Reality Bytes » Review

Visual Studio 2010, Released!

jesh — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:35:26 +0000

Microsoft just announced the release of a new member of their development series. Behold, the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010! The latest Visual Studio release integrated with the latest .NET 4.0 Framework and the latest version of Silverlight.

VS 2010 introduces various edition variants to fit developers’ needs.

Features for these respective editions are quite many to mention so I provided links of these editions’ respective profile and overview. :)

Express edition for 2010 is also available for free.

Visual Basic 2010 Express
Visual C# 2010 Express
Visual C++ 2010 Express
Visual Web Developer 2010 Express
Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone CTP

These express edition applications are available for download in this link. Microsoft also offers a free trial of MS VS 2010 Professional. You can also check out this link for more information. :)

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Philippine Election Automation-Sequel

jesh — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:14:46 +0000

Recently, I have just published a blog entry with regards to my views and opinion regarding the challenge being imposed on the new Election System. An automated system which is foreseen to be used for the 2010 Philippine National elections. I have also been reading some articles and doing some research related to the same hacking challenge that is being imposed to this so-called sturdy election system.

An article in SlashDot was recently published talking about Chinese hackers trying to infiltrate NYPD workstations. The article states that NYPD claims to log a total of 70,000 attempts per day. They seem unsuccessful but there attempts are endless. Whatever are their motives and intentions, this is still yet to be known.

Another source states that the Pentagon cyberspace was also infused by cyberspies (also been identified to be China-based hackers) stealing information and unveiling design details of the US’s F-35 air fighter. With this incident, the jet fighter’s electronic system design is now known to that attacker.

An extortionist was arrested after he was reported to be exploiting communication lines of two companies in the United States. However, with the FBI’s fast preventive actions, the extortionist was caught with the help of a Spyware that the FBI used to identify and track the exploiter’s activity over the internet.

Within the country, there was also another news that a company based in Makati, Philippines, had it’s computer network system infiltrated by one of their employees who had resigned some period prior to the hacking incident.

There are more incidents on cyberspace intrution and the like. All of which are either unique in intentions or unique in operations. This is not to discourage various sectors of the IT industry. Hence, this is a challenge of strengthening our plans of prevention and to provide the constancy of change. We will never know what motives may lie behind each and every attack. But as long as you obtain relevant and valuable information, you will always be a target.

“Try me!”-Philippine Election Automation System

jesh — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:18:16 +0000

Everyone in the IT industry and field are laughing about it. Recently, Cayetano has been bragging about the ability of the new, hi-tech and state-of-the-art system that shall be used for the Philippine Elections this 2010. Personally, and being part of the IT industry, I find his statements totally hilarious. Security matters are not those common topics being challenged. Programming schemes and techniques are ennumerable. The IT sector would always say that there is always a way for the end result to be visible and it is the implementation that matters.

Nowadays, computer security has been a grave issue. To simply put, nothing in this world of information systems and technology is safe. With this statement, you might say that there is no use for automation and information improvement. Of which, that is wrong. Yes indeed nothing is safe and secure. However, it is in the strategy and contingency plans placed to secure and “prevent” your system from such attacks.

Application source code inspection is the most absurd act. This leads to only more opportunity for attack and exploitation. Knowing the source code and algorithm would also give a venue for system hackers to identify loop holes within the system. This would then make your 128, 256 or so-bit encryption scheme useless. Unit, integration, and system test plan documents are enough to prove the reliability of the system. Application source codes are not supposed to be visible to end-users and to the public. Nevertheless, this system has been published to be an Open Source Software.

It has been a few years since I have been dealing with Information Systems. Being a developer and lead technical designer of a various project developments, it entails a lot of end advantages in the part of the development team. As system developers, there is a special feature referred to as the “System Backdoor”. Wikipedia defines a System Backdoor as “a method of bypassing normal authentication, securing remote access to a computer, obtaining access to plaintext, and so on, while attempting to remain undetected. The backdoor may take the form of an installed program, or could be a modification to an existing program or hardware device.” It may also be planted directly by the system developer for the convenience within the duration of the development phase.

With this kind of challenges, I remember the conspiracy behind system applications and softwares. Right now, one of the problems the IT industry is facing is regarding Piracy. Not only does it involve music and movie piracy but also software application piracy. Cracks and Key generators for high end and famous PC games, applications and operating systems have been circulating all over the internet most especially in torrent sites and peer-to-peer applications. The question of conspiracy lies not on the question of who are circulating this applications, but what kind of persons are they. And the mostly heard answers is that they are programmers from EAGames, Blizzard, Microsoft and the like are the one’s that distribute them. Moving on with the analogy, saying that there could be someone that could crack the election system, there is a possibility that he or she is part of the system’s development team. This has not yet been proven, however, it remains to be a conspiracy.

Relating altogether, as a devoted programmer and an anticipating voter, this challenge might have gone out of hand. This might imply that Filipinos are indeed intelligent persons that could be able to get into this high-tech system or politicians are just desperate to prove their innocence to corruption and lack of submission to a fair political campaign and contest. This issue was possibly raised because of another posibility of attack intentions to the system are comming from the candidates themselves. However, putting it to the innovative and technological point of view, preventive measures are better means of security rather than reliability assurance.

IT Industry at a struggle

jesh — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:37:48 +0000

I was browsing over the newspaper just this morning when a very big headline struck my attention. Since the down fall of the economy for this past few weeks, months or so, this dilemma has finally got into the way of the IT industry.

Just this morning, I’ve read from the Inquirer that the Intel plant in the Philippines is closing. Moreover, the Philippine government fears that there might be a possible loss of 60,000 employments within the IT industry. I dug into some articles in the Inquirer’s website, and there I found more news in the arena where I’m in; Computer Technology and Information Technology. This does not only include the closure of one manufacturing plant of Intel in the Philippines, but also the cutting up of jobs in Microsoft and the freezing of Yahoo employee salaries. Moreover, Intel’s rival; AMD has also reduced their employee population and salary wages. Also, Accenture RP lays off some of their workers. By reading through this articles, the IT industry might be at critical state.

Some of these companies might state of good cause why they are reducing their employees. Some of them might be greatly affected by the current state of the economy.

Top 10 Drupal Modules

jesh — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:47:55 +0000

It has been a year ago since I started developing websites utilizing the Drupal Content Management System. For a brief introduction, Drupal, as we all know, is one of the widely used Content Management Systems. You can try Joomla, PhpNuke, Mambo, and all those other flavors of CMS, but it is Drupal that I frequently use. Website creation and development in Drupal revolves around its modules. What you want your website to display is basically through the Drupal Modules. Some might be provided by default, and some are in Drupal’s website for you to download and install. As a freelance developer, I have used numerous modules of Drupal and here are some of the few modules that I recommend to have a tick on your module list checkboxes.

CCK (Content Construction Kit) – You can’t have your website if you don’t have content fields. Put some custom Content fields to make your Contents more detailed.
Panels – Customize and personalize your pages’ layout for a better look on your website.
Views and Views Bonus Pack – If you have listing pages, this module is useful to add a more customized list. Includes table, grid and node listing features.
Image API – For high-end processing schemes of images and photos that your website supports.
Blog and Blog API – For basic portfolio websites with avid blogger authors, you might include this in your list. This is one of the stock modules of Drupal
Forums – For community websites, a community discussion board might be useful. This is also a stock module of Drupal
PrivateMsg – Another module that allows sending messages between users for community websites.
Buddylist and Invite – If you are creating a social networking website, this modules are where to start best.
Voting and Voting API – These modules provide voting and rating functionalities for your post nodes and contents.
Workflow-ng – Works like database triggers. Allows more functions to be attached together with other functions for a more flexible site.

You can download these modules thru Drupal’s official Module Download section or at drupalmodules.com.

PhilNITS Review Course **

jesh — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:05:00 +0000

PhilNITS* Foundation shall be hosting an FE Review Course for all IT professionals, teachers and students, to be conducted by the PhilNITS Society in their offices in Makati, Cebu and Davao. For Davao, this will be handled by a veteran Trainor/Lecturer of the PhilNITS Society, Mr. Aloysius L. Torres (with PhilNITS-FE Certificate No. 2003-0037).

The review courses are designed for beginners and/or experienced IT professionals who want to pass the PhilNITS FE exam. There are two tracks of the Review Courses to choose from.

For more information, please feel free to call Ms. Joy Alferez, Davao Office, at telephone no. 227-9448

Grab this opportunity and outwit IT Engineers and have the IT Advantage. Prove your competence and be certified with PhilNITS. See this ad for more details.

* – Exam sites and Foundation offices based at Makati, Cebu and Davao.
** – offer available in Davao City only

Shopping Carts for Shoppers and Merchants

jesh — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:38:00 +0000

ECommerce is one most convenient way of buying and selling items over the internet. Of course, this course of business activity and transaction without a premium solution provider of EShopping and ECommerce. AShop Commerce is one of those providers. AShop offers a wide array of services from sponsored Shopping Cart Softwares to Customizable Stores Solutions. With their services, AShop tries their best to give out the best in your ECommerce transactions. AShop aims to uphold their vision of giving the best service to their customers and clients. Online merchants, sellers and resellers may benefit a lot from the services that this online commerce shop could offer. Most importantly, may you be and IT inclined type of entrepreneur, there is no need for such background for you to avail and get along with their services. AShop guarantees user friendly, affordable, quick and easy way of business transaction. With their ecommerce software, there will never be a hang of your convenience because that is what AShop is concerned of, your satisfaction.

In case you doubt of AShop’s service efficiency, you can try out these services they offer and experience for yourself. AShop entitles you a 10-day trial of their services. Avail now and experience the best shopping cart software experience. Shop with AShop.

Get paid for blogging with Smorty

jesh — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:07:00 +0000

Nowadays, blogging has been a big fad among different persons from various walks of life from simple opinions to top IT enthusiast. This time, I encourage you to a whole new edge in the blogging industry. Post your opinions, write your reviews and share your enthusiasm with blogs and journal writing. In lieu with blogging, I bring to you Smorty. Smorty is an affiliate of various advertisers across the web. With Smorty, you are brought into the vast and broad world of ideas and concepts. By this you learn by others and make others learn by your opinions, reviews and thoughts. It is also in blogging that you put your interests into greater heights and share it with others. Smorty does not place the period with the advertising enthusiasm from it. Advertise on blogs. Blog for money. Blog more, earn more, that is what Smorty is for. Get paid for blogging. Register to Smorty by clicking on this link.

My Blog’s Worth

jesh — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:15:00 +0000

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

I found this at a multiply blog of a friend of mine and it s quite cool. It estimates or approximates the cost of your blog. For my blog, this is the cost. Want to know your blog’s worth, click on the link above.

The NEW Real Media Player 11

jesh — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:56:00 +0000

I have just installed the latest version of Real Media Player. I have never liked this media player before until I have just discovered and turned to “like” one of its essential features. This is the “One click record and download videos” feature. This small feature of Real allows its users to download different multimedia objects from the web such as videos from YouTube and the like. Take a look at this snapshot below as proof of my enjoyable download experience. :)

Now that is cool… ;)
Download the basic version through this link:
http://www.realplayer.com.au/freerp11.html?rsrc=rp_au