General

2008 October 19 Paintball at Global Gutz, Army Adventure Zone, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig

By on Sunday, October 19, 2008

Played paintball at Fort Bonifacio. There are actually two fields in Fort Bonifacio: a skirmish/scenario field at the Army Gym and a speedball field at the Army Adventure Zone. We went to the latter. We were supposed to start playing at 9 but arrived at 9:30, started playing at 12, and ended at 2. I don’t know why we always end up starting late when it comes to paintball. It’s so irritating.

There was supposed to be ten of us but for some reason, the other team got horribly lost or something so there was just five of us. We teamed up two (Ian and Edong) versus three (James, Michelle, and I). Needless to say, numbers carried the day but there was a match or two when they actually won.

After months without playing, I can say paintball is still quite fun. It’s too bad that it’s kind of dying due to the rapid spread of airsoft. Even the owner of the field has caved in and opened an airsoft field. Would have been nice to switch (back) but the problem with airsoft, and one of the reasons I quit, is the honesty, or the general lack of it, of the ever increasing number of so-called airsoft players. This has led to a race in the amount of pellets you can carry and the power of your gun. That plus the emphasis on form over function. Not at all good.

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General

Philips X-treme Power Headlight Bulbs

By on Saturday, October 18, 2008

After over two years, one my Philips VisionPlus headlight bulbs finally died out. I was very happy with them so I decided to go Philips again, this time the Philips X-treme Power. It’s got the same attributes as the VisionPlus except this one offers not just 50% but 80% more light than stock bulbs. This, again, without requiring new wires and ceramic sockets. Installation was easy as usual and it was bright. I can’t say really say for sure that it’s 80% brighter than stock but it sure is as brighter than the VisionPlus.

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General

Gov’t Transactions

By on Monday, October 13, 2008

So Michelle and I spent the whole morning doing government transactions. She with LTO for her student permit and I with NBI for my clearance. It never ceases to amaze me how much time government transactions waste. And to think we we’re getting useless things. Student permit? Is there any government involvement there? Maybe parts of the proceeds go to transportation infrastructure repair and maintenance. Part because for sure the rest is diverted to dubious uses (like LTO employee bonuses) or even outright graft. NBI clearance? Maybe it is useful but here‘s what I think about the way it is right now. Here’s a thought: To improve the GDP, speed up necessary(?) government transactions and get rid of the unnecessary ones. But then that  would mean lesser opportunities for making money.

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General

NBI Clearance

By on Monday, October 6, 2008

So the company suddenly decided to ask me for an NBI clearance. No sweat, right? NOT! The way things work is that you apply for a clearance, they get your personal details, fingerprint you, then run you through their database, and if your name matches a known person with a “derogatory record” you get a “hit” and getting a clearance is suddenly so much less straightforward.

Wait a minute, name match? Yup, you got that right! If your name say matches that of a known criminal, then your clearance gets delayed from quite some time as they check you further. This can vary from a few days to a month or two. You can just imagine the grief of people with pretty common names.

But why name? Don’t they have a more unique way of identifying people? Like maybe fingerprints?!? I mean that’s why they fingerprint you, right? If there’s a name match, you would think the next thing they’d do is compare fingerprints, right? But apparently that’s still not the case because why would they already call a “hit” on just a name match? Why do they still bother interviewing you and having you  sign a written and notarized denial?

Fifteen(!) years ago, I worked with DOST and NBI at preliminary efforts towards an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS). Guess nothing has changed since. Sadness.

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General

Sennheiser MX-160 Earphones

By on Friday, October 3, 2008

A few months ago, I got myself a Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. However, I haven’t been playing music on it much. One of the reasons is because I didn’t like the look of Nokia earphones that came with it. Maybe it goes well with the original editions of the phone but definitely not my all-black edition.

And then I saw the plain and simple all-black Sennheiser MX-160 hanging on the store shelf for P550. Not bad for a respected audio brand. I bought it without even testing.

And I wasn’t disappointed. Remember, this is Sennheiser’s entry-level earphone so you can’t possibly expect mind-blowing bass and spine-tingling clarity like those high-end in-ear earphones. But audio quality is quite obviously better than my Nokia earphones. Sound is reasonably crisp, clear, and very audible. Definitely a good deal.

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