Code, Fun and Trivias

The Web dude

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:11:51 -0400

The Web dude

And that is what its called confidence

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:43:45 -0400

And that is what its called confidence

Life update : Started Telecommuting

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:33:48 -0400

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

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:45:08 -0400

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

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:19:31 -0400

A tribute to Jim Gray, the guy behind the TerraServer project. And who made the online transactions that you do daily possible.

One of the many things I missed

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:39:39 -0400

One of the many things I missed

Martin Woodward programmed his Nabaztag Rabbit using their APIs...

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:45:00 -0400

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

Sat, 24 May 2008 07:51:45 -0400

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...

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:21:00 -0400

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...

Mon, 12 May 2008 22:38:08 -0400

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

Long due update

Thu, 01 May 2008 03:11:50 -0400

No I am not stuck at the marhaba lounge. I got home in one piece. I can’t explain how refreshing that was too see the lush green landscape of kerala after 3 years. I am trying to enjoy every bit of it. However this jet lag is killing me. I fell asleep 3 in the afternoon. Aaron is much worse. He wakes up 3 in the morning every day. Things have turned bit better today I have’nt been able to get an uninterrupted net connection so far. The BSNL service is the one I am supposed to have. I burned the modem and had to send it to the shop for repair. I am now living with a GPRS connection on my phone. I am reading your comments on this blog and on flickr (you asshole). Things in Fort Kent doesn’nt look good. Authorities had to evacuate a section of town after St John river flooded. Though I got news that my house is Ok. I am bit worried Now off for a movie

Marhaba Lounge

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:40:04 -0400

Is a waiting lounge for business class and first class passengers in Emirates. However they allow passengers travelling through Europe or Americas to use it for no cost.

This is completely different from the airline lounges in US where you pay another 100$ more on your air ticket to check your mails and eat pretzels from much larger packets.

Marhaba has free bar, with atleast 3 verities of scotch, beer and brandy; and a three course buffet (real food,). Seats are reclinable and you can sleep comfortably.

This is a bonus steal we got in this trip.

"Mom I see two ghosts"

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:44:50 -0400

“Mom I see two ghosts”

- Aaron; spotting two women in parda.

This is something that you don’t see in an American...

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:40:13 -0400

This is something that you don’t see in an American restroom. Take a guess what its used for :-))

A night out in Dubai airport

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:57:32 -0400

I am in Dubai International airport waiting for my next flight to Cochin aka Kochi. Its the first time I am flying Emirates. I am impressed. Aaron who had prior experience flying domestically with in US was the first one to express his gratification. I found him enjoying every bit of his first international flight after coming out of his infant years. He felt comfortable with the console and suddenly was in charge and even helped sunila to find her movies. The flight was light. So Aaron even found space to make him comfortable lying down on the back occuppying the vacant seat next to him. And I am happy that I got out of my comfort zone to book my flight in Emirates instead of Air India. My next flight at 3:25am local time.

Console in my seat, Emirates

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:52:29 -0400

Console in my seat, Emirates

Take me home country road

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 21:24:47 -0400

I am sitting at gate A6 of JFK waiting to board Emirates flight EK202 to Dubai and then to Cochin,India. I am meeting my folks and other friends over there after a gap of 3 Years.

Checkin were smooth except for my carry-in bag. I had to check that in. Its a standard size carry-in bag. I used to carry that in or gate check in all the time I travelled in domestic. Apparently emirates is strict on the dimension and weight of the bag. The weight should be less than 15lbs and should be as small as a big laptop bag. So I had to check in that. I had to re arrange the rest of the luggage and had to leave half of my camera gear in one of those baggage. I am just being optimistic that I will see my stuff at cochin.

Another notable difference I saw is with the security. Its lot lighter than in any domestic security I had been through.

Ok I need a smoke. Do they have a smoking lounge in here?

We are in New Jersey now. Just a day before the big trip.

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:35:47 -0400

We are in New Jersey now. Just a day before the big trip.

Polyglot Programming

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:55:25 -0400

I have seen this term popping up now and then in various contexts in blogsphere. It ought to be something new. Wikipedia hesitate to go the right article right away before it suggests few options in various contexts. That means this is a newly coined word.

A preciese defenition of Polyglot programming is in wikipedia anyway

Polyglot program are to make liberal use of languages which use different characters for comments and to redefine various tokens as others in different languages. Often good use is made of quirks of syntax

As you would imagine it is stupid to have a cocktail of code in your project leaving the codebase unreadable, and bugs difficult to track. Industry has come in terms to allow a redefenition .

“Embedded SQL with C#, C and Assembly all could be categorized as polyglot program”

The ideology here is to choose the right language for the right application, reducing the development cost of the software project.

It snowed heavily in Northern Maine. Infact we had the record...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:16:04 -0400

It snowed heavily in Northern Maine. Infact we had the record snow fall since 1955. The prior record was for 180 inches. We set a new record of whooping 200 inches; thats about 16ft. And above you see me trying hopelessly to save my new deck. Must say I abandoned it half way for reasons that are obvious.