Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

A few days ago, I got a system-generated message from Toyota. It was all about that service campaign, which I already did a month ago. I called Toyota Mabolo and they apologized for the inconvenience. It turned out that it was a system error. I discussed nicely with the services how AI services like ChatGPT are merely tools, not ones that can do your homework. It's because AI in itself is what it is, artificial intelligence . In short, it's not real intelligence! I don't know how true this is. Earlier versions of Google AI allegedly put the actress Anne Hathaway's photo, instead of a painting of Anne Hathaway, married to William Shakespeare. Google puts the disclaimer "AI responses may include mistakes". That's why I don't subscribe to ChatGPT or any AI services. I don't use AI responses as sources. Instead, I check out the links given by the AI response. However, when I'm not satisfied, I check for more links . It's because the Internet is...

This is a picture I drew out of boredom. Drawing Santa Claus (or Saint Nicholas) on the beach for fun is an obvious mark of boredom. I used several curves to draw everything, and copied/pasted the trees from my previous works. I dropped MS Paint for Adobe Photoshop (and now I dropped the latter, because of the fees). I remember getting fascinated by MS Paint as a child (though the limits are too, well, still limited today). I was looking into MS Paint on my most recent PC . It's almost useless, especially when I can do  better casual drawing on either Affinity Photo (for raster graphics, and it has the basic features of MS Paint) or Affinity Designer. Just reading Affinity's offer of free access to eligible schools , MS Paint may lose its relevance even more. I was looking into Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, and a child could actually do some exploration, ask an adult for help, do more exploration, and start to do better. Sure, dealing with layers can be frustrating at f...

Still relying on past success, Adobe? I remember getting introduced to Adobe Photoshop in college. I enjoyed the program and said, "Hey, it's much better than Microsoft Paint!" The use of layers and several effects allowed me to make art better than what Microsoft Paint allowed. The moment I bought a PC to replace my PC last 2014 (and it's been 10 years), I realized that I was under a rock. I was using an old version of Adobe Photoshop. Adobe had this ridiculous subscription fee, which will pay much more than a Netflix, Spotify, or YouTube premium subscription! It's like downright ridiculous. I discovered Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher--all replacements for nostalgia glasses (read here )! I ditched Adobe because the subscription fees are downright ridiculous . Why should people pay exorbitant fees for childhood nostalgia or college nostalgia ? Now, I'm seeing a lot of ads on Facebook, Instagram, etc.--all bragging about what you can ...

There's always the issue of pressing security . However, recent CAPTCHAs are becoming more annoying than usual. CAPTCHA means Completely Automated Public Turing . I could understand the concern about bots. However, certain CAPTCHAs are getting way too annoying  for common people. In fact, it seems certain CAPTCHAs require excellent puzzle-solving skills, such as this... Science Line Some CATCHAs are reasonable. Some, however, are pretty unreasonable. Some of them may not even match up with the connection speed . Even worse, the Science Line also says the following: Why aren’t CAPTCHAs keeping bots out anymore?   Bots have gotten better and better at solving CAPTCHAs over the years, largely due to advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, reported in March that its latest technology successfully tricked a human into filling out a CAPTCHA for it. The bot messaged a person on the freelance labor site TaskRabbit, clai...

I ditched Adobe because of that ridiculous subscription model. Fortunately, I was able to get Affinity Photo. I decided to get the whole package of Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher--all replacements of Adobe applications that once made up my childhood. I'm not willing to pay an expensive fee for nostalgia's sake . I want to save my work on my PC, not in Adobe Cloud! Anyway, it was something when I decided to experiment with both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. Back then, I ditched Microsoft Paint for Adobe Photoshop. It was back when I could borrow someone's CD and install it on my PC. Right now, I'm using Affinity Photo over Microsoft Paint for the same reasons why I used Adobe Photoshop over Microsoft Paint. The incorporation of layers and the easy movability of objects made it ideal for artwork. In college, I learned to use CorelDRAW. However, I think I'll use Affinity Designer since I'm not a professional graphic artist! One ne...

It's no secret that Adobe was the get-go for those who grew up in the 1990s. Who can remember using some of the programs like Aldus Pagemaker, Adobe Photoshop (and the term Photoshop got popularized, as a synonym for editing), and Adobe Acrobat. Unfortunately, Adobe's disgusting practice of a  super expensive subscription-based business model is really foolish. I watched this video and I have every right to agree. Did Adobe think that they would dominate the market forever and that people would stay loyal to them? Just looking at the video I shared gives me good reasons to leave Adobe for good. Why would I pay PHP 3,000+ (per month) for nostalgia if I could pay PHP 1,000+ for ownership of at least one Affinity program? Affinity Photo has given me the basics of what I need (and want). Sure, I'm willing to pay some extra money so Affinity Photo can help produce animated GIFs. Otherwise, one may get used to creating the frames manually, then using another program to create the...

Why did I drop Adobe? It's because the subscription rate is rather ridiculous (read here ). That's why I'd recommend shifting to Affinity Photo for a one-time purchase (that's probably until a super new version comes out). I looked into this video, thinking about how Adobe was once my get-go. I remember recommending Adobe Photoshop to people--whenever I saw people using Microsoft Paint. Adobe Photoshop was the get-go. I often called it "MS Paint but much better."  Eventually, I Googled for "Adobe Photoshop substitutes" and discovered Affinity Photo . True, Affinity Photo can't do animated GIFs . However, one could still draw several frames and get some other program, or an online service to create animated GIFs. I tried Affinity Photo and got convinced that buying it at USD 25.30 (price may increase any time soon). Affinity Photo was learning all over again. However, it was worth relearning since I'm not a professional graphic artist. I just ...

Disney Let's face it piracy is hard to combat, right? For Filipinos, it's time to be honest that people have been engaged in piracy in some form. It may be pirated video games, CDs, VCDs, DVDs, etc. There are laws passed against piracy. However, one must ask why piracy is so hard to combat. Piracy bypasses through legalities. It's a common practice to have a pirated version of this and that application, because of the price . Installing MS Office and Windows 11 can be costly. It can cost PHP 7,000.00 for Windows 11 Home and PHP 5,400.00 for MS Office. Back in college, people would do anything to get the MS Office and Windows 11 because they needed it for their projects . It doesn't help that some well-to-do boomer are stingy instead of thrifty. It doesn't help either that some people just can't afford to buy the original software--given their income bracket .  It's easy to raise the Filipino First Policy by saying, "Tangkilikin ang sariling atin!" ...

I wrote an opinion piece on  why I believe Adobe has gone too far . I can understand that Adobe was pirated (and it's almost close to impossible to combat piracy in developing countries, mind you). However, I believe that this practice might encourage more piracy in the long run. I was looking at Adobe's plans and my goodness, I have to pay every month to use it. Can a student or a teacher seriously afford the terms and services ? Paying USD 20.00 a month for Photoshop would be equivalent to PHP 1162.48 per month. As I was shocked at the subscription-only model--I decided to buy an Affinity license from Microsoft. I could care less if I had to buy a license now digitally. It's still worth it buying it at one shot (and buying additional content later, that is content that I want ) instead of having to pay Photoshop per month. I wonder if Adobe was intoxicated by its past successes. Adobe became a well-known name. I took a short-term course called Associate in Computer Scienc...

Back then, I remember borrowing an installer and installing Adobe Photoshop. That was when I had Windows XP and then Windows 7. Now, I'm into Windows 11 after some time. I would like to share my recent experience with Photoshop. Yes, I soon found out that Photoshop can't be used by normal means . I can understand if there's personalization with Windows and Microsoft Office. I'm willing to pay a huge sum for Windows 11 and Microsoft Office. However, I find the subscription for Adobe Photoshop downright ridiculous . I could be willing to pay a huge sum for an online installer. However, if I had to pay every month  then what gives?  Back then, Photoshop was used even by non-professionals . However, Photoshop now has a professional fee every month. It's almost like it's meant to throw a dirty finger at non-professionals like myself. Gone are the days when I learned to use Photoshop during my Associate in Computer Science days. I used Photoshop in its lower forms dur...

Live Index Yes, the global stock market is currently down. There's no use for the Filipino people to blame President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for that matter. At this point, I'm still invested in the ATRAM Global Technology Feeder Fund (read here ). Right now, I've observed the trend went downward. After the CrowdStrike outage and some problems at Microsoft--I expected that there would be a downward turn. The reasons why stocks appreciate and depreciate are company performance, investor sentiments, industry performance, and economic factors . All these drive the supply and demand up and down. With what happened to Microsoft and CrowdStrike, the setback may have caused people to sell off their Microsoft stocks. In turn, the supply of Microsoft stocks will increase again and the demand will lessen due to investor sentiments. As I Googled "Why must the stock market go down", I ran across the four reasons that the stock market is plunging this 2024 . One of the reason...

The Express Tribune The recent Microsoft Global Outage was caused by Crowdstrike. Since I'm no IT or CS expert--it's better if I let them talk in the news. From BBC News , here's a detail from Crowdstrike that reveals the root cause of the problem has been systemic with an update: This is still a little unclear. CrowdStrike is known for producing antivirus software, intended to prevent hackers from causing this very type of disruption. According to CrowdStrike boss George Kurtz, the issues are only impacting Windows PCs and no other operating systems, and were caused by a defect in a recent update . "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he said. "This is not a security incident or cyber-attack." What exactly was wrong with the update is yet to be revealed, but as a potential fix involves deleting a single file, it is possible that just one rogue file could be at the root of all the mayhem. Thankfully, those who created th...

Wired   I'm out of topics to write for now. However, I'd like to reminisce about some crazy experiences in business school more than 20 years ago at the University of San Carlos-Downtown Campus. I had a marketing professor who one might say has OCD. She was very particular about case studies. She would really warn the class about failing them. Sure, I was able to finally make up for that missing activity so I don't get an NC. I do love that teacher for her meticulous detail. I had many ups and downs with that teacher. In my case, I'd like to discuss an out-of-league case study in a marketing class. The third and fourth case studies were made individually because free riders were becoming common. It was time to look for volunteers. I volunteered to be in the first. I discussed airline rates in a price war. I lost the soft copy because it was from an old PC. I doubt the business administration department will let me dig into their archives. A classmate wasn't paying ...

There's the statement that  some  honor students didn't do well later in life. I don't blame  their  being honor students as to why they failed in  real life .  The late John Gokongwei graduated as an honor student . Just reading this can explain why some honor students are still doing well in real life:  Mr. John didn’t resume his studies until nearly five decades later. By then, he had already founded JG Summit, built his business empire, and made a name for himself in various industries.  Despite his success, he still went back to school and proved that learning truly is a lifelong process .  Apart from pursuing a master’s degree in business administration from De La Salle University, Mr. John also completed a 14-week Advanced Management Course at Harvard University.  “ It took me four years since I was a working student. When I got my diploma, it was one of the proudest moments of my life, ” he previously shared during his alma mater...