Steve Jobs: The Resignation Letter

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

(via Steve Jobs’ Resignation Letter)

Source: Mashable

Tita Cory

jaredramos:

Project Pilipinas 020 - Cory

August 1, 2009 - Former Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino, the first female president in Asia, dies at the age of 76.

(via itstrixiacruz)

“copyleft”

Everybody knows what this symbol  © means.  It’s that type of symbol that says, “Don’t mess with me, unless I allowed you to.”  But if there’s such a word as “copyright,” is there an antonym of the word similar to right having its opposite, left?

I was reading a blog from Mashable about “The Last True Hacker” when I chanced upon “copyleft.”  The word does exist but not in Microsoft Word’s vocabulary.

And logically, it's symbol looks like this.  No kidding!

Face-off: Nikon and Canon

I’ve always wanted to get into photography the minute I laid my hands on my father’s trusty Nikon FM2 SLR a few years back.  What held me back was the accompanying cost in dealing with film and prints.  Then came the digital age of photography with the advent of what we call the “point and shoot” type of cameras that eventually resulted to the conversion of SLRs to Digital SLRs.  With DSLRs, no more worries about spending on film, shoot as much as you want and you may choose not to print your work and instead upload it to photo sharing sites up in the cloud. 

Filipinos here and abroad are crazy over photography.  A few years back, the common camera gear you’d see in the streets are point and shoot cameras, DSLRs are mainly reserved for photojournalists and their big bad lenses.   That’s not the case today.  With the creation of different market segments for DSLRs, there’s a particular model/brand out in the wild that would meet everybody’s performance and budget requirement.  I attended a christening a year ago and the DSLRs in the room totaled to 6: 5 Nikons and 1 Canon, including 2 from the official photographer…  I’m just saying :).  It’s a shame though that Nikon doesn’t have a local service center in the Philippines!  Boohoo!

Nikon or Canon?

I’m a little biased when it comes to brand and I blame my father for that.  But in all honesty, I have no issues with Canon, Pentax, and Sony etc.  I apologize for the question excluding the other brands but let’s face it… most users are either into Nikon or Canon.  But let’s not forget, as every seasoned photographer (I call myself a hobbyist by the way) would say… taking great pictures does not depend on the brand/model you use… it depends on whose eye is behind that viewfinder!

And the reason we ended up with the uber-popular Nikon D90 (according to Flickr), simply… it was the latest released model at that point in time we decided to get one.  And there’ve been no regrets since.

Nikon vs. Canon

Here’s an interesting take on the rivalry between Nikon and Canon.  I got this info graphic below from Mashable  and our Canon friends won… yipppeee? :)  I’d be delighted to hear your own take on this one!

3G: Sun versus Globe

An anonymous fellow commented on my article “How to unlock your Huawei 3G USB modem.” Below is what he/she posted on my article:

“I use a ‘Redbox’ Globe tattoo. It is called such as it came from a red box. Its a Huawei e1552, 3G/HSDPA-capable modem that performs well anywhere. It even reached a max of 2mbps (using the Supersurf service of Globe-the 1-day no limits {almost-it has an 800mb/day LIMIT} surfing service), and 1mbps (using the tunneling service Tor++) But the thing is, it can't be unlocked. I can't use a Sun SIM (in some areas, I detect a Sun signal in 3G. This will work well with those using the SmartBROKE kit (almost all mobile broadband users I know find that SmartBROKE sucks). For Sun users, its good if you're from Metro Manila or in urbanized areas and will travel in the province.”

@Anonymous :)

Unlocking the E1552 modem

The next time I met my sister who uses Globe Tattoo, which I believe is the same “Redbox” variant you’re referring to, she asked me to have her modem unlocked. In her case, she wants to have it unlocked so she can use her Globe Tattoo modem with a Sun Broadband SIM or SmartBro SIM card. I tried to unlock the E1552 modem the way I did with my E160… and I failed. There’s no problem with the unlock code I got from the website. What I got after inserting the Sun Broadband SIM is a popup message that says, “action not allowed.” The thing is, the wise people from Globe might have disabled or used up the 10 attempts for unlocking the modem. Haven’t heard of any work around yet.

Globe unlimited 1-day service

Globe calls it “unlimited” for marketing purposes only. To be fair, it is unlimited if you’re going to surf the net lightly which involves opening web sites and not downloading large chunks of files. But nonetheless, it sucks to have an unlimited service only to find out that you have in reality a 800MB limit. I learned about this when I downloaded a 700MB movie in just 25 minutes and then after a while got a message that I reached my 800MB limit. Then my connection went ppfffttt. The speed though was remarkable compared to other 3G providers and so I went to a Globe center and asked whether their postpaid unlimited scheme also have a cap. To my dismay, the limit is set at 1GB per day. Not enough for heavy downloaders like me. Not switching to Globe anytime soon.

SmartBro, SmartBroke, SmartBulok

If you’re smart, you’re not going to go with SmartBro. This I learned a few years back when I used their canopy service. Back then, I usually get 15 percent of their advertised speeds. Surprisingly the other day, I looked at some SmartBro plans and I noticed that they have lowered their advertised speeds. And if I apply my 15 percent expectation of the service, I might be better off with a dial-up service.

Speed at 2Mbps

May I know where were you and what time of the day/night when you reached 2Mbps? Because if that was during the day, then it is awesome! The E1552 I believe is newer than the E160, however the E160 is also capable of reaching up to 3.5Mbps. Wireless connectivity is really a tricky business. Unpredictable number of clients in an area tends to degrade service but telcos are partly to blame too. Most of their installations are not optimized to handle heavy traffic; their slow back haul links are to blame.

Tor++

I haven’t used tunneling as I am much satisfied with Sun Broadband. But I’ll definitely try it out and play with it in the future.

As of press time

Sun Broadband is still the best 3G service versus cost and data limit. Sun Broadband is, for me, truly the “unlimited service.” Globe may have the largest coverage and the fastest network but they suck because of data limitations. If you’re a heavy downloader like me, you can leave your rig after midnight ‘till morning and enjoy 200+ kBps torrent download speeds (B is to bytes: b is to bits), which you won’t get with Globe.

Good news or very very bad news

Sun Broadband subscribers’ won’t be happy with current developments though. Sun was acquired by Smart recently. Will the service stay that way? Or dark days are upon us? Our last hope is Sen. Joker Arroyo but if he fails… Good thing my lock-in period with Sun is about to expire! Kampai!

Hero Time: The Faceless 50

excerpt from the article...

They crawl through labyrinths of equipment in utter darkness pierced only by their flashlights, listening for periodic explosions as hydrogen gas escaping from crippled reactors ignites on contact with air.

They breathe through uncomfortable respirators or carry heavy oxygen tanks on their backs. They wear white, full-body jumpsuits with snug-fitting hoods that provide scant protection from the invisible radiation sleeting through their bodies.

They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots.

for the complete article... click here!

How to unlock your Huawei 3G USB Modem

I've never thought it would come to the point I’d be unlocking my 3G USB modem… but it happened. I was on vacation last December at my hometown of Iba, Zambales. I brought along my Sun Broadband USB modem believing I’d get a 3G signal since our house is located at the heart of our town and for the fact that they have been advertising their nationwide coverage plus my hometown is considered Digitel territory. And boy I was devastated to see my modem signal indicator turned “green,” meaning it is only able to detect a 2G signal. Still, I tried to connect to the net using SUN’s EDGE network and it totally sucked! Knowing I have to unlock my USB modem first I tried to insert my Globe Tattoo SIM thinking maybe those guys from SUN forgot to lock it! But they didn’t. As soon as the Mobile Partner app appeared, a dialog box appeared prompting me to enter the “unlock code!” With that… “Light Bulb!” (borrowed from “Despicable Me” hehehe) I had an idea that I don’t have to go to some cellphone repair guy and have them unlock it for me… I can do it on my own!

Luckily, my sister who is also home for the holidays brought along her Globe Tattoo USB modem which I’ve used before and quite satisfied with it. Most Globe Tattoo users in Manila have shelved their modems for other providers but in my hometown, Globe Tattoo is king! It provides a decent service better than what I get with SUN Broadband in Manila in terms of 3G signal strength! So I borrowed my sisters modem fired my browser and Googled “how to unlock your 3G USB modem.” I wasn’t happy about the search result because most of the sites listed required me to download some software for unlocking my modem. Aside from the fee, I feared that I might download some kind of malware. I rephrased my query and with a little bit of patience, stumbled upon a not so eye catching site that turned out to be “the way!” that lead me to “the site!”

the way!

the site... eureka!

So… How to unlock your USB modem?

All you need is your modem’s IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity). I thought I’d have a “Metal Gear” moment in finding my modem’s IMEI where I would exhaust all my energy just to find it when all of the time it was under my nose (play Metal Gear on the Sony PS1 so you’ll know what I mean). My modem’s 15-digit IMEI was printed on the backside of my modem. Entered it on the “unlock code calculator” of the site then BOOM!... returned a 10-digit unlock code! It’s that easy!

The only problem now is that the sites I’ve mentioned are sometimes down so just be patient :) The unlock code calculator might not cover all Huawei modems so be sure to check your modem model number with the modems covered by the calculator first.

Below are the pictures of my Mobile App with SUN Broadband SIM and Globe Tattoo SIM. And… Let me know whether you’ve unlocked yours :)