Previously, we can only withdraw to a credit/debit card but now, directly to your savings/current account.

There is no fees when withdrawing funds greater than PHP7,000.00 Anything less than that, there’s a PHP50 charge. Not bad if you ask me. PHP50 is still cheaper than remittance fees.

Here’s a rundown of the procedure and here’s a list of the 9digit bank codes you will need when you register.

It seems like DNSreport is no longer free. Well, you’re in luck because you are about to see how to make a workaround. With this workaround, you can do multiple dnsreport queries in a day.

Free DNSReport – DNS Report Workaround Procedure for Firefox

1. Click Tools > Options

2. Under the cookies segment, click the Exceptions button

3. Type dnsreport.com and click block.

4. Do another one for dnsstuff.com and click block again

5. click close

6. Click Show CookiesÂ

7. type dnsstuff

8. click remove cookieÂ

9. keep on clicking remove cookie until all dnsstuff.com cookies are deleted.

10. click Close.

11. Enjoy your new found freedom to use dnsreport

The nice thing about using HSBC is you can check for your Paypal expanded use code online via Internet Banking. No need to call some customer service representative who is not yet familiar with Paypal and the Expanded Use Number.

Here’s a screen shot of my account with the paypal transactions.

I tried withdrawing USD50. There was a USD5.00 charge per withdrawal. What was credited to my Visa Card is PHP1,9665.15 only. So the exchange rate used by HSBC was PHP43.69 : USD1.00 Still quite low if you ask me but hey, I got my money from paypal and that’s what matters.

The credit card company will treat this as a payment to your credit card. If you don’t have a balance on your credit card, then you will have an overpayment. If you really wanted to withdraw your money, you need to do a Cash Advance.

Using debit card I think is better since the funds goes to your bank account that is linked to your debit card. No need to do cash advance. Just go to your ATM and withdraw.
Today, I tried keying in my expanded use number and it works fine. At last, I can transfer larger amounts to my local paypal account.

Ahmed and noemi made a comment about factoring the salary in determining the price. I think this is a great suggestion. People from other countries have bigger salaries which can afford a higher cost of domain registration.

Even ccTLD for Tokelau which is .TK is being given out free.

If dotPH can have a local rate such as $10 for pinoys registering here in the Philippines and maintain the $35 for international registrants like companies who just want to protect their brands, then that would be a good solution.

My View

If dotPH loses control of .ph domain administration to the Philippine Gov’t, they won’t be able to control the pricing and they can lose millions of (potential revenue) if the gov’t lowers the price of registration.

dotPH – lose
people – win

If dotPH retains control of .ph domain, they protect their financial interest.

dotPH – win
people – lose

I also like what Markku said. dotPH does not own the .ph domain unlike microsoft of “owns” a product called windows. dotPH are ‘administrators’ of the domain and at the same time ‘registrars’.

In my opinion the country should be able to choose who will administer ccTLD’s. That’s why it is called country code top level domains. Unfortunately, that is not how it goes. However, the government’s wishes do have some bearing on the replacement of ccTLD administrators. Keep reading until you reach item #19 below.

In this ICANN document item 16 states…

16. In addition to so-called “generic” TLDs such as “.com,” “.net,” and “.gov,” there are also numerous “country code” TLDs, which are commonly referred to as ccTLDs. Examples of ccTLDs are “.us” for the United States, “.uk” for the United Kingdom, and “.bz” for Belize. These ccTLDs are generally used for Internet addresses that are specific to a country based on two-letter codes that appear on a list prepared by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Country code TLDs are administered by appointed ccTLD managers, who act as trustees performing a service on behalf of the Internet community, both globally and in the country or territory designated by the country code.

So ccTLDs are appointed by ICANN and they administer the domain on behalf of the internet community. Which means, they can be replaced.

Let’s check out item 18

18. Each ccTLD has a technical contact and an administrative contact (in a few cases they are the same person). Pursuant to ICP-1 and other aspects of existing policies and procedures, ICANN can and does make recommendations to the Department of Commerce in regard to replacement of those contacts. As noted above, the IANA Contract provides that ICANN is not authorized to redelegate top-level domains. ICP-1 further states: “TLD Manager responsibility. TLD managers are trustees for the delegated domain, and have a duty to serve the community. The designated manager is the trustee of the TLD for both the nation, in the case of ccTLDs, and the global Internet community. Concerns about ‘rights’ and ‘ownership’ of domains are inappropriate. It is appropriate, however, to be concerned about ‘responsibilities’ and ‘service’ to the community.”

So ‘rights’ and ‘ownerships’ of domains are innapropriate. The ccTLD Administrator does not “own” .ph

So how can ccTLD administrator/managers be replaced? Check item 19.

19. ICANN’s recommendations regarding the possible replacement of the managers of a ccTLD are based on a number of factors that are designed to ensure the sound operation of the Internet. Although one of those factors is the wishes of the government of the country involved, no foreign government “owns” its ccTLD or can order ICANN or the Department of Commerce to take any actions with respect to a ccTLD. Indeed, under current policy ccTLDs are not “owned” in any sense; they are made available to benefit the entire Internet community.

With this we know that it is possible to replace the managers of ccTLD but unfortunately, no government can order ICANN to take any actions. Which is why I think the Philippine gov’t has a hard time getting control of .ph

Apart from that it says “..a number of factors that are designed to ensure the sound operation of the internet“. Operation wise, dotPH is doing a good job of handling .ph domains.

It may be hard for ICANN do justify redeligation based solely on price issue.

So what can we do? Here’s a step by step redeligation document by ICANN.

Step by step redeligation document can be found here.

There should be an attachment to the redeligation request and this is what I think is the key to a successful redeligation

Documentation describing the basis for the redelegation, and why it is consistent with the interests of the local Internet community. This should include demonstration of local support, as well as a summary of the intended operation of the domain name.
and this

Documentation establishing that the organization to which the redelegation is sought has the appropriate technical and other skills to operate a TLD registry.

So there it is. If those 2 are met, I think there is a good chance of redeligation. Otherwise, we might have to live with the current situation.

This acquisition puts Google on top of the online video world.

You tube is founded by a 29 year old Chad Hurley (CEO) and 27 year old Steve Chen. Geez! These two are going to be multi-millionaires. Just proves that in the internet world, anybody with a good idea and good implementation strategy can also be multi millionaires.

Yuga has 3 points why he thinks Google bought YouTube. Apart from that, here’s what I believe google is going to do.

Google might be interested in adding 5,10,15 second ad clips in front of every video. Google already has google video adsense.  They have the technology to deliver those ads, servers and bandwidth. In doing this, they would initiate a new milestone in video ad distribution.

[via msn, yuga ]

Check out the new Yahoo mail AJAX interface. This is the best yahoo mail upgrade so far. You get to have tabbed messaging. Just doubleclick a message and it will open up on a new tab. And the best part, it does that without doing a page reload. Now that’s cool!

What I can say is that it looks and feels like having my mail client software on the web. You can drag your messages to a folder. Selecting multiple messages via CTRL key or SHIFT key also works.

Click a message and it opens on the lower message pane. You can even resize the upper and lower pane so you can choose to make see more message headers, or see more of the message body.

Try it out!