Voice Activated Email and Computer Access

How would you like to get the latest innovation in email technology where you only have to say voice commands to access your email, read and even reply without even hitting a single key or clicking the mouse buttons?

I know quite a number of senior people who have that kind of access

afflicted with technophobia, they simply tell their secretaries to check their emails, read some and even reply to them.

It's a security risk actually but as long they can trust their secretaries, as security is all about trust, it's ok.

teaching old people computer skills is daunting unless you get the techie lola of the Bayan DSL ad :P

Analog TV out, Digital TV Standard in the Philippines Still To Be Determined

The recent switching off of all analog TV signals in the US caught some people off-guard still using analog TVs and antennas.

Not that they can't use their old analog TVs anymore but they need to buy a gadget called "set top box," some sort of analog to digital tv converter (prize subsidized byt the government).

In the Philippines, there's still the tug-of-war between two digital tv standards: Japanese ISDB-T (integrated services digital broadcasting-terrestrial) and the European standard DVB-T (digital video broadcasting-terrestrial). Both ISDB-T and DVB-T standards allow high definition video delivered in widescreen format and various interactive services including video on-demand video.

I'm holding off the purchase of a new TV, particularly an LCD TV for now and now adopting a wait-and-see attitude on this

2010 Automated Elections Security: DRE or OMR

We've all been awed anew with the speed of counting votes during the last US presidential elections where my candidate won. One and a half years from now, the Philippines will again hold new national elections in May 2010 to elect a new president (that is if assholes in Congress take it away from us through charter change to serve their own interests).

During the ARMM elections last August, there were two technologies pilot tested: optical mark recognition (OMR) and direct-recording electronic machine (DRE). DRE is more expensive for it uses touch screen machines that allows voters to key in their votes directly while OMR uses scanners that read ballots filled out by voters and transfers the data through a network.

How to choose among the technologies? It should not be on cost and a logistics alone but focus also on security. How secure is the system? Is it "immune" from hacking and cheating? Due diligence of the people behind the company/suppliers, source code audits, proper procedures, and so many things.

The hardest part here is do you trust the COMELEC? But at least traditional politicians with PhD in electoral fraud will be relegated to newbies once this system is in place. But be on guard always as some can be so smart they'll get a masters degree in no time :(

Manila Police District's Automatic License Plate Recognition System (ALPRS)

Steps in the right direction, that's how I call the recent acquisition by the Manila Police District of the so-called Automatic License Plate Recognition System (ALPRS)

After installing security cameras at various locations in the city and equiping mobile patrol cars with GPS (global positioning system) to track their locations, the patrol cars will also be installed with closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to capture license plate numbers and using a technology similar to optical character recognition (OCR), compare these with a database of “hot cars” maintained by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Land Transportation Office (LTO) and Highway Patrol Group. A tagged license plate is alerted to all mobile patrol units to arrest the driver and seize the "hot vehicle," either carnapped or used in a criminal activity. A blackberry device is used to do this.

With these developments, the Manila Police District, also called Manila's Finest, is the best-equipped police unit in the country, world-class that is-- if only they can rid their ranks of pulis patola, kotong cops and goons in uniform!

Note: this system is a good subject for movies. I wonder how the MPD secures their system. The database is a good target practice for hacking by miscreants; but beware of the consequences. I don't want to see the system used in fighting evil hacked.

Hippo Roller: An Ingenious and Efficient Way of Water Transport

I came across a Google-sponsored contest where bright ideas that can change the world or at least help improve the lives of others will be given funding by the search engine and advertising giant.

One of the great, actually awesome, idea, however simple, that I saw is the Hippo Roller used in Africa. It's an efficient way to fetch water for people living in the deserts of Africa. It's very different from the age-old way to fetch water by carrying water on one's shoulders.

The Hippo Roller allows one to push a water container on the ground for it to roll, thus requiring less effort and energy, and less risk of an injury for carrying heavy load. This is when laying our pipes and aqueduct is so expensive and not viable in such environments.

We need more great ideas for the lives of other people to improve.

More information about the Hippo Roller, including pictures and information on how to give donations from kind-hearted souls, is available here.

Nehalem Core i7 Intel Chip Catching Up with AMD Opteron's Speed?

Recently launched at the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco, Intel announced that Nehalem, now officially called Core i7 chip has both high performance and energy efficiency.

A news report by BBC has the following claims:

"With Nehalem Intel has combined memory and processing functions into a single chip instead of using two. On the most powerful Core i7 processors this will result in as many as eight processing cores co-existing on a single chip.

Intel claims the innovations on the family of products will offer three times the memory bandwidth of the previous generation of chips and twice the performance of 3-D animation."

Seems Intel, the leading chip manufacturer is playing catch up with AMD's Opteron in terms of speed while improving power performance. Their new chip will be powering PCs and servers in years to come and can contain up to eight cores in one chip.