JGari.com

Last night I attended a meeting by LAMPsig in Los Angeles, California. LAMPsig is one of the open source technology groups that I’ve joined since this passed December. The meeting was filled with great energy. All of us, attendees, were exposed to a presentation by a new and upcoming web technology, called, SVG.

Prior to heading to the meeting, I called home to see how things were going and check if my 10-year old son, Jimmy, was done with his homework. To my surprise he was done with his school work, but he still had some extra reading and reporting to do for his lovely parents. When I invited him to the meeting, he was so happy, probably thinking that dad would forget about his reading and report writing assignment.

Usually when we attend technology meetings of this kind, we bring our laptops to connect to the internet wirelessly to share projects. I had Jimmy pack his laptop and as soon as we got on the road, I asked him to pull his reading material to complete his work, to which he gave me that nice look, somewhat signifying “I would prefer to enjoy the ride by just looking around and doing nothing more”

When we arrived the meeting, we came across many new faces, most excited about the great new features that SVG has to offer. The whole setting reminded me when I attended a PHP meeting at the University of San Diego, when I had recently relocated to California in 2001. Back then, PHP was in its infancies and now it has grown to be one of the major development languages on the web.

If you are new to all these technology buzz, SVG, stands for Scalable Vector Graphics. The gentleman presenting at the meeting last night was from an organization, called Ink Scape.

I just recently visited the Ink Scape’s website and this is what they are all about “Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.”

You can learn more about Ink Scape from:

http://www.inkscape.org

Just like PHP, I have no doubt in my mind that SVG will be one of the next biggest things on the web. The popular browser, Firefox version 1.5, already has built-in support for it.

Who will benefit from SVG? Well ultimately the end-users will enjoy all the benefits of a rich-client web experience. At the heart of all, Graphic Designers and Web Developers will find SVG to be a great addition their tool box.

As a Web Developer, one of the problems that I always found with flash, was the inability to add dynamic content to the beautiful interfaces. Of course this has changed over the years, but I love the fact that SVG allows for dynamic content from the ground up. What this mean is that Graphic Designers can add their artistic touches to their work, while the Web Developer may alter the content of the graphic, programmatically on the fly. All of this is brought to you, thanks to the XML structure that SVG is composed of.

If you are a cutting edge Graphic Designer or a Web Developer, you may consider the following sources to further your education about SVG:

SVG Tutorial
http://www.w3schools.com/svg/default.asp

SVG Examples
http://www.w3schools.com/svg/svg_examples.asp

Open Source Scalable Vector Graphics Editor
http://www.inkscape.org

To be part of the growing members of LAMPsig, please visit the following site and sign up to the mailing list:

http://www.lampsig.org

About the author:

Jorge Garifuna is a Computer Scientist and Real Estate professional, who loves to serve his Garifuna community. Jorge has served as vice-president of former New York-based, Garifuna youth organization, Lileiti Dufigati, has been the president to Los Angeles-based, Garifuna organization, SONHOCA, and holds membership with various Garifuna organizations, such as Wafadaha Uwara, and national technology organizations, such as ACM and IEEE. Jorge has donated his time to lecture classes about Computer & Internet usage for Garifuna organizations like, MUGAMA. Additionally, Jorge has trained high school students in programming, for national competition, under the BDPA-LA organization.

Jorge is also the CEO of Garinet Global Inc. Garinet has established itself as the major Garifuna Network since it launched in 1999. It currently averages over one million hits per month from over one hundred different countries around the world.

Garinet has consistently created services to enhance the future of the Garifuna community. Through its GariDigital.com website, Garinet offers the general public, a multitude of Website services for organizations, businesses, entertainers and family members.

Jorge may be contacted by email at jg@garinet.com

In this series, I discuss two methods of eliminating debt. One of these methods is a well known method, which suggests that you pay your debt with the highest interest first. I introduce a new method that I’ve tried, have recommended it to friends and families and many have found it useful. This method of eliminating debt is closer to the realistic life of most people, which suggests to pay the debt of the lowest amount first.

Disclaimer: While the author may have learned and used some of the methods mentioned in this article, he is not claiming to be a financial advisor. The opinions are merely for educational purposes and if used, you are using them at your own risk, releasing the author from any financial responsibility as the result of your actions. It is always advisable that you consult with your financial advisor, prior to making any financial decision.

I would like to thank the user, numada, for inspiring me to write this article. Numada, replied to one of my recent articles titled, “How much money should you save to live comfortably?” posted on the Garifuna Community forum:

http://www.GarifunaCommunity.com

When it comes to dept elimination, one of the common theories that I’ve heard repeatedly, is to pay the one with the highest interest first, by making additional payments, while making the minimum payment on the other ones. After you’ve paid up your target debt, then take the money you were paying on it and roll it up to your next target debt, so the process would be something like this:

Say you have 3 credit cards with a total debt of $4,000:
You owe:

On Tuesday, January 17, I attended the meeting of the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles, California. I was invited to the meeting by Kenneth and Candy, the great folks that I met late last year at a technology meeting.

The meeting room was filled with about fifteen to twenty bright individuals that I had never met. One topic of discussion was the schedule of the Film Festival that PAFF organizes every year for the month of February in Los Angeles, California.

I had the opportunity to meet several members of PAFF, including, the Executive Director, Ayuko Babu, the Celebrity Liaison, Chris Sibley and the Special Assistant, Gail Jenning, among many.

During my brief conversation with Gail, she was kind enough to share with me some of the business ventures that she was involved in. In one of those ventures she imports great seasoning products directly from West Africa to have them distributed in the United States. You can get a better appreciation of her great seasoning products at:

http://www.kingspepper.com

As I mentioned on some of my previous articles, I’m currently collaborating on the paff.org website, assisting Kenneth and Candy with some technical programming and concepts.

If you live in the California area, be sure to checkout the Pan African Film Festival that takes place every February. You will be glad to be one of the first ones to have watched a unique film before it makes it to the big screen. You may also have the opportunity to come across some upcoming actors and actresses that may become big Hollywood stars in the years to come.

To learn more about PAFF, please visit the following website:

http://www.paff.org

About the author:

Jorge Garifuna is a Computer Scientist and Real Estate professional, who loves to serve his Garifuna community. Jorge has served as vice-president of former New York-based, Garifuna youth organization, Lileiti Dufigati, has been the president to Los Angeles-based, Garifuna organization, SONHOCA, and holds membership with various Garifuna organizations, such as Wafadaha Uwara, and national technology organizations, such as ACM and IEEE. Jorge has donated his time to lecture classes about Computer & Internet usage for Garifuna organizations like, MUGAMA. Additionally, Jorge has trained high school students in programming, for national competition, under the BDPA-LA organization.

Jorge is also the CEO of Garinet Global Inc. Garinet has established itself as the major Garifuna Network since it launched in 1999. It currently averages over one million hits per month from over one hundred different countries around the world.

Garinet has consistently created services to enhance the future of the Garifuna community. Through its GariDigital.com website, Garinet offers the general public, a multitude of Website services for organizations, businesses, entertainers and family members.

Jorge may be contacted by email at jg@garinet.com

This passed Saturday, January 14th, the Garifuna Painter, Greg Palacio stopped by the Garinet office for a brief meeting. Since my 10-year old son, Jimmy, loves to draw, I brought him along with me for some inspiration by the great Painter, Greg.

During our meeting we discussed the possibility of Greg utilizing some of the web applications that we develop through GariDigital.com which gets used on several major websites, such as Garinet.com, TheGrantInstitute.com, PuntaMusic.com and others. One of the major problems that Greg is having at the moment is the technical pain involved in updating his website.

It seems that for him to add a new paint to his website, he has to dig into the low level HTML codes involved in his website, therefore taking time away from what he loves to do the most, which is to ink his artistic talent in his wonderful paintings. He was very impressed by the way our, web application, will take away all his complications and make his life as enjoyable as possible.

We also discussed some great ways of combining his artistic abilities along with my programming and business skills to bring many new services to the community. The thought of it, was very excited, and upon realization, I can only imagine that this will make of this year, one of the best years ever, where true collaboration is taking place for the greater benefit of the community.

Lastly we discussed Greg’s latest project, “The Garifuna 2006 History and Heritage Calendar” which I personally had the chance to see and touch. From my many years of involvement in the community, I have never seen a Garifuna calendar as fantastic as Greg’s Garifuna calendar.

This Garifuna calendar features thirteen of the most beautiful paintings of Greg. Every month of the year is carefully crafted with a large painting that covers the entire top page and calendar view at the bottom page.

A key feature that makes this Garifuna calendar unique is the historical printing of major events dates, celebrations within the Garifuna community as well as birthdays of important Garifuna people that have made major contributions, such as Dr. Alfonso Sanchez Lacayo, T.V. Ramos and many more.

In addition to Garifuna specific events, the calendar also includes well known dates such as Mother’s Day, the birthdays of Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr and Bob Marley among many.

Most calendars are made to be used for one year only. With the premium high quality color glossy paintings and the special addition of the year 2006 and 2007, this calendar has been made to last you a life time and be completely usable for the years 2006 and 2007.

I will certainly keep you posted on this topic. In the mean time, if you have not acquired your 2006 Garifuna calendar, give yourself permission to do so at the following link:

http://www.garinet.com/a/greg

If you have a website, need a website or have any questions on technology, GariDigital.com, may have the perfect solution for you at:

http://www.GariDigital.com

About the author:

Jorge Garifuna is a Computer Scientist and Real Estate professional, who loves to serve his Garifuna community. Jorge has served as vice-president of former New York-based, Garifuna youth organization, Lileiti Dufigati, has been the president to Los Angeles-based, Garifuna organization, SONHOCA, and holds membership with various Garifuna organizations, such as Wafadaha Uwara, and national technology organizations, such as ACM and IEEE. Jorge has donated his time to lecture classes about Computer & Internet usage for Garifuna organizations like, MUGAMA. Additionally, Jorge has trained high school students in programming, for national competition, under the BDPA-LA organization.

Jorge is also the CEO of Garinet Global Inc. Garinet has established itself as the major Garifuna Network since it launched in 1999. It currently averages over one million hits per month from over one hundred different countries around the world.

Garinet has consistently created services to enhance the future of the Garifuna community. Through its GariDigital.com website, Garinet offers the general public, a multitude of Website services for organizations, businesses, entertainers and family members.

Jorge may be contacted by email at jg@garinet.com

Hi,

The beginning of the New Year usually brings the Bee out of Busy to form Busy Bee. This second week of the year has been particularly hectic at the office. In spite of this, I would like to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to inform you of some of the great things that took place this week, ending 1/13/06.

o One thing I’m very happy about is that I finally had the chance to launch my personal official website, Jgari.com found at:

http://www.Jgari.com

o Since I did not reported with you last week, I thought that it is only fair that I let you know that this passed weekend I spent it at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, where I learned about some of the hottest things that are scheduled for this new year, 2006. I wrote a little article about this on my new official site for you to get an idea.

o In the back-office, we’ve been preparing for new magazine that we are planning on putting out in a few months, to keep you better informed of what’s taking place within out community around the world. So far I have selected the project lead, organized the topics and started making contacts in Belize and Honduras. The response has been great, so I expect to keep you updated in the days ahead about our progress. In the mean time if you have some writing or editing skills, please feel free to let me know so I can make you part of the team.

o On the entertainment side, we are about 60% complete on our new music download system. This new system will allow you to listen and download music instantly. So far we have about 20 different agreements signed by interested potentials that want to sell their music online as downloads. If you know of any artist, band or executive producer that would like to offer the music for download when the new system arrives, please provide me their contact information and I will be more than happy to share the great news with them.

o I got a call from Cheryl Norales in the middle of the week to participate at the Garifuna Forum 2006, taking place in a few months. You should see more buzz about this great event on the Garinet sites in the weeks to come.

o Yours truly seems to be heading to Hollywood very soon! Last night I had the opportunity to work on the Pan African Film Festival website (paff.org) in preparation for their upcoming February festival. I met Kenneth Wyrick & Candy through a programming meeting that I attended in December, 2005. These individuals are currently in charged of the PAFF website, so I volunteered some of my services for this great cause. I’m planning on attending the PAFF meetings on a regular bases, until the festival starts and assist in as much as I can. My dad and Dr. Jorge Bernardez, had been mentioning PAFF to me for years, but I never had the chance to go to their film festivals, so it is very excited to be working close the where the action is taking place.

o I came up with and documented about three new ideas this week. I believe the community will benefit from these ideas, but I will provide you with more details in the weeks to come, when I have really decided if they are going to be a go or a no.

Have a wonderful and enjoyable weekend!

Sincerely,

Jorge Garifuna
Garinet Global Inc.
http://www.Garinet.com – Our most visited website
http://www.GariDigital.com – If you are looking to create a website, CD cover, business cards or other digital services, visit Gari Digital
http://www.Jgari.com - Keep a close on Jorge Garifuna’s Official Website

Happy new 2006!

I am in the process of bringing out the best of out Garifuna artists. This will include massive coverage through the Garinet Media Network: forum, news, chat, magazine and even reporting the album sales to SoundScan, the company that the Billboard Charts gets its numbers from.

If the artists’ album activities are meaningful enough, they may be picked up by the Billboard Charts, opening wave to the mass market.

The few chosen artists would have to be loved by the fans, which is the reason I would like to ask: Do you know of the Garifuna artists at the moment that are rocking the crowd’s world?

Please let me know by posting a comment to this article on this site

You may also discuss your opinions of the Forum of this site.

About three years ago I made a trip to New York and visited several community members that were retired or about to retire. The retired ones did not look to be enjoying their lives to the max, while the ones that were about to retire, were happy to approach that spectacular retirement day. It was obvious to me that the retired ones, were not that happy for a very good reason, mostly financial, or the lack thereof.

As I made this observation, a little light bulb lit in my head asking the obvious questions: How much money does a person need to live comfortably for the rest of that person’s life? Or better yet, will the retiree’s reality smoothly transform into that beautiful mental vision of him or her at retirement day or would it be something more scary?

Although these community members knew each other, the ones about to retire blinded themselves from thinking that when they retire, their lives would probably be much like the individuals that were already retired, with nothing to show for and certainly not much to enjoy. At the surface, the coming retirement day looked promising, with many enjoyable opportunities to offer, while leaving the days of sweats and hard work behind.

The excitement of these individuals reminded me very much of my last days at the sixth grade of school. I hated school so much, that I was so happy to complete my sixth grade and put school to rest for good. After my sixth grade, I was ready to become a car mechanic, which is what one of my closest uncles was involved at the time. Gave it a try for one day. At the end of the day I was sweating, with a huge killing headache. I had to reconsider my options, visited the school I wanted nothing to do with and begged them to reissue that scholarship that I had gratefully refused and continued to the next grade and beyond.

Thankfully for me, I had my whole life ahead of me, therefore adopting to the reality of the new things were not as difficult, given the immense energy that I developed for learning.

I can only assume that as you near retirement, your energy for learning new things are not as the energizer bunny. From what I heard, as people approach this critical time of their lives, all they want to do is relax, travel the world and have the best that life can offer.

If the ideal retirement is in most people’s minds, then why is it that most people think that the money that will be used to enjoy their ideal retirement will come from somewhere special as a reward for their hard work?

Have you seen or heard of individuals getting laid off after working in a company for over twenty (20) years? Can you relate to friends and family members that are living their lives paycheck to paycheck, month after month?

Now, where does the notion come from, that after saving zero dollar ($0) per month, a rewarding million dollar ($1,000,000) check will show up at the end of your working days? Did most people with this notion forget the fundamentals of math, particularly that zero times one million ($0 x $1,000,000 ) is equal zero ($0)?

Of course, every situation is different and chances are, your financial needs will be very different than my financial needs to live comfortably. “How much money should you save to live comfortably?” is probably not a question that can be easily answered in a two page article as if it did, you would probably have the answer a long time ago and be on your way to riches.

By now most of us know that there is no magic, and conventional wisdom tells us that your investment of zero dollars ($0) per month, will grow to an amazing zero dollars ($0) in twenty years, which is not much, is it?

If living comfortably is important to you, I would suggest that you invest the time now, to figure out what it will take for you to live comfortably within the timeframe that you specify. Doing something now, will surely result in something later, event if it is a learning experience. Conversely, doing nothing now, will result in a big nothing later.

A more realistic way of ensuring that you achieve your necessary financial goal, would be by figuring out how much money you spend each month. Once you know your monthly expenses, you can fast-forward several years in the future, add the cost of inflation (which has been averaging at 3-4% per year) and that should give you a pretty good idea as to how much money you may need to live comfortably in the future. There may be other factors to consider, but this could be a good starting point.

Most of us work very hard for a better future. For those of us that have families, our greatest efforts of our lives is spent to make our family happy, provide them with the best of the best so they can make the best of themselves. Some of us with spouses, may plan our financial lives, but at times fail to keep track due to the daily activities that leave little or no time to track our finances. The good news is that the Internet is allowing us to stay connected with our loved ones, whether they are away from home during the day or away for months due to work.

Gari Digital (http://www.GariDigital.com) is starting to realize how important it is for individuals and family members to make use of the Internet and its technologies to manage their personal finances among other things. Gari Digital is now making it easy and convenient for individuals and family members to improve their financials and family activities management, through personal secure websites created specifically for those interested in living comfortably. To learn more about how Gari Digital can assist you with tools, such as a personal website, to increase your likelihood of living comfortably, please visit GariDigital.com:

http://www.GariDigital.com

Taking action today, will only bring many benefits to you and your family for the many years to come.

To find figure out your monthly expenses and keep track of them you can download one of the following budgeting spreadsheets for FREE:

Personal budget:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC062062791033.aspx

Family monthly budget:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010233421033.aspx

Once your are ready with your financial numbers you can try some of the following financial calculators for FREE:

Simple Retirement Calculator:
http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/retirement_calculator.htm

Compound Interest Calculator:
http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm

Present Value Calculator:
http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/present_value_calculator.htm

Return Rate (Discount Rate / CAGR) Calculator:
http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/discount_rate_calculator.htm

Annuity Calculator:
http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/annuity_calculator.htm

Bond Yield Calculator:
http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/bond_yield_calculator.htm

Mortgage Calculator:
http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/mortgage_calculator.htm

Reward yourself and your family by preparing financially to enjoy the best that life can offer!

Please me know what you think either at the comment section or at the forum.

About the author:

Jorge Garifuna is a Computer Scientist and Real Estate professional, who loves to serve his Garifuna community. Jorge has served as vice-president of former New York-based, Garifuna youth organization, Lileiti Dufigati, has been the president to Los Angeles-based, Garifuna organization, SONHOCA, and holds membership with various Garifuna organizations, such as Wafadaha Uwara, and national technology organizations, such as ACM and IEEE. Jorge has donated his time to lecture classes about Computer & Internet usage for Garifuna organizations like, MUGAMA. Additionally, Jorge has trained high school students in programming, for national competition, under the BDPA-LA organization.

Jorge is also the CEO of Garinet Global Inc. Garinet has established itself as the major Garifuna Network since it launched in 1999. It currently averages over one million hits per month from over one hundred different countries around the world.

Garinet has consistently created services to enhance the future of the Garifuna community. Through its GariDigital.com website, Garinet offers the general public, a multitude of Website services for organizations, businesses, entertainers and family members.

Jorge may be contacted by email at jg@garinet.com

I’ve been doing some contributions to the open source project vTiger CRM. As you may already know CRM stands for customer relationship management. As I started developing the internal documentation for Garinet early in 2005, I made a conscious decision to research CRM applications.

First I tried Sugar CRM and liked it. I found the project management feature of Sugar CRM to meet my criteria of a project management tool, but I found some limitations with the open source package, particularly in the area of invoicing and quoting. After reading their forum I came across a link to the vTiger CRM website and followed it. To my surprise, vTiger CRM included the invoicing and quoting features.

At the moment, since vTiger CRM does not include a project management feature, I use Sugar CRM strictly for project management and document management, while vTiger CRM for service customer management, quoting and invoicing. The default quoting and invoicing of vTiger CRM 4.2, had some problems. Some of these problems were cosmetics, such as company name overlapping the company logo, while others were functional, such as printing of the PDF file on the same window, while making the navigation a bit harder.

I contributed some solutions to solve these problems through a set of documentations and patches. Some of the patches were accepted by the main developers and were integrated on the core vTiger CRM application.

You can find my solutions to the mentioned vTiger CRM problems and others at the following link:

http://www.garidigital.com/docs/vtiger

About the author:

Jorge Garifuna is a Computer Scientist and Real Estate professional, who loves to serve his Garifuna community. Jorge has served as vice-president of former New York-based, Garifuna youth organization, Lileiti Dufigati, has been the president to Los Angeles-based, Garifuna organization, SONHOCA, and holds membership with various Garifuna organizations, such as Wafadaha Uwara, and national technology organizations, such as ACM and IEEE. Jorge has donated his time to lecture classes about Computer & Internet usage for Garifuna organizations like, MUGAMA. Additionally, Jorge has trained high school students in programming, for national competition, under the BDPA-LA organization.

Jorge is also the CEO of Garinet Global Inc. Garinet has established itself as the major Garifuna Network since it launched in 1999. It currently averages over one million hits per month from over one hundred different countries around the world.

Garinet has consistently created services to enhance the future of the Garifuna community. Through its GariDigital.com website, Garinet offers the general public, a multitude of Website services for organizations, businesses, entertainers and family members.

Jorge may be contacted by email at jg@garinet.com

This passed weekend (Jan 7 -8) I had the opportunity to visit the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas. My lovely wife and my two boys, Jimmy and Jorge Jr, were part of the adventure. We arrived Saturday morning and spent most of the day at the floor of the Hilton Hotel, where many exhibitors were showcasing their latest innovations.

The big guys from Microsoft, Google and Yahoo had given their speeches prior to our arrival, but I was able to capture some of the action on the CE channel of Vegas (TheCEChannel.tv).

It seems that Microsoft concentrated a great deal of their time discussing some of the new features of their upcoming operating system, Vista. Yahoo GO TV was a new service introduced by Yahoo, which allows people to access content through a computer connected to a TV. Google announced Google Pack, a free collection of software, including the famous Google Earth, Firefox and Norton Antivirus among many. Video on demand is another service that Google will be entering into this year.

We spent Sunday at the Convention Center near the Hilton. There, I was able to see a variety of custom automobiles with built-in large LCD screens, in every section you could think of, including the trunk. Apparently Satellite XM radio made a huge impact on many people. Every other person was walking away with a XM bag.

From all this, it seems that the biggest thing this year will be entertainment! In preparation for this, I’m currently working on a E-Commerce system that will allow individuals to listen and download music and possibly video for a nominal fee. I will also license this system to those businesses or individual business owners that are interested in utilizing a powerful, intuitive E-Commerce system to sell downloadable products online. Ultimately, this system will give artists the opportunity to expose their musical talent to millions of people around the world, while reducing the cost of distribution and maximizing on profit.

Do you think that entertainment will make it huge this year?

Welcome, You have landed on the official website of Jorge Garifuna!

Jorge Garifuna is a Computer Scientist and Real Estate professional, who loves to serve his Garifuna community. Jorge has served as vice-president of former New York-based, Garifuna youth organization, Lileiti Dufigati, has been the president to Los Angeles-based, Garifuna organization, SONHOCA, and holds membership with various Garifuna organizations, such as Wafadaha Uwara, and national technology organizations, such as ACM and IEEE. Jorge has donated his time to lecture classes about Computer & Internet usage for Garifuna organizations like, MUGAMA. Additionally, Jorge has trained high school students in programming, for national competition, under the BDPA-LA organization.

Jorge is also the CEO of Garinet Global Inc. Garinet has established itself as the major Garifuna Network since it launched in 1999. It currently averages over one million hits per month from over one hundred different countries around the world.

Garinet has consistently created services to enhance the future of the Garifuna community. Through its GariDigital.com website, Garinet offers the general public, a multitude of Website services for organizations, businesses, entertainers and family members.