A Different Ceiling

I have just returned (last Saturday) from a very nice vacation and will be talking about it on upcoming blogs (still uploading the pictures).

Anyway I am back to work.  I am currently a replacement for a colleague that also went on a vacation and it has been like this since a couple of weeks ago.  She will be back by the end of the week.  There is nothing bad about it but I just don’t like the idea of me testing (yes I am a tester there) an application I barely know and doing nothing else but is supposed to report something back — accomplished!

On another note, I am currently thinking of some ways to improve the process within the development group on our consultancy business (my company) deployed on one of our clients.  I was consulted by the Program Manager for this since I am currently a consultant also, deployed in the same client.  I’m still trying to figure things out but I might end up suggesting to let them use a tool for tracking everything.  I am currently looking at Bugzilla and JIRA since both are very popular and can be extended far beyond being just an issue tracker.  More on these tools, maybe on another blog entry.

That’s it.  Just a small update, nothing fancy ^^.

Projector Phone?!

Camera phones has been a huge success in appealing to the massess of its usefuleness and mobility.  Technology had given these phones the capability to take high quality pictures and store them in a fairly sized storage cards with acceptable-enough performance.

So how about a projector phone?  Think about it, your phone can be an all-in-one entertainment system and everything in just the palm of your hands.  Need to talk to your boss with more confidence along with your team?  Why don’t you enable that mobile broadband (3G, etc) video conferencing and project your boss on the wall!  Stuck on a boring get-together with your girlfriend?  Pump those movies on the wall and have a world of your own!  Share those pictures with your entire squad and let the cute little smile of your offsprings radiate all through out the room ^^.

But as good as it sounds, there will definitely be limitations especially to power (battery issues), picture quality, and maintenance (Oh no! I dropped my projector phone with a sensetive lens… something like that).

Read more about it here.

Armed and Dangerous

I just finished a downloading and watching “Shooter” which is currently being showed today on cinemas.  The movie is good, reminds me of “The Sniper” but this one is urban warfare.  If you appreciate high-powered long-distance (and I mean very long distance) sniper action with twists of government/military conspiracies, then you have just found your movie!  I am not giving any review.  I suck in making movie reviews — can’t even remember the names of the artists!

On a side note, I am prepping myself to upgrade my expertise and practice programming again.  I have just finished setting up my Eclipse IDE and ArgoUML.  This time I am going to practice programming the professional way complete with design, automated unit tests, javadocs, build files, and APIs.  I might even take some more certifications. 

Well, I am not going the developer track again that is for sure.  Think of it as “arming” my self against developers and software architecs — “You cannot fool this Project Manager!” kinda like that hehehe!  Besides this will open up a lot of opportunity for me to broaden my knowledge and probably an alternative way to put in some money into my pockets, right Jess and Frank? ^^

Source: http://www.cde.unibe.ch/Tools/img/CartoonProjectPlan.JPG

On another side note (the previous was a left side note, now its the left — I am so corny!), I am having second thoughts on buying a car this year.  I think it’s more wise to wait unitl I have a down payment of 50% of the price of the car than my planned 30%.  This will lighten up my monthly cash out and probably shorten the payment plan.  I actually don’t need a car right now as my office is not so far away.  I just have this strong feeling of having a car right now!  Maybe it’ll pass — I hope it pass (but having a car is cool and convenient though costly).  What do you think?  Should I give in or wait?

Birthday Part II

I celebrated my long due birthday today with my cousins.  Everyone had brought some food which became my party food!  No it wasn’t a surprise, it was a request of one of my older cousins so that everyone will have a reason to get together.  So I just sent all of them an SMS telling them to go to our house and bring along with them some food.  And so they came ^^.

It was a simple get together.  There was a lot of food and everyone was happy.  Of course I am happy too.  In fact, the gathering was such a success that I think there will be another one probably two weeks from now.

After eating, most of my lady cousins went on with their “chismisan” and the most of the guys played DOTA!!! Yay!  It’s been a long time since I last played.

Hmmm I think there is still a coming “Birthday Part III”

Birthday Errands

To all who have greeted me for my birthday, many thanks!  And for those who didn’t, well you still have a chance next year.  What gift do I want?  I’m glad you asked.  A new car will actually make my year but if you can’t afford it a nice and simple Friendster testimonial will do

So what did I do during my birthday?  No, I did not do the “ninja”  move and disappeared so as not to treat any body.  I took my birthday leave.  Not to rest but to run some errands.

Errand # 1: Pay for my e-census application for my son’s birth certificate.  It was a bank transaction.

Errand # 2: Renew my driver’s license.  LTO Marikina was awful!  The aircon was turned off or was murdered horribly!  And best of all I was charged a penalty for late renewal just because their “computerized” system says so even though I was still on time!  Yeah I tried to reason, they made me wait for about an hour, and then told me they don’t know how they are going to undo the penalty!  Sheeesh!

Errand # 3: Applied for a limit upgrade to my credit account.  I felt that I need the upgrade now that I am handling bigger and more teams now.  And I did upgrade my lifestyle a little… just a little ^^.

Errand # 4: Groceries.  Yup I bought some goods for the house.

For most of the day, I was either playing Sims 2 Seasons or Titan Quest the Immortal Throne, or was sleeping.

“Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and having people in them, acting. People you know, yet can’t quite name.” ~ Phillip Larkin, The Old Fools (1974)

Last Day for 2-Week Diet

Finally, I am the last day of my 2-week strict diet.  I am glad to report that I lost 8 pounds although my target was actually 13 pounds.  This is an accomplishment although I only lost water weight according to the site.  As I stopped eating sugar (foods with sugar contents including fruits) my body began to break down the stored sugar in me.  It turned out that these sugar contains water which contributes to the weight.  As the sugar breaks down, water is released and thus the weight loss.

Now begins the second phase.  I can now eat some foods with sugar but with moderation.  This time, I’ll be losing weight at a much slower phase because if I continue losing weight too much at a very short time my body might not endure the drastic change and I may become weak and unable to work and I don’t want that because I want to buy a car by the end of the year!  Ha!

Anyway, you might find a cute little turtle at the bottom of the side menu of my blog.  His name is Leonardo and he can slice and dice body fats!!!  Just kidding!  It’s a tracker on how far I have gone and how much more I need to travel in this quest of mine for weight loss.  Be nice to him ok?  Even if he is not moving for a whole month! (hope not).

Old Friends, Fun Times

I had just met with some of my high school classmates. Some of them I have not met for more than 10 years, ever since we graduated! Bah! I should get out with friends more often! Anyway here comes the roll call: Anthony Agudo and GF Angel, Michael Bala, Jayson Caimol, Maricris Enriquez, Princess Fan, Marjorie, Jerome Selerio, and Bely Ygot. Rory Jay Dacumos could not make it due to a chicken fox, Rubirosa is not feeling well, and Mark Salvo probably over slept or got lost in the way. All the other classmates did not respond to the invitation.

In any case, even though I cannot eat any carbs and sugar and for the love of the world could not drink any form of alcoholic beverages due to my ongoing diet, it was still fun… sitting there… watching them eat their heart out… delicious foods… beers… feeling my saliva…. Nah! That was only a joke I ate also of course (I ordered what is applicable to my diet).

Really it was fun!!! Remembering the way we were in high school and how we are today. The talking and laughing seems never ending! But it did end because it’s a Sunday night and Monday (today) is a work day and I still have a Project Plan to finish so I left earlier than the others.

Thanks Princess for organizing this and for coming out again from nowhere after 10 freaking years . I hope we can organize a better one next time with more attendees.

Hey everyone keep in touch!

3 Pounds

I stood on top of the weighing scale last night and suddenly I feel lighter ^^. Yup you guessed it right, I lost 3 pounds in 4 days! Well at least the diet is effective. And I still have 10 days to go in this diet excluding today. I am already craving for some sugar and carbo but I have to resist it! At least for the mean time

I feel weak. I think I’m already killing myself.

Edit:  We already won using a tactic that I strategized ^^.

Losing Streak

We are at a losing streak. I and my DOTA buddies have been losing for 6 games in a row now against Java Developer Trainees in my company! We may be senior to them when it comes to programming and project management but we are losers when it comes to the game hehehe! They almost use the same strategy. I think its about time we device a way to counter them ^^. In any case, I can always just give them more tasks than the usual mwahahahaha!

Product Development

I just woke up and I am dead hungry! I have already eaten about six times today. It seems I get hungry almost every 3 hours due to the diet. It’s a good thing there are plenty of tuna stocked in the house ^^.

In a totally unrelated note, I used to think that product development is something that a developer should fear since I have this notion that most product development activities are just actually maintenance — making you do the same thing over and over again leaving no room for growth in terms of technical know-how. I now realize that this is not always the case. It actually depends on the product itself. If the product is something that is customized depending on the client’s needs, then it will cover most engineering lifecycle with a larger possibility of incorporating new designs and technologies. Otherwise if it is just non-changing product, containing only a few enhancements every release, then you are in the road to maintaining a product — which I hate ^^.

And if you are in a product development business wherein the product is customized on a client basis, then you can further expand your business to give support and maintenance services — obviously. Another room for business expansion is staff augmentation of developers or consultancy as some call it. Since the company will never run out of “products” to create, it can rotate its resources to product development and staff augmentation. This has several benefits that will include:

• No idle resources. You will always have a project for your resource to tinker with.
• Resource rotation. Developers always get bored when he deals with the same design and technology. By rotating them to the different client of your products or deploying them as consultants, you will expose them to different development experiences and challenges thereby reducing the risk of them getting bored.
• Free training grounds. The established product could be a training ground for fresh bloods since it would definitely have a defined process and solid documentation. Plus the predictability of risks and the expertise in estimations for the product should already be rock solid.
• Steady income. Since you have a product with I assume a number of devoted clients, then you are in for a steady income.
• Established expertise. If the product focuses on a technology, say for example, Java, then you can also establish your expertise on the said technology and then using it to “sell” your developers as consultants.

I know there are a lot more into this business scheme and probably some disadvantages too but I am already sleepy so maybe I’ll just explore this some more on a future blog ^^.