Blogging at Intel

I have started to actively blog on Intel Software Network website externally. Well .. it is targeted specically around Manageability related technology. Do check out my blog. Well, this is not the only reason I have not been active here .. I will get back to scribble my thoughts here soon.

Read/WriteWeb: Search 2.0 vs Traditional Search

Read/WriteWeb: Search 2.0 vs Traditional Search

Although, search 2.0 seems catchy and following the ever growing fad around web2.0 but I think the whole concept of social networking and users driving the relevancy as opposed to a search engine is a concept nobody can dismiss. The new era of community driven search engines is where you will find the "next google". I am really impressed by "swicki" and "rollyo" as they enable you to narrow your search based on the collective wisdom of the community thus making the results more relevant.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3

My favorite internet browser for sometime has been Maxthon. I simply love the tabbed interface and the important "Ad Blocker" capability. I also use Maxthon as my RSS feed aggregator. Couple of downsides of Maxthon include the support of custom toolbars like google toolbar and del.icio.us buttons.
The promise and capabilities of Microsoft IE 7 seemed pretty good, so I decided to install the beta 3 product. I have been using this only for a day ... and my first impressions are really POSITIVE. It appears to me that Microsoft is finally listening to its users and have incorporated some of the key capabilities that I have come to expect from any browser (like the tabbed interface, integrated RSS capabilities, popup blocker, etc.). I will blog more about my experience with IE7 after I start using it more regularly.

Reinventing this Blog

I plan to reinvent this blog and bring some clear focus to it. Originally I wanted this blog to be purely a collection of ramdom thoughts and notes with the target audience being just me and maybe a couple of my close friends, but I have realized that this lacks passion around any specific topic. So, I intend to reinvent this space to talk about my passion which is all about web and mostly around web2.0. "Tune-in" to hear me rant about all the great things happening around this amazing phenomenon "web2.0".

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

I often spend time looking at new book releases related to Technology & Marketing and I have actually noticed this trend of “learn X in Y days” type of books. If you seriously believe like I do that it takes time, effort and practice to master any new thing(spoken language, programming language, some new technology, etc.) then you must read this article as it clearly reinforces this message.

Dog Mountain Hike (Columbia River Gorge)

I went for the dog mountain hike this weekend. I think this one ranks as one of the best hikes around the Columbia river gorge area at least during this time of the year (May – June). The best part of the hike was the spectacular wild flower blooms around the trail. I think we picked a perfect day for this hike because it was not too hot and it was an incredibly clear day. Very clear unobstructed views of Mt. Hood, St. Helens and Mt. Adams …. Not to mention the stunning views of the Columbia Gorge.

Hike: Dog MountainDetails: 7 mile loop with a total of 2900 ft. elevation gain. Rated as Difficult because of the elevation gain.
Views: Unobstructed views of the Columbia Gorge, Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens and dazzling wild flower blooms in May/June
Notes: Carry plenty of water, require good shoes (some loose gravel at some spots), and a light jacket (it can get a little windy closer to the top). You will need to carry the NW forest pass for the parking.
Directions:Take 84E (exit #44 cascade locks), Cross the Bridge of Gods, right on Washington highway 14 (12 miles) and you will see the dog mountain trail head on the left.

How to stretch your major muscle groups

I am begining to see the great benefits from stretching after a regular cardio routine. A 10-15min stretch after the cool down period can make a big difference the next day, it basically gets the body prepared for the next day and prevents long term injury. Check this great link from Mayo clinic http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/SM00043&slide=1 for some regular routines.

Math will rock your world

I really feel that this article is a must read for all the mathematics professors out there, because universities should teach mathematics from a practical stand point. Most of the focus in schools is highly theoretical and it would be really great to give some real life examples where these theories can be applied and put to practical use.

Also, my secret intention here is to influence my Mother-In-Law who happens to be a Mathematics professor in the Mysore University. I would like to see that see adds a practical touch to her classes. :-)

iTunes Phone

I recently purchased an iPod color (30GB) as a gift to my wife on our wedding anniversary. Both of us have really fallen in love with this product. Excellent usability features and really elegant design. The best part of the interface is the famous iPod dial. When I heard that Apple has introduced a new iTunes compatible cell phone the first thing I wanted to see the product interface and frankly I was very disappointed to see the dial missing. It almost looks like a regular motorola phone with a MP3 player built in with the iTunes software. What happened to the creative Apple design in this case? Looks like they were really in a hurry to release this product. I am sure the next version of the product will be very different ... so I am going to wait before buying this product.

Visual Studio: Contract First Web Services Interoperability between Microsoft .NET and IBM WebSphere

Visual Studio: Contract First Web Services Interoperability between Microsoft .NET and IBM WebSphere

I am presonally a big fan of contract first webservices development, but I don't think there are any good tools that support this form of development. At the end of day we should be able to define a contract that ensures interoporability, versioning and specifies the intent of the service (including the interface, all the business exceptions, usage model, etc.) and then eventually generate code from the contract. The challenge is to keep the contract and the code in sync, and this cannot happen without having some kind of an integrated tool along with a well defined change control process (change in this case is any change in the contract, theoritically the contract should not change, oh well the reality is that it does all the time). I have seem some tools which illustrate the concept with some very trivial examples, but I have not seen anything that can scale to the enterprise needs. While we wait for the industry to come up with some tools .... we should make sure that one person or a team of people with a good understanding of the business capability around the service should manage the contract.

Sonic Software

Sonic Software

Looks like a session worth attending ... I feel it is very important to look into the monitoring and management aspect of SOA.

Fusing enterprise architecture - Express Computer

Fusing enterprise architecture - Express Computer

The key challenge for adopting SOA in the enterprise is the decision on sizing the service. What I mean by sizing is the problem that services that have too many capabilities built into it are not very flexible because of too many dependencies and difficultly in managing the WS contract, and on the other hand if the service is too small then it cannot be directly used almost to a point where it is not useful. I have seen business team spend huge amounts of time to determine what should go into a service and what capabilities emcompass a complete business function.

Internet access over power lines gains momentum - Jan. 19, 2005

Internet access over power lines gains momentum - Jan. 19, 2005

WOW!! this is really impressive. BPL technology has been on the works for sometime, but it is starting to see its way out of the research labs into practical implementations. Although, they still some key issues to work out before it can be adopted on a wider scale and they have to compete with the wireless technologies, which is getting better and cheaper.

Clues may point to Google browser | CNET News.com

Clues may point to Google browser | CNET News.com

I really see that in the next couple of years Google will start getting into the Microsoft Turf like Operating Systems, Databases (search based) and Office products. All this may be really good for the consumer because we may start seeing some innovation sparking up and the technology that shall meets the end-user's expectations.

To Software Architects: Serve End Users, Not Your Egos

To Software Architects: Serve End Users, Not Your Egos

Dave is dead-on, absolutely right. Software architect has to ensure the documentation or the artifacts he delivers is actually usable. The documentation should be designed to suite the needs of the consumers or architectural stake holders (Business, Engineering, Dev, Quality, support, Data teams, etc.) and it is not meant to be compliant to some industry buzz which will be totally obsure to the actual consumers. Architects should thrive to communicate the most complex probelms is the most simplistic terms.

TheServerSide.NET - Predictions for 2005... Straight from the Magic 8-Ball

TheServerSide.NET - Predictions for 2005... Straight from the Magic 8-Ball

I really liked this prediction ....

Development Driven QA
Test Driven Development will continue to gain popularity amongst developers as more and more of them take to writing unit test scripts. In an interesting twist, QA engineers will determine that the best way to test these scripts is to write the actual components starting a new movement called Development Driven QA.

Anti-Spyware from Microsoft

Finally Microsoft is trying to do something to curb this problem.

I installed the AntiSpyware software-Beta directly from the Microsoft.com website
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

After using the anti spyware, I noticed that it detected some spyware on my PC which the SpyBlot software was unable to detect. The speed has increased and I can surf internet faster.

They could have done a better job with the tool UI.

Giant tsunami leaves millions homeless, thousands missing

All,I am sure you are all aware of the disaster that has struck South India, and the natural calamity has left thousands of people dead and millions homeless along the costal areas of Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Andaman Islands.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200412272101.htm?headline=Tsunami~toll~crosses~24,000;~massive~relief~work~underway

http://www.newindpress.com/gallery/show.asp?Topic=-1031

I am making a small financial contribution ($100) towards the relief fund setup by the Prime Minister of India and to the doctors without borders.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=tsunami&slug=PM+urges+donations+for+relief+fund&id=65860&callid=1&category=National

I strongly encourage all of you to do the same. I am sure this money will go a long way in helping those who have lost their loved ones and to those whose entire life-time of assets has been completely wiped out. It is after all only a small percentage of your pay check.

nokia 6620

Arggg ... I had to return the new Nokia 6620 phone. Here are the reagons why?

Pros:

• I like the bluetooth capability
• Sync up with Outlook calendar, notes, tasks and contacts
• Good form factor
• Expandable memory slot (although you have to replace the existing one if you buy a new memory card). But the built in memory should be good enough for most of the functions
• Good Battery life

Cons:

• Key pad is rather small
• DOES not sync up with outlook email. The software Nokia PC Sync does not support this capability. Only way to do it is to set the email as a POP3 or SMPT email account and sync up email via Internet
• I thought this phone was really bulky for the capabilities it provides
• The speaker phone is weak ... hardly a speaker phone in my opinion
• Nokia PC sync software has a very poor UI

I had to return the phone because it does not support the email sync up using bluetooth and the phone was really bulky. After using a flip phone for so long ... I realized that I prefer a flip phone.

TIP: If you plan to buy any phone from the local AT&T wireless, do your research using google and they usually match the price on the device (they don't match the accessories). I was able to get the phone for about $100 less asking them to match the price.

Desktop Google search tool

This is really cool. I have started using this tool and it really does a great job ... finally I don't have to depend on the sluggish File explorer search capability. I am still figuring out all the capabilities it supports like wild card search, etc. I will blog about this as soon as find out more.