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Presenting the Nokia N95 8GB.

Note:

Turn off the background audio first at the bottom of the page before clicking the play button.

Nokia N95 8GB commercial.

More than a year after I last upgraded my main phone, I'm at it again, and my cellphone of choice now is none other than the flagship of Nokia's Nseries, the Nokia N95 8GB.

While my old Nokia N70 was a mere evolution of the venerable Series 60 platform, the N95 takes mobile phones to a whole new level with a feature list significantly longer than any other high-end phone on the market today.

For starters, it's a quad-band 3G phone. No, make that a 3.5G phone. It supports the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) standard, which enables it to transfer data at 1.4-1.8 Mbps, around three to five times faster than 3G or 384 Kbps DSL. And HSDPA is not a standard that's still waiting in the wings. Globe Handyphone already supports it. With this speed you can make smooth video calls and browse the internet faster than even most wired connections.

It's a 5 megapixel auto-focus digital camera. Not so long ago 5 megapixels were a lot to have on a dedicated digital camera. Now, the clarity and resolution that was previously only available on dedicated digital cameras is now built in the N95, thanks to its 5 MP CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, 20x digital zoom and integrated LED flash. And for video calls and self portraits, there's the ubiquitous .3 megapixel VGA camera up front.

It's a video camera. It captures a MPEG-4 VGA video at 30 frames per second. And with 8 GB of storage you can store hours of video. Perfect for those wannabe porn stars. :-)

It's an MP3 player. You can use ordinary headphones via the N95's built-in standard 3.5 mm minijack. It also has built-in stereo speakers, a graphic equalizer as well as 3D audio, and the sound quality easily rivals that of dedicated MP3 players. It has built-in FM radio reception as well.

It's an internet access device. You can access the internet via GPRS, EDGE, 3G, or HSDPA through your provider's network. If you're near any wireless LAN, you can also go online via the N95's built-in Wi-Fi.

It's a GPS receiver. You can easily determine your position anywhere in the world through the United States' network of GPS satellites.

It's a hand-held game machine. It plays Next Generation N-Gage games.

It's a flash drive. Plug it in any PC with the supplied USB cable, and voila! you have an instant storage device. The cable isn't even proprietary, you can use any cable with a standard mini USB end. So much for that Pop-Port nonsense.

And with 8 GB of internal flash memory, you can store literally thousands of songs, pictures, videos, or any other data.

It also supports Infrared and Bluetooth transfers.

There's hardly anything this mobile phone can't do. It can do so much that Nokia doesn't even call it a cellphone. Nokia calls it a multimedia computer, and given its capabilities it seems like an apt description. All of this functionality in a package smaller and lighter than my old favorite, the Nokia 6600.

Of course, it's not perfect. It costs as much as some notebooks, so you really have to ask yourself first, do you want a high-end phone, or a low-end notebook?

At the end of the day, the N95 can still be considered a bargain. How so? Well, if you buy an ordinary cellphone, a digital camera, a video camera, an MP3 player, a PDA, and a GPS receiver, almost certainly you'll pay a lot more than if you just bought an N95. It's all those features which make the N95 a relatively good buy.

Aside from its rather astronomical price, there isn't much to nitpick about it. I was a bit concerned about the durability of the slider mechanism, but it seems sturdy enough for daily use. Battery life appears to be a tad more brief than the battery life of my N70, but if you can restrain yourself from playing with all the features, the battery will last a good three days or so, about the same as any other phone. At this price level, rapid obsolescence can become a concern, but given its long list of features, it's a safe bet that you won't be needing to upgrade from it anytime soon.

Of course, I've said that before, but I always end up upgrading nonetheless. Let's just see what new technological breakthroughs they will come out with in the next year or so.

Some pictures:

Black beauty.


Push the slider up and out comes the keypad.


Push the slider down and you get a set of multimedia controls. The screen automatically changes to landscape mode as well.


5 megapixel camera and built-in flash. No lens cover though.

A word of warning. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and with all the praise the N95 has been getting, it's no surprise that a lot of imitations and fakes have been flooding the market lately.

If you're out to get your own N95, you better know how to tell the real deal from the bootleg ones. Check this article out for more information.

Some fakes have become so good that they can easily fool the untrained eye. When in doubt, just purchase your phone from an authorized Nokia dealer. And always remember, if the price is too good to be true, it's because it probably is.

Reposting this for whatever good may come out of it. :-)

Anyone here interested in purchasing a plot of commercial land located along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City? It's my father's property, and it has a lot area of 2,844 sqm., with a number of residential improvements. The frontage is a bit on the small side, at 14 m., but it directly faces Commonwealth Ave.

The lot has been on the market for quite a while, but since the real estate market has been down for some time now...well you know how it is.

Just in case you're interested, or know someone who is, please feel free to leave a comment or to email me at ronallandottk@yahoo.com. To cut the hassle, would prefer to deal with direct buyers only. Sometimes it can be quite hard dealing with a multitude of brokers and middlemen...you know how that is too. :-)

You can also call 9315575 if you have any inquiries.

Siteplan of the property.


Aerial view. The road at the top of the photo is Commonwealth Avenue.


Here's a tighter aerial shot. The improvements are clearly visible from this distance.

And just in case you're wondering, no, I didn't hire an airplane or a helicopter. Used Google Earth instead. :-)

I observe with mild interest and amusement as a number of men manhandle a locked Ford Expedition into a parking space just behind the building I work in. Checking the time I figured they spent more than half an hour jacking, tugging and pushing at the shiny mass of metal, with their strains finally coming to an end with the large SUV being coaxed into one of the parking spaces.

Querying one of the security personnel, I was told the the vehicle was forcibly repossessed after the owner failed to make the payments on the vehicle. Apparently the owner wasn't happy about his SUV being repossessed, so he neglected to unlock the doors, much less give them the keys.

As if it really mattered whether he gave them the keys or not.

It's a tad ironic, don't you think?

A towering 4x4 such as a Ford Expedition, in the vast majority of cases, is really nothing more than extravagant status symbol, an expression of affluence, an utter display of the triumph of decadence over practicality. Weighing in at over 6,800 kg, or approximately 15,000 lbs, it weighs about the same as six or seven subcompacts. Being approximately 2 m wide, more than 5 m long at about 2 m tall, it's probably bigger than the tin shacks of a lot of destitute and impoverished Filipinos. With a massive 5.4 liter V8, it devours fuel faster than Homer Simpson at an all-you-can-eat fish restaurant, not to mention the fact that compared to most vehicles it probably belches out tons more greenhouse gases. If you think global warming is a myth, then this is the car for you! Further contributing to the irony is that most owners will probably never even drive their Expeditions off-road.

So who would ever buy a vehicle like a Ford Expedition?

Why, only the ridiculously rich of course. No one without oodles of cash should even consider buying one of these babies.

Which leads us back to the situation at hand.

In front of me stands a repossessed Ford Expedition.

It doesn't seem quite right.

Status symbols come naturally if you can afford them. A lot of wealthy people I know even deliberately shun status symbols, preferring the anonymity of being just like everyone else, possibly for their own protection as well.

Unfortunately, some people can't wait. There are people who waste no time or money in projecting themselves as more than what they really are. In this case, that they are more wealthy than they really are. That's why they buy status symbols...even if they can't afford them.

And sadly, the poor slob who owns (owned?) this SUV apparently falls among the latter.

Moral of the story? Don't pretend to be something or someone you're not. Never buy something you can't afford. And never, ever buy a luxury SUV if you can't make the payments.

The past few months my son has been having problems with his Sony Ericsson K310i, specifically with the unit shutting down intermittently even though the battery wasn't discharged yet. "Automatic shutdown" was my son's term for it.

Over the weekend, the cellphone finally decided to give up the ghost, showing nothing than a continuously blinking white screen when powered up.

Not wanting to be stuck with a high tech paperweight, and with unit still under warranty, I promptly called up Globe Handyphone for advice on how to have the cellphone serviced. I was instructed to bring the malfunctioning unit to a Sony Ericcson service center, and as it turned out, the closest service center to my location is the Sony Ericsson Concept Shop in SM North EDSA. My son and I were off to visit it the next day.

I was never a Sony Ericsson person, as I've always preferred Nokia cellphones instead. The thing with Nokia is, if you know how to use one model, then you wouldn't have any problems using any other Nokia model, thanks to its semi-standardized user interface. Sony Ericsson cellphones also have semi-standardized user interfaces, but since I got my first Nokia almost a decade ago, I've never really seen the need to move on to another brand.

I've owned more than a dozen Nokia cellphones in the past ten years or so, and I've never really had a unit go south on me, whether it be a lowly 5110 or a high-end Nseries phone. I guess Nokias are just as tough as nails. Nothing against Sony Ericssons, but they just don't strike me as being as durable as Nokias. Then again, I really wouldn't know since I've never really owned one. That being said, having a unit less than a year old break down on my son doesn't really fill me with confidence.

Sony Ericsson phones are quite notable in the fact that they have better feature sets than their Nokia contemporaries, especially with their low to mid-range products. Nokia is notorious for releasing several similar models over a particular model series with compromises in features here and there, without any unit within a range overwhelmingly better than the rest. While this may have the advantage of having more models to choose from, the downside is that Nokia cellphones depreciate in value more rapidly than comparable models from Sony Ericsson, which tend to retain their value better over the long term.

Of course, it's not necessarily an apples to apples comparison. For the most part any cellphone from Sony Ericsson or Nokia, or for that matter, any other contemporary brand will serve your needs quite well, it's just a matter of preference and/or brand loyalty. For my son, that preference was for Sony Ericsson.

I was somewhat taken aback when we got to the Sony Ericsson Concept shop at Cyberzone, SM North EDSA. They had around four people tending to customers in the sales area, while there where none at the service area, despite a line of people waiting to have their units serviced.

The wait wasn't excrutiatingly long though, only about 10 to 15 minutes. It would have helped though if there were people at the service counter though. For at least 10 minutes there wasn't anyone. Hmmm. Around four or so employees at the sales area. No one at the service area. I guess for them sales must be more important than service.

Where the heck is everyone?

Eventually our number was up, and it was determined that my son's cellphone was in need of a software update. Thankfully, there were no hardware problems whatsoever. We left the unit to be fixed and went on with the rest of our day. Minor quibbles include my having to drop by a Globe business center to get a certification that I got my son's unit from them, and the fact that no one was answering the phone at the Sony Ericsson shop when I tried to follow up the unit's status, despite repeated attempts. Eventually someone did answer, but again, the less than enthusiastic treatment I got wasn't exactly confidence inspiring.

Later in the day we picked up the unit, and it was now working. Being under warranty I didn't have to spend anything on the repair. I think an out of warranty software update would have set me back around P500.00 or so, and while this isn't a huge amount by today's standards, it's still quite a sum to be saved by having them perform the update under warranty.

All wasn't well though. My son was quite disappointed over the fact that all of his contacts, messages, tones, pictures, games and other files were lost, proving that you can never be too young to be a victim of technology.

But I guess he'll just have to live with that.

His phone now works flawlessly, and even the automatic shutdowns which have plagued the unit before have disappeared. At the end of this adventure, this was the only thing that really mattered.

As for me, I'll stick with Nokia.

I've never had any reason to visit a Nokia service center in the more than ten years I have owned Nokia phones, and hopefully, I'll never have to visit one in the future.

If you're wondering why I haven't posted anything new lately, it's because my computers at home were all down until only a few days ago. Went through a couple of hardware upgrades which, unfortunately, didn't really go as smooth as I was expecting them to turn out.

The first upgrade involved the video card of the PC my son uses to play games with (Athlon XP 2400+, 1.5 GB RAM, 256 MB Radeon 9550). He started complaining over the slow frame rates he was getting with some newer games, particularly the resource-hungry RTS World in Conflict. The game is actually playable when using low graphics settings, but there's nothing quite as pathetic as playing a computer game with all the settings turned down to low.

After some research, I figured the GPU with the best bang-for-the-buck was the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS, with its 12 pixel pipelines, 5 vertex shaders, and a core running at 400 MHz. All I need now is to find one, particularly one which runs on an AGP bus.

I soon realized that AGP video cards are bit on the scarce side nowadays, with most computer stores stocking up on PCI-Express video cards instead. Even if a shop carried AGP video cards, more often than not their available stock was limited to low-end models, with chipsets such as the GeForce FX 5500 or the Radeon 9550. After going through quite a number of shops at Virra Mall in Greenhills, I finally managed to snag an AGP Inno3D GeForce 7600GS with 256 MB of GDDR2.

Unfortunately, after installing it, I realized the particular unit that was sold to me had a factory defect, as the images being displayed by the card were corrupted and essentially gibberish. The shop promptly replaced it the following day with a fully functional unit, but the aggravation from a failed upgrade and the effort to return the video card was already had.

The second upgrade was with my main PC (Athlon 64 3000+, 1 GB RAM, 256 MB GeForce 6800 LE). Apparently 1 GB of RAM doesn't seem to be enough for my purposes, as I almost always end up using the paging file (and with it the resultant loss in speed), especially for some newer games.

I bought a pair of Elixir (a somewhat generic brand) 1 GB DDR400 DIMMS. I figured generic was okay, since I don't really overclock to the max and the modules were dirt cheap (actually they were the cheapest that I could find). As it turned out, either both of the modules I got were defective, or they really weren't that compatible with my MSI motherboard, as I got nothing but intermittent hangs while installing Windows XP or running Memtest86+. Again, the defective or incompatible modules were promptly replaced by the shop the following day, though I opted to pay extra for Apacer branded modules instead. The new ones worked perfectly.

Moral of the story? If you plan on upgrading your computer, make sure you plan for all contingencies, particularly a botched upgrade. And also make sure you don't have anything pending in the pipeline. There's nothing quite as annoying as having an important file stuck on your PC's hard drive, and being unable to access it because of an upgrade which went sour.

No regrets though. I have two faster PCs. It's almost worth the aggravation. Emphasis on almost.

Links:

Inno3D GeForce 7600GS AGP Review

What's wrong with this picture?


I guess we Filipinos were never really good at following rules.

I've won! I've won! - NOT.

The past several months I've been getting quite a number of text messages on my cellphone informing me that I have won a sum of money in some sort of raffle, and instructing me to call back and look for the person whose name was mentioned in the message.

If it sounds to good to be true, that's because it is.

This is what is known as a text scam.

Text scams first came out a number of years ago, with the rising popularity of cellphones with SMS capability (and consquently the number of suckers who own one). Presently, with approximately 30 million cellphones all over the country, scams like these are quite common.

This message is obviously bogus, and was designed by some unscrupulous souls to appeal to the avaricious and gullible among us for the purpose of scamming them into giving up hard currency, for processing or facilitating the release of their so-called "prizes".

Sadly, a lot of people have already fallen prey to this modus operandi, no doubt overcome by the glorious promise of easy money. Of course, the ones getting the easy money are the perpetrators of this scam.

Here are some examples of the messages I have received, complete with the numbers that sent them:

D'AUDITOR's of PHIL.CHARITY FOUNDATION nform u dat ur Celfon no. Won Php950,000.00 2nd prize Winner draw last:03/01/07 Call Me Now I'm Atty.LIONARDINO V VALDEZ

Sender: +639176170683
Sent: 12:18PM 03-04-2007

Congrt's ur simcrd # Won P560,000,n our 2nd Anv,Fre,Rafle Drw last:June 25-07 frm:Millionaires Club Inc.4 more info&dtails call me nw!Im SEC, EDGAR LEDESMA

Sender: +639053143420
Sent: 01:29PM 07-09-2007

D'AUDITORS of GMA CHARITY FOUNDATION nform u dat ur CELFON nos. WON P 950,000.00 2nd prize winner,drw last.05-24-2007 PLS CALL ME NOW,IM,MRS LELIBETH SANCHEZ

Sender: +639174653165
Sent: 10:50PM 05-26-2007

(Notice):Ur simcard #won P680,000 In Our 2nd Anv PreRAffle drw last:Oct,31/07 frm Millionaires Club inc. 4 more infor &dtails call me nw! im sec,VIC E CUEVAZ

Sender: +639165536075
Sent: 6:37PM 11-04-2007

If you receive a SMS similar to the ones above, it's bogus. Simple as that.

Some dead giveaways that the text message is a scam are the following:

1. The number used is eleven digits, for example, 0916xxxxxxx. Legitimate promos typically use a four digit number.

2. Did you join any raffle promo? If not, how can you possibly win?

3. If you take the bait and decide to call, the person on the other line usually asks for a prize processing fee, a tax payment on the prize, or something similar to be deposited in some bank account.

4. Personally, I feel that if a company can afford to give away hundreds of thousands or even millions of pesos via text, it would be safe to assume that that company can easily afford to hire an employee who knows proper spelling and grammar.

If you see all these warning signs and you still go on and part with your money, shame on you. You probably deserve to have your money taken away from you.

Unfortunately, despite searching the internet particularly the websites of the providers and government agencies concerned, other than some advisories warning the public, there doesn't seem to be a clear-cut mechanism on how to report or apprehend these criminals. It would be nice if there's a way to at least report the numbers used so these numbers get blocked, or if there was some task force somewhere which specializes in entrapment operations against the perpetrators of this fraud.

If you happen to hear of anything, let me know. For now, all we can do is be careful.

So, what do you do if you get such a message?

The easiest thing to do is to ignore it, delete the message right then and there.

If you're feeling a bit sadistic, you could text or call back and give the sender a piece of your mind, but then again why bother? You'll be the one paying for the text or call.

Just be vigilant, and don't believe everything that you receive on your phone.

Walang manloloko kung walang nagpapaloko.

Its been a quite a long while since I blogged about religion, so I was pleasantly surprised when blogger Sadiq Alam sent me the link of his latest post through email.

You can read it here.

The message is simple. God is always with you, whereever you are.

You can read the rest of his blog here.

Maybe I should blog about religion again. :-)

And the top ten reason to quit playing RAN Online, from 10 to 1, are:

10. Availability of newer and better online games.

Frankly I don't have much experience with other MMORPGs, but I've heard and read lots of positive reviews over some newer online games, such as Perfect World, Lineage II, and Granado Espada. Yeah, it may be hard to give up RAN Online after all those months, but you never know. It may be about time to move on to some other MMORPG. And who knows? The service and support may even be better.

9. Poor return of investment.

You play for hours on end, for months, perhaps even years, and eventually you get that high level character you've always wanted. Now what? You could try selling your account, but not only is that prohibited by e-Games, you'll only get a small fraction of the money you invested into making that character in the first place.

Well, you do get bragging rights against lesser characters, but the satisfaction doesn't last. No matter how high your character's level is, in all likelihood there's a character out there with a higher character level than you, and perhaps even better and more powerful items to boot.

Besides, nothing lasts forever. You could play and play until you character reaches the level cap. Then somewhere down the line the game loses support from its parent company and eventually the server is shut down. It can take anywhere from a few years to several years, but it will still happen. Remember R.O.S.E Online? Tens of thousands of players at its height. Dead after three years. And your precious character? While it was still being played it was probably a few megabytes of data residing on a hard disk somewhere in cyberspace. When the server shuts down for good it's not even that anymore.

8. It's murder on relationships.

Admit it. Unless your significant other is as addicted to Ran Online as you are, playing the game for hours, days, or months at a time can be murder on relationships. Ever had a girlfriend, boyfriend, or spouse chide you for spending so much time and money on an online game? And if you don't have a girlfriend or boyfriend yet, don't expect to find one while being glued in front of your monitor.

While some relationships grew from the game into reality, such fairy tale romances are not that common, and even if they do happen, they're probably not likely to last in the absence of the common denominator, that is, RAN Online itself. Without the game to hold the relationship together, it evaporates into nothingness like pots during PK period.

And of course, there are your parents. I don't think any parent (and I happen to be one myself) who would approve of you playing RAN Online to the exclusion of everything else.

7. Addiction to Ran Online can ruin your grades/career.

Do I even have to explain this one? I've know students who cut classes just to be able to play during 2x or 3x EXP events. I've known even some professionals who call in sick just to be able to play at home (I've done that a few times myself). There are even some extreme examples of students giving up school altogether. While the game may indeed be fun, it should take a back seat to more important matters, such as school, and work.

6. The huge numbers of annoying characters.

Try as you might, you can't seem to avoid them. Scammers, bad mouthers, kill-stealers, looters, DAM lurers, identity thieves, GM impersonators, etc. Yeah, I know it's all part of the game, but let's face it, when a high level character comes from nowhere and thrashes the mobs lured by our partymates, or when a DAM lured by a character only in his or her underwear decimates the entire party, or when you drop your +7 item and the player who picked it up doesn't return it, admit it. You're annoyed.

5. Your buddies have stopped playing the game.

It's always fun starting out a new MMORPG. You meet people, you add them to your buddy list, before you realize it you have an entire slew of friends welcoming you every time you log on. Sooner or later you form a gang, or join one, surrounded by characters who have played alongside you for months, even years.

Then one by one they start disappearing. Some players lose interest and just stop playing. Some characters get sold or traded. Some characters get hacked and/or deleted. Maybe you'll make some new friends, but eventually they'll disappear as well the same way as the old ones.

And when you find yourself for the most part alone, then playing a MMORPG hardly seems different from playing a standalone single player game. Which is well and fine if you're hooked on the game itself, but if it's the social aspect you're after, the point is lost. Just like your buddies.

4. The service and support being provided by e-Games is just plain awful.

Do I really have to elaborate on this one?

Connection errors, full servers, user's account is being connected, lag, frequent disconnections, software bugs and glitches, lost items, wasted eP items, rollbacks, hacked accounts, deleted characters, poor password security, slow problem resolution, etc. If you think I'm exaggerating, just check out the forums. A lot of us probably spend more time trying to connect or reconnect than actually playing. And let's face it, I'm not saying that their technical support is totally useless, but just for the record, how many of you were actually helped by their helpdesk?

3. It is financially draining.

While the game follows the Free-To-Play (F2P) revenue model, if you want to have a chance at leveling your character up to a reasonable level within your lifetime with some semblance of ease and convenience, you will probably have to invest in a number of in-game accessories bought with your hard-earned money. Such accessories include training rosaries, buddy transmission cards, headgear, bus cards, start and back point passes, etc.

Granted, such accessories are optional, but after a while they seem to feel like necessities, especially if you've been playing for hours and only seeing a 1% increase in your EXP level, or if you have to run all the way from your school to let's say, HO.

And if you don't have a PC with an internet connection of your own at home, it only makes things worse as you have to play in a LAN shops which charges by the hour.

Months of playing can add up to a few thousand to tens of thousands of pesos. Think about it. If you didn't play RAN Online you could have saved enough to buy a new cellphone. Maybe even a laptop.

2. It's hazardous to your health.

How many of you have played for hours and hours at a time, without eating, sleeping, only stopping for occasional bathroom breaks? I know I have, especially when I'm using one of those 24 hour resurrection training rosaries. I've only gone on a few all-nighters in the months that I have been playing RAN Online, but it is not unusual for some players to go on straight playing binges lasting for days, perhaps with only a few hours of sleep at a time. Obviously, playing the game in such a manner can be detrimental to one's health.

And you don't even have to play like that to suffer health risks. I think I'm starting to develop repetitive strain injury (RSI) in my right wrist from holding and clicking a mouse over and over again, even though nowadays I only play once or twice a week.

Prolonged sitting can also lead to back pain as well as poor blood circulation, causing difficulties in moving, varicose veins, and increased susceptibility to fatigue. Lack of physical activity can lead to obesity and possible heart problems and hypertension later on.

Not to mention headaches and migraines associated with eyestrain from staring endlessly into a computer monitor.

Without realizing it, we are probably putting are bodies at risk by playing the way we do. And e-Games seems to be encouraging it. Have you ever seen them post any health warnings against playing too much? Has anyone?

And the number one reason to quit RAN Online is:

1. It takes up too much of your time.

When you first start out playing RAN Online, you'll notice that it really doesn't take much time to level up your character. A newly created character can level up to the 20s or 30s in a matter of a couple of hours. An intermediate character can get one or two levels up in a matter of several hours, while a high level character may need to be played for days, even weeks just to level up.

Needless to say, playing RAN Online wastes a lot of time. Hey, it's fun, that's why I play it too. But the bottom line is that it is still uses up a lot of your time. And when you people get to be my age (I'm not that old mind you), you'll realize that time lost is time lost forever.

That's the reason why this is the number one reason to quit.

There are always other online games out there.

We play games to have fun, not as an investment.

Relationships, grades and careers can be rebuilt.

Annoying players are part of the game, actually part of any online game, and for that matter, part of life. Annoying people are everywhere.

New friends can be made, service can improve, money can be made, health can even be regained, if it's not too late.

But time...

Time can neither be replaced nor recovered. The hours, weeks, months we spend playing this game represent hours, weeks and months that we will never get back. So we should make the most of what little time we have.

Summing up, playing or quitting RAN Online is a personal choice. It's up to you. Just realize that while it's fun, spending too much time playing it, or for that matter any other online game can take its toll on your relationships, your family, your grades or your career, your sanity, your finances, your health, and above all your time.

The key is moderation. But if you're fed up with all of the compromises, you might as well quit. In all likelihood, you won't regret it.

I guess I spoke too soon. Less than 24 hours after I was first able to log on RAN Online and the other e-Games websites, again I am plagued by the dreaded connection error dialogue box:

Well, I knew it was too good to last.

I don't know. The urge to quit playing is becoming so strong I'll probably succumb sooner or later. Actually I'm already what they call "semi-retired", that is, I only play when I get the itch to do so, and whenever time and opportunity permits. I was only compelled to go out of semi-retirement so that I could level my INT swordsman all the way to 127 and learn the newly launched 127 skill. Thankfully, during the brief period with which I was able to connect yesterday, I was able to succeed in achieving my goal. But now that I have accomplished what I set out to do, and with e-Games being plagued with connection errors, I wouldn't be surprised if I just disappeared from the RAN gaming community.

Such a shame really.

To be perfectly honest, RAN Online is truly a great game that is slowly getting better with the introduction of the new skills and quests. Unfortunately, the quality of the service being provided with e-Games seems to be inversely proportional with the quality of the game itself - as the game gets better, the quality of service deteriorates.

Needless to say, I don't think I'll be buying any more e-Points soon.

If there's anything I need to be thankful for this situation is that e-Games' lousy service played a huge part in getting me back to blogging again. I've been in a blogging rut the last several months, having run out of fresh material to blog about. Strangely enough, I haven't seen many blogs critical of e-Games' services. Perhaps if I write about my own experiences with e-Games' poor service, maybe in my own little way I can get this problem out into the open and at the same speak for the thousands of e-Gamers who share my sentiments.

Let's just see what happens.

After almost five days, I was finally able to log in e-Games' web servers.

While I'm definitely relieved that I was able to access my e-Games accounts, the experience nonetheless has left a bad taste in my mouth. The bottom line is, the less than stellar service and support of e-Games to its customers still leaves me extremely disappointed.

Apparently, a lot of other e-Gamers feel the same, as my posts relating to e-Games' troubles have seen higher than average traffic lately, indicating that dissatisfaction with e-Games' quality of service has grown beyond its internal forums and has spilled over into the internet at large.

I'm taking this topic to heart for several reasons - firstly because of my personal stake as player of RAN Online, and secondly, the perpetual complaints against e-Games' services represent virgin territory as far as our local legal system is concerned. As an advocate of the legal profession and soon to be (hopefully) a member of the Bar, there are a lot of circumstances in these events which are, to my mind, ripe for legal intervention, and perhaps, even regulation.

Not that I am totally blaming e-Games. It is understood that running a MMORPG of this scale makes technical problems more likely than not. But of course, we have to strike a balance between technical issues and consumer rights, and the rights and responsibilities of both e-Games and its players.

Needless to say, I think more will be written, and much more will be said with regard to this issue in the days to come.

If there are any e-Gamers out there who would like to give their two cents worth, please feel free to do so. If there is anything that needs explanation, whether legal or otherwise, I will try to explain my perspective in an honest and objective manner.

For those who have offered their support, I give my thanks.

And if anyone from e-Games can read this, please, please get your act together. And please do not alienate the very people who have contributed significantly to the success and growth of your company by trampling over their rights as consumers.

After talking a number of times with different e-Games support personnel and browsing a number of different forum sites (like this one), it turns out that the reason why I couldn't log on RAN Online or any of e-Games' websites is because e-Games is having connection problems specifically with subscribers of PLDT's myDSL service. Apparently subscribers of different ISPs are not affected, as far as I know.

So, the bottom line is, if you want to play RAN Online, or at the very least log in any e-Games website and your ISP is PLDT myDSL, tough luck.

I've tried refreshing my connection so my router can obtain a new IP address, but it still doesn't work. Nothing does. And it's strange, because other than the fact that I can't seem to access e-Games' web servers, my internet connection is perfectly fine. If it weren't for the fact that I play RAN Online, I probably wouldn't have noticed.

I can log on on virtually any website in the world, and yet I can't connect to a number of websites belonging to a solitary company. Somehow I'm inclined to think that the problem lies on e-Games' end. I've been a subscriber of PLDT myDSL for several years now, and while it has had its share of problems, it has never singled out any particular website with which it couldn't connect. Now, I have this rather strange situation in which I can't connect to one company site and one company site alone. It seems perfectly logical to assume that someone at e-Games has screwed up...again.

It started about four days ago. I logged off RAN Online after an emergency server restart was announced. I haven't been able to log on ever since, much to my consternation.

To make matters worse, the customer support personnel of e-Games seem to be oblivious as to the real cause of the problem, much less any possible solution. All they can offer to do is get my IP address and location for purposes of determining the extent of the problem, but for any real solutions, they seem to be as mystified as I am. All I can do is wait, and occupy my time with other pursuits, which is probably just as well.

It's just disappointing that e-Games is doing a piss-poor job of providing service to it's customers. For several months now it has been faced with connection problems and software glitches, which is only exacerbated by the absence of any really meaningful technical support. A shame really, considering the immense popularity of its online games, especially RAN Online.

Now the pressure is on e-Games to fix this problem. The number of PLDT myDSL subscribers who happen to be e-Games customers is significant, more so if you factor in that a majority of internet cafes and LAN shops who cater to gamers playing e-Games' online games connect to the internet via PLDT myDSL.

The thousands of players who couldn't connect represent what will probably amount to be a huge revenue loss for e-Games. Needless to say, if I were running the company, I'll probably end up firing someone because of this.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. e-Games definitely needs to get its act together. So far it has been nothing but one technical problem after another, exacerbated by poor technical support and what I can only assume to be incompetent technical people.

Maybe e-Games President Steve Tsao should seriously consider skimming some money from the millions of pesos of revenue it generates thanks to its loyal player base, and seriously consider spending it on better hardware, better network connections, and more competent technical people, instead of concentrating on marketing and sponsoring all those events.

Fail to nip this in the bud, and we can expect e-Games' client base to evaporate into nothingness, just like the 2x resurrection training rosary which I bought with my hard-earned money that ended up being wasted because of this.

Given today's cutthroat market, one shouldn't expect to provide poor service and stay in business.

In the meantime, may they should just change the name of RAN Online to RAN Offline. The latter is probably more appropriate.