Sh*tmores

Kiss-ass Principle

2014-06-23T23:12:00.003+08:00

The steps to resolve a bug/error report can be broken down into 6 simple steps.

Clarify the problem
Implement temporary solution (if applicable)
Find root cause of the problem
Implement permanent solution
Verify solution with user
Implement preventive solution/action --make sure this problem doesn't repeat again
Send out summary of lesson learned

A reckless programmer will only do at least 2 of the steps above and no more.

I don't like reckless programmers.

However when it comes to responding the bug/error report back to the user directly, I have a helpful format what I call 'Kiss-ass Principle'.
It is designed to make the user feel respected. And happy.
A happy user will support you in more ways than you can imagine.

Kiss-ass Principle can be plainly broken to roughly 7 steps.

Acknowledge the user problem feedback and clarify -- "Thanks Sam, what/how/where/when you see that error?"
Let them know when you are looking into this problem -- "OK, I am doing this shit currently but will look into this in 5 mins time" or "Ok, investigating now".
Let them know you found the source of the problem -- "Ah I see the problem now. It is because of la la la la"
Tell them when it will be fixed -- "This bug will be fixed in the next server update"
Tell them it is fixed and request the user verify -- "OK, updated the server with the fix, can you try again"
Reassure the user the problem is seriously taken care of -- "This is a shitty problem but it is fixed and should be fine from now on"
Say sorry if you have to.

Book review: Groovy 2 Cookbook

2014-02-01T22:41:00.001+08:00

(Disclaimer: I got a copy of Groovy 2 Cookbook from Packt for review)

A good cookbook will help you learn something quickly, or guide you to solve a problem in simpler way. On both count this book has done a good job.

I find the 'Using Groovy Language features' chapter easy to follow and will be helpful for newbies to learn Groovy. However I think they missed out focused topics on Collections.

The chapter on Meta-programming and DSL is particularly helpful. I have learned new tricks on applying DSL in my day to day work.

The chapter on concurrent programming is decent but could be better with simpler examples. This is the chapter where it reads like a overview of what gpars can do for you but if you don't have a good grasp of concurrent programming with groovy then the examples can be confusing. I wouldn't recommend newcomers to learn gpars from this book and instead learn from the online doc directly.

Maybe it is the nature of Groovy where the language is already quite easy to read and understand -- this book can be seen as struggling to compete with the very concise and clear online documentation.

As somebody who has been programming with Groovy for many years, I would recommend this book to Java programmer who would like to get a good grip of Groovy language quickly. Otherwise this book offers little to seasoned Groovy programmers.

Instant Handlebar.js book review

2013-11-07T15:56:00.003+08:00

(Got a chance to review this book last week, and here is it)

Easy and very fast read

Good for developers who are looking to learn better JS template solution.
Also good for more in-depth information after reading various tutorial online.
The actual Handlebar.js is pretty good too so this short book is more like a introduction to the power of Handlebar.js before you dig into the official doc.

One thing you need to do to stop being sucky

2013-07-15T12:59:00.004+08:00

Stop waiting for permission.

You don't need the company budget to get the X gadget that will increase productivity by Y-fold.

You don't need your boss to 'okay' to do that awesome thing.

You don't need to make your colleagues happy -- ship it or fuck off.

You don't have to be nice. It's optional. Get shits done.

You don't need permission from God to set out to change the world. Ask for blessing and forgiveness.
God loves you anyway.

You don't need permission.

When sending e-mail

2013-06-06T14:15:00.004+08:00

If it's too long, break it down into list
If it's a long instruction, break it down into steps
Number your list
Keep it very short -- let's leave essay to schools
At the end of e-mail, suggest/recommend/tell the reader what to do next

Now go send e-mail like a boss.

Why we need the visionaries to save us (the nerds)

2013-06-02T17:07:00.001+08:00

I met many young aspiring startup founders this weekends at AngelHack SG. I was impressed. I was also disturbed by the lack of visionary thinking among them.
Programmer nerds are by default, clever people. You need a certain level of intelligence to code shit. And you need visionaries.

Need. It's not optional.

You can code the damn thing -- the algorithm, the SQL data mapping, CSS framework, angular-shit, and what not. You make it pretty and fast. And you proved that it works.

You, the awesome programmer is going to impress the judges and some of them will fall off their chairs.

Haha.

No no. It is different when you are hacking in events like AngelHack. Unless you can complete the whole damn thing -- the best bang for bucks is the slides! But better make sure you can code the damn thing okay.

After 24 or 48 hours labor, you have to present to a panel of angels and investors that need to understand what you got for them.
You window of opportunity is very small.
I mean, how long does it take you to pee? Well you got less time than that.

But I digress, the point is not about pitching in the shortest time possible.
It is about making them see the value of your stuff.

Show is better than tell.

You got to show what you got -- not tell.
But if you only have the server running and you are showing them the logs flying everywhere, you get an F.

F for fail.

I know you are an awesome programmer, but if you don't have the chops to deliver your idea out to the world, you need a vision guy to do it for you.

The vision guy will sell your idea.
This vision guy will do the slides for you.
For you!

If you can't find any then maybe it's about time you learn how to be a visionary.

Start here.

Send GCM notification from Clojure

2013-05-14T21:40:00.002+08:00

Simplest solution to redirect Tomcat port 8080 to port 80

2013-04-12T10:08:00.001+08:00

sudo iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080

(Tested to work fine on Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10)

How to check if a 3rd party or app dependency is available

2012-12-12T11:46:00.002+08:00

I have seen some nasty and complicated workaround to find out if a certain app or dependency is installed.

Here is the simpler and better way to find out if the app is already in your Android device by using PackageManager.

Project Management in 10 steps.

2012-11-25T22:05:00.000+08:00

I have been tasked with managing small team of software developers on and off over the years. Project Management is always about getting things done right and on time. If you got these 2 right then you usually don't have to worry about over-budget.

Any PM can be broken down into these 10 steps assuming the project time estimation has been determined early on.

Find out the goals, or what to get done. If the goals are not clear, don't proceed.
Find out when the project must finish, a.k.a deadline.
Make a quick mental model of tasks to the time available. If you are really familiar with the works then break the tasks down by hours, else break it by days. If things are vague, use "week". This is the point where you either get that comfortable feeling that things will go alright, or getting the sick feeling that you are screwed.
Find out who to report to. This is the person (or persons) you send progress report to.
Find out who is on the team or do you have a team to take on the work.
Assemble the team and brief everyone on about the project.
Create the project structure, the git/svn repo, the bug tracking and give everyone the necessary access to these systems.
Assign tasks to everyone and put a date on the tasks. Tasks without date should be moved to the side for now. I recommend Kanban system of placing stuff.
Monitor team progress, report progress and updates to stakeholder.
Get out of the way so your team can do their work.

Further discussion

Getting out of the way is important. If you hire right and the team is in good shape, there is absolutely no reason for you to micromanage.
No, you don't have to make everyone happy.
Kanban and Scrum fits my organization. You may already be doing these things without you knowing their common names.

Node.js express file upload -- uploading file the easy way

2012-02-06T00:41:00.001+08:00

Forget all those old example on how to upload file. Express provides a very easy and simple to use file upload feature that every newbie (like me) should know and use.

Step 1:
Your form must be multipart.

<form  enctype="multipart/form-data" 

...>
<input name="uploadfile" type="file /> 

Step 2:
Here comes the req.files magic.

app.post('/upload', function(req, res) {

     console.log( req.files.uploadfile );

     console.log( req.files.uploadfile.name );

     // use fs.rename to move the file and unlink after that

});

Internally express is using formidable to do handle the file upload. But it's a surprise to me that formidable doc is a piece of shit, and express is obviously not advertising this feature enough.

Looking for Java/Groovy/Ruby/Python hacker

2012-01-11T09:30:00.000+08:00

Hi, we are looking for a guy (or girl) who can hack Java/Groovy/Ruby/Python -- a generalist.

You must love to learn & and work on new stuff -- pick up advance Javascript, Android development, work on iOS projects, solve big data problems with mongodb, HTML5/CSS3 etc.

You will have fun, glory, and opportunities to get your hand dirty on the latest techs.

We are based in Singapore and expect you to be here. We will pay you good, and hope you will grow with us.

Interested? PM me on my Twitter @seymores or Linkedin.

DLog

2011-09-23T15:02:00.004+08:00

#define DLog(fmt, ...) NSLog((@"%s [Line %d] " fmt), __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, __LINE__, ##__VA_ARGS__);

Simple Scala IRC Client

2011-09-20T21:57:00.001+08:00

Direct and simple port of a typical Java IRC client to Scala. Notice the break. Consider this iteration 1 to learn Scala. :-)

Homebrew install formula for Scala 2.9.1 final

2011-09-05T00:06:00.000+08:00

Save this homebrew formula to /usr/local/Library/Formula/scala2.9.1.rb. Then 'brew install scala2.9.1' from command line.

UI Engineer (SG)

2011-08-04T15:33:00.000+08:00

UI Engineer (Base in Singapore)

We are a successful web and mobile development consultancy seeking to bring on a UI engineer to assist with front-end web development. Our work environment is both fast-paced and fun.

An ideal candidate should have these capabilities:

Ability to communicate effectively in English. Mandarin is helpful but not mandatory.
Very solid HTML and CSS skills. You must live and breathe it.
JavaScript - understand concepts like scoping and declaration hoisting
Understand the differences between browser implementations of HTML, CSS, and JS
Reasonably adept with Photoshop

To be clear, this is not a web design position. It involves client-side development and implementation of designs.

This is a full-time position based in Singapore (S088853).

To apply, please email a resume/CV to hr017@favoritemedium.com and use 'SG UI Engineer [2011Q3]' as the email subject. Include links to Twitter and/or Github accounts, if applicable.

MOSC2011: Programming Google App Engine with Gaelyk

2011-07-09T23:50:00.002+08:00

Google App Engine with Gaelyk

View more presentations from Seymour Cakes.

Custom UIColor from hex value

2011-05-30T15:34:00.003+08:00

This is how to convert hex to uicolor for iOS/iPhone development.

Where I sit and work

2011-05-26T15:20:00.001+08:00

How about you guys?

What happens when you read a lot of books?

2011-05-24T17:39:00.001+08:00

You buy more books of course.

For the rest of the interesting video, go here.

AndroidManifest.xml file decompressor

2011-05-24T15:21:00.000+08:00

If you ever need to extract out the string from AndroidManifest.xml from your apk file, and you happen to need it to be in Groovy, use this. I hope this help someone out there. Thanks to Robo.

Plaything: Andengine

2011-05-20T23:43:00.001+08:00

What I am playing now -- Killer Pool 2011, Android game with Andengine.
I spent 2 hours of my youth reading the code examples and hack around the physic engine to come up with a simple game, screenshot below. I like what I see so far. The code on github here.

Re: Seven Advantages Of Java

2011-05-20T13:31:00.000+08:00

My usual routine is to checkout dzone.com after coming back from lunch and today the Seven Advantages of Java blog post caught my attention. It's a quick and easy read but I will play the devil's advocate and lets put a spot light on the 7 "advantages" of Java.

1. Java is easy to learn
Java was designed to be easy to use and is therefore much more easy to write, compile, debug, run and learn than other programming languages.

Well not really. This is pretty subjective -- Java is easy to learn compared to what? C or C++? Ruby is easy. Groovy is easier if you already have Java background. Python is the easiest as most claimed.

2. Java is object-oriented
This allows you to create modular maintainable applications and reusable code.

Just because it's OO does not mean that it will create modular and maintainable program. OO languages are dime a dozen and that doesn't necessary make it an advantage for Java. (Psst, It's how you write the code).

3. Java is platform-independent
One of the most significant advantages of Java is its ability to move easily from one system to another. The ability to run the same code on many different systems is crucial to www, and Java succeeds at this by being platform-independent at the source and almost binary levels.

This platform-independent thing is overrated but I bought it -- hook and sinker -- when I was in college. This is a marketing-speak advantage but not so much of a practical thing in real world. It helps to know how to program in Java but you still have to learn the platform idioms and usage patterns. For example, you can't and don't run servlet as desktop app and vice versa. Btw, wassup with the "almost binary levels" -- it will always compile down to JVM bytecode.

4. Java is distributed
Java is designed to make distributed computing easy with the networking capability that is inherently integrated into it. Writing network programs in Java is like sending and receiving data to and from a file.

This true and may be cool many years back but almost every language framework comes with some kind of distributed capability that you can use right away. So, meh, overrated.

5. Java is secure
Java considers security as part of its design. The Java language, compiler, interpreter, and runtime environment were each developed with security in mind.

This is true to certain extend but when we talk about security we have to understand that security covers a huge body of concern -- authentication, authorization, integrity etc. So Java VM is secure against attacks like buffer overflow, but the security of the software is not guaranteed by Java alone. It's how you program it. The author should back it up with more specifics.

6. Java is robust
Robust means reliability. Java puts a lot of emphasis on early checking for possible errors, as Java compilers are able to detect many problems that would first show up during execution time in other languages.

By robust you mean the damn thing doesn't crash mysteriously then ya Java is robust. But so is every languages worth their beans. Weak argument really. Reminds me of an advert I came across many years ago -- one of the publicize "Feature" of the program is, Bug Free. :-O

Oh, I don't think you will think about this advantage point when you are getting OutOfMemoryException.

Java is multithreaded
Multithreaded is the capability for a program to perform several tasks simultaneously within a program. In Java, multithreaded programming has been smoothly integrated into it, while in other languages, operating system-specific procedures have to be called in order to enable multithreading.

I think we get it, multithreaded is important and Java is multithreaded language. Ok. So what are the "other languages"?

The author sounds like he is new to Java world. I hope he won't bail once he learned about Ruby. Hmm, maybe he will write "100 Reasons Ruby Kicks Java-ass" then.

I earned the "Famous Question" badge in StackOverflow

2011-05-20T11:28:00.001+08:00

But it shows how Objective-C can be shitty in areas other language never give a rat-ass about.

So What is the right way to check for a null string in Objective-C?

What's new in Groovy 1.8

2011-05-18T21:14:00.003+08:00

Groovy 1.8 update - Guillaume Laforge - GR8Conf Europe 2011

View more presentations from Guillaume Laforge