Crimson Crux

I was supposed to write this post last Sunday, but a bout of asthma (now running at five days) deprived me of the chance to do so. The Philippine Blog Awards Night wrapped up an exhausting week for me, and here’s a brief recap of the event.

Ia and I left the blog awards pretty much satisfied with the results (but not with the programme — more on that later). The complete list of winners can be found at the 2007 PBA site, but here I’m giving extra recognition to three of my blogger friends who bagged the big prizes:

• Best Socio-Political Blog: Dean Jorge Bocobo’s Philippine Commentary
• Best Blog Design: Jorge Cosgayon’s Far from Neutral Notions
• PhotoBlog of the Year: Eric Isaac’s Señor Enrique: Wish You Were Here

Ia didn’t win the Best Tech Blog plum, but she took home something…big. Really big, as in worth thousands upon thousands of pesos. Read her latest blog entry to know more. Hint: it’s from the Adobe User Group Philippines.

Now, some thoughts on how the event was held:

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I’ll be at the Philippine Blog Awards Night tomorrow to support and accompany Ia, whose Stellify.net is a finalist in the technology category. It came as quite a surprise for both of us, as she’d be the first one to tell you that Stellify wasn’t meant to be a tech blog. You can say that we’re not expecting Stellify to win the best tech blog award, especially since it’s going up against established tech bloggers.

Both of us have a “you win, I also win” mentality, and I’m happy that her efforts with Stellify (which is less than seven months old) have already been recognized. This kind of nullifies my disappointment at not winning a recently-concluded prestigious Tagalog poetry contest (too bad I couldn’t follow up my being published on the newspaper — that would’ve been a great birthday treat this coming May!).

Aside from Ia, a number of my blogosphere friends got the nods of the judges, namely Eric (aka Senor Enrique), Jorge Cosgayon, Gibbs Cadiz, and Dean Jorge Bocobo. I’m hoping these guys will win their respective categories, especially sir Eric — I was the one who nominated his photo blog, hehe.

Wish Ia and my friends the best of luck!

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted an update here (no thanks to my recent bout with asthma). I should really stock up on emergency blog posts!

Anyway, for those out of the loop, the second Philippine search engine optimization contest, nicknamed “Ituloy AngSulong” concluded last Friday, February 23. While we lost steam in the last month or so (almost nil link-building), our team (Ia, J Angelo) still managed to grab three minor prizes (with equally minor cash), namely:

• #9 in Yahoo! for our Vox entry
• Google Bonus Prize (#11) for our Go-Ogle! Philippines entry
• Google Bonus Prize (#39) for our Vox entry

Our performance is a far cry from our Isulong SEOPH experience, where we placed a strong fifth. Again, almost zero link-building in the last month or so (the time when most SEOs would’ve been playing their aces) killed us. The beauty of too much work! Hehe.

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Want to glean the latest views and news from some of the best CS minds in the Philippines? (Or at the very least, peek into what makes the brains of these guys tick?) Then visit the newly launched UP DCS Blog Network, an aggregator for the blog posts of the students, faculty, and alumni of the University of the Philippines Department of Computer Science.

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Calling all UP DCS graduates! The Department of Computer Science of the University of the Philippines Diliman will be holding its first-ever Alumni Homecoming. The event will be held on February 24, 2007 at the College of Engineering Library and Computer Science Building.

Here’s the letter from the Department’s revered figure and current College Secretary, Prof. Evangel Quiwa:

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This just in (courtesy of an email message): the Philippine team for the Software Freedom Day 2006, through the University of the Philippines Linux Users’ Group (UnPLUG) has won in the 2006 Software Freedom Day competition.

UnPLUG won the Best Plan for FOSS deployment project on new server for community benefit, and will receive a high performance IBM server. The full list of winners can be found on the SFD website.

Congratulations to UnPLUG and the University! Modesty aside, I’m honored to have been an officer of the organization, even for just a few months. Other members of Team SFD Philippines ‘06 include the Philippine Linux Users’ Group, UP ACM, the UPD Department of Computer Science, Bluepoint, and Alpha Phi Omega.

Just weeks after the first Philippine SEO contest drew to a close, another one has popped up, giving SEO junkies and rookies alike a new shot at winning some dough (and gaining invaluable experience). This time, the keywords to die for are ituloy angsulong.

The Go-Ogle! trio — me, Ia, J Angelo — has decided to join in the fun. Please visit and support our Ituloy AngSulong entry; link exchanges are welcome!

Kudos to our resident webmaster (webmistress?) for the great design of our entry. By the way, I’ll be posting some of my personal SEO thoughts on the Corsarius.net Ituloy AngSulong page, so if you have the time, do drop by.

In my last entry, I talked about the Php 130,000 Philippine SEO Contest for the keyword Isulong SEOPH. Guess what? We placed fifth! Not worth much in monetary rewards, but still quite an achievement considering there were more than a hundred entries (or so I heard).

Congratulations to all the winners! A recap of the Isulong SEOPH Awarding Night can be found at the blog of my teammate J Angelo. (Ia Lucero, one-time guestwriter here, completes the, uh, stellar cast.)

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Subtitled: Blogging in the Dark

Typhoon Milenyo has just rampaged through Metro Manila, leaving our little neighborhood without power. Here’s to brownout blogging and all. I’ve got to love the scant 3-hour battery life of my Corsarify.

Anyway, we’re now down to the last three days of the Php130,000 Philippine SEO Contest. My team’s entry, Go-Ogle! Isulong SEOPH, is presently ranked 7th in the first Google search engine result page (SERP) for the keyword Isulong SEOPH. We’re hoping to at least maintain our position until September 30, the SEO competition’s end. Just a few hours ago we were at 5th place, and a month ago we were Top 1 in Google (can you believe it?).

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From yesterday’s INQ7.net Infotech article:

The University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City, is getting a 500 million pesos budget to set up the country’s version of “Silicon Valley,” a ranking House leader said Monday.

Finally, the Philippines’ premier state university gets what it deserves.

Villafuerte said the Diliman hub would serve as the national center for research and development in the natural and applied sciences, and mathematics.

Let’s see what role the UP Diliman Department of Computer Science shall play should this Diliman Silicon Valley lift off in the (hopefully near) future.