I've created a new wordpress blog for all those programming stuffs that pop into my little (or big) head.
For all the programming ppl out there (or if u jst want to check'ir out) visit:
http://technicalculus.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Some random stuvs
You are in trouble!!!
Can't remember aw many times Ade mentioned that line at the interactive session we had today, ok yesterday. Calls after calls and Ade, an architect with Microsoft (ok, software architect), finally fixed a meeting with team X. The session was one of the most elevating I've ever had. First it wasn't just about the session. We were treated like some kind of star at the office... "This is the team that won this year's Imagine cup... that would be representing Nigeria in Cairo" N'Dee introduces us to the Country Manager, Emmanuel. We took some photographs with him and then we had a meeting with Ade and Shina at their conference room. Interacting with industry professionals opened up our eyes to a lot of things. The real world challenges, tasks and all. We are really in trouble for taking part and wining this year's national challenge, 'cos we have to win in Cairo and push this solution into the industry. After the session, I told John and Francis "Hope u guyz had a nice sleep last night, cos dat wud be the last full night sleep u'll enjoy until we return from Cairo." John felt the fever. Thanks to him we have a mosquito infested room (at his home) to code at!!! Can't count aw many times av had to beat myself these few hours, awsh!!!
Amaka's B'day
It's my girl's bday 2day... Happy birthday dear.
More Coldplay tracks
Got Lost!, Life in technicolor and 47. I'm feeling Lost! like mad!!! Men Chris Martin's so inspirational... listen to this "Just because I'm losing doesn't mean I'm lost... You might be a big fish in a little pond, doesn't mean you've won". Challenges you to bring out the best in yourself!!! Feel me?
Solange, Beyonce's lil sis did Viva la vida really well. See her performance:
The "Wining the imagine cup national challenge" series is still coming up.
----------------
Now playing: Coldplay - Lost!
via FoxyTunes
Can't remember aw many times Ade mentioned that line at the interactive session we had today, ok yesterday. Calls after calls and Ade, an architect with Microsoft (ok, software architect), finally fixed a meeting with team X. The session was one of the most elevating I've ever had. First it wasn't just about the session. We were treated like some kind of star at the office... "This is the team that won this year's Imagine cup... that would be representing Nigeria in Cairo" N'Dee introduces us to the Country Manager, Emmanuel. We took some photographs with him and then we had a meeting with Ade and Shina at their conference room. Interacting with industry professionals opened up our eyes to a lot of things. The real world challenges, tasks and all. We are really in trouble for taking part and wining this year's national challenge, 'cos we have to win in Cairo and push this solution into the industry. After the session, I told John and Francis "Hope u guyz had a nice sleep last night, cos dat wud be the last full night sleep u'll enjoy until we return from Cairo." John felt the fever. Thanks to him we have a mosquito infested room (at his home) to code at!!! Can't count aw many times av had to beat myself these few hours, awsh!!!
Amaka's B'day
It's my girl's bday 2day... Happy birthday dear.
More Coldplay tracks
Got Lost!, Life in technicolor and 47. I'm feeling Lost! like mad!!! Men Chris Martin's so inspirational... listen to this "Just because I'm losing doesn't mean I'm lost... You might be a big fish in a little pond, doesn't mean you've won". Challenges you to bring out the best in yourself!!! Feel me?
Solange, Beyonce's lil sis did Viva la vida really well. See her performance:
The "Wining the imagine cup national challenge" series is still coming up.
----------------
Now playing: Coldplay - Lost!
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Imagine Cup 2009 - Winning the National Finals: The SMS Module.
Welcome to the Imagine Cup 2009 series... This is the first of the "backstage gist" of how we won the National finals of the Imagine Cup... The team captain's experiences.
If u were at the national presentation, u'll notice that the "WOW" of Autonomous Health System X (AHSysX, that's our software solution) was the SMS. As simple as it was sending SMS 4rm a phone to a computer system, the stunt that made it possible was not easy to pull up.
Ok System X was ready for quite some time. I had implemented the SMS message parser (the nonsense that would tell what a received message means), Francis had implemented the task scheduler... John's SMS module was working.... outside system X. The issue now was installing the SMS module on System X.
System X was written in C#, theoretically, it was supposed to be able to run any DLL written in any CLR compatible language (including Visual Basic.NET) as long as the basic implementation rules are followed (of course those rules are top secret... team X stuffs). John was more comfortable with VB.NET so he wrote the SMS module in the language.
After a lot of gra-gra, the SMS module finally worked on Monday. Men, I was so happy. Ok oh, John bring this stuff let me install it on System X and confirm that it runs on the platform... my guy is in his final year so he has many stuffs to do too.
Wednesday night come... My guy finally carry d stuff come o. I was putting some finishing touches to the ASP.NET pages (first time working on ASP.NET, had to do it cos... long tin reason, anoda story 4 anoda day) till like 1:30 am. Ok I install the scheduler, 'course it worked fine (was implemented in C#), then came the SMS module... While we were @ it, we were already singing Cairo songs... John was already yarbing Francis, telling him what to say and what not to say in Cairo... Cairo was clearly ahead of us (we did our homework so we could only look forward to wining, actually getting an opportunity to win the real thing, in Cairo).
I did the whole System X configuration on the SMS module, John and Francis were watching actively. Ok I start the System X Windows service... lo and behold... "System.NullReference exception"... (na error be dat o!). No, just give me 10 minutes, it's just some minor reference problems, I go fix am. Na so me and the tin sidon there o... 3 nak, 4 nak.... I look around me (that was at 3:00 am), John don crash, at 3:30 am Francis say "wake mi in 30 minutes"... I'm on my own... I remember when Jesus was praying in the garden and Peter, James and John sleep forget their oga... I remember the words of Dr Fasina, "The success or failure of this project is ur success or failure". Nna men, I gats fix this stuff anyhow, anyhow.
That night, within the space of 3 hours, I went to ease myself three times... I knew that that wasn't a time to give-up hopes and kill the SMS plans... it was suppose to be the "WONDERFUL!!!" of the application. I had to take a decision fast. At 3:00 am, "John, Oya wake up, ur SMS module is going to be re-implemented in C#. Come and explain the VB codes let me write the C#". But as I looked at the VB, I got more confused, I couldn't think straight. Then Francis poped into my mind... He's a C# guy too... and I know his abilities, his greatest strength is his ability to context switch really fast. He can move from writing database triggers to writing C# codes within seconds... me ke... give me 30 miutes... or more!!! At 5:30 am "Francis wake up, come and covert this VB to C#, oya o be quick, we have less than 4 hours to get it ready". I knew I had to be awake to monitor what was happening (sleep no even show sef).
"What if we don't win here", "Mehn we have to go to Cairo", "Bill Gates and Paul Allen stayed up all night to create the software they sold to the Altair guy, (BASIC maybe)"... A lot of thoughts crossed my mind that morning... I was almost beginning to lose hope. At 6:30 (probably),while he was battling with the code conversion, I asked Francis if he thought we would win. His response: "Guy you are the team captain, this is not time for us to lose hope don't worry this thing will work. I think you need some sleep". At 7:00 am, two hour to the event, Francis virtually forced me to sleep. I set my phone alarm to 7:30, and laid down and closed my eyes. Three minutes later, I opened them again, I couldn't sleep.
I was losing energy, I needed a drink, I got "Burn". Energy revved up. At 8:00 Moses called to tell us that the place was set-up and ready, John had to go home and prepare. At 9:00, I had to get ready. We went late. I was sapped of energy, I took a bottle of Sprite, thanks to Moses. All I needed to do the was think, thank God I did that.
I figured the SMS receiver wasn't working yet and we needed to buy time. We were the third on the list. We had to use the internet to send SMS, and our application was distributed (the service was on my system, the database was on Francis' system, SMS, well it had been moved to Francis' system) so I had to ask that our presentation be moved so we could set-up our distributed network, we were granted the request.
While the third team was presenting, Francis whispered to me that the SMS module was working. My heart leaped. We'll show this SMS stuff finally. Thank GOD. I said the Hail Mary silently. While the presentation was going on, He and John were translating the codes, while I was studying the points raised by the teams presenting. I realized that the SMS was going to give us the award, well along with the presentation... that was what the other healthcare solutions presented by every other team didn't have. That was our Joker.
When I finally got up to present Team X's solution and I sent an SMS from the mobile phone to the system and the audience roared with a great ovation, I sighed. Thanks to Francis, he saved the day, and John too. I did nothing but send SMS.
So when you pick-up ur phone and dial a number and u hear the person at the other end or u do any thing like click a button and some "WOW" stuff happens, know that at least one programmer stayed awake for at least one night to make this possible and salute the person's efforts.
Watch out for: Imagine Cup 2009 - Winning the National Finals: Team X.
----------------
Now playing: Winans Phase 2 - IT'S ALRIGHT (SEND ME)
via FoxyTunes
If u were at the national presentation, u'll notice that the "WOW" of Autonomous Health System X (AHSysX, that's our software solution) was the SMS. As simple as it was sending SMS 4rm a phone to a computer system, the stunt that made it possible was not easy to pull up.
Ok System X was ready for quite some time. I had implemented the SMS message parser (the nonsense that would tell what a received message means), Francis had implemented the task scheduler... John's SMS module was working.... outside system X. The issue now was installing the SMS module on System X.
System X was written in C#, theoretically, it was supposed to be able to run any DLL written in any CLR compatible language (including Visual Basic.NET) as long as the basic implementation rules are followed (of course those rules are top secret... team X stuffs). John was more comfortable with VB.NET so he wrote the SMS module in the language.
After a lot of gra-gra, the SMS module finally worked on Monday. Men, I was so happy. Ok oh, John bring this stuff let me install it on System X and confirm that it runs on the platform... my guy is in his final year so he has many stuffs to do too.
Wednesday night come... My guy finally carry d stuff come o. I was putting some finishing touches to the ASP.NET pages (first time working on ASP.NET, had to do it cos... long tin reason, anoda story 4 anoda day) till like 1:30 am. Ok I install the scheduler, 'course it worked fine (was implemented in C#), then came the SMS module... While we were @ it, we were already singing Cairo songs... John was already yarbing Francis, telling him what to say and what not to say in Cairo... Cairo was clearly ahead of us (we did our homework so we could only look forward to wining, actually getting an opportunity to win the real thing, in Cairo).
I did the whole System X configuration on the SMS module, John and Francis were watching actively. Ok I start the System X Windows service... lo and behold... "System.NullReference exception"... (na error be dat o!). No, just give me 10 minutes, it's just some minor reference problems, I go fix am. Na so me and the tin sidon there o... 3 nak, 4 nak.... I look around me (that was at 3:00 am), John don crash, at 3:30 am Francis say "wake mi in 30 minutes"... I'm on my own... I remember when Jesus was praying in the garden and Peter, James and John sleep forget their oga... I remember the words of Dr Fasina, "The success or failure of this project is ur success or failure". Nna men, I gats fix this stuff anyhow, anyhow.
That night, within the space of 3 hours, I went to ease myself three times... I knew that that wasn't a time to give-up hopes and kill the SMS plans... it was suppose to be the "WONDERFUL!!!" of the application. I had to take a decision fast. At 3:00 am, "John, Oya wake up, ur SMS module is going to be re-implemented in C#. Come and explain the VB codes let me write the C#". But as I looked at the VB, I got more confused, I couldn't think straight. Then Francis poped into my mind... He's a C# guy too... and I know his abilities, his greatest strength is his ability to context switch really fast. He can move from writing database triggers to writing C# codes within seconds... me ke... give me 30 miutes... or more!!! At 5:30 am "Francis wake up, come and covert this VB to C#, oya o be quick, we have less than 4 hours to get it ready". I knew I had to be awake to monitor what was happening (sleep no even show sef).
"What if we don't win here", "Mehn we have to go to Cairo", "Bill Gates and Paul Allen stayed up all night to create the software they sold to the Altair guy, (BASIC maybe)"... A lot of thoughts crossed my mind that morning... I was almost beginning to lose hope. At 6:30 (probably),while he was battling with the code conversion, I asked Francis if he thought we would win. His response: "Guy you are the team captain, this is not time for us to lose hope don't worry this thing will work. I think you need some sleep". At 7:00 am, two hour to the event, Francis virtually forced me to sleep. I set my phone alarm to 7:30, and laid down and closed my eyes. Three minutes later, I opened them again, I couldn't sleep.
I was losing energy, I needed a drink, I got "Burn". Energy revved up. At 8:00 Moses called to tell us that the place was set-up and ready, John had to go home and prepare. At 9:00, I had to get ready. We went late. I was sapped of energy, I took a bottle of Sprite, thanks to Moses. All I needed to do the was think, thank God I did that.
I figured the SMS receiver wasn't working yet and we needed to buy time. We were the third on the list. We had to use the internet to send SMS, and our application was distributed (the service was on my system, the database was on Francis' system, SMS, well it had been moved to Francis' system) so I had to ask that our presentation be moved so we could set-up our distributed network, we were granted the request.
While the third team was presenting, Francis whispered to me that the SMS module was working. My heart leaped. We'll show this SMS stuff finally. Thank GOD. I said the Hail Mary silently. While the presentation was going on, He and John were translating the codes, while I was studying the points raised by the teams presenting. I realized that the SMS was going to give us the award, well along with the presentation... that was what the other healthcare solutions presented by every other team didn't have. That was our Joker.
When I finally got up to present Team X's solution and I sent an SMS from the mobile phone to the system and the audience roared with a great ovation, I sighed. Thanks to Francis, he saved the day, and John too. I did nothing but send SMS.
So when you pick-up ur phone and dial a number and u hear the person at the other end or u do any thing like click a button and some "WOW" stuff happens, know that at least one programmer stayed awake for at least one night to make this possible and salute the person's efforts.
Watch out for: Imagine Cup 2009 - Winning the National Finals: Team X.
----------------
Now playing: Winans Phase 2 - IT'S ALRIGHT (SEND ME)
via FoxyTunes
Monday, May 18, 2009
Yuppie!!!
We won!!!
Cairo here we come...
After putting in lot of efforts, we won the Imagine Cup national finals. We brushed teams from Covenant University and OAU to win.
Who says we are not THE BEST???
Debola missed two classes to watch us, I'm sure she has someone to yerb in her blog... Her presence kinda killed my nerves, Thanks a lot.
Full posts of all the events that led to the victory coming soon...
We won!!!
Cairo here we come...
After putting in lot of efforts, we won the Imagine Cup national finals. We brushed teams from Covenant University and OAU to win.
Who says we are not THE BEST???
Debola missed two classes to watch us, I'm sure she has someone to yerb in her blog... Her presence kinda killed my nerves, Thanks a lot.
Full posts of all the events that led to the victory coming soon...
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
... yes I write poems too (I don't only write Java and C#)
What If?
What if the sky is not really blue?
What if the person on the mirror is not really you?
Every five years they say...
A known fact becomes hearsay.
If what seems like treasure today…
Turns out to be a shadow overlay
Will you crawl around and wail and weep
Or lay in arms of dearly grip
Do folks who tend you and are there
Know you love them and you care
What if they breathe and live each day
With dimmer gen of your love for them.
©Celestine Ezeokoye, 2009.
What if the sky is not really blue?
What if the person on the mirror is not really you?
Every five years they say...
A known fact becomes hearsay.
If what seems like treasure today…
Turns out to be a shadow overlay
Will you crawl around and wail and weep
Or lay in arms of dearly grip
Do folks who tend you and are there
Know you love them and you care
What if they breathe and live each day
With dimmer gen of your love for them.
©Celestine Ezeokoye, 2009.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
On my mind lately...
Just finished watching Taken for the second time... Niam Leeson was great. Above that, it was shot in Paris and it reminds me of our Paris experience last year! Hmmm I remember the black guy on suit and sunshades strolling around the airport when we just arrived... Jide called him a lost Nigerian (abi Jide...), I disagreed cos he was darker than an average dark Nigerian. He was kinda scary but the aura of being in Paris didn't make me realize until I saw this film.
Ok they smoke a lot over there!!! See cigarettes, burnt (abi she na smoked...) ones. Ahn Ahn!!! I remember I saw a Tom-Tom wrapper with the pile of cigarettes. That new Tom-Tom flavor then... the one with blue wrapper. Jide argued it wasn't Tom-Tom, but my eyes were not deceiving me now!!! He latter agreed. Of course one Naija guy (or gal) av been there and the person brought Tom-Tom along, The person smoked too, Hmmm...
Where Kim lodged, I think it's at Bir-Hakeem, not sure sha but it looks very much like Bir-Hakeem. Where he met with Jean-Claude, I'm very sure it's La Defense. The Arc Du Triumphe was clearly visible.
Ok I saw The Eye too... Jessica Alba. Hot stuff.
Started work (IT that is) on Thursday. Everyone who hears that I'm working at the department thinks I was lured into doing it... plus no pay!!! Damilola asked me on Thursday "are you sure this is what you want?" My answer: "Of course, I chose it... I had choices but I chose this for a reason". Thanks babe for your concern, and Rayo too... Thanks.
Ok they smoke a lot over there!!! See cigarettes, burnt (abi she na smoked...) ones. Ahn Ahn!!! I remember I saw a Tom-Tom wrapper with the pile of cigarettes. That new Tom-Tom flavor then... the one with blue wrapper. Jide argued it wasn't Tom-Tom, but my eyes were not deceiving me now!!! He latter agreed. Of course one Naija guy (or gal) av been there and the person brought Tom-Tom along, The person smoked too, Hmmm...
Where Kim lodged, I think it's at Bir-Hakeem, not sure sha but it looks very much like Bir-Hakeem. Where he met with Jean-Claude, I'm very sure it's La Defense. The Arc Du Triumphe was clearly visible.
Ok I saw The Eye too... Jessica Alba. Hot stuff.
Started work (IT that is) on Thursday. Everyone who hears that I'm working at the department thinks I was lured into doing it... plus no pay!!! Damilola asked me on Thursday "are you sure this is what you want?" My answer: "Of course, I chose it... I had choices but I chose this for a reason". Thanks babe for your concern, and Rayo too... Thanks.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Dining Philosophers problem
Earlier today I lost a chess game, my second loss since I've been playing the game... Ok I'm not a grandmaster; actually this is my fourth game ever. Lost the first, won the next two and lost this... 4 games in all. I've always dodged the game, but when Jide (roommate) requested that we play this morning, I gladly granted the request - well at least I won't be writing Java codes.
When I went to bed last night, I had lost count of the number of laptop computers that stared at me throughout the whole day and all I wanted to do was just sleep. The whole of yesterday was spent making some silly philosophers dine following a given threading pattern (bla, bla, bla....). We are supposed to be on holiday oh, but the whole cells in my body are so agitated like school is still in session. The dining philosophers problem is a classical problem in concurrency and we were supposed to simulate it using Java programming language.
Ok oh at the CSC302 lab exams, my program was the only one that ran (out of over 90 people), so that was supposed to make me the bad guy of the class, ok at least confirm me as the class’ bad guy. Now that comes with a prize, I was supposed to look at everybody’s program, have loads of phone calls when an assignment is given… yada, yada, yada.
Dr Fash gave us a take away assignment, dining philosophers, and believe me, no be beans o. I woke up 3am Friday morning to fix mine, after helping some people out with theirs on Thursday. It took me till 12 noon to make my philosophers dine and dine differently from every other one I’ve seen. From then, I just needed someone to save me from the legion of computer science students ready to lynch me. Every code I saw was similar in some way to another person’s code. Everybody got their codes from the internet and by looking at one person’s codes, I could tell about two other people with the same codes. I couldn’t attend mass and stations of the cross, and when Debola called me by 7pm I was very thankful that I would leave the hostel for the first time yesterday. Then I had four people in my room waiting for me to attend to their problems.
Debola, I know you’ll read this; you really saved me last night… I’m very grateful. I knew I was finding it difficult to connect when I was discussing with her, I was thinking philosophers throughout the whole day, but all I needed then was someone to pull me out of the mob and she did just that. Her second to the last advice was “go and get a good sleep” and I not only did that, I decided not to look at any codes today. I slept for 12hours and when I woke up this morning at about 9:30, I took the day off by watching Avater-The last air bender, book 2 and playing chess. Despite my decision, I still fixed three people’s codes before 12noon today. Someone once described me as an oracle; I guess they are turning me to that.
Her last advice was “update your blog”… well I’ve just done that.
----------------
Now playing: James Morrison feat Nelly Furtado - Broken Strings
via FoxyTunes
When I went to bed last night, I had lost count of the number of laptop computers that stared at me throughout the whole day and all I wanted to do was just sleep. The whole of yesterday was spent making some silly philosophers dine following a given threading pattern (bla, bla, bla....). We are supposed to be on holiday oh, but the whole cells in my body are so agitated like school is still in session. The dining philosophers problem is a classical problem in concurrency and we were supposed to simulate it using Java programming language.
Ok oh at the CSC302 lab exams, my program was the only one that ran (out of over 90 people), so that was supposed to make me the bad guy of the class, ok at least confirm me as the class’ bad guy. Now that comes with a prize, I was supposed to look at everybody’s program, have loads of phone calls when an assignment is given… yada, yada, yada.
Dr Fash gave us a take away assignment, dining philosophers, and believe me, no be beans o. I woke up 3am Friday morning to fix mine, after helping some people out with theirs on Thursday. It took me till 12 noon to make my philosophers dine and dine differently from every other one I’ve seen. From then, I just needed someone to save me from the legion of computer science students ready to lynch me. Every code I saw was similar in some way to another person’s code. Everybody got their codes from the internet and by looking at one person’s codes, I could tell about two other people with the same codes. I couldn’t attend mass and stations of the cross, and when Debola called me by 7pm I was very thankful that I would leave the hostel for the first time yesterday. Then I had four people in my room waiting for me to attend to their problems.
Debola, I know you’ll read this; you really saved me last night… I’m very grateful. I knew I was finding it difficult to connect when I was discussing with her, I was thinking philosophers throughout the whole day, but all I needed then was someone to pull me out of the mob and she did just that. Her second to the last advice was “go and get a good sleep” and I not only did that, I decided not to look at any codes today. I slept for 12hours and when I woke up this morning at about 9:30, I took the day off by watching Avater-The last air bender, book 2 and playing chess. Despite my decision, I still fixed three people’s codes before 12noon today. Someone once described me as an oracle; I guess they are turning me to that.
Her last advice was “update your blog”… well I’ve just done that.
----------------
Now playing: James Morrison feat Nelly Furtado - Broken Strings
via FoxyTunes
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