I am a J2EE Architect! – Says Sun Microsystems.

Now, it is mid-night 12:33 AM. A windy night and rain is pouring heavily outside. Weather is so cool, and my heart is too. Though I am feeling like running outside and shout louder in the rain…, I can not do that now. Because, I am 24, and yet, the time is mid night 12.

The much awaited result is out..! I have been waiting for this result, since last 3 to 4 weeks. My Architect exam result. Why I am so excited about this is, I am only 23.7 years old – too young to have Architect Certified! :-)

Out of all my learnings till date, I consider this exam is pretty worth. The perspective of looking at software systems has changed, after looking them through the architect view. I don’t see software as a program or piece of code; I see software is assembled of components and constructs. They are like bricks and stones that give the infrastructure (I am more or less has become as a mechanic!)

I will cherish this great moment till life long. Let me recall, what I have done, lost, tried and given up to get this Architect Exam.

The Exam has 3 parts. In Part-I, we need to answer for multiple-choice questions. In Part-II, we need to workout a J2EE based architectural solution, for the problem given by Sun Microsystems. In Part-III, questions will be asked from our Part-II solution. Part-III is an essay type exam. We need to answer their questions in paragraphs.

Sun Certified Enterprise Architect – Part I

Date : 25^th Sept 2007

I have already published a post about this Part I exam, here: http://manivannan57.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

Sun Certified Enterprise Architect – Part II (Assignment)

Date: 28t^h Feb 2008

Here is the stage, you host your skills! I registered for the part II – Assignment exam. I received the assignment, and started reading the requirements about a week. I understood what the requirements were, but did not find even a single clue about how to derive solution

I started reading advises from saloon forum http://saloon.javaranch.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=26 at my free times. Needless to say, more we listen to people’s advice, the more we get confused. So, I gave up reading the forum, as it had ‘N’ number of views, arguments, advises, approaches and etc. (But, one should really read through the forum, just to see how different people mind can think to derive a solution for a given single problem! :-) )

I was helpless to bring solution and to verify my solution is correct. Because, I have not met any real world architects so far. Also, I had a fear that, they can misguide me to give a Design Solution instead of the required Architectural solution. Because, most of the techies do not distinguish a ‘Design’ and an ‘Architecture’. (And there are cases, where people have failed in the exam, as they submitted a design kind of solution rather than the architectural solution).

I’ve decided to keep my architectural solution very simple and straight-forward. I have strongly decided not to use any Framework (that is not a part of J2EE) in my solution. I did so.

The difficult part in my assignment, which I feel is, session handling decision. I needed to give a session handling solution for JSP and Swing based clients. First, I have decided an approach. I went out for coffee and cam back, and then changed the approach. I went out, looked at the children playing in the street, cam back then, and changed the approach. Likewise, it got changed many times, that I cannot even remember.

I was very strong in one thing – the examiner should be able to understand my architectural solution without any difficulties. Keeping that in mind, I put lot of details in supporting documents. I explained the approach over several pages; also, clarified the reason why I opted that approach over others.

Also, I have presented a Traceability Matrix for Functional and Non Functional requirements. That might be impressive. But, that is dangerous too. If I forget to add any requirement in the Matrix, then he will catch me. I spent lot of time to make sure that all the requirements are addressed in the Matrix table.

That’s all.

One early morning I submitted the assignment to Sun.

Sun Certified Enterprise Architect – Part III (Theory Exam)

This exam was an interesting one. We need to write the answers as paragraphs. No! we cant fill the paragraphs with some legacy stories; the answer we provide here will have to match with the architectural solution submitted for Part-II. So, I reloaded all the assignment requirements and my solution into my memory, before taking up this exam.

All of the questions were about Non Functional requirements. That’s, about performance scalability and the kind of stuffs. I gave only valid points to fill up the paragraph. I repeated most of the lines from my Part-II supporting documents. Because, it should match right.

Finally

Part II & Part III Score: 88% (Pass)

Part I Score: 95% (Pass)

Overall Grade: Pass

That’s it!

I am so excited to get passed in this exam. I am happy that I have passed in the top most level of J2EE exam, in this young age. Many people advised me that one should have minimum 6 to 8 years of experience in designing and architecting software applications to give such exams. But, me poor guy has only 2 and half years. But, I have endless passions to do.

This is the last level of the exam. So, I have decided to not to take any more certification exams in the future.

Dream #2: Stamina.

My mom is 55 years old (I am the only son and was born 14 years after their marriage). She used to get up at 5 o clock in the morning, irrespective of whatever the time, she goes to bed. She is able to do all the house work through out the day without showing any tiredness. I force her not to do any work in this age, and take enough rest. She says it has become her routine, and she can not stop doing work.

I am not even 24. But, I can not even do a half of the manual work that she does in these days. Because, for me too, it has become a routine – not to do any manual work. I am not strength less; but, am stamina-less, just like every other young living today. Spending whole of the day with computer, and living a ‘virtual’ life, spoils our stamina. You can really realize it, when you have to run for some distance at emergency.

I have a dream to mould my body just like I want – a six pack abs, muscles over muscles, very strong fist, and totally a flat body. It is not a crazy dream to attract somebody! :-) It is a kind of dream, that every one should consider for themselves too.

Let’s go one by one.

Six pack abs – If you have recently watched ‘Om Shanti Om’, then you might be knowing a lot about Six Pack Abs (unluckily, I have not watched the movie) . Shah Ruk Khan had hardly tried for more than 4 months with strict diet and exercise to get his six pack abs. If you watch that song, in which Shah Ruk appears without his shirt, don’t miss to look at his Abs. It is very tight and tough. Too hard to get such Abs. It gives a flat shape to the whole body. Without maintaining the Abs, a man cannot maintain the body; without maintaining the body, a man cannot be a complete man! It’s my craze to have my Six Pack Abs!



Muscles over Muscles – The world could not have forgotten the great martial artist ‘Bruce Lee’ so early. He didn’t simply have muscles. His peer fighters used to say, he had muscles over muscles. A different kind of muscle structure. Even, Lee too said many times that the Abs muscle is so important than anything else. If you get some time, you can google for Lee’s strength and workouts; you will get amazing info.



Very strong fist - I want my fist to have more power. To carry or to pull objects. Or to do any thing manually, we require lots of hand power.

Flat body - None of the animals has belly; none of the animals put over weight; none of the animals eats unnecessarily. Only we human being do it. We need to remember that any unnecessary or etc flesh in the body can lead to any disease. I am not talking about fitness stuffs here; I am talking about keeping the body flat and tight. Its good health wise and look wise.

To tell in frank, its my dream to have a body with aforesaid things. Its not a crazy dream. It’s a meaningful dream.

Dream #1: Harley Davidson

Here I go about writing my (costliest) dreams one by one:

Harley Davidson Ride..
(click on the image to enlarge)

I am becoming crazy about different bike models in these days. Harley Davidson is my craze. I like big bikes with full of guts! Harley is a charming bike, with 1100 or more CC power. I have a passion to ride Harley Davidson over long high-ways about several hundred kilometers.

Harley Davidson bike price ranges from US $16000 to US $26000! (6 lac Rs to 10 lac Rs). The bikes are not manufactured or sold in India. If it is to be imported from US, with 60% import duty, then calculate the net price!

To ride such bikes, one should really have a strong body indeed. A tight body, with lots of stamina. Yes, I wish I can mould my body to fit in.

If I become rich enough one day, then I will definitely buy a Harley Davidson. I wish to ride the Harley on the street where I was born!

(click on the image to enlarge)

American Gangsters (2007)

American Gangsters. Recently watched this movie. A crime movie, based on a true story (that’s what the film title says). Denzel Washington (a drug lord) and Russel Crowe (detective) drive the film. Hope, you don’t mind to read the story or screenplay using Google.

I couldn’t say in a single word, whether the movie is good or not. Sure, everyone will get confused like me, after watching this movie :-). If you have not watched ‘GodFather’ or that kind of movies already, you may find this movie in a different skin. Otherwise, you have to keenly search scene by scene what is different or what is interesting in it.

The film rolls over 1970 era. The film skin almost Black and White. I slept unconsciously many times, while watching it.



Nothing was much interesting until it comes to climax. Especially, I liked the conversation going between Denzel and Russel before climax. Denzel is arrested and released at the end, what else then?! It is incomplete! What did he do then … No clues.

As it was already said in the title that the film was based on a true story, one cannot go on arguing why this is so and that is so... Because, this is not based on the imagination of a director or some body else. It’s a true story. Full stop.

Still, I am confused whether the movie is good or not. The problem is, we ‘used to’ watch these kind of movies.

Feeling free, peaceful..

I have lots of free time now; bad thing is, I don’t know what to do in free times; In the last ten years, I was rarely free. I was such an ignorant that I learnt to work and not to enjoy life. Whenever I get free time, I am stuck! If I think of at least doing my wish list stuff, then, definitely I will be screwed up technically. So, I don’t want to do that.

Music/guitar class, Hindi class, Painting class are in consideration.