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.

The temporary freeze of “No Permit No exam policy” of Universities, Colleges and Vocational Schools in the Philippines

For how many years, it has been the policy of majority of Universities and Colleges in the Philippines mostly private schools not to allow their students to take examinations if their school obligations especially the financial one that includes tuition and miscellaneous fees are not yet settled. This policy of schools were also called the “no permit no exam policy” because students will not be issued any examination permit unless all his or her obligations are already settled. With tuition and other school fees increases every year, more and more students in the Philippines mostly at the college level are forced to stop because they cannot take the examinations due to this unfair school policy. As a result, less number of college graduates is produced in the Philippines every year.

Finally, the government has done something right to somehow alleviate this problem in the education system in the country. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has issued a memorandum to all universities, colleges and vocational schools in the Philippines to allow students to take their examinations in spite their unpaid dues and unsettled school obligations. CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) 02 series of 2010 was issued last January 22, 2010. This memorandum is at the right time since majority of schools are having their midterm examinations at the moment. But the schools have the right to withhold the clearance of students until all their balance is paid.

This memorandum is in response to the House Bill 6799 or the “Anti No-Permit No-Exam Policy” passed by Kabataan Partylist Rep. Palatino. CHED, upon attending hearing with regards to the bill has made its action in issuance of a memo instead of passing a bill that takes a long process. But there are no sanctions to schools that will not comply on the said memorandum. However, Rep. Palatino is urging students to report to CHED office if their schools are not abiding on the said memorandum.

Synthesis:

For me, the HB6799 must be passed and made as a law to fully abolish the No Permit No Exam policy of schools in the Philippines especially the private schools. There are already a lot of schools in the Philippines and some schools are into commercialization with this policy. What is important to them is to gain large profits on school fees while the quality of education they provide is still very low. The government specially the Education department must be vigilant to these schools and be strict with the curriculum that the school offers. Students must not be deprived from their right for a quality education because of their financial incapability. If the school is really sincere with their vision and mission to offer quality education, for sure they will abide with this law. I understand the public schools needed fees from students as the source of salary for their teachers, for facilities etc. but they should make a new policy that would be equal for both the students and the school. For example, students are allowed to pay half upon enrollment and allowed to take the exams. But their clearance will not be signed unless all their debts are paid. There are a lot of alternatives with this No-Permit No-Exam policy if these schools are really sincere in providing quality education and not only for commercialization.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/localnews

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/

Random Drug Testing for Students in the Philippines

The Department of Education has announced that they will be conducting a mandatory random drug testing to all high schools and colleges in the Philippines. This is in response to the call of the President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to combat the worsening cases of drug related incidents in the Philippines. The Philippines has been facing huge problem when it comes to drug prevention and that includes drug addiction, drug using and drug trafficking. Most recent scandal was the "Alabang Boys"(Richard Brodett, Joseph Tecson and Jorge Joseph) scandal that includes 3 men from prominent families in Alabang that was caught by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) last September in a buy bust operation. This case was later on turn into a big controversy as the birbery issue of the families into the DOJ prosecutors were later revealed by PDEA. As of this moment, this controversy is still under trial by the independent panel created by the president. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo later appointed herself as the National Anti-Drug Prevention czar to lead the country to fight drug and one of the solution is to conduct random drug testing to high school and college students in the country. The drug testing has already started in Metro Manila and later will be implemented also in Cebu City and Davao City in Mindanao. According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), majority of the drug addict here in the Philippines were on the age bracket of 15-18 years old so conducting random drug testing in schools will somehow lessen and maybe eradicate drug addiction among youths.

This proposal has been subject to criticism by human rights group in the country. They pointed out that submitting students into drug violates the right to privacy of the students. Add on to that, drug testing should not be compulsory but voluntary. This action of the government has also receive a lot of both positive and negative comments from the students who will be greatly affected by this actions of the government. According to some who were interviewed by T.V stations," conducting random drug testing in schools will results in positive effects like reducing the number of drug addicts in the country specially the students". But some of them don't favor this program of the government."Conducting random drug testing for students will not solve the worsening problem of drug addiction in the country. If the government wan't to completely eradicate drugs in this country, they (the government) must go after those wealthy drug lords and drug syndicates that are freely moving in the country. They must prosecute those who will be caught.

Being a college student, I am also affected by this current issues in our society. For me, submitting myself for drug test is not a big deal for me because first, I am 100% sure that I am a not a drug user. This goes also for all the students in the Philippines, if they are not addict, then why fear? Issues of privacy could be solved by keeping private the records of the students who will be positive to any forms of drugs. School administration should be held liable if this information will be exposed to the outside world. Also this will help parents know if their child is using drugs. They could later decide to send their child to a rehabilitation center.

But still this program of CHED and the government still has a lot of holes to be fixed and still not the best solution to completely eradicate drug addiction in the country. Students are only victims here. They are the victims of this powerful and very influential drug lords and drug syndicate that are still free and doing the damage in our society. The government must think of long term solutions to completely erase drugs in the Philippines. They must prosecute those who were caught. There are a lot of drug laboratories found by the police but there is no single individual who were caught. The government should implement the law. But this battle is not only for the government alone but also for everybody. Everyone of us should take part on solving drug problems. We are fully aware that drugs will kill our future so why use them? For sure we can completely defeat drugs if everyone of us will take its part and be vigilant.

Effects of Technological Change in our Society

We can visibly see all the effects of technological change if we try to look around our environment that we are living. Everything we see from the smallest grain of cement to the tallest towers and commercial buildings, high powered weapons, fast running cars and airplanes, supercomputers and super portable mobile phones and gadgets are all the product of years of continuous hard work, research and experiments and a lot of luck of those people with such genius minds from the past and spent their lifetime developing such technologies. What we enjoy in the present were all legacy of such marvelous people and geniuses of the past. Clearly, the development of technologies and its continuous change had changed the way people are living today in all aspects of life I believe; physically, emotionally, morally and spiritually. Technological change was such a powerful force that drives changes to civilization. From the simple living people knew, it turns into a very complex yet productive living no one would ever imagined will exist.

Technological change had brought lots of effects to the society in general. These effects are evident and very obvious if we try to navigate the world history. Whether good or bad, positive or negative, these effects have a very huge impact and influence on what our society looked today.

Below are some of the technological effects in our society.

The continuous but rapid changes in technology had resulted human needs and lifestyle to constantly but also rapidly changing. Human will never be contented as many of us believed. This belief was well justified by the rapid changes in technology because of human consumption. But this human dynamics when it comes to their needs played a very important role of what technology looks like today. Innovations were such unbelievable. In fact, there are a lot of human needs that leads to technological change. Man needed a device that can be used in communication that is faster that the old fashioned mailing system. Years later, with the discovery of the concept of electricity developed what we knew today as the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. Later human needs a portable communication device than the bulky telephone and because of this needs gave birth to a much more portable and inexpensive concept of modern telephony, the cellular telephone or cell phone. In the field of transportation, human needs to travel and deliver goods to far places as fast as they could leads to the invention of steam engine by James Watt that replaced the old cart pulled by animals. The needs of human again has changed for a faster yet convenient means of transportation hence, together with the development of fossil fuels, automobile using fuels were invented. More and more ambitious means of transportation were developed like trains, airplanes that conquered the sky and allowed human travel from country to country fast and convenient. These among other technological innovations in different fields marked a statement that it is the human needs that drives technological change. However, there are some factors that human didn't anticipated. Because of the impact that technology provided to human, although it is still continuous but the human needs changed very fast than the usual. It is the demand that created technology.
It is the technology that created the demand. Sounds contradicting from the previous isn't it? But before you raise your eyebrows and starts an argument, let me state first some scenarios and examples that somehow proves that statement. Yes, demand creates technology and no questions about that, but because of the numerous advantages it provides to human, the trend suddenly reversed but not totally erased. We cannot deny the fact that technology was created to serve a purpose and that is to serve human needs. But technology has crossed beyond borders and conquered every human being. Technological change was such a dominating force that conquered everything in this world and creating a demand is one of them. The best example of technology that created the demand is the internet.
The internet's primary goal of creation was to provide a shared connection and information around the US ARPA. Actually it is really not a primary need of human,a non commodity in short. But as more had used the technology such as the academic sector and some companies, it suddenly become a new and very significant technology where a lot of things could be done. As the majority from the academe, the government and the industry are becoming more dependent on the internet and the world wide web for the majority of their transactions and other activities for socialization and the like, the internet has become the barometer of every technology created. At first, only computers have the capability to access the web but now, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets were modeled to be compatible with the internet. Technologies will surely be competitive in the market if it provides users access over the web. Because of the overwhelming acceptance and use of the internet, technologies that provides access over the web were such of great demand. Clearly, the birth of the internet is the classic example of “it is the technology that creates the demand”.
Technological change were identified by prominent book authors and experts environmentalists from different parts of the world to be the number 1 contributor to the climate change and global warming. The increasing amount of greenhouse gases is the main reason why the world is experiencing sudden climate change like much stronger typhoons and frequent flash floods due to the increase in the sea level as the results of melting of ice in some cold continents like Antarctica. Technology that human are using is the number one contributor of greenhouse gases specially CO2. Among of these technologies are the fossil fuels, the aerosol sprays, smokes from factories and many more. With human becoming too much dependent on technology which sometimes leads to excessive use of it, this problem of climate change and global warming tend to goes hand in hand with technological change. This will limit on how far can we go with technological change. Although there are efforts initiated by World Organizations and leaders to combat this fatal effects of technological change in our society. Still this problem will not be eradicated unless technology stops changing and reach its final destination.
Technological change had created more jobs for people. More and more factories were created to develop numerous kinds of technology which resulted for jobs specially those who are on the lower class of the society. Because of industrialization, more and more people migrated to cities where the urbanization is at its peak for greener pastures. Although there are also those people who lost their jobs because of the huge improvement in most of human lifestyle like for instance the mailing system. Because of the invention of the electronic mails and short messages sent (SMS) or we commonly known today as text in mobile phones, huge number of employees from post office were fired from their jobs due to decreasing no. of mails. The old-fashioned mailing system had almost become obsolete by the latest communication system. But this disadvantage could not outweigh the no. of jobs created by technological change. In the present, as more and more technologies and services are introduced, it caused shortage in terms of manpower. The skills needed became more and more complex and very high standard in which the academe failed to match. What the academe provides to its students are not what the industry needs. There is what we called “industry-academe mismatch”. This has been the problem of the industry right now where the demand of the experts specially in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is very high. This is one of the major problem in which the government in coordination with the business sector should address first. This scenarios has become worse as more and more companies continue to grow and expand. Clearly, technological change paved a way where opportunities could easily be reached by human, build a strong foundation for human survivability and the most important, it gives human hope that technological change could be the key for their success. Although there are some jobs that become obsolete that caused some to suffer,but this is not enough to cancel the benefits it provides.

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

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.