A little bit non-cs thoughts:)

As a purely computing geek, most of the time I am focusing on things related to CS. However I also very interested in things like investment and economics. If I were 5 years younger with my current knowledge, I might choose Business/Finance as my major instead of CS:)

In fact, I have got a little bit training in those fields. During my study in China, I have taken courses like International Trade, Financial Accounting, Modern Management, Government Budget Plan and so on. These courses have established some basic ideas of business/economics for me. However, it is when I start working that I realize the importance of investment and business. Sometimes a technology geek just cannot avoid thinking about how to spend his salary for a house or a car. Obviously he could not just use a calculator to divide the expense by his salary:) Also, books that I have read like Money Changers, On the road with Jim Rogers Investment Bikers and Triad Power. These three books influenced me so much that I could not bear leaving my salary in the bank without doing anything. There's an old motto in China: no advances means falling behind. This motto well applies to money and currency. Due to inflation, our money is becoming less and less valuable. The interest we could obtain could not completely make up the loss of inflation. If we could make use of our current money to produce more, why don't we have a try then?

One interesting fact is that Bill Gates withdraws from Microsoft, but he puts almost all his money under the management of Warren Buffett. A boss like Bill Gates knows the importance of investment and obviously he is not lack of money, then there is no doubt that a poor programmer like me should pay special attention to investment for expanding my assets:)

Another interesting thing to investigate in the future:)

Last post of this term:)

Well, this is the last post of this term. I may continue writing more in the future, but I may not keep posting weekly. So I will post when I have something new to say.

As the last post, I want to give a summary of my progress this Spring:

1:I continued with my job in IBM. As my profile indicated, after I came back to Vancouver, I was still working for IBM, as a part-time worker, and am still doing the job right now. As I have been working for IBM over one year, I really learned a lot from the big blue. IBM is the first company i have been working for in my life and will always be my first tutor for my career. In Toronto Lab, I have met many extremely smart students who showed their outstanding creativity and efficiency, I am lucky to meet my roommate who is a DB2 developer and my Montreal friend who is a computing geek:) Both of them influenced my life significantly. Also, my IBM's friends like my coach and another employee are crucial as my career and life guidance. I like them.

2:I started considering investment seriously. Before this year I had the idea that investment is necessary, but I didn't have a clear plan for it. Now I have started my investment plan from all aspects which should bring a considerable benefit in the future.

3:I am holding remote discussion with my friend frequently. The topic may cover from our projects to any hot technologies currently. I find this kind of discussion helps us expand our knowledge greatly. Most of the time different people may pay attention to different aspects of the trend, and if all of these ideas and thoughts can be merged, then the outcome will be a much larger set of knowledge:) One person can spend 10 years learning very well in certain fields, but the union of 100 people's knowledge may have already covered all the aspects of those fields.

4:I got the job in Microsoft windows team:) Best thing this year!

Last but not least, the cmpt 376 is really a good course. It is not trying to teach us new technology, every one can learn new technology either from a book or from some web sites. The meaning of this course for me is that it gives a programmer to stop and clarify his thoughts. It is easy to write a piece of code, but it is harder to write an essay to elaborate the essential of that code. As most of the time some programmers just know this is the way to do it, but they don't think about the story behind it. When we write an essay for others to read, we are doing more than coding. In fact, we are investigating the hidden art of computing science at that moment:)

Above all, nice course! And nice processor:)

Biao

Lots of courses next term:(

In order to graduate by the end of next term, I have got 6 courses enrolled right now.. Normally people will take 4 courses per term, if they are capable of handling lots of assignments at the same time, then they may take 5 courses. But I have to take 6 which is the maximum amount of course load permitted by school...

I think I should start preparing for the courses as early as possible so that I may not be overwhelmed at the beginning of next term. Also, I have to order those text books in order to get started.

Anyway, thinking of my job in the future, all those difficulties in school are no longer that terrible. I know there is something exciting and I will be working on it as my career. Cheers!!!

After the final exams, I will start the preparation. Meanwhile, I will read more about those cool technologies. Maybe I will use this blog as a way to keep my study note:)

A wonderful interview in Microsoft

This Monday I went to Seattle for an interview with Microsoft. Before the interview day I didn't know anything about the team and products. I was thinking both Windows and Azure should be the greatest option for me. And it turned out to be Windows team who interviewed me!!! I mean, for this team, I don't need to explain anything about it to my parents and girlfriend. On the contrast, I could hardly explain what is an ESB(Enterprise Service Bus) to my father which is more or less one category of the products I have been working with in IBM:(

The whole interview was quite pleasant. I met different people from different teams in Windows. All of them are just genius and expert. I frequently find out my bottleneck of knowledge in various areas. But still, the questions are intelligent and demand much thinking. I am quite lucky because those coding and algorithm problems are not that super super difficult and my knowledge base has covered pretty much of their questions (though quite a lot of my knowledge just stays on the surface of those difficult topics like virtualization, cloud computing, encryption and so on)

After about 7 hours' interview, I went back to the hotel and continued with my course project due the next day. Microsoft is really generous, they paid almost all things for me so that I could come here relaxed and go back comfortably. And the next day after I arrived at Vancouver and checked my email, I got the offer from them! Windows team! So for the remaining hours I sent tens of emails to my friends around the world, telling them my success! Maybe it is not a big deal for other people, but for me, it is simply the best thing I could image before. I called my girlfriend, she was still sleeping:P, but I woke her up and told her the news and she was just mumbling there, not sure whether she heard my words or not:P

Before I would say anything about my preparation, I should thank all those who helped with selflessly: my girlfriend is always supporting me, without her I would never succeed in doing anything; my friends in IBM are my best tutors, teachers and friends, hope that they will always be healthy and have a happy life; my best friends in Montreal and Spain have affected me so much that I would not be able to do anything in a correct way without them; also, my DDP program classmates also give me quite a bit suggestions which prepared me a lot; thanks to Microsoft, giving me the opportunity to contribute my capability and passion to Windows team; finally, thanks to all those books in my computer, they have done a good job shaping me to a "smart" programmer:)

For myself, thanks to my body, which cooperated with me a lot during the preparation:) Nice job, body buddy:)

One funny story about "hot"

It is quite hot outside today, but I still wear as much clothing as last week. So when I'm walking outside, I cannot stop from sweating. So without too much thinking, I whispered to myself saying "it is so hot, hot! hot! hot!".

Guess what, two girls in front of me look back to me, one of them gives me a mysterious smile, and the other also shows some interests to my words. I am wondering whether I have done something wrong. Suddenly, I realize that there may be a misunderstanding that my words were considered as depicting a charming girl....

I feel so embarrassed and also give them a smile. I don't know whether they really take my words in that way, but at least they seem to be happy with what I have said:)

So next time, if you are walking outside and it is very hot outside, be aware of saying "hot"! Maybe you will meet some girls like these two who are OK with your words, but it is also possible that you will meet someone who considers it as an offense:( In that case, well, it will take a while to explain the whole story.

Anyway, finally comes the summer! Ready for ice-cream, hahahaha!

A collection of words which fuel our engine to success

It is Easter Day tomorrow. My friend sends a collection of success quotes(thanks to him:). I put them here for reader who wants to get fueled for their success in their career and life:). Enjoy them:

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Tough times never last, tough people do.
~ Robert Schuller

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared
to what lies within us.
~ Walt Emerson

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
~ Robert Byrne

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
~ Albert Einstein

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change
your attitude.
~ Maya Angelo

A successful person is one who can build his palace with the bricks
others have thrown at him.
~ Andreas Eminidis & David Brinkley

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.
~ Dale Carnegie

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
~ George Edward Woodberry

Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
~ William Wallace (from Braveheart)

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of
the surest stepping stones to success.
~ Dale Carnegie

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
~ Michael Jordan

If you think you can or you think you can't either way you are right.
~ Henry Ford

I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love
than to be a success at something you hate.
~ George Burns

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
~ Winston Churchill

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.
~ Josh Billings
If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
~ Gail Sheehy

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
~ Charles Darwin

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To be free is to follow our own rational principles instead of just
our desires. We know that we're free by knowing that we have duties.
We ought to have acted otherwise -- and so we could have acted
otherwise -- and so we are free. (Don't a be a slave to your own
emotions)
~Kant

Hope that now you have more courages to face any problem in the future!

I am not good at understanding "Art"

This Saturday I went to Vancouver Art Gallery for my IAT course. It's my first time to go to an art exhibition. I charged my camera and arrived there in the morning. They are currently exhibiting Leonardo Da Vinci's works of anatomy drafts. The drawing looks quite natural and detailed. It is very difficult to persuade myself that all of these were done by manual drawing instead of some AutoCAD or Maya works.

Also there are some other artists's works. One of the authors named E.J. Hughes has very nice oil paintings. His work "comex valley, 1953" uses very several warm colors to depict a peaceful village beside a river(or a lake). The orange and yellow grass reminds me my childhood when I liked to play with a bunch of kids around piles of straw.

However, there are more art works that I could not understand their meaning. Some have very abstract shapes. Even if I read the description of the art work, I may not know what the author is trying to express..... I am really not good at "feeling the nature"...

Anyway, it is still a good experience to go there. Sometimes we should get away from computers and look for something more natural:)