foxpro.catalyst «

FoxPro workBLOGS and MORE… . . .

RenderTEST.8042-009. Click the image on the left for a larger 498×1370 resolution. Having posted those lines above, I would like to tell you that this post has nothing to do with the image. Besides I don’t think I’ll make any sense in this post. It is 2:30AM and the discussion on education-related problems on TV ended just minutes ago. One problem probably, which was not mentioned, is… we have so much TV shows/news items discussing education related problems more than concrete solutions. Even in that TV discussion, I can’t seem to find even one convincing solution that perhaps could eradicate the problems mentioned.

Excuses… I see plenty. Solutions… I think one was mentioned. If… I’ll even consider that a solution.

I for one, cannot think of a concrete solution at this time of day.

Perhaps because the solution is beyond the weave of problems that govern the educational system.

Perhaps it lies on the attitude of the ‘problem solvers’ themselves. If one really exists.

I see corruption, I see humans that rant too much, I see passive individuals, I see tons of the-hell-I-care students and I see a lot of people yammerin’-there-yammerin’-here about these things.

I see blogs.

But I’m not sure I’m making sense too. That render distracts me every now and then.

Perhaps we’ll just let George Boole educate us all on this matter.

Take it away, George.

How do VisualFoxpro programmers talk to their wives..?

A lot of ways really… but Calvin Hsia added another way through this code that runs and fires up Microsoft Word. Type your words and sentences inside it, highlight (select) it and the binded Foxpro code activates the speech API and barfs out those words.

Mondo cool.

Qs is a meter away in front of her PC and I’m still convincing her to buy me some food through this. (Much better than YahooIM.FontSize(25))

The fun part is typing Filipino phrases in it which the speech API object pronounces in such a funny way.

Try this one out.

Yeah… I’ve been playing around with Poser for the past few days and haven’t been coding that much. Poser has improved so much since the last time I was taking my lunch with it (and even skipping office work just to play with it). Even the online Poser community increased by folds, not only by number of sites, but by number of cool freebies as well. In a nutshell (for those who haven’t heard of Poser yet), it is one of those so easy to use click-here-click-there 3D applications where, given a default set of figures, you can add some props, dress them up, add some lights, change their expressions and pose them to your heart’s (and libido’s) desire.

You can download tons of characters, props, poses, or if you have some extra cash, you can even buy some cool 3D figures from sites such as Daz3D and Renderosity.

(The model used above is a freebie MDP F202 model downloaded from this link. I’m still thinking of what name to give her.)

Of course you can delve deeper, morph objects and faces (imported from jpegs), create meshes, ‘clothify’ and create Python scripts.

Yes… applying even simple random generating algorithms on vertices produces cool abstract stuff. But then, involving algorithms in this easy click and pose application defeats my purpose of just having fun and easing the stress produced by software development.

I don’t like things to sound this way:

Q: What do you do for work..?
A: Create database programs and algorithms.
Q: What do you do when you’re not working..?
A: Create algorithms/scripts in Poser.

I will, post more thoughts about Poser and link to some cool Poser produced images in the days to come.

Who knows, I might even post some of my Poser-renders of the day.

Hiring is Obsolete. (via Beakman)

Agree but not entirely. There are tons of things you learn and experience when you’re hired. It’s like before you can lead and manage, you must learn to follow. A great part of my attitude towards work is molded by working for four years under The Boss of a computer center of a certain university along with nine other programmers and engineers (which includes a Linux-samurai-x-lovin’ system administrator).

But that’s only a minor debris among the things tackled in that article.

So go check it out for yourself.

I’ve been wanting to blog about this for months already but I kept on pushing it back to my tasks-in-line list. First I thought I would scribble it last November when my earthly age was incremented by one but I decided not to.

Then last December to serve as a ‘year ender’ but still it didn’t push through.

January to spark plug the year… but still, I held back thinking I’ll blog it instead in February when the site turns one.

March… and now it’s April (mid-April to be precise (and i’ve even reached the last week of April before I can actually post it online)) and I think it’s about time.

This workblogs/site serves a lot of purposes… one of them is as a digital bookmark of the things I have done and achieved. In the future I am hoping I could look back and read some things I have done in the past.

(And honestly, there are posts where I don’t really give a modem’s arse if someone is reading or not reading.

(This one belongs to the not part… :o)

At first, I planned on posting details of each project I have handled since November of 2002, months after I transferred here to Metro Manila… but then again that would be lengthy so I’ll just give a list.

In a nutshell, these are the database projects I have created/handled and have been currently maintaining for the past 29 months:

• Integrated Guidance Office System – FL001-01, FL001-02
  • Student Cumulative Records
  • Aptitude Test 001
  • Aptitude Test 001 Upgrade
• HRA (Databank System for a certain congregation) – FL006, FL007, FL008 and FL009)
• Integrated Media Center System – FL001, FL002, FL003, FL004 and FL005
  • Library System (Books/Cataloguing/Borrow/Returning etc…)
  • Audio Visual Room Systems (Inventory/Cataloguing)
  • SASM (Student books information searching system)
  • Library Attendance Recording System
  • Internet Usage Monitoring System
  • Control Panel
  • Serials Manager
• HRAEI (201/Human Resource Employee Information) – FL006, FL001, FL010 and RJ001
• Project Sopheia (Internet Cafe System) – FL011
• Automated Dormitory Databank System – FL011
• Kids’ Workshop Monitoring System – FL012
• SJH Databank System (Patients/Medical Databank System) – FL013
• HRA (Ministries Build) – FL014
• FDDF Databank System – FL015
• Enrollment/Registrar Transaction System (RJ001)
• Miscellaneous Registrar Transactions (RJ001)
• Cashiering System (RJ001)
• Financial Records (RJ001)
• Grading System (RJ001)
• Project SRL (Student records locator) (RJ001)
• EIPS/Payroll System (RJ001)
• PC Inventory System (RJ001)
• Project Random/AI experiment (Personal Project)
• Snippets Collector (Personal Project)
• PC Transaction Logging System (RJ001)
• Database Utilities (Database development/maintenance tool)

‘FL’ stands for a freelance project/client and ‘RJ’ stands for the ‘Regular Job’. The (‘regular job’) company I am connected with does not mind the freelance things I do as long as I complete the tasks I am assigned to deal with.

The personal database projects are things that I do which serve as exercises (usually during morning or when I’m not in the mood) so that I can get into the coding zone.

I was reading Beakman’s blog about, dare I say it in this ‘tech’ blog… ‘love life’.

Ugh. Awrk. Brewk.

Ok… let’s just use the term ‘life’. Using the word ‘love’ inside this blog just won’t work. Well at least not this time.

But I will connect this post later with Foxpro and software development in general. Trust me.

Reading Beakman’s post reminds me of my last day of teaching. That was what, almost three years ago. That was when I decided to give up the full time coding work + part time teaching (aka torturing) comsci students to find a new work area near qsez place.

To be with the family (Powee, our second child was also about to pop out that year) instead of spending a great portion of my salary on roundtrip plane tickets once a month and having to explain to our HR head why I always extend my vacation to twice its allowed time.

Now back to that last day lecture, I do remember getting into a logic-less life-related discussion. I remember giving them advice, only one piece of advise… which I told them they should always remember since during that time I thought they would only hear it from me (believing as I did that no other teacher would dare utter it).

… and that advice was to put ‘love life’ first before education.

By the time I finished that line… they were laughing. And I was laughing with them while giving them concrete laughable examples of what happened to people who prioritized education over ‘love’.

But still, in the end… I told them I was serious. Well, at least I believed I was serious.

I told them to look around them, and in doing so they’ll see tons of career/goal driven individuals,with tons of money ready for disposal living an unsatisfying life burdened by broken, dysfunctional human bonds and all.

But the real point is… people who are really happy with their lives are not the ones who have achieved so much, garnered so many awards, and all and whatever thing that can be 3D-ed and 2D-ed and broken down into two-bit CMYK-powered JPEGs.

Humans who are the happiest are those humans who, place at the top of their priorities another human being or any human life related matter aside from everything the world has to offer.

(JC and PJPII and Bono of U2 are good examples.)

It’s not the kind of false love which conceals beneath the folds of its masquerade selfishness and insecurity, but rather love for humanity as a whole, whatever that ‘love for humanity’ means to you.

The main reason why I create database programs for clients is not merely for the money. It is for the human user.

To make easier his/her life, make him/her spend more time preparing for bed with his/her loved one instead of spending the nights working on some transactions which I can short circuit in just one click.

Indirectly, the database work is for the kids, which as qsez mom would call it, ‘securing their future’.

Well… of course I’d like to bring home one of those Asus laptops and all… but then again… it’s for me (human) and not for the Asus (though that Asus laptop would be really lucky to have me (or at least be beside me.))

Please don’t think I’m giving advise in here… it’s just 7AM. The shower is still too cold for me and I’m still too sleepy to tinker with Foxpro’s command window.

In my case, Mark… Beakman… the best thing I did was to teach qs how to code… and how to code in Visual Foxpro (even if she’s now acting weird sometimes, talking to herself once in a while and blurting out normalization-related stuff in the middle of my meditation time).

But still, I think that was one of the best moves i’ve made since moving here.

In your case, Mark… only you can tell.

Logic, though I profess it passionately and endlessly, online and offline, with the humans I interact with (qs not being an exemption)… is often not enough.

… especially… especially… especially… when you, my friend, are dealing with human beings known as ‘women’.

And please, that last line is not a chauvinistic remark. That’s just reality.

Deal with it.

I was thinking of posting something today that I have been wanting to blog about for months already, but since today is the first day of April… I don’t want it to be taken as a joke.

Besides, the ‘net seems to have pushed this April 1 stuff to another level for the past few years. Too far sometimes, so much so that I have seen so many April Fool’s Day 1 jokes even if it’s not April 1 1.

Name it and the web has it, even the bidding for used silicon implants on eBay.

One of the April Fool’s-01-joke-even-if-it’s-not-April-01 joke that I have been reading so much as of late are those claims on security.

Don’t get me wrong. Security has never been a joke.

It’s the endless claim of having an operating system/browser/whatever that is secure that I find amusing.

I still have to see an operating system that would recreate an important file if I decide to randomly delete a couple of its ‘core files’. I have tested that since… well, since ‘software security’ keeps popping out in most text-infested sites I’ve seen for the past few years.

Even the deletion of a single text formatted .ini file sometimes crashes the operating system.

I would delete files on a test PC every now and then and see how the operating system reacts to it. So far, the best I have seen is a message showing that a corruption occured, OS needs to be reinstalled along with a logo on it.

Cute.

Sometimes it just reboots endlessly without even telling you what the problem is. Well, unless you call displaying that message and rebooting endlessly a main part of the so-called security feature…

In fact, if you unplug the computer, decide to put that poor thing in the middle of the road and ram even the oldest/crankiest vehicle against it, I don’t think your hard disk (and data for that matter) would be secured.

The time you unplug it, most operating system would thumb suck and take refuge in their polka dot protected boxes.

If qsez dad decides to take those CPUs to the rooftop and use it for his daily practice shooting, I don’t think any amount of this so-called ‘more secured’ OS can handle it.

In fact, sans the electrons and protons, an operating system can’t even function.

A secure operating system, would be able to do more than what it claims to do, protect you from past and present threats, anticipate future ones, protect your file and your soul, makes your life easier, increases your libido, and transforms into a fully armored incorruptible seven headed, fierce looking, fire breathing medieval knight that protects your damsel-in-distress data when it is unplugged.

(And without thinking about fame, financial profits, and world domination while it’s at it.)

Until, someone can invent (and selfishly patent) that medieval knight, you can only dream on about your claims on security.

But, humans and developers should not stop pursuing for it.

And irresponsible marketers/zealots/managementscan always continue claiming that their product is ‘more secure’. Besides, it makes good April Fool’s 1 jokes.

Good programmers/developers/system analysts are not measured merely by the number of code lines they’ve barfed out (most of them are bug-infested anyway and won’t last until the next operating system upgrade)… nor by their experience alone… but how they apply the principles of programming and software development in real life.

Programming, developing… coding… or whaver you call it, is… spiritual.

Ah… the effects of marathon coding until 4AM at home in an enclosed room for three straight days.

Here are some random links for you:

• Google’s secret of success? Dealing with failure.
• The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time

Omni-pie. Client decided to move the meeting/presentation to Monday next week so I’m here today in the office… for the Foxpro.catalyst’s site birthday.

Hehe… : ]

I have prepared already for tomorrow’s client visits since last week so I guess I’ll just spend the afternoon catching up with buffered feeds, buffered blogs and bloggable thoughts.

Qs on the other hand is working on her database application which she will also be presenting tomorrow and I can hear her programming-related grumbles from here.

(Conscience to WildFire: “Good… blog about it instead of helping her.”

Shut up, conscience. The end justifies the means.

OK… some initial link round-ups: Ah… one of the thousand reasons why I love computers.

A global network of computer users has clocked up more than 4,000 years’ worth of computer calculations in under three months as part of a huge grid project.
Link

Nice… computers can solve those amount of problems but humans can’t even start solving some of the ‘basic problems’ that have infested this very world for years now.

Intel’s silicon laser breakthrough has been popping out in some of the feeds that I’m getting. What’s next… the grizzly patents?

But this is good. I have constantly argued with my alter ego that there should come a time where we give software development-related solutions that do not set their foundations on a framework that was created because hardware-based connections are too slow to catch up with the data being processed.

I know that sounds vague but I’ll explain that more soon.

But in a nutshell… it’s like Porky Pig telling you add-ons that you can carry with your bike so you can do fish-castration-related stuff and all. Improve the bike… change the bike with a Harley Davidson instead.

Something like that.

Later, compadres.

The ‘internet’ is such a good source of resource and information and an ever seductive vortex of distraction. And sometimes even the resources can pull you away from the things you’re supposed to be doing. (Now I’m reminded once again of that near 5-digit unread feeds in my RSSBandit)

This was the reason I decided to cut the home internet connection.

To focus.

But going offline for quite some months is not new to me. Those who knew me even before, know I do this regularly.

It’s a sort of test how long my nose hairs would grow and how many imaginary ‘pets’ would appear if the ‘net connection is taken away from me for weeks and sometimes even months.

(Hah. I know a lot of humans who have added the ‘net connection to the basic needs of life (It is even added as the fourth need… right after Food, clothing, in between shelter and sex (for some it is even before the clothing need (and yes… sex is a basic need)))).

That loss of internet home connection… add the deadlines that are pounding me and that ‘how-come-this-bugs+request-for-feature-never-ends’ dilemma plus a couple more factors lead to a lot of ‘bloggable events’ and stuff that I would so like to share, yet always being pushed down in the waiting queue state of things.

I’ll try to catch up before this blog site turns one year old (which is within this week).

One of these buffered things is the acquisition of a Canon PowerShot A95 digital camera before 2004 ended. I’ve been surfing a lot of sites online and reading DPreview.com for the past few months before the purchase. And since then, this digital camera has been in my bag wherever I go.

Of course the main purpose was for the baby growing up captures. But I can only take shots for so long before my little ones start to give me those mischievous looks, start ramming their heads at me and hurling objects of mass destruction towards in my direction.

So far so good. The camera’s ‘performance’ and the quality of the pictures it barfs out are very good.

Random.Shot.2005.0214.001

The Canon IXUS/Elph is also a good choice but since I have purchased a 128MB CompactFlash card, a card reader and some rechargeable AA batteries weeks prior to the digital camera purchase, the A95 was the better choice for me.

Expect some random shots in this blog from now on.

The 14th of February.

Yes… it is 2AM here and it is Valentine’s Day.

It’s been awhile since I fired up this Foxpro.catalyst html template in Dreamweaver to blog at this hour. During the end of December last year I decided to terminate the internet connection at home so that I could concentrate more on the projects.

(I realized as of late that the internet connection is one factor that keeps me up until three to four AM and wakes me up earlier than the usual time.)

But that is not what this blog is all about.

It’s about ‘Valentines’.

It’s the time of the year where we set .lMushiness.value == .T. in our blogs… well at least for me because I don’t remember being mushy since I started blogging on this site.

So if you’d excuse me… at least for one day.

I promise not to exceed the intoxication limit though.

For humans who have their special someone in their lives already, every day is V-Day. You wake up in the morning… glance at your side and smile. You see your angel. You see a lovely person… the reason why you wake up each morning… the essence of your existence.

You see your breath transfigured in a lovely form in a pool of drool and potruding armpit hairs.

As years go by, you tend to ignore it… but still it is there…. not the armpit hair but that inherent essence and presence to thank for… to live for… to breath for.

V-Day is that time of the year to remind you how lucky you are.

Or… if you’re one of those who are firing-squad regulars, it is a reminder that you are missing a lot. One way or another you have to remedy that situation.

(Well of course, my friend areman is an exception. He prefers to be in that ‘mustang-hood state’ until eternity (Ironically, he posts a lot of mush-related stuff in his blogs regularly.)

But simple mathematics would show you that not everyone in this world, by ratio and proportion (disregard fate for now), is bound to have one. And we’re not even including those who have two or more in the equation.

Not all can have a special someone. (Real or imaginary ones.)

One of the many reasons why animals exist in this world.

That’s what PETS are for.

I’ve heard of this princess from long long time ago, who was loveless for years that she decided to roam around the lily pond during the second month of the year. She found a frog and… well, you know how that story ends.

(If you don’t know about this story you can ask a five year old or you can google things for yourself using these keywords: ‘Countess + Ada + Lovelace’.)

So start looking for pets instead of pictures in Friendster or Orkut. (And for heaven’s sake it’s hard to find love inside porn sites.)

Pets are the ultimate solution.

For starters, I recommend a pet tiger.

In one way or another, tigers do simulate the person you aspire to love.

Kidding aside… happy valentines day to those who have touched my life… my mother (who I considered my first valentine (who taught me art and all (whom I create those kinder/elementary v-cards (even if she’s not reading this…)))).

To my father (who taught me logic, math and the push-drive-forward attitude) and my younger sister (who won more math/quiz.bee-related awards than me).

Of course to my little Angel and her ‘i-want-to-be-bad-good-is-boring’ words (and she’s still three years old)… my little Powee who access randomly his crying disc at night… and of course to my loving wife, my qsypie who gives me reason beyond logic and algorithms to dwell and journey in this world…

And I will never forget how she ‘freed’ and ‘rescued’ me on Valentines Day a number of years ago.

From TechBooksForFree.com, some reference/PDF links for you… Microsoft SmartPhone Programming · Introduction to Networking Technologies · Computers and Microprocessors.

Most of the time it is good to know the basics… and it is always good to read. Period.

The Software Conspiracy, a book by Mark Minasi which was first released last 1999 can now be downloaded for free. It is a good resource to reflect on especially for freelance/independent programmers.

(Most of the ‘corporate/in-house’ ones are too much ‘infested’ already or are trapped inside an revenues-first-bugs-later situation… (not all though.))

Not all.

Peace, droids.

I had to rush home yesterday after that TechFest 2005 VisualFoxpro session because I had a client schedule in the afternoon.

Had I stayed longer, I could’ve met Rodney Jao, a college computer professor of ours who had back to back sessions. One on How to Move to Visual Studio .NET and another session on Building Smart Client Applications.

That’s the person who first introduced Visual Foxpro to our batch.

Ah… who could forget that client/server chat project from him and how he tortured our minds during project defense.

Here’s a new fox-related blog added to my rss reader: Fiat Volpes.

Looks like there are interesting discussions going on about VFP9‘s EULA. Check this link and this one too.

David and I went to Microsoft TechFest 2005. He’s the speaker for that Visual Foxpro session and I acted as his bodyguard so I can crash in. (If you remember I did blog about that event’s registration being closed before I can register myself.)

But the bodyguard approach was Plan B. One nice employee from Microsoft was kind enough to allow David to bring one companion.

Also, it was the second day of TechFest, so admission was not that tight.

Anyway… we arrived 30 minutes earlier, met Jojo Ayson (Product Manager for Microsoft Business Solutions and Platform Security), chatted for awhile and set the presentation equipments with the help of the hotel/event technical staff (which were good at what they’re doing btw).

The talk went smoothly with David discussing Visual Foxpro related approaches. It was when he presented his MzBot though when the crowd lit up.

Anyway he’ll probably post the powerpoint presentation within the week. (I’ll link to it once it is uploaded.)

There were giveaways… three shirts and two Windows 2003 server books. I was joking with David at the start of the session that we split the books and bring them home.

David gave out questions afterwards… first one was dbf related and off went the first book. The second, third and fourth questions were for the shirt and attendees who took down notes were able to answer them.

I refrained from participating, considering that I was with Mz and I was just a ‘gate-crasher’. (I didn’t even register (I hate sign up forms (online or ‘offline’ (one of those thousand reasons why I hate taxes)))).

Anyway… when the second book was about to be given away, I was whispering these ‘Goodbye-book’ words.

When David asked the last question… ‘When will VFP9 be released?’ Surprisingly, no one raised their hands. So when David told the crowd even the year would do… and no one still attempted to answer… I raised my hand.

For someone who’s monitoring VFP and VFP-related blogs, the question is quite easy to answer. I even included the exact date it was ‘RTM’-ed (Released to Manufacturing).

But then again… in that situation, probably even if I mumbled the wrong dates, they would still hand out that book to me.

It was meant for me.

Besides, it’s the first time in years I’ve taken a bath very early.

(I’ll post some pics tomorrow if time permits.)

Problem. Solution.

If someone wants to include Emotions in the equation, it should not cloud the solution part.

It can… however… be used to fuel the solution. Ignite… spark.

Behind… not in front. Not over it. Not covering it.

Remember that… deve-wan.

That BLOG ERROR was brought to you by WildFire.

A couple of days ago I watched Alien versus Predator on DVD.

Yes I’ve heard about the bad write-ups last year.

But being a fan of the great H. R. Giger and the original alien movies, I have always been fascinated with his characters (Think of the original Alien Alien2 Aliens Species Species 2) and the tons of Giger Art you can view at Therionweb.de HR Giger Galleries.

If you’re looking for that James Cameron/Ridley Scott alien-type of movie, you’ll be disappointed with this one. But then again, anything alien-related with humans being devoured here and there fascinates me.

Also seeing the cyborg Bishop of Aliens, become AVP’s Charles Weyland somehow disturbs me.

Still… my stand on negative movie reviews holds true even this year and for that 1++ hour away from the keyboard, it is partially entertaining.

This, however, is not the point of this blog.

It’s just that for the Nth time I’ve seen that ‘eureka-eureka-pyramids-were-made-by-aliens’ in this movie. You’ve read that idea before in books and even previous sci-fi movies (StarGate and Fifth Element are an example).

Yesterday I was talking to Mr. Blec. (That’s not his real name but he prefers to be called that way.)

He claims he was from the past and from the future who accidentally slid into this room while I was re-installing the Compaq-Server computer after that recent critical security update from Microsoft crashed my file/application server.

(Annoying… not Mr. Blec but the crash but I’ve been wanting to nuke my computers at the start of the year to start with a clean organized slate (blessing in disguise perhaps (but that would be another story for now))).

Anyway back to Mr. Blec, from one topic to another we somehow arrived to that ‘alien created pyramids’ notion which made him smirk and said he’s tired of hearing that stuff already.

He believes it is an insult to him and the whole of humanity as well.

He said he was an engineer (although it wasn’t called that way) in the past. He was one of the major brains behind the pyramids. He worked for three Aztec years perfecting the design back when patents were non-existent and fellow inventors respected each other instead of re-inventing the wheel. Patent lawyers and the whole law-tazmanian clan were also non-existent.)

He said these pyramids stand the test of time because back then inventors/engineers were never after the ‘rewards’. Unlike these days where equipments seem to last a day after their warranties expire.

In fact he claims it was humans who taught aliens fire and technology.

How come these aliens are far more advanced..?

Because most of them don’t create destructive-related technologies/inventions/products and mix lust, greed, love, fame and all carelessly.

‘They don’t destroy life, create fictional stories and scapegoats to bombard countries and label it as ‘liberation’.

There’s more really but I’ll just scribble that ‘another story for now’ line here for I still have to finish up some codes.

Oh… where’s Mr. Blec you ask?

He’s still ‘stranded’ in this era… repairing some gizmos and playing with my pet pterodactyl.

He’ll share more stories… for sure.