My Thoughts !

You would have heard of several horror stories about Credit Cards. How the banks cheat you, over charge you, abuse you etc. Here is a nice story of a Credit Card.

I got a HFDC Card 3 years back. I used it to pay monthly utilities like phone & internet and used it for other purchases as well. Once I started using it, the advantage of Credit Card is apparent. My billing cycle of mobile is 26-25. So I get a bill sometime around 30th of every month and the last date is somewhere around 15th. I pay it by 10th with my Credit Card. My credit card's billing cycle is 10-9. So the transaction will come only in the next month's Credit Card bill. I've to pay that only 20th of next month. So I talk in August and actually spend for that only in October!

Big purchases are another good thing. I usually convert them into EMIs. I get them after 10th and convert them into EMIs. When you convert into EMI, the transaction will appear in the current month's statement but the EMI will start in the next month's statement. I don't know whether its a feature or a quirk in their system, I don't want to complain anyway. So I don't get to pay a single paise out of pocket for two months, yet enjoy watching my TV.

I always pay before the due date, so I never went into any sorts of troubles. The good part is I get reward points for all my expenditures. HDFC Bank has a huge list of items to redeem your points for. Last month I opted for Tata Sky. I've to pay a Rs 1,700 extra, but I'll get gift coupons worth of Rs 1,500. That effectively means, I pay Rs 275 (adding the shipping charges) for the Tata Sky. Thats a good deal. Tata Sky guys came in, installed and said that I got 6 months subscription free (its a new deal from Tata Sky for every purchase of Tata Sky), so I have to pay only the Rs 1,000 installation charges (which I can use the gift coupons). Adding  the remaining Rs 500 gift coupon, I get a Tata Sky hardware + 8 months of free subscription. All for using your Credit Card ! Wow! Man you got to love Credit Cards :-)

My Canon D350 should be in my hands by mid Jan. So finished off the roll that I had. Few shots from that roll.

First snap is taken during my daughters first birthday and the rest of them are taken in my wife's home during this Diwali. I've not written much about my wife's place recently, but one of my very first blog entries was about that.





I touched one of the photos with GIMP. Is it looking good?

Before:


After:

I know how much I love bike and enjoying traveling long distances. But now traveling within the city is become difficult for me, reason being my daughter. I was thinking that I should purchase a car sometime in next march, but then preponed it. I was looking for pre-owned cars, but the rates are too much. A 2002 model Wagon R costs me somewhere around 3 Lakhs + 2% commission to the broker. Its not worth it. So decided on a new car. I've booked a Wagon R today. The delivery will be only in the end of Jan/first week of Feb, but the waiting is worth enough because I'll get a 2008 model car with 2008 registration and still get a 20k discount which is available only till 31st Dec :-)

My daughter is one of the very active kids I've seen. We usually don't restrict my daughter from doing something. If she tries to open the door or pull down something from the sofa or throws the onions and potatoes all over the kitchen, she is always allowed to do so. As soon as she started crawling, I taught her how to get down the steps from the hall to my room and to climb up the stairs from the ground floor to our house in the first floor. What I didn't teach was how to get down safely from the cot. Last week she tried by herself when we were not around. She fell down and broke her collar bone.

Though she is not feeling the pain now, its the very toughest time for her. Because of the arm sling she can't use her right hand and now she is pretty much restricted in doing most of her normal mischiefs . It would take around a month to get back to normal, but one month at this age is really too long. Call me a optimistic, but the good thing about this is, since she finds it very difficult to crawl with one hand, she is now more inclined to walk and trying hard. With in a week or two she should be able to walk without any support.

Now for the lesson learnt, never let a kid alone in the bed/sofa.

No blah blah blahs, straight to the images to tell you the story.

An error in Google Doc:



An error in VSNL website:

Meanwhile, Microsoft has said that an internal build of IE 8 now passes the Acid Test. Wow! Thats an achievement. I think its the second browser after Opera to pass the test. While IE 8 is expected to be released in an year or so, Firefox 3 is close to release. Its already in Beta 2 and it rocks!

Its based on Gecko 1.9, pages now loads really fast, UI is cool, Proto theme blends well with Mac and so on. If you ask for my favourite feature, it is the auto complete feature in the location bar. No longer you have to type from the beginning. Type any character in the URL/page name you want, Firefox shows all the results. See the screen shot:



In another related news, Mozilla Prism isn't exciting as I thought earlier. Its just creates a short cut and nothing else. I thought some nice integration such as Application Menus are on the way, but nothing of that sort. If all I want is a short cut on the desktop, I don't need an application, all I need is the upcoming version of Google Gears!

[Cross post from my Eclipse blog]

Eclipse Demo Camp is coming to Bangalore on 10th Dec. Looking at other Demo Camps, Bangalore might be the one with highest number of registration (around 50) - and its still growing. In case you wish to attend, do register here.

Yup, I'm working on a presentation on GEF. Meet you all there.

I'm switching to a digiatal camera. Finally :-) When I decided to purchase a camera, I know it has to be an SLR. But the only "affordable" DSLR was  Canon's 300D. It was around $1000 and the exchange rates were close to 45.  I decided for a film camera. For 8k, Canon's K2 came to my rescue with a nice 28-90mm lens. I've been using it for years and taken nice snaps like these.









Many of them looks really good in photos, not-so-good in digital form (I should blame the scanners).

Now that the exchange rates are falling down below 40, the DSLRs are much more affordable and Ravi will be back from US in a month or so, I decided to switch to a digital Camera. The choice was simple. Canon's Digital Rebel XT. I purchased body only version so that I can reuse the lens that I already own.I would have gone for the XTi, but I was not ready to go pay $250 for extra 2 Mega pixel and bigger LCD. The camera has been delivered to Ravi and eagerly waiting for his arrival sometime in Jan.

In other unrelated news, Ravi also bought a MacBook. Then Dinesh, Jaiku. Surprising thing is none of these guys are hardcore Mac fans. All they wanted was some laptop for personal use and after analysing the options, they found the MacBook to be the better than Dell/Compaq. No, I didn't press any of them, I knew only after they decided. Mac penetration is increasing :-)

I'll be starting to home in an hour or so. No Laptop, no broadband, no cellphone. Only Life!

Happy Diwali everyone.

It looks promising. Offline web apps are becoming more and more popular and Firefox is making a right move towards it. I'll be writing a complete review soon, but for now, you can click here.

Even though I like Rajini movies, I'm not a big fan of him. But this post is dedicated to his fans :-)



படம் உபயம் இட்லி வடை.

Thanks to Vichu for the forward :-)

Back in college days, the simplest way to talk to a stranger is take a cigarette in hand and ask "do you have a match stick". No matter which department the other guy is, or which batch he belongs to, you can get the talk going. I think I found another simpler way now. Cricket.

Sitting inside the Bangalore Airport I see that how everyone is obsessed with Cricket. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE, are watching the TV. The passengers, the shop keepers, the security guards, attendants - everyone. They all chat with there as if they were friends for a long time. The passenger who was standing next to me asking the security guard at the security counter: "what is the score?". The answer: "x for y overs with z wickets in hand. oh sir, you should have seen the xxxxx shot at yth over. Square cut on leg side, blah blah blah...". And the conversation went on. As the only Indian who don't understand or watch that game, I didn't understand all the technical words nor the person's name, but I can surely say, the easiest way to talking to a stranger is "whats the score?" not "do you have a match stick". Hmmm, Now that I've stopped smoking, I wish I like the game to get started.

PS: I typed this blog entry offline, when I was waiting in Bangalore Airport and totally forgot about it. Few mins back, my wife wanted to know the Cricket score, and since I don't know any cricket sites, I Googled. The result was simply impressive and thought of blogging it. Subsequently reminded me of the post that I've not-yet-published. So here goes the result:

Yup. Sonoa, my previous employer, is finally out of stealth mode :-)

The website now lists two products - Info 2.0 and ServiceNet. Yesterday they have announced that they are working with IBM for Info 2.0, which is an appliance for creating Mashups within an Enterprise.  News is already out and spread well. That sounds really nice, except for the two points:

• It is based on IBM's not-even-beta IBM Mashup Starter Kit


• Is there a real market for Mashups within Enterprise?

Since they have just started working, the Mashup Starter Kit should have graduated out of alphaworks, but what about the market? I'm really curious to know about the case studies and customers for that product. Lets wait and see.

aஆடு மேய்க்கறது மாடு மேய்க்கறது தெரியும், பூனை மேய்க்கறது? ரொம்ப கஷ்டமான வேலைங்கோவ். நம்பலைன்னா கீழ இருக்கற வீடியோவ பார்த்து புரிஞ்சுக்கோங்க.


அப்பாவி ஆறுமுகம்: எப்படித்தான் இப்படி புதுசு புதுசா பண்ணறாங்களோ, ரூம் போட்டு யோசிப்பாங்களோ? ஹூம்ம்ம். நமக்கு வாச்சது ஆணி புடுங்கற வேலைதான்.

Heard that this is just one of the ten avatars. Expecting to see it on the big screen !

With the invitation itself, it was well known that its going to be a special iPod event. The photos of iPod Nano leaked in the media, well before the event. Full screen iPod & a Wi-Fi enabled iPod were much expected. So what were the real surprises in yesterday's event?

• The original iPod or simply "iPod" now gets a name - "iPod Classic"

• Who cares?

iPod's max battery life is now 30 Hrs of music or 7 hrs of video

• Cool

iPod's storage goes up to 160 GB

• Wooops!

Starbucks- Apple deal

• On one side a (once) computer maker with passion in music & on the other side a coffee maker who creates music that wins Grammy awards. Interesting deal !

Safari on iPhone & iTunes Wi-Fi store

• A perfect match for Wi-Fi enabled iPod. What else to say?

4GB iPhone is dropped and 8GB is now priced at $399 only

• For those early adopters, who are complaining: (i) Nokia's timely wit (ii) I paid ~ $500 for an 20 GB B&W screen iPod which had 6 hrs of battery life. Should I complain now? No. Remember one thing with the electronic gadgets. As soon as they leave the designers table and enter the manufacturing line, they are outdated. The next generation cool device is already in the Designer's table. You can keep on waiting to get cheaper, better products. That will never end.

Bluetooth in iPod Touch???

• Although steve didn't say anything about that, Apple website is displaying an image (at this time of writing) with a Bluetooth icon. See it the top-right corner of iPod in landscape position?

In essence, Apple armed itself perfectly for the holiday season. This year, even more number of socks are going to have iPod. Bad news for Zune. A price cut just before this event is not going to help it. Good news for everyone else.

PS: I'm eying on the iPod Touch. Might get one soon :-P

I've moved to a hosted blog from Wordpress and here is how to do it without loosing any data, users & search engine referrals.

I'll assume that you are moving http://example.wordpress.com to http://blog.example.com

•  Login to WordPress; go to Manage->Export. Use this option and export all your blog entries, categories, comments in an XML file and save to your local disk


• Get an account with a hosting service, which supports PHP and gives you some DB (mostly MySQL)


• Follow the guidelines by your hosting service to create a DB. Note down the user name & password


• Download and unzip the WordPress from here.


• copy wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and give the DB details


• The toughest part will be to go thru the WordPress installation Wizard and installing it. ;-)


• Now with the password that you got from the install wizard, login to Dashboard


• If you have unzipped the wordpress into a different directory and/or you are publishing it to a subdomain, you need to specify it. Go to Options and change the urls (Wordpress URL should point to the subdirectory (http://example.com/<unzipped dir>) and blog address should point to subdomain (http://blog.example.com)


• Go to Options->Permalinks and "Date and Name based" one. By default that is the one followed in WordPress.com


• Go to Manage->Import and point to the xml file you have exported earlier from WordPress.com


• In case you have used any special WordPress marker URLs (like YouTube, Digg, ...), you need to edit the individual entries and embed them properly

You are done with the content. What about the existing users and the hits you were getting so far from the search engines? Follow these steps:

• Purchase the Domain Upgrade @ WordPress.com.


• Mention the same domain in which you are hosting the blog (blog.example.com)


• Go to Upgrades->Domains and do "Put Blog here" for the purchased domain

Now WordPress.com will redirect all the traffic for http://example.wordpress.com to that http://blog.example.com. Since that domain name will resolve to your hosting service, it will be directed to that. The URLs & contents are available for the users without any problem. This includes the feeds as well. So those who have subscribed to your WordPress.com feeds will automatically get this feed (all major feed readers will respect redirection).Yeah, you are done. Seamless move. Now you can enjoy all the nice plugins and themes that were not available with the WordPress.com hosting. In case you are missing any nice functionality like the tag cloud, you can write one and share it to the community  :-)

இந்த மாசத்து புகைப்படப்போட்டிக்கான தலைப்பு 'வண்ணங்கள்'. நம்ம கலெக்சன்ல இருந்து எத அனுப்பலாம்னு எல்லாம் யோசிக்கவே வேண்டிய வேலையே இல்லாம ரெண்டு தான் தேறுச்சு. ரெண்டுமே கேரளா. மொத படம், வயனாடு போட் ஹவுஸ்ல ஒரு கடைல, ரெண்டாவது திருச்சூர் - சாலக்குடி வழில இருக்கற ஒரு சின்ன டேம்ல.

From புகைப்படப்போட்டி

ரெண்டுமே என்னோட பிலிம் கேமரால எடுத்து கொஞ்சம் iPhotoல டச்சப் செஞ்சது. வழக்கம் போல போட்டோவை கிளிக்கினால், வலது பக்கம் Download லிங்கில் பெரிய படம் கிடைக்கும்

மற்றவை:
ஆகஸ்ட் மாத போட்டிக்கான படங்கள்
ஜூலை மாத போட்டிக்கான படங்கள்

James Gosling has posted a video of Project Green - the one that gave birth to Java. Considering the technology was developed one and half decades back, its really amazing to see what the little hand held device can accomplish. Full touch screen, speakers (yeah, but ugly sound theme), infrared and yes smooth scrolling in the touch screen interface. Is this where iPhone copied it from?


Watch the video and decide yourself. I think if Sun had patented it, it could have sued Apple!

You have too many credit cards. One card gets you reward points for a dress purchase; other will give you cash back for swipes in restaurant, and so on. Too many cards, too many offers. Its best to carry all your cards while shopping. You wallet becomes heavy and if you loose it you are in a real mess.

Is there a solution? Yes, iCache is a wonderful nice solution to this. Its actually a rewritable credit card with a device to write in it. The device is so small so that you can carry it along. If someone steals it, you are safe, because it has fingerprint scanner. And no, although the name hints, its not by Apple :-)

BEA is one of the biggest Java vendors; Macs run Java & many Java developers use Mac. But still Weblogic is not supported on Mac. So I have to follow the unofficial informations to install it. Here are the steps:

BEA's download site lists the officially supported OS. Mac won't be there in the list. If you select IBM AIX/ HP Itanium, you will see that the downloaded file is server<version>_generic.jar. These jars can be used to install Weblogic on any machine with a JRE.

The generic installer is "intelligent" enough to find that you don't have any space in your disk to install and will give you this error dialog:

To avoid this you have to tell the installer that you are running on a Unix machine: java -Dos.name=unix -jar server100_generic.jar

The installation will go smoothly without any troubles. When you are done with the installation, the wizard you show you an option to run the QuickStart uncheck and press Finish. (If you are happy with the Example Server and want to start it, you may want to show the Quick Start)

Run the <bea home>/wlserver_10.0/common/bin/config.sh to create your own domain and go to the domain directory and run startWeblogic.sh. Its all the usual stuff. Nothing specific to Mac.

The only trouble is you will get the login screen for console and the login will take for ever with more than 90% CPU usage :-( Don't worry, I'll give a solution soon :-)

Related Posts:

Weblogic on Ubuntu

நேத்து போட்ட பதிவில இருந்த போட்டோவ பார்த்து கோயமுத்தூர்ல பொறந்து வளர்ந்த மக்களே கண்டுபுடிக்கமுடியல. பெங்களூரு ITPL, சென்னை Tidel எல்லாத்தையும் தூக்கி சாப்புடற மாதிரி இருக்கேன்னு நெனச்சு, எல்&டி கட்டின அப்பார்ட்மெண்ட்ல இருந்து ரேஸ் கோர்ஸ் வரைக்கும் மெயில் தட்டிவிட்டிருந்தாங்க. படத்துல அப்படியே மேல மேகோட்டு மூலைல நல்லா பாருங்க? பஸ்ஸுக எல்லாம் அப்படியே கீழ போகுதுங்களா? அது நஞ்சப்பா ரோடுங்க. மூலைல இருக்கறது காந்திபுரம் டவுன் பஸ்டாண்டுங்க. இப்ப தெரியுதுங்களா அது எந்த எடம்ன்னு? உள்ள போனா சும்மா தங்கறது மட்டுமில்லீங்க சிக்கனோட சாப்பாடும் எலவசமா கவர்மெண்ட்டே குடுப்பாங்க.

இன்னும் தெரியலையா? அட என்னங்க, நம்ம சென்ட்ரல் ஜெயில் தாங்க அது. முன்ன பின்ன அங்க போனது இல்லையோ? ;-)

சும்மா சொல்லக்கூடாதுங்க, ஏதோ ஹாலிடே ரிசார்ட் மாதிரி ஜம்முன்னு கட்டிவெச்சிருக்காங்க. எனக்கு என்னமோ ஒரு ரெண்டு வாரம் அங்க போய் தங்கிட்டு வரலாம்னு தோனுது. பிட்பாக்கெட் அடிக்கறது எப்படின்னு எங்காச்சும் கத்துக்குடுத்தா சொல்லுங்க.

கொசுறு: அந்த போட்டோ நான் எடுக்கலைங்க, உபயம் - Google Earth. அட ஆமாங்க ஆமா. இப்போ high resolutionல நம்ம ஊரு நல்லா தெரியுது!

Related Links:
From the sky (question)

Today my friend came to my house, who has recently bought a Motorola mobile with 2 Megapixel camera. I thought of testing it and took a snap of my daughter in the cradle. The photo came so nice that I've to immediately send it to my Mac thru Bluetooth and blog it. Not bad for a camera in mobile phone na?

From Visual Taste

Related links:
Priceless Expressions - 4
Priceless Expressions - 3
Priceless Expressions - 2
Priceless Expressions - 1

Watching your house from the sky is interesting. Now that every week I'm flying from Coimbatore to Bangalore, I always prefer a window seat and search for my house. I can identify other landmarks as well, except for this one:




I first thought it would be Agri university, but I was wrong. Keep guessing which place this would be. I'll update this blog tomorrow :-)

[Update]
Answer is here.

I've never looked at the trash folder in my MacBook Pro. Today I opened it and found so many items. I said "Empty Trash". It calculated the number of items and displayed this dialog box:



I should say the sound effect after the cleaning was nice :-)

When I decided to moved to Coimbatore, I was looking for a job here and posted my profile in job sites. OMG, Eclipse plugin development is hot in India. Esp. for few of those who knew it well. I got so many calls from many consultants but the jobs are based in Bangalore. I clearly said "either get me a company which has a development center in Coimbatore or at least a company which will allow me to work from Coimbatore". They are always confused of the second option. As Yadhvi said "It is better to knock on a closed door than to assume it will not open and walk past". I was knocking and a door opened. Its Fiorano. I explained my situation, they understood it. Most of my friends still don't digest the idea. The first question would be: "So you are a contractor now?" No dudes, I'm an employee but work from home.

I know working from home has its own disadvantages. Forget missing all the "Sweets at my desk" mails, I'm mising my basic rights to have coffee whenever I want. Its restricted to a maximum of 5 coffees a day. I was prepared for everything. I stayed back in Bangalore for 2 weeks to interact with the team personally; at home, separate room for office work; two DSL connections; inverter backup (yet to purchase); ... But not everything goes as planned right. Disaster came on the day I left Bangalore and started work from here. My teammate resigned. So every week, I've got to fly to Bangalore on Mondays and fly back again on/before Wednesday. Staying in hotels; missing my daughter; waking up at 4 AM on Monday morning to catch a flight. Sigh. It ends this week. Hope I'll be really working from home after this.

பெப்சி உமா : blogன்ற பேர்ல படிச்சவங்க அசிங்கமா விமர்சனம் பண்ணி எழுதறது வெட்கத்துக்குரியது
அப்பாவி ஆறுமுகம் : படிக்காதவங்க எழுதற blog எல்லாம் நீங்க பார்க்கறதே இல்லயா?

;-)

லிங்க் உபயம் - கில்லி

Hope you would have got a ton of forwards on the Google Maps suggesting you to "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean". Here is another nice one. Seen on "Suggest a feature" page @ Gmail's Help Center:



Yeah, you read it right. The next feature of Gmail is to do your laundry :-)

This time its not a digital camera or Mac. But with my normal film camera. The first few are when we force her to have Cerelac and the last two are THE best photos I've ever taken.

Related links:
Priceless Expressions - 4
Priceless Expressions - 3
Priceless Expressions - 2
Priceless Expressions - 1

Another year has gone. Round up of this year:

• A new addition to my family. Very very happy.


• Purchased a house. Finally I made an investment. Good.


• Shifted my job again (sigh) Good that I didn't switch technology again. Still with Eclipse Plugin development. OK.


• Shifted to Coimbatore. Great.


• Bought a MacBook. Good.


• Got a MacBook Pro from office. Cool.


• After 3 successive failures, I finally co-founded a startup - Cypal Solutions. mmmm. No comments :-)


• I didn't reach one my life time goals of becoming a CEO before 30. Sad.

Overall: A nice and wonderful year.

Who ever said that web search is a solved problem, please look at the search terms, for which Search engines referred this blog!

If you don't want to download pirated MP3 files, the only option so far is to purchase an audio CD and rip it into MP3. I've been doing that way since I decided no pirated music. Simply, for Indians, there is no way to purchase music on the net. Sometime back HCL was talking about that (partnering with Apple for iTunes music store in India), but it didn't happen.

Now there is a nice option (or at least only now I noticed). Raaga.com has an option to legally download our beloved songs. The advantage of online purchase is you don't have to purchase the entire album, just because one song is nice. You can pay for and download individual the songs that you like (mostly @ Rs 12/- per song).

All looks nice, if not for the Windows DRM. For me, with both my laptops running OS X, I can't play the songs. Only way is to get the songs into a Windows box, burn them into an audio CD, take use that CD and import the music to my iTunes. Ha! I would better stay with purchasing CDs :-(

Mac + iSight camera + Photo Booth Software + my daughter = Priceless Expressions :-)

This time, I sat with her and kept on pressing the Shoot button at 10 seconds intervals. That was a long list of photos and few selected photos here.

In case you have missed: Part 1 and Part 2

Related links:
Priceless Expressions - 2
Priceless Expressions - 1

நான் ஏற்கனவே இங்க சொன்ன மாதிரி, பொடுசுகள போட்டோ எடுக்கறதுங்கறது ஒரு பெரிய கலைங்க. அந்த போட்டோ எடுக்க கஷ்டப்பட்ட மாதிரி இந்த ரெண்டு போட்டோகளுக்கும் கஷ்டப்படலை. ஏன்னா கையில இருந்தது ராஜாவோட டிஜிட்டல் கேமரா :-) சும்மா ஒரு இருவது, முப்பது போட்டோ சுட்டுத்தள்ளுட்டேன். தேறினது என்னவோ இது ரெண்டும் தான்.

எடுத்ததுக்கு அப்புறம், iPhoto வெச்சு கொஞ்சம் டச் பண்ணினேன். ரெண்டுலயும், edge blur effect குடுத்து; மொத போட்டோவ கருப்பு வெள்ளைக்கு மாத்தி; ரெண்டாவதுல கொஞ்சம் color correction பண்ணினா, நான் போட்டிக்கு ரெடி. அப்ப நீங்க?

From புகைப்படப்போட்டி

வழக்கம் போல போட்டோவ கிளிக்கினால் picasa webல பெரிசா பார்க்கலாம். அங்கயே, ரைட் சைடுல டவுன்லோட் லிங்க அமுத்தினா ஒரிஜினல் சைசிலயும் வியூ பண்ணலாம். டமில் வால்க ;-)

நம்ம சுதர்சன் கோயம்த்தூரப்பத்தி அழகா ஒரு பதிவு போட்டு நிர்மலா காலேஜ்ல இருந்து சிறுவாணித்தண்ணி வரைக்கும் அலசியிருந்தாரு. எல்லாஞ்செரிதேன், முக்கியமான ஒன்ன விட்டுட்டாரு - அதான் கோயம்த்தூர் குசும்பு. யோசிங்க. பாக்யராஜு, சத்யராஜு, கவுண்டமணி, சுதர்சன் கோவாலு, ... யப்பா, குசும்பால வளர்ந்த கோயம்த்தூர் பிரபலங்க கொஞ்சமா நஞ்சமா? அந்த விட்டுப்போன மேட்டர பேசத்தான் இந்தப்பதிவு.

ஊருப்பக்கம், இந்த பெரிசுகளுக்கு இருக்குற குசும்பு இருக்குதே, தாங்க முடியாதுங்க. காலைல சின்ன வெங்காயத்த தொட்டுக்க வெச்சி பழைய கஞ்சிய மோர்ல விட்டு ஒரு கட்டு கட்டிட்டு, வெளித்திண்ணயில உக்காந்துகிட்டு போறவாறவுங்ககிட்ட பண்ணற லோலாயி இருக்கே. ஹீம்ம்ம்.
பெரிசு : ஏ புள்ள செம்பகம். ஊருக்கு போன உம்புருசன் இன்னும் வல்லியாக்கு?
செண்பகம்: ஏனுங்க மாமோய்? அது உங்கிட்ட கடன் கிடன் வாங்குச்சாக்கு?
பெரிசு : இல்ல புள்ள, ரொம்ப சந்தோசமா தெரியறியே, அதான் கேட்டன்
செண்பகம்: ம்ம்ம், சாயங்காலம் ஒரு டம்ளர் டீத்தண்ணி குடு புள்ளன்னு ஊட்டுப்பக்கம் வருவீங்க இல்ல, கோமியத்த கலந்து குடுக்கறன் பாருங்க

கலியாண வூட்டுக்கு போனா பந்தியில உக்காந்தமா, அட்சதய போட்டமா, கிளம்புனமான்னு இருக்க மாட்டாங்க நம்ம பாட்டாளி மக்கள்:
பாட்டாளி 1: ஏம்பா, இந்த தடவ உங்களுக்கு ஆழியாத்து தண்ணி ஒரு மட தான் வரும்போல?
பாட்டாளி 2: ஆமாப்பா. இந்த பி.ஏ.பி. காரனுக எப்பயும் இப்படித்தான். ஒழுங்கா என்னைக்கு தொறந்து விட்டுருக்கானுக?
பாட்டாளி 1: இந்த அமேரிக்காக்கார பசங்களுக்கு ஒரு லெட்டர் போடவேண்டியது தான?
பாட்டாளி 2: நம்மூரு மினிஸ்டருக்கு லெட்டர் போட்டா செரி. அவனுகளுக்கு எதுக்கு?
பாட்டாளி 1: இல்ல நம்ம லெட்டர் போட்டு கூப்டா, ஈராக்ல போயி சதாம் உசேன தூக்கில போட்ட மாதிரி இங்க வந்து இவனுகலயும் தூக்கில போட்டுவான் இல்ல?
பாட்டாளி 2: ஏம் பேச மாட்ட? போன வருசம் மழ இல்லாம தென்ன மரமெல்லாம் காஞ்சு, உயிர் தண்ணி கூட விட மாட்டேன்னாங்களே, அப்ப நீ போட வேண்டியது தான?
பாட்டாளி 1: போட்டனப்பா. ரெண்டு மாசம் கழிச்சி, அட்ரஸ் செரியில்லைன்னு திரும்பி வந்திருச்சு
பாட்டாளி 2: பங்காளி, உங்கொழுப்பு இருக்கே, அதுக்கே உன்னத் தூக்குல போடச்சொல்லி லெட்டர் போடனும்

இந்த மாதிரி லந்து பண்றவங்க எல்லாம் வயக்காட்டுப் பக்கம் தான்னு இல்லீங்க. டவுனு பக்கமுந்தான்:
பயணி : ஏனுங்கன்னா, இந்த பஸ்ஸு ராசபாளையம் போகுமுங்களா?
கண்டக்டர் : நீ லட்ச ரூவா குடு கண்ணு, மெட்ராசுக்கே போகும்
பயணி : ஹுக்கும். லட்ச ரூவா கையில இருந்தா நான் ஆட்டோ புடிச்சி போயிட மாட்டனாக்கு

இந்த மாதிரி பக்கத்தூட்டு பயலானாலும் செரி, முன்ன பின்ன தெரியாத ஆளானாலும் செரி, லொள்ளு பேசி, நக்கல் பண்ணி, வம்பு இழுக்கலீன்னா, ராத்திரிக்கு தூக்கம் வராது. அதான்னுங்க கோயம்த்தூர் குசும்பு.

A nice 2 BHK house is available for rent. Independent house with two floors. House owner stays in Ground Floor and 2 portions in First Floor. House is in Vignan Nagar, New Thippasandra. It takes 10 mins to Marathahalli, 10 mins to Airport, 15 mins to Indira Nagar, 15 mins to K.R. Puram and 45 mins to ITPL in my bike during normal traffic. The house is situated in a 35 cents plot area, in which most of the space is for the garden. From the terrace you have a nice lake view (though half of the view is blocked by an apartment). I’m staying here for the past one and a half years and faced no water problems. A biggest plus would be a very very nice house owner (If not I wouldn’t write this post) Rent is resonable. Only drawback is the half km road that connects the house from the main road, which is very bad.

The house is available from 1st of August. If you are interested, you can send a mail to my gmail id (grprakash), I will put you in contact with my house owner.(Didn’t want to publish their house number in the net)

ஊரவிட்டு ஊரு வந்து வேலை பாத்து மாசா மாசம் சம்பாதிக்கறதுல ஒரு அமெளண்ட KPNக்கு குடுக்கற கோஷ்டில நானும் ஒருத்தன். யோசிச்சு பாருங்க. ஒரு நாளைக்கு பெங்களூர்ல இருந்து மட்டும் 50 பஸ் வெளிய போகுது. சராசரியா டிக்கெட்டுக்கு 350 ரூவான்னாலும், 50 x 30 x 350 = 5,25,000 டர்ன் ஓவர் வருது. அட ஆமாங்க. சைபர் எல்லாம் சரி பாருங்க. அஞ்சே கால் லட்ச ரூவா. இது பெங்களூர் மட்டும். சென்னை, கோவை, திருநெல்வேலி, நாகர்கோயில், ... எல்லாம் கணக்கு பார்த்தா ஒரு நாள் எப்படியும் ஒரு கோடி புரளுது. இப்பயே கண்ணக்கட்டுதே, வாரம், மாசன்னு கணக்கு போட்டா? இத்தன காச வெச்சிகிட்டும் படவா பசங்க மூட்டைப்பூச்சி இருக்கற பஸ்ஸ ஓட்டுறானுக. (பொள்ளாச்சிக்கு இது ஒன்னு தான் வண்டி. வேற வழி இல்லாமத்தான் இதுல போகனும்)

அன்னிக்கு ஒரு நாள் நம்ம பிரண்டு ஒருத்தன் சொன்னான்: "மச்சி, கவுண்டரு இவனுகளுக்கு போட்டியா எறங்கிட்டாருடா, இவனுகளுக்கு இனி ஆப்புதான்". என்னடா அப்பிடி இதுல ஸ்பெசல்ன்னு கேட்டா, நீயே போய் பார்த்துக்கோன்னுட்டான். கொஞ்ச நாளைக்கு முன்னாடிதான் சான்ஸ் கிடைச்சது. வெப்சைட்லயே புக் பண்ணிட்டேன் (லாகின் எல்லாம் வேண்டியதில்ல). மடிவாலால KPNக்கு எதுத்தாப்புலயே ஆபீசு. AC வெயிட்டிங் ரூம்!!! அடையாரு ஆனந்த பவனே, A2Bன்னு போர்டு போட்டு, கன்னட பாட்டு உள்ள பாடவிட்டிருக்கான், இங்க தமிழ் பாட்டு, தமிழ் காலண்டருல இருந்து தினத்தந்தி வரைக்கும் தமிழ் தான். அப்படியே பேச்சு குடுத்ததுல தெரிஞ்ச விசயம்: எல்லா வண்டியும் இவங்க சொந்த வண்டி தானாம்; எல்லாமே AC வண்டிக; ஒரே மாதிரி seating; வண்டில எல்லாம் ஸ்பீட் கண்ரோல் இருக்கு, 70க்கு மேல போகவே போகாது, ...

வண்டி 5 நிமிசம் லேட்டு தான். உள்ள ஏறினா கலக்கல். சீட்டுக்கு பக்கத்துல செல்போன் ஹோல்டர், சார்ஜர் போட்டுக்க ப்ளக்; லெதர் சீட்டு; எல்லாருக்கு வாட்டர் பாட்டில் (இது தெரியாம நான் வேற வாங்கிட்டு போனேன்). டிரைவர் சீட்ல இருந்து சத்தம்:

டேய், தண்ணி எல்லாருக்கு வெச்சாச்சா?
ஆச்சுன்னே
ஐபாட் குடுத்தாச்சா?
இதோ எடுத்தாறன்னே

என்னது ஐபாடா? எல்லாருக்குமா? இப்படி குடுத்தா ABT மட்டுமா, சக்தி பைனான்ஸ்ல இருந்து பன்னாரி அம்மன் சுகர் பேக்டரி வரைக்கும் இழுத்து மூட வேண்டி வருமே. செரி எது எப்படி போனா நமக்கென்ன, எந்த ஐபாட் தர போறானுக? இப்படி ஒரே கன்பீசன்ல இருந்தப்ப தான், கொண்டாந்து குடுத்தாங்க. அது iPod இல்லைங்க, eye-pad! கண்ணுக்கு கட்டிட்டு தூங்கலாம். அவ்வளவு தான். :-( கூடவே வந்த டிஸ்யூ பேப்பரு ஓவருன்னா, சீட் பெல்ட், வாந்தி எடுக்க சிக்னஸ் பேக், டீவீல 'ABT உங்களை அன்புடன் வரவேற்கிறது' எல்லாம் ஓவரோ ஓவரோ ஓவரோ ஓவர். எந்திரிச்சு போய் "இந்த ப்ளைட்ல, சாரி பஸ்ஸுல, டாய்லெட் எங்க இருக்குது?" அப்படின்னு கேக்க தோனுச்சு. அடக்கிகிட்டேன் - கேள்விய.

நண்பு சொன்னா மாதிரி, கவுண்டர் கலக்கிட்டார். ஆனா KPNக்கு ஆப்பு எல்லாம் கிடையாது. ஏன்னா, எத்தன பஸ்ஸு விட்டாலும் அதுல போற மக்கள் ஜாஸ்தி தான்.

மொத்தத்துல:
- ராத்திரில தூங்கனும். படம் போடாதீங்கப்பா
+ மத்த எல்லாமே


டெயில் பீஸ்:
அப்பாவி ஆறுமுகம்: ஏன் எல்லா மப்ஸல் பஸ்லயும் விஜய் படமே போடுறாங்க? நல்ல படமே இவங்களுக்கு கெடக்காதா?

The easiest way to rate a customer service is to see how they treat you when you disconnect from their service. Since I'm moving out of Bangalore, I'm disconnecting my mobile connection (Hutch) and DSL(Airtel).

Airtel it was breeze. I walked into an Airtel shop; said that I want to disconnect; got a small form; filled in 2 mins; walked out. After few hours I got a call asking for confirmation. I confirmed. Hope they would come to my house to get the equipments on the right date.

Hutch, it was different. Yesterday I walked into a store and said I want to disconnect. They directed me to an executive. He asked my number, looked something in his PC and said, "we can't take the request here, you have to mail to [email protected]". I did. I clearly mentioned my mobile number and the date. Today, I got a call from another executive. She asked me the reason for disconnecting and gave me nice offers (pay one time fees Rs 500/- your number will be valid for an year with incoming free, blah, blah, blah...). Finally she asked me when I want the number to be disconnected, when I'm moving out of the city, where should the bill be sent, etc. After all that, my mobile got deactivated tonight. I called the call center and the guy told me that the only way to activate it is, to walk into a Hutch shop. No phone call/email would do that. Hmmmm. I'm pissed off. I'm not going to walk into a shop. I've just emailed. I think I would have a bill of Rs 500/- for this month. I'm not going to pay it. If they really feel that its wrong on my part, let them sue me. Will meet them in the court. :-)

இங்கே நடக்கும் போட்டிக்கான என் படங்கள்:

From புகைப்படப்போட்டி

சில குறிப்புகள்:
முதல் படம்: சென்னையில் பல சனிக்கிழமை காலைகள் VGP கடற்கரையில் விடியும். ஒவ்வொரு தடவையும், அடச்சே கேமரா எடுக்காம வந்துட்டமேன்னு வருத்தப்படுவேன். ஒரே நாள் தவிர :-)

இரண்டாவது படம்: Verizon ASG டீம் மக்களோட ஒரு தரம் கொடைக்கானல் போன போது அங்க பார்க்கில் சுட்டது. இதை எடுக்க ஒரு அஞ்சு நிமிசம் ஆனதால வெயிட் பண்ணிகிட்டே திட்டினவங்க எல்லாம் பிரிண்ட் வந்ததும் வாபஸ் வாங்கிட்டாங்க :-)

ரெண்டு படமும் என்னோட Canon K2 ல 100 ASA பிலிம் போட்டு எடுத்தது.

நம்ம ஊருல, ரோடுல இருந்து பிட்சா வரைக்கும் எல்லாத்துக்கும் "அமெரிக்கால எல்லாம் "-ன்னு ஆரம்பிச்சு பேசுற கூட்டம் கொஞம் ஜாஸ்தி. அதுலயும் கொஞ்ச நாள் அங்க இருந்துட்டு வந்த ஆளுக அலும்பு தாங்க முடியாது. காபி குடிக்க போனாலும் செரி சத்யம் தியேட்டருக்கு போனாலும் செரி, "இதெல்லாம் என்ன மச்சி, அங்க எல்லாம் ...". இவங்க வெறும் வாய்க்கு அவல் குடுக்கற மாதிரி, நம்ம ஊரு அரசியல்வாதிங்க எல்லாம் காசு குடுத்தா, பொண்டாட்டி புள்ளைகன்னு சொல்லி ஆள் கடத்தற வேலை வேற. ஒடனே, 'ஹூம், அமெரிக்கால எல்லாம், அரசியல்வாதின்னா எவ்வளவு நேர்மையா இருக்கனும் தெரியுமான்னு' ஒரு கூட்டம் சொல்லிட்டு திரிஞ்சுது.

இந்த டயலாக்க அடிக்கடி விட்டு கடுப்படிக்கற மக்கள் எல்லாரோட ஈமெயில் ஐடி தேடி புடிச்சி இந்த லின்க நான் அனுப்பிச்சிட்டிருக்கேன். அங்க இருக்குற கருமத்த இங்க எழுத முடியாது, அதனால அங்கயே போய் படிச்சுக்கோங்க. அதோட அந்த டயலாக் உடற ஆளுங்களுக்கு எல்லாம் மறக்காம அந்த லின்க அனுபிச்சு வைங்க.

A nice way to improve productivity is to open up a long progress bar for every other operation the user will perform and display productivity hints below that progress bar.

Courtesy: IntelliJ IDEA.

PS: I've been using Eclipse as my primary IDE for the past few years and I wonder why Eclipse lacks this feature ;-)

He and She decided to shift to Coimbatore from Bangalore. He goes to Coimbatore on a weekend searching for a house. He found one and on Sat evening, he calls She to convey the message.

He : Hey She, good news, வீடு பார்த்துடேன்
She: Super. எந்த ஏரியா?
He : பீளமேடு தான். நல்ல வீடு, புடிச்சிருந்தது. உடனே அட்வான்ஸ் குடுத்துட்டு வந்துட்டேன்
She: என்னது. நான் பார்க்கவே இல்ல அதுக்குள்ள அட்வான்ஸ் குடுத்திட்டியா?
He : இல்லப்பா, நம்ம ஊரு இப்ப முன்ன மாதிரி இல்ல தெரியுமா? அடுத்தா வாரம் நீ வரதுக்குள்ள யாராச்சும் அட்வான்ஸ் குடுத்து புக் பண்ணிட்டா?
She: அது செரி. பாத்ரூம்ல கீசர் இருக்கு இல்ல?
He : பார்த்த மாதிரி தான் இருந்துச்சு. இருக்கும்பா.
She: என்னடா நீ? இதெல்லாம் கூட ஒழுங்கா பாக்கமாட்டியா? செரி. விண்டோல ஸ்கிரீன் போட ப்ரொவிஷன் இருக்கில்ல?
He : ம்ம்ம்ம். ஓ. இருக்குது. அதெல்லாம் இல்லாமயா?
She: நீ யோசிச்சு பதில் சொல்லறத பார்த்தா, எனக்கு என்னமோ நீ பொய் சொல்லற மாதிரி தெரியுது.
He : சீச்சீ. நிஜமாவே இருந்துச்சுப்பா.
She: பெட்ரூம்ல ஷெல்ப் இருக்கில்ல?
He : இல்லயே. அது இல்லாட்டி என்ன? பீரோ வாங்கிகிட்டா போச்சு.
She: போடா. எனக்கு பீரோ எல்லாம் வேண்டாம். ஹால்லயாவது இருக்கா?
He : ஹால்ல யாராச்சும் ஷெல்ப் வைப்பாங்களா? என்ன பேசற நீ?
She: அப்ப ஒரு ஷெல்ப் கூட இல்லாத வீட்ட பார்த்து அதுக்கு அட்வான்ஸ் வேற குடுத்துட்டு வந்திருக்க?
He : இப்ப அது இல்லாட்டி என்ன? வீடு புடிச்சுது. அட்வான்ஸ் குடுத்துட்டேன்.
She: எனக்கு தெரியாதா? பக்கத்து வீட்டுல பிகர் இருக்கா, அவங்க வீடு இங்க மொட்ட மாடில இருந்து தெரியுதான்னு பார்த்து நல்ல வீடுன்னு முடிவு பண்ணி இருப்ப.
He : அடிக்கள்ளி. கரெக்டா கண்டு புடிச்சிட்டியே. ஹீ ஹீ ஹீ
She: பேச்ச மாத்தாத. உண்மைய சொல்லு. வீட்டுல ஷெல்ப் இருக்கு தானே
He : ஹய்யோ. நிஜமாலுமே அந்த வீட்டுல ஷெல்ப் இல்லமா
She: இல்ல. நீ பொய் சொல்லற. அதெல்லாம் நீ பார்க்காம நீ அட்வான்ஸ் குடுக்க மாட்ட
He : ஷெல்ப் இல்லாதது எல்லாம் எனக்கு பெரிய விசயமா படல
She: நீ சும்மா விளையாடுற. உண்மைய சொல்லு
He : அட இது பொய் இல்ல. நிஜமாலுமே தான்
She: நான் நம்ப மாட்டேன். சொல்லு
He : நான் சொன்னாத்தான் நம்ப மாட்டேங்கறியே. நீ வந்து பார்க்கத்தான போற? அப்ப தெரியும்
She: நீ சொல்லறத பார்த்தா ஷெல்ப் இருக்கு போல
He : இல்லயே
She: போடா. விளையாட்டு போதும். சொல்லு
He : என்ன சொல்ல. அந்த வீட்டுல ஷெல்ப் இல்ல
She: நேர்ல மட்டும் இப்ப இருந்த, விளக்குமாறு தான். டென்ஷன் பண்ணாதடா. பாப்பாக்கு செரிலேக் கலக்க டைம் ஆச்சு. சொல்லு.
He : செரி செரி. உண்மைய சொல்லிடுறேன். பெட்ரூம்ல ஒன்னு, ஹால்ல ஒன்னு மொத்தம் ரெண்டு ஷெல்ப் இருக்கு போதுமா?
She: எனக்கு அப்பவே தெரியும். நீ சும்மா பொய் தான் சொல்லறேன்னு. செரி பாப்பா பசிக்கு சத்தம் போடுறா. bye.
He : bye (sigh)

எங்க சொல்லுங்க பார்க்கலாம். அந்த வீட்டுல ஷெல்ப் இருந்துச்சா இல்லயா?

One of my life time goals is to become a CEO of a company before I touch the magic figure of 30 years old (other life time goals include purchasing a personal aircraft).

The story of an assistant to a cable splicer becoming a CEO of a Fortune 10 company did impress me. So when I came out of the college, I carefully chose to join Verizon as a Programmer - despite the offers like Project Manager at Google and India Delivery Head at Microsoft. After few years of service, I climbed up several steps in the ladder and ended up as an Analyst. At that rate, I found that it will take another 20 years for me to reach the CEO post and my goal was to reach there in another 2 years time. So I quit and joined BEA. I thought I would at least become the CEO of BEA India. Only after getting in, I realized that there is no such post. I was in search of a job, again. This time instead of looking for big companies, I looked for startups. I selected Sonoa. When Raj decided to step down from the CEO post, to my disappointment, he didn't select me. He rather hired Chet Kapoor. I decided to quit again. But where to join?

Having purchased a MacBook and have given numerous good presentations, I thought I can replace Steve Jobs as the CEO of Apple. I spoke with him. I was able to convince him that holding two CEO positions is neither good for the person nor the companies. He offered me the CEO of Pixar. But I rejected the offer saying, I want to be a CEO of a computer company. His happened in last december. You know what? In this year's MacWorld he dropped off "Computers" from "Apple Computers". You cheated me Steve. You will have my revenge.

Meanwhile, the time line for my goal was only few months away and no body is offering me a CEO job. So instead of searching for a company which will give me a CEO title, I started one. Ah! that was a nice idea and I still wonder why it didn't strike me. After all the legal blah, blahs, Cypal Solutions came into existence. Its a developer oriented company, which creates some free & nice developer tools and provides training as well.

One of my life time goals was about to be fulfilled. But alas, my wife said that will take up the CEO post. As I've granted the privilege of taking decisions (more details here) to her, I have to just stay as Co-Founder. Now that I've exactly 38 days for the deadline and I'm out of Sonoa as well, I'm looking for a CEO job. If your company has the vacancy, please let me know. I'll send my resume.

BTW, I've decided upon my next life time goal - retire @ 40. Will that happen at least? Let me see ...

Another set of Priceless Expressions. The last photo is the cutest of all :-)

Related links:
Priceless Expressions - 4
Priceless Expressions - 3
Priceless Expressions - 1

I know internet banking provides round the clock services, but why should they have it on "this" particular page?



Related Links:
Special Message from HDFC

Disclaimer: Even on my MacBook I use Firefox rather than Safari because of the wonderful plugins that I need.

I'm using Safari on Windows since the day its announced (and switched back to Firefox today). There are some nice things about Safari (like Find) but I don't like the product as a whole. Here are top 5 reasons why Safari is not going to succeed:

5) Safari installs unwanted apps: The installer of Safari tries to install other unwanted software. (No. I definitely don't want Bonjour)

4) Safari doesn't import your settings from IE/Firefox: When I install Firefox, I remember Firefox giving me options to import my settings from IE. So that I don't have to loose any bookmarks. Safari doesn't do that. So I've to recreate all the bookmarks

3) Safari is NOT a fast browser: I don't know about the benchmark results. But the applications I use like Gmail, Google Reader takes more time to load than Firefox/IE. Googling around I found the real reason. More over, its neither a sleek browser. Even for the modest number of websites, the memory usage shoots up.

2) Safari is not a native Windows application: At least it doesn't looks/behaves like one. For example, its Edit > Preferences not Tools > Options, you can resize only from bottom right corner, ...

1) Safari's font rendering is pathetic: Perhaps besides the other reasons like Security/websites compatibility, if there is a single big reason a user is going to dump Safari on Windows, it could the font rendering. There are reasons why Apple selected this rendering. Honestly I don't give a shit about that. To me it should be easily readable in my screen and its not so.

I was wondering why the hell did Apple enters a game which it can't win? The reason is simple. Steve decided to close iPhone to third party applications and the only way to write apps is Web 2.0 and Safari is the only browser in iPhone. No Firefox/IE/Opera. So why should a developer write web apps for a browser that has a single digit market share? The only way to increase the market share is to let Safari go out of Mac and explore the windows arena. Is it going to work? Who knows? It might!!! Look at what people said when iPod was released.

Related Links:
Safari for Windows announced
Gmail extension for Firefox
Top 10 Firefox extensions I use

OK. Leopard Beta is out. Steve came up to the stage and showed the 10 great features out of 300.

• Finder. Steve heard the FTFF cries. Now the Finder is WOW! Windows Explorer is a history now :-)


• Core Animation. The true power of Mac. As per the demo, it was unbelievable. Movies playing in the screen and doing a search on the tags of those movies - all live!!! We need apps to take this power and deliver it to the user.


• Spaces, Dashboard, Time Machine - nothing much new to mention. Just as we seen earlier.


• Safari. The performance figures are quite impressive. And they are releasing a Windows version to kill IE! No, I'm not going to switch to Safari even on my MacBook. Not until all the Firefox extensions that I use, work in Safari.


• iPhone ships with full fledged Safari. So create web apps. No iPhone SDK. Steve, are you kidding?

Verdict: I'm not going to upgrade to Leopard. Let me wait till the next version with more compelling features. Ah, for that matter, not going to purchase an iPhone on Jun 29th.

Did you notice that the Google Reader now offers offline mode? It can download and save your files so that you can read them even when you are not connected to the internet. It is powered by Google Gears. I tried to create an application by going thru the steps in the Developer Guide Tutorial. It was not that easy to follow it. It could have be a bit more simpler. If you are looking for a simpler version, its available here.

I'll be there at EFI India 2007. Its a 3-in-1 conference, so there will be three parallel sessions. There is no suggested tracks and the seats in every session is limited (and so is the parking space. Only for 80 cars and 150 bikes!). So if a session is full, then we have to attend the other. The sessions I plan to attend:

May 28:

Fundamentals of Eclipse Plug-in and RCP Development

May 29:

An Introduction to the embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP)
Architecture of Java Persistence Implementations
Best Practices for Developing Interoperable Web Service Applications
SDLC for SOA - Where are the Models?
Polyglot Programming

May 30:

10 Ways to Improve Your Code
Simplifying Enterprise Applications with Spring 2.0
Web-Service Transactions with WS-Transaction
Building an Ajax Java Web Application Using the Dojo Toolkit
Web-Service Specifications – An Orientation Guide
SOA: The Future of Distributed Computing?

May 31:

IBM's WAS Community Edition Initiative with Eclipse
Leveraging SOA and ESB for an Enterprise Architecture
Building an Ajax Java Web Application Using the Google Web Toolkit
Introduction to the Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF)
Web 2.0 in the Enterprise

In case you are planning to attend, drop me a line. We'll meet.

Yes, its May and Bangalore is full of May Flowers. I got to see a tree in full blossom. Thanks to Raja's Digicam, I can shoot it and upload it on the same day :-)

From Flowers

Related Links:
February flowers

If you are using Gmail & Firefox, then Better Gmail is a must have Firefox extension. It gives you skins for Gmail, puts your Google Reader feeds, saves your searches, etc. Try it.

Related Links:
Top 10 Firefox extensions I use

The first time I heard about Google Web Toolkit, I was excited. I immediately downloaded it; wrote few samples and found that it was really a nice piece of software. But it lacked one thing - IDE integration. Although "GWT was intentionally designed to work well in any IDE", there was no direct support for GWT in any IDE. I thought how about writing an Eclipse plugin for that? I'm not an Eclipse plugin developer. I was a pure C++ guy who has jumped into several layers of J2EE and .NET and settled as a mainline developer in a top SOA product. Eclipse plugin development is something I've to learn. I decided to give a try.

Result? Googlipse. That is my first plugin. With over 25,000 downloads and counting, it generated a good amount of interest. So I get bugs (yeah, sometimes I write embarrassing code) and people extend it. It was a wonderful experience in learning Eclipse and gave me a better understanding about the Open Source from the contributing perspective. Googlipse has shifted my career and now my day job is also plugin development. Besides all this, I've to kill Googlipse. Why? Because of the name!

I was over enthusiastic that I coined the name by joining two names: Google+Eclipse. The logo is also the same way, Google colored text in an Eclipse background. I thought who cares about the name. I was wrong.

Google's legal department had "some trademark concerns about the name". I was pointed to Google Branding Guidelines. So I decided to change the name and logo. Hmmmm. That means its virtually creating a new product (at least to the users who don't worry about the code!) That is what I've done now. I've created a brand new product called "Cypal Studio for GWT". It is hosted @ Google Code. Its essentially the same code base (with the same Apache 2.0 license) but with little changes and few bug fixes.

So what happens to Googlipse now? Its dead. Means there will be no more bug fixes, no more features. The existing downloads & code base will remain there @ SourceForge. The home page will be soon pointing to new product's site (which is under development). Thus ends the story of my first Eclipse Plugin.

I'm already seeing ads for apartments & housing projects in Hosur targetted for the people working in Electronics City. Commuting between Bangalore and Electronics City is a painful task. So what do people do sitting inside the bus/car? They go creative. I've got an email forward today with some nice cartoons. Ensoy!






As a person who travels around 6 kms in a road without signals and reaches office in less than 15 minutes, what should I say? I'm feeling lucky :-)

The first Aha! is for an experience @ Big Bazaar. The victim is Kousik.

The next Aha! is for an online shopping experience. Victim: Yours truly Pranni. I usually purchase domain names thru Yahoo! Although its not the cheapest, I've never found any troubles and I'm comfortable. This time, Yahoo! is helpless because its not a .com domain rather a .in domain. I've to inky, pinky, ponky and selected Rediff.com. I went ahead, ordered the domain, paid thru my credit card and then, boom. The transaction failed. I've to repeat all the process and this time its a success. Not so surprisingly, my credit card was charged twice :-( In the order confirmation mail, there was a phone number, which is not a local/toll free one. Before explaining this to a call center rep over an STD call, I thought I'll try my luck with the email support. I sent a very short email with the domain name and both the order numbers. Surprisingly next day I got a reply saying that they will credit the amount. More surprisingly within a week they did it without any more questions or deductions in the amount. Aha! I love Rediff!!!

The last Aha! is for an experience with Airtel. Victim is again me. I recently called the call center to change my DSL plan. The guy at the other end said that he will initiate the request and someone will call me explaining the available plans. They did call me and I placed a request for a Rs 600/- plan added with Rs 99/- for OneIndia plan for voice. 2 days later, they called me and said they cannot activate the request because the rental for voice service of Rs 25/- is waived only if the monthly charges are 700 and above. WTF? Mine is 699 and because of that 1 Re difference, I've to pay 25 bucks more! I asked is there any other solution? I was told if I purchase any other services like Caller tunes, the monthly charges will be more than 700 and that 25 will be waived. Well, the problem with that is, the cheapest feature costs me Rs 30/-. So if I pay 30, 25 will be waived. Nice :-) I opted to pay the rental.

This below picture says it all :-)

iSight camera is a nice tool to play with. Don't worry, this time I'm not going to scare you with my photos ;-)

I took some snaps of my princess with iSight. Look at the expressions after seeing her face in the screen. Priceless. Isn't it?

From Priceless Exp...

Yesterday I was speaking with my friend whose is thinking of getting a new car. He asked me, if I were to buy a car, which car will I decide. Nice question. Me making a decision?

Well, when was the last time I made a decision by myself? I digged into my memories and finally found it out. It was a nice evening and I was in Chennai. I was sitting in the balcony and was thinking "Should I marry or not". I decided to get married. Thats it. After that I don't decide much. Initially it was something like this:

He : Wow, what a nice shirt? I'm going to buy that.
She: What? A black shirt. No that will not fit you da. Let us look for something else

Read the "Let us" as "I will". For the first few times it was little tough. After that I got used to that. Now its more or less like this:

(While driving)
He : Shall I take right and go thru Old Madras Road or turn left and go thru Airport Road
She: Thru Airport Road.

(Over a phone)
He : Hey She. What are you doing?
She: Cooking. Why?
He : illa, I've a small doubt. I need to name a variable. Which one sounds better? "isSynchronized" or "isInSync".
She: Try "isSynced"

See, making decisions is no more my job. Its been delegated to her. Now, my friends ask me about which Car will I decide. Poor bachelor. He doesn't have the comfort of having someone else do all the thinking and making decision. He has to do it by himself. I pity him.

PS:
In another two days, both chinna ammani and peria ammani are coming. Expect more He-She coming up ;-)

When I was wondering about this, I get to see this also. :-(

The Securities and Exchange Commission of US has done a brave move, which is to be welcomed by every e-mail user. Confused? Read this. It takes lot of guts to take this decision. These kind of decisions will definitely reduce spam mails. What next? Ban the sites that sell the software at "unimaginable cost"? Ban the pharmacies which sells the viagara and "increase my length"? Ban the banks which "approved loans"?

For me above all, I'm willing to donate my

• 3yr old PC loaded with Ubuntu


• my Adidas T Shirt that I bought with 50% flat discount


• my Project Manager

all to Google, if they can freeze the email ids of persons who forwarded me the great "Vijaya T. Rajender & Mumtaj in Veerasamy" photo.

Mayflowers trees (aka Fire of the Forest) are beautiful during the month of May. The tree will have very few leaves and will be full of those red flowers. Other months those are simply just an other tree.

February Flowers falls in the same category. There were lot of these trees in Bangalore and till Jan I didn't knew about them. In the past few weeks, they have become beautiful and got my attention. They are in different colors. Yellow, Blue, Pink, etc. Mayflowers at least have few leaves, but these trees are full of flowers. Raja has taken some snaps of these flowers.

Check this, this and this.

BTW, does anyone know the real name of these flowers? I didn't know the real name, so I call these February Flowers :-)

Related links:
May Flowers

Happened to see a nice video in youtube. Check it out:

Now that I own a Mac, I've to kick M$ and M$ products and praise Apple's product. At least thats I've seen with every switcher. On the contrary, I'm now praising a M$ product - Photosynth. Its really cool and nice one. It analyzes a set of photos and presents you a 3D view of it. Its really wonderful idea and an amazing implementation as well. More over its not a desktop product like Picasa, rather its on the net. Check this out for yourself: http://labs.live.com/photosynth

It could be addictive. Its interesting to see the pictures taken with effects applied. Here are some pics.