Most organizations heavily depends on Information Technology (IT) to function. Thus, system security and stability become the greatest concern of system administrator, entrepreneur, and individual user of computer.

Has your business incurred losses due to sudden network slowdown and system attacks? Are your confidential data safe from internal and external hackers? Has computer virus and other form of malicious software crawl in your network and compromise your system integrity?

Out of 64 countries, the Philippines ranked 47th in Information Technology (IT) Industry Competitiveness Index for 2007.

This is the result of the study, The means to compete: Benchmarking IT industry competitiveness conducted by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) sponsored by Business Software Alliance (BSA), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world.

Microsoft Office 2007 is sold at 80 pesos! That's less than two dollars. Yes, it is displayed and sold in stalls along Colon Street, Cebu City. The oldest street in the Philippines becomes the venue of software piracy.

Those who installed illegally acquired software in their PC have many reasons as you can imagine. Some say buying pirated software is the best alternative to very expensive proprietary software. Another argue that if it's not used commercially, there is nothing wrong about it. Some point out that without that pirated software, they can not run their PC because license is too expensive for an ordinary user.

The applications for developing online help are expensive! Among the top application for developing online help is RoboHelp. However, RoboHelp is expensive enough to discourage the casual user.

For aspiring technical writers, trying HelpNDoc is beneficial. HelpNDoc is now widely used and becoming popular. Aside from it is easy to use, its free!

We have produced excellent online help using the free version of HelpNDoc.

Here's the publisher's description of HelpNDoc:

What can you expect from a career in technical writing?

Do I really need to use Microsoft Office - or will OpenOffice do just fine for desktop productivity?

Just recently, I say goodbye to Office 2003 and say hello to OpenOffice.

Consider these things:

You need to pay for Microsoft Office (and it's expensive!) while OpenOffice is free:

I just stumble the term, ethical hacking. The term get my attention when I learn that this year's recipient of the prestigious Timothy Fidel Memorial Award is a Filipino. He is Alexandar Ramos, a computer forensic analyst of the Philippine National Police (PNP). He was awarded for his outstanding role and analysis of digital evidences in a multi-jurisdictional investigation involving 7,000 hacked PBX's/voicemail systems worldwide.

Is hacking ethical? Or, does hacking becomes ethical?

Cebu has always been hosting great things! If my lolo is alive, he will remind me about the great Battle of Mactan. If my lolo is here, I will detail to him the success of ASEAN summit, and I will boast to him the Cebu ICT 2007 International Conference and Exhibition that will be held on June 26-28, 2007.

And if he is still awake (as great things sometimes tire us, young and old), I will replay about the 1 million Cebuano votes and the historic oath taking of President Arroyo in Cebu.