Category Archives: Daily dose

Support the Anti-Dynasty Network

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For decades since the ratification of the 1987 Constitution, the public has been waiting for Congress to enact a law that gives life to the constitutional prohibition on political dynasties. With Congress dominated by politicians from political dynasties, it’s been near impossible for such a law to be enacted. Nonetheless, it shouldn’t stop the people from demanding and campaigning for it.

Enter the Anti-Dynasty Network – a non-profit organization composed of ‘reform-minded dynasts, academics, public servants, and citizens committed to ending political dynasties and advancing inclusive, accountable governance.’

They are currently gathering signatures in support of the effort to enact an anti-dynasty law with the following features:

We would like to see the following in an anti-dynasty law:

  1. No family member must immediately succeed an incumbent in any elective office.
  2. The ban must extend to relatives up to the fourth (4th) civil degree of consanguinity or affinity; this covers grandparents, parents, spouses, in-laws, children, siblings, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, and first cousins.
  3. The ban must cover overlapping constituencies.
    i. No two members of the same family within the fourth (4th) degree can run for and hold the offices of President, Vice President, or Senator at the same time.
    ii. No two members of the same family within the fourth (4th) degree can run for and hold office in the same province and/or city or municipality at the same time.
    iii. No local official may be related to the district representative of the same area.
    iv. No relative of an incumbent national or local official may be fielded as a nominee of a party-list organization.

Clear. Reasonable. Long overdue. If you’re looking for a cause or effort that would bring meaningful change to our country, this would be one of it. Express your support here. Together we can do this.

Stop Meta from Accessing your Camera Roll

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Meta wants access to the photos in your device’s camera roll. Yes, the ones you haven’t posted or uploaded online for various reasons – intimate, raw, it could even be proprietary, Meta doesn’t care, it just wants to feed it to its AI.

To turn off this feature and stop Meta from getting to the photos in your camera roll, do the following:

  1. Open the Facebook app and make sure you’re signed into your account.
  2. On the upper right corner, tap on your profile pic to open the Menu section.
  3. Scroll down and tap on Settings & Privacy.
  4. Select Settings.
  5. Scroll down and tap on “Camera roll sharing suggestions”.
  6. Turn off both toggle switches labelled “Custom sharing suggestions from your camera roll” and “Get camera roll suggestions when you’re browsing Facebook”.

If one or both of those toggle switches are already on, then Meta is actively scanning, processing and retaining your photos to train its AI. Turning off those toggle switches will stop it.

Uninstall Windows Update KB5063878

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Microsoft has finally acknowledged that it’s looking into an issue affecting Windows 11 PCs where SSDs are disappearing from a user’s PC after installing its latest security update KB5063878. Some users have reported that the update did not only cause their SSD to suddenly vanish from their PC, it even bricked some drives causing serious data loss.

JayzTwoCents has good rundown of the on-going issue:

While waiting for a fix from Microsoft, the best recommended fix is to uninstall the update from your Windows 11 PC. If it’s still not installed, DO NOT INSTALL KB5063878. Turn off automatic updates in Windows Update for the time being. While some users have not been affected, including myself, fortunately, it’s definitely not worth taking the risk.

Forty

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As I write this, typhoon Emong (Co-May) is barreling through Northern Luzon bringing winds up to 184 km/h. It’s the second tropical storm to hit since last week, making the effects of the Southwest Monsoon more severe as today marks the 7th consecutive days of heavy rains.

As with every monsoon season that gets worse by accompanying typhoons, Metro Manila and surrounding provinces suffer from widespread flooding, disrupting school, businesses and making it harder and dangerous to come to work. Obviously, the government has failed to do its duty despite spending billions of public funds in numerous flood control projects throughout the country.

In the midst of it all, I mark four decades of walking this earth. Celebrations have been kept simple and muted, as we all try to shelter in place and ride out the storm. Literally. Since last year, there have been some progress on the ‘goals’ I’ve laid down. It’s not on the blogging, podcasting or pushing out a newsletter side, but getting a better sense of the overall direction I want to go on now that I’ve reached this milestone. There’s a great level of confidence that come next year, we would in a better place. It all sounds a bit exciting, to say the least.

Another milestone that makes this year a little bit more special is it coincides with the 30th anniversary of my favorite Gundam series – Mobile Suit Gundam Wing which first aired in Japan in 1995. It was the first Gundam series to be aired on US television, introducing many young boys and girls of the 2000s to the world of Gundam. It wasn’t the best series in the franchise but the Gundam franchise wouldn’t be as big and popular as it is today if it weren’t for Gundam Wing.

As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, Bandai has released a ‘clean’ (no opening credits) version of Gundam Wing’s opening theme – “Just Communication” for fans of the series to enjoy:

Thirty-nine

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This is the penultimate year before I hit four decades of being on planet Earth. What a journey it has been. Times have been challenging, especially the last twelve months, but somehow I am stillg it through.

There have been no changes in the writing, podcasting, and building scale models as it’s still a few months away from the target construction date of ‘the cave’. On the other hand, I’ve been meaning to get back to reading books and listening to my podcast subscriptions by August. The time has come to cut back on two notorious time sinks YouTube and Spotify.

Offline, I’ve spent considerable time reconnecting with my high school friends since April as we gear up to get organized for when we host our high school grand alumni homecoming in 2027. Time is ticking away and we are nowhere near our fundraising target.

For the first time in thirty-nine years, I’m seriously thinking of doing a more serious exercise regimen, even doing some weight training to help address my thyroid problems. A recent trip to the hospital reminded me that this needs urgent attention. Just to be clear, I would not be bulking up nor would I start a TikTok account to post half-naked thirst traps or something ridiculous.

Once more, to all those who sent their greetings, a big thank you to each and every one of you!