The Pinoy Hot Spot

WHAT IS SOPA/PIPA? By JERRY LIAO

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:16:00 +0000

MANILA, Philippines — The internet experienced what some say is the first blackout of cyberspace when some sites particularly Wikipedia decided to suspend its operations due to its objection to two bills, namely the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

PIPA was first introduced to the U.S. Senate while SOPA was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives. Lets talk about PIPA first:

PIPA if passed will give U.S. corporations and the government the right to seek affirmative legal action with any website that they see as enabling copyright infringement whether of U.S. origin or not. In other words, they will have the authority to:

- government can force U.S. internet providers to block access to websites deemed as enablers of copyright infringement

- suing search engines, blog sites, directories, or any site in general to have the black listed sites removed from their website

- force advertising services on infringing websites, and those supporting of them, to remove them from their advertising accounts

- the power to sue any new websites that get started if they believe that they are not doing a good job of preventing infringement on the website

On the other hand, SOPA if passed will provide the government and private corporations the following:

- force search engines, advertisers, DNS providers, servers, and payment processors from having any contact with allegedly infringing websites

- allow private corporations to create their own personal hit lists composed of websites they feel are breaking their copyright policies.

- Payment processors will have the power to cut off any website they work with if they believe the site is violating copyrights

If we are going to look closely on both SOPA and PIPA, we could say that this is a form of censorship, perhaps even worst than censorship. PIPA will penalized content providers while SOPA will penalized web operators, advertisers and ISPs.

Imagine these scenarios: what if a child sings a song and uploaded a video, is that copyright infringement? What if a user posted a picture, a video, quoted a text from site and posted it on Facebook or Twitter, is that copyright infringement? If yes, then Youtube, Facebook and Twitter will also be penalized under SOPA. Imagine if SOPA and PIPA were to exist now - we will not have a Charice or an Arnel Pineda.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder has this to say "The Internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet's development."

I tend to agree with what Zuckerberg said. There are a lot of vague issues surrounding the web. When do you consider a certain content violating copy infringment? And with the internet containing vast content, how much will be spent just to monitor all the content?

How about those who are doing business on the web? People who use social networking sites to sell their products, do they pay taxes? Should we stop them too? How about those who import products from various sources and sell them at a much lower cost on the web?

Daniel Craig aka James Bond Had Good Time in Manila

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:22:00 +0000

MANILA, Philippines - Hollywood actor Daniel Craig, known for his role as "James Bond" in “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace”, said he had a good time visiting the country.

"I had a wonderful time in Manila; wish I could extend my stay," Craig said, as quoted by The Philippine Star on Thursday.

Craig arrived in Manila last weekend to visit his wife Rachel Weisz, who is now in Manila shooting the spy film "Bourne Legacy" with actors Jeremy Renner and Edward Norton.

Last Wednesday, Craig was at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where he boarded a flight to Hong Kong. He is said to be heading back to the United Kingdom.

Evanescence at Smart Araneta Coliseum this coming February 19

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:06:00 +0000

MANILA, Philippines - American rock band "Evanescence" is coming to Manila for a one-night show.
The group will be performing at Araneta Coliseum this coming February 19 with rock band Bush.
"Evanescence" founded by singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody is known for their hits "My Immortal", "Anywhere", "Everybody's Fool "Like You" and "Bring Me To Life."
"Evanescence Live In Manila" is presented by Ovation Productions.

Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com

Three lessons from Steve Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:08:00 +0000

The business and technology worlds lost one of their brightest with the passing of Steve Jobs last week. The man who created – and recreated – Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) was clearly both the driving force and marketing genius behind one of the world’s favouriteste consumer electronics brands.

Jobs, with partner Steve Wozniak, started Apple in the fabled garage, before famously being sacked by the Apple board some years later, only to return triumphantly to steer Apple through its second act.

In between, Jobs put his immense energy and creativity into the Pixar movie studio he bought from George Lucas for a relative pittance (around US$10 million including a cash injection into the business) in 1986. He later sold Pixar to Disney for US$7.4 billion!

The life of Steve Jobs has lessons for technologists and leaders, and I believe there are some key lessons to be learned by investors to improve the quality of our company analysis.

Passion matters

Steve Jobs retained perspective throughout his life. His writings and videos of his speeches (of which his Stanford commencement address is the best known) show a man who was able to separate himself from the crowd – avoiding "groupthink" and keeping a relentless focus on excellence.

In today’s sanitised business (and political) world, there is an abundance of market research. Many businesses and political parties continually research new ideas by asking groups of people in the target market for their views on a new idea or a new product.

Steve Jobs may well have tested his new ideas in market research, I don’t know. What we do know is that he took a very single-minded approach to new products. He chose to be innovative and he chose to be creative.

Jobs said "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new".

Focus on the user

Jobs – and by extension Apple – had a very specific product development method. They took a "Field of Dreams" approach; if you build it, they will come. To that end, the team at Apple simply focused on making a great product. They wanted to create something they were proud of; something they themselves wanted to use.

It takes a degree of guts (and perhaps arrogance) to assume that your own desires can be translated into a mass-market offering but for Apple, it worked. Importantly, Apple didn’t compromise on passion or quality, instead believing that excellence would bring its own rewards:

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

The vision thing

The business career of Steve Jobs was one of a visionary who knew what he wanted to create, a leader who could variously inspire and drive a team of like-minded individuals, and a marketer who built one of the most powerful brands of our time – twice.

Commentators (and investors themselves) tend to lump investors into groups – value v growth and technical v fundamental most common amongst them. I’m sure investors have bought and sold Apple over the years quite happily as members of the groups in this paradigm.

What none of these artificial divisions tend to prioritise highly enough is the organisation itself. Not the business or the brands – though these are important – but the leadership and culture.

Foolish take-away

Warren Buffett was right when he said “When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.”

However, as long as the business economics are attractive, management quality – and the culture it creates – can add immense value to an investor’s returns. Steve Jobs is likely to be an extreme example, but when you dig into the truly impressive organisations, the best of the best, you find management and a culture that is unusually strong.

Next time you go to the balance sheet, the growth numbers or the share price chart, take a minute (or more) to ask yourself whether you know enough about the company’s management and culture. You’ll almost certainly make a better decision when you can answer that question in the affirmative.

The Pinoy Hot Spot

WHAT IS SOPA/PIPA? By JERRY LIAO

Daniel Craig aka James Bond Had Good Time in Manila

Evanescence at Smart Araneta Coliseum this coming February 19

Three lessons from Steve Jobs

Did TV5 Offer Derek Ramsay a Multi-Million Peso Contract?

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

Shamcey Supsup activated the colonial mentality in us filipinos

Shamcey Supsup : Fast Facts

A diamond ring for Shalani Soledad

Chrome browser now allows remote computer control

Apple's iPhone 4S breaks early order record

Globe PowerSurf vs. Smart Always On

Typhoon Ramon Latest Update 10/11/11 | PAGASA

SmartBro Rocket WiFi Plus: Php6495 for 20Mbps

Justin Bieber Christmas Album Songs

LEGO Ford Explorer built from 380,000 bricks

Top Ten Signs That Your Boyfriend is a Gay

Angel Locsin & John Lloyd Cruz Cosmo October 2011 Cover

Apple Founder Steve Jobs Dies

Steve Jobs Quotes

Apple Unveils the iPhone 4S - 10/05/11

Top 7 Kinds of Foods to Eat to Fight Fat - 09/30/11

CityVille, Global Warfare Now on Google+ - 09/28/11

Tropical Storm Pedring is #1 Trending on Yahoo! Philippines - 09/27/11

Rhian Ramos-Moymoy Palaboy Super Bass Parody Video - 09/26/11