Last day in Blacksburg

Farewell Blacksburg. I will miss you and your people.

It is kind of sad to finally log out of my computer in the lab. The wind is cold outside. There are very few people in the campus. My advisor and I went for lunch at Pks. Later, Liqing treated us with coffee at Bollos.

Bing and Mel are driving me to the airport. I feel kind of sad and happy. Sad because it will be a long time before I meet my friends here again. It is hard to keep those tears from flowing. I am also happy and excited since I will finally be with my family again this Christmas. I love Suzette and Eking. They will pick me up when I arrive in the Philippines.

Roy and Ricky flew yesterday. I was left in the apartment cleaning my room (which will be occupied by Ricky next year) and the kitchen. I might see them before they go back here in Blacksburg next year.

Getting back my laptop

One day after I distributed the draft of dissertation to my committee, my laptop's hard drive broke down. I cannot write anything on the disk. Doing so leads to the dreaded blue screen of Windows. Fortunately, using a bootable Linux CD, I managed to back-up my data. It turned out that I cannot write on the hard drive but I can still read from it. The next day, Nov 20 (Sun), I brought my laptop to Bestbuy (ROA) to have it fixed. I was promised that it will be fixed on Nov 28 (Mon) and if they cannot fix it on that day, they told me they will call. I didn't get any call on Nov 28. Thinking that my laptop was fixed, I decided to get the laptop on Dec 4 (Sun) since that was the time I was free.

With a very indifferent face, the 'geek squad' guy told me that my laptop will be delivered the next day (Dec 5). It turned out that another department in another place took care of the laptop and it was just delivered by USPS. Of course I am disappointed. They promised me again that it will be ready by tuesday, Dec 6.

I called yesterday, Dec 10 (Sat), to verify if my laptop was ready to go (I am just making sure this time as Roy and I might just go to Bestbuy for nothing). The "geek squad" guy on the other end of the line said that my laptop is not yet ready for pick-up. This pissed me off! I told him that I need my laptop and I need it that day! The laptop just needs a hard drive replacement and I know that it would not even take half an hour to do that -- they are the "geek squad" after all -- isn't it? The guy on the other end of the line took was silent for a while and then told me I can pick my laptop in the afternoon.

No Email?

Something unexpected happened today. There is not a single new message in my inbox this morning. It turned out that the University mail system is broken and currently being fixed.

Checking email early in the morning is a routine for me. Most of the emails are work-related (aside from those spams filtered out by my trusty Thunderbird email client). Knowing what's ahead keeps me on top of things most of the day.

Without email -- what should you do? Well, I had to go to the lab earlier than usual. :)

Bowling at Jacksonville

The Gator bowl officials are impressed enough of the late-rally of the hokies during the 4th quarter last night. On January 2, the hokies will go back to Jacksonville to face Big East #2 Louisville Cardinals. Miami hurricanes end up in Peach bowl to face LSU tigers.

Night Blindness

Robert has a theory: Marcus Vick cannot see clearly at night time. His passes tonight are either under or over thrown. At half time, clearly the defense of FSU and VT held their ground. The teams are tied 3-3 at half-time. Early in the 3rd quarter, the seminoles scored 17 unanswered points. We were watching the game at Jess' place. Around the middle of 3rd quarter, we went home -- thinking that the hokies are in their worst mood again.

Unless the offense steps up, it seems that the hokies are not even going to Gator bowl.

Day's best

I celebrated this day with friends. Robert brought a cake. Joanne and Mel brought fried bangus. Roy cooked tinola. What more can I ask for? Of course, a long distance call from my wife and kid. -- Suzette and Eking called and greeted me a happy birthday. Now, my day is complete. :)

D!

I came out alive of my defense today! It is with a happy thought that I'm now in the process of revising my thesis. What else could possibly go wrong? :)

Last home game of the season

The hokies beat the tar heels today, 30-3! With the win, they earned their berth in the ACC title game next week. This might be my last football game here at VT -- It feels good to watch our team win their last home game this season.

The pictures taken by Roy are here.

Tech beats the Canes

Today, the hokies rout the cavaliers and the yellow jackets reduced the hurricanes to tropical depression.

The hokies still control their destiny. :)

sweet.

The second One!

I tried the QuizFarm flyingroc suggested in his website -- Oh boy, I'm the second One! Is being in CS got to do about it?

You scored as Neo, the "One". Neo is the computer hacker-turned-Messiah of the Matrix. He leads a small group of human rebels against the technology that controls them. Neo doubts his ability to lead but doesn't want to disappoint his friends. His goal is for a world where all men know the Truth and are free from the bonds of the Matrix.

Neo, the "One" 79% James Bond, Agent 007 75% Lara Croft 71% Maximus 63% Indiana Jones 63% The Amazing Spider-Man 63% William Wallace 58% Captain Jack Sparrow 54% Batman, the Dark Knight 54% The Terminator 50% El Zorro 46% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Laying Eggs

The hokies are on the way of being shut-out in 10 years. The hokie nation is being rampaged by Category 5 hurricanes.

... Peach bowl - here we come. :(

Category 5 hurricane in Blacksburg

Cold pizza held their show yesterday near the Torgersen bridge and the Gameday trio would do the same today. The Hokie country are excited! Most of the predictions I have read says the Hokies would beat the retro-Canes. Which team would Lee Corso pick?

A terrible wind is blowing from the south... and we have no tickets!!!

Thursday Night Lights

We got 10 student tickets and we went to watch the game of Hokies vs the Golden Eagles. The Hokies won 30-10. The average score of opponents of the Hokies this season is 9.0. The golden eagles are #13 in the nation and they were able to muster 10 points -- one point above the average. :)

The offensive line led by Marcus Vick was very conservative. It is good to see Marcus near perfect again. His passes were never intercepted. Also, it is great to see a touchdown pass and a defensive touchdown again.

Four more to go

The Terrapins forced 4 turn-overs but failed to capitalize on them. They only got 3 points to show for those turn-overs. Marcus Vick was forced to show some leg work. He run for more than 100 yards tonight and put the Hokies first on the scoreboard with a rushing touchdown.

It is disappointing however that the Hokies got penalized for two consecutive personal fouls. The penalities moved the football for 30 yards for the benefit of the terrapins and the Terps got their only touchdown. Consecutive personal fouls are something that we haven't seen for a while. Penalities like these cost the Hokie teams of 2002 and 2003.

Vick had 3 interceptions tonight while Brandon Pace's only field goal attempt didn't convert for a score. The Hokies however find ways to move the football and score 4 rushing touchdowns (1 by Vick, 2 by Imoh, and 1 by Ore).

The Hokies won 28-9 againts the Terps.

Four more games remain for the Hokies: vs Boston College, vs Miami, vs Virginia, and vs UNC.

North's windmills

This is something you don't see everyday in the Philippine news. We actually have modern windmills at Bangui bay in Ilocos!

Doing the right thing

La Salle recently found out that one of their players is ineligible to play in the men's basketball team. The team's center man -- Mark Benitez -- has allegedly provided a forged Philippine Educational Placement Test Certificate of Ratings in leiu of HS diploma. Hence, La Salle is ready to give up its trophy won last year and forfeit all games where Benitez played.

La Salle actually placed second to FEU this year. La Salle denied Ateneo and UE the chance to play for the UAAP title. La Salle sweeped Ateneo and UE this year. Had this incident known before, either Ateneo or UE could have played FEU for the UAAP crown.

I wonder how the UAAP board would resolve this issue. Would FEU get the UAAP 2004 throphy? Would the 2005 UAAP title game be replayed? -- or just forget about it and move on?

The story is here.

Rout of herd

The thundering herd surprised the hokies during the first half. They can actually penetrate the hokie defense and run the football! There was a moment during the second half where Bud Foster was furious -- after the herd got a touchdown. Is an upset brewing?

During the third quarter, the hokies showed why they are #3 in the nation. They scored 17 points in 3 and half minutes. The herd just moved 1 yard compared to 200 yards of the hokies during the third quarter. With 41-7 on the scoreboard, Frank Beamer and the coaching staff let the second stringers handle the ball.

Aside from Marcus Vick, Vince Hall, and Darryl Tapp, the redshird freshman, Brenden Ore emerged as a star to watch. Ore stepped up to do the running job when Cedric Humes went to the sidelines because of injury. Mike Imoh is also injured and did not play.

The hokies won 41-14.

A couple of upsets however happened later of the day:

#16 Penn state lions beat #6 Ohio buckeyes
#20 UCLA bruins beat #10 Cal bears
#25 Oregon ducks beat #17 Arizona St. sun devils
Minnesota gophers beat #21 Michigan wolverines
Northwestern wildcats beat #14 Wisconsin badgers

Lolo Jose

Coritha is one of my favorite pinoy folk singers. I memorized the lyrics and chords of a few of her songs when I was still learning to play the guitar. The chords are amazingly simple and the lyrics deep. Lolo Jose is one of those Coritha's compositions that I still like.

~

Lolo Jose

Noong panahong siya ay hari
Masigla ang kanyang pagbati
Mahigpit ang hawak ng mga daliri
At and lakad nama'y matuwid

Mahusay ang kanyang talumpati
Makisig kung siya ay magdamit
Malalim ang kanyang pagiisip
At lahat ay sa kanya nakatitig

Ngunit ngayong siya'y pagod na
Mahina na rin ang katawan
Pinagmamasdan na lamang sa bintana
Ang unti-unting pagdaloy ng ulan

At ang unang tanong sa umaga
Kung ano ang kanyang nagawa
Sa paglipas ng siyamnapung taon
Nang siya'y malakas at bata pa

Si lolo jose, si lolo jose
Si lolo jose ay matanda na
Ngunit mahal ko pa si lolo jose
Kahit siya ngayon ay laos na

Sa piling ng mga ala-ala
Lagi na lamang nag-iisa
Kahit sulyap walang maaasahan
Sa anak na di man siya mapagbigyan

At ang unang tanong sa umaga
Kung mayro'n pa siyang magigisnan
Na liwanag sa nalalabing buhay
Ngayong siya'y matanda at laos na

Si lolo jose, si lolo jose
Si lolo jose ay matanda na
Ngunit mahal ko pa si lolo jose
Kahit siya ngayon ay laos na

Sa dilim ng kanyang pag-aasam
Maghapon na lang nakabantay
Kung kanyang matatanaw pa ang hiwaga
Ng hindi malimot niyang nakaraan

At ang diwa ng kahapon
Di na matagpuan
At ang sinag ng umaga
Dinaanan ng ulan
At hirap ng nasa puso
Di mapapantayan

Kung maari lang
maari lang
Pawiin ang dusa

Si lolo jose, si lolo jose
Si lolo jose ay matanda na
Ngunit mahal ko pa si lolo jose
Kahit siya ngayon ay laos na

not until 2015

Two years ago, the hokies beat #16 Syracuse by 51-7 score. With #3 ranking on their shoulders, the hokies went to Morgantown only to be clobbered by the mountaineers.

Today, the hokies went to Morgantown after beating #15 Georgia tech 51-7 last week and again having a #3 national ranking. Deja vu? It didn't turn out so.

The defense of the hokies were vulnerable several times during the first half. It was a good thing that the hokies kept their calm and composure. The hokies never trailed thoughout the game and won the match 34-17.

They will be keeping the black diamond trophy possibly until 2015.

The better tech wins!

The hokies beat the yellow jackets 51-7! Until the 3rd quarter of this game, the hokies defense didn't gave up a touchdown since their match-up with the wolfpack.

Almost every hokie player wants a touchdown -- not only the offense team but the defense and special teams. With around 12 minutes still on the clock, Marcus Vick let Cory Holt do the QB job. If Marcus stayed, I imagine the yellow jackets will be buried.

This lopsided match-up features the first beamerball in 2005. Parker made a rushing touchdown with the blocked kick during the first quarter.

What can I say?

Sweet.

UAAP Final Four

La Salle archers came from behind and dumped UE warriors in their contention for the second twice to beat advantage in the UAAP Final Four. The number one seeded team is FEU tamaraws. While La Salle archers, Ateneo eagles, and UE warriors have the same 10-4 cards -- La Salle has the highest quotient over Ateneo and UE. Hence, the second seeding goes to the archers.

FEU has beaten La Salle twice, La Salle has beaten Ateneo twice, and Ateneo has beaten UE twice. It is noteworthy that the two losses of FEU came from Ateneo and UE.

The La Salle archers have the drive and spirit to defend its title. While I root for the Ateneo eagles, I think Norman Black and the Ateneo squad must solve the unyielding defense of the archers if they want to get to the finals.

Excitement at Blacksburg

The tail gate food of the College of Engineering was catered! Of course, the smell of food never escaped us. Roy, Robert, Jess, Romeo, and I enjoyed the food before watching the rout of Ohio bobcats. The hokies won 45-0, the second shutout in a row.

The hokies will not move in the rankings -- however Tennessee volunteers might leave the hokies alone in the 4th place.

We were also trying to catch up with the Clemson tigers and Miami canes face-off at death valley. During the half time, we saw in the little screen at the south-west corner of lane that the score was 10-6 in favor of the tigers. However, on our way out -- the canes were gaining. We thought the game was over. But then, upon reaching the apartment, to our surprise, the game was tied 20-20. The tigers never gave up easily. We were rooting for the tigers -- but the younger Bowden never made it. Cocker was triumphant at the death valley.

The other dark horse, Boston College eagles, also lost to Florida state seminoles.

Warren Abstract Machine

I found this webpage about WAM. Prolog compilers are based on WAM and it is interesting that someone has a tutorial book about WAM. I might read the details of WAM when I have the time later this year -- presumably after I graduate. :)

Peru in pictures

This is the facade of CIP. Collaboration with scientists here is the reason for our visit to Peru.

The message on the side of this mountain of dry soil says: Peru Moderno.

This is "La Catedral" -- a very beautiful natural landmark in Ica.
It is very difficult to reach this place.

La Catedral dates between 30 and 34 million years old according to this sign.

These are skulls of ancient peruvians. Notice that the skulls have odd shapes. These skulls remind me of the "coneheads" movie years ago. It turned out that the ancient peruvians actually shaped the skulls of their babies using elaborate methods.

This is the entrace to an Inca palace in Tambo Colorado at Ica.

This is a sign in near the entrace to the Inca palace.

This is a very old bathtub of the Incas. Their plumbing system is amazing -- especially when you realize that this palace is sort of in the middle of a desert.

This is a fishing port in somewhere in Ica.
No, we didn't buy any fresh fish. :)

Flying back to Virginia

I stayed here in Peru for a couple of days -- to collaborate with scientists at CIP. I'm flying tonight. My flight goes straight to Miami, then get a connecting flight to North Carolina. I'll post some pictures when I get back to Blacksburg.

I could possibly catch the match of hokies with the blue devils tomorrow afternoon. :)

Tough wolves!

I thought the wolfpack would get a touchdown its last drive during the dying minutes of the 4th quarter. However, they came short and the hokies claimed their first win in the ACC conference this season. The final score: hokies (20) - wolfpack (16).

The other ACC teams fared well in their opening games:
> Clemson tigers upset the 17th ranked Texas A&M aggies
> Georgie tech upset the 16th ranked Auburn tigers
> 22nd ranked Boston College eagles have beaten BYU cougars
> 25th ranked Virginia cavaliers have beaten Western Michigan broncos
> Maryland terrapins have beaten Navy midshipmen

Duke blue devils and Wake Forest demon deacons came short in their respective opening matches. For tommorow's match between Florida State seminoles and Miami hurricanes, I would go with the seminoles.

Expectations are high again

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated projects that the Virginia Tech hokies will face the Tennessee volunteers at the Orange bowl. Well, if Marcus and the gang delivers, the hokies might even have a shot to play at the Rose bowl.

But then, the hokies have a bad reputation in living up to the hype. Remember the days of the untouchables? :) The projection of College Football News that the hokies will play the Arkansas razorbacks at the Peach bowl might be more believable.

This football season however will be good. Go hokies!!!

The moving castle

Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones's book: "Howl's moving castle" is amazing! I love this movie. I will get the DVD as soon as it is released by Disney. If you get the chance, enter the magical door and enjoy the story of Sophie and Wizard Howl.

Guitar software

This website (http://www.harmony-central.com/) has a list of music software. I plan to check these software as soon as squeezed some time from my research work. For the meantime, I saved the link to guitar windows software here.

UAAP eliminations - first round

Ateneo posted a big win against Adamson today, 91-75. The blue eagles got their fifth win since their first game loss to the green archers. It they continue to have their winning ways, they could end up in the final four. After the first round of elimination games, the FEU Tamaraws remained unbeaten (7 W - 0 L). Ateneo blue eagles and UE red warriors tied at second place (5 W - 2 L). UP maroons and La Salle green archers tied at fourth place (4 W - 3 L).

Summary of Ateneo games:
W: ADMU (91) vs AdU (75)
W: ADMU (65) vs UE (63)
W: ADMU (70) vs UP (63)
W: ADMU (83) vs NU (51)
L: ADMU (54) vs FEU (65)
W: ADMU (79) vs UST (72)
L: ADMU (60) vs DLSU (78)

Hokie in space

Charlie Camarda, a mission specialist in the Discovery shuttle team, studied at Virginia Tech for a year, earning his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering under former professor Raphael Haftka. The story is in CollegiateTimes. An interview with Dr. Camarda is here.

Bicolano leader

Former senator Raul S. Roco, died friday morning, 5 August. He was 63. Inq7.net has this story.

Listening to Jim

I bought Jim Croce's Classic Hits CD today. It is a 20-track CD and I liked all the songs!

Broadband gaining popularity in RP

Bayantel is offering DSL for PHP 899/mo -- that is around $16/mo -- for a 192 kbps plan. This is kinda slow compared to DSL speeds here in the states which is around 336 kbps (upload) and 1800 kbps (download).

PLDT also offers a 386 kbps plan for PHP 1,995/mo ($36/mo).

10th planet!

Astronomers are saying that we have another planet (10th) in our solar system. I have read about this in 2001 -- they are calling it planet X then -- but they are not sure whether or not it can be categorized as a planet since their initial estimate of its size was less than that of pluto. Their recent estimate however indicates that the size of the planet could be close to the size of mars.

Story is here.

bowing out in yellow

Lance Armstrong clinched his 7th consecutive Tour de France cup! He was 4 minutes and 40 seconds ahead of Ivan Basso of Italy. Jan Ullrich was 3rd.

Full story here.

blues of eagles

After four games, the Ateneo blue eagles are 2-2 (tied at 4th place with DLSU archers and Adamson Falcons). They were beaten by De la Salle archers and FEU tamaraws. The only teams that the eagles have beaten are UST tigers and NU bulldogs. Both teams are currently winless.

The eagles will face UP maroons on 30 July, UE warriors on 4 August, and Adamson Falcons on 7 August.

TEAM STANDINGS
- - - - - - - - - - -
Team............W - L
- - - - - - - - - - -
FEU Tamaraws....4 - 0
UE Warriors.....3 - 1
UP Maroons......3 - 1
DLSU Archers....2 - 2
ADU Falcons.....2 - 2
ADMU Eagles.....2 - 2
UST Tigers......0 - 4
NU Bulldogs.....0 - 4

Goodbye Scotty

James Doohan played Montgomery Scott in the original Star Trek TV series. He died last wednesday. He was 85.

Wonka and Potter

I enjoyed children's stories this week.

Charlie and the chocolate factory is good. I thought it I might be disappointed -- however, the wumpa-lumpas are crazy and Wonka is -- oh well -- weird! Imagine having lots of wumpa-lumpas in your backyard.

Got my HPHBP last sunday. I thought of reading 5 chapters a day -- but what the heck, I finished reading it last night. I liked the book. It is a good read and I look forward to the last installment of JKR. According to rumors, the 7th book would probably be published in 2007-2009.

Break

Spending this weekend at NOVA...

UPDATE: Pictures are here.

Too early for football ...

7 ACC teams are in the top 25 of CollegeFootballNews.com!

#4 Miami Hurricanes
#10 Virginia Tech Hokies
#11 Florida State Seminoles
#14 Boston College Eagles
#19 Virginia Cavaliers
#20 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
#24 Clemson Tigers

Hmmnnn 3 months to go.

Hello?

PGMA finally admits that she's the voice in the infamous wiretapped telephone conversation with an elections official. I guess that's for the better. I hope people would now focus on rebuilding from the mess that stemmed from the issue.

It seems that the "hello garci" cellphone ringtones are popular back home...

Cardinal Sin, 76

Reverend Jaime Cardinal Sin died 6:15am, tuesday -- Manila time. He is one of the prominent figures in the People Power revolution in 1986 and 2001.

Best Batman film ever!

Christopher Nolan did it! The new batman film is awesome! And when you thought Ra's Al Ghul is dead...

Original paper on Google

It is amazing how far Google have gone starting from this 1998 school paper of Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. The paper is entitled 'the anatomy of large-scale hypertextual web search engine'. It is interesting to know the basic ideas used to implement the original version of Google.

Mathomatic

While installing cygwin in my laptop, I noticed one computer algebra system included in the installation package -- it is called mathomatic. I was curious and googled the term 'mathomatic'. I found the webpage of this computer aided algebra system (here). It seems that the author, George J. Gesslein II, of New York is actively developing this program since 1987! The most recent update to this system is just three days ago.

I tried doing some algebra and calculus stuff with it and I find it easy to use.

Illustrador ng kabataan (INK)

INK is a group of pinoy illustrators of children's books. It is great to know that their tribe is increasing in number.

An essay describing a history of children's literature in the Philippines can be read here.

Cal Sobrepeña

Cal Sobrepeña is one my favorite illustrators in komiks --I love his clean illustrations in Funny komiks! He also illustrated for Aliwan, Silangan, and Lovelife komiks. I didn't know he already passed away last year.

I found this website dedicated to him.

R.I.P. Teddy Benigno

Teddy Benigno, 79, of Philippines Star died of cancer. Story is here.

Backups

I bought a XiMeta Netdisk today at OfficeMax. I have been thinking of having a backup system for a while. This 120GB netdisk should be enough. :)

DRM on new Intel chip

Intel launched last thursday a new DRM-enabled chip. The chip would presumably allow copyright holders to prevent unauthorized copying and distribution of copyrighted materials. (This makes the big companies happy.) Read the story here.

I will not be surprised if people starts buying computers equipped with AMD chips or IBM PPC instead.

Kindergarten

My son will start kindergarten this coming school year. I'm very happy for him.

Rutter won over Jennings

Ken Jenning bow out to Brad Rutter in the 3 day Jeopardy! tournament of champions. CNN.com has the story.

Rainy summer

I cannot understand why the wheather is bleak. Well at least, we don't have to buy an air-conditioner.

Roy and robots

I attended Roy's lecture class today. I am very interested on how object-oriented programming will be taught using the world of karel robots. Roy's interesting lecture is interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone (was it Roy's?). A large part of the session today is devoted on how to instruct karel the robot to put 9 beepers in a 2-D space. The beepers should be in the shape of VT logo. The students are required to use BlueJ, a java program development environment for beginners.

Balita

I learned to play the guitar during my senior year in high school. Balita is one of the songs I used to practice playing. It is a song made popular by the pinoy band called Asin. The sharp-witted lyrics of this song composed by Saro Banares is perhaps the reason it became popular. The chorus of the song is even included in the Apl song by Black eyed peas.

The chord pattern is simple: at capo VI do Am-Em-Am-Em-F-G-Am-Em-Am (repeat).

[KORO]
Lapit mga kaibigan at makinig kayo
Ako'y may dala-dalang balita galing sa bayan ko
Nais kong ipamahagi ang mga kwento
At mga pangyayaring nagaganap sa lupang ipinangako

Ang lupang pinanggalingan ko'y may bahid ng dugo
May mga lorong 'di makalipad nasa hawlang ginto
May mga punong walang dahon, mga pusong 'di makakibo
Sa mga pangyayaring nagaganap sa lupang ipinangako

Mula nang makita ko ang lupang ito
Nakita ko rin ang munting apoy sa puso ng tao
Ginatungan ng mga kabulukan hanggang sa lumago
Ngayon ang puso'y may takot sa lupang ipinangako

[Ulitin ang koro]

Dati-rati'y ang mga bukid ay gulay ginto
Dati-rati'y ang mga ibon 'sing laya ng tao
Dati-rati ay katahimikan ang musikang nagpapatulog
Sa mga batang walang muwang sa mundo

Ngayon ang lupang ipinangako ay nagsusumamo
Patakan n'yo ng luha ang apoy sa kanyang puso
Dinggin n'yo ang mga sigaw
Ng mga puso ng taong kung inyong dadamhin, kabilang sa inyo

Duul mga kaigsuunan nugpaminaw kamo
Duna ko'y dala nga mga balita gikan sa banwa ko
Gusto ko nga ipahibalo ang mga istorya
Nga nagagahitabu sa banwagisa na 'to

Raising Vader

We watched the Star Wars (Revenge of the Sith) movie yesterday. I enjoyed it.

The path of Anakin Skywalker to being Darth Vader however is not very convincing. The story went too fast there. (But then the movie is already long!) Towards the end of the movie, it is a good decision not to show the actual carnage of the young Jedis at the temple. Too many children (with their parents) watched the movie. A carnage segment can ruin their Star Wars experience.

I have a VCD collection of Episodes IV to VI. Now I am not sure if I would purchase the DVD versions of Episodes I to VI.

Louis Leithold, 80

Louis Leithold is the author of the calculus textbook we used in Ateneo de Manila. The book is so good that I used to teach calculus in Ateneo de Naga.

Last April 29, Louis Leithold was found dead in his L.A. home. He was 80.

Full story is here.

Lunch at Homeplace

After the mass, Jess, Roy, Matt, and I went to Homeplace for lunch. We arrived at Homeplace around 1:05pm. Boy, a lot of people waiting are waiting for their turn to eat (It's mother's day!). We were told to wait for 1 hour and 40 minutes. We considered going to another place to eat -- but then we thought the manager might have overestimated the waiting time. We managed to kill time talking about lots of things -- and then, we suddenly realized that almost two hours have passed....

Well, we enjoyed the meal though -- lots of fried chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, beans, etc.

Thanking for all the fishes

Roy, Matt, and I watched the Hitchhiker's movie today. It is not bad as what most reviews of the said movie are saying.

Now, do you know the question to the ultimate answer? :)

OpenOffice software

OpenOffice is a productivity suite of application software. It includes a word processor (WRITER), a spreadsheet processor (CALC), math editor (MATH), drawing software (DRAW), database management system (BASE), and presentation software (IMPRESS). This software suite is being developed by lots of volunteers and friendly people at Sun microsystems. The good thing is that this software is free. You can also opt to save your files in formats readable by Microsoft Office suite.

The 2.0 beta version is available here.

uses of the lightsaber

Want to know how lightsabers work? Howstuffworks.com has the answer!

Prepare for the coming of the dark side.

Dr. Calata - - sounds good

Congratulations Jess!

Human-animals?

Research sometimes pushes things to the limit. I guess the prevalence of animals with 'human' organs would drive the animal rightists crazy. I shudder the thought of some mouse thinking like a human. Perhaps mickey mouse is not a figment of Walt's imagination at all. :)

CNN.com has this story about human-animals.

Early for the meeting

I thought I would not cram anymore. But I did prepare my report for an 8:30am meeting today around 5:00am. :)

Lunch at Charlie's

Sundays after the mass is usually our time to lunch out. At Charlie's, you can't go wrong. We had a sumptous treat of steamed fish, spicy chicken, sweet and sour pork, fishball soup, and vanilla ice cream.

Party!

Botch and Bob celebrated their birthdays with pizza, spaghetti, fried chicken, and soda. What a nice time to end the day. :) Happy Birthday Botch and Bob.

Dream probabilities

RIP: Raymundo Punongbayan, PHIVOLCS

From Inq7.net:

Former Phivolcs head Raymundo Punongbayan was with four Phivolcs staff, two pilots, and two crewmembers, when their US-made Bell UH-1H helicopter crashed near Gabaldon town. (breaking story here)

I remember former director Punongbayan predicted the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. During that time, only a few took heed from his warnings. It was only when Mt. Pinatubo erupted on July 1991 that everyone started believing what he says.

Ranking Game

The hokies are ranked 6th by Stewart Mandel of S.I. There are lots of expectations now on this Vick-led squad.

Learning to Levitate

We were able to catch the last part of David Blaine's street magic where he performs the Balducci Levitation. All of us watching the show went agaga on how Blaine could have possibly pulled it off. Bob showed us a trick and all of us (Botch, Roy, and Matt) went practicing.

What stumped us however is the part where David Blaine's feet were shown to be "really" floating. Roy however quickly used Google to find out the details of the trick ( everything can be explained!) and found this site. It turned out that the producers of the show did post-editing (we should have figured that out earlier!). :)

Funny Pinoy Business Names

I found this link to funny names of real pinoy business joints. Examples are Caintacky Fried Chicken (restaurant in Cainta) and Susan's Roses (flower shop).

Drafted Hokies

Eric Green is the 11th pick (75th overall) in the 3rd round and will play with the Arizona Cardinals. Vincent Fuller is 7th pick (108th overall) in the 4th round and will play with the Tennessee Titans. Jon Dunn is the 3rd pick (217th overall) in the 7th round and will play with the Cleveland Browns.

Bryan Randall didn't make it in the 7 rounds.

Care Bears

It seems that the Care Bears are becoming popular in the Philippines. My son who is fond of bears wants one. I bought him "King Funshine Bear" for his birthday.

Tin-tin and the Alph-Art

I didn't know that when Herge died in 1983, he was actually working on a new adventure of Tin-tin and snowy. I love the Tin-tin adventures and I now have an almost complete collection of the comic books. I ordered from amazon the first 2 adventures of Tin-tin and snowy: "Tin-tin in the land of Soviets" and "Tin-tin in Congo," to complete my collection. Now that I know that Casterman published the uninked version of the "Tin-tin and the Alph Art", I am now seriously thinking if I would like to buy it (not cheap though).

This article from Washington Post details the contents of the unfinished comic book.

Whiz from Cavite

When you have the talent and brains, opportunity pours. Paul Leopando graduated on top of his class at Manila IS, got high marks in SAT, and perfected 5 placement exams given by a US testing center. To boot, he is offered scholarships at Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and -ehem- UP. He is reported to be seriously considering Harvard (see the Philstar.com story).

Relativity as explained by Einstein himself

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." -- Albert Einstein

My University Physics Professor didn't taught relativity that way. :)

CNN.com has this interesting article about Einstein.

Pope Benedict XVI

Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger no more. He becomes Pope Benedict XVI today -- our 265th Pope.

Vick to lead the Hokies in 2005

The spring game last saturday magnified the thin offensive lineup of the Hokies. Marcus Vick outperformed Sean Glennon. Frank Beamer announced that Marcus will be the Hokies starting QB come September. Story is here.

Cookie monster on diet

In order to promote healthy lifestyle, the new Sesame Street episodes will emphasize healthy food and healthy habits. There goes the sweets for Cookie monster. Can you imagine Cookie Monster not eating lots of cookies? :)

CNN.com has the story.

APO's early roots re-released!

I'll buy these CDs when I get back home. :) The press release is here.

Tax Day!

One of the sure things in life.

Free and Open Access Academic Journals

There's a growing number of free and open access academic journals. Check out the (DOAJ) Directory of Open Access Journals and (PLoS) Public Library of Science.

Acceptance of nonsense

SCIgen is a program that generates a random Computer Science paper complete with citations, references, figures, and graphs. The authors (Jeremy Stribling, Max Krohn, and Dan Aguayo) of this amusing program sent two randomly generated papers to the WMSCI 2005 (9th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics). -- one of their gibberish papers got accepted! Read the nonsense paper here and the acceptance letter here. Better yet, check out the SCIgen website.

Btw, to boot, the authors are raising money to fund their travel to Florida to give a randomly generated talk. :)

Now that the authors made fun of this conference, I wonder how the organizers of the conference would react once they realized they accepted a totally nonsense paper.

Dali! ang bato

GMA 7 started a Darna TV series. Angel Locsin stars as Narda/Darna. There are a couple of interesting videos in iGMA.tv website.

Spring Football at Tech

Intra-squad football football kick-off at Tech is scheduled at 2pm on Saturday. Details are here.

Real-life Matrix

Inq7.net posts about Sony filing the first step to patent in implementing a real-life Matrix. I'm not sure if we should be excited or scared.

Meat on sticks day!

Let's see how we fare at the Street Fair. Meat on sticks, anyone?

Of pipes, dups, and forks

It has been a long time since I used pipes, I/O duplication, and process forking in a C program. However, I need to remember how it is done. The UNIX command ls | wc is implemented this way in C.

pipe(p);

if ((pid1 = fork()) == 0) {
close(p[1]);
dup2(p[0],0);
close(p[0]);
execl("wc","wc",(char *)0);
exit(1);
}
if ((pid1 = fork()) == 0) {
close(p[0]);
dup2(p[1],1);
close(p[1]);
execl("ls","ls",(char *)0);
exit(1);
}
close(p[0]);
close(p[1]);

while(wait(&status) != pid1);

Jess' Famous Marinade

We just prepared the marinade for the BBQ we are selling on saturday. With the small number of graduate students members of FSA, we are scaling down BBQ production this year.

Three laws of graduation

Jorge Cham forged the following three laws of graduation, ala Newton:

FIRST LAW
A graduate student in procrastination tends to stay in procrastination unless an external force is applied to it.

SECOND LAW
The age, a, of a doctoral process is directly proportional to the flexibility, f, given by the advisor and inversely proportional to the student's motivation, m.

Mathematically, this is a = f/m or f = m a

THIRD LAW
For every action towards graduation, there is an equal and opposite distraction.

Just follow the link to the actual comic -- Boy, this guy's a genius! :)

Pagsi

Dr. Onofre Pagsanjan graced the commencement exercises at Ateneo de Naga recently. Part of his speech follows:

Noong ika'y musmos pa, tinangnan ng iyong ina nag iyong kamay at winika niya, “Close … open. Close … open.”

Sa paglipad natin sa ating kabataan , close tayo nang close kadalasan. Sunggab nang sunggab sa pakikinabangan. May dahilan. Hungkag na sarili'y dapat munang sidlan. Ngunit mula sa ating pagtatapos, sa ating paglapag sa kalakhan ng buhay, dapat ay open na nang open , bigay na nang bigay, hanggang sa unti-unti nating paglapit sa hukay, unti-unti rin nating naibubukas ang ating mga bisig at kamay, at unti-unti rin tayong natutulad kay Hesus na sa krus nakabayubay, bigay todo, pati buhay.

I have heard or read this part of his speech before. It sounds very Pagsi. I find it corny -- but it is poetic and true.

The QED Manifesto

QUOD erat demonstrandum (QED): meaning "which was to be shown" has been used to end a formal proof of a mathematical proposition. Some mathematicians use a black square instead of QED. In UP, there's a professor (I forgot his name), who uses T.N. instead. T.N. means "tapos na". :)

The QED manifesto describes a project that aims to automate doing formal proofs using a computer. The four-color problem is the most famous theorem proved using a computer generated proof. I'm not quite sure how feasible this project is -- proving that a program has no bugs is in fact difficult.

Now, how can you prove that a computer program P which proves a theorem to be true has no bugs? Write another program Q that proves P has no bugs? I'm now confused. :)

Baby blue rocks!

The fighting illini kept it close but the tar heels are the 2005 champs!

RIP Our Beloved Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II
Karol Józef Wojtyła
18 May 1920 - 2 April 2005
Elected as 264th Pope, 16 October 1978

Final Four

My take:

Cardinals win over the Fighting Illini.
Tar heels win over the Spartans.

Pope near death

The health of Pope John Paul II has deteriorated to the point that Vatican officials already concede that his life may come to end soon. Continuing story is here.

UPDATE:
Pope John Paul II died 2 April 2005, Saturday, 9:37PM Rome Time (3:37 AM Sunday, Manila time).

Lex and Yacc

Lex and Yacc are two software tools used in developing compilers and interpreters (like the Windows command interpreter (cmd.exe) and Bourne again shell (bash) in Unix systems. The book of Levine, Mason, and Brown is a perfect book to learn lex and yacc.

There are also a couple of websites describing how to use lex and yacc. I find http://dinosaur.compilertools.net/ a great place to start.

Database systems

A couple of database systems that people can use freely (including the source code):

PostgreSQL - an advanced object-relational database system.
MySQL - relational database system.
SQLite - a C library system that implements an SQL database engine.

My personal favorite is PostgreSQL. I have been using it for 4 years now. MySQL is quite good too. SQLite on the other hand is great for small projects that require some database capability.

Fairy tales

I found a website about Hans Christian Andersen's 168 tales. Most of the stories are provided in the website along with the original artworks. Google lists a couple of other websites showcasing Hans Christian Andersen's stories. Some interesting tidbits about Andersen are available in wikipedia.

My inspiration

Gotta finish that research!

Easter Sunday

Happy easter everyone!

My Final Four

Chicago : Illinois fighting illini
Albuquerque : Louisville cardinals
Syracuse : UNC tar heels
Austin : Kentucky wildcats

Almost eliminated

The blue devils and the wolfpack were defeated by the spartans and the badgers respectively. The tar heels however survived the showndown with the wildcats -- by 1 point! The Final Four contenders from the ACC were almost eliminated in one night.

Duke blue devils (68) - Michigan St. spartans (78) [box score]
NC St. wolfpack (56) - Wisconsin badgers (65) [box score]
UNC tar heels (67) - Villanova wildcats (66) [box score]

T-rex tissue

CNN.com reports about a 70-million-year-old soft tissue recovered from a Tyrannosaurus rex. It seems that the scientists are interested to know if DNA can be extracted from this jurassic tissue.

Hiding alarm clock

MIT Media lab developed clocky, an alarm clock that would roll and hide whenever you hit the snooze button. Crazy. hehehe.

Graphviz

Graphviz is a tool to draw large directed and undirected graphs. The graphviz version for Mac OS X is particularly cool (btw, there are versions for Windows and Linux too). I may use this tool in my research work soon.

Star Wars cartoons

In case you miss the new episodes of animated Star Wars, you can still watch them online at the CN website.

Partition congruences

The number 4 can be partitioned in 5 ways. 1+1+1+1+1, 2+1+1, 2+2, 3+1, and 4. The number 9 can be partitioned in 30 ways and 14 in 135 ways. In fact, any number ending in 4 or 9 can be partitioned in x ways, where x is divisible by 5. The numbers 4, 9, and 14 are said to be congruent to each other.

This mathematical pattern has been observed by the genius Srinivasa Ramanujan decades ago. He found partition congruences for 5, 7 and 11. Recently, Karl Mahlburg, a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA, generalized this theory on partition congruences. The new scientist magazine reports that his results have applications in particle physics and computer security.

Hashing

Lately I had to implement a hash function to speed up my program. This website about minimal perfect hashing is helpful.

Demons out! ... and Jackets too

The West Virginia mountaineers routed the Wake Forest demon deacons last night. The mountaineers came too strong after the half-time. The deacons managed to tie the score at the end of the second half and in the first OT -- but came short in the second OT. Story is here.

UPDATE: The Georgia Tech yellow jackets lost to Louisville cardinals this afternoon. Story is here.

FINAL SCORES:
West Virginia mountaineers (111) - Wake Forest demon deacons (105) [box score]
Louisville cardinals (76) - Georgia Tech yellow jackets (54) [box score]

Duke blue devils, NC State wolfpack, and UNC tar heels are still dancing.

So Long Dixon

Carlos Dixon and his team lost the second round of NIT to Memphis tigers. They gave us a thrilling inagural season in the ACC and we are very proud of them. The full story is here.

FINAL SCORE:
Memphis tigers (83) - Virginia Tech hokies (62) [box score]

Open source math software

Here I am again. Looking for open source alternatives to expensive software. This time, alternatives to Mathematica, MatLab, and S/S+.

If you don't have the bucks, a decent alternative to Mathematica is Maxima. Maxima had its origins to DOE Macsyma which was the first among the modern computer algebra systems like Maple and Mathematica. Maxima does symbolic integration, 3D plotting, and ODE solving among many other features. It is available for Windows and Linux systems.

SciLab on the other hand is a very good alternative to MatLab. Scilab is a scientific software package for numerical computations. It provides a powerful open computing environment for engineering and scientific applications. SciLab is available for Windows, Linux, HP-UX, and Solaris platforms.

Looking for an open source statistical software? I recommend R, a very sophisticated open source statistical package. R uses a dialect of the S/S+ statistical software package. R is available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS systems.

Of course Mathematica and MatLab are great software packages. However, they are just too expensive for me.

Sequencing the X chromosome

Nature published a paper about the recently sequenced X chromosome. The paper is available online here.

I wish all research papers are freely available online to the public. These papers are anyway funded by money which ultimately came from the reading public (through taxes). :)

Going to the second round

The hokies have finally beaten the owls after a total of 10 match-ups. Dixon and his team routed the owls, 60-50, last night at the Cassell.

LOTR parody

I found this LOTR parody by Jonas Diego, a pinoy comics artist working in Makati. The humor is pinoy and the drawings are great. It seems that the caricatures of his friends (also pinoy comics artists) composed the cast of characters in the parody.

Comic links: Teaser, Issue 1, Issue 2.

Day after spring break

Oh yeah ... reported to office early ... summarized work done during the break and on with a meeting with my adviser.

The meeting went well and of course I have more things to work on. I plan to have my research "defense" early april so I really have to make that prototype working!

Let the postseason games bagin

Duke blue devils and UNC tar heels earned #1 seeding at the NCAA tourney. They are joined by #2 Wake Forest demon deacons, #5 Georgia Tech yellow jackets, and #10 NC State wolfpack. It would be awesome to have three of them go to the Final Four!

Virginia Tech hokies, Clemson tigers, Miami Fl. hurricanes, and Maryland terrapins are NIT bound.

The hokies will meet the Temple owls on tuesday (March 15, 8pm). Go hokies!

Tough game

The yellow jackets played tough until the last seconds of their game vs the blue devils. The blue devils however are tougher. The Duke blue devils won the game against the Georgia Tech yellow jackets, 69-64, and are the 2005 ACC champs.

Jackets and Devils

The yellow jackets beat the tar heels fair and square while the blue devils took care of business by beating the wolfpack. The ACC champions will be decided tomorrow.

I still believe that the tar heels will still emerge as #1 seed in the NCAA dance. Today is just a bad day for them.

FINAL SCORES:
Georgia Tech yellow jackets (78) - UNC tar heels (75) [box score]
Duke blue devils (76) - North Carolina State wolfpack (69) [box score]

Popped!

So much for the bubble -- the hokies are about to burst theirs. The yellow jackets are currently pulling away from the hokies. The tigers however are awesome -- they gave the tar heels the scare of their lives. Anyway, the wishful thinking of having the tigers and hokies meet in game 8 is just -- well, wishful thinking.

UPDATE:
The wolfpack were able to upset the demon deacons. The blue devils however escaped the cavaliers.

I would like to see the blue devils and the tar heels meet in the championship.

FINAL SCORES:
UNC tar heels (88) - Clemson tigers (81) [box score]
Georgia Tech yellow jackets (73) - Virginia Tech hokies (54) [box score]
North Carolina State wolfpack (81) - Wake Forest demon deacons (65) [box score]
Duke blue devils (76) - Virginia cavaliers (64) [box score]

Unpredictable ACC

The tigers complete the sweep of the terps today. Recall that the terps are defending ACC champs and they didn't win against the tigers this season.

The wolfpack and the cavaliers have beaten the seminoles and the hurricanes respectively. Looks like the loss of the terps and the canes cost them their NCAA bubbles. The wolfpack on the other hand are looking good.

Final scores:

Clemson tigers (84) - Maryland terrapins (72) [box score]
NC State wolfpack (70) - Florida State seminoles (54) [box score]
Virginia cavaliers (66) - Miami Fl. hurricanes (65) [box score]

The madness begins tomorrow

I'm eager to see if the tigers will complete the sweep of the terps. :)

Too much eagerness

119 applicants previously being considered for acceptance by the Harvard Business School (HBS) are now outrightly rejected. These 119 applicants followed the advice of a hacker on how to gain access to the information system of ApplyYourself web service used by business schools including HBS. Subsequently they were able to check if they were accepted or not. Unfortunately, their activities were tracked. Talk about over-eagerness.

Meetings

My whole day was essentially spent on meetings. The one in the afternoon was particularly wasteful since we never agreed on something lest resolve anything. I hate long meetings going nowhere.

ACC near-upsets

The Duke blue devils came close in upsetting the UNC tar heels this afternoon. The tar heels won against the blue devils, 75-73. The NC St. wolfpack also scared the WF demon deacons a while ago. The demon deacons won against the wolfpack, 55-53.

The hokies benefited from the loss of NC St. today. They are now #4 seed in the ACC tournament.

In the other news, 3 top-10 teams didn't survive this sunday -- Ohio state won against #1 Illinos; Florida won against #3 Kentucky; and Missouri won against #7 Kansas.

Finishing with a bang!

The hokies wrap up their inagural season with a win by beating the terps 86-76 today at the Cassell. The hokies (15-12, 8-8 ACC) share the 4th place in ACC conference with the yellow jackets (17-10, 8-8 ACC) and are back to the NCAA tournament bubble.

The full story is here.

Free Antivirus software

The free version of AVG anti-virus from Grisoft looks good! You have to pay for support though.

Lovely walk

It is late in the morning and the sun already melted most of the snow. I decided to walk to campus. -- wrong decision: it is windy and the wind is cold; ice formed in some walk paths. (Fortunately, I am wearing a thick jacket, gloves, and hat). I am too proud to go back and wait for the bus. I pressed on and made it to campus.

At least I had a much needed exercise. ...but I might not do it again. :)

Reverse engineering by listening

Nils Schneider wanted to install Linux in his iPod. The problem is that iPod's bootloader, the software that starts up the system, is not accessible directly. What he did is he "played" the bootloader code. He then decoded the sequence of clicks that iPod produced. It took him 20 hours to reverse engineer the whole bootloader software.

He is now running Linux in his iPod. This effort paves a way for people to develop other software applications that will run on iPods.

-- Looks like these people have nothing else to do. :)

Thriller at Clemson

Tigers clinched the win over the hokies with a dunk! -- with 2 seconds remaining. The final score : (tigers) 66 - (hokies) 64.

What's next?

I got this problem from Paul Zeitz book (The art and craft of problem solving).

What is the next member in this sequence?

1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, ...

C# grid control

It is frustrating that Microsoft Visual Studio does not provide support for grid controls for C#. Fortunately, I found an open source C# grid control classes called SourceGrid from the Code Project website. SourceGrid supports virtual grids, custom cells and editors, advanced formatting options, and many other amazing features.

Hunger for recognition

Remember the Faye Nicole San Juan hoax? India has its own version -- CNN recently posted a story about Saurabh Singh who allegedly won the NASA's International Scientist Discovery examination. This 17 year old said he took the exam at Oxford University, London. He also said that the Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died in the Columbia shuttle explosion in 2003, administered the exam.

The problem? There's no NASA International Scientist Discovery examination. The Oxford University denies that there's such an exam. Dragging the name of the dead astronaut in this scam didn't help. Furthermore, he has no passport.

It seems that this delusional guy got a monetary award from the government and a day's salary of more than 100 members of the upper house. Ok. Maybe he's not delusional after all -- he's just a wise guy. :)

Kid's Health

The Kid's Health website (kidshealth.org) is a great site to look for articles about dealing with sick child. With my son having colds and fever, the recent article by Steven Dowshen, MD is particularly helpful.

Answering Machine Joke

Perfect for those unwanted calls. :)

Hi, this is Jim. Thanks for calling during my spring pledge drive.
A basic membership is only $30, and a $60 pledge gets you an
"I love Jim Shea" T-shirt. Please wait for the tone, and
thank you for your pledge.

This joke came from this site.

Three-peat

The Ateneo de Naga computer animation students bagged the top prize of the annual Animazing Shorts tilt for the third time. I am proud of them.

Terps are no match to Tigers

Clemson tigers sweep the Maryland terrapins this season by winning today's game, 97-93.

Avatar - the last air bender

We accidentally seen the start of a brand new show in Nickelodeon: Avatar - the last air bender. The show's teaser is here.

Online class

I want to learn how to program in C#. Fortunately IEEE provides a free online course on C# to its members. I enrolled in course 2124 (programming with C#) last 24 January 2005. I completed today all the 14 modules on C#.

Did I learn anything? Oh yes -- there are a couple of features in C# which my favorite language (i.e. C) doesn't have. If I have some time, I may do some software projects using C#.

Sweeping the hurricanes

The hokies beat the canes today -- the second time this season. With this win, the hokies are now post-season eligible. They need another win though to have a winning season in the ACC. They will face the wolfpack next saturday.

UPDATE: The story of the 71-58 win against Miami is here.

Some cartoons

The cartoons posted on this site made me laugh. :)

Thriller at Cassel

The virginia tech hokies beat the duke blue devils today 67-65! During the last 5 seconds, the dukes tried their last attempt for 3-points -- the ball bounced off the ring and caught by Dixon.

The last time the hokies beat the blue devils was in 1966. Better luck next time dukes. :)


A grab of SI.com's headline showing the late 3-points by Zabian Dowdell

Eight more remaining

I was able to find 13 more commemorative quarters (Delaware, Pennsylvania, Massachusets, Vermont, Kentucky, Lousiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Iowa, Florida, and Michigan). I now have a total of 27 out of 35 coins (not 31 as I previously posted).

I'm still on the lookout for Maine, Wisconsin, Texas, California, Minnesotta, Oregon, Kansas, and West Virginia. I might not be lucky to collect all 35 coins soon as the 2005 coins may not be in the circulation yet. The US Mint website has details on the 10 year schedule of US state quarters.

US state quarters

I find it amazing that commemorative quarters sell as much as $9.95 a piece. There are now a total of 31 US state commemorative quarters -- short of 19.

1999: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey*, Georgia*, Conneticut*
2000: Massachusets, Maryland*, South Carolina*, New Hampshire*, Virginia*
2001: New York*, North Carolina*, Rhode Island*, Vermont, Kentucky
2002: Tennessee*, Ohio*, Lousiana, Indiana, Mississippi
2003: Illinois*, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, Arkansas*
2004: Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, Florida, Michigan
2005: California

I have 14 out of these 31 coins. Let's see if I can complete this collection. :)

Happy Valentines!

With my family on the other side of the world, I just have to content myself with long-distance calls. :) Happy Valentines day everyone.

Another open source graphics software

If you are into computer modeling and animation, you might want to check Blender. Blender is an open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.

Some open source graphics programs

I recently surfed the net searching for open source graphics programs. I found alternatives to highly priced Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is what it says it is. It can be used to manipulate JPEGs, PNGs, TIFFs, and other images just like Adobe Photoshop.

Inkscape. It is a vector based illustration software like Adobe Illustrator. I did a few doodles using it and the results look fine.

These programs install in Windows and Linux systems. Best of all, they are free.

I am ...

(c) Jorge Cham

three way tie

A day after duke blue devils won the unc-duke thriller, wake forest joined the ACC top teams in a three way tie. Duke blue devils (18-2, 8-2 ACC), Wake Forest demon deacons (20-3, 8-2 ACC), and UNC tar heels (19-3, 8-2 ACC) lead the ACC league.

How about the hokies? Well, they are still 5-5 in the ACC. They lost two games in a row (against Wake Forest demon deacons and Maryland terrapins). They will travel to Charlottesville this saturday to face the Virginia cavaliers for the second time this season.

Facing mortality

Today is ash wednesday -- a day meant to remind us of our mortality.

I caught the 5:30pm mass held at Squires before going home.

Mother's day!

Happy birthday nanay! I love you.

Repairing Basic Education

Randy David of Inq7.net wrote about the prospect of repairing basic education in the Philippines. His essay came about because of the recent issue of whether to add another year of basic education or not. As he said, perhaps the issue is not the number of years. Perhaps the quality of education is the issue -- quality that should not be confused with using english as a medium of instruction.

My best teachers in basic education mathematics never hesitated using the native language when teaching. I'd say I learned a lot from them. I may never reached graduate school if not for them.

Sweatshops for Virtual worlds

A sweatshop company ending up in court for manufacturing digital weaponry. A digital island sold for $30,000.00. Weird? MSNBC has this very interesting article about how law (and economics) encroaches in the virtual world.

Pagmamahal

While surfing the net, I found this poem written by Rico Abelardo. He was my teacher in Filipino literature back in college. He is also a good friend of mine.

He now has a loving wife and daughter. He is practicing law somewhere in Manila.

Mangyari Lamang

Mangyari lamang ay tumayo ang mga nagmamahal
Nang makita ng lahat ang mukha ng pag-ibig
Ipamalas ang tamis ng malalim na pagkakaunawaan
Sa mga malabo ang paningin.

Mangyari lamang na tumayo rin ang mga nagmahal at nasawi
Nang makita ng lahat ang mga sugat ng isang bayani
Ipadama ang pait ng kabiguan
Habang ipinagbubunyi ang walang katulad
Na kagitingan ng isang nagtaya.

Mangyari lamang ay tumayo ang mga nangangambang magmahal
Nang makita ng lahat ang kilos ng isang bata
Ipamalas ang katapatan ng damdamin na pilit ikinukubli
Ng pusong lumaki sa mga engkanto't diwata.

Mangyari lamang na tumayo ang nagmahal, minahal at iniwan
Ngunit handa pa ring magmahal
Nang makita ng lahat ang yaman ng karanasan
Ipamalas ang katotohanang nasaksihan
Nang maging makahulugan ang mga paghahagulhol sa dilim.

At sa mga nanatiling nakaupo
Mangyari lamang ay dahan-dahang tumalilis
Palabas sa nakangangang pinto
Umuwi na kayo!
At sumbatan ang mga magulang
Na nagpalaki ng isang halimaw.

At sa lahat ng mga nakaiwang nakatayo
Mangyari lamang na hagkan ang isa't isa
At yakapin ang mga sugatan
Mabuhay tayong lahat
Na nagsisikap makabalik sa ating pinagmulan
Manatiling masaya at higit sa lahat
Magpatuloy sa pagmamahal.

RICO ABELARDO

Baybayin

It is remarkable for a canadian to put up a very informative website about baybayin, the alphabet used by early filipinos. Paul Morrow even sought the help of a pinoy to ensure the correct filipino translations of his essays.

Burden of writing papers

I just submitted a paper for possible publication in BMC bioinformatics. I have been doing the painful revisions for quite a while and I'm happy to finally get it out the door. I can now concentrate on finishing another one.

Cannot go past 63

Today, the hokies won the road game at Miami, 73-63. The lady hokies also beat Richmond, 79-63.

The CAP folly

Good thing I never considered CAP.

(c) PMJunior (appeared in Inq7.net on 02/01/05)

Not even close

The blue devils (16-1,6-1 ACC) thumped the hokies (11-7,4-3 ACC) yesterday, 100-65. The five-game winning streak of the hokies ended at the Cameron indoor stadium. Duke came in too strong and the hokies did a lot of fouls (e.g. Zabian Dowdell had 15 points and 34 fouls). The full story is here.

The hokies are now tied with the terrapins in the 4th place in the ACC.

This week, the hokies will face the hurricanes (tue) and the demon deacons (sat).

Desperation and Direction

De Quiros of Inquirer recently comments on the issue of the Philippines having too many Colleges and Universities. He wrote:

I remember again too the non-joke about Pinoy and Chinoy college graduates. When Pinoy graduates meet, they ask each other, "What job have you landed?" When Chinoy graduates meet, they ask each other, "What business have you opened?" We can say the same thing about the graduates of our colleges and universities and those of other Asian countries. When they meet, our graduates ask each other, "Which country do you want to go to?" When the graduates of other Asian colleges and universities meet, they ask each other, "Where do we want our country to go?" The first is called resignation, the second is called ambition. The first is called desperation, the second is called direction. The first is called getting by, the second is called getting ahead.

We just want the first, let's not bother reducing our colleges and universities. Let's scrap them altogether.

Yes, I agree this is sad -- but the offered alternative will not help.

Secure computing?

Nick McGrath of Microsoft says Linux security is a myth. He went on to say that Red Hat Linux for example will not take responsibility if your system is compromised. I think he missed the point that security is never guaranteed. Even Microsoft will not pay me if my Windows system running on my laptop is compromised. McGrath cannot deny that a lot of spywares and viruses target Microsoft Windows systems. Furthermore, their home-grown applications like Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Internet Explorer are not secure either.

If you want your computer to be secure. You should consider locking it in a safe and throw the key in the middle of Atlantic ocean. :)

Tough choice

It's a good thing I never have to decide this way. :)

Improving basketball program?

Virginia Tech Hokies beat the Virginia Cavaliers today in basketball, 79-73. This is the 4th ACC conference win of the hokies. After losing the first two conference games to UNC Tar Heels (51-85) and to Florida St. Seminoles (70-77), the hokies have beaten 4 ACC teams in a row since Jan 5. The hokies defeated the Clemson tigers (59-57), the NC St. Wolfpack (72-71) , #12 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (70-69), and now Virginia Cavaliers (79-73).

Looks like Carlos Dixon et al. are showing that the hokies can't be pushed around in the ACC basketball.

Zabian Dowdell's spectacular reverse layup was one of many highlights
for the Hokies in a 79-73 ACC victory over UVa.

RA 1530 and other G.C. lingo

The Philippine Province of the Jesuits recently published a book entitled 'Ehem! A Manual for Deepening Involvement in Combating Corruption'. It features a glossary of graft and corruption lingo. Obvious examples are "senatong", "tonggressman", and "konsuholtant". There are also terms like "RA 1530" which refers to government employees who show up for work only during paydays. Inq7.net has a short review of the manual.

Video search

Google plans to augment their service with video search. I'm wondering how they would do it exactly. CNN has the story.

Double Victory

Efren "Bata" Reyes won double victory at the 2005 annual Derby City Classic yesterday -- the 9-ball division and the one-pocket division. The 50 year old, toothless magician of Angeles City, Pampanga gained the title "Master of the Table." Nobody does it like Bata. Full story of Inq7.net is here.

Mac Mini

I'm sure most people know about Mac Mini -- the most "affordable" Mac G4 to hit the market. Price starts at $499. However, the configuration I want (i.e. with superdrive, 512MB RAM, Mac keyboard and mouse, etc) would still cost $1,110.00. hmmmnn. I wish I have that money.

Schedule next Fall

The hokies will play 5 road games and 6 home games next Fall. The complete schedule follows:

Sept 3   at NC State        Atlantic division member

Sept 10  at Duke            Coastal division member

Sept 17  vs Georgia Tech    Coastal division member

Sept 24  vs Ohio University Non-conference game

Oct 1    at West Virginia   Non-conference game

Oct 8    vs Marshall        Non-conference game

Oct 20   at Maryland        Atlantic division member

Oct 27   vs Boston College  Atlantic division member

Nov 5    vs Miami           Coastal division member

Nov 19   at Virginia        Coastal division member

Nov 26   vs North Carolina  Coastal division member

The first official ACC Championship will be on Dec 3. If the hokies win the coastal division, they may proceed to Jacksonville, Florida as defending champs.

Movie for code-heads

Tom Hanks stars in a movie adaptation of Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code'. He's professor Robert Langdon in this future movie thriller. The movie is scheduled for release next year, 2006.

Olivia Decker, the owner of Chateau de Villette near Paris, reportedly let her bedroom be rented by tourists for $55,000 a week. Her chateau of course figured notably in Dan Brown's book and will also be in the movie adaptation.

Beauty contest in IT?

The Philippine Computer Society opened a can of worms. They are pushing for a contest dubbed 'Digital Pinay 2005'. The selection criteria follows: intelligence (40 %); text votes (20%); beauty/presentability (20%); and poise/personality (20%). Of course they will face critics saying this contest will not be good in the IT industry. PCS at first included vital statistics in their application form (bust, waist, and hips [in centimeters]). In the sanitized application forms, vital statistics, including weight and height are removed. Needless to say, this outrageous contest didn't go well with the women in the IT industry. Perhaps the PCS, the oldest computer organization in the Philippines, is in need of promo girls. :)

Look at Sacha Chua's current blog for some funny comments. Inq7.net also has the story.

Biological Robots

Jianzhong Xi, Jacob Schmidt and Carlo Montemagno of the University of California Los Angeles have grown rat cells onto microscopic silicon chips. They then got it walk like primitive legs. Their technique is thought to be a first step in creating self assembling robots.

Image that: self-assembling robots?

The full CNN.com report is here.

National title contenders

CollegeFootballNews.com ranks the Hokies 5th in national title contenders. Great on paper huh? This reminds me of the 2003 preseason rankings of the hokies -- hmmmn.

5. Virginia Tech 2004 Record: 10-3 ACC

The Hokies flourished last year with its nobody-respects-us attitude. Can they handle being the hunted? Frank Beamer teams have crashed and burned recently when they were supposed to be great, but the pressure is on anyway with just about everyone of note coming back on both sides of the ball (helped mostly by the return of Jimmy Williams to the secondary). Everyone but ACC Player of the Year Bryan Randall, so Marcus Vick has to put everything in the past and be the player everyone was hoping he’d be before all the trouble.

Biggest offensive loss: QB Bryan Randall
Biggest defensive loss: DT Jim Davis

Love your heart

Last friday I got a wake up call. I went to Schiffert Center to get cure for my infected right ear (which I usually get whenever I have colds). The nurse asked me if I have taken any medication lately. I told her I have taken NyQuil for the two consecutive nights (I had colds and fever). -- She said I have to stop taking NyQuil since my blood pressure is high. I have hypertension?

I now regularly monitor my bp using a portable bp monitor I bought at Walmart. I guess I also need to schedule some exercise soon. My latest bp is almost normal -- so being diet conscious does pay. :)

bill vs publicity-hungry politicians

I don't usually agree with Senator Santiago. But her latest bill vs publicity-hungry politicians earns my support. I am doubtful however if it will pass the congress. Knowing our politicians, this bill may not be debated at all in the "hollow"ed session halls.

It is sickening to see public work and public service projects being associated with politicians when the money used in these projects actually came from people's taxes. That is if there are any projects at all. It in fact interesting to see the unusual rise in the number of short term public works projects before any elections. Of course the projects will shamelessly thank the politician(s) who 'purportedly' financed the project out of their 'pork barrels' or any other government discretionary funds.

The Inq7.net story about this is here.

What a Vick!

Jess is right! Vick is a blast and so are his teammates. The Atlanta Falcons routed the Rams 47-17.

Pinoys are back

Botch, Vanini, and Cesmac are back in town. Ces completes the set of eight remaining pinoy graduate students at Virginia Tech. Monday next week is the start of classes.

Kinda useful worksheet

PHDComics.com recently posted this interesting worksheet. :)

Galactica

The new Battlestar Galactica looks interesting. The premiere is on 14 Jan 2005.

Colds

I think I caught one. Hoping it won't turn into flu.

BORUTESU FAIBU NI

azuketa inochi ...

On Voltes V we trust our lives.

Months before I came here in the states in 2001, I actually searched the internet for information about Voltes V. I found none that satisfied me. Recently, I saw an AD in Inq7.net about Voltes V. The link leads to divisoria.com (which is actually now part of store.yahoo.com). For $60, you can get the entire 40 episodes of Voltes V. Cool. But I managed to hold my credit card tightly. Not now. :)

Perhaps by impulse, I searched for Voltes V using Google. There may be better websites devoted to Voltes V than four years ago -- I found Ivan Chen's Voltes V shrine. The site is very interesting specially the trivia section. Click the picture below to go to Ivan Chen's website.