He’s either a Android fan or simply confused. An 11-year old boy in the US urinated on a gaggle of Apple Macbooks in his school causing them to be “damaged beyond repair”

According to this news report, this incident happened at the Upper Allen Elementary school. Total damage is projected at $36,000.

Police “charged the boy with institutional vandalism and criminal mischief and are turning him over to the Cumberland County Juvenile Probation Department.”

Sigh.

Don’t forget to share! Thanks!

Let’s pause. For these words of wisdom

Via 9Gag

Talk about lavish hobbies. While I’m excited at building Gundam and other model kits, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer is building a working replica of the RMS Titanic! And, like all products in our planet, it will be “Made in China”.

According to this post from Yahoo, Palmer commissioned the Chinese to build the superliner with a planned voyage from England to New York in 2016.

Palmer, a self-made mining billionaire, said he had commissioned state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to construct Titanic II with the same dimensions as its predecessor.

“It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems,” Palmer said in a statement.

“Titanic II will sail in the northern hemisphere and her maiden voyage from England to North America is scheduled for late 2016.”

He added that he had invited the Chinese navy to escort the Titanic II to New York.

Good luck to Palmer and the Chinese.

I can’t wait to see what this made-in-China Titanic will look like.

For those of you not in the know, May 4 is the annual Star Wars day.

Happy May 4th to everyone.

“May the 4th Be With You.”

Check out the amazing schedule over for May the 4th here

And don’t forget to share!

It took almost a year to negotiate with the top telcos in the land. Now, PLDT and Globe landline users can get daily RSS or full-article voice “read-backs” of my blog articles! Talk about awesome technology!

The county’s premier telcos have unveiled their latest technology.

With an investment of over P500 Million, they are allowing bloggers and other websites to have their RSS feeds and even full articles to be retrieved via their landline networks.

And I’m so lucky that the blog of yours truly has been picked among those to do the pilot program beginning today!

Just dial 1-800-GMT (1-800-468) from ANY LANDLINE!

So awesome! Thanks to the executives at the top telcos for putting their trust in me and the blogging community.

This is indicative of how resourceful the Filipino can be when it comes to ICT and Internet technologies. Sweet!

And oh, don’t forget to share!

Thanks!

Designer Peter Fecteau used 4,242 pieces of Rubix Cubes to create an amazing work of art – a mural of Martin Luther King. Entitled “Dream Big”, the piece measures 5.8m x 2.6m x 5.7cm and roughly weighs around 454kg.

More pics…

Here’s a video pa…

Awesome,yes?

Don’t forget to share!

[ source ]

I won’t lie. Surveys have reported a huge decline in blogs for the past two years. So, the question remains; “Is Blogging dead?”. For me, the answer is both a “yes” and a “no”. Read on.

IS BLOGGING DEAD?

According to this source, blogs have “declined from 50% of the Inc 500 in 2010 to 37% in 2011, while it’s remained constant at 23%”. A couple of years ago, everyone and his brother had a blog. All companies, brands, big and small had blogs. Now, if you check the old blogs you frequented, you’ll find that most of them have either closed or remained stale due to the lack of updates.

What has contributed to this decline?

• Facebook - Facebook continues its aim to dominate the world. Zuckerberg and crew can’t seem to do anything wrong. Facebook has allowed companies and individuals to do their “blogging” there. It’s so easy to maintain. And since everyone checks it daily, you’re sure to get more hits and return visits than old blogging sites or blog-based services. For now, there isn’t a way to monetize the traffic (yet). But brands have relied on Facebook via the “Page”. A couple of years ago, I wrote an article on why it was important for brands to make their own brand pages instead of profiles. It seems that I don’t need to explain myself again.
• Twitter and microblogging – Want to share your sandwich? Your coffee? It’s easier to just Tweet it rather than spend a couple of minutes on the blog platform. Twitter has allowed a lot of bloggers to capture their targeted audience and still maintain their presence in the Internet.
• Greed – bloggers who look up to successful bloggers tried to join the bandwagon and attempted to make blogs to make money. It doesn’t work that way. A lot failed. That’s why there was a surge of bloggers 2 or 3 years ago. Today, only the true blooded bloggers remain.
• The debate on who should be a journalist – There’s a huge rift between bloggers and journalists. And they have their own “camps” too. Even laws were passed to either merge the two or “divide the line”, so to speak. Old school journalists do not recognize anyone with a laptop, a digital camera and a smartphone as a real journalist. The debate goes on.

Meanwhile, blogger and web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis said in an interview “”The concept of journalism is going away. It is not enough to be a writer. You need to be a writer and an expert.” Calacanis goes on to say that there is a new “Web 3.0″ and it’s going to be “The Age of Expertise”.

For me, I think he’s on to something.

Blogging will still be here but only those who remain true to blogging’s ideals will prevail. They will retain their followers if they cater to their own communities and provide fresh, new and relevant content. Content will still be key. But now, content is easily devoured via Facebook, Twitter and all those other micro-blogging platforms. Our iPhones and Android phones can give us news and content anytime, anywhere and it is devoured fast. Your news could be stale in a matter of minutes. Before, you could still afford to be fresh even if you posted it a few days later.

In the end, blogging will have a lot more opportunities in terms of monetization because only a few are doing it now.

That’s why us bloggers, need to hone our skills and become experts rather than just ordinary “sharers”.

Keep the flame, burning!

Peace!

image via Gettyimages (royalty free)

The first time I got my iPhone 4s, I was quite happy with the data plan speeds (Smart). I was reaching up to a maximum of 4.6MBPS on certain areas (like Makati, at work). Recently, the past week has been slow as hell. I thought it was due to me capping the speeds because of my MB consumption.

This started around a week ago. I continuously did troubleshooting, restarted the device and even read up on possible causes on the web. Speedtests indicate that now I get only about 0.03 MBPS on the average. That’s like a dial-up speed on a supposedly 4G network. Sheesh!

My iPhone plan allowed me 1.5 Gig per month consumption when using cellular data. The iPhone can track your consumption (Settings > General > Usage > Cellular Usage). My phone clocked in at only 280MB of usage for the first 30 days. So I called up Smart Customer Support for assistance. The agent told me that there was no network interruption or problem. I told him that it could be that the system cannot cope up with the demand. For me, that was the only logical explanation once I tried to eliminate the other possibilities. The agent then replied that he’d get back to me in 24 hours after escalating my concern with their IT guys. I asked if I already capped my 1GB consumption. He said “unlikely”.

Fast forward 4 days, still no response.

This is really frustrating. Especially for a customer’s perspective. I’m paying P2,000 per month just to have the convenience of having unlimited data – to be able to check email anytime, browse my social networks, search the web, use the GPS and do all the fun things that a Smartphone user can – upload photos, share anything, keep in touch with family and friends.

But if the network cannot handle the sheer volume of users after spending top dollar to market the iPhone, then this may be a success story that can easily backfire for Smart.

I just posted my problems at their Smart Facebook page and hopefully I get an answer soon.

So, calling the attention of the top honchos of Smart; here’s an unsolicited advice – please look into this problem and find solutions ASAP. I know I’m not the only one having this problem, some officemates and friends with the similar Smart iPhone plan have also experienced it.

Please fix this soon. Otherwise, you’ll be facing the ire of Unli-Data subscribers all over the country.

Thanks!

 Turtle image c/o GettyImages (Royalty-Free) http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/turtle-on-meadow-royalty-free-image/91273911

On January 27 to 29, the International Game Developers Association – Manila Chapter (IGDA Manila) presents Manila Game Jam 2012 (MGJ 2012), the biggest annual game-making event in the country. As part of the worldwide Global Game Jam, students, professional and hobbyist game developers will create games in just 48 hours, with the top games being awarded honors and special prizes.

MGJ 2012 is the 3rd game jam organized by IGDA Manila. Last year’s game jam had more than 80 participants forming 18 teams and producing more than 20 games. Among these submissions, the game “Speck” made it to the top ten games of the Game Sauce Challenge, showing that Filipino developers have what it takes to create globally competitive games.
This year, IGDA Manila partners with Developers Connect Philippines (DevCon), the University of the Philippines Information Technology Training Center (UP ITTC) and De La Salle – College of St. Benilde (DLS-CSB) to make MGJ 2012 the best game jam to date. MGJ 2012 will be held in two sites, UP ITTC and DLS-CSB, to accommodate more participants and share the game-making experience with more people.

Similar to last year, a one-day game-making seminar will be conducted on January 20 in DLS-CSB, a week prior to MGJ 2012. Talks will be given by previous jam participants, discussing their game-making experience with tips and tricks on how to churn out a game in 48 hours. This seminar is free and open to all aspiring game developers, and will also serve as an orientation for this year’s participants.

MGJ 2012 is co-presented by Boomzap, Nokia and Accenture, with additional sponsorship from Microsoft, Anino Games, Proudcloud, Zachtronics Industries, Introversion Software, Casual Connect, Globe Labs, Unity 3D, Webgeekph.com and Spot.ph

Seeya there folks!

Pass the word around. We appreciate it.

More info? http://igdamanila.org/

Most online bingo players have heard of progressive jackpots at one time or another. Many players are unfamiliar with the concept of what a progressive jackpot really is. According to Wikipedia, a progressive jackpot is a jackpot that increases a small amount for every game played. Normally several machines are linked to form one large jackpot. The jackpot grows quickly because there are more players contributing to the final jackpot. Progressive jackpots are very common on slot machines. One of the most popular slots, Mega Moolah, has awarded several jackpots of over a million dollars. Progressive jackpots are also common at online bingo sites.

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