Ebooks

Question: What are ebooks? they are literary or technical references found in the internet that can be downloaded to your computer. You use a special software known as a "reader" to read these books.

For those who find reading with a computer inconvenient, a special device known as an "ebook reader" is used which is basically a thin flat lcd screen ( for viewing) with a built in hard disk ( to store the ebook itself). the most popular ebook reader devices are the Amazon Kindle, the Sony ebook reader, and just recently, the Apple Ipad, which is a computer that can function like a reader device.

There are many sources of ebooks on the internet.
Some, like Amazon, the online bookstore, also sells its own collection of ebooks.

Most ebooks come in a file format known as PDF ( which requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view in the computer).

There are many kinds of ebooks, but PDF is the most commonly supported standard for storing them.

PDF ebooks can be found in the following internet sites:

Commercial Websites

1.0 Ebooks.com - this website has the largest collection of PDF ebooks on any kind of topic. This is a commercial website so the references here are purchasable by credit card and have some copying and printing limitations, and requires the user to download a special Adobe Digital Editions Reader, that enforces the copyright protection.

http://www.ebooks.com/

Partially Commercial Websites

1.0 Scribd.com - This website allows you the ability to create your own ebooks using its special web-based software. You can then give them for free on a specially created webpage in scribd, or offer them commercially, purchasable by credit card .If you are searching for High Tech Engineering and Science References, many can be found here.

http://www.scribd.com/

2.0 Feedbooks.com - For those who have an ebook reader device, and want to read some literary and fictional novels, you can find many classics here.

Many of the novels here are original or taken from classical literature of which the copyright has already expired and it is free for everyone to read.

http://www.feedbooks.com/

3.0 bookboon.com - FREE TEXTBOOKS - Thats what this website promises. All the references a student might need are being developed here.

http://bookboon.com/int/student

Afterthought

Real Physical Books will always be with us. Its cheap, durable and reusable. However, ebooks will slowly replace them since they are compact ( you can store thousands in a reader device), easily retrievable ( where there is internet connection), and many are free and very up to date.

In my personal opinion, the libraries of the future will not require large buildings or contain mountains of books. They will be everywhere; any PC can be a repository of ebooks.

From a centralized library, the future will be much more compact reading rooms all around the city. They will contain reader devices connected to a desktop computer with an internet connection.

Basically, that future is already here (internet cafes and business centers), excluding the ebook reader device which is still expensive. Those costs will eventually reduce and the library of the future will be common all around the city.

Every computer can be utilized as an ebook reader.

Thats all for now. Time to snug up to an ebook and get some shut eyes.

Future Technology Now #1 - For the Educator - the Video Cabinet

Dear friends and colleagues,

Good Afternoon. I know I promised to make a booklet about the Future Technologies that would give an added advantage to the Filipino SME or professional. It would be too difficult if I did it all in one setting, and it would be tedious to search for my references on the internet if it were on a booklet.

So I decided that it be published here that everyone in the online world can browse thru in a few seconds, and comprehensive enough that anyone can do it with careful reading of the instructions.

Ok, here it is: The Video Cabinet - A combination of TV and DVD player

What you can do with it: You can play the images of your POWERPOINT Presentations on the DVD

Uses: It can be an inexpensive short-term alternative to purchasing many computers in school, in the far flung barrios. Take this example: your Barrio needs instructional presentations to present to students that require photos or illustrations. Using an existing computer with powerpoint, CONVERT the slides to individual jpg images that you can easily view on a cheap, durable DVD player.

A whole school would need only 1 computer to do the conversion, and cheap 2nd hand or ordinary TVs with DVDs could be used to present the lectures. It would produce realistic presentations and producing it on DVD or VCD is cheap ( only 50 pesos per CD ).

Drawbacks: Since the presentation are images, there is no sound or animation.

Surprises: I used a NOVA DVD player I bought 2 years agro from SM CDO. WIth the remote, I can preview the images I want to present, play it like a timed slide presentation, and ZOOM the images to get a closer view of the Images ( This is very useful in libraries, if you want to scanned important technical handouts and present the information to the DVD)

Requirements: you have to have some basic background on how to use MS Powerpoint, and to burn the images to the DVD using Windows

How to do it:

Please read this very comprehensive article from the University of Buffalo New York on how it can be created:

http://www.its.buffalo.edu/manuals/PowerPoint%20Presentations1.pdf

Sample of Integrated Farming Systems

Farming of the Future - Create your own ecosystem

Free, Reliable Software is just around the corner

Ever since March, I have done some exploring of the free, open-source software available on the web. 

I came to the conclusion  that most of the everyday stuff that you see (maybe the Microsoft Office, the Image editing softwares ( adobe or corel), you can find a community of people developing a similar application that is cheap or you can download at no cost, except that you promote their product) 

During my search I came upon the following:

1. GIMP 2 - the partial replacement to Adobe Photoshop. Basically it can replace most of the basic features that Photoshop is capable of, like mixing images or editing the photo. This software is very similar to Photoshop and has many (but not all)  the capabilties.  It is free to download website: http://www.gimp.org/ 

2. Google Docs - Its the website made by google that has many of the capabilties of your Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). Its capabilities are similar to the 2003 version, but Google is slowly added its own unique capabilities. Free. You need to create a google account to use it .   http://docs.google.com

3. Google Sketchup - A drawing software that is similar but much easier to use than the Autocad. There are 2 verisons: a Free and a professional (paid) one. It comes with its own Huge Library of 3d drawings made by volunteers, which should grow as more people download their software. http://sketchup.google.com/   

There are  hundreds more free software, some reliable, others that could crash your hard drive, that you can get with a quick search thru Google. If you're careful, you should be able to replace most of it thru an open-source software that runs just as good as the commercial versions.

I always wonder what kinds of new industries you can come up with, now that computing speed is getting pretty quick. Basically, backyard animation or basic product design could be refined with these software.  

Those the desktop cant handle, it could be delegated to some website that provides you the added processing speed, and they could just charge you on an hourly or monthly basis.  Which is eventually what is happening now. But that's another story to tell some time in the Future.

During the Start of the Internet Revolution

I remember my first real burst of pure excitement; It was back in 1994(?) and I was in my apartment in Manila (near ADMU). I was an Industrial Engineering Student in UP Diliman, and we were taking a project feasibility study course. It was our instructor's preference that we search new territory and focus on a product that we could build or market from scratch. 

The Internet was virgin territory back then. I hardly had any internet connection. All we knew was that it was like an incoming Gold Rush - a computer software that controlled a communications device (modem) which could sift thru information from many many networked computers, globally, instantly. Only very few Universities had this capability, and I had friends who had access  to some of the very first web browsers in the country.

I wanted to focus on using the Internet to market products globally, at the flick of a switch. LUCKILY, I never did continue with it. First of, I had never seen a browser ever. Further, Internet Usage was very dismal ( you had to be LITERALLY in either UP or Ateneo or La Salle to access it).

Our Group changed our Thesis into something more modest (Agri-based). 

But life revolved around the Internet from then on; by 1997, I had a modem. I surfed the wild and wooly web. And life has never been the same again. 

Impending CATASTROPHE: Relentless Heavy Rain and Flooding in Cagayan de Oro

Cagayan de Oro and nearby regions are feeling the effects of climate change. We are experiencing heavy rains and gusty winds this past few days, almost RELENTLESSLY ( unusual here, rain is usually calm) and 70,000+ persons have been displaced in the coastal regions due to flooding ( Our local Rotary Club is suddenly thrust to produce relief goods).

I even have youtube photos of the effects on the rivers and the submerged residentials. Flooding is repeatedly happening everywhere on and off this past 2 weeks.

The Cagayan de Oro Floods on the internet:

This is a slient video of the aerial view of Cagayan de Oro affected with the flood (this was January 4 , the gusty rain has been coming on and off ever since, unusual here):

http://video. aol.com/video- detail/cagayan- de-oro-flood/ 2018480906

And this is a CNN unfiltered youtube video of a group travelling the Cagayan de Oro river after the flood

http://www.ireport. com/docs/ DOC-174121

Relief goods were distributed by the Jaycee clubs and Rotary clubs repeatedly ever since.

This is the first time I had to use the accuweather report to know the hourly reports of rain, to avoid traversing flooded streets I guess. A new effect called "Buhawi" or twister keeps appearing around the nearby regions.

Its incredible and terrible. Like a ticking time bomb, its been very cloudy here.

The average rainfall here according to the Weather Bureau PAG-ASA, is 80.9mm. Rainfall has now reached around the 125 to 135 mm level, nearly double its average.

Basically, according to my buddy, Nitz Pascual, manager of the National Statistical Coordinating Board, Disaster Preparedness is reactive, not yet preventative. There is no study on the long term effects of Global Warming to the Forest cover we have left. This is done with special ARC GIS equipment, which they are just learning to use. A few months ago, I met my former high scholl physics teacher, Mr. Iggy Ignacio under The Xavier University Science Foundation. He was tasked to do a study of possible flood areas in Mindanao using a GIS software.

Due to the flooding, these disastrous effects have occurred: Many thoroughfares have been flooded up to at least the knee deep level, making access to Malls and other major institutions only possible to SUVs and other offroad vehicles. Classes have been closed these past 5 days. A few Residentials have experienced flooding up to the Ceilings. The economy is mostly grinding to a near crawl as most major institutions have shut down since their workers are too busy either keeping their household belongings from being affected from the flood.

I guess the complete picture will have to wait. Right now, the storm is predicted to subside on Saturday.

The Future of the Philippines, my point of view on renewables rough draft

Its December 12, 2008. 6 months ago, there were food riots all around, Oil (NY Crude) was $147 a barrel. A revolution in Renewable Energy was resurging; Ethanol plants were being established all across the country; Alternative fuels from Sorghum, Sugarcane and Corn, the main ingredient of ethanol, would create new opportunities to farmers in Mindanao and Luzon. In Renewables, Wind Energy Farms were already in Luzon, and a 1MW Solar Farm, the biggest in SouthEast Asia, was running nearby Cagayan de Oro by the local utility company CEPALCO. I counted more than 3 dozen new technologies in the US being developed on every kind of improvements to Renewable Energy and making ethanol viable.

It was to be the beginning of the golden age of Biofuels and Renewables.

TURNING POINT (today):

Now NY Crude is down to a staggering $47 a barrel. Those US research companies, if they ever produce a commercially competive product, are likely to operate 2 -3 years from now. The New Energy Secretary of the US is a Nobel Prize Winning Scientist, whos thrust is to develop alternative energy technology.

Most likely, Renewable Energy and Biofuels Golden Age wont take effect yet, a short term gap of 2 years. Its either we develop cheaper Biofuels ( I hear that genetic engineering can produce microbes that can produce ethanol, without the use of a Distillation Plant, which costs around P 600M to 1.2 B, a staggering savings if they can perfect the process), or Fuel prices go up again.

They say that in every bad situation, there is an opportunity to make good.

IF YOU SEE A POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY for the Renewables and Biofuels Industry, PLEASE COMMENT BELOW.