Ramblings — 1 comment
03
Sep 11

“Updating my Freakin’ Blog!” : HackWeekend, NodeHack and Barcamp

Wow, it’s been a busy one and a half months or so since my last article, from hack sessions like Hackweekend to to tech meetups like BarCamp and NodeHack! Oh, and work too – we can’t forget work as well, now can we?

Busy schedule aside, the realization dawned upon me that it’s been long enough since my last post. To be honest, it was actually thrown out to me by the veritable vocals of my girlfriend along the lines of “update your freakin’ blog!”, but I was on the verge of completing this article – I swear :)

Seeing as how it’s pointless to write full-length articles this late out after the events, I figured a short summary instead will just have to do!

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JavaScript / Ramblings — No comments
21
Jul 11

My Take on Regular Expressions

We have a new trend where I work – every week or so, we take turns to present a topic to the rest of our peers. It can be on anything cool; by cool I clearly mean technology – all the better if it’s in direct relation to business :D

A workmate suggested I do one on Regular Expressions – and regular expressions it was!

For the uninitiated (and the non-geeks out there), regular expressions – or regex as it’s affectionately known amongst software engineers – allow you to pattern-match strings and manipulate them: you can find, replace, remove, move, etc – as long as you know how to code the right pattern, of course :)

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JavaScript / Ramblings — 1 comment
27
May 11

The day that was NodeHack!

In my previous post, I promised you I would give an account of the recent NodeHack event – it was on the 21st May for those who weren’t following. It’s been a few busy days since, but here it is!

I woke up at 7am on Saturday, 21st May 2011 – not something most people normally enjoy doing, myself included. I did not get much sleep, given I had dozed off not more than two hours prior. This has pretty much been my routine for the past few days leading up to NodeHack – a meetup regarding node.js organized by 40 Square Software.

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JavaScript — 2 comments
17
May 11

node.JS meetup in KL!

This coming weekend – 21st May 2011 – 40 Square Software will be organizing a node.JS tech meetup. I’ll be giving a talk on JavaScript design patterns during the gathering – one of several talks that will be of interest to tech-enthusiasts! I carry mixed feelings – both excitement and anxiety – as it’s been a while since my last presentation, but I believe I’ll hold up :)

Anyways, open up your weekend for this event – it’s free and lunch is provided! Head on over to the official NodeHack website to find out more!

For those who don’t know what node.JS is, it’s essentially JavaScript for the server-side. An event-driven I/O framework written on top of the V8 – Google’s open source JavaScript engine, a beautiful construct in it’s own right – node.JS bridges the gap between client-side and server-side technologies.

It makes possible what wasn’t before – accessing the filesystem, standard I/O, and not having to worry about cross-browser compatibility are amongst some of the MANY benefits it has to offer! It’s also breathtakingly fast, being able to handle thousands of concurrent connections with minimal overhead! Best of all, its available on arguably the most popular (also the most misunderstood, as Crockford would say) programming language – JavaScript!

Ramblings — No comments
22
Apr 11

Agile Malaysia Meetup

Last night, I attended the Agile Malaysia meetup held at the iProperty.com office in Bangsar – right outside Midvalley. I finished work later than usual and hurried along – lest I be scrutinized for tardiness. Much to my surprise, I arrived at the venue only to be ushered in to a deserted meeting room, despite being ten minutes late. I was informed by the iProperty staff that most of the attendants were stuck in traffic – the presenter included – so I headed out and back from a quick dinner.

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Ramblings — No comments
27
Feb 11

Facebook Developer Garage KL 2011

Day 1

Lack of sleep and a light hangover – courtesy of last night’s drinking session until the wee hours of the morning – made waking up today agonizing, to say the least. I checked the time; it was a quarter to ten. Making my way to the shower in as lazily a manner as possible, I began the long, arduous journey of readying myself for the coming gathering.

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Ramblings — No comments
26
Feb 11

A Much Needed Drink – Or Several

This was one long, boring, and overworked week that lead me on the path to greener pastures, i.e. a pre-conference event drinking session with fellow code-monkeys and technologists.

Back from work, into the shower for a nice hot refresher, and off to Drinks Cafe Bar in Sri Petaling I went. Yes, you read it right, it’s Drinks Cafe Bar – the owner definitely has a penchant for stating the obvious :)

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C/C++ / Ramblings — No comments
30
Jan 11

Facebook Hacker Cup: My Last Stand

The 1st Round of the Facebook Hacker Cup has come to a conclusion. Unfortunately for me, I did not get through – despite attempting all 3 sub-rounds. If it was not an issue about understanding the problem, it was an issue with optimizing the solution to run fast enough to process the large test cases – or in certain cases, a problem with the programming platform itself.

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Ramblings — No comments
19
Jan 11

Facebook Hacker Cup Round 1 – Faux Pas!

I woke up from a much-needed two-hour nap, only minutes prior to the commencement of Round One of the Facebook Hacker Cup – slated to begin on January 15th 2011, 23:00 GMT+08:00 (seeing as how I live in Malaysia). A quick face wash to freshen me up, and off to my laptop I went. I could see fellow hackers already commenting on the status page, all geared up and ready to go. I wished my peers good luck, and waited with bated breath as the seconds counted down.

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Ramblings — No comments
11
Jan 11

The Facebook Hacker Cup!

I first heard about the Facebook Hacker cup a week ago.  It seems that the creative minds at Facebook have decided to host an event that will bring programmers from all over to world – which is easy enough given the nature of Facebook – to compete for … well, the usual things that get people all fired up about a competition: wealth in the form of a whooping $5,000 USD cash prize – ideal for students looking to make some pocket money; fame, as the winner will forever be immortalised in the annals of Facebook and social networking history – as far as geekery is concerned! And not to forget the glory that comes with being champ – and the bragging rights to go with it.

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