:: MIS Insights ::

After two weeks of deliberation, introspection and consultation, I’ve finally come up with a decision. At last I can finally sleep.

It’s only Tuesday and my working schedule (6 A.M. to 7 P.M.) is already filled until Saturday! What a load!

However, no amount of work will ever be enough (or well-paying enough) to keep me from indulging myself on the things that I like. For instance, since the arrival of my camera (a Nikon D70 from my father) almost two weeks ago, it’s only now that I’ve really begun playing with it.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Cyclops. While I might not know much about her or photography in general, I’ll do my best to get informed on such topics over time. The D70 manual and three issues of Popular Photography has gotten me to a good start with photography jargon and technical know-how out there.

That aside, let me share with the world the one picture that I liked from the first hundred shots that I took (click image to enlarge):

From one of my photography teachers:

nix: You worked with diagonal lines.
nix: very good.
nix: and the lighting.
rj: harigato
rj: i like diagonals
nix: kaso masiyadong maraming gamit. nag-aagawan sila ng focal point

Alas! There is much to learn for a n00b like me. To motivate myself to learn more about this unknown realm, I’m developing an online gallery that will showcase the sight-seeing adventures of Cyclops. Hopefully, a soft-launch of the gallery will be in order before October ends.

Until then, Smile!

After two long weeks without a phone line at home, I am now back in business!

HP - went in for a third interview today. I don’t know what will happen next, but I hope it turns out well. After hearing about the working perks from Punzki, I was more than eager and excited to learn and get it on with whatever task they might have in store for me.

Geodetic Engineers of the Philippines - I got my Notice to Proceed yesterday for a portal that I was proposing for their organization. This is a very exciting project - involving collaboration with top engineering heads all over the country, integration of countless information sources and deployment of online services that I haven’t done before. Yahoo!!!!

Chemical Inventory System - progress is proceeding as expected. The System Development Life Cycle taught in college works wonderful magic for our deadlines and deliverables! I recommend it as a must-know to anyone wanting to do System Development.

TF - after six weeks of preparing the prerequisite documents for incorporation, it seems that the last few articles will be completed by early next week. Hopefully, we’ll get to formally incorporate by the end of next week and start rolling out our services by the end of the year.

D70 - my father gave me his digital camera. Something to allow me to express my creative side. Harigato!

Mueslix - my mother came back from Hong Kong to check up on us a week or two ago. She introduced me to Mueslix and flavored oats - alternatives to my Oatmeal+Milo diet. Harigato!

Nihongo - I’m currently learning Japanese through self-study and occassional conversations with a friend of mine. I bought several books on the language earlier this year and they’re proving to be very helpful. By learning how to speak, read and write Japanese, I hope to increase my productivity by ten-fold. No longer will I have to read subtitles while programming late at night.

Dungeon Siege 2 - In between bouts of anime marathons, I kept myself busy with this hack-and-slash role-playing game. A breed between Diablo’s hack and slash and NeverWinter Night’s quest system, this game has succeeded in killing my time where other recent games have failed.

Gym - After getting sidelined for two weeks because of improper stretching, I am now back at Moro, pumping iron and burning excess baggage.

Now, without much further ado, I still have a date with BusinessWeek, Fortune, Slashdot and CNN.

Very busy the past week

Overnight Programming Marathons - programming has never been so fun when you’re working with a team. Never mind that we’re only two in the team. The point is - after several weeks of pure documentation, the Computer Science beasts in us have been released.

Eyeglasses - I had my eyeglass lenses changed because it was all scratched up and was starting to give me headaches. From my 50-75 setup, wooot!!, I nowonly have a 25-25 setup. Yes, single ladies and gentle madams, wearing an eyeglass for me is now more for decorative than corrective purposes. Astigmatism = Astig mata ko.

Check-up - went to Makati Med for some check-ups. Now I remember why I don’t like going to the hospital:

1) Long Waits. Luckily for me, 3-hour wait + iPod + notebook = lots of business ideas.

2) The most expensive 5-minute sections of my life always includes a doctor in the plot.

3) Blood tests. At first, I was eager to see what the beautiful nurse would do to extract blood from me. After seeing the needle, I decided otherwise, looked away and let the nurse surprise me. That didn’t help to lessen the pain.

Project Scouting - as my current batch of projects near their end, I’ve been scouting for additional projects left and right. Project hunting gives me the thrill that job hunting never did. This is a very refreshing activity for me.

Anime - currently watching Dragon Ball (young Goku) and Bleach. An epic and another in the making. Can’t have enough of that Powerful Rookie Guy + Training + Battle the Threats to Earth plot.

It’s been around 6 years since I’ve really watched anything on television. The last thing that I really followed was Samurai X and that other show. I’ve never really grown fond of television.

Maybe it’s because of…

• my childhood school training (No TV during weekdays)
• the blackouts (It’s very irritating to have a power outage right after the opening of X-Men the Animated Series)
• my interest in other things (Books and computers win over televsion anytime)
• my impatience (the suspenseful 7 day wait for each episode kills me)
• my brother (television is one of the things he really enjoys. Under my watch, he gets priority over the remote control)

So, for the past 6 years, 10 minutes of channel surfing every week was more than enough television for me. However, there is one show that could make me stop whatever I was doing. It’s Crocodile Hunter. [don’t bother clicking though, the site is currently down]

Steve Irwin was one of my Television heroes alongside McGyver, Fox Mulder and Shaider. He’s probably the main reason for my fascination with snakes and crocodiles. Too bad I won’t see new episodes from him anymore.

Steve Irwin, the ebullient Australian whose catch cry of “Crikey!” helped him rise to global fame as television’s the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming on the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was in the water at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series called “Ocean’s Deadliest” when he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous barb on their tails, said John Stainton, a friend and colleague.

“He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,” said Stainton, who was on board Irwin’s boat, Croc One, at the time.

This is a very sad day… Crickey…

I’m thankful to God. My family. My teachers. My friends. For what I have and what I don’t have.

Two weekends ago, I was complaining about how bored I was. After having lived la vida loca in Ateneo, getting stuck with two or three small projects at a time got me restless. It wasn’t enough to while away my time. Sure, it gave me lots of time to do what I wanted to do - watch movies, exercise, play games, read, etc. However, such lifestyle left me feeling empty and unfulfilled at the end of the day. It made me miss the sleepless nights that the relentless assault of overlapping deadlines that academic and non-academic commitments brought.

That was two weekends ago though. Fast-forward to today and I’m head up to my arse with projects that aren’t small and aren’t few. It’s not bothering me though. The sheer thrill of having so much to do with so little time makes my blood tingle with anticipation for the exciting months to come.

I don’t know what’s with me and MIS, but these are the moments that make me feel alive. These are the times that make me grow as a professional and as a person. For instance:

• Pipboy as a construction worker. In the beginning, I was all for writing code manually for every project that I got. Nothing gives me more pleasure than writing new software code that addresses the client’s needs. It’s like balancing an accounting problem in an exam on the first try - but better!
• Pipboy as a foreman. After a while though, my projects became repetitive. To avoid copy-pasting code which was effective but crude, I started compiling my functions into libraries. This allowed me to reuse code in my projects. It cut down development time and this allowed me to take in more projects at the same time.
• Pipboy as an architect. Even though most solutions to the scenarios that I encountered were within reach of my function libraries, no two projects are exactly alike. For every project, there was always a little tweaking and customization needed by the client. This forced me to improvise. Since last summer, I’ve been working on a meta-program. I call it The Regurtitator 2000. It’s a program that writes my PHP and MySQL code for me. It’s not yet complete, but i think it will all be worth the effort and just in time for the upcoming deluge of projects coming my way.
• Pipboy as a visionary. Up Next? My own IDE.

I don’t claim to be the most elegant coder or the brightest programmer out there though. There are a hell lot of people who are smarter, experienced and more knowledgeable than I am. From where I stand though, I guarantee results aligned with a company’s business objectives. It’s not enough to create a database that can keep a company’s data. There must also be a way to harness such data into information that will be useful to different types of people. This is just a sample of what I bring in to the table.

If you’re a subordinate to a fellow programmer in the field, chances are, elegant code and A+ algorithms are a must. However, if you’re like me who’s dealing mostly with Small and Medium Enterprise Company Owners or Management-level IT heads, they won’t be looking at your code. They’ll be looking for business results. And in this e-business-enabled economy that we have, it’s not the e that brings home the bacon - it’s the business.

Once upon an interview, I was asked, “What is your greatest accomplishment?”

Foolish me answered, “Graduating without the pressures of a need for a day job”

When what I wanted to say was, “Graduating with a lot more options in life”

Bah! While the interview and discussion only got better after that, I think I lost them right then and there. I need to work on my oral skills. That, or I have to be prepared with generic answers to such kryptonites.

Several months after graduation, I’ve been thinking about the prospects of taking further studies. My options are:

Another Degree

Another college degree like Management, Psychology or Economics would be a welcome addition to one’s current skill set. The extra units and focus on a certain subject matter would surely help me in my real world work. However, if it’s going to take me another three or four years, my MIS degree might be obsolete already once I graduate. Moreover, that would mean losing three years worth of opportunities. A trade that I don’t think is worth it.

Technology-specific Classes

I’ve been checking out short courses offered for specific technologies out there. Something like a crash-course program for stuff that’s rarely taught in prep school - COBOL, J2EE or Palm Programming and the likes. However, I couldn’t find any decent courses out there ~ or I haven’t looked at all places for such courses. While there are a lot of training materials online, I’m looking for ways to minimize my overhead in terms of time spent learning the material. I wouldn’t mind paying up just to kickstart such training.

Certifications

Bruce Schenier, security guru who wrote Applied Cryptography, recently discussed the relevance of certifications. From the discussion and comments of people, certifications are by no means indicative of expertise. It merely means that one can speak the language of the certification in question. It’s like your grade in school, you might net high grades, but that doesn’t mean right away that you’re good in the subject - at the least, it means that you can talk about the subject.

Will certifications get you hired? It depends on the HR person. Some HRs screen by basis of experience, certification or both.

Should one get certifications? It depends on what kind of career you are building. One cannot just get certification after certification if it doesn’t build up on one’s career strengths. Some HRs actually frown upon people with a zillion certifications. Being a Jack of all trades and Master of None can indicate the lack of experience and expertise in a specific discipline that a company is looking for. Lastly, certifications expire. So, one has to keep taking the tests every once in a while to update their portfolio.

Masters

In a recent issue of BOSS magazine, I read an article about the best MBAs in the world. It turns out that the Philippines houses one of the best and affordable MBAs in the Asia-Pacific - Asian Institute of Management (AIM). Good Job! While this is the option that I favor most, it still costs an arm and a leg if I’m going to pay for it myself right now. In addition to that, it requires several years of full-time employment. As such, I don’t think this is an option for me in the near future.

With so many options, advantages and disadvantages to weigh, this will take a bit of head work to sort through. Maybe I should just take guitar lessons. Or swimming classes. Or even photography classes. Hehe. That would still be fun.

I’m not a good singer. If you pit me against William Hung, you’d listen to Hung any day of the week over me. However, that’s not enough to keep me from grabbing a microphone and contributing to the noise pollution of the world. Last weekend, my Makati friends and I went to Providence Building (in front of DLSU) for a night of videoke. Not really the coolest or best place to be, but hey, who cares when you’re having fun?

Even though each song cost a measly 5(five) bucks, no throat pain was enough to stop us from making short work of P500 worth of tokens that night. We started at 10pm and ended by 3am. Woot! Good thing that the place was open 24 hours a day.

This isn’t your usual bar+videoke machine setup though. Each videoke slot machine had its own room so you don’t have to listen to some schmuck sing My Way for the 412qwerty56th time. There were around thirty rooms all in all - each occupying not more than 4×4meters of floor space. In tagalog, they had small rooms and a batallion of five would just fit nicely with a little room for maneuvering. The walls were transparent and sound-proofed glasses. Transparent to avoid anything kinky or illegal from happening and sound-proof to contain the frustrated sound waves within.

Although it doesn’t really sound much, what got me blogging about it was the computer network installed in their place. At the second floor of the building where we stayed, the server for all the songs and videos was located. In an air-conditioned room on its own, a desktop server can be seen connected to a 48-port switch - most of which had LAN connections that vanished into the ceilings just to reappear in the karaoke rooms. It seems that some smart bastard centralized all the songs (midi+text) so that updating the song list would be easier. Even the videos were reused and just recycled for all the songs. There were approximately 20 different types of videos of scantily clad women and Discovery Channel snippets that were rotated randomly for every song.

If you’re thinking of how the hell did the place become profitable, the beverages man. The beverages. Mineral water, Iced Tea, Beer and Softdrinks cost an arm and a leg there! A mineral water worth P9 outside was sold for P14 inside. Beers P20 outside cost P35 inside. Enough said.

I can’t help but admire such a smart setup! I’d set up something like that myself if only I had capital! However, I won’t just copy such business model - I’m going to improve on it - and I’m going to do it My Way.

The one with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.

The.

Best.

Movie.

Ever.

…

Solid.