Check out this great article I stumbled upon:

The truth behind 0% interest promos

The Canon 400D camera cost P48,500. Its interest free if you pay for 12 months. The monthly payment is P4,042. Cut down to monthly bite-sized pieces, it doesn’t look too painful. Then I asked the clerk, “What if I don’t want to pay by credit card? I want to pay in cash.”

“Mam, its P44,950 if you want to pay in cash,” she says.

Technically, there’s no violation of Administrative Order 10 issued by the Department of Trade and Industry, which put a stop to the practice of putting a card price and cash price in one price tag. But if you pester the clerk in a nice manner, he will tell you that he can give you a discount if you will pay in cash.

So, is the 0% interest for real? MoneySmarts concludes the nice round “oh” is just a figure, often in red, to catch people’s attention. The interest has been included in the price already. If I pay P4,042 a month for that Canon 400D, I will be paying 12% interest on this installment promo and not 0%. If I pay in cash, I would save P3,550 – that’s almost 2 gigabytes of additional memory for the camera.

Source: Money Smarts - Inquirer.net blogs

You thought this was bad? It gets better (or worse).

millionairemate.com . . . is where wealth and beauty come together for the ultimate online dating experience. Casual dating, relationships and discreet encounters are just some of the things you will find in the best upscale personals site.

Success. Wealth. Status. Seduction. Ah yes, all the best ingredients for a great love affair.

A 16-year-old schoolboy has cracked the federal government’s $84-million internet porn filter.

Tom Wood, a Year 10 student, told News Ltd newspapers it took him about 30 minutes to break through the government’s new filter, released on Tuesday.

Tom, who attends a Melbourne private school, can deactivate the filter after several clicks.

His method ensures the software’s toolbar icon is not deleted.

He can leave his parents believing the filter is still working.

“It’s a horrible waste of money,” he said. “They could get a much better filter for a few million dollars made here rather than paying overseas companies for an ineffective one.”

Source: The Age

It gets better:

“Unfortunately, no single measure can protect children from online harm and … traditional parenting skills have never been more important.”

Family First senator Steve Fielding, a cyber safety campaigner, said cracking the software highlighted the need for compulsory filtering by internet providers.

“You need both. You need it at the ISP and at the PC level,” Senator Fielding said. “The Government has not listened to common sense and it leaves kids exposed.”

What a flimsy excuse. Hee.

This is part of RBJ’s August Collaboration Project. I’m also taking this opportunity to mix in 7 weird things about me, that Kyameel wanted to know. You decide which ones are weird

1. I compose blog entries, read blog feeds and check counter stats in Opera.
2. I check my mail, Google Analytics and flickr on Firefox.
3. I keep my Internet Explorer just so I can check the websites I design. Though that doesn’t happen very often (I’ve somehow stopped caring about people who still use IE).
4. I like going to the beach, but I don’t like getting my feet wet unless I plan on swimming.
5. I have a thing for checkered pants.
6. I have a very diverse taste in music. My MP3 collection includes songs from the Putomayo albums, Guns n’ Roses, Nirvana, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Madonna and David Benoit.
7. Despite having over a thousand songs in my archive, right now I am only listening to about 10. The same songs, over and over.
8. When I first got my camera, one of the first 120 shots were of a masturbating monkey.
9. Nine is my number. I’m not too sure if I should consider it as my lucky or unlucky number, but I know it’s MY number.
10. One of my goals is to make my own WP theme.
11. In between new chapters of the mangas I read, I turn to fan fiction to get my fix.
12. I only collect manga I love. Of course, to do this, I have to read several volumes of the manga before buying them.
13. I still hand-code HTML. It’s therapeautic.
14. Growing up, my family never really discuss things with me because I was “too young to understand.” As a result, I stopped asking questions, and most of the time have no idea what’s going on.
15. As much as I would like to think that money doesn’t equate to happiness and contentment, there are still plenty of things I want to do that sadly, involves spending a fair amount of money.
16. I work not to live, but to have money to pay for my vices.
17. I think I have about 16 Pinkies on pre-order. And there are new ones coming in every couple of months. This hobby is killing me.
18. Well, I like to think of them as investments. Yeah.
19. It takes me a minimum of 20 minutes to wake up. I would usually stare off into space or daydream before getting out of bed.
20. I’m not big on breakfast. I like breakfast food, but when I get up, I’d use the computer for about an hour (or more) before getting something to eat.
21. I sometimes suddenly burst out into song.
22. I know when I’m on the brink and in need of a break when I willingly subject myself to listen to sappy love songs. And sing along with them. Out loud.
23. I can sing. Badly.
24. There was a time where I can blog about one event in 3 seperate blogs, each one different from the other.
25. Now, it’d take me days (even a year) before I can muster up enough motivation to blog about certain things.
26. I am a terribly shy person.
27. But if I’m with people I know and am comfortable with, I can be really loud and chatty.
28. I believe that everything happens for a reason.
29. I tend to go with the flow and accept things as they come, rather than fight it. It has worked to my advantage so far.
30. I am a baptised Catholic since infancy, but I’m no longer practising the religion.
31. But that doesn’t mean I’ve totally forgotten or ignore the teachings.
32. I have three sarongs already, but I’m still on the lookout for that perfect sarong.
33. I feel so empty without a camera in my life.
34. I don’t like reading manuals. I usually just plow ahead and learn by doing. Of course, it sometimes end up in disaster and I end up reading the manual to remedy the situation.
35. I’ve always hated hospitals, but after getting confined last year, I’ve learned that it’s not so bad. As long as they’re not cutting me up, I’ll be fine.
36. Despite being jabbed with a needle several times last year for countless blood tests, I STILL don’t know what my blood type is.
37. My favorite song is Sting’s When we Dance.
38. Istumo Gawa Ni by Daisuke Kirii is a close second. It is Morinozuka Takasi’s character song in the Ouran High School Host Club OST.
39. I am using a dinosaur mobile phone. It’s a Nokia 8250, that’s just 3 drops away from death. I want to upgrade to a Sony Ericsson K800, but I figured I needed a camera more.
40. I hardly use my phone anyway. A Php300 load can sometimes stretch for 2 months.
41. The Free Speech box on the upper right of the blog are for one-liner entries so I don’t clutter up my blog. It usually reflects what I’m feeling towards a certain issue at the moment. Can you guess what the issue of today’s Free Speech entry is for?
42. Brian Kinney is my hero.
43. After Brian, Emmett and Ted are tied in second place for my favorite QAF characters. Michael can be so annoying.
44. My latest favorite TV show is Little Britain. It’s so offensive it’s fun.
45. I love Posh & Becks. Victoria was my favorite Spice Girl, so I didn’t mind that David married her.
46. My friend are a part of my family.
47. As much as I love building up my immune system by making tusok-tusok the fishballs, I hardly ever eat street foods, specially if I’m alone. I figured if I’m going to get some virus from eating dirty street food, I might as well take somebody down with me.
48. I love getting lost and I love walking. Unfortunately, getting lost when I’m in a rush to get somewhere during a hot day is something I don’t relish.
49. Amidst complaints about aching muscles and buckets of sweat pouring out of every pore in my body, I actually enjoy hiking and clambering up rocks and boulders.
50. I love this video.

Sorry Balki, but Amanda made me do it.
(more…)

You know the world is just a bit loopy when your blog entry about being proud to be Pinoy shows up 2nd in a Google search for “Why I’m Proud to Be Malaysian.”