Rodel E. Dagumampan

Last week I was in Manila for a short vacation after two months straight work here in Davao. On my way to Batangas, via Skyway I passed near Makati Central Business District. It was almost 6:00 PM in the evening, all lights opened, streets were brightened, it was rush hour, everyones busy, the traffic, the buildings, the resto and bars. I can’t help myself, I sighed… such a magnificent city I have left. I felt sad, I had doubts, I missed this place.. Am i really in the right direction. Did i made the right decisions. Where really am i going. I asked myself, and sigh again.

I just arrived back here in Davao from a very short vacation and my return trip was a literally a “bad trip”. Its starts with me not able to leave home early to get a bus bound to Makati, I left home almost 5:00 AM. I took RRCG bus which i thought would be reliable and fast but turns out to be a bad decision. In the middle of the South Luzon Express (SLEX) way, the air conditioning system shuts down and we have to be transferred. Need to refundmy fare, i have to show my ticket, … and I lost it! huhu, nono I just misplaced it inside my bag. 10 minutes after, I found the ticket and fall in 30+-person line. On my turn, the conductor don’t have smaller bills to give me a change so i just get 440.00 and just left how much ever be the my change.

It was a hard to catch an LRT-bound bus in the middle of the SLEX, good thing I beg one conductor that I will be late for my flight and I’m willing to just stand up. I was at ease by then. A few minutes after, I just found out the the north bound lane of is under construction. We’re running at I think 60mph, at 8:10 we’re still in Alabang, my flight is 8:45. I was late already and I paid extra 1,500.00 PHP to get into the next flight.

Might really be a very bad day, perhaps just few minutes after I passed Susana Heights a 23 million peso Ferrari F430 was caught on fire at SLEX.

I have just written our bitter experiences with the bayantel broadband service here in Davao this morning and it seems that they are really getting into our nerves. They hit us straight!! A surprising citywide downtime from 2:30PM – 7:00PM in the afternoon. Sarap, ang haba ng yosi break. No integration, no subversion updates, working on each local databases, we’re totally disconnected.

Mid-afternoon I rushed into LBC to remit some money to my brother and they are all off line even Moneygram remittance centers.Bad bad bad…

We’ve been using Bayantel DSL Service for more a than a month and I was never happy with their service. Best word to describe their service? It really really sucks!!! We’ve been paying 6,000.00/month for 1.5Mbps for a speed so intermittent, very slow, and very unreliable.

If we’re are just browsing pages here then it would still be acceptable, bot we’re not like that. We need reliable and stable connection! How many times your Remote Desktop have to tell you “Your session was ended”, your yahoo messenger and IMs software keep on signin/signout, you web browsers displaying the pages or worst, your application that polls  data every 10 seconds stopped working, or your subversion just stopped commiting files because connection was forcibly closed due network problems.

And how many times do we have to reset the modem, the router or call bayantel TSR to reset our connection. It is true they have guaranteed service that will attend you to fix it, but the problem is not that we are disconnected, when the TSR arrived we’re good again so nothing to fix. The problem we have, its intermittent especially 4:00PM – 6:00PM everyday. It is just unreliable and slow!

We are working extensive with Sql Server with database located outside the Philippines, re-establishing connection is PITA and very frustrating. You just need to create test scripts and you have to wait 10-20 seconds to get it loaded and ready. We need fast upload rate for commiting our files to our source control server.

What we did? We plan to buy a small server here and install the softwares we neeed but need to be syncronized with the internation server in Denmark. We are now planning to try PLDT and just have Bayantel as secondary line.

Atlas, after years of waiting, pity savings, and being inspired by thresca and my ex-boss shots, I finally have my own digital camera. Yesterday I bought a new Canon Digital IXUS 65. An impressively designed, cool looking 6 megapixel with 2.5″ LCD and 3x optical zoom at a breathtaking price of PHP 2x, 000.00.

Initially I was planning to purchase a Minox or Slimline brand at Auction.ph. For as low as 4k-7k, I can have a 5MP-7MP digital camera. But learning from the experts, I was told its not about the MPs. What matters are the settings supported, color and light balance, and of course the talent (woohohho). Also the service centers and warranty.

While I find Canon brand really expensive compare to its Sony DSC and Nikon counterparts, its designs are really stylish and very professional. You will really feel the difference of holding a Canon from other brands.

Plus Points:

• Easy to use
• Image quality
• Titanium casing and fabrication quality
• Large LCD screen
• Slim stylish design
• Made in Japan

Minus Points:

• Heavy kit (chargers and wires)
• Small SD card included (16MB?!!), but I was given free 512MB SD.
• No pouch included

Now, no more pity moments where I am used to tell myself I should have bring a camera. It was really bad I don’t have any pictures of World Pyro Olympics 1 and 2, places I have visited in Davao, Batangas and Makati, events and session we had in Manila, our farm in Batangas, hiking we had in Makulot, Majayjay Falls, Sta. Maria and Lobo. The beatiful white sand beaches of San Juan, Batangas.

Feelin excited, almost shot everything I can think of lol. Next: Read digital photography tutorials.