sacha chua living an awesome life

1. Why Sept. 10? What’s the significance of that date?

Hehe… well, that wss the day that Open Minds (now the Opensource
Technology Association of the Philippines) declared “war” on
Microsoft in a press conference back in 2002.

Note that the Software Freedom Day, worldwide, strongly discourages
bashing of any companies or individuals. Including Microsoft.

It’s not about war. It’s about freedom.

For consumers, it could be as simple as the freedom to take advantage
of freely-available quality software that they might not know about.
Tell your friends about Mozilla Firefox, GAIM, GIMP, and other neat
programs that run on even Microsoft Windows.

For students and hobbyists, it could be the freedom to participate in
world-wide projects and make a difference not only through code but
also through equally valuable efforts like art, translation, and
documentation.

For companies, it could be the freedom to deploy best-of-breed
solutions without having to allocate budget for yearly licensing.

This is your opportunity to show people what they can do. Listen to
their needs and help them find answers.

Most people don’t care about being anti-Microsoft. If people think
that the best arguments we can make for Free software is that it’s not
Microsoft and it doesn’t cost a thing, then we’re even further from
Freedom than we thought.

その限られた性能のために私はコンピユーターに幻滅を感じている。 Its limited capability has disenchanted me with computer.

On Technorati: opensource, rant, soapbox

I took a taxi just to make it to my 4:00 appointment at DermLink,
a small dermatology clinic along Arnaiz Ave. near Park Square 1. I
made it there by 4:05. The receptionist retrieved my record, which
indeed had “Tuesday 4:00″ written on it. However, there was no
available slot, so they asked me to wait.

After finishing an entire magazine (cover to cover, including articles
on swimsuits and makeup and all of these things I’d ordinarily not
even glance at) and sketching a stool (complete with shadows from two
light sources), I looked up at the clock. Thirty minutes had passed
without a word, an apology, or even an estimate of how much longer I
would need to wait.

Eventually the middle bay cleared and I was asked to recline on the
elevated bed. I had scarcely settled in when the assistant was told to
transfer the person in the far bay to the bed I was in the process of
occupying, so I put my glasses back on, gathered my things, and moved
to the next bay.

As the assistant smeared cream on my face and wiped it off with a
sponge, she kept asking me: “Are your meds complete?” It took me a
while to realize that she was asking about my medication. I said yes.
Not that I would know if it was complete or not, but hey, we sat
through the song-and-dance yesterday and my mom bought whatever the
dermatologist was pushing. A short while later, she (or another
assistant) asked again, “Are your meds complete?” I was starting to
get really annoyed about the hard sell, but I decided that it wouldn’t
be wise to piss off people who are working on your face.

So I patiently waited… and waited… and waited… I even fell
asleep at some point. When I woke up, I heard the whir of machinery
from the next unit. After a short pause, I heard the dermatologist’s
voice from the unit near the door, giving another consultation. It was
probably the exact pitch she’d used on us last week; no questions, but
rather just a high-speed rattling-off of things one needs to buy.

I turned my head and affixed the assistant with an impatient glare.
That netted me nothing more than a perfunctory “Please wait a while.”
I tried to settle back down, but I simply couldn’t stand that kind of
service. I got up, pulled the towel headband off my hair, and stormed
off, telling them I really couldn’t wait any longer and that their
customer service could _really_ be improved. Then I left. Looking
back, I wish I’d said something stronger, but disappointment choked my
voice and I still haven’t gotten over that innate dislike of making a
scene.

I stalked through Glorietta searching for some place that would make
me feel like they valued my business. I was annoyed. No, I was more
than annoyed—I was aggravated. I felt terrible wasting all that time
at DermLink. I thought going to a regular dermatologist would be
better than just going to a skin clinic and having a facial, but that
place just sucked. This wasn’t the first time I’d had to wait without
explanation, and I should’ve clued in that first day and refused to go
for any more treatment there. Sheesh.

I ended up going for a really painful facial at Let’s Face It, but at
least people there smiled, attended to me promptly, and explained what
they were doing.

If I’m going to go for this entire dermatology thing, I’d like to have
a dermatologist who’ll ask me about what I eat and how I live; who’ll
find a way for me to keep eating chocolate, who’ll tell me what to do
when I have pimples the day before I expect pictures to be taken…
If I can’t have that, then I’d rather not have clear skin than put up
with customer service as bad as DermLink’s.

Moral lesson: Customer service is very important. Keep your customers
in the loop. Don’t let them feel neglected. Care about them; make them
feel special instead of just another source of income for you.

ARGH.

I was thinking of heading back to DermLink and really giving them
a piece of my mind, but then I passed by National Bookstore and I got
sucked in. Still.

Oh, well. Good lesson in how personally annoying bad service can be.

この写真の猫を見かけたら、お電話ください。 Please call us when you see the cat in this picture.

Warren also grips:

I don’t think companies in Manila understand the meaning
of “customer service”. A very good example is PLDT :). Another one is
one of the biggest bank in Manila; METROBANK. They have like 40
clients in queue and they only have 1 teller serving them. My GOD!!! I
don’t know where the Managers/Supervisors of these organizations
obtained their degree.

On Technorati: business, rant, soapbox

http://www.houseonahill.net/ disables right-click on its pages. I
suppose it’s to stop people from saving webpages to their hard disk,
but it’s not a very effective way of stopping people from copying
things because people can always highlight text and then copy the text
normally.

Disabling right-click punishes power users, though. I can’t easily
bookmark pages using my del.icio.us. I can’t copy a link without
visiting it, which means I have to click on the permalink page, move
over to the address bar, and copy the address from there if I’m going
to cite something in my blog. I can’t easily subscribe via
http://www.bloglines.com .

I’ve seen a Mozilla extension for disabling pesky right-click
disablers, and I think I’ll go install that right now. I could also
always browse the website in w3m or some other text browser.

Disabling right-click is a technological attempt at solving a social
problem, and although it discourages casual users, I don’t think it’s
worth the cost.

UPDATE: The right-click script sassylawyer uses also results in an
error when I middle-click on a link in order to open it in a new tab.
The page loads, but I have to click through a “Sorry, right-click is
disabled.” message. Mrph.

UPDATE: The same site blacklists http://del.icio.us . ARGH.

On Technorati: soapbox, rant, annoyed

My mother would be the last person to say she’s beautiful. She’d say
she’s short, or she has gray hair and wrinkles. She wears make-up, but
she doesn’t spend hours putting a face on every day and she doesn’t
buy fancy clothes. She’s too busy as the general manager of
Adphoto to get much beauty sleep, and
sees nothing wrong with trekking around in comfortable shoes. I think
she’s beautiful.

My former grade school principal, Lala Castillo, had wrinkles around
her eyes that showed how much she smiled. I never saw her dressed in
sharp business suits. I think she was always in flowing skirts or
sensible pants. She knew all of us by name. As a child, I wondered if
I could just skip being an adult and be old and wise like she was.
I think she’s beautiful.

Didith Rodrigo, the chair of the computer science department, is not
one for beauty pageants. I don’t think she wears make-up. But she made
us feel welcome. She knew what she was talking about, and she could
explain herself very clearly. She was also a great listener. I think
she’s beautiful.

If PCS wants to judge on “beauty”—which basically means how much does
a woman resemble advertisements—then they risk closing their eyes to
the real gems, people who can _really_ inspire others.

As for me, I’m going to stay in my own little world where results
matter more than appearances, where ordinary people become beautiful
when you get to know them.

I’m glad that I’m not spectacular. At least that way, I don’t have to
worry about people speculating about my breast size, unlike one of my
friends who occasionally has to put up with that despite being a
brilliant physicist. At least that way, I know people pay attention to
my ideas and not just to my body.

I still feel a little insecure from time to time. Am I where I am just
because I’m a girl, just because I was in the right place at the right
time? Would I have gotten as far if people didn’t make a fuss over the
fact that ooh, look, a girl’s _really_ into tech?

Then I go online and talk to people who don’t know anything about me,
people who even assume I’m a guy until the regulars laugh and correct
them, and I realize that I’m good enough on my own.

That’s an assurance the DigitalPinay winners might not have, because
they’ll wonder: was I hired because my resume was good and I can
really make a difference, or was I hired because I won a beauty
pageant?

On Technorati: digitalpinay, issues, women, philippines, rant

PCS is expected to confirm its resolve to push through with the
controversial “Digital Pinay 2005″ contest at a press conference to be
held today at 3:30 PM at AIM’s ACCEED center.

They say that the contest is a search for future chief executive
officers and chief information officers, and have decided to keep
their original criteria: 20% popularity (text votes, another
revenue-generator), 20% personality (sound bites in the question and
answer portion), and 20% poise (modeling business wear, formal wear
and sports wear). Oh, right, and 40% intelligence and achievements,
but since that’s all evaluated behind the scenes, we’ll only get to
see the 60% part.

They also deny that it’s a beauty pageant and claim they never
intended it to be one. And oh, oops, the
first application form was a
complete mistake—they didn’t mean to send *that* version to the press
mailing list. They *really* meant to send these sanitized application
forms: ../personal/digitalpinay-coed.doc and
../personal/digitalpinay-pro.doc. So they’d like to tell all you
outraged bloggers that
you’re barking up the wrong tree. It really isn’t a beauty pageant.
Even if there’s a “Coronation Night” competition where people are
judged on how they wear clothes instead of, say, their business plans
or their ability to give presentations. Even if there’s a text voting
thing.

All I can say is that if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and
quacks like a duck…

Whatever.

On Technorati: digitalpinay, issues, women, philippines, rant

Looks like PCS is pushing through with Digital Pinay 2005. Their spin?
They’re searching for future female chief executive officers, so 60%
personality (in terms of appearance, popularity and poise) makes
perfect sense.

Indeed it does. After all, they’re looking for future managers, and
managers really do need soft skills. So that’s their market. They’re
not trying to define a good IT professional in terms of technical
wizardry. This is MIS.

They’re not saying you have to be pretty to be a good geek. They’re
saying you have to be pretty—este, personable—in order to be a good
manager. Which is all too true and we’re used to that, I guess.

I wonder if they’ll ask the contestants in the “Search for the Most
Outstanding CIO” to model sportswear. I still think that if you’re
looking for future leaders, you should ask them to make speeches
instead of strut around in several different kinds of clothes. You
should ask them to make a difference in their community.

I also don’t think we lose our femininity by focusing on ideas and
accomplishments. In fact, we express it by not highlighting it, not
making it the center of attention. I want more attention paid to the
fact that we get results through taking risks and working hard than to
the accident of our gender.

Anyway. It’s their org. It’s their money and it’s their name. At least
they’ve clarified their position. I have a feeling there’s nothing
more I can do about that. We’re talking about completely different things.

You know what my problem is? I keep thinking that the C in PCS means
they’re even vaguely related to the stuff we do. But right, right,
they’re business-related, and that’s a completely different world. I
just have to remember that. I really should remember that PCS is a
professional organization, and their definition of IT is very
different from our definition of IT.

You know what? I think I’ll stay out of the corporate world. I love
teaching. I love showing people that they can do anything they want to
do in IT. I love hacking on open source. I don’t want to have to dress
up in a suit to work on something cool with other people.

I guess it’s time to resume life. I have things to hack on.

Thanks to everyone who listened.

PCS to push through with Digital Pinay 2005 – INQ7.net

On Technorati: digitalpinay, issues, women, philippines, rant, soapbox

Leo Querubin of PCS sent me another set of application forms, saying

These were the original apps forms.

- http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/personal/digitalpinay-coed.doc
- http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/personal/digitalpinay-pro.doc

For comparison, the form I received in a forward is here:

- http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/personal/digitalpinay.doc

I like how the rules are no longer included so that they have more
time to make up their mind. I like how the form does not mention the
controversial prize of P 25,000 (look! the average monthly salary
of an IT professional!) or the form of the contest.

It is entirely possible that there really was just a simple misunderstanding.

It is entirely impossible for everyone to believe that.

It is also probably impossible for them to reach everyone the first
forwarded form(s) reached. They have opened up a can of worms, and
they cannot neatly stuff all the worms back in.

On Technorati: digitalpinay, issues, women, philippines, rant