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.

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