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Google TechTalk Photos

Published terribly early in the morning of November 23, 2007

Last Monday’s Google TechTalk at the AIM in Makati was widely received with developers from various local companies in attendance. Though most were certainly clamoring for deeper technical discussions on the various technologies tackled, it would be best to see this as a sampler of things to come, especially now that it’s known that our local developer community has a healthy interest in most of Google’s products and technologies.

As many of us would expect, it was also a semi–blogger event with several of us in attendance. Juned, as usual, found a reason to leave from work early just to be there. AJ was there early to help out with the registration. Karla & Eugene were also there, but no, I’m not insinuating they came together:

Though of course they couldn’t match the cliquebooth sets from these two whom I’d rather not name:

I had the chance to meet more bloggers like Jehz and a few others I couldn’t remember right now. (I told you to write your URLs on your ID tags. Market, market, market! ;)) And with Jehz around, you probably wouldn’t remember the others anyway with the way this man glams it up for the camera. He was probably in 20% of all cliquebooth photos printed.

With his distinct Summer of Code shirt, no one could miss Ruben Canlas. I want one exactly like that! I also saw Mark of Shutter Box Philippines and RoR hacker Luis, whom I caught coding during the talks!

I have some more photos of the event (multiply–mirrored, as usual) but it’s probably the cliquebooth photos you’d love to see.

Of course the obligatory Markku & Dax photo had to be there.

14 Replies· 2007.11.23

Sawa ka na ba?

Published in the wee hours of November 19, 2007

You probably missed this milestone just like me, but come December 16, we will be there. You and me, in silence. As one.

Come in blue, let’s watch the beautiful Manila Bay sunset, 4PM until the sun sleeps, Baywalk/Roxas Boulevard. Sunday Silence II. Sabi nga ni Gang:

Silent majority, have your silence felt.

Kita tayo dun ha.

8 Replies· 2007.11.19

Five on Friday: Christmas Playlists

Published in the early evening of November 16, 2007

You know Christmas is almost here when you can hardly rise in the morning with the sleep–inducing cold weather, like yesterday. Combined the with rain, it feels like everyone is excused to take a short nap every few hours. Or minutes. Not that I’m exactly required to stay awake all day, unlike most corporate zombies, but I do need to get up and eat and do some work. Really.

Here in our house, my sister couldn’t stop playing Christmas songs after I “found” some of our favorite Christmas songs back in our childhood days. For good measure, I keep them in my iPod too, so I can feel the season’s spirit anywhere and anytime I want, but only without the financial abundance. I can feel like a kid again, at least for a few songs’ length.

Here’s five Christmas albums in my current rotation:

1. Christmas in our Hearts (Jose Mari Chan)
   Every Filipino knows this, especially those born a bit before or after me. Though cheesy to some, this is still one of the better pinoy Christmas albums out there.
2. The Jackson 5 Christmas Album (Jackson 5)
   Michael Jackson when he was still black, and male. A groovy take on typical Christmas songs, plus their own memorable tracks.
3. White Christmas (Bing Crosby)
   This one dates back to the 1940’s, yet you’ll still enjoy it every year, no matter how cheesy–classic it may sound.
4. Christmas in the Stars (Various Artists)
   This is a personal favorite. My dad had a tape of this when CDs were yet to be used, and features C3PO, R2D2, and Chewbacca singing funny Christmas tunes. Some say the whole album sounds stupid, but to me it simply spells fun.
5. Fruitcake (Easerheads)
   One of the most ambitious pinoy Christmas album ever made, with a hardcover book accompanying it. This one shows the creative genius of the Eraserheads and the people behind them, how they made their own story of Christmas. If you haven’t listened to this before, don’t miss it now.

As you can see, I prefer to listen to complete albums instead of songs or a playlist of multiple artists. I just grew up listening to music this way, like how you would with a Sony Walkman and tapes you shouldn’t rewind or forward because it’s gonna ruin your player. So you kept a ballpen always handy, spinning the tape if you had to get to your favorite song. Remember that?

So what are you listening to this Christmas?

11 Replies· 2007.11.16

You win some, you lose some

Published terribly early in the morning of November 15, 2007

While raising the lightstand for Mimi & Karl as they take engagement photos, I often try to snap a few clicks hoping for a beside–the–scene glimpse at a heartfelt moment slowly (or more often, quickly) unfolding. Sometimes, I get lucky.

Just minutes before the session that produced the photo above, I was trailing Karl as we walked briskly to survey the scene and catch the last light of day when he suddenly stopped — a rainbow, just before the sun completely sleeps under the horizon:

It must’ve been my lucky day, as the rainbow could only suggest. And with one reasonably blog–worthy photo, I have a reason to believe it.

And then it happened.

As I tried snapping a few more as we got back to the couple’s place, my cam greeted me, albeit sadly, with a bright red on grey message: “Error 99.” The mother of all Canon digital SLR errors, a signal of bad (and costly) things to come. Karl tried to diagnose the issue, but listening to the shutter, all I could hear was a teasing familiar sound. The sound of a broken shutter mechanism. I’m most likely right, I heard this sound before. This unit’s still under warranty coverage so I hope it’s fixed soon without having to miss some assignments. The wait isn’t gonna be fun but I’ll have my backup for the meantime.

You win some, you lose some. I guess I won a photo I like, and a rainbow. But I lost my cam. Hopefully for just a short while though.

I’ll be at Canon’s service center first thing in the morning, and I pray they get me shooting again in no time.

15 Replies· 2007.11.15

I dream that one day…

Published in the wee hours of November 9, 2007

… my photograph will be there.

A photo I took, of course, not a portrait of me.

It’s not too much to ask for the stars once in a while, in your dreams.

21 Replies· 2007.11.09

Cheat your way to a cleaner desktop

Published terribly early in the morning of November 8, 2007

When I ran into AJ’s entry entitled “View My Desktop,” I found out there was a meme spreading amongst local bloggers that provided a glimpse into their workstation desktops — wallpaper, icons, widgets, and all. There were some who had neat, clutter–free desktops, while others had their wallpaper barely viewable with all the icons strewn around. Much like mine, before:

No, this is not an entry for gloating about a Mac. In fact, that isn’t even a Mac, it’s good ol’ Mac–pretending Windows XP with a custom theme/shellstyle called “BW,” paired with the default wallpaper from Mac OS X Leopard. Look at the badly organized state of my desktop; I almost couldn’t find what I need without looking closely. It is a struggle getting rid of every file and icon especially with Firefox’s preference of placing downloaded files right on the desktop. Every few days, all possible icon spots on the imaginary grid get filled and I while away my time inspecting which files I can delete. Which may be why I can hardly do any work, or at least that’s the way I’d like to believe.

With a little work and research though, I discovered a cheat to a cleaner desktop, producing this:

A cheat? Yes, I call it a cheat because simply put, it is! Thanks to a nifty little app called “Iconoid,” I can pretend to be one organized cool dude with no icons on my wannabe–a–mac desktop.

The icons are still there, the app just automatically hides them after a few seconds, a preference you can set in its configuration options. A click on the bare desktop shows my icons and files, taking me back to my cluttered electronic reality. Just long enough for me to click on what I need though, then the icons are gone again! The good thing about this, you don’t need to bother yourself with all the clutter until you need them. Web browsing or hacking away in a text editor, your desktop will stay clean and virtually, though artificially, clutter free. Now you can pretend to do real work.

But work’s still not getting done. Maybe I need one of those newly updated Apple MacBooks after all?

8 Replies· 2007.11.08

Withdraw AdSense earnings through Western Union Quick Cash

Published in the wee hours of November 7, 2007

Google AdSense has offered payments through Western Union Quick Cash for some time now, but not for publishers in the Philippines. The day they finally announced the Western Union option for Filipino site–owners, I was more than excited to try it myself.

Around two years ago, I lost my second AdSense check in the mail. It was sent through regular mail, and was stolen and then encashed in faraway Dagupan, Pangasinan. After than incident, I made it my policy to only receive my payments using the secure payment option, sent through DHL. Sadly, it was also a 24 dollar hit for every check sent. By offering payments using Western Union Quick Cash, Google has provided a secure alternative without charge. An early holiday present for pinoy publishers?

With my driver’s license and a few other extra ID cards in hand, I went to the RCPI–Western Union branch inside Robinson’s Galleria, just near Handyman and Chowking at the ground level. Turns out it was easier than I expected.

I had to fill out a form for receiving money, as well as another information sheet that they kept for record purposes. Since it was quite redundant filling out two forms with the same type of fields, I asked. The second one was for future transactions made with the same branch, and you have to fill out another one if you were to transact with another Western Union partner. I guess I’m going to the same branch for AdSense payments from now on.

Just as Google instructed, I had a government–issued ID with me, my driver’s license. But as I guessed, they asked for two valid IDs. I explained I only had one, and showed them the print screen printout of Google’s instructions. For good measure, I handed my expired PRC license as well as a few other old IDs. They asked how much I was expecting, and upon my response, they were very friendly and accommodated my transaction without issues. A little chikka can really help, you know…

With AdSense payments through Western Union Quick Cash and online transactions through PayPal Philippines, local online entrepreneurs now have more options for their business. It would be exciting to know what ventures will soon sprout as a result of these developments.

13 Replies· 2007.11.07