HTML 5 Free Music Service: Grooveshark

Grooveshark is an HTML 5 based site that gives you the feeling that it's not a website but a media player in your browser.

It has a nifty search feature that lets you look for songs in a jiffy.

I tried searching for "Because of You" by Kelly Clarkson, "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban and was immediately greeted by multiple versions of the song.

The site is free, so you can practically play some music without even signing up.

It's only a matter of time though before the copyright trolls start rampaging.

ResortVille Activities for December 2010

This month is going to be a busy one and I'm hoping that my budget would be sufficient.

Here are some of the micro projects that I would be doing

1. Grass Trimming + General Cleaning for Children's Christmas Party = PHP 3,500.00
2. Roofing Repair for Veranda = PHP 5,000.00
3. Christmas Party Food = PHP 5,000.00

How a War in the Korean Peninsula Would Affect You

I must admit that my political analysis is very rough on the edges, I have to thank the ordinary rudiments of life for that. Writing many articles on "things" rather than processes tend to dull my ability to bring forth more careful analysis of situations as I was trained to do. 

UPDATE 2: November 29, 2010 (Reuters)

(Reuters) - South Korean and U.S. forces pressed on with massive military drills on Monday as regional powers considered a call by China for emergency talks following North Korea's attack on a southern island.

China's proposed emergency consultations come amid global pressure on Beijing to take a more aggressive role in the standoff between the rival Koreas and try to rein in ally Pyongyang using its leverage as its largest source of aid.

UPDATE: (Wall Street Journal Online)

"BEIJING—China engaged in high-level diplomacy to try to cool tensions on the Korean peninsula as the U.S. and South Korea on Sunday started a naval drill that has prompted dire warnings of reprisals from North Korea.

Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo met South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday and said China "opposed any acts that harmed the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula," China's state news agency Xinhua said." (SOURCE)

With that out of the way, let us proceed with the subject matter at hand.








The recent actions of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, has caused a lot of political repercussions that may affect this particular region of the world. To be sure, the elements of posturing by the DPRK, has the people of South Korea, particularly in Seoul worrying about their lives as well as economic security.




Much of this can be attributed to the possibility of war and the effects of it in the long term. Seoul is but 30 to 45 minutes away from possible aggression and might be in the range of North Korean artillery emplacements. (Korea Times)

Quote

"By Bae Ji-sook

Seoul is never safe from North Korea’s artillery attacks such as the one that broke out on Yeonpyeong Island earlier this week, analysts say.

As the capital city is filled with skyscrapers and a complicated layout of roads, the severity of damage that could be caused by any military attack threatens to be even higher, they said. "

How I think a North Korean War will affect you if you are in the Asia Pacific region


If you are in the Philippines, then it has already affected you in the form of the Executive Order issued by President Aquino, barring Filipinos from going to South Korea to work. (Philstar.com)

"MANILA, Philippines –  President Aquino has suspended the deployment of Filipino workers to South Korea while the government assesses the situation in the Korean Peninsula.

This, as tensions continue to rise in the Korean Peninsula following North Korea’s artillery attacks Tuesday on a tiny island claimed by Seoul."

Another way by which you could affected if you live in the Philippines, is through the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951. (Inquirer.net)

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines under its mutual defense treaty with the United States has an obligation to send troops in case war breaks out between North and South Korea, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said Sunday.

“But given our capability, we can only send our doctors, nurses, engineers and maybe some ground troops. These are what we can only contribute because we do not have any air force, we do not have any navy,” Enrile said in an interview with dzBB radio.

Article IV of the mutual defense pact signed in August 1951 states that “each party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific area on either of the parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes.

Needless to say, the last 10 years has seen the rapid rise of immigration of South Koreans to the Philippines. While we welcome our South Korean neighbors to our wonderful country, it must be noted that there are many issues involved in the hosting of war refugees. There's the issue of culture, there's the issue of employment and a host of other problems.


A War That No One Will Win


It is a war which no one will win. While all of these posturing and actions, by all parties involved, may have something to do with these three factors:

a. Resumption of multilateral talks concerning Nuclear disarmament (Bloomberg)
b. US - South Korea Military drills  (Xinhua.net)
c. Precarious turnover of power from ailing dictator Kim Jung Il to 26 year old son

the events that transpire before us, may lead to a gross miscalculation of all the parties. Ergo:

• The United States thinks that Nokor will not initiate and does not have the capability to engage in full scale conflict.
• The DPRK thinks that the U.S.-South Korean tandem, intends to effect political change by bringing the uncertainty of invasion to the doorstep of the reclusive state as its dictator turns power over to his successor.

The underestimation of each by the other could ignite a conflict that could see the use of nuclear weapons unseen since the second world war. With a standing army of 1.1 million active troops (CIA), the DPRK is not really an Iraq or an Afghanistan. Even if the CIA already has the ears of a general in the North, it would definitely be a conflict that would have devastating casualties.


Why a War Now?


The United States simply cannot live with a starving nuclear armed state headed by a 26 year old general. If there is a time to alter the politics of the region, it would have to be between now, Kim Jung Il's death or after the succession.

The possibility of splinter factions headed by a disgruntled general within the DPRK and the entering of nuclear weapons in the equation is just too dangerous. In a way, it would be better to change the dynamics of the politics there through force now or regret it later.

On the other hand, the DPRK has consistently shown in the past that it does not have the wherewithal to initiate conflict. It's choice of words in the KCNA, the official mouthpiece of the state, has indicated that it is by no means eager to initiate a war it knows it cannot win.

In fact, one cannot analyze the situation without pointing out that South Korean blood has already been shed and yet no retaliatory measures have been initialized by both the US and South Korea aside from conducting war drills.

World War III?


Speculation is rife that a war in the Korean peninsula will lead to a war between the US and China.

Source:

• North Korea can trigger the feared 21st Century US-China War (Philstar)

The China Wildcard


The DPRK is sending an envoy to China for bilateral talks. (Washington Post)
China Warns US as Korea Tensions Rise (Wall Street Journal)

Quote

"BEIJING -- A state news agency says a senior North Korean official will visit China this week. The visit comes amid heightened tensions following North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island last week.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday that the chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly will visit China from Tuesday to Saturday.

It says Choe Thae Bok was invited by China's second most powerful official, Wu Bangguo. Wu is chairman of the rubber-stamp National People's Congress.

No further details were provided."

The involvement of China in a regional conflict would have the farthest reaching consequences which would also affect among others, Japan. Japan is a critical point in this regard should China be involved because of the presence of a US Air base in Okinawa. In fact, Japan is in the cusps of an election between two governors who are campaigning for the removal of the US bases on various grounds. (AP)

Quote

"TOKYO (AP) — Voters headed to the polls on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa on Sunday to choose between two gubernatorial candidates campaigning for the removal of a controversial U.S. Marine base. The U.S. Futenma air base has been located on Okinawa island since 1945, and residents have long complained it produces aircraft noise and crime. A 2006 deal between the U.S. and Japan to relocate the base to a less crowded location on Okinawa has stalled over public opposition to the plan. The controversy even toppled a prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, earlier this year. The two candidates for Okinawan governor have both run on a platform that opposes the relocation plan, and the alliance between Washington and Tokyo will likely be tested no matter the outcome of the vote. Okinawa, home to about half of the some 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan, is a strategically important island close to Taiwan and the Chinese mainland and not far from the Korean peninsula. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, allowed for under a half-century U.S.-Japan alliance, is critical to deter regional security threats. His argument may be driven home by recent tension on the Korean peninsula, in particular North Korea's artillery strike on a South Korean island on Tuesday, as well as worries over China's growing military power. But any relocation of the base will need the governor's approval."

On the other hand,

Quote

"President Barack Obama is expected to speak with Hu Jintao on the North Korea crisis in the coming days, according to U.S. officials.

The White House declined to comment on China's response so far to the North Korea attack, noting that U.S. consultations with Beijing are ongoing. "The president's conversation with Hu Jintao will be extremely important," said a senior U.S. official.

The U.S. has been planning a naval exercise in the Yellow Sea since July, when an expanded list of training events was announced in response to the March sinking of the South Korean patrol ship Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors and was widely blamed on the North.

The July exercises also came after China had objected strongly to a speech by Mrs. Clinton in which she said that the U.S. had a national interest in protecting freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Ever since, China and the U.S. have been engaged in a tussle for influence in the region, where many Southeast Asian nations that have territorial disputes with China are looking to beef up defense relations with the U.S." (Wall Street Journal Online)

Japan's Stand (DefPro.com)

"As for developments in the situation on the Korean Peninsula, what course of action North Korea will take remains unpredictable. For the time being, we must recognize that the point of focus is whether the situation will further escalate from the incident. Based on my order following the instruction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Defense will continue to make utmost efforts to gather and analyze information on North Korea's military movements with considerable attention and to consequently ensure the peace and security of Japan."

Economically

• Stocks will go down (Bloomberg)
• Gold rises (Money.CNN)
• List of South Korean conglomerates (Wikipedia)
• South Korea is the world's largest shipbuilder. South Korea produced more ships in 2008 than the entire rest of the world's combined output.
• POSCO is one of the largest steel makers in the world.
• Samsung Town in Seoul. Samsung is one of the largest companies in the world.

Ubuntu 10.10 Cannot Change Monitor Resolution

My screen resolution travelled back in time... to the 90s where 800x600 was "cool".

My wife's Ubuntu 10.10 just arrived, so I installed it on my computer. Hello again free CD. Nice to see you. How are you?

Do you require one day of configuration just to work properly?

Hopefully not.

Whoops, the letters are big.

Oh, same old same old.

Hmmm, let me get back to you once I have the patience to go around ubuntuforums.

Cheers!

Special Project: Christmas Party

We're going to hold a Christmas Party for the cool kids of Barangay Tangway. Here's tentative plan that my wife made.

Christmas Party

Giant Butiki

Mommy, there's a wizard in the bathroom!

Butiki or Tuko?

The Painting

On a Sunday eve, our little friend came back. It's not really a butiki or a lizard, I think it's a tuko. If you don't know what that is, try googling it to verify.

Anyway, this little bugger was there as I was brushing my teeth.

I would've killed it, but it does not pose as an immediate threat to my family and besides, I wouldn't be able to post a picture of it on the Internet right?

Anyway, if I get the chance I might put it inside an aquarium or something.

Cheers!

Please vote on what I am going to do next.

Support Philippine Tourism

The Department of Tourism is looking for pro active people who can dedicate their talents in the promotion of our archipelago in various capacities.

I heard of the news from Carlo Ople of New Media Philippines.

If you are interested, go to http://tourismpilipinas.com/ for more details.


BrainStorm


1. Foreigner wants to visit the Philippines

• word of mouth promotion
• family relation
• search through Google
• tourist expos
• medical tourism
• advertisements
• social media

2. Search for tourist destination

• Same as above

3. Booking of ticket / hotel reservation

• online - SEO/SEM
• individual sites
• telephone
• walk in
• saw an ad
• has a brochure
• has a friend

Although much hype has been attributed to new media, the power of word of mouth marketing is still the strongest driving factor for tourism. Most visitors go here because of:

• positive experience during business trip - returns
• family - foreigner weds filipino, 
• friend's word of mouth  

A Visitor Got Lost

Once upon a time, a little baby bird got lost. 

"*Sigh* If only I could go out." said the bird.

"Outside looks good. Gee, my friends are out there. Huh, wait, who's that handsome fella over there."

"Ack some bozo grabbed me. Ouch! Don't ruffle the feathers. 

You're squeezing me."

"Maybe if I play dead, this bozo will let me go..."

The bozo, let the little baby birdie fly and the birdy partied with his friends.

THE END

Based on a true story. No little birdy was harmed in the creation of this story. Annoyed, maybe, but not hurt. 

Matt Cutts: What Would You Do if You Were Google CEO?

Matt Cutts, made a very interesting blog post that got a little over a hundred comments.

What would you do if you became Google CEO for a day?

It's a double edged sword of a question that's both dangerous and exciting at the same time. Needless to say, the amount of comments reflect the huge dearth of interest for many people. To be sure, the comments that were in the blog post were mostly about innovative and humorous ideas:

Here are some of them:

1. A lie detector. -Flavin
2. Car inventory database. -Deidre Drewes
3. Self driving flying cars -Adam Willis
4. Involvement with One laptop per child -Josh Gachnang
5. A Google banking service -Roch
6. Analytics into the products we use everyday that impact our wellbeing -Scott Cowley
7. Google Ombudsman for Google products -Lauren Weinstein
8. Increased sponsorship of Open Source Projects -Rob Heittman

and many more...

There are many "change the world ideas" that most people can only dream about.

Matt, had to jump in and say,

"I don’t want stuff so blue sky (e.g. solving all energy problems) that we’re not even sure whether it’s possible."


A recurring suggestion is the provision of tech support for Google products which Google doesn't seem to be paying much attention to. Two words, "Customer Service". Usually, if you have a Google related problem, go read a wiki or something and fix it on your own in Google Groups.

Some suggestions are downright funny

1. Upgrade the Google Campus with racquetball courts.
2. Found its own country
3. Create a new alphabet
4. Remove facebook from SERPs
5. Retire and start a crack addiction
6. Start Google Streetview for subways
7. Like #2, Found the Google State
8. Google currency

Still, there are some that are technical like:

1. Add Server Name Indication for every browser
2. Quantum computing

Business minded...

1. Purchase Adobe Business Catalyst
2. Buy facebook
3. Pay myself a massive dividend
4. Reduce the importance of backlinks

Useful...

1. Fund Wikipedia
2. Cross Client - Cross Platform Video Chat
3. Open Source textbooks
4. Google docs improvement
5. Searchable wayback machine

Hopeful

1. Cure Cancer

Insightful...

1. Sean Lind November 18, 2010 at 12:52 pm

I’m sorry Matt, but I think this question is kind of greasy (although I highly doubt that was the intention).

My issue is this:
If someone suggests a truly remarkable idea, something which Google takes and adapts into a full-scale offering, Google (one of the largest companies in the world) is simply poaching this idea from the thread.

Jill Whalen November 18, 2010 at 2:30 pm

I would sell off every business unit that didn’t have to do with search, and put all that extra man/womanpower into figuring out how to really and truly show the best search results, rather than the most spammed results.

and many more...

Personally, I find the bulk of the comments entertaining. Yet I offered something which might give him pause, I asked him,

"Why?"

Every Google user has his or her own idea and fantasy about how they would run Google should they become the CEO. The technical types gave innovations, the business minded gave business oriented suggestions, the slackers gave their slacker answer, the dreamers gave their dreamy answers and so on and so forth.

So that's why I decided to be unique and ask a question. Why? Are these ideas going to come to fruition, or is Sean Lind right in asking if Google is just out there poaching for ideas?

Well, having read Matt Cutts blog for a long time, I would surmise that he meant it for fun - as a game, so I didn't really feel the need to give my world changing idea in the hopes that Matt Cutts or Google would listen.

In the real world, having an outsider be a CEO of a large corporation for a day, even for just a token measure, is dangerous. Every company has its own rules and it would take more than a day to get to know them all, both written and unwritten.

It's a proposition that could either sink a ship or bring it to uncharted waters where no Googler has gone before.

Embed Facebook on Your Brain

Conversation

"the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc."

-Princeton

Whenever we post an update on facebook, the event that transpires is not merely the broadcasting of a message in a conversation. It is more like thinking out loud in text, pictures and videos.

The ideas are conveyed in a format that transcends words and tells a lot about your temperament, mood or world view. It is also colored by your personality and attitude.

It is not just a message that you wish to convey, that gets sent, but also how you sent it, when, where and why. It is about your choice of words and your civility or lack off.

More importantly, it is about context. We update our "friends" with what we think are relevant morsels on the things that go on in our lives. Before we press the "Post" button, we think once or twice about what the audience will think. We do this by noting other people's updates. Hence, in a way we are not only conversing, we are not merely thinking out loud - we are thinking out loud in a social sphere in plain view of other beings who are also thinking out loud.

It is in close approximation to what is described as the hive mind. The only differentiating factor is the uniqueness of the hive. In lower mental hives, the participants are drones which convey messages usually in the form of pheromones and chemical signals. Ants and bees are the best examples. They update each other on where food is, or where the enemies are.

In humans it is more complicated. Norms and social parameters govern most members of the hive. Each friend is relegated to a specific category of friends that form its own social cluster.

Embed Facebook?

It is not too far fetched that there will come a time, when organic hybrid electronic devices would be embedded in our brains.  This would enable us to communicate in a way that is similar to facebook.

Rather than brining out our mobile devices, we would be boasting about the firmware versions that the embedded microchips in our brains have. Mine is fb v. 2.0. Maybe we would be able to switch from status updates to private messages with two winks of the left eye.

It would be a balance between the hive mind and individual conversation. Speech would become obsolete as we communicate thoughts, pictures, ideas, etc wirelessly.

We could also block out unwanted thoughts from other people.

Lest a stranger bombard us with spam, a virtual handshake is required - where we add each other as friends before anything else.

Revelations

Of course, if you are a Christian, you would say that this might be the proverbial mark of the beast. Time will only tell

Wow Thank You for Voting

Today, somebody else aside from me voted for me to plant Ginger. Well, whoever you are, thank you for visiting. I have finally adjusted the amount of money that Resort Ville has. Technically it is PHP 2,279. But in actuality, I have separated my personal funds so there's a little bit more.

I stand to make money by selling almost half a ton of paper I have in storage.

At PHP 9 a kilo of used paper, I'm currently looking into the possibility of selling em to generate more funds.

Again, I really appreciate the gesture!