scribbles of the perennial debugger…
Work
How’s work now?
Dec 27th
I am now a former employee of Barclays. Barclays Global Investors that is. Why former? It’s because BGI has been acquired by my new employer, BlackRock. Almost two years with BGI has left me good memories and tremendous growth. Here’s hoping the same with BlackRock. The same enthusiasm and positive outlook is now channeled to our new team at BlackRock.
Anyways, after few days after the official execution of the “divorce”, I saw this advertisement from CNN.com. Funny, but this is now reality. The world “Global” was BGI’s punchline, at least in name and in internal culture usage. 
Some note on technical debt
Aug 16th
Technical debt is a metaphor used for describing left-overs from hasty designa dn development process. The hasty process could have been a result of valid business-driven factors. However, this could be a result of unhealthy developer factors such as procrastination or myopic design tendencies. From a simplistic TODO, FIXME or my own favorite, XXX annotations, technical debt could be larger than expected. A stovepipe architecture may well be a result of such debt. An excellent architect, a dedicated team of developers, a scalable development process and a decisive resolve are the factors that will lessen if not eliminate technical debt. Been there, done that. Hope I and my friends matured enough to not fall into these kinds of trap.
Agility
Jun 21st
The Agile Manifesto:
- Prefer Individuals and Interactions over process and tools
- Prefer Working Software over comprehensive documentation
- Prefer Customer Collaboration over contract negotiation
- Prefer Responding to change over following a plan
I do admire Agile practice but here’s my take:
- People and Process has to be equal. You can’t let people go autocephalus. You need some sort of control, no matter what, and no matter hove heavy or light it is, to make sense of anything. So I give these two the equal treatment. Interaction will have to happen as mandated by the process and as a normal behavior from the people. Tools will also serve as force multiplier.
- I agree with this. You don’t need comprehensive documentation. A simple set of leading documents and API interface documentation will do. Developers is almost always capable in efficiently digesting code through minimum but informative set of information.
- Depends on where you stand… Do you do this in an open source pro-bono environment? In-house coding? Consulting? Product Development?
- Just as my take on the first, there has to be some sort of a plan and this should be followed. Of course, the plan should cater to exception mechanisms.
Boondoggle
May 30th
Trust me, this is a true word. Just look for it in Wikipedia. Anyways, I am not indifferent to this word. Been there, done that. Just worth noting that in here…
RUP – archive
May 10th
Just saving the photocopies before I throw the RUP poster away. Here are the individual files:
Agile – Holier than thou, you are not!
May 9th
There has been many times that I have encountered this in the past. So many times that a probable good approach has been shot down mid-flight one way or another without much fight. Perhaps you’d know what I mean. These are scenarios where in a supposed brainstorming session, only one person dominates. And if seemingly, a consensus was reached, only to find out only a one-sided decision is made.
Here are actually the opposites. Hope people learn from this little anti-anecdote.
- Contribute your idea. Be prepared to be rejected. Add your input to an existing idea.
- Being concrete and devoid of emotion does not mean blindly accepting all ideas as presented. Democratically explain the merits of your proposal, if applicable, or the demerits of the existing one. Always, criticize the idea, not the people.
- There exist no “best” idea. Only better ones.
- ultimately, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen…!
Java project – cancelled
Apr 15th
I am cancelling my pet project for 2009. Because of obvious time reasons, I will not be able to attend to it with much gusto. So better luck next time (hope the opportunity comes soon). I’d rather devote my full non-office time to my family…
Yeah sure!!!
Dec 28th
Since 2008 was my last year with my old employer, and to date, I have enjoyed new-found happiness with my new employer, I believe, one thing that has been bugging my mind for a long time now need to go away along with the closing days of 2008.
Back in the olden days, there was this person who I was trying to help. Who I was brainstorming with. Who’s endeavors I support. This person was so proud that he told me, “If you knew everything, why don’t you just take it!” He was referring to his team and to the product he is assigned to lead.
Well, Mr. nice guy, I haven’t forgotten that singlemost un-appreciative moment of egotistic and unprofessional whining. OK, here’s my turn to equate what this visionary-innovator-architect-leader has said to me.
If this guy was so good, how on earth functionality and performance was not managed well? Forget the “nebulous” requirements. There are always better ways to solve problems and requirements without getting too complex. Without sacrificing so much complexity, with proper management of change. IT resources would not have wanted to go away from this guy’s leadership. Technology transfer would have been managed well. I do not claim to be that good… but I do refute any bull this guy has ever said and done. I rebelled in my heart for such person being rewarded when more deserving ones are abound. There are people who through the years I have clashed with but I have tremendous respect for them for they stood for their own belief. And they really have something to strut, not just pretensions and sweet talks. I do not have anything against this person, personally. But given the choice, I don’t like to work with this person again.
Alright now, thank heavens I finally had the guts to yell this out… case closed.
Java where?
Dec 22nd
It’s been a while since I have last posted about Java or anything technical. I hope I’ll find enough time next year and enough inspiration to post more meaningful contents. I hope to extend my posts portfolio to not just technical but into my new-found knowledge, financial and capital markets. Here’s to a more fruitful 2009. Glad I made the right decision back in December 2007 and did not pursue employment midway in some other company during that year. I am happy and expect to see more challenges ahead in terms of my career, experience and knowledge-base.
