Playing Peek-a-boo!

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Unlock Successful

It is almost 2 in the morning.

Successfully unlocked 2 iPhones! Now they should work with any GSM provider.

Thanks to http://iphone.unlock.no/ for the wonderful, easy to follow guide.

iPhone unlocked for free!!!!!!!!!!!

Stupid hackers trying to make money out of this.

Good thing I waited for 24 hours.

Only thing to do now is cancel my AT&T service! Wahooooo!!!!!!!!!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/exclusive/iphone-free-software-unlock-confirmed-death-star-explodes-298825.php

iPhone for $399!!!

iPhone now just for $399!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn it, damn it, damn it!!!! I want one NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT?!!!

Just watch the clip. Self explanatory.

Ohhh Yeah!

Voltron, will be a movie! A full feature movie! Can't wait!

Caught this post on Slashdot.

http://slashdot.org/articles/07/08/12/1254239.shtml

These 3 words

Google "I like turtles" and you will be swept off your feet.

This 10 year old Oregon boy became an instant celebrity after speaking his mind. Check out the video.



Or if you want to buy merchandise, click here.

For ringtone, click here.

The end of Potter

Let me start by saying this - I haven't read a Harry Potter book, ever. KC, on the other hand, was a different story.

So I was not excited when the mailman delivered the last installment of the series earlier this morning to the house. Instead, I was still in bed, enjoying this cool Saturday morning, Matmat still asleep.

I opened up the package, and there is was. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I immediately called KC to tell her that her book was here. I teased her a little by reading a few lines from the first chapter and asked her if she wanted me to look at the last chapter to see if Rowling indeed killed off Harry (as rumours have said she might do).

Needless to say, she told me it's not funny of me teasing her like that.

I guess I have to take care of Matmat every night until KC finishes her book. But she promised that she will read one chapter a day in order to fully enjoy it. Let's see.

My iPhone dilemma

Ok, here's the deal. I have an iPhone sitting ever so comfortably on my desk unopened. I asked KC to pick one up from the AT&T store at the mall a couple of days ago and still it hasn't been opened. I keep rationalizing the purchase ($650 with tax) which I am ok with but the deal of paying 60 bucks PLUS taxes for 2 years got me thinking. THAT is a lot of moolah.

So here on my desk, a still sealed, unopened iPhone is sitting oh so comfortably. Making me uncomfortable. I have 14 days to decide if i want to keep the phone and swallow the $60 a month for two years just to have a cool phone, which I read from reviews isn't that great anyway, with a lot of missing features - it doesn't even to MMS or record video (gasp!).

For the same price, I can pick up a Nokia N95 which does a lot more than the iPhone, won't lock me to a carrier AND is unlocked!

All this and I don't even need a new phone! I have a perfectly functioning Blackberry Pearl.

Oh technology, why do you tempt me so.

I finally got it!

Amidst all the hype of the iPhone, there was this little game shop in the mall which had something I had my eye on for a while now, but unfortunately was perenially out of stock. Yes, people, I got myself a new Xbox 360. Not just any Xbox 360, mind you, but an Xbox360 ELITE!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, it is the black one, and yes it is the one with 120GB HDD.

I went to the mall at around 5:30 and was out the door by 5:45. There were about 20-30 people lining up outside the AT&T store waiting for the iPhone but nah.... maybe next time.

Watching the NBA Draft

The draft starts in about 20 minutes.

Seattle has the second pick and has the potential to get the 5th pick (if the trade with Boston pushes through). This is going to be an interesting season for the Sonics.

It won't be the same without Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen in Sonics' uniforms but if that is what it takes to win, why not?

Still drunk.

Promise I won't sleep til sober.

Fear dreaded hangover.

Bye!

I'm still humming the Police songs

The Police concert last Thursday night was freakin' awesome! Not only because we were upgraded (for FREE!!!) from the bleachers section (behind the stage, with no view of the stage whatsoever) to four rows from the floor with a perfect view.

The night started with Fictionplane fronting with at least 8 songs. The Police entered the stage at around 8:40pm and started off with Message in a Bottle. Most of the people stood up the whole night. I can't blame them, as I did the same.

Memorable performances, aside from the intro songs are - Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Can't Stand Losing You, Wrapped Around My Finger (my favorite part), Roxanne, So Lonely, Walking on the Moon, De Do Do Do De Da Da Da and Every Breathe You Take. (Actually there are only a couple of songs that I really didn't like).

I still can't believe it's over. KC and I had so much fun in the concert (thanks to MM - my brother's GF who was luckily in town to babysit Matthew for the night!).

23 songs, 2.5 hours of Police music. No crying baby. Great seats. Beer. What more can you ask for?

Hands down, best concert ever seen.

This is gonna be one busy, fun month!

Hooray! June is finally here! Summer started in the Northwest early this year and we are planning to enjoy every bit of it.

First up, KC and I are watching the Police in concert next Thursday at the Key. Too bad I can't bring a camera in...

Then we are off to Vancouver, BC the week after for sort of a reunion on KC's side of the family. A day in Victoria and a couple in Whistler caps off that trip.

Another trip to Victoria at the end of the month (this time via the ferry in Port Angeles) is scheduled. Hopefully that pushes through.

Dilemma

It's time to upgrade our laptop and I am torn between getting a Mac or sticking with a PC. I know maybe for most people its a no-brainer but I am truly more comfortable using a PC than a Mac. Sure, you can easily install Windows OS on an Apple computer now but I just don't like paying Steve Jobs a premium on a "cool laptop".

I will update as soon as I make a decision.

These sorts of problems I am willing to take. :)

So I climbed Mt. Everest last weekend...

I keep seeing headlines that this and that have climbed the tallest mountain and wait... IT'S A WORLD RECORD!!!! Wow, he is the first person of Chinese descent born in the Philippines below the age of thirty who is single and has a kid who, by the way, is a non-smoker, college graduate of a university in Manila and working as a marketing manager for a huge multinational company who ever reached the summit!

Of course, I'm exagerrating.

Or am I?

I believe that the only record that should stands is that Norgay and Hillary did it first - that's it. But now, climbing Everest could be a family weekend excursion. If you have enough money to go to Nepal or Tibet and hire a sherpa and show off your outdoors gear, I see no doubt that you will be able to climb it as well.

"Kulang na lang magtayo sila ng 5-star hotel sa tuktok!" (The only thing missing is that they build a five star hotel at the peak).

I don't know why I felt saying it in Tagalog but I feel there is more impact.

The magic of climbing a mountain is lost on me. Well, maybe it is a personal achievement for the person who actually climbed it but should it be the headline of national newspapers? Are we so desparate for a feel good story that we should invent world records? We are a country so obsessed with being the best in the world for something so obscure that we will try anything, no matter how stupid, just to be recognized (most people kissing, breastfeeding and biggest shoe comes to mind).

Eleksyon 2007

I feel kinda relieved about the mid term election results in the Philippines. People there are not voting for celebrities as much as they would had a decade ago (Tito Sotto, Freddie Webb, Erap, etc.). Now, showbiz personalities like Richard Gomez and Cesar Montano are not even close to capture Senate seats.

Are we growing up as a nation?

Next up - getting rid of corruption, trapos and political dynasties :D

I'm now on Twitter

FYI, I just signed up for Twitter.

http://twitter.com/jowett

Check it out.

Should internet access be free?

Information is power. And it is sad that access to information is limited to a few percentage of the world's population. Sure, the internet is an excellent source for information but not everybody has ready access to it.

Now, the question is should internet access be free?

Of course telecoms would shiver just in the idea of providing this service gratis, and this is a mistake. Here's why:

1. Following the concept of free TV and free radio, free internet access could be limited to its basic services like email and web surfing. People who use VOIP, P2P, IM and other premium internet service should and would still pay for internet service. It works in television by providing just 5 or so channels for free while charging (a lot!) or other cable channels.

2. Speed to this free access could be limited to 56kbps or lower. Sure, its free and it's probably enough for people who occasionally need to search for recipes, emails, or Wikipedia.

3. Access should be over the air. Technology for this should be as widespread as AM radio signals - but of course, in digital. I am not sure if this technology is available but it should be considered rather than putting wifi access points every 150 feet.

4. Little antennas to access this free OTA should come standard in every computer. Or maybe access over TV. Just plug in a keyboard and a mouse to a TV and instant free internet access - like how it is set up in some hotels.

5. Advertising can easily support this.

6. Filtering websites should be implemented. Sort of like censorship in OTA TV channels.


Internet access should be a right, not a privilege. And I hope it happens in our lifetime.

Spot the sub

We crossed the Hood Canal Bridge earlier and traffic was stopped for about half an hour to let a sub pass. Yes, a SUBMARINE! It was the second time that happened to us - the first time was when Dad was here visiting.

What's wrong with this picture?

I spotted this picture at the NBA.com website and can you spot what is wrong with this picture? It took a while for it to register but if you look closely the two Celtics players are not wearing the same uniform - one says Boston and the other Celtics. Weird.

Why I am sticking with Vonage

Vonage has been in deep sh!t recently after a court found it of infringing on 3 of Verizon's copyrights over VOIP. Stock prices for Vonage has lost more than 80% of its value in less than a year and people are talking about the death of Vonage and maybe the whole VOIP industry.

But I am sticking by Vonage.

Vonage provides good telephony service and affordable rates. There is no other telecommunication company who is comparable (ok, maybe Sunrocket) or is even close! I love the fact that I can just bring my router anywhere in the world and connect to a broadband connection and have phone service - not just any phone service but I have my same phone number! (Ok, you can do the same with Skype)

But the fact of the matter is Vonage is a good company. The problem with the patent system now is that everything is patented, there is no room for competition or innovation, contrary to what the patent system might have been established to do.

VOIP is the future of telecommunications, period. What other traditional telcos are doing now is just buying more time to squeeze the last profits it can from people. In another 5 years, I would think that VOIP would overtake traditional landlines as the primary residential phone line (with cell phones leading the way in overall usage).

The stupidest thing I've read recently

I was browsing the Philippine Star website and bumped into this article - $10-B RP Las Vegas to rise.

It is not the article that is stupid, per se, but one of the comments by Pagcor chairman and CEO Efraim Genuino.

"The reason why we lack tourists is we lack hotels," he said.

This just shows the narrowmindedness of our government officials. Sigh, when will they ever learn?

South Park in HD

There's nothing better than watching four foul-mouthed 4th graders in high definition.

Xbox is offering an episode of South Park (Good Times with Weapons) as a free download via its Live Marketplace in Xbox 360. I've watched this episode before but watching it in HD is definitely better. The video quality is superb and the episode is hilarious!

Recommended download - even for a 1 GB file!

Save the Sonics

This issue might not mean anything to people outside the Greater Puget Sound area or Western Washington but there's no harm in throwing this plea out to the general public.

Last year, the Seattle Supersonics and WNBA team Storm were sold to out of state investors led by Clay Bennett of Oklahoma City. This is one of the worst decisions of Starbucks owner and previous Sonics owner Howard Schultz.

The Sonics are asking the state for a new $500 million arena to replace the KeyArena as the Sonics and Storm's home. Legislature in Olympia are against this and saying the money might be better used for education, healthcare, etc.

Having an NBA franchise in the state is imperative to keeping the identity of the Northwest alive, keeping Seattle in the map. Giving away the only sports franchise in town to win a national championship is stupid. Let's just hope the politicians in Olympia understand this.

http://www.saveoursonics.org/

The Police are BACK!!!

The Police has just announced their world tour today and released dates for the North American leg.

They will be at the KEY on the 6th of June! That's right, Seattle will be the second stop on the tour after Vancouver BC.

Can't wait to grab the tickets to this show. I just hope it won't be sold out.

The Perils of Vista

I finally got my hands on the new operating system and let me just say this - I'm not sure that it is a good idea to upgrade.

Although installation was a breeze, software incompatibilities were a lot! I don't have antivirus software installed (Zonealarm hasn't released a Vista compatible version yet), I almost lost my Microsoft Money file, my Outlook files can't be imported (although I figured out a workaround and worst of all - I LOST MY F*CKIN ITUNES PLAYLIST!!!! That's right! For one reason or another, my Itunes library was corrupted or damaged and can't be imported to the new OS. All my ratings, playlists, and all other metadata were erased from the library and I have to rebuild everything from the ground up.

I won't say I didn't expect this, but actually it went better than I thought it would. The graphics are much nicer, although my laptop didn't fare very well with a Vista experience rating of 1.0(!) which meant that it could only run the Vista Basic software. My primary computer though was average (3.3) - with dual NVIDIA Geforce 6600 on SLI, 2GB DDR RAM, two 300GB SATA HDD, AMD 64 X2 4200+ (overclocked).

Upgrade-wise, I think I will do the video card in the near future, when DirectX 10 cards won't cost more than $400!

Do you need a second life?

One of the most popular things online today is Second Life where people create online incarnations of themselves and do things they are supposed to do in the real world in front of a computer screen.

Personally, I find this idiotic. How boring does your real life have to be before you resort to this crap? Sure, people are making money off this website/game but do you really want to spend the rest of your life in front of a virtual world?

I guess this is one of the downsides of living in a connected world. You don't need to interact face to face with people. But by doing this, I believe that society in general is not moving forward. It's a case of one step forward and two steps back.

A hilarious sidenote - visit Get a First Life.

Will you upgrade to Vista?

I have asked the same question myself a million times ever since I downloaded and tried the first public beta of Vista. Sure, it looks cool and all but is it worth all the money? The most basic of the versions, Vista Basic, is not even worth upgrading to - as it doe not include the aero graphics that makes this version cool.

But the Home Premium version is my cup of tea, I don't need all the security features that the Ultimate version has and I just want to have the Media Center capabilities of the Home Premium, but it will cost more than 200 bucks to upgrade!

So the question for me now is - is this worth that much money? Sure, I would love to have the latest version of anything and everything, as long as it is free or reasonably priced, but Vista will not offer me that much features I already have with XP and a few freeware downloads. Help me!!!

Do You Really Need an iPhone?

Don't get me wrong, I was just as excited as the next guy (or girl) refreshing the engadget and cnet websites for live updates to Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote speech. But after the initial shock of "God! I need to have that!!! NOW!!!!!!!", I have settled down and realized that I don't need it.

Here's why...

a) I have a perfectly working 80GB Ipod Video, sure, the screen is only 2.5 inches compared to the 3.5 widescreen of the iPhone but honestly, I only use my iPod while I'm driving, so the issue of watching videos is nonexistent.

b) I love my phone. I have a Blackberry Pearl which I really like and does what I bought it to do - make phone calls.

c) It costs $599 for the 8GB model - with a two year plan from Cingular! $599!!!! Without a plan, this phone would cost 200-300 bucks more. Lets see, I got my iPod for $309 (after rebates) and my Blackberry for less than $280. No contest here.

d) Now how would I feel if I lost this phone? Or scratch it? I would be completely devastated. e) It is almost impossible to text using this phone. There is only one button and everything else is touch controlled.

As with all other things Apple, this iPhone would surely be a must buy in most lists. There might come a time that I might reconsider and get one. But for now, I'm a skeptic. Until they prove that this phone is worth all that money and that it works as advertised, I'll keep my money. Thank you.