Known for their hit songs like Hands Up and Heartbeat, 2PM have been touring everywhere but here. So after the countless requests and tireless efforts of the Filipino fans, CJ E&M’s MLive, Hoopla, and Big Daddy joined together to give Filipinos a one-night-only concert entitled “What time is it".

This is also part of the group’s 2PM Live Tour 2013 where the Philippines is the first stop. After which they will proceed to Guangzhou China on 30^th of March, then on the 8^th of April at Bangkok, Thailand.

Ticket sales begin this Saturday, 26^th of January at the following channels:

• SM Arena
• SM Tickets (* SM Tickets will charge a minimal processing fee per transaction)
• Select SM Cinema branches
  

  Luzon

  • Bacoor
  • Baguio
  • Baliwag
  • Batangas
  • Calamba
  • Clark
  • Dasmariñas
  • Lipa
  • Lucena
  • Marilao
  • Masinag
  • Molino
  • Naga
  • Olongapo
  • Pampanga
  • Rosales
  • Rosario
  • San Lazaro
  • San Pablo
  • Sta. Rosa
  • Tarlac
  • Taytay

  Mega Manila

  • Bicutan
  • Fairview
  • Mall of Asia
  • Manila
  • Marikina
  • Megamall
  • Muntinlupa
  • North EDSA
  • Novaliches
  • The Podium
  • Sta. Mesa
  • Southmall
  • Sucat
  • Valenzuela

  Visayas

  • Bacolod
  • Cebu
  • Iloilo

  Mindanao

  • Cagayan de Oro
  • Davao

Ticket Prices

• VIP1 (standing) - ₱11,500
• VIP2 (standing) - ₱11,500
• VIP3 (standing) - ₱9,000
• Lower Box A (seated) - ₱7,000
• Lower Box B (seated) - ₱6,000
• Upper Box (seated) - ₱3,300
• General Admission (seated) ₱1,000

Image from Hoopla.

Here are some photos of this year’s festivities that many Barrio Culi-Culi (today’s Barangays Bangkal and Pio del Pilar) residents rated as the best fiesta in the neighbourhood ever, to which I agree.

Who is San Ildefonso?

San Ildefonso was a Bishop of Toledo from A.D. 657 to A.D. 667 (Anno Domini, Latin for “In the year of our Lord"). He was a Visigoth and his Gothic name was Hildefuns, which evolved into the Castillian name Alfonso. The name San Ildefonso is itself Castillian, with several places around the world named after this name. He is more known in non-Spanish-conquered places as Saint Ildefonsus or St. Ildephonsus.

He died on the 23^rd of January A.D. 667 and was canonized by the Vatican of the Roman Catholic church. His feast day was set to January 23, the date of his death, and is celebrated around the world annually.

Bangkal Auto Show

The Bangkal Auto Show was held on Saturday, 19^th of January along Evangelista Street on the EDSA side. A long stretch of Evangelista was closed down to give way to the first auto show we ever witnessed, probably to replace the traditional karera ng kabayo (horse racing), after all, it is 2013 and it’s all about gadgets, modding, and technology, gone are the days of horse betting.

Here are some photos I took during the event.

Band Parade and Competition

The next day, the 20^th of January is the second day of the festivities. I had to go to church first so I missed most of it, especially the early morning parade. However, I was still able to capture some photos of the festivities in the afternoon, in time for the annual marching band competition.

Sadly, there were only six (6) marching bands that joined, because this year’s San Ildefonso Fiesta coincided with the Fiesta of Sto. Niño, which is the most celebrated festivity in the Philippines. Hence, most marching bands either stayed in their home towns or were hired elsewhere, especially in Tondo, Manila, which is one of the largest Sto. Niño fiesta in the country.

• Saint Ildephonsus of Toledo information from Wikipedia
• San Ildefonso photo licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported by Ramon F. Velasquez
• All other photos in this article, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported and CC By 3.0 PH. Camera used: my|phone A919 Duo using ProCapture app

I commute via bus in the morning and via the Yellow Line (formerly known as Blue Line/MRT-3) in the evening. I started to notice the changes being implemented during the times that I took the bus in the evening and that was when I realized that a new bus stop scheme will be implemented soon along EDSA.

That day has arrived and it will be tomorrow, Tuesday, December 18, 2012. And you should definitely know which bus stops at which bus stop or you will just waste your time or worse get angry at the bus drivers.

Below you will find the image that was posted by the MMDA on their Facebook page, mind you, posted only on 23:00 (yes, today, December 17^th!)

BUS A Northbound

• Magallanes/Mantrade
• Buendia/Gil Puyat
• Guadalupe
• Shaw Boulevard
• SM Megamall
• Boni Serrano
• Cubao Farmers
• Ermin Garcia

BUS A Southbound

• Ermin Garcia
• Arayat Cubao
• VV Soliven
• Connecticut
• Shaw Starmall
• Guadalupe
• Buendia/Gil Puyat
• Mantrade/Magallanes

BUS B Northbound

• Ayala Avenue
• Estrella
• Pioneer/Boni
• SM Megamall
• Ortigas Avenue
• Main Avenue
• Baliwag/5star

BUS B Southbound

• Kamuning
• Monte de Piedad
• Main Avenue
• POEA Ortigas
• Boni/Pioneer
• Estrella
• Ayala Avenue

BUS S Northbound and Southbound

Allowed on all stops.

How to Spot Bus Coding?

All city buses plying EDSA have big (or medium) sized stickers located on the upper-right corner of their windshields facing the bus (from the outside). These stickers have either the letter A, B, or C, and are colour-coded.

• BUS A stickers and stops are red
• BUS B stickers and stops are blue
• BUS C stickers are yellow (if I remember correctly) and can stop on all bus stops

Additional things all commuters should know

When I observed how frequent BUS A, BUS B, and BUS C are, I noticed that there are less BUS C than A or B. True enough, the MMDA said that 80% of the buses plying EDSA are either A or B, the remaining 20% are C. This means that, there are far less BUS C than there are BUS A or B.

Secondly, categories A and B used to be: “A for Alabang” and “B for Baclaran” buses. The big question today is, if the MMDA is still following the old scheme, which will make the lives of the passengers harder than it already is. Consider this scenario:

If BUS B is still for Baclaran-route buses under the new scheme, then passengers living in the Malibay-Evangelista, all the way to Pasay and Baclaran, have no way to get a BUS A. This leaves them with not-so-good options:

• Wait for BUS C, which as the MMDA said, is only 20%, in other words it will not be a common sight; or
• Waste ₱8.00 for a Jeepney ride, drop at Magallanes proper, and walk all the way to Mantrade/Magallanes BUS A stop (which is far and you will surely sweat a lot)

I for one does not like either of those two options. We can only hope that the brains behind this scheme have realized this scenario and issued BUS A stickers to Baclaran-route buses, and BUS B stickers to Alabang-route buses. Sticking to the old scheme of exclusivity (ie A for Alabang buses; and B for Baclaran buses only) will not work, unless they increase the number of BUS C (which ironically, will defeat the bus stop segregation scheme).

At the end, the MMDA should have issued a 100-day massive information dissemination instead of doing an announcement on the eve of the implementation. This would have given more than enough time for passengers to raise questions (and for them to address it), memorize the new bus stops, adjust their daily routine, and so on.

You can not just implement a huge change in the system overnight. It takes time. It requires days of dialogue and information campaign. I can only hope that the lack of such will not cause total chaos along EDSA tomorrow and the next few weeks. So whatever happens tomorrow, do not blame the bus drivers they are only following the new rules and regulations along EDSA.

“The creative culture using Hatsune Miku and related community will spread worldwide by applying CC license to the illustration of Hatsune Miku", said CEO of Crypton Future Media, Inc. Hiroyuki Ito. “I hope that this encourages cross-border collaborations among creators and enables them to deepen their understanding of each other’s culture and respect to creators through their works and creation.”

For the unfamiliar, Hatsune Miku is the first and most famous virtual singer. With more than 170,000 videos on YouTube, 95,000 songs, and a whopping 500,000 artworks (and growing), all created by her fans since her debut in 2007. She was also seen in major brand advertisements like TOYOTA USA and Google Chrome TV commercials.

Even newbies in animation and art starts with her and learns their art through her. “Hatsune Miku has inspired thousands of people to create their own musical recordings and remixes. It’s fitting that she’d become CC-licensed, joining forces with a movement that lives to make sharing and remixing easier", said Catherine Casserly, Creative Commons CEO. “I’m thrilled to welcome Hatsune to the ranks of CC-licensed works.”

Creative Commons board member, Director at the MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito adds, “Crypton’s Hatsune Miku is an amazingly unique, inspiring, and successful example of how sharing pulls together in community to empowers and explosion of creativity. It’s one of my favorite projects. I’m so excited that Creative Commons can now be part of that story.”

I for one welcome Hatsune Miku to the FreeCulture world. A heartfelt thank you Crypton Future Media for adopting Creative Commons licensing. Now, let’s begin creating more materials based on Hatsune Miku!

Official announcements here and here.

Hatsune Miku by Crypton Future Media licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0.

(Happy 10^th anniversary to Creative Commons!)

Treating people equally is unethical and foolish. Treat them fairly.

Treat people fairly but not equally, that is the ultimate key in keeping a healthy relationship in any organization, business, service, and anything where human relationships are involved. So what does it mean to treat people fairly but not equally? Why should we not treat people equally? Isn’t treating people equally is in itself treating people fairly?

Many leaders, managers, and even employees, are confused about “equally” and “fairly". Employees think that by treating everyone equally then it is fair. Managers think that by treating their subordinates equally, they are promoting productivity and a good work environment. But in reality, they are promoting the worst things anyone can imagine.

No two people are the same. Each and every individual is unique. We all agree on that, correct? If so, then it is unfair to treat everyone equally. Why?

The Story of John Sue and Maria Masipag

John Sue and Maria Masipag both works for a company engaging in providing support services for big corporations. John Sue has been with the company for five long years, a typical employee who goes to work, work on his quota, take a lot of smoke breaks, spend his work time leisurely, and finish his quota last, then go back home.

Maria Masipag on the other hand just turned two years with the company. She loves her job and is passionate about it. Every waking day, she is eager to go to work, and goes the extra mile in making sure the company provides the best quality service for their clientelle.

The time has come for the appraisal. John receives an additional ₱2,000.00 salary raise while Maria received only ₱1,000.00. Despite Maria’s excellent performance and dedication to the company as compared to John’s, Maria was treated unfairly because rules have to be applied equally. Since Maria love her job, she just ignored it.

A day came when Maria need a schedule change. She was declined by her manager, saying “if I give your request then everyone will request the same thing". And yet, John, when he requested for a schedule change, it was granted immediately, because well, he’s been with the company for five years already, regardless of his performance and work ethics.

Maria left the next year and not only her but other employees treated unfairly followed, while John and people like him stayed.


Is that a familiar story? Of course it is.

Here’s another story:

The Story of Juan Tamad and Princess Angelica

Juan Tamad and Princess Angelica are both renting an apartment in a beautiful city. The landlady and their neighbors know them very well. Juan as someone who always pays two months late and has said all the excuses in the world, and Princess as someone who pays three months in advance because her line-of-work requires her to be flexible in travelling when the need arises. The landlady got fed up with Juan’s excuses and kicked him out.

One time, Angelica have to be gone for seven months. She paid in advance for six months and asked the landlady if she can pay for the seventh month when she gets back. The landlady did not allow it, and said that if she gives her special treatment what would people think of her when she booted out Juan. Princess Angelica paid but not without telling her brother to take all her things out by the sixth month.


The landlady should have given Princess Angelica what she was asking for, just a month delay in payment. But because the landlady thinks that she should treat all her tenants equally, she instead lost a good tenant who pays three months in advance. (Not to mention, the landlady thinks highly of her reputation instead of looking at her tenants as people to be respected.)

The manager and the landlady both believe in consistency. They both believe in rules. They think that by being consistent with their decisions, by following the rules rigidly, they are being fair. On the other hand, fairness is treating people individually, on a case-to-case basis, based on the situation or circumstances, history of the person, and other factors like contribution to the organization or the person’s performance.

The Results We Fail To Admit

If you treat your employees equally, notice how your top performers slows down and loses interest? While your less performing employees is still less performing, worse, performing even less than before?! However, if you treat your employees fairly but not equally, you will notice for yourself that your top performers continues to excel and beat their own personal records, while your less performing employees performs better or leave the company.

Here’s another: Punishment. A good leader with good management will never impose sanctions on everyone because of someone’s fault. That is not fair. That only creates hatred towards you and the company. A punishment is dealt out to the person who made the mistake. We give punishment to individuals not to groups. We use it so the person will learn and not repeat it again. The person who did wrong will only repeat it because he was not punished for it, it was the whole group that paid for his wrongdoing. Next time, he will use that to make his colleagues suffer again.

It is management, not leadership

Being equal, or consistent, or by-the-book, is an easy-way out. You don’t need to think about anything, just follow the book and you’re done. While being fair requires effort, time, and having a good and sound judgment. Of the two, it is clear who the real and true manager is.

Do you treat your children equally or fairly? If you treat them equally, then what is not allowed with your 10-year old son should also be not allowed with your 23-year old daughter. Of course you don’t do that, why? Because you know for a fact that a 10-year old kid has different needs, different brain-function, different knowledge and experience, than your 23-year old daughter. Even if they’re of the same age, a 24-year old son and a 24-year old daughter, you still do not treat them equally and you know why.

Now comes leadership

Yes, children and employees confuses “equally” and “fairly". This is where a good leadership skill comes into play. You explain the difference between the two. You explain why you manage people fairly but not equally. You explain why Maria Masipag deserves to get ₱3,000 salary raise and John Sue only ₱500.00. You explain that Maria earned the right to get her schedule of choice. You explain why Princess can pay late for a month or three but not Juan. You explain why Dexter Labs was given a flexible time and the others not.

You explain that it is a case-to-case basis. That whatever you, the manager, and the employee/tenant/customer has discussed, is on a need-to-know basis. As a leader, you should be able to explain that. If you can not do it, then obviously you fail at being a leader and at the same time, more likely than not, you fail at being a good manager as well. Management skills and leadership skills comes hand-in-hand.

Treating people equally is unethical and unfair. It is wrong. It is evil. It is foolishness. It greatly reflects what the future of your organization will become. However, if you treat people fairly but not equally, it shows how great a leader you are, and people will stay with you because you show that you respect them and you are a fair human being.

So which one are you? The manager and leader that treats everyone equally regardless of their achievements and contributions? Or a manager and a leader that treats everyone fairly by giving them what they deserve and what they need?

Why don’t you read my My Top 10 Tips for Good Leadership? Or Who Reaches Out? The Leader or the Member?

“Fair vs. Equal” image via Google image search, by The Differentiation Destination.

IU

miss A’s Suzy

SNSD’s Yoona

Charming poses, right? There are a million ways to pose like a Korean, and you’ll see more inside.

Here are the photos I found online, ready for that 1,000,000 Korean poses?

SNSD

miss A’s Suzy

SNSD

Ok, we should not use images to show all of the poses. Luckily, someone is as fascinated as me and created a video showing a million Korean poses. Watch this and let’s save ourselves from loading a million images.

Awesome huh?

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Of course there is the most common suggestion or lesson for all - changing your habit. The big YOU. You don’t respond to obvious scam and spam emails, instant messages, or visit sites you shouldn’t be visiting, or clicking on links without checking if it was faked/masked or not.

Multi factor authentication by dogsbodyorg licensed under CC By-SA 2.0

But there is one not-so-new security method that adds another effective layer in keeping our digital accounts more secure. The Two-Factor Authentication (TFA/2FA) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). I will give you a short rundown about it and provide a list of known online services offering this new security layer, so you can start securing your online accounts today.

Multi-Factor or Two-Factor Authentication according to Wikipedia is:

…an approach to authentication which requires the presentation of two or more of the three authentication factors: a knowledge factor ("something the user knows“), a possession factor ("something the user has“), and an inherence factor ("something the user is“).

Breaking it down more clearly:

• Something the user knows: password, PIN, etc.
• Something the user has: smartcard, ATM card, USB key, dongle, mobile phone (for authenticator app or SMS/text or phone call), etc.
• Something the user is: biometric characteristic such as a fingerprint, eye-scan, DNA scan, etc.

It is not new, it has been around for a long time but it was only a few years ago that online services started implementing TFA/MFA. Today, with so many illegal access to people’s accounts going on, more services are adopting this technology. If I will take a guess here, 2011 and 2012 saw the largest adoption of TFA, and the list keeps growing.

In simple words, by adding another factor to your online account, you add another layer of security protection. Making it much more harder for unauthorized people getting access to your account. The most common method today is by adding a mobile authentication app, or an SMS authentication feature, or email authentication. Personally, I prefer the mobile app authentication method over SMS and email for various reasons, but we will not go through the advantages and disadvantages of each method today.

This list is just a sample of the online services that offers Two-Factor Authentication / Multi-Factor Authentication, listed in alphabetical order. I will try to keep this updated, as I find new sites offering TFA/MFA. You can also leave a comment for new entries to this list and I’ll check it out (or better yet, provide the needed data too).

* as of Monday, 2012-11-19 17:00+0800

• Amazon Web Services
  
  • Known as: AWS Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Activation: How to enable AWS MFA
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (Virtual Multi-Factor Authentication Applications)
    2. Physical authenticator (Ezio Time-based 6-Digit Token for use with Amazon Web Services)
  • Recovery: Login to the website and you will see this link “Having problems with your authentication device? Click here".
• ArenaNet (selected services only)
  
  • Services: Guild Wars 2
  • Known as: Two-Factor Authentication
  • Activation: GW2 TFA
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (Google’s “Authenticator” app)
    2. email
  • Recovery: Contact form
• Battle.net
  
  • Known as: Battle.net Authenticator / Battle.net Mobile Authenticator
  • Activation:
    
    1. Smartphone app
    2. Physical authenticator
    3. Adding a Battle.net Mobile Authenticator
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (Download the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator)
    2. Physical authenticator
  • Recovery: I lost my authenticator and I want to remove it from my account
• DreamHost
  
  • Known as: Multifactor Authentication
  • Activation: Enabling Multifactor Authentication
  • Methods offered: Smartphone app (Google’s “Authenticator” app);
  • Recovery: ???
• Dropbox
  
  • Known as: Two-step verification
  • Activation: How do I enable two-step verification on my account?
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (Google’s “Authenticator” app; Amazon’s “AWS Virtual MFA” app; slugonamission’s “Authenticator” app)
    2. SMS/text
  • Recovery: Login to the website and you will see this link “I lost my phone".
• eBay (all sites)
  
  • Known as: (PayPal) Security Key
  • Activation: Security Key Activation
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (Symantec’s “VIP Access” app)
    2. Physical authenticator
  • Recovery: Contact form
• Etsy
  
  • Known as: Two-Factor Authentication
  • Activation: Security Settings
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. SMS/text
    2. Phone call
  • Recovery: 5 one-time use backup codes
• Facebook
  
  • Known as: Login Approvals
  • Activation: How-To Activate Facebook’s Two-Factor Authentication
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (official “Facebook” app)
    2. SMS/text
  • Recovery: ???
  • Note: The system only challenges suspicious logins (e.g. new and/or rarely used IP address).
• Garena (all sites)
  
  • Known as: 2-Step Authentication
  • Activation: Login and go to your account settings page
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app ("Garena Authenticator” app)
    2. SMS/text
  • Recovery: Contact form
  • Note: The system only challenges suspicious logins (e.g. new and/or rarely used IP address).
• Google (all sites)
  
  • Known as: 2-step verification
  • Activation: Setup SMS, Voice, and Smartphone app
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (Google’s “Authenticator” app)
    2. SMS/text
    3. Phone call
  • Recovery: 10 one-time use backup codes
• HSBC
  
  • Known as: HSBC Authenticator
  • Activation: Call your HSBC branch and ask for it
  • Methods offered: Physical authenticator
  • Recovery: Call your HSBC branch and inform them that you lost your physical HSBC authenticator
• LastPass
  
  • Known as: Two-Factor Authentication / Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Activation: Login to the website, then go to Settings > Google Authenticator
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (Google’s “Authenticator” app)
    2. Physical authenticator
  • Recovery: Login to the website and you will see this link “If you lost your Google Authenticator device, click here to disable Google Authenticator authentication".
• Microsoft (selected services only)
  
  • Services: billing.microsoft.com; xbox.com to buy points; SkyDrive when you remote to another computer
  • Known as: Two Factor Authentication
  • Activation: It’s activated automatically, if I understood it correctly. You can read the FAQ here.
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Alternate email on account
    2. SMS/text
  • Recovery: ???
• PayPal
  
  • Known as: PayPal Security Key
  • Activation: PayPal Security Key
  • Methods offered:
    
    1. Smartphone app (Symantec’s “VIP Access” app)
    2. Physical authenticator
  • Recovery: ???
  • Note: Activation of TFA on PayPal requires calling their US office. If you only have a mobile phone, you are out-of-luck, unless you are willing to incur extra charges.
• Personal Identity Portal
  
  • Known as: VIP Credential
  • Activation: Login, go to My Account, scroll down, look for the link “Get free mobile credential".
  • Methods offered: Smartphone app (Symantec’s “VIP Access” app)
  • Recovery: Login to the website and you will see this link “Click here if you don’t have your VIP credential".
• RIFT®
  
  • Known as: RIFT Mobile Authenticator
  • Activation: RIFT Mobile Authenticator
  • Methods offered: Smartphone app (Trion’s “RIFT Mobile Authenticator” app)
  • Recovery: Trion Worlds Customer Support
• Sony Online Entertainment
  
  • Known as: SOE Authenticator
  • Activation: SOE (Physical) Authenticator
  • Methods offered: Physical authenticator
  • Recovery: ???
• Yahoo!
  
  • Known as: Second Sign-in Verification
  • Activation: Yahoo! Account Info
  • Methods offered: ???
  • Recovery: ???
  • Notes:
    
    • The system only challenges suspicious logins (e.g. new and/or rarely used IP address).
    • Also read What’s Wrong with Yahoo! Servers? if you can not activate it.

* as of Monday, 2012-11-19 17:00+0800

Image source: Multi factor authentication by dogsbodyorg licensed under CC By-SA 2.0.

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Watching Snow White and the Hunstaman was like reading a DragonLance or Forgotten Realms book. Right from the beginning it was medieval fantasy. It made me forget what the title is. It made me forget the seven dwarves.

Yes. It took time before it came to my mind that the dwarves in the movie are the seven dwarves of Snow White. I didn’t even count them until the last few minutes of the film! It was not some child story where Snow White have to be kissed by her destined prince charming, it was about magic, knights, belief, and good versus evil.

It was not even those sort of movies where you already know the good will triumph, or that because it was based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, that our heroine will come out victorious. Those were not there. The film did not present itself as such.

Snow White and the Huntsman was an adventure. A story unto itself, that I can say, Snow White the fairytale, and her seven dwarves, has nothing to do with it. I can even call it the true story of Snow White and out of it the fairytale was born.

That’s what this film was for me and I give it, all things considered and ignored, an 8.4 out of 10.

(I only hope we get such a production when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons movie franchises, which to this day I haven’t seen a good one produced.)