Aussie in the Philippines

Banking with the BDO

2012-01-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

While travelling it would be nice to use Internet banking to check things are all in order. Asking the helpful teller she informed me i must print a form from the website to enable online access. I'm sure their is 2 options but she is very sure about printing the form and bringing it back into the bank is the only option. Going online to print the form i have 2 options "print the form" or a much easier option to enter a number at any atm to confirm my online request. Know your products, it makes you look good.

Random Driving in Cebu Video

2012-01-20T19:29:00.001-08:00

90 10 theory @ mactan shrine

2012-01-20T01:01:00.000-08:00

90% of the vendors selling 90% of the same product.
10% selling what only 10% have.

Spot the difference 110v 220v its all the same anyway!

2012-01-20T00:59:00.000-08:00

Huge drum of soy sauce

2012-01-20T00:54:00.000-08:00

Incase your cooking for the who-ole family

Fancy lamp fancy cable join!

2012-01-19T01:22:00.000-08:00

37.18 again

2012-01-19T01:21:00.000-08:00

37.18MHz activity

2012-01-19T01:20:00.000-08:00

Action at the marker freq

37.18MHz

2012-01-19T01:17:00.000-08:00

Marker at 37.18MHz.

The magic earth cable. 2pin to 3 pin 220v

2012-01-15T05:20:00.000-08:00

Devices often use an earth pin for safety and interference reasons but many houses only have the 2 pin power connection. No trouble! This type of cable is available in your local grocery store! Very illegal in some country but very handy in the Philippines ;)

old RG59 tv coax used to bridge a 220volt 40AMP circuit breaker!

2012-01-15T05:19:00.000-08:00

If you had the choice of using a piece of fig8 power lead from an extension cable or an old piece of tv cable, what one would you use to bridge the terminals of a faulty house circuit breaker. The cable was rated at 220v 8Amps and the coax is well not rated for any real current at all... It's for signal and maybe a small amount of current to power a masthead amp (milliamperes).

The centre core is very fine compared to most other tv or radio coax let alone a cable used for power.

The outer-diameter is larger than the other cables due to insulation and an outer shield of foil and even finer wire.

This seems a little odd to me lucky this guy was an engineer!

After feeling the cable get warm i replaced it with the available power cable. Why things couldn't wait until the next day is the fridge full of food and the power was already out all day.

I replaced the circuit breaker the following day, yes its dangerous working with live power. It does hurt but does not kill as often as you think, you much more likely to be hit by a car while walking. In this case the house might have burned down, risking the life's of my family... Yea leave it to the experts! Let them kill you!

Pacific Ocean located between North and South America

2012-01-15T05:16:00.000-08:00

Ability to read maps isn't a requirement for people to write school science books.

Sun Cellular Tower Location In Cebu | YugaTech | Philippines, Tech

2012-01-11T19:43:00.000-08:00

Searching for sun cell tower locations in Cebu, as i have no signal and would like to know where

to stand or jump around to get signal. Trying a few different search terms in good-ol-google i get this at the top of the page.

Sun Cellular Tower Location In Cebu | YugaTech | Philippines, Tech ...

www.yugatech.com/.../sun-cellular-tower-loca... - Isalin ang pahinang ito

Our friends from Western Digital in the region is holding another contest and I'd like to invite our readers here to join in. Prizes include Western Digital HDDs and ...

2 (na) beses mong binisita ang pahinang ito. Huling binisita noong: 1/12/12

Looks good, Description is off but the title is exactly what i want. Not one item relating to Sun or Tower locations. Just a large amount of advertising. Maybe there was once content here, maybe a code error or i wonder how many page titles they have matching common search terms that lead to not just advertising but unrelated advertising.

Looking at the rest of the site they have some decent articles and some as short as mine.

Rather interesting stuff from a dodgy link!

A flat tyre in the pouring rain!

2012-01-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

My 2nd flat tyre in as many weeks. Rather i'm very lucky or the very cheap repair cost of the tyres original hole was of quality matching the cost!

So it's pouring rain and i can hear the air rushing out of the tyre, with the rain getting worse its change or get stuck time. Change! Nothing wrong with a bit of mud and rain.

Just like the last time a passing local stops to help. Putting down his banana leaf that he was using as an umbrella without words he helps find timber to put under the jack. On a main road in the middle of no-where i wonder if anyone would stop and help back in Australia.

Diatabs Antimotility

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

When travelling it's good to have a bag full of these ;)

Loperamide

Diatabs

2mg Capsule

Antimotility

Not always working but any help is good when desperate.

Australian Schilling at the GPC MONEY CHANGER

2012-01-08T23:58:00.000-08:00

You might be really old if you know what a Schilling is!

OUTDOOR HIGH POWER WiFi USB

2012-01-08T23:57:00.000-08:00

Above we have a photo of the antenna and the radio under the antenna.

I was expecting maybe a bi-quad for the antenna, known for easy design, good gain and directional. This thing has a large reflector with the coax entering via the middle to the above antenna. The shielding is connected to the reflector and only the centre of the coax comes through to the this antenna that is fed from the centre.

Given the wavelength we are working with is only just over 12cm, the track length for the driven element is huge. The coax has no shield once it passes the reflector so i gather from that point we have the active part of the antenna. In the first part of the vertical part that leaves the middle we have almost half a wavelength distance up and down and almost a full wavelength in the rest of the track to those little squares.

The antenna is directional and does appear to give some gain over a dipole i compared with. So it must be a good design just wish i knew the name of it.

The radio uses a realtek RTL-8187L and we have what appears to be a pair of amps on board! That and we have a sticker with 1W/OK on it looks good. Not taking it as gospel as claims don't have to be proven in this country to be written on a product. You can have a car with a sticker say "1million miles an hour guaranteed!" yea why not. Just to be on the safe side i'm not going to stand near it when connected.

OUTDOOR HIGH POWER WIRELESS USB ADAPTER

2012-01-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

(LP-9387)

OUTDOOR HIGH POWER WIRELESS USB ADAPTER

Php 2,380.00 from cd-r king

Weather proof case against rugged environment (mmmm ok)

• IEEE 802.11g/b standard
• Up to 54Mbps high data-rate and 1W high output power
• USB 2.0 interface and UPnP
• Supports 64/128-bit WEP encryption, advanced WPA/WPA2/802.1x for WLAN security
• Support SoftAP function - allows user to create AP function at your computer

With all the usual stuff from 2 years ago (pre 802.11n). I find the output rating and antenna design interesting. 16db from the radio (40mw?) and a 14db antenna gives the theoretical 1WATT!

A 1w radio connected to a 14db antenna would be a respectable amount of power.

Comparing the performance to an old Netgear WG111v1 it was a good improvement on signal stability to a distant AP (2km). My best distance with the WG111v1 was 16km using a reflector. Reason for using the old old v1 and not the v2 is the radio sensitivity. The v2 was deaf.

With this unit the external enclosure is not perfect but it's great for the price.

More antenna photos and radio info coming soon!

Coido 12V DC 300PSI Tire Inflator FAIL

2012-01-06T20:03:00.000-08:00

Fail or epic fail. But for a little over 1000PHP one would be silly to think this would be any better than a bike pump...

I'm not sure what the 300PSI on the unit stands for it has nothing to do with pressure as the unit fails to pump around 30psi. Not that its easy to tell the exact pressure as the LCD pressure display is constantly jumping between 12psi and 55psi.

This 300PSI pump is clearly for air mattresses and balloons, not tyres of any pressure. Picture on the front of the box might show a car tyre but in my experience i lost more air from the tyre.

Perhaps the unit requires a little more voltage so i started the car then plugged the unit back into the lighter and attempted to inflate the tyre that is now lower in pressure after my first attempt.

Same kind of result, i have to start the pump before connecting to the tyre or the motor will just not pump. Now the LCD screen is blank and showing nothing but guessing from the state of the tyre it's not doing much. 5 Minutes later the unit is noticeably hot and the tyre looks the same. Removing the unit i checked the pressure to find it has once again lost pressure.

Data:

Original test voltage 12.5v voltage drop after pump started was only .3.
Engine running voltage was 13.7 with no voltage drop after starting the pump.
Start pressure was 28psi, then 27psi, then just under 27psi respectively.

27.500.0MHz Cebu

2012-01-06T18:50:00.000-08:00

I have noticed in two hotels the spec graph with 27.5mhz as the centre freq on one of the lower channels. Why would this be broadcast for all to see? I'm very interested in why!

Just stabbing in the dark and guessing the high spikes are people chatting using only 6khz wide carrier than the span of the graph is only around 1mhz (27-28mhz) ?

Maybe someone is a keep DXer and is watching for the band to open up? The spec is noticeable more noisy or more sensitive at the lower end of the band as the average noise level is higher.

Any extra info on this one please do leave a comment!

The carpet from hell IMPERIAL PALACE CEBU

2012-01-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

"Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort and Spa is a luxury Cebu beach resort located in Maribago, Mactan Island, Cebu Philippines.
The resort is around 10-15 from the airport and 30-40 minutes to Cebu City proper."

"proper" Like not proper on any even number hour or if the sun is in the 3rd quarter or the wind is blowing south....

Looking up some prices that are unavailable on the original and direct website... I found some room photos and wow i'm not staying there! With carpet like this i just don't like it. What on earth possessed someone to choose a non-stable or bland colour. What is this the VIP room of a nightclub or exotic gaming room of a casino both places that stimulation might be accepted. In this case i would wake up relaxed in then step out of bed to OMG WTF ITS RAVE! or just puke from the interior designers epic fail.

I was looking at the basic room and since the rate are fair maybe moving to a better room but now... no, nope, not if you twist my arm!

Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu

2012-01-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

Nice, very nice.

Very welcoming staff and the spacious foyer is a nice change to some Cebu hotels that can be over packed or has a foyer layout in such a way that all people and luggage are piled in one corner...

Breakfast is excellent despite the mushy hashbrowns and the tyre rubber bacon i really shouldn't be eating that anyway. A small number of cheeses are available, i say small but more than any other hotel in Cebu offer.

Buffet layout was rather extended but well planned with rice and dried fish at one end, breads, cerials and commons in the middle and fruits at the other side.

Seating was superb with no 2 seats ontop of each other, or 2 table close. Maybe more of a western thing we enjoy our personal space, we don't want to see the food in the teeth of the person of the next table or hear his every chewing sound. Like the close nit traffic here, i believe locals can be packed in like sardines and they don't really have an issue with it.

In Australia if you are in a rush and squeeze too close to someone in traffic you will often get verbally abused ad threatened even if they are outside their lane. Damage to them none, delay to them none but just because you imposed their personal space that some how seems to go beyond their car. This doesn't exist in Cebu nor would it be possible to develop or exist due to the close nit traffic conditions.

Smile! It doesn't hurt ;)

SICK AGAIN...PART 2?!

2012-01-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Sick again, Feeling bad as before or worse. Stool is just water with small particles and i feel the need to vomit. The idea of food makes me want to vomit more. After the first few hours of water loss the scales show only 1 kilo of weight loss... Felt like more.

Trying to keep fluids up again, i'm going to avoid hospital this time. In fear the doctor might try to sell me shares in a non-existent holiday condo in Kazakhstan...

Last time i had pizza the night before and this time i had pizza the night before. My tummy is bloated yet empty and sore as hell just like before. Maybe partly from the cheese? Back home i put cheese on everything but in this case maybe the virus is making use of the chance to slow my digestive system? Also noting the first was after Greenwich pizza and the second after pizza hut. I like my pizza ^_^

3G Mobile Wireless-N Broadband Router from cd-r king

2012-01-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

3G WiFi Router from cd-r king making life easy. Plug click click online!

Using your existing mobile broadband dongle as the wan connection of a wireless router snazzy! But it can do something far greater! Using the LAN port you can change the settings to use as a WAN port, then using an existing DSL modem as uplink1 and your broadband wireless as backup/fail-over. If you have an existing all in one wireless/dsl router you could disable it's WiFi and use this. Simple and Cheap, lets hope it lasts longer than it's 6 month warranty period :)

Connections:
RJ45 = LAN/WAN
RP-TNC = 802.11B/G/N
USB = Smart/Sun/Globe/Other
DC Jack = 5V Plug pack supplied
Comes with setup CD and installation guide for around P1500

Sydney to Cebu

2012-01-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

Chinese to Sydney is like old white guys to Cebu.

Play spot the filipino in ayala mall! It's hardwork with all the foreigners about!