Look inside the brain of Engr. Alex A. Valdez.
His Ideas and Opinions is being revealed.
He is known as the "The Mad Genius of Computer Science & Everything"

Baguio Centennial Chess Club

Baguio Centennial Chess Club
Click Above Picture to Visit the Website

Monday, December 31, 2007

What Do We Celebrate Every December 25?


This could surprise you. Visit this site and post your opinions.

http://religious-opinion.blogspot.com


Friday, December 28, 2007

What is an Engineer?

An engineer is a person who can makes the most with of his 1,000 pesos that an ordinary persons in the street with their 2,000 pesos. An engineer is an economist.

If You Want to Save, Don't Go to Bank.

If you have 1,000 pesos today and you intent to use it for food after one year, then don't deposit it on bank. Your money will decrease its purchasing power and the interest given to you by your bank is not enough to compensate its lost.

Today, I just purchased a canned sardines and immediately I ate. While eating I asked myself, "What if I had purchase this canned sardines one year earlier then I should have save a lot."

If I have 1,000 pesos today then I am going to buy canned goods in wholesale price. Of course, taking into consideration the storage life span or expiration of canned goods. Canned goods increases in price every time there is a calamity or a disaster. Their prices goes up and never comes down.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Rich Man. Poor Man.

Why the Rich are Becoming More Richer and the Poor Becoming More Poorer?

A rich man buy in wholesale while the poor buy in retail.

In buying rice, a rich man buy that which is measured in cavan while the poor man buy that which is measured in kilo. Who do you think got the savings in the long term?

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Learning by Pattern Recognition

If you study the following figures,

+ 3 6 [first line]
9 [second line]

and

+ 2 4 [first line]
6 [second line]

and if I show you this figure,

+ 5 3 [first line]
_____ [second line]

what do you think should be written in the second line?

if your answer is 8 then congratulations. You have just learn a little of LISP Programming Language. Your brain discovered the answer though pattern recognition.

Philippine History

There is a controversy about the real date that Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines. History books claim that is was March 16, 1521. But what if Magellan timepiece was still set to the Madrid Time Zone. If that was the case, then there was a time and date discrepancy especially if they arrived before the sunrise. Manila Time is +8 GMT while Madrid is +1 GMT. What do you think?

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Chess : Mates in 4 Moves

When I was a high school kid at Baguio City High School, a friend show me a chess puzzle. The puzzle it to construct a game that will checkmate Black in 4 moves from the starting position. Black should copy moves made by White. The initial moves in mind was

1. P-K4 P-K4
2. B-B4 B-B4
3. Q-R5 Q-R5
4. QxP check
NOT mate because of 4. . . . K-Q1

After few minutes of taught, I made the following solutions:
1. P-Q4 P-Q4
2. Q-Q3 Q-Q3
3. Q-KR3 Q-KR3
4. QxB checkmate

There are two (2) more solutions.
The idea is to capture the Queen's Bishop on the fourth move.
Can you solve it?

Friday, November 23, 2007

Method of Teaching : Equation

In teaching Algebra, I allow my students to visualize a see-saw whenever they encounter an equation. The word equation comes from the word equal.

Given an equation, “Y + 3 = 7”, we place the “=” sign at the middle of the see-saw where the fulcrum is located. We place “Y + 3” at the left side of the fulcrum and “7” to the right side.

If the problem requires that only “Y” should remain in the left side, then to remove “ 3 ”, we have to subtract “3”. Since we have to maintain the balance or equality, then we have to do the same to the other side. So we subtract “3” in the left and also “3” in the right.

Y + 3 = 7
Subtract 3 on both sides. See below,

Y + 3    =    7
     - 3   =   -3
=========
Y          =    4

Remember the philosophy “If someone hits you on your left cheek, then let him hit your right cheek, too.” Of course, the hit must be of equal pressure to maintain the balance. He, he, he …

Method of Teaching: Software and Hardware

Whenever I teach computer or information technology to my students at Agoo Computer College, I want to be sure that they clearly understood the difference between software and hardware including the symbiotic relationship between them.

SOFTWARE is an idea or opinion. It is abstract. It does not have any physical attribute. It cannot be seen. There is no color, no taste, no odor, no texture, and no sound.

In contrast, HARDWARE has physical attributes. You can touch it physically. Some have color, odor, or texture. Others have taste or audible sound.

In order for any SOFTWARE to become useful, you need a medium. This medium is a HARDWARE.

Example 1: An author who has an idea (software) must print it on paper (hardware) to produce a useful product or a book.

Example 2: A musical composition (software) must be perform through an instrument (hardware) to produce music.

Example 3: A programmer who has an idea (software) of doing task must instruct the computer to produce output such as printed materials (hardware) or visual display (hardware). Printed materials have physical attributes. Visual display or computer monitor displays colored text or graphical images.

Finally, the plural form of software is software NOT softwares. The plural for of hardware is hardware NOT hardwares.