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Candle in the Wind

It is the Oak Hill cemetery in San Jose, California. It is not the first cemetery that I have visited, but I sometimes come to remind myself that I too will be under someone's feet one day. It is a pleasant reminder that for now I can still inhale and feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. The name and dates engraved on the gravestones are endless. They signify our passing through this world.

The traditions of burial are our attempts of holding on to this world after we are gone. We only exist in the memory of the living and yet we still try to carve out the six feet plot that will be ours for eternity. We couldn't let go in life and still refuse to let go even in death. The statues, the carved stones, the words.... time will erode them all as it did our bodies. We are each a brief candle in the wind.

Reflecting on our use of Email

It would seem that the Internet's greatest asset for people is their ability to use email. Compared to many other activities: WWW browsing, file-transfer, performing purchases, instant-messaging, as well as many other.... Email seem to dominate our usage of the web. Email is highly personal and provides the instant gratification that we all crave. I refer to the example: "You've Got Mail". Those three words cause our hearts to tinge with excitement no matter how often we hear it.

Even with its obvious importance, I find that software to deal with Email remain extremely rudimentary. For most software, the basic functions are to receive and read as well as to send to a specific email address. Rich client programs like Eudora or Outlook (the types that run directly on your computer) provide for pretty good management of your received mail. You can do Search and hand-organization of your mails into specific folders. If you use the web interface emails (like Yahoo or Hotmail), the management functions are quite limitted. However, that's basically where all the software functionalities stop. There just seem that we could do so much more with the most important of our resources (mail conversations).

** here is another tidbit written earlier about email.

Shaking at the doctor's office

It was quite a traumatic experience at the doctor's office yesterday. My 3 year old niece, the little one, had to have a stye removed from her eye. She had it done once before but it was in a hospital where the staff medicated her and she was out during the operation. This time, the operation was in the opthamologist's office. Her dad held her, I held her head, her mom tried to console her, and the doctor went in with needles and screws. She was screaming and her head was shaking and for a long moment her fear and pain shot right through me. There was blood but not too much, just a drop here and there. The doctor clamped down the inside of her eye while she performed the operation. At one point during the procedure, I thought to myself that the implicit trust of the doctor must now be full. There is no turning back.

My niece was very brave. She stopped crying soon after the procedure was over. The trauma was tremendous for her because I saw that she quickly became silent and inward drawn. It was her way of dealing with it I suppose. It was a full 15 minutes later that she was able to smile again and speak of McDonalds' happy meal (her treat for being so good).

Ideas are Cheap, Words are even Cheaper

Ideas are cheap and words are even cheaper.  These are simple things to remember if you have that entrepreneurial spirit.  If you have an idea, it's not really the idea that is of greatest value.  Don't be afraid of letting it out into the world.  The more the idea is allowed to test itself by living in different minds, the more capable it is in surviving.  It is the proper execution and making that idea live in the world that truly counts.

The corollary to this is "words are even cheaper".  When someone uses words to denounce another person's hard-earned work, it is very insulting.  In a split second, you can judge a person's life as meaningless.  Words, by themselves, can be uplifting or damaging depending on how you use them.  Unfortunately most people use them for the later.  For the entrepreneur, programmer, engineer, having their "baby" being judged harshly can be detrimental.  These people have spent months or even years of their lives making the ideas grow.  Within seconds, a complete stranger who has no understanding completely chides the idea and product.  For the cost of a few words, they completely cheapen the effort.  Have heart.  Reality will prove them wrong.  If you have the proper execution, the idea is living in the world and no mere words can stamp that out.

Growing old with code

One thing about knowing more about any subject is that you begin to realize how little you actually know. In this case, I am talking about software development. As a corrolary to this, you continually learn from those who know more or who have more experience. On that note, here are a couple of articles from "Thinking in C++" 's Bruce Eckel:
The Zen of Python, part 2, The Browser as a Desktop UI(My Comments).

Resolution: personal projects

Well here we are, a new year again -- may it be much better for us technical types than the last one. This is my first ever article on Hoang's web site and I guess introductions are in order. My name is Sonny; I'm a mid- to senior-level software engineer with very good software development skills, and I learned my professional habits from Hewlett-Packard's old PC-based server division (acronym was NSD -- Network Server Division, became VS -- Volume Servers, your fearless leader Hoang worked there for a few months). Although I've dabbled in the realm of software solution architecture both personally and professionally I feel "this isn't really my bag, baby" to use a line from the Austin Powers movies, and I definitely prefer the interaction and responsibilities I found on the engineering teams.

Now then, back to the topic at hand: New Year's Resolutions. It's strange but every year I come back to the same one which I didn't seem to complete to my satisfaction the previous year: developing software meant for my own personal enjoyment. This past year I came closer than ever, and even built up my multi-user virtual world. Turns out it's just a room rather than a world and compared to modern multiplayer videogames it's a dog, but I'm pretty happy with it considering I was the sole contributor to the project. There are few formal documents for this project which unfortunately led to less than spectacular results even after the third revision, but for the most part I had fun building it.

This year I think I'll throw in a variation: developing projects for my own personal enjoyment. The distinction I'm making involves forcing myself to look beyond the software development itself and actually writing up the formal documents and having written goals that will ground my expectations. I seriously doubt that I'll get any more enjoyment out of the projects I build, but if I ever questioned the need for distinct requirements documents or engineering reference specifications this last project gave me the answer. In order to have presentable software (that's the point of much of my recent work: "See how clever I am? Wouldn't I be a great addition to your team?") I need to use habits I formed during my years of professional experience which I've conveniently avoided this past year.

Anyway, I hope to contribute some thoughts to Jotsite as part of my penance for my wild coding frenzy of this past year. I'm a bit of a techno-weenie though so if I ever go off in the weeds just whack me with a comment. Happy New Year!