Earthquake Details

[via usgs.gov ]

I found this story at nola.com. It’s quite interesting as some lawmakers are studying a plan to stop poverty by sterilization.

Worried that welfare costs are rising as the number of taxpayers declines, state Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, said Tuesday he is studying a plan to pay poor women $1,000 to have their Fallopian tubes tied.

Do you think people here in the Philippines would welcome such an idea?  I would think this would be a big issue here since the Philippines is a Catholic Country and artificial birth control is already a big issue between the Church and the government.  However, some might believe that parents that can not provide their children with basic necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, and education is committing a more bigger sin.

If you pass by some poor areas in our cities, you would very well know that most of those areas have hundreds of children ages 0 to 12.   In spite of the fact that they already know that they cannot support a family, they still go and give birth to a couple more kids.

I think poor people would agree even for a couple of thousand pesos (ie PHP2000-PHP4000) just to have their fallopian tubes tied.

I don’t say I agree or disagree if such plan takes place in our country.  But  I know this will be very controversial.
So what’s your take on this?

I wrote before that Paypal has already a facility to withdraw funds to a local bank account.   I used to withdraw funds to my HSBC credit card account as I usually use my credit card on almost anything (Sayang ang Miles/Points).  However, I noticed that each time I withdraw funds to my credit card,  my bonus points decrease.

Paypal withdrawal to HSBC’s credit card functions like a Credit Memo to the account.  Credit memo is seen as a credit transaction and such transaction negates my spending for that month and therefore, I don’t get credited for the points I should have earned from my purchases.

I therefore have no choice but to try the other route which is from paypal directly to my bank account.   I have some reservations about doing this as I know that if somebody hacks your paypal account, they can ultimately withdraw funds from your bank account by funding your paypal account from your bank account, then from there,  send money to their own paypal accounts.

I’ve also heard stories that paypal itself initiated funding of  their paypal account thru their respective bank accounts in case they need to “reverse” transactions.   I think paypal does this to protect buyers and sellers in case there are fraudulent transactions,  however,  some buyers from ebay dispute some transactions saying they didn’t receive any product even if they did.

To minimize such headaches,  I logged in to my trusty old HSBC internet banking account and just open up a new savings account. I was able to setup a new savings account in just a minute or two.   Yup, no need to go to a branch unlike other banks where you still need to be physically on site if you want to open another account.

Once I opened my new savings account,  I use this new account to link to my paypal account.  Then I just maintain a balance of about PHP1k on this account.   This means, whatever happens, the only money I can potentially lose is the money already in my paypal account, and the PHP1k I left on the new savings account.

So that’s a tip for paypal users.   Use a bank account that doesn’t have a lot of money in it.  Don’t use your main bank account where you keep your savings.  It’s not a good practice.  You might end up losing everything if a hacker/phisher got hold of your paypal account.
Ok, back to my new savings account.  I did a test run and transferred about PHP2k from paypal to my new HSBC bank account.  It worked flawlessly!  I did however got deducted PHP100 service charge.  I then checked the rates for local inward remittances and it seems like it is a flat fee of PHP100 regardless of amount.  Not bad if you ask me.

After a few days, I then proceed to transfer a bigger amount just to see if the service charge will stay PHP100.   Yes!  The charge really seems to be a flat PHP100.

After verifiying the funds,  I did transfer the paypal money from my new savings account, to my main bank account.  No charge for this type of transfer since it’s within the same bank.  And that completes the withdrawal of paypal funds to my HSBC bank account.  So now,  withdrawing from paypal to my HSBC bank account is now my first choice.

Bank Codes of Major Banks in the Philippines

In the Philippines, to complete your PayPal withdrawal, you will need to enter the name of your bank, your bank account number and the corresponding 9-digit bank code, which identifies your bank.

I read at pinoyblogosphere that a joomla 1.5xx site was hacked.   I check out the guy’s website  cebubusinessforum.com and found out that the words “the.bilen” on the defaced website.  I checked google to see what other sites has been hacked by this hacker and found out that the forum area of Philippine Stock Exchange has been hacked.

The above is a screen capture of  http://www.philippinestockmarket.com/Forum/default.asp  as of today Sept. 11, 2008 9:00am.

Based from the other sites, it seems that it a lot of the defacing and hacking was done by turkish hackers.  I think “the.bilen” is a script that is being used by these hackers as well as RootHack.

My VPS disk usage is already 96% so I have to find a way to search for the largest files/directories in Linux and check if they should be deleted or not.   I’m sure I can find files such as web log files which I can delete.

There isn’t any 1 linux command to do this but you can string a couple of commands to do the job.  Here’s what I use.
# du -a /home | sort -n -r | head -n 300

• du : Estimate file space usage
• sort : Sort lines of text files or given input data
• head : Output the first part of files i.e. to display first 10 largest file

Better yet, you can run it in your background using this

# du -a /home | sort -n -r | head -n 300 >  spacehog.txt &

This will create a text file called spacehog.txt which you can review later after the background process finished.

Someone forwarded an email to me with the following image.   Let me quote the content

If you see this lady turning clockwise, you are using your right brain. 
If you see her turning counterclockwise, you are using your left brain. 
Some people do see both ways, but most people see it only one way.

See if you can make her go one way and then the other by shifting the brain’s current.
BOTH DIRECTIONS CAN BE SEEN!

Experimentation has shown that the two different sides, or hemispheres, of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking. 

Most individuals have a distinct preference for one of these styles of thinking.  Some, however, are more whole-brained and equally adept at both modes.

In general, schools tend to favor left-brain modes of thinking, while downplaying the right-brain ones.  Left-brain scholastic subjects focus on logical thinking, analysis and accuracy.  Right-brained subjects, on the other hand, focus on aesthetics, feeling and creativity.

At first glance, I saw the lady turning counterclockwise.  But after a few seconds of staring, I can see her turning clockwise.  I can’t do it on demand immediately but once I force my brain to “see” the lady turn the other way, in a few seconds, I can.

I can probably do this because I’m left handed when I write but right handed when I do other tasks

Things that I can do left handed:

Write, paint, play table tennis, use a knife, use chopsticks, badminton

Things that I can do right handed:

Bowling, shoot a basketball, billiards, eat using spoon/fork, badminton