CDR King: 3G Broadband USB Modem

Very early in the morning of January 8, 2014 my Globe WiMAX modem rebooted. After it restarted I found that I could no longer connect to any cellsite.  I called the Customer Service and asked for support. The lady at the other end said that their technicians are all tied up at the moment. They would only be able to check my modem after three days.

These days it is unimaginable for anyone to have no internet access for three days. More so if you are an online worker.

So I borrowed my sister's old Smart 3G USB stick. I also bought a CDR King WR-NET-032-CC (WU260) 3G Broadband USB Modem. My sister's 3G USB was very old. I think it was the first model that came out when smart started offering 3G internet.  I thought that CDR King's 3G USB might perform better because it is a newer model.

Here are my findings:


CDR King 3G USB Advantages
1. Open line. You can use Smart, Globe, or Sun Cellular SIM.
2. Burst Speed 7.2 Mbps. I've seen it burst to 3 Mbps

Disadvantages
1. Weak Signal Reception.  I've tested it many times at different locations in the house and the old
Smart USB stick's reception always comes out better.
2. Average Bandwidth is Slower. Weaker signal results to slower internet speed.
3. Can't register to UNLISURF.  For some reason my unit would not allow me to subscribe to Unlisurf.
If anyone experienced a different result with regards to this issue, please feel free to leave a comment.

In conclusion, I could not recommend buying it because of weaker performance compared to even a very old Smart Starter Plug It.

Early 2014

The second day of January 2014 is about to end. Every late in the year people await December 31, the last day of the year. Everyone is full of hope because everyone gets a sense of renewal. If we made a mess during the previous months of the year, we can all start again, everything resets during midnight of the last day of the year.

But now it is January 2. Tomorrow is January 3. The days will pass quickly and then we will find ourselves staring at another new year. The question at the end of the year is, what change happened to us? Did we progress? Did we regress? The hope is, we come out a better person every time. Whatever your definition of a better person is: whether achieving goals you've set out for yourselves, or becoming kinder, more compassionate, being able to do something that benefits many, or gaining a better understanding of ourselves which can help in a lot of areas in our lives.

It is January 2. The rest of the year is like a blank canvas. What image will you paint? Will you paint something happy? Will you paint something sad unaware? Will you paint your year neutral? Will you paint something vibrant? What ever you do during the coming days will determine the outcome of your personal painting.

Here is to working and hoping that we end up with our personal masterpiece.

Christmas 2013 is Just Around the Corner

The other night I went out and I was surprised to see so many Christmas lanterns on the streets.

Inspite a big earthquake and a category five typhoon, Christmas is still going to arrive in the Philippines afterall.

For many, this season will be a lot bleaker. Many lost their relatives, their home, and even livelihood. A lot has changed. And it will take years before anyone can recover and towns rebuilt. But that is life. Time moves and it waits for no one.

The Bad Side of Social Media

There is a lot of noise on the Internet nowadays.  When you log on to check what is happening you immediately see some people embarrassing themselves by doing something stupid. You browse further and you see a lot of people complaining about the most ridiculous things. And then you have some people currently emoting about how miserable lives are even though they seem to be luckier than most people. If your routine is to check the Internet during the morning, then you will find out that you've just ruined the rest of your day.

There is too much noise, too much nonsense.  Ahhh. There is a need to turn it all off.

Tragedy in Central Philippines

Before Super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan hit Central Philippines I was thinking, Oh Filipinos won't feel the brunt of this typhoon. They would probably just shrug their shoulders and move on. Because we have been through this before. More than two dozen times every year.

Even here in Metro Manila we have suffered strong typhoons and extreme floods. We suffered some loses but people just move on with their lives as if nothing out of the ordinary is happened.

But Super Typhoon Haiyan is different. Before it hit land, I was among those who would think that “You are just a typhoon but we are Filipinos.” I'm referring of course to my countrymen's incredible resilience in the face of challenges.

But a day after the storm, when the images and videos from Tacloban started coming in, you can't help but cry at the sight of the devastation and for the people who are suffering.

You can't help but think – What if it has been me? How would I take losing love ones and properties.

To add to their misery, there is currently no working local government. Because everyone in the area is affected. There is no water, no food, no shelter, no electricity, and no means communication. Even if you have money in your pocket it is worthless because where will you spend it. Almost everything has been destroyed.

It is like the area has been knocked back to the stone age but there are no food to hunt.

It is really bad there. Some are saying it would take months for the area to recover. But I say it will probably take years. We all know that it takes decades for a community form. And everything has been wiped out by the Typhoon in just one day.

Random Musings: Web User's Current Internet Behavior

People used to hang around websites and blogs when they are online. But things have changed when social media came into the picture. These days we first log into Facebook and Twitter to see what our friends are up to. These two social networks are also where we first check for news. To see what's the latest topic in our city, what everyone is currently talking about. Only when we have an urgent need to find something, do we use the search engine, which is by default Google.

Man of Steel Review

I really wanted Man of Steel to be a success. After all, I am a big fan of the Superman character. Initially, I saw critics in RottenTomatoes.com a very bad score. And I said to myself, “It doesn't matter. Because sometimes critics would give a movie a low score but when I get to see the movie, it turns out pretty good and enjoyable. I find that critics don't always get it right.”

But after seeing the movie I went out of the cinema feeling like I wanted to punch someone and I would prefer to punch the writer who wrote this movie. Can anybody please straggle him for me?

I wonder if he was drunk when he wrote this movie. Or he maybe he got his pay and he does not really care about the character, so went like – “I'm just going to write this damn script and be over with it!”

So what do I think is wrong with this movie?

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I advice you not to read further because this review contains a lot of SPOILERS.

If you are a fan of Superman, I think the fight scenes are atleast worth seeing on the big screen.

Anyway, so what is wrong?

A lot. But for this article let us just focus on the logic flaws.

1. There was the scene were Superman was fighting in town with Fiora and her big Kryptonian companion.

The townfolks were naturally frightened from seeing powerful aliens fighting on their street. And then one of the townfolks, a middle aged man shouted to his wife and son (if I remember it correctly) to stay inside and not to go near the window.

And Superman agreed by saying “Stay inside the house. It is not safe.”

But when the fighting resumed Superman and his opponents punch it out. Sometimes they go flying through the neighborhood knocking through walls and falling through roofs. And then here comes the military with their helicopters and heavy machine guns. A moment later groups of jet fighter comes intent of bombing the aliens with their heavy missiles.

Turns out staying inside the home within the area is the dumbest advice you could give. Because you may die from falling sections of your own home or you can get hit by machine guns or missiles.

The better advice would be to tell people to evacuate and go far away.

Why did the writer not see that and make the proper correction in his script? Maybe perhaps he was too lazy to rewrite it. He was hoping that no one would notice.

2. After the terra-forming was stopped Superman had to fight only one villain. But he could have fought elsewhere so that the city can be saved from further destruction or avoid accidentally killing bystanders while they slug it out.

But instead superman went at it with the guy. He knocked him through the city. Sometimes they would crash through walls and collapsing buildings, museums, and populated homes.

Superman would not do that. He would grab his opponent and take him to a desert or outer space and continue their fight there.

Okay so the producers decided to do it. Because they need to have a big fight with lots of explosions and destruction. That is what sells blockbusters now a days. Right?

There is nothing wrong with big explosions just make it believable and integral to the story. Don't put it in a movie just for the sake of - “We need to have big explosions.”

3. Lastly, the death of Jonathan Kent. There was this big tornado approaching. The family had to get out of the car and go to a nearby shelter. But then they remembered that they forgot their dog in the car. So Jonathan had to go back and get the dog even though the tornado has gotten impossibly close. In the end the dog got away but Jonathan was swept by a tornado.

Clark wanted to save him but he waves his son, no. 

What was wrong with that scenario?

First, you don't trade a person's life for a pet life. Pets are good to have but basic logic says that a person's life is more important. If Jonathan was half intelligent, he would not have gone back.

Second, everybody knows that Superman has super speed. He could have run to his father and whisk him away safely and gone back to were he was standing as if he were always there.

Okay let us assume he has not learned super speed yet.

But Clark could have gone to Jonathan anyway. Since he is super strong they could have rode the tornado together. Then pretend that they both died. Turn up alive a few days later and cook up a story that they survived by some form of luck or miracle.

These are just the most glaring logic flaws I've noticed. There are still a lot of other things I can complain about (like how Superman came on a small rocket ship but it turned out there was another big kryptonian ship that fell in the Artic. What? Who sent it there? Jor-El?).

Superman is an interesting character. There are a lot of interesting situations you can put him in. But David S. Goyer gave us a half assed script.

It makes me wonder – does he even like Superman even just remotely or did he just went about writing this script because it was another job he had to do?