Internet.org: Bringing free mobile internet in the Philippines

The Philippines is the 7th country in the world to avail the Internet.org app on smartphones. It provides smartphone active users free access to basic internet services related to education, health, employment, communication and information and news. This means that everyone will now be able to use their social media accounts for free, or even looking for a job online using Jobstreet, or checking out the latest news and updates on Inquirer without any data charges. Although the said app is only limited and restricted to few sites, which Facebook has chosen.

Internet.org is a non-profit organization and a partnership between Facebook and seven mobile phone companies (Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Microsoft, Opera Software, Reliance and Qualcomm) that aims to bring affordable Internet access to everybody by increasing affordability, increasing efficiency, and facilitating the development of new business models around the provision of Internet access. In the Philippines, Internet.org was launched on March 18, 2015 in partnership with Smart Telecommunications, Inc., which has over 70 million subscribers.

“We are working with operators, content partners, and governments from all over the world to address the barriers that prevent people from connecting and joining the knowledge economy. We are excited to bring the Internet.org app to the Philippines and give people access to internet services and tools that can help create new ideas and opportunities,” says Markku Makelainen, director of global operator partnerships at Facebook.

Apart from the Philippines, Internet.org has launched in Colombia, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, India, and Zambia.

Subscribers can download the app on Google Play Store, or simply text INTERNET to 9999 to access.

 Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, posted a photo on her Facebook Account regarding the launching of Internet.org app in the Philippines

"We're one step closer to connecting the world as we launched Internet.org in the Philippines today.", Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook

The Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines estimates that only 38 percent of the Philippine population had internet access as of mid-2014.

Tekkie Reviews

How to deal with Joomla 3.1

I was a graduate of IT, and everyone expected you to know the concepts of IT, in any aspect such as software, hardware and even other techniques that are related to this field. But guess what? Of all the things that I really hate most, are those things that are actually required in the real world job.

PHP, or hypertext preprocessor, is actually a scripting language that generally used in dynamic websites. This language is actually part of the open source project. In short, you can have it for free and customize it. It can be also embedded in HTML.

I have an idea that in my job, it requires to have not just basic, but extreme knowledge about PHP (thanks to Prof. Vladimir Oliva for motivating us) but not in Joomla. Well I heard that Joomla is actually, making your web development life easier. But at the certain point, I didn't get the concept of "making my life more easier".

Joomla, a CMS or Content Management System, is an open free source publisher content web development site that allows user to customize its web development and design experience. It is basically made of PHP codes, with OOP or object-oriented programming techniques, software design patterns, with a MySQL as its database, and support integration and plugins that are downloadable online.

City of Koronadal Water District Homepage. The actual homepage with Joomla 3.1 as its backend.

It is my first encounter to use this system (well actually I am familiar with Joomla, but I was not expecting that it was really hard to understand) and it has similarities with Drupal (still a CMS, but more complicated one). I have two days, atleast, in order for me to familiarize its interface, different usage and content designs available. With this site (http://ckwd.gov.ph) I was able to manage to create all necessary requirements in just a short span of time. Well, what can you say?

So for all those readers wondering how to use Joomla, here are some requirements to accomplish:

1. If you are running offline, you need to download XAMPP 1.8.1. It is a cross-platform web server solution stack package, consist of Apache HTTP Server, MySQL Database, and interpreters of scripts such as PHP and Perl. (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/)
2. If you have your domain, all you have to login to your cPanel account. Instructions are in your corresponding web hosting site.
3. If you able to do either of the numbers 1 and 2, next is to download the latest version of Joomla. (http://www.joomla.org)
4. Once you able to do all the tasks, please refer to this Documentation Site for detailed installation of Joomla. (http://docs.joomla.org/J3.1:Installing_Joomla!#tab=Requirements)

Joomla 3.1 Login

Joomla 3.1 Control Panel

After installing Joomla, you can able to customize its web interface. Mostly, Joomla templates are available online, depending on the version of Joomla. There are compatible with the versions 2.5, 3.1, or 1.1, and so on.. So far, this is the best Joomla 3.0 web template I've ever visited (http://ajoomlatemplates.com/joomla-3.0-templates/). The good thing about it is that its is for free, no required login whatsoever. You can search other Joomla templates via Google if you want more choices.

Aside from its template, it also features wide variety of free plugins and extensions to customize your website experience. You can go here (http://extensions.joomla.org/) to check it out.

But most of all, you need to be creative enough. Most of the websites nowadays doesn't rely on its article, but rather to its interface on how good it is, on how attractive it is, and how functional it is.

Dealing with Joomla is just one week away. And the rest is history.

Tekkie Reviews

BlogFest 2.0: Effecting Progress and Change through Blogs and Social Media

The next speaker really changed the real idea of what is social media in the eyes of a blogger. Opinion makers should have an idea on how to mixed up great thoughts in words or comments since we are free to express ourselves not to harm others. People engaged with social media have also the freedom to learn and to think out of the box and has the capacity to change the current situation of an object. Those are just some highlights that Manuel "Manolo" Quezon III discussed during the Blogfest SOCCSKSARGEN 2.0 with a theme, "The Emergence of Blogs and Social Media".

Social media changes the trend of what is now, compared to the past, wherein there is no Facebook or Twitter to get mingle with people, Youtube to watch missed fave shows in full color or high definition, or even reading news articles via Yahoo!, CNN, GMANews.tv and such rather than reading it in very versatile paper. Because of technology, everything is made to substitute the old practice.

According to the research presented by Quezon, Filipinos are engaged with the use of computers instead of listening to the radio for news and information, crying in front of the TV while watching telenovelas, or even reading comic books and newspapers to kill information. Because computer and internet are somewhat, addictive, we should set up new rules on how to handle our thumbs.

In politics, Social Media has a big role in promoting themselves, I mean promoting their platforms, well it is only for election time purposes, perhaps. Before, politicians spent a lot of mickey mouse money to print out their lame posters and flyers as if people notice it. But now, because of the social media era, politicians are now invading social networking sites to touch people, to have their www[dot]com websites to share their political diaries and projects. It really influences people, says the internet.

Undersecretary of Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Manuel "Manolo" Quezon III during his speech about Social Media. (Photo Credit: Mr. Kyawster)

EVERYONE USES FACEBOOK. Filipinos has the world's highest Facebook penetration. It means that we tend to open the internet and directly login to our Facebook accounts. Indeed, it's true. Facebook is not for laptops and desktop computers. We can access to Facebook by using smartphones, tablets, or even SMS. That's how powerful social networking is.

FILIPINOS LOVE TO SHARE PICTURES AND VIDEOS. Don't deny it, alright. We love Project 365 or even the next Youtube Sensation. Those are some filipino traits that are widely seen online.

FILIPINOS PREFER TO READ OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS THAN TO WRITE THEIR OWN. Yea. Applicable to some bloggers. Even myself fond of reading other people's blogs, just to find inspiration for my new blogpost or to gain idea.

Teens are watching less TV, listening to less radio, reading less books and magazines, doing less sports, less interaction with friends, face-to-face frequently, and spending less money or traditional consumer items. Thanks to virtual connectivity technology like text messaging and the internet. - McCann, 2007

The second version of BlogFest SOCCSKSARGEN was made possible by Fat and Fab Brothers of the Philippines, Mr. Avel (www.gensantos.com) and Orman (www.gandaeversomuch.com) Manansala in cooperation with SOCCSKSARGEN Bloggers. Co-Presentors Dole Philippines, Inc., Sagittarius Mines Incorporated, Circle of Arts Productions and Smart Telecommunications were there to support the event. Not to mention the help being extended by Gold Sponsors AirPhil Express, ACLC College, the GSC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Local Government of General Santos City, and the Department of Trade and Industry - Region 12. Official Hotel SunCity Suites, Sarangani Highlands, Google Philippines, GMA Network and ABS-CBN were also there to make the event possible.

BlogFest SOCCSKSARGEN 2.0 is considered as the biggest gathering of bloggers in the Philippines, with almost 100 bloggers from different parts of the Philippines, including bloggers from Iligan, Davao, and as far as Iloilo, Cebu and Manila, and was attended by eleven intelligent and highly-respected speakers in the country who shared their knowledge about Emergence of Blogs and Social Media. 

Events , News , Tekkie Reviews

BlogFest 2.0: History of the Internet in Mindanao

What do you think of the real situation in Mindanao during 90's? What if there's no source of news and information about Mindanao until now? What if, Mindanao has no Bob Martin? What do you think?

This guy, Bob "MindanaoBob" Martin, is actually famous for promoting the Philippines not to his fellowmen in United States but also in the world by his top emerging blogs and websites. He was one of the keynote speakers of this year's BlogFest SOCCSKSARGEN 2.0 with a theme, "The Emergence of Blogs and Social Media".

Martin shared his life before he engaged in blogging especially promoting Mindanao to the world. It was in 1990's when internet was introduced to them. He has no idea about the internet, communicating with other people with the use of e-mail (he said that it took 30 minutes to send an ordinary e-mail to someone, it was as slowest as the dsl line) until he found out that he could do something better with it. He was responsible for posting insights about Mindanao, particularly in General Santos City (2nd for having a website in Mindanao that time, Davao being the 1st) promoting the island on how beautiful, wonderful and lovely the people are. He was also responsible for creating the first website for Mindanao, www.MINDANAO.com

He always come to Mindanao until his family decided to live in General Santos in 2000. After several months, he established his own internet cafe business (one in RD Plaza and second in East Asia Royale Hotel) using a satellite to have a high speed internet connection (well, not that really fast compared to this generation). Until his family decided to move in Davao because of terrorism activities happening in General Santos but it was not a hindrance for him to stop blogging about Mindanao. It was a challenge for him that Mindanao, as an island, is really safe to travel.

Since 1990's, Martin already visited 24 out of 26 provinces in Mindanao, including some of the dangerous places such as Lanao Provinces, Tawi-tawi, Sulu, and ARMM Provinces. Well, it was really dangerous to travel in those places especially if you're a foreigner but Martin find it not that scary or dangerous, at all.

Because blogging is now trending in this generation, Martin encourages young and professional bloggers to keep on blogging positive vibes about Mindanao, interesting facts, foods in order to promote the tourism of the place, and to replace the bad news with these stuffs. Martin started nothing but when he explored Mindanao, everything's changed. He put it on the web, people read his posts, and he influenced people to come to Mindanao to invest, to relax or perhaps, to live. A good example is the www.GENSANTOS.com by Mr. Avel Manansala, where he keeps on promoting General Santos to the world and now, one of the emerging and influential bloggers in the country.

The second version of BlogFest SOCCSKSARGEN was made possible by Fat and Fab Brothers of the Philippines, Mr. Avel (www.gensantos.com) and Orman (www.gandaeversomuch.com) Manansala in cooperation with SOCCSKSARGEN Bloggers. Co-Presentors Dole Philippines, Inc., Sagittarius Mines Incorporated, Circle of Arts Productions and Smart Telecommunications were there to support the event. Not to mention the help being extended by Gold Sponsors AirPhil Express, ACLC College, the GSC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Local Government of General Santos City, and the Department of Trade and Industry - Region 12. Official Hotel SunCity Suites, Sarangani Highlands, Google Philippines, GMA Network and ABS-CBN were also there to make the event possible.

BlogFest SOCCSKSARGEN 2.0 is considered as the biggest gathering of bloggers in the Philippines, with almost 100 bloggers from different parts of the Philippines, including bloggers from Iligan, Davao, and as far as Iloilo, Cebu and Manila, and was attended by eleven intelligent and highly-respected speakers in the country who shared their knowledge about Emergence of Blogs and Social Media. 

Events , News , Tekkie Reviews

How to Make Money as a Freelancer on oDesk

Create Your Contractor Profile
Start by joining oDesk here and create your Contractor profile. A complete profile, including providing details like your title, objective, and availability will ensure you will stand out among the rest. Many new Contractors fail to take the time to complete their profile in full, prohibiting them from obtaining contracts. Make sure to give as much information as possible about yourself without being too personal.

Take Tests
oDesk provides Employers with qualification tests to help with wean out candidates for their job postings. Contractors have a better chance of being picked for a job if they complete a test relevant to their field. For example, a web developer may choose to take a PHP, CSS or Java test. The test results will be displayed on your profile, unless you specify to hide the results. Make sure to take the oDesk Readiness Test so that you know all the ins and outs of the site.

Search and Apply for Jobs
Now that you have your profile ready, you'll want to start applying for jobs. Search for jobs by category or keywords. Once you have found a job which interests you, apply for it by placing a bid. You can either propose an amount that will be paid to you, or the overall fee that will be charged to the employer. Insert a customized cover letter in order to outline your skills and any information that is needed for the application. For fixed rate projects, you will have to enter the duration of the project or the amount of time you believe it will take to complete the job. Agree to the terms and conditions, then hit apply! The employer will review your application and either decline your offer, invite you to a virtual interview, or hire you straight away.

Increase Your Job Quota
When you first sign up for oDesk, you are only permitted to apply for two jobs at any one time. You can increase your allowance by completing your Readiness Test, taking four or more other tests, and completing the ID verification process. The maximum job quota is twenty jobs at any one time. When a job posting has been removed or expired, a position has been filled, or you have been hired, your quota will allow for more job applications.

Tekkie Reviews

My Top 3 Social Networking Sites

May Facebook Account ba kayo? I think everyone does. Sino kaya walang Facebook Account sa atin? Diba lahat naman meron? kahiit ang mga matatanda 'eh may facebook na rin. They just want to reconnect with their long lost friends. So amazing, isn't it?

Because of this, I cited my top 3 social networking sites on the web. Kung saan meron akong account, at active ako. And some are those sites that influenced others to use not just for connecting friends but also sharing their thoughts and feelings.

Facebook - Sino ba ang walang Facebook ngayon? Diba halos lahat meron na? Even the janitor, teacher, students and the President of the country merong Facebook. Even the celebrities, politicians are using Facebook. Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school, or college, or other characteristics. Facebook is not just a social networking, but it is also a micro-blogging site. You can post whatever you want and you can write a comment about it, or even like a single post of your friends. You can also share your photos and videos online. Pero ang gusto ko sa Facebook is that you can easily get connected with your friends using Facebook Chat, ala Yahoo Messenger ang dating. All-in-one Social Networking with almost half a billion users worldwide, mostly Chinese and Filipino users. Facebook launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.

Plurk - it is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as plurks) through short messages or links, which can be up to 140 text characters in length. I started using Plurk last 2009 and at first, mahirap pa siyang gamitin. Though through exploring its features, I found it very nice and convenient. Mas maganda ang Plurk compared to Twitter because in every Plurk posts, pwede kang magcomment regarding that post. The cool thing behind this micro-blogging site is that you can customize your profile, just like Friendster. For Philippine Plurk users, you can update your Plurk via sending your SMS posts by GladlyCast.com. Ito ang ginagamit ko to aim the Karma 100. the good thing about Plurk is that I can connect my Plurk posts to my Facebook and Twitter Accounts.

Twitter - is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read other users' messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default, however senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other author tweets—this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers. As of late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of just following individual authors. The good thing about Twitter is that you can follow your favorite celebrities. Most of the celebrities use Twitter.

Those are my top 3 social networking sites. Meron akong mga accounts niyan. Kayo, what's your top 3 social networking sites?

Happy Moments , Tekkie Reviews

How to Block Those Pillow Fights on Facebook

Got annoyed with those Pillow Fights on your Facebook Profile? Well, here's the solution to your problem.

Just log-in to your Facebook Account first, then after logging in, click this link:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/block.php?id=7068221435&action=block&source=about

After clicking that link, there's a notificat

ion that you can block that application. It looks like this one:

Note: Just click the "Block" Button

After clicking the Block Button, lalabas ang Fan Page ng Pillow Fight, and your Problem is OVER. :)

Thanks to kuya Dave Dequito for sharing the link to his Blog Site. Ito nga pala ang kanyang blog post about Pillow Fight:

• Pillow Fight Anyone? - Daveion

Guys, don't forget to drop some comments on this post! Thanks. :)

Tekkie Reviews

Creative Computer Works

i really have no idea when my talents in photo editing started.. (think)

maybe when i was in 2nd year when i do have a creative imagination of making my photo albums into a photo collage in powerwoint presentation and save it as .jpeg extension. though that is not a sufficient explanation why i love editing and manipulating pictures.

i joined socksargen it challenge on my 3rd year in high school in web page category. i made my own layouts and it looks ugly because i don't have any idea about adobe photoshop or corel draw. but fortunately, i won 3rd out of 10 contestants. :D

i continued practicing photo editing for a year and because of that, i created lots of lots of pictures and also in school, i made for the intramurals and for a beauty pageant and they printed it in a tarpaulin shop, i was so proud of my self because it was my first time to create a picture plus they printed it in a larger image. :D

i also joined the socksargen it challenge, (again) and for the first time i joined tarpaulin making and i won as 1st place. in webpage, i didn't make it to the top though thank God because he gave me the 2nd place spot.

because of my hardwork, nakamit ko din ang pinapangarap ko.
:D

**here are some of my artworks**

tuna fest entry, socsksargen it challenge, 1st place"

nang nauso ang twilight, ginawa namin itong katawa-tawa.. credits to akiko.

raga sa msu 2008, 3-day photo editing and made it in tarpaulin

intramurals 2008, busiest part of my life, i made the invitations,
schedules, the logos, for the backdrop of every events,
and lastly, editing using adobe photoshop cs2 and made it in tarpaulin

one of my teachers in high school contact me to create
her learning center logo in gensan, and it was approved
by the dep.ed. :D

i even edited my friend's thesis procedure for regional intel, this tarp won 3nd place

my other friend's thesis procedure for regional intel, this tarp won 4nd place..
but i can't find the2nd place tarpaulin picture in my folder.. :(

i hope msu-cetd will make their own website, and i'll be the webmaster. :D

aim global in gensan, final certificate for my uncle and auntie,
requested by my cousin, one of the owners of aim global gensan

my first adobe photoshop picture. :))

raga sa msu 2009 in tarpaulin

printing in process, intramurals 2008 tarpaulin

aim global day 2008 ticket

Tekkie Reviews