Not Again October 24, 2008
Posted by snowivy in Usapang Bahay Kubo, gray days.add a comment
We were awakened around 4 am by a woman shouting and a loud bang as if someone has fallen from the roof. I immediately rose from the bed and tried to figure out was happening from our window. Afterwards, I hear our neighbors talking about a thief that slipped into our compound. My sister begged me not to go down but I insisted since I think it was somehow safe to check what has happened. Turns out that the woman we heard shouting was Ate Nanette, a call-center agent residing on the third unit of our compound. She was opening the door on her way to work but suddenly noticed that there was a man outside carrying a tire dismembered from our neighbor’s bike. She slammed the door shut and was in a shock calling for help.
All along our neighbors thought nothing was taken but checking on our part revealed that Kuya’s bike was already stolen, much to Ate’s dismay. It has been the second time that Kuya’s bike was stolen this year, both Ate’s gifts to him. Although the bike was securely locked into a post, the thieves were persistent enough to break the lock and get away with the bike. The thief was so much in a hurry not to get caught and his shirt was stuck on our gate. That was the only lead to know who they were. I think he was not the only one who tried to break in our compound. Maybe someone was outside on the look out and ready to transport stolen items away. Two of our neighbors went to the Bantay Baranggay to report the incident but it seems hard to recover the lost bike. When daylight came, nearby neighbors discovered some other items that were supposed to be stolen lying around the nearby vacant lot. Those thieves even tried to get slippers, a toolbox and the DVD player our neighbor was fixing. They could be that desperate! I thank God nobody was hurt and the thieves did not break inside our homes. If Ate Nanette didn’t wake up at that hour, a lot more items might have been stolen. These crooks are really persistent. Since we had less horrifying (yet similar) cases before, the owner of the compound placed gates at the back yard and barbed wire on the front gate but that didn’t seem to discourage these thieves. Our suspicion is that they were able to enter the compound by hooking the front gate lock. We need to replace the lock and be extra cautious in leaving things outside.
Sun and Java meltdown? October 22, 2008
Posted by snowivy in Java, Technology.add a comment
While researching for my design patterns presentation, I came across a JavaWorld blog article (Sun melting down, and where’s Java?) by Josh Fruhlinger on how Sun’s financial losses may affect Java. At first I was really surprised since I didn’t imagine that Sun could also be affected so soon by the financial meltdown, crash, crunch, whichever you may call it. Anyway, I agree with the article that if in case Sun will continue to lose, Java won’t be hurt that much. Java is supported by a large community of open source developers, who if the worst come to play, will come to the rescue. Besides, there are a lot of applications in place using Java and other Java-based technologies so I think somehow if ever Sun fails, there will be an organization that will save it and will get profit out of it. Sun may opt to focus now more on software and formulate more effective sales and marketing strategies to beef up their profitability. I’ve been developing in Java for half a decade now and I would not want to imagine Java going doldrums.
You can check out the articles mentioned through these links:
http://www.javaworld.com/community/node/1595
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jChZMpBmKAik91WVYeMBgR3vOoegD93UGE3G0
These hard times October 20, 2008
Posted by snowivy in Financial Crunch, Opinyon.add a comment
Say goodbye, these days are gone
and we can’t keep holding on
When all we need is some relief
Through these hard times
- These hard times, Matchbox 20
Increased prices in fare, rice, gasoline and in almost all commodities have been the start of hard times this year. Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy dealt a blow to global markets and seemingly invincible financial institutions followed suit (Merrill Lynch, AIG to mention a few). Government bailouts have not fully restored investor confidence on the financial market yet, since every day we see in the news freefall of stocks and the weakening value of the peso.
Working now in a financial services company, I know how much we are and will be affected by the sour outlook today in financial markets. Freeze hiring and control of expenses have been seen to be the initial steps to cope with this dilemma. I thank however that the Philippines is not the first to declare national bankruptcy as compared to well-off Iceland. This country had become too aggressive in its investment strategy on other countries’ economies particularly that of the US, thus when US stock markets tumbled, the debts of its banks became six fold its annual gross domestic product. Somehow the Philippines, although considered a Third world country, is quite fortunate to have more natural resources to generate revenue from, compared to Iceland.
However, I doubt that we will be spared from the financial crisis and recession badly hitting the US and most parts of the globe. The small hardware business we have in the province is no exception. Construction activities are halted because of the increase on price of materials; add up the bad weather condition that battered the province these past few months. I cannot blame my parents for being stressed out on paying bills for materials that were not yet sold.
At times like these, we need to be thankful for the blessings that come to us each day and to be frugal and flexible in coping with the situation. There may be some relief ahead but permanent solutions to hardships do not lie on man’s efforts alone.
Blue Maroons October 17, 2008
Posted by snowivy in Iskul bukol, UP.2 comments
I saw this article from the inquirer about University rankings. I am quite sad that UP was surpassed by Ateneo in the standings. Anyway, the good news is that we are at 274th place, up from 398th last year. If we are to interpret this as an indication for the government to provide more funding to UP, then I think it is about time. Moreover, the article mentions that this is the best showing of Philippine universities in the rankings yet, considering that UST and DLSU were not in the Top 500 THE-QS World University Rankings last year. So, that’s good news too.
I have nothing against Ateneo and I know a lot of bright alumni coming from this university. They are very good no doubt. However, painting the whole picture of UP fading in academic excellence is too much generalization. Organizations and surveys have their own measures and basis for coming up with rankings, thus results could not be as objective as they can be.
I wonder why PUP or other state-run universities do not make it to the list. And why didn’t they invite UP to participate this year, considering that they did inform UP last year? I hope that UP will not rest on its laurels but strive to prove its detractors wrong. Anyway, Ateneo got the UAAP basketball championship and UP got the cheerdance competition gold. Fair enough? Oops, I forgot that UAAP has nothing to do with the standings 
. Hehe peace! UP alumni kasi ako 
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Litanya daw ng isang kuripot October 7, 2008
Posted by snowivy in On my mind, gray days.add a comment
This past few weeks has been my spendiest ever. The wisdom tooth extraction already got most of my savings; add up some emergency spending and now my beloved phone needs to be repaired. The LCD and wiring was already faulty according to the Nokia center technician and all will cost me 4K+! I had some hesitation pushing through with the repair but decided to have it fixed there since
1. I do not have any idea on how much the repair will cost on other repair shops and if the fix is permanent.
2. I am banking on its reputation as a Nokia repair center assuming that I will not return with a faulty unit a few months after repair.
3. I do not have the luxury of time to find another repair center and do not have an assurance that it will cost me less. Then the Nokia Center will already charge me with 165 php as diagnostic fee, if ever I decide to pull out the unit.
I do not know if I felt betrayed by the Nokia center in Glorietta because just this July I availed of the warranty and had the same problem as I reported just this week. From what I was informed before, they said the problem was just the wire connecting the screen and the keypad. I do not know exactly if they saw the LCD defective already and just applied a temporary fix so as not to replace a costly part of a unit nearing the end of its warranty. Hmmph. Now that the unit is no longer in warranty, I have to shoulder the whole cost? They better fix my unit soon and with no other complications or else I have every right to complain!
