openBC Rebranding as Xing

Business network openBC adopts a growing Web 2.0 naming convention: silly little made-up words. It's rebranding itself Xing by the end of the year.

What have you gotten me into this time, Sacha? ;)

Jon Stewart on Clinton and Fox

I was gonna make some smartass comment about the ultimate futility of emotional ambiguation in a world of infinite information, but fuck it.

Just listen to Jon Stewart talk about the MSM spin on Bill Clinton's Fox News interview.

TGS 2006 Booth Babes

E3's ban on scantily-clad booth babes contributes to its decline. Good thing the Japanese are smarter.

A few days back, I featured Tokyo Game Show 2006 cosplay cuties at Asian Sirens. Now, enjoy the booth babes.

Alodia Caramel Dance

And now, just for the Hell of it:



Alodia does the Caramel Dance.

(Remixed from her video.)

Vista Bootscreen

Five years and millions of dollars in development, and Vista's bootscreen sounds like it came from a Casio keyboard? Cool logo, though.

PICS Book Launch + BlogCon

The Philippine Internet Commerce Society launched its new book, e-Business Made Easy, last night. I've had an advance copy for nearly a month; author Joey Alarilla was kind enough to sign it.

At the end of the day, e-business is everyone's business. This book is a dream come true for Joey. The other dream is to meet Nicole Kidman; he's working on that.

Joey is a genius at simplifying tech. I had to drop 50 IQ points to read this book. That makes it just within reach of the average Filipino businessman.

Joey's flying to Singapore today for a Hellgate: London event. I asked him to say hi to Level Up founder Ben Colayco while he's there. I hear Ben's local subordinate isn't very happy with me today.

Innove CEO Gil Genio says the Philippines now has 200,000 consumer broadband accounts. Wonder how many of them are tuned in to YouTube.

Commission on Information and Communications Technology Commissioner Tim Diaz De Rivera says Dondi Mapa's old job (Commissioner for Strategic Business Development) is open for application. If you think you can create one million IT-related jobs in the Philippines by 2010, drop Tim a line. If you're thinking one million meaningful new tech jobs, you have my support. If you're thinking one million more call center McJobs, you have my violent opposition.

Companies are banging down Lauro Vives' door to appear on his new business tech show Venture. He's even got people from outside IT interested; I told biotechnologist Maoi Arroyo to give it a go. He upgraded his whole production team, so expect the show to get even better. No, he won't be putting his sexy co-host Aliya Parcs in lingerie anytime soon.

Oh, and Lauro, here are the Philippine music stores where you can sell your show audio: Fliptunes, Mobius Live, and MP3 Pilipinas. They ain't iTunes, but you gotta sell this stuff to Filipinos too.



The content-packed launch party concluded earlier than expected, so I caught up with BlogCon a few blocks away. There, I watched the ongoing construction of blog network Dash Media. Local SEO guru Marc Macalua also shared WordPress-centic blog optimization tips.

Hats off to the hostest with the mostest, Abe Olandres. The guy makes PhP 85,000 (~$ 1,700) a month problogging -- an SME executive's salary in the Philippines. Dondi's successor should create a policy environment to faciliate the rise of a million Abes.

Launched something analog for n00bs, watched something digital for geeks. Overall, a well-rounded night.

YouTube: The Movie

YouTube: The Movie, by no means official, showcases the foibles of YouTube culture.



YouTube is huge in the Philippines. This could be a peek at your kids' future.

TGS 2006 Cosplayer Poll: Wii or PS3?

Kotaku asks cosplayers at Tokyo Game Show 2006: Wii or PS3?

Philippine Internet Shops Need Better Security

As I type this, I'm receiving an IM report of a daring robbery at a Philippine Internet rental shop just minutes ago.

Three kids with a gun barged into the shop and robbed patrons. The attendant didn't even think to sound the alarm! She let them load the fucking gun in front of her before they robbed her! The person reporting this has asked that I show this small shop mercy, and not identify them.

Most of the Philippines' 11.8 million Netizens rent at Internet shops. These shops had better put in better offline security, or viruses will be the least of their problems.

The Philippine government should stop seeing Internet shops as dens of sin. That's just stupid. It prevents them from getting the tax breaks they need for things like keeping kids physically safe while they empower themselves.

Filipina Celebrities at GrooveNet

Greg Kittelson just sent me a list of Filipina celebrities on his startup social network GrooveNet.

Angelica Jones
Asia Agcaoili
Andrea Del Rorasio
Giselle Sanchez
Rachel Lobangco

Pretty girls are always good for social networks, and vice-versa. Just look at Tila Nguyen, Queen of MySpace. Filipinos in particular are star-crazed and hive-minded.

America's Sexiest Newscaster Filipina

Filipina weathergirl Elita Loresca won the title America's Sexiest Newscaster in an online vote by readers of FHM.

People in Miami embrace curves... Here, I can wear a cute sweater and still be professional. Too bad she doesn't deliver the news in lingerie. Hey, FHM Philippines, we have sexy citizen journalists, too.

(Via Asian Sirens.)

DRM Scheme Named After Filipina Gamer-Cosplayer

I just learned that the name of DVD copy protection scheme Edge9 is taken from an amalgam of the online aliases of Filipina cosplayer-gamer babe Alodia Gosiengfiao.

C'mon, Alodia fans. DRM is evil! You gotta find better stuff to name after her.

TGS 2006 Cosplay

The Tokyo Game Show 2006 starts its last day in an hour. If you can't be there, enjoy this gallery of cosplay photos from the show.