Creativity is innate to human beings; I remembered someone who said that though people are different from each other, especially, the way we think, there is what we call a collective subconcious.
What is a collective subconcious? In a nutshell it is the concept attempting to explain why people have common interpretations of certain dreams or common experiences even if they were absolutely strangers to each other.
The collective subconcious can better be explained by a psychology major.
Why have I mentioned this collective unconcious? It is because there are cases with Intellectual Property (IP) dispute that is really hard to resolve.
Intellectual Property Laws may have protected one's creative works; however, there are instances when two or more creative works are practically the same but not necessarily copies of each other.
IP Law, for me, is quite vague and proving infringement is really hard to do. Sometimes, there is an absolute intention to infringe or plagiarize but at times, similarities are just brought about by the collective subconcious.
I do not promote plagiarism but, sometimes, plagiarism is hard to prove. One's concept may be the same as the other one but not necessarily copied.
For example, a movie script which has a particular plot and story will practically be a copy of another script from someone else but they never really saw each other's work.
What's my point, having said all of these?
My point is that though there are IP Law governing inventions, art works, etc, it is very hard to prove (at times) if infringement or plagiarism really was committed.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Iika-ikang eCommerce ng Pilipinas
It is quite interesting to learn that no matter how lag the Philippines compared to other progressive countries, we were able to have a Republic Act promoting eCommerce.
Should we be happy about this? Personally, we should.
Should we be satisfied with how it was implemented? I asked a friend of mine to how he views the eCommerce in the Philippines.
According to him, the eCommerce Act is a good start to enable the Philippines at par with the other countries who have been utilizing the Information and Communications Technology in the daily transactions of business and government.
However, the implementation is not what he expected.
He strongly believes that the government is not yet ready to submit to the automation of processes.
For him, the government should revisit their own processes for a probable process reengineering.
Reengineering a process in the government transactions does not necessarily mean the removal of red tapes. To be more specific, it necessitates the enhancement an important process and the removal of useless or redundant process. Optimization, as he says it, could help the government agencies to deliver better than what they were doing as of the moment.
He also stressed that section 3 of the law states "...promote the universal use of electronic transaction in the government and general public..." From what he observes, the agency portals of the government are mostly for informative purposes only. If there will be transactions, purely queries, and downloading of forms.
For him, if eCommerce will really be implemented in the government, agency queues could be minimized by allowing people to initially transact over the web and if physical appearance is necessary, then that is the only time they need to show up in the agency buildings.
For example, in getting a drivers license, why can't the transportation agency provide a portal where the citizen can fill up the details needed and get a tracking number so they can be quickly entertained when they show up.
Many improvements could be done with the use of the internet and ICT but as my friend says it, the Philippine government is not yet ready to leave its comfort zone.
As he closed our discussion, he stressed, "may eCommerce nga, di naman makausad nang todo, parang pilay na nananakbo, iika-ika; iika-ikang eCommerce ng Pilipinas."
Should we be happy about this? Personally, we should.
Should we be satisfied with how it was implemented? I asked a friend of mine to how he views the eCommerce in the Philippines.
According to him, the eCommerce Act is a good start to enable the Philippines at par with the other countries who have been utilizing the Information and Communications Technology in the daily transactions of business and government.
However, the implementation is not what he expected.
He strongly believes that the government is not yet ready to submit to the automation of processes.
For him, the government should revisit their own processes for a probable process reengineering.
Reengineering a process in the government transactions does not necessarily mean the removal of red tapes. To be more specific, it necessitates the enhancement an important process and the removal of useless or redundant process. Optimization, as he says it, could help the government agencies to deliver better than what they were doing as of the moment.
He also stressed that section 3 of the law states "...promote the universal use of electronic transaction in the government and general public..." From what he observes, the agency portals of the government are mostly for informative purposes only. If there will be transactions, purely queries, and downloading of forms.
For him, if eCommerce will really be implemented in the government, agency queues could be minimized by allowing people to initially transact over the web and if physical appearance is necessary, then that is the only time they need to show up in the agency buildings.
For example, in getting a drivers license, why can't the transportation agency provide a portal where the citizen can fill up the details needed and get a tracking number so they can be quickly entertained when they show up.
Many improvements could be done with the use of the internet and ICT but as my friend says it, the Philippine government is not yet ready to leave its comfort zone.
As he closed our discussion, he stressed, "may eCommerce nga, di naman makausad nang todo, parang pilay na nananakbo, iika-ika; iika-ikang eCommerce ng Pilipinas."
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Waz' SAP!
"Waz' SAP?" sounded like "What's up?"
"What's up?" may imply what's new?
"Waz' SAP?" may be formally written as "What's SAP?"
What is SAP?
I have been browsing the net to look for an overview of SAP which I keep on hearing from a friend who works in a consulting firm.
SAP may not be new but definitely it's a new approach in doing business especially for those which are so scared to try an ERP System.
I learned that an ERP sytem is an encompassing system for all process of a company.
Consulting my IT friend, ERP is like a planning system for the company to optimize its resources.
Imagine, the company will know how much raw materials will be needed to produce a targetted quantity of products without having too much of an inventory? My friend told me that SAP (like any other ERP systems) helps the company to forecast and maximize the use of inventory (among many others).
I do not fully understand how SAP works but if I were an owner of a company, I would like to have an optimal way of doing things.
That's SAP to me! Ooops, I mean, that's up to me!
"What's up?" may imply what's new?
"Waz' SAP?" may be formally written as "What's SAP?"
What is SAP?
I have been browsing the net to look for an overview of SAP which I keep on hearing from a friend who works in a consulting firm.
SAP may not be new but definitely it's a new approach in doing business especially for those which are so scared to try an ERP System.
I learned that an ERP sytem is an encompassing system for all process of a company.
Consulting my IT friend, ERP is like a planning system for the company to optimize its resources.
Imagine, the company will know how much raw materials will be needed to produce a targetted quantity of products without having too much of an inventory? My friend told me that SAP (like any other ERP systems) helps the company to forecast and maximize the use of inventory (among many others).
I do not fully understand how SAP works but if I were an owner of a company, I would like to have an optimal way of doing things.
That's SAP to me! Ooops, I mean, that's up to me!
CNN featured the death of Ayie Seex
CNN featured the death of Ayie Seex.
Ayie Seex is not someone but something.
Ayie Seex cannot be derived from any human language or dialect.
Ayie Seex is a play on the sound for I.E.6 or expandedly, Internet Explorer version 6.
The link provided in CNN is http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/04/ie6.funeral/
However, should the link fail to provide the content, below is the core content of the page :
==========================
'Funeral' held for aging Web browser
By Stephanie Goldberg, Special to CNN
March 5, 2010
More than 100 people, many of them dressed in black, were expected to gather around a coffin Thursday night to say goodbye to an old friend.
The deceased? Internet Explorer 6.
The aging Web browser, survived by its descendants Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8, was to be eulogized at a tongue-in-cheek "funeral" hosted by Aten Design Group, a design firm in Denver, Colorado.
The memorial service was to feature a coffin holding a "body" that has an IE6 logo for a head. Attendees were expected to eulogize the Microsoft browser by sharing remembrances, some of which have already been posted on the company's online funeral invitation.
"I feel terrible admitting this, but ... I never really liked him," posted someone who gave his name as Eddie Escher. "He had so many hang-ups, and he looked awful -- especially in his later years. But... he was always there when you needed him. You have to give him that."
Are you attending the IE6 funeral? Send your images, video
Internet Explorer 6 isn't exactly dead yet, and in fact remains widely used. But in recent years, it's been eclipsed by newer, faster browsers that are better equipped to run the Web's latest bells and whistles. Google Docs and Google Sites discontinued support for the browser Monday, and YouTube will follow suit March 13.
"The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively," wrote a senior product manager in a Google blog post. He urged users to upgrade to more modern browsers.
Released in 2001, IE6 was the standard for Web surfing for most users until 2006, when Microsoft launched IE7. The most recent version, Internet Explorer 8, followed in March 2009.
IE8 commanded 22.5 percent of the browser market last month, according to NetMarketShare, an analytics firm. Despite its age, IE6 still held on to 19.8 percent of the market in February -- more than IE7. Overall, Internet Explorer remains by far the most commonly used Web browser, ahead of Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
This is not the first time someone has tried to bury Internet Explorer 6. A handful of Facebook groups are dedicated to killing off the browser, and an "IE must die" movement has circulated on Twitter.
While Microsoft would not comment on Thursday's IE6 funeral, the company has consistently recommended that consumers upgrade to its latest version of Internet Explorer and acknowledges that its dated browser is no longer the most efficient way to surf the Web.
"While we recommend Internet Explorer 8 to all customers, we understand we have a number of corporate customers for whom broad deployment of new technologies across their desktops requires more planning," a Microsoft representative wrote in an e-mail to CNN.
Thursday's mock funeral was inspired by Google's decision to phase out IE6 this month, said Jon Clark, business development director for Aten Design Group.
The Web site's funeral invitation reads, "Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc."
The funeral and online invitation caught the attention of thousands of people with similar hopes that IE6 will eventually be obsolete, including a group of people in Iceland who are hosting an IE6 funeral of their own.
Clark said he initially expected about 30 to 50 people to attend the Denver funeral. More than 1,000 online comments and 6,000 Twitter tweets later, the company has had to move the event to a larger venue to accommodate interest.
"We certainly didn't expect the exposure we've gotten," Clark said.
So will mourners be shedding tears for IE6 on Thursday night?
"Crocodile tears," Clark said. "It's all in good fun."
But MG Siegler of TechCrunch, the technology news site, believes Thursday's service won't be the last that Web users hear of Internet Explorer 6. As many as hundreds of thousands of sites out there still support IE6 and in some cases were built specifically for it, he said.
"It's going to be a hard sucker to kill," Siegler wrote in a recent post. "But at least a funeral will provide some closure until we find the body."
==========================
Personally, IE6 may have provided me very easy ways to browse the web for checking emails, updating my social networking sites, and doing researches but we cannot deny that IE6 is not the best.
Many people have been trying to attack Microsoft through the internet explorer since this is the most vulnerable and exposed to the internet. Microsoft might have survived but one thing is very obvious, the applications they have, like the IE6, have bugs which Microsoft seemed to ignore.
I remember a friend told me that his computer hanged because the IE6 kept on spawning instances of the browser even if he has not triggered it. Somehow, according to another friend of mine who has an IT background, a site might have triggered some scripting code that forced IE6 to spawn unintentionally. It could also be possible that the actual Operating System (OS) has mismanaged its processes and memory which led to the spawning of the annoying IE6 instances.
The effect is categorically catastrophic especially for students like us. It hampers your momentum and worse, it led to a computer restart with a consequence that you were not able to save substantial content of a paper you were writing.
I bet some other people experienced other bugs with IE6 which are really disrupting their efficiency. Nonetheless, I am not saying that IE6 has no good points.
IE6 may have good points but it's also good to phase it out to give way to a new generation which we hope to be almost bug-free.
Ayie Seex is not someone but something.
Ayie Seex cannot be derived from any human language or dialect.
Ayie Seex is a play on the sound for I.E.6 or expandedly, Internet Explorer version 6.
The link provided in CNN is http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/04/ie6.funeral/
However, should the link fail to provide the content, below is the core content of the page :
==========================
'Funeral' held for aging Web browser
By Stephanie Goldberg, Special to CNN
March 5, 2010
More than 100 people, many of them dressed in black, were expected to gather around a coffin Thursday night to say goodbye to an old friend.
The deceased? Internet Explorer 6.
The aging Web browser, survived by its descendants Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8, was to be eulogized at a tongue-in-cheek "funeral" hosted by Aten Design Group, a design firm in Denver, Colorado.
The memorial service was to feature a coffin holding a "body" that has an IE6 logo for a head. Attendees were expected to eulogize the Microsoft browser by sharing remembrances, some of which have already been posted on the company's online funeral invitation.
"I feel terrible admitting this, but ... I never really liked him," posted someone who gave his name as Eddie Escher. "He had so many hang-ups, and he looked awful -- especially in his later years. But... he was always there when you needed him. You have to give him that."
Are you attending the IE6 funeral? Send your images, video
Internet Explorer 6 isn't exactly dead yet, and in fact remains widely used. But in recent years, it's been eclipsed by newer, faster browsers that are better equipped to run the Web's latest bells and whistles. Google Docs and Google Sites discontinued support for the browser Monday, and YouTube will follow suit March 13.
"The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively," wrote a senior product manager in a Google blog post. He urged users to upgrade to more modern browsers.
Released in 2001, IE6 was the standard for Web surfing for most users until 2006, when Microsoft launched IE7. The most recent version, Internet Explorer 8, followed in March 2009.
IE8 commanded 22.5 percent of the browser market last month, according to NetMarketShare, an analytics firm. Despite its age, IE6 still held on to 19.8 percent of the market in February -- more than IE7. Overall, Internet Explorer remains by far the most commonly used Web browser, ahead of Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
This is not the first time someone has tried to bury Internet Explorer 6. A handful of Facebook groups are dedicated to killing off the browser, and an "IE must die" movement has circulated on Twitter.
While Microsoft would not comment on Thursday's IE6 funeral, the company has consistently recommended that consumers upgrade to its latest version of Internet Explorer and acknowledges that its dated browser is no longer the most efficient way to surf the Web.
"While we recommend Internet Explorer 8 to all customers, we understand we have a number of corporate customers for whom broad deployment of new technologies across their desktops requires more planning," a Microsoft representative wrote in an e-mail to CNN.
Thursday's mock funeral was inspired by Google's decision to phase out IE6 this month, said Jon Clark, business development director for Aten Design Group.
The Web site's funeral invitation reads, "Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc."
The funeral and online invitation caught the attention of thousands of people with similar hopes that IE6 will eventually be obsolete, including a group of people in Iceland who are hosting an IE6 funeral of their own.
Clark said he initially expected about 30 to 50 people to attend the Denver funeral. More than 1,000 online comments and 6,000 Twitter tweets later, the company has had to move the event to a larger venue to accommodate interest.
"We certainly didn't expect the exposure we've gotten," Clark said.
So will mourners be shedding tears for IE6 on Thursday night?
"Crocodile tears," Clark said. "It's all in good fun."
But MG Siegler of TechCrunch, the technology news site, believes Thursday's service won't be the last that Web users hear of Internet Explorer 6. As many as hundreds of thousands of sites out there still support IE6 and in some cases were built specifically for it, he said.
"It's going to be a hard sucker to kill," Siegler wrote in a recent post. "But at least a funeral will provide some closure until we find the body."
==========================
Personally, IE6 may have provided me very easy ways to browse the web for checking emails, updating my social networking sites, and doing researches but we cannot deny that IE6 is not the best.
Many people have been trying to attack Microsoft through the internet explorer since this is the most vulnerable and exposed to the internet. Microsoft might have survived but one thing is very obvious, the applications they have, like the IE6, have bugs which Microsoft seemed to ignore.
I remember a friend told me that his computer hanged because the IE6 kept on spawning instances of the browser even if he has not triggered it. Somehow, according to another friend of mine who has an IT background, a site might have triggered some scripting code that forced IE6 to spawn unintentionally. It could also be possible that the actual Operating System (OS) has mismanaged its processes and memory which led to the spawning of the annoying IE6 instances.
The effect is categorically catastrophic especially for students like us. It hampers your momentum and worse, it led to a computer restart with a consequence that you were not able to save substantial content of a paper you were writing.
I bet some other people experienced other bugs with IE6 which are really disrupting their efficiency. Nonetheless, I am not saying that IE6 has no good points.
IE6 may have good points but it's also good to phase it out to give way to a new generation which we hope to be almost bug-free.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Stoop Low to Elevate
One of the things I learned as a propaganda device in a print advertisement is the principle to "bad-mouth" your competitors.
It is so saddening that in order to promote one product, one has to resort to a mud-slinging action so that your product can outshine the others.
Not only is this device used in promoting products; as we near the election day, this approach is widely used by many candidates hoping to win a seat in the government, whether it's a reelection or a new position to handle.
What has happened to humanity? Has honor really eroded? Is this an example of the decadence of mankind?
Are there still people who dream to see a society where these low-level practices will never persist? If there are still people like that, how hopeful are they now? How realistic are their aspirations?
I strongly believe that there is nothing wrong with promoting what you believe and what is good. There is definitely nothing wrong with correcting what is inaapropriate. Everyone will agree if I say exposing inappropriate actions of government officials is a good practice in order to preserve the trust of the people in the government.
However, mud-slinging and "bad-mouthing" are hardly good venues to do this.
It is frustrating that there are advertising agencies who need to resort to this kind of propaganda in order to glorify the products or personality they are promoting. It is like stooping low to elevate a product or a personality to a higher ground.
It is so saddening that in order to promote one product, one has to resort to a mud-slinging action so that your product can outshine the others.
Not only is this device used in promoting products; as we near the election day, this approach is widely used by many candidates hoping to win a seat in the government, whether it's a reelection or a new position to handle.
What has happened to humanity? Has honor really eroded? Is this an example of the decadence of mankind?
Are there still people who dream to see a society where these low-level practices will never persist? If there are still people like that, how hopeful are they now? How realistic are their aspirations?
I strongly believe that there is nothing wrong with promoting what you believe and what is good. There is definitely nothing wrong with correcting what is inaapropriate. Everyone will agree if I say exposing inappropriate actions of government officials is a good practice in order to preserve the trust of the people in the government.
However, mud-slinging and "bad-mouthing" are hardly good venues to do this.
It is frustrating that there are advertising agencies who need to resort to this kind of propaganda in order to glorify the products or personality they are promoting. It is like stooping low to elevate a product or a personality to a higher ground.
Monday, February 15, 2010
A flow chart is worth a thousand words...
Flowcharting is not a new thing to most of us. We've been doing this since elementary/highschool. But guess what? It was only last February 13, 2010, during our class in BA 180.1, that I learned what the different shapes used in flow chart making stand for. I didn't know the thing for it was not taught during my early school days. Then later on, while I was on my way home, I realized that we never had an exercise on flow chart making during highschool. What we actually did was an organizational chart and a family tree. LOLZ! They are totally different things, right? Well, I am not really sure. Another proof of the ignorance running through my veins. hahahaha, but atleast I am learning :) So with this, let me rephrase my first few statements.
Here they go...
"Flowcharting is not a new thing to most of you but it is to me. You've been doing this since elementary/highschool and I have not done one yet." hahaha :) Thank God it was discussed in BA 180.1. (Sir, plus points! hihi :p)
(...serious mode...)
Flow charts are very useful to us for they are diagrams that make instructions and processes easy to comprehend. They save us from reading wordy paragraphs (haha especially people like me who don't like reading since birth :) In other words, they make life easier! Flowcharting a process often brings to light redundancies, delays, dead ends, and indirect paths that would otherwise remain unnoticed or ignored. Thanks to those people who introduced flow charts! Apir! :))
There are three basic symbols used in flow chart making:
1. Squares which represent activities or tasks
2. Diamonds which represent decision points
3. Arrows which represent flow of control
Flow charts can help us see whether the steps of a process are logical, uncover problems or miscommunications, define the boundaries of a process, and develop a common base of knowledge about a process. Indeed, a flow chart is worth a thousand words! :)
Here they go...
"Flowcharting is not a new thing to most of you but it is to me. You've been doing this since elementary/highschool and I have not done one yet." hahaha :) Thank God it was discussed in BA 180.1. (Sir, plus points! hihi :p)
(...serious mode...)
Flow charts are very useful to us for they are diagrams that make instructions and processes easy to comprehend. They save us from reading wordy paragraphs (haha especially people like me who don't like reading since birth :) In other words, they make life easier! Flowcharting a process often brings to light redundancies, delays, dead ends, and indirect paths that would otherwise remain unnoticed or ignored. Thanks to those people who introduced flow charts! Apir! :))
There are three basic symbols used in flow chart making:
1. Squares which represent activities or tasks
2. Diamonds which represent decision points
3. Arrows which represent flow of control
Flow charts can help us see whether the steps of a process are logical, uncover problems or miscommunications, define the boundaries of a process, and develop a common base of knowledge about a process. Indeed, a flow chart is worth a thousand words! :)
Friday, February 5, 2010
Web 2.0 and Social Media
From today's discussion, I've learned that "Web 2.0" refers to social networks :)
It draws together the capabilities of client-and-server-side software, content syndication and the use of network protocols, as mentioned by the group who reported on the topic.
Social networking is not a new thing to most of us. We deal with this stuff almost everyday. (i.e. we log-in to fb, fs, twitter, etc.)
Latest trends in the field are 1) social networking goes online; 2) sharing no longer means e-mail; 3) networks get smaller; 4) social media begins to look less social; and 5) social networking search allows advertisers to target. These are really helpful to most people nowadays!
But, we are aware that everything has its own pros and cons, same as the social networks. Some of the advantages mentioned during the assigned group's report are: 1) We can make money through social networking and 2) Social networking is a sort of informal learning. On the other hand, some disadvantages are: 1) low barrier to entry because everyone can possibly access your acct. and 2) difficult damage control.
The main thing I learned today is we should use the social media properly, or should I say ethically?! (same as everything we have :)) Stop Abuse! :p
Thought for the day:
"When it's class hours, we should listen to the instructor or to our classmates when they are reporting so that when you are asked to write something about the matter, you will have no difficulty." Correct! :))
It draws together the capabilities of client-and-server-side software, content syndication and the use of network protocols, as mentioned by the group who reported on the topic.
Social networking is not a new thing to most of us. We deal with this stuff almost everyday. (i.e. we log-in to fb, fs, twitter, etc.)
Latest trends in the field are 1) social networking goes online; 2) sharing no longer means e-mail; 3) networks get smaller; 4) social media begins to look less social; and 5) social networking search allows advertisers to target. These are really helpful to most people nowadays!
But, we are aware that everything has its own pros and cons, same as the social networks. Some of the advantages mentioned during the assigned group's report are: 1) We can make money through social networking and 2) Social networking is a sort of informal learning. On the other hand, some disadvantages are: 1) low barrier to entry because everyone can possibly access your acct. and 2) difficult damage control.
The main thing I learned today is we should use the social media properly, or should I say ethically?! (same as everything we have :)) Stop Abuse! :p
Thought for the day:
"When it's class hours, we should listen to the instructor or to our classmates when they are reporting so that when you are asked to write something about the matter, you will have no difficulty." Correct! :))
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)