William Chang » Personal

Commencing Myself As Architect

William Chang — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:41:28 +0000

I’m happy I made the right choice as an application developer. The years of curiosity, creativity, and practice in my profession finally caught up to my expectations. And, I finally see myself as an architect, the creator or inventor, of applications.

The tools to produce and company start-up costs are inexpensive nowadays thanks to open source technologies and the Internet, you can cut out the middleman for product and service distribution. When developing applications for the Internet, personal computers, and smartphones you will find endless opportunities if you just open your eyes to creativity. There is nothing stopping from producing something from an idea to a product or service, but keeping yourself consistent with perseverance.

I find that a lot of people around me don’t see what I see, there are a lot of opportunities being an application developer. They seem to be all caught up with social activities and stopped innovating themselves to be lazy and too comfortable with their repetitive routines.

Ultimately, my number one passion is not about getting rich, but to see my ideas help make people’s lives better. That is my secret that drive me forward and I feel it is a key of success and getting rich is just an undisclosed perk that comes with the package.

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Next Couple Months of Perseverance

William Chang — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:59:07 +0000

I feel that I need to spend more of my spare time on my hobby projects than playing around. I find productivity is becoming more important than wasting it all on social activities like partying and hanging out. But, I truly believe these daily social activities will always be around. In order to catch my big break (to be a bread winner and guarantee financial security) I have to seed my profession. My spare time has been distorted lately by school, work, friends, and drowsiness. But, it is a good thing I practiced my skills and established my network slowly through the years. Made my own platform, a foundation, to stand on and grow because I know what I need to get there without basing on much luck.

I’m at that point where I pass the basics and I understand how to use the tools, I am ready to develop some good applications. With my spare time, I’m going to continue developing the game engine for Developers Club (aka Creative Crew) and attempt to create an application in the mobile phone market. I decided this week to take a shot at the Google’s Android Developer Challenge with $10 million in awards, so wish me luck!

You know when my site-seeing list gets long, it signals me to update this website. If you notice I’m trying something new with my posts using at least one image to spice up my blog a little. Thanks to “ImageShack Uploader Plugin” and ImageShack to help upload and host images for my posts. DieHard signing out!

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The End of Summer 2007

William Chang — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:22:10 +0000

Even though I have a few days left before the beginning of Fall 2007 college semester, thus it is the sign of the end. A lot things has happen during the last two months, July and August. I went to Tallahassee, the capitol city of Florida, for the weekend to visit my friend Brad Muirhead and join his VIP barbeque party. After I got home, I spent some time finding a new roommate to replace Corey Snodgrass as he join a band to tour around. A good friend gave away to me a set of black leather couches, very nice. Then, I received a set of washer and dryer machines as backup to my existing set, for twenty-five dollars from another friend. The early weeks of August, I finished my two summer classes successfully and spent my two week break with my job to make money as much as I can. Now, I am on the last weekend of break and I am hoping the time will tick very slowly. Because, I have a lot of work I like to get done.

While I was surfing the internet I stumble upon a cool web service called Anywhere.FM, it allows you to upload your entire music collection, listen to it from anywhere, and share it with friends. While listening to music, I was experimenting using a web application called MediaWiki in my web server, which is used by Wikipedia, a free-content encyclopedia. MediaWiki will be used for documenting some of my projects. DieHard signing out!

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Condolences to Nikki and Fluffy

William Chang — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:38:40 +0000

I got a call from my god brother, Timothy Chin, last Friday and got the bad news about two dogs. Fluffy passed away last Tuesday and then later Nikki passed away. What an uncomfortable time for everyone who care about Nikki and Fluffy. Nikki had the lasting hardship of the other because he became blinded and difficulty hearing. We all had fond memories of Nikki and Fluffy. And, they were cared like human children. So, we hope to heal our heart and continue on.

There is nothing “spanking new” to talk about this summer. I want to spend more time on my hobby projects and take dancing lessons: salsa, merengue, and bachata. But, I’m taking two summer classes at UCF instead. Someday, I’ll get through and do my hobby projects and take dancing lessons soon. DieHard signing out!

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My Journal from January 2007 to April 2007

William Chang — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:14:40 +0000

I thought I can stop being social and concentrate on finishing college, accelerate my job as a application developer, and work on my hobbies. But, mysteriously every time I want to put myself on a lock-down, even for a day, I get people (aka friends) inviting themselves to meet me. Oh, it’s not just one or two of the same friends, it’s more than a handful of different friends that surprise me. But, I don’t mind at all and I always look at it as a positive perspective. Deep inside I know some of these people will never get off my tail and to be with me from childhood (since elementary school) and well into the future.

I sometimes put people first before my own priorities, sacrificing my assets (e.g. car) and my quality time. Thus, when I got a call from MaryAnn Yanez wanting an escort to pick up the Miniature Pinscher puppy, which she adore after days of searching for the right chance. So, I said yes to drive for many hours and for the reasons simply the interest in dogs and that she is the only girl that “makes an effort” to talk to me many times.

I’m always receiving money offers from friends for my personal services even though money is not my priority. For MaryAnn Yanez wanting to pay me is not what I want, but for her to be happy, relieved, and comfortable first. What she didn’t know is what I got in return indirectly, she rekindle my love for pets and allow me to discover a new hobby as a basic dog trainer.

When I was pet-sitting a Miniature Pinscher puppy, named Rocky, soon another puppy, named Romeo, to take care from Stephano Joseph. Thus, my plans for this semester to be on a lock-down went out the window. Wow, looking at both puppies are such beautiful animals and full of new life. I spent my whole Spring Break taking care of them and to help Stephano Joseph while he mourn for his younger brother, Ricky, that passed away recently.

My long-time friends came up to Orlando from all the way from Miami to meet-up. All of them, but some are not friends with each other, clashed into one single weekend: Anthony Bitume, Alex Molina, Adrian Molina, Hugo Andre Ortiz, Stephano Joseph, and Timothy Chin. It was unexpected to see all of them at once and putting me at a uncomfortable position to keep them entertained. Thus, I setup a barbeque party at my house for Saturday afternoon and at night we all went to the bar to play Texas hold’em poker tournaments.

I’m glad everybody had a good time, made memories, and for me was a lot of spontaneous tasks to keep my guests entertained. Even though my grades and job suffered a little and my hobbies was missed, thus to be social was unavoidable.

I added a new page called “Comedy” in the main menu, top right corner, of my website. I really love stand-up comedy and I want to shared it to the world. Enjoy! DieHard signing out!

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New Year 2007

William Chang — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 08:34:24 +0000

I don’t have much of a new year resolution compare to what I read from my friend’s blogs. The one thing I want is stay “focus,” so I can be better at managing my time, be ready for exams, and complete my tasks before the deadline come close. I want to reflect my resolution to my organization, Developers Club, and putting positive peer pressure on my good members. My college courses for spring 2007 is starting out good with professors that care about students. This is the year of the boar and I am a boar according Chinese Zodiac. Here is an attribute quote:

“Pure of heart, Boar people are generous and kind. Full of inner strength and courage, they can take on any task. A friend who listens, the Boar is sincere and trustworthy. They are driven by their passion for life.”

I’m very fortunate that people are coming up to me and offering money to help them with their projects. I’m trying to compromise with them because of little spare time I have in the spring semester. Hopefully taking no classes in the summer will give me more time to help them out. I’m very happy ever since I became a developer with UCF’s research projects, my experience and professionalism are strengthening all the time.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs kick-off Macworld Conference & Expo 2007 with a keynote address (video) from San Francisco’s Moscone West. Their newest and greatest product, a leapfrog from competitors, is a revolutionary mobile phone (better than smartphones) called the iPhone.

It would be nice to have a monkey to help you around the house. The monkey I like is the one from the television show “Friends.” They had an episode where Ross’ has a monkey friend named Marcel, a capuchin monkey. Owning one would be pretty expensive and high maintenance, but still I would like to have one with my future pet White Tiger, a bengal tiger. DieHard signing out!

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Later Brian Beaulieu

William Chang — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 01:49:50 +0000

My foe and good friend is heading out very soon for basic training near San Antonio, Texas for the United States Air Force. He will be finish with basic training around February 2007 and hopefully getting involve with the Special Operations Command unit. Stay safe and good luck!

We had a good weekend. In our welcoming group, we all know each other way back since elementary school. It was quite amazing that every phase of our lives we spontaneously kept in touch. We party whenever, play pool, make fun of each other, and get a little fat from eating. A crazy topic I remembered we talked about was excreting feces in the toilet. Talk whatever, do whatever, don’t care for anything, just have some fun!

There was no music in my car for the past four months because the online retail MP3PlayerStore kept sending me defective Innovatek DVD-386 players three times in a row and their process of returning was slow. I complained for compensations and they upgraded my order to a Innovatek DVD-995 with a 3.6 inch video screen attached. It was nice for them, but I am somewhat satisfy because I had doubts about the player’s reliability.

Good news on the Nintendo Wii, according to a loose-lipped Toys R Us manager, Nintendo has some big plans slated for the Wii. In addition to a $50 price drop from $250 to $200, Nintendo plans on rolling out multi-colored Wii’s in as little as 3 months.

DieHard is out. Happy Holidays! See you all next year.

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Where is the Black Nintendo Wii

William Chang — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:51:35 +0000

Every time I go surfing online I wonder if I should get a Nintendo Wii, but why does it come in white! White is nice and white Apple Ipod is nice too (who started the trend). For my own taste, I prefer black over white. So, where is the black color version and will it every come out? I’ll wait until summer of 2007 for another reason to never buy the “first version” with all the bugs and hardware defects. But, with all the constant bombardment from Nintendo, from people, and the news, I’ll probably buy the Wii sooner and in white.

I hardly game since High School. My last game console was Sony Playstation (PSX), so it’s been long time. And my gaming days are numbered and it’s taken over by the passion to be in the business to develop applications of all kinds, including video games. Why do I decide to buy a game console? For two reasons, first is I want something I can pickup-and-play, a short break from my developing projects. The second reason is the Nintendo Wii is truly a great party game to play with people and family, not Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3. If I was you, give it a whirl and make sure to buy 3 more sets of gaming peripherals (the Wii Remote and Nunchuk control).

This is the first time putting photos on my blog. “Everybody likes pictures!” I’ll remember to put pictures whenever I can. As of last friday, I’m finish my fall semester of college and I’m on my one month long break, yeah me. This weekend, I finished revising Lambda Sigma Upsilon: Czar Chapter (in Orlando, Florida) website under the domain of Baby Blue Box (click here). DieHard signing-out!

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Rant of Summer 2006

William Chang — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 12:36:27 +0000

There are so many channels in my mind flipping back and forth. I just want to reflect for a moment. My UCF developer job bloomed to more work. I feel a little disorganized with my management of multiple projects. On a weekly basis I get some outbreaks of working without sleep trying to get things done. My personal projects is having consistent delays. I need to do more coding and research to keep up with my timeline I set. I put all the blame on my number one habit procrastination, immortal as it seems.

I’m glad I can still find some enjoyment, break away, to do some of many fun hobbies. Play my acoustic guitar. Striving to do many more outdoor activities (sometime dangerous), like tennis, volleyball, and skeet shooting. Do some midnight runs on my motorcycle to feel the freedom, the rushing winds against your body, and the ride of a metallic black horse.

Everything I do does not come out as I planned, but at least it lands on the target’s circular lines except one kink: my unlucky game with the ladies. I reexamine my pastimes, I can’t see anything outright wrong on the first time, the friendly introduction. Another steel wall to turn around from.

Been riding my starter bike, I got my eyes set on my future ride: Yamaha V Star 1300.

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The Beginning of Summer

William Chang — Mon, 15 May 2006 07:29:34 +0000

Got some news to talk about. I got myself a used cruiser motorcycle, 1989 Yamaha XV250 Route 66, 250cc for $1150. I listened to my friends’ advice to get a nice cheap starter (beginner) bike. I updated my photo gallery, “General” Album, of us cooking out, chilling, and riding the motorcycle.

During my two week college break, I went back home to Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami to pick up stuff and to visit. Then, my car’s radiator had a small crack and spent a day getting it repaired. Lost a day of work, 8 hour shift. When I came back I immediately got myself back to work at UCF for the rest of the break.

Last weekend, we went up to Tallahassee, Florida to visit my friend, Brad Muirhead, and his dog and bird. Chilled, had a cookout for the whole day, because this huge meat we ate took half a day to cook! The highlight of the weekend, we went shooting, real shooting at the shooting gallery. Fun times and a new experience at hickville.

Summer college is starting back up again, today. Time to go back to hell. I’m going to get the party started on Developers Club, pushing much of my spare time, even sacrificing, to success.

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