Kaban ng Bayan, Bantayan, (part II)

(The second privilege speech of Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson which the camp of Senate President Manny Villar tried, but failed, to block. September 22, 2008)

ping-lacson.jpgI would not have taken the floor today as I am concerned the core issue of corruption in the national budget will be diverted. But for the lies that are now part of the Senate record and other misinterpretations of the contents of my privilege speech last Monday by the gentleman from Makati and Camarines Sur, I now rise on a matter of personal and collective privilege.

I will not dignify by wasting a second of the Senate’s time, however, the points raised by the other fanatical defender of the Senate President. Arguing with the gentleman, I am afraid, would be like talking to a chatterbox in a TV paid advertisement.

Going back to the points raised by Sen. Arroyo, or at least some of them, without conceding of course that the other issues raised are correct, please allow me to state here and now:
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Wait, there’s more!: Buy her a gift this Valentines! or send her flowers!

I, robot: How do search engine spiders and robots work?

Some internet surfers still hold on to the mistaken belief that actual people visit each and every website and then input it for inclusion in the search engine’s database. Imagine, if these were true! With billions of websites available on the internet and with a majority of these sites offering fresh content it will take thousands of people to achieve the tasks made by search engine spiders and robots – and even then they won’t be as efficient or as thorough.

Search engine spiders and robots are pieces of code or software that have only one aim – seek content on the internet and within each and every individual web page out there. These tools have a very important role in how effectively search engines operate.

Search engine spiders and robots visit websites and get the necessary information that it needs to determine the nature and content of the website and then adds the data to the search engine’s index. Search engine spiders and robots follow links from one website to another so that it can consistently and infinitely gather the necessary information. The ultimate goal of search engine spiders and robots is to compile a comprehensive and valuable database that can deliver the most relevant results to the search queries of visitors.

But how exactly do search engine spiders and robots work?

The whole process begins when a web page is sent to a search engine for submission. The submitted URL is added to the queue of websites that will be visited by the search engine spider. Submissions can be optional though because most spiders will be able to find the content in a web page if other websites link to the page. This is the reason why it is a good idea to build reciprocal links with other website. By enhancing the link popularity of your website and getting links from other sites that have the same topic as your website.

When the search engine spider robot visits the website, it checks if there is an existing robots.txt file. The file tells the robot which areas of the site are off limits to its probe – like certain directories that have no use for search engines. All search engine bots look for this text file so it is a good idea to put one even if it is blank.

The robots list and store all of the links found on a page and they follow each link to its destination website or page.

The robots then submit all of this information to the search engine, which in turn compiles the data received from all the bots and builds the search engine database. This part of the process already has the intervention of search engine engineers who write the algorithms employed in evaluating and scoring the information that the search engine bots compiled. The moment all of the information is added to the search engine database this information is already made available to search engine visitors who are making search queries in the search engine.


XML-Sitemaps.com offers a free online sitemap generator that creates Google Sitemaps, Text Sitemaps for Yahoo and HTML Sitemaps to help spiders index your site more thoroughly.

PBA 2008 Aftermath

I’ve been offline for days, engaged in a psywar against my dad. Four days of not checking my email has left me with a serious case of backlog, and I’m trying my hardest to catch up on some things now. MIA FTW!

I don’t have the patience to do videos, so it has never crossed my mind to do a video blog. I always just upload my videos as is, effects and titles be damned. But this morning, when I transferred my shots to the laptop, I was inspired enough to open up Windows Movie Maker and dabble on a few technicalities of video editing. I figured I wouldn’t be able to do much with the default effects of movie maker, so I just slapped on a lousy introductory title, made a 2-second “credits,” and uploaded the whole thing on my MultiplyMar Roxas’ speech during The 2008 Philippine Blog Awards night.

I don’t know what to do with the other video shots I took though. I want the whole pizazz that vloggers are known for — catchy beats (music), texts (dialogues, subtitles), the works (everything else). Sadly, there is no way in hell you can expect that from me. I always find a lot of things to distract me from doing the things I should be doing.

I don’t know if many of you know, but I was a volunteer last year as well as this year on PBA. And just like last year’s event, this years’ has also been getting a lot of criticism and “controversies.” This time, I don’t intend to involve myself in any of them, mainly because the arguments are so weak they’re already bordering on ridiculous everyone did their jobs the best they could, and I believe no one should be the judge of how hard they worked. However, I’m sad that some people felt cheated. As a passing comment, I have to make it clear that the criteria for judging the entries in the awards given out by sponsors may or may not be the same as the one used for the main awards. In a way, I do understand the concerns, but bitching about it will get no one nowhere. The trophies, recognition, and prestige have already been given to those who deserve them one way or another.

The 2008 Philippine Blog Awards

The 2008 Philippine Blog Awards saw a lot of improvements and would be another learning experience for the organizers and volunteers alike. It was a lot more formal and impressive, and I was in a lot more comfortable clothes and shoes. I loved that I could view the Manila Bay, and I loved that we had a room to do our thing. I wasn’t much help, but there were so many people who volunteered this year that someone would readily catch the work if one slacked off. I loved the diversity of the finalists in different categories. I loved the fact that most of the blogs I nominated were good enough in the judges’ eyes to make the cut (if you’re wondering, I nominated all blogs mentioned in this post but mine and, well, Benj’s).

I congratulate all the winners this year, most especially to the Bloggers’ Kapihan crew who winged it in their respective categories — Benjamin Espina for Personal (talk about passing on the title, haha), Sir Martin Perez for Personal - Single Post, Tonyo Cruz for News & Media.

Props to the organizers and volunteers for a job well done. Thanks so much to the attendees for making the event a successful one.

FAQ of the night: What can you say about Benj of Atheista.net winning in the Best Personal Blog Category?

Seriously, I can’t even remember how many times people asked me that question. Do I really have to say something about it? I think being one of the ones who applauded in support when his blog name came up as one of the finalists was answer enough (although to be perfectly honest about it, I wanted Bikoy.net to win, a sentiment that, apparently, I share with even Benj himself).

Photos taken by me are on this Multiply photo album. Enjoy.