The RubeTube

My brother and I received Christmas greeting cards today from the Ateneo de Manila University Office of University Development and Alumni Relations, via snail mail. I assume my Ate Vanny got hers today as well, being an AdMU alumnae herself and our neighbor down the street.

It was a very heartwarming gesture on the part of the alumni relations office to let us know that they care (and that we're still in their database). I'm sure there are no ulterior motives behind the act, save encouraging alumni to continue supporting school projects. Still, I can't help but wonder if the money spent on these cards could've been better spent elsewhere.

Let's say the cost of sending out a card (design, printing, materials, envelope, postage, manual labor, electricity, other logistical costs) amounts to around 4 pesos, which is likely a conservative amount. Let's put the total number of AdMU alumni (at all levels) in the tens of thousands; 50,000 is a good number to start.

If in fact they do send out Christmas cards to all these alumni, then the total cost of 200,000 pesos is enough to finance an Ateneo college education for two scholars each year! Even if my estimates were way off, the cost is still likely to be non-trivial. Think about it. Would the alumni of this proud Jesuit institution, with a tradition of building persons-for-others, prefer to receive a Christmas card every year, or give the gift of education to deserving youths?

I think the answer is obvious.

(I hope someone from the alumni office gets to read this. I'm sending them an email about my concerns and I'll post an update should I receive a reply.)

Labels: Ateneo, Christmas, insights

By the N-th day of Christmas my true love will have given to me

F(N-1) + ((N * (N+1)) / 2) gifts,

where F(N) = total gifts received by the N-th day, given that F(0) = 0.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

(Before you rebut with your mathematical arguments, please take note: the formula refers to the cumulative total number of gifts received by the N-th day. Also, if anyone will do me the favor of converting the recurrence relation into an explicit formula, that'd be an awesome Christmas present.)

Labels: Christmas, geek, math

The words "ulterior" and "nefarious" are two very special English words, for reasons you will find out soon. Let us play a simple game of fill-in-the-blanks. Answer with the first word that comes to mind that will complete the phrase.

• ulterior _______
• nefarious _______
  

(Scroll down to see the answers.)















If you answered "ulterior motive" and "nefarious intent" respectively, then you answered correctly. If you're wondering why are those the "correct" answers, well, what other answers are there?

It almost seems as if there is no other thing that can be "ulterior" aside from a motive, and similarly, "nefarious" can only be used to describe intent. They are paired automatically, so much so that you probably can't even recall what "ulterior" and "nefarious" mean anymore. Yes, it is true that you can say "ulterior action" or "nefarious plot", but it just doesn't quite cut it. They just don't get along well with any other words. I dare you to prove me wrong.

Here are some other words that are in the same league (scroll down to see the answers). Also, feel free to share your own.

• well-oiled _______
  
• endangered _______
• incriminating _______
  

Answers:

• well-oiled machine
  
• endangered species
• incriminating evidence
  

(The really amazing thing is that we all know this is completely subjective, but you can't help but agree with me anyway.)

(Update: Quite a number of people have commented on my inclusion of "nefarious" on the list. I admit that I got "nefarious" totally wrong. I remember now where I got the "nefarious intent" association. It's from one of the ever-so-witty lines from the Star Control computer game series. It comes courtesy of the cowardly Spathi alien race, whose folklore speak of an "Ultimate Evil" whose ability to evade detection "gives conclusive evidence as to The Ultimate Evil's nefarious intent". Check out this page and search for "nefarious intent". This would explain why my brother and I both make the same association since we played Star Control 2 together years ago, back when our minds were more malleable. "Malleable minds"? Nah.)

Labels: English, word games

Success Built to Last (official website here) was at the top of my wishlist for our exchange gift within Simon's team (the others on my wishlist were a poker book or a go book). I had finished reading Jerry Porras' previous book Built to Last a month ago and Success Built to Last had good reviews so I decided it was a great book to put on my reading list.

I had the good fortune of drawing Simon as my "parent" for our exchange gift, but I didn't expect him to actually buy the book for me. The title was just a few months old (August 2006) and didn't have a paperback edition yet; it would cost much more than our 500-peso minimum. I also tried asking at Powerbooks in Megamall but they didn't have it there. So I was pleasantly surprised when I opened Simon's gift and it indeed was a hardcover copy of Success Built to Last. He found it at National Bookstore, of all places.

Thanks for the awesome gift, Simon! I'll make sure to apply what I've learned from the book and share its lessons with the whole team.

Labels: :), exchange gift, gifts

Last Thursday night, Simon's team had a Christmas party (#3 in my marathon) at Simon's house. We had agreed at the previous week's team meeting that we'd do an exchange gift at the party.

Being the total geek that I am, I volunteered to write a program to generate the exchange gift assignments. I fired up Visual Studio 2005 and coughed up a C# exchange gift program in less than 15 minutes, whose source code you can download free of charge. Granted, automating the process is not as fun as drawing names from a jar, but it does have its advantages:

1. It doesn't require everyone to be physically present at the assignment drawing.
2. It's faster than the manual process.
   
3. By allowing the user input of a seed for the random, the assignments can be recreated in the future.
   
4. I had much more fun than if we had drawn names from a jar.
   

I had Ian give me a seed which I inputted into my program to generate the assignments, which I then emailed to the whole team. There were some who complained of "luto" when they saw that Simon (our ever-thoughtful manager) was my exchange gift "parent", but hey, it's (literally) just the luck of the draw.

Labels: .NET, C#, Christmas, exchange gift, geek, gifts, programming

Five Christmas parties in five nights. Beat that!

1. Tuesday - with entire HP organization, at Le Pavillon along Roxas Blvd.
2. Wednesday - with bible study/cell group, at Karen's in Varsity Hills
   
3. Thursday - with Simon's team at HP (Supply Chain Management), at Simon's in San Lorenzo Village
4. Friday - with college CS buddies, at Aids's in Ferndale Homes
5. Saturday - with Andreé and her neighbors, at their apartment compound
   

On the sixth day (Sunday), he rested. And on the seventh day (Monday), the partying resumes with Jason's team at HP (Web Solutions and New Technologies), at Simon's again.

Quote of the week, courtesy of one of our clients: "You Filipinos party too much! I'm running out of workers!"

Labels: Christmas, parties

I took a day off from work yesterday to take one more step towards total freedom. That is, to apply for a driver's license.

My dad is currently on a business trip so I figured now would be as good a time as any to get a license, with the car being underutilized and all. With the help of A-1's corrupted non-divine intervention, the process was painless. It took the entire afternoon, but I was able to walk/commute away with a spanking new temporary driver's license. Why a temp? Because the LTO somehow managed to botch up my license and get the details wrong, which means I have to return within a few weeks time to get my license card.

My timing for getting a license was perfect; I was able to use it before it was two hours old. As soon as I got home (and after asking permission from my dad), I hopped into the family car and took it out for a spin: Andreé and I had a party to go to in the evening.

I hadn't driven in over a month but my confidence level was nonetheless sky-high. The traffic was horrible, and the engine stalled a couple of times, but I was able to pick up Andreé and arrive at the destination (relatively) unscathed. More firsts: I stopped for gas for the first time ever, and at long last, I was able to drive Andreé home.

Labels: :D, driving

I have been playing Yahoo Fantasy NBA since the 2004-2005 NBA season (check out my fantasy profile). I am addicted to this numbers game. The nice thing about fantasy sports is that it makes you

Borgy and I have been toying around with the idea of starting our own blog dedicated to fantasy NBA. We're regular readers of the articles of fantasy NBA "experts" like Rick Kamla and The Talented Mr. Roto, and we thought, "These experts don't know any better than us!" The idea of a fantasy NBA blog started out as a joke, but guess what? It became a reality: check out our new blog, Fantasy Sports FTW! (BTW, "FTW" stands for "for the/teh win!")

I'm not a fan of maintaining multiple blogs, but I really don't want to blog about fantasy NBA on the RubeTube; I'd have too many things to say. Currently, there are three of us writing for FSFTW: myself, Borgy, and Marc Cu. We're all friends from college and we've been playing in fantasy NBA leagues together for the past few years (here's this year's league). We've also
set up a "mailbag" where you can send us your fantasy NBA questions and we'll try to answer them. Our email address is fantasy.ftw@gmail.com. (Setting up our email system took up a considerable amount of time and effort which is probably not worth it, but I don't care. It's fun.) Right now we're focusing on fantasy NBA, but we might expand into other fantasy sports if we get interested in them.

Check us out and let us hear from you! Fantasy NBA for teh win!

Labels: basketball, blogs, fantasy sports, NBA

I haven't been blogging regularly for the past few weeks, but the RubeTube has still been averaging around 50 hits a day despite my inactivity. (I know this is not a very impressive number, but hey, I'm just a small-time blogger.) There are a number of factors contributing to this phenomenon:

1. I have been more "aggressive" in promoting my blog, via different media: email signatures, website profiles, YM status messages, use of Technorati tags, etc.
2. More people are linking to my blog (mostly friends; thanks, friends!) which directly increases hits by providing more entry points, and indirectly by making my blog more reputable in the eyes of search engines (see how search engines work). This is a natural form of search engine optimization (SEO).
   
3. My blog has reached the critical mass of content (quality content, of course) such that people are stumbling upon my blog through search engines. Never underestimate Google's power to drive traffic.

If I were to rate the above factors in order of significance, based on my own analysis of my blog's traffic, I would say that 1 and 2 are almost equal in terms of impact. However, the impact of number 3 (quality content) dwarfs that of both 1 and 2, and is by far the most important factor to consider if you want to increase your site's traffic.

Here are some of the more popular posts on the RubeTube, in increasing order of exposure (by my own estimates):

1. The YM status message trick. Apparently, a lot of people are wondering how their friends are able to put hyperlinks in their Yahoo Messenger status messages.
2. How to remove the Blogger NavBar. "How to" posts are great; not only do you help people out, but they're also great for getting more visitors.
   
3. PoW! Pandora Internet Radio. Visitors stumble upon this entry looking for a way to rip MP3s from Pandora.
4. Taiwanese Guitar Idol. "Canon Rock" is a masterpiece and it's no wonder there are lots of people looking for a downloadable video of it. Also, a number of the visitors to this entry were Googling for "JerryC versus funtwo".
5. Downloading Mozart. Try Googling for "download mozart collection". Everyone's on an MP3 hunt.
6. How to rearrange programs on the Windows XP taskbar. I'm not the only one who wished there was a program like Taskbar Shuffle.
   
7. Entrance of the Gladiators: "The circus music". By far the most popular post on the RubeTube. Now the whole world knows the name of "the circus music", and also, where to get a MIDI of it.

What's the lesson here? If you are an attention-seeking blogger on the verge of breaking down because your blog isn't getting as many visits as you had hoped, here are some handy bite-sized tips:

1. Write unique blog entries. The battle for search engine supremacy is all about finding your own niche(s). Be the first or one of the few to write about something. You don't have to dedicate your entire blog to something totally out-of-this-world like the mating rituals of the Nicaraguan stag beetle; a few "odd" topics once in a while will do. I'd say there are around 5-7 people a day looking for circus music that end up at my blog. Certain categories of entries are also popular, such as the "how to" and the "top N" list. If you have a dozen or so of those "all-star" entries, it all adds up, which leads me to my next tip...
   
2. Don't give up, keep on writing. You don't have to be a full-time blogger for people to visit your blog regularly. Just keep on writing. On some days, you'll just spew out crap; that's okay, blog space is cheap, if not free. On other days, you'll have masterpieces flowing out of your fingers like a blogging Mozart. But the question is: what to write about?
3. Be spontaneous. The key is to just share whatever interests you. Every topic is a potential hit in the making. Your thoughts, observations, conversations, and experiences are probably as boring to everyone else as you fear, but you can make up for it by sheer volume (see tip #2). But that is no excuse to sacrifice quality over quantity. Quality, of course, is also very important, which leads us to my final tip...
4. Pick your words carefully. There are two aspects to this tip. The first one is obvious: watch your grammar and spelling, and expand your vocabulary. Develop your own writing style that is pleasing to the eyes. You may have had the most fantastic near-death experience in the world, but no one's going to want to hear about it if your blog entry reads like a eulogy. The second aspect to this tip is more subtle. Pick your phrases such that people are more likely to stumble upon your blog when doing a web search. From the popular RubeTube entries above, sample key phrases are "rearrange programs on taskbar", "complete mozart collection", and "remove blogger navbar".
   

Forget trying to get dugg; the secret is to write great, high-quality content, and the hits will simply follow. After all, bloggers are writers and if you want your blog to be a bestseller, you better start writing like a pro (which I am not, yet).

Personally, I'm not in it for the AdSense hits, and I have no dreams (for the time being) of making it big in the blogosphere. It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing that I made someone's day more interesting because of something he/she read on the RubeTube. That is blogging's greatest reward.

Happy blogging!

Labels: :), blogging, RubeTube, SEO, tips, writing

Microsoft is coming to Singapore in March 2007! They're looking for people from Asia to fill positions at their corporate headquarters in Redmond, WA. Send your resumés/CVs to uwork@microsoft.com.

Good luck!

Labels: employment, Microsoft

If you're one of those common Filipino folks like me who have to take a bus on a regular basis, then you might have noticed a sign like this on some of your rides:

For the longest time, I had no idea what "No ticket, no pay" actually meant. It just sounds wrong. I mean, shouldn't it be the other way around? The direction of the implication is wrong. It should be "No pay, no ticket", or in other words, "Passengers must pay in order to get a ticket". I've always assumed that this was another one of those signs with funny bastardized English that tourists love to snicker at and take pictures of. (To be fair though, the English signs in the Philippines are much better compared to the ones you find in non-English-speaking countries.) I imagine that it all started with one bus company and the others just followed suit.

In a moment of inspiration, while I was buying food for take-out at Jollibee, I finally figured it out. One of the signs by the cashier went something like "Do not pay unless you are given a receipt". Then it struck me: the bus ticket is actually a receipt.

The sign "No ticket, no pay" isn't telling the passenger that you can't get a ticket to ride unless you pay. What it actually means is that you don't have to pay if the conductor doesn't give you a ticket/receipt. The sign is standing up for your rights as a passenger and as a consumer!

(Please don't tell me that I'm the only one who doesn't know about this.)

Labels: buses, commuting, insights, signs, WTF