Monday, October 16, 2006
Sunday, October 15, 2006
BMW Bike
Photos taken at Downtown Aquarium in PROS sponsored event. I believe this is the BMW Sport Touring K 1200 GT.This baby costs around 20,000.
I would buy this one if I could afford. Speaknig of riding a motocycle, I encountered several accidents when I was in HS.The first happended around lunar new year of 96. I was riding a 100 cc Yamaha down-hill. And then I saw this parkping lot on the side-way and I hit the break pretty hard. The bike collapsed and slided tens of yards. I was thrown off the bike of course and also slided along-side with it. Luckily, there was no traffic behind and I just got a few bruises on my elbows and knees. Still handsome!!!
Then in summer 97, I rode a different bike to Ninh Hoa - my birth place, about 50 miles north of my city. I was speeding 45 mph and saw a dog running across the high way. Yeah, animals usually run uncontrollably across the streets and even highways in Vietnam. I slowed down for a bit of course. Then the dog got off the highway and came back to the house. I accelerated to 45 mph again thinking the freaking dog would never
go back. But guess what it did and I hit it with full strength. Amazingly the dog was OK!!! And he managed to run back to the house looking at me rolling all over the highway. Very lucky again, there was no traffic coming so I was safe. I got a few bruises again but my bike was damaged pretty bad. I called dad to pick me up afterward.From that day I have a dog-crossing phobia. Whenever I ride a bike and see a dog by the side of the street, I rather turn off the engine and just walk the bike for a bit...
Monday, October 09, 2006
Longhorn Kendo Team Taikai 2006
In this year tournament, Houston A team won 3rd place. Houston B team couldn't get thru the first round.
Our first opponent is team New York currently holding the championship from last year. My first opponent is Umemura sensei, 5th dan. Hard to believe but I was pushed around by this little 5'3 woman. She scored one point by splitting my head in half and the other one by letting me went out of bounds twice. My second opponent was a guy from UT team B. I won the match by cutting two kote (wrist cut). I lost the last match to Laredo team and had a mild shoulder dislocation after the match.
Comparing to last year, every team has improved a lot, specially southern California team with all of team members are from Japan. The reason why Japanese's opponents are fearful is because, in my opinion, they've already been practicing Kendo when they were in diapers!
I believe in kendo winning is not important. My sensei always says if you always win, you can't learn. You learn and gain experience when you loose. I emailed Keiko Umemura thanking her for the match and she also advises the same thing:
"I am always thinking that the greatest part of kendo is not winning but meeting people. At this tournament, I met many nice people..."
Don't know why River City team is taking photo with us
I'm preparing the color tag for Roger. He's our team captain. Great job!
Full metal jack[et/ass]!!!
First point
Team photo post-tournament
Our first opponent is team New York currently holding the championship from last year. My first opponent is Umemura sensei, 5th dan. Hard to believe but I was pushed around by this little 5'3 woman. She scored one point by splitting my head in half and the other one by letting me went out of bounds twice. My second opponent was a guy from UT team B. I won the match by cutting two kote (wrist cut). I lost the last match to Laredo team and had a mild shoulder dislocation after the match.
Comparing to last year, every team has improved a lot, specially southern California team with all of team members are from Japan. The reason why Japanese's opponents are fearful is because, in my opinion, they've already been practicing Kendo when they were in diapers!
I believe in kendo winning is not important. My sensei always says if you always win, you can't learn. You learn and gain experience when you loose. I emailed Keiko Umemura thanking her for the match and she also advises the same thing:
"I am always thinking that the greatest part of kendo is not winning but meeting people. At this tournament, I met many nice people..."
Don't know why River City team is taking photo with us
I'm preparing the color tag for Roger. He's our team captain. Great job!
Full metal jack[et/ass]!!!
First point
Team photo post-tournament
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Last Day at Work
Working here at PROS for almost 2 and 1/2 years but I never actually saw the hardware/servers supporting us day to day at work. In my last day, I call up the IT manager Troy McDonald and ask if he could give me a guided-tour through our hardware infrastructure. Even though, remember PROS is an adventure, not a guided tour okay!!!
Troy is a kind man. He not only takes me to see various servers but explains in detail the functionality/role of each of them. My first impression when I see the server room is "shocked-and-awed". I mean this is the first time I see something neat yet so sophisticated in my IT life. I worked for computer science department of UH before. But their server room compare to this is like comparing a Civic with BMW.
Troy is explaining the role of this humongous UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply). When power outage happens, this thing can supply up to 40 minutes for the whole server room, which give us enough before time the diesel power generator on the 13rd floor kick off.
Troy is a kind man. He not only takes me to see various servers but explains in detail the functionality/role of each of them. My first impression when I see the server room is "shocked-and-awed". I mean this is the first time I see something neat yet so sophisticated in my IT life. I worked for computer science department of UH before. But their server room compare to this is like comparing a Civic with BMW.
Two rows of Dell servers. For cost reason, we are switching to Dell servers which are fraction to the cost of the same server from Sun Microsystems.
This is the Lux-App* array blade servers. You guys gotta get down here to see what/who help you out everyday at work!!!
SunFire server. This baby alone costs around half a million bucks! No wonder we are switching to Dell's which costs 1/4 of a million.
Troy is explaining the role of this humongous UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply). When power outage happens, this thing can supply up to 40 minutes for the whole server room, which give us enough before time the diesel power generator on the 13rd floor kick off.
Last day (not last lunch) at work. The guy in yellow shirt is trying to hypnotize me to stay at PROS using his dark force. The guy in white shirt looks unhappy. But that is how he looks all the time too anyway.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Go Coogs
UH football is a phenomenon this year. They are undefeated in the last 4 games include the game this Saturday against the Oklahoma State U Cowboys 34 - 25. The Cowboys is currently in the big 12 conference.
Last game with Grampling State witnessed the come back of UH fans: 28,000 people showed up for the game which is the biggest crowd ever in 5 years. And today game is even more crowded. I guess about 30,000 people in the audience at the stadium. I was getting inline during half-time for some water. And they just ran out of food and beverage to sell. The only item left was beer of course. Yeah, they're not going to give up with that $7 a cup of beer deal.
Bottom line is we win the game, again, this time against a big player in the league. And I also lost my frigging voice again for screaming the entire game. I have never seen something like this happen at a ball game: the entire stadium stand in the rain to watch the whole game and they just run down to the field after the game to congratulate the team.
Chaotic - yes, crazy - yes, excited and fun - yes.
Support your home team, and believe in them.
Last game with Grampling State witnessed the come back of UH fans: 28,000 people showed up for the game which is the biggest crowd ever in 5 years. And today game is even more crowded. I guess about 30,000 people in the audience at the stadium. I was getting inline during half-time for some water. And they just ran out of food and beverage to sell. The only item left was beer of course. Yeah, they're not going to give up with that $7 a cup of beer deal.
Bottom line is we win the game, again, this time against a big player in the league. And I also lost my frigging voice again for screaming the entire game. I have never seen something like this happen at a ball game: the entire stadium stand in the rain to watch the whole game and they just run down to the field after the game to congratulate the team.
Chaotic - yes, crazy - yes, excited and fun - yes.
Support your home team, and believe in them.
Change In Career
I just received the offer from JP Morgan Investment Bank last Friday. I went for the interview last Thursday and they made the decision one day after that. Pretty quick isn't it?
The opportunity comes without my expectation. I wasn't in a race actively hunting for a new job. But I a friend of my passes the chance to me and I am just going to take it without hesitation.
Sometimes I have this weird feeling that if I keep pushing and things don't go well, I just take it easier and things would come naturally. Maybe I'm being watched from above!!!
The resignation procedure is pretty funny too. I tell my manager about my resignation on Monday. I want to give them 2 weeks notice before I join JPM. The reaction is quite different from the management. I guess my boss doesn't really care. He calls his boss which is my friend in college, the one who brought me into this company, comes and talks to me. After an hour of meeting him, I have to come down to HR and have a conversation with the HR manager. Then my boss's boss gives me a letter. Next, I have to talk with one of the guy from the architecture team. All that happens in one single afternoon!!! I think they're all puzzled by the fact that I'm a decently happy guy. I never shown any disappointment, complaints for such similar things like that at work. The sudden resignation somehow makes them wonder what is going on here. And I constantly tell them I leave because I feel a need to change, a need to experience new business, new career. They still don't believe it, I guess. Of course, compensation is also in the scope but it is secondary only. It will go on til my last day. I wonder if anybody watched "The Firm", my friend tells me to watch it because things could go similarly to the movie :-)
The opportunity comes without my expectation. I wasn't in a race actively hunting for a new job. But I a friend of my passes the chance to me and I am just going to take it without hesitation.
Sometimes I have this weird feeling that if I keep pushing and things don't go well, I just take it easier and things would come naturally. Maybe I'm being watched from above!!!
The resignation procedure is pretty funny too. I tell my manager about my resignation on Monday. I want to give them 2 weeks notice before I join JPM. The reaction is quite different from the management. I guess my boss doesn't really care. He calls his boss which is my friend in college, the one who brought me into this company, comes and talks to me. After an hour of meeting him, I have to come down to HR and have a conversation with the HR manager. Then my boss's boss gives me a letter. Next, I have to talk with one of the guy from the architecture team. All that happens in one single afternoon!!! I think they're all puzzled by the fact that I'm a decently happy guy. I never shown any disappointment, complaints for such similar things like that at work. The sudden resignation somehow makes them wonder what is going on here. And I constantly tell them I leave because I feel a need to change, a need to experience new business, new career. They still don't believe it, I guess. Of course, compensation is also in the scope but it is secondary only. It will go on til my last day. I wonder if anybody watched "The Firm", my friend tells me to watch it because things could go similarly to the movie :-)
Monday, September 11, 2006
Group Project for Ruby on rails Class
The good news is I am the project coordinator for the project.
The bad news: this job is eating up my free time. By free time I mean time to play video games, watch TV, movies and watch football. It's just more work than I originally expected. But it's fun, exciting and rewarded because I could apply some of the management skills I copy from my manager at work onto this project.
I'd always disagreed with my project managers at work (past and present) for their lack of coordinating among team members, assigning inappropriate work to the right persons (or vice versa I would add), and recently is the introduction of the notoriously time consumming, child-play *scrum* meetings methodology of the SCRUM process. Scrum meetings are pretty boring. Each person has about 5 minutes to sum up what he/she did yesterday and what is to be worked on for today. Normally, the same monotone is used everyday: "I fixed a bug yesterday, today I will create more bugs today!" as it is a complaisant prayer. And also normally, it would become a heated, prolonged debate on design and implementation issues in which only banging baseball bat against developers' heads may stop them from discussing.
There's even a school to help you earn some kind of scrum certification (which ranks somewhere between tying your shoe laces and not choking to death on your own drool in the universal spectrum of skills)!!!
But there are some good things about the process that I learn while being a project coordinator. Planning, you need a lot of plannings. Basically, you list out all possible tasks you could imagine for the project. The the team members estimate the time needed to complete the tasks. Then base on the estimations, we put a certain number of tasks into a timeline called sprint. Each sprint should last about 2 weeks for a small project like ours. So we keep defining the sprints until the project is done. It's that simple.
Secondly, developers most of the time know what they're working on and what they schedule is like in each sprint. Because they're the one giving the estimation so they could manage their time to work better instead of letting some bone-headed morons pull the estimations out of thier asses.
The last thing is each srpint is short. So we could focus more on a particular task. Make it simple first and then enhance it later on on next sprint. This is the way I like best about SCRUM: promote agile practice.
For the school project, right now we are busy defing tasks needed. I mainly spend most of the time now to write trackers and assign them to team members. Take a look at our tracker system. I created about 14 issues and look like I would do half of them. Robin, where art thou, I need your help man. Screw you...
By the way, UH football is doing very well. They beat up the Green Wave Tlane 45 - 7. I'll be comming to the home game next Sat when they play against Okahoma State. Go Coogs!
doug
The bad news: this job is eating up my free time. By free time I mean time to play video games, watch TV, movies and watch football. It's just more work than I originally expected. But it's fun, exciting and rewarded because I could apply some of the management skills I copy from my manager at work onto this project.
I'd always disagreed with my project managers at work (past and present) for their lack of coordinating among team members, assigning inappropriate work to the right persons (or vice versa I would add), and recently is the introduction of the notoriously time consumming, child-play *scrum* meetings methodology of the SCRUM process. Scrum meetings are pretty boring. Each person has about 5 minutes to sum up what he/she did yesterday and what is to be worked on for today. Normally, the same monotone is used everyday: "I fixed a bug yesterday, today I will create more bugs today!" as it is a complaisant prayer. And also normally, it would become a heated, prolonged debate on design and implementation issues in which only banging baseball bat against developers' heads may stop them from discussing.
There's even a school to help you earn some kind of scrum certification (which ranks somewhere between tying your shoe laces and not choking to death on your own drool in the universal spectrum of skills)!!!
But there are some good things about the process that I learn while being a project coordinator. Planning, you need a lot of plannings. Basically, you list out all possible tasks you could imagine for the project. The the team members estimate the time needed to complete the tasks. Then base on the estimations, we put a certain number of tasks into a timeline called sprint. Each sprint should last about 2 weeks for a small project like ours. So we keep defining the sprints until the project is done. It's that simple.
Secondly, developers most of the time know what they're working on and what they schedule is like in each sprint. Because they're the one giving the estimation so they could manage their time to work better instead of letting some bone-headed morons pull the estimations out of thier asses.
The last thing is each srpint is short. So we could focus more on a particular task. Make it simple first and then enhance it later on on next sprint. This is the way I like best about SCRUM: promote agile practice.
For the school project, right now we are busy defing tasks needed. I mainly spend most of the time now to write trackers and assign them to team members. Take a look at our tracker system. I created about 14 issues and look like I would do half of them. Robin, where art thou, I need your help man. Screw you...
By the way, UH football is doing very well. They beat up the Green Wave Tlane 45 - 7. I'll be comming to the home game next Sat when they play against Okahoma State. Go Coogs!
doug
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