Thoughts for the day and some tech news

Its been almost two months of bumming around but the whole time seems well worth it. I’ve been able to blog furiously, joined Global Voices and submitted several articles already (mostly blog roundups), and have met new friends at two Bloggers Kapihan sessions.

I am also raring to try my hand at “professional” journalism by hopefully landing a job at one of the national newspapers. I’ve tried to find openings in news websites, but there seems to be none at the moment.

Actually, I already received a call this morning from one newspaper and I’ve been asked to report tomorrow at 3:0o pm. Hopefully, I get a nice job offer.

I actually got “accepted” at a job for an office at the Senate last month. Unfortunately, things did not work smoothly as expected. There was a rather nasty incongruence of expectations between yours truly and the prospective immediate superior. The pay would’ve been good, swell even, but I cannot in conscience accept a job that will be quite a demotion in terms of my personal and professional development.

The task of this writer has often been to lead an attack, whether for a good cause, a good principal or a good product. Precisely because it is an attack on behalf of someone or something, there are prerequisites like believing in that someone or something, and having full confidence in the team the writer belongs to.

Any deficit in the prerequisites will be disastrous to the writer, and may not reflect positively in his or her work. And so I did not accept the job offer, however quite juicy the purported remuneration compared with my previous work.

(So imagine my horror and disbelief when some turd texted me, asking that I help him and his group get an appointment with a senator he thinks has become my boss! Wala man lang busina bago nagtanong.)

Pampanga Governor Fr. Ed Panlilio has fingered Bulacan Governor Joselito Mendoza as the one who gave P500,000 to the priest-turned-governor’s chief of staff courtesy of the office of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

I’m a resident of San Rafael, Bulacan and I cast my vote at our barangay precinct for the past two elections, and I am not amused. Governor Mendoza, who is the younger brother of three-term governor Josie dela Cruz, should explain why he allowed himself to be the dispenser of presidential bribes.

Nakakahiya si Governor Mendoza sa mga mamamayan ng Bulacan!

Governor Panlilio meanwhile again emerged the winner in this character test. He came out fighting and exposing the bribery.

Panlilio has asked Malacanang where the money originally from and for what.

Mabuhay si Governor Panlilio!

Engadget reports that the Microsoft Zune is now available for just US$100!

Snatch one at Woot.

That’s definitely a bargain for some music gadget fans and speaks volumes about the market price for the software giant’s answer to iPod.

Palm’s latest US offering is the Centro at just US$100 per piece, with a two-year contract. Touted as the smartphone for ordinary folk, Centro hopes to renew public interest in Palm which has been beset by successive failures brought about by an aging operating system called Garnet.

Brighthand gives it a fighting chance, with a rather positive review. PCMagazine gave it a high rating, with this explanation:

Call it “My First Smartphone.” With the Palm Centro—basically a Treo 755p crammed into a smaller case—price is its best selling point. This is the most smartphone you can get for $99 with a service contract.

For Vencer and others who do not understand this, smartphones are for those who want the most out of their mobile phones. Smartphones are mobile phones and personal digital assistants in one. You can call, text, send and receive emails and IMs, organize your schedules, make drafts of documents, presentations and spreadsheets, keep hundreds of contacts and more. Being able to do all these things apart from the usual phone functions makes a smartphone smart.

Smartphones are usually the preferred choice of businesspersons, writers and journalists, and other busy people who have no time switching between a phone a PDA to get work done anytime and anywhere. Example is Ederic who is a makaPalm and is an ardent lover of the Palm Treo 650. I myself used to have Palm Treos — the 270, the 600 and the 680.


The battle is now being won by Windows Mobile (Palm uses it too, perhaps to hide its retarded growth), Symbian (used mostly by Nokia) and Blackberry devices.

Finally, please feel free to try any of these free and open source software.