First Semester, the aftermath of ondoy...pepeng and ramil

At last, I survived the First Semester of my Third year. So, review lang po ako about the previous semester. First, masasabi kong medyo bitin ako sa first semester. Kasi, in my own perception e may mga topics na hindi naidiscuss sa amin kasi sa dami ng walang pasok at mga suspension of classes. Sayang, pero wala naman ako o tayong magagawa sa mga suspension of classes at mga walang pasok dahil natatapat naman kasi sa mga holidays. Speaking of suspension of classes, napuna ko na itong semester na ito e madami kaming walang pasok una at una pa lang noong dahil sa H1N1 spreadout sa Campus, almost 4 days yun. Then, sumunod yung national mourning dahil kay Tita Cory. Anjan na rin yung mga sunod-sunod na walang pasok na monday dahil sa mga national holidays at ang huli naman ay dahil kay Ondoy na kung saan naman ay na-stranded ako ng halos 15 hours sa bus.

In-review, iisa-isahin ko yung mga ginawa ko sa mga kinukuha kong mga subject this First Semester:

General Physics w/ Electronics Lec/Lab

Saturday Class - 12:30 to 6:30 PM

First, ok yung naging prof namin dito. Madami din akong nakuhang wealth of information sa kanya. Elibs nga ako sa prof ko kasi Physics Prof siya at the same time prosecutor siya ng mga military cases sa Ombudsman. Sulit naman mga pinasok ko every Saturday of First Semester. Noong Prelim, bumagsak ako sa kanya pero bumawi naman ako sa kanya ng Midterm and Finals.

Basic Accounting

Tuesday and Thursday - 12:30 to 2:00 PM

Mahirap sa una, pero dahil passionate sa amin yung naging prof namin at sa mga further explanations nya sa amin, naiintindihan ko ang accounting kahit paano. Importante kong natutunan sa accounting is yung accounting balance, yung T-Account, yung Account Cycle at Adjusting Journal Entries. Napakaimportante ang Adjusting Journal Entries kasi doon mo talaga malalaman yung tunay na Expense at Income mo.

Statistical Method (Math)

MWF - 9:00 to 10:00 AM

Nakakahiya, pero yung prof ko dito sa Statistical e naging kaklase ko dati sa PE (Badminton). Matalino siya, akalain kong maging prof ko siya? Halos kasabay ko siya kasi 2005XXXXX ang student number namin e. Anyways, ang importanteng natutunan ko sa Statistical Method is yung Statistical Inferrence at Sampling Techniques dahil magagamit daw namin siya sa Thesis.

Operating System Lec / Lab

Tuesday and Thursday - 9:00 to 10:00 AM

Friday - 3:00 to 6:00 PM

Maigi na lang at na-survive ko tong subject na ito. Ito ang nakapagpatunay sa akin na medyo mahina ako pag dating sa algorithm. Pero sa bandang huli, naiintindihan ko naman siya. Lalo na yung MLQ at MLFQ, kapag yun yung algorithm na pinapacompute sa amin sa one-half yellow pad, na-realize ko na pwede pala pagsamahin ang FCFS, SJF, ROUND ROBIN, Pre-emptive at Non-Preemptive Priority. Oo, medyo naintindihan ko siya, pero noong pinagawan kami ng project at iaaply na namin siya sa kahit anong platform, hirap kami, kaya naging gabay ko ang internet at nag-download ako ng sample program and codes. Somehow, nakagawa kami dahil naging guide namin yung sample program and code. Salamat sa Google! Hehehe! Wala e, ginawan ko na lang ng paraan kasi gahol sa oras due to a week suspension.

Advance Database Management System Lec/Lab

Tuesday and Thursday - 10:00 to 11:00 AM

Wednesday - 11:30 - 2:30 PM

Dito sa subject na ito nagka-idea ako sa MySQL. Hindi kasi naituro sa amin yung MySQL ng prof ko dati sa Dynamic Webpage Development e. Isa sa importante na natutunan ko dito sa ADBMS is first, yung normalization. Sabi ng naging prof namin dito, sa industry daw, hanggang third normal form lang daw. Tapos diniscuss sa amin kung ano yung Datawarehousing at saan siya ginagamit at siyempre ang SQL using MS SQL Enterprise Edition. Isa sa importante din pala na kapag ke-create ka ng tables ay dapat unahin mo yung table na walang foreign key hanggang sa table na may foreign key kasi nagkaka-error kasi kung di sunod-sunod yung ike-create mong table. Tapos, ihuhuli mo naman yung INSERT command.

Object Oriented Programming Lec/Lab

Tuesday and Thursday - 3:00 - 4:00 PM

Wednesday - 3:00 to 6:00 PM

Sa totoo lang, i Hate Java! Pero wala akong magagawa, kasama siya sa curriculum namin e. Anyways, di naman sa Java nagfofocus yung subject na ito e. Akala ko dati, ang OOP ay para lang sa Java, mali ako. Dahil kahit saang programming and scripting languages pala ay applicable siya. Iniisip ko rin dati kung para saan ba ang Object Oriented Programming? Sinadya ko talaga na hindi ito itanong sa professor namin dahil baka naman ituro sa amin ng paunti-unti at hanggang sa matutunan namin ang concept ng OOP. Para lang siyang Data Structure and Algorithm dahil umiikot ang OOP sa functions, procedure, class and methods. Kung tama yung pagkaunawa ko sa OOP, iniiwas ng OOP ang redundancy sa codings. I mean, mas proper kasi kung gagamitan mo ng method (getters and setter) ang isang code kung possible na mangangailangan ito ng parehas na coding. Sana, kapag gumagawa na kami ng thesis ay mai-apply ko o namin ang OOP. Isa sa mga nakita kong scripting and programming language na gumagamit ng OOP ay ang Wordpress, dahil everytime na nagda-download ako ng themes para sa wordpress ay naka-class yung mga php codes.

To be continued

Parang hirap ako ngayon, pero mapagcha-chagaan

Good day to everyone. Naka-third week na ako sa school at parang hirap ako sa OS. Speaking of OS, tungkol siya sa CPU Scheduling / Algorithm. Maigi na lang at approachable prof ko doon pero sa totoo lang naguguluhan ako sa turo niya. Noong una, naiintindihan ko kasi wala pang idle time kapag sinasagutan yung Gantt Chart sa FCFS. Sabi ng prof ko, isa sa madaling scheduling ang FCFS. OO, naniniwala naman akong madali kapag hindi laktaw-laktaw ang arrival time niya pero kung laktaw at kapag hindi nag-match ang RQ at sa dulo ng gantt chart e mali na ang computation sa AveTT at AveWT. Pero sa tingin ko, kakayanin ko to kasi nagpa-photocopy ako ng module ng prof ko sa OS.

Vectoring your Photos

Here are some useful links on how to vector your Photos using Photoshop.

Learn How to make your Own Vector Portraits

Create a High Contrast, Artistic Portrait

Cool and easy vector portraits!

Vector Art with Photoshop

Create a Vector Style Illustration in Photoshop

XHTML, why not HTML?

XHTML, the standard, was first released back in 2000. Roughly five years later we begin to see major websites revised to use this standard. Even the favorite whipping boy of standards-compliance punditry, Microsoft, presents their primary homepages, msn.com and microsoft.com in XHTML. Standards compliant XHTML sites are still the minority. The reason is simple. When the W3C released the new standard, the rest of the web running on HTML did not cease to function. Nor will the rest of the web, written in various flavors of HTML, cease to function any time soon. Without any pressing need to conform to the new standard, designers continue to use old, familiar methods. These methods will perform in any modern browser, so why bother switching?

These sentiments are similar to ones I experienced. A kind of "if it's not broke, don't fix it" mentality sets in. Whether HTML was "broken" or not is a different argument. To the casual Internet user, their standards are fairly direct. If a site displays without noticeable error and functions to their satisfaction, these standards are met. Whatever additional steps the browser took to make such display possible is irrelevant to most users. This kind of mentality is difficult to overcome in designers accustomed to their old methods.

Technical obstacles to adopting XHTML may be quite steep as well, especially as regards large, existing websites with complex scripting. Yet the time may eventually come where yesterday's "tried and true" HTML is little more than an ancient language, unable to be interpreted by modern electronic devices. Whether one agrees with the direction the W3C takes in the development of HTML is irrelevant, you are just along for the ride. With some perseverance, getting the hang of XHTML is possible. In form, it is not as different from HTML as Japanese is from English. Knowing HTML grants a basic knowledge of the language, it simply becomes a matter of learning a particular dialect. Even an original nay-sayer such as myself managed to do it.

Benefits of XHTML
There are 2 primary benefits to using XHTML. First is the strict nature of valid XHTML documents. "Valid" documents contain no errors. Documents with no errors can be parsed more easily by a browser. Though the time saved is, admittedly, negligible from the human user's point of view, there is a greater efficiency to the browser's performance. Most modern browsers will function well in what's usually referred to as "quirks" mode, where, in the absence of any on-page information about the kind of HTML they are reading, present a "best guess" rendering of a page. The quirks mode will also forgive many errors in the HTML. Modern browsers installed on your home computer have the luxury of size and power to deal with these errors. When browser technology makes the leap to other appliances it may not have the size and power to be so forgiving. This is where the strict, valid documents demanded by the XHTML standard become important.

The second benefit is in the code itself, which is cleaner and more compact than common, "table" based layout in HTML. Though XHTML retains table functionality, the standard makes clear tables are not to be used for page layout or anything other than displaying data in a tabular format. This is generally the primary obstacle most designers have with moving to XHTML. The manner in which many designers have come to rely on to layout and organize their pages is now taboo. Simple visual inspection of XHTML code reveals how light and efficient it is in comparison to a table based HTML layout. XTHML makes use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which, when called externally, remove virtually all styling information from the XHTML document itself. This creates a document focused solely on content.

XHTML makes use of "div" tags to define content areas. How these "divisions" are displayed is controlled by CSS. This is known as CSS-P, or CSS Positioning. Trading in "table" tags for "divs" can be tough. Learning a new way of accomplishing an already familiar task is generally difficult. Like learning to use a different design program or image editor, frustration can be constant. Looking at "divs" as a kind of table cell might be helpful, though they are not entirely equivalent. As required by the XHTML standard, always make sure there is a DOCTYPE definition at the top of the document. This is not only required by the standard, but it will force Internet Explorer 6, currently the most common browser, to enter its "standards compliance" mode. IE6 and Firefox, both operating in standards compliance mode will display XHTML in much the same way. Not identical, but far better than IE6 operating in quirks mode. Learning how to iron out the final differences between displays is the final obstacle and can require a bit of tweaking in the CSS.

Clean code has multiple benefits. It creates a smaller page size which, over time, can save costs associated with transfer usage. Though the size difference may appear small, for someone running a highly trafficked site, even saving a few kilobytes of size can make a big difference. Further, some believe search engines may look more kindly on standards complaint pages. This is only a theory, though. In a general sense, any page modification that makes the content easier to reach and higher in the code is considered wise. Search engines, so it is believed, prefer to reach content quickly, and give greater weight to the first content they encounter. Using XHTML and "div" layout allows designers to accomplish this task more easily.

Conclusions
XHTML is the current standard set by the W3C. The W3C continues development of XHTML, and XHTML 2.0 will replace the current standard in the future. Learning and using XHTML today will help designers prepare for tomorrow. Valid XTHML produces no errors that might slow down a browser, and the code produced is clean and efficient. This saves in file size and helps designers better accomplish their search engine optimization goals. Learning XHTML is primarily about learning a new way to lay out pages. Though frustrating at first, the long term benefits far outweigh any initial inconvenience.

Tutorial - Forum Sites and E-book

May mga instances na hindi mo maintindihan ang lecture ng professor mo sa mga major subjects. For example, ang course mo ay IT at Computer Science kung saan programming and scripting ang mga subjects sa course na ito. Nagiging complicated ang subject kapag wala kang natututunan dahil sa nalilito ka sa subject o sa nag-tuturo.

Ako naman, dalawang paraan lang ang ginagawa ko para hindi ako bumagsak at the same time e maunawaan ko't maintindihan ko ang mga nilelecture sa'min ng prof namin sa major:

1. Mag-tanong. One of the most powerful key for the learners is to observe and to ask. Mas malinaw ang isang lecture ng isang professor kung may nagtatanong. Katulad kong slow learner, hindi ko hinaayaan ang isang lecture na matapos hangga't hindi ko maintindihan. Swerte nga ako nitong mga nagdaang mga First and Second Semester (2008-2009) kasi karamihan naman sa mga naging prof ko ay approachable at mahahaba ang pasensya which is dapat ganoon sila.

2. Be Resourceful. Kung hindi mo nga naman talaga maintindihan ang isang certain topic o lesson sa lecture nyo, why you don't try to ask to others? Like me, member ako ng convergence forums. Natatanong ko sa kanila ang mga bagay na hindi ko naiintindihan about topics in IT. At nasasagot naman nila ito kasi nga ang concept ng convergence forums is to share thoughts, minds and knowledge by simply answering questions. At siyempre, hindi naman ako madamot, kapag may nag-start nang mag-tanong sa isang thread depende sa topic na nalalaman ko naman ang sagot, e sinasagot ko naman ito. At sa forum site, nabui-build up jan ang isang social community ng mga learners at mga masters sa IT.

Pero siyempre, wag mong asahan na masasagot din agad nila yung gusto mong malaman. Instead, try to use Search Engine and type the keywords of the topics you wish to know. Sa t0p ten results, naibibigay sa 'yo ng Search Engine ang recommended site para sa topic na hinahanap mo para pag-aralan mo.

Isa pa, kung mahilig kang mag-basa, maganda rin siguro na puntahan mo ang mga tutorial sites at mga free e-book downloads. Kasi detalyado ang mga tinuturo doon. Or else, sa youtube pwede mo din i-search ang mga topics na gusto mo ding malaman.