A New Toy !

Last March 13, 2010, we bought a Sony Handycam DCR-SX40 at Western Appliance. The list price was P22,999 and we got it for a rock bottom price of P16,999. The highlights of the new toy include:
HYBRID convenience: 4GB internal memory & Memory Stick
60x optical zoom
Touch Panel LCD with user-friendly menu system
Easy Handycam® Button
Scene Selection
2.7" Wide LCD
Compact at 53mm x 59mm x 113mm (W x H x D)
Lightweight at 200g (approx)
(Source: http://www.sony.com.ph/product/dcr-sx40/sku/dcr-sx40_lc+e23 )

This video camera is a fitting replacement for our 7 year old Sony Handycam DCR-TRV19 (mini DV). While our first handycam served its purpose and still useful, technology already caught up hence the need to replace it. Now the challenge is to convert the movie files from miniDV to DVD format which actually cost P650 per hour at www.copytown.net.

Actually, the financial impact of this expense to our resources is merely P4,000 since the company shouldered P13,000 as a service award gift for being with the company for the last 15 years.

A good deal indeed.

In search of a new Nokia celfone

The Requirements:
(1) quad band
(2) mms/gprs/3g ready
(3) wlan ready
(4) bluetooth
(5) 3.2MP camera
(6) data suite compatible
(7) micro sd card compatible
(8) lightweight
(9) mytv (nice to have)

My almost 2 year old phone is still doing its job effectively. It has served me well but I wish to upgrade to a better model while it still has a decent value. I plan to sell it between p7k to p9k then upgrade to another Nokia celfone with a budget of P15K thereabouts.

My choices:
E75 (top notcher, P17K)
E52 (1st runner up, P15K)
E66 (2nd runner up, P13K)
N52 (P15K)
N85 (P18K)
N96 (mytv, P28K)
E51 (P10K)

I'm down to my last 2 choices, the E75 that is out of my budget by P2K and the E52 that exactly fits my budget. I'm giving myself two more weeks to research and get the best value for my money.

My TV

Just like a car that you have to change ideally every 5 years, I decided to upgrade my trusty phone from a Nokia N70 to a Nokia N77. It was actually planned because my N70 will be celebrating its 2nd year on February.

The requirements are crystal clear: data connectivity for internet, group texting and acceptable resolution (2 megapixel) camera. My celfone hunting produced a number of Nokia models but what stood out was the N77. It met ALL my requirements BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...aside from getting it on installment through our company's employee benefit (12 months to pay at zero interest) the phone was DBV-H ready. In layman's term, it had a myTV service. Still Greek sounding? You can watch TV on it. There, I think I got the message across. So the N77 is a phone cum digital camera cum TV.

And what's next on the technology roadmap? A phone with a digicam, TV, microwave and aircon?

Friendster: Networking in the Digital age

Finally, I created a Friendster (FS) account in July this year. The FS website was introduced about 7 years ago and when people ask me if I have an FS account, I tell them it’s just a waste of time and it’s not my cup of tea (read baduy).

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I am now a convert and 4 months after opening my account, I've amassed close to 300 friends and acquaintances, update photos once every 2 wks and get mails once every 3 days. I am a full pledged FS frequent user. My account demographics shows about 50% women, 45% men and the balance belonging to the friendly ‘third force.’ Nearly 1/3 are officemates and the remaining 2/3s are a combination of families, friends, acquaintances, high school, college and graduate school classmates, fellow mountain bikers and car aficionados and photo buffs.

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The most pleasant surprise invite came from Ms. Carla Custodio who I last heard more than 13 years ago. She was the least person that I expected to meet via FS. Carla was my college thesis mate. She used to live in a condo in Salcedo Village where we often hold our thesis meetings. She’s now based in the California USA while I now live in Salcedo Village just across the street where she used to live.
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So what’s with Friendster? You have common internet features such as email, photo sharing, testimonials, a blog site, announcements and links to social groups. You have an option to accept or reject friends. Of course, we wouldn’t want to be rejected, right?
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Our parents and mentors always highlight the advantages of networking. In the pre internet era, networking was limited to casual talk, parties and other social occasions. In this day and age, aside from text messaging, email groups, forums, you can add online networking such as Friendster Multiply, MySpace and Facebook in the growing list.

My 100th Blog Entry

I celebrate today my 100th blog entry. I've been posting blogs which is short for web log since July 2006. A blog is like an online journal or a diary which I used to have when I was in college. No people, diaries are not limited to ladies only. Real men write diaries or blogs too. Besides, I'm secure about my sexuality.

I decided to join the blog foray when I got back from my US trip. Most of my friends and family were asking me for stories about my trip and wanted to see my precious pictures. At first I tried to email the stories and pictures but later decided that it would be more convenient if I just posted the entries. My blog consultant Sherwin Mendoza was also a big help. So Shobe, if you're reading this, I thank you.

Some of my friends wonder how I find time out of my schedule to maintain a blog. The answer is time management and the power of technology. Here are the simple steps:
Step 1- It goes without saying that blogs should not be created during office hours hence word entries are done using my celfone. Ideas knows no boundaries and like my mother always say, write down your thoughts, don't rely on memory.
Step 2- Using MMS, email the word entry from your phone to your pc email.
Step 3- Copy and paste using Bill Gates' software to your blog site.
Step 4- Download a pix from the net or upload a picture from your database.

And voila! You have a blog entry. It's easy as one, two, three.