Software Development Meme

Alex has tagged me for this one. I haven't thought of who to tag yet at this moment. Let me see at the end of this.

How old were you when you first started programming?

18. First year of my university, COMPSCI101. It's an introduction to java programming paper. Of course I didn't start programming earlier than that! I am not a geek, I told you guys. :P

Oh wait, does LOGO count? If LOGO does count as programming, then I "started" programming at 14 in St. Stephen's Girls' College.

How did you get started in programming?

If LOGO doesn't count, then it's university. One day I had to decide what are we going to do for my bachelor degree, and I found out that Software Engineering is the only thing I could possibly do. I dislike commerce stuff, not good at nor interested in language, good in science but didn't want to go any further than differentiation and integration. So, I started my SE degree.

What was your first language?

LOGO! Can you believe that I do LOGO before html? Well, if both of these don't count, then it's java, and I touched assembly language before C#.

What was the first real program you wrote?

Pac-man game I wrote in COMPSCI101 is the earliest "real" program I can remember. If you are talking about commercial program, then it's something I better not talk about here in my blog. You can come ask me about that.

What languages have you used since you started programming?

Java, C#, C++, VB6, VB.NET, T-SQL, Action Script (flash), java script, PHP, NAnt script, Mozart Oz, assembly languages, alloy, JSP, pls, 4gl, HTML.

What was your first professional programming gig?

That's the "better not put it here" part. You can ask me.

What's the most fun you've ever had... programming?

I enjoy programming most of the time, but honestly programming is not the bit I enjoy most. I like meeting people, share their ideas, their difficulties or fun part in programming or anything related to their life of programming.

If you ask me what is the most fun part... I think it's when you design and build a thingy to solve other people's problem. Maybe they are your clients, maybe they are your colleagues. Problem solving with programming, is the most fun part, all time.

Who's next?

1. Andre Meurer
2. Rodney Lake
3. Darryl Burling

Wanted to tag Alex James and JD as well, but they are tagged already. :P

Interesting Screenshot of VS2008 Beta2 Installer

Visual Studio 2008 has been designed for unprecedented reliability.

It will never do any of the following:

• Give you up
• Let you down
• Run around and desert you
• make you cry
• Say goodbye
• Tell a lie and hurt you

Blah 4 - Girls

Right, it's good to see familiar and unfamiliar faces in the summer road trip event. Among all these faces, one obvious observation I made was the number of girls comparing to the number of guys is still low. Alex and I had been discussing why most of the girls go into industries like accounting and finance. Back in University, 25% of our software engineering class were girls. However it's much less than this percentage in yesterday event.

Last week I had been chatting with Amanda (who organises the Girl Geek Dinners in New Zealand over emails. I didn't go to these dinners before because there's no one (girl) from my company would like to go. Amanda told me that actually a lot of girls didn't come with friends. Umm... although i don't want to be named "geek", but I may consider going to the next one, just to see how many girls in the community, haha. :D

Blah 3 - I am not a geek

Yesterday Darryl said I am a geek (yes, a super geek said I am a geek, very unconvincing), I am not a geek.

Here are the premises of my argument:

P1 I can read and write Chinese.

P2 I read a lot of fiction books, in Chinese.

P3 My life blog has 14.7 times more posts than this blog.

P4 I am not that excited whenever Alex show me new C# features.

P5 I buy Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan often, and New Scientist. Never buy any software magazine.

P6 I love Final Fantasy. Can discuss every single one from FFVII to FFXII.

P7 I do Philosophy. Not master/PhD of Software Engineering, or Microsoft Certificate exams.

P8 I watch a lot of cartoons, and read heaps of anime.

P9 When I have free time, I would play FF, Civilization IV, Sims, etc. Not coding.

P10 I have Mr. and Mrs Potato Head on my desk in the office.

P11 I have Haro from Gundam Seed (a pink one) on my desk as well.

P12 In the old mIRC days, I did not write my own scripts.

P13 Never interested in hacking.

P14 I love All Blacks (yes, especially DC).

So in conclusion, I can't be called a geek. If you think this doesn't logically follow, yeah, it doesn't. However because I am not a geek, so I don't care whether it logically follows or not. :P

Blah 2

We were having lunch in Nando to farewell Alex because Nando is his favourite restaurant.

Andre: I have made Jacqui the co-leader of the user group.
Alex: Oh, so when will you have your talk?
Jacq: When I have something to talk about.
Alex: I guess you already have a lot to talk about.
Jacq: Can I talk about Philosophy in the user group? Like human nature?
Alex: Yeah, I don't think anyone would come though.

Umm, for those who don't know, I am a part time student, doing a Graduated Diploma in Philosophy (University of Auckland). Unfortunately it probably doesn't give me any advantage in work. :D

Blah 1

This has nothing to do with development.

I've been reading what I typed this afternoon and have found lots of typo and even sentences that don't make any sense. I was working at the same time I type that up. Have to admit that my multi-tasking skill is not good enough. Anyway, forgive me if you see any typo or spelling or grammatical mistake.

I hope I won't do that in my philosophy essays and exams.