Kevin John Ventura

DesignCrowd is a premier online forum that was started in the year 2008 as an Australian company by the initiative of Alec Lynch and Adam Arbolino. Though they made a modest beginning but at present this enterprise is represented by as many as 165 small and big nations from all over the world (representing both designers as well as clients). The primary aim of the organization is provide the designers from all over the world with more opportunity to show their creativeness and supply the clients with qualitatively superior work.

Just post it

Designcrowd is a renowned crowdsourcing platform so all you need to do is just post the project with the specifications. If you are new to the concept of crowdsource, then there is no better option than Designcrowd as the interface is easily comprehensible and you are going to enjoy a clutter free experience. Moreover, budget is not a problem if you are using Designcrowd. This platform is open to big as well as the small enterprises. As Designcrowd houses nearly one lakh skilled designers, all the projects get good responses.

Unlimited access to skilled designers

DeisgnCrowd provides online graphic designersfrom diverse nations of the world with equal opportunity to earn some good reward and showcase their creativity as well. Recently, the community has also expanded its wing in the South East Asian nation of Philippines thereby providing the graphic designers from this small nation with equal opportunity and better scope.

Opportunity to learn and get updated

The entrepreneurs of the DesignCrowd community also maintain an active blog where the latest trends and news about the graphic designing industry are regularly posted. Both the clients as well as the designers are going to be benefitted by following the informative blog posts in this platform. Starting from the interviews of the seasoned players of this industry to tips and tricks to get best results on screen, the readers are going to have access to different kinds of information in the Designcrowd blog.

Choice between freelancing and hosting a contest

The clients have the option to choose between hosting a contest or completing the project through Freelance Graphic Design Work. Both these options are good but the designers have to make a choice according to their requirement. For completing general projects like logo or website designing hosting a contest will be suitable. Whereas if you want to get some specific work done like flash based design or others, then it best to hire the seasoned player in this genre by freelancing the task. The freelancing job is perfectly suitable for completing complex task.

Best opportunity for designers

To join the community all the designers need to do is get themselves registered in the community by signing up. Thereafter, they can participate in all the projects that are being posted in DesignCrowd and get the opportunity to earn once their projects are selected. DesignCrowd prides for providing the designers with the best remuneration amongst the different platforms.

Designcrowd has revolutionized the graphic designing market by providing the clients with many options to choose from and the graphic designers with relentless opportunity to get better exposure. Make the best use of such opportunity to get your work done within a few days time.

iZone-iHUB is a place where techies from all regions of Metro Manila can gather and converge. Collaboration is the key for innovation as what has been proven through these years of example coming from men like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, all this great minds was not able to come up with Apple, Microsoft and Facebook with just their ideas. They are backed up by other individuals who work in the shadow or share the same limelight they have gained through this innovative concepts and ideas.

Philippines is in a fast track on competing with countries like America or Japan and iZone-iHUB is already spearheading this direction for techies to take advantage of. What this place offer is opportunity without any expense. Free access to the fully airconditioned work space, Free coffee and fresh cold water plus safety and security, and the best part about this is the free access to high speed internet were you will not get easily from other sites which offer work space.

iZone-iHUB also has a contest in store for you, be part of this and win as much as 50 thousand pesos worth of prizes for the winning entry. Mechanics can be checked by accessing the website and checking out the page on how to participate. (http://ihub.izonetech-ph.com)

Also a lot more things in store for the technology community is the grand launch this coming January 2013 and the most awaited techno-summit which will be scheduled on February 2013. More prizes are up for grabs on the said event and best part about this is all this for free!

So why wait? Grab this once in a life time opportunity and be part of the growing network of iZone-iHUB, experience what is like to collaborate and converge with fellow techies on site and win prizes by submitting your ideas or projects!

For more details about iZone-iHUB, you can check our website at http://ihub.izonetech-ph.com and you can visit our Facebook site at www.facebook.com/iZone.iHUB.Philippines for updates and to know what’s hot in iZone-iHUB.

Guest post by Rochelle Regodon,campaigns manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia; www.PETAAsiaPacific.com

Many of us remember Mali from class trips to the Manila Zoo as far back as 35 years ago. Mali is the Philippines’ only captive elephant—and perhaps one of the world’s saddest. In the wild, elephants roam territories of up to 50 kilometers every day, but Mali is confined to a very small enclosure at the zoo, which itself covers an area of only 0.055 square kilometers.

Mali was taken as a baby from Sri Lanka in 1977 and has spent the intervening decades in a small concrete pen. Her days of running and playing in the lush Asian jungle with other elephants must feel like a distant dream. But that may all be about to change, thanks to the help of President Benigno Aquino III, who has issued a directive stating that Mali should be considered for transfer to a sanctuary.

For elephants, family (either adopted or biological) is everything. Births are joyous celebrations. Deaths of loved ones are mourned. Youngsters are nurtured in close-knit family units and taught life skills such as how to use different kinds of leaves and mud to ward off sunburn and insect bites. Females stay with their families for life and males until their pre- or early teens. When Mali was taken, she was just learning how to swim, take baths, and find her own food. But when elephants are allowed to rejoin a herd, the outcome can be remarkable. Carol Buckley recently wrote about Tina, an elephant from the Greater Vancouver Zoo, and how she joined the herd at The Elephant Sanctuary in the U.S. You can read the article here.

Try to imagine living your whole life in a room the size of a bedroom, seeing the same four walls every day. You’d have no friends or companionship and nothing whatsoever to pass the time or provide you with comfort. You’d never get to leave. That’s exactly what life is like for Mali.

Being confined to such restricted environments takes a heavy toll on elephants. Captive elephants not only develop serious foot disorders and arthritis (the leading cause of death in captive elephants) but also are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, which is emotionally and mentally devastating.

Dr. Mel Richardson—who has more than 40 years of experience working with former zoo and circus animals and specializes in elephants—performed a medical examination of Mali during a visit to Manila. Dr. Richardson stated that Mali suffers from potentially fatal foot problems and that the only way to ensure her physical and psychological well-being is to relocate her to an elephant sanctuary, where she can be cared for by elephant experts. He cites chronic pressure sores on her feet, which are open to contamination; cracked nails and pads; and overgrown cuticles, all of which can harbor bacteria and become infected. But Dr. Richardson’s biggest concern was the mental suffering that Mali endures in her isolation without the company of other elephants.

Numerous experts have spoken out in favor of Mali’s transfer, including most recently Dr. Jane Goodall. “Elephants need the company and companionship of other elephants. Even if Mali were in a sound state physically, keeping her alone in a cramped, barren pen is still ethically indefensible. . . . The Manila Zoo has failed Mali,” Goodall wrote. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has also backed Mali’s transfer, stating, “‘Mali’ might have few years to live but these remaining years will be more expressive of man’s compassion towards [God's other] creatures.”

Mali is a mere shell of the magnificent being she’s meant to be. She is the only captive elephant in the Philippines, and she needs to be retired without delay. A sanctuary can offer her acres to roam, ponds to bathe in, fresh vegetation to eat, foraging opportunities, and, perhaps most importantly, the company of many other elephants.

I hope you will join me and the many other compassionate Filipinos rallying for Mali’s freedom. Please urge officials to expedite Mali’s transfer by signing this petition. If you want to stay updated on the campaign, “like” the Facebook page.

Programming as an intellectual activity is the only art form that allows you to create interactive art. You can create projects that other people can play with, and you can talk to them indirectly. No other art form is quite this interactive. Movies flow to the audience in one direction. Paintings do not move. Code goes both ways.

Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but if you want to make about the same money and be happier, you could actually just go run a fast food joint. You are much better off using code as your secret weapon in another profession.

People who can code in the world of technology companies are a dime a dozen and get no respect. People who can code in biology, medicine, government, sociology, physics, history, and mathematics are respected and can do amazing things to advance those disciplines.

Of course, all of this advice is pointless. If you liked learning to write software with this book, you should try to use it to improve your life any way you can. Go out and explore this weird wonderful new intellectual pursuit that barely anyone in the last 50 years has been able to explore. Might as well enjoy it while you can.

Finally, I will say that learning to create software changes you and makes you different. Not better or worse, just different. You may find that people treat you harshly because you can create software, maybe using words like “nerd”. Maybe you will find that because you can dissect their logic that they hate arguing with you. You may even find that simply knowing how a computer works makes you annoying and weird to them.

To this I have one just piece of advice: they can go to hell. The world needs more weird people who know how things work and who love to figure it all out. When they treat you like this, just remember that this is your journey, not theirs. Being different is not a crime, and people who tell you it is are just jealous that you have picked up a skill they never in their wildest dreams could acquire.

You can code. They cannot. That is pretty damn cool.

via markjeee.com