A freebie from the Internet

Except perhaps for some boxing aficionados in Thailand, the name Manny Pacquiao is virtually unheard of in the rest of Southeast Asia where soccer or football is the ruling sport. But in the Philippines, boxing is a religion and Pacquiao is the god of the highest order.

Every time this guy,..... Read more »

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Embattled Yahoo opens office in the Philippines

It may no longer be the king of the Internet, but Yahoo still casts a long shadow here in the Philippines.

It wasn't surprising, therefore, when the company announced last February that it was opening a local office. The..... Read more »

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An IT story worth telling

Not many good stories come out of the Philippines nowadays, so there's always a reason to celebrate when a piece of positive news comes up once in a while.

One such story is the remarkable success of a project called JEDI (Java Education Development Initiative), which was first hatched and implemented..... Read more »

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Frustrations of a technology slave

Like basic utilities such as electricity and water, technology has crept into our everyday lives in such a way that we have become so dependent on it even when we know that it's not a perfect system.

If you make a random survey of the things that..... Read more »

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Philippines' outsourcing ambition spurs English proficiency

Aside from its bountiful natural resources, the other main wealth of the Philippines is perhaps its people. Despite the poverty and corruption that still pervade in the country, the current generation of Filipinos has ably demonstrated they can surpass the achievements of their elders and raise the standard of living..... Read more »

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Country-to-country Wi-Fi experience

Journalists are often invited to attend various events inside and outside the country. This month of May was particularly busy for me, as I was practically on the road almost the entire time.

Early this month, I had the chance to go to Los Angeles and San Francisco in United..... Read more »

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An inconvenient healthcare reality

In the Philippines, healthcare is almost an alien concept to half of the local population, especially to those living in remote villages. Would you believe that 50 percent of Filipinos die without ever seeing a doctor in their entire lives?

Unlike in developed markets like the Unites States where healthcare is..... Read more »

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A new telco in town? Maybe not

A few days ago, an e-mail with a subject line "Invitation to the exclusive launch of a new telco" greeted me as I opened my inbox. Not knowing the person who sent it, I mistook it first as a spam mail.

I was informed about this launch by a PR..... Read more »

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The end of cheap prices

The current rice crisis gripping Asia and the United States has led experts to declare that the era of cheap food is over. That seems to apply as well in the low-cost IT labor sector, particularly in the electronics manufacturing, in the Philippines.

Chipmaker Intel’s recent decision to pull out of..... Read more »

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Finding the gold in blogs

If you place the word "blog" in front of a mirror, it may read something like "gold". It may sound cheesy, but that seems to be the status of blogs right now--both literally and figuratively.

I got that impression last Saturday, Apr. 26, when I attended the "iBlog4: the 4th Philippine..... Read more »

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• The arrogance of Steve Jobs
• How India is doing IT
• Domain prices should go down, not up
• Caught in the act by tech
• Blogging wields power again--sort of

2008

2007

• What's the Indian definition of privacy?
• Could technology have saved me from being touched?
• A freebie from the Internet
• Can traditional media beat new media in speed?
• SMS taxi booking is my favourite mobile service

Melvin G. Calimag

Melvin G. Calimag currently writes for the infotech section of a popular English broadsheet in the Philippines. Prior to this, Melvin served as an assistant editor at Metropolitan Computer Times (MCT), the first IT publication in the Philippines. He is currently the president of the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress), and also serves as a board member with the Philippine Science Journalists Association.