If you have been reading my blog, you probably already know how much I love Uber. I've been using it religiously since around October last year and I can stand by my words that I find their services outstanding.
It made me very upset when the LTFRB started to pick on Uber few months back. I use Uber everyday going to work and going out on weekends. I probably have spent enough to fend for my driving lessons, but who has time to get on the road ahead of everybody, find a parking and drive back home? Not me--and probably a lot of others, too, who has been tired of haggling 'against' ruthless taxi drivers.

Uber, if you didn't know, by definition, is classified as a Ride Sharing service. What sets them apart from taxicabs is that they are owned by private individuals under no franchise. In the country today, every transportation service, according to the law, needs franchising to operate legally. This means Uber, not matter how great we know their service is, is not in the scope.

Today, Uber is encouraging all of us to help them to Get Ridesharing Regulations Signed by DOTC and LTFRB.
These are the exact statements from Uber Manila:

For the last six months, DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya and LTFRB Chairman Winston Ginez have shown tremendous leadership in crafting a regulatory framework that will allow the people of Metro Manila to continue enjoying a new and revolutionary transportation option.

The Philippines has the opportunity to cement its reputation as one of the fastest growing and most progressive countries in Asia, by becoming the first country after the United States to create a dedicated framework for ridesharing. This would be an amazing achievement not only for our government, but for all Filipinos.

This sounds like it's a bigger deal than just letting Uber officially get on the road. Private organisations such as Uber are paving it's way to keep our country moving forward, and now they need our help.

To show your support, please Sign the Petition by click on the button below:

[su_button url="https://action.uber.org/manila/" target="blank" style="flat" background="#3ac781" color="#ffffff" size="8" center="yes" icon="icon: pencil" text_shadow="0px 0px 0px #324a28"]SIGN THE PETITION[/su_button]

Or by visiting this link:
https://action.uber.org/manila/

If you didn't know, this morning, all McDonald's branches were giving away free McMuffins to their first 1000 customers. McDonald's is celebrating with us National Breakfast Day, now on its 3rd year in the Philippines.
One thing they doing different this year is having a Hooray for McDo Mornings Card!
My friend Darryl was able to get me one when he dropped by this morning. I think this is the first time I've seen McDonald's offering loyalty cards. Very exciting! If there's one thing I love the most about McDonald's it's their breakfast. I can literally eat it every freaking day, and now I can get rewarded for it!



The idea is to collect stamps by purchasing their McSaver Meals, Breakfast Meals and Chicken McDo Meals (excluding BFF bundles, Happy Meal and a la carte orders). There are 12 numbers on the card and you get a treat for every 3 meals you buy. On your 12th meal purchase you're rewarded with BUY ONE MEAL, GET ONE MEAL FREE.

You can drop by any McDonald's branch and get your own Hooray for McDo Mornings Card.
Promo period is from March 10 to May 31, 2015.

DISCLAIMER: This post is not sponsored. This website is not in anyway affiliated with brand/s mentioned herein.

New Look![/caption]

I have started blogging way back in 2008, which doesn't seem too far ago but when you think about it, that's about 7 years ago. I cannot believe it!!!

I usually keep my blogs to myself, and if you haven't noticed I'm trying to keep my profile here on Nitpickle "anonymous" (well, except to my friends who found pictures here of people we know. LOL), but I'm still trying. I've always wanted to make this objective.

Anyway, believe it or not, I started with a melo-dramatic blog, which tells you exactly why I usually keep these things to myself. During the Glory Days of Multiply.com, I was on fire with the semi-poetic hugots.



That photo, tho. Oh god why.

What you do have to know about that is that I was blocked for some reason (I think I know why). My entire account was inaccessible and there was nothing I could do, it was very sad and annoying, but I had to give it up.


In 2012, I started a new one under Wordpress again, now with Nitpickle. I have gone through many different others but I didn't do much with those. And because I was terrified about being blocked again, I decided to ditch the whole idea of signing up with anybody (with no hard feelings, I still love Wordpress) and thus, Nitpickle.com was born.

It's supposed to be a tech blog because that's what I am mostly interested about and maybe because I really idolised technoodling.net, unbox.ph and Techpinas, but you know.

Why not embrace my randomness, write about it, and put it all in one place?

I still consider myself new, and it's very hard to get it going, especially if you're not a writer, not even a photographer. (typos, typos everywhere)
I love food, I eat a lot of food, in a lot of different places, and I'll put a lot of food reviews here on the website but I'm way too embarrassed to take pictures of food in restaurants.

Seriously, how do people do it??? People do it every meal, everyday? Why can't I?!

It's freakin' hard to understand, but I'll get there.

old logo

new logo

Xiaomi now jumps into the action camera bandwagon and released their latest product, the Yi Action Camera.

Yi Action Camera which claims to be EVEN better than the entry-level GoPro camera at LESS THAN half the price at 64USD(approx. PHP2,800 w/o tax and duties).

When Xiaomi came into the smartphone scene with a Xiaomi Mi3, with a device comparable to Samsung's then flagship, Galaxy S5, having a dramatically cheaper price tag, we were all taken by surprise. A lot of people bought the idea... and erm... the Xiaomi Mi3. Their customers seem happy and I don't remember hearing complaints as much as the local smartphone brands get, so I must say they have established themselves a name of good quality and value for money.

I haven't got any use for an action cam. I mean, come on. Strolling inside the mall is all the action I ever get. But better specs, at less than half the price of a GoPro? Mind if ah do! If it performs in real-life as it says on paper, this is a steal! (That is, if you don't mind the Yi branding. You know what I mean.)

 

Xiaomi Yi Action Camera is currently available only in China as of yet, but knowing how Xiaomi smartphones (and even power banks) boomed in the country, it might hit the local shelves really soon through a Lazada Flash Sale like the rest. You know the drill.

My guesstimate price: PHP 3,500

 

I'm not a fan of accessories. I've grown to dislike them because 1) I lose rings and earrings like bobby pins. Seriously. 2) I can't wear disposable fancy(fake) ones because I've got the curse of sweaty hands. And my ears won't let me get away with it either.

But can you resist these adorable ones?

Filling Station, a burger place I never knew about, was introduced to me by my friend, Fifi.

Ambiance. It isn't quite the family place so if you're planning to drop by, I suggest you go with your girlfrans or guy pals instead. Situated in Makati's so-called Red Light District, we don't really expect it to be anything conservative.

[caption id="attachment_1013" align="aligncenter" width="640"] (via www.jrhenry.net)[/caption]

The restaurant is easy to miss as the entrance is pretty small compared to...

Ubuntu, is an open-source Linux-based operating system, which you probably already know if you are reading this post. If you haven't been in Computer Studies, probably doesn't sound familiar to you at all. All Linux OS's potentially targets the geeks and nerds, but, mind you,Ubuntu, among all of those is the least geeky one.

I would not discuss further about it but if you are new to this and you're intersted, head on over to their website to learn more. They have an online demo!
www.ubuntu.com

Ubuntu will most likely install on your device properly without any trouble, if you're lucky, every component might even work. But this isn't always the case. Chances are, your either your Wi-Fi, trackpad or bluetooth won't work out of the box.

I recently installed Ubuntu 14.10 on my Acer TravelMate B115, and as expected, there were a bunch of things to tinker with before finally ending up with how I wanted my new Linux-powered device to behave.

Here are 6 problems I came across, and what I did to solve them.

1) I couldn't enter the Boot Menu.

The Boot Menu isn't enabled by default.

- Hit F2 and enter BIOS
- navigate to the Main tab
- scroll down to F12 Boot Menu
- Hit Enter, choose "Enabled" and enter again
- Press F11 to save and exit
- Wait for your PC to restart, as the Acer logo appears, hit F12. That should bring up the boot menu. From then you can choose to boot from your media source (flash drive/CD/HDD) with the Ubuntu Installer.

2) Ubuntu boot loader doesn't show on startup.

Your PC will continue to use Windows Boot Manager even after you have installed Ubuntu, if you don't tell it otherwise. (This wasn't the case with Windows 7 and earlier versions). Assuming you have already fully installed Ubuntu (not just Try Before Installing),

- press F2 again to enter BIOS
- go to Boot tab
- You will see Windows Boot Manager and HDD right below it. HDD is the new partition created when you installed Ubuntu, move HDD to the top (follow the instructions on the right pane).

3) Wi-Fi is not working.

Wi-Fi didn't work out of the box. This is probably one of the most common issues. It can easily be solved by installing the correct wireless driver. You're going to need wired connection to fix this.

- Connect to your routher through an Ethernet cable. The ethernet connection didn't work for me at first. I just did a restart with the cable still plugged in, and it worked!
- Hit the Window key > search for "Drivers" > Click "Additional Drivers"
- Wait for this to show up



 

- Select "Using Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver", then click on Apply Changes.

-If this doesn't appear, go to the Ubuntu Software tab and check all the boxes. See details below:

- Go back and try again.

- Click on the network icon in the upper right corner of your screen to check if there are any Wi-Fi Networks detected. Unplug your Ethernet cable to test the wireless connection.

4) Right-click doesn't work.

Took me ages to figure this out. Turns out, the physical clickers don't work at all. It works like a MacBook where you have to tap with 2 fingers to do a "right-click". This is so hard to adapt to coming from Windows. It's a hit or miss and takes a lot lot lot of getting used to.

5) My PC doesn't have light indicators for Caps Lock.

Lucky for us, there's an applet for that!

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal.
Run the following commands ONE BY ONE:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:tsbarnes/indicator-keylock

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install indicator-keylock

You should now start seeing this when you hit Caps Lock:


(How many times can I say HIT in one post??)

6) My screen is set to maximum blinding freaking light every time I log back in.

This is straight up annoying since I have uber sensitive eyes. Here's what you can do to adjust your default screen brightness.

- Go to

/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight

- Set value from 0-3125 depending on how dim/bright you want your screen to be. Mine is on 156 but that just might be too dark for you.