Future Technology Now #1 - For the Educator - the Video Cabinet

Dear friends and colleagues,

Good Afternoon. I know I promised to make a booklet about the Future Technologies that would give an added advantage to the Filipino SME or professional. It would be too difficult if I did it all in one setting, and it would be tedious to search for my references on the internet if it were on a booklet.

So I decided that it be published here that everyone in the online world can browse thru in a few seconds, and comprehensive enough that anyone can do it with careful reading of the instructions.

Ok, here it is: The Video Cabinet - A combination of TV and DVD player

What you can do with it: You can play the images of your POWERPOINT Presentations on the DVD

Uses: It can be an inexpensive short-term alternative to purchasing many computers in school, in the far flung barrios. Take this example: your Barrio needs instructional presentations to present to students that require photos or illustrations. Using an existing computer with powerpoint, CONVERT the slides to individual jpg images that you can easily view on a cheap, durable DVD player.

A whole school would need only 1 computer to do the conversion, and cheap 2nd hand or ordinary TVs with DVDs could be used to present the lectures. It would produce realistic presentations and producing it on DVD or VCD is cheap ( only 50 pesos per CD ).

Drawbacks: Since the presentation are images, there is no sound or animation.

Surprises: I used a NOVA DVD player I bought 2 years agro from SM CDO. WIth the remote, I can preview the images I want to present, play it like a timed slide presentation, and ZOOM the images to get a closer view of the Images ( This is very useful in libraries, if you want to scanned important technical handouts and present the information to the DVD)

Requirements: you have to have some basic background on how to use MS Powerpoint, and to burn the images to the DVD using Windows

How to do it:

Please read this very comprehensive article from the University of Buffalo New York on how it can be created:

http://www.its.buffalo.edu/manuals/PowerPoint%20Presentations1.pdf

Sample of Integrated Farming Systems

Farming of the Future - Create your own ecosystem

Free, Reliable Software is just around the corner

Ever since March, I have done some exploring of the free, open-source software available on the web. 

I came to the conclusion  that most of the everyday stuff that you see (maybe the Microsoft Office, the Image editing softwares ( adobe or corel), you can find a community of people developing a similar application that is cheap or you can download at no cost, except that you promote their product) 

During my search I came upon the following:

1. GIMP 2 - the partial replacement to Adobe Photoshop. Basically it can replace most of the basic features that Photoshop is capable of, like mixing images or editing the photo. This software is very similar to Photoshop and has many (but not all)  the capabilties.  It is free to download website: http://www.gimp.org/ 

2. Google Docs - Its the website made by google that has many of the capabilties of your Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). Its capabilities are similar to the 2003 version, but Google is slowly added its own unique capabilities. Free. You need to create a google account to use it .   http://docs.google.com

3. Google Sketchup - A drawing software that is similar but much easier to use than the Autocad. There are 2 verisons: a Free and a professional (paid) one. It comes with its own Huge Library of 3d drawings made by volunteers, which should grow as more people download their software. http://sketchup.google.com/   

There are  hundreds more free software, some reliable, others that could crash your hard drive, that you can get with a quick search thru Google. If you're careful, you should be able to replace most of it thru an open-source software that runs just as good as the commercial versions.

I always wonder what kinds of new industries you can come up with, now that computing speed is getting pretty quick. Basically, backyard animation or basic product design could be refined with these software.  

Those the desktop cant handle, it could be delegated to some website that provides you the added processing speed, and they could just charge you on an hourly or monthly basis.  Which is eventually what is happening now. But that's another story to tell some time in the Future.

During the Start of the Internet Revolution

I remember my first real burst of pure excitement; It was back in 1994(?) and I was in my apartment in Manila (near ADMU). I was an Industrial Engineering Student in UP Diliman, and we were taking a project feasibility study course. It was our instructor's preference that we search new territory and focus on a product that we could build or market from scratch. 

The Internet was virgin territory back then. I hardly had any internet connection. All we knew was that it was like an incoming Gold Rush - a computer software that controlled a communications device (modem) which could sift thru information from many many networked computers, globally, instantly. Only very few Universities had this capability, and I had friends who had access  to some of the very first web browsers in the country.

I wanted to focus on using the Internet to market products globally, at the flick of a switch. LUCKILY, I never did continue with it. First of, I had never seen a browser ever. Further, Internet Usage was very dismal ( you had to be LITERALLY in either UP or Ateneo or La Salle to access it).

Our Group changed our Thesis into something more modest (Agri-based). 

But life revolved around the Internet from then on; by 1997, I had a modem. I surfed the wild and wooly web. And life has never been the same again. 

Impending CATASTROPHE: Relentless Heavy Rain and Flooding in Cagayan de Oro

Cagayan de Oro and nearby regions are feeling the effects of climate change. We are experiencing heavy rains and gusty winds this past few days, almost RELENTLESSLY ( unusual here, rain is usually calm) and 70,000+ persons have been displaced in the coastal regions due to flooding ( Our local Rotary Club is suddenly thrust to produce relief goods).

I even have youtube photos of the effects on the rivers and the submerged residentials. Flooding is repeatedly happening everywhere on and off this past 2 weeks.

The Cagayan de Oro Floods on the internet:

This is a slient video of the aerial view of Cagayan de Oro affected with the flood (this was January 4 , the gusty rain has been coming on and off ever since, unusual here):

http://video. aol.com/video- detail/cagayan- de-oro-flood/ 2018480906

And this is a CNN unfiltered youtube video of a group travelling the Cagayan de Oro river after the flood

http://www.ireport. com/docs/ DOC-174121

Relief goods were distributed by the Jaycee clubs and Rotary clubs repeatedly ever since.

This is the first time I had to use the accuweather report to know the hourly reports of rain, to avoid traversing flooded streets I guess. A new effect called "Buhawi" or twister keeps appearing around the nearby regions.

Its incredible and terrible. Like a ticking time bomb, its been very cloudy here.

The average rainfall here according to the Weather Bureau PAG-ASA, is 80.9mm. Rainfall has now reached around the 125 to 135 mm level, nearly double its average.

Basically, according to my buddy, Nitz Pascual, manager of the National Statistical Coordinating Board, Disaster Preparedness is reactive, not yet preventative. There is no study on the long term effects of Global Warming to the Forest cover we have left. This is done with special ARC GIS equipment, which they are just learning to use. A few months ago, I met my former high scholl physics teacher, Mr. Iggy Ignacio under The Xavier University Science Foundation. He was tasked to do a study of possible flood areas in Mindanao using a GIS software.

Due to the flooding, these disastrous effects have occurred: Many thoroughfares have been flooded up to at least the knee deep level, making access to Malls and other major institutions only possible to SUVs and other offroad vehicles. Classes have been closed these past 5 days. A few Residentials have experienced flooding up to the Ceilings. The economy is mostly grinding to a near crawl as most major institutions have shut down since their workers are too busy either keeping their household belongings from being affected from the flood.

I guess the complete picture will have to wait. Right now, the storm is predicted to subside on Saturday.