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

Funny call center quotes here from gelo.i.ph Update: gelo.i.ph has moved to ubuntu.i.ph; I’ve changed the link accordingly.

rep: Is the hourglass still there?
cust: Why? Do you want me to turn it? (Why? Will it help?)

Check it out!

Below are my subscriptions from Bloglines.  You may also view them as RSS feeds here.

The
links will open in the same window unless you Ctrl-click (with
Firefox–opens a new tab) or right-click then select the appropriate
“Open in new window” or “tab” in Firefox or I.E. (whichever is
applicable).

• Blue Fish Network
• Absolute Devon
• Andy Merrett Digital Reality
• Apple Heaven
• Appleology
• EducateDeviate
• Atty-at-Work
• Balay ni Bambit
• Disgruntled Wogbeast
• Family Relationships
• Ferocious Flirting
• Gaboogle
• Home & Health Trends
• How to get healthier?
• The J Spot
• Jaded Fashionista
• Job Tuition
• Mac Support
• Madly Euphoric
• The Mini Blog
• Movie Babbler
• Papier Dreams
• Piano & Synth
• Sepik Mom
• Stress
• Taorist
• Technocrat Soapbox
• Top Dog Blogs
• Watson Online

From Sky Internet VoIP website:

SkyInternetVoIP is a phone service that allows you to place
and receive calls over any broadband or high speed cable or DSL
connection.

It gives you practically 85% discount equivalent to 6c/minute* vs. the
current 40c/minute of ILD (* based on free 300 ILD minutes for Plan
Premium).

Unlike most VoIP services which use PC to PC, meaning both parties
communicate thru PC and headset, Sky Internet VoIP uses regular phone.
You use it like you normally do with your regular phone. So even those
who are not familiar with internet can immediately use Sky Internet
Voip and get to experience the benefit of low international long
distance rate.

A review from Pinoy.tech.blog by Ka Edong:

What’s happening? With a DSL line, you’ll have your DSL telephone
and an Internet connection. When you add SkyInternet VoIP, you’ll have
another telephone line for IDD calls. Isn’t this becoming a broadband
overload? And a monthly bill overload too!

I don’t see many
people taking on a superfluous VoIP subscription when they already have
a DSL connection. I think it’s just super over…

IMHO, Sky Internet VoIP is overkill.  What most Pinoys really need
is a cheap way to call their loved ones abroad, and I would think even Skype’s Skypeout can serve this purpose, and it’s cheaper (at US$ 0.02 per minute to the U.S., Canada and most developed countries).

We may not need this type of service yet–I wouldn’t want a whole lot
of hardware installed at my home and have the telco overcharge me.

The J Spot is now a subscriber-supported blog (as contribution / donation-ware).  Since i.PH
enabled pay4access this second semester of 2005, I thought about
creative ways of cashing in through this feature.  It is, after all,
a cool idea to earn online.  But I decided against putting up my
content on a purely subscription basis because I want my writings
to be
freely accessible to everyone.  And while Google’s AdSense looks
promising, I’m not really into having adverts on my site.  So to keep things
going well, I decided to accept subscriptions via a contribution-type scheme.

If you like this site, please do contribute. 
I’ve set the minimum
to US$ 2.00 for PayPal and the approximately equiavalent PhP 110.00 for
Globe G-Cash.  Please do feel free to contribute more by subscribing as many times
as you deem necessary–the subscription cookie expires after 24
hours.  I’d recommend a modest amount of US$ 10 as an annual
subscription.  Hey, ain’t that cheap?  Kottke recommended 30 bucks/year for his site!

Your contributions will go a long way (i.e. it will help me finally put
out that review of the latest Apple powerbook
once I get enough dough to
buy one, heheh … just kidding of course ).  You can expect a
marked improvement in my writings, especially with regard to tech
matters.  Writing, after all, takes up quite some
resources, more so if it’s about technology (I pay for electricity,
equipment, bandwidth, prepaid mobile phone credits, transportation,
food, coffee, beer,
etc.).  And this will definitely help in my  advocacy for
alternative content-distribution, and my coming up with better,
more media-rich content, such as a podcast and prospectively a video-cast.

And to show my gratitude, I will put up on my sidebar a list of
people who have
contributed, with the relevant links, too.  It does pay to
be a patron.  Will you be able to influence my content?  Hmm
… I prefer to be independent, and hence I can not promise
anything.  But I’m open to ideas, and if it’s good stuff, then I’d
do it for free anyway .

Remember, content on the J Spot (http://jangelo.i.ph) will still be free and accessible to anyone. 
The pay4access site is intended as a gateway for accepting
contributions.  So it’s still free as in free-speech, free
open-source software, and free-beer.

Please do get in touch with me if you’re having problems with G-Cash or
PayPal (i.PH may soon support Smart Money and other payment gateways),
or if you’d like to contribute in any other way (in cash or in
kind).  Right now, the
G-Cash gateway is in the final testing stages, and may not be fully
operational–you may directly send me G-Cash to 09172083599 (instructions here).  Share-a-Load is also fine.

Click here to contribute using Pay4Access!

A quick link to this information: support.jangelo.i.ph

Thank you and best regards.