Finally, e.COM 2007 is now done (since last week, actually). Generally, from the e.COM System point of view, it was done quite successfully. All of the modules worked as intended, except for some simple bugs which could’ve been avoided if I tested them thoroughly. Really sorry for those who are experiencing problems with the system. While the bugs had been fixed quickly, I know it’s been serious problems for some of you. And now, the e.COM 2007 report for IT division is done, so that’s all about e.COM 2007 for me (except for the closing dinner on September 22nd). Thank you so much for all of the committees, it’s been a hard work and it’s been a wonderful time working with all of you.

Sometimes after the end of e.COM 2007, however, I have had two bad news. The first one is I have not advanced to the Round 2 of TopCoder Collegiate Challenge (TCCC) Algorithm competition. The second one is that I also have not advanced to the Round 3 of TCCC Marathon match competition. Those news means that I will not be in Orlando, Florida next month for the onsite finals T_T. Probably I should try again next time, and I know I will.

Right now, my fifth semester of study in BiNus International have started. Although it’s been just a week, I noticed that there may be some hard work to be done this semester, especially for the "Software Engineering" course. The course includes a real project (software development) to be done for a real client (or at least, one of the lecturer want it that way). I’m quite doubtful that the new program will be successful though. Just wait and see…

Oh yes, there was a surprise from my friends on my birthday (6th of September). I was really happy and would like to thank you all, for being my friends. ^_^ I’m now twenty years old, single, lonely, and still don’t know what will happen in the future, so wish me luck!!

In contrast to the not-so-clear intention of the Software Engineering course, I have just looked into the TopCoder Component Development competition, which looks quite interesting. Basically it’s a competition where I have to do something like the project in the Software Engineering course, but with a very clear design document explaining what to do. This is much more worthy to be pursued, I guess. The components posted are in Java or .NET, where a complete UML design is available and all we do is just to code it as specified. Being more complicated than the Algorithm competition, this kind of competition offers about USD 500 to USD 1000 prize per project for the best submission, and half of that amount for the second-best submission. Judging that there are usually less-than-half-a-dozen competitor for a specific project, the chance to frequently win the prize is very high for me once I learned how to do it correctly. Probably I should start competing in Development, and I should start soon.

Another thing is about my files organization. Currently I am struggling (again) to organize my files (some tens of thousands of them). Having a PHP Gallery2 and a new hosting provider (which provides some 200gigs of space in their server for me) somehow simplifies the organization of photos, but not other files. I guess this time I have to focus on organizing the files (all of them), otherwise it will continuously affect my productivity.

On the top of all of these, I am now interested in learning about "Ruby on Rails". Previously I looked on either Ruby or Phyton, but it turns out that Ruby is much better documented and is simpler to be used. Therefore, I think I am going to use Ruby to create my own personal database web applications (such as for tracking my belongings, my CD collections, books, contacts, etc.). Hopefully it worked well, so that I can one day organize all of my things neatly (which, based on experience, greatly enhance my productivity).

So, thats the end of a chapter about e.COM, and a beginning of a new chapter focused on learning and software development. I really hope it’ll be useful in the future, what do you think?

-Andrian Kurniady