What is H&R Block?

That's the question to the Joepardy clue: Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year. However, Ken Jennings didn't get that today -- but he still made history by earning a total of $2,522,700 in his 75 consecutive appearance in the popular game show "Jeopardy". Wikipedia has the details.

Who says being a nerd doesn't pay? :)

Use of Wind Power in Antiquity?

History Channel recently featured Dr. Maureen Clemmons who theorized that perhaps the ancient egyptians used kites to lift and transport stones and monuments in their construction of pyramids and obelisks. I find her theory intriguing since it implies that the symbols like the ankh and the scepter of horus could have been used to control a kite line and used as pick-axe respectively. If her theory is right, it interesting how hieroglyphic symbols perhaps associated with common tools in the ancient became associated with religious beliefs.


Dr. Clemmons' kite holders
(picture taken from www.archeologee.com)

Hokies as co-champs at least

I got this picture from here. It shows Virginia Tech's James Griffin (22) holding a sign proclaiming Tech as ACC Champions yesterday at Lane stadium in Blacksburg, Va. The hokies won the game against the cavaliers, 24-10.

Even if we lose next saturday against the canes, we still end up as co-champs in ACC together with the canes and seminoles. That scenario however will deprive us of a BCS berth. But then, given the strong showing and confidence of the hokies in the past football games, it is not at all farfetched to say that we can clinch the ACC title next saturday. Go Hokies!

(AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Clinched back the cup

The hokies brought the commonwealth cup back to Blacksburg today! The hokies top the cavs 24-10. Actually, for a moment, I thought we will lose when the cavs posted their first touchdown in the 3rd quarter. The hokies however responded with 10 points. The fourth quarter started with a field goal by the cavs, which was answered by two touchdowns by the hokies. The full story is here.

The dream of winning the ACC title is now one game closer. The Virginia Tech-Miami matchup on December 4 will be the deciding game.

Below is the current ACC standings.

Bootlegged

It is good news that Microsoft offers amnesty to computer owners who unwittingly use bootlegged copy of Microsoft Windows XP. Of course, there are conditions -- which might be used to track the companies that proliferate the illegal copies of the popular OS. Inq7.net has the full story.

It might even be better to make Microsoft WinXP affordable to third world countries (actually, how about making it free?). If there is a free version of WinXP (for poor countries), it might even curb the growing popularity of Linux systems in these areas.

Pinoy Thanksgiving

Jess, Mae, Vanini, Edwin, and I drove to Salem today. We went to Uncle Ben! Botch, Bibins, Norie, Egay, Robert, Bing, Daisy, and the kids arrived earlier. We had a great dinner -- shrimps (my favorite), baked turkey, pork BBQ, pancit bihon, dinuguan, fried chicken, escabeche, and of course leche flan. There were cakes too -- We also used the occassion to celebrate the incoming birthdays of Robert, Jess, myself, and Vanini -- in that order. People talk about aliens, immigration laws, love interests, work prospects, stuff to buy tomorrow at Best Buy, and whatever that comes to mind. Oh yes, we also talked about those PMA scandals and chances of hokies to win the ACC title.

Ravage of typhoons

Lately, typhoons Unding and Violeta did not spare Camarines Sur -- one of the provinces worst hit. Inq7.net reports the devastation left by these frequent nasties. It is amazing however how pliant people are in these places. Ateneo de Naga for example vows to rebuild after the disaster brought about by the typhoons.

Getting away

I got this from Roy's blog -- Philstar reports that 2Lt. Rolly Joaquin, valedictorian of PMA Class 2004, is caught by store video exchanging the price tag of a $0.50 discount item with a $12.95 CD. He is kicked out of a US military school and will be sent home in disgrace. In the same report of Philstar, it is noted that retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, also a PMA graduate, is facing corruption charges. Furthermore, it is noted that an army major is caught on tape doing obscene things while training his men.

Are these the product of PMA? Isn't it that graduates of PMA usually become the top officers of the military? I shudder of the thought.

Category Theory + Denotational Semantics + MMN

Lately, I have been reading about category theory and denotational semantics -- in the hope that I could use these formalisms to complete my work on multimodal networks. Perhaps this thanksgiving break will give me ample time to cover enough material about those.

Still on top

The hokies are ranked #11 today and still on top of the ACC. Meanwhile, the cavs and the canes are ranked #16 and #9 respectively. The hokies will attempt to recapture the commonwealth cup from the cavs on nov 27 and then take on the canes at the orange bowl on dec 4. The next two weeks will be tough. But if the hokies are unscratched after dec 4, they'll go to sugar bowl.

Denial

Teofista Vivar, Ruth Fuentes, and the other authors of the erroneous textbook "Asya: Noon, Ngayon at sa Hinaharap" are very disappointing. Instead of correcting their error-filled textbook, they still stand by their claim that the errors are minor. Quoting the Inq7.net: "Education Secretary Florencio Abad said the textbook's errors were more substantial than they had originally thought, and acknowledged Go for his exposé." Isn't it that these "authors" are supposed to be "very" educated (they actually have PhDs?).

The publisher of the book (Vibal Publishing house) gave a lame excuse that it is difficult to produce a textbook hence they would not recall the erroneous textbooks. According to Inq7.net, they didn't even corrected the errors in subsequent editions of the said book since its first publication. It is unfortunate that this erroneous book (and other substandard textbooks) can make millions of Filipino children misinformed.

Incompetencies like this should never be allowed. I hope that part of the pork barrel that the congressmen are hoarding will be used to correct this problem. Our elected legislators will help us right?

Heck, I'm probably still in denial.

@#&!!!

-- I can't help myself. I'm hooked to the internet too much that I find it very frustrating to lose internet connection at night -- and there's no customer service personnel to call.

Well, the electronic lifeline is just back. Hence this post. :)

Don't wake me from this dream!

The hokies routed the terps today -- 55 - 6! We're still on top of the ACC and if we beat the cavs and the canes, we'll go to the sugar bowl. What a dream! :)

The complete story is here. Btw, check the current ACC standings below.

Listening to Old Music

I have been listening lately to Ryan Cayabyab's Christmas a capella album (I borrowed Vanini's copy). I'm just thinking: Christmas is just around the corner and I'm still here. :(

Emotions as commodity

I stumbled on Mike Tan's article entitled "Emotions for sale" in Inq7.net. He wrote that commodified emotions sell -- because people are usually eager to know or experience anything that can make them cry, laugh, or angry. He made a case in Faye hoax. The article was an interesting read.

In another story, Inq7.net features Virginia Cruz Santos, a pinay animator who is one of the people behind the awesomely incredible "The Incredibles" movie. It is heart warming to know that Filipinos excel in their fields of expertise, once they are given the opportunity.

Computer Science = Programming?

I hate to admit but this is essentially how some people look at computer science. In fact, there are graduates of computer science who skipped courses in theory of algorithms, theory of computation, and even discrete mathematics -- they say they don't need these courses to create software. Their goal anyway is to become a software developer in some high paying company. Hence, what is needed is just learn the software development languages like C++, Java, or C#. It is noteworthy that most popular integrated software development systems (e.g. Visual Studio.Net in windows for example) provide most of the library routines you need. You don't have to implement a sorting algorithm or a data structure like in the early days. Current compilers for programming languages usually provide a comprehensive library of implementations of algorithms and data structures.

It is good that in recent years, computer scientists are compelled to think beyond established theories in computer science in order to solve new problems in emerging fields like bioinformatics. Programming skills are required but not enough to tackle these new problems.

Forgotten Music

There was a time when I thought writing music could work for me. Using my first guitar I began toying about it. I have forgotten most of my work though. I'm not sure if I will be able to remember the lines and chords of my songs. I thought of recording in a blog whatever I can still remember from my very early attempt in music. Perhaps I could write some new ones.

Ah, another distraction in finishing my research :).

Am I dreaming?

The hokies are on top of the ACC! (well at least for this week) Thanks to the bungling of wahoos in their game against the canes.

Whether we win out the last three games or not -- we are already bowl eligible. Too bad for the canes and wahoos. They still have to worry about the hokies. If they continue to slack -- we will find ourselves clinching the top place in ACC.

Is it hard to find real heroes?

When I first read the story about Faye, I thought it is too good to be true. Today, the Inquirer finally nailed it. The Inquirer report says the story is declared a hoax by the Bread of Life Ministries and by DOST-SEI. The Bread of Life Ministries finally apologized for the mess their story about Faye did.

In retrospect, I wonder why a lot of people actually believed the story at face value. They didn't even bother to check the veracity of the details of the story. Some even testified that the story must be true since they have seen Faye in person. For them, Faye is a hero who loved her country despite the odds she met before clinching the top prize of an international competition. Are we really lacking in heroes? Are we desperate in looking for one that we can even believe anyone who pose to be one?

New blog notebooks

I started to maintain two blognotes: one for PostgreSQL and one for C#. I plan to post at least once a day on these blognotes. Hopefully, in the end I could organize the posted articles in some cohesive manner.

Straying from research focus

I got to get back to research goals and refocus my lenses. In 1 month, I should be done with the mmn system prototype.

I wish ...

So far so good

Despite false starts, my mmn software library code seems to work. If I could complete the interface to computational tools today, perhaps I can start writing a paper about it. Again, wishful thinking...

Monday Again?

My research work is moving slowly due to computational support I do for other researchers in our group. It is funny that the faster I finish work for them, the faster another (asking favor) comes knocking. I'm not complaining since I also enjoy doing that kind of work. However, my own research could be in jeopardy. I should learn how to reroute these additional work to others.

I hope to complete the mmn software library I'm programming and finish the tape back-up by the end of the day (read: before 12 midnight). I got to make mondays work for me.

Sunday Morning

It is great to rise early and feel the cold breeze of early sunday morning. A piece of french bread and creamed coffee started my day. I anticipate my online chat with Suzette and Eking, which will complete my morning.

Douglas and Tracy are moving to Fargo today -- Roy and I (plus other graduate students in the CS department) helped them yesterday to load stuff into their rented truck. I wish them all the best in their new home in Fargo. Douglas will be back possibly early spring to do his final defense.

Narrow escape

Tar heels came very close to upset the Hokies today -- missing 3 points due to missed 54 yard field goal to tie the game in the 4th quarter. The full AP story is here. Well, we won 27-24.

How about the next three games? The terrapins and the cavs are coming to Blacksburg for the next two games. Is it possible to pull off wins from these games? The tar heels were able to beat the canes. Can we do the same?

UPDATE: Clemson tigers upset the #10 canes while the #13 cavs blank the terrapins today. Let's wait and see how the hokies fare against the terrapins next thursday.

My weekly chat

Suzette and Eking will be online later this evening. Our weekly chat keeps me sane amid my research work here in Virginia Tech. 7 more months ... 7 more months ...

Exaggeration of Faye story

Lately, there are quite a number of visitors to Roy's website. It is because of a trilogy of posts about a certain 12-year old girl who allegedly won in an International Science Quiz Net in Sydney, Australia. However, searching the internet about this international competion leads to nothing but websites discussing whether the story is true or not.

Apparently, Faye Nicole San Juan -- the 12-year old girl in the middle of the controversy, was interviewed by Jessica Soho last wednesday. Some who were able to catch the show are not sold to the story -- including Roy's mother. They are inclined to believe that parts of the story about Faye are simply exaggerated. The fact that the competition is not well known, you can't blame people to be skeptical. Some however are touched by the story -- to them, it is a fairy tale come true.

I am still skeptical. However touching the story was -- unless founded on truth -- is still fiction.

Bleak Morning in Blacksburg

America elected Bush to lead for four more years. For all the troubles Kerry and Bush spent bashing each other in the past months, it is amazing that Kerry conceded after possibly realizing that the trend of election results is favorable to the incumbent. You can't expect such a thing in the Philippines. There, I hear people say, "no candidate in the Philippines loses, they are only cheated." Ergo, all the elected officials are cheats? I would like to believe otherwise, but ...

I hope that the future of my own country is not as bleak as today's morning in Blacksburg.

Too close to call

Americans cast their votes yesterday and it is amazing how quickly they count the votes. It looks like Bush wins the election -- but Kerry is still unwilling to concede. A quick check at CNN, Bush currently has 254 electoral votes versus Kerry's 252. Election results at Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico are not yet called. However, partial counting shows that there's a possibility that these states will go to Bush.

Meanwhile, I will go with my usual business and go to the lab. Research work is still too far to call.

Education Hoax

I have read the column of my friend nono in INQ7.net this morning. This is tragic: a lot of people actually think that a college degree will bring them out of poverty however low the quality of their college education is. In a country where companies require a college degree or at least units of college work in order to serve food in food chains like Jollibee or McDonalds, you would feel the frustration penetrating your bones. (btw, I even heard a rumor before that some janitors are required of college degree -- Oh great, perhaps they need to know the physics of cleaning toilets? how absurd!).

But then, it is good that these people still hope. The schools that jesuits send these scholars to may not be the best there is. However, the prospect of earning a degree is still worth it. The alternative available to them is even worse.

Meanwhile, some corrupt officials of the government are sneaking huge amount of money abroad -- not from their pockets but others'. Apparently, they are educated in some of the best schools. In fact, one of these schools emphasize honesty and integrity.

Education hoax you say?

Early Morning

I woke up around 5:45am this morning, took a shower, drank my coffee, and eaten two pieces of wheat bread -- the one you can easily get from Kroger or Walmart. Today is the first of November. I usually spend this time with my family -- visiting our loved ones who passed away. But then, I'm on the other side of the planet worrying about research which I'm not sure anyone cares except me and my adviser.

My loving wife and son are my inspiration to stay on. I hope I am with them right now instead. A few more months, I will wake up early morning with them by my side.