Android 4.33 peso Apps for 10 Days to celebrate 10B Downloads

In celebration of surpassing the 10 Billion downloads in Android Market, Google is offering handpicked premium apps for 10 cents a piece! Yes, that's 4.33 pesos! Not sure though how much will my credit card charge for the transaction fee (I hope it's free).

This is my first time to buy Android apps, and the process is dead-simple. If you've already used your Google account to buy something, like in my case I bought this domain name mvergel.com using Google Apps, you don't have to enter your credit card details again. This is a very convenient / a bit scary thing if you ask me.

I bought 2 premium apps yesterday for 4.33 Pesos each: Autodesk SketchBook (an excellent drawing app) and Paper Camera (for fun). Today they're offering a new set of apps; a bit less interesting than yesterday's list but still I purchased one: Christmas HD live wallpaper, and it's good.

Wish I could've downloaded the Swiftkey Keyboard app yesteday, darn. If only I knew that they'll be replacing the offered apps everyday.

To see the excitingl list, just open the Market app and click tile where it says 90% Off. :Enjoy! :-)

[update] Added the list of apps for each day


Dec 7, 2011

1. Asphalt 6 HD
2. Color & Draw for Kids
3. Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro
4. Fieldrunners HD
5. Great Little War Game
6. Minecraft
7. Paper Camera
8. Sketchbook Mobile
9. Soundhound Infinity
10. SwiftKey X

Dec 8, 2011

1. Fruit Ninja
2. BB Bedtime Battle
3. AirSync
4. Flick Golf!
5. Start Chart
6. Reckless Racing
7. Reckless Racing (XPeria Play Optimized)
8. Christmas HD (Live wallpaper)
9. Beautiful Widgets
10. Read It Later Pro

Evolution of mah phone

I love weird phones!

Nokia 3210 

First phone; I was in 2nd year high school when I got this one, rumored to cause explosions in gas stations and cause sterility due to strong signal but that didn't stop me from using it everyday.

Nokia 3650 

No one can use this phone except me. Everyone who tried using it to send text messages when they're out of credits didn't make it and just gave up due to out-of-this-world keyboard design, which is good for me.

Nokia e70

My first "business" phone. It's weird how you flip this phone to use its QWERTY keyboard; sometimes I feel like it's transforming into another being. Made my text life easier and geekier. :)) 

Sony Ericsson (SE) P1i (Actual Pic) 

My first SE phone, I didn't quite like the interface (UIQ) but loved the way you can type using your finger/nail. Enjoyed drawing using the stylus that comes with it. But this phone has serious usability problems: You won't know immediately if your message was sent successfully, and your reminders are hidden from sight which baffles me to this day.  

OT: From this point on, you can also see the evolution of my hand :))

Nokia E71 (Actual Pic)  

Has a premium build which oozes with class when it first came out. Loved the QWERTY keyboard, felt nice in my hands. Can't do much with it but what it can do it does pretty well.

SE XPeria Arc S (Actual Pic) 
My current phone as of writing. First phone without a tactile keypad. So far so good, but I can't use the keyboard while driving; good thing there's voice recognition. It's incredibly fast to send and receive text messages (lol at this observation; shocked the first time to inquire my remaining balance). Watching movies on the go is a pleasure.
So why not iPhone 4S? So many reasons: price, weirdness level, customization, no dedicated camera button to name a few. I really want the iPhone for Instagram, hopefully creators will show some love for Android.

Deciding Among SE XPeria Arc S, iPhone 4S and XPeria Ray

Looking for a phone with a good camera to capture those kodak moments when my SLR is not around. Hopefully, it will come with a dedicated camera button because my laziness is unbeatable when it comes to using my phone camera.

iPhone 4S is expensive: 32k PHP if bought from Singapore. Camera is better compared to Arc S but I don;t know if it can justify the 17K difference in price. Choice of apps is still better than Android and I can use this for development purpose... but but but, it's still way too expensive. 

Xperia Arc S, which sells for 18k PHP, has a dedicated camera button which is a huge plus. But with the huge screen, the battery life is mediocre (up to 2 days with moderate usage). Also, this unit doesn't have a front-facing camera. I tried it at Megamall and was surprised with the thinness of the phone; even with the big screen size, it's still pocketable.

I love the form factor for XPeria Ray, but it doesn't have a dedicated camera button. It can be bought for 13K PHP. Not bad for a phone with the same specs as XPeria Arc (not Arc S) and has a good battery life. 

A Successful Day

Successfully updated my Windows to SP1. No hiccups this time :)

Cleaned my camera's sensor (Nikon D60). It was a scary task! 

Before (It was like a spider's nest):

After (Bright as a sunny day!):

Here's my messy desk while tinkering my laptop and camera:

All is well; now off to Jed Madela, Gary V, Martin Nievera Concert!

Windows 7 SP1 Update Bricked my OS

I always see Windows 7 SP1 in my list of important Windows updates but I was hesitant to install it upon reading that many people suffered from the problems caused by updating their operating system.  Last night, I mustered the courage to add it to my list of updates.

A bit of excitement came when Windows Update finished downloading the update; it was small, around 87MB. It needed a restart, I even said to Iche (a friend of mine) that I needed a restart for my SP1 update. I was planning to play World of Warcraft for a few minutes just to test the new update and my internet connection.

The update installed and configured itself before restarting the computer. Usual stuff, so I thought what else could go wrong? And something did. It just stopped at 15% "Configuring... blah blah.. please don't turn off your computer", and I didn't want to shut it down!

I was left with no choice, I did a hard reboot and my computer won't start normally anymore. At least I could  access the filesystem using the command prompt, and was able to make a backup of my important files. Good thing Asus has a master backup of its factory settings, and restoring it was a breeze without the need for the DVD. Just press F9 during boot time and I was able to choose to restore my original installation when I bought my laptop. Whew, what a massive undertaking!

Now, the question is: will my itch to install the dreaded SP1 update go away? I think not. I'm now installing the update again. Good luck to me! :))

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

I will remember you as the visionary who changed modern-day computers. Rest in peace.

iPhone SLR for Awesome Camera Shots

Photo courtesy of Photojojo Store!

This is one of the weirdest iPhone contraption I've ever seen.  An SLR lens attached to your phone and it's real!  How awesome would your shots be? :))

Hungry?

Food tripping in London. Warning, this will make you even hungrier!

Fish and Chips from Enterprise at Chalk Farm (thanks to Bruno)

Enterprise Burger at Enterprise

Smokey and Chilli Sausage from Herman ze German at Charing Cross

Desserts from SPQR near the National Gallery

[Update]

Porterhouse Steak from American Steak House near Victoria Underground

More pics here.

Productive Sunday

The Usual but not so much..

I toured my colleague, Eka, to the usual places in London. The same places where my other colleague, Jenny, toured me before plus more because we entered the British Museum and we get to "accidentally not by accident" attended a Hillsong service which was great. (love the oxymoron)

It's the second time for me for the Big Ben, Buckingham, St. James Park and several nearby landmarks and I'm still mesmerized most especially by the great deal of effort the city made to preserve its history through its architecture.

This time it's more peaceful, less tourists and I get to enjoy the scenery more without getting stressed by people walking around in great numbers. I took pictures of several animals in St. James park and again I was amazed because I don't get to see much of the wildlife in my country as free as this. Most of the times they are just caged or leashed which is sad, really. I remember the tortoise in Guimaras which was tied in a long rope, I'm not sure but I think its shell was punctured where the rope was tied.

The Highlights: Desserts.Museum.Hillsong

One of the highlights of this Sunday is the dessert from an Italian restaurant named SPQR(?). Fresh strawberries, just the right amount of sweetness, lovely texture; it was heavenly! Considering I find most of the food here unexciting, this dessert was definitely a surprise. I don't know the name of the dessert, just pick any of the two which has strawberries in it; believe me that are both are satisfying.

It was the same dessert shop I was hooked into the first time I visited but didn't get the chance to taste it. It was love at first and second sight :) I'd recommend this to anyone who's visiting, and just this once, don't mind the price.

The next highlight for me is the British Museum. I enjoyed it as I basked myself with culture... plus it's free; can't beat that.

I especially liked the Egypt room because the things I watched in Discovery and Nat Geo were realized in that room. It was a bit disappointing not to see majestic relics like the mask of Tutankhamun or the gold sarcophagus with Anubis head.

I had a feeling of "history information overload"; to appreciate all of the things inside the British Museum, I need more than one day. I just skimmed through most of the items, maybe next time I'll get a chance to read more about them. More pictures here.

And to cap this Sunday, what's better than to get lost and find your way in a Church service. I like God, He has a witty sense of humor.

All was great and it was powerful. No nonsense, just pure worship, testimonies and God's word. A visiting pastor from India preached and shared his life. It was inspiring. I also became aware about the status of children in India and it's very sad to hear about their poverty and abuse.

It's good that Christians are helping to rise a new generation of capable believers; and when I say capable, they are not just giving them a belief, they are giving them a life with education, health-care, food, job, faith and a direction in life with Christ to help them get up and later help others as well. It's a viable chain reaction and probably the only networking or multi-level marketing I'll be involved with. More pictures here.

Season 10 American Idol Winner

From my blog about AI Top 12:

I wouldn’t be shocked if Scotty were to win this competition because I was already caught off-guard when “Need You Know” by Lady Antebellum dominated the Grammys. I have nothing against the song, it's actually very good. I just didn’t expect it will be the song of the year. Just goes to show that America loves Country music that much.

And from the cliché of Randy Jackson, Scotty's in it to win it! LOL

Filipinos are most hospitable when we're not in RP

I'm here at Doha Airport in Qatar, arrived around 6am and my next flight is at 2:30pm. A long wait, it is. During my stay here at the airport, I met a group of Filipinos and all I did was to answer their simple yet profound question, "Pilipino?" They are a happy bunch, and talkative too but not in a bad way.

It is through them I found out that there is free food for my connecting flight! What you need to do is claim the free food from the Qatar customer service then they will sign your boarding pass and give you the food stub. I feel that this process has been obscured intentionally. The food is less than satisfactory but it's enough to get you through the long waiting time.

I happily agreed to join them for lunch when they invited me and had a chance to get to know them a bit. Most of them are Filipinas working as housemaids in Lebanon. I asked one Pinay, let's name her Kate (not her real name), how's life and work in Lebanon. She said it has its ups and downs. If you are lucky enough you'll have a kind employer. She has a kind employer, but when I asked how she's treated, I began to question in my mind what kindness means, and how worse are the "unkind". Kate shared that she was never physically abused but she already heard all kinds of harsh words, especially the "F" word.

She continued with a side story that Lebanese are more casual than, hmm, strict Muslims. Their style is more western and casual. It is most noticeable in the clothes they wear; they can wear skimpy clothes. She added that many Lebanese love Pinays because of their cleanliness. One story is that you can see panties scattered around with the napkin still intact... that's an interesting account. As I'm becoming more and more exposed to the international community, I think Pinoys are among the few who take a bath at least once a day, seriously!

Kate started working in Lebanon at the age of 19, she finished a course in programming but decided to risk it in exchange for a better pay. She has a husband who works in the Philippines; a programmer too. When she learned that I work for an IT company, she wanted me to refer her husband to my company for the hope going to London. I said that my case of going to London is strictly situational and heavily depends on the project you are in and the work you do. I just want to level her expectations, she might hope for too much.

It is certainly noteworthy that she, at 25, already owns a house and lot in Manila. I was certainly astonished to learn that I'm older than her. Epiphany struck me that I'm 26, and still don't have a house of my own. Maybe her risk has payed after all. I'm not sure though if it's worth it to leave her family. I didn't get to ask that question anymore. I'll leave the topic as purely subjective, kanya kanya lang 'yan. Whichever works for them, at least they have a house and the education of their child is secure.

And this is just one story. It is interesting to listen to their conversations. Pang telenobela lahat. This is how Filipinos interact; sharing our life stories even to people we meet only for the first time. And yes, as the title says, I wouldn't expect this kind of friendliness in my home country on a day to day basis. :)

Is it safe to drink tap water in London

Yes it is, I tried it and I didn't die! *crickets* Neither did my stomach churn. But seriously, after I tried I read that it is really safe to drink water from the faucet here. Just avoid the hot water because it contains high levels of copper.

I did buy bottled water, but I want tap water for my coffee because coffee tastes better with it! I also want to be sulit (cost-effective, frugal, economical) at the same time, haha! Fine, kuripot na ko!

Maybe next time it is better to read first before trying it out for myself. Just a thought :)

What Jet Lag?!

This is one of the things I'm excited and worried about at the same time. I don't know what it is. I have an idea but I want to experience it for myself and this is the perfect opportunity for it.

Jet Lag... but where is it? This is my second night to sleep in this wonderful city and I haven't felt a change that my body needs to cope with. The worst is I slept at 9pm and woke up 5:30 in the morning. Very early for my usual bedtime but still normal and adequate. Maybe when I go back home, but as for now, my body is a wonderland. *crickets* :))

A Very Good Morning

It's still surreal to be waking up here in UK.

My breakfast, Nescafe choco fudge coffee and croissant with butter and marmalade. Typical... joke haha! Classy na 'to for me.

And this is where I slept, and will sleep for the rest of my stay: on the sala, because two rooms are occupied by Jen and Ka Yu.

Hello London!

I was a bit anxious about my flight to London earlier today because Miss Jen took a different route from Doha so I was alone on this one. Both of our flights were delayed, but mine took longer (additional 1hr). Luckily, I have still found Miss Jen on our designated meeting point at the Waterloo station even though I was more than an hour late.

Side note: Every time I see the word "Waterloo", Little Lulu's song pops into my head haha! "Waterlulu, Waterlulu with freckles on her skin..." Anyhow, I took "The Tube" (see picture below) from Airport to Waterloo. It's a railway system underneath the city much like a subway but I'm not sure if it can be considered as such. I remember Hong Kong's railway system, it's similar to that.

Finalleh, I'm in London! It's breath-taking... Good time of the year (Spring), cold breeze much like Baguio, clean air, walkable streets, vintage buildings; the positive things can go on and on... but I must not forget that I'm here for work! work! work! Hahaha!

However, I try to avoid converting prices here to Philippine Peso so as not to focus on the fact that the cost of almost everything here is a bit high; from transport to food. Thus my dinner for tonight: a Burger King Whopper sandwich (£,3.69) and a bottle of coke, yummy nevertheless. :) I don't know if it's just me, but the coke here tastes... "Coke-ier". Lol! More pictures here.

This is a really nice place, but it would've been extraordinary if the time spent here is with the people you love and care the most. I'll definitely be back here. <3

Aloha Doha!

Aloha Doha sounds like a spell hehe. Anyway, I'm here at Doha Airport (Qatar) for a connecting flight to London. It's 11:30pm now (4:30am in the Philippines) and our next flight is at 8am! Argh on the long waiting time! I'm reminded of the time we flew to CDO where we saw people literally sleeping on the airport floor. Will this be our predicament? Haha!

We left Manila at 6:20pm (UTC+8) and arrived here at 10:30pm (UTC+3). The entire trip took 9 hours which is a bit confusing at first due to the time difference. I found myself bouncing between my cellphone which is in RP time and my watch (thank you Pearl!) which is in UK time then doing some basic math which is hard!

So why am I here? This trip is for a business visit to a client in London. I'm with my officemate, Miss Jen, she's easily nauseated but it is a good thing that she didn't throw up. We didn't encounter much turbulence so I enjoyed watching two movies (The Mechanic and I am Number Four) and three 30rock episodes.

On my left was another pinay. Her name is Sheila and she's from CDO. She's on her way to Copenhagen as an exchange student, specifically a working exchange student. It's interesting to know the ways of Filipinos on other countries, but I'm afraid I cannot disclose too much information here.

I don't know much about other airlines but Qatar Airways is great! Well, maybe because I've been used to Cebu Pacific's sub-economy flights. Qatar Airways economy flight from Mla to Doha includes unlimited drinks and two decent meals (Choice of Cream Dory, Chicken Adobo, Braised Beef, and Chicken with tomato sauce). I chose cream dory and orange juice for my first meal and braised beef and apple juice for my second. Sarap rin! Although vegetables was a bit saggy and the salad had a bitter taste. I would've gone for white wine for my cream dory but I didn't know they serve wines for free. They offer Smirnoff too, so maybe you can get a bit tipsy without the extra charge.

Signing off... hope to get pictures for my next posts... and yes, I miss you too ;)

As a side note, just now, a big guy just approached me with an iPhone and a cable and said "wujuju?", yeah I didn't quite understand what he said but it's clear he wants to charge his iPhone on my computer, I just smiled and he assumingly went closer and plugged his cable in to my laptop. and yes, he's still in front of me. Lol at plugging his cable to my lap... top

World's Best Restaurant 2011

According to the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, Denmark's Noma is the world's best restaurant of 2011. It is certainly worth noting that this is Noma's second consecutive year to win the award. The Scandinavian restaurant is headed by chef René Redzepi. He focuses on Nordic cuisine.

Noma's food is not considered traditional but more of an interpretation of the Nordic cuisine, says in Wikipedia. Just how radical it is I do not know, but reading that dishes can include radishes in edible soil is certainly eye-catching.

I became more curious when I read that type of food is influenced by Molecular Gastronomy. I wonder what it's like to dine in the world's finest restaurant. I hope I can eat there at some point in my life.

Apple Sues Samsung... Next?!

You may want to hate this:

"When a Samsung Galaxy phone is used in public, there can be little doubt that it would be viewed as an Apple product based upon the design alone,"

The above line is part of the Apple's lawsuit against Samsung. I was reading articles regarding the lawsuit and I smirked when I read that particular statement. Here's another statement from the lawsuit:

"Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products."

When I first saw a Samsung Galaxy Phone, I certainly did not mistakenly think that it's an iPhone, even more so when I actually used it. Neither does Galaxy Tab look like an iPad, but even if it does, how would you make it look different? Maybe shape it like a triangle, duh! What about the touch interface from Android? They should develop an interface similar to Microsoft's Kinect so users won't have to touch the device to interact with it.

I find this move hypocritical since they themselves copied product designs and innovations for their product line. And to think Apple products use Samsung components, I wonder how this legal battle will affect their relationship.

Samsung's reply to the allegation:

"Samsung’s development of core technologies and strengthening our intellectual property portfolio are keys to our continued success. Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property,"

On a similar note, Apple also sued HTC and Motorola for the similar reasons of patent violation. Is this business bullying some kind of disease? Is Apple really that affected by Google's Android to the point that it throws out lawsuits to everyone who's related to it? They arguably made the touch screen, the "smart" phone, and the tab very famous but they shouldn't act as if they invented them.

Many articles said this lawsuit spree is reminiscent of the battle for Graphical User Interface (GUI) among Apple, Microsoft and Xerox back in the late 80's. It's also interesting to read about the history of GUI and what happened in the battle for its ownership.

Sources:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/18/apple-sues-samsung-over-for-copying-the-iphone-and-ipad/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110419/ap_on_hi_te/us_apple_lawsuit

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/30/apple-sues-motorola-right-back-over-six-patents/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/02/apple-sues-htc-for-infringing-20-iphone-patents/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703916004576271210109389154.html

Site Optimization

A little background first. I use Picasa Web Albums (PWA) 's several REST-ful API's for mvergel.com's gallery. Basically I query what I need to PWA and it returns an xml feed that can be parsed by gdata library.

The problem now is that there are several key areas where this web application starts to struggle:

1. Java web application start-up
   Unlike its Python counterpart, Java has a significant start-up time, worse, Google App Engine (GAE) shuts the Virtual Machine down when there is no-one accessing your site.
   
   Previously (or even up to now), the workaround is to constantly ping your site to simulate web access. This, however, makes a considerable performance hit to GAE since it will eat resources up if most developers perform this quick-fix.
   
   GAE recognized this problem and announced an official feature to fix this problem starting version 1.4.0. It's called the Always On feature. This solution will cost developers $0.30 a day in their billing, which is not a bad price, but I opt to keep my personal charity website as cost-effective as possible so I didn't avail for this feature.
   
   
2. Getting contents from Picasa
   This is the highlight of my recent site optimization. The new version of the site already implements a cache instead of always getting the information from Picasa. The original idea was to cache the xml feeds. It worked on my local server, but once deployed to GAE, an error was thrown regarding SSL handshake. I found an issue in their buglist about this problem but could not wait for a fix that time.
   
   I resorted to a new implementation: storing each album and picture data on my server. This is more tedious compared to just storing the whole xml cache, but it worked for me. The overall responsiveness of the gallery is better.

Still, when accessing the site for the first time, it's still bounded to the Java application start-up I mentioned in #1. Is $0.30/day worth it to remove that the start-up time (around 2-3 seconds)?

Niche Blogging

I've been contemplating for a while if I should proceed with a niche blog. Niche blogging contains articles for a particular market area or you've guessed it, "niche". Much like Engadget or our very own Yugatech here in the Philippines. It is particularly useful if you want to share your knowledge or passion to the world. I'd like the idea of passion coming in because I believe a blogger who has passion won't base his or her success on monetary income.

Although I have specific likes, I'm still confused which one to focus on. My top 3 topics of choice would be gadgets, food, and programming.

Blogging about gadgets is possibly costly. Famous gadget bloggers already have sponsors, or enough money flow from their website to buy the product and test it. I do buy my gadgets, but not enough to blog daily about it. Of course you can read reviews made by others and compile them but I don't know, it would feel, hmm less credible? Anyway the target audience for this would be us gadget freaks and I know we are huge in numbers.

Food! I love eating. It is probably the most common thing we humans share. But beyond eating, I love to discover good food. The good thing about food is it's everywhere; could be cheap, just right, or downright expensive. Unlike gadgets, food can be localized like blogging where are the great restaurants here in the Philippines, here in Metro Manila, or even here in Pasig? One problem here is the competition since this is arguably the easiest topic to blog about. There are already a lot of food bloggers out there, and it's getting harder to separate one from the other. But since it's food, there are a lot of possible ways to make your blog unique. Target audience: The entire human race, it cannot get bigger or better than that (fine, argumentative). I have many friends who loves to eat good food, maybe I can invite them for a collaborative blogging :)

And finally, programming. I aimed for it when I was in high-school, studied it in college, and now it's my bread and butter. I'm passionate about it, I do it as a hobby (Nerd, I know), and regularly check what's happening in the world of software development. There are a lot of programming languages out there and you can't master them all. Target audience: Software developers of a specific field, which is relatively few.

It's hard to do a niche blog on your own, and I believe in collaboration to overcome this difficulty. Basing from the number of words on each topic I chose, I'm leaning towards food. Now, I'm hungry! :)

Haters gonna hate

I'd hate it if Rebecca Black and Justin Bieber make a video together, but for sure it'll be a hit, and probably be the next most hated video on the internet!

You might ask, who is Rebecca Black? Watch the most hated video on the internet today. As of writing, her Youtube video has 1.89 million dislikes, a ~660,000 difference from Baby's 1.23 million.

Here is Conan's parody cleverly named "Thursday" of the faux pop star's video:

Will a Quick Charger Reduce Battery Life ( AA Nimh )

I was hesitant to buy a quick charger because I thought It might quickly reduce the battery life of my rechargeable AA's. Quick research shows it is partly true! However, don't let it stop you from buying one. After reading an article about battery myths, I found out that a smart fast charger only differs by a small amount and might even be better than a slow (and not so smart) one. Why? Because it is more likely that you'll forget that you are charging for 10 hours compared to, say, two hours and overcharging reduces the life of batteries.

There can be a confusion what a "quick" charger means, reading Eneloop FAQ, it is stated under Can I use a "Quick Charger" to charge an eneloop battery? that a Quick charger is NOT recommended. The charger should be two hours or more. But I already consider two hours a very quick charger (compared to 10 hours or more!). Apparently there are really quick chargers that can be bought these days (e.g. 15 minutes!). These chargers are not recommended, maybe only for emergency. I am happy with a two-hour quick battery charger from Eneloop. Happy charging ;)

12-year-old may Prove Einstein Wrong

I was reading an article on Yahoo and Time about a 12-year-old savant who theorizes regarding the theory of relativity. He has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a type of autism disorder, and has an IQ of 170. I wonder how his mind works, or how would a conversation with his girlfriend go. Him: I think emc2 is wrong Her: ???? Him: Light shouldn't travel in a straight line Her: What light?

He was already taking astrophysics classes at the age of eight, and is now being recruited by Indiana University for a paid research. I bet by now he's having a hard time sleeping thinking about how wrong those astrophysics equations are. He has a theory that may debunk the big bang, but all my IQ of 130 understood when I watched the video was he was still working on the details. This kid is amazing! But I don't wish I had his IQ, that would be very very sad; all those questions and sleepless nights. But would it be worth a Nobel prize? Hehe

The CDO nightmare

What's worse than having a cold shower at four in the morning? It's waking up from a dream of it!

Surprise Drug Test

In compliance with the requirement of the Sanitary Office of Pasig and DOLE, we are required to undergo a drug test today between 1pm - 6pm. "Rest assured that the result will be kept confidential", says our company admin :) Hope coffee won't have any impact on their analysis. I can already imagine myself shouting, "I'm clean! I'm clean!"

Is it Gaddafi, Qaddafi, Qadhafi, Gadhafi, or Kaddafi?

To start my work day, I read some quick news or fun facts from Yahoo. Today I read about an Air Force pilot crashing (but surviving) in Libya who was lucky enough to have landed on a friendly territory. As I was reading, I noticed that the spelling of the Libyan leader was Muammar Gadhafi, and I thought, hmm… I thought it was Gaddafi or even Qaddafi! Even I was confused! In my previous post I consciously renamed Qaddafi to Gaddafi for a slight fear of misspelling his name.

I searched for the correct spelling and soon found out that there was no accepted western spelling for the name. News all over the world used their preferred spelling closest to the Arabic pronunciation. But since Wikipedia, Aljazeera and most of the articles I read spell it as "Gaddafi", I will follow the norm.

Copyright Awareness: Linking Images in your Blog

I wanted to blog about the conflict in Libya and decided to post an image of Gaddafi. Since I won’t likely have the chance to shoot a picture of him using my camera, I need to take one from the internet. Seems simple right? Not! So I decided to postpone my opinion regarding Libya for this information.

As a software developer, I was exposed to different legalities of using somebody else’s work, a.k.a. Licenses. So I thought there might be something related to taking images from the internet or just simply linking them to your blog. What I read stunned me. There are actual cases that bloggers sued / were sued because of copyright infringement, there’s even one case from the Philippines involving a blogger and Manila Bulletin. Demands cost from a simple warning to actually paying up a large amount of money, ~$5,000 – $7.6 Million… yes $7,600,000!

What’s the lesson here? Do not use somebody else’s image or better yet, any copyrighted work because it’s considered stealing. Don’t use Google image search to search for images and link it to your blog, it is most likely that those images are copyrighted. It is better to assume that an image is protected by copyright law unless explicitly stated. Even if you can’t see anywhere on the page regarding a license agreement in using an image, the law provides full copyright protection to the author.

So where do I find free images? There are many resource sites that offer free images, royalty-free. These include Flickr, Wikipedia, and sxc.hu to name a few. Take note though that not all images on Flickr and Wikipedia are free to use and link to your blog and even those free ones in many cases, need attribution of the original author. This is especially enforced in the Create Commons License Agreement; the author can even choose how he or she will be attributed. I can’t stress this enough, look for the license agreement of the picture you are about to use before linking it in your blog entry!

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Sources:

http://www.photo.net.ph/blogalicious...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedi...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative...

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_...

AI Top 12: When Casey Sang Nirvana

Top 12 is over and as expected, I didn’t like the performance of the ladies. Even throughout this season of American Idol, imo, they’re forgettable. Guys, on the other hand, are really bringing the competition on; a lot of unique voices and great singers.

Overall, I like the way Casey sings, but I didn’t get his last performance singing a Nirvana song. I was excited at first because it’s part of what defined my generation (and it was noted it was a first in AI) but then again, as I was watching the video, his version felt a bit worse than the original. If I say it’s not that bad, I would be biased or lying. Whichever is the case and as a slight fan, I commend him for the risk. Just don’t sing like that in the finals and you’ll be okay.

The next singer I root for is Jacob Lusk. Although he’s a bit over emotional on stage, when he hits those high notes, it’s really good. I love his version of the song, A House is not a Home (Top 24).

One of the unique voices of this season, Paul McDonald, kinda reminds me of… Rod Stewart (was thinking of Barry Manilow, no not him!). Haha! He dances weird, but it’s cool and it’s a representation of who he is; unique and/but great (Regina Spektor suddenly flashed).

I wouldn’t be shocked if Scotty were to win this competition because I was already caught off-guard when “Need You Know” by Lady Antebellum dominated the Grammys. I have nothing against the song, it's actually very good. I just didn’t expect it will be the song of the year. Just goes to show that America loves Country music that much.

On a side note: When we were watching AI, I think none of us recognized Fergie of BEP because her face seemed to have changed big time. One of my friends commented she put on less make up that night, thus the big difference, hmm I don’t know.

Anyway, Goodbye Karen, ‘nuff said.

Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Plant is Now Under Control

Currently watching CNN and I'm relieved to hear that they now have a constant supply of water to the troubled reactor of Fukushima Power Plant. It has been reported that there is no more melt-down risk as long as the water continues to flow and cool the previously over-heated reactor down. This is great news indeed!

However, problems are not over yet. Radioactive spinach and milk have been found in farms near the power plant. I hope they won't get exported! I don't want those toxic stuff when I'm eating my cereals.

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Source: CNN

Finally, blog.mvergel.com is born!

I'm having tons of fun with this domain, but there are still so many things to do. But before everything else, I would like to savor this moment because blog.mvergel.com is now official! This first post symbolizes the ribbon being cut to signify this blog's soft opening, lol! A 2nd level symbolism, cool.

Sigh that my free time is scarce, but this site is progressing bit by bit. Hope I'll be able to do all the things I have in mind.