Musbox

Bamboo Disbanded

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:17:00 -0800

Bamboo is disbanded. This is the current profile picture of the facebook page of Bamboo. For many years Bamboo has been a great influence in my music. I must say I idolize each member of this band. It started with their first song "Noypi" and later on spread like wildfire and influenced many musicians and music lovers.

In my part, the band's bassist, Nathan Azarcon, is an icon and his bass lines has influenced me a lot in how I play. His jazzy and funky grooves are so cool. Basically all the members of the band are great musicians. Mixing Bamboo, Ira, Vic and Nathan's influences equals one great mix of music styles. This is a super band (I said) This band totally rocks! However, I just found out that the band has been disbanded. I didn't really believed it at first until I saw the official press release in their website. I know this is not the end but I will always miss standing in the front rows and simply listening to bamboo music.

Venturing Into Chibi Art

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 10:08:00 -0800

Venturing into Chibi Art. I've always wondered how digital artists make chibi art. I mean digitally. I just know it involves a lot of steps in order to accomplish. (see steps). I've had no problem sketching chibi using pen and paper however when it comes to doing it digitally it becomes so troublesome. The sketch I made is a chibi that I just sketched. (See original image.)

The first step or phase in creating chibi art would be to make a rough sketch or a draft of your character. Then I added more detail on to the sketch. Then the next step is making the line art. This is the part were I get confused because I'm not an expert when it comes to using the pen tool in Photoshop. I mean I know how to use it but when I compare my line art to other digital artist's work, their line arts are just so seamless or smooth. Well I do get some credit because I'm still an amateur. Well I'm still stuck with the line art phase and I want to master it before proceeding to the next step which is applying the base colors. I hope I could find a tutorial no how to make a good line art. Practice and practice until then.

Welcome 2011!

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 4 Jan 2011 11:19:00 -0800

This is a manipulated image made from Photoshop that I recently tried. This is my personal rendition of Abduzeedo's 2011 poster in Illustrator and Photoshop. I gave it my own taste to be unique and made it as a welcome message for the year 2011.

I know its a bit late for this post for the new year because it is already new year. Year 2010 was an unforgettable year to me and maybe to others as well. There were lots of things that happened in the past year and I think I can not write them all down. Here some of the things that happened:

1. Finally had my digital drawing tablet which I have been yearning for years. A Genius MousePen i608. I wanted to have a Wacom tablet but its just way too expensive for me.

2. Went for a trip to Digos with my classmates during the semestral break.

3. Joined the very first DevCon Cloud Camp in Davao City and was able to bag the second prize of the Hackathon with my colleagues in the University of Southeastern Philippines.

4. Celebrated dad's birthday with Mus at Gourmet Deli and Frozen Avenue.

5. Finally had a decent photograph of my band, Azimuth, during the Grind'n 180 event at NCCC Mall, Davao. Credits to the photographers: Glenn Lascuña and Joshua Delica

6. Went for an on the spot getaway trip with Azimuth at Babu Santa. It was the most frightful getaway and I never want to experience it again.

7. Started my On The Job Training at NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) and was later on denied because of my grades. It really sucked.

8. Experienced a spa massage for the first time at Six A Peel. It was a treat from my girlfriend, Mus.

9. Celebrated my birthday together with my family, friends, and band mates at home. Mus gave me bleach action figures as a gift.

10. Watched a lot of Filipino movies like "My Amnesia Girl" with Mus which was so romantic by the way. I really wanted to have an original copy of it. Why? because pirated Filipino movies always suck.

11. Learned a lot in blogging customization and photo manipulation and all other cool stuffs in Photoshop.

12. Made my tumblr and piclyf accounts.

13. Became a PCOS Technician and served the first automated election in the Philippines. Sadly we were not given any certification.

14. Bought my first PUMA shoes. A PUMA Suede with red, white and dark blue colors. I became addicted to PUMA shoes afterwards.

15. Had lots of gigs with Azimuth and Strings on the Shed.

16. Joined many events and seminars regarding information technology.

17. We were "still" hailed champion during the ICEAN FESTIVAL 2010. Joined volleyball and acoustic contest.

18. Did the most embarrassing yet so amusing dance so far in my college days with "Mahmen Crew".

Teresians Reunion [01.02.11]

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Sun, 2 Jan 2011 19:51:00 -0800

January 2, 2011 was the date set for the reunion of our high school (fourth year) class, St. Teresa of Avila. It was held at Seagull Inland Resort in Davao.

The place has white sand and a beautiful beach. Anyway not of all of our classmates made it to the reunion but at least most of them came. It was so hilarious because one of my classmate said that absent either means you're pregnant or made someone pregnant. However it was all just a joke. We had lots of fun talking about everyones lives (not to mention love lives). I was happy to know that my classmates were already working and earning. It makes me want to graduate and work. Well, we did not went for a swim but still it was fun. Till the next reunion.

Artwork #3

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 06:23:00 -0800

This is my doodle art of the one who loves to wear the shirt saying "AKALA MO TRAPO, YUN PALA BRIP KO." I'm pertaining to my classmate Roy Laurentino Cuevas. This is my third artwork or more likely a byproduct of boredom during the vacation. I was inspired to draw an old rendition again after I tried drawing myself as an old person. Well I really think it did not look like me but what the heck? I'm currently planing to draw something like this again when I feel like into it. I'm more of a "draw when you're in the mood" person. I tend to draw when I do not have anything else to do. (See original image.)

Artwork #2

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:10:00 -0800

This sketch is a sketch that I made for my Mus (Krizza Demanarig). Sketched her with a bonnet and big headphones. I just thought it would look cool. I almost did not sleep just to finish this sketch and I admit that its not good yet. I usually draw at night when I'm at my most comfortable state. (See original image.)

Artwork #1

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 06:57:00 -0800

This is my second sketch using a tablet and also incorporating it with colors. It's honestly my first time and I still got so many things to learn. Anyway I just thought of doodling myself looking old. This was inspired by graffiti art and doodles that I use to see in other blogs/websites. I usually don't sketch this type of art because I usually draw anime type of drawing. However, in the past years I have seen many beautiful arts or face sketches that seem to be deformed. Also it looks kinda funny. (See original image.)

First Sketch With My Drawing Tablet

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 23:54:00 -0800

I didn't really think that this would happen and I'm so thankful for my parents and my relatives who helped me to acquire this gift. A Genius MousePen i608 drawing tablet. I was reading gadget reviews regarding digital drawing tablets for the past few days and it really helped me to pick what I wanted. At first I really wanted to have WACOM drawing tablet but of course it would be too much to ask because practically it costs too much for a gift. I mean I already have gifts (thanks to God and my parents). So instead of wanting to have a wacom drawing tablet, I searched for another in another brand that would still be the same but would cost less.

At last I was able to find one and its a Genius MousePen i608. Let's skip the technical part. Well with the help of my relatives in Manila, they bought it for me and then delivered it here. As any one would do when receiving something new - yes you guessed it - open it right up. I installed it and gave it a try. My first sketch using the tablet is not so good. The feel of having to draw on a piece of paper compared to drawing on a tablet is really different. Anyway my first sketch is shown below. Another thing is when you buy a gadget, make sure you know the product. Make some researches and read as many product reviews as you can to make sure that the product you are planing to buy is worth it.

How To Change Facebook Username URL

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 09:54:00 -0800

Facebook users like myself want to change the Facebook Username URL. Heck even URLs are subject to personalization or customization. It looks neater and better compared to looking at your URL and seeing various symbols and numbers. Anyway, you could change your username URL through this link. You could also change the URLs of your pages if you like. Just follow the instructions and you should be done with it. Remember that you can only change your username URL just once so be sure in choosing your username URL. Thats it, thank you.

How To Add The "Read More" Expandable Post Link

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 09:32:00 -0800

At last I have learned how to add the Read More expandable post link. I really envied blogs that have expandable post links because it makes the page load quicker. The longer the post the longer it takes to load. Also it looks neater compared to showing the whole post in one glance. In this post I will share what I have recently learned after trying to do so in a lot of ways (I don't know what took me so long). Anyway, the easiest step to add the "Read More" expandable post link into your post is to insert a jump break. In the new blogger editor the jump break can found on the top of the post box or the text box.

The idea of using the jump break is to add a read more link on your post manually. You can add it anywhere in the post body. The part of the post that comes after the jump break will not be part of the summary post or the teaser.

Another way of adding the read more link in your post is through messing with the template or rather editing some settings and the html. The steps are as follows:

STEP 1: EDITING THE TEMPLATE. First you should navigate to the Edit HTML by clicking the Design link and the Edit HTML link.

Note: As what I always remind to my readers, always save your template before applying changes to it. This is important especially to those who no yet used to editing the template. Heck even pros commit mistakes but it really pays to be on the safe side.

STEP 2: LOCATE TAGS/CODES. Before actually locating the tags you must first enable the Expand Widget Template on the upper right part of the html body. First you must locate <data:post.body/>. It's easier to locate it using the browser's find tool (Ctrl+f). When you have located it the next thing is to add these codes before it.

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<style>.fullpost{display:inline;}</style>
<p><data:post.body/></p>
<b:else/>
<style>.fullpost{display:none;}</style>

Also you need to add the following codes after the <data:post.body/> and then save it.

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'><br />
<a expr:href='data:post.url'>Read more...</a>
</b:if>
</b:if>

STEP 3: FORMATTING. The next thing after saving the template is to navigate to settings and then formatting. Go to the bottom the page and then insert the following codes in the format post box and then save the changes.

<span class="fullpost">

</span>

Basically you have already done it. The next thing to do is to try creating a new post. Upon creating the new post should be in Edit HTML to be able to see the codes. The span class full post should contain the continuation of the post or the whole of it. Meaning all the things that you will input before and outside the span are the ones that will be shown on the summary. Thank you for reading. Happy blogging.

How to Put Tabs (Navigation Bar) On Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:35:00 -0800

Ever since I first used blogger I wondered how to put my own tabs or navigation bar below the header part of the page. I have tried lots of ways editing the html template and still haven’t got what I really wanted. However on the new blogger template I have found a way to put tabs on my page. This article will show you how to put tabs on your page the easy way. The steps are as follows:

STEP 1: ACCESS THE EDIT LAYOUT SECTION. When you on the blogger dashboard you can access it by clicking the Design link.

STEP 2: ADD PAGE ELEMENT. When you’re already in the layout section (see image above) the next thing to do is to add a page element or gadget of type “HTML/JavaScript” and place it just below your page header. Next is to add the following codes in the widget.

For those who do not know about html codes, the <ul></ul> are called "unordered HTML list". By definition the "ul" tag defines an unordered list (bulleted list). The next tags are the <li></li> which defines a list item. Then inside the "li" tag is an "<a>" tag which defines an anchor. Meaning you can link another document or page using the href attribute by putting the link as the value of the href. You could learn a lot about html codes in w3schools.

Note: The tabs or the navigation bar will adapt the design of your template. Also, you can customize the code as you like. You can add as many tabs as you like by simply adding another <li></li> tags, just be sure to insert it in the middle of the <ul></ul> tags. Also remember to put an anchor <a href=”” </a> in the list tag to make a reference of your tab. You could also change the name of the tab (e.g. Tab1). When you’re done customizing your tabs, make sure to save it. That should do it. Thank you for reading.

How To Change The Blogger Icon

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 07:14:00 -0800

Bloggers usually want to customize their blogs like changing its look and feel and one of the parts of the blog that bloggers want to customize is the url icon or the favicon. In this post I will point some steps to be able to change your blog icon into your customized icon. I learned this by reading Isaac Yasaar's blog post and decided to share it to others as well. The steps are as follows:

STEP 1: CREATING THE IMAGE ICON. The first step is to create an image for your icon. Now the icon doesn’t need to be in ICO format, it can either be in JPG or PNG. I suggest you use PNG format because it has higher quality but make sure that the size of the image that you will create is 16x16 or 20x20. That way the file size of the image will not be large and so that your page will not take long to load. I will leave the image editing to your own skills.

STEP 2: UPLOADING THE IMAGE. The next step is to upload the image file that you have created to an image hosting site or service. You can find many image hosting services in the internet. In my case I have used PhotoBucket. It’s a free image hosting site.

After you have uploaded your image the next thing you should do is to get the direct link of the image that you uploaded. This is important because the link will be used to reference your image in the next step.

STEP 3: EDITING THE TEMPLATE. This step involves editing the template of your blog. After logging into blogger you will be directed to the dashboard. You can edit your template by clicking the Design link and the clicking Edit HTML.

Note: If this is your first time to edit your blogger template then I suggest you save a copy of your template by clicking the Download Full Template link. This way you can reload your template if you happen to make a mess of it.

The next thing you need to do is to locate or find these tags: <title><data:blog.pagetitle> and <b:skin>. You can locate these tags easily by using your browser’s find tool (Ctrl+f). When you have located the tags, the next thing you need to do is to insert another set of tags in the middle of the tags that I previously mentioned.

<link href='put the direct URL of your image here' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Note: remember to copy the direct link of your image and then place it as the value of the href.

STEP 4: SAVE YOUR TEMPLATE. When you have already saved your template then you are already done. The image that you created is now your new icon when you view your blog.

Dad's Birthday [12.21.10]

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 01:30:00 -0800

December 21, 2010, Tuesday night, my family minus my brother, Jean Paul, decided to have dinner outside to celebrate my dad’s, Nathan, birthday. I was with Mus buying some gifts when my mom texted me, informing me that they would pick us up because we were going to have dinner someplace else. We decided to eat at Gourmet Deli. It’s a place at Chimes that serve yummy food. Well it was my first time to eat at that place and I wasn’t even the one who ordered my food. Well we had a good time, we ate great and tasty food and even though we were one family member short at least we had Mus to cover Paul’s place. After all I consider her part of my family.

After eating at Gourmet Deli we headed off to Frozen Avenue to have deserts. We had to, because the place closes at 8pm. When we got to Frozen Avenue, I was delighted when the store owner greeted us “Welcome back Ma’am and Sir”, simply means that she remembers us. Well it’s not our first time eating there, me and Mus. However it was my family’s first time to eat there. I ate banana split and the others ate whatever they wanted and we watched “Unstoppable” on their DVD. Unfortunately we were not able to finish the movie because that would be way too overboard. My family went home after that and I took Mus home. I will never forget my dad’s birthday. We had a cool and happy night. It’s something I will cherish forever because I don’t get to spend most of my time with them. Here are the other photos.

DevCon Cloud Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 7 Dec 2010 02:15:00 -0800

For the first time DevCon (Developers Connect) conducted it first cloud camp here in Davao City. It was held last December 4, 2010 at Draft Pick Sports Bar and Grill, The Site. Its presenters where Amazon EC2 plus mCloud and Microsoft Windows Azure.

By definition, Cloud Computing is an internet based computing wherein resources like virtual machines are available on demand. From what I understand about cloud computing is that it enables users such as business owners to deploy their applications such as websites in a cloud. A cloud represents virtual machines that are available on demand, meaning you only pay on what you use. It involves dynamically scalable and virtualized resources. It is scalable in the sense that you can add more virtual machines if needed and you could also remove or "kill" those virtual machines that you don not need. Instead of buying the equipment, installing, maintaining and everything that is related to hosting a server, a cloud does all of this and all you need is to deploy your application. It typically saves you a lot of money considering you no longer have expertise in IT.

Cloud camp was very fun and I admit that it was one event/seminar that I was real cozy because DevCon tends to do seminars in an informal manner and considering the venue of the event is a bar. The part that I like the most is the ever thrilling "Hackathon" where the participants get to test their skills. We were lucky to have won the second prize of five thousand pesos. We were kind of outnumbered in terms of background and knowledge of the contest. Why? because we were asked to make a Drupal application and deploy it on mCloud (By the way we were divided into four groups and divided it again between mCloud and Microsoft Windows Azure) and not one in our group knew how to use Drupal. We were more incorporated with Joomla which is also a content management system. Also we had to use a Mac laptop and the internet was slow. Luckily we still ended up bagging the second prize. I learned a lot fo things from the presenters of both Amazon and Microsoft Azure. Of course who could forget the free food and drinks. I hope there would more DevCon events here in Davao.

Future Technology: Why Study Technology/ies?

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Sun, 5 Dec 2010 18:27:00 -0800

As any person should know, technology is a part of our day to day lives like breathing the air. It can be found everywhere. It may be in the form of your cellphone, laptop or any hi-tech gadget or it may be in the simplest form like eating. Technology or technologies are not just tangible things, it is also intangible. Your creative idea can be sought of as a technology heck even plowing with the use of your bare hands is technology.

Why do we really need to study technology/ies? Because technology has been a part of our lives even since the ancient times, when people made technology from the basic resources that can be found in their surroundings, and these so called technology/ies has made our lives easy to deal with. We study technology because we want to make our lives better. We even fashion things to ease our work. I think there is a need to study technology, the past and the present technologies, because by doing so we can come up with a greater idea. However, if there are advantages there are also disadvantages. The more easy and accessible things are, new technology can also develop bad effects towards its users as it sometimes or rather often make its users depend on it most of the time and it makes them lazy. But although it poses a disadvantage it still sits on how the user uses it.

Photoshoot

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 5 Oct 2010 00:24:00 -0700

This photograph by Joshua Delica is by far the most beautiful (vain) shot I've had while playing my bass guitar. I must say that the photographer who shot this had steady hands and great skill. This picture was taken last September 25, 2010 during the Grind'n 180 at the Nccc Mall Davao while playing our original "Goodbye". It was an event spearheaded by the Edge Radio. Me and the band had been longing for a photo-shoot during one of our gigs and we hope that we will have more of this in our future gigs. I also hope that there would be more skillful photographers next time. Credits to the photographer by the way. (See original image.)

Frozen Avenue

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 5 Oct 2010 00:09:00 -0700

Frozen Avenue. If you're looking for a cool place to chill then frozen avenue is the place to be. It can be found at the building beside Conpinco, Bajada, Davao City. Frozen hours: 11:00AM-11:30AM on Mondays to Thursdays and 11:00AM-1:00AM on Fridays to Sundays. Frozen avenue serves a variety of delicacies, I haven't tried all of it but I can really that the menu is great. The price is considerably acceptable too.

Grind'n 180

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Sun, 3 Oct 2010 19:13:00 -0700

Azimuth Live At Grind'n 180, NCCC Mall Davao. The band played at Grind'n 180, a skate event initiated by The Edge Radio. As usual the band played their music. Two of the three songs including "Lies Behind Sweet Dialogues" was their new track "Goodbye" and a cover song "Pag-Agos" by Up Dharma Down. Photos by Joshua Delica and Glenn Lascuna. Check Azimuth Facebook Page: azimusic. (See original image.)

Cars

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:18:00 -0700

Just remembers Disney Pixar - Cars the other day and thought that it would be fun if there would be new cars. I actually saw an instructional of this in the internet and made my own version of it. The first car is Chevy Camaro and the second car is an H3 Hummer.

A Coke A Day Keeps The Pepsi Away

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:21:00 -0700

A Holiday With Azimuth

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:50:00 -0700

Last June 13, 2010 Azimuth band went on an on the spot outing at Babu Santa. It was so on the spot that we were not able to bring necessary things. All we packed was a handful of excitement. However, in spite of the event I did not enjoy it fully. Why? because I left my girlfriend back in Davao. She did not want me to come, I really don't know the real reason why she didn't want me to go with the band. Anyway, I still enjoyed it but of course when I got home I immediately rushed to my girlfriend to ask forgiveness. I would never do that again, not asking permission properly. I love my Mus. I edited and uploaded some of the pictures. You can also see it at this link: Babu Santa Outing

Edge Fest 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:42:00 -0700

Last March 15, 2010 was the Edge Fest and one of the performers was Azimuth. This was Azimuth's second outing. First was during an event of Monster Radio. The band was the second to the last performer and they played one of their originals entitled Luha at Ulan. Azimuth's members (Left - Right) : Roy Laurentino Cuevas (Guitarist), Jan Neil Gador (Bassist), Jodah de Peralta (Drummer) and Nep Cacas (Vocalist). The band's genre is experimental, mixing the sound of their favorite bands Up Dharma Down, Incubus and Bamboo. Azimuth was founded by it's original members Roy, Jodah and Jan. The band didn't have a regular vocalist when they first started. The original vocalist was Alvin Acuzar later on the band recruited Michelle and Allan however they transfered to another school. Nep Cacas was recruited by the band's drummer, Jodah, when he was studying in Ateneo de Davao University and became the band's official vocalist. You can view Azimuth's fan page on Facebook: AZIMUTH. You can view updates on Azimuth's gigs and originals.

Childs Play

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Mon, 7 Dec 2009 23:47:00 -0800

This is Xandra, Mus' niece, playing with Mus' Hello Kitty headphones that I gave to her on her birthday. Isn't she cute? We call her "little alien" because she does a lot of things like a mature person well in fact she can't even talk straight yet. She comes to Mus' house almost everyday just to play with her. She would get her things and play with them as if she knows how to use it. She knows how to play computer by the way, just like her parents who were once addicted to online games, well in fact its were they met. Soon she's going to have her baptism or shall I say she will be baptized. I think that I and Mus will be one of the uncles and aunties. Seriously? Well it is not unlawful after all, it might be a good idea. Either way it is all up to Xandra's parents.

Brilliant Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:12:00 -0800

This coming December 4, 2009 will be the annual convention of MSITS. It will be held at the Holy Cross of Davao College, CYO Gym, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. In this convention will be the presentation of different researches and projects from different schools in Mindanao. This event was spearheaded by our very own Mr. RSG from the University of Southeastern Philippines. Apparently two of the presenters in this convention are students of the Institute of Computing, University of Southeastern Philippines. The two entries, one which is a system that is to be implemented in the university and the other one is a research about green computing that focuses on providing solutions for global warming, are worthy to be part of the topics that will be presented on the MSITS. During our second meeting in our Systems Analysis and Design 1 subject, the presenters were asked to present their entries to us so as to serve as our basis for our proposals and to serve as their evaluation on the upcoming convention.

UNIISYS (University Integrated Systems)

The UNIISYS or the University Integrated Systems is a collection of sub systems that were developed by the 4th year students of the Institute of Computing. Mr. Michaelangelo Macaraeg was the one who presented their system and he is also the one who will be presenting the system in the upcoming convention. The goal of the system is to provide solution to some commonly used transactions of the students in the university and they aim to ease the life of the students by developing this system. One of the subsystem in UNIISYS in the G.I.S or rather it was the Davao G.I.S. It is a system that shows you the entire map of Davao City including the streets, landmarks, buildings and establishments. What's amazing about this subsystem is that it can show you the information you need about a certain establishment, you can search for a certain building and the one thing that strucked me most is the feature that shows the shortest path to be taken from one place to another and it can be either by walking, riding a private car or comuting. There was also one subsytem that could show the map of the university and its functions are somewhat like the G.I.S , however, it has added features. The other subsystems were eSkolar, eTudlo, eBaligya, Alumnay Sa Usep, etc. The subsystems were properly planned inorder to be integrated as a single system. This system, if implemented, can ease the life of the students when it comes to transactions and the like.

Open Co2 Monitor

The Open Co2 Monitor is a research project of Mr. Ronic Winmar Conecpion and Ms. Ymreb Momville, both are 4th year students of the Institute of Computing. Their research focused on adressing the problem of global warming. The name "Open" means Opensource because the Institute of Computing supports opensource softwares, "Co2 Monitor", a means of monitoring carbon dioxide. Initially, they discussed how Co2 levels rise from electricty cosumed in housholds. It starts from the appliances and devices that are plugged in the sockets of the house and then these devices consume energy that are generated from powerplants, poweplants that use fossil fule and the like to generate energy and in turn generates Co2 and expells it into the atmosphere. So thechnically speaking it is not the households that produces Co2 but the powerplant that powers these households. The more energy consumed the more Co2 is expelled in the atmosphere.

Open Co2 Monitor is a software that aims to monitor and lessen Co2 levels by the use of a sensor that is attached to the main line, the circuit breaker for instance, then the sensor transmits a signal to a device that is somewhat like a decoder that translates the signals into digital data and then transmits it to the computer. The Open Co2 Monitor's interface is a program developed from Java programming language, there you can monitor your electricity usage in watts, the amount of Co2 being expelled in pounds, and other details that I unfortunately forgot. You could also monitor your electricty bill when using the program from the interface. The data from your computer is also transmitted to a host site, the name of the site is Pachube, that is used to show Co2 readings. Actually Pachube is a site where you can store, share & discover realtime sensor, energy and environment data from objects, devices & buildings around the world. Pachube is still in beta testing and it is not yet open for everyone.

I was really amazed when the presenters tested the Open Co2 Monitor and it was really functional. Mr. Ronic attached the sensor to his laptop and the readings were displayed on the interface of the computer when they executed the program. It amazed me evenmore when the readings were shown on the internet. I mean you could actually monitor your electricy consumption and electricity bill even when you're not in you own house but just browsing the internet. I was just admiring their works during the duration of the class. It made me proud and think high of the students in the Institute of Computing. Minds do really come up with great ideas when you put your mind to it.

The MSITS convention serves as a stepping for the these presenters to do more reasearch and develop systems that provide solutions to problems. After all, IT people are solution providers. I am personally looking forward on being on that convention and I hope I could learn and absorb a lot of information from it.

School Boy Mode

noreply@blogger.com (Mus) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:19:00 -0800

The second semester has began and classes have already started. It's a fresh clean slate for me in this semester and I have decided to go back to my "School Boy Mode". Why School Boy Mode? I have realized that my subjects in this semester are no longer subjects that can be taken lightly. I mean the subjects are harder because almost all of it involves analyzing, evaluating and developing systems. That is why I have to be more serious in my studies. For the past few semesters I honestly took my studies lightly or rather no too seriously and I realized that this is not me when I was in high school or when I was in my first and second year in college. I realized that I have to do my best and be my best again so that I would excel and I would not disappoint the people who look upon me and the people that are dear to me. This semester I plan not to fail and I go to make sure that it happens.