Sunday, January 15, 2012

I want to be a Guru

Hi, I usually call myself 'red1' as an easy nickname. I have served the community for FOSS ERP since 2003 via forums, writings and other voluntary work.

I do not have a college diploma nor a university degree. I hardly won any job interviews. Most of what I got are from people who knows me. I started working in 1981 as a part time tutor for school dropouts. In 1982 I worked as a COBOL trainee programmer but quit in 1985 when I find it boring.

I worked in many odd projects none of which lasted more than 2 years. In 2001 the dotcom crash got me fired as a CTO of an OracleExchange dotcom. I moved with my family of 6 to a farm and became a food for own use farmer. In 2003 two things happened that changed my life. Someone told me about Compiere. Then, ADSL broadband reached my farm home.

I always wanted to be a guru and help save the world. So I learnt Compiere on my own and documented what i learnt freely and openly. In 2006 when Compiere is sold off, the community recognised my red1.org forum as the place to go and asked me to help form a new project - ADempiere. I tried to lead it but failed to unite the community under my anarchic brand of peerocracy and meritocracy.

I returned to my roots in 2010, and focus on red1.org and working more closely with important friends that I known from the community that I think share the same brand and same dream. Just that they are already gurus and i am still learning.

I began to accumulate debts and end of 2010 I wanted to quit this free hobby and try to ask around for a job. Microsoft friend tried to get me some interviews. As usual no one called me for an interview.

Then an angel contacted me via email. He asked me how much I need to continue my hobby. I thought he was joking. I simply say USD3000. Few minutes later he asked if I got a paypal to pay that into. I quickly give my paypal account. Few minutes later I got email from my Paypal that says "You got funds".

I worked triple hard on my hobby. I learnt many new things and do more than paid for. Before I could finish within 2 months, the angel asked again for me to do another task. I gave a higher amount. And again 'I got funds" even before I started working on it. This went on with more and more tasks and each task is like a paid hobby as I got to learn entirely new stuff. Usually i give up learning new things as they are too hard. But I was afraid I cannot pay off my present financial debts, so I worked triple hard to learn. I usually do not ask anyone for help but just Google as i want to become a real guru. It was a long painful path at times. But each time I mastered something, I was overjoyed. I grew more and more confident. I feel more like a guru each time. I wrote my documents more proudly.

But each task sent by the angel is never an old one. I have to Google again on how best to tackle new tasks. Each time I am able to reuse Open Source code and improve on it at the same time because usually the code is a bit old and i am searching for the latest techniques and tools from the Web.

I have never met nor speak with the angel except to say how much i need for what task. I can now even suggest to him what I prefer to do. Usually he will agree and is very quick in paying. If there is one thing I worry is that there is no more task to do. Or he has no more funds to give. So far that seems impossible as he comes from a country called Bangladesh that has 100 over million people so his company business of poultry will not stop feeding people. The tasks on FOSS ERP are also never ending. I reckon probably 3 years to finish what we can imagine with present day technology.

In 3 years probably the technology move further ahead and there be more tasks presenting themselves.

I can now work from home and never have to attend meetings or discussions as the angel never or hardly discussed or review my work. So it is up to my conscience to ensure i did my best and document it the best. I suspect he already knew me from my online free work and thus has done all the review he needed. Or else he maybe just taking pity on me and felt he must give back to the community as his group of large companies are using ADempiere freely.

Since i need not have an office or submit reports i take to travelling all over the world. To date I have gone to Thailand, the Philipinnes, France, Germany, Austria, Czech, England, Ireland, Libya, Syria and South Africa. Next weeks I have invitations to Ecuador and Brazil from Bogota where I am presently blogging from.

I am so happy that my dreams are achieved. I can learn to become a guru and focus on pure code and hardly any other necessary evil that usually comes with work. I am learning faster and faster like never before. The travels and meetings with gurus makes me more motivated and helped solve the pain of learning curves.

I am forever converted to this path of giving and sharing FOSS ERP knowledge. I dedicate the rest of my short life to making it the best ERP software in the world, entirely free and highly easy to use.

Join my cause. Look for my name.

red1

I am a Zen Muslim

OK, ok, look, look. This is very Zen. As someone was chatting about it in some Facebook link I spontaneously created this blog to agree with the spontaneous comment that this is a good brand for a religion. If you cannot spontaneously create your Facebook account to view that, no worry. I will in a Zen move, paste those words here,
  • Redhuan D. Oon
    OK.. serious note: I believe that all scriptures are the same as all Messengers are. When Jesus came, he was asked this, and he replied that he did not come to change the code but renew the code of Moses. He found it corrupted and told them what exactly is the contract or the Matrix (in modern terms). Then people either want to crucify Jesus or want to worship him and got the message corrupted again. Then came Muhammad and he recited the same words, 'believe in the code brought here and brought before here, till Heaven comes". I have found Buddha to be not in conflict with the code. If I may, to say how i shall live by the code, so that i do not go crazy and too holy till over dogmatic and repulsive, i will regard myself as a Zen Muslim.
    5 hours ago ·
  • Nor Bahgia Nordin Wow Zen Muslim! That's good branding.. That certainly beats Islam Hadhari..hehe!
    34 minutes ago · · 1
  • Shanmugam D Moorthi Brothers at 50+ life should not be complicated...
    27 minutes ago · · 1