Saturday, January 26, 2008

Lifeblog post


Lifeblog post
Originally uploaded by nocs
Sun 27/01/2008 12:56 27012008052 Janro seems to be interested with dinosaurs nowadays. On a recent trip to Borders he picked Little Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs while Rojan choosed Art Attack Activity Book. Both on sale, got to love that book store.This paper dinosaur was painted by Janro just a while ago. I think it will be our table center piece for a while. Hehehe.Rojan on the other hand recently went up to a level 3 swimmer. She can now float on her back from one end of the pool to another. Her water confidence changed drastically compared to a few months back. That makes me really happy. Nothing beats a sunday morn, having breakfast by the pool and cheering for your kid :)Daddy Nox-life bloggin on a lazy sunday afternoon...

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Lifeblog post


Lifeblog post
Originally uploaded by nocs
Sat 19/01/2008 13:14 19012008004 Mic test 1, 2, tres... Testing lifeblog app.,

Sunday, January 06, 2008

FreeBSD still rocks my world!

Over the weekend I tried to do some upgrades. Since I had been stuck for Windows (too bloated for package management) and Linux (RPM hell) land in the past few months, I had forgotten how mighty the simplicity "The Ports" package management in FreeBSD was. Back in the day, server farms were updated this way on a shared NFS drive, with each machine helping out via distcc.

Enough nostalgia, here is the rockin part on installing diablo-jdk-1.5 on a freshly installed FreeBSD machine.

> pkg_add -r w3m ; rehash
> w3m http://www.FreeBSDFoundation.org/downloads/java.shtml // (download diablo-jdk-1.5 binary)
> pkg_add -r xorg-libraries
> pkg_add -r javavmwrapper
> pkg_add diablo-jdk-freebsd6.i386.1.5.0.07.01.tbz ; rehash
> java -version
java version "1.5.0"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build diablo-1.5.0-b01)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build diablo-1.5.0_07-b01, mixed mode)


FreeBSD you rock!

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Happy 2008!

Happy 2008 everyone!

Posting on the 5th day of 2008? Better late than never.

Hope and prosperity to all.

Some reflections:

- As you grow older, the more you realize that life goes on very fast, slowing down to appreciate an afternoon chat with your wife, chasing your kids in the playground or reading them a story is more important than anything else. That real joy can be found in the things you already have.

- Nowadays I think more of having a business. Being a consultant for more than half a decade, you realize if something happens to you, your savings will quickly dry up. Being an entrepreneur is the way to go. Its hard but definitely possible. Am getting curious of how stocks work, time to really save and experiment while there is still a buffer for failure. A small farm to begin with, or small real property investments could be a start. The goal now is to save as much as we can to take the initial baby steps to becoming an entrepreneur.

- Real friends are really rare to find. Frack, people are so strange, everybody is deranged.

- Living in a foreign land as opposed to being a tourist really immerses you in ways that is hard to describe. Suddenly you realize we are all not so different and yet there are character snippets here and there that distinguish each and everyone belonging to different culture or races.

- There are always a ton of things we should thank our God above for all the blessings we have. Life is not a wheel that has its ups and downs, but rather a paralllel universe of good and bad. Its just a matter of not begging for more.


Again, happy 2008! May all our dreams come true.


Cheers!

Monday, December 31, 2007

Rojan the Swimmer


Rojan the Swimmer
Originally uploaded by nocs
Really happy the way my daughter is progressing with her swimming lessons. I wish I had the same opportunity when I was young. I think the real joy of parenthood is seeing your personal dreams and aspirations fulfilled by your kids.

daddy nox
- My kids make me proud (MKMMP).

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Software is abstract

I hate software developers boastfully saying they had been there, done that.

This idiots doesn't realize that software is and always will be abstract. Most of the time skills has to be learned on the job. I'm tempted to ask, where have you been? and what have you done? and what frakin' relevance does that have to the current job at hand.

Nuff' said...

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Hello Blog!

Long time no write. If feels like ages since I have written something in this blog.

Work has consumed most of my time. Idealistic, goal driven, eternally geeky people like me tend to fall in so easily. Working with the least concern for personal health, and wealth. A few days ago, reality has thankfully settled back in to my brain, I started jogging and took two weeks off to have time for the most important thing in the world, FAMILY.

So many realizations. In any case, the hardest thing about software development is managing the people. Its usually assholes that kills any project. Its all about the people. No process, no fracking 21'st century project management shit is going to fly or succeed if the assholes greatly outnumber the good guys. But either you see this and go along with the tide, or see this as a challenge, is what separates those who can and those who can't.

Work aside, I miss my family, they are here yet I was there in the office. I miss my kids to bits. I miss doing nothing but sit on the couch and talk with my wife, about our dreams, our plans, and about nothing in particular. Priceless.

Yesterday, I was amazed on my daughter's progress with her swimming lessons. She could now swim from one to the other, still pausing in between, but with proper strokes now. I was so proud! Every little bit of accomplishment delights the heart. My boy on the other hand, was only on his second session, hilariously he would lazily kick the water while mounted on the kick board. At 3, he is still our baby.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! Happy birthday Jesus! My personal wish is that may God be the center of our lives, the center of our family, and hopes everyday is a Happy Christmas for everyone. :)

Monday, October 22, 2007

Now, thats more like it!

Nokia's n810 web tablet is just too darn sexy.

The bundled GPS will salivate location based services (LBS) dreaming nerds like me.

But actually having a device like that is a distant dream in reality. Need to save, save, and save.


dreamer nox
-Technolusting on a mundane monday afternoon.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

The Adventure Continues


The Adventure Continues
Originally uploaded by nocs
Wether I have Hemingway's, or Picasso's, or Casanova's touch is another question reserved for mundane Monday morn.

The real question is, can I really produce readable handwriting? This ancient art long forgotten by my keyboard bound fingerlings.

I didn't go for the planner ones, I'm no manager material, am a fracking 21st century software architect. People who don't plan, but dream of how code will change the world on a daily basis.

moleskinned nox
-is $1 enough as a reward for my handwritten twisted ideas?

Rojan The Ballerina


Rojan The Ballerina
Originally uploaded by nocs
Life is but a never ending stream of events...

A few days back, my daughter turned 6. Can you imagine that! The tiny lovable little creature I once held in my hands not too long ago is now 6 years old.

Nothing worries me now at this stage, than failing to become a good parent. Raising two kids, defies all the laws of the algorithmic universe. There is no design pattern to get hold of. No tried and true exception blocks. This is randomness in its truest meaning.

But other than that, nothing beats having a family to be a witness to your life here in middle-earth.

daddy nox
- life in the parental universe...

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Middleware Thoughts

In the ongoing battle with Websphere integration.

JTA seems to work nicely. Although I had only tested connection pool setup and used user transaction config.

Next step is to try XA mode where the JMS guys are hitting a snag.

No luck on running Websphere in OS X . This is where Glassfish rocks, OS X support.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

OFW quickies

The past few days was terribly disappointing. I should have listened to my instincts and forget about being idealistic.

Trouble is, I believe people could always change for the better.

But the saying goes, in a foreign land, sometimes you have to be most wary NOT of other cultures, but of your own.

Apparently my so called Kababayan, whom I have been helping, whom I have defended, whom I considered a friend, took a point of no return and unleashed his frackin foul mouth on me, in our own language, for no apparent reason. His sorry excuse is that I raised my voice. Which as a matter of fact he assumed, because I did not. But a sorry excuse nevertheless, because if thats the case, then is it justifiable to do the same for the countless of times he raised his voice?

Sometimes I really don't understand people, crab mentality and jealousy really screws them up.

But life goes on, I had enough of his sensitivity and paranoidal shit.

Anyway, good thing I was brought up to be a better person, at the end of the day, that is more important.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Things that suck.

Websphere + Oracle XA + Hibernate

This buggers are not playing nice, they don't generally get along out of the box.

Some tweaking here and there.

Frack! If you application doesn't require transactions across more than one data source, save yourself the headache and don't bother with XA at all.


dev nox
-having a frackin' bad hair day.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Life Quickies

Currently eating at the new Chinese resto outside our condo. Home baked spaghetti with real tomato sauce, bundled with sunny side egg, ham and hotdog. Loving the taste and the low cost of food here. Will be staying for about an hour and pick-up my daughter from Ballet class.

Tomorrow will be my 30th birthday. Taken my first official leave since I joined the current workplace. We are planning to dine out and visit a tourist spot nearby KL. Should be fun!

Good food, happy, wacky family, what more could I ask for?

Saturday, September 01, 2007

PSP still rocking...

Just tried the freeware PSPTube app by a Japanese developer. This is so shiny!

Now I can watch transformer re-runs on the PSP via youtube. My kids are also loving the fact that they can also watch Barney shows hosted on you tube.

This makes the PSP a better value against the iPod. Aside from the awesome games, you can catch up on your RSS feeds (via google reader mobile edition), play music, play movies, and now stream you tube videos directly!

Now if only this thing could also read PDF's.


nostalgic nox
- The old megatron looks so frackin' lame as an oversized pistol.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Life Quickies

- Some frustrations at work. The frackin' code base needs tons of refactoring love. But the fracking T's (SAT, UAT, etc.) are a few weeks away.
- Still so many books to read. So little time.
- Education here in KL is really expensive. International schools that is. Hope its worth every penny. Need to start saving for the next school year and finally decide where my kids will study here or there back home.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Friday, August 24, 2007

Pastel Balls


Pastel Balls
Originally uploaded by nocs
And I started clicking the shutter button again. Rediscovering the joys of capturing the beauty in everyday things.

And I am blogging again.

But still the same short burst of words my twisted mind can offer.

My love, My life, My joy.


Good times!
Originally uploaded by nocs
no matter how hard you work,

or how fast you play,

at the end of the day,

when family is there,

life is always ok!

And my boy turned 3!


Janro's 3rd Birthday
Originally uploaded by nocs
A few weeks ago my boy turned 3. It was a relatively simple celebration with her sister, me and my wife spending the entire day together.

A part of me is happy our baby is turning into a bubbly and irresistibly cute little boy and another part also wishing kids doesn't grow up so fast. Time flies so fast.



daddy nox
- hoping and struggling to be the best dad in the world ;-)