Software Engineering log book

running multiple scripts in MSSQL

2011-12-29T23:01:00.000-08:00

Create the script

:setvar workpath "c:\scripts\"
:setvar FileToexecute "test3.sql"
--:r $(workpath)$(FileToexecute)
:r $(workpath)test1.sql
:r $(workpath)test2.sql

enable SQLCMD mode
Run the above query

http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/nakul/archive/2011/05/12/sqlcmd-mode-in-ssms-final-part-in-the-series-underappreciated-features-of-microsoft-sql-server.aspx

enabling the SQLCMD mode

http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/sql-tools/the-sqlcmd-workbench/

using :r

http://vadivel.blogspot.com/2007/10/sqlcmd-part-viii-r-and-about.html

joining :r with variables

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa833281.aspx

unable to use buildin sqlcmd variables

gaining confidence...

2009-11-17T05:50:00.000-08:00

When we write a program, we should always write modules to allow us to see the health of the module, such as connectivity to JMS servers, open office instances ...

provide admin functionality but make it as inaccessible as possible.

Simplication via Polyglot

2009-09-27T05:52:00.000-07:00

Radical Simplification Through Polyglot and Poly-paradigm Programming

*less code
*biz logic and impl separation (DSL)

imutable
nothing to sync
no locks semaphores mutexes

data stable, but a lot of functions use list, map, filter, fold/reduce (cloud computing)

adding types, few functions, use OO inheritances

declarative vs imperative

erlang
no mutable variables & side effect
IPC optimised msg passing (actor model)
lightweight & fast process

*less code
*model domain as close as possible
*declarative concise bug free
*no mutable variables & side effect

-mocking dependency

“FIRST class” test cases

2009-09-16T07:09:00.000-07:00

Make “FIRST class” test cases (Fast, Independent, Repeatable, Small and Transparent)

Fast. Your test cases should be very fast to execute, every time you want to run all of them it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds for an small application.

Independent. You should be able to run your test cases in any order.

Repeatable. The result of the test case should be always the same, no matter how many times you have executed it before.

Small. Small test cases are easy to understand and change, are also likely to be faster.

Transparent. It should be clear what the purpose of each test case is.

from How to write a good test case: 5 tips to write better test cases

inverse vandals

2009-08-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

"Basically, inverse vandals dont care about their work and its impact on the lives of users and the many others affected by their work, which is a pity. Software has a sort of magic in itself, and interactive software provides a concrete, vivid example of such a magic. Whether you are a teenager playing a video game or an old guy fiddling with an early computer in your garage, there was probably a moment in your life when you were totally amazed by a piece of software - otherwise you would probably have chosen another career."

Wiley Professional Java User Interfaces p. xxiiv

sql to_date() to_char() removal for java

2009-06-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

Oracle to_date()
select db_fieldname from db_table where db_timestamp_field = to_date(?, 'dd-mm-yyyy');

replace the to_date(?, 'dd-mm-yyyy') function with a ?

select db_fieldname from db_table where db_timestamp_field = ?;

then using

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
Timestamp result = new Timestamp(sdf.parse(inputdate,new ParsePosition(0)).getTime());

prepareStatement.setTimeStamp(1,result);

Oracle to_char()

select * from table where to_char(db_timestamp_field, 'dd-mm-yyyy') = ?;

replace to_char(db_timestamp_field,'dd-mm-yyyy') with trunc(db_timestamp_field)

select * from table where trunc(db_timestamp_field) = ?;

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
Date javaDate = sdf.parse(inputdate);
java.sql.Date sqlDate = new java.sql.Date(javaDate.getTime());

prepareStatement.setDate(1,sqlDate);

accumulator

2009-06-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

I would need to scan a directory, take note of each of the file size, and do a count on how many files there are with a particular size.

file size is long
count is int

so i have one array to keep track of file size
another array to keep the int count

so once i have a file size, i would check through the array of file size, to see if it is the same, if yes, i remember the index and take the value from the count array plus one and put back in. The data structure which i used initially was 2 arraylist.

for sizeArray
  if sizeArray[i] is filesize
    take countArray[i]+1
    addedFlag to false

if addedFlag
  sizeArray[max] is filesize
  countArray[max] is 1

it looks awfully complicated, so i changed the 2 array into a hashtable
the long value will be converted to a string object.

if hashtable has fileSizeString
  currentCount is hashtable get fileSize
  hashtable put fileSizeString, currentCount+1

hence making the code a lot more shorter.

Conditional Complexity

2009-06-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

see Conditional Complexity

public function validateObject(object:Object):void {
if (conditionA || conditionB) {
throw new ObjectValidationError(object);
}
if (conditionC || conditionD) {
throw new ObjectValidationError(object);
}
if (conditionE || conditionF) {
throw new ObjectValidationError(object);
}
// and many more if-statements
}

public function validateObject(object:Object):void {
if (conditionA || conditionB) {
invalid(object);
}
if (conditionC || conditionD) {
invalid(object);
}
if (conditionE || conditionF) {
invalid(object);
}
}

protected function invalid(object:Object):void {
throw new ObjectValidationError(object);
}

public function validateObject(object:Object):void {
validate(conditionA && conditionB, object)
validate(conditionC && conditionD, object)
validate(conditionE && conditionF, object)
}

protected function validate(isValid:Boolean, object:Object):void {
if (!isValid) {
throw new ObjectValidationError(object);
}
}

Vector to HashMap pattern

2009-06-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

motivation: i recently discovered a bug via vector which resulted in the validation incorrectly checked.

Some Action

Vector v = new Vector();

v.add(request.getParameter("name"));
v.add(request.getParameter("address"));
v.add(request.getParameter("telephone"));

Some Manager

v.get(0);
v.get(1);
v.get(2);

can be replaced with

HashMap hm = new HashMap();

hm.add("name",request.getParameter("name"));
hm.add("address",request.getParameter("address"));
hm.add("telephone", request.getParameter("telephone"));

later on

hm.get("name");
hm.get("address");
hm.get("telephone");

this is much less error prone then refering via vector indexes. you can add new parameters without affecting the orders of the parameters also. String should be extracted out into a constants class to obey the principles of DRY.

Ternary operator pattern (aka inline conditions)

2009-05-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

ternary operator
String id = request.getParameter("aaa")==null? "" : request.getParameter("aaa");

can be refactored to
String id = request.getParameter("aaa");
if(id==null) id ="";

which can be furthered reduce to

String id = Utility.isNull(request.getParameter("aaa"));

public String isNull(String input){
if(input==null) return "";
return input;
}

becoming a better coder...

2009-05-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

things that might help you become a better coder

[Dont repeat yourself][1]

[Command-query separation (CQS)][2]

[Defensive programming][3]

[S.O.L.I.D.][4]

[Code Smell][5]

[Smells to Refactorings][6]
Patterns & Anti-Patterns

[Software Craftsmanship][7]

[Testable code drags OOP into Functional Programming][8]
[Writing Testable Code][9]
[How to Write 3v1L, Untestable Code][10]
[Design by Contract][11]

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_repeat_yourself
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command-query_separation
[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_programming
[4]: http://mmiika.wordpress.com/oo-design-principles/
[5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_smell
[6]: http://www.industriallogic.com/papers/smellstorefactorings.pdf
[7]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Craftsmanship
[8]: http://noss.github.com/2009/02/21/testable-code-drags-oop-into-functional-programming.html
[9]: http://googletesting.blogspot.com/2008/08/by-miko-hevery-so-you-decided-to.html
[10]: http://googletesting.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-write-3v1l-untestable-code.html
[11]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_by_Contract

little thoughts

2009-02-24T05:40:00.000-08:00

you can have a very nice plan, but terrible piece of codes.

you can have the only documentation as the codes...

or you can do fast iterations, so that we (software engineers) help the user visualise what they want. Show them immediately quick and dirty prototype. Be ready to throw them away. This helps to converge to a commonality point.

quotes

2009-02-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

if i dont look good, i dont think you will looked very good too...

but if i looked good, i am sure you will also looked good.

if the team dont look good, i dont looked good.

if the team looked good, we will look good too...

stakeholder...
decision maker...
middle man...
my client...
my team mates aka internal customer ...

environmental ideas

2009-02-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

replace bend pipes with straight pipes

throttle server fans

increases air con temperature

a pot that reduces heat wastes. (invented in taiwan)

| |
| |
| |----| |
+---|fire|---+

encapsulate and fully cover the flame...

random words

2009-02-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

The only documentation is code...

if I dont look good, you probably wouldnt looked very good too...

codes should be free...

Scolding generates bad karma. explain why not, what is the implications. 1st time let it off, subsequently then take discplinary actions.

the more you restrict, the more precious it becomes.

the more you give, the less it becomes a critical issue.

improper handover is sad, it means 2 person messed up as a professional.

a little quote

2009-02-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

A failed project doesnt look good on anyone. it brings out the worst in everybody.

agility and software engineering is 2 different process for different kind of constraints projects. Cheap, fast, quality triangle? cheap but heavy design doc with long turn around time doesnt go togother with fast. quality, writing JUnit codes will turn up 50% of the project time.

know who are the stake holders... are they the decision maker?

just a little thought...

2009-02-03T05:19:00.000-08:00

to know and to abuse is 2 different things ...

Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms

2009-01-23T09:30:00.001-08:00

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itila/

how to find a keyword within an entire project

2009-01-20T05:42:00.000-08:00

Place the below mfind.bat within your path such as c:\windows\system32

usage:
mfind "String title"

====mfind.bat====
@echo off
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in ('dir /b /s *.java') do find %1 "%%a"

Source Control HOWTO

2009-01-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

Source Control HOWTO

passionate

2009-01-07T05:52:00.000-08:00

You got the job because the boss thought you could contribute. Translation, you potentially have a mutually profitable future. Be passionate about your job and take pride in doing it well.

The Ascent of Humanity

2009-01-01T01:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/

Higher-Order Perl

2009-01-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

http://hop.perl.plover.com/book/

Small Memory Software

2009-01-01T00:42:00.000-08:00

http://www.cix.co.uk/~smallmemory/book.html

a recommended reading to write smaller programs

Ada

2009-01-01T00:35:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming

check out wikibooks.org natural science, social science, computing, humanities, arts books.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

2009-01-01T00:28:00.000-08:00

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/
a book on scheme

online: Dive Into Python book

2009-01-01T00:25:00.000-08:00

http://diveintopython.org/

lessons for today...

2008-12-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

My colleague Alvin Tan, quietly listens and always manages to effectively and quickly generate the required solution.

He still amazes me, what took me 2 months to get started took him 2 days to create Eclipse plugin.

Another colleague YongPing, listen observes and make the changes for the client.

Suddenly I feel so redundant... I talk too much, ask too many question, increases the blood pressure of the client, give tactless answer to question. I harass with my emails on "bad code" etc. I overstay my welcome in the office after 6pm (the logic goes that since I am doing the same thing at home, I might as well stay in the office, do it finish and then go home without bring back the laptop. Moreover I am already so slow, so far behind ...)

it's new year again, another lonely day. On a scale of 1 to 10:
work-4
social life - zero
relationship - zero
family - 4
money - (-74000)
health - 4 (struggling to get well from cough)
game - zero (have not played any RTS for quite sometime)
(not to scale)

what is affecting me the most now, I guessed is maintaining a positive attitude on having a girlfriend. zero2hero theory. I am a decelerator, no matter how hard I work, the result will just be the same (not exceeding the baseline), but if i just relax slightly, the great deceleration take place. haiz...

reducing engineers on projects ...

2008-12-24T05:07:00.000-08:00

My Big Boss was saying that we should increase our profit margin, via reducing the number of software engineers on projects. I disagree with that view. Instead we should increase the number of projects, by having the same number of software engineers working on more projects instead.

By having instead of two engineers work on one project, have just one, I think... (possibilities that I might misunderstood)

In a team, there is a synergy among team members. By reducing the number of software engineers, you are reducing the creative synergy, reducing the total brain power(exponentially at times) on a project. But if you keep the same number of software engineers, and instead make them work faster (better, faster computers, write better code, do refactoring, learn and distribute knowledge and technology faster), you increases the capabilities of your software engineers while maintaining the quality.

Why do I say this? originally I was tasked to work on a module individually, I thus became the single point of failure. Eventually, another software engineer was tasked to work with me, and we generated more creative, better solution than I would have done alone. I was also practising my knowledge imparting skills, explaining concepts etc, we both learned from each other. I think that is the real intangible value... (haha we are not cogs in a machine, but craftsmen in training)

left over

2008-12-18T23:50:00.000-08:00

ever wonder what happens to the left over food after a company function?

millions out there goes hungry everyday...

there are some still in the office working hard, I think it would be nice if someone could tabao some of the buffet food for them. being a newbie, I didnt dare to do anything, if it was the usual me, I would have immediately ask if I can tabao the left over. It is a crime to waste food.

This is the typically behavior, it is easy to start a project, difficult to continue till finish. And even more difficult to think of the clean up process after the finished phase.

----

working makes me realise the power of social networking. when I read books I only learn so much, yet when you learn from your colleague, the bandwidth suddenly increases a lot.

----

People provide others with essential service. You would notice if someone fails to do what you required. Same goes for writing software, you have the user to satisfy. You have the future maintainer to satisfy, to write codes that is easy to change and understand. (I came to this understand when Karl was fixing my broken down Pentium 3 machine after xp updates)

technology is supposed to help someone else do his work better. functionality must correlate with quality.

----
bbc:Food needs 'fundamental rethink'

spooked

2008-12-14T01:21:00.001-08:00

I was told I was going to attend a course and getting a sum of cash for it. I started asking around on the course details, what are they teaching, how much does it cost and what happens to the bond if the company decides to fire me.

I guessed that question spooked 2 of my colleagues. I didnt explain to them why a fresh new hire is asking about being let go by the company.

I am committed, I will finished my 2 years contract. Moreover I am lazy in hunting for another job, my time are better well spend in learning new technologies and coolest stuff around. Thus the only unknown factor is what happens if the company decides that I am not up to the job. So by breaking the bond it means I will need to return both the sum of cash and the course fee. I will make sure I dont spend that particular amount of money which might add to my existing interest free debt of $74k.

Kind of scary for me again, as I am seated right in the center of the office again. Moreover I am next to a beautiful project coordinator who is visited frequently by everyone to get various things done. I kind of miss hsr water basin in the office, as I need to walk a distance to the restroom to wash my cup, and I cant wash my hands after eating some chocolate for example... I can't help not eavesdropping on everyone as I am right in the center of the office, the P3 is too slow to even play mp3 and I doubt it even has audio.

Good programmer

2008-12-09T18:57:00.000-08:00

Bjarne Stroustrup on Educating Software Developers

From your experience as a programmer, what is it that makes a great developer? Can you point out a few qualities, both technical and personal?
Curiosity, initiative, tenacity, ability to reason logically, ability to communicate and to work with others. That’s not at all special for programmers, I’m afraid. Also, I strongly prefer to be around people with a sense of humor.
Your advice for young programmers -- or for not-so-young programmers?
Programming is part of software development. It doesn’t matter how fancy your code is unless it solves the right problem and you can explain it to others. So, brush up on your communication skills. Learn to listen, to ask good questions, to write clearly, and to present clearly. Serious programming is a team sport, brush up on your social skills. The sloppy fat geek computer genius semi-buried in a pile of pizza boxes and cola cans is a mythical creature, best buried deep, never to be seen again.
Learn your first language well. That means trying it for difficult tasks. Don’t obsess about technical details. Focus on techniques and principles.
Learn another programming language; choose any language that’s quite different from what you are best acquainted with. You can’t be a professional in the IT world knowing only one language. No one language is the best for everyone and for everything.
Don’t just do programming. Computing is always computing something. Become acquainted with something that requires your software development skills: Mediaeval history, car engine design, rocket science, medical blood analysis, image processing, computational geometry, biological modeling, whatever seems interesting. Yes, all of these examples are real, from my personal experience.

How come programmers like one technology, but dislike another? Personally, I believe software engineers enjoy technology that feels right, but dislike everything that doesn’t.

I find the phone so irritating that I avoid using it whenever I can. Nobody likes having to do random things, especially when those random things apparently depend on some equally random context you wish you didn’t have to know about in the first place.

When Qt’s original architects faced a problem, they didn’t just look for a good solution, or a quick solution, or the simplest solution. They looked for the right solution, and then they documented it.Granted they made mistakes,and granted some of their design decisions didn’t pass the test of time, but they still got a lot of things right, and what wasn’t right could and can be corrected.

Matthias Ettrich
Oslo, Norway
November 2003

in C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3

Most people are not incredibly knowledgeable about computers. There's a big difference. Pretty much everyone is very good at something. That's why some people get paid to sell merchandise, design hardware, repair engines, cook food, synthesize chemicals, or perform surgery, and others get paid to solve computer problems. by blincoln (592401)

What If IT Pay was Performance Based?

How to Survive the Outsourcing Boom

A versatilist is a multi-skilled tech professional. A versatilist starts with a strong depth of knowledge in one area, like application development or IT financial planning. “They then broaden their expertise, their track record, their recognition and their experience over time so that they stretch into multiple domains of expertise,”

No matter what specific skills he or she has, the versatilist is:

• Tapped into multiple knowledge networks

• Tapped into multiple social networks

• Able to offer value that cannot be easily commoditized and transferred

Often, this special value comes from excelling at face-to-face interactions, Morello notes. Also indispensable are staffers who work directly with interpretation of business or consumer requirements. “Those are the ones whose positions and roles may be secured longer than others.”

The key word here is interpretation. The versatilist is able to understand and synthesize trends from many industries.

“It’s what I would call ‘contextually connected.’ It’s the people who are deeply tapped into the context of the business and industry and the requirements that are going on there.”

Are Your Developers Goofing Off?

joelonsoftware:"Being really competent" or just "looking busy" ?

generating password

2008-12-08T00:48:00.000-08:00

Issue: my school email address requires me to change my password every 4 months, and I am not allowed to use back my previous old passwords.

key: A way to remember and generate password.

Take a random easily remembered sentence:

"Psychology is the study of people: how they think, how they act, react and interact."

ignore punctuations, words less than 3 characters.

Psychology
study
they
think
they
react
interact

Read vertically thus the first password : pstttri, sthhhen,yueieat,cdynyce,hy0k0tr (zero or any same numeric filler)

I have no idea how effective this technique yet. So let me know if it is anything good. 8)

job being outsourced?

2008-12-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

the idea that we’re all just a bunch of integration automatons using duct tape to connect different preexisting moving parts to create slightly different versions of the same thing. It’s this train of thought that has a lot of senior management teams excited about outsourcing. “Anyone who can use Google and has some duct tape can do this, so why are we paying big bucks for our local automatons?”
there are eager, bright developers all over the planet
evolution of how software development occurs might be moving faster than you.
Automatons don’t build, they process. While good process can
save a lot of money, it’s not going to bring anything new to the world.

--Managing Humans pp.48-9

Outsourcing is for commodities. When you consider Philip Armour's notion, that software is not a product, but rather a byproduct of learning how to solve a problem, you realize that you do not want to be outsourcing the very heart of the knowledge of the problems your software is solving. These problems are often the core of your business!

--Secrets of the rockstar programmers p.104

picture from The Jungle Hut

Is IT Offshoring an Overhyped Myth?

For IT Workers, How Bad Will It Get?

How to Survive the Outsourcing Boom

The New Yorker Conference, “Stories from the Near Future”

2008-12-06T08:59:00.000-08:00

$2000worth of talk 8) for free. table of contents

Saving the World Through Game Design

gaming as a response to social crisis
interactive system
constructive response
reduce suffering, happiness engine
hunger for engagement
cognitive surplus
nothing to conquer
the economy of engagement: (4 components of happiness)
1.satisfying work to do
2.the experience of being good at something
3.time spent with people we like
4.the chance to be a part of something bigger
extreme scale collaboration

Bob Mankoff:The Past, Present, and Future of Humor

4types of funnies:
verbal cartoon
understand picture
fantasy joke (strange picture & words)
slice of life
thousand cartoon a week via lego set
script clashes
sense of humor:(18th,19th,beauty of ridiculous)
1.appreciating/aware
2.production of are you funny
3.coping mechanism, how you handle life

playful incongruity
nonsense, absurdity,humor(within realm of reality),too close to normal
conservatives like less incongruity

cognitive engine of humor:bisociation
2different frame of references and put together
cognitive synergy
diminish the others (key difference between art and humor)

the play frame of humor
high excitement,cruel,disgusting enjoyed in played frame
purposeful, play mode
exciting but safe.
cartoon toolkit

Amy Smith:Humanitarian Engineering

amazing technology
resourcefulness
$2/day
time money trade
make it your own, or do without it.
raw ingredient to cook
soup ramen noodles
evolve and improve tech
transparent tech
manufacturing utility usability
musical mind and inventing mind
patterning matching
sci mind vs inventing mind
spontaneous creative vs learning pattern

Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki:23 and You

23AndMe company
gene journal data
sntp
spectrum disorder
personal medication
central data repository
patientslikeme
delivered responsibility
established research
retracted research

Michael Novogratz :How Bad Is It?

technology transfer easily
consumer choice
productivity surges ends in revolutions
only the top gather most gains
wealth accumulating
global flow of finance
wall street, london
no context of finance
changing fast
competing in a global world
fear hope
hardworking industrious
green bubble revolution
war

Scott Hemphill and Kal Raustiala:The Knockoff Economy

Piracy paradox
knockoff are good
chefs, perfume, absences of copy protection

Gavin Newsom:The Green City

70% recycling
incentive
cycle of life
pause reflect and think different
plan and delivering
I dont trust me
measurement and accountability
love making mistakes
secret of success
embrace risk or risk adverse
fail forward fast : peter thomas
advancing of spirits
energy independent
sustainable
green collar jobs
disparity
urban centers
blame game
could should would
best practice
tangible specific real
we can change the world

Eric Haseltine:Creative Intelligence

those who study history, are doom to repeat what is successful where the future is different
metaphor
find, outmaneuver,deal with seeds

in crisis mode, typically do what you always a little better
becoming like someone
known unknown contact chains (unknown unknown)
who,where,what
computer and maths(no inertia)

speed, synergy,surprise
ideas is faster than bits than atoms
secrecy matters

valley of death for technology
hearts and mind
salafist jihadis
war on ideas
ashema effect

ignore failure and successes without history

Kelefa Sanneh:The Tanning of America

culture observation
consumer taste and needs
creating culture
customer experiences
passionate about understanding culture
relevant for the next generation
to know what's going on
role in culture
motivating young generation
cultural influences
part taking vs understanding

attitude

2008-12-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

BeHappy4Life:What Kind of House are You Building? blogger page

strange things people do for security

2008-12-01T23:48:00.000-08:00

folklore.org:You Guys Are In Big Trouble

doIt

2008-12-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Just Do It vs OK

Folklore.org:Do It

Never ever call your users a dolt. They are the one who are paying your bills...

Caffeine...

2008-11-27T23:29:00.000-08:00

Caffeine is a Mental Illness! 10grams of caffeine will kill a person. Period of inexhaustibly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine

A healthy mind
resides in a healthy soul,
resides in a healthy body. -- Soul Eater

My Top Ten Tips on how to become a Rockstar Programmer item 11.dont drink too much coffee

webMD:Quit Caffeine While Pregnant sugary soft drink is bad for health.

vista annoyances

2008-11-24T07:42:00.000-08:00

if you use opera to save a web page htm with its associated folder, they are linked. and thus if you delete the htm, it magically also deletes the associated folder for you too. I was shocked when suddenly all my folders which I wanted disappeared. and I was using shift-del and thus regret... lucky the site was available for re-download.

a lesson learnt today

2008-11-24T03:17:00.000-08:00

Never ever listen to your parents who tell you to take any job possible as the economy is terrible at the moment. It is a formula for disaster. The rule above works if you are just a blue collar worker. But if you are a white collar, without thinking much, then you shouldn't be a white collar in the first place (referring to myself.) haiz... remember, everything is transient, just DO NOT GO DOWN THAT path of self pity and hopelessness.

5 things to consider before taking job offer
12 things to consider for your first job
google

psychologytoday:Envy is common and corrosive

envy derives from a complex cocktail of competitiveness, emotional insecurity, and situational dissatisfaction. Four factors favor its flourishing at the office: a highly competitive workplace culture, an emotional dunce of a boss, favoritism in our families of origin, and, of course, exceptional achievement that ticks off everybody else.

for enviers:If she can do it, write it, sell it, win it, dammit, I can, too!

for envied:suck up to the protection of the powerful or keep their heads down to avoid the potshots of the angry horde.

the number of globally available jobs is less than the number of globally working capable populations. Therefore jobs have always been a scarce resource. Economic recession just made it more pronounced. The question to ask is if you can blend in with the team and generate value sufficiently to make everyone well off. (remember you are paid in direct proportion to the amount of value that you can create. fixed assets like furnitures, laptop, air-con, training all cost money.)

Thus people who can create valued jobs are actually paid a high premium. (in optimisation, we reduces the number of steps, but in job creation, sometimes it is the insertion of more tasks with a lower frequency, for example replace manual work with robotic arms and an engineer.)

blogger bug....

2008-11-23T01:36:00.000-08:00

somehow blogger patched it's editor? ...
previously, there was no tag and now, happily every new lines has a tag. the tag doesnt interpret the very last linefeed which I wanted. it works in preview mode.

That reason, that "node" in the social network, is what we call the Social Object.anthropologists call “Object-Centerd Sociality”
"Social Marker"As with all things, the REAL value comes from the human relationships that are built

anthropologists call "Object-Centerd Sociality""Social Marker"

something irritating, you paste html code in the compose window, swap it to html edit. swap it back to compose, prooof... all your html tags are missing... solution:Convert Raw HTML to Escaped HTML it works if you use edit html mode to paste it. Even though the compose mode is messed up, the preview mode still works.

images are always inserted at the very top instead of the location which I specified. it used to work properly too.(I am using opera 9.62 and fox 3.0.3)

first look at gapingvoid.com

2008-11-22T21:44:00.000-08:00

in gapingvoid.com so what’s a crazy-ass cartoonist in alpine, texas going to do about dell, anyway? November 15, 2008

the only innovations worth making are the ones involving product ideas and product design.

You can't thrill your customers until you thrill yourself first.

in gapingvoid.com marketing as transformation November 21, 2008

your product has to be aligned with your customer's never-ending search to find meaning in his or her own life.

If people like buying your product, it's because its story helps fill in the narrative gaps in their own lives.

Human beings need to tell stories. Historically, it's the quickest way we have for transmitting useful information to other members of our species. Stories are not just nice things to have, they are essential survival tools.

And yes, the stories we tell ourselves are just as important than the stories we tell other people.

Ergo, marketing is not about selling. Marketing is figuring out where your product stands in relation to personal narrative.

So where does your product fit into other people's narrative? How does telling your story become a survival tool for other people? If you don't know, you have a marketing problem.

Narrative gaps. It's all about the narrative gaps.

We find meaning, we fill in the narrative gaps, when we transform ourselves. When we transform from unemployed single mother to world's richest woman [Like what happened to Harry Potter's JK Rowling]. When we go from a size-12 dress to a size-6 dress. When we land our first real job promotion. When we go from single horny guy to happily married father of six. This need to constantly transform ourselves, from one state of being to another, never goes away. We are fluid creatures. We crave re-invention like we crave food or sex. And when we lose the capacity to transform ourselves, when we get stuck in a rut, is when life's meaning starts to dry up.

The people who inspire us the most are the people who aim higher than the limitations imposed upon them. Triumph over adversity; it's the oldest story in the world.

finger-printing raid (redundant array of independent disks)?

2008-11-21T06:37:00.000-08:00

http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11699

For an even better example, there are a couple papers on something called "grey-box" testing that came out of UW-Madison that caught my attention when I was looking at grad schools to apply to. Some of the same people worked on both, and they ar both doing grey-box examinations of the storage subsystem. One of them is that they came up with a method and a program that implements that method for figuring out properties of a RAID system. By measuring latencies and transfer rates and such, they are able to determine what RAID level is running, what striping pattern is being used (for instance, for successive blocks on RAID 5, is the parity block on drives 1-2-3-4-5-5-4-3-2-1 or 1-2-3-4-5 or what), etc. We did a similar thing for an intro assignment in my OS class -- we were measuring block sizes of the file system, readahead behavior, and cache behavior. A second paper was describing some firmware that could sit on a disk itself and determine, from the pattern of writes and reads, which blocks represented data blocks, which represented inode blocks, which were journal blocks, and such so that the drive could apply different treatment to each sort. (I forget their suggestions for what you might want to do with the different blocks though, and can't look at the paper because I don't yet have Acrobat Reader installed because this is a fresh system.) If those papers aren't about computers, I don't know what is. -- EvanED

bringing data (blog buggy layout)

2008-11-20T19:45:00.001-08:00

What do you do if the location for your workplace does not allow any memory devices such as thumbdrive, portable hdd, sd cards?

Smuggle with paper. A typical A4(1682 × 2378mm) page can print a lot of data. Physically 2 side, but if you add a bit of colors, the dimension increases. An example use of this is at Northe/Northey History Part II

A binary QR code can store Max. 2,953 bytes at 150 modules per inch.

25 by 25 module matrix is 12.5 mm (0.5") square

177 by 177 = 7x 25module=7*12.5mm=87.5mm

1682/87.5=19

2378/87.5=27

subtract printer margin = 17x25modules

data storage at 425modules*2953bytes=1,255,025bytes

1 MB of text on one side. A very slow sneaker net. But hay, one MB worth of zip text is a lot.

Add a color dimension to the qr code and see how many layers you can overlay it. 3 more channels via RGB (watched National Treasure?) or CMY.

As you noticed, I didnt solve the inital problem of how are you going to bring the software to print the QR code above? via mime in email? writing the software if you are a programmer?

I once came across an article. You can create a debugger using copy con and the alt key and entering a list of alt numbers. After building up the debugger, the author proceed to code the virus via debugger (my memory is bit fuzzy) Not the very first, but nonetheless demostrates the idea example.

haha, I seriously doubt anyone will use the method above. But kind of cool for me to have this insight. Years of tree saving efforts pays off.

notice the file size ...

2008-11-19T01:31:00.000-08:00

Tools for Agility - A White paper by Kent Beck, Three Rivers Institute

Tools for Agility white paper by Kent Beck.docx
1.1 MB
Tools for Agility white paper by Kent Beck.pdf
483 KB
Tools for Agility white paper by Kent Beck.xps
633 KB

alignments

2008-11-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

Do I use left align or justified?

mhmm time to do some searching on usabilities...

for some stranges reason, the javascript in blogger is causing problems with my opera. The layout is messed up, with weird js error. haiz, think i might consider swapping to wiki instead as I started discovering duplicate same subject posting created by myself.

to remove the p tag, at compose mode copy, at edit html mode paste to replace all text. mhmm really strange for the compose mode to start adding p tag.

even though i preferred justified to left align, but after reading the below 2 post, i decided to just leave it as left-align.
Text Align - To Justify or Left Align?
webstyleguide.com

Culture

2008-11-15T08:33:00.000-08:00

Agile 2006 - Steve Adolph - Agility in the Art of War ... a dissertation

fast decision with action.
operate faster than the changes in order to shape the environment.
culture, trust one another, social capital.
the trust (belief) that you the skills and abilities to handle the challenges undertaken.
culture engineering, social problem, situational awareness.

Most of the projects failed because of behaviour challenges: politics, infighting, witch-hunts, nepotism, backstabbing, sabotage,... --p.322 Software Exorcism by Bill Blunden

Googling Behaviour challenges came across sites on Parenting. Mr Lee Kheng Siah once told me, if you can teach a child, you can teach anybody. 9 simple Principles of Effective Interpersonal Communication

I am unique, as I am the very first NTU bachelor of engineering degree in Computer Science with Sociology (one of the concentration is the study of cultures) {yippie, I finally found an unique point of me}

how did I came across sociology? One of my HCI lecturer in poly has a Computer Science with Sociology degree.

Transactional analysis was the beginning of my readings on psychology, self-help and understanding of oneself.

"Social Gestures beget Social Objects."

Social Networks form around Social Objects, not the other way around.

The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else. Human beings are social animals. We like to socialize. But if think about it, there needs to be a reason for it to happen in the first place. That reason, that "node" in the social network, is what we call the Social Object.

anthropologists call “Object-Centerd Sociality”

"Social Marker"

As with all things, the REAL value comes from the human relationships that are built AROUND the social object, not the object in itself.

Put really simply, the Purpose-Idea is the "What For?" of a business, or any kind of community. What exists to change (or protect) in the world, why employees get out of bed in the morning, what difference the business seeks to make on behalf of customers and employees and everyone else? BTW this is not "mission, vision, values" territory - it's about real drives, passions and beliefs. The stuff that men in suits tend to get embarrassed about because it's personal. But it's the stuff that makes the difference between success and failure, because this kind of stuff brings folk together in all aspects of human life.
Real drives, passions and beliefs. Exactly.

Why is something like this potentially valuable to a business? Simply put, if you believe something passionately enough, for long enough, articulate it well enough, and your actions are aligned, credible and consistent with your belief for long enough, it's just a matter of time before other people start believing it, too.

MATLAB Builder JA

2008-11-13T08:09:00.000-08:00

Webinar: MATLAB for C/C++ Programmers

Previously, you need a copy of Matlab in order to run and see the results of M-code. Now with application deployment, you can interface with C/C++, excel, java and dotnet. The example with MATLAB Builder JA was interesting. The builder allows you to deploy java classes for M-code. I was expecting that they translate the M-code into byte codes and thus using the client processing power. Their solution was to encrypt the M-code with AES128, and bundled with a matlab runtime jar. As the developer you can use rmi to communicate remotely with your classes or run it as a service. Or as the webinar, deploy a jsp page that query the server for the updated image via AJAX-based zoom, pan, and rotate controls.

There is a critical limitation. Most of the toolboxes GUI are disabled and as stated, it was a business decision.

eavesdropping

2008-11-10T02:03:00.000-08:00

keyboard heard 20meters away fixed via Faraday cage
similar to "a technique know as Van Eck phreaking developed by Dutch researcher Wim van Eck in 1985 to spy on computer monitors from a distance."

A software method is via on screen keyboard requiring you to use the mouse.

UI like minority report, M$ Secondlight

2008-11-10T01:40:00.000-08:00

Mgestyk gesture-based control via digital camera. Slashdot discussion.

SecondLight another layer projection via switching the LCD to transparent 50% of the time.

Naming

2008-11-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

Organizations change when you give something a name. If it has a name, your peers can measure it. If it has a name,they can alter it. If it has a name, they can talk about it. And if it has a name, they can eliminate it. --The Big Moo, Edited by Seth Godin

Giving a name to a baby is difficult. Give the wrong name, the baby will hate you for life. So the art of naming ...

index variables: i j k
maths : dx dy dt
constants : PI E

one stage of obfuscation is variable name mangling.

why do people hate IT support/Engineers ...

2008-11-07T04:18:00.000-08:00

Nick Burns with Jennifer Aniston

Nick Burns being challenged

BOFH

Worship engineers -dilbert

What makes an engineer and/or ham radio amateur?-dilbert

How Engineers and Managers Communicate: A Video Parody

predictions

2008-10-30T23:45:00.000-07:00

I made some predictions while I was in poly.

1. Java is the way to go.
2. Javascript will be great without the browser compatibilities problem.
3. Flash is wonderful, if only my network on a 56k is faster and more functionalities.

I think all came true. Sadly I didnt capitalize much on and thus not shown on my CV.

For number one, other languages are now written on top of java Like JRuby, Jython. Java has become a base platform for other stuff to be written on top of it. I personally like java a lot as it was way easier to program in java than to program in C/C++. The small bytecode really appeals to me. Plus the wonderful libraries (which provided code reuse) and GC really help in expressing my thoughts.

For number two, GWT finally came along. Without AJAX, javascript was just a fancy eye candy dhtml tool. haha, now I am just waiting, for (proteins) folding in javascript running on a mobile phone.

For number three, I sort of add it while writing this blog. Flash always reminds me of the demo scene. Actually shockwave was the more powerful one while Flash was the strip down version. I once wrote a 3 level pac man in shockwave. before there werent dynamic sprites, mhmm can't remember how I cheated the system. The only memory of it now is a distinction in advanced multimedia.

why did I write about predictions? after spending 11 years with computers... I finally finished my studies and need to write my CV. I realised I am not a good programmer. I lack intelligence in compare to the millions of China/India/World geeks. I am a disaster ...

Only these words
Every master was once a disaster ...(T. Harv Eker)
kept me going ...

On porn ...

2008-10-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

Coding Horror:Obscenity Filters: Bad Idea, or Incredibly Intercoursing Bad Idea?
In short, he is "doubtful it will ever be possible to solve this particular problem through code alone."

What happened? Basically the filters block URL with words like sex, porn, Great tits, clbuttic idiocy ... "seven dirty words" This problem is known as The Scunthorpe Problem

Why do I post about this? I have suffered at the hands of URL filters at the university I was attending while doing some self studies on psychology and sociology on our basic needs. Masturbation 'cuts cancer risk'. How do you handle the stress of social isolation for being a social reject?

How do you go around it? There are several, like Tor, pasting the IP address directly (web based dns look up tools), Google Cache, Internet Archive, free online (bypass) proxy page aka browser-based anonymization services.

The human question: why was there a filter in the very first place (in a university)? The administrator thinks that stressful students should not look at porn but instead look for better stress relieve? This could save network infrastructure cost? Looking at porn increases crime rates (just like playing violent games increases the violence's nature of the person)? It is degrading to appreciate naked female bodies? It is disgusting to see the males lusty eyes? The students should conform and be more productive instead of looking at entertainments? Porn reduces birth rates? Porn tears apart couple hood and social fabric of societies? Porn aids criminal organization?

prostitution is one of the oldest profession. Are we controlling the negative aspects of porn? or are we controlling the women?

The negative impacts of Indonesian Pornography Act

Indonesian MPs pass anti-smut bill

"the anti-pornography legislation could be misused against Indonesia's minority Christian and Hindu communities and threatens the country's pluralistic culture."

Indonesia Legislature Bans Racial Discrimination

Inside indo: How to be Chinese

South Korean court upholds ban on adultery

Adultery Law: A Necessary Evil?

An interesting map of societies with sodomy laws

"No pornography exploits women. It exploits men. It’s the men that are made to look stupid, silly and ridiculous, chasing after the golden elixir. Women look beautiful, do what they wanna do and get paid for it." -- Lydia Lunch

3 December 2008 bbc:Pupils can beat safe net filters

education, education to learn what is socially acceptable and what is not.

bbc: Australian firewall trials start

Britain, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand :voluntary and not government-mandated.

China, Iran and Saudi Arabia:widespread technological filtering or censorship regime.

our societies are becoming dark...

UI of viddler.com

2008-10-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

Objective: record down UI of viddler.com

Duration: 1hr 10min to screen capture and layout, 20min blog

Among video sites like

youtube.com -- one of most famous. lowest video quality.
veoh.com -- P2P video player
imeem.com -- high quality but slow load time (25min video takes 3hr) in Asia
viddler.com -- enable other users comments. Player customization.
hulu.com -- (have not check out yet)
tudou.com -- h264 video
hd.tudou.com -- High definition. see Marc van der Chijs
56.com -- (have not check out yet)
youku.com -- (have not check out yet)
megavideo.com -- converting to a paid site, irritating advertisement
hq dailymotion -- h.264, review
metacafe.com
videojug.com

viddler is special for its ability to allows user to tag and comment at specific video frame. And to avoid crowding, other users can layer comments on top of other comments. It was the first time I am exposed to video customization. For more features, see viddler

video url hiding site via go4ent

todo: usability analysis of a good flash player

GUI Testing

2008-10-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

SWTBot
Marathon
TPTP automated GUI recorder

Java GUI testing with JRuby
Wikipedia.org Category:GUI_automation for more framework

Adding google image search to firefox search plug-in

2008-10-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Objective:
Top right corner of firefox 3.0.3 allows us to search google. But it doesn't offer anyway to search for images. Thus what I usually do is, type in {searchTerms} like "anime", which will take me to a google web search page, and then click on Images on the top left corner of the search page to access a list of images found.

Solution: Add a search plug-in

Duration: 1hr to figure out, 1 minute to add plug-in, 20minute to blog

Wrong way:
I browsed to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins and make a duplicate copy of google.xml Then changed SearchForm and SearchURL parameters. I restart firefox hoping that as mention in Learn to Create a Firefox Search Plugin in Less Than 2 Minutes that the newly added image search will work. (Similar goes for Build Your Own Firefox Search Engine.) And off course it didn't work.

Correct way:
At the top right search plug-in, click on the drop down for Manage Search Engines and then Get More Search Engines which will open a new tab to take you to Firefox Add-ons. Add Mycroft Project to firefox. At the search plug-in, select Mycroft project and search for "google image".
Select your desired new search plug-in. For my case, it was Google Images (images.google.com) by Stefan Hittler

You can test and generate your own search plug-in via Mycroft Project Submission utility without ever needing to deploy your own xml on to a webserver. Ctrl-K to jump to text field at the search plug-in. If you need to roll out your own page for adding a search engine, see Adding search engines from web pages

Readings on Security

2008-10-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

SANS' Information Security Reading Room
VX heaven
define:Metamorphic code
cloudav

A knife can be a tool and a weapon. it depends on the user. reading the above increases the knowledge for Automatic programming

Packet Sniffing and Protocol Analysis Software tools like windump,wireshark
NetStumbler

about ‘mosaïc’ attack

2008-10-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.petitcolas.net/fabien/watermarking/2mosaic/index.html

Splitting a image and then reconstruct using html tables in order to breakup the watermark is interesting. To add variation, you could even cut up the the shape in non-rectangular form and use layers to merge as one.

Other techniques include applet, activeX, flash.

Though if you just want the image, a simple Vista Snipping tool or screen grabber tool will let you screen shot the image.

any image manipulations will usually degrade the image and thus sometimes destroying the watermark.

how do you crash a jvm?

2008-10-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

jni such as dereferencing pointers to wron memory areas (like Nullpointer) or illegal Opcodes
corrupted libraries via hex editing
buggy drivers
failed syscalls relating to hardware issue
bugs in the jvm (check the bug report)
missing os patch
using reflection to crash the vm
using the below class (by ralfs)

public class Crash {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Object[] o = null;

        while (true) {
            o = new Object[] {o};
        }
    }
}

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/65200/how-do-you-crash-a-jvm
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_17534

Day zero...

2008-10-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Objective: just a simple notebook of some of the stuff I have read.

How Did You Get Started in Programming
Joe O’Brien
Rick DeNatale
Sarah Dutkiewicz
Michael Eaton

How old were you when you started programming?
16 or 17, on my brother's 386dx computer (I also DIY pc with 286,486,P1, P3, P4)

How did you get started in programming?
I was in Audio Visual Activities club in secondary school, the computer terminals was running this cool yellow on blue DOS batch menu. I begged the teacher to teach me, but he refused, probably due to the fact that I am a NORMAL academic stream student.

Later on I attended a basic computer class of simple dos commands and Nibbles. I would spend numerous hours playing computer games like Dune 2, Wolfenstein 3d and Doom. I got curious on how the games were created and started playing with Qbasic and DOS batch commands.

What was your first language?
Qbasic (autodidact, via reading books & help file)

What was the first real program you wrote?
a Screen 13 (320x200) random pixel 'screen saver'

What languages have you used since you started programming?
QBasic, Dos 5.0, 6.22 Batch commands, Visualbasic for Dos, QuickBasic, C, VB6, Java (since 1.2 or 1.1.5 but strangely I couldn't find the 1.1.5 information), Lingo, ColdFusion 4, Javascript 1.5, VBScript, Bash, Cisco IOS, SQL on Oracle, VBA for Access and Excel, (was learning TASM, MASM32 on TSR), Borland C++, M68k, LTSA, SQL on MS SQL, Scheme+Prolog+C#, Perl, Rockwell Arena, Matlab, Tcl/Tk with VTK, POV-Ray, (learning python and maybe smalltalk, clisp, erlang, scala later)

What was your first professional programming gig?
I just graduated recently.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?
If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
A monkey banging on the keyboard can write codes. But to write easy to understand codes, is hard work. Communicating effectively with others is also a difficult skill.

What's the most fun you've ever had ... programming?
in the zone... seeing your CodeInvaders emerging champion ...