Life Has It's Ups and Downs

Simulation Report

2009-10-06T00:30:00.000-07:00

co-reporters in simulation, here is the link of the report

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/12/12/2220521/simu_report.doc

Difference Between Method and Methodology

2009-10-01T23:53:00.001-07:00

it is actually based on my own understanding.... hehehehehe

For me, method is just a part of the methodology. I agree with what Mr. Biloy has said that Methodology has the bigger picture. On my part, what constitute the methodology are the methods itself. Method is a technique and on the other hand, a methodology is a set of techniques to answer a problem.

Reviewing the Article -- posted by my classmates..

2009-10-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

Before you call a web developer, Ask yourself one question
By
Susan Daffron

I would like to make a review of one of the posted articles by my classmates and what I have chosen is the article that was posted by George Duran on “before you call a web developer, ask yourself one question”. As what I have read in his posted article, it would suggest one thing and that is “is there a reason for existence of things around us?”

Anyway, let’s go back to the entry of George Duran. One thing that one should ask first before doing an action is “why do you need to do this?”. This would suggest that one should establish goals first before doing anything. Just like in putting up a website. One should know what the main purpose of having a site is.

In particular, our System in our Systems Analysis and Design 2 is the online version of the University Publication. The main purpose of having the site is to become the voice of the students and to let every student in the university express their thoughts and talents in writing through our site. One of the goals of our site is to help every student in EVERY COLLEGE be heard and not just focusing on to the people who are in frontline. Specifically, our site would also help contribute to a greener environment since it would reduce the usage of papers where in fact, papers came from trees right? So less paper means less trees that needs to be cut just to produce a piece of paper. The said goals were established since our group have noticed some existing problems, for example, a student would want to submit his /her article at the office but then whenever the office is closed then there would be no choice for this student but to come back to the office some other time. And this would result to waste of the energy and effort of the student to go to that office. In addition, whenever a student would want to comment on a particular article, with the old system, the student would have no choice but to keep the comment to himself since the article has been published in a paper. Furthermore, every semester, a student would pay Php 55.00 to the University Publication, but then there are tendencies that the newspaper / magazine are lacking that not every student can get his own magazine.

But with the help of our system, this could minimize and even lessen the said problems. The students do not need to go to the office just to submit an article since our system does have a feature on that, similar to an email. They just have to log on our site and register themselves in the convenience of their own homes. Then, after doing so, they can submit now their article and can even comment to other published articles.

To go back to George’s post, he quoted that “when setting Web site goals, it makes sense to think about the visitors you are hoping to attract to the site. Who will be reading it? What do they need to know? Why would they visit your site in the first place? What terms would they type into a search engine to find your site? If you do not have good answers for these questions, you should reconsider the question I asked at the beginning of this article: why do you need a website?”

After establishing goals, one should gather the necessary data to come up with the website. Most probably, the owner should now visualize and conceptualize on to what are the contents of his/her site so that the visitors would be attracted to always browse your site.
The article is very interesting in a sense that it would teach us something with regards to technology and also in real life situations. That as to everything we do we should think of it a couple and even a hundred times so that we won’t waste our time, money perhaps and effort in putting into action on what we really want to do. And so that we would not want to regret the things we’ve done and to be prepared for the possible consequences that one may face.

One article that also caught my attention is the article that was posted by Cherry Ann Montejo that has a title of “The Promise of Information Technology in the Travel Industry”. As I go through the article, I do agree with what Cherry has said, time would come that information technology would take place in the travel industry, the IT Professionals would be developing enhancements on online ticketing etc. that would help the tourist be more comfortable and convenient on their part to travel around the world.

I may somehow relate this one to the one of the so called feature of St. Peter Life Plans. One would not need to go home just to be there in the wake of their loved ones who passed away, through their (referring to the St. Peter Life Plans) cctv or built in camera in their chapels, it would seem like you are on the actual wake. But for me, it would still be better to be there with your loved ones (hehehe).

Also, I would relate it with the reality show “Amazing Race” that there are chosen people that would race around the world. The online ticketing system would be a good strategy in booking up early flights to their respective destination. All they have to do is just login to the website and do the transactions there! It would truly help them in winning 1 million US Dollars (that’s’ a lot of money there)

Anyway, the title is very catchy, that as you read the title, you would have a glimpse and you would understand already what the article is all about. It would be very nice if I and my group mates would come up with a good research title that one would understand what our topic is all about by just reading its title.

3rd reading... again and again and again....

2009-10-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

Computers May Slowly Be Turning Green
By
Jon Norwood, October 8, 2007

Summary:
The paper discusses the new trend of eco-friendly computers being manufactured, as well as their possible impact on Global warming. A PC draws between 200 and 700 watts when left on. It is also more than a DVD Player or a TV. 600 watts over time will add considerably to an electric bill and it will send a great deal of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the course of the year.

Europe has begun to take the computer disposal problem seriously. Several regulations are currently being established to help promote the concept of “Green PC”. In fact in America, the Dell Inc. pledged to plant a tree for every PC they sell that begins in 2008.

The PC World is currently working on a carbon neutral PC that focuses primarily on decreasing the power requirements of the computer which means less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The manufacturing process PCs go through is the real environmental concern as on average 10 times the weight of the PC in raw materials will be burned through during its creation. This is a problem bigger than the US as a great deal of hardware used in American computers is imported. Companies such as Dell and Gateway will have to become more mindful of where the parts they are using come from, and perhaps refuse to purchase from firms that are not environmentally friendly. This would more than likely increase the cost of computers immediately , but that may be a necessary change.

Evaluation:

It is good to know that there are Computer Manufacturers would initiate towards a greener and healthier environment. On my part, writing the said paper would also help people be aware of what is really happening right now. It seems that we’ve seen the effects of Global Warming today, even if there’s only a day of rain pouring but floods would truly be there, affecting lots of people.
On my own opinion, to really solve global warming, all of us even ordinary citizens should do our part if we do not want to let these things get worst as possible. We should all take step. Haha!

2nd reading again and again...

2009-10-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

The Effect of Bandwidth Software on the Business
By
Muhammad Azeem Ashraf
July 13, 2009

Summary:

In every human being in the world, computers and technology is used in all parts and fields of their life. In this paper, bandwidth software is introduced into the market. The bandwidth software would provide solutions to the small and large businesses that use internet service. Since most business today, do their advertising over the web so all the clients need to do is to sit comfortably in their homes and do the shopping online.
The paper stated that the bandwidth software helps an individual to have a check and limit the speed of the internet that is being used and provided to its users. The bandwidth software manages the traffic and speed of the internet that is being provided. Also, if one would use bandwidth software to its business, it would help them in different ways that include the following:
o Reduces the cost of the internet by not providing to the each user separately
o Secure the sites that you don’t want to be accessed
o Each user can increase or decrease the bandwidth according the rate of transfer of data and the speed he needs to perform his tasks.
o This bandwidth software also helps all the computers safe from any viruses or threats
Thus the bandwidth software plays a significant role in the growth of the business. It can reduce their cost and more efficiently use that cause for other purpose that may increase its profit and in return leads that business towards growth and goodwill.

Evaluation:

Yes, it’s true that bandwidth software can give benefits to a business but how about schools and universities? I was just wondering if this software is applicable in our school. One thing that I have noticed is that the paper is too general that it should suggest as to what type of businesses this software can be applied into. Also, one thing I would suggest is it should specify the possible prices that the software could range.

1st reading .... again?

2009-10-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

eWatch: AWearable Sensor and Notification Platform
Uwe Maurer1, Anthony Rowe2, Asim Smailagic3, Daniel P. Siewiorek3
3School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
2Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
1Computer Science Department, Technische Universität München, Germany

Paper Abstract:
The eWatch is a wearable sensing, notification, and computing platform built into a wrist watch form factor making it highly available, instantly viewable, ideally located for sensors, and unobtrusive to users. Bluetooth communication provides a wireless link to a cellular phone or stationary computer. eWatch senses light, motion, audio, and temperature and provides visual, audio, and tactile notification. The system provides ample processing capabilities with multiple day battery life enabling realistic user studies. This paper provides the motivation for developing a wearable computing platform, a description of the power aware hardware and software architectures, and results showing how online nearest neighbor classification can identify and recognize a set of frequently visited locations.

Evaluation:
The eWatch reminds me of a mobile phone. How I wish that mobile phones can be attached to a watch. All you just have to do is to put on your wrist and just wait for the phone calls and text messages to come. As I have read the paper, one thing that took my attention is that it can locate a person (that is using a eWatch) that is similar to a GPS. In the paper, it states there that eWatch would be very beneficial to patients. Since, eWatch senses light, motion, audio and tactile notification. An eWatch can sense if the user is in distress and then query to confirm that it is an emergency. The use of online learning could profile the patient’s daily activity and notify the caretaker if a patient no longer performs their daily activities. The eWatch can also notify a patient when they should take their medication. (taken from the actual paper).

I myself is truly amazed with this technology. This would be very helpful in our elderly people; with the help of this technology it could lessen the chances that our elderly will get lost since we can track them through the use of an eWatch. One thing I have learned as I read the paper is that every location has its own unique have location noises such as the noise of computers, television and even traffics that came from the cars. Also, the GUI has a calendar that can monitor and can add, edit and delete schedules on the specific dates. This would help the very busy people remind them of what they have to do.

Anyway, with regards to the paper, there are terms that need to be explained more or they just have to put a glossary of terms so that the readers can understand more about what they are talking about. One thing I’ve also liked about is that they’ve shared about the hardware specifications as well as the screenshots of the said technology. In addition, they have stated that they will be having a future work. I just hope that there would be a technology like that here in the Philippines, it would truly benefit us.

State of Computer Science Research

2009-10-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

Office of Naval Research, Asian Office
Computer Science Research in India
A summary report by Prof. Krithi Ramamritham

According to Ramamritham (1995), India has shown the potential for high-caliber computer-science research. He stated some facts and here are the following:
· India's pool of technical man power is one of the largest in the world,
· The growth rate of India's software industry has been tremendous in the recent past, and
· The demand in the West for students from India's top science and technology educational institutions has been very strong.
The report was all about the Computer Science Research in India, in which the first discussion would focus on the Nature of the Computer Science Research in India, then it is followed by the kinds of organizations in which the said computer science research is conducted then followed by the support for conducting research in the form of equipment, infrastructure and publications is then discussed.

It has been said that India is the sought after IT Professionals, they are not just proficient in English but also with their works. Today, almost all areas of computer science research are covered by researchers in India, including topics that are "hot" elsewhere such as multi-media, workflow automation, virtual reality, and hardware-software co-design. In addition, some of the research has even attracted international attention including work on neuro-fuzzy systems, machine learning, genetic and neural algorithms, the modeling and control of flexible manufacturing systems, speech synthesis, databases, and complexity theory.

But what really caught my attention is that Indians were able to develop a solution to cope up with the conditions in conversation of multitude of languages. It means that Indians have developed a machine-assisted language processing. As we all know, not everyone can really speak English fluently but then with the help of the technology that was built by the Indians that would truly help not just their fellow men but also every citizen in the world. Of course, the technology that was developed go through extensive research. And with these developed technology, that would just simply prove that Indians do produce high quality and very good research.

One thing I have also liked about is that, in India, there are 3 categories of institutions that conduct Computer Science Research in India. And these are the following:
· The first one is the six major research and teaching institutes devoted to science and technology. The following are taken from the article. These six institutes are the IITs (of which there are five, with one more coming up in Assam) and IISc, located in Bangalore. These institutions form a select group in the minds of the government as well as the citizens. The next tier of institutions is made up primarily of the Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs), with one located in each state. Also, there are several other universities where computer science research is being conducted quietly. (One such is the University of Hyderabad; researchers here are very active in (collaborative) AI research, keeping close contacts with overseas colleagues.) But a considerable gap does exist between the six top tier institutions and the next because of high teaching load imposed on the faculty, students being, on average, of a lower quality, and finally poorer infrastructure, namely library and computing facilities.

· Government-Sponsored Institutions
There are organizations in India that are funded and supported by their government and different ministries and departments. These are just some of the examples:
o TIFR and the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (MatScience) perform research which is predominantly of a theoretical nature. These are funded by DAE.
o Defence-related work takes place in a number of labs around the country, many located in Bangalore and Hyderabad, both in Southern India. A good example is CAIR which can be described as a "think- tank" serving the AI and robotics needs of Indian Ministry of Defense. It is a component of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
o The Ministry of Planning funds ISI, with its primary location in Calcutta. (It is worth noting that the first indigenous digital computer -- fabricated using discrete transistor units -- was commissioned by ISI in 1966 in collaboration with Jadavpur University.)
o NCST also carries out research in several areas of computer science besides having education and training among its functions. NCST is a successor of the erstwhile National Center for Software Development and Computing Techniques (NCSDCT) which was a component of TIFR.
o The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is also involved in computer science work, but most of its work is of an applied nature, in the context of satellites and launch vehicles. ISRO has been building satellites for remote sensing as well as for communication. Its most recent success involved the launch of the Polar Synchronous Launch Vehicle capable of launching 1000-Kg class satellites into sun-synchronous orbits.
o National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), and Center for the Development of Advanced Computation (CDAC) have had the development of parallel processing platforms for solving computational science problems as the main focus of their computer science research.

How I wish that our country would have one like that. Even just a little support from the government in conducting Computer Science Research and not just depending on outside funding institutions. It may be sad to admit but other countries offer support to our fellow men to conduct research but the Government itself cannot support its own people. One thing is for sure, the issue is really not about money, our country is rich but then with the officials that are in the position do not know how to value Research as much as other countries do. But then, based on the recent State of the Nation Address of the President, she would like to come up with a Department of Information, Communications and Technology. I just hope that this one would push through since having this department; we would have the chance to do research and seek help to the government via this department. And not just that, this would give opportunity to IT Professionals to excel and be heard in the country.

the role of my research topic in my future career!

2009-09-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

To start of, while I was reading Hannah’s post, I am really impressed and inspired on what she has gone through just to come up with her research topic. It’s one of the nicest posts I’ve read (no kidding! heheheheh)

Anyway, just to second the motion with what Hannah said, honestly speaking, at first it’s really hard to find a research topic that would be interesting enough not just to my professor but also to my classmates. As I have searched in the web, one of the most common topics I had was on the CO2 Calculator. The mere fact that it’s really technical (I mean it involves both hardware and software implementation), I was hesitant at first, but then what urged to propose it to the class via forum is that “everything is worth a try”, what I am trying to imply in here is that it doesn’t matter if my idea is rejected or not, what really matter is I tried. Gladly, it took the attention of my professor that he told me that if I would make some adjustments or new refinements, it would be a good topic. First question that came up to my mind is, am I ready for everything (I should, perhaps.. hahahaha). Another would be is my knowledge enough to do the research (because what I have in mind that time is the implementation stage of the research) and knowing that the hardware part is not my field of expertise. I am really bothered with the way I think and with my attitude and with the way I act. I am on my 5th year in this University and honestly, I really want to graduate and work.

Time passes by, days to weeks, weeks turned into months. Even our professor have been encouraging us and begging us to post our topics, he even asked what is the problem on coming up with our research topic. He kept asking what our problem is so that he could help us, honestly, I am hesitant, and that question that was raised by my professor stuck me in my seat, I simply asked myself, what is really the problem? Is it the theme? I, myself cannot answer the question. Probably because I didn’t do my part as the student, I got pissed off with my attitude, with my laziness. I am only seeing the smaller part of the theme, I stuck with only one topic and not venturing to other. I am dependent in the web. And knowing GREEN COMPUTING is not just focusing on the larger environmental issues but it started with the small things. What I have in mind is only focusing on CO2 Emissions, computers radiating CO2 and wastes of energy. Honestly speaking, I really do not know what I am doing that time or where my path is going. My professor told us that all of us are planning to fail. I was stunned; I simply asked myself, do I really want to fail after 5 long years of hardships in this University?

During a class meeting, our professor decided to do the research by group. As they say, two heads are better than one. On my part 3 heads are better than one. Together with my group, we had our own brainstorm and honestly our brains are stormed! (hahahaha), and again, days turned into weeks, up until one group’s proposal was approved. I think, that’s the go signal for us, we really have to think as hard as possible. What I have in mind is something that is simple but very useful not just to one person but for everybody. As I was charging my phone, an idea came up to my mind, why not make a mobile application that has an alarm system to notify the owner that the battery is 100 % fully charged. It would not just save energy and electricity but also it reduces CO2 Emissions and other harmful gases. It would not just be very helpful to one particular person but it’s everybody who has mobile phones.
As I search in the web, there is an existing IPhone application that has the same idea with mine. But to add a twist with the application, I simply added a feature wherein the application can send text messages to people who can remind the user to unplug the charger. I think the application would not just help the environment but it would be very beneficial to the users not to spend money much. Since, with the help of the application, it can prolong the battery’s life and a person would not spend much money in buying new phones (one cause would be they tend to change their phones because it can no longer be used which would be the result of overcharging). If there are many junk phones, another problem will occur; there will be an increase in E-Waste. Hey! My application is really helpful and its benefits are really rewarding! And as an IT student, it gives motivation to me knowing that developing a mobile application for a good cause and would contribute not just for the betterment of one person, for every mobile user, for every human being but also to save our Mother Earth in my own simple way. After proposing the topic, our group was surprised with the comments with our classmates, they said that it’ really useful and helpful. And gladly, our topic was approved and recently we were able to proceed to the Review of Related Literature stage of our research. It maybe hard at first but then reflecting on a text message that was sent to me by my friend “DO NOT ASK GOD TO GUIDE YOUR STEPS IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO MOVE YOUR FEET”, I know that we are getting there, but with the guidance from up above, I know that we will reach our goals.

Why am I telling you my own journey as I came up with my topic, I think it would simply explain the impact of my research topic in my future career. If one would be observant enough in very small and simple things that are going on with his surroundings, and would be very curious enough to formulate questions, I think that would give a very good impact in research. On my own point of view and basing from my experience in my on the job training, the role of my research topic in my future career is very simple. I would like to develop applications that are useful, interesting and would contribute in saving our Mother Earth. I would like to indulge myself in organizations that do have advocacies in Green Computing. I would like to be a developer, developing any applications that could help each and every one in the world. I maybe very ambitious but that’s my simple way of foreseeing my future. Aside from giving my family a good life, I would like to let them live in a healthy and livable environment. Most probably, if given the chance, I would like to start of here in Davao City. I know that there are students who are interested in Green Computing. What I am trying to say is that, we should not wait let things get worst. As we can see today, we’ve seen changes in our environment.

As far as I can remember, while I was watching a documentary of Al Gore which is entitled “An Inconvenient Truth” which tackles about Global Warming which is a result of abuse of the human kind to the environment. The very simple explanation of global warming is that whenever we want to eat an ice cream, it would just simply melt and we cannot eat it anymore because of the intense heat that we are experiencing. Al Gore pointed out that in ten to twenty years from now, CO2 Emissions will double up and the ice that is on the North Pole would melt and would cause lands to sink. Even today, here in Davao City, we are experiencing the effects of global warming, even in an ample of rain, the downtown do experience flood. And it is the first time in my whole life here in Davao City to see flood up to the knee.

What I am trying to imply here is that, we can see the problems today. Why not implementing solution to lessen the problem right? That in our own way of unplugging the unused wires would help save our mother earth. We may not see the impact of doing the solutions today but surely in the near future, we would be fulfilled and satisfied.

To end this, there are lots of ways in saving our Mother Earth. And in my future career, the impact of my research topic today would truly make a difference and would leave a good mark and experience as to what will in-store for me and my career in the future. Good Day!

How do we know if a research is good or not? How are they evaluated?

2009-09-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Assign5

How do we know if a research is good or not? How are they evaluated?

The question is tough (hehe). Anyway, based from my readings, I have come up with the factors to be considered for the evaluation of a good research paper.

According to Simon Peyton James of Microsoft Research, Cambridge, he stated that writing papers is a skill, it is a skill that is worth learning. Well for me, it’s true, it is in writing that we can express our great ideas and also if it is backed up with evidences and documents that would support our ideas. Also, a good writer should also be a good reader. Am I out of the topic? Hehehe, I get carried away.

As Simon Peyton said that papers communicate ideas, is one of the factors that need to be considered in evaluating a research. A good research should infect the mind of the reader with his idea like a virus in our computers. As the saying goes, great ideas are worthless if you only keep it by yourself. That is why we write papers and do research right?

Another factor would be the presentation of the idea. The researcher should figure out what is his idea. The researcher should make certain that the readers will have no doubt on what the idea is. In other words, the researcher should state the main purpose of the research. We may somehow relate it with the “ping” or a ring of a bell, in which the research should just have on ping or one clear and sharp idea. In presenting an idea, the researcher should explain it as if he/she was speaking to someone. He/she should convey his/her perception towards the readers that even if the readers skip the details, they can still take something important from what they have read about.

The researcher should also state the purpose of the paper, he/ she should present a situational analysis that would state the problem, of course, and he/she should make it an interesting and unsolved problem, then after stating it. He/she can now present his idea, should explain his idea properly stating on how to solve the said problem. Example, in the abstract of his research, by just reading his papers abstract, the reader would know and would understand what his research all about. According to Kent Beck, the abstract should contain four sentences. The first one is that the researcher should state the problem first, and then he would say why it is an interesting problem. Next, the researcher should state what does his solution achieves and should say what is next or what follows from the presented solution. Another example would be in the introduction of the paper, the researcher can use example or examples to introduce the problem.

In addition, another factor that is needed for the evaluation is the relevance of the research to the readers. When we say relevant, it simply means that it has importance to people or it has a great impact on the lives of the people. A reader would give his time and attention to one thing if he/she can relate into or it has something that took his/her interest with. For example, as an information Technology student, our research is all about Green Computing. For me, the topic is really interesting that it pertains to the impact of technology to out Mother Nature and that we should provide ways to minimize and lessen the impact of it to the environment. Knowing that one of the major contributors to global warming is the technology itself that we use everyday.

It’s really hard to come up with a topic but after a while, we have come up with an idea which turned into an approved research topic.

In addition, the research should also be evaluated by the appropriateness of the methodology used to come up with the results. Another factor would be whether the idea or the research is proved to be rationally consistent; this one pertains to the results of the study or the research that was made. Perhaps the results that came off from a survey, does the mean, median and mode correct. Does the questionnaire used for the survey was validated by an expert, does it go through a series of validation. Stuffs like that. One thing that I have kept in mind was that, every research or in everything that we do, we should take into consideration the standards or the guidelines presented by some organizations. There are some simple guidelines that we should follow and I think the most basic and the most important one is citing the references and acknowledge them properly in your research. Since if without them, you cannot come up with a topic that could improve not just your life but also the lives of other people.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers/giving-a-talk/giving-a-talk.htm

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers/giving-a-talk/writing-a-paper.zip

3rd reading...

2009-09-07T19:55:00.001-07:00

Why Hackers Do What They Do: Understanding Motivation and

Effort in Free/Open Source Software Projects1

Karim R. Lakhani* and Robert G Wolf **

*MIT Sloan School of Management | The Boston Consulting Group

**The Boston Consulting Group

September 2003

SUMMARY:
The research paper is all about the stating the outcomes of the study on what are the motivations behind the individuals for their continuous contribution to the Free/Open Source Software. In other words, what are the factors or what are the driving force to the developers to give their much time and effort in developing Free/Open Source Software.

What are the motivations of the F/OSS developers?

In the paper, they have stated and reviewed the two types of motivations. These are:

Intrinsic Motivation
From the word intrinsic this means a motivation that is found deep within a person. It stated there that when a person is intrinsically motivated, he/she is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather than because of external prods, pressures, or rewards. And again, according to Lindenberg 2001, intrinsic motivation is separated into two distinct components: 1. enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation and 2. obligation/ community-based intrinsic motivation.

According to Deci and Ryan 1985, the idea behind of the intrinsic motivation is having fun or enjoying oneself when taking part in an activity. Csikszentmihalyi (1975) proposed a state of “flow”, in which enjoyment is maximized, characterized by intense and focused concentration; a merging of action and awareness; confidence in one’s ability; and the enjoyment of the activity itself regardless of the outcome.
On the other hand, the obligation/ community-based intrinsic motivation, according to LindenBerg (2001), he stated that individuals may be socialized into acting appropriately in a manner consistent with the norms of a group.

Extrinsic Motivation
The idea behind the extrinsic motivation is gaining rewards (whether direct or indirect) for doing a task or an activity. In other words, the developer is paid and most probably he/ she are given incentives for doing such activity.

How does the study done?
The researchers did a sample web-survey. The samples that are to be included in the survey was from the individuals listed as official developers on F/OSS projects that is found in SourceForge.net, the F/OSS community web site. The researchers sent personalized e-mails to each individual inviting them to participate in the survey. The researchers also provided or assigned a random personal identification number for accessing the survey. The first part of the survey was done from October 10-31,2001 generating 526 responses giving a response rate of 34.3% . The second survey was conducted on April 28, 2002 that generated 173 responses out of the 573 mails sent, giving a response rate of 30.0 %

The results:
According to their study, they’ve found out that 87 % of all the respondents received no direct payments, 55 % of them contributed code during their work time. The combination of those who received direct payments and those supervisors knew their work on the project created do consists of approximately 405 of the sample.

On the number of hours per week spent on a project, they’ve found out that the respondents spent an average of 14.1 hours on all their F/OSS projects and 7.5 hours on the focal project.

On the personal creativity and flow of the respondents, based on the research done, the respondents noted a very high sense of personal creativity in the focal projects. More than 61% of the respondents said that their participation in the focal F/OSS project was their most creative experience.

Motivations to contribute
With respect to the results of the said survey, the top single reason to contribute to projects is based on enjoyment-related intrinsic motivation: “Project code is intellectually stimulating to write” which gains 44.9 % of all the respondents. Improving programming skills, an extrinsic motivation related to human capital improvement, was a close second, with 41.8% of participants saying it was an important motivator. Approximately 20% of the sample indicated that working with the project team was also a motivation for their contribution.
Paid contributors are strongly motivated by work-related user need (56%) and value professional status (22.8%) more than volunteers. On the other hand, volunteers are more likely to participate because they are trying to improve their skills (45.8%) or need the software for non-work purposes (37%).

To end, the study shows what are the driving force of the developers to contribute to the F/OSS projects and what is good in here is that, whether it is intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, there are many people who contributes to the fast growing and success of the F/OSS community.

Evaluation:
The research paper really interests me that it shows the motivations that affect the developers to contribute to the continuing success of the F/OSS community. The research is very informative, complete in a sense that it gives the information on who are the respondents, the scope of the research as well the results and their conclusion.

2nd reading... hehehe

2009-09-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Charity Begins at… your Mail Program

Peter G. Capek, Barry Leiba, Mark N. Wegman

IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center,

Hawthorne, NY 10532

{capek, barryleiba, wegman}@us.ibm.com

Scott E. Fahlman

Carnegie Mellon University

Computer Science Department

Pittsburgh, PA 15213

sef@cs.cmu.edu

Summary:

There are many methods introduced in the industry to minimize the spam mails or junk mails. One of which is asking the sender of an e-mail to pay the recipient just to prove that the sender is not a spammer. And this study introduces another technique, “charity seals” which means that the money you spent will be donated to the charity, and most legal users would not mind dong it and the money they will be spending is for a good cause.

The primary interest of the study is more on the e-mail involving the users which are not familiar or do not even know each other. Nowadays, the information about the sender is usually not confirmed or not verifiable at all and these would result to the spam problems.

The study also introduced number of approaches of solving the problem of spam e-mails and comparing it to the “charity seals”. One of those is the one-time-use or “passworded”-e-mail address idea. Also, there are many authors that promote “sender pays the recipient” schemes that suggest the exchange of money. The idea in here is that, if the sender is caught as a spammer, the recipient can collect the money; otherwise, the recipient will return the money to the sender. The thought in here is just to determine whether the sender is a spammer or not. Another approach is using CAPTCHA (“Completely Automated Public Turing test for telling Computers and Humans Apart”) scheme. The primary intention of this scheme is the idea that any human can answer the CAPTCHA easily and would be difficult or impossible for the computers.

Also, included in the paper that Fahlman and Wegman have proposed another approach, it is the “sender pays charity” in which the idea of the “charity seals” have taken. The idea is similar to the “Christmas seals” in which it has been used by the United States for quite some time now. Since Christmas is the only time that people will send large amounts of conventional mail. The idea is, these seals are distributed by a charity (using paper mails) with a solicitation for a contribution. The sender will only use the seals if he/ she will make a contribution to the charity that issued the seals.

The idea of the “charity seals” is the same as with the one stated above, the exchange of money and the electronic version of the seals. The only difference is that it tightens the combination; the seals are not reusable and not forgeable.

How it is done? At first the sender will choose what specific charity which he will donate the money. Then, an agency collects donations on behalf of the charities. The agency operates an Internet service which supplies to the donors a custom-created seal which the sender can include in his e-mail. The seal is essentially a document containing at least the recipient’s identity, an amount of money donated and a unique number – perhaps a time stamp – and the sender’s identity. It is digitally signed by the agency, and is proof that the sender has made a qualifying donation to a participating charity. Effectively, the agency keeps an account for each contributor and debits it whenever a seal is issued.

If the task is giving money, the system requires a connection with some banking system. Typically this would be done using a credit card. Senders probably do not want to give credit cards out to everyone they send mail to, and most recipients are not set up to take credit cards. Financial institutions do, however, have the idea of escrow accounts. The notion of escrow is that one person puts money into an escrow that is trusted by both parties, and they agree to terms under which the money would be released to one or the other party. This makes it much easier to handle payments when one party could disappear.

One way to achieve the advantages of a central server when the task is delivery of money is to have the sender establish an escrow account for each recipient. If the recipient votes the mail as spam within some pre-established time limit, the money is paid (that is, the task is performed). Otherwise it is returned to the sender. If the time limit expires, before the recipient reads the mail the system has the options of assuming that if the sender was willing to risk the money it is probably legitimate mail, or of not delivering the mail to the actual person until money is placed back in the escrow account.

There are many approaches in addressing the problem of spam mails and one of which is the “charity seals”. This would make the cost of mail low to those who are legal users and making it expensive to the spammers.

Evaluation:

It is true that spam mails do really exists and does contain problems. There are many people who have been victims of the spammers. I think, the awareness of the people about this problem should be the number one that should be addressed into. With regards to the study, it’s a good idea that they have introduced this kind of approach since giving money to charities is a good cause though you spend a little money. I think, they’ve introduced the idea but with respect to the implementation of the said methodology are still missing.

1st reading...... hehehe

2009-09-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

A Biologically Inspired Immune System for Computers

Jeffrey O. Kephart

High Integrity Computing Laboratory

IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

P.O. Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

Summary:

The study primarily focuses on the computer viruses that are in fact being thought of as a serious problem in the industry nowadays. According to the study, two alarming trends are likely to make computer viruses a much greater threat. The first one is the speed at which new viruses are being written is high and accelerating. Imagine that new computer viruses are being created and being spread almost every after minute! The second is the trend towards the increasing the interconnectivity and interoperability among computers which would result to the fast spreading of the computer viruses.

Then, the IBM conducted a study and was able to create an immune system for computers. The primary features of the immune system are the following:
1. Recognition of known intruders.
2. Elimination/neutralization of intruders.
3. Ability to learn about previously unknown intruders.
o Determine that the intruder doesn't belong.
o Figure out how to recognize it.
o Remember how to recognize it.
4. Use of selective proliferation and self-replication for quick recognition and response.
Their system develops antibodies to the viruses and worms that were once encountered by the computer system, the computer system remembers them and would respond quicker if those viruses and worms will again attack the system.

With respect to the immune system of the computers, the system would not recognize a virus via exact match or exact information or data with regards to that virus but it is detected via an exact or fuzzy match to a relatively short sequence of bytes occurring in the virus (termed as the signature).

How do they eliminate the intruders? If the computer immune system were to find an exact or fuzzy match to a signature for a known virus, it could take the analogous step of erasing or otherwise inactivating the executable file containing the virus.

Their system also has the ability of learning about the previously unknown intruders. First, the process by which the proposed computer immune system establishes whether new software contains a virus has several stages. Integrity monitors, which use checksums to check for any changes to programs and data files, have a notion of ``self'' that is as restrictive as that of the vertebrate immune system: any differences between the original and current versions of any file are flagged, as are any new programs. Then, Mechanisms that employ the complementary strategy of ``know thine enemy'' are also brought into play. Among these are activity monitors, which have a sense of what dynamic behaviors are typical of viruses, and various heuristics, which examine the static nature of any modifications that have occurred to see if they have a viral flavor.

If one of the virus-detection heuristics is triggered, the immune system runs the scanner to determine whether the anomaly can be attributed to a known virus. If so, the virus is located and removed in the usual way. If the anomaly can not be attributed to a known virus, either the generic virus-detection heuristics yielded a false alarm, or a previously unknown virus is at large in the system.
At this point, the computer immune system tries to lure any virus that might be present in the system to infect a diverse suite of ``decoy'' programs. A decoy program's sole purpose in life is to become infected. The algorithms extract from a set of infected decoys information on the attachment pattern of the virus, along with byte sequences that remain constant across all of the captured samples of the virus. Next, the signature extractor must select a virus signature from among the byte sequences produced by the attachment derivation step. The signature must be well-chosen, such that it avoids both false negatives and false positives. In other words, the signature must be found in each instance of the virus, and it must be very unlikely to be found in uninfected programs.
With regards to the usage of self proliferation and self-replication for the quick recognition of the viruses and worms, their system also has the ability that when a computer discovers that it is infected, it can send a signal to neighboring machines. The signal conveys to the recipient the fact that the transmitter was infected, plus any signature or repair information that might be of use in detecting and eradicating the virus. If the recipient finds that it is infected, it sends the signal to its neighbors, and so on. If the recipient is not infected, it does not pass along the signal, but at least it has received the database updates -- effectively immunizing it against that virus.

Their system develops antibodies to the viruses and worms that were once encountered by the computer system, the computer system remembers them and would respond quicker if those viruses and worms will again attack the system.

Evaluation:
The research is not bias. It is interesting that the IBM develops an immune system similar to the immune system of human beings. The research is very informative in a sense that it shows how to avoid and even fight the computer viruses by providing an immune system for computers.

key factors in publishing a research in top-tier journals

2009-09-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, before I discuss the key factors, I just want to say what’s really on my mind right now, doing a research and coming up with a good research topic is really a tough job. As what Ms. Hernandez said above, it needs time, focus, effort and proper funding. I totally agree with that. Almost everyone in the class is really having a hard time in coming up with a good research topic. I think what is more important is it’s usefulness to the people, what I am trying to say is that we should come up with a topic wherein it’s simple but useful. Anyway, as what I have said above, the difficulty of coming up with a good topic is also same as true with publishing a research in the top-tier journals.

Let me discuss it one by one, from the most simple down to the complicated (I am not sure if “complicated” is the right term, hehe). Anyway, I think, one of the simplest factors that a researcher should follow is the standards of writing, most probably the proper citing of references, providing good English or the most appropriate word is the grammar or the proper usage of words. The researcher should also include glossary, perhaps if there are words that are unfamiliar with the readers. Another factor is the presentation of the research. The research should be easily understood by the readers and would catch their attention.

Next, it’s the timeliness and relevance of the information or the research, example; right now we are doing a research with regards to the Green Computing. Yes, it’s timely, since each and every one of us are experiencing global warming and climate change. We should think and research well on how to minimize the emissions of different harmful gases. In the aspect of technology which is one of the major contributors to global warming, we should do something that could lessen the impact of it to the environment by providing means and services that could protect the environment. Of course, the timeliness of the information would result to another factor which is the impact of it to the people.

Then, another factor would be the precision of the research. This would answer the following questions like does it follow the specific standards? Does the source of the information reliable? Was the information correct? Does the information itself is consistent? What are the methods or the methodologies used? Is the methodology appropriate for the research? Things like those.

As the saying goes it is easier to say than doing it. Doing a research is a tough job. As far as I can remember, in one of our class discussions, a good researcher should be patient and should be full of enthusiasm. If we will just persevere and if we will just give and do our best, time will come that everything we’ve done will be rewarded it may not be money but with the blessings from up above.

what a day!!!!!

2009-08-25T01:01:00.000-07:00

before anything else i would like to greet a happy birthday to someone who means a lot to me!

to my dear friend arianne!!

a happy birthday to you!

if you don't want to ruin your day, don't think and even mind the people who hurts you!

God Bless Dude!

USEP's Enrollment System ... my views and opinions...

2009-07-21T00:35:00.000-07:00

I have been in this university for quite long time now (to be exact, five long years..) and based from my experience, the enrollment in the University needs a lot of patience, a towel or hanky for the sweat (I am not kidding!) and lastly, good and strong bones as we go back and forth from the corners of the University. It may sound like it’s funny but to tell you honestly and talking from my experience I am dead serious with this thing I am saying here.

Anyway, to start of, way back in my freshman days here in the university, to tell you frankly I was a bit confused on what the enrollment procedure is (what are the steps involved) and where are the offices located inside. But then as what I have seen with the enrollment system now, I am quite impressed since it is really quite obvious that the administration have really prepared for it. To answer my case stated above, during the summer days, I have seen a so-called map of the University in UGTO where a freshman usually stays and deals with that office in his or her early days inside the university. Also, the university really make an impact on putting tarpaulins(which shows the steps involved in the enrollment) in every strategic locations in the University, though, the tarpaulin that is found just as the wall covering the comfort room in the ground floor was once located near the dean’s office of the Institute of Computing. Before digging deeper (for sure!), it was indeed a good move and putting tarpaulins was a big help for the new students in the University that they wouldn’t have to be confused and disgusted on what to do and where to go during their enrollment unlike my experience.

I will enumerate the steps involving the new enrollment system.

For the new students and transferees, they have to follow the steps:

STEP 1 – they need to go to the UNIVERSITY GUIDANCE AND TESTING OFFICE for:
- Encoding of Student Information.
- Identification Number Assignment.

STEP 2 – then, they need to go to the OFFICE OF STUDENT SERVICES this is applicable only for scholars for their:
- Scholarship Application.
- Releasing of Scholarship Card.

STEP 3 – they need to proceed to ROTC/CWTS offices for their:
- Registration and Sectioning of ROTC/CWTS.
- Releasing of ROTC/CWTS slip.

STEP 4 – after that, they should go their respective COLLEGE to:
- Present enrollment requirements.
- Advising / Pre-Registration.
- Payment of other fees (Local Council fee, OCSC fee, insurance fees, collegiate headlight fee).
- Encoding of the Pre-Registration Form.
- Assessment of fees.
- Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing

The next step would be the payment of the matriculation fees and since there are two types of students here in the University specifically scholars and non-scholars, the step is categorized into two and these steps are:

STEP 5 – the scholars would go to the STUDENT ACCOUNTS (bookkeeper) for:
- Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
- Posting of Accounts.

And for the non-scholars they need to go to the:
STEP 5 – CASHIER
- Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
- Payment of Matriculation.
- Official Receipt Printing.

STEP 6 – REGISTRAR
- Submit enrollment requirements.
- Form 138 (High School Card).
- Photocopy of NSO Birth Certificate.
- USEPAT Entrance Exam Result.
- Admission Slip.
- Medical Certificate.
- Certificate of Good Moral (Original).
- 2 pcs. 2x2 recent ID picture.
- Prospectus of the enrolled course.
- 1 pc. Long brown envelop.
- Official receipt of tuition and other fees.
- Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.

And for the old students, here are the steps involved:

STEP 1 – STUDENT ACCOUNTS.
- Check students’ accounts.
- Check balance.
- Clearance signing.
STEP 2 – COLLEGE
- Advising / Pre- Registration
- Payment of other fees (Local Council fees, OCSC fees, collegiate headlight fee).
- Encoding.
- Assessment of fees.
- Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.
Same situation would happen as what I have stated above on the steps involved in payment of matriculation. These can be done in the following ways:

STEP 3 – STUDENT ACCOUNTS (applicable for scholars only)
- Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
- Posting of Accounts

And for non-scholars:
STEP 3 – CASHIER
- Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
- Payment of Matriculation.
- Official Receipt Printing.

STEP 4 – REGISTRAR
- Present Clearance.
- Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
- Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.

Here are the enrollment procedures for those students who shifted from other course:

STEP 1 – STUDENT ACCOUNTS.
- Check students’ accounts.
- Check balance.
- Clearance signing.

STEP 2 – FORMER COLLEGE
- Request to shift.
- Recommendation to shift.

STEP 3 – NEW COLLEGE
- Acceptance of Shiftee
- Advising / Pre- Registration.

STEP 4 – UNIVERSITY GUIDANCE AND TESTING OFFICE / OFFICE OF STUDENT SERVICES
- Student Profile Updating

STEP 5 – NEW COLLEGE
- Payment of other fees (Local Council fee, OCSC fee, insurance fee, collegiate headlight fee).
- Encoding.
- Assessment of fees.
- Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.

Same situation would happen as what I have stated above on the steps involved in payment of matriculation. These can be done in the following ways:

STEP 6 – STUDENT ACCOUNTS (applicable for scholars)
- Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
- Posting of Accounts.

STEP 6 – CASHIER (applicable for non-scholars)
- Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
- Payment of Matriculation.
- Official Receipt Printing.

STEP 7 – REGISTRAR
- Present Clearance.
- Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
- Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.

Before getting into details of the flowchart (as shown in the tarpaulin), I would like to give my observations with the new enrollment procedure. I may say, as with the process, nothing has changed except for some simple things that I have noticed. One of which is the renewal of scholarship, based on the diagrams that we’ve made during our SAD1, renewal of scholarship was a part of the enrollment procedure for the old students, but it was not shown in the chart. And to think, I, as a scholar, my subjects cannot be encoded if my scholarship card is not yet validated and renewed. On my own, it would be the initiative of the old students what to do. But how about the new scholars? The new students? Come to think of this, scholarship cards need to be validated and renewed every after semester. And if a freshman is a scholar and the next semester comes, if he/she will follow the chart given, he/she will be confused. Why? It is because, he/she still needs to be told that his/her card needs to be validated by the Office of the Student Services and since in the chart it is not shown that the scholarship card needs to be validated. Imagine yourself in that situation, you are done with the payment of local fees, ocsc fees and publication fees then you proceed to your adviser and secure a prf, but then, when you reach the encoder, he/she will told you that your subjects can not be encoded since you scholarship card is not yet validated and you are not yet renewed. And with this, you have to go to the OSS for you to be validated (imagine if that your college and the OSS are located in both ends of the university). Time and energy is wasted. Remember when I mentioned above that you need to have a towel or a handkerchief since the OSS is located near the visitor’s gate of the university.

One thing I have actually noticed is the number of scholars being entertained by the OSS. This semester was really dreadful and really needs a lot of patience; the line in the OSS was very long, and very congested. You yourself do not even know what lines are for the application of scholarship or what lines are for the renewal. I would suggest, that the OSS would have to do is to have an arrangement on the classification of lines (queue of people) on who are applying for scholarships and for those who are on just renewing. One thing I have also observed in that office, there are District 1 scholars inside the office, getting their ORDER TO RENEW FORM, and imagine the number of students inside and the requirements they need to give in order to have that form! I would suggest that there should be a specific place for that most especially that District 1 Scholars are the most numbered amongst the scholarships. And on my part, why not ask the scholarship provider to ask for assistance? What I am trying to say is that, first district congressman may somehow provide a simple room that would cater the students, right? So that the OSS will not that much congested.

Nonetheless, let’s get back into business; one thing I have also noticed in the process is the involvement of the guards during the payment of tuition fees and going to the registrar. For me, this one is highly commendable, my two thumbs up to them! They were able to get the students organized that the place will not that be filled up with people! There is a specific place for the entrance and exits. In the cashier and registrar’s area, there are seats available and arranged in a manner that the students will just have to wait for their turn. And for me, since I am a scholar, it was easy for me since at that time, there were just few scholars who are inline in the seats, If I am not mistaken, it took me for about 15 minutes to finish my transaction in the bookkeeper. But to my surprise, the two copies of temporary certificate of registration was all taken by the bookkeeper and what I have in hand is just my scholarship card only. The bookkeeper told me that I should proceed to the registrar. Here’s another thin I have noticed, before, after paying our tuition fees (for non-scholars) and posting of accounts (for scholars) our COR is manually brought to the registrar’s office and we’ll just have to wait if our name is called. I have a very disappointing experience on this one, it all happened on the 2nd semester of last school year. Since I am a scholar, it was easy for me to go to the bookkeeper and be able to finish the entire process before noon, as to my surprise, my COR was manually brought to the registrar’s office, as hours passing by, I have noticed that my name was not called and yet those students who are late than me were called already. I was so disgusted, I asked the student assistant in that office on why my name was not yet called, she told me, what’s your last name, I mentioned mine, unfortunately, my COR was at the last, and covered by all the new COR’s. Gladly, this semester, was quite impressive since it is not manually brought, of course, a big thanks to the new system developed by the two of the instructors of the Institute of Computing.

Here is also another problem that occurred. Yes, as what I have mentioned, the COR’s are not manually brought, but then all of the students have to fall in one line just for going to the registrar’s office. The security guards were the one who give the students priority numbers. But then again, it took me for about an hour and thirty minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes) before being entertained by the registrar and have my official certificate of registration. Unlike before, that every college does have their own registrar, and to the Institute of Computing, it was really easy and fast because of the small number of students. It would be an advantage if they would stick out to the one college one registrar policy (hehehe, since it would be easy for us IC students). And to those college in which there are large number of students probably, 2 of the employees can help it out.

I have noticed some changes (of course! nothing is constant except change right?)
anyway, i would just compare the before from now to explain it carefully.

Before, during the signing of clearance, one of the requirements of the bookkeeper are the receipts of the students, receipts that would notify that they have already paid their liabilities to the school. if the students would fail to comply the requirements then the student would left nothing to do.

But now, the process becomes clearer. The bookkeeper would just require the clearance, nothing more. All the bookkeeper needs to do is to check on the database whether the student have already updated his/her account. The clearance would be easy and faster with this manner.

USEP goes in-house...

2009-06-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

Last semester, two of our instructors were tapped by the university to do the enrollment system. Summer, were the dry run days of the system and this semester is the full implementation of the said system.

On the question stated above, what are the possible reasons on why the university tapped in-house resources? Was it because they’ve realized that they can make money out of it (hmmmm.. sounds fishy,bato bato sa langit ang tamaan wag magalit!) or what? Did the university think of the possible consequences in tapping in house resources? For example, the classes that the instructors gave up just to do the enrollment system. We, students were the ones who are greatly affected on this. Affected in good and bad ways (I’ll tackle it later).

Anyway, for me these are the reasons:
1. Dissatisfaction with the provider
2. MONEY
3. Problems on the system and the maintenance of it.
4. Taking full advantage of the resources inside the university.

During our SAD 1 (Mam Tammy was still our instructor), we went to the registrar’s office and asked several questions. Our registrar told us that they have encountered a lot of problems with the old system; she just didn’t tell us what those problems are (sorry on us, ehheheh). Anyway, from there I can clearly say that there are problems that are not addressed by the old system, probably the university felt that they are not satisfied with the old system and it is time to change.

Second, MONEY, considering the financial crisis that the world have gone through, so organizations like USEP should really think twice if they are going to spend money for a particular service. For me, every peso counts, we should think of the quality of the service being given. And as what I have stated above, is it really worth to spend 70,000 pesos a month if the provider cannot address the problems of the old system in the university? For me, it’s not, there are still bigger problems that need attention, for example, the Laboratory 1 of IC, yes, there are computers but it cannot accommodate the students, some of it are not functioning well or even not working at all. I am sorry, I just cannot help myself to react on the situation, and I just want to express my sentiments on this. Let’s just go back to the topic, on my own opinion (which I guess I’ve been really telling, hehe) the University thinks that if they will tap in-house resources, they can save more on the money and making the most of the resources available inside the university.

My third reason is, in terms of the problems and maintenance of the system, it would be good if it is in-house resources since the developers can immediately resolve the said problems or if there are departments who have difficult time in using the system, they can be attend to their needs right away. For me, the problem if it is outsource, it would take time contacting the developers, probably there are still other commitments or other important matters they need to attend to, so, the transactions within the university would be delayed right? Even though there are IT specialists in the University but still they cannot resolve the problem since they do not have the right in configuring the system (since it is not own by the university).

Taking full advantage of the resources inside the university is my last reason. Why did I say so? As what I have said above, we should make sure that every time we spend money it will give us the quality that we need, we should also make sure that it is long lasting and would address our problems. The university does have very good in-house resources and two of my instructors are part of it. Mam Tammy is the 2nd to have a doctorate degree in IC, I’ve also heard that Mam Tammy was also tasked before to develop and implement a system in the university. I may not know her that much but I can clearly see that she would not achieve what she has achieved today if she’s not good right? It’s really my first time to be with her but then it didn’t pushed through because of the development of the enrollment system of the university in which she is tasked to do.

Engr. Cagape is really good in managing and developing systems most especially in database. Being with him (I mean, as his student for quite long, way back on my first year in college), I can clearly tell that he has the skills and very excellent working attitude. Also, as far as I can remember, during our lecture in database days, he asked a question “how long will a system live?”, all of us were quiet and do not really know what to answer (no kidding!). There, he told us one of his experiences, he made a system for a specific store near UIC, and the system is still running up to now, he told us, that as long as the system can answer all of the client’s needs and problems, then, the system would live longer and the client is satisfied.

For me, those were my reasons. Why would the University go with outsourcing when it has great in-house resources, right? There are actually pros and cons in our every move right? But, was it a good decision on the part of the university? For me, yes! Why do I say so? Since USEP has resources, why not use it, right? There are hidden talents and skills available most especially from the students, they can also take part in the development of a system, knowing IC it is the cream of the crop in USEP. And in view of the fact that we know what the problem is, therefore we are the ones who knows how are we going to solve it.
Going back to what I have said above that tapping in-house resources do affect the university in a bad way. WE, students are greatly affected! When we say “experience is the best teacher”, yes it’s true, now during lectures, the more experienced people do have so many things to share to his students on the subject matter, thus, it will also help the students enrich their knowledge and losing the instructors with experiences would greatly affect the students. But on our part, even though we didn’t pushed through with Mam Tammy, we are with RSG who has great ideas and would help us conquer our fears and discover our strengths (no kidding sir!hehe). There was one thing that Sir RSG told us, we should be proud and happy that our instructors are practicing what they have learned and experienced not just talking about theories etc, which is true.

To end this, all I can say (is this really all I can say? hehe) we should stand up for whatever decisions we made and are going to make in the future.

an inspiring message...

2009-06-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

"Never hate the times where you failed. These are the times where you show the world that failures don't define you but it makes you stronger. "

a text message that was sent to be my friend.

just want to share it with you guys, so that you will also be inspired..

hehe..

ciao!

try and try...

2009-06-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

am having a hard time to log-in in USEP Virtual Learning Environment..
damn!

as my title goes..
try and try until i succeed!

anyway, one of my friends have told me, if i want a part time job..
hahaha
funny it may seem but it sounds great

UIC is looking for a facilitator for their CWTS classes.
of course, CWTS is once a week, right?
the class is only on Saturdays..

if i am to accept the offer, i will be paid for 1000php every month
meaning, if there are 4 saturdays in a month, then 250 every saturday, right?
and i will be holding 50 students for the said subject.

on my part, it would be a big help since i have a lot of expenses
this semester, i just don't want to mention it, hehehe
and i don't need to ask for money from my parents..
hayz..

Bro, help me decide..
hmmmm...

should i accept the offer?

it has it's own purpose!

2009-03-29T03:10:00.000-07:00

i never thought that march 27 would be a big day for the MOVERZZZ

we made it!
we were able to proceed to the Design Phase of our Systems Analysis and Design Project.

and sir Randy suggested a name for our system and the group adopted it.

FreeExpress System is now....

"E-dikit"
haha

we find it really good and nice..
thankz to sir..

yeah, the group is having problems with each other,
i just hope and pray that each and everyone in the group
would open their hearts and minds..
possibly..
open their hearts for forgiveness

yes, it's easier to say than to do.
but we are one group

as one of my classmates said, "you should resolve it, your group need to talk, because you're ONE!"

hopefully, with God's grace
the group can surpass the challenges and trials..
but one thing is for sure...

it has it's own purpose!
ciao!
God Bless Us All!

A big thanks to Sir Randy and to our Bro!

hand-out in financial management

2009-03-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

pipol concerned:

here's the link(url) for my report in financial management!
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/12/12/2220521/reporter4_group4_alcoriza.doc
tnx

imageworld!!!

2009-03-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

these were the times that we visited the Image World Digital Printing Inc.
formerly known as the DCT Printshop
the VP-Admin showed as a very warmth welcome!
we're very glad that we were able to have the chance to work with these people!
God Speed!
Ciao!

bithday celebration pics....

2009-03-25T04:58:00.000-07:00

these pictures were taken during the birthday celebration of my cousin last February 14, 2009
and for the first time.. the 12 grandchildren were present!
haha!
first picture (left) the 2 youngest grandchildren together with my grandfather
then next to that were my parents with the birthday celebrant
then below it, were the pictures of the 12 grandchildren
imagine that!
we are 12!
i am one of them!

a close encounter with nature..

2009-03-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

these pictures were taken last march 14 at sigaboy davao oriental

it's been really awhile since the last time i travelled!

really!

i FELT it was the 1st time that i will be travelling (though close to davao city only)

last march 14, i thought we are going to mati but then we went to sigaboy, davao oriental

it's actually near mati . the pictures shown were taken at the said place.

it was a burial of my uncle's mom that was the main purpose of going there

3am of march 14, we actually started travelling using the car of my ninong..
i sent messages to my friends to let them know what i really felt that time

it seems my first time

then, my phone rang, it was one of my instructors who replied to my message
he was then bound for bukidnon.

it was really disgusting on my part that everytime i travel, i need to go to the comfort room to make wiwi

haha
funny it may seems, but it's ok, but that's me!

at around 6am, we were able to get there on time for the breakfast

hehe

the food was great.

i was then full already.

at around 8am, the coffin was brought to the church for the final blessing
it was a solemn mass
for me, it's actually hard to look at someone who is crying..

who lost his/her loved one.

but then, only God knows when would be the end of our lives.

it's His will. Only God knows.. as they say..

at around 9am, the body was buried (is my term right? please give a comment).

need to practice my english it seems haha

anyway..

getting back to the topic, after the burial we decided to explore the place.

we looked for a beach where in we could relax somehow

here's actually the first beach..

then the second....

me,holding a cup of beer... with my ninong, in blue, my aunt in pink, john in yellow and dane they are my cousins...

let me share with you the remaining pictures

(need to go, my time is running out!)

spot the difference..

slippers with mud.. my cousin jacqui...

nice view isn't it?

during my dark and trying times.....

2009-02-21T01:30:00.000-08:00

it's been really one hell of a week for me!

i never thought that a simple headache would turn into a fever
with a temperature of 38.5 degrees celsius..

i had a quiz last wednesday, i was happy that i was able to pass my prelim examination
in my financial management..
i never thought! honestly!

but then, later that night, i felt cold and i always sneeze every now and then...

i had chills...

that was really disgusting on my part..
coz there are lots of things to do..
projects...
SAD
SE
OR
OS
FM
etc....

anyway..

i'll continue my write.ups on my next post!

be ready...

i have a secret to reveal!

ciao!

technical probzzzzzzzzzzz

2009-02-16T00:25:00.000-08:00

huhuhuhu...

i got some technical problems with regards to the posting of my own version of use case diagram
of USEP.....

gathering techniques....... im comfy with??????

2009-02-16T00:21:00.000-08:00

hello people!

My personality? i'm a type of person who is shy (hheheh, not really,with my barkadaz around) and im a type pf person who just likes to be quiet. And until now, i have not overcomed it yet. But as a person, an IT student. I know i should know how to deal people not just in the industry but also in every place i go.
i am just happy that as of this time, we were tasked to go to companies and interview the big bosses in the organization and i find it challenging on my part. This experiences would help me conquer my fears.
And as of this time, "medyo sinasanay ko na ung sarili ko" in dealing with other people

based on experiences, we (my group in hrm,mis 1 and mis2) were able to interview the VP-admin of DCT Printshop and the owner of MyndTech Management Services. In interviewing these people in the business industry, we were able to know a lot of things not just about business but also lessons from their experiences in life.

given the choices on data gathering techniques and basing on my personality, i know i haven't overcome it yet, i would choose interviewing.

my SDLC.......

2009-02-16T00:19:00.000-08:00

We all have objectives in our lives (as stated in our assignment in MIS II). Yes, we have stated it in words but the big question here is how are we going to do it? There are several techniques that can help us to reach our objectives in lives. In one of our assignments in management information system II, I’ve read an article from myGoals.com, the article gave some tips on how to manage and reach our goals in life. Let me state it. The first one, we should clearly identify or state our goals. Second, spot the possible obstacles for you to be prepared. Next, we should know the tasks related in overcoming the obstacles. Then, we should assign deadlines. This step will help us to be realistic. In addition, it’s ok to be working with different tasks at the same time but we should not over do it. Finally,
follow the plan. We must stick to what we have planned; the plan would serve as the guide on our way to success.

As we all know plans may change because of some unexpected events that occur as we implement our plan. As the saying goes, expect the unexpected. If I were to choose what approach would I be doing, I would choose the combination of the predictive and adaptive approach. (sir both….)

Now here’s my own SDLC.

PLANNING

Everyday we plan on what we do, we plan what are the activities that we'll have to do during the day, the week or even for the whole month, same is true with reaching our goals.
in here we analyze what we want to achieve, after we identify our goals, we should plan on what we do.

PUT THE PLAN INTO ACTION

of course, no matter how good or excellent a plan is,if there is no implementation, there is nothing.the plan will remain as a plan. Plans without actions are useless.

EVALUATE

Evaluation, is one of the most important. We should assess whether we are on track or not. In evaluation step, we'll be able to know our strength and weakmesses. in here, we also learn lessons from our weaknesses.

MAINTAIN

In this step, we can improve our strength and work on our weaknesses. we can turn our weaknesses
into strengths.

Now, i'll share with you one of my experiences in IC.

Example: Based on personal experience, before i wanted to pass programming 1 (i failed on my first try, haha) but then again, mam maui was my instructor on my 2nd try. Every student in IC knows Mam Maui (one of the terminators sa IC, un ang sabi nla ha?). On my part, at first i was kinda nervous, but my will and determination prevailed. First, I identified my goals (hehe, to pass every quiz,exercises and exams) then i planned my actions on what am i going to do (read books as well as practice what i have learned from the books). that made me prepared on the possible situations that might occur during that semester.
but during the semester, i never expected that mam maui would give tough long tests. coding and tracing.
at first, it was ok. but after a long test, i got a low score on tracing. so in programming, that was one of my weaknesses. i find it quite hard. As what i have said, my will and determination prevailed. So, I borrowed books from one of my classmates then there were programs and exercises that can be traced. So, as they say, practice makes perfect. at the end of the semester, i won, my plan for that subject was a successful one.

good day!

approved system! ~FREEXPRESS SYSTEM~

2009-02-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

nyahaha,

the long wait is finally over....

our new approved system "freexpress system"

the system will be an online publication of every college in USEP

we're actually on the process of information gathering for the said system and honestly, i am really challenged on developing or coding the system

the system is online, so it would be webpage..

hmmm...

a friend suggested, that dreamweaver can help us do the system

hayz..(sigh)
we still need to study first.

chel, one step at a time.. you cannot do it all at once...
ahaha

hopefully, we can complete the documents on or before march 6 this year..
HOPEFULLY!

ciao!

SAD Proposed System..... is it worth the stay?

2009-02-16T00:02:00.000-08:00

"To be honest, we're still thinking on what system to propose.
we have gone through some companies and with their rejections (that hurts!).
And after the wait and the patience we've shown, the group were entertained (at last!) by the DCT Printshop's VP for Adminitration Mr. Al Tesoro, imagine that?
we were so amazed with how he entertained us, he explained their workflow with bunch of words of wisdom from him. Then he actually suggested a yearbook monitoring system (the system was explained by sheryl caguimabaga in her assignment). Then, when we presented it to mam tammy, she said that it is still so simple. Mam Tammy suggested SRMIS but then when we went to the registrar's office, mam Soller refused to accept because of so many reasons. As of this time, the group is still on the process of finding a company (knowing that we only have 3 months left!) and hopefully with God's grace, we can find an organization that will help us fulfill the requirements.

i am on 4th year here in this university, my instructors have done their part, teaching the students. But as we all know, those lessons were just basic, the worst problems are in the real-world! Now, if i am asked if the proposed system is worth my 3 years of studying in this university. i can say that i am not contented but the mere fact that time is of the essence and of course we are working as a team, i have also to consider my teammates' opinion."
dated: december 28,2008

pineapple a day takes your fat away......

2009-02-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

nyahahaha
im on my first few days of my new diet,

eating pineapple at least once a day.

this is my first move on my journey towards losing weight..

it's quite hard to control what i eat, but it's ok.
because soon, my effort will surely payoff..

wish me luck guys!

ciao!

2009-02-05T03:24:00.000-08:00

my own version of the USEP's Enrollment System Activity Diagram

Critical Success Factors

2009-01-29T23:00:00.001-08:00

When talking about critical success factor approach, it was discussed by my classmates during our reporting in management information system II last December 15. According to the reporters, they said Critical Success Factor Methodology (CSF) in the context of
SISP are used for interpreting more clearly the objectives, tactics, and operational activities in terms of key information needs of an organization and its managers and strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s existing systems. Rockart (1979) defines critical success factors as being ‘for any business the limited number of areas in which results, if they are satisfactory, will ensure successful competitive performance for the organization.’
CSFs can exist at a number of levels. They represent the few key areas where things must go right for the business to flourish. Consequently, critical success factors are areas of activity that should receive constant and careful attention from management. Rockart originally developed the CSF approach as a means to understanding the information needs of CEOs. The approach has subsequently been applied to the enterprise as a whole and has been extended into a broader planning methodology. It has been made the basis of many consulting practices and has achieved major results where it has been used well. There are four basic types of CSFs according to Rockart. They are: Industry CSFs resulting from specific industry characteristics; Strategy CSFs resulting from the chosen competitive strategy of the business; Environmental CSFs resulting from economic or technological changes; and Temporal CSFs resulting from internal organizational needs and changes. CSFs at a lower level are derived from those at the preceding higher level. The CSF approach introduces information technology into the initial stages of the planning process and helps provide a realistic assessment of the IT’s contribution to the organization.
For me, critical success factor means what factors that contributes to the success of a person, an organization or a company. In addition, CSF for me defines what and how a person did to become successful. I totally agree with the definition given above that CSF defines clearly the objectives and the target goal. In relating CSF in real life, I have read from the myGoals.com, there are CSF’s there that will help people in achieving success regardless of how we do it or define it. Let me share it then:
The 1st critical success factor. Clearly Identify Your Goals. The first step before reaching success is we should first define our goals. When we define our goals, let’s make it sure that it is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals. And when our plan is too complex or complicated, we can break down our plan into small and manageable parts. With this, we can make sure that we can evaluate easily if we are on track with our plans or not.
Second, Identify the Obstacles. As we all know that move we make in our lives, there will always be obstacles or hindrances. This step will help us in preparing solutions to the problems that may arise during our journey to reach our goals. In addition, we’ll be able to know how to react when such situations will occur.
Third, Know the Tasks Necessary to Overcome Each Obstacle. The quote “taking one step at a time” will come into this place. It is the same with handling all the problems; we can not solve our problems all at once. We should take each problem at a time, and with this we can think on what are the possible solutions to solve these problems.
Fourth, Assign Deadlines. Based on this article, it says there that assign a start and completion date to each task in the plan. It’s ok to be working on several different tasks at the same time, but don’t over do it. Be realistic.

And the last one, Follow the Plan. We must stick to what we have planned, the plan would serve as the guide on our way to success. An additional suggestion given by the myGoals.com is that we should be flexible. Plans as we all know may change before we can complete it. Expect the unexpected events and the plan should be updated to adapt to changes.

But what are the steps in Critical Success Factor Approach?
These steps are taken from http://www.paullemberg.com/criticalfactors.html
Step 1: Identify your critical success factors
Step 2: Establishing the measurements
Step 3: Setting the baseline
Step 4: Set new goals
Step 5: Closing the gap
Step 6: The Ben Franklin Rotation Program

The first step is to identify your special set of critical success factors. You may have thought this through in the past; you may think you know them intuitively. When asked "What matters?", many executives reflexively say things like sales, customers, people, or product development. These are all good answers, and they may be correct answers, but you will want to think deeper and broader.
Below is a list to start you thinking. It is set in no particular order and contains only the most obvious factors. Review the list and circle areas you believe are critical to your enterprise. You may have to add other, more specific or subtle factors to the list to describe the critical influences on your business' success.
• Distribution - this could be direct sales, telesales, third- party sales, etc.
• Lead generation
• Customer satisfaction
• Referrals
• Research
• Product development
• Production, including quality, costing, run-rates, etc.
• Sufficient investment capital, sufficient working capital
• Customer support / technical support
• Quality assurance
• Sales process / sales life cycle
• Market research
• Customer education
• Sales compensation
• Recruiting
• Personnel retention programs
• Expense management
• Intellectual capital development
• Training
• Marketing communications
• Logistics
• Employee equity
• Executive leadership
• Training and development
• Corporate goals / strategic objectives
• Values and beliefs
• Mission/purpose
• Individual accountability
• Productivity & effectiveness metrics
• Internal communications
• Strategic and tactical planning
• Executive team
• Board of directors/advisors
Be specific when you identify your factors. Don't say "people" when the issue is recruiting, employee satisfaction, training or compensation. Don't say "marketing" or "sales" when the issue is lead generation.
Test your assumptions by imagining a decline in a particular factor. How would that impact your business? Now imagine an improvement in that factor. How would that impact your business?
In selecting factors, limit your list to no more than seven. Why seven? Cognitive theory suggests that human minds are efficient at juggling from five to nine separate trains of thought - the average and oft- quoted number is seven. Our plan is for you to keep your eye on the ball, you want to limit the balls to those you can keep your eye on.

Step 2: Establishing the measurements
Your next step is to establish a measurement scale for each critical factor. Some of these measures will be quantitative; some qualitative. Sales is an easy one: dollars of revenue measured against budget. Leads generated is also easy - how many? You can further break down sales by product and leads by sources, or you can stick to the consolidated numbers. Choose the measure which best reflects your understanding of how the issue affects your business.
Everything is measurable, you just need the right system. How can you measure your effectiveness in sales compensation? You could establish a compound metric which includes total compensation as a percentage of sales revenue, juxtaposed against goal attainment.
Marketing communications is also difficult. One way to measure this is to subjectively assess the quality of your marcom pieces; you could also measure whether you have the total complement of marcom pieces you require. Or, measure whether prospects respond to your marcom efforts. Most likely you will combine all three to get one measure.
A final example is measuring your efforts in the area of your Board of Directors / Board of Advisors. Measures include: do you have one? Are all the board seats filled? Is the board effective for your intended purpose? Measuring the Board factor would likely blend each of these.

Step 3: Setting the baseline
Once you've established a measurement structure for a factor, the next step is setting a baseline.
Each factor should be set against a normalizing scale ranging from 1 to 10. Subjectively this can translate into non-performing(1), poor (2-3) , mediocre (4-5), good (6-7), great (8-9), and outstanding (10).
If your sales run-rate is $10 million, determine whether that is a 1, a 5, or a 10. Your answer depends of course on whether you consider performance against budget, performance against stretch goals, or performance against "home-run-out-of-the-park" goals.
If your baseline for Board of Directors is two unfilled board seats - is that a 5 (mediocre) or a poor (2-3)? Only you can decide. Although this ultimately is a subjective process, you want to make it as objective as possible.

Step 4: Set new goals

Next, create a "gap" between where you are - your baseline - and your target for that factor. You already have a sales plan, so your gap exists between your current revenue and your budgeted revenue.
You may consider your baseline a 5, and your target an 8. Implicit in this 1- 10 scale are judgements about your intentions: will reaching your budgeted revenue put you at 8 (almost great) or 10 (outstanding)?
Where do you want to peg your efforts? If you've assessed your employee training at a 4 (mediocre), are you shooting for a 7 (good) or a 9 (great)? You can see from this how your measurement structure and goal system will impact how you allocate your company's resources and energy.

Step 5: Closing the gap

You now have a baseline and a target for each factor. Between them they define a factor gap - your challenge is to close it. Each gap becomes the focus of a meditation which asks the question: What will close the gap between our current level of this factor and our desired level? What possible actions will raise that measurement?
You may have intuitive responses to these questions, and when appropriate, trust your gut. If need be, back that gut response with research - but only when cost effective.
(Sometimes the most cost effective research is implementation, particularly in simple matters.)
Use any idea generation process you are comfortable with. Develop several possible initiatives to raise the level of that factor. With luck your ideas will work together and harmonize in terms of impact or implementation requirements.
If you create competing ideas, select the best alternatives. Choose based on return on investment, required resources, scheduling conflicts, time to impact, total cost, and likelihood of success versus risk of failure.
Depending on the specific factor, and the size of the gap, you may plan to close it in stages or shoot the gap all at once. You can launch one initiative at a time, or implement several initiatives in parallel. Once you launch your gap-closing initiatives, continually measure your results. Report your progress to participants and stakeholders, and post it publicly.

Step 6: The Ben Franklin Rotation Program

As a young adult, Ben Franklin identified thirteen virtues he aspired to. In order to implement these virtues in his life he devised a "Plan for Self Examination", a program whereby he focused his attention, one virtue at a time, for one week at a time, rotating through the entire list four times a year.
He kept a detailed log of the actions he took to develop the virtues in himself, along with his personal results.
I've adapted Franklin's concept and called it the Ben Franklin Rotation Program. At any point in time, you will have in place a program for improving every one of your critical factors. But in any given week, your primary attention will be on only one factor.
Using Franklin's principles, at the beginning of each week, focus your mind - or collective mind of your management team - on improving that week's factor. What new actions can you take, what new attitudes can you adopt, what new or renewed approaches are available - which will enhance your performance in that one specific area? Do that "thing" wholeheartedly for the entire week.
Franklin also shows us how to track your progress in this venture. Create a score sheet detailing your Critical Success Factors. This sheet should detail each factor, its measurements, your current 1-10 rating and your target rating, along with your next action steps for improving that rating.
Each factor also gets a weight, which enables you to develop an overall score. Each week, re-rate all the factors on the score sheet, and graph your progress. You may also graph the overall score. Publish the score sheet and the graphs. You can establish a reward system based on individual progress, or, using the factor weights, you can develop a bonus structure which incentivizes total progress.
This simple system will focus your attention on improving each one of your critical success factors. With carefully selected factors, you insure both rapid performance increases and balance in your company.
Organizations may have different approaches in identifying their own critical success factors but what is most important is with the help of these factors, the organization can evaluate and improve their performance in delivering their service to the people

purpose of IS Planning as well as it's major challeges

2009-01-29T22:58:00.000-08:00

“Everything has its own purpose”. This quote though very simple but it has lots of meaning. My parents would always tell me about that quote. Whenever I open my problems to them (that is a rare thing for me to do, if I can still manage it, I won’t bother telling my problems to them because I don’t want them to worry about me), they would tell me, that there are things or people we encounter everyday that their purpose might be hurting us, giving us pain and challenges or brings happiness to us. But it all ends in giving us lessons or teaches us lessons, lessons that we can ponder in our lives and be able to apply those lessons for our own personal development. Hehehe, everything I wrote above was kind of a serious thing ah! Mariechelle bares it all!

Let’s start the roll balling! (isn’t it let’s start the ball rolling?) Anyway, ok, here it goes, let’s begin! Planning is the word! (again?). Well, I have actually read a quote that reminds me of the relationship of planning and success. According to Robin Sieger, a British business executive, Planning is as natural to the process of success as its absence is to the process of failure. Deep, isn’t it? For me, this is somehow similar to what I have realized, plans without actions are nothing . How can we reach our goals in life if all we have are plans? We should work hard for it!

Purpose. One thing we might have actually asked to ourselves. What is our purpose in this ever-changing, fast-pace world. I even asked myself but as of this time, I find it hard to answer it. Nonetheless, let’s get back to business. What is the purpose of an information system plan? Based on my readings, the main purpose of the information system before is primarily incorporating technology with the business to create a better production and can lessen the burden of the organization’s employees in working on their manual business operation. That was before! Right now, it somewhat the opposite! Some of the experts say, that information system plays a vital role in an organization’s success. Based on an article, it says there that, consequently, strategic information systems planning (SISP) is a critical issue. In many industry surveys, improved SISP is often mentioned as the most serious challenge facing IS managers (Pavri and Ang, 1995, Beath and Orlikowski, 1994; Martin, 1993; Porter and Miller,1985). Strategic Information Systems Planning in the present era is not an easy task because such a process is deeply embedded in business processes. These systems need to cater to the strategic demands of organizations, i.e., serving the business goals and creating competitive advantage as well as meeting their data processing and MIS needs. The key point here is that organizations have to plan for information systems not merely as tools for cutting costs but as means to adding value. [1]

For me, the purpose of a strategic information system plan is to provide direction on where the company is going in terms of the company’s management of the information system (its future needs based on the current information system) and; I may somehow relate it with strategic planning. In strategic planning, it identifies where the organization wants to be at some point in the future and how it is going to get there. It primarily focuses on developing strategies on how to achieve the vision, mission, goals and objectives of an organization. Then, the next would be, gaining competitive advantage. Of course, business is business, they compete with each other. The word MONEY comes into place and time is of the essence. I may somehow relate it with the company’s who are working and creating microprocessors in our computers; example: Business A, created a microprocessor known as quad-core, this means that it has faster processing time knowing that it has 4 processors working, compared to Business B who created a dual core microprocessor. In this analogy, relating in real-life situation, the customers would choose to go into a company with the faster processing time than the other. And with these, an organization with a good and well-developed information system plan can gain competitive advantage.

Laying down some of the purpose of an information system plan, we now come to the challenges awaiting the team who will be working in the so-called “information system plan”. As what I have written above, some experts would say that strategic information systems planning is a serious challenge in information systems planning. But what are those challenges? I’ll try to give some of them, here it goes:
• Top management support
• Project team involving IS specialists, users, and managers
• Select a planning methodology such as Information Engineering, Business Process Re-engineering, etc. to guide planning and development
On the first challenge, is the most critical one, the lack of top management support to the team. Why I said that it is the most critical one? I may say that the support from the higher management is the root of the success of the said plan. If there is support, this means that the organization is open to answer the questions of the requirement analysts (part of the planning team). As what I have remembered, in our Systems Analysis and Design I, a reporter introduced to us the steps on systems planning. The first step is the requirements analysis: who are involved in the system, who are the users of the system, what are the problems in the existing system, or what are the business problems that occur and ahm(thinking), what are the other systems that might be affected when implementing or solving the said problem. And with top management support, the analysts can get the all the requirements or data needed, the processes involved, the user’s demand (or probably the employees). in contrast, without the top management support, the planning team will be frustrated, as what I have said it is the root of the success, now, without the support, the analysts, can not get the desired requirements, therefore, there would be a big possibility of wrong analysis of the problem, wrong set of solutions, in short the output would probably be, a wrong system. Then when the wrong system is implemented, the user’s of the system will also be affected, maybe confused and even frustrated that will result in poor job performance because of these instances, there is a very big possibility that the company will go down that will again result to unemployment, the family’s of the employees will now be affected and would result to another problem which is hunger.
Assuming, that the above challenge is addressed, everything is laid down by the organization, and the planning process is on a good start. The team is enthusiastic, more focused and gives their 100% commitment on the said project. But a good start doesn’t mean a good ending. Of course there would be an instance (or normally,ahahah) that we feel tired or we find it difficult to finish the project. Here,the next challenge would be, Project team involving IS specialists, users, and managers. There is a need of a good leader. A good leader, provides direction to the team, the leader is responsible to keep his team in good shape, healthy mind, healthy relationship with others, whenever there are clashes between the team members, it would be up to the team leader to talk things over and resolve the issues. In addition, the leader should keep his team in high spirit even if things are not going as planned. Of course, another challenge, would be, the experiences and expertise of each of the member of the team. As we all know, this is a tough job, it needs a lot of experience and expertise. It is also possible that the advances in Information Technology would be another challenge. Up to date or out dated. As we know technology changes, it’s fast that in order for us not to be left behind, we must cope up to these advancements.
Another challenge is selecting a planning methodology such as Information Engineering, Business Process Re-engineering, etc. to guide planning and development. Again, as what I have remembered, during our Systems Analysis and Design I reporting, the reporter said, that after the requirements had already been defined, the team would now develop a set or group of possible solutions then, the next step would be deciding on what solution would be the best to solve the problem. The said solution would bring out more benefits to the company, it must be consistent and it would help on reaching the VMGO of the company or in other words, it is aligned with the business plan. Now after, the organization approved the solution, it is now the time to start doing the system. In selecting a methodology
Based on my readings also, another challenge to the project team is to produce quality information system plan. A good quality of an information system plan has the following characteristics: Timely. The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned. Another characteristic is, it is Useable. The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started. Maintainable. The ISP should be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates; technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away. Quality. While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly. Reproducible. The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.

Another challenge would be how is the Information System plan specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary.

To close this, information systems plan should work with the business plan in an organization. They should work hand in hand for the development and the success of the organization.

Let me share to you a simple text message that I received as I am making this write-up.
Here it goes: “Everything that God allows to come our way is with a purpose. He uses even the greatest error and the deepest hurt to mold us into a person of worth and value.”
We know that all of us do have our reasons for existing in this world. It is up to us to find out what are those reasons. In finding those, we’ll encounter challenges. In every challenge, there’s a lesson to ponder and let’s just bear in mind, that God won’t allow those challenges to come in our way if we can’t overcome it or if we can’t do it. Sometimes we must be hurt in order to grow; we must fail in order to know; we must lose in order to gain because some lessons in life are best learned through pain. We’ll not give up if things are not going in our way, not everything is meant to be, but everything is worth a try.

God Bless Everyone!

Ciao!

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration in IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?

2009-01-29T22:48:00.000-08:00

When we talk of frustration, we usually deal with it everyday, a concrete example on this, is we are in a hurry (probably late in school or in a meeting) then we are indulged in a heavy traffic caused us to be frustrated and lead to changes of our mood (e.g. angry towards the driver), and as a result, we end up not attending the meeting or be absent in the class because we are already 15 minutes late! Even I had also experienced it (I may say we all experience this!) For me, when we say frustration, I defined it as an obstacle, a rock that hinders me in what I want to do. In simple terms, I am not satisfied with what I have done. Or a feeling of disappointment caused by great expectations towards a person, an event or even a thing.

Frustration was first introduced by Sigmund Freud as a concept both external and internal in nature and related to the concept of goal attainment. Frustration occurs when there is an inhibiting condition which interferes with or stops the realization of a goal. All action has a purpose or goal whether explicit or implicit, and any interruption to the completion of an action or task can cause frustration. For Freud, frustration included both external barriers to goal attainment and internal obstacles blocking satisfaction (Freud, 1921).
This concept of frustration as a duality is continued in the analysis of frustration as both cause and effect (Britt & Janus, 1940). As a cause, frustration is an external event, acting as a stimulus to an individual and eliciting an emotional reaction. In this case, the emotional response is the effect, and the individual is aroused by this external cause and a response is often directed towards the environment.

Dollard et al. define frustration as “an interference with the occurrence of an instigated goal-response at its proper time in the behavior sequence” (Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, & Sears, 1939). Because an instigated goal response entails only that the goal be anticipated, frustration is due to the expectation and anticipation of a goal, not the actual attainment of the goal (Berkowitz, 1978). If the goal is unfulfilled, frustration is experienced because satisfaction was not achieved and hopes were suddenly thwarted. The thwarting or hindrance -- terms often used synonymously with frustration -- is not limited to the actual activity in progress, but relates to what the individual is expecting (Mowrer, 1938a).

As what I have said above, all of us experience frustration, maybe in school or in work. Same situation goes with the IS Professionals. For me, one of the most frequent causes of frustration of these people is when the higher management lacks commitment or IS professionals does not acquire support from the higher management. This is so tough for those who are working on the IS plan, as what I have stated above, the IS planning team needs to gather the data, do some evaluation on the technology and business strategies of the company. Without the higher management’s support, the planning team cannot have accurate data, or proper resources that they need. The team will be frustrated and would result to poor job performance or ineffectively carrying out their day to day duties and it leads to poor IS planning or project output (poor analysis, poor design, etc.). This simple problem would result to another problem which is on the user of the Information System (probably when implementing the IS plan).

As the result of the problem stated above, the users of the IS will greatly be affected. As an effect, based on my reading frustration with technology can lead to wasted time, changed mood, and affected interaction with colleagues. When users in a workplace are frustrated with their computers, it can lead to lower levels of job satisfaction (Murrell & Sprinkle, 1993). In some cases, user frustration with technology can even lead to increased blood volume pressure and muscle tension (Riseberg, Klein, Fernandez, & Picard, 1998). Whew! It can cause high blood pressure!

When we talking about frustration, the primary cause of this is the word “EXPECTATIONS”. And for me, expectations really sucks! So goes with the IS professionals and the users of the IS. The IS planning team expects a lot (i.e. support) from the top management, when the expectations of the IS planning team is not reached, these will lead to poor project output (as what I have stated above). Then the users of the IS expects (again!) a lot from the IS planning team (knowing that users do not have any idea on what the IS planning team is doing to produce the system) that they can use the system with ease and solve their computing problems but then again the users of the system are disappointed with the outcome. Then gradually, the business would disappear like a bubble (mawawala na parang bula). Then there goes another problem the unemployment. Then again another problem will take into place, hunger of the family of those employees who were unemployed. It seems that the problem branches out, every wrong move; there is a consequence that waits.

To close this, I may say that no man is an island. No one can live without the other. I am speaking not just as a student but also as a concerned individual. We should help one another in reaching our goals. From planning (whether it may be in professional level or personal level) down to putting our goals into actions. Frustrations and consequences are part of our lives, we should not give in to whatever problems we have knowing that every problem has its own purpose and has its own solution. Hardships in life are given to us to test us how far we can stand them. NEVER GIVE UP. They are the shadows which will us to become stronger than what we used to be. As what Epictetus said,”It is not the problems that bothering you. It is the way you look at them.” In the same manner, Chuck Swindoll declared:”Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react on it.”
Let’s be positive!

God Bless Everyone!

What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan?

2009-01-29T22:14:00.001-08:00

Before I start discussing all about the business plan, the information system plan and the connection between the two, let me dissect all the words involved (business plan, IS plan) for us to understand (later on) their relationship.

Let me define first what is planning, according to Mr. Webster, planning is defined as a scheme for achieving an objective: it is a method of doing something that is worked out usually in some detail before it is begun and that may be written down in some form or simply retained in memory. For me, planning is somewhat like preparation on something, setting up or scheduling what has to be done. And planning is what we do everyday, right? Our beloved mothers plan on what food she will be preparing for us. In addition, we, as students, schedule our activities during the day, during the week even in month. Even our school, they have this outline of scheduled activities for the whole semester.

With the definition of the word plan or planning (as what I have stated it above), in my own opinion, a business plan, is a paper that specifies the goals of the company, as well as the plans on how to compete with other companies (or what we call the strategies of the company). Basically, it presents detailed information concerning on where a company is going and how it will get there. The Wikipedia defined business plan as a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals. Also many experts in business considered that a business plan is critical in making or breaking a business. As Sir Randy said we should not plan to fail, so businessmen should have a carefully considered plan, because this plan can serve as an absolute road map to success for the owner and the employees. Business plan can help all of those people who are involved to stay on track while striving to achieve the goals of the company. Moreover, the business plan may be assessed and modified when needed, this would allow those working in the business to keep the strategies that are working for them or maybe improve those strategies and if possible, eliminate those strategies that don't work for them, and change goals as the business go forward.
So let’s go with the information system plan, as we all know information system is the collaboration between the people ware, software and the hardware that produces information or knowledge in an organization and these 3 elements are organized to aid in reaching the goals of the organization and be able to help the company solve their business problems. This would include the company’s manual or automated procedures. Based on my reading, information systems plan is a process for developing a strategy and plans for aligning information systems with the business strategies of an organization (1).

references
(1) http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_information_system_plan

as what I have remembered, last November 24, our instructor told us that an information systems plan usually ranges from one year planning to three year planning horizon, more than that will be awful in a sense that there might be a possibility that the application of the information technology would not fit in to the organization’s needs at that particular time. For me, in the information system planning the IS planning staffs will perform the following actions in preparation to the actual IS planning process:
~ They should review of the strategic business plan for the organization, including the vision, mission, goals, objectives, strategies, and priorities that set business direction.

~ They should evaluate the existing technological setting within the organization, including assessment of the principal hardware requirements and specifications, application software, and connectivity. The acronym SWOT now comes into place. The staffs should do the evaluation of the STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS in terms of the technology in the organization. The primary purpose of the SWOT is that it will allow the staff to assess the company in fairly manner because it does not only focus on the strong side but also on the weak side of the company. It will also help the staff forecast the threats and opportunities. This would also help the company on how to react under different situation or in other words, the organization can prepare for the possible consequences that the will be encountering.

~ After the assessment, the staffs should develop an Information Technology Strategy based upon the study of the present situation and the goals of the business to be achieved. This strategy identifies the organization’s short term and long term goals associated to the managing and sharing of the information and information technology in support of the organization’s business strategic plan. The strategy also tackles about the organization’s technology weaknesses and needs or addressing the problem to the higher management (probably for funding.hehe).

If I am asked what is the relationship between the two plans stated above, I can say that information system plan will help the business plan reach they desired goals. It is clearly stated above that information systems plan should be aligned with the business plans. In other words they compliment each other. These two plans are partners for life. These two should work hand in hand with each other for the development and success of the organization.

To end this, planning is the key word, it may somehow relate in our real life scenario.
“if we fail to prepare then we are prepared to fail”. Whatever plans we have in mind right now, let’s bear in mind, plans will always be plans. Let’s put our plans into actions, because plans without actions are useless. With the right plans, right decisions, right actions, the right vehicle, with the support of our beloved family and friends and coupled with the love and blessings from up above, we can achieve what we want to achieve!

try and try

2008-12-12T00:09:00.000-08:00

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/12/12/2220521/strpaper2.pdf

[url=http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/12/12/2220521/What%20is%20SISP.doc]What is SISP.doc[/url]

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/12/12/2220521/strpaper2.pdf

i am trying how to use fileden

ahahaha

my life.... my plans... my everything 10 years from now...

2008-11-30T19:01:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

It’s about 06:53 in the morning!

This topic is really tough knowing that it deals with my future; I had to come up with 3000 words (sir peace!).When I was about to write my reflections on this topic, the song “impossible dream” was in the air (what a coincidence!). The lines were “to dream the impossible dream……..” (hayz, is this for real?)

Let me talk about my experiences on how I land as an information technology student here in usep. (In every future, there is always a past… hehehe, sir peace! )

When I was still in high school, I was really unsure of what course I am going to take in college, I must admit that computing was really not my strong point or one of my strengths. I was undecided. I had my sleepless nights and all I did was thinking about what course I am going to take knowing that I am the one who will make or break my future. It all depends on me. In short, it is I who will be making my own life.

Honestly speaking, it is my classmates in high school brought me to Info Tech. they said, in usep, info tech is good (good? hehehe). I took the risk, not knowing what awaits me there. during the interview (actually it was sir val quimno who interviewed me) in IC, sir val asked me “why usep?”,”why info tech?” Why usep? I answered simply that usep produce quality and globally competitive graduates and I want to be one of those, my parents also have graduated in this university, they adviced me to enroll here, the tuition fee is also cheap. then why information technology? again, i answered, info tech will bring out the best in me.

Gladly I passed; I was really shocked and surprised on what info tech really is. When I looked at the prospectus of my course, I really do not know or I do not have any idea on those major subjects in my chose course! (tagam!)

Many mind-boggling questions filled my mind, whether I am sure with the course or am I willing to risk my future in this course and so on. So, I have decided to pursue Info Tech, whatever it takes, I have started it already, there’s no turning back (bantay bitaw!).

During my first year in this course, it went well, until the end of that semester, a tragic incident came into my life. I failed in one subject (that’s algebra!), that was a big slap on my face. It was the first time that I failed in a subject. I was so down that time that I was able to punch the wall of the engineering building without even feeling the hurt in my hand. I have been crying all night, that I kneeled down and I asked God what’s the purpose of my failure, asked Him to give me the strength and courage to overcome my failure. So I did overcome it, as they say “you can not go on well in life until you let go of your past failures”. I was able to pass algebra without taking the removal examination of Mam Maui (ONE of my favorite teachers in IC, yes! Really! We’re friends in friendster!)

In my programming subjects, I failed once (courtesy of Sir Ariel, Sir Peace again!)
But I conquer it (I have no choice but I have to pass the subject in order for me to still stay with IC), I passed Programming 1 with again Mam Maui around, she was also my teacher in Programming 2, I passed again (Mam Maui na gud!). But in my Programming III, at that time I got tired with what’s going on with my life. I was so frustrated with the subject, I almost failed, for the reasons that I am so tired with the subject, my classmates have no hopes if they can still pass it, they planned to shift to other course or some of them planned to transfer to other schools. And with that, my project in midterm failed, that Mam Teng (my instructor that time) told me about it without hesitation. I was so sensitive, very down that time but I refused to give up; I’ll give it one more shot, so, during our final project, I was able to finish my project on time and presented it to Mam Teng and Sir Michael. Gladly I passed. What else do I have to tell?
Honestly, I am really happy that I never failed for 4 consecutive semesters, so right now (though I’m one year behind) I’m a 3rd year regular Info Tech student in IC.

Last semester, during our Accounting subject, we were grouped by 4, we were tasked to do a simple accounting system. We are all girls in the group (Sheryl Caguimbaga, Cherry Ann Montejo, Mary Rossini Diamante and yours truly). That time I felt that our teacher (without mentioning the name) underestimated my group knowing that all the other groups are really good in making and developing a system (most of them are boys who are really good! No doubt about it!). I was challenged by the way our teacher treated us and the situation itself. So I talked to my team members about it, I assigned them to do the design and the documents in MIS and Accounting, and I will do the rest. I took the challenge, I expect the unexpected to happen, after the analysis, documents and design had already been done, it’s my turn to work. I must admit that I really had a difficult time doing the system knowing that the deadline is fast-approaching. For me, nothing can hinder me to do what I have to do. So, before the deadline, I was able to finish it and actually prepared for the presentation. Again the quote “expect the unexpected” prevailed. I was then shocked that our instructor admired what we have done with our system. Some of my classmates were not able to finish the system. At that time, my confidence boost to the highest level. If the boys can do it, the girls can do it also.
my classmates would always tell me stuffs like “you’re good!”, ”you have a good future in IT!”. It’s a really a humbling feeling (and also a pressure to me, hehehe) that other people would tell me these things. But what really matters to me is that I have tried and have given my best in everything I do.
And on my part, if my fellow ICEAN students (most especially to those students who underestimate their selves) will give their best and tried in everything they do, they will also succeed and conquer their fears in their respective subjects. As they say, “not everything is meant to be but everything is worth a try”.

Now, after the long story of my life in IC, I will lay my plans on who am I 10 years from now, and worthy of being called an IT professional. Frankly speaking, I really wanted to work in Hollywood not as an Actress or a Singer (though I also know how to sing), but I want to collaborate with the best people who work for movies making great special effects and animations (I think Universal Studios is the place to be). I am great fan of James Bond, and the special effects are really great! Plus the action moves of the actors in the movie or what I mean is the exciting fight scenes. Just yesterday I watched DIE ANOTHER DAY (a James Bond movie), I really love the car of Mr. Bond (which it was given to Him), why? One of its feature is it has the camouflage effect (we all know what camouflage is, right?). The tire of the car has spikes, meaning, it can crawl and stick in the walls like Spiderman do. Someday, I could have that one (hopefully! If I’ll study well and stick with my plans). Why do I want to collaborate with those people in Universal Studios? Personally, I really want to learn from them, I may have creative things on my mind but nothing compares to them, with their years of experiences with their chosen career. But being a member in Universal Studios means that I am receiving big salary (but with the economic crisis happening in the US, big pa rin kaya?) Anyway, most Filipinos dreamed of becoming rich (with the crisis we are in nowadays, who the hell are those people who don’t want to be rich? Right?). On my part, nothing compares of earning money in my own way, my own efforts and as the tagalong quote “sariling pawis”. I myself is in indulge in business right now, I had experienced in doing computer services, tutorials in computer or even in Math subjects. Also, I would like to share to my fellow officemates in US (Universal Studios) one of the things that I have learned here that will truly make a great impact to them, the Green Campus Computing. Knowing that we are the great contributors on the Global Warming (or the energy we use) and also the usage of Free and Open Source Software.

Anyway going back on the topic (where did I go?), after being known in the Hollywood as one of the most brilliant ones (hehehehe) and after giving pride and honor to our country, one of my plans is to go back to my country, here in the Philippines. I (10 years from now), armed with the knowledge learned from Universal Studios and experiences outside the country, I’d like to bring Universal Studios here in the Philippines by planning to put up a company (same as Universal Studios but not to compete with them, maybe a friendly competition, hehehe) that will give opportunities to my fellow Filipino people express and show their talents. The company will collaborate with the Television Networks here in the Philippines (The Kapuso and the Kapamilya etc.) and we as Filipino people will show to the world that we Filipinos can do what the other countries can do in the field of special effects and animations. After that, since nowadays, outsourcing is the new trend here in the Philippines; when we say Outsourcing, it is the process of contracting computer center operations, telecommunications, networks or application development to external vendors. My company would also be called as a solution center, where we provide the clients with repeatable or reusable processes, models, and architectures for solving common information system problems. Our works can be outsourced. Probably with my connections in other countries, or maybe Kate Mariel who is in Japan and working as an IT consultant there(based on here blog) would suggest to her company if they can outsource their system (malay ba natin,diba?).

Also one of my plans (since I have a lot of experiences and I am a certified expert on this field) is to share my knowledge with other people (not chitchats or whatever). First on my list, I want to share it with the USEP community, not just with my co-ICEANS but also to other students that are really interested in my field of work. Share to them my knowledge in Green Campus Computing and Free and Open Source Software which I have learned during my college years (assuming that I have graduated already!)
And I want also to train them (with my whole commitment) in my own company, so, USEP, be ready! And as long as there are people who are interested with my field of work, I will be there, providing them training and opportunity (based on my experience in applying in a call center….hmmp! I have learned my lesson! I won’t do what they did to me! That sucks! ), it is still up to them (people who are interested) if they’ll grab the opportunity or not. In addition, I would want to train teachers in public schools on how to use technology with the way they’ll be teaching. In other words, I’ll suggest to them, incorporating technology with education to enhance their ability to teach and be able to encourage their students to study or simply to listen and learn from their lessons in different way. Because based on my observations nowadays, children are into technology and children can understand and retain new lessons more quickly if it is attached or anchored to a material which is exciting to them or visually attractive to them. The teachers can explain lessons using Animes or Cartoons (of course, the Animations are done by my company, ahaha). My idea would be my company can collaborate with the Philippine Government right? My visions may not be as the same as the others but what I have in mind right now is to help other people, in that way, I am able to provide the opportunities or I will be opening the doors to reach their dreams and also on my part I am able to reach my dreams also (not just rich in money but also in the sociological and emotional aspect of myself). This may sound funny, but this is what I want to be.

Now that I have laid my visions in life or who am I going to be 10 years from now, the next question would be “how am I going to do that?”

As what I have remembered, Sir Randy (during his homily last November 24) brings in the idea of SWOT (an acronym that means STRENGTH, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS). The acronym above will lead me on how am I going to achieve.

Well then, let’s start with the letter S-Strength. When we say strength, it is where we are good at, attitude, ability or skills. My strengths (hmmm..) first, I am optimistic. Optimism
Or being positive all through out is what I have. I am a type of person that never gives up on anything, just like my team in PBA (the fact that I really love watching and even playing basketball) the “walang kamatayang” Brgy. Ginebra Gin Kings, they have this motto “never say die”. Even if there star player a.k.a Mark Caguioa is not around, they still battle out with all their best. Just like in my life, I’ve gone through a lot, ever since during my grade school years up to now. These were really tough problems (not to mention it, I’ll post it on my blog,hehehehe) and I never thought I’d be encountering those. Nowadays, it takes a lot of patience and courage to look or find for a job, but if you give up that easily, then you’re a loser. I do not want to be called a loser. I believe that life is accompanied with problems, challenges whether it may be small or big rocks but for me, those rocks will make strong and tough, it has its own purpose and will be my climbing tool to reach my goals in life. And that’s on my first strength! Next would be, I am willing to know and learn new things or venturing in to something new or I am open to something new. Of course, in this fast pace digital world, everything is changing, from diskettes to USB or CD, from desktops to laptops and even viruses in our PC’s. They say nothing is constant except change, right? On my personal side, I love listening to other people because when you listen you will be able to learn something new from them or learn something from their experiences. Also, I love to venture in to something new. Actually, I am into business right now. I am into direct selling, this type of selling is not my specialty, but I just want to try it, conquer my shyness and some other insecurities.
Of course with the guidance of my parents who are also in to business.
I just have to enumerate the rest. I am a risk-taker, knowing that life is also a matter of risks. It is just an issue of guts and how do you look at your problems. And lastly, I love to conquer my fears just like in Pinoy Fear Factor. Actually, there are lots of what if’s on my mind, but I simply ask myself, how am I going to solve those what if’s if I won’t try to work on it or even deal with it? Finally, one attitude I am truly proud of, I know how to “makisama” with other people.

Anyway, let me point out my weakness. As of this time,My shyness is the primary factor. Right now, I am going out of my shell, taking one step at a time (though there are times that I am shy at first but as time goes by there goes the confident Mariechelle, ahahahah). Then

Let me go now to the opportunities, well, there are lots of opportunities when it comes to IT, specifically in other countries, as what the news said, Australia needs IT professionals. Even here in the Philippines, there are also opportunities. As what I have remembered, during our company visit with MyndTech Management Services, they do outsourcing and they emphasized that people do not need to be away from their families to earn or go to abroad. But here goes the threats, because of the in demand of IT, there will be competition among individuals just like in nursing, they were overpopulated and other countries does not need nurses anymore and lastly, as what Sir Randy said, CHED did not expect that outsourcing will boom in our country, I think the threat here is the UNEXPERIENCE of the individuals. I myself am agreeing with this.

On my part, I still have lots of things to improve on myself, not just in academic view but also in my personality and attitude. On the academic side, as of this time, I want to give my best in all of my subjects. Since I am a frustrated animator, I would not give up and will take the initiative to explore the softwares available in the internet (just like blender, and it is an open-source software), join forums that discusses those topics, be indulged in seminars, ask questions to my classmates who knows about it and lastly never stop learning. And many more!

To end this, I just want to make a statement: “our future will always depend on our decisions today, so plan and prepare ahead of time, of course be prepared for the consequences or the problems that you will be encountering. Dream what you have to dream; be what you want to be, because you only have one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do!” God Bless Everyone!

“If you fail to prepare, then you are prepared to fail”

2008-11-24T22:38:00.000-08:00

This quote was the first thing that came up to my mind when we had our pre-discussion (in which my professor in MIS II considered it as homily, ahaha) yesterday at the IC-LAB II for our Management Information Systems II at around 8am while my classmates were still preparing for the presentation.

Seriously speaking, Sir Randy (as we call him), is such a nice person, he knows how to deal with his students. I myself consider him as a cool teacher. He adopted his mom’s principle in teaching “he didn’t teach to live but he lives to teach”. Whew! That’s why he is well-respected in our college. He doesn’t hesitate to share his knowledge and experiences to his students.

It was a long talk of course with regards to our major paper (considered as a project for the whole class) and at the same time he challenged each of his students to plan for the future. PLANNING is what we do everyday, right? Mothers plan on what food she’ll be preparing for his family. Also, the armed forces are always planning (specifically strategic planning) to gain competitive advantage to the enemies of the state. Even we, students, plan what we’ll gonna do during the day or the activities that we’ll do for this day, maybe this week or probably for this month. But have we thought about planning for our future? This question is so tough that, I, personally have questioned myself (it’s really mind-boggling).

as of this time, i have lots of things in my mind on what i want to be or who will be "mariechelle" in the future. probably i still have to organize my ideas on it (toink, i still have to practice my writing isn't it?).

an enlightining interview....

2008-11-11T04:06:00.001-08:00

whew!!

"id rather make things happen than waiting for something to happen", words given by Mr. Alfredo Tesoro, VP-Admin of DCT Printshop.

just this afternoon, we were given the chance by mr.alfredo tesoro, the VP-Admin of DCT Printshop Inc.

at first, we were really nervous on how to ask them if we can conduct a study in their company,we were passed on the production department then to the accounting department so on and so forth..
as we were having a talk with my group at the reception area of their company, mr. tesoro approached us and asked if there's something he can do for us. he invited us in his office and starts to answer our questions. aside from the topics related to academics, he also imparted tips on dealing with other people, how he manage his people in the company and even outside the company. he's very jolly and he never hesitated to share his knowledge. The discussion was full of words of wisdom and its really very enlightening.

i'll just recall those words... wait...

"it is not always trust,it's control"

my brain is drained!
i'll just share it with you guys tomorrow!
ciao!

insource vs. outsource

2008-09-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

to set the record straight (coz the difference between the two were defined by my classmates already,hehe), i'd choose insource..

why?
first, the cost is less. Since USEP is a government owned and the budget is not that big.
next, why do we outsource if we have skilled students and faculty? why not use the hidden capabilities of our students and faculty (of course, this will really benefit the IC,hehe)
since it's insource we are in control of the information that is being used by the System.
lastly,whenever the system will encounter problems we can immediately fix it or call the technical staff or team assigned to develop and maintain the system.

ahaha!!
i still have things in mind right now..
but i still can' t organize it...
hehe

it's been a long time!!! hayz...

2008-09-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

hmm...
it's been really a long time since my last post...
it's a long story to tell..
the story goes like this..
my grandpa had been in the hospital for quite some time because of some complications of his diabetes and high blood, there was also a sore at the right of his face just below his right ear. we all thought that it was just a simple soreness but as days goes by, he had high fever and he was always complaining about his headache.

saturday night, while i was watching PDA, my grandma was shouting with fear saying my grandpa can't take it anymore... i refused to cry and give up while watching them holding their hands, instead of crying, i immediately called my aunt and uncle telling them what was going on that time..
my grandpa was immediately rushed to the hospital that night..

after a day, Dr. Lopez(my grandpa's doctor) told us that my grandpa should be operated. the sore below his right ear is not a simple case of sickness, it had to be immediately be removed before something bad will happen.

after seeking for 16,000 (downpayment, ahahay..), my grandpa was operated that afternoon..
since i'm the only person that is not so busy, i was tasked to be there for my grandpa,

my grandpa told me once.. "she's my grand daughter, my caregiver.."
funny it may seem but it's true..
i had a lot of "my firsts" in the hospital..

~ i had to wake up as early as 2 am so that my grandpa's med's be approved by the cashier of the hospital..
~i had to wipe my grandpa's ass (ahehe, i really can't find the right word.. if you have suggestions,please leave a comment..) whenever he make some "pupu" on the lavatory..
~ my first time to hold 50,000 cash in hand..(whew! a lot of money huh!)
and a lot more..

to end this..
i just realized that we should treasure every moment of our lives. treasure the people around us (our family,friends, teachers etc..)
make them feel that they are loved
coz we don't know what will happen next..

my grandpa is ok now, praise God!

SONA of PGMA

2008-09-07T22:11:00.001-07:00

Fortunately, I was able to watch the SONA of our President. i really admire her inspite of the difficulties she had gone through all these years (or on her term as the president), why? it's because she wantslong term solutions to our problems and not the other way around. but why do people keep on protesting ? as far as i can remember they were also the people that put her on that position when president estrada was accused of corruption etc ? hayz.. on my part this is really confusing! so much with that (i was run by my emotions, hehe)

anyway, back on the topic..

here are some parts of her speech in which she talked about ICT ..

~"Our P 350 million training partnership with the private sector should qualify 60,000 for call centers, medical transcription, animation and software development, which have a projected demand of one million workers generating $13 billion by 2010." - President Arroyo. ~

-- WOW!! (as in capslock jud xa!) this statement (if ever implemented) will be a great opportunity for us students(the techi people as what sir randy said)who would really want to pursue or practice what we have learned. Also, these will open the doors for our Filipino animators to expose and show other countries their works of art (murag painting, hehe) and if other countries can do it, Philippines can also do it. (Love your own gud). In addition, these would showcase the world-class talents that the Philippines have.

~"Our costly commodity imports like oil and rice should be offset by hard commodities exports like primary products, and soft ones like tourism and cyberservices, at which only India beats us." - President Arroyo.~

-- i can relate the statement above on the company we adopted(MyndTech Management Services). they do websites, softwares (or what PGMA called cyberservices)for the companies in US and Sweden. As what i have said above, this will showcase the world-class talents of our fellow Filipino people.

~"Texting is a way of life. I asked the telecoms to cut the cost of messages between networks. They responded. It is now down to 50 centavos" - President Arroyo~

-- As what the president stated "texting is a way of life" (naka.smile pa jud si GMA that time, tapos palakpakan ang mga tao! toinkz! i was able to watch it man gud, maayo nang ma.imagine pud nato! ahehe) well for me, it's not that helpful enough because telecom networks do have their own style of promoting their networks just like in Talk n' Text, Smart and Globe they have their own unlimited text messages for 1 day for just 15-20 pesos.

to end this, we should not depend on what the government can give us, rather, we'll do our part as the citizens of these country, wag na tayong dumagdag pa sa problema, dapat tayong magkaisa para sa mas ikauunlad ng ating bansa!

if given a chance to become an IT consultant i will.....

2008-09-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

whew!

students and employees in USEP are always complaining on the slow internet connection, that's why students would prefer to go the internet cafe's near our school (what a way to waste money, to think we are paying 200 pesos for virtual library and 200 pesos for computer laboratory fees, asan na pera namin???)

here are some problems based on my observations:

~no budget alloted for upgrading computers (or even buying new ones).
--hay! why not ask help in non-government organizations? or to the politicians (elections are 2 years from now right?). by the way, the students are paying 200 pesos for virtual library and 200 laboratory fees, if the university has 2000 students ( 2000*Php400=Php800,000) with the amount calculated we can purchase or upgrade computers right?

~the primary problem of the university is the usage of old hardware (old servers and workstations)
--even if our internet connection is in good shape, it will still be useless if our university is using old hardwares. my suggestion would be upgrade servers and workstations.

~the computer laboratories are prone to computer viruses
-- we really cannot deny that students are using their usb's, my suggestion would be, the university should have an anti-virus, there are some open source anti-virus available in the internet, why not download it?

also, the university should have a reliable internet provider. Universities should use T1 or T3.innovating our school networking systems and also wise choice of network technology to fit the needs of the school. Also we as part of the university, we should be responsible enough to handle computers or accessing the internet.
Lastly, the administration should give their all out support to the team who have been working hard to find solutions to the problems with the internet connectivity in our university.

What are the risks associated with business and IS/IT change?

2008-09-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

they say "nothing is constant except change". yes, it's true, we do change and so as with IT and IS. But have we realized or assessed what are the possible risks?

based on the research i've made(this topic is really tough!ahehe), the risks are the following:

1. Loss of Integrity. System and data integrity refers to the requirement that information be secured from inappropriate alteration. Integrity is lost if unauthorized changes are made to the data or IT system by either intentional or accidental acts. If the loss of system or data integrity is not corrected, continued use of the contaminated system or corrupted data could result in inaccuracy and incorrect decisions. In addition, violation of integrity may be the first step in a successful attack against system availability or secrecy. For all these reasons, loss of integrity reduces the assurance of an IT system.

2. Loss of Availability. If a mission-critical IT system is unavailable to its end users, the organization’s mission may be affected. Loss of system functionality and operational effectiveness, for example, may result in loss of productive time, thus impeding the end users’ performance of their functions in supporting the organization’s mission.

3. Loss of Confidentiality. System and data confidentiality refers to the protection of information from unauthorized disclosure. The impact of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information can range from the jeopardizing of national security to the disclosure of Privacy Act data. Unauthorized, unanticipated, or unintentional disclosure could result in loss of public confidence, embarrassment, or legal action against the organization.

still for me, whenever we want change we should have proper planning so that the risks be properly assessed and when the time comes that we'll be encountering the consequences we can have proper and long time solution to these problems

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-30/sp800-30.pdf

the barriers of IS and IT

2008-09-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

i really had a hard time looking for the barriers, but gladly, i found this site( sadly, sheryl caguimbaga and i are the same ~http://www.unm.edu/~jreenen/dlbook/chapter9.html~)
All of us are encountering barriers or hindrances in what we want to do or achieve . And so with IS and IT. Yes, there are a lot of hindrances (aka barriers) and these are the following:
1. Lack of resources/budget - Of course, in IS/IT ,the company should have the resources or the budget, because having a system requires maintenance, probably hardware replacements etc.
2. Unskilled staff – . As what I’ve said above, systems need to be maintained and monitored from time to time. the technical people doesn’t have much experience on maintaining the system, as a result, this will become a barrier to the success of the system.
3. Lack of preparation and planning
4. Technical problems
5. The system changes the flow of the information in the company.
To sum it up, the success of a system goes into the proper planning and preparation. Proper assesment of funds,resources and staff. The company should impose guidelines. And last but not the least, proper communication between the administration and the technical people.

-----wanted----

2008-07-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

do you know this person??
anyone?
if you do, please call 911 or DSWD..
heheh

the davao's pride!

kim sam soon of davao, if you want to have an autograph from this person...

again..

just call
911 or DSWD!!

sorry sa maigo!! hehe
berks nko ni!

why ?

2008-07-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

it's raining outside, isn't it?
stuck in zycor for about an hour now..
just to be honest with you guys... i really don't know what to say or write as of this time.
i'm filled with so much anger, frustrations, why it happened..

hmm.. i just want to cry now, honestly..

i've loved him so much but what happened?

best practices of IS/IT

2008-07-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Talking about best practices in IS/IT, it really took me quite sometime on how to organize my ideas or to come up with my essay (but gladly,i was able to sort it out,hehe ). Hmm, it was around 4 am when I woke up (hehe).

For me, here are some best practices of IS/IT

Proper planning. Everything we do, we plan. And so with IS/IT. Proper planning will help in guiding us what will happen next or what are the next steps. The decisions regarding scope definition, staff and resource usage and assessment expectations should be developed, and documented in a project plan. In planning, the team should also consider the security risks of the system. Planning also provides us goals to be achieved. Ask employees what would make their work efficient and effective. The team should know the business procedures/processes; this would ensure that the system follows the business procedures. In addition, the team should research the availability of the resources. The team should have a proper assessment on the cost of the project. The team should make sure that the software that they’ll be using in the project should suit the needs of the company. The team should have a time line on the implementation of the project. This will help the employees know or understand more the new application. Also, the success of any application is greatly dependent on the training provided by the company to the employees or the users of the application. The training given is very essential to ensure that the end-users are tuned in to, capable with Application enhancements (if there are new releases). Continuous learning also deals with the training needs of the staff. The project doesn’t end with the implementation part, but this should involve the monitoring and maintenance of the system.

To sum up everything, the success of an application depends on both parties namely: the project team and the company. Without the proper coordination and communication between the two, the system will be senseless.

Why do you think IS/IT systems fails?

2008-07-09T04:11:00.000-07:00

why do you think IS/IT Systems fail?

There are so many factors on why information systems fail. But let me define first what an information system is. For me, information system is a blending of software, hardware, peopleware and communication technology that is used to manage or handle informations related to a company or business.

For me, there are lots of reasons on why Information Systems fail.

1. Unclear requirements ~ this is one of the real reasons on why IS fail, the team should be well informed or they should understand the objectives/ goals of their project. Goals provide direction that will make the project successful.
2. Lack of good preparation (proper time and cost estimate)
3. Lack of administration support.
4. The system doesn’t reach the goals/objectives of the project.
5. The system doesn’t satisfy the needs of the organization.
6. Unskilled staff ~ information systems doesn’t end in just introducing it to the company but it should be well implemented and monitored from time to time, without competitive staff that can handle problems on the system, then it will be a failure.
7. Lack of Unity or teamwork ~ this can be solved through good communication between the team and the administration.
8. Lack of resources/ budget.

An information system plays a vital role in a business. It will administer and will influence a business’ procedures in its entire sector. It can change the way the business operates and it aims to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization that will result to the company’s progress and development.

special thanks to:
http://www.comp.dit.ie/rfitzpatrick/MSc_Publications/2004_Glen_Lally.pdf
for the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/philastories/45569520/
http://www.bergoiata.org/
http://und-urlaub.de/clients/re2/gastgeber/informationssystem.jpg

zycor internet cafe (hehe)
my mom for the money..

open source softwares

2008-07-09T02:05:00.000-07:00

~OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARES~

Open source software (OSS) from the word itself is a kind of software that is free to use, can easily be downloaded from the internet and you can have it without paying a single peso from your pocket. Also the Encarta encyclopedia defined Open Source Software as a form of software in which the original source code is openly available for users to examine and modify, and to use to run or to create computer programs. A central feature of open source software is that users can review the software, add features to it or hire programmers to add features, or fix errors known as bugs, rather than wait for the original software publisher or creator to release a “patch” or bring out a new version. With open source software, programmers—many of them nonprofessionals—contribute to the computing community by making their improvements and bug fixes available to other users.

During my research, there was an article that was published in Manila Standard, one of our lawmakers Cong. Teddy Casiño passed a bill referring to the usage of OSS in government agencies, schools and universities. For me, it’s a good decision and would be a stepping stone for the State Colleges and Universities here in the Philippines because OSS provides advantages and benefits.

These are the following:

~ Since OSS is a FREE software (as defined above), we can download these softwares in the internet. In addition, we don’t have to worry about the licensing process.

~ Our government really doesn’t have the budget to have brand new computers or upgrade the computers. With OSS, we are not required to upgrade. If we are not yet familiar with these softwares, there are so many tutorials and modules available in the internet. It may not be user-friendly, but with enough patience and courage, we’ll be able to understand it.

~ We have the permission to use and distribute the software in any way.

USEP can adopt OSS by informing the current administration the practical benefits as well as the advantages of using OSS. Also conduct seminars, forums or discussions that would enable our teachers and my fellow students know more about open source softwares and that we can use it for education. In addition, we can save money by using OSS. And let the administration spend the money in more important things. Also, as an IT student, I’ll be able to explore my knowledge on animations (one of my goals is to know how to do some animation), there are OS softwares that cater my needs (example: BLENDER )

reference:http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=interactive01_sept04_2006
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=interactive01_sept11_2006
http://www.netc.org/openoptions/home/quickstart.html
http://www.encarta_msn.com/encyclopedia_701610451/Open_Source_Software.html

pictures:

http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/46123.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25696093@N08/2410588719/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25696093@N08/2411431028/

GREEN CAMPUS COMPUTING

2008-06-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

We really can't deny the fact that computers are very essential in everyone's life. It’s part of our personal needs, most especially to us, students. We do our projects, paper works and our research with the help of computers (particularly the internet). Green campus computing is a study based on how we can conserve energy and resources but still using the gadget or technologies, in other words, green campus computing refers to proper ways of using computers.

Based on my research, I’ve collected some practical tips on how green computing can be adopted in our school.

· Do not leave the computer running when no one is using it. (turn off the computer when not in use)

· If you still want to relax after a long period of research (and still not yet done) put off your monitor or put it into standby mode.

· Review documents or your papers before printing (this will conserve energy at the same time bond papers).

· Recycle papers when printing. (Preferably, print at the back).

· Turn off speakers or enhancements when not in use.

· Use e-mail as an alternative communication (whether you want it to pass documents to your friends etc.) instead of printing them out.

· And most of all orient the employees and students on how to be responsible in using computers. (cooperation is the word)

Here are some url’s in which it talks about green campus computing

http://www.colby.edu/green/documents/GrnComputingBMP.pdf

http://www.uoregon.edu/~recycle/Conservation_computing_text.htm

http://ready2net.csumb.edu/site/x21966.xml

be aware!
ciao!

a nice quote from the forum

2008-06-18T01:24:00.000-07:00

the qoute goes like this..

when there's something you want

fight for it. dont give up no matter how hopeless it seems even when you've lost hope coz years from now you're gonna look back and wish you gave it one more shot cause the best things in life don't come easy...
thanks to athina
we were classmates in Rizal and recently in OR
a very nice quote
"nabuhayan ko!"

at last!

2008-06-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

hmmm...this is my new blog(0bviously,hehehe)
nywei...
i still have nothing to talk or to share about...

got to go!!

hai