About Me
Last updated on 26/6/2008
My full name is Eng Bernie (nope, NOT Bernie Eng) and I was born in Butterworth, Penang (Malaysia). I grew up in the (previously) small town of Sungai Petani, Kedah where I had my primary and secondary education in St. Theresa primary and secondary school. I got my pre-university education in Khir Johari secondary school after which I managed to enroll myself in University Putra Malaysia. My field of study was (and still is) Computer Science majoring in Software Engineering. I’m a Java developer of 3 years of experience but my job right now is (surprise, surprise) an ABAPER with Axon Malaysia, . I was previously employed by Firium Solutions as a Asc. Business Technologist (equivalent of a consultant). I’ve blabbered about my recent project with Firium in one of my blog posts. My previous employment was at NetInfinium as a Software Engineer where I worked on InterASP. Both Firium and Netinfinium are great companies to join for aspiring Java engineers.
Tech Skill set (aka stuff I’ve used before)
- Java, Struts, JSP, Servlet
- Oracle 9i, MySQL, MS SQL, Firebird
- Hibernate, iBATIS, JDBC, SQL
- Windows, Solaris, Ubuntu, SUSE
- Weblogic Application Server 8 & 9.1, WL Portal 9.2
Tech Skills I find HOT! (aka stuff I’m using, now)
- Java
- Spring
- Hibernate / JPA
- VMWare Server
- Eclipse
- Struts 2
- Jetty
A Little Bit About Work
Java
Started out my career as a junior developer and worked my way up to technical lead (and to a certain extent, project lead). Other than coding (yes, I do code), I was charged with leading a team of 4 - 6 developers (depending on time, project) in which I was required to carry out both technical and non-technical work. My technical job scope required participation in the whole software development life cycle which includes gathering of requirements (usually through meetings), writing of technical proposals, system architecture, design and deployment documents, designing and architecting the project, overseeing coding, enforcing testing (in a futile attempt to achieve some sort of quality code, lol), preparing integration test and finally performing deployments. Apart from my official job scope, I attempted to bring improvement to the team via continuous improvement of our development process, R&D of tools and technologies, controlled change management and of course striving to achieve higher quality software. The role of a project lead also meant I needed ensure the whole team didn’t fall apart and was motivated to go on, eve n when every other thing in the project was 
SAP
I’m starting out as a junior ABAPER, though I certainly hope I won’t remain junior for too long (junior is a secret term for boring, laborious and tedious work Decided ABAP just isn’t for me.
). I’m hoping to still get involved in some Java work, hopefully doing something related to NetWeaver but I won’t mind doing anything really.
In My Free Time
Code For Fun
I have to admit, I love to code. If I had the time, I’d do Android & C# programming. I’m starting Android but C# is put on hold due to the lack of time. And let’s not forget Java. Recently had an interest in C programming for Palm as well. Hmm…
Gaming
I’m currently having a blast enjoying classics on the 7 year old Playstation 2, so much that I’ve put a hold on PC gaming. I’ve got the Half-Life 2 series waiting for me to finish, along with Sega Rally Revo and World In Conflict (so in one sentence you know I do FPS, arcade racing and RTS). Of course, I’m also patiently waiting for the Nintendo Wii to come down in price. With so much hype surrounding its innovative controller, I just gotta try this one. I also spend hours on MAME playing classics such as Street Fighter (Alpha 3 and III: 3rd Impact), SVC Chaos and KOF.
Mangas and Animes
Oh yes, I’ve spent countless hours on this one. Fan of DBZ, Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Quest, Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Macross and Bleach. Also watched some of the lesser known animes which I can’t seem to recall right now. Short to say that if it’s in Japanese and it’s drawn / animated, I’m on it. Prefer Shonens.
Sci-Fi Movie & TV Series
Fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Firefly, Stargate (SG-1 and Atlantis) and Battlestar Galactica. Daily (yes, daily) dosage comes from Rapidshare. Sometimes I watch Smallville too but that’s just because my other half enjoys it.
Novels
Love a good sci-fi, fictional history or fantasy novel, especially if they come in multiple volumes . Enjoyed very much books from Tolkien, Trudi Canavan, R.A. Salvatore, Dan Brown, James BeauSeigneur and a few others. Naturally, my interest of sci-fis also made it compulsory I finished dozens of Star Wars books, though not all are good.
Sports
I enjoy a good game of badminton and soccer. I still play badminton weekly but have unfortunately lost touch with my inner football player since high school. I also love to swim though I don’t really know how. Amazingly, I’ve somehow managed to avoid drowning myself. Hmm…
Photography
I take pleasure in photographing landscapes and macros. Currently own a P&S camera which I have outgrown and getting bored of (a Casio Exilim, if you must know). Hoping to splurge on a D40 in a not too distant future. Until then, this hobby is pretty much dead. Currently own a Nikon D40 along with an assortment of lenses - Sigma 18-200mm, 30mm and a 10-20mm.
And of course, Blogging
Well, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Getting In Touch
Email
This is probably the best way to get in touch with me - ebernie[at]gmail[dot]com. Sorry for the stupid attempt to deter spambots from whacking my email. If you’re human or an extremely good AI (Cylon?) then you should be able to get what is my email. I usually ignore non-humans but gorgeous Cyons are exceptions .
Facebook
I’m on Facebook as well if that’s your thing. Feel free to lookup ‘Eng Bernie‘ or my email address and let me know you found me through my blog.
YahooIM and MSN
I’m eng.bernie on Yahoo and ebernie but again let me know you found me through my blog.
Malaysian Java User Group
I’m active on the mailing list. If you’re a Java developer, do join.
