Student's Outlet

You’re Honorables,

The Reproductive Health Bill is not a new bill.

It’s no secret that the RH Bill has been languishing in Congress for the last 16 years.

And unfortunately, the problems we face today are not new as well.

Because after all your fancy words have been said and done, your economic numbers and scientific data thrown about, one thing will remain for sure: outside on the streets, life is a living hell for a majority of Filipinos.

We’re still plagued by high infant mortality, high maternal deaths, overpopulation, & a skyrocketing HIV and abortion rate and it’s the worst it’s ever been in our history.

And for the last 16 years, people in Congress have been trying to pass the RH Bill, a piece of legislation that would holistically address these issues. And this bill has been held back, delayed, and shot down by Anti-RH lawmakers such as yourselves for reasons that were either legal, economic, or religious.

But it also seems that for the last 16 years, these problems that I have mentioned have gotten worse. So tell me, your honors, if your alternate solutions to the RHBill are so great, why haven’t you implemented them in the last 16 years? Why haven’t I felt its effects on a national scale? Your honors, tell me: After 16 years, why are we STILL where we are?

And since the RH bill has been shot down so many times by lawmakers like you, in effect, we have been trying it your way for the last 16 years and we haven’t seen any tangible results at all. The mortality numbers are still there and staring at us in the face.

So as a member of the public and as your boss – so to speak – allow me to say that either your solutions to these problems have failed, you aren’t doing your job, or you are just plain ineffective as public servants.

I sincerely believe it is time for us to try a different strategy, a new one. We don’t have much choices anymore. Your side has never really presented us with any. It is time to turn away from this ineffectiveness of the last 16 years. It is time to activate the RH bill and let the power of education, information, and choice create a better Philippines before it’s too late.

Because unless you Anti-RH lawmakers can present a cohesive, concrete plan of action to solve these problems holistically TODAY and right now. I’m not going to wait for another 16 years.

Let the RH Bill start doing it’s work or get out of the way. Because if you have no better solutions, then you are just part of the problem.

Sincerely,

A Filipino named Kenan Biel S. Virtucio

(From Carlos Celdran)

I have this CW 10 class where we have this workshop period and it’s already time where we apply what we have discussed, collaborated and reported in class. Well, technically this isn’t a part of the workshop activity yet but I want to start here, the snapshots activity, where I took 3 different shots around the University using my camera phone and put some description about it.

Mastermind

Let there be light, please.

AND, OR, NAND, NOR, XOR, logical operations. I love you, but I hate you for not being with me when I needed you the most.

After months of lectures, a dozen of experiments, hours of logical analysis, hours of implementation, money spent on resources, one project proposal, and minutes before the deadline, *poof* the LED lights shine upon our logical expectations. A working game built only with wires, logical gates, 7-segment light, a switch, batteries and a breadboard but still isn’t enough for me to pass the damn subject.

Wireless Router

*ring* *ring* DilNet support needed. My favorite pastime, to give basic troubleshooting around the University. <insert technical blabber here>, and it’s fixed, just like that.. Even though we’re already in the ‘technological age’, there are still a lot of people being left behind, especially around the University.

Maybe I’m a geek, but we never exist to fix your computers.

Acad Oval

Just look at the trees. Aren’t they beautiful?

*brake*->*click*->*go* With just a capital of seeds and time, random yet lovely, we have THIS. Just a breeze of not-so-cold-air hitting me in the middle of 12 noon sunlight makes everything worthwhile. Tall and very old trees closing in together to provide shade to joggers and people passing by.

I’ve heard this song, maybe about, a hundred times already and I still love it. To all the people reading this blog, Happy hearts day to all of you! :) I hope your partner said yes to you! Enjoy the day!

Just Say Yes by Snow Patrol

I’m running out of ways to make you see
I want you to stay here beside me
I won’t be ok and I won’t pretend I am
So just tell me today and take my hand
Please take my hand
Please take my hand

Just say yes, just say there’s nothing holding you back
It’s not a test, nor a trick of the mind
Only love

It’s so simple and you know it is
You know it is, yeah
We can’t be to and fro like this
All our lives
You’re the only way to me
The path is clear
What do I have to say to you
For Gods sake, dear
For Gods sake, dear
For Gods sake, dear
For Gods sake, dear
For Gods sake, dear

Just say yes, just say there’s nothing holding you back
It’s not a test, nor a trick of the mind
Only love

Just say yes, coz Im aching and I know you are too
For the touch of your warm skin
As I breathe you in

I can feel your heart beat through my shirt
This was all I wanted, all I want
Its all I want
Its all I want
Its all I want
Its all I want

Just say yes, just say there’s nothing holding you back
It’s not a test, nor a trick of the mind
Only love

Just say yes, coz Im aching and I know you are too
For the touch of your warm skin
As I breathe you in

Here is my 5 year old Linksys router:

I was trying to make my WRT54G router to become a repeater, or an extender of our current signal here in our house because my other router, WRT160N’s signal can’t still get through our thick walls, using a third party software DD-WRT.

This router brings back a lot of memories, including the first-wireless-setup, WEP-hacking, accidentally-pushing-the-reset-button, DynDNS setup, blocking certain social networking sites, and blocking-my-siblings-MAC-address-when-they-are-pissing-me-off and lots of other memories. It was still fully functional yet I broke it. I haven’t even fully explored and tried the different features to reconfigure this router because I don’t have enough knowledge yet about networking.

You may notice that my router is opened, via this video from Youtube on how you can open yours. The reason it’s open is that I’m trying to unbrick/debrick it, physically – sort of a last resort.

As soon as I’ve heard about the DD-WRT firmware, credits to my EE 298 class, a firmware with lot more of built-in tools and features not featured in the Linksys default firmware (a Linux-based firmware for several wireless routers, most notably the Linksys WRT54G (including the WRT54GL and WRT54GS)). I tried to “flash” and install it my router. But flashing the said firmware isn’t just uploading the firmware through the default 192.168.1.1 -> Administration -> Firmware Upgrade. There are certain steps to followed, you can just wiki or Google it for version 5. Unfortunately, there are a lot of downfalls and risks to be considered first before flashing. And I am included, with the unfortunate ones, who made a mistake, and have a permanent hardware-failure router. As you can see in the image, it’s already opened trying out the last resort by grounding the 16th pin.

At step 16 of this step by step of this procedure – flashing a DD-WRT firmware, no error was encountered, even though I waited for 20 Earth minutes. Just right after power-cycling it, the power light just never stopped blinking – which is a sign of faulty flash.

I tried a lot of steps by:

• turning it off and off quickly, so that the whatever’s in the NVRAM would reset
• 30-30-30 hard reset
• Grounding pin 16.
• following the steps in dd-wrt forums, help page
• Also, the instructions at my friend’s blog

No more solutions found. Well, I haven’t tried using the J-tag cable solution yet, but I don’t any more want to waste my resources and time that still has only a slight chance of unbrick-ing my router.

So this is a goodbye, well it was just playing, trying to learn, exploring lot of options, experimenting, and UNLEASHING THE POWER of my router. According to Wiki, version 5 isn’t really compatible with most of the 3rd part softwares, and DD-WRT has a special page dedicated to the said version, it must have been a clue to me that a great amount of risk will be present upgrading my router to another firmware!

Long-live WRT54Gv5 router!