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Showing posts from 2014

Work over Christmas Break 2014

10 years ago, I wouldn't be complaining at all. I could live in a datacenter for days until the job's done. But these days, my back aches are more pronounced, and fatigue sets in more easily. This is why it's always great to have others helping out. Thanks to the CISO and PPO teams for making the migrations happen! I may have gotten older but the one thing that doesn't change is the thrill of the job. My family isn't as thrilled, naturally. While it's the Christmas break, they spend each day mostly without me. And when I do get home, everyone's too tired to stay up; especially me. Sometimes I wished we could schedule downtime at work other than during holidays. But that's how a sysad's life goes. Meantime, there's going to be a ton of making up with the family in the next few days. Check out some of the photos here. A happy and prosperous new year to all!

It's no longer about the number of monitors you have

Unlike in the late 90s to mid 2000s, desktop real estate is no longer constrained by the number of monitors you use. We now tout the number of virtual machines we have access to. In fact, my ailing MBP has managed to remain useful because remote access still enables me to work on all our VMs. Our applications and storage servers are all virtualized. Even some legacy systems have been replicated on VMs, allowing us to retire old and bulky server hardware.

Crystal Reports Redux

I didn't think I'd be saying this many years down the road, but here goes anyway. Crystal Reports is my friend. Yep. Apparently, I've forgotten my disdain for this piece of software. It's amusing (well, for me) that the last version of Crystal Reports that I used for the systems I developed back in the late 90s, is the same version I was forced to use last week, in modifying an old report template. Some old versions of software refuse to die primarily because many of the enterprise systems that continue to run today rely on output templates that can only be created or modified with very specific software versions. It's no wonder there are still many "indispensable" legacy systems out there. Now I wish I can say the same for plain RTF templates + Oracle Business Intelligence.

Our daughter's happy 13th

Our daughter asked to celebrate her birthday a day ahead, with her 8th grade classmates. They had water gun and balloon fights, and bags of holi powder to throw around. They also played frisbee and volleyball on the village streets and watched scary movies when it got dark. There were lots of food too! I didn't realize it was going to be so much fun! Thanks to my dear wife for making preparations, especially the cooking and baking. Thanks also to my sis-in-law Jenipur for the holi powder preps, and all the candy supplies. Some of the pics are here:

Sign up for the first MapUp this 2014!

This is our opening salvo for the year. Since we started last year, GBG Cagayan de Oro has been receiving a lot of good feedback from the locals. But we've put our attention on the areas where we can improve, and I really believe that this mapping event is a step towards that direction. A well-mapped city improves tourism and support services. It also opens numerous planning opportunities for the local government. I hope someone from city hall would attend this time. :)