Year: 2007

Categories
Mostly Everything

Organizing a Photo Trip to Angkor Wat, Cambodia

angkor_wat_temple.jpg

I’ve been surveying friends who want to travel to the beautiful temple at Angkor, Cambodia. I’m opening up the idea to anyone in the PH who wants to come as this could be an exciting trip for bloggers / photographers. I realized how a lot of Filipino bloggers are also hobbyist photographers and the general sentiment to this trip was always on the positive whenever I would ask people privately. So now the open invitation begins.

Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. The largest and best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre — first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist — since its foundation. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country’s prime attraction for visitors. [Wikipedia]

The tentative date for this trip will be come between September to November 2007. I really have no idea how much this will cost but I’m estimating a $600.00 package for a few days. The time between the trip and now is a couple of months which is enough time for people to save and stock up on equipment. I’m no travel expert but I really want to shoot this beautiful place. Any information on travel costs and the best time to go (is the 4th quarter really the best time to go — there are preparations to be made for this..) would be highly valued 🙂

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Categories
Mostly Everything

The Best Way to Explain SEO from a Magazine Publishing Perspective

mphfeb2007cover.jpgAbout a year ago I wrote an entry on why or why we should not have sexy girls grace the cover of gadget magazines.

It dawned on me after a year of enlightenment that the issue of sexy girls can be the best way to explain white hat SEO tactics. White hat SEO — as opposed to black hat SEO tactics.


The actual line between the two is quite thin, but, Black Hat SEO refers to things that are considered dark, or spammy, while White Hat SEO refers to “good” SEO. I determine Black Hat SEO as anything that, A. breaks any search engines rules, B. effects the users experience on the site for the worse, or C. shows different content to different user-agents. [source]

Liken your magazine cover to your website and the magazine stand to the search engine. Sexy girls on the front cover of gadget magazines (or any magazine that holds a demographic filling in the “prime of youth”) is supposedly a magazine stall differentiator – the “sexiness” is supposed to “make the magazine rank higher in terms of visibility on the news stand.”

So how then do you differ black from white hat SEO in this case? Well the clincher is all in the context (again) of how the sexiness was executed. Bikini for summer issue? Check. Bikini for no reason at all? Ugh. The “black hat” comes in when the magazine becomes invaded by sex when in fact its focus is actually far from what its niche is supposed to be. A gadget magazine that has boob-clad “lady sexy” can surely ruin the reading experience.

Buy the latest issue of Mobile Philippines with the attractive, wholesome and geeky Iya Villania on the cover 🙂

Categories
Mostly Everything

Blogging as a Prime Mover in (Professional) Life Choices

Eating your cake

The best of times ended when I received my high school graduation diploma. I had no idea that these would be the “best times” in my life as quarterly exams and unit tests were supposedly the most important obstacles in a preteens life.

And then the real world happened and “we” all went on to having some sort of ideal when it came to changing the world.” Of course, these ideals slowly got watered down by the real world – the demands of work, failure, relative success, and relationships.

And so my crux. Under the influence of social lubricant last night, a few friends gathered and the question of how long will blogging last came up. My answer was rather straight to the point (come to think of it I was barely awake so I’m not sure if I conveyed my message right).

Blogging by itself will be around for quite a while. Relying on blogs are a main source of income will be highly dependent on your personal and professional goals. Are you happy to make the extra 0.00 to augment your income? Or are you more interested in the long term effects of blogs as a prime mover in media? Do you want to play it safe and have a “fallback” with your 9-5 job or would you be willing to concentrate 100% of your efforts in taking the “nestea plunge.”

A respected industry person once asked me, “do you want to be part of the noise or the conversation?”

UPDATE: Added the word “professional” to the title as the post might be misconstrued as blogging fanaticism 🙂

Categories
Mostly Everything

The Inquirer.net Tagcloud: a microcosm of what’s hot with Pinoys

It’s actually quite fun (and geeky) to analyze the Inquirer.net tagcloud. It is fun because you get to see, as a visual learner, the magnitude of certain events that occur in the Philippines that make it to the news.

tagcloud.jpg

The more prominent tags would include BASKETBALL, CRIME, ELECTIONS (2007), ENTERTAINMENT, and POLITICS. Interesting too the semi prominent tag of “acts of terror.” This is indeed an interesting microcosm of what makes the news

According to JV Rufino, editor in chief of Inquirer.net these tag clouds are more reflective of what the editors like writing about. Big truth in this, but doesn’t it also reflect what remains in the hotseat of Filipino life? In summary, the Filipino loves several forms of ENTERTAINMENT including BASKETBALL, and other spectator sports like the ELECTIONS, POLITICS and the CRIME we see on television that become sensationalized into a soap opera.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Inquirer.net expands to the spoken word

podcast-page.jpg

This is exciting news for Philippine new media. I mentioned in the spirit of transparency that I’m involved in building Inquirer’s podcasting efforts. I’d like to introduce you to the page where readers can stream or download the spoken word shows of Inquirer.net.

Currently the page is serving two programs – the Eleksyon 2007 Candidate Podcast as well as the hackenslash podcast.

Can it really be this soon that the mediums of television, print and radio are showing signs of evolving into the new media model? Surveys say that television still is the number one source for disseminating information, but with the way the working Filipino lifestyle is changing, portable media seems to be the more practical solution for the Pinoy on the go and for those working in the call center industry who just don’t have the schedule to give to TV. Will portable media in the form of iPods and PMPs may be the more practical choice for Pinoys in the future? This is I guess, a function of how much valued content third party content providers (umm bootleg tiangee or “flea market” DVD sellers?) can flood into the market?

Why do you think the pirated DVD industry is popular? Not only is it cheaper to buy (this is the main reason), but buying the whole season of Heroes for instance gives you the convenience of the sacred “DVD marathon” for the busy folk.

After re-reading this post, I figured that my conclusion doesn’t remotely relate to the purpose of the original post. Click here for the Inquirer.net Podcast page.