jared@darkstar

Silicone Valley in the Philippines?

2011-11-04T03:16:00.000+08:00

Back track to around 1984. When I was in 6th grade, the first computer magazine I was exposed to is called "BYTE", those thick glossies almost had everything. One issue even had an old "treasure" map of Silicone Valley where Apple, Intel, 3Com(?) etc. are drawn in isometric popup-book style.

During non-school days we visit our other house in Muntinlupa in which where I live now, a half-hour drive from our house in San Andres, Manila via the South Super Highway(yes, those buses you see with "...via SSH" that's where they go, very secure) now known as the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX). Along this 25km journey involved passing by front gates of what made up Silicone Valley back then; Intel's factory was located before stopping at Pasay Road intersection, American Microelectronics along the West Service Road, Motorola where their 2-way radio and the first cellphone was mass produced and then the PowerPC was mass-produced from there too, Panasonic-Technics, Toshiba, Sharp is still there, Amkor Technologies who did a lot for Silicone Valley with a large facility along the East Service now has a second factory at Laguna Technopark. On the software side, I only remember one big building at Faraday Street corner South Super Highway in Palanan, Makati with a big sign outside that said they're always on the hunt for C/C++, DB2 etc. talents. Seeing those companies advertise in BYTE magazine and actually passing by them every now and then reminded me that it doesn't look bad times at all.

My first encounter with a computer was with Sinclair ZX81 it's a microcomputer, not a Personal Computer it uses casette tape to store data and only understands BASIC. Working with ZX81 cookbook was fun but I wish I can do something more useful back then like "sari-sari" store inventory(?), and another guy who has a similar device like this one is an old chap with a "startup" called "CompuServe" with his home/office/garage located near Wilson Street in Greenhills. Sinclair is UK-based computer company, not connected to Silicone Valley but one of the early tools that motivated kids like me that somehow we can have something like Silicone Valley.

Sinclair ZX81 with 16KB ROM Pack

Star Trek was not the geek flick of choice around 1984, it's War Games since it's closer to reality, almost life threatening and War on Communism is of paramount importance than War on Terrorism (which was just treated as a petty criminal act those days and not worth putting an army for).

Matthew Broderick in his state-of-the-art Commodore in War Games

So much for the past now. Recently, there's some questions being raised by blogging geeks, tech guys in PHL who were probably born in the 80's or late 70's asking questions why we don't have Silicone Valley in the Philippines? Well, we almost did! We had our shot and we blew it! The bus stopped and we missed it! The Captain called out but we're not ready! We were the China back then until our power generation costs nearly killed us, causing some of the factories to shut down and move elsewhere. The old "evil" regime decided to put up a nuclear power plant to make these big guys stay and keep the money in, but the nuclear dream was fought hard by those who will benefit from it in the future, I'm almost certain that these same people who fought has to push their kids out of the country to work for those companies in similar environmental danger today. The reason it's called Silicone Valley is because it's not about software, there's a place for software and it's called Redmond. We can't be Silicone Valley if we're always paralyzed by power failures both political and electrical. Is Cebu going to be Silicone Valley? Probably, but if the work down there is just about "gluing" things together, then I don't think so.

Will there be a chance to have a Silicone Valley in PHL? Yes, if we stop fighting what's good for us.

Startup Weekend Manila

2011-10-26T17:29:00.001+08:00

I want to check my history first. My first foray in to the startup scene circles back to the first Internet Bubble between '99-'04, there's not much stuff to read about it online and the only two printed media I looked at during those years were Red Herring and Fast Company magazines. I was so amazed by how much money has changed hands with those tissue paper ideas, there were no social apps back then, it was so inspiring that I believe I can build any of those ideas myself and get funded too! But there's seems to be an invisible barrier to entry. Then I searched locally for startup scenes or forums brewing around and I only stumbled in to two; Philippine Venture Capital Group or PhilVenCap and MindShare which was curated by Luli Arroyo. PhilVenCap is a monthly meeting at Asian Institute of Management for early risers in which you can pitch your business ideas for 3 minutes and network aftwards, PhilVenCap has been around for more than 20 years, I did a couple of pitches there and it's really quite a learning experience. MindShare was more technology specific and saw some of the big local names like Ramcar, whom, back then, were attempting to expose themselves to this new "ecosystem", MindShare is slowly making a comeback now. Then comes the SMS generation, not only it's more exciting but applications were easier to develop as well, almost no GUI, everything is done at the backend. Ideas were starting to get crazier, open source APIs were already available and eventually got a chance to work with local startup specializing in SMS with artificial intelligence. And then came the Bubble burst and I had to work with one of the largest telco, yes the brick and mortar, learned a lot on how to deal with them, moved to Singapore for awhile and worked briefly with another startup in which we did touchscreens (even before everyone else got a touchscreen!) for a major telco, yes another brick and mortar.

Fast forward to present, tech entrepreneurs seems to be luckier these days. First, there are more venues like Startup Weekends, RoofCamps, Barcamps, Hackathons and whatnot, although sometimes they were run by the same people over and over again(the risk of losing fresh insights). Second, there isn't much re-inventing to do since startups can reuse most of what is available today in Twitter, Facebook etc. However, old guards still dominates like online shopping sites, online advertising, online gaming, search engines etc. transforming themselves in different mutations, but still, there are valuable lessons to be learned.

And now, the Startup Weekends. The concept of the Startup Weekend is to bring together aspiring tech entrepreneurs, investors, developers and designers in an event where they can pitch ideas, work on those ideas, and eventually launch a startup from those ideas, they may have to build prototypes over the weekend or polish a business plan or both. At the end of the event investors can pick for themselves which startup they think they can put money on. Thus, an idea can become a startup, become a business, who knows. Startup Weekend Manila is my third after Baltimore and Washington, DC. startup weekends, the last two was more like a weekend market while the one we just had is like an American Idol contest. Nevertheless, all of them were successful. Startup Weekend Manila has around 200 participants from what I heard and all were doing social apps one way or another. Well, this is not Silicone Valley.

Many teams were formed after the pitchfire and one of them was VenteeInc. The idea behind VenteeInc is event discovery or it's solving the what's-going-on or who's-going-where or what's-happening-at type of problems for mostly young people in their 20's downward who are really bored and looking for places to go or something to do. It's not rocket science. But again, we might lose the whole point of Startup Weekends, they are not meant to be coding contest of some sorts. Startup Weekends are for getting ideas turn to reality. So I signed up for this team because I think the idea is cool despite doubtful business viability, but of course, theories are almost, always 99% wrong. During the weekend, teams were grilled, ripped and tormented by some mentors to sharpen the ideas further and VenteeInc was no exception we were at the point that we thought we're screwed but still has to go on and that has been a valuable teamwork lesson learned again and again regardless how silly an idea is. As usual VenteeInc's revenue model (this is what geeks are weak at) revolves around the economics of advertising, revenue-sharing with event organizers, ticketing networks, venue owners etc.

The 'cutters', screw you Terence, I hate that word :P (Photo pulled from Jonathan Richie Yap's Facebook album, me at extreme left, it's 1010 gets?)

The Sunday presentations were awesome, initial ideas has somewhat crystalized with teams who really worked hard with their presentations.

Project KIO, doing the magic

TwitMusic, it's Twitter for Music

I'm not really a 'contest' or 'competition' guy, it's not my thing and I prefer killing the competition than play with it but clinching the top award together with our team somehow gave me some sort of personal in-your-face vindication from the people now I'm waiting to say 'crab' and points, clearly, went across now.

VenteeInc, First Place and People's Choice Award

An event like this is not complete without a party and it was there where talks about business is more amplified and that's what we did. Won new networks, won new backdoor deals. Got home San Mig enlightened but wasn't able to sleep yet, Goods2Send has pending orders.

RIP, Dennis Ritchie

2011-10-13T16:37:00.000+08:00

No, it's not Steve Jobs who really changed the world. It's Dennis Ritchie, the man behind the C language and the UNIX operating system. For the non-geeks, here's how UNIX made your life livable everyday; you can sleep at night because opposing forces of the world's military organizations depend on it on a daily basis. Smart, Globe and Sun uses UNIX operating system so you can call, SMS and browse Facebook wherever you are. Your banks keeps your accounts safe with UNIX, your insurance company keeps you updated using UNIX. Steve Jobs is heavily dependent on UNIX from his Pixar gigs to his Macs. The influence of UNIX is widespread, Linus Torvalds' kernel is based on it. If you're reading this now, this blog is hosted in a UNIX platform one way or another. If you're on Twitter, Facebook, G+ etc. etc. you're engulfed by UNIX. When you book a flight to an airline and you check in to an airport, it's all done in UNIX. When you withdraw money from ATMs, it's UNIX. When you buy stuff at Amazon, it's UNIX. When you swipe your credit card at SM, Robinson's or Shopwise, it's UNIX. There's no getting away from it.

For better or for worse, Dennis Ritchie and his work has made a larger impact to mankind more than any keynotes Steve Jobs has ever made.

My early encounters with UNIX as a developer involved its different flavors from System 7, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and SCO. The UNIX culture shaped the way how we build cool stuff, it taught hard lessons that metrosexual geeks of today might not be able to pick up.

That is our lives with UNIX. Thanks Mr. Ritchie, bad design or good design, your legacy lives on.

Co-Workingspaces, It's About Time (I Guess...)

2011-10-01T03:54:00.001+08:00

I guess I'm one of those who long for a place where creativity must be squeezed out to the max level and working from home is not really boosting it in the same way squatting at a signature coffee shop can be easily quite distracting specially in this part of the globe where most yuppies are just too nosy about the logo of your laptop. Adding the fact that it's just too hard to work if you're too f*cking paranoid on the people going in and out of the doorway for safety reasons.

Aspiring technopreneurs who has limited resource in terms of funding, office space, photocopiers, white boards, conference rooms can make use of a co-workingspaces. So when do we need a co-workingspace? Like right now? I'm currently writing this blog in a place that is used to be quiet in the wee hours of the morning until just recently it's packed with call center people, yapping here and there looking at me in a very, very strange way. While drilling down and browsing the web on existing co-workingspaces currently operating in countries like United States, I believe co-workingspaces can be applied in some part of this country (PHL).

In the Philippines, co-workingpaces are suitable for startups who are already committed in to something and are:

1. Working to exploit real, not imagined opportunities - This means startups has "customers" ready to buy-in once the finished product has been launched.

2. Working to cut cost but not on the quality of work - A small startup can spend a day in co-workingspace perfecting a product.

3. Working with remote team members - Not just startups but for freelancers who can bring their work anywhere

4. Anybody who can't live with a bedroom that smells like a pigsty after establishing a hermit kingdom in it.

5. Working on a really seriously cool project but is not ready to move in to the big office yet.

Typically a co-workingspace, the ones that might theoretically work in the Philippines should have the following amenities:

1. A blazingly-fast WiFi, a co-workingspace operator can partner with top broadband provider in the country.

2. Big tables with office chairs.

3. A pantry or snack bar

4. A friendly clerk

5. Optionally, free coffee only for expats (let's admit it, we can't give free consumables to Filipinos, it will become a food bank).

6. A photocopier

7. A boardroom with projector

Laugh all you want but this is not a co-workingspace.

8. clean restrooms

An operator can charge like PHP800 to PHP1,000 for a day pass with a single chair, power outlet and unlimited internet access. Use of photocopier, boardroom and projector can be charged separately. Booking and upfront payment is required before anyone can drop by and loiter.

Again, will this work? I think expat startuppers have been looking for something like this around the block and if they can find one, more of those from the Bay Area, the East Coast might fly in and at the same time enjoy the beaches here, will trade our idiots with their geniuses.

Create More With Less

2011-08-26T02:22:00.001+08:00

This week has been one of the most exciting week in the technology industry, the Russians just crashed their spaceship that will supply stuff to the international space station so the guys up there will have to endure for another seven months on their meager supplies unless another space canister can be hauled up to speed anytime soon. So what else is hot this week? The HP Touchpad on fire sale, if a company is no longer interested in the product, those Touchpads and other handheld devices should be dumped in a landfill off limits to public, selling that to as low as $99 means the company, Hewlett Packard, are very much in to it and will be shoving it to as many hands as they can and give a chance to play with it, since webOS is really cool from my personal opinion, they have to let the public realize that and then bomb the device with really compelling applications as they promised (focusing on "Software Development" remember?).

The long awaited coming-to-maturity of front-end tools such as HTML5+CSS3+JQuery has come and with that comes the power tools that enable developers to create more with less and for many. Developers can now create mobile applications that run both on Android, iPhone and the rest in the shortest possible time without having to deploy to iTunes App Store or Android Marketplace, no more of the 70/30 profit sharing. One of the example of this new wonder is the "Galaksyan" game from Kupster Interactive. This demo game was created in less than 2 hours, also using Microsoft Tag to scan the game's originating URL

There's a lot with what a software developer can do now that creating just a "Hello World" for a demo is really a shame.

No XCode, No Java, No Cables, No Software Engineers

This is also a great time for marketers to storm their brains on how best to utilize these technologies to their business' advantage. Doing these cool apps now is relatively cheaper than before.

P.S.

If you want to try out the game use the Microsoft Tag Reader and scan the Tag below:

The game may not load properly at first shot, so you have it to shoot again(or refresh again). Don't worry that will be fixed, you won't even know it, we'll not hassle you with update notifications. You have been informed.

Necessitas Qt Suite for Android

2011-08-22T04:47:00.005+08:00

My time has been dramatically divided from writing code to managing the opportunities of the technologies that we choose to use. It's basically my left hand on the code and right hand on the spreadsheets. It should have been awesome, I observed the Android (Java) developer community, the iPhone developer community and each has its own crap to talk about, I stumbled upon Objective C after installing Slackware 6.0 hot-of-the-grill so I'm not really, pretty much a fan of that, and I found today's high-level application development amazingly boring be it mobile,web or desktop why would I get my hands dirty since coding these apps can be easily outsourced to places like India, China and Russia or even Ukraine at the same rate I can get a local but problematic talent. I'd rather spend my time developing and "spec'ing" out the idea and get the hardcore engineers to work on it while I fly out and showcase the good stuff.

"Create More With Less" is how I got sold to the idea of Qt C++ development. I'm an impatient coder, I hate the web application development process, I hate all the frameworks (most from the Java camp) that goes with it and some turned out to be author's scam who has no actual real-world development experience and tried to make money peddling his ideas and his books. I'm the write-run-debug-on-the-fly dev guy, because the more I wait the more I going to be distracted(just like anybody else). Trends after trends on software development and seeing some of those goes out of style, Qt C++ has remained stable and has been the "power tool" of choice for many applications including some of the apps at Intel AppUp Store. Now it has found its way to Android development through Necessitas. Watch the video.

Recent developments between Google and Motorola, HP webOS products has put the future of mobile development in to some level of uncertainty specially in the Android space, if things can go "wrong" there isn't much value in betting on Android venture but having Qt in a technology portfolio can compensate for the risk.

Necessitas Qt Suite for Android has come a long way from almost two years ago and its efforts has never(or secretly?) been supported by Nokia which I surmise is playing Two-Face in this mobile war. I've watched Necessitas up to this moment, though I have no real use for it right now, and if I have one I'll just delegate it somewhere and I can say Necessitas' time has come and it's up to the developers to stop eating rice and learn it. I'm just to busy on the spreadsheets right now.

Up Next...Qt for iPhone (hope I'm not too lazy to write)

Navigation in Metro Manila

2011-07-08T04:06:00.004+08:00

Here's a little fearless forecast, pretty soon all motorists will have some sort of GPS navigation being used to aid their journey on a daily basis. Whether it's a car-mounted GPS module like Garmin or an Android-based MotoNav that works together with Google Maps. Different brand and models will soon flood the market as they become more and more affordable. In the hardware area, Garmin is the clear winner as a lot of mapping software are compatible with it including the crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap.

In the U.S. and in other developed countries GPS navigation works almost perfectly including street addresses and their exact pinpoint location. The Philippine map for Garmin, however, is still a work in progress which is available from different sources such as from esambale.wikispaces.com, Roadguide.Ph. These maps are updated almost on a daily basis for new roads, new detour, new POIs, new routes, the author is also one of the most active contributors.

My latest Garmin upgrade is the Nuvi 295W, if you haven't tried any of these Garmin devices, it talks. My 295W is loaded with OpenstreetMap PH for Garmin, I got this wonderful device from Philippines' premiere online shopping site Goods2Send, this site also sells downloadable Garmin Maps that doesn't require MapSource to install and a version available in SD or microSD card.

So far I've used this device as far as Subic up north and Cebu down south, though not as excellent as the U.S. map, the Philippine map covers almost of the physical roads anyone can tread on, almost all of the existing POIs (points-of-interests) and the new ones. Since mapping the Philippines is still very much a work in progress, I'm pretty much confident that there are a lot of opportunities still waiting to be realized in relation to GPS navigation in Metro Manila which is relatively new. Some of these opportunities will come from location-based advertising, various map renditions, competing map providers for more accurate navigation, lower price points to compete with mostly gray-market GPS retailers.

The Philippine Mobile Development Group

2010-05-01T22:01:00.005+08:00

Back in 2004 when mobile application development was still in its raw and content-poor era. We started a small community called the Philippine Mobile Development Group or ph-mobiledev as it's in the Yahoo Groups mailing list. During those times most developers were concentrating in building messaging-specific services which most of the codes were in the server-side digesting SMS/MMS messages for different purposes, that is because for the lack of feature-rich frontend toolkits that was available that time. Most frontend tools were just an attempt to really put something to the market that is way pre-mature like Wireless Application Protocol or WAP that uses WML or Wireless Markup Language, Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), SuperWaba and many more from that ancient bandwagon. Some of these tools still survives, some are struggling to survive and others are just plain dead, I'm not sure if anyone is still coding in WAP today.

But back then Java was the main language of choice in the backend then C/C++, we also brushed up with a few Haskell and Prolog here and there, even a vague attempt with Object-C was made. But way back before 2004, the real value of mobile development is growing in the backend, the gateways and service interfaces where the developers has to be familiar with a lot of technical jargons and specifications like the SMPP, Kannel, Jabber or XMPP protocol, Middleware Messaging Services etc. that was where the profits are swelling. But the user experience is still ASCII. It was really difficult to know the way around, much less, risky. And this why the community, Philippine Mobile Develop Group was made up, it was started by individuals who were in different aspects of mobile development but most commonly on the backend side. The objective was, of course, to share information and opportunities around the local mobile development industry and beyond. Because there was so much constraints and limitations in developing handset-specific applications, it was deemed too boring, cumbersome and difficult to test. Until then the backend mobile development has eventually matured, the survivors moved on, the preys were picked by other behemoths and the mobile ecosystem in the backend has somehow stabilized.

Six years have passed, after so many opportunities has been exploited, new breed of frameworks and tools came into play. Handsets became more powerful than before armed with massive storage capacities and powerful graphic hardware interface. New battle lines were drawn, developers are now back again in an old challenge with a new face; developing for multiple handset makers while maintaining consistent look-and-feel, developing a single set of code that can be deployed or ported to different devices, these are risks that has to be calculated carefully. There are new and attractive toys luring every mobile developer to join their camps, such as Android that is using the all familiar Java, Apple that has finally found something useful from Objective-C with its iPhone OS and of course the old leaders Nokia with Symbian/Qt/Meego/Maemo in its arsenal, Sony-Ericsson with also its Symbian/Qt/UIQ at its disposal. It's really is easy to get confused and distracted. That is why the Philippine Mobile Develop Group is at its feet again to do what it has done for the mobile developers of 2004, to stay focus and continue to exploit greater opportunities from the mobile application market.

Cheated By Google

2010-01-28T07:29:00.008+08:00

WWW Java Tech Sessions (Misguided By Google, Fooled By Fowler)

2009-09-01T21:25:00.003+08:00

Java Frameworks of all sorts are like investment scams where the proponents try to make a lot of money without really getting anything done. So far, their success has been so amazing that most adapting developers and freshly graduated rocket-scientists are gasping for breathe one project to another.

In an effort to offer some enlightenment, a group of highly disgruntled individuals has proposed a WWW (What Went Wrong) series of Java technical sessions as a rescue package. The following topics has been compiled while these idiots are stealing time from they corporate development duties.

1. Waking Up From Hibernate (2-3 hours)
2. Fooled By Fowler (30 minutes)
3. How Not To Be Blocked By Bloch (1 hour dementing session)
4. Escape From Jakarta (1 hour)
5. Be Cool With Just 3 Patterns (3 hours)
6. Only The Gays Use Design Patterns (Until wee hours)
7. Head First Macro (6 hours)
8. Developing For Failure (10 minutes)
9. How To Cheat JUnit (1 hour)
10. Teaching: The Ultimate Exit Strategy (to be outsourced)

There's a bonus pack too.

1. How We Exorcised The Jerks Who Tried To Rule The World With Android (new!)
2. How To Cheat Estimation For Project Managers (1 hour)
3. Corporate Development Tips And Tricks (As If There's Any)
4. Save Yourself With PowerBuilder (All Time Favorite)
5. FoxPro For Dummies
6. The Geek Shall Inherit The Shit

All these brought to you by Green And Gold Outsourcing, (GAGO) Inc.

Sim Card Registration

2009-07-14T19:05:00.003+08:00

I just saw news clip today with regards to mandatory SIM card registration for prepaid subscribers. Well, I have no problem with that. In fact, it's about time that we have to do that. It protects consumers and public in general in several ways, such as mobile phone theft, credit theft by telcos, national security etc.

As usual, the idea is not bad. But the success of such measure can only be known through effective implementation. And through effective implementation we don't mean manual registration of SIM cards by any retailers, specially small retailers. As the telcos will always be reluctant in implementing SIM card registration for prepaid subscribers for reason that it will cut through the bulk of their revenue, an automated approach will help to carry out the enforcement of SIM card registration.

One that will make sense is for the telcos to open up an API that will be called by third-party developers to create in-store Qt-based registration software which can be based on Personal Information Management(PIM) specifications. The API can be deployed as a web service, remote procedure call or even through instant messaging via Jabber. Of course, every registration has a corresponding transaction fee which can be charged from the cost of the SIM card. Also, failure to register prepaid SIM card within one hour of activation will prompt a server-side action to invalidate the SIM card.

There's a lot of opportunities and possibilities that goes with SIM card registration. These are just a few of what I have in mind.

The Essence of Full Screen Mode

2009-07-02T13:06:00.006+08:00

What's the big deal? For what is mundane to game developers has become a great boon to desktop programmers. Full-screen mode brings your user to an exclusive dimension that provides a non-distracting journey around your application, it keeps your user glued within the context of what really matters most, the intended output in the shortest possible path.

Implementing the Full-Screen Mode

I've waited for years for Java to implement full screen mode, but until now, it's still flaky, cumbersome and not consistent in different platforms (so much talk about cross-platform). Some kiosk developers even go as far as "cheating" with the browser by enabling full screen mode in Internet Explorer via Javascript, Flash and other gazillion-of-html-code nonsense only to end up being locked in one operating system and limited possibilities.

The Qt Solution

MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent)
    : QMainWindow(parent), ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{    
         showFullScreen();
}

Is a very simple one-function call to solve the problem and let the developer focus on other important functions, allowing them to finish projects in a short period of time. Qt provides consistency across different platforms.

Mac? Linux? Windows? It's hard to tell!

Programming the rest of the widgets that are needed by a full screen application is no different to programming a typical Qt desktop application. There are no other tags to maintain, no screen size to worry about, just do the proper layout and everything will go into the "right" places. That's less code, create more.

So, want to try this on HTML?

Taking Back The Power To The Desktop (Revenge of the Fallen)

2009-06-28T23:34:00.005+08:00

Alright, my day job is still with Java right now, but I had to admit lousy web development is really creeping up my neck already. It was never cool coding more for less, if you don't know what I mean, that's coding more lines of code for just rendering a simple web page regardless of what framework you're using, how many styles of configurations you have mastered and knows AJAX isn't for laundry anymore and no matter how hard you try you can't keep them all in your brains and reuse them on another project that is totally dependent on a different (but theoretically similar) framework. That's coding more for less.

The Power of the Desktop

In today's highly interactive apps, the Desktop has a broader role from just being a host to native applications serving unforgiving enterprise users. The Desktop can now provide stand-alone multimedia entertainment, entice users to play with its touchscreen, make marketing guys happy for doing more rather than take up user input all day. The Desktop is now portable and mobile, users can bring their favorite applications in a USB device and run it as if it was installed in a host PC. This is why web development always leave a bad taste in my tongue, because the power of The Desktop today is too hard to ignore.

Enter Qt

Why Qt? Why not Java Swing or Eclipse SWT? or even some other craps that M$ has to offer? Three words; Portable, Native and Fast. In all my research, only Qt provided answers to these three challenges. Besides, how hard it is to play a movie that even a label can render?


QLabel *label = new QLabel;
QMovie *movie = new QMovie("movies/transformers2.mov");

label->setMovie(movie);
movie->start();

That is "less code, creat more". Yes it's C++ and can be compiled on your favorite OS whether it's Mac, Linux or Windows; no code change, no behavioral change. Single source for different platform, that is a real-deal cross-platform technology, no JVMs!

Mac

Windows

It's 2009, and I'm still dumbfounded why some companies can't offer their desktop products in multiple platforms which is very easy to do! In fact, all it needs is to re-align proper mindsets to get started. Qt allows developers to create a lot of things for less, invent a lot for less, productivity for less. It allows developers to realized their dream killer apps in no time, get into the market in no time, impress customers without so much f*cking on web wonders. And now, the power of the Desktop is back!

IT Expo

2008-09-04T23:46:00.002+08:00

After spending a few minutes on their website (http://www.itexpo.com.ph), I've already anticipated what to expect. I'd rather spend more time at ManilaCon 2008, I think that's the environment where our applications will be more useful. Besides, I need to brush up on industrial design skills.

We're Still in the Service Industry

2008-08-25T00:27:00.002+08:00

From my last post, here's what mostly took shape in the industry that I'm in; We're still a service industry, we build software based on other people's ideas, not ours. We're lying when we say we "invented" things here because we don't hold patents for such claims. One company that is supposed to be a good shining example has postponed its bourse-level exaltation (IPO if you didn't get it) for a number of times with different lame excuses printed in the business newspaper, hopefully it can be done right next time, because the rap is already damaging.

Over the past few months the number of so-called Tech Startups increased but mostly are freeloaders, not really serious enough (no dates, no timelines) in releasing any serious products at any time, just some prototype of what can be done with this new touchy gadget but these are mostly ideas, not much actions. It's all nothing but what's new and what's cool, what can be shared, blah, blah, blah. It's good to know that there are new startups in the technology sector, but what technology? A dating technology? A mix-and-mashup technology? Is it a technology that passed the ultimate "Mom Test", Is it a technology that triggers "Wow!" from the consumer or just from another geek?

There's nothing, because the sad fact is, we're only doing somebody's idea. Why? Because first we failed to set our timeline and with that, somebody has set it for us. And most of us are under that whim. It's hard to deny it, specially when one is not self-funded, there's no such thing as free ride otherwise there is no rest. Second we love agreeing verbally but not really moving forward to the next level. Just merely storytelling and that's it.

I just wish someday, that someone will prove me wrong.

On Patents And Proprietary Software

2008-06-28T16:03:00.002+08:00

Open Source is so 2000. Some people has to brace change and some has to brace change the radical way. 70% of open source projects today are based in Java and they are the more complicated versions today of their earlier predecessors. There really isn't much innovation and improvement happened looking from the turn of the century up to the present that has really made some difference in the lives of most developers around world that has made them more productive than before, more focused than before. The users' frustrations are just as high as before. Take for example AJAX, which is trying to be a rich client application now is starting to get bloated causing some serious slow down, crashes and security compromises on one's PC. These tools looks only sexy and cool in tutorials but that doesn't prove anything in the real world.

Web applications today has so many usability issues. Documentations are just de facto standard, and there's no definite standards of all sorts in the Open source paradigm. I'm not entirely against Open Source but some of these guys or most of these guys has to do hard thinking in order for them to be still relevant in the next 10 or 20 years in the software development industry.

Let's not make things complicated, it's very simple. A developer who open sources his works has no business whatsoever. I'm talking from the developer's standpoint not from Technical Support standpoint. It's like indie music, indie music does not help create jobs specially if the artists maintains Creative Commons license of their songs, but copyrighting them and making CDs out of them. When they copyright them, they can seal a recording contract, hire sound engineers, hire stage crews, hire event organizers, get a lot of corporate sponsors, and eventually make money with a copyrighted product. Same goes with software writing. Unfortunately, software is not like music. It doesn't make sense to patent a software anymore. Rather the software has to be in a patentable hardware in order for it to do business. For any startup software company today, there is no business in software alone. A real product means proprietary software running on a very sleek cool hardware or appliance. Patents does not necessarily stifle innovations, it actually promotes in the most obvious and traditional way that a developer must be very creative and innovative or die. Others can copy and pay and that is real business. With proprietary products developers/entrepreneurs can enter the market anytime they desire, they can compete anytime they desire. They create real jobs, real coding works. Because at the end of the day, that's only one workable for most of us. There's only one Googleplex, don't try to replicate it.

Of Filipino Tech Startup and Filipino Silicone Valley

2008-06-07T05:22:00.003+08:00

Java is getting boring. We're getting multinational projects of vintage proportions, web frameworks with gazillion of configurations (Java developers are still webbies). The value of Open Source is really more on cutting down costs and not really about generating profits, still, Open Source revolves around the Cost Center, a great force for saving money, but still unproven for generating it consistently (hey, tech support is the only solid business model for open source).

But before I go wayward with my topic, I'm really interested in the Filipino Tech Startup scene as there is too little discussion about its unique characteristics, its life cycle, how it is coping up and moving along. There's so many Filipino Tech Startup today that grow out from dream and passion with very little thought on plans and risks. There's also a mythical fear of involvement with angel investors and venture capitalists, which is quite regretful as there's just so much cash in the country at this time of the great global crisis and it is funneled in the wrong directions which these Pinoy Startuppers should be taking advantage of.

So what are these Filipino tech startups have in common? There are several items that may tell us:

They are mostly self-funded
They are mostly web-centric
They are mostly software-based
They hold no or little patent under their names
They lightly consider patent as their key asset
They are heavily dependent on Open Source

The industrial culture of Filipino Tech Startup is analogous to other Philippine-grown cottage industries, just like the days of Lechon Manok (Roasted Chicken) boom, everyone is in this business or the Nata de Coco (Coco Jelly) craze where a lot cashed in and gone and a only a handful survived. In the Filipino Tech startup scene, when mobile messaging was still hot there are a lot who came and gone and few stayed. That is typical Pinoy (slang for Filipino), where there's easy money, there is bandwagon. There is little or no diversity just like in the real Silicone Valley in which an angel or VC can have a lot of options to put their money in.

Patents. The primary reason for having a patent is to protect an intellectual property (IP), second is to make money from IP through licensing. Most Filipino Tech startup may have one [but mediocre] patent in their belt which earns little or no royalties at all. Patent is important to any business because it helps generate revenue without moving an inventory or doing mind-numbing projects until wee hours of the morning. This is the problem of too much dependency on Open Source. Open Source, if utilized properly can save a lot on someone's business but it's not a product or service that is worth selling to a paying customer. In fact, if a Filipino Tech startup does not hold a patent and multiply it by ten folds then we don't really have an industry and this largely contributes to our Brain Drain as most of our best people will simply fly away to patent-rich valleys in which their cerebral contents are more protected and notable.

Too much web-centricity, your web application maybe 24/7 but your user is not. There's a product that sleeps with a user and comes in millions of varieties and guess what it is? It's a timepiece. It's offline and always "there". During the "iBoom" and before the "iBurst", Silicone Valley was mushroomed with a lot of web-base tech startups, they came and gone and never ruled(Google is not in Cupertino, by the way). Silicone Valley is still reigned by "offline" but "on-demand" companies just like Apple and Intel, their core business is not about the Internet, it's about driving the Internet. These companies don't make money from the Web, they make it through compelling, tangible products and licensing of IPs. So here's a hard fact, Filipino Silicone Valley will never grow without solid, tangible products churning out of it.

The Silicone Valley is an ecosystem of brave technopreneurs with solid products (hardware and software in one roof) and comprehensive business plans (forget about the Tissue Paper Myth), angel investors and venture capitalists. One cannot live without the other. In the Philippines, we have all these components, we have the money (that goes nowhere), the talents (that goes anywhere) but we don't have an ecosystem. In order for us to achieve this, we have to do away with risk-intolerant technopreneur wannabes, people who just want to be on the rap sheet but is not willing to put their names on it. We need small shop R&D as well that will cater to bigger fishes, it will going to be impossible to put up a thousand-team scientist and engineers in one ship. But a multi-company team can help.

The Funding. There are some Pinoy startuppers or technopreneurs who are eager to get funding but is not willing to put their names on it. They are mostly opinionated but never really took responsibility on something with a just a few hyped achievements to show. Again, Tech Startup, just like any other business, has its own shares of risks and responsibility. In the Philippines, we don't lack funds, we lack people on how to multiply these funds.

Labor Day

2008-05-01T06:13:00.002+08:00

Today is Labor Day. This is supposed to be a "Don't-Force-Yourself-To-Blog" Day but after spending several months spending in the workforce, I see a lot of tech people jump from one job to another in the never-ending quest for the greener pasteur(?) or pasture(?) but "greener" is subjective. PHP100k, PHP120k, PHP180K? Until when it's going to last? And some of these people who asks too much are not even the most deserving which puts me on my next rant. How come a lot of Java enterprise geeks today are Linux noobs? Several years back, the rule-of-thumb is if you know Java, you should know Linux. I don't really care much how much best practices you know, but hell yeah, you should know Linux.

Most Java developers today are more focused on getting a high paying coding job, complains a lot on vintage J2EE corporate frameworks in which they are put on until they got burned and decided to move on yet another vintage J2EE corporate framework! Java is more than ten years today and companies have learned the hard way the pains of doing it the Java Enterprise Way, so be prepared to see a lot of junk made by the past geniuses put on your shoulders and tasked to make it work. You'll gonna burn-baby-burn but that's greener pasture for you.

Back To Where I Belong

2008-02-06T21:04:00.000+08:00


public class WelcomeBack {
    
    public static void main (String[] args){

        System.out.println("HELLO JARED AND WELCOME BACK HOME!");
    }
}

Almost three years ago, on my flight to the Lion City, I flashed my dirty finger saying good riddance to the f&$ktards I left behind. And on my way back, it still holds true and this time I flashed not one but two dirty fingers for the f&$ktards that followed us to the Lion City and their local act-alikes and look-alikes there.

Anyway, I resumed blogging because this is the unfolding of the Year of the Rat and this is my Year. Technically-wise, Product-wise and anything-wise that two and half years was perfectly nothing except for the moolah which doesn't really matter now. The "Learn Java, Go Places" sticker displayed in our server room wasn't really motivating. Soon I'll change that to "Learn Java, Drive a Mercedes" for a real cool morale boost. In fact, any seasoned and unfoolish Java developer can prove that easier than "...Go Places", believe me, I did. It's quite difficult to organize my thoughts on what to hit first for now as I want to put into better writing all the funny and stupid experiences I gone through over there (Well, stupidity pays well!). So I'll be breaking several topics along the way.

But what I can say for now is COME TO MANILA (not Mani-lah)! We're getting better now, we're better than our little arrogant neighbor, despite of whatever crap they're saying about us. Let's send all our f@$ktards there we don't need them here because we are a "Strong Republic" right? So until then. Gong Xi Fat Cai!

The Java Sound API

2007-09-30T19:46:00.001+08:00

No, I'm not going to write about how to code on Java Sound API. Well, at least for now. But I would just like to demonstrate how it's used and how it works. Since this post is about sound, I prefer not to use too much words. Thanks to orDrumBox, here's a demo.

EclipseCon 2008

2007-08-29T05:03:00.000+08:00

Yes, I want to go but I have to do my planning now. But until now no updates are happening in the EclipseCon 2008 RSS feed. I will need to prepare a few things before flying:

Get all DynamicBeans plugins ready
Get some small slide presentations ready (not for the speeches)
Be ready to meet the people we might be working with after the conference

Educating developers in Eclipse RCP

2007-08-29T04:51:00.000+08:00

Perhaps one of the challenges RCP vendors are facing today is the availability of talents when working with specific Java technology such as the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. Since most of the Java developers are in the mainstream JEE (or in Singapore, it's still refer to J2EE) camp. It has been difficult to look for developers with a firm grasp of the RCP concept.

One way of tackling this issue is by providing an educational path or a courseware for would-be RCP developers in a manner on how a conscript is trained and sent to war. But this burden can be carried on by RCP vendors themselves or outsource to a competent training provider. But why would a developer spend time on something where opportunities are limited?

RP software group slams poaching by Singapore recruiters

2007-07-28T21:25:00.000+08:00

"Poaching" is the word. I'm not going to refer a link because sooner or later this subject will going to take a heavy beating and will be removed or "archived" online. But let me share what the problem is according to the article.

"The Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) has expressed alarm over the rampant recruitment of Filipino software professionals by Singaporean companies.According to the PSIA, over the past two years, some of its member-companies have observed a growing number of agencies from Singapore that send representatives to Manila to recruit software engineers."

And PSIA's solution:

"To address the situation, the PSIA has requested the Singapore government to impose additional requirements on Filipinos securing work visas, including a copy of the applicant's resignation letter and clearance from his or her latest employer."

What is the situation this organization is referring to? First, the situation is, they are having a hard time keeping the best people in their companies for one very simple reason, the engineer is way too UNDERPAID! If by just flying three hours away from home to increase their value three times as much who cares about resignations and clearances? And I don't think Singapore government will really care for something that is against their local business interests. I hope Mr. Fermin Taruc, the President of PSIA, gets the drift.

On the bigger picture, Mr. Fermin Taruc. Foreign investors are pouring in to Singapore and they have a bigger problem to solve such as augmenting the much-needed resources than all your whinings out there. And I think PSIA should focus on how to attract multinational businesses in the Philippines so that the industry remains competitive

The organization is avoiding the real issue here. That is giving the software engineers the proper compensation they deserve that is good enough for them to stay home. Just raise the salary bar, I don't see any reason why it can not be done since Philippines is one of the progressive countries these days. Don't paint the country as the destination for low labor cost because it's starting to backfire now. Rather paint it as the destination to for multinational companies to setup shop and hire highly-trained, skilled professionals that they need to get the job done with proper compensation. Just raise the bar and compete. Don't whine.

On the final note.

"The world looks to Singapore as a role model in terms of law and order, discipline, and progressive government policies. This is why the PSIA believes that, in the spirit of fair trade, the Singapore government can make improvements in regulating the hiring and recruitment process in the Philippines,"

I think in one of your secret meetings you could have uttered the words that sounds like "no such thing as fair trade". Fair trade my foot!

Where We Are Now?

2007-07-27T05:52:00.000+08:00

After finishing the book Dreaming In Code by Scott Rosenberg, the first reference I found time to read from it is the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference at Garmisch, Germany. While reading the highlights, one item that caught my attention which until now is the torn to every geek's pride:

"the difficulties of meeting schedules and specifications on large software projects"

Thirty-nine years later, no one has found the easy way out. Regardless of the new tools, regardless of new methodologies and techniques to make development easier and faster. We still miss the dot, same mistakes are still committed over and over again. At this point in time, our systems should be in the stage where it can actually "heal" itself, I am not referring to uber artificial intelligence stuff [yet], just the plain software that we use for our daily life.

The Myth of "Doing it Right the First Time"

2007-06-19T06:45:00.000+08:00

In the programming world, it's a fact that nothing can be done right the first time, that includes the software embedded in the Patriot Missile Defense System. But I remembered way back '98 when one big IT company marketed it's crap using this slogan "doing right the first time" and some others followed suit selling the same snake oil with different labels. Unfortunately, in Singapore, some folks still believes in that fallacy. NOTHING CAN BE DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!!!

Why? Because every software project is unique. We haven't gone far enough in the way we write software now from the day NATO assembled the best minds in Garmisch in a Software Crisis conference. Software is abstract. Many have tried XP and other Agile methodologies but still failed and many have attempted all sorts of mixtures. And yet nothing can be done right the first time. Whoever concocted that doing-right-the-first-time campaign nine years ago, if he/she lived during the Three Kingdoms War, he/she could have been buried alive with his/her ass pointing skywards.

If we can do things right the first time, then how come there are still witches in the industry that makes up a lot of things? New methodologies, new frameworks, new platform, new languages but never really dealt with the real world issues developers are facing today. As long as there are believers of these witches that has the power to call the shots in their respective enclaves, things will always be the same.

Client/Server apps still going where no J2EE/.Net have gone

2007-05-20T15:24:00.000+08:00

Last night while I was chatting with an old friend back in the Philippines to check how they were doing in terms of application development in the enterprise arena. It came to a point where it's my turn to tell a story of how am I doing here in this little island. I had to tell them sadly that nothing has been a breakthrough here since the "dotcom boom" and the "dotcom burst", these guys were just riding the hype of the J2EE "promises" from some five years ago and now it's taking toll. Up to now, J2EE (or even .Net) has put more burden on the developer's learning curve of acquiring new skills instead of delivering real business value to the users, there are more talks on frameworks, platforms and theoritical methodologies that doesn't really work in the real-life enterprise development. Business owners are increasingly frustrated, developers are also increasingly frustrated and now they don't know which tools to hang on to, AJAX? Huh! AJAX is a tool for web applications that are trying hard to be client/server application, so why not do the real stuff? Stop wasting time learning different AJAX toolkits. And web applications that requires AJAX are not enterprise-level ones, unless Google and Flickr can be categorized as web-based ERP systems but that is absurd.

So going back to my conversation with an old friend. He just told me that they have upgraded to PowerBuilder 10.5, for sure those with uninitiated mind will surely laugh at this. But way back in '98 PowerBuilder and Visual Basic are the hottest contenders in the client/server rapid application development space. But now, Visual Basic is virtually dead and PowerBuilder is still raging on and delivering what it didn't promise. Users are still happy, developers are happy and can go home at 5:30pm no need to pretend trying to look like a genius that cracks code until 1am. Everything in the enterprise should be really, really simple. don't waste time on unnecessary integrated or "out-of-the-box", "bundled-altogether" promises of some of tech vendor shouting at their minds "We Simply Fry" and will tell you they're going to do it in Spring and Hibernate with some domain modelling strategies for problems that has been solved long ago by tools such as PowerBuilder, Visual Foxpro. These tools are laughing stocks nowadays because they don't look very "technical" and they don't sound too "smart" if you're using them. But up to now, no single tool has ever beaten the power of the DataWindow. But hey, speaking of VFP, Codeplex and SEDNA. They don't make too much noise these days but still packs a lot of punch.

Frankly, J2EE guys who haven't touched a code of any client/server RAD tools from '98 til present, should really, really go back to the drawing board. That's why client/server apps will go back with the vengeance. J2EE/.Net's frustration-to-happiness ratio is just really unacceptable.

SMS-TO-IM Messaging And Beyond

2007-04-30T01:43:00.000+08:00

Finally, I have built the modules for our first SMS-TO-IM messaging. It's really simple, just a Jabber messaging server, Jabber Client API, Serial Communications API to be used for the GSM Modem. All loosely integrated. This is one of the motives for setting up our corporate instant messaging server.

SMS-TO-IM integration is a vital part of the corporate instant messaging. It get's you in touch with your clients, staff and partners in a casual and comfortable way. Casual relationship is equally important as the formal one. Having a more comfortable and easy-going communication (sometimes having "open" communication is not just enough) system in place can make interaction less hostile and less tense which is very common to any corporate environment especially those with highly-charged, politically motivated enviroments.

Demonstration for this module we'll be up on Labor Day. Next thing on the list is the IM client build with a corporate custom skin. Of course, you don't want to use your "Yahoo" ID talking to your boss, otherwise you'll be hiding the whole day from your friends.

Trying-To-Stop-The-Weekend Syndrome

2007-04-30T01:16:00.000+08:00

I hate it and it's becoming an illness. I just want to go home. Unless, there are other interesting stuff to do, not really the bleeding-edge things but something where we can have more control on things that we are building, where we are ACTUALLY BUILDING not taking care of someone's dirty codes. Where we can really collaborate with the customers, where we can say "Next" when the customer says "No" , believe me, it's not ideal. It's real. Back home we can do that, that's why customers can really collaborate and play nice, no surprises. That's fair customer service.

What I really don't like is that it seems we're really very afraid of upsetting our customers, we're a very afraid of losing business. In effect we're very afraid to make mistakes but we make them every single day. The more you fear something, the closer it gets. But our customers have no choice either, where will they go? Sigh, I still have around thirty-six Mondays more left to really call it quits, unless things will change. But I doubt it, I just won't let these changes rule my direction.

I Miss jared@darkstar

2007-04-30T01:04:00.000+08:00

It means I miss Slackware. Sheez, why do I have to explain everything in plain words these days? Well, jared@darkstar is what appears in my command prompt after successfully installing a Slackware distribution in to my system.

The reason I miss it is first I'm using Winbloze (for crying out loud) 2 straight years now. Vista's desktop is a desperate attempt to really become Linux, and it's still way behind. Second, if I'm maintaining an application that is always deployed to another flavor of Unix such as AIX or Solaris or even HP UX, why am I coding in Windows? I should have a Linux in my laptop! It makes sense right? Because that's the closest simulation you can ever get, very helpful in testing too. Since BEA, Websphere starts up with a shell script *.sh then my Java applications should have the same thing too, not *.bat or *.cmd!

DynamicBeans Corporate Instant Messaging Is Now Up!

2007-04-26T05:52:00.000+08:00

DynamicBeans Corporate Instant Messaging is now up! What's the big deal about this corporate instant messaging? It's an instant messaging that works well like Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ etc. but corporate instant messaging is different in many ways from consumer instant messaging. Unlike consumer instant messaging which is seen as a counter-productive communications application by certain entities because users have more time to chat with external parties on non-business related matters. As an alternative, some corporations will setup their own corporate instant messaging so that employees can collaborate and communicate with each other, but the problem with their homegrown setup is that it is only confined within their own corporate users. Customers and partners are seldom part of this corporate instant messaging network.

The real value of corporate instant messaging is with the involvement of customers and partners within its network where the host can provide a wide spectrum of support levels for their customers and near real-time information from their business partners. But there are certain drawbacks of setting up a corporate instant messaging, like for example, a shipping company can not just setup a corporate instant messaging network because it is not their business to do so but they understand the value. That's where DynamicBeans Corporate Instant Messaging is going to play a critical role.

Agile Manifesto And The Politics of Software Development

2007-04-20T05:49:00.000+08:00

"Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan"

It's funny when other developer's invoke these words while they rant against customers. On a looming deadline they will call for more customer collaboration because "software is abstract", on a never-ending change requests they will use the "contract negotiation" to avoid work for what they are paid for.

Now this is for the project managers..."Responding to change when the plan goes haywire". We still need a plan and the plan is expected to be followed and responding to change is just a contingency...a very unnecessary contingency. But where is the plan to start with?

RCP + wxWidgets And All Things Nice

2007-04-16T01:24:00.000+08:00

I'm doing a research on two things tonight, how to create a non-rectangular frame or a "skin". I just found out that SWT can do it and wxWidgets can do it very well. wxWidgets is more powerful because I only had to specify the image file of the "skin" I want to paint, without going through a lot of painful codes.

How will these developments affect the DynamicBeans Way? First the stategy can be fine-tuned again to be more specific when RCP is the choice and when wxWidgets is a necessity. For things that ends with "...management systems" RCP is the outright choice. For novelty apps that requires the software to really look totally different and radical, wxWidgets is the primary weapon of choice.

Prior to pushing through all this, I'll be completing the content of the DynamicBeans Website by end of this week.

wxWidgets regrets

2007-04-13T00:47:00.000+08:00

I think I was really bitten again by the C/C++ bug. But I don't really have the time to allocate and to really get my hands dirty to code in wxWidgets. I really regret the time that I didn't take a serious look at this framework in the past. I could have churned more cute apps that no Swing or SWT can replicate.

These days the use for wxWidgets specially in the commercial apps development is becoming more evident. Because it's easier to build your custom widgets whether your developing another IM application or a new media player software with your own custom skins and buttons that will look the same whether the app is compiled for Linux or Windows. We'll use the help of wxWidgets to get back the desktop!

Packing Up?

2007-04-07T22:59:00.000+08:00

Alright, from my personal timeline, I still have another year in Singapore, we have passed the first quarter and it's three to go. I'm sure as of this writing it's going to be really quick, time flies. Some of my to-do list will include:

Getting Rid of my DSLR - I'm out of digital photography. I have proven my point. The greatest chance you'll going to make it big is if you're The Queen's Royal Cousin. Anything lower than that, you're work will just be as doable as others. I'll be keeping my Olympus OM10 handy, it's humble but kick-ass.
Getting a Refurbished Laptop - To install Slackware 10.x Linux, I miss it so much! I don't want to install Linux on a brand new laptop coz I don't want to complicate warranty matters.
Getting a Toshiba Tecra M5 - I'll be handing down my current notebook to my wife, and this machine will be my primary dev rig.
Build the DynamicBeans Custom Widgets - First requirement is no virtual machine, so wxWidgets is the choice for the base. Sorry, Java. Second requirement is performance so it's C/C++ on C/C++. Ruby, Python etc. will just be a consolation.
Organize the First DynamicBeans Product Strategy Summit - We really, really need this :), Need to plan out the Agenda too.
Throw away some "bad luck" clothes.
Build projection of costs for DynamicBeans self-funded operations.
Get the DynamicBeans.com site on full-content.
Build the team which is more focus-driven. If necessary, build another team for another endeavor(I'm smelling POS!) .
Identify "The DynamicBeans Way"

And that's about it. Enough with antiquated stuff and sissy ideas.

VaporMind

2007-04-02T06:25:00.000+08:00

Believe me, I am really learning nothing. That's why I keep investing on good books that I'm supposed to get 3 years ago. Before everything washes away.

C/C++ Revisited

2007-04-01T22:36:00.000+08:00

It's been 22 years for C++ and C is earlier. And most Java veterans I met started in this language before moving to Java. And up to this time the C/C++ developer's community is still vibrant. Still churning out new codes(programmers will really not reuse any code whenever they can) from building CORBA services to developing XBox and PS3 games and more. Although the area of development for C/C++ programmers is becoming niche due to popularity of "enterprise frameworks" in Java and .Net, C/C++ is still the popular choice for projects where the presence of a virtual machine is not required. As Java and .Net becomes more cumbersome and boring due to a lot of automated frameworks that makes job even more complicated. Developers for niche projects using C/C++ today still enjoys a relative simplicity in what they do. I never heard a C++ programmer complains about an application server issue(laughs).

10 years ago, my encounter with C/C++ was in the development of RS232 Communications API that we need to make a couple of PC talk to each other or another device to a PC talk to each other. And still using the same communications API that we built, we played with it on ATMEL microcontrollers. It's relatively simple, no relational database, no application servers, no transactions, no hassle. Strange enough, the job market for such programmers dwindled. But these days it's making a "comeback" (though it didn't really left) and companies with specific needs are looking for such skill to develop their products but I won't be a troop-on-the-ground programmer anymore, I'll be the vendor.

The Human Misinterface Development

2007-03-30T05:49:00.000+08:00

After many years in Java development and interviewing different candidates for development positions, much of their profiles still dwells in the server-side and no time was given, at least, to learn the actual aesthetics of the front end or the user interface. Many of these developers rants about "working a lot for so little" when it comes to user interface development and worse is its notion as a "weaker sex" job. On the other hand, an elegantly coded server-side module which the developer devoted so many sleepless nights at work will all go the down the drain because of poor user interface design that can render the whole application useless, so what happened to the "working a lot for so little" then?

Don't try to outsmart the users, they know what's useful or not. Seriously, if a Java developer's profile is still very much on the server-side stuff, it's really going to be serious problem in the future. Even if keywords as JSF, JSP or even (yikes) AJAX appears on each developer's CV it will still not count, it's the understanding of the aesthetics that matters. Once, these aesthetics has been understood, these developers will learn what technologies to forget.

It's 2 Years Now...

2007-03-22T03:33:00.000+08:00

I just realized that my blog is 3 years old. Time flies. All I can say is, somehow, this blog is solid. I did see some people change blog several times in less than a year, they change what they want to talk about, change the template, change the theme, in short, there's truly a lost of focus and the old enthusiasm has a vague motivation -money.

I just entered my second year living in a foreign land. From the little excitement I had in my first day, nothing much have changed. In fact, things are starting to breakdown. Traffic jam is getting worse, weather is becoming more interesting, buses are travelling slower than usual, and...the mobile TV! Oh yes, that one. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't but most of the time doesn't. The bookstore that I used to hang out with still offers great books but it seems only journalists and other media people are reading them 'cause it looks like they are the only people that are really learning from it. In two years all I can say is this land has one really very strong asset: Governance. There isn't really much in here but that and the rest just depend on it.

Customer Service Standards are at best is pitifully a flatliner, I really don't know why, is it because of their accent that sometimes misunderstood as a bit confrontational? Ok, this is not a comparison of apple to oranges but actually a learning tip. When you do your groceries in one of the biggest supermarkets in the Philippines this is how the flow will go: 1.) You get in to store, grab a shopping cart(no $1 deposit required) 2.) Grab what you need to buy, ask questions to any store personnel and they will gladly assist you and if they don't know the answer, they will look for someone who knows instead of the typical "sorry lah, I only got 6 hours to work not a minute to waste" answer. 3.) And when you check out from the cashier with all your overflowing merchandise(because it's really dirt cheap you could almost buy everything inside a supermarket) a store clerk or assistant will gladly push your cart to the taxi stand or to the parking lot and help you load your stuff in to the trunk. That's three simple step to basic excellent service, why can't they do it here? That's just the basic, you have to be there to see the gold standard.

When my father used to work in the Middle East as an engineer(these are the real ones, not the software ones) during the 80's they are periodically introduced to different technologies that are happening in their respective fields. Really something breakthrough and really something new and when he finally came home, he set up his own engineering shop and applied what he has picked up from the Western oilers. But me, as a software "engineer" didn't learn anything new in my stint in a foreign land, I just used what I've learned before I came here and used for all it's worth, I never came in to any training to really learn something new and compelling (forget Fatwire, Hyperion, SAP, BEA and all this crap) I'm still using the stuff that I learned back home with nothing in return except a good currency but that is very vague. When I get back home, I will also setup my own "engineering" shop with nothing new to apply but only a lot of stupid things to unlearn.

It's 2 years now and it's really very short. The only consistent thing is change, I have changed my template so that my code samples will fit nicely. I still had my focus with no thanks to some few distractions. I am a programmer and that's the hat I wear most of the time and that is my favorite hat, I can not be a maintenance guy, I can not be a salesman. I don't sell stuff because my stuff sells by itself. Oh and that's another thing, I see a lot of software salespeople sells like a car or an insurance salesman, pushing themselves to the death march just to win an account. Back in the Philippines when I first worked on my own, I never did that. No hard selling, no bullshit. The pitch is simple, we'll just talk over coffee and I will tell them what I can do and what I will not do if they are fine with that then we're in business, if not, then have a nice day no need to chase time after time. Software is abstract but the business is simple specially if you really have something compelling, no need to do hard selling, no powerpoints, no long talks and a no bullshit time because you know people will need it. It's really difficult to ingrain these into some people's mind, a product that sells by itself, and they are missing a lot.

DON'T TREAT YOUR JOB AS IF IT IS YOUR VERY EXISTENCE! Our country is not a starving nation(because stroke is our number 1 killer now) and yet we have the luxury to relax, we have the luxury not to be afraid to our customers and give in to their stressful demands, we have the luxury to reject service to anyone. We don't really mind losing business to a difficult customer because they deserve a difficult provider.

It's 2 years, and nothing seemed to move significantly.

Web [Application] Is Dead

2007-03-16T08:23:00.000+08:00

Don't panic. You're favorite social networking site, search engines and other nice sites laundered by AJAX may still survive. But if you're one of the turds who have fancied the idea eons ago of stuffing the web browser with enterprise applications in the name of "low deployment costs". Then you have to think again.

If you're in a place with a perfect network structure as Singapore, then enterprise web apps are just fine or still acceptable. But if you're in a battle-hardened marketplace where online and offline processing is inevitable then you have to junk all your web applications together. Some will really try it harder with XForms for "offline" web applications, but that just won't work because you still need to build your update functions both for client and server, unless some turds still want to go through this death march it's up to them. Rich Client Platform is the answer, not hype.

And Justice For All...

2007-03-14T22:52:00.000+08:00

Today I felt vindicated upon reading this news, somehow the Universal Justice System will really going to extend its arms fully. Anyway let me share the story.

Almost a year ago, DynamicBeans got in touch with one of the promising startups that won a citation from StartUp@SG who also developed the same technology (note: this technology can never be patented, so you can throw away your IP ramblings to the window) that can lock a mobile phone if it's lost or stolen, plus the rest of the features similar to that one from the Bulacan kids. During the presentation of this concept and a few demo. I was convinced that this will be a big hit in the Philippines. In short, I told the founder if we can discuss further the possibility of marketing this phone security application back in the Philippines. So we lay out our "cards" and the plan on how are we going to do it, I also made a brief presentation of the Patriot on what is the role it's going to play.

After several exchanges of emails and phone calls which made things a little exciting. Then suddenly there's something that hits me like a surprise left. The founder told me that they are flying directly to our contacts who are the decision makers of the country's largest wireless telecommunications company. And they are going to present their concept and demonstrate it. WTF!!! So I kept my cool until some time and then I said "Good Luck!". This wireless telco company is very notorious for plagiarizing ideas that really works, they will not mind spending a fortune to do it by themselves so if you're there and you don't know how to safeguard you're "assets" you can kiss it goodbye for all they care. So the same curse happened to this Singapore-based startup, I'm expecting that they can not enter that "space" without us and I'm expecting this wireless telco company will not leave it hanging like that. The founder who flew directly made another attempt to crosscut me, by calling our colleagues in Makati to get in touch with another wireless telco which is the competitor, I know he's doomed that time. And justice was served.

These are just bunch of kids who founded a cool startup, they didn't learn all these things by themselves, they were mentored. These are the mentors that teaches them how to be "uncool" in the business community, sad to say, these mentors are the ones that should be burned at stakes. Now we have our own homebrewed stuff done by our great kids back there, watch out, here we come!

Doomed

2007-03-13T07:12:00.000+08:00

"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later..." - Frederick Brooks

And managers who often would pretend it will never happen to them will always find themselves...DOOMED. So the best people on the job have learned their mistakes more than twenty years ago in any software projects but why they are still being notoriously repeated? Ignorance?

What Kind of Programming Language I am?

2007-03-12T00:18:00.001+08:00

I know, I haven't been doing AI for a long time...

Another Book Buy

2007-03-11T23:33:00.001+08:00

After acquiring a copy of Dreaming in Code, I still haven't started reading it. But finally, now I can after finishing a book that I borrowed from our nearby community library entitled Software Project Secrets (Why Software Projects Fail). I would highly recommend this book to those who are graduating with "I.S. Management" major and I will really say "Please read it". Because it's really scary when someone with little or no coding experience starts managing a software project at any stage. After 2005, every software project manager should be really reading this book.

After borrowing this book, I must have my own copy.

Code Everyday, No Matter What...

2007-03-09T08:19:00.000+08:00

I learned something from John Grisham (he's not a programmer dude) just now. His secret to writing is "Write everyday, no matter what...". A very consistent way of sharpening a skill. And I guess there's no other way, but my problem is if I overdo, I falter.

Code everyday. Don't over-emphasize much on the methodologies and patterns, just code everyday and you'll learn. Code everyday, and don't be afraid to make mistakes because most likely you're not wasting thousands of dollars like others do.

Coding is not a dirty work, if you think it is, then same thing goes to painting or playing music. Coding is harder than management, management is piecemeal. Just code everday, no matter what, you'll be surprised what you have done in a week's time.

Bug Fixing

2007-03-06T23:25:00.000+08:00

This is what I can call a 10-year irritation to people who can never learn. Users can easily conclude that there is a bug in the system when something went wrong during the operation, that's understandable. But this is the most irritating question of all; "how long do you think you can fix this?" and definitely the developer's answers could nothing be shorter than a guess or a balony.

Bugs may take a minute or weeks to fix. You can never tell until you find it and fix it. In years of Developer vs. Manager Wars it seems only the earlier has written enough books and articles to learn to fight the latter. And still, the blood spills.

I Got My Book!

2007-03-05T01:45:00.000+08:00

Ok, I finally got the Dreaming In Code by Scott Rosenberg, I feel like I'm holding a hardbound Harry Potter book. As an added bonus, I also stumble on Bob Walsh's Micro-ISV which was foreworded by Joel Spolsky. I'm not really an avid reader of Joel's articles, the first sentence of the book's back cover is "This book is for software developers who are fed up with working for someone else." I'm almost there, so I bought it.

Fragile Code

2007-03-03T23:47:00.000+08:00

What is a fragile code? It's a piece of code in a system that works, but is not extensible and resistant to change. Sounds familiar? So you think you have a code that works perfectly for the past five years and suddenly conks out when a new feature was added is called a robust code? No, it's a failure waiting to happen. Some folks judged a failed software project based on deadline and cost. But some things are rarely given attention when new changes are introduced. Other developers will blame the change and will make change the "enemy". When an enterprise application is designed to be resistant to change, it's a failed project before it even begins.

Does it all matters when you have rolled out the initial cut and collected the money? Yes it is, because a lot of "Mom-and-Pop" Professional Services and Solutions Provider today is in the brink of self-destruction because of self-denial that such fragile code exists in their projects and so-called products.

My Next Book Buy

2007-03-01T23:30:00.000+08:00

"Dreaming In Code" by Scott Rosenberg. After almost 10 years of programming experience, why do I still want to buy this book? Because I am a programmer. And programmers are programmers because they like to write code. I did not desire to learn programming so that I will get a nice paying job in Singapore. It's simple, I just like doing it. To me, the Singapore Job is just like tripping and stumbling at the end of the rainbow, it came to me.

Hopefully this book will open the eyes of senior managers and non-technical managers on why programmers behave as they are, why reusable code is only good on papers and articles. As a programmer it is easier and faster to write your own code than learn somebody else's code, rewrite somebody's code or even fix somebody's code.

Building Commercial-Quality Plugins

2007-02-28T21:29:00.000+08:00

This is not review about the book that I’m about to complete before the weekend. Rather, this is just about sharing a few thoughts on what the other group of the computing spectrum(non-web spectrum) is thinking and brewing about. Ever heard of a standalone web application that updates itself by downloading the latest *.jar files once the host PC has become online again? Sounds proposterous? A standalone web application on your desktop or laptop? When you really don’t need other things that comes with it.

This is what building commercial-quality plugin is all about. And the easiest choice is deploying it within a Rich Client Plaform (RCP) shell. And the easiest tool to do this is with Eclipse RCP. Why Eclipse? First, the value because it uses SWT. Like it or not SWT is the “closest thing to metal” when developing Java desktop application.

So what do you have out of the box when you decide to build Java desktop applications with Eclipse RCP? Three of the basic things are:

1. Views, Editors and Perspectives - That you don’t need to build painstakingly.
2. Eclipse Forms - Even better than what .Net can offer.
3. Built-in updating mechanism - That is also used in Rational products. This is also the technology that challenges the reason for developing web applications in the enterprise level.

Change is a hard pill to swallow.

The Linux Terminal Server Project

2007-02-27T23:53:00.000+08:00

I was asked privately by a certain individual about my raves on Java Desktop regarding what is my deployment strategy to make it more attractive to web savvy IT departments. I told him I don't have a strategy, I got strategies and one of my favorite is the LTSP strategy or the Linux Terminal Server Project.

LTSP has been going on around for many, many years. It has been proven to work and work well. What are the risks? Just like any web applications, if the server goes down, everything goes down no buts and ifs. What are the benefits? No more web server to maintain! That's one great blessing for an administrator.

LTSP is an implementation of a thin-client from a hardware perspective(neat strategy, right?). You got a server that runs all the services that several thin-client needs. Very straightforward and simple. This is an ideal Third World solution, others can waste more money as they please.

Note: Image courtesy of LTSP.org

The 2007 Philippine Elections

2007-02-27T20:20:00.000+08:00

By this time, I'll be an absentee voter. How will I choose my candidates depends on what will benefit my interest. In other words it's called vested interest. In the Senate, candidates who will win my vote may need to introduce or continue work on the following bills:

1. An act to promulgate the use of Open Source Software in all state-controlled institutions, government agencies and other local government units.

2. Bigger tax breaks for technology startups to be able to compete effectively in the global market.

3. Lower taxes for importation of computer hardware and all other peripherals. A MacBook in the Philippines should be priced just the same as in Singapore.

4. Accreditation of vendor certifications in to the national educational system.

5. Deregulation of VoIP services.

6. Deregulation of Broadband access nationwide.

7. Longer amnesty period for pirated software users to switch to legitimate software.

8. Regulating or banning of commercial software (local or international) with license agreements that are deemed unconstitutional and unfavorable to the national interest.

9. Set up of special courts that will handle ICT-related cases such as Internet fraud, intellectual property rights etc.

10. Disallowing registration of software patents. Includes dishonouring software patents registered outside Philippines.

11. Blocking multinational sites that will not accept credit cards issued in the Philippines from our national network. A blacklist of URLs shall be posted to all ISPs for blocking nationwide.

I believe with all this in place we're geared up for a strong headstart.

Working In The Garage Is Fun!!!

2007-02-27T07:33:00.000+08:00

Philippines, 6:30am - I was awakened by the hustle and bustle going around the house. As usual, my wife is preparing breakfast and my daughter is getting ready for school, the TV is up for early morning news (that's Unang Hirit!). This has been going around since I came home for a Chinese New Year leave. While recovering from a recent surgery, I have nothing to do but flip my laptop somewhere and do something.

Good thing I was able to setup quickly our WiFi router at home so I can work anywhere around the house. These gadgets are truly heaven-sent, my ideal workplace has finally come to life but not yet for good.

The Philippine Early Morning Breeze is not as polluted as it may seem to be. After finishing breakfast, I decided to grab my laptop and pull a monobloc chair in our garage. With the cool air, birds in chorus and swinging leaves from a nearby jackfruit tree what's not to like? This is an environment where great ideas pop up, prototyped and worked on. There's nothing like this anywhere else. This is the kind of place where you can stay focused and relaxed without falling into sleep just slip in a CD into the home entertainment system and work.

Other stuff that I need to continue the work I started: 1.) A publicly-hosted CVS server 2.) A Linux File Server 3.) More Linux laptops 4.) More Linux workstations and everything I need to build my home data center. After which, DynamicBeans can move to a real office somewhere in Ayala Alabang to keep the "Third World" tropical ambient.

Those who lived by the hype, die by the hype. Every true blue high-tech company today started in a garage(Apple, HP etc.) and these companies has serious products, not hype. And not "soapbox" products that works well in demo, but sucks in real implementations. I stayed long enough in Singapore to see a lot of this sh*t. Nobody understands Garage Culture outside the U.S. except the Philippines. So I invite you all to breathe our Morning Breeze.

Java Desktop, taking back the power from the Web

2007-02-26T22:42:00.000+08:00

This is not about Swing vs. SWT and this not about any L&F wars. In fact, I would love to have both UI toolkits work its best for whatever I'm going to use it for. I don't even care whether are more jobs for Java Swing developers than SWT either.

As we move forward, it's obvious that the advent of Rich Internet Application is not about Java anymore, in fact, in today's Web development the term "Pure Java" is dead and it is increasingly becomes boring as time goes by. From past experience, the only reason I saw Java being used as programming language for the web is that most Java programmers were too weak to code in Swing or SWT. But from where I learned my stuff, in this world, only Singapore is perfectly online to put so much love for anything Java and Web. In a bigger space, offline processes and asynchronous messaging is part of everyday business as what JMS and Middleware book authors has been emphasizing.

So why Java on the desktop? Ten years ago, the hardware can't catch up with the JVM and that was ten years ago. Today, why put everything in the server? And not exploit the power of the client? Deployment costs? Why not rethink your deployment strategies? The demand for offline processes is so huge that no one can ignore by now the efforts in developing Java desktop application in Swing or SWT, it already made perfect sense. Accept it or not, today the web belongs to Ruby.

There are instances where users can not be always online or even reliably online take for example, Third World rural banking where internet is still the future, business can not rely effectively on the web in this situation and definitely solutions providers who embraces Web already lost the opportunity to do business in this area.

Today and in the future anyone who wish to survive developing frontline applications in Java should start considering different desktop technologies that will help them switch and take back the desktop.

These Are The Days

2007-02-25T23:19:00.000+08:00

2 years ago, this is the desk where the more exciting Java codes have been written, it is a microbrewery in its own right. This is the place where some of the unconventional ideas came to life. This is where some of the near-impossible tasks were completed. Different codes for different reasons turned out from here too. Some codes were made just to simply prove a point or win an argument, some are made to debunk a hype, some were made with real-life purpose...to make a living, and make a life.

Now, I'm sitting in front of this desk once again to continue what has been paused some time, to pursue the ultimate goal while burning the midnight oil. Most importantly, to complete an unfinished business. After a couple of years overseas, loaded with so much distractions and failed expectations where I thought I could continue what I started. Regardless of material success, I am unhappier than before and I think that what is eating me.

Behind this desk, I'm in control. I make the decisions, both tactical and strategic. These are the things that I'm willing to buy back and earn from once again. And this God-forsaken Motherland(that's Philippines, of course), is where everything is happening right now, yes ladies and gentlemen, believe it or not people are flocking here to forge some serious deals and mind you we're not just about Professional Services, we're not just solutions provider pretending to have some product made out of crap like some five or more years ago. In terms of software development, we are much more relevant than our neighbors combined. Forget about the FUD that the international mainstream media is throwing at us such as terrorism, crime and political instability, at most these crises are more of an opportunity rather than a sickening problem and it's not exclusive to us(at least we could laugh at this because others can't).

Those were the glorious days. Today, this is the place to be when you're ready. We are the real deal.

The Word is Focus

2007-01-04T22:11:00.000+08:00

After going through hell in 2006. So pissed and I always feel like I want to kill someone. At last I got my holiday break, it's short but it's better than nothing. We're moving forward, with all the hype and FUDs in todays software development in general it's easy to get out of focus. Yes and that's the only "F" word that will save each and every hardened software developer these days. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MULTI-TASKING. In the past years, people that I saw multi-task get things done so little and blames a lot. They will pick on the easiest tasks and leave the hard part for the others and put the blame on them when things starts blowing out of proportions. Others will say it's working smart. But you can't seal fart forever.

It has been proven over and over again that FOCUS, yes, and the more precise, the better is the only verb any developer needs to have in order to accomplish so many in so little time. It's the only magic word, you lose it and the effect is automatic.

It's All Quiet in the Frontline

2006-10-25T00:00:00.000+08:00

June 14 was a fateful day, the day I can not easily forget. But I have better things in mind than to dwell with it. Almost a setback but now we're on track and ready to spin. Time for us to peak out. Almost 4 months of blogging hiatus, not because of too much work but the fact that there isn't much to say. Back in the old days when we were still in secondary school(or high school in an American-oriented education system) the unwritten rule for teamwork is if you can't carry out your suggestion then don't speak at all and silence doesn't belong to the doers. And if you're no longer in the circulation, don't butt in.

The politics of project management amazes me at one point, how high is the risk if you're in a high-value project and the one who manages it can't even come to presence when shit comes to shove? How high is the risk if you put on someone to run a project who also works for another company and assumes no accountability for the fate of the whole project? In other words who in his right mind would engage these people to ensure the delivery of the project?

Collecting intelligence...

By year end I intend to replace my old phone, so right now I have started doing my homework, not very extensive one in fact, just a walk in the shop ask few questions and that's it. The best way to make a decision is in the absence of a salesperson, so I grabbed all the brochures that I can put my hands on and bring them home to sort them one by one and read through them. Don't go to the touchscreens it's fun to play but it's a waste of time.

Onwards to mobile messaging...

SMS still rocks, and I'm getting the necessary control that I need to complete this mobile battle in our favor thanks to the Africans. But currently, it seems I am using my valuable resource to wrong beneficiaries(thought so).

Quick Kill Project Management + GTD ratio

2006-07-08T09:09:00.000+08:00

While there is a relative quietness in the Java Community as a whole since the advent of IoC etc. etc. Some new annotation-based web frameworks, new server-side scripting tools ala rails doesn't really draw too much attention. There isn't much breakthrough in Java EE for someone to move into it hastily. Developer's now realize that they always run into particular problems which has become a pattern in every project, a pattern usually starts with setting up the new framework for the development environment, testing it and hoping it works, if didn't then join the framework's forum and shout for help, in the case of commercial or proprietary tools it will take around 2-3 days and coming up with a wrong answer most of the time. This is where helluva sleepless nights starts.

There are plenty of tools and frameworks out there some are helpful and some are not. But nobody really talks about "getting things done" or GTD. I don't agree that this should only fall under the project management's responsibility. When we sometimes play a lead role in development team we focus too much on standardization from code writing to internal processes. But how much of these really helps in bringing up our GTD ratio? What standards should we keep and let go?

And then there's Quick-Kill Project Management a very interesting article from Dr. Dobb's. I think the "Quick-Kill" is just a catch because the way the process goes, except for the code review, is the same as the process we had on how I made my first Vernier Caliper out of our school's machine shop during my Secondary School/High School days. And that's a quick kill. And suddenly this quick-kill culture disappeared during college allegedly replaced by teachings of the "missionaries" from the West. And the word "buzzword" and "hype" started to find their way to our vocabularies. Of course, Quick-Kill is just one thing, yet again there's no mention on how mundane factors affect our GTD ratio. Some questions will help but shouldn't influence any policy-making decision.

1. How many hours a day your team spent answering all the emails? What email should be answered at the start of day and what should be answered at the end? Is it really necessary write email to the guy next to me?

2. How many hours a day your team surfs the Web for unrelated matters? You can't do a precise monitoring but a leader can motivate members to focus on the project.

3. How slow are the machines being used?

4. How the outsourced team are coping up?

How many hours a day should one focus on particular task to get it done? 3 hours? 4 hours? 8 hours? As one developer's experience grows, one core component of the project can be done in 4-6 hours giving a full focus on the assignment. Now if everyone can give full focus on the assignment, there are just too few reasons to stay late at night or work on weekends.

Fine Tuning the Direction

2006-07-03T22:46:00.000+08:00

After all the Java/J2EE talkees from different communities and different cultures and all the dizzying hypes and new web frameworks. I decided to focus on 2 key Java technologies as far product development is concerned.

1. Eclipse RCP/SWT
2. Jini/JavaSpaces

Some other things will become consequential like JDBC, I/O, XML etc. I hope JSR-212 or otherwise known as SAMS should adapt the real protocol-agnostic approach by using JavaSpaces instead of the traditional and vendor-hyped J2EE and should be called SAMS2. And I am keen to divert Patriot to be non-compliant in order to use the more adaptive JavaSpaces and will soon be called The Renegade just to speed things up.

Pitfalls that the uninitiated mind should be aware of will come out in the form of buzzwords such as "SOA", "Professional Services", "Out-of-the-box solutions", "Interoperability", "end-to-end e-business solutions" and other sweet-but-poisonous words that will appear to be simple. It's easier said than done so be really mindful. Unless you're really ready to die for this then ride the buzzword train. But when the World finds out that this is how you survive in a "hidden sector" of the IT ecosystem, you'll be skinned alive or be simply fried.

It's 2006, and it's very high time for Lean Development which really boils down to doing what's really important, documenting only what is required. Gantt charts are for sissies. 80% of my projects was delivered without it and 20% that used it was vaporized into thin air.

Enabling Mobile Messaging with PeopleSoft(TM) and Patriot

2006-06-15T17:28:00.000+08:00

Mobile messaging, these days, obviously, has helped a lot of companies expand their business models as billions of packets cross the ionosphere everyday, mobile messaging has become an important part to drive businesses forward by helping to keep customers loyal and build relationships with new ones. Companies with CRM solutions installed especially by PeopleSoft(TM) can launch customer-relationship programmes like loyalty rewards programme, periodic promotional campaigns, demographic marketing activities and so forth. One of the ways of adding value to these programmes is to enable mobile messaging using the popular mediums such as SMS and MMS. Through mobile messaging, these CRM programmes can have a broader reach from existing customers to untapped markets.

Patriot, a JSR-212 implementation can provide the mobile messaging capabilities for all of these PeopleSoft(TM) CRM programmes. A typical deployment example:

Click to view larger image

This deployment example uses SOAP Web services for Patriot and PeopleSoft(TM) to integrate but other approach is possible as well such as JMS, Jabber and so forth.

Scheming Scheme

2006-06-10T11:00:00.000+08:00

After making some thoughts on what other compelling tools that I need to complement Java as a companion language. Scheme won my heart after making too much thought on other stuff like Ruby. Scheme is a simplified LISP, a 25+ years old programming language and has been used on a lot of smart stuff. Services that requires highly-intelligent systems will benefit from this handy tool.

Patriot Update

2006-05-27T02:25:00.000+08:00

It has been awhile though, this time the SMPP driver will start to see the light of day. Patriot project, as usual, will going to graduate from its baby steps. I think the SMPP driver will be one of the most important inclusion to the codebase, since most of the wireless operators are using it more than Nokia's CIMD2(which will be included soon).

Crossbones and Skull

2006-05-18T02:13:00.000+08:00

It's now the 7th day of my self-exile in Manila doing preliminary preparations for the "long battle" that will be waged ahead, by May 21 I'll be back in my post in a small island called Singapore and will be disguising as a Senior Consultant. After a series of clandestine meetings with some key people, I believe we have the "vehicle" and I'm considering the Jewish community to help us fuel this. It will be our own Open Source "Tet" Offensive. Incidentally, there was Linux and Eclipse Technical Briefing last May 16 that was held at Makati Shangri-la brought to us by IBM, a whole day affair, and a very nice opportunity to do the secret handshake. I showed off a part of the "vehicle" to some group of hackers and then minutes later, Doug Tidwell conjoured it up from his slideshow and it somehow augmented the hackers' conviction that this "vehicle" is going to run big.

Anyway, Doug Tidwell and the gang will be in Singapore on May 23 for the same event. But I have some serious doubts these guys will have the same excitement as what they had in the Philippines.

The Right Stuff

2006-05-18T00:39:00.000+08:00

After much praises and hails, of course we need to balance the reality with some serious questions. First I want to quote this statement from one open source entrepreneur's blog: "Software is the most capital efficient business. There is very little requirement for capital expenses and zero for inventory." This is somewhat 20% true and depending on who's on the helm will be 0% true at all. In fact this declaration is so 2001. Because the first serious question is what kind of software is capital efficient? Zero inventory is a myth, a software that is not in a box, is an open source software with very little commercial value and we should not confuse commercial value with usefulness. "Very little" in terms of capital expenses is relative, first top-caliber talents aren't always available for free, and the sure way to attract them is to buy them by any means from signing bonuses, stock options, free iPods and other ridiculous offers.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is not new, it is not going to be the next wave of the software business. No matter how you argue about it, SaaS = ASP. And where is it right now? It's nowhere.

This is not about defeatism especially for the Philippines' software development business conditions. This is realism. We should identify The Right Stuff, the products that we intend to build should solve a globally-recognized problem not just a local one. The VC model for funding software startups is still the most reliable model of fuelling a lot of activities from the product development standpoint. There are just few rules-of-thumb that must be followed. First, the product and/or the business model has to be really compelling, if not, then there's already a major barrier. Second, get a team of ruthless negotiators, every business needs it. It doesn't exempt open source software companies, the difference between luck and survival lies with it. Building great products will not translate to overnight success, great products needs to be understood and these negotiators will help you do just that, especially when raising funds.

Most importantly, a high-tech venture without a Pirate is called Xerox and IBM. I am not referring to plagiarism in any form. It's more about extending innovation, because most of the time, great products are already out there and a Pirate must have the ability to look into the horizon and figure out how to put together these great products to become One Great Product. Jerry Kaplan's experience and The Apple Way still rules today, so do we have The Right Stuff?

Interesting post from the President of Singapore Microcomputer Society

2006-05-08T07:22:00.000+08:00

I think my fearless forecast is becoming close to reality. While I was reading The Straits Times last Saturday I stumble upon one of the readers post on keeping the "First World" status of this island by adapting open source/open standards for the government. Hope you can read on.

The more I got these good signs, the further I feel away from home

2006-04-30T01:23:00.001+08:00

And this one is very interesting.

That is not from Da Vinci Code, this the ISO/IEC 15434 2D Data Matrix barcode. So what's the big deal? Here's one story. I got a package from the Philippines that comes with this kind of a barcode, and this package is not your courier's package(Fedex, DHL or whatever), it's a biscuit package from a taken-for-granted-but-well-known biscuit company in the Philippines, imagine a cheap Philippine biscuit company can easily adapt to that. I am researching about Data matrix for a different purpose. Until I found this box with a Data matrix on it! Wow! Cool! Awesome! Data matrix is more reliable and efficient than barcode and has broader range of applications, take for example snapping a datamatrix in a newspaper that is printed beside a ringtone advertisement with a handphone camera, it will then decode the Data matrix and sends a GPRS or SMS/WAP push to the wireless operator with instructions to download the ringtone and bill the subscriber, since Data matrix can be scanned at 20% contrast ratio it means that it's almost foolproof(like 99%). Unfortunately, some or maybe most systems in Singapore will have a hard time catching up on Data matrix due to the fact that most of the systems are tightly-coupled, codes are copy-and-pasted from one module to another just to make everything work on the first cut without really minding to look far, far ahead in the future. International POS providers and packaging specialists who has ready systems to be deployed will start doing the killing.

I am just spilling some few beans of opportunity. I'll collect my payback and go home soon.

My fearless forecast: Linux demand in Singapore will grow

2006-04-23T01:23:00.000+08:00

I was at Sim Lim Square the other day to bring one of our servers for servicing. This is related to my previous post about the RAID controller. I talked to one of the technical support engineer who was there busy fixing another customer's PC so I went in to their work area and told them about our RAID card issues, but due to time constraints (because it's almost closing time when we get there) I feel that our server will not be fixed in the same day which is not acceptable to us. While waiting at the work area I noticed that the engineer was installing Fedora Core 5 on an Asus blade server, Fedora Core 5 on Asus blade server! For wherever Linux World I came from this may sound preposterous. Fedora Core 5 are regarded as for sixth-graders not blade servers!

It's understandable that this is still Microsoft Country(because MS thinks for them!) but at least there's now a bit of a traction in terms of Linux acceptability. So I asked the engineer on how many Linux installations does he do in a week, he can't give an estimate or maybe he doesn't want to but he hinted that there's a lot and I asked who owns the blade server he's working on, he told me it's from a medium-sized company. In the end, my server wasn't fixed so I decided to replace the RAID controller with a more Linux-friendly one, the 3ware 9550SX(you see, great products really get to plug here). No magic required, it worked.

There's now an opportunity(in fact, many) and my palms are itching. The business of Linux Technical Support will soon be sprawling in this island like a "locksmith service" some of the most daring one's will even post stickers at your door with "LINUX INSTALLATION/SERVICE HP:9XXX-XXXX" alongside those locksmith stickers. Anyway, my number is ...

RAID Controller for CentOS 4.3

2006-04-23T01:14:00.000+08:00

I don't have too much exposure on different RAID controllers for Linux. Of course, I am a software developer not a systems administrator or not even a hardware specialist. And I have wasted so many hours trying to make one of our RAID'ed servers to work and only to discover that the card is lousily supported. So here's my recommended hardware:

3ware 9550SX, it's S$700 and it's worth it! I have searched tons of forums trying to get our crappy RAID controller to work but what's echoing in the community is the 3ware 9550SX. See, those wasted hours are meant for development work.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The IBM Websphere Application Server Community

2006-04-18T07:39:00.000+08:00

Though a bit late at this time, it's nice to revisit how this thing has progressed in the past few months. But the days of experimentations are now over, it is now the dawning of the "full-court-press" GTD(Getting Things Done) days. To some it will be a renaissance period, to others it will be the dark days. There are so many exciting things coming out, new frameworks, new ways of doing old crap etc. etc. but the buzzword "Getting Things Done" is the most important part in today's Java-Whatever-Development. "WAS CE" as it is widely known, is still too young to be judged as to whether it will guide you naturally to the GTD path or "Need-to-know-more-and-waste-my-time" path. But I will nominate WAS CE to be the application server with the highest "GTD percentage" in the near future.

Why RCP?

2006-04-12T07:33:00.000+08:00

Eclipse Rich Client Platform has been gaining traction in some sectors of the Java development community. But it's really hard to justify the return of the client/server development nowadays, to convince technical managers who are deeply in to web development to gradually consider moving to rich client platform. Some of the people will always recourse to deployment costs that comes with the rich client as the strongest excuse which in some part a valid argument. If you're one of those "unplugged" within your development team and wants to jump in this rejuvenated platform here are the questions you need to answer:

Why do we need to switch?

What are the constraints?

What are the driving forces for the change?

What critical problems will it solve? For good?

How will I demonstrate?

Demonstration is always a big turning key in any argument. There's got to be one. This is how you will start your RCP ecosystem. By getting your hands dirty.

Waffle!!

2006-04-05T20:51:00.000+08:00

I've been away from watching what's going on with Java Web development these days until I got my eyes on Waffle. Yes, yet another web framework. Ok, no XML tweaking in the name of annotations, feels like Rails, of course, it's Rails-like! But frankly, I am not yet motivated to use or adapt it. To me there's nothing really significant about annotations. If there's any framework that needs no XML tweaking, dang, that's the web.xml of the Java Servlet Framework every so often, it is the heart of every mistake Java web-based developers make. Do we need another web framework? No, I think what we need is for some smart-nuts to overhaul the Servlet specification.

The Silicon Valley Adventure

2006-03-10T00:35:00.000+08:00

I am not sure if I want to link this Amazon item here. Well I decided not to, because there are no legal agreements between me and them to do so and there's no incentive in really doing that on my part. "Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure" by Jerry Kaplan, I've been ignoring this book in the shelves of every bookstore that I have been to, from National Bookstore to Kinokuniya due to its lack of appeal and some of its true-to-life highly insidious characters. Even it was written in 1994 and as we know that there has been a lot of changes in the way the business of technology has been transacted and not to forget the emergence of Open Source and other disruptive ideas that has bejeweled this high-tech industry, the pattern of execution in operating a high-tech startup is still applicable today. From "The Pitch" to the "The Bubble" it's very much the same now. I was just so intrigued enough to pick this book from the topmost shelf of a bookstore and is already collecting the day's dust.

Ok, forgive my 10-years-or-so-after review of this book, it has became my bible for the past couple of weeks. Reading it religiously at the bus going to work(I can't believe I'm still working while reading this book) and before retiring to bed. This book is for dreamers, not simple-minded dreams. The dream to revolutionize, start a wild ride or spinoff one. Attempting to open a high-tech startup requires a heart of steel with a soft core, it's not the same from any other businesses. Unfortunately, I found the book too good to be short. It's not your Entrepreneurship 101 book that tells you how to do things step-by-step rather it was a sniff-by-sniff account of GO Corporation, the maker of Penpoint operating system. Right, before Palm and O2 there was Penpoint.

I admire Jerry's focus, yes FOCUS, his patience and his non-obvious lengthy attention span. This is not a selfish focus on how to rake a million bucks and run away in the name of limited liability. Which I think other people will choose otherwise. Some may ask if Jerry's adventure is doable in Open Source. Why not?

The funny thing about running a startup in the nineties is that there could be more legal documents than source codes in a company. It makes me come to think, was the JVM created base on the weight of its technical merits or a way to legally manuever from the CPU manufacturers' expensive licensing terms? Screw the Oak Legend? Huh, Who Knows.

A year in Singapore

2006-03-08T08:09:00.000+08:00

As a matter of fact it's still six days to go to mark my first year in Singapore. But I can't wait to scratch this itch to write this down now. During that span of time I learned two important things that makes this place conducive for business. First is good(I mean great!) governance, second is currency. The rest just follows, even those with shitty revenue models survive here. I mean try to persuade some companies here to operate in the Philippines for sure the vultures will devour them alive.

For me, this period has been consummated with enormous learning experience that no Filipino IT Professional who has been imprisoned for like 10 years in a CRT-radiated, congested den of a bank that produces most of our credit cards could learn in his/her entire career timeline. This experiences ranges from being arrowed to speak in front of other corporate decision-makers sponsored by the Big Blue about this crap called SOA, passing the Basic Theory, getting the PDL and be able to drive around(guided, of course), witnessed the growth of a high-tech startup at nerve-wracking speed that is unimaginable to a lot of catch-ups and sissies here.

Speaking of catch-ups and sissies there's a lot of that here judging from the look and feel of their corporate websites most of them are so nineties. Looking away from your monitor(Yes, I am talking to you nonchalant Pinoy IT Pro) there's a shitload of opportunities here, In fact you're already sitting, sleeping or walking past at one just ignore your colleagues who seems to follow the "they-don't-get-it" or "I-will-never-going-to-get-it" lifestyle for a few minutes, you'll know what I'm talking about.

The Eclipse RCP guys are right! I've attended a Sun-sponsored conference middle of last year and a guy named Matt asked the crowd who uses Eclipse and who uses Netbeans(No one has to guess who get the most numbers) and promised that by February this year Netbeans will be better and guessed what? It's fucking March! Instead, I am burning my eyebrows on writing RCP Plugins for our Patriot project and soon I will be moving entirely into this platform too and will reshape everything that my hands will get into, from old-school web to RCP. Because Netbeans can't even catchup, they don't get it! It's still Swing!

Moving forward, another year I would guess would be the year of the multimedia, there has has been so much web framework, Yet-another-J2EE-container overload in the community, these things only supports the value of a product, not bring it out. A crappy user interface with a very nice backend is like your former pimply-faced-with-overbite-and-thick-eyeglasses high school girl classmate who's very brilliant in Algebra, what's the point? You can't bring her to the prom right? Everybody remembers a Prom Night but who remembers a graduation speech?

Marlboro vs. Roll-your-own Tobaccos

2006-02-18T13:09:00.000+08:00

Big Release is Dead, Continual Development is King, "Release Early, Release Often" and some other open-source-with-no-economic-value-hubris are nothing but myth and fallacies. I may not be "in the circulation" for quite sometime or I don't want to be anymore. After researching further about "The Man Who Moved 14 Million iPods last 2005" and starts turning things around again. I had come to realized that some guys in the Open Source community who's doing their own style of evangelism practically "don't get it".

How you[The Muggle] would like to buy my software? With a nice looking box and a cool manual that you will only read once and display it in your bookshelf because it really looks damn cool and you want to flaunt your guest that you "have" it? Or simply download it from the Web, pay and get a "Thank you" from an emotionless server?

Would you [The Muggle] use an application that you bought[most of the time for a premium] but can't feel it's your own because it's running from a server somewhere in Cayman Islands and it's just being served up to you through the browser?

Again, how would you[The Muggle] like to buy my software? With a nice looking gadget that runs it? That you can use in your car, at work, at play? Or does it requires Hibernate, Appfuse and all this shit just to make it work? And can't rely on them for the after-download-and-deploy service? Don't get me wrong I know it's open source.

Where's the prestige? Where's the value that it puts in everyones' heads? Get it?

When I buy the latest Porsche, I know my neighbors will going to talk about me, When I buy anything with real value, the value returns to me in many forms. Get it?

Interview with "Remotante Escudero" aka Moto Coder, Tita Motmot

2006-02-15T01:30:00.000+08:00

Some people have been wondering who is this guy and what is he? Does he(she?) exists? I don't know. You find out in this first of our interview series.

Jared: What are you?

Moto Coder: I wear many hats, some brands are even called Durex. Seriously, I am an HTML, CSS Developer/Designer, whatever you may call it. Basta may "L", that's my language.

Jared: Can you tell something about being a Pinoy IT Pro in Singapore?

Moto Coder: Uhm, "Well, kasi ganito yun"...Being an IT Pro here is much more fulfilling than in any place else, the workplace is a bit laid back and deadlines are not that tight unlike in the Philippines. Personally, I am happy here even if my rate is just $2.5K, the point is I can do what I want and can go anywhere I go.

Jared: You've been doing HTML, CSS and other "non-intelligent" stuff (hehehehe) for how long now?

Moto Coder: "Ano ka ba! Ang yabang mo ha!" Uhm, I've been doing this for almost ten years now. DotCom Boom then DotCom Bubble yun pa rin ang ginagawa ko, o diba ang saya, meaning I survived the crash! Kaya mo ba yun?

Jared: Moto Coder is a cool Cybernick, who gave you the nick Tita Motmot?

Moto Coder: Haay naku! isang jologs na taga-pinoyitdotjologs este sg pala, ewan ko ba bakit pa ko nagsignup dun sa mailing list na yun, wala namang kwenta! You know I'd rather stay in other Filipino online community in Singapore at least people on those forums makes more sense kahit hindi IT ang profession nila mas nagiisip sila no!, and besides they are more humble.

Jared: Hahahaha! I understand you, I was kicked out of that list too. But please, do not mention a lot about the list cause my space doesn't deserve it.

Moto Coder: Excuse me, hindi ako na-kick out umalis ako ng kusa. Anyway so much for that, nakaka-irita lang 'no, naturingang mga IT at umaabot pa daw ng $7K ang sweldo eh ang tatanga naman, nakakabobo yata talaga ang malaking sweldo eh.

Jared: Ooops, cool ka lang bro I mean sis pala, so how long do you plan to stay here?

Moto Coder: Sa tingin ko ano...mga 3 years pa I just intend to make Singapore a stepping-stone in the next bigger things that I need to accomplish.

Jared: Such as?

Moto Coder: You know, like migrating to U.S., Canada or Australia. Hindi naman ako kasing galing mo 'no na 30 minutes lang tayong nag-uusap dito off-the-record alam mo na kung ano gusto mo mangyari at paano i-execute yung mga plano mo, hindi ako ganun eh, masyado akong vague, ikaw kasi crusader ka eh

Jared: Thanks, But this interview is not about me haha! Migrating to further, "greener" pasteurs is a common mindset to most of us. Pinaglihi ba tayo sa baka or something?

Moto Coder: Hahahaha, you're so funny ha! gusto ko na namang ibalik yung example sa'yo eh, before this interview, you were talking about your R&D stuff, "The Silicon Valley of the East". Masyado kang visionary, ako shortsighted lang ako, employee mindset, 9-5 smacker, comfortshell person, gusto ko ng mabilis na pera, gusto kong nagpapaalipin. In a way, masasabing mong jologs din ako.

Jared: Hey I'm not a judge. So you mentioned about the "j" word, tell me more about it.

Moto Coder: Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's irritating, sometimes it really pisses almost anyone off. Recently, the "j" word is tragic. You know, the "stampede" thing. Kaya ayan naalala ko na naman yang jologs na mailing list na yan, ang gagaling magreklamo pagdating sa gawa, wala, nangangamote. Nagawa pa ng ibang magpatawa sa tragedy na 'to.

Jared: You know, if you'll complain about the world should be like this or like that, you'll just end up frustrated. Any plans on upgrading your skills?

Moto Coder: I'm a reader of your blog, to be honest. That's why I also felt honored to be in your space. And you gained notoreity in some sectors of the Java Community especially the Filipino Java Users Group. Because of your blogs I am so keen to learn Java not just because of the career opportunities it entails, but the huge potential in terms of product development. Honestly, a lot of people "dont get it".

Jared: Thanks, and thanks for your time as well. I know you'll be away for long soon that's why I chased you up for this interview.

Moto Coder: Yes, I'll be going home for vacation. And might not come back, you know napa-fickle-minded ko eh.

Jared: Haha, whatever makes you happy. Ciao!

Pinoy IT @ SG: The Interview Series

2006-02-04T23:30:00.000+08:00

On my next installment I will be featuring personal interviews with some notable people, Filipino IT Pros working in Singapore. I will be asking some important adult questions, their experiences in working in Singapore, their reactions to the frustrating, sickening and pathetic attitude of their fellow Filipino IT Pros(shameless plug) who happen to be working here as well. Stay tuned.

My other Wordpress Blog

2006-02-01T16:09:00.000+08:00

I know that my topics in this blog are limited to Software Development. So I've created a Wordpress blog for other things that are awfully off-topic in this page. And here's the link.

Interesting Week

2006-01-17T22:18:00.000+08:00

This week and the week before was interesting for some reasons. One is the Apple-Intel fanfare and much of it, my miseducation on AJAX wishing it's also useful on stand-alone static webpages. At least there are some nice so-called AJAX "tools" for this special requirement like Scriptaculous(will link later or just google it) and Behaviour(will also link later).

After my R & R (actually it means Re-arm & Re-supply coz there's no rest) in the Philippines, I realized there's a lot more things to do there than what I have conceived of in being there for almost my entire lifetime. They need the "boom" back there. They need something like the "Silicon Valley Energy", lots of it, that people will say "I will do this, I will fund that, I will start this, I will acquire that" and so forth.

Philippines can also be the breeding ground for RCP-based applications, there's just so much untapped energy from the young talents. But the problem is most of them are stuck in some sorry-ass J2EE, web 2.0, whateverwebshityoumaycallit projects. 2006, is the beginning of the uber-rich content era. With so much power from the hardware, desktops should come alive. Desktop applications today and in the future, from a USER'S standpoint, should be artistically intensive because we, developers, will be surprised how even more sophisticated user's requirements today if we will look "out-of-the-software-engineering-box" just once.

For my early Chinese New Year present, Gong Xi Fa Cai! Sorry, no one uses a "provincial" Fookien here(I think). Here's to the lucky one: I will give a one hour free WiFi Airborne-Access Login that can be used at any Airborne-Access-enabled establishments in the Philippines. Here it is:



Username: 1FF1263161
Password: 7111712131
Serial No: 1F00109552
Expires: April 30, 2006

To the first one who can login, Congratulations!

New Beginning

2006-01-11T23:19:00.000+08:00

I've been doing a lot of redefining these days in sync with the incoming Lunar New Year. First, is the separation of my technical stuff from non-technical ones. This means putting all my junk in to PocketPC and the more important stays in my laptop. This is redefining the use of PDA. Second, focus on esoteric(for now) technologies such as SAMS(Patriot) and RCP. Third, timelines. What's the point of all these without timelines? So timelines has to be redefined. Fourth, I've been hearing a lot about HYIPs and autosurfs, a few dollars won't hurt. Year of the Dog is quite promising.

Anyway, it's really hard to blog with a stylus so I am continuing this with a keyboard. MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo is an ASSKICKER(for Windows). Intel has been finally freed from dull little tasks where it could be doing something more. Things are suddenly happening like magic.

Belated Happy Holidays

2006-01-08T22:08:00.000+08:00

Even my Christmas and New Year break is almost a no break at all. Yes, I am away from work but I am also into other things like visiting relatives, attending parties of sorts etc. etc. So here's what I got.

Took off from Changi Airport at December 22, 1:00pm. The weather is shitty, the plane is in the midst of an air pocket for half-hour(I think), it was dark and no cabin crew were visible during that time, so you can imagine.

I touched down in Manila at 4:45pm on schedule. Yeah baby, welcome to Third World! There's nothing like the Philippines when it comes to Third-World-ness from the Immigration check-out up to the monstrous traffic jams, my flight from Singapore to Manila is much faster than my way from the airport to home! But the weather is great, cool air, breezy, a bit drier than Singapore, who said it's not humid in Singapore? I can tell because the plane descended smoothly down to the runway. It's a sign of a good weather, what I saw and learned in my meteorology class from our aviation school years ago. But I am not your famous Jordanian Pilot

Almost everything is dirt-cheap, a bottle of San Miguel Beer is less than SG$1, I can treat a bunch of jackasses for SG$30 and ask to them beat some street punk to a pulp and they will do it with much gusto and machismo. Full-body massage for 90 minutes from one of the most reputable massage centers is just SG$23, my haircut with shampoo, hot-oil treatment and a minor shoulder and arms massage is just SG$20. And a lot more for too little.

Because almost everything is so cheap, this is the best place to do business. Even with some hooligans in the government around, it's still cheap. And everyone will do anything at your bidding. This is just a matter of choice, profit or principle, but let's be honest, we only talk about the latter once the earlier has been achieved, anything before that is bullshit.

Open Source is ALIVE in the Philippines! Java is ALIVE in the Philippines! Quality and Product Excellence is the paramount concern rather than just simply making things work especially in the Software Development industry. In Singapore, it's "Create-your-monster-now-and-let-it-kill-you-later" thing, no wonder a lot of talented local IT folks are switching to "easier" jobs such as real-estate brokering, teaching in secondary schools, accepting lower salaries for easier work. Because I realized they've created each of their own "Monsters-that-worked" and eventually did "killed" them along with their careers. But Open Source will never be anyone's silver bullet, that is a dangerous assumption. It's always a balance between a lot of things, a lot of GOOD things.

Wi-Fi, The most misunderstood term in the Philippines. Blame it in whole to Smart's Wi-Fi internet. Is it really Wi-Fi? Is it Wi-Fi Certified? My SPECTEC SDIO WLAN 802.11b card for my O2 XdaII mini is Wi-Fi certified but I don't believe "Smart Wi-Fi" is Wi-Fi certified, is it 802.11b/g? It's neither. That is a serious mis-branding of a product that is not what it claims to be. Another Wi-Fi shit, Airborne-Access from PLDT. I was at one of the Seattle's Best Coffee Shop in Alabang bought five $3/hour prepaid WiFi Access cards called Wingspan so I can use my SPECTEC on my O2 and try the "Philippine WiFi" and guess what the coffee shop has no signal. So I called the Airborne-Access support and they said there's really no signal(!) in that coffee shop, OMFG! So all those fucking "conios" showing off their laptops around is just showing off. They barely don't have an idea that they can do real work while really showing off, geez laptop is too big to show off these days. Going back to Airborne-Access, it's really a cheat, if I don't disconnect manually from their site my session will continue until my remaining time credits runs out, so the next time I am back, it's all gone. So once I saved enough money to open a coffee shop(If I will), Airborne-Access is dead. I'll be giving WiFi access for free, something like McDonald's in Singapore.

Coffee Shops, Philippines has everything, name it. Starbucks, The Coffee Bean, Seattle's Best etc. etc. maybe a coffee shop that serves Teh Tarik can be quite entertaining there and will definitely complete the list.

Synergize, a sales office in Singapore and an R & D in the Philippines. That will be a "killer-combo".

Now I am back in Singapore, gloomy weather can trigger homesickness. It's January, one week after New Year's Day and the weather is un-fucking-believable. If I want to go home soon and retire, I have to make 7-14-day business goals to achieve. Otherwise, I'll be stuck here a little longer.

RCP vs. Thin-Client

2005-12-11T23:42:00.000+08:00

I think the strongest argument for the justification of thin-clients or web applications is the cost of deployment and management problems that are related to rich-clients especially those that are written in Visual Basic, Visual C++ etc. This argument became popular due to shared library problems, user's often tweak their installation resulting in undesirable setup, but the thin-client is actually a step back in functionality and capability even when there's AJAX around.

Due to the complexity of the domains today, users and problems are driving back to rich clients. An observation that I agree with the book above. The demand for rich client goes beyond the desire for rich user interface. Users need to be mobile, must be able to work offline, integrate, collaborate and maximize the power of their hardware. But how about the deployment and updates management? That's where Eclipse RCP is coming in.

Mining for Ruby?

2005-12-10T11:50:00.000+08:00

It has been more than one year when I declared that the time is ripe to mine for Ruby. But until now, I am still asking myself, if this is what a software should be then what's the Value Proposition? Ruby is great, I have a hard copy of Dr. Dobb's issue to prove that it's even older than Java. But again what is the Value Proposition?

I have used Ruby briefly, got some fun from it too. But let's not get carried away, fun is not part of the Value Proposition. Will I risk using it for a highly-critical application? Will other Ruby users be able to relate on my unique business or operational problems? I don't think so. Ruby is great, but to me it's no great deal. It's just another scripting language that happens to be object-oriented. Why other languages are popular and "acceptable" in the majority of the programming community? First, most of them are conceived in order to solve a problem(e.g. C/C++, LISP, Fortran), most of them have something in common in their history, they are designed initially for the purpose of building The One Great Product(e.g. SmallTalk, Java). Ruby was conceived from none of these reasons, it was made out of hobby, for the labor of love. My customers doesn't care about my labor of love.

Patriot Update

2005-12-08T03:15:00.000+08:00

The Patriot project site has been updated an we have added an informational diagram on its value proposition. Currently, I will be finishing the Serial Comm API as part of the selectable protocol drivers.

SWT vs. JDIC

2005-12-01T07:10:00.000+08:00

So much fuzz I thought JDIC will going to solve my desktop integration problems. I ended up, still, using SWT, "The one code to bind them all". From System Tray to GUI application itself, everything was bolted together that looks so natural in their host operating environment. And launching my SWT app like a native Windows application was made easy by Marner Java Launcher, which I would say more flexible than JSmooth. Marner Java Launcher respects my folder structure by providing a launcher.cfg file to specify my JVM arguments.

Most likely, Swing is going to suck even more these days.

Need for Speed - Singapore Edition

2005-11-29T20:51:00.000+08:00

After passing my Basic Theory Test and eventually got my PDL (Provisional Driving License), the next step is to hire a driving instructor and drive, not to learn how to drive, because I've been doing that for fifteen years back in the Philippines, I want to familiarize myself with the right-hand drive cars and a left-side traffic. Hence, I have to go to that process. The basic part is easy, the driving is even easier. A Class 3 QDL (Qualified Driving License) allows you to drive cars in Singapore with manual and automatic transmission, So I called up a driving instructor, the cheapest I can afford at S$45 per 90 minutes. In a matter of minutes he came to my place at 9pm and got a pre-drive briefing and told him briefly that I have been driving before. And he said "OK, take me to Shenton Way", "No Problem" I replied. I sunk the stick to the first gear, signal to the right, look at the cabin mirror, look at the side mirror, glance at the blind spot and off from Lorong 34 Geylang! "You have to keep left", "Yeah right" I remembered, After negotiating the traffic from Geylang to Guillemard, we headed towards Nicoll Highway. Being behind the wheel is no freaking effort. The Kompressors, Diablos, Testarossas, Carreras that you usually watch pathetically at some bus stop while they pass by are cruising alongside with me. "PDL dwayvez must keep a maximum of 60kph" my instructor hinted. I looked on my speedometer and it's pointing at 80kph, at Nicoll Highway(my bad sorry, sorry, I'll remember it next time)! Finally we're at Shenton Way in less than ten minutes, I asked the instructor "What now?". After giving me all his pocketful of challenges from negotiating narrow alleyways, humps or uneven roads, roundabouts, u-turns, clutch-hanging on steep roads, merging traffics, etc. etc. after 90 minutes we covered almost everything that he might want to do for the next 25 lessons. Too bad he's not going to make too much money out of me.

Local software development community is like Singapore traffic, right-hand drive, while seventy percent of the world's roads are in left-hand drive. It's not being right or wrong. It's even a bad taste to talk about profitability. It's like "Hey wake up guys, next year is RCP year! Why are you wasting time with expensive, shitty webby stuff?".

Product-based vs. Project-based

2005-11-18T00:24:00.000+08:00

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." -Sun Tzu

I am not a sales person, but the reason for my uncanny ability to seal deal is the quote above. It's real and simple, If I can't do it then I will not push myself with all my faith to do it, because I am already aware that I lost the battle before it even started. So there's no sense in wasting my effort and money. The Art of War is a *thousand-year* old value proposition. I am not charismatic, smooth-talking salesman, that is never me. And some sales people in the IT industry has much to learn with Sun Tzu. Take for example a consulting company that has evolved into a project-based model and runs into customer's "quagmire" and will repeatedly run into it again and again and again because the company has only knew itself and not the adversities that it will going to face. Either they don't know it or choose to ignore it for the sake of profitability. Project-based ventures are so risky, the majority of "70% failed software projects" falls on this category. Leaders cannot afford to be conservative as well as this kind of trait will chip away their resources little by little. This kind of venture is so exhausting that there's nothing left to earn when the project is "done". That is if you got paid in the end.

Product-based venture on the other is much simpler and less riskier. There's not much concept to prove. Customers "knows" what they want; it's usually what others have. So there isn't really much effort in selling a product, rather than a project whose derivative is yet to exist. And since the product already exists, it doesn't have to be a hard sell I don't think so, not in my experience. Most of the times a demonstration can already sell by itself. The fun part in product-based venture is that all the painstaking tasks are only in the initial part of the product development. And the best thing about product-based venture is being paid promptly for a delivery well done. Then repeat business comes next. Such is an Art of War.

Of Music and Software Development

2005-11-14T01:34:00.000+08:00

Musicians and Software Developers have some few interesting things in common. There are musicians that performs well and plays well but does not know the conventions of notes, staff and tempos, they can only play well with chords and tablatures. These musicians are parties' and funerals' life, but the problem with them is that they can only play music that they have heard and memorized before and they rehearse specific titles of songs.

On the other hand, there are musicians that are called "sightreaders". Sightreaders knows their instruments and every intrinsic formalities of music very well, they rehearse with scales and exercises more than specific song titles. On the eve of performance they can play musical pieces that they never heard before without rehearsal and by just reading through a given musical piece, and will play along well on it without the audience noticing that they didn't actually rehearsed.

In software development, especially in Java. There are developers that knows BEA Weblogic and can deliver results with it but does not know the whole sense of the J2EE architecture. There are those who knows messaging with Fiorano, but that don't understand the standard interfaces of the JMS specifications. These crops are basically the "Funerals'" cream. A lot on the list can go on. This kind of developers are very limited to delivering results with limited options and they are expensive(salary and the tools of their trade).

The "sightreaders" in this area are obviously different. They are mindful of the whole "Process" instead of specific tools, they are very comfortable with any application servers regardless of vendor as long as it honestly complies with the J2EE spec. They can write high-performance codes in any SQL-based relational database without being tied with the poor Hibernate syntax. They understand the "Process" and "Patterns" and they know the "Fundamentals". They not only deliver results, they deliver lasting results.

Replacing backslash with double backslash

2005-11-09T00:37:00.000+08:00

This is a juvenile problem and too Microsofty. The problem is when Windows-based file names has been stored in a properties file in this way:

my.file=C:\Windows\Kamote

When retrieving that value, the backslashes will be dropped during Properties.load() execution so the resulting string will be:

C:WindowsKamote

Sometimes we have GUI-based configuration managers that we like to be able to store in a properties file or an XML file but want to retrieve the file names with desirable results. Therefore our configuration should look like this:

my.file=C:\\Windows\\Kamote

In order to achieve that, we can use a 2-liner code with JDK's Regular Expression API like this one:



     String path = "C:\Windows\Kamote";
     String newPath = path.replaceAll("\\\\", "\\\\\\\\");

The code above will yield C:\\Windows\\Kamote. This code is not really necessary, it's just a convenience fix for Windows dummies.

Open Source Everywhere

2005-11-08T22:56:00.000+08:00

Several links of indicating an iminent Open Source onslaught in the years to come.

http://www.cepr.net/publications/windows_2005_10.pdf - Economist's take on open source

http://opensource.nokia.com/ - Nokia's Own Open Source Backyard

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4407742.stm - BBC's coverage on open source.

The Open Source Bubble

There's more actually, but one interesting thing was one day while I am at a coffee shop I overheard two locals talking about Open Source and they were quite old I think their ages range from 40-45 years, the conversation was so funny I almost want to butt in because the words that were coming out of their mouths was the oldest, most stale Microsoft argument on Open Source that has been debunked years ago and yet they fear for it. Such misguided perception is abundant here. So now is the time to take a serious look at this viable alternative.

Windows 2000/XP Password Recovery with Linux

2005-10-31T22:42:00.000+08:00

My Window-based laptop was backdoored allegedly by a China-based site, it locked and disabled my account and the administrator's account. Therefore it rendered my system useless for a mean time since I can't login to my two most important accounts in the system. I looked into a lot of Password recovery tools out there and most are so expensive, unbelievably expensive and practically useless. Until I stumbled into this Linux-based password recovery tool. In fact, it cannot be called a password recovery tool because it can't recover a password. What it does however is it allows you to reset password including the Administrator so you can login again.

This little nifty tool is called Austrumi. It is a Slacware-based business card sized bootable Live CD Linux distribution. Unlike any Windows bootable disk, Austrumi is a fully-functional operating system by itself. This tool is so simple, you only to insert the CD and reboot and at the boot prompt just type:


   
     boot: nt_pass

That's it! and you're on your way to recovering and regaining your system from those nasty script kiddies. But before I forgot, the working version that I've used is the Austrumi 0.8.4

7 months after

2005-10-27T23:51:00.000+08:00

Time flies as they say. So far it's a pretty interesting year. So I am going to go for a round down on how things has became in my Singapore Adventure.

First month - Is always exciting everything seems to smell like a fresh box out of an airplane that just landed at Changi Airport. Everyday technologies are fun like tapping the EZ-Link card when going places, buying movie tickets online, getting used to the Windows Non-Operating System, still mesmerized by the users' acceptance that virus will always be in their PC's forever, little did they know that Linux is now as equally or even more than capable in the Desktop area as WinBlows can cut off their dependencies from companies such as McAfee, Norton and even Microsoft. That could translate into millions of dollars in savings. Oh what the heck, what savings am I talking about? It doesn't exist here. A dollar saved is a dollar earned.

Second month - Almost everyone is so in love with BEA Weblogic, it's almost like buzzword, but try asking those jerks(BEA Consultants) what is an Avalon Framework they will give you a dead stare, little did they know(again) that this is the soul of that shitty application server.

Third month - Nothing like the sound of "Watercooler employees" buzzing in conversation, this time it's Chinese version but the substance is still the same, the subject always drills down to the politics of laziness.

Fourth month - I made a prediction this month that will happen on the seventh month, and it did.

Fifth month - Finally I am reunited with Linux! Not just any Linux, it's Slackware 10.1, I just wish Patrick Volderking good health in the next years to come because I am not worthy to take over his work but I wish I could. After getting used to Singapore's everyday technologies, it has became so boring. Local retailers still manifests very poor customer relations/service, but Auntie who cooks the best Chao Fan in Guillemard is nice but some are so fucking arrogant as if they can speak good English and they think they are the center of the world(literally they are, since this island is in the Equator), oh sheez "Fuck them leh!"

Sixth month - Here, typical career path is Programmer->Team Leader->Project Manager->CIO, mostly are 9-5 until 95 types. which is like the Industrial Revolution of the 20's. I know the motto here is "whatever works", a 1979 Toyota Starlet can be as functional as the 2005 Mercedes Benz E320, take your pick. I remember one of my former boss said "In the Philippines there's a lot of ideas but there are no investors, while in Singapore there are a lot of investors but no ideas". Necessity is the mother of all inventions, here it's hard to get a necessity going, that explains the "no idea" thing.

Seventh month - Huh! This time we have an idea! Eureka! But what's that? Clue: it's open source. Start the engine, we're on our way.

Slackware Rules!

2005-10-07T00:05:00.000+08:00

After trying several distros from the past and latest being Ubuntu, I still come home to Slackware. First I consider this as a developer's distro. The only people I respect as kick-ass, power-developers(especially in Java) are those who have been using Slackware as their primary operating environment. Suprisingly, a Slackware Skill can really go a long way. First is versatility, although not really unique in Slackware but a Slackware user can easily adapt to any other Unix/Linux/BSD flavors around.

From previous experiences, my Slackware Skill has got me around AIX, Solaris, HP-UX with zero or minimal adjustments. Frustratingly, some local profiles I see around here mostly just have Windows/Java, Windows/Java, Windows/Java...WTF'ing skill sets! Yeah, I understand what users want and what users are asking. I also foresee the troubles they will be facing about the things they are asking today. I know the "ease-of-use" issues, we've been there. In the enterprise, only muggles should have Windows. Developers should be able to switch from one operating environment to another with little trouble.

Second is reliability. My PC, after just 72 hours of continous operation has to be rebooted due to lags, CPU hogs and sudden unknown memory spikes probably due to SpyWares, problems that never existed on my Slackware box even on a continious operation, currently in Singapore my longest uptime for Slackware is 28 days.

Last but not the least is simplicity. Slacware is so simple, on a decent hardware it can boot completely in less than 10 secs. with all the GUIs and necessary services loaded. Most command-line tasks are much shorter than its point-and-click counterpart.

The JDIC

2005-10-06T14:02:00.000+08:00

Also known as the Java Desktop Integration Components. You know, those girlie stuff you put on your Windows. Although I've been itching to write one about JDIC long ago. And the much distraction the XBox Live is putting on me. Now I got a time to do so. At least it's good to know that Java isn't completely isolating itself from its host environment. With JDIC, you don't need to write JNI codes by yourself in order to make wonders with your Java applications on your desktop especially on Windows. In short, that saves a lot of time and effort.

More on this coming up.

The Halo 2 Fever

2005-09-29T00:35:00.000+08:00

Admittedly, I had so much fun with my XBox Blue and my XBox Live subscription. Ironically, this is the only thing that has came out good from Microsoft, instead of Windows. But if PS2 and the upcoming PS3 has this "Live" thing, I would happily switch or add it to my gaming system. Technically, Playstation is better. It's just that it "doesn't put value to the business", no one can just always play alone or with someone on a split screen forever. So what if you have great hardware that can be possibly tweaked to launch missiles but sucks in marketing value? The sad thing about XBox is [I think that] it's selling below cost. Which is ok if you really want to put M$ out of business.

Going to Halo 2, I am skeptical why some people has touted it as "redefining the FPS genre". Until I played "Live", I realized it is very much different than other FPS like Counter-Strike. Now Battlefield 2 is following the same success with their "USMC vs. MEC" where you can fly Blackhawks, drive tanks etc. but that's too "American".

XBoxing...Live!!!

2005-09-22T19:35:00.000+08:00

I officially stopped playing games on my PC. For one, to me it's very unprofessional. Basically, I gave in to the temptation of the dark side, I got an XBox Blue Limited Edition from a recently concluded COMEX computer expo at SGD$288 with free Halo 2. And I got a Starter Kit 12-month XBox Live Subscription which I got at SGD$75 that comes with a free headset. Playstation 2 should have a something like the "Live" thing! Right now, I have Full Spectrum Warrior 1 which I just had finished, Halo 2, NFSU2. I don't have any playmates around yet but I am will be online this weekend. My gamertag is "jaredlinux".

Open Source Business Readiness Ratings

2005-09-20T22:10:00.000+08:00

What's this? Business Readiness Ratings is basically used to determine if an open source tool is mature enough for corporate use. Really? Or maybe corporations should be mature enough for open source use. :))

It's a good and bad thing, like how would you rate vi, grep, awk, ssh etc. for business readiness? I think BRR has the same stench as CMM and may be less "corruptible". It's like this, lets take for example, India.

India, the country that took away a lot of American programming jobs has something there to deserve the luck they are getting now, It's the CMM-decorated companies that sprawl in their landscape. And of course with that and a cheap job market it's a bullet for America ready to backfire. CMM is a buzzword and CMM is just a buzzword. Using a funny analogy, An alleged mentally deranged employee(MDE) who's been acting weird noticed that his co-workers are mocking and laughing at him because they know he's crazy, so his boss tells him to take a leave and get professional help. So this MDE did what his boss said. He went to a psychiatrist to check him up. In short, he was diagnosed as normal and doesn't have any mental disorders so the psychiatrist certifies that and issue him the certification so he could go back to work. Back at work, he chanced upon everyone talking about him and his weirdness, upon seeing him everyone was stunned and kept quiet. He gave them a stern look, and said "So you people think I am crazy? You're damn wrong!" And then he flashed a paper in front of them... "'coz I got a certificate that says I am not. DO YOU HAVE THE SAME CERTIFICATE?". Now everyone's crazy and he's not. ;)

CMM is just some shit-brick's concept from what school is that? CMU? Does CMM assures your company is mature enough and it's capable of bringing back home a space shuttle that's has been dinged a little? Maybe that's too exaggerated, or maybe that same shit-brick is involved in designing a space pen that will push ink at zero-gravity while Russian cosmonauts are happy scribbling notes using pencil and are very productive.

On the other hand, open source applications like GNUEnterprise can benefit from BRR. Since GNUEnterprise is more on the "operational" side of things rather than "technical" as many open source tools are. A BRR rating for GNUEnterprise can have a great impact on the ERP market.

YourSQL not mine

2005-09-20T21:37:00.000+08:00

I have been a PostgreSQL user for quite some time and it hasn't failed me on most of the basic and advance features that I expect to get from it, whether I write client software in Java or in C, the results are consistent. Before then, I have a "weak" argument that MySQL is weak. Because I only scratched the surface of it and didn't do a lot of thorough testing. This MySQL, by default, has failed on a lot of things compared to Postgresql point by point even on some minor things. Some of the things I noticed are:

Lousy way of granting permissions

The autocommit functionality can break the most generic JDBC code that is supposed to support multiple databases

Tables are case-sensitive, unless you're a diehard Windows genius, you're not going to notice this.

The interactive command-line interface is so crude. It's nothing compares to PostgreSQL

So some silly asshats will ask me "Why would you use a CLI when there's a lot of GUI tools for MySQL?", even that sucks too. And what if the only available thing to you is an SSH access without X? Then you're dead in the middle.

The PreparedStatement.executeUpdate() does not return the right value for the rows affected, I am wondering what's the big deal why this thing can't be fixed since Postgresql, Oracle and other "production-grade" databases can handle it. Just simply returning the right value is very important for debugging and information purposes.

What ESB? What SOA?

2005-09-14T23:32:00.000+08:00

What Web Services? What Asynchronous Messaging? Where JMS fails, Jabber/XMPP succeeds. Of course, not all solutions to problems are obvious, to the muggles, Jabber is used by people to chat with each other just like Yahoo! or MSN. But machines can be made to "talk" to each other using this protocol too and in the most reliable, lightweight conditions. There's no need for fragile JNDI lookups, uncannily resolving IIOP hostname which is Sun MQ's sickness with the "JMS over Internet" thing. No more complex WSDL, even if it's transparent to developers nowadays, it still packs some unnecessary weight. And can be a relief from the aweful RMI too. And when these heavyweight solutions fails, recovery is not always as easy as what they claim in their manuals. With the exception of ActiveMQ. But most of the time, Acegi+WW2+ActiveMQ+Spring+SJSAS doesn't work as expected.

Jabber on the other hand, is straightforward, as long as the client machines has access to the network in whatever setup, will work. Doesn't care on what container the application is running with. Jabber-based services are rare, because in order to take advantage of those services the user has to sign up to whatever jabber server the service is signed on, and understand their "lingo". But on availability and reliability, the Jabber can walk the walk.

Nutch

2005-09-14T22:24:00.000+08:00

Before Nutch has become a sub-project of Lucene. There's a niche opportunity for the raw power of this unbiased search engine. Now that Knowledge Management has slowly, clearly defining itself not only in the "intelligence" community but for corporate uses as well. With Nutch and some little imagination, one can create, for one, is a Verity-style "federated" searches and indexing that is "C:drive" mountable or thru Samba or NFS, depending on the "federation", information can be presented in a folder structure, as a web portal and so forth. Tools can be built on top of Nutch to aggregate RSS Feeds, IMs, Blogs and even password-protected filesystems.

In fact, "knowledge"-snooping systems such as this, is very attractive to a lot people for very obvious reasons.

So it's called Age of Participation

2005-09-01T21:32:00.000+08:00

To the OSS-phobics, Age of Participation is a more subtle term. That really boils down to either two things, Adapt or Die. The other side of that is Age of Elimination which is rather timeless. Age of Participation is one of the key topics Sun Microsystem's Scott McNealy will be discussing here in Singapore with the local industrialists on September 12(?).

Speaking of locals, specially some developers, are big "ji bai". Every time they hear the word "Open Source" their chorus would be "NO SUP-PAWT", it's like getting a job that involves an automatic weapon and saying "No Danger". It's an understandable dilemma for a user but not for a developer! These people are pollutants to the local developers who want to learn and build products on top of their favorite Open Source tools that can spread the use of OSS to several industries such as the much-hyped biotech industry.

It's very interesting that big companies are having their own campaigns to promote Open Source in this Last Stronghold of the Proprietary Software Colony. Get Some!

Webwork 2.2 has now JSR-168 Portlet Support!

2005-08-31T08:52:00.000+08:00

Yes! A JSR-168 Portlet support for Webwork 2.2. WWPortlet is Webwork, Velocity, Spring, Hibernate MVC Portal Framework. With this coming to life, rapid development of portlets will soon become a reality. But right now, I just want to nail my excitement so I can compare this versus InfoGlue which is another Webwork-based JSR-168 Portal Framework. These stuff put their expensive counterparts like the non-compliant BEA Portal Framework into shame. Webwork2's architecture makes it so natural to "slide" things like this into its framework.

Makes me wonder, there's just so much buzz with portlets these days.