Every year, the Philippines has approximately 20 typhoons enter the PAR (Philippine Area of Responsibility). This year had been a very mild tropical season, occasional rains, but only a couple of very mild storms. All of that changed last Friday night when Tropical Storm Ondoy decided Manila was ready for a visit.

When I hear news about approaching storms, I have a tendancy to start tracking them and watching their progress. I guess I started doing this when I was still young. You see, I am originally from McAlester, Oklahoma, so I am no stranger to severe weather. Oklahoma is famous (or infamous) for another type of severe weather occurrence know as a tornado. Tornados can be very strong and destructive, but normally very brief and sudden. I have seen distant funnel clouds, but never face-to-face with their fury. Typhoons are neither brief, nor sudden.

So, when I heard Ondoy was headed this way, I started following the storm, in hopes that with advanced warning, we could prepare ourselves and at least ensure our children are safe at home with us. This particular Friday, our son Angelo was on his school field trip in Tagatay. So, I was very concerned for their safety, but they arrived safe and sound at around 9 pm, as the storm was first entering land over Polillo Island in the Quezon Province. I monitored the storm awhile longer and we went to bed, sleeping soundly with no idea what would the next day would have in store for us…

Being a Saturday, I slept in a little later than usual. I think I woke up at around 10 am. We were planning to go to the Wave Ballroom for Paulyn’s sister’s lucheon. Her fiance’s family was arriving from Laguna to ask the family for her hand in marriage. This is a Filipino trandition, especially when the family member getting married is a girl.

As soon as I got moving around and had my first cup of coffee (nothing happens until I have my coffee), I asked Paulyn if we were still going, considering the storm. As far as she knew, yes, we were still going. I came to my computer to check the satellite images of the storm and to my surprise, the storm was right on top of the city. So, I went downstairs to ask Jonas, my brother-in-law if he had spoken with Mommy (my mother-in-law) and OMG! water was already coming into the garage.

We called Mommy and asked how she was and to tell her the road was flooded. By the time I could hang up the phone and go downstairs again, water was already starting to enter the 1st floor of the house. Luckily, we live on the 2nd floor, so we were at least dry and safe … for the time being, anyway. Due to electical safety issues, we shut down power to the house and waited upstairs for the rain to stop.

Well, we waited at least 3 hours for the rain to stop! The water level rose up to waist high downstairs and at least 8 ft deep in the street. It was unbelievable…

But, the storm did finally pass, leaving in it’s path at least 100 dead. Today there are reports that there are many, many more dead in Metro Manila alone.

Here are a few images taken by us during the storm. Keep in mind, these are very mild compared to most of the city.

Holy Spirit Drive

Holy Spirit Drive

Holy Spirit Drive

Holy Spirit Drive

Mercury Drugstore

Holy Spirit Drive

If you want to see some very alarming videos, simply go to Youtube and search for “Ondoy”.

At the time of this posting, there are 2 more storms slowly approaching the Philippines. Heaven forbid they make it to Manila…

UPDATE – Here are a few more pictures

I think this is the Marcos Highway in Marikina City

Desperately trying to reach safety

Finding safety in the electrical wires

Everywhere this was the scene...

Streets became rivers in Metro Manila

Knee deep flood waters were the rule in almost the entire city

Their roof became their porch

How do you describe this...

Unbelievable...reminds me of Katrina

Despair...

Looking for an easy way to sell online. No hassles? Robust hosting? Exceptional software? Look no further…

DCGWS Internet Solutions today finally unveils it’s long waited for E-Commerce website. Whether you are just starting out selling online or a seasoned veteran, we have a solution and add-ons to meet your every need, and at a price you can easily afford.

We Make Selling Online A SNAP!

Sometimes I get so busy dealing with my international clients that I forget where I live. Today I was browsing a few of the Filipino sites that I read and came across Marc Macalua’s blog.  For those of you that don’t know Marc, he is a very highly respected SEO and founder of SEO Philippines.

Seems like I’ve missed another opportunity to join one of the local SEO contests, since the contest has already begun and the first checkpoint is right around the corner.

Best of luck to all the contestants! I’ll get in on the next one.

Great job, Marc!

By the way, the mispelling of Philipines (one P) was intentional…experimenting.

I am very proud to announce that my company, DCGWS Internet Solutions, is launching a brand-new service line, E-Commerce Websites & Shopping Carts to it’s already successful services, such as Web Design & Development, Search Engine Optimization, and Web Hosting Solutions.

We are offering complete turn-key solutions, including E-Commerce Hosting, Payment Gateway Integration, Shopping Cart Customizations, and even international Merchant Solutions.

Please feel free to browse around our demo sites, for functionality and look and feel of our solutions.

Coming soon…http://www.easy-shopping-carts.com 

Wow! I finally got a break in the action long enough to give a few tips regarding Live Webcasting on a grand scale. These methods are not for simple webcasting to a few connections, but for broadcast media.

Recently I was approached by a local television station subcontractor regarding the implementation of a Live Webcast. I am not at liberty to discuss any details as there has yet to be anything confirmed. I will only mention general theories and procedures.

My Scenario:

Stream a live webcast while simultaneously broadcasting the webcast on television AND unicasting a live online video game. Whew! That is a brave and innovative bunch of guys dreaming up this project, especially in a country with limited technology and lack of access to the best equipment. Can this be done? Yes. Is it feasible? Doubtful for a untested market.

 Under the best circumstances, here is the proposed system flow:

Television studio broadcasting a live TV show promoting a website’s online gaming program. PC that runs the gaming software is located in the same studio. We connect a $13K Capture Station that will be receiving two seperate inputs.

1. VGA output from PC with gaming software
2. SDI output from professional video camera.

Now here is the catch, this must be strictly real-time delivery. Zero or next-to-zero latency from the studio PC to the end-users browser. After researching I determined that the absolute fastest delivery method was Adobe Flash Video Live. Yet, this is very proprietary, which means of course, Adobe encoding and Adobe servers.

Cost of this method of delivery?

• Accordent Capture Station Hardware and Software – $13,500.00
• Adobe Pro Edition Flash Media Server – $4,500.00 per license (2,500 connections limitation)
• On2 Flix Encoder – $999.00 per year

Is this the best way? Absolutely.

Tomorrow we’ll look at a more affordable method.

Depending on the quality of your website or blog site, Google can make or break you. If you perform less than ethical modifications to your website, you could pay penalties for those modifications. If you provide or promise to provide a service that you cannot or will not deliver, the customer will (or at least he should) complain. Often times those complaints become publicized; either by the offended party or by the person receiving the complaint.

We that engage in e-commerce activities must realize that this very same medium that generates our income, could easily become the medium that brings about our downfall.

My company will NEVER accept clients that we feel are illegal or unethical in their practices. If we are unethical in our practices, in the ways that we speak to our clients, in our internal policies, we can and should be punished for those actions.

I am a service provider. I provide my services at a charge to my client. Many times my clients pay me in advance, trusting that I will provide the promised service. If I fail to provide that service, if I refuse to refund a dissatisfied customer, I must understand that my client will voice his or her objections.

When I refuse to listen to and act upon a complaint, I make it difficult for other e-commerce services providers. The internet is full of lies and  half-truths. If I contribute to those half-truths, I am making the internet an even less-truthworthy and reliable avenue for business.

This is why I voice my concerns when I have reason to believe that an online “organization” is being abusive to their customers.

I am fair and honest in all my business transactions. My clients know me and have respect for my decisions.

I may not earn a million dollars this year, but every single dollar that I earn will have been earned honestly and transparently…

Google has a really cool tool that can show you where you or your website or domain name is popping up on the internet; or at least on Google. It’s called a Google alert, it can be used for several reasons. One way is to find out who is using your name or domain name without your prior approval. 

For the record, bespeckledseo is being used by certain people on the internet by creating false profiles on forums and blog directories, and referring back to this post; essaytown dot com on this blog. Oddly enough, these entries resolve back to an IP address assigned to PLDT here in the Philippines.

However, we have a static IP address, that resolves back to www.d-c-g.com, 124.104.101.126.

The  computers here at our home & office do not use dynamically assigned IP address. d-c-g.com, dcgwebdesign.com, bespeckledseo.com, paulynramirez.com are all owned and operated by DCGWS Internet Solutions, a duly-registered sole proprietorship with the Philippine Department of Trade & Industry and the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue. 

I would like to credit Gary and Joost  for this valuable tip…

In an attempt to follow my fiancée’s advice about effectively managing my time, I brought my laptop to the immigration office to get some work done while waiting. There is a Starbuck’s right across the street from here so; I dropped in to grab a cup of cappuccino and a little Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, unlike Starbuck’s in the US, the Wi-Fi here requires a subscription or prepaid card from Smart Telecom. So, here I sit waiting for my passport and I thought I would make my daily posting now leaving me the evening free for my clients’ websites.

Designing with a Grid

I have recently read some good stuff about designing with a grid. Seems like a very nice, fluid way to layout an entire website using Photoshop or even Fireworks CS3 to get the divs correctly configured on the page. I am going to explain the basics of it using Fireworks CS3 since that is my personal favorite.

Setting up the grid that you want to work with is very simple. Just open a new document in Fireworks, I use 1280 x 800 for the canvas size which is the resolution that I use on my laptop. I am going to use a content area width of 1200 pixels which is 93.75% of the page whole. This will leave me 2.5% each side as background area and 1.25% for my scroll bar.

After setting the canvas size, click View->Grid->Show Grid. The default grid settings are 36 x 36, but you can edit them. I set my grids at 10 x 10.

Now it is time to start your layers here.  Each layer will represent a div.

More tomorrow on Designing with a Grid…

It is now the eve of my bi-monthly trip over to Intramuros here in Metro Manila. Since Paulyn and I are still in the planning stages of our wedding, I still have to make that trek over to immigration and with this trip, there are several things that I must plan for:

1. Heat – It is always hot here. Period. (Unlike my office which is air-conditioned.)
2. Traffic – I think we will commute this time. Too stressful trying to manipulate the Quezon Avenue traffic.
3. Lines – Well, I am not the only foreigner here in the Philippines. I will have to wait in line and then wait some more. (This time I am taking my new laptop and we’ll have a coffee over at Starbuck’s for some free Wi-Fi.)

Upcoming for this week…

• Google in the News
• CSS for widescreen laptops
• Product Review – Windows Vista
• More SEO tips
• Designing with a Grid
• Blog Reviews – My Favorite Blogs

Have a great Monday everyone!!

For those of you that do not aready know this, I have been living and working as a Web Developer here in the Philippines since last year. I thought I would take a few moments to describe this country, mainly the Metro Manila area.

Climate

It is a far cry from sunny San Diego, California. It is always hot! I mean always; day, night, dusk, dawn, you name it, it’s hot! Most people do not earn enough to be able to cool their homes or business with air-conditioners here so it’s quite common to arrive at an office or someone’s house drenched with sweat.

People

It is crowded here. At the bank, at the mall, at the market, at the Internet cafes, there are seemingly endless lines here. But by far the worst is the 5pm MRT (rail transit) leaving Makati City (the business district) bound for Quezon City (upscale residential). If you are so unlucky to need to take the MRT at this time, simply pray and shove! It is simply unbelievable how so many people can fit into one rail car. So, you may ask yourself? Why do it? You should drive instead. This is why…it takes approximately 45 minutes to go from Makati to Quezon City by MRT as opposed to anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 hours by car. So you sacrifice your personal comfort to managing your time wisely. It’s a no-brainer really.

Utilities

This is perhaps the largest nuisance here. Meralco is the name of the only electricity source here and they are simply pathetic. It is common for the “powers that be” to schedule an 8 – 12 hour power interruption sometimes as often as once per month. That means no internet, no electric fans, no aircon for that time span. In ten minutes without power you begin sweating here. So, as you might can tell, 10 hours is almost unbearable.

At one time I operated a web server here and was even hosting my clients websites but the frequent power interruptions put a stop to that. I still host clients, but from servers at The Planet Datacenter in Dallas, Texas.

Culture

I lived for several years in southern California and spent alot of time over in Mexico, so I am used to being in a foreign country. But nothing ever prepared me for the stares and overall rudeness that an American faces being over here. It is a constant occurence here. Due to years of American soldiers tramping around with prostitutes, my beautiful, well-educated fiancee is constantly being “sized-up” as such. We are adjusting and we simply ignore those people now.

Now do not misunderstand this attitude of mine. I love it here and will probably still be here 20 years from now. Stay tuned for more rantings…I need a vacation in Boracay, the Philippines version of our Hawaii.

Maybe I’d had a tough week…and it’s only Wednesday!