the existence of a kidnap-for-ransom trade affecting wealthy foreigners in Manila is a legitimate reason for the Philippines to be perceived as dangerous.
Wealthy foreigners should never travel without bodyguards. They can be at risk anywhere, even in Central Park, New York, especially if they were walking by themselves. Foreigners would have no problem if they stick to the large malls or the relatively affluent places in Makati, Ortigas, Eastwood City, and Bonifacio Global City. They should always ask a security guard or doorman to call a cab for them. Security guards and doormen make it a point to write down the license plate of the taxis that pickup customers/clients in front of their establishment. Other than that, you can always call a cab company directly to send a taxi.
A simple rule in any country that you aren't familiar with is, just don't be in any area that you're not supposed to be. I remember me and my parents getting robbed in Romania because we were sightseeing at a national landmark at night where there seemed to be few people milling around. We were led to an even more deserted area where we were divested of our cash.
It's just common sense to be wary of your surroundings. My brother lived in the Bronx, New York and when I visited him there and I walked the streets during the day, I felt as safe as I would be walking the streets of Cubao during the day, i.e. I made sure I was aware of who was around me or who was following me.
If Google built a datacenter outside Manila, they might have to pay the NPA to avoid an attack, diba?
Another reason why Google can't build a datacenter in the Philippines. It would have to be outside Manila and that would present a security risk. If outside investors could setup their business in Makati, Bonifacio Global City, Eastwood City, or Ortigas Center, those would be pretty safe.
A very good friend of mine is a Filipino, and the first time I talked about RPGs he thought I was referring to rocket-propelled grenades. Seriously. (And he used to live in the safe area.)
I'm replying to this post since I noticed it was being modded up. I am a Filipino. If you talk to any computer literate Filipino who plays games, they would know what an RPG is. They would know what FPS stands for. They might even know what RTS means.
The person you might have been talking may be a military or weapons buff. I know a few of these people who are so knowledgeable in weapons and guns but have no idea about computer or video games.
The implication of the reply of the poster is that no Filipino knows the computer-related meaning of RPG and that statement would have some validity since MOST Filipinos have never used, much less owned a computer before.
But how many people in industrialized nations would know the correct meaning of RPG? If you asked a guy off the street ala Jay Leno, would they be able to answer correctly?
I've seen the questions being asked by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show and almost all of the questions he was asking ordinary Americans on the street, I was able to answer, even though most of the people he asked, answered incorrectly. What does that say about most Americans? It says nothing, just as one Filipino not knowing what RPG means, says about most Filipinos.
I hope vistors to Slashdot have not been misled by the statements of the poster above.
I haven't posted in years although I still read Slashdot everyday; but since the Philippines was being mentioned, I just had to post a comment on the replies to the parent post. I just hope my post gets modded up, so it can be read, since my posts have never been modded up.
I am a Filipino. I am an employee of one of the largest multinational OEM computer manufacturers in the world. We have many expats working in our offices and they are comfortable working in our business district and other central areas of commerce, as well as living in our posh areas of residence.
I would say that the Philippines is far from being the front runner, mainly for the relative lack of broadband capacity in comparison to countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. Our government, or even the private sector, haven't invested in our broadband infrastructure to make us competitive with other Asian countries.
The PERCEPTION of instability is another factor that works against my country. I say perception because the actual threats of military, communist, and Muslim terrorists and rebels, have never hindered the business activities of multinational or foreign companies doing business here, especially, if they are located in our business district or other central areas of commerce.
Most rebel and terrorist activity are far away from the capital, far enough such that, most Filipinos working in the capital consider it a world away. The problems in the south never enter our minds. We feel safe here, safe enough for many Filipinos to stay and raise their family, even though they would be qualified to work abroad.
The only reason why Filipinos would want to work abroad is their desire to earn more income. If ever I felt that my family would no longer be safe while we live in Metro Manila, I would have no problem packing our bags and migrating to another country. My brother works in the US as a doctor and he is planning on returning here. If it weren't safe here, I would advise him to stay there just as I advised him to stay there because of the dire financial status of doctors here in the Philippines.
Microsoft and HP maintain a presence here, and are steadily growing their workforce because of the availability of manpower and the excellent english and technical skills of my people. Many more American, Canadian, and multinational companies are setting up branches here in the country in order to outsource various portions of their business processes.
A bigger and more important threat to companies thinking of doing business here, has always been the financial instability of the country (mostly brought on by the PERCEIVED political and military threats) and the lack of buying power due to the low wages of most Filipinos. However, it is the low wages, combined with the english and professional skills of my people, that make my country attractive to outside investors.
What most foreigners don't realize is that we have posh areas and poor areas. You can live and stay in the posh areas without ever seeing the poor areas. It's like you can make believe you're in an industrialized nation. Just like people in industrialized nations are never aware of the poverty in other countries, you can also ignore poverty in our country if you choose to.
Trust me, it is possible to live in your own safe and perfect little world, here in the Philippines, without ever being affected by the problems in the impoverished and unstable regions of the country. Most of the wealthy people here do exactly that and most foreigners working here are considered wealthy by the living standards here.
By our living standards, most foreigners from industrialized nations can live like a king off of their savings here. They would be treated like a king or queen. They could have a big house with maids, nannies, a driver, all attending to their needs - which they couldn't get in their own country because they couldn't afford it. In our country they can because real estate and manp
OT: I can't believe I got modded down for this comment. Sheesh. Serves me right for posting at all. From now on I'll just keep to myself and not contribute anything at all. It's not even worth it to moderate others as well when I get moderator points.
Looking at the books listed on their site, it seems to me that most of these books are probably public domain books or books that have an expired copyright. I wonder if they'll ever get around to transcribing copyrighted works? I know for a fact that there are a lot of digital copies of copyrighted works such as Frank Herbert's Dune series and The Lord of the Rings floating around the Net and I think the newsgroups as well.
The closest we have to an anime channel here in Southeast Asia is AXN (www.axn-asia.com). It features 2.5 hours of Anime (5 shows) shown three times daily (so it's more like 7.5 hours a day). Right now they are all shown subbed. They were dubbed before but they weren't any good (except for Kenshin though).
I hope, one day, AXN will spin-off a 24 hour anime channel. I hope ADV's venture will give them an idea.
I think Microsoft allows the use of old Windows versions if you purchased a license of the newest version. For example, if you bought Windows XP Home, you could use, instead, any version from Windows 3.1 to Windows ME. You can't use Windows 2000 Pro since its upgrade path is Windows XP Pro.
I wonder if this collector had any particular interest in cyberpunk? William Gibson owning a massive collection of Science Fiction publications. What an irony if it didn't include one of the pioneers of a significant genre of SF - the cyberpunk worlds of William Gibson.
Do you know what it takes to run.NET applications? A 20 mb download of the runtime!! Crap!! This isn't the SDK folks. It is only the runtime. Take a look at it here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp? ur l=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/82 9/msdncompositedoc.xml
I was ready to download this and try it out but I'm not gonna install another piece of bloated crapware on my machine. Sheesh! 20 mb. That'll take forever to download. At least the Java runtime is only 9 mb. I think the Java SDK is 30 mb.
I liked this movie when it first came out because of the (then) high-tech graphics. The problem was, being only 12 at the time, and having just bought my first computer (a 16K TRS-80 color computer), I couldn't yet understand some of the concepts being presented in the movie. (What the hell was an I/O port?) Imagine what other, non-geek type people must have felt about the movie.
Now, after having used computers for 20 years, earning a living through computers, and after being exposed to the current 3D games and movie SFX, I realize just how dated the graphics seem now but which probably cost a lot to render back then.
The pacing of the movie is a little slow and will bore people especially if they don't have an affinity for computers. I like computers but I just couldn't wait to see the next scene. They could have sped it up a bit instead of dwelling on one particular area in order to present, fully, the computer world.
I like the girl in the movie though and I can now understand the concepts fully. I love this movie very much because it brings me back to those days of yesteryear when computing was so much simpler. and there still was so much to discover and to explore. This ranks up there with War Games (with Matthew Broderick).
There was an old BASIC command that I used to type just to get the feeling that I was bringing TRON to life. The command was TRON (TRacer ON). TROFF did the opposite which was to turn the TRacer OFF. This basically just listed the number of the program line that was being executed at that moment.
I'll recommend to my rich brother to buy the DVD so I can watch it too.
Do you have dozens network drops in every room of your house or aparment?
Why would I need dozens of network drops in every room of my house? My family has 6 PCs and laptops in different rooms spanning two houses (close together) and planning to add more PCs and yet we still use cables. We probably will stick with cables until wireless is cheaper and has better peformance and consistency. For longer distances, I'd rather dial-up to my PC at home even if I had to pay for an extra phone line. The only time I'd choose wireless is if I didn't have a phone to use in an isolated location in which case I wouldn't be really thinking of using my PC.
Does every conference room in your office building have a network connection for everyone in a max capacity environment?
From the articles posted, the wireless network seems to be more consumer-oriented rather than business-oriented. Most wireless services today target consumer applications - cellphones and PDAs. A wireless LAN is very useful but for widespread use of wireless technology, I still believe in a killer app. From where I come from, the killer app for the widespread use of cellphones was text messaging.
Have you ever surfed the web or checked your email while sitting on the front lawn, enjoying a summer afternoon?
If I were outside trying to enjoy a summer afternoon (which is pretty rare for me), I'd be reading a book.;-)
No killer app yet
on
Wireless Mania
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
There still isn't a killer app for wireless access yet - either for cellphones, PDAs, or PCs, so I can't see wireless networks becoming successful. I can't imagine why one would use 2400 bps to connect when I can connect at 160 kbps at home unless you're on the road and can't use anything else. Probably the best use for wireless access are cellphones and yet even these haven't taken off. Of course, wireless networks would succeed if they were free which gives a 2400 bps/0$ (infinite) price performance ratio compared to 160 kbps/50$.
Will IBM celebrate both milestones?
on
Linux Turns 10
·
· Score: 1
I'm interested to see if IBM will celebrate both milestones since IBM is now a Linux supporter. Kill two birds with one stone. They could use media interest in the PC anniversary to also promote the Linux anniversary and therefore, also their current Linux hardware offerings.
Useful benchmarks are performed using real-world software (such as Quake or office apps), which utilizes every component of the system (such as memory, video card, and hard disk). Comparing price/performance of the CPU is not very useful since you don't use a CPU by itself. It is only a part (albeit the most significant part) in a system.
For example, excluding the CPU you might spend $500 on the other PC components. Adding an Athlon 1.33 Ghz would add up to $633. Using an Athlon 1.4 Ghz would give you $666. That is a difference of less than 5%. The difference in real-world benchmarks would probably be less than the difference in processor speeds because other components also impact performance but this price/performance is more useable than simply rating the price/performance of the CPU.
The Athlon/Duron line is the only CPU series since the days of the 486DX line that I could upgrade my CPU to double the processing power without changing my motherboard, since both the low end and the high end are still available and supported by current motherboards. Unlike the Pentium line wherein you had to change motherboards to support an upgrade to 166-200 Mhz from a 90 Mhz Pentium, a Celeron 366 from a Pentium 200, a Celeron 600 from a Celeron 366. By the time 166 Mhz Pentiums, Celeron 600s became cheap and motherboards that supported them were available, you could no longer find a 90 Mhz or a Celeron 366 for retail. For the entire Pentium line, Intel has never let me upgrade the CPU without needing to change the motherboard.
I was planning to build an Athlon PC with a 1.2 Ghz CPU worth around $110 but I've decided to get a Duron 700 CPU instead worth around $30 despite the nearly 100% difference in performance since with the $80 I save now, I can upgrade later to a faster CPU later on, maybe even a 1.6 Ghz CPU.
But I really, really wanted to get that 1.2 Ghz Athlon inspite of the huge price difference. If I hadn't stopped and thought it out carefully, I would have bought it instead of the Duron 700.
Slashdot Mirror
Wealthy foreigners should never travel without bodyguards. They can be at risk anywhere, even in Central Park, New York, especially if they were walking by themselves. Foreigners would have no problem if they stick to the large malls or the relatively affluent places in Makati, Ortigas, Eastwood City, and Bonifacio Global City. They should always ask a security guard or doorman to call a cab for them. Security guards and doormen make it a point to write down the license plate of the taxis that pickup customers/clients in front of their establishment. Other than that, you can always call a cab company directly to send a taxi.
A simple rule in any country that you aren't familiar with is, just don't be in any area that you're not supposed to be. I remember me and my parents getting robbed in Romania because we were sightseeing at a national landmark at night where there seemed to be few people milling around. We were led to an even more deserted area where we were divested of our cash.
It's just common sense to be wary of your surroundings. My brother lived in the Bronx, New York and when I visited him there and I walked the streets during the day, I felt as safe as I would be walking the streets of Cubao during the day, i.e. I made sure I was aware of who was around me or who was following me.
Another reason why Google can't build a datacenter in the Philippines. It would have to be outside Manila and that would present a security risk. If outside investors could setup their business in Makati, Bonifacio Global City, Eastwood City, or Ortigas Center, those would be pretty safe.
I'm replying to this post since I noticed it was being modded up. I am a Filipino. If you talk to any computer literate Filipino who plays games, they would know what an RPG is. They would know what FPS stands for. They might even know what RTS means.
The person you might have been talking may be a military or weapons buff. I know a few of these people who are so knowledgeable in weapons and guns but have no idea about computer or video games.
The implication of the reply of the poster is that no Filipino knows the computer-related meaning of RPG and that statement would have some validity since MOST Filipinos have never used, much less owned a computer before.
But how many people in industrialized nations would know the correct meaning of RPG? If you asked a guy off the street ala Jay Leno, would they be able to answer correctly?
I've seen the questions being asked by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show and almost all of the questions he was asking ordinary Americans on the street, I was able to answer, even though most of the people he asked, answered incorrectly. What does that say about most Americans? It says nothing, just as one Filipino not knowing what RPG means, says about most Filipinos.
I hope vistors to Slashdot have not been misled by the statements of the poster above.
I haven't posted in years although I still read Slashdot everyday; but since the Philippines was being mentioned, I just had to post a comment on the replies to the parent post. I just hope my post gets modded up, so it can be read, since my posts have never been modded up.
I am a Filipino. I am an employee of one of the largest multinational OEM computer manufacturers in the world. We have many expats working in our offices and they are comfortable working in our business district and other central areas of commerce, as well as living in our posh areas of residence.
I would say that the Philippines is far from being the front runner, mainly for the relative lack of broadband capacity in comparison to countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. Our government, or even the private sector, haven't invested in our broadband infrastructure to make us competitive with other Asian countries.
The PERCEPTION of instability is another factor that works against my country. I say perception because the actual threats of military, communist, and Muslim terrorists and rebels, have never hindered the business activities of multinational or foreign companies doing business here, especially, if they are located in our business district or other central areas of commerce.
Most rebel and terrorist activity are far away from the capital, far enough such that, most Filipinos working in the capital consider it a world away. The problems in the south never enter our minds. We feel safe here, safe enough for many Filipinos to stay and raise their family, even though they would be qualified to work abroad.
The only reason why Filipinos would want to work abroad is their desire to earn more income. If ever I felt that my family would no longer be safe while we live in Metro Manila, I would have no problem packing our bags and migrating to another country. My brother works in the US as a doctor and he is planning on returning here. If it weren't safe here, I would advise him to stay there just as I advised him to stay there because of the dire financial status of doctors here in the Philippines.
Microsoft and HP maintain a presence here, and are steadily growing their workforce because of the availability of manpower and the excellent english and technical skills of my people. Many more American, Canadian, and multinational companies are setting up branches here in the country in order to outsource various portions of their business processes.
A bigger and more important threat to companies thinking of doing business here, has always been the financial instability of the country (mostly brought on by the PERCEIVED political and military threats) and the lack of buying power due to the low wages of most Filipinos. However, it is the low wages, combined with the english and professional skills of my people, that make my country attractive to outside investors.
What most foreigners don't realize is that we have posh areas and poor areas. You can live and stay in the posh areas without ever seeing the poor areas. It's like you can make believe you're in an industrialized nation. Just like people in industrialized nations are never aware of the poverty in other countries, you can also ignore poverty in our country if you choose to.
Trust me, it is possible to live in your own safe and perfect little world, here in the Philippines, without ever being affected by the problems in the impoverished and unstable regions of the country. Most of the wealthy people here do exactly that and most foreigners working here are considered wealthy by the living standards here.
By our living standards, most foreigners from industrialized nations can live like a king off of their savings here. They would be treated like a king or queen. They could have a big house with maids, nannies, a driver, all attending to their needs - which they couldn't get in their own country because they couldn't afford it. In our country they can because real estate and manp
OT: I can't believe I got modded down for this comment. Sheesh. Serves me right for posting at all. From now on I'll just keep to myself and not contribute anything at all. It's not even worth it to moderate others as well when I get moderator points.
Mod me down if you wish I don't care anymore.
Looking at the books listed on their site, it seems to me that most of these books are probably public domain books or books that have an expired copyright. I wonder if they'll ever get around to transcribing copyrighted works? I know for a fact that there are a lot of digital copies of copyrighted works such as Frank Herbert's Dune series and The Lord of the Rings floating around the Net and I think the newsgroups as well.
The closest we have to an anime channel here in Southeast Asia is AXN (www.axn-asia.com). It features 2.5 hours of Anime (5 shows) shown three times daily (so it's more like 7.5 hours a day). Right now they are all shown subbed. They were dubbed before but they weren't any good (except for Kenshin though).
I hope, one day, AXN will spin-off a 24 hour anime channel. I hope ADV's venture will give them an idea.
...Magnetar
The name sounds like a Pokemon, doesn't it?
I think Microsoft allows the use of old Windows versions if you purchased a license of the newest version. For example, if you bought Windows XP Home, you could use, instead, any version from Windows 3.1 to Windows ME. You can't use Windows 2000 Pro since its upgrade path is Windows XP Pro.
In that thread, you will also find the first mention of the Y2038 problem affecting society.
You will also find a mention of Y2038 back in 1982 but only as a source code issue.
Here it is:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=2038+net.bugs
I wonder if this collector had any particular interest in cyberpunk? William Gibson owning a massive collection of Science Fiction publications. What an irony if it didn't include one of the pioneers of a significant genre of SF - the cyberpunk worlds of William Gibson.
Do you know what it takes to run .NET applications? A 20 mb download of the runtime!! Crap!! This isn't the SDK folks. It is only the runtime. Take a look at it here:
? ur l=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/82 9/msdncompositedoc.xml
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp
I was ready to download this and try it out but I'm not gonna install another piece of bloated crapware on my machine. Sheesh! 20 mb. That'll take forever to download. At least the Java runtime is only 9 mb. I think the Java SDK is 30 mb.
I liked this movie when it first came out because of the (then) high-tech graphics. The problem was, being only 12 at the time, and having just bought my first computer (a 16K TRS-80 color computer), I couldn't yet understand some of the concepts being presented in the movie. (What the hell was an I/O port?) Imagine what other, non-geek type people must have felt about the movie.
Now, after having used computers for 20 years, earning a living through computers, and after being exposed to the current 3D games and movie SFX, I realize just how dated the graphics seem now but which probably cost a lot to render back then.
The pacing of the movie is a little slow and will bore people especially if they don't have an affinity for computers. I like computers but I just couldn't wait to see the next scene. They could have sped it up a bit instead of dwelling on one particular area in order to present, fully, the computer world.
I like the girl in the movie though and I can now understand the concepts fully. I love this movie very much because it brings me back to those days of yesteryear when computing was so much simpler. and there still was so much to discover and to explore. This ranks up there with War Games (with Matthew Broderick).
There was an old BASIC command that I used to type just to get the feeling that I was bringing TRON to life. The command was TRON (TRacer ON). TROFF did the opposite which was to turn the TRacer OFF. This basically just listed the number of the program line that was being executed at that moment.
I'll recommend to my rich brother to buy the DVD so I can watch it too.
The second part of the story involves Allchin admitting that Microsoft has violated the law but refused to specify the violations.
;-)
LOL
First time ever in history!
I thought this would never, ever happen.
I've finally read someone at Microsoft admit it did something wrong at something!
And I always thought Microsoft believed it was always correct at everything it ever ventured into.
Do you have dozens network drops in every room of your house or aparment?
;-)
Why would I need dozens of network drops in every room of my house? My family has 6 PCs and laptops in different rooms spanning two houses (close together) and planning to add more PCs and yet we still use cables. We probably will stick with cables until wireless is cheaper and has better peformance and consistency. For longer distances, I'd rather dial-up to my PC at home even if I had to pay for an extra phone line. The only time I'd choose wireless is if I didn't have a phone to use in an isolated location in which case I wouldn't be really thinking of using my PC.
Does every conference room in your office building have a network connection for everyone in a max capacity environment?
From the articles posted, the wireless network seems to be more consumer-oriented rather than business-oriented. Most wireless services today target consumer applications - cellphones and PDAs. A wireless LAN is very useful but for widespread use of wireless technology, I still believe in a killer app. From where I come from, the killer app for the widespread use of cellphones was text messaging.
Have you ever surfed the web or checked your email while sitting on the front lawn, enjoying a summer afternoon?
If I were outside trying to enjoy a summer afternoon (which is pretty rare for me), I'd be reading a book.
There still isn't a killer app for wireless access yet - either for cellphones, PDAs, or PCs, so I can't see wireless networks becoming successful. I can't imagine why one would use 2400 bps to connect when I can connect at 160 kbps at home unless you're on the road and can't use anything else. Probably the best use for wireless access are cellphones and yet even these haven't taken off. Of course, wireless networks would succeed if they were free which gives a 2400 bps/0$ (infinite) price performance ratio compared to 160 kbps/50$.
I'm interested to see if IBM will celebrate both milestones since IBM is now a Linux supporter. Kill two birds with one stone. They could use media interest in the PC anniversary to also promote the Linux anniversary and therefore, also their current Linux hardware offerings.
Useful benchmarks are performed using real-world software (such as Quake or office apps), which utilizes every component of the system (such as memory, video card, and hard disk). Comparing price/performance of the CPU is not very useful since you don't use a CPU by itself. It is only a part (albeit the most significant part) in a system.
For example, excluding the CPU you might spend $500 on the other PC components. Adding an Athlon 1.33 Ghz would add up to $633. Using an Athlon 1.4 Ghz would give you $666. That is a difference of less than 5%. The difference in real-world benchmarks would probably be less than the difference in processor speeds because other components also impact performance but this price/performance is more useable than simply rating the price/performance of the CPU.
The Athlon/Duron line is the only CPU series since the days of the 486DX line that I could upgrade my CPU to double the processing power without changing my motherboard, since both the low end and the high end are still available and supported by current motherboards. Unlike the Pentium line wherein you had to change motherboards to support an upgrade to 166-200 Mhz from a 90 Mhz Pentium, a Celeron 366 from a Pentium 200, a Celeron 600 from a Celeron 366. By the time 166 Mhz Pentiums, Celeron 600s became cheap and motherboards that supported them were available, you could no longer find a 90 Mhz or a Celeron 366 for retail. For the entire Pentium line, Intel has never let me upgrade the CPU without needing to change the motherboard.
I was planning to build an Athlon PC with a 1.2 Ghz CPU worth around $110 but I've decided to get a Duron 700 CPU instead worth around $30 despite the nearly 100% difference in performance since with the $80 I save now, I can upgrade later to a faster CPU later on, maybe even a 1.6 Ghz CPU.
But I really, really wanted to get that 1.2 Ghz Athlon inspite of the huge price difference. If I hadn't stopped and thought it out carefully, I would have bought it instead of the Duron 700.