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

Taking the cue from Elliot Back, I tried the speakeasy.net speed test and came up with the following results:

I got a download speed of 543 Kbps and an upload speed of 479 Kbps. Not bad, since my Sky DSL subscription’s published speed is “512 Kbps.” Actually, I could throttle that to 768 Kbps during offpeak hours, but I have to change my login username, and it’s quite a pain to have to configure the router manually to switch between on- and offline login. I think 500-something Kbps is good enough for the casual web-surfing and blogging. I’ll switch to 768 when I need to download some crazy large files (like what my bro, whom I share the DSL connection with via WiFi, did last night without telling me).

One caveat, though: at the time this test was taken, the local time was about 3:30 a.m.–hardly useful as a gauge for my connection’s usual speed because everyone else is frickin’ sleeping by this time. Well, it’s useful enough for me, since it’s usually the time I’m connected and working online.

But I would sure love to have the speeds Elliot’s getting via Cornell’s network! That’s 5.8 Mbps down and 1.1 Mbps up! Sweet! I think you could reach those speeds with some Verizon broadband setups. In Korea (South, of course) and Japan, you could get ten times that. On a mobile phone!

That’s broadband technology for you.

You may have noticed the change since yesterday. My venerable hosting provider, Abe of Ploghost, and I were in close coordination over the course of a couple of hours last midnight in my switching to our new racoma.com.ph domain. Still some minor glitches as of this posting (I’m trying to make racoma.net work perfectly in sync with the com.ph domain, too), but hopefully all will be solved within a few hours.

Other sub-domains have also moved:

* ba.racoma.com.ph
* vince.racoma.com.ph
* pau.racoma.com.ph

A new one, just added:

* alanjr.racoma.com.ph

It’s part of our “use COM.PH” campaign! We will be registering .com.ph domains for free for active bloggers, along with a year’s web hosting, SEO assistance (for those who want to be search-engine friendly, and who probably have popular blogs already), and blog set-up for your CMS of choice (we do recommend WordPress).

Do keep tuned in for more details. We will likely start off with those with active blogs and preferably with considerable readership. If you’re interested, email me your monthly stats for the past two months, along with your preferred .com.ph domain, and I’ll see what I can do for you.

It’s now online!

Of course, you still get this site (the J Spot) when you key in www.racoma.com.ph on your browser–it’s currently a domain parked on my host. I’m working on transferring everything (including the blog subdomains) here.

It’s all part of the free COM.PH package I wrote about previously.

Podcasting isn’t always as easy as it seems. First you need interesting content. Then you need to have a well-modulated voice and good diction. And then there’s the need for adequate equipment. Most of all, you’d need passion for audio as a medium of communication.

It’s “Web 2.0″ talk again, and I’m pretty sure some of you are squirming in your seats over this catchphrase, which seems to be hurting your ears (and eyes) at every mention.

In essence, I think the social aspect of Web 2.0 is not all the democratization of the Web it’s touted to be (as I have mentioned time and again). And I write my thoughts on ForeverGeek.

You may be able to successfuly market your brand using social networks and tools. But this is still essentially a hit-or-miss proposition. Successful branding via an organic manner (i.e. simple word of mouth) is quite diffcult to achieve unless you have a truly cutting-edge product or service.