locator and tracker

i have read from atty. sassy’s blog site about flaws on smart’s mobile phone locator service or location based service (or lbs). gps is the first and maybe the most reliable location based service available today. but with the cellular networks explosion, gsm seems to be the right second candidate to offer this kind of service. unfortunately, from day one, gsm (cdma) and even 3g were not designed with location capability in mind. in order to provide this service, gsm operator has to invest for additional equipments in the network.

based on radio parameters, several techniques can be used to locate a mobile handset. depending on the application location precision need, different technologies can be used and location process starts from the simple “serving cell id” up to very complex radio parameters measurements and correlation taking into account path loss prediction models. in gsm location technology, radio location could be based on: (1) received radio signal strength which is the main criteria used by the mobile terminal to select the serving cell (cell site), (2) propagation time measurement on time of arrival (toa) or time difference of arrival (tdoa), (3) angle of arrival (aoa) and (4) multi-path analysis.

all this techniques can be combined to improve the location accuracy. the bad news is that all these techniques do not work well in a dense urban area where strong multi-path propagation occurs. in such a dense area, it’s very difficult to build a mathematical model linking all together distance and either radio path, or propagation time delay, or angle of arrival.

for security and emergency linked applications in rural area, a 3d precision of ten meters could be required but not so possible. that’s why smart’s location based service commercial in tv is featured in a rural area. on the opposite, for information services, like finding a hotel in the vicinity, a 2 dimensions 500 m precision is acceptable in dense urban area. globe’s location based service on the other hand, does not in fact point the exact location of their parents traversing edsa, much worse, their parents are traveling in car which passes multiple cell sites.

all gsm network provider has the capability in providing location based service, but the question is how reliable and how precise the service will be. that’s the reason why sun doesn’t provide this service. one thing, if this locator service is truly accurate, then it could help in minimizing phone theft and robbery. sad thing it’s not.

additionals:
to provide you a very short idea how cellular telephony system works, here’s a few description of the three major parts of the system. mobile phones get their network provider signals from base transceiver station (or bts), or simply cell sites, or in lay mans term, the white and orange combination towers we used to see on top of the buildings and in many areas. the base station controller (bsc) then controls one or multiple cell sites' radio signals, thus reducing the load on the central switch. performs radio signal management functions for base transceiver stations, managing functions such as frequency assignment and handoff. the central switch that controls the entire operation of a cellular system is called mobile switching center (msc). it is a sophisticated computer that monitors all cellular calls, tracks the location of all cellular-equipped vehicles traveling in the system, arranges handoffs, keeps track of billing information, etc.

united states 911 uses some of the methods refered above like time difference of arrival (tdoa) and angle of arrival (aoa).

a victory for consumers

this is the title of the editorial of manila standard today. the editorial discusses the ruling of the national telecommunications commission on the issue of sun cellular's 24/7 program.

the ntc laid fair ground rules for all, but it's the consumers that was really favored with the ntc ruling. why? because smart and globe does not have any excuse that their network might congest when offering such unlimited service to its subscribers.

this is taken from the editorial section of manila standard online:

but "innovative pricing plans" or unlimited call and text programs are different, the ntc said, and operators will be allowed to set their own minimum standards for these plans as long as two conditions are met:

1. the standards are spelled out and submitted to the ntc before the plans are offered to the public; and
2. the standards are disclosed to the public “through publication in all their advertisements and other forms of information to the public."

the disclosures should be in simple and easy-to-understand language and must be approved by the commission, the ntc said.

in ruling as it did, the ntc put an end to the unseemly travesty of two giant carriers, in the guise of protecting consumers, picking on an upstart competitor that dared to compete in terms of price.

sun cellular does ask national telecommunications commision to issue a temporary directive of grade of service and drop call rate with this kind of service [the buffet pricing]. the implications here is not that, sun cellular can't compete with the two giants smart and globe with their standard. it is to give ample time to the company to expand its network and to increase capacity.

most of subscribers who choose sun’s unlimited plan knew that there would be an exchange in quality in exchange for such lower price. but they still choose and try the service. choose wise and choose what's right for you.

sun cellular wins

this time, its not "another first from smart" or "making great things possible from globe". sun cellular is the first one to make buffet pricing innovations.

sun cellular [david] won the fight against smart and globe [the goliaths]. the ruling from ntc came out last monday evening, but it's only this morning it was release in newspapers. the ruling is advantageous to sun cellular after ntc lift up it's 2002 circular requiring wireless networks to maintain a stringent set of rules to maintain high quality network.

the ruling is not intended to favor sun cellular but rather the consumers. with this new directives from ntc, smart and globe will force to lower their prices and join the buffet pricing in sending text and voice calls.

for this, the wireless network can set their own standards for different pricing plans, as long as subscribers are informed these standards entail. but the national telecommunications commission told the companies to improve their standards in 2 years, improving it by 50 percent from the current standard.

according to solis: "these simple rules will lead consumers to know and expect more from the market players. at the same time, it will give the players enough time and room to upgrade and invest in better facilities to ensure that quality of service that their subscribers deserve.

read the following news articles:
sun cellular allowed to continue with promotional pricing from inq7.net
smart, globe lose bid to stop sun's 24/7
ntc clears sun cellular promo

top 10 richest senators

last week we have viewed the top 10 richest and poorest congressmen. of course, the list will not be complete without the list of top 10 richest senators. consistently sen. manny villar is the top most with a net worth of almost p621 million. eventhough it is a combined asset with her wife and dividing it by two, he will be still holding the top position since sen. ralph recto is only trailing after him with a net worth of p241 million. sen. flavier is still the undisputed poor senator with a net worth of p2 million. two senators is not in the list, they are senate president franklin drilon and sen. panfilo lacson, i wonder what are their net worth. anyway, here is the list:

1. sen. manny villar [p621 million]
2. sen. ralph recto [p241 million]
3. sen. ramon magsaysay jr.[p153 million]
4. sen. jamby madrigal [p118 million]
5. sen. ramon “bong” revilla [p104 million]
6. sen. juan ponce enrile [p96 million]
7. sen. jinggoy estrada [p81 million]
8. sen. pia cayetano [p71 million]
9. sen. miriam defensor santiago [p69 million]
10. sen. serge osmeña iii[p59 million]
11. sen. mar roxas [p50 million]
12. sen. loi estrada [p33 million]
13. sen. edgardo angara [p29 million]
14. sen. rodolfo biazon [p24 million]
15. sen. richard gordon [p24 million]
16. sen. francis pangilinan [p14 million]
17. sen. aquilino pimentel [p13 million]
18. sen. joker arroyo [p11 million]
19. sen. manuel lapid [p10 million]
20. sen. alfredo lim [p10 million]
21. sen juan flavier [p2 million]

to add a little spice with this senator's statement of assets and liabilities (sal), read this news article, "senators sal simply incredible" from manila times internet edition.

reminds me home

this news article from manila bulletin online makes me miss my hometown, camiguin island. the news article is well written and entitled "the best of camiguin".

why this article makes me miss my hometown? because almost of the things mentioned quiet reminisce me when i was still there at camiguin island.

we will start with the place offshore native restaurant. this place is not far from our house [approximately 200 meters] , usually me and my brothers just take a walk if we feel the urge to drink a few bottles of san mig light or red horse beer and devour fried chicken or sisig. sometimes, we will go there with some of co-workers at camiguin polytechnic state college [cpsc] for "booze bonding".

the gui-ob old church, why should i forget this place, this place is located in bonbon, catarman, camiguin. this place has lots of lanzones and mackerel [tulingan]. i will never forget when me and my cousins drink 2 gallons of cooter (a mix of 1 gallon tuba, 12 oz. royal tru orange, tablea, 1 native egg) here with lanzones as pulutan at the back of this old church overseeing passing fishing boats.

this is the last place i have visited when i leave the island, katibawasan falls. this place is near to our land property situated in kabuhi and kabunuan. this place is always be in my heart, i use to bring my classmates here whenever we will go to kabuhi or kabunuan for a fresh buko, lanzones, or green mangoes.

though there are lots of beautiful sceneries and attractions in the island, my most favorite of all spots in the island is the ardent hot spring.

there are still lots of places you can enjoy while you are in camiguin island. your 3 days will not be enough if you want to enjoy each of the beautiful spots in the island. you can view all the 22 unique attractions the island can offer in the camiguin island portal below.

now this makes me salivate. for my entire 2 years here in manila i haven't eaten kilawin here or "kinilaw in visayan dialect. i have tried preparing once with no "tabon-tabon" nut and it turns out not the way i like it. maybe because i used to have tabon-tabon nut in our kilawin back at my hometown. the tabon-tabon will give the kilawin a mild astringent and bitter taste. now it make me salivates some more.

the article mention this camiguin highland resort as relatively regarded as camiguin island's finest. though haven't been in this place yet because when leave the island this place is not yet establish. but don't mind if i have to feature the resort here, that is because my brother has been an employee of this resort before he entered the seminary just this month. my brother wants to be a priest. well, we pray hard and wish him luck.

back to the resort, ths is quoted from the author of the article: "it is situated in orasan, soro-soro, mambajao, camiguin, this resort’s in-house café boasts of a wide selection of food, from tropical burgers to club house sandwiches—chinese laureatte to pinoy breakfast meals—meuniered prawns with sweet sauce to chicken cordonbleu—well enough for a mealtime fill."

to top that "the best for some sure food and comfortable reception, one need not think twice in choosing camiguin highland resort, with staff service equaling famous restos and hotels in manila."

manned by highly service-oriented staff, trained at camiguin school of arts and trade [csat]. now here where my mom works as vocational instruction supervisor. csat is as tesda supervized school.

now, don't ask me why this article reminds me home, it links, can't you see?

some links about the island camiguin:
camiguin island's portal
direct search links through google
wow philippines:camiguin island

top 10 congressmen

oopppsss!!! sorry... it should be top 10 richest congressmen:

1. rep. cynthia villar [p620.754 million*] - paranaque city
2. rep. ignacio arroyo [p314.100 million] - negros occidental
3. rep. judy syjuco [p254.640 million] - iloilo city
4. rep. ferjenel biron [p227.000 million] - iloilo
5. rep. juan edgardo angara [p112.000 million] - aurora
6. rep. rafael nantes [p110.667 million] - quezon
7. rep. juan ponce enrile jr. [p93.700 million] - iloilo
8. rep. antonio floirendo [p90.850 million] - davao del sur
9. rep. gilberto teodoro [p90.000 million] - tarlac
10. rep. mary ann susano [p85.890 million] - quezon city

rep. cynthia villar's net asset is combined with her husband sen. manuel villar. so if we will divide there net asset by 2, that makes rep. ignacio arroyo being on the top list.

speaker de venecia is no. 34 on the list, with a net worth of p51.527 million, while presidential son, pampanga rep. juan miguel arroyo is ranked 18th, with a net worth of p76.53 million.

rep. benigno aquino iii of tarlac has a net worth of p13.46 million, while the daughter of late dictator ferdinand e. marcos, rep. imee marcos of ilocos norte has p10.7 million in assets.

the famous "way kurat" rep. manuel zamora of compostela valley is now worth p4,258,200. the congresman who rode bicycle to and from batasan conplex in quezon city for lack of money to buy car.

of course if we have the top 10 richest lawmakers, we also have the 10 poorest lawmakers:

1. rep. joel virador [p34,500] - bayan muna
2. rep. rafael mariano [p46,480.49] - anakpawis
3. rep. crispin beltran [p95,200] - anakpawis
4. rep. hermilando mandanas [p137, 497] - batangas
5. rep. teddy casiño [p307,900] - bayan muna
6. rep. benjamin agarao jr. [p490,000] - laguna
7. rep. satur ocampo [p599,088] - bayan muna
8. rep. mujiv hataman [p600,000] - anak mindanao
9. rep. mario aguja [p680,000] - akbayan
10. rep. peter paul jed falcon [p975,000] - surigao del sur

source: manila standard today (villar couple richest members of congress)

i'm not joking

this is from manila standard today editorial section, titled state's responsibility.

"at a press conference, education secretary florencio abad said the department expects 17.6 million students in public elementary and high schools when classes begin in june but five million of them will have to sit on the floor because there aren’t enough tables and chairs."

this is the proof that i'm not joking bout my experiences when i was still in college (standing in class during lectures, spending half of our time finding vacant rooms in our entire campus, getting evicted in the middle of our class because other class is supposed to be the right one to use the room). maybe back then the school is still learning to stand up from the students strikes for the school's president.

the editor is right, "all taxpayers should be outraged at the news coming from the department of education this week." now they're asking donations from private sector. of course we know that our education department doesn’t have enough resources, but they should find solutions to this problem. i hope the top 10 richest congressmen can help.

my question is, the government alloted 1 billion for new school buildings for this years budget, when it would be spend? my goodness gracious... now this makes me angry. thanks god, i'm no incredible hulk.

this makes sense why students from public school is less competitive than private schools. of course you can't focus to listen to your teacher while you are standing or setting uncomfortable. of course there are also problems of lack of books and other materials needed for the teacher. almost all teachers, make personal sacrifices by setting part of their meager salary to buy teaching aids for their students.

whew... i can't stop thinking we're we heading to? are our leaders, driving this country with their eyes close? maybe...

gov't. to lose 200 million from freezing tuition fee

the country will be coming short off of 200 million from freezing tution fees on all government colleges and universities. this was represented by representative rolando andaya jr.

from yesterday's news on major broadsheets, pgma ordered to freeze mrt fares and tuition fees on state owned colleges and universities. according to press secretary bunye, "we feel we can still absorb the cost of operations. this only shows the sensitivity of the administration."

the forecast represented by the chair of house committee on appropriations rep. rolando andaya jr. is actually p188 million, but these losses, he added, can reach p200 million once the forgone revenues from the 59 vocational and technical schools supervised by technical education and skills development authority are added in. the result, expansion plans of state colleges and universities will have to be postponed.

their point is to make sure that young people will remain in college despite the crisis. ok, i will agree to their objective on this.

one thing i don't agree is that they think, the expected losses can still be recovered if the number of enrollees would increase, especially with the expected transfer of students from private schools to state-run educational institutions. are they not thinking or they refuse to think that state colleges have to limit their number of students because they can't accomodate them because of lack of instructors, clasrooms and facilities like chairs and computers?

i don't think that tuition fee increase will be that much higher. imposing a five increase might not be a big burden to the parents because of the socialize tuition fees offered in many state colleges and universities.

this loss of 200 million will greatly help state-run colleges who are in dire need of other equipments for the school like chairs and computers. i still remember until today that me and my classmates cramp up on 1 chair (some are standing) and we spent almost 30 minutes on scouting rooms for our next class with our professor in the lead. yes... you might find it funny but it's the truth.

click here to read atty. sassy's views on the freeze order of the tuition fee and mrt fares.

up-diliman

up-diliman (mis degree candidate)

top 20 colleges of the philippines

i got this list from philippine star demand and supply by boo chanco. the list contains 11 from manila, 2 from visayas and 7 from mindanao. although my alma mater mindanao polytechnic state college [mpsc] from cagayan de oro city is not in the list, i was very happy because 35 percent of the schools are from mindanao. here is the list:

1. University of the Philippines (Diliman Campus/Luzon);
2. University of the Philippines (Los Banos Campus/Luzon);
3. University of the Philippines (Manila Campus/Luzon);
4. Silliman University (Dumaguete City/Visayas);
5. Ateneo de Davao University (Davao/Mindanao);
6. Ateneo de Manila University (Manila/Luzon);
7. University of Sto. Tomas (Manila/Luzon);
8. Mindanao State University (Iligan Institute of Tech/Mindanao);
9. Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (Manila/Luzon);
10. Saint Louis University (Baguio City/Luzon);
11. University of San Carlos (Cebu City/Visayas);
12. Xavier University (Cagayan de Oro/Mindanao);
13. Mindanao State University (Main/Mindanao);
14. Urios College (Butuan City/Mindanao);
15. Polytechnic University of the Philippines(Manila/Luzon);
16. De La Salle University (Manila/Luzon);
17. Mapua Institute of Technology (Manila/Luzon);
18. Adamson University (Manila/Luzon);
19. Central Mindanao University ( Bukidnon/Mindanao);
20. University of Southern Philippines (Davao/Mindanao).

boo chanco's point here is not all the schools in manila are top performing. and instead of sending your children, brothers and sisters in manila to study why not pick schools from the list which maybe low on tuition fees and other costs.

why send your children on some schools in manila which are not in the list or offer higher tution fee? and worst some colleges here in manila don't have ched accreditation.

just take note of the list of schools above, la salle is at 16th place and out performed by 2 schools from visayas and 5 from mindanao. and i'm sure that the tution fee in la salle is 50% more compared with the private schools in visayas and mindanao. and you can even save more from tution fees if you study in some state colleges which offer socialize tution fees.

what made me think is, expensive tution fee does not make you secure a job when you graduate. and if you apply for the job, don't forget to write the ranking of your school.

wage hike

in light with pgma's order to increase the daily wage pay of workers, a range from p30 to p50 preferably is my guess to be approved by the wage board. this is far to low to the p125 demanded by the kmu group and other groups, like bayan, anakpawis and gabriela. almost half to two-thirds sought by the moderate tucp.

i am just the same with almost all third class workers, but my viewpoints on the increase wage is different from them. i am not against wage increase, of course that will help compensate some expenses like daily fares, but i think p125 daily or p3,000 per month is quiet large enough for the company to give. and what will be the use of the p125 increase if this will also lead to mass retrenchment, mass lay-offs and much worst closure of the company.

there should be a meeting ends with how much will the company is going to increase wage to it's worker's not sacrificing on decreasing it's number of workforce and for the company to grow. of course a company should grow to accomodate other employees and to increase goods or services.

wage hike will also make an impact to small and medium enterprises. we have to consider also that this sudden stiff increases will hit this sme's.

my idea on this wage hike is to make the p125 increase staggered [spread over a period of time]. spreading p125 in 2 or 3 years staggered increase. we have to take note that this p125 wage hike they demand is about 4 years old. they have been pushing this since 2001. if they should have meet something since that time and making this increase spread over a period of time for 3 to 4 years, maybe we have almost p100 increase as of today.

there are really some things that we can't change drastically. increasing the salary to p125 per day suddenly will result something we don't expect to happen, and we know it will turn ugly on some of our friends and maybe on you. i hope it will not...