Get Dressed!

For events that promote any creative activity with an enthusiastic youth community -- such as animation or gaming -- costume play a.k.a. "cosplay" is perhaps one of the most engaging, cost-effective activity programs ever developed. With only prizes and recognition as incentives, fans actually make their own costumes, get into character, and draw crowds of hundreds.

For instance, here are a few cosplayers reinterpreting characters from a hit anime, Shoujo Kakumei Utena, at the Animation Council of the Philippines' AnimeXplosion 2005.



In case you're wondering, that's me portraying the rakish prince of the series, Akio Ohtori.

The possible applications of cosplay go beyond animation and gaming. Imagine how much more fun IT events would be if fans dressed up as Japan's unofficial software mascots, the OS-tans.

Good Thing We're Gamers

Interestingly enough, Filipino game companies teach youths to watch out for keyloggers in Internet cafes used to hack game accounts.

The best way to educate children about secure ecommerce is to have them use it. ;)

Keyloggers Foiled In Attempted $423 Million Bank Heist

British authorities stymied a massive bank heist that reportedly was dependent on a keylogger, the same kind of spyware that has jumped three-fold in the last year and puts consumers at risk from hackers and phishers.

According to reports in the British media from the BBC and the Financial Times, among others, the scheme was set to steal 220 million pounds ($423 million) from the London offices of the Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui. The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the country's cyber-cops, began investigating last October after the bank discovered that hackers had infiltrated its network and were using a keylogger to capture keystrokes.

Falling Asleep in an Online Game

Check out this video of what a bunch of guys did to some poor slob who fell asleep while playing the hit Microsoft XBox game Halo 2.

The moral of the story: Don't fall asleep at the keyboard. ;)

Technovangelism & Coopetition

Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS) President Maan Tolentino posted this photocollage from a very interesting focus group discussion on Small-to-Medium Information Technology Enterprise (SMITE) financing in the Philippines. Seated in white barong and glasses is Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) Commissioner Dondi Mapa.



Commissioner Mapa mentioned the need for local market educsation on the value of quality IT services, and the need to build a referral network among local SMITEs.

Having worked in software project acquisition, I've had to face companies that had a hard time seeing the value of robust software development methodologies. I've also run into SMITEs who couldn't take on projects because they couldn't find other SMITEs to outsource parts of those projects to. Market education and referral networks would ease both those situations.

Zero Wing Rhapsody

What happens when you cross an '80's rock band with an Internet meme?

"For great justice!"