A Foreigner in the Philippines…

Incredible but true. The word this morning is that the same country which spent ten years trying to convince the world that it occupies the ‘moral high-ground’ in it’s supposed “War Against Terror” is now un-ashamedly working with the terrorists in Syria and helping to train them!

This is according to the Fox News here and would apparently signal an about-turn in US policy, as the previous ‘Bush’ administration were at least publicly, very anti-terrorist. One can only imagine that this new policy of the Obama administration would cause significant friction between the two leaders (assuming that Bush was genuine in his dislike of terrorism).

John Kerry, the US Secretary of State went on to confirm, according to Fox News, that the US had pledged a further $60,000,000.00 (that’s 60 million dollars for those whose eyes fog-up at the sight of so many zeros), on top of whatever they have already given. This comes at a time when the US people are being told to tighten their belts as massive cuts in public spending take affect across the US.

This certainly raises a few questions. Not least, the following:

• Does the US have the support of it’s citizens for using their hard-earned taxes for such a cause of arming anti-government terrorists in a country that most American’s have no reason to ever visit or do any business with?
• How much money has the US previously allocated or already given to those terrorists?

This author is wondering how the US would respond if roughly 50% of it’s citizens (say the Muslims, since in Syria it’s a religious conflict), were to rise up against the authorities with the aim of forcibly replacing their government with their own leadership? Are we to believe that the US would not use everything at their disposal to quash the uprising? Given their heavy-handed response to a handful of peaceful demonstrators, I find that hard to believe. So how can they wag their fingers at Assad for his use of heavy military to combat the heavy weaponry being used against his leadership

Comments very welcome.

March 6th, 2013 | Tags: Assad, Bush, Kerry, Obama, terrorism, US | Category: Hall of Shame, International, Politics | Leave a comment

I’ve now been using my new Acer Aspire 4752G notebook computer for about two months. I purchased it from Octagon Computers in Megamal, Ortigas for P29,900 back in may.

Please download this PDF document to view the detailed specification. In a nutshell though:

Appearances 9/10

Despite it’s light metallic blue appearance, my wife still told me that she finds it effeminate and that it doesn’t suit me! Maybe because the blue is a light blue with a patterned and metallic finish, or maybe because my previous laptop was matt black all over and looked like the kind of rugged machine one might take onto the battle field, I don’t know, but what I can tell you is that I personally find the appearance of this laptop quite appealing.

It has an untextured glossy finish, which I suspect will assist me in keeping it clean. I find it stylish and modern looking.

Keyboard 2/10

Even in the store, I was disappointed at the style of the keyboards on modern laptops there in comparison to the keyboards of previous laptops I had seen. The keys now are just flat slabs of plastic with the characters printed on. This is obviously cheaper to make than the fully formed/molded variety and the four millimeter gap between them makes their placement less critical. I took an immediate dislike to the new style in the store and had their been ANY laptop with a conventional keyboard, I would have bought that instead!

In practice, on the first day of operation, there was something, possibly a biscuit crumb, which was preventing a button from operating. I lived with that for a day or two until I managed to clear it.

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July 28th, 2012 | Tags: acer, aspire 4752G, heat, keyboard, power consumption | Category: Hardware, Reviews | Leave a comment

Bookkeeper.ph are interested in speaking to people with the following skills. We are not expecting to find all these skills in one person, although, the more knowledge you have in the other areas outside of your own specialty the better.

• MySQL database optimization and deployment specialist. Experience in replication, backup and encrypted tables is a must.
• Apache webserver optimization, configuration, deployment and clustering.
• Experience in Linux cloud hosting environments. Advanced networking skills required.
• PHP programmer to be dedicated to PHP application security. Testing and finding and correcting security defects.
• PHP application developers with MVC and OOP experience. Familiarity with GIT is a big advantage.
• Application front end graphic designer.
• Programmers with extensive skills in HTML5, PHP, and jQuery, JavaScript and ajax.
• Support personnel to man LiveChat incoming support requests. Must be fully comfortable to converse both in verbal and written English.

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July 26th, 2012 | Tags: bookkeeper.ph, cloud hosting, employment, javascript, job opportunity, jquery, MySQL, php, programmer | Category: Doing Business, International, Linux, Programming, Web Design | Leave a comment

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Pass_the_Philippine_Freedom_of_Information_FOI_Act_Now/?cKMRabb

The Philippines is on the verge of passing a landmark law that could help clean up our government — but without a surge of public support right now, we could lose this historic opportunity.

If passed, this Freedom of Information law would shine a light into dark corners of our democracy, exposing corruption and preventing abuses of power. President Aquino ran for election on an anti-corruption platform, and endorsed the law in January this year. Still the FOI bill remains languishing in the House of Representatives — and without our support, it will die there.

The President’s State of the Nation address is on Monday. Let’s put him on notice. This one law can give us a tool to press our government for better policies and services for years to come — sign and share the petition now.

Please follow the link above and share it with your friends and family. Using the link, you can send an automatic email to the President.

July 21st, 2012 | Tags: foi, freedom of information | Category: Politics | Leave a comment

In the Philippines, if you are working class or above you normally pay for your childs’ education at a private school. You might think that that will have bought your child a gauranteed number of school days, but unfortunately this is not the case.

Unless using one of the high-end schools which most parents cannot afford, the school apparently still has the right to cancel classes at a moments notice, for no reason, without even giving a refund for the missed time. Yes, they normally give a reason, but it’s usually just a prop. For example, I received a call from my 13 year olds’ school a few minutes ago, informing me that classes were cancelled. No reason was offered, but when I inquired, I was told that the owner had decided to cancel classes due to ‘the typhoon’.

After I hung up the phone, I thought I’d better check this out and as you can see from the included screen-shot, there is no typhoon today or even in recent days!

It’s not sunny right now, but neither is it raining or windy. It did rain a bit during the night though although I fail to see what’s wrong with that. Looks like there is clear blue sky emerging from the east too, which I’m sure will be here shortly (although, personally, I find a little cloud cover a welcome break from the strong sunshine that we’re sure to be experiencing by lunch time. More »

July 20th, 2012 | Category: Education, Hall of Shame, Poor Service | Leave a comment

After multiple appalling experiences dealing with this national communications company here in the Philippines over the last seven years, I finally have had a pleasing interaction with them, which I would like to relate to you.
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July 19th, 2012 | Tags: dsl, modem, pldt | Category: Communications, Doing Business, Great Service | Comments (1)

My experience of banking in the Philippines has been amazingly stressful (due mainly to my dealings with HSBC), although one bank here is consistently standing out from the crowd and I think deserves a special mention.

It’s not often I give out praise on this site, due mainly to the fact that I find few companies here dealing in a manner worthy of praise, so when I do give it out, you know that the company must have earned it!
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July 19th, 2012 | Tags: citibank, customer service, praise | Category: Banking, Doing Business, Great Service | Leave a comment