Belenismo sa Tarlac

Belenismo sa Tarlac is a yearly spectacle and competition in the province of Tarlac that showcases colorful and artistically-made belens (or nativity scenes). Across the whole province, government office, commercial shops, schools and malls have installed belens of different themes, sizes, shapes and materials. The use of environmentally-friendly and biodegradable materials.

The PNP Station based in Gerona is the perennial winner but the belen in Capas grabbed the 1st prize for 2009. I myself was amazed how dried corns have been assembled to create human-like images of the characters in the nativity scene.

Here are some photos taken around the Tarlac city:

A post in Maria Cristina Park, Tarlac City


A belen in SSS Tarlac City



Dulaang Tarlac

Microsoft's Bing is doing a Google

First, it was the search engine. now Bing is replicating another Google effort this time via the StreetSide. That goes to show how the Seattle-based company is trying to beat the prominent resident Mountain View, California. Google has the Street View. Enumerating other Google apps like google docs, google earth, google analytics and others, it might just be a matter of time before MS come-up with counterparts. It's funny that there seems to be a reversal of roles. Before, closed source systems are matched with open source counterpart. Now, open source-oriented Google are being matched with an MS products.

One of the things i am hoping is that MS will match Google's adsense with the earning on ad clicks and page impressions twice or thrice more. Share the bills Bill!

Family Planning .... I am done!

It's been a good three month stint so far here in Tarlac for the Wireless Reach Project. Got to do many stuffs that i love doing but certainly new things to learn are sprouting along the way as well. I am in mood to discuss the development of the Family Planning module in CHITS.

The FP module in FHSIS is composed of around 11 modules (7 are natural methods, 4 are artifcial / 9 are for females,2 are for males). Guided by the original (readme: full of corrections) FHSIS manual, FP record sheet and the knowledge of PHO people, the FP module development is up for cooking. well, i am talking 3 months ago. now, i am almost done doing the programming part and starting to pull and demonstrate data via reports. Nonetheless, here are my learnings about FP in general.

1. there are 3 pop shops in Tarlac. Pop shop is a stall placed by a certain NGO in RHU's to sell pills and condoms. Pop shop caters FP clients. It promotes Frenzy over Trust condoms. Hehe.

2. A person cannot apply for an FP method if he/she does not have an identified spouse.They call it MAWRA or married women in reproductive age. But i understand that even unmarried couples can also apply.

3. FP is multi-factorial program. It involves social, physical, logistics and economic factors. And i forgot, spritual as well.

4. IUD is small 'T' wire inserted inside uterus. The aim is to block charging sperm cell entering in the danger zone. yet, i know one who uses IUD yet still got pregnant. whew, super-charged and adrenaline high sperm cells!

5. The derivation of contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) is done by deriving Current User, MaWra,etc. all we wanted to know is how well the population is using the FP in general.Phils has national rate of 55% of CPR. 55 out of 100 FP clients are religiously using the methods. the other 45 must be doing something natural to man.

6. when a condom was re-supplied with 10 packs of condoms and returns after 2 days to get another set, that would mean two things: 1. He's on his way to Guiness Book of Records for having most sex within a week OR 2. Earning something by selling the condoms.

Aside from typical reports that would show numbers, FP also involves logistics. the pho would want to have monitoring system of contraceptives and at the same time, a means to count the source of contraceptives.

FP, i believe, can be an advantage or disadvantage. If used properly, it can limit population growth and as such, lessens the demand for scarce resources. a disadvantage because it can be abused and might encourage pre-marital sex. Above anything else, the real essence of family planning is making sure that a family is living decently regardless of size. This is demonstrated with children going to school and well-nourished, husband and wife working hand-in-hand to support the family and the family itself has a good moral foundation.

Above the contraceptives, i think this is what the country needs more.

PS: I am thinking of doing a survey soon on the quality of various condoms in the market. Back to work.

The torrent sites went 2012

Yesterday, mininova.org went offline saying that they shall be conducting a regualr maintenance. When the site went back online, it appears that the massive list of torrents were trimmed down big time. The number of seeders, which before counts up to five digit (and we are not here of porn torrent), decreased drastically. A link at the top page of mininova.org mentioned something about limiting its services to just content distribution services.

What a sad day it has been. The web won't be the same way again without the good old mininova. Truly, mininova has been one of the safest and most reliable torrent sites around.

P2P and torrent is here to stay. While I agree that copyrights for movies, audio and books must be maintained, it doesn't hurt big time if major production outfits would released perhaps a "community version" ala Creative Commons in the open source world. It's good that open source products like Ubuntu have remained but only 1 Python E-book in mininova? That's crazy.

Isohunt.com, on the other hand, is battling it out on the court about the publication of copyrighted torrent. May they survive the latest challenge to the P2P world.

How to extend thy life

Simple, by following the health tips written below. I am 3 out of 6 on the list.

Picture was taken during CHITS Training in Orion, Bataan. Credit goes to the
Orion Rural Health Unit

Additional Quote for the day: Worry will make you hurry to cemetery.

Resolving Apache's apr_sockaddr_info() error

I just installed httpd (aka Apache) in Fedora Core 11 (Leonidas). I am planning a shift from Ubuntu to FC and trying to replicate the things I have been doing with former. The set up of httpd in FC 11 can be done via "sudo yum -y install httpd".

Unlike in many Debian-based distros, Apache web server does not necessarily run automatically. The command 'sbin/service httpd start'. It was noticed that during the process of initializing the apache web server, the error "apr_sockaddr_info() cannot be started, etc." was seen.

To resolve the issue, the command 'sudo hostname localhost' was issued. Apache was restarted and when http://localhost was accessed, voila ! there goes the web server's main page.

Operation SOPAS

"Sopas" is soup when translated in Filipino (and probably Spanish as well) is codename for my next programming project that I tend to implement using SaaS (Software as a Service). I just got reminded over this idea when Mike Mckay had asked me of any software projects that I would want to implement if only I have time. The technopreneural spirit became alive again. I can't divulged much of the idea yet but in involves multidisciplinary approach (pedagogy, marketing, health). I got reminded again how SaaS can be a powerful agent for rolling out IT projects over the web without much fuss in replicating it over and over again. Apps can be offered as "plain vanilla" or a customized version.

With SOPAS,I hope to have low-cost, high impact application that will ..... SaaS rules ! Curious peeps may email yours truly at darth_ali at yahoo dot com.

Honoring heroes

Last weekend, Manny "the paaacman!" Pacquiao made a history in the boxing world by capturing the an unprecedented 7th world title in 7 division. Such a feat for once the poor boy from southern Philippines. Yeah, Pacman is one of the best boxers of all time and a modern day pride for the Philippines. But one that I disagree for sure, Pacman is not a modern day hero.

I believe that to be qualified as a hero you must:

1. sacrificed something really important (i.e. opportunities, life) for the sake of many people and not expecting anything in return

2. have created an impacting and positive change

3. inspires people and brings out the best out of everyone

November is the month when the nation tends to commemorate the death anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, one of the great Filipino revolutionary. Currently, Efren Penaflorida of Dynamics Teen Company is an example of average individuals who can really make that big difference.

Modern day heroes can be seen to each and every Filipino who strives to make things better for others. I am not talking here of politicians though (bec it is your mandate to make things better with those large some of money from people's taxes). OFW's, health professionals especially those that are in public health, educators and teachers, rescuers, firemen, peace and order personnel, volunteer organizations and many others.

I would love to see another side of the cross in the Dambana ng Kagitingin showing heroism in the modern day era!