YUP, we still love HappySlip Christine May the “HappySlip Jingle” put a smile on your face.

SO, how many bottles of beer did you have in 2007? I suppose many of us could build a much bigger beer tree than this if we collected all the bottles we finished this year, heh

Of course, Christmas is more than just giving gifts and endless feasting and drinking, so let’s not forget what this day really means.

Let’s also learn to be thankful for what we do have, instead of always wanting what we don’t. It’s a hard lesson to learn, I know, and it’s something I always have to keep reminding myself — and something my wife Ellen and our daughter Sam make me realize each day.

Have a Merry Christmas!

THINGS have been pretty hectic lately — well, that’s been the case for pretty much the whole year, heh — and the funny thing is that next year will see the launch of even more content and services from INQUIRER.net. We’ve pretty much mapped out what we’ll be rolling out from Q1 to Q4 2008, and I just have to keep reminding myself to contain my excitement and not spill the beans.

Anyway, for now I’m happy to announce two more podcasts from INQUIRER.net. These are Technobabble, our technology podcast, and Sports Aficionado, our, well, sports podcast, heh

Episode 1 of Technobabble has me and INQUIRER.net executive editor Leo Magno interviewing Intel Microelectronics Philippines country manager Ricky Banaag, while Episode 2 features Hewlett-Packard Philippines managing director David Tan.

Meanwhile, we launched Sports Aficionado with two episodes on the “Ring of Fire” mixed martial arts competition that was held at the Araneta Coliseum, with Episode 1 featuring Kimo and Episode 2 featuring Heath Herring (and his girlfriend, pro poker player and model Lacey Jones).

Special thanks to Penmachine.com for the royalty-free music that I used for Technobabble and Sports Aficionado.

Oh, and in case you were wondering who did the voiceover for the intros and extros of the two podcasts, ahem, ahem, yup, being the multimedia editor means you have to multitask a lot, heh, from hosting to producing the podcasts heh

UPDATE: Southeastern College filed the civil case this noon, and Microsoft Philippines has issued a statement saying it tried to resolve the dispute before the case was filed.

Here’s an INQUIRER.net VDO Clip taken by our reporter Lawrence Casiraya, showing Estelito Mendoza, the legal counsel for Pasay City-based Southeastern College, describing the P100-million copyright infringement case.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

HERE’S an excerpt from INQUIRER.net reporter Lawrence Casiraya’s Breaking News story:

A Pasay City school is scheduled to file at noon Monday a civil case against software firm Microsoft Corp. and its local subsidiary, Microsoft Philippines, for alleged illegal distribution of copyrighted material.

The case stemmed from Microsoft’s allegedly unauthorized and illegal “digital copying” and distribution of a locally developed manual on the use of Microsoft Office. Ironically, Microsoft has been at the forefront of attempting to curb the illegal distribution of its own copyrighted software in the Philippines, working with the Optical Media Board and the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team.

The registered copyright of the manual in question is owned by Southeastern College (SEC), which is set to file the case against Seattle, US-based Microsoft and its Philippine office at the Makati City Regional Trial Court.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft Philippines is holding its media Christmas party tonight.

WATCH out, Wikipedia: Google is now invading your turf with the announcement of its own Wikipedia-like free service.

Dubbed as “knol,” the service is currently by-invitation only to a select group of — dare I say it? — knol-edge workers heh

Here’s a screenshot of a test knol — real author and info, but of course, the ratings, comments and other meta-data aren’t ‘coz it hasn’t been unveiled yet to ordinary Internet users like us. Check out the Official Google Blog entry for more info.

This is great news, because while I personally believe that we should empower more people with digital tools and allow all voices to be heard, we also have to make sure that these services will be used responsibly.

The goal, after all, is not just to come up with more user-generated content, but better user-generated content.