The Moonshine Mishap

This article has been updated to reflect the awesome actions done by Moonshine.

This is not a review of the Moonshine Bar and Restaurant in Makati. It's just a minor rant. Okay, maybe I'll add in some review.

The Good

The first time I went to Moonshine Bar I was so delighted that I gave a compliment to the owner of the restaurant. Their cocktails, even though a little expensive, are quite good. The salmon I ordered was perfectly cooked. I like the ambiance too and the playlist. The place is located beside Distillery, Jupiter.

The 2nd or 3rd time we were there was last week when we partied til dawn in Moonshine, and it was fun; maybe a bit too much because I left my credit card. I wasn't aware of it until a friend of mine called to tell me.

Today, I visited Makati again to get my credit card from Moonshine. I invited my friend for a couple of drinks.. it was supposed to be just another laid back Thursday night. We went there and it was empty. I thought, great! Some peace and quiet. I got my credit card and we ordered some drinks.

[Update] Moonshine apologized for what happened. I think there was a miscommunication between the upper management and the staff. See more details below.

The Mishap

We were supposed to go to a coffee shop after because I needed to copy an installer and try a game we researched about. Then we saw that there's an outlet near the table.. we decided to open our laptops and try the game since there weren't much people anyway, and it is to my judgement that we weren't bothering anyone in doing so; I think there was only one group outside, and a couple in another table. That was it.

We were even assisted by a waiter when we plugged in our laptops. He joked that it was P120. Actually I didn't mind if we pay, but he said he was just joking. When we finished our first drink, we ordered another round. After a while, I noticed one waiter (or not sure if he's the manager) was regularly checking our bottles. I was a bit annoyed. It didn't stop there, he started asking us if we'll order some more even though we were only half way through our drinks.

I felt it was kind of rude. Maybe the way it was said, I felt that they were implicitly telling us we weren't paying enough to justify the use of our laptops; I also didn't like the tone how it was articulated. I would understand if  there were people waiting for a table, but even so, it was still rude. And if that's the case, we'd be sensitive enough not to use our laptops esp. if there are many customers. He was also inconsistent.. after a while, he suddenly said we weren't allowed to use our laptops, then I asked him to reiterate what he just said because I was quite confused. Then he changed the topic that we should just order more. I said, if we weren't allowed to use our laptops then why assist us in the first place, why not just said that we weren't allowed to do so. So what is it really then?

I'm disappointed with what happened so we just left. I was supposed to order some more because I was getting hungry, but after the incident, I lost my appetite. I think staff in general like in restaurants, malls, etc should have more training. Training for being polite, avoiding unnecessary comments, avoiding being rude to customers, being articulate and explaining policies in a way that's not offensive.

Faith in humanity restored

On the bright side, I'm glad how Moonshine handled the situation after. They were very apologetic and they explained (clearly, this time) what happened. I'm satisfied with the explanation, because at the end of the day, it's better to get a clear image of what really happened. Like was there a policy prohibiting the use of laptops in the restaurant or why were we troubled persistently with petty annoyances.

My sincerest appreciation goes to Renz Mediarito of Moonshine for taking precise actions to what happened. My faith in humanity is restored. I still like the place and will definitely go back and recommend it to people I know.

You can have multiple Paypal accounts

There are times when you want two Paypal accounts, e.g. you currently have a personal account but you want another account to handle your business or premier account. For this case, Paypal is allowing an individual to have two accounts: one personal and one premiere / business account.

However, you can't register the same credit card in more than account. For this you have to use a separate credit card, or remove the previous one and register it to the new account.

In summary, it's not illegal to own multiple Paypal accounts.

From their help center:
Yes. You can have one Personal account and one Premier or Business account. You can add more email addresses, debit or credit cards, and bank accounts to your account, but each account must have its own email address and financial information. You can also upgrade your Personal account to a Premier or Business account.

I feel deceived by Globe's Unlimited LTE Plan

[Update] You can sign the petition for Globe to remove the capping here. Thanks JP for sharing the link.

Last year when iPhone 5 was released, I subscribed to Globe's 1,799 postpaid plan because it promised Unlimited LTE to its iPhone 5 users. All of a sudden, Globe released a fair usage policy (FUP). What happened was my unlimited LTE data became limited to 3GB per month.

It's stated in Globe's FUP that Mobile surfing offers from Globe are generally meant for emailing, browsing and search activities. Seems awfully strange to read that line after I was offered an unlimited 42mbps data plan.

I asked Globe if I can downgrade my plan but they said I have to pay since I'm currently locked in. I replied, "Shouldn't it be free because you changed your policy / advertisement?" They said they will "sort and iron out the details." So for the mean time, I wait. So while I wait, I will write

I want to downgrade because I'd like to get a DSL instead with no nonsense capping, and I'm okay that I can only use it at home, at least it's unlimited. Globe's unlimited LTE is not worth it anymore, I'm more than satisfied with powersurf 99 if I can't use my unli data plan for downloading and streaming. 

I'm actually not against capping, I'm against extreme capping! Firstly, the 3GB a month, that's way too small, and next is the sudden drop in speed; from LTE's 42mbps theoretical speed, my connection speed will be downgraded to 2G (~50kbps-200kbps). So from around 44,000,000 bits/second down to 51,000 bits/s? A 99.9% loss?! (That's worse than the Philippine stock market!)

It would be more acceptable if my LTE connection were to be downgraded to 3G. Anyway, I don't know which committee should decide on this, is it the NTC or the 'madlang people'? Nevertheless, I feel deceived by Globe's false advertisement.

The cartoon below summarizes how I'm feeling about Globe's FUP.

Click the image for full size.
Credits to Sir Roy for the rotten banana logic and convo.

I intentionally wrote Unlimited LTE instead of Unlimited Data Plan even though fewer people can relate to it. Unli data is not a compelling argument since Globe is insisting that the data is still unlimited. So my argument is why advertise unlimited LTE when it's not really unlimited?

How to know if a credit card is Visa or Mastercard

In certain cases, it's crucial a credit card's issuer type.

You can identify the type by looking at the first few numbers of your credit card:

Visa starts with 4.
MasterCard starts with 51-55.
Diner's club starts with 36 / 38.
Discover starts with 6011 / 65.
JCB starts with 35.
American Express starts with 34 / 37.

Source: Wikipedia

Consider my case: My friend bought an item for me. She asked me to pay her back by depositing the money to her credit card. I was given the credit card number (even though this is not secure) and the bank's name. When I went to my online payment, I registered the card but it asked me if it's Visa or Mastercard. My friend is not available and there's a cut off time so I need to know immediately.

Apple Store Philippines goes on sale!

Apple Store Philippines goes on one-day sale across the board today, January 10, 2014. All items are on sale!

It is worth noting that the sale is around 6-20% off the original price and you'll save more on lower end items. *Hmmm.. what to buy... what to buy*

Item	Starting From	Before	Save	% Off
iPad Mini Retina	P19,080	P20,490	P1,410	6.9%
iPad Air	P23,480	P25,490	P2,010	7.9%
iPad Mini	P14,480	P15,490	P1,010	6.5%
iPad 2	P17,580	P18,990	P1,410	7.4%

Item	Starting From	Before	Save	% Off
MacBook Air	P44,980	P49,990	P5,010	10%
iMac	P62,980	P67,990	P5,010	7.4%
MacBook Pro Retina	P62,980	P67,990	P5,010	7.4%
MacBook Pro	P54,980	P59,990	P5,010	8.3%

Item	Starting From	Before	Save	% Off
iPod Nano	P7,680	P8,290	P610	7.4%
iPod Touch	P15,080	P16,490	P1,410	8.6%
Apple TV	P3,980	P4,990	P1,010	20%

Perspective. Just do what you love.

An affirmation 

I had a chance to meet a friend of a friend who affirmed my passion and encouraged me to live life; it is comforting. I think the problem with me is when I decide on something, I do it immediately and do not think much of the consequences; I'm spontaneous like that. Not even sure if it's really a problem; most of the time it works for me, but sometimes, I hurt people along the way.

God has weird sense of humor  

Life has a funny way of telling you she's there, if it's God who does that, I'd like to understand more about his sense of humor because as much as what happened to me was painful, it's also ridiculously funny when I think about it.

For a while, I got lost in my comfort zone; I have a good job, made plans, I saved, I invested. For several years, it is as if life is going according to way I planned it to be. I thought I had a clear understanding of where I was and where I wanted to be (well for the most part) until an unfortunate event happened. Life, as I knew it, became meaningless.

When my savings got almost wiped out, I thought to myself, wow.. just like that, years of hard work were zapped in less than a month. Worse, I didn't spend it on myself, or on someone I love.. I spent it on someone who I hated almost my entire conscious life.

Take me back to the start 

Today, I feel that I just want to travel for a while, get lost, and hopefully be found again. My plans are ruined anyway, so what else am I to do but just adapt to the situation. Several times, I don't know whether to cry or to laugh at what life has given me; it is the kind that can make you snap and lose touch of reality. We have different ways of coping, but the important thing is we do cope eventually and move on with our life.

Anyway, I love good food and adding culture to my personality, so I bet mingling with different races will be a win-win situation for me. Plus, I may not have the chance to do this in the future. I'm 28, and everyone around me is either getting married or having children. But instead of being pressured to settle down, I'll do the opposite. I'm going to do just whatever the hell I like. This is my way of suicide.

A song playing in my head right now is Scientist by Coldplay.. specifically the line "Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it will be this hard.. so take me back to the start". I just want to go back to the start when everything was simple. I know the line was taken out of context, haha!

[Workarounds] iOS7 iPhone not charging using 3rd party cable

If you've used an Apple device, you'd also know that their accessories are very expensive. One lightning cable will cost you around ~1,000 PhP (~23 USD) and that doesn't include the charger you plug on the outlet.

If you're like me, you'd keep a separate charger in the office because you don't want to carry your lifeline all the time. If you have a car you'd probably place another one there too. My setup is to keep the original charger at home and buy cheaper ones for emergency use.

In CDR-King you can buy a third party lightning cable for P150 (~3 USD). Prior to iOS 7, the third party cable worked perfectly, even the data is working. After I upgraded to iOS 7, a message is displayed "This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone" and you have no option but to dismiss the notice. The phone displays a charging icon (lightning) but it's not really charging as the battery continues to drain.

Searching the internet, people try different things and this post will consolidate the workarounds to make third party cables work. None of them worked for me so far (though I haven't tried jailbreaking), so if you know know another work around, please post it in the comment section below.

[Update] Workaround 3B worked for me.

Workaround 1: Plug - Unlock - Plug again

This came from a reddit post.

1. Turn on USB power
2. Plug in lightning cable to iPhone
3. Dismiss any warnings
4. Unlock your iPhone.
5. Dismiss any remaining warnings.
6. Now with the screen turned on.
7. Unplug the knock off lightning cable.
8. Plug it back in.
9. Dismiss warning again
10. It should now charge

Workaround 2: Taking the sim out.

This is from a post in Apple forum.

Take the sim card out of the phone and try charging it.

Workaround 3A: Turn off your phone

This is a comment in the mobileburn post.

Plug the cable then turn off your iOS Device. Says, it should charge while your phone is turned off.

Workaround 3B: Plugin right before the phone turns off

This is a variation of Workaround 3A. I'm not sure what's the difference but I managed to increase my battery percentage by doing this.

Hold the lock button, then slide to turn off your phone. When you see the black screen with the busy wheel icon, immediately plugin the cable. You can't see any progress or use your phone, but after a while when you turn in on, it should have a higher juice. For emergency situations, this is better than nothing.

Workaround 4: Jailbreak iOS 7

This is just a possibility, an idea from a commentator in iphonehacks post that jailbreaking your iPhone might allow to bypass the security in using fake chargers.