The Construct

Business sure know how to sucker punch you. I just noticed that Globelines is offering much cheaper rates for new broadband subscribers. My Php 1995 2 Mbps plan and landline is now only Php 1295.

Thinking it’s unfair, I called up Globelines to see what they plan to do for existing subscribers. Continuing to charge Php 1995 for a Php 1295 is just plain robbery. Thing is, no automatic billing downgrades will be made for existing customers.

If you want to avail of the lower rates, you need to pay Php 550 if you’re still within a lock-in period and a new 1-year lock-in period will be made in addition to the documents you need to sign at their business center.

In my opinion, that Php 550 is still plain robbery. But that Php 550 and lock-in period reset is surely better than paying Php 700 more a month. Especially since I’ve renewed my lease contract for another year. The deal would still bring in Php 7850 in savings for the year. Still, damn them for the Php 550 charge for the downgrade!

Note: This is just according to a Globelines customer support agent. But you can visit your Globelines business center for more details.

Just a quickie. I just noticed that I get 180 prefix when I connect recently. Maybe starting around a week ago. I used to get the dreaded 203 or 222 prefix which meant that I’m on their oftentimes shared public IP.

I used to have such bad luck with Globe’s shared public IP addresses. That meant I can’t use file sharing sites Rapidshare and sometimes when some dolt Globelines user had been idiotic enough to get banned (by IP) in some sites, I’m locked out as well.

Those times, I had to reconnect for several times before I get a more decent IP address. But now that I’m getting the new 180 prefix. Still dynamic but it appears that I don’t have the shared IP problem with most sites. And my uTorrent is still getting that green notification meaning that my port forwarding settings are still good.

Looks like things are looking great.

Overexposed in the Blogosphere was a really interesting post about from a few years back. Are we really that overexposed online? Should we fear overexposure? Have we thrown our Miranda rights out of the window because of this? That everything we say or do online will be used against us?

I do believe that one of the reasons why blogging is so huge here in the Philippines is because of our culture of gossip. We love to be in other people’s personal business. I still stand by my theory that among the reasons why serial killers aren’t commonplace here in the Philippines is that everyone wants to know your personal business – nosy neighbors, colleagues, taxi drivers, etc… And for some reason I do think that we do find a degree of satisfaction sharing our own personal gossip as well.

Some warn that a distasteful online persona would affect career prospects and such efforts. Or maybe there’s truth in the government monitoring you through your blogs and Facebook pages. All this Big Brother bullshit thanks to Google. I guess there’s little to no more room for wanton exhibitionism on the Web. Unless, of course, you’re an online “entertainer.” The Internet is still largely for adult entertainment anyway.

It’s a bit disturbing, really that some people don’t differentiate between a person and his/her online persona. Has the line between reality and virtual become so blurred that the attitudes you project online are what’s considered your true self? Two words for you people – online dating. Let’s see if you won’t exercise the benefit of doubt.

Here are a series very interesting academic articles on the topic on the Psychology of Cyberspace.

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Perhaps a bit of a change on this blog for the year. I’ve actually transferred all of my personal posts to a private journal to which only I have access. I guess there’s value in not having that much dirt aired online.

Quite a number of people have commented about the barrage of pessimistic status messages on my Twitter/Facebook page. A few make jokes about it. A few even expressed concern about it.

Just before the break, I got to talk to a friend of mine from the department and she brought the idea of being “nega.” Pondered whether it’s psychological or something brought about a few examples including myself. Well, I told her I’ll be writing a post about it and I guess it’s only now that I’ve gotten around to it.

Anyway, my simple explanation (perhaps, my defense on my seeming negativity) is that 2009 has been a very bad year for me. Having a daily routine that has almost zero human contact, I use my status updates to vent lest I die from an embolism due to emotional constipation. I don’t have the luxury of after-work rants over beer.

I’m not looking for anyone to understand or even sympathize. I’m sure no one shares the same situation I’m in for him to understand anyway. It’s all a matter of getting it out of my system.

So some people have grown to hate me for it but isn’t there a “Hide” button (and the “Unfollow” button)? God knows, how many people in my contact list are hidden in my list all because of the application requests and invitations. But do I consider them any less of a friend for doing so? No.

Status messages are like graffiti on a blank white wall. Scribble “Kilroy was here” (or “Jhun Jhun labs Bhaby”) and it will polarize opinions. Some would prefer the white wall blank. Some would prefer something more artistic. Some people will get the joke.

But if you’re going to judge a person (whom you have added or approved as a “friend” I might add) based on what you find written on a social network site without even taking a minute or two to ask him or her personally, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” then there lies the problem.

Just last week, I decided to click on that link on my WordPress dashboard that tells me there’s a new version out and I can upgrade it if I want to.

Upgrading WordPress has been seamless ever since they integrated that auto-updater function so I just decided to click it and upgrade my installation to WP 2.9.

After a few days, I realized that I was not receiving any of the automated backups that I configured to be sent to my e-mail everyday.

First, I thought it was a conflict with one of the plug-ins. Noticed that my XML-Sitemap plug-in was in perpertual re-build mode. Rebuilt my sitemap and still the cron job wasn’t working. Then I eventually reverted to the modern day Ernie Baron – Google – for some answers. Found out it was really a bug with 2.9 among others.

Here’s how to fix them.

I really don’t schedule posts but if you happen to use the scheduler, and running on 2.9, you better apply the bug fix or your post won’t get posted as they should.

I hear 2.9.1′s already in beta so I think we can all expect that upgrade to come out.