Category: Tech Talk

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

Who are behind DMT Ice Angels who own 17 percent of Rappler?

January 15, 2013 benign0 19 Comments

Indeed, it’s been one of Philippine Media’s greatest non-mysteries: the question of who owns “social news network” (pa)hipster news site Rappler.com. According to Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, all the answers to that question are in their sanitised About page which features a list of its illustrious Board members. But ever since a quick-and-dirty exposÃ© (actually,…

Media, Politics, Tech Talk

Technical Achievement at Risk of Being Undone by PAP

December 7, 2012 BenK 24 Comments

If you are a regular visitor to the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines, you are no doubt aware of the almost-completed construction of the Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) test project, a joint venture of UP and the Department of Science and Technology. For those who have not seen it, the AGT (not…

Development, Tech Talk, Technology

Conspiracy Theories, New World Order: Old Hogwash

December 5, 2012November 23, 2021 ChinoF 39 Comments

It’s interesting to note that so-called conspiracy theories are so alive and well. These “theories” center on the idea that the world is being controlled by a secretive group. So many groups are suspects: the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Bilderberg group, the Trilateral Commission, all said to be creating a so-called New World Order, although…

Tech Talk

Arrest of Mumbai netizens forbodes Philippines under Cybercrime Law

November 21, 2012 benign0 4 Comments

The Indian city of Mumbai has long been dominated by hard-line rightist party Shiv Sena. So when its powerful head, Bal K. Thackeray died recently, the city effectively shut down in deference with shops closing for the day and workers going home. Annoyed with all this, 21-year-old medical student Shaheen Dhada took to Facebook to…

Politics, Tech Talk

Multiply Is Being Subtracted

November 16, 2012November 16, 2012 Gogs No Comments

“Disc Six A dance remix, so I can catch the latest trend and it’ll make you scratch your head and wonder where my taste went. So now my fans are crying sellout, they say that I’ve lost my touch. They say I should just get the hell out before I do too much.” The…

Culture, Media, Society, Tech Talk, Technology

‘Highlighting the Excellence’ of this country… and other fluffery

November 13, 2012November 13, 2012 P. Farol 41 Comments

Some people have been in the Philippines for a couple of months or years, and they think they’ve got the country figured out well enough to think that it’s a good idea to venture in the Pinoy boonies with a back-pack full of positivism. Perhaps the vein of the idea of “highlighting excellence” lies wedged…

Tech Talk

Online activism in the Philippines in decline as RA 10175 bares teeth

October 25, 2012 benign0 3 Comments

Here is a completely subjective back-of-the-envelope assessment of Philippine online “debate” and “activism” in the last couple of weeks based on casual observation of my Facebook and Twitter timelines: the edge in Philippine online chatter is progressively getting blunt. When I say it is getting blunt I say so in the sense that it is…

Media, Politics, Society, Tech Talk