Honesty, the Ivatan way

Our thanks goes out to Batanes Governor Vicente Gato for doing the right thing and showing us what an honest people the Ivatans are. At the domestic airport x-ray machine, Gov Gato’s aide had mistenly picked up a black bag containing $18T that belonged to a Japanese reporter. The money was returned the next day to the overjoyed reporter.

My wife had told me several years ago, when our foundation was setting up a wifi hotspot in Batanes, how surprised she was when the rooms to their hotel had no locks in them! Ang sagot ng housecleaning staff - “don’t worry, no one will steal your things here”! Another friend who used to work in Batanes would tell me how complete strangers would go up to her at the Batanes airport and entrust her with cash - to be later picked up by relatives when my friend arrived in Manila.

It’s still that kind of place - where people trust one another, and people live honest lives.

For more on $18T incident, click here.

Ugh!

I picked this story up on the news recently:

A CANNIBAL confessed yesterday to a court in Berlin that he had killed a teacher and fed the man’s lungs to his cat before he had sliced off and salted other parts of his body with a view to eating them later.

Ralf Meyer, 41, a decorator, was clearly emulating Armin Meiwes, the “Cannibal of Rotenburg”, who was jailed last year for murdering and eating a software specialist.

[..]

The victim, Joe Ritzkowsky, 33, taught music at Berlin’s renowned Waldorf School. The clergyman’s son was drawn to Herr Meyer’s flat through an internet chat room. He let himself be tied to the bed and the two men had sex, during which Herr Meyer dug a screwdriver into the teacher’s neck.

[..]

The dossier shows that Herr Meyer started to have cannibal fantasies at the age of 25. Two years ago he started to advertise on the internet for potential victims. One read: “Looking for slim man, round about 30, to be roasted.”

Ok. There a lot of weird people out there, but this is what really caught my attention:

Police estimate from internet exchanges that there are 204 Germans ready to be slaughtered to feed a cannibal, 13 are ready to watch such an act and 29 would like to eat a human being. The trial will continue next week.

204 Germans willing to be slaughtered? That’s sick!

Defaults at the World’s Table Tennis Championships

Esposo being defaulted because of the coachs' negligence is unacceptable. Anong ginawa nila sa China kundi mamasyal at sinayang lang ang taxpayers money sa pagpunta nila doon..tsk, tsk tsk..this is sad and a mismanaged oraganizationa dn poor leadership of TATAP.

After reading this post on tatap.ph, and reading what was written on the tatapusa.com website, it's pretty clear to me that the person that made this post has an axe to grind against the current TATAP President. Personally, I don't give a hoot about all this, and I'd like to stay away from all the politicking. (I never dreamt that sports could be so political).

But i will make a few observations, if I may. Some of it may be hurtful, and cause people to react defensively, but I hope that the people concerned accept it in the spirit that it is given - as constructive criticism, to help improve the state of Table Tennis in our country.

If anything is clear from the recent , a good shot at the top 32 (in the world) is certainly possible. The near-success of Indonesia's Men's Doubles Team of David Jacobs and Yon Mardiono against China's Wang Liqin and Guo Yue (who eventually won the Gold) gives us a glimpse of what is acheivable. The Indonesian duo have been training in China for the last seven months, and according to RP's Julius Esposo, their play used to be at about the same level as the Philippine team's.

Here's what we need to do:

(more…)

Nasty Tagboard comments on TATAP.PH

Am back from china, and was surprised to find some pretty nasty posts on the TATAP tagboard. Since I don’t speak for TATAP (I merely maintain the website) and since the TATAP officials prefer not to comment on the posts, I thought I’d chime in with my 2 cents on my blog.

for the webmaster..sino sino ba kasama sa delegation ng RP? Is it true na kasama ang syota ni victor? Pls confirm kasi we as taxpayers are entitled to know

Wow, that’s pretty rude! If Victor (TATAP President) wants to bring his syota along (that is, if he has one ), that’s a matter for him to discuss with his wife. However, the correct question to ask is - what funds were received by TATAP, and how were these funds disbursed? That’s the more important question, as I think it’s very important for TATAP to attract sponsors willing to donate their time and money to improve the state of Table Tennis in our country. But that just isn’t going to happen if donors feel that their money isn’t being spent wisely. (as the person above suggests).

Clearly the biggest problem TATAP faces is lack of funding, and the proper way to handle this is (1) publish what funds are received and how they are disbursed and (2) announce what projects and tournaments TATAP intends to involve itself in for the next 12 months, and how much money is still needed for these projects to push through.

The reality is that the little that I donate to TATAP players does go a long way. For example, I’ve given about P6T/month to feed 10 players every lunch time. Now that’s less than P30 per person per meal! But they’re happy with that, and I’m happy to help, and the players like that as they don’t have to go home after their morning training session. They can have lunch, talk about their game, sleep,then resume their afternoon session. The point I’m making is that if TATAP publishes its financial needs, and if people see that the money they put in is being put to good use, people will come out of the woodwork and help.

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Sleepless in Shanghai

Here I am in Shanghai with the Philippine team. In 8 hours, the World Table Tennis Championships will begin. I am extremely excited. I hopped on the complimentary shuttle bus (on the way to my hotel), and the first player I actually saw as we approached Shanghai Gymnasium was JO Waldner w/ the rest of the Swedish team in their blue and yellow outfits. I had expected Waldner to have a big entourage here in China (after all, he is bigger than Michael Jordan here), but not so. Maybe we’ll actually get to meet some members of the Swedish team. In short order, I spotted JM Saive of Belgium, Wang Hao of China (the 2004 Olympic silver medalist), then Chuang Chi-Yuan of Taiwan.

The players, on the other hand, are decidedly low-key about the whole thing. I was shocked to learn to learn that it was only last night (Thursday night) when the players learned for sure whether the trip was on or not. Apparently there has been some problem with getting funding for the trip from the Philippine Sports Commission and the First Gentleman’s Foundation. I do not who is at fault for this; but I think it’s extremely hard for a player to focus on his game and his competition with this sort of uncertainty, even up till the day just before the first match.

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Live in Batanes, earn $8000/month

Three years ago, when were busy installing free Internet Stations and Hotspots in remote locations in the Philippines (see www.phdf.org.ph), I would give talks about how it might be possible to live in the province yet make a living on the Web.

A few days ago, I came across a story on CNN that gives us a clue how the improbable can actually become possible. It’s a story of how an artist would put up his paintings for bids on E-bay. The artist - based in the US - would price his works in the $1250-$2500 range and he recently had an $8T month! Pretty impressive. (Certainly enough to live by if you lived in the mountain province - this means you, David F.)

Of course, someone who is actually using one of our Internet cafes in the boonies would still have the problem of receiving payments. G-cash is one possiblity, yet there still is the need for a middleman to receive International payments (perhaps via Paypal or an Online Payment Gateway), then remitting the funds to the artist via G-cash, SmartMoney, or bank transfer.

There also is the need for the artist to establish himself on E-bay as a reliable merchant. (After, a buyer in Connecticut might have serious concerns about dealing with shysters in the Philippines).

Here is the CNN story:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/03/18/artists.online/index.html

Mr. Pena’s response to our open letters

I just got a hold of Mr. Pena’s response to our 2 open letters.

I must say, I’m a bit disappointed that Mr. Pena is now trying to distance himself from his CICT guidelines. Obviously it’s become quite a mess and I guess he doesn’t want to be associated with this mess. My brother JJ does a good job here of explaining how the Guidelines are Mr. Pena’s creation, and that he shouldn’t try to duck responsibility for the Guidelines.

What I instead want to point out is Mar Roxas statement last week about the CICT not being accountable:

I’ll quote:

“What kind of an animal is CICT? It’s not accountable for the e-government fund. So it was a basic management decision to re-align the [P1 Billion Peso] fund back to the government agencies.”

Mr. Pena, don’t you think this would be a good opportunity to show Mr. Roxas that you’re willing to be accountable for your actions? No one expects you to be perfect. We’ve pointed out the serious outages on EDU.PH and GOV.PH servers. Shouldn’t you ask your System Administrators to explain what is going on? We would be more than happy to work with you to resolve these problems, and to suggest ways to fix these problems. After all, the Gov.PH system is your repsonsibility, and it does affect all of us!

And since you seem to be under the impression that either the Gov.ph or Edu.ph registries are technically capable of taking over DotPH’s responsibilities, isn’t it time that you re-examine your reasons for wanting to shut down DotPH? What is the point in Government running the PH Domain if it is just going to result in the kinds of massive outages we seen with edu.ph and gov.ph?

Perhaps, at last, you can just ask your Domain Advisory Board to come up with a list of problems that they’ve seen with DotPH? (Surely they must see some problems with our operation, or else they would not ask you to shut us down!) Then we can all talk about ways to fix these problems in a cooperative problem-solving fashion, and hopefully we can all move on with our lives.

I sincerely hope you think about this carefully.

domainwatch.ph

I notice that the administrator of EDU.Ph, Mr. Bombim Cadiz has questioned the EDU.Ph and Gov.PH outage data presented in our open letters. The data we derived from our study is summarized at http://domainwatch.ph. Note that we even graph the outages!

For instance, here is how gabriela.ph.net behaved on Dec 19, 2004. Gabriela is both an EDU.PH and Gov.PH nameserver. The area marked in red denotes outages. The area in green denotes that the server was up. Since Dec 19 was a Sunday, it’s likely that Mr. Cadiz doesn’t have any SMS alerts to tell him when his servers are down on the weekend.

And below is the graph for Dec 20, 2004 for gabriela.ph.net. Looks like when someone reported in for work on Monday at 9 am, the problem was found and the server was rebooted:

It also looks like the edu.ph Website at http://dns.ph.net has had a troubled December.

edu.ph website Dec 2:

edu.ph website Dec 3:

edu.ph website Dec 5:

edu.ph website Dec 6:

edu.ph website Dec 7:

the website behaves decently for a few days then nosedives again:

edu.ph website Dec 11:

edu.ph website Dec 12:

edu.ph website Dec 13:

Looks like someone came in at 1145 am on Monday then rebooted the web server.

But another outage begins the next day Dec 14:

and the server is rebooted on Dec 15 at 9 am:

I just hope the Edu.PH Administrator will take the time to fix the Edu.PH webserver soon. I notice that it hasn’t been modified in the last 5 years. Does this mean the hardware is also 5 years old?

Open letters to CICT chairman Ver Pena

Here are two letters we recently sent Mr. Ver Pena. I strongly believe that any decision made by the CICT should always be based on
a good understanding of the underlying technology. For example, if CICT is
to negotiate a deal with Microsoft for cheap Govt windows licenses, it
should first consider

1) Is StarOffice w/ Linux a suitable alternative to MS Office? Does
embracing Linux encourage the development of an Open Source community and
an ensuing software industry to service that community? Does the
Philippines have a good chance of being a world leader in Open Source
development?

2) Is Apple’s Appleworks w/ OS X a suitable alternative to MS Office? Is
Keynote a suitable alternative to Powerpoint? Will Panther’s Expose save
the Govt the expense of having to buy large monitors? Should the govt
attempt to negotiate a deal with Apple instead? Is the Macintosh price
competitive with those of Taiwanese clones?

3) Since we are constrained to uphold US intellectual property rights, and
since Windows is priced well beyond the reach of the average Filipino, and
since Microsoft is intent on cracking down on piracy in the Philippines,
should the Govt institute a policy to WEAN Filipinos away from Windows?
Eg - such as impose a luxury tax on any operating systems whose price is
more than - say - our average per capita income? (that is - if there’s a
petroleum tax to help encourage the use of alternative forms of energy,
maybe an OS tax is needed to remove our dependency on Microsoft?).

I’m not advocating a particular solution at this point, but what is VITAL
is that the CICT should have a good grasp of Information and
Communications Technology if it is to make good ICT decisions.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that is what happened when the CICT decided to take
control of the PH Domain - as our open letters explain.

edu.ph outages and bombim cadiz’ post on pinoyblog.com

I’ve just noticed this
post on pinoyblog.com from Bombim Cadiz , who runs the EDU.PH domain.
It’s in response to an open letter
we made to Ver Pena of the CICT.

Here is Bombim Cadiz� post:

*
* Now that you have put your technical eggs on the accuracy of this
*”study” to disparage PHNET, let me just point that this study is not
*accurate.
*I didn’t want to bring it up yet so that you would dig yourself into a
*deeper hole but because I think you have already hit rock-bottom, it
is
*time
*to point out the mistakes.
*
*Not having any details about the methodology of the study, I will just
*point
*out that the study is inaccurate.
*
* Let me just point out the differences in the downtimes of EDU1
*(gomez.ph.net) and EDU3 (dns.ph.net):
*
*(1) On Dec1, EDU1 was shown to be down for 5:15 hours but *not* EDU3 –
a
*difference of 5:15 hours.
*
*(2) On Dec 5, EDU1 5:21 and EDU3 5:15 — a difference of 6 minutes.
*
*(3) On Dec 6, EDU1 was down for 17:04 and EDU3 for 16:29 — a
difference
*of
*35 minutes.
*
*(4) On Dec 7, EDU1 down for 9:32 and EDU3 down for 8:29, a difference
of
*1hr and 03 minutes
*
* It might interest you to know that gomez.ph.net and dns.ph.net are
*ONE
*AND THE SAME MACHINES WITH THE SAME IP Address of 165.220.1.1)*.
Therefore,
*their downtimes should exactly match.
*Because your “study” has data points which show that they do not match,

*your “study” can not be trusted.

Ouch! I’ll ignore the vitriolic language for now and focus on the
technical data.

(4) here is the Dec 1 graph for EDU1 - the DNS server at gomez.ph.net:

And here is the graph for EDU 3 - the website at http://dns.ph.net.

Bombim,
You’ll notice that both services were indeed down until 845 am.
(Presumably the server was rebooted at that time? Perhaps you can upload
your logs - as promised - so we can verify the cause of the outage?)
Notice also that the DNS server at gomez.ph.net experienced intermittent
outages from 4pm-615pm that same day while the web server at dns.ph.net
began to respond rather sluggishly at the exact same time: it was taking
20-96 seconds to respond to http GET queries during that time frame. Our
logs don’t show the web server as being down because DNS uses UDP and is
more sensitive to timeouts. HTTP, on the other hand, is a session based
protocol and has longer timeouts. HENCE the discrepancy in outage times.

(1) here is the Dec 1 graph for EDU1 - the DNS server at gomez.ph.net:

And here is the graph for EDU 3 - the website at http://dns.ph.net.

You’re absolutely right, EDU3 was down as well that day - for 2 hours and
25 mins! We just didn’t include it in our open letter as we only wanted
to point out the egregious outages (eg - More than 4 hours). (We didn’t
have room for a full page ad )

Notice however, that you had DNS outages (on EDU1) at 1 am, 3am-6am,
1030am -1145am, 630pm-12 midnight. Observe that at those times your
webserver started to respond sluggishly. Likewise, this explains why
EDU1 and EDU3 may be the same server, yet the outage times are different.
Perhaps another cause of your problem is that you have a slow upstream
link that tends to get congested?

(3) here is the Dec 6 graph for EDU1 - the DNS server at gomez.ph.net:

And here is the graph for EDU 3 - the website at http://dns.ph.net.

The outage times are practically identical. The most likely reason for
the 35 min discrepancy is that we don’t probe your machines every second
of the day. We only send out a probe once every ten minutes. If there is
an outage, then we send out the next probe (from a different location on
the Internet) a few seconds later - just to confirm the problem. The
probe for EDU1 does not go out at the same time as EDU3, and hence you
can’t expect the outage times to be exactly identical.

I hope that answers your questions.

The key point we are trying to make is that it’s TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE that
EDU.PH nameservers and Websites are down this frequently. It should be
fixed AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

The other point we’re making is that the outages on GOV.PH are even worse
than EDU.PH. We just do not understand how Mr. Ver Pena (of the CICT)
can, after working on the DotPH guidelines for 18 months, be totally
ignorant of the problems existing in Gov.PH and EDU.PH, AND do nothing
to fix these problems, YET to attempt to shut down the one Registry -
DotPH - that is operating properly!

I think the CICT should really focus less on Politics, and more on Technology!

Mar Roxas: the CICT is too heavy-handed

Looks like we at DotPH aren’t the only ones who think that the CICT is getting too heavy-handed. Generally, my philosopy on IT is: don’t regulate it! Back in 1996 I marveled at how many ISPs were operating in the Philippines as compared with Singapore or Malaysia. The reason there were so many ISPs back then: because there were no government regulations barring ISPs! Philippine ISP service was clearly superior to that of our Asean neigbhbors. The Singnet people who operated Squid Proxy servers (to block websites - a necessary task mandated by the Singaporean Govt) seemed to know a lot less about Squid than, say, Migs Paraz of Iphil. We had about 150+ ISPs in 1997. Singapore only had 3 then, and Malaysia only had 2.

Today, only a handful of the original ISPs are left. The reason? Because many of the ISPs are blocked from offering the next phase of Internet Service: DSL, Cable, or Wireless access. One has to be a Telco to be able to offer DSL or Wifi/Wimax; a Congressional franchise is an expensive prerequisite. Getting a franchise to be cableTV operator is equally difficult as well. Too much government regulations can clearly stifle the IT industry.

I believe there is a great opportunity today for the local IT community to get into the Wifi and VoIP market. If only we could get the entire Metro Manila to be blanketed with Wifi. If only we could use these Wifi connections to make calls worldwide at 2c/minute. If only we could have phone numbers in the US or Europe that link directly to our DSL VoIP phones (or PABXes), so we can service these markets. These are real enabling technologies that the Philippines should have a head start in, yet it cannot because of myopic NTC/CICT regulations.

Do we need a CICT? I don’t think so. In fact, I think we need to significantly reduce the amount of government intervention already taking place in the IT industry.

Here is the Inquirer’s story on Mar Roxas and the CICT: (more…)

Sapporo ski trip

I can’t rave enough about this place. First of all - the Hokkaido snow is excellent. It was powder every day. I thought California skiing was great - but it just doesn’t compare. I was hoping for really soft snow, so that if the kids fell - it wouldn’t feel like they were scraping their faces against concrete. But to have a good snowfall every night was unbelievable.

Second - the bunny run is excellent. No rope to hold on to. No chairs (that go too high and end up scaring the kids). The bunny run chairs STAY on the ground, so the kids don’t get scared. And it’s a fairly long run (Ok - not as long as the California bunny runs - but then my kids don’t have to sit in lift chairs 20 stories high in the sky!)

Then there is the proximity. Walking from our log cabin to the ski fields only took 5 minutes (Ok so - it took 20 with the kids throwing snow balls and looking at the sights). But it’s great to be able to walk back and forth to the ski lifts. No need to rent a car!

And then there’s the onsen! Otaru is a small village that not only has a ski field, but also has a Volcanic Hot Spring. So the town has 3 public baths. AND our log cabin had its own private onsen. So we literally soak in an outdoor hot spring daily. You have no idea how surreal this is, to be in a really warm bath and to have it snowing a few feet away. Awesome.

And finally - there’s the food. The Hot Ramen! The cold beer! Otaru is also known as Japan’s sushi capital (because the fish is very fresh). Mmmmm!

We’re definitely going back! Here’s the link to the winkel log cabin.

THE Trade Show for VoIP

VON is coming up (March 7-10, San Jose
CA). This is THE show for VoIP. I’ll probably make a last minute decision
whether or not to go. There’s also a Fall VON in the East Coast, but I
think the West Coast show will be better than the East Coast show simply
because it is in THE Valley.

A serious error in the CICT Guidelines

Lawrence’s story appears here.

I’m a bit disappointed that Computerworld seems to have gotten a key point wrong:

DotPH was previously given until Jan. 15 to decide whether it will continue to be the administrator of the PH country code top-level domain name or limit its functions to just that of a registry. As registry, DotPH will become the central repository of PH domain names.

Despite a week’s extension after the Jan.15 deadline lapsed, DotPH has yet to officially communicate its decision to the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT).

Actually, the guidelines are very confusing, and perhaps that’s one reason why Lawrence has gotten this point wrong. This is how this key provision is actually written in the guidelines (Article XII, Section 2):

Within 3 months [..] the incumbent Administrator should formally notify the CICT whether it will act as an Administrator or Registrar, but not both. It shall also submit to the CICT a plan to divest itself of either the operations of Registry or its Registrar operations.

The Administrator is defined in Article I of the Guidelines as:
the duly incorporated or organized entity that manages the ccTLD Registry, which the CICT has previously designated as such, and which ICANN has chosen to be the delegee for the ccTLD on behalf of the local and global Internet Community.

So let’s take it step by step. Who are the Guidelines defining as the Administrator?

Is it DotPH? Let’s see. What entity manages the Registry? It’s DotPH. Ok, has CICT previously designated DotPH as such? No. Uh-oh. Now who has ICANN chosen as the delegee? Without a doubt, it’s PHDF as designated here.

So at this point - it’s unclear whom the Guidelines are referring to as the Administrator. Is it DotPH or PHDF? Technically, one could conclude at this point that the Guidelines are unworkable. But let’s assume it’s PHDF, as ICANN refers to it as the “administrative contact” for the ccTLD.

PHDF now has to submit a plan to the CICT to divest itself of the operations of the Registry or Registrar. Ok - that’s easy, because PHDF has never had any equity in DotPH, and has never operated as a Registrar or Registry!

So is that it? Are we done? Have we complied with the Guidelines, since the Administrator has already divested itself of its Registrar and Registry operations?

According to Mr. Pena - No! (No surprise there). Because for Mr. Pena to allow this, would be to admit that the Guidelines have a critical - if not fatal - defect.

This is what I’ve been referring to when I say that the Guidelines are impossible to comply with in my letter to Computerworld and Inquirer. I’ve said as much to Ver Pena in a phone conversation, on this blog, in a letter to the Inqurier, and in a second letter to ComputerWorld. So it’s a bit puzzling to me when I hear Mr. Pena continuing to say that we have yet to communicate our decision to the CICT.

Already, I can see Mr. Pena distancing himself from this mess by passing the buck to Dondi Mapa, and continuing to claim that DotPH has yet to reply as to its “choice”. The only way out of this, and I mean this in all sincerity - is for the Mr. Pena to step back and think first about what it is he is trying to accomplish. Are you trying to lower the retail price of domains? Are there any DotPH policies you would like to change? What are your concerns? What problems are you trying to fix?

I know this sounds like a broken record [1][2][3][4][5], but surely you must have some REAL problems with the way the PH Domain is run, otherwise you would not have bothered writing the Guidelines, yes? If so, then let’s have it - and let’s start working on fixing these problems. And if you don’t - then please simply ask the general public - “who here has problems with DotPH? Let them speak out now - or forever hold their peace”. It’s really that simple.

letter to ComputerWorld Philippines

Here’s a letter I sent to Lawerence Casiraya of Computerworld Philippines. It’s a reaction to a CICT statement - that essentially says

1) that Govt will redelegate PH (eg - take control of the PH Domain)
2) CICT Commissioner Ver Pena justifies his reasons for the Guidelines - to make the PH Domain more efficient and independent.
3) Just in case the Government is unable to redelegate - he’s creating a Technical Working Group to discuss the implementation of the Guidelines with DotPH.

(3) is an interesting admission, I might add, because I believe Mr. Pena was operating under the assumption that he could redelegate PH at will - hence the guidelines were created in relative secrecy (we weren’t invited to meet with the Advisory Board), and the guidelines have ended been pretty much one-sided .

Hopefully we’ll be seeing a thaw in these hardline positions?

=====

Regarding the CICT statement:

I’m glad that Mr. Pena has finally given us his justification for taking control of the Domain Registry - he says it is for an efficient and independent administration of the .PH domain. Well, we’re all for efficiency and independence! For well over a year we have been asking Secretary Pena to identify problems so that we can work together to fix them . Instead of answering, his response has been to impose these Guidelines. It is difficult to understand how Mr. Pena intends to make our operations more efficient if he can’t identify where the inefficiency is in the first place. Perhaps he would care to elaborate?

And the Guidelines actually make the administration of the PH domain completely dependent on the government. Mr. Pena insists on having the right to create new guidelines at will. This will kill the PH domain’s ability to compete against foreign domains like COM, NET and INFO. There will be no incentive to develop technology and infrastructure, or do any long-term planning, when the franchise can be arbitrarily terminated — as Secretary Pena is attempting to do right now.

We’ve invested a lot of time and energy in making the PH domain easy to register, manage and use. Our systems are world-class. Technology which we developed for the local market is currently being used with great success in New Zealand and will soon be exported to other countries as well. We were one of the first countries in the world to introduce a Shared Registry System. We have well over 200 Registrars - almost as many as ICANN has accredited. We were one of the first countries to initiate a dispute resolution system. Its hard to see how the government could improve on what we’re doing, but we are willing to work with them. The thing though is to first identify the areas that need improvement. Then can we work together on possible solutions.

>Like I was asking you, did Joel (or DotPH for that matter) issue a
>decision about the matter? From how i understand, based on the guidelines,
>you have to choose between remaining as “administrator” or becoming a
>”registry”.

There is a serious problem with the “choice” that is being forced on us. The Administrator is neither the Registry nor the Registrar. It never has been, and never will be! The “choice” is based on wrong information and is indicative of how seriously flawed the Guidelines are. For Mr. Pena to keep insisting that we make a “choice”, despite the fact that such a choice is impossible, is a dangerous sign of inflexibility.

The Guidelines also have onerous provisions that make them completely one-sided. For example, the government can impose new rules at any point in the future (Guidelines Art. XI, Sec. 6 and Art. XIII, Sec. 4). Whoever heard of an agreement where one party can change the terms at will, and the other has no choice but to accept? Also, any doubts about the interpretation of the Guidelines are immediately resolved in favor of the government (see Guidelines Art XIII, Sec. 1). It’s not what I would a fair agreement.

I think that the best way to proceed is for Mr. Pena to stop insisting that we agree to the Guidelines - seeing as how they are onerous and seriously flawed. If he can do this and just list the inefficiencies he wishes us to correct - then we can be well on our way to making the PH Domain as efficient as he envisions.

Ah - to be in the land of Tir na nOg!

When I see reports that the President is considering raising corporate tax rates, I can’t help but ask - what in the world is she thinking? This isn’t going to raise funds for the government; it may work in the short run, but certainly not in the long run. Big Business today - her real target - has no loyalty to the Philippines and can easily repatriate their profits and reorganize to minimize their tax liabilities.

Two years ago, if you picked up some Colgate toothpaste in your local supermarket, you would see a curious declaration (that went something like this):

Manufactured in Indonesia, by Colgate-Palmolive Indonesia
For Colgate Palmolive Headquarters in Hong Kong
Distributed by Colgate PalmOlive Philippines.

That’s strange. I thought to myself - why are they saying this? It seems to me like a declaration Colgate-Palmolive was making for the benefit of the tax authoritites. Here’s my analysis:

Hong Kong is the ideal place to set up a Global HQ. Corporate tax rates are only 17%, and most importantly - businesses are only taxed on local profits, and not on profits earned outside HK! What was happening here was that CP HQ was buying the toothpaste from CP Indonesia for a very cheap price, then selling it to CP Philippines for a very expensive price. The net result is that CP Philippines & Indonesia would declare a very modest profit (where tax rates are high) whereas CP Hong Kong would keep the profits in HK and thus pay no taxes on foreigh-sourced income! Brilliant!

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A really cool business Idea

Here’s an idea that’s been percolating in my head for the last 2 years. I was stunned to see my phone bill after a trip I made to Las Vegas some time ago. Included in the roaming bill were charges for unanswered incoming calls. People would call me at night (while I was sleeping), and I would be, of course, unable to answer those calls. Sometimes the calls would come in while i was at a trade show, where the noise would be so loud that i would be unable to hear the phone ringing. The net result was that I was charged about $3-$4 per unanswered call! Sometimes people (in Manila) would call me twice or thrice, not knowing that I was travelling.

Equally irritating was that calls made within the US would be charged at international rates, rather than at local rates. So rather than pay 25c/min for a local call, I’d be paying $2-$3 per minute for intra-state calls! So using a Globe or Smart mobile was useless. I was better off buying a local prepaid calling card for calls I made within the US (as well as calls to Manila).

The obvious solution - was to buy a US Carrier’s prepaid GSM SIM. But none was to be found at the airport, nor at the hotel, nor at the strip. So I thought - hey! wouldn’t it be a great idea to set up a website that sold International GSM SIMs to the public, and set up some online chat software for people to make inquiries about, as well as set up a US/European phone number for them to call?

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sukiing o shimasu!

The one thing I miss the most about living the US - I was based in California for almost ten years - is without a doubt - SKIING! In a few weeks, I get to hit the slopes after a 15 year hiatus. Ironically, the cheapest place to go skiing (if you’re based in Manila) is - drum roll please - Japan! Winter huts are availble for about $150/night in Sapporo (for a family of 4), with your own outdoor onsen. So I’ll get to see what that’s like - rolling in the snow in the buff then immersing oneself in a really hot spring! The plane tickets are cheaper too - than flying to NZ, Melbourne, or California.

Kudos to the Japanese Embassy for NOT charging a fee for a tourist visa. As far as I can recall, this is the only country I’ve ever applied for a VISA and have not had to pay a fee!

Wine-making in the Cordilleras

Lynn Madalang of EBGAN, a Bontoc-based NGO dedicated to helping the women and youth of the Cordillera, tells me that they are working on setting up a wine-making establishment somewhere near Sagada. They intend to make strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry wine, which retail for about P100/bottle in the markets along the Halsema highway. (She tells me that the raspberry wines are the best tasting). Lynn says that only 30% of all strawberries harvested - that is, only the good looking straweberries - make it to the markets of Baguio. The remaining 70% is either thrown away or used to make jam. The going rate for these “uglier” strawberries is about P10/kilo, and can be used to make 200 bottles of strawberry wine. That’s a potential P20T in sales for P10 in raw materials!

Lynn plans to set up a cooperative and is in need of project-funding as well as help in the packaging/distribution of the wine. Interested parties should contact her at <048ebgan@mozcom.com>. EBGAN’s phone number is 074 4470022.

Erwin Oliva’s letter

I recently received a letter from Erwin Oliva of the Inquirer.

Hi Erwin,

Thanks for dropping by. Here are the answers to your questions:

1) Based on the change of IANA/ICANN policies on disputes, how are you going to handle the choice between being a registrar and registry?

Basically, we have no idea why Mr. Pena wants us to choose between being a Registrar or Registry. We’ve asked him several times in person & in our letters to him what the rationale for this was. What problem is he trying to fix? Does he think that by closing down the DotPH Registrar division, more companies will apply to be Registrars? If you look at our website, all it takes to be a DotPH Registrar is for someone to buy 20 domains! Today, DotPH has over 200 Registrars, and is actively encouraging more to apply . See June 10, 2004 post here.

Does he think that by doing this, the prices of PH domains will drop? We’ve tried to explain that domain prices are determined by market forces. In the Philippines, practically every ISP sells COM domains and PH Domains. Yet a survey taken in 2004 (See Part VIII, Pricing) shows that the retail price of COM and PH are roughly the same at $35/year. By preventing Dotph from being a Registrar, you reduce competition in the marketplace and this may actually cause PH domains to be more expensive than COM. And even if Mr. Pena were to order the Registry to drop wholesale prices to the level of COM, it’s clear that the retail price of PH will not change!

We’re totally in the dark, and what we’ve suggested is for Mr. Pena to first itemize what problems he sees in the way DotPH operates, in our service, in our policies, etc. Then we can talk about ways to solve this, and then draft a contract that binds us (and the government) to prevent these problems from recurring. We’ve asked for this so many times,

see
Nov 14, 2003
Feb 5, 2004
Mar 12, 2004
Mar 25, 2004
Mar 31, 2004

that I can only guess that Mr. Pena is concerned that he won’t be able to find any substantial problems in our operations?

If you recall, the very same people Mr. Pena is dealing with, who are now calling for redelegation, were asked in 2000 by then DTI Asst. Secretary Toby Monsod, to list and substantiate their complaints. By 2002, every single complaint filed wasdismissed by the DTI.

2) in case government pushes for redelegation if you’re not able to comply with its guidelines, what are you prepared to do?

Please take a look at RFC 1591, which states that ICANN will not step in unless there is proof that DotPH has “substantially misbehaved”. This is why I think it’s important for Mr. Pena to really study if there are any substantial (and substantiated) problems in our operation. It helps him seize control of the Registry (if that is really his objective); but more importantly, it allows us to start discussing ways to solve these problems which may not necessarily be as drastic and confrontational.

I’ve tried to explain to Mr. Pena that the Guidelines, as crafted are way too onerous for anyone to agree with. For example, the Guidelines give the CICT the right to impose arbitrary rules and regulations. And if we disagreed, we would have no choice but to face redelegation! I don’t see how any Registry can possibly agree to this. Who would invest time and money in a business that depends on the whims of the CICT? IMHO, that’s a formula that encourages corruption.

I’ve also tried to explain to Mr. Pena that Guidelines are riddled with errors. For example, a key provision (Article XII, section 2) is that the Administrator should “divest itself of either the operations of Registry or its Registar operations”. In reality, the PH Administrator has no equity in the Registry or Registrar operation. Never had, and never will! So theoretically, even if we wanted to comply with the Guidelines, we can’t!

The message here is that if Mr. Pena wanted to solve problems, he would have involved us in the making of the Guidelines. But we weren’t invited to the Advisory Board meetings. All the papers we painstakingly submitted during the public hearings went unanswered.

See March 31, 2004
Feb 5, 2004

It’s really unfortunate. As a result , Mr. Pena has approved a set of Guidelines that are not only erroneous, but - if implemented - will substantially weaken the PH Domain, rather than strengthen it.

Update: I’ve also just had a conversation today with Mr. Pena, where he absolutely refused to discuss amending the Guidelines and repeatedly threatened to redelegate. So I guess the die is cast….

Verisign CEO on SiteFinder

Q: Site Finder — your product that referred people who mistyped a domain to a search engine that included advertising from which you could profit — that did generate a lot of consumer backlash.

A: Let me stop you there. If there was true consumer backlash, we would have taken it down in five minutes. We surveyed millions of consumers. Eighty- four percent of them thought the service was much better than what their experience had been without it, meaning that either you get an error page because you typed in the wrong thing, or you get a very similar service to ours, from Microsoft or AOL. So when people say there was a big consumer backlash, that’s really not quite true. There was an Internet technical community backlash to it because it wasn’t what they were used to. It really was 200 people stepping in to try to govern what 751 million people used. Quite frankly, we don’t think it was representative of what Internet (users) would have done. We’ve invested millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars in these services and we’d like to build new services on top of them that have some customer value. We believe Site Finder was one of those. I think we’re still in the early stages of governance on the Internet, and I don’t think ICANN has yet found a model that works well. In the three years since we started designing international domain names and the three years since we started designing a wait-list service so people could reserve names as other people give them up, two dozen companies have gotten into those businesses, and we’re still waiting to launch the service, because ICANN has one more hoop for us to jump through. So it’s a very odd system where we’re supposed to tell our competitors everything we’re going to do years before we get to launch a service. It’s not commercially reasonable.

The full interview is available here.

a VoIP Video phone. Wifi Videophones next?

Motorola just announced the Ojo Broadband Videophone at the January CES.
It’s not Wifi, but it’s wireless (100 ft range). The screen is 5.6″ wide
and is full color. It’s designed to be marketed by ISPs or DSL/Cable
providers with their own SIP proxies. (eg - I don’t see a way for users to
fiddle with the SIP settings, so they can switch providers).

A $499 Mac!

I’m very impressed. The Mac Mini comes with 40G HD and 256 MB DDR SDRAM, and a
Combo (cd-r/dvd-rom) drive! And it’s miniscule! You can use it to just
watch DVDs at home. Since it has a firewire Port, you can use it to
transfer video from your videocam (and edit using iMovie). And the price
is right! Best of all, I don’t have to pay the absurd P13T price for Win XP. We’re seriously considering buying these Macs once our Wintel
boxes expire. We may even use these as Unix servers (at DotPH), if some
of our Linux applications work fine on BSD. This is Apple’s cheapest
Mac to date, and they’re going for the mainstream. We may yet see Apple’s
3% market share jump into the low teens. Steve Jobs claims (in his
MacExpo Jan 2005 speech) that iPod now owns 65% of the mp3 player market.
That’s quite a surprise to me (as I don’t see too many iPods being sold
here), but it’s interesting that Apple may have lost the PC market, yet it
now dominates the mp3 player market.

Online Militancy and the Denial of Service Attack

Today I received a letter from Wilson Chua, President of Bitstop,
complaining to Jojie Yap of PISO (and President of Pacific Internet)
complaining about NTC’s slow action on our complaint regarding PLDT’s
predatory DSL pricing.

I’ve taken this opportunity to illustrate how a “coalition of the willing”
can initiate a “denial of service attack” on Government to force
Government to mend its ways. In this day and age, there is a crying need
for the citizenry to be able to reform government without having to resort
to bloody, violent revolution, or to wait six years for a change in
administration.

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ICANN on ccTLD Redelegations

I listened in on one of the GAC meetings in Cape Town on Nov 30 and was stunned to hear Paul Verhoef, Icann VP, deliver this presentation on the redelegation of ccTLDs (country code top level domains):

• ICANN/IANA leaves the decision to the parties [government and ccTLD] in the domain (country, territory, economic area) and to reach agreement among themselves

• ICANN/IANA generally takes no action until all the contending parties agree; only in cases where the designated manager has substantially “misbehaved” would the ICANN/IANA review the situation

• ICANN acts out of interests of global Internet community and the stability and security of the global Internet

“That’s it?” remarked one South American ccTLD. “All we have to do is ‘Just say No’ to our governments”? The message seems to be that ICANN can’t possible handle disputes in over 240 countries. Governments and ccTLDs will just have to learn to sort things out and settle their differences. This is a dramatic change in ICANN policy from several years back.

I can only hope that Mr. Ver Pena of the CITC will now see the wisdom in getting his Domain Advisory Board to sit down with us at DotPH and explain the rationale for his Guidelines (on administering the PH Domain). We’ve been asking Mr. Pena for the longest time to explain what problems he sees with the PH Domain, and what his rationale is for changing (quite drastically) the way things work, and how he sees the new guidelines as resolving these problems.

So far Mr. Pena has been unable to explain to us, either privately or publicly what sort of problems he sees with the PH Domain. That’s really unfortunate, as we can’t help him fix the problems he sees if we have no idea what he’s trying to fix.

Paul Verhoef’s presentation is downloadable from http://194.78.218.67/web/meetings/mtg20/ICANN_Presentation.ppt

What a climb that was!

It’s been a week since we hiked Pulag, but my head is still in the clouds, and my heart is still in the mountains. First off, I’m unbelievably proud of my sons. Here’s Aralt (age 5) and Caolan (age 7) on the summit of Pulag, the second highest peak in the Philippines, on a bright glorious day (it had been raining miserably the day before, on our way up to camp).

The sunshine was a big and pleasant surprise! The views were awesome. It was Caolan’s third time up, and the previous two times it was raining horribly.

It was quite an accomplishment for Aralt, who can be really quite fragile. Here he is, scratching his hand on some talahib at 9T feet. Buti lang, kasama ang nanay!

But we made it! And here we are clowning around on our way back to camp:

This was a very well planned operation, and I think several factors contributed to Aralt’s success:

- Those boots that were made for walking! (in knee deep water). Dry feet mean no blisters on long hikes, and these waterproof boots (purchased online from Land’s End) did the job magnificently!

- A huge Eureka Kahuna tent. You don’t realize it, but kids as young as Aralt can quickly get claustrophobic in a small tent. When the weather’s damp, miserable, and freezing, you have no choice but to keep the kids indoors. A huge tent gives them room to clown around and play in, keeping spirits up for the summit hike.

- Good fleece jackets, and good sleeping bags! The equipment sold locally isn’t made for Pulag temperatures. You need winter clothes. Let me repeat that - you NEED winter clothes! The thermostat may not read zero degrees Centigrade, but the wind chill is awesome, and it feels more like 15 degrees Farenheit.

One final note:

Those Sealskinz gore-tex socks were major winners! It kept my feet dry for 8 hours on the first day, but it finally gave in after 3 hours of hiking on the 2nd day (they didn’t dry out overnight as the humidity was too high inside the tent; it rained all night)..

iPod Photo

Apple’s just released their latest incarnation of the wildly successful iPod: it’s called iPod Photo and it lets you view (what else) photos on the iPod’s 2 inch color screen (64k colors). SRP is $499 for a 40G model. Personally, I’m not impressed, but i can tell you what’s probably in store in the next version: iPod Movie! It’s a simple matter to modify iPod Photo (eg - no additional hardware required) to play movies. In fact, i’m surprised that Apple hasn’t done this yet. ) They’ll need to increase the screen size though to at least 3 inches. (2 inches is way too small to enjoy a movie).

Today, I probably watch more movies that are downloaded off the Internet than from DVDs. (For instance, I have all the good table tennis games from the recent Olympics). Since I have far more bandwidth that I can use at the office, we’ve installed MLDonkey, which is one cool cool piece of software for enabling offline downloads. iPod Movie would save me the additional step of burning the movies to DVD (so as to take home to watch). I’d rather keep the movies on my desktop and just sync them to my iPod whenever I’m about to travel or go on a long trip.

Note to Apple: modify iPod Photo so I can plug a USB card reader (eg compact flash, memory stick, SD, MMC) onto iPod, and be able to import Photos from my Digicam while traveling. It’s a pain to have to import first into a Notebook, then sync the Photos into iPod Photo. When I to Europe this summer I noticed that people were starting to bring tiny notebooks around for the sole purpose of importing photos from their digital cameras for viewing. To me, that seems like overkill. Better to just use an iPod.

Good luck Sayas!

On the right is Isaias Seronio, who recently accompanied us on our trip to Mt. Pulag. (which was a blast, by the way). Isaias (Junjun to mountaineering friends, Sayas to table tennis friends, and Isay in the music scene - he’s a drummer in a jazz band) was instrumental in rescuing one member of our party who was suffering from hypothermia. A few member of our group had decided to try out the Akiki “killer” trail and had found themselves deep below the summit by nightfall. They summited around 830 pm then had to brave strong winds (at 36 degrees F) to make the 1.5hour hike back to camp. One member of the group was only dressed in shorts and had run out of food and batteries (for the headlamp). Sayas was the one who helped bring him back to camp.

Sayas will soon be taking a leave of absence (from UP Diliman) to attempt to qualify for the RP Table Tennis team that will compete next year in the South East Asian Games (which are to be held in the Philippines). We wish him a lot of luck! Only 2 slots are available in the singles event. I believe Sayas is now currently ranked sixth and is still far away from the top player (Jonjon Ebuen). But one thing for sure though, if he makes it to the SEA Games, he’ll have a lot of cheering fans from our Mt. Pulag group!

Simply the best blogging product on the market

Our i.ph website is just about ready to launch! I really can’t wait. This product is probably the single most impressive product I’ve worked on in a long long time. (and that’s saying a lot). It took us two years to develop this product, and I believe it’ll make quite a splash. You be the judge! Check out http://i.ph and get your own i.ph domain. (i.ph is a domain for individuals; it comes with built in blogging, photo/video gallery, webhosting, and webmail/pop3 hosting).

G-cash is a winner

Looks like G-cash is a winner. Unlike Smart’s SmartMoney, there’s no need for the user to change SIMs. The transaction fee (for mobile users) to convert G-cash into cash is relatively small - only 1%. For merchants, the fee is 0%. Globe will sweep your merchant funds into your bank account daily. (This works only for a few banks; BPI is obviously one of those banks, but I understand Union Bank is supported as well).

And Globe has an XML API that allows online merchants to accept G-cash payments by using a virtual SIM. This means that an online merchant won’t need to use a GSM modem to transact with G-cash mobile users. No worries about an employee prying the SIM loose from the GSM modem the transferring your G-cash to another mobile.

Converting one’s prepaid load into G-cash won’t happen right away though; this is because globe merchants buy credits at a 14% discount from Globe. Hence P100 in your prepaid SIM means P86 in Globe’s coffers. There’s also an accounting problem here in that Globe prefers to look at that P86 as ‘profit’. If that P86 is still convertible to G-cash, Globe will have to modify its accounting system to track how much of its ‘profit’ is still convertible to G-cash, and how much of it is real genuine bookable profit.

The converse (converting G-cash into prepaid credits) will happen more quickly though (and very rapidly). If I have G-cash in my SIM, and I needed to buy prepaid credits, all I’d have to do is send G-cash to an Autoload Max vendor, and he can then send me my prepaid load via SMS. But I’ll bet Globe is working on a way to provide this service directly, thus saving Globe 14% in commissions.

Next step will be to integrate G-cash into the ATM network, so users can easily transfer cash from a Megalink or Bancnet bank into G-cash. Once G-cash becomes really popular, you may see Autoload Max merchants selling prepaid credits at far less than their 14% spread. (Eg - a P100 load, that cost an autoload max merchant P86 to purchase, might be sold for only P93).

Some final thoughts

- Globe should introduce the concept of having a “holding period” (say 24 hours) on g-cash transfers before said g-cash can be used. Suppose for instance that someone held you up at gunpoint, demanded your G-cash MPIN, took your mobile, then proceeded to transfer your G-cash to his own mobile account. This money should be frozen until such time that you can inform Globe that you’ve been robbed. Globe should then introduce the concept of “friends & family” so that all g-cash transfers to known “friends and family” won’t be subject to holding periods. This way, people will have more confidence in keeping large amounts of cash in their G-cash accounts.

(clarification: if you’re a merchant, and you receive G-cash, it’s still as good as cash. The fact that it’s been transferred to your account, means that the cash has already been subjected to the appropriate holding period. It just means that you won’t be able to use this cash for another 24 hours, unless you’re a “friend” of your client).

Needless to say, we at DotPH will be implementing G-cash in a big way.

Tips for those of us climbing up Mt. Pulag

Pulag has a strange microclimate. It can be nice and sunny on the Western side, when you come up the Ambangeg route. But you’ll notice when the pine forest ends and you enter the “mossy oak forest”, it’ll normally be drizzling. (that’s why it’s so mossy - because of all the humidity). I’ve climbed Pulag three times, and it was raining twice (Dec and Feb). The other time (Dec) it was really nice and sunny. The temperature can be quite cold - probably about 4 degrees Centigrade. That’s pretty chilly when you factor in the cold wind.

My guess is that if the wind is blowing to the East, we’ll get clear skies. If it’s coming from the East (and blowing to the West), we’ll probably have a good chance of rain showers. This climb will push through whether it rains or not; the only thing that’ll stop it is a typhoon! So bring lots of rain gear, and watch the websites that forecast the prevailing wind in the Pulag area. (Check http://www.sailphi.org.ph which has a list of weather sites that monitor wind conditions in the Philippines).

I brought a gore-tex raincoat up last time and I was disappointed to find out that Gore-Tex isn’t exactly waterproof. The inner lining of my raincoat was wet by the time I reached the summit. The only thing that kept me dry is the fleece sweater underneath the gore-tex. So I suggest you bring more than 1 sweater. In any event, it’s nice to wear a dry sweater in your sleeping bag.

The sleeping bags that I bought at our local Coleman outlet in Megamall were inadequate. I think the stocks sold locally are only meant for summer camping. They’re light (which is good), but you’ll need to sleep with (1) a sweater (2) a cap (3) socks and (4) some sort of leggings. I used an old gym pants,and that was fine. Remember - if you’re not propery dressed, you will be *miserable*.

I found that sleeping on the hard ground can be difficult. I bought a ZREST sleeping pad (which is foldable, and available locally at Robinson’s Galleria; the manufacturer is Cascade Designs). It made a huge difference for me. The ZRest is a lot larger than the self-inflating sleeping pads available at most camping stores. It also serves to keep you from getting wet, in the event that there is condensation in your tent, and your tent floor gets wet. This time though, I’ll be going with an air mattress (from coleman), which is even more comfortable. I’ve tried it at least once and it made a huge huge difference. I think they’re about P1T. They’re heavy, but at least you can hire a porter to carry your load up Mt. Pulag. (I believe the rate was P500 round trip per porter).

For a pillow, I stuffed some clean clothes into a cloth bag and that served as a fine pillow.

Going up wearing shorts is fine. There are no areas where you have to use a machete to cut through the trail. The last 1.5 hours up is dominated by grassland. Shorts are OK - you won’t be scraping your legs on any thorn bushes or talahib. If you’re adventurous, keep your eyes out for the wild strawberries growing at the higher altitudes.

There is an excellent water source at camp 2. The water is very clean - I don’t recommend carrying more than a liter of water during the hike.

If you can get them, use wool socks instead of cotton. Wool will wick sweat out, keeping your feet dry and comfy. Cotton, when wet, tends to get slightly abrasive.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get waterproof footwear for this hike. Wet feet are a problem because (1) it’s uncomfortable and (2) the skin gets soft and your feet can get blisters. One way to solve the problem might be to wear sandals. Be sure your sandas are comfortable, otherwise your feet will get blisters anyway. What the local guides do is wear rubber boots, the ones that almost come up to your ankle. They’re not comfortable, and you probably have to wear some pretty thick socks, but they are cheap and get the job done. I’m going with some waterproof goretex socks from Sealskinz. I’ve yet to try them, so we’ll see how they perform. They’re available online and cost about $15. Note: wearing plastic bags on your feet won’t do the trick!

Sandals are also good at the campground when you want to get in and out of your tent quickly. It’s a pain to have to take off your boots, go inside the tent, then lace your boots up again. (Imagine what a pain this is when you have to step out of your tent at night just to take a leak).

When pitching your tent, do look for very flat ground (not easy). The ground you pitch your tent on may look relatively flat, but when you get into your sleeping bag and start slipping off your bag into one side of the tent (which may even be wet with moisture), it’s a pain and makes for a sleepless night!

If it’s not raining, I hope to make a summit assault at 4 am. (or maybe 330am, if the kids are coming). You’ll need flashlights for this, and the best flashlights to bring are the ones that you mount on your head. The Petzl led flashlights work great for me; I don’t even have to bring spare batteries for the Petzls. The Mag-lites, on the other hand, use a different technology, and burn through their Energizer batteries in 1-2 hours.

Plastic bags to cover your knapsacks are important when it rains. I kept my knapsack inside the tent vestibule during my last hike and even though the knapsack was “waterproof”, some of my gear still ended up wet.

Note, the sun can be quite fierce at 9000 feet. You might want to bring some sunblock in case it doesn’t rain. And some sunglasses.

The Mt. Pulag guides are fanatical about keeping their mountain clean. Bring some spare plastic bags to carry your trash down the mountain.

If you have wireless transceivers, do bring them! They can be a lifesaver especially if someone gets lost and the path is very foggy.

Don’t scrimp on the food; you don’t want to go hungry on the mountain, and you want to bring something extra just in case we get rained in. I normally prefer instant noodles when I’m in camp, as they are light & easy to carry, and they’re piping hot (which is what I need when it is very very cold). During the hike, I normally like to bring granola bars or some chocolate bars. Remember, we’ll be spending two nights on the mountain this time around.

On the way back, we’ll stop by Camp John Hay, which should give us a chance to recuperate before we make our way down to Manila the next day.

Max and Prejudice

I found this article a few days ago by Max Soliven, printed on Philippine Star. I’m aghast at the prejudice. I’m even more aghast that anyone would publicly espouse these kinds of views in this day and age. I too, live in Greenhills, but unlike Mr. Soliven, I DON’T mind giving Muslims a prayer room within the Ortigas Shopping Complex. If we don’t do something to stop the prejudice, these people will end up even more marginalized and even more violent.

You be the judge:

__________________________________________________________

BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven
The Philippine Star 10/04/2004

The residents of three Greenhills villages as well as those of 30 condominium high-rises in the surrounding areas of San Juan, Mandaluyong and Quezon City have already registered an angry protest against the plan, suddenly announced on Friday the 13th, last August – completely without consultation or notice given to the surrounding districts – that the Ortigas & Company was building a P8 million Muslim “mosque” right in the Greenhills shopping center.

The secret plan was apparently hatched by Rex Drilon III, the brusque, autocratic general manager of the Ortigas & Co., Ltd., who’s been running the Greenhills shopping center like his personal fiefdown for almost four years. In typical fashion, this bozo Drilon – who, by the way, struts around as an Opus Dei – just announced he was installing this air-conditioned Islamic center, which he tried to disguise as a “mere prayer room”, in the three-storey new mall cum parking building he is rushing to complete, over the creek which his company “covered” and on which they are constructing a so-called Promenade mall.

When the article appeared in the Manila Bulletin (13 August), complete with pictures and photographs, under the glaring headline “ORTIGAS BUILDS P8-M MOSQUE IN GREENHILLS” it hit the residents of the area, who are 99 percent Catholics and other Christian denominations, like a ton of bricks.

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Random musings about the Philippine’s Internet Industry

Recently, I received some questions from a two UP students (Rachel Mahinay and Melodie Tumambing) who wanted to profile some IT personalities in the Philippines. Their questions were quite interesting, so I thought I’d share them with you:

Who was Joel Disini in his highschool/college days? Did you see yourself becoming popular, and controversial, like now?

I was a Computer Science/Electrical Engineering undergrad at Caltech. I went to Philippine Science for High School.

Yes, I’m a bit surprised at the controversy the PH Domain has created. Perhaps if our servers were regularly crashing, or if we had treated some customers badly, or if something was wrong with our service, I would be better able to understand it.

Perhaps part of the problem is that the PH domain is viewed in some quarters as a license to print money. Since the Philippines is a rather poor country, there is some envy associated with this. But if people took the time to study the matter, they’d find that running a Domain Registry is a tough business! There are many ccTLDs out there who have totally lost out to COM. Globally, COM outsells ccTLDs 2:1. Because Verisign has sheer economies of scale, they are a formidable competitor. We at DotPH have to spend a lot of time innovating, advertising our brand, and thinking of ways to promote PH over COM. In some ways, because the Filipino has less pride in his country than say, a Frenchman or an Englishman, promoting .PH is more difficult than promoting .FR or .UK.

Another factor is that IT news of global interest is quite rare. Other than the Love Bug Virus, the only other IT News that’ll get the Philippines mentioned in CNN would be the PH Domain. When the people who first criticized us found their names plastered all over the Wall Street Journal, they didn’t let up! In a perverse way, journalists who do stories on the PH Domain are more likely to see their stories carried by the international wire services, hence the disproportionate interest in the PH Domain. (more…)

Can you guess what this is?

Tuscany