Tech Musings

Random Thoughts 01/04/2012

2012-01-04T09:52:00.001+09:00

- Nuget package management system.
- Building LINQ Combinators

Random Thoughts 12/17/2012

2011-12-17T08:18:00.001+09:00

Reactive Athena
ICustomTypeProvider In WPF 4.5 and SL5 it seems like ICustomType Descriptor, but what's the difference?
WPF Performance Tuning Tips

Random Thoughts 12/16/2012

2011-12-16T07:33:00.001+09:00

C# 5 async programming In What's New In .NET Framework 4.5
Managing libraries via NuGet
Cross-Platform C/C++ Development with Eclipse CDT

Random Books : Blend, Silverlight, WPF, WCF, LINQ

2009-10-04T00:04:00.005+09:00

Nice vacation, nice learning! Interesting books I've devoured during my recent 2-week vacation.

Silverlight

WCF

ASP.NET MVC

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software

Random Learnings: RIA, .NET 4, RESTful, IronPython, MEF

2009-09-30T17:27:00.008+09:00

.NET RIA Services
Starter Kit for Expression Blend Behaviors, Visual State Manager (VSM), & Sketchflow
.NET 4 new Base Class Libraries (BCL), parallelization libraries seem interesting
RESTful Approaches To Financial Systems Integration
Pumping Iron: Dynamic Languages on .NET
Managed Extensibility Framework, new kind of IoC, seems simple as you only need to Export, Import, Compose!
Google Wave, seems interesting, seems email+chat+twiki in realtime

Additional Nifty Tools To Our IronPython Toolbox

2009-06-07T15:18:00.005+09:00

This week I've come across two interesting tools that're worth adding to our IronPython toolbox:

Methodist : A plugin which enables python scripting inside Reflector. Very useful particularly when trying out how to use objects inside a loaded assembly.
SharpDevelop 3 : A fully functional dotNET IDE, now supports Python and also provides Intellisense. This seems more powerful than the IronPython Studio. VIM is still my primary python IDE though, but seems IronPython scripting will now be much quicker when using SharpDevelop.

Top 5 Books To Sharpen .NET Development Skills

2009-05-10T08:53:00.004+09:00

.NET technology is evolving quite fast that stuff you learned a year or two ago is fast becoming obsolete. If you're a .NET developer, I recommend the following books to stay sharp these days:

Top 5 Books To Further Business Knowledge for IT Professionals Working in the Financial Industry

2009-05-10T08:30:00.003+09:00

Let's face it, to be effective at work and to remain competitive in the job market, IT professionals should be proficient business and technical wise. If you're an IT pro working in the financial industry, I recommend the following easy-to-read books to further business knowledge:

Journey to becoming a Pythonista

2009-03-29T00:16:00.007+09:00

Python charmed me tremendously. It's very elegant, very expressive, very concise, of course these are just few of the very good things about it. I spent a lot of my spare time nowadays (yes I do have a day job) to sharpening my Python skills, with the ultimate goal on to becoming a real Pythonista one day.

It seems a lot of Pythonistas love VIM as the IDE, so I also spent a lot of time mastering it. The VIM links below helped me tremendously.

VIM.org. The official site of VIM, the first resource you need to visit. You can download a lot of python related plugins and stuff here.
A Byte of VIM by Swaroop. An online book with lots of tutorials and tips.
Vim Cookbook. A kind of cheatsheet, loads of helpful tips as well.

Googling Python, you'll get tons of hits. That's definitely an indicator of how popular Python is. The Python links below I find useful.

Python.org. The Python official site, the first site you need to visit to get learning resources.
A Byte of Python by Swaroop. Very easy to read online book. Lots of tips and tutorials just like Swaroop's VIM book.
Python Tutorials. This site definitely lives up to its name, a lot of very useful tutorials.
Python Challenge. If you want to get challenged as a Pythonista, then this site is worth a visit.

I'm a dotNET developer by profession, and it's sweet to hear that Microsoft is embracing Python as one of the dynamic languages that could seamlessly run on the dotNET platform, either on the Desktop or the Web. Below are the links I find useful on developing dotNET applications using Python.

IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime. A quick overview of how Python fits in the CLR.
Python in your Browser with Silverlight 2. A very easy to follow tutorial on how to develop Silverlight apps using Python.
DevHawk. Tons of info and tutorials about IronPython here.

There you go folks, a collection of links that helped me a lot so far on to my journey towards becoming a real Pythonista on both the Windows and Linux platforms.

What Techy Stuff I've Learned in 2008

2009-01-02T16:12:00.002+09:00

In retrospect, I've certainly learned great deal in '08, although all of them on dotnet platform -

As every tecnologist claims '09 to be the year of the Open Source and Cloud Computing, I'll definitely strive to learn more stuff on Linux, Google App, Dynamic Languages like Python, Azure, etc.

Looking forward for another great learning year in '09!

.NET Development Link #6 (WPF)

2008-07-27T21:27:00.004+09:00

My latest in a series of the weekly, or more often, summary of interesting links I come across related to .NET Development on WPF.

To effectively learn WPF, I suggest going through the below materials:

Great Video Tutorial on Expression Blend. After going through the videos, you wouldn't want to use the Visual Studio XAML designer no more.

Composite Application Guidance for WPF. It's worth reverse-engineering the Quick Starts on UI Composition, Commanding, Event Aggregation, and Modularity.
MSDN WPF Getting Started

Generalist vs Specialist

2008-06-15T11:36:00.001+09:00

A good article on Generalist vs Specialist theory, what model is effective?

"a generalist has a basic understanding across many disciplines.
Generalist may not have a specific skill required to solve the problem,
however, he is very good in defining the problem."

"specialist on the other hand is a person who has a deep understanding
of a specific discipline. He is best used when solving a problem or
executing a plan. According to Dave both are required in a project for
the successful execution of the project."

But I still believe in the Generalizing Specialist model.

.NET Development Link #5 (Silverlight)

2008-06-15T11:08:00.003+09:00

My latest in a series of the weekly, or more often, summary of interesting links I come across related to .NET Development on Silverlight.

Good articles on Getting Started on Silverlight from Dan Wahlin.
Learn from SilverlightGirl on Game Development using Silverlight.
Free hosting and streaming of Silverlight contents on Silverlight Live.
Silverlight Beta 2 released! Here's the summary of what's new in this release.
Nice article on how to implement a Pages based WPF application (I'll definitely use this from now for writing Presentation, bye-bye Powerpoint!).
Free SilverLight training.

.NET Development Link #4 (Profiling and Debugging)

2008-06-07T12:21:00.003+09:00

My latest in a series of the weekly, or more often, summary of
interesting links I come across related to .NET Development on Profiling/Debugging.

Although the Command Language Runtime (CLR) sports a nifty Garbage Collector (GC), which takes away the pain of memory management, we still can't get rid of memory leaks that if left uncleansed could degrade the app's performance and stability. Good thing we have some open source tool, the CLRProfiler, that we can use to track down memory leaks. Here's the how to guide from Amit on tracking memory leaks using CLRProfiler. But if you like tools that are integrated into your IDE, then we have to pay some hefty bucks for SciTech and DevPartner tools that are also nifty when it comes to memory profiling.
SysInternal Tools are definitely must-haves when it comes to debugging and profiling. They're now live.
I've now been trying out NDepend to analyze code structure, gather code metrics, and devise an effective refactoring. Maarten's article has been a good reference for such profiling activity.

Book Review: Pro WPF in C Sharp 2008

2008-06-01T10:18:00.007+09:00

Pro WPF in C Sharp 2008 by Matthew MacDonald shows us in crystal-clear detail every cool features of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) from XAML (a markup language to define the UI) to 3D graphics and animation. It gives us practical advice on how to build high-quality WPF applications quickly and easily using appropriate techniques.

What you can learn from this book can be summarized into the following points:

Difference between WinForms and WPF
WPF basics:　XAML, Content, Layout, Controls, Event Handling
WPF application: Pages & Nagivation, Commands, Localization, and Deployment
WPF data management, Data Binding, Data Template, Data View, and Data Providers.
WPF Advanced Controls: Control Templates, List, Trees, Menus, and Toolbars.
WPF documents: Text Layout and Printing
Graphics & Multimedia: Drawing 2D and 3D, Sound & Video, Animation, Geometric Transformation & imaging.

This book is for professional .NET developers who already have experience in .NET development and is encountering WPF and .NET 3.5 for the first time. Although, WPF is totally different from WinForms, having experience in developing using the latter makes learning the former easier.

What I found particularly interesting in the book are the chapters on XAML, Command, Data Binding, Data Template, and Animation. Reading only these chapters will get you up to speed on developing a complete and production-ready WPF application. The chapter on how to co-exist Winforms and WPF is also a good reference if you're thinking of using WPF in your existing WinForms application, or vice-versa.

The book doesn't touch on the details of C# language though, which makes the title misleading. If you want to learn C#, particularly the new features in C# 3.0, then I recommend C# in Depth: What you need to master C# 2 and 3 by Jon Skeet.

.NET Development Link #3 (Visual Studio)

2008-05-31T17:50:00.008+09:00

My latest in a series of the weekly, or more often, summary of interesting links I come across related to .NET Development on Visual Studio.

Charlie teaches us how to Import/Export Color Schemes from/to Visual Studio. He also provides links where we can download preset Color Schemes. If you like code on black background like me, you might want to import the DarkSide.
Amit enumerates the Visual Studio Shortcuts we should know, absolutely invaluable, great addition to Resharper Shortcuts.
I can't wait to integrate StyleCop to Visual Studio, good thing I've stumbled on John's how to.

.NET Development Link #2 (WPF)

2008-05-31T11:49:00.007+09:00

My latest in a series of the weekly, or more often, summary of interesting links I come across related to .NET Development on WPF.

Julian Domiguez shares his thoughts on why Presentation Model (aka Model-View-ViewModel) is much more appropriate UI design pattern to adopt than Passive View. I agree to his point that "Passive View ends up having lots of boiler plate code for the communication between the view and the presenter". Reading Julian's 1st attempt on implementing Presentation Model and also reading through the latest Prism spike, with WPF's DataTemplate and DataBinding cool features, the trend on adopting Presentation Model on WPF seems to be the following points:

View: Ultra thin View, only XAML, No Code Behind

Model View: No UserControl that couples logic and view, Only Control, a lookless model for a view.

Model: Just model and logic

A good introduction to M-V-VM (Model-View-ViewModel) concept from John Gossman and Dan Crevier.
Sacha Barber teaches you how to do 3D on WPF in his multipart-series.

.NET Development Link #1

2008-05-26T20:03:00.003+09:00

My latest in a series of the weekly, or more often, summary of interesting links I come across related to .NET Development.

Charlie Calvert posted the complete list of Visual C# 2008 Keyboard Mappings.
Mike Hillberg's explained how the Logical Tree differs from the Visual Tree in the world of WPF.
A multipart series from PowerShell team on how to use WPF from PowerShell (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
If you find FxCop very useful, you'll also find the StyleCop (aka Microsoft Source Analysis for C#) equally useful, it analyzes the source code itself and not the bytecode. Just like FxCop, it's also extensible, you can write you're own rules.
Dino Esposito explained why I solate Storage is important in Silverlight.

Dilbert's Happiness Formula

2008-05-04T10:36:00.003+09:00

Happiness = Health + Money + Social Life + Meaning

photo from Flickr

Family Quality Time

2008-05-04T10:29:00.005+09:00

In a fast paced and hectic world we live in, we often take fore granted the most important people in our lives.

Ueno Park, Tokyo

Dependency Injection

2008-04-13T09:24:00.005+09:00

I've been trying to come up with a short description of what this new buzzword DI means and what it's trying to achieve. After reading Fowler's article, I still couldn't grasp what it really is. So I took a step back, looked at the words again -- 'dependency' and 'injection', and the idea came to me.

Dependency Injection (DI) is a Design Pattern wherein the 'container' establishes the dependency of an object to another object, instead of the object doing it by itself.

A lot of articles have been written about DI, so if you want to dig deeper, just Google it!

Holistic Software Developer

2008-04-05T18:35:00.005+09:00

To be a 'generalist' or a 'specialist'? This seems to be the question that has been hanging in my head ever since I've started software development as a profession. Which of the two makes you more effective, productive, and valuable? Finally I've found the answer:

'Scott Ambler, who coined the term “generalising specialist” concurs:
A generalizing specialist is more than just a generalist. A generalist is a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none, whereas a generalizing specialist is a jack-of-all-trades and master of a few. Big difference.'

C# 3.0

2008-03-02T17:27:00.005+09:00

The new features in C# 3.0:

Implicitly Typed Local Variables
Object Initialization
Anonymous Types
Extension Methods
Queries
Expression Trees

C# 2.0, .NET Framework 2.0, VS2005

2008-02-24T19:22:00.005+09:00

C# 2.0

Generics
Iterators
Partial Classes
Nullable Types
Anonymous Methods
Namespace alias qualifier
Static Classes
External Assembly Alias
Property Accessor Accessibility
Covariance and Contravariance in Delegates
How to: Declare, Instantiate, and Use a Delegate
Fixed Size Buffers
Friend Assemblies
Inline warning control
volatile

.NET Framework 2.0

Windows Forms 2.0 Enhancements

DataGridView
ToolStrip
MaskedTextBox
SplitContainer
ListView
WebBrowser
FlowLayoutPanel
BindingNavigator

New and Enhanced Features of Building Presentation Layer Applications

Enhanced Design-Time Support
§ Smart Tags
§ Snaplines
§ Quick Edit Mode
§ ToolStrip Designer
§ Document Outline Window
BindingSource Component
Data Component
§ A data component consists of a DataTable, a TableAdapter, and a set of TableAdapter queries. DataTables are strongly typed instances of the ADO.NET DataTable class.
Asynchronous Programming
§ BackGroundWorker
§ Asynchronous Pattern for Components (LoadAsync and LoadCompleted)
Misc New Features
§ Application Settings
§ Double Buffered Graphics

XML Processing Enhancements

XML Related Features
§ Support for the XQuery language.
§ A new XML data store.
§ A mapping technology to map data that is stored in a relational database to an XML view, or a common language runtime (CLR) object view.
§ Enhancements to existing XML-related classes including type support on the XmlReader, XmlWriter, and XPathNavigator classes.
§ A new model for creating XmlReader and XmlWriter objects.
§ A new XSL Transformation (XSLT) processor.
§ Performance improvements.
XML Related Features
§ A new model for in-memory XML data processing.
§ The XPathDocument class has been redesigned to be the primary XML data store.
§ Editing is provided by the XPathEditableNavigator class, which offers several editing options, and navigation capabilities using a cursor model.
§ The XPathDocument class also includes type support, the ability to accept or reject changes, and much more.
New XML Query Architecture
Type Support
§ The XmlReader, XmlWriter, and XPathNavigator classes have been updated to include type support. New methods on these classes enable you return a node value as a common language runtime object.
New Model For Creating XmlReader and XmlWriter objects

ADO.NET 2.0 Enhancements

Managed Providers
§ Server Enumeration
§ Asynchronous Processing
§ Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS)
§ Bulk Copy Operations
§ New SQL Server Max Data Types
§ SQL Server User-defined Types
§ SQL Server Notifications
§ Transactions with SQL Server Snapshot Isolation
§ Database Mirroring in SQL Server 2005
§ SQLXML 3.0 in SQL Server 2005
§ Provider Statistics
§ Change password in SQL Server 2005
Disconnected Classes
§ Batch Processing
§ DataTableReader
Provider Independent APIs
§ .NET Data Provider Enumeration
§ Provides support for enumerating installed data providers
§ Schema Discovery

ASP.NET 2.0 Enhancements

Developer Productivity
§ New Server Controls.
· Data Controls.
· Navigation Controls.
· Login Controls.
· Web Part Controls.
· Master Pages.
· Themes and Skins.
· Personalization.
· Localizaton
Administration and Management
§ Configuration API.
§ ASP.NET MMC Admin Tool
§ Pre-compilation Tool.
§ Health Monitoring and Tracing
Flexible Extensibility
§ Provider-driven Application Services.
§ Control Extensibility Server.
§ Data Source Controls.
§ Compilation Build Providers.
§ Expression Handlers.
Performance and Scalability
§ 64-Bit Support.
§ Caching Improvements.

Miscs

64-Bit Platform Support
Access Control List Support
Authenticated Streams (ssl)
System.IO.Compression (Gzip)
Console Class Additions
Data Protection API (encryption)
Debugger Display Attributes
Debugger Edit and Continue Support
Distributed Computing (HttpListener, SOAP 1.2, etc)
EventLog Enhancements
Expanded Certificate Management (X.509 Certificates)
FTP Support (WebRequest, WebResponse)
Globalization
.NET Framework Remoting (IPv6)
Obtaining Information About Local Computer Network Configuration and Usage (System.Net.NetworkInformation)
Ping
Programmatic Control of Caching (System.Net.Cache)
Security Exceptions
Serial I/O Device Support
Serialization
SMTP Support
Strongly Typed Resource Support
Threading Improvements (semaphore)
Trace Data Filtering
Transactions
Web Services (Soap 1.2)

VS 2005

Productivity Enhancements in Visual Studio 2005

Edit Marks
Code Snippets
Refactoring Tools
§ Extract Method.
§ Encapsulate Field.
§ Extract Interface.
§ Reorder Parameters
§ Remove Parameters.
§ Rename.
§ Promote Local Variable to Parameter.

Profile People

2008-02-23T11:38:00.003+09:00

How do you read someone?

Be ready to read.
Know what you are searching for.
Learn how to listen.
Always have some good, open ended questions at hand.
If someone tries to take the conversation away from where you want to take it, ask him why.
Now watch out for one of the following:
-Slang: Bad grammar, trendy sayings and colloquialisms. If they can be turned on and off at will, then something is strange.-Profanity: How often is it used ? What is its significance ?-Bragging: This shows arrogance, some ego situation, possible insecurity served with a touch of lying.-Exaggeration: It is a sure sign of dishonesty and maybe a sign of low self esteem.-Self Criticism: A bit is OK but if it is driven to extremes, it may reveal a deep insecurity.-Gossip: A classic tool of the unhappy, insecure and manipulative.-Humour: If it is lighthearted it is OK, but if it is sarcastic it says a lot about the jokester.-Sarcasm: If it is used too often, it shows some insecurity and if it is quite aggressive you may be dealing with someone insecure and quite selfish. However, if kept in logical doses, it is a great tool of making a point.
Look out for the things someone is doing and not only for the things someone is saying. If his acts are incongruent with his sayings then pay attention to his doings.
Remember: Mistakes are things we do once or maybe twice.
Surface Patterns (Behavior):
-Fanfare: It means insecurity.-Selfishness: In any form it may appear, it means that someone is egocentric, jealous, insecure and really but REALLY competitive.-Performance under fire: It is at those moments under pressure that people show their true character.-Avoidance: What someone is NOT doing says as much as what someone IS doing.-Moralizing: People that preach and moralize either they have a secret agenda or they are trying to hide the fact that they are afraid of something.-Spending habits: Any extremes in this category shows some insecurity.-Trust your intuition: Intuition is nothing more than your subconscious that has realised of something but you haven’t verbalised yet.-Search for anything unusual: The extreme habits show a lot about his character.

7 Habits To Win In Office Politics

2008-02-23T11:27:00.002+09:00

The Habits:
HABIT #1 - BE AWARE YOU HAVE A CHOICE
HABIT #2 - KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE
HABIT #3 - FOCUS ON YOUR CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE
HABIT #4 - DON’T TAKE SIDES
HABIT #5 - DON’T GET PERSONAL
HABIT #6 - SEEK TO UNDERSTAND, BEFORE BEING UNDERSTOOD
HABIT #7 - THINK WIN-WIN

Constructive Criticism

2008-02-23T11:19:00.002+09:00

Always remember the hamburger rule: Compliment-Criticism-Compliment.

Verbal Intimidation

2008-02-23T10:59:00.003+09:00

The intimidator attempts to generate a range of fears in their target by simply using intimidating words, violent or non-violent ones.

Intimidation techniques

Cutting-in. Defense - Slow it down.
Shouting. Defense - Subtle Humiliation.
Information Flood. Defense - Active curiosity.
The Bait. Defense - Skip the bait.

Life is a Game

2008-02-23T10:58:00.001+09:00

“You may not like the way things are in this world, but if you don’t learn the rules of the game and fight back, you will always lose.”

Talking Points

2008-02-23T10:29:00.001+09:00

Three talking points is a comfortable amount to comprehend and because we tend to remember things easily when they come in threes, more memorable than a higher number of points.

Self-Promotion

2008-02-23T10:11:00.003+09:00

It’s no secret: to get ahead, you have to promote yourself, keep in mind the following:

Add value
Be confident
Be sensitive to context
Be on target
Have permission
Don’t waste my time
Explain what you do
Tell me what you offer me
Tell me what you want from me
Give me a reason to care
Maintain relationships

4 P's

2008-02-23T09:51:00.002+09:00

"Because of this they (multi-taskers) are driven by an addiction to the urgent and continually respond to the the four P’s—those things that are Pressing, Proximate, Pleasant and Popular—leaving very little time to do those things that are truly important." -- Franklin Covey

on success

2006-12-11T00:07:00.001+09:00

from the words of the Oracle of Omaha, Warrent Buffet, "doing what you love and doing it well".

Health vs Wealth

2006-11-25T23:46:00.001+09:00

In the words of author A.J. Reb Materi, “So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health."

Jemi Danika 9 mos

2006-05-07T11:53:00.001+09:00

My baby Jemi Danika @ 9 mos old. Play, play, and play, fun, fun, and fun, that seems to be how baby explores the world ...

perfection

2006-01-31T21:49:00.001+09:00

perfection is the natural consequence of eternity. in time, a mere stone turns into diamond, a mere dust trapped in a shell eventually turns into pearl, and a mere ape in evolution turns into man. what could then be perfect for human beings when age comes and life ultimately ends? perfection then does not apply to us. that's why we say "C'est La Vie!", "Shoganai!", "Nothing is perfect!" to console ourselves that we can never be perfect.

idle mind

2006-01-12T17:40:00.001+09:00

"An idle mind is the devil's playground." For as long as we are alive, our mind is always doing something. It seems that if we do not think (that is when our mind is idle), our mind will do the thinking for us. Sounds tricky but it's true. In addition, whenever our mind is idle, strange things occupy our mind. Hate, grudge, erotica (if you are horny like me:D), and strange, or call it evil, things seems to frequently occupy our mind. This seems to be the natural tendency. Is there an idle mind? Can we stop our mind from thinking? Our mind seems to be always active. Even if we're sleeping, it still is functioning, that's why we dream. The only way to stop the mind is to slit one's throat :D. We can't stop the mind from thinking. If we don't force ourselves to think, our mind will think for us and evil things tend to be the mind's favorite topic. And whatever we think affects our physiological state. If we think of hate, grudge, disappointments, and all other negative things then we naturally feel down. It's also true otherwise that if we think of positive things, we also feel up. Ironic but true, to busy our mind is the secret to peace and tranquility.

thoughts...

2006-01-12T00:00:00.001+09:00

look ahead. don't look back. stand up, chin up, be proud. face challenges, feel pain, experience disappointments. be tough, tougher, toughest. smart, smarter, smartest. no regrets, mistakes are good. speak, write, communicate, step out of my comfort zone. begin each day afresh with no baggage of remorse from yesterday. live each day to the fullest. there's pleasure in work. don't be a sissy. don't be sensitive. be reasonable. be value-driven. expand the circle of influence. i'm the king of the world.

i'm back...

2005-12-25T15:00:00.001+09:00

it's already half a year that i haven't posted entries. that's already considered a lifetime of missed opportunities to journal my thoughts and hone my skills in writing. i've been busy for a while as caused by change of work and change of status. i now work in a job of my dream, i now live with a woman of my dream, and i'm now a father of a very cute baby that any couple could ever dream of. life seems to be perfect at the moment, and i hope and pray that this will last.

finally, i've achieved my ideal job, of course i've invested lots of efforts to achieving it, and finally i have it clenched with my two hands. call it luck , but as Thomas Jefferson says and I qoute " I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it". indeed, i've put lots of effort to achieving my dream job, and ditto lots of luck comes with lots of hard work.

still, there are still lots of things to do. this is just a starting phase of a new beginning. ambitions, plans, and dreams occupy every instant of my thought, these keep me going 24 hours a day like the rabbit with an energizer battery. of course, i have to achieve balance in every aspect of my life, i have to learn how to expertly juggle all the balls that come to my plate. family, work, health, faith, and social aspects are the balls that i have to juggle well in order to achieve balance.

i must end now with a qoute ...

"The wisest mind has something yet to learn."
- George Santayana

Sematic Web

2005-06-07T14:52:00.001+09:00

What is Semantic Web?
What are the technologies encompassing the Semantic Web?
How does it improves the values of life?
Paradigm Shift from processing to data as 1st class citizens.
Similar to paradigm shifts from land to information as power.
Somewhat related to concepts in the Third Wave written by Alvin Toffler.
information is data, information is power, therefore data is power.
knowledge is power.

PAIN and PLEASURE : Forces That Shape Your Life

2005-05-30T08:35:00.000+09:00

"A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than necessary." - SENECA

"The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life." - ANTHONY ROBBINS

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." - MARCUS AURELIUS

"Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings." - LORD CHESTERFIELD

"I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures. " - MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE

"Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure... they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off your subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it." JEREMY BENTHAM

Decisions: The Pathway to Power

2005-05-27T00:22:00.000+09:00

Decisions shape us. Thus, decision-making is an important aspect of personal growth. Here are the 6 quick ways to harness the power of decisions :

Remember the true power of making decisions.
Realize that the hardest step in achieving anything is making a true commitment -- a true decision.
Make decision often.
Learn from decisions.
Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.
Enjoy making decisions.

How to Create Lasting Change

2005-05-16T09:20:00.000+09:00

These are the changes that I must make to increase the over-all quality of my life :

Raise my standards
Change my limiting beliefs
Change my strategy
Concentrate mastery on these five areas

Emotional Mastery
Physical Mastery
Relationship Mastery
Financial Mastery
Time Mastery

BrainBench Certified

2005-05-12T13:17:00.001+09:00

Took the BrainBench tests that are related to my repertoire of skills. It does give me personal satisfaction and validation of how skilled I have become on my chosen craft. Though I didn't score with flying colors, nevertheless a worthy endeavour. See my BrainBench transcript.

See more progress on: Get BrainBench Certified

Making Wrong Code Look Wrong

2005-05-12T12:04:00.000+09:00

I've just read Joel On Software's new article entitled Making Wrong Code Look Wrong. I can't seem to follow his ranting. However, there's still some lesson learned from the rubbish, that is source code cleanliness is relative. This is the closest idea I could perceive that is consistent to the title. And the idea is indeed TRUE. Of course, if you're not a software developer by profession, there's no way you can relate to the idea.

One example that supports this perception is the use of Hungarian notation as a coding convention. For some developers, code written in Hungarian is neat, but for others it is not, specially for non-C/C++ developers. Personally, I prefer Hungarian when I program in C and C++, but not when I program in C#, I follow the Microsoft guidlines instead. This preference is largely influenced by what is popularly recommended by the developer community.

Basically, preferences to Hungarian notation, or any other coding conventions, seem to be influenced by the conditioning caused by the developer community per se, expressed through books, articles, or sample code found over the web. Which brings me back to my earlier point that code cleanliness is relative because each developer has its own criteria of cleanliness influenced by how he is conditioned to, whether he's conditioned to use Hungarian or Camel notation or etc.

Well, I have no idea where I'm getting at with this blog. I better close this with what I've learned from Joel on Software's new article which are :

Code cleanliness is relative. But algorithm is never relative. There's always a BEST algorithm for any given problem.
Resource Acquistion Is Initialization (RAII). Well, the article doesn't directly point to RAII, but it came via Raymond Chen's blog which points to this topic. RAII is not something new, it is just a programming idiom which aims to self-contain the obtaining and releasing of resources. One example for this is STL's auto_ptr. For more details of RAII, read this blog from Jon Hanna.

Passed the BrainBench SQL exams

2005-05-09T22:09:00.000+09:00

SQL isn’t your ordinary TOY query language. It isn’t easy to master or even learn. With due deligence, I was able to pass the brainbench SQL exams. Before, I wasn’t a fan of brainbench, I thought it’s CRAP. Just realized now that BrainBench is a career improvement partner, it surely helps on polishing your professional skills.

See more progress on: Learn SQL

Evening Power Questions

2005-05-08T23:37:00.000+09:00

What have I given today? In what ways have I been a giver today?

What did I learn today?

How has today added to the quality of my life

How can I use today as an investment in my future?

Morning Power Questions

2005-05-08T23:35:00.000+09:00

What am I happy about in my life right now? What about that makes me happy? How does that make me feel?

What am I excited about in my life right now? What about that makes me excited? How does that make me feel?

What am I proud about in my life right now? What about that makes me proud? How does that make me feel?

What am I grateful about in my life right now? What about that makes me grateful? How does that make me feel?

What am I enjoying most in my life right now? What about that do I enjoy? How does that make me feel?

What am I committed to in my life right now? What about that makes me committed? How does that make me feel?

Who do I love? Who loves me? What about that makes me loving? How does that make me feel?

Moving Toward Values

2005-05-08T23:17:00.000+09:00

Health/Vitality
Love/Warmth
Intelligence
Cheerfulness
Honesty
Passion
Gratefulness
Fun/Happiness
Making a difference
Learning/Growing
Achieving
Being the Best
Investing
Contribution
Creativity

Basketball season once again!

2005-04-30T15:52:00.000+09:00

Cold season is over! It's now a season to play basketball and get in SHAPE! I really love to play basketball. Shoot, dribble, layup, and dunk(just exaggerating :D). It’s really great to get in shape while having fun playing the game I really love.

I’ve realized just now how true the Neuro Associative Conditioning(NAC) is as described by Anthony Robbins in his book entitled Awaken The Giant Within. Indeed It’s a fact that we, as much as possible, avoid PAIN and always welcome PLEASURE.

Playing basketball is pleasurable for me that I love to do it often. The joy of playing it made me oblivious of the total body exercise which gets me in shape. On the other hand, working out at the gym, like stationary jogging and free weight training, is very painful for me that I tend to avoid it as much as I could. Even deciding whether to go workout or not is already a gruelling ordeal by itself.

I have to erase the thought of PAIN and associate PLEASURE in working out so that I’ll love to do it more often. In order to do this, I have to hypnotize myself into believing that beautiful body is cool, 6-pack abs is sexy, and body in good shape contributes to life full of happiness. I also have to plant in my head that body in bad shape is extremely painful because it can lead to all kinds of illnesses and distress, resulting into a life of grief and misery.

See more progress on: get in shape

Patterns of Exposition

2005-04-29T23:45:00.000+09:00

I use freewriting whenever I write entries in my blog. I don’t usually organize before I write, like doing a pyramid construction of topics, I just write whatever comes to mind. Disorganized. Freewriting is good, but using it everytime doesn’t improve my writing skill. From now, I’ll vary my writing style, organize and find content using the following Patterns of Exposition :

Examples and illustrations
Narration
Description
Process comparison and contrast
Analogy
Cause and effect
Classification and division
Definition

See more progress on: improve my writing

References On Improving How To Write

2005-04-29T17:16:00.000+09:00

With enough references, certainly learning would be easy. I’ve amassed helpful resources from the web on how to improve writing skills. The urls are on my delicious account : http://del.icio.us/roldan.toribio/writing.

See more progress on: improve my writing

Fat.. fAt ... FAT ...

2005-04-28T19:18:00.000+09:00

Weighting 95Kg, I’m very overweight. Yes, I go to gym at least twice a week, and I control my diet. However, it’s still not working. I’m getting fat, an average of 5kgs a year. How pathetic :(. Unhealthy lifestyle is the culprit. Stressful job probably is the major culprit. I tend to eat a lot and forget about exercising whenever I’m stressed. Well, whining will never change things, but action does. So this is what I should do : Exercise, Eat Less, Relax, and Enjoy life….

See more progress on: get in shape

Programming Interviews

2005-04-28T14:39:00.000+09:00

I recently bought a book entitled "Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job" and I had fun reading it at the same time practicing how to answer its programming exercises that will likely appear in one of my future interviews. I hope the book will be a good investment. I realized the need to buy this book after my disappointing interview at xxxxxn.co.jp. Oh boy, I really had a hard time nailing the questions raised by the sharp interviewer, a Caltech grad. I felt disappointed because I wasn't able to sharply answer the questions of common Computer Science knowledge. I had difficult time on some Bit, database, and perl questions. I nailed the coding exercise though but I felt the code I presented wasn't sharp. The coding exercise by the way is a "StrReverse" function which reverses a given string. What was not sharp about my code was that I used a lot of temporary variables when it is doable without them. The ideal solution should be this :

void StrReverse(char *s)
{
int len = strlen(s);
for (int i=0; i < (len/2); ++i)
Swap(s[i],s[len-i-1]);
}

void Swap(char *x, char *y)
{
*x ^= *y; *y ^= *x; *x ^= *y;
}

I was suprised that the above exercise came up again in my next interview at xxxxxxxxxs.com. Good thing that I researched about this directly after my interview at amazon and found out the finest solution(as shown above), that I totally impressed the gentleman at Pixelworks.

It seems that my problem solving skill is quite rusty, specially my algorithm skill, that I need to polish it once in a while.

Never Ending Learning

2005-04-27T17:47:00.000+09:00

Since my last blog, I was busy reading personal growth books and looking for new jobs. I'm reading Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins, one of my favorite personal growth books. At first, I though that it's very much like the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, but it's not, and it's a lot more practical than the latter. I've learned a lot from the book like how to use pain and pleasure for motivation, or basically how to hypnotize yourself.

Recently, I'm also interviewing for my next ideal job, well mostly with recruiters and some employers, actually two employers yet. For now, fruit of my endeavour is very disappointing, but quite a learning experience. Wheew, finding a job is really hard contrary to what I expected. However, one startup company is interested to hire me but it's a startup company and the position doesn't seem to require software development, which fails to be my ideal job. I want my next job to be software development intensive and high-paying of course. This only means one thing, software developer of a company in financial industry.

After the interviews, I noticed that my skill set appears to be unappealing to the financial companies. I seem to lack the SQL, Linux/Unix, Database, and Financial skills they require.
To land on my ideal next job, I have to learn all of those, or suffer from a low paying and humiliating jobs.

Flickr

2005-03-15T01:00:00.000+09:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Towards Financial Literacy

2005-03-11T18:02:00.000+09:00

Here are the sites for improving your financial literacy :

What a surprise, I'm sick!

2005-03-03T13:25:00.000+09:00

I'm sick. Slight fever that comes with cough and terrible pain in my throat. I've never been sick for quite a while, maybe 10~15 years already; that I thought that I'll never be. That's why this is a real surprise. I'm not immune to illneses after all, contrary to my superhuman belief.

At first, I thought that I have influenza, which is nowadays a widespread public health concern here in Japan. Luckily, influenza hasn't penetrated my bodily defenses. But still I feel really sick. What bothers me the most is my throat that hurts terribly; It's hard for me to even swallow my saliva.

From this time onwards, I must pay attention to sickness prevention. Change my unhealthy lifestyle. I should excercise regularly; I should eat only healthy food and drink healthy beverages; and I should not stress myself.

It's hard to be sick that I must prevent it.

Personal Development

2005-03-01T17:00:00.000+09:00

You know what, it's strange that I've lived in this world for 28 years, but yet, I haven't fully developed yet. From now on, I'll make sure that I'll make a quantum leap progress on my personal development. So, I should start to read books on personal development. I recommed this lad's listmania of books. I've already read two popular books on this topic.

Money, Money, Money

2005-02-28T14:28:00.000+09:00

Talk Asia : Robert Kiyosaki
Be financially literate.
Save and invest. Make money work for you
not you work for the money.

online grocery store in japan

2005-02-24T20:30:00.000+09:00

I came across two very interesting sites today. One site is http://www.theflyingpig.com, an online store of COSTCO goods. The other site is http://www.indojin.com, an online store for indian goods. Both of the sites are online stores targeting foreigners living here in the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan.

The sites opened my eyes to this million dollar idea of building an online store of filipino commodities that targets millions of filipinos living here in Japan. As of now, there are no such stores here in japan, that's why I believe in its potential to be successful. The current practice to avail of the filipino commodities here in Japan is that filipinos go to filipino restaurants or contact their friends who sells ones. This is quite incovenient from the perspective of modern consumers who often transact online and avoid the hassle of going to grocery stores.

From the technological point of view, building an online store is not so complicated. These I think are the technologies and knowhow that one must know and master to build a quality and cheap online store :

PHP
MySql
PayPal
Business Knowledge

(Side note : If you're not familiar with COSTCO, refer to their site at http://www.costco.com/. For information regarding COSTCO here in Japan, refer to this site http://www.globalcompassion.com/costcojapan.htm.)

Dream House

2005-02-22T12:30:00.000+09:00

Beautifull beach, blue sky, fresh sea air, *sigh*. That came to my mind as I was in the middle of work, perhaps as a result of feeling burnt out. It has been 2 years since I last visited my home country and its wonderful beaches, particularly my dream paradise that is Cebu. I had lots of good o'l memories there. I missed the weekend beach parties, the island hopping, the delicious food, and the relaxed lifestyle. Generally, I missed the tropical lifestyle characterized by the absence of stress, provided the presence of money, of couse.

Cebu is such a paradise that I plan to build my dream house there, or should I say my dream condo unit. Although I have no long-term plan to work in Cebu or anywhere else in my homecountry, because of financial reasons, but it's nice to have a getaway place, an escape from a stressful environment such as here in Tokyo.

To realize that dream, I'm thinking of applying for a loan, maybe next year after I renewed my visa. A condo unit worth 2,ooo,ooo php would be appropriate as long as it's in the downtown area and very accessible.

In Search for good MindMapping Tool

2005-02-21T17:28:00.000+09:00

another quadrant two activity I have is to improve my "Arte/Scienza"(italian for "creativity", i got this term from this book "How to be a genius like Leonardo da Vinci"). i've learned from the book that "mindmapping" is a good technique for brainstorming on some topic. yesterday, i reviewed the howto's on making mindmap. since i'm a techie guy and am weak on drawing, a software tool would be convenient for me. so, i searched for good MindMap tools on the web, couldn't find a good freeware one, good thing i've tinkered Visio and discovered that it has stencil for making mindmap diagrams. the mindmap diagram made out of the stencil seems quite rudimentary, with no touch of art in it, but it's better than nothing at all. this morning, though, i realized that a mindmapping software tool for pocket pc might be more convenient since i could use it wherever and whenever i am. so i searched on the web for mindmap tools for pocket pc, found not so many, but there's one interesting one, unfortunately it costs a 42$, but i could use it for 30 days free. since i couldn't find freeware ones, i decided to download and try it for 30 days. so far, the tool is good, it has the features i want, i could use it on my pocket pc wherever i am, thus whever ideas popup on my mind that needs to be brainstormed. since it's not free, it might not be a good idea investing time using it. well, it's probably better for me to create a mindmap tool from scratch, i think it's not difficult to make, but time seems a scarcity for me right now. so i better use visio. Whenever ideas popup while on the go, i just have to note using my pocket pc, then later on make a visio mindmap diagram about it.

Easy Blue Monday

2005-02-21T16:17:00.000+09:00

a lot of spare time i had today, no deadlines to catch, no urgent bugs to fix, no immediate things to worry. plenty of time for quadrant two activities(quadrant two term taken from 7 habits of higly effective people).

since writing good stuff is one of my quadrant two activities, i find time to reading other blogs of good bloggers and observe their ways of writing blogs. i've read blogs of people everywhere around the globe, the blogs i've read so far are written by my countrymen in philippines, theirs' are witty blogs. i hope i could have the same level of skill soon. i also searched on the web for tips and guidelines on how to write blogs well. one important point i've learned today is "brevity is the soul of wit" in blogs, taken from this blog. so blogs must be concise and brief but not more concise and brief that it spoils to get the topic across. i've also learned a lot from this blog written by an expert blogger. one thing that i should also improve is my familiarity of popular acronyms used in online writing such as IMHO, LOL, and etc. luckily, my smart romanian officemate gave me this site for reference, and it's a good and complete site. there are still lots of things that i have to learn in blogging though, but a one-step-improvement-a-day through practice might be the best advice that i should give to myself right now. so, i tell me, go practice!

7 Habits of Higly Effective People

2005-02-20T08:49:00.000+09:00

I've just finished reading the book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. What I've learned from the book has motivated into unlearning the most of what I've learned in the past. That's how the book has influenced me a lot. I've come to realize that I need to rescript my mind, to shift my current paradigm(or frame of reference) in order for me to be highly effective. I regret that I haven't read this book a long time ago, I could have internalized the 7 habits already, but it's better late than never. I don't how long will I take to rescript my current habits, but with strong will, I know that it will be steadfast.

2005-02-18T10:45:00.000+09:00

I,Me,Myself,Watashi. Taken @ Hard Rock Cafe @ Minato Mirai @ Yokohama City

2005-02-18T10:42:00.000+09:00

My Mona Lisa. Taken at World Port Center, Yokohama City

Warm-up, Stretch, and Extend

2004-05-29T20:31:00.000+09:00

Writing is my weakest point.
It takes effort for me to write,
Writing does not come natural to
me. I believe that WRITING is a
must have skill if one wants to
be successful in his respective field.
Thus, I always find time to improve
my skill as much as possible.

This piece is part of my description writing
practice as suggested by the book entitled
"Writer's Workbook".

1. a circle
a figure. radius. pixel looping around.
a very important pattern, an atomic pattern
that is used to contruct large pattern construct.
2. a spiral staircase
a beautiful pattern going up. similar shape
of the human's spinal cord. a skeleton of
trinosaurausX displayed in a prestigious museum.
3. classic music
touches the deepest part of your subconsious.
mozart, beethoven, orchestra. touches one's heart
and sparks one's intelligence.
4. the color red
BLOODY. beauty as lady in RED. HOT like RED HOT CHILLI PEPPER.
5. hot soup
relieving aroma. a medicine when one cactches cold.
delicious in winter. RAMEN.
6. rain
wet. integral part of nature for without it, world would
just be like a desert. RAIN describes someone crying.
7. the smell of a barbecue
a smell of spring and summer. a smell of families spending
quality time in the park.
8. a cold whether
chilly. a time when one doesn't want to got out and just
stay at home, spending time with one's pillow and bed.
9. a pillow
one's partner most of the day which is during sleep.
it gives comfort during sleep. no doubt, a pillow should
be considered a basic need.
10. a hot cup of coffee
STARBUCKS. COFFEE MOCHA. wakes one's mind and.
starts the day at work.
11. the welcoming bark of the day
means danger or stranger. since the dog doesn't bark
at a human friend.
12. wood/plastic/velvet/cotton
makes up a house, warms up the house in winter.
13. a bench
completes the park, it is where lovers sit, oldies
spend quality time with one's book. a bench in the park
is the favorite meeting place of lovers or soon to be
lovers.
14. a television
the greates invention of the 20th century. provided the
medium of mass dissemenation of information. also provides
a means of entertainment.

Modern Filipino Models

2004-05-29T20:17:00.000+09:00

Darn! I'm PROUD to be FILIPINO.
All day I listen to BLACK EYED PEAS
music. Their ELEPHUNK album really rocks.
What's more, APL. de AP, one of the emcees
is a filipino. Knowing this makes me darn
PROUD of my roots. Aside from being cool
and good at his craft, he is really proud
of being a FILIPINO. He is not ashamed of
where his from.

YO APL! You give us strength and inspiration
to be great and follow our dreams.

Articulacy

2004-05-28T00:04:00.000+09:00

Dictionary.com defines "Articulacy" as
"Endowed with the power of speech".

I always admire people who have perfected
the art of SPEECH, or who posesses "Articulacy".
Some say being good at this is inborn, some
say that this is a skill can be developed
in time. I say that it is both - a talent(inborn)
and a skill.

I look at myself lacking this talent. That is why
I view Articulacy as a skill that can be developed
over time. I regret that I didn't start to improve
this skill since my younger days, during those times
when time is abundant.

But it is not yet too late! Perfecting the art of public
speaking or writing may seem to be very difficult,
but POSSIBLE nonetheless.

First Blog

2004-05-17T17:53:00.000+09:00

This is my first and foremost BLOG.
I don't have anything to say yet.
Hopefully in the near future, I could
post some NICE writings here.

That's all for the moment now.

merci peeps!