Facebook's Oculus Rift: Now Available for Pre-Order

Wazzup Pilipinas!

"After years of development, our virtual reality experience, Oculus Rift, is now available for pre-order!

When you put on Oculus, you'll feel like you instantly teleported into adventures like deep-sea diving, piloting a starfighter or playing in a band on stage. More than 100 virtual reality games and other experiences are coming this year. And long term, I believe virtual reality has the potential to change the way we live, work and communicate in many ways. Today is an important step towards that future.

You can pre-order your Oculus Rift for $599 at shop.oculus.com and we’ll be shipping at the end of March to 20 countries initially.

Oculus Rift is the product of years of cutting edge research and engineering. I'm proud to work with Palmer, Brendan, Nate, Michael and everyone who has worked so hard to open up new worlds for us." - Mark Zuckerberg

The real world is already amazing enough for me. But sometimes you need a virtual world in order to be able to do things that you can not do in real world. The real world could sometimes be pretty shitty - that's why people take drugs. In the real world you cannot slay dragons, or shoot aliens and giant robots.

This is truly revolutionary with endless possibilities. Flight and all sorts of simulation, exploring the human anatomy from the inside, having virtual lessons and seminars, exploring the universe and its composition, having first hand outdoor experiences to name a few.

Imagine combining this technology with our basic education, our daily communication, and even expressing oneself for arts sake. When we come up with new technologies, there will always be the cons but why focus on those when there are tons of positive use for it. It is our own perspective that we should really be responsible for. Kudos to all the people changing our world for the better.

The SOPA 2016 Awards for Editorial Excellence Announces Call For Entries

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), an organization dedicated to best practices in professional publishing, is pleased to announce the call for entries for the "SOPA 2016 Awards for Editorial Excellence". Entering its 18th year, the premier publishing awards represent the most outstanding journalistic accolade in Asia Pacific. Deadline for entries is February 25, 2016.

The 2015 SOPA Awards received a record number of entries from across Asia Pacific competing in 18 categories among English and Chinese regional, local print or digital publications and wire services. To encourage wider participation, SOPA members who submit entries are eligible for a discount in the submission fee. Other publications are encouraged to join and to support SOPA, a not for profit organization.

The judging criteria for the award category "Journalist of the Year" will remain the same as last year, in which entries from Group A, B and C will be combined for judging resulting in only one winner. Journalist of the Year is designed to honor the journalist who has best demonstrated excellence in editorial achievement.

For the purposes of the awards, Asia-Pacific is defined to include the region of Afghanistan and the Central Asia republics, in addition to the Indian subcontinent, North and East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands.

DOE Seeks Collaborative Effort to Secure Mindanao Power Facilities

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Given the heightened insurgency concerns affecting stable and reliable electricity in Mindanao, the DOE strongly calls on the assistance of all stakeholders, especially the Local Government Units (LGUs) to ensure safety and security of vital power infrastructures (i.e., transmission systems, distribution lines and substations), as well as from any obstructions (i.e., bush burning along transmission highways, and planting of trees) under their respective jurisdictions.

The DOE has been constantly coordinating with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), National Power Corporation, concerned LGUs and other energy stakeholders as well as the Mindanao Development Authority, and of course the Office of the Executive Secretary, which is making direct coordinations with the police and the military, to discuss strategies on how to address the situation.

All 14 of the 15 transmission towers that have been toppled or damaged have already been restored, while only the Agus2-Kibawe Line in Ramain, Lanao del Sur is yet to be repaired due to some local issues.

“We appeal to the public in general, particularly to the LGUs and land owners to cooperate with the NGCP, the Concessionaire of the national transmission lines, in securing the transmission system which is crucial to bringing electricity to the people of Mindanao,” DOE Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada said.

Energy Secretary Monsada also reminded the public that damages to transmission facilities may eventually be part of the transmission’s recovery cost, which is subject to the approval of Energy Regulatory Commission; so cooperation is highly encouraged from everyone. Hence, the DOE requests the people’s vigilance to report suspicious activities in critical areas through the NGCP’s hotline number: 0917-8791-077.