Imagine, you can use BBM to send messages to your colleagues who are abroad, eliminating the high cost of sending SMS to a foreign-based mobile number — or even from a different telco.

A lot of Filipinos are now experiencing the beauty of BlackBerry — both the handheld units and the service — thanks to the promos and loyalty (retention) programs being offered by the two giant networks here in RP: GlobePH and Smart.

Share your experiences, problems, tips-and-tricks, etc. about the BlackBerry online at our homegrown online community BlackBerry Pinoys (http://www.blackberrypinoy.info). If you use BBM, simply scan my bar code above or add my PIN 21A55089.

Mabuhay ang Pinoy BlackBerry users!

So, I decided to teach my students then a work-around that will somewhat enable them to FTP using a Windows XP-based machine: Network Places.

When Windows Vista, and later Windows 7, were introduced, Network Places was scrapped out. Then, I came across this nifty utility called Gladinet Cloud Desktop.

Gladinet Cloud Desktop allows you to map a cloud storage (that includes Google Docs & Windows Live SkyDrive) or any FTP location as a virtual network drive. Using Gladinet Cloud Desktop doesn’t require for a separate FTP client software to be installed in your machine, since you can tap the features of Windows Explorer to cut, copy, and paste files and folders from your PC to a remote location/server storage.

On to the review:

The BlackBerry 9700 was announced last October 2009, and this is RIM’s second handset (next to the Curve 8520) that will sport a touch-sensitive optical trackpad instead of the problematic trackball. A very welcome move from RIM. Compared with the BlackBerry Bold 9000, the Bold 9700’s camera is upgraded to 3.15MP (from just 2.0MP) with Image Stabilization; weight is reduced to just 122g from 133g; the Bold 9700 supports GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 850/1900/2100, & HSDPA 1700/2100/900 — up to 3.6Mbps. Like the Bold 9000, Bold 9700 is also WiFi (802.11 b/g, UMA) enabled.

On the downside, internal storage for the Bold 9700 was reduced to just 256MB from Bold 9000’s 1GB. But, the Bold 9700 supports up to 16GB microSD expandable storage, while the Bold 9000 can only accommodate up to 8GB. The screen size got a little bit smaller at 2.44 inches, compared to the Bold 9000’s 2.6 inches.

GlobePH currently sells the BlackBerry Bold 9700 at PHP28,995 as a prepaid phonekit.

Last night, we decided to embark on a road trip all the way from Manila to Angeles City, Pampanga – via Victory Liner. We decided to leave the car home, getting rid of the traffic and driving fatigue hassles along the way. The last bus that will pass through the Angeles Exit left Pasay City at 1700H of Saturday. Two hours after, we reached our destination: Marquee Mall, Angeles City.

The beautiful people of Marque Mall (an Ayala mall; our thank you’s go to Trisha Narciso) and Rogue Digital (another set of thank you’s go to Jojo Saddul) were kind enough to give my family passes (mine is an All Access Pass) to the 15th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta at the Clark Airfield.

Since Thursday, I was trying to book for a hotel room, but since our stay falls on the eve of Valentine’s day, all of the hotels were already fully booked since Monday, 08 Feb 2010. Upon reaching Angeles City, the first thing that we did was to look for the nearest inn so that we may leave our stuff before having our dinner at the Marquee Mall. The tricycle driver we got was very efficient, he brought us to Miyabe Court, which is less than 500 meters away from the mall. After our dinner at Chowking Marquee Mall, we went to buy some snacks to be brought to the Clark Airfield the next morning at Metro Supermarket, which is inside the mall.

Hours later, at around 0430H, all of us three were already up and ready to go. Good thing that we were advised that Marquee Mall provided a FREE shuttle service from the mall to the Hot Air Balloon grounds. I tell you, it was the first time I saw traffic that heavy at past 0500H — worst than EDSA rush hour. Another good thing was that the driver of the shuttle van was clever enough to use another route to the Clark Airfield. We reached the gate of the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta grounds just minutes past 0530H.

Click here for our pictures during the 15th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

Just before lunch, the shuttle van brought us back to the Marquee Mall. We dined at Ikabud Restaurant — their specialty was, of course, Kapampangan cuisine. You must try their “salpicado” (beef in oyster sauce). About the mall, it’s like being in Glorietta/Greenbelt while you’re at Angeles City, Pampanga.

Two hours later, the bus heading to Pasay left Angeles City and we were back to Manila just in time to hear the 1800H mass.

Truly, one Valentine weekend that I will never forget — the very first time we celebrated Valentine’s day as a family.

• In GMA 7’s Isang Tanong, you denied being the “Hitler” of the streets. You lied! You became a tyrant the day you assumed your post at the MMDA. You killed democracy in the street. Your words became the “law” of your blue boys.
• You may Metro Manila “baduy” by displaying pink all over the city.
• Not to mention the display of your “face” everywhere in the metropolis. Was that really necessary? You “uglified” Metro Manila!
• UVVRP or Color Coding was the worst project you every did!

Please feel free to share your thoughts on why NOT to vote for Bayani Fernando and I will update my list above.

My family and I were on our way to church to hear the Sunday mass at around 0930H when I noticed this heavy feeling while driving. As we reached the parking area of our parish, my wife immediately noticed that my rear left tire is flat. Being an AAP (Automobile Association of the Philippines) member, I immediately called their hotline and asked for assistance. Not that I cannot change my flat tire by myself, but a medical condition (back problems) prohibits me from doing such thing. The dispatcher at AAP, by the name of Rodelyn (dunno if the spelling is right) accepted my call and had advised me that she will inform me via my mobile once the two truck is near my place already — this was at 0930H. My family and I then proceeded inside the church to hear the mass.

An hour later — 1030H, I asked the security guard of our parish if the AAP tow truck had arrived already, and he replied that he saw nothing, yet. I made a follow-up at AAP’s hotline, and I was advised that the tow truck is still at Cubao, Quezon City attending to someone else’s vehicle. Wow! Only if the AAP dispatcher had advised me the help will be coming Cubao, when I am at Makati City, I should had accepted the help offered by some of my friends at the church earlier.

Driving to work everyday, the AAP tow truck(s) parked at the foot of the Sales Bridge (Nichols) is quite noticeable. So I asked the AAP dispatcher (Rodelyn) if any of these trucks can be sent to help me change my tire, and she replied NO, those trucks are exclusively to be used inside the Expressways — which I find stupid, since my location is just near Magallanes.

Another hour, I made another follow-up call to ask if the tow truck is already heading my way. The AAP dispatcher was so sorry to advise me that the tow truck will no longer be heading to Makati (from Cubao) since it suffered a breakdown. WT*?! I asked the dispatcher (this time, it was Alma — Rodelyn may had already been pissed off by me) on how many tow trucks do they have, and she gave me something like 37. Of all those 37 AAP tow trucks, 36 were all busy and 01 had died along the way going to Makati?! What a coincidence. Could it be that the drivers were all very busy waiting for the Pacman-Cotto fight on TV?

Instead, Alma promised that AAP will be sending one of their guys using a car to help me change my tire. This time, the AAP car will be coming in from Boni Ave. — this is around 1130H, and by this time, I had sent my wife and child back at home via a cab, and my dad’s team had already arrived to assist me. Hoping to get my AAP membership’s worth, at 1200H (that’s 2.5 hours since my initial call for help to AAP), I made yet another phone call to their hotline, and I was advised that the car is already somewhere in Ortigas, on the way to me. But wait! I though the help will be coming from Boni Ave., and I’m at Makati City, but what the h#*l, why is it at Ortigas?! AAP, I think your dispatchers need a lot of (re)training, or perhaps, they should be provided with an updated road map of Metro Manila, at least. Ortigas Ave. is way too far from Boni Ave., and you won’t have to take the U-turn slot at Ortigas Ave. just to get to Makati City for CheeseWhiz’s sake!

To cut this long story short, my dad’s team helped me in changing the tire (oh, by the way, my dad’s people brought the spare tire to a nearby vulcanizing because it does not have the proper pressure). Some 30 minutes later, that’s around 1230H when a guy wearing a shirt with the AAP logo on it approached me and asked what was my problem. Too late, boy, you’re very much too late!

Did I mentioned that it was the 60th birthday of my mom that Sunday? I was supposed to pick-up her birthday cake at the Glorietta, but thanks to the unreliability of AAP (Automobile Association of the Philippines), the cake was too late for the celebration. I do hope, AAP tow trucks will be as fast as their collection agents when your annual fees are due.

ReadyBoost is a component of Microsoft Windows, first introduced with Windows Vista in 2006 and also included with Windows 7. It works by using flash memory, USB 2.0 drive, SD card, CompactFlash or any kind of portable flash mass storage system as a drive for disk cache.

ReadyBoost is also used to facilitate SuperFetch, an updated version of Windows XP’s prefetcher which performs analysis of boot-time disk usage patterns and creates a cache which is used in subsequent system boots.

So, I reformatted the PQI SD card and activated ReadyBoost:

Then, I did a simply test to check if ReadyBoost really works or not. With ReadyBoost activated, I fired up Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and it just took me 40.1 seconds to see it’s GUI.

Now, I ejected the PQI SD card (ReadyBoost), made a reboot, then fired Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended again, and it took me some 77.0 seconds just to see the GUI. That’s around 30 seconds difference, and indeed it’s a big thing. Indeed, ReadyBoost works!

If you’re wondering the specs of my Windows 7 laptop, it’s an eMachines by Acer D725 running Intel Pentium Dual-core T4200 with 2GB of RAM. Now, I am thinking of getting a 2GB SD Card to be dedicated for ReadyBoost on my lappy.

I hate Windows Vista, actually when I got my HP Mini 2133, a month later I changed my OS to Windows XP dual-booted with Windows 7 Beta (which was later on upgraded to RC). It made my HP Mini 2133 more useful (and faster).

With Windows 7, I got all the guts to be brave and bold enough that I installed the Release Candidate on my newly acquired eMachines laptop.

Ever since we acquired our Mitsubishi Galant 1991 (automatic transmission; US version), I had been using Castrol Magnatec as my motor oil. I must admit, I was sold by their advertisements. But recently, based on my research, I concluded that Castrol Magnatec is the primary cause for the blackening of my engine — carbon deposits.

The week after Ondoy, Shell Magallanes inadvertently filled my car with fuel contaminated with water (the gas station was submerged to flood, thanks to Ondoy!). My car’s gasoline tank was drained by their competent service center crew (they even towed my vehicle from our house, free of charge). Observing them while fixing my car made me to decide that I will now entrust my car’s maintenance with Shell Magallanes (as it was long time suggested by my dad, too).

Today, my trip meter ticked past to 4,200 kms.: time to change my ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) and motor oil change (I don’t wait for the odometer to reach 5,000 kms). Brought my car to Shell Magallanes at around 1500H (together with my dad), I was #2 in queue. Ten minutes later, my car is being positioned to the lifter. Almost an hour later, everything (ATF and motor oil change, oil filter change) is done! I availed their change oil package (used to be PHP1,800++; discounted is just PHP1,300++) and spent PHP1,900++ all in.