Seminar Questons For BI 151 – 2011

Seminar Questions
1. Discuss the similarities and differences between the Old and New Covenants.
2. How are general and special revelation related?
3. Can the inspiration and authority of the Bible be proved, or are they matters of faith?
4. How far should the traditional view of the origin of Old Testament literature be followed?
5. Why is the history of the canonization of the Old Testament filled with uncertainties?
6. What are the historical circumstances that contributed to the origin of the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles?
7. Since the Canon is composed only of inspired writings, are all the books of equal value?
8. Did the use of scrolls or codices have any effect on the collection of books in the canonization process? How?
9. Compare and contrast the hermeneutics of Alexandria and Antioch.
10. What is the relation of reason to revelation?
11. What is the difference between intended meaning and literal meaning?
12. Which version of the Bible do you use for personal study? preaching? witnessing? leading a bible study? Why?


What Are We Teaching Our Children?

Recently, McDonald’s Philippines launched an ad that featured two children.

This incurred a reaction from the Catholics Bishop Conference of the Philippines as reported by the other day asking for its removal from the air.

I agree with the bishops that these children are too young to be exposed to this kind of relationships.

Instead, they should be taught values such as pagiging Maka-Diyos, Maka-kapwa-tao, at Maka-bayan.

In the comments section of the news, those who posted are either naïve or just as perverted as the ones who created the ad.

It’s just an ad, the naïve say. I disagree. It’s more than just an ad. Ads are created to persuade — either consciously or subconsciously. That’s why millions of pesos are involved in creating such ads.

There’s nothing wrong with puppy love, the pervert would say. I disagree. Where in the world did they get the term puppy love? When Paul Anka sang that song, puppy love was about 17-year-olds! The ones shown in the ad are not even 7! Great childhood memories do not have to involve such ‘relationships.’

Let these children play. Let these children learn about the world they live in. Let them learn the primary necessary skills to be a productive citizen of this country. Relationships such as BF-GF (and eventually marriage) needs maturity. There is a time for that. Ages 7-17 is not just it.

UPDATE: McDonald’s pulled out the ad in response to the CBCP’s plea. Yahoo News reports.

Control Freak

In a recent post from PinoyTechBlog, sentiments from various cybercitizens has poured out on the comments section criticizing Globe’s move to Control Internet Usage via capping the bandwidth.

On one of the comments, PinoyTechNews mentioned that

Globe should clamp down on the 5% abusive users instead of “penalizing” the 95% of its subscribers.

I agree that this is what should be done.

However, the problem is identifying those 5%. And where did Globe get those numbers? I think they are just throwing us “ceiling figures”… that is, they look at ceiling and ‘guess’ the figures. LOL.

Another problem is their definition of ‘abusive users.’ How can they delineate categories between someone downloading a 6-CD Linux Distro from someone downloading a pirated HD movie? Both would exceed the 1GB limit.

So if going above the 1GB limit is the only criterion for an ‘abusive user’, both the legal and illegal downloaders fall in the same category.

Now, I use Linux. I download distros all the time. I hate to be labeled ‘abusive user’ when I pay fairly for the service rendered. And labeling loyal clients (who pay for their service) does not help Globe’s image at all.

Android At Last

After a very long wait, I was able to jump into the Droid Bandwagon. Why Droid? Because it runs on a Linux kernel. Linux is the flagship of software freedom.

So for my very first droid device, I chose HTC Wildfire. Thanks to Abe of YugaTech for doing a good review on this unit.

Wildfire is HTC’s entry level device, which means it is the most inexpensive among their android devices. Although the OMEGA of the htc droid devices, Wildfire still does a good job. Until I started to explore around.

The first thing I looked for is how can I customize this phone to my liking. I’ve been a Linux user for almost 13 years now. So I’m used to tinkering and modifying linux boxes the way I like them to be. And to my disgust surprise, the Android OS is not as free as I want it to be. I don’t have the superuser privilege that I usually have in my linux boxes. I’m just given an ordinary user’s privilege. Now, that won’t do, especially for freedom lovers.

I searched the net and there is a way to gain this super access to my device. They call it ‘rooting’ your phone. However, this is a hack based on a discovered vulnerability to the code. And doing this will void one’s warranty. How awesome is that?

I can surely perform this ‘rooting’ process. Why not? It’s still  my device and I can do whatever I like with it. But I can’t. Not right now.

So my questions are, how come the kernel on this device (and any Android device for that matter) which is supposed to be free, locked? And in order to be free, why must one resort to a hack?

This is the only gripe I have against my device. It’s mine. But not really. HTC (along with other big companies and manufacturers, yes Google, I’m looking at you), lulls us to think that we have ownership. But the reality is, we do not. They still own the devices we have (in one way or another). I have only one gripe, but it is the most fundamental one. All the others are resting on this one — freedom to use your device the way you want it.

I remember what the Lord Jesus said about freedom. He is the only source of true freedom. This world cannot offer freedom the way he can. In the book of John he said,


So maybe I’ll just install Ubuntu on Wildfire and see what it does. 🙂

The Filipino Mindset on Wealth: An Opinion

Happy New Year!

I just want to make this first post one that really piques my interest. It’s about how most of us think about wealth.

No, I did not do a comprehensive survey on this topic. This is just based on my observation, which I believe you can verify via your own as well. Two recent events (one national, and one personal) have suddenly made me ponder on how we Filipinos think about wealth. Anyway, if I have the time and energy later on, I might do a full blown research on this.

The first event is when the grand jackpot prize of Philippine Lotto crossed the half-billion-peso mark. Suddenly, lines to buy a ticket grew astronomically.


From this event, we can see that there are literally throngs of Filipinos wanting to get wealthy. Who wouldn’t want that half-billion added to their asset? However, the method of acquisition through lottery winning is questionable on many accounts.

First according to my statistics teacher, the chance to hit the correct combination of numbers is sub-atomically small. And so, there is no assurance that you’ll get your money back. It’s like throwing your bet into a black hole. Good as gone.

Secondly, my ethics professor said that betting in lotteries like this makes you covet the prize money. And coveting is — uhrm how should we say this — sin.

And there could be more. My friend Nathan Montenegro wrote a master’s thesis on the concept of swerte. This research is valuable if we want to get into the Filipino psyche on wealth.

And so, even from this simple event, we can glean the insight that most Filipinos wanted wealth — through the fast lane.

The second event that triggered these lines of thought is when I went to National Bookstore and saw a book on wealth by Colayco.


It looks like nobody wants to buy this book. While it was quite crowded in the National Bookstore, there was no line (like the one above for the lotto outlets) for this book.

Well, it could be the price of the book that stops them from buying it. But at Php95.00, would one consider this expensive? I don’t think so.

I picked up the book and read the table of contents. Then it dawned on me why it’s not being bought. The book is about acquiring wealth THE HARD WAY. Uh-oh.

I looked around if anyone would be picking up that book and taking it to the checkout counter. No one else did.

Honestly, I also did not buy the book. It’s not because I did not believe in it. It’s because I already have a similar book I got as a Christmas gift from a friend. So in the spirit of Colayco’s book, I saved my Php95.00 for other things because I already have one similar to it. But had I not previously gotten a book on that same subject, I would  have bought it in a heartbeat.

So between easy to get wealth and hard to get wealth, I think the former wins hands-down.

My prayer and hope is that we as a nation rise up from this sad state. The Colayco Foundation is doing a valuable service to the nation by increasing awareness on wealth management on the grass roots level. I’m not a staff nor a member of that foundation, but I agree with their financial principles.

For us Christians, we give first to God what is right, then we manage wisely what is left.

10 Fun Things I Can Do with a new Lenovo Laptop

I’ve been in hibernate mode for a long time.

My hope is that this post would somehow break the spell and give me a good kickstart.

What better way to start blogging again than entering a contest about doing something I really love to do.

Yugatech has launched a contest online and I decided to join. Not because I’m dying to have that laptop (okay, I admit that laptop is really a GREAT motivator), but to engage my crusty, rusty, tech-mind once again.

This will be my official entry to YugaTech’s contest.

So here’s my 10 fun things I can do with a new Lenovo Laptop. I’ll present them in gist and explain in detail afterwards.


  1. Overclock
  2. Para-Virtualize
  3. Hyper-Virtualize
  4. Engage in Cloud Computing
  5. Power Cruncher in Video Editing
  6. Media Center
  7. WiFi Hotspot
  8. LFS
  9. Make It Growl
  10. Energy Conservation. Clean and Green.


1. Overclock

Why settle for a wimpy 2.67 GHz speed when you can overclock it to its max? Lenovo engineers have just specified a safe  clock speed for ordinary users. But for a power user of this laptop, maxing out its clock is a real pleasure. This is ‘fun’ for power users.

Safety? I think this unit is built like a tank. It has safety features built in for protection.

2. Para-Virtualize

Why settle for one operating system? Why bother for a reboot to just get into another OS? These are options of old. Paravirtualization is now the THING. Two OSes running at the same time is now a possibility.

Paravirtualization has matured. There are various options out there that would allow paravirtualization of a machine in order to run OSes side by side. No more OS wars. Let there be peace and synergy among OSes.

I think Lenovo can handle this quite well. Looking at its specs, I can safely run 3 OSes at the same time! [Maybe even 4 if I install AndroidOS as the fourth one]. This makes this laptop a powerful computing beast.

3. Hypervirtualize

Who says only rack servers can do a server’s job? That’s only a myth founded during the jurassic age of computing. With Hypervirtualization, I can run several servers on this Lenovo.

Come to think of it, I can configure this laptop to be a webserver, mail server, dns server, dhcp server, ntp server, and brace yourself… FILESERVER! How would I do that with a 320GB harddrive? You don’t. What I’ll do is make use of its eSATA interface. It compensates for the teeny weeny internal harddrive. To use this cool feature of Lenovo, I’ll buy large external harddrives that has eSATA interface. That is, IF I want this laptop to be a mobile file server. 🙂

4. Engage in Cloud Computing

This is possible because of number 3 above. The latest Ubuntu server release allows one to setup a machine cloud-ready. Now, with several servers running on one Lenovo laptop, one can make a cloud cluster. Cool, huh?

Anyways, this is a good way of making one’s feet wet regarding cloud computing before taking the big plunge.

5. Power Cruncher in Video Editing

Most of the time, one’s machine is just cranking up just about 12% of its CPU power. The remaining 88% is idle. Lenovo’s Core i3 will be put to good use for power-hungry video editing functions. Of course, 100% for all the cores will mean more electricity consumption. But if video editing is one’s job, then when the paycheck comes, that electric bill will be taken cared of.

I use ffmpeg to convert all finished videos into other formats. I think Lenovo can handle this just fine. With its overclocked Core i3 and 2GB of RAM, dv to any format can be done without hiccups.

6. Media Center

Now, Lenovo’s specs is an overkill for this one. Watching movies, listening to music, photo management, etc., will just be a walk in the park.

However, those optimized movies (h264+aac) will need Lenovo’s Core i3 processor power for smooth playback.

My 6 year old son will greatly benefit from this. I think rendering highly optimized Backyardigan videos without hiccups will really make him happy.

7. WiFi Hotspot

Want to make all your neighbors happy? Make your Lenovo laptop a mobile WiFi hotspot. Thanks to its WiFi 802.11 b/g/n capability, one can share a 3G connection with others.

I may do this once in a while, especially during our DSLs downtimes. LOL.

8. LFS

This stands for Linux From Scratch. I believe this is one’s test for Uber-Geekiness. Go have a read over here: Linux From Scratch and that’s what I intend to do on this Lenovo laptop.

9. Make It Growl

Who says Snow Leopard is just for Intel Macs? For US $29 [the retail price of Snow Leopard install DVD], one can turn his Intel PC into a mac. (Software wise, of course). That is on top of the time and effort one will have to invest to make this a possibility. Now, I am not sure if Lenovo would void my warranty for installing Mac OS X. Anyway, the experience and the education one will get from this activity far surpasses voided warranties. 🙂

I can also install Mac OS X as a virtual machine on this Lenovo laptop, if I want to preserve my warranty.

10. Energy Conservation

We live in Baguio City where temperature ranges from 8 degrees Centigrade to about 25 degrees Centigrade. In the cold months of December to March, a heater for the house would be nice. We have a fireplace, but we try to limit down the number of times we have to use it. CO2 emissions is getting alarmingly high here in our city. So the alternative electric heater might be better.

So where does Lenovo laptop comes in? I think it can serve as a mini-heater for our small bedroom. 🙂 With its Core i3 running full 100% during crunch times, I think the heat it dissipates to the air would be enough to elevate ambient temperature by a few degrees.

So all I have to do is schedule all my movie format conversions from December through March and use the heat energy it would otherwise waste on any other day.


So there you go. Although YugaTech described it as an entry-level laptop, with the right tweaking and optimizations, one can turn this seemingly small device into something great.

I’ll be happy to document how those above items went. That is, if I ever get that laptop.

The Desktop Challenge

Dr. Jim West, King of Biblioblogging, issued a challenge to bibliobloggers to post their desktop.

Here’s mine. 🙂