To Tweet or not to Tweet

A lot of people have been tweeting but after the first to a million hype race that the husband of Demi Moore and CNN had a lot of people are now signing up. Even Oprah signed up and I bet some person out there will try and be relevant by joining the Twitter network.

In retrospect, microblogs are becoming very  popular because of myriads of reasons but probably one of these reasons is that people just don’t have time to read a very long post. Even with all the speed we have right now we still don’t have time.

Blogcation

I have taken a Blogcation but I promise to resume my blogging about my new life experience.

Cheers all.

Runescape sets a record

Guinness World Book of Records officially recognizes Runescape as the largest free MMO and the second largest MMO. There are about a million paying members and about five million free account users and since Runescape those not separate players per server it is possible though not plausible to meet them all.

Many changes were applied since I started playing but IMO these changes are for the best in order to avoid an imbalance game economy and discourage cheater though the said same changes have eliminated some of the features that I hated and loved (hated: PVP ambushes, loved: pricing way too low or high).

Runescape does not require the latest CPU or is not a memory hog but having a good PC does help in game play and factor in a fast internet connection however these are not necessary unless you are an ultracompetitive player.

This is not a game for eye candy or jump-whilst-I-chop-your-head-with-a-twisting-slash lovers but this is for people who likes to plan ahead and live in a semi real world.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/runescape-recognised-as-world-s-largest-free-mmorpg

Personal memories of 9/11

It was between 8 PM and 9Pm then Philippine time and I just came from teaching a class and was walking home when a friend texted me to look at the TV and I was thinking it could just be another one of those useless show in the Philippines.

When I reached home my mother was watching TV and I saw a view of the twin towers from the water. One of the towers was burning and I was in shocked. I’ve always dreamed of going to the World Trade Center since I was a small boy and this bastion of my aspiration was burning. I keep my cool since I remembered that the tower had survived a bomb attack during the 90’s and I did not expect anything worse than a couple of burned floors.

I asked the people in my house what happened and they replied that a plane collided with the building and before that statement was finished another airplane collided with the building. As shocked as I was I watched the entire proceeding until one of the buildings collapsed.

I knew then that the world we live in would never be the same again.

Runescape Evolution

I am an avid Runescape (http://www.runescape.com) player though I’ve stop for two year or probably more and one day decided to play again. I was surprised by the new features added on to it. This game evolves somewhat faster than most MMORPG and has been there since 2001 which is very old for an MMORPG.

Unlike other MMORPGs Runescape does not require you to download a CD or DVD worth of installer bytes and you don’t have the hassle of trying to configure your video card. The only things need are a JRE (Java Runtime Environment) and a web browser.

The game also is not a hack-and-slash type it requires you to deal with a world economics and level all or some selected skill up in order for the player to produce commodities of value.

Of course those used to high end graphics will find the game primitive but this game is not suited for superficial play.

The game is free but a subscriber can have access to other features of the game that makes it more interesting to play though this requires a credit card.

All in all Runescape will continue to evolve and get new members. IMO the business model must be working

Juan Dela Cruz can code?

Sometimes I really have to shake my head when I encounter somebody who claims that they can code in the language I ask them to code in. Not because you can code the infamous “hello world” in that language does not mean you can program in that language.

In the Philippines this is a common occurrence and you really have to sift out the wheat from the chaff. These are not your everyday fresh graduates because if you look at their school records they did very well in other subject but the thing is they just can’t code.

Where does the root of the problem lie? I don’t really know but I do have my opinions on the matter.

One of which is that the graduates just coded to have high grades, the grade not the learning was the motivation and once the subject/course requirements was met they did not proceed to learn the nuances of the language.

Another is probably that as a student they did not use the resources available to them or rather misused it. A classic example is when students misuse their internet time, many schools have this resource available to enrollees, to prettify their networking pages with CSS rather than research for materials that me enhance their skill. Trust me I’ve encountered people who can create beautiful to dastard layouts of Friendster using customized CSS and yet can’t use the same principle when they do their web pages.

And IMO the saddest of them all is the instructor did not have sufficient mastery of the language or was not able to motivate the student to learn the language and the even worst part is that once these graduates start teaching the vicious cycle continues.

Pointing out the problem will not solve anything as the adage goes so in turn I would like to invite those who want to learn or learn with us to join http://www.qtechbpo.com/forum/ and post their questions or answers. We will try and assist you in the right way meaning we will help you but will not do your assignments for you.