Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Back after a break
I am back after a short break.
I am planning to contribute an idea to Project 10100, Google's 10th birthday celebrations..
Check out the site http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/ for more details..
I am planning to contribute an idea to Project 10100, Google's 10th birthday celebrations..
Check out the site http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/ for more details..
Sunday, May 11, 2008
back at home
Well, I should nt say , but being back at home place after 7 years and i am hit by cuture shock :)
But still the place rocks...
Thought I would list 5things I like and dislike in Trivandrum which I feel can be shareable :).
I started typing 10 , but cant have so many here.... :) And the list is incomplete,.. I did not find much things that I didnt like here.. And ofcourse I will not discuss much about my work or personal life ( postives / negatives ) for the obvious reasons :)
Things I like
1. Trivandrum itself. Being at this village like city is the best thing. Green City.
2. My office. I would rather say green office. I was quite happy to see that there are no paper cups in office. Instead there are coffee mugs. Environment friendly measures are amazing...
3. Travel to office. No where else you can see backwaters on the way to office. Comparatevely lesser pollution.
4. Food. Well, I started looking forward for lunch :) hehe.
5. Home. home sweet home. best place to be in after a hectic day @ work :)
Things I dont like.
1. Traffic sense, I have noticed that respect given to fellow drivers is minimal.
2. City shutdowns quite early compared to metros.
3. Less lights in the roads. :( Too risky to drive at night.
...
Well, thats it :)
Source: www.technopark.org. www.google.com/maps.
Technopark.
Map to Trivandrum..As greener as it should be... :)
View Larger Map
But still the place rocks...
Thought I would list 5things I like and dislike in Trivandrum which I feel can be shareable :).
I started typing 10 , but cant have so many here.... :) And the list is incomplete,.. I did not find much things that I didnt like here.. And ofcourse I will not discuss much about my work or personal life ( postives / negatives ) for the obvious reasons :)
Things I like
1. Trivandrum itself. Being at this village like city is the best thing. Green City.
2. My office. I would rather say green office. I was quite happy to see that there are no paper cups in office. Instead there are coffee mugs. Environment friendly measures are amazing...
3. Travel to office. No where else you can see backwaters on the way to office. Comparatevely lesser pollution.
4. Food. Well, I started looking forward for lunch :) hehe.
5. Home. home sweet home. best place to be in after a hectic day @ work :)
Things I dont like.
1. Traffic sense, I have noticed that respect given to fellow drivers is minimal.
2. City shutdowns quite early compared to metros.
3. Less lights in the roads. :( Too risky to drive at night.
...
Well, thats it :)
Source: www.technopark.org. www.google.com/maps.
Technopark.
Map to Trivandrum..As greener as it should be... :)
View Larger Map
Thursday, March 27, 2008
emailatmobile
Rush and register for emailatmobile...
Bangalore-based Adroit Claretdene Infotech yesterday announced the launch of Email@Mobile, a mobile email service that the company claims is the first of its kind, allowing users globally to register and access email for free, even with a WAP 1.2 browser on any network via GPRS Internet.
I have registered but not yet accessed. The net-on-phone service is now disabled in my phone.
source: google news
Bangalore-based Adroit Claretdene Infotech yesterday announced the launch of Email@Mobile, a mobile email service that the company claims is the first of its kind, allowing users globally to register and access email for free, even with a WAP 1.2 browser on any network via GPRS Internet.
I have registered but not yet accessed. The net-on-phone service is now disabled in my phone.
source: google news
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Safari vs Firefox
Thats the topic I digged today,
Firefox is ready with 3.0 beta 4.
I could find a good review on http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1470
I am still running with 2.0.0.13.
Hope all the addins will be upgraded soon.
Another news is that apple is shipping safari with iphone...
iPhone features rich HTML email and Safari — the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device. iPhone automatically syncs bookmarks from your Mac or PC. For convenient searching, Google and Yahoo! are built right in. And iPhone multitasks, so you can make a phone call while emailing a photo or surfing the web over a Wi-Fi connection.
Hmm that sounds like another monopoly case on the way,, earlier it was MS shipping IE with Windows...
From net, this is what apple has to tell about Safari,
The fastest web browser on any platform, Safari loads pages up to 1.9 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2.
And it executes JavaScript up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 4 times faster than Firefox 2. What does all that mean for you? Less time loading pages and more time enjoying them.
Safari is available for download from http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
I am still happy with my ie7. I have my original XP with upgrade support and i am very happy with security. it provides ( till now :) )
I feel Firefox still need to work those memory issues.
I use firefox jus because of the addons.
So what browser do you use?
Firefox is ready with 3.0 beta 4.
I could find a good review on http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1470
I am still running with 2.0.0.13.
Hope all the addins will be upgraded soon.
Another news is that apple is shipping safari with iphone...
iPhone features rich HTML email and Safari — the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device. iPhone automatically syncs bookmarks from your Mac or PC. For convenient searching, Google and Yahoo! are built right in. And iPhone multitasks, so you can make a phone call while emailing a photo or surfing the web over a Wi-Fi connection.
Hmm that sounds like another monopoly case on the way,, earlier it was MS shipping IE with Windows...
From net, this is what apple has to tell about Safari,
The fastest web browser on any platform, Safari loads pages up to 1.9 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2.
And it executes JavaScript up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 4 times faster than Firefox 2. What does all that mean for you? Less time loading pages and more time enjoying them.
Safari is available for download from http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
I am still happy with my ie7. I have my original XP with upgrade support and i am very happy with security. it provides ( till now :) )
I feel Firefox still need to work those memory issues.
I use firefox jus because of the addons.
So what browser do you use?
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Bye Bye Chennai,,,
Okay ,,, :)
So its time for bye-bye to Chennai...
You can always be in touch with me thro my site.
- Praveen
P.S. To be continued... :)
So its time for bye-bye to Chennai...
You can always be in touch with me thro my site.
- Praveen
P.S. To be continued... :)
Monday, March 24, 2008
10 Tips to become a STAR programmer
Okay,
This one comes with a disclaimer.
Disclaimer – I don’t have much experience in coding ( Just 5 + years in Java) . These are combinations of tips I read in java forums + the ones I try to practice. Please follow them at your own risk . This is basically for a developer... may not be applicable for a designer.
#1 Be a programmer first.
To become a star programmer first become one. Whether you are put in testing or anywhere, the key word is “innovate”. Try new things. Try to automate. I started my career as a tester in MNC and moved into development after the tool I developed ( LocationTester) became a project by itself.
#2 Learn… Read books ,blog, articles….
You might be good at what you do, but knowing only that, whatever it may be, is seldom enough to really shine. Read books, articles. Interact with others . Talk to your teckie collegues on whats latest. Blog. Blogworld is one place where you get a lot of similar minded persons to indulge in very productive discussions.
I learn from each and everyone I interact. Blogs gave me a better chance. I know my blogs might not be perfectly written. But yes I will make my best try and try to make it perfect. I believe being proactive will help a lot. Yes, you may be wrong sometimes. But every good developer know they were once in your shoes.
#3 Think Big
Always have a big picture about your application. Try to understand appreciate the usage of the application. Think from the user’s perspective. Think like the designer, think like the tester. i.e Try and understand the business requirements well even before you code.
#4 Do development on a fast computer with a bigger screen
The important rule. You should be able to compile and run applications quickly. The lesser time you take to get your results, the better you will try out new things. So get more RAM. I wish I had 1 GB RAM :( for my Eclipse.
Bigger screen will get you more than the characters. The screen should be able to able fit in your big methods. Also this will allow you to inspect multiple consoles simultaneously.
#5 Learn your IDE
Try to use keyboard shortcuts. Learn new features. Note Eclipse Callisto allows you to format jsp and html pages. It has got spell checking also. Be lazy :) you will create shortcuts for everything. Ensure that you are able find the code in minimal time. I will not suggest IDE for beginners
#6 Refer API documentation
You need not by-heart all the APIs. But you should be knowing where to refer for what. IDE will help you for this. If you are keen have the source attached with API. Keep Java doc for your own code and apis that you are using. It might really not possible to have all docs in your desktop. Esp if you have ie 7 and internet, it is preferable to use Google and search with Java version.
#7 Write handy code snippets. Keep reusable code fragments.
Write Multithread socket servers, File Readers, SOAP Clients, Property File Readers. Do not try to invent. Reuse as much as possible. Less , cleaner and well documented code means easy to maintain.
#8 Enhance your own code
Check out your old code and see how you can improve the same. See whether you can optimize the same. See whether the JDK is giving options or new apis to optimize the code. If you can't find bad things in your old code consider yourself a star :). Do benchmarks. It will increase your knowledge about performance, standards and best practices. Don't do premature code optimization but learn how to write fast code from the start, without sacrificing readability.
#9 Don't ask people for advice
Learn how to get that answer yourself instead, it is way more useful. Finding out how to get information about something is a value in itself and may pay you back more than the solution to the problem in the first place. Ask only if you must or if the question in itself is more a discussion and you are actually spreading information. Of course you shouldn't take this too literally, but I see lots of people asking pointless questions they could have found out faster by ten seconds of googling.
#10 Never Give Up
Always have the fighting spirit. Challenge the bugs. Let it not challenge us. Think in all possible scenarios. Think what will happen to code after 5 years. ( Like US daylight changes). I still remember one of my colleague telling me that I always think about impossible scenarios and combinations and I count that one of best feedback I received as a developer.
So Good Luck…
Please let me know your comments.
The final tip. The above tips may not be applicable for everyone. Personally I have my own approaches to tackle an issue. You need to do what you feel right. Yes, never give up. Sometimes you might get disappointed by minimal things. But never give up. World is so big, but small.... :)
This one comes with a disclaimer.
Disclaimer – I don’t have much experience in coding ( Just 5 + years in Java) . These are combinations of tips I read in java forums + the ones I try to practice. Please follow them at your own risk . This is basically for a developer... may not be applicable for a designer.
#1 Be a programmer first.
To become a star programmer first become one. Whether you are put in testing or anywhere, the key word is “innovate”. Try new things. Try to automate. I started my career as a tester in MNC and moved into development after the tool I developed ( LocationTester) became a project by itself.
#2 Learn… Read books ,blog, articles….
You might be good at what you do, but knowing only that, whatever it may be, is seldom enough to really shine. Read books, articles. Interact with others . Talk to your teckie collegues on whats latest. Blog. Blogworld is one place where you get a lot of similar minded persons to indulge in very productive discussions.
I learn from each and everyone I interact. Blogs gave me a better chance. I know my blogs might not be perfectly written. But yes I will make my best try and try to make it perfect. I believe being proactive will help a lot. Yes, you may be wrong sometimes. But every good developer know they were once in your shoes.
#3 Think Big
Always have a big picture about your application. Try to understand appreciate the usage of the application. Think from the user’s perspective. Think like the designer, think like the tester. i.e Try and understand the business requirements well even before you code.
#4 Do development on a fast computer with a bigger screen
The important rule. You should be able to compile and run applications quickly. The lesser time you take to get your results, the better you will try out new things. So get more RAM. I wish I had 1 GB RAM :( for my Eclipse.
Bigger screen will get you more than the characters. The screen should be able to able fit in your big methods. Also this will allow you to inspect multiple consoles simultaneously.
#5 Learn your IDE
Try to use keyboard shortcuts. Learn new features. Note Eclipse Callisto allows you to format jsp and html pages. It has got spell checking also. Be lazy :) you will create shortcuts for everything. Ensure that you are able find the code in minimal time. I will not suggest IDE for beginners
#6 Refer API documentation
You need not by-heart all the APIs. But you should be knowing where to refer for what. IDE will help you for this. If you are keen have the source attached with API. Keep Java doc for your own code and apis that you are using. It might really not possible to have all docs in your desktop. Esp if you have ie 7 and internet, it is preferable to use Google and search with Java version.
#7 Write handy code snippets. Keep reusable code fragments.
Write Multithread socket servers, File Readers, SOAP Clients, Property File Readers. Do not try to invent. Reuse as much as possible. Less , cleaner and well documented code means easy to maintain.
#8 Enhance your own code
Check out your old code and see how you can improve the same. See whether you can optimize the same. See whether the JDK is giving options or new apis to optimize the code. If you can't find bad things in your old code consider yourself a star :). Do benchmarks. It will increase your knowledge about performance, standards and best practices. Don't do premature code optimization but learn how to write fast code from the start, without sacrificing readability.
#9 Don't ask people for advice
Learn how to get that answer yourself instead, it is way more useful. Finding out how to get information about something is a value in itself and may pay you back more than the solution to the problem in the first place. Ask only if you must or if the question in itself is more a discussion and you are actually spreading information. Of course you shouldn't take this too literally, but I see lots of people asking pointless questions they could have found out faster by ten seconds of googling.
#10 Never Give Up
Always have the fighting spirit. Challenge the bugs. Let it not challenge us. Think in all possible scenarios. Think what will happen to code after 5 years. ( Like US daylight changes). I still remember one of my colleague telling me that I always think about impossible scenarios and combinations and I count that one of best feedback I received as a developer.
So Good Luck…
Please let me know your comments.
The final tip. The above tips may not be applicable for everyone. Personally I have my own approaches to tackle an issue. You need to do what you feel right. Yes, never give up. Sometimes you might get disappointed by minimal things. But never give up. World is so big, but small.... :)
Saturday, March 22, 2008
10 must have tools for developers ...
My top 10 open source tools for windows are
- Eclipse - The IDE.
- Firefox - The browser
- Cygwin -The unix emulator
- Winmerge - Merging tool
- Textpad / Editplus - The editor
- Filezilla - The FTP client
- Tomcat / jboss - The Web/App server
- DJ java decompiler
- Jmeter - Easy perf tester.
- Putty - The terminal client.
I am not going to explain much about same. I would prefer doing it if you havent heard of any of them earlier. So what is your top 10 ? Is there any tool that helped you to deliver faster? Made your work easier?
Please share your thoughts
Unconference and More...
Following is a memorabila from Unconference 2007...
It was really a wonderful exp.
This post is dedicated to blogger friends...
Praveen
It was really a wonderful exp.
This post is dedicated to blogger friends...
Praveen
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
10 tips to get your blog noticed / write quality blogs…
Well there might be similar blogs..
I cant help others thinking like me... :)
Well here is my tips/ suggestions to get your blog noticed
1. Write quality content. Dont spam user with contents. Write your views on topics.Even if you get your content from some sites add your thoughts to it.Quote source always.
2. Blog about popular stuff and about things that would help other and the organizantion.Blog about how to motivate people or how to improve productivity or best practices.( Controversial blogs attract reader but not recommended in ch1blog and for your health :)
3. Get your blog listed in search engines & feed directory.( not recommended in ch1blog ). Search google for same.
4. Place link to your blog in your signature.Provide links to your fellow bloggers with similar thoughts.( Please dont ask them to get a link to your blog ).
5. Get famous personalities blog about you or get comments from famous personalities in your blog.To get this you need to ensure that #1 is followed.This will give you a feeling that you are being watched which inturn will make you blog quality content.
6. Be active in blog world. Provide genuine interest for other bloggers and comment themFind blogs with lot of activities and provide relevant (very important) comments.Do not spam (very important) or put the ‘Good one, visit my blog’ kind of comments.
7. Keep blogging often. Keep your blogs updated & corrected when needed.Reply to queries and comments.
8. Create proper/ relavant tags or use popular tags, .This will make tag-cloud search easier.
9. Be honest , be professional. Always think what you said once cannot be taken back.Be careful in what you comment and and blog.
10. Comment on my blog to get the 10th commandment. Just kidding..Generete curiosity in readers. Make them get involved in the topic.
The secret one and the final one only for my readers..
11. th one Create a blog on how to get your blog noticed :).
I cant help others thinking like me... :)
Well here is my tips/ suggestions to get your blog noticed
1. Write quality content. Dont spam user with contents. Write your views on topics.Even if you get your content from some sites add your thoughts to it.Quote source always.
2. Blog about popular stuff and about things that would help other and the organizantion.Blog about how to motivate people or how to improve productivity or best practices.( Controversial blogs attract reader but not recommended in ch1blog and for your health :)
3. Get your blog listed in search engines & feed directory.( not recommended in ch1blog ). Search google for same.
4. Place link to your blog in your signature.Provide links to your fellow bloggers with similar thoughts.( Please dont ask them to get a link to your blog ).
5. Get famous personalities blog about you or get comments from famous personalities in your blog.To get this you need to ensure that #1 is followed.This will give you a feeling that you are being watched which inturn will make you blog quality content.
6. Be active in blog world. Provide genuine interest for other bloggers and comment themFind blogs with lot of activities and provide relevant (very important) comments.Do not spam (very important) or put the ‘Good one, visit my blog’ kind of comments.
7. Keep blogging often. Keep your blogs updated & corrected when needed.Reply to queries and comments.
8. Create proper/ relavant tags or use popular tags, .This will make tag-cloud search easier.
9. Be honest , be professional. Always think what you said once cannot be taken back.Be careful in what you comment and and blog.
10. Comment on my blog to get the 10th commandment. Just kidding..Generete curiosity in readers. Make them get involved in the topic.
The secret one and the final one only for my readers..
11. th one Create a blog on how to get your blog noticed :).
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