Dandu's blog

12 lessons from Google E-Commece boss

2010-02-18T19:58:00.002-06:00

1. Hire the best talent. Surround yourself with smarter people who have complementary skills and who challenge the status quo.
2. Think big. Develop BHAGs: big hairy audacious goals. Imagine the impossible and you will be surprised how much you can accomplish.
3. Aim to make a difference. Make the world a better place.
4. Say what you mean and do what you say. Execution and follow-through are critical. Thomas Edison said “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” My father used to always remind me of this.
5. Competition makes you stronger. It also makes you serve your customers better.
6. Always put the customer first. And remember, you have to have a great product or service that is differentiated to win.
7. Take on the hardest challenges. Get out of your comfort zone. If you have not failed at something, you are probably not innovating.
8. Truth-seeking is half the battle in winning. You need to know where you stand in the war.
9. Move fast in a land-grab. Get network effects first. Remember, you need both popularity and profitability.
10. You can be an entrepreneur in a big company.
11. Pay it forward. Be a mentor.
12. If you make a mistake or fail, it’s OK. Fix it fast and move forward. But make sure to take the lessons away so you do not repeat them. Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Learning swimming -- Total immersion way

2010-01-08T14:38:00.002-06:00

This seems to be one way for me to learn swimming (one of so called resolutions that I could not fulfill last year, but will be accomplishing this year starting on January 9th)

Longevity Made Simple

2010-01-04T21:21:00.002-06:00

Just finished a quick breeze of the book.

It repeats the following with respect to one's lifestyle:
1. lower cholesterol.
2. Eat diet rich in Fish, Fruits and Vegetables.
3. Exercise.
4. Maintain a healthy weight.
5. Prevent Accidents(don't speed up and buckle up)
6. Drink Alcohol.
7. Take a multi-vitamin.

Foods that are good for anybody:
1. Nuts(walnuts, Almonds)
2. Avocados.
3. Bell Peppers.
4. Blueberries.
5. Citrus Fruits
6. Fat free/1 percent milk.
7. Olive Oil.
8. Garlic
9. Plant stenols and Sterols (no idea what this is)
10. Red wine
11. Salmon
12. Spinach
13. Sweet Potatoes.
14. Tea
15. Tomatoes
16. Vegetable Juice
17. Whole Grains

The Best Iphone apps(as of Dec 2009)

2009-12-28T09:47:00.001-06:00

This list gives a perspective on what is good and what I am missing.

25 must have free-ware

2009-12-27T17:46:00.001-06:00

I am happy that Eclipse is mentioned along with putty.

Top 10 tech firms ripe for IPO in 2010

2009-12-25T14:55:00.001-06:00

I do agree with Facebook, Zynga, Gilts group and Tesla, not sure of others. I am a big fan of Linked-in and workday.

Top 100 Best Technical Blogs

2008-10-14T12:24:00.001-05:00

The List is very comprehensive and very useful for a quick read around on what is happening in the tech-geek world.

Top 5 Attributes of an effective Programmer

2008-02-23T21:11:00.003-06:00

This talks about the 5 attributes:
Humility
Love of Learning
Detail Orientedness
Adaptability
Passion

It is a great article and a must read for budding programmers/systems developers.

UTest --> New testing phenomenon

2008-02-10T14:27:00.000-06:00

This site tries to bring software products and a community of testers together for a marketplace for testing. I think it is a great idea, sort of like salesforce.com but for testing arena.

If it clicks(by the way there are already 1000 or so testing experts already signed up to provide their expertise here) many small and medium scale firms do not need inhouse testing resources. But only concern would be the patent infrigement and constant possibility of being copied of the new features by competition.

If a product does not fall in my concerns list, this is a cool way of semi outsourcing your testing work.

How to become a CIO

2008-02-02T23:29:00.000-06:00

This article talks about different traits of a CIO(or to be observed in a would-be CIO).

One interesting comment in it:
A successful CIO doesn’t have to be a technology expert, and in fact most CIO’s aren’t technology experts. People who are highly motivated to become technology experts typically don’t have the other seven skills. Some CIO’s may have come from a technology background, but if they were technology experts in their past, they’ve now left that skill behind them.

Next Facebook President

2008-01-09T13:17:00.001-06:00

This article talks about the biggest prank on French media, very hilarious.

It gives a light on how viral information can create false perception & how quickly major media can latch on to stuff that is false.

Its a Mint

2007-12-25T18:57:00.000-06:00

I came across this site through wired magazine.

I feel the founders have a winner in the site, geared towards online finance management(aka budget management) for free. It is very quick to setup your account and sync the transactions to see the overall state of your spending and budgeting etc etc.

Sure to make quicken a run for its money.

Work below your means

2007-12-05T13:08:00.001-06:00

This post from Andy Hunt perfect sense for end of the year.

I am seriously thinking of going email free for a half day every week.

Good article on Display size and effectiveness

2007-08-14T11:14:00.000-05:00

Here is an article that discusses the disadvantages of having big size monitors(like 30inch etc) compared to using couple of 20' monitors.

Stupid or Just Ignorant or a mistake

2006-12-29T15:20:00.000-06:00

I am leaning towards the first choice.

Just came across this about a German guy trying to reach Sydney, Australia but ended up in Sydney,Montana,USA.

Scroll problems with IPOD

2006-12-17T09:04:00.000-06:00

I have been having this problem with my 4th gen IPOD. The scroll aspect of the pod will not work.

I tried reset, restart and all possible suggestions online. Finally came across one odd post that helped me solve the issue.

"Move the hold button to on. Press the middle button. Move the hold to off & switch on the ipod. The scroll will start working again".

I like IPOD in conjuntion with itunes for the ease of use. But, as a hard ware it is a painful peace of crap.

No Fluff Just Stuff ( J2EE Conference)

2006-10-29T21:41:00.000-06:00

Just attended it this weekend(Oct 27-29 2006). It was an awesome conference.

Kept me engaged through out the 3 days. Started me thinking about couple of revolutionary changes in the J2EE arena.

AOP has finally arrived according to the conference. Ruby on Rails, Groovy and Web2.0 APIs like Google Maps API are here to stay and will change the way we will develop and deliver the enterprise applications.

I would suggest every J2EE enthusiast to attend this conference and will defintely be worth your time and money.

Play it cool

2006-08-18T19:21:00.000-05:00

Here are some suggestions to take a moment when your schedule is fully packed.

1. Release unnecessary guilt associated with putting off tasks.
If a solution to a challenging problem immediately present itself, it may be more productive to put it aside rather than spend valuable time vacillating over what to do next.

2. Avoid heartache by taking a moment.
People need to refrain from responding to anyone when they are upset - no matter how urgent the task.

3. Allow others to provide answers for you.
Other people working with u or for you may be able to work on certain tasks or resolve without your input.

4. State why you are procastinating.
If there is problem to solve an issue, mention the reason for taking time off it.

5. Practise procrastinating.
Set aside time to imagine, this will help think out of the box.

Practical suggestions from 'Power of Intention'

2006-06-18T10:32:00.000-05:00

Make Meditation a regular practice in your life.
Become conscious of the foods you eat. Let go of artifical sweeteners like sodas, go for foods of high alkalinity like fruits, veggies, nuts, soy.
Retreat from low-energy substances. Alcohol, and virtually all artifical drugs, legal and otherwise lower the body's energy level.
Become conscious of the energy level of the music u listen to. Violent music is a no-no.
Reduce exposure to the very low energy of commercial and cable television.
Enhance ur energy field with photographs.
Become conscious of the energy levels of your acuquaintances, friends and extended family.
Monitor your activities and where they take place. Avoid low energy fields like alcohol parties instead prefer like nature walks, take a yoga class etc.
Extend acts of kindness, asking for nothing in return.
As frequently as possible, hold thoughts of forgiveness in your mind.

Healthy Choices

2006-06-11T16:17:00.000-05:00

This is a compilation from NewsWeek(courtesy Mr Gary Small, UCLA Center for Aging).

1. Sharpen your mind by doing exercises like crossword puzzles(and shutting off the TV)

2. Maintain a positive outlook.

3. Cultivate healthy and intimate relationships with friends and family.

4. Promote stree-free living through activities like Yoga or medication.

5. Master your environment by reducing clutter.

6. Get fit through cardio and strength training.

7. Eat a healthy diet that includes antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, proteins and whole grains.

India & Affirmative Action(Reservations)

2006-05-21T10:55:00.000-05:00

I have been living in US for about 13 years. A recent government decision in India brings back my memories about the affirmative action policies in India.

The central government in India wants to increase the quota for the so called backward castes. They are doing this even after there are statistics that point to no great done by pure reservation increase, in the Indian society.

As many are aware, most of India is deeply entrenched in caste system; with in the Hindu religion. When India got independense, the constitution set aside reservations as a priority. They did create affirmative action to upbring historically ill-treated and neglected castes.

The above worked to greater extent, but the return on the approach is decresing as the days go by. Reservations are designed based on caste(by birth) and there are restrictions based on your economic status to claim it. But, there is widespread abuse in the lines of rich claiming the reservations designed for poor in the underserved castes. There are no reservations for people born poor in the so called upper castes aka brahmin, kshatriya etc.

An increase in the reservations will not have any socio-economic impact. It will furthur decrease the morale of smart folks from other castes.

BTW this is one of the reasons i left India and may never think of moving back or raising children in India.

Business travel tips Continued

2006-05-04T07:23:00.000-05:00

1. After you fill the gas(before returning rental car), don't forget to take the receipt. Some cars take time to push the needle up & you don't want arguments when there is time crunch to catch a flight.

2. Try to catchup on lots of water. This is one thing you may not notice, but will effect the health factor a lot.

3. Do the hotel bookings way in advance, especially when there is price issue on the project(some projects mandate state or federal rate only).

Tip: Some upscale hotels like Omni or Marriott do have rooms with state/federal rates if you book in advance.

Business travel tips Part 2

2006-04-02T18:05:00.000-05:00

1. Bring dirty/wrinkled clothes. Dry clean on Monday at the hotel or if you can find another dry cleaner - pick it up Tuesday morning!

2) Bring a pair of flip flops or squishable pair of really flat tennis shoes in your laptop bag. These are great for walking through the airport (sans heels) and getting through security without taking off your shoes (yuck).

3) Always print out your boarding pass before getting to the airport.

4) Leave a pair of tennis shoes in your hotel or corporate apt. If in a hotel, store them either at the hotel, or even in your client site at your desk. This goes for other items you don't want to take back and forth (toiletries, books, a pair of jeans, etc)

5. If you are a guy - all you need are two good pairs of wool dress pants for the week. Wear one on the plane - pack the other. Wool breathes, doesn't wrinkle, and shouldn't/doesn't have to be washed after every use. Don't bring one pair of pants for each day.

6. Some one suggested the following for guys on monday-thursday schedule:
3 pairs of pants
3 dress shirts
3 pairs of underwear
3 T-shirts
3 pairs of dress socks
3 pairs of athletic socks
1 pair of blue jeans
1 pair of tennis shoes
1 pair of shorts (mainly for working out)
1 t-shirt (mainly for working out)
1 toiletry kit

7. Hartmann(costs around $500) or 'black samsonite' are the preferred carry-ons. Black is the preferred color because it will hide any scuffs or other stuff that will get on the bag.

8. Most cleaners will launder shirts and fold rather than hang them - pack them as is and no wrinkles.

Business travel tips Part 1

2006-04-02T17:53:00.000-05:00

These are what I observed from Vault recently.

1. Prefer not to check in luggage. This is especially helpful for folks heading to work right from the airport on a monday morning.

2. Put socks in shoes. Put on dress shoes on travel day & pack other casual/tennis shoes.

3. Do not carry heavy sweaters.

4. Carry a pair of black pants, they can be wore more than once and not many would notice it.

5. Put shirts in rollup bag that can be put in the lid of carry-over bag.

6. If going to be longer project(returning to the customer in subsequent weeks); check in clothes for 2-3 weeks. Leave them at the hotel storage & get them dry cleaned if needed.

7. If you have a desktop/laptop at home; don't bother to carry the company laptop back home. Just email or copy necessary files into storage device to be used later.

8. Same with a blazer if you need one. Wear it on the plane - don't pack it. You only need one - so make sure you own a good neutral blazer

9. Have a cosmetic bag just for the road - so you don't have to unpack toiletries, etc. every single time you get to your hotel

10. Limit the amount of non-work clothing. If you work out, be gross and bring one set of everything and re-wear.

Web 2.0 companies of interest

2006-04-01T19:14:00.000-06:00

Here are the new kids(some may be old) on the block with value proposition for customers.

1. Digg: News sharing site with ratings from users.

2. Plum: Consolidation tool for anything and everything from your storage perspective.

3. Sharpcast: Syncup tool for all your content.

4. Jajah: Telephone company that will start and end your call on a landline, but at cheaper call rates(compared to regular)

5. Prosper: New concept in banking. Near zero entry point for different lenders and decent rates for borrowers.

6. lala: A music discovery site that lets u find new music and connect with people who share your taste.

7. FilmLoop: A photo player that will author a loop with you as owner & then owner can invite others add to the loop.

8. Mercora: Site that will tune you to different radio stations and let you be the DJ.

Andrew Weil's health suggestions

2006-03-04T08:29:00.000-06:00

Here is the essence of his book: "Healthy Aging"

1. Eat an anti-inflammatary diet.

2. Use dietary supplements wisely to support the body's defenses and natural healing power.

3. Get regular physical activity throughout life.

4. Get adequate rest and sleep.

5. Learn and practice methods of stress protection.

6. Exercise your mind as well as body.

7. Maintain social and intellectual connections as you go through life.

8. Be flexible in mind and body.Learn to adopt to losses, let go of behaviours no longer appropriate for your age.

SEO contest

2006-02-15T13:22:00.000-06:00

This SEO forum entry talks about an interesting SEO contest.

The basic premise is, the contest sponsor will provide a 'search phrase' on May 15 and who ever creates a web site(page) that will stand on the top of the google search will win the prize. There are 2nd - 5th prizes too.

This has created tremendous resonse and friction as it is mentioned in 'Wall Street Journal' aswell.

Music labels being investigated by NY attorney general

2006-02-14T17:57:00.000-06:00

This zdnet article talks about the impending investigation and sub-poenas already issued.

With the track record of 'Eliot Spitzer', I would think there is a probability of guilt from the music industry. One of the firms in the case is Warner music.

Oracle Newbie & other links

2006-02-06T09:55:00.000-06:00

Here are two links of interest for oracle newbies:
1. Lisa Dobson's newbie blog.
2. Article on Oracle careers.

Multi-vitamins & such

2006-01-24T08:42:00.000-06:00

Here are the suggestions from different nutrition and health experts:

1. Bruce Ames:
Acetyl-carnitine, Lipoic acid and multi-vitamin.
Tip: Eat well, but a multi-vitamin for insurance.

2. Joann Manson:
Calcium(not more than 500mg per one time) 1000mg/day, vitamin D, multivitamin.

3. Dean Ornish:
Fish oil(3 gms daily), multi-vitamin
Tip: Iron free multi-vitamin for men.

4. Marion Nestle:
Occasional Multi-vitamin
Tip: Eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fatti fish.

5. Irwin Rosenberg:
Vitamin B12(200mcg weekly), Vitamin D(400 IU daily)
Tip: For non-sunny climates, Vitamin D could be low.

The above observations are contrasting, but informative.

One theory about 'Lost'(TV series)

2006-01-20T11:03:00.000-06:00

This theory is very interesting and agreeable. Only time will tell, if it is a fact. I am looking forward to the end of the series, so all the dots will be connected properly.

Oracle QA

2006-01-16T13:42:00.000-06:00

The Q&A is a new idea. It is a repository of different questions(and answers) related to concepts connected to Oracle.

This is an idea that can be useful for other tech fields. May be J2EE Q&A in the future....

CES awards & more

2006-01-16T13:21:00.000-06:00

This link talks about different good gadgets unveiled in the annual CES 2006.

The best award goes to Creative Zen Vision:M, according to CNET review it may be give fair competition to IPod. My eyes are definitely on the Denon 2807 for its price and feature set.

Decorator pattern

2006-01-16T13:13:00.000-06:00

Decorator is used to attach additional responsibilities to an object dynamically. Decorators provide a flexible alternative to subclassing.

Decorator achieves the following OO design paradigm:"Classes should be open for extension but closed for modification".
The decorator pattern involves a set of decorator classes that are used to wrap concrete components. You can wrap a component with any number of decorators. Decorators change the behaviour of their components by adding new functionality before or/and after method calls to the component.

Strategy pattern

2006-01-16T11:18:00.000-06:00

It defines a family of algorithms, encapsulates each one and makes them interchangeable. Strategy lets the algorithm vary independently from the clients that use it.

Strategy helps to realize the basic ingredients of superior OO design. Example: Favor composition over inheritance. Encapsulate what ever varies. Program to interfaces, not implementation.

When you have several objects that are basically the same, and differ only in their behaviour, it is a good idea to make use of the Strategy Pattern.. Using Strategies, you can reduce these several objects to one class that uses several Strategies. The use of strategies also provides a nice alternative to subclassing an object to achieve different behaviours. When you subclass an object to change its behaviour, that behaviour that it executes is static. If you wanted to change what it does, you'd have to create a new instance of a different subclass and replace that object with it. With Strategies, however, all you need to do is switch the object's strategy, and it will immediately change how it behaves. Using Strategies also eliminates the need for many conditional statements. When you have several behaviours together in one class, it is difficult to choose among them without resorting to conditional statements. If you use Strategies you won't need to check for anything, since whatever the current strategy is just executes without asking questions.

State Pattern

2006-01-16T11:12:00.000-06:00

A state pattern allows an object to alter its behaviour when its internal state changes. The object may appear to change its class. There may be multiple states in the design and each encapsulated by a class(to localize the changes). The context communicates with current state to effect necessary changes or operations.

State and Strategy have the same class diagram. But they differ in intent. Strategy configures context classes based on a behaviour or algorithm. In case of state, context is changed based on state interactions.

State transitions can be controlled by the state classes or the context classes. State classes can be shared among the context instances.

Proxy Pattern

2006-01-12T15:46:00.000-06:00

Proxy in general provider of a surrogate or placeholder for another object to control access to it.
There are number of ways it can manage that access.

Remote proxy: Manages interaction between a client and a remote object.

Virtual proxy: Controls access to an object that is expensive to instantiate.

Protection proxy: Controls access to the methods of an object based on the caller.

Dynamic proxy: Java's built in support for proxy that can build on demand and dispatch all calls on it to a handler of client's choosing.

Observer pattern

2006-01-11T15:10:00.000-06:00

The observer pattern defines a one-to-many dependency between objects so that when one object changes state, all of its dependents are notifed and updated(if needed) automatically.

Observer helps in a system architecture from a perspective of loosely coupled subjects and observers. This will help in a flexible OO systems that can digest changes rapidly. Some level of Message driven bean functionality can be taken as primary example of observer pattern.

Swing uses the observer pattern extensively to update other objects in the gui framework. Stored procedures, which trigger functionality based on changes in database can be considered a concrete example of the observer pattern.

Adapter Pattern

2006-01-11T12:27:00.000-06:00

This pattern converts the interface of a class into another the clients expect. Adapter lets classes work together that couldn't otherwise because of incompatible interfaces.

It is different from decorator, since decorator does not alter the interface but adds more to it.
There are 2 types of adapters ie object and class adapters. The class adapter needs multiple inheritance.

Facade Pattern

2006-01-11T09:22:00.000-06:00

This is one of the most widely used patterns, from a J2EE stack point of view.

Facade:
Provides a unified interface to a set of interfaces in a sub-system. Facade defines a higher-level interface that makes the subsystem easier to use.

A facade decouples a client from a complex sub-system. Implementing a facade requires that we compose the facade with its sybsystem and use delegation to perform the work of the facade. The facade patterns supports the law of delimiter(aka talk only to your immediate friends)

Command Pattern

2006-01-10T15:46:00.000-06:00

The command pattern helps in separating an action(or set of actions) from the sender. The set of actions or the action can be considered as a receiver and command object knows how to invoke the actions. THe command is visible to the invoker and when execute Command() is touched from a java persepctive, the command object invokes the actions in a micro or macro level.

The command object can also contain undo operation to resort the object being operated into previous state.

Example usage: Logging and transactional system.

Singleton pattern

2006-01-10T15:38:00.000-06:00

This pattern is used mainly to ensure a class has only one instance and provide global point of access to it(example: Service locator).

Despite its apparent simplicity, there are a lot of details involved in the singleton's implementation. Java's implementation of the singleton pattern makes use of a private constructor, a static method combined with a static variable.

Note: Multiple class loaders may instantiate different copies of the singleton. Too many singletons are bad from a garbage collection(aka memory management) perspective.

Oracle 10g Expree Edition + raptor

2006-01-06T17:42:00.000-06:00

Here you can download the express edition.

Really useful for standalone DBA activities. It can support upto 4g of user data.
U can run the db console using http://yourip:8080/htmldb.

Another one of interest is raptor from Oracle(it is a free database client written using jdk).

Entry suggestions for J2EE guy into Oracle

2006-01-04T21:51:00.000-06:00

This link gives some suggestions for new comers into Oracle DBA arena.

Here is the essence of the suggestions:
1. Because of the prohibitive cost it is not bad to avoid Oracle university(unless some one else pays for it).
2. Download Oracle software and documentation, from Oracle technology Network.
3. Subscribe to Oracle magazine.
4. Visit Oracle DBA websites.
5. Buy lots of books(including the ones from Tom Kyte)
6. Buy a set of certification texts and get certified.
7. Buy online training programs or use the one's ur company already has.

Zimbra

2006-01-02T07:52:00.000-06:00

This is a up and coming valley startup. Their value proposition is a mail system that has more functionality(in application viewing of documents, erp reports etc).

MS outlook be aware.

Zazzle

2006-01-02T07:49:00.000-06:00

It is a web firm that provides customized stamps etc. You can have your own photo on the stamp(may be your kids photos for that matter)

John Vlissides

2005-12-01T11:07:00.000-06:00

One of the authors of renowned 'Gang of Four' books, expired after prolonged battle with cancer.

He worked for IBM research labs. His definitive work inspired creation of many reliable software systems.

The software community will miss him.

Here is his wiki where all can post their personal experiences of using 'Gang of Four'.

AJAX forum

2005-11-14T12:50:00.000-06:00

Categories: J2EE ajax
Ajax is one technology getting traction now-a-days in the web development world.
Just came across this url dedicated to Ajax. The site also has a new forum to discuss 'Ajax' related issues.

Saint Arnold Brewing Company

2005-11-11T12:04:00.000-06:00

They are the first brewing company from Houston.

They do have free tour and beer tasting on Saturday afternoons. Sait Arnold offers 4 year round beers and 5 seasonals. Their Amber and Wheat beers are very good.

Readily available in Kroger, Whole foods & Central market in dallas area.

Time to Split Sony

2005-11-10T13:05:00.000-06:00

This article from James Governor talks about present and impending problems from Sony.

It could be a boon for competitors like Microsoft(in Xbox) and Samsung(in other electronics) if the above problems continue in the electronics goliath.

Is n't technology Insane?

2005-11-09T18:08:00.000-06:00

Rahul Sood talks about new entrants of geek toys in his blog.

Here he refers to a computer designed for bike. Very interesting article that makes you start thinking about different directions technology is evolving rapidly.

After thanksgiving sale items ----> Walmart

2005-11-09T14:51:00.000-06:00

12 cup Coffeemaker, Food Chopper or 2 qt. Slow Cooker $4.24

20" Flat Screen TV / DVD Player Combo $129.83

23" Color Television w/ Front AV Inputs $99.72

256MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive $13.88

27" Flat Screen Tube TV $247.00

Assorted DVD Movies (Minority Report, Entrapment, more) $3.44

Cingular Motorola Razr V3 Package $88.73

Delphi RoadyXT XM Satellite Receiver $76.36

DVD Box Sets (Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, more) $19.86

DVD Recorder w/ VCR Combo $168.87

Emerson Dual Screen 7" Car DVD Player $149.84

FujiFilm 6.3 MP FinePix F10 Digital Camera $348.47

Gameboy Advance SP (Cobalt, Platinum, Flame, Onyx) $48.88

Hamilton Beach BrewStation 12-Cup Thermal Coffeemaker $32.47

Home Theater Sound System $59.87
Home Theater Sound System with Speakers and Subwoofer $248.00

HP Photosmart E317 Digital Camera $98.88

HP Photosmart M415v 5.2MP Digital Camera w/ Instant Share $148.76
ilo 26" Widescreen LCD HDTV Monitor w/ DVI $696.00

JVC GR-D244US MiniDV Digital Camcorder $248.00

Kodak 3.1MP EasyShare CD33 Digital Camera $129.74

Kodak Digital Camera Accessory Kit $19.96

Kodak Z760 Digital Camera with Docking Cradle $199.00

Lexmark X1185 All-in-One Printer, Scanner and Copier $39.88

Lighted Wire Frame Reindeer $14.88
Little Tikes Hummer H2: Yellow $199.77

Playstation 2 System $149.00

Polaroid Digital Camera $288.63

Polaroid Flat Panel 15" LCD TV $194.00
Pool, Table Tennis & Poker 3-in-1 Game Table $98.00
Progressive Scan DVD Player $29.83

Sanyo DVW-7200 DVD/VCR Combo $69.87
Sony Video Camera $298.84
Venturer 6.2" Portable DVD Player $79.86
Venturer DVD Player Carrying Bag w/ Car Cord $9.74
VideoNow Color Player $25.00
VTech V.Smile Pocket Portable Game System $79.88
VTech V.Smile TV Learning System $49.84

Wireless Desktop with Keyboard and Mouse $14.88

After thanksgiving sale items ---> Black & Decker

2005-11-09T14:49:00.000-06:00

Black & Decker 14.4-Volt Cordless Drill Kit $29.00
Black & Decker 4 Tool 14.4-Volt Combo Kit $55.00
Black & Decker Black Toaster Oven $25.00
Black & Decker Cordless Screwdriver $9.00
Black & Decker Gatemouth Combo Bag Set $25.00
Black & Decker Home Cafe $19.00

A debate about Struts + other frameworks

2005-11-01T15:56:00.000-06:00

This article from serverside actually talks about what would be the reference framework for future projects.

Lots of framework users posted their inputs about the future use(or no-use) of Struts and their point of view, as a reply to the article.

Vignette Village bound

2005-10-24T21:44:00.000-05:00

I will be attending 'Vignette Village 2005' from Oct 24- oct 26.

This is being held in my backyard(Dallas,TX).

First day updates:
Attended a informative session on Vignette content management(using Vignette 7.0).
Got a cool laptop bag and some goodies.

Great Alaska highway

2005-10-07T17:22:00.000-05:00

Alaska is the most fascinating travel destination I have ever visited(so far in my life).

I want to try drive the great Alaskan Highway(about 1500 miles of scenic beauty along the drive). It is preferred to do it one way and take a cruise or flight on the way back.

9rules Network

2005-09-19T10:23:00.000-05:00

It is a valuable site, with a collection of great content(by hosting only the blogs or sites with remarkable content. It can be used to get to a topic, with out going through 100's of entries about a topic in Google results.

Mcdonald's observatory

2005-09-16T16:03:00.000-05:00

This article from NYTimes mentions about the Mcdonald's observatory in west texas.

The observatory is near Ft.Davis(about 500 miles from Dallas). It also has a sort of motel for the tourist who wants to stay and visit the observatory. The motel can be reached at "The Astronomers Lodge (432-426-3640)".

I will cover this place some time next year.

Billharvey.com

2005-09-15T15:42:00.000-05:00

Its a very interesting personal site/blog or what ever you want to call it(courtesy: Kathy Sierra)

Microsoft tries to hire Open Source guru

2005-09-13T16:03:00.000-05:00

This funny post talks about the Evil Empire's attempt to hire one open source evangelist.

HR, even from a firm like Microsoft can be this clueless.

Articles on Software project failures

2005-09-12T17:23:00.000-05:00

Here is a interesting link created by Mike Kelly, with different urls(primarily from IEEE) regarding software project failures.

This is courtesy of 'Lasse Koskela'.

Blow ur own mind

2005-09-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

One of my favourite bloggers(and book authors) Kathy Sierra writes about different ways to make your brain start working beyond its limits.

Hot Springs, Arkansas

2005-09-07T17:42:00.000-05:00

Just visited Hot Springs over the Labor day long weekend.

Nice place to visit. Main attractions were natural thermal baths(haven't taken this time though), tower on the mountain which over looks about 30 miles around. This area is definitely more green compared to Texas. Lots of possibility for hiking and mountain bike routes.

We stayed at Arlington Resort Hotel. This hotel is almost 100 years old. It has hosted 4 former US presidents, Al Capone and numerous luminaries. The room we stayed was not very nice(for it being supposed to be a mini suite); but that is supposed to be expected from a 100 year old hotel I presume.

Will drive down to Eureka Springs during my next visit to this place. I heard the drive is worth the time it takes, with hills and all.

New Orleans blogger

2005-09-04T16:04:00.000-05:00

Armed with food, water, a diesel generator, a camera and at least one firearm, five employees of New Orleans-based DirectNIC have been holed up since just before the storm blew in nearly a week ago on the 10th and 11th floors of the building that houses their headquarters.

Since then, employee Michael Barnett has described the saga on an oft-updated Livejournal, once a place for him to "talk smack and chat with friends," which he renamed this week as "The Survival of New Orleans Blog."

Ways for a better brain

2005-08-15T17:08:00.000-05:00

Here is a short synopsis from newscientist.com about better brain.

1. Smart drugs - Does getting old have to mean worsening memory, slower reactions and fuzzy thinking?

A few drugs that might do the job, known as "cognitive enhancement", are already on the market, and a few dozen others are on the way. So why aren't we all on cognitive enhancers already? "We need to be careful what we wish for," says Daniele Piomelli at the University of California at Irvine. Tinkering with memory may have unwanted effects, he warns. "Ultimately we may end up remembering things we don't want to."

2. Food for thought - You are what you eat, and that includes your brain. So what is the ultimate mastermind diet?

First, go to the top of the class by eating breakfast. Beans on toast is a far better combination, as Barbara Stewart from the University of Ulster, UK, discovered. If you can't stomach beans before midday, wholemeal toast with Marmite makes a great alternative. A smart choice for lunch is omelette and salad. Round off lunch with a yogurt dessert, and you should be alert and ready to face the stresses of the afternoon. Don't forget to snaffle a snack mid-afternoon, to maintain your glucose levels. Just make sure you avoid junk food. Finally, you could do worse than finish off your evening meal with strawberries and blueberries.

3. The Mozart effect - Music may tune up your thinking, but you can't just crank up the volume and expect to become a genius

This sounds like the most harmonious way to tune up your mental faculties. But before you grab the CDs, hear this note of caution. Not everyone who has looked for the Mozart effect has found it. What's more, even its proponents tend to think that music boosts brain power simply because it makes listeners feel better - relaxed and stimulated at the same time - and that a comparable stimulus might do just as well. In fact, one study found that listening to a story gave a similar performance boost.

There is, however, one way in which music really does make you smarter, though unfortunately it requires a bit more effort than just selecting something mellow on your iPod. Music lessons!
4. Bionic brains - If training and tricks seem too much like hard work, some technological short cuts can boost brain function

Click for the Graph 1

Click for the Graph 2

5. Gainful employment - Put your mind to work in the right way and it could repay you with an impressive bonus

A team led by Torkel Klingberg at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, has found signs that the neural systems that underlie working memory may grow in response to training.

6. Memory marvels - Mind like a sieve? Don't worry. The difference between mere mortals and memory champs is more method than mental capacity.

Learn a trick from the "mnemonists" who routinely memorise strings of thousands of digits, entire epic poems, or hundreds of unrelated words.

7. Sleep on it - Never underestimate the power of a good night's rest

8. Body and mind - Physical exercise can boost brain as well as brawn

Balding suggests that aerobic exercise may boost mental powers by getting extra oxygen to your energy-guzzling brain.

There's another reason why your brain loves physical exercise: it promotes the growth of new brain cells. Until recently, received wisdom had it that we are born with a full complement of neurons and produce no new ones during our lifetime. Fred Gage from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, busted that myth in 2000 when he showed that even adults can grow new brain cells. He also found that exercise is one of the best ways to achieve this.

Just as physical exercise can boost the brain, mental exercise can boost the body.

9. Nuns on a run - If you don't want senility to interfere with your old age, perhaps you should seek some sisterly guidance

The sisters' miraculous longevity - the group boasts seven centenarians and many others well on their way - is surely in no small part attributable to their impeccable lifestyle. They do not drink or smoke, they live quietly and communally, they are spiritual and calm and they eat healthily and in moderation. Nevertheless, small differences between individual nuns could reveal the key to a healthy mind in later life.

Obviously, you don't have to become a nun to stay mentally agile. We can all aspire to these kinds of improvements. As one of the sisters put it, "Think no evil, do no evil, hear no evil, and you will never write a best-selling novel."

10. Attention seeking - You can be smart, well-read, creative and knowledgeable, but none of it is any use if your mind isn't on the job

Pay attention to everything in you are involved with. If you find your mind wandering, tell your brain - "Stop! Be here now!"

11. Positive feedback - Thought control is easier than you might imagine

IT SOUNDS a bit New Age, but there is a mysterious method of thought control you can learn that seems to boost brain power. No one quite knows how it works, and it is hard to describe exactly how to do it: it's not relaxation or concentration as such, more a state of mind. It's called neurofeedback. And it is slowly gaining scientific credibility.

Here is the link.

Its a Virtuas world

2005-07-01T10:20:00.000-05:00

Matt Raible is one of the bloggers I frequently read. He joined this outfit(Virtuas) recently. Virtuas is a provider of open source initiatives to the enterprise world.

They release some interesting white papers on Web frameworks, Java IDE, App server comparision etc.

Their research is well worth a read.

Bouncy Castle - - > Great security java API

2005-06-12T08:25:00.000-05:00

I needed to create a Rijndael algorithm(it is the selected standard for encryption AES) based handshake in J2EE realm.

Great thing with open source is, there is always 80% chance that certain general purpose aspect like the above is already tackled by some smart folks already. Am I so right. I got the bouncy castle.

Bouncy Castle is well documented and has many different implementations for security aspects in Java world. Real role model for useful stuff.

Web development & different facets of testing

2005-06-12T08:07:00.000-05:00

Testing in the realm of web based systems is a beast by itself.

Following is my real life experience. I don't have a mac at work or home. Mac's standard browser is 'Safari'(IE is not supported on Mac any more).

After certain features of my Employer website was live, got a production issue call that these features does not work in Safari. We realized the need to add Safari as one more testing browser for the web based systems.

Safari is standards compliant, but stringent on certain aspects like form recognition and cookie setting format etc. Need to be cautious on these aspects.

Review of 'Hibernate - A developers' handbook'

2005-04-05T23:12:00.000-05:00

This book will provide decent intro to Hibernate. Will definitely help to get going on this ORM package.
Positives:
.Minimal content with decent intro coverage.
.Upfront in mentioning that this is a intro book.
.Decently detailed about some concepts of the package.
Negatives:
.Too much code printed out on the pages(out of 175 pages of the book there are about 60 pages of source code).
.Covers HSQLDB extensively. Some intro to using mysql. Would have loved more details on incorporating to a database like Oracle.

Thoughts on Martin Fowler's comments

2005-03-22T16:04:00.000-06:00

Here he talks about hiring a limited number of high intensity productive developers compared to hiring many low productive folks.

Here is my take on his way of thinking. It is not practical to approach man-power creation(even in IT field) that way. It is possible to nurture people into great producers with some determination and effort from mentors. For a organization to succed needs good mentors compared to having many high IQ geeks. With my personal experience, too many geeks together is not a pretty site to achieve stuff.

Good long term initiative needs a nice mix of up and comers with some eager attitude and some others with good mentoring sense.

Martin also mentions that "I decided then that I wouldn't work with unpleasant people, however capable they might be". But it is highly likely that many capable people turn out to be tough to get along with and are unpleasant. His initial hiring inclination to bias for geeks with high smarts kind of is opposite to not to work with people with attitude.

Google Maps

2005-03-04T12:56:00.000-06:00

This is amazing. It adds to my respect for stuff that comes out of google.

Positive features: Directions with scrollable option. Just use the up,down or sideways arrows and it is so intuitive, that I am dithing mapblast/mapquest/yahoo maps forever.

Review of "J2EE antipatterns"

2005-02-17T15:13:00.000-06:00

This book is well structured into different aspects of J2EE(example: servlets, JSPs, webservices, EJBs etc). Each of the sections are given detailed coverage with regards to design and architectural decisions that can go wrong.
This is not a start to end read. This book is better usable as a reference while we execute or plan during technical development cycle.
For each anti-pattern, a detailed background, symptoms, refactorings and example are provided. At the end of the book we are provided a Anti-pattern and Refactorings catalog.
The book also covers capacity planning type of antipatterns at the beginning. This will help give broader perspective about making design and possible implementation decisions on a enterprise scale.
A must read for enthusiastic J2EE practitioners who strive for quality output.

Excerpt of 'Art of Computer Programming' - volume 4

2005-02-02T04:25:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Bookpool the excerpt for this book(to be released in installments) can be downloaded from here.

Emergent Design book

2005-01-31T13:19:00.000-06:00

Here is the link to the evaluation phase of the "Emergent desing" book from NetObjectives.

Auto Immune Disease, Prednisone, EFT etc

2005-01-27T15:17:00.000-06:00

Here is a link that talks about dangers of Prednisone.

The same doctor talks about emotional impact on physical issues. Here is a technique towards curtailing that angle of stress, using EFT.

On the whole, auto-immune diseases are really painful and can be draining both physically and emotionally.

ABAP thoughts

2005-01-24T18:14:00.000-06:00

Here is a link towards venturing into ABAP and other options for SAP(for some one with Web development skillset).

how nerdy u are

2005-01-12T16:56:00.000-06:00

Here is the link for finding your nerd quotient.

Hiring techies talk

2005-01-03T13:44:00.000-06:00

Here is a nice talk from Johanna Rothman about hiring techies and nerds.

Tsunami Help Blog

2004-12-27T13:16:00.000-06:00

Here is the blog where details about how we can contribute towards this devastating disaster.

Here is another link from Amazon.

Working from home

2004-12-21T14:05:00.000-06:00

Following are the companies that can help home-sourcing of this work. They give flexibility with respect to number of hours and timing of the work.

Alpine Access, Aspect Communications, IntelliCare, West, WillowCSN and Working Solutions are companies with "home-based sourcing methods and strategies.

Movie on a phone

2004-12-08T11:52:00.000-06:00

According to this link, Airtel is planning on airing the Indian flick 'Rok Sako to Roklo' available to its viewers this week.

Hope this continues as a trend.

Test Driven Development at Google

2004-12-06T17:42:00.000-06:00

It is general knowledge that Google employs some of the smartest programmers and now they seem to be adopting TDD during the process of creting and maintaining complex software. This software, I presume is geared towards achieving some of the most innovative tasks.

This article details the approach.

Blockbuster online

2004-11-24T15:32:00.000-06:00

It is the new competition to Netflix. Cool deal about it is, you get 2 free instore coupons each month(that itself is worth about 50% of monthly fees).

There was a glich in their queue delivery procedure(their priority is to send a DVD that can reach u faster compared to first in your queue). It is not really a bug, but more of a difference compared to Netflix. When I pointed that out, they gave me a 1 month credit and explained their way of sending the movies.

I am cool with it and the collection is great(less on international movies though in comparision to Netflix)

World's biggest digital picture

2004-11-17T16:56:00.000-06:00

A group of Dutch engineers has produced the world's largest known digital photograph--a 7.5GB monster that consists of almost 2.5 billion pixels.

The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), a research and engineering conglomerate involved in fields ranging from aerospace to petroleum, announced the creation in a posting on the group's Web site Tuesday. The site includes a condensed version of the photo and a Flash-based application for viewing details.

The photo--an aerial image of the city of Delft unlikely to spur a sudden upswing in tourism there--consists of 600 individual images shot over the course of more than an hour. The images were then stitched together on a computer.

"It took about 24 hours to compare the overlapping photos and optimize them," according to the TNO statement. "Stitching the photos into one image required the capacity of five high-end PCs for three full days."

The image consists of precisely 2.487 billion pixels and would measure about 22 feet by 8.7 feet if printed at a standard resolution of 300 dots per inch. By contrast, typical consumer digital cameras capture images with 3 million to 5 million pixels.

The TNO team had to write its own software for much of the image-stitching work, including devising a new file format. The TIF format typically used for high-definition photos maxes out at 4GB. The group also solved temporary storage issues by creating a FireWire link between the camera and a laptop PC to capture images, bypassing the camera's memory card.

The TNO engineers pay credit to the previous record holder, photographer Max Lyons, who broke the 1 billion pixels mark last year with his panoramic image of Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park.

What is hot & what is not

2004-11-16T13:31:00.000-06:00

According to Gartner:

OUT:

* Just coding
* Application expertise
* Traditional consulting and systems integration
* Packaged applications

IN:

* Architecture and assembly
* Business process expertise
* Infrastructure and application integration
* Service-oriented applications

Review of 'Expert one-one J2EE development without EJB'

2004-11-14T09:50:00.000-06:00

If there is a 3 and a half, this book would have got that ranking from me. The book title consists of programmer to programmer, but there is hardly any code for practise in this book.
There is some repetition with respect to use of Singletons, Spring framework's advantages over pure EJB approach etc. Another negative I feel is too much talk and less helpful content for a pure programmer. This book will help some one think more positively about lightweight frameworks when compared to EJB part of J2EE. But the user needs more resources to get it going.
Coming to the positives:
1) There is nice coverage on usefulness of Test driven development(whole chapter assigned to preaching this aspect) which is good for we software engineers.
2) Good intro to light weight containers and inversion of controls.
3) Intro to AOP and details of different ways to go about it.
4) Whole chapter dedicated to nice coverage of performance and scalability issues.

I have not read the other title 'Exper one-on-one J2EE' from the same author, so I am not sure if there is repetition from that title though.

Workflow related info

2004-11-14T07:27:00.000-06:00

Here is a link that talks about Workflow systems. The bets are that it going to be big time pretty soon.

funny video

2004-11-12T16:40:00.000-06:00

Here is a video that is hilarious(i think its real).

Baghdad blogger

2004-11-12T04:16:00.000-06:00

Here is the blog location for 'baghdad blogger'. He already has a book published from the blog entries.

I heard a movie is already out based on this blog which is being screened in Toronto film festival.

Firefox 1.0 is released

2004-11-09T13:52:00.000-06:00

People can download from here (provided the server is not overwhelmed).

Because of apparent security issues like this , I hate using IE. Looking forward to decreasing share of IE.

Today is turning out to be releases day(Halo 2 was out this morning).

Halo 2 is here

2004-11-09T10:27:00.000-06:00

Can't wait to get hold of one.

Some of the details can be found here .

Palm to Blackberry sync.

2004-11-04T13:43:00.000-06:00

Got a Blackberry at work.

To convert from Palm to Blackberry(so that I don't need to carry two Palm size devices); I may have to download software from Chapura. This will enable to move stuff from Palm to MS outlook. Outlook and Blackberry are already synced anyways.

There is a catch in above approach. Outlook addressbook and keycontacts frum Chapura are not synced by default. It can be done using a feature called loopback beaming as explained here

Merger is done!!!

2004-10-30T07:19:00.000-05:00

The company I am working for bought ATT wireless, in the highest money based buyout in US history.

There may be some layoffs by early next year, but that is expected.

Report on India Inc

2004-10-26T04:09:00.000-05:00

Here is a report on growth aspects for India Inc and suggests the US firms tobe aware.

future of home Electronics

2004-10-25T13:30:00.000-05:00

According to this link, the future is bright for the wallet of the consumer.

Like our phone bills went down, I predict the cable, satellite, phone bills to converge and decrease to the core.

Googling others

2004-10-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

According to this report it is becoming more and more popular. I especially use it to find the real worth of other technology guys, since it will return stuff they are involved in.

This blog entry talks about audio enabled cricket bot, that needs to be checked out.

BW Business School Rankings

2004-10-19T22:18:00.000-05:00

1) Kelloggs 2) Chicago 3) Wharton 4) Stanford 5) Harvard
6) Michigan 7) Cornell 8) Columbia 9) MIT 10) Dartmouth
11) Duke 12) Virginia 13) NYU 14) UCLA 15) Carnegie Mellon
16) UNC 17) Berkeley 18)Indiana 19) UT 20) Emory
21) Purdue 22) Yale

Intl Schools:
1) Queen's - Canada 2) IMD 3) INSEAD 4) ESADE 5) LSB

Take ur parents to work

2004-10-19T17:06:00.000-05:00

This article talks about 'Take ur parents to work' that happened in Hyderabad( the place where my parents presently live)

Report on J2EE

2004-10-18T06:09:00.000-05:00

It includes Burton groups thoughts and some replies to it.

Here is the discussion in the server side.

How to Create Word document from Java code

2004-10-18T06:04:00.000-05:00

This blog talks about it.