For the Dudes!

Lean and Green Gaming Machines

2009-06-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

What a lame title and very informal too, still working on it. This is my research topic proposal for my CS Research course. This year research topics are focused on Green Computing.

We all know by now that computers are in fact a factor of global warming. Not only does it increase the green house effect resulting from heat dissipation, it also greatly consumes our natural resources (energy). Eventually some computer manufacturers realized the threats to the environment by creating green PCs. Somehow it answers the need for an environmental friendly personal computers, but what about the gaming industry? A high-performance gaming rig with a powerful graphics card, multiple hard drives and optical drives, a flash memory reader, and a 30-inch LCD might consume as much as 750 watts![1]. Not only that, a generic Power Supply Unit has about 80% efficiency[2] which means that 20% of that 750 watts will be converted to heat, its called heat dissipation[3]. A mid-level performance PC uses 200 to 400 watts [1]. A major internet cafe franchise located near USEP has about 1:2 mid-level to high-performance PC ratio*.

The purpose of my research is to come-up with an ideal DIY (do-it-yourself or chop-chop) high-performance gaming units that has lower electricity cost and exhaust lesser heat and would cost similarly to the gaming units of internet cafes here in Davao city**. It can also be a guide for individuals who are planning to buy a gaming pc.
I don’t know if this is research is a technical one since I’m not developing some software or a gadget/device.

I’m looking forward for your comments.

Reference:
[1]http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2097765,00.asp
[2]http://www.motherboards.org/articles/guides/1487_7.html
[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissipation

Notes:
*based on single internet cafe branch
**my scope would be the major internet cafes here in Davao city

Skul Tym

2009-06-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

Summer has finally ended (For most of you that is). It never started for me in the first place. I had to finish my on the job training. So dun sa hindi pa nkapagbeach, theres still plenty of summer heat to savor, kaya mgbeach na!(aw crap im out of topic)

School, school, school. Hmmmm.. *cursorblinking* *cursorblinking* *cursorblinking*

*sigh* Well theres nothing i can do, its already starting. Another year of listening, reading, writing, passing, failing. I've been doing it for about 16 years already and its getting kinda boring. But when I think about how much I've learn doing those routinary acts for 16 years, well I think it pays off greatly. If we didnt fill up our writing notebooks back in our kindergarten days we wouldnt have learn how to write. Thats why we shouldnt feel down because, listening+reading+writing+passing+failing = learning. And that equation will keep my head up for the remaining years(?) of my academic life.

SDLC of my life

2009-03-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

If I would consider having the System Development Life Cycle to be my guide in achieving my goals in life, I will use an adaptive approach. Why? Because we cannot fully predict what will happen in our life. In order for us to success in our chosen careers we must first pass our chosen course then followed by finding a job and do well in it. With those goals now in place I will use the steps in my SDLC to achieve those goals.

Planning:
We cannot predict the future; we can only plan for it. So by planning we can determine what to do in order to achieve those goals. My plan would be to focus on my priorities, be disciplined, and work hard.

Put into action (implementation):
No matter how good the plan is if not implemented. It is no use. Once the plan is into action I must excel in what I expected in my planning.

Evaluation:
It is the most important part of the process. Because by evaluating or assessing how things went will guide me in what I should do next whether I should work harder or should I slow down. Also by evaluating I can identify my strengths and weaknesses.

Maintenance:
Just like in a system everything that we have planned and put into action must be maintained. This way we can improve our strengths and compensate better for our weaknesses.

Consultation Update

2009-03-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

my reflection so far is.. uhhmmm.. our former proposal (payroll system) was really lame.. hahaha.. there i said it.. thinking about how long has it been developed.. its like reheating last nights meal..

but now with our new system proposal, we think its an innovative one. although scheduler/organizer softwares are common nowadays, a personalized and integrated subsystem for our university makes me proud.. because its new and exciting, and our school would benefit from it.. i hope and pray that this integrated system, together with the other groups, would really be implemented soon after our submission of the project.

so far our consultations has been about having our questionnaires being finalized in order for us to start gathering data.. well, wish us luck

USEP Enrollment Activity Diagram

2009-03-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

USEP Enrollment System Use Case Diagram

2009-03-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

Here's my version of the Use Case Diagram of the USEP Enrollment System

Radical Change

2009-03-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

The most radical type of change would be the Paradigm shift. Basing on the spectrum alone we can already tell that having the highest risk involve would likely mean it is the most radical type of change.

But what is a Paradigm shift? A Paradigm Shift is when a significant change happens - usually from one fundamental view to a different view. In most cases, some type of major discontinuity occurs as well. In laymen terms, Paradigm Shift is a popular, or perhaps, not so popular shift or transformation of the way we Humans perceive events, people, environment, and life altogether. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift)

In an organization changing perspective means changing the way the organization manages and operates. How things work in an organization changes when a paradigm shift is applied. It sometimes lead the organization to a different direction. It will have a high reward if the organization shifts to the right direction and made some improvement. But if the organization shifts in a wrong way, they'll surely lose a lot.

Pride vs Survivability

2009-01-06T23:39:00.000-08:00

Is our approved proposal worth it? To be safe I'd say yes. Why? How we came up with this proposal began when we where task to create a milestone mainly said to create a team profile . We were task to create a paper for our team which includes the team's mission, vision and goals with a set of team guidelines, rules, and punishments for violating those rules. A day before the submission of the said milestone did we only know that we have to include the company that we have to adapt with their background. So we called an emergency meeting since not all the members of the team have classes that day. We first agreed that we'll "again" adapt the city library since one of our group mate has a connection with the city library. On submission our proposal was rejected since city library has been the subject of many system development projects such in the previous Software Engineering and Database Analysis and Design subjects. Maam Tammy challenged us to adapt a financial management system within the vicinity of the university. We, knowing that adapting an office for a system project within the university will take a lot of time since it involves the permission of lots of people. And not to mention a Financial System, that will REALLY be challenging.

So we ended up with the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA). We went to their office and conducted an interview with their supervisor. Regarding a system they said that an automated payroll system is what they needed the most since they don’t have an automated one. After submitting the proposal it was finally approved. And that’s how we arrived with that proposal.

But is it worth it? Worth in a sense of a project for the subject. Like what i've said earlier the answer would be yes. Yes because the difficulty of the system is equally challenging to the capabilities of our team since we don't have an expert coder.
Is worth the four years of my learning here in the university? I would shamefully say no. It’s not worth it. All those subjects that I’ve worked my ass out to pass will not be put to use. Especially my math subjects which I failed almost every first take (huhu). All those efforts will be rendered useless.

My realization to this assignment gave me an idea of the conflict between survivability and pride. For me, ever since I learned how to program I always wanted to create something amazing, something that I would be proud of, like cool design/interface or puzzling algorithms. But then again reality hits me, will I be able to create such thing. that’s when the idea of survivability surfaces.
"If i proposed this complicated project will I be able to finish this?"

Having to choose between survivability (passing the subject) and pride (making something new/amazing/worth it), is experienced by most of us. It’s one way or the other. Being able to pass with a feeling of shame for taking the easy road or making something to be proud of but taking greater risk. For this subject we chose to survive.

For those who took the hard road.. we salute you!

Critical Success Factor... How to make one?

2008-12-17T21:08:00.000-08:00

What are the steps involved in using the Critical Success Factors? Before I discuss the steps I think I’ll first define what CSF is and what it is for.

As what I have read, CSFs are the essential areas of activity that must be performed well if you are to achieve the mission, objectives or goals for your business or project. In short Critical Success Factors are key factors to the success of a project, organization, or an industry.
By identifying your Critical Success Factors, you can create a common point of reference to help you direct and measure the success of your business or project. Identifying CSF's is important as it allows firms to focus their efforts on building their capabilities to meet the CSF's, or even allow firms to decide if they have the capability to build the requirements necessary to meet Critical Success Factors. As a common point of reference, CSFs help everyone in the team to know exactly what's most important. And this helps people perform their own work in the right context and so pull together towards the same overall aims. It is also said that the method of Critical Success Factors is an iterative one, meaning that even though missions, goals and objectives are already established it doesn’t mean it’s final. Sometimes after CSFs are identified, mission and objectives are modified because of newly found strategic goals and objectives.

These are the steps followed in order to create a Critical Success Factor analysis:
Step One: Establish your business' or project's mission and strategic goals. By defining first the mission the goals and objectives can be narrowed down in order to pinpoint the candidates for CSF. Whereas the mission and goals focus on the aims and what is to be achieved, Critical Success Factors focus on the most important areas and get to the very heart of both what is to be achieved and how you will achieve it. So in order to identify areas that need focus a solid aim should be first established. The foundation for writing good CSFs is a good understanding of the environment, the industry and the organization. To do this it requires the use of information that is readily available in the public domain. Industry information can be source from industry associations, news articles, trade associations, prospectuses of competitors, and equity/analysis reports to name some sources. This is helpful in building knowledge of the environment, the industry and competitors. The information mentioned above can easily and largely accessed through the internet. Some sources that helps in gathering information is not necessarily accessible through the internet, are interviews with the buyers or customers and suppliers, industry analysts or experts and independent observers.

Step Two: For each strategic goal, ask yourself "what area of business or project activity is essential to achieve this goal?" The answers to the question are your candidate CSFs. In finding suitable candidates for CSF, here are some tips in what factors should be considered in for selecting essential strategic goals for different types of CSF:

Industry - these factors result from specific industry characteristics. These are the things that the organization must do to remain competitive.
Environmental - these factors result from macro-environmental influences on an organization. Things like the business climate, the economy, competitors, and technological advancements are included in this category.
Strategic - these factors result from the specific competitive strategy chosen by the organization. The way in which the company chooses to position themselves, market themselves, whether they are high volume low cost or low volume high cost producers, etc.
Temporal - these factors result from the organization's internal forces. Specific barriers, challenges, directions, and influences will determine these CSFs.

After having developed a hierarchy of goals and their success factors, further analysis will lead to concrete requirements at the lowest level of detail. A “good” CSF begins with an action verb and clearly and concisely conveys what is important and should attended to. Verbs that characterize actions: attract, perform, expand, monitor, manage, deploy, etc.

Step Three: Evaluate the list of candidate CSFs to find the absolute essential elements for achieving success - these are your Critical Success Factors. Evaluation of the list of candidates is important so that the more important areas or factors are left and be identified as Critical Success Factors.

As you identify and evaluate candidate CSFs, you may uncover some new strategic objectives or more detailed objectives. So you may need to define your mission, objectives and CSFs iteratively.

Step Four: Identify how you will monitor and measure each of the CSFs. It is important to identify ways of monitoring and measuring CSFs so as to prove that the identified CSFs are indeed factors of success to the organization. By identifying these CSFs, these helps ensure that the business or project is well-focused and avoid wasting effort and resources on less important areas.

Step Five: Communicate your CSFs along with the other important elements of your business or project's strategy. By making CSFs unambiguous, and communicating them with everyone involved, this can help keep the business and project on track towards common aims and goals.

Step Six: Keep monitoring and reevaluating your CSFs to ensure you keep moving towards your aims. Indeed, while CSFs are sometimes less tangible than measurable goals, it is useful to identify as specifically as possible how you can measure or monitor each one. This is what I meant about how this approach is iterative. After having the CSFs it is of utmost important to monitor what happens to the organization after the CSFs were established. Whether the objectives were met or not, or there is a need to change or even have new CSFs.
Here are some tips on who to write a good Critical Success Factor:
Ensure a good understanding of the environment, the industry and the company – It is stated that CSF's have five primary sources presented by Rockart and Bullen, namely the Industry, Competitive strategy and industry position, Environmental factors, Temporal factors, and Managerial position. It is important to have a good understanding of the environment, the industry and the company in order to be able to write them well. These factors are modified for companies and individuals and the customization is a result from the uniqueness of the organization.
Build knowledge of competitors in the industry – While this principle is covered in the previous one, it is worth highlighting separately because it is critical to have a good understanding of competitors as well in identifying an organization's CSF's. Knowing where competitors are positioned, what their resources and capabilities are, and what strategies they will pursue can have an impact on an organization's strategy and also resulting CSF's.
Develop CSF's which result in observable differences – A key movement for the development of CSF's was the idea that factors which get measured are more likely to be achieved versus factors which are not measured. Thus, it is important to write CSF's which are observable or possibly measurable in certain respects such that it would be easier to focus on these factors. These don't have to be factors that are measured quantitatively as this would imitate key performance indicators; however, writing CSF's in observable terms would be helpful.
Develop CSF's that have a large impact on an organization's performance – By definition, CSF's are the "most critical" factors for organizations or individuals. However, careful process is exercised in identifying them due to the largely qualitative approach to identification, leaving many possible options for the factors and potentially results in discussions and debate. In order to truly have the impact as envisioned when CSF's were developed, it is important to thus identify the actual CSF's, i.e. the ones which would have the largest impact on an organization's performance.

References:
http://www.rapidbi.com/created/criticalsuccessfactors.html
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_80.htm

Im Back!

2008-12-17T20:54:00.000-08:00

hehe.. its been a while.. might as well start off with a greeting! Hello everyone! I know my blog is not popular but still people read my posts so i think i should be updating this more frequently. I haven't posted til now for some reasons, not excuses. reasons. Well to be honest im not really into blogging before.. but now due to my obligation as a student (hehe) and the persistency of some of my friends i took interest in blogging. Reading blogs is fun but writing my own entries is somewhat hard. My english is bad, my humor is evil and my thoughts are dirty (haha). Well anyway this is the start of my blogging career! hope ya'll like my future entries.

See ya!

Essay on Information Environment

2008-10-17T01:02:00.001-07:00

OMG I’m late, so late. And I don’t even know where to start . I should start with a definition I guess.

What is an Information Environment? Uhhmm.. Just a minute I’m still “googling” it. Ahhh there it is. An Information Environment is an area where group of IT professionals or any just anybody who has the skill to create and maintain a set of network or online services that supports the publishing and use of information and learning resources. In short it is where knowledge or information is being gathered, processed, used, stored, and updated according to what the user(s) are looking for. Since most of these environments are independent, users such as myself has to navigate through websites or series of sites in order to find the information needed for like, say for a research or for reference material or even just for knowledge’s sake. Yes, I “google” for information a lot just to satisfy my curious mind. I usually search for information mostly regarding on questions of “How” and “Why”. For example ‘How come cats always land on their feet?’, ‘How did the Mayan and Aztec Empire (which is by the way two of the most powerful empires of the old world) got wiped out?’ and ‘Why did Führer Adolf Hitler wage war on their neighboring countries?’. These pieces of information are like gold coins in a treasure chest, small yet invaluable. But these treasure chests aren’t found in a single search, neither can it be taken in a single voyage without any crew.

Okay, so much for metaphors. What I want to say is that knowledge is priceless and cannot be learned all at once without anyone’s help. That is why books are published, libraries are constructed, and schools and universities have been erected. Speaking of libraries, I think I just came up with an example of an information environment, hooray!

Library, a place where knowledge sits in a shelf, a place where we can study or just read without being disturbed, and a good place to sleep too (joke lang!). It is where people usually go whenever their craving for knowledge hit them or students whenever they’re cramming for their research papers. But finding the right information usually takes time, really takes time. That’s why books are cataloged to make the searching less hard. Back in the days where computers were not easily accessed by normal people (hehe), libraries were the best place to be. Back then libraries only have photocopiers and typewriters which are available for readers to use. So whenever a needed information is found it is either copied by hand, get it photocopied, or have it typewritten (haven’t tried this one though ). Therefore the transition or flow of knowledge is rather slow, which inhibits the acquisition of knowledge. Now here comes the bloom of information age, Internet became the best source of information and combined with the principles of sharing knowledge and information, search engines were improved and billions of information became online, thus the creation of digital libraries.

The rise of digital libraries marks the new age of information dissemination. Not only does it abide to the principle of knowledge sharing, it also makes it easier for users to access to the information needed through search engines. Since all information found in digital libraries are searched through search engines I’d pick search engine sites to be my information environment, specifically an information-dedicated search engine. And a search engine head developer/programmer will be my role.

Information are like grains of sand in Boracay , it is just lying still in the open. But finding the right grain of sand will take a lifetime. That’s why searching tools or search engines are very important if not, a necessity. That’s why as a search engine developer I should make the searching algorithm more complex to make the search output more accurate. If possible I would add to the word-based search engine a logic-based searching method. That is, when a user is searching with keywords the engine will simulate the logic or sense of these keywords and provide a set of possible meaning of the whole inputted phrase, basically making it artificially intelligent. It really seems not possible, for now, but time will come, it will. Then I would make the user interface more appealing, not with added visual effects or embedded applications but with just a simple relaxing theme that would not strain the eyes of any users, yet beautiful enough to appreciated. Since knowledge should be free of cost there should only be small amount advertisements on the search engine. Ads redirect the attention of the users especially when the advertised product or service is quite enticing (e.g. pornsites, free download, etc.). Some ads really annoys me, like the ones that keep on flashing, and ones that moves with the scroll bar, and also there are ads that pops-up in the center of the web explorer and doesn’t even had and exit button on it. In line with the digital libraries’ advocacy of free knowledge the search engine site should have direct links to certified accurate-information digital libraries placed on the web page.

Creating this complex search engine will really take time and lots of effort, not to mention the maintenance of it afterwards. But for a team dedicated in helping people to acquire knowledge and information, knowing that they’ve learn something means our efforts have paid off.

*Disclaimer: This article does not imply that going to libraries and reading reference books makes the learning process slow. Reading tangible materials is still the best way of reading, trust me. Nothing beats the smell of an old book.

Are we in or out? Debate on in/outsouring regarding USEP Information Systems

2008-10-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

It took me some time to understand how would our university outsource the information system functions since most of my reference about outsourcing is business related, where money and time is of the essence. Since the object to be in/outsource is an information system I think i would side with insourcing.

Why insourcing? well.. uhhmmm.. there are some reasons. One would be that having our IS insourced, we know better the issues concerning it. Therefore will have better control over its development and functions. If we outsource our IS my concern would be who would we send if the outsourcer needs human resource? our own professors? It would be a loss to the university.

The thing that could tempt to outsource is the benefit of shared knowledge and skills. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge would really enchance the skills of our faculty. Also having access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.

In insourcing we could make a comitee or a team who will be incharge of developing and maintaining our IS, with addtional pay of course. There's and ethical issue that i've found that says; why pay people outside of the company when we can pay our own personnel that are capable of doing the same task?

What the President said (SONA) related to Information Techonology

2008-10-17T00:55:00.000-07:00

I really wasn't able to watch the SONA on TV. I wanted to see her doing the speech, she really suchs on camera you know, hehe. Heres some of the ICT related areas that she mentioned.

"Texting is a way of life. I asked the telecoms to cut the cost of messages between networks. They responded. It is now down to 50 centavos."

-Well im not sure how this affects my quality of life. Sure, the 50% discount is a big cut, the question is does the majority of texters subscribe regular loads. I myself dont, for the reasons that there are promotional loading prices that are less costly and has also extra load for other networks, such as all-text 20. It would be better if this promotional prices would be also cut in half.

"Our P 350 million training partnership with the private sector should qualify 60,000 for call centers, medical transcription, animation and software development, which have a projected demand of one million workers generating $13 billion by 2010."

-Wow asa ning mga private sector kay muapil ko! This will greatly help those people benifited. With the government's help their training (I assumed) will cost less and their skills will be develop to a certain standard. The $13 billion dallors will be of great help to our country since this crisis would still cripple us further than 2010. This will really improve my quality of life kung mapasama ako sa 1million workers mentioned above.

If I'm hired to be and IT consultant and deal with internet connectivity problem of USEP... What would I do?!

2008-10-17T00:52:00.000-07:00

The best thing to do with this problems is to plan it throughly. Having a lot of computers certainly slows down the internet connection thats why proper maintenance of the facilities is required. Regular check-up of the devices is a must, although this does not directly affect the connection, but having a slow pc unit plus slow internet would mean that your not getting the services you paid for. Maintenance would include fixing pc hardwares and peripherals, removing existing viruses and updating the anti-virus databases.

Now for the connection itself, decide on what network topology best fit for campus use. Check the connecting wires and ensure that it is working properly (check either may gasgas yung wire o may sira sa mga rj-45). I don't know how many ISP the school is subsribed to, but if there are more than one, it would be best to divide it per building/s.I think its better to have two regular-speed connection providing each a half of the units in the campus, rather than having one upgraded connection used throughout the university.

Also, since the E-Library is made for educational purpose of the school, streaming through unnessesary sites should be restricted.

Risk associated with business and IS/IT change

2008-10-17T00:51:00.001-07:00

Yet again another hard topic to find reference to. I found bits of information from diffrent sites.

The very issue in IT associated businesses is security. When having a transaction over the internet there's a risk of impersonation. A stolen account is an example.

There's also the issue of data security, the risk of having someone manipulating is common such as hacking. And also the risk of data loss caused by technical errors.

And I think the most important is the risk in client security. I think this would be on a client perspective. When having a transaction on the net with a credit card the client risks his confidentiality and of course his money. Even if their is a given price, the client wouldn't immediately know if ever he's being scammed.

http://tutor2u.net/business/ict/intro_security_risk_analysis.htm

The Barriers of Information Systems

2008-10-17T00:48:00.000-07:00

Wow this topic is surely hard to find in the internet. Good thing that the reference i had on our previous assignment has infos about the barriers of IS. Altough http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/guides/tying?chapter=3&section=4 is about state-local IS, it has insights of what hinders an IS project. And heres some of it:

Lack of a shared, reliable computing and network infrastructure.
- When an institution lacks an IT infrastructure there will be a dificulty in operating technology supported programs with consistency from one office to the other or building to building. It also slows and complicates communication among the organization or other institutions

Unrealistic time frames.
- Some information systems take considerably longer than originally planned. Time delays lead to serious difficulties in planning for and adjusting to changes in operations. Since they consume more time than they expected, the deadline will become a pressure.

Goals that are too ambitious for the resources available to achieve them.
- When planning a system there is a certain goal that comes with it. It inspires the staff in making the project. But when the goal is a bit afar considering the staff, equipment and funds alloted, the said goal will be hard to reach. Even well planned projects tend to fail when their goals and resources are on different scales.

Best practices of IS/ IT

2008-10-17T00:46:00.000-07:00

It took me some time to find a reference about this. It looks like you all extracted the best practices of IS in your posts (this is the disadavantage of passing an assignment just hours before deadline ). Good thing i managed to find this site: http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/guides/tying and able to find some practices, here's what I found:

Define purpose and scope
-A well-defined purpose and scope are intstrumental for success. With a definite purpose it becomes easy to focus on a project. In defining a purpose project goals should be prioritized and identifying resources, such as funds, time, people, technologies will give insights on what the scope of the project will be.

Adopt tools and techniques that can manage complexity
-In managing system a project requires tools to manage people, time, relationships, partnerships, ideas, conflicts, resources, information, and processes. Visual tools like conceptual and project workflow diagrams and timelines become a guideline to the project that evolve over time.

Train thoroughly
-Mastering a new computer system can be a tricky business for even the most proficient users. When any user adopts a new information system, it creates some anxiety, especially when the new system is not as user-friendly as the system developers because what is user-friendly to the development team may not easy to handle for the end-uses. The process of adopting a new system can easy by offering well-designed, user-oriented training sessions and reference materials. Also by training the users the developers can improve their system by hearing feedbacks from the users.

Information Systems failures.. do you know why?

2008-10-17T00:44:00.000-07:00

Why do IS fails? Well there are a lot of factors causing this and in think the biggest factor is poor planning and strategy error, this will cause problems such as missed deadlines, unmet requirements, dissatisfied customers, excessive costs, and unused systems. And sometimes it leads to resource management problems because of unforeseen problems the system will encounter. I think there is no such thing as a bad strategy, because we usually weigh pros and cons and eventually choose the one with lesser cons, the problem is some cons greatly affect the company like changing company systems which leads to inability to adapt to the system. Also choosing fast, less cost, less efficient short-term over slow, costly, but efficient and long-term solutions results to recurring problems like what we've discussed on class. Lack and or faulty IT infrastructure (hardware, software, network, etc.), Having these technical problems slows down the transactions, causes miscommunication, inflates company expenses and cripples the efficiency of the system. Having insufficient numbers of adequately skilled IT staff will cause problems such as inaccurate data and software/hardware problems. How could a system run smoothly without a competent and skilled staff?

reference:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4153/is_n4_v53/ai_18863038

Ways how we can adopt Open Source in our campus

2008-10-17T00:41:00.000-07:00

Source code is the language used by programmers to create software. Open source code means the code is available. Open source software uses source code that is open, unrestricted and freely available by downloading it from the Internet. The ‘open’ in open source software is intended in the philosophical context of ‘open or free speech’ rather than as a free product. Licences for open source software provide an unconditional right of any party to modify and redistribute the software for free.

-use open source softwares in our servers, would it be a back-end or front-end. This will provide more security and flexibilty because the source code of this softwares can be reprogramed.
-use open source softwares in our computer laboratories and reconfigure those softwares based on the what the students need.
-teach students how to use, debug or even reprogram open source sofwares. This will greatly benefit the students in the future.
-create an organization for open source development composed of programmers, professors and student. And create or reprogram softwares that are specificaly designed for the university.
-conduct tournament-like event where participants are to debug or reprogram an open source softwares.

www.educationau.edu.au/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/papers/open_source.pdf

Lets make it GREEN!

2008-10-17T00:39:00.000-07:00

Green computing is the concept of responsibly using computers and conserving its related resources. Such as the implementation of energy-efficient CPUs, monitors, printers, servers and pheripherals as well as reduced resource consumption and reuse and/or recycle materials such as paper and printer catridges.

Such practices can be adapted in our on campus and also for those who owns a personal computer we can help our environment by:

Conserving Energy
-Use the power management options installed in the computers, set turn on the sleep mode if pc is not being used physically (e.i. encoding) but is use for running other "background programs" (e.i up/downloading).
-Turn off computer and /or peripherals when they are not in use. A modest amount of turning on and off will not harm the equipment.
-Don't turn the printer on until you are ready to print.
-If monitors are not needed for "servers" to operate, keep server monitors off. I dont exactly know how frequent the servers in our campus is being use though, but turning off its monitors would save energy consumption of the university.

Reduce Paper Use:
-Recycle waste paper.
-Before recycling paper which has print on only one side, set it aside for use as scrap paper or in printing drafts.
-When documents are copied such as lesson handouts, use double-sided copying or "back to back" copying to conserve paper.
-When general information-type documents must be shared within an office, try circulating or passing them around instead of making an individual copy for each person. This can also be done easily by e-mail.

Reusing and Recycling Printer Cartridges:
-Do not throw away empty printer cartridges unless it is broken. An ink refill technician once told me that an average cartridge will last for 4-5 refills then it starts to leak. As long as the cartridge is not broken it can still be refilled.

Environmentally responsible computer use implies not buying new equipment unless there is a demonstrated need:
-If it can still be fixed, then just fix it (I think this idea is already adapted in our university).

When buying a new equipment, buy efficient and buy green:
-Buy only "Energy Star" computers, monitors and printers.
-Buy LCD monitors because they say it typically uses a cold-cathode fluorescent bulb to provide light for the display. Some newer displays use an array of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in place of the fluorescent bulb, which reduces the amount of electricity used by the display.
-Buy a monitor only as large as you really need. Since its an office/school device, i think 15 inch monitors is enough.
-Buy ink jet printers, not laser printers. According to the University of Buffalo ink jet printers use 80 to 90 percent less energy than laser printers and print quality can be excellent.

Recycle, not dispose computers and/or its parts:
-Recycling computing equipment can keep harmful materials such as lead and mercury out of landfills or dumpsites. I don't know if there are certain junk shops for computers and/or its parts, but if there is it would be the best place for damage electronic equipments to be disposed.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid80_gci1246959,00.html
http://wings.buffalo.edu/ubgreen/content/programs/energyconservation/guide_computing.html

It's Coming!

2008-07-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

OMG! Diablo is back! After 10 long years! 10 years! Blizzard Entertainment finally announced the next installment of Diablo. For those of you who don't know Diablo is a "hack and slash" Role-Playing Game (RPG) first released November 30 1996, the game was nothing but minless clickfest. Click to move, click to attack, and click to open chests. Click, click, click, click, click. Despite the simplicity, what can't be denied is Diablo's wide-ranging impact on the gaming industry. The game birthed the action-RPG genre as we know it. And in my opinion i could say that Diablo is the Godfather of all hack and slash-RPG.

The new installment features fully rendered 3D environment (yeah! the grafix!!)

New skill system (skills can be hot-keyed from 0-9 or f1-f10, just like in MMORPGs)

Interactive environment, use the walls to kill the mobs, sweet!!

Character gendering, can choose male or famale (im not sure about a male amazon though, hehe)

New classes, they didn't anounced how many because the site shows only one, the Witch Doctor.

It's time to kill Diablo, again. I mean seriously when will he die? He was killed in Diablo I, he's soulstone was destroyed in Diablo II and now he's back in this sequel. Oh well.. ^___^

The release date of the game hasn't been announced yet, but rumors in some forums say it will be released in 2009. I still have time to upgrade my PC :p

If you want to see their site here's the link:

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/index.xml

watch the video teasers cause its really.. ummm.. how can i say this delicately.. FREAKIN COOL!!

Fortress - Protest the Hero

2008-06-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

Fortress is the sophomore album released by Protest the Hero three years after they launched their debut album entitled Kezia. The official release date of Fortress was on January 29, 2008, but leaks were already out on the net a week before (and yes, i got my album copy from one of the leaks through torrent download). I could've bought an original cd though, but for sure the album wont reach the market here in the philippines. Unlike their first album (Kezia) which genre is mathcore, Fortress is labeled progressive metal and metalcore. Its louder, the lead vocal screeches then the other vocal growls (ahhh music to my ears). The band has stated that the sound is similar to Kezia but with a "less poppy and more technical metal" influence. Fortress does not revolve around a single concept, unlike their previous album. According to their bassist and lyricist Arif Mirabdolbaghi:

"It has to do with goddess worship, and how there has been this degendering of the Lord and Savior, and the suppressed feminine. A lot of it is based in Genghis Khan and old Irish Mythology, about the rise and fall of the Goddess of the forest. [The theme] can be more appreciated by more people. If I had to reduce it to its simplest form, the concept is about the re-emerging of goddess worship and the erosion of faith in scientific process."

Their former album (Kezia) is also somewhat feministic.The concept of the album was based on a thearter play,its about Kezia's imprisonment and death. Its kinda weird that in this kind of genre some messages of the songs has a feministic view.

The album cover was designed by Sons of Nero, a graphic design and illustration company that creates artwork for many music albums. The cover is a depiction of the Irish goddess Flidais (who is mentioned in the track "Limb from Limb").
Heres the tracklist of Fortress:

1. "Bloodmeat" - 3:55

2. "The Dissentience" - 4:23

3. "Bone Marrow" - 4:35

4. "Sequoia Throne" - 3:11

5. "Palms Read" - 3:44

6. "Limb From Limb" - 4:22

7. "Spoils" - 2:59

8. "Wretch" - 4:11

9. "Goddess Bound" - 3:36

10. "Goddess Gagged" - 3:14

My favorite songs are Bloodmeat, the lyrics describes and illustrates the war in the time of Genghis Khan that causes deaths of the fathers who joined the war, the virgin daugthers being raped and children being sent away to safety on their own; and Sequioa Throne which warns us that we will cause our own destruction, not aliens or monsters of some sort.