Telecom Company Uses New Comprehensive Tool to Block Unwanted Spams

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Start blocking an average of 300,000 messages a day. Globe Telecom has stepped up its anti-spam/scam campaign, utilizing a more comprehensive and fully automated mechanism to rid its network of unwanted and unsolicited text messages, bringing the daily average of blocked messages from 17,000 to 300,000.

The new mechanism involves setting up a new hardware and software solution with complex anti-spam algorithms, with a capacity that can filter up to 1 billion SMS a day. The establishment of the new platform was undertaken in partnership with Xura, a US-based technology company that specializes in digital services addressing network vulnerabilities such as transmittal of spam and scam messages. Project cost is estimated at around $4 million.

“The establishment of a new mechanism to block the transmittal of these messages brings us a step closer to having a spam-free network. Globe will never allow the use of its network by individuals who want to take advantage of our customers. As Globe steps up its campaign to purge its network of spam and scam messages, we expect this number to increase further moving forward,” said Anton Bonifacio, Globe Chief Information Security Officer. The new mechanism allows the telecommunications provider to continuously optimize and expand the reach of its anti-spam/scam campaign, he added.

According to Bonifacio, the new mechanism will also address election-related spam messages ahead of national and local elections in May of this year. He added the new mechanism now covers majority of the company’s postpaid and prepaid customers totaling 53 million at the end of 2015.

Walkthrough of the People Power Experiential Museum

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The People Power Experiential Museum is a makeshift setup at Camp Aguinaldo created for the 30th People Power celebration and open for free to the public from February 25 to 26. However, according to Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, there has been talks about having it as a permanent attraction by transferring it to the newly constructed Quezon City Museum.

On our way to the People Power Experiential Museum inside Camp Aguinaldo, a special van took us inside the camp from the Gate 5, but for regular visitors, there is also bus outside Gate 5 that will bring you in. But be early as it gets full quickly. The museum is still open until February 26, 2016.
The organizers assigned buses to pick up visitors from the Gate 5 of Camp Aguinaldo, and then take them to the location of the People Power Experiential Museum inside through the Gate 5 entrance. You need to fall in line and register first at the area near Gate 5. Gate 5 is near the People Power Monument along White Plains, Quezon City.

Once inside the location, if there are too many people, you get to wait for a while seated at the grandstand since the tour involves live presentation of actors, so people are allowed inside the museum only by groups and at certain time intervals only after the previous group is done. There is a video presentation about Ninoy Aquino being shown at the grandstand so you will have something to watch while waiting. There's also a few guidelines presented to advise everyone to follow.

Don Papa Art Competition Announces Winners

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Since its launch in 2012, Bleeding Heart Rum Company, makers of Don Papa Rum has made waves in the spirits industry, both locally and internationally.

Don Papa recognizes that there is a commonality between its own design aesthetic and the works created by the Philippine artistic community – bold, complex, and multifaceted. The first ever Don Papa Art Competition aimed to engage the artistic community and harness their creativity by way of conducting a visual arts competition.

The Don Papa Art Competition was an open call to Filipino artists to reimagine the Don Papa secondary packaging design. The art competition was launched last November 11, 2015 at the Bonbon Club in an intimate party gathering media, art galleries, curators, and artists. The artists were encouraged to go beyond the current art work and reinterpret its design based on their own notions of the island of Negros, Papa Isio, and of course the rum itself.

The artists entered the competition through an online registration and were required to submit different mediums. The artists were given a 10-week period to complete and submit their artworks to the Don Papa Rum headquarters.