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

Paypal users from the Philippines have reason to rejoice: PayPal now allows Philippine-registered accounts to receive funds. Check out Pinoy Money Talk for more information. I’ll be posting more about this soon.

I’m still playing around with my local account. So far, I cannot register with a local bank (only US banks are enabled for receiving funds), so the only way to actually receive money is to credit the funds back to a debit/credit card. Still, being able to receive money easily would be a big boost to business here, especially for those who have clients from abroad (like freelance writers, designers, bloggers, etc.).

One big gripe I have with Google AdSense is that it doesn’t make EFT payouts to the Philippines. EFT means electronic fund transfer. I’ve been regularly using EFT on my bank accounts (via online banking) for several transactions, like when I need to send funds to relatives, or when I need to transfer across accounts (savings to checking, etc.). It’s safe, secure and funds are transferred in mere milliseconds.

So I had been wondering why EFT is still unavailable here locally. Publishers have to wait three to four weeks for regular checks to come in the mail. We can have checks delivered via DHL, but processing fee is a bit steep at $24 each. Well, it’s not cheap for those who get thousands of dollars worth everytime, but those who get a few hundreds would think the $24 is on the high side.

Abe Olandres writes that Google AdSense payouts via Western Union are now available. This is good news to us smaller publishers, since we can now expect our funds faster (a day after payment release), and it’s cheaper, too. Charges start at $16 from $100 to $300. Here is the fee schedule:

• From $100 to $300 : $16 fee
• For $500 : $32 fee
• For $600 : $50 fee
• For $750 : $56 fee
• For $1,000 : $68 fee

I agree with Abe that for those who get $100 to $300 per month, Western Union is the best option. Otherwise, you’d best stick with secure check delivery.

However, with check payment, you would still have to deposit the check with your bank, and wait the usual three-day clearing (for PhP) or more (for US$). So for those who need to get their funds in a jiffy, Western Union is perhaps the best option.

Now hopefully Google will be able to affiliate with local banks/banking networks so they can do EFT here soon.

This is for a friend of mine. He’s looking for an intelligent PHP/MySQL/JS programmer who can work full time on a telecommute/virtual office/home based position. By intelligent, I assume he meant someone who could not only code, but someone who can lay out the vision and execute plans for a particular service or web app on his own, or on coordination with others.

He should be able to do something like this:
vbskins.com (simple paypal IPN, JS newsletter/shopping cart,
GD-image manipulation, user registartion, etc).

Pay is very attractive at approx. $2,000 per month, depending on qualifications. That’s about 3 to 4 times the usual rate for experienced PHP programmers here in the Philippines.

Do email me at jangelo (at) racoma (dot) net if you’re interested. Be sure to send in your CV and samples/links of prior works.

They say the next logical step in the evolution of operating systems (if there ever is such a process) is bringing it online. There have been various steps taken toward this end, such as companies coming out with online versions of common Desktop tools, such as word processors, spreadsheets and notepad applications.

ajaxWindows does more, by actually offering a desktop-like interface on your Web browser, consolidating most of today’s popular Web-based apps. It even a media player one can use online!

ajaxwindows (image source)

Ron Miller says the people behind this nifty site might actually get to market their “online OS” soon.

There’s a lot to like there, but conceptually it’s mind-boggling because if you can put the whole OS on the internet, it changes the whole way we interact with and use our computers. The likes of Microsoft (and its high prices) become, dare I say, irrelevant. Of course, there is the entire matter of a business model and it’s not clear what that is. According to the About page on the ajax13 web site they are in fact a software development company, which would suggest they hope to make money from this venture. How they do that isn’t completely clear to me.

Of course in this logical progression of things (i.e., then vs. now being desktop-based vs. online-based computing), the new battlefront would be on the browser arena. Let’s not talk thin clients for now, since I think that’s too drastic.

I don’t see Internet-based OSes as being too mainstream too soon, especially given bandwidth considerations (particularly in my country), and given the marketing and lobbying power of the software giants (this means you, Microsoft). However, apps like ajaxWindows look like small steps in the right direction.

I’ve switched my sidebar AdSense unit to mostly referral links by Google AdSense. So far, it looks promising. Clicks and conversions generally lead to better payouts, compared to the regular ads. At least that’s how it is in my experience.

One concern, though – you can only choose one country for your entire campaign (not per ad unit). So that might be limiting, since Google says you may not earn from conversions from ineligible countries.