8layer Technologies Inc

Power Up: The Acer Servers Launch

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:51:00 -0500

Deng, Meric, and I went to Acer’s newly renovated office last Friday, 20^th of August for the launch of their new line of servers. An array of their products were displayed at their reception area ranged from laptops to desktops, monitors to projectors.

Acer started with the best part of events… FOOD! Guests served themselves with food most people will only find during wedding receptions and big time parties and returned to the room where about 4 tables of 8 seats were placed, an intimate event.

Only a chosen few were invited to the event as the event is just the spark of a big bang event Acer is planning to create. Most of the people present are media personnel and Acer’s business partners including Intel and 8Layer! Yes, 8Layer and Acer has partnered to offer top of the line service!

General Manager Mr. Manuel Wong with Acer Android Phone

Mr. Manuel Wong, General Manager of Acer Philippines Inc. welcomed the attendees as he also introduced one of the new products that Acer will be delving into… android mobile phones! As he waved his own Acer Android Phone with the Ferrari look, the people dropped their jaws while taking a photo of the said phone, but the phone was not the star of the night (or day).

Then came Toti, the specialist for the Acer servers. Toti showcased the different servers that Acer currently holds and also showed their unique server setup called the Acer Gemini Server which became the focus of the event.

The Acer Gemini Server’s main advantage to other blade, tower, or rack servers is its high performance computing capabilities that cater to the high computing needs of banks and most insurance companies.

8Layer did not go to this event for no reason. 8Layer’s COO, Deng Silorio, was given time

Deng talking about 8Layer

to present who 8Layer is and how it can help the partnership as well as most small and medium business enterprises. Media got interested with our products and services that some approached our CEO, Mr. Meric Mara, for some questions and a quick exchange of business cards.

When the event ended, the people were in high spirits as if they’ve witnessed technologies at it’s best… and also received free chocolates! YUM!

8layer connects with ICpEP.se at their General Assembly

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:39:00 -0500

8liens, Roz and Renan rushed at about 10am on August 14 at Technological Institute of the Philippines-Quezon City (TIP-QC), just in time to set up a simple booth for 8layer at the ICpEP.SE General Assembly. The TIP,QC Grounds at that time was serene and the sun was shining to keep the event warm for the whole day.

At 12Noon, the blissful serenity was replaced by happy boisterous and crackling buzz of Computer Engineering Students from all over Metro Manila and Luzon Schools, Colleges and Universities as they line-up/pile- up for registation filling the TIP, QC Grounds. Finally, it was jam-packed and was estimated to number at 1,800 Computer Engineering attendees.

It was a last minute decision on our end due to tight schedules and priorities to sponsor the Institute of Computer Engineers of the Philippines (ICpEP), ICpEP.SE (Student Edition) dubbed as CpEYesta! 2010. It was also an assimillation and recognizance that we need to spend some fees in order to imbibe in students the value of excellence and hard work in the academics and further studies, and to spark awareness on F/OSS as part of our advocacy. And though the benefit for 8layer as a company is least in terms of business opportunity to participate, we came to instill and foster motivation, persistence to students to excel in their studies and in their chosen field of interest and profession.

There were other sponsors and presentors who briefly discussed their brands and products and there were fun games and entertainment too. But we were certain we were not there to promote our company instead to heed the importance of being open to learn and being learned. We were also there to join the fun as we immersed with the students in the bleachers and also enjoyed ourselves as the crowd joyously howl and anxiously wait for the raffle as the lucky numbers are randomly picked by the computer. “Raffle”, “RAffle”, “RAffle”, “RAffle”, … as the students roar and drown the multi-purpose hall.

And when it was time for our CEO/CTO to take center stage and give his motivational talk, Meric instantly shouted, “Raffle”,”Raffle”,”Raffle”, and the students with Meric and the teachers laughed altogether.

The 8layer Team who were there to take part and witness the event were actually surprised to see how the students silenced themselves and eagerly listened to what r3d3ye has to convey. Meric himself is a Computer Engineering Graduate from Adamson University and among his other achievements is being a RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer).

Meric compressed his presentation to about 30 minutes on motivating students to excel, be driven by ambition to be innovators and bequeath the power of having knowledge with passion to do what is right for oneself and for a lot of people. The students were gagging for more, when they knew about Open Source, Linux and KahelOS but it was time to wrap up.

At the end of 8layer’s presentation, it was time for us to give away raflle prizes. We didn’t give out our usual 8layer Juancho mugs or usb’s but we decided to empower the winners with a chance for them to hone their skills and be able to buy him a lot of stuff for himself (if put to good/full utility). When we announced that we were raffling off free linux training, everyone in the hall, shouted and wanted to win the prize. We raffled off a three-day linux training to two(2) groups of 6 lucky students which will happen this September 2010 at 8layer OHQ. Congratulations to Ted Josiah Domingo and Jefferson Maybanting and their friends!

In the end, it was a beginning for us to have high hopes to have sparked and started in some of the students if not to all,the value of continuous proactive learning and sharing.

Thank you to ICpEP.SE CpEYESTA 2010, Mr. Alex Ybasco, Mr. Erwin Mendoza and to the members of the organization, we enjoyed being part of the event too.

KahelOS, A Labor of Love and Passion

Sat, 01 May 2010 02:29:00 -0500

KahelOS Installer May 01, 2010

The May One version of KahelOS installer (KahelOS 050110) is dedicated to all the laborers around the world. Downloads are available at http://www.kahelos.org/downloads.php

The first day of May marks the inception of KahelOS and historically it also marks the celebration of the triumps and achievements of labor movements worldwide This day is famously known as the International Workers day.
The origin of our international commemoration dates back in the year 1884, where the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions victoriously got the approval of the eight-hour workday.
In the Philippines, we term it as Labor Day or “Araw ng Paggawa” and was very first celebrated in 1903. Thousands of laborers marched to Malacanang to voice out their grievances for better working conditions and was organized by the Union Obrero Democratica de Filipinas.
Today, everywhere around the world, Labor day will surely be remembered and actively participated in through rallies, demonstrations and even parties to exalt the laborers of the world.
http://www.librarylink.org.ph/featarticle.asp?articleid=69

Even before our official release today, the new KahelOS installer has already been reviewed at beginlinux.com http://beginlinux.com/desktop_training/reviews/kahelos-review.
Thank you for taking time and providing significant inputs to make KahelOS work better for those who would like to experience its utility.

The highlight of this installer is the easier and friendlier way to do installation in a just a few steps unlike the first two installer release. Again, All in One CD Installer.

Improvements that you may discover with the new installer:

Compiz Fusion is enabled by default
Font cleanup and improvements
Improved hinting and rendering of fonts
Massive cleanup of unnecessary packages, saving disk space.
Massive optimization of PNG/MNG/TIFF/GIF packages.
New boot splash, background and theme.
Out-of-the-box easy file-sharing (just by right clicking the folder you wish to share)
Mabuhay Welcome Center w/ introduction of Kahel OS.
iBus is now the default alternative input bus
Include all possible Wifi Firmware by default

Include OpenJDK6 Java Development Kit by default

New Default Applications Installed:

Pitivi 0.13.4
Simple-Scan 0.9.9
Google Gadgets 0.11.2
Chromium 5.0.
Chromium supports WOFF (http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/10/woff) and playing HTML5 videos without Flash (http://www.youtube.com/html5).
Gnome 2.30
Gnome Color Manager 2.30
Kernel 2.6.33
OpenOffice 2.3.0
Banshee 1.6.0
Tracker 0.8g
Tomboy notes
Gbrainy
Lights Off

KahelOS, as a Labor of Love and Passion, we continue to be indebted to the selfless, generous, highly-talented geniuses and collaborators of Linux and Open Source Applications.

Invaluable gratitude also goes to those who support applications like KahelOS for believing on its Philosophy, noble cause and to imbibe in its initiators, developers, contributors, advocates and users of the responsibility and rationale, in going and doing Linux and Open Source Programs and Projects.

Together, we at KahelOS, celebrates and commemorates May One with all the Laborers of the World.

Letter from the CEO:Gimme Five

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:27:00 -0500

Happy Five Years to my fellow 8liens and Yes, We are still alive and we continue to kick-ass.

Let me share a notable portion of my 4th Year Anniversary article and it read:

"At FOUR we know there is More;

More to the essence of growing up and that though growing old is inevitable we got to make use of our time and talents wisely.

More of touching lives and making people discern that IT won't work for them, if they won't even care about IT or their work.

More of giving of who we are through our innovative ways, whether it be solutions or just plainly talking to you about what Open Source Advocacy can do for you or your organization.

More to life than just gadgets and computers, that IT is made up of people (flesh, blood, thinking and feeling), who wants IT to work for you."

The above statements were not just realizations at that time but remains a constant one to remind us and each and every person who have experienced to work with us, be with us and grown with us, what makes our team different from the rest of IT companies.

8layer@Five: A Time to look back at the good times and not so good times.
I so vividly remember how complicated, difficult and strenuous it was to come up to any individual introducing our team and much more talk about Linux and Open Source, then altogether presenting to engage an endeavor with our team. That was then and sources after resources tells us how our technology preference have evolved and continue to be magnanimous. We may have been ahead of our league and this is one link I wish to share as well, http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7749/1.html.

Now and then the burden really lies on bridging and for the CIO, CTO, IT practitioners and Business owners to imbibe the discipline, value and habit of being able to qualify IT Solutions, Applications and more importantly vendors and partners when employing IT. Further, it is having the effort to understand that if any organization need IT to work with them, they need to work with IT. IT won't work alone for anyone.

My personal stiff and cumbersome challenge, which is most important for 8layer, is to cascade to my fellow 8lien, what 8layer is all about and how do we live to assimilate to become one. That this is a team play, that we are unlike any talent show that one should stand out. That it is not about being a genius all by himself/ herself and that one's talent and intelligence will never be called innovation unless translated and manifested to good, practical and meaningful substance and use. It shouldn't be human nature I refuse to believe, that when one is endowed with talents that are not ordinary, some may feel that he/she is indispensable and then tend to neglect others and be disrespectful. When we start to feel this way, then we lose our sense of being an 8lien, our sense of developing and sharing not for oneself. An 8lien should always remember that we learned Open Source and our knowledge have been enriched because initially there were kind and generous people who were fond of sharing what they know, and if not for them who were ahead of us, then we would know very little or nothing. For on top of all of these, the greater part of being an 8lien is respect and responsibility.

And so at the end of the day, 8layer's Vision and Mission cannot just be simply achieved by extra ordinary people and talents but rather geared by 8layer's Core Strength and Success Factor; etched by ordinary people with extra ordinary commitment and passion.

8layer@Five: A Time to look ahead at our Future.
Through the years, our team, has been blessed to find like-minded partners and companies that have come to recognize the value of collaboration versus quotations and true results over maketing hype. Every year, new friends and partners add up to the roster of our invaluable helping hands, generous hearts and brilliant minds.

For some time we have been sought for by companies and organizations who would want an IT Team who can definitely understand and resolve their IT needs.

This time around, we realize that we should take on the challenge for us to be understood and simply comprehensible; come up with absolutely easy and reliable IT Applications which is timely and for those who discerns the urgent need of migrating to our kind of Service and Technology.

"The Art of Passion largely defines the Art of our Existence", @Five and Alive, 8layer 2010
We give you Five: Gratitude, Passion, Respect, Responsibility and Fun.

So, Gimme Five.

Meric B. Mara

CEO/CTO

Our Christmas Gift to Nature

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:05:00 -0500

Silang, Cavite, 18^th of December – the 8liens decided to give back to nature.

The 8liens had their lunch in Leslie's at Tagaytay City. We had bowls of delicious food before our perspiring yet fulfilling activity. From there, we travelled a couple of minutes to IIRR (International Institute of Rural Reconstruction), an organization dedicated to overcoming poverty, where we plan to hold our tree-planting activity. We were welcomed there by a beautifully volumed trees and shrubs, and Ms. Maridel Alberto.

Ms. Alberto gave us a quick Q&A of their place and informed us that our presence is a blessing since a lot of their trees were uprooted during the hurricane Pepeng. She then introduced us to Mang Buboy who gave us tools and a total of 16 seedlings to plant.

After planting, the group decided to stay a little longer and play a quick ball game. It was fun, but it made us realize that all the sitting at the office made us already breathe heavy after 5 or so step when running... but we still enjoyed it.

On our way back to the office, we were greeted by heavy traffic due to the Christmas rush and arrived at the office a good 3 hours after.

Every one that weren't ready with their poems and songs (for our Kringle) rushed to their desks to do a quick typing and some printing. If was fun explaining why we give certain gifts to our monitos or monitas.

At the end of the day, we were all tired to the gut but ...satisfied with the food ...happy with the gift giving …is pleased with helping out mother earth and giving for our grandchildren.

My FIRST Encounter with the 8liens

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:40:00 -0500

My FIRST Encounter with the 8liens
First day at OJT

By: Jellie Fearl Mariano

It was a Monday morning, I woke up as early as I can just to be on time for my very first day on-the-job training. It was great that my friend and I passed the IQ exam at 8Layer when we applied as trainees. We arrived at the REMCO Tower as early as 8:00 in the morning. The guard told us that nobody's in the 8Layer's office yet and that it was still closed. The first 8lien we met was Ate Roz. She told us that they have no work for that day because they will be going to Pangasinan to visit Our Lady of Manaoag. As it is, i was Shocked. Then they told us that since it was our first day, we will be joining them for their trip. Then the day goes...

It was my first time to go to Pangasinan and Manaoag. My first day as a trainee really became an unexpected one and I do enjoyed the trip.

Although my friend and I we're still adjusting with the new environment and faces, I tried my best to put a smile on my lips so that I will be able to win them and be close to them as well.

Adjusting to them was easy since even at the onset of our trip they are naturally very jolly and fun to be with.

We arrived at Pangasinan. We lighted our candles as we thanked and prayed to God and Mama Mary for Their guidance, support, and forgiveness. The place was very solemn and it was the best place to talk with our Almighty Father and Our Lady of Manaoag.

I was not able to buy something for myself as a remembrance but Ms Deng bought us rosaries for the trip... :) But the greatest remembrance was here in my heart because I will never forget the First day I've ever met 8liens and to be in Manaoag...

On our way home, we ate at a seafood restaurant, Matutina's Annex 3. The food tasted really good plus we all had funny moments to share.

The very tiring whole day with the 8liens was overall a great experience. Even though I know we we're all exhausted during the trip still they never forget to make everyone laugh and smile. It was an honor and opportunity to be a part of 8Layer technologies as their trainee. I am looking forward to learn a lot more things from them even if it's going to be hard as a newbie... :)

As early as now, I want to thank all of them for being nice to me and to Ariane as well. I see their relationship not just an officemates but a family. Even though their company is far from my place, I don't have any regrets to grab the opportunity and to pursue my training there.

TIA!:)

Pilgrimage@Manaoag Pictures

By: Ariane Rabuya

Yesterday, November 23, 2009 was my first day at 8Layer Technologies as a trainee, sobrang aga namen pumasok ng kasama ko.. and i was sort of scared and shy to go with them since it is also our first time to meet them. Very shy ako nung day na yun... but it was a very unforgettable day.. because that day, first time ko na mag OJT at first time ko rin maka join agad ang 8liens to go visit Manaoag. Yun kasi agad yung na feel ko. I never thought na ganun yung pag-iistima nila sa amin ng kasama ko... Very great na makapunta sa mga lugar na hindi ko pa napupuntahan and saw that it is truly very nice. Lalo na nung nakita ko yung Manaoag Church.. which is very popular naman talaga. I know na tourist spot din yung place. I'm very glad that I have the chance to experience visiting a place that I've never gone to.

Hindi ko din kaya alam kung anu ang sasabihin ko sa parents ko nung time na yun. Kaya I felt nervous and excited at the same time, and pressured too. Kasi nagbibiro yung mga boss namin. Pero hindi ko naman masyado pinansin kasi most of them are all funny and cracks jokes almost all the time. Nasasakyan ko yung jokes nila at nakakatuwa naman talaga silang kasama. Parang super magkakakilala na kami, so konti na lang yung hiya ko kapag kasama sila. At least now I know naman na pag time na ng training namin hindi na kami masyadong ilang sa kanilang lahat. Cheerful kasi most ng 8liens e, but because all of them was new to me hindi ko mashare sa kanila yung totoong ako and most of the time always lang akong text and text and text ..

I really enjoyed their company at lalo na pag every time na nasa van kame kasi puro tawanan. Sabagay, kami lang kasi ng friend ko yung madalas na magkausap kapag nanamasyal kame. Hindi pa kasi kami kumportable makipagbiruan sa kanila. Sometimes nga I get paranoid kasi baka isipin nila maarte kame.. but I just tried my best naman for making good relations with them. They seem to have a strict face but I was wrong. I really enjoyed the experience.

8layer joins DB2 9.7 Bootcamp

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:03:00 -0500

As one of IBM's business partners, 8layer was once again invited to join one of their technical trainings on DB2 9.7 Bootcamp and Oracle to DB2 9.7 Migration.

The event was originally a 3-day hands on training at IBM Plaza slated for September 21 to 23. However, since the 21st is a special non-working holiday on observance of Eid’l Fitr, it was condensed to a two-day training extending from 8:30AM - 6:00PM of September 22nd and 23rd.

The training was given to IBM ISVs (Independent Software Vendor) in the Philippines and one of IBM's efforts to technically equip them with the benefits of DB2. 8layer's representatives, who both passed the technical exam given after the training (hurrah!) were Alec Joseph Rivera and Rosa Tsang, a feat for both considering that they were not able to do most of the hands-on due to limited terminals and the exam was loading slowly due to internet connectivity problem. (Hear ye, IBM.)

Nonetheless, the two day training is a good refresher for DB2 9.7.

DB2 is a database system with advanced features geared towards easy management, optimization and reliability.

In terms of reliability, DB2 boasts high uptimes and response rate as compared with other database systems. Moreso, DB2 supports a lot of options supporting various situations while giving logs as it is used. DB2 also can tightly integrate with the underlying operating system to increase its speed even further.

Aside from these, DB2 is also self-optimizing. It can eventually "tune" itself to thresh out data in the fastest way it can.

DB2 Express is IBM's community contribution that has most of the features available in its enterprise database release.

KahelOS goes to eQuality Summit at Palawan

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:28:00 -0500

The 4th eQuality Summit for SUC's with this year's Theme: Building the 21st Century SUC was attended by more than 100 SUC Representatives (Presidents, Vice-Presidents and ICT Coordinators) from all over the Philippines from September 29- October 01, 2009. CICT's eQ Program Manager Ms. Antonette Torres and the CICT team provided a well-rounded summit activities for the participants with meaty discussions, worth listening topics, action/ result-oriented workshops for SUC's and their presentations.

Western Philippines University was the host State University for this 4th eQuality Summit at the Legend Hotel, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. There were sumptous meals and cultural presentations every night sponsored by the Provincial Governor's Office, Mayor's Office and Western Philippines University for each night respectively. Next year's 5th eQuality Summit will be in Visayas.

Apart from the activities, workshops and plenary sessions for the SUC themselves facilitated by CICT, there were a number of speakers who provided the SUCs with Technology awareness and practical tips in line with their tasks to draw and map out the ICT Roadmap towards "Building the 21st Century SUC".

The speakers dealt on exploring on available materials and initiatives that SUC's can emulate and take on for their respective Colleges and Universities --

Dr. Dr. Francis Sarmiento III of UNDP-IOSN talked about ASEAN+3 Initiatives;
Emmanuel C. Lallana, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, ideacorp on Higher Education 2.0: ICT and SUCs in the 21st century;
Sistla Venkata Krishna, Director, Oracle Education Initiatives on 21st Century Learning Skills in formal education and Oracle Education;
Pei Woan Wong, Manager of Higher Education Solutions (Applications Center of Excellence - Asia Pacific) on Campus Solutions;
Angelo Timoteo M. Diaz de Rivera, CICT Commissioner on Accessing the eGovernment Fund for ICT4E Projects; and,
Monchito B. Ibrahim, CICT Commissioner on Service Science Management and Engineering (SSME).

Industry Initiatives and Projects speakers were from BPAP (Atty. Jamea Garcia), PSIA (Ms. Bettina Quimson), MTIAPI (Ms. Myla Rose M. Reyes), ACPI (Mr. Michael Kho Lim), and GDAP (Mr. Ranulf Goss).

It was on the 3rd day of the session where 8layer Technologies, Inc represented by its Head-Business and Marketing, Deng Silorio, demonstrated their passion as a team to convey to the SUC's to imbibe what is needed to teach IT to their students. Deng encapsulated in her talk that 8layer Team is like an SUC, continually building on its foundation, and shared experiences of the company as a mentoring team which can be leaned and gleaned by the SUC's themselves. Further, she emphasized that though gadgets (such as mobile phones, computers and the likes) products of Technology are rather impersonal to the user/s and the developer/ maker, the way to teach IT and shape the learning of IT to the students, gaining impact on its essence and usefulness should on the other hand be personal.

Later, 8layer's CTO and Team Kahel Proponent, Mr. Meric B. Mara, introduced and demonstrated KahelOS. Everyone in the room was overwhelmed with the presentation of this Filipino initiative and is not only offered to the Filipinos; free of charge. Meric expounded on the Philosophy of the KahelOS, that it seeks to be ever changing and evolving, collaborative as it believes in the competence and prowess of the Global Open Source Community and that it is a testament that in the IT Arena, The World is Flat.

After their talks, some of the audience approached them right away, congratulated the team and assured that they will use KahelOS in their laboratories and spread the word as well.

Timing is of the essence and KahelOS' visit and introduction to the eQuality Summit conducted by CICT was right on time and in tune with the practical IT needs of the SUC's. Team Kahel distributed free KahelOS CD's so that they can install this at their Computer Laboratories.

The next day, 8layer and Team Kahel together with IOSN, visited Palawan State University and shared to its faculty (most of them coming from Computer Science and Computer Engineering) and their creme of the crop ICT Students how they can achieve to be a world- class institution with the aid of Open Source Technologies. But first of all, encouraged them to write down their ICT Roadmap.

And then the day after, Bodega Site (A Local PC Retailer) met with Team Kahel to introduce KahelOS desktop to its clientele and uphold the anti-piracy campaign.

It was a full week of sharing and learning that awareness and innovation is a step towards Building 21st Century Institutions.

SFD09: IT's Good to be FREE!

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:40:00 -0500

There were five main activities on the SFD09 "IT's Good to be FREE!" programme: Open Source Discussion, Business and Technical Talks, Install Fest, Makersmeet and Programming Contest. With most of the 400 attendeees coming from the studentry, the Technical Talks got the most registrants.

The morning of September 19, Saturday, 8:00am, the ground floor lobby of Systems Plus College Foundation Main Campus in Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines had quite an influx of excited faces made more vibrant as each received a copy of Kahel OS CD installer. Well-donned martials, ushers and usherettes dressed in Barong Fashion from host SPCF graciously guided the attendees and guests to the carpeted theater where the initial plenary session would be held.

Open Source Initiatives in Education, Business and Government

The SPCF Theater was almost full at 9 o'clock. Before the program officially started the Code Breakers documentary film was shown on the widescreen and by 9:20am, the Philippine National Anthem played followed by an interpretative dance Doxology from the SPCF Dancers. The crowd was hushed as the lights softened on the graceful and svelte movements of prayer on stage.

SFDers were warmly welcomed then by SPCF's Eric Estropia, VP for Administration. Next was Dr. Francis Sarmiento III, Program Manager for IOSN ASEAN+3 briefly sharing on what F/OSS is about and likewise delved on the programs, trainings and immersions that the organization has to put and elevate F/OSS in the mainstream. Two of what interested the audience are the Train the Linux Trainers and the Asian Source3 Conference in November.

Ms. Grace Fabros-Tyler took the podium next sharing to the crowd how SPCF inculcates the values of F/OSS. The Dean of SPCF's CITE (College of Information Technology and Education) also shared of SPCF's approach in integrating Linux and OSS in their curriculum. The college also now has a F/OSS laboratory since last year.

Collaborating and contributing to the Open Source community was also IBM Philippines' call to action as equivocated by Ms. Femee Cruz. She even used IBM's Lotus Symphony's presentation document for her slides. IBM Lotus Symphony is a free and open source office suite with word processor, spreadsheet and presentation, and can be downloaded at http://symphony.lotus.com.

Atty. Richard Pascual enlightened the crowd next on the legal nettles of OSS licensing. It's good to know too that the highest judiciary, Supreme Court of the Philippines, has treaded on OSS by implementing the use of OpenOffice in its realm.

Congressman Teddy Casiño, the vigilant lawmaker and proponent of F/OSS Bill, unfortunately couldn't make it to the event. His solidarity message was read by 8layer's Deng Silorio.

Capping the morning session was Mr. Cecilio Tuanquin of Intel Philippines who candidly shared how Intel Chips are made and presented to the SFDers the current trends on server and mobile technology giving a much needed enlightenment of how F/OSS can greatly take on the company's challenge on costs and security.

Much to be credited too were the SPCF Dancers and CITE Dance Troupe for doing perky and lively numbers during some of the talk intervals.

Who says Technical Talks does not spell Fun, Fulfilling and Fantastic?

Simultaneously ongoing was the first set of the Technical Talks that actually started at about 11 o'clock at the 3rd Floor of the SPCF CITE Bldg. Every SFD Celebration needs to provide a brief yet meaty presentation on Introduction to Linux and F/OSS. And everyone from the room was energized and nourished on Linux as the speakers Mr. Erwin Galang (former 8lien) and our very own Mr. Meric Mara gave the listeners more than a good impression of F/OSS and Linux.

Originally, SPCF prepared two computer labs for the Tech Talks, one for the Install Fest and Makersmeet and one for the Programming Contest.

After most of the SFDers came back from lunch, it turned out that two computer labs was not enough to accommodate all 200 of them so the crowd all wanting to hear about Linux, Kahel and Web Development was sent back to the SPCF Theater.

The Vibrance of Linux and Kahel

The bespectacled Joel Bryan Juliano of Team 8lien did a crowd-pleasing headstart. There were no idle moments as he made his way into showing the vibrance of the new Pinoy distro Kahel - an Arch-based OS with Gnome environment. He dubbed it as the "pinakamalupit na OS" which elicited an ecstatic roar and thunderous applause from the crowd.

The basics of Web Development was tackled next by the R&D Group of Team 8lien.

Gregarious Allan "Henyo" de Guzman, who became unexplainably softspoken, shared on Apache web server application. Alec Joseph "Agi" Rivera, whose birthday coincides with the celebration of SFD, was surely himself in confidence as he discussed about Abstraction in Web Development. Wynell Mark "Nel" Patricio's engaging talk on PHP and MySQL came afterwards and shared with gusto the features and elements of the open source database. And last (but definitely not the least), Vedasto Rey "Koya" Portugal, also the Head of Team 8lien R&D, wowed the crowd as he demonstrated on Symfony, an Open Source framework which, surprisingly, no one from the crowd is familiar with.

Two becomes one roomful

Just after lunch, registration attendants at the computer lab hall informed me that there were only two registrants for the Kahel Install Fest. I shrugged it off and openly welcomed the anticipation of the two registrants.

As Roz Vargas started setting up the demo unit, people started coming in and filling up the room. To my surprise too, a number of them were already die-hard Linux users and system administrators making it easier for us to discuss the tekky side of Kahel while showing them how fast and easy the installation is. Not to mention, the boot up process.

Sure enough, technical questions arose. Good thing, our young and preppy CTO Meric Mara was just around the corner to help us answer some of them. Thanks, boss! :)

The elite Astmasters

A few doors from where we are was another roomful of bodies waiting for the Open Source Telephony (Asterisk and 8ix Zenith CE) talk to start. Since we "borrowed" our CTO in the Install Fest, they had to wait a few minutes. Also, some of those in the Install Fest were registrants to Asterisk and 8ix Zenith CE discussion.

It was an elite discussion and Q&A on Telephony and IP-PBX but was made practical, interesting and learning-filled.

Where the challengers are

At computer lab 3, seven brave "geeky" souls were all solemn and serious. It was the room for the Programming Contest with Koya Rey and Rosa Tsang overseeing the contestants.

As opposed to the enthusiastic profundity at the Telephony discussion, the emphatic curiosity at the Install Fest and the cheery ambiance at the Theater, Lab 3 was all astute quietude.

After taking some photo evidence (on tiptoes!), I went to get myself a reinvigorating cup of caffeine. :)

A day where everyone is FREE!

As the day clocked to late afternoon, the audience at the plenary were still in high spirits embalmed with precious learnings on F/OSS. They were later joined by the programming contestants, install fest attendees and telephony talk attendees.

Enlivening the crowd (since the morning session by the way) was Mr. Moderator, Mark Castro, who facilitated on getting ALL SFDers to join the "Bring Me" game and "How well did you listen" Q&A. He was not failed by the group as each able-bodied ran to him and to the stage to take on his challenge.

Gifts, freebies and souvenirs courtesy of the event partners, IBM Phils., Intel Phils., and PLDT CBG were given away before the final hour ticked in.

Who else would have taken home the most freebies but the programming contest winners!

Our hats off to top placer Wilfredo Vallente, Marielle Faye Garcia in second and Jan Marie Galban in third. Kudos too to Jheric de Guzman, Norwin Lacson, Richard Lim and Denn Mark Balingit who surely did well.

If the Source is with you, the Force is with you

Team 8lien in partnership with Sytems Plus College Foundation (special thanks to SPCF MIS Director Raymund Lazarito) made a mark that day.

The 400 attendees to the "IT's Good to be FREE!" SFD09 event was but a speck in the local population but a fine start in reaching a good number to evangelizing the benefits and values of F/OSS.

Software Freedom Day 2009 is but one of those days when F/OSS is a highlight and part of our sharing. But for Team 8layer, Everyday is just another day; living, innovating and making the most out of IT.

Our lady boss' influence on the "girls"

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:40:00 -0500

I've only been with 8layer a couple of months but one thing is for sure – the 8liens give a good birthday bash. I just had mine a couple of weeks ago and had a wicked good time. The formula it seemed contained two important elements (1) beer and (2) videoke.

But when time came to fete the first two celebrants of September we knew we had to pull out all the stops.

On Friday, September 4, we celebrated the birthdays of two special people - our Mother Superior (bless us!), Deng Silorio and our new officemate Nel.

It was the perfect bash for a rowdy crowd like the 8liens family. We were joined by industry friends Mark from VCDialNow and Sir Gerry from CIIF. The night got off to a good start as the resident 8layer Magician Bryan traded tricks and tips with the 8liens and guests. We began the evening with a late dinner (which somehow appeared "magically") at the office lobby, complete with classic birthday spaghetti. You know the kind – sweet and topped with loads of cheese =).

Little did boss Deng know that she was in for another surprise as the team proceeded to the main event – beer and videoke at our favorite watering hole, Bahay Ni Juan.

A bevy of bodacious "guest relations officers" welcomed our dear celebrant as she entered the music room. "Surprise" is not even a word to describe what's painted on her face. You have to see the photos for proof, and right in the mark is this one!

But shock and hilarity will never deter an 8lien from taking the videoke mic. And so on we went singing the evening away. Lets just say the girls outnumbered the boys that night! Talk about "girly" influence (just that night though... hahaha!).

As for other September celebrant, Nel.. you surely missed a lot by not being there. Luckily we took photos for you to enjoy.

I wonder what awaits our next birthday celebrant. Abangan!