a piece of string I'm afraid

Silly thing happened at work today.

The VPN went down in the afternoon.
Ben, who was in the Sydney offices, was waiting on us to restore the connection.
He asked, "How long?" (referring to restarting the router)
Nathan happily supplied the answer, "A piece of string I'm afraid."
Greg then offered, "That is twice the length from the middle to either end."

Smart.



How long is a piece of string?

For those who are interested, intrinsic to a piece of string, it has length.
But, that length is unknown because it is never specified.
Hence the phrase "How long is a piece of string?" has come to mean that a quantitative answer is not known.
And, there is an implicate understanding that the answer will be difficult to find given the information currently available at hand.

When asked by a client to estimate the costs of a project still in the earliest stages, it is better to reply with a, "I'll need to get back to you with some hard numbers."


An alternate to this phrase is "How much does a vacation cost?" It embodies the same sense of an indeterminate quantity.

Feature Creep

Feature creep is the proliferation of features in a product such as computer software. Extra features go beyond the basic function of the product and so can result in baroque over-complication rather than simple, elegant design.

The most common cause of feature creep is the desire to provide the consumer with a more useful or desirable product, in order to increase sales. However, once the point at which a product does everything that it is expected to do is reached, the manufacturer is left with the choice of adding unneeded functions or sticking with the old product.

Characteristics

Feature creep is the most common source of cost and schedule overruns. It thus endangers and can even kill products and projects. Apple's abandoned Copland operating system is an example of this.

Control

Temptation of later feature creep may be avoided to some degree by basing initial design on strong software fundamentals, such as logical separation of functionality and data access. It can be actively controlled with rigorous change management and by delaying changes to later delivery phases of a project.

Mitigation

• Design document


• KISS principle


• Minimalism


• Software extension


• Unix philosophy

Bitwise Operators

In computer programming, a bitwise operation operates on one or two bit patterns or binary numerals at the level of their individual bits.

		0	0	1	1
		0	1	0	1
AND	a & b	0	0	0	1
OR	a | b	0	1	1	1
XOR	a ^ b	0	1	1	0

		0	0	1	1
NOT	a ~ b	1	1	0	0

AND

A bitwise AND takes two binary representations of equal length and performs the logical AND operation on each pair of corresponding bits. In each pair, the result is 1 if the first bit is 1 AND the second bit is 1. Otherwise, the result is 0.

NOT

The bitwise NOT, or complement, is a unary operation that performs logical negation on each bit, forming the ones' complement of the given binary value. Digits which were 0 become 1, and vice versa

OR

A bitwise OR takes two bit patterns of equal length, and produces another one of the same length by matching up corresponding bits (the first of each; the second of each; and so on) and performing the logical inclusive OR operation on each pair of corresponding bits. In each pair, the result is 1 if the first bit is 1 OR the second bit is 1 (or both), and otherwise the result is 0.

XOR

A bitwise exclusive or takes two bit patterns of equal length and performs the logical XOR operation on each pair of corresponding bits. The result in each position is 1 if the two bits are different, and 0 if they are the same.

"Ah my little businesswoman,"
she said ironically.
"Who is going to love you,
so practical and clever?"

"A woman should always have some foolishness in her."

... interesting

a deferred life plan

I decided that I really like an eight-to-12-hour workday and, something that I have found described as a deferred life plan. It is the new catchphrase for the act of working doggedly, so you can finally enjoy yourself at retirement.

The only problem is that I am afraid that I would find myself too tired to do so...

Why Being Smart Won't Get You Laid

By Dr. Alex Benzer, Huffington Post.
Posted March 5, 2009.

View the original article here.

Your impressive mental prowess won't necessarily get you a date, much less bring you lasting love and fulfillment.

I have a mini-confession to make: I wrote the Tao of Dating books specifically for really smart people. The writing of the books was precipitated by the endemic dating woes on the Harvard campus, as I observed them as an advisor and earlier, indulged in them as a student.

Those kids graduate and pretty much continue to have the same dating woes -- only now with fewer single people around who happen to live in the same building and share meals with them every day. So if they had challenges then, it gets about 1,000 times worse once they're tossed from the warm womb of their alma mater.

From my observations, the following dating challenges seem to be common to most smart people. In fact, the smarter you are, the more clueless you will be, and the more problems you're going to have in your dating life. Once upon a day I used to be pretty smart, and believe me, I had a lock on clueless.

On the one hand, this makes no sense. Smart people can figure stuff out, right? And this stuff is simple!

On the other hand, it makes total sense. For simple things, it takes someone smart to really screw it up. So whether you went (or should have gone) to the likes of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Swarthmore, Amherst, Dartmouth, Brown, Oxford, Cambridge, Berkeley, Penn, Caltech, Duke, read on:

1. Smart people spent more time on achievements than on relationships when growing up.

Smart kids usually come from smart families. And smart families are usually achievement-oriented. Bring me home those straight As, son. Get into those top colleges, daughter. Take piano, violin, tennis, swimming and Tibetan throat-singing lessons. Win every award there is in the book. Be 'well-rounded.'

Well, you're a talented little bugger. Of course you should develop those talents. At the same time, there's an opportunity cost associated with achievement. Time spent studying, doing homework, and practicing the violin is time not spent doing other things -- like chasing boys or girls, which turns out is fairly instrumental in making you a well-rounded human.

The upshot of all that achievement is that you get into a top college -- congratulations! -- and then continue doing even more of what you were doing before. Dating is at best another extracurricular, #6 or #7 down the list, somewhere between Model UN and intramural badminton.

I've been co-hosting young alumni events for name-brand schools for long enough to know that these kids come out a little lopsided (which sounds so much better than 'socially awkward', don't you think?). All they need is a little tune-up, or a little dating textbook like The Tao of Dating for Women or Men, to get them going -- plus a little practice.

Of course, as noted above, things only get worse once you graduate. And if you're frustrated with your love life, you just might try to compensate by working harder and achieving even more to fill that void. Left untreated, this condition can go on for decades. I know people in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond who still haven't figured out how to create an intimate connection with another human being.

It's because they've been going at it the wrong way. Which brings us to ...

2. Smart people feel that they're entitled to love because of their achievements.

For most of their lives, smart people inhabit a seemingly meritocratic universe: if they work hard, they get good results (or, in the case of really smart folks, even if they don't work hard, they still get good results). Good results mean kudos, strokes, positive reinforcement, respect from peers, love from parents.

So it only makes sense that in the romantic arena, it should work the same way. Right? The more stuff I do, the more accomplishments and awards I have, the more girls (or boys) will like me. Right? Please say I'm right, because I've spent a LOT of time and energy accumulating this mental jewelry, and I'm going to be really bummed if you tell me it's not going to get me laid.

Well, it's not going to get you laid, brother (or sister). It may get you a first date, but it's probably not going to get you a second date. And it certainly won't bring you lasting love and fulfillment.

Here's the thing: your romantic success has nothing to do with your mental jewelry and everything to do with how you make the other person feel. And making someone feel a certain way is a somewhat nonlinear process that requires a different kind of mastery than that of calculus or Shakespeare.

In other words, you need to earn love (or at least lust). Sadly, no mom, dad or professor teaches us about the power of the well-placed compliment (or put-down), giving attention but not too much attention, being caring without being needy. I wrote a whole 280-page book about that, so that's a story for a different day.

3. You don't feel like a fully-realized sexual being, and therefore don't act like one.

At some point in your life, you got pegged as a smart person. From then on, that was your principal identity: The Smart One. Especially if you had a sibling who was better-looking than you, in which case she (or he) was The Pretty One.

Now you could be absolutely stunning (in which case you're both smart AND pretty and everyone hates you except for me -- call me, like, immediately), but your identity is still bound up in being The Smart One. So maybe you dress frumpy and don't pay a lot of attention to your appearance.

Attracting a partner is all about the dance of polarity. Energy flows between positive and negative electrodes, anode and cathode, magnetic north and south. Unless you actually convey femininity as a woman or masculinity as a man, you're not going to attract a suitable companion of the opposite sex.

Part of the issue is this: when all of your personal energy is concentrated in the head, it never gets a chance to trickle down to the heart, or, god forbid, the groin. By virtue of being born of the union of male and female, yang and yin, you are a sexual being. Deal with it. Now do what you need to do to perpetuate the race already. Use what mama amoeba gave you.

That brings us to ...

4. You're exceptionally talented at getting in the way of your own romantic success.

Here's an incontrovertible fact: every one of your ancestors survived to reproductive age and got it on at least once with a member of the opposite sex. All the way back to Homo erectus. And even further back to Australopithecus. And even further back to monkeys, to lizards, to the first amphibian that crawled out of the slime, the fish that preceded that amphibian, the worm before the fish and the amoeba that preceded the worm.

And you, YOU, in the year 2009 C.E., the culmination of that miraculously unbroken line of succession, you, Homo sapiens sapiens, not just thinking man but thinking thinking man or woman, are the only one smart enough to SCREW THE WHOLE THING UP.

Perhaps you should consider thinking a little less then.

Because heaven knows that the amoeba, worm, fish, amphibian, monkey and primitive hominids didn't do a whole lot of thinking. Their DNA had a vested interest in perpetuating itself, so it made sure that happened.

Turns out your DNA works the same way, too. And maybe when you're really sloshed at a party and your whole frontal lobe is on vacation in the outer rings of Saturn, you've noticed that your lizard brain knows exactly how to grab that cute girl by the waist for a twirl on the dance floor. Or knows exactly how to arch your back, flip your hair and glance at that handsome hunk just so such that he comes on over to say hi.

To put it plainly, you are programmed to reproduce. Now quit thinking you're smarter than the 3 billion base pairs in your genome and 4 billion years of evolution. Actually, just stop thinking altogether. Let the program do its work.

5. By virtue (or vice) of being smart, you eliminate most of the planet's inhabitants as a dating prospect

Let's say by 'smart' we mean 'in the top 5% of the population in terms of intelligence and education'. Generally speaking, smart people seek out other smart people to hang out with, simply because they get bored otherwise. And if they're going to spend a lot of time with someone, intelligence in a partner is pretty much a requirement.

Well, congratulations -- you've just eliminated 95% of the world's population as a potential mate, Mr or Ms Smartypants. Now, luckily, the world's kinda big, so the remaining 5% of the gender of your choice is still a plentiful 160 million or so people. Even if only 1% of those are single enough, good-looking enough, local enough and just all-around cool enough for you, that's over a million people you can date out there.

Still, that's less than one in five thousand people. And if you live in a smaller city, it may be just a handful of folks who are going to meet your stringent criteria.

At this point, you have three choices:

A) Loosen up

B) Do a very thorough search all over the planet and be prepared to move to Duesseldorf OR

C) Join a monastery.

My hearty recommendation is choice A. The purpose of relationship (and perhaps all of life) is to practice the loving. No partner is going to be 100% perfect anyway, so learn to appreciate people for what they have to offer, not what they don't. And love them for that. That's what real loving is.

Nobody's asking to lower your standards here; you should still spend time only with worthwhile company. But do question the standards to see whether they're serving you or you're serving them.

When you open your heart to love, you may find fulfillment in ways you never imagined possible -- like the day you tried sushi or beer in spite of your trepidation, found it surprisingly alright, and expanded your personal envelope of pleasure. Taking that into consideration, given a choice between happy-go-lucky and picky-but-lonely, happy sounds like more fun.

quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who will guard the guards themselves?

The essential problem was posed by Plato in the Republic, his work on government and morality.

The perfect society as described by Socrates, the main character of the work (see Socratic dialogue), relies on laborers, slaves and tradesmen. The guardian class is to protect the city. The question is put to Socrates, "Who will guard the guardians?" or, "Who will protect us against the protectors?"

Plato's answer to this is that they will guard themselves against themselves. We must tell the guardians a noble lie. The noble lie will inform them that they are better than those they serve and it is therefore their responsibility to guard and protect those lesser than themselves. We will instill in them a distaste for power or privilege; they will rule because they believe it right, not because they desire it.

tell them...

In presentations...

tell them what you're going to tell them
tell them what you need to tell them
then, tell them what you told them

to throw and catch exceptions

Exceptions should be thrown as early as possible. As soon as you detect the error condition, the exception needs to be generated. If you wait for too long, it becomes more difficult to analyze the problem. Similarly, exceptions should be caught in those contexts where some corrective action can be taken. Otherwise, pass them up the hierarchy until you have enough information so that you can effectively deal with them.

Thus, we can say "throw exceptions early" and "catch exceptions late".

the secret to being a superstar

"Managers like to hire people who have two traits.
They’re smart, and they get things done.”

For how a German military Strategist, Erwin Rommel deployed his troops...

For Rommel, the deployment of the dumb and the lazy was easy to figure out: They’re the infantry; they take spears well.

The smart and energetic are designated as infiltrators. They are the spies who get behind the enemy lines and make sure supplies reach them there. They push the envelope and bring you to the point where you can win the battle, but they don’t put victory over the top.

The two most critical groups, Rommel believed, were the lazy and the smart, and the dumb and energetic. The dumb and energetic are the most dangerous of all groups, because they look a great deal like the smart and energetic, but if you trust yourself to them – if you trust them to infiltrate and destroy from the rear – you are doomed.

The smart and lazy win battles and wars because, in their aversion to doing rote work for rote works sake, they are constantly trying to figure out a better way. They are the creators, warfare’s equivalent of the digerati.

If I Were a Boy

by Beyoncé


If I were a boy
Even just for a day
I'd roll out of bed in the morning
And throw on what I wanted and go

Drink beer with the guys
And chase after girls
I'd kick it with who I wanted
And I'd never get confonted for it
Cause they'd stick up for me

If I were a boy
I think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl
I swear I'd be a better man

I'd listen to her
Cause I know how it hurts
When you lose the one you wanted
Cause he's taken you for granted
And everything you had got destroyed

If I were a boy
I would just turn off my phone
Tell everyone it's broken
So they think that I was sleeping alone

I'd put myself first
And make the rules as I go
Cause I know that she'd be faithful
Waitin' for me to come home (come home)

If I were a boy
I think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl
I swear I'd be a better man

I'd listen to her
Cause I know how it hurts
When you lose the one you wanted
Cause he's taken you for granted
And everything you had got destroyed

It's a little too late for you to come back
Say it's just a mistake
Think I'd forgive you like that
If you thought I would wait for you
You thought wrong

But you're just a boy
You dont understand (Yeah you dont understand)
How it feels to love a girl
Someday you'd wish you were a better man

You don't listen to her
You don't care how it hurts
Until you lose the one you wanted
Cause you've taken her for granted
And everything you had got destroyed

But you're just a boy

Discover the Work You Were Born to Do

article by James Gonyea, www.monster.com Contributing Writer

So you've been hearing that voice again, the one that says you're not doing what you were born to do. That may be true, but how do you figure out what you should be doing?

To begin answering this question, examine whether your current career path matches your core interests, beliefs, values, needs and skills. Professional career counselors usually undertake this strategy when attempting to help clients identify appropriate career directions.

Here's what I ask clients to help them find their core. Ask yourself these questions, and record your answers:

1. What subjects do you most enjoy reading about?
2. What television or radio programs do you most enjoy?
3. What are your favorite types of movies?
4. What are your favorite hobbies or pastimes?
5. What type of volunteer activities do you prefer?
6. What subjects do you enjoy discussing with friends?
7. What subjects come to mind when you daydream?
8. What have been your favorite jobs?
9. What were your favorite school subjects?
10. What are your pet peeves?
11. If you doodle, what do you often draw?
12. If you ran the world, what changes would you make?
13. If you won a million bucks, what would you do with it?
14. Who are your favorite kinds of people?
15. How would you like to be remembered after your death?
16. What are your favorite toys?
17. How would you describe your political beliefs?
18. Who do you most admire in life and why?
19. What tasks have brought you the most success?
20. What tasks do you think you could do well that you haven't yet done?

Examine your answers. Do you see a certain behavior or belief in more than one aspect of your life? What information do you see repeated that seems to reveal a behavior pattern? What are your long-lasting interests?

Using this information, paint a self-portrait by completing the following statements:

* I am mainly interested in…
* I believe most in…
* I most value…
* For a good life, I feel I need…
* I can do the following well…

Now ask yourself if your current job helps you achieve these five statements. If it does, you're probably in the right career. Chances are, however, that the nagging voice means your current career is not satisfying your core features. If this is the case, then it's time to find a better fit.

...

I like the silly people you meet in life.

We were talking about web browsers and why I used Internet Explorer.
I was asked why she liked the Mozilla Firefox browser better over Internet Explorer.

She replied, "Personal preference."

If you have an opinion about something... you need to be able to quantify it!

Reflection & Resolutions

thinking back...

I believe that I've changed a lot in these years
I had went back and looked at my earliest posts
I think then I was still depressed over Leanne
I was so afraid of being lonely and so very unhappy about being single

but now...
I actually do enjoy and value my freedom

I would like to believe that I have matured in this period
in reference to maturity, I am more forward thinking
I like to mull over the future and wonder that which will come to pass
over various conversations with my peers, I noticed we are now more focused on our long-term goals

What are my long term goals?
1. financial independence
2. my own place
3. someone to cuddle with on cold winter nights at no. 2
4. to have gourmet dinners in any city whenever & wherever
5. and, a BMW 3 series coupe

I do think that no. 5 will probably change as better cars arrive on the market



that new job at that new code shop


I got a new job in November 2008 and I think I am better for it
there is a lot of doom and gloom over the global economic stability in 2009
so, I guess I should content I got this new job

its back into the IT industry for me
I am finally an Analyst/Developer even though it is for a small code shop
it is great to be designing and coding systems
I get to put into practice the stuff I had learnt back in uni
I'll admit that I am more than a little rusty...
but, its nice to know I can still do databases and draw UML diagrams
and, I am still putting off getting my SCJP certification
there is still so much for me to learn, try and do

I feel a need to sort of, live up to my new job...
it has been a promotion in a way
I think I have entered my job role at an overvalued position
but, I'd like to think that I am talented
I will definately give it a hard go and pray for the best

the said code shop is a place the north suburbs of Melbourne
its very bohemian (read as poor and arty-farty)
there are really good coffee places and cafés round
and this fantastic viét bakery that I frequent for cheap lunch rolls

the guys whom I work with are a friendly bunch
I find most of them to be a tad nerdy with their World of Warcraft and Playstation3
but then again, I do collect figures and manga
they also do very laid back... very well
that is in contradiction with my personal views on IT
I expected a more dynamic and fast paced environment

but, I guess that every business and its work environment is different



New Year Resolutions for the workspace

I had my first month performance review with my manager not too long ago
its nice to know that I am on track with most things
I was told I was too enthusiatic and should cut back on the caffeine
We also establish my responsibilities and the the company's expectations for me
let me say that I got a lot to prove...

I really need to level-up (read as upgrade) on my skills
since I have been out of the IT game for a while, it is all unfamiliar territory again
and there are some skills (like the proprietary hardware, serial comms and wireless networks) that beg to be learned in the blink of an eye
it has been quite a challenge to wade through the crop of new material
I have found myself reading through a tall pile of references and manuals daily
but, I am happy I am very receptive to self-improvement and to professional development

I also intend to work harder than I need to...
you know what they say, perception is reality
I want to be perceived as a superstar
I hope to follow with a promotion
and, a promotion will have a significant effect on my future with the company and my own job satisfaction

this new year, I want to hit the ground running
I have made commitment with myself to work extremely hard for the next six months
I do not agree with Darren that the first few months at a new workplace is all breezy
I want to turn it up a notch instead

I need to keep the enthusiasm high.

on karaoke...

I was killing them softly... with my song.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 !!!

a fresh start!