Mr. Wong is an IT Architect with 9 years of experience working with industry specific technology solutions that consist of multiple hardware and software products in a technical leadership role. His technical area of expertise is 1) business process execution excellence using technology and programming language agnostic tools, 2) Sun J2EE/JEE application development with open source frameworks and libraries 3) process/application/data integration using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) techniques, 4) designing and deploying high volume, geographically dispersed SOA infrastructures and 5) IT architecture design, IT lifecycle management and IT Services Management using Rational Unified Process, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and other industry-wide recognized methodologies.

Mr. Wong is also a published author writing books and articles on the application of Service Oriented Architecture in a business environment and best practices with IBM Software products like WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere MQ, DB2, Tivoli Monitoring and Tivoli Provisioning Manager. He is ITIL v3 Foundations certified and an IBM Certified SOA Solution Designer.

Not at work, Mr. Wong is very active in Asian American Civil Rights as an officer for the Organization of Chinese Americans, an ACM Distinguished Speaker where he speaks as an advocate of the IT profession and was a past president of the University of California Irvine Alumni Association Information and Computer Science Chapter. He enjoys traveling all over the world, eating at local restaurants, shopping, reading and learning about anything and everything. You can reach him at atwong@alumni.uci.edu.

Tivoli Unified Process

Tivoli Unified Process - IBM® Tivoli® Unified Process (ITUP) is a Web-based tool that provides detailed documentation of service management processes based on industry best practices, including the recently released ITIL® V3 best practices. ITUP enables organizations to significantly improve IT efficiency and effectiveness by enabling users to easily understand processes, the relationships between processes, and the roles and tools involved in an efficient process implementation. ITUP represents the collective experience of IBM experts based on thousands of customer engagements. With more than 17,000 registered users, ITUP is a leading source of service management information.

Web-based documentation at http://alberttwong.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/IBM_Tivol_ Unified_Process_7.1.4/

Download the process at http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/governance/servicemanagement/itup/tool.html

Flash demo at http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/library/demos/itup.html

Rational Unified Process

Rational Unified Process - IBM Rational Unified Process® (RUP®) is a comprehensive process framework that provides industry-tested practices for software and systems delivery and implementation and for effective project management. It is one of many processes contained within the Rational Process Library, which offers best practices guidance suited to your particular development or project need. If you'd like a free poster, you can sign up for them at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/rupposter/

Here is a sample of a RUP project - http://alberttwong.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/RUP/SmallProjects/

Happy 35th Birthday Bar Code

On today's date in 1973, a small supermarket in Troy Ohio became the testing grounds for the world's first commercial bar code scanner. At 8:01 am, Sharon Buchanan scanned a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum and changed retail forever.

via Happy 35th Birthday Bar Code - Bar code 35th birthday - Gizmodo.

You’re Leaving IBM, Now What?

Your time at IBM may have been an unforgettable joy, a roller coaster ride, or an uncomfortable journey. Most likely it was a bit of all three. Opinions about the IBM working experience are varied, but never bashful. For many people their time at IBM was a blessing, but they are now bitter about the way things are playing out and wonder what to do next.

It is upsetting for a lot of people to see IBM let go of thousands upon thousands of loyal employees, while at the same time reporting good profits. Also disheartening are reports of IBM’s expansion plans in other areas. There will be many opportunities in these locations, but mostly for newer ( i.e., less expensive ) hires.

If you have already been RA’d, or if you are on the bench waiting for the other shoe to drop, your feelings about the situation do not matter in the IBM scheme. There is little you can do to stay with the company. Accept the situation, take a deep breath and become proactive about searching for new job opportunities. Move on and leave IBM in the past.

Even if you feel temporarily safe from the most recent round of cuts you should not become too complacent. Especially if you are in a non customer-facing role. The prudent thing is to reflect on your future prospects outside of IBM.

via HIRE PASSAGE.

Your computer desktop

I don't have a PhD (permanent head damage) degree but I can appreciate the humor. http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1168

IBM and South Park at Impact 2009

Okay guys.. I'm blue through and through so don't take this the wrong way. Check out this video. It's super funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exDpCmBsXFE&feature=related

QR codes

QR codes are all over japan. It's a easy for retailers and people to exchange or pass information (text, url, contact) from company/individual to a phone via a graphic. Check it out, it's beginning to get hot in other parts of the world. In the meantime, here's my contact information as a QR code. Take a picture of the graphic with "barcodes" application on iphone to automatically import my contact info into your phone.

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A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan, where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes. Moreover, most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

Will be at BarCamp Sacramento this weekend

Going to BarCamp Sacramento this weekend. Should be very, very interesting. If you don't know about Barcamp, it's a way for techies to meet other techies and share what they know or what is cool with one another.

http://www.sacbarcamp.com/

The Internet Beautifully Visualized As High-Res Tokyo Subway Map, Again

Subway maps make a great framework for organizing things other than subway stations: the unique colored lines, the distinct neighborhoods, the interesting intersections. Design firm Information Architects have just released their latest Web 2.0 map.

http://www.zoomorama.com/2477f0e8b447bb6570493cdac464c41f for a bigger map.

Understanding and becoming Rational Unified Process certified - IBM Certified Solution Designer RUP

Rational Unified Process (RUP) is very misunderstood. It has one of the worse reputation out there because there is alot of FUD out there spread by people who don't really understand its value and benefit. To the un-educated, RUP is an over engineered SDLC (software development life cycle) process that has no real value in a world where everything is quick, dynamic, and there's no time for planning. That's absolutely wrong. Rational Unified Process, in it's 3rd major revision, has come a long way and has evolved just like the IT industry. With tooling like Rational Method Composer, people can easy adapt RUP to fit time-boxed, time-crunched projects to multi-year projects while providing that rigor that the business needs for planning. IBM Global Services uses RUP in almost all the projects they execute. As a IBM Certified Solution in Rational Unified Process, I'd highly encourage you to learn more about it. Below is an online class for you to understand it more and help you gain certification in the process.

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IBM Certified Solution Designer - IBM Rational Unified Process V7.0

An intermediate level solution designer is an individual with extensive product knowledge who understands the principles involved and the uses of Rational Unified Process. The individual should be proficient with RUP terminology, iterative development principles and related work products, method elements and their relationships, process elements and their relationships, and the basic intent and content of RUP disciplines.

It is expected that this solution designer will be generally self-sufficient and able to perform the tasks involved in the role with limited assistance from peers, product documentation and vendor support services.

To receive this certification, you need to pass the following test

http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/ovr839.shtml

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Principles of Rational Unified Process v7.0

In this course you will be introduced to the basic principles of Rational Unified Process® (RUP), from the key principles that provide the foundation of the process, to the disciplines and phases that comprise the process. This course is designed specifically for developers, managers, and designers who are just beginning to use RUP for their software development projects.

On Politics in Technical Organizations

Much too often we "talk" about politics but yet we don't really understand it. The below article from an ex-IBM VP really sheds some needed light on the subject.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/4690.html

Cloud computing versus grid computing

Want to know more about cloud and grid computing? Learn how you can use Infrastructure as a Service to get a full computer infrastructure using Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). See the similarities, differences, and issues to consider in grid and cloud computing. Explore some of the security issues and choices for Web development in the cloud, and see how you can be environmentally friendly using cloud computing.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-cloudgrid/?ca=dgr-dth-cloudjw22CloudvsGrid&S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=grsitejw22

Comparison between China and India in the Departmental Store Business

The basic gist, it costs way too much in terms of operating costs (distribution/logistics, inventory, purchasing) and not enough revenue.

http://india.retailmantra.com/2009/03/department-stores-comparison-china-vs.html

Japanese Billboard Watches You Watch It

One more step to Minority Report!

Japan's NTT Communications is testing a new billboard setup in January that has a built-in pair of cameras hooked up to image detection software that determines how many people are in front of the ad, and just how many are looking at it.

http://gizmodo.com/5111201/japanese-billboard-watches-you-watch-it

10 Things Supermarkets Won't Tell You at SmartMoney.com

Ohhh... reading articles like this feels like the "cat is out of the bag".

1. “Feel the squeeze? Actually, so do we.”
2. “You’re getting less for the same price.”
3. “We jack up prices where you’re least likely to notice.”
4. “You can’t always believe our nutrition claims.”
5. “We won’t take your coupons.”
6. “Our loyalty cards help us cater to our biggest spenders...”
7. “...but they’re not always your best bet for big savings.”
8. “Big sales may not mean lower costs for you.”
9. “We may carry local produce, but we’re no farmer’s market.”
10. “We’re experts in human behavior.”

10 Things Supermarkets Won't Tell You at SmartMoney.com