Crimson Crux

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.

[Ed. note: This is courtesy of the first, and possibly only, guest writer for Crimson Crux -- Ia Lucero of Qwerky. Take it away, Ia.]

I’ll be straight. This article caught my eye simply because it was about software. I saw several good things mentioned in it, including:

1. Favoring fresh graduates instead of requiring at least two years of experience
2. Being involved with open source applications
3. Founding an incubator firm with a Filipino name (”Simula Labs”)

But this one left a mark:

“Another Philippine-based software firm, Exist Engineering, is now working with local universities to design courses that will prepare fresh graduates for a software engineering job at the company.”

And I just had to protest. (more…)

The best manifestation of the computing power of video game chips? Interesting, especially to hardcore console gamers, I suppose.

According to ACM TechNews:

IBM has won a contract from the Department of Energy to develop a peta-scale supercomputer powered by 16,000 Cell chips. The system, due to be completed in 2008, will cost a projected $110 million. The selection of the Cell chip, which originally was jointly designed with Sony and Toshiba for video games and animation, is an indication of how the computer industry is increasingly shaped by technologies that were initially developed for home and consumer uses.

Hmm…the Cell processor. Does PlayStation 3 ring a bell? Read the full New York Times article (registration required, but free).

If you ask me, I think it’s impossible to declare one piece of software as king over all others…but heck, that’s how it goes with everything in life. Everybody’s got their bets on what/who gets to be on top. But saying “heck, that’s how it goes with everything in life” is the easy way out, too.

Fortunately, Charles Babcock of InformationWeek unflinchingly barrels through the slew of great software made through the decades and arrives at a tough decision. Among the heavyweights he considered were Java, Google’s page-ranking search application, the Morris worm, and the first Apple Mac OS.

In the end, Babcock arrived at one champion, which is…

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A few minutes ago, I just watched CNN report this historic ‘upheaval’ (is it too strong a word?) in astronomy and the whole of science, and I’m now convinced of one thing: I am getting old. While I went to grade school to learn that there are 9 planets in the solar system, my kids will be memorizing the number 8.

Many astronomers have said it was inevitable, while loyalists have pleaded for the status quo…and now it’s settled. Pluto has been stripped of planetary status by the International Astronomical Union; August 24, 2006 is now a date that will live in infamy glory as the day when the solar system was downsized.

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Remember UP ACM, the Filipino student organization who made the news last year after winning two of the five ACM International Student Chapter Excellence Awards? Well, I’ve got some news for you.

UP ACM has done it again!

The organization has won the 2005-2006 Excellence Award for Outstanding Community Service, the same category it won last year. (more…)

Well, what can we expect? Of course it hurts to accept that fact, more so when you’re within the ICT industry. You might not feel it if you’re studying in a Wi-Fi hotspot-blessed university or frequently visit classy malls and cafes, but many tech-savvy Pinoys have experienced this national deficiency firsthand. Heck, even the best Internet services offered in the country come at exorbitant charges or suffer from frustrating quality and customer support.

An article from last week’s The Philippine Star reports that out of 115 countries, the Philippines ranks 70th in ICT networked readiness. This is based on the 2005-2006 report of the World Economic Forum. As expected, the US topped the list, and Singapore lorded it over its Southeast Asian neighbors (coming in at #2 overall).

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“Multiplayer games may be the best kind of training.”

This is the gist of a Wired Magazine article written by John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas, interestingly titled You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!.

So who says gaming’s only for dorks and awkward bums? Vast experience in the world’s biggest MMORPG (see related article at WoW Gold Source) helped this guy land a lucrative job at Yahoo!:

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