Blog activity #4.

Blog #4. Order your birth certificate online at E-Census.com.ph. What do you like and not like about it?

Ok there was a redirection notice, then it was straight to business.

Very easy to use, so I ordered a real marriage certificate (mine/ours) so that I will have an official NSO copy at home. I believe this is a good thing for both citizens and the government, it is really fast to request one. I'm glad we have this now.

Blog activity #3

log #3. Sign up for a UnionBank EON (http://www.unionbankph.com) account and describe the experience. What do you like and not like about the offering?

ok I've done this some time ago and there was probably something with my firewall that was not registering the site correctly. Let's see if I can do it this time. I click on the top portion where it says "EON" and am directed to the Electron site.

one thing, the Electron application button is at the left side, which may mean that it is not as visible to new comers.

Good thing is that it goes thoguh all the fine print in not-so-fine print. Since I'm not applying for real, I'm not reading all that print. I just click "agree" and off I go.

It was asking a lot of information but didn't press for it even if I left much of the form blank. I'll get my card in 5 days. Sweet!

Blog activity No. 2

Blog #2. Review 2 e-commerce shopping website. (like, not like, how can it improve?)

ebay.ph

I've used this site before, I have bought some stuff from the main us-based eBay and I think this activated my account in ebay Philippines. I guess one thing I notice in the Philippines site is that the prices start relatively high, and people are not really bidding for the propduct, it's as if we don't expect our product to have any bidders, which is why we give them out at prices which may seem regular prices (not like in the US (many products start at 5 USD and then people bid up the price until it reaches a sort of relatively good price).

I searched for a cellphone which is the same as mine, and saw that most cell phones were brand new and were listed only 100-300 bucks off the normal mall prices. No deal having to go to ebay for this, huh?

In terms of user-friendliness, it has the same feel as the US-based ebay. in terms of user-excitement (in bidding, etc) no go. I hope the sellers get a whiff of how to really sell in auction. Most sellers are not auctioning at all!

I then looked for some real estate (a dream of mine :) this takes a lot of time, imagining what it would loko like, imagining how to pay for it, etc, but quite useless, as there was nothing really that one can BID on, just BUY IT NOW. People are using this as a free ad thing, not really as an ebay auction business.

TitikPilipino.com

NOw this site I have not vistited before. Looks very full, busog na busog. I think this site is earning not just from sales but from the record companies also. Wow, I must have taken a very long break from pinoy pop music, as I don't know 80% of the people from the site. I looked at the Artist listing and great, yep, good. ANd the links work, too, or at least some of them do. Quite a heavy site to open, but not bad for those with faster connections. Very well-used forums, means that it was catering to what the poeple find interesting or useful. I dunno why there are no links to fan sites or something.

This site has all it takes to get a good amount of traffic going because it does not just sell stuff, it also has a lot of information and discussion forums and a lot of other things that people can come back for even if they are not buying anything. Cool.

Now I'm looking into the eStore, and will try to buy an album. My vintage wanna have would either be a Joey Ayala or The Dawn (shows how old I am :) OK so they don't have Joey Ayala, but apparently they have ASIN. So I proceed to buy Asin for 10 + USD (geez, does it have to cost that much?) Masdan Mo Ang Kapaligiran

SO I click add to cart and guess what I have...11.99 and I can't ship to the Philippines! Hey!

I am redirected to a ccnow secure site (they're not usin gPayPal) and since I'm not really buying, I leave it at that.

Blog activity #1

Blog #1. When did you start using the Internet?
It was the world wide wait back then, there were no websites, just FTTPs :) I guess it was in the 1994-5 era. Multimedia cards (sound and video) were just starting to appear, and when hard drives reached the megabyte range, people were asking: why would I need all that space?

What do you like and not like about it?
Oh boy, difficult one! I do most of my professional life in the internet, I teach here, I do most of my research, purchase things like plane tickets, books, read, get media, pirate stuff, watch TV episodes. What do I not like about it? It keeps me glued to the computer, bad for the body posture, unbalanced, health-wise! There are irritating spam mails offering watches or asking me if I want to have a bigger Penis (whaaa?) and of course there are the ubiquitous porn sites and miscellany other, it can be a distracting world for kids and my kids (ages 7,6,4,and 3) are already into the net. Can be a dangerous world for kids.

What is your favorite website and why?
This is tough. I do visit some sites regularly, and I get a lot of mail from students, colleagues, and such. I guess I don't really have a favorite site, come to think of it, just sites I regularly use and visit, and when I say regularly, I mean 2 to 3 times a day. Of course these are my email sites, and my course site.