by magnolia_eic | Mar 6, 2010 | Local News / Bohol Balita, Tech Talk
Bohol is once again a host to a nationwide gathering of individuals, this time from the IT education sector.
The 12th Philippine Society of IT Educators National Convention was held last February 24-27, 2010 at the Bohol Plaza Resort and Restaurant, Dayo Hill, Mayacabac, Dauis, Bohol. An estimated 250 participants coming from all over Philippines attended the said convention.
A soft opening was held in the evening of February 24, 2010, with a talk from Intel, coupled with dance performances of HNU’s Diwanag Dance Theatre and Cultural Troupe.
The event formally opened in the morning of February 25, 2010 with HNU’s Himig Diwa rendering the invocation, the Lupang Hinirang and Awit sa Bohol. The event was graced with the presence of Atty. Handel Lagunay, the Bohol Provincial Administrator, giving the Welcome Remarks in behalf of Governor Erico Aumentado while the keynote message was given by Mr. Carlo Subido, the Business Development Manager of Intel Philippines.
There were plenary sessions on topics such as Flattening the IT Education Sphere, Addressing ICT Education Gap Through Partnership and Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME). There was also a presentation on Educating Voters: An ICT Challenge and on the ITE Undergraduate Thesis Project Framework. In between these talks were presentations from the different sponsors of the event. In the evening, the participants were entertained by a serenade from Himig Diwa and dance numbers from Dr. Cecilio Putong National High Sschool’s Bukang Liwayway, headed by Mr. Oscar Real.
The most awaited event was the JEDI (Java Education and Development Initiative) Night, which took place at Flushing Meadows in the evening of February 26, 2010. It has been a yearly activity during national conventions that Sun Microsystems would sponsor one evening filled with fun and surprises. Awards were given to JEDI supporters and to the JEDI Champion.
The convention culminated with a tour on February 27, 2010 to the famous Chocolate Hills and other tourist spots of Bohol, including a Loboc Cruise while taking their lunch.
The event was made possible through the sponsorship of Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Philippines, Intel Philippines, SAP, UP-ITTC, MacQuarie, EZWare, Globe Business, FastTrack and EC Council to name a few. Locally, Holy Name University, through the College of Computer Science, was the organizing partner of the said event. Special thanks is also extended to the Office of the Governor of Bohol, Bohol Quality Corporation, SLAO Art and Sign, Hangad Art and Design, DTI-Bohol and Auza.net for making the event a success!
by magnolia_eic | Mar 6, 2010 | Local News / Bohol Balita, Tech Talk
Auza.Net has released another free online service called PRCPassers.com (http://www.prcpassers.com), a fast search engine for names of board examinees who passed the PRC exams. It is still in its beta stage which means there are still improvements being done but the site is already usable by the general public. The service is unique compared to all other websites that publish lists of board exam passers because it is a real search engine where you simply type in the last, first or middle name or any combination of these and the results are shown immediately. The user is no longer required to click several links before finding the list of names which can take quite some time.
PRCPassers.com keeps an index of the board exam passers allowing for a very fast search, while providing the user a link to the official results on the PRC website so the results can be verified. In contrast, the other websites that publish the board exam results simply copy the data and republish them.
The search engine is a customized WordPress plugin that includes a very fast search algorithm developed specifically for this type of index. It also performs the indexing everytime a new list of board exam passers are published by the PRC. Even though the plugin performs complicated functions, the development period was relatively short, a total of 5 working days only. This is because the developer only had to develop the functions that are specific to the search engine. All other functions like authentication and database abstraction are already handled by WordPress (http://www.wordpress.org), a very popular content management system.
Click here to visit www.prcpassers.com
by magnolia_eic | Mar 6, 2010 | Election 2010, Headlines, National News
THE board of election inspectors (BEIs) who will serve on election day will be given copies of the list of the alleged double and multiple registrants for the 2010 polls.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson James Jimenez said that there will be a watchlist so that the BEIs will be alert and they can check if a voter has already voted in other places.
Once the watchlist is out, Comelec will be issuing guidelines on the use of the watchlist.
Under the law, the latest registration of the double and multiple registrants will be honored by the poll body.
Jimenez also assured that the commission is not negligent towards the issue and the cleansing of voters that was earlier cited by the Philippine Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
Poll watchdog PPCRV earlier said there are about 40,000 duplicate voters in Davao City. Almost 1,000 are meanwhile alleged to be zombie voters.
The Comelec official admitted though that dead citizens who are still part of the voters list are quite difficult to track.
Comelec will soon be launching a page on its home website where people can report to the commission there dead relatives. The webpage will be helping to further cleanse the list of voters. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Mar 6, 2010 | Election 2010, Headlines, National News
FOR the first time in the country’s election history, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will put up special polling precincts in detention cells to uphold the rights of the inmates to vote on May 10.
Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the special polling precincts in the detention facilities will be manned by Special Board of Election Inspectors.
The Comelec, in Resolution 09-005, upheld the right to vote of detainees and prisoners in national prisons, provincial, city and municipal jails and other government detention facilities on May 10.
The resolution granted the petition of the Commission on Human Rights to establish special polling places complete with Special Board of Election Inspectors in municipal, district, city and provincial jails with at least 100 registered inmates.
Sarmiento said that if a jail has less than a hundred inmates who have registered, they will have to apply for escorted voting to enable them to vote in polling centers found in public schools.
According to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, of 50,000 inmates awaiting trial across the country, only 23,657 have registered for the May 10 polls. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Mar 5, 2010 | Headlines, National News
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said on Wednesday that it has exceeded its tax collection goal from operation last month by P3 billion.
BIR Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres said the country’s main tax collection agency generated P44.9 billion tax revenue from operation in February, higher by 8.3 percent compared to P41.43 billion goal for the month.
Tan-Torres told reporters on the sidelines of Philippine Economic Briefing that they are still expecting P2 billion to P3 billion in the coming days, so likely they will be exceeding their overall target by P3 billion in February.
Tan-Torres also said tax collection from the sale of Treasury bills, meanwhile, is still short by P1 billion against the target of P4 billion.
Overall, he said the BIR, which accounts for more than 75 percent of the national government’s revenue, is still short of target for February by P1.04 billion to P47.21 billion against the P48.252 billion target.
This has been the third straight month the BIR has exceeded its programmed collection since December last year. (PIA-Bohol)
