The collective wisdom of the Supreme Court Justices vs Microsoft Word

I have always known that justice is on my side when I was accused of plagiarism. You see, in college, I accidentally deleted 99 reference citations when I used someone else's work in writing my paper. I accidentally deleted terms like "According to Machiavelli", "as argued by Foucault", or "Marx cited...." Had I raised my case to the Supreme Court of the Philippines, I would have been cleared of the plagiarism charges. (Hindi tuloy ako naka-graduate ngayon.)

In a recent case invoving a Supreme Court Magistrate himself, a case very related to my plagiarism charge, the Supreme Court ruled that (from GMA news)

Del Castillo [the SC Magistrate] did not commit plagiarism because when his researcher "cut" research materials from a law website and "pasted" them on the decision's main manuscript, the attributions were "accidentally deleted."

The mistake of Justice del Castillo's researcher is that, after the Justice had decided what texts, passages, and citations were to be retained, including those from the Criddle-Descent and Ellis, and when she was already cleaning up her work and deleting all subject tags, she unintentionally deleted the footnotes that went with such tags — with disastrous effect," said the SC.

See? That was exactly what happened to me. I just accidentally deleted the reference citations and footnotes showing the original source of the idea in my paper. And because I am just a human, I really cannot easily detect if part or partial of my paper has been copied/pasted without proper attribution. If there is anyone or anything to be blamed, I think Microsoft's operating system is the culprit. Again, in the recent case mentioned above, SC ruled:

The court also held that Del Castillo cannot be accused of plagiarism because the program used in writing the decision cannot detect "copied and pasted" material, so to speak.

 During their deliberation, the Justices ruled, in essence, that the culprit is no less than the Windows operating system itself!

Microsoft Word program does not have a function that raises an alarm when original materials are cut up or pruned. The portions that remain simply blend in with the rest of the manuscript, adjusting the footnote number and removing any clue that what should stick together had just been severed," said the SC.

See? If I directly copied materials from a certain website, say, www.lipofuzereviews.com, would MS Word detect that? I guess not. The software application is very stupid. Or if it not stupid, it is not very intelligent as well so as to detect copied ideas and alarm the user!

Tsk tsk tsk.

With this SC decision, we can now be assured that students who have good intentions of just using another's idea or work who just happen to accidentally delete the reference citations (like in my case, 99 reference citations) will be protected by law.

Good job, Supreme Court Justices. Bad job, Bill Gates.

Am I just lucky or what: Part II

Do you still remember when I wrote something about this lucky day (relatively) when I received 31 USD via Paypal from someone I really do not know? I mean, how often do you receive 31 USD without knowing what the reason is, right? So, I thought as far as surprises and luck are concerned, that 31 USD basically covers a few years of my life already, and that the next surprise/luck of that type would probably come when I'm in my 40s.

I. Was. Wrong. (And I am so happy I was.)

But not wrong like this poor creature which was
at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Just a while ago, an LBC personnel delivered a package to me (nope, not some Diets pills that work or health magazines). It's more like a pouch. And you know what it contains? Two movie tickets to any Ayala Cinemas. The tickets were from Nokia. I am sure I didn't sign or avail of any of their promos online or offline, so, at the moment, I really have no idea what these tickets are for. But who cares, right? These are two tickets. Free movies. Hmmm... any chance you guys can help me contact Sollenn Heusaff?

Google: Imagining the impossibilities

It's probably not an impossibility for Apple to come up with an iTable, or an iBlanket for that matter (and I'm sure you know what I mean by these two gadgets). I wouldn't be surprised if Nokia would come up with a cellphone which can project holograms or something like that. And again, Microsoft building a Windows version that is "almost bug free" is not that surprising. (But IBM offering term life insurance quotes? That is something else.)

But Google is the only company I know of that keeps on doing something that normal people like me did not even think of as possible within the next few years. Here's report from Yahoo!:

Google tests cars that can steer without drivers

By DANIEL WAGNER, AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON – Google Inc. is road-testing cars that steer, stop and start without a human driver, the company says.

The goal is to "help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions" through ride sharing and "the new 'highway trains of tomorrow,'" project leader Sebastian Thrun wrote Saturday on Google's corporate blog.

The cars are never unmanned, Thrun wrote. He said a backup driver is always behind the wheel to monitor the software.

It's not the first signal that Google wants to change how people get from place to place. In a speech Sept. 29 at the TechCrunch "Disrupt" conference, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said "your car should drive itself. It just makes sense."

"It's a bug that cars were invented before computers," Schmidt said.

The cars have traveled a total of 140,000 miles on major California roads without much human intervention, according to Google's corporate blog.

More... 

I mean, Google started out with its search algorithm, and now, look at its ventures -- green technology, "mainstreaming" trips to the moon, phones, and now, this? Google is like Massive Dynamic!

Next stop for Google: Beam me up, Scotty!

The Google StarShip!

:p

All I Want For Christmas

Prinsesa Musang initiated an "exchange gift party" between bloggers. And I joined it! (E kasi naman, PC lang ang kaharap ko 24-7, hahaha.) And if you guys are interested to join, you should visit her site here so you can read the mechanics. :-)

Prinisesa Musang, advanced Merry Christmas to you! :-)

• Something small: thumb/usb flash drive
• Something big: gym bag
• Something cute: ang hirap naman nito... ahmm.. cute na wall decor?
• Something soft: pillow, specifically, that one advertised as having medical/soothing effect when you sleep
• Something techie: i'd wish for an iPad, but i guess that would be too much, so, an external drive... 1 terabyte!
• Something fancy: can i pass on this one? wala akong maisip e.
• Something BLACK: training shorts/pants and i'm big, so, this is also a "something big" for me. hehehe.
• Something wearable: see may something BLACK. :-)
• Something you need: a thumb drive, 1 TB external drive, or a UPS for my PC. Or amazon gift cards.
• Something you can use for work: an organizer for 2011. :-))
• Something sweet: sollenn heusaff... ah, wait, tons of kitkats will do. but please try sollen heusaff first.

All I Want For Christmas:
Love and peace on Earth. And a 1 TB external drive for my PC. :-)

Sollenn Heusaff, will you marry me?

Guys, do you know who Sollenn Heusaff is? In case you do not know her, she's one of the cast aways in GMA-7's celebrity edition of Survivor. Here's a picture of her:

Sollenn Heusaff

Anyway, my sister who is a fan of the show (and later on, I found out, of Sollenn), talked to me and my younger brother yesterday. Very serious. She asked us to promise her that we will do everything that we can to make sure that Sollenn will become her sister-in-law -- either one of us has to marry Sollenn. Errr... Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what she asked us to promise.

I know it's really not an impossibility on my part (wahahaha!), but unfortunately, my heart already belongs to someone. So, Li'l Bro, goodluck! Make us proud!

100%

I am a certified workaholic: I give my 100% effort for my work from Mondays to Sundays. Yeah, all 7 days of the week. And FYI, I am most efficient on Wednesdays! I love Wednesdays.

You don't have to add, alright? It's 100%. :-)

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Vulcan Hoodie I Want!

Jack Bauer bag, then, this one. Ahem... Lapit na birthday ko.