MANILA, Philippines -- The rainy season has just ended. We now are experiencing the heavy rain season, also known as the very wet season.

And the usual flooding, landslides, and other water-related catastrophes are upon us. This happens every year — with too much predictability it would have been boring if it were not deadly.

That people continue to lose their lives whenever these heavy rains come is a mute but very much telling indictment of the government and all the elected, appointed, and hired officials who run it. It also indicts us all and most likely would find us guilty of extremely injurious indifference.

We know what happen each time the rainy season comes. We also know what need to be done to prevent or at least minimize the rains’ destructive effects.

I had a hard time grasping the concept of inertia during my high school physics class. But seeing the government’s (and our) inability to do what we urgently need to do captures the whole idea neatly.

Tablet War in Asia

Asian tech companies are challenging the iPad’s dominance in the tablet market. These companies from China, Korea, and Taiwan are coming out with their tablet computers designed to compete with Apple’s bestselling tablet in terms of features, functions, design, and, more importantly, price. With some analysts predicting Asia will account for about a third of the global tablet market in 2015, the competition for market share in the region is expected to look like a bloody feeding frenzy.

It is still early in the game to ascertain which vendors become dominant, and which ones will turn into preys.

More established firms, such as Korea’s Samsung and Taiwan’s HTC, have already released their tablets that are currently fighting among themselves for the market share left untouched by the iPad.

Recently, Huawei from China launched its MediaPad, a tablet that comes with a 7-inch screen, Qualcom’s dual-core 1.2GHz processor, and is powered by Google’s Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system. What makes these Johnny-come-latelies seem ready to compete with the iPad are their cheaper prices.

Winklevoss Twins Quit

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, whose claim to fame rests solely on their legal battle for ownership of Facebook, have reportedly given up on their dispute with Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social networking site.

Previously, the twins had sought to legally void their $65-million settlement with Facebook. Last week, they informed the court that they no longer seek to undo the settlement and are now willing to accept its terms.

Our hearts break for the twins. The value of the deal their lawyers helped them angle from Zuckerberg has now ballooned to $100 million.

Breadcrumbs compared with Zuckerberg’s Facebook billions.

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