The Day Before Graduation (Celebrate it with GOD)

With just one day before the moment that I have waited for 5 years, I can't resist to feel so much excitement on my graduation day tomorrow. But before that day comes, I need to celebrate it in advance with the one who is responsible for this wonderful blessing and outstanding achievement in my life; our LORD and HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. SO with that in mind, I attended the baccalaureate mass scheduled for this day at the Sacred Heart Parish here in Davao city.

The mass was schedules 8 a.m but I'm so much excited and inspired to hear the word of GOD so I woke up early and fix myself so I could go early in the church. I went to church 20 minutes before 8. I already spotted some of my classmates in the church so I joined them and had a little conversation and picture taking for souvenir and remembrance for this will only happen once in my life. When the graduating students  wearing their togas and some parents started to come and filled the empty benches of the church, the atmosphere became filled with so much excitement, fun and solemnity. Graduating students from different colleges started to feel the joy after 5 years of hard work and efforts to finish our studies

The mass started at around 8:30 a.m. What made the mass unforgettable for me was the words that the priest shared to us before he ended his homily. Each on of us had given a job to do in this world. Each of us had given a mission to be fulfilled and that is the ultimate purpose of our exsistence. Graduating in college is just the beginning of our journey into the real world. He even shared to us a song about the job that GOD gave to each one of us.

The mass ended with me being inspired after hearing the word of GOD. It made my graduation day for tomorrow complete knowing I celebrated it with GOD. Thank you LORD for allowing me to finish my studies and giving me everything I need to achieve it.

I'm excited for tomorrow's graduation. I'm sure to have it on this blog tomorrow to share it to the world.

THE TEAM THEY CALLED "BAN OF BROTHERS"

There was this moment in your college life that you will never forget and will last in your memory for eternity. So if I will going to name what would be that moment in my college life that I could tagged as the most memorable and happiest one it would be when I have my classmates as my friends and spending many hours with them everyday learning, joking, laughing and many more. The friendship that we have started when we were on our 1^st and 2^nd years in college but it was only in our 4^th year that we came up with a name for the group that we have. Actually there was a history on why we called our group as “THE BAND OF BROTHERS” and I’m proud to write in on my blog post the group that became famous on our very own department.

The group Band of Brothers is a group composed of Computer Science (CS) and Information Technology (IT) students from the Institute of Computing department of the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP). So based on the nature of our course, we need some sort of computers for us to sustain the needs for our subjects like programming. Sadly, majority of us don’t have our own personal computers or laptops so we need to utilize the computer laboratory within our department. So as more and more projects filing up added with some projects from other students who asked our services to create programs for them, our faces has become common scenery inside the computer laboratory. So after our classes, we go directly inside the laboratory starting to rock and roll. But in spite of our background as good students, we are also open on doing silly things and these silly things added to the tight bond that our group already had. But take note our group has no alias yet that time. We never expected that also these things will ignite us to name our group as Ban of Brothers. With that, let me name you what are these silly things that only the Band of Brothers could do.

Hacking of Account using finger speed

Yes you read it right, hacking of account. But before I will put my diploma in danger, let me explain first that this is neither hacking on the database of our school nor confidential data of the administration. The internet laboratories inside the USeP campus are not free as all students are aware of it. Before students can access the web inside the campus they have to validate their id number and use it as their username and password to a log-in system called vaqsys. So if username and password is verified in the server as existed and validated, then a student can access the web for 21 hrs. Per semester but later increased to 50 hrs/semester. So for 1 semester, we are only allowed to use the laboratory for 50 hrs. And this is insufficient for us having to use computer every day. So we have no choice but to look for an alternative to survive in our department. Since we are using the same ID no. format with the other students and many of them are unaware of changing their passwords, so we used that opportunity to have more time inside the laboratory. The technique is using the speed of your finger.

With username and password is the same, then we just needed to randomly enter some series of random numbers and if got lucky, then we can use the computer laboratory without using our own account. That’s why we lasted for 1 semester inside the laboratory even if the number of hours allotted is not enough. But to those lower years of our department who might read this, I’m discouraging you for doing so because you don’t know the consequence of such actions.

Modify IP Address for a Faster Internet Connection

Our school is not the richest school in Davao City; in fact it is one of the schools that offer a very low tuition fee because it is a state university but also one that offers high quality education. Since it is a public university, the facilities inside including the computer laboratories are not that expensive and high technology. There are times that there are no vacant units inside the laboratory since there are only about 30 units that will going to cater the needs of 3000+ students. Not only is the hardware specification suffers but also the internet connections. There are times that internet connection is very slow and took too long to open Google website. So with that, we need to change the IP address of the PC we are using to connect to the internet. We use dynamic IP. But the problem is that network places were disabled on all computers so we need to learn first how to enable it back. Sorry I don’t teach you how to do so for it is not good the computer units inside the lab if done without caution. We usually do it at night where internet down frequently happens.

Bypass Vaqsys for Fee Access

This next thing is the worst thing we have done inside the computer laboratory is to bypass the installed vaqsys server to freely access the computer laboratories. Again, it is not easy to do and I will not teach the younger students in the department. This is also the thing that made us the Ban of Brothers. The story goes like this; the technician inside the laboratory has started to doubt about this problem because some of the units are not functioning already or could not be logged in by other students since the IP that the computer has is now different from the default ones. So when the computer restarts, the network server will not find the computer because of its new assigned IP. So the technician used this computer as a bait to catch who is doing such things inside the laboratory. During that afternoon, there were only 2 of the group who were inside the laboratory and sadly, there is only 1 vacant so I told my classmate Rendell that I will be the one to use the remaining unit. Unexpectedly, he used the bait unit. He successfully logged in to the unit so the technician who happened to be at the server at that time came to Rendell and asked him how did he managed to logged in that unit. Rendell had no choice but to teach the technician how he do it. After an hour of use, Rendell logged out but before he reached the glass door of the laboratory, he was escorted by the technician to the department’s secretary and said “ban this person from using the laboratory. He is now a blacklist student in the laboratory for bypassing the vaqsys logger”. After I heard it, I was so nervous that I logged out my account and went out of the laboratory so that I will not be involved.

But the morning after Rendell went to school bringing letter stating the violation committed and addressed to the dean of our department. We were shocked that our names were in the back portion of the letter. We even had a talk with Rendell on why he included us in the letter. But the friendship prevailed and we voluntarily signed the letter.

After the letter being submitted to the dean, we were all asked to report to the dean’s office and each of us explained what had happened inside the computer laboratory. The dean discussed to us the corresponding punishment of the violation we committed. He even scared us that he will submit our names into the office of the Vice President on Academic Affairs of the university but it didn’t happen because we agreed to serve the punishment to be banned from using the computer laboratory for a month and to render our services in helping the secretary like sorting documents, shutting down the computer units during closing time etc. After that meeting and little sermon inaugurated the official name of our group as THE BAND OF BROTHERS. Since then up to this very moment where majority of us already graduates, we still called our friendship and group that way.

The good thing about the Ban of Brothers was that our bond didn’t end on the 4 corners of the campus or 5 years of college life but it is still continuing and even growing as many alumni of our department wants to include themselves on our group. Also the group is very active on both academic and non-academic bonding like bowling, drinking sometimes, playing computer games, karaoke and many more. Everyone in the group shows sharing to everyone on both material and non-material thing.

That’s why I never regretted the day when I joined this group of people. I’m proud to say that everyone in this group knows how to balance school and socialization. I will never forget everyone who has been part of my daily life in my college days sharing stories, laughter and even love problems. I can say that this group is a true friend for me that they will never live you in times when you need them. Sad to say we need to say goodbye with each other as we depart ways from school to work. I expected that after our graduation; we will now seldom see each other maybe in facebook we can still communicate, but nothing more special and happy if we will see each other soon.

Now that THE BAN OF BROTHERS will graduate after 5 years of staying the Institute of Computing Department, hope that the young ones in our department will show unity with each other, set aside competition and work as a team, be passionate on their craft and most of all, have faith in GOD though I’m not encouraging them in fact I’m discouraging them in doing the above stuffs because it will do no good for all of you. I can’t wait to see the young generation of the Ban of Brothers.

The Graduation Fever is ON

Today, March 29,2010 was scheduled as the first among the series of practices for our graduation this coming April 15,2010. At last after 4 years of going to school listening to endless lectures of our instructors, sleepless nights of creating projects developing "running" programs, reading and analyzing source codes and mathematical formulas,taking exams that made us nosebleeds and cause to much ache on our heads and our hearts, sad to say all of these happy memories has come to an end. There were a lot of memories to be reminisce both happy and sad, bitter and sweet and all flavors that best describes our journey as a Computer Science student of the University of Southeastern Philippines and these memories will be in my heart and will be tresured forever.

Now going back to the practice, the call time was 3:00 P.M for the colleges that belong to the 1st batch of the graduation ceremonies that includes College of Engineering (CE), Institute of Computing (IC), College of Technology (CT), College of Governance, Business and Economics (CGBE) and the Masteral and Ph.D graduates of the university for the year 2010. Unfortunately, there were delays on starting the programs as the organizers came late by more than 30 minutes and also the heavens blessed all the graduating students as the rain began falling. So the practice resumed at around 4:00 P.M. There were only few graduating students attended the practice for unknown reasons. Majority of graduating students from our department were present and that goes to shows that we are all excited to graduate.So we assembled at the center field of our university as the chosen venue for the practice. At first, I felt bad after seeing few students from other department assembling and take note there were only 2 department who were there at the call time. What a shameful act of s graduating students.

But all my frustration and tiredness of standing and waiting for the practice to start were all vanished when the graduation march theme was played. It was such a good feeling, a feeling of joy and excitement on what will happen (tumayo ung balahibo ko in tagalog) after hearning the graduation march theme. Sadly, the graduation practice was postponed as it rains very hard causing us to get up on-stage and listen to some orientation regarding the program proper.

After the Holy Week, it'll be all time to prepare for the graduation program but for me the graduation fever has finally began... Now I can feel the excitement that I will march on stage and will receive my college diploma; the reward of 5 years of efforts and sacrifices not only me but also with my family and friends.

authors note: images used on this blog post are not  claimed by the author. Images used are from dailyclipart.net

Reflections from the Soul (A Recollection day Reflection)

Yesterday for me would be one of the most memorable days of my life because first of all it was my 21^st birthday and I’m looking forward to graduating at last in my Computer Science degree after 5 years in college. But what made this day memorable aside from the fact that it was my debut was that it was this day that our recollection for the graduating college students from our university took place. There were 3 departments scheduled and attended the said recollection so the venue were somehow filled with graduating students. We sometimes had joke yesterday with some of my classmates saying in our dialect “nanimaho na ug toga dire”. Though it was not the first time that I joined recollections before graduating cause I have attended same event during my elementary and high school days, this recollection was totally different since were totally grownups now and we are a step closer in facing the real world and we need some reflections and listen to some words of wisdom on what we are going to do after our graduation day. In other words, we need guidance and blessings from the LORD for us to be ready on the challenges we were facing outside of school and into the real world.

The first part of the half day event was the celebration of the Holy Eucharist for the recollection to become successful, inspiring and so that GOD will bless those who attended the recollection both the students and the speakers that came to share their experiences and some tips on how to become successful in our lives. Good for me also since it was my birthday so no need for me to go to church in the afternoon. What a gift for me for my debut; a word of GOD plus words of wisdom from those who became successful in life because of their faith in GOD. When father gave his homily, he simply told us the true meaning of a recollection and saying why we came to attend. Recollection is isolating ourselves and our mind from the real world and come closer to GOD, that’s what father said upon sharing to us the true meaning of recollection. He also urged us to listen carefully to the recollection and to get things that will be helping us on our journey to the real world. The mass ended with my smile in my face knowing that I received a special gift from GOD and that was inspiration to continue my dream and become successful in the future.

The recollection started few minutes after the mass ended. The recollection also started with a prayer and some singing religious song with choreography to lift our energy and spirit up to be both physically and mentally present, ready to listen and apply what we will hear from our speakers. There were 7 speakers ready to share to us the keys to success. There was 1 of them that was an attorney, 1 that had a construction business and had stories of falling down but standing up again and fight, another 1 was soon to be a foreign diplomat, even 1 of them was daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal and half sister of the President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. I will just provide the summary on what they have shared because even I didn’t memorize word by word what they have said but I really got the main points in which the speakers want us to know.

For them, there were 4 things that we must do in order for us to become successful in the future like them. First was knowing into my inner self what I meant to be, knowing what I want to be in the future or what are the things that I wanted to do in spite of the risks or trials that may came along the way. I recalled one of the speakers shared his stories of being a mining engineer. For him, yes the environment where he works or his workplace were very dangerous, going inside a tunnel finding gold mines with huge rocks would fall anytime, but he wanted to become a mining engineer so he pursue it and finished it. But being a mining engineering alone was not he meant to be. He and all the speakers were also meant to share the word of our LORD to those who needs it. Upon hearing this thing, it made me thought of what are the things that will make me happy and what are the things I wanted to do in the future. Honestly if I were going to ask myself, there was no clear picture yet on what will I going to do when I graduate, there was this side of my heart and mind that I wanted to teach and share my knowledge to those who need it, but there is also one side thinking I will do my best to land a job abroad to secure my future. This recollection had helped me in seeking what really I meant to be. Few weeks from now maybe I could decide 100% on what I wanted and meant to be.

Second thing is how will I grow up? Not literally to grow in terms of height but growing as a better person in the society, growing in terms of skills in job or interpersonal and intrapersonal communication skills. There was one speaker who said that one way of growing up is to learn new skill every day and don’t waste any time that are not related to the things that will make you successful. Competition in the workplace is very tight, so we need to grow for us not to be overtaken by those who are younger and eager to learn than us. Since I don’t have any experience on working in a bigger company yet, this thing could somehow inspire me to learn new things that are very helpful in my future jobs or develop my skills more to become an expert on one field then learn new skill so that I could be very productive the time I will have my job.

Third key point they taught us was to cope up with the flow. Cope up with the flow so that we will not be left behind by our competitors in the workplace or in our field. With technology changes rapidly, so as the learning of new students who are younger than us. They told us it is very important to know the things that are happening in our place for us to be able to go with the flow and be able to compete and even outperform those who are way ahead than us in terms of experience.

Fourth key point and I believe the most important thing was to know the meaning of success by sharing to others. In the field of Information Technology (IT) there was a term commonly known as open-source. Those things that are free like software and information that are free to access, use and modify by others fall into this type. In the field of IT open-source software took the market by waves as the primary competitor of the commercial ones. Since it is open for other programmers or developers to modify and to improve, the development would be very fast since there are a lot of people working as compared to commercial where the development is only within their company. So the main point in this analogy is that when we share what you have, others will most likely share also what they have, so both of you learned and move up together. It is hitting two birds with one stone indeed. Both of you don’t need to start from scratch instead you just capitalize on the knowledge that is already available and improve by adding what you learn and what others shared to you. Selfishness is a bad attitude so we must left it in school as part of our competition days and look at the future with sharing in our mind.

All those four key points are very inspiring and very essential aspects that will bring us to success. But the speakers pointed out the most important thing in life to become successful in our lives and that is to have GOD in our lives in times of happiness, success, trouble, problems, everything that will come into our lives. I can always recall one speaker told us that we people didn’t choose our GOD, but GOD chooses us as his people because HE believes in us. GOD chooses us because HE loves us and want us to be HIS sheep and HE is the Shepherd. Know GOD very well by reading the Bible and listen to his word even if we are busy. Always find time to talk to GOD in terms of prayers and GOD for sure will guide you.

What a wonderful present for my 21^st birthday, this probably the best gift I have and I will never forget it. Those words and those people will always remain in my heart as the people that inspire me guide me into facing the future.

Reviving the Blog (Research Update 1)

It's been a while since I had posted a topic in this blog because of no good topic to write and also I am only online once a week. It is not like our school days where we need to update our blogs as required by Dr. Gamboa at least once a week. The past months was really different. The blogosphere where I belong together with my classmates were not as crowded,busy and as informative as before although there are some that are continuously writing nice posts in their blogs. Honestly I really missed blogging that's why I'm starting to revive this blog once again.

After months of posts recession in this blog, I thought of a nice post to start with and I came up having a post with my pending research topic.

I admit that this topic was the hot topic in our blogosphere where everybody in the class were busy updating about their research proposals, consulting each other about the process. I haven't posted any upodate on my research during that time because I am really confused with the topic that I had proposed and also it was very difficult and time consuming for me to learn new concepts in network simulation. I also asked advice from our dean and then he frankly said to me that the topic is too difficult and very time consuming to develop especially for an inexperienced student like me. With this reasons I decided to look for another research topic that is relevant but can be completed within the alloted time. That's why no updates were posted during that span of time. But now that I had the topic already and I am starting to have the proposal for the research topic so it is time for me to do what I haven't done in the past. For my first update is the title of my topic which I believe will be very applicable to our univesity.

"Level of Awareness of Virtual Learning Environments and the Utilization Level of USEP VLE among USEP students"

This will going to be the title of my new research topic. It is more simple than the first one but I think it is also relevant.

The thing that motivates me to conduct this research was that USEP has not gone online learning yet. The new paradigm of learning nowadays is the combination of distance learning and face to face discussion that we commonly known as "blended learning". Although there are some instructors that are using online resources (blogs,e-mails,forums etc.) to support face-to-face discussions,but still the level of awareness and the proficiency of USEP students are not yet determined. The study could also help the university in the future if they will also offer online courses.

My next update would be the objectives and the significance of this study.

My Research Topic Proposal

"Analysis of Network Performance of University of Southeastern Philippines Virtual Laboratories using Simulation Modelling"

Honestly, I am very new to the the field of network simulation and system modelling. Being a neophyte in this area seems to be the biggest hindrance for me that's why there are times that I am about to change that research topic given the fact that I have only 1 semester to complete it. But I am very interested in the topic with regards to data communications and computer networking and other topics that are related to networking in short. This is one of my motivation why I want to pursue this research. Add onto my motivation, I want also to learn new things that are related to computer networking. I also want to contribute to the ideas as far as network simulation is concern. But the biggest motivation of all, I want to prove to myself that I can finish this research inspite being a new to this field and to prove to myself that I am worthy to be called an I.T professional.

Research Update: I am having a hard time constructing the review of related literature since majority of the articles and researches I found were too technical for me and I found a very hard time relating these ideas. But I will do all my best to finish it as soon as possible.

I am currently reading and learning the basics of a network simulator. One of my choice of simulator is the ns simulator which is an open source software for simulation.


I can do it!.....

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/

USEP - Obrero Online Community

The University of Southeastern Philippines has a new online community where the students of the University and outsiders can hang-out with. The online community was created by John Francis Dela Vega, an evening student from the University of Southeastern Philippines. The online community has a lot of features such as chatting, blogging and many more. With this online community, it is very easy for not only for USEPians but also for outsiders to meet and make friends in cyberspace. Faculty are also welcome to join.

The image above is the actual appearance of the site. Click the image to visit the site.

Update: Sorry but the website's already down.

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.

University of Southeastern Philippines FOSS Campaign

The Institute of Computing students of the University of Southeastern Philippines are on a big mission, and that is to encourage not only their fellow USEPians but also to all Filipinos to use Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS). As part of our FOSS advocacy, one of our colleague in the person of Thomas Tangian constructed a logo in order to solidify our campaign to encourage both the industry and the academe to use FOSS rather than proprietary software.

The campaign was the initiative of some of our professors namely Engr. Val A. Quimno who is also a FOSS advocate here in Davao city and also the Dean of the Institute of Computing department of USEP, and Dr. Randy S. Gamboa, one of the best professor not only in USEP but all over region XI.

The way I see it, the main reason on why was that FOSS is an alien for the majority in this country is that the national government has lacking support and the initiative promoting FOSS in the country. Another reason is that because of preference. Majority of schools here in the Philippines both on the secondary level and in college level are using and promoting that they are using proprietary products. The government should have a strong partnership together with the academe to promote FOSS to schools here in the Philippines.

"Free to Use", "Free to Distribute". Please Let Us Support Free and Open - Source Softwares.