Electricity is expensive in the Philippines.

In June 2018, I'm paying P10.56 per kWh ($0.20 USD).

I upgraded my system recently from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and started having problems with Flash Player videos freezing or stuttering. The audio would continue to play normally, but the video would freeze for a second and then start again. This would happen repeatedly throughout a video, with some sites being worse than others. After many days of searching and trying different things, I finally got it fixed.

In the Philippines, we have 3 competing satellite TV services: Cignal, Dream, and GSAT. For Dream and GSAT (at least the last time I checked), if you want to have multiple receivers in your house, you have to pay for separate subscriptions for each receiver (at full price). For post-paid customers, Cignal will let you have up to 3 receivers on the same plan, with no extra monthly charges for the additional receivers (assuming you buy the receivers yourself).

Callcentric just started offering free New York phone numbers for use with their VoIP service.

At launch time, they’re saying they’ve got free phone numbers “available in over 80 rate centers (cities) within New York State.”

We took a weekend trip to Vigan, Ilocos Sur back in July 2009. As we approached Vigan, we were rewarded with wonderful scenic coastal views. You can see the photo above as we’re about to cross the Quirino Bridge.

We arrived in Vigan mid-afternoon on a beautiful Saturday and checked into the Vigan Plaza Hotel. July being the off-season, we didn’t have any difficulty getting a room without a reservation.

This article was originally published in 2010. In 2018, I'm no longer using this homemade UPS. The automatic battery charger and inverter broke several years ago, and I chose not to replace them. I tried to have the battery charger repaired locally, but they weren't able to fix it properly. The inverter had overheating issues.

If I were to build it again today, I would probably select different components, though I'm not sure what those would be.

I'm currently using an APC Smart-UPS and a whole-house diesel generator with an automatic transfer switch, so the generator starts and the house is switched over automatically when there's a power outage.