Google Adsense Celebrates 10th Year Anniversary With a Game of Pong

For those of you who might have missed it, check out the screenshot below of how Adsense celebrated its 10th year with its affiliates. I saw the game when I logged into my account on the morning of June 19, 2013. That means the Adsense program must have started on June 19, 2012.

The game triggers once your mouse hovers over the big number 10 with a party hat located on the bottom left corner of the screen. The number 10 then morphs into the paddle and ball you see on the left side of the screen shot, while another paddle materializes on the right side.

The upper and lower edges of the browser window serve as walls for the ball to bounce against, while the left and the right edges are the respective goals of the Player and the CPU.

As you can see, I at least won 1 round! Happy anniversary Adsense! Hope it doesn't take another 10 years before I meet my first payment threshold ^_^. (I know, I know, it's all about writing good content that's profitable too. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for the opportunity to be part of the Adsense program when others are still waiting to get in. Again, thank you Adsense!)

San Antonio Spurs are the 2013 NBA World Champions

That could be the headline on sports news tomorrow and on the days to come.

For San Antonio fans, this could be the last time they will see their big three of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker in an NBA Finals. If the Spurs win, it will be the 5th title brought to San Antonio in the era of Tim Duncan. The other championship rings were in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007. If Tim Duncan decides to retire after this season, a championship would be the cherry on top of the sundae - an excellent ending to a splendid career. Tim Duncan has achieved more than most power forwards.

Will Manu have another throw back game? Will he once again be the Manu of old? Fans of San Antonio hope so. After all, they know that Manu is also in his twilight years. This time, too, is probably the last time he can chase the NBA ring. So, in game 6 of the NBA playoffs, why not lay it all on the line, and play like there is no tomorrow.

Tony Parker may be injured, but at least he is playing for the team, and trying to be a factor. Will he have another heroic game, similar to Game 1 of the Finals?

As for the Heat, they seem to have lost the edge that allowed them to become the second team in NBA history with the longest winning streak. I'm not seeing the "closer" in LeBron James. Sure, he scored the most points in Game 4 for the Heat, but if you watched that game, it was Dwayne Wade who opened up the scoring flood gate which allowed the Heat to run away with the win.

Wade carried the Heat on his shoulders in their 2004 win. He too, is considered a superstar who might be entering his twilight years due to injuries. So while many may think that the Miami Big Three of James, Bosh, and Wade have plenty more championship runs in the future - and therefore - should just give way to the aging San Antonio Spurs Big Three, perhaps out of respect, they might have to think twice. If Wade is not healthy in the future, then this too might be Miami's last chance at a championship before rebuilding again. Allen, Miller, Haslem, Battier... these are all aging superstars.

Is James being to careful during the finals? Was last year's championship ring a fluke? He cannot do it alone, but if he really wants to do whatever it takes to lead Miami to another championship, he has a tremendous task ahead of him. First is winning Game 6 to force a do-or-die Game 7. And if he is somehow able to do that, then the second task is winning Game 7. Can they survive like they did Indiana?

But San Antonio has proven that they are difficult to beat back-to-back. And San Antonio has two cracks at this. Still, if I were Popovich and his men, I would end this finals as early as possible.

BPI Makes you wait in line for a long time

I entered the bank at around 1:31 in the afternoon and left the bank at around 2:43. That is more than an hour spent waiting in their queue just to make a simple deposit.

I would have thought that banks knew the value of time and wouldn't waste that of their customers. Apparently, I was mistaken.

BPI has been known to be an innovative company. Among the banks in the Philippines, they have been the first to adopt a touch-screen system for entering bank transactions, doing away with the traditional paper-based system. And while this new system may have helped the bank lower their costs for printing deposit and withdrawal slips, it has also made the wait time on their queues much longer, apparently.

I used to think that PNB was the bank with the worst queuing system. I used to spend hours and hours in PNB, just to make the same type of transaction. But even PNB has been able to improve their wait times to less than 30 minutes. And they are still dependent on a paper based system for registering transaction details.

Now, BPI not only has to deal with long wait times, but also overcrowding inside its branches. Having between 40 to 100 people inside a branch at the same time shouldn't be normal for a 100 to 150 square meter facility. A typical branch shouldn't have more than 20 customers inside all at once. There were several people coughing while waiting in queue. You can just imagine customers getting sick from viruses spreading in such a cramped space.

And despite efforts by the branch to make their customers comfortable while waiting, about 1/3 of the people waiting can't do anything but stand.

Instead of investing in pretty wall paper and posters, I think BPI should invest in improving its customer service experience. A person typically is able to withdraw money within 5 minutes. Why can't a simple deposit take the same amount of time? Why can't BPI invest in additional tellers when they know that their branch staff is undermanned? Only two people are manning their teller booths when their interior design designates that there should be 3 to 4. I pitied the Branch Manager since she had to take up some of the slack for the queue, but this clearly was not enough. If BPI wants to improve, each branch must be able to estimate the amount of transactions they will have in a day, and allot the same amount of manpower accordingly so that the transaction times will be consistent and within a maximum service level. A source of mine states that AUB have maximum limit of 9 minutes for a typical transaction. 

Perhaps BPI is already aware of this issue. Perhaps, they think that having a branch full of people improves the image of BPI - because the service must be highly demanded. But Metrobank, BDO, AUB, East West, etc. offer similar products and services and similar interest rates. And if a customer values his time, he would instead place his money in a bank that does the same. After all, time is money.