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WoodWing
Author Archives: michaelon9
A snapshot of what I’m interested in via Delicious and bit more on how I work in general
Just a quick post about how I approach projects/tasks/requests/anything in general. Something for me to review when I’m another 10 years older in 2021.
It’s a habit of mine that I call the RTFM first before asking anyone practice. It’s something I see lacking in some people who are developers and usually I stop talking too much to them.
Starting quite early, I generally found reading first, then asking was a better way to generally not be an idiot about asking silly questions too much. Of course, with the internet (was more like BBS via a 9.6kbps modem), it made it a lot easier to search first, then ask (which got lesser and lesser as more info is put online).
Delicious when they launched was a godsend for the tonnes of bookmarks (all lost now in some major hdd erase). Everything is neatly tagged when I remember to do so but generally 5.4k bookmarks gives quite a bit of insight into what I’m interested in.
The first bookmark was from 4th Oct 2005 and titled “Drag & Drop Sortable Lists with JavaScript and CSS“.
As of July 2011, here’s the top 10 tags
- eve-online – 469
- tools – 454
- software – 443
- design – 369
- web – 315
- singapore – 294
- development – 274
- programming – 258
- webdesign – 257
- blog – 232
The most surprising? Singapore at 294! Never knew I did so much research into the country I’ve been in for way too many years.
The one year spent on EVE online and continued interest in the serious business of Internet spaceships probably tells me I should work on the technical topics more 😉
After I do a bunch of research, it’s time to experiment,hack around till I understand enough to use it in a project. It can take a long time but it’s usually worth it when you consider that a developer should never stop learning and definitely not stick to just ONE language/skill.
Never be afraid to experiment, fail and try again. That’s where the LEARNING comes in.
Apples invading the home!
So Apple #10 is invading the study (Nano, iPhone 3GS x 2, iPhone 4 x 2, iPad x 2, iPad x 1, MacBook Pro).
This time thanks to Decide.com and bit of patience (not something I do well when it comes to gadgets), I’ve made the purchase of a MacBook Air which will come really useful on the work trips. Lighter bag (my rationale) and really nice specs (i7, 256GB SSD!, 4GB RAM, Intel Graphics that doesn’t SUCK too much).
The same day the new Mac Air launched, Lion also got released. Since I was stuck in a hotel room, the 3.9 GB download was out of the question. When I got back, the MacBook Pro 13 (nickname’d Atron) got the upgrade. So far, nothing much has changed other than some rather awkward trackpad gestures… How the heck do I go back and forth in Safari/Chrome now?
Don’t be mistaken though, 10 apples in the house doesn’t mean I’m giving up on Windows. Windows 8 looks really neat and I hope to get it running on the main PC soon enough. For gaming and programming, the triple 24″ workstation still works pretty well. I do wonder how 3 x 27″ Apple Thunderbolt Display’s would look like though 😉
Thoughts from WebCamp 七
Finally attended WebCamp KL‘s seventh event . I found out about this after the Red Dot Ruby Conf in April when I got to talking with the KL Rubyists (@Anonymouscow and @bryanritchie).
Lucky Chin was able to make it for the event else I would prob get lost in KL’s public transport.
We got in a little late and they were just announcing that the first few minutes would be an ice breaker session. The photo probably doesn’t show it too well but there was a LOT of people. Managed to catch up with a few interesting folks (UX, mobile, etc). Definitely not a .Net crowd 😉
The sessions today was a new format for the guys (something I saw after Red Dot Ruby which is a Pencha Kucha presentation format (20×20 : 20 slides , 20 seconds each). It’s for the brave souls who can really cut straight to the point.
- Chern Shue had a talk on Symbology and specifically on QR codes and his project qnack.com
- Ruben Tan @roguejs shared more about the benefits of Git Workflow which I enjoyed the most since we’re constantly looking to improve the deployment process. 40 square’s Git workflow.
- @jerng followed the 20×20 slide format and gave us a rather interesting look at the state of the web and comparing to some interesting real world subjects
- Wu Han @Ngeow also shared some insights from a recent diving trip and some app ideas. I quite liked the mechanic app.
- Bazil from lgda.org.my did a quick intro to the gaming industry in Malaysia which I found illuminating (recent drama in EVE online has me digging into gaming industry and thinking more about the parallels to portals)
They also experimented with Slideshow Karaoke .. which you really need to have the guts to stand in front of an audience and have zero idea what slides you need to present and just go with the flow. Awesome effort by the first speaker who had transformed the “art of powerpoint presentation” to “dating”. The Top 20 indian movies and lastly a M$ Enterprise Product slidedesk was pretty ironic considering the crowd.
All in all, a pretty good session. Something regular and not what I’ve seen much in Singapore (for such a large crowd). Looking forward to the next session!
Michael Ong 