the wire(s)

i saw this article, and i'm thankful my own maze of cables and wires at home do not approach these proportions. however, it does lend a fantasy about a completely wireless environment. that would be almost possible, except for the absence of ... broadcast power.

broadcast power has long been a holy grail of sorts, extolled in sci-fi novels and doggedly worked on in real life. imagine full electrical power flowing through air and juicing up your house, a city, the country. the oil barons would shit themselves. the Middle Eastern kings would be paupers overnight. but of course, the Carlyle Group would probably make sure they own the rights to the damn thing, so either way, us masses would still be screwed.

for now, the current technology we have is grossly inefficient and expensive. that's why copper wire will still be around for awhile. computer stores will still sell you those itsy bitsy wire ties. and the IT guys will still have to wade through that nightmarish tangled mess.

earth hour

the resurrection

(or how the Jesus Phone was rescued from AT&T/Apple Lock Hell)

The following takes place between Wednesday March 19 and the Easter Weekend.

Wednesday morning@work: my 3-year old Nokia 76xx rings. its my brother in law, Eric (i still am getting used to having a "brother in law"). he excitedly tells me that its time to get an iPhone. refurbished ones, but still an iPhone. i was skeptical. he tells me of an Engadget post stating AT&T just offered refurbed iPhones at 40% of the original price when the Jesus Phone first came out less than a year ago.

wow, $250? for real?

i hurriedly checked the site and the links. looked legit. let me poke around a bit more, and i'll get back to you, i told him.

now getting an iPhone was just a dream back then, but it isn't a compelling one anymore. even with the price cuts that Jobs instituted thereafter that pissed off the early adopters - you know, the ones who actually stood in line for days - i still wasn't sure because of the mandatory AT&T contract, not to mention the possibility of going nuts over the data plan and getting this stupid bill. still, at current prices, $400 for a brand new 8Gb ... still too high.

but at $250? for real?

i've been a Nokia loyalist for the last 10 years. am not a text aficionado, despite my roots. texting is the bane of the English language. that being said, it is frustrating to try to send a message when your TUV8 key is busted, given the fact that the width and breadth of expression using texting is too limited to begin with.

i've been hedging for the longest time on what to get as a replacement - its either the choices i like are too expensive or too difficult to obtain (this would not be a problem in Asia). plus there's the issue of locked-in phones.

well, i guess for that problem, we can deal with it.

i call Eric back - looks ok, i say. are you sure you want one? i ask him, because this is the same guy who was scoffing at the Jesus Phone back in June. he probably doesn't even remember doing that.

he gives a thumbs-up. i go to the AT&T link given by Engadget (you wouldn't see it if you just go to the AT&T front page). selected one, and then ran into a problem: "uh oh, you can't buy more than one." ok, let's continue ... shipping address must be same as billing address (means i can't have it delivered here in the office). ok, fine, whatever. just get me to the final page.

"o ano, click ko na 'tong Purchase button?"
Eric hems and haws ...
"sige, fight!"

ok, i figured if we only get one, he gets it and i'll regret it for the rest of my days haha.

one purchase down. let me try another one.

noooooooooooo. won't let me.


let's try another PC.

noooooooooooo. won't let me.
must be recording my IP address. i tell Eric i'll just get another one when i get home.


Wednesday evening@home: hurriedly went to the desktop and tried to find the links back to the site. bam! done! wow, in trying to prevent mass purchases (you know, those evil merchants wink, wink), they block a second purchase from the same IP, but they don't bother if its the same credit card, billing and shipping addresses. oooo-kay. i did put in a different email address for the second one - maybe that helped too.

two more issues for the night: explaining to your wife why it is/was a good idea to purchase two iPhones within one day (you just need cue cards with before/after $$$ figures), and explaining to your financial institution that it was really you who made consecutive purchases with AT&T. i don't mind, at least they're keeping track.

maundy thursday: i'm not sure if i slept the past 36 hours, given that i was delighted to find the email notifications for both. at this point, the first one was on a truck going thru Ohio. the second one was ... oh man - backordered!!! geez. its amazing Engadget didn't go down if there were like a couple of thousands who frantically went onsite then jumped to AT&T to buy one. the first phone came from a store in Texas. Eric said we could get lucky going to some random brick, glass, and wood AT&T store and find one. yeah, sure. i already started resigning myself to the fact that i won't get one till whenever.

thursday@night: the backorder sign was taken off - the second Jesus Phone is also now being processed for delivery. miracles happen!

i notify my friend the time bandit if he wants to get an iPhone, and as i expected, he hedges as well, even if i told him what a good deal it was. however, i tried the link again ... and whoa - that promo is already unavailable.

wow. a 24 hour fire sale. imagine that. another miracle. of sorts.

many have called, but few are chosen.

good friday@8:00AM: now my other dilemma was ... how was i going to get the 1st phone when i am supposed to go to work, and leaving for the in-laws this evening, and the DHL truck was going to go straight to my home address? i didn't like the idea of leaving that box lying around in the lobby. so i just called DHL straight up and instructed them to hold the package till i get to pick it up sometime next week.

now, here's where divine intervention shows its hand again.

my wife left earlier than me (i'm just a slow starter). now when i was opening the door to leave, the door wouldn't open. what th-?

i keep turning the knob on the really really old deadbolt lock and it just kept turning without catching. now am stuck inside the house. i'm already running late and am stuck inside. worst of all, who's going to believe me?

well ...

just so we have some sort of photographic evidence of this minor disaster, here's the lock after i dismantled the thing (just to get out of the "tomb"):


that small metal piece was broken from the rotating piece of the knob. whatever you call it.

yes, yes, i sabotaged my lock ... just to be at home when the iPhone arrives!!!! mwahahahahahaha!!!

besides, we don't get Good Friday off here in Judeo-Christian America.

went off to find my landlord - didn't find him or the building superintendent (affectionately known as 'Bob The Builder'). as soon as i got back, i had to bring out the laptop, turn on the cable modem and routers and just settle for a work@home day. then my phone rings.

its the DHL Facility. they said they couldn't hold the package as instructed because its already loaded in the delivery truck and said truck is already on its way.

of course what else would i say ... "noooooooooooooo problemo."

after repeated checks for the lord of the land, he finally shows up around 11 AM (i don't blame him - its cold and windy out there). i even had to help him fix the lock. good thing this time he brought a proper brand new lock instead of another repainted refurbished rusty one (is that a sign for the coming iPhone?).

now on to Jesus Phone. the DHL guy arrives at closer to noon. he's kind of wheezing at having to climb 4 flights of stairs (no elevators). kind of gives me an annoyed look for having to go through that. hey, don't blame me, buddy - i'm not the landlord. you look more fit than me, and you're not carrying a heavy box. give me the iPhone, dammit.

the box itself was nondescript - just a generic orange and white AT&T box that you usually get when you buy a generic phone from their stores. the only thing that would say this is no generic phone is a small white sticker that says 'refurb iPhone kit'.

oh. my. Jesus. save. us. from. the. fires. of. (un)creative. Hell.

the phone comes with an AT&T sim card, which they assume that you would activate and lock yourself in with the 2 year contract (activation happens thru iTunes, for those who don't know). but who wants to do that? that's where the current internet legend known as Zibri comes in.

Eric did his initial research on what is recommended unlocking tool out there. they've been breaking the iPhone since it came out, and it was just a matter of time before something refined came out and make it easier on doofuses like me. so ... Ziphone it is. this is it - i either end up with a useless brick, or i get a cool Jesus Phone.

first i connected the Phone to my laptop with iTunes and i cancelled out of the AT&T activation message. then i ran the Ziphone app. or in other words - unlock, jailbreak, activate? hell yes!!! (did that sound like the Wonder Twins?)


the iPhone screen changes into a running scroll of programming code. the only way it would be cooler is to have the text in green, just like in The Matrix.

the Ziphone seems way too easy to use, because it does everything for you ...


but wait. my initial attempts seem to be okay, but if i put on my T-Mobile SIM ... nothing happens. i have all those cool icons but no service. i installed a bunch of stuff to get it to a higher firmware version as noted in the Ziphone blog (the Phone comes in with 1.02), but didn't seem to work. for a few minutes there, i thought i was going to end up with an 8Gb iTouch.

then the sun dawned on me ...

why the hell am i killing myself by going to a certain firmware level? this Ziphone app works with 1.14 already!!! jackass. i just need to restore myself back to 1.02 level, use iTunes to update the Phone itself to 1.14, then use Ziphone to - you know the drill - unlock, jailbreak, activate!!!


sorry, that green text is from the laptop, not on the Phone.

the fruits of labor are ready for harvesting. put my SIM card in ... success!!!

can i call someone? oh yes, why not call Eric? but then ... i don't have his number because its still in my Nokia phone memory. @%#&%@&*!(!

took out my SIM again, put it back in the Nokia, reboot blah blah blah. then back to the iPhone.

(dialling ... ringing ...)
hello?
can you hear me now? (sounding like the Verizon d00d)
oo.
hulaan mo kung saan ako tumatawag ...
(pregnant pause)
o-hooh!!!

one more test ... let's try to use my own local Wi-Fi (i don't have a data plan with T-Mobile, so i'll figure that part out later). type in the SSID, key in security keys ... viola!


the unit didn't seem to have any scratches, or any functional bug. most likely, refurbed phones have been returned by unsatisfied customers, and the unit was refitted with new casings and the like.


and the rest of the Easter Weekend was spent downloading third party apps and transferring songs to make the iPod part of it work (that took much longer than i anticipated, because i overlooked something again). Eric has his iPhone, and mine should arrive this coming week.

so is there a question about the resurrection? don't even think about it. you know Jesus will hand you your ass if you do. he does look tacky here, but he would. no doubt.



next: if you anticipate getting stranded on an island, what music will you have in your iPhone if you gave yourself a 4Gb limit?

happy Easter!

what, you thought the bunny was being cute on days other than Easter Sunday?

broken ming vase

adios, Anthony Minghella.

have i seen your films? some i have. did i enjoy them? mostly. at least you got a reaction out of me, and that, is what directors aim to do.

The English Patient (1996)
i confess i never saw it. it seemed a snore from the get-go. but maybe one of these days, i just might.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
the complete title was The Mysterious Yearning Secretive Sad Lonely Troubled Confused Loving Musical Gifted Intelligent Beautiful Tender Sensitive Haunted Passionate Talented Mr. Ripley? really? is that where Fiona Apple got her inspiration?

truth to tell, this one got a rise out of me. i started hating Matt Damon after this. i knew i could kill him on sight (or attempt to). only when Trey Parker and Matt Stone deconstructed him for me, did i soften my stance.

Cold Mountain (2003)
saw it. twice. sad but engaging.

Breaking and Entering (2006)
ah. awaiting viewing on my media server.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (2008)
ok, its still in post-production ...


i also enjoyed several you produced:
The Quiet American (2002)
the last good role of Brendan Fraser (Crash was an ensemble piece).

The Interpreter (2005)
two tightasses (Penn and Kidman) sharing the same screen is a little too much, but its still New York (hello, Pat Kiernan)

Catch a Fire (2006)
Michael Clayton (2007)

the last two are also on queue.

Minghella Moviefest, this weekend.

full stop

i keep seeing posters of this upcoming movie on the subway, and for some reason it keeps catching my eye. oh yes, Reese Witherspoon won't be at the premiere; she'll be busy swapping spit with Jake Gyllen-ho. speaking of whom, did he say anything when Heath Ledger kicked the bucket?


Stop-Loss is a drama about a soldier (Ryan Phillippe) who's about to be sent to his second tour of duty in Iraq. yelling, chest-thumping and crying ensue.

i'm not here to promote the film; am just here to be a smartass. looking at the poster - what were they thinking?

Abbie Cornish (Michelle)

"holy shit! i'm in a movie with my cool boyfriend Ryan Phillippe! hope i don't see Reese at the premiere!"

here's how sick this gets: Abbie Cornish -> swapped spit with Heath Ledger -> swapped spit with Jake Gyllenhaal -> swapped spit with Reese Witherspoon -> swapped spit with Ryan Phillippe -> swapped spit with Abbie Cornish

how's that for six degrees, eh? Kevin Bacon is ROTFL.


Channing Tatum (Steve)

"what the hell am i doing here? i want to go on the new Ricky Martin tour, dammit!"

Ryan Phillippe (Sgt. Brandon King)

"how i got to be a sergeant, i don't know. as long as i look cool. i'm the coolest of them all. you can tell by the way i pout."


Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tommy)

"if you don't still get it that am the greatest actor of my generation (that's Gen 3rd Rock From The Sun), you need to get out more. did you see Brick? did you notice my fine acting chops? am not a sell-out. Heath Ledger just beat me to the punch! i can do death!"

"oh, by the way, see you in 2009 ... i'm playing Cobra Commander. eat that, losers."

she ain't messin' with no broke nigga

i have no love for McCartney, but this really sucks. i hope she spends those millions quickly within a few years then become a forgotten peg-legged drug-addicted hag. or here's a thought, Sir Paul: hire a Hitman.

cue in that Kanye song.

there will be blood

yes, i got that DVD for a mere $15, a cheap bargain considering it will be a classic down the road and i even the scales a bit with all the others i downloaded "procured". so get off my case.

but that's not what am talking about here. for double that amount, they issued a Hitman trilogy, compiling those three games that matter in the series (Hitman 2, 3 and 4). i don't mind playing games even after the world has moved on to the next big thing. i still use my trusty PS2, i sold my PSP, and the only reason i may get a PS3 when that MGS4 bundle comes out is to jump on the Blu-Ray bandwagon.

so here i am, back to being a murderer. emphasis on mass.

i have no idea what the Hitman game was about prior to this, and i vaguely looked at the movie adaptation with Tim Olyphant (i guess he missed the guns too much post-Deadwood). but then again, the title should say it all. shiny guns, whacking lowlifes in both low and high places ... what's not to like? (yeah you have to be stealthy, which i really don't do a good job of)

aside from the whole thing being a time killer, i usually waste more time piling dead bodies on top of the other. its some kind of perverse fun to put hardy male Russian soldiers in various provocative positions, especially after you've stolen their clothes. take that, Mr. Russian President!

as the game progresses (i'm still on the first disc, and lost somewhere in Japan), i learned how to cut down on the collateral damage (but its fun!), although i am still a goddamned mass murderer.


my only complaint is there are no extra health capsules for Hitman to use. did i miss something in the manual? (INRTFM) oh wait, there it is.

and he's free ...

so many words have been written in the last 72 hours on Gollum Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace (grace? he was in a state of grace?), and mine wouldn't even matter. we started this week with a dumb girl, and we're ending it with a dumb gov. or maybe something much more spectacular would happen this weekend.

too many people jumped at the chance to rattle off their 10 cents worth, and we should be thankful that Rep. Joe Bruno had enough class not to pile on. even former Hollywood madams got into the act, explaining how the deal works. the lesson here, kids, is once you're in public office, all bets are off. prepare for the fall.

bobblehead attack!

and we can barely get three people approved ....

just speaking for myself

are you glad you don't have one?


and also ...

aren't you glad you take one at least once a day?

well, whaddaya know ...

... Hammerhead is dirty!!


"damn, i should have taken the first flight to South America!"

alone again, naturally

no, i'm not back to being single.

i'm just being literal.

with some bad viruses downing a couple of my colleagues ... sorry, those are all the colleagues i have! ... it falls upon me, your humble blogger, to hold the fort so to speak. holding the fort in this case means, being the sole person responsible for the office. can you imagine this? a decent company earning a modest black bottom line has only three full time employees, and is currently being manned by one man. time to wear the multitasking hat. for a week.

note: this is being blogged after the fact, which just goes to show, i don't even have the time for bathroom breaks. or posting (yeah right).

how long have i been in this place? its been a long journey since i roamed Greenbelt when it still wasn't the G it is now. if it hadn't been for an 18-month break with Urban Bank (r.i.p. Sir Ted Borlongan), i would have an uninterrupted 14-year iron man streak with the same company. would you believe they gave me my first job? i still have that newspaper ad from the Manila Bulletin.

and speaking of that newspaper ad, it said "some travel required". or something like that. basta, it involved the word "travel". after several trips to China (and some good horror stories), i thought it was going to be that way forever. i had no inkling that i would end up here in the Big Apple. New York was just a fantastical place i read about in my comics.

ah, but before i would get to these mean streets that Rudy cleaned up, i was sent to Orlando first. that was like heaven. they tell me to support a few customers (nowadays they call you a call center agent), gave you a nice 1 BR apartment and a car (how i miss that Cougar) and let you live your own life. for just a measly $45 a day, i was still able to send a balikbayan box or two back home from time to time. now that am a full-time salaried employee? bleeeh.

Orlando was a dream job location then. but it already provided me glimpses of holding the fort - what with salespeople mostly on the road most of the time, leaving me to my own devices in the office (Napster!!!). punch out at 5, drive around, get home just in time to watch Friends and Seinfeld, and do it all again tomorrow. no wonder i got fat.

and in keeping with the lone wolf theme, i was the last employee there when we closed the Orlando office and moved to New York. i remember holding the company signboard and tossing it in the back seat, and drove away playing "New York State of Mind".

i count myself lucky to have been taken by the company on a permanent basis despite the economic ills brought about 9/11. all the crazy shit it created (paranoid and gung-ho Yanks masquerading as patriots, stupid airline security policies, the Iraq mess, the immigration chokehold, no salary raises since) i barely squlame ... sorry, squarely blame on those jackasses who flew the planes in the towers. thanks a lot, jerks. i hope those 77 virgins are actually AIDS-infected cryogenically-frozen spinsters.

ok, ok, am rambling.

there were only two of us taken from our Manila office. nobody followed since, except for short stints and those were few and far in between. but since 2 out of 3 of the current personnel are Pinoys, then hell, i consider this the Manila Extension office.

three people making up an office seem pathetic. would you rather be a jack of all trades, enjoying a bit more freedom and leeway in your working environment, or be a cog in the big machine, neutered by strict policies but only saddled with specific tasks and responsibilities? even i am torn on that one.

so here i was, having the whole week and the office to myself. maybe if i were younger i'd skip to watch a movie (yeah you know who you are!). but no, there's too many calls and problems to analyze to even consider going to lunch. ok, that's a bit extreme but you know what i mean.

despite the novelty of being alone (means i can play Crystal Method at a non-dog audio level), i look forward to have my colleagues back next week.

cinema petit

there's an iFilm article about Brad Bird - sorry, Oscar winner Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles, The Iron Giant) - bemoaning the death of the cinema experience in a 2005 Pixar lecture. it mentions how he "hopes the theatrical experience won't completely go away", and he is placing the blame on that on the onset of technology that includes iPods and on-demand movie downloads. i could say that this same wave of progress of the last 10 years allowed him to create the wonderful movies he is credited with, no?

Bird yearns for the days of his youth, where people used to line up and see the show, but now "... we have made it so that on opening day you can see a film on a big screen, or on a crappy screen, or a screen that is a bootleg on your computer [inches] big. To me it’s diminishing the show experience."

i agree with Bird for the most part, but i also agree that on-demand technology is very much a given. there's no way to stop that monster. the difference now is how you choose to watch your films. a big reason why people insist on downloading and watching on crappy screens (even though that crappy screen costs $400) is a revolution against the business model - movies and music - and why downloading has been a hot button issue for this new century. they'd rather choose songs they want rather than a full album that's 90% unlistenable. they'd rather download some movie (either waiting a few days after opening) than pay $12 in the theater (that's New York prices, and i am not traveling to the sticks just to save $4).

i have my own principles on the issue. i still prefer a big screen over a small one, and i would prefer to watch in the comforts of my home rather than go outside (the exceptions being, the movie is an event in itself and i don't mind paying $12). then again, there's a bunch of good movies that came out over the last few years, and i can't afford to be in the moviehouse every week (speak for yourself, Mr. Millionaire Bird), hence, i have a huge backlog of uhm, appropriated media. but getting to watch those, long after the box office receipts have been tallied, is still a joy that i liken to watching it for the first time on the big screen. i have gotten rid of that impulse where you MUST NEED to watch it ahead of everybody else. the blogosphere has pretty much taken care of spoilers.

and it rankles me as well, if i am in the cinema, to have the experience ruined for me. i appreciate going to a state of the art theater and be held in awe for two hours. that means manners and appropriate behavior. though i am not sure if it was appropriate in that one time where Time Bandit and i smuggled Dallas Mutant Texas Crispy Wings in to watch The Guru, but i can say that was an enjoyable experience.

going back to technology, despite what Jobs is smoking and pushing, i still am not convinced that i should buy an iPod Touch to watch my movies. i have no time to convert all movies to Apple's proprietary format, and then strain my eyes for the next couple of hours. it would help, sure, because of my commute. which is why short of opening my laptop on the subway (a sure no-no), i am kind of considering this alternative.

i am okay with buying tickets online (its the only way to guarantee seats these days), but that's for the few movies i make time for. i still prefer to watch in my sorry excuse for a home theater. sure, i'll get a big-ass HDTV down the road, and that still bolsters my principles of enjoying the cinema experience wherever, and in whatever form it makes you happy.


3.5 inch screens? bleeeh.

r.i.p., jeff healey

resume impossible

ever since the wife started watching Food Network, i've always been kind of up-to-date as to what's going on in that channel, whether willingly or not. we enjoy watching "the professor" Alton Brown, never miss the Next FN Star Contest, and place bets on who beats Bobby Flay in whatever his next throwdown is. she follows Rachael Ray (whom i make disparaging remarks about), and she turns the tables on me when Giada is on. of course, we can't watch it all the time because (1) you won't have time for anything else and (2) you tend to get hungry watching all that food getting prepared and plated.

so it did come as a big surprise when the news came out that newcomer chef (on FN at least) Robert Irvine was fired from the network. Irvine, a huge ex-soldier, has a show, Dinner Impossible - each episode has him whipping up food under certain staged challenges - and we follow it enough to know who the hell he is. and it turns out the cut Englishman isn't who the hell he is. he never graduated from Leeds University, he never cooked in the White House, and he never (personally) prepared Princess Diana's wedding cake. FN tried to do as much damage control as they could, editing past episodes that reference his padded resume, and keeping the press away from the man. and of course, firing him as soon as possible ("not renewing the contract" is the euphemism).

well, i guess being fired counts as a blessing for him, because another Robert Irvine ended up differently.

this isn't to say the man cannot cook. and his military background would be an asset in the catering/restaurant business. i daresay the contestants from Hell's Kitchen would rather toil for Irvine than that screaming banshee Gordon Ramsay.

but i guess, if all else fails, with those big guns, he could always open his own gym, no?