Steven Yong's Weblog

A friend forwarded these to me few weeks ago which I find pretty amusing.

	How the customers explained it
How the Project Leader understood it
	How the Analyst designed it
How the Programmer wrote it
	How the Business Consultant described it
How the project was documented
	What operations installed
How the customer was billed
	How it was supported
What the customer really needed

This morning my colleague encountered an error "error establishing connection" while he's trying to connect to his local SQL Server from Weblogic. After some investigation, found that his local SQL Server actually didn't accept any TCP connection. When we're connecting the SQL Server from another machine using the SQL Enterprise Manager, we got an "[ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied." error and after googling for it, we got to know that the problem is around security for the slammer worm, and a dll called DBNETLIB.dll. When this file is out of date, Server 2003 and perhaps SP2 on XP will actually disable the TCP/IP protocol for SQL Server to limit an attack. So, the solution is applying a the security updates for SQL Server 2000.

Too busy go outside for groceries?

I just got a call from my manager asking "are you familiar with garbage collection?". I believe in most cases people would answer "no" as I did. But the point here is did my manager expect to know if I'm familiar with garbage collection? Obviously not. He was just trying to get help on some Java relevant problems at client place. So, in that case, I'd much appreciate if he could tell me the problem right away I picked up the call or send me some findings.
Yesterday, when I was scratching my head fixing a bug, a colleague of mine came over to my place elaborating a pretty long story before actually telling me what problem he's facing. Immediately I felt offended and said ("said" isn't actually a proper word to use): "can you straight to the point?"
I have a friend I communicate with through MSN almost everyday. He likes to send me a "hey" before saying anything more as he's expecting me to acknowledge. Why must I give a "yes?" then only can get his question?
I'm wondering why people ask question like I mentioned.

Working on enterprise Java application? This case study might help you.

The Brazilian National Healthcare System, called the largest enterprise Java application ever built, has brought a valuable level of automation to the public healthcare system as well as the people of Brazil.

Thinking of writing a series of Freshies nowadays, let me start with some real cases.

F - fresh graduate
Case 1
I: What Java IDE have you heard before?
F: IDE?
I: Ya, something like Visual Studio.
F: Oh, Netbean.
I: (Surprise) Where did you hear it from?
F: java dot soon dot com (yes, he pronounced "sun" as "soon")

Case 2
I: What's your favorite programming language of choice?
F: Java.
I: (Happy) May I know why?
F: I heard it's good.

Case 3
I: What is the different between VB and Java?
F: VB can drag and drop.

Case 4
I: According to your CV, you've learnt object-oriented?
F: Yes.
I: Can you roughly tell me the concepts?
F: Oh, it is SLDC, waterfall and etc.
(He did mean SDLC)

P - Project Manager, D - Developer
(9:00 A.M. Meeting Room)

P: How long do you estimate to solve this problem?

D1: I think I need one day.

P: OK then, now we proceed on the discussion of other issues.

(1:00 P.M. Meeting Room)

P: Seem that we don't have a conclusion, let's dismiss for lunch.

D1, D2, D3 (all Ds actually): (Phew...)

(5:30 P.M. D1's cubicle)

P: Have you solved the problem you're supposed to get it solved by now?

D1: Not yet, and I told you I need one day.

P: Yes I know, now is already end of the day, I have to say no choice that the problem has to be solved before tomorrow morning.

D1: I will stay back then.

This morning I got a high priority e-mail sent out the day before telling me that there was an urgent bug which has to be fixed as soon as I stepped in the office. Without spending time blinking my eyes, I launched the bug database and search for the bug, but the bug's description surprised me:

A full stop has to be added to the end of the message.

According to the bug reporter, the bug was categorized as urgent because the users are doing the testing and the bug has to be eliminated before any user notices it. The explanation might sound reasonable but yet they're taking a very high risk that the programmers may not feel the importance and pay full attention on any up-coming urgent bugs.
Urgent bug has to be, at least, look like urgent.