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Happy New Year everyone!

May your 2009 be prosperous, rewarding and full with all the blessings that life has to offer (never mind the recession) ;-)

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
4 large eggs
cup nuts
2 cups dried fruit
(750 ml) bottle tequila (Jose Cuervo or your other favorite brand)

Directions:

1. Sample the tequila to check quality.
2. Take a large bowl; check the tequila again to be sure it is of the highest quality.
3. Pour one level cup tequila and drink.
4. Turn on the electric mixer.
5. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
6. Add one peastoon of sugar.
7. Beat again.
8. At this point it's best to make sure the tequila is still ok, so try another cup just in case.
9. Turn off the mixerer thingy.
10. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.
11. Pick the frigging fruit off the floor.
12. Mix on the turner.
13. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters just pry it loose with a drewscriver.
14. Sample the tequila to check for tonsisticity.
15. Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.
16. Who geeves a sheet.
17. Check the tequila.
18. Add one table.
19. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink.
20. Whatever you can find.
21. Greash the oven.
22. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.
23. Don't forget to beat off the turner.
24. Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the quetila and make sure to put the stove in the wishdasher.
25. Cherry Mistmas.

Great for New Year's day too. :-)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

May the spirit of the love and sharing be with everyone not just this holiday season, but all year round.

My apologies for the lack of updates. The long vacation has a way of turning one's brain into mush. :-)

Underneath is a brief position paper I wrote a few months back about how telecommuting could be instituted in government service. I gave a copy of this paper to my superior and even sent a copy of this to the Civil Service Commission. Frankly, I haven't been getting that much enthusiasm regarding telecommuting, but I think as a work arrangement, the time is right to try it out in government.

INSTITUTING TELECOMMUTING AS A
VIABLE WORK ARRANGEMENT IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE

Work is something you do, not something you travel to.

- Leonhard, Woody, The Underground Guide to Telecommuting

Business leaders in the Philippines now trust their employees to work remotely, according to a survey commissioned by business communication applications provider Avaya Inc. The study shows that 75 percent of Filipino managers now trust their staff to telecommute and 68 percent believe that allowing employees to telecommute improves their productivity.

- CIO.de

I. Introduction

With today’s spiraling fuel, electricity and transportation costs, combined with deteriorating traffic conditions, and with internet access and mobile telephony as pervasive as it is now, it may be a good time to evaluate the potential benefits and advantages of instituting telecommuting as a viable work arrangement in government, at least for certain positions and functions compatible with it.

First and foremost, for those who may not be familiar with the term, just what is telecommuting?

Wikipedia defines telecommuting as:

Telecommuting, e-commuting, e-work, telework, working at home (WAH), or working from home (WFH) is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy limited flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Many work from home, while others, occasionally also referred to as nomad workers or web commuters utilize mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or myriad other locations. Telework is a broader term, referring to substituting telecommunications for any form of work-related travel, thereby eliminating the distance restrictions of telecommuting.

What this means, is that certain employees, particularly those whose outputs and objectives lend themselves to minimum supervision, can opt to work outside the office, logging in via some remote electronic manner, and forward their respective outputs to their immediate supervisors via e-mail or some other electronic method.

As a work arrangement, telecommuting has been used with considerable success in the private sector, so it begs the question, why shouldn’t it be applied in government as well? This is the question which this paper attempts to answer.

II. Why telecommute at all?

There are several reasons why telecommuting may be desirable:

Reduced Expenditures:

• Since the employee does not always have to show up personally at the place of work, he or she spends less on fuel and/or transportation;
  

• Since there are less employees working in person in the place of work, the Corporation stands to save on:
  
  - Office and parking spaces;
  - Office supplies;
  - Office furniture and equipment;
  - Electricity and water;
  - Janitorial and security services;
  - Network bandwidth;
  - Internet access.

More efficient time usage:

• Employees can perform work virtually immediately; less time is devoted to going to and fro from the workplace. This wasted travel time can be as little as 30 minutes to an hour for those who reside near the office, to as much as 4 hours or more for those who live some distance away. Added up, these represent hundreds, perhaps even thousands of man-hours wasted away in traffic;
  

• Supervisors can concentrate more on employees whose functions require close supervision;
  

• Provides the employee with flexibility when it comes to actual working hours, which is particularly advantageous to those with domestic responsibilities, such as working parents, single parents, etc.
  

• Improves productivity;
  

• Reduces absenteeism and its associated non-productivity.

Environmental benefits:

• Reduced emissions due to less reliance on public and private transportation;
  

• Widespread adoption of telecommuting could reduce traffic congestion.

III. Technology

The technologies which make telecommuting possible are inexpensive and readily available. Broadband internet access is virtually 100% available in any developed urban area, whether through cable, DSL, Wi-Fi, or 3G. Despite its obsolescence, dial-up access connections are still available to those who have no other means to access the internet. PCs and laptops have ceased from being highly expensive specialized equipment and are now mere inexpensive commodities, to the point that an average middle class individual can readily afford them. High-speed broadband mobile phones which support 3G and video calling are now common and inexpensive, and cell phone coverage more or less covers the entire country.

In short, the technologies which make telecommuting possible are inexpensive and readily available.

IV. Who can telecommute?

This is where things get to be a little complicated. Obviously, not every position lends itself to prospect of being done via telecommuting. Here are some possible qualifiers (As described by Telecommuting 101, by Kate Lorenz on CareerBuilder.com):

• The job must be suited, at least in part, to performance at a remote location;
  

• The capabilities and personal characteristics of the employee must be appropriate to working with little or no direct supervision;
  

• The employing firm must accept telecommuting as a legitimate and desirable activity, provide necessary support and have appropriate information technology in place;
  

• The supervisor or manager of the employee must accept the concept and practice of telecommuting;
  

• The employee must feel comfortable with telecommuting in terms of its suitability to his or her personal work habits and style, its effect on social interactions and on advancement and career;

Many of the jobs that are ideally suited for telecommuting are professions with “information” or “knowledge” worker positions. These jobs can range from accountants and analysts to lawyers and paralegals, to programmers, software engineers and technical writers.

Other considerations can be:

The job should be output based, and the manager concerned, output-oriented.

The job should only deal with non-mission critical/non-confidential information. It should also not cover jobs which involve the handling of finances.

The job should not be a frontline function. Obviously, jobs which require personal interaction with our members are not prone to being done remotely.

Certain back-room functions, on the other hand, are quite ideal for telecommuting. This may include any sort of technical writing, programming, data analyses, research, canvassing, etc.

V. What does the law say?

The governing rules when it comes to government office hours are contained in the Omnibus Rules implementing Book V of Executive Order No. 292, specifically Rule XVII. It is worth noting that there is nothing in this rule which can be construed as specifically prohibiting or otherwise frowning upon the concept of telecommuting.

SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of each head of department or agency to require all officers and employees under him to strictly observe the prescribed office hours. When the head of office, in the exercise of his discretion allows government officials and employees to leave the office during the office hours and not for official business, but to attend socials/events/functions and/or wakes/interments, the same shall be reflected in their time cards and charged to their leave credits.

Note: “Prescribed office hours” need not necessarily refer to a fixed time period, such as 8 AM – 4 PM, or 9 AM – 5 PM. It is submitted that the head of department or agency has the authority to determine what the prescribed office hours are, and where the place of work should be.

SECTION 2. Each head of department or agency shall require a daily time record of attendance of all the officers and employees under him including those serving in the field or on the water, to be kept on the proper form and, whenever possible, registered on the bundy clock.

Service “in the field” shall refer to service rendered outside the office proper and service “on the water” shall refer to service rendered on board a vessel which is the usual place of work.

Note: The use of a bundy clock in recording the attendance of an employee is not an absolute necessity. A telecommuting employee will still be required to log on for work, albeit remotely, and not necessarily at the office. For all intents and purposes, a telecommuter may be considered as “in the field”.

SECTION 5. Officers and employees of all departments and agencies except those covered by special laws shall render not less than eight hours of work a day for five days a week or a total of forty hours a week, exclusive of lunch. As a general rule, such hours shall be from eight o’clock in the morning to twelve o’clock noon and from one o’clock to five o’clock in the afternoon on all days except Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays.

Note: Telecommuting does not entail a reduction of the required eight hours of work a day or forty hours a week. It only covers the location where the work is to be performed and not the duration. It worth noting that the office hours of 8-12 and 1-5 are only set as a general rule, and it is possible to set up exceptional circumstances which lead to their adjustment.

SECTION 6. Flexible working hours may be allowed subject to the discretion of the head of department or agency. In no case shall the weekly working hours be reduced in the event the department or agency adopts the flexi-time schedule in reporting for work.

The provision further emphasizes the discretion given the head of department or agency in setting working hours.

The bottom-line is, while the law does not specify nor contemplate the concept of telecommuting, it does not outright prohibit the implementation of any telecommuting scheme. Applicable laws are not necessarily incompatible with the concept of telecommuting.

VI. Other considerations

A government agency may require that the employee applying for a telecommuting work arrangement have his/her own desktop/laptop computer and internet access, so as to save the itself the expense of having to procure a laptop and internet connection for the employee.

For days spent telecommuting, management may reduce the transportation allowance or any equivalent stipend (if any) accordingly, pro-rated to the number of days the employee personally worked at the office, not counting days wherein the employee telecommuted.

VII. Conclusions and recommendations

Telecommuting is a work arrangement which has been adopted successfully in various private enterprises, including high-profile ISO certified multinational companies. Given its success in the private sector, there is no reason to believe that telecommuting, if applied sensibly and responsibly, would be any less successful in the government sector.

Clearly, it is not suitable for all types of positions, but for those which it is suitable, it may very well prove to be a boon, beneficial to both the agency itself and its employees.

Of course, some legal issues may arise, considering that current rules and regulations don’t really address it or recognize it, so it is humbly suggested the Civil Service Commission study the matter and perhaps come up with guidelines which may be applicable to the entire government sector.
Telecommuting is rising in popularity, not only because of rising fuel and energy costs, but due to demand for increased efficiency and better time management. The fact that technology has matured to the point that an employee is almost never totally out of reach of the office, using inexpensive technology has made telecommuting a viable work arrangement.

It may well be time to reexamine traditional, and perhaps, antiquated work practices in government. Given the pros and cons, and successes telecommuting has had in the private sector in other countries, it may well be worth it to consider how, if ever, it can implemented here in the Philippines.

Reflection off an extremely well-polished cylindrical pillar at The Podium.

After almost a week of having no wired internet access at my home, I'm finally back online, with a new ADSL modem and faster speeds to boot.

Being able to browse the internet at up to 1 Mbps almost makes the aggravation worth it, but to be perfectly honest, I still think PLDT's service still stinks.

It was around two months before they really took action on my request to migrate my account from legacy DSL to IPDSLAM, and it involved quite a number of phone calls before they really did anything. There's lack of coordination between their customer service representatives and technical personnel, field technicians wouldn't arrive when they said they would, or they would arrive unannounced, and no one even bothered to mention that my internet connection would be dead for a few days to a week while the migration was in progress.

Well, at least my connection is up and running again, and for that I'm thankful. As for their service and tech support, I would give PLDT a C-. While I appreciate the effort and the fact that they did manage to deliver as promised, their response times (Two months to act on a request? Six days with no internet connection?) definitely need improvement.

Of course this is PLDT we're talking about. I shouldn't really be expecting too much from them. And probably neither should you.

It's been six days, and I still don't have internet access at home, no thanks to PLDT's excruciatingly slow process of migrating my legacy DSL account to IPDSLAM (Internet Protocol Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer).

It all started in the last week of September, I forgot exactly when. I visited PLDT's office in SM Megamall and requested that my DSL account be migrated to IPDSLAM since I was only getting half the bandwidth I was supposed to be getting, based on their P999 plan. My request was promptly entered into their system, I was given a service order number for future reference, and I was reassured that the migration would be seamless, and I would notice an increase in my bandwidth allocation after several days.

After more than a month with no perceptible difference in browsing speeds I called up PLDT's customer service hotline (171). On my first call I was told their system was down so they were unable to follow up the status of my service request. After a few days I called again, and this time I was informed that my service request has already been acted on on October 15. I was a bit puzzled, since up to that time I was still getting only about 512 Kbps of bandwidth, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and said that I would just monitor my connection if there was any improvement.

Surprise, surprise, after a week or two of observing my connection speeds I was still getting the same old slow speeds.

I made another call to PLDT's customer service, and the customer service representative seemed surprised that my connection was still sluggish, since according to their system, the problem has already been fixed. He relayed my situation to their tech support, and reassured me that they will check on the problem.

Okay, I thought. Let them do their work.

Within a few days a PLDT technician dropped by my house to check my connection. No change though, I was still stuck at around 512 Kbps or thereabouts. He tried to explain away the slow speed as a network loss, that some bandwidth would unavoidably be lost through the system, a claim that I took with a grain of salt. I told him that a 10-20% bandwidth loss would be somewhat acceptable, but there was no way that I would believe that 50% of the bandwidth I was paying for was being sucked into nothingness, much less than they couldn't actually do anything about it.

Figuring he couldn't talk his way out of this situation, he called up his office following up on the status of my prior service request. Later on he informed me that the service request I made was, to use his words, a "ghost request" since it was reflected in their system, yet no information could be retrieved regarding its status. Nonetheless, he promised to look into the situation.

A few days later, the DSL indicator light on my DSL modem turned off, and I haven't seen it light back up for the past six days.

I made some more follow-ups, and I got weird suggestions from the customer service representative that I chanced upon that the problem was on my side, and that they would sent another technician over.

What the f...?

How can it be on my side when I was getting stable (albeit slow) connections and there have been no changes whatsoever to my home setup?

I asked the guy on the phone if this was connected to my speed increase request, to which he replied that it may be related. Apparently, he wasn't sure himself. What the hell is wrong with these people?

Another call made two days later and he sort of acknowledged that the problem was on their side, and that it wasn't unheard of for IPDSLAM migration to take a week or so, something that I later on confirmed on internet forums.

It's been almost a week, yet my internet connection is still dead. Well, at least I have my Sun Wireless Broadband as backup. Oddly enough, I'm consistently getting faster connection speeds using my wireless broadband modem than my DSL connection. Go figure. I'm already a bit annoyed given the long downtime, but I'm still hopeful that the inconvenience is worth it, as long as I get the additional bandwidth and therefore more bang for my buck.

That being as it may, it probably goes without saying that PLDT still has a lot more room for improving its services and turnaround time for service requests. Given the sheer number of providers in the market competing for the business of getting you online, shoddy service just doesn't cut it anymore, and won't get you far in this industry.

For now, I'm only hoping that that DSL indicator LED lights up soon.

Several weeks ago I bought a new notebook computer to replace my aging Asus A9Rp. The Asus, while tough as nails and as reliable as a Toyota, was starting to get a bit long in the tooth, and compared to its contemporaries, getting to be a bit of a dinosaur.

While the Asus A9Rp is by no means a cutting edge notebook computer even when it was brand new, it was perfectly adequate for most computing purposes such as word processing, internet browsing, watching DVDs, and even gaming thanks to its built-in ATI Radeon™ Xpress 200M graphics. Where it does fall short, is in its size, and weight. It has a 15" screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, so it's not widescreen. Not being widescreen, the notebook itself occupies a fairly big squarish footprint which inevitably makes it heavier than average at about 3.26 kilograms (7.17 lbs). With today's notebooks (and netbooks) sometimes weighing less than half that, I decided it was time for a change...and this time, other than price, weight was going to be factor.

The notebook computer I chose was a Compaq Presario CQ40-107AU which was quite a steal at only P27,500.00 at Villman, P2,000.00 cheaper than the A9Rp which was also purchased new at Villman less than two years ago. Spec-wise, it runs rings around the Asus.

The CQ40-107AU is built around AMD's Puma platform, which combines an AMD dual-core Lion 64-bit processor with AMD's M780 chipset with integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics. In this particular model, the processor is an Athlon X2 QL-60 running at 1.9 GHz. Note that this is not a desktop Athlon X2 installed in a notebook. It's a true purpose-built mobile processor based on the K8 (desktop Athlon X2) with power-saving features from the K10 (desktop Phenom) built on a .065 micron process, running at a peak thermal design power of 35 watts.

Granted, this is no match for an equivalent Core 2 Duo notebook as far as raw processing power is concerned, but it will definitely outperform any entry level Core 2 Duo-equipped notebook when it comes to 3D gaming thanks to the built-in ATI graphics. Then there's the price. The cheapest Core 2 Duo notebook I could find was an MSI Megabook S1313 which was being sold at P30,999.00. I was all set to purchase it, attracted by it's 13.3" widescreen footprint, never mind the sluggish Intel X3100 graphics. Of course, when the good folks at PC Express Virra Mall took almost an hour to figure out how to crack open the case to add another stick of RAM (and actually not even succeeding), I passed, not wanting all that hassle just to add another gig of memory. The next cheapest Core 2 Duo equipped notebook I could find was an Acer worth P36,900.00, which almost ten grand more expensive than the Presario. Clearly a no-brainer, particularly for a cheapskate like me.

Of course the Presario wasn't the only AMD-based notebook I considered. For a moment I also liked the Acer Aspire 4530-801G16Mn, which boasted a 2.1 GHz AMD Turion Ultra X2 ZM-80 processor and Nvidia GeForce 9100M graphics for P33,600.00. However, concerns about the questionable durability of mobile Nvidia GPUs scared me away, more so if you searched for horror stories on the web, of which there are a lot. Apparently Nvidia has not been very forthcoming about the extent and prevalence of the defects, and they seem to span a very wide range of mobile and even desktop GPUs. Coincidentally, earlier this year I lost an Inno3D GeForce 6800LE AGP video card which showed symptoms basically identical to those exhibited by defective mobile GPUs, (weird columns of evenly spaced dots on Windows startup screens, crashing on 3D apps) and my GPU is a desktop model. And I've never had a video card break down on me before. In fact, I still have perfectly functioning Voodoo 2s, TNTs and even some ViRGEs lying around. Therefore, at this point in time, for me at least, I'm staying away from anything made by Nvidia.

So...the Compaq gets the nod. And here it is:

Key features include the aforementioned Athlon X2 QL-60 and M780 chipset with an integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU, a 14.1" widescreen display, 1 GB of RAM, a 160 GB Western Digital hard drive, a SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support and Altec Lansing speakers. Other features include virtually everything else you'll need, such as Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, LAN and modem ports, Bluetooth connectivity, a 5-in-1 card reader, video out and HDMI ports, and a built-in webcam and microphone, all in a package which weigh only 2.29 kilograms (5.038 lbs).

Like any other notebook, it does have its quirks. The first unit I received had a defective optical drive which wouldn't open. It was promptly replaced, even when the store was already closed (hats off to Villman Katipunan for the quick response, though I told them that if they didn't replace it immediately I would demand a refund).

Secondly, the CQ40-107AU only comes with FreeDOS, which is virtually useless, unless you insist on running, say, WordStar. It also does not "officially" support Windows XP. While there are ways of making XP run on this thing, some functionality does get lost, among others the function keys which adjust volume, brightness, etc. Not wanting to have any non-functioning controls I splurged and bought an OEM copy of Windows Vista Home Basic. It doesn't have the Windows Aero interface, but then again, I am a cheapskate. Vista or otherwise, it doesn't come with a driver CD, so you have to download the drivers from Compaq's website yourself. While not a big deal, it's somewhat a bit of a bother, when almost every other notebook manufacturer includes a CD with the drivers.

The standard 1 GB of RAM is pretty skimpy, especially when running Vista, so I upgraded it to 4 GB using a pair of 2 GB DDR2667 Kingston ValueRAM SODIMMs. And unlike the MSI S1313, you can upgrade the memory in matter of minutes. Unfortunately, I can't access all 4 GB due to the limitations of a 32-bit OS. In fact, I can only use 2,812 out of 4,096 MB. I guess have to save up for a 64-bit OS if I want to maximize the use of my memory.

The top of the notebook is in a smooth, glossy, piano-black finish which is pretty upscale in appearance, but collects more fingerprints than the NBI and PNP combined. The unit comes with a silicone-impregnated cloth to wipe it clean with, though.

Lastly, the CQ40 runs fairly hot. It does not really overheat mind you, the QL-60 just appears to run hotter normally than most other CPUs, idling at 60+ and working hard at around 80+ degrees C. A good notebook cooler is therefore a must for prolonged use in hot environments. And don't use it on your lap, unless you're willing to risk broiling your testicles...or unless you're a girl. :-)

In conclusion, the Compaq Presario CQ40-107AU is a cheap but feature-rich notebook, even though I had to pay extra for the OS and RAM upgrade. It's not the most powerful notebook, but it is a very well-rounded one, and it will do pretty much anything you ask it to do. I'm pretty much satisfied with it, and it will probably serve my needs for the next year or so. Well, at least until quad-core notebooks become mainstream...or in my case, affordable.