Psalm 13

Have you ever felt so much burdened? Have you ever felt that God never answered your prayers? King David was feeling the same way when he wrote Psalm 13.

Psalm 13
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 Lest my enemy say,
“I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

5 But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Book Promotions

Today, I've just received a notification mail from JavaRanch saying that I won the Book Promotions again! Thanks God! This is the second time I won the Book Promotions. The first one was Head First PMP. And now... I've won the promotion of Beginning Object-Oriented JavaScript. I am looking forward to reading the book soon!

Ciao

Outdated

As a seasoned Developer, I find that Java technologies are growing very fast. I don’t know about other technologies like .NET, Oracle, SAP, etc. I am pretty sure they are also growing, but I don’t know about their growing speed.

When I learn Java for the first time, I was using Java 1.4. I kept using it until I graduated from university. In my first job as Developer, my then project was using Java 1.4. At that time, Java 5 was still on beta version. One year had passed. I began to work in CSC Singapore. I was using various Java versions at that time due to I handled few projects at the same time. And… I was quite surprised when I suddenly heard that Java 5 had been released officially. I was, because I remembered I was using Java 1.3 at that time. I told to myself… OMG Java 5 is coming out and I am still here stuck with Java 1.3?? I really felt outdated. My situation hadn’t changed so much in one year after Java 5 was released. I remembered I was working in UOB, doing some bug-fixings and enhancements for a lousy client-server Swing application and … Java 6 was released!! I couldn’t believe it. I never even used Java 5 before and… now Java 6 has been released?? Thank God I could start to use Java 5 after I resigned from UOB. Although I used it only for a while, but at least I managed to put the experience on my resume.

Not only in Java Technology, I feel outdated in certifications area as well. As you know, I hold SCJP 1.4 and SCWCD 1.4, but now... SCJP 6 and SCWCD 5 have already been released! Don't ask me whether I'm interested to take the upgrade exam or not, but so far I am still satisfied with my 1.4 certificates.

As an IT guy who now wants to focus on his work, I am willing to put more certifications in my resume. I understand that certification is less important than real-world experience, but it would still be nice to have it. I am currently preparing for taking Sun Certification Business Component Developer (SCBCD) 5 exam. I feel that this certification, possibly, would be the last one I should take during my career as an Analyst/Developer. I am currently reading O'Reilly Enterprise JavaBeans 3 by Bill Burke. In addition, I read Mikalai Zaikin’s SCBCD 5 Exam Note (I am a fan of MZ Notes!). Unfortunately, quite different with my previous exams, I find so difficult to get some free mock exams online. I can only find the free mock exams from JavaBeat. Nevertheless, I'll try to get some other resources since I realized that in order to get a good score in certifications I must practice a lot and, not only that, I should actively discuss and share the problems in a forum such JavaRanch. I hope I can manage to get good score for this exam. Just wait and see.

Free Rice

Few days ago, I saw this link, Free Rice, on one of my friends status in Yahoo Messenger. The point is that you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people by playing the vocabulary program. When you play the game, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice. Happy donating!

Sun Certifications

I often received a private message or an email from JavaRanch users. Most of them were asking me how I managed to get good results for my Java certifications. So far, I have taken two Sun certifications. They are Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform, Standard Edition (SCJP) 1.4 (CX-310-035) and Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD) 1.4 (CX-310-081). I got 95% and 94%, respectively.

Basically, it is easy to get good results for Sun Certifications. Following are the steps that will guarantee you to grab it:

1. You must read the books specifically written for the tests. For SCJP 1.4 or above (the most recent version is SCJP 6) you can use O’Reilly Head First Java (Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates). For SCWCD 1.4 or above (the most recent version is SCWCD 5) you may use O’Reilly Head First Servlets & JSP (Bryan Basham, Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates). Those are the most recommended books for every future exam takers. In addition, you may also use Mikalai Zaikin’s study notes. It helps a lot.
   
2. After reading the books, you can start practicing your knowledge by doing mock exams. The most recommended mock exams are Enthuware JQPlus (SCJP) and Enthuware JWebPlus (SCWCD). Why do I recommend those exam simulators? Because lots of questions in the real tests were exactly the same as the questions appeared in the simulators! That’s true! I am not bluffing you!
3. Each time you finished one of the exams in the simulator, you must review your failed answers by rereading the related topics in the book.
4. Repeat 2 and 3 until you finish all the exams in the simulator!
5. Usually the results of the final exam in the simulator could project the real results in the real tests. For example, if you got 74% in either JQPlus or JWebPlus, roughly you will get 89% (74 + 15) in the real tests! Why do I add with 15? That's the magic constant!
   

That’s all! Should you done those steps correctly, you will get a good result!
Good luck!

Financial Revolution Seminar by Tung Desem Waringin

Two weeks ago, I received a free ticket for attending a motivation seminar which would be conducted by Tung Desem Waringin on JITEC Mangga Dua Square. The title for the seminar is Financial Revolution. The ticket worths 5 millions Rupiah. I learned lots of things during the seminar.

Tung Desem Waringin is definitely the best motivator in Indonesia (SWA business magazine gave him the honour). He gained his knowledges from lots of world class motivators such as Anthony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Mark Victor Hansen, Brian Tracy, Robert T. Kiyosaki, etc. At first, I thought he just a kind of person who can talk only. I was totally wrong. During the seminar, lots of people who had been coached by Tung gave the testimonials how their life or business had improved significantly. His word of motivations and advices had changed people's life (somehow he reminds me of Pastor Kong Hee of CHC Singapore).

The seminar was held for three days (July 7-9). Each day it lasted for 12 hours (10am-10pm). Very tiresome. But I am so happy now. I feel that my mind is opened. I realized that I am really nothing compared to the persons who attended the seminar. But I gained my self-confidence back, even better than ever! I got the courage to set my crazy goals in the future. After all I have been through, I finally found the reasons to live in this world back!

Thanks God for the free ticket!

My First Post

Hi,

Welcome to my blog ... This is my very first post to this blog. I am not a kind of person who can easily express my thoughts in a form of writing. I can speak Bahasa Indonesia (my mother tongue) and English. I admit that my English skills is still in moderate level. Nevertheless, I am trying to improve it day by day since I know how important English is nowadays. So, please, if you have a spare time or perhaps want to read some of my thoughts here, do feel free to visit my blog anytime you want.
Thank you.

Ciao
Hendy