My New Year's resolutions (For 2009)...

We're almost at the end of 2008...It has been a great year for me.

* My daughter Kiara born on April.
* I attended SAP TechEd Las Vegas on September.
* Published the following books:
- El Arte de Programar SAP NetWeaver
- El pequeño libro del Performance
- El Arte de Programar Flex
- The Art of Programming Flex.
* Move to a new company called BizPartner.

So, for this new year...I got some resolutions...

* Start all the needed paperwork for applied to a Canadia Resident Visa.
* Learn Rails...Yeah...I said this every year -:(
* Publish the following book:
- The Art of Programming Ruby
- The Art of Programming for Kids
- The Art of Programming SAP NetWeaver
- The Art of Programming Java
* Learn Python...Same thing as Rails -:(
* Finish my ABAPIF Engine
* Attend TechEd Phoenix 2009
* Give my daughter the best 1 years old party ever!
* Loss weight...I need to loose at least 8 more kilos...
* Get the Latin American people more involved on SCN

As you can see...It's going to be a busy year for me -:) Specially because I always got new projects coming to my head every single day LOL

Greetings,

Blag.

Blag's T-Shirts

I just released a new store for selling Geek T-Shirts and related stuff.
You can found it on Blag's T-Shirts.
Here's a small sample -;)





Greetings,

Blag.

Do you follow me on Twitter? Coz I'm not following you...

I have using Twitter for a long time...And I can't deny that I totally love the service (Even with the whales)...

But there's something that I still don't get...Why people try so hard to be the Promo Queens? Sometimes I see profiles following thousands of people and being followed by another thousand of people...I really don't see a point on this...

Guy Kawasaki posted on his blog a nice essay called How to Use Twitter as a Twool, while I like it, I don't follow his idea of using Twitter as a marketing tool. Why? Simple answer...I use Twitter to keep in touch with my friends or to know people who share my interests...Why on earth would I follow someone who doesn't nothing related to my own interests?


You can see that 368 individuals follow me, but I only follow 235...There are 133 individual that I don't follow...

I simply don't want my Twitter flooding with Tweets that I don't want to read or are in any way interesting to me...

Pretty sure, I'm going to loose some followers after this post...I don't care...I just my Twitter to be plain and simple -;)

Greetings,

Blag.

Flex alternative IDEs...

Because of my last post Looking for the perfect Ruby IDE, Frank Koehntopp The Gadget guy ask me about Flex IDEs...

It amazing that even when Flex Builder it's a great tool, there are only a couple of open source projects handling Flex development.

First try was FLEXible an IDE made with Flex...What can I say? It's still Alpha and I could do anything with it...Just get error messages...


Second try was FlexBean a NetBeans plug-in...Very nice...But it lacks of code completion...Anyway...It's a nice option.


Last try was Flash Develop, which need some external configuration but has code completion...I have read it's widely used...So far, the best alternative IDE...



I can't say that I would want to see other Flex IDEs...Because Flex Builder is just great...But I hope that the Open Source Community can came out with some better alternative Flex IDEs...

Greetings,

Blag.

Looking for the perfect Ruby IDE

I consider myself a Ruby fan...That's why I'm always looking for news and of course...IDE's.

My first approach was FreeRide, a Ruby based IDE. What I love about this IDE it it's simplicity...While some people are getting used to fancy RAD tools, I like to keep things as simple as possible...FreeRide offers this.


Second try was Ruby in Steel, which is free in it's personal edition. I have never been a huge fan of Visual Studio even when I got some C# skills...Despise that, I decide to give this IDE a try...Installation was quick and smooth...However, as I already had Ruby installed on my laptop, I decided to skip it from the installation for later configuration...Sad surprise when I pointed to my Ruby installation folder...Ruby in Steel didn't accept it...According to the message, I needed Ruby to be installed on Program Files folder, while I have it under Programacion folder. Bad thing, as I got no plans on uninstalling my current configuration...


My last attempt was NetBeans 6.5 which is currently bundling Ruby/Rails, Groovy/Grails, C/C++, Java/JavaME/JavaFX and PHP (I wonder why left out Python and Perl)...This was a real pleasant surprise...NetBeans had done an excellent job...I really love the IDE and sure love the Ruby support which is run under JRuby...I could installed all my beloved gems and start working...Highly recommended -:)


Now...I know what you're thinking..."Hey Blag...Haven't you tried Eclipse?" Sure I did, but doesn't think it was necessary to put it here...I use Eclipse for my Flex development and wanted to keep it that way...

Also...There are a plethora of IDE's out there...But those three we're the most important to me...Which are yours?

Greetings,

Blag.

The Art of Programming Flex

Today I have released my first book in English...The Art of Programming Flex.



A journey through MXML, ActionScript, WebServices, Database access, and many more. Available in Printed Book and PDF.

Greetings,

Blag.

Give your Gmail a new look...

The Gmail Team had just released Themes to the GMail interface.
If you're lucky, you can find them on the tab Themes under Settings.


Why did I say If you're lucky? Well...It seems that GMail is slowly implementing this...So not everyone is going to have them at the same time.
So...Let's see how Themes looks like...


Pretty cool, huh? But I'm sure you wanted to see them on an actual GMail account...Let's look at mine...


You may notice that the sign "This is my mail...It's Private! -:)" was written by me...GMail doesn't offer that kind of silly signs -:)

Themes might look a little weird...and sure, they would feel a little weird...But I like them...I think it's a nice improvement to the good old GMail interface...If you can, give them a try -;)

Greetings,

Blag.

Tweeting like the pros...With Twitwall

If you're a Twitter addict, like me -;) You should be aware of Tinypaste and TwitPic, two wonderful Twitter companions...But are you aware of Twitwall?

This free service created by Michael E. Carluen provides the same functionality as Tinypaste and TwitPic with some more cool features...Let's see some pictures...



You first notice that the interface is very similar to Twitter, but you can change font size and color -:)


You got a very nice RichText editor with the change to include pictures on the same post...


The pictures gets embed in your post...And yes...I attached the same picture as above -:) Have you noticed that you can actually add a title and description to your post?


On Twitter you see the title, and a link send you to Twitwall to see both the picture and the description on your post.

After seeing this...Why you haven't create you account yet? You even got Twitter Grader inside you account -:D

Greetings,

Blag.

Requiem for a cat...

Last Saturday...My cat Cheko passed away...What can I say about him? Cheko was more than a cat to me...He was a friend, a confident, a brother...He lived some great and productive 11 years of sleeping, eating and chasing bugs...Now, he must be in heaven listening to his all time favorite Punk Rock Band The Misfits.

Cheko and I spend some great moments...He was there when I start programming, he was there when I was getting ready to went to the church and get married, he was there when I take my daughter to my mom's house...He was always there...


Cheko, you were and you're always going to be...The best cat ever...Man! You'll always be missed -:')


Greetings,

Blag.

Quake Live...It's alive!

A couple of weeks ago...Well...Actually last week LOL I sign up for the Quake Live Beta program...Gladly...Got accepted -;) So I create my account...Download the browser client (Works great on Firefox, haven't test it in other browsers...yet).

So...Have you ever played Quake, Doom or Wolfenstein 3D? I had surely do...I'm a big fan of ID Software games...

Let's look at some pictures...First, you can choose from various characters...


You can access a "Learn first" arena...


A bot called Crash is ready to give the first lessons...


You can even fight Crash in a small DeathMatch practice game...


The graphics are very cool, the movement is very smooth and you got a nice range of weapons...


As in most On-Line games, some additional data is downloaded when you load a new Arena, but this download is very quick -;)


In other words...Quake Live rules!!!

Greetings,

Blag.

Introducing...Blag Software

Yeah...I know...I'm kinda crazy...Blag Software? Sure -:) My new space to share freeware software...

Blag software is my attempt to create useless software (Applications and games) using ABAP, Java, Ruby, Flex, AIR, C#, Euphoria or whatever language I wanted to use.

The page is still under construction...No downloads are available yet...But you can check it out at your own risk -:)

Blag Software

Greetings,

Blag.

SCN Badges...

I remember the first time I sign to SDN...They give away a lot of cool prizes...You just needed to make some amount of points in a month to get a prize right at the door of your house...That was really nice, but people started to cheat in order to get more prizes...At that time I started to think...

Why is SAP spending so much money on this?

Surely, it was to get more people involved...Gladly the stop doing it...But only after I get some really nice gifts LOL

Then, they started to give aways T-Shirts...250, 500, 1K, 2K, 5K and a fleece jacket for 10K...That was awesome...I got the 1K, 2K, 5K T-Shirts...And they stop sending them before I reached 10K -:( At that time I started to think...

Man! SAP doesn't want to give me my fleece jacket -:(

But believe me...They had a pretty good cause...Food for Points...If that's not good enough...Then nothing is -:)

But...You know SAP, they always love to give away things...So know you can got a very nice Dog Tag if you have get at least 250 points...Sure, I got an extra Dog Tag for being a Moderator -;)



This year at Community Day Las Vegas 2008...We didn't get T-Shirts either...But a really nice SAP and Adobe harmonica -:D

I asked Mark Finnern about the Community Day T-Shirt and he told me...
Sorry Blag, no T-Shirts this year...That's we give the harmonicas.

After that I think...

Sure man...Harmonicas are pretty cool...What how I'm supposed to wear it???

Of course...I didn't tell him anything LOL (He's my boss...The problem is that he hasn't realized that)...I really love the harmonica and my wife as well...Good choice again -:D

Greetings,

Blag.

SAP Mentor 2009

This year...I got elected as an SAP Mentor...It's my second year and I can't be more proud about it -:)

I got my new Mentor plaque...Which looks better than last year -;)


Also, I got extra features at SAP TechEd 2008 in Las Vegas...Which included some Press Conferences, Meetings with SAP Executives, Special seats at DemoJam, Keynote and Concert, Photo shoot session, Mentor Meetings and all the good things that only SAP can provide -:)

I really don't have a clue on how the SAP Mentor Program is going to evolve in the next couple of years...But if you want to be next SAP Mentor...Here are some special tips -;)

* Participate in the Communities (SDN, BPX).
* Write blogs.
* Improve the WIKI.
* Help in the forums.
* Do things with value to the Community.
* Try to be a good Communicator.

Sure thing...Community Members, SAP Members and SAP Mentors got to raise their votes...But by following those simple tips...You're chances are going to become high...

Just in case you wondering...NO! I'M NOT GOING TO HELP ANYONE TO BECOME AN SAP MENTOR...SO PLEASE DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME MAILING ME...IF I SEE THAT YOU'RE A GOOD CONTRIBUTOR AND GOT THE NECESSARY SKILLS, THEN I'M GOING TO CONTACT YOU...BUT AGAIN...I DON'T CHOOSE SAP MENTORS...

Now I'm feeling better -:)

Greetings,

Blag.

Learning Flex 3

Yep...I'm learning Flex 3...I already know Flex 2...But Flex 3 got a lot of cool features that are worth to be learned -:)

Andre Salazar from Adobe kindly give this little pocket book Getting Started with Flex 3: An Adobe Developer Library Pocket Guide


Even when the book is pretty small book, both in size and number of pages...Is a must for Flex 3 newcomers and pretty interesting for Flex 2 users looking for some Flex 3 action...

If you can...Buy this book...If you can't...Well...You better find a way to get it -;)

Greetings,

Blag.

When friendship goes beyond...

Many of you knows that I'm an SCN addict...So of course, when my friends published books...I bought them -;)

That's very cool I know...But it's even cooler, when you can meet them in real life, so they can sign the copies of the books you bought...That happen to me this month, when I attended SAP TechEd 2008 in Las Vegas.

I bought Ein Ami comes to Lippstadt from Craig Cmehil and Next Generation ABAP Development from Rich Heilman and Thomas Jung.






Thanks guys...You made my life happier -:D

Greetings,

Blag.

What's in a Mockup?

A couple of days ago, mi friend Anne Kathrine Petteroe also known as Yojibee post a blog about Balsamiq Mockups titled Great tool for creating UI mockups...Of course, I take the time to download and start to play with the tool...

Mockups is an awesome Flex based tool for creation of...well...Mockups, which are UI screens...So what the deal with this tool?

As Yojibee said in her blog...

I am a person, who still likes to hand-draw my mockups on paper first, so the fact that the controllers in this app all have a hand-drawn look to them, give these mockups the same feeling to them as if they were drawn on paper.

By looking at the interface, you can quickly realize that your working on a sheet of paper, and all the components seems to be drawing by hand...Which makes you feel like you're drawing by hand...Feels weird at the beginning, but sure it's fun -:)


For example...I'm working on an Open Source project called ABAPIF which stands for ABAP Interactive Fiction...And ABAP engine and client for Interactive Fiction games...Thanks to Mockups you can see how the client interface is going to be...That would be a lot of pain if I had to do it using classic image tools like Photoshop or The Gimp...

What about a web based form?


Easy right?

Mockups is not only an fun and innovative tool...I think it's a must for any web or software related project.

You can download the free trial at Balsamiq Mockups.

Greetings,

Blag.

Is the second TechEd better than the first one???

Ok...This is more a joke than a rant...So please don't take it seriously -:)

Last year...It was my first TechEd...I meet a lot of cool people...I was just walking around...People looked at me an told me "Hey! You're Blag...Nice to meet you man!"...And that was really great...But...

This year...It's my second TechEd...And when I walked around...People look at me and say..."Oh Man! There's Blag again...Let's hide so he don't see us..." -:(

Jokes apart...I'm so happy because I have meet really cool people this year, including Graham, Ryan, Sonia, David, Marcelo, Gail, Aslan and many others...

So...Is the second TechEd better that the first one? I should say YES!

Greetings,

Blag.

Why Paypal sucks?

You know that I'm a Programming Books author, and I published my book on Lulu.com. Of course they pay me for the sell of my books...They used to send me paper checks every quarter...But here on Peru you got only 1 month to check the paper check before it becomes useless...Sometimes, due to lack of time (Mostly for work), you can't get to the Bank and get your money...I got that problem a couple of months back, so I changed my remission setting to work with my Paypal account.

Everything seems to be nice and ready...But...When I sign up for Paypal, they didn't ask for my country...Which doesn't seems to be a bad thing...But...Yesterday I searched for Paypal in Peru...I received a big surprise when read that people state that Paypal allows people from Peru and most Latin American countries to use the service to pay, but not to withdraw they money...Can you believe it? Why didn't they told me that when I sign up for the service?

If you search for his info on the Paypal site, you're going to be lucky if you find it quickly...

The same day, I wrote Lulu asking them about my payment...The told me...

We're going to pay you by the end of this month

Everything was nice, you may thought...But after I discover that I wasn't to able to withdraw my money...Everything started to suck...Big time...I wrote Lulu again telling them my problem...And gladly they we're kind enough to understand me and freeze the payment until November 15.

Now...Why on earth didn't Paypal inform the users about this as soon as they sign in? I don't know...But that's not really a cool thing...I know that they to have some kind of agreement with Latin American Banks...But can't they send paper checks like Lulu do?

Every information on the Lulu site is clear enough to be sure that you're going to get paid and when...Also, they're LiveChat is really useful.

By saying this...I recall again my frustration about living in a Latin American country...Are we being discriminated? Why can't we use widely used services if we're supposed to live on a globalized world...

Now...I only to wait till I got my paper check to reclaim my money...But that's not a nice as it looks...Most banks on Peru make you wait for 3 months until they pay you...Why? Because being a foreign paycheck...They say the need to contact the bank, make sure the paycheck is real, that it has funds and some other related stuff...But 3 months? For Christ sake...They're banks! Why I can use my credit card to pay or withdraw money in any country of the world but can't check a paycheck in less than 3 months? Maybe it's because they love to take money but don't like to give it away...

I really hope, I don't have any more problems regarding this issue...Because of this...I haven't received any money since July, 2007...And that my friends...Really suck...

Greetings,

Blag.

The Twitter phenomena

No one can deny that Twitter is a huge success...Thanks to it many Microblogging sites appeared, by say, Indenti.ca, Plurk, Pownce. Those sites are good, but most of the people who left Twitter slowly back to it...

Of course...Twitter is far from perfection...We must take a look at this nice pictures at least twice a day...


A lot have been already talked about the scalability problems of Twitter, they are using Rails, and planning to migrate to PHP...Meanwhile, we must suffer the consequences of a too rapidly grow system...

Many people just can't stop Tweeting...I'm one of them -;) I really feel bad if I can't post at least once a day...Or at least read what my friends are saying...

Another example, that it's not tightly related with Twitter but shows how can a website can be degrated is Hi5. It started as a good site, a good choice for Social Networking...But let's face it...It really sux right now...I got millions of users doing whatever they want with the system...I don't any Geek is using it anymore...In the same path is Facebook which is recently starting to take control over it's app's.

It's great to give user control over Social Networking sites, but when you give them enough rope...You take the risk of loosing everything...

I know that Twitter is not facing the same problems as those websites, but SPAM accounts
and people following millions of users (And those millions of users following millions of users), are slowly killing it...

Everyday I get notifications of people following me...99% of the times...I don't even know them, or the don't speak Spanish neither English, or they are not related to SAP, Programming or anything interesting. People follow people just to get millions of friends...Or to be the Promo Queens...Anyway, that's not a good thing...

I really love Twitter and I don't want it to die...But...Only time knows...

Taken from http://ephemerist.files.wordpress.com

Greetings,

Blag.

What's more exciting...First TechEd or Second TechEd?

That's a question I started to ask myself today...Last year I attended TechEd at Las Vegas, and it was awesome! It's was first time ever...And I thought nothing could beat that...But with the upcoming TechEd at Las Vegas...I started to doubt it...

First time, I didn't knew exactly what to expect...I knew that I was going to meet face to face a lot of my best friends...I was going to participate in some great Blogger's Only Round Tables and have a lot of fun...

This year...My second time...I know exactly what to expect...Meet my old friends, meet new friends face to face, host my own BoF Session, participate on RIA's Hacker Night...And that's why this year, I'm more excited than last year...

Last year was awesome...This year is going to be a blast! So many great additions to the show...Really cools guys/gals are going to attend...Hacker Night is going to accept more people...DemoJam is going to be superb with ESME...Palazzo Hotel rooms seems to be cooler that Mandalay Bay's ones...

I really can't wait for Sunday 7, when I'm going to head to the airport to catch my flight...Only 11 more days...And I can't wait!!! I'm going nuts -:) Believe me...We're going to have a SAP Mentor Kickup Meeting, so a lot of nice things are going to come out...

I just can't stop saying...If you can attend a TechEd...Do it! Don't miss the best event of the year...Don't miss Community Day...Don't miss DemoJam...Don't miss RIA Hacker Night...Don't miss meeting the SAP Mentors...Don't miss getting involved with most amazing, growing and welcoming Community ever...

Greetings,

Blag.

Technorati Tags: sdn blogger

Why I wrote about Programming in Spanish?

Some of you might think..."You're from Peru, right? You mother language is Spanish, right? Why wouldn't you write about Programming in Spanish?". All are valid points, but...

Even when this might seem kinda unusual...I prefer English over Spanish...It's true...I love speaking, writing or reading in English...So why I don't write about Programming in English? Easy...Spanish, while it's being speak by a lot of people from a lot of countries is not widely supported...I mean...Best programming books are written in English, and let's face it...Many Spanish speakers doesn't speak or read in English, so they are forced to read on-line manuals, translated books (Not all good books are translated), so in fact, they are loosing a lot...

I have asked a lot of people about ABAP related stuff, and they told me...I haven't learn that because there's no info available on Spanish, and of course, I'm not trying to state that my books are the best solution available in Spanish, but at least, they are in a language that all of my Spanish related colleagues can read and share...By knowing the English language I had been able to read a lot, so I know exactly the type of quality I want for my books...A lot of pictures, example and easy to understand terminologies.

I remember that when I was working on my first ABAP Book..."El Arte de Programar SAP R/3" I contacted someone from SAP Press...He told me..."We would love to publish your book, but only accepted languages are English and German"...No complains about it, they had their way to work, and it's cool...But I don't know German and there's so many great book on English written by friends of mine that I didn't want to overwhelm Spanish speakers with another book in English written by someone who could actually do the same on Spanish...

Of course, I'm planning to do translations of all my books into English...No doubt about it...Many people has asked me to do so...So I'm not going to fail them...But I just feel that my books should come first in Spanish and then in English.

Sometimes I feel like the Latin American market is not being taken in account by most of the enterprise companies...Even when there's a lot of people from Latin America working on those products...

This year, I run Community Day Lima (A event hosted by SAP worldwide) because SAP doesn't hosted in Peru. Why? Because there's no enough people involved on SCN (SAP Community Network), why? Because all the information is presented only in English...So it becomes an vicious circle...Companies doesn't support Latin America, because there's not enough Latin American people, and Latin America doesn't get involved in Companies because they doesn't know English...

I know that this is very hard to change...But I really hope that someday I could be able to see mixed communities...Having separate spaces for both English and Spanish speakers (About other languages...Wrote your own rants!...)

If you want to know more about my books, check my On-Line Store...

Blag's Books

Greetings,

Blag.

Adobe...You're doing a great job with developers!

This monday, is was on Twitter like always...And talked about my upcoming Flex Book (Only in Spanish...English version to come later)...Suddenly I got a message from Areez Gangji from Adobe.


Of course, I said yes...Wondering how long it would take them to get to Perú...Wonderful news when my wife called me yesterday (Only 2 days before) telling me that she had received an Adobe Package for me.

When I opened (Big package), there were 4 giant Flex 3 (Both Flex and ActionScript) posters...But not your average kind of poster...They were Geek Posters! All the Flex and ActionScript keywords and core language features...

And that seems to be too much...But there were more...5 nice and fancy Flex stickers...One for my wife's laptop, another for my own laptop and 3 more to keep on reserve -;)

Sorry I haven't took any pictures...But my camera is full of my daughter's pics -;)

Anyway...As I said in the title...Adobe is making hell of a good work by making Developers feel good and recognized...I have wrote books on Euphoria, PHP, Java and Ruby but haven't get any poster, sticker or e-mail...Which is kinda sad -:( Actually it wasn't...But with Adobe's personal approach, it had become sad -:'(

Just for the record...SAP haven't send me posters or stickers for any of my R/3 or NetWeaver books...But hey -;) I know almost all the crew and they had give really cool presents in the past -:D So no complains! You guys/gals do a great job as well -:) But if someone could give me a bunch of stickers at TechEd Vegas 08, you will make my life complete -;)

Greetings,

Blag.

The Blag Show - Episode # 1 - Are you really running a show?

Watch the first episode of my brand new show The Blag Show.

Greetings,

Blag.

Demo Jam at Las Vegas TechEd 2008

You know that I love TechEd...I love Community Day...And I really love Demo Jam.
If you haven't been to any TechEd and you're wondering...What's that Demo Jam thing?

The answer is very easy...Teams show their projects, people get amazed and a winner is chosen.

Last year was a blast with Majority Desk. More info on Blag on TechEd (Las Vegas) - TechEd Day 1.

This year, of course we're having Demo Jam! So if you're going to Las Vegas, you better not missed it!

Photo courtesy of Chip Rodgers.

Greetings,

Blag.

Technorati Tags: sdn blogger

SAP Community Day Las Vegas Agenda at a Glance

Mark Finnern Chief Evangelist of the SDN and BPX Communities just posted a very nice blog about Community Day - Las Vegas 2008.

SAP Community Day Las Vegas Agenda at a Glance

The most amazing thing for me is to see my session SmallWorlds - Building a Community Clubhouse on a 3D World Environment listed on the agenda -:D

This year's Community Day is going to be really awesome! The SCN Dream Team (Dan McWeeney, Rich Heilman, Thomas Jung and Ed Hermann) are going to do some amazing Mentor Hands-on session, that you can't miss -;)

So...Go ahead and made my Community Day! -;)

Greetings,

Blag.

Technorati Tags: sdn blogger

Blag's best blogs picks from 2008...Soon to come

Last year, before TechEd Vegas, I wrote a blog called Blag's best blogs picks from 2007. In that blog I posted the best blogs of the year (According to my own personal thoughts of course)...So this year...I'm planning to the same -;)

This year I'm going to include more categories, and more blogs per category (When needed)...So it's going to be far better than last year...

In case you want to know...My blog search is going to be from January 1st to December 16, 2008.

You can expect this blog on Dec. 17, 2008...Exactly 1 year after -:)

Greetings,

Blag.

Even Google is afraid of Chuck Norris...

By following ChuckNorris_ on Twitter I discovered this interesting fact...

Go to Google...Type find chuck norris...Press I'm feeling lucky...


Get amazed -:)


Another reason to fear Chuck...

Greetings,

Blag.

SAP Community Girl

Even when my daughter Kiara is only 3 months old...She had started to support the SAP Community -:)


I'm pretty sure that when grows up, she's going to become a Blogger and Mentor just like me...Or maybe she's going to a be a Model, and Actress or a Rocket Scientist...Who knows LOL But you can be sure that no matter what, she's going to be in touch with the Community -;)

A big thank goes to Lisa London from Another World Merchandising, Marilyn Pratt and Mark Finnern from SAP and the SCN Crew.

Greetings,

Blag.

SAP TechEd 2008 - Las Vegas

Yesterday...I got one of the most awesome news ever...I'm going to SAP TechEd 2008 - Las Vegas.

This is going to be my second year attending such an amazing event...First time was last year, when most of my wildest dream came true...I meet all my friends in real life, get a lot of gifts, and most important I learned a lot.

So...What's going to be different this year? Easy...As an SAP Mentor I'm going to host a BoF (Birds of a Feather) session called SmallWorlds - Building a Community Clubhouse on a 3D World Environment.

Also...I know that DemoJam is going to present an awesome project called...ESME...I started participating in this project....But due to lack of time I had to leave -:( Gladly my Team Mates had done a incredible job -:D

You can expect blog posts, video blogs and a lot of pictures from me...

Greetings,

Blag.

The SAP NetWeaver Top Composite Competition

The SDN is launching a SAP NetWeaver Top Composite Competition...So...If you own SAP NetWeaver CE 7.1 your free to enter the Contest and show your cool apps -;)

The prizes are...

* Two free admissions to TechEd
* 2 iPod 8GB Nanos

The nicest thing...Is the judges -:D

* Thomas Jung
* Blag (That's me!)
* Rich Heilman
* Eddie Herrmann

So go ahead and start developing!

Greetings,

Blag.

Technorati Tags: sdn blogger

When you company doesn't respect you...

Ok...This is a true story, but I'm not going to tell names...At least...Not all names -;)

This story begins when Mr. X, my boss, asked me to start a Flex based project...I thought "Great! Finally a Flex and SAP Project"...Big surprise when he told me "It's going to be a Flex and MS Sharepoint Project"...My initial thought was "WTF? And where's SAP?" but of course I just say "Ok...I'm gonna try, I have never worked with SharePoint or Microsoft WebServices...So I can't tell you that it's going to work"..."Ok" he told me "We just want to know if we can do this, otherwise it's Ok."

So I start working on it...First, I tried with a simple Flex and SAP WebServices connection...which worked fine of course, second I tried with a public WebService which worked fine as well...So finally, I started with the SharePoint WebService...A complete failure...Was it security? Permission? Configuration? I keep trying, reading blogs, forums, tutorials, and all that I could find...

I started project on Monday...And on Wednesday...I told my boss that I couldn't do anything...It was better to shut down the project...But he told me "No...you must keep trying...Let's try everything, before we shut the project down"...Ok...I keep trying...Download a couple of webServers...try another ways to get the WebServices going (ActionScript, MXML)...But again...I couldn't do anything...I'm not a Flex Consultant...I'm an Senior ABAP Consultant...So don't expect too much from me on the Flex part...Also...I have never worked with .NET WebServices before...That's why I told my boss...And that he replied me..."You have disappointing me, you have made us lost a lot of money, I expected more from you"...

So...Okay...I didn't tell him anything...I just heard all his complains...So you know...Guess what? I'm quitting...Why do I need to work in a place where my skills are not being take in consideration?

As you might be thinking...I'm quitting...This month is going to be my last...And of course I already got a new job -;) A Consultant Company from a friend of mine...Where I'm sure that I'm going to be able to develop all my ranting SAP stuff -;)

I know that I be shouldn't post this...But I just wanted to let all people know that sometimes the more you give the less you get in return...Don't let big companies to take advantage of you and your knowledge...We got the power...Not our bosses...

Greetings,

Blag.

Chinposin...Show you authority

Ok...Let's pretend were on Twitter and it's Friday...What does it means? Yeah! It's Chinposin Day!!!

So...What does means? Ok...Let's review some history...

Basically James Governor and Chris Dalby thought that it could be funny to make everyone update their Twitter profiles with Chinposin pics...Lame idea you might think...And maybe your right...But now, Chinposin got millions of followers...Ok, maybe not so much, but sure they had a lot of people working hard all week to post the best chinpose picture on Fridays...I'm one of those of course -;)


Ok...I know you guys are hard to get...You might be thinking..."Sure...nice thing...but a Chinpose picture every Friday it's kind of boring"...I agree...Really....But the Chinposin master is aware of that too -;) So every Friday we got a new and fresh them...Superheros...Younger you...Grooming...So the fun never ends -:D

So now...I'm pretty sure I got your interest right? You wanna know how to join the club...Piece of cake...

Follow the Chinposin Master on Twitter...


Change the picture in your profile and send an update...


You can review your status on the Chinposin main page.



Enough said...Chinposin is not a pose...It's a way of life!

Greetings,

Blag.