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Bio: Mihai Palade 30-Jan-2002 -- Susan Pichotta This week presents another first for the INN Bios -- the first interview with a Clarion programmer from Romania! A recent software engineering graduate, he's now studying for his Master's in Measurement Systems at the "Politehnica" University of Bucharest. But at his day job, he works with Clarion. Read about the surprising (to some) way he was introduced to Clarion, and see a little of his corner of the world. Who do you work for? (Do you own your own 
company?)No, I do not own my own company. Not, yet :-)). At the moment I am working for a small software company, Ultra Romania. We have just a small team of programmers and big projects to implement :-)). What do you like best about what you do now? Programming in general with all its parts: analyse the problem, search for a solution and design one, implementation and testing. I am interested to discover new technologies and find out how they fit to my tasks and how can help me in my job. What has been one of your biggest challenges in using Clarion? Learning it. I am still involved in this process of learning this language with all its features. Here, I have to thank to all the people on the SoftVelocity newsgroups which helped me with their answers to my, sometimes, obvious questions :-)). 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in business? Every task which has to be completed is a challenge to me. I am not involved in business for a long time but I am sure I shall stay here from now on. Do you use any computer languages besides Clarion? Yes. Clarion is my primary programming language at the company I am working for. Practically, all what I am doing right now at my job can be done with Clarion. Otherwise, I am also using Delphi or LabView for different projects I have in my spare time. I am searching to combine different features from different languages or technologies to help me out to solve problems quickly and efficiently. Like an example, at the moment I have a microcontroller based data acquisition system for which I am using LabView 6i as the software for analysis and presentation. Because it is a real data acquisition system, data has to be saved into some kind of database. LabView, in it's base version, does not include the feature to connect to databases. So, I have tried and I am developing some Clarion DLLs to save data in tps files. In my spare time I am trying to complete some web pages I want to be as a source of information for people: DAQOnline (www.daqonline.go.ro), Clarion Online Romania (www.clarion.go.ro) and my personal page (www.mpalade.go.ro). Using ASP, VBScript, JavaScript, CGIs. But more important for me are the technologies: OOP, OODBMS, eForms and how they can be used. 
When did you start using Clarion? I have heard for the first time about Clarion two years and a half ago. I have reached the TopSpeed web site, I read about Clarion programming language, I have ordered the Clarion 5 Evaluation Version and I have received it very quickly (one week or something - congratulations TopSpeed!), and start testing it. At that time, me and couple of colleagues, all students, were searching for a tool to implement a software solution for our university department library. Unfortunately, we took the decision at that time to use Delphi because is based on Object Pascal (I studied Pascal from high school) and is a very known programming language. After a couple of months, I read in a newspaper about a software company (the future Ultra Romania) which was looking for a Clarion programmer. I attended the interview and from that time I am involved in programming with Clarion. What's the coolest project(s) you've worked on using Clarion? 
Being at just my first Clarion projects (analysis, design, implementation, debugging
& testing, preparing the documentation) I consider that all the projects
I was and I am still involved in are as the same importance. Anyway, for the
Shutter application, a software program for PVC/Aluminium shutter constructors,
I had to use lot of OOP, graphics, API calls and very proper database design
with Clarion wich helped me a lot to improve my programming skills.Have you done anything for a living other than software development? Not quite. Too young :-)). My experience with Clarion was the first one with truly paid bonus. I have started it on my fourth year of University, but before this I just had my scholarship... What are your hobbies/what do you like to do when you're not using Clarion? There are too many things I like to do. Of course, it seems that I do not have the time to do everything. My last passion let's say is riding my bicycle. I also like hiking on mountains, but also on the seaside is great. Oooo, I like very much to go to cinema and watch movies. If I would have more time I would like to construct small airplane models again, like when I was 16-17. 
Ceahlau Mountains, Toaca spike (just 1904 meters) Married, children, grandchildren, other close family you want to mention? Not married yet, but I have a very stable relationship with Roxana (I call her Roxette). We hope that we shall make a great future together and we really work for this! 
Where were you born? Bacau, an average city of Romania. Where do you live now? I am living in Bucuresti, the capital of Romania. It is a very crowded city and this is something I do not like. Here I have attended the University courses and here I am working for the moment. What's interesting about where you live? :-)) Romania is always different... It is interesting because of that. We (as Romanian people) are at the beginning of a long and very hard way to follow to become a country as we want to enter to the EU. Have you lived any other interesting places? No, but I traveled as a student or with business to a couple of countries: France, Russia, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary. All around us are nice things which are very good to be noticed and remembered. Which person, from past or present, do you most admire and why? My parents :-)) because are my parents... 
It is interesting that "DOINA" in Romanian also means an old traditional form of poetry put on music :-)) What is your favorite food? I do not know yet. There is so much food I have not tried yet :-)) Romanian food is a very rich one and I can write some, but, sorry, I cannot translate them, instead I would have to describe the whole process of making them and we do not have the time and space ... :-)) But "ciorba de burta" is the best soup! What is your favorite drink? I like Pepsi-Cola. What is your favorite type of music? I am listening different types of music: from disco, techno, pop, trance, rock, hard rock till classical music. I like to hear it from radio stations, because all the time is different... If Clarion never existed, what do you think you would be doing at this time? Most probably I would be trying to continue working with LabView and Delphi in the field of data acquisition and virtual instrumentation. Anyway, there are a lot of powerful programming languages which deserve to be taken into consideration. Important is to complete the task efficiently. Anything else you want to mention? Friends are very important to me. You cannot live without friends! 
From left to the right: Me (Mihai :-))),
Roxana-Maria (Roxette, my
girlfriend), Laura (very good friend of ours; she was my colleague in
high school), Ionut (also a colleague from high school; we share the
same "bank", or table/desk :-)); most of Romanian classes are split with 2 students
for each bank) and his girlfriend Ana. |
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