This will be my last blog entry here at theSpoke.  Make sure to drop by and visit my new blog: The RubeTube.

There are a number of reasons why I'm moving over to Blogger.  First, it's much easier to use.  Second, the look is customizable.  Third, it has other features that improve the blogging experience.  Lastly, it's going to improve in the future while theSpoke's developers seem to have abandoned it.

I don't know if I will still post on theSpoke from time to time, but I sure enjoyed my stay here.  I met a lot of people on theSpoke community who have made me life a whole lot better simply by reading what I'm writing.  The decision to move was made with a lot of hesitation because even though I've been blogging sporadically lately, I have a significant part of my life etched onto these pages.  It's not easy to let go.

I'm gonna miss this place.  See you guys and gals around...

You must take a look at Photosynth from Microsoft Live Labs.  Software that reconstructs collections of 2-D photos into 3-D space. (Edit: Added link.  Duh.)

Curiously enough, Photosynth shares some features from our Imagine Cup 2004 project (me, LJ, Erwin, Charles) that made it to the finals.  Our project (named "Panorama") had one component (among others) that rearranged plain old photos into a 3-D environment by using location information (i.e., GPS) that's associated with each photo.  Users could take a picture and upload it to Panorama for other people to view, assuming of course they had a GPS device on hand, which is highly improbable.  The actual use of this component was that people could identify their location by taking a picture of a distinguishing landmark (e.g., the Eiffel Tower) and Panorama would give the user useful information about the place.

Of course, Panorama has absolutely no wow-factor when compared to Photosynth.  After all, it was the first time I had coded anything in Direct3D and even I thought it looked primitive.  And I'm not saying that Microsoft Live Labs ripped us off; I'm just saying that great minds think alike.  (Please agree with me on this.)

Some of you may have heard about GDrive, Google's yet-to-be-launched next-big-thing-in-online-storage, which will supposedly offer unlimited online storage.  Some of you probably also know that the teams at Google use Blogger (a.k.a. Blogspot) to post official news about their products.  For instance, the official Google Desktop blog is at http://googledesktop.blogspot.com, and for AdWords, it's http://adwords.blogspot.com.

So in an attempt to "outsmart" Google, I thought I would do some blog-squatting.  I first checked http://gdrive.blogspot.com and http://googledrive.blogspot.com.  So far, so good: a 404 Not Found on both.

Then I tried to create a blog in Blogger.  As it turns out, neither http://gdrive.blogspot.com nor http://googledrive.blogspot.com was available!  Those bastards!

Oh well.  I thought that if they wouldn't hire me, maybe I could at least outsmart them and get them to reach some kind of financial settlement in exchange for the blog address.  Or that it'd convince them that I'm a true genius fit to work at Google.  Whatever.  So much for blog-squatting.

So I will settle for http://google-drive.blogspot.com, which happens to be available.  I'm still hoping to make a quick buck or two.  Visit it now!

(Edit: It's fixed now.  The blog wasn't showing up earlier.  Apparently, it won't show up until there's at least one entry.)

So it's taking me some time to get back into the blogging groove.  Forgive me.  Furthermore, I am contemplating moving my blog to a different blog service like Blogger (http://punzki.blogspot.com will always be available, unless one of you suddenly takes it behind my back).  I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way, but it seems like theSpoke has been in stasis for the past year while the rest of the Web has been chugging along forward.  But I will at least stick with theSpoke for this entry.

I will now proceed to narrate nine months of my life in a single blog entry.  Also included are significant events that I may not have blogged about for one reason or another and the reason to keep the lid closed is now closed.  Ahem.

August 13, 2005.  My first official day with my current significant other, Andreé (that is "e" with a grav, and is pronounced like the one in Nestlé).  There isn't enough time to tell the whole story of how it happened, but let us just say that mysterious forces were at work that led to this momentous occasion.  We are still happy together eleven months later.  Anyway, here is a picture of us happily together:

<I will post a picture later because I am too lazy to upload one now and I forgot how to add pictures to a blog entry on theSpoke>

August 22, 2005.  My 20th birthday, woohoo!  I'm two decades old!  Is that uncool, or what?  I can't remember if I already blogged about this but there's nothing wrong with redundancy.  Moving along...

Sometime in October 2005.  The CS department nominates me for the BPI Science Award.  BPI gives this award out to three outstanding science and engineering students from ten different schools (30 total awardees in all).  One of the criteria for choosing the recipients was the quality of their research project.  Because I wanted to win this award so badly, I started from scratch (i.e., no thesis idea yet) and finished 90 percent of my thesis in a matter of two weeks.  I guess it was enough for them to choose me as one of the three awardees from Ateneo.  It's a good thing they did not pay much attention to quality.

Sometime in February 2006.  I finish the remaining 10 percent of my thesis.  Maybe I should have done that months ago.

March 8, 2006.  BPI Science Award awarding ceremonies.  The three awardees from Ateneo present their theses.  Mine really was the worst among us three.  After all, I never would have thought that image recognition using neural networks would be such a tough topic.  Nevertheless, I bounce back from my somewhat embarrassing presentation by doing an intermission number that would later go down in Ateneo urban legend history.  I did the ten Rubik's cubes in ten minutes trick again.  But this time, I somehow managed to pull off eleven.  Needless to say, I gained a number of adoring fans that day, including Fr. Ben Nebres, the President of the Ateneo de Manila University.

March 24, 2006.  Graduation day.  A very emotional day.  But it feels great to finally be officially out of college.  My four years of hard work earns me a Cum Laude.  I didn't quite make it to Magna.  But I am still proud because Fr. Ben still remembers my Rubik's cube show.  And so were my parents, having seen all four of their children graduate from college.

April 8-13, 2006.  ACM-ICPC World Finals.  We somehow manage to qualify for the finals despite just placing third in the regionals.  However, there was barely any improvement from our Honorable Mention last year.  Actually, there wasn't any improvement at all.  One problem solved, another Honorable Mention.  I was quite depressed about this for a few weeks.  One more problem and we could have officially gotten 47th place instead (wow!).  But anyway, I am still proud of my four years in the ACM-ICPC, having made the World Finals two years in a row.  Sometime later, DISCS holds an appreciation night for our team.  I was touched.

April-May 2006.  My first job, as a part-time teacher for DISCS.  I taught an introductory programming course in C# and a bit of database programming to 3rd year MIS majors (with Ma'am Didith as one of the other teachers).  I didn't think I was teacher material, even though I really wanted to give it a try.  But I think I did quite well though; I heard from some "reliable sources" that my class was great and that my students had a lot of fun.  Two things I didn't like about my job.  First, I had to commute 90-minutes everyday to get to school, just to teach a 90-minute subject.  Second, I had to do a lot of the course material since it was a new subject.  I suppose that task falls to the newest faculty member.  But it's okay Ma'am, it was a challenge I enjoyed.  (Really!)

June 7, 2006.  First day of my second job, as a game programmer for E-Commerce Percs, Inc (ECPI).  ECPI is a startup gaming company here in the Philippines.  The one who referred me was Eric, one of former CS teachers.  Miguel (Arguelles) is one of my co-workers who started on the same day.  I'm not sure exactly what I did as a game programmer, but it wasn't programming games.  I did a number of programming tasks related to a game we were making though.

June 21-24, 2006.  Trip to Google India.  Google invited all of the ACM finalists for an all-expenses paid trip to visit one of their offices.  So we were invited to go to Google India since it was the nearest office (?).  It wasn't much of a visit, actually.  We got to see their office, but that's pretty much it.  No showcasing of top-secret projects or anything that we'd have to be shot for afterwards.  I did manage to get used to Indian food though, which was better than I thought it would be.  They also treated us to two games of bowling (which I totally sucked at on my first game after a long while; I did much better on the second).  They also interviewed all three of us (me, Topher, Allan) for employment.  I think I did pretty well in the interview.

July 7, 2006.  Topher and Allan get their replies from Google; they both get rejected.  I did not get a reply for the next few days, which got me all excited, thinking they were actually considering me.

July 21, 2006.  I resign from ECPI because of financial differences.  By "financial differences," I mean to say that I never got a paycheck in over a month of being employed.  But I shouldn't feel too bad, since none of us were getting paid, even those who had worked there longer.  I suppose I should've expected that from a startup company.

July 24, 2006.  Google finally replies.  With a rejection notice.  I sulk for a few hours and grow increasingly annoyed.  But I'm okay now; I have backup plans.  I've already applied to a number of companies here.  Though I still feel that I missed my chance of getting a great job.

July 26, 2006.  Today.  I blog.

I live!!!

Hey, it's the same old theSpoke.  Just the way I left it... (is that good or bad?) (Edit: I think it's mostly bad.)

My last entry was dated November 3, 2005.  In the 8 months and 14 days that I've been away from blogging, I've had 17 significant events in my life, 10 extra pounds, 2 jobs, 1 life crisis, 328 more kbps of bandwidth, and exactly 7,412 filtered-out messages from a particular spam-bot (comment@thespoke.net).  I can't say right now why I stopped blogging or what inspired this new entry.  It's a secret.  Really.

So now I am thinking of blogging again.  What do you think?

P.S. That "What do you think?" is an invitation to comment on this post.  Yes, I'm talking to you, 38 subscribers.  And to #39, #40, #41, ...

There have been complaints from my classmates and ACM teammates that this year's semestral break is too short, despite it being a whopping one month long.  And I fully understand why; schoolwork was still being done on the week after finals week, and ACM took up a whole week after that.  On top of that, I'm supposed to start working on my thesis, which has to be completely done by November 30 (for the BPI Science Awards).

But now that all that work's behind me, I can honestly say that I've never appreciated sembreak this much before.  I've done practically nothing but sleep, eat, read, and watch TV since last Saturday's contest, even though there's still a lot of work to be done.  For some reason, the quality of food at home has dramatically improved since I was last here, and there are tons of books waiting to be read.  And the NBA season has just started, what great timing!

Oh, and I finally got to play with my brand-new Xbox, which I won for my mind-boggling Rubik's cube marathon performance (10 cubes in 10 minutes, complete with music and visuals) for the Asia MVP Idol show at the Asia regional dinner during the Global MVP Summit.  Howard was kind enough to send me an Xbox Ice Blue/Halo 2 Limited Edition bundle for my prize.  The transparent blue Xbox and controller looks totally awesome!  And Halo 2 is absolutely gorgeous and fun-tastic!  I finished it just today on Normal difficulty and I'll try it again at Heroic and Legendary.  Too bad there's no Xbox Live here in the Philippines though.  :-P

(No doubt you've probably heard about it or read about it on Ma'am Didith's blog, but nevertheless...)

Woohoo!!!  We got the Best Local Team award and 3rd Place Overall in this year's ACM-ICPC Asia-Manila Regionals, hosted at the Ateneo de Manila University.  This is the fourth straight year that an Ateneo team has been the best local team and I'm proud to be part of all four.  :-D

Sadly, I regret to say that this will be my last year competing in the ACM-ICPC.  I'll be graduating in March and the rules state that a contestant can't compete for more than four years straight.  Nevertheless, I have no doubt at all that Ateneo will continue its tradition of excellence in this most prestigious programming contest.  I believe that the future of Ateneo ACM is secure.  :-)

I'm also hoping that we will be sent as a wildcard team to the World Finals in San Antonio, Texas in April 2006.  Last year we got in by virtue of placing 2nd to the University of Tokyo by solving the same number of problems that they did (7), but with a higher time penalty.  This year's Asia-Manila winners were from the University of Hong Kong.  2nd place went to the University of Tokyo.  Both teams solved all 8 contest problems; we solved 7.  It was close!  (See the results here.)

I will really, really miss being a part of the ACM-ICPC.  It was something that I always looked forward to, year after year, regardless of the sembreaks I had to miss because of our training.  I never thought of "retirement" until now; I always thought there was always going to be a next year, but now there's none.  Still, I am thankful for the four years that I have participated in this contest.  It has helped me grow, not just as a programmer, but as a person.

A number of thanks are in order.

First of all, I thank God for letting me compete in this contest and make full use of the talents He has given me, in order to glorify Him.  I never lost confidence in my abilities, and I never questioned why God gave them to me.  I hope that the contest has helped me develop my talents even more so that I can carry out His will for me.

I'd like to thank my teammates this year, Allan and Topher.  It has been a great pleasure working with you two, and our achievement was a total team effort.  We would not have achieved our success had we not worked as well together as we did.  I'd especially like to thank Allan.  You have been my ACM teammate for the past three years (and in competitions even before that) and I truly believe that we would not have gone as far had we not been together the whole time.  I really think that we bring out the best in each other and I wouldn't trade you as a teammate for the smartest programmer in the world.  :-)

To the members of the Ateneo ACM teams, both past and present, thank you for being on this wonderful journey with me.  I would've given up long ago had you guys and gals not been there to believe in me, that I could bear the expectations heaped upon me.  Thank you for all the support.  My victories are not just for myself, but for all of you as well.  We are the champions.  And training would not have been fun at all alone.  ;-)

To the faculty at DISCS, thank you.  You never stopped believing in us and you gave us your full support, despite our sometimes childish demands for food and hotel lodgings.  I hope that your investments were not in vain.  Not once will I regret my decision to study in the Ateneo; where else will you find a faculty that will give you so much (and expect little in return)?  ;-)

To our coaches, Doc Mana, Sir Jon, Eric, and Doc V: you guys are the best coaches ever.  You never gave up on us and you dedicated countless hours teaching and training us, working with us to come up with solutions to problems.  You've given so much, and it's hard to think of how we can repay you; I hope our stellar performance is enough.  And to Doc Mana, the face of Ateneo ACM, you have inspired me with your passion for this contest and your hard work despite the difficulties.  And you never expected us to win, only for us to do our best.  And we did.  Doc, this one's for you.

In my four years as an ACM-ICPC contestant, I hope that I have succeeded in inspiring our Filipino youth, especially our budding computer scientists and programmers.  I have always wanted everyone to know that the Filipino mind is as good as any out there, and that we can succeed if we put our hearts to it.

Yup, I was able to get back home alive from the Global MVP Summit (just in case some of you were actually worried).  The whole experience was worth every day of class I missed, even if I got assaulted by school requirements (exams, projects, lessons to catch up to) as soon as I got back... which was precisely the reason why I never got around to blogging.

Sheesh, not even a single post from me all this time... how utterly embarrassing.  :-(

Seattle is a beautiful place... Starbucks on every block.  Seriously, it was a beautiful place.  I don't have any digital photos, but Bernard has a ton of them.  Thanks again, Bernard, for being my companion for the whole experience.  Say thanks to Tristan, Kit Kai, Aaron, and the others for me.  It wouldn't have been as fun getting over the jetlag without you guys.  :-)

I can't say much about what I did/learned there, but I can say that I also met Mario (again) and Yutie (never knew he was only 17!!!) there.  And that I drank Starbucks at the Space Needle.  :-D

(On a sidenote, I've been gone three weeks and theSpoke hasn't improved one bit.  Sad, really.)

Two more school requirements to go...

Sigh.  Long time no blog.

Last week was quite stressful.  Had to fix my papers for my trip to Redmond for the Global MVP Summit.  I had my U.S. Embassy interview on Thursday, only to be temporarily denied because my passport was damaged (darn picture lamination was broken).  Went to the Department of Foreign Affairs with my dad in the afternoon, "talked" to a few people, and arranged to have my renewal passport ready by Friday.  Dad picked up my passport on Friday afternoon.

Went to Lloyd's on Saturday to do our Theo group presentation (due on Monday) with Denise and Andreé, slept over and managed to get myself sick.  Worked on the project the whole of Saturday and Sunday (and it still wasn't finished!), then went home to Parañaque at midnight to go back to the embassy on Monday, 6 AM.  Gave them my passport, went to my dorm to pick up some stuff, and went back to the embassy at 3 PM to get my approved U.S. visa, worrying all the while about the status of our project (due at 5 PM, ultimately passed an hour late).

Went on a shopping spree (new pants, shoes, belt, socks) at SM Bicutan with Mom and Dad in preparation for my trip.  Also got a new tri-band phone (Nokia 6610i) for the trip, but I'm not using it afterwards; my dad will be keeping it and I'll be sticking with my Nokia 7650.  Slept unsoundly and then woke up early today to do a 5-7 page Philo synthesis paper, due at 1 PM this afternoon.  Emailed it to Andreé and asked her to print and pass it for me.

Still a bit sick.  Will be taking a nap and will pack up the rest of the afternoon.  Flight's at 10:30 PM.  Will sleep the whole flight.  Am excited to see the other Philppines MVPs again, Bernard, and whoever else I might meet there.

See you at the summit, Spokedom!

Miguel shared something interesting with me tonight (he only shares interesting stuff, well at least to him).

If you use Yahoo Messenger, try this in a YM conversation window; make sure to inform the person you're talking to knows about your "experiment."  Send a message containing a URL to a LiveJournal or ImageShack page, with or without the "http://" (e.g. "http://livejournal.com" or "imageshack.us").  Your partner will not receive the message you sent; it will have been censored out.

Miguel and I haven't verified what other sites have been censored by Yahoo; please let us know if you find out more (or if your "experiment" didn't work).  The peculiar behavior is exhibited on all YM clients (even the unofficial ones), so it's not with the client; Yahoo is doing all the censoring from their servers.

This is a very serious matter.  For one thing, this explains why conversations with your friends suddenly get terminated and they claim they didn't get your last message (as Miguel humorously pointed out to me).  Also, try looking in your message archives; you will not find a single received message containing a censored link.

But more importantly, what the heck is Yahoo trying to do???

(Edit:  Thanks to Charles for the tip.  And apperently, LiveJournal pages seem to be okay... Friendster pages are filtered though.  What a cheap and dirty tactic!)

Our Computer Science batch was coerced (a.k.a. got "volunteered") into becoming trial subjects for the Philippine Information Technology General Certification Exam (Phil-IT GCE; how's that for a long acronym?).  The Phil-IT GCE was only recently established (see related news article) and is yet to be launched; its kinks are still being worked out.  As part of the next batch of IT graduates (IT students from other schools also volunteered), we were asked to take the exam and give them feedback on its dif