Latest from the Lady Programmer |
| Mid-afternoon Snack with the LunchBreakBlogger Posted: 26 Dec 2009 10:47 PM PST
One fine sunny day, a blogger named Jhong, the LunchBreakBlogger, left me a Facebook comment, asking to meet me. He’s coming up to Baguio and wanted to meet me in person. Alright, I said. I hope this meetup pushes through but I did not take this one too seriously. I had been through dozens of planned meetups with other bloggers that never happened. Frankly, I’ve never been to any of his blogs but he’s one of the bloggers who had been regularly commenting on my Facebook posts at one point in time. This month of December marks my second year in blogging, and so far I had never been to blogging events which are often held in Manila. Although Manila is just 5 hours away by midnight bus trip and full 8 hours on a daytime bus trip, for various important reasons I just could not easily drop off things here. I am usually contented and happy to watch notable blogger events via online live streams. During those two years I met a lot of blogging friends online. There are a few who are not blogging anymore but have kept in touch as friends in social networks. Some of them had been a witness to the transition of this blog from that little blogspot.com domain to custom domain in the blogger platform, then from Blogger to self-hosted WordPress. But this time, I met this gentleman for real. He’s a tall burly good-looking man in his early 30’s.We hadn’t planned about the meetup but we met anyway. I had him waiting for 30 minutes after the agreed time but I guess he understands Filipino time. I worried about what to wear and how I’d look like for the first impression. Shucks! I didn’t have my hair and nails done this time! I decided to meet him dressed up like any other typical Baguio locals here (one of the great things here in Baguio is that you can just wear anything without worrying much about what other people think) – and yes, I was consciously aware that I’d get myself a picture published in this blog and on his blog with this guy. I happened to be with my kid who’s enjoying a one-day school vacation so I had to bring her along. I eventually learned along from the conversation that this guy happened to be the IT manager of one of those famous hair salon franchises in the country, and at same time, manages an internet cafe business.
That’s me, my kid and LunchBreakBlogger (the image stolen from his blog without permission, because I like what he did with the picture than the raw images he sent me, hehehe)! Anyway, he got me featured on his blog a few days after we met. He was supposed to carry an interview script which he forgot in his hotel room, so I answered the questions via email. I’ve deliberately disabled comments in this post. Please visit his post titled The Lunch Break Blogger meets The Lady Programmer, read the interesting interview and join in the comment conversation. Wait, before you go, check these out:
Mid-afternoon Snack with the LunchBreakBlogger |
| Holiday Tip: Cheap Call From Philippines to USA Posted: 26 Dec 2009 11:43 AM PST
Did you know that Skype lets you make cheap calls from Philippines to US landlines and mobiles at only P1 per minute? I know for a fact that, Skype to Skype, YM to YM and GTalk to GTalk voice calls stay 100% FREE as everyone may knows. However, I just happen to have relatives in the US who do not have Skype, YM or Gtalk installed in their computers and don’t go online most of the time. Our family used to accept calls from them via landline and had to only make calls when there’s a huge family problem. We just could not afford to hold long conversations for some little casual chit chat.
I am aware of that $0.40 per minute deal offered by our telephone company, but we never use that. My parents don’t find it easy to memorize phone number prefixes and $0.40 per minutes is still pretty expensive for them to make long calls. However, when I first signed and tried out Skype, I thought – not another messenger again running on my PC again. But as a freelancer that left me no choice but to use that. Other people convinced me that Skype is a lot better when it comes to voice quality than YM. Later on, I explored the call rates list offered by Skype. Outgoing calls from the Philippines to US landlines and mobiles only costs $0.021 per minute which is roughly more or less than P1 per minute. That’s better than most deals offered by telephone companies and much much cheaper than calling mobiles and local long distance calls. Please note that the call rates don’t include VAT charges. The cost for calling other destinations is as follows (excl. VAT):
Please visit Skype’s call costs and rates for more information. However calls from US going to Philippine landlines cost $0.198/minute. Even more expensive are calls from US to Philippine mobile phones which cost $0.249/minute. How to Purchase Skype Credits The payment is by Skype credits – that is, one has to purchase a minimum of $10 Skype credits to be able to use the service. Skype credits are much like loading a prepaid cellphone unit. A person can even setup auto-recharge Skype credits when these fall down to $2. The credits can be purchased using Paypal account (which I did) or through credit card. In the Philippines, where many don’t have credit cards (I don’t own a credit card either and I don’t intend to have one yet), Unionbank EON card is often a popular ATM/debit card that is now widely used for online purchases. I haven’t tried EON card personally to purchase those Skype credits but in theory, since this is a VISA card it should also work as well. Unlimited One Country or Unlimited One World Optionally, if you are calling much too often, the subscriber should also think whether to pay for unlimited one country deal (applicable only to 40 countries) or unlimited one world. Both costs $5.95/month and $12.95/month respectively but gives unlimited calls. Since I only need to call relatives during holidays, I don’t feel the need to switch to these subscriptions deals. Magic Jack vs Skype I haven’t tried Magic Jack myself, but I get offers from people who are selling me these over forums and online shops. My own relatives even use this to call from US to Philippines since this is cheaper than using Skype to call Philippine landlines or mobiles. I also know lots of Filipinos using this little gadget also to call from the Philippines to US. Buying the Magic Jack gadget costs around P2,000 (Ebay.ph) to over P4000 (forums and online shops) [around $50 to $100] and $19.95 to renew subscription each year. Some notable disadvantages:
Are there other better deals? I believe there can be other cheaper deals than the one I had just discussed right now. I know for a fact that I’d be happy to know these through the comments. Wait, before you go, check these out:
Holiday Tip: Cheap Call From Philippines to USA |
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