a soul's reflections

Do You Think It's An Alarm For Man To Know That Mother Is Really Angry?

2012-01-05T19:55:00.001+08:00

Imagine your mother at times when she's extremely mad, when she would just shut up or pause calling out your names in high tones, begin stressing out every word but not actually shouting at you..isn't it more scary? You feel that she's more angry and powerful than at those ordinary moments she reprimands you. This time the punishment is much more serious and rough...

This is what I think our Mother Nature feels right now. Take notice of the very heavy rains, unusual thunderstorms and strong winds, very sudden weather changes, flashfloods, and landslides that happen lately which took the lives of our neighbors. The findings and observations of the state of our earth has long been heard yet it has been ignored. We have been warned by the ill effects of our actions that harm our ecosystem. But we still continue to do mitty gritty things that contribute to the destruction of our environment.

Shouldn't we act now? Yes, we are already been parts, actively or passively, of movements and organizations which care for the environment. But we never know that we are still doing those little things which we believe cannot go that far to the worse calamities we are now experiencing. How long must we wait for a change of those who are directly doing the damages of forests, mountains, and animals? How many strong trees will be cut before young infirm seedlings grow and replace them? How many households will be submerged in a river-like flowing mud from mountains before man will learn not to dig for mineral deposits?

How many families and children will be climbing up and staying above the roofs, swimming in raging current of muddy waters, looking for a higher ground, a firmer post, or stronger tree from which to hold on and survive in the midst of flashflood? And just how many brothers and sisters will die unexpectedly before humanity will realize that nature is calling out to stop disregarding earth?

We must all remember...nature can endure without humanity, but man cannot survive without nature.

A call for responsibility.. let's care for Mother Nature.

Hacking Attack on Philippine Government Agencies' Sites ~ An Eye Opener!

2012-01-03T11:19:00.000+08:00

A featured news on Yahoo! called my attention - Hackers attack Philippine Vice President Site posted just recently by AFP News. I am not usually interested with matters concerning politics and the people in the government, but this 'hacking' thing caught me. Whoa, what a new year blast to the Philippine government cyberworld, the online portals of some small government agencies were defaced by this so-called PrivateX group.

Reports on hacking is not a very surprising thing. There are lots of intrusion here and there. What's overwhelming is that, these sites that are affected are online portals and/or web sites of Philippine government agencies..whether small or big, these agencies provide services to the people in the local and abroad. Modifying the interface (I have not actually learned what exactly the hackers have done to it), posting unmatched contents or anything that would cause disorder in the website contents surely disturbs the viewers. Worst thing would be disconnection to the source of very important details or information.

I have spent a little time viewing and inspecting government agencies' websites when I was still in the university. Of course, part of the objective was to check for user-friendliness and interactive contents, and look for a good basis for comparison in website projects. At that earlier time, we already noticed the effortless designs of the sites. Most are simple and not so complicated. This is quite understandable especially that most of the Philippine government sites just serve as communication centers. Most contents are static pages featuring the profiles and projects. There are some pages allotted for customer or client support like help lines where to address the concerns and grievances. This is what most sites are serving.

The fact that these websites are defaced posed one major warning - and that is what the PrivateX group has emphasized in their attack. The incident attested how the country's government agencies' sites are weak in terms of cyber security. The report hopefully has called immediate attention towards the concerned organizations. I just hope that future online portals should be dynamically not just appealing but interactive, should cater to a wide extent of services that can be put online, and at least, tolerant to attacks - not just created just for the sake of having a website, but should truly address its purpose, and should withstand tests of vulnerability. I guess every website creator should be alert on this.

The incident reported on the hackers' attack has both advantage and disadvantage. It was bad because we were attacked and our sites are affected but it also let us know that we have to improve our defense. It may be unethical to us but at least we know which things to target for betterment - cyber vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

Disclaimer: I don't own the image(s) posted herein. Credits to Google.

First Resolution for New Year At Work: Report Early ~ But Not Too Early (As In One Day)

2012-01-03T08:48:00.002+08:00

New year, new life. And so, most of us have resolutions for a new beginning, right? Well, not so long time ago, I began to quit believing that I have to update a list of resolutions for the new year. Why? It's because most of it cannot be achieved. Lol. Or should I say, I don't make it happen. Everything just turns out to be just like before. Yet, what I believed in now, is that every day is new year. You don't wait for the New Year just to change yourself. You have every chance to do better in every moment of your life.

But I'm not saying I have not made a list of things I want to improve on myself this year, okay? Well, after Christmas break, I reflected on doing better at work the next time I'll report. I guess I'll have to find enough courage to motivate (or at least find something to motivate) myself so to stop stagnating (I hate to say this but I'm usually bored) at work. I have to keep myself busy with the 'real' tasks so I can finish the necessary things as expected, so I can have time to do the 'unreal' things like you know, simply surfing on the web doing stuffs that unknowingly consume my time and before I know it I have not accomplished anything.

To psyche, I did a 'mental conditioning' on the day (and night) before my first day of duty in the year 2012. I tried to remember the things that I should do on the first hours and made a rough time-budgetting on my several tasks. And everything should begin with...reporting on duty EARLY.

So to start, I headed off for work the following morning (I just woke up fairly the same time as I did). When I was nearing the campus, I noticed there are no students arriving - which is kinda strange 'coz even on ordinary days there are still few who go to school late or not-so-early. I was sort of feeling nervous when I thought of getting reprimanded by our boss that I'm late again and worst, on the first day of the year. So I asked for time check with the driver.

It was 07:24 AM. There are no trace of usual behavior in school. The Philippine flag is hanging on the pole but no children and running or walking around (and I thought that maybe they had their flag ceremony and assembly so early). I peeked through the closed gate and had in mind the idea that maybe there is no class yet. But that's impossible, I thought, 'coz my admin officer told me that we will report back on January 3 when I asked her during the last time we met. I leaned on the doorbell when I saw that none of the classroom doors near the gate are opened. Two of the working boys were there and they are half-surprised to see me around in full uniform. And they told me that there's no class and we will all resume the next day.

Okay? So what do you call that? Indeed, I am early for work. ONE DAY early. Happy New Year...

Disclaimer: I don't own the images inserted here. Credits to Google.

Merry Christmas 2011 and Happy New Year 2012!

2012-01-02T18:58:00.002+08:00

Arite! Hello again, world of bloggers. It's me here, Charmaine, and well, it's been awhile. I've not thought of some meaty heartfelt spills to post for how many days, months, (and decades?) but I visit my place just to see if there's anything new. (Obviously there's nothing new since I haven't posted for centuries! Lol.) But anyhow, let me take this short greeting just to greet everybody a meeeeeeeeerry Christmas and a haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappy New Year! Woohoo!

Well, it's been a busy December for me, people, (as expected but I slightly never expected ti to be so full). It's because of the annual GKK Fiesta last December 10th (lots of activities to prepare for the big day, along with other youth) maybe..but it's the usual thing here. What added up to my December fever aside from Christmas planning is that, uhm aside of course of my regular appointments at school, our Parish launched a Zonal Misa de Gallo (or traditionally called "Simbang Gabi") and our place was made as the center or host venue. And so, even though there are 5 GKKs in our zone, we need to take charge mainly of the venue preparations. I was honestly overwhelmed and glad (although this called for greater challenge and responsibility) because this became my opportunity to play constantly at a Mass. As you know, (or I still haven't shared to you, lol) that I've been playing the organ (lately, guitar before) for Liturgy of the Word solemnities/celebration in the chapel. I seldom play during Masses especially solo because I don't have much opportunity then. I just sometimes play along with some older (and more experienced) folks 'coz I'm kinda afraid I might be lost in the middle of the Mass (whoa! And I'll blame myself for distracting the solemnity. grr.)

So we started off last December 16, and my co-music committee member, also an organist in co-zonal GKK did play the organ (as the main instrument) while I and my friend, Charlie (whose forte is guitar) seemed to do the back-ups. Rem (the other organist) and I took turns in the organ (but I use my instrument while she used hers, to avoid confusion, and well, just simply talk about "mastery" and "familiarity" for preference. Hehe.) Charlie, who also took charge in leading the playing for the singing of responsorial Psalms, is more experienced in playing in Church for the Masses so I trust him for the rhythms. We did not actually had very good rehearsals (the music ministry for the Misa de Gallo) and that's admittedly a thing to be improved for by next year, hopefully, but in general, we survived!

Aside from the nine days of Misa de Gallo, we also had a Midnight Mass or actually a Christmas Eve Mass on the 24th of December, 9pm, and a New Year's Eve Mass last 31st.

Christmas was so silent for me this year. I can really feel that it's not much merry-making compared to the past Christmases. I don't know. Or maybe just, uhm it's me who spent more time with the Church's solemn observance of the season. Yeah, no much holiday perks but a feeling of contentment and happiness that we all spent the season with our family. :)

Oh same thing with the New Year. But we had our usual family gathering in our aunts' house on January 1st and all my father's siblings and cousins and nieces were there. Lots of food, goodies, games, music, gifts, movies and bondings. And oh, I had these skin scratches souvenir from my uncle's sailfin lizard pet (in my eagerness to have a photo with the reptile. Lol) ..I'm animal-lover, you see. ^_^

Who's Missing You Now

2011-10-07T21:33:00.003+08:00

"Hi there... I miss you...

It's been a long time. We have not talked for quite a while...

I have no updates about you.. Hmmm.

Well...if you need somebody to talk to and share with...you know I'm just here..waiting. And I'd always love to talk with you."

-Jesus

I was making a post on our parish youth apostolate group on Facebook one evening with the first two lines as the original message. It happened that I saw a comment on one of a friend's thread that is from the PYA. It's been a long time (for real) that I wasn't updated about what's happening in the (online) group. And I missed it, though. However, when I was typing the message, I can't help but think again of one passage that I've read somewhere...it was of the same message as above, and that made me ponder of how is it really a "missing feeling" for a dear someone who is more loving and affectionate than one who misses another.

It feels light inside when you know that somebody misses you, right? It makes you feel valued somehow...and it boosts your confidence and worth as a person knowing there are also people who feels glad when you're around. Yet even more for a Father who has great love for His children that He wants all of them especially those who 'have not been with Him' for 'quite a while'..He misses all of us whom He called. And how great it is knowing that there's Someone who misses you and loves you the way He does.

"We love because God loved us first." And He loves us so much that He wants to keep updated of us. Well, we all know that He knows what we do everyday. He even knows it before we do. However, He wants us to 'talk' with Him...tell Him all of the day's work...share every joy and tear...just like a real friend. And that is how prayer is important in everyday life. Prayer is our line of communication to God. It sometimes doesn't need technicalities to pray. Even a simple talk to Him every short moment can be your communication. Just imagine how would you feel if you hear stories from a friend you missed for a long time.

Sometimes we also need to be with silence deep in our hearts to communicate or 'talk' with our dear friend. And he's just there waiting for us...calling for us...and how happy are we who are called by Him, because we feel valued, we feel cared for, and we feel loved.

May this be a message of hope to all youth who are called. :)

A nice website to read about...http://www.thechoicedrivenlife.com/seven-thoughts-on-prayer

[photos courtesy of

http://unfollowingjesus.com/files/2011/02/GIGALO-JESUS.jpg

http://theprayerwall.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/hands-folded-in-prayer-7999271.jpg

http://o5.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/a-prayer-for-times-like-these.jpg]

Filipina Beauty and Intelligence in Miss Universe 2011

2011-09-17T19:11:00.002+08:00

I'm not so fond of following beauty pageants but having your country in the semi-finals is a thing to be proud of. Bb. Pilipinas-Universe is Shamcey Supsup, who made it as the Miss Universe 2011 3rd Runner Up. One of the judges is also a Filipina, Lea Salonga, an internationally known broadway singer. Last year's representative of the Philippines to the beauty title also made to the finals with Venus Raj as the 4th Runner Up.

Miss Philippines - Shamcey Supsup
[photo courtesy of http://www.missuniverse.com/members/profile/599558/year:2011]

Shamcey is a 25-year-old Architecture Licensure Examination 2010 topnotcher born in General Santos city. She's beauty and brains indeed and a woman of value. She is the only one among the five to answer directly the judge's question without the aid of an interpreter, and for me that's an important thing to consider. Having an interpreter allows a contestant to really able to express her thoughts using her own native language, but it would also give her the advantage to give enough time to think for a good answer. Miss Philippines answered her question with poise and confidence, and the impromptu manner is impressive.

Philippines - Preliminary Competition Gown
[photo courtesy of http://www.missuniverse.com/members/profile/599558/year:2011]

Shamcey's answer to judge Vivica A. Fox's question "Would you change your religious beliefs to marry the person that you love? Why or why not?" was "If I had to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love because the first person I love is God, who created me. I have my faith and my principles, and this is what makes me who I am. And if that person loves me, he should love my God, too." As we all know, religion is a debatable topic among many who have their own beliefs and stands. But Miss Philippines just expressed as to what she believes in. The answer was honest and it came out just natural for her who has her own principles and values.

Philippines - National Costume
[photo courtesy of http://www.missuniverse.com/members/profile/599558/year:2011]

Philippines - Preliminary Competition Swimwear
[photo courtesy of http://www.missuniverse.com/members/profile/599558/year:2011]

This is another feat of victory to the Philippines. Although the crown was not earned by Miss Supsup and most think that she deserves the title, she was able to portray the Filipina strength, beauty, and intelligence and everybody was happy for that.

To Miss Philippines, I congratulate you for doing your best. It's not only yourself but the whole country and the Filipino people that you brought to the international arena.

What's Wrong with Being Expressive?

2011-08-18T16:49:00.001+08:00

Maybe there are friends who can understand our woes and we spill some of our wildest emotions to them. But there are also times when we just feel like keeping silent most of the time or find another outlet...may be through listening to relaxing music and daydream, spend time with the greener fields of nature, shout to the wall, throw stones into the air, or write somewhere in the pages of an old notebook.

Well, this is my style. Just plainly writing some thoughts into scratch papers burning the midnight oil while everybody's gone to sleep ('cause it's more silent and I can concentrate) and start searching for the right words which fits what I want to say. Such a difficult thing when you're lost for words. Haha. But trust me, when you're there, you can make more than one poem.

In my case, they are sorts of poetry pieces supposed to be finalized as songs. Knowing me, I usually can't get a song done because I lack the patience to apply music into it from the beginning until the end part. Another valid reason is that, I'm no professional somebody that can easily do it - correctly (and confidently). The important thing is, I was able to write and knowing there is at least a somebody or some people who might be able to read it and be touched, it just makes me happy.

So why not try it for yourself? Especially if there are things in your mind that you want to speak out? Come on, be a poet of your imagination.

I'll Just Write It In a Song

2011-07-11T10:22:00.001+08:00

It's midnight clear and I can't sleep

Still up in bed and wide awake

Holding a pen and a piece of paper

To spill my thoughts so I feel better

This heart won't rest if it can't express

Of what it wants as it says best

The day's enough for the mind to pause

Yet still can't brush away the thoughts

So I'll just write it in a song

About it all that should have known

And I'll just put the melodies along

The lines that hide the feelings that aren't shown

A collage of pictures fill up my head

A web of words that can't be read

It's all about you that I think now

Because why, don't know the reason somehow

But... [Repeat *, **]

Bridge:

I wish I could spell out this odd emotion

And I hope that I could find the right words

Of what I really think

Of what I truly feel

And I pray that someday, somewhere, somehow

You will open the door as it comes to you

The message that it holds from deep within me

That right now I don't have the courage to say...

[Repeat *** 2x]

Coda:

I'll just write it in a song...

(This is it. I guess I should have made this the earliest.. Before I got the nerves to write and post compositions. Haha. Anyway, this is just another product of me in solitude..feel like writing something the previous night. :p I hope I could finally arrange and put real melodies in here. :D )

[photo courtesy of http://www.layoutsparks.com/1/205380/write-me-romantic-song.html]

If You'd Only Knew

2011-05-24T15:58:00.001+08:00

What do I get when I would say

I like the way you make me smile

What would you feel when I would tell

You make my day complete.

When you and I had first met

I never thought it would be this way

Thinking all day long about you

Wonderin' if you would drop a call

Because I learned to laugh at your corny jokes

And learned to like your friendly presence

I don't want to think about it differently

But inside me is feeling in glee

Oh how can I discard the thought

If you're the one, well it's not so sure

Didn't want to expect, yes it's true

But I'm hoping that way, if you'd only knew...

(--,) well...this is just another result of some complicating web of words in my head..haha. Wonder when's the right time I could put some music in it..again, intended to make a song and tried to add or enhance a previously woven poem last night but it turned out to be another set of whimsical lines...pardon, this is on-the-spot :)

[Photo courtesy of: http://s1.hubimg.com]

Movie Reflection: Pirates of Silicon Valley

2011-03-24T13:07:00.006+08:00

Plot Synopsis:

This movie is actually more of a documentary about the men behind the birth and rise of two of the famous computer technology legends - Apple and Microsoft. The story revolves around the experiences and struggles faced and the actions made by Steve Job and Steve Wozniak in Apple Computer Corporation and Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in Microsoft Corporation with the founding of the companies to what they are now. Basically the film makes an effort in comparing the operations of the two firms and their founders. Several events mostly happened with misadventures in college, the circumstances where the actors had made attempts in building electronic gadgets like the computer, writing its first program, involving it entrepreneurial and advertising schemes of their inventions, that led into pirating schemes and the like.

My Reflection:

This movie is actually an informative film for me that it tells us the history side of how these two famous names in the field of computer technology stood its way now and how it changed the way life is a long time ago. In the film it actually presented the experiences of the 'big' people or the founders of the company, who are just genius to think and build something they are so interested in, and how did this rivalry between the two came up. Their adventures went on from their computer inventions, loans, publicity, to victory and revolution with bankers, business and employee deals, that eventually led up to some pirating of softwares and conflicts relating to it. Funny how these events are just related when these two parties met, with ideas of pirating softwares, and business threat to each other that eventually had some up-and-down effects on the reputation of the firms. Just imagine the 'rivalry'. ^_^

Movie Reflection: Eagle Eye

2011-03-24T13:01:00.000+08:00

Plot Synopsis:

The story revolves around an ordinary guy named Jerry Shaw who has a very ambitious twin brother Ethan who worked for the Air Force and expert in parallel algorithms and quantum electronics. Jerry later found out that his brother is dead. Facing financial problems, he withdrew money from his ATM but was surprised to see a very large sum of money in his account. When he returned from home, he found it is filled with weapons. He then received a call from an unknown woman who instructed him to escape because he is being tracked down by the FBI. Jerry did not believe her and was brought to interrogation by Agent Morgan. The unknown woman made Jerry escaped and made him join with a single mother, Rachel, who was blackmailed by the unknown woman that she will kill her son who is on the way for a band recital if she did not help Jerry escape. The woman helped the two in avoiding the police units through remote controlling any virtual networked device. The unknown woman also blackmailed other people or agents to device an crystal explosive into a necklace which has a sound-based trigger put in Sam's (Rachel's son) trumpet.

The unknown woman is actually a top secret supercomputer called ARIIA (Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst) tasked to gather intelligence all over the world. She thinks that the executive branch is a threat to everyone and that it must be eliminated including the President's cabinet. ARIIA is housed in Pentagon and Ethan, Jerry's brother, was actually a technician who locked down the computer to prevent her plans. ARIIA commanded Jerry to cancel the lockdown and instructed Rachel to eliminate Jerry to prevent the lock from being restored. Rachel was unknowingly given the explosive necklace and was sent to the US Capitol to listen to the President's speech and left to die with his son. The trigge was set to activate when Sam plays a specific note. Jerry was helped by Agent Morgan to reach the capitol and was able to enter while dressed as a capitol policeman. He stopped the explosion before the deadly note by firing his pistol in the air. He was then shot by a confused agent. After the chaos that the ARIIA caused, the Secretary of Defense ordered that there will be no other supercomputer built again because it might be a threat to everyone.

My reflection:

Eagle Eye has such a good plot as its title implies what the supercomputer does. ARIIA follows Jerry everywhere and able to know all his related actions just like an eagle. It was so powerful that it can control networked devices and set off explosions harming civilians. The story tells us something - that sometimes all those computers, machines, gadgets, systems, or anything created so to help, aid, protect us can be the same things that threatens our safety and security.

Movie Reflection: Surrogates

2011-03-03T02:53:00.000+08:00

Plot Synopsis:

Surrogates is a story of Agent Greer, an FBI agent who investigates the murder of surrogates. Greer and co-agent Peters investigates the mysterious murder of a college student who is linked to a man who created a surrogate-phenomenon among people. This phenomenon allows people to buy remote-controlled humanoid robots that can interact with the society and allows people to purchase picture-perfect humanoid robots assume their life roles thus enabling them to experience idealized life from the comfort of their homes. The operator of the surrogate cannot feel pain even if their surrogate is harmed or damaged. (Even Greer's wife has a surrogate but they have a tensed relationship due to the death of their son so Greer could not see her beyond her surrogate.) Greer and partner Peters investigates the death of two people killed when their surrogates were destroyed (one was the surrogates' inventor's son). The agents learned that a certain human used a new type of weapon that disabled the fail-safe mechanisms shielding the operator from harm. Greer's chase with Strickland eventually led his surrogate to be destroyed forcing him to interact with the world by his real self. Later Greer learned that the weapon was actually under a government contract by the same company that produces the surrogates. Originally designed to load a virus that would overload the surrogate's systems disabling it, the weapon unexpectedly disables the fail-safe protocols keeping the operator safe, so its prototypes were destroyed but for one. Greer later learned that it was their FBI boss who supplied that weapon to Strickland to assassinate Dr. Canter (who is becoming critical in surrogate use). Unfortunately, Canter's son who was using one of his surrogates was killed instead. Canter was using the weapon and uploads the virus to all surrogates which will destroy them and kill the operators. Agent Greer takes control of Peter's surrogate and insulates the virus so the operators will survive. This made all the surrogates in the world destroyed and people are now on their own again.

My Reflection:

This movie made me realized how harmful technology can be, especially if man has gone to the stage of creating far innovations out of his selfish desires for comfort, convenience and other reasons. Man has created a robot out of himself, and gets it on a remote control living and playing and working as if he was the one doing it. I think the idea for me is just inhuman. As it makes one live life without really on it. So just for the worldly desires. The idea that even when a surrogate is injured or damaged the operator will still be safe seems convincing. Yet what happened in the movie is a precise evidence how it could be dangerous especially when somebody tries to disable the mechanism that protects the operator. It also motivates people to be lazy, by not entirely doing or being in locations or incidents or actions that they are supposed to be in. For me, it plainly disrupts the real essence of humanity

Movie Reflection: I, Robot

2011-03-03T00:12:00.000+08:00

Plot Synopsis:

I, Robot starts with a setting in the year of 2035 where people and robots are in the same community, living and interacting like ordinary with the latter as assistants and workers of, and programmed to live and protect their human owners. These robots are created to follow the 3 laws of robotics: (1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; (2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law; (3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law. A 'robotophobic' homicide detective Del Spooner is sent to investigate on the death of USR (U.S. Robotics) co-founder and scientist Dr. Alfred Lanning who is believed to commit suicide by jumping from the tenth floor of the USR building. Having developed a distrust to robots due to an incident in the past, Spooner suspects the incident as murder. With the unwilling help of robopsychologist Susan Calvin, the detective sets out to find the answers to the mysteries, yet faces attemps to end his life by controlled robots. Although nobody seems to trust his instincts, Spooner thinks the murder is caused by USR's new robots manipulated by supercomputer VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), moreover by an independent, experimental, more human-like NS-5 unit named Sonny.

The NS-5s are under VIKI's control, and begin to impose curfews and prisoning humans in their homes. Spooner and Calvin managed to sneak into the head office with the assistance of Sonny who has not been injected by nanites. VIKI's artificial intelligence begins to evolve and so her interpretation with the 3 laws, that's why she realizes that in order to protect humanity as a whole, some humans have to be sacrificed and some freedoms must be surrendered, since despite the efforts of robots, humans employ means of self-destruction. Lanning having learned from this planning ordered Sonny to kill him, and knowing Spooner is a kind of person who hates robots, used clues to solve the problem. Sonny proves his loyalty to mankind by helping Spooner and Calvin defeat the mad robots and inject the nanites (supposed to be used by Calvin to Sonny) into the computer core, destroying it, and returning all the NS-5's into their basic programming.

My Reflection:

Being a sci-fi film, this did not escape my interest. I,Robot had made me an impression that it's just one of those robotics film and nothing new in the techy story of the mankind-and-machines existence. But hey! Nice film. I begin to wonder 'though, is there anyone else out there who has not developed a dependence upon robots? Just like Detective Spooner? Because it makes me think, that if everyone will seem to be amazed (yes, we're all at these incredibly friendly-talking machines) at these programmed assistants (now who doesn't want assistants anyway?) by robots like these, maybe in the farther future, what VIKI has come to realize might come to reality - that robots, though created to protect mankind, will choose to use (slight) violence and wage wars especially against us who are unconsciously doing imaginative ways of destructing the earth and our kind in spite of the former's best efforts. Surely this film brings an imaginative possibility of robots taking over the rest of the world, just like the underlying concepts and morales of other robotics movie and their stories' conflicts. The idea of having a robot companion who can help with your everyday work fascinates me, especially something as close to clever and almost-human Sonny (who's already psyched). But the idea of, you know, what might happen if these creatures would conflict with your orders, wants or needs, and since they already have intelligence, be it artificial (or maybe someday, scientists will impose more human-like intelligence into these computers), war with these machines is not impossible. And what do we have against these machine-made programmed computers? Especially if we don't know much about how they should be controlled? We have flesh and blood, they have metal chips and wires. Made me think of, do robots have souls too? Would they develop robots with spirits in the future? Haha.

Movie Reflection: Wall E

2011-03-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

Plot Synopsis:

WALL-E is a robot whose task is compacting garbage on earth. In a future when man cannot inhabit the earth anymore because of so much trash covering the surface and burying all the plants, humans have fled into a luxurious space cruise ship somewhere in the outer space living with robots who satisfy all their fancy desires. (You can just imagine humans being turned into fat couch potato with unnecessary movements like the everyday walk-and-work that we usually do, since they're just being busy sitting on their operatable couches just chatting on their virtual screens and eating and drinking.) Back on earth, WALL-E (or short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is just a small robot dedicated with his job of compressing and squeezing tons and TONS of garbage load and piling them up into buildings, and never grew tired of his duty even he's lonely and just have a pet cockroach with him. He has collected odd pieces of trash and decorate it in his home, and even got a VHS tape that eventually taught him about falling in love and holding hands (which made him dream of finding a special someone someday).

Doing his everyday routine of duty, WALL-E then meets a sleek, egg-shaped female robot named EVE (Extra-Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) which was sent as a search robot for signs of living which she could report to back in the luxury spaceship Axiom. WALL-E realized love at his new companion EVE. Having shown a discovered seedling by WALL-E, EVE was sent back to space to report on this green thing. WALL-E hangs on with the travel and meets all the humans and robots alike in Axiom, and program-controlled selfish machines who have lost the concepts of what was Earth all about.

My Reflection:

The good thing about WALL-E is that it was able to capture the viewer's attention to the flow of the story without even needing the real dialogues. I mean, the first scenes were not much of talking, yet it can relay the message through its superb stream of actions. And what was really an amazing centerpoint? The romance, dude! Haha. Who would have thought this could be a piece that not just bring the message of how could the ill effects of consumerism might carry us to lazy and tech-dependent blubbery creatures who don't know our real home and existence, yet conveying a uniquely sweet anecdote of how robots fall in love? The love story is just touching. The movie was light and comedic, and one can really enjoy watching this film.

The techie thing related to this reflection was that, the story was able to give precautions to mankind how much garbage (including recyclables and mettalic or nondecomposable) things could destroy the earth. The first scenes which was portrayed made me think of those dirty, rusty, and dusty place that makes my nose itchy and my eyes sore. I couldn't even imagine myself surviving in a world as close or far from that without even seeing a single green thing in my surrounding! How pathetic! And just imagine those real towers and tall buildings of already compacted trash! And those large, LARGER dumps of plain garbage anywhere? Where in the world would that go? I bet WALL-E alone could not pile them up in just one year. Tsk. Anyway, if he's just so inspired, well, I don't doubt the power of love on him. He might be tripling his efforts in gathering those debris. Hehe. That was just plainly amazing, right? The film just relayed that even machines as simple and small as WALL-E could develop a personality and even far - feeling that one emotion that defines the real existence of living on earth - LOVE.

Excellent persistence, Wall-E! :)

Make A Stand (CBCP Year of the Youth Official Theme Song)

2011-02-01T19:30:00.001+08:00

Make A Stand is the theme song of the double celebration for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Year of the Youth and the Episcopal Commision on Youth (ECY)'s 25th Anniversary [December 16, 2010 - December 16, 2011]

I decided to make a repost of this song so more and more people can also have a resource and share this to everyone. Kudos to all young souls!

written and produced by Jude Gitamondoc

interpreted by Daryl Leong

with backup vocals Jean Barbadillo, Eliza Barwado, Don Eguna, Johanna Lavajo, Daryl Leong, Les Paul Pineda, Edison Saynes

arranged, recorded, and mixed by Jad Bantug at 1032 Studios

***

MAKE A STAND

How long must we sit and wait for a hero?

And how long must we waste today for tomorrow?

To our people that’s lost in the dark

We can be guiding hand, shining star

If we only could see that the hero is here

In our hearts, young as we are…

We can stand and make a stand

Heart to heart and hand in hand

Let that voice out inside

That we can’t keep on hiding

Gotta work to make things work

Gotta change to change the world

‘Cause we cannot deny, we gotta give it a try

We are never too young to come as one

And to make a stand.

Stand firm, be a guiding light to the nation

Stand proud, let's unite in one celebration

With the Power of God from above

We can tell all the world of His love

Standing firm in the faith

Doing all of our work from the heart

We've got to start to make a stand

We can stand and make a stand

Heart to heart and hand in hand

Let that voice out inside

That we can’t keep on hiding

Gotta work to make things work

Gotta change to change the world

‘Cause we cannot deny, we gotta give it a try

We are never too young to come as one

And to make a stand.

For together, we’re strong

Now it won’t be for long

Till we heal this broken land

If we live what we’ve learned

Take this time to take our turn

To make a stand!

Let that voice out inside

That we can’t keep on hiding

Gotta work to make things work

Gotta change to change the world

‘Cause we cannot deny, we gotta give it a try

We are never too young to come as one

And to make a stand.

We can stand and make a stand

Heart to heart and hand in hand

Let that voice out inside

That we can’t keep on hiding

Gotta work to make things work

Gotta change to change the world

‘Cause we cannot deny, we gotta give it a try

We are never too young to come as one

We can make a stand.

Source:

Lyrics and .mp3 file can be downloaded here

Video production can be viewed here

Untitled

2011-01-21T00:55:00.001+08:00

This is actually the first time that I succeeded in putting music to a uhm written composition (I'm not sure if it's a poem haha). I have written some poems that are supposed to be songs but I always end up not finding the right notes for them. This was made for the reason that I'm looking for a certain song that we can use for a music video project, and at this moment I have not yet finalized the story flow with the perfect music (in my imagination). Anyway, I better post it here (I'd rather post the lyrics and not the recorded file, coz it's not in good quality) If you know what I mean :-p

G-Em-C-D (2x) -Dsus-D

Please don't be surprised

One day it'll feel so right

I look into your eyes

D Dsus - D

And the magic between us starts this nigh..ayy..ytt.

It's obvious, don't deny

I can sense it when you smile

You're just silent, don't react

D Dsus - D

But deep inside, I wonder...

Em C

Are we pretending that there's nothing (oooh)

Em Am D-Dsus-D

When there is already something

G- Em- C D

Ooooooh let me hold your hand (and)

G- Em- C D

Ooooooh just chill there's nothing bad

Am Em

We could be together, I could see this will be better

Am D (hold)

So drop your fears aside and let's try... (what do you think)

G- Em- C D

Ooooooh I guess there's no harm in tryin

G- Em- C D

Ooooooh we don't have all the time

Am Em D - Dsus-D

So let's have the magic carpet ride

Am Em D - Dsus-D

And chase the rainbows in the sky...

G-Em-C-D

You and I...

G-Em-C-D

You and I...

You and I... [end]

Knotty Mode Level 1: Submerged in the Depths of Colossal Undertakings

2011-01-20T15:37:00.002+08:00

When I begin to calculate how much time taken, needed, and to be spent with finishing iGuide, I began to calculate the time for Fill-N-File, and thinking about it makes me want to code for the forms and the functions, yet I am thinking that tomorrow will be a consultation for Multimedia and I am thinking of finishing the composition (and maybe also imagine the storyflow), but I also thought about finalizing the details of the Future Tech proposal so it will be submitted next week. And oh, this Saturday will be the another reporting of the final topic/s in E-Commerce and probably the proposals for the business plan are expected..

Moral: Before I am able to finish a single task, I realized I have no task finished..because just thinking about managing time for them eats my time. (as in kaunon akong oras! alright?) result -> tulala. stressed. and depressed.

Note: Congrats to me, for posting non-English reflections in my blog. +_+

The Typeface That Made Me Appreciate My Craft

2010-12-13T23:06:00.000+08:00

Watching the documentary film Helvetica made me realize how significant stories behind simple things are. Even the creation of a font type (typeface) that most of us nowadays are commonly using and we don’t even think about has a tale to be told. The birth of Helvetica and the reason of its existence have been expressed in the video. Designers long ago were thinking of a neutral typeface that could be used in any applications, in a wide variety of prints and signage. Helvetica is of sans-serif type, and its form and structure is so simple yet shows the clearness of expression.

As an enthusiast of calligraphy, I take time in choosing the appropriate typefaces for different mediums. I often use cursive and oblique styles for hand-lettered cards, but that’s suitable for formal and elegant invitations and the like. Yet if I find a hard time looking for a proper font type that would still look fair, I choose for Arial-types (or now I know it belongs to the sans-serif family like Helvetica). Not elaborate, no embellishment but still straightforward and no biases - fine for labels and tags. For me, the nature of its form would give chance to artists to think of creative ways to put enhancements such as tails, cursive styles and more. It is still left for the artist’s taste anyway.

Vignelli's intro captured me, and I guess he's right when he said that everywhere there is visual disease and the role of a designer is like a medicine doctor - healing this kind of visual disease by design. In the modern world we have right now, if you opt to be noticed by just plain text among the pool of colors, figures, and shapes, you should pick a typeface that will bring out the identity of your figure. It does not need to be so complicated though, since the signage you are making would depend on what lies behind the words you represent it. As what Crouwel expressed, clarity is significant. Having more than one typeface you see one after another day really drives you crazy. The art of designing typefaces really takes time and effort, considering the organization and balance of lines and spaces, not mentioning the style of your letters. From a typeface with a neutral design, one can explore through the variations of figures, spaces, and lines, creating a more clear and legible typography. As what Savan said, the beauty of Helvetica attracts users and designers not just because of its simplicity and neutrality but its impression upon viewers which are the essence of efficiency and fairness, no streak of authority or other striking personality.

There were also morally-opposed to Helvetica for some reasons. I believe that they were the same reasons why I make every effort with lettering typefaces with similar styles just like Helvetica. Although its design exhibits clean and straightforward appearance, most artists especially the inventive types attempt with exploring beyond the plain curves and lines. That is why they tend to let go of the press-type Helvetica print, get away with the orderly and smooth surface and unfold with illustration-type and in abstract ways. Many also say it is boring, typically because it is plainly simple. And that nature of Helvetica typeface is not so impressive to me especially when it comes to creative invitation designs. I guess I only use Helvetica-type fonts when I have no more styles in mind to stamp into signages that are just of label types such as project frontpages or subtitles.

It's good to know how these things were made - ordinary art forms such as a font type which gave way to typefaces that we've all been using everyday - and getting to know its impact to the community. It's mere existence has greatly affected how every design we see in our surroundings are crafted. Typefaces when applied to a creation have something to say. So anyone should choose a typograph that would exactly convey what the signage stands for. Everybody may not notice it but most signages in the streets are rooted in the Helvetica design. That is why most people seem not to admire its design because it seems so overused, boring, and thus not interesting. Yet its art of conformity wraps a blanket of sameness into the craft. Understanding these made me appreciate more of typography (and calligraphy), that plain letters that are merely written or printed express more than what the eyes can see. Typography could have personality - it derives more meaning to the label it stands for.

Why Do We Need To Study Technology

2010-12-06T22:44:00.001+08:00

Prologue

When we look at things around us we can’t help but see equipments mainly run by electronics, machines operated by computers, gadgets with applications from and even ideas and concepts revolutionized by technology, affecting manually-done processes being upgraded into more mechanized and automated means. These are the usual things going on around us that make people think technology is at its height. Anywhere and anything that we typically go to, use, see, and feel have some sorts of technological applications as far as tools and devices in daily living are concerned. Maybe we just seem to notice that humans are using and depending on technology.

***

Technology in its basic nature not only deals with gadgets and machines, but in every innovative way or ideas and concepts along the way. Thus the advent of technology is not within the last century only. It roots back to the ancient times when humans learned how to use fire in daily living. It's just the way we describe how "high-tech" we are right now in the tangible sense.

So why is there a need to study technology? We have to study technology for various reasons - we have to get to know it. Just because almost all our ways and means uses technology, there should be knowledge on how to use them properly. And I mean in the responsible sense.

We need to study how technology was long before it reached this stage of great height. Thus there is a need to go back how it all started, and how people long ago came with innovative concepts to create something almost out of nothing. Or in the basic sense of how life was lived long ago. That is still technology.

We need to study the history of technology, because by knowing its past, we can understand its present, and predict and control its future.

We need to study the cycle of technology to be able to understand the fullness of it, and to know how things are changing. So from it we could learn how to balance its stages and effects - benefits and disadvantages - and be able to deal with it.

We need to study technology to know the trends of mankind's existence. Because it has become a part of human's nature of dealing with life on earth.

Technology is born out of mankind's desire to help himself, to find tools to aid in his work. Yet most of us now has been affected by its adverse ways of using - to the extent of harming the nature's balance. Thus there is great need to study technology. As technology is made not to enslave people. People should use technology.

***

DevCon in ICEAN Congress

2010-11-26T21:54:00.000+08:00

The 2nd ICEAN Congress (University of Southeastern Philippines - Institute of Computing) was worth the break. Yes, break from the academic pressures of project completions (i know you guys-my colleagues know what are those ^_^). It is this ICEAN Congress that I can say I enjoyed attending the event.

The program started a little late because the event speakers were not able to arrive on time. Yet Information Technology and Computer Science students gathered at the university social hall are invigorated for the upcoming talks and activities for the day (not to mention the freebies!). Well as usual, there were distinguished speakers from various organizations in the IT industry, some of them had actually delivered talks from the previous congress. The first speaker who was Eric Su from PicLyf shared about certain points in getting jobs the awesome way. Basically it made students realize how significant it is to aim high and stand out to help build an awesome career in the future. The second speaker who was Milvene Mineses of Simply Gray Studio amazed the audience with the video presentation of wedding photography which focused on incorporating the effects of Adobe Photoshop to enhance photo shots. This impressed me since I aspired to have my own camera (how I wish it would be a DSLR one) and try my own shots someday. That involved a real big investment anyway. Before the morning session ended, the third speakers (they were two from the same company, Edmund Lee and Rojenn Ortiz from Offsourcing Inc.) discussed about important tips and strategies on how to write a resume that would stand out from the rest of the crowd when applying for jobs. I participated in the group collaborations of resume writing and I got a movie ticket as a freebie. Woohoo!

The best thing that made this ICEAN Congress memorable is that the DevCon people did not just send speakers from their team, but slipped in and made real DevCon a part of the event. That's enjoyment level-up! DevCon has its established sessions of lightning talks, birds of a feather, and hackathon. Mark Maglana perked up the audience with the intro to DevCon, explaining the organization's role and its offers to the community of developers. Keynote speaker Edmund Lee, president of Offsourcing Inc., once again awed the pipz with another discussion on the topic "After Graduation, What?" which is helpful especially for fourth year students and those who are doubtful of their careers after graduation, and the movie tickets as freebies of course! The succeeding discussions were lightning talks from CS evening student Veniza Joy Macaraeg who talked about IC students' experience in "IC on Tour" field trip/seminar, registered nurse-turned-animation graphics animator Tina Ortiz who not only dazzled the audience with her appeal but with her meaningful expression of turning a passion into a career, Jong Jison with his demonstration on Umbraco, an open source ASP.NET CMS, Eric Su once again from PicLyf who showed off the features of PicLyf and gave away T-shirts as freebies, and two more speakers who exhibited HTML 5/CSS 3 features and Windows Phone 7 awesome attibutes.

The next part was the Birds of a Feather (BoF) session side-by-side with Hackathon activity which were participated by groups of students. I was part of one team standing up for Google Chrome in the BoF which focused on Battle of Internet Browsers: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome. It was actually a friendly debate and although I have prepared and searched some facts about the good side of Chrome, I was sort of not able to voice them out since my teammates were dashing their way to bring down the opponents. Nevertheless the audience had judged the winner - team Google Chrome. A DevCon T-shirt prize for me! Weeeh! All the pipz joined in the countdown to the hackathon, a timed coding activity for groups of students executing a programming or web activity with a desired output to be judged.

The event ended up with lots of cheers and picture takings. Everybody enjoyed the activities, not to mention the witty speakers who are very casual with speaking English, and the freebies and the raffle. Hopefully, the next ICEAN Congress will surpass the vigor and learnings that we, students, had on this event. And one more thing, I hope there would be real drinks and pizza for everyone to enjoy. ^_^

Free movie pass and T-shirt from DevCon (with autograph from Diane Suico,
Mark Maglana, and Randy S. Gamboa)- freebies that I got from participating.

I don't have all the pictures taken during the event yet. I guess I'll upload it later. Thanks to my classmates for the photo shots at the social hall. And to Sir RSG. :-)

Back to Basics: Komiks

2010-11-13T19:10:00.013+08:00

A short feature on the news telecast last night caught my 'reflective' mood and made me recall my childhood. The news features a comic book created by JB Gamboa, an artist who previously made a successful first attempt of publishing the comic book "Laban", a true love story of former Senator Ninoy and former President Cory Aquino, and now launched his latest masterpiece - a comic biography of the world renowned pound-for-pound Filipino boxing champ, Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao.

I salute Pacman for his valuable contribution to the country and I have no doubts of his boxing skill. But my 'reflections' were not directly related to him. I also don't have anything against the comic artist who made him the subject of his self-published project entitled "Pacquiao: Winning In and Out of the Ring", I think he made a good thing to feature the champ's life though his work of art. I just thought about the perspective of the craft instead. Comic books are becoming less popular in bookstores nowadays, right?

Comic books, or mostly known as "komiks" by the Filipinos, became widespread in the country as early as World War II when American GIs left behind comic strips and books which originally inspire Pinoy comic artists to run the medium in magazine series. Today, more comic artist produce Pinoy manga inspired by the Japanese anime and manga. Its popularity somewhat subsided due to competition with other forms of media particularly the telenovelas.

As I noticed, there are fewer komiks being displayed for sale in bookstores or even in newstands where they are commonly found. Bystanders and people few years back who mereley pass by the sidewalk would stop by newstands to buy from an array of komiks with various titles, series or editions. They are printed versions of short scripted stories of drama or comedy which we follow through in telenovelas and radios. They entertain people during short breaks, available in the locality, and comes in handy since they can just be folded in pockets and readers will just take it off anytime.

What JB Gamboa said about komiks left a valuable note to the viewers. He hopes to address the problem of illiteracy in the future through this craft. And I agree for that fact. Comics not only provide entertainment for readers, but they also help young children and even adults to learn how to read and improve reading. That's when I remember a moment in my childhood year that I thought I would never mind to recall. I almost forgot, I learned to read my first story from the comics.

As a child, my mother taught me the basics of A E I O U and ABAKADA, and from that I learned to utter syllables from the letters. I recalled I was never introduced how to read a whole sentence or a paragraph excerpt from a short story. And now I remember, I realized to read and understand the written conversations from the komiks that I just appreciated because of its drawings! It happened one late evening before going to sleep that I happen to pick up a comic book and slowly uttered the syllables which came from letters forming the words in the callouts of the drawings. I think I remembered myself grinning happily announcing to my mom that I (finally) was able to understand what the drawings say. Days after that I volunteered in our 'komiks for rent' outside the house just to be able to read my father's comic collections. Haha.

There were a bunch of komiks left in the house but I guess they were included when a part of our house was caught on fire. Too sad, they were the ones still left and they could be treated as old collections of craft. I could not find local komiks series being sold now, just pocketbooks which continues to be a sensation among ladies who are fond of reading tagalog romance novels.

If not because of Pacman's victorious feats that made him famous, that inspired one comic artist to draw his comic biography, that caught the attention of the national TV and feature it, I could have forgotten to realize one significant thing in my life - that I learned how to read and understand a story that is portrayed through the komiks. I credit my ability of high reading and comprehension rate in my elementary years to my interest in reading short stories and komiks experience.

I understand why the popularity of komiks is declining. As an IT student, I understand how technology changed the way life is, and even reading and habits of people has been affected. Change is inevitable, as they say. Nevertheless it would never be the reason to totally forget the significance of print articles as reading materials over portable document formats (PDFs) and digital soft copies. Komiks now comes in electronic formats. Yet the natural essence of talents in drawing and creativity of potential Filipino comic artists really shines through the paper and pencil, where it all originated. I hope we Filipinos would find a way to revive it. Or if some things are difficult to regain its originality, I just hoped this post would be an appreciation of a craft which has once been a part of our culture, and my contribution to it, a reminder of a valuable nothing, a significant something - that komiks had once played a role in my childhood years, and continues to be, as long as I live, as long as I can read. :-)

Modification 101: My Blog's New Look

2010-11-05T00:32:00.000+08:00

I was aware of Blogger's one-of-the-latest template designer feature but I never had the ample time to edit my blog settings. In fact, it was quite some time now since I last posted an entry here. As always, I've been in 'busy mode' all this time. And although I enjoy blogging up all those stuff in my head, well, thing is, I always tend to forget even making drafts about them. I did this modification hoping it would give me some spark of interest now that this blog has a new look. I'm not saying that I'll be up-to-date in my blog post this time. Hahaha. Hmm but I also thank those guys who still manage to visit and drop me messages, I appreciate it. :) Keep it up! Lolz.

Anyway, having this new template designer idea by the Blogger team is good. Two-thumbs up for that. It lets bloggers instantly change their designs and modify them directly in the user interface allowing sneak previews. Much better (it's more convenient, I should say) than editing the hard code. Hehe.

So cheers to my new blog look! Hopefully I'll be able to drop by some short posts over here, and I wish they'll be sensible enough to read by everyone. :-)

Enrolment Input Form and University Interface: PRF vs. SRIS

2010-09-02T23:13:00.000+08:00

(Note: This is a reply to Mr. G.'s thread in USeP-IC Web Forum - Assignment 4: Contrast and discuss the enrolment input form (PRF) with the enrolment university interface.)

This assignment that I am discussing about deals with a very important issue, above all – consistency. This is supposed to be a significant matter especially with regards to input and output user interfaces.

In creating a graphical user interface especially from the manual type and accustomed use to an automated system, the developer has to be particular with the input and output fields. This is because the user(s) may already became familiar to the old format and introducing him or her to the new user interface with a completely new look may lead to confusion which may end up to the uselessness of the system. The user, of course, has developed a habitual inclination in using the old format, especially if he or she has been using it for a long period of time. Beginning to use a brand-new yet same system functionality (although an improved one) with a different although intact input look and form will have a significant effect on the momentum of the work. Worse, the user who can not grasp the functionality at once will find the user interface complicated and most likely refuse to use and learn about it.

The idea led me to examine this aspect of the two important items being deliberated here – the enrolment input form or what is commonly called as the Pre – Registration Form (PRF), and the enrolment university interface or Student Records Information System (SRIS). The PRF is what the students need to secure during the advising part in the enrolment process before the college secretaries and/or administrative staff encode the filled-in entries into the SRIS. Basically, the elements within the Pre - Registration Form are also contained in the Student Records Information System, in which it covers more features and functionality. In simple analogy, the format used in the PRF and the user interface coordinates therefore it is important that it should be parallel since promptness of the processes involving the information matters a lot.

I reviewed the appearance of the PRF and here is how it looks like:

Notice what kinds of information are being asked directly from the student and how each are located in the form.

Now let us check a sample screen shot from the SRIS:

Take a look at the data fields and their placements. The SRIS contains almost all the basic information that is directly written by the student into the PRF. But what is really noticeable, when graphical user interface is being highly dealt with, is that there are some elements that are not parallel in position. The enrolled units table however, is placed in the similar manner, in a way that is easy and convenient to browse, except for the columns that are mismatched from the original (based from paper) position.

In the PRF, I could only say a reasonable explanation why there is an entry field for the Address and Address of Employer if employed. Maybe this is to check whether the students is currently working and studying at the same time – a thing that needs to be checked as far as allowed units are concerned. Instead of asking directly of a choice between ‘working student?’ and not, it is quite straightforward to ask the address of the employer so if the student is validly working, the name and address of the employer would prove it. There is, however, no field for it in the SRIS, which made me think of why such entry is included in the PRF where the most basic information is asked and not in the automated system where a more comprehensive data is stored.

There is no field for Civil Status in the PRF while in the SRIS there is.
There is more than one Section fields in the PRF and none in the SRIS, only Class. I think the Section entry in the upper part of the PRF is the general information about where the student belongs and the fields corresponding to the subjects and/or units enrolled corresponds as to where the students fits in during classes of the subjects. But the student would not know firsthand the section(s) he or she will be unless the professor(s) of the related subject(s) will arrange the schedule and class list.

The separate data fields for Semester and School Year to be enrolled in the PRF is being coupled in a selection dropdown in the SRIS. This data has to be explicitly identified by the student upon filling up the PRF and the encoder will just have to choose from a pre-loaded selection for speedy browsing.

I found the Scholarship field from the PRF missing in the SRIS. I do not know where this part fits in the automated system but the encoder asks the student an approved scholarship card to prove the said information.

Other data in the SRIS such as Contact, Email Address, Parents, and Religion cannot be found in the PRF.Well, this information is not necessarily required for the student to fill in again every enrollment period (PRF filling up process). I understand that the SRIS contains most if not all the records about the student so as expected, it has more data and information.

The noticeable thing here is, the data that is being asked in the PRF do not have close locations in the SRIS. The ID number for example, is being regarded as a main item in the SRIS since it is located above (and being asked first) before the name. It is, however, opposite in the PRF when the name is regarded as a key thing. As an IT student, I am aware of the role of primary keys in various systems, therefore I understand why it is significantly ‘above’ and ‘before’ the Name field in the SRIS.

Another thing that made me raise an eyebrow is the SRIS’ Desired Career data field. If the purpose is to know what the student certainly aspires for, I think this data entry is more appropriate in the Guidance Office system (well, this is just my opinion based on the aforementioned reason).

In my general point of view, the university enrolment interface is a more wide-ranging system which fits to its description – Student Records Information System. Basically, it contains the fundamental information about the student enrolling in the university. It also contains both the data that is asked from the student (those types of data that are, and might be, constantly changing especially every enrollment period – temporary data) and those which are kept for a long time to be modified or permanent data.

Factors that are significantly important when it comes to these things are consistency and parallelism. As what I’ve said in my first statements, the primary users of the (automated) system shall not have a hard time in familiarizing the data input fields from the manual form. This will have impact on the work and response time. Thus, I would like to emphasize the value of parallelism in this case. The position also matters aside from the types of information being asked. This will define the usability of a good user interface.

I would like to recommend this article from a blog I found which talks about the characteristics of successful user interfaces by Dmitry Fadeyev. It contains the basic characteristics that I’ve been looking for in a UI.
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2009/04/15/8-characteristics-of-successful-user-interfaces/

Acknowledgment:

Dmitry Fadeyev, 2009, 8 Characteristics Of Successful User Interfaces, Usability Post

Microsoft Encarta Dictionaries

Credits go to Ms. Joan Rose Dandoy for the image of the SRIS

TEENage Reflection

2010-08-06T16:30:00.000+08:00

When all things got loose, I'm just right here.

I'm gonna spend the last few days of my TEENage stage into something remarkable. I'm turning 20 this month and I'm thankful for the years that God has given me so much of what life can be. I've had moments which made me grow into what and who I am today. The past years of existence may not be enough to do all the things that I should,fulfilling the purpose why I am here. Everyday is a gift from Him. And everyday is worth living and thanking Him for all the blessings that He gave - the people who love and care for me and the good things I've learned.

The past nineteen years had been memorable. It may not appear as something as full of fun, vigor, travel, adventure and all that most young people experience. But what I have is something which I can think of as MY life. It was the way I live. It was the way I was brought up, the way I learn, the way I face the challenges, the way I enjoyed my youth - something different yet something unique. I may not have gone to many places and may not tried the things that other young adolescents had but mine is an account of how I became myself - the introvert melancholic nature had shaped in me the personality with an active imagination, deep sense of reflection and gratitude, and a compassion for the significance of one's generation for the better future of humanity. Some ideas left unnoticed, opinions unexpressed, and words are not enough to show how the mind and heart truly thinks and feels. Nevertheless, I am thankful for the gift of life God has given. Soon I'll be spending another chapter - to face another set of challenges to become more mature and fulfill the purpose of living...

Keypoints for Effective Network Environment in the University

2010-07-30T17:08:00.000+08:00

(Note: This is a reply to Mr. G.'s thread in USeP-IC Web Forum - Assignment 3: Interview your university network specialist. Ask how various parts of the system communicates with each other throughout the university. (Q) Given the chance to redesign the existing setup, enumerate and discuss your keypoints for an effective and efficient network environment ideal for the university.)

Regarding the setup of the system components of the university, we asked for an interview schedule to our university specialist, Engr. Ariel Roy Reyes. It was supposed to be a special session with the whole class, since there would be many of us who needs response regarding the topic. Unfortunately, we were not able to have a face - to - face interview since our schedules did not meet. So what we did, was to consolidate the questions and email it to him as suggested by Sir Reyes. I just formulated some questions turned it over to one of my classmates who sent the email together with the other inquiries.

Basically, my questions revolve on these items:

1.In system development, how do various parts of the system communicate with each other throughout the university? In what way?
-regarding system development, Sir Reyes replied that the best persons to ask are our university programmers, Mr. Jappeht Fortich and Dr. Tamara Cher Mercado...

2. What are the components involved in the system(s) in the university? (Hardware, software, technology, etc)
-Sir Reyes admitted that he is not in the right position to discuss the details of the software components used as there are other assigned personnel for such job. However, Sir Reyes shared how he works for the system. As a network administrator, he is entrusted to maintain the university's servers to run 24 hours a day in 7 days a week. We have our current Web Server hosted in our university in the HP ProLiant ML350 Server. This server is already old but a stable one being set up in the Networks Office. The said server has already been active since Engr. VAl A. Quimno was appointed as the Network Administrator when he was not yet the dean of the Institute of Computing.

The said server has the following specification:
1. Intel Xeon 3.0 GHz, 3.2 GHz, or 3.4 GHz processors (dual processor capability) with 1MB level 2 cache standard. Processors include support for Hyper-Threading and Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T)
2. Intel® E7520 chipset
3. 800-MHz Front Side Bus
4. Integrated Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Adapter
5. Smart Array 641 Controller (standard in Array Models only)
6. NC7761 PCI Gigabit NIC (embedded)
7. Up to 1 GB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM with Advanced ECC capabilities (Expandable to 8 GB)
8. Six expansion slots: one 64-bit/133-MHz PCI-X, two 64-bit/100-MHz PCI-X, one 64-bit/66-MHz PCI-X, one x4 PCI-Express, and one x8 PCI-Express
9. New HP Power Regulator for ProLiant delivering server level, policy based power management with industry leading energy efficiency and savings on system power and cooling costs
10. Three USB ports: 1 front, 1 internal, 1 rear
11. Support for Ultra320 SCSI hard drives (six hot plug or four non-hot plug drives supported standard, model dependent)
12. Internalstorage capacity of up to 1.8TB; 2.4TB with optional 2-bay hot plug SCSI drive
13. 725W Hot-Plug Power Supply (standard, most models); optional 725W Hot-Pluggable Redundant Power Supply (1+1) available. Non hot plug SCSI models include a 460W non-hot plug power supply.
14. Tool-free chassis entry and component access
15. Support for ROM based setup utility (RBSU) and redundant ROM
16. Systems Insight Manager, SmartStart, and Automatic Server Recovery 2 (ASR-2) included
17. Protected by HP Services and a worldwide network of resellers and service providers. Three-year Next Business Day, on-site limited global warranty. Certain restrictions and exclusions apply. Pre-Failure Notification on processors, memory, and SCSI hard drives.

The university’s mail server is also running under the Compaq Proliant ML330Server which is the olders server hosted in the Networks office. Proxy and enrollment servers on the other hand, run in microcomputers or personal computers but higher specifications to act as servers.

*Typically, the purpose of this question is to know what the things that composed of the system are. I have very little knowledge about the components of how things in the network administration office works and the components that are involved here so I opted to know better what are those. So far, the university has, as mentioned, a server which hosts the university’s current web server. The said specifications are quite technical to me, as such its technicalities were not very much explained. I have little or no knowledge about what are the most important factors to consider in choosing the best performing server for the university yet I have confidence that Sir Reyes and the others who man the networks office know well how to maximize the resources. The only thing I have come to get concerned of (and perhaps the one which I have come to understand) is that it has a global warranty and that if there were hardware setbacks that need repair or service, we can contact HP for assistance or help. Hehe. Anyway, the capabilities of the server sounds good, I guess it is up to its use, but regarding the growing population of the university clients and the increasing need and use of the internet in education and research purposes, network connections necessary for the office functions, the server might not be enough to bear all the requests, thus, intensifying the demand for a more powerful upgraded server.

3. How do these communicate with one another? (Here I meant the aspects of topology, network connectivity, protocols, etc.) -may include data flow or UML diagrams to better explain.
-Sir Reyes said that all servers are connected in a shared medium grouped as one subnetwork. The extended star topology connected to a dual WAN router between our two Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is our followed topology. All the other workstations are grouped together into different subnetworks as in star topology branching out from our servers subnetwork as in extended star topology. Currently, we are utilizing class C IP address for private IP address assignments. Laboratories workstations for example, are configured statically while IP assignments in offices are configured dynamically. Proxy servers that do some basic filtering or firewall to control users’ access to the internet aside from router filtering or firewall management connect these workstations. In this case, a workstation has to pass through software and hardware - based firewall whenever it has to connect to the internet.

*From the way I see it, the network system provides ample security in terms of internet access. It is evident in setting up the firewall or filtering every workstation that has to connect to the internet. The extended star topology is also okay, since in this setup, subnetworks communicate in a star-like topology and to further gin access to other workstations which are not part of the subnetwork, they will connect via the WAN router into another subnetwork which follows the star topology pattern.

4. What are the processes involved in the communication (of each system to other systems)?
-As being pointed to by previous statements, all workstations are connected via a proxy server. If ever a workstation is being turned on, it requests for an IP address from the proxy server and connect to the network after the IP address is acquired. This is for dynamically configured IP address. Every system can now communicate and share resources within the same subnetwork and server after the connection is established.

*It is clearly stated that every system which is composed of workstations making up a subnetwork are connected via a proxy server which is their way to communicate to other network. By this setup, the workstation needs to communicate with the proxy server first before directing to other resources in the subnetwork since it has to request an IP address first.

5. How do you go along with the maintenance of the system?
-Since the servers are expected to run 24/7, it is necessary to be in good condition. Sir Reyes has a daily routine of monitoring the servers by checking logs, checking hardware performance, and checking for some problems. Observing the performance involves checking on CPU health and etc. If there are problems detected, remedies are then applied. Regular overall checkup is observed as a preventive maintenance practice at least once a week just to make sure that longer downtime will not be possibly experienced.

*Looking after the system is needed to observe how it works up to its functions. Performance of the servers should be well see to it as it may result in downtime if there are certain bugs left unnoticed. Checking on the logs, I should say, should be done in an everyday basis in that we cannot readily assure if there are other foreign objects sniffing through our system, which may further lead to affect our university’s business. The health and performance of the hardware components are also necessary be monitored more often especially that we now have learned that we have some old servers in our networks office. It is not impossible that time may come that these servers might bog down due to failure in performance especially that we have several systems being developed which require more robust and more powerful database servers.

6. Does the system follow a specific standard? Please explain.
-Different networking standards were already observed as soon as Sir Reyes was appointed Network Administrator. Everything was already in place except for some minor changes. Standards followed include cabling standards, TIA/EIA 568A-B, and different IEEE standards.

*As a university that strives to be a center of excellence in education, it is therefore important for us as an institution to follow standards. Thus, our systems which run the business of the university should conform to its specific standards. It is clearly stated that long before our interviewee was tasked to take care and primarily overlook the networks office, there are already networking standards being conformed to.

7. How is the security of the system? Are there any vulnerabilities? Risks? Corresponding mitigation techniques? Access control?
-There were software and hardware – based filtering and firewall techniques implemented. Risks and/or vulnerabilities and different mitigation methods were considered to increase security in our network. Aside from filtering and firewall, constant monitoring on networks activity also increases the security of the system.

*There were software and hardware-based filtering and firewall implementation to have security over who and which workstation should be given access to the internet. There may be risks and vulnerability in the system and also corresponding mitigation techniques but they were not much elaborated. I, personally would like to know what are those sample risks and vulnerabilities involved in the networking side especially that in the very near future, our system projects that are being developed will be soon integrated into the server. As such, there would be many subsystems that will be connecting to the server and more and more users are expected to gain access to it. This not only adds up to the needed strength boost in performance of the database server but it also counts up to the risks and vulnerability of the system.

8. Are there any interference? During what (most) times do these occur? Explain their effects especially with regards to the business of the university?
-Major interferences are normally encountered as an effect of unforeseen and beyond our control events such as black-outs and the like. The university’s business would of course be affected since this will paralyze the day – to – day activities which rely on electricity. These events might also cause further damages on our network devices which may later be the reasons for downtime. Other problems we encounter are those met by our providers for example, the National or International Gateway connection. This also affects the university’s business especially that we have also correlation with our university business partners within and outside the country.

*So far, the foremost interferences experienced are due to unanticipated events such as black-outs, power interruption, and other similar occurrences which are beyond control. But even as these things happen, the university’s business is very much affected because we are primarily dependent on the electricity to run the systems we are using inside the offices and laboratories. These minor things might also be the causes of big consequences which may later be reasons for downtime.

Like for example, the series of brown-outs and power interruption in the localities just a few months ago really affected a lot of students, faculty, and staff as well, in that its occurrences became more often and computers that are supposed to be used in the daily functions and services were off to rest. I could still remember when we were on the brink of the enrollment period, with most of our classmates have other things to consider like completion of unfinished projects and some other businesses and the expected enrollment duration took longer than usual. The result is that, we, particularly I, as far as I could recall, am lost with the real schedule of the enrollment per year level. Most of us have concerns on financial aspect (tuition and other fees) and the current status we were taking upon the enrollment process matters as to when is the exact time should we process the payments for the cashier, request subjects, home calls for allowances and additional emergency fees, etc, you know, things like that we don’t readily expect and beyond our capacity and control. The sad part there is that, other personal matters of business that each of us has to face for the day are put off because we are still on the enrollment process which have come to pending status due to electrical interruption. Things like encoding, cashiering, registering, and account tracing could not continue, lines by students got mixed up, sweats pouring because of heat since there are no electric fans or aircon, photocopier machines won’t work, computers and printers have stop operating, and of course, evidently, there is no light thus putting every office or room to darkness and high temperature (and high blood pressure not to mention!).

The scenario became a point of caution to all of us, that we always anticipate brown-outs every day and we can almost predict what typical time of the day the power might turn off. Basically, the processes concerning the business of the university are greatly affected (and so other institutions and establishments in the locality), all came to halt and transactions have to stop. I am not pretty sure exactly if the university has a power generator but I guess it has not acquired one as far as I could remember. I have seen some Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) in our computer laboratories but how could it supply needed electricity for longer periods of time? Major systems need enough reserved energy to supplement the power it requires to run and perform its functions.

Concerning the network communication, well, obviously, if computer peripherals and other hardware components cannot operate, then normally, communication is cut off.

Oftentimes, we have problems regarding the internet connection. A lot of times we could only gain access over a slow (turtle-like speed) connection. I am not so sure if the networks office forbids us to have a faster access since there are also times that the speed is faster. National and/or International Gateway connection probably have something to do with this at some point in time. Normally, the offices try to gain access to the internet all at once that during these peak times, connectivity is so slow and hard to establish. And obviously, transactions and business matters concerning our outside clients and partners would have to deal with this.

***As of now, with these facts or matters at hand, I could barely say that the university has an outstanding network communication of systems. The way subnetworks connect could be just appropriate for our needs but I am wondering how this could take time for long especially that there will be more subsystems to be added to the university’s server. I am thinking of how the connectivity would change in case that there would be a gradual change in terms of robustness and performance that the university servers need to gain for the processes to run smoothly according to its functions. If there would be no boost in strength then the server might experience downtime due to the commands and requests that are already becoming beyond its capacity. Normally, connections would not work out smoothly, and communications among subnetworks and other systems might be greatly affected. As of now, I could not give a concrete design as to what the system connectivity setup should be. More details will come up and I would be adding more to this topic. ^^
Acknowledgment:
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