Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Lyceum of the Philippines University Powers Education with Microsoft

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Lyceum of the Philippines University has partnered with Microsoft Philippines to upgrade its educational system for more than 1000 faculty members and staff throughout its 5 LPU campuses.

The partnership was formed to equip school personnel in order to provide students the quality education and services that the institution has been known for since being established in 1952.

“Microsoft creates solutions to help inspire teachers and students realize their full potential,” says Karrie Ilagan, Microsoft Philippines General Manager. “We believe that empowered students will have an enriched mind to prepare him for today’s challenges, and an empowered teacher will help mold students for a lifetime.”

Members of the LPU community have attested to how their partnership with Microsoft has helped them become more advanced and efficient.

“The new solutions brought new improvements on the delivery of our services,” said Devy M. Galang, Information and Communication Technology Director of Lyceum of the Philippines University - Manila Campus. “Our stakeholders became more productive. They are now equipped with the 21st century information skills and knowledge.”

“Communication and collaboration make it easier for the teachers and students to work with each other in real-time from virtually anywhere,” Galang added.

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With one in every three Filipinos having high cholesterol levels, how could they control its onset without sacrificing what this year has to offer—on the table?

A study on cholesterol levels among Filipinos led by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute revealed that 31.4 percent of Filipino adults 20 years old and over had “borderline high to high cholesterol levels.” Now that the New Year is here, it is often challenging to control huge consumptions of food—particularly those that are rich in cholesterol—knowing that annual festivities and birthday celebrations are here left and right.

Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in fats in the blood. Though cholesterol is needed by the body because it is essential to building healthy cells, too much of it could increase a person’s chance of having cardiovascular disease.

“Some people make it a point to reduce their consumption of cholesterol-rich foods especially now that another year has been capped off,” said Tomas Luke Marcelo Agana III, president and CEO of Pharex HealthCorp. “But enjoying what the New Year brings need not come at the expense of sacrificing your year-long joy and family bondings especially when stories are better shared on the table.”

Bearing that in mind, Pharex HealthCorp.—the most prescribed generic brand of medicines—introduces its 15-day Pharex Compliance Pouch for Cholesterol to help Filipino adults who are prone to high cholesterol adhere to their medication without compromising their plans this 2016.

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Anya Resort & Residences, an up-coming luxury property in Tagaytay, has recently recruited luxury hotel and resort executive Peter Lodovico D’souza as its General Manager. D’souza has 17 years of industry experience, and has worked in several high-end accommodations in Asia and the Middle East prior to joining Anya.

D’souza was introduced to Anya through a former boss in the Maldives. “The project owners showed me around Tagaytay and the project in particular. I’ve always wanted to be in a place that is very close to nature and away from the noise and pollution. Cities like Dubai, where I used to work, can be physically and mentally taxing. I moved to Cambodia because it was more peaceful. From there, taking on the proposal to join Anya was an easy decision,” he said.

The Indian national began his career in the hospitality industry when he was 18 years old, working as a student trainee for a five-star resort in Goa, India. “I got to meet all sorts of people, eat good food and work in a very nice place —which are elements that will get a teenager’s attention. I didn’t like the idea of working as a human resource trainee at first but it grew on me. After a while, there wasn’t a doubt that I’d leave the industry,” he explained.

A gentle and unassuming demeanor betrays D’souza’s competencies and experience. From Cidade de Goa Resort as a trainee, he took on various housekeeping and service positions in top hotels brands in Abu Dhabi, including the Grand Continental Abu Dhabi. A five-year stint with the Jumeirah Group in Dubai allowed him to train at the famed seven-star Burj al Arab as a butler.

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The global phenomena of 'Trampoline Parks' is finally arriving to the Philippines! What are Trampoline Parks? Simply put — giant warehouses filled with dozens of trampoline “matts” that stretch from wall-to-wall and are connected to form one huge surface which is enclosed with padded side walls and angled trampolines – allowing you to jump, fly and literally bounce in every direction.

These ultra-fun parks first originated in the U.S, a decade ago. They offer an amazing adventure of trampolining fun, including an open jumping court, basketball lanes for slam-dunking, dodgeball and volleyball courts for exciting gravity-defying sports, and even a super-fun foam pit where you can launch yourself from a trampoline into a giant pit of foam blocks. The first Trampoline Park in Manila will be located in ‘The Portal’ at Greenfield district, Mandaluyong (off EDSA near Shaw Blvd). In addition to a soaring good time, the Park will also offer unique fitness classes during weekdays, toddler jumping hours in the mornings and exciting zero gravity jumping parties, Friday & Saturday nights — all performed entirely on trampolines.

“It’s amazing fun, truly enjoyable and healthy…it will make you want to do it… again and again”, says Mark Hogsden, a British businessman living in the Philippines and the primary co-founder of the first Trampoline Park soon to rock Manila. “Trampoline Parks have become extremely popular in the U.K, in America and all over Europe—mainly because they offer incredible fun for everyone -– adults, families and children – whatever the weather!”, adds the brit. “Trampoline Parks are popping up all over the world in recent years, and lately even in asian cities like Hong-Kong and Singapore. It's about time we finally have them here in Manila!”.

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Power Mac Center, the leading Apple Authorized Service Provider in the Philippines, with its commitment to deliver utmost customer satisfaction, enhances its repair and inquiry process at the beginning of 2016. The improvements implemented are set to bring convenience and accessibility to valued customers through significant changes on service levels.

Patrons can expect an enhanced Service Menu and a quicker and easier resolution of queries from a well-trained customer service team. Serviced iPhone and iPad devices will also be given the Power Mac Center personal touch upon release through specially designed packaging.

More importantly, Power Mac Center has allotted special lanes for the exclusive use of the elderly, pregnant, and persons with disabilities (PWDs).

“Power Mac Center welcomes 2016 with additional ways to keep our relationship with our customers. At the forefront of that is our service operations,” said Joey Alvarez, Marketing Director of Power Mac Center. “Along with the new year, we renew our commitment to provide our patrons with the complete Apple experience.”

4 Steps to Setting Up a Secure, Collaborative File Storage System

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Small businesses often operate in lean teams, with each staff member behaving as a “jack of all trades.” This attitude can be useful for acquiring customers and putting in the extra effort SMBs sometimes need, but it doesn’t work for data management and security. Cyberattacks are not only a risk to large companies like Target or Sony, but are a costly danger to small businesses as well. According to a report by the National Small Business Association, 50 percent of small businesses experienced a cyberattack in 2014, costing an average of more than $20,750.

Storing, managing and protecting sensitive company and customer data is a cumbersome process that can become even more daunting with an expanding team. With tight budgets and an often non-existent IT department, implementing a strong system becomes even more challenging. Small businesses need a storage solution that is secure, offers cloud access with local back-up abilities and is scalable (that is, robust enough to meet their current needs, but also able to grow and adapt to future demands). Here are four steps a small business should take to set up and maintain a strong, fast and adaptable file management system:

1. Identify needs and create a plan. Work with your key decision makers to determine what kind of file access and management the business needs. Does your sales team need access to documents outside of the office, or does your customer service team need to be able to review complete customer records at any given time? Identify who in the organization needs access to which data, and develop a written plan. The file management plan should include who will manage the content and be responsible for data backups and who has access to the most sensitive information. The plan will also help determine what storage hardware solutions best fit your needs.

Animal Planet Starts the Year with a New Lineup for Animal Lovers

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Animal Planet starts the year with shows that can help pet owners and animal lovers in their goal to make 2016 an even better year for their wonderful creatures.

Follow veterinarian Dee Thornell as she treats everything from sled dogs to alpacas to reindeer. She pilots planes, operates four-wheelers and sometimes drives a horse and buggy to reach her patients.

Dr. Dee and her staff handle extreme cases and even more extreme clients unique to the Alaskan frontier. And whether it is a family with a pet bear or a gold miner with a pet rat, no client is off limits at Dr. Dee’s Animal House! The new episodes of Dr. Dee: Alaska Vet premieres January 18, airing Mondays at 9PM.

Cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy is back, training cats and their owners. Jackson has seen it all, from spastic cats that break up relationships, to violent felines that put their owners in the hospital. Follow Jackson as he brings his unique understanding of cats to families on the verge of giving up on them on My Cat from Hell, premieres January 27, airing Wednesdays, 10 PM.

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Raise the environmental awareness around you!

With only less than a month to go, the UP Geology Majors' Society brings you its fourth Geology Summit at the National Institute of Geological Sciences, UP Diliman.

See you there!

Aquino Vetoes Proposed Across-the-Board Increase in SSS Pensions

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Quoting the President’s veto message, Coloma said, ‘the President said “…the P2,000 across-the-board pension increase with a corresponding adjustment of the minimum monthly pension will result in substantial negative income for the SSS. More specifically, the proposed pension increase of P2,000.00 per retiree, multiplied by the present number of more than two million pensioners, will result in a total payout of P56 billion annually. Compared against annual investment income of P30 billion – P40 billion, such total payment for pensioners will yield a deficit of P16 billion – P26 billion annually…’” This is really simple mathematics.

On the other hand, some are saying that the SSS pension increase bill would have forced SSS to work at an acceptable standard, else face bankruptcy in 2029. So does this mean SSS would not exert extra effort to prevent itself from going bankrupt?

He would rather provide for the PDAF allocation of senators & congressmen and the president's own PDAF rather than help more than 2 million SSS pensioners! He would rather continue with the biggest criminal syndicate in the country - Congress - rather than help the SSS pensioners many of whom could no longer cope up with the current cost of living!

He is just proving that he and his economic managers have no brains and can not think of any plan/solution to ensure that SSS will not go bankrupt if the proposed additional pension of P2,000 for all SSS pensioners is implemented!

If the investment income could not finance the implications of a 2,000-peso across the board increase in pensions, then fire your investment managers who couldn't manage the fund well enough to address the pension gaps. And yes, confiscate the fat bonuses for the executives.

Shame on all of them!

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When the first event music, “Video Killed the Radio Star” premiered on MTV in 1981, it started a video revolution. A lot has changed since then, but video’s relevance in our culture, has increased, and our lives and security have come to depend on it. Market research firm IHS estimates that one surveillance camera has been installed for every eight people (about 40M) in the U.S. alone. Stats from 2014 certainly back that up – according to the IHS Video Surveillance Intelligence Service Market Insight report from August 2015, the U.S. was ranked as the second largest market for video surveillance equipment, worth $2.8 billion dollars.

With our obsession over video and corresponding camera capabilities such as HD and 4K, it’s easy to miss an equally crucial component that can make or break the effectiveness of an entire surveillance system: storage. Unfortunately, many surveillance professionals are using the wrong drive. Rather than being designed for continuous capture of HD or FHD video from multiple cameras, a drive that is not optimized for surveillance systems can drop frames, or even consume more power, generating more heat to create a major reliability issue. This could drastically reduce the life of a drive, adversely affecting the read and write operations in a surveillance system. These solution may cost the customer less upfront, but eventually could affect your business when performance, reliability and even your reputation.

The right surveillance storage solution offer high performance, efficiency and capacity that has been tested in harsh surveillance environments. But how to tell the difference?

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This month, watch out as DMAX take you on the ride of your lives with their latest shows on cars and racing!

In Idris Elba: No Limits, witness how Idris Elba is obsessed by speed. Since boyhood he’s wanted to immerse himself in the world of fast machines. This series pushes that ambition - and Idris - to the limit. Idris will take on motorsport professionals at the top of their game. He’ll try his hand at rally driving, drag racing, aerobatics – and even attempt to break a Land Speed Record which has stood firm since 1927. Helping him along the way will be racing legends Jimmy McRae and Ari Vatanan, and modern day sporting stars Antron Brown and Ed Cyster.

He’ll fully immerse himself in the dramatically-different worlds of these four different motorsports. It's his challenge not only to master the skills needed to drive and fly his machines, but also to adapt and understand the engineering behind them. Catch the all-new series, Idris Elba: No Limits this January, airing every Wednesdays at 8:10 PM.

Tune in to the new season of AmeriCarna, a car culture television show hosted by Ray Evernham with guidance from his friend and mentor, Rick Hendrick. They’ll rely on their vast experience as car guys to take viewers back in time and introduce them to a period of history when the automobile heavily influenced American culture. They’ll tell behind-the-scenes stories of lost race cars, barn finds, speed secrets, Hollywood films, historical racetracks and other unique places. Along the way, we’ll meet the cars and characters that have helped shape and preserve this history. AmeriCarna airs every Friday this January at 9 PM.

NTC Sets Minimum Broadband Speed at 256 kbps: The Right Path to the Modern Age .. One Step Back at a Time!

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"The National Telecommunications Commission sets the minimum broadband speed at 256 kbps at least 80% of the time, or 24 days in a month, and orders internet service providers (ISPs) to reveal their average data rates per location. But subscribers say 256 kbps is a throwback to dial-up in the 90s."

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of the Philippines plans to set the minimum speed for those advertised as mobile broadband at 256 kbps. NTC Director Edgardo Cabarios said that "Under the new circular, we will monitor ISPs if they are providing broadband services with at least 256 kbps; if not, they will be penalized."

I highly doubt that the telecom companies will be forced to step up their game with the government's implementation of these so called stricter rules on the sale of broadband services in the Philippines. You have to take note that the 256 kbps mentioned here is 256 kiloBITS per second, 256 kbps as minimum is actually 256/8 which actually means only 32 KB/s.

Good job, NTC. That is the right path to the modern age. One step back at a time! No kidding, NTC....what do you think we are? Oblivious fools?

The crazier part is they had to include a line that says "at least 80% of the time." Who the hell are these guys working at NTC. I believe my children can do better than these stupid idiots.

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Your Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas was recently invited to attend a special block screeing of Lakbay2Love, a romantic coming-of-age movie from Erasto Films. The movie will be publicly show nationwide on February 3 and will have a red-carpet premiere at UP Diliman on January 29.

The movie is directed by Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil who we also had the opportunity to chat with since I was the very first blogger who arrived at the event. Watch out for our video interview of her soon at our YouTube channel. She led the special block screening held at Robinson's Galleria Cinema 10 on January 13, 2016 for the members of the media, the biking community and other friends and families.

Lakbay2Love, aside from the love triangle among Dennis Trillo, Solen Heusaff and Kit Thompson, more than subtly promotes biking and love for nature as a way to promote a better way of living.

Better means healthier, cleaner and lovelier since the use of bicycles, may it be mountain or foldable bikes, metal or bamboo made, vintage or high-tech or whatever kind or design, and the drive against illegal logging, climate change, and other environmental preservation campaigns contribute to a world with less pollution and risk of disasters.

We all know that if more people started using bikes, it would lessen the damage to our world brought about by pollution coming out from motor vehicles. It would also promote a healthier lifestyle for everyone as the much needed exercise from biking would be highly beneficial. I've been biking ever since I was a child and it is surely uplifting for both health and spirit.

Lakbay2Love Teaser Trailer

Meanwhile, the preservation of our forests would reduce flooding so we can avoid disasters like Ondoy and Yolanda that devastated a lot of our countrymen including us. I will never forget the days we were stranded on the 2nd floor of a neighbors house because of Ondoy, and how our first floor containing all of our priced possessions went under water and forever damaged both our property and spirit.

Lakbay2Love Full Trailer

Trees also clean the air we breath, "Trees create an ecosystem to provide habitat and food for birds and other animals. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, from the air and release oxygen. One large tree can supply a day's supply of oxygen for four people. Trees help reduce surface water runoff from storms, thus decreasing soil erosion and the accumulation of sediments in streams. They increase ground water recharge and reduce the number of potentially harmful chemicals transported to our streams."

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The statement below is highly controversial....but there is truth in it. Many would not dare to even utter a word referring to these issues because they do not want to irk the guilty parties. They are afraid to get blacklisted or banned from the list. Some would even resort to the undignified and obsequious debasement or ingratiation of oneself to another in the hope of currying favor.

The worst is that this malpractice has apparently been going on for years already, and that many has accepted the fact that it is already an undesirable culture that will forever exist in all sectors of society.

"I was surprised to learn that there are still some people who discriminate bloggers. The worst are those who ignore and do not have the decency to be sincere. I've witnessed so many blatant rigging of raffle draws during events in favor of their selected friends from trad media.

The sad news is that the big names from top media outfits are somehow involved. Don't you find it questionable when the grand raffle prizes were won by the top media men from the top media outfits?

Mind you, these are just the minor anomalies that are happening. The worst are when the organizers would even lie and make up crazy and unbelievable stories when you confront them with the abnormalities. They would easily just bribe you with everything possible just to cover up the irregularities.

One of these days, I would look back at these moments and laugh at them because online media is the future, and the rest will soon be in a museum. They will resent the day they looked down on bloggers."

Sophos Predicts Top Cyber Security Trends for 2016

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In the ever changing and increasingly complex landscape of cyber security, Sophos experts offer their top predictions for 2016.

Android threats will become more than just headline-grabbers

In 2016, an increase in Android exploits becoming weaponised can be expected (as opposed to bugs like Stagefright which was heavily reported in 2015 but was never fully exploited). There are significant vulnerabilities on the Android platform, which can take months to patch. Although Google claims that nobody has actually exploited these vulnerabilities to date, it will ultimately be an invitation that is too tempting for hackers to ignore.

SophosLabs has already seen samples that go to extreme lengths to avoid App Store detection and filtering—giving Apps a better chance of surviving on App stores. For example, some hackers will design an App that loads harmless games if it thinks it is being tested, but then loads the malicious payload when it detects it is ‘safe’ to do so. And more recently, mobile users using third-party app markets were tricked into granting malicious apps from the adware family Shedun with control over the Android Accessibility Service. Once they have handed over control, the app has the ability to display popups that install highly intrusive adware, even if a user has rejected the invitation to install it. Because the apps root the device and embed themselves into the system partition, they cannot be easily uninstalled.

Android malware can be complicated and consumers cannot necessarily trust the App Store to detect these vulnerabilities in every instance.