The UP Parser 2009-2010 Issue 1

DCS welcomes new freshman batch

By Gian Paolo Samson The UP Department of Computer Science marks the opening of a new academic year with 143 new students, one of the largest freshman batches that it has ever accepted.

The freshmen were divided into 7 blocks and 8 CS 11 classes.

“The ultimate goal is to produce more IT-skilled students,” says Mr. Philip Zuniga, a member of the Undergraduate Committee. “Right now, the DCS is only producing around 50 - 60 graduates per year, and considering the demand in the industry, this is quite small. The current policy is to increase the intake, and hopefully this will lead to an increase in graduates.”

sources such as labs and computers so that we can maintain the 1 - 1 student computer ratio,” Zuniga added.

SEMINARS FOR THE FRESHMEN To welcome the freshmen to the Department, members of the CS Network prepared two programs: the annual CS4CS freshman orientation, and Intro to Linux.

The Intro to Linux hands-on tutorials were held last July 22, 2009 in the DCS computer laboratories.

The Department also enlarged its faculty by hiring 7 new members to preserve the existing class sizes and to ensure that the quality of instruction does not go down.

Organized by the UP Association of Computer Science Majors (UP CURSOR), Association for Computing Machinery – UP Student Chapter (UP ACM), and UP Linux Users’ Group (UnPLUG), the tutorial intends to introduce the freshmen to the open-source movement and the Linux operating system, which is widely used in the laboratories in the Department.

“[We also] carefully planned the allocation of re-

Meanwhile, the annual College Survival for

PARSER TURNS 10

By Crystal Beatrice Camarao In 1999, Jonel Uy, a CS Representative, had an idea of starting a publication for the Department with the primary purpose of information dissemination. During that time, the Engineering Logscript was defunct, and so CS students didn’t have access to important and relevant news about the college. Jonel took the initiative and sought for the approval of the department chair.

He then formed a staff, with Maru Velas as the Editor-in-Chief. Parser released its first issue ever in August 2009, and staked its claim as the College’s first ever department-based student publication.

Unfortunately, Parser also became defunct in 2002 due to financial reasons. Two years later, through the efforts of the CS Representatives Carlos Lasa, Ponch Mante, Chicco Reyes, and Michael Sepulveda, and under the leadership of Philip Kimpo Jr., the Parser was revived.

Philip served as EIC for two years, during which the publication produced a total of five outstanding issues. Even more importantly, they expanded the circulation through a website, e-mail newsletters, and bulletin board versions.

Joebet del Rosario continued this legacy as EIC from AY 2006 to 2007. However, Parser became defunct yet again after that, and last academic year, Parser underwent a revival once more. This issue, the first for this academic year, celebrates an important milestone in Parser’s history—its tenth anniversary.

For the past decade, Parser has been the voice of the UP DCS student population. Staying true to its motto, “Analyzing Life the CS Way,” Parser

Computer Science Students (CS4CS) was held from July 23 to 26, 2009.

The organizers of this year’s CS4CS opted to conduct the orientation in every CS 11 lab class during that week, following the advisory of the Department of Health (DOH) against large gatherings amidst the threat of the A(H1N1) virus.

As in previous years, certain matters involving the DCS were discussed and explained to the freshmen, including the BS CS curriculum, retention policies, and building rules.

Most of the members of the CS Network (CS Reps, UP CURSOR, UP ACM, UnPLUG, The UP Parser) were also present to introduce themselves and to promote their activities, while representatives from the Engineering Library 2 also had their own presentation.

Finally, Prof. Mario Carreon ended each of the orientation programs with his much-awaited inspirational talk. has provided an avenue of communication and a means of self-expression for the DCS community. Moreover, Parser has proved that CS students can have writing and artistic talents, and not just programming skills.

Today, in a world where print media is becoming more and more obsolete, the challenge for Parser lies in proving otherwise, especially in such a tech-savvy community like that of DCS. It has adapted to the new, emerging form of media—social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and the like—but continues to produce print copies in keeping with its rich heritage. Even more importantly, Parser believes that the Department is best served through the most accessible and most tangible medium available.

Parser has always been dedicated to giving the DCS community the best, most dependable, and most passionately-made publication it can every issue. It will certainly continue to do so for this year and the years to come.

www.upparser.com

What the Fox?!

By Rona Riza Gumia "FIREFOX!" The CS Firefoxes proved to the entire student population of the College of Engineering that they can give the latter an exciting competition during the Engineering Cup 2009: Back to the Classics, held throughout the months of July and August 2009.

This year, the departments and institutes were divided into two brackets based on their performances in the previous Engineering Cup. Bracket A was composed of the CE Bulldozers, ME Pistons, MMM Rocks, and GE Explorers. On the other hand, Bracket B was comprised of the CS Firefoxes, EEE Transformers, IE Optimizers, and ChE Shredders.

The Opening Ceremony was held at the Engineering Theater last July 10, 2009. The different departments and institutes of the College heated up the competition with their respective audio-visual presentations and cheers.

An opening friendly basketball game between the Engineering Varsity and the IE Optimizers (Engineering Cup 2008 Champions) had to be cancelled, however, due to bad weather.

Nearly 100 undergraduate and graduate CS students competed in 12 categories in 10 sporting events.

Minor games, which include badminton, table tennis, chess, soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, sport climbing, chess, and Philippine games, were scheduled on Saturdays and Mondays. Meanwhile, matches of the major events, basketball and volleyball, were scheduled all throughout the Cup. The CS representatives to the Engineering StuCouncil had aimed for a no-default season for the Firefoxes this year. They may have failed to achieve this goal, having two defaults, but the record was still much better than in previous years.

The Firefoxes bagged championships in chess, table tennis, and Philippine games, putting the Team at the top of the minor games category.

However, failure to make it to the semi-finals in all major events put the team to an over-all standing of seventh, a level higher than the previous years’ lowly eighth position.

The Closing Ceremony was held at Park 9, Katipunan last August 7. Plaques and trophies were given to the winners, while an all-star game was held as the curtains closed on this year’s Cup. Rab Medina, Patrick Consunji, and Roel Zacarias were the ones chosen to repre sent the department in the game. continued on page 2

52 DCS students graduate during Engineering Recognition Rites CS student orThe attendees arrived at around 6 o’clock in the evening as their favorite American series characters. The program started with the opening remarks of Dr. Jaime Caro, Chairperson of DCS, followed by an inspirational talk given by Mr. Jonathan Robles of SeaChange Philippines Inc.

Special performances from THEN and CURSOR Dance Group were rendered to entertain the crowd while having dinner. A DCS alumni oathtaking ceremony was led by Mr. James Wyson, followed by a toast to the graduates by Ms. Christine Clarin.

By Gian Paolo Samson and Joven Sebido 52 BS CS graduates marched down in the UP Theater during the Engineering Recognition Rites held last April 24, 2009.

The graduates comprise the batch that featured the highest number of honor graduates in the history of the College of Engineering.

The graduates who made it with honors were, namely, Ralph Rainiel Pineda (magna cum laude), Pedro Ilustreto Publico (magna cum laude), Jennylyn Sze (magna cum laude), Mae Sincere Slenda (cum laude), Kelvin Buño (cum laude), Joana Heidi Castillo (cum laude), Maria Cecille Castro (cum laude), Maureen Gail Geray

(cum laude), Ralph Jonathan Ignacio (cum laude), Carl Immanuel Manalo (cum laude), Maryann Puyaoan (cum laude), Melany Rosales (cum laude), and Daryl Johnas Sison (cum laude).

GRADUATION PARTY Prior to the Recognition Rites, the graduates celebrated with the rest of their batchmates at Flapjacks Technohub last April 16.

The commencement celebration, entitled “CS Reel Finale 2009,” was attended by 33 graduates, 12 members of the DCS faculty and staff, and some other guests and alumni.

The party was not complete without the announcement of special awards. Marie Tabugadir received the Batch Alumni Representative award; Mr. Congeniality and Crush ng Bayan awards went to Franz delos Reyes; Lalaine Chen got the Most Talented award; Crush Ang Bayan award went to Carlo Santos; Slumber Party Award and Geekiest CS went to Ralph Pineda; Marte Soliza was hailed the Richie Rich; while Ms. Milagros Ramos was voted Batch Superstar.

The celebration ended with the inspirational message of Prof. Evangel Quiwa, one of the pioneers of Computer Science in UP Diliman.

The party was made possible by the Computer Science Representatives to the Engineering Student Council.

What the Fox?! (continued from page 1) TEAM CAPTAINS’ INSIGHTS “Sa wakas ay nasama ang chess sa Eng'g Cup. At smashing victory dahil tayo ang unang champions nito. Salamat sa chess teammates ko.

Next year ulit ah."

- Joel Acuin, Chess team captain "Philippine games ang the best sport talaga sa Eng'g Cup. Kitang-kita yung camaraderie ng CS Firefoxes kasi hanggang sa huli lumalaban pa din! Nagbunga ang ating pagtitiyaga dahil first tayo! Thank you sa lahat ng mga naglaro! Ang swerte talaga natin, sana lagi na lang idaan sa bato-bato pik yung laban. Thanks thanks!"

- Angel Macabenta, Philippine Games team captain "Una, thank you sa ESC for making this event

“Any neutral observer would say, our games could have gone either way.

It's unfair how people only look at the scoresheet after each game. I can't blame them.

But too bad because there was something else on display that matters even more. That's the spectacular effort that each of my team mates put in. Clearly mismatched, on paper, in terms of skill, they put on a tremendous showing against players who were clearly more talented and athletic. They scrapped their way at everything given to them, and each time they were able to thwart it away, running like hell and fighting for the ball like any real fighter would. Devoid of chemistry, they won their personal battles in the field. It was the only thing that brought the team together and the only chemistry at all (if you could call it that) and in the end, it would be

of an infinite loop of losing, we still had FUN. Sana mas maraming games! Good job ESC!" - Rab Medina, Men's Basketball team captain "Engineering Cup 09 sure was a great event. We had ups and downs during the competition pero sana lahat tayo nag-enjoy sa bawat laro. We still have many years to come to improve our skills and to get that first place, kelangan lang natin matuto sa mga pagkakamali natin at kelangan lang ng more practice at i-enjoy ang bawat game. Salamat sa lahat ng nag-participate, kung wala kayo baka maraming games ang na-default. Sana sumali ulit kayo next year. Galingan natin in the years to come! Good luck sa atin CS Firefoxes!!! What The FOX?!? Firefox!"

- Julian Fabic, Sport Climbing team captain "Masaya! Kaya lang maputik lang talaga kaya

ganizations conduct workshops on open-source applications and languages

By Ranyel Bryan Maliwanag The Knowledge, Information and Skills Sharing Sessions (KISSS) 2009 were held at the UP Alumni Engineer's Centennial Hall (UP AECH) last July 4 and 6, 2009.

Organized by the UP Association of Computer Science Majors (UP CURSOR), the Association for Computing Machinery – UP Student Chapter (UP ACM), and the University of the Philippines Linux Users’ Group (UnPLUG), KISSS 2009 is a two-day event that serves as a venue where students can learn about various technologies not usually introduced or emphasized in universities’ curricula.

The focus of this year’s edition was on opensource software applications and languages.

Topics covered were Blender, an open-source 3D graphics application; Java FX, a software platform for creating and delivering Internet applications that can run on various connected devices; GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), a free software raster graphics editor; and HTML with CSS and Java Script.

The workshop speakers on the first day were Mr. Dennis Jorolan of the Asian Academy of Business and Computers (AABC) for Blender, and Ms. Ruzette Tanyag, UP’s Sun Campus Ambassador, for Java FX. On the second day, Mr. Gerardo Maria Roxas talked about GIMP, while Mr. Michael Angelo Chatto gave his piece on HTML with CSS and Java Script.

Each of the participants brought home freebies at the end of the workshops. partments to excel. The Department Coordinator of DCS also made an excellent job of empowering the players, resulting to an almost no-default Engineering Cup season."

- Jase Tiojanco, Men's Volleyball team captain "Sana next time one week din ang badminton para hindi pagod ang mga players. Kawawa naman yung mga mababa ang stamina. Pero kahit na onti lang ang time allotted for the event, fun pa rin naman. Next year, I’ll try to find the best player the department could get. Yun ay kung ako pa rin ang head ng badminton next year. I would like to thank the players who represented the department at the Eng’g Cup 2009.

Go CS Firefoxes!"

- Jerome Sabidong, Badminton team captain

possible. Pangalawa, sa department coordinator namin kasi super supportive niya sa amin at never siyang nagkulang. Finally, sa CS Firefoxes kasi ang fun ng event kasi lagi silang andun."

- Majo Santos, Women's Volleyball team captain "From the very start, alam ko nang underdog na kami. Pero I know na that didn't stop our team from doing and giving our best. Thankful ako sa teammates ko kasi complete kami lagi sa lahat ng games. Nakita ko yung support ng lahat all throughout. We may not have the best talents pero we are the best TEAM. Again, thank you teammates and supporters."

- Pauline Pablo, Women's Basketball team captain

more than enough.

I'd like to acclaim the unsung heroes of the team—that is, each and every player who went out there. Special mentions to Ton Torres and his superhuman saves, Kurt Espinosa who ran tirelessly to bring the ball to our opponent’s half and Joniel Ibasco who swept the defensive line from end to end. You guys had the bravery to make a difference, playing with a heart full of love.”

- Jeune Asuncion, Soccer team captain "For a moment, we were liberated from mind tormenting machine problems and exams. We were so hooked up in the games that at times, we felt we were professional athletes with a mission to shut down our enemy. Though we weren't able to come up with an algorithm to get us out

hindi kami masyado makatakbo. Wala rin kasi kaming spike shoes kaya nahirapan kami pero kung sakaling meron kami, nakalaban kami siguro ng maayos."

- Patrick Consunji, Ultimate team captain "Ang saya ng Eng’g Cup ngayon. Congrats ESC at CS reps! At super happy din dahil champion kami sa Table Tennis! Thank you sa mga players na naglaro at sa Firefoxes para sa cheering!

Let's go Firefox, let's go! What the fox?!?"

- Joan Bagunu, Table Tennis team captain "Overall, the Engineering Cup 2009 was a success. Though there were a few things that can be improved upon like far-away venues, the event was well coordinated. The addition of 'minor' sporting events gave chance for other de

YES-EXTRA SPACE Make this yours now!

Send your contributions to:

upparser0910@gmail.com

By Audrey Garais and Jose Luis Santos

as their high school years.

Being sexy never looked as good as the UP Association of Computer Science Majors (UP CURSOR) celebrated its 26 years of existence.

For this year’s Conference, the participating schools were Elizabeth Seton School, Grace Christian College, and St. Stephen’s School.

CURSOR SPORTSFEST

The conference started off with a lecture on the Open Source Movement by Dr. Pablo Manalastas. This was followed by a talk about Gaming

by Mr. Mario Carreon. Lastly, Web 2.0 was discussed by Ms. Ia Lucero.

The festivities kicked off with the annual CURSOR Sportsfest held last August 15, 2009.

Even though it was a Saturday, members, applicants, and fellow alumni gathered together to harness, exhibit, and show off their skills in different sports. The sports events were basketball, volleyball, Frisbee, soccer, and the e-sportsfest.

The Green Team was comprised of the Activities Committee, Records Committee, and Finance Committee. The Red Team was made up of the Membership Committee, Information and Public Relations Committee, Academic Affair Committee, and External Affairs Committee. The CURSOR Alumni made up the Blue Team, while, lastly, the White Team was made up of this semester’s batch of applicants.

The main events in the morning were the basketball and volleyball playoffs at the Maginhawa Court near the UP campus. In the afternoon, the Frisbee and soccer games were held at the UP Sunken Garden. This was followed by the esportsfest held at the 129 Cafe along Katipunan Avenue.

The Blue Team won the basketball and volleyball playoffs, while the Red Team was declared Champion in the Frisbee event.

JUNIOR PROGRAMMERS’ CONFERENCE This year’s Junior Programmers’ Conference (JPC) was held last August 17, 2009 at the UP AECH Lecture Hall from 10 AM to 3 PM. One of the mainstay events during CURSOR Week, the JPC aims to promote awareness about computing among students during as early

@RTE MOVEMENT UP CURSOR also continues to promote digital art as a hobby and as a profession through its annual @rte Movement.

For this year, the chosen theme for the Movement is, “Childhood Memories.”

The @rte Movement is composed of two subevents, namely, the @rte Seminar and the @rte Attack.

The @rte Seminar was held last August 22, 2009 at the UP AECH Lecture hall from 1 PM to 4 PM. Before anything else, Ms Jonah Chipeco represented CURSOR’s partner foundation, World Vision, in her talk to encourage the participants to help out for a good cause.

This was followed by a talk of Mr. Christian San Jose, a graphic designer and illustrator, about designing t-shirts and his experiences on digital design. Afterwards, a presentation of Mr. Jethro Ibarrola and Mr. Crimson Castellon from the Cosplay Photographers Guild followed. Lastly, Mr. John Alaras, Director of Creative Designs of CREO Studios, demonstrated his knowledge and shared his experiences in motion graphics.

On the other hand, the @rte Attack is a digital art and photography contest open to everyone.

The participants are tasked to incorporate the given theme in their entries.

Jeanella Klarysa Pascual won both the First Place Award for her digital art entitled, “Don’t Let Me” and the People’s Choice Award for her artwork entitled, “We Will Not Grow Old.” Paul Cyril D. Torrente won Second place for his digitally rendered photograph entitled “Pixelated Past,” while Bernadette T. Guiamoy won Third Place for her photograph entitled, “Childhood Hero.”

The top ten entries are currently being auctioned off to raise money for CURSOR”s partner foundation, World Vision, in hopes of sending a child to school.

BLACKOUT: CURSOR PARTY The month-long festivities ended with a bang last August 29, 2009 at Absinth Bar, Greenbelt 3, Makati.

The night started with a simple program to honour the outstanding members of each commit-

tee. Afterwards, the @rte Attack Bidding was officially opened. Finally, after all formalities were over, the attendees turned to the bar and the dance floor to unwind and celebrate twenty-six years of sexiness.

It was a night of music, fun, and a whole lot of dancing. Although it was UP CURSOR’s anniversary party, it was open to other guests as well. The organization partied the night away, reminiscing the good times shared together and the bad times that had made them stronger.

Cheers to twenty-six years of being sexy!

ABOUT UP CURSOR The UP CURSOR is a duly recognized, non-sectarian, non-profit, socio-academic student organization based in the UP College of Engineering.

Since its foundation in August 1983, UP CURSOR has grown from an informal group of 15 Computer Science majors into a family of almost 120 students whose efforts are integrated in pursuit of academic growth and excellence.

DB2 on Campus visits UP

TED goes to UP

By Gian Paolo Samson

By Daniela Marie Delgado

IBM’s DB2 on Campus Program made its way to UP last June 20, 2009 at the Lecture Hall of the UP DCS. The DB2 on Campus Program is a project of tech giant IBM designed to promote the use of DB2, a relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by the company, in universities. The visit to UP is the first such implementation of the project in the Philippines.

Present to give the lecture was no less than Raul Chong, the program manager of DB2 on Campus.

The focus of the lecture was supposed to be on Web 2.0 and how DB2 can be used to make applications for the Web. However, a crash course on relational databases and XML also had to be introduced because the audience was almost entirely composed of first-year students.

Program demonstrations were done using IBM DB2 Express-C, a free variant of the RDBMS. After the technical discussion, Chong also conducted a brief lecture about setting career goals and networking. He also invited the attendees to apply as a DB2 Student Ambassador. Interested students may do so by sending an email to db2univ@ca.ibm.com.

The first independently-organized TED event in the Philippines was held last June 22, 2009 at the Lecture Hall, UP Alumni Engineers Centennial Hall.

The talk, TEDxUP, featured pre-recorded talks about technology and education from respected speakers all over the world.

Among the featured technology videos were MIT's Pattie Maes' talk about Sixth Sense, a projector-equipped wearable device that allows the wearer to interact with his/her environment; World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim

Berners-Lee's presentation on Linked Data, a term used to describe the practice of connecting data on the Semantic Web using a dereferenceable Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams' Odeo project, an online directory for RSS syndicated audio and video.

Meanwhile, there were also videos of Richard Baraniuk, Gever Tulley, and Sir Ken Robinson talking about a vision of an online education system, 5 dangerous things parents should let their kids do, and reasons why schools kill creativity, respectively.

The event ended with an open forum with Prof.

Rommel Feria, Prof. Rowena Solamo and Sir Joel Yuvienco.

UP ACM organizes a UP CURSOR’s TechnoTalk kicks Off lecture series on web

design and development

By Gian Paolo Samson Students and professionals converged to learn about web techniques and technologies during the Spin the Web Lecture Series last August 29, September 5, and September 12, 2009.

The series, organized by the Association for Computing Machinery – UP Student Chapter (UP ACM), featured lectures on web design basics, the Groovy and Grails platform, and web usability.

Ms. Anne Michelle Santos, a faculty member from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), discussed web design basics, including Web/GUI design heuristics, and 2009 design trends in her lecture last August 29.

By Ryan Kristofer Arana The first TechnoTalk was held last August 27, 2009 at the Lecture Hall, Alumni Engineers Centennial Hall (AECH).

Technotalk, organized by the UP Association of Computer Science Majors (UP CURSOR), is a series of monthly talks on different areas in computer science.

John Paul Alcala tackled Test-Driven Develop-

ment. TDD is a software development practice that mandates the writing of test code to produce codes that are simple yet in high quality.

Mr. Alcala was followed by Jan Michael Ibañez, who discussed the Google App Engine, which is a platform for developing and hosting web applications in Google-managed data centers.

Both speakers are from Orange & Bronze Software Labs, Ltd.

EMC 2009: LOCAL to GLOBAL

By Daniela Marie Delgado

In line with the College of Engineering's centennial celebration, this year’s Engineering Marketing Congress challenges every student

This was followed a week later by a lecture on the Groovy and Grails platform by Mr. Red Deinla, a junior developer from Orange & Bronze Software Labs, Ltd. Groovy is an open source dynamic language for the Java Virtual Machine. On the other hand, Grails is an open source web application platform that applies the principle of Convention over Configuration. The two were made especially for each other to deliver web-based applications that can rival Ruby on Rails in terms of efficiency.

Finally, Mr. Regnard Raquedan of the Philippine Usability Group led a discussion and a workshop on the basic principles behind web usability.

to become the 100th local engineer who made it as a global pioneer.

Now on its sixth year, the EMC aims to help student engineers learn the language of marketing as it can be used in the future in the corporate world.

Thirty-one participating teams, composed of three to five members each, are tasked to choose a recent research project from their respective departments, and be able to present a globally competitive marketing strategy for it.

Training sessions are held throughout the seminar series where participants get guidelines, workshops, and motivation from respected speakers and judges from the corporate and communications world.

CS Stereotypes: Setting the Record Straight

By Emerico Aguilar Pursue medical school and you will need a decade of earnest diligence before your name becomes prefixed with “Dr.” Enroll in a computer science program and you will be racking up titles even before you graduate. And by the time that you have mastered the art of abstracting concepts and objects to suit your problem-solving needs, you yourself would have already been generalized by society into a set of distinct characteristics, a simplification that’s befitting mere concepts and objects. Yes, such is the nature of stereotypes being attached to computer science majors that, it seems, there’s no escaping them (no, not even with escape characters).

These stereotypes, of course, didn’t come from nowhere. They arise from notions--some out of ignorance, others a product of our own arrogance--that have reached the collective psyche of a society. Now that computers are becoming more ubiquitous each passing day, the public is also gaining awareness with the people associated with them. Thus, unless we want to be plagued with prejudices and false impressions, it’s up to us to dispel certain myths, provide background to our idiosyncrasies, and bring to light our true, more colorful selves.

So here are insights to some of the more popular stereotypes bestowed to our field and to anyone who’s affiliated with it: GEEKS. The granddaddy of computer science stereotypes. Some mention “geek” with reverence, while others say it with a hint of discrimination. Of late, there are even those who use this term to take part in the growing trend of embracing this culture. But to us, this is simply our way of living.

By virtue of immersing ourselves with the topics of algorithms and programming, we are automatically inducted to this club, whether we like it or not. There’s nothing to be ashamed about this, though, as it is a reference to one’s eagerness to pursue certain knowledge. Still, it’s just a label, and at any given time, you can scrape if off like a mud on your skin, or you can wear like it’s the slickest bling.

TECHNOPHILES. To say that we display strong interests in gadgets and technology is an understatement. We eat, play, and even sleep with our machines. We spend hours trying out the latest websites and software applications, suffering withdrawal symptoms if we fail to do so. Kidding aside, these behaviors are simply a result of circumstance, or maybe one’s passion for learning, but not hardcore fanaticism. Well, we do love gadgets and other techie stuff (why else would we have ended up in a course that starts with “computer”?), but not to the extreme.

YOUR NEXT-DOOR COMPUTER MECHANIC. It is not uncommon for acquaintances to consult us about their ailing computer. However, if our reply to their inquiry is a puzzling look, they will give us an even more puzzling stare in return. It’s not that I have anything against computer mechanics; it’s just that people expect us to be like them, where in fact, we barely touch the subject matter of computer hardware. We can’t blame them for this misconception, though. With a name so obscure that even its own students are often confused to what it is really all about, computer science is sure to attract some misinterpretations. Actually, a lot of us do know how to handle a few of hardware problems, learned not from classrooms but from encountering similar situations at 3’o clock in the morning when deadline for a project is just a few hours away. Just don’t expect too much from us in this aspect.

COMPUTER GAME ADDICTS. First of all, we don’t have a monopoly over this type of addiction.

People from diverse backgrounds get hooked to computer gaming as much as we do. Heck, even businessmen engage in overnight DotA matchups. While at it, I might add that, in case we are such, we have the most sensible excuse for being so, since we spend a great bulk of our time staring at our monitors. It’s not easy to refuse temptation, you know. Second, this notion is not entirely true.

“Occasional gamer” might be a better term. With so many tasks at hand, we’ll be lucky to find time to play Minesweeper. OK, it’s not that bad, but you get the point. Third, not all of us are into gaming.

Many of our kind actually prefer more outgoing, social activities for spending some spare time.

HACKERS. Definitely the most flattering comment you can give to a programmer. Sadly, not all of us can lay claim to this much sought title. Yet, in popular media, this term has been used too loosely that it undermines the skills and knowledge of those who can truly hack a system. In reality, this is only reserved for top-tiered programmers, the cream of the crop. Hackers are like the LeBrons and the Kobes of the programming world.

DOMINATED BY MEN. Perhaps, in numbers only, though this is still arguable. But definitely not in its figurative sense. Not even close. Check out local programming competitions and you’ll see chicks kicking some men’s butts (yes, mine got whacked too). You don’t even have to look far to dismiss this claim. At the DCS, the ladies are just as good as the dudes. It’s all about dedication, not gender.

NO SOCIAL LIFE. Being a student, or a product, of computer science doesn’t necessarily equate to a life lived without much exposure to the world outside. This is still a matter of personal choice, regardless of your degree or occupation. To each his/her own. What probably gave rise to this notion is the nature of our course. If you are assigned a software project, you already have enough responsibilities to keep you busy for one semester. Mix this with machine problems, problem sets and another project or two, and you’ll be gasping for time. So it’s not surprising if we don’t get to socialize as much as other people do. Nonetheless, there are still some who manage to party every weekend and fulfill their requirements at the same time. It all boils down to time management.

These are just some of the computer science stereotypes. Regardless of whether these traits apply to us or not, one fact remains: there is certainly more to us than our crude portrayal.

Sorting CS Students

By Ava Marie Tan “Alcohol and Calculus don’t mix. Don’t drink and derive.”

Only a full-pledged nerd thinks like that. The loner who has unkept hair, thick glasses, braces, and lanky posture. One who probably loves 7¥p1n9 £1|{3 7h1$ (“typing like this” in l33t language) and has known what staple-free staples are so long ago. Also, he’s the guy who has the highest chance of being busted by that rich, snobbish girl who’s been hailed as the queen since sixth grade.

We know nerds, plastics, jocks, and burnouts in high school. Some of these groups may no longer exist in college but we can never escape stereotypes.

Stereotypes are commonly held notions or images about a certain group. People base it on first impressions and observations. These notions are embedded in words like “nerd” and “cheerleader” -- images are evoked and easily understood by people who share the same views.

Stereotyping is part of the human culture. The characteristics we relate with certain sets of people are either good or bad. Genders, nationalities, and ethnic groups have their own. Women are believed to be bad drivers, black men are said to be better in basketball, and Ilocanos are looked upon as stingy. There will always be groups and classifications as it simplifies the task of knowing somebody. Thus, everyone cannot escape from stereotyping.

Yes, that means WE can’t.

Computer Science majors are stereotyped as geeks, hardcore gamers, gadget freaks and much to my annoyance, (future) computer technicians. CS majors aren’t all geeks; in fact, in our own culture, we have our own set of stereotypes.

1. Extra-terrestrial – This group is composed of “nerds” and students whose programming and thinking abilities are, well, extra-terrestrial. Some of these ETs don’t really look like the classic nerd but are always seen sulking behind their laptops, looking into lines and lines of code. When they’re away from their computers, they are “hanging out” with their geeky friends.

2. Ninja – The epitome of “looks can be deceiving”. You won’t even suspect that they’re geniuses until your first MP deadline or defense. They can make instant MPs and could cram the MP you’ve been working on for weeks. When you see them, you won’t even suspect that they are some kind of ET. They just look normal. They aren’t addicted to codes as much as true blue ETs do but in class, beware…

3. Casper – They don’t show up in class but still get good grades. Period.

4. GC – Another classic aside from nerds. All of us might belong to this group once in a while but there are grade-conscious people all the way. Hardcore GCs snag every bonus available and rarely give chance to others (this comes from a bitter experience). They will do everything for that onepoint-zero. They are jealous with Ninjas, both in grades and in social life.

5. Do it Yourself (DIY) – They sleep through classes and when they’re awake, they always appear disoriented. They are interested in computer (and sometimes geeky) stuff --- except today’s CS lecture. Their MPs are great but often late because they’re always doing other things such as making keygens, assembling MIDI controllers, and hacking PC games. Unlike ETs, they get low scores when it comes to academics but they still manage to pass subjects thanks to lecture slides, APIs, and e-books found in the internet. They might be our future hackers.

6. Sleepwalkers – The YM and Plurk night residents. They leave their computers online even though they’re already asleep. Sometimes they stay up all night, sometimes they just sleep a few hours before their first classes. Some of them aren’t insomniacs until college--- they just got used to screen sucking after being forced to stay up late for MPs and thesis. Sleepwalkers can be easily spotted at school. Their eye bags are quite distinguishable even from afar.

7. In Denial – Clearly, Computer Science isn’t their first choice. Or it could have been when they passed their UPCAT forms, but their course preference changed as MP and MP went by… To shift or not to shift, that is the question.

8. Coffeeholics – They can’t get through the day without their daily caffeine fix. Coffee from Starbucks, Seattle’s, and Bo’s are their companions to every CS work. This is a stereotype for rich kids, or for those who at least appear to be. Of course, you won’t buy P 100+ coffee without the money.

9. Survivors – For every CS student (except for the ETs, GCs and a few people, that is), our course becomes a monster at some point in our lives. There are people who are in danger of being KO’d every year --- some of them manage to stay, some of them fail. There are people who got this threat only once but there are people who after, two, three --- okay, I don’t know if anyone is that brave to receive three chances of being kicked out --- amazingly survives and continues studying as a CS major.

10. Commoners – The reason why they are called ‘commoners’ because there is nothing unique about them. They are ‘go-with-the-flow” people and they are the ones who are hard to remember.

They are pretty much average in academics, wallflowers when it comes to extra-curriculars and they like to stick with their own kind.

In reality, each person is a combination of multiple stereotypes. These are merely notions and one stereotype can’t completely describe someone. There are “good stereotypes”. For example, Asians are good at Math. But stereotyping is wrong, one should get to know a person first before judging them. Stereotyping strongly affects people’s interactions and hinders friendship among different types of people.

Also, one shouldn’t stick with stereotypes. All Asians aren’t good at Math because I, for one, suck with numbers.

So please, stop typecasting us. We’re not variables.

Tweet. Here I am again bringing you the latest bits and bytes of buzz fresh from DCS! One of my reliable resources, Minimax88, private-Plurked me this: Spotted around DCS, a pointless view of an MVC application.

Hey there future programmers, long time no

During moments of too much Create, Update, and Delete requests, this view was nowhere to be seen. How ironic. The poor model and con-

troller can’t do anything about it, and they end up overworked to compensate. And when the workload becomes simple Read requests, here comes the view to say hello to them.

My oh my, this view should be hidden to conceal its nasty errors.

Yet another of my trusted resources, SkyperViper, told me through live streaming this: Spotted everywhere in UPAECH, a malware

that is driving everyone crazy.

This not-so-little malware pretends to be nice and approachable whenever many people are around. But when the people go away, this malware steps out from its shroud of pretentiousness. Its attacks are vicious; bitching around and shouting are some of its favorite activities.

Even my very own informant was not spared.

Sorry malware, people are starting to block you in their firewalls.

Theater and we left our bags at the back. Eventually, the cold got to me and my nose started to run badly. As luck would have it, I left my handkerchief in my bag. I didn’t want to stand up and get it, so I just covered my nose with my hand and proceeded to answer the exam. I still had one hand covering my nose when I turned in my answer sheet and our Prof gave me a puzzled look. I went straight to the bathroom afterwards. ***

By Janelle Lagmay It was the first day of class and I was eating alone at the Eng’g cafe. After I finished eating, I didn’t know if I had to return my plate to the counter, or wait for somebody to clean it up. I was waiting until others left their table, but the place was crowded and people were waiting for me to leave. I took my plate and brought it to the counter and the lady told me the bus boys would

pick it up for me. She was hesitating whether to get it or not, and for ten painfully embarrassing seconds, I was standing there, in front of upperclassmen, with a plate of half-eaten macaroni.

Good thing I don’t wander off into Melchor Hall much these days. *** Our CS 32 exam was held in the Engineering

It was raining heavily that day so I decided to ride the Toki going to Math. I wasn’t aware that the jeep had to take a detour through CP Garcia.

When everybody got off in front of NIP, I followed but I couldn’t find the Math Building! I was so lost and when I finally got to class, my shoes were covered in mud. What a way to start the day. *** Our professor was finishing off explaining our MP and the class was starting to get rowdy. I heard him ask “Any questions?”, and I responded with a loud “No.” My classmates looked at me and laughed but I didn’t know why. Then

my seatmate told me that he actually said, “Feel free to talk to me if you have any questions.”

During the registration week, I had to go to Melchor Hall to get an Add Mat form. Unfortunately, as the jeep passed by the Shopping Center, it started to rain very hard. I found out that I left my umbrella in the CS Building so I just took a round trip back to our building. It was embarrassing enough that the driver recognized me and asked where I was getting off, but as was I taking my umbrella from the rack, some students were giving me suspicious looks as if I was stealing an umbrella. *** I was running late for class and when I got to the classroom, I was surprised to find them taking an exam. The instructor gave me my questionnaire and told me I had 30 minutes left. I looked around, saw a few familiar faces, looked at my paper and saw “CS 135”. Wrong class! I gave him back the questionnaire, headed to my actual class, and again they were taking an exam. At least that time it was just a quiz.

A Taste of the Professional Programmer Life

By Jase Tiojanco As computer science students, most of us hardly have a clue of what is in store for us after graduation. All we know is that right now, we program. We program in our laboratory classes, or we program when we have machine problems.

To get an idea on how it is to become a professional programmer, I decided to take up CS 195 last summer. CS 195 is the summer internship elective that is taken by many even though it is not required. Some take it because they want to experience how it is to become a professional programmer, while others take it simply because they want an additional source of money during the summer break. I took it for the former.

The internship experience goes way back to the middle part of the second semester. This is when students apply for internship positions in several companies. I was one of the students who combed through the booths of CAPES in search of a company who would hire me as an intern.

After submitting resumes and application forms, I went through a lot of exams and interviews. Three companies offered me an internship position, but in the end, I went for Azeus Systems. Why? Well, their office is the closest to our home. Plus, their allowance is satisfactory.

Like my first day in school, my first day at work made me feel excited and nervous at the same time.

I, along with the other interns, was brought to a waiting room until the Officer-in-Charge of Azeus’ Internship program arrived. We went through an orientation which was similar to the one given to new employees. I vividly remember the reaction all of us had when we were informed that there was a five-million-peso fine for violating any of the rules presented to us during the orientation. No one will be tattling about anything Azeus-related, that’s for sure.

During the first few days of the Internship Program, things were pretty exciting. We researched about our project, discussed how we would tackle the problem, and implemented our proposed solutions.

Add to that the fact that we were getting to know our fellow interns. We looked forward to our free snacks during the morning and afternoon. Those days were really great!

The very first time we felt unbelievably nervous was when we were informed about the first demo of our project. Everyone was going crazy, even working overtime just to polish the program. We checked our programs for all possible errors until we could find no more faults. All the efforts paid off when judgment day came and our software impressed the evaluator, who was no less than one of the top programmers in Azeus.

After our first demo, everyday seemed very much like the previous one. I go to work early, time-in, work, eat, work, and then leave. There were bright spots such as fun conversations with my co-interns but at the end of the day, I couldn’t help but feel as if I have experienced the same day the previous day. The only days that I truly looked forward to were the fifteenth and thirtieth days of every month when our allowances were given to us.

I am a person who is very much against living a routine-based life. If there’s one thing I realized in my internship experience, it is that I don’t want to work as a programmer. I love interacting with other people and I don’t want a computer as my companion for eight hours a day. But that’s just me; I’m not saying being a programmer is a job that will bore everyone.

Try being an intern yourself, maybe you’d love it, maybe you won’t.

Everyone dreams about the future, but have you thought about your future thesis topic lately? The word “thesis” strikes fear to most students because we do not know what to do or even where to start. All we know is that, we have to finish one before we could graduate. Thesis topics in our department can be divided into research groups whose laboratories are housed on the third floor of the Alumni Engineers’ Centennial Hall (AECH).

There are six general research groups supported by the department. These are: Computer Vision and Machine Intelligence, Web Science, Theoretical Computer Science, Networking and Distributed Systems, Computer Security, and Scientific Computing.

Thankfully, these research laboratories now accept apprentices for those interested to experience and learn.

For incoming seniors, application for membership is done during the first few weeks of the first semester of their senior year. The student (or group) is allowed to choose which research group to apply to that is in line with his/her (or their) interests.

The Computer Vision & Machine Intelligence Group is concerned with the understanding and construction of complex systems whose underlying computation utilizes to a substantial degree the methods proper to or closely associated with artificial intelligence. Examples of these methods are heuristic search, knowledge representation, logical and probabilistic inference, statistical and structural pattern recognition, and evolutionary computation. Special emphasis will be given to Computer Vision and AI applications to Bioinformatics.

The CVMIG accepts membership applications for thesis per group. Each group can have a

maximum of three people. The groups are encouraged to think of a topic about computer vision and machine intelligence as early as possible if they are really interested to join. The groups undergo a panel interview about the topic.

Apprentice applications in the CVMIG can be done anytime during the year. For details, interested juniors can visit the CVMIG lab at the third floor of AECH or talk to the laboratory’s head, Dr. Prospero Naval.

The Web Science Group, formerly the Internet Technologies Group, deals with “the science of the web”. Since the realm is too vast, the group focuses on applications dedicated to health services and education. Some educational researches are the Electronic Portfolio and Assessment (EPASA): a student-centric portfolio, and Kinespell, an educational spelling game for kinesthetic learners ages six to eight years old.

The WSG accepts membership applications individually. The application process consists of filling up an application form and an interview.

Then, the passers can choose their pair. The students can think of their own topic or if they cannot think of any, the research group under Sir Rommel Feria’s guidance can suggest topics to them mostly about game-based learning or immersive education.

Apprentice applicants can apply anytime during the school year. Interested juniors and sophomores can talk to Sir Feria for details. Apprentices administer hardware, setup servers, download things, and test theses. They are also encouraged to start reading theses if they are interested in continuing some of the researches.

The Network and Distributed Systems Group deals with grids, clusters and cloud computing,

peer-to-peer systems, agents and information retrieval techniques, mobility and mobile networking, fault tolerance, adaptive QoS and web service.

The Network and Distributed Systems Group accepts membership applications for thesis also by group with a maximum of three people per group. Informal interviews with the laboratory’s head, Dr. Cedric Festin, are done during the first few weeks of the first semester.

Application for apprenticeship can be done by talking to Dr. Festin. Juniors can apply anytime during the year.

The Computer Security Group currently handles digital watermarking, encryption of multimedia, information retrieval and multi-passwords. The research group, under Ma’am Susan Festin, deals with thesis topics related to computer security.

Seniors are screened individually. Then, they can choose their own group mates – a maximum of three members are allowed in a group.

Second year students in their second semester and junior students can apply for apprenticeship by talking to Ma’am Susan. Apprentices are expected to attend research meetings, observe the thesis groups, and be involved in minor activities.

The Theoretical Computer Science Group, formerly Algorithms and Complexity Laboratory, handles models of computation and complexity, algorithms, designs and implementations, combinatorial networks and information technology in education. This is the only group which does not require an implementation or application output. The group, however, requires a published paper by the end of the year and also encourages the students to join different conferences.

Other topics not belonging to any other research group also stay in the Algorithms and Complexity Laboratory.

Membership applications can be done individually or by pair. Students interested in discrete mathematics (Math 157), algorithms and complexity (CS 135) are encouraged to join the group.

The group accepts apprentices that are in the third year level or students who passed Math 157. Apprentices are expected to attend the weekly research seminars and meetings.

The Scientific Computing Group is the newest research group of the department. Formerly a part of the Theoretical Computer Science Group, it is headed by visiting professor, Dr. Vina Pearl Bongolan. This group largely deals with the study of mathematical models and numerical solution techniques used to analyze and solve scientific and enginnering problems.

Interested applicants for membership and apprenticeship can talk to Dr. Bongolan.

Theses may still strike fear to students but with the help of these research groups, the fear might soon be diminished. Sir Mario Carreon strongly suggests incoming seniors to think of topics as soon as possible and to research about those topics. Students can also talk to the research groups’ advisers for pre-thesis advising. A little preparation as early as now can really help in the long run.

References: http://www.engg.upd.edu.ph/%7Ecvmig http://dcs.upd.edu.ph/lab/aclab/ http://dcs.upd.edu.ph/?page_id=6

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Crystal Beatrice M. Camarao Editor-in-Chief Audrey C. Garais Associate Editor and Business Manager Gian Paolo V. Samson News Editor Jase Nathaniel G. Tiojanco Features Editor Anna Andrina L. Lobaton Literary Editor Jose Paolo M. Sy Tech Editor and Web Administrator Arturo E. Lacanilao III Layout Editor Rona Riza M. Gumia Jamie Lou R. Polloso Joven J. Sebido Managing Editors Emerico H. Aguilar Grace Ann B. Agustin Ryan Kristofer I. Arana Paul Vincent S. Contreras Kristofer E. delas Peñas Daniela Marie L. Delgado Apryll B. Lacandazo Janelle M. Lagmay Ranyel Bryan L. Maliwanag Josephine Ann Gabrielle S. Ortiz Jose Luis E. Santos Ava Marie T. Tan Cassandra Leigh L. Wang Writers Dana Elisa G. Nicolas Jeanella Klarys E. Pascual Artists Pauline Ann N. Pablo Anna Mae C. Yap Photographers Philip E. Zuniga Faculty Adviser

EDITORIAL

THE POWER TO BE YOUR BEST* Most of us take for granted the facilities and equipment that we have in the Department. Some would even go as far as complaining about them.

But in a state university like UP, where funds are usually very low and even increasingly declining, one doesn’t need to be a rocket—or maybe even computer—scientist to realize just how fortunate we are in DCS when it comes to material resources.

Aside from the number of faculty members with graduate degrees and the quality and quantity of research publications produced, the status of the facilities and equipment of an educational institution is also a key factor in determining the institution’s competence and overall productivity. Such is the case when the Commission on Higher Education considers giving the honor of proclaiming a department or an institute a Center of Excellence, of which the DCS has been accorded in 2007.

Of course, the best form of education can only take place in the right environment with the right resources. And in a field like computer science, where having the most relevant and the most up-to-date technology available is necessary and undoubtedly beneficial, there is a need to procure such.

and not let them go to waste. We’re not just talking about taking good care of the equipment and using them for their intended use only (If web traffic in the department was monitored, we’d bet 90% of it goes to social networking and other non-academic sites), although we highly encourage that. We’re also talking about doing our best as a student, proving that all the Department’s efforts in providing the best facilities and equipment it can were worth it.

If you compare our resources with those of a certain private green-colored university in Taft, we’re quite far behind. But compared with most universities in our third-world country, which do not have brand new computers worth six million to speak of, or which do not even have projectors in every room like we do, we definitely stand out. Sure, we do not have the stateof-the-art facilities nor do we have the completest equipment available, but we certainly have what other universities can only dream of. Largely thanks to alumni donations, the Alumni Engineers Centennial Hall is one of the most well-equipped and most highly developed academic buildings in the nation today.

After all, Spiderman taught us that “With great power comes great responsibility”. To put it in context, with great resources come great responsibility.

The challenge then lies for us, DCS students, to fully utilize such resources

*slogan used by Apple in the 1990’s

The next time you use a computer in one of the laboratories—whether it’s an ME or your thesis project you’re working on—be thankful that the Department is able to provide you with such and, even more importantly, make sure that you are producing an output that will make the DCS proud.

The UP Parser is the official student publication of the Department of Computer Science, UP Diliman

CRYSTAL BEATRICE CAMARAO

RANT On Love and Algorithm Design Let's assume, at least for this article, that you could find your soulmate through the different algorithm design paradigms. (Yes, this is both a geeky and cheesy article. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Brainiacs, you can criticize this all you want, it’s just theoretical anyway. Besides, it’s been a year since I took CS 135, so I have an excuse for not being able to accurately remember all the concepts. Cynics, no one is forcing you to read this. And you are free to laugh all you want, but in the end I don't really care.)

What then is the best paradigm to use? Because I think everyone agrees with me when I say that, finding love--at least, the true kind--isn’t very different from solving a really difficult, frustrating MP. One could try the greedy method, but it isn’t a particularly good technique to use in the context of love. It means giving a certain amount of effort to every person who shows the least bit of interest, or every person who is something of minimal interest to you. Not only is this a waste of time, it’s a waste of emotions. Who wants to traverse through so many “feasible, locally optimal” nodes before finding the best path to their soulmate? It just isn’t practical. Especially since, in most cases, the greedy method yields only approximations. When it comes to love, no one wants to settle for less.

Divide-and-conquer isn’t any better. Having two (or even more) lovers at the same time, playing around with their hearts, and dumping the other once you’ve decided who’s better, and then settling until you find the next conquest is just irresponsible, not to mention counter-productive.

Dynamic programming isn’t an option, either.

There’s no such thing as a formula when it comes to love, although storing data about past experiences helps. Besides, having a step-bystep process you need to rigidly follow can get dull and mundane.

And backtracking? Uhh. This is something I certainly think is a no-no. Although it works in data structures, it rarely does in real life. Past is past, and that's that.

So I guess all we’re left with is brute force, which, at first look, is kind of insane. How does one successfully look for his/her soulmate by means of exhaustive search, when Earth has close to seven billion souls? It will probably take forever-the time complexity must be something like O(n!), or even worse. And it surely won’t be easy, especially since it's going to take a lot of patience, and a great leap of faith that in spite of the odds this problem is indeed solvable.

But isn't that the whole point of love? That no matter how many variables (i.e. other sizzling hot people) or what kind of parameters (i.e. differences in backgrounds, interests, and whathaveyou), you still managed to find each other in such a complex, crazy world, and fell in love. That’s what, at least I think, is the true essence of love.

No, brute force isn’t the most efficient paradigm there is. In fact, most of the time, it’s the least efficient.

But when it comes to love, it is perhaps the most optimal.

PHILIP ZUNIGA

AUDREY GARAIS

EMERICO AGUILAR

*SPECIAL* ADVISER’S COLUMN

BE IT TRAGIC OR COMEDIC I’ll laugh at it, because that’s just how I deal with it.

*SPECIAL* GUEST COLUMN

Undefined

Deus Ex Machina

Student Life Redux

Let’s first welcome the first time readers of Parser, this year’s batch of freshmen. Officially, batch 2009 is the largest BS CS batch ever. The Department accepted around 170 freshmen and around 20 transferees and shiftees. This is part of the Department’s aggressive effort to produce more computer scientists, not only for the industry, but also for research and academe. Increasing the input is the easy part, but the harder part (NP hard, perhaps?) is how we can make them stay or how we can prevent them from being kicked out. It is pointless to increase the input, if at the end of the day, they will still not graduate as BS CS students. We’ll just increase our socalled “Mortality Rate”.

I stopped waiting for miracles to come because in real life, you don’t really get your deus ex machina. Probably miracles do exist, but not in this context. No one is going to magically appear, magically hand me my diploma and tell me that I don’t have to do all of these things anymore. I gave up hope a long time ago. Sadly, no hero can save me from this mess that I just had to take up.

Not so long ago, as a struggling college student living on an allowance, I often got the question asking me how I see myself five years from then.

Being the cocky person that I was, I thought that was a no brainer. With my self-proclaimed sick programming skills, my ego told me there’s no way I won’t be able to enjoy continuous progress that, in a few years time, people will be calling me a successful young professional working his way upwards the IT industry’s totem pole.

Every semester, dozens of BSCS students are either removed from the program or leave the program. They choose to leave because: 1) They find the program irrelevant with their career plans.

2) They will be kicked out if they don’t leave.

3) They are confused.

4) Too many math subjects.

As a response, the Department, through the Student Affairs Committee (SAC), is developing ways on how to resolve these issues. The SAC is now organizing various talks and seminars, all aiming to make the students understand what Computer Science is and what career options BS CS students have. We are also assigning batch advisers to the students, so that someone from the faculty will be able to monitor the academic performance of the students. Faculty members can now advise and help the students who are in danger of violating the retention rules.

As for the number of Math units… we can’t do anything about that.  iMacs everywhere.

Last month, research labs were lucky because aside from getting high-end Acer desktop PCs, the labs also received iMac desktop PCs. These desktops were distributed to the various thesis groups to aid them with their CS198/199 research projects. And the Juniors are asking, “How about us?”.

Actually, the research labs are open for memberships not only to seniors but also to juniors, and yes even sophomores. You can apply as lab apprentices and help the seniors with their research projects. This will help you see the kind of work that the seniors are doing, so that when you enroll in CS 198… you won’t get SHOCKED. Several senior students got SHOCKED the moment their advisers discussed their potential topics.

One senior even said, “It’s like understanding a Chinese movie, but there’s no subtitles.”

Aside from not getting SHOCKED, you can also use the facilities (computers, mobile phone, game consoles) of the lab for your school work.

And, you won’t need to compete for limited electric sockets and seats (I saw someone doing his MP while standing) at the second floor. You can plug your notebook inside the research labs.

Cool right?

How to join? Just ask the lab heads, or you can also talk to the 4th year students who are also members of the labs.

JOIN UP Parser E-mail upparser0910@gmail.com for more info.

Well, I guess no one else but me, that is.

Lahat naman nahihirapan eh. I guess it just depends on the way we handle things (don’t even mention time management). Everyone has a way with dealing with their stuff, and I work on my own pace as well. Each man to his own foot, or so the quote goes.

I think everybody has a right to be stressed, to complain and to feel depressed with whatever they have to accomplish. Kahit itetext mo lang ang crush mo para tanungin siya kung saang papel isusulat yung probset, okay lang na mapressure. What’s important is how you use this kind of pressure to get you working. On lazy days, it’s really hard to be productive; we push everything until the last minute (especially on long weekends so please just bring back our Wednesdays, thankyouverymuch). Somehow pressure works wonders and makes you type a 20-page paper in just one sitting. Basic principle: kung magtatamad-tamaran ka, panindigan mo.

When you’re online and everybody else is on Plurk or FB updating each other, it’s up to you to mentally slap yourself just to stay focused.

For me, I guess I just have to remind myself what I’m doing this for.

What am I doing this for again? Haha. To get a decent job? Uhhh. This is exactly what’s sad about the capitalist mindset. People are doing what they’re doing to earn a decent living, and not because it’s what they’ve always dreamed of. They must’ve loved what they’re doing, but making money became such a big deal that their jobs dehumanized them.

It’s not really all about getting a decent job for me. More often than not, I do it for my Dad who’s been working so hard to keep us breathing until now regardless if he’s annoying or not at times (parents, lol). I think of my friends and the childish pure promises we made to graduate together. Sometimes, it’s to compete with my sister’s accomplishments and my younger brother’s achievements (middle child syndrome much?) Most of all, I try hard for myself. Hang in there, Audrey. Self-actualization is on its way. :) So even if my deus ex machina won’t ever show up, I’ll keep on doing what I do. Kayod kung kayod. I hope it gets better soon. I may be talking about all these idealistic things, but that doesn’t mean I’m not dying right now, haha. It gets hard, but it’s all going to be worth it. Hey, you. I'm waiting. Inspire me.

So my replies to this question, or, at least, how I picture them, were always the same: an SUV – make that an X5 since, as the old adage goes, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming – toting corporate hotshot/entrepreneur, living in his own bachelor pad, with a bunch of time to spare for his personal itineraries.

Fast forward to the present and the only thing that have progressed is, uh, my age. Once again, I’m a struggling student living on an allowance. The X5 that I’m supposed to have is still parked in a BMW dealer somewhere. Instead of a fancy bachelor pad, a room in a campus dormitory is serving as my humble abode. I don’t even have much time for personal itineraries; I use them mostly for my studies. In short, I’m back to where I was.

So, what went wrong? Well, one may easily point out that my goals are the main culprit – they sound too idealistic, if not downright unrealistic (for someone in my shoes, that is). It doesn’t help either that my programming skills are sick only in the sense that they pale in comparison with others’. But it’s one thing to miss your target, starting all over again is another story.

However, it is also something that I do not regret doing.

I’ll leave my thoughts on why I am nowhere near in achieving any of my earlier plans for another day. For now, I’ll just focus on where I am, which is not a bad place to be. In fact, it is a great place to be.

Actually, I came from a different campus, so being here is a new experience altogether. It gives me the opportunity to learn more about my other fields of interest, explore other stuffs, gain new perceptions, and meet new friends. Plus, it’s a chance for me to correct some of my previous mistakes as a student (note to self: stop procrastinating).

Most importantly, it’s an opportunity to prepare myself once more for my goals.

Five years from now, I’m no longer sure where will I be. But for now, it doesn’t matter. For the meantime, I’ll stop peering into future. For the meantime, I’ll just focus on the present. And the rule for living the present is quite simple: make the most out of it.

Carpe diem.

The UP Parser is the College of Engineering’s first and foremost department-based publication. Carrying the motto “Analyzing Life the CS Way”, UP Parser aims to be the voice of the Department of Computer Science (DCS), a mediator between the department and student body, as well as an outlet for skilled programmer-journalists.

We don't just write programs... We write!

GIAN PAOLO SAMSON

KATHRYN KIMBERLY MALIJAN

GOING EXPOSITORY

SCORPION ROSES

(Because I’m no essay writer)

A Fairy Tale

First Love Never Dies It was only three and a half years ago when I entered the Engineering Theatre to attend the CS4CS orientation for first-year CS students.

Back in 2006, the Department was still residing in its former home in Melchor Hall, where it occupied the left-wing corridor beside the Chemical Engineering Department.

Once upon a time, there lived a boy with his mother in the heart of the woods.

The boy was as thin as the thinnest shrub that ever sprouted in the woods, and he was so frail and delicate. But the boy had the most angelic face one could ever have, for he had eyes as beautiful as a blooming rosebud, and a smile as a warm as the summer sun.

Fresh from high school, I hardly knew anything about the University or the colorful college life that was about to unfold. All I knew back then was that we had been required by my CS 11 professor to attend the orientation and that was it.

He loved musical instruments. He could play any instrument as marvelous as a genius would. And he also possessed a voice so enchanting that all the birds in the forest gathered near him whenever he hums a tune.

As always, the members of the CS Network were present during the orientation to introduce themselves and talk about their upcoming activities.

His mother was the first person that he would look for when he opened his eyes in the morning, then kiss her the sweetest kiss a loving son could ever give to his mother. Then he would run in the woods to find and gather the freshest flowers and bring it to her while she prepared their breakfast. He wouldn’t touch his food unless she joined him and sat beside him in the table. And he would never close his eyes even if the moon started peeping through the window unless his mother told him the most wonderful tale that she could ever think of.

One of them was the UP Parser. I sat there listening as then-Parser EIC Joebet del Rosario talked about the student paper and its role in the CS community. I had been some sort of “semijournalist” back in high school, so I was positively surprised to find out that there was actually a segment in the science-inclined student population of the DCS interested in journalism.

Yes, it was during that fateful day in June 2006 when I promised myself that someday I would enter the UP Parser as one of its staff members and help it continue its role as a medium of information dissemination in the Department. During that time, however, I thought I was too young to join, so I indefinitely postponed my application.

It was less than year later, just before the end of freshman year, when I felt that the time was ripe to test what I was made of. So I signed up for the editorial exams and applied as a news editor.

The results came out and I found out that I got the position.

Cliché as it may sound, words were not enough to express the happiness that I felt when I saw the results. I seriously didn’t think I could get it..

But life in the Parser wasn’t always that happy.

The rest of the staff and I did struggle at one point or another just to make sure that the publication continued ticking. A number of sacrifices—though a lot of them are both funny and silly—had to be made. For one, the Parser was the reason why I had to go on the first school-related overnight stay of my life. I had to do that just so we could submit a soft copy of an issue to the press on time. I swear I had some difficulty sleeping that night.

When he was of the right age, they left the woods and moved to a house near the school.

There he saw a lot of kids like him, and thought that going out with them is surely fun and exciting.

And so he started to spend more time doing other things: playing with friends, going around the town and discovering the hidden sights within the place.

Mother patiently waited for Son to come home and spend time with her. She always prepared the most delicious food, and placed the softest pillow she ever found on his bed. She even bought him a new guitar so he could hear him sing his songs again.

But hours grew to days, and days grew to months. The boy would wake up, take his things and go out without even saying goodbye. He didn’t look for her in the morning, nor did he bring her sweet flowers, and he didn’t need the tall tales to make him sleep at night ever again.

Mother asked Son what’s wrong. But the boy only stared at her and told her nothing.

ANNA ANDRINA LOBATON

BITES

GALORE MUCH

Slice

Simplicity

You sprint across the halls, late for your class (although not really, right now you don't care anymore, because you're suffering from a case of jadedness so bad that it doesn't really make a difference if you're late ten minutes or thirty), out of breath and tripping over your feet. You stop, stunned, bracing a hand against the wall, when you read the announcement taped to the door.

Money makes the world go around. Well, at least I thought so.

Class is cancelled, it says, black letters on smooth white, with no explanations whatsoever.

You hit yourself mentally for not checking your mail before you left (as you are always bound to do, bound to the internet as you are), and you slump against the railing, laptop bag sliding down your leg to the floor. You have a whole afternoon free now (only not because you still have a class at four), and you wonder what you can do to kill the time.

And then you remember the reason why you're panicking to reach the class in the first place; you've been working on a machine problem all throughout the past forty-five hours (three hours of sleep is a blessing) and you're still not finished. You know the exam's next week and you really do need to take it; you know if you stop working on that problem, you'll never pick up the motivation to start again unless it's freeze coding the next day.

Damn, double damn, you wipe sweat off your brow and claim a seat for yourself at one of those multicoloured tables. Those unfamiliar faces scatter a little as you open your laptop and start working; it seems that the freshmen are wary of that aura that you are giving off like so.

Useful now, useless later, when you realise your vindinctive pleasure at making them squirm fades in the light of pending submissions.

Algorithm design; you thought you'd never see the day when you'd curse the subject. You sigh and get to work - only not because a hand waves in front of you and you smell a familiar scent waft over to where you're sitting. You wish she won't stand that close because god, god, god, you can't concentrate because the butterflies in your stomach are doing the samba.

"How's it going?" she asks, lifting the lid of her own laptop and shifting the chair so that she can sit properly. The legs screech against the floor and your heart screeches against your ribcage.

"Done with the MP?" "Which one?" You reply tiredly, mind mentally reeling off all your subjects - and surprise, surprise, all of them have impending deadlines.

Mother insisted, but Son only said that he’s okay.

She asked him if she ever did something that he didn’t like.

In my nearly three years of stay in the Parser (I probably hold the record as the editor who stayed in the same position for the longest time in the paper’s history haha), I was able to see well how leaders could affect the products of their respective teams. Some people say that the job of a leader is easy because it is largely about making decisions, but it is actually that responsibility that makes the job all the more difficult.

As a leader, one has to put his/her heart into what he/she is doing, because the rest of team can see through those veiled actions, and that just might make or break the performance of the team as a whole.

The boy only said “No…it’s me…”

But I digress.

There ends the tale.

As an ending to this piece, let me just say that the Parser will always be my first love here in UP. We all know what they say about a first love. It never dies. It will always linger. And though I admit that I sometimes put it behind other extracurricular pursuits, I will continue to become its trusty news editor until the announcement of my successor this March. Lol.

And so no matter how well you take care of people you love, sometimes they have their own reasons why they would just leave you and let things be left unclear. Yes, it’s hard to act that you don’t care, but you just have to. If they can never have the guts to tell you what the real problem is, don’t force them. You’ve done your part, let them do theirs…

So finally she asked the boy if he would want her to leave him alone.

She laughs, a warm, dry sound, and pats you commiseratingly on the back. "Don't worry, you'll get through fine. I was swamped the same way last year, it was so - " and she curses an impressive blue streak before smiling back at you so radiantly that it's you who squirms.

You shouldn't fall for an upperclassman like this.

A year apart, who knew it could matter so much?

Son answered, “I don’t know. I’m not sure…”

She asked him again.

And the boy said “YES…” And so she left, and took with her the memory of his songs and smile, and the pain brought by the denial of truth.

JASE NATHANIEL TIOJANCO

You close the lid of your laptop, and nonchalantly (as much as you can, really) turn to face her, and you ruffle her hair. She's once joked you could pass for her little brother, and back then you thought nothing of it, but now - "Have you already had lunch?"

She blinks a little, looking up from her own code, and nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, we had lunch delivered earlier."

"Mmn," you reply, sliding your laptop back into your bag and swinging it over your shoulder.

"Okay. I'm going to go grab food, then."

She nods, already lost in her own little world of deadlines and projects and that dreaded thesis - and as you go down the stairs, you can't help but wonder why she's not in her lab, why she'd been there with you. You have an epiphany of sorts, a hypothesis that works out - but when you dash back up the stairs she's gone.

Has it ever crossed your mind why most people clamour financial prosperity? Why is it that having numerous material possessions equate to the sense of stability for some? Those are just some questions that have been in my mind for quite some time.

Ever since my siblings and I were young, it has been instilled to us explicitly and implicitly that we should work hard to gain financial prosperity.

Our dad would never fail to remind us to perform excellently in school so that we would become successful in the future. He would always bring us to our boutiques in the different parts of the country just to show us how important it is to have a lucrative livelihood. We were raised in a household wherein luxuries were set as a norm, making us think that those luxuries were necessary for a comfortable life. Most anything that we wanted was given to us by our parents without hesitation.

Everything was doing well and my dad was pretty much successful in programming our minds to strive for extravagance. But as the saying goes, “All good things come to an end.”

Due to some bad business strategies mixed with tightened consumer spending, our shops and boutiques closed one by one. From our shops in Baguio to our boutique in Cebu, everything went down. We didn’t have any other source of income and what has been left of our family’s wealth was being used up at a rapid pace. All of the luxuries we were accustomed to had to be stopped.

I was devastated. All the things I was used to enjoy were gone. We had to let go of our household helpers, so I had to learn everything they did for me so I could do it for myself. We had to say goodbye to our drivers, so I had to learn how to commute. We had to cut our expenditures, which meant no more new things and reduced use of paid services.

I was like stripped of everything I had. I felt like the most unfortunate person on the planet. I’d have sleepless nights just because we cannot use the air-con. I’d skip meals simply because I did not like the food on the table.

I slowly and painfully got used to it, but the desire to achieve financial prosperity is now greater than ever. I badly wanted to go back to how we lived our lives before. I would spend the day dreaming about owning the latest gadgets or having the trendiest of clothes. I did my best to excel in school because I wanted to become rich some day.

I was blinded by that vision. Whenever I failed an exam, I would instantly be depressed thinking that I’d end up as a beggar on the streets. I didn’t enjoy anything that I was doing; everything caused a huge deal of stress. Simply put, I was sad.

Thankfully, I am a UP student. No, I would not be glorifying our university because of its excellent standards; there’s no point in obviating the obvious. The beauty of being in UP is that I was exposed to a wide array of people with varying lifestyles. I got to meet people from the different ends of the spectrum. My interactions with them made me realize that life isn’t just about material things. Life can be about love, leadership, friendship, and a whole lot more.

I changed my focus from attaining financial prosperity to learning life lessons that would make me a better person. The desire to become wealthy has slowly faded. I actually don’t mind anymore the fact that I have to do quite a lot of chores. Moments spent with my family or friends are enough to make me happy. True enough, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

We're looking for partners in reaching out to UP DCS community!

E-mail us at upparser0910@gmail.com and we'll send you a copy of sponsorship packages available.

Blogging 101

By Josephine Ann Gabrielle Ortiz It may be safe to say that a great number of CS students are part of the continuously growing blogging community. Some simply advertise stuff on their blogs, while some share their thoughts and experiences; some even express themselves in photos, works of art, or perhaps literature. Blogging can take on many different forms. Lately, it can be done so easily—even with just your phones. Truly, as technology furthers in our lives, everyone is connected and updated through blogging.

As you may have inferred, blogging enables you to write about anything you want—it can be about how you tripped on the way up to the CS building, acing your EEE 8 exam, or about seeing your crush in your English 1 class—but does this mean that you are allowed to do so?

Well, setting rules about blogging can be quite hard. As there aren’t any laws about it (in the Philippines, at least) yet so basically, we CAN write about everything we may ever want. But it won’t hurt to perhaps think about what you’re going to write about first. Take a certain student’s blog, I’m sure you’ve all heard about Patrick Sicat (or well-known as “Paytrick”) — the Lasallista-turned-Iskolarng-Bayan who wrote a certain journal entry about his latest experiences upon transferring in UP. Another blog to consider would be the “cat-killer’s blog” – a UP student who blogged about killing a cat in NIP. I tried searching the internet for both blogs but apparently, they have already been deleted.

Anyway, I’d rather not expound on this and just let you do a little researching yourself, dear reader, as I might forget that I’m writing for an unbiased newsletter. Hehe.

As you can see, blogs like that were also about experiences and feelings of people like us—but the

thing they forgot while they were happily blogging was that these experiences and feelings of theirs MIGHT be able to offend other people. These blogs MIGHT just be able to create a negative effect on other people that may also be detrimental to them. You see, it all comes down to freedom of speech and its so-called limits. Think about it. Yes, we’re all entitled to say whatever we want but be sure to be prepared for any consequence that saying those things might entail. The only “limit” (though unofficial) that we should have would be respecting other’s values and rights—it is only right to protect others’ beliefs if we want to protect ours too, right? So blog away, but be sure to keep in check how other people may view your blog if you don’t want to be end up like them.

Heroes of Newerth: A Review

By Jose Paolo Sy

If you're an avid fan of Defense of the Ancients (DotA in Warcraft), then you might want to try out Heroes of Newerth. Heroes of Newerth (HoN) is a real-time strategy game in which each team's goal is to destroy the enemy team's mother tower (with obstacles in between and heroes to fight against, of course). In short, HoN is pretty much like DotA, with a HoN’s own personal touch. Right now, the game is under beta testing (and you can be part of it), and for now only supports online play (no local play, yet!). Nevertheless, the game does not fail to awe its playing audience.

Here are some stuff I noticed while playing HoN: 1. HoN beats DotA on graphics hands-down. See for yourself.

2. And since it's online, you don't need Garena. HoN will list rooms for you.

3. It serves as a chat client in-game and out -- an essential feature in cooperative gaming.

4. Some characters basically have the same abilities, and amount of damage even, as with DotA. They just changed the name of the character, and the description of the moves…

5. …And items too. (Ex. Wingbow, the HoN equivalent of DotA's butterfly.)

6. But HoN has its own characters whose skills are not adapted from DotA. 7. And it has its own items too.

8. Keyboard shortcuts to using skills and buying items are generic. Instead of having to adapt to different keys per character in DotA, HoN uses the Q-W-E-R keys. Q is used for the first skill, W for the second, and so on.

9. HoN lists recipes of items which require, uhh... recipes. Say goodbye to store-to-store hunting when creating a non-basic item.

10. Game types are Normal, Random Draft, Single Draft, and Deathmatch. You can choose from three maps: Forests of Caldavar (the map very similar to DotA), Darkwood Vale 3v3, and Watchtower. You can also practice; just choose 'Practice' when selecting a server. Moreover, you can classify a game to Noobs Only, Noobs Allowed, and Pro. Team size ranges from one-versus-one to five-versus-five. You can have referees and spectators, too.

The Battle of (free) IDEs: Eclipse vs NetBeans

*ting ting ting* Fight!

Round 1: Download and Installation It's a slow start. Downloading takes about thirty minutes to an hour. Eclipses wins on this one though. Downloading is (obviously) faster with Eclipse, and Eclipse fires a good punch by having no installation required -- just unzip and you're good to go.

By Grace Anne Agustin

Round 2: User-friendliness

Upon graduating from Notepad, some compilers, and the command prompt, Integrated Development Environments (or IDEs) have been, for most of us, allies through bloody battles against machine exercises and machine problems. Most CS students would either say NetBeans, Eclipse, or both. But which is better? Which is faster? Which is cooler? To answer these questions, we'll put both IDEs in a head-to-head match, testing the skills and capabilities of each.

For this round, I devised a “very unique” and “very creative” way to test user-friendliness. I created a "Hello world" program in Java, and ran it while pretending to be a new user. Ha!

In the violet corner, on its latest release, and “weighing” 161 MB for Mac Cocoa 64bit and 162 MB for Windows, Eclipse Galileo! And in the blue corner, “weighing" 158 MB for Mac and a whopping 238 MB for Windows, NetBeans in its latest release, 6.7!

The first challenge is to create a new project. For NetBeans, that would be “File > New Project”, and by default, this creates a new Java class file (main) with the new project. The main class was there, the main method was there, and I was ready to type in the code. Eclipse, however, required an extra step of clicking “New File” to create the first Java class file.

As for first impression, both corners' icons in the toolbar were intuitive. However, NetBeans gets an extra point for having fewer buttons, which means I was able to find the the run-button

faster. AND Eclipse also gets an extra point for having more buttons, which means more “oneclick-aways”.

Opened windows, however, are intimidating, especially if the user is used to Notepad. But this is just a matter of getting used to.

Round 3: Online Sources (Tutorials and how-tos) Google results for tutorials and how-tos would be the coaches, trainers, or whatever for these IDEs, and depending on the information they contain, they can either help us or be the reason for lack of sleep.

videos and flash alternatives in the first hit of "how to" (http://www.netbeans.org/ kb/55/flash.html) and a quick start in the tutorial's first hit (http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/tools/netbeans_part1/).

NetBeans offered more variety in terms of type of media, but Eclipse offered more information - plus for Eclipse.

Round 4: Speed

For this round, a quick fight of Googling with the keywords "<IDE name> tutorial" and "<IDE name> how to", and checking the first hit will determine which is more useful.

When you just realized that your MP is due in less than 2 hours, every minute, every second, and even every millisecond counts. Start-up times for both IDEs feels like a millennia compared to Notepad. And to make it more official, a referee will be joining us: AppTimer (http://www.passmark.com/products/apptimer.ht m) is an application start-up timer for Windows.

On the time of writing, the first hit for both keywords were the same for Eclipse. The Eclipsetutorial, which can be found at https://eclipse-tutorial.dev.java.net/ has a detailed, although a little outdated, step-by-step guide on creating a new project. It also tackled other topics like importing existing codes and installing plug-ins.

After a fresh reboot with almost no other application running except for the timer, NetBeans start-up time was at least, on average, 12 times slower than that of Eclipse at around 7.5s*, compared with Eclipse's .6s*. These results were only until the “Starting of Modules” for NetBeans and the loading screen of Eclipse. If timed until the start page/ start screen, Eclipse would take

In the other corner, NetBeans' results offered

continued on page 17

The Great DSL Review

By Paul Vincent Contreras The internet is our door to the information superhighway. Without the internet, our access to the world of Computer Science is not in its entirety.

Here in the Philippines, there are a lot of ways on how we can connect to the internet. We have DSL, cable internet, HSDPA, and wireless fixed to name a few.

This guide is about the comparison of the current DSL internet service providers in the metro. We will not give you our choice of ISP, but rather we

will let you decide. Our candidates are the three big fixed line telephone service providers in the metro, Bayan, Globe and PLDT. Globe Broadband This ISP was previously known as Globelines.

Globelines is the traditional phone division of Globe, and is the one responsible for providing Globe’s DSL service.

Coverage If you’re residing in Makati, Mandaluyong, Muntinlupa, Pasay, Las Piñas, Parañaque, Taguig City, Pateros, San Juan, Pasig, and Quezon City, the chances of having DSL by Globe is high.

Packages

For residential subscribers, Globe offers 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps DSL packages. The 1 Mbps package costs Php 995. You can get the 1 Mbps package without subscribing to a traditional telephone line. To get higher packages, you need to get a phone subscription (+300 to your phone subscription).

Bayan DSL Looks like Lola Techie is on the loose. Bayan Telecommunications has become popular nowadays because of their Lola Techie campaign.

Coverage

Good and Bad Side HTTP access in this ISP is really fast. But if you’re into file sharing applications, such as torrent and Gnutella, think again. Globe Broadband is not for torrent and Gnutella. Globe Broadband will only give you 20% of your bandwidth or download speed for the said applications because they have a fair usage policy.

Customer service is available round the clock.

Their hotlines are equipped with friendly customer service agents.

If you are living in Quezon City, Malabon City, Valenzuela City, and Manila, the chances of having a Bayan DSL facility in your area is high.

Packages In areas serviceable by Bayan in Metro Manila, the 768 Kbps package costs Php 899. This internet connection is “burstable” up to 1280 Kbps. continued on page 17

The Great... (from page 16)

net connection.

Good and Bad Side

Coverage

If you’re a Bayan subscriber, you’re the lucky one. Besides that, Bayan guarantees that all its internet facilities are working. They’ll even pay you P100 if they cannot be fix your internet connection problems in 24 hours.

If you’re living anywhere in Metro Manila, the question now is “Can I avail the Quick Installation Kit in my area?” PLDT covers the entire metro and there’s no doubt about it.

Customer service is available around the clock.

The problem with Bayan is that its DSL service is available only in select cities in the metro.

PLDT The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, of course, ay hindi magpapahuli. As the largest telephone company in the country, it boasts itself in providing fast and unlimited inter-

Packages PLDT offers the greatest number of packages.

Regular DSL packages include a 1 Mbps, 2 Mbps, and 3 Mbps connection. They also offer landline and DSL internet connection packages, which include a 384 Kbps or 512 Kbps connection.

Good and Bad Side

The Battle... (continued from page 15)

There are some forums on the internet saying that sometimes, you get more out from PLDT. There are several forum users reporting that their bundled DSL internet and landline package don't give him the published speeds. Instead, they get more. For example, someone posted about how he got an 8 Mbps connection from a mere 384 Kbps subscription.

around 4s and NetBeans would take around 41s. Obviously, Eclipse wins. As for compiling Java code, I didn't see any significant difference.

Customer service, however, is available only during office hours.

Round 5: Plug-ins

PARSEYOU

*on Intel Pentium Dual CPU 2 Ghz and 2GB of RAM running Windows XP

And finally, extensibility through the use of plugins. Eclipse may have more plug-ins than NetBeans, but the most popular plug-ins are available for both. Besides, it’s only a matter of time until some third party creates more.

In conclusion, Eclipse wins by being faster (installation, start-up, and download) than NetBeans, but otherwise they're almost the same.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T Orange & Bronze Sponsors UP Parser's First 2009 Issue Manila, Philippines, September 23, 2009 - Orange & Bronze Software Labs Inc. sponsored the first issue of UP Parser--the official student publication of the Department of Computer Science in UP Diliman. Photo shows UP Parser's editorin-chief, Crystal Beatrice Camarao, and Orange & Bronze CEO Calen Legaspi during the contract signing.

Orange & Bronze Software Labs Inc. is the first Philippine-based SpringSource partner, backed with a team of innovators in enterprise software development.

The company mainly leverages on its expertise in Java, specializing in Spring and Hibernate, as well as Python and Django.

Aside from building and maintaining strong business ties with its local and foreign clients, Orange & Bronze is also an active participant in spreading new IT innovations within the academic community and a fervent advocate of the latest software development technologies. Orange & Bronze hosted several other seminars in partnership with the UP IT society such as the Groovy and Grails Seminar, Spring Roo Talk, Test Driven Development Seminar and the Google App Engine Seminar. These events were facilitated by Orange & Bronze's very own seasoned software architects and software engineers.

As the company's culture thrives on regular knowledge-sharing sessions, Orange & Bronze is also the official sponsor of the Philippine Groovy Users Group, the Filipino Java Users Group, and the Google Technology Users Group Philipp

-ines. The company is also an elected member of the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA).

Gottlieb Only a handful of years do my petite hands hold But Anna's leaves in Love's book have already been halfway unfold'd Meister, not only do you grace the air with delicious melodies You grace the scarlet corset that so tightly embraces me

KEYS

By E.A. Taopih

It was that very night...

I serenaded the gods with my plea of freedom To bring me back to the Queen's nocturnal kingdom Hear me, Mein Liebster, see Hathor descend Let my star, if only somehow, make you comprehend...

And it was that very year...

I refuse to set free the tunes that have been waiting to be sung For only through your pieces can my chains be undone Even if only seven chances had been given Permit these spare notes to echo far into Heaven Ages, in your music you shall retain your beauty Years, in loneliness, it shall deform the mortal me But my love for you shall grow and will still stand to see Until I could be in your presence, with the Lord, eternally.

Sonnet I: Antipodal Enchantment I've yet to feel the vernal refreshment The mem'ries of it, how they flit around The airy sensation, in it I drown Primal encounter's such an amazement What destruction is found in times that come forth Thy distinct apparition halts my beat Temp'rature drops to a cold winter-sweet With the likeness of the blizzards of pole's North From its frozen cage which locks me tight within Carry me into thy palms of warm fall As I hold by thy summer's enthrall And be it to leave me where I have been

I long to be loved By another, please!

I pray for this Upon my knees I wish to find With ample ease A wondrous lover That I'll appease Here comes a young Delightful tease Whose love I rightly Ought to seize I saw her pass The summer breeze Which made her sway In time with trees She looked at me And made me freeze Now by her will My soul agrees But then I gave My heart a squeeze She tainted it With black disease To gain the love Of another? Please!

I have not hopes As high as these

MPâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;Soliloquy

I am a rational person. My head dictates what I do. I've been burned already by these so-called fires of the heart (a fitting metaphor, unfortunately); the memory has served me well. I fall fast and hard and hit the bottom with the force of a falling star.

Brilliant and shining and crumbling in its final moments.

Falling in love feels like flying until you hit the ground.

However I make a mistake time and again; whenever I spend time with one person, if I spend the most of my waking hours with her, if she becomes a constant companion, a friend, a close platonic friend, I tend to fall like the world falling.

Rationality has never helped me there. The great descent is exhilarating yet unfortunate; unforgettable but fleeting.

She gave me this look that usually meant 'What the hell are you on' but my tired and short-circuited brain (helped along by that offending heart-thing) interpreted it as 'Are you okay? You need sleep. Go home and go to bed and don't get up for at least eight hours - '

As long as I can see him smile, I would not mind. This is real life, not my fairytale, not my happy ending.

But God, what would I give to keep living in this dream.

She sighed and her fingers swept in an aggravated crescendo across the keyboard. "I lost track of the line I was debugging. All I know is that I'm on a hundred-something..."

---

Nudgind her aside I took a peek at her screen. "What the hell are you coding a hundred lines of assembly code for?"

You see now, there he is, talking in the shaded corner, center of his own little world. Loud and laughing I look over, and we look into each other's eyes, and then away as if it's nothing (because it is nothing, nothing at all not like the world falling) and I laugh for the sake of laughing (because he saw me and I saw him and it's

"What."

I want so badly to tell him but it's the one thing I can't say to his face. Everyone knows and he knows but he will not take it seriously, and it breaks - it breaks my - what am I saying, this isn't love, this is - and I am jealous, I admit, jealous of this one lucky girl that he admires so but would not speak of, the one he speaks with (even though I speak with him every single day and that's one of my life's constants and heaven knows how I survived before I met him), the one -

I know I have no chance with her, through banter and teasing and conversation I have pieced together an admiration that she pursues to no avail.

And yet no matter how hard I tell myself that I will stop, stop, stop this pointless mooning over my polar opposite, I fall multiple times.

I realised she was staring at me staring at her as she stared back.

"Uh," I replied intelligently.

---

Wearing my heart on my sleeve has done me nothing but heartache; burned by the rejection of the worst kind: indifference.

How would you feel if you lowered your pride, confessed your heart and offered it up on a silver platter and laughter is your compensation? Harlequinade, they call me, weaving in and out of society with no permanency, never taken seriously.

where in the neural system neurons were holding a conference and vehemently debating on the merits of falling in love.

enough to know that I can make him smile).

You see now, there she is, speaking to the others with a confidence and charisma I cannot muster. She catches my eye, a fleeting glimpse, and it is enough to send my heart into a frantic staccato. She has no idea what it means to me, that brief contact, and I take it and lock it in my heart.

I am, contrary to stereotype and popular opinion, a rational person. Impulsiveness holds no part in my decisions, although I make sure people see me as such. My sister once told me I could give a Bond villain a run for his money for the lengths I would go to hide what I feel.

Drops of iron gall on paper it bled. And slowly dispersed through the time-locked fence. Jeanella Klarys Pascual

"How would you know?"

I turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "Know what?"

She just shrugged as I scrolled through. It was getting rather late and the building was closing soon; and we were both here, sturggling to get our MP into some semblance of done. Unfortunately the both of us were procrastinators and 'some semblance of done' was usually defined by pseudocode on paper or bits and pieces of workable code floating around in our heads but have absolutely no compatibility once coded together in an editor.

'Pseudocode' on paper was then usually defined - let us not delve deeper because that'll become recursion.

I couldn't make heads nor tails of what she had typed, although my head was telling me that I was missing something rather important. Groundbreaking, even. Of course, it tended to do that a lot whenever it was about her, since my brain had the traitorous tendency to think that she was the best thing since sliced bread or constant time complexity, or even the godsend that is Eclipse, same difference.

My heart sniggered at this and let out a victory cry. Center of logic and it was now under its hormonal jurisdiction, even though some-

"Is there something on my face?"

Ugh why can she not be romantic for once and go along with what I am thinking and - hold it, brain, enough thoughts like that I forced myself to blink, and think of a clever retort, but all I did was blurt out, "God, I need sleep."

I think she smiled, which was a good thing in my book; never mind if it was because of me - in fact, it would be a good thing if it was because of me - "That was very...random," she remarked, ducking her head next to mine, and I was still wondering if that qualified as a smile or not. "Well?"

"Well what?"

She sighed exasperatedly and continued in a tone that suggested she was lecturing a particularly slow five-year old child. "I think we're done for tonight. Come on," she said brightly, lightly slapping me upside the head, "Let's pack this up and go home."

--"How would you know?"

Why yes, indeed, how would you know? It was a very simple question that could go both ways. Knowing him, though, as the densest human being on this good green earth, it would swing towards the logical route.

"Know what?"

I wanted to smash his head against the table. "I lost track of the line I was debugging," I answered, pointing to the morosely blinking cursor and tracing a line down the debugger window. "All I know is that I'm on a hundred-something..."

As expected he did the equivalent of barging into a locked room: he instantly took hold of my laptop and faced it towards him, rubbing his chin in a vaguely aggravated fashion. "What the hell are you coding a hundred lines of assembly code for?" (TBC)

Glance It's just one quick glance too many. "...I can guarantee you'll be dismissed thirty minutes earlier, and..."

"Hey! What're you doing here?"

"Our prof dismissed us early, said something about being too lazy to teach today--" She blinks, and blinks some more, twirling a pencil around slim fingers automatically. It's an unfortunate habit, resulting in countless incidents of broken lead and embarassing moments (some of which happen to happen in the presence of--) She blinks again, and brown eyes meet similarlycoloured ones, flashing behind eyeglasses.

It's just a split second.

She tries to paste a nonchalant look on her face, and it works; he continues walking as if she was a stranger. A stranger who he'd caught glancing one time too many.

Luckily her cousin doesn't notice her momentary lapse of poise and continues on with her onesided conversation. She clears her head just enough to smooth everything over. From the corner of her eye she peers down as he goes down the stairs, spiky tufts of black and brown clearly distinguishable.

She restrains herself from saying outright that she wants to go and she wants to go now because she wants to see where he goes and-"Where are you going next?" She manages to say, nudging her long-haired cousin.

Jill starts walking. She smiles. Although Carla's liking (it didn't even start out as a liking, Billy and Joseph started teasing her so much about the spiky-haired teen that she actually, eventually, came to like him) for Andrew (Drew as his close friends called him) had been brought up many times, Jill never seems to catch on. "Chem 16," she says in a way of an explanation. "Pavilion I." "Oh. Well, let's go then."

They tread the stairs, and she subconsciously starts looking for him. She sees Jay (and internally smiles; she knows for a fact that Jay and (An)Drew are roomates so naturally they'd be together) at the far end of the second floor, and she tries to wave. For some reason Jay manages to miss her, and she lowers her hand quickly in embarassment. She starts a conversation with the smiling girl beside her.

"Um, when's your next long exam?" She says awkwardly, watching her feet as they walk the corridors of the second floor.

"I have no idea; it looks like our prof doesn't even know if we're going to finish the stupid book, and..."

Suddenly everything is tuned out once more. As they round the corner leading down to the first floor, the spiky-haired boy (man) comes into view, having just thrown something into the nearest bin.

Their eyes lock once more, and before she can even realize what she's doing, she doesn't break the contact.

It's like a magnetic pull between them; there's something deep in his dark brown eyes, something that just doesn't want to let her go.

He blinks, and looks away. She blushes, but she can't keep her eyes from straying to the side and searching his face for a telltale blush.

A faint rosy blush settles over the bridge of his nose.

She giggles inwardly, a feat that she keeps quiet admirably: maybe, just maybe, Andrew... "...something about the finals and I can't wait for this semester to end!" She holds on to Jill's voice and pulls herself back into reality, back into treading the dreary halls of this building, back into worrying about the next test and next presentation and her life in general.

But somehow, she thinks, as a smile threatens to tug at her lips, the world seems a little brighter. xxx "Hey," Joseph starts, nudging her shoulder. "Is it just me, or is it that your normally-ice-cold-guy looks kinda...happy?"

She blushes, feeling the heat rush to her face as she shoves the teen roughly. "Hello? He is not my guy, thank you very much!" she says loudly, rolling her eyes.

She doesn't have any idea why she said that just as when they walk past Andrew and his circle of friends. She doesn't have any idea why she raised her voice just so. She doesn't have any idea why she wants him to hear.

She bites her lip, fiddling with her university keychain as they tread the sea of people that is the cafeteria. No matter how she wanted to deny it, yes, Joseph was right: the Chemical Engineering student did look happier than usual. For the past few days she had been spotting him laughing, carefree and genuine. A smile seems always to be around, lurking at the corners of his mouth.

She couldn't help but associate it with the fact that she had seen him smiling every time after they had locked eye contact.

In fact, his face was brighter as he talked animatedly with his friends, who were standing around him, looking slightly awed, probably at the sudden change in personality.

They had exchanged introductions during the first day of enrollment. Manual registration had reared its ugly head, and half-day-long waiting in line wasn't as uncommon as one might think.

However, she was lucky; since she was one of the few people enrolled in her course, Multimedia Arts, their line wasn't as long as the others.

It was here that she learned that his name was Andrew.

He had smiled at her that day, a smile that had seared itself into her memory.

After that, however, he had proved himself to be one of those people who are nice at first, but forget your name in a split second. She swore that she would forget him too, but sometimes, the harder the mind tries to forget, the harder the heart tries to hold on.

The heart, how did the heart get dragged into this?

How did she fall for someone so unreachable and cold?

Every so often, a glance would be thrown, a quick peek over her shoulder, a shy roving of hopeful brown eyes. (After which a very irritated long-haired cousin would roll her eyes and sigh at their 'blindness' for each other.) They had an uncanny way of meeting, of being in the same common area.

She wonders if these are pure coincidence, or if somehow, for some reason, even with the smallest sliver of hope, that the encounters have a reason behind them.

"Carla," Jill's quick jab at her ribs, once again, pulls her back into reality. "Let me see your classcards,"she pleads, knowing full well that given Carla's obsession with less-than-perfect grades, it would take more than a single request.

"Mmah, wait," she searches through her bag distractedly at first, then in worry as she realizes that the record of her grades isn't there, the vital piece of paper that would enable her to continue her studies for another year. "Oh. Oh no, I must've left it in the Registrar's Office!" She zips her bag closed hurriedly. "I'll dash back!"

Somewhere in the back of her head she giggles, even if her rational voice is starting to panic. She is going to pass by the place where Andrew is, and that is more than enough to send her stomach exploding in millions of silver butterflies.

She starts to sprint back, bag close to her chest, mind spinning with a face that has haunted her dreams for almost a year.

and even a hint of haughtiness, as if she wasn't worthy to be part of his world.

(And every single day she feels just like that, because he's the star of his own hypothetical show and she's just another backstage hand.)

Sometimes she wonders if he's thinking along the same lines. Sometimes she wonders if she would just let her guard down and just act out her real feelings whenever he's around.

And she made the mistake of glancing back.

The first thing she notices is the genuine smile and hint of a laugh, an emotion that looks foreign on his face.

The next thing she notices is the just-enclosed hand in his, a smooth, white hand that belongs to the person next to him, a brunette with curly hair and stunning facial features; a model, a stereotype.

She feels cold alright, but this one has nothing to do with the chill of the night air as she sprints under the lampposts. This has something to do with the failures crashing down on her, with the nights lying on her pillow and staring up into the ceiling, with the songs in her head that she has dedicated to him, with the dried streaks of tears on her pale cheeks when she dreams of red and black and mixed-up spikes.

She likes to glance, and has made so many assumptions about it.

This time, she's just had one glance too many.

She runs past the place, determined not to look.

Determined not to blush, determined not to show that she cares for him. Even if she just feels something behind his eyes whenever they lock eye contact. Even if she just knows that it's more than just that.

She wants him to feel the same coldness that she went through, whenever they would see each other and she'd attempt to greet him, whenever he walked past with cold indifference

xxx She stares out into the open sky, watching the orange haze fade into deep indigo. She listens to the music filtering through her earphones without really listening, because her mind's blank and her heart's nothing but a hollow chamber of dull memories. (TBC) Stories continued on our website: upparser.com