After looking around, I have finally decided to go with FMSLogo. It’s visual, interpreted and simple enough for kids. In addition, I also vaguely remember that I had also used Logo long ago when I started my association with programming as well.

It definitely helps that there are online resources that give additional guidance on how to make this work with kids. Given my lack of time, the availability of such material as the Logo Workshop Homepage really makes it so much easier.

Since my sister’s also has 2 kids in the same age range, I extended the offer to teach them together. Hope that works out and doesn’t become a nightmare!

Well, planning to start either next weekend or the following one and it should be a weekly session. Updates once we get going.

Additional resources for those interested in using Logo for teaching kids programming: MSWLogo Homepage and its links to many more resources.

And last year a friend who came back from overseas re-ignited my interest in boardgames. He bought a designer boardgame (Heroscape) and asked me to read up about it.

And that led me to the BoardGameGeek website and the world of designer boardgames. And a few months after that, I bought the following games:

Citadels

Gulo Gulo

Race for the Galaxy

Wasabi!

Once Upon a Time

And I am still thinking of buying more! :p

My list of games owned can be found here. Look for for the reviews on the games – you should not need to wait more than a year for them!

So after putting it through its paces for more than a year, here are some of my thoughts on it.

For use in or as an enterprise grade application, there would need to be quite a bit of work done to provide the plumbing infrastructure. And it is substantially different from the usual Internet applications and its AJAX-enabled brethens.

So there is a need to understand its quirks and constraints and handle them accordingly.

Also, don’t expect blazing performance. Unfortunately, once the pages becomes more complicated the rendering tends to slow its down substantially. The generated HTML elements are rather heavy.

The good news is that the newer browser versions do speed it up substantially as well. But the browsers that are suppported are constrained by the version of the toolkit that you use.

Unfortunately, newer versions may break the application instead of having it degrade gracefully – as in still usable but not looking so nice.

Support also unfortunately isn’t that great – the community isn’t that big and the company’s official support is extremely expensive and you may or may not get real mileage out of that.

That said, the newer versions do add significant features – some of them similar to what we had to build ourselves as we were using an earlier version.

As in all situations, whether this toolkit is for you depends on your context. But you should always go in with your eyes open.

Last year was an extremely hectic year for me… so what had happened?

My project at work finally went live this January! That’s the main reason there’s some room to catch a breath. Also, Chloe’s in Primary 1 now at Radin Mas Primary School and Kayden’s just started full day childcare. Erica has also changed jobs and is now currently employed by NUS’s Denistry Department.

What else happened? Seems like an old friend might drop out from our circle as he seems to no longer have time for us. Hopefully he will bounce back in sometime soon and we will still be around to welcome him back.

Reunited with another old friend who came back from an overseas assignment. And with that, I was also introduced to the wide world of designer boardgames.

Have also stopped playing online – both gameknot and conquerclub. And I’ve also given away my Magic the Gathering cards (except for 3 decks) to my cousin’s son, Benjamin. Will probably pass the other decks over sometime later.

Hopefully I will be able to find some time soon to do a more meaningful post.

So what have I been up to recently? I’ve been getting acquainted with TIBCO General Interface – an opensource toolkit for AJAX development. It has it quirks and issues but overall it’s quite an impressive and useful tool to consider if you are planning to do some AJAX applications. Once I can find more time, I’ll probably share more of my thoughts on it.

I’ve also been introduced to Conquer Club. It’s an online game that is somewhat similar to the boardgame RISK but with lots of different maps and variations. Each player is allowed 24 hours for a move in the normal games, speed games are available for paid members.

Until next time then. Bye!

However, the gooey mess available at this small coffeeshop stall in Bukit Purmei (Blk 109) is now one of my favourites. It’s closed on Mondays and only open until about 3pm.

Oh! And the queue could be pretty long as well… if there is no queue, then the stall is probably closed.

Recently, I had to review some architectural solution and had some discussions on databases. As a result, I found a great resource for Oracle databases: Ask Tom.

I had some queries about whether referential integrity should be enforced at the database level or the application level and found the answer there. And do you know how many Oracle database instances you should run in a machine if you have several applications?

The site contains a wealth of information about stuff related to Oracle databases. So if you have an Oracle database question, you may want to check out the answers and discussions there.

In my case, I did back up my data (more than 5 years worth of family photos). It was in my aging home PC and in my laptop, and I thought I burnt it into a CDROM too.

However, if you cannot find your backup, it is as good as not having done a backup. Similarly if you cannot access your backup which can happen.

In my case, I cannot locate the CDROM (now I am not even sure if I did burn it). And my laptop was returned to my previous employer when I changed jobs earlier this year so the photos were on my PC hard disk.

When my brother offered me his old PC (still newer than mine), I shut down my PC to do a re-installation and move my stuff over later when I find the time.

When I finally tried to start my PC 2 months later, it refused. My hard disks crashed and along with it went all my precious photos.

Refusing to panic, I moved the hard disks to my newer PC and tried to see if I can boot it up. It failed.

Next up, search the internet for hard disk data recovery services. I found quite a few and chose one. After a few days, the evaluation report came back – read/write head electrical damage and severe damage to the platter. All of which means it requires major surgery and major costs with no guarantee that all the data will be recovered. I am still agonizing over whether to proceed due to the costs involved.

And hoping that some contacts can provide a less costly alternative.

So, don’t wait to do your backups. In a way, backups are very similar to insurance policies, you don’t want to use it but you should at least have sufficient coverage.

BACK UP YOUR DATA TODAY!

If you can help me, please contact me NOW- you can do it while your data is being backed up.

Also share how you do your backup. I am setting up my backup solution soon.

Games on Gameknot typically take a while to complete as its focus is not on immediate/interactive games. Time controls defaults to 3 days a move. However, if both players are online at the same time, things can move much faster.

Gameknot has a nice interface and features, and usually is easy to join or start a game.

Paid membership subscription is available with extra features but non-paying members, like me, have lots of features available as well, I don’t even make use of all of them!

My user id there is zhiqian, challenge me to a game today!

Well, I am no financial guru and don’t intend to give out financial advice. But I played around with Microsoft Money a few years back and found it rather informative (after you fed it sufficient information, of course).

Tracking finances do take discipline but as the amount of information you capture increases, you will make interesting discoveries about your finances (and hopefully better manage it!).

There are a range of software available that can do the job: from the generic spreadsheet applications with custom macros and formulas (like Microsoft Excel etc) to specialized software (like Microsoft Money). But commercial software means forking out money every now and then to get upgrades.

A few days ago, I came across this software: GnuCash - an open source and free personal finance software package. As of 15th July 2007, GnuCash is now available on Microsoft Windows for the first time. And it still runs on GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OSX.

Here’s an extract from the help manual:

“It is versatile enough to keep track of all your financial information, from the simple to the very complex. It is one of the few financial software packages that supports global currencies, and it is the only open-source program of its kind. Best of all, GnuCash is easy to learn and use!

So, what can GnuCash do for you? It can keep track of your personal finances in as much detail as you prefer. If you are just starting out, use GnuCash to keep track of your checkbook. You may then decide to track cash as well as credit card purchases to better determine where your money is being spent. When you start investing, you can use GnuCash to help monitor your portfolio. Buying a vehicle or a home? GnuCash will help you plan the investment and track loan payments. If your financial records span the globe, GnuCash provides all the multiple-currency support you need”

So a perfect opportunity to start doing some financial tracking at no cost! I personally intend to start… sometime.

By the way, if you are comfortable with sending your financial information over the web and storing it online, there are also web sites (like Expensr and  Wesabe) that allow you to track your finances for free.

So how do you track your finances? And let me know how you find GnuCash if you try it.

You can download GnuCash here.