As artists think alike…

One of my biggest dreams is to own a hand-made classic grand piano. For me, performing on a high quality musical instrument such as that is the peak of a musician’s career. I’ve been in touch with quite a few portable keyboards for years but still, I’m looking forward to playing on a real grand piano. I bet no matter how much the portable keyboards imitate the sound of a grand piano, the latter is still far incomparable. I can tell, since my hearing’s a bit choosy when it comes to sound quality.

On my search for quality grand pianos, I’ve been introduced to a family-owned business who are into Sales, Restoration & Repair of top branded pianos. By browsing through the lindebladpiano.com Website, I came to the web page which provides the gallery of their pianos. It just feels like I’m now a bit more motivated to reach for that goal. One day, I know, it’ll just come, that’s why I just have to work for it. Lindeblad just reminded me of this dream, and now it’s just right to return the favor to them. If you’re on a search of Pianos for Sale, then Lindeblad is just right for you. They’ve been in this business since 1920, so jump off right to their website by clicking any of the links I mentioned above. Great choice, huh?

Poverty « Unstable Economy « Improper Fund Allocation « Tax Corruption « Habitual Corruption « Poor Education

Fact: There’s poverty because we have an unstable economy. We have an unstable economy because of certain factors such as possible improper allocation of funds and of course, corruption. If our taxes were meant for specific funds and absolutely 100% of these taxes are properly allocated for each, then we have a chance of improving our economy. Also, whether who among the geniuses shall be appointed as president is capable of understanding how he/she’s going to do it. Therefore, it’s not a matter of choosing who among them are the smartest.

Targeting aid for those who are searching for jobs including opportunities for Overseas Filipino Workers as well as assistance for small businessmen is an intelligent approach. This way, it somehow help boost their tax paying capabilities. If they become responsible with their taxes, considering their massive number, there’s no doubt that we’d have more funds to be especially used for government projects. But what we are missing is the fact that before these taxes can be fully distributed to different funds, there are chances that they can reduce in quantity, and this is all because of corruption. Therefore, no matter how much we citizens strive for progress, the moment our taxes are caught by corruption, progress stops right there. That’s why even politicians would claim that helping job seekers and OFWs would solve poverty, it won’t happen for as long as corruption still exists.

Fact: Corruption slows down economic progress. In order for our government to solve this issue, they thought of passing the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. This may have somehow acted against corruption, but it doesn’t really mean corruption no longer exists. Corruption will always exist and it will be passed on to the next generation of leaders, and to the next leaders, until it becomes hierarchical. Passing a law such as Anti-Corruption won’t stop the corruption chain.

Corruption is everywhere. Whether it’s big time or not, one form of corruption does not make any difference with the other, and it will be kept in practice until it becomes a habit. I am one of those who are ultimately aware that corruption exists even in school. In fact, a simple form of cheating in class quizzes is already an example of corruption. The worst, most of those students who cheat in school aren’t even aware that they are into corruption. It creates a very huge impact to their psychological being. At this point, they may no longer be able to understand the difference between a good act and an evil act. They may even consider cheating as a good act. This simple concept is not far different from a corrupt politician’s point of view. They are incapable of identifying which among their actions are corruption

The biggest problem our government must face is the quality of our education. Students won’t be forced to cheat if they’ve just been properly taught. Of course, a student will always find ways just for him/her to pass the subjects even it means cheating. The "passing grade" system itself is flawed. Who the heck thought of this kind of system anyway? The great philosophers once said that there are millions of ways to solve a certain problem. Hence, it’s just like saying, there are millions of ways to pass a subject. Another important thing, schools miss the fact that they also have the responsibility to introduce to the students the "evilness" of evil acts. All throughout the years of being a student, I have never been formally introduced on how corruption works. I just learned about it by thinking it through logically. Educators must teach students how corruption is done and everything related to it, and they must put it into their minds its effects. Schools must not deprive students from reality. Anyway, we will all still reach to a point that we’ll live in reality. I believe, with our current education system, for more than 14 years in the academy, I have never been taught how it is to live in the real world. We may not be able to completely eradicate corruption for the next 20 years, but we still have a chance, for the sake of the next generation. Sooner or later, the youth today will become leaders in the future, and let’s all hope when that day comes, they’d already be free from corruption.

Dr. Jose Rizal once said, "The youth is the hope of our nation", and this has been in circulation for more than a century now. How many youths have already taken over our government? When will that specific youth be born? How come we are all still struggling for progress? We are not just searching for intelligent leaders, but those who are also capable of stopping corruption in its simplest form. We are not just searching for leaders who has the wealth and power to help those in need, but those who can assure us that what we citizens are striving for won’t be put into waste.

Davao finally has its very own Online Business Directory. If you need to search for different business information within Davao such as Location, Contact Information, Services, and a lot more, then you can just do it all in a single website: the Davao Directory. Davao Directory is a combined Social Network and Online Business Directory. You can quickly search for businesses within Davao, at the same time, leave reviews, comments, suggestions to business owners of what you think of their establishments. Establishments include Hotels, Restaurants, Religious Organizations, Swimming Pool and Beach Resorts, IT Companies, and a lot more.

Currently, Davao Directory is gathering for businesses. In fact, they are offering submission of your business totally for free. This means, you can advertise your business without any cost. You have the full privilege to update every information needed so that you, as the business owner, can show off what your business can provide to the public. Enlist your business now at Davao Directory and be part of the community.

Also, Davao Directory is offering free Credits for members who can invite more members and more credits for those who can invite business owners. Credits are points which you can use in the future for specific website features. This includes the tools you can use to improve your establishment’s visibility or advertise your own establishment to every web page of Davao Directory.

Simply register at Davao Directory and end your search for business services! You may also Follow Davao Directory on Twitter.

A common subject and a few keystrokes for the content plus a single push of the Publish button, then here comes this post to all 3 of my blogs at the same time. This is the Mass Post feature of MWM Panel. I’m currently testing it to 3 blogs. Later, I shall try it on to a hundred. But anyway, this petty project’s going to be huge soon. Check out these blogs for the simultaneous posts:

1. http://ronaldborla.blogsome.com
2. http://ronaldborla.info
3. http://plgeek.blogsome.com

I hope that sounds cool to you too. Ciao!

Sun Microsystem’s Open Jive Regional Challenge has just recently selected our team as one of the 14 finalists for Philippines. The contest was about software innovation wherein we’d be proposing projects which will be created using Open Source programming languages. As the team leader of RoJose, I chose my original idea which is to create an AJAX-Based Multi-Website Management Panel able to manage multiple websites under a single administrative panel. Websites include blogs (Wordpress, Blogger, etc.), corporate systems (payroll, inventory system, etc.), social networks (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and many more.

The proposed system shall operate through XML-Remote Procedure Calling. Just by sending post XML data to the server, it can produce results even without actually visiting the host website. Also, responses are encoded through XML. Through this method, managing different websites would be at breeze.

And what’s more? This post is created through my very own system (under development and testing). I didn’t even bother logging in to this blog. I just did it the XML-RPC way.

I’m always at most careful and concerned about security and especially idiot-proofing whenever I’m into developing some usual stuffs. PHP specifically, does not only provide it’s "FREEness", but also the handiest functions I always do not miss to consider. Here are my Top 8.

1-2. addslashes() and mysql_real_escape_string()

These two functions are a bit related, in a sense that these provide security especially in handling things with your database queries. As their name suggest, the first function adds slashes (escapes) to these characters in a string: ‘, ", \, while mysql_real_escape_string() escapes \x00, \n, \r, \, ‘, " and \x1a. In a more complicated security issue, most programmers prefer mysql_real_escape_string() since it prevents certain loop holes like escaping quotes (characters) which later lead to SQL injection.

3. stripslashes()

If slashes may be added to strings, then at some point, you would also need to strip them out. This is when stripslashes() comes in. Though I don’t really often use this function, but it becomes handy when you need to print an HTML code through a JavaScript code all from a PHP source. Just don’t forget this function, surely you will have to remember it as soon as you would need its purpose.

4-5. urlencode() and urldecode()

Printing anchors, source urls, url outputs, form validation using GET or POST method, urlencode() musn’t be missed out for use. Usually, the absence of this function especially when handling anchors result to broken links (which of course would be pretty inconvenient for your visitors). There are certain characters like %, &, ?, spaces, and other more special characters which are read differently on URLs which should be encoded first before passing it. While of course, urldecode() does the opposite. It decodes encoded URLs and reads them back on how they should be read.

6. trim()

Though this one’s not as important as the other mentioned functions, but this would definitely help in idiot-proofing. You know, some users may be too idiot to follow certain instructions that leading and tailing spaces are not accepted but still they submit their inputs with these. It would rather lead to flaws and unexpected results, so better trim out those spaces first before validating strings.

7. strip_tags()

Most web programmers just take this function for granted, but by the time their website layouts would act strange and get mixed up, they’ll start investigating and end up never knowing HOW. It’s because without strip_tags() just means your website will definitely become very very prone to hacks. A simple example would be the insertion of a <strong style="font-size:100px;"> string.

8. htmlentities()

My favorite of ‘em all. Nearly most of my PHP echoes come along with this (unless especially not needed). This encodes special characters into HTML readable characters like < (less than) to &gt; and " (quote) to &quot; This is very important when printing values for HTML tag attributes, since you would no longer need to bother for misprinting strings.

These are just pieces of advises and functions I recommend you mustn’t miss to consider. Mark them "strictly for security purposes", and everything will run as smoothly as a web should be.

I’m temporarily leaving school. I’ve realized certain facts affecting this decision. While trying to note down the factors, here’s what I came up, starting with the cons:

1. I’ll miss the annual programming competitions. I’d love to be back in Cebu, especially SM and Starbucks.
2. I won’t be able to initiate I-Like-My-Match booth for Intramural and I can no longer overseer those students who liked whom.
3. I’ll miss the choir. Of course, I wouldn’t have to bother waiting for my phone to ring every first friday morning mass since the choir won’t be expecting the "always-late organist".
4. Lastly, I’ll miss SAD (which turned out to be literally sad) and the members who are involved. I say they have to be on their own now. Anyway, they can’t proceed the 4th year without the necessary skills they have to acquire. If they made it this far, then it means they really must be "something". Also, like I mentioned in my previous entry, I would rather prefer innovation for my thesis.

The pros:

1. I can start now with something I desire the most. Even if I have to finish the next two semesters, I’ll still end up with this something I want for my own. The only difference is that, there may be certain factors which would greatly affect this plan if I won’t have it as soon as possible.
2. I’m 20 years old and I’m not getting any younger, so the earlier I’ll begin, the more I’ll gain. Plus, the society is quickly evolving, what seems to be the latest today would already be obsolete by the next day.
3. I’ll be free from the virtual world, the harsh realization about the facts relating our current system of education. I’ll be learning how it is to live a real life.
4. Most of all, I won’t be wasting my remaining funds spending it for nothing but a silly diploma dictating how society should work, blinding citizens with the social reality that every person on earth should be judged according to their individual achievements.

I thought about the pros most of the time. I believe the cons are just lowly point of views out of selflessness and selfishness. I believe in my skills and I’m boosting up enough courage to face the fact that one day I might fail or of course, succeed. Anyway, whatever happens, I won’t regret this decision because the next 12 months will be one heck of learning, more than education can offer me.

The best web hosting that you need to search for over the internet cannot be found by just simply browsing each hosting website one by one. You can’t just tell which ones are reliable and which ones are most preferred by most webmasters. What you really need is to be guided and read reviews which will inform you the basic considerations before you have to setup your own website. A website such as this is called a directory for web hosts and of these directories is WebHostingChoice.com.

This website gives you full reviews for every web hosting they have in list. Not only the features but also the suggestions, tips and important factors that you should be able to settle down. They rank web hosting sites according to their reliability and preferences from webmasters. It is very important to take consider of these important factors, since it both affects the accessibility and capabilities of your website. If it’s better on that area, then people would feel much more comfortable in browsing your website. Now if you do need to search for the best web host, then all you have to do is visit this website. Just follow the link above and do some wise decision making.

No load? Need to send someone an urgent text message? Just jump to this website I’ll be mentioning here. It’s Davao Directory’s Free SMS at http://sms.davaodirectory.com. This website offers you a modern cellphone design which typically does the following features:

1. Send an SMS to most Philippine Mobile Networks in the easiest and the fastest way.
2. Store your friends’ numbers on an online phonebook (in case you wouldn’t want to remember each).
3. Create group for your list and send a group message in just a push of the "Send" button.
4. Unlimited Free SMS for registered members.

Just visit the website and enjoy sending free SMS with Davao Directory’s Free SMS.

The data that needs to be passed when using the POST method in AJAX must be properly encoded, especially if it contains special characters which are out of the standard ASCII range. Javascript provides 3 encoding functions which may be used for this case: escape(); encodeURI(); and encodeURIComponent(); But these functions have certain limitations, and these limitations are discussed here: Comparing escape(), encodeURI(), and encodeURIComponent()

I often use AJAX in most of my web projects and because of a certain need that I have to allow special characters to be passed, I found a suitable function which will effectively encode most characters:

  function urlencode(url){
      var SAFECHARS = "0123456789" + // Numeric
      "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" + // Alphabetic
      "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" +
      "-_.!~*’()";                   // RFC2396 Mark characters
      var HEX = "0123456789ABCDEF";
        var spec = new Array();
   
        spec["8364"] = 132; spec["8218"] = 133; spec["402"] = 134; spec["8222"] = 135;
        spec["8230"] = 136; spec["8224"] = 137; spec["8225"] = 138; spec["710"] = 139;
        spec["8240"] = 140; spec["352"] = 141; spec["8249"] = 142; spec["338"] = 143;
        spec["381"] = 144; spec["8216"] = 145; spec["8217"] = 146; spec["8220"] = 147;
        spec["8221"] = 148; spec["8226"] = 149; spec["8211"] = 150; spec["8212"] = 151;
        spec["732"] = 152; spec["8482"] = 153; spec["353"] = 154; spec["8250"] = 155;
        spec["339"] = 156; spec["382"] = 157; spec["376"] = 158;
   
      var plaintext = url;
      var encoded = "";
      for (var i = 0; i < plaintext.length; i++ ) {
      var ch = plaintext.charAt(i);
      if (ch == " ") {
          encoded += "+"; // x-www-urlencoded, rather than %20
      } else if (SAFECHARS.indexOf(ch) != -1) {
          encoded += ch;
      } else {
          var charCode = ch.charCodeAt(0);
          if (charCode > 255) {
              encoded += "%";
              encoded += HEX.charAt((spec[charCode.toString()] >> 4) & 0xF);
              encoded += HEX.charAt(spec[charCode.toString()] & 0xF);
          } else {
              encoded += "%";
              encoded += HEX.charAt((charCode >> 4) & 0xF);
              encoded += HEX.charAt(charCode & 0xF);
              }
          }
      }
      return encoded;
  }

I got this function from Mabaloo.com but I’ve improved a bit of it just for it to support some characters out of the standard ASCII range.

I’ve found a cool website which allows you to send anonymous emails plus it features attachments without having to register or login. You just have to fill in some of the required fields, and there you are, sending your email without the worry that your email might just be piled up on your recipient’s bulk folder. Yes! Your mails won’t be sent to the spam folder, instead it goes directly to their inbox. It’s just a simple page with a great service. Try them on. And if you do want to include some files, attaching them right into your email is indeed as fast as it’s name suggest. MailQuick.info does these for your. Just visit MailQuick.info and send email quick!

I’ve always been wondrin’ why we need to spend too much time doing our documents for proposals down from researches up to printing of hard copies, if in the end, we’ll find out that its end product will just be stocked half-rotten on shelves. Proposal documents are of course not among those which will be piled up, but still, once they’re approved, another documents to be processed become candidates for "safe-keeping" award. I’m seeing most of these hard-bound books and I’d ask myself, "does anybody ever read them?" The only reason I can think of when somebody decides to open those books is when he needs to do another research (and those books will be especially used for Review of Related Studies), and the research he’d conduct will end up the same, and so on and so forth. That’s the most of its relevance I can imagine. Though, there may be little chances that depending on the topic of the researches of these books, new technologies can be produced, but if they’re about systems development and not purely research, will they really become basis of innovation?

These are documents written for computerized systems. Systems which I even doubt that they can last for years, or shall we say, systems which I doubt that they’ve been actually deployed by their client companies. I believe, wise companies don’t take the risks of implementing computer systems developed by undergrads. Even if it takes them less cost, still, they will never trust inexperienced student programmers to deploy these software. They would rather spend thousands of cash for those professionals already in the industry for years.

In my opinion, students are instructed to develop systems for one reason: practice. But it’s not what I would really aim if I were to produce such applications. Even if I’ll be given the lowest grade for the course, I will still aim to convince the client to make use of my software, because if the company won’t use it, then I have just made my biggest failure as a system developer. I would spend most of my time enhancing the quality of my software, rather than waste it fixing the documents. Client companies, who are the end-users, won’t understand those research papers, except for the documentation on how to use the software. For them, they serve no point. They’ll just skip to the "System Features" and "Help" pages.

If I were to be asked what panelists would really need to check when it’s already time for defense, I’d say "Test its quality. Check for flaws. Judge the features. Comment on its user-friendliness. Review the source codes", and of course, "Decide if it’s ready to be deployed and become among of the client company’s assets". For me, my thesis is my first and my most memorable major software. I’ve done enough practices way back when I was still in the lower years and I can’t afford to waste all of them just for another petty test.

Great news, Zenni Optical in the New York Times?! There’s no doubt for this since Zenni Optical truly provides quality Prescription eyeglasses for only $8! If you’re out of budget yet still you need something to fix your vision, then be along with their great service. It’s the best way for Seeing Straight Without Breaking Bank.

I was led on website which basically attempts to identify my Life Path. Here’s the site: http://www.paulsadowski.com/BirthData.asp

So I completed the required inputs then it showed that my Life Path number is 1 and with the following description:

"The Life Path 1 suggests that you entered this plane with skills allowing you to become a leader type rather easily. Your nature is charged with individualistic desires, a demand for independence, and the need for personal attainment. Many of our military generals, corporate leaders, and political leaders are men and women having the Life Path 1. When you display positive 1 traits your mind is capable of significant creative inspiration, and it possesses the enthusiasm and drive to accomplish a great deal. You are very good at getting the ball rolling; initiating new projects is your forte. You are at your best when confronted with obstacles and challenges, as you combat these with strength and daring. This is both the physical and inner varieties of strength. With this strength comes utter determination and the capability to lead. As a natural leader you have a flair for taking charge of any situation. You have a tendency to do this, even if, at times, it is not appropriate for you to do so.

Highly original, you may have talents as an inventor or innovator of some sort. In any work that you choose, your independent attitude can show through. You have very strong personal needs and desires, and you feel it is always necessary to follow your own convictions. You tire of routine and highly detailed tasks rather quickly.

You are ambitious and assertive in promoting yourself. Although you may hide the fact for social reasons, you can be self-centered and demand to have your way in many circumstances. That said, for the most part, you are considered very good company, friendly, good-natured, and a wonderful conversationalist. People like you and are drawn to you. It is a good thing they are, because you are very sensitive to disapproval and you don’t handle it very well.

There are several ways that the negative side of the 1 can show up. The 1 always has the potential for greatness as a leader, but they may fail as a follower. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to follow for a while before you are allowed to lead and this can be a difficult time. When the 1 Life Path person is not fully developed and expressing the negative side of this number, the demeanor may appear very dependent rather than independent, particularly in the early years. If you are expressing this negative trait of the number 1, you are likely to be very dissatisfied with your circumstances, and long for self-sufficiency. This might be defined as the weak or dependent side of the negative 1 Life Path. On the strong side of this negative curve, the 1 energy can become too self-serving, selfish and egotistical. Avoid being too bossy and demanding."

Most of the readings above truly tells something that’s part of me and I also tried some of my friends birthday, and their description matches to their personality. It’s quite amazing. Try it out for yourself. As soon as you get your Life Path number, proceed to this page: http://www.astrology-numerology.com/num-lifepath.html then read about yours.

Mail Quick - The fastest and the easiest way to send emails

You got that right! Because Mail Quick allows you to write your email on your browser without signing-in to your email account, then Send it quick and easy. And of course, it comes up with some several features:

1. Full Cc and Bcc features. (Multiple Cc and Bcc are separated by comma)
2. File attachment up to 20 MB in size (Gmail style).
3. Full featured message editor (FCKEditor).
4. Easy import data from a Microsoft Word document.
5. Save drafts locally (using sessions).
6. No need to register or sign-in
7. Powered by AJAX

Now the most important thing is, emails sent through this website are NOT treated as spam, they go directly to your recipients’ inbox. Finally, all information sent are never stored to any database, even those attachments. Which means, the confidentiality of your email is their top priority.

Why don’t you try sending me an email? Here’s my Quick link: Send me a Mail Quick.