I don't know if you've been receiving SMS messages that says:
Lotto Jackpot P348M has two winners, one from Mendiola beside Pasig River and another from FG Building in Makati City.
Of course, this isn't true (I am being positive here)! One of the said lotto winner lives in Caloocan and got her ticket somewhere in Malibay Pasay while the other winner, got his ticket somewhere in Pasg -- I mean, Pasig.
Getting the 6 correct numbers is nearly impossible. How come there are two winners? Why do people know that when the jackpot is this huge, there would be one or more winners? That is where I smell something fishy.
It's the 23rd People Power Anniversary tomorrow, Feb 25, 2009. What are the notable changes ever since that event occurred?
- Philippine sunk even lower after the Marcos regime. - 1 president ousted because of plunder. - 1st first gentleman to be involved in almost everything scandalous. - Being banned by a worldwide institution and treating it like nothing happened. - Several Coup De Tats - Several incidents of police rubouts that end up not being solved
Today, I have with me wireless broadband connections from 3 different networks here in the Philippines and I am making comparisons based on my observations and speed tests for each network with time stamps.
Networks to be tested: Globe Visibility Postpaid (I've been using this for almost 2 years now) Smart Bro Prepaid Kit (Just tried it this year -- Feb 2009) Sun Wireless Broadband ( Subscribed to it December 2008)
My Location and testing environment: -Quezon City area -Warehouse type building with few walls around me -Ceiling above me is around 3 stories high -Laptop and broadband modem location: 3feet above the ground
Speed Testing: I tested their speeds in one single location and here are the results:
Sun Wireless Broadband - These 3 tests were done around 10:24am to 10:45am (Feb 20,2009 Friday)
Globe Visibility Postpaid- These 3 tests were done around 12:19pm to 01:56pm (Feb 20,2009 Friday)
Smart Bro Prepaid Kit- These 3 tests were done around 11:17am to 11:43am (Feb 20,2009 Friday)
Speed Test Summary: Sun Wireless Broadband (SWB): [Highest Download Rate- 1011 kb/s ; Highest Upload Rate- 360 kb/s]
Browser Loading Speed: Using Firefox, I bookmarked 15 different websites to test the 3 different wireless networks.
If you've noticed, even though SWB's download rate exceeded 1mbps, it does not necessary mean it is also 1mbps-ish fast. It performed well on speedtest.net, but when I tried loading 15 pages at the same time, it was slow. It took around 120 seconds to load everything.
Using Globe Visibility and Smart Bro Prepaid, the results I got was better. Globe Visibility loaded those 15 pages a bit faster compared to Smart Bro. Visibility loaded the same 15 webpages at around 55seconds and Smart Bro at 85seconds
I went to a Globe Business Center and asked if the Visibility Postpaid and Prepaid has the same speeds. They said Yes. But from experience, I think the answer is no. I have yet to test the Globe Visibility Prepaid vs the Globe visibility postpaid speed.
More Observations: It's now 3pm and Globe Visibility is acting up again (this has been happening for a couple of weeks now). I can't load pages and the speed is slow (you need constant refreshing of webpages for it to load properly). The network might be congested. Typing this part of the test, I am now using Sun Wireless Broadband. I tried loading the 15 webpages again and, the loading speed was faster compared to the speed earlier this morning. Everything loaded in just 80 seconds.
..and as I am ending this post. even SWB is acting up now (3:25pm) arrrghhh!!
Time to test Smart Bro Prepaid again... 3:30pm and I am again connected to my Smart Bro Prepaid.
Speedtested it again...
It took around 100 seconds to load the 15 webpages.
I am currently doing my work while testing this but, now, I am browsing at whopping speeds reaching... 7Kbps!!! Oh well...
after my 30minute block, I will connect to my Globe Visibility again.
I've noticed another thing... all networks do act up. You cannot really expect it to be working 100% of the time.
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? We know that our laws here in the Philippines are only good for 2 months or 2 weeks.
Last February 17, 2009, 3 "alleged" carnappers were killed somewhere near NIA road - EDSA. Authorities said that they pursued the said Honda Civic.
Fortunately (unfortunately for the PNP), ABS-CBN got a footage of the actual "clearing operations" after the chase. I have yet to find a copy of the video for you to view clearly of what happened but as of the moment, I can narrate to you what I saw in TV Patrol last night. It was disturbing and at the same time, shocking because we do not know if they were really criminals! How can they defend themselves now??
Here is what I saw on the news... -Police cars rushing down the hi-way blocking the road and other police vehicles closing up on the honda civic -The said honda civic (AED-???) was parked orderly, meaning, they pulled over as you can see in the photo above. -Before the police forces opened the rear right door of the car, The rear windshield was already full of bullet holes. - The one who opened the door was not in uniform carrying a heavy firearm. (correct me if I am wrong) - One of the operatives pulled out a yet defenseless victim as you can see in the video. Defenseless and motionless in a sense that when the operative pulled him out, he looked like a doll taking the shape of the car. - The operative shot him again. (to make sure he is dead?)
Follow-up news said that, the police shot him again because he was still moving.
There might be some people that will rejoice because this is one carnapper gang less in the Philippines but, what if they were innocent? If the police are 100% sure that they are indeed carnappers, I would be praising them now. The problem is, they don't recognize some of them which makes it scary.
This is what I am thinking. What if they kidnapped someone? The victim would have been also killed!! I mean, kidnappers will also flee when flagged down, right?
Going back, do you think the father and the daughter in the Crosswind SUV in the incident in Paranaque are criminals??
This is yet another shootout or rubout incident to be added to the list that will be unsolved because this involves police forces. Sad.
For the past few days, I've been monitoring the lotto winning combinations and I always wonder: "will I win? Not if I don't try!"
I always check the lotto results here: Philippine Lotto Results.
What's great with that website is, it has an archive of previous winning combinations that makes it easier for you to analyze past winning combinations. BUT, even though you are a great statistician or mathematician, it doesn't matter. This game is purely based on luck. You can project the probablity but I am 100% sure it won't be accurate because a small margin of error can make the whole difference.
Last Sunday, I just spent 300 pesos betting and today, I spent around 100 pesos.
So, What is the probability that I will win the lottery tonight? (A short research on statistics)
I got this article from a forwarded email.
It's time to take a long hard look at the chances of you winning the lottery. While winning the lottery may be something that you want, to show you your chances we'll take a look at a number of remote occurrences that you probably wouldn't like to have happen to you - and probably don't think will ever happen to you - but are still much more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery.
How about the classic odds of being struck by lightning? The actual probability of this happening varies from year to year, but as a good estimate, the National Safety Council says between 70 and 120 people a year die in the US by lightning - so let's take 100 as our base. With the US population being approximately 265 million people, that means that the chances of being killed by lightning are roughly 2,650,000 to 1. Not very likely. However you are still 6 to 45 times more likely to die from a lightning strike than you would be to win the lottery.
Now nobody really wants to die from flesh eating bacteria, and with odds at about 1 million to 1, the chances that you will die that way are pretty slim. Then again, you are 18 to 120 times more likely to die this way than to win the lottery.
What are the chances that if you're playing with a group of four that two of you will get a hole-in-one on the exact same hole? At 17 million to 1, they're better than the chances of you winning the lottery.
What about being killed from a snake bite or bee sting? It probably isn't a way that you have imagined the way you would leave earth. You're a whopping 180 to 1,200 times more likely to die from one of these incidents than win the lottery. That's because the probability of dying from a snake bite or bee sting is about 100,000 to 1.
Now I know that you are not a bad person and you don't imagine finding yourself in death row for a crime you will committ anytime soon. Still, it's a lot more likely that you will be legally executed than win the lottery. In fact, you are 30,000% to 200,000% more likely to die in a legal execution than to win the lottery.
Or if I told you that you were 450,000 to 3,000,000 times more likely to die in an asteroid collision in the year 2029 than to win the lottery, what would you think? Well, these are in fact the odds according to this report at space.com.
If none of the above has convinced you to stop playing the lottery, then I'll bring out my favorite lottery fact. If you drive 10 miles to purchase your lottery ticket, it's three to twenty times more likely for you to be killed in a car accident along the way than to win the jackpot.
So, there you go. Don't do what I did. Just spend the money on food and other necessities. Imagine, 100 bucks a week can turn into more or less 5,000 pesos a year!
If you've been to a carshow with those pimped-up cars, I bet you would at least like cars. But if you love cars, I bet you have changed something in your car to make it look a bit unique and better, at least.
In-car entertainment costs a lot. A decent but affordable sound setup with quality will cost you around 5-6thousand for the subs and another 3-4 thousand for the speakers. What more if you like those with TV monitors and a playstation 3 inside your car? Maybe, in-car entertainment could be a lot more cheaper than you thought!
Have you heard one of those combination beeps using car horn before? Like "tot-tororot tot, tot-tot!" That is just one of the many combinations that we use to signal our maids to open the gate!
I don't know if you've tried it but over the past week, I tried it and the response was uncanny!!! 4 out of 5 people replied to my combination! Don't get it? Here is what I meant, try this -- press your horn using the combination above but don't finish the last two notes. Just do the "tot-tororot tot" (to make sense, you need to have the right beat, of course.)
I just smile to myself and think, people still has a sense of humor even though there are tons of problems!
Another game I play that will contribute to the community is this -- I need to let at least 15 people overtake me or do anything good to fellow motorist like stop tailgating them.
I admit I have a bad habit when it comes to driving.
As much as I love cars, here are some bad habit I am aware but still choose not to turn over a new leaf anyway: 1. I like blowing horns! Wait, I LOVE blowing horns! This is also the reason why I invested on 2 pairs of horns in my sedan. It's ok to give your negative reactions but no amount of reaction can make me change my horns. Driving my car is a sheer pleasure (is this a line from a european car company? hehe) but driving my car + blowing horns is even better! Don't worry, I don't blow horns for nothing but when people push me to push it, I can hold that for more than a minute baby. (This is where my baseball bat comes in handy, in case there would be trouble :) )
Warning: Don't use horns as much as possible on private motorists. (experience, experience, experience! haha!) I use them for those unruly busses on EDSA and / or taxi and jeeps whom stops in the middle of the road to get passengers. If they stop in the right place, I don't mind. If you stop in the middle of the road, then, you asked for it!
2. I do not want people to overtake me I don't know but I've read it somewhere that guys don't want to be overtaken by other people, especially guys. Is this just ego or what? I am so fond of tailgating I don't know if you can overtake me, especially when I am not in a good mood. I can follow a car bumper to bumper at around 60-80 kph. Ask my friends. This is not boasting. I know that is bad so don't reprimand me.
3. ...but I overtake people whenever I want to... That's why the world is not fair. This is another of my bad habit. Of course, I look at my side mirror first so that I would not kiss another car! I once encountered a civic that I overtook and got mad and chased me. We played cat and mouse but the mouse got away.
Lesson: If you don't know the area you are in, just be a good boy.
So there, I was just inspired writing because of the horn-combination thing.
I want you to try it and I am sure that you would hear someone respond, be it motorcycle or an automobile! :)
I would love to have that but, it's waaay to annoying. FYI, my horn is not that loud.
So you think that you know everything about the Philippines, eh?
Being online for practically 24/7, I've seen tons of interesting websites courtesy of Stumble upon, Digg and other social bookmarking media sites. What I've noticed recently is the rise of these "one-pager" websites. I don't think it needs further explanation as that phrase explains it all.
Being a Filipino, it is natural to love our own (in general terms, at least.) Since the crack of this economic crisis, lots of job had been lost -- people going hungry, businesses closing down and everything spiraling downwards because of the domino effect.
As a blogger, I sometimes of course need to be of service to my country even in little ways. What I've come up is a list of one-page websites that will promote the Philippines and try to at least attract tourists. (care to help me?)
Below are 9 one-pager websites you must visit and these are all about the wonderful Philippines that we are in! (in no particular order)
Yes. I was there at the launching of Coalition For The Deserving in Manila Hotel last February 3,2009. It was a jam-packed event as media and different members of the 4 groups filled up the entire Centennial A hall.
The Coalition is comprised of four political parties (Aksyon Demokratiko, Reporma, Kilusang Bagong Lipunan and Bigkis Pinoy) merging to make a new party called the Coalition For The Deserving with one aligned goal in mind -- To have Deserving leaders that will lead the Philippines in 2010 onwards.
Many questions were brought up like, "Who will fund the Coalition?" and "What if the opponent has more money than the deserving one?" Well, one of them said that they won't run out of funds and they will support their candidate and make sure the candidate wins. That is a tough statement to release.
In my own personal opinion, they mean well and they want change but, at the end of the day, we face the same problems becuase the more influential one, the more famous one, the richer one and the cheater one, would always end up in victory versus the deserving one.
Also, one of the bloggers who attended told me that, "what if this is a part of a bigger plan?" well, it can't be far from what I am also thinking. It is highly possible.
We only need one thing here-- God's guidance to make the coalition do the work that they are supposed to do and not fall into any temptations.
The reason they invited bloggers is that, they realized the power of the internet and they might have read the strategy of current US President Barrack Obama which utlized the internet and took advantage of it to victory. This is a very rich medium to use to reach millions of people across the world and in the whole Philippines with just a click of the button.
I just hope they send the message well using these mediums so that people would know who the deserving political leader is -- and avoid future problems that help sink the Philippines even lower than ever.
Even, I, Myself do not know now whom to vote. In this sick times where you hear sad but true facts about how the Philippine government is running, you just want to lose hope and go with the flow.
I do not still know if Obama can deliver the "change" he is talking about but, we also need "change"!
For starters, change should start from ourselves. You should know whom to vote!
I am inviting you to this bloggers event tomorrow --
When: Feb 3, 2009 Time: 11am Where: Manila Hotel, Centennial A
Be part of the history as we search for "The One"! - Coalition for the deserving.
Anyone who blogs can join -- even if you only blog using Multiply, your multiply account can do!
RSVP: kankan@teamyehey.com 091778687438
Please email your Name, Email address and Mobile number
