Hospitality: Common Denominator in the Filipino Character

People who have experienced being with Filipinos find them very hospitable. A common trait Filipinos are known to most foreigners who have traveled around the country. Although they are not the only people in the world who can be friendly and welcoming, their attitude towards other people is said to be exceptional. Even the humblest home along the road can serve as a shelter for a stranger who has lost his way. For Filipinos, serving other people the best of what they have leave them an honor and a promise of true friendship. A typical Filipino house is not completely called a home without any facility ready for unexpected visitors. 

They welcome guests with the phrase “feel at home” to make them comfortably at ease. Arriving at your host’ house during mealtime may be awkward but if it’s in a Filipino house, you will be asked to sit down and share with what they have on the table. Because eating alone without asking others according to Filipino customs is considered rude. These manners picture how Filipinos accept and properly respect the presence of their visitors.

A form of hospitality that comes truly from the heart like how the country made its image as the land of true smiling people. considering the struggling economy, political confusions and the rising poverty in the country, anyone will be surprised seeing how Filipinos handle such situations. It is like taking everything from them but not their love of joking. Joking and laughing at everything perhaps give them relief and make them see things more positively.

Traveling in this country means more of building rapport with its people and understanding their customs. Filipinos love entertaining foreign visitors ; as to help, or for whatever reasons, interacting with them is unavoidable. Hence, aside from the country’s stunning natural assets, meeting the Filipinos gives a promise of a true friendship and memories to keep

The People

            The Filipino is basically of Malay stock with a sprinkling of Chinese, American, Spanish and Arab blood. The Philippines has a population of 90 million, and it is hard to distinguish accurately the lines between stocks. From a long history of Western colonial rule, interspersed with the visits of merchants and traders, evolved a people of a unique blend of east and west, both in appearance and culture.

The Filipino character is actually a little bit of all the cultures put together. The “bayanihan” or spirit of kinship and camaraderie that Filipinos are famous for is said to be taken from Malay forefathers. The close family relations are said to have been inherited from the Chinese. The piousness comes from the Spaniards who introduced Christianity in the 16th century. Hospitality is a common denominator in the Filipino character and this is what distinguishes the Filipino. Filipinos are probably one of the few, if not the only, English-proficient Oriental people today. Pilipino is the official national language, with English considered as the country's unofficial one.

        The Filipinos are divided geographically and culturally into regions, and each regional group is recognizable by distinct traits and dialects - the sturdy and frugal llocanos of the north, the industrious Tagalogs of the central plains, the carefree Visayans from the central islands and the colorful tribesmen and religious Moslems of Mindanao. Tribal communities can be found scattered across the archipelago. The Philippines has more than 111 dialects spoken, owing to the subdivisions of these basic regional and cultural groups.

           Some 80 percent of the population is Catholic, Spain's lasting legacy. About 15 percent is Moslem and these people can be found basically in Mindanao. The rest of the population is made up mostly of smaller Christian denominations and Buddhist.

The country is marked by a true blend of cultures; truly in the Philippines, East meets West. The background of the people is Indonesian and Malay. There are Chinese and Spanish elements as well. The history of American rule and contact with merchants and traders culminated in a unique blend of East and West, both in the appearance and culture of the people of the Filipinos, or people of the Philippines.

Tips for Longer-Lasting Laptop Batteries

Hardware budgets are feeling the pinch of our tepid economy, and many companies are making employees use their laptops longer. If you are starting to tell your folks to keep plugging along with their laptops for four or five years instead of just three, you might be running into an unexpected expense: dead laptop batteries.

Well, to be fair, your laptop's batteries probably aren't completely dead. But since Lithium Ion batteries tend to lose about 20% of their capacity each year, a typical three-year-old laptop might only get about an hour or so on a charge, which might not even get your folks through an entire meeting. Here are four simple tips to forestall the day that you need to replace those batteries:

Keep it cool. Heat is the primary killer of batteries. Tell your employees to be careful not to let their laptops overheat. One common way that happens is packing a running laptop into a backpack or briefcase. If the laptop fails to go to sleep (and let's face it — sleep glitches are common), then the laptop can get crazy hot in an enclosed space. You can almost smell the loss of battery longevity.

Recondition your battery regularly. Most laptop manufacturers (except Apple) don't generally tell you about this, but a simple process known as reconditioning (or occasionally, recalibrating) can breathe new life into your laptop battery and add capacity back. To do that, turn off your screen saver and any other power management tools which put your PC to sleep. Fully charge the laptop, and then let it run all the way down — right until it powers down due to lack of juice. Then charge it back up again and restore your power management stuff. Do this every few months (such as three times a year).

Remove it when you're not using it. When you leave your laptop plugged in at your desk all day every day, the battery never gets a chance to discharge and recharge — which is critical to its long-term health. Thankfully, there's a simple solution: Remove the battery. As long as your laptop is connected to AC power, the battery isn't necessary; it'll run without it. Just remember to pop it back in before you take your laptop on the go.

Start with a super-sized battery. When you purchase your next round of laptops, upgrade to the extended-life battery. Not only will it give you significantly longer runtime to start with great for road warriors and anyone else who works away from the office a lot  but the inevitable loss of battery life will have a less pronounced effect. The added cost of the larger batteries is worth the investment, because they end up lasting significantly longer.

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition / Intel Core i7-950

It is hard to believe that AMDs Phenom 2 CPU has been around for two years but in a few weeks' time that will be the case, having launched the range in the early part of 2009. Since then we have seen numerous models released to the market and in more recent times those have included 6-Core variations of the design.

Today AMD are launching the latest version of their X6 CPU in the form of the Phenom 2 X6 1100T Black Edition. This new CPU is the fastest 6-core AMD chip to be released and comes in at a price which is almost identical to Intel's quad core i7-950. For that reason we will be putting the two head to head in order to find out which performs best in a selection of tests from gaming to media playback and encoding.

AMD Phenom 2 X6 1100T Black Edition

There were no real surprises when testing the 1100T Black Edition as it features the same core and components as previous X6 models. This of course means a high quality product which features a proven, stable design. As our results show the 1100T performs well across a range of tests and excels in Cinebench and high definition playback. Overclocking potential was good and those who move to the latest X6 model from older quad core versions will notice benefits from the extra cores and the inclusion of Turbo Core. The only down side to the CPU is its price to performance ratio. This is normally a very strong point for AMD however the particularly aggressive pricing of the i7-950 and performance it delivers means the 1100T could do with being about £20/$30 cheaper to make it a better value purchase.

Intel Core i7-950

As with the AMD cpu which features in this article the i7-950 from Intel worked its way through our tests producing results which were in line with previous models we had tested. It features the same excellent build quality as those previous i7 CPUs and also includes features such as HyperThreading and Turbo Mode which maximize performance when compared to the equivalent AMD CPU.

In the majority of our tests the i7-950 was the faster CPU with gaming and Photoshop use as well as media encoding being particular highlights. Although it doesn't have an unlocked multiplier there was still plenty of overclocking potential in the chip and we were able to run at 4.4GHz without issue. Value is a particularly strong aspect of this product with the CPU currently retailing for a little less than the 1100T in some stores.

Intel core i7 980x / AMD Phenom IIx6

Specifications	Intel Core i7 980X	AMD Phenom II X6          (1100T)
Processor Clocking Frequency	3.3 GHz (3.6 GHz With TurboBoost)	3.3 GHz (3.6 GHz with TurboCore)
Number of Cores	6	6
L3 Cache Size	12 MB	6 MB
L2 Cache Size	6 × 256 KB	6 x 512 KB
CPU Multiplier	25X	16X
Voltage Range	0.8–1.375 V	1.0 - 1.475 V
Maximum Temperature	67.9°C	62°C
Power Output	130 W	125 W
Lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Maximum Memory Bandwidth	25.6 GB/s	21 GB/s

One of the most important comparison parameters is the maximum clocking frequency achieved by them, which determines the speed with which they will process applications. Besides the clocking frequency, you should compare the number of cores made available in the processor, as it decides how many parallel programming threads are processed. More the cores, faster is the processor and better at multitasking. If you are into overclocking of CPUs, the CPU multiplier, maximum operating voltage and maximum operating temperature also matters. Memory bandwidth and L3 cache size also affects the performance speed.

AMD's Six-Core Phenom II X6

A very smart man once told me that absolute performance doesn’t matter, it’s performance at a given price point that makes a product successful. While AMD hasn’t held the absolute performance crown for several years now, that doesn’t mean the company’s products haven’t been successful.

During the days of the original Phenom, AMD started the trend of offering more cores than Intel at a given price point. Intel had the Core 2 Duo, AMD responded with the triple core Phenom X3. As AMD’s products got more competitive, the more-for-less approach didn’t change. Today AMD will sell you three or four cores for the price of two from Intel.

In some situations, this works to AMD’s benefit. The Athlon II X3 and X4 deliver better performance in highly threaded applications than the Intel alternatives. While Intel has better performance per clock, you can’t argue with more cores/threads for applications that can use them.

When Intel announced its first 6-core desktop processor, the Core i7 980X at $999, we knew a cheaper AMD alternative was coming. Today we get that alternative, this is the Phenom II X6 based on AMD’s new Thuban core:

It’s still a 45nm chip but thanks to architecture and process tweaks, the new Phenom II X6 still fits in the same power envelope as last year’s Phenom II X4 processors: 125W.

Update: AMD tells us that it gave us the wrong pricing on the 1090T. The part sells for $295, not $285, in 1000 unit quantities.

CPU Specification Comparison
Processor	Clock Speed	Max Turbo	L2 Cache	L3 Cache	TDP	Price
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T	3.2GHz	3.6GHz	3MB	6MB	125W	$295
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T	2.8GHz	3.3GHz	3MB	6MB	125W	$199
AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE	3.4GHz	N/A	2MB	6MB	125W/140W	$185
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE	3.2GHz	N/A	2MB	6MB	125W	$165
AMD Phenom II X4 945	3.0GHz	N/A	2MB	6MB	95W	$155
AMD Phenom II X4 925	2.8GHz	N/A	2MB	6MB	95W	$145

You also don’t give up much clock speed. The fastest Phenom II X6 runs at 3.2GHz, just 200MHz shy of the fastest X4.

When Intel added two cores to Nehalem it also increased the L3 cache of the chip by 50%. The Phenom II X6 does no such thing. The 6 cores have to share the same 6MB L3 cache as the quad-core version.

There’s also the issue of memory bandwidth. Intel’s Core i7 980X is paired with a triple channel DDR3 memory controller, more than enough for four cores under normal use and enough for a six core beast. In order to maintain backwards compatibility, the Phenom II X6 is still limited to the same dual channel memory controller as its quad-core predecessor.

CPU Specification Comparison
CPU	Codename	Manufacturing Process	Cores	Transistor Count	Die Size
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T	Thuban	45nm	6	904M	346mm2
AMD Phenom II X4 965	Deneb	45nm	4	758M	258mm2
Intel Core i7 980X	Gulftown	32nm	6	1.17B	240mm2
Intel Core i7 975	Bloomfield	45nm	4	731M	263mm2
Intel Core i7 870	Lynnfield	45nm	4	774M	296mm2
Intel Core i5 670	Clarkdale	32nm	2	384M	81mm2
AMD Phenom II X4 965	Deneb	45nm	4	758M	258mm2

The limitations are nitpicks in the grand scheme of things. While the 980X retails for $999, AMD’s most expensive 6-core processor will only set you back $285 and you can use them in all existing AM2+ and AM3 motherboards with a BIOS update. You're getting nearly 1 billion transistors for $200 - $300. Like I said earlier, it’s not about absolute performance, but performance at a given price point.

AMD 2010 Roadmap
CPU	Clock Speed	Max Turbo (<= 3 cores)	L3 Cache	TDP	Release
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T	3.2GHz	3.6GHz	6MB	125W	Q2
AMD Phenom II X6 1075T	3.0GHz	3.5GHz	6MB	125W	Q3
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T	2.8GHz	3.3GHz	6MB	125W/95W	Q2
AMD Phenom II X6 1035T	2.6GHz	3.1GHz	6MB	95W	Q2
AMD Phenom II X4 960T	3.0GHz	3.4GHz	6MB	95W	Q2

We'll soon see more flavors of the Phenom II X6 as well as a quad-core derivative with 2 of these cores disabled. As a result, motherboard manufacturers are already talking about Phenom II X4 to X6 unlocking tools.

The new Phenom II X6 processors are aimed squarely at Intel’s 45nm Lynnfield CPUs. Both based on a 45nm process, AMD simply offers you more cores for roughly the same price. Instead of a quad-core Core i7 860, AMD will sell you a six-core 1090T. Oh and the T stands for AMD’s Turbo Core technology.