Thursday, July 23, 2009
COMDDAP REFLECTIONS/LEARININGS
Computer Manufacturers, Distributors, and Dealers Association of the Philippines (Comddap)
EXPERIENING THE COMDDAP SEMINARS AND EXHIBIT
GOING to the venue:
We are going to APO VIEW HOTEL at 1:00 pm. As we go there we are very excited for the things that we want to experience. We have a lot of expectation on what we saw on that day. We expect for more hi-technology.
ARRIVAL:
As we arrived, they had a booth for the students who are participated for the said event. And also they had a booth for none students who attended the COMDDAP seminars and exhibit. There are also in charge for the counting of the participant of that day. The facilitator gives as a sticker. Those the said sticker is our identification that we are a students.
EXHIBIT:
As we come in to the exhibit area, there are lots of technologies that we saw. There are so many to be mentioned. Aside from the hi-technologies, some of the companies including smart gives freebies who fill-up there computerized form. I don’t know for what those form is, because we haven’t fill-up those one for the line is so long. They also give fliers for the promotion of there product. The Computer Manufacturers, Distributors, and Dealers Association of the Philippines (Comddap) has gathered over 20 technology companies: Exhibitor companies include Astech Pengson Distributors, Inc., ATP Peripherals/Achieva, Axis Global Technologies, Inc., Brother International Phils., Corp., Canon Marketing Philippines, Inc., Chase Technologies Corporation, Epson Philippines Corp., Hitachi-Glee Electronics, MDR Microware Sales, MSI-ECS Philippines, Inc., Microwarehouse, Inc., Millennium Computer Technologies Corp., Neo-Glee Electronics, PLDTmyDSL, RASI Computers, Inc., Redwood Ventures, Sanyo Philippines, Inc., Trinity Marketing, Inc., and Wordtext Systems, Inc.
The participating companies was offered visitors special rates, trade-in promotions and bundled deals on desktops and peripherals, network equipment, multimedia projectors and accessories, office automation equipment, digital video and film cameras, imaging tools, papers and chemicals, servers, printers, scanners, plasma monitors, audio systems, broadband equipment and other related gadgets. The participating companies also was gives a discounted price for there costumers who brought there products during the COMDDAP event. Example for this is CANON, they are loads of freebies, promos, and discounts await Canon customers at the said events.
SEMINARS:
When we are tired, we decided join a seminars in the function area. We attended three (3) kinds of topics.
Here are the interesting topics that we were able to attend:
Enterprise Resource Information and Control (ERIC-DMS)
Mr. Celmer L. Santos from Jupiter Systems, Incorporated was the speaker of ERIC-DMS. He talked about the Brilliant Dealer Management System that widely used by Car Businesses. Anyway, Jupiter Systems, Inc. is a 24- year old software company and one of the members of the ERP systems of the Philippines. Their clients include Mitsubishi, Honda, Mazda, Volvo, and Nissan. Their Database Management Systems flow starts with the pre-sales, then vehicle sales and last is the after sales.
The Jupiter Systems’ has also Service Management General Features which are the following:
=>Advance bookings or Customer appointments
=>Operation maintenance or FLAT rates
=>Repair orders
=>Repair Estimates
=>Customer Service History
=>Technician Time-in or Time-out
=>Parts requisitioning and picking
=>Service invoicing
=>Warranty claims and processing
=>Field Service Actions (Campaigns)
The HP Company
Mr. Leonard Zapa, Market Deveopment Manager of HP Company is there speaker. He started with talking about Linux, CE, and XPe.
He also mentioned the following topics about Data security, reliability, Management, Remote PC alternatives, Virtualization, Lower TCO, Broadband and related.
He also introduced the widely used HP Thin Client. This is a computing device without a hard drive and can be used independently.
=>With its some features;
=>Enhanced security
=>Easy manageability
=>High reliability
=>Environment – friendly
=>Lower overall costs
At the end of the discussion, the participant of this seminar becomes more alive because the HP COMPANY gives some tokens. They have a question related to there topics and those who first answer there question can have a USD, some are T-SHIRT, the other is Optical MOUSE, or they’ve got two tokens.
Open Source for Business Applications
Open Source topic is one of the topics that I liked most. The speaker asked the audience of what is their definition about Open source. Some shared the following understanding: source code, free, open, contributor, no license, etc. There is a person besides us who really participate for the said topics. He is an IT Professional here in Davao.
The speaker gives us some of the Open Source Website. Some of those are joomlapolis.com, joomla.org.ph, and openwp.org. There are also an Open Source Software. One of those is PHP.
We have lots of learning in this topic. The speaker tells us about the benefits of an Open Source. He said Open source is reliable widely used, highly scalable and proven performance. But along the discussion there are person who come in to the discussion that makes us listen more attentively. It’s just like he contradicts the open source. He said that we need to examine the reliability level of a software.And I never forget his last sentence. He said, “Open source- have it today but pay later while proprietary software- pay it today and we have the full help later.”
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
1.) http://www.p2000.umich.edu/energy_conservation/ec7.htm
****
Green Computing Practice
Electrical Conservation Tips:
- Turn the computer off overnight and on weekends;
- Wait until ready to use the PC before turning it on;
- If the computer is going to be inactive for more than 16 minutes, consider turning it off. After this time, the energy needed to run the computer outweighs the start-up energy;
- Do not turn on the printer until ready to print, even an idle printer consumes energy;
- Try to schedule computer-related activities to do them all at once, keeping the computer off at other times;
- If spending a large amount of time at the computer, consider reducing the light level in your office. This may improve cathode ray tube screen visibility as well as save energy.
Paper Conservation Tips:
- Use "paperless" methods of communication such as electronic mail (e-mail) and fax modems. Also, do not print out copies of e-mail messages unless necessary;
- Use smaller font sizes and decrease the spacing between lines, or reformat to keep the document to as few pages as possible;
- Review documents on the screen instead of printing a draft. If you must print a draft, use the blank back side of used sheets;
- Use a printer that can print double-sided documents. When making copies, use double-sided copying;
- The U-M buys and uses recycled-content paper when possible. Look for papers with 50 - 100 percent post-consumer waste and non-chlorine bleached. Also, recycle paper when done.
- Store information on diskettes rather than in "hard copy" format. A single high-density 3.5 inch floppy disk can hold the equivalent of 750 sheets of paper, about one and a half reams. Also, be sure to reuse disks that contain outdated information.
Purchasing and Use of Equipment:
- Printer toner cartridges can be refilled, rebuilt and reused. Many manufacturers will take a spent cartridge, refurbish it, refill it, and return it for about half the price of buying a new one;
- Determine whether you can upgrade your existing equipment rather than purchasing new equipment;
- Donate an old computer to a school or charity; if it is permanently out of order, give it to a computer recycling facility instead of discarding in a landfill;
- Only buy a monitor as large as you really need; a 17 inch monitor uses 40 percent more energy than a 14-inch monitor. Also, the higher the resolution, the more energy it needs;
- Consider purchasing an ink jet printer instead of a laser printer. Although they are a little slower, they use 80-90 percent less energy;
- Request recycled or recyclable packaging from your vendor;
- Buy soy or non-petroleum based inks. These printer inks are made from renewable resources, require fewer hazardous solvents, which translates to fewer air emissions, and in many cases produce brighter, cleaner colors;
- Try to buy energy efficient products such as those bearing the Energy Star Logo. The Energy Star Program was started by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to encourage the production and use of energy-efficient equipment. In accordance with the EPA's voluntary guidelines, leading computer manufacturers are now producing equipment that can automatically power down to a "sleep mode" to save energy when not in use. They also use up to 30 percent less energy when running than conventional equipment. These added capabilities do not increase price or decrease performance.
2.) http://ecenter.colorado.edu/energy/projects/green_computing.html
*** The
Green Computing Practice
· Reducing Paper Waste- Minimize the number of hard copies and paper drafts you make. Instead of printing, save information to disks.
· Recycle waste paper- Buy and use recycled paper in your printers and copiers.
· Reusing and recycling- CU generates thousands of spent printer toner and ink jet cartridges and batteries a year. Instead of tossing these in the garbage, they can be recycled, saving resources and reducing pollution and solid waste.
· Purchasing recommendations -Environmentally responsible computer use implies not buying new equipment unless there is a demonstrated need
· Network and share printers- Consider leasing equipment as an alternative to purchasing. Leased equipment is typically refurbished or recycled, and packaging is reduced.
3.) http://www.wesleyan.edu/newsletter/campus/2008/0208greencomputing.html
***
Green Computing Practice
· Reduce carbon emissions by simply turning off their monitors, or shutting down their computer when they are away.
· always better to shut the computer off if the plan not to use it for a stretch of time
· Night-time remote backup service, a process that would eliminate the need to leave machines overnight.
· Power the Printer off after office hours, or whenever they are not in use.
· Automated power supplies, which work on an electric timer and shut down computers and printers when students’ computer labs are closed.
In order to adopt the concept of “Campus Green Computing”, maybe the school should conduct seminars to the faculty and students. Although each one knows about it, they did not always apply it to themselves. To those who know it already, he/she can also give advice to his/her friends. So, when everyone knows about how important the concepts of “Campus Green Computing” everyone can apply to it.
ELECTION ON 2010
VS
This up-coming election 2010 has new system implemented. For the past years, we manually voted and also counted our votes manually. Maybe this kind of system has much risk. There are more chances that the Officials can cheat the country. So, in this situation, our government has a program to convert manual election into automated election.
“In the automated system, where both voting and canvass is done through a printed ballot fed into a machine, voters will need to shade an oval space beside the printed names of each of the candidates of each of these positions. So the ballot will contain some 300 names of persons or parties”, said the editorial of website Technograph of the
THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) en banc was bid and awarded the election automation contract to Total Information Management (TIM)/Smartmatic. Smartmatic was one of the service providers of the more expensive direct recording electronic system, or touch-screen technology, for the ARMM elections. TIM/Smartmatic was the only bidder left after six others were disqualified by the special bids and awards committee for failing to provide some documents. The bidding, which began over a month ago, originally had seven bidders. Smartmatic provided all documents and was the only company to demonstrate precinct count optical scan machines. The company is based in the
The calls came at the time TIM was stalling in signing the incorporation papers for the registration of its joint venture partnership with Barbados-based Smartmatic with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), told Technograph Technology in the Philippines in one of there website.
But is the
- The 2003 functional literacy survey of the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed ARMM as having the lowest basic literacy rate in the country, with 30 percent of its people aged 10-64 years old considered illiterate.
- On a national level, one in 10 Filipinos can not read and write, according to the survey.
- Ustadz Esmael Ibrahim of the Assembly of Darul Ifta of the
“We are ready. There will be full automation nationwide,” Melo said at a press briefing Thursday after the Senate passed the House-approved P11.3-billion supplemental budget for the automation of the elections on May 10, 2010.
But weeks ago, there is shocking news about this Automated Election system. Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) has pulled out of its partnership with Smartmatic Corp., putting the P11.3-billion poll automation project next year in jeopardy.
“Mr. Jose Antunez (President of TIM) came to my office and told me they are withdrawing from the project citing their irreconcilable differences (with Smartmatic)," Elections Chairman Jose Melo told reporters on different news, without mentioning the nature of the feud. But word has leaked that the breakup was caused by corporate issues between Smartmatic and TIM ranging from the chairmanship of the board to funding disputes.
Earlier in the day, Melo suspended the contract negotiations with Smartmatic-TIM due to its failure to submit its joint venture incorporation papers. With the Smartmatic-TIM breakup, Melo said this will leave the Comelec with the following options:
1. A second bidding
2. A negotiated contract
3. Partial automation
4. Revert to manual elections
Cesar Flores, Smartmatic’s international sales director and spokesman, blamed their partner TIM for the delay, saying Smartmatic officers signed the incorporation registration papers last week. Sinse according to the law, the Netherlands-based firm Smartmatic cannot operate without a local joint venture partner, TIM in this case.
A visibly upset Melo said the Comelec is set to look into the names behind TIM to see if these people may have been influenced by groups who are against automated elections.
Melo said that though they have enough time to prepare for manual voting and counting, the main goal of eradicating poll fraud will be difficult to achieve if the elections are not automated.
For joint venture partnerships, the law allows foreigners to bid for projects provided they have local partners representing 60 per cent of the project.
The bidding rules also prohibit Smartmatic from getting a replacement local partner to push through with the P11.3 billion poll automation.
The poll chief said it is frustrating to know that TIM is seemingly putting “personal interests" ahead of a matter of national importance.
Comelec director Ferdinand Rafanan, head of the Special Bids and Awards Committee, said TIM could be charged criminally, civil and administratively.
He added that they are similarly forfeiting the P350 million performance security bond posted by TIM and the group will also be barred for one year from joining any bidding of the Comelec.
- With a report from Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV
Machine vulnerability
Poll automation feeds the wrong impression to the public that elections will be clean and credible. Because it is a machine, it is powerless against any fraud that takes place before, during, and after the elections. And, because it is just a machine, it is vulnerable to human intervention such as software attack, glitches, and other technical problems that could result in wholesale electronic cheating. (See www.cenpeg.org for papers and powerpoints on election automation.) The high stakes in the 2010 elections, including choosing a new president, administration attempts to make sure that the next president is friendly to Gloria M. Arroyo, as well as the 17,000 national and local seats up for grabs by some 90,000 candidates will make fraud machineries sabotage the whole electoral process using both the traditional and modern technology.
Given the expected operations of fraud machineries in the coming elections, one way by which the present Comelec can at least minimize cheating is to make poll automation open, transparent, credible, and participatory. It does not make sense that the poll body has chosen the OMR which makes counting and canvassing of votes invisible to the eye with Comelec perhaps hoping that the poll officials, machines, vendors, software developers, electronic transmission systems, and other technical services can be trusted.
References:
