Tuesday, July 28, 2009

My First Batch of Video Editing Works

Wait a minute, before you watch the videos.. its not a video where special effects were used to edit the video. Its just simply cutting scenes from a set of videos and creating a new video out of them.

The main videos I used are the SS501 Solo Collection Drama MV. Its a top of the line 20- minute music video by my favorite KPop group. Its a drama styled music video, wherein five songs from the five members are featured.

If you want to see the full MV, just click the links below. Its already English Subbed.
Credits to SuperStarSubbing.

SS501 Drama Part 1
SS501 Drama Part 2
SS501 Drama Part 3



I edited these videos so that each member can have their own MV or FV (fan video) as I call it wherein the fans like me can watch without needing to watch the whole 20 minute music video. Also the scenes from the teaser of each music video were not seen in the actual Drama stlye Mv so I decided to incorporate the teaser and the Drama MV.

My Videos: (click on the song title's to see the videos)

Kim Hyun Joong - PLEASE BE NICE TO ME MV


Kim Kyu Jong - WUSS UP


Kim Hyung Joon (baby) - HEY G



This one's a little rough since HJB has only a few scenes on the Drama MV so I used A Song Calling for You and Ur Man MV's too.

The first video I ever made was Park Jung Min's - ONLY ME.



This song was not included in the Drama MV but in the SS501 Tawain Special Hits Album. I really loved this song so I made an MV of it using the scenes in the SS501 Drama MV. Hope you like it.

Please comment/rate the videos.


Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince



I will just keep this short but concise...

I did not like it.. pretty much it won the spot of my least favorite Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban rose to second place in "least favorite" category).

Why?

Waiting for it for two years, you'd think that Warner made movie really special since it is the second to the last book in the series and in this series Dumbledore will die so I was thinking of a really grand movie. Yet when I watched it, it just looked like lines and special effects to me. The essence of the book was not captured by the movie.

I have read all Harry Potter books more than five times (each) and so I believe I can pick up what elements this movie were missing. And as I see it, it lost all key elements.

First, having read the book several times I do not reckon that the Burrow was ever destroyed. The fighting scene with Bellatrix in the Burrow was not called for and only caused confusion.

Second, Harry being told by Dumbledore about what are the possible Horcruxes were not included the movie. The question "How will Harry now what these Horcruxes are in the seventh movie?" comes to my mind. What are they going to do about it? Will they make Harry turn into Sherlock Holmes who can solve every problem with that small amount of clues they gave in the movie?

Third, Scrimgeour was not even introduced in the movie. Though this really isn't a major issue since his character isn't really major or central to the story.

Fourth, Albus Dumbledore being the greatest and kindest headmaster of all didn't seem so great in the movie. There was no tribute or grand funeral as it was in the book and it was a major disappointment that they didn't include that in the film.Watching the whole movie and seeing how it failed to capture the book is a real let down and felt like a toothache. I heard that the last book will be divided into two movies and I do hope that they (Warner) will do better if not the best for the last book in the series.


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

State of Computer Science Reseach


Last 2005, Mr. Wm. A. Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering, and the AT&T Professor of Engineering and Applied Science in the Department of Computer Science at University of Virginia was invited in the House of Science to deliver some points about the current state of Computer science research.

There he delivered four points of interest, the first of which is he took it out from the Science the Endless Frontier, the report that established our system of federal funding of basic research, Vannever Bush advocated a system in which the government funds research, but the research to be done is selected on its merit by the researchers themselves. He said that such a system would pay dividends to the nation in national security, prosperity, and health. It is hard to think of a better “poster child” for the truth of this assertion than Computer Science. Consider the abbreviated list:

• National Security: smart bombs, GPS, unprecedented “information awareness” for the war-fighter, unmanned robotic vehicles for surveillance, enormously enhanced training through use of virtual reality, etc
• Prosperity: a 3% national productivity growth fueled by information technology, dozens of multi-billion dollar per year industries (see Figure 1), internet-enabled business models, a 40-fold reduction in the cost of telephony, a global wireless phone system, etc.
• Health: Medical imagery (CAT scans, etc), cochlear implants, bio-sensors, smart prosthetics, smart defibrillating pacemakers, etc.

All of these were made possible by the federal investment in long-term, basic computing research. Like Mr.Wulf, I believe that it is a mistake to think of such funding as an “expense” and it must be regarded as an investment that demonstrably has had a huge return! Technology such as that listed above is the return on the investments made a decade or more ago. Investments made today in research will have equally large returns for our children and grandchildren; conversely, it is our children and grandchildren that will pay if we do not make them now.

Second, computing and computer science is in the unusual position of being both a challenging intellectual discipline in itself, and providing an infrastructure for other fields of science, engineering, and commerce. While the benefits to society listed above can be directly attributed to computer science, there are also many more benefits that have resulted from the use of computing in everything from cosmology, to weather prediction, and to health care. Across this broad spectrum, computer science has enabled a better quality of life for us all. This simply reinforces the notion that funds expended on computing research are demonstrably investment, not expense. They are, in fact, an investment with an enormous multiplier because advances in computing and information technology have immediate, direct and tangible benefits on virtually all human activities.

Thirdly, the idea that basic research begets applied research begets development begets benefits to society is both wrong and counter-productive when applied to public policy decisions. Instead, there is a marvelously rich and productive interplay between basic scientific discovery and application, between universities and industry, between societal need and technology. The bottom line, however, is that if federally-funded, university-based basic research weren’t “in the loop”, these enormously beneficial technologies would not exist. Basic research may not be the original source for all the benefits we enjoy from technology, but it is a vital and irreplaceable component of the rich system that produces them.

Lastly, computer science research is for and about the people. If computing research has a large multiplier because of its broad application, then the people capable of doing that research are yet another multiplier on top of that! Disinvestment in university-based research is a disinvestment in the production of the next generation of people, with far greater negative impact than simply the loss of the research.

In these points raised by Mr. Wulf we can see that at those times the funding for computer science research was being talked over by the government, specifically the US government. As a summary, the government is still arguing whether continued funding for such researches would be beneficial for both government and people. And as Mr. Wulf pointed out, with the proper research support and funding to universities and colleges across the country or even across the globe is beneficial to all, maybe not today but certainly for tomorrow.

Mr. Wulf also stressed the importance of cybersecurity. At that time, PITAC strongly identified the need for a better funded and stable program of long term basic research. The dominant model of cybersecurity, namely a perimeter defense, is flawed and incremental patches to it will never result in the level of security we need for today’s systems, much less the increased dependence we should expect for future ones. This is an excellent example where boldness and courage are needed, and hence where the perception of excessively low proposal success rates can have severe consequences. He emphasized that the future of researches is greatly affected by the resources available, in the mean point, funding is a great issue. New ideas are needed, just as in cybersecurity research, but instead of temerity, conservatism was imposed. Decline in the success rates of proposals indeed has a significant negative impact, however, we must have the courage to explore things and open for discoveries and innovations. One of the highlights of his words is that the thought of research funding is not merely an expense but instead it is an investment.

But on my research today, the government funding to computer science research now leads to the new trend of studying Green Computing. Go to IT related company webpages, search in the Internet or simply read IT magazines and you can see that the trend is going “green. Computers were and are still aiding people for more comfortable life but we can’t deny the fact that at some point the environment is compromised with these advances. Today, consumers are looking for products with good quality but eco friendly and energy efficient which lead to more research about this topic. Computer science researches are going for greener data centers, monitors, hardware and even researches for green softwares. Also, researches for creating products that might lessen the negative effects of computer radiation is also on going. Computers release electromagnetic field radiation.

This EMF is actually a type of radiation. It isn’t the same type as uranium or plutonium; rather, it is a non-ionizing radiation. This means that the emitted radiation is not strong enough to remove electrons, or ionize the atoms. Instead, it just excites the electrons. It already sounds a little Different devices emit different types and amounts of this EMF radiation. But then past and ongoing researches are trying to prove that these is still harmful since it can also premature cell division. The cells actually divide before the DNA is correctly established, which may possibly lead to mutation or can also bring cancer especially for those who have been in contact with computers in a long time (referring to years).

In past, computer science research tends to focus more on using and improving technology. Making it more flexible for implementation of different purposes, beneficial in different areas such as security, defense, healthcare or medicine, and education but nowadays it leans more on ways to make it more eco friendly but not comprising the quality and services it was built to do.

These are the Technical Topics in which Computer Science Researches are now focused:

<1.>
2. Commerce
3. Electronic Teaching
4. Information Retrieval, Databases, and Data Mining
5. Machine Learning
6. Networking, Distributed Systems, and Security
7. Robotics, Computer Vision, and Graphics
8. Software Systems and Architecture
9. Green Computing

Published Research Papers


THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Kevin Crowston and James Howison
School of Information Studies, Syracuse University
{crowston,jhowison}@syr.edu


Summary

What do we really know about the communication patterns of FLOSS projects? How generalizable are the projects that have been studied? Is there consistency across FLOSS projects?

These are the questions this paper responds to. Questioning the assumption of distinctiveness is important because practitioner-advocates from within the FLOSS community rely on features of social structure to describe and account for some of the advantages of FLOSS production.

To address these questions, this study examined 120 project teams from SourceForge, representing a wide range of FLOSS project types, for their communications centralization as revealed in the interactions in the bug tracking system. It was found that FLOSS development teams vary widely in their communications centralization, from projects completely centered on one developer to projects that are highly decentralized and exhibit a distributed pattern of conversation between developers and active users.

And therefore, it was suggested that it is wrong to assume that FLOSS projects are distinguished by a particular social structure merely because they are FLOSS. Our findings suggest that FLOSS projects might have to work hard to achieve the expected development advantages which have been assumed to flow from “going open.” In addition, the variation in communications structure across projects means that communications centralization is useful for comparisons between FLOSS teams. The social structure of Free and Open Source software development 2 found that larger FLOSS teams tend to have more decentralized communication patterns, a finding that suggests interesting avenues for further research examining, for example, the relationship between communications structure and code modularity.

Evaluation

The topic being raised is really interesting (since I can relate to it better than the other researches I found). At its conclusion it really did prove the points raised but the downside for me in this study is its methodology. Though indeed the results are gathered with evidence or supporting data this paper mostly is done by researching topics directly and indirectly related to it. The methodology only consists of gathering data and queueing them up and no other strategies were done (as I see it). As Kate quoted it, "The paper was more of a historical type of research rather than a technical research because they did not perform any experimentation and relied majorly on their literature."

With regards to the format, there were only two major parts: related literature and conclusion. The other parts of a “standard” paper were indeed missing and thus it can e understood that the conclusion and recommendation was drawn from the literature review.

However, I think this research still is effective since it provided sufficient data/ literature to support the study.


----------------------------------------------------
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE: THE USE OF OPEN SOURCE GIS STANDARD AND ITS IMPACT ON ORGANIZATION
by: Mahmoud Refaat Nasr


Summary

This thesis explores the reasons behind the poor level of adoption of open source web GIS software, and whether it is due to poor awareness about open source concepts or due to technical deficiencies in the open source tools. The research was done in 2 major phases; the first phase involved conducting surveys to measure the awareness and attitudes towards open source. The surveys examined three categories of people involved in the IT industry, namely: decision makers, software developers, and end users. The measurement of awareness was done by developing an Awareness Indicator and a Sentiment Indicator for each category. These indicators were developed by the author during the course of the study in order to provide a measurable and descriptive indication of the results. The second phase involved performing a comparative analysis between MapServer a leading open source web GIS tool, and three of the leading proprietary web GIS software, namely: ESRI’s ArcIMS, Intergraph’s GeoMedia WebMap, and MapInfo’s MapXtreme. The results of the research provide an insight on how different categories of people view open source, and demonstrate that lack of awareness about open source concepts and its competencies may be a major reason behind the poor adoption of open source solutions. The results of the comparative analysis also demonstrate that MapServer is technically equivalent to its commercial counter parts.


Evaluation

All I can say is that this is a very good research paper. Maybe its because I'm still inexperienced in judging the research work but I can't find I fault or major ones anyway in this paper. Upon reading this paper, you can see how detailed the framework is, how in depth the research has gone and the structure of the paper is complete and done nicely. Researching histories and related topics were complete with regards to the points the researcher raised in his objectives and also survey done in terms of testing the hypothesis of the study was also shown and detailed in the paper.

Though the survey done was fine as a suggestion, it would be better if he added observation and interview of organizations who were already using open source GIS standards as to support his survey findings. Format wise its done throughly and
But overall, its a pretty much detailed and good research paper.


-------------------------------------------
COORDINATION OF FREE/LIBRE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Kevin Crowston, Kangning Wei, Qing Li,
U. Yeliz Eseryel, and James Howison


Summary

The apparent success of free/libre open source software (FLOSS) development projects such as Linux, Apache, and many others has raised the question, what lessons from FLOSS development can be transferred to mainstream software development? In this paper, they used the coordination theory to analyze coordination mechanisms in FLOSS development and compare our analysis with existing literature on coordination in proprietary software development. The researchers examined developer interaction data from three active and successful FLOSS projects and used content analysis to identify the coordination mechanisms used by the participants. The researchers found that there were similarities between the FLOSS groups and the reported practices of the proprietary project in the coordination mechanisms used to manage task-task dependencies. However, it found clear differences in the coordination mechanisms used to manage task-actor dependencies. While published descriptions of proprietary software development involved an elaborate system to locate the developer who owned the relevant piece of code, The researchers found that “self-assignment” was the most common mechanism across three FLOSS projects.

This coordination mechanism is consistent with expectations for distributed and largely volunteer teams. We conclude by discussing whether these emergent practices can be usefully transferred to mainstream practice and indicating directions for future research.

Evaluation

Honestly, reading these research papers was easy but understanding them is a hard so most of the time I just skim through a whole section and judge it by its format and methodology. As I have observed, the drawbacks of the paper is just like the first paper I commented on. Though indeed the results are gathered with evidence or supporting data this paper mostly is done by researching topics directly and indirectly related to it. The methodology only consists of gathering data and queueing them up and no other strategies were done (as I see it). As Kate quoted it, "The paper was more of a historical type of research rather than a technical research because they did not perform any experimentation and relied majorly on their literature."

With regards to the format, there were only two major parts: related literature and conclusion. The other parts of a “standard” paper were indeed missing and thus it can e understood that the conclusion and recommendation was drawn from the literature review.

As a suggestion, using other data collection techniques to combine with the data or literature collected would be better.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Comddap Davao 2009



"Where the highest mountain in the land rises over the vast rich plains of Davao, where the king of Philippine birds soar over his domain, the giant of all Philippine I.T. shows once more unfolds its latest event. It’s COMDDAP Davao 2009 – the biggest I.T. expo held regularly in the South."

Last July 2, 2009 we attended the Comddap Davao 2009. This is a product exhibit of the Computer Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines.

Admittedly, it is geeky. LOL. But fun and informative at the same time. My friends and I signed up for the seminar to be given in the afternoon but fortunately we arrived there a little earlier and that's why we had a little time on our hands to make rounds on the exhibit area.

As I remember it, companies such as AOC, NEXUS, HEWLETT PACKARD PHILS. CORP., Canon, Dell, EPSON, MSI-ECS PHILIPPINES. INC., WORDTEXT SYSTEMS, INC., SMART, Gigabyte, Envision and other IT related companies where there to show their products on separate booths and stalls.

I was trying to get an idea for my research topic by looking at the products and I have seen a lot of Green IT related products such as a green computing based motherboards (from Gigabyte), laptops (mostly by Dell) and LCD monitors by AoC.

Later in the afternoon we joined in the seminar held by Mr. Celmer Santos of Jupiter System Inc, Nexus group. He introduced us to Jupiter Systems and focused more their Dealer Management System. If you want to outsource software developments especially those which focus more on car dealership and management you can visit to their site: http://www.jupitersystems.com.ph/

Jupiter Systems has a lot of services such as procurement, manufacturing, order management and dealership management system. And the one the Mr. Santos focused more on his talk is their dealership management system. A lot of well known companies such as Volvo, Mazda, Honda, Ford, Mercedes Benz, Toyota and other big car brands purchased their services. The general features of their dealership management systems are the following:
• Monitor Sales Executive Activities,
• Sales lead monitoring from initial inquiry to actual close
• Sales quotation processing
• support sales of new and used vehicles
• vehicle reservation and deposit collection
• vehicle inventory
• customer incident and resolution recording
• interface to manufacturer systems
• reports and queries
• highly graphical technician assignment and loading window
• customer appointment
• repair order and estimates
• customer/vehicle service history
• technician time in and time-out
• parts requisitioning and picking
• control parts and consumables cost

After Mr. Santos, Mr, Leonard Zapa from HP Invent took thestage and introduced us to HP's new product: thin client. It was a really informative topic and a very handy product. By the first three slides he already convinced me to buy the product (but I can't since I don't have dough haha). Thin clients are small and protable CPU like device but with lower memory since it doesn't have a hard drive. It has an IDE flash with a memory of 1-2GB which may seem as a disadvantage but it actually is very beneficial especially to task based users.

Thin clients are computing devices that function as an access device on a network. These solid-state devices connect over a network to a server where the bulk of the processing takes place. Thin clients have no hard drive, allowing for more secure storage of data and applications on the server. Thin clients offer the highest data security, lower total cost of ownership, increased energy efficiency, easier manageability and high reliability with a small chance of downtime to occur in the system or even none at all.

With no hard drive, fan or other moving parts, thin clients have a much longer lifespan than standard computers and use significantly less power. Lower maintenance costs are another benefit as software application updates, virus scanning and patches can be executed on the server. Thin clients offer significant savings in power usage over traditional desktops. This is realized not only in energy costs but reduced air-conditioning costs in some cases. With their long lifecycle thin clients allow companies to achieve energy savings targets and reduce the need for replacement equipment. Deployment costs are also reduced as thin clients can be remotely configured and do not need to be set up individually. Break-fix simply requires replacing the thin client.

In a Thin Client environment you can upgrade users quickly and inexpensively by updating application software hosted on servers, not clients. Not only do you have a more controlled and secure environment, but technical support costs are greatly reduced. These are long-lasting products with no moving parts, to not only reduce noise levels, but also lower maintenance costs. There’s even optional wireless connectivity support on select models.

Total Cost of Ownership*
• 80% less maintenance per year
• 25% capital cost savings
• 34% less in maintenance
• 23% less to operate
• 25% productivity increase

Other advantages of thin clients are:
• Control software, applications and files centrally
• Save up to 80% on maintenance costs
• Deploy out-the-box in under 10 minutes
• Support your legacy mainframe
• Effortlessly manage enterprise IT
• Use fewer support personnel
• Manage remotely with simple problem diagnosis
• Reduce hardware theft

The talk with Mr. Zapa was really fun and all of us were listening closely so that e could answer the questions he will give at the end of his speech. I was called to answer and the question was relatively simple but bad enough it’s not my lucky day and I just blurted out an answer with fully reading all the choices. Maybe and with the highest probability I answered wrong because of excitement. Going back to that experience my head just churns because I should have won a t-shirt from HP and a 2 gigabyte USB if I answered it correctly. What a shame. I became really interested in the product so I will feature it in my upcoming posts.

Going back to the COMDDAP, it was a very geeky but entertaining and time worthy event. It felt like being a small kid again locked up in a room full of candies and toys.


Photo credits to Ms.Kate Mariel Dizon


Motherboard from Gigabyte

LCD Monitors from AOC

Me advertising AOC *tehee*


From left to right (cham2x, dolor, angel,kate, Me (looking sleepy) and Karren)



Saturday, July 4, 2009

USEP Enrollment System Diagram

After the refreshing summer break, I forced myself to have me enrolled back to school. Kidding. Haha.. Honestly, (and I am not saying this because we are talking about the enrollment system tarpaulin) for the four years that I have been enrolled in the university, I still haven’t memorize the enrollment system in the university. If I were asked to do step by step guide on how to enroll I could do it if and when it is not the enrollment period, I have experienced it so I certainly can.

For New Students
1. Go to UGTO and fill up student records
2. Payment of fees (IC Local Council fee, Obrero Campus Student Council fee, collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
3. (For scholars only) Apply for a scholarship at the Office Student Services.
4. Enroll in ROTC or CWTS.
5. Go to your college adviser, submit or present all necessary documents, and secure a Pre-Registration form.
6. Fill up the Pre-Registration form and have your ad
7. Submit the Pre-Registration form to the encoder and secure Certificate of Registration.
8. (For scholars) Verify student accounts at the bookkeeper. (For non-scholars) Pay tuition fee at the cashier.
9. Submit all necessary documents/requirements and complete enrollment by getting stamped “Officially Enrolled” at the Registrar.
10. Apply for a library card.

For Old Students:
1. Payment of fees (Local Council fee, Obrero Campus Student Council fee, collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
2. (For scholars only) Validate scholarship at the Office of Student Services
<3. Go to your college adviser, submit or present all necessary documents, and secure a Pre-Registration form.
4. Fill up the Pre-Registration form and have your adviser to sign it.
5. Submit the Pre-Registration form to the encoder and secure Certificate of Registration.
6. (For scholars only) Verify student accounts at the bookkeeper. (For non-scholars) Pay tuition fee at the cashier.
7. Complete enrolment by getting stamped “Officially Enrolled” at the Registrar.
8. Validate library card.
PS: I don’t know about shiftees though. Fortunately, I never needed to shift or transfer or anything.

That sounds weird and stupid but its true that during the enrolment season I don’t know where to go and what to do and as a proof last enrollment I spent a whole hour lining up with the enrolling students for the Registrar to have my OJT clearance signed just to know that I just could go straight to the Registrar since it was a clearance for the summer classes. I don’t know why I tend to forget it, maybe its because of the heat, or because seeing how long the queues of students hat makes me stressed out even before lining up myself or maybe because my anticipation to the coming semester’s line up of classes and….professors. I usually just follow what my classmates do and where they go like a puppy. It’s okay since I am considering myself as a cute Maltese pup. Well, enough of my “funny” side comments.

Lot things have changed in the enrolment season this year. The Cashier and Registrar section are now more in order than ever and big tarpaulins that guides a student whether a new, old or a shiftee to how to enroll. What do I mean by the Cashier and Registrar being more in order? Well, in the past years I have been in the university during the enrollment season students’ crowd over that small place (small considering to the vast amount of students pouring in that area) that when one views the scene from the second floor it looks totally like fishes in a sardines can. Students sweating and elbowing each other, heat builds up due to the “no space to move even for air to pass” situation. I even remember that a line formed by ten students have branched out into two other queues creating two number eleven student thus creating confusion and tension. Another problem is that the Registrar and Cashier are just in the same area having the students lining up for the Registrar and Cashier standing back to back each other. When I was still considered as a scholar (since nowadays GSIS scholars are now told to pay their fees in the Cashier than just pass a green card to the bookkeeper), enrollment was such a breeze since I don’t have to wait long and have varicose veins protruding on my legs due to the amount of time I spend standing up and waiting for my turn at the Cashier. The Registrar isn’t really a problem to us, students from the Institute of Computing since we are only small in number or population that is why our queue time isn’t really that long if not none at all.

But then now, compared to the sardine can situation from before, only one line is being made for each Cashier and Registrar section. Regardless of the number of windows or service sections they have only one line is allowed making the flow of transaction more organized. Students don’t have to suffer smelling each others stench or even feel heat since space is bigger now. Guards are there give the students their numbers in the line and see if everyone is on their right line and that no one is making “singit” (pardon the term I used).


Photo Credits to: Harley Lovitos

In the Cashier area the seats are arranged in a certain fashion that makes the students take turns. If a window/service counter is vacant the student on the first chair would take that counter and so on and so forth. Also believed that due to the new Enrollment System (the computer sense of system) made by two professors from the Institute of Computing the service time was much faster than before, though I also think that the staff’s work ethics also helped in making the transactions move faster.

When I came inside the Engineering building I haven’t really noticed it since it was placed in a manner where the incoming person can’t notice it much but as I was going to the comfort room that was when I saw the Enrollment System Tarpaulin.


Photo Credits to: Kate Dizon

For me, I thought that this was better than what the university did last year to guide the enrolling students. It was much more arranged, detailed and the material used was much better since you can’t easily rip it. Being someone who forgets enrollment procedures it was nice to know that something like this was provided by the university and admittedly I didn’t really use it since just like the past years I just took the role of a puppy dog following where my friends would go and what they would do (this technique is faster and more convenient for me haha). But then I know people like me who have short term memory loss or to the shiftees and new student those tarpaulins would definitely come in handy.

Since the text in the picture above cant be read I just wrote down the contents of the tarpaulin below.

Enrollment Procedure for New students and Transferees

STEP 1 – Go To the University Guidance And Testing Office
o Encoding of Student Information.
o Identification No. Assignment.

STEP 2 – Office Of Student Services ( For Scholars Only)
o Scholarship Application.
o Releasing of Scholarship Card.

STEP 3 – ROTC/CWTS
o Registration and Sectioning of ROTC/CWTS.
o Releasing of ROTC/CWTS slip.

STEP 4 – College
o Present enrollment requirements.
o Advising / Pre-Registration.
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fee, Obrero Campus Student Council fee, collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding - Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.

STEP 5 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.

STEP 5 – Cashier (Paying Students
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.

STEP 6 – Registrar
o Submit enrollment requirements.
Form 138 (High School Card).
Photocopy of NSO Birth Certificate.
USEPAT Entrance Exam Result.
Admission Slip.
Medical Certificate.
Certificate of Good Moral (Original).
2 pcs. 2x2 recent ID picture.
Prospectus of the enrolled course.
1 pc. Long brown envelop.
Official receipt of tuition and other fees.
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.

[b]Enrollment Procedure for Old Students[/b]

STEP 1 – Student Accounts
o Check students’ accounts.
o Check balance.
o Clearance signing.

STEP 2 – College
o Advising / Pre- Registration
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fees , Obrero Campus Student Council fees, Collegiate Headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.

STEP 3 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.

STEP 3 – Cashier (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.

STEP 4 – Registrar
o Present Clearance.
o Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.



[b]Enrollment Procedure for Shiftees[/b]

STEP 1 – Student Accounts
o Check students’ accounts.
o Check balance.
o Clearance signing.

STEP 2 – Go to Former College
o Request to shift.
o Recommendation to shift.

STEP 3 – Proceed to New College
o Acceptance of Shiftee
o Advising / Pre- Registration.

STEP 4 – Go to University Guidance And Testing Office / Office Of Student Services
o Student Profile Updating

STEP 5 – Go back To New College
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fee , Obrero Campus Student Council fee, Collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.

• STEP 6 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.

• STEP 6 – Cashier (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.

• STEP 7 – Registrar
o Present Clearance.
o Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.

As you can see the description I have given before and what the university wrote in the tarpaulin are just the same only it’s more detailed in the tarpaulin. It’s easy to understand which I think was a major consideration in making the tarpaulin. At first glance and in the eyes of a new student the tarpaulin made must be okay or perfect. It has served its purpose of guiding the students in the enrollment period but if you dissect every detail in the picture you can find inconsistencies or imperfections.

For some one who knows how to create use case diagrams it might occur to you to that it has faults but mostly are just minor faults. As for me, I am not really good in creating a use case diagram but I want to suggest things that would make the diagram on the tarpaulin a little bit better. For one the sizes of arrows should be uniform in size and length. Another would be that the actors in the diagram should also be in uniform form: height and width. Doesn’t it look funny when the other actor which represents the student should be long and thin in one part and stout and chubby in another? Another would be that if one can notice that below an actor a box is there wherein inside it figures such as 1/2, 1/1, and 2/2 are placed. Now, up to this day I don’t know what that means and even if I ask other people they neither not know what it means nor not notice it. If I were to make a guess a meaning out of those figures I would say that it would probably mean that in that service station it accommodates two out of one server, one out of one and two out of two servers respectively. But even that don’t make sense. I have enrolled a couple of times and I was or even observed such instances. Overall, if those figures are not needed then it should just be taken away but if it has significance in the system it should be explain in a legend so as to avoid confusion.



Just like Kate, I find that long arrow the biggest mistake in the diagram. For a newbie it certainly looks like its pointing to nothing. Even to a person who is experienced in making diagrams it still looks like it points to nothing. It gives a feel that a box/comment or maybe an actor is supposed to be there but was just forgotten. Why not connect it to the other arrow and just make one curved arrow? I can’t really see the purpose of making that arrow instead of curved one. Even if its not a use case diagram or lets say it’s a entity relationship diagram it still won’t be acceptable since you must connect it to another object or if you want to say that it will go to the diagram below it needs an object that will say that from that point onwards it is cut from the diagram above. It adds confusion both for those who knows how to create diagrams and for those who don’t.




Now on this picture above, as Kate said only scholars are required to verify their student accounts – so why is it that in the diagram the scholars are told to go to the Cashier? What makes the matters worst, this is the case in all three diagrams therefore every scholar would proceed to the Cashier. Even those who have been student scholars in the university for many years now could be a victim of this since it might occur to them that the university might have changed the enrollment system that now says that they have to go to the Cashier for their student accounts. The scholars then will find it hard to doubt that wrong information since the mistake was inconsistent in all three columns and in every diagram placed in the university. Now if that were the case some scholars (the population who adhere to the enrollment system on the diagram) have lined up in the Cashier wasting their time and efforts just to be told that they weren’t supposed to be there. So I think that next time before finalizing any diagrams or enrollment system it should be double checked so as to become a good reference to the students and not as a liability that spreads confusion.

Though I think that there are still other things other than the Enrollment system diagram needs improvement for the next enrollment like providing more electric fans to the area since heat and long lines still tend to tire out the students making them look sweaty and messy. More chairs should also be placed in the area and that the numbers given by the guards should have more meaning and more use than just that of handing it to the Registrar just to prove that you were in the line. What’s the point of it having a number or text on the paper if that number or text doesn’t mean a thing? True that t has served its purpose, acting like a license for students to prove that they didn’t just pop out of thin air and that fairness would prevail but what I want to say is that since the object is already there why can’t we just use it properly. The guards should give and hand out numbers or papers of which the numbers on the paper are in ascending order or not in random. Like in my experience the guard gave me a paper number 36 while the one ahead of me has a number 6. Since the enrollment system was new to me that to me that time it caused me to be confused. I thought that the Registrar will just call the next number on the list so that made me wonder why my number was so far away to the one before me. The things we need are already here so why not use it properly, right?

Another thought would be that all payment to all fees should be paid only at the Cashier or bookkeeper (if you are a scholar). During enrollment periods, students have to line up and wait at three areas to pay certain fees. These three areas are rather distant from one another: one in the Collegiate Headlight Office near the Social Hall, then to the local council office a student’s college building and lastly to the Cashier located at the College of Arts and Sciences. And one can imagine the toll that this creates to the students because in all three stations they have to line up. In the Collegiate Headlight Office, wherein all students in the university has to pay there are only three to four available service stations and from this information alone one can see how ling the queues might be and how long a person’s queue time is. Even service time in this station is also a bit longer because there is no existing system which means things are done manually. If a certain employee takes a day off it only leaves three or less stations to serve the students. And to the local council office, only one or two people are there to serve all the students in that particular college and this task is also done manually. Now, I don’t know why all fees has to be paid separately from the Cashier. Why issue a Pre-Registration form first then encode it to the Certificate of Registration wherein in this COR all fees are now to be paid in the Cashier. If that would be the case, the students only have to line up in just one area. I think it would make things a lot more convenient for everyone and make the transactions finished faster. Though the heat and queuing up would still be there at least it is now minimize or lessen into one.

I think the things I suggested above can be done in the next semester since it doesn’t really need that much of preparation but the thing that I would like to suggest the most is why not do the enrollment online? If the university has enough resources and money creating and deploying an enrollment system online would be nice. It is convenient, fast and lessen hassle to the students and university employees. Admittedly, this thought needs a lot of analyzing to be done and hammered into a more detailed idea. I am not suggesting to eradicate the personal contact of students and of the university but I want to lessen it while not compromising but improving the enrollment system of the university. But as I said, its still needs time, resources and proper study before implementation.