Terminology and Technology

Like oil and water to me. I mean, 'factory'? I was like, 'Huh? Wazat? I thought factories are located in industrial parks?' That was my very first response to my very first introduction to the term 'software factory'. =)

However as I work more on my architecting and designing skills (another great example 'concise' terminology =p) I discovered that a factory is a specific type of 'software pattern'. First of, let's have some understanding on terminology. Architecting is the ability to create architecture (by the way, I do not know if it should be 'architecting' or 'architecturing'. Someone go search and let me know ah =D ). A software architecture defines a direction and objective for the piece of software being developed. The architecture will state if it's client-server, n-tier etc. It explains how the disparate parts of the system works together. Design on the other hand is a more detailed version. How the classes / modules are related, what do they do etc.

Well then, what are patterns? They are basic repeating software design elements which are used for certain scenarios under certain conditions. One well-known writing on this is the book Design Patterns : Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. The four authors of this book (Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides) have been refered to frequently as the 'Gang of Four' (GoF). Therefore the patterns they described are also known as the 'Gang of Four patterns'.

Some interesting information from wikipedia:

- In Chinese history, the Gang of Four was a group of Communist politicians based in Shanghai. They were among the main leaders of the Cultural Revolution.
- In East Asian history, the Gang of Four (or the Asian Tigers) refers to South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong as newly industrialized countries with shared economic characteristics.
- In British history, the Gang of Four were the four leading members of the Labour PartySocial Democratic Party in 1981.
- In Australian politics, the Gang of Four was a term commonly used by the media to describe Democrat Senators Meg Lees, Andrew Murray, Aden Ridgeway, and John Cherry, after they controversially toppled party leader Natasha Stott Despoja.
- In Papua New Guinea, the Gang of Four were four prominent civil service chiefs who had significant influence over public policy in the years after independence was granted.

Hmm... I wonder if 'GoF' is a good name for this as some of it's related terminology denotes chaotic circumstances. So now, does having patterns assist or disrupts software development? There's an interesting question. ;-)

Anyhow, for more information, just search 'gang of four pattern' (without the single quotes of course) and there's plenty to read. Another quick and good introduction would be the site http://www.dofactory.com/Patterns/Patterns.aspx. If one is familiar with developing software, some of the patterns will seem extremely familiar. It would have been used and implemented before just the terminology that is 'new'. Again, terminology and technology. Don't quite mix properly for me.

=)

It's Bloggin' Time!

Hey hey, ever wondered what blogging is all about? I was writing the previous post offline and wanting to share those thoughts with everyone. However as I pondered that decision (after making it and taking it) I realise that I STILL do not quite understand the blogging phenomena. What is it all about? Is blogging about opening doors to your inner sanctum? Is blogging about telling exagerated stories which eventually become cyber-myths and legends? Is blogging about wanting to share your passion?

In the beginning, it was all about hitching a ride on this phenomena. I mean come on man, my friends and colleagues left, right, up, down, front and back were on this high. Including my bosses. So why not join in the fun? After starting one, then I realise it's not just another simple game. It needs attention, focus and discipline. So it became tedious to write entries and it was neglected. Subsequently I had some stuff I thought to share with the world at large. Stuff like my believe and passion for automation and computers (=p it's all because I live by one word - LAZY hehe... I wanted life to be easy and what easier way to make life easy but to remove the everyday tedium of things by automation? Annnnnddddd..... computerisation is all I know about automation =D)

If the world can share my passion, then my life can be made easier (meaning lazier) faster. How does blogging help me? Well, so far it doesn't really. Not in this blog anyway. That's another story. I subsequently succumbed to the attraction of blogging and have been more discipline in writing. Now my problem is sometimes the writing bug hits me or some inspiration to really WRITE but my blog is not accessible. So what do I do? I've now turned to my trusty m515. Turn it on, start writing. Mark it as 'OFFLINE ENTRY'. Upload at next available opportunity.
(Note my dear bosses : my previous post is OFFLINE ENTRY ah... I was NOT lazing in office =p)

gtg makan (Malay - eat), growling now, ciao.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

I was at my girlfriend's place today to spend some time. Have been recently neglecting her due to my different and unfortunately less than optimal time 'rearrangement'. =P Well, to be fair I did try ;-) but it wasn't really 'quality' time to her. Rather I was trying to bribe her with movies which are usually rushed and late at night taking up most of the time spent together leaving zero (0) time to chat. So there I was trying to make up for it by my presence when I realize it's pretty boring because she had to finish up some presentation slides and I did not want to interrupt her doing that.

Well, what does a bored one do? He finds anything readable to pass the time and that's how I stumbled upon this gem of a book called "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" by Mitch Albom. The book tells the story of an old man working at an amusement park who died attempting to rescue a young girl during an accident. Subsequently, the old man found out that heaven is not as we presumed all this while. Instead of our standard vision of heaven as a place where souls mingle and chat like people on earth, it is a far, far better place where one can find real peace of mind and can lay to rest all earthly concerns. However before this old man reaches that stage, he had to go through several ‘trials’ regarding his life on earth. This is a true rare find among all the standard fare dished out by authors today (or rather by the authors of the books I usually read =p which are science fiction and fantasy). As I finished reading it, I was misty-eyed.

This is a really good book to read for that warm fuzzy feeling and to remind ourselves of what being human is all about. It reminds us of the intricate web that binds each and everyone of us together.

I got to go wash my face now.

** BTW, this is offline entry on 17 July 2005 =p not now lar, now at work.

My life has turn upside down

Sheesh.... here's a lesson to all not to stress test your hardware. Must be all the China fellows doing mass production touting 'fast, efficient delivery of any amount you want' lah. My Palm is quitting on me =....( *sob sob*. My beautiful, sleek, friendly m515.

It all started when I got itchy hands and did a soft reset. Those of you who use Palm would know that the reset button is a recessed little pin hole which you need to stick something in to trigger the reset. Well, there I was feeling itchy and I went and soft reset my Palm. Well whadaya know, it then stopped working. The screen was blank and the power button was all lighted up. Nothing I pressed or did worked. Then I tried putting it in the charger and as soon as it was powered up, the power button light extinguished. I was scratching my head like mad trying to figure out why. Finally I gave up and searched online for solutions.

Turns out it could be due to some issues with the USB charging circuitry which may be shorted. The only way to do fix this is to disconnect the battery and reconnect it. Since I did not have the necessary tools, I had to do it the slow way..... wait till the power runs out. =p Three whole days I was without my trusty sidekick, had to depend on my buddy just to wake me up for work. Sheesh!

Subsequently I got it back up and running again. Then I very pandai (Malay - clever) and tried to open a copy of Microsoft Patterns & Practices: Architecture & Design Guide and then my Palm hung... again.

Well, for now my Palm is up and running however I'm not sure how long it might last. I'm hoping it will last me until end of this year at least, then I can look towards an alternative. I was thinking about the Zire72 which looks awesome especially the 'special' edition which comes in silver. ;-) Then my friend keep on pestering me and telling me all the virtues of a Windows Mobile device and I did not have a single point to rebutt! Anyhow I went to have a look (seriously, at first it was a look only =p) and I saw.........Dell Axim 50v, VGA resolution, 624MHz Intel Xscale... man was I hooked.

Well, got to go already, another on the Axim then. =D