The Web dude
Code, Fun and Trivias
Life update : Started Telecommuting
For past 18 months I had been commuting between fresno and Maine every two weeks. Fresno is where I work and Maine is where my life is; I mean my family is. I should say I had missed a normal life all these months. I missed my work while I am with family and missed family at work. However things just started to happen and my employer offered me a travelling job (sort of), and let me base at home.
After two days. I definitely miss my work space. I definitely miss the social aspect of programming. And more than that, I miss my friends in Fresno. My first impressions, rather things i learned ..
Should have settled into my basement office sooner. I should have planned well ahead and completed the basement before I moved in. Right now, i am put up in a kids bedroom upstairs while all my equipments and lab is in the semi finished basement. Its a mild annoyance to leave everything you do and go to basement, two floor down to check on something or restart an equipment etc. Apart from that, I am in the middle of action, right on the line. Scott Hanselman had warned me on it. I should have taken it bit more seriously. Keeping your workspace out of sight from family is the Rule #1 of telecommuting, IMHO. Hope the basement gets finished soon.
I am an obsessive eater. I am finding all those snacks and crackers I would have avoided if I were to work from office. Finding a way to a eat healthy is another challenge
Keeping a regular office hours; I am working all my awaken hours. Well, thats not a surprise. I had expected this. But I should find some time for my family. Otherwise it is going to defeat the purpose.
Feeling lonely. My wife works, my son goes to school/baby sitter. So I am pretty much alone all day. So, often at times, I am having slight regret spouts :-(.
Let me confess, I was bit apprehensive while I took this, and I had almost opted out from this more than once. Things I dreaded most were, would I end up talking more than writing/reading code ?. Or, would I loose the advantage of going to your peers desk and help him/her on their code ?. The first one; I am yet to find out. But the second one turned out to be a breeze. Thanks to my employer, for the mac pro. The Desktop sharing on mac pro rocks.!!
I don't want to loose my Pictures
This post of Dave Winer had send a creepy spark through my spine this morning. I have tons of pictures up their in Flickr (Damn its a yahoo company too), and I don’t have any sorts of back up. The pictures are very dear to me, as it chronicles my son’s each stages from he was an infant.
So what are my options. Do I need to be paranoid ?
A tribute to Jim Gray
A tribute to Jim Gray, the guy behind the TerraServer project. And who made the online transactions that you do daily possible.
Martin Woodward programmed his Nabaztag Rabbit using their APIs to respond to a TFS checkin.
“He reads out details of check-ins and builds. If a build has failed then his ears go down to show how sad he feels, but if you fix the build his ears will soon pick up again.”
Watch the video where he explains how he did that.
Back in United States
I am back after my vacation in India for 3 weeks. I reached back on May 22nd but stayed back in New Jersey for 2 days before I drove home to Maine.
Shopping at the comfort of your house yard is a rare pleasure you can have in India. Vendors on foot bring all the staples to your house every morning. People buy their day to day staples from these vendors. Women and men shopping and bargaining for prices are a common scene during the morning. The guy in this video is Hamsa; my parents are his loyal customers for more than 15 years.
Vending on foot and delivering stuff at the houses at a small margin on the marked price is defenitely a management case study. Local retailers are getting stiff competition from these people. So most of the local retailers had to adopt a mobile version of their business too. A friend of mine even had to close down his retail operations
I am back from a refreshing trip at Kumarakam. My friends drove down from Bangalore and chennai. I joined them at palakkad with my car and we drove to kumarakam as a convoy. I got a chance to experience some of the rare delicacies of Kerala, including, Duck Roast, Karimeen Pollichathu and Toddy. Watch my flickr stream for more photos and videos
