All of Asia is in Mall of Asia

05/22/2011, a photo by ruecian20 on Flickr.

Look at the benches. Can you still see a comfortable spot? Can you see a spot at all where it is possible to sit on? I personally find MOA tiring. Just a look from the outside at how big it is, makes me want to go back home and simply watch tv or a dvd...

End of the World?

I usually hear news of this end of the world for the past two weeks now, and one particular news featured some group claiming that it would definitely happen on May 21. The news made me concerned, and i even made some final requests to my loving partner, just in case it does happen. Today is already the 24th of May, and nothing happened. Hahaha... As i was writing this, another news was on, predicting yet another end-of-world scenario.. I do not want to meddle with these religious things, but as i see it, no one can really predict what can happen, not unless someone can travel ahead in time and back to tell or warn us if and when it will happen. Besides, assuming that it is possible (travelling through time), knowing what the future holds, it might then be changeable, since we would be able to prepare for it, and even if it is inevitable, it would not happen the way it should. I think, as most people do, that we should be focusing more on what is happening now, what we can do something about the present instead of worrying ourselves with the future, which no one can be certain about, except of course, some higher form of being than us humans. After all, if our time is up, it is up, nothing can change that, so it would be useless to worry about it. It would be a better use of whatever time we have left, to make life more bearable for ourselves and for those around us.

I have to admit though, that the Mayan calendar's ending in Dec.21, 2012 does make me a bit worried. I guess I'll just have to skip it for now, and just see what happens... Now, about that future house...

My cluttered cubicle

05/19/2011, a photo by ruecian20 on Flickr.

I have always been lost as to how to manage my desktop clutter. I do try to keep it organized, but things just have a way of being disorganized all by themselves, of their own volition (as if they even have it). I have a number of desktop organizers at my disposal, but they seem to make no difference at all..

Nokia C6-00

My nokia c6 has been with me since late last year. It would've been a good buy, if not for a few undesirable things. First, its processor is not so good, sometimes, its responses are laggy. Some games won't play at all. Second, the built-in browser is a bit slow. A medium sized webpage would take a long time to load, and if it does, and it is heavy on images, scrolling gets very slow. Third, the touch screen is not multi-touch, and sometimes, you'd need to touch a little harder than normal, it order for it to respond. Some games, requiring multiple simultaneous touch commands, would thus be unplayable (examples are fps games). These things, and a number of other minor ones, should have been enough to have prevented me from buying one, but i still did. I bought it because: one, i haven't owned a qwerty phone yet, especially not one that has a sliding mini-keyboard. Most windows keyboard commands can be used lik ctrl-v and ctrl-c. Second, the camera is 5mp, allowing me to take pictures and videos of great quality. Third, it is very affordable, compared to other touch phones at the time. Fourth, it has many great connectivity features. One great functionality is that i can take pictures and immediatly upload it to an online image repository of my choosing.

All in all, this is a balanced phone, has enough of everything, but is not really great on any one of them, only adequate.

My new Sun Broadband MyFi (Huawei E585)

Just this week, i got my very own sun broadband myfi (pocket wifi).

I actually got it just this saturday, but unfortunately, it wasn't activated properly, requiring us to go back to the sun shop in megamall the following day to ask why (the agent said that activation usually takes less than a day, and activation would be indicated by the blinking 'M' and either a yellow or green signal indicator). We did come back, and found out that the reason why it's taking so long to activate, was because it wasn't done properly (the activation). After another agent asked us for identification, my device successfully connected to the internet. We were so excited, that we immediately roamed the mall and tried surfing the net at the same time (nearly bumping into other people as a result).

This would not have been possible if not for my loving partner's assistance in acquiring the postpaid plan, as i wasn't able to, because the plan required me to present numerous documents, some too tedious to acquire. The plan costs 799 a month. The pocket wifi (Huawei E585) costs 5K, but would come free if you would agree to a 24-month lock-in period, or pay a one-time fee of 1.9k, if you would much prefer the 12-month lock-in period. So far so good, as the device is working like a charm, enabling me to check emails on the go, check my facebook account, or just watch youtube on breaks.

One thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't have any slots in which you can insert a strap to, and make it into a necklace. Another is the very real possibility that it would not perform as well as it does here in the city as in remote areas like far away provinces. But the things i like about it far outnumbers the things that i don't. I like that it can be configured to filter mac addresses, disable ssid broadcasting, wpa/wpa2 encryption, vpn, dmz, etc.. The web-based interface is also very intuitive and easy to navigate, not to mention responsive, with only a few seconds in between config updates. It can also be hooked-up to a wifi-incapable pc through a usb port, while still functioning as a wireless access point. The plan is unlimited, although i'm not sure if it would be capped once i reach a certain amount of data usage (some ISPs would offer speeds of up to 5mbps, but would cap your connection once you've reached 15gb of usage per month for example).

Silkroad Offline?

It's been a whole week now, and i'm still unable to play silkroad online for longer than 5 minutes. Sure, i'd be able to log-in and select my character, but once i'm in the game, about 3 minutes and i would get disconnected. I try every night but with the same results.. I wonder when this game will improve.. Three years ago, i quit this game, perhaps because of the same technical problem, i can't really remember why, add to that the numerous bots that roam the game. After those 3 long years, anyone would've thought that this game would improve, but it's still the same, hahaha. I tried checking the forums for technical support, but like before, the only people talking there are the players. Check those threads trying to bring up technical problems and chances are, you will not come upon a single reply from any representative of the game's maker/publisher. A week before this, i would have been willing to part with my money, just to buy in-game premiums, but now that i've changed my mind, i might just invest my money on some other game, that is far more deserving, like World of Warcraft.. Really sad, because i liked silkroad online and its vast game environment, and simple gameplay, but the way things are going, i might not have a choice :(