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Sunday, January 31, 2010

My Sydney Travel photo posted on schmap

_DSC0013




Sarah Edwards via Flickr (no-reply)

to me
show details 10:46 AM (5 hours ago)
You've been sent a Flickr Mail from Sarah B. Edwards:

------------------------------------------------------------

:: Schmap Sydney Tenth Edition: Photo Inclusion

Hi Anthony,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo
has been selected for inclusion in the newly released tenth
edition of our Schmap Sydney Guide:

Sydney Harbour Bridge
http://www.schmap.com/sydney/tours_tour1/p=31742/i=31742_208.jpg

If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link
will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version
of our guide. On a desktop computer, you can still see
exactly how your photo is displayed and credited in the
iPhone version of our guide at:

Sydney Harbour Bridge
http://www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=sydney&sid=tours_tour1&p=31742&i=31742_208

Thanks so much for letting us include your photo - please
enjoy the guide!

Best regards,

Sarah B. Edwards
Editor, Schmap Guides

P.S. If you're a Twitter user, please check out our latest
release, a tool for sharing events, places, and local
reviews on Twitter:
www.schmap.it

We also have two Twitter accounts for Sydney, well worth
following:

Twitter-trending Sydney restaurants and bars:
www.twitter.com/sydneypicks

Live music, parties and more happening right now in Sydney:

www.twitter.com/sydney_today

------------------------------------------------------------

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

A programmer's life - deeply misunderstood

Random thoughts or rant on a programmer's life, no intention to mock any of my friends or readers of their job... have a sense of humour pls.


The marketing
Always tells the client buzzword Yes latest .NET , Yes scalable, Yes Microsoft, Yes SOA(service oriented architecture, even if its 1 function call 1 page using web service), Yes WCF

The HR/head hunters
Always wonders why programmers are highly paid, especially if the no. of years they worked is lesser than the programmer. Always negotiate the lowest pay for the client/company to make themselves look good.

The team leader/project manager
The programmers are 'plug and play' to them, we can 'be moved around' in their fancy excel or MS project sheet.

The business analyst
Add 1 field here pls is that so hard?

The managers/CEO/COO
Report pls ? manager->team leader/business analyst->user->programmer, and they thought their business analyst do wonders.

The Finance
Sees us as liability.

The server/security guys
No you cant touch production, no you cant access the server , no you cant edit the tables. Seriously guys, do they really know the database REAL purpose than the programmers? They lock you out left, right and centre, the minimal permission is the safest(thats when they dont know how to manage risk they lock you out!) Seriously we are just like the janitors, we just wanna do our job ,fix the shit(program errors/bugs).

A programmer's real life
We are really just janitors, we pick up where/what shit the previous programmer has left, understand the system from the day 1 its built.
We have to always ask for the 2nd/3rd time to the users how they get the error when they just say 'its not working'.

We have to teach them print screen and ctrl-V to word doc or start-all programs->accessories->paint then ctrl-S.

we have to refresh our technical knowledge every 2-3years and yet know what has been going on with Microsoft since the product was developed (whatever language they are in or whatever version).

We have to do the shit and the rest takes the glory and glamour.

So the HR or head hunters wonder why we are paid higher than the usual.



Monday, January 18, 2010

lol@user application support #1

Thought I'd start micro blogging about some funny support issues

"I select the document that I wish to attach and then press 'save'.

It does its whole thinking thing than after a while this message comes up. File does not get saved/created."

Monday, January 11, 2010

A little comfort of life...Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)

Was walking to work this morning and there was this old man gave a little comfort in life, pulling and pushing his accordion(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion) away with the tunes of the song below....



QUE SERA, SERA
Doris Day

It was written by Jay Livingston
and Ray Evans for Alfred Hitchcock's
1956 re-make of his 1934 film
"The Man Who Knew Too Much" starring
Doris Day and
James Stewart.

When I was just a little girl,
I asked my mother, "What will I be?
Will I be pretty?
Will I be rich?"
Here's what she said to me:

"Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be;
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be."

When I was just a child in school,
I asked my teacher, "What will I try?
Should I paint pictures"
Should I sing songs?"
This was her wise reply:

"Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be;
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be."

When I grew up and fell in love.
I asked my sweetheart, "What lies ahead?
Will we have rainbows
Day after day?"
Here's what my sweetheart said:

"Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be;
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be."

Now I have Children of my own.
They ask their mother, "What will I be?"
Will I be handsome?
Will I be rich?"
I tell them tenderly:

"Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be;
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.
Que Sera, Sera!"

Saturday, January 9, 2010

What's wrong with eating too full?

Don't overeat and don't encourage your family members and friends to
overeat - unless you wish to shorten their healthy living and perhaps die
younger!






An interesting article about eating too full....

In Today's Dr Lee Newsletter Issue: "What's wrong with eating too full?"

==============================

"The more you eat, the sooner you die. The lesser you eat, the longer you
live." This is what Dr Lee always says in his health talk. He also
mentions, "Eating too full causes all sort of health problems such as
hypertension, diabetes, stroke, etc."

Why eating too full is so harmful to your health?
What can you do about it?

=================================
Mice experiment
=================================

To see how eating habit affects life span, a professor from University of
Texas did an experiment on mice.

For the first group of 100 mice, he let them eat without any restriction,
just like a buffet meal. The second group was fed only 60% full. And the
third group was given food without restriction too. But this time, he
reduced protein content to half. After 2.5 years, guess how many mice were
still alive out of 100?

* First group (eat without restriction) - only 13 mice was alive. Opsss...
* Second group (eat 60% full) - 97 mice was still alive. Only 3 mice died.
* Third group (eat without restriction with protein cut half) - 50 mice
still alive.

What can we learn from these results?

Firstly, eating too full is really harmful to your body. Secondly, eat 60%
full if you want to live longer and healthier. Thirdly, taking too much
protein is harmful to your body too. We don't need so much protein after
all.

=================================
Overworking body
=================================

Imagine having a small family car. Instead of using it for short travel
between home and office, you use it for long distance travel between
different cities every day. Instead of using it 1 hour a day, you use it
for 10 hours a day. Instead of driving at 70 km/h, you always speed up to
170 km/h, hitting engine's red line.

Can you estimate your car life span? Do you expect having various problems
with your car after a short time?

Driving your car at high speed for a long time is like always eating too
full. You force your body to always work at its red line.

Do you know digestion is the most demanding work for your body? Think
about the organs involved such as your mouth, stomach, liver, pancreas,
duodenum and intestine. Think about the length of digestive tract from
your mouth to intestine.

Eating too full zaps up much of your body energy for digestion. Otherwise,
this energy may be used for other purpose such as enhancing your immune
system.

Do you realize you become very tired easily after a big meal? That is the
sign of your body working hard to digest all the food you take in.

If you eat an extra bowl of noodle, your pancreas has to produce extra
insulin hormone to process the extra carbohydrates you take..

Your liver, stomach and intestine also have to produce extra enzymes to
digest and process specific nutrients from that bowl of noodle.

Therefore the more you eat, the harder your body has to work to process
it. Of course, we must eat to survive. But we don't have to eat that much!

If you drive your car slowly and handle it gently, you can use it for a
long time. But if you always floor the accelerator and drive like a rally
driver, you know the consequence on your car life span.

=================================
Side effect of eating
=================================

Your car engine burns fuel to move your car and bring you to anywhere you
like to go. As a result, the engine produces exhaust smoke which is toxic.
It must be dispersed out from your car.

Similarly, your body cell burns nutrient for energy to survive. In the
process, it produces free radicals. Since free radical is toxic to your
body, it has to be neutralized and expelled.

"Just metabolizing food especially fatty and carbohydrate-rich fare causes
the body to produce free radicals, which attack cells and can promote the
development of chronic conditions including heart disease, diabetes and
cancer," says Ronald L. Prior, Ph.D.

Of course, your body can control free radicals in small quantity. But the
more you eat, the more free radicals your body produces. Without adequate
control, these free radicals easily attack your body cells and eventually
cause all sort of diseases.

=================================
Good eating habit
=================================

After knowing the harmful effect of eating too full, what's your choice?
Do you want to live longer, just like the second group mice in the
experiment? Or do you want to risk ending your life earlier, just like the
first group mice?

If you wish to live longer, here are some tips you can follow:

1. Always eat until 70% full. Do not exceed 80% full. You may want to stop
eating when you feel slightly full.

2. Avoid having buffet style meal which makes it harder to control how
much you eat. Instead, prepare the food you want to eat in a plate. After
finishing it, don't add anymore food.

3. Leaving the dining table earlier may prevent you from picking some
extra food to eat.

4. It is always a good idea to prepare lesser food in the first place.
Some people are afraid of having not enough food for everyone. Actually,
lesser food is beneficial for everyone..

In a restaurant, order in small amount first. You can always add in some
extra order if necessary. But if you can get by with the original smaller
order, that's great.

Remember this: You have higher chance of overeating if you serve more food
on the table. You have better chance of not overeating if you serve less
food.

5. Avoid stuffing your fridge with ice cream, chocolate or other dessert.
You cannot eat what you do not have.

6. When someone prepares a big plate of food for you, look at it first.
Ask yourself, "Do I want to stuff it all into my stomach?"

If your answer is no, just put aside some food to another empty plate
first. After finishing your food, look back at the extra food on that new
plate. Say to yourself, "Phew! Luckily I didn't stuff that portion into my
stomach."

7. When you get too hungry before your meal time, just take some fruit
instead of heavy meal.

The tendency to overeat is very high for modern people.. Do you know most
monks only eat twice a day?

They wake up at 4am, meditate and say their prayer. Later they have their
simple breakfast at 7am. Before 12pm, they have their lunch. That's all
for them. They eat no more after that. No tea break. No dinner. No supper.
They still look strong and energetic.

Of course, we don't have to eat like them. But it reminds us we can eat
less and stay healthy. So remember to eat only 70% full if you want to
stay healthy.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

A story worth sharing

The story is ... 'good' but it is the later part that I want to share that is not to work hard. Always remember work life balance.


A story worth sharing

4 years ago, an accident took my beloved away and very often I wonder, how does my wife, who is now in the heavenly realm, feel right now? She must be feeling extremely sad for leaving a husband who is incapable to taking care of the house and the kid. 'cos that is the exact feeling that I have, as I feel that I have failed to provide for the physical and emotional needs of my child, and failed to be the dad and mum for my child.

There was one particular day, when I had an emergency at work. Hence, I had to leave home whilst my child was still sleeping. So thinking that there was still rice leftovers, I hastily cooked an egg and left after informing my sleepy child.
With the double roles, I am often exhausted at work as well as when I am home. So after a long day, I came home, totally drained of all energy. So with just a brief hug and kiss for my child, I went straight into the room, skipping dinner. However, when I jumped into my bed with intention of just having a well-deserved sleep, all i heard and felt was broken porcelain and warm liquid! I flipped open my blanket, and there lies the source of the 'problem'... a broken bowl with instant noodles and a mess on the bedsheet and blanket!

Boy, was I mad! I was so furious that I took a clothes hanger, charged straight at my child who was happily playing with his toy, and give him a good spanking! He merely cried but not asking for mercy, except a short explanation:

"Dad, I was hungry and there wasn't anymore leftover rice. But you were not back yet, hence I wanted to cook some instant noodles. But I remembered you reminding me not to touch or use the gas stove without any adults around, hence I turned on the shower and used the hot water from the bathroom to cook the noodles. One is for you and the other is for me. However, I was afraid that the noodles will turn cold, so I hid it under the blanket to keep it warm till you return. But I forgot to remind you 'cos I was playing with my toys...I am sorry Dad..."

At that moment, tears were starting to run down my cheeks...but I didn't want my son to see his dad crying so I dashed into the bathroom and cried with the shower head on to mask my cries. After that episode, I went towards my son to give him a tight hug and applied medication on him, while coaxing him to sleep. Then, it was time to clear up the mess on the bed. When everything was done and well past midnight, I passed my son's room, and saw that he was still crying, not from the pain on his little buttock, but from looking at the photograph of his beloved mummy.

A year has passed since the episode, I have tried, in this period, to focus on giving him both the love of his dad and mum, and to attend to most of his needs. And soon, he is turning seven, and will be graduating from kindergarten. Fortunately, the incident did not leave a lasting impression on his childhood memories and he is still happily growing up.


However, not so long ago, I hit my boy again, with much regret. This time, his kindergarten teacher called, informing me of my son's absence from school. I took off early from work and went home, expecting him to explain. But he wasn't to be found, so I went around our house, calling out his name and eventually found him outside a stationery shop, happily playing computer games. I was fuming, brought him home and whack the hell out of him. He did not retaliate, except to say, 'I am sorry, Dad'. But after much probing, I realized that it was a 'Talent Show' organized by his school and the invite is for every student's mummy. And that was the reason for his absence as he has no mummy.....

Few days after the caning, my son came home to tell me, the kindergarten has recently taught him how to read and write. Since then, he has kept to himself and stayed in his room to practise his writing, which I am sure, would make my wife proud, if she was still around. 'cos he makes me proud too!

Time passes by very quickly, and soon another year has passed. It's winter, and its Christmas time. Everywhere the christmas spirit is in every passer-by...Christmas carols and frantic shoppers....but alas, my son got into another trouble. When I was about to knock off from the day's work, the post office called. Due to the peak season, the post master was also on an edgy mood. He called to tell me that my son has attempted to post several letters with no addressee. Although I did make a promise never to hit my son again, I couldn't help but to hit him as I feel that this child of mine is really beyond control. Once again, as before, he apologized, ' I'm sorry, Dad' and no additional reason to explain. I pushed him towards a corner, went to the post office to collect the letters with no addressee and came home, and angrily questioned my son on his prank, during this time of the year.

His answer, amidst his sobbing, was : The letters were for Mummy.

My eyes grew teary, but I tried to control my emotions and continued to ask him: " But why did u post so many letters, at one time?" My son's reply was: " I have been writing to mummy for a long time, but each time I reach out for the post box, it was too high for me, hence I was not able to post the letters. But recently, when I went back to the postbox, I could reach it and I sent it all at once..."


After hearing this, I was lost. Lost at not knowing what to do, what to say....

I told my son, " Son, mummy is in the heavenly kingdom, so in future, if you have anything to tell her, just burn the letter and it will reach mummy. My son, on hearing this, was much pacified and calm, and soon after, he was sleeping soundly. On promising that I will burn the letters on his behalf, I brought the letters outside, but couldnt help opening the letter before they turn to ash.

And one of the letters broke my heart....


Dear Mummy,

I miss you so much! Today, there was a 'Talent Show' in school, and the school invited all mothers for the show. But you are not around, so I did not want to participate as well. I did not tell Dad about it as I was afraid that Dad would start to cry and miss you all over again. Dad went around looking for me, but in order to hide my sadness, I sat in front of the computer and started playing games at one of the shops. Dad was furious, and he couldnt help it but scolded and hit me, but I did not tell him the real reason. Mummy, everyday I see Dad missing you and whenever he think of you, he is so sad and often hide and cry in his room. I think we both miss you very very much. Too much for our own good I think. But Mummy, I am starting to forget your face. Can you please appear in my dreams so that I can see your face and remember you? I heard that if you fall asleep with the photograph of the person whom you miss, you will see the person in your dreams. But mummy, why havent you appear?

After reading the letter, I cant stop sobbing. 'cos I can never replace the irreplaceable gap left behind by my wife....


For the females with children:

Don't do so much overtime. If you cannot finish the work, it must be some kind of problems within the company, and it is not your sole problem. Feedback to your boss. Endless overtime may not necessary be the answer to the problem. Take care of your health so that you can treasure and take care of your little precious. For the married men:

Drink less, smoke less, cos nothing can replace your good health, not even business nor clients.

Try thinking this way, are you able to work till your clients are totally dependent on you? or your boss is totally dependent on you? In this society, no one is indispensable.

Take care of your health, so that you can take care of your little precious and your loved ones.


For those singles out there:

Beauty lies in loving yourself first.

With confidence and loving yourself, you will see the beauty in other things around you. You will be able to work better and happier. Don't let your health be affected by your work or your boss, so nothing matters more than your well being.