Paddle to the Grave
I’m an Upsilonian. And the last thing in my mind right now is to act self righteously and pretend and declare that my fraternity or this and that fraternity is pure and pristine.
Like the rest, I and my fraternity, condemn that stupid and senseless act of violence that transpired last Sunday during the Bar Exam Salubong. Those responsible should have their heads cut off in return since apparently they’re not using them anyway.
My point is that I hope the rest of the citizenry would not be that sweeping in generalizing that the entire fraternity system is all evil – because it’s certainly not. The same way establishing network and “connections” is not the be all and end all of everyone joining a fraternity – because that’s certainly lame and shallow.
The (not a few?) bad eggs unfortunately cast a very dark cloud on the entire fraternity system; pretty much overshadowing all the noble ideals and undertakings that fraternities are founded on and are living by.
But the police shouldn’t be abolished just because there are Mendozas, Binayugs, Jeuteng and kotong cops within their ranks. The justice system shouldn’t be scrapped just because there are hoodlums in robes within the august halls of the courts. And how unpopular this may be, Congress shouldn’t be abolished just because there are Arroyos, Singsons and a host of other shady characters who are in the House.
I still believe that it is pea-brained individuals who destroy a system; not really the other way around. So is it just fair that these individuals / sub groups a.k.a. thugs, be held liable and accountable, and not the institution / system in its entirety?
I’m not that sure though if I’m in the best position to talk about what is fair or not; for lives and limbs have been lost throughout the years. And whether I like it or not, I’m part of the system people have typecast as the root of all this mess.
Until people realize that there’s still a line (no matter how thin) separating fraternity members from paddle swinging, lead pipe wielding, gun toting and pillbox throwing blood thirsty gangsters, I and all fraternity members will have to bear the stigma of being no different than your common thug.
As a parting shot, allow me to end by shooting out this question:
The late Ninoy Aquino was my brod. Is he a martyr, or was he a thug?
Twitter’s OAuth Authentication, Twikini, and Windows Mobile
As early as April this year, Twitter announced that it will drop third party applications’ authentication other than OAuth to connect to Twitter, and it happened in September 1, 2010. That means that authentication methods like keying in your username and password will not work anymore.
The OAuth method means that in order to use a desktop, mobile or online application to interface with Twitter, you will need to click a link that will bring you to the Twitter page (see sample screenshot below) to authorize the connection.
Examples of desktop applications are Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Twhirl, etc. Examples of online applications are Twitter on Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitpic, and even the various WordPress plugins. For Mobile phone, well, there are different applications for each operating system (e.g., iOS, Android, BlackBerry’s RIM, Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc.).
I have read or heard from various blogs about Twitter’s absolute use of OAuth authentication. But I ignored it, thinking that I don’t develop twitter applications and so that should really be least of my concerns.
Until now, when I found out that I couldn’t use my Twitter app for Windows Mobile, Twikini, anymore.
Twikini
Twikini is a Windows Mobile client for Twitter. It’s actually one of my favorite WinMo Apps that I paid $4.95 for it to the developers, Trinket Software. It’s lean and fast, just as the developers describe:
FAST! Unlike other Twitter apps for Windows® Mobile, Twikini is written entirely in native C++ code for maximum performance and the fastest load time possible.
The software I paid for comes with free future upgrades, should there be any. Actually, without further upgrades, that latest version of Twikini I installed was already fully functional in its own right. There were a few bugs but ignorable, which usually only occur when there are connection issues.
However, starting September 1, I discovered I couldn’t open Twikini anymore, and it kept asking for my Twitter login credentials. I supplied the correct username and password –yes, but nothing is doing right. Then I read around and it has got to be because of Twitter’s new authentication policy.
And the worst thing about it is Trinket Software already stopped updating the software for my version (6.5) of Windows Mobile.
Now, ain’t that great? I paid for a software thinking it comes cheap for a fully functional Twitter application, when it was actually worthless to begin with. I felt like I was robbed by Twinket Software with a few dollars by selling me trash.
The Blame Game
Yet, at the end of the day, Twikini stopped working to connect to Twitter in Windows Mobile. Who’s really to blame?
On one hand is Twinket Software, the developer of Twikini, for reasons discussed above. On the second is Twitter for dropping authentication methods other than Oauth. The third and the last, Windows Mobile, for being abandoned by users and application developers alike.
More related readings about Twikini and Twitter’s OAuth
The Easiest Way to Install WordPress and Other Web Applications
If you are like me who keeps installing WordPress from time to time, to accommodate various projects, then this simple tool would probably fit the bill.
Instant Install explains how this works:
Just upload our tiny PHP installer to your server where you want the app installed, load the file in your web browser, choose an app and follow the instructions.
Once you’ve selected an app, our installer then downloads and extracts it to your server and then forwards your browser to the setup.
There are other utilities for auto-installing WordPress like Cpanel’s Fantastico and Bluehost’s SimpleScripts. The matter is: the former is hard to customize and does not always carry the latest version of the software, while the latter is a paid service unless you are a Bluehost subscriber.
I have tried installing WordPress using this script, and the installation was a breeze. You just have to be ready with the database, the database user credentials, and your login information.
I have not tried installing other apps, but the website tells us it can likewise automate installing (in so far) the following applications:
- WordPress;
- bbPress;
- Chyrp;
- Drupal;
- Joomla;
- phpBB;
- PrestaShop;
- Symphony; and
- Vanilla Forums;
CCTV Cameras and Security
The use of CCTV camera is a detective form of security. It isn’t as effective as the preventive ones like putting up security guards in the premises to secure the area or perimeter from unauthorized entries (and exit). It only allows you to review and take action AFTER the wrong has been done.
That’s why putting up CCTV cameras alone will not ensure security of your office or building. They do require the attentiveness and skepticism on the part especially of the lobby guards.
Videos from these cameras can only be used to identify the culprit. That is, if the culprit is from the same building at all. What if he/she were a total stranger, just like in the video below.
This video was recorded from our company’s CCTV camera, which faces the office door fronting that of our neighbor’s.
CCTV cameras ensure that you have a record of any crime that happened. Certainly, they do not prevent crime from happening.
Cherry Mobile D15 Meets Half of My Expectations
I was recently looking for a good backup phone. I was scrounging through some of the China phone models from Cherry Mobile, Torque and MyPhone. My initial criteria for a good backup phone were:
- Dual sim (i.e., dual standby);
- A good battery life (despite the dual sim capability);
- Less bells and whistles – to support the long battery life;
- Sleek, sturdy and small — that puts Qwerty phones out of the question (I already had a Qwerty phone);
- A sub-P2K price;
Having these in mind, I settled for the Cherry Mobile D15, features of which include:
- Dual SIM / Dual Standby;
- Camera;
- FM Radio;
- MP3 / Video Player;
- Flashlight;
- Micro SD Card up to 2GB;
At a price of P1,999, I guess the extra features (on top of my minimum requirements) including the FM Radio and MP3/Video Player make CM D15 worth it. And these features are basically what make up the pros.
Now, for the cons:
- Meager battery life performance. That’s 3days for light use, 2 for moderate, and 1 for heavy use before recharging. It may be acceptable to many, but not for me who have experienced using the small and sturdy Nokia 1202 (the latter could last me 2 weeks on light use);
UPDATE: Turning off one of the sims improved battery life dramatically. It took me 5-6 days before recharging when only 1 sim is active.
- The keys are a little bit on the hard side;
- Typing a message is faster than reading what you have typed. If you type real fast into its numeric keypad, you have to wait a bit for the screen to actually display your message;
- Volume during mp3 playback is not adjustable;
- Substandard voice-call-audio quality. Volume for voice calls are adjustable, yes. But the sound quality–it’s like listening from a tin can;
- A headphone jack that often fails to lock into position;
- An FM Radio where radio networks battle over one frequency. You tune-in to one station (that’s “spot on” in its digital frequency dial), and you’ll hear two network programs fighting for your attention;
- The OS is proprietary, which I think is not optimized at all to extend battery life before recharging;
- Picture quality of the camera, in a rate of 1 to 10, is 1;
- The body is built of almost (if not all) plastic. But then, that’s what makes it lightweight;
Conclusion
I’m not one of those people who hop from one blog to another just to bash about the cheap cellphones’ lack of this and that “loser” features. Why look for a cheap phone when the features you really want don’t come cheap to begin with?
As the cliche goes “you get what you pay for”.
As for me, I’m half-satisfied with my purchase. At least I have my dual-sim phone and I intend to push it to its limits. For its price, I wouldn’t mind if it won’t get me even a year of extreme usage.
The upcoming release of the dual-sim phone from Nokia (the Nokia C1 or C2) is a welcome development. Hope it comes with the *needed* long battery life just like the Nokia 1202 and within the same price range.
P.S. Another insightful review of the Cherry Mobile D15: A good phone is a useful one: the Cherry Mobile D15.
Torture, Torture, That Is Sick!
To make everything clear before anything else, I don’t intend to glorify, much less justify the ghastly scene caught in that torture video leaked to the media (oh and if the point is not yet driven home emphatically by now – for the record, it was an exclusive by ABS CBN).
Such barbaric and inhuman act simply has no place in a civilized and dignified society we live in.
Or is it a civilized and dignified society that we actually live in to begin with?
Just taking a step back one bit and thinking out loud here. What if we make the context closer to home than Asuncion area. Living in more upscale areas may provide a false hope of security; that one is not subject to the harm and terror at the hands of these criminals, so why bother giving it a thought?
But then again, we will always use our roads, pass by areas teeming with these hoodlums to go about our daily lives. What if we’re actually dealing with chronic, serial criminals here who have absolutely no regard for the law, makes a mockery of the ideals of a justice system whose aim is to reform and rehabilitate more than to punish?
They point their paltiks or balisongs at their victims, get their stuff, subject them to anguish and may be a life time of trauma. Worse would be some sexual abuse here, non fatal stab wound there or if they feel like it, or if they are too drunk or too drugged to think about it, install a gripo on the side of the abdomen or bore a bullet hole on their heads. Every day these morons play their role to the fullest. On a bad day they may get caught,spend a night or two in a cell, get out as fast as you can say “torture” then off they go to the streets again, on the prowl, waiting to grab on to their next meal ticket.
What if these misguided souls (by choice and occupation) happen to chance upon your parents, siblings, sons and daughters, etc.? What if one of your family members is the unwilling recipient of their next thrust of the knife or their bullet?
These criminals have rights; but so does the citizenry and the state. Why should the rest of the population live in constant fear and terror at the hands of these hooligans? That they should be given a chance to reform and mend their ways – at the expense of what? Your wife’s and child’s lives? Your parents’? Yours?
Lack of education is not an excuse to not understand the words: “Masamang magnakaw.” And a grumbling stomach is not a justification either. Try working, no matter how menial, stupid.
But in the same breath, torture is still not justified despite the repeated heinous offenses of the culprits.
In a way, by consciously living a life of crime without a tinge of regard to life and limb of their fellowmen, and no remorse for their past acts, these monsters have effectively signed up this kind of fate – just not through this cruel and graphic manner I guess. But the fact remains, deep inside in each one of us, there’s this thought that actually longs for all evil elements to just be eliminated or contained. The only uproar here is in the manner manifested to us by which the lawbreaker was eliminated or contained.
Articles on summarily executed individuals are just daily fare in the tabloids; paperwork related to these cases just pile up in the CHR. Ivan Padilla will just end up to be a statistic. Harrowing ordeals of inmates and detainees are for everyone to listen to and get a glimpse of when visiting the national penitentiary. Being confined within those walls for a significant part of one’s life by the way is still torture, albeit not of the physically brutal kind.
These are not media scoop material though. And we are partly oblivious to them.
At the end of the day, I think the prevailing subconscious sentiment is: just get these thugs as far away from us as possible. And don’t make it messy in doing so. It’s not primarily because these hardened criminals can still be considered human beings.
It’s because the rest of us still are.
PNoy State of the Nation Address 2010
While it is very much welcome for the President to report to the people what kind of a sh*t hole the past administration has driven our nation into after nine inglorious years, it shouldn’t be the end all and be all of the SONA.
Though it seems that nothing can shock us anymore regarding the GMA administration’s wicked ways, we are still bound to be shocked by what we are about to be told, according to PNoy.
Beyond the impending shock coming our way though, what will be more shocking is if we’re going to dwell and end there. The overwhelming majority voted for PNoy because they believe that he can and will deliver the reforms we need. The SONA should indicate how people responsible for such despicable acts will be brought to justice, and what concrete steps will be undertaken to address what we are left with after the dark days of Arroyo.
If it’s mere reportage that we need, former VP Noli De Castro, with his signature voice, should have been the man. But what the people thirst for is rectification and what they clamor for are solutions.
Realistically speaking, the next six years shouldn’t promise for us a hacienda at the end of the path. Just leading us through the “daang matuwid” will already be a journey very much worth undertaking.
Would Brgy. Ginebra Appreciate FIFA?
Why is football a long shot in generating significant fan interest and sparking a sporting revolution in the country to overtake basketball in the hearts of gullible Filipino masses?
- As it is right now, nothing much can be expected from our various National Sports Associations in terms of funding, support and initiative in promoting their various fields. With athletes’ cries of delayed and entirely lacking and/or undelivered allowances, what more can we expect when it comes to solid provision for local and international exposures, gears, coaches and trainers, etc.
With this, much of the needed funds and publicity will and should obviously come from corporate sponsors and sporting godfathers. Of course, nothing comes free. In exchange for sponsorships, athletes, teams, meets and leagues serve as marketing tools and vehicles of these interested sponsors.
If one is a marketing manager with funds at his disposal, it is a no brainer to sponsor someone and something which will be gaining media mileage and publicity, say for example a basketball team participating in tournament complete with prominent coverage in the tri-media, over a grassroots football program at the heart of an almost empty, unkept football field doubling as shelter of carabaos with nary any media attention.
- We have enormous successes from the RP Blue boys of youth softball, jungolfers and tennis players, note even chess wizard Wesley So. But without much fallback in the form of commercial and professional leagues, athletes are left to fend for themselves with limited opportunities in sporting fields other than basketball.
A man has got to eat. And without a promising long term horizon in other sports, not much interest is generated and sustained in the hearts and minds of our young athletes to pursue their passion. Government pension for athletes won’t take anyone anywhere.
- Come up with an improvised hoop and a ball and you’re ready to go. Roads in our country can double as basketball courts easier than converting them into football fields.
- I don’t know if this is entirely accurate. Or I may just be hating to admit it if it is indeed the awful truth, but we Filipinos have a penchant for the “bara bara“, lack of a system, free wheeling, anything goes, “bahala na si Batman” kind of an attitude. Football being the Beautiful game, may be something that is not ready to be appreciated by our masa. For a country thriving with one upmanship, “kanya kanya“, counterflows and cutting corners, the purity of Football will surely lull the masa to a deep slumber even before the first tagay of Ginebra.
With the international success of Pacman, Bata Reyes, Django Bustamante et al, again with the private sponsors and managers funding all their stints, awareness and interest in football will remain so so in the national scale.
So, what keeps a nation of vertically challenged citizens with not much success in the international scene in the significant past still addicted to hoops? Apart from ending, point shaving and the like which adds even more spice to the game, maybe it’s because of the immediate gratification in terms of points and fastbreaks, much the same as jabs and KO punches in boxing, that fans get to experience.
I personally believe that the excitement from basketball is something that Filipinos can relate to more than the excitement and appreciation to be derived from football. We absolutely don’t have a chance winning big in basketball globally. But it doesn’t matter to the fans. James Yap’s jumpers are enough for them to get their fix of adrenaline rush. They wouldn’t care less if James Yap won’t be able to convert those same shots over foreign behemoths in various international meets.
Basketball caters to Filipinos’ impatience more than football. Are you still wondering then why lines in lotto outlets as well as lines for showbiz auditions and gameshow contestants are eternally long?
Filipinos want a quick fix to everything; and they simply won’t last 120mins. with the score reflecting 0-0.
