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 Ian Uy posted this in Articles on September 26th, 2010 |  Email This Post |  Print This Post
 It is not exactly news that programmers love to quit their job. It is an industry-wide obsession. The annual turnover rate for the High-Tech industry in 2008 is a little bit above 20% (2 out of 10 employees quit every year). A typical programmer on a typical software company stays for about 23 months on average. For an employer, these figures are scary – especially if you employ skilled workers such as programmers and software developers. High turnover rates of skilled professionals can pose as a risk to the business or organization, due to the human capital (such as skills, training, and knowledge) lost.
Having been a newbie software developer (and I’m still fairly “new”), I did not understood why software developers in our company are quitting. Having been a fresh graduate, I was, then, still amazed by the fact that there are people out there in the real world that will pay me real world money just to write code – a hobby that I will do for free. I was puzzled. We are working in an environment that fosters creativity and innovation, a company that strictly subscribes to the “programmers’ bill of rights”, and a company that scores high in the Joel Test (11/12). Those, plus the fact that we can surf Facebook anytime and drink all the brewed coffee in the pantry, made me believe that this is the best company to work for locally; it made me believe that anyone leaving our company is insane.
 Just a few months after starting my job (I had my internship there for 6 months), one of the bestest programmer I know (he’s actually a “software architect”, but hates being called one), my mentor when I was still an intern, filed his letter of resignation. This guy is one of the most passionate programmer I know. He gets it. Paul Graham classifies him as a hacker and he actually worked for Microsoft (in Redmond, not the local whatever-they-are-doing-there branch).
For some, asking people why they quit their job is taboo; I actually enjoy having those type of conversation. Gives me insight. So I asked the fallen hacker, “Why did you quit?”. He pointed to the picture of his new born baby (his desktop wallpaper) and said with an enthusiastic smile “He is my new priority”. He then explained to me, in a fashion that I would understand, why working overseas means “better opportunity” for his family. Being a bit unconvinced with his explanation, I asked him “Is that all? Better opportunity?” and he replied back with a playful smile, “In my new job, I will be able to code again. I will no longer be a ‘Word Programmer’”. He has always joked about being a Word Programmer – programming in Microsoft Word using narrative texts (use cases, scenarios, etc) and UML diagrams; programming by story telling. He was indeed a hacker.
Having spent a year and a half on this job, I can say that I now have a vague idea on why programmers (or I.T people, in general) quit. Even though I’m only a year-and-half year old in corporate servitude, I had been handled by four managers and had been transferred to four teams and that gave me great insights on the crucial dynamics that affects employee turnovers. In my year-and-half stay, I have seen three managers, a project manager, two architects, four senior developers and a handful of intermediate developers go. Just a few months ago, four of my teammates left. The statistics above is a little off; it is more than 20%.
Continue reading “On the High Turnover Rate of Software Developers or How to Retain your Best Software Developers and Programmers” »
 Just a few words before I start: I am not here to offer you insurances, investment “opportunities” or some form of “networking” – No, I am not an evil sales agent and I don’t have much time on my hands to play around with “networking”. I am also no financial expert (so take all the information here with a grain of salt). I almost flunked my high school Accounting course and I still don’t have an idea how to make a Balance Sheet that will be deemed acceptable by any sane CPA.
Caution aside, I am here to share with you some basic financial concepts that I have recently learned. It is also my goal to make you realize that your personal finance is YOUR OWN BUSINESS. As much as we hate to accept it, we must acknowledge that we are slaves of the global financial system. In this capitalistic world, your very survival on this money-driven economy may lie in your understanding of this few, basic financial concepts.
Continue reading “Fighting Inflation with Investment or Why I Decided to Invest or My Financial Enlightenment” »
I am very disappointed with myself for not being able to register as a voter for the upcoming 2010 Philippine National Election. I am disappointed not because I will not be able to fulfill my duty as a citizen of this country. This feeling of disappointment comes from the knowledge that I missed out on what would probably be the most important election in Philippines’ modern history. So for those of you who are registered: Don’t be lazy, wake-up early and be part of this momentous event.
This post will contain my thoughts with regards to the Philippine election… Specifically my thoughts on “Voting as a right and how it affects the current political climate of the Philippines”, “the importance of the automated election and what it signifies” and “what will Gibo’s or Gordon’s victory signify”. Before you start reading, let me remind you that I am in no-way an expert on the topics and legalities of the Philippine election. These are just my idle thoughts; thoughts that were mostly conceived while I’m taking a dump or while stuck at a bus in EDSA.
Continue reading “On the importance of the automated 2010 Philippine National Election” »
Recently, there have been a lot of hate towards the KPOP fandom in the Philippines and KPOP itself. There are a couple of Facebook fan pages that are dedicated solely in hating KPOP. While searching for the term “KPOP Jologs” on Google, I found out that there’s a discussion thread in MYX’s Facebook fan page entitled “KPOP IS JUST FOR JOLOGS JOLOGS!!!!” (Ironically, the group was created by Westlife fans  ) Honestly, I wasn’t THAT surprised by this turn of events… I have somehow anticipated that this would happen sooner or later given the raging popularity of KPOP in the Philippines. Just last year, I posted an article expressing my disagreement to the soon-to-be KPOP craze with the anticipation that KPOP will soon be “jologs”. Nonetheless, I do feel the need to defend the Fandom by debunking the common attacks against KPOP and its fans.
 Why the hate? I felt the need to post this blog because “arguing” on the MYX discussion board is pointless. The entire discussion is a huge flamebait wherein each reply contain at least 1 Ad Hominem and 2 curses. I have posted a very long, three-paragraph rational argument and my reply was followed with a post that reads “Putangina mo”. So yeah, I wish your eyes good luck if you wish to read that discussion board.
So okay, let’s start discussing the most common “attacks” to the KPOP fandom and KPOP. I will continually update this post when “new” attacks surface.
Continue reading “In defense of KPOP: Is KPOP Jologs?” »
In my previous post, I have illustrated and explained the “science”  of online shopping and at the same time, revealed my addiction to fascination with cute Korean earmuffs and my tiring search for a local store that sells Mix-style headphones. Let me break it out to you as early as now: As of press time, there are no local shops/stores/establishments in the Philippines that sells authentic Mix-style headphones. There are a lot of Pinoy Netizens in Multiply or Sulit that sells these babies but be warned: MOST of them are cheap, fake imitations (But hey, if you’re a cheap, wannabe poser, that just might work for you)! Of course, there are some that sells authentic ones but they are just pre-ordering them online (probably from YesAsia) anyway, so to avoid the additional overhead charge and to be sure that you are getting your money’s worth, why don’t you just buy one for yourself?
 Authentic Mix-style Headphones are <3 Before thinking of buying these online, make sure that you have the necessary stuff like Paypal first! For more information on how to start shopping online, click click!
So if these headphones are not available locally and there is a danger of getting fake ones when buying from Netizens, where can one buy authentic Mix-style headphones? Where else?! From YesAsia of course! The leading Internet source for Asian entertainment products.
 YesAsia is the leading Internet source for Asian entertainment products
As a self-proposed geek and a professional software developer, it is hard for me to admit that I was totally clueless about online shopping for the longest time. Early last year, I got hit by the Hallyu wave and got addicted to all things Korean. KPOP, Korean hairstyle, Korean girls and Earmuffs!
 Isn't she cute with those earmuffs? At first, I thought “Can I wear earmuffs? I mean, those are for girls only right?” and then I found this:
 Even KPOP Boybands wear cute earmuffs! I was ready to get my own pair of those cute earmuffs but then I realized that THERE IS NO FREAKIN WINTER IN THE PHILIPPINES! Unfortunately, continental drift wasn’t on our side when it decided to the place Philippines near the freakin equator. So until the next Polar Shift, I’ve agreed to settle on a compromise: Headphones. So the search was on for my KPOP inspired headphones. I am glad to have watched the S.E.O.U.L music video by SNSD and Superjunior where I saw the SuJu guy wearing a very cute headphone:
 Mixstyle headphones! I am not really a big fan of Super Junior. But I am the biggest SNSD fan in the Philippines (Self-Proposed). So when I saw SNSD wearing Mixstyle headphones, I just have to get one for myself!
 Yoona, Sooyoung and Hyoyeon loves their Mixstlyle! So I tirelessly searched for a shop (online or not) that sells Mixstyle headphones in the Philippines. My search was fruitless. There are a lot of people selling Mixstyles on Multiply but a lot of them are fake! I saw a dude selling Mixstyles for only 1,500 PHP but how is that possible when Mixstyles retails for about 4,000 Yen (or about 2,000 PHP) in Japan (these are Japanese headphones, afterall)? My friend, Carlos, even told me that Mixstyles are available at Trinoma for only 500 PHP! Since I don’t really want to use cheap, fake ripoffs, I was glad to know that Mixstyles can be bought online for a reasonable price (around 50 USD). But there was a dilemma, I have never bought anything online! But fortunately, I found out that its so easy to buy stuff online! Read on and be amazed on how easy it is!
(For more of my experience with Yesasia, click here!)
Continue reading “How to buy stuff online if you’re from the Philippines or My First Online Shopping Experience” »
Ian Uy posted this in Articles on January 24th, 2010 | Email This Post | Print This Post
 Larry Wall haz dem Larry Wall, the creator of the infamous Perl programming language, has once said that the greatest virtues of a good programmer are Laziness, Impatience and Hubris. To not mislead the lazy “computer science” students, allow me to define each virtues:
- Laziness — The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don’t have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer. See also impatience and hubris.
- Impatience – The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don’t just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer. See also laziness and hubris.
- Hubris – Excessive pride. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won’t want to say bad things about. Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer. See also laziness and impatience.
A few days ago, a tester at our company filled a track that contained multiple attachments (Screenshots, Error Logs, etc) to assist the developers on their investigation. As we are using Microsoft’s Team Foundation System for source control and bug tracking, the most obvious way to get these attachments is through TFS Web Access; Frankly speaking, this is the only “official” way to access the track (bug report) on our company.
 The TFS Web Access homepage UI I don’t know if its a lack of feature or what, but there is no way in TFS Web Access to download multiple attachments at once. Additionally, when downloading attachments that contains a space on their filename, TFS Web Access will automatically concatenate the filename and that will remove the file’s extension (EG: Screenshot of the bug.jpg will be renamed to Screenshot)… You still need to manually rename the file with the proper extension to open it. And because I’m lazy, I don’t want to log-in to TFS Web Access, type in the track ID, click on the attachments tab, click on the file(s) I want to download, browse for the location where to save the file, create a new folder for the track, click save, minimize my browser, open the download location and (unzip the attachment, it its zipped, which normally is) to just view a single screenshot.
Since I am a big believer of Wall’s three virtues, I created a tool that will automate those boring and repetitive tasks for me (and allow me to download *all* attachments from a work item + workaround the “spacing” bug). The tool is called WIF or Work Item Fetcher and it is currently in Closed-Limited Beta.
At first, I thought about parsing the web pages to download the attachments using HTML Sanitizers and Regular Expressions but then I remembered that only Chuck Norris can parse HTML using regular expressions! So I searched the web and found out about the TFS SDK! Go .NET! Go Laziness! Okay, enough chit-chat, the rest of the post will be dedicated to discussing how to use the TFS API to download attachments from TFS.
Continue reading “Laziness, Impatience and Hubris or How to download Work Item attachments programatically using TFS SDK” »
Ian Uy posted this in Articles on October 27th, 2009 | Email This Post | Print This Post
Almost everyone that I interact with everyday knows that I have been a long time fan of So Nyeo Shi Dae (Girl’s Generation). I have been spazzing (google it) about the 9 girls for almost a year now. I even made it a point to know YoonA’s blood type so that on the rare event that YoonA accidentally fall off the stage while performing (God forbids), I will be able to donate my blood to save her. No, my blood isn’t actually compatible with hers but I am willing to change my blood type, even if it costs me my life. (I Kid, I Kid ) I’ve watched every darn performance, I’ve listened to all of their albums (Listened is an understatement, the album collection is on a loop on my mp3 player), and I followed the girls’ adventure by watching their T.V shows (Girls Go To School, Factory Girl, etc). Yes, I am an obsessed fan who smiles when listening to Gee at 5:00 AM before going to sleep. And I can actually enumerate those 9 girls’ names faster than I can name the last five presidents of our country. So yeah, I’m a big fan.
 My nine precious girls Continue reading “What does it mean to be Jologs? (Or my violent reaction to SNSD’s popularity in the Philippines)” »
Ian Uy posted this in Articles on September 17th, 2009 | Email This Post | Print This Post
 Paul Graham (Author of Hackers and Painters) I love Paul Graham. The guy speaks my mind. Although I don’t agree with all of his ideas (E.G. Java programmers are stupid. PERIOD.), most of his ideas are golden. For those of weak hearts (and sensitive ego), please proceed with care.
The essay that will follow, entitled Great Hackers, basically compliments the main idea of my previous post which is “To do something well you have to love it.”
Some quotable quotes from this essay:
“Ordinary programmers write code to pay the bills. Great hackers think of it as something they do for fun, and which they’re delighted to find people will pay them for.”
“Hackers like to work for people with high standards. But it’s not enough just to be exacting. You have to insist on the right things. Which usually means that you have to be a hacker yourself. I’ve seen occasional articles about how to manage programmers. Really there should be two articles: one about what to do if you are yourself a programmer, and one about what to do if you’re not. And the second could probably be condensed into two words: give up.”
“The distinguishing feature of nasty little problems is that you don’t learn anything from them. Working on nasty little problems makes you stupid. Good hackers avoid it for the same reason models avoid cheeseburgers.”
“I’ve found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent.”
“The key to being a good hacker may be to work on what you like. When I think about the great hackers I know, one thing they have in common is the extreme difficulty of making them work on anything they don’t want to. I don’t know if this is cause or effect; it may be both.”
“One difference I’ve noticed between great hackers and smart people in general is that hackers are more politically incorrect. And I can see why political incorrectness would be a useful quality in programming. Programs are very complex and, at least in the hands of good programmers, very fluid. In such situations it’s helpful to have a habit of questioning assumptions.”
AND NOW, THE ESSAY
Continue reading “Ordinary Programmers vs Great Hackers” »
Ian Uy posted this in Articles on September 14th, 2009 | Email This Post | Print This Post
 Judy Ann Santos - Philippine Superstar If there is someone that I hate more than Ms. Judy Ann Santos, that someone would have to be a person who has a job that he or she is not passionate about.
I don’t know if it’s the Philippine economy or just the Filipino culture that makes it “okay” for someone to live a life of suffering; enduring a job he or she hates for exchange of a comfortable life and a prestigious career. I’ve heard countless stories of teenagers being forced by their parents to take a course like Medicine, Law or Engineering (Courses which will attach fancy-sounding, age-old, titles to their child’s name) against their child’s will. I’ve accidentally watched countless Pinoy movies with the same theme. (Kid wants to major in Fine Arts, MOM aka Mrs. Attorney wants the kid to major in Law and be a lawyer. Sounds familiar?)
Five years ago, Nursing became a popular course for High School graduates to take in college. I know that because that was the year when I graduated from High School. During that time, some of my classmates took Nursing courses not because they want to be nurses but just because being a nurse would almost guarantee a free-work pass to the US and a chance of snatching that American dream. And you know what? I think majority of the newly graduated nurses thinks the same too.
Continue reading “High Salary is Killing the Software Industry” »
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It is not exactly news that programmers love to quit their job. It is an industry-wide obsession. The annual turnover rate for the High-Tech industry in 2008 is a little bit above 20% (2 out of 10 employees quit every year). A typical programmer on a typical software company stays for about 23 months on average. For an employer, these figures are scary – especially if you employ skilled workers such as programmers and software developers. High turnover rates of skilled professionals can pose as a risk to the business or organization, due to the human capital (such as skills, training, and knowledge) lost.
Just a few months after starting my job (I had my internship there for 6 months), one of the bestest programmer I know (he’s actually a “software architect”, but hates being called one), my mentor when I was still an intern, filed his letter of resignation. This guy is one of the most passionate programmer I know. He gets it. Paul Graham classifies him as a hacker and he actually worked for Microsoft (in Redmond, not the local whatever-they-are-doing-there branch).
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