Invisible Applause

Thank God for the Internet! I can’t imagine life without the World Wide Web! Hallelujah for the wonders of e-mailing! I just can’t stop Facebook-ing! If these were people, they’d be so famous; I’m sure they’d even beat Manny Pacquiao.

We’re all used to seeing these various parts of the Internet, but none of these, including the Internet itself, would be possible to hit your computer screens without this one piece of technology: the router.

I tell you, if the router was a person, it would feel so bad for not everyone knows and understands what it can do. In fact, most people have never even seen one, or did, but just didn’t mind. It’s high time to give the router the credit and attention it deserves.

As I am writing this article on my blog only to be seen by my professor (let’s say I’m shy and I don’t want my classmates to see my work), how does the article know that it should only come up on my professor’s computer, rather than on one of the zillions of other computers in the world? It’s not because of the Internet, the World Wide Web or even Blogspot for that matter; it’s because of the router. By letting messages flow between networks rather than within networks, it is able to send a message from one computer to another.

I think I should backtrack a bit so that you may be able to understand the difference between within and between networks. Back in the 1980’s, a hub was used to send messages within a network. It’s like how group messaging works in text messages. You create a network of people who are Sun subscribers just like you, and when you send a text message to them about how your day went and so, all of them would get your message. And since you can send unlimited texts for free, you keep sending messages and all who’s within the network receives them.

But what if you want to send a text message with top secret information to only one person within the network, say to Alex? That’s when another innovation came in called the switch. It was more intelligent than the hub because it can “read” the data. If the data says that it should only be sent to Alex, then it would only go to Alex. It has the ability to screen messages and send them to one person within the network if needed be. But the problem with the switch was that for example nosy Kayla, who’s also within the same network and who wanted to fish for the same information, could easily do so because the path from your computer to Alex’s could be easily traced. Of course when that happens, the source of the top secret information would then be spilled.

Because of the hub and the switch’s inefficiency and lack of security, the router was born.

It has the ability to send messages from one network to another. Going back to my blog, if I wanted to show this article only to my professor’s computer who belongs in a different network as I am, the router can serve as the gateway from the network where I belong to to the network where my professor belongs to. But one router won’t be able to do the job since many networks are intertwined and it’s not possible to only just go through one router to get from my network to my professor’s. So between the time these words left my server and the time they showed up on my professor’s monitor, they passed through several routers connecting different networks helping them along the way. It’s much like sending a postal letter from your mailbox to the mailbox of a friend, wherein mail sorters and handlers act like routers to make sure that the letter goes into the right place.

The router has proven to be efficient, but is it secure? Yes. It has the capacity of port forwarding, or automatically masking messages so it would be nearly impossible to detect where it came from. You can be rest assured that whatever hush-hush information that you have is in good hands once you send it with a router.

You might ask, how does a router actually decide on which path my blog data will take to get to my professor’s computer? The answer is that Internet data, for instance my blog, travels over a system called the packet switching network through the router. The data in my blog (message) is broken up into small packages, each with a label that includes information on the my (sender) address, my professor’s (receiver) address, the package’s place in the entire blog and how the receiving computer can be sure that the package arrived intact. In simple terms, the router is able to understand the do’s and don’ts present in the data. In this case, I do want this blog only to be read on my professor’s computer screen. I don’t want my blog to appear on other people’s computer screens.

Yes, routers are very “intelligent” and “decisive” pieces of technology as it thinks of where data will go, what different routes it could take to get there and finally decides the best route it would take to reach its destination, taking into consideration the do’s and don’ts of the data, that is, which paths that data wants and doesn’t want to take.

Routers come in different types, from small to large: Small Office or Home Office (SOHO) for personal and residence use, Enterprises such as DilNet which cover a big area like the University of the Philippines Diliman and Internet Connectivity or Major Enterprises which what Internet Service Providers use such as Globe Broadband and Smart Bro which cover cities like Quezon City.

Even so, these routers only differ in the capacity of network they can control, but their main purposes remain the same: ensuring that data goes to where it’s supposed and doesn’t go where it’s not needed or wanted. We don't get to appreciate this because we don't see this happening, flashed before our eyes unlike the Internet or the World Wide Web. But now, it may still be invisible, but it feels good to know about it, right?

The router has done its share in making our lives less stressful with just a few clicks. And thanks to you too for making your way to finishing this article till the very end. In reading a few more of these last words, you have given the router appreciation and well, an invisible round of applause this piece of device is longing to receive.

Monster

Rusty Nike rubber shoes, jeans, a shirt which showed his large belly, a red Sesame Street lanyard with his school ID and a pair of old glasses – this was what he wore on the day that he told me the story of how he became a monster.

Jan Michael Vincent Po didn’t like studying as a kid. He was just very carefree and playful about everything; playing the Playstation and chatting with his Xavier friends were just about his favorite things to do. He said he doesn’t even go to the library. Even his target grade for every subject for every quarter then was only 80. And I thought to myself, Uh oh, this dude may not really be a geek at all.

But, ever since, he has been a very curious person, asking questions from as simple as why the sky is blue to as random as what makes up glass. He constantly wants to know many things about the world around him, and he doesn’t feel contented unless so. Good, he has the signs of being a good scientist: he is curious.

When he graduated from elementary, he promised himself that he would change and that he would diligently study from then on. This was because his elder sister was accepted in a scholarship in Singapore and he, too, wants to study there.

In high school, he would go home immediately after class to study and do his assignments until it was time for him to sleep. This was the start of his transformation as a Science and Math-eating creature, and this became a habit all throughout high school. Suddenly, he lost time for his friends, and he also didn’t get to have much interaction with girls being in an all-boys school, and so he settled to fantasizing on pretty, young Science or Math teachers instead. In high school, he became officially and undeniably a geek. His grades soared from the usual average Joe’s 80’s to whopping 98’s and 99’s. “Scary, noh?” he said.

But that transformation has its own downsides. Being a big guy with a natural kind and soft heart, an intense passion for Science and Math which confused many and constant bloopers every day, he became a target of unfriendly jokes for some.

He was a CAT officer back in high school, and many of his classmates under him would laugh at him during push-ups exercises because he couldn’t carry himself. But it was fine with him, he has already accepted that he was a nerd, and being a nerd has its ups and downs. It was just unfortunate that he had to experience both in this world – you laughing with people and people laughing at you.

The third year of his high school marked the start of his love for Chemistry. For him, it was able to answer so many questions that he has about what makes up life and he was able to find those answers through this. Not only did it supply answers for his innate curiosity about things, he also realized that chemistry has many uses to make this world a better place to live in.

Sadly, he wasn’t accepted in the Singapore scholarship, but that didn’t stop him from doing his best in life.

He took up BS Chemistry and is now in his fourth year in the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Through chemistry, he was able to explain the simplest things in life that we tend to disregard. He explained that what a cell phone is made of: plastic which is made up of bonds that are strongly linked together that’s why it’s hard to break as its outer covering; copper wires, silver and lead as the metals inside and liquid crystals for the LCD.
“Chemistry is in all of things, including us,” he said.

He admitted that chemistry still hasn’t provided him with all the information he wants, but it’s enough to keep him satisfied.

He said he wants to be able to work in fuel companies when he graduates, so that he can research on renewable and alternative fuels like nuclear energy, water, or biodiesel to stop global warming.

He may be a 21-year old monster for some, his kind heart and soul makes his friends love and appreciate him for who and what he is. And that includes his loving parents Pablo and Emma Po, his sister, and well, me.

Stick to Kissing

Lately, I have been thinking about a friend; let’s call her Lily. We’ve been friends ever since I could remember, and in that span of time that we’ve stayed in touch, she has had around 20 sexual partners. I wanted to tell you the exact number but after what seemed like a hundred times of trying to recount how many, I just have to admit that I have lost count. What’s worse was that she says it’s “safe” not to use condoms because she constantly takes birth control pills anyway. Is she right? Not quite.

Engaging in sexual activity, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex and anal sex, with multiple partners, especially when unprotected, will entail a great possibility of having a sexually transmitted disease or STD.

Vaginitis, the most common STD among women of all ages, is the inflammation of the vagina. It causes irritation and burning in the genital area, especially when urinating. What's more, a woman with this condition, I hope not Lily, will have to wear panty liners or in worse cases napkins due to constant, not to mention stinky, vaginal discharge.

Another form of STD called tinea cruris, also known as jock itch, is a fungal infection of the groin area more often seen in males but it can actually happen in both sexes. The genital areas, inner thighs and anus may become itchy and appear red, tan or brown with flaking or cracking skin. It may even exhibit tiny pimples that can gradually turn into severe, pus-filled acne called pustules.

A safe sex chart in book “The Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos” by Violet Blue says that deep and dry kissing has no high risk of getting infected.

A friendly advice to Lily and to you: stick to kissing or you might end up regretting.