Steven Diomampo

As usual, I’ve got a list of resolutions for the new year, but I’ve also got some exciting and life changing events to come. Let’s see if I can stay on track this year and make big things happen…

Resolutions

Increase my online presence – blog posts, regular tweeting, contribute to open source projects.
Become more productive – Outsource my roadblocks, find efficiencies, etc.
Get back in the gym – No brainer.

Exciting News

Being a Dad – Yep you heard that right, I’m gonna be a Dad!!! This is by far the coolest gift I’ll ever get. I’m expecting to see my little girl on April 29th, 2011.
Owning a Home – We started our hunt for a new home about a month ago, so we’ll see what happens.

I intend on repurposing this title “At This Moment I Am…” as a series of mile markers about myself. I’ll be breaking it down into two different sections: Working On, and Moving Towards. Both categories are pretty self explanatory, Working On will list what I am doing now in order to get to what I am Moving Towards.

Working On

• An Android application
• A modular Flex application
• Optimizing as3 code
• Meeting new people

Moving Towards

Mobility

The future is mobile, and at least two of the items I am Working On will get me there. In the world of Mobile Phones, for me it’s all about Android, and if you haven’t heard of Android, something is wrong. Check out this market share prediction. At any rate, the signs are there, and Google as well as the community is really pushing the Android Platform.

How about developing for Android? As a Flex Developer, I’d like to think the learning curve for Android development is slightly reduced. When you start your first project in eclipse, you’ll notice that the xml layout files(located in res/layout/) give two tab options, Layout and someFile.xml. You’ll find these in the bottom left corner in the image below.

Think of the Layout tab as the Design tab in Flex Builder. In this case it is giving you the visual representation of the xml file (registration.xml) versus MXML in Flex, which would be like seeing the Source tab.

On the surface I was able to pick up on some of the similarities, but I was fortunate enough to have some good discussions with Faisal Abid about everything under the hood. He has a strong Flex background and has been working on some heavy Android apps. At some point I will put together a good post on bridging the gaps of Flex and Android.

Another item I’m working on that falls under Mobility for me is, meeting new people. For me to be more mobile in 2010 it will require breaking out of the shell and meeting more people in more places. It’s amazing how much seven days on a cruise ship with complete strangers can really change your perspective on things. See my Stop Encapsulating Yourself!!! post for more on this. At any rate, traveling is a top priority for me this coming year, so meeting people around the world is a big deal. I’ve compiled a list of where I will be traveling in 2010:

• San Jose, CA (early March) – It’s conference time! This time I get to meet back up with the gang and a couple hundred other members for 360|Flex.
• Breckenridge, CO (mid-late March) – Snowboarding and friends!!!
• _____, LA –  Wedding, Congrats @ogreen32!
• Las Vegas, NV (summer time) – WSOP! I’m looking to get into one of the smaller events like the $1k, we’ll see.
• _____, VT (October) – Yet another wedding, Congrats Gonzo!
• Japan (65% chance) – Meet new people, be in a different country.
• NY and Canada (80% chance) – Visit friends

Be sure to stop by http://www.nowandthere.com/ for some great travel/lifestyle resources (thanks Sam).

It’s been over a year since I last posted about my obsession with learning new technologies and now I’m back!

Shortly after that post I was offered a position as a Flash Developer for RMG Connect/JWT. Having been more of a “jack of all trades” developer at multiple companies, I accepted the opportunity to become a master of something. I can truly say that this decision will likely become the backbone of my career as a developer. So, this post is about my personal and professional progression (alliteration aside). I’ll try to stay away from the infomercial talk as much as possible, but if I throw it in there it’s strictly for motivational purposes.

As I was saying, before being hired I was a “one-off” project gladiator. A little HTML here, a touch of PHP there, a sprinkle of Javascript, a dash of Actionscript, and so on… I would spend most of my time trying to consume knowledge from so many sources that i ended up just running in circles, re-learning only basic information on various languages. For some people this can be exciting, and for awhile it was, but eventually it got frustrating because I never seemed to get a sense of true accomplishment from my work. I’ve always been one to keep moving forward, onto bigger and better things, so to be stuck in this circle wasn’t fun for me.

Nearing the end of that phase I was poking around at some as3, trying to get a good feel for all things Object Oriented. I bought a bunch of books on OOP and was beginning to take on my own interpretation of it. [ENTER Brian Lewis] So I get a phone interview with the Senior Multimedia Developer at RMG Connect [Brian Lewis] and by dumb luck he wants me to join the team as a Flash Developer. Granted I’ve been around Flash since my high school years (save your jokes please,  Half Asian == Looks 15 == Human Calculator), I was still only dabbling with things and managed to make this knucklehead [Brian Lewis] think I was The Golden Child. As it turned out, this Oaf [Brian Lewis], would become my Mentor and a “somewhat decent” friend. In all seriousness (here comes the Bromance), I’ve been lucky to work side by side with him [Brian Lewis], and can attribute most of my development knowledge to him. So if you are lucky enough to find a Mentor, be sure to take them Bow Hunting a lot (inside joke).

Anyway,  within one years time I’ve had the opportunity to work on Large-Scale websites/applications and use a multitude of tools, frameworks, etc. To drop some names, here’s a small list:

– FlashDevelop
– FlexBuilder (soon to be FlashBuilder)
– LowRA
– PureMVC (I love me some Pure!!!)
– Flash Remoting
– Services consuming JSON and XML data

For those just starting their careers, I urge you to keep moving forward, stick to it and success will follow. There is plenty to learn, but it can be done. My experience has grown tremendously and it’s only fair that I continue this process by sharing my knowledge with anyone willing to listen. So, I am planning to make a conscious effort by updating this blog with my experiences, tutorials, and advice as I continue down the road ahead.

My wife might say that this post is long overdue…

At any rate, if you haven’t realized it by now, I am going to rant a bit about how obsessed I have become over the last year with learning various technologies. Someone out there might say, “I’m more obsessed than that…”, and it may be true, but don’t spoil this post, because I rarely have anything to write on here as it is (because I’m learning ALL THE TIME!!!…[snicker]).

So I’ve got a ton of books (Visual Web Programming in VB.NET, JavaScript in 24 Hours, XML, Prototype and script.aculo.us, Visual Basic 2005, PHP/MySQL, Flash Programming, yada yada yada…the list really does go on), I just completed another semester of 2 courses (one on VB.NET and the other was advanced Web Programming), and my IPOD is stacked with audio on similar subjects. Additionally there is an overwhelming amount of knowledge (some not worth a dime) on the Web that I enjoy referencing.

Hopefully it’s clear that I have surrendered myself to the “Power of Learning”. In doing so I have recently found that I need even more ways of gaining/storing all of this knowledge to feed my addiction…

Recently at work I was helping a colleague learn a bit of Flash and some ActionScript 3.0. I’m not an ActionScript “guru”, that said, I also won’t claim to be a “guru” of any other sort. Back to the point…I was teaching him all these things, but in the process teaching and reinforcing my own knowledge of the subjects. It was amazing and gave me sort of a “Rainman” type moment.

After that, I explained to my colleague that in helping him grasp these concepts, I also helped myself…
He agreed and said that it was one of the best ways he knew how to learn(he had previously studied for tests in this way).

The point is, I AM MISSING OUT on a key ingredient to successful learning…

SCHOOL works to some degree as I have recently built a small network of friends who I contact through email, but let’s be real, we’ve all got full time jobs to juggle as well.

BOOKS and lesson tutorials can only carry you so far. Especially with programming/tech books…

The WEB…Admittedly it is probably the number 1 source of information for Tech Professionals while on the job…”No, I don’t have stats to prove it, let’s just call it a wild guess”.

By leveraging all three of these tools a person is truly able to gain essential knowledge. That’s where I currently stand…but there’s always room for improvement!!!

To break out and get great at something you need to actively engage in shared thought of the subject on a regular basis. At least that’s what I think would work best for me right now…Unfortunately at my current position I am the only one looking at things in a developer-oriented direction. This alone makes it hard for me to constantly give and take the type of information I need to accelerate my learning in this fashion. That might be my greatest (maybe my only?) concern at my current workplace. I haven’t been there too long, but do not want to become stagnant within my field. Which brings me back to the first line of this entire post…

“My wife might say that this post is long overdue…”

She knows better than anyone, that most of my time outside of work is spent keeping up with the technology curve. With all that off my chest, it’s time to go…