by magnolia_eic | Feb 26, 2010 | Tech Talk
BIT-International College has recently engaged Auza.Net to implement its website and email system, and plans to launch it late this month with website URL www.bitic.edu.ph. The college also implemented Google Apps Education Edition as its platform for email, shared documents and collaboration among its faculty, staff and students. An initial group of users are already using Google Apps to send and receive email with personalized email addresses that utilize the official domain name of BIT-IC.
Google Apps Education Edition allows BIT-IC to implement a reliable platform for official communications without the need to build their own infrastructure. Each account can use up to 7GB of email and shared documents. In the coming semesters, Auza.Net will assist BIT-IC in implementing Google Apps to its students by providing the training, account management and technical support.
BIT-IC has taken a bold step towards the future by adopting Google Apps, an emerging technology in the Software As A Service or SAAS industry. By allowing their students to use this technology as they complete their courses, the college is giving them an opportunity to learn new ways of collaborating which is very important in a society that relies on information and knowlege.
Auza.Net can help educational institutions implement Google Apps Education Edition. Learn how your school can take advantage of a reliable communications platform without the technical headaches. Contact us at info@auza.net or call us at 038-501-7931 or 038-501-8459.
by magnolia_eic | Feb 26, 2010 | Tech Talk
Auza.Net completed its upstream network upgrade on February 19, 2010 when its 32MB capacity fiber optic link to the Internet was activated. Now with generous capacity available, Auza.Net will be able to provide to more clients its Dedicated Internet access service. Coupled with its carrier grade wireless mesh network, the company can deploy Internet service in a large area covering Tagbilaran, Panglao, Dauis, Baclayon and parts of Albur.
In the next few months, the company will proceed with implementation of additional network optimizations to improve service among its existing clients. These will allow Auza.Net to serve additional shared bandwidth clients while improving overall network performance.
Dedicated Internet service is required for real time applications like VOIP and video that requires high quality reception that is suited for call centers and other business applications. It is also ideal for large user environments with multiple users like universities and government offices. Applications that need to run in a virtual private network or VPN is also supported by Auza.Net because it can provide static public IP addresses that these applications need.
Shared service allows low cost Internet access by spreading the cost of the service across multiple clients who will share the bandwidth available. However, during peak hours, this service may be congested and would significantly degrade VOIP and video applications. For ordinary Internet access use though, shared service is sufficient and is affordable. Applications that cannot tolerate congestion would require the Dedicated service.
Contact Auza.Net at 501-7931 or 501-8459 or email us at info@auza.net to get more information about its Internet access service.
by magnolia_eic | Feb 12, 2010 | Business, Features, Tech Talk
Google Apps (http://www.google.com/apps) is a free email and collaboration service provided by Google for small organizations. The email system is based on Gmail, a lightweight and dynamic web application. The collaboration platform includes shared documents, chat, calendar and other useful software. Google Apps has been around for a few years and was a free service for all domains until early 2009. Now, it is free only for domains with 50 or less accounts. If the domain owner needs more users, he has to subscribe to the Premium service. Educational institutions, however, can still get Google Apps for free for an unlimited number of students.
Google is able to give this service for free because it is able to earn revenues from the ads that it displays along with the email application. The good thing is that the ads shown are not obtrusive and will not distract the user. Also, the free edition is subsidized by the premium edition which includes more power features as well as a 25GB storage space for emails.
SMEs in Bohol should take advantage of Google Apps because it allows them to have their very own email name on their own domain name. For marketing and communicating with vendors and customers, an email address like info@mycompany.com looks more prestigious and professional than info_mycompany@yahoo.com or info_mycompany@msn.com. And why not? It is free and configuration is included in Auza.Net’s website development and hosting service.
Email Auza.Net at info@auza.net or call our sales office at 038-501-8459.
by magnolia_eic | Feb 12, 2010 | Election 2010, Features, Opinion, Tech Talk
The May 2010 elections is the first time that counting of ballots will be automated by the COMELEC. The system is now practical with the availability of cellular service throughout most of the country. It has many advantages over the manual process but many are concerned if it will really eliminate cheating.
The Automated Elections main advantage is that it eliminates many steps taken in the past where where manipulation can happen resulting to “dagdag-bawas”.
By automating the counting, the system eliminates the tedious and very error-prone manual counting process. The public school teachers should really be happy that they don’t have to deal with it after everyone has voted because at the end of the voting period, the counting is also done because the votes are recorded as soon as the machine accepts the ballot from the voter. All voters should feed their ballots to the machine directly and not through someone else, to ensure that your ballot will not be replaced.
By automating the submission of the results to a central location, the system eliminates another error-prone and easy to manipulate procedure. In the past, the ballot count is submitted by the precincts to the municipal or city hall and then aggregated. Then the provincial results are aggregated up to the national level. It takes quite some time before the ballot count is eventually consolidated on the national level, and this gives the manipulators a lot of time to do their magic tricks. Now, the individual counting machines can submit their results to the national level on a near real-time basis thus preventing any count manipulation or errors in between the precinct and the aggregation center.
The automated system also includes audit trails which allow the authorized persons to trace any suspicious changes on the system and identify the culprit. In the manual procedure, there is limited audit trail capability, if any.
Electronic jamming systems would be impractical to setup on a scale that can significantly affect the results and may be futile because the system uses cellular service which has its own interference mitigation capability. To be effective at jamming the transmission, you would need to have a jamming system per precinct that is always on all the time. Anytime you turn it off and the automated counting machine can have a chance to send its data and it only takes a few seconds to send all the data in the machine’s memory. The best it could do is probably delay the transmission but not totally prevent it.
The technology that will be used in the May 2010 elections would certainly make it very difficult to manipulate results unless you are able to access the system directly with the proper user privileges. But even that would not be straightforward because the data storage technology used in systems like this store data in multiple copies and have multiple backups taken at regular periods stored in multiple locations. And COMELEC for sure would be wise enough to have a few of these locations undisclosed just in case the known locations are compromised.
Cheating would be very difficult to orchestrate with the automated counting system implemented. But there are still many ways to manipulate votes like vote-buying and coercion. So each Filipino should value his vote and consider it a sacred right guaranteed by the constitution of the Philippines in order to prevent or minimize this kind of manipulation. — J. Auza
by anyajulia | May 11, 2009 | Features, Tech Talk
On May 7, 2009, MSI Philippines officially launched the MSI XSlim X340. The X340 is the thinnest notebook coming out of its XSeries line. To strike a balance between performance and battery life, MSI chose an Intel ULV proccessor instead of an Atom.
The following are its specifications:
* Intel Core 2 Solo ULV SU3500 @ 1.4GHz
* 13.4″ TFT LCD (1366×768 pixels)
* GMA 4500MDH
* 250GB/320GB/500GB SATA HDD
* 2GB DDR2 RAM
* 1.3MP webcam
* WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
* 2-in-1 card reader
* an external DVD Super-Multi drive
* Bluetooth 2.0
* 2 x USB 2.0 ports
* 1 D-Sub (VGA)
* 4 or 8 cell battery
* weighs 1.3kg (2.87 lbs)
* an optional WiMax 802.16e wireless
Reports earlier says, the X340 will be priced at Php49,999.
Sources:
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/personal-computing/msi-xslim-x340-launched-and-priced/
http://www.electronicpulp.net/2009/02/24/msi-x-slim-x340-handled-and-previewed-in-photos/
by anyajulia | Apr 21, 2009 | Headlines, National News, Tech Talk
HINGPIT na nga natugyan sa pribadong sector ang sa Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) ang pagdecommission sa 225-megawatt nga Bataan Thermal Power Plant (BTPP).
Pinaagi sa transaksyong negotiated sale nga natibawas sa PSALM, ang BTPP maoy ika tulo ka plantang na decommission subay sa laraw sa privatization.
Usa ka nag-inusarang bidder, matud sa PSALM ang mitahan sa iyang bid sa tagal nga gipahimutang.
Mitanyag ug $2.859M ang Rubenori, nga nakapasar usab sa presyo nga gitala sa PSALM Board.
Ang pagkahalin naglakip usab sa tanang istraktura, ekipo sa planta, ug uban pang kagamitan gawas sa yuta nga gitukoran niining planta. (rachiu/PIA)
