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I am lazy to do a real post, so I would just like to wish Happy Fasting to all Muslims.

Interference is an event that happens when a process is disturbed while it is ongoing. As per general understanding, this is not a good thing as it disrupts the flow of the process and thus makes thing looks not smooth. It is also generally time-consuming as well as a waste of resources in order to correct, rectify and resume the process.

However, as a programmer, I generally like interference. Although I don't deny that it does make a process slower and not in smooth flow, sometimes interference is needed in order for you to look at what are the things that you did wrong. This is due to the fact that if a piece of code (for example) runs okay, you would forever assume that the code is in perfect working condition and would not take the liberty to recheck the code for any non-obvious errors. Interference would also give you a time break from your task, which is an important aspect in job. I usually find that by taking 5 to 10 minutes break after every 1 hour of work, your mind will stay focus on what you are doing and will result in you not making silly mistakes. This also applies to the phrase that it is better to work smart than work hard. As much as you can, try to do things right the first time because revisiting things that you've done for some silly mistakes is just, silly.

As for me, sometimes I do need other person to break my concentration from my work. And I find that useful if looked from certain angle..

Ballmer's Peak

I LOL-ed, hard..

My New Environment

I'm gonna tell a bit about my work. Currently I'm working with a company that provides telecommunication services. The pay is quite decent, considering that I only have a little bit more than 2 years of working experiences. Salary aside, the environment is nice. To tell the truth, this is my first time working within big organizations. My previous employers are small-to-medium organizations, with employees less than 10 people. It was quite a shock for me at first, imagining that I need to work with a large number of people. I admit that due to I'm used to work with small companies, I tend to be self-organizing and thus reluctant (or ignoring, to be more precise) on the standards defined within my unit. Oh yeah, I'm attached to R&D unit. Seeing that I came from software houses, my managers see this as a blessing while some of my colleagues see this as a curse.

Firstly, I rejected *all* development tools that they are currently using and I use my own that I am familiar with. They use WSFTP, I use CuteFTP. They use 1stPage 2000, I use EditPlus. They use HeidiSQL, I use Query Browser. This sometimes causes communication errors due to the terms used in these softwares differs although the functions are similar. But then nonetheless, some of them (mainly those experienced ones) started to understand why I use my own tools and begin to learn the advantages of both and exploit those advantages.

Then, there comes the coding part. When first assigned for a project, my supervisor gave me her (yes, her) source code from previous project with hopes that I'd just follow her coding standards and change whatever necessary to suit the new project. Lo and behold, to much of her horror, I redesigned her codes from scratch, removed any unnecessary functions and changing 90% of the code structure. To be honest, there is actually no standards at all inside her coding. There's no proper indentation, variables are declared on the fly instead of pre-assigned, unused functions/variables/procedures are carried over from previous projects and too many rubbish such as xMsg = xMsg. I mean, who the Hell writes this? But then although this sometimes irks her, my managers and Head of Department (HOD) like it as they now starting to see quality (and readable, this is the important thing) codes within the company's code repository. I do admit that I didn't take any programming certificates to boast about my coding ability, but if you are coding at least please make your code readable if you can't make it efficient. I'd rather look at a readable but inefficient code than efficient but incomprehensible code.

Working there is considered a godsend to me. The workload is minimal as compared to what I endured in my previous job. This do sometimes make my colleagues wonder why I'm so laid back in any development task. Things that are major to them, are considered as small to me. Those worked with me before knows that when I do my codes, I like to do it right the first time. I hate debugging for simple problems, it's just a waste of time. Unless it's big thing like non-working API or query optimization (as example), I'm not really thrilled in doing debugging process. So when I received a project White Paper, I like to iron out the system logic flow before I start typing my codes. This, in return, will save me time to change my code later as I have already expected the requirement changes and be prepared for them.

But then this evening, while I was doing the process flow for my project, I asked one of my colleagues on a small flow error that I want to clear off first. "No no no no, you don't care about this first. Do the core engine first, I worry you don't have time to finish it. Leave this part first, it's not important."

"Fuck la. I've code, install, debug and maintain system bigger than this okay. This thing that you call a system, for me it's just a programming tool."

Of course, this was just roaming within my brain. I was very tempted to utter it with my mouth actually, but then my brain was quick as usual. Let the error undone and unnoticed. At least when it's discovered during testing, I know who to blame.


There you go. Actually this post is just for me to vent out my frustration with the incompetence of some of my colleagues in deciding which is important and which is not (that's why you'll see the post seems like to scatter everywhere). Ah well, as long as I get my pay every end of month, the current workload isn't killing me, I can live with that. Just enjoy the minimal work while surfing aimlessly during office hour..

p/s: with my current salary, I'm now required to pay for tax. fuck..

Schedule

Category 1

Running
Week 1 - Monday, Wednesday, Friday (2 miles per day, 8:30 pace) - 6 miles
Week 2 - Monday, Wednesday, Friday (2 miles per day, 8:30 pace) - 6 miles
Week 3 - No running (High risk of stress fractures)
Week 4 - Monday, Wednesday, Friday (3 miles per day, 8:30 pace) - 9 miles
Week 5 - Monday (2 miles), Tuesday (3 miles), Thursday (4 miles), Friday (2 miles) - 11 miles
Week 6 - Monday (2 miles), Tuesday (3 miles), Thursday (4 miles), Friday (2 miles) - 11 miles
Week 7 - Monday (4 miles), Tuesday (4 miles), Thursday (5 miles), Friday (3 miles) - 16 miles
Week 8 - Monday (4 miles), Tuesday (4 miles), Thursday (5 miles), Friday (3 miles) - 16 miles
Week 9 - Monday (4 miles), Tuesday (4 miles), Thursday (5 miles), Friday (3 miles) - 16 miles

Body Weight
Week 1 - 4 x 15 push ups, 4 x 20 sit ups, 3 x 3 pull ups
Week 2 - 5 x 20 push ups, 5 x 20 sit ups, 3 x 3 pull ups
Week 3 - 5 x 25 push ups, 5 x 25 sit ups, 3 x 4 pull ups
Week 4 - 5 x 25 push ups, 5 x 25 sit ups, 3 x 4 pull ups
Week 5 - 6 x 25 push ups, 6 x 25 sit ups, 2 x 8 pull ups
Week 6 - 6 x 25 push ups, 6 x 25 sit ups, 2 x 8 pull ups
Week 7 - 6 x 30 push ups, 6 x 30 sit ups, 2 x 10 pull ups
Week 8 - 6 x 30 push ups, 6 x 30 sit ups, 2 x 10 pull ups
Week 8 - 6 x 30 push ups, 6 x 30 sit ups, 3 x 10 pull ups
Note: do alternately. a set of push ups, a set of sit ups, a set of pull ups. repeat.

Swimming (side stroke with no fins, 4-5 days per week)
Week 1 - 15 minutes continuously
Week 2 - 15 minutes continuously
Week 3 - 20 minutes continuously
Week 4 - 20 minutes continuously
Week 5 - 25 minutes continuously
Week 6 - 25 minutes continuously
Week 7 - 30 minutes continuously
Week 8 - 30 minutes continuously
Week 9 - 35 minutes continuously
Note: if no access to pool, substitute with cycling (double the time taken for swimming e.g week 1 = 30 minutes cycling)

And this is just Category 1. After this there'll be Category 2. As a result, you are comparable to those Navy SEALS in cross-country because this is what their trainings are during Hell's Week.

Sure or not k-mie..

New Job

Long time never update my blog.

Cut short, I'm now working as Application Developer. No more project management for me for the time being. Can be a blessing and a curse, I guess. I do like my current job though. Although I'm the new guy there, as per experience level I am considered a senior within the development team. Others mainly consist of fresh graduates that just started to join working environment. They don't ask me about technical things most of the time, heck some of them are even better than me in terms of programming language. I don't really know .NET, for instance. Normally they'll ask me the environment world as a whole. What should and should not be done in office, which thing(s) to prioritize, how to speak to managers and so on. Suddenly I feel like an old wise man there, with beards and all..

As for office environment, it is heavenly. I arrive 9am every morning, well, sometimes 9:15am. KL in the morning can have traffic jam without any reason okay. And I'll go back home sharp after 8 hours of work. Arrive at 9am, go back at 6pm. Arrive at 9:15am, go back at 6:15pm. Due to the nature of my current company that is very different from the software house that I used to work with before, I find that the environment is quite relaxing. There are times where I just sit lazily the whole day without any work to do. It's either my job integrates with other people's and they have not finished their part yet or it is really there isn't any job for me to do. I found this quite unrelaxing at first, I was accustomed to being constantly busy in my previous job. But now bit by bit I am starting to adapt to the company's culture and environment, and boy these are heavenly haha..

Watched Journey to the Center of the Earth last Saturday with Izma. I'm not gonna give the summary of this movie here, if you want it then either Google it or read from the newspaper. What I want to say is the movie is fun to watch, and it did take my mind of the cruel reality of our world for a while. I must say I like Brendan Fraser's acting especially after The Mummy's series. He does make an act looks funny while not overdoing the joke (not like one self-proclaimed No 1 Joke Group in Malaysia). It's a light movie and suitable to be watched with family or your loved ones, as long as you don't take the storyline too seriously LOL.

I think that's it. Till another update. Oh btw, I signed up with True Fitness gym just 2 weeks ago. Apparently I've become concious about my body condition. Need to get physically fit like before. I was able to run for 2km without stopping during Form 4, doing 30 push ups straight during Boy Scouts training, and here I am. Not even able to finish 500m jog without panting for breath and 10 push ups seems unbearable. WTF has your body become, k-mie??