The Geek Brewery

Yesterday, the members of our organization the University of the Philippines Linux Users’ group acted as the technical staff of the computerized 2010 University-wide Student Council elections (using Halalan developed by UnPLUG) of the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Some issues were raised and published by other parties. Sadly, we found some of them objectionable. Here’s our official statement regarding the election day issues.

Pahayag ng USC Elections Technical Team hinggil sa mga balitang lumabas sa araw ng eleksyon sa UP Diliman

Una, nais namin linawin ang isyu tungkol sa pagiging late ng pagbubukas diumano ng mga presinto. Totoong nagkaroon ng pagkahuli ang pagbubukas ng ilang mga presinto dahil nagkaroon ng problema sa pagiimprenta ng mga password ng mga estudyante. Pero ang balitang mahigit dalawang oras naantala ang pagbubukas ng ilang presinto ay walang katotohanan dahil ang pinakahuli nang nabuksang presinto ay nasa 40 minuto lamang matapos ang alas otso ng umaga.

Ikalawa ay ang pagpapahinto ng pagboto sa buong unibersidad. Bandang alas-nueve y media ng umaga ay nahinto ang pagboto sa loob ng ilang minuto dahil ni-restart ang server na kinaroroonan ng Halalan (yung software). Ikatlo ay ang isyu sa CAL kung saan nagkaroon ng problema sa network. Naging dahilan ito upang maantala ang pagboto ng mga estudyante pero matapos malipat sa CAL Library ang presinto ay naipagpatuloy na ang botohan. Ito ay malinaw na problema sa network at hindi sa software.

Isa pang isyu na lumabas ay ang tungkol sa mga non-major. Hindi naimprenta ang listahan ng mga estudyanteng non-majors pero sila ay nakapaloob na sa sistema kung kaya’t sila ay maaring makaboto basta maipaalam lamang sa Technical Person na naka-assign sa bawat presinto.

Isa sa pinakamalaking isyung lumabas ay ang tungkol sa “glitch” diumano ng programa. Laman ng isang mensaheng teleteksto ang mga salitang ito:

“As you vote for less than 12 councilors only, tick that name and leave the others blank. Wag mag-aabstain, mavovoid votes niyo. Just let it be. Don’t tick abstain. May glitch ang system. Please pass.”

Nais naming linawin na hindi “glitch” ng sistema ang tungkol sa abstain. Ito ay function talaga ng sistema kung saan kapag pinili mo ang abstain ay hindi mo na nais bumoto para sa posisyong pinagbobotohan. Nabanggit naman namin sa mga public demo na ganito nga ang gamit ng abstain. Halimbawa nito ay kung hindi mo nais kumpletuhin ang 12 konsehal sa USC, maaari mong piliin kung ilan lamang ang nais mong iboto nang hindi pinipili ang abstain.

Maraming salamat sa pagsuporta sa Halalan. Sana’y nabigyan namin ng linaw ang mga agam-agam niyo hinggil sa ating eleksiyon. #

For more information regarding the computerized elections, please contact JP Bernardo at jp@jpbernardo.com.

Hello guys. I’m gonna talk about a free service which saved me a considerable amount from my SMS expenses, Chikka. I’ve been using this service even way back in elementary, around seven years ago.

For those of you who are already acquainted to Chikka, you know very well that the most popular way to use their free text messaging service is through their very own Chikka Text Messenger. I personally don’t prefer this method because of the following reasons:

• They don’t have a Linux version of their messenger.
• In case you’re a Windows user, you still have to install it.
• Their messenger is also quite bloated, the only functionality I want is to send text messages.
• Lastly, you need to register an account which takes a short time (but then as the famous quote goes, time is gold).

If you frequently login to a chat server that uses XMPP such as GTalk or the chat inside GMail, here’s an easier (for me, at least) way to do things. Basically, you just have to:

• add 63[9-digit-number]@chikkatalk.com as your buddy, and
• send a chat conversation to your new buddy and you’re done!

No registration needed. You may add as many friends as you want!

Last January 29 to 31, 2010, the first batch of CWTS2 MMME campers went to Boy Scout Jamboree Site in Mount Makiling to have our CWTS camping. The camping was a venue to apply the skills we’ve acquired during our CWTS1 and CWTS2.

Including our adopted groupmates, there were 23 of us in our group. Our group’s first activity for Day 1 was navigation in which we were tasked to find the stations using Azimuth coordinates and a compass and apply the different skills we’ve learned (ropesmanship, bandaging, Tyrolean and two-rope traverse, UP Naming Mahal, etc). On the last legs of our adventure, we climbed up to a steep slope. It was longer than the usual uphill paths we’ve taken and after several minutes of ascending, we saw a road. There we realized that we’re lost. We decided to kill our time there for a while to rest and play card games. There were no signs of civilization there except for the road.

Our Day 1 afternoon activity was swimming. We were asked to swim 50m non-stop in a pool. Since some of us can’t swim that long, we were allowed to “save” other people by swimming their 50m. Since we wanted all of us to have a decent grade, we decided to “save” everyone who can’t swim. I swam three 50m, one for myself and two for two highschool batchmates.

On our second day, we had our trekking and rappelling. The rappelling was quite disappointing because the previous batches rappelled in a cliff, not in a rappel tower. The trekking part was fun although haggard. During the last legs of our trekking, we passed by the road where we got lost the day before. Upon seeing the road, our group yelled for joy. From the road, we knew how to get back to the camp. That’s where we realized that that part of the trek was for descends, not ascends as we did the day before. Here’s us after the trekking.

I guess we were also the group with the most food. Instead of Milo, we had Swiss Miss as our chocolate drink. We had lots of ham, hotdogs, tocino and not to forget the flock of canned goods.

Here’s some for pictures of our group and some random pics with highschool batchmates studying UPLB who visited us up.