The Four-eyed Journal » Philippines

Global Voices in Filipino Launches

jhay — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:38:09 +0000

A wonderful news came from one of Editors of Global Voices Online – it is the launch of the Global Voices in Filipino portal. That’s right! Global Voices is now available in the Filipino languages so that more Pinoys everywhere would have more access to the citizen-generated content from around the world. This is under the Global Voices Lingua site program wherein localized versions of Global Voices are made available to non-English speaking readers and netizens.

Stories and features from other non-English Global Voices portals would be translated into Filipino allowing more Pinoys to join in the global conversation. With this, I am pleased and honored to join the translation team to help in keeping the portal up and running.

For those who are interested to join the Lingua volunteer team for Global Voices in Filipino are invited to fill up the application form here.

Filipino readers are also invited to come and visit the portal as there are already tons of content readily available to read in our own language.

We are also inviting enthusiasts, fellow bloggers, netizens and readers to help in spreading word about Global Voices in Filipino.

As we say in Global Voices in Filipino, ‘nagsasalita ang mundo, nakikinig ka ba?‘ (The world is talking, are you listening?)

Watchword: Braggadocio

jhay — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:54:41 +0000

A break from a blogging hiatus and blogging about tech related topics, one word has caught my fancy while catching up on the latest local news which centers on two hot issues: the stand-off between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough shoal and the recent brawl between Raymart Santiago and mediaman Ramon Tulfo.

One word that connects the stories – braggadocio.

Merriam-Webster defines it as braggart, empty boasting, arrogant pretension or cockiness.

After the airport brawl between Raymart Santiago and Ramon Tulfo, you all know the story so I’ll skip those details, the other Tulfos: Erwin, Raffy and Ben in an episode of “T3 Kapatid Sagot Kita” on Monday night virtually vowed to exact revenge on Santiago for what happened to their elder brother. Which was no surprise at all knowing that the Tulfo brothers are known for, what else, being braggadocio.

It seems that PNoy is no different from the Tulfos in his handling of the Scarborough shoal stand-off between China.

Journalist and former Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Presidential Spokesperson Rigoberto Tiglao explained how PNoy blew away the chance of peacefully resolving the Scarborough stand-off by sending the Philippine Navy’s flagship BRP Gregorio del Pilar to scare off unarmed Chinese fishing vessels in the Panatag shoal.

Tiglao points out that the move gave the Chinese the opportunity the moral high ground that it was the Philippines who sparked the now volatile situation in the West Philippine sea. It was PNoy who escalated the situation and with his officials from the Cabinet and the Armed Forces blabbering regularly how the United States would come to aid us in case of an outbreak of armed conflict is nothing else but, you guessed it: braggadocio.

With the Tulfos facing a possible sanction by the MTRCB over their tirades on TV and the United States having said no word that it will side with the Philippines on the Scarborough shoal stand-off, it was only our own Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin who interpreted it that way, we will soon see how long this braggadocio will last. More importantly, where it would lead us all.

Thoughts and suggestions for Globe Telecom

jhay — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:54:07 +0000

Satisfactory customer service. Working in the customer service industry for even less than a year is enough time to make you understand what customers of any business or service want: getting the most value for what you pay for, if not more.

So I’m taking this time to share some of my thoughts and suggestions to improve Globe Telecom’s services because I just received a text message saying that in the coming days, their Market Research folks will call me up to conduct a study or survey on how to do just that, improve their services.

I’ve been a customer of Globe Telecom for almost seven years now both as a land line, residential broadband, pre-paid and post-paid mobile user.

So I’ve seen how their services and customer support have changed over the years.

Some two years ago, their broadband service, well in our area, was terrible. I’ve had days of good connection and then weeks of either intermittent or absolutely no connection at all.

Failing to do follow up calls

Worse, their customer service was equally terrible. The thing that really pissed me off was they would always promise to call back to follow up or give an update on the status of their repair but THEY NEVER DID.

And I’m the person who would really give time to actually wait around for that call. So when it was my turn to do a follow up call, the representative that took my call always had an earful from me.

So that’s suggestion number one: Globe Telecom should actually do the things they promised their customers. Make a call when they said they would call back. Even if it’s just to say they need more time to work on my request. Leaving a customer in a limbo is a good way to get frustrated and dissatisfied customers.

Lack of consistency

Another complaint I have with Globe Telecom’s customer service is consistency, or their utter lack of it. On my first call they would tell one thing and swear by it but on the second call the next representative would tell a completely different thing. Making a customer look like a complete fool is another great way of getting dissatisfied customers.

Website in perpetual Beta

Next would be Globe Telecom’s website that seems to be in a perpetual beta stage. Don’t get me wrong, their website has improved a lot over the years, but still, a lot of the basic and essential information a customer needs are still missing or terribly hard to find. Like their ever-elusive Acceptable Use Policy. You’d see numerous links about it but clicking on it leads you to no where. This may be the day and age of dynamic websites but it refers to content, not the framework, features or design of the website.

Seemingly understaffed Business Centers

I now move on to their Business Centers where you get to talk with their representatives face to face. Most of the time, it’s a nightmare to visit because it’s full of other customers who usually wait for hours on end before they get serviced. Sure, Globe’s queue management system is something government offices should have, but that’s the only thing that differentiates the two!

They would have plenty of counters but actually only one or two would be manned. Worse, the representatives who man the counters move and do their work in a glacial pace. And it makes me suspect that they are doing a lot of non-work related stuff on their computer because they would spend a great deal of time on it in between serving customers. Another habit of theirs would be to take at least 10 to 15 minutes in between customers and they would just stand up and go somewhere else, talk to their fellow representatives completely oblivious to the mass of customers who have been waiting in queue for hours. And they were sitting on front of their counters for hours!

All these basically sums up everything I have to say about Globe’s customer services. I’m pretty sure you have plenty other things to share as well.

Time to give back, Help the victims of Typhoon Sendong

jhay — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:08:46 +0000

With Christmas literally just around the corner, celebrations have been dampened by the recent devastation suffered by provinces in the southern Philippines when typhoon Sendong swept through this past weekend.

Scores have been killed with the body count still rising while millions worth of damages have been incurred. Our brothers and sisters in affected areas are struggling to put back together what’s left of their existence, this is the time we answer to the call of being a citizen and a fellow Filipino.

We must help out in any way we can. We are thankful for the many channels and means of helping out the typhoon victims, for Lasallians based in Cavite, the Lasallian Community Development Center (LCDC) will be accepting donations beginning today, December 19 – 22, 2011 from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and December 23, 2011 from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 nn. Specifically, we encourage you to bring the following:

1. Food items such as canned goods, noodles, coffee, sugar, milk, water, water and other ready to eat food and drinks (cup noodles, biscuits/bread, energy drink, chocolate/milk drink, etc);
2. old clothes, specifically children clothes;
3. blankets, sleeping mat (banig);
4. medicine.

For cash donations, you may send it directly to La Salle Academy Iligan through the following accounts:
BPI Account # 9353-0377-62 (LSA Savings Account )
or DBP Account # 016221-030

Of course, prayers for their recovery are much needed. The best way we can say thanks for the blessings we have this Christmas is to give what we can share. For in giving, we receive something more precious, something money can’t buy. For in giving, we affirm our faith and our creed; we affirm our Lasallian identity.

Raw Sewage – a goldmine for new viruses - Another reason not to jump into flood waters

jhay — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:22:39 +0000

The movie Contagion is still very fresh in my memory and to be honest, it’s one of the few non-horror films that continue to haunt me. Not only because the story is simple and it was effectively told by the film, but the story is so close to reality it was like watching a documentary about how the A(H1N1) virus spread worldwide back in 2009.

We know what raw sewage is and naturally we know it to be a source of diseases and other foul things, literally, but it is only now that scientists have found out that it is rich source of viruses not yet known to man. That adds another another layer of reality to the movie, raw sewage is a gold mine for unknown viruses. Instead of just looking for viruses that jump hosts, from one specie to another, unknown viruses that could cause dreaded, yet unknown diseases are found right underneath our cities and toilets.

The researchers led by Paul Cantalupo of the University of Pittsburgh found out that:

Within the samples, they found 234 known viruses belonging to 26 different viral families. Seventeen of these infected humans, and others are known to target plants, insects, algae and bacteria. They also found evidence of new viruses from 51 different families.

In addition, they had other discoveries:

Bacteria-attacking viruses dominated the viral population they found in the sewage, outnumbering the known ones by 30 to 1.

Of the viruses that attack more complex organisms, plant viruses dominated.

A large number of insect viruses, including those that infect cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes, were present in all samples.

They also identified several rodent viruses, including strains closely related to a newly identified rat hepatitis E virus.

They detected 17 viruses known to infect humans in the three samples. These viruses included a number that can cause diarrhea or gastrointestinal illness, including adenovirus, astroviruses and Norwalk virus, bocavirus, picobirnaviruses and klassevirus.

With this new goldmine for viruses, scientists have an added resource to further develop our knowledge of viruses, which in turn will further develop our medical technology, more importantly to help combat diseases.

It also reinforces the fact that raw sewage should be treated before it is released into the environment. Thinking of the recent flooding we had because of the previous typhoons, it is very important that our sanitary systems, what ever form we have, is up to the task of holding against typhoons or massive rain so that raw sewage would not mix with flood waters.

Then again, knowing that sad state of our urban planning and sanitation system, we have another good reason to avoid plunging in flood waters, especially in the city.

Image by Kat Masback