Quaere Verum

It's the second last day of the year. It's been more or less a good year I suppose...still had my fair share of hard knocks. Perhaps even more than years past. I guess things are looking up now...though my losses are still pretty apparent. I hope 2012 turns out to be a better year than 2011.

I cannot recommend any of their (e-Games') online games to any online gamer who values security and the integrity of their accounts. Last November 1, around 4:00 PM, I was logged in on Cabal Online PH , a Korean MMORPG published locally by E-Games using my PC at home. With my character just idly standing in the vicinity of Bloody Ice (one of the first three towns of the game) and while I was tending to other things, all of a sudden the account logged off. Thinking it was only a network problem, I tried logging on again, only to be given the message that my account was already active. I logged on, only to be disconnected again, with the message that someone else was logging in my account. I tried logging on again, got disconnected, and tried logging again several times in succession. After several minutes I finally got my account logged on. When I selected the character I was online with only a few moments ago, it was stripped naked. Checking the inventory and personal storage, my...

Doing the seemingly hurtful thing is the only way to get the message across.

Just a few days ago I bought a new notebook computer to replace my trusty yet aging Compaq Presario CQ40-107AU . That notebook served me well for three years, and it'll still continue to serve my purposes here at home, no longer as my main portable unit. So what did I replace it with? I replaced it, of all things, a Samsung . Yes, I admit, Samsung is not really a brand that comes to mind when talking about notebook computers. Until only a few years ago, they were all but unknown in the portable computing segment. Now, they seem set to be a force to be reckoned with in this product category, the same way they started out before virtually dominating sales of LCD TVs and mobile phones. And their tablets aren't that bad either, having owned a Galaxy Tab for several months now . It's not that I set out from the start to get a Samsung notebook computer. I do my notebook shopping the same way I've always done...with a budget and set of specs in mind. Then I set out to fi...

For some reason, a lot of my colleagues at work and even some of my friends in their homes prefer to position their PCs on the floor, leaving only their monitors, keyboards and mice on their tables. Frankly, I don't think this is such a good idea. True, the jumble of cables coming from the rear of a PC isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing, but if one values reliability, durability and ease of use above aesthetics, it is always preferable to position a PC in an elevated position such as on a table, and not to leave it on the floor. Reasons: Modern PCs have plenty of components which generate a lot of heat such as the CPU, the northbridge chip, power supply and video card among others. To keep these components cool, a PC typically has at least two fans, often more, and are configured to suck cool air from the front of the PC, through the chassis and out through the power supply and/or an exhaust fan at the rear. A PC on the floor tends to suck up the dirt, dust and grime on t...

Just a repost. You never know who might notice. Anyone here interested in purchasing or leasing a plot of commercial land located along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City? It's my father's property, and it has a lot area of 2,844 sqm., with a number of residential improvements. The frontage is a bit on the small side, at 14 m., but it directly faces Commonwealth Ave. The lot has been on the market for quite a while, but since the real estate market has been down for some time now...well you know how it is. Just in case you're interested, or know someone who is, please feel free to leave a comment or to email me at ronallandottk@yahoo.com . To cut the hassle, would prefer to deal with direct buyers only. Sometimes it can be quite hard dealing with a multitude of brokers and middlemen...you know how that is too. :-) You can also call 9315575 if you have any inquiries. Siteplan of the property. Aerial view. The road at the top of the photo is Commonwealth Avenue. Here's a ti...

19 months ago , I bought a brand new 2009 Hyundai i10 for use as a daily driver to replace the aging 1994 Nissan Sentra I've been driving for several years now. Well, after 20,000 km, I'm pleased to report the car has exceeded all my expectations of Hyundai in general, and of a small city car in particular. To be perfectly honest though, the Hyundai i10 was not really my first choice for a new car. I've always driven subcompacts before, and I've never driven a car as small as the i10. Like most people, I assumed a city car would be tight on the inside, slow on acceleration, low on power on inclines, and basically full of compromises all throughout. I would have preferred to buy another subcompact, but alas, like most other people, I gravitated to what I could afford and not necessarily what I wanted. Fortunately, it all worked out in the end. The i10 is roomier than looking at it from the outside would suggest. It's at least as roomy than the old Nissan Sentra I u...

Even right out of the box, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is an eminently useful device. Turn it on for the first time, click on Applications , and almost everything you need is already there, ready to use. A built-in alarm clock, web browser, calendar, music player, calculator, camera, contacts, newsreader, eBook reader, email, memo pad, file manager, navigation, instant messaging, social networking, office suite, you name it, it's probably already there. You could probably get by using just the preinstalled applications and wouldn't miss a thing. But the Galaxy Tab is more than just the features it already has. It's a full-fledged tablet computer using the very flexible and open Android operating system . As such, it has the potential to be much more than what it was brand new. This is where the Android Market comes in. The Android Market features hundreds, if not thousands of applications for the Android operating system, and many of them are absolutely free . So other than th...

Can't get this video out of my head. We're pretty arrogant to think that we're the only beings on this planet capable of feeling emotions. The cat above clearly recognizes the dead cat as a companion that it just can't leave behind, and it does everything it can to revive it. You can sense it's frustration as its efforts prove fruitless, and it's sadness and realization of loss is palpable in the end. We don't need to anthromorphize the cat. It's expressing it's feelings much like any human would. And unlike any human, its emotions are clear and pure, uncluttered by human abstracts such as intent, malice, or conformity. If only animals can speak.

It used to be that techheads and geeks were few and far between. And that's still true, as far as the real techies are concerned. As for "wannabe techies", they seem to coming out all over the place, and worse, they're multiplying like rabbits. We have the decreasing cost of technology to thank for that. It used to be that tech gadgets cost an arm and a leg. Not anymore. Desktop PCs, notebooks, netbooks, digital cameras, MP3 players, cellphones, etc., have been commoditized to the point that you can buy a perfectly decent sample of any of these things for just a reasonable amount of money. And if it breaks, it's probably even cheaper to just buy new instead of having it repaired. Tablets are likely to be the next big thing to be turned into mere commodities. Manufacturers are launching new models left and right, and the makers who deal in huge volumes like Acer , Asus , HP , etc. are getting in on the action. It's a safe bet that in a year or two, tablets, re...

The much awaited Android 2.3.3 ("Gingerbread") upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy Tab has finally made it's way to the Philippines after months of waiting, and thankfully, installing the update is a relatively painless exercise. You need the following to perform the upgrade: Your Samsung Galaxy Tab (with the older 2.2 "Froyo" Android OS ), battery fully charged (just to be on the safe side); Data cable; The latest version of Samsung Kies (latest version as of this posting is v2.0.0.11044_11_3); PC with internet connection. The time to complete the process depends a lot on the speed of your internet access. In my case it took about half an hour on a modest 1 Mbps DSL connection. Connect the Galaxy Tab to the PC via data cable and run Samsung Kies. Depending on how you have your Tab set up it will either automatically connect itself to the Samsung Kies application, or it will ask you to select a USB mode. If it does, select Samsung Kies. Once the tablet is recognize...

Two old guys, one 80 and one 87, were sitting on their usual park bench one morning. The 87 year old had just finished his morning jog and wasn't even short of breath. The 80 year old was amazed at his friend's stamina and asked him what he did to have so much energy. The 87 year old said, "Well, I eat rye bread every day. It keeps your energy level high and you'll have great stamina with the ladies." So, on the way home the 80 year old stops at the bakery. As he was looking around, the lady asked if he needed any help. He said "Do you have any Rye bread?" She said, "Yes, there's a whole shelf of it. Would you like some?" He said, "I want 5 loaves." She said, "My goodness, 5 loaves ... By the time you get to the 3rd loaf, it'll be hard." He replied, "I can't believe it, everybody knows about this shit but me."

Things don't work out. Even if you try to do the right thing.

One day, in line at the company cafeteria, Phil says to Mike behind him, "My elbow hurts like hell. I guess I'd better see a doctor." "Listen, you don't have to spend that kind of money," Mike replies. "There's a diagnostic computer down at Costco. Just give it a urine sample and the computer will tell you what's wrong and what to do about it. It takes ten seconds and costs ten dollars - A lot cheaper than a doctor." So, Phil deposits a urine sample in a small jar and takes it to Costco. He deposits ten dollars and the computer lights up and asks for the urine sample... He pours the sample into the slot and waits. Ten seconds later, the computer ejects a printout: "You have tennis elbow. Soak your arm in warm water and avoid heavy activity.. It will improve in two weeks. Thank you for shopping @ Costco.." That evening, while thinking how amazing this new technology was, Phil began wondering if the computer could be fooled. He mixe...

The title of this blog post is a nod towards Ralph Nader's polemic 1965 book of the same title, responsible for bringing the issue of automotive safety into the eyes of the American public. Maybe, just maybe, this post could have a similar effect with respect to the Philippine public regarding the ubiquitous passenger jeepney. In May of 2005, I wrote a blog post about why passenger jeepneys should be phased out. After six years, I think the time is right to revisit this issue. Let's get straight to the point. My opinion on this hasn't changed. I personally feel that contemporary jeepneys should be phased out. Jeepneys are throwbacks to a long bygone era, and are potential deathtraps for the people who drive them, the people who ride them, and the people who walk around them, the people who drive around them. Think about it. While passenger cars have grown a long laundry list of safety features over the past several decades in an effort to reduce fatalities in accidents, j...

A lot of them have quit. Some have better things to do. For some it was just a fad that they hopped on. For some it became too much work. Not many people bloghop anymore. Why bother, when there's Facebook and Twitter . Me? I'm still here. It's been seven years. I still blog. I miss the old days.

It's nice to believe that we are all masters of our own fate. The captains of our own ships. The average Joe would probably prefer to believe the concept of free choice other than predestination. To believe in predestination is to believe that all our actions are of no consequence and our fate is predetermined and inescapable. Or, that our actions do have some little consequence over some bits and pieces of our lives but the ultimate outcome remains carved in stone. I don't know. The best I can think of is that life is like a game of Monopoly, or poker. There is still skill involved, but skill is nothing without a good roll of the die or luck of the draw. Skill and perseverance by themselves are probably not enough, otherwise everyone working their tails off should be successful eventually. We all know this is not the case. As for pure luck, I'm not sure, I've never been that lucky to know firsthand how it is. Still, I guess it happens. People win lotteries. Some peopl...

A man stopped at a flower shop to order some flowers to be wired to his mother who lived two hundred miles away. As he got out of his car he noticed a young girl sitting on the curb sobbing. He asked her what was wrong and she replied, "I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother. But I only have seventy-five cents, and a rose costs two dollars." The man smiled and said, "Come on in with me. I'll buy you a rose." He bought the little girl her rose and ordered his own mother's flowers. As they were leaving he offered the girl a ride home. She said, "Yes, please! You can take me to my mother." She directed him to a cemetery, where she placed the rose on a freshly dug grave. The man returned to the flower shop, canceled the wire order, picked up a bouquet and drove the two hundred miles to his mother's house.

I've been driving for 18 years now. I guess that gives away my age, but I doubt it if anyone gives a damn if I was born during the martial law era. In my 18 years of driving I've known other people who drive as well, and they range from those who consider driving just another way of getting from point A to point B, to those who live and breathe driving and cars. I guess I'm somewhere in between. If I were richer I'd probably be more of an automobile enthusiast than I am now, but I'm just an average Joe, content to be a least comfortable during my daily commute and to average more than 10 km/l, though I enjoy a nice long jab at the accelerator every now and then. I used to read a lot of car mags, but now the economy has relegated me to reading only local publications. Not that I'm complaining though, the quality of writing on local car mags has improved significantly since the early days. But enough about me. This is a list of 10 stupid things that Pinoy drivers ...

Just a repost. You never know who might notice. Anyone here interested in purchasing or leasing a plot of commercial land located along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City? It's my father's property, and it has a lot area of 2,844 sqm., with a number of residential improvements. The frontage is a bit on the small side, at 14 m., but it directly faces Commonwealth Ave. The lot has been on the market for quite a while, but since the real estate market has been down for some time now...well you know how it is. Just in case you're interested, or know someone who is, please feel free to leave a comment or to email me at ronallandottk@yahoo.com . To cut the hassle, would prefer to deal with direct buyers only. Sometimes it can be quite hard dealing with a multitude of brokers and middlemen...you know how that is too. :-) You can also call 9315575 if you have any inquiries. Siteplan of the property. Aerial view. The road at the top of the photo is Commonwealth Avenue. Here's a ti...

Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth—whether it be people, animal or plant. Honor the Spirit in all things. Honor other people’s thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression. Never...

A rant against contemporary Filipino society by an average Joe. I hate to say it, but we're a nation of softies. It's this soft stance on things which makes us all a bunch of undisciplined spoiled brats, unable to take ourselves, the things we do, our personal circumstances, or other people seriously. As a result, the concept of personal responsibility seems alien to us, and we lack the credibility for our acts or statements to have any teeth to them. Examples, from the top of my head: Squatters Our government tolerates squatters. There are politically correct terms such as "informal communities" or "depressed areas", but it's all the same to me. They're all just squatters , plain and simple. They arrive and occupy land which they clearly do not own, act as if they own it, and resist with all their might when the owner tries to get them to vacate. And they have the gall to ask the government for land and even sources of livelihood. Squatting is thef...

Okay, I finally took the plunge and bought a tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Tab . For those who are curious why I chose a Galaxy Tab over an iPad (first generation) , here are my reasons: Price The Galaxy Tab is only a little bit more expensive than a Wi-Fi only iPad, yet it's a lot cheaper than a Wi-Fi/3G iPad; Connectivity With 3G and Wi-Fi, I can connect to the internet wherever there's a hotspot or a 3G/HSDPA signal. The Galaxy Tab is capable of tethering, so I can also plug it to my laptop to access the internet. It can also be a personal hotspot, if a number of nearby devices need internet access. I'm no iPad expert, but it seems that according to a number of forums (fora?) I have checked out, tethering and being a portable hotspot range to being impossible (particularly with iPads locked to certain carriers, with certain iOS versions, or with specific data plans) to possible (with unlocked versions, with some data plans with some providers, or with certain iOS versions) to...

I'm planning on getting a tablet computer anytime now. Do I really need one? No, but I want one, and I can surely use one. I'm all for the "connected" lifestyle so to speak, since much of what I do with my time is browse the internet and read, so why not have a device that makes it convenient to do both regardless of whether I'm at work, at home, on vacation, or anywhere in between? I'm not an early adopter, otherwise I would have already had one by now. Nor am I filthy rich, but I'm willing to pay high if it's worth it in features, design and construction quality...well, "reasonable" high at least, which for me is in the middle 20s (in thousands of PHP), though lower would be better. Right now the tablet I'm eyeing is the Samsung Galaxy Tab . At first glance it seems to have all the features I want, from the obvious ones like Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, front and rear cameras, memory expandability, to the not so obvious ones like GPS, and...

I'm not really a fan of Senator Tito Sotto , but I have to agree with him on this point . Prepaid Subscriber Identity Modules used in cellphones, otherwise known as SIM cards, or just SIMs, should be registered . The number of every prepaid SIM should be stored in a database, maintained by the network provider, along with the name of its primary user, and his or her address and/or other relevant information. In the years that have followed the introduction of prepaid cellphone services, prepaid SIMs have become prevalent in the commission of various criminal acts, such as facilitating illegal transactions, text scams , the sending of death threats, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, and recently, as an instrument of terror. Two days ago, an improvised explosive device or IED was planted and detonated inside a public bus along EDSA in Makati City . As of now, 5 have been confirmed dead because of the explosion, and around 13 injured. Authorities have identified the explosive device u...