Blog Box

Over 200 exhibitors will feature unique products from the Philippines’ 17 regions at the National Trade Fair 2008 on March 12-16 at the SM Megatrade Halls of the SM Megamall.

National Trade Fair is the Philippines authoritative trade show for the best products throughout the archipelago, reflecting the unique resources and the people’s craftsmanship district in each region.

Over 800 new products designs will be showcased in NTF – a result of the full cycle assistance package provided by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Mission (CITEM), DTI Regional Operations Group, Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), Product Design and Development Center of the Philippines (PDDCP), Bureau of Domestic Trade (BDT), and the Bureau of Small and Medium Enterprise Development (BSMED).

The fair serves as a government platform to boost the capabilities of the Philippine enterprise. “The country’s economic activities are greatly influenced by our homegrown enterprises; their value-added contribution sustains the need for sources of livelihood, especially in the countryside”, said Trade Asst. sec. Felicitas Agoncillo-Reyes, executive director of CITEM.

A showcase of products made form indigenous materials and local skills and talents from select towns of the Philippines will also be featured under the “One Town, One Product” (OTOP) Philippines which aims to promote entrepreneurship and create jobs in the countryside.

Another highlight this year is the Raw Materials Setting featuring semi-processed forms and new applications of ten raw materials with enormous potential: such as banana, (bank, leaves, bud), coconut (coir, peat, bark, wood fiber), corn (cob, husk and silk), fish scales, Manila palm (branch, twigs, fruits and fiber), recycled materials such as tin cans and plastic, sabutan leaves, water hyacinth (leaves and stems), tahong shells, and woven fibers made of abaca, buntal and raffia.

Last year the NTF assisted 194 enterprises, attracted 894 trade buyers and generated 163.9 million pesos worth of sales.

NTF is expected to be an efficient vehicle to strengthen the capabilities of the homegrown enterprise sector. According to Malacañang data, the MSME sector gives 99% value to the Philippine economy and is one of the most efficient job creators. By 2010, it is seen that MSME will give jobs to six to ten million individuals.

For information on the NTF, contact CITEM’s Special Projects Division at (02) 8312201 locals 261 and 263 or email at .

The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) launched the 4th Triennial Awards to recognize exemplary individuals and outstanding institution in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Given every three years, the 4th Triennial Awards recognizes the exemplary work of individuals and institutions that effect positive change and bring hope to the lives of the less-privileged.

The exemplary individual category Ramon Aboitiz Award for Exemplary Individual, is open to all Filipinos, natural born or naturalized children, at least 30 years old and of good moral character, dedicated to his/her chosen profession or vocation and has made significant contributions to the advancement of the well-being of his/her fellow Filipinos.

For the outstanding institution category, the Eduardo Aboitiz Award for Outstanding Institution is open to all institutions (government and non-government organizations, people’s organizations and other private institutions), established for at least three years with functional programs and services and have built dedicated partnerships with other groups in bringing about comprehensive and responsible development.

The Exemplary Individual and Outstanding Institution will receive a cash prize and a trophy.

Nomination forms are now available at the office of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. located at 35 Lopez Jaena Street, Cebu City, Tel. No. (032) 255-5626 to 27 or their website www.rafi.org.ph/triennials. Nominations are also available online.

SanDisk makes backup effortless and automatic with the SanDisk FlashBack Adapter which turns your SD memory card into a convenient and automatic backup solution in laptops.

You’re at a conference and someone spills coffee on your laptop PC, shorting out the system and cutting you off from your presentation and notes. Or your computer slips out of your hands and crashes to the floor. These are moments that everyone dreads, but today SanDisk unveiled a rescue option – a lifeline for laptop users called the SanDisk® FlashBack™ Adapter. This unique device fits into the ExpressCard™ slot of your PC, automatically and continuously backing up and encrypting critical data onto an SD™ flash memory card.

Whether your PC suffers a system failure or a full hard drive crash, the SanDisk FlashBack Adapter allows you to access your content safely from the memory card. Designed for the millions of newer notebook computers that have an ExpressCard slot, the SanDisk FlashBack Adapter offers a reliable, easy-to-use system to protect critical files by copying them automatically and instantly to an optional SD or SDHC™ memory card of any capacity. And with the backup card nesting completely inside the laptop, the system is literally out of sight. Nothing protrudes from the PC and nothing needs to be attached to any other port.

To use the SanDisk FlashBack Adapter, purchase an SD or SDHC memory card of any capacity and slide the card with the adapter into your computer’s ExpressCard slot, where it can be left for continuous backup protection.

This is a ‘set it and forget it’ solution for every laptop user with an ExpressCard slot who wants to be protected from unintended data loss.

The adapter comes with easy-to-set up software for Windows-based laptops. Once installed, users pre-select backup sources by individual files, folders and/or file types. Then the device backs up and encrypts the user’s data, images, music and other files – automatically and continuously – from the computer’s hard drive to the memory card. Backup occurs as soon as there is a change to a designated file, or when a file is added or deleted. There is no need for scheduling backups and no need for further user intervention. Also, the application has a handy screen indicator to show the amount of storage available, along with a taskbar icon that displays the ongoing backup status.

Restoring individual files, complete folders or the complete set of backed-up data is easy. Just open the application, log in to access, select the encrypted files on the memory card and indicate the restore destination. Voila – your critical files are back and they are within the same folder structure as the originals. Also, you can restore data from the memory card on any PC that uses Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista and has an SD memory card reader. The SanDisk FlashBack Adapter is not needed for this process.

“We all know that we should frequently make backups of our critical files. But most of us don’t get around to it because it seems like too much of an effort, or we simply forget to do it.”

This practical solution does the job and does it automatically. So if your PC suffers a breakdown, you can flash back to your latest files wherever you are. The SanDisk FlashBack Adapter truly gives you peace of mind.

For protection against laptop theft and to easily share backed-up files, the SanDisk FlashBack Adapter also offers users an option for backing up content online. This service is provided by BeInSync Inc. for a nominal fee and in addition to local storage on an SD or SDHC memory card (more information at www.beinsync.com).

Pricing and Availability
The SanDisk FlashBack Adapter includes a two-year warranty, a mini-CD containing the backup software and a user’s guide. The product will start shipping worldwide in Q2 and carries a suggested retail price of $29.99 (memory card sold separately).

Regnard Raquedan of Standard Web Standards is organizing a charity event for one of his classes in the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

The event is called “Corporate Communications 2.0: Corporate Blogging” and it is a seminar/workshop about corporate blogging. The seminar will be held in March 7, 2008 at the AIM Campus in Makati City.

Corporate Communications 2.0 is intended primarily for:

1. Business executives who recognize the promise of blogs for viral marketing, crisis communications and corporate culture development
2. Managers who want to tap blogging as a collaboration platform
3. Professionals who are interested to learn how blogging can be an effective means of communication in the corporate setting

The seminar will be on March 7, 2008 at the SGV Caseroom at the Asian Institute of Management, Makati City. The seminar fee is PhP 500.00. (All proceeds of the event will go to the GILAS Project of the Ayala Foundation.)

Interested folks may pre-register online at http://corpcomm2.eventbrite.com or email Regnard at for more information.

Agenda:

1. Corporate Blogging: What, Who, When, Why and How - Jayvee Fernandez of b5 Media
2. Corporate Blogging in Practice - Andrian Lee of AsiaPay
3. Case Discussion/Workshop - I’ll be facilitating the discussion.

Clark Development Corporation (CDC) proudly announces the launch of RACE TO THE FUTURE - The 2008 Clark Freeport International Marathon.  This major sporting event has been in the planning stage for several months and CDC is proud to say that all the hard work is now coming to fruition.  To attract participants from all over the world, CDC is providing a track route that meets international standards and is offering world-class prizes totaling to 1.8 million pesos.  International marathon runners from Singapore. Malaysia, China, and Korea will also be joining the event.

International Marathons have gained great popularity all over the world, involving runners from all walks of life.  It is high time the Philippines gets involved in the international marathon circuit, a Clark Development official reveals.  Also, this is now the chance for every Filipino to win great prizes and international recognition.

Determined to comply with international standards and regulations, CDC has been conferred the sanction of the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (PATAFA) and the endorsement of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).  Recently, CDC held a contract signing with ActivAsia, Inc., a frontrunner in corporate events and product activation.  The contract signing officially launches the event and is headed by Mr. Liberato P. Laus, the President and CEO of CDC.  With the involvement of Locators at the Clark International Freeport, the event is expected to be a resounding success.

The marathon is set on January 13, 2008, Sunday.  It is expected to draw in spectators from all over the country. For more information, everyone is invited to log on and register online at http://www.clarkmarathon.com.

Open-source specialist Red Hat has released the latest version of its Linux distribution, which will now feature built-in virtualisation and clustering technology.

After some delays, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 finally launched on Wednesday with a special event at the CeBIT IT show in Hanover.

One major difference between RHEL 5 and its predecessors is the inclusion of Xen virtualisation software. This process has accounted for some of the delays to the OS, which was expected to ship in 2006.

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FarmOut Central Intouch, a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) firm based in Dagupan City Pangasinan, through its training arm FarmOut Central Training Center has been granted the authority by TESDA to offer their Corporate Transcription Course to the public.

The certificate awarding ceremoniy was covered by ABS-CBN TV Patrol Dagupan.

Average salaries for Technology Professionals increased by 5.2% in 2006 based on Dice.com salary survery.

ERP and Sarbanes-Oxley Top List of Highest Paying Skills and Experience

Gender Gap Narrows Slightly in 2006

Dice, the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals, announced the results of its 2006 Annual Salary Survey. The survey of more than 19,000 technology professionals found that IT salaries in the U.S. increased 5.2 percent to $73,308 in 2006 from $69,700 in 2005. The complete survey results illustrate key industry trends, including the continued tightening of the technology job market.

• The high value of experience in specialized areas such as ERP, Sarbanes-Oxley and CRM
• A rise in entry level salaries as companies increase their efforts to recruit new workers to the field to fulfill the growing talent gap
• A continuing gender gap as women in technology earned an average of 9.7 percent less than men

The overall increase in technology salaries can be traced back to the continued improvement in the technology job market. Strong demand for technology professionals to fulfill available jobs is driving many companies to use higher salaries to attract and retain technology professionals. The survey found that starting salaries outpaced the overall national average, with an increase of 13.1 percent to $42,414 in 2006. Those with one to two years of technology experience also saw strong gains, with a 13.8 percent increase to $46,935.

Check out the results of the Dice Tech Salary Survey 2006

The Philippine SQL Server Users Group (PHISSUG) is now the official Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Chapter for the Philippines.

PASS is the definitive, global community for SQL Server professionals. It is the first independent, user-run, not-for-profit association committed to providing SQL Server professionals around the world with the resources and knowledge necessary to achieve unparalleled business results.

Co-founded by Microsoft, and Computer Associates, supported by our Charter Vendors, PASS’ mission is to provide our members with a forum for education, facilitate networking, and influence the direction of SQL Server and related products and services.

PHISSUG is also a member organization of Culminis for Asia Pacific.

Culminis is an international not-for- profit organization representing the culmination of ideas, aspirations, and needs of IT Professionals. By building a partnership between IT Pros and information technology solution providers, Culminis strives to improve the skills, abilities and knowledge of our members along with the technologies they depend on.

PHISSUG is also a Microsoft Nodes for Excellence, Research and Development Society (MSNERDS) Partner Organization.

PHISSUG continues to provide its members with more benefits in terms of access to training and educational materials, software access, networking and forums that comes with the affiliation with PASS, Culminis and MSNERDS.

The Philippine SQL Server Users Group (PHISSUG) is a non-profit Filipino association of SQL Server enthusiasts with the goal of providing the Filipino community quality professionals in the field of databases.