2008 almost over

...so what did I do? what did I accomplish?

I guess 2008 was a year of heavy contemplation. Standing in front of a crossroad in more ways than one.

I think I have reaffirmed my believes in great many things. I think focus now should be on strengthen the ability to create something new out of my experiences. I have come to realize where my strengths and weaknesses are.

After all I am just a human being :)

In times like these with a world in turmoil in more than one way I think we can create something new and exciting. Sometimes you have to tear down in order to build up.

New years resolutions (yup and this time I intend to keep it up):

- Learn new skills, like sailing, sky diving and cooking etc.
- Totally change my lifestyle, as my body is my temple
- Make new friends and look for new opportunities where I didn't look before
- Take up music again
- Be honest to myself and others
- Loose my goddamn annoying love-handles

Hail to my previous blog

Here you go - www.jroller.com/page/formi05

Yeah I know... why do people write all that crap about what they are doing all day and day in. I mean who will ever read that anyways :)

I guess an archive is like a camera... I mean, you look at photos you haven't seen in a long time and... its kind of takes you back. Hmmmm very cool invention :)

In a good mood

Been thinking for quite awhile... trying to figure it all out. He he... I know it too well...

You know things like this... you are trying to create your own life. your own path.. applying your values and principles as your are traveling through life trying to adapt. I for one have been trying to shape my destiny in more ways than you can understand and I am sorry for all you people who have been suffering for my indecisiveness, my weaknesses and weird behavior. Please don't take it personally!! Its just been me trying to figure myself out.

Why move here and there. Why giving up stability for the lack their of. Well.. let me tell you this. I want to explore. I want to know what life is all about. I travel. I meet people... I eat crazy food... I do crazy things.. Does it have something to do it my childhood? The books I have read? The movies I have watch? The people I have met? I don't know.

Life is such a incredible thing... I have never experienced anything like it ever!! ;)

I guess I am a very analytical person.. I like to understand where I have been, where I am and where I am going. To be in control, be on top of things is where I feel most comfortable.

All that I have achieved in my life, I have not done because I have worked hard. It has just happened. Not because I have directly acted upon things in my immediate proximity of events but indirectly due to other circumstances. its all driven by your belief system...

Its so true the axiom put forth by way more informed people than me: "force it and it will happen not, though it will find you and the realization of being their in its mist might strike you as a wonderful miracle"

I am a scientist by training and as thus holds no God true but I am amazed by what life has to offer through the sheer act of kindness, a smile, a friendly gesture.

You tell me...

I can only end this with a good quote from my good friend and fellow member of the Gambrinos (the God of Beer by the way) order - "Nubium ets bibendum"

You are the result(s) of your own actions...

1 year is coming up

Having been in this position now for almost a year I can only conclude one thing. Experimentation is good... keep going. This experience is good for the next stage in my career.

I am a proponent of lightweight processes, the right tools, good synergetic relationships and having fun solving hard problems developing stuff that I believe in.

The process has started.

Moment of Truth

Life is like a journey, with a definite beginning and a final end. Start small, think big. Don't be paralyzed by forces you cannot control. Think about the solution, not the problem.

Sometimes you fail. Learn from the experience. Always be curious. Always experiment. Bo beyond the limits. Eventually you will succeed. And if you don't, be happy! At least you tried everything you could. Make good friend. Do not fade away.

Most important thing in life is friends. Friends you can trust, respect and laugh with. Be positive. Avoid negativity. Lift yourself up at the scuff of your neck when you feel down.

Talk to people. Find new angles. Don't be afraid to be corrected. There are no absolute truths, only ways to look at things.

Its not about being the best. Perfect does not exist. Only better... Don't compare yourself to others. Try to be yourself. Don't imitate. Just create, improvise... put yourself out there. How else can you learn?

There will always be somebody richer than you, better than you. Always! So if you have reached the top. Then what? Its not a competition. It's a never ending story. Life is such a beautiful thing and its our only chance to live here and now. And if reincarnation exist... so what? You will not remember what you were or did in your past lives anyways.

Be gentle. Be kind to people. Return a smile or a greeting. It will get back to you. Not through the actions of others but just the mere fact that you opened up. By doing this... you will be liked and you will like others.

We have all had bad days and we always will. This is fact of life. Live with it. Its all about perception.


Moment of Truth...

Bankok, August 2008, Fraser Suites, 36th floor. Fantastic view.

Live it beautiful :)

Drum and Base is the Shit

Very few genres inspires me more than drum'n'bass. Its the utopia of electronic music in my opinion. There are quite a few web sites that actually stream live sweet drops of this stuff... one of my favorites right now is Base Drive go there and click the 128k link and enjoy.

For you that wants to rip all this stuff, just download streamripper and get loaded with these sweeeeet juices... freekin good.

Shout out to my friend Cookie in Hong Kong. He is really rocking hard. If you are lucky you might catch him spinning at one of the excellent venues there.

Another excellent chap to hang out with is Giles, my really good friend since long, from Bournemouth. If you are lucky enough to travel around Asia, another good friend that spins at a respectable venue in Shanghai is James White... respect!! (too bad we couldnt meet up for my birthday July 31st)

EA 5 months

Wopee... i have now been at EA for about 5 months and this is what I have to say.

• Bunch of really smart guys
• Factory mentality, develop games and move on next title
• Somewhat heavy-weight processes (trying to do Scrum)
• LETS do it attitude
• Politics
  
• For new management hires, make sure you network properly, find your niche soon
  
• Situational management is key
  
• Things move QUICKLY so make sure you are setup for it, get with the program!!
  
• You fail hard... and it happens!!!
• Really smart people here (did I mention that?) hey we are looking, we need more people in Singapore NOW!!

Wow its a big organization and stuff really move like the speed of sound.

Currently we are building a kick ass framework for MSG games and might be moving over to the MMO space, exciting, he he. There are some architectural challenges still to solve... time, time, time... where are you dear time machine?

Keyword: SKU plan :)

Go figure!!

EA has offered to buy Take Two

Exciting news, if EA is able to do this we will be on the top again. Then it will be EA and the Activision+Blizzard groups left. Lets wait and see.

I am in Canada right now, in Vancouver to visit EAC (EA Canada) and its a grand experience for sure. This place is huge, with close to 2k people working here, its almost like a campus (with a kind of University feeling.)

On each floor there is buzzing and activities and meetings around various games. On the ground floor there is a basket court and a football field. I mean this is the capital of EA Sport. I went down to the EA shop earlier today and man they have all the games for like cheap cheap :)

A little more than a week into me joining EA I am still enjoying it tremendously. Yesterday I went up to Whistler for a relaxation trip. Will post some photos later..

More of this please :)

Call of Duty is the shit

I am a 1st person shooter fan of long long time. Man I have been playing these types of games since Castle Wolfenstein (during the nineties) and was well into trying to develop my own FPS using the latest 3D technology of the time (yes I know, lame) based on the original Doom which I played until my fingers bleed (the source code was released in the late nineties but the concepts around 3D modeling and the Z space was around for quite some time before that.)

Now I have a new vice, Call of Duty. The various versions (1-4) has had the in my opinion the absolutely best realism of all the military FPS games out there right. We are talking graphics, sound, controller vibration, AI system, weapon system, sound and ambiance, physics... you name it. I am amazed by the texture details and the environmental depth compared to other games (XBox 360 that is.) It doesn't jag or lag or in any other way annoy the game play like other games in the same genre. The story line is and has always been very good.

These guys at Activision know their stuff and I can only wait for them to be acquired by EA. We have to come out with something similar soon.

I am now way into finishing CoD4 and I love it... please don't disturb me I am almost done :)

Peace!!

New year, new exciting challenges

Its getting closer and closer my role as TD Online for EA Asia. I am so excited and hope that this will be the turning point I have been looking for. Well to be quite honest its all up to me to fulfill as I am (realistically speaking) the result of my own actions.

It will be quite a huge undertaking developing a new Online Gaming Platform for Asia but I am psyched to be able to work with some of the finest engineers we can find in this region.

More will come here as the work progresses..

Pax Mobiscum

New adventures

Well this is it. I have now done 3.5 years at TEAMworks and its time for me to toss in the towel. It has been enriching to say the least. I don't think I have been working in a more tolerance, patient and mentally challenging environment in my life.

My motivation, focus and technological evangelism took a hefty smack on the head somewhere along the road but I am finally over that now.

I joined this company with the wish and dream that I could create something from nothing utilizing all my collected experience in all sorts of technological, social and educational settings but it seems that all the effort was for nothing. There are so many things that went wrong along the way so there is no need to detail it here. But worth mentioned maybe...

...the struggle with finding experienced and skilled staff and the problem with trying to keep in all together because nobody liked each other or to scared to say anything

...the boss/CEO who decided that nobody knew anything, who didn't wanted to listen to reason and advice from obvious expertise and who went his own way with his penny wise, pound foolish mentality

...the ignoring of my requests of key personnel and skills in interaction/graphical design with the motivation that "we can do it ourselves, it takes to long time, we have to go GLOBAL NOW!!"

After 3.5 years of working here my boss is someone you are afraid of. Every person that has left the company (or has been fired) refuses to come back to the office to visit us less the boss is not there.

Hmmm... its nice to be away from that hellhole. Initially I didn't really dislike everything that had to do with that company. So, it has been said. Its done I can move on.

Pax mobiscim

Simplistic Thinking

I recently came across a Google interview questions that kind of intrigued me. It went like this:

"You have a list of numbers which some of them are negative and some of them are positive, find out the largest sum of sequential subset of numbers from this list."

For example:

-5, 20, -4, 10, -18

The solution is the subset [20, -4, 10] which its sum is 26

The solution for this question is not summary the positive numbers or sort the list because the subset needs to be sequential.

A possible not efficient answer would be to to calculate the summary of all the possible subsets in the list but the complexity of this solution is O(N^2)

However the interviewer wanted a solution of O(N) !!!

This question is so full of subtleties that it cannot fail to entice even the most interview savvy reader. In order to be able to properly answer this question the interviewee not only has to understand big O, but also this particular type of problem. One brilliant aspect of the question is that it already contain parts of the answer. The answer can be found in the requested solution of O(N). This ought to give enough information on how the algorithm should be structured (or should it?)

O(N^2) solution (Groovy)

This solution illustrates a simple solution to this problem with O(N^2) complexity in Groovy.

def findLargestSubSequence(seq)
{
def tmpSeq = [], maxSeq = []
def maxVal = -9999999

seq.eachWithIndex { val, index ->
seq[index..seq.size()-1].eachWithIndex { innerVal, innerIndex ->
tmpSeq = sequence[index..innerIndex]
if(tmpSeq.sum() > maxVal) {
maxVal = tmpSeq.sum()
maxSeq = tmpSeq
}
}
}
maxSeq // no return needed, value is returned automatically
}

println findLargestSubSequence([-5, 20, -4, 10, -18])

And the O(N^2) comes from the nested iterations of course :)

O(N) solution

This solution illustrates one (not simple) solution to this problem with O(N) complexity in Java.

int[] findLargestSubSequence(int[] sequence)
{

int mini = -1, minv = 0, maxi1 = 0, maxi2 = 0, maxv = -9999999;
int[] seq = sequnce.clone();

for(int i = 0; i <> {

if (i > 0) {
seq[i] += seq[i-1];

}
if (seq[i]-minv >= maxv) {
maxv = seq[i] - minv;
maxi1 = mini + 1;
maxi2 = i;
}
if (seq[i] < minv) {
minv = seq[i];
mini = i;
}

}
return getSubArray(seq, maxi1, maxi2); // you have to write this :)
}

Here we see that there is only one iteration. The code is pretty hard to read though as it relies on a rewriting patterns where the path towards the solution is driven by successive alteration to the source input.