Mental Blabberings

The First Day of the Rest Of My Life

Dean Michael Berris — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:32:19 +0000

... was yesterday. I now understand why men strive to make the world a better place -- if only to have our sons and daughters have the chance to experience a better life than what we've been able to experience ourselves. The first time I laid eyes on my daughter I knew my existence is validated. Now my life is dedicated to being the best person I can be for my family's future and prosperity. It's a beautiful day.

Optimizing My Workflow

Dean Michael Berris — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:11:01 +0000

So this past week I've been trying to improve my workflow as I prepare to limit the amount of time I spend working or being in "work mode". One of the reasons I am trying to do this is to that I can make time for my family that is about to be one member larger pretty soon. The prospect of not having time for my family is not a good prospect for me so I tried out some simple rules I impose on myself when I'm at work. This is a high level summary of the techniques I use that you might find useful too. (Read more by clicking on the title).

Adjunct to C++ in Haskell

Dean Michael Berris — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:20:53 +0000

So while writing my third installment of my review of the book "Elements of Programming" I went about writing all the solutions in C++. I found that while I was at it, I was thinking about how more and more awkward programming with object oriented approaches was becoming. The 'C' way isn't helping at all too. So before I posted my entry, I already set up Haskell on Alice and hacked away at my Haskell implementation of the same solution in C++. This blog post is about that experience. Read more by clicking at the title or following the jump.

The Day After

Dean Michael Berris — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:48:00 +0000

This day started as a very good one -- the sun was out, the breeze was a bit chilly, and overall it started like a good day to make things happen. Yesterday wasn't a very good day for me and I needed to take a day to reflect on what I was really feeling. At the end of yesterday I felt like I didn't have enough courage to write what I really felt and what was really going through my mind but I still wrote about the gloom. Today though, that changes and for the most part I'm almost going to take back what I wrote yesterday. Read more by clicking on the title.

Gloomy Time

Dean Michael Berris — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:29:07 +0000

I was fortunate enough to not be too affected by the recent passing typhoon Ondoy except for a full day of no electricity from Saturday to Sunday. However though, I'm not feeling so well -- not in a physical manner. I think what just happened to the Philippines and Manila has given me a disconnected feeling, a feeling which weighs heavy in me, a feeling that gives me that feeling of gloom. I'd like to kick it, but nothing I've tried would make me want to leave the house now. I'll get over this hopefully by tomorrow so that I can get on with my life and getting connected again to the world.

Stranded

Dean Michael Berris — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:13:27 +0000

So I'm in the part of Manila that doesn't like rain one bit. And I should say this is getting really crazy. Thankfully we're fully stocked at home and prepared for this. I was looking forward to getting Helen home (the other computer I have that has been in the province for quite a while already) today so that I can play with some of my startup ideas, but I guess I'm going to have to wait another week. Hopefully things turn out alright for others dealing with the flooding and heavy rain here in Manila.

1 AM Encounters

Dean Michael Berris — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:55:24 +0000

There's been a lot going on lately and I've been doing quite a number of 1 AM activities with the current engagement. This isn't turning out to be one of the better things with my current project, but because we have a great team and I love them to bits, it's just one of those things I've been looking to deal with. I really wish these 1 AM Encounters will stop sooner than later.

So, Startup You Say?

Dean Michael Berris — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:53:17 +0000

Okay, I'm no mega-millionaire and I'm no big shot. But I'm just one of those people who has some ideas and is willing to see if the ideas turn into a big payday. This is the start of me scratching my startup itch. Enough with the dilly-dallying, I'm going to set up my office at home and start hacking on some things that have been brewing in my head for quite a while already. So if you're interested in hearing some of my ideas or are looking at funding some of them, we should definitely talk. If you're a programmer with time to spare, then we should definitely talk. It's let's do this time.

Alice, Meet Haskell

Dean Michael Berris — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:31:04 +0000

For a while now already I've been wanting to be able to hone my skills in Haskell programming -- not because it's a fad I'm interested in doing, but also to evaluate whether I can use the language in some of my projects. One thing I've always wanted to do is write a code generator that will set up the skeleton of a project and just allow me to customize the parts that are necessary. I find myself writing some things over and over again that I'd much rather save time by automating things. So I set out to setup a Haskell development environment in Alice -- my trusty and surprisingly capable netbook. Read on.

Day One with Alice

Dean Michael Berris — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:13:19 +0000

No, Alice is not another woman. Although she very well may be. As you may very well already know I name my computers with lady names. So this new one is an Acer Aspire One and while in a conversation with a friend of mine the name just came up. Partly because I'm not very creative with names so I chose a name which started with an 'A'. How has my first day been? Read on.