I was able to attend the Tatt Awards last Friday and was actually very curious to know who will win the Indie Rocker category (which is I am more interested in). I waited long for this and then Up Dharma Down was already onstage while they were announcing the finalists for this category then finally, they mentioned the winner, Up Dharma Down.

It took a while before the band was able to play, most likely due to technical difficulties. Anyway, they performed “Tadhana”. I expected it to be their newest song “Layag”. Congratulations to Up Dharma Down!

Giniling Festival Opened the Globe Tatt Awards while other performers are Arjohn Gilbert, Maria Aragon, Paramita and Johnoy Danao. You can view the videos I took below.

Paramita

Arjohn Gilbert

Giniling Festival

Maria Aragon

Up Dharma Down

Other winners for the different categories are:

Wordslayer – Loi Reyes Landicho of professionalheckler.com
Video Slinger – Mike Bustos of youtube.com/MikeyBustosVideos
Thought-Mover – Bianca Gonzales of twitter.com/iamsuperbianca
The Artiste – Jin Joson of jinjoson.com
The Advocate Award – Elizabeth Angsioco of dswp.org.ph
Indie Rocker – Up Dharma Down of updharmadown.com
Stylismo – Laureen Uy of breakmystyle.com
Ball Breaker – Lea Salonga
Tech Junkie – Mark Macanas of techpinas.com
THE ONE Award – Filipino Freethinkers of filipinofreethinkers.org

Speedtest of SM Megamall’s Wifi

I am currently at SM Megamall for the WiFi testing. Apparently it’s not that fast basing it on the speedtest minutes ago. Websites I accessed during the test were just the basics – Plurk.com, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, NU 107.5 live streaming and Tweetdeck.The connection becomes intermittent once in a while. Uploading pictures here in WordPress is also struggling to be completed. I also tried to play Restaurant City in Facebook but unfortunately, it’s a fail.

There weren’t enough seats and tables for everyone compared to the SM Marikina WiFi testing last February. I wish there were more. Luckily, I got the sofa at least I’m comfortable.

A jazz band is also playing to provide us some relaxing tunes while surfing the slow internet connection.

I think it was 3 weeks ago when I was invited to the launch of Acer Aspire Timeline with a dinner cruise in Manila Bay. I was actually curious of what this new laptop of Acer is all about. I have been an Acer user for quite some time and I am satisfied on the performance of my Acer Aspire desktop which I bought in Abenson’s last December 2008.

What’s interesting about this new line of laptops from Acer is that it has a long battery life. I always bring my laptop charger because my laptop’s battery can only last until 2 hours. For the Timeline, they boast that it can go up to 8 hours. This is good news for me because it will make me confident not to bring my charger anymore. There are two reason why their batteries last long: Intel’s Core™ 2 Duo ultra low voltage processors combined with Acer’s PowerSmart button and the Laminar Wall Jet. It’s a literal LAPtop because it doesn’t heat that easily.

Timeline laptops are also lightweight. It’s made of brushed aluminum and weighs1.6kg (3.5 lbs) for the 13.3” model and just 2.4kg (5.3 lbs) for the 15.6”.

It doesn’t have an optical disc drive. For some it might be a disadvantage but for me, I think it’s ok since I still have my desktop. I can always transfer files to a USB flash drive.

While we were at the yacht, there were some Timeline test units for the media people to see how it feels and looks like. Since I love typing, I tried to type some sentences in Notepad with a Timeline. I loved how the keys felt. The keyboard spacing is just enough.

The Acer Timeline can be compared to Macbook Air with some identical features of it. The catch is that it’s much cheaper compared to a Macbook Air. Prices of Timeline laptops start at Php 39,900.

Ok, I’ll just include this in my wish list and hope that it won’t remain just like that. Hehe.

Eraserheads Sandbox TV Commercial

While I was at the Sandbox media launch event last June 11th, I didn’t realize that it was already being shown at the screen behind me. It was Karla who told me that it has been playing there since we got inside The Bureau. I was surprised to see that I saw the Eheads together in a TV commercial. I remember the TV commercials they had before such as Pepsi Megadrive, San Miguel Homeboys, 2 Chippy commercials and some others. I think the last commercial they had was the Bogchi Chippy.

Sandbox is the newest Filipino social networking website which became operational a few months ago. I know that you are already already saying to yourself “What? Another social networking website?” but for Sandbox,this one is different because it is developed by creative minds here in the Philippines. By the way, it’s brought to you by Smart.

I have been using Sandbox for quite some time now and been utilizing its basic features whenever I am in concerts or during food tripping! For as long as I have my mobile phone with me, I can already upload videos (up to 20 seconds long) and photos through MMS and voila, people in my network can already see what I’ve been up to and in real time. It’s very easy, all you have to do is to email your content to upload@mysandbox.com.ph. MMS rate is Php 10.00 per successful send. The photo above this paragraph shows the photo I uploaded while I was at the San Miguel Pre-Valentine’s Party in Ortigas. The latest uploads of friends within my network can be seen at the right bottom part of the photo. You can also track your friends’ latest activities located at the upper right side of the photo.

Also, I can also make short blogposts to describe the places or events I’ve been to. I remember I wrote a short blogpost on what I was doing before the Eraserheads Final Set Concert last March 7.

Aside from Sandbox being a social networking platform, it can also be a source of downloads for different music, ringtones , games and videos for your mobile phone. It will be Php 30.00 per successful download. There are also raffles and contests for Sandbox users which other social networks do not provide.

Moblogging (mobile blogging) becomes much easier and accessible to Filipinos with Sandbox. The good thing is that you can upload and download contents through web or mobile.

Sandbox is still in its beta stage and the people behind it are continuously improving the system. Why don’t you try it yourself to see the difference? Just register at www.mysandbox.com.

Prof. Danny Arao’s blogpost about bloggers who become “sell outs” in the blogosphere is indeed thought provoking. I have been blogging for a long time but it was only until now that I get to meet some other bloggers in “real life” through the the different blogger or media events organized by different marketing or pr agencies. It’s only now I realize that there are some perks by becoming a blogger. I must admit it was fun since I get to experience things I have not done before ( especially the food that I have not tasted before). In exchange of letting me experience those perks of course I should return the favor by writing about their product or event etc. That’s ‘social exchange theory’ in real life, but it’s not being forced. Even though they feed me with all the food they want, nothing can control me on what I will say. I will still write a bad review if I didn’t like the taste of the food or if the service is bad. I make sure that it’s being done constructively and not because I am being too personal about it.

Prof. Arao’s article poses a question towards bloggers self motivation in blogging. It is a fact that there are some bloggers who are just concerned about blog monetization and not about the content. Spamming their blogs with topics that are “marketable” or has “high value” leaves the objective of the whole blog itself. I am not saying that everything should be political or highly intellectual. There are lots of things to write about not just “high valued” topics. These “high valued” topics are then translated into monetary value and that’s how the ad networks work. I learned this from Karla, who is a geek in those kind of stuff, and explained to me on how to earn money by just blogging. It was only a few months ago when I started Google Adsense and I only have a few dollars. I appreciate the dollar amount but it’s not really the end goal.

Another thing also that he mentioned was to consider our audience, i.e. our readers. Prof. Arao mentioned that we have to be responsible on the things we write or what would be the consequence and outcome of this to the audience. Yes, the blogosphere is a public domain, however this is a different kind of domain wherein audiences can create their own identity, i.e. reality. We cannot say that the intention of the blogger would reflect in what he/she writes. In this scenario, the blogger can transform his/her identity without the readers knowing it. The identity of the blogger is not attached to the article he/she wrote. As for the readers, they have their own mind as to how they will interpret the things we write. I believe that agency ( the individual) is still important and that not all human beings are always pre-determined by market forces. It is a give and take relationship. Readers will say what they want to say, or they can also re-interpret what we say and make it into their own ( like what I am doing now ).

In conclusion, I think that people have different motivations on why they blog and we should respect that. Blog monetization is not totally bad at all, being a ‘sell out’ is bad. I think that Prof. Arao’s post excludes people who really do blog monetization ( coming from the title of the blog post itself). I would like to say that they are also writers who contribute and create meaning to the blogosphere. It somewhat creates “exclusivity” among ” responsible” bloggers (as what he is imposing) vs the “irresponsible” bloggers. Does this mean that there is a distinction being made? What makes a blogger “responsible”? If there is such thing, what are the criteria on being “responsible”?

Now for you as my reader right now I pose these questions to you:

Why did you read this blog post?

(if you are a blogger) Why do you blog?

What do you think is a blogger?

You might want to read this related blog post about audiences

http://www.rockerfem.com/2008/08/20/expecto-patronum-to-the-dementors-who-want-to-stop-the-magical-mystery-tour/

If you’re into ‘mini’ these days, now you would probably interested to get a hold of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. This laptop is designed for those people who are always on the go because it’s very lightweight. It’s just 2.2 lbs.

Here are some of its features ( from the Dell website):

• Intel^® Atom^TM Processor (1.6GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
• Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
• One external speaker
• Up to 16GB configured with a Solid State drive.
• Up to 1GB² 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM.
• Intel^® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• 4-cell 32 WHr Li-ion Battery
• Optional 0.3MP or 1.3MP webcams
• Has wi-fi and bluetooth options
• Dimensions:

  Width: 9.13″ (232mm)

  Height: 1.07″ (27.2mm) front / 1.25″ (31.7mm) back

  Depth: 6.77″ (172mm)

This will be available in Philippine Market by October 2008. So watch out for it

It makes me want to purchase this one since my pc is not working now. Huhu I wonder how much will this be?