Oh yes, reality is these two words gets mixed up and has the tendency to end into the latter. People become avid fans of what-somewhat-works-already-in-production-thou-shall-not-touch syndrome.
Been really grappling for the past 1 year how to convince people the values of unit testing and loosely coupled frameworks. How do you convince dinosaurs without hurting their feelings? How do you invite change from a software development perspective? I need to learn more about how to evangelize. How does one become good at that anyway? Really curious. How do you do that without spending 100% of your time doing the proof of concept yourself? How do you get support? Will training your team help?
And yes, EJB's are for sissies and this is my 1000th blogger post! Hooray!
Monday, September 01, 2008
Life Updates
Obviously not updating the blog on a regular basis, life goes on on the other side of cyberspace.
Currently hooked on reading again! Now halfway thru "The Anatomy of Peace", I loved the first book, and this one really drives the point home.
On the other side, my daughter is still not in school, which is getting me worried shince she is turning seven next month, hope everything goes smoothly so she can start by January. Otherwise, my family has to go back, just to ensure they don't miss the school year. :(
We are also trying to get a car, since we plan to stay here for at least a few years. Already got my driving license so hopefully car arrives next month also.
Work, hmmmmnnn, is still work, hopefully this week a new set of geeks from the Philippines we recruited could strengthen our team, its always nice to hire people who are smarter than yourself, so that I can have more time for other things.
cheers!
nox
Currently hooked on reading again! Now halfway thru "The Anatomy of Peace", I loved the first book, and this one really drives the point home.
On the other side, my daughter is still not in school, which is getting me worried shince she is turning seven next month, hope everything goes smoothly so she can start by January. Otherwise, my family has to go back, just to ensure they don't miss the school year. :(
We are also trying to get a car, since we plan to stay here for at least a few years. Already got my driving license so hopefully car arrives next month also.
Work, hmmmmnnn, is still work, hopefully this week a new set of geeks from the Philippines we recruited could strengthen our team, its always nice to hire people who are smarter than yourself, so that I can have more time for other things.
cheers!
nox
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Lucky to be A Programmer
Not sure how true this still is back home. I feel extremely happy to be there back in the day when programming was in its early stages in the Philippines. When Linux was still diskette based affair, and FreeBSD was still in is 2.x version. Dual 64kb lines was enough inspiration to burn the midnight oil. C/C++ was there to expose us to the funky world of OOP.
Nowadays, we eat Swing memory leaks for breakfast and try to make hibernate decently behave in the afternoon. I have to admit this doesn't even come close to 10% of the fun of making quick pointer drills in manually driven C/C++ applications. We do get a few exciting moments thinking about cloud computing but typical corporate projects are not likely to embrace that in the near future.
That said, this is the 998th post. Hehehehe.
devnox
- send in the clouds.
Nowadays, we eat Swing memory leaks for breakfast and try to make hibernate decently behave in the afternoon. I have to admit this doesn't even come close to 10% of the fun of making quick pointer drills in manually driven C/C++ applications. We do get a few exciting moments thinking about cloud computing but typical corporate projects are not likely to embrace that in the near future.
That said, this is the 998th post. Hehehehe.
devnox
- send in the clouds.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
997th and counting...
3 more posts and i'll hit the 1000th post landmark.
Rice here has also increased in price. Dramatic increase, am hoping it doesn't trigger a price increase of other common commodities.
We found a school for my eldest. Here is to hoping we get more than we paid for. Us parents would simply do everything and never skimp on a child's education.
daddy nox
- hope, faith, in the land of milk and curry...
Rice here has also increased in price. Dramatic increase, am hoping it doesn't trigger a price increase of other common commodities.
We found a school for my eldest. Here is to hoping we get more than we paid for. Us parents would simply do everything and never skimp on a child's education.
daddy nox
- hope, faith, in the land of milk and curry...
Monday, May 12, 2008
New Addition to the family!
On mother's day, I gave the lab op may layf a puppy!
Cuddly and cute! 7 weeks old Pekingnese? The vet adviced at least 5 days rest and to be familiar with the surroundings. After that we can let it loose around the house. Only after a month we are supposed to take out and start its poo training.
I've had a dog till I was college, I can still remember the names: Judge, Smart, Brookeshields, and Leila. I actually like the "Askal" breed, low maintanance type, but here we don't have the luxury of having a normal sized dog, so we have to settle for small cuddly ones.
After much deliberation, we four finally agreed on a name. I wanted "Atom" or "Dracula", my daugther wanted "Maxie", my wife wanted "Alvin" and my little boy wanted "Ben". In the end we settled for "Scope".
Cuddly and cute! 7 weeks old Pekingnese? The vet adviced at least 5 days rest and to be familiar with the surroundings. After that we can let it loose around the house. Only after a month we are supposed to take out and start its poo training.
I've had a dog till I was college, I can still remember the names: Judge, Smart, Brookeshields, and Leila. I actually like the "Askal" breed, low maintanance type, but here we don't have the luxury of having a normal sized dog, so we have to settle for small cuddly ones.
After much deliberation, we four finally agreed on a name. I wanted "Atom" or "Dracula", my daugther wanted "Maxie", my wife wanted "Alvin" and my little boy wanted "Ben". In the end we settled for "Scope".
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Post 995
995th post. Thats all...
All I can say is it pays to share. Everybody starts with somewhere. Been organizing technical sessions for the team. For the time being nothing more than introductions, just to get into the groove of things. Baby steps, but steps nevertheless. Looking forward to technical sessions with more depth. Lets see where this goes.
Aside from that started strumming the guitar again. But I think the cable wasn't shielded enough, distracting buzz during clean leads. Need tons of practice to get my fingers back into shape. Its been ages since my fingers danced on the fret board. The picking and the fret movements is shameless out of sync. I sincerely hope the neighbor can bear the notes even my ear can't sustain. :)
All I can say is it pays to share. Everybody starts with somewhere. Been organizing technical sessions for the team. For the time being nothing more than introductions, just to get into the groove of things. Baby steps, but steps nevertheless. Looking forward to technical sessions with more depth. Lets see where this goes.
Aside from that started strumming the guitar again. But I think the cable wasn't shielded enough, distracting buzz during clean leads. Need tons of practice to get my fingers back into shape. Its been ages since my fingers danced on the fret board. The picking and the fret movements is shameless out of sync. I sincerely hope the neighbor can bear the notes even my ear can't sustain. :)
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Round me up Scottie...
Stumbled upon ugly code...
Financial application using double everywhere and using DecimalFormat for rounding. It boggles the wet corners of the mind.
Java DecimalFormat uses ROUND_HALF_EVEN and financial applications more often than not requires ROUND_HALF_UP or the way we are tought in grade school.
The coming week is gonna be a long week if we are to clean it up. And I had already communicated to use BigDecimal for amount since day 1, but nobody is listening. Not so shiny...
Am technically a code janitor nowadays.
Financial application using double everywhere and using DecimalFormat for rounding. It boggles the wet corners of the mind.
Java DecimalFormat uses ROUND_HALF_EVEN and financial applications more often than not requires ROUND_HALF_UP or the way we are tought in grade school.
The coming week is gonna be a long week if we are to clean it up. And I had already communicated to use BigDecimal for amount since day 1, but nobody is listening. Not so shiny...
Am technically a code janitor nowadays.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The fool on the hill.
April 1, fools day.
Its also marks my first year here in the land of chicken and curry.
I decided to stick around, lets see, life is a journey anyway...
On to the next April fools day...
Its also marks my first year here in the land of chicken and curry.
I decided to stick around, lets see, life is a journey anyway...
On to the next April fools day...
Sunday, March 30, 2008
How To Work Better
Fresh from the RSS feed. From a spray painting in Tate Modern London.
How To Work Better
1. Do one thing at a time
2. Know the problem
3. Learn to listen
4. Learn to ask questions
5. Distinguish sense from nonsense
6. Accept change as inevitable
7. Admit mistakes
8. Say it simple
9. Be calm
10. Smile
How To Work Better
1. Do one thing at a time
2. Know the problem
3. Learn to listen
4. Learn to ask questions
5. Distinguish sense from nonsense
6. Accept change as inevitable
7. Admit mistakes
8. Say it simple
9. Be calm
10. Smile
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Back to Work
Been nursing a badly sprained right ankle for the past three days. X-ray results fortunately show no fracture or mis-alignment. Could walk decently now, just need to keep the ankle guard on for a few more days.
At least the downtime provided space for reading. Currently re-visiting Doug's articles and find out more about fork-join. Been there in my read-list for some time now. Got reminded when I read migs post on the matter.
Fork-Join should be interesting to try out with the batch process we had. Since most the tasks can be split and re-joined for results.
Back to the sprained ankle, the lesson is helping your daughter with Ballet lessons while your son is scattering his toys on the floor is not a very good idea. Otherwise, you need to be in decent weight to minimize the impact.
Oh well...
At least the downtime provided space for reading. Currently re-visiting Doug's articles and find out more about fork-join. Been there in my read-list for some time now. Got reminded when I read migs post on the matter.
Fork-Join should be interesting to try out with the batch process we had. Since most the tasks can be split and re-joined for results.
Back to the sprained ankle, the lesson is helping your daughter with Ballet lessons while your son is scattering his toys on the floor is not a very good idea. Otherwise, you need to be in decent weight to minimize the impact.
Oh well...
Monday, March 10, 2008
Google Apps
Managed to pull some time to move edit my DNS entries and point everything to the free Google Apps. Am using Dynadot as the registrar, and the trick is to point everything to ghs.google.com. It will take around 2-3 days for the propagation, and viola! everything now hosted under Google Apps.
Google Docs is really slick, will test it under the bundled S60 Browser and see if it works nicely. Btw, noticed the default search page for my device changed from the standard WAP friendly one, to a bigger-better-fit version. Google you really rock!
First time also I have seen the Google Gear store. The 3/4 baseball shirt looks really swanky (if anybody cares to send me one, am medium size by the way.). The black and white shirt is really rockin' also. This sweater below screams shiny!
On the Flickr front, noticed my posts now defaults as draft, dear lazy web is there a way to make this auto?
Google Docs is really slick, will test it under the bundled S60 Browser and see if it works nicely. Btw, noticed the default search page for my device changed from the standard WAP friendly one, to a bigger-better-fit version. Google you really rock!
First time also I have seen the Google Gear store. The 3/4 baseball shirt looks really swanky (if anybody cares to send me one, am medium size by the way.). The black and white shirt is really rockin' also. This sweater below screams shiny!
On the Flickr front, noticed my posts now defaults as draft, dear lazy web is there a way to make this auto?
The Changing Face of Software Development
I still remember my college thesis, a library for rapid application development in full VGA graphics mode modeled after Turbo Vision which back then runs in text mode. Back then I already thought someday, we will just draw user interfaces and the real value would be in domain specific knowledge.
A few days ago, I chanced upon an interesting application which allows to visually create applications from scratch at 60 beats per minute :). Unfortunately the application is crashing so we were asked to diagnose the cause. The local websphere master was quick to point out some configuration settings as well as presented analysis on the GC dumps. On my part, I quickly set up remote profiling (Jprofiler) so we could investigate the details further.
The interesting part is the application model, everything is rule-based. I was of course intrigued how it was able to achieve such a high level of abstraction, that for relatively small applications, very little coding is required!
The technique is templating! It creates a Java object based on a template (extended from base rule objects) code, compiles this code, serializes it and stores it in database BLOB columns. During runtime these objects are deserialized into objects again with plain vanilla class-loaders. This enables ui (forms etc), workflow, business logic to be created without requiring much Java skills. In fact it allows project team to concentrate more on capturing the business logic and flow together with business analysts (who by the way can also directly participate into the system).
So where does this leads us? This will even change the way we think outsourcing! Why outsource when much of the grunt work of creating user interfaces, workflow, business logic, interfaces with external systems etc, can already be handled by such systems? Is this software development 2.0? In the book "The World is Flat", it emphasizes that grunt work will more and more move towards outsourcing. Frack! in this case its moving towards outsourcing to frameworks/systems that can be bought off-the-shelf and might possibly allow your im-gonna-knock-on-your-door-ring-on-your-bell salesman to analyze his own software needs and create his own system without/very-little programming knowledge.
Peeking further into the future, imagine "cloud computing" with this kind of services? With such systems becoming widespread in usage, the battle will be for "business logic developers"?
So my advice to developers, don't stop on being technically capable, understand the business, or better yet build your own business.
technox
-procastinating the inevitable future
A few days ago, I chanced upon an interesting application which allows to visually create applications from scratch at 60 beats per minute :). Unfortunately the application is crashing so we were asked to diagnose the cause. The local websphere master was quick to point out some configuration settings as well as presented analysis on the GC dumps. On my part, I quickly set up remote profiling (Jprofiler) so we could investigate the details further.
The interesting part is the application model, everything is rule-based. I was of course intrigued how it was able to achieve such a high level of abstraction, that for relatively small applications, very little coding is required!
The technique is templating! It creates a Java object based on a template (extended from base rule objects) code, compiles this code, serializes it and stores it in database BLOB columns. During runtime these objects are deserialized into objects again with plain vanilla class-loaders. This enables ui (forms etc), workflow, business logic to be created without requiring much Java skills. In fact it allows project team to concentrate more on capturing the business logic and flow together with business analysts (who by the way can also directly participate into the system).
So where does this leads us? This will even change the way we think outsourcing! Why outsource when much of the grunt work of creating user interfaces, workflow, business logic, interfaces with external systems etc, can already be handled by such systems? Is this software development 2.0? In the book "The World is Flat", it emphasizes that grunt work will more and more move towards outsourcing. Frack! in this case its moving towards outsourcing to frameworks/systems that can be bought off-the-shelf and might possibly allow your im-gonna-knock-on-your-door-ring-on-your-bell salesman to analyze his own software needs and create his own system without/very-little programming knowledge.
Peeking further into the future, imagine "cloud computing" with this kind of services? With such systems becoming widespread in usage, the battle will be for "business logic developers"?
So my advice to developers, don't stop on being technically capable, understand the business, or better yet build your own business.
technox
-procastinating the inevitable future
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Lifeblog post
Fri 07/03/2008 09:26 07032008163
The World Is Flat!
Tinapa at kamatis
Di ko matitiis
Malayo man sa bayan
Langit pag natikman
-puwetik nox
The World Is Flat!
Tinapa at kamatis
Di ko matitiis
Malayo man sa bayan
Langit pag natikman
-puwetik nox
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Crossroads
Been blogging for a few years, and till now haven't reached the 1000th post. Whew!
Currently at the crossroads, some major personal decisions to think about. Life is indeed full of options. Its just a matter of not begging for more.
God is good. Even if most of the time we fail to acknowledge he is there. He loves us without fail. Lord, I love you.
Currently at the crossroads, some major personal decisions to think about. Life is indeed full of options. Its just a matter of not begging for more.
God is good. Even if most of the time we fail to acknowledge he is there. He loves us without fail. Lord, I love you.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Nat Geo Video Clips
Bummer! Nat Geo Video clips doesn't play on my mobile. Extension is .mp4, but wondering what the encoding is. Unlike Diggnation, which is not supported by Video Center, at least I can download via the podcast app and use file manager to view the video. On the bright side, at least audio is playing.
Wonder if there are updates for the bundled Real Player. Otherwise enjoying Reuters Video clips during the morning bathroom rituals. Nothing beats watching news while simultaneusly dumping waste, talk about multi-tasking in age of mobility.
mobile nox
--trapped in the age of mobility
Wonder if there are updates for the bundled Real Player. Otherwise enjoying Reuters Video clips during the morning bathroom rituals. Nothing beats watching news while simultaneusly dumping waste, talk about multi-tasking in age of mobility.
mobile nox
--trapped in the age of mobility
The Year of the Rat
Not much buzz here in the land of soya bean and curry. A few fireworks outside our bedroom window and thats it for Chinese New Year. Ditto for the January 1 which we spent with a large crowd of strangers in front of the twin towers.
Aside from that life goes on. Going with the tide. For some reason am sick and tired of reminding people what should be done. I had mild success of bringing ORM, IOC, TTD into the current project. People just won't listen.
On the other hand, am rather focusing on trying out new concepts on personal projects. Little bits and pieces here and there. Just to avoid being stagnant in a field where the landscape changes by the second.
-- does anyone care if nobody cares?
Aside from that life goes on. Going with the tide. For some reason am sick and tired of reminding people what should be done. I had mild success of bringing ORM, IOC, TTD into the current project. People just won't listen.
On the other hand, am rather focusing on trying out new concepts on personal projects. Little bits and pieces here and there. Just to avoid being stagnant in a field where the landscape changes by the second.
-- does anyone care if nobody cares?
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Lifeblog post
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
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!
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!
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