There’s a lot of stuff on the site. I’m putting here some links that I don’t know where else to put at the moment. Suggestions welcome.
All Content By Section
Blog A blog is a website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries, typically displayed in reverse chronlogical order. A single entry is called a blog post. (1367 items)
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look like:
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Note that — not considering the asterisk — the actual text
content starts at 4-columns in.
Block quotes are
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if you like.
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Definitely, we are using Django templates but there is still one problem though. We are still hardcoding raw HTML inside our views. Creating templates for a large HTML page in this way would be very cumbersome and tedious. It would be much better if we could write the HTML in an external file. Let’s do this.
Latest blog posts:
{{$pages:=first5(wheresite.RegularPages"Type""post")}}{{range$pages}}
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Skyfall (2012)
Bond film no. 23, Daniel Craig’s third. I watched this in the theaters back in 2012, so this is the last rewatch of my James Bond run. Back then my main complaint was that Bond’s plan in the last thirty minutes of the movie was terrible. The same complaint stands even now, especially given the eventual outcome of that plan. Make no mistake: the entire defending the house sequence is one of the best things about the movie from an action standpoint, but tactically it was terrible.
The whole film is basically a swan song for Judi Dench’s M, exploring the extremes of her relationship with Bond and how fond they are of each other in spite of everything. Ben Whishaw appears as the new Q, who starts his run appropriately, by letting MI6 get hacked. The film still calls out the old Bond film tropes, with Q telling Bond they’re not really into exploding pens anymore. Bardem gives a good performance as the villain Silva, but the character felt a bit underdeveloped as we didn’t get his background until an info drop around two-thirds through.
The theme song here by Adele won the Oscar for best song; it’s not my cup of tea, but I can see how it could win.
This film also brings cyberterrorism into the modern Bond era, and the usefulness of MI6’s focus on human intelligence during the modern era is called into question. It will be interesting to see how technology further changes the Bond films moving forward.
The film ends with basically the Connery status quo - Bond answering to a male M, flirting with his assistant Moneypenny, and assisted by Q. It’s something I wouldn’t have appreciated back when I first saw the film in 2012, given that this was only the 4th Bond film I’ve seen at that point, and none of them had that Connery setup.
Next up is Spectre, which I haven’t seen before and is the last one of the run before No Time To Die comes out in September!
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
I watched this even if I hadn’t seen the old first movie. I didn’t have a high opinion of The Rock, er… Dwayne Johnson’s acting skills, because I’ve previously seen him only in silly sports films like The Game Plan or The Tooth Fairy, but he does a good enough job here, portraying a nerdy high schooler trapped in a buff, macho, adventurer hero type. Same goes for Jack Black portraying a teenage girl in… well, Jack Black’s body. I like how the Jumanji game evolved from a board game to a video game for more modern times. The movie overall is a pretty good popcorn movie and has a few funny bits.
Police Story (1985)
This one was just something that I saw was on Netflix and was like “Why not?” Had to watch with Cantonese voice and English subs, the only alternative was Japanese voice. Pretty good, for its time. As you’d expect from Jacky Chan, all the action/fight sequences are great; I especially like the bus chase sequence and the ending fights in the mall were great. Apparently that sliding down the pole stunt is considered one of the best action film stunts of all time. The film glorifies police excesses though.
Bond film no. 23, Daniel Craig’s third. I watched this in the theaters back in 2012, so this is the last rewatch of my James Bond run. Back then my main complaint was that Bond’s plan in the last thirty minutes of the movie was terrible. The same complaint stands even now, especially given the eventual outcome of that plan. Make no mistake: the entire defending the house sequence is one of the best things about the movie from an action standpoint, but tactically it was terrible.
The whole film is basically a swan song for Judi Dench’s M, exploring the extremes of her relationship with Bond and how fond they are of each other in spite of everything. Ben Whishaw appears as the new Q, who starts his run appropriately, by letting MI6 get hacked. The film still calls out the old Bond film tropes, with Q telling Bond they’re not really into exploding pens anymore. Bardem gives a good performance as the villain Silva, but the character felt a bit underdeveloped as we didn’t get his background until an info drop around two-thirds through.
The theme song here by Adele won the Oscar for best song; it’s not my cup of tea, but I can see how it could win.
This film also brings cyberterrorism into the modern Bond era, and the usefulness of MI6’s focus on human intelligence during the modern era is called into question. It will be interesting to see how technology further changes the Bond films moving forward.
The film ends with basically the Connery status quo - Bond answering to a male M, flirting with his assistant Moneypenny, and assisted by Q. It’s something I wouldn’t have appreciated back when I first saw the film in 2012, given that this was only the 4th Bond film I’ve seen at that point, and none of them had that Connery setup.
Next up is Spectre, which I haven’t seen before and is the last one of the run before No Time To Die comes out in September!
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
I watched this even if I hadn’t seen the old first movie. I didn’t have a high opinion of The Rock, er… Dwayne Johnson’s acting skills, because I’ve previously seen him only in silly sports films like The Game Plan or The Tooth Fairy, but he does a good enough job here, portraying a nerdy high schooler trapped in a buff, macho, adventurer hero type. Same goes for Jack Black portraying a teenage girl in… well, Jack Black’s body. I like how the Jumanji game evolved from a board game to a video game for more modern times. The movie overall is a pretty good popcorn movie and has a few funny bits.
Police Story (1985)
This one was just something that I saw was on Netflix and was like “Why not?” Had to watch with Cantonese voice and English subs, the only alternative was Japanese voice. Pretty good, for its time. As you’d expect from Jacky Chan, all the action/fight sequences are great; I especially like the bus chase sequence and the ending fights in the mall were great. Apparently that sliding down the pole stunt is considered one of the best action film stunts of all time. The film glorifies police excesses though.
Like every other sensible person in the pandemic, I am staying hunkered down at home all of the time. Really only going out to get groceries and meds.
On a work hiatus, but open to interesting opportunities.
Current Location:
still living in Quezon City, Philippines.
Work
Currently on a work hiatus. But if you have something interesting, hit me up, maybe we’ll get lucky.
How am I spending my time
I’m working on multiple personal projects, most of which I don’t want to talk about. The only public one is this website/blog. I write as often as I can and am constantly trying to update this site to make it better or more to my liking.
I still do a lot of gaming
Quiz team does online quiz nights, a few times a month
This is an incomplete list of blogs I follow, that I feel are worth sharing.
More about this list on this post, from which I quote:
“Very few of these are people I know IRL, mostly I just stumbled upon their blogs via some method or other. Many of them are tech-related though not all of them are. All are reasonably active. I thought about tagging or categorizing them somehow, but it’s rude to put people into boxes, so maybe it’s rude to do that for their websites too, just let people be people and let blogs be blogs.”
I’m generally amenable to talking to strangers on the internet. If you want to talk about topics such as:
Java, Python, JavaScript, general programming stuff
software architecture, software development in general
software engineering career advicce
the Philippines
life in general
Feel free to contact me (but maybe read the rest of this page first).
This policy was inspired by a tweet from Stephanie Hurlburt and also patio11’s own standing invite. If you need tips about how to contact strangers, that last link is a great read.
Note: I reserve the right to publish the content of any correspondence you make with me on this blog. If you do not wish for your content to be publicly available, please say so explicitly.
FAQ
Can I contact you about updating one of your old posts to link back to my site for promotional purposes?
No. I’m generally not interested in such arrangements. Refer to this post for more details.
Do you publish sponsored content?
Sure. But the minimum rate is $10,000 per post and I reserve the right to style the sponsored post any way I want.
Can I write a guest post?
This is a weird question to ask even if I knew you personally. Get your own blog!
Can I ask you to write a review for a product you might find interesting?
Yes. I am especially willing to write reviews for ebooks, provided it is in an area of interest and I am given a complimentary copy. Note that I don’t guarantee the review will be in any way flattering. As with the rest of my writing on this site, it will be my honest opinion.
How to contact me
For work-related correspondence, please use the email address specified on the resume page.
For other matters, please contact me via one of the following methods:
email: hello@roytang.net. I’m not one of those people who lets their inbox gets cluttered, so I will generally see your email within a day or so. If it’s of interest, I will probably reply quickly as well. Please include somewhere in your subject line the word “PINEAPPLE” in all caps, to indicate that you have read this FAQ. If I don’t reply quickly, it’s either (a) you ignored the FAQ above; or (b) you did not include the subject keyword and your email was automatically filtered away; or (c) I’m busy and/or need time to think of a response and will get back to you eventually.
You can also try to contact me via any one of my other active accounts, but the above are your best bet.
I generally don’t like taking phone calls, but if you already have my mobile number anyway and you really can’t just use email, please send me an SMS first before calling. If you don’t have my mobile number and want/need it for some reason, send me an email to ask for it.
content I post on Twitter, Reddit, and other services are fed back into this site via custom Python scripts.
The source for all site content is available on Github. The source for my Python stack is unfortunately not publicly available, mostly because I think it’s terrible.
This site is hosted on DigitalOcean (affiliate link).
An off-site mirror/backup is generated every so often to mirror.roytang.net. (Hosted on Netlify.)
Technically, this entire site is about me (and my thoughts), so this page is a bit redundant. Maybe that alone already tells you everything you need to know?
List of new (to me) movies watched in 2020. Ongoing!
Ratings scale:
5: I regret that I can never again watch it for the first time
4: I would enjoy watching it again
3: I wouldn’t mind watching it again, maybe running in the background while I do other things
2: I would not want to watch it again
1: If you suggest watching it, it might be time to end the friendship
#
Title
Release Year
Date Watched
Notes
Rating (out of 5)
1
Sicario
2015
Jan 05
Great thriller movie, but the lesson here is so bleak
5
2
Paprika
2006
Jan 08
Colorful, vivid and great animation but so so bizaare
4
3
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2014
Jan 08
Insanely good, I can see why it won best picture
5
4
Looper
2012
Jan 09
Entertaining enough, but raises so many time travel questions
4
5
John Wick 2
2017
Jan 12
Better than I expected
5
6
Ad Astra
2019
Jan 13
Kinda draggy
3.5
7
Klaus
2019
Jan 13
Surprisingly good. Fantastic animation
5
8
Marriage Story
2019
Jan 14
Great performances. Ma didn’t like the ending.
5
9
Fist of Fury
1972
Jan 14
Great fight scenes. Actually a bit more plot than I expected
5
10
Coming to America
1988
Jan 15
I had low expectations, but it was better than I thought it would be. Ma would like it!
3.5
11
MIB International
2019
Jan 15
Kind of predictable
3
12
Batman vs TMNT
2019
Jan 16
Ridiculous, but fun. Good for kids.
4
13
6 Underground
2019
Jan 17
The editing and scene transitions were all over the place. A very Michael Bay film.
3.5
14
The Wolf of Wall Street
2013
Jan 18
This movie does nothing to improve my opinion of modern capitalism.
4.5
15
Parasite
2019
Jan 19
Really good, but IDK how to begin to describe it. Worth overcoming the 1 inch subtitle barrier for.
5
16
Kiki’s Delivery Service
1989
Feb 04
Very light-hearted and idyllic. At first it felt a bit boring, but it had me smiling by the end.
5
17
Uncut Gems
2019
Feb 07
Sandler gave a good performance, but I struggled to get through the early parts of the movies because his character and situation are so unrelatable to me personally.
4
18
Knives Out
2019
Feb 09
A fantastic murder mystery, maybe the best I’ve ever seen, great performances all around.
5
19
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
2003
Feb 10
Watched this because a redditor said ROTK robbed it of best picture in 2003. This is a great war movie, but he was wrong
5
20
Jojo Rabbit
2019
Feb 11
Best movie about a Nazi ever. Most colorful depiction of Nazi Germany. Fantastic movie.
5
21
Superman: Red Son
2020
Feb 27
An acceptable adaptation of one of my favorite Superman stories. Minus points for not including the “House of L” epilogue.
4
22
Coach Carter
2005
Feb 27
I watched this because I saw it in a “top inspirational speeches” YT video. Pretty good sports movie.
4
23
Billy Madison
1995
Mar 23
Watched this so I know the context of the “I award you no points and may god have mercy on your soul” clip. Typical early Sandler movie.
3
24
Princess Mononoke
1997
Mar 23
Much more action-packed than the last Ghibli movie I watched. Beautifully animated.
5
25
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
Fantastic fan-made shot-by-shot recreation of Back to the Future II, put together during quarantine, w/ stop motion, kids, sock puppets, bananas, potatoes and much more! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcUUjWbVc4I
5
30
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
2014
Apr 10
This trilogy had far too many extra things that weren’t in the books, but it was pretty good. I rank them Desolation > Five Armies > Journey.
4
31
The Departed
2006
Apr 10
This was intense. I liked it more than Goodfellas.
5
32
Spirited Away
2001
Apr 15
Shades of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. Easily the best Ghibli film I’ve watched so far.
5
33
Psych the Movie
2017
May 03
It’s like an extended episode of Psych!
4
34
Ready Player One
2018
May 05
A predictable yet fun romp.
4
35
The Siege
1998
May 05
Caught this on Cinemax when I went down for lunch. Much too idealistic in hindsight, given what happened in New York 3 years after this film released.
3
36
Kong: Skull Island
2017
May 07
Exciting popcorn movie.
4
37
Ang Huling El Bimbo: The Musical
2019
May 08
Ok, so this one isn’t really a movie. The appeal for me is mostly the music and the nostalgia. The plot was serviceable, though some may find it problematic.
4
38
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
2020
May 15
This was great, and appropriatly dark. Good send-off for the DCAMU.
4
39
Zombieland Double Tap
2019
May 27
A fun romp, but pretty much more of the same.
3
40
Sonic the Hedgehog
2019
Jun 27
Fun with Ben Schwartz, but James Marsden’s character is kinda dumb. Needs a lot of suspension of disbelief.
3
41
Mission Impossible Fallout
2018
Jun 29
Good watch, it’s MI, you know how it goes. Maybe 40% of it is Tom Cruise running.
3
42
Atomic Blonde
2017
Jul 11
I came in thinking it was a John Wick style action movie. True, but it’s also a Cold War spy thriller. Nice twists, but might be a bit hard to follow near the end.
3
43
The Old Guard
2020
Jul 12
Didn’t know what to expect, never read the Greg Rucka graphic novel on which it was based. Action-packed, fun watch.
4
44
Superman Man of Tomorrow
2020
Aug 28
Not too good. Weird animation. Writing all over the place.
3
45
Bill and Ted Face the Music
2020
Aug 29
A most excellent sequel, echoing the earlier two movies. A midlife crisis journey full of heart and time travel nonsense. Little Billie and Theda are great!
5
46
Enola Holmes
2020
Sep 27
It’s okay. Basically young adult/Nancy Drew Sherlock Holmes, with a bit of feminism thrown in. Mycroft annoying as usual.
3
47
Wonder Woman 1984
2020
Dec 30
There’s a bunch of things that don’t make sense (even accounting for myths etc), but it helps to think this movie takes place pre-crisis.
#36918016. this is really only here for me to look at if I forget it, but you can also look me up if you like.
#56883435. In January 2020, I managed to recover a second DCI number that I had only used for a few events in 2001. This has since been merged into the history of the above DCI number with the help of Wizards support.
Paper Magic stats
Win
%
Loss
%
Draw
%
Total
Total
552
52.57
468
44.57
30
2.86
1050
By Format
Pauper
2
25.00
5
62.50
1
12.50
8
Modern
33
45.21
32
43.84
8
10.96
73
Booster Draft
22
62.86
9
25.71
4
11.43
35
Sealed
221
56.81
162
41.65
6
1.54
389
Standard
218
49.55
216
49.09
6
1.36
440
Trios - Constructed
1
20.00
4
80.00
0
0.00
5
Block Constructed
44
57.14
30
38.96
3
3.90
77
2 HG Sealed
7
58.33
5
41.67
0
0.00
12
Trios - Limited
4
36.36
5
45.45
2
18.18
11
By Year
2019
11
39.29
15
53.57
2
7.14
28
2018
17
53.12
15
46.88
0
0.00
32
2017
32
39.02
45
54.88
5
6.10
82
2016
22
44.00
25
50.00
3
6.00
50
2015
45
59.21
29
38.16
2
2.63
76
2014
12
41.38
17
58.62
0
0.00
29
2013
12
52.17
11
47.83
0
0.00
23
2012
22
61.11
14
38.89
0
0.00
36
2011
14
51.85
11
40.74
2
7.41
27
2010
35
59.32
23
38.98
1
1.69
59
2009
63
52.07
54
44.63
4
3.31
121
2008
99
55.00
77
42.78
4
2.22
180
2007
104
57.78
73
40.56
3
1.67
180
2006
47
50.00
47
50.00
0
0.00
94
2005
2
50.00
2
50.00
0
0.00
4
2004
0
0.00
3
75.00
1
25.00
4
2001
15
60.00
7
28.00
3
12.00
25
Top 10 Venues
Neutral Grounds - Robinsons Galleria
160
54.98
125
42.96
6
2.06
291
TBD - Manila
63
57.27
45
40.91
2
1.82
110
Robinsons Galleria
44
56.41
34
43.59
0
0.00
78
Neutral Grounds - Centris Walk
26
47.27
29
52.73
0
0.00
55
SMX Convention Center
29
53.70
24
44.44
1
1.85
54
Singapore Expo
26
55.32
19
40.43
2
4.26
47
The Habbit
20
47.62
19
45.24
3
7.14
42
Neutral Ground - UST
20
48.78
20
48.78
1
2.44
41
Eton Cyberpod Mall
22
57.89
15
39.47
1
2.63
38
Neutral Grounds - Glorietta
13
40.62
18
56.25
1
3.12
32
** I wish I also had lifetime stats for Magic Online and Magic Arena, but I don’t have any data sources for those
I have been working professionally as a software developer, technical lead and solution architect since 2003. I am based in the Philippines. I have a wide variety of experience with different languages, frameworks and databases, primarily Java, JavaScript and Python, though I am very open to learning new technologies. I can work well in a team setting, in a leadership role, or as a solo developer. I communicate well, I learn quickly, and I always strive for excellence in my work. I am available for consulting opportunities. I prefer remote work.
Overview
2016-2021
Freelance software developer, technical lead, and software architect consultant, various projects and clients.
Major involvement in 12 projects for various departments of the Hong Kong Government, including the HK Police Force, Department of Justice, Customs and Excise Department, Social Welfare Department
Major involvement in 3 projects for the London Borough of Camden
Major involvement in 3 software products developed in-house
Coral Presenter (Powerpoint to Flash Conversion tool)
Azeus Convene (Corporate meeting platform)
AzeusCare (Social Care System targeted primarily at the UK government bodies)
Technical consultation work in many other projects within the company
Projects within the company are certified with Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) level 5 compliance
Roles and Responsibilities
System Developer (from Jan 2003 onwards)
Coding/implementation of client-side forms-based programs, web-based systems, system reports, interfaces to third-party systems and other programs
System deployment and troubleshooting, diagnotics and resolution of problems in live systems
Technical Lead (from Oct 2005 onwards)
Lead developer for multiple project teams ranging in size from 4-50 software developers and testers
Responsible for system architecture and framework design and implementation
Provided support for coordination work, task management and allocation for the development team
Conducted mentoring, code reviews and performance reviews of junior developers
Conducted risk management activities, including assessment of technical risks and evaluation of technical options
Conducted assessment and tuning of system performance problems, both during development and in live systems. This includes both application server performance and database-level (SQL) performance
Responsible for high-level supervision of development cycle, including ensuring efficient build and deployment processes
Responsible for managing security risks in the system, including making sure developers are aware of security-related best practices and adequate framework support is provided to minimize security-related problems. Includes preparation and coordination activities to ensure system compliance with 3rd-party security audits
Responsible for ensuring system compliance with various standards as required by the client systems, including but not limited to:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for accessibility concerns
ISO27001 Information Security Management
IT Standards of the HK Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (HK OGCIO)
UK Data Protection Act
Other roles
System Analyst (from Oct 2005 onwards): Design and review of implementation of various client requirements; writing functional specifications and database design; on-site consultations with clients and technology partners to discuss requirements and iterate on implementation details. On-site locations include London (United Kingdom) and Hong Kong
Presales Consultant (from Apr 2008 onwards): Responsible for drafting technical replies to client tender requirements for presales purposes and consulting on costing and estimation concerns
In-House Organisation Trainer (from May 2004 onwards): Prepared organizational training materials and conducted training sessions for new hires on the following topics: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, JSP, Java Servlets, Oracle Forms and Reports
Skills, Programming Languages, and Tools used
Web front-end languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Java, including J2EE, JSP, Java Servlets, Java Applets, Web Services
Visual C#
Adobe Flex and ActionScript
Objective-C for iOS mobile applications
Android SDK for Android mobile applications
Python scripting
Oracle RDBMS usage, administration and management
Web server platforms: Apache Web Server, Apache Tomcat, Oracle Application Server, Jboss
Third-party platforms: Liferay CMS, Alfresco CMS
Legacy systems: Oracle Forms and Reports, Borland Delphi, Powerbuilder 6.5
Other skills (outside of work experience)
Unity Game Development Framework
Education Attainment and Certifications
Year
Institution
2001
College of Engineering, University of the Philippines - Diliman
Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering
2004
PhilNITS
Japan IT Standards Examination (JITSE) Certification
I don’t actually listen to music too often, much less track what I’m listening to. There is some amount of data I have been able to track using Last.fm’s scrobbling feature. Prior to 2010, my listening was tracked using a scrobbler plugin for Winamp. (Since this requires an internet connection, it does not include music I was listening to at work during this period). After I started using Spotify in 2016, the data is now tracked using the Last.fm scrobbler app for spotify. There is no data from 2011-2015.
Note 1: Most likely the pre-2010 data includes my brothers playing Winamp on the same computer as me, because I don’t even like Urbandub so there’s no way I played that many of their tracks, but the data is what the data is, so here we are. My 2017 listening history also has a bunch of tracks from animated movies mostly because my niece kept listening to them when she visited.
This is a lifetime to-read list and also tracker of books I’ve read. The initial list came from Reddit’s Favorite Books in 2010. In 2011, I added entries from NPR’s top 100 sci-fi/fantasy novels. Every so often I’ll add some books recommended to me to the list. The items are generally sorted in the order given above. I don’t restrict myself to reading books only from this list. You can browse the books tag to see other things I’ve read.
Finished reading (parentheses indicates year read, and link to relevant content if any) (You can jump to the unread list.)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. (during college, sometime between 1996-2001)
