Technobiography.com » Nets, Webs, Infostructure

Wi-Tribe: Wi’ve got 4G WiMax via Liberty

ka edong — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:40:54 +0000

Looks like Liberty is in town. Saw this at the Petron station in Buendia cor. Makati Ave. They call it Wi-Tribe (Pronounced “wye tribe”). And they call it a 4G (4th generation) broadband technology.

Wi-Tribe is in Town: WiMax wireless broadband via Liberty

Wi-Tribe WiMax Modem - nomadic (fixed mobile)

Some quick bullets:

I remember my friends at Intel being part of the WiMax testing back in circa 2005/2006 . Glad to know it’s now reaching the masses … slowly but surely.
I hear they’re offering trial accounts in selected areas
I hear (again) that they’re giving a guarantee of internet speeds of 2Mbps at P999 . That’s fast and cheap.
The modem is rather big. It’s nomadic — meaning it can be transferred from one place to another, but it will not work *while* it’s being moved.

Smart Bro on the Go: Plug-into the Internet Anywhere

ka edong — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:02:57 +0000

“Plug it!”, the ad says.

“Magaling!” That’s what I can say about Smart Bro’s latest Internet connectivity solution.

ANYWHERE BROADBAND!

It’s the new SMART BRO PLAN 799 – the plug-it anywhere broadband!

The newest plan from Smart BRO – Plan 799, allows you to surf the net anywhere there’s a PC! The Smart BRO USB modem is a small, palm-sized device that you can carry with you wherever you go. And anytime you need to surf, just plug it into the USB port of your PC, and you’ll get connected in a flash!

40 HOURS FREE per MONTH!

• Initial Payment – P1,999 (upon subscription)

• Monthly Fee – P799 only

*In excess of 40 hours will be charged P10 per block of 30 minutes.

As for quality of service, that has yet to be discovered. As I’ve said before, I really don’t expect 5-star service (low expectations keeps me sane) from new services like this. What I DO like are the possibilities! This service extends Internet connectivity further, allows subscribers to be more mobile, not tying-down the internet connection to just one PC in just one location!

This service is perfect for students, for the travelling worker, for entrepreneurs on the move.

I wonder if this will work in a remote places like Barrio Napag-iwanan or Cuyo. Possible bottleneck is the “activation” of a cellsite to be able to accommodate this kind of service. I wonder.

Some additional info I gathered from Smart Wireless Center (Added 20 Dec 2007):

Lock-in period: 24 months
USB Modem can connect to Internet anywhere there is a Smart cellphone signal
USB Modem can connect using 2G, 3G or “3.5G” or HSDPA depending on what service is available in the area
Promo price good until February 2008

Visit Smart Bro website or call tel (02) 6727277 for details.

Magaling! Ma-bright!

ka edong
Ayos clap!

The Global Broadband Speedtest

ka edong — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:38:30 +0000

Got this from a friend through a friend:

This would come in handy when testing our internet connection, like what I needed to do when I tried out 3G services of Globe/Smart.

Great work you have here, John/Ching. Keep it up! Thanks for the tip, Michelle!

ka edong
speeding, zipping towards my goals

MEEBO – consolidated instant messaging

edXcribe — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:09:16 +0000

Meebo, what does that mean [I wonder what that means].

Meebo is a service, an online service which brings together google chat, yahoo messenger otherwise known as YM, MSN messenger, ICQ, AIM messenger all in one using one log-in. Using only the Internet a web browser and you will be able to access all the instant messaging services in one window [cool huh].

I like this because it does not require me to install any additional software. It’s done everything online via the browser and I’m able to access my google chat and my YM in one window. Convenient for me although I don’t use it much it works well for me when I do use it.

Try it out it’s called Meebo.com, it’s all instant messaging services in one window.

Try it out!

EdXcribe
19 September 2007

I look like Jet Li

ka edong — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:11:48 +0000

That’s what MyHeritage.com shows me.

Here’s a face recognition application which matches your photo with a couple of celebrity look-alikes.

Interesting. A few more months or years down, this technology will be so much more advanced that it could probably find *real* relatives on the net. Maybe find a long lost brother …

Got this link from Sharmskee, looks like and sounds like zhang ziyi…

Stomp – Singapore’s citizen reportage community

edXcribe — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 22:07:25 +0000

Hi there Edong here. In a previous podcast I talked about murmur in Toronto Canada.

But in this podcast I’d like to talk about stomp in Singapore. Stomp is a community, stomp is a website, stomp is a movement. I don’t know what it is exactly but I first heard..read about it on a Singaporean paper while I was at Changi Airport on the way to Malaysia last month.

Stomp is something like community reportage. Singaporeans will take photos of issues that they think are relevant and then they would submit it to stomp. And then in the Stomp community, the website, in the website they post, feature photos and the authorities will take note of it and take action. And I think in stomp they also follow-up with the story. Examples of the stories, while I was in Singapore, some of the newspapers published some of the stomp stories. And one of them was a photo of a dog least chained to a gate and he was right under the sun, so it was an issue because it’s animal cruelty.

Another was a story about a some guy taking photos of school girls, two school girls. One was supposedly a good girl and a bad girl. One girl was eating ice cream and threw her trash on the trash can the bad girl threw her trash on the street, there is another story behind that.

Stomp is similar to you’d say, we can say it’s similar to “Hoy Gising!”, the popular TV segment, news segment, we have under Ted Failon before. It’s something like calling the attention of to the authorities or whoever is concerned except that it’s not the TV Network that puts together the story. It’s the community, it’s the citizens who put together the story and stomp the website is just a repository a medium where people can report their story.

On another note, in the Philippines there is a similar thing by Inquirer, I think they call it “citizen watch”. And I’ve been wanting to write about it ever since. Citizen watch is sending photos via mms or text reports via sms to Inquirer about streets that are not clean or maraming lubak or basura na hindi nako-collect, things like this. I see print ads on Inquirer encouraging people to send but I don’t know it doesn’t seem to pick up probably because mms do not pick up in the Philippines.

Another story I have is about something similar during the election. I remember this poster of well in essence the story is there was a movement of encouraging the youth to report election-related incident and send it to a certain number. I don’t remember where it is now what number it was. An example of citizen reportage and it’s something that can help our country if only we participate more. Maybe less of the reklamo and more of the action. maybe we could put this to our advantage, citizen reportage.

Singapore for one had taken this media, this medium or this model to heart. It’s very hip, Stomp is very hip, it’s very popular and it’s effective. let’s see how we can do that for the Philippines. What do you think?

You can visit stomp at: http://www.stomp.com.sg

Visit it!

podcast permalink: Stomp – Singapore’s citizen reportage community

EdXcribe

6 August 2007
Technobiography

Facebook, Friendster and Philippine Traffic

ka edong — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 05:22:43 +0000

Facebook is so popular here in Canada. My Toronto-based cousin is a newbie on Facebook. She gave in to her curiousity and joined after receiving so many Facebook invites from her Canadian friends.

Friendster isn’t as popular in Canada as it is in the Philippines. So how about Pinoys in Canada?

Well, here’s the latest report. My Pinoy friends in Canada tell me that they use Friendster.

And here’s the clincher. They observed that the Friendster website slows down to a snail-pace during particular hours of the day. Specifically during the early evening in the Philippines (Friendster time for Pinoy students) and in the first few hours of the workday in the Philippines (Friendster time for Pinoy workers).

Is it possible that the sheer volume of simultaneous Philippine Friendster users can in fact slow down the Friendster servers?

ka edong
e fren

Infant SPAM, Virgin SPAM

ka edong — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 13:55:07 +0000

Story 1:

My cousin created an email address for his newborn daughter so that they can share some photos of the baby.

A few days after setting up the baby’s email address, the baby was receiving SPAM!
How quick these SPAMmers get to our email addresses. Amazing, ‘ei?

Story 2:

I used my handset’s voicemail service for the first time today. I had to grapple with accessing voicemail. It’s a more commonly used feature here in Canada than in the Philippines. I got a few messages and had a need to access it.

When I finally accessed my voicemail this morning, guess what one of the messages were. SPAM! It was an automated telemarketing message. Great, just great huh? My first experience with voice messaging in Canada and all I get is SPAM!

I want to get calls from home.

ka edong
home is where?

BPI smells something Phishing

ka edong — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 07:17:06 +0000

I wrote previously of a Phishing attempt targetted at BPI Expressonline users. There, I recommended that BPI step up its campaign against philshing, mainly by raising the awareness of their clients.

Looks like they took heed. Today, I got this e-mail from BPI.

from BPI Expressonline Mails      1:02 am (14 hours ago)
reply-to BPI_Expressonline_Mails@bpi.com.ph
to BPI_Expressonline_Mails@bpi.com.ph
date   Feb 3, 2007 1:02 AM
subject   Express Advice — Phishing Scams on the Rise

Express Advice

Phishing Scams on the Rise
Phishing e-mails are sent to trick you into revealing personal and financial information. Don’t be a victim.

We suggest that you use this short checklist to protect yourself against phishing attacks.
1. Begin your session by manually typing the web address of BPI into your browser.

    The official URL of BPI Express Online is www.bpiexpressonline.com.

2. Avoid disclosing personal or account details via email or embedded link.

    Be skeptical of unsolicited e-mails, especially those that concern personal / account information.

    Delete suspicious emails or email attachments without opening them, even if they seem to have originated from someone you know.

3. Notify the sending company if you receive a suspicious email.

    Contact us directly through Express Phone 89-100 or email us at expressonline@bpi.com.ph.

4. Check the security certificate of the web page.

    Before entering personal or account information into a site, make sure it is secure.

    In Internet Explorer, you can do this by checking the yellow lock on the status bar. A closed lock is an indication of an encrypted site.
If you think you may have responded to a suspicious email, change your password for Express Online as soon as possible. To change your password, login to www.bpiexpressonline.com and go to Account Maintenance –> Change Password.
We wish to reiterate that BPI will never send you an e-mail asking for information on your username and password. The Bank’s websites are protected by a 128-bit SSL encryption and Verisign’s Security Certificate. We would also like to remind you of the following legitimate website addresses of the Bank:
q www.bpiexpressonline.com

q www.bpitrade.com

q www.bpiexpressbills.com

q www.bpidirect.com

Phishing attempt at BPI Express Online users

ka edong — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:58:59 +0000

I got an email disguised as a BPI Express Online official mail. It was a phishing attempt targetted at BPI clients.

E-mail subject: “Confirm Your Account”

Message:

Dear Customer,
BPI Express continue to provide security controls to protect information about you, we believe it is extremely important for you to share in the responsibility for security. Notice to ensure that only you have access your BPI Express online account and to ensure a safe experience, we require for your account information for better security.

To verify your Information at this time, please visit our secure server webform by clicking the link below…
http s :// w ww.bpiexpressonline. com/accountactivi ties-logon/

If I wasn’t vigilant, I could have fallen for it. But the URL of the link (when clicked) turned out to be an external URL (not within bpiexpressonline.) That was the give-away.

My tips to spot a phishing attempt:

e-mail comes from a “stranger”, an un-familiar sender
It asks for sensitive information (e.g. username, password, credit card information)
It asks you to open a URL or file that is un-familiar to you (thus, NOT trustworthy, given the sensitive information it asks for).

What to do when you receive a phishing attempt:

Ignore. If you don’t give out sensitive info, you should be safe
Report. Gmail has a phishing report feature. This helps Netizens fight back against phishing.
Be vigilant, inform your friends and loved ones about this modus operandi.

Folks at BPI Express Online should be more pro-active in avoiding phishing and online banking fraud for the sake of BPI Clients. What they can do: Keep customers informed, help their customers remain vigilant of these phishing attempts.

Who has a contact at BPI Express Online? Could you forward this article to them?

ka edong
online bangking