Email Solved, mysterious still

Posted by mkhairul - November 14, 2006 at 07:11:25 pm - No Comments

Categories: blog

The non-stop email have been solved. There seems to be a cron task that was set, one that I didnt do and didnt know. The admin found it out and informed me. Deleted it.

Email barrage have stopped. Mind at ease. Now.. I’ll start working and play some games (currently Neverwinter Nights 2).  

 

I’ve got mail

Posted by mkhairul - November 11, 2006 at 02:11:02 am - No Comments

Categories: blog

Uh-oh.. there seems to be a problem. I’ve tried to tell the admin. Hrmm.. 

Learning how to learn..

Posted by mkhairul - November 10, 2006 at 04:11:45 pm - No Comments

Categories: blog

There’s something thats been bothering me. People are asking me to tutor them. From A-Z. Not ordinary people, these are people with degrees.. 3-4 years spent in studying about these subjects.

This is just frustating. Wasting parent’s money / education loans. Just went there to get a degree? What about the knowledge?

Anyway.. its ok to ask questions like "How do I install Joomla on Windows XP?". Questions like this can be googled, but even so… I wouldnt mind answering it even though I just point into the right direction (search for xampp and extract xampplite.. download Joomla and extract in xampplite/htdocs and open browser to go to localhost/joomla, etc) but dont be a burden. Ask the right questions and only after you’ve try.. try.. and tried. When you’ve arrived at a wall, its time to ask around for help to climb it.

Software By Rob: 9 Things Developers Want More Than Money

Posted by mkhairul - November 10, 2006 at 06:11:21 am - No Comments

Categories: Tips, blog

Yes.. again.. I’ve read an article. This is also interesting. Insightful nonetheless for someone like me.

Here’s the list for 9 Things Developers Want More Than Money from Software By Rob. 

1. Being Set Up to Succeed
2. Having Excellent Management
3. Learned New Things
4. Exercising Creativity and Solving The Right Kind of Problems
5. Having a Voice
6. Being Recognized for Hard Work
7. Building Something That Matters
8. Building Software Without an Act of Congress
9. Having Few Legacy Constraints

In the company I’ve worked before… in the beginning it was kind of OK, I get tons of interesting stuffs to do, I managed lots of situations involving colleagues(not known to my boss) but then things started to become worst. The most critical factor is late pay, on-site support without claim and unknown date for pay(MAKE YOUR DAMN MIND! SET A DATE!).

Without knowing when you will receive your pay is torture and demoralizing… especially if the pay is low.. when will I receive my pay? How will I pay my rent? How long will this last? What do I have to eat tomorrow till I get my pay? WAAARGH! . Low pay means no emergency funds(you know where this goes.. medical, food, entertainment, etc). Very depressing. Depression kills motivation. With a CANNON.

Whats more depressing.. I knew how much the company is making(I dont care about their current account balance..) and still the pay is late.

"Realistic deadlines are a huge part of being set up
to succeed. Developers want to build software that not only works, but is
maintainable; something they can take pride in. This is not in-line with product
development’s goals, which are for developers to build software that works, and
nothing more." — Yes.. its true, but most situations doesnt allow this. But try our best nonetheless.

 
"Developers love a challenge. Without them we get bored, our minds wander, we
balance our checkbook, check our email, hit Digg and Slashdot, read a few blogs,
hit the water cooler, and see if any of our friends are online so we can once
and for all settle the debate surrounding your uncle, the IDisposable interface,
and that piece of toast shaped like the Virgin Mary." — Haha.. yes, happens quite alot to me now that you mentioned it.

"I’ve watched developers on multiple occasions stay up until sunrise to solve
a technical problem without being asked and
without extra pay." — This occasion have happened numerous times. There was a point where I was afraid to go to sleep. I thought that I might forget about the project I’m currently on when I woke up.

Paul Graham: The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups

Posted by mkhairul - November 10, 2006 at 05:11:08 am - No Comments

Categories: Tips, blog

Finally after long overdue.. I’ve managed to finish reading this article. I’ve been reading paul’s articles for quite some time. Not all of them I agree with.. but still most are insightful.

Here’s the list. The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups

1. Single Founder

2. Bad Location

3. Marginal Niche

4. Derivative Idea

"It seems like the best problems to solve are ones that affect you personally." — Yeah, this is so true.

5. Obstinacy

6. Hiring Bad Programmers

7. Choosing the Wrong Platform

8. Slowness in Launching

9. Launching Too Early

10. Having No Specific User in Mind

11. Raising Too Little Money

12. Spending Too Much

13. Raising Too Much Money

14. Poor Investor Management

15. Sacrificing Users to (Supposed) Profit

16. Not Wanting to Get Your Hands Dirty

17. Fight Between Founders

18. A Half-Hearted Effort

PDF Parsing unsuccessful. Objective failed. Alternative Required.

Posted by mkhairul - November 9, 2006 at 02:11:09 am - No Comments

Categories: Development, blog

Wow.. lots of stuffs going on yesterday. I did a quick install for drupal, settle all of MEVs pending stuffs. Played lots of DotA(while waiting for NwN2). Did a quick research on PDF Parsing via Python, created my own custom dashboard thingie(thanks to cross-reference documentation) for my blog. Thats about it. Heh.

I tried to find a way to parse a PDF using python(this leads me the way and this, reading PDF using Python).. sure it can (reportlab, xpdf and pdfsearch) .. but the format the PDF is in makes this method unfeasible for my project.  The information is all garbled up.. I have no clue which item description matches its price. I wouldnt want to spend all day trying to figure out ONE pdf file which doesnt follow any standard format for price listing.

What I’m trying to do is lists all the price of hardwares and compare them in one neat table. Maybe a little bit of ajax magic here and there giving more information about the stuffs.

Automated parsing is out.. a no-no. Unless they start standardizing their files (which I dont think will happen anytime soon) it’ll have to be done manually. Which takes time.. and effort. I’ll start it simple.. even though its done manually.. but the price will be updated once a week or two while prices from pricewatch.com will be fetch using my script (cant do too often, less I burden them).

Deep Sleep Needed

Posted by mkhairul - November 8, 2006 at 04:11:00 pm - No Comments

Categories: Development, blog

For the past few days.. I was reluctant to sleep.. only when everything is aching all over do I start to lie down and sleep (unwillingly). This force of habit will take its tow on me sooner or later. I’ll have to start sleeping willingly.. and deep. Deep as the abyss. heh.

I’m currently waiting for projects. None seems promising. Funds are dwindling.. head are aching.. not good, future looks bleak. Heh. I’ve managed to survive this far, this shouldnt be a problem.

I created another drupal site. When I was going to import the database.. hrm.. phpmyadmin only permits importing from client’s pc.. not on the server itself.

Googled and found.

Continue reading Deep Sleep Needed…

Latest Comments with Gravatars

Posted by mkhairul - November 6, 2006 at 07:11:00 am - No Comments

Categories: blog

Sweet. I tried to find a latest comments plugin (even though I can do it on my own, I’m on a tight dateline here), and found out about this nice plugin.. and learned a thing about GRAVATARS! Haha. Nice.

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is
quite simply an 80×80 pixel avatar image that follows you from weblog
to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar
enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why
not on weblogs?

Wordpress Plugin: Latest Comments with Gravatars EN

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