Mobile Broadband or Fixed landline Broadband?

Globe's latest offering of their HSDPA mobile broadband service is very tempting, for P2000.00 one can have broadband anywhere he/she goes. That is, if they have a notebook and enough power to last for whenever.

My dilemma is that, I am a subscriber of Globelines Broadband (with a landline phone) and Globe Handyphone, so basically, I'm a Globe "subscriber". I'm shelling out almost P3000.00 for both the MSF of the landline and the DSL connection, which gives me unlimited "2Mbps" internet connection 24/7. But whenever I go out, say go to work, I still have to either get a WIZ password from my Globe Handyphone (this is built in anyway) or pray that I still have enough credits for the month from my Globe WorldPass account (which is incidentally P250.00/month - consumable).

But with Globe's Mobile Broadband service, I can have around "1.7Mbps" wherever I go (as long as there is a 3G signal) and other services as well like:

Unlimited mobile access via HSDPA, 3G, EDGE, GPRS

Unlimited Wi-Fi* and Dial-up

A Mobile browsing data card*** + data SIM for FREE!

I'm wondering now if it would be best to get another subscription (that's another P2000.00 on top of the P3000.00 that I'm shelling out monthly for the DSL subscription) of Globe Visibility or stick with WorldPass .

The New Treo 680 -- Not so Affordable after all

Looks like the new Treo 680 won't be as affordable as everybody had expected. It's debut in the Philippines has it at P29,800 (from the Philippine Palm website). A few more bucks and you've got the Treo 650 Black Tie edition already. It's approximately P10,000 more than what the US Palm Website is offering.

Others are arguing that it's just in the right price range, considering the software available in the Palm libraries, then perhaps it's worth it. But others say that it's short-changing the consumers. With only a VGA camera in a time where megapixel cameras are all over the place. No WiFi, in almost the same price range the SonyEricsson P990 has WiFi and a megapixel camera at that. Then of course, the aging operating system. This has not been updated for years and Palm has just been tweaking it for survival.

I guess the antennae is worth P6000.00 huh? Because other than moving some of the buttons and slots around, slapping in a little bit more RAM, and chopping off the antenna, it's just the Treo 650 in disguise.

Opera Mini 3.0 Released

For those Opera fans out there. Opera Mini, the versatile web browser that can be installed in any mobile phone that is JAVA capable, has released version 3. Now RSS feeds can be easily added and Photo blogging has been made easy. 
To download, just point your WAP browser to http://operamini.com

RP approves cervical cancer vaccine

RP approves cervical cancer vaccine
By Oliver Teves
Associated Press
Last updated 07:35pm (Mla time) 11/29/2006

THE Bureau of Food and Drugs has approved a vaccine to combat the virus that causes cervical cancer and related diseases, an official of the company that distributes the drug said Wednesday.

The vaccine, Gardasil, is designed to prevent diseases caused by four strains of the human papillomavirus -- HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 -- with HPV 16 and 18 accounting for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, said Dr. Cesar Recto II, medical director for Merck Sharp & Dohme.

The vaccine also prevents genital warts and low-grade cervical lesions in girls and women ages 9 to 26, Recto said, adding that an ongoing study is aimed at expanding the coverage of the vaccine to benefit "mid-adult" women.

The Philippine Cancer Society says 7,277 cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed in 2005, when 3,807 deaths were recorded from the disease.

In June, the U.S. government approved Gardasil, which needs to be administered over a six-month period, costing US$360 per course of treatment.

A spokeswoman for Merck Sharp & Dohme said the vaccine will be available in the Philippines for about P15,000 (US$306) but will be dispensed only by doctors and will not be available over the counter.

US-based drug company Merck & Co., which developed the vaccine, is known as Merck Sharp & Dohme outside the US.

Democracy Player -- my Favorite of the Month

I just downloaded and installed Democracy Player after some time of contemplating. I usually use VLC Media Player and has been satisfied with it. But, I also watch Video Podcasts from iTunes, which, after installing the latest iTunes version 7, has not been quite an enjoyment. Then I found out about Democracy. After installing it, and viewed a stored TV series in my HDD, it immediately took me away.

With VLC on Windows Vista, every time I would open an .avi file, Vista would change the display settings which should really not be bothersome had it not take a lot of RAM space. With Democracy Player, the Vista video settings remains untouched, meaning, it keeps the Aero interface.

With regards to iTunes comparison, Democracy Player would download and play Video Podcasts and plays it seamlessly. iTunes 7 is the buggiest iTunes so far and whenever I play podcasts on it, my RAM usage shoots beyond the meters on my PC.

Hopefully thought, Democracy will not fail me.

ANC using Globelines Broadband

The other day I was watching the ANC channel, it's a Business update and a reporter was at the Philippine Stock Exchange giving updates on the financial market, when at the bottom of the screen, it says that they are using Globelines Broadband to transmit that report to the station. I wonder why ABS-CBN is not using their sister company's (Bayantel) network to transmit their signal. I guess the telecom industry is a bit confusing.

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I don't see see point of their argument

    AFTER public discussions on the House bill on free and open source software (FOSS), the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) urged lawmakers to “step back” and rethink its position, the organization’s leader said.“As the representative organization of the Philippine software industry, the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) strongly opposes House Bill 5769, the Free Open Source Software Act of 2006, as sponsored by House Representative Teodoro Casiño,” PSIA president Fermin Taruc said in an e-mail to INQ7.net.
   
“Government has no business or expertise mandating the use of one technology platform over the other. Are they crazy!!!! What do they mean that the Government doesn't have any business mandating the use of Open Source software? This just show how GREEDY these software companies are. They say that the Government must not force people to use Open Source software and yet, they BULLY and DICTATE the progress of each and every company that uses their software.

"Government’s role is to partner with the private sector in providing the environment and business framework in which innovation, creativity and freedom of informed choice can thrive, especially in the area of technology which is characterized by dynamism and disruptive change,” he said in behalf of the PSIA.Taruc said mandating the use of open source software in government is nothing but “myopic” and “a disservice to both users and developers of software -- as well as to the Filipino people. -- I don't think it's the Government that is being Myopic here. This is a lot of bullshit, are these people undermining the capabilities of Open Source software programmers? Using Open Source software will definitely save the Government a lot of money than using their software. Open Source softwares are more stable and offers the same functionality as the paid ones.

”PSIA fears that the bill will “compromise” the local software industry's target to generate revenues and employment for the country by 2010.

“By limiting government agencies to a technology platform, government prevents a level playing field in which various technology providers can compete and establish an experience and revenue base in the domestic market," it said.
"In this context, imposing restrictions on what kind of training can be offered defies all logic and reason," the group said.

RP software association opposes open source bill - INQ7.net

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Skype 3.0 Beta for Windows

Skype 3.0 Beta for Windows is out! Now has some major upgrades to the user interface and added nifty features that will be very helpful for users.

Skype now has browser extensions for Internet Explorer and Firefox. You can choose at install time if you want to install these or not. They automatically convert phone numbers on web pages into Skype links. You can simply click them and Skype starts a SkypeOut call to that number.

Introducing Skype 3.0 Beta for Windows - Skype Blogs

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Firefox 2.0 Spell Checker

Ever since Firefox has been launched, it has become my primary browser of choice. Before, not because of anything else, but simply because of it's very neat feature, the tabbed browsing. This keeps my desktop neat and uncluttered. Now, it's on version 2.0 and still retains (of course) it's tabbed browsing feature, but this time, it has added a feature that has caught my attention, Spell Checker. Before, I only see this feature on Word processors such as MS Word and OpenOffice, but now, with the advent of online office suites and blogs, spell checker within a browser has become a very useful tool. Although this feature may have been present in some other application that I have been using for a while, with Firefox's spell checker, I don't have to dig into the menus to find it. It's just there and it works. One good reason to download Firefox 2.0. Enjoy!

DivX Suite NOT working on VISTA RC2

Last night, I downloaded DivX Pro 6.4 to see if it will really shrink the file size of my home movies (which incidentally is taking up too much space in my HD), today I decided to try it out. I choose a small file ( around 650MB ) to convert, you know, just to get the feel of it and would give me an approximate time of conversion. But after maybe a couple of minutes of converting, VISTA suddenly reports an error and that DivX converter is not functioning properly. I re-tried it a couple more times and just like the first one, it stops and gives me that error report. Well, I guess I just have to wait until these programs are VISTA compatible.

Vista Sidebar OUT!!!!

It's been almost a month since I've installed Windows VISTA on my WinBox and it's been the same time I've resisted installing Yahoo! Widgets (Konfabulator), but after a while I decided to turn Windows Vista Sidebar off and stay with Yahoo! Widgets. Though it's basically the same, I like Yahoo! Widgets better in appearance and variety. I've more choices with Yahoo! Widgets than with Sidebar. Oh and Widgets hug less memory than Sidebar.

2nd Windows Vista update in 2 days

What's this? It's early in the morning and it's just a few hours after the first update I had after installing VISTA in my WinBox and the Windows Update icon is present again on the taskbar and is downloading update files. I wonder what could these updates be. 

iTunes updates itself to 7.0.2

iTunes has an available update which offers support for the new iPod Shuffle and fixes some bugs that still lurk within the music program.

iTunes 7 is the buggiest of all iTunes released.

AVG Free will not be FREE anymore

STAY PROTECTED: Your AVG Anti-Virus Free 7.1 will be discontinued on 15. January 2007!

This is what is posted in the AVG website. Looks like they've caved in and is very typical of these usual FREE offerings in the internet.

AVG is a very capable anti-virus software, ever since I used it, virus has been inexistent in my PC. But with this turn of events, it looks like PC users will now have only AVAST and KASPERSKY for their FREE anti-virus needs.

The reason why I don't use the very famous NORTON anti-virus is because of the simple reason that it's a memory hog and has a very big footprint. Besides, there are free alternatives that are as effective as NORTON.

UPDATE: MY BAD -- looks like I didn't read the notice that clearly, but thanks to Mgee (reader), who pointed out that only version 7.1 will be removed from the FREE option and would instead be replaced with version 7.5.

AVG Anti Virus: Stay protected with AVG 7.5

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Google acquires JotSpot

Wiki editor JotSpot is now part of the Google empire. When I opened my local internet news, I read that JotSpot, the wiki editor which offers Office suite online, was acquired by Google. Then when I opened my email, there was an email from JotSpot, informing me of the acquisition (being a registered user of JotSpot).

Before the Google acquisitions, there JotSpot was one of the companies that offer collaboration softwares like spreadsheets and word processors in the form of wikis. The other company that offer the same form of collaborative application was Writely, which are now both been acquired by Google.

If one will closely look at these actions of Google, it is very obvious that the big G is planning to monopolize all of the online office applications to directly face Microsoft's Office suite. Now this is competition.

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