Category: Tech Talk

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

US Stop Online Piracy Act pits Silicon Valley vs mainstream media

December 23, 2011October 3, 2012 benign0 2 Comments

A bill is currently being debated in the United States House of Representatives that seeks to implement measures that will enable the US Government to control Americans’ access to “foreign” Web sites. The bill called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been criticised by big-name Internet business including the likes of Google, Twitter, and…

Culture, Media, Tech Talk

Punditry stalwart Manuel L Quezon III now back online! @mlq3

December 14, 2011 benign0 38 Comments

They said a short time ago that the “gloves are now off” in the epic battle between the three “co-equal” branches of the Philippine government. Not quite. Seems like the gloves are coming off only now seeing that MalacaÃ±ang have started to dispatch their elite troops into the PR jungle, and this is my nod…

Government, Media, Tech Talk

Crowdsourcing is a double-edged sword

December 13, 2011 benign0 8 Comments

It is a massive case of groupthink — when entire governments and even societies delegate en masse their thinking faculties for the sake of unanimity. According to a Scientific American feature, “[s]cholars have ascribed bad decision making to groupthink, for example, in U.S. policy during the Vietnam War.” Indeed, groupthink seems to be behind some…

Society, Tech Talk

The degeneration of Internet activism in the Philippines under the Aquino government

November 8, 2011 benign0 23 Comments

It’s time we recall with some bemusement the words of “columnist” Jose Ma. Montelibano in a 28th October 2011 article on the Inquirer.net… That is why Noynoy Aquino is now president. What he is simply by character, a son of two heroes who were not stained by corruption or swallowed by power, and himself eager…

Government, Politics, Tech Talk

YouTube: a double-edged sword swinging both ways for PNoy

November 7, 2011 benign0 16 Comments

Ain’t timing a bitch. Just shortly after Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s “historic” appearance in the popular video sharing site YouTube, a video called AQUINO COJUANGCO: FACTS THEY DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW HD painting an alternative — and unflattering — narrative of the history of the Aquino and Cojuangco clans surfaces and goes…

Media, Tech Talk

Social media activism: lots of noise for no real substance

November 1, 2011June 13, 2013 benign0 2 Comments

Filipinos need to apply a healthy dose of skepticism when regarding what their Media present to them. They rail against politicians yet eat up the bullshit dished out on oligarch-owned Philippine television, radio, and print. As if traditional media weren’t enough, we now have an army of hollowheads fielding 140 character out-of-context and substance-starved one-liners…

Media, Tech Talk

Yahoo! CEO ‘f–ked over’ by Board

September 13, 2011September 13, 2011 benign0 No Comments

Perhaps it has something to do with the rise to business prominence of the ADD (attention deficit disorder) generation. This was, after all, the generation that was made to believe that they were necessarily entitled to a “rewarding career” where it was mainly their “creative potential” to contribute to “shareholder value creation” that would be…

Media, Tech Talk

PI is a shithole
on Killing “Fascists” will never save the world
Blah blah blah why don’t you focus on cleaning that
Oliver
on Why are Filipinos so irrevocably corrupt?
The source and height of corruption is thinking that the
Freedominmyhead
on Why are Filipinos so irrevocably corrupt?
Why does our leadership attract the corrupt? The structure basically
Tim
on Why make being an oligarchy sound like such a bad thing?
This is a great article. The country seems to want
Gabsboy
on Why are Filipinos so irrevocably corrupt?
Life for the average working-class Filipino in February 1986 was
Blank
on Blocking Grok and other AI chat apps in the Philippines is a good idea
How do they explain paywalls when their businesses run on
benign0
on Blocking Grok and other AI chat apps in the Philippines is a good idea
Agree 100% banning AI is a band aid solution that
Gabsboy
on Blocking Grok and other AI chat apps in the Philippines is a good idea
AI is ultimately a tool that doesn't possess an inherent