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.
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!
It is the time of year again when Mac users (and non-Mac users) are saving their money for whatever new products Steve Jobs will announce at MacWorld next year. Don't get me wrong but if you really need a Mac now, by all means, buy one! Who knows? The Apple re-sellers might just run a promo or something for the holidays.
As it is the usual custom whenever Apple announces an event, speculations populate the internet. Not to fuel the rumours but let's predict that Apple will release this coming January.
1. iLife 2007. Well, this is a no-brainer. Every year, Apple makes sure that all users spend USD79 to upgrade their iLife suite. The iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, Garageband and iWeb bundle will surely be upgraded and I am hoping that iWeb will get the bulk of the update.
Frankly, I have not touched iWeb for a long time since it is crippled, in a way. I wish that Apple will interface with popular blogging APIs such as Wordpress and Google's Blogger or heck, even with their Blojsom software bundled in Mac OS X Server.
2. iWork 2007. Similar to iLife, this one is another non-brainer. With Keynote and Pages providing a word processor and presentation software, a spreadsheet should not be far behind. Rumour has it that Apple will release a spreadsheet (Numbers?).
What I like to see is for these applications, particularly Pages and Numbers (I hope), to integrate well with Google's Docs. Now if that happens, it will surely eat up a portion of the MS Office crowd.
I hope that even with the addition of a spreadsheet software, Apple will keep the price at USD79. :)
3. iTV. It was announced by Jobs a few months ago so we are expecting it to be released this January.
I wish that the iTV will be similar to the Airport Express in the sense that it is also a wifi access point and a broadband router.
4. Leopard. Although I am 50-50 on its launch this January, I do expect Jobs to announce the date of its release. In addition, I am hoping that he will also provide us with a glimpse of what features will be bundled in addition to the WWDC '06 presentation.
5. Mac Mini. I am expecting the Mac Mini will be bumped up to Core 2 Duo with a souped up Front Row to better control iTV. I have been tempted several times to get the kids a Mac Mini but am still waiting for the upgrade to Core 2 Duo. I wish that Apple will consider slashing the prices back to the original price point of USD499.
6. 6Gen iPod. I am speculating that Apple will release a Zune competitor, not that the current line of iPods cannot compete against the Zune (heck, the Zune is struggling to reach the 1 Million mark!). Better battery life, better and bigger screen, bigger capacity and hopefully wifi support for sync and iTunes store purchase will kick ass. No, I do not need a stinking song-swapping feature - this is lame! :P
7. iPhone. Ah, this is what I have been waiting for. Hopefully we get a GSM/3G/HSDPA capable mobile phone with a decent 2-MP minimum auto-focus still/video camera, iTunes sync, at least 2GB of memory and with bluetooth and long battery life. The dual-battery design as revealed by Digg.com's Kevin Rose is an ingenious design. It will surely blow Nokia out of the water should Apple release it. Battery life has been the bane of music-playing mobile phones.
How about you? What are your predictions for MacWorld 2007 - care to share it with us?
[photo courtesy of macguys]
How many times have you had the need to have multiple console or terminal windows open when configuring your Linux server? Most of the time, you need at least two or three when you are configuring services, more if you are compiling source codes and even more if you are writing code! Having multiple terminal/console windows open is easy if you have a 17" screen but start adding other applications such as your mail client, browsers, etc., and that screen will not have enough real estate to host all those windows. What more if you are using a 12" or 13" or 15" laptop and connecting remotely?
I was in the same situation not too long ago and even though I have a 15.4" wide-screen notebook, the monitor isn't just big enough. I sure wish that some will gift me with Apple's 20" Cinema display (err, Merry Christmas, editor! hehe). So what I did I do?
First is to connect to the remote server using SSH. Any self-respecting system administrator will disable telnet on his/her server or heck, even on his/her Mac or Linux desktop! So, once connected, you simple invoke one command, "screen", and that brings you into an environment that allows you to create multiple virtual consoles using only one terminal/console window on your local computer.
Some basic commands that you need to use "screen" :
Ctrl-A c - creates a new window with a shell and make it active
Ctrl-A C - clear the screen
Ctrl-A k - destroy current window
Ctrl-A n - switch to next window
Ctrl-A p - switch to previous window
Ctrl-A w - show list of windows
Ctrl-A Ctrl-\ - kill all windows and terminate "screen"
Ctrl-A 0 - Ctrl-A 9 - switch to window number 0 - 9
It sure beats having multiple windows open on a small display but again, if you have a large 20" or 30" display or heck, even better if you have two of them, then that beats this tip. :)
Try it and let me know how it works out. Until next week, cya!
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