Printed way below the article by the Inquirer on the early birds who filed their certificates of candidacy for senator is a curious item that caught my attention. Let me quote the article:

Others who filed their COCs were independents Rummel Pinera, 35, a “small businessman” from San Pedro, Laguna, and Daniel Magtira, 46, of Marulas, Valenzuela City. (emphasis mine)

I have seen that name before; he made several comments to several blogs last year. So I Googled his name for information, and here’s what I had found out.

In several blogs, a certain Danny Glor had posted the same lengthy comment about Rummel Pinera. Read for yourself:

* Comment on Piercing Pens
* Comment on Jester-in-Exile
* Comment on My Liberal Times

He was also the subject of ridicule by several commenters on a certain post (I won’t post the URL; I can’t believe that there are educated people in the Internet who can only utter ad hominem statements). There are loads more. Just look around.

Here’s a bio and pic if you are interested.

Poor guy. He might have good intentions, but even before January 15 he was already ridiculed; I will not be surprised if he would end up being declared as a nuisance candidate.

What have I learned when I began this blog post? It reinforced my feeling that there are people who would debate on issues and there are people who would do ad hominem instead; that class, social status, educational background are not good measuring sticks of a person’s capacity to think; and that current Philippine politics is no longer about ideas. And that there’s no reasoning, however logical your arguments are, with people whose thoughts are already set.

And be careful with your online presence, Google will surely find you.

It seems that ABS-CBN has something on its sleeves for its upcoming coverage of the 2007 Philippine elections.

Earlier today, I saw an teaser advertisement about “Boto Ko, Text Ko” (My Vote, My Text), with the usual Halalan (Elections) logo that the network uses in its election coverages. The logo of their technical partner, STI, was also shown.

Usually, TV networks do a quick count of sorts after the voting period. Basically the school partner provides the manpower and technology in handling the quick count; the network only has to present the results. The process is really simple: student volunteers monitor the counting at the precints, and sends the data to a data center. You might had noticed that as early as seven in the evening (or earlier), the networks had reported partial results already; that was because the volunteers were required to submit partial results by the hour (sometimes even every 30 minutes).

And now, this. I think what they want to do is to ask voters to text whoever they have voted. This will probably be more unofficial than the unofficial quickcount, as the votes via text cannot be verified (unless they have the technology to do so). However, remember that the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) had attempted to do its quickcount via SMS in 2004, which failed miserably. ABS-CBN will probably ask the voters to text the candidates that they have elected for senators only (in contrast, Namfrel had tried to collect the results for all positions at stake at that year).

Whether this project will work or not remains to be seen. Please note that this is just speculation at this point.

NOTE: This post is also posted at The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything, a blog being led by Rocky, an old friend from LiveJournal. I will be contributing to the Geeky Guide at least once a week.

“Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.”, says its Web site. With more than 2 million virtual citizens online, it is a surprise hit, and it seems there are more tricks in the sleeves of Linden Lab, creator of Second Life.

Vivox had announced last year that it will be providing voice communication to Illusion Factory‘s island in the Second Life world. Citizens of Second Life who would reside in the IF island will be able to call other Second Life citizens using an ordinary phone or via VoIP.

And now, Star Trek in Second Life? In the latest Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves keynoted day two of the show, and here he announced CBS’ collaboration with Second Life, using Star Trek as an example. Whether how the Star Trek material is going to be used in Second Life is still anyone’s guess. Download the keynote here (in PDF).

But imagine being a starship captain in Second Life! Or a Ferengi. Or maybe an actor playing a starring role in a Star Trek series.

BTW, LindenLab has released the Second Life Viewer code, making it open source.

Since iPhone is a computer in miniature, malware authors and anti-malware experts are already wondering on its impact on the security side of computing.

Kasperky (Web, blog entry) believes that the iPhone will be a target of malware activity, and that its operating system, OS X, will carry vulnerabilities much like its big sister.

McAfee (Web, blog entry) thinks that 2007/2008 will be a new era of malware for mobile malware, characterized by fully-functional malware, since the iPhone (and the mentioned Nokia N800) almost have the same capabilities (though in a limited way) as that of a Mac (or Linux box for N800).

The biggest implication – for me, at least – is that anti-malware and computer security companies will have to develop a solution for such platforms. This phone will be targeted by malware authors, specially if it becomes successful (as lots of people thinks it will).

Off-topic: here’s a hands-on description on the iPhone. Read the comments.

In both sides of the ocean, Nintendo is thumping Sony in new console sales. In Japan, the Wii has outsold the PS3 end-December, despite the fact that PS3 had a headstart as it was released earlier than the Wii. And then, in the US, the Wii has also outsold the PS3 in November.

Only time will tell if this trend will continue. Sony will do price cuts, and maybe those who found the launch price as too expensive will finally buy PS3. Is the Nintendo lead due to the innovativeness of its console? Or is it just novelty?

PS3 has a lot of bells and whistles built into it; heck, it is a computer. However, it has no difference with PS2, except for better technical specs. In short, Sony has offered nothing new to gamers, only a souped up, expensive unit.

As the euphoria over the iPhone subsides, the fireworks begin.

Firing the first salvo, and as expected, Cisco sues Apple over the iPhone trademark. This will probably end up in settlement (and with Cisco leaving the battle a few bucks in its corporate wallets richer, few bucks=million dollars), or it could slug it out and win (as what had happened with its perennial war vs. Apple Corp). Nokia’s reaction is subdued, calls iPhone “interesting“. Japan, the home of the most advanced mobile phones, barely even took note of the news.

It will be interesting to find out the comments by other mobile phone manufacturers. BTW, what will happen to Apple’s tieup with Motorola?

Meanwhile, I think of the exclusive tieup with Cingular with mixed feelings. Either it can help iPhone gain market share that fast, or it can alienate non-Cingular users in the US. It’s like being exclusive to Smart.

Also, being a non-3G phone defeats the function of the iPhone as a mobile Internet device (maybe that’s why Japanese scoffed at it). Sure, it has Wi-Fi, but what about using it in non-Wi-Fi places? Would you want to download a 3MB music or podcast on the go from iTunes using only GPRS? I use GPRS from time to time, and I tell you, it’s like dialup (and I am on dialup at home). It’s ugly. It’s slow. And did I say dialup is slow?

But on the plus side, it is touchscreen. I am currently using Nokia 7710, a touchscreen phone. It can be tough if you were used to keypads, and you have to get used to sending SMS using a stylus. However, I am not sure if iPhone has handwriting recognition (it is not stated in the iPhone Web site). If so, it’s a big negative for me. Most of the time I use the handwriting instead of QWERTY, specially when I’m on a moving vehicle.

Anyway, iPhone is a promising gadget, and until the units are in consumer’s hands, any comments on its real capabilities are just speculations. We will know more for sure in June.

UPDATE: AT&T is set to phase out the Cingular brand name, uses single name across all products and services. Ma Bell consolidating its reclaimed power.

Apple has joined the mobile war with the announcement that confirms the rumors last year. Apple is going to release the iPhone this year. The blogsphere is abuzz with reactions, from the ecstatic to the cautious. I agree with Jozzua’s comments.

Here are the specs of the iPhone (taken from The Age):

US$499 for a 4GB model, US$599 for an 8GB model
GSM+EDGE phone technology (though 3G is promised “in the future”)
3.5-inch touchscreen, at 160 points-per-inch resolution
11.6mm thick
2 Megapixel camera
Incorporates video iPod
Syncs music, video, contacts and internet favourites with iTunes on Windows or Mac
Gesture-controlled user interface
On-screen virtual keyboard
Random-access voicemail (via Cingular)
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
SMS “conversation” interface
Full high-resolution web browser
Google Maps
Weather and stock market “widgets”
Battery life 5 hours talk/video/Web browsing, 16 hours audio only

I must admit I’m no Apple fan. I don’t think iTunes is intuitive enough, that’s why I am not using an iPod (aside from it is not the best portable player out there, it is expensive). Safari is not the best Web browser out there, and the battery life on paper is disappointing. The projected price will pit iPhone against Nokia’s N series phones (N80, N91, and N93) and Sony Ericsson’s P990 and W950i. Note that there is no touchscreen phone in the N series; both mentioned SE phones have touchscreens, no Wi-Fi though.

It is a good phone, nevertheless, but without 3G, it’s not worth the price. At that price you can get a phone with the same specs and more. It’s too early to tell if Apple has really reinvented the phone (though I am not convinced, since iPhone has offered nothing new except running on Mac OS X), but we can be sure that it will have a following worthy of the iPod success.

Apple has also dropped the word Computer from its name, telling the world that it is no longer just a computer manufacturer. Nokia is way ahead – it doesn’t have to drop anything from its corporate name, and it calls its N series phones as enhanced multimedia computers (though I dispute that notion).

And a legal problem for Apple: Cisco already owns the IPhone name. I can sense Cisco is already counting the money it will receive in settlement, as both companies are now in negotiations. Ca-ching!

And as a footnote: a Web site was taken down because of traffic generated by queries for the word iPhone. Nope, I won’t link to it, but here’s a pic with the URL:

Click on the image to enlarge.