Reductor Ad Absurdum

Null Routing FreeBSD

2010-03-13T17:38:00.001-05:00

If you wanted to null route a single IP (192.168.0.1), you would run (as root):

/sbin/route add 192.168.0.1 127.0.0.1 -blackhole

If you wanted to null route a block of IPs (192.168.0.0/24), then use:

/sbin/route add -net 192.168.0.0/24 127.0.0.1 -blackhole

If you would rather generate a “Destination Host Unreachable” ICMP response instead of blackholing the traffic, replace -blackhole with -reject

Do Engineers need help?

2008-11-27T23:16:00.005-05:00

Yes, Engineers need help. Most Engineers I know are cynical, over-logical, sarcastic and proud individuals who take their work far too seriously and fail to see the world when it is right in front of them. They are trapped in the complexity of their thoughts; to well-trained, to focused on the task at hand, they fail to see the use-case of the tools they are creating. A creation is only as useful as the user deems it and most Engineers are blinded by their own innovation. So, as a typical Engineer who falls into this stereotype, I ask myself, how can I solve this problem?

Truth be told, in my wealth of wisdom which is limited to my sub-thirty year life span, Engineers don't need 'help' per say, we need guidance. We need interesting projects to work on that channel our natural curiousity. We need work that challenges us, we need work that subdues us. I recently saw an article with the term, 'Geek McNerdinstein' and thought that is awkwardly well-suited name for an Engineer (especially Software Engineers!). To be perfectly honest, I am proud to use Geek McNerdinstein as my 'call-sign'. Why, you ask, would I be so willing to alienate myself with such an insulting call-sign? Truth be told, I am proud to be a geek. I am proud to be cynical and I am proud to be over-logical. Above all else, I am proud to be Engineer and whole-heatedly believe that we only need help making this world a better place.

Drunken Mumblings

2008-09-06T00:40:00.005-04:00

So, what shall I mumble about now. Clearly, my inhibriation is not an attest to my ability to spell... So in my drunkeness, I must confess that I have no idea how and why it is that people grow apart - why can't friends stay friends? Why can't people stay in contact with the people that formed the earliest foundations of who we are?

I can't whole-heartedly form a true-opinion why this is so, as I am as bias as most; however, in my short-sighted belief, people obviously change as we grow older - we develop as people, we lose-interest with our earlier friends... but for the life of me, it doesn't make sense that people who are best friends as children lose contact with one another... If your bond with one another is such that you are considered 'best friends' how is it that you can grow apart? How can your bond become a spurious, inconsequential, common-day event that would render all parties incapable of further future communication?

Naturally, there is something about your relationship, some common characteristic, some unattainable attraction, some unmistakable reason that made you best friends. If not, why did that relationship exist at all? If not, why does that relationship not exist today? Clearly, that thread which caused you to be best friends must still exist today; unfortunately, life has yet to bring one-another full circle such that your lives can mix again... and the bond as best friends can be brought back to the forefront. I believe, and will always believe, that a best friend is for life - they don't come easy but when they do, your life is never the same.

34 Rules For Kick ass Writing

2008-07-07T20:25:00.000-04:00

1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually)
unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren’t necessary and shouldn’t be used unless you don’t want to seem too formal.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not always apropos.
13. Do not use more words, phrases, sentences, or other linguistic elements than you, yourself, actually really and definitely need to use or employ when expressing yourself or otherwise giving voice to what you may or may not be thinking when you are trying to say how many words you should use or not use when using words.
14. One should NEVER generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
16. Don’t use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, i.e. etc.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill excessive exclamation points!!!
24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others elude to them.
25. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. Eliminate distracting quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson is said to have once remarked, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
28. If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
31. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
32. Who needs rhetorical questions?
33. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And finally…
34. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Courtesy of: http://deanhunt.com/bloggers-are-terrible-writers/

Mistakes

2008-05-18T00:12:00.002-04:00

Life is a series of moments connected together by a much larger series of mistakes. Undoubtedly, each and every one of us can define ourselves by a handful of unforgettable moments. The moment you drove a car for the first time, the moment you graduated from school, the moment you had your first kiss. These moments define us. These moments bind us together. The one thing that we all chose to forget are the "mistakes" that lead us to our moments. This is perhaps human nature or maybe just pride. I believe that coming to the realization that our mistakes is what truly define us, becomes a moment onto itself.

When have you said to yourself, I fucked up today. When have you said to yourself, what was I thinking! When have you said to yourself, I am an idiot. I must admit, that I have messed up on occasion and oddly enough, the majority of those events come during a night of drinking (can anyone see a correlation there ):| Admitting that you make mistakes is skill. Admitting that you make mistakes to other people is even more important. Most of us avoid the discussion of mistakes because we fear that it may make us look weak and fallible or even for the repercussions that it may cause. We are all human. Fucking up is part of our nature. Life is all about mistakes. The key to being is that we learn from our mistakes, grow as people and make the people around us better by association.

40 Tips to live by

2008-05-17T23:53:00.000-04:00

I came across this post at: http://www.glennong.com/post/32984296

These tips are a must read.

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, ‘My purpose is to __________ today.’
5. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2007.
7. Make time to practice meditation, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.
14. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the nagative blues away.
18. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
23. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: ‘In five years, will this matter?’
26. Forgive everyone for everything.
27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
28. Remember God heals everything.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
30. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
31. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
33. The best is yet to come.
34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
35. Do the right thing!
36. Call your family often.
37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for _______. Today I accomplished ____.
38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don’t want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.
40. Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can’t change.

Words to Live By

2008-02-07T21:04:00.000-05:00

"If working hard is the main ingredient for success,
working hard while working smart is the recipe."

-Brad Stimpson

GWT Tips: Part 1

2008-02-07T20:45:00.000-05:00

So this is my first post in a while... Sorry for the absence. Been sucked into a life of never ending work. Anyways, here is Part 1 of my series on developing Web applications with the Google Web Toolkit. I hope some of these tips help because from my experience, GWT has a steep learning curve for those use to traditional Web development. Anyways, without any further delay, here they are:

1. GWT.create() will not accept a Class object as it's parameter eventhough it works fine in hosted mode. For example, I was doing a deferred binding (still don't understand this fully) by using the GWT.create() and it was bothering me that I had to re-write the same code 10 times, although it was nearly identical. So I tried to generalize the fragment and pass in the parameters I required. One of the parameters was Class classLiteral. To my delight this worked perfectly in hosted mode, but when I tried to compile it, the system threw a very abstract error. As far as I know, there is no way to pass a parameter to GWT.create().

2. Take what you see in hosted mode with a grain of salt: There are times where I was bashing my head trying to figure out why things didn't look the way they were supposed to. I compiled the program and deployed it on my Web server and everything worked great. The moral of the story, take what you see in hosted mode with a grain of salt. On second thought, even though GWT hosted offers a nice tool to help easily debug code, the environment that runs your GWT code is usually much different from the deployment environment. Therefore, it is a much better idea to deploy your code to a server - similar to the server you will deploy on - to debug/test your code. Trust me, you will avoid many, that is a shitlaod, of problems.

3. If you are constructing a relatively complex application, your best bet is to use Maven. Use it early, before you get entrenched in the development. It works for testing, dependency management and all those things that are a pain in the ass to set up later. You can even set it up with the Tomcat plugin and it will automatically deploy your WAR files to the server through the tomcat manager (A very cool feature :) ).

4. Use the GWT Google Group. There are many very intelligent people there to help. Not once did one of my questions go unanswered.

Dealing with Stress

2008-01-10T23:02:00.001-05:00

What is the proper way to deal with stress? I don't think there is a proper way to deal with stress. Stress is a tool that we can use to accelerate our performance. It can help us to excel in the most difficult of moments. Unfortunately, prolonged stress can actually cause damage to our bodies. So if you are like me, dealing with prolonged stress becomes paramount in your day-to-day activities. But honestly, how does one deal with prolonged stress? I would love to know. Really. Do you know?

Ubuntu vs FreeBSD

2007-10-23T15:09:00.000-04:00

I think comparing Ubuntu to FreeBSD is like comparing apples to oranges. If Ubuntu and FreeBSD were both fruit, then from my perspective, these fruit taste, feel and look worlds apart.

I know my perspective on this might be a bit skewed because I use both FreeBSD and Ubuntu on a daily basis and I haven't developed either. Luckily though, it does give me an experienced, outsider's perspective and does allot me the ability to compare them somewhat effectively. I must admit however, that I don't claim to be an expert at using either OS'es, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

First of all, I know to the casual observer, FreeBSD and Ubuntu might look very similar and to be honest I agree 100%. They do look similar... on the surface. They are both *nix variants. They both have solid communities. They are both open source. To someone not adept in the art, it's like comparing a Picasso to a Rembrandt or a Ferrari to a McLaren. I believe that to really appreciate something, you must be able to look past the obvious. Only then, will you be able to see it's subtle beauties (I must sound like an absolute Geek, calling an Operating System beautiful!). The subtleties are where these two Operating Systems begin to diverge and the true scope of each begins to show itself.

To cut a long story short, I believe Ubuntu is the perfect Operating System for a *nix professional's desktop whereas FreeBSD is the perfect Operating System for servers. I've come to this conclusion due to two simple facts. Installing Ubuntu on my laptop was the best *nix installation experience I've ever had. It was quick and painless and nearly all of my devices worked immediately. This is vital for an overworked engineer with little time or desire to spend days installing Linux on his/her laptop. Conversely, installing FreeBSD on a server is relatively straight forward (as long as there isn't any exotic hardware). It is rock-solid, has a great ports collection and can be easily used for embedded devices. Unfortunately however, I don't think I will ever have the time to install FreeBSD on my laptop.

The Grand Vision

2007-09-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.

--William Blake (1757-1827)

Advice for those considering Working and Doing the Master's At the Same time

2007-09-08T21:02:00.000-04:00

I've had several people come up to me in the past couple of months and ask me, "is it worth while to do your Master's and to work at the same time." Jokingly, each time I said the following, "Hell no! Get out while you still can!" The shock and astonishment on each person's face was priceless; I honestly couldn't help myself.

To be frank, I must admit, it's not for those faint-of-heart. Doing your Master's part-time and working full-time requires extreme dedication and commitment. This may be apocryphal, but the difficulty of an undergraduate degree in Engineering pales in comparison to the difficulty of doing an engineering master's part-time and working in industry full-time. Why such a dramatic statement? Basically, from my perspective, the 18 months I've been doing my master's have been the most pain-staking and over-worked periods of my life (coming from an electrical engineer that's saying alot). You might be saying to yourself that it didn't have to be so hard and I agree 100%; however, I am a firm believer that in life, how successful you are at doing something, is completely proportional to the amount of work that you put into it. I believe it was Henry Thoreau who said, "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." All I have to add to this, is that if you work in industry and have desires to complete your Master's in this century, you will have no option but to work hard.

With that being said, here are some tips to help those seeking a Master's degree while working full-time:

1. Make 100% sure that your supervisor has the same research interests as you. I believe this goes for any student-supervisor relationship but is especially important for those squeezed between Work and School. I found that my work wanted me to achieve xyz at school, whereas my supervisor wanted me to achieve abc. This is an awful situation and one that leaves everyone unhappy.

2. Prepare for long hours and high blood pressure. The level of stress, at times, became unbearable leading to my blood pressure being at very unhealthy levels. Moreover, working 12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week just sucks, so be prepared.

3. Prepare for Information Overload. At times I amazed myself at the amount of information I squeezed into my small mammalian brain and how quickly I forgot it after. All I have to say, is try to filter out the important stuff and then engrain those things for later retrieval.

4. Try to convince your employer to pay for everything. If your work doesn't pay, you sort of venture into untested waters. For example, do you share all the things you do at work with your supervisor (may cause a conflict of interest) or do you hold back your best ideas and save them for work (you won't produce anything of value in your Master's). Conversely, if your work pays for everything (and your supervisor is aware of this), you have no say in the matter and the case is closed.

5. Most importantly, you MUST like research for research. If you want a Master's just to have another piece of paper on your wall, you are in for a major shocker. If you don't love research and I mean LOVE research, you won't last more than one semester doing your Master's part-time and working full-time.

These tips come from someone who made these mistakes, learned from them and at times is still regretting them. Moreover, take each with a grain of salt, as my Master's is still ongoing. Luckily, however, I believe I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

A Week in the Life of Brad

2007-09-05T20:56:00.001-04:00

Ummm, what can I say about a week in my life... for lack of a better word, exhilarating!!! For those of you who don't know me, that was sarcasm :)

To be honest, I guess you can characterize me as the atypical Engineering graduate student with one big twist. I work full-time with a Telecommunications company. What does this mean? Well from my perspective it implies that I actually have no life at all. Well let me clarify that statement. I have a life... just not one that I think my girlfriend appreciates...

Kidding aside, don't go thinking that I am depressed or pity the life I lead. I love my life. I just don't think that it is everyone's 'cup o' tea', for lack of a better cliché. I have come to this conclusion for a couple of reasons and to better describe why, here is my typical day:

6:30am --> Wake up
6:50am --> Breakfast (while reading a novel -- Currently: The Golden Ratio)
7:00am --> Get Ready for Work
7:30am --> Leave for Work
8:00am --> Start Work
6:00pm --> Finish Work
7:00pm --> Dinner (plus a little T.V. to keep me sane, LOL)
8:00pm --> Begin Studying
12:00pm -->Bed Time

And than repeat; my total working hours hover around 12 - 16 a day (sometimes work interchanges with School depending on the semester). To be honest, I do not know how I am able to do it -- something about being busy just brings out the best in me. However, I'm still a believer that my working efficiency can be improved. To do so, I've begun working on some of these 'Life Hacks' found here. Here are the ones I'm pursuing:

Start as you mean to go on: The first hour is the 'Golden Hour'. It is important that during this time I work at my peak capacity or else the rest of my day won't be as productive. So far I've been fairly successful; unfortunately, the Hockey news is still my kryptonite and honestly, I doubt I'll be able to kick it.
Set goals: I've always set goals but to be honest, I don't think I have done so properly. First of all, I've never written anything down and secondly, the 'in between' of the big goals I've just taken as it came along. I suppose once I'm done the Master's, planning for the future may become a bigger issue. For the timebeing, I'm only focusing on this one major goal.
Brainstorm (Mind-Mapping): I've mind-mapped in the past and I don't think any self-respecting elementary school graduate has gotten away without brainstorming; however, to do them with regularity and efficiency is definitely a task onto itself. My goal is to use them more often to spawn new ideas and keep my creativity up. This is yet to be seen.
Keep a journal or progress log: Currently, I already keep a progress log which I try to write in every day. I do this mainly because every Friday I need to send a progress report to my supervisor and I can never for the life remember wtf I did on Monday. Keeping a journal, on the other hand, I have never actually done. My blog is an attempt to keep a journal but we will see if I can keep it up when schools gets going again.
Use contextual to-do lists: This is a great idea. During my 'Golden Hour' I write down the major tasks I need to complete. Using a contextual to-do list, everything must be organized by context such as @desk, @phone, @computer. Since almost 100% of my work is @computer, I like to organize by @day, @week, @month and then @research, @eclipse, @internet. So far I've been somewhat successful keeping at this one.
Use a someday / maybe list: Although I'm still working on this, the 101 tasks in 1001 days is a great someday/maybe list. Just fill yours up and post it at triplux. You can also get some inspiration as well :)
Get some exercise, Eat Healthy and take Multi-vitamins: This one is a no brainer. Over the past four months I have gone to the gym every other day and I got myself up to running 2+miles every time (yeah, I know that isn't much but for a guy who can't run worth shit, that's amazing). My eating patterns are all over the place, although I am confident I am eating better (less Domino's anyways) and I am taking Multi-vitamins everyday.

I hope this post can be inspiration for anyone who is also in shoes similar to mine. **EDIT: I've been thinking about it more and I realize that my girlfriend is my life. Thank God she is in it. I don't know if I would be here without her. **

My Professional Bio

2007-09-03T22:37:00.001-04:00

Since I've been trying to write an effective bio, I've been doing a little research and I came across this site.

So here is my bio, please comment so that I can improve it:

Brad Stimpson is a well-rounded Systems and Software Engineer with experience in numerous Telecommunications projects, ranging from remote network deployment and management to designing network operational support systems.

Prior to working as a Systems and Software Engineer, Brad spent several years attending University where he obtained a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering. While pursuing his degree, Brad was President of the local IEEE Student Branch where he obtained recognition as an outstanding leader. Furthermore, to make extra money to pay for his degree, Brad worked as a research assistant, researching Video streaming over mobile ad hoc networks where he helped to publish several papers.

To improve upon the experience gained while pursuing his undergraduate degree, Brad decided to expand his horizons by enrolling in the Master's of Electrical Engineering program at McGill University. For just under two years, Brad has researched many interesting topics and has successfully completed several fairly intense courses. The research topics have revolved around optimizing DVB-RCS (satellite) bandwidth usage while dabbling in various other topics related to Wireless Communications and Machine Learning whereas the courses taken have focused on the same area (Machine Learning, Wireless Communications, Telecom Analysis, Telecomm Architecture, Software Architecture and Digital Communications).

Obviously, Brad is no stranger to Telecommunications or Electrical/Software Engineering in general. While attending McGill, Brad also worked full-time with a Satellite and Wireless service provider in Montreal, named OmniGlobe Networks. During his tenure at OmniGlobe Brad has worked on various projects, including but not limited to:

the design and construction of a specialized Operational Support System (NMS, Billing, QoS management) using a Java Aspect Oriented Platform.
the design and deployment of several WiMaX and DVB-RCS networks all over the world.
the management and support of these networks and customers on a 24/7 basis.
the design, construction and deployment of various bandwidth optimization platforms for satellite networks, including Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP), Multicast Web Caching and Universal Caching (a proprietary OmniGlobe solution).

To contact Brad please email brad.stimpson AT gmail DOT com or visit my blog at reductoradabsurdum.blogspot.com.

For those of you interested, here is the template I used to make my bio:

s· ______________ (your name) is a _________ (the type of coach you are) coach who helps _________ (your target clients) to ___________ (a problem or goal your target clients have).

· Prior to establishing her/his coaching business, _______(your name) spent _______ years as a ________________ (your relevant experience).

· ________ (your name) offers a wide range of programs and services – from ___________, to __________ and __________ (your services)

· ________ (your name) specializes in coaching ______ (target clients) to ___________ (problem target clients want to solve, or goal they want to achieve)

· After a successful career __________ (what you’ve been successful in), _______ (your name) now coaches other people to achieve the same success.

· _________ (your name) is no stranger to ________ (the industry or problem you coach). She/he spent ___ years as a ________ (occupation: e.g. mother of three, professional dancer, corporate executive).

· Her/his book ________ (book title) was published in ____ (publication year) and has since helped _______ (number: hundreds? thousands?) of people to _______ (problem book solved for them, or what it taught them)

· To contact _______ (your name) please email ______ or go to _______ (your web site)

101 Things to do in 1001 Days

2007-09-03T22:34:00.004-04:00

I found this here. Thought it is an absolutely great idea, so here is mine :D

1. Learn to play guitar.
2. Practice my bagpipes more regularly.
~~3. Take my grandfather to Scotland.~~
4. Learn to play hockey.
5. Exercise at least 3 times a week for 3 months.
6. Learn to speak French (at least conversational French).
7. Read at least 20 books.
8. Write in my blog at least once a month.
9. Start programming with an open source project.
10. Go to Australia.
11. Go to the Mediterranean.
12. Go to the Carribean.
13. Write two Journal papers.
14. Attend a Shakespearean Festival.
15. Buy a house.
16. Go on a roadtrip across Canada.
17. Reach $20000 in my RRSP.
18. Participate in an Olympic Triathlon (1.5km swim/40km bike/10km run).
19. Finish my Master's degree in Electrical Engineering.
20. Choose to do a MBA, Law Degree or Phd.
21. Walk with Christine at least twice a week for 6 months.
22. Write a book review (no matter how brief) for every book I read.
23. Attend a Comedy show every Montreal Juste Pour Rire Festival.
24. Get a tattoo on my shoulder blade (something to do with Electrical Engineering).
25. Buy an old Mustang and fix it up with my dad.
26. Learn how to sail with my dad.
27. Spend more time with my brother/sister.
28. Grow my hair back ( I have Alopecia Areata).
29. Invent something.
30. Sell what I invent.
31. Help someone else sell what they invent.
32. Construct a complex electrical device (a radio of some sort).
33. Donate money or time to either the Humaine Society, Cancer Society or Alopecia Society.
34. Dress up in a really fancy costume for Halloween.
35. Complete something on this list as often as possible.
36. Rollerblade with Christine.
37. Help Christine get involved with an Agility team.
38. Get Married.
39. Go Hiking in the Laurentians.
~~40. Go Hiking on the Bruce trail.~~
41. Go Horseback Riding with my mom.
42. See Disturbed in concert.
43. Play Poker in a big tournament.
44. Visit Michelle and Keith in Cape Breton.
45. Go Skydiving.
46. Go Camping every summer.
47. Sit around a bonfire and get drunk.
48. Go back to the Cabin and get drunk.
49. Pay off all my debts.
50. Keep a Journal and write more than my daily activities (write my thoughts!!!).
51. Visit my birthplace (Calgary, Alberta).
52. See the Maple Leafs in a playoff game.
53. Work with Dr. Guan on a project.
54. Make someone smile everyday.
55. Work only 40hours a week for 6 months.
56. Don't be afraid to tell people what I think.
57. Tell myself, will this matter in 5 years!
~~58. Drive on the wrong side of the road.~~
59. Go Ice fishing.
60. Go on a long distance Skidoo trip.
61. Make sure to tell people how well they are doing!
62. Watch the Northern Lights(preferably from a Northern location :)).
63. Learn a new computer game every 6 months.
64. Watch a sunset and a sunrise from a beach (within a 24hour period).
65. Tell Christine I love her everyday.
66. Do something my brother thinks is cool.
67. See some old friends every 6 months.
68. Master C++ and write an awesome network level application.
69. :) 69 is one of those numbers that gets my imagination going :)
70. Make my friends wear a kilt.
~~71. Finish this list :)~~
72. Help someone on the street.
73. Redecorate my bedroom (with all brand-new furniture, especially a nice bed).
74. Buy a flat-screen tv and lazboy recliner.
75. Build a robot (and make it do something cool).
76. Expunge my knowledge on other people as frequently as possible.
77. Travel somewhere crazy and do something fun spontaneously.
78. Learn how to fire an automatic rifle.
79. Learn some self-defense techniques.
80. See Chevelle in concert.
81. Teach my dogs a trick.
82. Rebuild an engine.
83. See the Olympics.
84. Drive a fast car (Ferrari, Porshe or Lamborghini).
85. Learn to cook 7 awesome meals and cook them all in one week.
86. Drink nothing but water for one month.
87. Get in touch with my spiritual side.
88. Learn to meditate.
89. Jog 10 miles non-stop.
90. Sing a song at Karaoke.
91. Write a book (preferably Fiction although a chapter in a technical book could count).
92. Take Christine Jewelry shopping.
93. Get a Family portrait
94. Begin researching the Higgs and Stimpson family trees.
95. Bake something (cookies, muffins, a cake).
96. Go Downhill Skiing 6 times in one winter.
97. Begin investing in high-risk stocks.
98. Avoid eating baked goods for 3 months.
99. Do something risky and make Christine do it with me.
100. Coach a sports team or lead a band.
101. Make sure I tell my family/friends how important they are to me everyday.

The Nature of the Universe

2007-09-03T18:17:00.001-04:00

Is the universe inherently chaotic and irrational or is there some underlying order that we have yet to fully realize. I believe there is an order. This belief is similar to a belief a person may have in God. It exists but without a single shred of concrete proof (not completely so if we take a detailed look at chaos theory). Call it faith. My faith is that there is a unifying order that all matter and energy in our universe follows. This order is inherently mathematical and is very similar to the law of gravity. That is, everything must follow some sort of law. The ordering of atoms in the human body. The coalesce of notes in a musical symphony. The structure of galaxies in the universe. All of these realizations of the law must obey some universal characteristics.

Is the universe really round, or is this a limit of our human perception. Could it be possible that the universe actually wraps upon itself. That is, if you were to travel to the edge of the universe you would actually stay in the same relative position. No matter where you go, you are always x light years away from anywhere else. You would be wrapping upon yourself the same way someone would be if they were lost in a forest. Or would you pass into some alternate universe? Can we view the universe the same way people in the 1600's viewed the world? The world was a perpetual cliff. Traveling beyond the known world would result in passing into some alternate plane of existence.

I believe that the underlying fundamentals of the universe can be described by a single simple theorem. This theorem will explain the expansion of the universe, the constraints of the universe and everything between it.

Being Busy

2007-09-03T18:16:00.002-04:00

Why is that when I am busy, I think I perform better in all aspects of my life. Making oneself busy is both a blessing and a curse. Some people are the busiest people on the planet but don't accomplish anymore than normal non-busy people. I believe I'm one of those former people. I work my ass off; constantly struggling, never finding a way to accomplish my work efficiently and with the least amount of time at work. I'm starting to believe that the more you spend your time goofing off at work, the better you can cope with the stress of work and the more people recognize you for doing nothing, yet in their eyes doing something!. Oddly enough, how is it possible that a person who does nothing can be recognized as a large contributor to a project?

In life, sometimes there are those who make it through life riding on the coat tails of others. The 'lucky' ones... Those bastards that we all resent that get a free ride trough life. Truth is, us busy people can't worry about those types otherwise our lives would become a worrisome jumble of incomprehensible thoughts... Worrying about those with a free ride would distract us from what we should really be working on. Our goals, our desires, our life... But the truth is, sometimes this approach to life can create a stress that is imbareable. How can one truly deal with a stress that is imbareable?

Than/Then, Less/Few and Affect/Effect

2007-09-03T18:00:00.001-04:00

With all the writing I have been doing recently, these two word pairs have been really bugging me. I was annoyed at the fact that I truly don't know the proper usage of these words. So in order to, in part, satisfy my thirst for knowledge and, in part, to fix my ignorance, here is a little explanation on how to use these words (inspired from here).

Affect/Effect: Simply put, the difference between affect/effect boils down to one being a verb and the other being a noun. Affect is a verb, effect is a noun. When you affect something, you produce an effect on it. Even in the passive voice, something would be affected, not effected. (There are some exceptions to this but are only used on rare occasions).

Than/Then: Is another pair that can be very confusing. The key is that than is not related to time whereas then is. Specifically, than is mostly used in comparative sentences such as:
"More often than not", "I am taller than him", "The red peppers are far more expensive than the green peppers." Conversely, then is traditionally used as a time marker or in a sequence of events such as: "I drove home from work then went straight to sleep", "Let me review your work first and then we can chat".

Less/Few: Finally, a pair of words that can be confusing is Less/Few. The simple rule of thumb is that few should be used for something that is counted whereas less is used for something that is measured. For example, "I have fewer days than you" is more appropriate as "I have less days than you". Conversely, "I have less water than you" is more appropriate than "I have fewer water than you".

Engineering Graduate... 2 years Later

2007-08-30T22:15:00.000-04:00

It has been two years since that glorious 'G'-Day. The day when my school, the same school that I gave my sweat, blood and tears to, declared me an Electrical Engineer. I must say that after the 4+ years of slaving away, working hour upon hour to reach that elusive degree, it seems far from worth it. To put it simply, I felt like a little chihuahua being ridden by a 100lb rottweiler named Spike (sorry for my bad analogy). To make matters worse, I actually wanted it to happen and paid for it too!

The reason I say this, is that after 2 years of working with a Telecommunications company, my undergraduate education is but a drop in the bucket. My employer has taught me almost everything I need to know and at times the topics I studied so faithfully seem far from relevant. It's not that I think learning basic circuit theory is not important, it's just that not many people in industry actually do basic circuit theory. More importantly, it has absolutely nothing to do with my job!

Now that I think about it, it must be difficult for Universities to build an electrical engineering curriculum that will be relevant to all it's future electrical engineers. So as opposed to designing focused streams where students can become very good at one subject (I refer to it as vertical learning) they teach the students a horizontal program. A horizontal program with way too many courses. Non-engineers will never understand the envy we had for business students with 3 courses a semester and all the hot girls. Honestly, wtf was the Engineering deptartment thinking when they assigned me 7 courses in the first semester of which 6 were Math, Physics or Computer related.

Engineers always proclaim that Engineers rule the world (ERTW baby!). In hindsight, I think it's better to say that Electrical Engineers are screwed by the world. We work our asses off. We had the hardest education. We love a subject that no one understands. We get paid like shit. We keep going back for more (at least I do anyways).

All I have to say is that if Engineers really do rule the world, then where's Mo' Money. I'm not keeping my hopes up.

A Newbie's take on GWT Development

2007-08-29T10:29:00.002-04:00

With all my research as of late into the Google Web Toolkit, I decided to post my collection of links with a brief synopsis of each. Enjoy :D

1. Some Recipes to Improve Your Google Web Toolkit Development
Very interesting article by Klaus P. Berg from JavaWorld outlining some of his GWT Development Lessons Learned. He presents 8 excellent tips for GWT development. I especially like his views on automating GWT testing with Selenium and his divide and conquer modularization approach.

2. Ajax for Java developers: Exploring the Google Web Toolkit
Another great getting started article. Phillip McCarthy starts simple by describing the Google Web Toolkit and how it works. He then gets more advanced by showing how to implement a full weather reporter than interface with Yahoo weather. He tops it off by adding some Scriptaculous effects.

3. Working with the Google Web Toolkit
Small article articling some of the basics of the Google Web Toolkit. Doesn't go into great depth in any of the discussion; however the author Robert Cooper does briefly talk about GWT and Maven integration which isn't greatly covered around the Web.

4. Maven Magic
This, perhaps, isn't heavily related to GWT but with my goal to learn Maven this article is an excellent overview. Written by Srikanth Shenoy it is a great starting point on the path to learning Maven.

Overall, just avoid at all costs. Run!

6 Reasons NOT to Develop Enterprise Applications in PHP

2007-08-27T21:45:00.001-04:00

For the past two years, I have been avidly developing with LAMP (Linux - Apache - MySQL - PHP) with one minor exception. I use FreeBSD as opposed to Linux (FreeBSD is a much better operating system but I'll leave that for another discussion). With that being said, I would like to discuss some of the major flaws with developing enterprise applications in PHP.

1) First of all, because I say so... run while you still can!

2) PHP is a scripting language with very loose typing (by this I mean that variables have only one type, e.g. no int, float, etc... as is the case with C/C++). This is both a blessing and curse for PHP developers. It is a benefit as small applications can be written quickly without major concern for type declaration. Unfortunately, however, at the same time this can lead to large ambiguity when other developers, especially for developers outside the PHP realm, look at your code. Moreover, the common NULL variable exception as in Java, doesn't exist in PHP. Tracking down the reason why a variable returned null is both a tedious and mind-numbing experience in PHP. I must say that it isn't as bad as I make it sound. Over time, you get use to the PHP methodology, overcoming the ambiguity becomes easier and isolating those dreaded null variables is a piece of cake.

3) PHP lacks true object orientated programming (OOP). With PHP5, OOP methodology began to find its way into PHP. This is a great thing but the fact that PHP is not strictly typed, from my perspective, goes against the grain of OOP. Why? Well a simple concept like not being able to access the private members of an object with an external object can be ignored (this may be changing in new versions of PHP but as far as I know, this is the case). If you want to access the private members of an object, you can do so. Thus OO conventions are left up to the programmer to manage. This is bad mainly because it breaks encapsulation, an important concept in OOP. More importantly, true OOP can be said to improve code reuse, scalability and testing. As a PHP developer, OOP is a new concept, especially using it in Web development. This leads to classes just acting to group functionality (a common mistake for developers new to OOP and that I confess to be guilty of). This leads to the same old 'spaghetti' code of monolithic development, does not improve scalability and does not improve code testing. Overall, OOP in PHP is a great thing and I hope to see it improve over the next few years.

4) Generally, most developers have the misconception that PHP has powerful, easy-to-use libraries and solid open source Web frameworks. First of all, the libraries available for PHP development are either found at user-based Web sites (www.phpclasses.org) or from the PHP Extension and Application Repository (PEAR - pear.php.net). While there is an extensive breadth of classes available, I found that they are difficult to extend, most are not well maintained and finding support can at times be difficult. My first hand experience came when trying to use the PEAR Ping class. Due to a small bug with the FreeBSD version of the code, the library continually threw Fatal errors. I isolated the error and corrected it but only after a considerable amount of wasted time I could have better spent on other things. To a lesser extent, the lack of a solid Web framework was a major hindrance when I began my PHP development. Unfortunately for me, this has been corrected recently with the advent of CakePHP and the Zend framework.

5) PHP-CLI (Command Line Interface) just sucks. PHP-CLI is a new feature of the PHP language and as such, has many problems. First and foremost, is it has awful memory management. PHP-CLI obviously was designed for quick scripts that perform a task and then exit. Using PHP-CLI for a long running process is not a wise decision and should be avoided at all cost. I made this error and was forced to correct it by wrapping the program in a C daemon that automatically restarts it on failure. Not the most elegant solution but effective.

6) Finally, and perhaps the greatest flaw from my perspective, is that PHP is an interpreted language. What does this mean? Well simply put, PHP is not a compiled language like Java, C/C++, etc... Your code is interpreted at run-time. More importantly, the source code for your entire application is shipped with the product. This isn't bad if you want your code to be Open Source, or your customers can't gain direct access to the product to view the source. However, most companies prefer to keep the code proprietary, hence, making PHP a risky preposition. You can overcome this slightly by using obfuscation technologies such as the IonCube encoder, but these technologies are inherently weak. It isn't difficult to find un-obfuscation applications on the Web to decode the process.

Overall, my experience developing an enterprise application with PHP wasn't entirely a bad one. PHP in it's own right is a very powerful language and is excellent for developing small to medium Web applications. Unfortunately, however, there comes a point when using PHP becomes a bad choice. To help, here are two simple heuristics to help when choosing whether PHP is the language to use:
1. Don't use PHP, if your business logic will be greater than 10,000 lines of code.
2. Don't use PHP, if you require long running processes.

If your application abides by these heuristics, then by all means use PHP. If not, Java is an excellent alternative.

Words of Wisdom

2007-08-27T20:25:00.001-04:00

Two Wolves

An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them...

“A fight is going on inside me... it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you and every other person, too.”

They thought about this for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather... “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied... “The one you feed.”

My First Blog

2007-08-25T18:47:00.000-04:00

So... My first blog. The purpose of this blog is yet to be determined but I can promise that keeping the techno babble to a minimum will not be possible. The techno-babble has consumed my life recently, so naturally, it's the only thing on my mind. I hope this blog will be a channel for me to organize my thoughts and ideas.