[Hollywood Ending] LIFE AFTER PI (Official)

Harsh reality. If we can’t start being paid for how we worked, we’ll only be able to work for how it’ll be paid. How much creativity can we get from this? Having almost identical problem in software development, I cried watching this video.

“Life After Pi” is a short documentary about Rhythm & Hues Studios, the L.A. based Visual Effects company that won an Academy Award for its groundbreaking work on “Life of Pi”– just two weeks after declaring bankruptcy. The film explores rapidly changing forces impacting the global VFX community, and the Film Industry as a whole.

This is only the first chapter of an upcoming feature-length documentary “Hollywood Ending,” that delves into the larger, complex challenges facing the US Film Industry and the many professionals working within it, whose fates and livelihood are intertwined.

http://www.hollywoodendingmovie.com/

Advertisement

PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE

PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE: Our FREEDOM to do work for FREE or for COMMON GOOD without excessive registration or being distrusted first #AppStore

Don’t punish Yourself

It’s given as a PUNISHMENT to a student to write sentences REPEATEDLY on a blackboard.

If you are not careful, it’s quite easy to REPEATEDLY paste copies of identical code snippets. Not using iterative methodologies and not trying to find algorithmic solutions, is like let yourself to be in the state of uncomfortable incompetency, which is a PUNISHMENT.

Going to WWDC!

Finally, the developer of PopToo of fXceed is going to WWDC! Expect to learn a great stuff and meet great people!

Migrated to WordPress.com

My blog had been residing in a hosted server for a few years. Along with blogging, for the purpose of teaching myself how to develop in the generic PHP & MySQL environment, I had been using this service paying annual hosting fee.

However, due to the decrease of my interest in PHP development, and need to get deeper into Django or Rails, I decided to move my blog to the free WordPress.com hosting. And I may use the service fee I just saved for other types of hosting in the future.

Having a separate hosted service and being able to tinker with WordPress(PHP) and MySQL did teach me a lot about how to set up a website and manage it. But I think it’s time to move on and challenge myself to get into newer and more serious type of development for web applications.

Since my future plan has less to do with blogging, I think it will be sufficient enough for me to use free blogging services like WordPress.com. Who knows, maybe I get to like this service more than I imagined and subscribe to paid plan.

Do your best to spend time for the Real Work

Recently, I had to work so much time on one element of the product, requested by the colleague who was not completely sure if the application was perfect enough for her to think that the product was alright to be released.

At the end, we have found that perfecting the element was impossible since it relies on the external conditions like network status. I had known about this, but I had to show it to her to convince her that it was impossible. She usually don’t understand about software limitations without actually seeing them.

I don’t disrespect perfectionism. Sometimes, even I can see myself spending so much time for just a few things of whole product, to satisfy my purposes for them.

However, it’s false to consider getting the perfect result is directly related to and only possible by working a lot of time on it.

And if such hours were spent for the sake of reenacting already known and proven limitations, you should accept the fact that you just wasted precious time which could be spent for the real work.

I am trying my best to use my work hours for the real work. But it’s irritating when it’s not possible because of incompetencies of others.

Steve Jobs, the artist of User Experience

On October 6th, 2011, the news of Steve Jobs’ death started spreading.

As a professional iOS developer, I was busy updating the applications to be prepared for upcoming iOS 5.

When I heard the news, like many people, sadness immediately fell on me.

It was just like what a fan could feel when our hero died.

He was like Michael Jackson to the pop music fans, Gregory Peck to the film lovers, and Bruce Lee to the martial artists.

Unlike them, however, Steve had used  the electronic devices and their software, which could provide the great user experience.

Probably, he could be the first one who had chosen this form of art, I think.

And Steve’s art was so entertaining and so right. None of us had to be ashamed of enjoying it.

Like BMW drivers, Harley Davidson riders, and Stephen King readers, us Apple users are so proud of our objects.

Thank you, Steve Jobs, for all your awesome artifacts joyfully shared to us. We will miss you a lot.

Coding while Commuting

Last week, I’ve been coding while commuting to my office. Due to busy schedule for our projects, being required to learn Cocos2d framework, and having own desire to utilize my time to its fullest, I began to train myself to be more comfortable at coding while commuting using bus.

from New York Times

I use long distance bus from my home to subway station, and take a train to the office. It takes about an hour for bus ride and about 20 minutes for subway transit. And almost every time, I’ve been able to take a sit in the bus. In other words, I have an hour at my disposal to do something productive, such as coding.

Typing and building using Xcode works just fine, especially if you are free from needing to use big external display, comfortable desk and chair. When I do occasionally need to use internet, my iPhone 4 can provide personal hotspot. However, coding without internet browsing is not bad at all for me, since it lasts only about an hour.

During this hour of coding, somehow I could be able to focus on my coding more efficiently than while sitting  comfortably in my office. I suspect it’s because of using only Xcode with all other apps being closed, and encouraging myself to find solutions from my own stuff, rather than passively search answers from internet. Also, knowing the bus ride would last only for an hour, I could just focus on finishing miniscule but important matters which could be fixed quickly.

Because of this good experience, I began to have stronger desire to get Macbook Air. This lightweight compact laptop will surely make my coding while commuting more enjoyable, though my current 13″ Macbook Pro is not so bad at all. Guess I need to find about opinions of the developers using Macbook Air with Xcode, and how to deal with disadvantages.

Why having personal projects is critical for a software developer?

I would like to share my reasons, based on what I learned from other developers, to have personal projects outside of professional jobs.

Unless you are a super genius, who can implement newly acquired knowledge flawlessly at once, it’s inevitable to make mistakes in programming based on new ideas. Your choice for solutions will need to be revised repeatedly. It may require number of customizations to accommodate merging these solution with codes from other developers or from older projects, though they are working just fine with no problems by themselves.

At early stage, your professional job will provide this kind of challenges many times, allowing you to grow patience in dealing with errors and testing implementations to find the right solutions. Sooner or later, you may find yourself simply customizing lines of codes for already solved problems. In other words, your job will get easier as your professional experience grows.

Unlike many other professional fields, new technologies are introduced so often, much faster than we can keep up with. But until your project manager or supervising developer decides to use these new technologies, you may only hear about them, if this is the worst case.

Your ability to implement new ideas, that you’ve practiced so hard, will become dull or inefficient. And what makes it more depressing is that this kind of backsliding happens very quickly and drastically. When finally new technologies are required for your projects, it could be embarrassing that your development skill is much like how it were at the early stage of your profession.

Having your personal projects not only mean that you build something, but also that you make own decisions. Because you are in charge, you can test your implementation skill with new technologies without waiting for anything. Whether your attempt to use new ideas is successful or not, you will be prepared to deal with issues later when it’s much needed for real jobs assigned by your employer.

Along with technical decisions, you can also make scheduling one on your own, without any constraints. Of course, once it’s public and used by many others, you may have to listen to their requests and satisfy their demands as soon as possible. However, it’s done proactively, being able to lengthen or even shorten the development time as you like. This sense of controlling time is probably only possible if you have complete ownership of your project, which is by having personal project outside of your job.

Also, no matter how much dedication you’ve put into your works, technically these jobs assigned by your employer are actually not yours. These useful evidences for proving your skills may not be permitted to be used when you are applying for a new job from another company. But with you own personal projects, you can just submit them to be fully analyzed without any guilt but with great confidence. It’s always better to silently show what you are so good at, than just loudly speak about it.

Talented people are happy to help others using their talents

Everyone is so good at something, and asking for his help is actually easier than it seems.

When working together, however, some people feel reluctant to reach out for help, thinking it might be interfering or distracting the co-worker. And so they decide to try to solve the problems by themselves. It causes initially small problems to become bigger than when they are first appeared, making it even harder to ask for help later.

From the beginning, it was never possible for them to find the solutions on their own, since they are not prepared for certain problems at all. But people often forget that, in many areas, trying is not sufficient enough for finishing the assignments in the right ways.

For example, when you are writing in English, no matter how much you are willing, focused, and diligently browsing through dictionaries and utilizing translating tools, it’s never faster than a native English speaker can write. And the finished writing will definitely require a few number of revisions before finally becoming acceptable.

If you have a co-worker who is so good at writing in English, just ask for help as early as possible and as often as possible. Since tasks are smaller if they are requested in this way, and he is naturally prepared to use his English fluently and confidently, almost always he will happily accept the request for help.  It’s much better than bringing the big assignment with so little time before deadline, worrying if the co-worker will hate you. Likewise, similar principle can be practiced in many other areas.

Talented people are happy to help others using their talents. Their talents are meant to be used to help others. Though it’s tough and we are busy doing our own tasks, it’s critical to remind ourselves that we commute to workplaces which are essentially set up for the us workers to work together.