When I moved to Makati, I had to switch to Globe because they managed to have two antennas on every floor. My SMART number was my first number. I had it for about six years. It sucked that I had to tell everyone that I changed my phone number.

Not only that. Globe’s GPRS rates are horrible. I love SMART’s flat rate at P10 per half hour. Not to mention that SMART had a better quality of service (in the context of GPRS). “You won’t know what you’ll be missing until it’s gone” as they say.

On the bright side, most of my contacts are on Globe. It was a bit easier to call them. No more trunk congestion. Also, I sorta got into this exclusive circle of the txting craze. I got my daily barrage of sweet “quotes” with group messaging. Props to this unlitxt promo.

Last Thursday wasn’t my lucky day. I forgot that I placed my phone on top of the ATM. When I went back for it (just about 5 minutes), it was gone. Since there’s no way to turn off the XDA, I could call it and whoever took the phone couldn’t do anything about it unless they pulled out the battery and smashed it into smithereens. Unfortunately, my SMART sim was clipped inside the phone.

I kept calling my phone but no answer. I sent a message asking to return the phone and I’d reward them for their trouble. After thirty minutes, there was a reply. I was so thrilled that I wrote the wrong answer telling them to just leave it to the guards at the bank. They probably thought I was going to dupe them with the reward and didn’t show up.

Losing the phone didn’t have a big impact on me. I didn’t feel like I lost a limb. What sucks is that the important notes and contact numbers are in there. ActiveSync is shit. Microsoft misinforms by giving you an option to backup your mobile device everytime you sync it. Much to my luck, you can’t retrieve the database from the “backup” (or it’s not that easy). Yay Microsoft!

But since I love having the “power” to check my mail while on the go and the ability to read my eBooks, I’ll be getting an XDA again and maybe, just maybe, I could still load my phonebook there.

I’m not much of a Christmas person but Dennis cracked me up when he shared a link. It sucks that I can’t embed it so here’s the link.

• Open Flash Chart
  Tags: flash graphs graphing charts
• flare
  Tags: visualization flash actionscript
• VIM Syntax for Asterisk Extension Language (AEL)
  Tags: vim vi asterisk ael

Wow, my last post was more than a month ago. I’m still alive and very well.

I moved out of our house at Sta. Rosa, Laguna to the smelly streets of Makati. There are many reasons. Below is a list of answers that I randomly pick from when somebody asks me, “Why?”

• If I take public transportation, it’s fractional to how much I spend for gas, toll fees and parking.
• It’s hard to maintain a car and you have to bother about color coding.
• I don’t have to drive. Yes, sometimes it’s fun. But most of the time, it’s not. We all know how most Filipino drivers are (me included).
• I’m a hermit, introvert and I hate everyone. I enjoy living by myself and I miss it.
• It sucks that I drive by myself and contribute to the pollution. Carpooling would be great but I’m not an 8-5 person.
• Obviously, 90 Kilometers (round trip on a worst case scenario) is a long haul.
• I can walk to work.
• There’s a gym upstairs and I’m out of shape.
• Lots of girls in our building.
• I like the city life. Although Makati is not much of a decent city but I don’t have any choice, do I?

It took us a month to get an Internet connection to the unit. There was the paperwork, miscommunication and the breakneck neck-breaking processing of our high tech ISPs.

I could’ve blogged from work but I’m not really comfortable with writing a blog entry at work. I kinda feel anal when someone watches me write behind my shoulder. I’ve been busier too. So there.

I miss Hong Kong.

• Google Chart API
  Tags: google charts graphs api
• Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?
  Tags: quiz humor programmers serial+killers

I was about to setup a proxy on one of the servers I maintain but some little voice whispered to try tunneling through SSH again. I tried it at school before but I didn’t bother trying again when I failed at the first try.

I tried summarizing the Lifehacker article to do this but it’s too damn easy already. If you’re still reading this, you missed the link.

By tunneling, it is assumed that you also have a machine that’s connected to the intarwebs that isn’t behind Globelines’ transparent proxy. Bonus points if it’s on a DS3 connection. Hurrah for me and my buzzing headache!