Last Saturday, I spent some time with the board members of a progressive school in Quezon City. We all had our woes and were discussing the situations our people were facing. Life is hard and prices have risen. The topic then turned to what the meeting  was about in the light of these crises. If we were to think about it, working for the school pro bono, spending our time and money for something we are not paid to do seems illogical. If we were to use this line of thinking, what we were doing (school improvement) was a waste of time if you think in terms of personal revenue we’d get from the time we spent there.

We asked ourselves if we can think of more profitable ventures compared to a non-profit school and the answer was an easy affirmative. It was prime real estate. Residential or business units can be put up in no time. And that’s just for starters.

But then, we returned to our grounding. We wanted to make better lives for our children, for society - no matter what common sense might dictate. If we surrender what little hope we have, then God help us. We were not ready to just give up. Logic may dictate that what we do will not put our country (or world for that matter) and situation where we want it to be. But Hope prevails; that we can make it better, no matter how samll. We have hope in other people with like minds, that they are doing the same, to transform the present to a much brighter future.
It is the same with all people who work and strive to make their lives better. We have to have hope in a better future, no matter how bleak the present is. We must seek to rise above our current state and look to a brighter tomorrow.
We have to have hope. But it should be accompanied with action. The real question then becomes

“What can we do in times like these?”

More than just a geek’s or tinkerer’s hobby, open-source is running the internet and other machines. From eLearning to productivity software, it has been steadily (or has) gone up to mainstream usage.

From an email sent by Francisco  Francisco “Francis” E. Sarmiento III, MD, Program Manager, International Open Source Network

he ASEAN+3 node of the International Open Source Network (IOSN)
invites you to the Philippine Open Source Summit to be held on 23-24
June 2008 in Cebu City, Philippines with the theme, “Understanding the
Business Value of Open Source.”

We welcome you to visit the official summit website at http://oss.ph
for more information.

Registration details at http://www.oss.ph/registration.php

We look forward to see you all in the summit.

MABUHAY (Long live) from the Philippines!

There are open source solutions to many of the our technology needs, for governments especially. Just a thought, is open source taught in the schools or just mentioned in passing? If we can make our mark in open source support, programming and management, I am sure a lot of opportunities will come our way.

Diyosa

Conspiracy Garden Cafe

10PM, 19 May 2008

Go to the Naga City market. On the level (is it second or third) where the chapel is, something smells fishy. It reeks, it stinks.

But in a weird kind of way, you’ll like it. It’s called “badi” in Bicol or “tuyo” in Tagalog.

Dried fish.

Some of them can really get slaty, though there are unsalted variants. When you do get the more salty ones, I would advise you to wash them (that’s what we do) to lessen the salt strength. I’m willing ot bet soaking them in vinegar would also do the trick, specially with the dried squid. I suppose frying them and adding sugar would give you a sticky, pungent but tasty provincial fare.

Does that make you salivate and want to reach out for sinangag and suka or kamatis?

The smell is not as bad as it seems. Just imagine yourself eating breakfast on a drizzling cold morning. Goes well with black native coffee.

Many friends and acquaintances frequently ask me for advise when they think of buying a computer. I have basically two questions: How much is your budget and What would you use it for. The rest are just details.

With ultra-mobile portable computers (UMPC) getting popular, the questions still remain the same.

At the Philippine launch of the Asus Eee PC 900 at the Makati Shangrila (May 12, 2008), we got a first glimpse of the big brother of the highly-popular Asus Eee PC 701.

Some interesting notes: 4 GB plus 12 (Windows) or 16 (Xandros) GB SSD, multi-touch trackpad, 1.3M pixel camera, weighing around 0.99 kg, at PHP 24,990.00. As confirmed by Ethan Hung, Asus Regional Marketing Manager, (who graciously sat with us and answered our questions while we were having lunch and he wasn’t) units will be available in stores this week. Just in time for the new school year, if I might add.

There will be accessories, riding on the popularity of the line ala iPod. I think they won’t be pricey, though.
The Asus Eee PC 900 is being marketed as a “girl or student gadget” but men and geeks will also be enticed to give it a second look. It also helps that Asus have opened up a Philippine office. I think I also heard that they also have a service center, too.

Going back to the questions: If you have 25k and would do internet surfing, research and use productivity software on the go, the Asus Eee PC 900 is a good buy.

Thanks to First Tier Brands for the invite.

Shout out to Leah and Aldrin, Abe, Arnold, Eugene, Reggie, Jhay and Racquel (of PDI?).