KENNETH PORIO | the blog

I happened to pass through the shelves of the newly-opened branch of  CD-R King , a local consumer electronic goods store and one of the country's biggest supplier of optical media and related products, at the new  Abreeza (an Ayala mall) in my hometown Davao City. YugaTech has recently blogged about this new product they are selling and Netbooks.ph have been spreading this rumour about this since the end of 2010. Now I wonder how this new gadget, the CD-R King Fastbook ultraportable laptop ,  would click to the "budget-conscious" masses with its price of PhP 15,500.00 (about US$ 355.95). Let's investigate after the jump. I went in for a peek on this gadget and I mistaken this computer for a netbook, due to its small size and weight. But with its 11.6-inch LED-backlit LCD screen, I already assumed to be an ultraportable. But processor-wise is this really an ultraportable? As I looked into the box and the laptop itself, in it was a sticker that let me confirm tha...

Pros : Easily adjusts the power consumption of your PC's processor. Works in the background, without you thinking of it. Simple, no-nonsense interface. Lets you monitor your electric cost savings. Can extend battery life for 30 to 60 minutes more. Cons : Needs PC to be at least 6 to 7 years old. May conflict with battery-monitoring software. Needs administrator access to view electric savings. May crash on Windows XP. Summary : Granola has been on my PC (a Dell Latitude D420 running Windows XP SP3) for at least 5 months now, and I am very satisfied with its performance. I found this program over the Web while finding a program that would make my laptop battery last even longer. When I installed the program, all I saw was a simple, unobtrusive dialog box calculating the savings I would get from using this program, including cost savings, energy savings and carbon savings. As of this writing, I will save about US $ 38.00 for a year. That's enough to pay 1 month of my famil...

Hi there, friends! While I'm doing my study with Flash for my Practicum, I took a break and scoured through the Web to find some interesting things. And with that something from my memory bank flashed: my first Windows experience . Before Linux came out in the open, I've been acquainted with computers since I was just a little toddler. I can really remember how my Papa told me how to type MS-DOS commands like cd , dir , rd , date , and  many others. I was interested on how that command line can do many wonderful things: type text, play games, add numbers, everything . But my knowledge ever increased more when I experienced a GUI-based operating system... Windows. And that version: Windows 3.1 Windows 3.1 came to us when my dad had some computers from his previous work being fixed. He had those stack of Win 3.1 installation floppy disks that fill an entire floppy case (those were those 5-1/2" disks then!). What I remember about 3.1 was the very simplistic UI. ...

As I am on Practicum this summer, I should have something that will keep me busy during my downtime. For that I preferred reading books aside from fiddling with my aphrodisiac Dell laptop. Since knowledge in Software Development is the must-have for my career path, I scanned through stores and our home’s bookshelves to find the perfect ones for me. Here’s what I found: Assembler Inside and Out By Harley Hahn (McGraw-Hill) I’m eager to take the opportunity to study in advance Machine Language programming for a course CS131 (Computer Org and Machine Level Programming) next semester. This book was owned by my uncle when he was in college. Now that I am about to venture into assembly language, I want to be inspired in the beauty of machine language, the foundations of every function I command a computer to do so.   Dynamics of Software Development: “Don’t Flip the Bozo Bit” and 56 More Rules for Delivering Great Software on Time (2006 Edition) By Jim McCarthy and Michele ...

I just recently took the Spring (March) 2011 PhilNITS/JITSE Fundamentals of I.T. Engineers (FE) Examination last March 27, 2011. It was a very challenging exam for me given that I'm a CS student of U.P.  Mindanao. I really have to admit that the coverage was as wide as a rice field and you have to scour every part of your little brain to recover what you have learned either from school or from the reviews. Sir Aloysius "Loy" L. Torres of PhilNITS Davao shared  in his post about his sentiments of why PhilNITS FE examination takers do not pass. It's really mind-opening to me: Not enough resource/reference materials for review : We have gathered around 15 years of past exams (some from translated Japanese exams); received an exam handbook containing almost two hundred past questions with solutions; received a softcopy of the preparation book for IT passport; received a hardcopy of the FE preparation book; received copies of several lecture materials about fundamental ...

Next year, I'll be finally starting my undergraduate Special Problem, or simply "S.P.", an equivalent to the Thesis or Dissertation in my degree program here in UP Mindanao. Here I'll be thinking of a project that must  contribute a large part of the society around me. Here's a repost of Sir Loy Torres ' blog post about his experience being one of the judges of the best SP in the year 2009. He has always commended UPMin students as producing the most number of passers in the PhilNITS FE examination here in Davao. The first passer from Davao was Ate Raissa Yu in AY 2007-2008. I have always had a high regard for University of the Philippines ' (UP) students and UP graduates, as I believe they have one of the best curriculum, professors and students amongst the universities here in the Philippines. Here in Davao, there are a few admirable universities producing top quality IT engineers (CS, IT, IM, CoE, ECE, etc.) every year. But the fact that majority...

This is a repost from Mr. Aloysius L. Torres , PhilNITS Society Davao Chapter president, and consultant for PhilNITS Davao. Upon graduation from high school, and prior to choosing what course to take up in college, it is best to consider which career you plan to go into after college. In the field of IT, you can choose from a variety of careers that will suit your skills, interests and needs. I listed below a few of your possible career opportunities in IT. Please note that the description that follows each are based on my personal understanding and observations only, and might contain a few subjective comments here and there. Should you want, the Internet may provide a more detailed and more descriptive information for each. Software Developer / Programmer Mainly you will be responsible for designing, coding and testing software applications and programs. Here are some examples of application and programs that you might find yourself developing : a) online banking ...