Visit at UP Town Center Startbucks

My family is a regular Starbucks customer. We normally visit Startbucks  at UP-Ayala Technohub on weekends. The branch is a one of the place were you can relax and forget the stressful life living in Metro Manila; the blood-boiling traffic, the everyday crimes that might put the Philippines as one of the most dangerous place to live and the pollution that will choke the life out of you. But we Pinoys are resilient, luckily. Even in a depressing situations we can still smile and crack a few jokes. Sense of humor is really flowing in our veins. We are the third happiest country in the world based on Gallup International survey and it shows, right?

Technohub is not as crowded as the malls. Trees are plenty and there's a pond with lots of fish and few ducks; sadly, kois are gone. There is also a big area where kids can ride their bike or scoot around. There are restaurants too; Kanin Club, Amici, Pizza Hut, Yellow Cab, Kenny Roger Roasters, Army-Navy and Tokyo Tokyo just to name a few.

Sometimes we visit other Starbucks branches near commonwealth. One store that we went to was the one in UP Town Centre. The place was quite full when we visited with few students studying. It took us a while to get a table inside. But after staying for about 30 minutes, we decided to move outside to escape from the cold.

We ordered fraps and green tea latte with free birthday cake.

Front of the store with few tables.

Yabu and Santouki restaurant infront of the store. 

Shrimp Bucket at UP Town Center

We're back at Shrimp Bucket in UP Town Center in Katipunan. This is our 4th visit to the place. The food are great and price is not over the top. The place is a small, so you might have to queue before getting a table. Happy eating!

Front of the restaurant. Along Katipunan road...

Salad for my wife...

Fried chicken for my daughter...

Tasty shrimp with salted egg... For everybody.

Prices seems fair...

Ipad pro 10.5

I decided to upgrade my tablet (Ipad 4 retina) after using it for almost 4 years. Ipad 4 is quite good. Although display is not as good as the latest Ipads and not as light, still it is one of the best Ipad of its generation. On thing that I really don’t like is the weight. It is tiresome if you hold it for a long time or when you use it for watching movies or just browsing the web. Also, it has large bezel, really large.

As an upgrade, I bought an Ipad 2017. It is light, very bright screen, loud and it's the cheapest Ipad. Of course, for Apple to bring down the the price, it has to cut corners. There are two things I don’t like about this Ipad. All of them is related to the display, i.e. display doesn't have anti-reflective coating which make it difficult to use a well lit environment even if you crank up the brightness level. It is like like watching in a mirror where you can see what's behind you. Worst, the screen is not laminated which add reflectiveness to the display. But if you are tight in budget and will not nitpick, then this Ipad would do just fine. One thing I learned, if you love to watch movies, go for the space gray instead of the models with white bezel. The black bezel tend to enhance the screen and less distractive. I bought a gold model and really feel distracted by the white bezel. So, after 5 months of use, I decided to sell it and bought an Ipad pro 10.5.

Ipad pro 10.5 is the latest model that Apple released. It is loaded with some fancy features, such as, bigger screen although dimension is only slightly bigger than Ipad 9.7. Apple attained this size by making the bezel thinner. It has 120hz refresh rate for better screen response specially noticeable if you are using apple pencil as it almost no lag when writing to the screen. Sadly, movies are still not using 120hz, so there was no improvement on that area. Games is another biggest gainer of the faster refresh rate.

I just notice that when 120hz is activated, like when using Apple pencil, the Ipad heats up a bit but not to the point that it will burn you.
I really like the screen. Not reflective and true tone soften the screen to make it easy to the eyes. It means that reading can be less stressful to your eyes. The sound is awesome! The 4 speakers that auto-configure itself can really fill the room. This is one area this Ipad really fly.

The model I bought is the 64GB, 4GB RAM, space gray (remember the movie?). I bought it from Trinoma in Quezon City for 37,000 pesos (around 700 USD). Payment is through 24 months instalment using BDO credit card. I got a thousand discount courtesy of the credit card promo.

So far, I am enjoying the Ipad. I use it for almost anything, like browsing the web, watching Netflix movies, reading news and Kindle books. No regrets.




Speck Ipad case
I am using Speck Ipad case with black color. It provides a good protection as it hugs the Ipad and overlapped a little on the corners for extra protection. It is a little heavy but protection is superb. 5 stars.





















Armor Tech Glass Screen Protector
I bought this from Amazon. Shipping is through my-shoppingbox.com. The screen protector is very clear and easy to apply - no bubbles. It is also finger print resistant - no messy screen. It add a little reflectiveness to the screen though but ignorable. 5 starts.

Super clear glass protector...

Primary Apps

• Onedrive - I use this to upload my file. My MS Office365 comes with 1 terabytes of cloud storage. Not bad.
• MS Office - The subscription is for MS Word, Powerpoint and Excel.
• Youtube - I normally use this to watch local shows.
• Flipboard - Source of local and international news. Make me keep abreast of the current events.
• Netflix - Binged watching my favorite series and occasional great movies.

I let go of this Ipad 2017...

So, what happened to the Ipad 4? My wife is now the proud owner of it.

Mayon Volcano Trip

We went to Legazpi last October 2017. This is is my first time to see the city although I was born 6 hours drive from Legazpi. The trip also served as 'break-in' for our newly purchased car. I drove 8 hours from Manila to our place in Bicol where we stayed overnight and left for Legazpi the following morning.

The travel to Legazpi is quite nice as the weather is cooperating. The road is in good condition but there are roads that go through the center of towns that has heavy traffic. But that similar experience when we travel from Manila to Bicol.

I booked our stay in  airbnb for 1 night. The description in Airbnb is quite different form the real one. The road going to the place only fit 1 car and it doesn't have a good parking space. The worst part is that the attendant knocked at our door early morning to ask me to move the car because the van will need to move out of the parking lot but it is parked at the back of the car park to the right side! It is the other car that is blocking it not our car! I raised this incident to the manager and to be fair to him, he action-ed my complain. Still, I gave a lower rating to warn other travellers of the problems I encountered.

We were able to go around the city after we checked in. We brave the traffic and try to have a peek of the Mayon. We were able to get some good shots. Sadly, the next day is not as good as the first day. It is cloudy and raining. Still, we tried going to Lignon Park. Alas, no Mayon as she is covered with cloud and it is raining hard. So, we decided to leave and just go to Ayala Mall to kill our time in Starbucks. Sad, sad, sad.

We left Legaspi at around 3 pm and it is still raining as hell. We went to Cagsawa Church in our way back to Camarines Norte. If we can't see Mayon at least we can see the church and take some pictures. But when we reached Cagsawa, it is flooded! And still raining. So, we end up just buying 'pasalubong'.


AirBnb, bad experience.

Mayon view from Embarcadero.

Mayon view from Lignon hill. It is raining and clouds are low. Sad.

Flooded Cagsawa church.

Imee-Irene Twin Falls

We went to my home town November last year to visit my Father. I was born in Camarines Norte. We live in one of the barangays near Sta. Elena and around 45 minutes drive to Labo. 

During my elementary years, we always swim in the river every lunch break (it is like picnic for us). At 1pm, you'll see us having red eyes and wet shorts. The teacher would notice but doesn't care much.

Another place I found is the Imee-Irene twin falls near Sta. Elena in Camarines Norte. The place is about 15-ish minutes drive from our Barangay. It was built from the help of the local government but unfortunately, it is not properly being maintained. From the main road, there is a concrete road going to the falls. 50 meters from the end of that road, you need to walk to a muddy and slippery road. Still, the Barangay will charge 20 pesos per person. Daytime robbery, isn't it?

There is no cottage. You will have to find an area to put your things. There is a toilet where you can change your clothes. No shower unfortunately. I hope the local government will re-construct the damage structures and maintain it so that people can continue enjoy the place.

From paved road going to the falls.

 

Muddy and slippery.

 

The first falls.

 The second falls.

 

 

ULM Diagramming Tool : draw.io

Diagramming is one of the frequent task I am ask to do as a Technical Architect of the 3rd largest Fintech company in the world. Designing a software requires creating loads of UML diagrams to show different processes of the system. Diagrams like component, sequence, class and deployment topology are some of the common diagrams that you will find in software design and implementation documents. These diagrams help the developers and implementor quickly understand the end to end system processes.

Based on my experience, when someone ask you some technical things like interaction between systems, explaining them with diagrams tend to help them quickly grasp what you really wanted to convey. 

I used different diagramming tool like MSVisio which is easy to use but a bit expensive. I have one installed in my laptop but was removed when our office IS pushed the Windows update to my laptop. I don't know why, perhaps due to the license cost. I tried different free UML diagramming tools like umlet and ArgUML but they are difficult to use and I don't like the UI interface. 
Luckily, I found a good one. It is called draw.io. This diagramming tool is amazing. It is web based (no need to download and install stuff) and fast. I can create different diagrams and save them to OneDrive, Google Drive or download to my laptop. It support PNG format too.

You have an option to save the diagram in Google Drive, OneDrive or local device. File save is in HTML format.

You can reload the diagram from Google Drive.

Basic sample diagram. You can save to a cloud drive or local drive. Diagram can be exported as png, jpeg, etc.





Using search function to look for a diagram.




Here are the diagrams that you can use.

Point-point Bus : Trinoma to Glorietta

Commute in Manila is a nightmare. Roads are dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians. Road signs are confusing and intentionally hidden so that traffic cops can surprise unsuspecting souls and 'milk up' some coffee money from them - we called them 'Buwaya' (crocodilus) due to their big stomach and thick skin.

According to the Government, our economy is losing 3.5 billion pesos a year due to traffic. That's a lot of money for a country that has a great need to generate money to feed its people. The worst effect of traffic is in people lives. My colleague live in Bulacan and most of the time his travel takes around 4 hours from his place to our office in Makati. Another 4 hours from Makati to Bulacan. He spend half of his day on the road instead of spending it with his family. I think that is unacceptable. Government should continue to strive for a better road and better mass transport system. People deserve better. I know, Digong is really up to the challenge.

MRT is a big challenge to the current administration. As a regular MRT commuter, I have a first hand experience on how MRT goes to become one of the most hated transport system in our country. Multiple breakdowns, accidents due to improper maintenance, incompetent management, passenger being offloaded because of system malfunctions and the worst is the multiple investigations done by the senate and yet no one was punished. Corruption at its finest!

Today, if you hate MRT or simply find it annoying that you have to wait for 30 minutes to an hour before boarding the train, you have now the option to ride via point to point bus. The bus route is from Trinoma to Glorietta. Travel will take around 45 minutes to an hour or so. Fare is quite expensive, 75 pesos one way. The first time I ride this bus the fare is only 50 pesos. I don't know the reason why they increased the fare. I can't complain. The bus is still the better alternative if I will not take the MRT. So, it is something of an expensive choice but a choice nonetheless.

The bus are clean but already showing some sign of wear and tear. It has a toilet which can be used during the call of the nature. Aircon is cold which is expected. Some has entertainment system with music and movies that you can watch if you don't want to take a quick nap while traveling. I haven't experienced people standing in the bus since I always travel after rush hour. According to my colleague, people also queue during rush hour since there are only few buses. So, I would suggest either go to Makati early or off rush hour to avoid being crushed in MRT or brave the queue.

Bus waiting for passengers who are willing to spend 75 pesos for a ride to Makati. Be careful with shuttle services who drive like crazy in this road.

You will get the ticket if you pay cash. You can also use Beep card to pay.

Space-Time Levelling

Let me try some thought experiment... Newton discovered unseen force called gravity which is what keeping us nailed to earth. Einstein correctly predicted that the gravity is cause by the mass of the sun creating a ‘huge bowl’ to the fabric-time.The planets follow the surface of the bowl which explain why planet revolves around the sun.

If the ‘huge bowl’ is being created due to the mass of the sun, what will happen if the mass of the sun deminishes? Will we see planets escaping from sun’s embrace? Or gradually, they will move away from the sun a as the space-time bowl is becoming shallower? Would that mean, human will be wiped out due to cold even before the sun gets big and used up its fuel?

What do you think?

Earthwood Guitar String

My daughter requested a guitar because she wants to learn playing the instrument. We went to SM North to and buy the guitar at JB music store for 900+ pesos. She picked the gray-ish color. It is a beginner's guitar and with the price, I would say, the quality is average. But you can buy the same quality guitar at RJ music store at slightly lower price.

One thing that she doesn't like is the strings which is painful to the fingers since they are very 'hard' (not sure if that is the right term though). So I checked Amazon to get some 'soft' guitar strings. Luckily, I found Earthwood that has a good reviews. I ordered and ship the item through my-shoppingbox.com. After almost 15 days, I received the strings.

I replaced the old strings and tuned them using an Android App. It really made a big difference playing with Earthwood strings. It is more forgiving to the fingers and has a better sound quality (I am not a musician - just an opinion). 

My daughter is now using her guitar more often and now learning how to play Ed Sheeran's 'Perfect'. I bought 2 packs of this as I am planning to buy my own beginner's guitar as well.

Delivered from Amazon.

Packaged in a plactic envelope.

Each individual string was packaged to a paper envelope.

Youtube Dark Theme

Youtube released an update to its IOS App. You can now change the theme to dark mode which is gentle to the eyes especially when you are lying bed watching your favorite channels or Netflix movies or episode. It prevent flooding of lights while your better-half is trying to catch some sleep :-). 

The feature is not yet available in Android the last time I checked. I am sure Google/Alphabet has a good reason why they decided to released the IOS update before the Android. So, for Android phone users, a bit of patience is needed :-).

It is easy to activate the dark theme. It just need enabling of the toggle button in the setting of the App. 

To enable dark theme, go to Settings and enable dark theme toggle button. Easy, yeah?

Immediate change to dark color. Very nice.

So, your Youtube App from this theme...

To this beautiful UI. Agree?

Mi 4-Port USB Charger

Looking for a affordable USB charger that provides ample of juices? Why not try the affordable 35-watts Mi 4-port USB charger? It is only worth 499 pesos much less than Anker 5-port USB charger with the same output capacity.

Charging my 12-inch Macbook with an Ipad charger via Anker USB to USB-C cable. It takes generations to charge the laptop.

Charging my laptop and Xperia phone in Mi 35-watts USB charger. Awesome!

Here are some pictures of the 35-watts Mi 4-port USB charger.

Electroneum Mobile Mining

Millionaires are made last year, literally! Young people who believed in the power of technology and invested in bitcoin made themselves tons of money. Filipinos also dived in the frenzy to get a little bite of the pot of technological gold. Investment groups in Facebook were flooded with bitcoin related posts dimming the PSE related talks.

In the company where I am working, I have a colleague who bought bitcoin last year at around 5K-ish and sold the at 19K-ish! Lucky him as he was able to get out before the dive to 10-11K USD. It even bottomed at 5K-ish. Currently, the price is playing at a 9K - 11K range. Who knows it might fly to all time high this year. 

Some Investors, projected the price to hit 60K this year. That would be a big jump from the current price. I also read a news that people who 'hodl' bitcoin will sell them at 200K which means holding the coin for a couple of years before realizing the profit. Maybe bitcoin can realy become the new 'gold' which means the price can go as high as 320K!

My friend introduced me one of the ICOs in the UK called 'Electroneum'. It offered the coin at 0.01 USD. I think you can buy a minimum of 100 USD but you need to convert the dollar to Bitcoin to be able buy Electroneum coin. I did not take part as I don't want to take a risk of losing money to something I really don't understand yet (even if it is only 100 USD!) - as Buffet said, "you can be wrong to the investment that you think you know everything of, what else to the things that you know nothing of". Very true indeed.

So without spending some hard-earned money, I tried to mine Electroneum using mid-2011, 2GB Macbook Air laptop. I was able to synchronized the node which downloaded around 14GB of data for 4 days in 5mbps PLDT Fiber connection! I ran 4 miner threads which pushed up the temperature to 80%. I used the portable fan I bought from SM to provide ventilation - crazy. Running the miner for 2 days did not produce even a single coin! With the heat it generates, it can damage my laptop.

So, I gave up...

It is an  a nice experience though to go through the setup of the mining node. I setup the Electroneum node by downloading the CPU Mac Direct Miner from https://downloads.electroneum.com/. 

I just followed the steps provided from the page on how to setup the node. It is pretty much straight forward process. 

Electroneum also provided pool miner which I think is much better than direct CPU mining, especially if GPU is use. Based from the feedback of my colleagues who already setup a rig for GPU mining, the earning is around 11K for 4 GPUs (minus 3K for electricity). That will leave you around 8K net profit. Normally, ROI is 1 - 2 years (depends on how much you spend in the setup).

Luckily for guy like me who cannot spend money (or nothing to spend), Electroneum developed a mobile miner for Android (soon on IOS). The miner doesn't actually mine. Electroneum compute the hashrate of the mobile phone and allocate a pre-mined coin. 
I am using sony xperia x phone with 64GB storage and 3GB RAM. Hashrate is around 28 H/s but it drops to 14 H/s. When I stop then restart mining, the hashrate goes back to around 28 H/s. 

So, I did try... 0.2 ETN for 2 hours. Not bad compare to the 2 days in CPU mining without earning anything.

I am using Blockfolio IOS app to monitor the price.

After 4 days, I already earned 10.05 ETN which was automatically transferred to my web wallet.

Update:
Previously, when my accumulated ETN hit >10, they are automatically transferred to my web wallet. But that is not the case now. I already mined 21.25 ETN but they are still inside the app (or offline wallet?). Hopefully, it is not something that I should be concerned of.