Universe of BMan

ASP.NET Model View Controller 1.0 is released today. Somehow the news was subdued, that is, there was no sign of the usual fanfare that surrounds Microsoft software release. This means that perhaps there are not much people out there looking at or much less developing on ASP.NET MVC. I would think that there will definitely be way much more people who will celebrate the release of Silverlight 3 or even ASP.NET 4.0, including yours truly.

That said, it means that ASP.NET MVC is at risk on being sidelined. You might have guessed, I have been playing around with ASP.NET MVC. While I am not sure of its commercial value in time to come, it does come on strongly as an alternative to creating web applications. Perhaps there would be a hybrid model that merges the current Web Forms based ASP.NET application framework and the Model View Controller framework.

To understand more about ASP.NET MVC, I would suggest you to visit the official website to download the installer and learn from the various tutorials and videos. If you are a software architect, you would want to learn more about this framework.

The news is finally out – that Singapore will take two to three years to recover from the current market setback. Already the country has seen much retrenchment exercises undertaken by businesses, especially in the manufacturing industry.

Coupled with the fact that the local manufacturing industry is tuned towards producing sophisticated high end products, the demand is likely to fall as the manufactured products are usually seen as luxury items.

If the economy worldwide continues to do badly, there would be more than retrenchments ahead. Businesses would fail and we should be very wary of the domino effect, as businesses rely on each other for survival.

Many governments tried to lower the value of their currency, so has to make exports cheaper (to others) and imports more expensive. However, this would only work if it is only a few countries without direct trades. It would be back to the square one if most government does the same.

In order to cut down on business expenses, many employers have requested for rental reduction or rebates. While this may seem feasible in the short run, it is not advisable to provide hand-outs in bad times. That would be going against the theory where only the fittest survives.

However, there is one solution that can be looked at – working from home. Of course, this only applies to those jobs that are suitable. This would greatly reduce the need for large office spaces, though not necessary overheads, as employees should be compensated for electricity, Internet connection charges as well as providing the hardware such as laptops and printers. But at least the reduction in rental is significant.

This pro-family solution will allow employees to look after children while working. There is no need to travel unless necessary, and the time and money saved from travelling can be put to better use.

There would be improvement in traffic congestion and due to the decrease in office space, the reduction in rental would prompt encourage more business start-ups at the same time attract more businesses worldwide to setup branches here.

Of course, there would be other factors to be looked at, such as employers’ resistance to change and the mindset of employees and information security. If these problems can be mitigated, this would tide us over this difficult period and we would benefit in the long run. Although there are businesses who have already implemented this, the government would still have to take the first step before more businesses follow suit.

My left eye is puffy and I thought that I looked like Garfield. My General Practitioner was of the opinion that it was an allergy and I was therefore given steroids and antibiotics. Fortunately I am not participating in any sports competition, right? Ha ha… 

Anyway, I do have to go to the bank today to make some transfer payment and as it turns out, I went to the bank three times in a roll. The steroids did not actually give me a boost, at least neither physically or mentally, but it sure gave me a palpitating heart beat and trembling hands.

In fact, my mind was out of focus the entire day. Three times I were at the bank, three times I did not complete the forms that I had to submit to make the funds transfer. Somehow, my clouded mind was not able to make out all the fields that were required. Fortunately the professional bank staff were patient and kind enough to help me fill in the blanks.

Although I was on medical leave today, I still had to work, albeit from home, because there is a demonstration to be completed and shown the next day. In between trips to the bank, I found that it is not good to do development when your mind is working only at 25 percent. I think I stared blankly at the screen most of the time.

It is good that my eye is now near recovery at 80 percent fitness, else I hate to imagine how tomorrow is going to turn out.

It is already a very trying period and organizations and governments world wide are not helping each other.

Governments especially, are now trying their best to lock in investors and do their best to keep their own economy going. Since the emergence of the Internet and ease of travel, most businesses have gone far beyond their home shores. Coupled with the fact that government-linked corporations managing Sovereign Wealth Funds have been diversifying their investments now have portfolios all over the world. Businesses, small and big alike, unlike during the time of the Great Depression, are now truly global.

If they truly want to help themselves, governments have to band together and salvage the remaining confidence of consumers all over the world to put together a plan to kick start economies all over.

Organizations first have to start rethinking their human resource policies. For sure, retrenchment is the sure thing to do in order to cut costs in keeping losses to a minimum. But what happens next?

The economical impact after 911 already saw many retrenchment exercises. Employees who remain have to pick up and fill in where those have left, with or without benefits. As time passes and economy recovers, they command better remuneration packages as employers sought to keep them since they have bigger responsibilities.

Some big organizations who managed to recover earlier than others starting recruiting, but some were still struggling to stay afloat. Most were content with their current standings and had therefore adopted a wait and see attitude.

With worldwide economies doing badly, businesses are affected as the number of contracts decreases as well as the value of each contract shrinks. They are then, yet again forced to conduct costs cutting measures and inevitably retrenchment.

When businesses fail and go bust, they not only affect immediate employees, but also their clients and banks. It is a very clear picture when banks go under, the ripple and aftermath is devastating.

In times like this, the number of new business start-ups will not increase and it is definitely harder for new start-ups to survive. And so as the number of jobs available go south, so will the spending. When spending stops, businesses bleed. The domino effect and the tsunami that follows is worrying.It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.
~ Chaos Theory

Recently, I often wonder how I managed to squeeze time for studies in the past when I seemed to have no time for sports, computer games and plenty of other activities now.

After work, all I can do is watch about two hours of television, clear my emails and work, and read my papers, if I managed to get a copy, or else some books. And the thing is I am way much closer to office than in the past.

That said, I remembered that I used to reach home around six or half past six, but the best I can do now is half an hour more and more likely to be half past seven. I used to be able to play an hour of basketball before returning home in time for my show at eight. Well, it is more than a month since I last touch my basketball. How my hand itches...

I used to sleep around two or three in the morning but now I have to sleep around midnight around twelve or one else I risk fighting the Z monster the next day at work. So perhaps the reason is the reduction in the number of hours I can afford now.

Think I really need better time management to get more things done. That or sacrifice some sleep.