Calendar Downloads for Year 2010

As a supplement to the list of holidays provided in the previous article, I have here a downloadable calendar for the year 2010. The holidays are shaded for easy distinction.

To view the calendar, click the following links:
JPEG format
PDF Format
To download the file, click the following links:
JPEG format
PDF Format

Philippine Holidays Schedule for Year 2010

Image via Wikipedia

Planning ahead is a difficult job. For one simple reason…no knows the exact future! Yes, if you could only see few years from now or even just few days from now, then you can plan your activities well to maximize your benefit and avoid bad things that may happen.

Well, this article is not about fortune telling or any kind of divination, this article will just present to you the CURRENT schedule of national holidays in the Philippines. The schedule of holidays varies as the year goes so the dates presented here are not fixed. There are also region-specific holidays like provincial foundation days, festivals, and other events that may be declared by the local government. Also, please take note that December 24 and 31 are not really special occasions but usually declared as non-working day to give people time to prepare for the next day’s celebration.

The current government administration has a policy of moving some holidays to Monday. I don’t know if this policy will change after the election on May.

Year 2010 Good News on Interbank Fund Transfer

Image via Wikipedia

Have you tried to transfer funds between two different banks in the Philippines? Well, most people do especially overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on their remittances. How much does it cost you? In my case, when I transferred 600 pesos from my Union Bank (UBP) account to my BPI account through online banking, it took me three days before knowing that only 450 pesos reached my BPI account. My reaction was a feeling of slight stupidity. I just lost 25% of my deposited amount! From that moment on, I promised myself not to do that again (charge to experience). I will take the effort to personally do the transfer.

Good News on 2010

But now, I think I have to break my promise in the coming year! Why? Because next year, Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in agreement with the Association of Bank Remittance Officers Inc. (ABROI) will lower the interbank transfer charges from the current rate of 100-550 pesos down to only 50 pesos.

Blogging as a Source of Income

It started as a hobby, a source of fun and excitement. Now, your online diary, your blog, can now be a source of income. Advertising industry is moving towards the internet to reach more people. It’s a great opportunity for everyone who likes sharing information to others across the world wide web. Paid advertisements to your webpage or blogs can be a potential source of income for you. Still not convinced? Well, watch this video from YouTube.

Warning: Scams on Freelance Writers on Craigslist

Image via CrunchBase

AN EARLY NOTE: This is article is not against Craigslist but a warning to everyone that might encounter this type of scam on any other website like craigslist.org.

WHAT’STHE SCAM?

Craigslist is one of the major advertising websites in the world. But just like any other network, it can also be infiltrated by scammers.

Have you seen job post on craigslist looking for writers who could write web content? We’ll if it is your talent to write, and you really enjoy, then this can be a good opportunity for you. You can earn extra money from these. You can be a freelance writer!

I myself have tried and I got a payment of 2 dollars for each 400-word article on a particular subject. Well, I think I got the good one because I got paid but recently, there have been reports that there are job posters looking for content writers and to be able to apply for job, you have to submit…SAMPLE ARTICLES.

LOOKING FOR A JOB? WHERE DO YOU GET THE NEWS?

Image via Wikipedia

Are you looking for a job? Whether you like it here in the Philippines or outside abroad, it’s always good to have fast and credible sources of information about job vacancies and opportunities. So where are you getting the news?

The Classical Way—Friends

Probably the oldest method of trying to have the information about job vacancies is through friends and acquaintances. Though much slower than the modern web-based information dissemination, friendly referrals are still effective today. In fact, many people agree that they even trust more the information coming from a friend than in the newspaper and on the internet.

The Semi-Classical Way—Newspaper Classified Ads

Most of us today still cling to our old method of finding job opportunities by scanning through the “Classified Ads” section of our favorite newspaper. We’ll, just like the “friendly referral way”, newspapers still proved to be an effective source of information. And personally, nest to “friendly referrals”, it’s the second trustworthy source of job opportunity scoops.

Wikipedia Needs Us!

"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge."

Above is the banner statement I saw at Wikipedia. And I can’t deny the fact that Wikipedia has really done the big part in sharing tremendous amounts of knowledge through their user-edited free online encyclopedia. Wikipedia has been part of our lives indeed. Students, professionals, businessmen, and almost everyone who has an access to the internet have benefited to the free information it provides.

Now, Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales appeals to everyone. Due to the increasing cost of website maintenance and other costs that keep it going and growing, Wikipedia needs funds to keep it the way it is…an advertising free website whose mission is to contribute for mankind’s education. They are accepting donations of any amount.

Wikipedia changed the world and you can also do so. For more information about Wikipedia's appeal, visit their site at www.wikimediafoundation.org.

Trivia: Philippine Companies in 2009 Forbes Global 2000 List

Here are interesting facts I found yesterday while I was surfing the internet. I came across the Forbes website. For those who are not familiar with Forbes, Forbes is an American publishing and media company made famous by their leading magazine bearing the same name.

Okay, back to the trivia! Annually, Forbes lists down the largest companies in the world in their famous Global 2000 List. The ranking are based on the following criteria:

1. Sales
2. Profits
3. Assets
4. Market Value

How to Apply for BPI Direct Savings Account?

Image via Wikipedia

Do you want to have a savings account at a very low maintaining balance of 500 pesos? We'll, try BPI Direct Savings Account. BPI Direct Savings has the following features:

1. ATM/Debit Card
2. Access to online banking at www.expressonline.com
3. Interest rate of 1.375% (higher than its equivalent on other banks)

BPI Direct Savings Bank is one of the two subsidiary banks (the other one is BPI Family) of the oldest bank in the Philippines, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI). Its main focus is on internet and telephone banking that is very applicable to those who are working away from their families (OFWs) who frequently send out money to them.

How to Apply?

Unlike BPI and BPI Family savings accounts, you don't need to go to a BPI branch to apply for it. In fact, you just can't apply through a branch office. BPI Direct Savings account application is done via internet. Yes, you can apply for an account at the convenience of your own home or office as long as you have an internet connection. Also, you don't have to be in the Philippines to do this. You can still apply and just nominate someone to pick up the card for you like a family member or a friend.

Earn Money Online by Making a Knol!

Image via Wikipedia

As we get deeper into the information age where the cyber world is expanding ever faster, numerous opportunities to earn online abounds us. One of these opportunities is by making a KNOL.

What is a Knol?

The immediate question that pops out is: what is a knol? As per Google’s definition, Knol is a unit of knowledge. It’s like shorthand for KNOLedge. Google Inc, worlds leading internet marketer, advertiser, search engine, etc has launched its new online service—Knol.

Knol is Google's version of Wikipedia. We’ll I think I don’t have to go further about Wikipedia. In simple terms, Knol, like Wikipedia, is a user-generated free online encyclopedia.

How can I join Knol?

The simplest way is to sign-up using your Google account. I’m not so sure if you can use other email accounts.


What to do with Knol?

Are you an expert on something? Maybe you are a teacher of Science? Then write a Science Knol! Are you are computer geek? Write a knol about computer topics! If you think you have the knowledge about something that is worth sharing to the world, then write a knol about it!

How to Apply for a BPI Savings Account?

Here is the step-by-step procedure on how to apply for a BPI account. For those who are anot aware, Bank of the Philippine Islands has two other subsidiary banks-BPI Family savings bank, and BPI Direct Savings Bank.

Additional Info: I asked a BPI personnel abut the difference between the three BPI banks and she answered me these:

BPI Bank is focused primarily on corporate accounts.
BPI Family Savings Bank focuses on individual savings accounts.
BPI Direct Savings Bank is focused primarily on telephone and online bankings.

Aside from the above differences, their maintaining balance requirements and interests differs from each other. (For example, BPI Savings account has a maintaining balance requirement of 3000, BPI Family Savings Account requires only 1000, and BPI Direct as low as 500).

The following procedure though is applicable only for both BPI and BPI Family Savngs Bank. (For BPI Direct Savings bank, it's different)

1. Make personal appearance to the bank and bring the following requirements.

TWO (2) Valid IDs and Photocopy of them
Passport
Driver’s license
Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) ID
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) clearance
Police clearance
Postal ID
Voter’s ID
Barangay certification
Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS) e-Card
Social Security System (SSS) card
Philhealth card
Senior Citizen Card
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) ID
OFW ID
Seaman’s Book
Alien Certification of Registration/Immigrant Certificate of Registration
Government office ID (e.g. Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) IDs)
Certification from the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (NCWDP)
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Certification
Other valid IDs issued by the Government and its instrumentalities

Billing Statement (to verify your billing address)
Electric Bill
Telephone Bill
Water Bill
Credit Card Bill
etc.

TWO (2) copies one-by-one latest photo


2. Fill up the application form they will provide by supplying the required information.

TWITTER Stops Twitting?

Just this afternoon, I tried to open my twitter account to see my latest twits and here's what I saw.

Yes, worlds leading microblogging network hangs out because of heavy traffic.

Twitter has proven itself as the fastest way of getting the latest news around the world. It's real-time microblogging capability has enabled many to send out news faster and in a more efficient manner than conventional methods. Now, twitter has grown so big, so as the twits that it carry. Social networking has changed the face of the internet. We getting deeper into the Information Age!

How to Book Tickets at Philippine Airlines Website?

As promised from the previous article, here is the step-by-step procedure on how to book tickets at Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) official website at www.philippineairlines.com.

On the homepage of their website, you can see the form below.

Fill up the necessary information then proceed to the next step by clicking the search button.

Step 2
Immediately after clicking the search button, the website will take you to the page in which you will choose what specific date and time you will need to fly. Take note that prices of ticket varies depending on the day and time of the flight. You will see the form below.

After selecting the day and time of the flight, you may now proceed to the next step.

How to Book Tickets at cebupacificair.com?

Cheap airfare is really a must for me to get because it’s the only opportunity I could go back home and spend vacation with my family. And I know that many people have the same situation as mine. In this time of economic crisis, spending more than 4000 pesos traveling from Manila to Cebu is a big “No no” for me.

To be able to avail of the cheap airfare though, you have to get the news fast and you have to book your ticket online. I have already written an article on how you could get the news fast. This time, I’m writing a comprehensive step-by step procedure on how you could do online-booking at Cebu Pacific’s official website. This procedure is based on their CURRENT system and may change after sometime. I am hoping that this will help many.


Step 1
At the homepage of www.cebupacificair.com, you could see this form at the left side of the webpage.

Fill up ALL the needed information here. Choose between “round trip and one-way”. Choose the flight date that you want. Check the “Go-lite” box if you are travelling with only hand-carried baggage (no more than 7kg) to reduce your fare by 100 pesos.
After filling up the form, click on the “Search Now” button to proceed with the next step.

Step2
After pressing search, you will be taken to a page where you can choose the time of your flight. In this form, you could see the prices of different flights. Select your inbound and outbound schedule here that best fit your need and budget.

NOTE: If there are promo fares available your chosen date, the “Promo Fare” column contains cheaper fare prices you could select.

After selecting the time of your inbound and outbound flights, click the box if you agree to the terms and conditions and proceed to the next step by the pressing “continue” button.

Step3

The page will ask you to enter the information about the persons that are flying.

After filling up the form, press "continue".

Step 4
You will be asked to choose whether you ant to avail an insurance. If you do not want this, just uncheck the box.

 At the bottom of the same page, you have to fill up the” contact information” form. Those items with asterisk are required before you can proceed to the next step.

After filling up this form, you may now proceed to the next step by clicking “Continue”.


Step5
The page allows you to choose your seat location for a cost. If you do not want this, DO NOT CHECK any of the boxes and click “Continue” to proceed to the payment page.

Step6
The payment page allows you to choose the method of payment that you want. The current payment options are: CREDIT/DEBIT Cards, Bancnet Online, banco De Oro (BDO), Robinsons Savings Bank (RSB), and Metrobank.

If you choose credit/debit cards, you have to fill up the required card holder information. Then you will be taken to the card validation page where you have to supply information to validate your ownership of the card. After completing this, you will be ready for the next step.

For those without credit card, you may choose BDO, Metrobank, RSB, and Megalink, then press “Continue” to the next step.

Step7
For those who paid using Credit/Debit cards, you will be asked to finalize the transaction. If you don’t want to change anything, press the “finalize” button and it will generate the Confirmation number. You can print this page to serve as you ticket. A separate email will also be sent to you and may also serve as your ticket.

For those who choose to pay with BDO, RSB, Metrobank, and Megalink, you will be issued a 14-digit confirmation number. List it down and proceed to the payment center before 12 Midnight of the same day.

This concludes the procedure of booking online at www.cebupacificair.com.
On the next article, I will be posting detailed procedure on how to book online at Philippine Airlines website.

Additional TIPS for SAFE-Surfing the Internet

One of my previous articles mentioned ways to keep you safe from the “goons” of the web. I mentioned there five tips:

1. Transact only on your trusted web sites.
2. Look for valid web certificates.
3. Install an antivirus.
4. Do not transact at pubic internet connections.
5. Have a good internet browser.

I have here additional safety tips that can help you minimize the risk of being a victim of cyber crime.

EMAILS

1.Do not open attachments to emails that you do not expect.
Sometimes, you may receive emails from a person you do not know and asks you to see the attached files. BEWARE of this! There is a big risk that these attachments contain malicious programs designed to harm you or your computer. Some malicious programs can steal your private information and use it to commit cyber crime.

2. No to Phishing
Do you sometimes receive emails from someone you do not know containing links to a familiar website? If you do, then you are at risk of being a victim of “phishing”. Phishing uses emails that contain links that direct you to websites that can harm you. Some of these websites can install malicious applications without your knowledge. They may hide the true web address of the site by posting the web address of a known and trusted website.

3.Keep away from spam mails.
Aside from the fact that spamming is illegal, it can also harm you. Some spam messages contain intriguing messages that may convince you to give the information they are asking for. Below is the picture of several spam messages I’ve been receiving for quite a while now. It always mentions that I won from a lottery or that my email was selected as a lucky winner in their raffle draw. They usually ask you to reply immediately with your name, address, bank account number and other personal information.

Question: Is it OK to reply but just don’t give any info?

The answer is NO. It’s actually a bad idea. Some spammers are just guessing email addresses and your reply will just verify the existence of your email. Replying to a spam message may just lead to more spam messages being sent to your mailbox.

BROWSING THE WEB

4. Ctrl-Shift-Del
When you are browsing the web in internet cafes, make sure that before you leave, clear your history and all your browsing data.

In Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome browsers that run on Windows, the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-Shft-Del.

5. I use WOT
I personally find it useful to use the WOT plug-in in Firefox. WOT stands for web of trust. It indicates whether a website is trustworthy or not. When you open an unsafe website, it will pop out and ask you if you are sure to enter the site despite the warning. WOR ratings are based o user inputs.

WOT indicates by color if a website is trustworthy or not. Green is safe and red is dangerous.

More tips on the succeeding articles of this blog. Happy and Safe surfing to everyone!

Update on Econolight Seats from Philippine Airlines (PAL)

Image via Wikipedia

Econolight is the cheapest seat Philippine Airlines (PAL) is selling. Some econolight seats can go down to as low as 800 pesos. Three days ago, I was surfing their website to look for promos for the coming holidays. Then I came across a very interesting announcement: Philippine airlines version of Cebu Pacific’s “Go Lite” has a very good update. I’m not sure when it was first announced, but it was good news to everyone who loves to fly on PAL. Effective for bookings made on or after November 18 and for those whose travel is on or after December 1, the following changes will take effect.

SEAT SELECTION

Before, Econolight seats are located at the rear of the plane. For me, it’s OK because it’s nearer to the comfort rooms. But for some, it was not a good position. Now, they already removed this policy. You can now seat other than at the rear of the aircraft.

MEALS

Before, Econolight seats have no free “merienda” or meals. They will distinguish you because you are seated on the back seat. So, along with the change in their seating policy, they also changed their meals policy. You can now have free food and drinks even if your ticket is cheaper than the “Fiesta” type.

So, do you like the change? Personally, I do. I think Cebu Pacific might be very good in giving cheap airfares but they are still lagging behind Philippine Airlines (PAL) in terms of accommodation.

So next time you will buy PAL Econolight tickets, you can now delete “food and drinks” from the list of things to bring before the flight. Enjoy and have a safe flight!

How Link Your Local (Philippines) Bank Account to Your PayPal Account?

PayPal is the world’s leading alternative for using credit and debit cards directly into internet transactions. It’s also relatively safe since you will not need to expose your credit card number and some important personal information. PayPal is also used for receiving payment online. I remember myself when I applied for an online job; I was required to have a PayPal account. The problem before is no bank here in the Philippines allows direct transfer of funds.

Anyway, that was BEFORE! NOW you can easily add and withdraw funds to your PayPal account using a local (Philippines) bank account. As far as I know, only Unionbank offers direct fund transfer from your credit card or debit account to your PayPal account. It’s very easy, just set up an account with Unionbank. For debit cards, you can either have an e-wallet or an EON account. I recommend EON account since it requires zero maintaining balance and just 350 maintaining fee per year.

How to connect to your Union (EON) Account to Your Paypal Account?

Here are a few simple steps you must do.

1. Log-in you our PayPal account at www.paypal.com

2. Go to the notification section (at the right side).

3. Click on the “Link and confirm your debit or credit card”

4. Fill up the form. Choose “Visa” on the card type section and register your “card number”.

According to Unionbank, it will take up to 5 banking days before you receive your 4-digit security code in your mail. In my case, after 2 days, I called them at (02)84186 and got my security code.

5. After getting the security code, go back to PayPal and enter the code in the form below.

Please take note that PayPal will take 1.95 dollars (200 pesos) upon linking your card. This will be automatically be credited to your PayPal account.

After completing these five easy steps, you can now enjoy the convenience of PayPal. Enjoy!