Shorter travel time to Baguio

It is now possible to reach Baguio from Manila in less than 5 hours, including two stops.

The bulk of the trip consists of a breeze along three interconnected expressways:

NLEX-SCTEX	164 km Balintawak-Tarlac	P322
TPLEX	70 km Tarlac-Urdaneta	216
Kennon		15
Total	234 km	P553

If you drive at a boring 80 km/h, you should cover the 230-plus-km stretch in under three hours; the legal 100 km/h in about 30 minutes less.

Thankfully, just before the 2016 Holy Week, an integrated NLEX-SCTEX greeted motorists. The Dau exit, where the buildup could take as long as a half hour, is now a thing of the past.

From Urdaneta, it's 34 km on the MacArthur highway until Rosario, La Union. In another 36 km you see the Baguio General Hospital, the first real sign that you are in the Summer Capital.

The expressways cut driving time significantly. At the Urdaneta TPLEX exit, you can see that work is in progress on the final leg to Rosario which will probably be open next year. That means an even shorter traffic time from Balintawak to Kennon.

There are some problems the links can't solve: the standstill around the Baguio plaza and a vehicular version of the Hunger Games at Balintawak.

Converting RCA VOC files to MP3

What worked for me: I downloaded the VSDC free audio converter, opened the VOC file, chose a target format (I chose MP3). Done!

I like the RCA VR 5231. It's small, light and records faithfully (I hear every one clearly from the office meeting). It's got a USB cable that allows easy PC transfers. Until you discover that your files are in the .VOC format which your Windows Media Player or VLC player won't play.

I tried online VOC to MP3 converters. Nah. I downloaded at least three other converters. Nyet. They were limited to five minutes only, and I had three hours worth of talk time.

I was almost resigned to playing back from the recorder itself except that the 5231 doesn't let you go to specific parts of the audio file. Pressing the rewind/fast forward button take you to the previous/next file. The "off" button takes you back to the beginning of the recording.

It is possible to record in the WAV format which conventional players read. Just set the options to HQ. The only downside -- if you can call it that -- is that recording time is cut from 800 hours to 68.

To reset recorder to HQ

1. Press on
2. Press info/menu for about two seconds. "FOLDER" will flash
3. Again, press info/menu twice quickly
4. Toggle the +/- button until you see HQ
5. Press off

Baler 2013

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NLEX-SCTEX-TIPLEX-CLSU-Pantabangan

27Dec - Friday

• 0500 000km
• 0930 200km CLSU, Nueva Ecija
• Lunch at Hillocks, Pantabangan, NE
• Balete Park, Maria Aurora, Aurora
• 1500 320km Baler. Carlito's Inn
  2km from the beach. Tricycle ride P15/pax
  No frills. P105 AYCE restaurant closed.
• 1900 dinner at Aliya

28Dec - Bay's Inn

29Dec - Sunday

• 0515 daybreak watch
• Regina and Lorenzo surfing
   
• Left Baler 1130
• Lunch at Bebot's Nueva Vizcaya
• DVF carabao ice cream
• 1600 460km CLSU alumni hostel
• 1730 Mass, Christ the Worker church
• Dinner at Ben Domingo's

30Dec - Monday

• Walk around the campus: carabaos and goats: chicharabao, leche flan
• Breakfast at Ben's
• 1200 Dep CLSU
• 1445 lunch at Shell of Asia NLEX
• 1700 Home 656km

Toll

• NLEX P45+173=218
• SCTEX P104
• TIPLEX free
• Total, roundtrip P644

Fuel

• P1000 Petron-San Jose NE
• P500 Shell-Baler
• P1000 Petron-Munoz

This trip marked POV201's first long drive
         

(Image, which I found elsewhere, is not mine. No copyright infringement intended.)

The status of R. A. 10175

By Gary Mariano|De La Salle University
Draft

• The Cybercrime Prevention Act, signed into law on Sept. 12, 2012, is the subject of a 120-day restraining order issued by the Philippines Supreme Court on Oct. 12 (which should expire on Feb. 9, 2013).
• The Court has scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 15, 2013.
• There are nine bills in Congress, filed after the uproar of protest the law created, seeking to repeal or amend parts of the Act.

Sec. 4(c)(4)

This is the provision that makes the new law highly controversial. One, it penalizes electronic libel, whose analogue version is already a crime (Article 353, Revised Penal Code, 1930). Two, it raises the penalty for e-libel one notch. What used to be a minimum prison term of six months and one day has become six years and one day!

All but two of the nine bills in Congress have their crosshairs on Section, paragraph C, subparagraph 4. 

These are House Bills 6613 (Raymond Palatino/Kabataan and Teodoro Casiño/Bayan Muna), 6616 (Antonio Tinio/ACT Teachers), 6630 (Walden Bello/Akbayan); and Senate Bills 3288 (Francis Escudero), 3295 (Loren Legarda), 3297 (Pia Cayetano), and 3301 (Peter Cayetano).

[3302, Peter Cayetano; 3315, Edgardo Angara]

The three House bills and those filed by Angara and the Cayetanos also seek to strike the whole of Sec. 6, which subjects acts already punishable in the Revised Penal Code to a stiffer penalty. This is the measure that makes e-libel punishable by prision mayor in its minimum to medium terms, compared with the erstwhile prision correccional for conventional libel.

(Prision correccional runs from six months and one day to six years; prision mayor from six years and one day to 12 years.)

Other targets
Pia Cayetano's bill likewise calls for the repeal of the cybersex provision in Sec. 4(c)(1).
Also sought for repeal are Sec. 5(a) and Sec. 7.

Sec. 5(a) is the "aiding and abetting" provision which netizens fear would make forwarding, reblogging, reposting, or retweeting material that would be deemed libelous, equally punishable.

Sec. 7 is provides for liability under other laws.

Palatino and Casiño's bill calls for the deletion of the entire Chapter IV, "Enforcement and Implementation"(Sections 10 through 19).

Another contested provision is Sec. 12, which allows law enforcers to record "technical data" in real time. Pia Cayetano wants this section out, while Tinio seeks to require a court warrant.

Sections 18 ("Exclusionary Rule") and 19 ("Restricting or Blocking Access to Computer Data") are also targets for amendment. Angara wants evidence violating the Act inadmissible in court.

Tinio, Legarda and Pia Cayetano want Section 19 stricken from the law. Bello, Angara and Peter Cayetano propose amendments that require a court order prior to restricting or blocking access to computer data.

Questionable
Sec. 5(b) makes a "willfull attempt" to commit a cybercrime equally liable.

Project NOAH

Here's NOAH (the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), a very useful weather app from Pagasa. Drag the map if you wish. Or go to the site

PDF Newspapers

Updated July 1, 2017
For that old-fashioned newspaper look, minus the bulk and inkstain/smell

1. Business Mirror
2. BusinessWorld - alter the date, ex. BWDigitizedMMDDYYYS1.pdf
3. Daily Tribune - alter the dates; today, it's crook
4. Malaya Business Insight - none unless you're okay with a thumbnail
5. Manila Bulletin - requires registration
6. Manila Standard
7. Manila Times - alter the date, ex. todays-front-page-july-01-2017
8. Philippine Daily Inquirer - page one only
9. Philippine Star - fee-based

Pnoy's 2012 SONA: An outline

Text available at gov.ph/sona-2012


Residue

1. North Rail contract
2. PAGCOR/PNP
3. Obligations to fulfill: classrooms, Philhealth enrollment, AFP modernization

Accomplishments

1. Economic indicators
   PSE index ~5,000
   GDP 6.4% 1Q 2012
2. Poverty alleviation: 3 million PPP beneficiaries; additional 3.8M next year
3. Health care: Philhealth enrollment from 62 to 85%
4. Education
   No more chairs backlog by the end of the year
   SUCs to get P37B in 2013
5. Jobs creation
   Tesda trained 434,000
   3.1M new jobs in 2011. 
6. Infrastructure: Airpors, rail, bus, roads
7. Tourism
   2010: 3.1 M tourists
   mid-2012: 2.1M (target 4.6M)
   2016: 10M
8. Agriculture
   rice shortage down from 1.3 mt to 50,000
   coco water exports: from <500,000 liters in 2009 to 16.8M liters in 2011
9. Agrarian reform
10. Energy
11. Criminality
12. Defense
13. ARMM
14. Environment
15. Civil service
16. Corruption
17. China dispute
18. Justice

Wish list

1. Universal Health Care
2. Sin Taxes
3. Responsible Parenthood
4. 44% increase in 2013 SUCs budget
5. Anti-Money Laundering Act