racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

I’ve been receiving tons of inquiries on my post on the old J Spot (at i.ph), Get Paid for Writing. While I initially tried to respond to all inquiries, I don’t think I’ll be able to respond to everyone in a timely manner, especially many of them I refer to my contacts looking for freelance writers or bloggers who are willing to write for compensation.

Hence, I’m moving the thread here, but with one major modification. I’m hoping this post–particularly its comment thread–can serve as a clearinghouse of sorts where aspiring pro-bloggers can post links to their blogs, portfolios, and other sample works, and blog network owners can check out prospective writers for their qualifications. This way, I won’t have to deal with the inefficiency of asking everyone to email this person or that company or this network and so forth.

Perhaps it’s still a crude way of doing it, but I’m hoping it would be a good start.

You may also wish to refer to online ads for blogging and blog-related work over at these sites (I’ll update the list as we go).

* BloggerJobs by BlogMedia (I used to write for them. Great guys!)

What to write

Some useful information should you include:

* Your name or alias
* Your contact details (email will do)
* A link to your existing blog or other online portfolio
* Links to blog posts or writings you consider to be your best work
* The setup you are looking for (pay-per post, revenue share, fixed salary, etc.)

Hey, be sure to check your writing for correct grammar and appropriate style. After all, you’re going after writing jobs and it pays to dot your j’s and cross your t’s, so to speak. If you want to be able to edit your comments later on, be sure to sign up for a subscriber account first via the registration form. You can always login using this form if you already have an account.

I hope this post will be useful. Wanna get started with pro-blogging? Do leave your note at the comment thread.

Here’s a tip: if you want your name to be linked to your blog or website URL, do “edit your profile here”:http://racoma.com.ph/wp-admin/profile.php and key in your address at the URL field.

Update: Check out my post on “problogging options here”:http://racoma.com.ph/archives/problogging-options/ .

I’ve never really been a Smallville fan as some people I know are (there are computer geeks, and there are comics geeks, and there are Smallville geeks, and geeks of all kinds). However, a few weeks back, I chanced upon a Season 5 DVD set and thought I’d catch up on the episodes. I was able to watch many of the previous seasons episodes on TV (Studio 23, Tuesday evenings) but that’s just about it. However, the summer (northern hemisphere) release of Superman Returns rekindled an interest in the series and so here I am finding myself watching a couple of episodes each dawn after publishing my blog posts for the day …

It’s been several weeks since I published PayPal: One Great Way to Improve the Philippine Economy. Quite a number of people have expressed support and interest. A few have provided their insights and inputs into the matter. Others even have dissenting opinions, or at least don’t think that having PayPal would be helpful enough.

Links to these other posts and news items are available here. Reader fedeback can be found on the comment thread.

Things haven’t been quite slow these past days. I guess everyone’s busy. But here are milestones, so far.

* We’ve registered a domain, www.paypal4ph.com and even set-up an update blog at www.paypal4ph.com/blog (thanks to my colleague “J4s0n”:http://j4s0n.com ).
* We asked uber-cool designer Ia (who also works with us at Enthropia) to create some artwork for the site.
* J4s0n is coding a cool sign-up sheet with an equally cool frontpage (Enthropia is the team behind iBox, which I think is really cool). We can probably ride on the existing signature campaign on petition spot launched last year, which has 812 signatures to date. However, I think it would be good to start fresh (and so everyone who would sign up actually knows what the issues are).
* Mainstream media update: Joey Alarilla (journalist, problogger, father, and Palanca awardee) has written about the *PayPal for the Philippines initiative on CNet Asia*. Joey also writes for Inq7.net and I do hope we make it there, too, one of these days. His fellow Inq7.net journalist Erwin Oliva has also expressed interest in the advocacy, and I do hope we get the much needed mainstream-media mileage.

Other ideas:

* We’re likely to move the advocacy site to a .com.ph domain to support the use.com.ph campaign (and since it’s for the Philippines, anyway!).

Open Source / Collaboration

Sad to say, running an advocacy is not that easy. Firstly, I’m quite rusty as an economist, and after all, being a jack-of-all-trades makes one a master of none. So I’m not your expert on tech and e-commerce either, but I do try to make the most out of what information I can digest from other sources. And one of the things I’ve been a big fan of is OpenSource.

The most important thing I learned from the Open Source movement is that collaboration is key to producing great ideas and great output. Hence, with this in mind, I think it’s best to move forward with the PayPal for the Philippines advocacy as a collaborative activity. We are already doing this, as various people are contributing to advancing the cause in their own ways. However, we need to come up with a more defined and focused output. We need to get our facts and figures straight. We need to be able to talk to the right people (and at the right time).

For one, we need to come up with a whitepaper, as Migs suggested on the original blog post. We need a more solid argument to support our cause, and to help convince the right people (i.e., those in government, the banking sector, and even eBay/PayPal management itself) and in this regard, I think collaborative work is the way to go.

So here’s what our next step would be. I’m hoping for inputs and suggestions on how we can go about with it. For now, we shall be setting up a Wiki on the advocacy page to get started on a draft whitepaper (link later). Any inputs and help (with the appropiate sources and citations needed, of course) would be much appreciated.

No, it’s not Manny Pacquiao‘s latest book. It’s what I’m naming* this newest gadget of mine, the Compaq Presario V2617TS. It’s sort of my take on “MacBook.”

I’m sorry to say I had to retire my Thinkpad 390E (look it up–it’s a really really dated model, but that tells you how hardy ThinkPads can be) since it could no longer keep up to my requirements. I do hope it’s now in good hands.

The V2617TS is not top-of-the-line but it sure is a good deal for the price I paid. And it’s good enough for my needs as a writer, pro-blogger, occasional gamer and wannabe-photographer. SRP was PhP 35,950 but I got a discount of PhP 5,000 for paying cash, bringing down the price to PhP 30,950 or approximately US$ 580 (I think this is the price listed online at the Complink website).

It’s a Celeron-M model inside the V2000 form factor, so it looks just like the higher-end V2000 Centrinos and Core Duos, save for some differences which you would only see on closer inspection (and which non-laptop enthusiasts won’t know about anyway).

Yes, it’s teh sexy!

The specs

* Processor: Intel Celeron-M 370 (Dothan core): 1.5 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache, 400 MHz frontside bus
* Memory: 256 MB DDR (upgraded to 768 MB)
* Chipset: Intel 915GM Express
* Graphics adaptor: Integrated Intel GMA 900, up to 128 MB shared video RAM (dynamically allocated by OS)
* Screen: 14″ Widescreen XGA TFT LCD (very very bright!)
* Hard drive: 40GB 4200 RPM
* Optical drive: Combo drive (DVD-ROM, CD-R/RW)
* 10/100 LAN, 56Kbps modem, two 2.0 USB ports, RGB out, S-video out, one Cardbus slot
* Weight: 2.31 Kg
* (OS not included in the package)

I’ve always leaned towards the big brands (such as IBM, HP/Compaq, etc.) and that was my first priority in looking for a new laptop. There’s something about the design of these branded laptops (design meaning not only the style but the overall concept and construction) that gives them an edge over ODM or other BTO laptops. Firsthand experience tells me ThinkPads really are built like tanks. Compaqs and Fujitsus live forever, too. And Macs never lose their sex appeal.

Yes, I know I could have bought something else not badged with the “big brands” but with better specs. But I’m a design freak. What can I say?

And then, of course, you’re paying extra for the after-sales support and online firmware updates. Got that concept from fellow laptop junkies** from Cooltoyz. So what you lose in sheer specs you make up in being sure your laptop’s in tip top running condition.

Celeron?

As for choosing Celeron-M over Pentium-M (which runs the Centrino platform), it’s a matter of price. The Celeron-M is every bit as powerful as the Pentium-M all other things equal (save for L2 cache), but the major disadvantage is battery life, since Celeron-Ms always run on full clock speed. So I usually only get maximum of 2.5 hours on a single charge.

The lowest-priced Centrino V2000 would cost me twice. Go figure.

By the way, I have a knack for pronouncing “Celeron” with a hard C (like K) as in “Celtic.” I don’t know why. Just sounds cool, perhaps.

Photos

Again, pictures speak louder than words, so I’d suggest we go mosy over to my Flickr site for photos of the PaqBook. Here are some thumbnails. You can also hover your mouse over the thumbnails for some descriptions (if you don’t want to view the larger image).

A full review is in order and shall be posted onto bLaptops once finished. For the meantime, here’s a peek into how it feels to go wide (screen) and my review of the Samsonite Inventure laptop backpack I recently got for the PaqBook.

*Corsarius has his Corsarify.
**Trivia: I used to run my BBS on a 386SX Toshiba Satellite. That was in 1995.

Updates, as of June 2007

If you’re interested with the V2000, be sure to check these out:

I was able to have my V2000′s front bezel, LCD and CPU fan replaced at the tail-end of warranty period. Since the new LCD enclosure had WiFi antennae, I was also able to install an internal WiFi mini PCI card.

Also, I decided to protect my touchpad and palm rest with frisket film, since after a year’s use the V2000′s paint had already faded due to contact with my sweaty, acidic palms and fingers.

Recently, I saw low-end V3000 Compaq Presarios (the V3120TU) selling for about the same price I bought my V2000 last year.

Some words of advice

Digital cameras have changed the trends of photography and canon cameras are among the top ones for their best performance. Your ordinary canon powershot camera can not be a match to your canon EOS D2000 digital SLR camera because it brought a revolution in digital photography. Now digital camera accessories are available in open markets and online camera accessories shops worldwide. You can opt for dvd rental to watch documentaries and movies on your digital projector on a big screen or on your televisions if you are really interested in quality of digital recording.

Check out our latest security+ certification & SY0-201 written by our 70-662 certified teams to help you in pass real testking cwna & 000-106 dumps.

Got my Moleskine notebook in the mail last Friday. It was sent in by a generous US-based Pinoy reader who read about my interest in the notebooks. I was actually putting off going to the post office as I thought the notice was for my latest batch of Ubuntu CDs (Dapper Drake), which I already have a copy of (care of Jason), and thus could afford to wait. But I was also expecting the notebook. Good thing it had already arrived.

I can say it’s teh cool and it’s teh sexy.

Actually, what makes the notebook cool isn’t the material or construction itself, but the way people are so passionate about their using their Moleskines, whether for writing, drawing or getting-things-done. Well, the paper and the binding are teh sexy, too. It’s in the way you can lay the notebook flat on a table (perhaps while drawing or sketching) and the way that the paper absorbs ink or pencil graphite.

At any rate, I think pictures speak louder than words. So I’ll just post a few photos here.

The package itself. Okay, nothing interesting.

Still in plastic wrap. Can’t wait to open it.

Out of the plastic cover. Feel the texture of the cover and the paper. Mmm … sexy paper.

The notebook comes with a set of stickers (or a postcard). Great for sticking on your laptop lid or wrist-rest, to remind you to write, write, write. Wait, what are we going to use the notebook for, then?

Laid flat on its back, the pages stay still. Told you so.

The back cover has an expanding pouch, for keeping those tickets, stamps, cards, or perhaps some currency or even a pencil.

If you’d like to learn more about the Moleskine, I found a blog that regularly features stories, artwork and testimonials from artists and writers who use (or used) the notebook and Moleskine enthusiasts alike. Do mosy over to Moleskinerie.

As for my notebook, I’ve yet to decide what to use it for. Am mostly online/electronic these days, but having something on paper would be cool for a change.