Ng Khai Portal

I saw an interesting study at Computerworld, which lists what are the computer skills that are sort of dying, or going down in popularity. These are the skills you should be careful in learning, as demand for them is less and less. Of course, when you are in the job market, obsolescence can work both ways. If you know a skill that is dying, and somebody is advertising to look at that skill, then you might very easily get that job as there are less competitors too. ...

My phone never stopped ringing …literally!  Apparently the NEJM publication caught the media in a frenzy mood!  The headline noting the increased risk of heart attack with the use of Avandia brought about the public scare and the panic.   This is one case to point where everything written in a well respected journal should be studied, scrutinized and reviewed before offering to the media to be sensationalized! The real inside story however was never told as to why there was a need to rush the publication coupled with a sensationalized editorial.  Below is The  ...

George Clooney, known widely for his charm.Charm is the art of having an attractive personality. This characteristic can only be achieved over a period of time. While everyone is born with differing amounts of natural charm, much can be acquired and honed through practice and patience. As with dancing, the more you practice, the better you will become. Effort and careful attention to the needs and desires of others will ensure that charm becomes a permanent part of your character. ...

My email alerted me on this headline regarding the alarming news on a most commonly prescribed drug for diabetes called rosiglitazone or Avandia manufactured by GSK and the apparent increased risk of heart attack among those taking the drug!  The problem is: New England Journal of Medicine article was only a meta-analysis of different articles that studied the drug but not with cardiovascular diseases as a primary endpoin.  The RECORD trial which will be available in 2009 is the ONE that we have to wait to fully answer the question of avandia ...

I was just with my family, and my son unintentionally toppled his drink, and it spilled to his pants.  The attendant promptly helped him wiped the table clean, and offered to refill his drink for free.I remembered the last two times that happened, we did not get any offer of refill.  And it gave good feelings for that eatery.  Sometimes, making the customer happy and the meal memorable may just cost so little.

I was in a seminar yesterday, and it really amazes me how many Filipinos there are in Friendster. Friendster was the original of the so-called social networking sites, and when it debutted in 2003, it grew so fast that it was heralded as one of the best inventions of 2003 by Time Magazine, and Jonathan Abrams the founder was called by Entertainment Weekly as the “Friendliest man of the Year”. Friendster opened in March 2003, and by June, it had already 835,000 members, and scarecely four months later, it ...

Ten years ago, on May 11, 1997, something happened that gave computers a new boost in its claim towards superiority over man. Deep Blue, a computer program running on an IBM supercomputer, beat Gary Kasparov, then the world's greatest chess player. Since then, computers have even made more progress. Last year in November, Kramnik, the world chess champion, lost 4 games to 2 to Deep Fritz, which was just a commercial chess program that was running on a personal computer. There is no more argument what ...

There used to be a time that with your GSM phone, there were still a few places where it won't work. I remember a few years back, your GSM phone would be ok in most parts of Asia and Europe, but would not be useful in the United States, Japan and Korea. That has mostly changed now. United States now has two GSM providers, T-Mobile and Cingular. You can use your GSM phone now in Japan if you have 3G. IN Korea, you can use your ...

This article will slightly be more technical than usual. One of the things that have been announced of Microsoft especially in their Mix 07 event was that Microsoft is planning to make a version of its Common Language Runtime ( CLR) available for cross platform. What does it mean for you and me? The CLR is the heart of Microsoft's .NET framework programming model. It is the programming and software development tool of choice for Windows, and of late, have become even more popular than Java. ...

One of the things that I think has been positive, even for the Cebu market is that businesses are starting to be more willing to pay for intangible assets like training or software. If you see the history of computing, you will note that the United States and the Western Europe were also on the same. In the 60s and 70s, when you buy an IBM mainframe, it was big and expensive, but it came with the software for free. In fact, when Bill Gates, during ...

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a technology increasingly touted by some technology companies – facial recognition as a means of authenticating users in lieu of passwords. Apparently, facial recognition have another function. Remember the movie the Minority Report starring Tom Cruise, in which in the future, there are facial recognition everywhere ( based on your iris) to catch wanted people. If you remember the plot, Tom Cruise had to have his eyes removed, and replaced with somebody else's so that he won't be recognized. Apparently, that technology ...

There seems to be a new biometric scheme that is suddenly in vogue. The last few weeks I have been seeing advertisements from NEC in the international magazines about using your face as the new password. The notebook or desktop will scan your face and will recognize whether you are allowed entry or not. Then last week, I saw a similar demo in a new Lenovo notebook which also has a built in video cam and software to do it. Last week during the exhibit from Changchun ...

If you have not seen it, you should see the award winning documentary " An Inconvenient Truth" which is narrated by former US president Al Gore. It is an eye opening film that shows you how we are destroying our environment, and if we don't start acting, there will be severe repercussions. The erratic weather that spawned various storms are already a result of this. Thus, it is refreshing to see various companies respond to this. Many companies are already introducing environment friendly alternatives. For instance, ...

As I am writing this, over 1,700 delegates are currently attending the 3 day Microsoft MVP Summit in Seattle Washington. MVP is a term meaning Most Valuable Professional, and it is an accolade conferred by Microsoft to some 3,000 people all over the world who have shown expertise in Microsoft technology, and agrees to spend some of their time to help users, write books and articles, and maintain user forums, and communities. The Philippines has currently 8 MVPs , and I myself have been a Microsoft MVP ...

Congratulations to Mrs. Lita Urbina who garnered the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Small Business on March 20,2007 at the Shangrila Makati Hotel. Mrs. Urbina was able to build a business enterprise by providing great food at very good prices. She started the Café Laguna Chain, and her children has since continued to expand it through other great food places like the Lemon Grass Restaurant in Ayala Food Center. The Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year honors people who have build and manage enterprises ...

For the last few weeks, prior to and after the launch of Microsoft's Vista Operating System, a lot of friends have been asking me about it. Here are some things I know which I would like to share. First, is that Vista will be successful, notwithstanding some of the bad coverage that people say. I have been to a number of forums, and many of those who have been giving bad reviews are actually people who have not used the system, but merely reiterating the fears because ...

Sometimes we may never know how much is enough, and that is never more true in computing. I believe when Microsoft designed MS DOS in the early 80s, they allocated that it can address only 640K of memory. At that time, when even mainframe computers have 64K of memory, 640K looked huge. Of course, now it is routine to have 512 megabyte of memory, which essentially is almost a thousand times bigger that what looked like the upper limit just 20 years ago. Some of our ...

February 3 was a red letter day for Microsoft Philippines as it prepares for the biggest launch of a product by any IT company. Windows Vista, the successor of Windows XP after over five years of research ( and waiting) , as well as Office 2007, the new version of the world's leading desktop productivity tool was going to be launched simultaneously. A few days back, Microsoft has started to launch worldwide these two products as well. There were press reports that say unlike Windows 95, where people actually lined up at midnight to buy advanced ...

I am writing this in the morning of February 14, and you can feel that love is in the air, whether it is from various texts and emails that you received or from the atmosphere in the office. Some lucky people are blushing as cakes, chocolates and flowers are delivered and they are teased no end. Talking to people from Microsoft, they are also filled with LOVE, mainly because they are here to conduct an event which has indeed been dubbed LOVE ( which means the Launch ...

There was a time when gadgets were called Personal Digital Assistants, something you use to keep track of your appointments, tasks, address book, and the like. With the use of wifi, you can use the gadget now to keep track of emails, and also do instant messaging. Then cell phone capability was added, and the ability to play music, snap and store pictures, as well as short videos were added. Now, they call it the smartphone, or pocket personal computers, or communicators. With the advent of ...