Now, I can't just post about my new camera and hobby and not show some photos I took... these are originals for the very first time on blog.a.lish, hope you enjoy them.

My other new hobby, drinking Orangina's

Weird woman in SoHo

p.s. If you want a copy, which is probably not likely I'd be more than happy to shoot you over the full scale image.

You've probably noticed that I haven't blogged in quite a while. The reasons I have are, of course, excuses. In any event I think I will be back soon... very soon... like next week soon. So going back to these excuses reasons, I have been studying hard for an certification exam in... wait for it.... Java 5... yup, went over to the dark side, the VERY dark side. Studying took up most of my free time and I'm glad to announce that I am officially Sun Certified (or in other words... nailed it).

I realize this post is kind of boring but I studied my ass off learning this vile language... just kidding it's ok. I actually work in the Java-sphere now and as such I assume I might have some Java tips and tricks to share with you .NET people... So to just leave you with a taste for more I figured I'd post something "interesting", enjoy.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in Once

I am a very big fan of the Academy award wining movie Once and of the soundtrack which I highly recommend.

I've been playing with the curl command which is pretty powerful and I guess I should try to install the XGL + Compiz 3D Desktop and really work this bad boy. On a more .NET/C# note I'm going to install Mono and play around with it a little to get a feel for what they have and what they don't have... maybe this is a great 20% candidate.

p.s. On a completely separate note I just recently learned that the 3rd mouse button really comes in handy when using a tabbed browser, I don't understand how I missed this... read all about it here.

No wonder they call it the holly land

Can you handle this?

I'm pleased to share the news that we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick today. Although it's been nearly a year since we announced our intention to acquire DoubleClick last April, we are no less excited today about the benefits that the combination of our two companies will bring to the online advertising market. .....

... As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we’ll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees.

I'm sure Mr. Gu and the boys have taken notice... a chance to recruit talent.

Total Lunar Eclipse - 2/20/2008

What's even cooler is that yesterday we got a red eclipse. You may be asking "What makes the eclipsed moon turn red?" well Nasa explains that the answer lies inside Earth's shadow:

Our planet casts a long shadow. It starts on the ground--Step outside at night. You're in Earth's shadow. Think about it!--and it stretches almost a million miles into space, far enough to reach the moon.

Suppose you had a personal spaceship. Here's your mission: Tonight, at midnight, blast off and fly down the middle of Earth's shadow. Keep going until you're about 200,000 miles above Earth, almost to the moon. Now turn around and look down. The view from your cockpit window is Earth's nightside, the dark half of our planet opposite the sun. But it's not completely dark! All around Earth's limb, the atmosphere glows red.

What you're seeing is every sunrise and sunset on Earth--all at once. This ring of light shines into Earth's shadow, breaking the utter darkness you might expect to find there. Turn off the cockpit lights. There's a lovely red glow.

Pretty hot if you ask me... every sunrise and sunset on Earth wow.

p.s. I was "lucky" enough to play a little Capoeira last night under the eclipse... it was freeeeeeezing.

To quote Wikipedia on what a Batizado is:

A Batizado (literally baptized in Portuguese, and borrowed from the religious tradition) is normally an annual event for a Capoeira group in a region or country. The practice of Capoeira Batizados originates from Capoeira Regional, but has been extended to other styles.

Batizados are large events and are very important for the group organizing it. It is the point in the year where the new members will be baptized officially into the group and receive their first cords and where the other members depending on their progress will get a new one. A typical batizado will take several days and consist of workshops, the actual Batizado itself and a Troca das Cordas. Often many groups from more than one region will attend a Batizado for other groups. This allows for development of the game by contact with other players, teachers and styles.

I think I've mentioned this before but it never ceases to amaze me how engineers can't mention more than 2 collection classes in the System.Collections or System.Collections.Generic libraries. I really don't think that's a hard question. If you think it is, and you're a software engineer with a degree in computer science I recommend you start thinking of your next career.

Anyway... I read this interesting article at Codinghorror.com about how computer science should be taught. I have read these types of arguments many times, how CS curriculum's are too abstract or too disconnected from reality and I must agree. While I didn't go to an ivy league school I did get two degrees in CS and aside from maybe 3 courses (which I'm about to talk about) we really didn't cover anything that I have used since (I've been a professional Engineer for over 5 years now...).

The article addresses how deployment and source control are simply ignored by academia. Why do you think that is? I also know that many of the schools that consider themselves the "best" schools focus software courses on C and Assembly while only a fraction of it's graduates actually end up using these archaic languages.

I think the lack of realistic software engineering classes are the main cause of my frustration as an interviewer. I'm sure some of my questions may be hard but I don't expect an interviewee to answer every single question perfectly, I'm more interested in their thought process and ask them to "think out loud" when possible.

The three courses I mentioned before that I wanted to discuss briefly are:

• Software Practicum - this was my Graduate capstone course (which means I need this course to get my Masters so it was pretty important). In this course the professor basically proposed a project (in my case it was Microscopic Image Analysis Software) and we had to go off and create this product. We met weekly to discuss our problems and show our progress. To me, this was my first taste at agile programming. Sure it wasn't agile per se but it was close enough. What I liked most about this course was that we got to pick the language we wanted to code it in. We also were responsible for the documentation (only it wasn't all designed up front - agile...) and we had to present a usable user interface. There was a similar undergraduate course title "Software Engineering" where students had to come up with a game, design it, document it, and implement it. I think that due to the water fall nature of that course I was lucky I didn't take it.
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) - this was actually a pilot course given by the graduate center at CUNY. This was by far one of the most influential courses I took. The course spanned 2 semesters, the students were actually forced to go through an interview process to get accepted to this course and internships were promised at the end of this course. Naturally this seemed like a great idea to me, so I sent my resume and luckily got picked to become apart of this pilot. To avoid boring you to death I just want to point out the main things I learned during this class:
  • I got my first taste of Subversion, I had used Source Safe before.
  • We got picked by one of three major financial institutions to write a product and present to their board
  • I got my first taste of corporate America and saw how even the biggest financial institutions had terrible engineers
  All together this course was an amazing experience, and while I didn't score an internship I did get to present to the board of one of the top 5 investment banking companies. I think CUNY is still giving this course, so if you're a CUNY student I highly recommend it.
• Operating Systems - this course was terrible in general because the professor had not experience and she didn't know a for loop from an if statement... BUT the TA was amazing. He had us write a file system in Java. This was a course I took as an undergrad and it made me actually write code that I had to be able to deploy on the TA's box once I completed it. So that was my first taste of the deployment hell of our industry.

I'd like to see schools take more consideration when they build the curriculum's and make sure they have some real life courses that make you follow some sort of agile software development process in which you are expected to create a product that is ready to ship.

a little scratchin' and we're off.

Catnip, that's right.

I'm bored with you.

I couple of songs to rain in the new year....

That said, there is a scene where Biel comes out of the shower with nothing but a towel and you have to wonder if that's in the script. It seems like every movie she's been in since Blade Biel has found herself in very revealing scenes. I have no problem with that at all but if she wants to be more than a hot-bod and a pretty face she might try to pull a Charlize Theron and go for an Oscar.

If you are still reading you're probably trying to figure out what the title has to do with the article... well... as I was reading through celeb-blogs I ran into an interesting picture I was hoping to get your feedback on. This is, in no way, a babe vs. babe but more like an celeb-ass vs. celeb-ass edition

So, left or right? Can you tell which is which?

I'm probably biased so I might as well throw in a little bonus for you... JB booty collection. Yawza.

In other blog.a.lish related news I have changed the feed section (at the bottom of the page) to be a little more "length" friendly and I'm limiting 10 articles per feed, still working on getting the damn media:thumbnail elments' url attribute so that I can actually display the woot shirt of the day but that might have to wait a little.

I just upgraded blog.a.lish to version 3.5 of the .NET Framework, I expect to do a lot of experimenting with the new cool features this version offers like the new MVC.NET stuff, all the W*F stuff, and Silverlight (naturally).

Last, but surely not least, I've been playing around with a new design... it's going to be hot... that's all I can say right now, but you can be sure Perez Hilton will be blogging about me soon!

You know what really grinds my gears? When people (usually software engineers) don't have good bathroom etiquette. Let me paint you a picture:
One bathroom for all engineers, 7 stalls, 2.5 urinals (the .5 is for the short one) and a lot of free food. The bathroom was recently "renovated", which means they replaced everything except for the bowls themselves... smart move, but I digress. I am a firm believer in privacy, be it on the web or in the bathroom... and this is where I would like your honest opinions.

Use Cases

You walk into said bathroom. The last stall is taken (all the way in the back) and you need some #2 time. Which stall do you choose for this endevour?
This seems like a simple task right? WRONG! Where I work, people have their "favorite" stalls. So even if only one person is occupying one of the seven stalls, if it happens to be adjacent to your favorite stall then you may/should/will sit right next to said person.
Does that seem right to you? I think this is borderline blasphemous!

OK, so now the ever-so-frequent urinal question. Where do I stand?
With only three urinals available (with no separator) this becomes quite a tricky task. If you happen to walk in and none of the urinals are occupied which one do you choose?
This again seems like a simple task right? WRONG! Where I work if none are occupied grab the middle, that way either no one will get to use the urinal until you're done... OR... someone will stand right next to you! yay.
Alright, what happens if you walk in and the rightmost or leftmost urinal is occupied?
Yet another simple task right? WRONG! Where I work standing right next to the occupied urinal is fair game.

Correct Etiquette

IMHO the correct etiquette for the problems I mentioned above are:

• #2 - Sit as far as possible, with at least one buffer stall between you and your fellow #2er. In the case that there is not buffer either go to another bathroom, or hold it.
• #1 - Stand as far as possible, with at least one urinal as a buffer. If that's not possible, use a stall with #2 rules in effect. If that's impossible go to another bathroom, or hold it.

The other issue I have with the bathroom at my workplace is that some people don't flush... WTF, seriously what's wrong with those people? Are you to much of a douche to fucking flush? IMHO if you don't flush you don't deserve to use the bathroom.

Lastly, after you wash your hands, if there are paper towels to dry off with make sure they end up in the trash. Why is it so damn hard to do that? Where I work someone comes in 3-4 times a day and picks up after the douche bags that can't get the towel into the bin.

When you go into a workplace bathroom try to think of the basic etiquette mentioned above... if that's too hard for you imagine how you would react if someone acted like you do in your private bathroom at home, I'm sure you wouldn't like that... would you?

While that might seem to you as whining I only raise this point because it seems that our team decided it was time to purchase some more games. Only this time there would be no wait and the supply would/should meet the demand. With roughly $600 in hand these are the toys we ended up buying. What do you think? See some sort of pattern here?

The original and patented Magnetic Construction toy; Create a model take it apart and start over again; Ages 6 and up!

With the world's record for the smallest remote-controlled helicopter, the Air Hogs Havoc Heli goes where no other flying object can. Recommended for ages eight and up, this incredible little R/C heli from Spinmaster is easy and fun for kids of all ages -- even grown up ones.

Every game on the Harvard Single Shootout brings truckloads of exciting arcade style basketball fun. The infrared electronic scoring unit records every bank shot and swish you make with the included mini basketballs, and the time clock feature helps keep the game fast and competitive.

Fly it indoors in the comfort of your own home. Have you ever imagined piloting a large blimp over a major city? Now you can fly your own Remote Controlled Blimp indoors! The weightless flight of this ship will bring a great big smile to your face as it silently obeys your every command! Within a few minutes of taking off, you will be able to pilot this airship around your living room like a pro! This unique blimp is propelled by three independently controlled electric fans to provide forward/backward, up/down and left/right movement. Guidance is provided by a three channel transmitter operating on a 9 volt battery (not included). Range of the saucer is 200 feet in most cases. At over 4000 feet above sea level some of our customers are unable to get the blimp to float due to low air density. If you are over 4000ft we recommend you purchase a high-lift envelope. The 3-channel blimp provides hours of fun for the entire family at a great price. A perfect gift! Note: This product is only for indoor use, do not attempt to operate outside. Requires helium (available from most florist or party supply stores), 9V transmitter battery, and 3V blimp battery.

With ultra low styling and original bodylines, the Crowd Pleazer 2.0 adds excellent styling and performance to your MGT, LST, TNX or Genesis monster truck. or Hyper 7 buggy. It comes complete with window masks, paint-then-peel overspray film and decal sheet.

Stir Up Some Mayhem to Break Up the Monotony -- Is your 9 to 5 getting you down? Ever find yourself bored and frustrated on the job? Take control of the airspace in and around your cubicle for a fun way to break up the day. -- This USB Missle Launcher features a 15 foot range so you can conduct target practice, or see if your missle can land just outside the corner office. -- Use your PC to aim and launch the three foam missiles to secure your borders and defend your homecube. The missle is controlled left to right, and fired using your computer controls. -- Requires Windows 2000/XP. What? no Vista? no Linux? awwww.

It's going to be fun at work soon, which one would you want?

I think one of the most interesting things that have happened to me lately (that I don't mind mentioning in this forum...) was winning an iPod touch at a team outing. After a couple of weeks of getting to know my new gadget I found a world of entertainment at the tip of my fingers and I was amazed that it took me this long to figure out the whole pod cast deal.

On that note I will leave you with a very interesting video from Googles Speaker Series by Adams Bosworth. Get it here: Google Video and download it to your iPod!