Windows API Calls

Right,

so at the moment I'm working as a Junior C++ software Engineer. Really enjoying the job, but that's not what todays post will be about.

Currently I'm working on a project that should be able to fetch all the Drives on a system and display the VolumeName and FreeSpace on those Drives.
To make this as fast as possible, I'm using direct API calls to the Windows API. According to alot of people and sites this should be the fastest way to get the information I need, but it is still taking up to 14 seconds before I even get a response from the application.
I understand that there could be a small delay due the act I have 2 network drives that need to be accessed and that this could take up time.

To test this I made a VCL C++ version and a Visual C++ .NET application to test this. When I run the code from the .NET application on my laptop this goes instantly. If I run the same code on the development PC this also takes a long time to complete. So at the moment I still blame the Network Drives.

The code I'm using at the moment is the following:

// Fetch the Drives from the System
array^ allDrives = DriveInfo::GetDrives();
// Iterate through the array and check if the drive is ready.
// If it is ready then create a display string and add it to the listbox.
for(int i = 0; i <>Length; ++i)
{
if(allDrives[i]->IsReady)
{
String^ drive = allDrives[i]->Name;
drive += " [";
drive += allDrives[i]->VolumeLabel;
drive += "] , ";
__int64 size = allDrives[i]->AvailableFreeSpace / (1024 * 1024 * 1024);
drive += size.ToString();
drive += " GB available.";
// add the drive to the listbox.
lstDrives->Items->Add(drive);
}
}

So I'm still a but clueless as to why the real slowdown is occuring in this code on my development PC (Windows Server 2003) opposed to my laptop (Windows XP).....

Staying up to date...

Since the technologies constantly keep evolving, I've started to read up on books regarding these new technologies. I've ordered the following book on Amazon.com to keep up regarding the latest ASP.NET technologies, "Professional ASP.NET 3.5 In C# and VB".

This "little" book contains 1600 pages about the .NET 3.5 technology for ASP.NET pages. I hope to get through it at a reasonable pace and understand what's beeing discussed in it. I don't foresee much problems with it, because it's in my field of interest and I really wish to devote myself to the .NET technologies.

During my interview with Digipoint (that's http://www.digipoint.be for those interested) I learned that .NET 4.0 is already in the make and that I appear to be running behind reagrding technologies. This only motivates me to learn the technologies faster and keep up to date regarding the .NET framework.

This book however is not enough for me. There's alot more technologies from the .NET framework that I wish to learn. Silverlight, Sharepoint and WPF to name a few. I know roughly what to expect with these technologies and what they're for, but the finer details currently elude me due lack of experience. I hope to start reading up on those books pretty soon so I can use this knowledge in future jobs and job interviews.

Lack of Motivation....

Was my latest anwser that I recieved from a job interview.
Do these people actually understand what they're talking about?

How in god's name can i have a lack of motivation? I'm currently unemployed and activly seeking a new job. Do they think I enjoy beeing unemployed? They think this is a game?
Do they even understand that they're playing with people's futures?

Get more experience, get more motivation, you lack the knowledge, you don't have the required skills for .NET, C++, Java and whatever other programming languages.
How the fuck do the people get experience in something if they're not hired, not selected for a job, NOT EVEN GIVEN A CHANCE?

Recruitment is a messed up business. It's no longer about bringing the right person to the job, it's just about who can make the most money for the company.

I've had it with this crap really.

Solliciations and interviews

Right,

here we go again. Same story...different company.
Last week I went on interview with several companies. Now the phonecalls and emails start comming in again for the results of those interviews.

Result : I'm sorry you were not successful due lack of experience.

I mean, why the hell do people ask me to come over for a job interview in the first place if they have my CV to check up on my past experiences? Driving around costs me time and money, and as an umployed person that's something I really can't afford to spent.

So to all those recruitment agencies out there, and HR departments. Please read the CV's of your candidates and don't play games with them by inviting them over and then denying them due lack of experience. It's in the CV, bloody read it !

My Own Country

With all the troubles currently going on in the world, I've had this idea of running my own country. A place that can sustain itself, independent of the world's economy.

This probably sounds like an Utopia, but just out of curiosity; what are the requirements to have your own country? As far as I know, there's not a single law that forbids me from making my own country and inviting people to come live in my country ?

It would be a place where there are no taxes. People pay a fee to enter the country and to purchase a plot of land to build their homes upon. Costs required to maintain the village/city or other public areas would come from a collection. People know what the money would be for and that it would only be spent on what is needed.
Make the offer interesting enough and even companies will move in with industry and public services.

Then what does one need to have his own country? a piece of land somewhere uncontrolled? their own currency? How would the world react to it?

but most importantly, would it solve the problems.......or would some crazy country just invade us?

Getting a Job

Seems to be the most difficult thing in the world right now. I can hardly count the number of positions I've applied for, but it's always the same anwser you're getting:

"I'm sorry you're not qualified for this position"
"I'm sorry but your profile does not match the criteria"

And that's if most companies/agencies actually bother to reply in the first place.

I don't understand what the actuall problem is these days. When I compare what the jobdescription often lists as criteria against my CV then I'm wondering what I'm missing since everything that's beeing asked by most companies is on my CV.

The most shocking thing I have encountered so far is that most, not all, recruitment agencies seem to be able to look into the future. They usually tell me over the phone that they won't have any opening soon. I wish I could look into the future like that.

For me it's rather simple. Recruitment agencies are a joke, and if I want to apply for a job then i'll contact the company directly myself and no longer work with people taking interviews that know jackshit about the subject they're interviewing about

The Top

Finally managed to hit level 80 in World of Warcraft.
After playing for nearly 4 months it still pleases me and gives a good fealing for achieving this. Unlike most "pro" players, I try to enjoy the game and actually partake in what is beeing offered on each level.

This means that I do not rush through zones and instances just to get the equipment and progress as fast as possible to the level cap. No, I took my time to actually understand the story behind a given dungeon or quest, and to see the bigger picture.

I am proud however of a few things that I managed to do before hitting level 80.
The first one beeing the ambassador title on level 37 without doing the cloth quests for each faction. No big thing most will say, but for me it really means alot, as I never bothered much about the factions. I even managed to get my hands now on all the normal speed land mounts of the each Alliance faction. Still got a long way to go.

Currently my objectives are to participate in Heroic runs with guildmembers and slowley gear up for the Raid instances that we do. Besides that I want to collect the achievements for Northrend and Outland, which means running more zones, instances and finishing questlines.

The end goal? For now it will be epic flying, as I would really love to get my hands on a Netherdrake. I'm against borrowing money and goldsellers, so knowing me this will probably take the same amount of time as it took me to get to 80.

I did manage to get the dualspec thing, and now I'm on the lookout for tank and melee DPS gear. Draenor hasn't seen the last of this kitty yet.

Back to the roots

...which means back to Belgium for me.
Been in Belgium now for a couple of days, as of thursday 29th of April to be exact, and I miss things from Germany. On the other hand I'm glad to be back in Belgium as well.

Today's post won't be about those things though. I'm currently semi active, looking for interesting positions but I honestly don't have a clue what to do. Going back to University all sounds great, but several people close to me said that experience is more valuable then knowledge, while other people say the exact opposite.

Personally I want to work with the C++ language, but I'm hearing from all sides that it's a dieing language in the current industry and that I should focus on the .NET environment. I personally have no problems with the .NET evironment, but I'm afraid that if I focus too much on working with the .NET technologies, I will lose my skills and knowledge regarding the C++ language, and that it will become a disadvantage when I finnaly have the required experience to apply for the positions in the gaming industry.

Which brings me to my second point. Alot of people mentioned that I should make small games myself or programs related to games. All nice and well, but I really don't see myself making such a things, due the fact that creativity isn't my strongest point. I don't mean to say I can't think up stuff, as I can be pretty scary in that, I just lack the design skills to make myself some images or 3D stuff. And I honestly don't see the point of starting up a small team just to get stuff going. The trouble it brings isn't really worth the effort at the moment.

Been trying to build up a modelviewer for WoW to analyze the files, but it's so difficult finding information regarding the way Blizzard build their files, and I honestly don't expect them to tell me how they did it...

The Customer is King...

NOT!

Don't get me wrong on this, as each company should always strife to get as much customers as possible and treat them well, otherwise they will not stick around long.

I'm active as free techsupport and customer support for online games, and I'm pretty sure that everyone else who works in a similar branche encounters the same problems.
Users will always try to get on your nerves and demand that they get helped or refunded for things they are not even entitled too.

In worse cases they just demand that you do as they tell because they are paying for your services and demand to be treated like a king because the mantra says "the customer is king".
I agree that we need to help the people, but just jumping at their winks and filling their demands is where I draw line.

This is especially true if they come with problems created by their own stupidity or are telling you how they know things better.
Again, I'm not against helping the people as not everyone can solve problems without guidance or simply lacks the knowledges for doing so, but some people really ought to learn that respect has to go 2 ways.

Reviving a dead Character

yes I play World of Warcraft, and I'm not ashamed for it.
I honestly don't understand what people have against the game, or against people actually playing it.

Today, I asked a GM to restore a character I delete months ago. I've deleted the character perhaps to soon, as I regretted the choice. One of my first characters ever made, and honestly, my best WoW time comes from this character.

So as of today, yatachi the troll shaman is back on the Neptulon server!
The only problem that remains is getting him to level 80, raid ready and hopefully back into Influx. Which will be a big challenge AND questionmark, as I cannot foresee at the moment my free time.

To do or not To Do

Why is live always so complicated?
Right now i'm in the middle of this whole situation where I need to decide whether or not I will go back to University or keep looking for a software engineering position.

Honestly, either way suits me fine. If I go to University, I will live back at my parents till I graduate. No expenses, no problems. Just 3 to 4 years of studying.

The search for job is what really puts me down. I'm currently in possession of a Bachelor's degree IT Multimedia. Practical approach to programming, with knowledge about the most common programming languages and principles. Even got a whole year of software engineering principles. Yet for companies it's hard to believe that I'm suited for Engineering Positions.

For now I'll probably keep browsing the Internet a bit in the hope that one dreamjob is there, willing to recruit me. Should I not find that job before summer passes, I can still start the University.