Kaspersky Lab’s latest report on the online activities of children – based on statistics received from its solutions and modules with child protection features –… Read More »What kids search online
Every January, my phone reminds me to automatically renew my car’s insurance policy. This year was different. I told my husband that I want to… Read More »How I Bought Car Insurance without Making a Single Phone Call
I feel bad when I leave my hubby at home whenever I travel. Not that he doesn’t want to travel with me, it is just… Read More »In an aquarium-themed room reviewing a Samsung Smart TV
““When you look outward you dream, and when you look inward you awaken” Brian Quebengco, founder of and ““chief inoventor” at Inovent Inc.
“Mom, let me look at the third eye at the back of your head”, one of my daughters used to dig into my hair whenever I berated her. See, I use to joke around with them that a third eye rests at the back of my head where it is possible for me to see everything they do behind my back. Of course, moms are just good at multitasking which is no secret at all. I even have this strange habit of lounging on the couch with my macbook, turning on the TV and working. Productivity hits me the highest when I am in this TV/laptop mode.
You can just imagine the excitement I felt as I watched the unveiling of the beta prototype of the Ilumina LCD iTV today, on Independence Day. This is something I want to own. More than the discovery of an innovative TV, I felt proud to be a Filipino as I talked to Brian Quebengco, the founder of and “chief inoventor” at Inovent Inc., creators of the Ilumina LCD Interactive Television (iTV).
This interactive TV is exciting because it is invented (innovated) by Filipinos and is the world’s first fully integrated TV. Think of the possibility of the modern Filipino family whose loved one is an OFW who will be able to talk to her/his family right there in the living room. Talk about connecting families. That’s pretty much exciting, don’t you think? I won’t bore you with the technical details but if you care, I wrote about it in my Tech Gadgets blog over here.
Post moved to my new blog, Tech Gadgets.
It’s been a year and 2 months since I subscribed to three (3) Philippine Internet Service Provider (ISP) namely, Globelines Broadband Budget Bundles, Smart Bro and PLDT MyDSL. At the time of installation, I believed it was not yet time to make a review. Give it a year, I said to myself. What do you know? I survived to tell you about these 3 ISP’s. As a netrepreneur, my business relies on fast and reliable internet connection. I am sure other parents out there will be interested to know my experiences with these ISPs.
Let me add a fourth ISP, the Smart 3g which I use specifically for my macbook.
Take note, I am a paying subscriber located in Pasig City near the Quezon City area. I added speed test results (using speedtest.net) to show how most of our ISPs never deliver the promised speeds. I start being a “reklamador’ and then call support if speed falls below 50% after all it is my right to get the services I paid for.
Read More »Review of Globelines, Smart Bro, Smart 3g and PLDT MyDSL Internet Services
The great thing about blogger meet-ups is the fact that I am usually the oldest in the group.
Mingling with young bloggers means that I get to babble endlessly about techie topics which I can never really discuss with my husband or non-blogger friends. Oh I talk with my daughters but I seem to know more about computer gadgets and other tech topics than they do. Last night, Shai Coggins, co-founder of B5 Media took time off from her vacation to the Philippines for a meet and greet in Kape Isla at Serendra. Shai was one of the first bloggers that I often visited when I launched this blog. In fact, I lovingly stole her Tell Me About You idea which paved the way for me to explore other blog topics other than grief education. Meeting Shai and other blogger friends in the cozy cafe covered a lot of activities like ranting about Google’s Page Rank Penalty, the Trillanes Revolt , the curfew, Monetizing Blogs, raving over the B5 media Schwags, Shai’s personalized prints and Sasha’s fashion loot. But aside from the company of Shai Coggins and the bloggers, the other limelight of the party was this cute little thing…
Normally, I just let my dollar earnings sit in the bank because I am lazy to visit the bank and have them converted to pesos. Banks also have silly rules on dollar withdrawals. Anyway, the good side on all this is I am able to save for a rainy day. However, the strong peso got me thinking. I started to convert my dollars on “what could have been” at the old exchange rate and the current rates. I refuse to think of “what could have beens” because I should be grateful that I am still liquid. After reading Abe Olandres’ Weakening Dollar hurts Probloggers, I started to think that maybe I need to spend a little more.
That’s a net loss of Php13.13 for every dollar that I have in the bank. That loss closely amounts to a brand new car or a down payment for a house and lot.
Ugh, I did lose a lot on the conversion.
So what did I do? Oh yeah, I went on a mad shopping spree for Christmas presents.
Stay-at-home-moms (SAHM) are so lucky these days. Online job and income opportunities such as a virtual assistant, researcher , problogger or web content writer now transforms them to work-at-home moms (WAHM). Moms get to balance family time, work and personal satisfaction. Now what is the main resource that online users need? A reliable, fast broadband connection, right? Slow connection means low productivity. High productivity means one is able to balance work load and mommy work. Mom’s work gets done fast. No connection at all might even cost loss of opportunities or risk getting replaced. I know of a web content writer working on rush job but missed a deadline because the internet connection died on her. That cost her to lose an income opportunity and reliability as a web content writer. That’s how bad our internet connection is in the Philippines.
Over six months ago, I wrote about my three new Broadband internet providers (Globelines Broadband, Smart Bro and PLDT Mydsl) for which I pay around 4,000 pesos (or $95.00) a month. Am I happy with my three internet providers? I wrote a brief review about these providers a month ago. The ratings I gave those three providers are as follows:
1. Globe Broadband (best)
2. Smart Bro
3. PLDT MyDSL (Worst)
I’m about to file a complaint at the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for PLDT’s mydsl intermittent connection every 10 minutes or so. Come on, can you do better than that? I pay 1,520 pesos a month and I deserve a seamless connection at least 99% of the time. But what do they give me? Dropped connections every 10 minutes?
Smart Bro has really been so good to me ever since I threatened to report them to NTC for non-existent connection for 2 months. Since then, connection has been excellent for over two months now. (knock on wood)
Even if I rated Globelines Broadband as the best among the three, I am not quite happy with their up to 1 mbps connection speed since half the time, it’s 60% of 1mbps. I feel cheated that these three providers con us into :
1. believing that “up to” is substantial. “Up to” is the maximum possible bandwidth promised.
Why can’t you just say that your connection is 600kbps? You want us to believe that we can attain 1Mbps most of the time when in fact, it’s 20% of the time.
2. Their connection is faster than dial up.
Really now? Are we supposed to believe that we should continue to live in the dark ages of dial up? Stop using the byline line faster than dial-up when you promote your broadband ads . You can’t fool someone like me who has been using cable internet for 8 years now. Yes, you can fool the dialup users but how long can you fool them?
So let’s see, when a new internet provider will dispel all the above marketing gimmicks of our current internet service providers, what will happen now? These unhappy internet users will definitely move to the new reliable internet provider who will make them happy broadband users.
Who is this possible internet provider?
This entry has now been turned into a blog. Please read Techie Gadgets