REMEMBER my earlier post “Bewarethat Internet Cafe?”

Well, you may not take my word for it but you sure can the real techies in the field who know how things are in this cyberage. It was Techie Diary who verbally actually first gave us and a couple of blogger-friends an inkling of how others could actually steal your vital and secret data from the dime-a-dozen cybercafes in town you sometimes patronize –carelessly, I might add.

Now, here’s another, if more “thought-provoking” one on the subject from TechnoPinoy. I’d rather quote /cite him verbatim ‘coz it makes more sense than if Itry to hurriedly paraphrase his words of caution: Read more

EVERYTIME I see that Disudrin ad on teevee that splashes the word ‘Phenylpropanolamine’ across the screen, I wince.

Isn’t that the very same phenylpropanolamine that the Food and Drugs Administration of the U.S ordered recalled for being unsafe to women and children? Check out our earlier post on this below.

There’s not even a line or two in the TV ad that says the phenylpropanolamine had been “reformulated” as the FDA  had ordered all manufacturers to do, for the proper guidance of the public.

Now, if the Disudrin guys haven’t actually reformulated, they must really be full of gall to do that — advertise their drug to viewers that, presumably, include Pingcoy Duque’s DOH and Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD). Either that — or they think the health and food regulation guys here are blind.

As the gay radio entertainment hosts would shrilly shout it:”Pakieksplika lang eto, kuya!”

AND now the bad news from the Bureau of Internal Revenue: Government is slowly but steadily compiling all data on those tingi[ (retail) load system of telcos for cellphones for a more comprehensive tax measure that would shore up further revenue collection (outside of the 12% RVAT).

The good news: It would take a long time (read: eternity) before they could really tag the individual or sari-sari store retailers of cellphone loads and subject these to tax.

That is why they're content for the moment to just tag "at source" the two (three?) giant telcos Globe and Smart and their second or third line of big dealers whose combined sales alone already runs to billions. Read more

NEIGHBOR blogger Simon wonders about the striking disparity in service and charges between fancy restaurants such as a noted one in Tarlac and the hole-in-the-wall beerhouses of Metro Manila.

With the first, you wait interminably for your order and get billed stratospherically when you pay; with the latter, you are treated like a king from your first step inside their unassuming interiors and pay only the most reasonable of charges — with discounts to boot!

Makes you want to come back again and again, Simon says.

Read more

THE furor over sodium benzoate as a food preservative used in toyo, ketchup and even some skin care products we believe is another one of those black propaganda among competing manufacturers and their products.

Datu Puti products particularly has been the latest “victim” of verbal, written and online canards which claim that the alternative preservative, sodium benzoate, in it is harmful to health.

Come to think of it, if that were an iota true, many would have died by now, considering that the DP vinegar goes well with the “pulutan” and most other food on the table.The fact is no less than the Bureau of Food and Drugs allows use of sodium benzoate as “alternative preservative for food” when used in proper amount.

Datu Puti reps have said all that goes into their product is “katas ng tubo at tubig” and swear they follow the guidelines set by BFAD, which agency itself says the ingredient is safe “so longas it is within standard levels. Read more

IF you’re one of those who find the facilities and services of internet cafes or cybernooks so convenient and, uh, private that you’d rather not buy yourself a PC or a laptop but simply hie off to the nearest IC, you’ve got another think coming.

My neighbor, Wilson, set many of us thinking deep, including another neighbor, Ging C, when he revealed that for all the cozy, pretty, hunky dory atmosphere in there, you could actually lose your precious “privacy” as you innocently log on to some confidential sites or file that online loan application with your bank or insurance firm or do money transactions (especially withdrawal activities) using one of those P20-an-hour units.  Read more

SINCE late last year, drug companies have been told to reformulate their drugs containing phenylpropanolamine following an adverse finding on this ingredient in its effect to patients especially women and possibly children.

A study by drug authorities in the United States has linked phenypropanolamine to increased cases of hemorrhagic strokes (bleeding in the brain) among women ages 18-49 within three days after first use of medication that has this active ingredient.

Problems though were not found in men by the Food and Drugs Administration has recommended that everyone, including children “seek alternative medicine” in the wake of the medical findings. 

A patient, Marissa Espiritu, in a multi-forwarded e-mail has sounded the alarm after she herself had called up the number 800-548-3708 written in a box of Triaminic and was told the Read more