Year: 2014

Remembering the payphone, again!

As per Scott Fearon, CFA, on Bad Connection: What Today’s Investors Can Learn from the Death of the Pay Phone

Back in the late 1990s, I received a steady stream of research reports from prestigious Wall Street brokerages recommending the stocks of, you guessed it, publicly traded pay phone companies. There were four of them still in business at the time, and as the reports pointed out, they were all attractively “cheap” by traditional valuation measures, such as their price-to-earnings multiples or market capitalization-to-revenues ratios. Not only that, but recently enacted deregulation was allowing pay phone operators to boost the prices they could charge for local calls, leading to predictions of new “windfalls” on Wall Street and in the financial media. Of course, in hindsight, we can see that those forecasts were wildly off the mark and that there was a clear reason those stocks were such bargains: They were well on their way to oblivion. The widespread adoption of cellular phones had already started, and it wasn’t going to stop. But at the time, many investors dropped their coins into the slots of these classic value traps and never got them back.

This, of course, reminds me of my earlier post about the Payphone: Continue reading

That stupid Facebook app built in browser

That stupid Facebook app built in browser is just plain stupid.

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They need to put it back to open in the default browser, may it be Safari for iOS or Chrome for Android. That way it’ll be easier to share the webpage in any app other than the stupid Facebook app.

This now gives me more reason to stop using Facebook altogether.

Honda Philippines releases Honda Civic 2015

Honda Civic 2015

Honda Civic 2015

Honda Philippines announced the availability of the new 2015 Honda Civic at its authorized dealerships starting this November 2014. This time, the Civic will be available in 3 additional variants (for a total of 6), which now includes a 5-speed manual transmission option.

Wait, the big question is, can they already deliver even on the Honda Civic 2014 model (which they just actually released in late May this year)?

I remember ordering the Honda Civic Modulo variant in June, paid the reservation fee, but that they failed to deliver for almost a month. That’s why I opted for the Subaru XV instead — and no regrets!

I checked in mid August and I found out they were only able to fill 5 orders nationwide for the same variant.

To be fair to Honda Philippines, though, their inability to deliver on my order was related to the issue of Manila port congestion.

Wesley So Officially in the Top 10 of the November 2014 FIDE Ratings List

It’s official, GM Wesley So made it to the Top 10 in the November 2014 FIDE Ratings List.

Wesley So Top 10

The sad news, however, is that Wesley So now officially bears the US flag, and not the Philippines. But we still cling to the fact that he’s still Filipino at heart:

I am a proud Filipino, always will be a Filipino at heart, and never forget where I came from. I am thankful for all the support in the past.

— Wesley So in Chessdom interview

Continue reading

Why the Need for a “Fair Use Policy?”

I don’t understand the need for a “Fair Use Policy” (FUP). No, I’m not even referring to Smart and Globe’s “unlimited” internet misrepresentation.

According to Globe’s website:

This policy allows us to maintain the quality of our mobile internet service and give all Globe customers a fair opportunity to enjoy our network.

Mobile surfing offers from Globe are generally meant for emailing, browsing and search activities. Customers who frequently use file-sharing software or download large files are usually the ones affected by our policy. Media streaming and downloading of torrents also contribute to the excessive use of bandwidth capacity.

If that truly is their intention, why not make users pay for what they actually use, instead of offering “unlimited” and capping them just the same.

Continue reading

I thank the guest bloggers

guest-bloggerDisclaimer: This is not yet the end of Deuts.NET. This site is nowhere near that end.

Deuts.NET has been in existence for quite some time now — more than 8 years. Along the way, I had friends who willingly helped and contributed to the success (I would like to believe that way) of this site. Thus, I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.

Shout out goes to Raymond, Sherwin, Marky and Cliff. Continue reading