63122-8
Dollar Acct.: 151-2-151-00218-2
Type of Acct. : SAVINGS
Swift Code: MBTC PH MM

BANK OF THE PHIL. ISLANDS
Port Area Branch
Peso Acct.: 4991-0010-99
Type of Account: CURRENT

BANK OF THE PHIL. ISLANDS
UN Branch
Dollar Acct.: 8114-0030-94
Type of Account: SAVINGS
Swift Code: BOPI PH MM

For your donations to be properly acknowledged, please fax the bank transaction slip at nos. +63.2.527.0575 or +63.2.404.0979 with your name, address and contact number.

My sympathies for the families affected by this catastrophe. Let us unite in this time of crisis to lend help in whatever way we can.

Contact Information:

National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) Emergency Numbers: 912-5668, 911-1406, 912-2665, 911-5061. Help hotlines: 734-2118, 734-2120.

Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA): 136

Philippine Coast Guard: 527-6136

Bureau of Fire Protection Region III (Central Luzon) Hotline: (045) 9634376

San Juan City Hall Command Post:  468-1697

MERALCO hotlines: 0917-5592824, 0920-9292824

I bought a 500GB Seagate 2.5 inch SATA hard disk in Funan DigitaLife Mall for S$194, bundled with an external enclosure. The price is reasonable compared to what it was a few months ago. I imaged my old Macbook hard drive and swapped the new one with it…. Loving the extra storage space. Downloads galore!

Happy Chinese New Year!

We just got back at the apartment. It seemed all of Singapore descended on Chinatown today. Whew! Foreigners and locals gathered for the celebrations and many shopped for memorabilia and food at the night market nearby. I bought a fridge accessory for keepsake.

Good thing the MRT is open ’til 2am today so we were able to get home.

George W. Bush will be stepping down on January 20, and looking back, I am appalled at how one man’s administration changed the world - for the worse - in 8 years. His legacy to the world: an Iraq War leaving more than 100,000 dead, Nuclear North Korea, worsening Global Warming by rejecting the Kyoto Protocol and worldwide Financial crisis. For the Americans, he’ll be leaving with a burst housing bubble, 10 Trillion in Debt, US economy in recession, median income down, unemployment up, stock market crash and  a badly tarnished image of the US overseas.

Credit goes to Keith Olbermann of MSNBC with his great commentary.

The challenges that face Obama as he takes over the presidency is a very difficult one.

It hasn’t been a month yet and I’m already having lots of problems with using the Huawei E170 modem that came with my StarHub subscription. Grrr! There are frequent disconnections/hangups that occur at irregular intervals. What’s more, my Mac froze 4 times in a period of a week and I had to shutdown and reboot the system each time. Prior to using the device, I haven’t had a single reboot of my laptop due to system failure from the time I bought it.

But I don’t think the issue is network related since the problem is isolated on the Mac. I now connect to the internet using a shared internet connection thru a Windows (Compaq Presario) laptop and I’ve never encountered these issues.

Apparently, I’m not alone with this glitch. And a forum post suggests that the problem is caused by USB power ripple spikes and can be solved by adding capacitors to the USB power line on a patch cable to ‘filter’ DC voltage for the 3G transmitter. (Possibly a Mac is more sensitive to this flaw). The problem/solution tandem makes sense but I’d rather not introduce any risk to my precious lappy.

I’m raising this issue with StarHub and asking for an alternative modem. But right now, I’ll have to settle with getting my internet connection thru another laptop (using ad-hoc wireless connection) if I connect for long periods of time.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be moving my journal to this blog so there’ll be upcoming flashbacks - entries dating back to several years ago.

Though I can surf for free throughout Singapore thru Wireless@SG hotspots, I always wanted a faster broadband connection with wider coverage. Coverage with Wireless@SG hotspots is spotty and mostly available only when there are commercial establishments or MRT stations or McDonalds nearby. They claim you can surf at 512kbps but I seldom get download speeds of 128kbps.

I finally decided to subscribe to a mobile broadband plan. Yesterday, I went to Starhub Bedok and subscribed to their MaxMobile Ultimate mobile broadband plan for S$50.93 / month. The advertised download speed is at 7.2Mbps and upload speed is 1.9Mbps. Not bad! I received a Huawei E170 HSDPA USB Modem.

So far I’ve browsed outdoors (near Bedok MRT) and at the apartment and I’m quite satisfied with the 3G / HSDPA coverage and speeds. Need more tests in the coming weeks to see if this is indeed worth its value.

This year has been economically tumultuous worldwide, what with the sub-prime crisis, financial meltdown and mass-layoffs.

Looking back it’s been a pretty wild year for me too..

1. Project assignment in France

2. Mass resignations and juggling through multiple projects at the company.

3. Multiple changes in ownership of NXP Calamba (from Philips - NXP - ST Micro - Ericsson) and lay-offs with the company worldwide.

4. Resigned from NXP, settle company obligations and pay for travel costs (which is not a small sum).

5. Moved out of my Laguna apartment and shipped all my stuff to Cebu.

6. Moved to Singapore and started work here.

7. First Christmas and New Year outside the Philippines, away from family.

I’m looking forward to a better 2009 for all of us.

To those who lost their jobs, may you have found better ones

To those who opted to start their own business, may they fluorish and help boost the economy and generate more jobs

Happy New Year!!!!

I only have 340MB of disk space left on my Macbook so I’m backing up some files to my external hard drive. I’m seeing my free space quickly decline after moving in to the apartment where the internet subscription they have is MaxOnline Ultimate — probably the fastest in Singapore, with download speed of 100Mbps and upload speed of 10Mbps.

I’ve been thinking of upgrading my internal hard disk to 500GB. I need to save up for that first since it costs about 150 SGD. When I do make the switch, the youtube post below would be useful:

Through the years I’ve had a very high regard for BPI since they have impeccable customer service, comprehensive online banking facilities, and numerous ATMs all over the country. I’ve seldom had problems with them locally.

However what happened these past few days is a different story. Yesterday was payday at the company (and probably the rest of Singapore) and as I was about to send money to the Philippines through iRemit, the clerk told me that the money might not be immediately credited to the recipient account in the Philippines due to system problems with BPI. Then I recalled what happened 5 days ago when I was attempting to use my BPI ATM to withdraw money here. I could not make the withdrawal since “no response” was received by the POSB machine from BPI, despite trying several times.

Possible scenarios could be: problems with Cirrus/Maestro or with BPI or with the systems interlinking both banks. I’m not sure if this problem is only in Singapore but I hope the issue will be resolved the soonest possible time since thousands of Filipinos abroad could affected with this ‘glitch’.