Comelec Source Code Review of Election Software?

A step in the right direction, that's what I call the recent news about the Comelec asking for advice fro IT and Information Security exports in the Philippines on how to conduct code review for the automated election software it will be using for the 2010 elections

Manual Code reviews, something quite unheard of in the Philippines, is offered as a service by a lone company (as far as i know) and they're really having a hard time marketing such Source Code Review Services besides their relatively easy to market Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing Services.

Source Code Reviews are necessary in information security to eliminate or at least minimize the risks of security flaws, bugs and even backdoors installed in programs by developers and programmers, particularly the common programmer unaware of secure programming practices.

After code review and intense scrutiny, the code should be at least signed to verify if it's not tampered or else we have another case of "dagdag-bawas" in the midst of the May 2010 Philippine National Elections-- election cheating to the next level!

Michael Jackson "A Place with No Mame" MP3 Download/Torrent

While driving on the baha streets of Manila caused by tropical storm Isang, I heard on the radio the leaked of a previously unreleased song by Michael Jackson, who died recently.

The song's title "A Place with No Name" with lyrics and tune similar from America's "A Horse with No Name," one of the first songs I learned how to play in my rusty guitar.

MJ's former manager, who's also managing America, said MJ has permissions from America for the use of the tune, so it's not plagiarized.

If you're looking for a copy of the song, MP3 downloads, torrents or streaming, just go to TMZ.com where MJ's unreleased song was leaked.

Good luck!

BPI ATM and BPI Express Online are Offline!

If you're a Bank of the Philippine Islands client and needed to withdraw money from your payroll these last few days chances are you'll find yourself unable to withdraw from your ATM card even transact online via BPI Express Offline

according to my reliable inside sources, BPI is really having problems with their ATM switch that's causing timeouts, disconnections and the off-line messages as well as error messages and login problems on BPI Express Offline. There are reportedly many consultants handling the problem.

No official word and press releases yet from BPI but I don't think they're very good at handling media people much like the way Metrobank downtime I blogged about sometime ago that mainstream media didn't pay attention too due to the media savvy PR people.

Just watch out for the latest news and updates once I confirmed it's BPI's Base24 switch that's acting up causing BPI downtime.

How to Play Facebook Farm Town on iPhone, Nokia and other Mobile Devices

I had a strange request from a friend who bought a new Nokia cellphone just to play a Facebook app called farm Town. Since I'm not into social networking due to very busy schedules, i checked it out on facebook usiger my friends account
It seems Farm Town is a very famous Facebook application with many users. I tried to access it on the iPhone 3G that I have but can't see the link. I checked the Internet version and got to access Farm Town game on my Iphone 3G by visitng http://apps.facebook.com/farmtown/ but you need to install Flash Player on iPhone (or whatever mobile device you have in order to play it, that is if your mobile device is supported by Adobe Flash Player)

Now that i've known it's not dependent on certain packages or programs that permit it for mobile access, I need to access Farm Town again on the Nokia mobile phone, even other mobile devices like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and others with wifi-fi or 3G Internet access features. (can you play Farm Town without an internet connection :P)

It seems facebook is also an addictive game, bbut I don't have time for virtual games. I'd rather visit my own farm in the future.