Another Facebook rumor

I just saw this one from a couple of Facebook friends’ walls:

FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO…IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY

Es gratis (y lo seguirá siendo).

Probably crafted by those who were not happy with the recent changes in Facebook.

Reminds me of those pesky SMS rumors back in the days when cellphones were still kings of social networking. Just don’t believe this cr*p. Facebook has not released an official statement about charging its members. Just yet. And they won’t do anything dumb like this, especially now that they have competition (with sleek designs as well) which does not charge anything. And if Facebook will start charging its account holders, then they should prepare themselves from netizens who will not hesitate to go ’round in “circles”, if y’know what I mean.

Facebook+ anyone? (wink! wink!)

So for now, don’t pee on your pants just yet. I’m about to login on Facebook, and I see this welcome note staring at my face: It’s free and always will be.

A digital camera this Christmas — my latest toy!

At long last, I can now fulfill my travels and blogging with much photography ease… and splendor!

My wife recently purchased a digital camera –our first digital camera, wouldja believe that?!– as a Christmas gift for the whole family. It’s a silver-colored Sony Cyber-Shot® Digital Camera W220 with a 12.1 megapixel resolution coupled to a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar branded 4x optical zoom lens! At last, I won’t have to rely on my wife’s ageing Motorola RAZR V3i clamshell mobile camera phone which she bought more than three years ago. Since 2007, I’ve been using her Motorola cellphone in taking pictures and recording videos for ALAS FILIPINAS, SKIRMISHER, and for my social networking accounts: YouTube, Friendster, and more recently, the phenomenon known as Facebook. The quality of the photos aren’t that good. Understandable, since RAZR V3i is just a cellphone (with just 1.23 megapixels). Through the years, however, the quality deteriorated mainly because of overuse (and perhaps mishandling every now and then). Nowadays, the phone always has a motion blur (this can be observed in many of my photos in Facebook). And for a photographer, you really can’t rely on such a device.

We do have another camera, but it’s a classic one which requires film — definitely a no-no for a traveling blogger/historian. I can’t always have the films developed and the pictures scanned. That’s too cumbersome.

Our Sony Cyber-Shot® may not be as expensive nor as “techie” as what other people have. But it doesn’t really matter. As long as it has all the features that I need, then that is enough. Now, ALAS FILIPINAS and this website will have more focus, more vibrant colors, and more quality. And less of me, hehe!

Tomorrow, if conditions will permit me, I’ll resume my traveling to expose our true Filipino Identity which is extant in old Philippine towns. I’ll start where I currently live — San Pedro Tunasán, La Laguna.