Everyone, I hope you’re enjoying your Christmas. Last year I mentioned our furry Belen, and if you were still wondering about that one, here’s a look.
Maligayang Pasko! Maligayang Kaarawan ni Hesus!
Yahoo!-powered Adobe PDFs: Advertising in Retrograde Motion?
Correct me if I’m wrong when I say putting Yahoo!-powered advertisements inside Adobe PDF files stinks a bit like the ad-ridden Opera browser. Except that since 2005, Opera has thrown out the pay-for-an-ad-free-version.
So is Adobe going backwards and doing what Opera has done ages ago? Not quite.
These pay-per-click ads will be contextual, like Google Adsense and Yahoo! Publisher Network. Publishers also stand a chance to earn from this, not just the advertisers and Yahoo! itself.
Since contextual ads are much more profitable from a certain viewpoint compared to the distracting banner ads once found inside Opera, this is supposedly better, right? I guess so, but why go backwards and put ads on software that was previously ad-free?
Because technically, you’re putting ads on the content of the PDF, not the software itself. Still, it reminds me of ad-infested programs—99% of which are spyware.
Still Not Receiving Funds with PayPal/UnionBank
You might have heard PayPal has arrived in the Philippines both for sending and receiving funds, and that the ideal way of receiving your funds would be through a debit card—rather than a credit card—which is provided solely by UnionBank.
Setting up the link between the Philippine bank and the online payment site was hardly troublesome, however I’ve tried withdrawing funds from PayPal over to my UnionBank account since November 14, but even after 11 business days (the maximum period for funds to appear, apart from the quicker 3-5 days) nothing has arrived since.
UnionBank says they have no control over the matter and that I had better contact PayPal about it. Well, right now PayPal is taking forever to load its pages. I can only hope the amount I withdrew has not yet disappeared, and that both parties won’t start pointing fingers leaving their customer a sorry victim from all of this.
Actually, UnionBank already has. There goes my hope.
Update (12/14/2007): After two support messages sent to PayPal all I got was this: “Due to an increase in seasonal email volumes, we may not have been able to answer your email.”
Update (12/15/2007): The PayPal funds seem to have arrived on December 14 according to the transaction log. So it took “exactly” one month to make it to the Philippines.
How Do You Bring Reading and Learning to Philippine Cellphones?
EDSA Dos. Electronic cash. Train passes. Dual-SIM phones. Miss calling phones. Most of the innovations in this texting republic take on specific and unique needs—be it avoiding theft, minimizing expenses, or ousting no less than the President of the Philippines. Could literacy and education be added to that list?
Last night I learned literacy rates among Filipinos have diminished by 7% since 2003. And that predictably, text messaging and online gaming have taken the place of reading books.
Shortly after, I discovered Japan has found yet a new use for its unbelievably versatile mobile phone: Cyber University. With almost 2,000 students enrolled since its opening in April, this university offers over 100 courses online, through a computer or a mobile phone.
It seems futile to develop and implement the same technology here, especially to the people that need it the most but in all probability have no phones anyway. To those who do, however, I can definitely imagine something on a smaller scale. The wildly popular Inday could be a start.
A few nits to pick first: her English is only almost believable, far from sophisticated, and even slightly forced. Her quips aren’t as witty as true comedy should be. One joke reveals how little she understands Rizal, which, like the others, clearly assumes anyone Inday talks to is dumber than her.
However, “intelligent” text jokes with a dash of vocabulary lessons might be the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down—in a most delightful way!
T-Mobile Trademarks Magenta
Yes, T-Mobile supposedly owns the rights to the color magenta. I just learned about this from thehappycorp, whose cheery logo also happens to be same hue.
COLOURlovers warns against the use of said color in the industry which the company belongs to. It’s telecommunications, and that’s a pretty broad area.
The article also quotes exactly which type of magenta is “owned” by T-Mobile and its mother company, Deutsche Telekom. Apparently they’ve registered the color number 395 52 630 since 2000:
The plaintiff, Deutsche Telekom AG, which uses the colour “magenta†for designating its services and in its advertisements and/or commercials, has been the owner of the colour mark No. 395 52 630 “magenta†(RAL 4010) since September 12, 2000 which was registered on the basis of a proven secondary meaning (i. a. for goods and services in the field of tele-communications). Furthermore, the plaintiff is also the proprietor of Community colour mark “magenta†registered on August 3, 2000.
Obviously, T-Mobile has pulled a Tiffany Blue. You can’t blame them for laying claim to a most effective method of brand recall. The only difference is T-Mobile now has the right to sue any entity in the same industry that uses magenta. And that industry, the telecommunications industry, is a big one: from telephones to mobile phones to the Internet. This could even move over to all other industries if the company becomes famous enough.
So now everybody’s up in arms to reclaim the color magenta. You can’t blame them, either.
Paying Attention to Kids
I find the awe over kids drawing paper laptops as design inspiration surprising and ironic. (You can find more photos of the kid’s “laptop club” in this interview.)
The article says we should pay attention to how these schoolchildren are designing their pretend laptops:
The kids have seen and used computer keyboards. Their designs are partly their own memory of what computer keys they’ve seen, party keys they would like to see, and partly keys they feel ought to be. It is this aspirational aspect of design that I think is most telling. Why shouldn’t our keyboard have a button that evokes “best friend”?
Don’t get me wrong: I’m a firm believer that kids are way more sensible than adults. And the world needs more articles like it.
But the phenomenon is not new. We’ve all gone through that phase when we build our castles, (flying!) cars, and spaceships with pencil and paper. (I tried really hard to draw my dream car before. The dashboard was especially tricky since I realized the possibilities were endless; it was, after all, my dream car.) Then build ‘em with LEGO. Then build ‘em with hard-earned cash and/or sheer will.
I hope that by then cars could fly.
