Behind every software or website is a developer who toils. A developer spends all night to fix a bug or goes to office on Sunday to upload updates. Now it is time to give back the love. Hug a developer now.

Popularity: 10% [?]

I found these Google Fun Facts while I was messing around with my Gmail settings. Some people may already know about these facts but I want to put them here anyway.

• Google’s name is a play on the word googol, which refers to the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, “Mathematics and the Imagination” by Kasner and James Newman. Google’s play on the term reflects the company’s mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web.
• Google started as a research project at Stanford University, created by Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 years old and 23 years old respectively (a combined 47 years old).
• Google’s index of web pages is the largest in the world, comprising of billions of web pages. Google searches this immense collection of web pages often in less than half a second.
• Google receives daily search requests from all over the world, including Antarctica.
• Users can restrict their searches for content in 35 non-English languages, including Chinese, Greek, Icelandic, Hebrew, Hungarian and Estonian. To date, no requests have been received from beyond the earth’s orbit, but Google has a Klingon interface just in case.
• Google has a world-class staff of more than 2,668 employees known as Googlers. The company headquarters is called the Googleplex.
• Google translates billions of HTML web pages into a display format for WAP and i-mode phones and wireless handheld devices, and has made it possible to enter a search using only one phone pad keystroke per letter, instead of multiple keystrokes.
• Google Groups comprises more than 845 million Usenet messages, which is the world’s largest collection of messages or the equivalent of more than a terabyte of human conversation.
• The basis of Google’s search technology is called PageRank™, and assigns an “importance” value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that’s not why it’s called PageRank. It’s actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.
• Googlers are multifaceted. One operations manager, who keeps the Google network in good health is a former neurosurgeon. One software engineer is a former rocket scientist. And the company’s chef formerly prepared meals for members of The Grateful Dead and funkmeister George Clinton.

From http://www.google.com/press/funfacts.html

• Gmail was used internally for nearly 2 years prior to launch to the public. They discovered there was approximately 6 types of email users, and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these 6.
• Employees are encouraged to use 20% of their time working on their own projects. Google News, Orkut are both examples of projects that grew from this working model.
• The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. In fact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.
• Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just sitting looking at the screen. After a minute of nothingness, the tester intervened and asked ‘Whats up?’ to which they replied “We are waiting for the rest of it”. To solve that particular problem the Google Copyright message was inserted to act as a crude end of page marker.
• The infamous “I feel lucky” is nearly never used. However, in trials it was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users wanted it kept. It was a comfort button.
• They have found in user testing, that a small number of people are very typical of the larger user base. They run labs continually and always monitoring how people use a page of results.
• This wasn’t a technical talk so no information regarding any infrastructure was presented however they did note that they have a mantra of aiming to give back each page with in 500ms, rendered.
• Quote: Give Users What They Want When They Want It
• One of the biggest leap in search usage came about when they introduced their much improved spell checker giving birth to the “Did you mean…” feature. This instantly doubled their traffic, but they had some interesting discussions on how best to place that information, as most people simply tuned that out. But they discovered the placement at the bottom of the results was the most effective area.
• Google makes changes small-and-often. They will sometimes trial a particular feature with a set of users from a given network subnet; for example Excite@Home users often get to see new features. They aren’t told of this, just presented with the new UI and observed how they use it.

From http://www.gtricks.com/2008/03/interesting-facts-about-google.html

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This morning, one of our servers experienced downtime and the Ev1 servers datacenter support is unreachable, not by phone nor by site.

Then we got this email from the company’s CEO, Dougls J. Erwin:

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 15% [?]

Since the beginning of Internet, securing personal privacy is always prioritized. Information is always available when we need it but other people also has access to the same information. Then comes identity theft.
Read the rest of this entry »

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BEIJING - Internet users in China were blocked from seeing YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the popular U.S. video Web site.

The blocking added to the communist government’s efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule.

Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad. Read the rest of this entry »

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Senator Panfilo Lacson is to present a new witness to the ZTE Scandal before the Senate next week, who has “direct information on the acceptance of money from ZTE sources”. Lacson’s colleague, Minority Floor Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said that the new witness has the information regarding the identity of the people who received the money from the ZTE  sources. Both senators refused to divulge more information about the new witness.

Source: inquirer.net

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Those who have not heard of ZTE Scandal must be living under a rock. Yet another episode to this national saga has hit the country as the Executive Order 464 was revoked by President Arroyo after her meeting with religious leaders of the country. Executive Order 464 pertains to the barring of executive department officials from testifying in legislative inquiries. The president said that officials involved in the scandal may no longer use the EO 464 as an excuse not to attend Senate hearings or answer questions from the committee. The EO 464 has been the constant reason used by former Director General of NEDA, Romulo Neri, not to attend the Senate hearings, resulting to a warrant of arrest for his ‘no show’ acts. Now that the EO 464 has been scrapped, Neri is now obliged to attend hearings as witness to the ZTE Scandal.

However, the president still holds a Constitutional right called the Executive privilege. This privilege gives the president the right to withhold from Congress, the courts and the public any information regarded as vital to the national interest. The material could include conversations and correspondence between the President and her officials on military, diplomatic and other national security issues. This is a constitutional law, therefore cannot be revoked in any way.

Now that the EO 464 is out of the way, truth may be coming out soon. Or will it?

Popularity: 5% [?]

This is a post from ellentordesillas.com’s blog:

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The following document landed in my mailbox. It’s supposed to have been written by a certain Dante Madriaga. Read on for what it’s worth:

I am an electronic/electrical engineer by profession.I attended the University of the Philippines and Texas A&M University.I have been in the communications industry for over 30 years.

I was a part owner of a company in the LISP in Cabuyao, Laguna that exported microwave radio transmitters.I was involved in the original design of the ARESCOM proposal using a concept similar to what Joey De Venecia thought about .I have been involved in the preparation and design of the NBN ZTE proposal since the beginning.

I have been a technical consultant for the project involved not only in the design but as a liaison to NEDA, DOTC/TELOF/CICT. I was involved in all discussions regarding the project including the names of other people involved, margins and actual pricing details.

ZTE International signs an MOU with the government on March 14 on a National Broadband Network project.

The following is my account of the project from the start to the time when the negotiations were turned over to the finance group. With the exception of the China trips I was present in all the meetings. There may be some omissions and oversights some of it done on purpose

May 2006 -The project was brought to ZTE on May 5 by a person named Stephen Lai, who was originally with Arescom and is a personal friend of the Arescom president Cris Ching. ZTE approached Chairman Abalos whom they knew to help on the political side.

Chairman Abalos enlisted the help of Ruben Reyes a golfing buddy to come up with a team to expedite matters. Ruben Reyes contacted General Quirino de la Torre and Leo San Miguel. I was approached by Leo San Miguel whom I had known before to work on the project. I provided Leo inputs on the Arescom proposal which ZTE used as a basis to start their design.

June 2006 - Ruben Reyes, Leo San Miguel, Gen. de la Torre, Stephen Lai, Yu Yong, Fan Yang meet on June 16 at the Makati Shangri-La in a private environment to discuss the NBN project. They were later joined by Chairman Abalos who left first. We start the design work but are hindered by cost constrains. There is no possible way to achieve the $130M Arescom budget with the commissions that were needed. They decide to increase it to $190M and later added some more components to make it $262M.

Same group meet on June 18 with the addition of Secretary Mike Defensor and Abalos Chief Of Staff Paz and without Stephen Lai meet in Wack-Wack to discuss details on the commissions.

July 2006 -We make initial presentations to CICT and Telof at the CICT office. Chairman Sales was present together with then Telof Asec. Frank Perez the son of Sec Nani Perez, Commissioner Lorenzo Formoso, ZTE personnel and the DOTC/CICT technical staff.

Chairman Sales initial comment was that the NBN project was best left up to private but promised to review the proposal and make recommendations.We made similar presentations to the NEDA infrastructure group, present was the ZTE group including Fan Yang and the accounting personnel of ZTE. NEDA writes a letter to us citing objections to the initial design.

PGMA signs an MOU on July 12 designating Sec Favila to negotiate with ZTE on the government’s behalf. Group meets on July 25 in Wack-Wack to solve the problems.

August 2006 -Then DOTC Asec. Perez makes a presentation and objects to the cost and the design. I work with the NEDA group to smooth out their objections.
Asec Perez who openly discredits the project is promptly replaced by Comm. Formoso who vowed to help with the implementation.Asec Formoso is a better choice than Asec Perez because he is an engineer and a lawyer and can defend the project well.

Chairman Sales reviews the project but is still not convinced; thru back door channels he changes his tune at a later date.

Group on August 11 goes to China and demand an advance payment upon orders from the boss ostensibly to facilitate the approval and for PR. Chairman Abalos leaves first over the weekend. They get it after mentioning the name of the FG. Ruben Reyes is designated as the recipient.

Group comes back from China on August 15 and meets again with Chairman Abalos to tell of their success. US$ 1M was doled out , Ruben Reyes was designated as the recipient.

September 2006 -Group meets regularly at Wack-Wack every weekend at night to discuss ways to facilitate the approval of the project.

NEDA status is ok but all of a sudden meets a sudden resistance from Director General Neri.

Group meets at Wack-Wack on September 22 to address the problem.We meet Sec Mendoza at his office and make representations. Secretary does not hear the full presentation but endorses us to the then head of legal Atty Noel Cruz.

DOTC legal returns the endorsement of the NBN project to the CICT.
Design is changed again trying to fit the commitments. ZTE and group argue on the profit margins, they finally decide on September 28 that the increasing the project amount to $270M will give them a margin of $70M each.

October 2006 - The name Joey de Venecia suddenly comes into play and makes the group worried. He wants the same project but on a BOT scheme and is adamant about it, he had the idea long before Arescom and ZTE conceptualized it in fact the whole idea the Arescom proposal came from Joey

Leo San Miguel is tasked to fix the problem since he personally knows Joey. The negotiations do not progress because of Joey’s distrust for the group. Group meets at Wack-Wack on October 11 and decides to ask the FG for help on how to handle Joey.

Ruben Reyes, Chairman Abalos and General De La Torre fly to China on October 14 and discuss the problem with the ZTE officials about Joey. ZTE is alarmed but is reassured that everything will be taken care of with the intervention of the FG.

November 2006 -Group is notified on November 12 that the President does not want to borrow and instead wants a BOT scheme similar to the AHI proposal. Group decides to compete with Joey and brings an alternate solution by bringing out a competing BOT offer.

Joey is unfazed since he holds all the cards at NEDA with his father’s help and stonewalls the group’s effort. Group meets almost daily to discuss ways to resolve the issues. ZTE is furious at group for not controlling the situation.

Group decides that the only way that Secretary Neri would not object is to offer him a commission of US$ 4M at that time the exchange rate of 50-1. Chairman Abalos is designated to fix the problem.

December 2006 – Group submits a proposal to Chairman Sales changing strategy and hoping to revive the NBN proposal to a BOT similar to Joey’s proposal.

In a meeting in Wack-Wack in December 5, FG and Abalos try to convince Joey to just partner with them and quit his objection. In the meeting at Wack Wack FG threatens Joey by telling him to back off and stay out of the project.

ZTE tries to help out in the conflict and even designs the AHI network thereby exposing their pricing to Joey’s group.

Group goes to China on December 27 with Joey to fix the problem, they meet with ZTE officials at ZTE HQ but the negotiation fails. It was during these negotiations that Joey brought up the idea of ZTE partnering with Hwawei, another Chinese supplier. The suggestion is promptly dismissed by ZTE and negotiations break down. Group demand an advance and promptly got it from ZTE before the arrival of Joey De Venecia. Ruben Reyes is again designated as the recipient. US$5M was doled out.

January 2007 -Group abandons the BOT proposal and decides to meet Joey De Venecia’s AHI group head on with their own BOT proposal. Asec Formoso organizes a defense by creating a Technical Working Group (TWG) to evaluate the proposals of ZTE, AHI and Arescom.

It comes as no surprise that the TWG comes up with a report tilted in favor of ZTE because all of the members are either TELOF or DOTC personnel, they do not want the offer of AHI since it will be implemented by the private AHI group.

Group plots strategy and enlist Secretary Mendoza since Chairman Sales is a technocrat and Secretary Mendoza is a long time ally. Group decides to move Telof back to DOTC citing the reason that CICT is a commission and cannot implement a project of this magnitude. In the end Secretary Sales signs the endorsement of the project anyway.

February 2007 -TWG finishes the evaluation and hands it to the Technical Working Committee (TWC) who promptly endorses it to Secretary Mendoza.
ZTE is endorsed to NEDA by both Mendoza and Sales.

Joey is not impressed and files a complaint about the ZTE proposal to whoever would listen citing the disadvantages to the government. The project at NEDA is delayed and the much needed NEDA approval is stalled. Secretary Neri does not seem to be favoring the NBN and appears to be part of the problem because he likes the AHI proposal rather than the NBN which requires a government guarantee.

March 2007 -Help finally comes on March 8 in the person of Ricky Razon who helps them secure the approval of PGMA in order to meet the deadline for final NEDA approval by the executive.

Group meets on March 12 in Wack- Wack with Yu Yong and Fan Yang but could not agree on how to handle the compensation for Razon. They finally expand the proposed coverage to increase the amount to $329 thereby solving their problem.

Joey is furious when the NBN proposal is approved and threatens to expose all the dealings that stopped his much superior proposal. Group does not appear to be worried and thinks it is just sour griping. Upon approval by the NEDA group meets on March 28 in Wack Wack with ZTE and demand another cash advance which they got. Ruben Reyes is the designated recipient again.US$10M is again doled out.

April 2006 -Group meets again in Makati Shangri-La on April 4 with Yu Yong and Fan Yang of ZTE to discuss ways of getting upfront money to finance partly the elections and some personal needs. Ruben Reyes is again designated as the recipient.US$ 30M is again doled out.

Yu Yong agrees but on the condition that PGMA be present at the signing. PGMA promptly goes to China to witness the signing.
FG cannot participate since he is hospitalized and Abalos is busy with the elections. Ruben Reyes takes over all of the negotiations and transfer of funds.

Upon arrival from China on April 27, Secretary Mendoza and Secretary Favila visit the FG and inform him of the good news.

Source:  www.ellentordesillas.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

The ongoing investigation of the NBN-ZTE deal has indeed shaken the country. Filipinos are again torn apart: there are those who believe the claims of witness Jun Lozada and those who trusts the administration. Yesterday, Filipinos who support Lozada prayed together in La Salle Greenhills to show their support not only for Lozada, who is strong enough to face the biggest people in the country, but also to hope and pray that the truth will soon prevail. Even former President Corazon Aquino attended the Mass dubbed as Misa ng Sambayanan Para Sa Katotohanan. Aquino said that nothing is impossible through prayers and many Filipinos agree as they have proven the power of prayer during the EDSA Revolution way back in 1980’s. Even passing vehicles showed their support by blowing their horns.

As much as I hate blogging about politics, I would like to make my blog reach out to my fellow Filipino geeks that we should encourage all Filipinos to be aware of what is going on. It is time for us to pay attention and know the truth. We have this nasty habit of whining how much the government sucks but turn a blind eye on what is really going on. How can the people trust those who lead the country when scandals like this are just as normal as daily weather forecast? There is even someone there who openly admitted violating election laws but what happened? Does justice still exists in this country?

Popularity: 15% [?]

To those who are not yet aware, the NBN-ZTE Scandal has a new ’secret’ witness: CEO of the Philippine Forest Corporation Rodolfo Noel I. Lozada, Jr. Lozada implicated that FG Jose Miguel Arroyo and Former COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos in the said scandal.

Lozada left the country hours before January 30 Senate hearing he was supposed to attend. This prompted the senators to issue a warrant of arrest against him. As soon as he returned to the country, the Senate was not able to get him as he was taken away by suspected presidential guards. In a petition seeking his release filed before the Supreme Court, his wife Violeta said he was taken into police custody against his will. (from GMANews.tv)

Inquirer.net writes:

Former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. denied that he threatened the life of Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada Jr. and claimed that Lozada even went back to the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City several times after the threat was allegedly made on January 18, 2007.

Abalos said Lozada, the Senate’s star witness on the controversial $329-million contract with ZTE Corp. for the national broadband network (NBN), went back to Wack Wack several times in February, 2007 after the death threat was allegedly made.

“Sinabi daw niya tinakot ko siya noong January 18 (He claims I threatened him on January 18). At that time, I was still president of Wack Wack,” Abalos said during a live television interview at the ABS-CBN studios in Quezon City. Lozada was also being interviewed live, although he was at La Salle Greenhills in Mandaluyong. The “face-off” happened via split-screen on television.

Lozada testified before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing that Abalos threatened his life by saying: “P.I, ka, huwag kang pumunta sa Wack Wack sa Mandaluyong kundi ipapapatay kita (You S.O.B., don’t show yourself at Wack Wack or I’ll have you killed).”

Stay tuned as I update you on this national issue that we need to be aware of.

Popularity: 19% [?]