Starbucks 2009 Planner

It's November 4, 2008 red is out at Starbucks again! But I'm very disappointed with Starbucks' planner design this year. The paper quality is the same, the hardbound outer cover comes in three colors, black, blue, and red. Looks like its been bookbinded at Recto. However, its bookmark that comes with a little metal pendant at the end is cute. I planned to cut it and tie it onto my cellphone hehehe. This year it only takes you 16 stickers to complete and avail of the so called "Limited Edition 2009 Starbucks Planner". Limited edition but everybody has one hahaha. Because of this, the design and the lack of exclusivity makes me a lot less enthusiastic about collecting stickers for the planner.

One more disappointment, no Peppermint Mocha this year :( It's my favorite. Dark Cherry Mocha is fine but its no substitute for Peppermint Mocha, the drink I've been waiting for that comes only once a year :( I don't see any reason how/why I would collect stickers for the planner.

One nice thing this time are the mugs and tumblers, quality was lower but the designs are great. Very unique compared to the old traditional design that only change the theme of the tumbler/mug. I liked almost all of them.

Now, I'm planning to collect those tumblers, instead of wasting my money to get 16 stickers for a crappy Limited Edition Starbucks Planner!

Unionbank Credit Card Scam

Unionbank's credit card scam? This happens to me three times already, the latest was this September-October. Unionbank calls me up for C.I., I told them that no C.I. neccessary because I didn't apply for a Unionbank credit card and I'm not interested either. After a few days, their C.I. called our personnel department at the office, needing my consent, I told our personnel department not to give my info as I didn't apply for any Unionbank credit card. After a few days, a courier delivered my card, I said I didn't apply.....(not yet done with what I'm saying), he reacted "Ay sige, sauli nalang natin.", as if so many people are not accepting the card delivery. Finally today (October 29,2008), a Unionbank Statement of Account arrives with a Php1500 billing. They give you a credit card by force yet the annual fee is not even waived. I would be crazy to keep the card. I might have considered keeping it if it's free.

I didn't apply, I didn't receive, I didn't activate! I think this is some kind of Unionbank scam or Unionbank card sales agent scamming for Unionbank's commission. The C.I. agents were probably involved with this scam either as I've already told them that I don't want any Unionbank credit card.

Upon calling their customer service, my personal info were all wrong. My address is 3rd floor, telephone extension is 301, birthmonth is August. The registered info with Unionbank my address is 2nd floor, telephone extension is 018, birthmonth is June. Someone must have applied on my behalf without my signature??? Asking the customer service to cancel my card is so much HASSLE!!! I was told that no Cancelling Officer was available and I have to wait for the Cancelling Officer's call within three days. If I didn't received any call, I'll have to call them up again for follow-up. Grrrr! There's no way I'm using any Unionbank credit card no matter how good the deal offered.

Why does Unionbank tolerate this kind of scenarios? With this, I would think that Unionbank is involved with this scam, not just their sales and C.I. agents.

Geovision DMMultiView v8.22 on Vista

Geovision's DMMultiView v8.22 is working fine on XP. But I've encountered problem on Vista. I've spent two weeks tinkering with several laptops running on Vista.  Geovision's DMMultiView v8.22 just won't work. After entering the username and password, all you see is "Connect to server" and that's it. Emailed Geovision's tech support didn't help either, no one was able to help me. One day, I got a Vista laptop on which the MultiView was working properly. After reformatting it, the MultiView won't work again. This time I was able to isolate that it's no hardware or Vista Edition problem, I called up our supplier and we checked every possible setting one by one. After hours of tinkering we found out the UAC is causing the problem. Why does Vista make it so hard for everybody? What is UAC anyway? UAC is so irritating, asking confirmation with every click you make.