Bagong Passport ng Tsina, Ipinrotesta ng Pilipinas

Ito yata ang unang entry na isusulat ko sa Filipino dahil medyo sensitibo ang paksa.

Sa mga nakatira sa lungga at hindi nakaka-alam: mayroong tunggalian na nagaganap sa pagitan ng Tsina, Pilipinas, Vietnam at Taiwan sa pag angkin ng Scarborough Shoal, isang napakaliit na isla sa kaliwa ng Pilipinas na sinasabing ang pwedeng pag minahan ng langis.

Inyo na lahat?

Sa pinakabagong hakbang ng Tsina para ipakita ang kanilang teritoryo, naglabas ang kanilang gobyerno ng bagong disenyo ng pasaporte na nagpapakita ng mapa kung gano kalawak ang umanoy saklaw ng Tsina sa South China Sea / West Philippine Sea. Ito ay nagsulsol ng negatibong reaksyon sa buong mundo. Ang Taiwan at India ay nagsabi na ng kanilang pagtutol. Ang Vietnam at Pilipinas naman ay nag file na ng diplomatic protest at hindi na magtatatak ng mga bagong pasaporte ng Tsina bilang protesta.

Kailangan talagang linyahan?

"Hindi dapat masyadong bigyan ng kahulugan ang mapa [translated]", ang sabi ng Chinese Foreign Ministry. Ang reaksyon naman ni Albert del Rosario, Foreign Affairs Secretary, ay dapat alisin nalang sa pasaporte ng Tsina ang kontrobersyal na mapa.

Ang ilan sa ating mga mamamayan ay nag dadalawang isip na sa pagpunta sa Tsina bilang tumaas nanaman ang tensyon sa pagitan ng dalawang bansa.

Ang mga isla sa gitna ng China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia at Bruinei ay matagal ng pinag-aawayan dahil sa potensyal na malaking mina ng langis. Kabilang dito ang Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands, at ang pinakabagong pinagaawayan ngayon, ang Scarborough Shoal / Panatag Shoal.

Sa aking opinyon, immature at kakapalan ng mukha ang paglagay ng bagong mapa sa kanilang pasaporte. Maihahambing ko ang Tsina sa isang batang nag tatantrums at nagpapapansin. Akin 'to, hindi kita bati attitude.  Mahilig ang Tsina mag provoke pag dating sa issue ng teritoryo, katulad nalang nung nagpadala sila ng mga barkong pang digmaan sa Scarborough palibhasa siguro ay may kapangyarihan sila at inaabuso nila ito para i-bully ang mga kalapit-bansa.

Naway hindi humantong sa gyera ang mga alitang ito. Share an island, win a friend na lang! :)

For those who live in a cave, there's an ongoing conflict between China and the Philippines regarding Scarborough Shoal. A small island, west of Philippines said to be rich in oil. In the latest news, Chinese government issued a new design of their passport which includes a map to make the world see their reach on the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea. This sparked negative reactions world-wide. Vietnam and Philippines filed a diplomatic protest and refused to stamp the new passports of China.

iPhone 5 Release Date in the Philippines

Based on rumors and a "reliable" source, Apple's iPhone 5 is said to be released on December 15, 2012 here in Manila. It didn't say which telecom it will come from nor the time and place of the launching. Take it with a pinch of salt.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Note II promo of Globe is very popular. I see many of my friends availing it. As for the SIII, I don't see any promos yet probably because it's arguably the most wanted phone right now.

[Update] iPhone 5 is now confirmed to be released on the Philippines on December 14, 2012.

Galaxy Note II Promo from Globe and Smart

You can avail of the Samsung Galaxy Note II from Globe which comes with a Plan 999 contract locked for 2 years, and additional P700 per month. In total that's *1699 per month you will be paying to get this promo.

Globe's Plan 999 includes

• Unlimited mobile surfing for 24 months
• 200 SMS and 10 minutes of calls to Globe/TM

*P16,800 cashout at Plan 999 is payable at 0% 24 months installment payment via credit card.
I wonder if there's any discount if you use cash instead of credit card.

Here's the link to the Globe promo.

Smart is also offering Note 2 in their plan 2000. Samsung will enjoy the sales while the Philippines wait for the arrival of iPhone 5 which is said to be released soon.

Galaxy Note II Specifications:

BODY	Dimensions	151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm (5.95 x 3.17 x 0.37 in)
	Weight	183 g (6.46 oz)
		- Touch-sensitive controls - S Pen stylus

DISPLAY	Type		Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size		720 x 1280 pixels, 5.5 inches (~267 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch		Yes
	Protection		Corning Gorilla Glass 2
MEMORY		Card slot		microSD, up to 64 GB
		Internal		16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM

DATA	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE, EDR
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB (MHL) v2.0, USB Host support

CAMERA	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps
	Secondary	Yes, 1.9 MP

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v4.1.1 (Jelly Bean)
	Chipset	Exynos 4412 Quad
	CPU	Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A9
	GPU	Mali-400MP
	Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
	Browser	HTML5
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Titanium Gray, Marble White

BATTERY		Standard battery, Li-Ion 3100 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 980 h (2G) / Up to 890 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 35 h (2G) / Up to 16 h (3G)

Zoren - Carmina Wedding Videos

The first thing that came to mind: Will it have an effect on the stock price of RFM?  Lol, because I bought some RFM shares (RFM is the owner of Selecta). Other than that, it's all sweetness.

Here are the videos, from preparation to the proposal to the actual wedding. Whew, that was a lot of work; very well-thought-of. It's enjoyable to watch if you have a mushy side:


[Update] Preparation videos:



[Update] Here's a video from Nice Print:

What's the Best Thing About Being a Programmer?

You can make it snow. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Free Movie on December 8 Courtesy of SM Digital Cinemas

If you go to SM's e-Plus Facebook page from November 22 - December 6, 2012, you can avail this free movie pass to any digital theater of SM nationwide. Just click on the Free Movie Day app, like the page and complete the registration.

Go to Facebook.com/eplus.sm

The movies included in this event are: House at the End of the Street, Stolen, Deadfall, Step Up: Revolution, Himala and Supremo: The Andres Bonifacio Story. Frankly, none of the films interests me but nothing beats a free movie. Unfortunately, I have to be somewhere on this date. Knowing how Pinoys crave for free stuff, it is highly likely that SM Digital Cinemas will be jam-packed on that day.


As a side note, I'll share how I bought my SM Cinema tickets online today.

Ayala's SureSeats started online reservation and payment way before SM did, but I find their system not user-friendly. If you just reserve the tickets in SureSeats, you need to be at least 45 minutes before the movie starts or else they will sell your slot to someone else. If you don't want that hassle, you have to purchase the ticket which requires you to be registered first with MPass. MPass is an additional registration on top of your registration with Sureseats; again, another hassle. I don't know if they still operate this way, but that was my experience before.

Fortunately, SM did not make the same mistake. All I needed was to register and purchase with my credit card. Unlike in sureseats, there's no need for additional steps, and no need to hurry up because you already bought the ticket.

How to purchase SM Cinema tickets online

1. Go to smcinema.com and select the movie you want
   
   

   

   In this case, I clicked "Buy Tickets" for the movie Twilight, lol! :))

            
2. Select the desired cinema and time
   
   

   

   Selected Podium, 12:30PM

                              
3. If it is your first time, just register, else you can proceed with login
   

   

   If it's your first time, register first.

   
   
   
4. Reserve a seat, choose the credit card option and click Purchase
   

   
   

   

   The screen is on top. Red ones are taken and gray ones are available.

   
   

   

   Select the credit card option (middle) and click Purchase!
   
   

5. In the confirmation screen, it is worth noting to choose to receive your eTicket code in your mobile phone. This option is the least troublesome since you only need the text message sent to you to claim your tickets.
   
   

   

   Select Yes to receive your ticket code in your mobile phone

   
   
6. Proceed with the credit card payment. You will receive a text message afterwards and you can use this to claim your tickets in the selected cinema.

That was relatively easy. The tickets were claimed successfully and the movie was great. No need to fall in line; it is a good life. Happy watching!

Apple's Black Friday Sale includes Philippines!

It is very tempting to order from Apple's PH Online Store because the Philippines, along with all of Apple's online stores, is included in the Black Friday sale. For those who are not familiar, Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving day in America, and it signifies the start of Christmas shopping. Stores usually participates by giving great discounts to all of their items during this one-day event, and fortunately, Apple has extended this to all of its online stores.

Here's a quick photo of the discounts available in Apple Philippines:

Even smart covers are included in the sale. Hmm very tempting indeed.

A New Design to mvergel.com

The number of people visiting this site has increased (but more on that on later posts) and mostly from the United States, probably because of my programming blog. It's reaching 16k since 2011.

In line with the increasing page views, I decided to re-design my site to give it a fresh look and accommodate newer devices. Last night I finished my initial design to mvergel.com. Though it still needs polishing, I have uploaded it already it can be tested and I can be informed about the problems of the new design in different resolutions, devices, or browsers.

The design is minimalist with a hint of inspiration from the metro style. I had a dilemma between light or dark website but ultimately chose a dark theme, aiming to reduce eye-strain.

I took advantage of CSS3 for subtle effects. When you hover in the main menu, you will notice the smooth transition from being gray, semi-translucent image to an opaque, colored one.  The bouncing animation of Twitter, Google Plus and RSS, and the way the advertisement follows you were also done using CS3. And the clouds! If you a browser other than Internet Explorer, e.g. Chrome, Firefox or Safari, you should be able to see several clouds moving from right to left. I had fun using CSS3; it enabled me to render effects and animations which, before, were impossible without Adobe Flash.

Speaking of advertisement, I decided to put one advertisement in my personal website so I can experiment on it. You should be able to see this on the right-side panel with the header "My sponsor" if you are using a desktop browser with a large-enough resolution. I placed it in such a way that it's visible without being obstructive or annoying. If it's annoying, feel free to comment about it.

The design is fluid; implemented using CSS3 Media Queries. What does this mean? If you're using a desktop browser, try resizing your browser window to a smaller width. You will see that the menu and content adjusts accordingly as the width becomes smaller as illustrated in the above image. The fluid layout is for better viewing on your mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Android devices). There are still some quirks, like uneven padding and margin and it will be fixed later.

Lastly, I replaced the photos from my feed and from my "Photos" page with my pictures from Instagram. Instagram has recently opened their API to public, so I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and integrate Instagram to my site. Previously, I used Picasa Web Albums API to stream my photos.

That's it! The new design is still a work in progress, and it will improve over time. For now, I'm happy with the initial one.