A Personal Development Environment Fit For An Enterprise

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Thanou

The hardware and software used in the setup.

I’ve started doing development work for about a week now. My focus is in the mobile space. The first thing I wanted to do is to create a solid development process and infrastructure. I wanted a source control system and I wanted an automated build for each application — actually some enterprises don’t use automated build system.

I don’t have a lot of money to splash out on hardware and software so I make do of what I have (Open Source and cheap hardware). For example, I use my old Samsung Galaxy Y as a SMS Gateway server by IceColdApps for free. My Mac Book Pro is my development machine. I use Eclipse as my primary development tool.

The Asus netbook has SVN server and Git Server for source control — right now I’m experimenting with Git. It also host Hudson automated build server — every time a code is committed into the source control, Hudson pulls down the source, builds the application and it’s ready for deployment. In addition, I can add features like code analysis, test coverage reporting and etc that can give various perspectives on the soundness of each application design. With this, I have a continuous integration process working.

I chose ProstgreSQL database as my database for storing data. It’s easy to use, robust and free. I’ve also installed Openfire (Jabber) XMPP server for instant messaging service. Since the netbook keyboard is really bad to type and the screen is tiny, I installed VNC server on it so that I can remotely control the screen on my Mac Book. Much easier.

Controlling Windows desktop on my Mac Book.

Power flow in Laos is not as smooth as I would like it to be. I use uninterrupted power supply to protect the computers against power surges and dips.

What binds these devices together? A network hub of course. I use my Note 2 as the network hub so that I can send code from the development machine to the source control system on another machine. As well, it’s also allow other devices to access the internet.

At the end of the day, I commit all codes to the source control system then run Time Machine on the development machine (Mac Book). This way, the freshest code is on the Mac Book, on the source control system (Asus Netbook) and on the Time Machine.

There you have it. A personal development environment that can grow and expand to fit an enterprise.

Smoothing out the power flow to the computers.

Thank you China and Thank You To My New Found Friends

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Thanou

This is my last blog from China. I want to say thank you to the country and the wonderful people I’ve met. It’s impossible to put China into a category. It’s a world in itself. It’s a country in transition with diverse ideas and dreams. It’s a country with ancient behaviours to modern ones. It’s a country with rude people to extremely warm hearted people. With all the mixes, they have made my experiences that much richer and wanting more.

What I will miss the most is the people that I’ve met in school. All are smart and talented. It’s the spirit of adventure instill in each of them that I admire. Their love for life reminded me of how life is precious. Enjoy the ride. Nothing last forever.

I’m so grateful and very honoured to have met with so many great friends.

A Blog To Tell You That I’m Not Blogging This Week

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Thanou

I can’t write a blog this week because I have final exams next week and I need to study. The program itself is a non-degree so my mark doesn’t mean anything. So what’s up with the studying then?

It’s a habit formed from many years of formal schooling. I can still feel the effect of the thought of writing final exams. A sense of “oh no, I don’t know this stuff..yikes! gotta study.” This drives me into a frenzy of studying.

A challenge for me is to stay focus. Part of my head is now thinking about the stuff I will be doing after study — getting back to the software development space. Now I study and late into the night, I read about software development. Yesterday, I put a stop on software development stuff and just focus on the studying for my exams.

Another thing that I’ve been thinking about is my time here will come to an end. The wonderful people that I am grateful to have met, the relationships that have formed will come to an end in their current form. A sense of sadness is in me. We will no longer seeing each other in classes, no longer going on weekend trips, no longer doing KTV runs, no longer going to different eateries and etc.

The question is what will become after the end of the current form of relating? Will the new form be just as good as current? I don’t know for sure. What I know is that it’s the unknown that gives me the sense of grasping and loss.

I’m an optimist. What lies ahead, I believe, will be richer because of the experience gained and the value I put into the current relationship that I will carry forward. In essence, I believe life’s richness is in how we relate to each other and in how to appreciate its ever changing nature.