Technobiography: April 2004

Connect Ka Diyan!

Two years back, I had to work closely with good friend Chris Lagman in organizing our High school reunion.

In the thick of all the coordination, we figured we had so many degrees of communication going between us.

Let's count: We used (1)e-mail, (2)Instant Messaging, (3)Texting (he even had two cellphones), (4)calls via Mobile phone, (5)calls via office landline and (6)face to face brown bottle "meetings". I found it a bit frightening when we found ourselves talking official stuff one Sunday afternoon via (7)home phone! "Oh no! wala na akong paka-wala sa iyo!!"

Now, there's less urgency in communicating with Chris. All previous modes of communication are still available. A recent addition is (8)Friendster and (9)Chris's online photo-gallery

Despite all the available media of communication, nothing compares to the cranial and cardiac connections we make through a face to face conversation ... coupled with brown ... , no, clear bottles of beer. We need to watch that belly, you see.

Chris! Kelan tayo? Clint, Sonia, Ilynn! Join us! Anybody else?

Edwin
::April 22::
::typed on Brosia::

Read: Connect Ka Diyan - Brosia

Bakal! Bote! Dyaryo! SIM!

The average urban neighborhood would always have mag-bo-botes hollering "Bakaaal! Boteee! Dyaryooo!" while pushing their recyclables in a kariton.

But have u encountered the techno-mag-bo-bote?

Around Feb 2004, I first noticed cardboard signs along the busy bangketas below the Boni MRT station saying "Bumibili ng Sirang SIM".

I figured, some enterprising folks must be recycling these SIMs. I didn't think buying of rejected SIMs was popular. But when I went to Alabang yesterday, I saw a lot of these signs every ten or so strides along the busy sidewalk.

So, there's brisk buisness in buying rejected SIMs, so it seems (pathetic pun intended).

Yesterday, the re-purchase rate of SIMs ranged from P10 up to P50 depending on the SIM brand. But just tonight, all the signs I passed were freshly updated. I see they've lowered prices to P10-P30 per SIM. (Update: it's back to P10-P40 as of April 17 evening)

I asked one manong, arnd 40 years old, pepper grey hair without any tech-savvy aura, what they do with purchased SIMs.

He replied: "Hindi ko alam, may bumibili rin lang sa amin ng maramihan."

I wonder what they do with re-purchased SIMS. Until I find out the real fate of these rejected SIMs, I am left with my own speculations:

a. SIM swapped for brand new SIMs.
But only functional SIMs are qualified for SIM swapping. Thus, to SIM swap a bad SIM requires some slight of hand: showing an SIM-swap attendant a valid SIM with signal but surrendering a bad SIM.

I've done this before. But kids, don't try this at home. This SIM slight of hand trick is plain panloloko, and it's a SIN.

b. SIM repair.
I'm thinking, maybe some brilliant Filipinos have found a way to repair damaged or expired SIMs. Perhaps the trend and Filipino talent of repairing cellphones is being applied to repairing SIMs.

I heard that mobile phone repair isn't popular in other countries. The Flilipino, though, will always find a way to maximize the the phone's lifespan through repairs. (Memo: write about Tita Lyns fully functional 8-year old Nokia relic, dark-brown and as big as a brick)

c. SIM info capture.
Recovering the SIM's number and re-encoding it unto another new SIM (or maybe a Multi-SIM). Or recovering SIM phone book entries for SMS spamming.

d. SIM collecting - just for the heck of it! (Naaaahhhhhh)

e. Re-packaging and re-selling damaged SIMs to unsuspecting ignormuses (or is it ignorami?)

f. May be a front for an underground network of cyber-terrorists

Whew! Before i get carried away, here's a somewhat related term I learned from a Smart publication:

"Churn rate" - measures the number of people dropping out of a telco's service as a percentage of the total subscriber base per month.

(O, ha! At least you learned something slightly useful from reading this blog. Expect more of that in future articles.)

A higher churn rate means more used SIMs that will soon expire. That means more business for our techno-magbo-bote!

"Aaaa Boteee! Aaaa Dyaryooo! Aaaa SIIIIM kayo diyaaaan!"

:: Thursday, 15April, 2004. 11:18 PM, Boni. ::
:: Typed on Brosia, my SmartPhone ::

Any other speculations about the fate of rejected and re-purchased SIMs? Add your thoughts by posting a comment to this article. ü

Bruised but not broken

I was at the Boni MRT Station yesterday reading my e-Book (Dracula by Bram Stoker) on my smartphone when a tragedy happened!

The train arrived, I put my phone in my breast pocket, then stooped to grab my bag from between my feet. Then it happened!

I felt my phone trickle out of my shirt pocket. In a deafening thud, she hit the concrete floor, head first, and slid a few inches with her face painfully grinding the dusty pavement.

"Oh Man!" was all i could say. (Langya, I'm so conyo it hurts!)

I picked up my phone, apologized to her, got on the train and assessed the damage.

Bruised but not broken!

I hearby christen my phone: Brosia!
Short for "Brosia All Mighty"

Edwin
bus, bni to makati.
Wednesday, 14 april, 2004. 8:26 am

Babble machine

I have a tendency to babble. This is a writing style which works by a principle that if i keep on writing, i will eventually strike gold.

This is a whole lot better than hitting a blank wall, nothing to write and deadlines creeping towards you.

Thus, i babble. I will do this in public (i.e. in this blog) less often in the future, I promise. Please excuse me this time as im in a streak of insomnia trying to rest my thoughts by writing them unto my cellphone. Trying to tire my thumbs to sleep.

Techie grrrrl

I was at a baptismal ceremony yesterday and a young girl earned my awe and envy.

First thing that caught my attention was this kid handling a small video-camera with a full-color display screen. She handld it w much ease, first flipping the view-finder and the display at herself, then recording her own image. Then flipping the display again and recording a baby being baptised by a priest.

I was envious! when i was her age, I wasnt allowed to touch the TV dials! (note for kids: back in the 70s n 80s, TVs had dials to select channels, no remote, had vacuum tubes behind them, when turnd off, a white dot remained at the centre of the cocave glass screen and came w sliding wooden doors).

Next, the little girl came towards me, zipped open her mom's bag which was right beside me (the bag, not the mom), took out a camera phone (Nokia 7250), clicked on the keypad w such precision that she had the camera display on, all within a couple of seconds!

She was snapping photos of a baby ... all under 10 secs of grabbing the phone, all under 4ft and 6years old of her!

Amazing, isn't it? our kids are growing in an age of tech-literacy! They're continually exposd to technology that they'll use it with 2nd nature tech-intuition! They won't need to be taught how to use technology, they'll learn by observing.

Next step: navigating through their tech adolescence so they don't get burned by the technology.

Technobiography

my technology life blog

Easter Sunday :: Boni, Mandaluyong
Typed-up in my cellphone

I am sleepless as lay in bed composing this blog intro in my mind. ive just changed venues a minute ago, i now type on my cellphone this intro as i gaze out unto the unusually quiet metro this last hour of easter.

This is my technobiography. A blog of how technology continues to influence my life.

Relaxed prose. Hopefully witty, funny. Reflective and insightful. Short and sweet. Filipino. Publish as a Mobipocket e-column. Open to syndication by Inq7.net , 2BU, gadgets, T3, Computerworld, digital tour or anybody out there interested. I'll even pay! hehehe

This blog is inspired by Ordinary Gweilo http://www.ordinarygweilo.com/, a blog of a Brit expat in HongKong - a copy of which is in my cellphone.

What id like to do is write about my tech encounters and reflections. I'd need to develop a writing style which isn't a bore (thus far, it's obvious I could use a huuuuuge improvement). I'd like it to have a Doogie Howser Journals flavor. Reflective, insightful. And that will happen if i pause, stop babbling, start thinking. So much for babbling 'til i strike gold!

And the only way i wil be able to sustain this with fairly regular updates is to reflect, write and edit all in one sweep. That way, I won't be wasting too much bandwidth with online crap and won't be wasting too much of my time.

This is my second take at a blog. One reason my first blog, GuroSaCuyoBlog didn't take off is -- I knew at the back of my head that I'd run out of stuff to write about in that first blog. At least with this theme, TechnoBioGraphy, i can assure myself of a regular supply of tech encounters in my regular day.

random bullet thoughts:
write about
* airfagev.com
* teaching dad (from Rx letters to email)
* post phne cam photos
* renovate hmepage-point to guroSaCuyo, christmas e-kard, biz n techblog
* SAP diary
* etymology, sub-title
* related trivia, stats, quotes, poetry