Holidays

I'm still learning JSF, so nothing new happened during the last few days. I looked into JSF tags and validation. I also started using Eclipse as my Java IDE. I also tried IntelliJ Idea. It looks really good but it's not free so I decided to stick with Eclipse (Europa 3.3.0). I'm happy to see that my programming skills are getting better everyday. I'm even more convinced that I'll write the application that I mentioned in the last post.

The next few days are off in Poland because of national holidays. We (me and my girlfriend) decided to spend it abroad and bought tickets to Sweden. Tomorrow we're leaving Poland and taking a ferry to the Swedish city of Karlskrona. I'll be back the fifth of may. So until then no posts will be posted.

Enjoy your holidays :)

JSF, Here I come!

In order to write my master's thesis I need to, inter alia, write an application. It's main goal is to provide end-users with functionalities that will make decision making easier. Application will have report creation functionalities, advanced forecasting capabilities. It will also be integrated with WEKA, a fantastic collection of data mining algorithms. I'll write more about it after I complete the feasibility study.

After conducting some research I decided to use Java, as the programming language. WEKA is based written in Java, so the choice was quite obvious. The application will run in 3-tier architecture so I had to choose a framework. I had to choose between Struts and JSF as two, most popular frameworks. I've never been much of a programmer so I asked my "Java Guru" friend for help. He advised choosing JSF as it is more User Interface oriented.

A week ago I started an ambitious plan of learning JavaServer Faces. I bought a fantastic book "Core JavaServer Faces". It's one of the best books about programming I've ever read. It's almost as good as Thinking in Java - the ultimate book on Java. During the last few days I've been diligently studying JSF. I'm really excited about it, because the learning process is really fun and easy. I clearly see that I am making progress every day. There's nothing more motivating than fast progress.

The progress could be even faster but at the same time I'm learning for SABE401 exam. It's the final exam you have to take to get a Business Objects Certified Professional cetificate. I'm taking it in the first week of may. After that I'll commit fully to JSF.

My English skills are limited today. I have no idea why, but I have problems with writing a simple sentence. I hope it gets well the next time.

GTD implementation in progress

I spent the whole weekend implementing Getting Things Done. I was a little bit afraid that I'd loose interest/motivation during this process. It really makes you wanna cry when you have to go through whole your stuff and process every bit of it. Writing down my projects, actions and choosing next actions took me almost 6 hours and still I feel the list is incomplete. I'll do a review tomorrow and will supplement the list. My "Master's degree" project consists of 40 actions and counting. Scary :)

I have to say that, In spite of all the struggle, I'm still very excited about GTD. Writing everything down made me feel weird. On one hand, when you look at all the actions it feels like "Oh, MY GOD" (do You hear Janice? :). On the other hand you feel relief that it's out of your brain. You start to see that even the biggest projects, that made you terrified just moments ago, can be completed by doing simple things. Make a phone call, write an email, implement a Java Class (not that easy) etc. Decomposing your projects makes them look doable, and that's a hell of an improvement.

I really think that my implementation of GTD will be successful and it will immensely help me in completing my quest. Which is of course getting the degree. Will see that in the near future.

Back to work.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

That's my first blog ever so I feel a bit at sea. I even wonder if anybody will read it. If you haven't noticed, english is not my mother tongue. I apoligise for all the mistakes I made/will make. I hope it'll get better with every post. And now to the crux of the matter.

For the last four years I've been struggling with writing my master's thesis. I should have finished it two years ago, but failed. I had massive problems with motivating myself. And when I did I was terrified by the plethora of things that need to be done. Generally speaking I have written almost nothing. I really almost gave up hope that I will ever write it.

Few days ago I foung out about a method called "Getting Things Done". I really love the ideas created by David Allen and I plan on putting them to use. You can find loads of stuff about GTD in the internet and you definitely should read The Book.

During my reaserch about GTD I stumbled upon a blog called ZenHabits. It was one of the most inspiring things that happend to in the last few years. It has tons of articles about simply enjoying your life, regaining control of your life and getting things done. It gave me hope that I will be able to finish that one things that ruins my peace of mind "The Holy Master's Degree".

I found out, that one of the ways of keeping oneself motivated is commiting publicly. It's also advisable to post your progress on a blog so that everybody can check how ones doing. So that's why I'm starting this blog. I publicly state that "I will finish my master's thesis by the end of september". I will post my progress at least every 3 days.

Wish me luck.