Anyways, just now I was browsing my feeds and this post, “Japanese Firm Offers Heartache Leave“, from Mr Trump really cracked me up. Well it’s not funny but somewhat makes me laugh, and think for sometimes.

I wasn’t surprised when I found out that all the employees at this company are women. I don’t mean to be sexist, but I don’t know many men who would call in sick to work because they broke up with their girlfriend.

Are you sure about that? What do you, guys, think? Don’t give me those man’s pride excuses and bluff about it.

But then I don’t know many women who would do it either. If you’re serious about your job, you don’t let heartbreak or store bargains keep you from doing your work.

I wonder our lives only exist around our jobs. He must be talking about those workaholics who got no life of their own and think only about work. It’s understandable since the billionaire such as Mr. Trump, who always think of how to increase his enterprise and who can get(or ditch) any women anytime without much effort would think work more important than other matters.

For me, I think if I ever get a serious heartbreak (I wish not), I wouldn’t want to do anything for sometimes. But then that’s all depends on individuality and how serious you take your relationships as. But I bet most Asian tends to take relationships matter more serious than those of the westenners. I’m just speaking in general but then hey what do I know; so may be not.

But I must say, that Japanese company is very considerate about their staffs well being. I’m sure the staffs appreciate about it and would boost their motivation to work harder for the company.

It’s a nice read for my morning tea break. Makes me think.

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The high-heeled shoe is a classic example of a no pain, no gain product. Women wearing them take so much trouble for granted! I decided to challenge this compromise. Would it be possible to make a shoe having all advantages of high heels, just as well as the comfort of flats?

The character of this shoe is in the heel shape. It has separate tips for both positions. While being used in one position, the other heel tip is kept out of sight in and opening in the sole. The shoe is being transformed with a simple and quick movement: one just pulls the heel downwards to release it, after which it can be folded in or out as preferred. The adjustment of the heel position automatically changes the curvature of the sole to fit the altered shape of the foot.

One comment says “it’s all about appearance, not comfort. And sexy legs are worth the sacrifice”. I’m sure you might find girls very silly but that’s what many girls think (not me). I do wear heeled sandals; not those pointed 4′+ heels, but some comfy heels. My heels are flat, only about 1.5′ the most and easy to move about. The heels do enhance your appearance but the most important and the ideal ones are the one you really comfortable wearing. I came across this cool “Virtual Shoe Virtual Shoe Museum via one of the posts and was checking out some funky shoes there. I go for hi-tec shoe section and found these interesting shoes to share with you.

Carbon II: this one looks neat. Looks like a folded paper – origami folds. I have no idea how to wear “Moulded” and go about in that shoe.

This one is called “Solid“. I’m not sure it’s a shoe or toilet bowl? Seem like the latter to me. Only when I saw a girl wearing it then I realized it really is wearable.

Terminus Est and Artus Duplex – These look really cool in terms of color and the material part. But I dare not lean backward. Artus Duplex looks very robotee.

Holly Mother!! For these, I’m lost for word. They are called “Rhonda Zwillinger“.

Have fun shoe shopping.

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# References:

# Debate: O/R Mapping or Code Generation : Lots of discussion going on there in the reply threads.
# Your Favorite O/R Mapper? : A discussion on O/R Mappers
# CodeSmith Rocks! | When code generation goes bad…
# LLBLGenPro vs CodeSmith w/ .netTiers

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A new google features in testing stage. You can sign up for the invitation. I don’t use spreadsheets often but I bet it’s useful for some of you.
You can check it out here: Google Spreadsheets. (updated the link*)
Creating Spreadsheets

Sharing Spreadsheets

Storing Spreadsheets
Google, Spreadsheets, Technology, Products, Features, Google Spreadsheet

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• To have a big hair like Molly,
• To flirt with Zeldman,
• To think like Eric,
• To kiss Dave Shea,
• To listerine Inman,
• To sleep with 37signals guys,
• To drink with 9rules group,
• To make Scobleizer the Googlizer,
• To takeover Darren’s Problogger,
• To kidnap Josh from John,
• To steal Gapingvoid underwear,
• To visit 456 Berea Street,
• To spook around snook,
• To browse porn on flickr,
• To Apart Mayvelous (ie. May and Velous),

To Enjoy Myself.

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One of the reasons I’m lacking motivation these days is cos’ I’m disappointed with one of my current projects.
We’re using WSS(Windows Sharepoint Services) in intranet project that I’m doing and it’s giving me such a pain and messing up my good mood.

To start of, WSS is such a pain in the god damn unspoken part. It has such a crappy user interface and a documentation. The customization is too painful and lack of good sample resources online. (I still can’t find proper sample documentation for what I’m trying to do yet). I’m struggling with it for a few weeks already and still can’t figure out much from head to tail. The whole day I sit at my desk, read, research, test, scratch my head, pull hair, curse this and that, etc etc. Not only that, I go home, thinking about WSS, I watch TV thinking about WSS, I eat, sleep, go toilet, thinking about WSS. I can’t think of other things to do but think about WSS and have unsettle feeling about unresolved things on WSS. I’m starting to get scared to go to work, to face that damn project again. God damn WSS!!!

Another reason my lack of motivation is that, I’m pretty much disappointed with my whole life situation. (yah big thing haha) There are lots of things I want to do which cannot be done. For example,
I’m disappointed with my work,
I’m disappointed with my pay,
I’m disappointed about my mentor leaving the company,
I’m disappointed about my inability to do things,
I’m disappointed that I’m a terrible programmer,
I’m disappointed about me being a bad sister,
I’m disappointed about me being an unhelpful daughter,
I’m disappointed about me being an unfriendly friend,
I’m disappointed that I’m so lazy,
I’m disappointed that I lack motivation to do things,
I’m disappointed that I can never satisfy with things,
I’m disappointed about me talking about my disappointments here,
Damn I’m so disappointed in me.

Oh well enough about my gloomy life, I’ve decided to pull myself back on track and catch things up. Hope to update my blog regularly this month and months ahead.
Thanks you for visiting here and being an understandable reader.

With Sincere Appreciations,
Gloomy May.

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Check these out:
# Think Vitamin – Orange,

Vitamin is a brand new online magazine dedicated to that new web industry.

Vitamin will inspire you, teach you, advise you and sometimes test you with its in-depth features, audio interviews, training sessions and reviews.

It’s updated every week, and it’s free!

# Bite Size Standards – Cookie!

Bite Size Standards aims to offer concise web development tutorials, tips and tricks. Written by designers and developers who are passionate about web standards.

P.S: Thx Jason for link.

Better grab their feeds.
Oh by the way, what’s those letters in bite size standards logo? I can read the big “B” and “S” but what’s that down below? “I-T-E”, “I-S-E”?? What’s that mean?

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1. Do you use source control?
   Yes, we do. We use Visual Source Safe, VSS, as our source control.
2. Can you make a build in one step?
   This is a tough one. We did have a batch file which do all those check outs and build all projects at once but the file itself screwed up a few times and we gave up using it (lazy to fix). So answer to this step, no, we can’t make a build in one step (for the moment).
3. Do you make daily builds?
   I think we do daily builds 90% of the time, well atleast I do final build before I go home everyday. We got a small team so never really happen a serious source breaking. Yes good idea about babysitting punishment.
4. Do you have a bug database?
   My first impression on this, What’s bug database?, but then he was just talking about Bug Tracking. So yes, we have bug tracking list where we usually update after every build.
5. Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
   I think half of the time, Yes, the other half, No.”zero defects methodology”, good point.
6. Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
   Definitely No. We do have some schedule in the beginning but then it keeps falling apart after a few week. All of us really slack at keeping up-to-date schedule.
7. Do you have a spec?
   Yes, we do but pretty bad spec cos it’s some what incomplete. I hate writing and I don’t like the idea of sending programmers to “an intensive course in writing”. So I propose for “hiring smart program managers” to do all the write up.
8. Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
   Ah…I guess so, most of the time. Well that doesn’t really affect me since my eyes and ears are pretty well trained. Once I’m into something, I won’t see or hear a thing around me. You can yell right at my ear and I won’t hear you. But if I got stuck or frustrated and lost my concentration, tiny bit of noise would annoy me like hell and there follow my bad mood.
9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
   We do have a few grumpy programmers over the tools we got to use. But understanding for the company as it’s a small one and I guess what they provide is not the best but pretty much efficient.
10. Do you have testers?
    Testers? Ah…does PM count as a tester? No, we don’t have dedicated testers.
11. Do new candidates write code during their interview?
    Not at all. I did have to explain a functionality of written piece of code during my interview. I guess the main reason I got job was cos’ I was a GIRL which they lack and need to add some feminine in their team. Pretty bias I know, but what the heck, I turn out ok.(I think)
12. Do you do hallway usability testing?
    Usability test is one thing we don’t do often. So yah we need to improve on this.

To summ up, I guess we do ok considering we have a small team. Ofcos some good points to note and need improvement.

So how did you do with the checklist over your team?

Technorati Tags: Programming, Programmers, Checklist, Coding, Project Management

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Being an IT degree holder with no other accomplishments common these days such as A+, N+, MCP, MCSD, MCSE, etc, I place an obscene amount of value and pride on my single degree.

To me, a degree from CQU Fiji International Campus is comparable to a qualification from one of the Ivy League colleges in the US. This is because IMNSHO, CQU is the best institution available in the Fiji Islands.

My degree is my dearest procession. It is my bragging rights to other less fortunate and less gifted than me. It is a thing to put on display as an awe-inspiring object for the uneducated. Why do you think we get the option at graduation to get the certificate in gold plate or sliver, or carved into wood? If not to flaunt it?

I care very much about issues that would belittle my esteemed degree.

I can’t take any comment that puts a degree from CQU, its students or the institution itself in a bad light – especially those of slander from other universities’ graduates on the quality of my university’s degree, its education or the work of its alumni.

Lately, I have been hearing comments from some of my friends still studying in CQU that programming courses are becoming easier year after year. Every one or two year, ‘the powers that be’ take out a few topics of study from the course COIT11134. Fundamental subjects I studied back in my days have been moved to a higher level course. The assignments are so easy any of my mates from my year can do them in 10 mins flat after a night of binge drinking.

I am a programmer by profession. I can’t take this kind of rumours, if it is true, who’d respect a programmer that came out of my university?

So, I took it upon myself to investigate. I went to the course website, got the course profile. Alas! it is true. Half of what I learnt in this unit is deemed too advanced by ‘the powers that be’ and is now banished from the curriculum.

I wasn’t done yet, I wanted to check the assignments too. Oh? They have been locked for access by students only? Are we so ashamed of the pitiful excuses for an assignment that we have to hide it from prying eyes? That can’t stop me, nothing can stop a be-raved man, they’ve gone and destroyed my prized possession, my precious degree by cheapening its value with watered down versions of fundamental courses.

I’ve got contacts in uni who can get me the assignment details so I got one of them to email me the damning documents. And my choice of words was correct, they are indeed damning documents they have condemned the students doing this particular assignment to finish their degrees with half the essential knowledge if ever they were to choose programming as their careers.

The problem is not just with the course itself but with the course coordinators too. I have a choice excerpt from this term’s assignment materials which shows exactly what the designer of the course think of the intellect of potential students, and the amount of effort that he wants put into the course by them.

KISS
Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS). Don’t try to do anything fancy. There is no need. You won’t get any extra marks for complex implementation. Trying to complex solutions will only slow down your solution. Limit yourself to the material covered in Programming A and the first 5 weeks of Programming B.

I whole heartedly disagree with the above. I believe it is a stupid attempt to try and get more people to pass the subject by making the subject easier. Instead of thinking up such childish acronyms, lecturers and course coordinators should be spending their time actually teaching the less gifted students.

“Keep It Simple, Stupid”? Is it the ‘in thing’ now to insult students for no reason?

How about ‘Don’t try to do anything fancy.’? Are the submitted assignments so complicated that they are ‘out of the grasp’ of the university’s unending list of part-time tutors? This kind of attitude in teaching inhibits learning and creativity. If students didn’t think of doing any thing fancy, where will we get the polish and the flair? How do we discover new techniques? Where do we get our next Newtons, Edison or Einstein or even Bill Gates for that matter?

One word CQU, you are going about this the wrong way. Making courses easier to pass and pulling more students through your programs may be better for business, but it is not doing anyone any good in the long run.

Please don’t devalue my degree. It is my pay cheque. It is my rice pot. It is something my parents used the last of their retirement funds on. Keep the courses reasonable, teach the students well and let me and other alumni keep whatever good reputation we made for ourselves and for the university through hard work and dedication in our field of study and work. For all of us’ sake!

For my beloved university and respected colleagues.
Zatlite

Technorati Tags: Information Technology, Aung Tun Tint Kyaw, Bachelor Degree, Certificate, Central Queensland University, Education, Programming

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Ping is the name of a computer network tool used on TCP/IP networks (such as the Internet). It provides a basic test of whether a particular host is operating properly and is reachable on the network from the testing host.
Ref: Wikipedia

If you are a blogger, you might have been using some of the most famous ping services to notify the blogosphere about your site update.
Some of you may not know that everytime you post to your blog, you are sending a ping to one or more services depending on your blogging platform. For example, those of blogspot users are pinging to Weblogs.com ping service everytime you make a new post. Ofcos that is if you specified it under “Setting” > “Publishing” > “Notify to Weblogs.com” to “Yes”.
For wordpress blogs by default includes Ping-O-Matic service. As usual, the good thing about wordpress is that you can add any number of ping urls in the text box specifies there.

There are lots of sites offer XML-RPC ping services on the web to track your site/blog updates. What those do is that, you added new post to your blog, you notify(ping) one of those xml-rpc services and they’ll come and crawl your site which in term updated in their database and make available to their visitors and propably those visitors will visit your site. Ah…something like that.
The main thing is that pinging and xml-rpc services publish your post/site to a wider medium, which is good.

XML-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism. It is a very simple protocol, defining only a handful of data types and commands, and the entire description can be printed on two pages of paper. This is in stark contrast to most RPC systems, where the standards documents often run into the thousands of pages and require considerable software support in order to be used.

It was first created by Dave Winer of UserLand Software in 1995 with Microsoft. However, Microsoft considered it too simple and started adding functionality. After several rounds of this, the standard was no longer so simple and became what is now SOAP.
Ref: Wikipedia

The followings are my collection of XML-RPC services. I guess only non blogspot blogs can use that. I suggest blogspot users to use the following links to submit the ping manually:
# Ping.o.matic
# Pingoat
# Blo.gs

You don’t need to add all those in your admin ping list. Only the main links as followed would be enough cos’ they ping to others as well.

Main list I use

• Blo.gs: http://ping.blo.gs/
• BlogRolling: http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
• PingGoat: http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
• Ping-O-Matic: http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
• PubSub: http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
• Syndic8 : http://www.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
• Technorati: http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
• TopicExchange: http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
• Weblogs.com: http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
• WebLogAlot: http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

The List

1. 1470Net: http://1470.net/api/ping
2. a2b: http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
3. Amagle: http://ping.amagle.com/
4. Blo.gs: http://ping.blo.gs/
5. BlogRolling: http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
6. BlogDigger: http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
7. BlogShares: http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
8. BlogsNow: http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
9. BlogStreet: http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
10. Bitacoles: http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php

    http://bitacoras.net/ping

11. BlogDB: http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
12. Blogg.de: http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
13. BlogMatcher: http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
14. Blogoole: http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
15. Blogoon : http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
16. BlogPeople: http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
17. BlogRoots: http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
18. Bloggoone: http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
19. BulkFeeds: http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
20. Bitacoras: http://ping.bitacoras.com
21. BloggerJP: http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
22. BlogMura: http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
23. BlogBuzzMachine: http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
24. Bakeinu: http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
25. CoreBlog: http://coreblog.org/ping/
26. Cocolog-nifty: http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
27. DataShed: http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
28. Exblog: http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
29. FeedBurner: http://ping.feedburner.com
30. FeedSter: http://api.feedster.com/ping
31. IceRocket: http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
32. Lasermemory: http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
33. My.Yahoo: http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
34. My.YahooRSS: http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
35. MyBlog: http://ping.myblog.jp
36. MoreOver: http://api.moreover.com/ping

    http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

37. NewsIsFree: http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
38. PingGoat: http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
39. Ping-O-Matic: http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
40. PubSub: http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

    http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

    http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

41. PopDex: http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
42. RootBlog: http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
43. Syndic8: http://www.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
44. SnipSnao: http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
45. Technorati: http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
46. TopicExchange: http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
47. Weblogs.com: http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

    http://rpc.weblogs.com/

    http://ping.weblogs.se/

48. WebLogAlot: http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
49. Weblogues: http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

Only the links download txt file here. I hope this post helps you.
So next time you browse the net and come across new ping services, save the url and share with me too so that I could update my list.

Resourceful Links:
# Community Server list
# Elloitt Back Ping List
# Blog Herald Ping List
# SEO Black Hat Ping List
# Ensight Ping List

Technorati Tags: XML-RPC, RSS, Ping, Syndication, SEO, Useful, Links, Resources, References, Blogosphere, Services

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SELECT *
FROM tblRandomThoughts
ORDER BY Date DESC

SELECT *
FROM tblDisappointments
WHERE Type = ‘personal’
ORDER BY Date DESC

DROP TABLE tblAllHopes

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There are some conversations that don’t belong in the workplace.

You should also avoid lengthy discussions about controversial subjects. Staying away from discussing the following topics will make your work life a lot easier.

1. Religion
2. Politics
3. Your Sex Life
4. Problems With Your Spouse, Your Children, or Your Parents
5. Your Career Aspirations
6. Your Health Problems

And let me add a few more…
Don’t talk about yourself/family (too personal),
Don’t talk about others/friends (too nosy, gossipy)
Don’t talk about your work mates (Nothing interesting about them)
Don’t talk about Food (make you lose concentration in work)
Don’t talk about work (Boring, nobody wanna hear it!)

So…the best is just sit there and be mute. Nice huh?

Link: Top 6 Topics to Avoid Discussing at Work

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Yep, I second that.

The brain pays more attention when it thinks it’s in a conversation and must “hold up its end.” And there’s evidence that suggests your brain behaves this way even if the “conversation” is between a human (you) and a book or computer screen (or lecture).

Link: Crash course in learning theory

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