Two midnights before Christmas, I lost my wallet. Again. Losing wallets, those unmistakable symbols of manhood usually bulging at men’s back pockets, seems to have become a habit of mine.
Fortunately, it happens only once every ten years.

In between the years, I lose other things, such as mobile phones and important documents.

While almost everybody in my neighborhood was busy preparing for Christmas, I was talking with the radio operator of MGE, the company that owns the cab I took from Makati to my home in Quezon City. Bad news, said the operator. She told me that unless I could give her the body number of the taxi, or the name of the cab driver, it would be almost next to impossible for me to be reunited with my wallet.
As a consolation, however, she told me she would advise all the drivers whose cabs were equipped with a transceiver radio to check their respective cars for the wallet left behind by another stupid passenger. All I could do then was wait.

Christmas and New Year’s day came and left, no calls from the taxi company, and no wallet came my way.

2009 was a year of heroes. Unfortunately, I took the wrong cab.

Intel’s Small Chips

Intel showed off at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas its new computer chips that feature 32nm parts. The processors come with transistors that are so small that 60 million of them could fit onto the head of a pin. That would almost be as many as the angels that, according to Saint Thomas, would fit onto the same area.

Obviously, we cannot see the changes that these ultrasmall microchips bring, but we certainly can appreciate their effects, such as better computing performance and, hopefully, lower computer prices.
Intel also put on display a smartphone from LG Electronics that comes with Intel chips. Expected to go on sale in the second half of 2010, the LG GW990 is built on Intel chips that come from the same family as the company’s netbook processors – the Atom.

The phone comes with a 4.8-inch screen, which is wider than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen and the Droid’s 3.7-inch LCD. The phone’s microprocessor would enable it to perform videoconferencing and play high-definition videos more like a computer rather than your conventional smartphones.

Have You Twitted Lately?

Ford announced that its Sync in-car entertainment and communication service now includes Twitter messaging and Internet radio. The car company says that the voice-activated system would allow drivers to do more without making their distraction levels worse.

I sure hope so. Driving is a dangerous enough task as it is; especially, driving in Manila. Undisciplined drivers, ill-maintained roads, haphazard attempts at road safety, and financially occupied traffic enforcers create a deadly mix. This corner is not so sure of the value of adding more in-car diversion.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.