MJF Blog

No More Comments

2007-02-06T06:13:00.000+11:00

I've had to remove the ability for people to add comments. I was getting a dozen or more hits everyday with links to less than desirable locations.

Half way there

2006-01-21T11:19:00.000+11:00

I've reached the half way point in my Hapkido training. In December of 2005 I attained my Blue belt status and am now working hard at Red-Tip. Wow, have I got some work in front of me.

My next grading involves several kicking combinations, most of which are fine. There's only one kick I've got real trouble with - the jumping spinning heel kick. From a standing poisition, while facing an opponent, I must jump in the air, turn 360 degrees, target the opponent and kick out with my heel at the last minute - this involves lowering your torso to get the leg up. Trust me, it's not easy.

I've resorted to targeting a socker ball hanging from the clothes line on weekends for extra practice !

Rex is bigger

2005-06-23T06:55:00.000+10:00

Rex is now about 7-8 months old and doing well. My last visit to the vet (regular checkup for parasites acquired from live food) revealed Rex might actually be a girl. Everyone finds it difficult to say 'she' instead of 'he' so I'm happy for everyone to refer to Rex ever how they feel comfortable. I have to admit, I also find it weird to call Rex a 'she'.

Rex is approx. 13 inches long now (32-33 cm) from head to tail and last weighed in at around 120g. (S)he has slowed down somewhat due to the cooler weather but still loves her crickets and vegetables when I provide them.

I currently have our 4 foot fish tank on eBay to make room for Rex's new upcoming home - a 4 foot reptile tank. The current 18" tank is becoming too small.

It was the fish or the lizard ! No prizes for guessing who won.

Hapkido progress

2005-06-23T06:48:00.000+10:00

I started Hapkido in March and I'm happy to report I love it. Last night's training was the first session I've missed due to illness. It was hard to make the decision to skip training but I think my body needs the rest to recover.

I'm currently on blue-tip level (white to yellow to blue-tip) so I progressed a belt per month. I am having some trouble with my current belt. I have 4 kicks to perform, two are easy (reverse back kick and butterfly kick) but the other two are driving me nuts (spinning heel and sweeping round house). These two are difficult because my feet seem to plant themselves into the ground/mats and so I cannot spin. I purchased some 'martial arts' training shoes at AUD$135 (discounted from $159) but all I seem to do is erode the mad surface. Quite annoying, but I won't give up.

Another aspect causing me problems is flexibility in my legs. My groin is either strained or weak and my hamstrings are too tight. I just cannot stretch them enough. I'm doing some stretches and will soon be working on some resistive based excercises to see if it helps.

Wish me luck.

The need to swim again

2005-06-23T06:44:00.000+10:00

It's been about 6 months since I finished my swimming lessons. At the time I stopped I could swim 50m before my breathing was out of whack. My breathing is the only thing that lets me down. I think this is a condition I've had all my life. Even during normal day-to-day activities I find myself having to take regular deep breaths to, what feels like, equalize my lungs. I wonder if I stop breathing when concentrating !! An interesting thought. Might follow up on it one day !

I have an urge to get back into swimming though, just for the fitness. It's finding the time that is difficult. I'll work on it.

Korean Martial Arts

2005-03-10T05:16:00.000+11:00

Approximately 2-3 weeks ago I started Hapkido, a Korean Martial Art. My two boys have been doing it for about 2 years now.

I love it. Great workout, heaps to learn and plain good fun.

I've done a little taekwondo (about 18 years ago) so I have fortunately picked up the beginner stuff quite quickly.

I'm hoping to grade for my yellow built in about 3 weeks time. At two nights per week, let's hope it's enough to learn everything....

Rex has arrived

2004-12-18T21:21:00.000+11:00

I just realised there's a hot new topic I haven't been blogging about. Rex, my new lizard.

Yep, ever since I was a young child I always wanted a pet lizard. Over the years I've made the rest of the family happy by providing their ideal pet; I figured it was finally my turn.

I applied for a "Reptile Keepers" license ($120 for 5 years) and then attended a short course on looking after lizards. Even with all my Pathology training I wasn't game to assume I knew everything I needed to know. After all, animals are not humans.

Rex is a "Centralian Bearded Dragon", AKA "Pogona Vitticeps" and is about 9-10 weeks old. The sex is currently unknown. From here on-in I refer to Rex as "him/his" rather than "her".

So why the name "Rex" ? In brief, my two boys love Dinosaurs; especially the T-Rex. Say no more.

I've taken some photos on my medium format camera. As soon as I have them scanned I'll post them.

Being the scientist I am (was) I've started to record his length and width: 175mm long and 28mm wide. I'll post updates on this as well.

Today I gave Rex his first feeding of approx. 30 small crickets. What a feast ! All gone within a matter of minutes. Even though it was the middle of the day it looked like he needed a sleep after it.

He's certainly fun to watch and hold. In future posts I'll write about some of the more interesting facts I learned about Rex on my course.

Swimming Update

2004-12-18T21:18:00.000+11:00

Well, I've completed my swimming 'training'. I've pretty muched reached a peak over the last 4 weeks or so. No major progress has been made (but then I have not had much time to put in the extra effort required). My work has pretty much stopped me from going to the gym or swimming. I'm swimming much better now and at least have enough 'training' information to work on it at my own pace. Better still, I'm going to make more time to get back to the gym and the swimming. That's the plan anyway.

More like a fish

2004-11-01T20:59:00.000+11:00

It's been quite some time since my last post. Not because I've given up....I've just been extremely busy.

I've moved to the 'advanced' adult swimming classes now (even though there is no class available). I'm currently sharing my time with the beginner class. I have a good instructor so I'm not complaining too much.

I can now swim 50m before losing my rhythm (and breath). The funny thing is I discovered a few weeks ago I can swim 25m under water in one breathe (from a standing position in the water).

I should have been born a fish !

Gone twice the distance

2004-08-28T22:00:00.000+10:00

Last Tuesday evening I went for a swim and it was much the same as usual with some additional experimentation. You see, I have a bad back and neck which makes it difficult for me to follow the recommended techniques. For the past month I've been working on different styles to find something that suits me better.

After my hour or so in the pool and went to relax in the spa. While sitting there I went over a mental assessment of what I had done during the past hour to determine if there was anything that I was happy to keep trialing. After 10-15 minutes I got an urge to go back to the pool. This never happens so I figured it must have been a message to go back. On that note, I got out of the spa and went back to the pool. Would you believe it......50m without stopping. I was so proud of myself - I had just gone twice the distance.

Thinking it might have been a "one off", I went back to the pool today for my Saturday lesson and started off with the intention of swimming 50m before doing anything else. I did it. It's not a fluke.

I still have a long way to go but these small steps are encouraging.

Twice as good yet the same

2004-08-17T21:30:00.000+10:00

Well, I've been for another swim tonight and am happy to report I can now swim 300m in about 25 minutes. This is somewhat better than the 250m in 45 minutes when I first started this self-venture. The sad news is I don't feel like I'm doing it any better. I'll just have to keep picking away at it.

Back to basics

2004-08-08T18:27:00.000+10:00

My swimming instructor was off sick this week so I took the opportunity to put on my teachers hat and try a few things on my own. I've come to realize my main problems are related to breathing and kicking. I figured I would concentrate on one thing at a time using the approach of 'small steps'. When I use to tutor mathematics it was obvious that you needed to know how to add numbers before you could multiply them. So for me, it was obvious I needed to perfect one small aspect of swimming first. After 30 minutes of self analaysis (which isn't easy when your head is in the water) I worked out my problem with breathing could be one or more of the following:

Not taking a deep enough breath

Not exhaling all air

Being too concerned with inhaling water

I decided to practice breathing at the edge of the pool. When I was kicking at the same time I found my breathing became as irregular as it does when actually swimming. Taking a step back I tried breathing while doing nothing else. Amazing improvement. After several minutes I decided to start kicking again - this resulted in a mass of choking after I swallowed a huge amount of water. I've discovered part of my problem.

I'll be making another trip to the pool during the week in an attempt to concentrate on my new finding. With some luck I'll have managed a small improvement before my next session.

At this point in time I am feeling as if I have a better length in my stroke and am more relaxed (there is less of a mental effort to get to the other end of the pool).

So far things are going well.

I changed instructors

2004-07-31T14:14:00.000+10:00

After my past two weeks of swimming instruction I decided I would change instructors. The first instructor was not active enough in telling me what I needed to concentrate on. I had a session today with my new instructor (who happens to also teach my boys).

What a difference !

I'll definitely have to report on my progress. I already have several things to watch out for, techniques to concentrate on and hip exercises to do.

A swimming progress report...

2004-07-27T21:26:00.000+10:00

Tonight I attended my second swimming lesson. I can feel improvements already. After my initial assessment I was told a few basic things I should concentrate on so I went back to the pool over the weekend and got some more practice in. After an hour in the pool I felt my breathing was better (though far from perfect) and my stroke was better. It took me around an hour to swim 250m (in 25m blocks, 5 minute rest between each 25m) but that's better than what I normally do (normally given up after 75m).

During tonight's lesson everything definitely seems to be better than last week. I have a real problem with kicking and breathing. The breathing is partly due to a neck injury but the kicking is just a pure lack of stamina. More practice, practice, practice.

My instructor looked at me strangely tonight when I asked for one thing to concentrate on during the week. When I teach (mathematics or programming) I always find it helpful to give the student a small task to practice with. It reinforces everything. With the strange look in her eye and nothing coming out of her mouth, I said "It's good teaching practice, come on, give me a task!". Eventually I was given something to practice. Am I being too difficult ? I don't believe so. It's my money and I want results !

Let's see how things go over the next few weeks. If I'm not getting the attention I'm paying for then I might change classes.

A new article

2004-07-23T05:26:00.000+10:00

In an earlier post I mentioned I was writing for the "C++Builder Developers Journal" (www.bcbjournal.org). The June 2004 issue is being offered free and can be downloaded from:

http://www.bcbjournal.org/bcbj_vol8_num6.pdf.

The current issue (July 2004) has just been released and includes my discussion of thread synchronization using policy classes to control compile time decisions of how the synchronization will be performed.

How hard can it be ?

2004-07-21T21:47:00.000+10:00

I've just finished spending the past two weeks reviewing / interviewing candidates for a new programmer position that become available at my place of full-time employment (yep, the workload finally got on top of me).

Out of 40+ resumes received I interviewed only 4 people. The requirements for the position were quite detailed and explicit. What I found most interesting were the applicants who either didn't live in Sydney or had absolutely no experience in the required areas. I can't comment on the 4 people I did interview (since they may be reading).

How hard can it be ?....you place an advert and then spend the majority of your time sifting through applications who are nowhere near suitable. The biggest time waster is responding to everyone out of professional courtesy.

Learning to swim

2004-07-21T06:36:00.000+10:00

How many adults do you think there are that cannot swim ? I haven't yet found Australia statistics but in America it is realised that 64% of adults are afraid in deep water in the ocean and in lakes, 46% are afraid in deep water in pools and 39% are afraid putting their heads underwater. (Gallup Poll, 1998.) I'll try and find more recent stats.

As a child I had a near drowning experience (during lessons mind you) and as such was never taught how to swim. In my early years at high school I decided to teach myself. Within a year or so I recall the excitement when I jumped in the deep end of the pool and had finally eliminated all fear.

That was over 20 years ago. I can happily say I am no longer afraid of the water and have actually saved 3 people from drowning. Not a bad effort for a self-instructed student.

Recently, while watching my 2 boys learn to swim, I decided I might join up with the adult swimming classes and get taught properly (after 75m of freestyle I'm out of puff). Last night was my first class and I can happily report I don't have that much to concentrate on. The findings were:

I cannot float on my back - I already knew that

My breathing needs perfecting - the fear of swallowing water as a child has led to some bad habits I need to break

My kicking needs some perfecting

and more (I'm sure) as the lessons proceed....

It's great to know everything else (for freestyle) is pretty good and all I need to concentrate on is perfecting the small issues and then bring it all together so I am more efficient in the water.

I'll report as time moves forward.

New blog feed

2004-07-15T12:45:00.000+10:00

If you have subscribed to my feed then please update the feed URL you are using as I am now hosting the files on my own domain.

The new web URL is
http://www.mjfreelancing.com/blog

The feed URL is
http://feeds.feedburner.com/mjfblog

Make the time...

2004-07-15T09:57:00.000+10:00

Who says they don't have the time to do things because their workload is too heavy. I most certainly do.

In November 2003 I decided it was time to lose some weight. Even though I was not grossly overweight I was above the recommended limits for my age and height. I weighed 88 Kilos and my ideal weight is 70 - 80 Kilos. I joined up to the local gym and had a program organised with the primary aim to get my weight down to 75 Kilos and a secondary aim to tone up.

What did I change and how did I fare ?

I chose a gym that was local (1km down the road), very friendly and full of good advice. Being open 24 hours (except over the weekend) was also a bonus - no excuses about not being able to attend. Mind you, getting there with low energy levels was difficult. So the things I changed:

Reduced sugar in coffee from 2 teaspoons to 1 - I drink far too much coffee

Changed from regular coffee to decaf (nothing to do with diet but better for health)

Reduced take-away food. It was amazing how quickly I fealt guilty eating the stuff. It turned out that when I would get take-away for the family I would get something completely different

Changed from full cream milk to fat reduced milk

Visited the gym for 1 - 1.5 hours between 3 and 5 days per week. Alternated between cardio work and a simple weights program on each visit

Generally watched what I ate in terms of fat / carbohydrates / sugar

And the result

By the time June arrived I had reached 76 Kilos and could not get it any lower - the body was comfortable at this level. Fine by me.

And just in the nick of time too. The workload has increased and I don't get as much time to go. I actually missed 3 weeks due to illness and lack of time. But, I'm back into it about 3 days per week and only doing weights - I get plenty of exercise walking each day getting to and from work.

I walked into a kebab shop near where I work (after a 6 month break from it) and the guy that owns the shop noticed I had lost weight and asked "What's happened to you". My reply was simple, "I've stopped eating kebabs"

What a workload !

2004-07-13T21:02:00.000+10:00

It's been quite some time since my last posting....the workload just keeps getting heavier. I shouldn't complain I suppose. This time of year is always hard as I have to prepare ledger documents for my accountant for both my business and my wifes (a hairdresser) as well as keep up with bespoke projects that land in my inbox from regular customers. On top of that I've got my fulltime job which is getting busier and busier (currently doing interviews for another developer) which has resulted in my days starting earlier (until the workload can be addressed by the new employee).

I'm also now a regular contributing editor for "C++Builder Developer's Journal" which is taking up what spare time I do have. I'm not complaining about this job since it helps me to think more about the way I code things and design solutions to set problems - after all, if I write crap then the public are going to shoot me down quite quickly. It also provides for some extra pocket money for something I enjoy doing so much.

I've decided this weekend to take a small break from coding (this doesn't happen very often). Saturday will be spent with my family at the movies (Spiderman here we come) and Sunday has been designated as the day to catch up with some old friends from my previous job.

Did I mention I was busy.......I better get back to it.

In The Trenches

2004-06-03T07:17:00.000+10:00

Whether you are just starting out with BCB or you've been using it for a long time and you want to read more interesting articles about users experience with C++Builder.....then C++Builder Developers Journal http://www.cppbuilderdevjournal.com is for you - there is a new section called 'In The Trenches'.

My first article in this journal appears in the May issue and discusses the use of the 'Singleton Pattern' in your BCB projects. I have many more topics on the cards and will submit them for approval as time permits.

If you subscribe to this journal and you have any specific topics of interest then let me know....I'll add them to my own list.

[ I am in no way financially associated with this journal ]

The future... C++Builder... MJFSecurity...

2004-05-29T09:02:00.000+10:00

If you're looking at this page then you are more than likely a user of Borland C++Builder and my security suite known as MJFSecurity.

I've been a bit slack on the continued development of MJFSecurity due to the unknown future of C++Builder (BCB). Many customers have already moved away from BCB and there has been a definite impact on my own sales (although it is not dead yet). Lately there has been rumours of a possible future but we'll just have to wait and see.

As for MJFSecurity, whether you are a current user of MJFSecurity or someone who is reviewing it for their needs in application development, I'm interested in hearing back from people like you. Tell me what you think of MJFSecurity, the features it has and what you think it is missing.

I personally have ideas for upcoming versions of MJFSecurity based on options I have required in bespoke projects I have worked on. Often, due to time restraints, I have made custom modifications for customers and now I think it is time to build some of these ideas into the base product.

Such features include:

* Ability to deactivate some/all of the tamper detection methods once an application has been registered. The types of tamper detection that can be disabled will be dependant on the type of licensing you use. Subscription licensing, for example, should not deactivate the detection of winding the clock back. Although careful thinking will be required when using this facility it has become obvious on some projects there is a definite need for this feature.

* The ability to detect and download patches. MJFSecurity currently has the tools required to apply patches dynamically (even while the application is running) but there is no automatic feature to download the required patches.

* A better custom splash screen implementation. I'd like to develop a custom interface that the built-in splash screen and your own custom screens could use. By using a common interface MJFSecurity would be more consistant in the implementation.

There's heaps more but blog's should be short and this one is already too long.

If you have any opinions or comments you want to share I'd like to hear back from you.