December 26, 2006
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.)
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.)
December 25, 2006
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.)
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.)
December 17, 2006
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:
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:
- It doesn't require everyone to be physically present at the assignment drawing.
- It's faster than the manual process.
- By allowing the user input of a seed for the random, the assignments can be recreated in the future.
- I had much more fun than if we had drawn names from a jar.
Labels: .NET, C#, Christmas, exchange gift, geek, gifts, programming
December 16, 2006
Five Christmas parties in five nights. Beat that!
Quote of the week, courtesy of one of our clients: "You Filipinos party too much! I'm running out of workers!"
- Tuesday - with entire HP organization, at Le Pavillon along Roxas Blvd.
- Wednesday - with bible study/cell group, at Karen's in Varsity Hills
- Thursday - with Simon's team at HP (Supply Chain Management), at Simon's in San Lorenzo Village
- Friday - with college CS buddies, at Aids's in Ferndale Homes
- Saturday - with Andreé and her neighbors, at their apartment compound
Quote of the week, courtesy of one of our clients: "You Filipinos party too much! I'm running out of workers!"
November 29, 2006
This is what I've been working my ass off for the past week. It was shown at our quarterly HP Philippines coffee talk yesterday. It was one of five presentations (all videos) done by new-hires from July to September, and our video won the new-hires presentation contest! The theme given to us was "Halloween before Christmas". Watch it, rate it, comment on it.
Now I can get back to my real job!
Now I can get back to my real job!
