I am interested in Electronics thus joined the army as a technician. It is the only formal technical training I ever get. While attached to civilians as a Quality Assurance tech, I have chance to contact with automatic testing technology. My superior encourages me to write programs of our own to do automatic testing instead of relying on contractor's program. With some guidance from the contractor, I managed to write the program which performs equally well as the contractor's without even going for any programming training. At that time the programming language is BASIC which is easily understood. If it is C language then probably I am done for.
After my army service term completes, I have no certificate that is recognized in the civilian world so I worked for a call management company doing outsource work. The procedure is complex so they have documents to assist the call agents. However, the documents are never synchronized. Each person may have a subset of what is available and updating is a headache. By then I have been promoted supervisor (because nobody wants the post) working in Hewlett Packard.
I began to look for standardization. At that time we are using UNIX system as a computer console. I have virtually no access to the system except the filing directory. After reading books on computers, I noticed that there are help files. Help files can be created using an application. I began to learn how to use the application at my own time and managed to create a standard help file with all the information in one place thus achieved standardization.
As time goes along, the UNIX system has been replaced by Microsoft Windows. The help file can still be used but again my customer's superior urge me to do a web based help system. I have virtually no knowledge of web programming but I took up the challenge by studying HTML and Javascript. The result is a simple web based help system.
After that my customer superior become aggressive and wanted to have a interactive web program by using ColdFusion and web server. Again I took up the challenge and studied ColdFusion while actually writing apps. Luckily it is quite easy to learn Coldfusion. In the process I also learned SQL. The result is a CRM system. All these without the company spending a single cent for training.
As we proceed along, there are some redundant servers available for scrap and we took them in. However, since we only have one licence for ColdFusion, it is deemed too expensive to buy more copies of it. Moreover, the web server is a internally hosted by IT department and it costs to maintain it with them. Therefore, we switch to PHP and Apache web server. They are all free.
With the PHP, Apache web server and unlimited supply of MS SQL server (the customer company have signed an unlimited supply of MS SQL server licence), I wrote two separate PHP CRM system in the course of work. It even include a Standalone Queue display system. How much it costs the company? 0 cents except my salary which is not even a skilled technician pay.
In between all the web programming work, there is a need to transfer the CRM data to the customer's legacy system. All the while we are doing manual copy and paste work. I studied the legacy system and noticed that there is a macro programming which can be controlled externally. The result is that I wrote a DLL program that can be called by Javascript using ActiveX that can write into the fields of the legacy system and able to click the buttons available. It saved us extra manpower to manually enter the data. It saved the customer's money but it is actually counter productive for my boss (we charge by the manpower used for the outsourcing). I ended up being the bad guy for my own company.
To amend for that, I began to write utilities to make our people's life easier without having to cut down on manpower. The result is a series of automatic checks to ensure that the data entered is according to specification. It automatically correct the wrong data according to specification. It even includes an automatic quotation program. We invested a bit and added an automatic SMS and email facility. It was the peak of my programming era with two additional manpower under my charge.
The work also requires reporting system. So, I wrote a series of web reporting system and produce summaries including charts. I even created 6 sigma charts at the customer's request. There is a excel based summery report which is so complex that I have to write macros to do thousands of distinct summary calculations till I myself am amazed to how I actually achieved it.
After my boss have to quit the outsource contract due to difficult customer demands, I become jobless. The customer manager wanted me to sign on with the other outsource company who took over. I declined as I am still loyal to my ex company. Also, it is due to the same customer manager that my boss quits the contract.
Again without formal training, my skills are useless. After two years my ex boss started a new business as a authorized repair agent for Apple handphone and Mac. He contacted me after one year of opening business and request my help to automate the system. I agreed without actually knowing the system used. It turned out that they are all using Mac and iPad. Moreover, the programming tool used is FileMaker. The actual task is to automate between their system and Apple web services.
Being completely new to all three system, I could not promise my boss but he is willing to spend 6 months of time (1/2 day part time) to try achieve it. In the end, I learned how to use a MacBook to write programs with Filemaker and is able to communicate with Apple web services using CURL on Filemaker. The result is a total success without even going for formal training.
I am currently writing Filemaker programs on ad hoc freelance basis for my boss and there is no other new programming challenges but I am still eager to learn new things.
In my free time, I started to cycle and walk around Singapore as an exercise. While exercising I saw flowers and plants that I cannot even name it. I started to take pictures of plants and try to find their names. In the process I joined iNaturalist and Project Noah and a number of Facebook groups which allow others to help identify nature creatures. I began to take animals and insect photos too. it is a total new "hobby" and I again learned tremendously on this area about plant and animal kingdom. The result is that I walked all over Singapore to places which I have never been and accumulated around 17,000 photos with 2600 plus distinct species (including overseas).
I have created two Blogger blogs one each on plants (Plants in Singapore) and animals (Fauna Singapore) and duplicates them in WordPress webs. After all, what I learned could be useful for others too. I also shared some of my technical skills in this blog too (Everything Jonathan).
While trying to exercise, I encountered problems finding PCN paths. NParks did have a map but it is just a plain map. It did not tell me whether the path goes above or below roads and I have a problem whenever it switch to the other side of road and did not mark it properly (in early days). I have created a map on Google Map to show all these information and other helpful info necessary to have a seamless connectivity between PCNs (New PCN on Bikes). As of to date it has 360,000 plus views.
In the process of creating maps, I learned the skills about GeoTagging. I learned to use different tools to create custom layouts. I learned to tag photo with Geolocation in sync with GPX routes data. It all started just for fun but I learned.
What I have achieved in learning is plenty although it is not recognized by other companies. I am proud of what I did and believes that learning is never redundant in life. There is a Chinese saying "活到老学到老". Learning never ends.
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