Last night, I chanced upon the premiere episode of Heroes, Volume 1, at RPN Channel 9 (a local channel in the Philippines). I thought that I can save money since I can watch it locally and not buy the episode off of iTunes store but I was wrong! The quality sucked big time and yes, you guessed it, TONS of advertisements! Argh and double argh!
I have been using Tumblr for quite some time now and I enjoyed its simplicity. A bookmarklet allows me to send practically anything to my tumblelog.
Curious, is there a way I can make my Vox into a tumblelog?
My gosh! It has been a month since my last update... tsk tsk. not to worry, I will post more in the near future.
I honestly don't think I'll be able to transfer all the media I've uploaded over the past two months, so why don't you go check out Strange Joys and I'll see you there. ;p I will move my stuff here eventually, just... not... now. Too many books to read!
Yet.
In the meantime, visit my main site, as well as my lit and tech blogs. See you there.
P.S. Support our Ituloy AngSulong contest entry!
The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) just released their Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 Interim report with recommendations on adoption and deployment (download at http://tinyurl.com/2wfy3r ). You may ask if it is even remotely related to what I am advocating here - Linux and the Mac. Well, my main argument here is choice, i.e. the freedom to choose the operating system that is more appropriate for education given the lack of funds.
Anyway, on with the BECTA report. On Windows Vista, their recommendation reads as follows:
"The new features of Vista add value but do not justify early deployment in the educational ICT estate. Educational institutions are strongly advised to consider the findings of Becta's final report on Vista before considering any wide-scale deployment."
IMHO, the recommendation is to stick with Windows XP until Microsoft proves that it is indeed beneficial for educational institutions to migrate. Considering the intricacies of Windows XP in as far as security is concern as well as the need for educational institutions to keep up with the latest technology, the next best thing, if not the wise thing, to do is to adopt Linux. Why? Linux is freely available and that there is no cost to upgrade, unlike Windows operating systems. You do not pay extra just so you'd get the Microsoft Aero eye-candy, which by the way is inferior to what Linux offers. Why stick with old technology (Windows XP), when you get the latest and greatest version of Linux for free?
On Office 2007, here's Becta's recommendation:
"Microsoft should develop a compelling business case to underpin any rationale for deploying Office 2007 in UK education. The business case should take account of the nature and scale of deployment of existing office productivity tools, and should also identify the additional educational capabilities that Office 2007 would offer to offset the additional costs. Ideally such a business case would be available before Becta finalised its recommendations in relation to Office 2007."
It continues and mentions the Open Document File format (ODF) by stating "Microsoft should move to provide native support for ODF file format as soon as is practical and at the latest by mid 2007." This is further enforced by the recommendation that "Schools and colleges should only deploy Office 2007 when its interoperability with alternative products is satisfactory."
Considering that most educational institutions in the Philippines do not have enough funds to pay for MS Office licenses, the best thing to do is to use OpenOffice.org Office productivity suite. The OpenOffice.org Office productivity suite is free and supports the Open Document Format (ODF).
Whilst the report is aimed at British educational institutions, it is evident that the same can apply to the Philippine educational institutions, which compared to the UK, has far less funds for ICT.
Frankly, I'd like to issue this challenge to those who are doing research in education, specially those from the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, the CICT Human Capital Development Group and the College of Education of the University of the Philippines and the Philippine Normal University, to conduct a study on FOSS in education and why it is important for Philippine educational institutions to use it rather than pirating Microsoft products.
There are currently two major wireless internet access providers in the country today, Airborne Access and Globe Wiz. Currently, the cost is approximately PhP100/hour of access or less, if you decide to subscribe to the service. Having wifi access in places that you frequent is heaven-sent specially when you are a road-warrior. I am glad that I have an Airborne Access account (expires next month, I believe) but frankly, I have not used it as often as I have expected.
Anyway, what if you can get WiFi access for free all the time? Intriguing, huh? Well, if we employ the same open source philosophy to wifi access, then we will probably have a wider deployment at less or no additional cost at all. How? Check out the FON project at http://en.fon.com and you will find out how home owners (and Fon members) with broadband connection are sharing their bandwidth with other Fon members for free (there is an option to charge for access, too). The main concept is share your internet to Fon members and you access the internet off of other Fon members' internet when you are within their area.
I raised a question to the telco not too long ago and still have not heard from them. Maybe it is ok to share your single dsl/cable internet connection with your other computers at home via a hub (do they still sell those?) or a switch. If that is the case, then the Fon movement can be started in the country.
On Fon's website, you can find a page that details its benefits for ISPs. These benefits are easily achieved should the ISP themselves subscribe to Fon. Here are the benefits (quoted off of the web site):
1. Generate additional revenue through sharing Aliens' revenues
2. Provide free WiFi roaming and a social networking platform at no extra cost
3. Differentiate their service offer from the competition
4. Increase broadband penetration especially in small businesses
5. Use of the FON platform to launch wireless services
6. Reduce churn and attract new customers by benefiting of the brand association with FON
You may find the definition of Linus, Bill and Aliens on the same web site.
Imagine if you subscribe to a Fon-member ISP, not only can you access other ISP subscribers (who are Fon members) in other areas to share their bandwidth, you also get free world-wide roaming, since Fon is a world-wide project. Each access is done via a username and password, this, somehow, ensures that Fon members are not abusing your connection.
All these at no extra costs for the ISP except for being part of the Fon network. Cool, huh? What do you think? Will you be part of the Fon network? If you are interested, let me know -- we'll setup a local chapter. :)
Have you ever met any celebrities? Any interesting stories?
Submitted by Tasha.
Met Ms. Lea Salonga after her Les Miserables performance in London, UK. She even autographed my sweater. :)
Ms. Zsa-Zsa Padilla (Philippine actor) is our wedding sponsor. :)
Would you rather go back in time or visit the future?
Submitted by Auds.
Well, I'd rather go back in time and disrupt the time-space continuum to favor me, my family and friends. :P
Hello folks!
If you are living in the Philippines and currently an active Vox member, please drop me a line if you want to plan for a meet-up. :)
Cya!
