Category: Tech Talk

Miscellany of questions and information tidbits on day-to-day interaction with technology

Nigerian email scammers make way for Filipino online sextortionists!

May 6, 2014 benign0 2 Comments

It used to be Nigerian email phishers and scammers. Now it is Filipino sextortionists. It is big business, described to be “industrial” in scale in a Washington Post report involving using fake social media accounts to get in touch with victims overseas (usually in affluent countries) and trick them into exposing themselves on Webcams. The…

Crime, Tech Talk

The future of media: will it create a stronger society? Think again

May 6, 2014 benign0 3 Comments

Is the trend in social media really moving towards building stronger networks? Or is it really just weakening them? If we look back at the last several years from the dawn of the “social networking” revolution in the early- to mid-2000s, we will find an interesting trend: social networking models have gone from being defined…

Development, Lifestyle, Society, Tech Talk

Our Limited Thoughts of Infinity

April 17, 2014April 17, 2014 P. Farol 35 Comments

Pi is still, theoretically, an endless number and yet it ends when the minds that can conceive or perceive it ends. Computers can calculate the last number of Pi only as far as the formula used and the capacity of the computer to calculate. Beyond which, I suppose, Pi goes on and on. But in…

Science, Tech Talk

A ‘story’ where none exists

April 14, 2014 benign0 4 Comments

The human brain is a wondrous instrument. It starts out as a blank data processing device that is wired to five data collection channels — our senses. From the minute we are born, our senses kick into operation, collecting information about our environment and feeding it to the brain. One can’t really imagine what it…

Religion, Science, Tech Talk

Skyway roadkill: Cats seemingly dropping from the sky onto Manila elevated highway

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014 benign0 6 Comments

Motorists who use the Philippines’ Skyway, an elevated express tollway linking Manila’s southern suburbs to the central business district of Makati City have for some time observed flattened carcasses of cats littering the pavement. The baffling roadkill has raised the question of how the animals had somehow made their way onto the elevated structure. A…

Civics, Lifestyle, Tech Talk

Microsoft Office now on iPad: Bozo-authored Power Point slides just got a boost

March 28, 2014 Kate Natividad 30 Comments

So Microsoft Office is now available on the iPad. Should we care? I believe the more fundamental question to ask is this: Do people really do important stuff on a tablet device? I have serious doubts. Tablets and other touch-screen devices have long been pitched as toys. Get on Google and search for the “top…

Lifestyle, Tech Talk

Love in a time of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Oculus

March 27, 2014 Kate Natividad 4 Comments

The other day I was waiting for a friend of mine — let’s call him David — who was arriving from a quick trip overseas to ping me on WhatsApp (as we had agreed in our last conversation) as soon as he fired up his mobile phone at the airport. Aba, it was already two…

Lifestyle, Tech Talk

Why Filipinos Fail to Detect Satire

March 24, 2014 ChinoF 21 Comments

Many Filipinos fall victim to satire sites. I myself admittedly had been taken by a few, being unfamiliar with them. One recent article tries to analyze why most Filipinos are unable to understand or detect satire. The reason given is the lack of intellectualism that allows one to understand it. I agree this is one…

Tech Talk