Month: September 2015

The Smart Bro Flexitime Data Minutes that deplete faster than real time use

The Smart Bro Flexitime offers allow you to take full control of your time and enjoy every surfing minute.

Smart Bro Flexitime 100

Smart Bro Flexitime 100

The main feature of this offer is it’s basically internet charged by the minute — not by blocks of 15 minutes nor by volume. It is good for people who like to do ‘hit-and-run’ when it comes to internet use.

I subscribed to Smart Bro’s Flexitime 100, which allowed me 15 hours of internet access valid for 7 days. This subscription costs P100, and should translate to 900 minutes of data. Continue reading

The (almost) two decades old graduated tax table that defies inflation

Back in 2008 (7 years ago!), I called for a major revamp of the ‘then’ decade old and obsolete tax law, specifically for the part pertaining to individual income taxes. Since then, minor revisions were made, like the exemption of minimum wage earners and adjusting the 13th month pay and other benefits ceiling excluded from the computation of gross income.

[Read: Rappler—Aquino signs law raising tax exemption cap for bonuses.]

NIRC of 1997

National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 book July 2009 Edition by Danilo A. Duncano. This book may need revisions, but not as much as that of the law itself.

Yet, the gist of individual income taxation remains, that is — the (almost) two decades old graduated tax table that defies inflation. Continue reading

Knockoffs are nowhere near the real deal

GooPhone is one of those Android device manufacturers that make clones of the iPhone. With the recent unveiling of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, GooPhone has come out with the GooPhone I6S, which is the same size and form factor as that of the iPhone 6S and made to appear to run iOS 8.

Here is the video review of the GooPhone I6S for reference:

http://youtu.be/byNGVYya9JE

I have tried customizing an Android device (a Samsung Galaxy S2) before, changing the launcher and icons to make it look like the latest iPhone. Then, after spending quite a number of hours customizing its appearance, it struck me–no matter how much time I spend on customization, no matter the extent of every detail I copy, it is still an Android device pretending to be an iPhone.

So, heed my advice: if you want an iPhone for a smartphone, save and spend on an iPhone. Custom-making an Android device to make it look like an iPhone is just a pathetic way of showing how much you really want an iPhone. After all, knockoffs are nowhere near the real deal.

The role of technology in chess and cheating

At the start of the 2015 World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, where security was tight so that watches and pens were not allowed in the playing hall, GM Hikaru Nakamura of USA tweeted:

[tweet https://twitter.com/GMHikaru/status/642007269387866112]

I beg to differ. The proliferation of cheating in chess tournaments was brought about by the level of sophistication in our technology today, so that watches (or smartwatches for that matter) and even pens can be used to cheat in chess games. Thus, it is not cheating per se that forced players to part with their watches and pens during games. Instead, it is advancements in technology that made cheating more accessible, thus thrust tournament organizers to be stricter about their rules.

Make Space for iPad Pro — the 12.9-inch Apple tablet

Stayed really late last night to watch the Apple Event on my Apple TV. After the boring discussions about the Apple Watch, Tim Cook eventually introduced the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new iPad Pro during an Apple media event in San Francisco, California, September 9, 2015. Reuters/Beck Diefenbach

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new iPad Pro during an Apple media event in San Francisco, California, September 9, 2015. Reuters/Beck Diefenbach

At 12.9-inch diagonal size, the screen is much like most laptops there currently are in the market. I surmise it is now positioned to take on the laptop market this time. That is, if those who consider replacing their work laptop with the iPad Pro are not deterred by the idea of expending additional dough for the Smart Keyboard and/or Apple Pencil.

Continue reading

Colinear WordPress Theme and the broken ‘Related Posts’ section

Update (September 11, 2015): I submitted a ticket to WordPress Support about this issue, and it appears they have acted upon it promptly. Kudos to a certain David who responded to my ticket. The related posts section design is now fixed in Firefox.

I’m using the Colinear theme right now, and so far I’m loving it–except for the broken design when using a ‘large and visually striking layout’ in the related posts section.

Here’s the screenshot of the options window complete with the preview of how it is supposed to look like:

related-posts-preview

And this is how it actually looks like: Continue reading

‘Featured Images’ is a WordPress feature that badly needs fixing

We’ve seen WordPress improve over the years. Unfortunately, not all these improvements help better our experience. Indeed, you cannot please everyone.

Take for example the Featured Images feature. A lot of themes display the Featured Image, should you have tagged one in your post, as is right before or after the post title. These are not magazine-style themes and the featured image is presented nowhere near special at all. Why didn’t they just remove it altogether?

Below is a screenshot of my blog post with a Featured Image using Colinear theme: Continue reading