Tuesday, July 21

Green Campus Computing




What is Green Computing?

Green computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. The primary objective of such a program is to account for the triple bottom line, an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success. The goals are similar to green chemistry; reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste.


The 3 URLs that talk about Green Campus C
omputing:


1.
Campus computing comes up green
Center works to safely dispose of e-waste


It talks about that although students enjoy the stylish new Macs and PCs in computing labs across campus, some might stop to ponder the fate of that dusty, old machine with the sticky keys they loved to hate in last year's class. The U's Green Computing Resource Center helps ensure that electronic dinosaurs, now known as e-waste, stay out of the landfill. They notes the toxicity of components in used equipment. These components include lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium and brominated flame retardants. All are hazardous and can create long-term issues if not handled properly. GRX (Guaranteed Recycling Xperts), a company that contracts with the state and local schools to process this e-waste in an environmentally responsible manner deconstructs the outdated machinery at their processing facility in Clearfield and isolates anything containing hazardous materials. Some components are re-utilized, some are recycled and some usable items are resold. Their stated goal is to return 100 percent of the material to the manufacturing process.

URL: http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/news/campus-computing-comes-up-green-1.345643




2.
Green Computing in Sites


It talks about the Energy Efficiency Initiatives in Sites that takes its stewardship of University resources very seriously and fully supports the University's institutional commitment to green computing practices.

Some specific examples of energy efficiency initiatives already pursued by Sites include:

• Campus Computing Sites was the first large campus computing provider to purchase much more energy efficient LCD flat-panel displays. They also replaced mini-towers with "small form factor" desktop Windows machines. The switch to these physically smaller, more energy efficient machines resulted in significant energy savings for our partners and the University.
• All Sites computers purchased in the last six years have been EPA Energy Star compliant. All Sites computers purchased in the last year are compliant with the new, more restrictive Energy Star guidelines released on July 20, 2007.
• Sites computers are left on 24/7 throughout most of the year. The primary reason for this is that our Windows and Macintosh computers receive new software and security updates overnight. Sites computers switch to lower-power energy-saving modes when they are left unattended for extended periods of time. These power-saving modes can reduce power consumption by 50–95%, depending on the model.
• Sites printers make use of "deep sleep" energy-saving features that reduce energy consumption when not in use. These features appear to be well implemented and do not require additional development work on their part.

URL: http://www.itcs.umich.edu/sites/general/green.php



3.
Campus Computing Goes Green to Save Money


It talks about "Greening the Internet Economy," that was designed to address the problem of the soaring financial and environmental costs of information technology. The researchers have also started work on hardware to help colleges and other organizations understand how to make their servers more efficient. The device, called the GreenLight Instrument, will deploy sensors and software to measure the energy use, humidity, and other variables in various parts of a Sun Modular Data Center, a popular, self-contained complex of servers. The goal is to encourage engineers to try different computing strategies to reduce electricity consumption, and for them to be more precisely determine how to use energy.

URL: http://chronicle.com/free/2009/01/10296n.htm



However, here are some suggested ways on how the university can adopt the concept of Green Campus Computing:


• Turn off the monitor when it's not in use
• Use more energy efficient monitors like LCDs instead of the traditional CRT monitors
• Volunteer computing or file sharing practices
• Virtualization of servers
• Use more energy efficient and less noisy cooling systems (like using liquid cooling systems instead of the conventional heat sinks and fans)
• Temperature maintenance and regulation to reduce thermal shock wear and tear to computer parts
• Increase online security measures through the use of firewalls, anti spyware and anti virus programs to reduce the increasing amount of eWaste on the Internet and on other networks.
• Use the power management correctly, so that we can save energy costs per year.
• Do away with paper altogether because it costs a lot of money and wastes paper. Instead, use ebook reader that would be incredibly cool and which you can use for your entire life, too.
• Use DC Power instead of AC Power to save space, save energy loss inside the adaptors and saves ventilation costs.


Furthermore, the power to demand such green policies lies within us; the student, the teachers, the faculties and the school. There is no “cost vs. green” battle here. We must demand that if we want us to make us buy green products, then it had better be cheaper too! Wink

So take action, speak out by writing letters and asking questions, entrepreneur, go for seminars, bore your friends with information, build interdisciplinary dialogues etc. Together we can move towards a better world for the next generation to inherit and let us make our campus computing be “Green”. cheers cheers cheers

Monday, July 13

Automated Election



What is Automated Election?


Automated Election is a process that is using an automated system, which is the appropriate technology for voting, counting,
consolidating, canvassing, transmission of election results, and other processes in the conduct of electoral exercises.


Advantages of the system to this coming 2010 election:

• There will be no ballot box snatching as the ERs are transmitted electronically for canvassing
• There is less work for the Board of Election Inspectors
(BEI)
• If all precincts are connected, national result
s can be produced within one hour after the close of voting
• There is automated tally of votes at the city/municipal level
• The Direct Recording Equipment (DRE) can include an automated voter valida
tion system
• Canvassing at the city/municipal and provincial leve
ls is almost instantaneous
• There is an instantaneous tally of votes at the precinct level
• Ballots are pre-printed and voters simply mark c
hoices

MAJOR CHANGES FROM THE MANUAL SYSTEM


1. No writing of names - All candidates' names are pre-printed on the ballot. The entire voter would have to do to indicate his vote is to shade the oval corresponding to the name of the candidate of his choice.

2. Ballots are not counted in the polling place - After the closing of the polls, the ballots will be brought to the centralized counting center to be counted by the machines.

3. There are added security features at differen
t levels - Aside from the usual built-in securities in the current manual system, there would be additional security features in the following levels: printing of ballots, shipment, counting and canvassing

4. Minimum human intervention - Human intervention is limite
d to telling the machine to: start and stop counting the ballots, start saving the results in a diskette (or any data storage device), and start printing the results. And appreciation of ballots is entirely done by the machine.


Now, regarding to the bidding of the automated system, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was awarded the P11.3-billion contract for the automation of next year’s elections to the consortium of Smartmatic International and Total Information Management Corp.



Smarmatic International Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Smart¬matic International Holdings, BV of The Netherlands. The firm was founded more than a decade ago as a research and development group specializing in systems integration. Smartmatic has organized elections in several regions around the world, including South America, the Car¬ribean, the United States and Asia. Smartmatic was also the system provider for the 2007 Autonomous Region in Muslim Minda¬nao elections. Of the seven consortia, only Smartmatic/TIM was declared by the committee as qualified in terms of financial and technical requirements and eligibility.




Total Information Management (TIM), on the other hand, is a Filipino-owned information technology company that operates nationwide and offers various information-technology (IT) services and products. According to its website, TIM was founded in 1985 as a supplier for re¬certified and refurbished IBM mainframes and peripheral equipment. Since then, it has grown to be the country’s leading technology services company.


However, 2010 elections may be too near though
and any automation efforts, the planning and preparation for it must start as early as this year so that it couldn’t be rushed because it will only create uncertain situation that harms the organization and so that it can deliver a better service to the people. And if the automated election system was done right and securely, it may be curb cheating. Perhaps it will be best also to do some trials on 2010 in key areas like Metro Manila to begin with so that we can really see if its really good and reliable and not gonna be electronic voting but an electronic cheating too? This therefore can be no difference with the Manual system too, if it happens.
As what I have read, electronic voting could also have some cases of problems, errors and failures. These cases included: uninitialized machines, wh
ich made ballot stuffing possible; votes not counted or lost; candidates’ votes reversed; contests not counted; ballots not counted; the wrong winner comes out; allowing voting more than once; vote totals that exceed the number of registered voters; negatives votes; unauthorized software replacement; and other problems.

The problems are also causes by the complex technologies, such as: software bugs, which are always present even in high-quality software; hardware problems such as miscalibration; environmental stresses that may worsen hardware problems; poor or flawed design; human errors; and malicious tampering.

Hope so it will not happen, lets us be honest pls…!


Moreover, according to what I have research, the real works of the automated election begins on the Smartmatic. They are assured and confident that they will gonna do it successfully with the security and transparency of our votes in this kind of election. The other thing that they will going to do are the following:

• Smartmatic will be going to different voting centers to check local conditions, including the electrical and communication lines.
• The company was willing to make public the source
code, especially because it was one of the requirements of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and so that politicians and political parties can be confident with the system. In addition, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) would be tasked to protect source code, a security feature to help prevent cheating.
• Smartmatic assured th
at under its system, Comelec would be able to declare winners within 36 hours after the voting period.
• Smartmatic will be providing for the 82,200 Precinct
Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to automate voting nationwide.
• Smartmatic assured that were safe from hacking and the system works without any human intervention once the machines are deployed. And the machines were to be made would be open to media, official election observers and members of the advisory council.



But inspite of this assurance that we have in Smartmatic, there’s many issues arose before the contract signing of the two companies. These issues are:

• The TIM president Jose Mari Antuñez had told Melo that TIM was withdrawing from its partnership with Smartmatic,
citing “irreconcilable differences” and “loss of confidence.”
• TIM lawyer De Borja said that his client had decided to sever its ties with Smartmatic because the foreign firm wanted to have an upper hand in decision-making.
• Borja maintained that TIM could not allow this because “down the road, we are the Filipino partner so if there is a problem, we’ll be the one that will be left to answer.”
• Comelec chairman Jose Melo announced that money was the root of the fallout between the two companies, jeopardizing the automation of next year’s local and national polls.
• There were reports that TIM was demanding some P500 million from Smartmatic.
• Smartmatic international sales director Cesar Flores co
nfirmed that TIM wanted “to have more control in the operations.”
• “ But it’s the requirements of the Comelec that the company with the biggest experience in automation – which in this case is Smartmatic – is the one that has to guarantee the technology, the software, the transmission and the operations of the elections so we are indeed in charge of the operations,” Flores added.
• And Antuñez told their foreign partner’s lawyers that their problems with their partnership could be solved if Smartma
tic paid its local partner P500 million.



Because of these issues happened, there gonna have possible consequences and rumors that they can get for backing out, like

• If the two companies cannot push through with the automation contract, Melo admitted that next year’s elections might be done manually because the Comelec no longer has the time to convene a second bidding for a new supplier of machines.
• The entire consortium that was supposed to provide m
achines for the automation of next year’s national elections may face legal liabilities and civil damages following the withdrawal of TIM from its partnership with Smartmatic, according to Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera.
• There’s also rumor tells that it was TIM that was the guilty party. It threatened to file criminal and civil charges against TIM for backing out of the landmark project.
• And the Nacionalista Party headed by Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. warned that the withdrawal of the local partner of the co
nsortium that would facilitate automated polls might just be part of the Arroyo administration’s grand scheme to cancel elections.



But, for only a few days the issue between the two companies was already resolved and the poll automation was back on track. In addition, the confirmation about this was delivered by a certain persons,

• According to the Smartmatic international sales director Cesar Flores, the two companies "have already signed all necessary documents for the incorporation of our joint venture corporation" which will implement the automation project.
• According to Jose Mari Antunez, president and chief executive of Total Information, confirmed that the consorti
um members had resolved their differences and agreed to "move forward".
• According to Melo, Smartmatic and TIM were able to settle their differences, but he refused to elaborate what happen because its just a private conversation for them. And he added that whatever internal arrangement that they have, it’s between them.


It’s really good and relief for me to hear about it coz, honest
ly I am so excited for it because I want to experience it. I’m really praying that there were no anomalies and cheatings that comes out during the election. And I’m sure that there’s many patrollers also out there that will watch and guide our votes for the common good of all the Filipinos. Ika nga, “Boto Mo, Ipatrol Mo”. I’m proud to be Pinoy! cheers cheers cheers








References:
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/june/15/yehey/top_stories/20090615top3.html
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/163997/(Update)-Smartmatic-bags-P113-B-poll-automation-deal
http://hubpages.com/hub/Automated-Election-Are-we-ready

Sunday, July 12

Our Pics in Technology Update Seminar

COMDDAP DAVAO 2009 EXPO


My Experience…

My experienced in COMDDAP Davao 2009 Expo was so good. Actually it is my first time also to go to Apo View Hotel..hehe. At first, when I got there, I was astounded when I saw a lot of people there and mostly students of the different schools. Honestly, I don’t know where am I going to go because I am alone that time until I found my classmates so I’m already ok. What we first did was just walking around on the expo, watching on the different products or gadgets that they have there and listening about what is on their products. I saw also students there who tried browsing on the computers with the use of LCD monitors because it has also an internet. While we are walking around, I thought that there’s no already gonna have a seminar because I didn’t see anything that is having a seminar, without knowing that the seminar was already started inside along the way, in line of the comfort room. When we were there, I was surprised because they are already many in the room which is also about to be full and most of there are my classmates and schoolmates. That’s why because of being late, me and my companions are already seated at the back. Hehe…SmileSmileSmile

What is Comddap…

COMDDAP is an association of the country's top information technology businesses. Its primary objective is to promote the sustainable development of the of the country's information technology industry through voluntary collaboration of its member companies. It is the goal of COMDDAP to be able to provide its members general views and updates from different sectors - private and government, and highly regarded individuals to further uplift the morale and knowledge of its organization.

The vision of promoting and elevating the standards of Information technology (IT) in the Philippines fueled a group of prominent computer companies to form the Computer Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines or COMDDAP. Its initial member-companies represent the world's leading makers and providers of computer products, solutions and peripherals.

In 1997, the manufacturing sector - represented by industry leaders Hewlett Packard, Epson and Compaq, among others - was integrated into the COMDDAP membership, making the association a more diverse representation of the IT sector and thus the new name, COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS, DISTRIBUTORS AND DEALERS ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES.

The COMDDAP Expo…

COMDDAP is the one who organized and managed the COMDDAP Davao 2009 event that was held on July 2-4 at the Apo View Hotel. This event is all about the biggest IT Expo which regularly held in the South. With the speed that IT evolving and becoming ever more persuasive in our everyday lives, COMDDAP this year brings up something new to its market, it stages now the LCD monitor shootout. This shootout brings together the top LCD monitor brands in the world in a showdown of their most brilliant features in terms of graphics, photo and video display.

COMDDAP also wants us to get up close and take a first–hand look at the latest IT product and software for computing, imaging, printing, connecting and communications , security , entertainment and lifestyle applications by having their product Demonstrations . Some of the product that they have these are the Symantec, Mcafee , Norton, Adobe , Autocad , Microsoft hardware, and a lot more.

COMDDAP also have the other regular events for the visitors like the Technology Update, series of seminars and workshops, events discounts, raffle draws and generous giveaways for lucky attendees. In addition, COMDDAP should also be attended because of the networking opportunities that can boost for the business, they also have consultation and hands on experience with IT experts and free to see the latest industry trends.
That’s why we as an IT students in USEP are also invited to attend the Expo especially on the seminars that they have there so that we can gain market intelligence and be updated on the latest market trends that are related to IT industry.


The Nexus Group of Companies…

The Seminar is all about the technology update that was led by the Nexusgroup with the other companies like:

1. Jupiter Systems – a Philippine based IT Services Company dedicated to delivering solutions for medium to large companies. They offer services covering the entire range of business activities- from marketing and promotion, procurement/supply chain management, manufacturing, distribution, financial reporting, business intelligence, and even IT infrastructure security and maintenance.


2. Nexus Technologies Inc. - was incorporated in December 1994 with a vision to create a professionally run company that delivers real business benefits to its clients through leading technologies. Nexus is proud to be a prominent force in the Philippine IT industry, having carved a niche as the systems integrator and corporate IT reseller of choice of some of the Philippines' top corporations. It has successfully forged long-term client partnerships anchored by a keen understanding that technology plays a pivotal role in the delivery and the achievement of an organization's business goals. Nexus maintains a strong network of IT solutions providers culled carefully from a genuine passion to provide solutions that offer genuine business advantage.



3. EduPro, Inc. - is a Microsoft Certified Technical Education Center (MS CTEC) established in 1996. Edupro provides training and certification on the latest I.T. skills. Our list of courses range from desktop courses (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to Web Publishing courses (including Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver etc.) to the technical computer courses for system administrators, system engineers, database administrators among others.



4. Spinweb Productions, Inc. - is an online media agency established in March 2000 to help businesses stay competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace. Spinweb maintains a complete and skilled project team comprised of graphic designers, programmers, project coordinators, and account managers. Quality is always assured in our fully integrated development process, without a role or a detail being missed.


5. The Nexus Professional Services and Solutions (NPSS) – this group aims to focus on providing companies more value from their IT investments by making IT the prime engine supporting clients' business goals. NPSS has a highly skilled team of service engineers who can provide the second backline support to the clients' IT department. Beyond customer support, NPSS will manage the client's IT service to enable the client to focus on its business.



The Seminar…


For me, the seminar was so good especially on the products that they had introduced to us. First was the Edupro for their Windows Server 2008 that is the most advanced Windows Server operating system yet, designed to power the next-generation of networks, applications, and Web services. Next, was the Jupiter Systems that has their ERIC Dealer Management System (DMS), which is an end-to-end software solution for automotive sales parts, and service businesses and it also covers full range of dealer activities from customer prospecting and vehicle services. Third was the Nexus Technologies Inc. for their HP Thin Client which amazed me most because it is a computing device that have no hardrive, with displays data and applications from remotely located servers, and blade PC’s or virtual desktops. It is the one that if you reboot it, it will automatically remove also the viruses, in short there’s no need already to have an antivirus. Then, the Nexus Professional Services and Solutions (NPSS) for their Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System that is very nice and very useful because it is a software suite built for retailer designed to fully automate their business across all channels of commerce with a low Total Cost of Ownership quick return on investments. And the last one was the Spinweb for their Open source which is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software's source code. It is licensed software that meets the Open Source Definition and mostly it is a free and the source is open. In addition, the good thing for it is that a lot of the things that you can do in Windows and Mac, you can do in Open Source. So therefore, if I were you to choose between the open source and proprietory system, practically I would prefer open source because of the very reason that is, it is free and their works was already been proven as nice and very good applications on web like on the portals, corporate, publishing, government, education, art, music, multimedia, e-commerce, etc. and even the popular sites of Avril Lavigne, JLO, Britney and a lot more. So where can you find it! so grab it…

On the other way, the good thing on the seminar was that they are not just having a presentation about their products but they also gave nice giveaways on their Q&A portion like the USBs and T-Shirts, which made us into fun and enjoyed the seminar. hehe. Moreover, after the seminar we have already took pictures with the speakers also as our remembrance for this…

PS. Thanks COMDDAP for having an EXPO like this and because we have learned a lot of new things especially in the IT industry trends.bouncebouncebounce


Reference: From the Nexusgroup slides




Wednesday, July 8

What are the risks associated with business and IS/IT change?





flower The company that I have visited was the Lane Systems. Lane System is actively promoting IT development in the Philippines and is closely working with government agencies in building solutions for small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and encouraging them to automate their business processes. It is exists to provide an ever-increasing level of quality software, consulting, service and responsiveness to the customers for very reasonable costs, while creating a corporate culture that fosters respect, personal growth, responsibility and opportunities for their employees. Moreover, Lane System is also unique in several aspects; among them is the unparalleled ability to examine a business challenge, apply appropriate technology solutions, and effectively articulate the solution to their own teams and the customer from start to finish. They guarantee the customers’ satisfaction as they go the “extra mile” to see that their customers know that they mean business when they say they are committed to them.

That’s why, because of being committed to their job they have also encountered to have some changes/resource policies in their systems and they’ve developed it, in order to have more improvements on their performance so that the customers would also be satisfied and contended with their works and will keep working with them too. However, changing systems is also not easy to do, it is neither very complicated nor very difficult to handle because there’s so many things that you have to consider before systems are built and tested, like the risks of change. And that’s what they had experienced too like controlling the integrity of information systems and resources, including all network devices, computer systems, applications, and databases in their infrastructure. By the way, here are some of the purposes why some organizations plan to change.

Smile The Purpose of Change: Smile

The purpose of organizational transformation and business reengineering was to change radically how the organization behaved. The organizational transformation needs the reappraisal and redesign of business processes to create dramatic organizational performance improvements.

And the desire to make such fundamental changes in organizations is driven by three major aims:

1. The need for an inbuilt capability for detecting and responding to changing circumstances.
2. To obtain economic benefits as a result of streamlined operations and increased customer satisfaction.
3. To achieve higher employee benefits which directly benefit the two other aims.

Information is more critical in organizations as change and uncertainty increase. IT is an important enabler and integrator of various different business units within an organization. However, information is not being exploited to its full potential. Therefore, information must be managed strategically and no corporate strategy can be considered complete without taking IT concerns into account.


Razz Moreover, as I have searched, in organizations without a formal information technology (IT) change management process, it is estimated that 80% of IT service outage problems are caused by updates and alterations to systems, applications, and infrastructure. Consequently, one of the first areas to address to improve service reliability is to track all changes and systematically manage change with full knowledge of the risks of the change and the potential organizational impact. Change Management is an essential part of the overall process to ensure the reliable delivery of information technology services. Nevertheless, before implementing the changes, they should also have a risk assessment for them to know the possible risks of change and have some reviews that commensurate with the potential impact of the change.

Smile The Risks of Change: Smile

For determining composite risk assessment that guides the implementation of the change they can have a two standardized evaluations: the organizational criticality of the system to be changed and the likelihood of adverse impact resulting from the change. First, on an annual basis, the criticality of the system is appraised in order to establish its relative value to the enterprise. The standardized criteria for this assessment are:

Arrow Number of users that could be impacted by a service interruption
Arrow Financial impact of an extended service outage or unrecoverable loss of data
Arrow Likelihood that a system/service failure could result in:
Disclosure of sensitive information that needs to be protected
Misuse of client-owned resources
Malicious interruption of services or research operations
Arrow Possibility that a system/service failure could result in an event or condition that may have adverse safety, health, security, operational, environmental, or mission implication
Arrow Potential future impacts based on prior system/service interruption experiences

Secondly, when a change is proposed, each request is graded against the following criteria:

Question How many users will be visibly affected by the proposed change?
Question What is the anticipated difficulty for user and support personnel to learn the new or modified system/service?
Question What is the stability and supportability of the technology or vendor products utilized by the system?
Question In the event the change implementation fails or adversely impacts other systems or services, what will be the impact of executing the implementation contingency plan?
Question Based upon past experience, what is the likelihood of failure or adverse problems resulting from the change?


Depending on the level of the composite risk, requirements of the release plan such as testing rigor and end-user communications are strengthened to mitigate higher levels of risk. Conversely, a lower risk score results in a reduced scope of change implementation requirements.


Smile Furthermore, there are also four characteristics of a transformed organization, these are: Smile

1. A vision that is shared throughout the business:

Exclamation Everyone in the organization has the same views of how things in the organization could be. Thus, great emphasis is placed on accurate and detailed communication to develop this perspective.

2. The priority for satisfying customers’ needs:

Exclamation Giving the customers what they want when they want it is the major priority in any transformed organization.

3. The high priority of satisfying staff needs:

Exclamation An important aim in a transformed organization is providing employees with benefits they see as positive that contribute to the aims and objectives of the organization.

4. The vital nature of the effective management of change:

Exclamation In any changing organization, emphasis must be placed on the management of change skills and responsibilities. Resistance to change must be incorporated and time must be allowed for people to adapt to the changes made.


In my research, I have found out that the contribution of IT to organizational transformation was that some organizations found information system and information technology to be crucially important while in other organizations was considerably less important. So therefore, information’s intensity determines the contribution of IT. That information intensity refers to how important information is to the overall organization.



References:
• http://www.nwacc.org/programs/awards/excellence_award/pnnl_submissions_07/pnnl_risk-based_it_change_management.pdf
• http://emhain.wit.ie/~pwall/CvD.htm
• http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/courses/01388/index.asp?code=01388&pg=all