Monday, March 26, 2012

Engineering Mantra of the Day

As an engineer/software developer, I cannot stop but thinking about the importance of usability in the products and services that we produce. Thus I come up with my quote of the day:

"User is the king. We (engineers) bow only to the king!"

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Why Work?

Been feeling like a bum for the last few days for some weird reasons. Maybe it's the beginning of the spring's warm weather that brings about this feeling. Or maybe it's just the general lethargy about work and the point of it all that make me wondering "why work"?

I thought about this question for a moment. Then what follows are the answers that came to my mind~

  • Work is something there for us to do. It's like the "thing" to do. On the other hand if not work, what else is there meaningful to do that we're willing to spend 40+ hours on it? I don't think I want to do "nothing" for most of my time.
  • Money power: Work pays (usually). And the derived money can be used for other things/services otherwise hard to produce by ourselves e.g. dining out to eat delicious cuisine, or putting a roof over our heads.
  • Enjoyment, fun and passion. It's what we love to do. Work can give us a sense of fun and enjoyment! (For me, it's writing useful software and solving interesting user/technical problems that give me the greatest satisfaction).
  • Along the line of enjoyment. Work can be team-oriented. The teamwork and social aspect of work can be why people enjoy their jobs.
  • Contribution to the public society: maybe the product/service you provide helps with the growth and evolution of society in a good way!
  • From a Christian perspective, work is in itself the expression of the glorification of God. Simply put, doing good work serves God well.
This topic on work and the reason behind work is a philosophical one that has been much debated and examined before. Here are some insightful articles I found to be very related and interesting. Enjoy!


Friday, March 2, 2012

Know your IIS Log Folder Naming?

Ever wonder which IIS log folder belongs to which website? The answer is fairly straight forward.

The folder in which IIS logs are located is called W3SVC[Website ID]\.

For IIS 7+, you can find out the website ID by visiting the website's advanced properties as below:



For IIS 6, you can view the exact website's log folder here: