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Monthly Archives: August 2006

PickEm-damaged Treo Fixed!

Without any further reading, I installed PickEm on my Treo 600. The app let’s you zoom to an object while using the Treo 600′s built-in camera (that does not have zoom). The down side is that, after some time, all the pictures I take using the original Treo 600 Camera application or in PickEm simply gets redish.

Searched the WWW for solutions but to no avail. Yesterday, while searching for new apps to install on my Treo, I found this nifty utility: Cameratest (for Palm OS) at http://mytreo.net/downloads/details-111.html

There is this section in the Cameratest app that allows you to delete values in the camera’s current settings. Read one of the reviews that if you want to bring your camera back to factory settings, all you need to do is to delete all of the values in the current settings. Did it. And it worked!

Knights: 8 to 1

CSJL Knights gained their 8th win yesterday in the expense of the UPHDS Altas, 66-54. Here are some of today’s news clips:

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Knights whip Altas for 8th win

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=46751

By FRANK CALAPRE
The Manila Times Correspondent

Defending champion Letran College repulsed University of Perpetual Help Dalta System, 66-54, on Monday, gaining a playoff for the last semifinal slot in the 82nd National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

With the win, 16-time NCAA titlist Letran regained a share of the lead with idle San Beda College on identical 8-1 win-loss cards. Both the Knights and Red Lions need just one more win to formally enter the Final Four.

Letran started slow against Perpetual Help. Star guards Boyet Bautista and Aaron Aban, who both attended the Philippine Basketball Association’s rookie camp earlier in the day, appeared fatigued and dragged the team along with them.

That allowed the undermanned Altas to tie the game six times in the first two quarters and even lead, 33-27 at halftime.

Bautista and Dennis Daa, however, combined to pull the Knights ahead in the third period, and they were never threatened from there.

“If we want to go to the next level, we have to start strong. We should not be slow event at the start,” said Letran coach Louie Alas.

“This is one of the games that I am not satisfied with their performance,” added Alas, who is seeking his second straight title with the Knights.

Despite attending the pro league training camp, Bautista finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. The 6-foot-3 Aban scored 10 on top of 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

The Altas, who came with only with nine players, failed to sustain their spirited play in the first half. They led 40-37, but Aban and Baustista scored back-to-back baskets to grab the upper hand for the Knights, 47-42 at the end of the third quarter.

Without forwards Vladimir Joe and Alvin Manalang in the fold, Perpetual Help could only watch helplessly as Letran dropped a 9-2 run to post its biggest lead, 56-45, still 8 minutes remaining in the match.

Joe, a 6-foot-4 power forward, was nursing an injured ligament on his left knee.

Virgilio Manuel topscored for the Altas with 11 points followed by Conrad Bauzon with 10 and nine points for Sang Lee.

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Knights ride past Altas, share lead

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/news200608081601.htm

By Joey Villar
The Philippine Star 08/08/2006

Letran went to rookie Fiel Daa when its veterans sputtered in the early going as the defending champions pulled off a 66-54 victory over the Perpetual Help Altas yesterday to regain a share of the lead with San Beda in the 82nd NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Daa came through with a season-high 14 points, including eight in the third quarter when the Knights mounted their comeback from a 27-33 deficit at the half to seize control at 47-42 at the end of the period.

Boyet Bautista and Aaron Aban, two of the top prospects in the coming PBA Rookie Draft, struggled early but settled down in the fourth quarter where they combined for 12 points to seal the Muralla-based cagers’ eighth victory in nine games for a share of the lead with the Red Lions.

However, observers Bautista and Aban held back on their game early on to conserve energy for the PBA rookie training camp late yesterday at the Philsports Arena.

Bautista, in fact, made only six of the 17 shots he took although he still wound up with 14 points. Aban, on the other hand, went three-of-11 from the field and finished with 10 points.

But those hardly mattered for Letran coach Louie Alas.

Another rookie, Virgilio Manuel, led the Altas with 11 points but Perpetual Help’s top guns failed to deliver the goods expected of them.

Khiel Misa, the league’s current leading scorer with an average of 18.2 points, struggled with just seven points. Worse, Vladimir Joe sat out the game due to an MCL (medial collateral ligament) injury.

In the other seniors game, last year’s runner-up Philippine Christian U trounced St. Benilde, 79-70, to remain at third place with a 7-2 (win-loss) slate.

It was the Blazers’ eighth setback against a win.

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Letran back on top with San Beda

http://www.mb.com.ph/SPRT2006080871243.html

Knights beat Altas for 8th win

By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA

DEFENDING CHAMPION Letran College moved a step closer from claiming a semifinal slot as the Knights hacked out a 66-54 victory over University of Perpetual Help yesterday in the NCAA basketball tournament at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Pro-bound Boyet Bautista and rookie Dino Daa starred for the Knights as they delivered the knockout punches in the final five minutes to tie San Beda for the lead once again at 8-1.

Bautista and Daa finished with 14 points apiece, apart from combining for 13 rebounds and five assists.

Power forward Aaron Aban, who also attended the PBA rookie camp earlier in the day at the Philsports Complex along with Bautista, also produced decent numbers, tallying 10 points, six boards and five assists as the Knights reaffirmed their mastery over the Altas.

The Knights and Red Lions need only to win one of their remaining five games to advance into the Final Four.

In the other senior match, Philippine Christian University also boosted its Final Four bid with a 79-70 win over St. Binelde. The win was PCU’s seventh in 9 starts

Despite the win, Letran coach Louie Alas was from satisfied.

“We still lack mental toughness and we were passive. If we keep on playing this kind of game, we won’t be able to get into the next level,” rued Alas. “Sabi ko sa kanila, hindi pwedeng opensa lang. We also need to step up defensively.”

It was a twinkill for PCU as the Baby Dolphins crushed La Salle Greenies, 83-56, to grab solo second at 6-2 in the high school division.

The Knights trailed 37-40 in the third but the 5-foot-7 Bautista came through with a big basket that touched off a 10-2 run for a 47-42 lead.

The Altas, however, battled back, engaging the Knights in a torrid shootout to cut Letran’s lead to 54-56. But the Knights tightened up their defenses in the next five minutes to silence the Altas while exploding for 10 straight points to seal the win.

The Altas absorbed their seventh loss in nine matches, putting their semifinal bid in peril.

The loss was doubly painful for the Altas as they will miss the services of skipper Vladymir Joe the rest of the season due to a foot injury.

Internet Café on Samal Island Connects with P5 Coin

http://www.itmatters.com.ph/news.php?id=080106b

BABAK, ISLAND GARDEN CITY OF SAMAL — Thanks to an enterprising computer buff, the island boasts of an Internet café that functions like a public telephone station: its PCs accept P5 coins for 10 minutes of Internet surfing.

One afternoon, an old woman went into the Internet café under the Internet Terminal Machines Services, Inc., put a P5 coin into a slot in the computer, then talked with her daughter working in Singapore as domestic helper. Minutes later, the old woman started wiping her face as she cried while talking with her daughter on the other end.

“This is a usual scenario. That is what pushed me to come up with this idea of an Internet café,” said Oliver Curato, company head.

Mr. Curato could have stayed at home and just monitor his Internet café as he has set up an intranet service with cameras. But that day, he decided to go to the café for this interview.

The idea, he said, was a product of a two-year experiment and piloting that ended when he decided to set up for one month a similar Internet café in Matina Balusong in Davao City. When he thought business was slow, he decided to pull out the machines and started to operate in Babak. “I thought that I cannot compete there because Davao City is already saturated [with Internet cafés]. Besides, the idea is for the rural setting,” said the 36-year-old entrepreneur.

Unlike most of the Internet cafés in urban centers which are dependent on the telephone system, Mr. Curato’s establishment runs on wireless fidelity system since there is no telephone line here.

Thinking that P30 is expensive for an hour of surfing, Mr. Curato said he had devised a mechanism where P25 will allow the client to surf for an hour, but also gives him the option to surf for 10 minutes for only P5. “We can do a lot of surfing and sending e-mails with P5,” he said.

The computers are designed to run using 12-volt car batteries, making the café self-sufficient, especially in areas where brownouts are frequent.

Mr. Curato also built the computers so power consumption would be about one-fourth of the usual level. “They can even run on solar panels,” he said, noting he will also set up solar panels for his Internet café.

“I learned from the experience of my brother [who has an Internet café in Cebu] that the biggest overhead expenses [in this business] are in power bills. So I decided to find ways to reduce it. Now, my computers are running at a much lower power consumption,” he said.

Mr. Curato also reduced the computers’ heating emission, “so the air-conditioning unit will only be intended for the people in the café, not the computers.” The platforms where the computers were set up can be detached so that at any given time, Mr. Curato can reduce or add more computers even without a carpenter. Also, two computers share a box for their mother boards.

Mr. Curato also bought flat-bed monitors which, although more expensive than the conventional ones, are lower in power consumption and space efficient.

Mr. Curato, now 36, has always been fascinated with electronics since he was a kid, helping in the family business, the Davao Communications, Inc., a retailer of two-radios and other electronics spare parts and equipment.

He opened the café in June with six computers. But by the end of the month, eight more were added. He will add another six computers to accommodate customers who line up especially in the afternoons and evenings. “Our target is to open 100 stations within the year. By then we will be break even with our investments,” he said.

As of this writing, he was set to open a branch in Peñaplata, also in this city, and will soon start setting up in other rural areas, particularly in Davao Oriental.

“We already have our maps of areas where similar Internet cafés will be set up,” Mr. Curato said.