When Choosing Programming Language for Projects

This afternoon an ex-colleague called me in desperation. He was due to submit a project and he needed help desperately to do the programming work. I was like huh, when he told me what programming language his team chose. PHP?

Face2palm man.

101 when doing IT programming projects. 

(1) Always choose good teammates, those who actually can do the work quickly, not the kind who talks a good game and leeches you. You can observe from the way they do their project work. Of course if you are a bloody leech, no excellent programmer is going to touch you with a ten-feet barge pole. It works both ways, unless you are a babe and/or the guy's a geek and/or you have something/someone that the guy wants. 

(2)  For chris' sakes, choose a language that the whole team knows. If the team is a group of leeches, then for God's sakes, choose a language that all your friends know. In this case, I was like, why the hell didn't you choose Java. Everyone in *censored* knows Java and Javascript. Even I can muster up a thing or two if you give me enough time. PHP? I last had a dalliance with that project when I did my FYP. It's a easy language to learn, but 1.5 month to finish building a project at the scale he wants? No way... not unless I am not working.

(3) Of course, you must choose a language that has the most frameworks, online help sources, and free IDEs, e.g. Java, PHP. Personally I will never choose C# or anything related to the Microsoft Visual Studio, but that's because I am a tight pussy when it comes to programming language. That's also why you will never see me doing iPhone programming. NIEMAL.

The Art Museum is getting creepier...

I must say that the displays recently are getting scarier everytime. FX Harsono already made the hair on my arms stand, and now they got some recently art installations that really taunts my fears more. Turns out it is for the Singapore Biennale.

I don't dare to take pics of some of the more disturbing displays, but here's some of the tamer stuff:

this is actually a 3 piece installation =D Bet you couldn't tell from the angle we took it!

Btw this week, every Biennale venue is free entry for the whole weekend!

3 views from my 3 windows

Bangotunity - the window within which you bang a girl you met in a bar

From the How I met your Mother blog by "Barney Stinson"

I count down to my stupidity

I was stubborn. I wanted to live near where I grew up. 

Yet I wasn't ready to move out of my parents' place. Now that I have been dragged against my will, screaming and kicking, to make a commitment to owning a property... the stupid housing prices rose so sharply it's scary! Basically I paid for a flat what would have gotten me a condo. Some people mock me whenever they hear how much I spend, but it's ok, I face up to reality. I wasn't ready to settle down, and those same persons will eat crow when it's their turn, seeing how prices continue to rise up without much control.

So today is the last day. I kiss goodbye to my days of a debt-free life, and welcome a mortgage that will take me eons to pay (it's 2 X the price of a new flat in the countryside, e.g. Punggol. Location, location, location), and basically chain me to my job. Yesterday we went over to do a final inspection. The uncle left us a lot of furniture, and some appliances. From what I see, we will still need to reno the house a LOT because the wiring all over the house looks like shit (being computer geeks, I forsee that we will be paying a fortune in utility bills), kitchen looks like shit, toilets look like shit and the walls look like shit. Staring at the walls, I wondered to myself, why the fuck did I pay so much? 

Since we are now the new lower income living in our neighborhood, it helps that we won't need to spend too much for furniture, though I am still trying to figure out how to restore and paint them. The furniture is a bit dented, and the colors are all over the palette, as evidenced by ten years of rental and living. One merciful thing is that the floor is liveable, though that false wall really grates on my OCD, especially when you see that the cornices actually extend into the little bedroom. So on each side of the false wall, there are three sides of cornices... wtf.

I considered taking down the wall. Hmm. Make it into a 2 bedroom apartment. But I digress. So yesterday, during the final inspection, the uncle's niece (well, the man is gleefully enjoying his retirement in New Zealand with our money) said to us that 妈祖 said to them (don't ask me how a deity confers with mere mortals) recently that this house has excellent luck. Whoever lives inside will have good luck and prosperity. (She also said that her other aunt wanted to buy the flat, but was reluctant to move out of Bedok where she lives. *roll eyes*)

Out of earshot later, I remarked sourly to B1 that even the heavenly beings are laughing at us now.