I am appalled at how slow the government and Petron is acting on the recent oil spill off the coast of Guimaras province. Tens of thousands who depend on their once lush beaches for livelihood are now rendered helpless as the sunken tanker continues to leak oil from below. What more, Petron asserts that it’s not their legal responsibility to do the cleanup but on “moral” grounds, they are doing it at their expense. Whoa, these corporate @$$hol3s just don’t know how to mince their words.

Everyone’s biggest concern right now is to get that tanker out before it can do irreparable damage not only on Guimaras, but to the surrounding provinces of Western Visayas as well namely Negros Occidental and Iloilo. There were about 2 million liters of oil inside the vessel, 15% of which have already seeped out.

Take a look at this satellite photo from CERN that shows the extent of the spill as of August 25, 2006:
Read Full Entry

Wablet’s going to rock web IM, according to Marshall Kirkpatrick, after he road-tests Wablet. His review was nothing short of an endorsement which makes me feel good because it is for the most part a product of Filipino innovation.

Yet if you course through the article you’ll see how some of the commenters shrug it off as a third-rate app from a third-world country. It’s discrimination at the most hi-tech form. I understand how one should be concerned about how their personal data is treated, but really, just because Wablet is developed by Filipinos, does it mean that your privacy won’t be any less respected if it were made somewhere else, say, in the USA? Funny that with the recent AOL episode, people tend to forget so easily (Marquee: AOL data now searchable!). That and the fact that the country’s best hackers troop freely to Vegas every year like it’s an OK thing to do.

Are the geeks educated in Stanford, Yale or MIT the only ones who deserve Kirkpatrick’s attention or anyone’s for that matter? Like the dirty world of politics, the tech sector has its own brand of nepotism. It’s despicable. Honestly, I have seen a lot of overhyped Web 2.0 apps that are either utterly pretentious or a copycat of another. I could only name a few that I really like, and I think Wablet will make it to that shortlist once I try it. Asians are the smartest people in the world, IMO. Maybe it’s because of arrogance, discrimination or indifference, Westerners should suck it up and accept that fact sooner or later.

I’m a Dota addict gone mad. During the recently-wrapped Kadayawan festival here in Davao City, I practically played everyday (till my eyes spilled out of their sockets) with my friends at Sequel.

What’s cool about Dota Allstars is that it’s cheap to play and lasts only an hour or two as opposed to Ragnarok and those other costly MMORPG’s. The excitement happens while the game is being played. And what better way to do it than play with real people in an in-your-face atmosphere such as an Internet cafe.

Are you a Dota addict like me? If you’re looking for original strategies, visit my Dota site, Dotastrategy.com. We’ve got a great community waiting for you! See you there!

Is Mike Abundo Wablet’s official spin doctor? If so, he’s doing a great job at it. Techcrunch’s Marshall Kirkpatrick should be demo-ing it anytime now.

Jeez, I hope I can get a chance to test it.

Here’s a screenshot of the client login window:
Read Full Entry

My friend gets invited to these absolutely cool parties at the Googleplex. Here are some pics. I hope she doesn’t mind. Heh.

My friend Tizza’s the one inside the small ‘g’.

More pics after the jump.

Read Full Entry

With Windows Live Writer recently recently, it’s only natural that I should try it on my blog.  Does it work?  If you see this, most probably.

So I was just talking about the mysterious Filipino Web 2.0 undertaking Wablet and how it will give Meebo a run for its money (well, not really).

Now comes Friendster MoBS, another web-based instant messaging platform that bears a frightening resemblance to Meebo’s GUI. Except that in MoBS, your only contacts are your friends in your Friendster account. But wait, on their site they say:

Friendster MoBS is a new web-based chat service. If you look to the right side, your buddy list is pre-populated with your friends. You can move the buddy list window and all other windows to your liking (we keep those settings even if you logout). Expect more features like group chatting and chat integration (jabber, yahoo, aol, etc.) in the future. Enjoy!

Moreover:
Read Full Entry

J. Angelo Racoma’s PayPal initiative now has a website.

I still strongly share J. Angelo’s sentiments that having PayPal here in the Philippines will spur growth in the web development and technology sector of the Philippines. We’ve got the talent, but no decent payment system in sight. How cruel is that?

With the new website featured in several big online ledgers, I think J. Angelo grand plan is off to a great start.

Google won over MySpace with a hefty $900 million revenue-sharing deal that will allow the search engine to provide its search and advertising services to the latter’s 70 million-plus users. That also means MySpace dumping its current ad provider Yahoo! who also made a bid but fell short to that of Google. With the social network being the most accessed website in the US, Google is given wider exposure to a younger audience and more revenue opportunities through its AdWords clients.

The winner? Google. Although Myspace’s dreams of making good money had just come true, its long-term prospects are still put into question. Remember. It’s Google using MySpace to make money, NOT the other way around. The numbers tell the story. Ratings have it that MySpace’s traffic grows an astounding 300% annually, easily overtaking Google. So if you think I’m insinuating that Google’s merely using MySpace and stopping it from making its own search engine, you’re right.

Certain terms of the deal stipulate that the $900 million sum be paid in three years as long as MySpace does its part in keeping traffic up and enticing new users, among others.

Techcrunch recently profiled Wablet, a Filipino Web 2.0 startup offering IM services similar to that of Meebo. Mike Abundo of the Mike Abundo Effect, claims that Wablet “will blow away Meebo”. What’s strange though is how its developers are wrapping this project in utter obscurity. Not even Abundo can provide details on how the purported “blowing away” will happen.

I did a little digging (since I’m good at it IMO).
Read Full Entry

This one’s a little late. Tsk. Anyhow:

• Last week, Google adds a little sizzle to its ailing ‘Talk.
• Globe Telecom improves its G-blogs service, though no one’s really using it. Seriously.
• Wordpress 2.0.4 released. Though I found some bugs, this upgrade is highly recommended.
• Water drops on a leaf = I [heart] Wordpress!
• New ways to browse with tabs in Firefox discovered!
• Though PayPerPost paid up, IMHO it’s a travesty to blogging.
• Live traffic reporting built into Google Maps for Mobile.
• Masaaki Nagumo constructs an AT-ST Walker a Gundam robot replica.

From TechEBlog via Zipped:

Called the ‘Land Walker’, this behemoth stands 11 feet tall, weighs 1 ton and sports two air guns. It was created by Masaaki Nagumo of Sakakibara Kikai Co., an environment machinery manufacturer in Shinto, Japan. Fascinated by his favorite anime show ‘Gundam’, Nagumo wanted to create something similar to the high-flying robots. Understandably, ‘Land Walker’ has a long way to go in terms of development, but Nagumo’s tenacity and genius alone are commendable. Don’t expect to see this on Ebay anytime soon. Right now it’s available only in Japan, for $300,000 a pop.

Demo clip after the jump.
Read Full Entry

PayPerPost made quite a stir a month ago when it revealed that it will pay bloggers to write about products and services of its advertisers. The company made good with its promise recently when it began paying off its first set of bloggers.
Read Full Entry

Google Maps for Mobile now has Real-time traffic reporting! How cool is that.
Read Full Entry