Happy 13th Birthday Google

Today is the 13th birthday of the world's favorite search engine - Google. To celebrate this significant day in the virtual world, a post in my blog is worth a present for the largest and most reliable search engine should be written. Thirteen significant years have passed since Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the company Menlo Park, California, and Google continue to serve billions of users around the world on a daily basis. Now Google is more than just a search engine. It also has dominated advertising, blogging, photo sharing, social networking, desktop and mobile applications and other facets of technology - Google is everywhere!.

Also as part of its celebration, Google.com shows an image of a birthday set-up: a cake with 13 lighted candles on top of a table, with the characters g o o g l e ! seated in front of the cake. It's a birthday atmosphere indeed.

Once again, Happy 13th Birthday Google!

14 Year Old "Tech Prodigy" Developed IPhone's Number 1 Free Apps

Image Source: http://www.deseretnews.com

Most 14 year old kids spend most of their free time hanging out with friends playing basketball or video games, or simply going to the mall window shopping or just walking around. In simple words, they spend their free time doing "nothing". But this is not the case for a 14 year-old 8th grader from Spanish Folk, Utah named Robert Nay. Being addressed now as a "tech prodigy", Robert Nay has a bit different hobby from other teenagers of his age. His hobby - writing source codes for IPhone applications. Believe it or not, this hobby turned out to be a global success as far as IPhone apps is concerned.

Spending most of his free time at the Spanish Folk Public Library reading programming books and source coding, Robert Nay developed the most downloaded free application for IPhone called "Bubble Ball". Bubble Ball is a very simple and straightforward game: all you have to do is to guide the small ball from one side of the screen to the other by following an obstacle. Nay wrote the application using Corona Tools, a software development kit by Ansca Mobile. Nay first used Objective C and GameSalad in developing the application, but he later shifted to Corona as it provided him the ease of creating, porting and publishing the game both IPhone iOS and Andriod.

Bubble Ball was released last December 29, 2010, and in just a span of three weeks, this free application reached an eye-popping 2 million downloads, thus dethroning former #1 apps Angry Birds by Chillingo. Well just in case you don't have any idea on what this kid has accomplished, Angry Birds was designed and developed by 17 professionals - just to be dethroned by a mere 14 year-old 8th grader. According to reports from Mobilized reports, Bubble Ball even reached over 400,000 downloads on a single day.

If Robert Nay charged $1 per download of Bubble Ball, he would have been a kid millionaire, earning $2 million dollars in just 3 weeks (that's too much for a 14 year old teen). Interviews from ABC news reveled that Robert Nay is currently developing another application after Bubble Ball.


Wished all teens in this world are determined as this "tech prodigy" teen. Click here to watch ABC New's interview with Robert Nay.

Disclaimer: Images used in this blog post are not owned by the author. Credits to the images go to the link in which the images were linked. 

Laptop Buying Guide: Right Laptop for Different Users

Choose the Best Type of Laptop that suits your needs 
 
As a consumer or a techie user you should not be deceived by the promising components and slickest laptop designs. As mentioned they were developed bearing that specs and designs to a particular types of users. So when shopping for your first laptop the very first thing you should consider is your needs. Are you a gamer seeking for a laptop that offers the best gaming performance? or a student that needs laptop for word processing and submitting assignments through e-mail? Whatever type of user you are there’s a particular laptop for you; what’s more important is you know the right specifications that suit your needs. Listed in this article are the different user types and the laptop specification that suits them.

Student

Students don’t need luxuriant laptops for their daily assignments and research works. What they need is a low cost but portable laptop models like a netbook which allows them to carry easily from room to room during classes. Though netbooks don’t have that incredible processing power as it only offer low voltage single core processor, it is more than enough to cater basic application needs like surfing the web, sending e-mails and writing researches and reports.

Typical laptop specifications for student user are 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard drive, small screen display and a single or dual core processor.

Price Range:  14,000 to 20, 000 depending on model, manufacturer and specifications

Business minded

For those who need laptops for business use whether indoor or requires travel, they need a laptop that’s robust enough to stand long hours of use, with strong data security features added on to incredible processing performance. Typical business functions that need your laptop would probably presentation of sales or presentation of proposed projects using a LCD projector. A laptop that runs smoothly in multitasking condition is also ideal for business minded users.

Laptop specifications for business minded users include 2 GB RAM or higher, 250 GB hard drive or higher, 15 inch display, wireless networking, Windows 7.

Price Range:  25,000 to 35,000 depending on manufacturer and specifications

Multimedia Savvy

If you’re fond of multimedia like photos or videos – be it a passion or a source of income, you need a laptop that’s powerful enough to run the latest photo and video software available. You need the model that has the capability to play high definition videos, great screen resolution and a processor for multitasking.

Typical laptop specifications for multimedia savvy users include 4 GB RAM or higher, fast hard drive (7,200 rpm with capacity of 320 GB or higher), 15 inch or larger screen display.

Price Range:  30,000 to 40,000 or higher depending on manufacturer and specifications

Ultimate Gamer

While most gamers prefer desktops when it comes to gaming since it offers flexibility when it comes to upgrades and cooling facilities, there are users that are taking advantage on recent laptop designed only for gaming. Basically you need a powerful gaming processor like Core2 Quad and the latest Intel Core i7 built for better 3D gaming experience. You must also have the latest graphics card for better video quality.

Other feature every laptop for ultimate gamer must have included 4 GB or higher RAM, 320 GB hard drive, 17 inch display

Price Range:  35,000 to 50,000 or higher depending on manufacturer and specifications

Ordinary Home User

General laptop users not falling on the above mentioned user types are included in this type of user. At some point, student might be included in this one as student laptop can also be used by their parents or siblings at home; it is not always the case however. Typical home user needs laptop for basic viewing of photos, listening to music or burning them to DVD etc.

Laptop specifications for ordinary home user includes 2 GB RAM or higher, 160 GB hard drive, DVD burning drive, 16 inch display.

Price Range:  25,000 to 35,000 depending on manufacturer and specifications



Each kind of laptop have different models coming from different manufacturer; each having different design and features. So before choosing what particular laptop model to buy based on what type of user you belong, better read reviews on these laptop models. There are lots of reviews available on the Internet, or more a more reliable and accurate laptop reviews, visit http://reviews.cnet.com/

Disclaimer: Images included in this article are not owned by the author. Credits for the images belongs to the website in which links are provided.

References:

http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/2009/05/asus-f6v-series-laptops.jpg
http://sumanl.com.np/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Best-laptops.jpg
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptop-buying-guide/?tag=centerColumnArea1.0;buyAdvice

Facebook’s Unique Security Feature

Just recently, I discovered additional security feature on the most popular social networking site in the world Facebook. Correct me if I’m wrong if I say it unique but it is the first time that I have encountered and has seen such security feature. I discovered it upon using a proxy server site to access my facebook account. I tried to access my account in a computer laboratory in our school but since facebook.com was disabled by our network administrator because of limited bandwidth offered and to ensure that students focus in their academic assignments. But it comes a time where I feel bored of not doing anything so I decided to try using facebook this time by using proxy server site nakatago.com. I succeeded to open the homepage of the website, but before I logged into my homepage, there were certain questions that were asked before I finally got into my homepage. Sorry to not include the snapshot of the exact things that the website asked me to do but you can try it yourself if you want to. The security check was composed of 4 parts; the first part was to input a captcha image, the second was to verify what was the last thing I did on the site before logging out to determine if I’m the one who did it, the 3rd part was that I asked for my password as part of their verification and authentication if I’m the real owner of that account, the 4th and the last part was just a confirmation that it was me who was the owner of the account and asked to log-in back. By the way the error that was prompted by facebook was that my account was accessed by different Internet Protocol (IP) particularly in the United States while my account was based in the Philippines. This mechanism is part of the feature of a proxy server site hiding the real IP address of facebook.com when the client requested for the website so that it will not be blocked upon its exit with the network in our university. The proxy site also used different IP address to log-in my account.

Honestly, I have been using many proxy server site to access some social networking sites in our school but this was the first time I encountered such security checking. Good for facebook to add such security checking as part of their security measures aside from its native identity checking. Maybe that’s why facebook.com is the most visited website around the world and the most popular social networking site not only with its cool and unique features but also its tight measures in terms of security.

What's Next in Technology?

We are living in the 21st century. Four centuries has passed since human being first learned to developed and used what we commonly knew today as technology. The transition of the past to the present had produced tremendous yet productive, helpful but sometimes destructive technologies that became part of human life. Technology had a huge influence on how people made their living today, their lifestyle, how they behave and also how they deal their work. Clearly, human being depends on technology to survive. Believe it or not, technology will continue to grow and change through time and will still affect the lives of every human being.


Everything in this world is created to undergo a process what we called change and technology also goes the same. But technological change was totally different in a sense that it occurs in a fast pace. So fast that even the person who were involved in development didn’t anticipated its effects to the society. For the past 4 centuries, technologies that were developed were so many that maybe one day is not enough to count all of them. So many that in every field of industrialization you belong, there are always technologies that accompany you from all tasks. Technology has become a reliable side kick of every human in facing their daily tasks.


Navigating our history, we can see how our technology evolved from their ancestors in the past up to this generation. Of course past technologies served as the background or the framework on what technologies should look like. These technologies from the past seemed to be the most difficult since there was no guide for them on how they model their work. Another is that due to limited resources and also how they will convince people to believe in their work. But despite all odds, these technologies emerged victorious. Technologies from the past has served human needs and caused human lives changed dramatically. Throughout the history, technologies were never perfected in whatever means; functionality, safety and many more. This imperfection has resulted technology to grow and allow people to explore more on capabilities of technologies, how far will these technologies aid people in their daily tasks. The major flaw of past technologies is that it bulky and is not portable. Computers in the early stages of its development were such a huge dumb machine. One simple computer that processes basic operations was such as large as a one room. That’s how huge technologies before. But size is not a problem anymore in the present. The transition from the 18th century to the 21st century proved to be a long but fruitful transition as technologies becoming faster and smaller though time, improving the quality of life for those who patronize it. Though technologies undergo changes but still it wasn’t perfected because human needs don’t stop changing and also human being will never be contented on what they are doing or what they have accomplished in life. These human traits however made technology continue to grow and improve.


The capabilities of technologies have extended human imagination. Technologies in the present era can perform what we think impossible to do by these machines. Technologies in the 21st century have already conquered human imagination. We are living in a century where human almost becoming useless in terms on manpower. Everything human being can do could be done by machines faster and more accurate. A century where technological change reached its peak when it comes to improving the quality of life of people using it. But come to think of it, what will these look like in the future? Take note that it is not yet the end of the world and technology will surely be changing once again. What’s next when it comes to technology? For the past, we have been shocked by the effects of technological development. In the future, how are we going to prepare for the good and bad effects of these changes? Since these technological changes are inevitable force in which human should face that’s why preparedness play an important role on this events for human.


What’s new in technology? Prominent sites over the internet have named several new inventions that are very promising and very futuristic in terms of the features these new technologies possess. Here are some of the remarkable inventions that has reached the market for the past 5 years.




Medicine




This field is one of the most concentrated fields of technological development. Curing diseases has been the priority of everybody that’s why developing technologies that will be very helpful in medical treatment were developed. Among of the latest trend in medicine is what we called nano medicine. This new trend in medical treatment is using nanotechnology to diagnose and cure different diseases. With the use of nanotechnology, microchips can now be implanted inside the human body to keep track of the conditions of our different body organs, our blood circulation and cell conditions. Nanotechnology in medicine could replace bulky machines used in operations and even doctors in the future. This trend has not yet turn into perfections by the developers but in the near future, this nanotechnology in the field of medicine will be perfected and will be very precise, accurate and inexpensive. Nano medicine could be of great help in medical treatment.


There is also a small device that can kill cancer cells in the human body. We know that cancer is one of the most deadly diseases in which no direct medications has already invented.


Another trend in medicine aside from the nanotechnology is the laser surgery, or using laser in surgery. This laser technology is the best replacement to the current needle and thread that surgeons are using.


Transportation


With the ongoing problems regarding the high price of gasoline and other petroleum products, I can see in the future that the trend will going to be developing new models of automobiles that will be using alternatives to fuel like renewable energy and those energy that are coming from other natural sources like bio fuels, windmill, electricity and other fuel sources. Among of the latest developments in automobiles is Hydrogen Powered Vehicle by the Filipino inventor Engr. Daniel Dingle. He invented a new model of automobile that is using water as fuel. This new technologies has been used by car companies like Honda and Chevrolet.
There are also vehicles that are using electricity in countries like United States (Miles ZX40S Electric Car). As of this moment, there are a lot of electric car models introduced in the market.


Not only cars have been converted to electricity fueled but also other means of transportation like trains.


With the world engaged in the serious fight against climate change, this automobiles powered by this renewable energies will surely hit the market.


Energy Sources


Environmentalists and the United Nation has identified the excessive use of fossil fuel is the primary cause of global warming and climate change. Several technologies are dependent with fossil fuels to power them like automobiles and in factories. With the world in a serious fight against climate change and global warming, world leaders and expert groups have been promoting alternatives to fossil fuels.


Among of the renewable energies endorsed by world leaders are the solar power, windmills, bio diesel, hydrogen and ethanol. These energies may not be as powerful as the petroleum, but these are far more environment friendly and economical.


Computing


Computers seemed to be the best invention of all. Computers served human a lot of purposes, from calculations to socialization. Computers has been the best tool on every field; medicine, mathematics, science and even in military. As we go along, computers are becoming smaller and faster. Current computers can actually process billions of instructions per second. With the invention of the internet and the World Wide Web, computers have become superior among all of the technologies existed.


May 26, 2008 marked another milestone in the field of computerization as the fastest computer of all finally introduced in the market. This supercomputer nicknamed “Road Runner” has the capability to process 1 quadrillion calculations per second. This technology was primarily developed to simulate the effects of aging on nuclear weapons.


One of the major disadvantage of continuous domination of computers and other electronic gadgets is that they are also the primary reasons of climate change and global warming. Because of these facts, Experts are now proposing what they called “Green Computing”. This advocacy has the primary goal of promoting measures that will limit the emission of greenhouse gases of these devices and also promotes on using energy star electronic gadgets.


Computerization in the future will be thinking of the environment first before the pleasure human can get from using technologies specially computers.


Astronomy


With the discovery that there is a possibility of human survival in Mars, astronomers developed robots that have the capability to navigate Mars and record some samples from the planet. More and more sophisticated space shuttles were developed to conquer the space and the universe.


Space shuttles in the future allows astronomers to inch closer to the sun to know its characteristics and can navigate away from the solar system to study if there are lives other than human being in the universe to prove the existence of aliens.


Artificial Intelligence


Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most controversial fields of technology. Making computers as intelligent as humans is the primary goal of Artificial Intelligence. There have been a lot of machines particularly robots that are invented that think and act like human. Among of the remarkable inventions was the “Deep Blue” by IBM that defeated chess master Gary Kasparov in a chess game. In the present, there have been numerous Intelligent Machines, some of them have the capability to do tasks what are very difficult by humans, can also do light tasks such as cleaning kitchen. If we have reached this far in developing such intelligent machines, then is it possible that robots can outplay human in the future?


The future of Artificial Intelligence for me is something to fear about. There has been some researches about robots will be developed to have emotions and also has the capability to mingle with humans just like humans do. We can foresee in the future that these Artificial Intelligent machines will dominate the world and maybe make human lazy and useless.




If we try to look at the future based on the current trends of technological development, the future will be a place where man and machines compete for survival. Even me I can’t imagine what will be the future looks like in terms of technological development. What are their features and how accurate they will work to serve human. Present technologies are small and fast but future technologies will be very small and very fast. Human has already learned their lessons on the bad sides of technologies. Human already witnessed how destructive technologies are if put into exploitation. I’m expecting environment friendly technologies in the future. Technologies that are pro nature. For sure, human will not allow machines to totally dominate them. We know our limitations and we also know what the limitations of these technologies are. Theirs no need to worry about human eradication because we are the one who made them. We know how to terminate them.


I am very excited on what will be the future looks like. I can’t wait to see and use these technologies and experience another milestone on human hard work. I am lucky enough to witness such marvelous innovations in technology. No one have ever imagine that from the simple industrial revolution in the 18th century, it turned to a complex and sophisticated moment in our history, not even those who worked hard and contribute ideas in the past. We must be very thankful to this remarkable transition in our history. Without this marvelous creation of technologies in the past, what we have right now and in the future will be all part of our imagination.

references:

http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/nanotechAndMedicine.html
http://www.infoniac.com/science/sympathetic-virtual-humans-could-be-part-of-daily-life.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22088/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_XS500
http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/tp/2008.htm
http://inventors.about.com/od/famousinventions/tp/topteninvention.htm
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854150,00.html
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/Feg/current.shtml
http://www.oilgae.com/energy/nn/b/2007/05/greener-computing-environment-friendly.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/computers_math/artificial_intelligence/

Addressing Skills Shortage in the Philippines

The Philippines, even though a 3rd world country, slowly and trying to cope up with the fast technological change. Yes we are far beyond on what are the technological advancements rich countries like Japan and U.S.A, but we filipinos have the capability to compete with them in terms of skills and our ability lo learn. Our country also slowly becoming as one of the Information Technology hub in Southeast Asia together with Malaysia and Singapore. A new trend in business that we called outsourcing or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has become the most famous in our country. Some companies in the United States outsourced in our country because of the low cost of business here and filipinos has the capability to engaged with such jobs. Because of the very fast growth in the field of ICT, the Philippines right now is facing skills shortage on this field. In a study conducted by XMG, a global ICT research and advisory tank, “the total ICT growth in the Philippines which is projected to grow by 30 to 35% FTE year-on-year through 2010”.” But the country's IT labor pool average growth for the past 5 years is only 10% and is forecast to grow by another 3% in the next 2 to 3 years,”. This is the current shortage status of the country as far as the ICT field is concern. How are we going to solve the problem of skill shortage? Here are some of the strategies the government had implemented and must implement to solve the increasing number of skills shortage in the country.


Improvement of the education system specially in State Universities and Colleges

the government implemented some changes in the curriculum of some universities and colleges through its ladderized curriculum program headed by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). With this program, students could acquire the needed skills needed by the industry.
The government must also increase the subsidy of every State Universities and Colleges (SUC's) for them to provide state of the art facilities to their students. This has been the major problem of state universities and colleges throughout the country.
The government must also limit the increase of matriculation of private schools to have an increase of enrolling students. Increasing the no. of students could solve the skills shortage in the country.

Provide training institutions in technological fields at low to no cost

TESDA offers some technical courses to students at a low cost and also in a short period of time. This training are the best alternative for those who cannot afford to go to universities. But the no. of training institutions in the country is still not enough to produced the needed labor pool in the field of ICT and technology.

Industry-Academe Mismatch

this is the problem that needs to be solve first. There is a mismatch on what the academic sector produced to what the industry needs. According to XMG analyst Benedict Dormitorio, “ensuring curriculum alignment of educational institutions with the current market needs of the industry through close consultation with ICT companies and organizations is very important”. The graduates produced by the academe is useless if it doesn't match on what the industry demands. An example of this is strengthening partnership of industry and academe in offering On the Job Training (OJT) program for the students to acquire skills that industry needs.

Government Should promote Technology Courses

the government must also encourage incoming college students to enroll to what are the in demand courses like IT or Computer Science to increase the number of expected graduates.

Wage Increase

majority of the fresh graduates on this field migrated to neighboring countries like Singapore, Middle East, India, China and Malaysia because of low wage. The government must increase the current wage rate in the country to convince our graduates to stay in the country.

Reference:


http://www.infoworld.com/news/feeds/08/04/04/Critical-skills-in-the-Philippines-face-shortage.html

My First Photoshop Exercises

I am a 4th year Bachelor of Science in Computer Science but this is my first time to use Adobe PhotoShop. Honestly, I have no interest in image processing and anything that is related to multimedia applications.

Upon having my first time, I really enjoyed trying because first of all, the exercises were on a step by step basis so it is very easy for me to follow. I also enjoyed trying to edit some images.

Here are the 3 exercises given by our instructor.

Exercise 1: Creating a 3-D button



This is the output of my very first exercise in photoshop. I don't know if it looks like a 3 D button.





Exercise 2: Superimposing layers


This the exercise where I enjoyed a lot. I choose as my subject the President of the United States Barack Obama. The result was pretty cool and nice.






Exercise 3: Easy Bevel and Emboss


The last exercise we have created. I used the same image as the second exercise. The output was also nice for a beginner.

What Can I Do to Stop Climate Change?

Climate change is any long-term significant change in the “average weather” of a region or the earth as a whole according to wikipedia [1]. This phenomenon which is the earth climate change is normal since earth's climate is dynamic and always changing through a natural cycle [2]. But the 21st century has been facing huge problems which are the results of climate change. It has been the headlines of every articles, main agenda in every international and national conventions and the main topic of every discussion, a hot item anywhere in short. Add on to that the recent press releases in the televisions, newspapers and even in the internet that climate change effects have been going worst and years passed by and immediate but long term plans and solutions must be made to stop the continuing damages. Being a student growing up, this facts which are obviously contradicting each other and had somehow caused some confusion in my young mind. Why are we going to stop climate change if it is natural in nature? In what way climate change destroy the mother earth? These and a lot of questions were running in my mind the first time I encountered such facts. Later as I have grown up and learned a lot from all the information I gathered and learned from school, the answers to all the questions that made me confused for years were finally answered. The latest or the current status of the effects of climate change were already severe and that made me shocked when I knew the causes of transforming the natural occurring climate change into an abnormal force that drives human species from extinction in the near future.

According to www.edugreen.teri.res.in the causes of climate change were categorized into 2 categories; the natural cause or the internal factors and the other one is the non climatic factor, external factors, but it is now commonly called human cause. Natural cause as the word implies, are caused by natural phenomenon that are happening within the earth's natural resources such as volcanic eruptions, continental drift and ocean currents. These phenomenon contribute to climate change. But these phenomenon are natural forces in nature and there's no way for us humans to stop it. But what is really the alarming cause of climate change are those the results of man's daily activities. Because of the fast paced improvement of man's quality of life, the change of earth's climate that are occurring today have been speed up because of man's activities, and this trend has made the whole world worried a lot. The modern climate change is what we commonly known today as the global warming. The sudden rise in the average temperature in the earth had caused major calamities such as flash floods due to rise of sea levels because of melting of ice in some portions of the earth and stronger and frequent typhoons hitting the land. Many researches resulted to a common finding, the cause of this unusual warming in the earth's atmosphere is the increasing volume of greenhouse gases emitted by human being specially carbon dioxide (CO2). During the modern era, the naturally rising carbon dioxide levels are implicated as the primary cause of global warming since 1950. It is very evident that the main reason of such drastic rise in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emissions is the migration of people to industrialization. The fast changing trend of technology has worsen the problem of proper disposing of greenhouse gases. With more and more industries and devices were created which resulted more jobs for people over the years. More people from rural areas migrated to cities for such opportunities the urbanization has to offer. More agricultural land and forests were converted to urban lands and subdivisions to accommodate more migrating people. This land conversion also has become a cause for the speeding up of climate change. There are different scenarios of climate change contributions but share a common cause; it is technology that is the major contributor to the abnormal change in climate and global warming together with the inappropriate human usage of technologies. The present scene has becoming more complicated and severe because of the blowing number of people around the world all contributing tremendous volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “ that global warming is occurring and that is very likely 90% certain man-made. Sooner or later, this findings could easily increase to 100% if no actions or solutions to be taken. The fight against climate change and global warming is a serious war and everybody should take part of it.

Human being can be described as a criminal armed with high powered weapon and our mother earth is the defenseless victim. Guess what the high powered weapon that slowly killing the victim, “it is the technology”. Time will come our mother earth will die and the hope for saving the earth is in our hands.

The responsibility of finding solutions to stop climate change and global warming lies in the hands not only of the powerful nations and individuals but in the hands of everyone of us, every person living in this world. Everyone should contribute by sharing their knowledge and ideas that leads not only short term but long term solutions. Theres no need to be a superhero with superpowers to save the world from total destruction.

Being a student is not a hindrance in helping to alleviate the speeding climate change and minimizing the global warming. I can't deny that as a student, my capabilities and skills are limited, but in simple ways I can contribute to the world wide combat against climate change. Great things starts from simple beginnings as the saying goes. Experts and environmentalists from all around the world had identified simple solutions to minimize the effects of climate change. As I read some of them, I can't believe that the suggested solutions were very simple and somehow easy to do. Everyone regardless of their professions, status in life and educational attainment can do it.

But why was that the condition of climate change has becoming more severe in these past years if the remedy are very simple? The awareness to these solutions plays a major role in our combat for solving climate change and global warming. No matter how handy and easy the solutions are if everyone doesn't know and not even aware of the problem we are facing right now. Everything will be useless.

Awareness of Climate Change and its Solutions

As a student in the field of Information Technology, helping to the people specially those who are uneducated or unaware of the present situation of global warming and its solutions would be very easy for me. With the help of the internet and the web, proper dissemination of information could be very easy and very fast with the aid of internet resources and activities like blogging, forums, groups and even in social networking sites like multiply and facebook. The message could be relayed to everybody easily and quickly to level up their awareness level to the problem we are facing on global warming. I think if the people are aware, everything will fall into pieces. From this simple and cost efficient solutions, if everyone will do it, we could reduce millions of tons of greenhouse gases we emit on the atmosphere. In lesser time, life goes back to normal. That's the essence of sharing a bit of information to everyone. You help everyone to take part of the world wide combat against global warming without losing anything from you. Another way of disseminating information to increase the level of awareness of everybody is creating a advocacy group in school or in the community to have a full force in fighting climate change and global warming. Just like in the University of Southeastern Philippines – Obrero Campus, an advocacy group composed of Information Technology students were created with the primary goal of disseminating information on the effects of abusing the use of technologies in the environment. The group was called Green Campus Computing. Banners were created by the members of the group and posted it in some portions of the school and in some bulletin boards inside the school for all students and faculty and staff to read and also made them realize that before we have fun using our latest appliances and gadgets, imagine also the effects of using it too much. People in the field of Information Technology has the edge among other fields in our university since we are well acquainted on the latest technologies and its effects in the environment, so its time for us to return the favor.

The academe and the government also play a major role in the awareness level of its respective constituents. These institutions are powerful and influential enough to make its members follow. In the academic sector where I belong, the inclusion of environmental issues and concerns in school curriculum could be of great help and this goes to all school levels, from elementary to college level. If not, conducting seminars and forums about climate change and global warming in schools could again very effective. The government must join world wide conventions and initiatives in fighting global warming and they must relay the message to its citizens thought its different departments.

The biggest challenge for me as a Information Technology student at the same time an advocate against speed up of climate change and global warming was that how can I disseminate such information without creating any misconception or confusion on the their part. It is easy to say to them that using technology is the major contributor of speed up of climate change and global warming, but without causing any trauma that will force them to resist from using technologies. Life without technologies is useless. Technologies have become a commodity because of the benefits they provide to its users and consumers. I think people won't survive if there is no technologies on their side. Everything that is too much is not good and technologies itself is not exempted.

Energy Conservation and Practical Decision Making

Use technologies wisely, this is the best way to explain. We need to conserve every energy that our technologies are using. There are research findings that electronic appliances, gadgets and devices emit huge amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I think 99% of houses in the cities and urban lands all around the world have 2 or more electronic appliances and in a worst case scenario, majority using all of them at the same time in an average of 20 hours everyday. Try to imagine the volume of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases human being emit everyday and this goes for 365 days a year!. That's how our world has been experiencing right now. The atmosphere has been absorbing poisons coming from us everyday. I'm not saying stop using technologies instead, be practical in using it. Use only technologies or electronic appliances that serves your needs at a given time. Don't use all electronic appliances all together at the same time, this might cause overload and also might cause fire. The smoke coming from burning house could also contribute to climate change. From the average of 20 hours everyday, try to reduce it to 15 hours daily. The 5 hours less could reduce our greenhouse gases emission of a huge volume and could extend our existence here on earth for few hours. Unplugging appliances you are not using, scheduled ironing of clothes and turning of the lights when no one is using could be practical ways of conserving energy while saving some money from your electricity bills. Proper discipline and practicality of using technologies could be of great help in fighting global warming and climate change.

According to Sharon Hays, the leader of the U.S delegation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007) in Paris, France and also the deputy director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, “the U.S which emits the most greenhouse gases, has so far not accepted any form of reduction in such emissions, either as part of international efforts or domestically.” I wasn't surprise that U.S is the number one when it comes to the greenhouse gases emission since it is very evident in the civilization and the technology advancements of the country. But what made me really surprised was that the americans has not supported any efforts both globally and locally when it comes to fighting against climate change and global warming. They are reluctant to support maybe because they are afraid to lose a penny from their wallets and they don't want to sacrifice a little time of their pleasures for the benefit of everybody. I understand that people of these days specially in the highly civilized countries like U.S.A and Japan to live without technology but its up to their conscience. They are old enough to know what is right and wrong. The Philippines is a 3rd world country, and we emit a little less greenhouse gases than those countries like Japan and U.S. But what made me really frustrated was that 3rd world countries like the Philippines were those who were badly affected by global warming and climate change. Stronger typhoons hit the country leaving thousands of people homeless and killings lives of defenseless people. The forces of nature will not identify american or japanese to be its casualties (just a joke). What's the message of this is that why wait for them to action? We have our own little way of fighting global warming. According to Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), “ The economic costs of waiting to act will be severe.”. Theres no need to wait if we already have the solution.

Everybody has the luxury of using technologies for our own good. We have the right to use it provided we can afford to have it. People in the field of Information Technology like me even though I'm still a student must adopt to what's the latest technologies in the market. Sadly sometimes I can't afford to do so. At first, I was somehow frustrated but later I realized that always having the latest technologies in the market was not always good and could also contribute to the problem on global warming and climate change.

We cannot deny the fact that technology development or inventions and innovations are becoming very fast which resulted to huge no. of technologies in the market. People will buy this latest gadgets. But we are living in the age where technologies has become obsolete even before it is implemented or introduced in the market. With the rapid technological innovations, in a few months time, new models will be released in the market with added features than those of the older ones. Again, people will patronize such technologies. This scenario will recursively occur over time. Now the question will be what will happen to those obsolete devices? How are we going to dispose it? We all know that these are non-biodegradable. These wastes was named Electronic wastes or “e-wastes”. “These are wastes type consisting of any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic device” (wikipedia.org). Problem of disposing such wastes had caused a lot of headache to different countries since these are non-biodegradable wastes. As years passed, the no. of such e-wastes continues to increase. These wastes also contains substances that contribute to the global warming. However, there are some solutions to this problem like junk shops and recycling. But not all can be sold and recycled. Be practical in your decision making in buying gadgets and electronic devices. Being in the field of Information Technology doesn't mean you buy every new technology that will be introduced in the market. Buy only those that suits your needs. Also be selective on each technology. Buy those technologies that are environment friendly technologies. Choose technologies that are energy star and energy efficient. Practical decision making in buying and disposing electronic devices and gadgets could be of great help in the reduction of greenhouse gases emission in the atmosphere. As a student with limited resources specially financial, it is very easy to do it.

Looking at the environment I am leaving right now, everything were already dominated by technology. Bu just merely observing every technology human being is using, you can identify which technology contributes to global warming. That's why each and everyone of us should be aware and responsible enough to do our roles as human being. I believe that being a student with limited capabilities, I have the guts to make earth a better place in the future. As what I have saying in the early part, the battle against climate change and global warming is not an individual battle, it is a battle that everyone of us should participate.

We cannot change the reality, the reality that people depends on technology to survive. I believe that it is impossible to eradicate technology in this world. Human will not survive if there is no technology besides them. At the beginning of the industrial revolution in the 19th century, many thought that technology is perfect. They made people lives simple and organized. Later on they realized that the more helpful technologies were, the more destructive it becomes. God is really Good. Everything that He created were always in a balance.

As a summary, students play an important role in finding the solutions to climate change and global warming. Honestly, I was really surprised with the suggested solutions against climate change. I think if everyone knows it before, this problem should not get this huge and worst. These solutions seemed to be very simple but it is very difficult to do. People are obsess with technology. Sacrificing a little bit of their income and pleasure in exchange of mother earth's rehabilitation seemed to be very difficult to do. But reality again speaks to itself, we cannot take away technology from human. Technology is the key to success of mankind. But can we do it without compromising the life of our mother earth and risking our lives? I recall one of the folk song of a famous band Asin, “Hindi nga masama ang pag-unlad kung hindi nakakasira ng kalikasan” from their song “Masdan mo ang Kapaligiran”. We need to balance everything. It is not late to action against this problem. Just keep in mind that we are doing it not only for us but also for those who will follow us.

references:

[1].http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change#The_memory_of_climate

[2].http://www.eoearth.org/article/Causes_of_climate_change

[3].http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=10-solutions-for-climate-change

[4].http://www.loka.org/idt/SocialEffects.htm

[5].http://ccir.ciesin.columbia.edu/nyc/pdf/q1a.pdf

Technological Change... Environment Change?

The environment has a very strong influence on how people make their daily living. In fact, human being must adopt to the environment they are living for them to survive. It has been proven throughout the history of human being that the way human being revolved, their lifestyle, their needs among others depends on the environment or society they belong.

Technology on the other hand has been created and used to serve fast changing human needs. Technology has started to its basic form during the ancient times where human knowledge and resources were still limited. But this simple technologies of the past serve as the stepping stone on what the present and the future appearance and features and capabilities of technologies has been and will be. A very good example of this very simple technology is the abacus which was invented by the Chinese thousand of years ago. From this simple counting machine originated the idea of what we knew today as the calculators and supercomputers which can perform billion of instructions per second, a billion times faster and accurate than the abacus. The abacus was invented by the Chinese because of their need of an accurate, fast and efficient way of computing which was very important in trading of goods. With this example, it is very evident that technology existed because of the needs of people and for them to cope up with the fast pace changes in the society.

Innovation in the field of technology can be defined as applying changes to an existing machine or technology to serve a purpose. With this simple definition, we can say that technological innovations made not only because of the dynamic and increasing needs and demands of human being, but simply because society itself demands for such innovations. We cannot deny the fact that there are certain events in society not only simple but very significant events that triggers major turnaround on the way people living in the past which also influenced what we see now in the present and will see in the future. If we try to look back few centuries back, I don't know if it is just an unexpected circumstances happened or it is a trend. Every historical and significant events happened, new technologies were introduced or innovations in existing technologies were made in order for the event to be more significant and historical. At some point in time it is safe to say that significant events in our society leads to invention and innovation in technology. Taking the abacus again as the example, at the beginning of its utilization its basic function as a machine that performs arithmetic operations had fully suits its purpose. But as the needs of people grow due to huge changes in the society and the environment. It is a very long story on how the basic idea of a simple machine performing only arithmetic functions and intended only for business has evolved to a very complex and sophisticated machine that has the capability to process billions of instructions in a second and used not in business operations but in almost any fields; biology, astronomy, medicine, mathematics and even in the military. Because of the fast advancements of the above mentioned fields, most of the historical events happened were greatly influenced by these technological fields. In fact, there will be two scenarios that occasionally happen. It is either new innovations from the existing technologies will be developed or technologies were used to drive significant events. For me to prove that these scenarios were not just merely coincidence but a fact, I have identified several significant and historical events in society. Significant here doesn't mean only events that are constructive but all event, whether it is constructive or destructive in nature.

In the field of astronomy, the discovery of Galileo Galilee of the planetary bodies using simple telescope has inspired a lot of astronomers to explore the space and the universe. Because of this discovery, more and more and more powerful and high technology telescopic and astronomical gadgets were developed and innovated to unveil the mysteries of the universe. Humans are not contented on viewing the heavens from the earth. Many astronomers specially the Americans and the Russians raced to be the first to send human on the outer space using their most powerful and expensive space shuttles. In the present, robots were sent to planet Mars to investigate the possibilities of human survival in the planet. Clearly, innovations in technologies in the field of astronomy had conquered the universe more than human being can imagine. Technological changes and historical events must be related and interconnected with each other in other words.

The world had also experienced chaos that sent the whole world into total destruction and human being from extinction. Although this turmoil in society has had a lot of damages and caused trauma for those who had witnessed and experienced it, somehow it also brought benefits in which people from the present have been very thankful and that the is the technological change. First was the World War 1. this war was considered to be the old fashioned war where countries and its soldiers used low powered and slow weapons. Battleships were the most powerful weapon during that time. World War I had brought a lot of lessons and ideas to military to create or develop more technological weapons to minimize damages and civilian casualties. 30 years after and another World War started. But the 30 years before the war was the transition of constant technological innovations and development. The idea and the prototype of the first aircraft technology developed by the Wright Brothers were developed during that pre war era. This aircraft technology were the cream of the top as far as technological advancements are concerned. Airplanes which were developed to provide convenience to mankind as a means of transportation were put into experimentation by the military and later turned into a super weapon and also turned war into a new dimension, the battle on the sky were inaugurated.

The World War II was the said to be the most expensive and most destructive war in the world history in terms of cost of weapons and damages. The huge lift in technological innovations in this field clearly had caused such chaos and damage in our society. It is said that innovations in technology in war reveals the dark side of technology.

The military specially in the United States and that also includes the Defense Department of the United States of America had funded a lot of research projects to improve the current technologies and to strengthen their defense against terrorism and other evil forces. In the present, a lot of new technologies used in the military all around the world were developed not only to become more powerful but also to minimize civilian casualties. We have now the stealth fighter technology aircraft that can penetrate enemy's territory without even detected by a radar and also integrated with a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker to make war more accurate and precise while minimizing casualties. This technology was used in Afghanistan in search for Osama Bin Laden .

With this technologies existed as a legacy of war, we can say that damages and turmoil caused by the war doesn't brought only disadvantages but also benefits. This event should be a classic example of significant event in society that resulted technological innovations.

The birth of the Internet in the late 80's also gave birth to the generation that we commonly called today as the “information age”. This event is one of the most significant event in society if we try to look at the way people living in the present world. Nowadays almost all transactions of every individual could be done through the world wide web and the cyberspace from banking, purchasing, research and even chatting and social networking. No doubt the Internet was a big hit. In the beginning, only computers had the capability to access the Internet, but now, almost all electronic gadgets could access the Internet at a very low cost. Cellphones, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and Iphones all created and innovated to have access on the Internet using the new technology called wi-fi or wireless fidelity. As of this moment, majority of the technologies created and will be made in the future must support the Internet for these technologies to be competitive in the market. Clearly, the Internet is another milestone in the success of mankind because of many advantages it provides to end users. The endpoint is that the birth of the Internet is an example of technological innovations that became a significant event in society.
Actually, technologies of the present are the results of the hard work and efforts of genius entities of the past together with the mighty force of our society. We could never reached all the things that are happening today if all such events in our history never happened. But always remember that things are always created in a balance way.

As a summary, from the above mentioned scenarios and those that we feel and experience from our daily lives, we can say that significant events in our society and innovations in technology are related and interconnected. Events that happened had become successful and also destructive because of such technological innovations and also technological innovations has been successful because of such significant events in society.

My PhilNITS exam Result

Last night, I receive the result of my PhilNITS FE examination. The exam was conducted here in Davao last October 19,2008 at the University of Immaculate Conception - Bonifacio Campus. I have waited for my examination results to arrive so that I would know if I performed well in the examination. Sad to say, I have failed the examination due to lack of concentration because of my academics and the examination was quite difficult.

Upon opening the envelop that contained my scores both from the a.m and the p.m examination (the FE examination composed of 2 parts. The a.m examination was all about fundamentals of Information Technology. The p.m was about programming and analysis skills) ,I was very nervous. But when I finally saw my score, I was shocked and very frustrated. My score was very close to passing the examination.

I got 555 points out of 800 items for the a.m examination and 550 for the p.m examination out of 800 items. The passing score for both examinations were 600. I almost got it! I only need maybe 4 or 5 correct answers to pass the exam. I was really frustrated because I may have passed it during that time. There are a lot of items in the examination that I wasn't able to answer due to lack of time.

I will try to take the examination again next year, where I will have all the time in the world to review. I will become a PhilNITS passer someday.

To view the List of Passers, visit their website.

I would like to congratulate my classmate Rendell Andrin for passing the PhilNITS exam.

My Plans as an I.T Professional to be....

Honestly, I am not yet ready to be called a professional specially in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) because of the underlying pressures on this field. Everybody seems to expect a lot from you knowing the fact that the world today, regardless of what culture, races, interests and field you are, seems to be attached and connected by a single word “technology”. But what really pressures an Information technology professional is that he or she needs to cope up with the fast pace development of technology. I think every information technology professional is aware that we are all living in an era where obsolescence comes in an instant. Technology becomes obsolete way before it has reached the market. It is safe to say that technology has become a commodity. People will not live without technology and no one will disagree with me if I say so. People are really obsess with technology. As of this moment, a single day will not be enough to name all the technologies developed for the past 8 years. I always believe in the saying “ necessity is the mother of all inventions”, technologies were created to serve human needs. This reason somehow makes me excited to become an Information technology professional, I want to be part of this roller coaster ride of this technology development and also to serve for the good of mankind.

But the reality speaks to itself and I cannot escape the fact that I will soon belong to the world of Information and Communication Technology. But the toughest challenge for the Information Technology professionals in the future (and that's include me of course) is that what makes us unique from the present professionals with such brilliant ideas? And what will be the innovations and new technologies should we introduce in order for us to fully compete or even outperform the current technologies? These questions could provide very interesting and very imaginative answers.

The world that we are living in nowadays is facing huge and serious problems in spite of the technology advancements. These problems needs to be solved to save human from total destruction. Yes technologies were created to improve the quality of life, but it was later discovered that technology itself is the number 1 contributor to the number 1 problem the world is facing right now, the climate change or the global warming. Technology side-effects were later discovered through frequent usage of technology that inventors and developers have not anticipated and didn't expected to happen. This side-effects has forced every professionals to an option, a trade offs between aiming to improve the quality of live of every single human being and also to prevent the total destruction of the world because of these technologies. With this dismal findings, I agree with one of my classmate's idea in our Future Technology class. He said that “ technology that human created will also kill humans”. This fact is very alarming. But come to think of it, with this huge problems we are facing, Information Technology professionals will have the opportunity to think of the immediate solutions to minimize and even eradicate this problems. This will provide a bright future for the Information Technology professionals who will be the next in line to combat this problems that is the legacy of the technologies that once used by everyone to improve quality of life but now already part of our long history.

Now, if I assumed that I am an Information Technology professional already, what will be the innovations and inventions I will introduce and contribute to improve the quality of life without even compromising the life of our mother nature? This is my chance to broadcast to the world what are my ideas regarding the features of this new technologies. There's no need for me to wait for the future to speak up my ideas. Among of the technologies which I would like to introduce and innovate are the following.

All in one body check-up machine – the first technology will be in the field of medicine. This is one of the fields where technology development was in total focus. As of this moment, a lot of new technologies were proposed to be able to detect and recognize variety of human diseases without being manually checked-up by a doctor. This technology was introduced by our classmates in our technology class. The concept of this present technology proposal is that the technology is in a form of a microchip. No doubt that the main advantage of this technology is the portability and its size. But it has the disadvantage of putting human life at risk. Since it is embedded inside the human body, proper placing is very crucial. Microchip also contains silicon and other elements which are also poisonous to the human body.
Now, the technology I have in my mind is somehow an innovation of the said microchip technology. This time, the technology will be using laser effects to capture an image of the human body through scanning process. But this is not just simply capturing an image of the human body. The laser will penetrate inside the human body to capture and analyze the image and generate a printed report which will serve as the diagnosis results. The doctor will simply interpret the results to the client. The entire consultation or check-up process will last only for 20 mins than the traditional where you wait for a day or more. The advantage of this laser technology is that it is very safe to use and the generation of reports will be very easy also. The disadvantage of this technology is that it is bulky and more expensive since it needs a lot of hardware.


Cell sites as wifi hot spots – the next technology will be an innovation of the current state of wireless technology. Wireless technologies has been the most famous invention of the millennium. Many networks has migrated from wired to wireless technologies. This wireless technologies has been commonly known to the term wifi or wireless fidelity. But the current wifi technology or hot spots as we called it has a lot of limitations. First, is the distance. The signal from a wifi hot spot or access point could reach to only few meters. And this hot spots are not for free of course. Most wifi hot spots are commercial establishments, coffee shops and fast food chains where you need to buy something from them before you gain access.
Now this technology will use cell sites from different network companies to become a wireless access point (WAP). This will provide a wide range of wifi signals to allow users to stay connected over the INTERNET wherever they are. With this innovation, an entire city or geographical location could become a wifi hot spot. Although it is a little slower than the current wifi technology, this will provide greater accessibility to users. With this you can bring your laptop or other wifi ready gadgets anywhere without any worry of signal problems. But the best thing with this technology is it is FREE.



Artificial Intelligence for Solid Waste Management Problems – artificial intelligence is one of the well loved field in computer science. Everybody seemed to be interested in this subject matter. To date, this field has reached a lot of milestones when it comes to the capabilities and abilities that artificial intelligence can do. Lots of A.I projects were developed with a certain level of intelligence. The best example will be the deep blue machine by IBM. This A.I defeated the world's no. 1 chess player Gary Kasparov of Russia in a chess game. That are more to imagine when it comes to level of intelligence a machine can contain.
Proper garbage and waste disposal on the other hand is one of the worst problem here in the world specially in the Philippines. People are becoming lazy in segregating their garbages. And the result a lot of garbage dumped and becoming useless in the dump sites. People throw tons of garbages and waste a day both the biodegradable and non biodegradable, but our dump sites are not unlimited and time will come it cannot accommodate wastes anymore. This will be a problem that must be given a high priority and machine intelligence could help a lot on this matter.
This proposed technology will be an artificial intelligence (a robot or a machine) that has the capabilities to identify and segregate garbages and wastes. This task I believe is impossible for humans to perform but the intelligent machines as we called it could do so. If wastes are properly segregated, then good things will come out next. Biodegradable wastes could be used as a natural fertilizer and even used as an alternative to fuel through a form of methane gas. Upon thinking of this technology, I recalled the debate or the arguments that took place in our Future Technology class. The debate has something to do with could A.I eliminate humans?. This technology will be one of the answers. Why we think creating intelligent machines to destroy us if we can make them work for the betterment of mankind?
Actually, the capabilities of this technology is way way low from the level of intelligence the present machines could do. But what more important here is it serves a lot of purpose to improve the quality of life.


Automated electricity consumption controller for homes – this technology will be in a form of circuit installed in every home to control the electricity consumption of every home. This will function like a bandwidth manager in a computer networks. This technology has features to limit the maximum consumption of every home. A person can do this by setting up the average kilowatt per/hour consumption. Then this technology will control the consumption ensuring that the consumption will not exceed the ideal power consumption. This technology also is intelligent enough to do such things. For example, if it is morning, this technology limits the usage of lights and gives a high priority to other important appliances. This technology is flexible enough to cater the unexpected needs of users. This circuitry also acts as a circuit breaker in case of short circuit occurs in any appliances or wirings at home.

I am doubtful if this technology will materialize since the needs of everyone is dynamic. But the main reason for creating such circuitry is to fully maximize the power consumptions in every home also to prevent energy wastes. This is one of the ways to help lessen the cause of climate change.



The above mentioned technologies has a common denominator and that is to improve the quality of life without even compromising the life of our mother nature. We cannot deny the fact that everything in this world are balanced. Yes technology could change human beings completely; its lifestyle, its culture and its way of living. But exploiting technologies to the extent that it will destroy human race is injustice. I always recall one of my classmate's idea with regards to technology, technology was created in preparation for war. At some point he was right, but it people will just open their eyes wide and look around their environment, they will see the bigger needs of technologies to the improvement of human life. Now its not easy to become an Information Technology professional in the future. Not just invent and innovate in your mind. You also needs to think the consequences your brilliant ideas could create. Its a matter of life and death. Life because you create technology because there is a need. But death because you will never know that what you have created to improve your life could also be the reason for everybody to suffer. Necessity is the mother of all inventions. It is need that drives every human to create technology. But everything in this world needs to be balanced. This will be the toughest challenge for us in the future. How are we going to balanced or job with our responsibilities. Always remember that “technology is useless if human don't know how to use it in the right way” - RSG

Why Use Technology?

The rapid evolution was never expected by anyone even those who lived in the past. Although there are some expectations and prediction that technology will change the lifestyle of people, but not to the extent that everything seems to be just one click. In the past centuries since the beginning of the industrial revolution, inventions were made because of the curiosity of some great persons from the past. The benefits were later discovered after it has been developed and used.

Today, where almost all technologies from different fields were almost perfected, there are instances where the market couldn't cope up with the fast pace evolution of technology. New innovations were developed even when the technologies were on the peak of its success. But the questions are Is there a need to use these technologies? What are the reasons why we use these technologies.


Reasons why we use technology:

* make difficult things easy - technology can do things which are very difficult for humans to do such as in a construction or in a factory. Technologies were created such as computers were created to solve even the most complex problems faster than human can.


* make lives comfortable - comfortable not in the sense that we become lazy. Comfortable because of the speed, accuracy, accessibility, portability,economical and saves a lot of time and effort.


* fun and entertainment - users could experience of total entertainment through the technologies the market has to offer.



There are a lot of factors that influenced people to use technology today:

* History - the start of what the present looks like.


* Environment - the environment we are living is revolving around the latest technology. Now its up to us to go with the flow of our environment. But according to my sociology class, people will always be influenced by its environment.


* needs - lastly, we are influenced because of our needs. Needs that we need to satisfy.



Factors that leads to technology change:

* competition - the healthy competition in the market makes the technology continuously changing. Vendors keeps on thinking on the future features of technology.


* market demands - another factor that leads to technology change is the market demand. Because of the advantages that the technology gives to users, the demand for these technologies increases up to a certain moment that technology creates the demand.

Future Technology Proposal: Holographic Books

One of the subject offered in the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science of the University of Southeastern Philippines is the Future Technology. This subject is a very interesting subject because it allows us to know what are the latest trend in technology and how these existing technologies emerged in the market. But one thing that makes this subject very interesting and exciting is that we were tasked to look for a technology in which we will proposed on what will be the future looks like for our selected technology. This will force us to extract our creative juices for us to think of a unique and high-tech proposal.

The first thing we did for this subject is to create a group that is composed of 3 members each. Honestly, grouping alone seems to be a very difficult part for us. We are 4 in the group which are my classmates since we are in our freshmen years. This is the first time that we will not be together as group mates. We have decided to divide our group into 2 members each and look for another person as the 3rd member. So, settling our group alone was such a very difficult task.

The next step is looking for a topic to proposed. Again looking for a topic seemed to be the most difficult task for this subject. There are a lot of technologies but the main problem is what will be the future looks like for this technologies?. There are instances in life that good thoughts come in an unexpected manner. One fine afternoon, while waiting for our class, some of my classmates were very busy reading pocket books. One of my groupmates John Lee interrupted them by reading the pocketbook aloud and trying to imagine the scene. With this, an idea came into my mind to have a holographic book in which when you open a book, a holographic image of the content will be displayed and there will be voices which will serve as the narration of the content.

We tried to proposed this topic to our instructor, which he approved. Thank God the first part of our agony has come to an end. The next for our group now is to plan on how are we going to design that holographic book.

I think nothing is impossible now as far as technology is concerned. With the proper discipline and dedications, I think there will be no problems in creating that what we so called the future of book technology.

IT News: Lightbulbs Could Replace Wi-Fi Hotspots

"Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires." That is according to Boston University Engineering Professor Thomas Little.

Boston University's College of Engineering is launching a program, under a National Science Foundation grant, to develop the next generation of wireless communications technology based on visible light instead of radio waves. Researchers expect to piggyback data communications capabilities on low-power light emitting diodes, or LEDs, to create "Smart Lighting" that would be faster and more secure than current network technology.

This initiative aims to develop an optical communication technology that would make an LED light the equivalent of a Wi-Fi access point. Read full Article.


This undergoing research efforts of the Boston University Engineering Dept. will try to develop a new innovation when it comes to telecommunications industry. According also to Prof. Little, "This is a unique opportunity to create a transcendent technology that not only enables energy efficient lighting, but also creates the next generation of secure wireless communications. As we switch from incandescent and compact florescent lighting to LEDs in the coming years, we can simultaneously build a faster and more secure communications infrastructure at a modest cost along with new and unexpected applications."

This research is still on-going and if implemented, will create a new generation of wireless networking. This also goes to show that in this world, nothing is constant except change specially in the ICT field where technology becomes obsolete even before it is implemented.