Of Reality and Realizations - Part 5

Kuya and his biological father’s first “meeting” took thirty-one years to happen. In their brief conversation, Kuya’s biological father “acknowledged” him, but seemed to end everything there. Kuya, however, had just begun. After some things were settled and others taken cared of, with the blessings and encouragement of the family, Kuya packed his bags and flew out to the United States of America, with one goal in mind: to meet his biological father face to face.

Some days after Kuya arrived in California, he got in his vehicle with a handheld GPS system in hand, and began the long drive to Georgia, where we had found his father to be residing prior to and since his stint in the Philippines. A few stops for food and gas later, Kuya found himself standing outside his biological father’s front door. He rang the bell and moments later, a woman came to the door. Kuya asked for his father by name, saying he was a friend and the woman replied that he was still not in and was probably just on his way home from work. She invited Kuya in, but Kuya declined politely, saying he would just be back the following morning.

To be continued.

YouTube links as evidence

A petition filed with the US Supreme Court last month cited a YouTube video link to show the facts behind the case involving alleged police brutality committed by Deputy Jonathan Rackard of the Washington County Florida against Jesse Buckley. In the petition, Buckley appealed his loss before the US Court of Appeals which voted 2-1 that the Eighth Amendment was not violated in the case, reversing a decision from the trial court that the video offered presumptive proof of a constitutional violation. Said video in Buckley v Haddock shows Buckley crying and failing to comply with Rackard’s orders to stand up and get into a cruiser. Despite the lack of violent behavior on his part, he is repeatedly tasered by Rackard as a punishment for failing to comply.

Whether or not the Supreme Court is ready for the YouTube era is currently a subject of debate in the US because it has the potential to unsettle the way judges do their work. Meantime, it doesn’t hurt to revisit our own Rules of Court and mull on the impact of technological advancements on law and order to make the rules more responsive to the demands of the times.

MagicJack, Anyone?

The previous presentation on VoIP and telecommunication services reminded me of this product called the MagicJack. It is similar to a USB flash disk device, but with a 4-pin telephone jack port at one end, where you can hook up any standard telephone handset. Just plug in the USB device into your PC with internet access, install the dialer program, and voila, you got yourself a US area code telephone number that allows you to call anybody in the US and Canada without having to pay on a per-minute metered basis. You can also call anyone in the world who also has the same MagicJack setup, as that person will also have a US area code number like you do. The MagicJack does not come free though, since it has an annual subscription of about 30 US dollars. The USB device comes free when you pay for the subscription fee. That’s less than PhP1,500.00 for one whole year of long distance calls. So aside from calling up your relatives in North America, you can actually call those 1-800 service hotline numbers in the US, or even vote for your favorite candidate on American Idol! How cool is that!

Front Running------

For the past week I have been busy researching and writing articles for Digital. It has been interesting so far but very taxing. I learned a lot about the importance of domain names, how it has turned into such an expensive commodity, as well as the abuses committed due to the demand for easy-to-recall domain names.

I came across a class law suit designated as McElroy v. Network Solution wherein, the plaintiff in behalf of himself and those similarly designated alleges that Network Solution Incorporated, a licensed registrar by ICANN, has been committing practices of front running. ICANN was also joined as a party.

Front running occurs when a prospective registrant (customer) searches the availability of a domain name (i.e. coolname.com) in the domain name registry through the registrar (i.e. Network Solution), if the prospective registrant does not register it immediately (even within minutes) the registrar takes the searched name and blocks it, it cannot be used by anyone except if the prospective buyer or anyone is willing to buy it at a more expensive price. In the complaint the price was increased at around 200%, from $9.99 to $39.99.

The lawsuit however is likely to be dismissed as the practice of front running is hard to prove. Even ICANN in its report (SAC 24) on front running has admitted that their has yet to be substantial evidence to prove the existence of front running. I however, do not want to preclude the court decision on the matter.

Anyway, earlier I have already finished writing the article on front running. Hopefully it's going be useful and informative. Indeed, there are so many things that one could learn and through Digital I was able to write and learn more about information technology.

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Baguilat, Raymond Marvic "Ice" C.
06-78921

please spare the telecom industry

My parents work for the biggest telecom company in the country.

I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for other people to get a land line because ever since I could remember, we always had one. It wasn’t until competition came in that I realized how disgruntled people are with the existing telecom services. Even if they say that in the long run, competition would still benefit the consumers, for all the selfish reasons, I would rather that this big company dominate and monopolize the system because it means my parents would keep their jobs…and the perks.

For the past couple of years, I saw my mom close down one “exchange” after the other because their services were no longer needed. Again, I would like for better services, but it wouldn’t hurt if these people can also keep their jobs. For them, the cost of improved services, advancement in technology, and wireless service are their jobs. In the bigger scope of things, it would be beneficial for the public if we have more competition…but of course, in the meantime, we have these casualties who are now part of the unemployed.

My dad told my mom a couple of months back that because of the rampant “skyping” and other similar services, her department is fast becoming obsolete. She then asked him what management is thinking, he said that management would milk her department for all its worth…and then, who knows, they might just have to close her department down. That’s around 300 more people jobless.

*sigh* I do wish technology could spare the landline industry.

News bits from CeBIT

CeBIT, the world’s largest tech fair which showcases digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments, is currently being held at Hanover, Germany.

One of the features of this year’s CeBIT is the “Green IT” concept. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative will feature a discussion of issues relating to “Green IT”. The Initiative aims to reduce the power consumption of computers, and therefore their carbon dioxide emissions, by 50% by the year 2010, or equivalent to the annual output of 11 million cars or 10-20 coal-fired power plants. This could be reached by using more efficient components and by increasing use of power management capabilities.

The Initiative is led by companies such as Dell, Google, HP, Intel, Microsoft and World Widelife Fund.

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Back in 2005 when my editors went to Taipei to cover the Computex, I was left at the office to check on their updates and read their stories and download their pictures. Life is not fair. I made myself feel better by thinking that it was only the world’s second largest IT exhibit – it is not CeBIT. What a geek.

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Maria Cristina Yambot

Tagu-taguan

“It’s easy to feel invincible behind an LCD screen; it’s even easier if you’re behind an LCD screen in the Philippines where no has been convicted of any e-crime. Yet. It’s comforting to know that I could ‘hack’ my way out of criminal prosecution by beefing up the bank accounts of the right persons. It’s just a two-click affair. What provides the most comfort, however, is my La-Z-Boy.”

-k@nt0wb@y5341