For almost 5 months now, I have been avoiding going back to the corporate world. With all the exposure I’m getting from of people who are becoming a successful by putting their own businesses I really really think that managing my own business is for me. Sure i can look for part time jobs in Makati or here in Pasig but it would defeat my purpose of not being employed ever again.So after a wading through our options till the end of 2009, I finally made a sensible business plan, the only problem is since we only have one laptop at home, my wife and I have a tendency to fight over its usage especially during evenings and weekends. So what to do? The most logical would be get my own laptop and the latest Lenovo Thinkpad x100e seems to be calling to me. But being the lazy person that I am, I decided to look at some online classified ads site. And one site that caught my attention is OLX.com.ph.

OLX.com.ph seems to be a new kid on the block but one thing I immediately like about it is that there are almost no ads blatantly sprawling across its pages. And overall minimalistic design immediately got my good side.

So i tried doing a search by typing “thinkpad x100e” search field and tapping enter key. Then nothing happens. Well actually the field “select category” turned read. So i guess i had to choose one which should be “for sale”. Kind of Odd since most people will go to a classified ads site to buy something thats for sale. Why not make it the default? and I ended up with nothing. bummer. On the good side, OLX offered me to post a “looking to buy” ad. So i did thats it. I have my ad up already. So just for the fun of it, tried browsing the computers section, but it seems that OLX doesnt have much items compared to its rivals. oh well probably because its not really known yet.

Create your own Ad

Overall, OLX has a good potential of grabbing a large chunk of the online classified ads market but it will take a lot of work since most of its competitors are known brands. It certainly will in my book if they can get more people to advertise. As of now, I’m still waiting for someone to contact me for my Thinkpad x100e.

Please allow me to be “emo” in this post. I understand that most of my generation did not witness the Second World War and the atrocities it brought. But I believe that there are lessons to be learned and people to be inspired of during this time. For when there was a time that the Earth embraced Hell, angels still guarded the oppressed.

Holocaust Cartoon

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This story has become a memorial chain, in memory of the 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, 6 million Jews and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian Peoples looking the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iraq , Iran , and others, claiming the Holocaust to be ‘a myth,’

it’s imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently launched his own website. It contains mostly what goes on in the former CEO’s mind and what is actually occupying his daily activities.

The Gates Notes

So if you want to follow on what goes on in the former Microsoft CEO’s mind, be sure to visit this site regularly or you can follow him in his twitter account.

e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition, now on its 10th year, recently held a press conference highlighting in what can be labeled as one of the highlighted events in the Philippine outsourcing industry. With its theme – Bright Skies Ahead: Collaborating for Smarter Business Solutions – e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition aims to bring to together a huge number of global movers and thought leaders with a diverse group of companies who buy or sell outsourcing services.Several key personalities involved in the conference were there to provide information about what is to come and why business owners and decision makers should attend the conference. ICT/BPO personalities such as Ms. Judith V. Lopez – Chairman and Senior Partner of Pricewaterhousecoopers Philippines, Mr Charlie V. Lopez – Chairman of Procurement and Sourcing Institute of Asia (PASIA), Mr James Donovan – President of American Data Exchange Corporation (AMDATEX) and Mr Dino S. Santos representing Bank of the Philippine Islands as a major sponsor were among them.

They all provided key information on how big the upcoming confernce will be, I’m not going to tell of it but here is a brief summary of all their speeches:

• Growth in the Business Process Outsourcing industry is still up despite the recent global economic hiccup in 2009.
• More companies are rising up to challenge companies in the current Business Process Outsourcing king – India. These include companies from latin America and/or Asia.
• Supply Management as fast emerging and increasingly profitable Business Process Outsourcing sub-industry.

The press conference was rounded out by Ms Janette Toral of DigitalFilipino as the moderator of the press conference, Department of Trade and Industry Elmer C. Hernandez for the opening remarks and Deputy Executive Director Ma. Lourdes D. Mediran for the closing remarks

So what’s in this year’s 10th e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition?

Interestingly, this years’ edition of e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition will cover quite a number of tracks spread across different industries such as:

• Health Information Management
• Company Start-ups
• Cutting edge global outsourcing skills and competencies
• “New Wave cities”
• Creative Services for industries such as Game Development and Animation

So who should attend e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition?

It all boils down to who should attend e-Services and why? Well if you are:

• …a Business Process Outsourcing provider, its only natural that you invest your time and effort as this conference will bring to a single area a diverse group of decision makers and meeting them is an opportunity to close deals. It also allows you to explore uncharted industries and find out the potential revenues that can be found in this industries.
• … an owner (or decision maker) of a company not doing business process outsourcing, you may want to attend since BPO is no longer about Voice related outsourcing. Business processes like accounting and finance, legal management and supply management are fast becoming services being provided by BPO’s. If you’re not careful you could end up loosing your own employees to BPO’s since these types of jobs are high in demand and pays better.
• … an owner (or decision maker) of a company looking to acquiring the services of BPO to improve cost efficiencies. Again, e-Services brings together BPO buyers and sellers. it will not be surprising if you can find atleast a couple of BPO companies that will fit your needs.

To more on how to reserve your slot. Please visit the official website of e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition.

The New Year of 2010 have just arrived. After more than a whole week of partying with friends and relatives, its time to sit down and do some reflecting. As I sat down in a quite corner in our new condo unit, I tried to flood my mind of pictures of all the blessings me and my family received. And wow, it was a lot! The blessings greatly outweigh the problems we have encountered, how can you not love God?

New year Reflections

Aside from the cliche of being “older and wiser”, I have a bit of things to note and be thankful for 2009. Namely:

1. You can be a victor without having victims – a simple phrase I once found in my previous employer’s office. Today’s dog-eat-dog and nice-guys-finish-last mentality is quickly becoming the norm. A lot of businesses are trying to beat back the recent global economic hiccup at the expense of other people or companies well being. This is something that I believe can be avoided if total care and compassion is place at appropriate times.
2. Wonderful and Supportive Wife – despite of the recent turmoils in our family life and relationship, I am glad Maia is still with me with her full support and love. Building a family can be a daunting task and doing it with my wife makes it more fun and easier.
3. “When the Lord closes the door, somehow He opens the window” – A lot of things were taken away from me, people who took the winds from my sail have left me with almost nothing to be proud with. But by the Lord’s grace, I have stood up again and have began a better life than before. I thank God for the windows he has opened for me despite of the many doors that slammed on my face.
4. Blessings abound in the worst disasters – Despite of our financial difficulty, we are granted an opportunity to own our very own Condo unit. Not as big as our previously rented unit but, IT’S OURS! So the money I throw down the drain for our rent previously now goes to a future asset.
5. The Teacher will come when the Student is ready – I have a whole gamut of business ideas in my mind but these ideas have always been in the back burner since I am unsure on how to go about them. But it seems really believe that this is a time to start investing our own business ventures that is why out of the 3 business ideas, I now have 2 mentors that will help me drive these businesses. Woot Woot!
6. Focus is the key in unlocking your potential – by having laser beam focus in your dreams, you unlock energies and potentials you didn’t know you had.

I am grateful for these things and I will always remember how God never abandons his servants.

New Year Wishes

With all the blessings me and my family recieved. I sometimes shy away from asking for more blessings from God. But I realized that these blessings are already there and it would be a waste not to ask for them

1. Increase in passive income – I’m currently building other assets aside from our own businesses and I truly pray that these assets will start bearing fruits within the next month or so.
2. Continued healing and development of my sons hearing – litle Johann has developed his speech skills in fantastic leaps and bounds despite of his hearing impairment, I pray to God that this continue and eventually he be healed completely so that he can leave a normal life as a christian.
3. More mentors – I pray for mentors for me and maia both in our businesses as well as personal life so that we can increase our potential to bless our family and bless others too.
4. Healthier living – everyone wants to become healthier or thinner or less sickly. And everyone always does the right steps every new year. I pray to God that he grants me the strength and the willpower to follow through my drive to be healthier so that I can have less downtimes due to sickness and more time for my family, business and service.

A fantastic 2010 is coming up, and despite of the my recent failures and hardships, I look forward to claiming every bit of blessing and grace God will shower me and my family. May you be granted your New Year Wishes for 2010. Happy New Year!

Okay, this post has nothing to do with Oktoberfest but it does have something to do with me using Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) for the whole month of October. And in using Windows 7 RC, I must admit that I’m liking the experience so far. I’m liking so much that I’m having second thoughts in trying out Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. Here are some stuff I’d like to highlight with my experience with Windows 7 RC.

Good stuff I noticed about Microsoft Windows 7

1. Better resource usage – compared to Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, Windows 7 RC runs pretty well on my AMD Athlon 64 X2 system with 2 GB Memory. While on Windows Vista this system will trudge along its business, Windows 7 RC gives me the impression that I’m running Windows XP in terms of speed with a lot of new eye candy.
2. Library folders are neat – the new library functionality on Windows Explorer is easily a good addition to the features to Windows 7. For those unfamiliar with Windows 7 Libraries, a detailed explanation can be found here.
3. Windows SuperBar declutters the taskbar – The new Windows 7 Superbar is an ingenious way of cleaning up the rapidly cluttered windows taskbar. Before Windows 7, a lot of people place commonly used application icons into the Quick Launch Toolbar for easier access. This is fine if you have 3 to 4 icons in the Quick Launch bar. But having 10 to 15 icons will severely limit the space for area where the taskbar displays currently running applications. Windows 7 does away with this by fusing Quick Launch bar with the currently running windows bar. The effect is more like a Mac OS X Dock but it works nicely for me.
4. Gaming is sweet in Windows 7 – I have tried playing several games between Windows Vista and Windows 7 and I’m convinced that Windows 7 will save gamers a lot of performance tuning when using Windows 7. Out of the box, I noticed significant differences in playing my favorite games (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3).

Not so good stuff about Microsoft Windows 7

1. Price is like an anvil dropping on your head – Windows 7 prices in the Philippines will cost an arm and leg in my opinion. I really don’t feel like paying around 200 USD (PhP 10,000) for an operating system. As good as it is, i’d rather go with open source alternatives.
2. Still missing applications that should be installed – In my opinion, while Windows 7 offers a lot of functionality built-in and many more by downloading free applications from Microsoft’s download site. It still misses a few things such as a PDF reader that matches the user interface. Adobe PDF Reader is not really one with the UI of Windows 7 in my opinion. But I guess having these stuff built-in will be more of a pain in the neck for Microsoft as it may be another source of anti trust blah blahs

Overall impression for Windows 7

I love it! And as I said earlier, This version of Windows is really keeping me from trying the latest release of Ubuntu. And since, I’m using the RC version, I will need to find ways to get a legit license of Windows 7 without really spending that much dough. Now if the people from Microsoft Philippines are reading this…hint.hint.wink.wink.

When I opened my computer early this morning, the first application I load is always my web browser and when my Home Page (google.com) came up. I was shocked to see the picture above! Was Google hacked?!It took a few more seconds before I realized that its another variation of Google’s Logo. Google has been known for changing their default logo from time to time. I guess this Google Logo is in honor of the invention of the Bar Code.

Sorry for the false alarm. My Bad.

The Nokia e63’s ability to connect to the Internet via 3G and Wifi makes it a viable tool to get connected with friends and colleagues via Email. And using third applications you can extend this functionality further by being able to connect to instant messenging platforms such as Yahoo Messenger or Skype. But little is known of the built IM Client found in the e63’s s60v3 system. At first glance, it would seem to be a generic IM client but I found a way to use it or any other s60v3 based smartphone to connect to the Yahoo Messenger Network.

To connect to the Yahoo Messenger Network using the Builtin IM Client of the NOkia e63 or any cellphone that uses s60v3 system, follow these steps:

1. From the Home Screen (Figure 1), open up the menu (Figure 2) and choose Communic. (Short for Communication) to bring up the Communications Menu (Figure 3).
   

   Figure 1

   

   Figure 2

   

   Figure 3

2. From the Communications menu, choose IM to activate the application.
3. If there are no user details created yet, the IM application will automatically ask if you wish to setup a server now (Figure 4). Choose Yes.
   

   Figure 4

4. You will then be presented with a form (Figure 5) you will need to fill up. Enter the following info:
   

   Figure 5

   

   Figure 6

   

   Figure 7

   • Server Name (Figure 6): Yahoo (or any other name you want)
   • Access point in use: Choose your access point. I usually choose my service provider’s default Internet connection or use your preferred Wifi ID.
   • Web Address (Figure 7): imps.msg.yahoo.com
   • User Id: Your YM Id (include ‘@yahoo.com’)
   • Password: Your YM password
5. After configuiring, you will then be automatically logged in, however by default the application will again ask for your usename (Figure and password (Figure 9) but the fields are already prefilled just press OK to accept.
   

   Figure 8

   

   Figure 9

6. Connection will begin as soon as your done inputting your username and password (Figure 10 and Figure 11).
   

   Figure 10

   

When you see the IM main menu (Figure 12), then you’re already logged in. You can view your buddy list by choosing IM Contacts (Figure 13).

Figure 12

Figure 13

PS. While this maybe a great way to communicate vi YM please note the following:

• The IM Client will only display up to 30 contacts at a time. If you have more than 30 buddies, it would be good if you set the application to display online buddies only and does not display your buddies by groups.
• This will also create a new group in the Yahoo Messenger desktop client in your computer/laptop. It is called “Y! Mobile Messenger” it is essential a copy of what you see in your cellphone.
• Using the IM Client for YM via your default service provider (mine is Globe) may incur a lot of charges since it will stay connected to the internet until you logout or close the IM application (thats why use Wifi).

So that’s it! You can now use your Nokia e63’s IM client to connect to the Yahoo Messenger Network! Feel free to let me know how it works for you.

UPDATE (02/03/2010): I’ve been researching the past weeks about getting the IM client to work with MSN and Google Talk but still no such luck. I do suggest you try the Nokia Messaging for IM application. The one in the OVI store is not working with my phone but I heard that the one in Beta Labs does. I still don’t have time to test it though.

I recently emerged from what I call professional metamorphosis. Just like the lowly caterpillar, I have been transformed into wonderuous butterfly. I was able to realign my focus to what I really wanted for me and my family. The past weeks was a real eye opener for me and I am thankful that I have the support of my wife and family to get me through my hibernation phase.

I’m going for my Dreams not Goals.

As such I would like to make a distinction between what I call a dream vs what a goal is. Although both of them are “targets” so to speak. Many times than not, Goals are simply ends to a means you have set. These can be simple Goals like buy a house or get a car.

In contrast, a Dream is a great burning within my heart. It burns so fiercely that everything else in my life blurs in comparison to it.

Nothing else seems to matter if I won’t reach that dream. Goals are forgivable targets but I feel that my life has been for nothing I do not reach my dreams.

Many Times I have focused too much effort in the goals in my life. But it is time that I look beyond these goals and focus in my Dream. So here is what I am dreaming for:

I dream of a GREAT life for me and my family. A life where finances are taken cared of with multiple sources of income. A life free from my current emotional baggages. A life wherein I dictate the options in my life not the circumstances dictating my options.

A life where Me and wife would always wake when are done sleeping. To bring our son to school without worrying of being late to work. To be surround by friends and colleagues who believe in the same faith we have.

I dream of a life fully dedicated in SERVICE to God. Through our Service, my family will help bring people closer to God.

The Ortigas Music Ministry practice last night was a BLAST! The Lord’s hand was evident in the meeting as everything went smoothly and gracefully. The practice was led by Sister Vivian and she was supported by two great musicians – Bro Arnel and our very own travel and photography enthusiast bro Ricky. Ortigas Feast Music Ministry is on its way to shining God’s light in Ortigas!

The commitment and passion was in everyone’s eyes and it was so inspiring! And as promised here are the videos of our songs for the feast so that the music ministry can review them.

By Your Side by Hill Song

Blessed by Hill Song

For This Cause by Hillsong

Desert Song by Hillsong

Nobody by Wondergirls

Hehehe the last one is NOT included in the worship. I just like it.