Chinese "iPhone girl" Internet Fame by a "Beautiful Mistake"

An internet forum member had the very rare chance of knowing who assembled his iPhone 3G (or at least packed the device) from the production plant when he discovered some pictures pre-installed on the phone.

The "Chinese iPhone girl" buzz started when a macrumors.com member, markm49uk, posted 3 pictures of a chinese girl on the iPhone forum last Aug. 2o.

"Not sure if this is or is not the 'norm' but I just received my brand new iPhone here in the UK and once it had been activated on iTunes I found that the home screen (the screen you can personalise with a photo) already had a photo set against it !!!!
It would appear that someone on the production line was having a bit of fun - has anyone else found this ?"- markm49uk

In the photos, a cute young chinese girl is wearing pink striped factory uniform, a cap, and white gloves with yellow finger tips. She is smiling and making a hand victory sign (or is it peace?!) as she poses next to an iPhone in what appears to be an assembly line of the 3G phone.

The photos created enough attention on the web that news agencies in the UK and China did efforts to trace the identity of the girl. News reports say the young chinese girl works at a factory run by an Apple contractor, Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group in the southern Chinese town of Shenzhen. South China Morning Post on Wednesday quoted Foxconn spokesperson, Liu Kun, confirming that the young girl dubbed as the "iPhone girl" in the photos works at Foxconn.

The spokesperson explained that workers testing the device may have snapped the photos and forgot to delete them. Early speculations were circulating that the girl was fired from her job but a Foxconn spokesman claimed it as baseless and said that such "beautiful mistakes" are unavoidable. The identity of the girl is still undisclosed and Apple has not released comment on the issue.

Will this be another chinese hype? We'll sure know in the coming days as the "iPhone girl" buzz continues to become viral.

(Chinese "iPhone girl" photo from www.macrumors.com)

A Gold Medal for the Philippines in Beijing 2008 Olympics

Finally, the Philippines got a gold medal in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Filipino Wushu delegate Willy Wang won the gold medal in the wushu competition last Friday. Winning in the competition lifted up the spirits of the Philippine delegates several hours after the last medal hope of the Philippines, Mary Antoinette Rivero, lost to a Croatian fighter in women’s taekwondo’s -67 kg class. At last, the Philippine flag was raised and the national anthem played in the Beijing Olympics.

Though Wushu is classified as a demonstration sport in the Beijing 2008 Olympics and a medal won in this event will not be included in the official medal tally, winning a gold medal in the event indeed brings honor to the Philippines. A gold medal is always a gold medal anyway. A similar victory in an exhibition sport was achieved by Filipino bowler Arianne Cerdeña who won a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

The other medalists joining Willy Wang are Marianne Mariano and Benjie Rivera who took the bronze in the sanshou events and Mary Jane Estimar earned silver.

In a bid to eventually get the game considered in the official Olympic’s event, 128 athletes from 43 countries who qualified in the last year’s world wushu championships gathered in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. As a demo sport, wushu debuted in the 1936 Berlin Games.

Though the 15-man Philippine contingent will come home without any medal from official sports event in the Beijing 2008 Olympics, a similar fate that happened in 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics, they deserve the gratitude of the Filipino nation for they did their best and fought a good fight, which I think is most important. Anyhow, a competition has always a two-sided result, winning and having done your best. We could only hope that the Philippine government will truly exert efforts to revitalize its sports training program for the nation to achieve the ever elusive gold medal in the Olympics.

To the Philippine athletes, welcome home champions…Mabuhay kayong lahat!

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Easy Ways To Relieve and Prevent Backpain

"I've been suffering from lower back pains a couple of days ago, so i guess it is worth to share on this blog some tips on back pain relief and prevention. I also got these from a friend thru email. Thanks Paul..."

Back pains are usually brought about by sprains of the ligaments and straining of the back muscles. It is oftentimes caused by activities we are not used to such as moving or lifting heavy objects, accidentally twisting the body in ordinary activities and more often in sports activities.

A more serious cause of back pain is a slipped disk or a condition when a disk between the bones of the spine bulges and presses the nerves. This is usually caused by twisting while lifting.

If you feel some back pains, the following resting positions illustrated below are useful to relieve the pain:




A hot compress or the use of heating pads for about 20 to 30 minutes and a light massage may also give relief to an aching back.

Some useful tips to prevent back strain are as follows:

• In lifting an object, bend your knees and squat then lift up the object. Keep the back straight and hold the object close to your body. Never lift by bending over and avoid twisting while lifting.
• In moving heavy objects, push rather than pull.
• If sitting on your office desk for long hours is necessary, break-up the time to stretch.
• Wear low heeled or flat shoes whenever possible.
• A regular exercise or body stretching is a helpful muscle activity.
• The best way to sleep is on your side with your knees bent. You may also put a pillow between your knees for comfort.
• If you sleep on your back, try putting a pillow under your knees and a small pillow under your lower back.
• If sleeping position is not helping much to ease back pains, try adjusting the sleeping surface to gain comfort. Sleeping matress should generally be not too hard nor too soft. However, it's always an individual choice.
  

If you are spending long hours of sitting and doing office works, below is an illustration of the best way to sit which you may apply:

It is always proper to consult your doctor if your back pain is caused by injury or accident and you are suffering the pain for a prolonged period.

ABS CBN News Domain...Expired!?!

I can't help it but to say "OMG!!! I can't believe this..." when i was browsing ABS CBN websites a few minutes ago and checked for some early morning news only to find that the domain for their News ( http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/) has expired since July 26, 2008.

I can only think that the department incharge with their domain registrations had failed to renew it for reasons only the management can explain.
I am always visiting their sites (in fact, its in my news & info bookmarks list) starting off from http://beta.abs-cbn.com/ and if my memory serves me right i was able to pass by the abs cbn news site yesterday morning while i was searching for news about the earthquake that hit Bacolod City early morning yesterday but since i find no news on the subject just continued searching on other news sites.

Well, for sure ABS CBN, being one of the biggest company in the Philippines and the leading tv station will surely settle this unfortunate happening. That is, unless otherwise, they are planning to change the domain name for their news site.

Let's just wait and see... as of now, we can only speculate on this issue and hope that we can access the site again soon.

An Earthquake Rocked Bacolod City, Philippines

I was in front of my pc at 2:20 early this morning when i noticed that the table and monitor was slightly moving but i didn't gave it a serious thought for a second coz it coincide with the start up of the A/C's compressor from idle mode. I was thinking it was just due to the vibration on the bedroom walls created by the A/C. I just realized that it was an earthquake after about 5 seconds when the cabinets were rocking and the bedroom walls started to move accompanied by strange sounds. As I immediately shut down my pc, I calmly alerted my wife sleeping in bed but she was already awake due to the tremors she felt. The quake lasted for about 20 seconds. Thinking that there will be some aftershocks, i didn't go to sleep until after about more than an hour had passed.

I checked the local news as soon as i woke up but couldn't find any reports about an earthquake hitting Bacolod City or the province of Negros Occidental or Visayas area. However, I came to know that there were reports of more than 5.0 magnitude quakes in Mindoro and Olongapo City in the northern Philippines yesterday. So, today's quake is somewhat an after-effect.

At past 2pm, i read a news that the tectonic quake that rocked Bacolod City was at a magnitude of 4.1. Thank God...there were no reports of damage or casualty.

The Philippine archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, hence, seismic and volcanic activity is common in the country. However, today's early morning tremor was the first one felt in my place since the start of the year. 'Hope nothing destructive will come in the future.



image source: http://www.iris.washington.edu/

UPDATE: (04 Aug 2008, Monday)
As i was reading yesterday's news (or shall i say history)... i came to think of updating this post coz of some info discrepancy from the same local news agency. Yesterday's news mentioned that the earthquake that hit Bacolod City last August 2, 2008 was intensity 6 (intensity 4.1 was reported in earlier news) and had created some hairline cracks in some walls of the new Bacolod-Silay airport in Silay City as well as dislodged some acoustic boards from the ceiling. Good thing that the damage was superficial and no cracks were found on the runway.

Personally, i prefer to agree with the latter news considering the time given for the investigation release from Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and of course, for the physical tremor felt during the incident.