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

Check out my post on the PayPal for the Philippines blog.

PayPal has included the Philippines in its limited-functionality list. This means you can now register for an account and use it to pay online. That’s it. We still cannot do the following:

1. Receive money
2. Load up the account thru credit card
3. Withdraw money into a bank account

It’s a good development, but not good enough. Pinoys can now buy and pay for stuff online. But we cannot receive funds from other PayPal (and credit card) users here and abroad, which is, I think, what we need more. We’re still hoping (and lobbying) for full-fledged PayPal functionalities.

I’ve been offline since the morning of Thursday, September 28th, 2006 due to the typhoon Milenyo. Our power was cut off 7:00 a.m. and the phone line came down a few hours after that. I just heard this evening that the power and DSL connection are already up, so I can hopefully be able to get online later this evening. I’m just checking up my email inbox to see if I missed anything important.

Isulong SEOPH

I’m at Ortigas, by the way, having some coffee and dessert in the aftermath of the Isulong SEOPH contest awarding. Our entry placed fifth!

Too bad we didn’t get to win the iPod Nano raffled off, though.

The crowd at the awarding wasn’t the usual blog meetup crowd. Well, okay, it was about 50% of the bloggers’ crowd, and the other half comprised the SEO people who were (likely) not really into blogging.

I’ll write about this later on, with some pics to boot. Right now, I’ll be enjoying a cup of coffee and some cake with my lovely wife.

(Just had to get online after three days’ being off the grid.)

Update: No power again!

Looks like I spoke (or wrote) too soon. Only a few hours after power was restored, it’s down again in our area. Must be some transformer that overloaded. Am now on battery connecting via dialup (trying to get in touch with Meralco via their website, but to no avail!). Sigh.

Digital Filipino Janette Toral invited me to the One Internet Day event in Manila, which also coincides with the Digital Filipino Club’s 7th anniversary. Among the topics to be discussed are as follows:

• E-Commerce for National Competitiveness
• Data Privacy and E-Commerce
• Building Buzz with Blogs
• Panel: State of E-Payment in the Philippines
• Panel: New E-Commerce Opportunities
• Panel: Making E-Commerce Work

I’ll try to post photos and updates as things happen. Good thing there’s free WiFi here.

Bloggers spotted so far: Noemi Dado and of course, Janette. Atty. JJ Disini is also here (he’s a speaker) but I haven’t seen him around yet.

You can check out this photoset on my Flickr for some snapshots:

Me, liveblogging!

DTI Dir. Ludy Yaptinchay, keynote speaker

DTI Dir. Domingo Bagaporo

Awarding of the drafters of the E-Commerc Act by-laws

Maoi Arroyo talks about blogging for buzz

Unfortunately, I had to leave the event early. So I’ll just refer you to Janette’s blog and the Digital Filipino website for recaps of the event.

It’s either you’re not that well-versed in wireless technology or you’re a really generous person. But since your router says “default” as its access point name, I reckon it’s the former!

I’m at our new apartment right now, since we’re transferring some of our stuff (hey, it’s only three houses down after all, so a gradual move would do). I was actually surveying the scene again for active WiFi hotspots and this time I brought the PowerBook, and this time I found a signal. It was a bit weak, though, and it only reached the room facing the back of the lot. Hey, at least I’m connected. And it’s at the right place, since this is where I intend to set up my new home office, anyway.

I got tired of holding the laptop in my arm with the Cardbus (the one that pretends to be an Airport Extreme card because it has a Broadcom chipset ) facing the window, so I thought of using the USB WiFi adaptor instead. The advantage? It’s obvious—I could extend the “antenna” by connecting the adaptor via a USB extender. So if you see a USB dongle dangling off the second-floor window, that’s probably mine.

Repeater

I can theoretically set up the desktop here to connect to the live access point and run the second (PCI) WiFi adaptor as an access point. I’ll then set up Windows NAT sharing so I can share the ‘Net across the computers via WiFi—sort of like a repeater.

Of course, if Bayantel beats me to it, then even better! I’ll be sending in my application forms tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll get connected within a few days. I’m thinking of signing up for the lowest plan for now—PhP 899 per month for the 384 Kbps plan. I’ll only have to add PhP 300 to bundle in the telephone connection.

We’ll be completing the move in a few days. So I won’t have to worry about connectivity for the time being. I’m looking forward to getting better work and living space. Watch out—my productivity meter will be shooting through the roof in the next few weeks. Maybe I’ll get that million-dollar idea by then!

By the way, if you’re wondering about the legal and ethical implications of WiFi leeching (and even leaving unprotected WiFi hotspots out in the open), I have a post about this dating from last year.

In the end, those who own and operate the access points should be
responsible for securing their systems. There are various means
of doing this, such as limiting access to specific MAC addresses, use of WEP, WPA, or even a simple http firewall.

After all, perhaps one of the better wardriving tools is Windows XP’s Wireless Zero Config! So anyone with WinXP SP2 can be a perpetrator, or at least his/her computer has the propensity to.

Isn’t an ounce of prevention better than a pound of cure?

I’ll be out for most of this evening. (Am I not out busy almost every day this week?) Will be attending the much-awaited Bloggers’ meetup sponsored by Globe Innove. Globe is supposed to showcase its latest offering in mobile broadband connectivity, and we’re hoping for more than just a sneak peek (hint, hint!). It’s sort of a press junket, but for bloggers (a.k.a. non-traditional media people).

I’m lucky to be among the 12 “Apostles”—hopefully I will not be the Judas of this group!

On a related note, if your emails to me have been bouncing or not being responded to lately, it might be due to my racoma.net domain’s expiring. Boy, was I surprised when people told me my .net address was redirecting to a parking page.

My domain has been registered anew, but it seems we’re still waiting for nameserver propagation to complete. In the meantime, please send me emails to my jangelo (at) gmail (dot) com address.