The Beanster Blog

Day 1 and 2 was spent in Tai Chung ~ Special thanks to Mr. Ho for driving us around. [Taichung Tambay] Day 3 and 4 was spent in Taipei – Special thanks to Mr. Andy Cheng for accompanying us. [Taiwan Beef Noodles] It was very cold for the last 3 days of this trip, around 12C at the lowest and 21C at the warmest. I guess the nearest place to compare it to is HKG.   [Trivia: Taiwan is the home to Din Tai Fung famous for their Xiao Long Bao] I must say Taiwan did not disappoint the foodie in me. I think they have more variety of street foods vs HKG. I still adore cantonese cuisine but in the street foods category Taiwan wins by a mile. [Six (6) Kinds of Balls … delightful] They also have cheaper mobile data TW Mobile gives you unlimited data for 100NTD per day… I really wasn’t able to go around and check out electronics or gadgets but they definitely have cheaper devices vs the PH. [Taipei 101] As a side note. I saw a lot more cute women in Taipei vs 2...

Test Date: Dec 25, 2009 7:00:23 PM Connection Type: Cellular Download: 186 kbps Upload: 40 kbps Ping: 4291 ms A detailed image for this result can be found here: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/20540375.png http://bit.ly/bnycastro

In two days we go to Taiwan. I haven't been there in 17 years... I was grade 6 when I last went to the little island as I joined a month long study tour in Xavier. I am excited about the food and of course the gadgets that Taiwan has to offer. I am not to keen on the fact that we travel on the 25th as I expect the airport to be swarming with travelers. I have just checked the weather and it is definitely cold (well for me atleast) The good news is I get to wear my vest hehe the bad news is I don't think that's enough I might get a pair of gloves later.

Getting this: this website has been hacked by the iranian cyber army.

Treo Pro is getting quite dated (11 months) and it has been chugging along with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. Fortunately the talented folks from the internets have figured out how to do a HARD SPL and cook ROMs for it.  I have been using HeeChee's 28014 v2.0 Naked ROM for about a week now. It has a couple of issues here and there but it is breathing new life to my old device. I have also gotten some new wallpapers from a forum and it is looking quite nice. If I do say so myself. 

So the debate is over and the science is in. The problem is the debate never happened and the science has been tampered with! Do you remember that the first meme was Global Warming? Yeah that wasn’t working because the world was actually getting cooler. So now we have climate change. Mr. Al Gore has been championing the cause and he has perpetuated one of the nastiest hoaxes ever. He stands to gain a substantial amount of money from cap & trade. A proposed non-solution to a non-existent problem. By the way CO2 is not bad for the environment, it is a naturally occurring compound that plants use in photosynthesis. Climate change scaremongers and the new world order fascists picked it because each of us produce it every time we exhale . Therefore each of us can be taxed for it. Carbon credits is the new currency for the new world order. Climategate scandal shows us hundreds of emails of UN backed IPCC scientists: tampering with data, mud slinging sceptics, hiding information. Th...

I am truly against the lopsided contracts that we as consumers are forced to get into just to get mobile service. Ever since I was able to get out of my Globe shackles I made it a point 1) to get a SIM only plan and 2) not to get the free phones that our operators use to bait us into getting trapped into a 2 year contract. Unfortunately I had to sign up for a 1 year contract to get my call & surf unlimited from Sun cellular. Keep in mind that I had negotiated for 1 year without a handset down from 2 years with an unknown and unproven handset they were giving away for "free". Actually these free handsets are never free! If you do the math you will be paying more for the mobile. It's a total ripoff if you are like me who tends to change devices a lot. Why has it become the norm to have 2 year service contracts I think it is too long. 12 or 18 months should be the maximum. I am also confused on why our operators seem to give more benefits to Pre-paid users who are not in...

Sheesh sun's data has been really crappy these past 2 weeks! I am also scared how it will be once christmas time rolls around. Test Date: Dec 1, 2009 6:03:28 PM Connection Type: Cellular Download: 36 kbps Upload: 241 kbps Ping: 179 ms A detailed image for this result can be found here: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/18691890.png http://bit.ly/bnycastro

I am commissioning a TURDUCKEN (Turkey + Duck + Chicken)… A multi-bird roast. Basically it’s a small bird (chicken) stuffed in a medium (duck) bird stuffed in a bigger (turkey) bird. I don’t have the cooking prowess to make one myself so I have sent out email to my friends. Fortunately some have already pledge their iron chef ability or support for this poultry rich endeavor. Aside from more cooks and chefs I need to find a proper turducken recipe. So if you want to join this project or have a turducken recipe that you think we should try get in touch shoot me a tweet, DM, or Email. I’ve also made a googlewave for this project I think this is the 1st real use for wave in my life at least.

I have yet to make a call to sun broadband (not in the mood to make my blood boil) to complain but soon my kiddies soon... Test Date: Nov 24, 2009 4:20:12 PM Connection Type: Cellular Download: 65 kbps Upload: 101 kbps Ping: 2022 ms A detailed image for this result can be found here: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/18160362.png http://bit.ly/bnycastro

Now that people are properly scared of the swine flu and of course cervical cancer. Big pharma is now set to bring out vaccines for all sorts of shit including: smoking, obesity, other forms of cancer. THE CERVICAL CANCER VACCINE SUPPOSEDLY PROTECTS AGAINST 4 OUT OF 7 TYPES OF HPV BUT IT IS UNCLEAR IF A) THE PROTECTION IS LONG TERM B) THERE ARE ANY LONG TERM SIDE EFFECTS. Getting regular checkups is better than getting an unproven fast tracked vaccine. This is not proper prevention and protection. I have been seeing billboards and tv adverts about the cervical cancer vaccine and I think it is irresponsible for celebs to promote this. VACCINES ARE BEING MADE OUT TO BE THE END ALL AND BE ALL OF HEALTH CARE. GET A VACCINE SO YOU DON’T NEED TO SEE A DOCTOR OR BE CAREFUL ABOUT YOUR LIFESTYLE? I THINK THIS IS TOTAL BS. What I don’t want to see is making vaccination mandatory.

It seems that my 3G speeds with Sun’s Call & Surf Unlimited have begun to crawl significantly. During the 1st week I was getting 1Mb to 800Kb per sec. right now I am getting 80 to 100Kb, still usable but it is really really slow. I theorize (yes that was a nod to Fringe’s Walter) that it might be a case of more people getting on their network because they do offer the cheapest mobile broadband service as of this blog post. As with any cellular service YMMV. Well the sad thing about this is that I have a little over 11 months with this contract. I do hope service improves over time.

If you’re are still using WindowsMobile 6.1 (or even 6.0) you’ll be happy to know that WindowsMobile Marketplace is now available for download and use. Head over to http://mp.windowsphone.com on your device to get the cab file. You need a Windows Live ID to use the store. Gotchas: Apps from the store are installed to main memory. While it’s nice that 6.0 and 6.1 users will be able to get and use the store. It really makes no sense to me why it seems to be restricted to the US. I cannot add a credit card meaning I cannot buy any apps. I hope Microsoft fixes this in the near future. Hey you are supposed to be a global company! Open up the marketplace! While this is a step in the right direction this definitely needs more work.

Tried playing ngmoco ’s TouchPet Dogs (it’s a Nintendogs clone me thinks)… here is Beancurd, it’s supposed to be a German Shepherd :P

Saw this on my Facebook feed & it's regarding Legarda running as Villar's running mate. I think this sums up how I feel about the "unusual" tandem pretty acurately. "Loren anti erap nung impeachment pero runningmate ni FPJ, anti villar last year pero ngayon running mate nya ang labo di ba? Kalikasan mo muka mo plastik!" -@zalveen Since Villar's campaign HQ is beside our home I suspect I will be hearing this harpy's voice soon enough. Bleh! Loren is a loser in the ethics department. I hope she is a loser in the polls as well. http://bit.ly/bnycastro

There was a time not so long ago that when you said Treo it meant a smartphone and when you said smartphone it meant a Treo. Well those days are no more palm seems to have killed the brand already. I like my Treo Pro it doesn't have the best specs but it is no slouch either. Also I love the qwerty bar form factor. This is actually my 2nd Treo I had owned the Treo 750 before. This year palm went live with their new operating system called WebOS with it their flagship device name Pre and now they have the Pixi. Both devices have yet to reach Asia though. With the release of their new OS and new devices palm has said that it will not make windowsmobile devices anymore. The Treo Pro is not getting WM6.5 nor has the GSM version received any rom updates. I think they have EOL'd it prematurely it would have been nice to atleast get 1 ROM update. Somehow this saddens me the Treo was a pretty strong brand but I guess I can understand why palm is dropping it (for now atleast) from their ...

I have been using WindowsMobile since 2001 back then it was called pocketpc. WindowsMobile is one of the most versatile and powerful OS out there but it always gets a bad rep in the consumer's mind. TBH it does have a higher learning curve and most people get lost using the OS but once you master it, it is a joy to use. I think Microsoft dropped the ball on this one. To me they never took the mobile market that they were leading in seriously. When palmOS went away to die WM became the premier smartphone OS but Microsoft got cocky and now that other modern mobile OS are in play they have become a less and less popular platform. WM is very dated. It needs a refresh. They need to make it approriate for today's smartphone market. Here's some unsolicited advice from a WM fanboi. #1 scrap standard concentrate on professional. You don't need two flavors of the same OS. #2 be strict with hardware requirements. We do not need underpowered devices that will mess up WM's alrea...

If you follow my blog or twitter (shameless plug FTW!), you know that I have recently got an unlimited data plan for my 3GS. As always I have taken the SIM only approach and managed to get the lockout period reduced to 1 year instead of the standard 2 years that most Philippine operators stick to. I got Call & Surf Unlimited from Sun Cellular. Which is 999/month Unlimited data, unlimited calls & SMS sun-to-sun. Pretty good deal especially if you are a city dweller and have a lot of contacts who use Sun. The upside of having an unlimited data plan is I get to be connected all the time and anywhere (reception and coverage permitting, YMMV). In the case of Sun, it’s Metro Manila and major cities. The rep says you drop down to an 2G (read: GPRS) speed when their 3G is not available. I have not had the opportunity to road test this outside Metro Manila yet. Another notch in the positive side is the peace of mind of not having to worry on how long I am connected or how much dat...

Test Date: Nov 7, 2009 7:50:46 PM Connection Type: Cellular Download: 1288 kbps Upload: 263 kbps Ping: 2267 ms A detailed image for this result can be found here: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/16880847.png http://bit.ly/bnycastro

Christmas is right around the corner and if Santa subscribes to my blog this short list will help him decide what to give me. :P Darth Vader Force FX Lightsaber Windows 7 Home Premium Star Wars Clone Wars Season 1 DVD or Blu-ray Box set Sony PlayStation 3 Slim Ultimate Vader Coffee Table Book (already ordered this and it’s already shipping) HTC Touch Pro 2 (or HTC HD2) STAR WARS x LEGO Death Star STAR WARS x Ecko Boba Fett Hoodie or Storm Trooper. Cash (PhP or USD accepted) And of course WORLD PEACE (no christmas wishlist is complete without it!)

You are about to come into great wealth Get Your Own Fortune Now! http://bit.ly/bnycastro

I find it silly that a factory unlocked iPhone from Apple can’t do tethering if it is used with a non-partner SIM card and that we have to resort to jailbreaking to get features that should be enabled anyway. While I was browsing tweets I saw that tethering has been fixed with AT&T using geohot’s blackra1n jailbreak system. Since I just got a plan with unlimited data tethering was very very very interesting for me. The original instructions are here I got my mobileconfig file elsewhere because the Philippines and Sun Cellular are both not in the link provided. Device: iPhone 3GS (vanilla) OS 3.1.2 System: Windows 7 Ultimate RC1 Build 7100 Operator: Sun Cellular (APN: fbband) On your PC, Go to: http://blackra1n.com/ and download the exe file With your device connected shutdown iTunes (important) Click on the file Wait for the device to reboot and you are done  with the jailbreak Reset Network Settings Open blackra1n on the iPhone tap...

Test Date: Oct 31, 2009 6:23:10 AM Connection Type: Cellular Download: 1094 kbps Upload: 279 kbps Ping: 696 ms A detailed image for this result can be found here: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/16353111.png http://bit.ly/bnycastro

http://bit.ly/bnycastro

SUN CELLULAR has agreed to my demands and I now have a Call & Surf Unlimited SIM card without the handset and a reduced lockout period of 12 months instead of 24. I am just waiting for it to go live so I can start using it with the 3GS and start disseminating my new number to my friends. The Sun rep says it’ll take a max of 24hrs so it should go live at around noon tomorrow.

Hello readers! Guess what? I receive a call the other night from Ms. Mario (Sun Business Center GH) and she has informed me that my request for call & surf unlimited without the handset and with a reduced lockout period has finally been approved. It took them awhile but I am happy with the outcome. I hope to get my SIM card on Tuesday when I get back from my trip. http://bit.ly/bnycastro

Got a piece of hizon's chocolate cake from my guama the other day as she greeted me happy birthday. I said thanks but she shouldn't have. Her reply: e alam ko wala lang girlfriend na magbibigay sa iyo kaya binilhan kita. Toink! Guama 1 - Bny 0 http://bit.ly/bnycastro

John O’Callaghan Feat. LO-FI Sugar – Never Fade Away Never fade away Never fading out Stars aren’t so bright When you’re not here I’ll wait forever my dear Your light, your light Your light, your light May never disappear Carry on through the night Tomorrow you’ll find A healed heart and a calming mind A ray of light this world will not decline

thank you for always being kind to me… rest well my friend.

I love to read but I don’t think I can justify getting a standalone device just for eBooks. I still have dozens of books for Microsoft Reader or in PDF on my WM device. Besides I’ve always loved the idea of convergence so getting a Kindle is not high on my priorities. Enter the Amazon Kindle App for iPhone. The Amazon Kindle costs USD 279 sans SHiT (Shipping, Handling including Taxes) well they have an iPhone App so I think I can forgo getting the hardware. The app itself is pretty simple. You have font size options (always appreciated) and the ability to lock reading mode in landscape or portrait. Also options to change the font color.   The App also syncs up your last read page to Amazon’s WhisperNet cloud using WhisperSync which is ideal if you have the Kindle hardware. So I guess if Oprah is able to jedi mindtrick me into buying the reader then my books will be synced up and ready for reading. What’s missing of course is text-to-speech function but seriously ...

Globe Visibility: With speed likes this I pity the fool who signed up for a 2 year plan with Globe Visibility. It’s GPRS for heaven’s sake. Good thing I got in on pre-paid. http://globe.com.ph Sun Cellular: The youngest and smallest network Sun Cellular fared better. I am considering getting Sun Call & Surf Unlimited ~ P999/month for unlimited Calls & SMS Sun-to-Sun plus unlimited data. http://suncellular.com.ph Smart : SMART posted the best results among the 3 carriers. I think it is the only one who was able to reach 3G speed. No luck with HSDPA though. http://smart.com.ph Tests were done using an iPhone 3GS Test location: Pricing: Globe Visibility: P5 / 15min Sun Cellular: P10 / 30min Smart: P10 / 30min Conclusion: Without a doubt SMART comes out on top in terms of speed. Both SMART and SUN stayed connected for the most part. Globe Visibility had the most miserable experience. It should be noted that a lot of fac...

This is a travesty… System: MSI Wind U123H Windows 7 RC1 32bit Location: Mandaluyong City GLOBE YOU SUCK!!!

Vote for Shen Mao by Radrad Co to be your next MIMIBOT: http://digg.com/d316KrM?t

remember: use your mind first, before your heart :) // from twitter 

Here is a painless way of getting your fave MP3 ringtones on your iPhone. What you need: MP3 Song  iTunes Part 1: Prepare iTunes Fire up iTunes > Edit > Preferences > General (tab) Click Import Settings Make sure AAC Encoder is selected (you may change the quality as desired) Part 2: Preparing the MP3 file Locate the track you want to create into a ringtone, Right Click then Get Info, Options (tab) Modify Start and Stop time to shorten the track (this is not permanent so don't worry, I find 30 - 45 seconds is more than enough for a ringtone) Once you have the part you want click OK. Now right click the track again but this time select create AAC version The converted track (AAC) should appear below your track but this will be shorter, select that then click Show in Windows Explorer Show in Windows Explorer Select the m4a file > Hit F2 (Rename) > Change the extensi...

Repost Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: From: A A X S (光启学校校友会) < aaxs@aaxs.com > Date: September 26, 2009 7:16:06 PM GMT+08:00 To: aaxs@yahoogroups.com Subject: [aaxs: Grand PriX - Dec 5] Typhoon Ondoy Hotlines as of 1900H/26SEP09 Hotlines for Typhoon Ondoy * Office of Sen. Villar to send dump trucks to flooded areas to rescue stranded people. CALL/SMS 0917-4226800, 0917-2414864, 0927-6751981. * National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) Emergency Numbers: 912-5668, 911-1406, 912-2665, 911-5061. * Help hotlines: 734-2118, 734-2120. * AIR FORCE 0908.112.6976, 853.5023 * COAST GUARD 527.6136 * MMDA 136 * MAKATI RESCUE 168 * TAGUIG EMERGENCY 1623 * MERALCO 0920.929.2824 * NDCC Hotline at 911-1873, or RESCUE 407-123015 * Private citizens who would like to lend their motor boats for rescue please call emergency #s: 912-5668, 911-1406, 912-2665, 911-5061. __,_._,___

I’d like to see tethering fixed 3.1 broke tethering for my 3GS. I’d like to see user customizable SMS alerts (it’s nearly 2010 for Job’s sake!) I’d like to see AVRCP support for Bluetooth. At the moment I am only able to do A2DP (tried with 2 stereo headsets) I’d like better power management as well. It seems the 3GS is very very very juice hungry. I’d also like some multi-tasking 2 to 3 programs that we the user can run in the background. I’d also like to see syncing over WiFi or Bluetooth (better if both)

I decided to install the Toshiba Bluetooth Stack on my MSI Wind U123H and surprise surprise it broke Windows Mobile Device Center Bluetooth Syncing. I decided to try a 2 year old fix I did on my then UMPC (SONY VAIO UX280P) running Vista HP and it works on Windows 7. On the PC. Open WMDC > Mobile Device Settings > Connection Settings Make sure Bluetooth is selected under Allow connections to one of the following Close them windows Hit Start (Orb) + R (Run command) type in regedit then hit enter Navigate to the ff: key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE Services look for SerialPort and modify it to COM7 Exit the Registry Editor and Reboot your PC Connect as you would :D HTH

The much awaited successor to the very successful Omnia. This bad boy had one of nicest screens I’ve seen, better than the fruitphone even. The 3.7in AMOLED WVGA display was just gorgeous…  The slab type device has good heft the screen had haptic feedback (just like the 1st Omnia). Of course it has all the bells & whistles any top tier device should have. The 5MP auto focus shooter w/ photo LED (yes HTC camera's do need flash), the 3.5mm jack, a choice of 16 or 32Gb internal storage, plus microSDHC expansion (hey Apple how about a card slot for the iPhone) make this ideal for multimedia creation or playback. Samsung is touting 480p video recording & playback… yes kiddies that’s DVD quality. I was not able to try out the camera because I kept on playing with the screen. Like most touch based devices Samsung releases this one comes with their TouchWiz system of widgets. The heavily skinned touch optimized UI is nice to look at but I feel it makes the device sluggish (jus...

    After signing in we got to play with the devices. I got the Omnia Pro B7320 (a mouthful, I know). The device is a QWERTY bar Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard device (no touch screen). The specs on this are nothing to write home about. I’d rank it as an entry level device by today’s standards. I think it would do good in a corporate environment since the lack of a touch screen or moving parts and hinges makes the device leaps and bounds more robust over the Professional devices or sliders. Construction was solid and the device was not too heavy even with the 1480mAH battery. It was good to see that Samsung opted to use microUSB and not their proprietary connecter (get a clue Apple). The device was very responsive and snappy (keep in mind these were fresh ones with just the default Samsung stuff loaded) WM6.5 Standard would be a free upgrade once it was available. I do hope they get their act together in terms of the upgrade. The upgrade from 6.0 to 6.1 for the SGH-i780...

16-Sep-09 Was fortunate enough to get invited to the Samsung Omnia II & Omnia Pro B7320 Preview at Hanjin Center @ Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City. It was good to see folks from http://pinoywindowsmobile.net and meet em in person. Was seated beside XB and his wife. A couple of things… the preview was held at a training room at Samsung’s offices. The event started late and there was no WiFi available. The nice lady from Samsung was apologetic about the WiFi (something about security). They also didn’t have SIM cards so we had to slap in our own and use our own dime to get tweets, pics or youtube vids out on the interwebs… The devices we got were not fully charged but they lasted well past the duration of the presentation (note: most of them we put on flight mode since we didn’t have a lot of SIM cards) They served food & drink (no alcohol, which I don’t mind cause I don’t drink hehe). Would’ve been nice to have a smoking area but discrimination against smokers has been v...

Still no word from SMART re: the status of my request to remove IDD ROAMING DEPOSIT for ALL SUBSCRIBERS. I emailed SMART on 31-Aug and again today, I will send them an email every 2 weeks or until they respond. Hey SMART get a clue: you see roaming activation is FREE on Sun Cellular Read more: #BNYvsSMART

As an update to my current issue with SUN. I received an email & a call from a SUN representative. He was worried that no one was handling my case yet. I informed him that the Manager from GHSC Business Center was already on the case. So right now my request is under review from SUN’s higher ups. Hoping for some sunshine on this gloomy situation… Things I appreciate: SUN Business Center Manager was very calm, understanding, and honest with what can and cannot be done with my situation. Things I would appreciate: Approve my request for a CALL & SURF contract without the ZTE handset. Improve your network a bit more (outside metro manila) so I can get rid of SMART

I always make fun of people getting up sold in HKG or SG by those rascals that sell electronics. Well Karma is probably ROFL’ing about this… Here is the timeline: 9/3/09 – Arrive in MNL from PVG, Sun line disconnected, exceeded credit limit because of roaming 9/4/09 – Visited Sun Shop Greenhills Shopping Center paid 3,283.99 = re-connection fee Signed up for unlimited DATA on phone & received a Sunbroadband SIM paid 799 x 2 = 1598.00 = 2 months advanced deposit to waive lockout and get unlimited data on both my phone / broadband SIM (or so I thought). I even asked when unlimited would go live on my phone because I knew I would be using the phone more vs the data SIM. 9/5/09 – Broadband SIM goes live I start using both but more the phone vs the broadband SIM in my netbook. 9/9/09 - received system message that my line was nearing credit limit again. called SUN CS was informed everything was ok I was on unlimited DATA & CTU. 9/10/09 – phone get’s disconnected, ...

Last 04-Sep I was lead to believe that adding 799PhP to my 350 CTU (Call and Text Unlimited) would give me unlimited data on both my phone & the broadband SIM. Well apparently I was mistaken. So in 5 days (my phone got re-connected on the 5th) I have already gone over my monthly credit limit which is 1500PhP (default for CTU 350). I thought I was on unlimited but was actually being charged the normal rate which is 10PHP per 30mins. Fraking hell. Right now my Sun is blocked for out going SMS & calls, waiting to get re-connected again and have requested an increase in credit limit. I would really piss me off that I was upsold to an non existent plan. I am not sure if the service rep at the business center I visited upsold me or misunderstood me. Or if I misunderstood him and was too eager to sign up when hearing unlimited and bundle in the same sentence. What’s clear is this I now have 2 SIM cards 1 with unlimited broadband but no SMS or calls; the other is my line which can do S...

WARNING THIS WILL DELETE ALL FILES ON THE DRIVE. PLEASE BACK UP YOUR FILES BEFORE PROCEEDING. There are a lot of benefits to making partitions on an installed drive but if you wish to extend this to your external drive here is how. Press WINDOWS FLAG + R (RUN) Type diskmgmt.msc press ENTER You will be presented with the Disk Management Interface, be sure you select your External HDD (here it is My Passport ) Right click and delete the existing partition you should see that your whole drive has become un allocated space (black bar) Right click again and choose New Partition… and follow the Wizard. For storage we will be using Primary partition , hit Next Select how much storage you will allocate for the 1st partition for this example I will create a 100Gb partition , type in the size and hit Next I choose not to assign drive letter, hit Next You may choose to Format the new partition here or later under Windows Explorer . For this tutori...