Smart Bro is a wireless internet service provided by Smart Telecommunications, one major player in the Philippine mobile services arena.

Smart Bro connections differ in two types: the fixed antenna and modem usually installed above the house and the USB 3.5G modem, the more handy and truly mobile option.

I happened to use the second type, the USB 3.5G modem, which is actually capable of using 2G (the old-school voice and text), GPRS, EDGE, 3G and 3.5G (HSDPA) signals. I borrowed the 3.5G modem from a high school classmate. I tested the connection at Kalayaan Residence Hall of University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City Philippines.

Specifically, I used Smart Bro’s service in my room which is located on the basement and at the newly renovated lobby. First off, I’ll discuss my internet experience on my room.

Smart Bro @ the basement of Kalayaan Residence Hall

The connection was virtually dead even if it was connected to Smart’s servers. A high school batchmate earlier reported that she can’t connect to the Internet. The inner geek in me went out and suspected the DNS server to be the culprit. I switched to OpenDNS and tadaaa, it worked. (more…)

Hey guys, here in this post you’ll read how I love A Small Orange. If you don’t want to read the entire post, you may skip to what happened to me today with them.

_______ lead me to them

It was the rage of Dreamhost users; the time when downtimes as long as four hours FREQUENTLY happened. That time I decided to move on a new host — good thing A Small Orange do have a good and cool web design (even if it’s simple). Their design made me remembered them when I needed a new host most.

And so…

As an impulsive buyer I am now, I swiftly checked out their plans. Then picked the right plan for me — added it to my shopping cart and checked out. Voila, I was officially the latest A Small Orange account holder that time.

Here’s a review.

Features

Uhm, I got a $5 a month plan which featured 400MB web space and 10GB bandwidth. The per-capita cost (cost per megabyte or gigabyte bandwidth/webspace) of my plan was far more than I had in Dreamhost. I do have about 240+ GB webspace and 5TB (that’s 5,000 GB) bandwidth. But it was no big deal since I was not able to utilize all my resources in Dreamhost. The ASO plan gave me something that best suited my current traffic.

As most of the current web hosts, they support PHP — both 4 and 5. Also with MySQL 4 or 5, Ruby-on-Rails and a lot more. You may request them to add special modules for you if you need them.

Reliability

Reliability-wise, they are FAAAAAR better than Dreamhost. Although I experience downtimes, they were mostly fast — some were even just seconds while the average is 10 minutes (but the longest was two hours) as compared to Dreamhost’s at least an hour downtimes.

I usually contact them when my site is down, and they respond right away and fix it in a snap. (more…)

Yesterday, we, the graduating batch, had our graduation practices at school. Since the canteen servicing the school had already closed, we had to order food for our lunch from fast foods.

Some of my batchmates ordered at Jollibee, but our group decided to go for KFC. We tried ordering at KFC but they notified us that they can’t make it since they didn’t have any delivery boy for the day. So we ended up ordering at McDo.

Ordering Process (McDo)

I was the one who took care of the ordering process. I called McDo’s (McDonalds) hotline in Davao, 228McDo. I did not have to wait, there was a person on the phone right away. I gave my name, the school’s complete address and other necessary info such as contact number. Then, I dictated our orders to their Customer Service Representative (CSR). The CSR rechecked our order to make sure that there was no omission, addition or duplication in the order. Everything went well and promised us to have our order within an hour after the confirmation call of the McDo servicing branch to the contact number we provided.

It was exactly 12:17pm, about a minute after our 228McDo call, when the McDo servicing branch called us up for confirmation of our order. We confirmed it right away.

List of Order

The Agony

Uhm, it was about 12:45pm when some people started complaining telling me that their hunger is already killing them. I told them to wait just a bit longer cause their promised one hour was still not over. Then, the bell rang. It was already 1pm and lunch break was over. Me and Beth Rosero decided not to attend the practice yet and wait for our order. By 1:17pm, one hour after the confirmation, the food still was not delivered. We bothered to still wait a ‘lil longer, and by 1:30pm, I tried following-up the order thru 228McDo Davao hotline.

The 228McDo CSR asked for my name and contact number. She saw on their records that the order was confirmed by 12:17pm and asked for apology for the inconvenience. Then, she told me that the servicing branch gave them no feedback yet on the order. She also asked me if the servicing branch asked for time extension after the confirmation and I replied negative.

After the call, we still bothered to wait even longer. Then by 2:30pm, I tried following it up for the second time. The CSR, again, rechecked for our order status and said that there still was no feedback yet from the servicing branch. Then I asked her which branch, and she told me it was McDo in Damosa. I asked the CSR if we can have our orders canceled. She contacted the servicing branch herself thru phone and told me that our order was still on the store. I got pissed cause after more than two hours of waiting, our food was still on the store. The CSR then confirmed if I was sure about the cancellation of our orders and I confirmed it right away without the consent of my other batchmates.

Refund Time

So there was no choice but to suffer from hunger caused by that damn McDonalds. I had to return their money one by one, and it was a strenuous chore considering I still haven’t ate a meal for the day.

Attempt to Complain

Out of anger, I tried my best to contact the said McDo branch, McDo Damosa. I called up 228McDo to have McDonalds customer service email, but they replied they did not have one. They asked me why I wanted to have it, and I told them that I wanted to complain. I also asked them McDo Damosa’s email address, but they told me that branches don’t have it too.

I ended up asking McDo Damosa’s telephone number. The CSR who attended to me gave it right away. I ended up the call with the CSR’s permission, and dialed McDo Damosa’s number.

It was Sir July, one of their managers according to him, who answered my call. I told him about the incident, and replied to me that there problem was that they only had one rider for the day. I asked him why we were not notified of the possible delay. 228McDo told me that in events like this, the servicing branch should ask the customer of time extension. He did not answer right away, it could be that he was somewhat overwhelmed by my slightly angry tone brought by my hunger. Then he answered that he still has to check on why we were not notified. He also told me that they haven’t anticipated the scenario and asked for apology.

He asked my full name, and I gave it and even spelled it out letter-by-letter. He asked for my contact number, and since I don’t have a mobile phone I gave him my email which I think he did not take note of. I told him that I’ll have to call him later.

McDo should have

• notified us that our order would be delayed.
• anticipated the situation.
• not accepted our order at all.
• had the nerves for people waiting for their not-so-good food.

That’s all for now. I’ll post follow-ups later.

UPDATE: Here is the list of other related posts by my friends and batchmates:

• Die McDo by Gerwin John D. Rodriguez
• Assessing McDo Service by my sister, Cecile Maris E. Gozalo
• The McDo Experience by Heidi Louise Torralba

This is a part of DAVAO FAT series posts.

A group of bloggers visited Lachi’s last March 14, 2008 for the Davao FAT’s (Food Appreciation Tour). We had our dinner there, and guess what, it was a fun experience!

To give you an idea, Lachi’s is a small (but terrible) resto at Ruby St., Marfori Heights in Davao City. They serve an array of delicious meals, and most specially their sweet mouthwatering pastries.

They served me their Cordon Bleu which left a soothing taste on my tongue even after I finished my meal. It was undeniably yummier after I mildly soaked it to soy sauce. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of my meal.

above are images of their other meals

After eating our meals, they started rolling out the sweets for dessert.

Who would even dare to leave some leftover, huh?

Again it was a fun experience. Their food was really really really great. All of us left super happy and bloated.

The bloggers before they left.

Present were: Kuya Winston, Ate Tiara, Ate Aileen, Kuya Blogie, Ate Ria, Ate Gwing, Kuya Migs, Kuya Andrew, Kuya Jay, Ate Angel and Kuya Dom. –oops, stolen from ate Aileen | photos from Kuya Andrew

Not a couple of hours ago, I went to Picture City at SM City Davao to have a 2×2 ID picture for my dorm application. After having my picture taken, they tipped me to come back by 6:00PM.

Exactly 6PM, I went back to the photo shop to claim my print order. The attendant told me that my picture was not yet printed. I still had to wait for 25 minutes to have my picture.

I was pissed off by their service. I saw them print my picture in a Canon inkjet printer. I wonder why they process those jobs in an inkjet, weird.

For those people who plan to process their printing jobs at SM City Davao, I recommend that you avail the services of Mitsubishi Photo located at the first floor.

Last week was very bad week for me. I had to eat fastfood meals for a number of consecutive days. I was already feeling weak, maybe because I’m not just used to eating lots of it.

But I chose to give the week a happy ending.

Last Saturday dinner, I joined the group of bloggers who ate at Avenida as part of Davao Food Trip. The group was led by Kuya Blogie Robillo, the event organizer, with Ate Ria, Kuya Andrew, Kuya Winston, Ate Tiara, Ate Pearl, Ate Andie, Ate Issa, Kuya Norbs and me. Avenida is a restaurant located at the ground floor of Lispher Inn in Juna Subdivision in Matina, Davao City. It is conveniently located at the heart of the city, sandwiched by two malls, NCCC Mall of Davao and SM City Davao.

Beef Misono (photo by Ms. Maria Jose)

The first dish served to us was the Beef Misono. I don’t have an idea how a Beef Misono should taste but based on their servings, a Beef Misono should be really that good. I’m not a fan of restaurant food but I loved the dish, couple it with the tasty sauce in Aladdin’s magic lamp. I mean, tasty sauce served in a Aladdin’s magic lamp-like container. The steamed rice served was also yummy. My tongue comprehends the rice buttered (ooops, is it the right term), but I’m not really sure if it really contained butter. (serving for two for PhP 110.00)

Aladdin’s Magic Lamp (photo by Ms. Maria Jose)

Bangus Belly (photo by Ms. Maria Jose)

The next dish was Bangus Belly, a favorite dish of mine. Their Bangus Belly was more than at par of what my tongue was expecting. It was served with one of my favorite leafy vegetables, Kangkong. Just like the previous dish, it was yummy and tasty. It had a unique soothing mild sour taste, maybe because of the onion and tomatoes. Just like any Bangus Belly served on establishments, it contained to fish bones. Yehey! (PhP 90.00)

Sizzling Squid (photo by Ms. Maria Jose)

Then, the last dish, the Sizzling Squid! I admit that I was not able to try it out cause I was already full, blame my favorite Bangus Belly. It looked really amazing, and again another Aladdin’s magic lamp but now with butter. It’s looks says that it’s promisingly good, but I stopped myself to the best of my self-control. (PhP 120.00)

And yeah, before I forget, there was this Iced Tea. Their Iced Tea tasted and looked like Iced Tea. That’s it, I don’t know how to describe it anyway. The only adjective I can attach to their Iced Tea is good. Yeah, it was good. (PhP 30.00)

Avenida saved my fastfood-full week. Yehey! I recommend Avenida for people who are tired of eating fastfood food. They serve very good food at cheap rates. They make it a point that you get the best value of your cash without compromising satisfaction. Plus, the place is a Wi-Fi hotspot (a big PLUS even though I don’t own a Wi-Fi capable device)!

Waaaaa, I’m third place! Thanks to kuya Winston and kuya Jehz for convincing me to review their PRC Board Exam Results Website [link to review]. By the time I was making the review, I forgot about the YGB! contest. It was only after I published the review when kuya Winston told me to submit it to the said contest.

Yey, that’s an additional $50.00 on my PayPal account!

My EON card came just in time. Now, I have a lot of dollar$ to brag. I’m now an official dollar earner! Hahaha.

Too bad the peso’s going strong, but let’s be happy with that bitter fact (bitter for dollar earners like me)!

My plans for my accumulated PayPal money (approx. $10.00 right now + $50.00 cash prize + expected $10.00 on January):

• cellphone
• another domain name
• savings

Yey. Happy blogging to me!

Oooops, before I forget, congrats kuya Winston and kuya Jehz. Just remembered that the party reviewed also gets the same prize!

[UPDATE] Thanks to the Digital Filipino Club, the contest’s sponsor

Yesterday, I posted on my “Series of Unfortunate Events” post my LandBank experience. For those who haven’t read the article, I went to LandBank to withdraw my PhP 2,700.00 school stipend over-the-counter cause I lost my ATM. Yesterday’s transaction was not approved and required me to process its replacement.

So today, I processed its replacement. The process was smooth and easy so there were no problems. Here’s a chronology of events on how I got my replacement. (more…)

Looking for PRC December 2007 Nursing Licensure Examination results? Check this out.

The main objective of this site (PRC Board Exam Results) is to deliver an on-time and accurate index of all the exam results being published by the Professional Regulation Commission. The site also serves as an archive of all the results published by the commission. We have developed a state-of-the-art PDF to text file program, exclusively for this website, so we can provide you the latest, the fastest and most reliable board exam results from the official PRC website.

Source: PRC Board Exam Results

The guys behind the PRC Board Exam Results considers every PRC board exam result release as another opportunity to bond closer to their objectives. -Conrad Miguel E. Gozalo (more…)