Owner: Pinoy Explorer URL:http://jrocas.com.ph Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 09:05:38 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: A Filipino biologist's blog on technology, science, health, politics and among other things. Site statistics:Click here
Old computers comes around, goes around 2006-11-12 08:04:41 One thing leads to another, and so forth. This is how this piece came to be. I saw this article from the NY Times Technology section highlighting how the Big Apple’s electronic junk - trashed, old and non-functioning desktop computers
- are being recycled or processed by volunteers.
A question dawned on me, what about here in the Philippines? I mean, we Pinoy netizens (at least the financially-blessed among us) have been happily blogging or telling stories to our friends/readers both online and offline about our new and latest desktops, gaming consoles, mobile phones, peripherals and pretty much everything electronic. It generates buzz, fame, albeit jealousy and traffic for those who blog about it.
But what about the old rig that was replaced? The yester-month’s model now deemed as unfit to be shown on flickr albums for they are now relics, even fossils of the digital age? In an earlier piece, I suggested how these old-yet-functioning pieces of electronics can be disposed Read more:comes
Peanuts Philosophy 2006-11-14 23:42:10 My blog, as well as the other .com.ph blogs have been acting weird lately due to some server problems yet to be isolated. That’s why readers would occasionally see ‘Database Error messages’ scribbled all over our blogs instead of the usual posts you’ve come to read and enjoy. Please bear with us for the time being, the wonderful people at our host are working hard to fix this bug.
Anyways, on with today’s piece, which is based on an e-mail I received from a good friend. It’s quite clever and very very sweet if one would ask me. So here it is, enjoy! The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.
Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one:
1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have he Read more:Peanuts
, Philosophy
1GB Hotmail launched silently 2006-11-17 00:37:29 Way back in my high school freshman year, I signed up for my very very first e-mail service, it’s not with Yahoo! as like 99% of other classmates and friends did, it’s Hotmail
-powered e-mail service. (http://www.hotmail.com) And no, it’s not ‘hotmale’ though I had a few contacts who found a good laugh out of me once I verbally told them my Hotmail address.
I don’t know, and maybe it is just me but Yahoo! Mail never caught my fancy. (To which I could write a whole new piece about, and that’s for later days.) A culprit could be from my self-obsession with always being different from everyone else (at least I try to be). Since most of my friends and classmates already have ‘@yahoo.com’ trailing their unique username with all sorts of special numbers and the words “cute, cutiee, pastel” and other incarnations to tell the world where to e-mail them. So I signed up for a Hotmail account.
The service was satisfactory and I even
Meeting Mong Palatino in person 2006-11-21 15:26:26 After attending a quick meeting that will rewrite the history of De La Salle University - Dasmariñas (DLSU-D) at around lunch time today, (Planning to rewrite history is the reason I haven’t been able to update this blog of mine for days now.) I proceeded with a few friends of mine to attend another meeting, a gathering to be exact.
It took place at the Severino de Las Alas Building or more commonly called as the ‘Alumni building’ by us Lasallians here in DLSU-D. The event, was Day 2 of the weeklong celebration of our university’s official student publication, Heraldo Filipino’s 21 years of service to the Lasallian community.
The particular event today was, the “Kampusap-usapan Live”. What in God’s green earth does it mean? Here’s a little background info. “Kampusap-usapan” is a well-known if not the most popular section of Heraldo Filipino. It is basically the informal, open-forum type of section in which issues within Read more:person
Spam TXT Messages 2006-11-25 14:28:48 SPAM, or unsolicited messages, everyone using the Internet, owns a couple or more e-mail accounts, bloggers and webmasters just hate it, really hate it. That’s why a myriad of anti-spam software, measures, technologies and sheer human effort have been deployed to combat and get rid of it.
However, SPAM doesn’t only thrive as a pestilence in the cyberworld. Even the seemingly distant mobile world has already been invaded by it-well the Philippine mobile world that is.
Your in the middle of a meeting or class, your mobile phone vibrates, telling that you have just recieved a message and so you frantically dig for it inside your bag or pocket. Unlock the keypad with lightning fast reflexes and even without looking at it, feel like an eternity has passed before you could open the message. Your heart beats faster in anticipation of knowing who the sender is but all of this is thrown away shredded into pieces when all you read is the following: (just an example)
New Ring Tones a
So I'm a B-lister, cool! 2006-11-26 01:46:55 First found this via Sir Abe’s blog, then saw this on Ade’s Friendster blog, I figured what the heck might as well give it a try.
So it says this blog belongs the B-list category, what does it mean?
The High Authority Group [B-List Bloggers]
(100-499 blogs linking in the last 6 months)
The third group represents a decided shift in blog age while not blogging much more frequently than the last. In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.
So it’s another clever interpretation of how Technorati sees your blog. Wonder what would the Web 2.0 version of Technorati would be like? How will it rank this blog? Still, it’s very creative and would appeal to almost everyone. Heck, I’m quite happy with the rating it gave this blog.
Hope my sponsors will consider this wh Read more:lister
A Gay Womanizer 2006-11-27 00:08:43 “Bading si Rizal.”(Rizal is gay.) My tall friend mused with quite an authority. He said this after I shared to him, my discovery of an article last December that talked about the insane idea of Rizal, our national hero being the father of one of the most hated man in modern history; Adolf Hitler. Thanks again to the Filipino Librarian for the link. Mr. Manuel Quezon III has gone to the bottom of this crazy idea with this article.
Now going back to my friend’s smart-ass idea on Rizal being gay, he did presented some reasons to back it up. He started by making this observation; “Sa lahat ng babaero, siya[Rizal] lang ang hindi nagkaroon ng maraming anak.” “Of all the womanizers, Rizal is the only one who has not produced a number of children.”
True, Rizal did not have many children save for the one that Josephine delievered too early into this world, only to die later as a tragic consequence of Pepe’s misdemeanors. This is despite the fact
Arroyo must listen to Cruz 2006-11-27 23:22:22 Reading the latest headline from INQ7.net put a smile on my face. Outgoing defense chief prefers civilian successor.
Resigned Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, Jr is right on the mark by stressing that he prefers to have another civilian, with no deep military ties or connections to succeed him as the new defense chief.
This is by far one of the most sensible thing I’ve heard from the men and women who compose the Arroyo administration, or in Cruz’ case, once become part of.
Ever since Arroyo took over the reigns of power, the military has been at the center of scandals, controversies and most likely behind the scenes of the recent rise in political killings and massive human rights abuses suffered by the peasant, labor and even laity leaders critical of the Arroyo administration.
Though the charges are still yet to be proven in the proper courts and investigations bear their final fruits, justice finally served to those who deserve it, a civilian leading the Department of N
Gap between humans and chimps widens 2006-11-28 23:13:38 An article from the National Geographic website has a basic laydown about the results of the latest mapping of the human genome.
According to the story, our DNA varies more widely from person to person. This is one of the conclusions scientists and geneticists had after analyzing new researches about the human genome. The genetic material found in every cell of our bodies that define and make us humans
.
The new map provides a much clearer picture of human genetic variation, says geneticist and co-researcher Charles Lee of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
“This evidence is showing that we are more genetically unique from one another—we all have individualized genomes,” he said.
Personalized DNA? You can bet a monkey’s butt on it. Which is not really surprising when one would consider that we humans are among the most dispersed organisms in the planet. We inhabit almost every terrain on Earth and continue to expand our territories, often with har
Reming reminds me of the lessons I learned from Milenyo 2006-11-30 12:28:37 Among the things that worries me is the coming super typhoon ‘Reming’. Over at dinner, I saw the news report saying that it will no longer directly hit Metro Manila due to a high pressure system which has pushed the typhoon more to the West. As of this writing, storm signal No. 2 is raised over here in our province of Cavite and already, though it’s not yet raining and the winds still calm, we are beginning to feel the creeping wrath of Reming. It’s that cold and eerie silence before the storm.
Pray that everyone in the storm’s path would be spared their lives and most of their vital properties. Selfish as I may sound, what really worries me is that Reming might cause massive power blockouts in our area that would last for days as Milenyo did back in September.
Sir Abe has written a thing or two about how we, the Pinoy netizens could and would last in those dark days without electricity powering our tech toys and essentials.
As my comment on that post go
Global warming now causing extinctions 2006-12-02 03:09:01 The recent wave of super typhoon that has rampaged through the Philippines could partly be explained by global warming. If one has noticed it, Milenyo and Reming had more winds that are stronger than ever before than rain which explains why so many houses and infrastructure were blown away instead of being submerged in floodwater.
Recalling my ecology class, if the planet is warmer, and it is, it causes more typhoons, cyclones and tornadoes because a warmer planet leads to a warmer atmosphere, which in turn yields to faster winds. Simply because warmer air is less dense and therefore is more easily carried around the planet thanks to its rotation and other factors.
We humans suffer this ugly end of global warming, already we are easily overwhelmed and could barely cope with its damages to material and human life. How you ever wondered though, how global warming affects the other animals and plants that share this planet with us?
The video below is just one of the most visible and earli Read more:Global
, extinctions
Global warming means more super typhoons 2006-12-04 16:46:27 Before I begin to discuss the main topic of this post, I’d like to call on every member of the Lasallian family, particularly from De La Salle University - Dasmariñas, and fellow Caviteños to donate Food (Canned Goods, Noodles and other kinds with long shelf life) and Water for the victims of super typhoon Reming’s rampage over the Bicol region during this past weekend.
Other useful goods like old clothes, blankets, beddings and other basic items still in fair to good condition may also be donated for the relief operations.
Cash or monetary donations are also accepted but please contact and coordinate with the Lasallian Community Development Center for the details of your cash/monetary donations. Food, Water and basic items are the priority as of this moment.
For students, faculty and staff of DLSU-D, kindly bring your donations to the LCDC office located at the 2nd Floor of the SBC Building.
For further details and coordination, please use the following contact informat Read more:Global
How do I improve my site's accessibility? 2006-12-08 01:40:35 *Back to blogging again, been quite busy with helping out in the collection of donations and goods for the typhoon and mudslide victims in the Bicol region. Still, donations are very much welcomed. Moving on…
This news item from the BBC News Technology section has got me a bit worried, ‘Most websites’ failing disabled. Sad really. We bloggers would always jump at the moment to protect our blogger’s rights, control over what content appears in our blogs and censorship over what users can comment in our posts but a recent study has shown that we have been less ‘considerate’ about our disabled neighbors who use the internet and would surely love to visit our blogs and other sites.
The story goes on to say:
Most of the leading websites around the world are failing to provide the most basic accessibility standards for people with disabilities.
Ninety seven percent of websites did not provide even minimum levels of accessibility, a new survey has found.
A
GroupLoop is good, activecollab would be better 2006-12-08 15:44:21 In my vain search for a free webhost that would enable me to do an installation of activecollab, that free alternative to the online project collaboration service called BaseCamp, I stumbled upon GroupLoop. It’s a group collaboration site/service which essentially works like the popular group mail services offered by Yahoo! and Google.
GroupLoop provides a simple place for you to share and archive files, a central area for discussion, and a calendar to manage your meetings. GroupLoop is designed for anyone who needs to organize a group. Board of directors, private clubs, non profit groups, chambers, and even families can benefit from its collaboration tools. It’s 100% web-based, easy to use, and there are no long term contracts to sign.
In essence, it works like the group mail services I mentioned before. Group messaging, file sharing, a central calendar to keep track of meetings and events. The advantage Group Loop has over those long established group mail services is t Read more:better
GroupLoop is good, activecollab would be better 2006-12-08 15:44:21 In my vain search for a free webhost that would enable me to do an installation of activecollab, that free alternative to the online project collaboration service called BaseCamp, I stumbled upon GroupLoop. It’s a group collaboration site/service which essentially works like the popular group mail services offered by Yahoo! and Google.
GroupLoop provides a simple place for you to share and archive files, a central area for discussion, and a calendar to manage your meetings. GroupLoop is designed for anyone who needs to organize a group. Board of directors, private clubs, non profit groups, chambers, and even families can benefit from its collaboration tools. It’s 100% web-based, easy to use, and there are no long term contracts to sign.
In essence, it works like the group mail services I mentioned before. Group messaging, file sharing, a central calendar to keep track of meetings and events. The advantage Group Loop has over those long established group mail services is t Read more:better
How do I improve my site's accessibility? 2006-12-08 01:40:35 *Back to blogging again, been quite busy with helping out in the collection of donations and goods for the typhoon and mudslide victims in the Bicol region. Still, donations are very much welcomed. Moving on…
This news item from the BBC News Technology section has got me a bit worried, ‘Most websites’ failing disabled. Sad really. We bloggers would always jump at the moment to protect our blogger’s rights, control over what content appears in our blogs and censorship over what users can comment in our posts but a recent study has shown that we have been less ‘considerate’ about our disabled neighbors who use the internet and would surely love to visit our blogs and other sites.
The story goes on to say:
Most of the leading websites around the world are failing to provide the most basic accessibility standards for people with disabilities.
Ninety seven percent of websites did not provide even minimum levels of accessibility, a new survey has found.
A
Global warming means more super typhoons 2006-12-04 16:46:27 Before I begin to discuss the main topic of this post, I’d like to call on every member of the Lasallian family, particularly from De La Salle University - Dasmariñas, and fellow Caviteños to donate Food (Canned Goods, Noodles and other kinds with long shelf life) and Water for the victims of super typhoon Reming’s rampage over the Bicol region during this past weekend.
Other useful goods like old clothes, blankets, beddings and other basic items still in fair to good condition may also be donated for the relief operations.
Cash or monetary donations are also accepted but please contact and coordinate with the Lasallian Community Development Center for the details of your cash/monetary donations. Food, Water and basic items are the priority as of this moment.
For students, faculty and staff of DLSU-D, kindly bring your donations to the LCDC office located at the 2nd Floor of the SBC Building.
For further details and coordination, please use the following contact informat Read more:Global
Global warming now causing extinctions 2006-12-02 03:09:01 The recent wave of super typhoon that has rampaged through the Philippines could partly be explained by global warming. If one has noticed it, Milenyo and Reming had more winds that are stronger than ever before than rain which explains why so many houses and infrastructure were blown away instead of being submerged in floodwater.
Recalling my ecology class, if the planet is warmer, and it is, it causes more typhoons, cyclones and tornadoes because a warmer planet leads to a warmer atmosphere, which in turn yields to faster winds. Simply because warmer air is less dense and therefore is more easily carried around the planet thanks to its rotation and other factors.
We humans suffer this ugly end of global warming, already we are easily overwhelmed and could barely cope with its damages to material and human life. How you ever wondered though, how global warming affects the other animals and plants that share this planet with us?
The video below is just one of the most visible and earli Read more:Global
, extinctions
Reming reminds me of the lessons I learned from Milenyo 2006-11-30 12:28:37 Among the things that worries me is the coming super typhoon ‘Reming’. Over at dinner, I saw the news report saying that it will no longer directly hit Metro Manila due to a high pressure system which has pushed the typhoon more to the West. As of this writing, storm signal No. 2 is raised over here in our province of Cavite and already, though it’s not yet raining and the winds still calm, we are beginning to feel the creeping wrath of Reming. It’s that cold and eerie silence before the storm.
Pray that everyone in the storm’s path would be spared their lives and most of their vital properties. Selfish as I may sound, what really worries me is that Reming might cause massive power blockouts in our area that would last for days as Milenyo did back in September.
Sir Abe has written a thing or two about how we, the Pinoy netizens could and would last in those dark days without electricity powering our tech toys and essentials.
As my comment on that post go
Gap between humans and chimps widens 2006-11-28 23:13:38 An article from the National Geographic website has a basic laydown about the results of the latest mapping of the human genome.
According to the story, our DNA varies more widely from person to person. This is one of the conclusions scientists and geneticists had after analyzing new researches about the human genome. The genetic material found in every cell of our bodies that define and make us humans
.
The new map provides a much clearer picture of human genetic variation, says geneticist and co-researcher Charles Lee of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
“This evidence is showing that we are more genetically unique from one another—we all have individualized genomes,” he said.
Personalized DNA? You can bet a monkey’s butt on it. Which is not really surprising when one would consider that we humans are among the most dispersed organisms in the planet. We inhabit almost every terrain on Earth and continue to expand our territories, often with har
Arroyo must listen to Cruz 2006-11-27 23:22:22 Reading the latest headline from INQ7.net put a smile on my face. Outgoing defense chief prefers civilian successor.
Resigned Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, Jr is right on the mark by stressing that he prefers to have another civilian, with no deep military ties or connections to succeed him as the new defense chief.
This is by far one of the most sensible thing I’ve heard from the men and women who compose the Arroyo administration, or in Cruz’ case, once become part of.
Ever since Arroyo took over the reigns of power, the military has been at the center of scandals, controversies and most likely behind the scenes of the recent rise in political killings and massive human rights abuses suffered by the peasant, labor and even laity leaders critical of the Arroyo administration.
Though the charges are still yet to be proven in the proper courts and investigations bear their final fruits, justice finally served to those who deserve it, a civilian leading the Department of N
A Gay Womanizer 2006-11-27 00:08:43 “Bading si Rizal.”(Rizal is gay.) My tall friend mused with quite an authority. He said this after I shared to him, my discovery of an article last December that talked about the insane idea of Rizal, our national hero being the father of one of the most hated man in modern history; Adolf Hitler. Thanks again to the Filipino Librarian for the link. Mr. Manuel Quezon III has gone to the bottom of this crazy idea with this article.
Now going back to my friend’s smart-ass idea on Rizal being gay, he did presented some reasons to back it up. He started by making this observation; “Sa lahat ng babaero, siya[Rizal] lang ang hindi nagkaroon ng maraming anak.” “Of all the womanizers, Rizal is the only one who has not produced a number of children.”
True, Rizal did not have many children save for the one that Josephine delievered too early into this world, only to die later as a tragic consequence of Pepe’s misdemeanors. This is despite the fact
So I'm a B-lister, cool! 2006-11-26 01:46:55 First found this via Sir Abe’s blog, then saw this on Ade’s Friendster blog, I figured what the heck might as well give it a try.
So it says this blog belongs the B-list category, what does it mean?
The High Authority Group [B-List Bloggers]
(100-499 blogs linking in the last 6 months)
The third group represents a decided shift in blog age while not blogging much more frequently than the last. In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.
So it’s another clever interpretation of how Technorati sees your blog. Wonder what would the Web 2.0 version of Technorati would be like? How will it rank this blog? Still, it’s very creative and would appeal to almost everyone. Heck, I’m quite happy with the rating it gave this blog.
Hope my sponsors will consider this wh Read more:lister
Spam TXT Messages 2006-11-25 14:28:48 SPAM, or unsolicited messages, everyone using the Internet, owns a couple or more e-mail accounts, bloggers and webmasters just hate it, really hate it. That’s why a myriad of anti-spam software, measures, technologies and sheer human effort have been deployed to combat and get rid of it.
However, SPAM doesn’t only thrive as a pestilence in the cyberworld. Even the seemingly distant mobile world has already been invaded by it-well the Philippine mobile world that is.
Your in the middle of a meeting or class, your mobile phone vibrates, telling that you have just recieved a message and so you frantically dig for it inside your bag or pocket. Unlock the keypad with lightning fast reflexes and even without looking at it, feel like an eternity has passed before you could open the message. Your heart beats faster in anticipation of knowing who the sender is but all of this is thrown away shredded into pieces when all you read is the following: (just an example)
New Ring Tones a
Meeting Mong Palatino in person 2006-11-21 15:26:26 After attending a quick meeting that will rewrite the history of De La Salle University - Dasmariñas (DLSU-D) at around lunch time today, (Planning to rewrite history is the reason I haven’t been able to update this blog of mine for days now.) I proceeded with a few friends of mine to attend another meeting, a gathering to be exact.
It took place at the Severino de Las Alas Building or more commonly called as the ‘Alumni building’ by us Lasallians here in DLSU-D. The event, was Day 2 of the weeklong celebration of our university’s official student publication, Heraldo Filipino’s 21 years of service to the Lasallian community.
The particular event today was, the “Kampusap-usapan Live”. What in God’s green earth does it mean? Here’s a little background info. “Kampusap-usapan” is a well-known if not the most popular section of Heraldo Filipino. It is basically the informal, open-forum type of section in which issues within Read more:person
From Pinoy Explorer to the BioTech Chronicles 2006-12-10 01:26:14 As you may have noticed by now, my blog carries a new name, instead of PinoyExplorer
it now says BioTech Chronicles.
Are you seeing things? Well no, I’m renaming this blog to the BioTech Chronciles for the following reasons of which I will explain to the fullest of my abilities.
The name Pinoy Explorer, never rubbed off on me. It was fanciful but looking back at the past seven months of this blog’s existence, I’ve never really done justice to the name. I even consulted my non-blogging friends on this and they say the same thing. When they hear the name Pinoy Explorer before seeing the site, they have preconceptions that I have stories about my nature trips, expeditions, science experiments etc coupled with pictures there of.
Sure those are preconceptions but I find myself in the same standing as my anonymous-non-commenting-non-blogging friends/readers. Though I’d love to live up to the name, as of now I’m unable to do so. I’m still stuck in the clas
Old and New Media Towards Society Change 2008-03-09 11:00:27 New media have invaded the internet and have created buzz in the mass media. Blogs and other social media became platforms where ordinary citizens can freely express their thoughts and could be given privilege to deliver news and other pertinent information for the public.In the event such as the Interfaith Rally held in Ayala, Makati City, bloggers and traditional broadcast media joined together for one purpose — to gather Information. Of course, the broadcast media are the most visible on the scene with their huge OB vans, broadcast stage, field reporters and pool of cameramen patrolling the place and covering every activities.So what is this media hyped all about? Its a rally organized that talked about an anomaly involving our topmost politicians and personalities in the government. Read more:Society
, Change
, New Media
Philippine Tourism Embraces the New Media Revolution 2008-03-09 09:59:17 Tourism secretary Ace Durano is hip. Why i said that? very simple. Today's new media popularity paves way to his conclusion or perhaps government decision to tap the contents from the cyberspace.To be specific, the agency had chosen the service of Ms. Christine Gambito to be its ambassador for ti US-based Filipina, a new media practitioner and a celebrity of her own via the social site like YouTube. She gained her popularity over her "Happy Slip" channel which has over 4.5 million views as of this writing, and almost 120,000 subscribers. In fact, for just two years of pro vlogging at youtube, she now ranks in the top 4 of the Most Subscribed (All Time,).So as you can see, Christine via her "Happy Slip" channel becomes a viral in advertising campaign and it was a grab chance for the agency Read more:New Media
, Philippine
, Tourism
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