Push texts

I was watching the news the other day. Apparently, push texts are illegal. That is, companies should not send unsolicited promo text messages to your phone. Says so the NTC. Yeah, that impotent government department that ought to be abolished for being useless. No one will miss it. No one will even know. But I digress.

So what are we, the hapless consumers, to do now? I average 2 text messages from Smart everyday, and 2 from BPI every week. It is a minor annoyance at first. But now that I have a baby, these push text messages are more than an irritant. They are a major hassle.

This is what I resolve to do. Whenever I receive a push text, I will call their free-toll help line. Clog that system just a bit. Let me harass that agent -- tell him/her that their push text just woke my baby up. Ask that agent to put my baby to sleep over the phone. You get the idea.

Hey, you are all welcome to join in the fun. Every little bit helps. They push their texts on us, we push back. Make it cost them.

CD-R King Wi-Fi Router

I'ma keep this short and sweet.

Bought one, tried it out and I'm happy with it.

A good mix of economy and functionality.

For those looking for a router while on a budget, I'd highly recommend it.

Chowking Meycauayan Review

I have been to different places, both urban and otherwise, and I can't help but notice that the quality of food differs with the kind of place the branch is located.

For example, I ordered a yang chow fried rice from an Ortigas branch for take-out and ate it on the bus ride home since I was already famished. The taste was superb and I don't think it was just because I was already starving. Then on another branch on the suburbs, the quality of the yang chow fried rice differs with the kitchen work shifts. Back then, it was better at morning but it got bad at night. Or that branch on SM Marilao that served me some King's Congee with a rotten century egg. Management insisted that century eggs do taste like that but I insisted that I have been eating Chowking congee for a long time and it never tasted like it did on that day. Afterwards, I made sure I avoided that branch.

However, there is one branch I've been to the most (even if I tried my best t avoid it.)

Chowking Meycauayan Branch. My hometown, so naturally, it's the closest to my heart.

However, I noticed a lot has changed in a rather short span of time.

Previously, they would just occasionally serve me saltier-than-bagoong Congee but I could let that slide as a random mistake from the kitchen crew. Besides, Chowking isn't purely about Congee.

Having been introduced to it since I was but a child, I know it's all about noodles or at least mostly about noodles.

A few weeks ago, it broke my heart to learn that the Meycauayan Branch has stooped down to unbelievable depths. Unforgivable sins towards the gods of cookery.

The Pansit Canton smelled and tasted like soot and I won't be surprised if there were anything else on that.

But that's not the entire point.

Their noodles broke my heart. What was supposed to be a small serving or Wanton Noodles came out of the kitchen in a different way than usual.

The broth was just lukewarm, the wanton was still half-frozen from inside and the noodles itself was old and was cold. (And no, I didn't order cold noodles.)

To top it all off, the previously interesting Nai Cha was now turned into some bubble tea drink and the sago they used was almost at the point of spoilage. (And may I remind you that I have lower standards for food compared to that of an average guy.)

Scribie

The internet is not a magical cash machine. Stop dreaming that it is. There is no form filling job that will earn you 20K USD a month. Any job that requires you pay a fee upfront is a scam. Don't even bother looking into it.

That said, it is possible to make a few bucks here and there online. But you have to work for it. Here is the real deal, the only upside of working online from home is that you don't have to dress up and commute, otherwise, online work is still work.

A quick way of earning a few bucks online is scribie.com. All you need is a computer with a fairly good internet connection, a good set of headphones, and a lot of patience. To get paid, you will also need a verified Paypal account. The job is transcribing audio files into text format. It is not rocket science. You don't even have to type that fast, as you are given 2 hours to transcribe 6 minutes of audio. You work only on the files you want to, when you want to. You are even given a 1 minute preview of the file before you have to select the job.

If you are interested, prepare yourself for a test, which is a paid test if you pass. Pay is 1 USD per 6 minutes of audio, which translates to 10 USD per audio hour transcribed. It will not pay for the rent, but it can pay for the internet and a little more. Downside to the site is that there are times when files are scarce. It is first come first served. Right now however, start of 2013, I see a good amount of files available.

Smart Bro complaint by Neckromancer

Last week I called up SmartBro about my internet connection again. It seems to be that I can only get good connections between 1AM until 6AM. I prepared myself: I purchased a Smart SIM rather than waste prepaid credits from my cellular. I called them up on a Sunday afternoon, with Matt Monro in the background (I hate their hold music).

Before the agent told me to do troubleshooting, I told him that I already did those things. The issue at hand does not lie with my device, whether I got a router, or the location of my receiver. The main significant fact is the time I can get a good internet connection. It is just like 1997 that there's an off-peak time where I can connect. The poor agent can only mumble call center cliches to say sorry. He put me on hold, got back and told me there is an ongoing adjustments in our area, I barely believed it, being in the call center industry myself. Around us we get internet cafes without interrupted connections. And I am one of the first people in our area to apply for a postpaid connection with SmartBro. Should I pay more? Should I "upgrade" my connection to 4G? With no answers forthcoming, the whole experience only left me seething for the whole experience.

PLDT MyDSL Application

Frustrated with my current internet service provider, SmartBro, I wanted to try switching to another provider and sent out an online application to PLDT MyDSL. I realize of course that PLDT and Smart are practically the same, but I am switching to a post-paid service that will not be dependent on cell-sites but cabled.

So I sent out the application at least a week before Christmas last year. And they replied with an email yesterday. Yes, YESTERDAY. They took more than one month to give out a confirmation that they even received my application.

And so I replied, to the effect that -- it took you more than one month to reply to my email application, I wonder how long it would take you to respond to a tech-support request. No ma'am, I am no longer interested in your product.

The gall of these people! Does PLDT still think they have a monopoly the way they did during martial law? That they can sit on your request for a phone line for ten years, and still you would like to have their service because their crappy service is the only service in town? I'd rather suffer the up-and-down intermittent signal of my current ISP than give them my business.