P5 COLA inclusion in minimum wage starts Aug. 28, 2008.

August 28th, 2008

Under Wage order NCR No. 14, workers in Metro Manila will start to receive the additional P5 COLA or Cost of Living Allowance into their daily minimum pay.  The P5 COLA will now be included in the computation of the workers' wage-related benefits.  Wage related benefits under the Labor Code include the 13th month pay, the equivalent of the 11 paid regular holidays, the five days leave and the premiums under the SSS, Philhealth, HDMF, etc.  The minimum wage is now pegged at P382/day for Metro Manila workers.  

BDO mistakenly charges dollars in credit card bills

August 27th, 2008

Some Credit card owners like me will be shocked to see some of their bills charged in dollars.  I was shocked to see a 400 peso bill charged instead 400 dollars!

As per Citibank operator, it was BDO's general error on all transactions posted and handled by them last August 16 to 18,2008 and errors have since been reversed.  Only billing statements that were sent out automatically did not reflect the corrections.

Similar article appears on yugatech,  which states that only Mastercard transactions handled by BDO were affected.  This means that even BPI, HSBC etc on mastercard would also be affected by the bdo booboo.

Is the Stock Market Gambling or Investing?

August 27th, 2008

Merriam-Webster Dictionary's definition for "invest" is : "to commit (money) in order to earn a financial return." And  "to make use of for future benefits or advantages."

For the word "gamble", the dictionary defines it as "to play a game for money or property" and  "to stake something on a contingency."

Although gambling shares many of the principles of good investing, and while they are alike in many ways, dealing with investments on a fluctuating market is not gambling. The reason it is not gambling is because there are predictable methods to investing and gaining in the stock market, while even the best gambler takes tremendous risk in what amounts to be a zero sum situation.

Chico and Delamar versus Mo Twister

August 27th, 2008

As I was listening to the radio this morning, 89.9 DJ Mo Twister was narrating how a certain radio commercial he did that was played on rival station rx 93.1 was treated by the rival DJs.  He said unsurely that either or both Chico Garcia (Frederick Lagbao in real life) and Delamar of the Morning Rush commented that the commercial was offensive.  In what way, Mo Twister did not elaborate.of

He would go on to say that commercials were "fair ground" or "level playing fields" and should not be part  of the network war. 

Mo's next action was to declare "fair play" by playing an old commercial allegedly done by "chico", which he found on the internet.

Facebook Packrat Cheat auto clicker

August 27th, 2008

I don't know why my wife and her mom are soooo addicted to Packrat, the facebook application.  The game works in such a way that you are presented with a few cards. You can then view your friends' deck of cards, these are your friends who've installed the packrat application. As a supplement to those having few or no friends with this application, there are resident computer "rats" you can steal cards from.

The objective is to steal cards from these rats and/or friends.  Additional perks is to collect special cards or credits that pop up in friends' pages every now and then.  Other "cool" features are you can merge cards to create special cards, the combinations for which are found in packratwiki.  I don't know how one could come up with the combinations on their own without that website.   Other features include being able to buy needed cards in a "markeplace".

National Heroes Day Holiday (August 25, 2008) Pay Guidelines

August 25th, 2008

Excerpt from Manila Bulletin Online:

Workers are entitled to get extra pay when they report for duty today, a regular holiday in commemoration of National Heroes' Day, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said yesterday.

DoLE issued the advisory to inform both workers and their employers about the pay rules that should apply on this day. "Workers should be paid 100 percent of their regular salary for that day if it is the workers’ regular workday and the day is unworked," Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito Roque said.

Following DoLE’s pay rules on special holidays, employees who will report for work would get 200 percent of their daily rate and 30 percent more of their hourly rate beyond eight working hours.

Google Adsense Highest CPC words

August 22nd, 2008

Curious as to how Google adsense pay their publishers? Myseoblog.net blogs about keywords with the highest paying yield.   Google does not disclose to their publishers exactly how much web publishers like me get per every click our viewers make, as some words pay more than others.

It is no wonder that there are MFAs. or Made for Adsense websites devoted just for such topics to target and get such keywords, so that their page would come up in google searches.  Users will then go to their pages, and they would get impressions and clicks. 

Lists of Niches with Highest CPC (Adwords/Adsense)

How to know if you’re addicted to gambling and stock market

August 20th, 2008

First of all, this article is for people who treat the stock market like gambling.  It may also apply to people who gamble on horse racing, casino, and what have you.  It does not, however, apply to stock market trading in general, as it is only gambling depending on the attitude and demeanor of the trader towards trading.  But that article is discussed here in this link. 

Here are the signs and symptoms I've compiled. Some are original and based on experience. 

• It becomes a problem with that first loss, and you can't stop putting in new money for new losses.