Infotech Philippines

Will MixedInk click?
January 12, 2009

Just heard about MixedInk earlier today. It functions like a wiki where people can start a topic, invite friends to contribute, and let people vote for the version they prefer as final material.

Efficient Programming Techniques for Youth Programmers
Prefactoring (by Ken Pugh, O’Reilly Media, Inc., ISBN: 0596008740) is all about making guidelines or outlines of what we’ve learned from our programming experiences. These guidelines will aid us to do only minimal refactoring for our future programs or projects, providing us flexibility on program handling. Technically, this book has taught me lot of things about making a unique program structure that is capable of being reconstructed easily if changes will be required.

APC Offers Free Courses with Launch of Data Center University
American Power Conversion (Nasdaq: APCC) (APC), a global provider of end-to-end infrastructure availability solutions, has launched Data Center University, an online educational institution for IT professionals, engineers and people involved in building or operating server rooms and data centers.

PNB SIGNS IBM TO MANAGE ITS HELPDESK AND IT EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE
The Philippine National Bank (PNB) and IBM have signed an IT services agreement under which IBM will run PNB’s IT Helpdesk operations as well as manage and maintain the bank’s desktop, laptop and printer equipment. As part of this agreement, IBM is committed to enhance PNB’s customer experience as well as to deliver improved service flexibility and cost efficiencies to enable PNB to achieve a higher level of business agility and growth. The agreement is part of PNB’s transformation strategy to focus on its core business and aggressively grow marketshare and profitability.

Easy SQL Learning for Students and Newbies
Another book from O’Reilly Media Inc., which they entitled: ‘A Pain-Free Introduction to SQL for Database Developers & Administrators ‘ Learning SQL’ (ISBN: 0596007272, O’Reilly Media Inc., US$34.95, Paperback, 289pp, September 2005) written by Alan Beaulieu, was made to enlighten the readers’ mind that SQL is not as complex as how it looks, but as easy as how the book will explain it you.

Cisco Introduces for Business Communications Solution for SMBs and Start-Up Call Centers
Responding to the need for smart, simple and secure network solutions specifically designed for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and start-up call centers, Cisco Systems introduced the Cisco Business Communications Solution featuring a tailored family of products, services and support options to help businesses control costs, improve operational efficiencies and gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

NBI praised for successful raids vs. software pirates
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a non-profit trade group consisting of the world’s biggest software manufacturers, applauded the National Bureau of Investigation’s Intellectual Property Rights Division for its series of successful raids against violators of the copyright law.

Google enables filtering for Creative Commons-licensed content
Following the example of Yahoo!’s CC-search that was released in March 2004 and then incorporated into Yahoo!’s Advanced Search page, Google has incorporated a new element into its Advanced Search page that allows users to filter their search by ‘Usage Rights.’

Bright future for telephony
Internet telephony with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) hasn’t yet reached critical mass, but it’s poised to. VoIP promises huge cost savings, but its ability to move data, images, and voice traffic over the same connection will undoubtedly cement its place in the future of telecommunications. That’s why so many IT administrators and developers are exploring VoIP-based private telephone switching systems within the enterprise. The efficiency that network users can reach with it is almost mind-boggling. And cheap, if the system is built with open source software PBX like Asterisk.

SQL is not going away
With only a handful of commands, SQL data statements can look deceptively simple. This, combined with the fact that many database developers discover they can get by with learning just the rudiments of the language, explains why so few SQL users tap into the full power of the language.

Illegal raid on unlicensed use of software
Yesterday morning, the Pilipinas AntiPiracy Team ‘ composed of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Optical Media Board (OMB) and the Philippine National Police ‘ announced that it has already confiscated over P19 million worth of illegal software and pirated CDs, since it started its crackdown against businesses profiting from selling or using illegal software. The crackdown started last September.

Palm and Treo Hacks
As one of the first and most popular handheld systems, the Palm OS has come a long way. From the newest Tungstens and Treos all the way down the family tree, Palms are everywhere, and there’s much more to these systems than meets the eye. Here are some hacks as well that may be of interest to you.

Lisa DeBenedictis Remix Contest Winners!
Creative Commons and Magnatune announced the winners of the Lisa DeBenedictis Remix Contest hosted on ccMixter from June 15, 2005 to July 31, 2005.

Learning Internet Forensics
As we use Internet email, the more we realized that it has partly become a hotbed of fraud, spammers, and identity theft. But, undaunted, we spend more and more of our time (and money) on it. Few of us consider the “threats” it proffers to be more than a nuisance, forgetting that there’s real criminal intent behind them targeting some of the most vulnerable members of our society. We overlook the content in spam messages because we already know them to be scams. But, while we would never click on a link in an email to update our password and social security number for a bank account, many people do.

See you at e-Business Week 2005 and 4th Mindanao ICT Congress in General Santos City!
General Santos City shall host the biggest gathering of Information & Communications Technology stakeholders in Mindanao come October this year. This is for the conduct of the 4th Mindanao ICT Congress scheduled on October 27 ‘ 28, which will be one of the highlights of the 2nd e-Business Week slated on October 24 ‘ 29, 2005.

Systems Specialist Needed
Avanza is one of the few loyalty and relationship marketing agencies that have successfully established ways to engage customers and means to maximize the profitability of customers through highly advanced technology systems and data analytics tool. To expand its business, the company is now seeking for individuals who can provide the IT expertise for program development, database management and performance tracking.

MISNet Education – 10th anniversary
Congratulations to MISNet-Education as they celebrate their 10th anniversary last September 22.

2 Must-have books!
Here are some books that caught our fancy lately. It may interest you too.

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents
Reporters Without Borders published a Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents (in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Persian), in which experts and bloggers from all over the world advise Internet users, especially those in repressive countries, how to set up their own blogs and get them known, while preserving their personal anonymity.

8 Must Have Books!
We found interesting books we really like a lot covering topics from Moodle, project and people management, request tracking, open source, Rails, security, usability, digital identity, eBay, among others.

Lucasfilm selects HP technology to create digital entertainment assets
HP and Lucasfilm Ltd., known in visual effects and sound engineering for feature films, recently announced a global, three-year, multi-million dollar technology and marketing agreement.

DigitalFilipino.com Club Member Mike Abundo went to Singapore lately to cover the MediaConnect Security Event. Check out his stories at:
CipherTrust and IronMail
Where’s the Next Missile?