Last March 26, 2008, IBM launched a Corporate Service Corps program to help third world countries in various IT-related and socio-economic projects. Over a period of 3 years, the company will be sending about 600 of its employees to do volunteer work. Whether they will be working on a paid leave is unclear. For 2008, 100 volunteers composed of 12 teams will be sent to countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Ghana, Romania and Tanzania. Those assigned in the Philippines will be developing a system to track loan and grant beneficiaries of the Philippine Development Assistance Program. They will not be based in Manila, but in the less stressful areas of Davao City (yey) and Cagayan de Oro.

Chikka features a new web-based version of the original Chikka Messenger — the Chikka Text Messenger for the Web.

Ok, did you know that in 2007 around 1.39 billion text messages were sent in the Philippines alone? Because of that, our country once again (yeah we won last year) gets bragging rights as the world’s text messaging capital. The number of mobile subscribers grew a nice 30% to 55 million, or 14 million more than the previous year. Realistically speaking though, there might actually be only 25-30 million of us connected to a network. Because, if you haven’t noticed, many of us own two or three cellphones or SIM cards.

I’m currently doing a study on the mobile industry and I want to get some feedback from my fellow bloggers about their ‘mobile’ habits. You can participate by leaving a comment below containing your answers to the following:

1. How many mobile phones do you own?
2. Which networks are you on?
3. Prepaid or Postpaid?
4. If on prepaid, which plan are you on? (e.g. Alltext, Unlitext, Lahatext, Sulitext etc.)
5. Rank how you use your phone: Call, text, email, browse (Internet), photo, video, music, games
6. Which add-ons/services are important to you? (e.g. 3G, Wifi, MMS, GPRS, Bluetooth, Email)

Thanks for your cooperation!

Migs twittered that Filipinos can now receive payments through Paypal. That led me to this blog post on PinoyMoneyTalk. Indeed, after checking it out myself, it’s now possible!
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I wish I can say the same thing for my crappy MyDSL. This lucky 75-year-old lady in Sweden boasts a 40-gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection, so far the fastest residential Internet speed recorded. Sigbritt Lothberg, hardly the web cybergeek, has her son Peter, a networking expert, and his friend Hafsteinn Jonsson to thank. Peter simply wanted to demonstrate that it was possible to achieve such blazing fast speeds.
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Great news for Filipino would-be nurses! I read that Pearson VUE, a computer-based testing provider for certification and licensure exams, will be opening up a testing center in Manila. This means that nursing graduates who aspire to work in the USA need not go to Hongkong for the NCLEX examinations.

From the website:

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN®) authorized Pearson VUE to expand testing availability for the NCLEX® examination to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Exam delivery begins at the Pearson VUE-owned and -operated Pearson Professional Center in Manila on August 23, 2007 and exam scheduling opens Friday, July 13, 2007.

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Anyone else seeing a change in the Adsense homepage?

This is a BIG improvement from the old one:
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I think I just had a tech orgasm.

Touted as “a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet communications device”, the Apple iPhone uses a touchscreen navigation and comes with the Safari browser, integrated Google search and maps, free Yahoo push IMAP email (a la BlackBerry), runs OSX and widgets. The big let-down is that Apple struck an exclusive deal with Cingular Wireless, which will start selling the phone in June 2007 with a binding 2-year contract. Worse, it won’t reach Asian markets till 2008! But I’m sure the black market will somehow get its hands on it soon enough, IMO. iPhone will set you back $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for 8GB. For sure, this is the phone that’ll replace my Sony Ericsson W800i.

Quick video demo after the jump.
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Related Link: Best iPhone Deal. Visit our store now.

I’m not a practicing Catholic. I don’t go to church except when I’m forced to or when it’s Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. So really, there’s no place for me to give a righteous reaction to the current media/Internet circus surrounding Bryanboy. He’s getting exactly what he craves for: attention. And boy did he get it, albeit unexpectedly.

Honestly, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Bryanboy gave his opinion when he decided to post those controversial pictures of his European friend posing beside a statue of Jesus Christ, whom he considers “his fucking homeboy”. Some name-calling ensued, touting him the next Anti-Christ, one starting an online petition that, unsurprisingly, didn’t flourish. If you ask me, I couldn’t care less. I didn’t find anything offensive about those pictures, which take note, Bryanboy isn’t in. He did say he loved Jesus, right? “Fucking homeboy”, although quite crass, was vaguely well-intended. If you browse his site long enough, this guy isn’t supposed to be taken seriously. He’s a miles away from even a fraction of newsworthiness. It’s simple. If you don’t like him, stop going to his site! By the way, how and why did Kenneth Ocampo end up there in the first place?
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Marc Macalua recently wrote about Google Setting Up Shop in the Philippines. Like everyone else, I’m excited! This is major. I actually know about this already, thanks to Marc and a certain telling post at the SEO Philippines discussion group (hehe).
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It’s limited, but hey, it’s a start.

Looks like J. Angelo’s PayPal for the Philippines movement is seeing fruition. Filipinos can now purchase wares on the Internet via PayPal but is limited to only $100 unless a credit card is verified. However, receiving funds is still impossible which most of us are really after. But I don’t see that happening until the appropriate legislation is passed that will get us off the list of money laundering countries.

But still, I’m happy of this development. Will start shopping tomorrow and see how it goes. Good job, Angelo!

I decided to put my blog to the test using CrazyEgg’s heatmap visualization after all the rave reviews it got from the likes of Matt Mullenweg, David Hansson and TechCrunch. Unfortunately, since I inserted the required Javascript code, I’m getting errors from both Firefox and IE.

Screenshot after the jump.
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Google Adsense emailed its publishers with a ton of cool improvements to its service.

Most notably:

AdSense for search results on your site
Search results are now served on your site via IFRAME. This means your visitors don’t have to veer away from your page every time they search.
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I ran into an amusing article published in the Inquirer a while ago called “Tech-savvy movers and shakers” written by Gabriel Mercado. It tells us how some entrepreneurs are utilizing Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook for their business operations.
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Forget the Capulets and Montagues, the Hatfields and the McCoys.

It’s all about Diddy versus Diddy.

Sean “Diddy” Combs was sued by another Diddy in the UK for “causing confusion” and unfair competition. Music producer Richard “Diddy” Dearlove wants Combs to stop using the “Diddy” moniker as it allegedly caused some Puerto Rican teenagers to email him asking him to be in music videos or to check out their fashion designs. Like there’s anything wrong with that! Hehehe. Now Sean Combs has to change his name for the fourth time. He was once known as “Puffy” and “Puff Daddy”. As a designer he’s Sean John. What is with celebrities? They can’t seem to stick to one name. Remember when Prince wanted to known as the artist formerly known as Prince? Now he’s back to Prince! I know, it’s nuts. Publicity stunt? I guess.

The Internet is just as schizophrenic. Its known multiple personas are Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. I heard that Web 2.0 is the most sociable. Javascript has a superhero alter-ego, AJAX, who saves his girlfriend Ruby who seems to be always tied up on rails.

Then there are those Web 2.0 geeks who spit out cute names such as Mojizu, Meebo, Wablet, Zimbio, Blipstar, Ojor, Kroodle during lunch breaks. Do venture capitalists have penchants for such cutesyness? Well, nowadays they want to be called “seed financiers”. That’s a resounding yes to me.

Now that ex-Diddy has settled with the first Diddy, what is Dearlove going to do with Web 2.0 startup VDiddy?

Just like my post less than two months ago about the whole Paul Bowers fiasco, here comes another similar incident involving Gail Dela Cruz, a Filipino web designer whose web template was stolen by a creep named Al Sembrano.

Here’s a summary. Sembrano hires Dela Cruz to design a book cover and website for him for which Dela Cruz was paid an undisclosed amount. Sembrano decides that he only liked the book cover and not the website so he demands a refund for that part which Dela Cruz gave back. But in a spectacular heist, Sembrano asks a different programmer to take the website design he “rejected” and use it anyway for not one, but two of his websites.
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