VoIP Guidelines Useless Barriers to Entry

Maan Tolentino just sent me a copy of the new implementing rules and regulations for VoIP in the Philppines. Salient points:

1. Non-telco providers and resellers are required to ride on telco infrastructure.
2. VoIP service providers should pay PhP 10 million (about US$ 200,000) in paid-up capital.
3. VoIP service providers must pay an annual registration fee of P50,000 (about US$ 1,000), and post performance bonds worth P5 million (about US$ 100,000).

Ridiculous. It should not cost that much to provide a VoIP service in a small country. You do not need to ride on telco infrastructure to do so; ever heard of cable and satellite Internet? Even if your service did suck, the low cost of VoIP provision would create the multiplicity of providers required for the market to decide who should be in business.

Google & MSN Filipina Cosplay

Google and MSN searches for "Filipina cosplay" used to yield front pages full of kinky costume fetish porn sites.

I like the new top results much better. ;)

stag Philippines Makes MS Gold Partner

My former boss, stag Philippines President Chris Stolk, just sent me an SMS saying that his company made Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Congratulations, guys! :)

TypePad Designers Wanted

US PR firm CooperKatz is looking for web designers to make tweakable TypePad templates.

Add to Google Reader/Personal

Google's come out with official code and graphics for the Google Reader/Personal one-click subscribe chiclet.

Good to see them deliver above and beyond the call of bloggers. I've been using Steve's improvised graphic and John's improvised code for weeks.

(Via Philipp Lenssen.)

The Truth About the Filipina, Part II

It's reports like this that remind me why I blog.


Some guy in California ran a Yahoo search for a "filipina pornstar", and instead discovered the truth about the Filipina.

Google Analytics Speeds Up

Google Analytics performs even better than I first thought; data comes in realtime now. Now I understand why this tool cost US$500 a month last year. Here's a chart of this blog's visitor locations.



This chart shows that this blog gets a lot of new visitors every day.



To the 15.30% of you following this blog, thanks for enjoying another dose of Information Narcosis. To 84.70% discovering this blog for the first time, welcome to Information Narcosis!

This chart shows the Googlle searches that generate clickthroughs to this blog.



It's interesting to see what people search for right now, and how much Google thinks you know about it.

That's just a sampling; you can get dozens of useful reports off this baby. Google Analytics also tracks PinoyCosplay.com.

Transpacific WiFi Cluelessness

Doc Searls presents more proof that paid WiFi is dumb.

Meanwhile, Maan Tolentino points out a local restaurant that thinks WiFi is food.

"The future is already here -- it's just unevenly distributed." -- William Gibson.

Converting Internet Cafés Into Call Centers?

Think of it as mutating the grassroots. Edwin Soriano points out a local company that converts Internet cafés into call centers.