up parser 2009-2010 issue 1
DESCRIPTION
June-September 2009TRANSCRIPT
By Gian Paolo Samson
The UP Department of Computer Science marks
the opening of a new academic year with 143
new students, one of the largest freshman
batches that it has ever accepted.
The freshmen were divided into 7 blocks and 8
CS 11 classes.
“The ultimate goal is to produce more IT-skilled
students,” says Mr. Philip Zuniga, a member of
the Undergraduate Committee. “Right now, the
DCS is only producing around 50 - 60 graduates
per year, and considering the demand in the in-
dustry, this is quite small. The current policy is to
increase the intake, and hopefully this will lead
to an increase in graduates.”
The Department also enlarged its faculty by hir-
ing 7 new members to preserve the existing
class sizes and to ensure that the quality of in-
struction does not go down.
“[We also] carefully planned the allocation of re-
sources such as labs and computers so that we
can maintain the 1 - 1 student computer ratio,”
Zuniga added.
SEMINARS FOR THE FRESHMEN
To welcome the freshmen to the Department,
members of the CS Network prepared two pro-
grams: the annual CS4CS freshman orientation,
and Intro to Linux.
The Intro to Linux hands-on tutorials were held
last July 22, 2009 in the DCS computer labora-
tories.
Organized by the UP Association of Computer
Science Majors (UP CURSOR), Association for
Computing Machinery – UP Student Chapter
(UP ACM), and UP Linux Users’ Group (Un-
PLUG), the tutorial intends to introduce the
freshmen to the open-source movement and the
Linux operating system, which is widely used in
the laboratories in the Department.
Meanwhile, the annual College Survival for
Computer Science Students (CS4CS) was held
from July 23 to 26, 2009.
The organizers of this year’s CS4CS opted to
conduct the orientation in every CS 11 lab class
during that week, following the advisory of the
Department of Health (DOH) against large gath-
erings amidst the threat of the A(H1N1) virus.
As in previous years, certain matters involving
the DCS were discussed and explained to the
freshmen, including the BS CS curriculum, re-
tention policies, and building rules.
Most of the members of the CS Network (CS
Reps, UP CURSOR, UP ACM, UnPLUG, The
UP Parser) were also present to introduce them-
selves and to promote their activities, while rep-
resentatives from the Engineering Library 2 also
had their own presentation.
Finally, Prof. Mario Carreon ended each of the
orientation programs with his much-awaited in-
spirational talk.
What the Fox?!By Rona Riza Gumia
"FIREFOX!"
The CS Firefoxes proved to the entire student
population of the College of Engineering that
they can give the latter an exciting competition
during the Engineering Cup 2009: Back to the
Classics, held throughout the months of July and
August 2009.
This year, the departments and institutes were
divided into two brackets based on their perform-
ances in the previous Engineering Cup. Bracket
A was composed of the CE Bulldozers, ME Pis-
tons, MMM Rocks, and GE Explorers. On the
other hand, Bracket B was comprised of the CS
Firefoxes, EEE Transformers, IE Optimizers, and
ChE Shredders.
The Opening Ceremony was held at the Engi-
neering Theater last July 10, 2009. The different
departments and institutes of the College heated
up the competition with their respective audio-vi-
sual presentations and cheers.
An opening friendly basketball game between
the Engineering Varsity and the IE Optimizers
(Engineering Cup 2008 Champions) had to be
cancelled, however, due to bad weather.
Nearly 100 undergraduate and graduate CS stu-
dents competed in 12 categories in 10 sporting
events.
Minor games, which include badminton, table
tennis, chess, soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, sport
climbing, chess, and Philippine games, were
scheduled on Saturdays and Mondays. Mean-
while, matches of the major events, basketball
and volleyball, were scheduled all throughout the
Cup.
The CS representatives to the Engineering Stu-
Council had aimed for a no-default season for
the Firefoxes this year. They may have failed to
achieve this goal, having two defaults, but the
record was still much better than in previous
years.
The Firefoxes bagged championships in chess,
table tennis, and Philippine games, putting the
Team at the top of the minor games category.
However, failure to make it to the semi-finals in
all major events put the team to an over-all
standing of seventh, a level higher than the pre-
vious years’ lowly eighth position.
The Closing Ceremony was held at Park 9,
Katipunan last August 7. Plaques and trophies
were given to the winners, while an all-star game
was held as the curtains closed on this year’s
Cup. Rab Medina, Patrick Consunji, and Roel
Zacarias were the ones chosen to repre
sent the department in the game.
continued on page 2
PARSERTURNS 10By Crystal Beatrice Camarao
In 1999, Jonel Uy, a CS Representative, had an
idea of starting a publication for the Department
with the primary purpose of information dissem-
ination. During that time, the Engineering
Logscript was defunct, and so CS students did-
n’t have access to important and relevant news
about the college. Jonel took the initiative and
sought for the approval of the department chair.
He then formed a staff, with Maru Velas as the
Editor-in-Chief. Parser released its first issue
ever in August 2009, and staked its claim as the
College’s first ever department-based student
publication.
Unfortunately, Parser also became defunct in
2002 due to financial reasons. Two years later,
through the efforts of the CS Representatives
Carlos Lasa, Ponch Mante, Chicco Reyes, and
Michael Sepulveda, and under the leadership
of Philip Kimpo Jr., the Parser was revived.
Philip served as EIC for two years, during which
the publication produced a total of five outstand-
ing issues. Even more importantly, they ex-
panded the circulation through a website, e-mail
newsletters, and bulletin board versions.
Joebet del Rosario continued this legacy as EIC
from AY 2006 to 2007. However, Parser be-
came defunct yet again after that, and last aca-
demic year, Parser underwent a revival once
more. This issue, the first for this academic
year, celebrates an important milestone in
Parser’s history—its tenth anniversary.
For the past decade, Parser has been the voice
of the UP DCS student population. Staying true
to its motto, “Analyzing Life the CS Way,” Parser
has provided an avenue of communication and
a means of self-expression for the DCS com-
munity. Moreover, Parser has proved that CS
students can have writing and artistic talents,
and not just programming skills.
Today, in a world where print media is becoming
more and more obsolete, the challenge for
Parser lies in proving otherwise, especially in
such a tech-savvy community like that of DCS.
It has adapted to the new, emerging form of
media—social media such as Facebook, Twit-
ter, and the like—but continues to produce print
copies in keeping with its rich heritage. Even
more importantly, Parser believes that the De-
partment is best served through the most ac-
cessible and most tangible medium available.
Parser has always been dedicated to giving the
DCS community the best, most dependable,
and most passionately-made publication it can
every issue. It will certainly continue to do so for
this year and the years to come.
DCS welcomes newfreshman batch
www.upparser.com
By Gian Paolo Samson and Joven Sebido
52 BS CS graduates marched down in the UP
Theater during the Engineering Recognition
Rites held last April 24, 2009.
The graduates comprise the batch that featured
the highest number of honor graduates in the
history of the College of Engineering.
The graduates who made it with honors were,
namely, Ralph Rainiel Pineda (magna cum
laude), Pedro Ilustreto Publico (magna cum
laude), Jennylyn Sze (magna cum laude), Mae
Sincere Slenda (cum laude), Kelvin Buño (cum
laude), Joana Heidi Castillo (cum laude), Maria
Cecille Castro (cum laude), Maureen Gail Geray
(cum laude), Ralph Jonathan Ignacio (cum
laude), Carl Immanuel Manalo (cum laude),
Maryann Puyaoan (cum laude), Melany Rosales
(cum laude), and Daryl Johnas Sison (cum
laude).
GRADUATION PARTY
Prior to the Recognition Rites, the graduates cel-
ebrated with the rest of their batchmates at Flap-
jacks Technohub last April 16.
The commencement celebration, entitled “CS
Reel Finale 2009,” was attended by 33 gradu-
ates, 12 members of the DCS faculty and staff,
and some other guests and alumni.
The attendees arrived at around 6 o’clock in the
evening as their favorite American series char-
acters. The program started with the opening re-
marks of Dr. Jaime Caro, Chairperson of DCS,
followed by an inspirational talk given by Mr.
Jonathan Robles of SeaChange Philippines Inc.
Special performances from THEN and CURSOR
Dance Group were rendered to entertain the
crowd while having dinner. A DCS alumni oath-
taking ceremony was led by Mr. James Wyson,
followed by a toast to the graduates by Ms.
Christine Clarin.
The party was not complete without the an-
nouncement of special awards. Marie Tabugadir
received the Batch Alumni Representative
award; Mr. Congeniality and Crush ng Bayan
awards went to Franz delos Reyes; Lalaine
Chen got the Most Talented award; Crush Ang
Bayan award went to Carlo Santos; Slumber
Party Award and Geekiest CS went to Ralph
Pineda; Marte Soliza was hailed the Richie Rich;
while Ms. Milagros Ramos was voted Batch Su-
perstar.
The celebration ended with the inspirational
message of Prof. Evangel Quiwa, one of the pi-
oneers of Computer Science in UP Diliman.
The party was made possible by the Computer
Science Representatives to the Engineering Stu-
dent Council.
52 DCS students graduate during Engineering Recognition Rites
TEAM CAPTAINS’ INSIGHTS
“Sa wakas ay nasama ang chess sa Eng'g Cup.
At smashing victory dahil tayo ang unang cham-
pions nito. Salamat sa chess teammates ko.
Next year ulit ah."
- Joel Acuin, Chess team captain
"Philippine games ang the best sport talaga sa
Eng'g Cup. Kitang-kita yung camaraderie ng CS
Firefoxes kasi hanggang sa huli lumalaban pa
din! Nagbunga ang ating pagtitiyaga dahil first
tayo! Thank you sa lahat ng mga naglaro! Ang
swerte talaga natin, sana lagi na lang idaan sa
bato-bato pik yung laban. Thanks thanks!"
- Angel Macabenta, Philippine Games teamcaptain
"Una, thank you sa ESC for making this event
possible. Pangalawa, sa department coordinator
namin kasi super supportive niya sa amin at
never siyang nagkulang. Finally, sa CS Firefoxes
kasi ang fun ng event kasi lagi silang andun."
- Majo Santos, Women's Volleyball team cap-tain
"From the very start, alam ko nang underdog na
kami. Pero I know na that didn't stop our team
from doing and giving our best. Thankful ako sa
teammates ko kasi complete kami lagi sa lahat
ng games. Nakita ko yung support ng lahat all
throughout. We may not have the best talents
pero we are the best TEAM. Again, thank you
teammates and supporters."
- Pauline Pablo, Women's Basketball teamcaptain
“Any neutral observer would say, our games
could have gone either way.
It's unfair how people only look at the scoresheet
after each game. I can't blame them.
But too bad because there was something else
on display that matters even more. That's the
spectacular effort that each of my team mates
put in. Clearly mismatched, on paper, in terms
of skill, they put on a tremendous showing
against players who were clearly more talented
and athletic. They scrapped their way at every-
thing given to them, and each time they were
able to thwart it away, running like hell and fight-
ing for the ball like any real fighter would. Devoid
of chemistry, they won their personal battles in
the field. It was the only thing that brought the
team together and the only chemistry at all (if
you could call it that) and in the end, it would be
more than enough.
I'd like to acclaim the unsung heroes of the
team—that is, each and every player who went
out there. Special mentions to Ton Torres and his
superhuman saves, Kurt Espinosa who ran tire-
lessly to bring the ball to our opponent’s half and
Joniel Ibasco who swept the defensive line from
end to end. You guys had the bravery to make a
difference, playing with a heart full of love.”
- Jeune Asuncion, Soccer team captain
"For a moment, we were liberated from mind tor-
menting machine problems and exams. We
were so hooked up in the games that at times,
we felt we were professional athletes with a mis-
sion to shut down our enemy. Though we weren't
able to come up with an algorithm to get us out
of an infinite loop of losing, we still had FUN.
Sana mas maraming games! Good job ESC!"
- Rab Medina, Men's Basketball team captain
"Engineering Cup 09 sure was a great event. We
had ups and downs during the competition pero
sana lahat tayo nag-enjoy sa bawat laro. We still
have many years to come to improve our skills
and to get that first place, kelangan lang natin
matuto sa mga pagkakamali natin at kelangan
lang ng more practice at i-enjoy ang bawat
game. Salamat sa lahat ng nag-participate, kung
wala kayo baka maraming games ang na-de-
fault. Sana sumali ulit kayo next year. Galingan
natin in the years to come! Good luck sa atin CS
Firefoxes!!! What The FOX?!? Firefox!"
- Julian Fabic, Sport Climbing team captain
"Masaya! Kaya lang maputik lang talaga kaya
hindi kami masyado makatakbo. Wala rin kasi
kaming spike shoes kaya nahirapan kami pero
kung sakaling meron kami, nakalaban kami sig-
uro ng maayos."
- Patrick Consunji, Ultimate team captain
"Ang saya ng Eng’g Cup ngayon. Congrats ESC
at CS reps! At super happy din dahil champion
kami sa Table Tennis! Thank you sa mga players
na naglaro at sa Firefoxes para sa cheering!
Let's go Firefox, let's go! What the fox?!?"
- Joan Bagunu, Table Tennis team captain
"Overall, the Engineering Cup 2009 was a suc-
cess. Though there were a few things that can
be improved upon like far-away venues, the
event was well coordinated. The addition of
'minor' sporting events gave chance for other de
partments to excel. The Department Coordinator
of DCS also made an excellent job of empower-
ing the players, resulting to an almost no-default
Engineering Cup season."
- Jase Tiojanco, Men's Volleyball team cap-tain
"Sana next time one week din ang badminton
para hindi pagod ang mga players. Kawawa
naman yung mga mababa ang stamina. Pero
kahit na onti lang ang time allotted for the event,
fun pa rin naman. Next year, I’ll try to find the
best player the department could get. Yun ay
kung ako pa rin ang head ng badminton next
year. I would like to thank the players who rep-
resented the department at the Eng’g Cup 2009.
Go CS Firefoxes!"
- Jerome Sabidong, Badminton team captain
What the Fox?! (continued from page 1)
CS student or-ganizations con-duct workshopson open-sourceapplications andlanguages By Ranyel Bryan Maliwanag
The Knowledge, Information and Skills Shar-
ing Sessions (KISSS) 2009 were held at the
UP Alumni Engineer's Centennial Hall (UP
AECH) last July 4 and 6, 2009.
Organized by the UP Association of Computer
Science Majors (UP CURSOR), the Associa-
tion for Computing Machinery – UP Student
Chapter (UP ACM), and the University of the
Philippines Linux Users’ Group (UnPLUG),
KISSS 2009 is a two-day event that serves as
a venue where students can learn about var-
ious technologies not usually introduced or
emphasized in universities’ curricula.
The focus of this year’s edition was on open-
source software applications and languages.
Topics covered were Blender, an open-source
3D graphics application; Java FX, a software
platform for creating and delivering Internet
applications that can run on various con-
nected devices; GIMP (GNU Image Manipu-
lation Program), a free software raster
graphics editor; and HTML with CSS and Java
Script.
The workshop speakers on the first day were
Mr. Dennis Jorolan of the Asian Academy of
Business and Computers (AABC) for Blender,
and Ms. Ruzette Tanyag, UP’s Sun Campus
Ambassador, for Java FX.
On the second day, Mr. Gerardo Maria Roxas
talked about GIMP, while Mr. Michael Angelo
Chatto gave his piece on HTML with CSS and
Java Script.
Each of the participants brought home free-
bies at the end of the workshops.
YES--EXTRASPACE
Make this yours now!
Send your contributions to:
By Audrey Garais and Jose Luis Santos
Being sexy never looked as good as the UP As-
sociation of Computer Science Majors (UP CUR-
SOR) celebrated its 26 years of existence.
CURSOR SPORTSFEST
The festivities kicked off with the annual CUR-
SOR Sportsfest held last August 15, 2009.
Even though it was a Saturday, members, appli-
cants, and fellow alumni gathered together to
harness, exhibit, and show off their skills in dif-
ferent sports. The sports events were basketball,
volleyball, Frisbee, soccer, and the e-sportsfest.
The Green Team was comprised of the Activities
Committee, Records Committee, and Finance
Committee. The Red Team was made up of the
Membership Committee, Information and Public
Relations Committee, Academic Affair Commit-
tee, and External Affairs Committee. The CUR-
SOR Alumni made up the Blue Team, while,
lastly, the White Team was made up of this se-
mester’s batch of applicants.
The main events in the morning were the bas-
ketball and volleyball playoffs at the Maginhawa
Court near the UP campus. In the afternoon, the
Frisbee and soccer games were held at the UP
Sunken Garden. This was followed by the e-
sportsfest held at the 129 Cafe along Katipunan
Avenue.
The Blue Team won the basketball and volleyball
playoffs, while the Red Team was declared
Champion in the Frisbee event.
JUNIOR PROGRAMMERS’ CONFERENCE
This year’s Junior Programmers’ Conference
(JPC) was held last August 17, 2009 at the UP
AECH Lecture Hall from 10 AM to 3 PM.
One of the mainstay events during CURSOR
Week, the JPC aims to promote awareness
about computing among students during as early
as their high school years.
For this year’s Conference, the participating
schools were Elizabeth Seton School, Grace
Christian College, and St. Stephen’s School.
The conference started off with a lecture on the
Open Source Movement by Dr. Pablo Manalas-
tas. This was followed by a talk about Gaming
by Mr. Mario Carreon. Lastly, Web 2.0 was dis-
cussed by Ms. Ia Lucero.
@RTE MOVEMENT
UP CURSOR also continues to promote digital
art as a hobby and as a profession through its
annual @rte Movement.
For this year, the chosen theme for the Move-
ment is, “Childhood Memories.”
The @rte Movement is composed of two sub-
events, namely, the @rte Seminar and the @rte
Attack.
The @rte Seminar was held last August 22,
2009 at the UP AECH Lecture hall from 1 PM to
4 PM. Before anything else, Ms Jonah Chipeco
represented CURSOR’s partner foundation,
World Vision, in her talk to encourage the partic-
ipants to help out for a good cause.
This was followed by a talk of Mr. Christian San
Jose, a graphic designer and illustrator, about
designing t-shirts and his experiences on digital
design. Afterwards, a presentation of Mr. Jethro
Ibarrola and Mr. Crimson Castellon from the
Cosplay Photographers Guild followed. Lastly,
Mr. John Alaras, Director of Creative Designs of
CREO Studios, demonstrated his knowledge
and shared his experiences in motion graphics.
On the other hand, the @rte Attack is a digital
art and photography contest open to everyone.
The participants are tasked to incorporate the
given theme in their entries.
Jeanella Klarysa Pascual won both the First
Place Award for her digital art entitled, “Don’t Let
Me” and the People’s Choice Award for her art-
work entitled, “We Will Not Grow Old.”
Paul Cyril D. Torrente won Second place for his
digitally rendered photograph entitled “Pixelated
Past,” while Bernadette T. Guiamoy won Third
Place for her photograph entitled, “Childhood
Hero.”
The top ten entries are currently being auctioned
off to raise money for CURSOR”s partner foun-
dation, World Vision, in hopes of sending a child
to school.
BLACKOUT: CURSOR PARTY
The month-long festivities ended with a bang last
August 29, 2009 at Absinth Bar, Greenbelt 3,
Makati.
The night started with a simple program to hon-
our the outstanding members of each commit-
tee. Afterwards, the @rte Attack Bidding was of-
ficially opened. Finally, after all formalities were
over, the attendees turned to the bar and the
dance floor to unwind and celebrate twenty-six
years of sexiness.
It was a night of music, fun, and a whole lot of
dancing. Although it was UP CURSOR’s an-
niversary party, it was open to other guests as
well. The organization partied the night away,
reminiscing the good times shared together and
the bad times that had made them stronger.
Cheers to twenty-six years of being sexy!
ABOUT UP CURSOR
The UP CURSOR is a duly recognized, non-sec-
tarian, non-profit, socio-academic student organ-
ization based in the UP College of Engineering.
Since its foundation in August 1983, UP CUR-
SOR has grown from an informal group of 15
Computer Science majors into a family of almost
120 students whose efforts are integrated in pur-
suit of academic growth and excellence.
By Gian Paolo Samson
IBM’s DB2 on Campus Program made its way
to UP last June 20, 2009 at the Lecture Hall of
the UP DCS.
The DB2 on Campus Program is a project of
tech giant IBM designed to promote the use of
DB2, a relational database management system
(RDBMS) developed by the company, in univer-
sities. The visit to UP is the first such implemen-
tation of the project in the Philippines.
Present to give the lecture was no less than Raul
Chong, the program manager of DB2 on Cam-
pus.
The focus of the lecture was supposed to be on
Web 2.0 and how DB2 can be used to make ap-
plications for the Web. However, a crash course
on relational databases and XML also had to be
introduced because the audience was almost
entirely composed of first-year students.
Program demonstrations were done using IBM
DB2 Express-C, a free variant of the RDBMS.
After the technical discussion, Chong also con-
ducted a brief lecture about setting career goals
and networking. He also invited the attendees to
apply as a DB2 Student Ambassador. Interested
students may do so by sending an email to
DB2 on Campus visits UP TED goes to UPBy Daniela Marie Delgado
The first independently-organized TED event in
the Philippines was held last June 22, 2009 at
the Lecture Hall, UP Alumni Engineers Centen-
nial Hall.
The talk, TEDxUP, featured pre-recorded talks
about technology and education from re-
spected speakers all over the world.
Among the featured technology videos were
MIT's Pattie Maes' talk about Sixth Sense, a
projector-equipped wearable device that allows
the wearer to interact with his/her environment;
World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim
Berners-Lee's presentation on Linked Data, a
term used to describe the practice of connect-
ing data on the Semantic Web using a derefer-
enceable Uniform Resource Identifier (URI);
and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams' Odeo
project, an online directory for RSS syndicated
audio and video.
Meanwhile, there were also videos of Richard
Baraniuk, Gever Tulley, and Sir Ken Robinson
talking about a vision of an online education
system, 5 dangerous things parents should let
their kids do, and reasons why schools kill cre-
ativity, respectively.
The event ended with an open forum with Prof.
Rommel Feria, Prof. Rowena Solamo and Sir
Joel Yuvienco.
By Gian Paolo Samson
Students and professionals converged to learn
about web techniques and technologies during
the Spin the Web Lecture Series last August 29,
September 5, and September 12, 2009.
The series, organized by the Association for
Computing Machinery – UP Student Chapter
(UP ACM), featured lectures on web design ba-
sics, the Groovy and Grails platform, and web
usability.
Ms. Anne Michelle Santos, a faculty member
from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), dis-
cussed web design basics, including Web/GUI
design heuristics, and 2009 design trends in her
lecture last August 29.
This was followed a week later by a lecture on
the Groovy and Grails platform by Mr. Red
Deinla, a junior developer from Orange & Bronze
Software Labs, Ltd.
Groovy is an open source dynamic language for
the Java Virtual Machine. On the other hand,
Grails is an open source web application plat-
form that applies the principle of Convention
over Configuration. The two were made espe-
cially for each other to deliver web-based appli-
cations that can rival Ruby on Rails in terms of
efficiency.
Finally, Mr. Regnard Raquedan of the Philippine
Usability Group led a discussion and a workshop
on the basic principles behind web usability.
UP ACM organizes a lecture series on webdesign and development
EMC2009:LOCAL toGLOBALBy Daniela Marie Delgado
In line with the College of Engineering's cen-
tennial celebration, this year’s Engineering
Marketing Congress challenges every student
to become the 100th local engineer who made
it as a global pioneer.
Now on its sixth year, the EMC aims to help stu-
dent engineers learn the language of marketing
as it can be used in the future in the corporate
world.
Thirty-one participating teams, composed of
three to five members each, are tasked to
choose a recent research project from their re-
spective departments, and be able to present
a globally competitive marketing strategy for it.
Training sessions are held throughout the sem-
inar series where participants get guidelines,
workshops, and motivation from respected
speakers and judges from the corporate and
communications world.
By Ryan Kristofer Arana
The first TechnoTalk was held last August 27,
2009 at the Lecture Hall, Alumni Engineers Cen-
tennial Hall (AECH).
Technotalk, organized by the UP Association of
Computer Science Majors (UP CURSOR), is a
series of monthly talks on different areas in com-
puter science.
John Paul Alcala tackled Test-Driven Develop-
ment. TDD is a software development practice
that mandates the writing of test code to produce
codes that are simple yet in high quality.
Mr. Alcala was followed by Jan Michael Ibañez,
who discussed the Google App Engine, which is
a platform for developing and hosting web appli-
cations in Google-managed data centers.
Both speakers are from Orange & Bronze Soft-
ware Labs, Ltd.
UP CURSOR’s TechnoTalk kicks Off
By Emerico Aguilar
Pursue medical school and you will need a decade of earnest diligence before your name becomes
prefixed with “Dr.” Enroll in a computer science program and you will be racking up titles even before
you graduate. And by the time that you have mastered the art of abstracting concepts and objects
to suit your problem-solving needs, you yourself would have already been generalized by society
into a set of distinct characteristics, a simplification that’s befitting mere concepts and objects. Yes,
such is the nature of stereotypes being attached to computer science majors that, it seems, there’s
no escaping them (no, not even with escape characters).
These stereotypes, of course, didn’t come from nowhere. They arise from notions--some out of ig-
norance, others a product of our own arrogance--that have reached the collective psyche of a soci-
ety. Now that computers are becoming more ubiquitous each passing day, the public is also gaining
awareness with the people associated with them. Thus, unless we want to be plagued with preju-
dices and false impressions, it’s up to us to dispel certain myths, provide background to our idio-
syncrasies, and bring to light our true, more colorful selves.
So here are insights to some of the more popular stereotypes bestowed to our field and to anyone
who’s affiliated with it:
GEEKS. The granddaddy of computer science stereotypes. Some mention “geek” with reverence,
while others say it with a hint of discrimination. Of late, there are even those who use this term to
take part in the growing trend of embracing this culture. But to us, this is simply our way of living.
By virtue of immersing ourselves with the topics of algorithms and programming, we are automati-
cally inducted to this club, whether we like it or not. There’s nothing to be ashamed about this,
though, as it is a reference to one’s eagerness to pursue certain knowledge. Still, it’s just a label,
and at any given time, you can scrape if off like a mud on your skin, or you can wear like it’s the
slickest bling.
TECHNOPHILES. To say that we display strong interests in gadgets and technology is an under-
statement. We eat, play, and even sleep with our machines. We spend hours trying out the latest
websites and software applications, suffering withdrawal symptoms if we fail to do so. Kidding aside,
these behaviors are simply a result of circumstance, or maybe one’s passion for learning, but not
hardcore fanaticism. Well, we do love gadgets and other techie stuff (why else would we have
ended up in a course that starts with “computer”?), but not to the extreme.
YOUR NEXT-DOOR COMPUTER MECHANIC. It is not uncommon for acquaintances to consult us
about their ailing computer. However, if our reply to their inquiry is a puzzling look, they will give us
an even more puzzling stare in return. It’s not that I have anything against computer mechanics; it’s
just that people expect us to be like them, where in fact, we barely touch the subject matter of com-
puter hardware. We can’t blame them for this misconception, though. With a name so obscure that
even its own students are often confused to what it is really all about, computer science is sure to
attract some misinterpretations. Actually, a lot of us do know how to handle a few of hardware prob-
lems, learned not from classrooms but from encountering similar situations at 3’o clock in the morn-
ing when deadline for a project is just a few hours away. Just don’t expect too much from us in this
aspect.
COMPUTER GAME ADDICTS. First of all, we don’t have a monopoly over this type of addiction.
People from diverse backgrounds get hooked to computer gaming as much as we do. Heck, even
businessmen engage in overnight DotA matchups. While at it, I might add that, in case we are such,
we have the most sensible excuse for being so, since we spend a great bulk of our time staring at
our monitors. It’s not easy to refuse temptation, you know. Second, this notion is not entirely true.
“Occasional gamer” might be a better term. With so many tasks at hand, we’ll be lucky to find time
to play Minesweeper. OK, it’s not that bad, but you get the point. Third, not all of us are into gaming.
Many of our kind actually prefer more outgoing, social activities for spending some spare time.
HACKERS. Definitely the most flattering comment you can give to a programmer. Sadly, not all of
us can lay claim to this much sought title. Yet, in popular media, this term has been used too loosely
that it undermines the skills and knowledge of those who can truly hack a system. In reality, this is
only reserved for top-tiered programmers, the cream of the crop. Hackers are like the LeBrons and
the Kobes of the programming world.
DOMINATED BY MEN. Perhaps, in numbers only, though this is still arguable. But definitely not in
its figurative sense. Not even close. Check out local programming competitions and you’ll see chicks
kicking some men’s butts (yes, mine got whacked too). You don’t even have to look far to dismiss
this claim. At the DCS, the ladies are just as good as the dudes. It’s all about dedication, not gen-
der.
NO SOCIAL LIFE. Being a student, or a product, of computer science doesn’t necessarily equate
to a life lived without much exposure to the world outside. This is still a matter of personal choice,
regardless of your degree or occupation. To each his/her own. What probably gave rise to this notion
is the nature of our course. If you are assigned a software project, you already have enough re-
sponsibilities to keep you busy for one semester. Mix this with machine problems, problem sets and
another project or two, and you’ll be gasping for time. So it’s not surprising if we don’t get to socialize
as much as other people do. Nonetheless, there are still some who manage to party every weekend
and fulfill their requirements at the same time. It all boils down to time management.
These are just some of the computer science stereotypes. Regardless of whether these traits apply
to us or not, one fact remains: there is certainly more to us than our crude portrayal.
So please, stop typecasting us. We’re not variables.
CS Stereotypes:Setting the RecordStraight
By Ava Marie Tan
“Alcohol and Calculus don’t mix. Don’t drink and derive.”
Only a full-pledged nerd thinks like that. The loner who has unkept hair, thick glasses, braces, and
lanky posture. One who probably loves 7¥p1n9 £1|{3 7h1$ (“typing like this” in l33t language) and
has known what staple-free staples are so long ago. Also, he’s the guy who has the highest chance
of being busted by that rich, snobbish girl who’s been hailed as the queen since sixth grade.
We know nerds, plastics, jocks, and burnouts in high school. Some of these groups may no longer
exist in college but we can never escape stereotypes.
Stereotypes are commonly held notions or images about a certain group. People base it on first im-
pressions and observations. These notions are embedded in words like “nerd” and “cheerleader” -
-- images are evoked and easily understood by people who share the same views.
Stereotyping is part of the human culture. The characteristics we relate with certain sets of people
are either good or bad. Genders, nationalities, and ethnic groups have their own. Women are be-
lieved to be bad drivers, black men are said to be better in basketball, and Ilocanos are looked upon
as stingy. There will always be groups and classifications as it simplifies the task of knowing some-
body. Thus, everyone cannot escape from stereotyping.
Yes, that means WE can’t.
Computer Science majors are stereotyped as geeks, hardcore gamers, gadget freaks and much to
my annoyance, (future) computer technicians. CS majors aren’t all geeks; in fact, in our own culture,
we have our own set of stereotypes.
1. Extra-terrestrial – This group is composed of “nerds” and students whose programming and think-
ing abilities are, well, extra-terrestrial. Some of these ETs don’t really look like the classic nerd but
are always seen sulking behind their laptops, looking into lines and lines of code. When they’re
away from their computers, they are “hanging out” with their geeky friends.
2. Ninja – The epitome of “looks can be deceiving”. You won’t even suspect that they’re geniuses
until your first MP deadline or defense. They can make instant MPs and could cram the MP you’ve
been working on for weeks. When you see them, you won’t even suspect that they are some kind
of ET. They just look normal. They aren’t addicted to codes as much as true blue ETs do but in class,
beware…
3. Casper – They don’t show up in class but still get good grades. Period.
4. GC – Another classic aside from nerds. All of us might belong to this group once in a while but
there are grade-conscious people all the way. Hardcore GCs snag every bonus available and rarely
give chance to others (this comes from a bitter experience). They will do everything for that one-
point-zero. They are jealous with Ninjas, both in grades and in social life.
5. Do it Yourself (DIY) – They sleep through classes and when they’re awake, they always appear
disoriented. They are interested in computer (and sometimes geeky) stuff --- except today’s CS lec-
ture. Their MPs are great but often late because they’re always doing other things such as making
keygens, assembling MIDI controllers, and hacking PC games. Unlike ETs, they get low scores
when it comes to academics but they still manage to pass subjects thanks to lecture slides, APIs,
and e-books found in the internet. They might be our future hackers.
6. Sleepwalkers – The YM and Plurk night residents. They leave their computers online even though
they’re already asleep. Sometimes they stay up all night, sometimes they just sleep a few hours be-
fore their first classes. Some of them aren’t insomniacs until college--- they just got used to screen
sucking after being forced to stay up late for MPs and thesis. Sleepwalkers can be easily spotted at
school. Their eye bags are quite distinguishable even from afar.
7. In Denial – Clearly, Computer Science isn’t their first choice. Or it could have been when they
passed their UPCAT forms, but their course preference changed as MP and MP went by… To shift
or not to shift, that is the question.
8. Coffeeholics – They can’t get through the day without their daily caffeine fix. Coffee from Star-
bucks, Seattle’s, and Bo’s are their companions to every CS work. This is a stereotype for rich kids,
or for those who at least appear to be. Of course, you won’t buy P 100+ coffee without the money.
9. Survivors – For every CS student (except for the ETs, GCs and a few people, that is), our course
becomes a monster at some point in our lives. There are people who are in danger of being KO’d
every year --- some of them manage to stay, some of them fail. There are people who got this threat
only once but there are people who after, two, three --- okay, I don’t know if anyone is that brave to
receive three chances of being kicked out --- amazingly survives and continues studying as a CS
major.
10. Commoners – The reason why they are called ‘commoners’ because there is nothing unique
about them. They are ‘go-with-the-flow” people and they are the ones who are hard to remember.
They are pretty much average in academics, wallflowers when it comes to extra-curriculars and they
like to stick with their own kind.
In reality, each person is a combination of multiple stereotypes. These are merely notions and one
stereotype can’t completely describe someone. There are “good stereotypes”. For example, Asians
are good at Math. But stereotyping is wrong, one should get to know a person first before judging
them. Stereotyping strongly affects people’s interactions and hinders friendship among different
types of people.
Also, one shouldn’t stick with stereotypes. All Asians aren’t good at Math because I, for one, suck
with numbers.
Sorting CS Students
Hey there future programmers, long time no
Tweet. Here I am again bringing you the latest
bits and bytes of buzz fresh from DCS!
One of my reliable resources, Minimax88, pri-
vate-Plurked me this:
Spotted around DCS, a pointless view of anMVC application.
During moments of too much Create, Update,
and Delete requests, this view was nowhere to
be seen. How ironic. The poor model and con-
troller can’t do anything about it, and they end
up overworked to compensate. And when the
workload becomes simple Read requests, here
comes the view to say hello to them.
My oh my, this view should be hidden to conceal
its nasty errors.
Yet another of my trusted resources, Skyper-
Viper, told me through live streaming this:
Spotted everywhere in UPAECH, a malware
that is driving everyone crazy.
This not-so-little malware pretends to be nice
and approachable whenever many people are
around. But when the people go away, this mal-
ware steps out from its shroud of pretentious-
ness. Its attacks are vicious; bitching around
and shouting are some of its favorite activities.
Even my very own informant was not spared.
Sorry malware, people are starting to block you
in their firewalls.
By Janelle Lagmay
It was the first day of class and I was eating
alone at the Eng’g cafe. After I finished eating, I
didn’t know if I had to return my plate to the
counter, or wait for somebody to clean it up. I
was waiting until others left their table, but the
place was crowded and people were waiting for
me to leave. I took my plate and brought it to the
counter and the lady told me the bus boys would
pick it up for me. She was hesitating whether to
get it or not, and for ten painfully embarrassing
seconds, I was standing there, in front of upper-
classmen, with a plate of half-eaten macaroni.
Good thing I don’t wander off into Melchor Hall
much these days.
***
Our CS 32 exam was held in the Engineering
Theater and we left our bags at the back. Even-
tually, the cold got to me and my nose started to
run badly. As luck would have it, I left my hand-
kerchief in my bag. I didn’t want to stand up and
get it, so I just covered my nose with my hand
and proceeded to answer the exam. I still had
one hand covering my nose when I turned in my
answer sheet and our Prof gave me a puzzled
look. I went straight to the bathroom afterwards.
***
It was raining heavily that day so I decided to
ride the Toki going to Math. I wasn’t aware that
the jeep had to take a detour through CP Garcia.
When everybody got off in front of NIP, I followed
but I couldn’t find the Math Building! I was so lost
and when I finally got to class, my shoes were
covered in mud. What a way to start the day.
***
Our professor was finishing off explaining our
MP and the class was starting to get rowdy. I
heard him ask “Any questions?”, and I re-
sponded with a loud “No.” My classmates looked
at me and laughed but I didn’t know why. Then
my seatmate told me that he actually said, “Feel
free to talk to me if you have any questions.”
During the registration week, I had to go to Mel-
chor Hall to get an Add Mat form. Unfortunately,
as the jeep passed by the Shopping Center, it
started to rain very hard. I found out that I left my
umbrella in the CS Building so I just took a round
trip back to our building. It was embarrassing
enough that the driver recognized me and asked
where I was getting off, but as was I taking my
umbrella from the rack, some students were giv-
ing me suspicious looks as if I was stealing an
umbrella.
***
I was running late for class and when I got to the
classroom, I was surprised to find them taking
an exam. The instructor gave me my question-
naire and told me I had 30 minutes left. I looked
around, saw a few familiar faces, looked at my
paper and saw “CS 135”. Wrong class! I gave
him back the questionnaire, headed to my actual
class, and again they were taking an exam. At
least that time it was just a quiz.
By Jase Tiojanco
As computer science students, most of us hardly have a clue of what is in store for us after gradu-
ation. All we know is that right now, we program. We program in our laboratory classes, or we pro-
gram when we have machine problems.
To get an idea on how it is to become a professional programmer, I decided to take up CS 195 last
summer. CS 195 is the summer internship elective that is taken by many even though it is not re-
quired. Some take it because they want to experience how it is to become a professional program-
mer, while others take it simply because they want an additional source of money during the summer
break. I took it for the former.
The internship experience goes way back to the middle part of the second semester. This is when
students apply for internship positions in several companies. I was one of the students who combed
through the booths of CAPES in search of a company who would hire me as an intern.
After submitting resumes and application forms, I went through a lot of exams and interviews. Three
companies offered me an internship position, but in the end, I went for Azeus Systems. Why? Well,
their office is the closest to our home. Plus, their allowance is satisfactory.
Like my first day in school, my first day at work made me feel excited and nervous at the same time.
I, along with the other interns, was brought to a waiting room until the Officer-in-Charge of Azeus’
Internship program arrived. We went through an orientation which was similar to the one given to
new employees. I vividly remember the reaction all of us had when we were informed that there
was a five-million-peso fine for violating any of the rules presented to us during the orientation. No
one will be tattling about anything Azeus-related, that’s for sure.
During the first few days of the Internship Program, things were pretty exciting. We researched about
our project, discussed how we would tackle the problem, and implemented our proposed solutions.
Add to that the fact that we were getting to know our fellow interns. We looked forward to our free
snacks during the morning and afternoon. Those days were really great!
The very first time we felt unbelievably nervous was when we were informed about the first demo
of our project. Everyone was going crazy, even working overtime just to polish the program. We
checked our programs for all possible errors until we could find no more faults. All the efforts paid
off when judgment day came and our software impressed the evaluator, who was no less than one
of the top programmers in Azeus.
After our first demo, everyday seemed very much like the previous one. I go to work early, time-in,
work, eat, work, and then leave. There were bright spots such as fun conversations with my co-in-
terns but at the end of the day, I couldn’t help but feel as if I have experienced the same day the
previous day. The only days that I truly looked forward to were the fifteenth and thirtieth days of
every month when our allowances were given to us.
I am a person who is very much against living a routine-based life. If there’s one thing I realized in
my internship experience, it is that I don’t want to work as a programmer. I love interacting with other
people and I don’t want a computer as my companion for eight hours a day. But that’s just me; I’m
not saying being a programmer is a job that will bore everyone.
Try being an intern yourself, maybe you’d love it, maybe you won’t.
A Taste of the ProfessionalProgrammer Life
Everyone dreams about the future, but have you
thought about your future thesis topic lately? The
word “thesis” strikes fear to most students be-
cause we do not know what to do or even where
to start. All we know is that, we have to finish one
before we could graduate. Thesis topics in our
department can be divided into research groups
whose laboratories are housed on the third floor
of the Alumni Engineers’ Centennial Hall
(AECH).
There are six general research groups sup-
ported by the department. These are: Computer
Vision and Machine Intelligence, Web Science,
Theoretical Computer Science, Networking and
Distributed Systems, Computer Security, and
Scientific Computing.
Thankfully, these research laboratories now ac-
cept apprentices for those interested to experi-
ence and learn.
For incoming seniors, application for member-
ship is done during the first few weeks of the first
semester of their senior year. The student (or
group) is allowed to choose which research
group to apply to that is in line with his/her (or
their) interests.
The Computer Vision & Machine Intelligence
Group is concerned with the understanding and
construction of complex systems whose under-
lying computation utilizes to a substantial degree
the methods proper to or closely associated with
artificial intelligence. Examples of these methods
are heuristic search, knowledge representation,
logical and probabilistic inference, statistical and
structural pattern recognition, and evolutionary
computation. Special emphasis will be given to
Computer Vision and AI applications to Bioinfor-
matics.
The CVMIG accepts membership applications
for thesis per group. Each group can have a
maximum of three people. The groups are en-
couraged to think of a topic about computer vi-
sion and machine intelligence as early as
possible if they are really interested to join. The
groups undergo a panel interview about the
topic.
Apprentice applications in the CVMIG can be
done anytime during the year. For details, inter-
ested juniors can visit the CVMIG lab at the third
floor of AECH or talk to the laboratory’s head, Dr.
Prospero Naval.
The Web Science Group, formerly the Internet
Technologies Group, deals with “the science of
the web”. Since the realm is too vast, the group
focuses on applications dedicated to health serv-
ices and education. Some educational re-
searches are the Electronic Portfolio and
Assessment (EPASA): a student-centric portfo-
lio, and Kinespell, an educational spelling game
for kinesthetic learners ages six to eight years
old.
The WSG accepts membership applications in-
dividually. The application process consists of fill-
ing up an application form and an interview.
Then, the passers can choose their pair. The stu-
dents can think of their own topic or if they can-
not think of any, the research group under Sir
Rommel Feria’s guidance can suggest topics to
them mostly about game-based learning or im-
mersive education.
Apprentice applicants can apply anytime during
the school year. Interested juniors and sopho-
mores can talk to Sir Feria for details. Appren-
tices administer hardware, setup servers,
download things, and test theses. They are also
encouraged to start reading theses if they are in-
terested in continuing some of the researches.
The Network and Distributed Systems Group
deals with grids, clusters and cloud computing,
peer-to-peer systems, agents and information
retrieval techniques, mobility and mobile net-
working, fault tolerance, adaptive QoS and web
service.
The Network and Distributed Systems Group ac-
cepts membership applications for thesis also by
group with a maximum of three people per
group. Informal interviews with the laboratory’s
head, Dr. Cedric Festin, are done during the first
few weeks of the first semester.
Application for apprenticeship can be done by
talking to Dr. Festin. Juniors can apply anytime
during the year.
The Computer Security Group currently handles
digital watermarking, encryption of multimedia,
information retrieval and multi-passwords. The
research group, under Ma’am Susan Festin,
deals with thesis topics related to computer se-
curity.
Seniors are screened individually. Then, they
can choose their own group mates – a maximum
of three members are allowed in a group.
Second year students in their second semester
and junior students can apply for apprenticeship
by talking to Ma’am Susan. Apprentices are ex-
pected to attend research meetings, observe the
thesis groups, and be involved in minor activi-
ties.
The Theoretical Computer Science Group, for-
merly Algorithms and Complexity Laboratory,
handles models of computation and complexity,
algorithms, designs and implementations, com-
binatorial networks and information technology
in education. This is the only group which does
not require an implementation or application out-
put. The group, however, requires a published
paper by the end of the year and also encour-
ages the students to join different conferences.
Other topics not belonging to any other research
group also stay in the Algorithms and Complexity
Laboratory.
Membership applications can be done individu-
ally or by pair. Students interested in discrete
mathematics (Math 157), algorithms and com-
plexity (CS 135) are encouraged to join the
group.
The group accepts apprentices that are in the
third year level or students who passed Math
157. Apprentices are expected to attend the
weekly research seminars and meetings.
The Scientific Computing Group is the newest
research group of the department. Formerly a
part of the Theoretical Computer Science Group,
it is headed by visiting professor, Dr. Vina Pearl
Bongolan. This group largely deals with the
study of mathematical models and numerical so-
lution techniques used to analyze and solve sci-
entific and enginnering problems.
Interested applicants for membership and ap-
prenticeship can talk to Dr. Bongolan.
Theses may still strike fear to students but with
the help of these research groups, the fear might
soon be diminished. Sir Mario Carreon strongly
suggests incoming seniors to think of topics as
soon as possible and to research about those
topics. Students can also talk to the research
groups’ advisers for pre-thesis advising. A little
preparation as early as now can really help in the
long run.
References:
http://www.engg.upd.edu.ph/%7Ecvmig
http://dcs.upd.edu.ph/lab/aclab/
http://dcs.upd.edu.ph/?page_id=6
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Most of us take for granted the facil-
ities and equipment that we have in
the Department. Some would even
go as far as complaining about
them.
But in a state university like UP,
where funds are usually very low
and even increasingly declining, one
doesn’t need to be a rocket—or
maybe even computer—scientist to
realize just how fortunate we are in
DCS when it comes to material re-
sources.
Aside from the number of faculty
members with graduate degrees
and the quality and quantity of re-
search publications produced, the
status of the facilities and equipment
of an educational institution is also a
key factor in determining the institu-
tion’s competence and overall pro-
ductivity. Such is the case when the
Commission on Higher Education
considers giving the honor of pro-
claiming a department or an institute
a Center of Excellence, of which the
DCS has been accorded in 2007.
Of course, the best form of educa-
tion can only take place in the right
environment with the right resources. And in a field like computer science,
where having the most relevant and the most up-to-date technology avail-
able is necessary and undoubtedly beneficial, there is a need to procure
such.
If you compare our resources with those of a certain private green-colored
university in Taft, we’re quite far behind. But compared with most univer-
sities in our third-world country, which do not have brand new computers
worth six million to speak of, or which do not even have projectors in every
room like we do, we definitely stand out. Sure, we do not have the state-
of-the-art facilities nor do we have the completest equipment available,
but we certainly have what other universities can only dream of. Largely
thanks to alumni donations, the Alumni Engineers Centennial Hall is one
of the most well-equipped and most highly developed academic buildings
in the nation today.
The challenge then lies for us, DCS students, to fully utilize such resources
and not let them go to waste. We’re not just talking about taking good care
of the equipment and using them for their intended use only (If web traffic
in the department was monitored, we’d bet 90% of it goes to social net-
working and other non-academic sites), although we highly encourage
that. We’re also talking about doing our best as a student, proving that all
the Department’s efforts in providing the best facilities and equipment it
can were worth it.
The next time you use a computer in one of the laboratories—whether it’s
an ME or your thesis project you’re working on—be thankful that the De-
partment is able to provide you with such and, even more importantly,
make sure that you are producing an output that will make the DCS proud.
After all, Spiderman taught us that “With great power comes great respon-
sibility”. To put it in context, with great resources come great responsibil-
ity.
*slogan used by Apple in the 1990’s
EDITORIAL
THE POWER TO BE YOUR BEST*Crystal Beatrice M. CamaraoEditor-in-Chief
Audrey C. GaraisAssociate Editor and Business Man-
ager
Gian Paolo V. SamsonNews Editor
Jase Nathaniel G. TiojancoFeatures Editor
Anna Andrina L. LobatonLiterary Editor
Jose Paolo M. SyTech Editor and Web Administrator
Arturo E. Lacanilao IIILayout Editor
Rona Riza M. GumiaJamie Lou R. PollosoJoven J. SebidoManaging Editors
Emerico H. AguilarGrace Ann B. AgustinRyan Kristofer I. AranaPaul Vincent S. ContrerasKristofer E. delas PeñasDaniela Marie L. DelgadoApryll B. LacandazoJanelle M. LagmayRanyel Bryan L. MaliwanagJosephine Ann Gabrielle S. OrtizJose Luis E. SantosAva Marie T. TanCassandra Leigh L. WangWriters
Dana Elisa G. NicolasJeanella Klarys E. PascualArtists
Pauline Ann N. PabloAnna Mae C. YapPhotographers
Philip E. ZunigaFaculty Adviser The UP Parser is the official student publication of the Department of Computer Science, UP Diliman
AUDREY GARAIS
BE IT TRAGIC OR COMEDIC
I’ll laugh at it, because that’s just
how I deal with it.
Deus Ex Machina
I stopped waiting for miracles to come because
in real life, you don’t really get your deus ex
machina. Probably miracles do exist, but not in
this context. No one is going to magically appear,
magically hand me my diploma and tell me that
I don’t have to do all of these things anymore. I
gave up hope a long time ago. Sadly, no hero
can save me from this mess that I just had to
take up.
Well, I guess no one else but me, that is.
Lahat naman nahihirapan eh. I guess it just de-
pends on the way we handle things (don’t even
mention time management). Everyone has a
way with dealing with their stuff, and I work on
my own pace as well. Each man to his own foot,
or so the quote goes.
I think everybody has a right to be stressed, to
complain and to feel depressed with whatever
they have to accomplish. Kahit itetext mo lang
ang crush mo para tanungin siya kung saang
papel isusulat yung probset, okay lang na ma-
pressure. What’s important is how you use this
kind of pressure to get you working. On lazy
days, it’s really hard to be productive; we push
everything until the last minute (especially on
long weekends so please just bring back our
Wednesdays, thankyouverymuch). Somehow
pressure works wonders and makes you type a
20-page paper in just one sitting. Basic principle:
kung magtatamad-tamaran ka, panindigan mo.
When you’re online and everybody else is on
Plurk or FB updating each other, it’s up to you to
mentally slap yourself just to stay focused.
For me, I guess I just have to remind myself what
I’m doing this for.
What am I doing this for again? Haha. To get a
decent job? Uhhh. This is exactly what’s sad
about the capitalist mindset. People are doing
what they’re doing to earn a decent living, and
not because it’s what they’ve always dreamed
of. They must’ve loved what they’re doing, but
making money became such a big deal that their
jobs dehumanized them.
It’s not really all about getting a decent job for
me. More often than not, I do it for my Dad who’s
been working so hard to keep us breathing until
now regardless if he’s annoying or not at times
(parents, lol). I think of my friends and the child-
ish pure promises we made to graduate to-
gether. Sometimes, it’s to compete with my
sister’s accomplishments and my younger
brother’s achievements (middle child syndrome
much?) Most of all, I try hard for myself. Hang in
there, Audrey. Self-actualization is on its way. :)
So even if my deus ex machina won’t ever show
up, I’ll keep on doing what I do. Kayod kung
kayod. I hope it gets better soon. I may be talking
about all these idealistic things, but that doesn’t
mean I’m not dying right now, haha. It gets hard,
but it’s all going to be worth it. Hey, you. I'm wait-
ing. Inspire me.
CRYSTAL BEATRICE CAMARAO
RANTOn Love and
Algorithm Design
Let's assume, at least for this article, that you
could find your soulmate through the different
algorithm design paradigms. (Yes, this is both a
geeky and cheesy article. YOU HAVE BEEN
WARNED. Brainiacs, you can criticize this all
you want, it’s just theoretical anyway. Besides,
it’s been a year since I took CS 135, so I have
an excuse for not being able to accurately re-
member all the concepts. Cynics, no one is forc-
ing you to read this. And you are free to laugh all
you want, but in the end I don't really care.)
What then is the best paradigm to use? Because
I think everyone agrees with me when I say that,
finding love--at least, the true kind--isn’t very dif-
ferent from solving a really difficult, frustrating
MP.
One could try the greedy method, but it isn’t a
particularly good technique to use in the context
of love. It means giving a certain amount of effort
to every person who shows the least bit of inter-
est, or every person who is something of minimal
interest to you. Not only is this a waste of time,
it’s a waste of emotions. Who wants to traverse
through so many “feasible, locally optimal”
nodes before finding the best path to their soul-
mate? It just isn’t practical. Especially since, in
most cases, the greedy method yields only ap-
proximations. When it comes to love, no one
wants to settle for less.
Divide-and-conquer isn’t any better. Having two
(or even more) lovers at the same time, playing
around with their hearts, and dumping the other
once you’ve decided who’s better, and then set-
tling until you find the next conquest is just irre-
sponsible, not to mention counter-productive.
Dynamic programming isn’t an option, either.
There’s no such thing as a formula when it
comes to love, although storing data about past
experiences helps. Besides, having a step-by-
step process you need to rigidly follow can get
dull and mundane.
And backtracking? Uhh. This is something I cer-
tainly think is a no-no. Although it works in data
structures, it rarely does in real life. Past is past,
and that's that.
So I guess all we’re left with is brute force, which,
at first look, is kind of insane. How does one suc-
cessfully look for his/her soulmate by means of
exhaustive search, when Earth has close to
seven billion souls? It will probably take forever-
-the time complexity must be something like
O(n!), or even worse. And it surely won’t be easy,
especially since it's going to take a lot of pa-
tience, and a great leap of faith that in spite of
the odds this problem is indeed solvable.
But isn't that the whole point of love? That no
matter how many variables (i.e. other sizzling hot
people) or what kind of parameters (i.e. differ-
ences in backgrounds, interests, and
whathaveyou), you still managed to find each
other in such a complex, crazy world, and fell in
love. That’s what, at least I think, is the true
essence of love.
No, brute force isn’t the most efficient paradigm
there is. In fact, most of the time, it’s the least ef-
ficient.
But when it comes to love, it is perhaps the most
optimal.
PHILIP ZUNIGA
*SPECIAL* ADVISER’SCOLUMN
Undefined
Let’s first welcome the first time readers of
Parser, this year’s batch of freshmen. Officially,
batch 2009 is the largest BS CS batch ever. The
Department accepted around 170 freshmen and
around 20 transferees and shiftees. This is part
of the Department’s aggressive effort to produce
more computer scientists, not only for the indus-
try, but also for research and academe. Increas-
ing the input is the easy part, but the harder part
(NP hard, perhaps?) is how we can make them
stay or how we can prevent them from being
kicked out. It is pointless to increase the input, if
at the end of the day, they will still not graduate
as BS CS students. We’ll just increase our so-
called “Mortality Rate”.
Every semester, dozens of BSCS students are
either removed from the program or leave the
program. They choose to leave because:
1) They find the program irrelevant with their ca-
reer plans.
2) They will be kicked out if they don’t leave.
3) They are confused.
4) Too many math subjects.
As a response, the Department, through the Stu-
dent Affairs Committee (SAC), is developing
ways on how to resolve these issues. The SAC
is now organizing various talks and seminars, all
aiming to make the students understand what
Computer Science is and what career options
BS CS students have. We are also assigning
batch advisers to the students, so that someone
from the faculty will be able to monitor the aca-
demic performance of the students. Faculty
members can now advise and help the students
who are in danger of violating the retention rules.
As for the number of Math units… we can’t do
anything about that.
iMacs everywhere.
Last month, research labs were lucky because
aside from getting high-end Acer desktop PCs,
the labs also received iMac desktop PCs. These
desktops were distributed to the various thesis
groups to aid them with their CS198/199 re-
search projects. And the Juniors are asking,
“How about us?”.
Actually, the research labs are open for member-
ships not only to seniors but also to juniors, and
yes even sophomores. You can apply as lab ap-
prentices and help the seniors with their re-
search projects. This will help you see the kind
of work that the seniors are doing, so that when
you enroll in CS 198… you won’t get SHOCKED.
Several senior students got SHOCKED the mo-
ment their advisers discussed their potential top-
ics. One senior even said, “It’s like
understanding a Chinese movie, but there’s no
subtitles.”
Aside from not getting SHOCKED, you can also
use the facilities (computers, mobile phone,
game consoles) of the lab for your school work.
And, you won’t need to compete for limited elec-
tric sockets and seats (I saw someone doing his
MP while standing) at the second floor. You can
plug your notebook inside the research labs.
Cool right?
How to join? Just ask the lab heads, or you can
also talk to the 4th year students who are also
members of the labs.
EMERICO AGUILAR
*SPECIAL*GUEST
COLUMNStudent Life Redux
Not so long ago, as a struggling college student
living on an allowance, I often got the question
asking me how I see myself five years from then.
Being the cocky person that I was, I thought that
was a no brainer. With my self-proclaimed sick
programming skills, my ego told me there’s no
way I won’t be able to enjoy continuous progress
that, in a few years time, people will be calling
me a successful young professional working his
way upwards the IT industry’s totem pole.
So my replies to this question, or, at least, how I
picture them, were always the same: an SUV –
make that an X5 since, as the old adage goes,
there’s nothing wrong with dreaming – toting cor-
porate hotshot/entrepreneur, living in his own
bachelor pad, with a bunch of time to spare for
his personal itineraries.
Fast forward to the present and the only thing
that have progressed is, uh, my age. Once
again, I’m a struggling student living on an al-
lowance. The X5 that I’m supposed to have is
still parked in a BMW dealer somewhere. In-
stead of a fancy bachelor pad, a room in a cam-
pus dormitory is serving as my humble abode. I
don’t even have much time for personal itiner-
aries; I use them mostly for my studies. In short,
I’m back to where I was.
So, what went wrong? Well, one may easily
point out that my goals are the main culprit –
they sound too idealistic, if not downright unre-
alistic (for someone in my shoes, that is). It does-
n’t help either that my programming skills are
sick only in the sense that they pale in compari-
son with others’. But it’s one thing to miss your
target, starting all over again is another story.
However, it is also something that I do not regret
doing.
I’ll leave my thoughts on why I am nowhere near
in achieving any of my earlier plans for another
day. For now, I’ll just focus on where I am, which
is not a bad place to be. In fact, it
is a great place to be.
Actually, I came from a different campus, so
being here is a new experience altogether. It
gives me the opportunity to learn more about my
other fields of interest, explore other stuffs, gain
new perceptions, and meet new friends. Plus,
it’s a chance for me to correct some of my previ-
ous mistakes as a student (note to self: stop pro-
crastinating). Most importantly, it’s an
opportunity to prepare myself once more for my
goals.
Five years from now, I’m no longer sure where
will I be. But for now, it doesn’t matter. For the
meantime, I’ll stop peering into future. For the
meantime, I’ll just focus on the present. And the
rule for living the present is quite simple: make
the most out of it.
Carpe diem.
JOINUP Parser
E-mail [email protected] for more info.
The UP Parser is the College of Engineering’s
first and foremost department-based publi-cation. Carrying the motto “Analyzing Life the
CS Way”, UP Parseraims to be the voice of the
Department of Computer Science (DCS), amediator between the department and student
body, as well as an outlet for skilled program-
mer-journalists.
We don't just write programs... We write!
ANNA ANDRINA LOBATON
BITESSlice
You sprint across the halls, late for your class (al-
though not really, right now you don't care any-
more, because you're suffering from a case of
jadedness so bad that it doesn't really make a
difference if you're late ten minutes or thirty), out
of breath and tripping over your feet. You stop,
stunned, bracing a hand against the wall, when
you read the announcement taped to the door.
Class is cancelled, it says, black letters on
smooth white, with no explanations whatsoever.
You hit yourself mentally for not checking your
mail before you left (as you are always bound to
do, bound to the internet as you are), and you
slump against the railing, laptop bag sliding
down your leg to the floor. You have a whole af-
ternoon free now (only not because you still
have a class at four), and you wonder what you
can do to kill the time.
And then you remember the reason why you're
panicking to reach the class in the first place;
you've been working on a machine problem all
throughout the past forty-five hours (three hours
of sleep is a blessing) and you're still not fin-
ished. You know the exam's next week and you
really do need to take it; you know if you stop
working on that problem, you'll never pick up the
motivation to start again unless it's freeze coding
the next day.
Damn, double damn, you wipe sweat off your
brow and claim a seat for yourself at one of
those multicoloured tables. Those unfamiliar
faces scatter a little as you open your laptop and
start working; it seems that the freshmen are
wary of that aura that you are giving off like so.
Useful now, useless later, when you realise your
vindinctive pleasure at making them squirm
fades in the light of pending submissions.
Algorithm design; you thought you'd never see
the day when you'd curse the subject. You sigh
and get to work - only not because a hand waves
in front of you and you smell a familiar scent waft
over to where you're sitting. You wish she won't
stand that close because god, god, god, you
can't concentrate because the butterflies in your
stomach are doing the samba.
"How's it going?" she asks, lifting the lid of her
own laptop and shifting the chair so that she can
sit properly. The legs screech against the floor
and your heart screeches against your ribcage.
"Done with the MP?"
"Which one?" You reply tiredly, mind mentally
reeling off all your subjects - and surprise, sur-
prise, all of them have impending deadlines.
She laughs, a warm, dry sound, and pats you
commiseratingly on the back. "Don't worry, you'll
get through fine. I was swamped the same way
last year, it was so - " and she curses an impres-
sive blue streak before smiling back at you so
radiantly that it's you who squirms.
You shouldn't fall for an upperclassman like this.
A year apart, who knew it could matter so much?
You close the lid of your laptop, and nonchalantly
(as much as you can, really) turn to face her, and
you ruffle her hair. She's once joked you could
pass for her little brother, and back then you
thought nothing of it, but now - "Have you al-
ready had lunch?"
She blinks a little, looking up from her own code,
and nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, we had lunch
delivered earlier."
"Mmn," you reply, sliding your laptop back into
your bag and swinging it over your shoulder.
"Okay. I'm going to go grab food, then."
She nods, already lost in her own little world of
deadlines and projects and that dreaded thesis
- and as you go down the stairs, you can't help
but wonder why she's not in her lab, why she'd
been there with you. You have an epiphany of
sorts, a hypothesis that works out - but when you
dash back up the stairs she's gone.
KATHRYN KIMBERLY MALIJAN
SCORPIONROSESA Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, there lived a boy with his
mother in the heart of the woods.
The boy was as thin as the thinnest shrub that
ever sprouted in the woods, and he was so frail
and delicate. But the boy had the most angelic
face one could ever have, for he had eyes as
beautiful as a blooming rosebud, and a smile as
a warm as the summer sun.
He loved musical instruments. He could play any
instrument as marvelous as a genius would. And
he also possessed a voice so enchanting that all
the birds in the forest gathered near him when-
ever he hums a tune.
His mother was the first person that he would
look for when he opened his eyes in the morn-
ing, then kiss her the sweetest kiss a loving son
could ever give to his mother. Then he would run
in the woods to find and gather the freshest flow-
ers and bring it to her while she prepared their
breakfast. He wouldn’t touch his food unless she
joined him and sat beside him in the table. And
he would never close his eyes even if the moon
started peeping through the window unless his
mother told him the most wonderful tale that she
could ever think of.
When he was of the right age, they left the
woods and moved to a house near the school.
There he saw a lot of kids like him, and thought
that going out with them is surely fun and excit-
ing.
And so he started to spend more time doing
other things: playing with friends, going around
the town and discovering the hidden sights
within the place.
Mother patiently waited for Son to come home
and spend time with her. She always prepared
the most delicious food, and placed the softest
pillow she ever found on his bed. She even
bought him a new guitar so he could hear him
sing his songs again.
But hours grew to days, and days grew to
months. The boy would wake up, take his things
and go out without even saying goodbye. He did-
n’t look for her in the morning, nor did he bring
her sweet flowers, and he didn’t need the tall
tales to make him sleep at night ever again.
Mother asked Son what’s wrong. But the boy
only stared at her and told her nothing.
Mother insisted, but Son only said that he’s okay.
She asked him if she ever did something that he
didn’t like.
The boy only said “No…it’s me…”
So finally she asked the boy if he would want her
to leave him alone.
Son answered, “I don’t know. I’m not sure…”
She asked him again.
And the boy said “YES…”
And so she left, and took with her the memory
of his songs and smile, and the pain brought
by the denial of truth.
There ends the tale.
And so no matter how well you take care of peo-
ple you love, sometimes they have their own
reasons why they would just leave you and let
things be left unclear. Yes, it’s hard to act that
you don’t care, but you just have to. If they can
never have the guts to tell you what the real
problem is, don’t force them. You’ve done your
part, let them do theirs…
GIAN PAOLO SAMSON
GOINGEXPOSITORY
(Because I’m no essay writer)
First Love Never Dies
It was only three and a half years ago when I en-
tered the Engineering Theatre to attend the
CS4CS orientation for first-year CS students.
Back in 2006, the Department was still residing
in its former home in Melchor Hall, where it oc-
cupied the left-wing corridor beside the Chemical
Engineering Department.
Fresh from high school, I hardly knew anything
about the University or the colorful college life
that was about to unfold. All I knew back then
was that we had been required by my CS 11 pro-
fessor to attend the orientation and that was it.
As always, the members of the CS Network
were present during the orientation to introduce
themselves and talk about their upcoming activ-
ities.
One of them was the UP Parser. I sat there lis-
tening as then-Parser EIC Joebet del Rosario
talked about the student paper and its role in the
CS community. I had been some sort of “semi-
journalist” back in high school, so I was positively
surprised to find out that there was actually a
segment in the science-inclined student popula-
tion of the DCS interested in journalism.
Yes, it was during that fateful day in June 2006
when I promised myself that someday I would
enter the UP Parser as one of its staff members
and help it continue its role as a medium of in-
formation dissemination in the Department. Dur-
ing that time, however, I thought I was too young
to join, so I indefinitely postponed my applica-
tion.
It was less than year later, just before the end of
freshman year, when I felt that the time was ripe
to test what I was made of. So I signed up for the
editorial exams and applied as a news editor.
The results came out and I found out that I got
the position.
Cliché as it may sound, words were not enough
to express the happiness that I felt when I saw
the results. I seriously didn’t think I could get it..
But life in the Parser wasn’t always that happy.
The rest of the staff and I did struggle at one
point or another just to make sure that the pub-
lication continued ticking. A number of sacri-
fices—though a lot of them are both funny and
silly—had to be made. For one, the Parser was
the reason why I had to go on the first school-re-
lated overnight stay of my life. I had to do that
just so we could submit a soft copy of an issue
to the press on time. I swear I had some difficulty
sleeping that night.
In my nearly three years of stay in the Parser (I
probably hold the record as the editor who
stayed in the same position for the longest time
in the paper’s history haha), I was able to see
well how leaders could affect the products of
their respective teams. Some people say that the
job of a leader is easy because it is largely about
making decisions, but it is actually that respon-
sibility that makes the job all the more difficult.
As a leader, one has to put his/her heart into
what he/she is doing, because the rest of team
can see through those veiled actions, and that
just might make or break the performance of the
team as a whole.
But I digress.
As an ending to this piece, let me just say that
the Parser will always be my first love here in UP.
We all know what they say about a first love. It
never dies. It will always linger. And though I
admit that I sometimes put it behind other extra-
curricular pursuits, I will continue to become its
trusty news editor until the announcement of my
successor this March. Lol.
JASE NATHANIEL TIOJANCO
GALORE MUCHSimplicity
Money makes the world go around. Well, at least
I thought so.
Has it ever crossed your mind why most people
clamour financial prosperity? Why is it that hav-
ing numerous material possessions equate to
the sense of stability for some? Those are just
some questions that have been in my mind for
quite some time.
Ever since my siblings and I were young, it has
been instilled to us explicitly and implicitly that
we should work hard to gain financial prosperity.
Our dad would never fail to remind us to perform
excellently in school so that we would become
successful in the future. He would always bring
us to our boutiques in the different parts of the
country just to show us how important it is to
have a lucrative livelihood. We were raised in a
household wherein luxuries were set as a norm,
making us think that those luxuries were neces-
sary for a comfortable life. Most anything that we
wanted was given to us by our parents without
hesitation.
Everything was doing well and my dad was
pretty much successful in programming our
minds to strive for extravagance. But as the say-
ing goes, “All good things come to an end.”
Due to some bad business strategies mixed with
tightened consumer spending, our shops and
boutiques closed one by one. From our shops in
Baguio to our boutique in Cebu, everything went
down. We didn’t have any other source of in-
come and what has been left of our family’s
wealth was being used up at a rapid pace. All of
the luxuries we were accustomed to had to be
stopped.
I was devastated. All the things I was used to
enjoy were gone. We had to let go of our house-
hold helpers, so I had to learn everything they
did for me so I could do it for myself. We had to
say goodbye to our drivers, so I had to learn how
to commute. We had to cut our expenditures,
which meant no more new things and reduced
use of paid services.
I was like stripped of everything I had. I felt like
the most unfortunate person on the planet. I’d
have sleepless nights just because we cannot
use the air-con. I’d skip meals simply because I
did not like the food on the table.
I slowly and painfully got used to it, but the desire
to achieve financial prosperity is now greater
than ever. I badly wanted to go back to how we
lived our lives before. I would spend the day
dreaming about owning the latest gadgets or
having the trendiest of clothes. I did my best to
excel in school because I wanted to become rich
some day.
I was blinded by that vision. Whenever I failed
an exam, I would instantly be depressed thinking
that I’d end up as a beggar on the streets. I
didn’t enjoy anything that I was doing; everything
caused a huge deal of stress. Simply put, I was
sad.
Thankfully, I am a UP student. No, I would not
be glorifying our university because of its excel-
lent standards; there’s no point in obviating the
obvious. The beauty of being in UP is that I was
exposed to a wide array of people with varying
lifestyles. I got to meet people from the different
ends of the spectrum. My interactions with them
made me realize that life isn’t just about material
things. Life can be about love, leadership, friend-
ship, and a whole lot more.
I changed my focus from attaining financial pros-
perity to learning life lessons that would make
me a better person. The desire to become
wealthy has slowly faded. I actually don’t mind
anymore the fact that I have to do quite a lot of
chores. Moments spent with my family or friends
are enough to make me happy. True enough,
simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
We're looking for partners in reaching out to UP DCS community!E-mail us at [email protected] and we'll send you a copy of sponsorship packages available.
By Josephine Ann Gabrielle Ortiz
It may be safe to say that a great number of CS students are part of the continuously growing blog-
ging community. Some simply advertise stuff on their blogs, while some share their thoughts and
experiences; some even express themselves in photos, works of art, or perhaps literature. Blogging
can take on many different forms. Lately, it can be done so easily—even with just your phones. Truly,
as technology furthers in our lives, everyone is connected and updated through blogging.
As you may have inferred, blogging enables you to write about anything you want—it can be about
how you tripped on the way up to the CS building, acing your EEE 8 exam, or about seeing your
crush in your English 1 class—but does this mean that you are allowed to do so?
Well, setting rules about blogging can be quite hard. As there aren’t any laws about it (in the Philip-
pines, at least) yet so basically, we CAN write about everything we may ever want. But it won’t hurt
to perhaps think about what you’re going to write about first. Take a certain student’s blog, I’m sure
you’ve all heard about Patrick Sicat (or well-known as “Paytrick”) — the Lasallista-turned-Iskolar-
ng-Bayan who wrote a certain journal entry about his latest experiences upon transferring in UP.
Another blog to consider would be the “cat-killer’s blog” – a UP student who blogged about killing a
cat in NIP. I tried searching the internet for both blogs but apparently, they have already been deleted.
Anyway, I’d rather not expound on this and just let you do a little researching yourself, dear reader,
as I might forget that I’m writing for an unbiased newsletter. Hehe.
As you can see, blogs like that were also about experiences and feelings of people like us—but the
thing they forgot while they were happily blogging was that these experiences and feelings of theirs
MIGHT be able to offend other people. These blogs MIGHT just be able to create a negative effect
on other people that may also be detrimental to them. You see, it all comes down to freedom of
speech and its so-called limits. Think about it. Yes, we’re all entitled to say whatever we want but be
sure to be prepared for any consequence that saying those things might entail. The only “limit”
(though unofficial) that we should have would be respecting other’s values and rights—it is only right
to protect others’ beliefs if we want to protect ours too, right? So blog away, but be sure to keep in
check how other people may view your blog if you don’t want to be end up like them.
Blogging 101
Heroes of Newerth: A ReviewBy Jose Paolo Sy
If you're an avid fan of Defense of the Ancients (DotA in Warcraft), then you might want to try out
Heroes of Newerth. Heroes of Newerth (HoN) is a real-time strategy game in which each team's
goal is to destroy the enemy team's mother tower (with obstacles in between and heroes to fight
against, of course). In short, HoN is pretty much like DotA, with a HoN’s own personal touch. Right
now, the game is under beta testing (and you can be part of it), and for now only supports online
play (no local play, yet!). Nevertheless, the game does not fail to awe its playing audience.
Here are some stuff I noticed while playing HoN:
1. HoN beats DotA on graphics hands-down. See for yourself.
2. And since it's online, you don't need Garena. HoN will list rooms for you.
3. It serves as a chat client in-game and out -- an essential feature in cooperative gaming.
4. Some characters basically have the same abilities, and amount of damage even, as with DotA.
They just changed the name of the character, and the description of the moves…
5. …And items too. (Ex. Wingbow, the HoN equivalent of DotA's butterfly.)
6. But HoN has its own characters whose skills are not adapted from DotA.
7. And it has its own items too.
8. Keyboard shortcuts to using skills and buying items are generic. Instead of having to adapt to dif-
ferent keys per character in DotA, HoN uses the Q-W-E-R keys. Q is used for the first skill, W for
the second, and so on.
9. HoN lists recipes of items which require, uhh... recipes. Say goodbye to store-to-store hunting
when creating a non-basic item.
10. Game types are Normal, Random Draft, Single Draft, and Deathmatch. You can choose from
three maps: Forests of Caldavar (the map very similar to DotA), Darkwood Vale 3v3, and Watch-
tower. You can also practice; just choose 'Practice' when selecting a server. Moreover, you can clas-
sify a game to Noobs Only, Noobs Allowed, and Pro. Team size ranges from one-versus-one to
five-versus-five. You can have referees and spectators, too.
The Battle of(free) IDEs:Eclipse vsNetBeansBy Grace Anne Agustin
Upon graduating from Notepad, some compilers,
and the command prompt, Integrated Develop-
ment Environments (or IDEs) have been, for
most of us, allies through bloody battles against
machine exercises and machine problems. Most
CS students would either say NetBeans,
Eclipse, or both. But which is better? Which is
faster? Which is cooler? To answer these ques-
tions, we'll put both IDEs in a head-to-head
match, testing the skills and capabilities of each.
In the violet corner, on its latest release, and
“weighing” 161 MB for Mac Cocoa 64bit and 162
MB for Windows, Eclipse Galileo! And in the blue
corner, “weighing" 158 MB for Mac and a whop-
ping 238 MB for Windows, NetBeans in its latest
release, 6.7!
*ting ting ting* Fight!
Round 1: Download and Installation
It's a slow start. Downloading takes about thirty
minutes to an hour. Eclipses wins on this one
though. Downloading is (obviously) faster with
Eclipse, and Eclipse fires a good punch by hav-
ing no installation required -- just unzip and
you're good to go.
Round 2: User-friendliness
For this round, I devised a “very unique” and
“very creative” way to test user-friendliness. I
created a "Hello world" program in Java, and ran
it while pretending to be a new user. Ha!
The first challenge is to create a new project. For
NetBeans, that would be “File > New Project”,
and by default, this creates a new Java class file
(main) with the new project. The main class was
there, the main method was there, and I was
ready to type in the code. Eclipse, however, re-
quired an extra step of clicking “New File” to cre-
ate the first Java class file.
As for first impression, both corners' icons in the
toolbar were intuitive. However, NetBeans gets
an extra point for having fewer buttons, which
means I was able to find the the run-button
faster. AND Eclipse also gets an extra point for
having more buttons, which means more “one-
click-aways”.
Opened windows, however, are intimidating, es-
pecially if the user is used to Notepad. But this
is just a matter of getting used to.
Round 3: Online Sources (Tutorials and how-tos)
Google results for tutorials and how-tos would
be the coaches, trainers, or whatever for these
IDEs, and depending on the information they
contain, they can either help us or be the reason
for lack of sleep.
For this round, a quick fight of Googling with the
keywords "<IDE name> tutorial" and "<IDE
name> how to", and checking the first hit will de-
termine which is more useful.
On the time of writing, the first hit for both key-
words were the same for Eclipse. The Eclipse-
tutorial, which can be found at
https://eclipse-tutorial.dev.java.net/ has a de-
tailed, although a little outdated, step-by-step
guide on creating a new project. It also tackled
other topics like importing existing codes and in-
stalling plug-ins.
In the other corner, NetBeans' results offered
videos and flash alternatives in the first hit of
"how to" (http://www.netbeans.org/
kb/55/flash.html) and a quick start in the tutorial's
first hit (http://java.sun.com/developer/online-
Training/tools/netbeans_part1/).
NetBeans offered more variety in terms of type
of media, but Eclipse offered more information -
- plus for Eclipse.
Round 4: Speed
When you just realized that your MP is due in
less than 2 hours, every minute, every second,
and even every millisecond counts. Start-up
times for both IDEs feels like a millennia com-
pared to Notepad. And to make it more official,
a referee will be joining us: AppTimer
(http://www.passmark.com/products/apptimer.ht
m) is an application start-up timer for Windows.
After a fresh reboot with almost no other appli-
cation running except for the timer, NetBeans
start-up time was at least, on average, 12 times
slower than that of Eclipse at around 7.5s*, com-
pared with Eclipse's .6s*. These results were
only until the “Starting of Modules” for NetBeans
and the loading screen of Eclipse. If timed until
the start page/ start screen, Eclipse would take
continued on page 17
The GreatDSL ReviewBy Paul Vincent Contreras
The internet is our door to the information super-
highway. Without the internet, our access to the
world of Computer Science is not in its entirety.
Here in the Philippines, there are a lot of ways
on how we can connect to the internet. We have
DSL, cable internet, HSDPA, and wireless fixed
to name a few.
This guide is about the comparison of the current
DSL internet service providers in the metro. We
will not give you our choice of ISP, but rather we
will let you decide. Our candidates are the three
big fixed line telephone service providers in the
metro, Bayan, Globe and PLDT.
Globe Broadband
This ISP was previously known as Globelines.
Globelines is the traditional phone division of
Globe, and is the one responsible for providing
Globe’s DSL service.
Coverage
If you’re residing in Makati, Mandaluyong,
Muntinlupa, Pasay, Las Piñas, Parañaque,
Taguig City, Pateros, San Juan, Pasig, and Que-
zon City, the chances of having DSL by Globe is
high.
Packages
For residential subscribers, Globe offers 1 Mbps
and 2 Mbps DSL packages. The 1 Mbps pack-
age costs Php 995. You can get the 1 Mbps
package without subscribing to a traditional tele-
phone line. To get higher packages, you need to
get a phone subscription (+300 to your phone
subscription).
Good and Bad Side
HTTP access in this ISP is really fast. But if
you’re into file sharing applications, such as tor-
rent and Gnutella, think again. Globe Broadband
is not for torrent and Gnutella. Globe Broadband
will only give you 20% of your bandwidth or
download speed for the said applications be-
cause they have a fair usage policy.
Customer service is available round the clock.
Their hotlines are equipped with friendly cus-
tomer service agents.
Bayan DSL
Looks like Lola Techie is on the loose. Bayan
Telecommunications has become popular nowa-
days because of their Lola Techie campaign.
Coverage
If you are living in Quezon City, Malabon City,
Valenzuela City, and Manila, the chances of hav-
ing a Bayan DSL facility in your area is high.
Packages
In areas serviceable by Bayan in Metro Manila,
the 768 Kbps package costs Php 899. This in-
ternet connection is “burstable” up to 1280 Kbps.
continued on page 17
The Great... (from page 16)
Good and Bad Side
If you’re a Bayan subscriber, you’re the lucky
one. Besides that, Bayan guarantees that all its
internet facilities are working. They’ll even pay
you P100 if they cannot be fix your internet con-
nection problems in 24 hours.
Customer service is available around the clock.
The problem with Bayan is that its DSL service
is available only in select cities in the metro.
PLDT
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Com-
pany, of course, ay hindi magpapahuli. As the
largest telephone company in the country, it
boasts itself in providing fast and unlimited inter-
net connection.
Coverage
If you’re living anywhere in Metro Manila, the
question now is “Can I avail the Quick Installa-
tion Kit in my area?” PLDT covers the entire
metro and there’s no doubt about it.
Packages
PLDT offers the greatest number of packages.
Regular DSL packages include a 1 Mbps, 2
Mbps, and 3 Mbps connection. They also offer
landline and DSL internet connection packages,
which include a 384 Kbps or 512 Kbps connec-
tion.
Good and Bad Side
There are some forums on the internet saying
that sometimes, you get more out from PLDT.
There are several forum users reporting that
their bundled DSL internet and landline package
don't give him the published speeds. Instead,
they get more. For example, someone posted
about how he got an 8 Mbps connection from a
mere 384 Kbps subscription.
Customer service, however, is available only
during office hours.
The Battle... (continued from page 15)
around 4s and NetBeans would take around
41s. Obviously, Eclipse wins. As for compiling
Java code, I didn't see any significant difference.
*on Intel Pentium Dual CPU 2 Ghz and 2GB of
RAM running Windows XP
Round 5: Plug-ins
And finally, extensibility through the use of plug-
ins. Eclipse may have more plug-ins than Net-
Beans, but the most popular plug-ins are
available for both. Besides, it’s only a matter of
time until some third party creates more.
In conclusion, Eclipse wins by being faster (in-
stallation, start-up, and download) than Net-
Beans, but otherwise they're almost the same.
PARSEYOU
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Manila, Philippines, September 23, 2009 - Orange & Bronze Software Labs Inc.
sponsored the first issue of UP Parser--the official student publication of the De-
partment of Computer Science in UP Diliman. Photo shows UP Parser's editor-
in-chief, Crystal Beatrice Camarao, and Orange & Bronze CEO Calen Legaspi
during the contract signing.
Orange & Bronze Software Labs Inc. is the first Philippine-based SpringSource
partner, backed with a team of innovators in enterprise software development.
The company mainly leverages on its expertise in Java, specializing in Spring
and Hibernate, as well as Python and Django.
Aside from building and maintaining strong business ties with its local and for-
eign clients, Orange & Bronze is also an active participant in spreading new IT
innovations within the academic community and a fervent advocate of the latest
software development technologies. Orange & Bronze hosted several other
seminars in partnership with the UP IT society such as the Groovy and Grails
Seminar, Spring Roo Talk, Test Driven Development Seminar and the Google
App Engine Seminar. These events were facilitated by Orange & Bronze's very
own seasoned software architects and software engineers.
As the company's culture thrives on regular knowledge-sharing sessions, Or-
ange & Bronze is also the official sponsor of the Philippine Groovy Users Group,
the Filipino Java Users Group, and the Google Technology Users Group Philipp
-ines. The company is also an elected member of the Philippine Software Indus-
try Association (PSIA).
Orange & Bronze Sponsors UP Parser's First 2009 Issue
GottliebOnly a handful of years do my petite hands hold
But Anna's leaves in Love's book have already been halfway unfold'd
Meister, not only do you grace the air with delicious melodies
You grace the scarlet corset that so tightly embraces me
It was that very night...
I serenaded the gods with my plea of freedom
To bring me back to the Queen's nocturnal kingdom
Hear me, Mein Liebster, see Hathor descend
Let my star, if only somehow, make you comprehend...
And it was that very year...
I refuse to set free the tunes that have been waiting to be sung
For only through your pieces can my chains be undone
Even if only seven chances had been given
Permit these spare notes to echo far into Heaven
Ages, in your music you shall retain your beauty
Years, in loneliness, it shall deform the mortal me
But my love for you shall grow and will still stand to see
Until I could be in your presence, with the Lord, eternally.
Sonnet I: Antipodal Enchantment
I've yet to feel the vernal refreshment
The mem'ries of it, how they flit around
The airy sensation, in it I drown
Primal encounter's such an amazement
What destruction is found in times that come forth
Thy distinct apparition halts my beat
Temp'rature drops to a cold winter-sweet
With the likeness of the blizzards of pole's North
From its frozen cage which locks me tight within
Carry me into thy palms of warm fall
As I hold by thy summer's enthrall
And be it to leave me where I have been
KEYSBy E.A. Taopih
I long to be loved
By another, please!
I pray for this
Upon my knees
I wish to find
With ample ease
A wondrous lover
That I'll appease
Here comes a young
Delightful tease
Whose love I rightly
Ought to seize
I saw her pass
The summer breeze
Which made her sway
In time with trees
She looked at me
And made me freeze
Now by her will
My soul agrees
But then I gave
My heart a squeeze
She tainted it
With black disease
To gain the love
Of another? Please!
I have not hopes
As high as these
I am a rational person. My head dictates what I do. I've been
burned already by these so-called fires of the heart (a fitting
metaphor, unfortunately); the memory has served me well. I fall
fast and hard and hit the bottom with the force of a falling star.
Brilliant and shining and crumbling in its final moments.
Falling in love feels like flying until you hit the ground.
However I make a mistake time and again; whenever I spend time
with one person, if I spend the most of my waking hours with her,
if she becomes a constant companion, a friend, a close platonic
friend, I tend to fall like the world falling.
Rationality has never helped me there. The great descent is ex-
hilarating yet unfortunate; unforgettable but fleeting.
You see now, there she is, speaking to the others with a confi-
dence and charisma I cannot muster. She catches my eye, a fleet-
ing glimpse, and it is enough to send my heart into a frantic
staccato. She has no idea what it means to me, that brief contact,
and I take it and lock it in my heart.
I know I have no chance with her, through banter and teasing and
conversation I have pieced together an admiration that she pur-
sues to no avail.
---
I am, contrary to stereotype and popular opinion, a rational per-
son. Impulsiveness holds no part in my decisions, although I make
sure people see me as such. My sister once told me I could give
a Bond villain a run for his money for the lengths I would go to
hide what I feel.
Wearing my heart on my sleeve has done me nothing but
heartache; burned by the rejection of the worst kind: indifference.
How would you feel if you lowered your pride, confessed your
heart and offered it up on a silver platter and laughter is your com-
pensation? Harlequinade, they call me, weaving in and out of so-
ciety with no permanency, never taken seriously.
And yet no matter how hard I tell myself that I will stop, stop, stop
this pointless mooning over my polar opposite, I fall multiple times.
You see now, there he is, talking in the shaded corner, center of
his own little world. Loud and laughing I look over, and we look
into each other's eyes, and then away as if it's nothing (because
it is nothing, nothing at all not like the world falling) and I laugh for
the sake of laughing (because he saw me and I saw him and it's
enough to know that I can make him smile).
I want so badly to tell him but it's the one thing I can't say to his
face. Everyone knows and he knows but he will not take it seri-
ously, and it breaks - it breaks my - what am I saying, this isn't
love, this is - and I am jealous, I admit, jealous of this one lucky
girl that he admires so but would not speak of, the one he speaks
with (even though I speak with him every single day and that's
one of my life's constants and heaven knows how I survived be-
fore I met him), the one -
As long as I can see him smile, I would not mind. This is real life,
not my fairytale, not my happy ending.
But God, what would I give to keep living in this dream.
---
"How would you know?"
I turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "Know what?"
She sighed and her fingers swept in an aggravated crescendo
across the keyboard. "I lost track of the line I was debugging. All
I know is that I'm on a hundred-something..."
Nudgind her aside I took a peek at her screen. "What the hell are
you coding a hundred lines of assembly code for?"
She just shrugged as I scrolled through. It was getting rather late
and the building was closing soon; and we were both here,
sturggling to get our MP into some semblance of done. Unfortu-
nately the both of us were procrastinators and 'some semblance
of done' was usually defined by pseudocode on paper or bits and
pieces of workable code floating around in our heads but have
absolutely no compatibility once coded together in an editor.
'Pseudocode' on paper was then usually defined - let us not delve
deeper because that'll become recursion.
I couldn't make heads nor tails of what she had typed, although
my head was telling me that I was missing something rather im-
portant. Groundbreaking, even. Of course, it tended to do that a
lot whenever it was about her, since my brain had the traitorous
tendency to think that she was the best thing since sliced bread -
or constant time complexity, or even the godsend that is Eclipse,
same difference.
My heart sniggered at this and let out a victory cry. Center of logic
and it was now under its hormonal jurisdiction, even though some-
where in the neural system neurons were holding a conference
and vehemently debating on the merits of falling in love.
I realised she was staring at me staring at her as she stared back.
"What."
"Uh," I replied intelligently.
She gave me this look that usually meant 'What the hell are you
on' but my tired and short-circuited brain (helped along by that of-
fending heart-thing) interpreted it as 'Are you okay? You need
sleep. Go home and go to bed and don't get up for at least eight
hours - '
"Is there something on my face?"
Ugh why can she not be romantic for once and go along with what
I am thinking and - hold it, brain, enough thoughts like that -
I forced myself to blink, and think of a clever retort, but all I did
was blurt out, "God, I need sleep."
I think she smiled, which was a good thing in my book; never mind
if it was because of me - in fact, it would be a good thing if it was
because of me - "That was very...random," she remarked, ducking
her head next to mine, and I was still wondering if that qualified
as a smile or not. "Well?"
"Well what?"
She sighed exasperatedly and continued in a tone that suggested
she was lecturing a particularly slow five-year old child. "I think
we're done for tonight. Come on," she said brightly, lightly slapping
me upside the head, "Let's pack this up and go home."
---
"How would you know?"
Why yes, indeed, how would you know? It was a very simple
question that could go both ways. Knowing him, though, as the
densest human being on this good green earth, it would swing to-
wards the logical route.
"Know what?"
I wanted to smash his head against the table. "I lost track of the
line I was debugging," I answered, pointing to the morosely blink-
ing cursor and tracing a line down the debugger window. "All I
know is that I'm on a hundred-something..."
As expected he did the equivalent of barging into a locked room:
he instantly took hold of my laptop and faced it towards him, rub-
bing his chin in a vaguely aggravated fashion. "What the hell are
you coding a hundred lines of assembly code for?" (TBC)
MP Soliloquy
Drops of iron gall on paper it bled. And
slowly dispersed through the time-locked
fence. Jeanella Klarys Pascual
GlanceIt's just one quick glance too many.
"...I can guarantee you'll be dismissed thirty min-
utes earlier, and..."
"Hey! What're you doing here?"
"Our prof dismissed us early, said something
about being too lazy to teach today--"
She blinks, and blinks some more, twirling a pen-
cil around slim fingers automatically. It's an un-
fortunate habit, resulting in countless incidents
of broken lead and embarassing moments
(some of which happen to happen in the pres-
ence of--)
She blinks again, and brown eyes meet similarly-
coloured ones, flashing behind eyeglasses.
It's just a split second.
She tries to paste a nonchalant look on her face,
and it works; he continues walking as if she was
a stranger. A stranger who he'd caught glancing
one time too many.
Luckily her cousin doesn't notice her momentary
lapse of poise and continues on with her one-
sided conversation. She clears her head just
enough to smooth everything over. From the cor-
ner of her eye she peers down as he goes down
the stairs, spiky tufts of black and brown clearly
distinguishable.
She restrains herself from saying outright that
she wants to go and she wants to go now be-
cause she wants to see where he goes and--
"Where are you going next?" She manages to
say, nudging her long-haired cousin.
Jill starts walking. She smiles. Although Carla's
liking (it didn't even start out as a liking, Billy and
Joseph started teasing her so much about the
spiky-haired teen that she actually, eventually,
came to like him) for Andrew (Drew as his close
friends called him) had been brought up many
times, Jill never seems to catch on. "Chem 16,"
she says in a way of an explanation. "Pavilion I."
"Oh. Well, let's go then."
They tread the stairs, and she subconsciously
starts looking for him. She sees Jay (and inter-
nally smiles; she knows for a fact that Jay and
(An)Drew are roomates so naturally they'd be to-
gether) at the far end of the second floor, and
she tries to wave. For some reason Jay man-
ages to miss her, and she lowers her hand
quickly in embarassment. She starts a conver-
sation with the smiling girl beside her.
"Um, when's your next long exam?" She says
awkwardly, watching her feet as they walk the
corridors of the second floor.
"I have no idea; it looks like our prof doesn't even
know if we're going to finish the stupid book,
and..."
Suddenly everything is tuned out once more. As
they round the corner leading down to the first
floor, the spiky-haired boy (man) comes into
view, having just thrown something into the near-
est bin.
Their eyes lock once more, and before she can
even realize what she's doing, she doesn't break
the contact.
It's like a magnetic pull between them; there's
something deep in his dark brown eyes, some-
thing that just doesn't want to let her go.
He blinks, and looks away. She blushes, but she
can't keep her eyes from straying to the side and
searching his face for a telltale blush.
A faint rosy blush settles over the bridge of his
nose.
She giggles inwardly, a feat that she keeps quiet
admirably: maybe, just maybe, Andrew...
"...something about the finals and I can't wait for
this semester to end!" She holds on to Jill's voice
and pulls herself back into reality, back into
treading the dreary halls of this building, back
into worrying about the next test and next pres-
entation and her life in general.
But somehow, she thinks, as a smile threatens
to tug at her lips, the world seems a little brighter.
xxx
"Hey," Joseph starts, nudging her shoulder. "Is it
just me, or is it that your normally-ice-cold-guy
looks kinda...happy?"
She blushes, feeling the heat rush to her face as
she shoves the teen roughly. "Hello? He is not
my guy, thank you very much!" she says loudly,
rolling her eyes.
She doesn't have any idea why she said that just
as when they walk past Andrew and his circle of
friends. She doesn't have any idea why she
raised her voice just so. She doesn't have any
idea why she wants him to hear.
She bites her lip, fiddling with her university key-
chain as they tread the sea of people that is the
cafeteria. No matter how she wanted to deny it,
yes, Joseph was right: the Chemical Engineering
student did look happier than usual. For the past
few days she had been spotting him laughing,
carefree and genuine. A smile seems always to
be around, lurking at the corners of his mouth.
She couldn't help but associate it with the fact
that she had seen him smiling every time after
they had locked eye contact.
In fact, his face was brighter as he talked ani-
matedly with his friends, who were standing
around him, looking slightly awed, probably at
the sudden change in personality.
They had exchanged introductions during the
first day of enrollment. Manual registration had
reared its ugly head, and half-day-long waiting
in line wasn't as uncommon as one might think.
However, she was lucky; since she was one of
the few people enrolled in her course, Multime-
dia Arts, their line wasn't as long as the others.
It was here that she learned that his name was
Andrew.
He had smiled at her that day, a smile that had
seared itself into her memory.
After that, however, he had proved himself to be
one of those people who are nice at first, but for-
get your name in a split second. She swore that
she would forget him too, but sometimes, the
harder the mind tries to forget, the harder the
heart tries to hold on.
The heart, how did the heart get dragged into
this?
How did she fall for someone so unreachable
and cold?
Every so often, a glance would be thrown, a
quick peek over her shoulder, a shy roving of
hopeful brown eyes. (After which a very irritated
long-haired cousin would roll her eyes and sigh
at their 'blindness' for each other.) They had an
uncanny way of meeting, of being in the same
common area.
She wonders if these are pure coincidence, or if
somehow, for some reason, even with the small-
est sliver of hope, that the encounters have a
reason behind them.
"Carla," Jill's quick jab at her ribs, once again,
pulls her back into reality. "Let me see your
classcards,"she pleads, knowing full well that
given Carla's obsession with less-than-perfect
grades, it would take more than a single request.
"Mmah, wait," she searches through her bag dis-
tractedly at first, then in worry as she realizes
that the record of her grades isn't there, the vital
piece of paper that would enable her to continue
her studies for another year. "Oh. Oh no, I
must've left it in the Registrar's Office!" She zips
her bag closed hurriedly. "I'll dash back!"
Somewhere in the back of her head she giggles,
even if her rational voice is starting to panic. She
is going to pass by the place where Andrew is,
and that is more than enough to send her stom-
ach exploding in millions of silver butterflies.
She starts to sprint back, bag close to her chest,
mind spinning with a face that has haunted her
dreams for almost a year.
She runs past the place, determined not to look.
Determined not to blush, determined not to show
that she cares for him. Even if she just feels
something behind his eyes whenever they lock
eye contact. Even if she just knows that it's more
than just that.
She wants him to feel the same coldness that
she went through, whenever they would see
each other and she'd attempt to greet him,
whenever he walked past with cold indifference
and even a hint of haughtiness, as if she wasn't
worthy to be part of his world.
(And every single day she feels just like that, be-
cause he's the star of his own hypothetical show
and she's just another backstage hand.)
Sometimes she wonders if he's thinking along
the same lines. Sometimes she wonders if she
would just let her guard down and just act out
her real feelings whenever he's around.
And she made the mistake of glancing back.
The first thing she notices is the genuine smile
and hint of a laugh, an emotion that looks foreign
on his face.
The next thing she notices is the just-enclosed
hand in his, a smooth, white hand that belongs
to the person next to him, a brunette with curly
hair and stunning facial features; a model, a
stereotype.
She feels cold alright, but this one has nothing
to do with the chill of the night air as she sprints
under the lampposts. This has something to do
with the failures crashing down on her, with the
nights lying on her pillow and staring up into the
ceiling, with the songs in her head that she has
dedicated to him, with the dried streaks of tears
on her pale cheeks when she dreams of red and
black and mixed-up spikes.
She likes to glance, and has made so many as-
sumptions about it.
This time, she's just had one glance too many.
xxx
She stares out into the open sky, watching the
orange haze fade into deep indigo. She listens
to the music filtering through her earphones with-
out really listening, because her mind's blank
and her heart's nothing but a hollow chamber of
dull memories. (TBC)
Stories continued on our website: upparser.com