Google's New Navigation Menu

Google announced before that they will be having a major revision of how you will navigate to the Google search engine.

 The current Google navigation menu

Here is an instruction on how to use this feature before it will be implemented in the future:

Sites On Strike Against SOPA

Today, a lot of websites went down / black and posted a notice that they are on strike against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Popular sites like Google, Wikipedia and Mozilla, to name a few, protested today to prevent SOPA for being passed as a law.

Is Google+ the future of social media networking?

A recent craze spread all over the interwebs. Google sent out invites to their new social networking site that may be on par with Facebook. With full integration with other Google products and access to other Google affiliates. So what is Google+ anyway? Read on after the jump.


Google's continuous development of social networking tools from Google Wave to Google Buzz led to the birth Google+. From an ordinary netizen's standpoint, Google+ is just a Facebook clone. From the "news feed" (stream on Google+) to the like button (+1 on Google+). If you dive in further though you will realize that Google fully customized how you post your stuff, how they were distributed and who can view them, in a sense, Google solved the one thing that was plaguing Facebook, security.

For now, Google+ haven't been opened to the general public. Just like Gmail before, to get a Google+ account, you must be invited by someone who was already using the service. You can't blame users who brag that they are using Google+ even before the public release, but the truth is, they were just invited by their friend, who in turn, was invited by others.



A year from now, pedophiles and 14 year old girls pretending to be adults will flood Google+ and the "tailor-fitted" security will be ignored. Society will blame Google+ for rape and murder resulted from someone meeting with a stranger he/she met on Google+.

In the end, Google+'s future will depend on how people use it, just like its predecessor Facebook and Friendster.

The Truth Behind The Facebook Cartoon Character Campaign

Last November 19, a post was circulating around Facebook requesting everyone to change their profile picture into cartoon characters from their childhood. The post was:

Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, Dec 6th of 2010, there should be no human faces on facebook, but an invasion of memories! This is for a campaign against violence on children

A lot of people joined, but some protested, they said that it was just an elaborated hoax by pedophiles. The post was:

FRAUD ALERT: Apparently the group asking everyone to change their profile to change their profile picture to their favorite cartoon is actually a group of pedophiles. They're doing it because kids will accept their friend request if they see a cartoon. Nothing to do with supporting child violence. It was on that TV show that warns you about internet frauds. Pass this on to everyone who has a cartoon profile picture

So who's telling the truth? What's really behind this campaign? Find out after the jump.

First let's find out what was really the original message that propagated all over Facebook:

NewGame: Change your profile picture to your favorite cartoon from when you were a kid. The goal of this game is not to see a human picture on Facebook, but an invasion of childhood memories until Monday. PLAY AND PASS ALONG!

As you can see, the message was morphed into something that included a call to action. The internet meme spread like wildfire because everyone wanted to join.

The video of NSPCC showing a cartoon kid beaten by his father was real. But the instruction of changing your Facebook profile picture was added later on to make the meme real. It's true that you must not believe everything you see on the internet.



The campaign may or may not be true, but the message was clear. Just like wearing a pink ribbon to support breast cancer awareness, changing your profile picture to a cartoon character delivered a solid message that everyone supported.

Why isn't Siopao Master blogging a lot recently?

Some readers had emailed me (I have readers?! srsly?!) and was asking why am I not updating my site like I used to. Well some factors had prohibited distracted me from blogging. Find them out after the jump.

Reason #1

Been active with some events lately, the latest was the disappointing LG sale which wasted my whole Saturday. "Why haven't you blog about it man?", you might ask. Well, I kinda posted it on the GameOPS website. I wanted to add more traffic to my website, but I'd rather post it on GameOPS because I'm 100% sure a lot of people will read it (contrary to some people I know that believed that GameOPS is just a site being run by gay people and losers, poor morons)

Reason #2

Microblogging sites like twitter and plurk were aleady my outlet for some ideas and stuff. Heck, I can post something there even when I'm eating or doing some other stuff.Only those ideas longer than 140 characters are posted here on my blog. So yeah, blame them for the lack of content here (lol)

Reason #3

I'm not the type of blogger who post anything just to have some visitors coming here. I post what interests me and share it with all. I don't post hate content like someone who wrote a 6,000+ words blog which nobody gave a damn reading. I don't also made it checked by others for grammatical errors because I know my English (heh) So yeah, ultimately, my third reason is.. I don't blog crap.

Reason #4

Some of my older posts are still visited until today (like The Rise and Fall of Sandara Park and What Makes Me Proud to be a Filipino) So yey for traffic!

Reason #5

I'm just plain lazy

That is all.

US Congress files COICA to ultimately stop piracy

Iran and China were both known for giving their citizens a hard time accessing the internet by limiting the websites they can visit. The 111th US Congress last week, filed a bill (S. 3804) that may enable internet blacklist all over the land of the free. Details after the jump.

The COICA or Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act is the latest bill the US Congress came up with to finally stop piracy over the internet. Enabling the government to block all public websites that will violate COICA. It's like Iran or China blocking everything (including Google)

COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity if they block domains on the second list.

The lists are for sites "dedicated to infringing activity," Any domain name where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are "central to the activity of the Internet site" could be blocked.

You might think that "What the F* do I care? I'm not from the US". Well as you already know, The Philippines always copy what our "brother" US do so expect them to follow soon.

You can read the complete bill here before it gets approved by the US government.

Also, the US netizens are on a crusade to stop this bill by filing a petition here.

Animax's Ani-mates unveiled

Animax, Asia's first and finest anime and youth entertainment channel unveiled today at Conway's Bar, Shangr-La Makati their version of Video Jockeys (VJ) called the 'Ani-mates'. So who are these three personalities who will be serving as Animax brand ambassadors?


The sweet and cheerful 22-year old Stephanie Henares, who came to fame from modelling and hosted in QTV and PLDT watchpad's 'My Campus My View' was the first to be introduced. She will be introducing upcoming shows and host exclusive webcasts to provide the latest news and updates on the regional youth scene.

The next to be introduced were the famous Gosiengfiao sisters who are well known in the cosplay community. The hugely popular cosplayer Alodia and her younger sister Ashley will also grace the channel and participate in youth events as Animax ambassadors.

"This new initiative represents our continued efforts to make Animax an even more engaging and entertaining youth destination in the channel's evolution with the rapid changing tastes and preferences of our dynamic audiences" said by Gregory Ho, Vice President and General Manager of Animax Asia as he proudly introduced the three lovely ladies.

Starting June 1,2010 a new microsite in Animax, http://animaxasia.com/animates will be the home of the Ani-mates and will cater interactive content about the lovely ladies

Happy 5 Years Youtube

Youtube celebrates today its 5th year anniversary. Youtube became the household name in online video sharing.Here's a video to commemorate the history of Youtube.

The Pope Online

The age of the internet is undeniable. Recently there was the "Burol" online where relatives of the dead can view a live streaming video of their beloved thanks to St. Peter memorial. Recently there was also the "Bisita Iglesia" online where you can visit some Catholic Churches at the comfort of your home. Now even the Roman Pontiff has his own website. I'm talking about the 265th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. yes folks, Benedictus XVI, Episcopus Romae now has his own website. It consist mostly of links to most of the social network wherein the Pope can be seen, like Facebook or Youtube. Heck there's even an iPhone App for him! The website is preparation for the 44th World Day of Communication this coming May. His message is to let the current internet media be a tool in spreading the Word of God.

The name of the site is Pope2You

The Power of the Internet

Today was the 14th year anniversary of 24 Hours in Cyberspace. It was "the largest one-day online event" up to that date, headed by photographer Rick Smolan.The project brought together the world's top photographers, editors, programmers, and interactive designers to create a digital time capsule of online life.

It marked the cooperation of netizens through-out the world and to think 1996 was still the infancy of the commercial internet. Today, We reproduced that success by successfully decimating information from Ondoy to the Haiti tragedy. We used the vast power of the internet to spead awareness and to give our support. The advancement of the internet paralled to the advancement of help all over the world. No one is alone in this world now. Seek help and you shall find help. Truly, the flame of dedication of the the netizens 14 years ago is still burning until today.

Multiply officially supports online sellers

Since the birth of Web 2.0 at the beginning of this century. The world wide web was no longer exclusive to those who knew how to design a website but was now easily accessible to anyone. Thanks to social networking sites like Friendster, Facebook and Multiply, having your own home page is like creating a word document. It also opened opportunities for small entrepreneurs who cannot afford a small stall on malls or even an online shop. Social networking sites made it a lot easier for them to promote their products without paying a single cent. Now, these entrepreneurs is now officially supported by Multiply by integrating them on the Multiply network. the full details after the jump.


Multiply launched recently their Multiply Sellers sub domain and officially announced their full support to online seller thus making e-commerce virtually easy for all.

Until now, running a shop on Multiply has technically been a violation of our terms of service. As long as you didn't spam anyone though, we simply looked the other way and let you go about your business. I know that this policy didn't exactly give you all a lot of comfort, so I'm happy to announce that we've updated our terms of service to reflect the fact that running a shop on Multiply is now an officially endorsed activity.

If you would like to run a shop on Multiply, all you have to do is identify yourself as an online seller. To do this, click on "my account" at the top of any page and then on "My Account Info". In the Account Type field just check the box to indicate that your account is an online shop. That's it! Once you make this change, you'll see "Online Seller" appear below your headshot on your site (or "Premium Seller" if you have a Premium account).



Please help us spread the word on this. You will need to check this box in order to continue to run your shop on Multiply, but we understand that it will take time for everyone to get the message.

Also, please continue to be mindful of our spam policy. Sending unsolicited personal messages, or posting to groups, for the purpose of promoting your shop is considered spam and could result in the cancellation of your account.

Being officially supported and having the ability to identify yourself as an online seller is a great first step, but we have more to come. In the near future we'll start adding features designed explicitly for you to help you better run your business on Multiply. The reason for this group is to allow you to help guide us in those efforts.

For now, thanks for your continued support of Multiply and I'll be back in touch soon with many, many questions. :-)

CDR King's website hacked

The famous store of Chinese re-branded stuff cdr-king suffered a DDoS attacked claimed by a certain group called "Team Rocket" based from a popular children's anime Pokemon. Wonder if the webmaster knew what happened.

Internet downtime due to Japan's Quake

Internet service across Asia suffered a slowndown to downtime connection today which was traced to Japan's earthquake yesterday. The said earthquake damaged the APCN2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network 2) which services the Singapore- Malaysia and China -Taiwan fault. The said cable system will be fully repaired on August 14, 2009. APCN2 consortium is now trying to implement the APCN2 catastrophic plan for dual failure in these segments and APCN2 NOC is now doing the mapping and manual patching in concerned stations.