It’s here!

My girlfriend just launched her new blog, and after all the work she’s put into piecing it together, it’s finally here.

The Sea Green Journal

I highly recommend that you check it out (not because I’m the boyfriend, but because it’s great and there’s a lot of awesome thingamabobs). You’ll learn about Interior Design, Food, and a lot of other things. And most importantly, she’ll take you to an awesome journey with Georgia, the prettiest and bestest dog in the world.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to subscribe and drop her a line.

The Sea Green Journal

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Congratulations, my darLing.. Im sure your journal will be a hit. =]

To my blog subscribers (if any), I apologize for being MIA for the past few months. I’ve been pre-occupied with a looooot of new things. I wish I can tell you what they are right now, but I’ll eventually spill it out when the time is right (another incentive to subscribe to my blog). No worries, all is well on my end.

Anyway, I saw this email that’s been floating around my workplace and I  just thought I’d like to share it here in my blog. It’s about the differences between Eastern and Western culture summarized in a few witty images.

As someone who has been (and still is) constantly exposed to the Eastern and Western culture, I can really relate and attest to the differences (both good and bad) of these speciously polarizing but apparently concordant ways of life.

I think one element that jumped-off at me was about how the two cultures view punctuality. I think they are very funny (and accurate) . Honestly, I find myself wavering between the two cultures in terms of my punctuality, but I think I’ve been leaning towards the East for quite some time now

Credits to Liu Young for these visual representations (he was born in China and educated in Germany).

Enjoy!

Blue: Western | Red: Eastern

Opinion

Way of Life

Punctuality

Contacts

Anger

Waiting in a Queue

Sundays on Road

Party

In the Restaurant

Travelling

Handling of Problems

Three Meals a Day

Transportation

Elderly Day to Day Life

Mood and Weather

The Boss 

What’s Trendy

On April 8, 2010, Apple introduced iPhone OS 4. It is Apple’s fourth major iteration of its limelight mobile operating system with over 100 new features, including the highly sought multi-tasking capability. The new version includes major user experience improvements,  including updates targeted to Enterprise customers.

The new look of iPhone OS 4 includes a 3D dock, and a customizable wallpaper.

Apple illustrates the major updates of iPhone OS 4 into “tent poles” which are described in the next section.

1. Multi-tasking

This is perhaps the biggest update to iPhone OS 4. Make no mistake, the iPhone already supports multi-tasking on some of its native applications like Mail and iPod. However, it has closed this door to third-party applications because allowing them to run in the background affects the phone’s battery life and performance.

The big question to ask is: how does iPhone OS 4 support multi-tasking without affecting performance?

Rather than allowing applications to run freely in the background, Apple’s approach is to provide a la carte multi-tasking services. This ensures that an application will only use the multi-tasking function it needs without adulterating the performance of the entire device.

The multi-tasking services that are offered for iPhone OS 4 include:

• Background Audio - this service will allow applications like Pandora, and Ambience to play audio on the background.
• Voice Over IP - this service will allow applications like Skype, and Fring to receive VoIP calls even when the application is not running.
• Background Location - this service will allow applications like Loopt and FourSquare to constantly update user location even when the application is not running. Instead of polling GPS data, this service will use triangulation to retrieve location.
• Local Notifications - this service will allow productivity applications such as to-do lists and calendars to send notifications to the phone without having to use Apple’s Push Notification Service (PNS).
• Task Finishing - this service will allow tasks that take a while to load (like uploading a picture on Facebook) to run in the background even when the application is not active.
• Fast App Switching – this service will allow an application to save its entire state (i.e. state of a chess game) to enable users to swiftly change between applications without any delay.

With the iPhone OS 4 sporting new multi-tasking capabilities, there is a lot of creative potential for forthcoming applications.

With Multi-tasking, users can switch between apps at anytime by double-clicking the home button. Running apps can be killed by tapping and holding the app icon.

2. Enterprise

Enterprises have long had rancorous feelings about supporting the iPhone. In iPhone OS 3, the iPhone had spotty support for key enterprise features that were critical to enterprise adoption.

The release of iPhone OS 4 provides some important updates that might entice Enterprise decision-makers to take a second look at the iPhone. These new features include:

• Data Protection
• Wireless App Distribution
• Improved Mail
• Mobile Device Management
• SSL VPN Support

Other major features of iPhone OS 4 include:

3. Folders

Scrolling through multiple pages before finding that favorite application? Android users don’t have a problem with this. However, with iPhone OS 4, applications can be organized and grouped into folders. Dragging the application on top of another application automatically creates a folder, reducing clutter. This also increases the current limit of 180 applications to 2160.

With Folders, apps can be organized to reduce clutter and improve usability.

4. Even Better Mail

With iPhone OS 4, the Mail application now supports a unified inbox. It also includes support for viewing messages as threads, and opening attachments using third party applications.

5. iBooks

Apple’s e-reader application that comes pre-installed on the iPad will be available to iPhone users with the update of iPhone OS 4. Similar to Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, a massive library of books can be purchased and downloaded straight from the iBooks application.

6. Game Center

With Apple’s successful business model for game development and distribution, is not surprising why Nintendo calls them “the enemy of the future”. In a move to aggrandize its market share, Apple is providing a new social platform for its avid gamers by introducing Game Center on iPhone OS 4. With Game Center, users can play multiplayer games, view ranks, and chat with their favorite buddies similar to Xbox Live.

Game Center provides a social platform for avid iPhone / iPod touch gamers similar to Xbox Live.

7. iAd

iAd is Apple’s new mobile advertising platform to help developers with revenue generation. Current ads found in most free iPhone applications resemble that of classic web banners where users are taken to an external website when clicked.  With iAds, apps can feature highly interactive ads that combine the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web. Think of these ads as “micro-apps”, or an app within an app.

To wrap it up…

iPhone OS 4 is a major update for the OS. The addition of multi-tasking capabilities, coupled with several improvements in the user experience puts the OS ahead of its competition. Apple claims to have the best implementation of multi-tasking among its competitors. Their name will be put to the test come June.

To learn more about the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0, visit the Apple website or watch the Keynote address . If you are an official iPhone Developer, you can download a beta version of iPhone OS 4 from the developer portal.

Apple has announced a surprise event on April 8th to reveal details on the much anticipated iPhone OS 4.0.  This event should spill the beans on multi-tasking support and other new features. Im curious to see what’s in store for the future of iPhone OS…

Two months past 2010 and it still feels like the year had just started. I am getting used to writing “2010″ on notepads and deposit slips, but somehow it’s taking a while for the “new year” feeling to kick-in. Perhaps Im still feeling the hangover from 2009. Last year, a lot of events and new things happened:

• I quit my Web Development job which I had for three years. It was a tough choice to make, but it turned out to be a turning point.
• I had my first “real” research experience with Dr. YiLu and SSIM Lab at Wayne State. This is where the “bulb” turned on. Doing both research endeavors at the same time was challenging, but was a definitely a blast.
• Learned so much from having too many sleepless nights working on Senior Design. Winning the Design contest was an awesome bonus
• IGVC Competition. It was great to pull-off a 15-minute impromptu presentation in front of experienced engineers. Among other things, driving a 10-ft truck full of expensive equipments, running on  rainy days wearing trash bags while carrying wireless joysticks, and making robots automatically avoid an obstacle course made that event very memorable.
• Finally graduated with my two Engineering Degrees… definitely one of the  highlights for the year.
• Going back to Cebu to visit my girlfriend whom I havent seen for 3 years. To see and touch her (again) was a moment I will treasure forever. The entire seven weeks was unforgettable. Although the plane tickets and travel money was a hard-stretch for a college student, the experience was priceless.
• Getting my first “real” job at Ford. Definitely a big change. I never imagined I would have so much fun working on an  IT rotation (given my engineering background)
• Going back to Cebu (again) to visit my girlfriend for the Holidays.. built memories and experience that were scrap-book / musuem worthy..

There were definitely low points throughout the year, as well. But they became learning experiences — opportunities for growth and of becoming a better person. I would not trade them for anything as well.

I have a lot of things I want to accomplish for 2010. And as I tread through the year, I look forward  to learning many, many more things and encounter more life-changing experiences.

As I get accustomed to writing “2010″ on my notepads and deposit slips, I hope it it turns out to be a year that is,  yet again, worth remembering.

Here we go!

From PhD Comics: Here’s a motivation to do your best, even when the odds are stacked against you..

This is a repost from Daniel Isenberg.  He is a Professor of Management Practice from Bobson College.

The original article is here.

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Some of your friends are doing it. People who do it are in the front pages and web almost every day. Even President Obama is talking about it. So should you do it? Should you join the millions of people every year who take the plunge and start their first ventures? I’ve learned in my own years as an entrepreneur — and now an entrepreneurship professor — that there is a gut level “fit” for people who are potential entrepreneurs. There are strong internal drivers that compel people to create their own business. I’ve developed a 2–minute Isenberg Entrepreneur Test, below, to help you find out. Just answer yes or no. Be honest with yourself — remember from my last post: the worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves.

1. I don’t like being told what to do by people who are less capable than I am.
2. I like challenging myself.
3. I like to win.
4. I like being my own boss.
5. I always look for new and better ways to do things.
6. I like to question conventional wisdom.
7. I like to get people together in order to get things done.
8. People get excited by my ideas.
9. I am rarely satisfied or complacent.
10. I can’t sit still.
11. I can usually work my way out of a difficult situation.
12. I would rather fail at my own thing than succeed at someone else’s.
13. Whenever there is a problem, I am ready to jump right in.
14. I think old dogs can learn — even invent — new tricks.
15. Members of my family run their own businesses.
16. I have friends who run their own businesses.
17. I worked after school and during vacations when I was growing up.
18. I get an adrenaline rush from selling things.
19. I am exhilarated by achieving results.
20. I could have written a better test than Isenberg (and here is what I would change ….)

If you answered “yes” on 17 or more of these questions, look at your paycheck (if you are lucky enough to still get one). If the company that issued the check isn’t owned by you, it is time for some soul searching: Do you have debts to pay? Kids in college? Alimony? Want to take it easy? Maybe better to wait. Do you have a little extra cash in the bank and several credit cards? Do you have a spouse, partner, friends, or kids who will cheer you on? If so, start thinking about what kind of business you want to set up. It doesn’t matter what age you are: research by the Kauffman Foundation shows that more and more over–50s are setting up their own businesses. Talk to people who have made the plunge, learn how to plan and deliver a product or service, think about that small business you might buy, talk to people with whom you would like to work, and talk to customers.

“I like to take risks” is not on the list. People don’t choose to be entrepreneurs by opting for a riskier lifestyle. What they do, instead, is reframe the salary vs. entrepreneur choice as between two different sets of risk: the things they don’t like about having a steady job — such as the risk of boredom, working for a bad boss, lack of autonomy, lack of control over your fate, and getting laid off — and the things they fear about being an entrepreneur — possible failure, financial uncertainty, shame or embarrassment, and lost investment. In the end, people who are meant to be entrepreneurs believe that their own abilities (e.g. leadership, resourcefulness, pluck, hard work) or assets (e.g. money, intellectual property, information, access to customers) significantly mitigate the risks of entrepreneurship. Risk is ultimately a personal assessment: what is risky for me is not risky for you.

“I want to get rich” is not on the list either. All else being equal (and all else is rarely equal in the real world), on the average, people who set up their own businesses don’t make more money, although a few do succeed in grabbing the brass ring. But the “psychic benefits” — the challenge, autonomy, recognition, excitement, and creativity — make it all worthwhile.

This quote struck me so much that I’ve been using it as a source of inspiration. It’s the theme for Doodle for Google 2009.  Its a motivation for thinking big, reaching for you dreams, and changing the world.

“If I could do anything, I would…”

• Create technology that would change people’s lives
• Build a beautiful house for every family in the world
• Eliminate poverty, eliminate diseases, and get rid of pornography
• Provide everybody in the world the chance to fulfill their dreams
• Create a bridge from Michigan to Cebu, or perhaps a tunnel or a teleport machine…
• Have YFC/SFC household on the moon
• Learn the ability to walk on water so I can run around the world..
• Travel the solar system within 3 days, starting from the Sun, with a pit-stop at the rings of Saturn, and finally surfing around the outskirts of the milky way. Then I would fly back to Earth, rest for a few days, and Start making plans to travel to a different universe..
• Allow snow to fall in the Philippines (for a few days the most) so people there can finally experience their first snow
• Swim with a blue whale as he takes me around to the wonders of the ocean
• Travel the world with my wife
• If I could do anything, I would still read books, go to Grad school, and be able to learn and explore the fascinating world around us..
• If I could do anything, I would… Do more…

If you could do anything, what would you do?

I have been receiving enormous amounts of Spam from my blog lately. Comments have been temporarily turned off until an anti-spamming solution is found.

Update: Comments are now enabled.