The pressure on the NTC and the telecommunications companies to come up with solutions to the problem of vanishing prepaid credits seemed to have paid off now that new rules will come out that require the telcos to extend to shelf life of prepaid credits (load) here in the Philippines.

Part of the draft NTC rules lays down the new shelf life of prepaid credits:

credits of P10 to P20 will be valid for seven days; over P20 to P30 for 10 days; over P30 to P40 for 14 days; over P40 to P50 for 17 days; over P50 toP60 for 20 days; over P60 to P70 for 24 days; over P70 to P80 for 21 days; over P80 to P100 for 30 days; over Pl00 to Pl50 for 45 days; over Pl50 to P200 for 60 days; over P200 to P300 for 90 days; and over P300 to P600 for 150 days.

Aside from the extension of prepaid credit’s shelf life, another set of rules will:

clamp down on the activities of third-party “value-added service” firms that send unsolicited text messages to mobile phone owners.

Well and good. Finally, the public seems to have gotten something really good from a Senate hearing. Though it took one of them to be a victim of the “vanishing load” for the whole Senate to act on the matter, but it’s better to be late than never right?

Anyways, another way of making sure that the telcos are not unjustly milking us for profits, it’s best if we the public remain vigilant in asserting our rights and making our voices heard.

Something this video campaign of KABATAAN Party reminds us of:

Of course, we’ve been all too familiar with this problems by now. It’s just comforting to know that at last, something is being done by the higher-ups and the public.

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It’s probably late than never, but it’s great news that Firefox 3.5 has been released yesterday for the masses to download and enjoy.

Those who fell in love with Google Chrome and it’s many great features sans plugins & extensions support would probably switch back to Firefox 3.5 because the same cool features in Chrome like tab tearing, that awesome search bar and private browsing are now also found in Firefox. I know, because I’m starting to love Firefox again.

I think the best new feature about this version of Firefox is the support for HTML 5 with video in an open-source format like Ogg Vorbis or Theora. It means that Firefox 3.5 treats videos as if they are just part of the page and not as embedded flash objects. This, in my theory, would be a key in by-passing some firewalls that filter out flash objects in webpages.

Of course there’s support for tab tearing in Firefox 3.5, which was first introduced by Chrome. Again, better to late than never right?

A minor qualm over Firefox 3.5’s private browsing mode

However, there’s one thing that I frown about Firefox 3.5. Sure it now has a porn private browsing mode but why does it have to devote the entire browser into that mode whenever private browsing is activated? I like Chrome’s implementation better. It’s version of private browsing called Incognito, allows me to open a regular Chrome window or tab and an Incognito window at the same time. It’s more flexible and less time consuming.

In Firefox 3.5 however, it interrupts your workflow because it stops your current regular browsing session and devotes the entire browser into private mode. What if you only wanted to view a single page in private browsing just to have a peek or do a quick transaction?

Hopefully, the Firefox team will consider this minor issue for the next version. Overall though, version 3.5 is a great update to Firefox because I almost made the complete return to using Firefox as my default browser.

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When I learned that I was amongst the few bloggers who were chosen to be given a .com.ph domain for free, the first thing that came to my mind was to name it after myself. Thus, jrocas.com.ph was born. I just fancied the idea of my name being associated with my home country and besides, there are not that many .ph domains out there.

It was never my plan to really build the domain into my personal brand, like that of Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger.net, but just like what he said,

One of the best definitions of a ‘brand’ that I’ve read is that it is ‘what people say about you when you’re not in the room’ (I’m not sure where I heard this one – if you know who came up with it please let me know). Your blogs brand is the way that it is perceived and described by others.

As a result a brand emerges over time without or without you as people begin to develop perceptions about you and what your blog stands for. As they read your content, as they look at your design, as they interpret what you say, as they gauge your passion, as they observe how you interact with them and other readers – all of this contributes to how they perceive and describe you – your brand.

And blogging gurus would tell us that we should really build up our brand, market it and protect it. It may not be for purely commercial (money-making) purposes, but since it’s an inevitable part of blogging, we might as well maximize it.

My name as a brand

The last word, “protect” as in protecting our brand really caused an itch to my brain when I received an email from WorldWide – a domain registration company telling me that someone, whose name I would keep secret for now, wants to use the brand name ‘jrocas‘ and register some domains using that same brand name/keyword.

They did some investigation and found out that I am already the owner of this domain, jrocas.com.ph and jrocas.net, leading to the assumption that I own the rights to use “jrocas” as a brand name.

They said that if I register or pre-register the same domains that other guy wants to right now, they’d cancel his application. If I don’t register those domains, they’d give all of it to the other guy.

Domaining

It felt like GoDaddy.com was trying to convince me to register multiple versions of a domain so that I’d be able to protect the main domain or the brand from competitors. Budgetary constraints, however, have prevented my from registering multiple domains and besides, I never really get to fully utilize additional domains I’ve bought before. Aside from the usually redirection to my main blog, those domains have been idle and costing me money.

And it never really occurred to me that someone else would use my name as a brand name back then, but now, I’ve realized how short-sighted that was.

So my dilemma now is whether to register other versions of this blog’s domain as to protect my ‘brand’ or not. Definitely it will cost me money, but I’m starting to really consider it and view it as an investment. I’m also approaching this issue with great caution, as I’ve never heard of WorldWide before and some how, I cannot help but get the feeling of suspicion as this could be just another scam or something.

So what’s next?

However, their message does have a valid point. That’s why I will register some of the domains they’ve mentioned but not all it. There are other ways to promote and protect your brand besides registering multiple versions of a domain and I’d like to give it a shot.

How about you? Have you had a similar experience? What did you do to protect your brand? If you have tips and stories, don’t hesitate to share.

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Another weekend, another round of PhotoHunt. I know I’ve been absent the past few weekends but hey, it’s always nice to be joining again.

This weekend’s theme is all about ‘flags‘. Since June is the month the Philippines celebrates its day of Independence Day, the National Flag and historical flags like those used during the Revolution of 1896 are displayed all over the country.

However, my contribution is a photo taken not this June but last April during our family summer trip to the beaches of Matabungkay, Batangas.

Around the shores were cottages fixed to bamboo rafts. A common attraction around those beaches. Well, most of them had flags, Philippine flags, flying over their roofs. And these were being flown all-year round so their owners are celebrating Independence day 365 days of the year.

Okay, I know there are only two flags in the photo I shared, but it’s more than one so there, flags!

Happy PhotoHunting everyone!

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The last time I used Digsby was last year. Back then I was glad an app allowed me to sign to my multiply IM accounts at the same time. However, I decided to stop using it because it was quite the resource hog back then.

All that has changed thanks to Build 60 of Digsby. Here’s a run-down of the notable changes it brings with it:

• Performance: We’ve optimized performance from the ground up, reducing overall CPU usage by about 50%
• Buddy List Search: Press Ctrl+F to easily search your buddy list or the web
• Emoticons: Added four new emoticon packs to choose from
• File Transfers: Improved the reliability of AIM, ICQ, and MSN file transfers
• Conversations: Added an option for new IM windows to start hidden and blink the tray icon instead of popping up a window
• New Infobox: The infobox now uses the same user interface control as the IM window (WebKit), making it much faster and more versatile
• Twitter: Added Retweet support
• MySpace: Added support for setting status on MySpace
• Google Talk: Added support for the Invisible status on Gtalk
• And More: Over 100 other bug fixes and enhancements!

I agree with the many happy Digsby users today that the Digsby team has really delivered a good release this time around. The feature I have noticed and love the most is indeed the reduced CPU usage which I noticed right away after starting it up while running five Chrome windows each with at least four tabs open.

Last year, running Digsby in the same situation would’ve easily brought my notebook to a snail’s pace, but not today.

Thanks to its Twitter and Facebook support, I’ve eliminated the need to use TweetDeck which has been another resource-hog of late. On top of all that, is the key feature of having access to all my IM accounts at the same time.

Give Digsby a spin, you’d be amazed with it.

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