Keith Rull : Java

Ten Questions with Jojo Paderes

keithrull — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:18:00 GMT

This week we continue our quest to get to know well-known Filipino developers and this time I was able to catch Jojo Paderes, one of the founding board members of PinoyJUG, coder-extraordinaire at Viewlocity and father to two lovely twins.

Ten Questions with Jojo Paderes

1.) What's your real name and where are you from?
My "birth" name is Joselito Paderes. My "preferred" name is Jojo. I grew up at the rolling hills of 1st District of Caloocan but currently resides with my wife and twins at Makati.

2.)Who do you work for? Give me a 10 second pitch on them. Why would I want to buy their product or service?
I work for Supply Chain Consulting, specifically with Viewlocity, a product-development company based at Dallas Texas.

Why would you want to buy their product and avail their consulting services? Because we can deliver these features with our cutting-edge products: just-in-time delivery optimization, real-time monitoring of your supply chain, and a good view on how your business contributes to a "greener" world :)

3.) What brought you to your current employer?
Hmmm ... there are three reasons: (1) I got homesick and want to go back to the Philippines (2) I was invited back by my former boss if i'm interested to work with them again (and I really want to work with him again). (3) I heard that viewlocity is an exciting company to work with, so i joined them.

4.) Tell me your "How I got into IT story..."
That's a touchy question hehe. Well, I started out as a equipment/electrical engineer at one of the factories at Technopark Laguna.

Back then, the career path for an electrical engineer graduate was unclear to me. I was scared with the idea that I'll be stuck at a manufacturing factory at Laguna for the rest of my life! Then a colleague introduced me into programming, I took a course at Ateneo Makati and found out that I do like to code. Then the rest is history

5.) How is it like to be a busy coder and a dad of twins?
To be honest, it's two different roles that don't mix well :) Well right now I don't do much coding anymore. I spent most of my time planning the daily chores for the team, providing guidance on technical tasks. Probably I'll just get a few hours to code but not really much.

But at home I make sure that I spend some quality time with the twins. I find it more difficult to understand what my kids want than what to do with a crappy code :)

And oh yeah, I'm still a noob when it comes to changing diaphers! Hahaha.

6.) Describe a typical Jojo day?
I have these reminders stored in my blackberry just to remind me of my daily routines. I always come early at the office to avoid the rush. I usually start off reading some comments and feedbacks from our countarparts at Dallas, then review the daily progress of my team on the project. It's a typical team lead role where I'm expected to plan out things properly and provide direction on most things but I still get some spare time to do technical work. Currently I'm focusing on streamlining our SCM process which I think is too bloated for just a simple project.

I think this blog would best describe my role right now: http://andrewtokeley.net/archive/2008/04/12/do-you-really-want-to-be-a-development-team-leader.aspx

7.) Any non-technical hobbies? What are they and why?
I'm a big fan of metal music. I have these 300+ cd collection of various metal and rock bands. I also like to listen to jazz and blues, but metal is still the best form of music for me.Other than listening to music, I'm doing some sideline learning on stock trading and the financial market in general. I spend some time on my weekend learning chart/technical analysis, and plan out the best financial portfolio for my retirement.

8.) Whats your advice to people who want to shift their career to IT? Any tips on what they should do become great in this field?
Choose the SAP career path! It pays more and they can get most of their time with other useful stuff like stock trading :)

But seriously, they should first check out what really drives them to be passionate about their work. The difficult thing with IT especially with programming is to keep up with the latest trends and advancements in computer technology. It's a never-ending cycle of learning and re-learning.

My tip on what they should do to become great in this field? Practice a lot (i.e. contribute to open source projects, or write your own foss project). Read up on quality books (especially those listed at the Jolt Awards site). Also, find a good mentor and company that would help you in building up those programming skills.

9.) What's your advice to developers on how to save their well-earned money for the future?
Well it depends at which country they are currently staying or plan to settle at :)

For a typical Filipino developer working at his/her homeland, there's no easy way to save up for the future. Unlike with countries like Singapore where citizens enjoy a fixed-income retirement fund from their government, Filipinos can't rely much from their government to support their financial needs.

The best they can do are (1) learn personal finance planning and take charge of their own financial fitness (2) learn how to invest in various financial products, take up courses and read books about investments (3) be frugal (and don't try to impress people with material things with diminishing value/returns.

10.) Last question, what's your message to the person who used to sit beside you in your last job?
Haha, go and get a life Lah!

You can read more about Jojo's life and exploits in his blog at http://jojopaderes.blogspot.com/

Ten Questions with Migz Paraz

keithrull — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:40:00 GMT

Because of the inspiration from what Chris Williams started I have decided to start Ten Questions - Filipino Developers Edition. Basically, the idea is to interview well-known Filipino developers and ask them 10 questions that would shed light on their persona and their geekiness!

On this first go around we interview Migz Paraz, a fixture in the Philippine IT industry since the 90s. He is well-known for his involvement with the Filipino Java community and for his thoughts posted on his blog at paraz.com among others.

Ten Questions with Migz Paraz

1.) What's your real name and where are you from?
My real name is Carlos Miguel Alvarez Paraz :D from Mandaluyong City.. all my life!

2.) Who do you work for? Give me a 10 second pitch on them. Why would I want to buy their product or service?
I work for Novare Technologies - http://www.novare.com.hk. From a tech point of view, we design/implement/build/do PM and support telecom applications, mobile and fixed networks. You can buy one of our services in retail - go to any Smart wireless center and get BlackBerry service :) but we have many other projects, most of which you don't know that we are the ones providing :D My own project is for Mobile Instant Messaging - see http://www.neustar.biz/ngm/
Right now you can't buy their service in the Philippines (it's mostly in Europe and other Asian countries) ... but soon you can :D

3.) What brought you to your current employer?
I was brought in by a friend of mine who is now the head of software development, support and PMO. This was back in 2006 when the corporate setup was different from it was now. They were engaged in another business (which is now closed) and they wanted someone to work on and lead the NeuStar account <-- that's me ! :D

Now, what brought me in why did I join / why did they get me? In my previous career, before software dev, I was into ISPs and IP networks so my experience there (dekada 90 pa :D ) is carried over into this job, even now if i do primarily software dev.

4.) A lot of folks known you from the 90s. Can you still remember your call to fame? What was it?
I set up one of the first internet providers - this was before telco's were into the game. my work was mostly Linux, some IP networks, and a little coding - hacking on Perl scripts (custom stuff) and C (open source programs we used for providing the service). Unfortunately this company is gone.

5.) How do you compare IT geeks back then and now. What do you think the new geeks miss by not being an IT hacker back in the 90's?
Oh! Actually I think more of the opposite - if only I were a new geek now, with so much new stuff !!!

So the opportunities are really more on the business side. Stuff you take for granted now were still in their early stages... the Internet, web sites (still Web 1.0) online gaming, etc. Honestly, I think the young geeks have it better now.. not only technologies per se, but the culture of openness (e.g. blogging).. we didn't have it much back then... well, we had more chatrooms :D hehe

6.) Describe a typical Miguel day?
My work day... officially starts at 1PM now since I'm following the Israel time zone. officially ends at 10PM but it rarely finishes on time! So my work has a lot of chat and telecons, since it's offshore.

What I do.. I take part in the requirements/specifications process, up to the system design, coding ... and QA (which is also outsourced to my company). The work itself is all Java.

But there's a lot of interfacing - with both the messaging product systems, and the mobile operators - since my projects are the interconnections between the product core and the customer systems aside from the client, I'm also responsible for internal training, and other technical stuff that can happen in Novare :) aside from that.. well my life is boring ;)

7.) Any non-technical hobbies? What are they and why?
I like the local music scene, but since I'm time-challenged now, I don't get to go out and just collect CDs instead. When my company is no longer in startup phase then I should have more time, to watch and hopefully play again! (I play drums)

I also play dancing games at arcades :D I'm probably the oldest player.. but who cares.

I also like reading non-fiction. I have read a LOT of wikipedia articles :) and i like collecting trivia, well that is non-technical but geeky anyway :D

8.) What do you think you would be doing now if you were not in IT?
I thought I'd like to be a writer, but I have writers block now! I don't get to update my blog. I'd probably be an academic... so in non-IT, I'd be into sociology, history, philosophy, :)

When I was young, I thought I'd be interested in physical sciences (e.g. physics, chemistry) but that didn't happen. I'm not really interested in owning/running my own business, so that doesn't help my plans to have My Own Hot Web Startup. Then of course in the fantasy world I'll have my own band... fantasy because I don't have much talent :(

9.) What's you advice to new geeks? What do you think they need to do to be better in this field?
Practice, practice, practice. for developers, computer science concepts don't get old even when tools, frameworks and even languages get old.

Also to balance out your hardcore geekhood, learn the other parts of software development: project management, business analysis, and other things that will use more of the right side of your brain. That includes skills like writing, reading and listening, and the mysterious "People Skills"

10.) Last question, what's your message to the person who used to sit beside you in your last job?
You rock!!!

Thanks Migs! That was a fun conversation.

NetBeans 6.0 is out..

keithrull — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:30:00 GMT

...and it has pure Ruby goodness tied into it! I think I'm going to wash my .NET hands today with Neatbens SOAp enhancements. Congratulations to the great folks from NetBeans! You definetely nailed it this time.

From their official press release:

The focus of NetBeans IDE 6.0 is superior developer productivity with a smarter, faster editor, and the integration of all NetBeans products into one IDE. NetBeans IDE 6.0 features Ruby/JRuby/Ruby on Rails support, enhancements for improved Swing development, a new Visual Game Designer, updated Data Binding support, integrated Profiling, and more. The new installer lets you customize your download preferences--use it to choose the features and runtimes you need.
Highlights of NetBeans IDE 6.0 are:

Java
* Swing GUI Builder
* Intelligent Editor
* Profiler
* Debugger
* Updated Platform APIs

C/C++
* C/C++ Projects and Templates
* Source Code Editor
* Multiple Configurations
* Class Hierarchy Browser
* File Navigation
Ruby
* Ruby on Rails Support
* JRuby Runtime
* Code Completion
* Debugger
* Refactoring
Mobility
* Game Builder
* Device Fragmentation
* SVG Graphics
* Web Services
* Handheld Device / Set Top Box
Web & Java EE
* Visual JSF Design
* Enhanced JavaScript
* AJAX Enabled Components
* CSS Editor
* Web Services & SOA
SOA
* XML Schema Editor, XSLT Designer
* WSDL Designer
* BPEL Designer
* Service Assembly Editor
* Deploy to JBI compliant runtime

Awesome! Really awesome! I've been using Netbeans on the side(due to my obedience with .NET) and it has been a great experience for me. I have used Java IDEs in the past(Visual Cafe 4 anyone?) and i must say that Netbeans has come along way since the days of old when Eclipse elitist call Netbeans a "a tool for non-serious java developers". I think this release has proven that NetBeans is valid alternative against the big boys(Eclipse & IntelliJ among others).

Now, onwards to a cup of Java. ;)

ASP.NET was originally written in Java. What?

keithrull — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:00:00 GMT

Sounds strange but it's true. Just ask Mark Anders and he'll tell you the complete story. ;)

Anders:
"... The original prototype was written in Java. I loved Java as a language and Scott(Guthrie) did too. So it was done in Java, and we took that around to lots of different groups. The first group that we took it to was the tools team. The VB and the InterDev teams were in a feud, and when they saw our demo they liked it. They said, 'If you build that, we will target it with our tools."

A Sign Of Bad Advertising

keithrull — Mon, 14 May 2007 19:23:00 GMT

I saw this while doing a research about .NET components and I find it really weird...

A Java component getting a tagline from a .NET Developer? Weird.

It's like seeing Jack doing an advertisement for McDonalds.

Free Java E-books at TheServerSide.com

keithrull — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 20:11:00 GMT

I was reading lamia's post about the free J2ME ebook that Jason Elam is brewing and it made me remember that i have stumbled on some free(and legal) ebook downloads from one of my favorite Java sites.. TheServerSide.Com.

Below is a list of books freely available for download from their site(there were some more before.. i think some of the old books were already removed).

Mastering EJB 3.0

The fourth edition in the Mastering EJB series, this book provides in-depth coverage on the changes that come with EJB 3.0. More than 50% new and revised, the free download covers the latest features of the new release and information on the Java Persistence API and the entities defined therein.

Mastering EJB Third Edition

Mastering EJB was one of the original and most influential EJB books in the industry. Mastering EJB III now returns with two new expert co-authors, updated for EJB 2.1 and 30% new chapters including security, integration, best practices, open source and more.

The J2EE Architect's Handbook

This book is written for technical architects and senior developers tasked with designing and leading the development of J2EE java applications. This book will guide the architect through the entire process of delivering a project from analysis through application deployment providing numerous tips, tricks, and "best practices" along the way.

Servlets and JavaServer Pages: The J2EE Technology Web Tier

Servlets and JSP: the J2EE Web Tier covers how to install a Servlet/JSP environment and what is in the JSP 2.0, Servlet 2.4, and JSTL 1.0 specs. The later chapters cover state management, design patterns, internationalization support, multi-client design, Java database connectivity.

Java Testing and Design

Java Testing and Design teaches you how to build production-worthy, scalable, and well performing Web-enabled applications and presents techniques and tools to enable developers, QA technicians, and IT managers to be productive in development and test automation.

Jakarta-Struts Live

Jakarta Struts Live covers the Struts MVC architecture and building each of the Struts components of this architecture. You'll learn to use vital features like Tiles, the Validator, DynaActionForms, plug-ins, and internationalization.

EJB Design Patterns

A companion/standalone book to Mastering EJB 2, EJB Design Patterns seeks to solidify and centralize all the cutting edge strategies and design patterns in use today.

A pretty nice list if you ask me. Enjoy! :)