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These days, more and more residences worldwide are getting connected to the internet, thus bandwidth has become an issue in addition to plain internet efficiency. On the other hand, what is more important is the fast loading of your website. Site owners are more concerned on how the website will sustain financially. There are a lot of ways on how sites will perform well, but the simplest amongst them is to limit the loading time of your website.

Websites should perform well because this will increase site visitors, search engine rankings, and most importantly, sales. One reason why websites cannot perform well is because the site is heavy. There are factors on the site that are not loading properly because of heavy files. Correcting this issue is not easy since this will cost you time and money. Long load time of sites will possibly mean loss sales, loss of rankings, and the cost on the pay per click program involvement. There is a tendency that customers became impatient when your site takes too long to load and go elsewhere to find what they are looking for. Moreover, when your visitor is frustrated of what he expects to see, you drive them away. Unless you provide a fast loading efficient website that will increase visitors and satisfy them with services, it is unlikely to make them repurchase such service and come back in the future for other transactions.

In criminal offenses, there would be no crime when there is no law punishing it. That explains why various crimes done through the internet still persist these days. In cases where the offenders are caught, court proceedings won't go so well because only the part of the offense which is governed by the Revised Penal Code (RPC) is being litigated. The main bulk of the offense, the cybercrime, is usually left untouched. This is the main issue; yet, the current RPC is still inadequate to deal with such matter. Hence, the government's highest monitoring body for the conditions and status of Information Technology in the Philippines is now putting pressure on the legislature to propose a bill against cybercrimes.

 The Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) define cybercrimes as those offenses done in the realm of the internet which, just like usual offenses, have grave and concrete effects to the ones who are affronted. The crimes identified are hacking, identity theft, phishing, spamming, website defacement, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, malware or viruses, child pornography, and cyber prostitution. Such crimes are not yet punishable under the country's criminal law. That is why there is a need for a legislative action to eventually make each of the aforementioned offenses become a felony in order for perpetrators to be punished in accordance with the law.

 CICT is very hopeful that increased awareness and support will push the Congress to finally pass a bill against cybercrimes. The commission endorsed the "Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2008" wherein four cyber-related bills authored by different lawmakers are consolidated. A representative from the Council of Europe, an organ of the European Council, also joined the technical working group in refining the bill a year prior to the endorsement. Such representation is meant to "harmonize" the bill with European standards on cybersecurity. It has to be considered that such crimes are not solely confined to one nation but rather that they traverse territorial boundaries considering that the crimes are committed in the World Wide Web..

Currently, CICT feels that there is an increasing support from private sector groups. The Business Process Association of the Philippines (B/PAP) which represents the outsourcing industry is an example. The said umbrella organization supports such bill because it infers that once the country is secured from different forms of cybercrimes through existing and enforceable laws, it would be easier to sell the services that are done in the country to foreign investors. The bill would ensure that the clients are well covered when we speak of cybersecurity in the Philippines.

With these, it can be said that the current conditions the country is facing calls for progressive and up-to-date legislations. Neighboring countries like Singapore and Malaysia have already adopted such measure. Unluckily though, the bill is hampered by the other so called "more important" considerations discussed in both Lower and Upper House of the Congress in the Philippines. It is already five years since the bill was endorsed, yet, the Congress still fails to accommodate it. While increased support and awareness regarding cybercrimes becomes more apparent, hopefully ,the legislature will finally act on this issue.

As Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) continues to thrive in the Philippines, various sectors become increasingly responsive to the needs of this industry. In fact, the education sector and the government are adopting measures to support Philippine outsourcing by developing initiatives and design curriculums meant to equip graduates with sufficient competencies essential for the continued success of the industry.

            A case in point is the creation of a talent working-group meant to offer insights on labor and employment market trends, issues and directions, and plays "applicants' advocate" role during the design and testing of talents. CHED, DepEd, TESDA, and the umbrella association of outsourcing firms in the country, BPA/P (Business Processing Association of the Philippines) spearhead the campaign in preparing students to be ready for possible employment once they graduate.

            Aside from these, there are also partnerships between companies and universities in the pursuit of modernizing the curriculum to be more industry relevant. One school in Makati is currently strengthening its use of the English language by transforming the call center English program into a required English conversation class. Another school responded by way of providing a call center elective to graduating students wherein those who pass are guaranteed with call center jobs after graduation.

The various government agencies and educational institutions initiated the said activities the moment they found out that graduates are actually not equipped enough for them to qualify for employment in BPOs. Research studies show that out of the 400,000 fresh college graduates every year, only a quarter are proficient in the command of the English language, and are eligible to work in call centers and various BPOs. There is a glaring discrepancy between the jobs the industry can provide and the pool of workforce produced every year by college institutions. The industry can provide 600,000 new jobs by 2010. This can never be filled up by the few qualified graduates at hand.

For the mean time, various efforts are being adopted in order to improve the employability of graduates. The outsourcing industry provides a remarkable number of opportunities. Therefore, it is worthwhile to know that the government and the concerned sectors are finding ways in order to meet the said demand. After all, those efforts are for the benefit of all; on the part of the firms who are seeking assistance, and on the side of a nation where unemployment remains a pressing issue.

The financial indecision that occurs from the credit crunch is likely to lead to many outsourcing deals being renegotiated, reduced in scope, or terminated in 2009. The International Law Firm Pinset Mansons warns the industry that many investors would probably go into dispute.

The Law Firm also stated that long-term transformation projects may be delayed or terminated because businesses will most likely look at short-term cost cutting rather than at the longer-term benefits.

Many IT outsourcing deals come under pressure during times of financial uncertainty. This is because a better deal could be done in the depressed market or the anticipated level of expenditure on transformation is no longer sustainable.

Pinset Mansons recommends that businesses review their current outsourcing contracts so they would understand their options such as get-out clauses. They may also plan for the best strategy in advance.

Some companies, however, may use the credit crunch to outsource, it was reported yesterday and was found out that the credit crunch will "drive a new wave of outsourcing and offshoring in financial services as cash becomes tighter".

The growth of outsourcing industry today is indeed unstoppable. But according to the research and consulting firm Forrester Research, jobs have been lost in the IT sector in the United States because software outsourcing is actually low paying IT jobs. Among these low paying jobs are software programming, computer support specialists, and/or computer operators.

The high paying jobs are system analysts, network analysts and research analysts that are still dominating in the market as well. The jobs in this sector estimated the growth at a steady rate of 4% to 5% every year. It requires domain knowledge and idea about the internal working of IT systems and business process in this area. In software outsourcing these qualities are difficult to come through.

The jobs that are not affected by software outsourcing are system analysis and application development, which the rate increased of 6% per year. The reason of this increase is that the on-going demand of these areas is still increasing.

By outsourcing to low-cost countries like India and The Philippines, software outsourcing job rate would probably increased, but buyers still need in-house workforce as well to customize and upholder software. Large numbers of foreign companies are shipping jobs in Offshore Software Development, BPO and Call Centers to their Indian contributors or contractors, in India or The Philippines with a mind set of cutting costs by way of Offshore Outsourcing.

According to a research report, the forecast of software outsourcing industry in the near future might be declined. In addition, attraction of cost savings in software outsourcing is still very high and because of that, increase in jobs like software programmers will be extremely less.

Furthermore, the market of software outsourcing which has major costs savings today will decrease by 2008. Major reason behind this is the decreasing gap between the US salary and the outsourcing countries such as India, as it will lower the salary in US. While in India and other offshore software development countries, salary rise will be very high and this will also decrease the costs saving because of lack of availability of resources.

It is true that the offshore outsourcing industry is still increasing, and still surviving, because of lower costs from countries like India and Philippines, who really dominate in this industry.

A pervasive notion describing the impetus responsible for the flourish of Philippine Business Process Outsourcing says that a large part of the workforce is proficient in the command of the English language. Among its Asian competitors, it is undeniable that the Philippines has an edge to fluently converse in English with foreign clients. Together with astounding technical know-how, the workforce' language advantage ables them to carry out their tasks in a more satisfying and efficient manner.

However, there is an observation from a research institution that Filipinos' proficiency in English is waning down. In a study last 2006, the results (entitled "Self-Assessed English Competence and Personal Usage of the English Language") shows a considerable decline of English proficiency when compared to previous researches in 1993 and 2000. The Filipinos' ability to think and speak in English, and as well, understand spoken English has declined.

Just recently, the Social Weather Station (SWS), the institution responsible for the said study, conducts the same survey assessing the Filipinos proficiency in the English language. The 2008 survey, commissioned by the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines and the Makati Business Club, has remarkable results as it shows recovery of competence in the usage of English. The results are summarized as follows:

In terms of understanding spoken English, 76 percent of the respondents replied in the affirmative, compared to 65 in 2006, 77 in 2000 and 74 in 1993.

Asked if they read English, 75 percent said yes, up from 65 in 2006. The score was 76 in 2000 and 73 in 1993.

For writing, 61 percent said they could do it in English, a substantial gain from 2006's 48. It marked a return to the 61 in 2000 and was also better than the 59 recorded in 1993.

The speaking English score, at 46 percent, was an improvement from 2006's 32 but remained below the 54 in 2000 and 55 in 1993.

In terms of thinking in English, the latest score was 38 percent, a gain from 2006's 27 but below 2000's 44 and 1993's 42.

Lastly, only 8 percent said they were not competent in any way in terms of the English language, better than in 14 in 2006, but lower than to 2000 and 1993 which were both 7.

The survey was conducted at the first quarter of this year with a respondent of 1,200 adults. The SWS said 13 percent of the respondents were from Metro Manila, 44 percent from Luzon, 20 percent from the Visayas, and 23 percent from Mindanao.

The recovery seems substantial, yet, it does not fully regain the great performance shown in the previous surveys. However, it provides some sort of comfort as it gives desirable impression to the flexibility and competence of the Filipino character in general. And how this implicates to the Philippine outsourcing industry? It nevertheless provides a form of a moral booster to the workforce to continually perform well in the field of business process outsourcing. At the same time, it also reminds everyone else in the industry not to be complacent with the country's renowned status as a home to a good English-speaking workforce. The trend changes from time to time. Hence, further improvement among ourselves must be constantly done in order to maintain such status and to be more competitive in the global business of outsourcing.

 

Microsoft executives had already stated their intention for the cease of sale of licenses for the Windows XP Operating System. The final date of sale for the popular, long-running operating system will be on June 30, 2008. Some of the tech savvy had already begun the transition from the XP OS, to the new Vista OS. But many others didn't like the new one.

Most experts noted that the transition from Windows 2000 to Windows XP resulted many negative comments from the public. But it in the case of Windows XP to Windows Vista, the comments escalated. Many consumers who bought laptops or personal computers, with pre-installed Windows Vista OS, changed the OS to XP since they didn't like the new environment. Others noted that even though the specifications of the laptop or PC where fast, loading the Vista OS or loading programs in the Vista environment took time to finish.

Recently, a petition was made on the internet, asking Microsoft to keep the sales of the XP until a new Windows OS version (Windows 7) will be on sale, or until a service pack for Vista would be released to the public to answer their hordes of issues regarding the new OS. Microsoft said they would reconsider changing their deadline, but still they stood stern on their decision.

People nowadays rely too much on the information and services offered on the internet that most of them do not know the threat that lurks in every click of the mouse. Today, you can never be certain about the websites you visit everyday. Most of reliable and legitimate websites could had been affected with malwares and it will be probably too late when you found out the problems it had caused.

Sophos, and IT security and control firm, recently published their report on the growing number of threats in cybercrime. The results of their research were alarming. The previous year's first quarter result showed that a webpage is infected in every 14 seconds. In this year's first quarter result, a webpage is infected in every 5 seconds. Some commonly visited websites are not spared from the wildfire of infected webpages. Their research also stated that US, China and Russia are the top three countries hosting web-based malware.

The best way to filter these infected webpages is for companies and individual businesses to invest heavily in their web security. One of the threats that could happen is data leaking. This is a serious problem to a company that deals with customer's confidentiality. This could be the case for companies with little or no web security. Also, be vigilant in surfing the net. No one knows when the next attack to your system could happen.

Iran's president Manhmoud Ahmadinejad has been a blogger even though he cannot update it regularly. The blog is entitled Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Personal memos. Despite the fact that he doesn't have enough time to write a new article, he's keeping a promise for his blog readers. He stated: "Since my last post on the blog, a few months have passed. But this doesn't ‎mean that I have not been keeping my promise of spending fifteen minutes per week ‎on it."

He wrote about his life, mostly about his belief and traditions of Islamic culture, his culture. Some articles talk about the Governance of Islam. An article caught my attention because he wrote a message addressing the Americans. But before doing that, he had a short prayer. He stated in that article that: "Were we not faced with the activities of the US administration in this part of the world and the negative ramifications of those activities on the daily lives of our people, coupled with the many wars and calamities caused by the US administration as well as the tragic consequences of US interference in other countries."

His blog really surprised me because he is trying to wage freedom from other countries who waged war to his country. He has the tool; using blog in communicating to the people around the world.

Internet is a path of information, lots and lots of information. People can get their own ideas on everything they want to write and know. But the biggest problem now is how to identify plagiarism. Plagiarism is now very rampant, streaming like wild fires in the internet. Articles may have different titles or different in some words but still it delivers the same thought- let us say it was just customized or paraphrased.

The big maze now is how the researchers will uncover the copycat study or article.

Dallas Research group provides some new solutions on this problem--the cut/copy and paste documents which is unethical practice in doing documentations.

This piracy leads to be a big problem especially in the medicine. "In medicine, researchers and clinicians rely on research, and so this has high potential for doing harm," said Harold "Skip" Garner, a professor of biochemistry and internal medicine at medical center and one of the project's co-leaders.

Garner and his colleagues originally devised their program, named eTBLAST, for biomedical researchers. "In this program you can check the originality of your idea and identify your competitors or collaborators" Garner said. Last year, their team select summaries from the MEDLINE database and put this eTBLAST to the test. They quickly discovered that their code works very well.

eTBLAST works...

1. eTBLAST compares the wording of other summaries in the database and retrieves the top 400 to 1,000 matches.
2. The algorithms then go sentence by sentence, scanning for match works. The program not only matches alternate spellings of the same word but also pick out synonyms of the words.

With the help of federal Office of Research Integrity, Garner's group conducted a more systematic review on the results of some medical research. The results were published in the journal Bioinformatics and follow-up commentary in the "Nature" journal. They found out that the potential plagiarism represented about 0.04 percent of MEDLINE's database or roughly 6,700 cases in all. With this, 1.3 percent of database's documents were represented by similar studies re-published by the same authors. The group aptly flagged more the 71,000 suspicious pairs as a whole.

So, cheaters beware! This unethical act will lead you to trouble...