Wise words from Jim (when teaching CDS):
"Keep it Sequential Stupid"
Oct 31 2007
Rotten Neighbors
I think we need something like Rotten Neighbors for the UK 
.
What is it? If you have a rotten neighbor then you can tell the world about them. You can browse to your neighborhood and plot your own marker with a complete description Here is an example from in the neighborhood where I use to live in California.
Jun 28 2007
Art of Code Reviewing
This is a true story and happened on one of my projects (which shall remain nameless). Below is the feedback from one of the client as they were doing our code reviews.
Line 66: there seem to be a few too many words starting with "f" in the salutations comment. [This is really picky – the commenting standard in this file has otherwise been really good so far.]
And incase you were wondering what was the code in question, here it is:
/// <param name="salutations">The selection of Titles for which to choose from for a Contact</param>
So, what is the problem you ask? Who said there was a problem. 
Jun 06 2007
MVP Threatened
This surely can not do any good? Jamie who created TestDriven.NET is involved in a legal dispute with Microsoft. This is not he Microsoft I know and work with on almost a daily basis! Hopefully common sense will kick in.
On a separate note, Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates – who is the saint and who is cut-throat villain of Geekdom? Cult of Mac at Wired has an interesting read on the subject.
Jan 12 2007
Carbon Neutral – Be Greener
I am quite surprised on how ignorant many people (like I was) are about understanding how the day-to-day activities contribute to Global Warming and the issues we face on this planet. As much as we wishes, unfortunately there is no backup or Undo feature 
. To understand how our daily lives contribute towards global warming check out the Carbon Calculator and then read up on how you can offset those emissions and be Carbon Neutral.
However, personally I am not a believer of offsetting, while it is a step in the right direction it is not the solution.
Oct 22 2006
Affect vs Effect
Yes, it is one of the simplest rules of grammar, but I still get confused – I call it Writers Block 
.
Technically my mother-tongue is Hindi, and I can speak the “street version” of it and while I can read it – you honestly don’t want me to. The fact that most fellow Indians around at that time are in splits and rolling on the floor might give you a clue. Well I am not particularly proud of that, the fact remains I suck at Hindi and no matter of dressing can fix that. On the flip side, my English is quite strong and for the most part I can read and write it just fine, some of my spellings and grammar sure can do with a refresher (hey but Word helps).
This grammar usage (or rather the lack of it) was highlighted by two things – one writing a book and two, Meenakshi actually starting to read this blog (more on that another day).
I did find these two sites which help people like me in helping find out the difference between Affect v Effect:
If you want to hone your Hindi skills then check out BBC Hindi.
Oct 20 2006
To BCC or not to BCC
Oh man, this is so perfect after my faux pas on the Diwali greeting, which accidentally was emailed with everyone in the “To” line as opposed to BCC. Needless to say, Meenakshi was pissed!
Oct 15 2006
An Inconvenient Truth
It is quite unusual for me to blog about non-technical things (other than the usual crappy joke), but there are certain thing which have a profound affect on me and global warming is one of those. Maybe it is the fact that I have seen the shortages first hand while growing up in India (and back then things were better that now, and they are just going to get worse), or maybe I have seen such a huge cultural difference between the Europeans and the Americans (having lived both in California for many years and for a couple of years now in London), or maybe I am just getting old – I don’t know.
If you have not seen this movie by Al Gore called An Inconvenient Truth, then make sure you go and see it. It is a documentary on global warming with sound science behind it and cuts through the political hype. Simply put, is a hair raising experience. It is a must watch! (you can see the trailer here)
After you have seen it, then you don’t sit on your ass, but actually do something about it. Firstly, calculate your contribution to the Global Warming and then try and reduce it. It is not very difficult to do, and you can reduce the impact at home, work, while commuting, etc.
More Information: http://www.climatecrisis.net/
Mar 08 2006
How do you explain Relativity?
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.
Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.
THAT’S relativity.
- Albert Einstein
Feb 26 2006
Blogging Engine
The software that one uses for blogging is interesting – if you are a “serious blogger“ (now there is an oxymoron), then you are tied to one platform or “engine“. What if you want to move from that, what do you do then? Either you give up your existing blog and move to the new one (in the process losing all your old posts, etc), or you somehow convert the data from one to the other. For example. right now I am running a modified version of .Text on my blog. Never really bothered to upgrade to Community Server 1.0 (CS), now that CS 2.0 is out, I am thinking of moving to that, but there is no official path to move my data from .Text to CS 2.0. I could try and move it to CS 1.0 and then from CS 2.0 – a process which seems quite clunky. Alternatively, I could write a took myself which does that, but then do I have the time? Another interesting option seems to be Logahead, which boasts of the first AJAX blogging and does seem to have a few cool features, has anyone taken it out for a spin? (You can play with the demo here.) The problem though remains the same, how do I move my existing data to that new “platform”.
Feb 01 2006
Turning OFF Comments
I have gotten so much spam using the comments that the only way for me to manage them is to turn them off. Yes I know there is an easy way to fix it where I ask for confirmation before a comment is posted but I have not had the time to change the code, test it and then upload it to the server. I might just upgrade to CS 2.o when it RTM’s. Till then continue using the the Contact page and mention the post in there as well.
Jan 15 2006
House Hunting!
We have just started to look for a house – why build someone else’s equity when you can build your own. I got to admit its a drag! And the fact we just started and people go on for months doing this, I don’t know how. It is just a big pain in the butt. My sympathies to all those going through the same thing. If you do know good areas in London where we can live please let me know? I need it to be close to Tube and preferably within Zone 2.
« Previous Page — Next Page »