Tedmac's Word for the Day: RSS Feeds

The icon can be seen almost anywhere else on the web, in blogs, wikis, commercial web sites. But  many of us don't know the real name, purpose and function of it. The icon is the RSS Feed icon. RSS stands for  Really Simple Syndication  which is used to publish various web works and media — such as blog, news, video or audio in a standard form, usually in a tabular, enumerated form. The list may include the title of the item, the author and the dates. The purpose of the RSS Feeds is for the web surfers to view updates on related topics, likewise, it's beneficial to the publishers or the web owners for it is a source of additional information on the content of the web and adds traffic going to their website. So now, once you click on the RSS Feeds icon, expect that you will be redirected to a list of related topics.

Tedmac's Techno Tips & Tricks: Tips on laptop battery

Laptop battery can only last for sometime. The only thing you can do is maybe extending it for a little more time. This is true for all types of battery – high-end Lithium-ion, Nickel Cadmium (NiCad) or nickel-metal hydride (NiMH). Aside from a common practice of using the original or right charger and the right specifications, a regular dose of full-discharge and recharge, maybe once a week is also recommended. It’s also a good practice to avoid direct heat or exposing your battery to sunlight. If you are using your laptop for a long period of time, for an 8-hour office work, it’s good if you fully charged your battery and then remove it from your laptop (see proper instruction on removing the battery). Next is to connect your laptop to your adapter and continue with your usual work, as if your battery is taking a needed rest.

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Post your own Techno Tips and Tricks

As a treat and an introduction to our new segment, Tedmac's Techno Tips and Tricks (4T), we are inviting everybody to post and share their own simple tips and/or tricks here. You can select your own topic as long as it is information technology related. Keep your tips and tricks posting as short as possible but direct to the point. Also bear in mind that our purpose is to help people with their techno problems and not to add more problems, so make sure that what you are posting here is certified good and correct. Good luck guys and thank you.

Tedmac's Techno Tips and Tricks (4T)

We will be starting a regular segment. It will be called Tedmac’s Techno Tips and Tricks (4T). It will feature tips and tricks on various information technology fields. Practical tips and tricks that can be used for our daily encounters with various technologies, gadgets, computers, printers, cellphones, other high-tech devices and even programming and softwares. Readers are also encouraged to share and post or email their tips and tricks to tedmac.ucc@gmail.com.

How to prevent computer related injuries

(Discussion below is derived from and is owned and a copyright of www.healthcaremagic.com, following a discussion here before on related injuries common to I.T. professional or simply computer users. Hope it will be a guide for us, IT professionals and of course our students, for us not to suffer the injuries and illnesses.)

Computer related injuries:
Long periods of working at a computer can increase the chance of developing an injury. Muscle and joint pain, overuse injuries of the upper limbs and eyestrain can result from inappropriate computer use. The risks can be reduced or eliminated with proper work space design, improved posture and good working habits

Posture related injuries:
Back and neck pain, headaches, and shoulder and arm pain are common computer-related injuries. Such muscle and joint problems can be caused or made worse by poor workstation design, bad posture and sitting for extended periods of time due to reduction in circulation to the muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments and can result in stiffness and pain.


Prevention of muscle and joint injuries:
• Use an adjustable desk designed for use with computers
• Position the monitor so that it is either at eye level or slightly lower
• Position your keyboard at a height that allows your elbows to rest comfortably at your side
• Forearms should be roughly parallel with the floor and level with your keyboard
• Adjust your chair so that your feet rest flat on the floor
• Use a footstool if your feet do not rest on the floor
• Switch to an ergonomic chair, which helps your spine to naturally hold its curve while sitting
• Use an ergonomic keyboard to offer your hands and wrists a more natural holding position
• Take frequent short breaks and go for a walk or perform stretching exercises at your desk or Stand often


Prevention of upper limb related injuries:
Muscles and tendons can become painful with repetitive movements and awkward postures and symptoms of overuse injuries in the upper limbs include pain, swelling, and stiffness of the joints, weakness and numbness
• Keep your mouse at the same height as your correctly positioned keyboard
• Position the mouse as close as possible to the side of the keyboard
• Use your whole arm, not just your wrist, when using the mouse
• Type lightly and gently
• Mix your tasks to avoid long, uninterrupted stretches of typing
• Remove the hands from the keyboard when not actively typing, to allow the arms to relax

Prevention of Eye strain:
Focusing your eyes at the same distance point for extended periods of time causes fatigue
• Make sure your primary light source is not shining into your face or directly onto the monitor
• Tilt the monitor slightly to eliminate reflections or glare
• Make sure your computer screen is not too close to your face
• Position the screen so that it is either at eye level or slightly lower
• Reduce the contrast and brightness of your screen by adjusting the controls on the monitor
• Frequently look away from the screen and focus on faraway objects
• Have regular eye examinations to check that blurring, headaches and other associated problems are not caused by any underlying disorders


Prevention in children:
Parents can reduce the risk of children developing computer-related injuries by
• Setting up the computer, desk, chair and keyboard to suit your child
• Install a smaller mouse that contours to the child’s hand
• Show your child how to use the keyboard and mouse properly and safely
• Encourage frequent breaks
• Reasonably limit your child’s game-playing time
• Make sure your child has enough time for other activities, such as sport


Prevention of laptop related injuries:
The growing use of laptop computers has increased the rate of pains, strains and injuries among computer users
• Use peripheral equipment whenever possible such as a docking station, separate keyboard, mouse and laptop stands
• Have frequent breaks
• Use a well set up desktop computer instead of a laptop where appropriate
• Carry your laptop in a backpack or in wheel-along luggage

Google AdSense vs. Easy-to-implement Ads

It’s almost always that I received emails (spam or not) discussing income generating scheme through internet. Blah, blah, blah. Making money just by going to a certain website, clicking this and that, answering survey questions and viewing this and that. Getting a couple of cents to a couple of dollars just by doing simple clicks is really a head-turner.

I’ve started personal blogging 2 years ago (still not integrating those internet income generating schemes) but it came to an early end. Now I’m back (for 10 days now). It is that I’m planning to introduce (maybe through a seminar in line with other topics like Joomla) blogging and making some income to my students and some other individuals.

I’m scanning a couple of internet-based ads now, testing and integrating it to my new personal blog (Blogger, Multiply and Wordpress). Some are successfully implemented but some are very hard to. Google Adsense is one hard-headed ads, so difficult to integrate. Error messages or issues are really hard to understand, even if you read tons of manual not to mention the long wait (more than a week). It’s just so vague. But some others, like Infolinks, Kontera and AdBrite, are really a few-clicks away to money-making, for just a day or two of approval. Having this easy-to-implement ads (in-line or banner ads) is really a help as compared to playing hard-to-get competitor.

Tedmac's Word for the Day: ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), first used by research company Gartner. is the integration of modern technology in business processes and operations like accounting, human resources, inventory, manufacturing and sales. ERP is basically a compilation of business applications but one of the most important criteria is that it should be using a centralized database and a common flatform. Having a common database usually prevents redundant data.

When I first encountered the term, it really shook me in the head, wondering what my client really wanted, and thus pushed me to go through some research and asking some colleagues. By its simple definition we can have a simple example. A human resource system and a payroll system, combined together using a common database and having modules with the same look and feel can be called an ERP.

Tedmac's Word for the Day: IaaS

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is another business model or form of Cloud Computing. In this model, the client can use the infrastructure (computer hardware equipment) of a service provider over the internet as if the hardware is within the client's site.

Hardware may include computer servers, network and other hardware like data storage devices. Running, upgrading and maintenance of the hardware is no longer a problem for the client but for the service provider. The client will just have to pay on a per-use basis just like in a telephone service.

Infrastructure as a Service is sometimes called Hardware as a Service (HaaS) model.

Tedmac's Word for the Day: SaaS

SaaS or Software as a Service is basically a form of Cloud Computing. In this scenario, the software applications, which is mostly business applications, are being run over the internet (the cloud) using an ordinary internet browser.

In a usual setup, all of our software applications (for example word processors, spreadsheets) are first to be installed with in our computer (hard disk) before we can run it. In the setup of SaaS, there is no need for us to install the program in our hard disk, just go to the website of the application service provider (ASP), and from there, you run the application.

There are providers that are offering free SaaS but there are also pay-per-use basis, meaning, just like with your electricity, you pay for the what you have consumed. One noted advantage of SaaS is that there is no need for the end-user to buy the license of the software. Everything is the problem of the the application service provider.

Tedmac's Word for the Day: Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is simply Internet-based computing. In figures or drawing, internet is usually represented by drawing a cloud symbol, thus the name goes.



In cloud computing, the user is accessing the technology or service (a program for example) from the internet using an internet browser. In its most common form, for example, Google Apps (www.google.com/apps) provides common business applications like word processor or spreadsheets. To create a document, a user will simply go to the site of Google Apps and from there, run the word processor application. This means that there is no need for that user to install on his local computer the said application. All the softwares and data are stored on the internet service provider's servers.

Tedmac's Word for the Day: CMS

A content management system (CMS) is a system used to facilitate easy management, revision storage and retrieval or publishing of data. Data ranges from a simple text documents to music, movies and pictures. CMS also allows multiple users to work on one particular system depending on their roles such as administrator or editor.

A CMS used for the purpose of managing web content is called Web Content Management Systems (WCM). Sample of these are Joomla!, Wordpress and Drupal.

Tedmac's Word for the Day (TWD)

It is a usual day where I visit our I.T. students during their class. Its always been my commitment to ensure the delivery of learning. One problem that I noticed from our students is their inability to identify or understand advanced information technology terminologies, for some reason or another. Maybe simply because it is outside of their subject matter or the lack of interest on their part.

In line with this, starting today, I will be opening a regular segment called "Tedmac's Word for the Day" (TWD). I will be discussing information technology terms straightforward and maybe adding some figures and movies to make the discussion more interesting especially to students.

Tedmac's Word for the Day: SEO

If you are a wide reader, maybe SEO is familiar. But mind you, there are lots of IT professionals who didn't knew what SEO is.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. True to what it stands for, it's a system for improving the visibility of your web site in search engines like of those of Google, Yahoo and MSN. The idea started way back late 90's, where companies and organizations began optimizing their web pages. Practically, SEO is a marketing strategy, you improve your site in the search engines to increase your visibility and therefore increase sales.

Technically, search engines send a "spider" to "crawl" that your web page, another program "index" the content (such as words) and then extract links to other pages from it.

Now, as a SEO professional, you basically do some manipulations and or programming to incorporated changes into your web site development and design. As of now, may IT consulting companies are concentrating on the SEO products and services catering from a simple blogs to multinational companies.

4T: Buying an IPAD or a laptop or a netbook?

The video was downloaded from Youtube dated January, 2010. The average local price of an Ipad now (based on some online local store) ranges from P30,000 to more than P50,000 depending on the specifications, especially memory (just like how they priced the ipod and ipod touch), and wifi and 3G technology. Is it worth it?

Late last year, I planned to buy my 3rd laptop (actually, I wanted a netbook, because of its size and weight). I really wanted a little less weight in my backpack. I've canvassed a couple of brands and models and styles. That includes tablet PCs from HP, Lenovo and Qube. I really wanted to be unique and maybe, a tablet PC will do the trick. Price during that time ranges from a little below P30,000 to as high as P70,000, depending on the specifications and brand of course. Practically, price is one of my limitations. I can only afford P30,000 and below, and so, I planned to buy the less-significant brand, but still, can be used for most of my daily I.T. work, a fairly sized hard disk and a significant memory. But, in the end, because the one model that I really wanted is out of stock (and I really need one) I was opted to buy an ordinary-common netbook.

Now, the first question is, what is it the one you really need - the style, the functionality, the brand, the model, the technical specifications or the limitations in terms of budget?

Another UCC I.T. BIG TIME Seminar...?

It's almost midnight, and I am about to sleep.

Today is the first day for Center for UCC's Best Entertainers' (CUBE) Musical Play at the Ever Gotesco Grandcentral Cinema 1. It is a first time that University of Caloocan City (UCC) performed in a big venue like a cinema. Wow! Going big time.

I've lots of planned seminars. For three (3) consecutive years, UCC I.T Department had been conducting information technology seminars in 5-star hotels like Pan Pacific and Sofitel for its senior students. Surely you can say it's big time.

I was invited numerous times as a speaker for an I.T. event, with venues ranging from a small class room, a hall, an open court, an auditorium, but never in a big cinema. WHY NOT?

University of the Philippines (UP) will be having its annual Youth For I.T (Y4IT) Event this September at UP Theater. It came to my mind why not also have an open-invitation, open to everybody, not only to UCC I.T. student, another BIG-TIME seminar to be held in one big cinema, with more or less a thousand attendees (as a starter).

WHY NOT?... But first, it's time to think of one BIG TIME topic... Hmmm...

UCC IT trip 2010

Learning should not be limited within the corners of our classrooms.

The UCC IT Department is now in focus for the forthcoming I.T. Lakbay Aral set this September 20 (main campus) and September 27 (camarin campus). Again, we are scheduled to visit companies where we can expose our I.T. students in the actual technical aspects of the various electronic and computer-based technologies, I.T. professions, real industry situations and processes. The event will be highlighted by our team-building activities in one of Laguna's resort. Team assignment is now posted for references. Points from the team-building activities will be carried over to the much awaited Mini-Sports Olympics comes 2nd Semester. It's just unfortunate that our freshmen will not be joining us during the trip due to some conflicts.

Alumni are welcome to join...

Major,,, Major... Wanna try to answer it?

"What is one big mistake you've made and what did you do to make it right?"...

This is the famous question for Miss Philippines Venus Raj and the rest of the TOP 5 of the recently concluded Miss Universe contest...

So, do you wanna try answering it? ...

Joomla ...

- Is a free and open source Content Management System (CMS)...

- Is a model–view–controller (MVC) Web application framework
- Is written in PHP
- stores data in MySQL
- includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization.

Joomla is coming...

As promised and a requirement/commitment in attending the European IT Service Center (EITSC) Seminar, I'm finalizing my Joomla presentation for a series of seminars for the faculty and staff of UCC I.T. Department.
I'm still collecting additional samples, write-ups, tips and tricks and some comparison to other same-category applications like Wordpress and Drupal. I'm also planning to post the same lecture here so better watch out for it.

CUBE's musical...

The Center for UCC's Best Entertainers (CUBE) will be having it's next round of stage play starting this Sunday (Aug. 29, 2010) entitled "Pamana ng Musika" at the Cinema 1 of the Gotesco Grand Central, Monumento, Caloocan City. This is a follow-up on the successful "Bonifacio" stage play held last year at Valenzuela City. Good luck and congratulations in advanced to all the people behind the event especially to Dr. Bernadette B. Enriquez who heads the Cultural Affairs of the University of Caloocan City.

Oh! Joomla! My Joomla!...

Still with the EITSC Seminar series... I was the one who attended the Creating Powerful and Dynamic Websites Using Joomla Seminar and the Joomla Extensions Seminar.

It was not the first time I've learned about Joomla but it is the most comprehensive. In two days time, we were ask to create two (2) fully functional dynamic websites with all the nitty-gritty parts from Login to RSS feed to adding specialized extensions.

Many thanks to our instructor, Sir Omar F. Abesamis and to all the participants from different schools: University of Makati, UPITTC, Rizal Technological University, Cavite State University, Tarlac State U, Pampanga, and others.

Joomla is indeed a technology worth studying for and it is almost sure now that our graduating I.T. students will have Joomla for the coming 2nd Semester.

EITSC Seminar Series...

It's a good thing that we were invited by University of the Philippines I.T. Technology Center (UPITTC) and University of Makati (UMAK) to participate in a series of seminars sponsored by the European I.T. Service Center (EITSC) and Hanns Seidel Foundation.

The series of seminars is FREE for all professors from the state colleges and universities (SUCs) and local colleges and universities (LCUs). Seminar topics includes Outsourcing Management, I.T. Project Management , Joomla, Advanced I.T. Project Management, Software Engineering, Cyber Security and Advanced Excel. The seminar runs from July to October of 2010.

Professors from the UCC CS Department who were task to participate in the seminars are required to conduct echo-seminar and/or impart the learning in their own classes. This is still in line with the policy of the department to produce technically competent I.T. professional in the future.