I just found out from Reuters that Otto von Habsburg has passed away.

I thought he'd reach his centennial, but that was not to be.

Though he was no longer considered royalty, from what I've read he had still committed most of his life to serving Europe. I'll bet his ancestors are probably very proud of his achievements.

Rest in peace, Sir Habsburg. You deserve it.

No, I'm not behind the news - I've been keeping track of this since the information first came out on Joystiq and Kotaku. I just never felt like saying something about it until now.

I suppose one can say that the only reason why I'm not mad right now is because I had been using PSN prepaid cards, since there isn't a local PSN where I live. The address I gave - while not fake - is the address of the hotel in Florida where we stayed during one of our trips to the US.

But somehow I can't imagine myself getting angry if, say, somebody manages to hack into Amazon and get my credit card details there.

The reason is, not all systems are 100% hack safe. If a hacker wants to go in, they can go in.

Sony's biggest fault here was that they probably left their system too open (although was it actually already confirmed that they didn't have firewall? It was only a second hand account after all, and no company is stupid enough to forget something as simple as that). That, I'm a little annoyed with. Along with the fact that I can't play online (but then again, I don't play online all the time anyway). But no more than that.

Whenever I provide any details of myself online, there is always that tinge of fear that this information can go into the wrong hands. It's something I had to learn to accept ever since I became desperate to buy things that couldn't be found locally, but it's certainly not something I've forgotten over the years.

I'm actually blaming this bit of paranoia of mine for not being too active in social networks. :)

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What actually really kind of gets my goat here are the reactions of some of those who comment on those gaming news sites.

Especially those who practically go insane about PSN still not going online this week, and those who say Sony should spend more to hire more developers and get this done quickly.

On those who are going rabid about PSN not going online this week, and how the programmers should work more... jeez people, don't you guys have anything else to do?

Programmers do try their best, you know. And given that this is an extremely high priority incident that is costing a company money, I have a good gut feeling that people aren't getting any sleep, trying to fix this mess, while dealing with angry bosses all at the same time. It's not an easy job, and your whining is not going to make things move any faster.

There's also the thing about dates. A company that focuses solely on delivering things on a specific date, with team leads and managers signing off on works though they know there could still be something problematic there, will only cost them more in the future. I have experience with this, because I'm currently in one such project where I work, trying to fix bad programming decisions made in the past, made because they were trying to meet rather unrealistic dates (IMO).

So if Sony says that they're delaying because they need more time? I'm definitely not going to get angry with them for it.

Next. On those wanting Sony to hire more people to get it done faster. Programming is not something where if you get more people, you can get more done. It just doesn't work that way.

There is a more complex logic to this, but here's a simple example. Software is difficult to divide. If I give someone a section of the software to do, and I work on the rest, then it could save us some time since we're working at things in parallel, right? True, but due to an individual having different programming styles (yes, there is more than one way to do something in the programming world), it is not 100% assured that our codes are compatible. So now time must also be spent on trying to make them work together. Things are still okay... we still managed to save some time because of parallel programming, no harm done.

Try doing such compromises when you have 20 developers in the field.

More conflicts would arise. Entirely incompatible sections of code would come up. Some will have to be extensively modified, or even scrapped and redone entirely. More time and money is spent. In the end, whatever you've managed to save trying to divide work with everyone would only get spent trying to bring everyone's work together. It could even take longer.

Sure, one can create a standard document that everyone should follow to make merging easier. But things are not always as simple as it seems.

And if you keep hiring new people just to get something done? You have to get these people up to speed. They have to read standard documents, they have to study what was already done, and try to move forward from there. This is really not just a simple "pick up where people left off", or "pick up what the others haven't started yet". One has to read and understand what is already there. Otherwise, the program he would come up with can end up being totally useless, and can even cause bugs to what were already perfectly functioning pieces of software.

End result of this story? Yes, you can hire people, but only up to a certain extent. Then you should pretty much leave things as is.

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I dunno... I suppose I'm just irked at the flak developers are getting in this entire fiasco, because it's something I can relate with. Jeez, they may not even be the same people who developed the original system in the first place! So give them some space, okay?

My officemate - who was assigned to Singapore for two months - had returned to our branch office today, and she brought the book I had asked her to buy for me while she was there:

"The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat" by Paul Lendvai

I'm still in the office so I can't devour it yet, but I did open it up for a quick view, and what was the first line I saw?

"Austria became the political prisoner of the Hungarians' interpretation of the Compromise".

Guiltily, my Hetalia goggles went on again.

Oh, Hungary. :XD:

Took this from The Lifestream, though you're really supposed to answer it one question at a time within 30 days (thus the title).

I doubt I'll ever get around to completing the questions if I did that, though, so here are my answers in one fell swoop.

BTW, the FF games I've played are FF4 and FF6 to FF13 (minus FF11), so don't expect anything older. Though I don't think I inserted any answers containing FF4 at all in this list...

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( On to the questions... )

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Meh, office internet had blocked DA again. Ah well.

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( Of fate hating me, plus video game rambling. )

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I've read from both Wikipedia and TVTropes that Old Fritz had wanted to marry Maria Theresa in his youth - or at least had proposed marrying her and willingly give up the Prussian throne in exchange. But I can't find another (more legitimate) source that can back this up. Some websites say that it was Eugene of Savoy who tried to arrange the marriage. Another said that yes, there was an agreement that Frederick the Great would marry a close relative of Charles VI, but his daughters were never expected to be in the running (Old Fritz did end up being forced to marry a cousin of Maria Theresa though).

Where did the information that Old Fritz had wanted to marry Maria Theresa actually come from? :/

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Preview...



( She's a happy little muncher... )

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Geh, I was planning on completing at least four yonkomas this past week. Getting sick when you're supposed to be on your planned vacation really, really sucks. >_<

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Preview...



( Three pics and a yonkoma )

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That's all for January then. :)

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Kind of late, but Happy New Year!!

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'Took a week and a half vacation from work which lasted right before Christmas up until the New Year weekend. I spent four days of that time going up to Baguio with my family and friends. It was rather cold (and I hear it's getting colder today), but I just absolutely loved it.

People wonder what we do up there in the mountains every year, as is our tradition - I mean, wouldn't you run out of places to go and just end up staying at home? But that's kind of the real point of a vacation, isn't it? Just stay in one place, relax, do the things you want to do, eat, sleep, be merry, wash and repeat. Not a very healthy lifestyle actually (it's very sedintary), but it's good for the soul after a rather stressful December.

I especially loved it when we made s'mores out of fireplace-roasted marshmallows sandwiched between layers of chocolate and graham crackers, smothered in strawberries and cream.

Oh, the calories! :XD:

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I've been trying to juggle four games in my gaming library lately.

I've long finished Valkyria Chronicles 2, but I'm on my second playthrough and am trying to complete the game 100%, along with the DLCs I purchased, so I'm not quite done with that.

I started Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep while we were in Baguio and I grew a bit tired of my continuous VC2 sessions. After we got back down, though, I haven't really had that big an urge to pick KH up again.

When we were at my hometown, I got crazily addicted to Gran Turismo 5. I would have continued playing, but I wanted a racing wheel (my thumbs hurt like crazy when I do a session using a DS3), and the good ones are unfortunately very rare right now. The one store that had the wheel I liked (out of many, many others I've checked) raised the price up to $400 (from its normal price of about $300)!! I wasn't that desperate, so I didn't buy it, and I'm still hunting. Anybody know where I can get a Logitech G27 in Manila? (minus Ayala Center, GH, and Megamall - I've gone to all three already) ^^;

To pass the time until I finally get a racing wheel, I ended up installing the Civilization 5 game my sister gave me for Christmas. Though I'm a noob, it's fun, and really time consuming, but I can't get the mods to work! Which disappoints me, because I want to play as the Austrian Empire with Vienna as my capital! (apparently, in the main game, Vienna and Budapest are only city states)

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I actually had a Christmas-related Hetalia fanart (or to be more specific, a "Feast of St. Nicholas" fanart, the event of which took place on Dec. 6 last year), but thanks to my many, many distractions, I never got around to finish coloring it. Now I wonder if it's too late. ^^;

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