Year: 2007

Stay Protected; Kill Bill’s Browser

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Better be safe than sorry. It is always imperative to stay safe. This is a wild world. It’s always a jungle out there.

So everytime you open your gates to the world wide web, be safe, stay protected, use firefox. On top of that, there are a variety of addons/plugins available you can customize your firefox browser with to help you with a better browsing experience.

Kill Bill’s Browser

Bill Gates owns Microsoft, Microsoft owns the Internet Explorer browser. Read the 13 good reasons to switch from internet explorer to firefox. For me, though, the internet explorer being non-compliant with the latest web standards (especially as regards CSS) is one good enough reason to switch.

Anand Reclaims the World Title

Vishwanathan Anand is the World Chess Champion after the World Championship 2007 in Mexico City. He is the fourth grandmaster to have reclaimed the crown, after Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Botvinnik and Anatoly Karpov. That is, however, granting that Garry Kasparov split from FIDE in 1993 and retired from active chess in 2005. Anand first won the FIDE crown in 2000.

The list of world champions according to FIDE’s is now updated with this development as follows:

Name Years Country
Wilhelm Steinitz 1886-1894 Austria / United States
Emanuel Lasker 1894–1921 Prussia/Germany
José Raúl Capablanca   1921–1927 Cuba
Alexander Alekhine 1927–1935 Soviet Union (Russia) / France
Max Euwe 1935–1937 Netherlands
Alexander Alekhine 1937–1946 France
Mikhail Botvinnik 1948–1957 Soviet Union (Russia)
Vasily Smyslov 1957–1958 Soviet Union (Russia)
Mikhail Botvinnik 1958–1960 Soviet Union (Russia)
Mikhail Tal 1960–1961 Soviet Union (Latvia)
Mikhail Botvinnik 1961–1963 Soviet Union (Russia)
Tigran Petrosian 1963–1969 Soviet Union (Armenia)
Boris Spassky 1969–1972 Soviet Union (Russia)
Robert J. Fischer 1972–1975 United States
Anatoly Karpov 1975–1985 Soviet Union (Russia)
Garry Kasparov 1985–1993 Soviet Union / Russia
Anatoly Karpov 1993–1999 Russia
Alexander Khalifman 1999–2000 Russia
Viswanathan Anand 2000–2002 India
Ruslan Ponomariov 2002–2004 Ukraine
Rustam Kasimdzhanov 2004–2005 Uzbekistan
Veselin Topalov 2005–2006 Bulgaria
Vladimir Kramnik 2006–2007 Russia
Viswanathan Anand 2007–present   India

Rows in italics represent the grey areas in the world chess history.

Viswanathan Anand became, for the first time, the undisputed World Chess Champion on September 29, 2007, after finishing the tournament with a score of 9/14, not losing a single game and a full point ahead of the second placer, Vladimir Kramnik.

To download the games in pgn and to view some pictures, visit chessbase.com.

Anand’s title, though, it appears, will be challenged again(!) next year sometime between May and September 2008 by no less than…. Vladimir Kramnik, in a best of 12 games one-on-one match. Why, read the wikipedia article.

For Kramnik’s part, I guess he’s better off playing a one-on-one match rather than playing in a round robin tournament. Just look at his 2000 match win agains Kasparov and the 2006 match against Topalov. Clear victories!

Dear Kuya

Here is the song that OFW’s could especially relate to, Dear Kuya by Sugarfree in their latest album Tala-Arawan.

Dear kuya, kumusta ka na dyan?
Anong balita, malamig ba dyan?
Dito mainit pero kung bumagyo,
Para bang lahat ng tubig sa mundo ay nandito

Matagal na rin, mula nang ika’y magpasyang subukan
ang swerte, at abutin ang yong mga pangarap
Sa ibang bansa kung saan ikaw ay laging mag-isa
kami tuloy dito, nag-aalala

Nasan ka man ngayon, ano mang oras na
ika’y may kailangan, tawag ka lang sa amin
at parang nandito ka na rin

Oo nga pala, kung nasayo pa ang checkered na polo ko,
sa yo na yan.
Hanap kana rin ng maraming mapapaglibangan dahil balita ko
mahal daw ang sine dyan
Dambuhala raw mga pinapakain dyan
tataba ka malamang.
Miss mo bang magtagalog?
Kuya pag may kumausap sayo
galingan mong mag-ingles, galingan mo kuya

Nasan ka man ngayon, ano mang oras na
ika’y may kailangan, tawag ka lang sa amin
at parang nandito ka na rin

Dear kuya, hinahanap ka ni mama at daddy
sulat ka palagi.
Miss ka namin, pati nga kapitbahay nagtatanong
san ka raw nagpunta? san ka raw nagpunta?
Nasan ka na…
Kuyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

This song I dedicate to all my OFW friends and to all Filipinos abroad. My favorite lines:

Dito mainit pero kung bumagyo,
Para bang lahat ng tubig sa mundo ay nandito

and especially:

Kuya pag may kumausap sayo
galingan mong mag-ingles, galingan mo kuya

they just simply make me smile.

For those who have not yet heard of the song, check it out from this link: Dear Kuya – By Sugarfree.

Deuts Top Stories 920

Iloilo City at Night A beautiful view of Iloilo City at night. Who would have thought this is Iloilo? Click image to view flickr page.
Trike Hinay hinay lang – according to the title. A picture of a fully loaded passenger tricycle in Dumangas, Iloilo.
UP Cheering The UP Pep Squad is the champion in the 2007 UAAP Cheerdancing Competition. More pictures are available at Mimi & Karl’s post.
Anand Viswanathan Anand takes the lead, together with Boris Gelfand, after 6 rounds at the World Championship in Mexico. My bet against Val this time is for the defending champion Vladimir Kramnik while he goes for Anand. The match is a double round robin, anyway, so still a long way to go!
Nikon to Canon Kari Post, a wildlife photographer, explains why he switched from Nikon digital camera and gear to Canon. What could be the compelling reasons to do so? Read here.

Deuts Top Stories 917

Kalesa Festival I wish I was there during this Kalesa Festival in Manila. It would have been a great opportunity taking shots of those colorful kalesas. Watch the GMA News video about the event.
Tall and Short The world’s tallest man meets the world’s shortest man. Their height difference: 5ft and 5 inches. Read the story.
New Coke Endorser There’s a new Coca Cola endorser. He’s no other than the kid on the block, Mr. Norman Sale!
Guimbal Plaza Psychodids has beautiful photos from the neighboring town, Guimbal Plaza. I wish I could do the same for Tigbauan. I think I need the same fisheye lens, though…:)
Edwin Edwin shares his experience on how he lost around PhP30,000 from investing in Mutual Funds.
MarkyPhotography To Marky, he loves basketball more than he loves photography. Yet, when it comes to sports photography, I think he still needs to learn more from his master….hehe

Latest Flickr Photos 915

Click image to view flickr page
manila-cathedral.jpg The Manila Cathedral from the outside. The lens I used (28mm) was not enough to cover all the front of the church. These are the times that you realize the value of a super wide angle lens.
manila-cathedral-inside.jpg The Manila Cathedral from the inside. In here, I was facing the altar from the back.
penafrancia.jpg The statue of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is being brought to the altar before the mass celebration began.
bythebay-copy.jpg The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas by the bay.
pulisya-copy.jpg Police speedboats by the bay with the day skyline of the Manila Bay in the background.
group-hug.jpg The grand EB that involved only the two of us, in the Doha Zoo in Doha, State of Qatar. Nevertheless, it was fun! 🙂

Visit my flickr page to catch the latest photo uploads.

Sports Photography: Take One

This was my first try at sports photography. I needed a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. However, the venue was at the Philippine Navy Gymnasium in Fort Bonifacio, whose only source of light was from the windows, which could also serve as a harsh background when framing directly towards them.

Sports World

How I did it

Because of the limited amount of light entering the gymnasium, I bumped up the ISO to 1600, and set the camera mode to shutter priority (Tv). I noticed that a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second is not enough to freeze the hard packed action, so I increased it a third increment to 1/320 sec. Then I tried positioning myself on a higher ground while avoiding shooting directly against the windows.

A lot of my pictures were underexposed, so I just adjusted them in photoshop, which contributed more (ISO 1600, remember?) in a lot of noise in the pictures.

More Pictures

Sportsfest

Sportsfest

Sportsfest

Sportsfest

Sportsfest

Visit my flickr photo set to view more pictures.

Freebies from deuts.net

I should have posted this on the 1st of September. Nevertheless, better late than never.

Wallpaper cornicheDeuts.net offers you free wallpaper download featuring the deuts.net photography. For the September 2007, we have the photo I took of a boat in Corniche last May. Click on the image to view the larger image. Then, right-click on the image, save image/picture as on your local disk, then you know what to do.

This wallpaper was created using Big Huge Labs’ wallpaper maker and features a September 2007 calendar. It fits well in a 1280 x 800 screen resolution. You might want to adjust it if you’re using a different screen resolution (e.g., 1024×768 or 800×600).

A Testament at How Lousy Qtel Service Is

QtelThis entry serves as a testament at how lousy Qatar Telecom (Qtel) service is. In case you ever wonder how they are able to survive in this country (Qatar), it’s what you call monopoly. They are the sole provider of telecom and internet services in this place.

One of the most convenient form of paying your bills in Qtel is through phone using a credit card. However, to think of the fact that you’re already paying and they’re collecting money from you, you actually needs to wait at least 30 minutes on the phone before anyone picks it up to process your payment.

The lady in the recorded messages keeps on saying:

Please continue to hold and your call will be attended to shortly.

or….

Remember, while abroad, you may still be able to reach us at 974 438 0000. Your call is important to us, please continue to hold.

and…

Your call is important to us, please hold the line and your call will be attended to shortly.

You see, I really wonder how important someone’s call to them really is when they let one wait for more than 30 minutes. If this happens to someone paying his bills, what if you just want to inquire or needs technical support? Wait a little longer!

I guess they have a different meaning for the word “shortly“. Let’s go check out the Qtel dictionary!

Aha!

Shortly (shortlee) – in the near future; after you’ve cooked your food or wash the dishes, have done with your laundry

Whatdyathink?

While abroad, you can still reach them. Yeah, maybe after one hour of holding the line while you accumulate those overseas telephone bills!

Now, tell me, can PLDT or Globe or Smart or Bayantel beat that?

I’m looking forward to someday someone will introduce competition against Qtel. No, I’m not looking forward. I realized, I don’t care anymore! hehehe