Category: personal AnGoL

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rePost::Charter Cities: Rules and Culture: Corruption in Hong Kong

Fighting corruption is not hopeless guys, although can’t see how we can implement something like this in the Philippines. I think we need something like No Term Limits for Ombudsman.  How does one find good people ? This is a recurring problem that I fear is really unsolvable, in the sense that we need to first foster a or encourage a culture of honesty and trust and the way I see it if people in government are corrupted in a way that may be called systematic, people from below, need to take honesty from the ground up. For now the top down corruption is winning but I am hopeful that eventually the bottom up idealist will eventually succeed!

The government’s initial attempt to fight corruption relied on a combination of an anti-corruption branch within the police force and a reduction in the prosecution’s burden of proof. For instance, the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (1971) made it an offense to be in control of property unexplained by past income. However, since the police themselves were corrupt, relying on the police to investigate corruption proved futile.
After initial failures, in 1974 the governor general moved anti-corruption responsibilities to a new elite ministry: the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). The ministry was independent, directly responsible to the governor, well paid, and recruited from the civilian population. The public, confident in the new ministry’s independence, became much more cooperative in reporting instances of corruption.
via Charter Cities: Rules and Culture: Corruption in Hong Kong.

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rePost::Advice in Interesting Times

Nice commencement speech address by Jerry Yang the c0 founder of yahoo. Nice list, read the whole thing guys!

Point two: You get out of life what you put into it.
Success doesn’t come from a high IQ or innate talent. It takes a willingness to work hard. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he introduced the “10,000 hour rule,” which holds that it takes about 10,000 hours of hard work and practice — or ten years — to become a world-class expert in anything. The difference between a good violinist and a virtuoso comes down to ambition and having the discipline to put in the requisite time. As someone once said, in golf as in life, it is the follow through that makes the difference.
My mother taught me the rules of perseverance. While I’ve certainly faced challenges since founding Yahoo!, they were nothing compared to what my mother faced coming to the US as a single parent from Taiwan, with two young boys and a few suitcases. I was ten at the time, and the only English word I knew was the word “shoe.” It could have been very easy to feel discouraged. But I worked hard, studied hard, and played hard along the way. Yes, good timing and some luck played a role in my starting Yahoo!, but there is just no substitute for hard work and relentless preparation.
via Advice in Interesting Times.

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rePost::Fan wants life ban on Arboleda | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

LEt’s get this out of the way. What Arboleda did was inexcusable.
Heckling is really part of the game, in some ways its one of the top 5 reasons (this is a nice post idea) why I love watching games live. And based on experience some people lose all verbal decency during games. This has to stop. There should be limits and its refreshing to see that the PBA commissioner is finally going to create a framework to handle unacceptable behaviors on the players and the fans camp. I feel for Arboleda, what players experience oncourt is really a very harsh form of verbal abuse. This does not excuse his behavior but it really puts things in context. Arboleda is a passionate player, he is easy to cheer against because you see he really tries his best. His not playing for the year is really going to weaken an already weak BK team.

Agcaoili said his client is still in mental anguish and in shock as a result of Arboleda’s vicious attack.
“His parents, who are both in their senior years, had elevated blood pressure after seeing the incident. His wife, who is six months pregnant, shook violently after seeing the incident on television and on the internet and continues to have chills as a result,” Agcaoili said.
“His family is still in total shock and in complete fear and indignation over how a professional basketball player in the country’s premiere league can behave in a manner as Wynne Arboleda did,” Agcaoili added.
Arboleda, however, said he’s ready to face Katigbac in court.
The hard-nosed BK player said they will file counter-charge against Katigbac.
“I lost my source of livelihood because of him. I will not allow him to totally destroy me,” Arboleda told The STAR.
Arboleda said he was provoked in committing the act.
“He cursed me no end in front of my family,” said Arboleda, who was suspended for the rest of the season without pay.
Last season, Marlou Aquino, Danny Ildefonso and Marc Pingris were meted penalty as they also figured in a fight with fans. The three were restrained before getting to the fan.
“I’d like to look at the positive side out of this ugly incident. We’ll undertake program on responsible game watching. It’s about respecting each other and conducting ourselves in the highest integrity,” said Barrios.
“We’ll sit down with the Araneta Coliseum management to craft arrangements not only on security but protocol on fan behavior. Among the players, I doubt if someone else would do something like this with the severe penalty (imposed on Arboleda),” Barrios added.
via Fan wants life ban on Arboleda | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

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rePost::Ad Congress pulls out of Baguio, cutting revenues for city's rehab – Business – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News

I am reiterating my post yesterday! Let’s go to baguio!

Ad Congress pulls out of Baguio, cutting revenues for city’s rehab
MARIA ELENA GONZALES
10/15/2009 | 04:51 PM
BAGUIO CITY – Organizers of the 21st Philippine Advertising Congress have chosen to hold the event elsewhere, depriving the city of much-needed revenue for its rehabilitation efforts.
The Advertising Board, organizer of the annual gathering of the country’s advertising industry, has canceled hotel reservations, “even though the venues for the events were ready and waiting and none were affected by the typhoon,” Anthony de Leon, head of the Baguio Tourism Council said.
Slated for November 18 to 21, this year’s Philippine Advertising Congress was expected to bring over 5,000 participants to the mountain resort.
Millions of pesos worth of hotel reservations for both the Camp John Hay Manor and the Baguio Country Club have been lost due to the venue change.
Despite the cancellation, the council “will be working double time to bring back tourism and business here,” De Leon said.
The city is also set to host the annual Fil-American Golf Tournament in December where 1,300 golfers are expected to converge for two weeks of play.
“If these conventions take place tomorrow, we are still ready,” De Leon said.
via Ad Congress pulls out of Baguio, cutting revenues for city’s rehab – Business – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.

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rePost::Greek maths comic is surprise bestseller | COSMOS magazine

The proliferation of pseudo science and stupidity cannot be counteracted by non-fiction books or not fun (at least to a fictional normal person) reading material. We really need to counteract this by playing to what the market wants.
One of the reasons Japan leads in Robotics  is probably  anime.  We need more of things like this.  We must try to make science fun. A novel such as Logicomix for a host of subjects may probably help; although I suspect that the bestseller status of Logicomix just says how large the geek and nerd market is.

Shock seller
Originally published in Greek in the fall of 2008, Logicomix enjoyed a successful run at home. But its authors were unprepared for the reception in the United States and Britain, where it sold out on the first day of its release in last month.
The New York Times greeted the comic’s U.S. debut with a bemused “well, this is unexpected”. It said the story was “presented with real graphic verve” and “for the most part the ideas are conveyed accurately, with delightful simplicity.”
“I think the publishers (Bloomsbury) were shocked. I was shocked, too,” Doxiadis said. It sped up bestseller lists to occupy top 10 spots in comics, fiction and general book rankings on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
Unlikely topic for a comic book
“No Greek book has sold abroad like this in 30 years,” said Dinos Vrettos, a manager at a major Athens bookstore.
The aim of Logicomix is “to tell a fascinating story about the history of ideas” said Doxiadis, who in 2001 published a novel titled “Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture” about a boy’s quest for knowledge on his reclusive mathematician uncle.
“In Logicomix, the story I think is in some ways emblematic of much of what happened in the 20th century, with its search for certainty, for knowledge, and what often went with it, for power over life,” he added. “The fact that this idea looked like, to put it mildly, not a very likely idea for a comic book, never deterred me.”
via Greek maths comic is surprise bestseller | COSMOS magazine.

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rePost::Gojko Adzic » Joe the Developer doesn’t need a certificate

There is a concept called code smell, and in that spirit there is also I believe a company smell and if a company won’t hire you because of a lack of certification, well that is a company you probably shouldn’t work for. I’ve continuously stated that If I get an IT related certification I probably have given up or no longer trust my own skills. I hope I can follow through with this declaration!

There is a huge difference between training and certification. I guess that anyone, even Joe the Most-Experienced-Developer-In-The-World, would benefit from a few days of training by Ron Jeffries and most other people arguing for certification now. But that is because these people really have something to say about the way software is built and if you are looking for gems of knowledge that is the right place to look. Developers should take training to get that knowledge, not to get a piece of paper that is supposedly going to help them get a job (and it will not, at least in any company that really cares about development). Training is there to help you get started with a new practice or fill in the gaps. It is not the end of the journey but quite the opposite, just a beginning on the path to knowledge.
via Gojko Adzic » Joe the Developer doesn’t need a certificate.

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rePost::Who We Hire

Found this strangely comforting!

14 October 2009
Someone recently wrote to GitHub and asked:
Basically, I’m just curious if you guys have any hints for a younger programmer on how to escape corporate mediocrity before it becomes too late. I know I could ask on StackOverflow or somewhere similar and get lots of good responses, but I’m looking for an answer from a company that I’d love to work at rather than someone who may be stuck in the corporate world themselves and are just giving bad advice.
I’ve written about getting a job with open source before. But this is more specific: who would (and do) we hire at GitHub?
Simple: at GitHub we hire “The Girl or Guy Who Wrote X,” where X is an awesome project we all use or admire.
What’s your X?
via Who We Hire.

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rePost::When your IT job feels hopelessly stale, what's next?

When your IT job feels hopelessly stale, what’s next?
By Bob Lewis
Created 2009-10-14 03:00AM
Dear Bob …
I’m almost embarrassed to ask your advice about this because it isn’t much of a problem as problems go — except that it is for me.
y problem is that I’m feeling like I’m getting hopelessly stale — like I’m stuck in a rut, doing the same thing over and over again (I’m a sys admin, and my colleagues and I are good enough at it that we don’t have the fun of fighting fires).
I go to work every day dreading the same old routine, and yet my skills are perfectly suited to the job I have, and I’m working for a good company and like my manager. Even worse, I can’t come up with any other career choice that fits your “three circles” test (what I’m good at, what I enjoy, and what other people will pay me to do).
So I feel like I’m stuck, and it’s a bad feeling.
Any thoughts?
– Stuck
…
via When your IT job feels hopelessly stale, what’s next?.

Bob Lewis’ advice (only quoted the best part read the article for the whole advice):

My guess is that you’ve wrapped up too much of yourself in your career. It might be time for you to explore some other avenues for your satisfaction.
I once heard what I was told was an old Irish saying: “Life’s a banquet, and you’re invited.”
If it isn’t, it should be.
– Bob

I have to admit feeling this sometimes .

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rePost::Why I Slept with 1300 Women | OPEN Magazine

I strangely agree with him. I see this a lot of lying to get into a woman’s pants and in a way it reinforces the age old adage that men are arseholes. The people who are not assholes get lumped with the bad and in the end the good people suffer.

The problem with normal sex is that it leads to kissing and pretty soon you’ve got to talk to them. Once you know someone well the last thing you want to do is screw them. I like to give, never to receive; to have the power of the host, not the obligation of the guest. I can stop writing this and within two minutes I can be chained, in the arms of a whore. I know I am going to score and I know they don’t really want me. And within 10 minutes I am back writing. What I hate are meaningless and heartless one-night stands where you tell all sorts of lies to get into bed with a woman you don’t care for. The worst things in life are free. Value seems to need a price tag. How can we respect a woman who doesn’t value herself? When I was young I used to think it wasn’t who you wanted to have sex with that was important, but who you were comfortable with socially and spiritually. Now I know that’s rubbish. It’s who you want to have sex with that’s important. In the past I have deceived the women I have been with. You lie to two peo
via Why I Slept with 1300 Women | OPEN Magazine.