wAntAn productions

Web application developers... I call upon you. Share my pain. JavaScript is the worst thing to happen to browsers in recent years. In all truthfulness, it's getting a little easier to program in JavaScript now that both Netscape and Micro$oft are moving towards the ECMAScript standard.

However it is the nature of JavaScript itself that scares me. Firstly it's a non-compilable scripting language so you can't catch syntax errors early on. Secondly it throws errors in the weirdest ways making it super hard to debug. Thirdly JavaScript can be used in the following way parent.document.iframeOne.document.formOne.fieldOne.value... this can cause serious headaches everytime a page is redesigned.

If there's one thing I learned from doing my final year project (finished product, project web page) it's that JavaScript is evil and should be avoided at any costs. However they are using JavaScript like there's no tomorrow in my new workplace... guess you can't have everything your way.

Exactly as the title says... I got my hair cut today. The saloon girl did the styling for me. I'm not likely to be able to duplicate this hair style myself so I took a picture for keepsake.

By the way... the haircut only cost me MYR 15. I admit it... I'm a cheapo. If I ever had to get a MYR 50 hair cut I'll whine my head off.

Just wanted to share with you how my new work environment is different from my previous work enviroment and all the things I have to get used to.

In Tokuii if you had a hardware or software problem all you had to do was to call an extension and chances are that the System Administrator would attend to you immediately. This morning the person sitting directly in front of me had a problem with his Windows PC. The support person only came in half an hour before it was time to leave. Corporations lose efficiency as they grow larger and bloated.

The system I am working on is huge. Because the system needs to grab data from so many other systems it was impossible to set up the application (i.e. the system I am coding) on my own PC. Thus we all share the same test server running the same application server and we all look at the same log file for debugging. With probably about twenty people coding and testing the application at any time... sifting through the log file has become my number one most hated tedious job. Back in the old days, any one of us could set up the application on their own PCs.

I'm now using Windows XP and the test server runs on HP-UX (which IMHO is the worst *nix there available). I miss working with Linux. I've been rather smitten with Linux. It's extremely developer friendly. I miss grep, vim and find so much that I installed them on my Windows machine too (vim, various Unix utilities for Windows).

At my new job I had the liberty to try choose my preferred IDE. I tried Netbeans, JCreator and Eclipse. While Eclipse is not terribly suited to coding JSPs... I still find it to be the best Java IDE ever. Odd it is then that I do not actually utilise Eclipse fully. For example, I've completely stopped using code assist. This is thanks in no small part to my training of using only vim as an editor in Tokuii.

By the way... notice how hazy it has been these couple of days? Damn Indonesian forest fires.

David pointed out to me that the comments feature on this site were not working properly. I looked through Blogger again and fixed the problem... so uh... kasi comment sikit boleh? Terima kasih daun keladi.

Tom Yam Prawns rock my world... just came back from dinner with my girldfriend and her parents. I paid for it cause my girlfriend insisted that I owed it to her family... who am I to argue with my darling :)

Anyways, the Tom Yam prawns were good and cheap. Ever had Tom Yam prawns in a cocunut? It rocks.

It's been my routine lately to play a few rounds at the cybercafes with my mates from Tokuii (all ex-staff like me). Today was Warcraft III The Frozen Throne... a definite welcome change from playing Counter-Strike and Starcraft all the time.

Results:
I won both rounds :) This was surprising considering Jimmy was around. That guy is quite a hardcore gamer. Plus he's got all the money in the world to upgrade his beloved gaming rig.

Looking forward to the next Starcraft session (possibly next week). I intend to undo my trashing at the hands of Yong Jing. Hope Ben shapes up a little. He needs practice.

I've made it through my first day in the new company.

It was extremely boring. The food there is extremely expensive (even more so than when I was working in Mont Kiara!). Worse of all on Mondays till Thursdays... I have to wear a tie. That sucks serious booty!

Thank God it's Friday tomorrow. I'll slip in to my worn out jeans and a collared tee... then maybe I'll feel better about having to spend another half year (minus one day) in that dreaded place.

Kinda missing my old job now :P

Ooohhh.... new job begins tomorrow morning.

Pros:
- Higher salary.
- Huge MNC.
- Less demanding working hours.
- Near my home.

Cons:
- No more team lead position.
- Total lack of fringe benefits.
- Traffic can be horrible at a stretch.

Oh well... we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

It's the second day my blog is up. Wondering how long I can keep this up. I'm not a terribly interesting person after all and all this blogging sure feels like a BIG waste of time. Let's see how long I can keep doing this :)

Blogging can be a terrible addiction for some people (there are also lots of people who are addicted to reading other people's blogs). I can't really seem to grasp the fun of blogging but then again a hell of a lot of Malaysians do it.

So without further ado... today's little blogget (as in snippet):

Just came back from dinner with my ex-colleagues from Tokuii. Best colleagues you can ever find. Hell of a lot better than my previous job.

Friday 11 June 2004 marks the end of my tenure as the Software Engineering Team Lead in Tokuii Corporation (http://www.tokuii.com). I've had one other job before this. My first lasted 7 months. My second, being Tokuii... lasted 7 months as well.

Some pics I took on my last day there:

Software Engineers (and one outsider)


Baseapp Team: Yoke Harn, Me, Yeng Ling


IDE Team: David Lim, Me, Choong Ping


SB and Reports Team: Shiao Yin, Tze Teng, Teng Yew, Me, Nicholas Lim, Jane Tan


Graphic Design Team: Ben Yeong, Me


Me after losing the first pool game to Ben at Breakers, Sri Hartamas

Business Analysts


Me, Remy Ng (Project Manager)


Janice, Me


Lynn Wong, Me, Vijay


Ruben (Vice President of N.O.), Me (President of N.O.)


Me, Siew Mun (Mrs. Ruben)


Mei Yee, Me


Li Wen, Me... so difficult to get her to take a picture with me


Kakis from BA: Adrian Chong (Malaysian Idol hopeful), Philip, Lance, Me, Eugene

Notable absentees: Efy (Chief Software Architect and all around nice guy), Sianny (Mrs. Efy)... they left early due to extreme lack of sleep :)