My article for this issue will be about Computer Preventive Maintenance. I know that many of our membership has their own PC at home and of course, you want your PC to be of service for many years. I won’t discuss everything about this topic since this is really a broad computer topic. I will just focus on Hard Disk maintenance since this hardware contains all your important data.

 There are certain preventive maintenance procedures that will protect your data and insure that your hard disk works efficiently. Some of these procedures will actually minimize wear and tear on your drive, which will prolong its life.
Additionally, a high level of data protection can be implemented by performing some simple commands periodically. These commands provide methods for backing up critical areas of the hard disk that, if damaged, would diasable access to all your files. Specifically, I will discuss about Defragmeting Files.

Over time, as you delete and save files to a hard disk, the files become fragmented. This means that they are split into many non-contiguous areas on the disk. One of the best ways to protect both your hard disk and data is to periodically defragmenting the files on the disk. This served two purposes. One is to insure that all of the files are stored in contiguous sectors on the disk, head movement and drive wear and tear will be minimized. This has the added benefit of improving the speed at which files will be retrieved from the drive by reducing the head thrashing that occurs everytime a fragmented file is accessed.

 The second major benefit is that in the case of a disaster where the File Allocation Tables (FATs) and the Root Directory are severely damaged, the data on the drive can usually be recovered very easily if the files were contiguous. For the purpose of data integrity and protection, I recommend defragmenting your hard disks on a weekly basis, or immediately after you performed a major backup.
 
That’s it for now...If you need any help about your PC, just let me know. You can call me at 667-3764 or 879-6096. Or, send me an email at “arnela@kalman.com”.

 Bye for now...

CONGRATULATIONS

We wish to congratulate Soolim Co, our chairman for the accredition committee. Soolim recently passed all the requirements for registration as a professional engineer in British Columbia. We take pride in adding Soolim in the growing list of professional engineers registered with NAMA.

 CHRISTMAS PARTY
 
We are currently gearing for the forthcoming Christmas party. We are inviting every member and requesting to mark his or her calendar on the 30th of November (Saturday) for this affair. It will be held at Renfrew Park Community Centre at 2929 E. 22nd Ave. Vancouver.

This year, in addition to being a venue for close interaction among our members, the proceeds from our party will help fund the various projects tabled by our professional certification sub-committee and training/seminars sub-committee. Come and support our organization. For further details contact Dexter Tarampi @ 942-8726.

SPORTS
By: Greg Narciso

GOLF

With the golf season coming to an end, several Filipino organizations held a get together tournament at Sunshine Woods Golf Course in Delta. Mr Vic Cordero, co-owner of the course met with the different representatives from PGA, Par Breakers, NAMA and FILCANSA to organize the tournament.

95 players attended the tournament from the four groups mentioned above with some guests. The format was a shotgun style where four players or more are positioned in each of the 18 holes for simultaneous start. The tournament was intended to be a bouncing board for better and bigger tournaments among Filipino golf enthusiast representing different groups in the future. A weekend tournament in summer time in the interior is in the planning for next year.

 Some NAMA players played well in the tournament. The first and second low net was won by Pete dela Cruz and Mat Agatep. Pete is the NAMA golf committee coordinator and Mat Agatep is a regular player registered with NAMA.
 

BASKETBALL

 To give all members who are basketball enthusiast a chance to play with fellow Mapuans, NAMA is sponsoring this year an inter-area basketball tournament. The team coordinators for the different areas are Richard Yeh for Vancouver (Team 1), Emer Catapia for Richmond/Ladner/Delta (Team 2), Henry Laxamana for Surrey/N.Delta (Team 3) and Percy Gamboa for Burnaby/N.West/Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam (Team 4).

 All games are scheduled on Saturdays so family members can enjoy the fun watching how our members play. Following is the tournament schedule:

  November 2: (10:00am - 1:00pm)
          Team 1 vs Team 3
          Team 2 vs Team 4

   November 9: (10:00am - 1:00pm)
          Team 1 vs Team 2
          Team 3 vs Team 4
 
November23: (10:00am - 1:00pm)
          Team 1 vs Team 4
          Team 2 vs Team 3
 
November30: (10:00am - 1:00pm)
 Elimination round
          1st place vs 4th place
          2nd place vs 3rd place
 
December7: (10:00am - 1:00pm)
         Championship games
 
The games will be played at Our Lady of Assumption Gym in Port Coquitlam. Each player will pay $25.00 which covers the use of Gym, pay for the referee, trophies and uniform (top only).

Players who wish to order pants have to add $12.00. For more informations, please call Digno Vibat at 327-2288 or Richard Yeh at 582-5550.

 Come and join the fun, bring your family for a wholesome game and family entertainment. For more information about the tournament contact your area team coordinators or Bert Samson - 525-8608.

BOWLING

 The first of two bowling games scheduled this fall will be on October 26 at Top Gun Bowling Alley in Richmond. Please contact Sam Quinones for furthe details
Bowling fee is $20.00, which includes snack and kareoke.

CELEBRATIONS

We wish to greet the following members who are celebrating their birthdays this month of October:

Pay Abaya
Ildy Degala
Leo Flores
Joseph Yu