Monthly Archives: November 2009

Interest in PC notebooks still growing: Lenovo

MANILA – Consumer interest in PC notebooks in the Philippine market
continues to grow, an official of Lenovo Philippines said Tuesday.

Vicky Agorrilla, Lenovo Philippines country general manager, said
the company is beefing up retail presence across the country to
educate, reach and engage with more consumers.

“Our retail presence is vital to build the Lenovo brand in the
country. Many Filipino consumers are buying ThinkPads from our concept
stores, which is why we have revamped our concept stores to include
Think-branded PCs, particularly the ThinkPads," she said.

Lenovo Philippines further raised its presence in the country
recently as it opened two new Lenovo Exclusive Stores in SM Cubao and
Robinson’s Ermita. 

Owned and managed by Lenovo’s business partners, Lenovo Exclusive
Stores are concept stores that carry the Lenovo logo and branding. 
Designed to let consumers see, touch, feel and experience the Lenovo
products, these concept stores display and sell Idea-branded and
Think-branded PCs, ThinkServer systems and ThinkVision monitors, as
well as Lenovo computer accessories.  All stores offer technical
support and services for Lenovo PCs.

The company also recently appointed Axis Global Technologies as its
newest distribution partner for Think-branded personal computers (PCs)
to address the growing demand from small-and-medium businesses (SMBs)
and large enterprises. Axis Global is one of the leading distributors
of computers, communications, and consumer electronic products in the
Philippines.
 
As Lenovo’s distribution partner, Axis Global will receive education
and training programs, comprehensive technical support and access to a
variety of sales and marketing tools and skill-building courses from
Lenovo.

SOURCE:  http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/technology/11/24/09/interest-pc-notebooks-still-growing-lenovo

15 Philippine firms start using Windows 7

MANILA – Microsoft officials on Tuesday said at least 15 Philippine
companies in different industries have already started using Windows 7
since its launch last month.

ESS Manufacturing Company Inc. (EMCI), a local business process
outsourcing firm that participated in the Windows 7 Early Adopter
Program, said the compatibility solutions of Windows 7 made it a lot
easier for the company to migrate to the new OS without the need to
recompile their legacy tools.

"We now run our programs in Windows XP mode within Windows 7," said EMCI Infrastructure lead Mark Cruz told reporters.

Cruz praised the new Windows Bitlocker to Go program, which extends
encryption to external drives. He said the new program obviates the
need to purchase third-party encryption software and allows them to be
more flexible in using external drives.

Ramoncito Balboa, EMCI Technology Deployment Manager, said other
built-in features in Windows 7 improved task efficiency and allowed
their company to move away from third-party applications such as the
snipping tool and file compression.

Renvi Martinez, Transnational E-Business Solutions president and
general manager, said Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 was a revelation
in terms of live migration and allowed for infrastructure optimization.

Armand Gacho, ACER Product specialist, also praised Windows 7 for
minimizing maintenance efforts and reducing systems risk for users.

19% of global IT workforce to use Windows 7

By the end of 2010, more than 7 million people worldwide in the IT
industry and at IT-using organizations or an estimated 19 percent of
the global IT workforce will be working with Windows 7, according to a
study by International Data Corporation.

IDC’s forecast for Windows 7 shipments shows a brisk uptake after
its October 2009 launch: 177 million units to be shipped by the end of
2010 and 272 million by 2013.

"In the scheme of total IT spending worldwide, the spending on the
177 million copies of Microsoft Windows 7 to be shipped by the end of
2010 will be small — barely 1 percent of total IT spending and less
than 5 percent of total spending on software. But Windows 7 means more
than revenue to just Microsoft. It will also drive revenue for hardware
companies, other software companies, service firms, and channel firms
in every corner of the globe," the IDC study said.

The July 2009 study, which was sponsored by Microsoft, showed that
350,000 IT companies that produce, sell or distribute products or
services running on Windows 7 will employ 3 million while another 4
million will be employed at IT-using firms.

IDC’s analysis of the IT services market also showed that for every
dollar of packaged software sold, there is another $1.24 in revenue to
IT service firms. On a worldwide basis, packaged software spending will
reach $311 billion by 2010.

SOURCE: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/technology/11/10/09/15-philippine-firms-start-using-windows-7

Filipino women aim to raise status of Pinays in Switzerland

A core group of Filipino women will undergo leadership trainings in
the coming months in preparation for their role as leaders and
ambassadors of the Philippines in Switzerland.

With an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Filipinos already in Switzerland,
the Philippine Embassy felt it is time for the Filipino community to
start being engaging Switzerland’s political, economic and cultural
spheres.

“I feel that with the increasing numbers of Filipinos, we have also
increasingly contributed to the economy of this country, being nurses,
accountants, many others. Even in the domestic jobs, we are
contributing a lot to this country”, Philippine Ambassador to
Switzerland Maria Theresa Lazaro told ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau in an
interview.

“It’s about time that we call the local governments, the state, even
the confederation council that the Filipino community is a growing
community, able to contribute more and therefore, there should also be
some requests for funds so that we are able to do more,” added Lazaro.

The Embassy rounded up a group of about 20 Filipino women over the
weekend for a peer-counseling seminar that included pep talks from a
Pinay psychologist and exercises on self-esteem, leadership and
teambuilding.

“Look at the US and the other countries, why are the blacks and the
Latinos prominent? Because they are not quiet, they are noisy. Because
they project themselves well. I think we have to do that,“ Lazaro told
the group.

Lazaro added, “You are not only Filipino citizens, you are Swiss.
You have every right to be noisy. You are able to project the country
at its best, and the Filipino at its best.”

Among the group was a lawyer, a psychologist, a kindergarten
teacher, a tourist guide, a bank accountant, pharmaceutical workers,
domestic workers and several nurses.

“This group will decide on their own. It will not be imposed by the
Embassy. We’re just trying to get leadership skills of these people,
trying to enhance their leadership skills,” said Lazaro.

Anny Hefti-Misa, the psychologist who facilitated the exercises said
as immigrants, Filipinas are able to overcome many challenges including
cultural and language differences and homesickness.

“We are not only survivors. We are actually winners,” Hefti told the group.

Flor Oberli, meanwhile, has lived in Switzerland for 34 years after
marrying a Swiss. She said the experience of Filipinas in earning money
“the hard way” will help new arrivals integrate faster into Swiss life.

The Embassy hopes that by being prominent members of the Swiss
community, these Filipinas can also help the Philippines in return.
Further trainings will be held to help in their integration and
participation in Swiss community life.

SOURCE: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/pinoy-migration/10/09/09/filipino-women-aim-raise-status-pinays-switzerland

Dong grants scholarship to 500 students

Third district Representative Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales turned over a
check worth P310,000 to the Don Jesus Gonzales High School (DJGHS) in
Barangay Pandacaqui here as payment for the enrolment fees of some 500
students.

Since he became a congressman, a total of 18,000 high school and
college students have been given scholarship grants by Gonzales in his
district.

He said that aside from DJGHS, other schools given scholarship
grants are the Arayat National High School with 133 scholars, Nuestra
Senora Integrated School with 50 scholars and San Fernando West with 50
scholars.

He said the Iskolar ng Dong program has grown from 1,200 scholars in 2007 to 7,000 in 2008 and to 18,000 this year.

"Ang mga scholars natin ay 9,000 high school at 9,000 ay college
coming from 40 high schools in Mexico, Arayat, Sta. Ana, Bacolor at
City of San Fernando. Habang ang mga college scholars ay nag aaral sa
DHVCAT, Assumption , PAC at iba pang colleges dito," Gonzales said.

The lawmaker said he has put much emphasis on education, adding that
coming from a poor family, he sees the value of education in uplifting
the quality of life on an individual and his family.

"Napakahalaga ng edukasyon kaya sa ating munting kakayahan ay
naglalaan tayo ng pondo para sa mga scholars natin. Inilalapit natin
ang mga eskuwela at unibersidad sa kanila para dito na sila mag aral at
hindi na kinakailangan pumunta pa ng Maynila," Gonzales added.

SOURCE: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/dong-grants-scholarship-500-students

 

Student Calamity Fund a response those in need back home

MANILA – When Boston University graduate student Thea Cuaso first
heard about tropical storm Ondoy (international code name Ketsana) a
few weeks back, she shrugged it off as "just one of those typhoons"
constantly visiting her home countty.

But when she logged in to her Facebook account, she soon discovered
Ondoy was different – all of a sudden, she said, her Facebook home page
was "literally flooded – no pun intended – with "messages of missing
students, of buildings… that people could seek refuge in, and of
people who had to leave their cars because the flood had reached their
windshields."

Jennifer Kelly, an MBA student at Harvard, meanwhile, was worried
about friends and family back home when she heard of the storm, but she
said she did not realize the gravity of the damage until she read
messages and photos about the disaster being posted online.

"There was no news whatsoever in the US so I could only get my information from friends and family," Kelly said.

Cuaso and Kelly were not alone. At that time, Filipinos across the
world could only watch in horror as those back home faced Ondoy’s wrath.

"I have seen the devastation of calamities first hand before and I
felt it was absolutely unacceptable not to help," Kelly, who once
worked in reconstruction efforts in tsunami-hit Aceh, Indonesia, said.

As news from the Philippines trickled in, she found herself
exchanging emails on how she and other Filipino students could raise
donations for the victims.

"Myself and a couple of students from Columbia (Gian Valerio) and
University of Pennsylvania (Bennett Aquino) and Harvard (Gena Chua)
were emailing each other about how we could raise a bit of money for
the victims," she narrated.

However, they soon found out it won’t be an easy task. They did not
exactly know the extent of the damage back home; they did not know
where and how to send their donations as quickly as possible; and, they
had to act quickly to reach the victims fast.

"That’s when I realized that there could be many students and
schools around the world trying to figure out the same things," she
said. Under these circumstances, the Student Calamity Fund (SCF) was
born.

SOURCE: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/10/31/09/online-bayanihan-typhoon-victims