LifeMesh: Life, IT & Gadgets

Gmail is Back in the Apple App Store

2011-11-17T04:38:00.001-08:00

Hello All iOS Users

Gmail app is back with lots of fixes on notification. You will need iOS 4 + to use this app.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/gmail-app-for-ios-available-in-app.htm

A Simple Guide to Migrating your Hosting to server such as EC2 or Rackspace Cloud..

2011-11-16T22:12:00.001-08:00

Weather you are doing this for the fun of it or doing for better availability, scalability or pricing; your domain may have the same importance.

Here is a list of steps that can help and may not a be prefect solution all the time but covers many 'oh I should have thought about that stories'.

Stage one:

Ensure that your DNS service allows you to lower you TTL to x seconds / minutes. DYNDNS
is one such service that allows you to do that. If you are asking yourself why this should be done the reason is simple. TTL is how long before that new value is queried for. What this means is if your TTL is 30 Seconds, every 30 Seconds you can change your server address. So you potential loss of data is limited to that.

Stage two :
Migrate your email before hand to google apps free or live. Before you set up this forward all mail to new box. This way all mail will still come to your email and will still be live during migration.

Stage 3:
Before you start:

Get All your passwords and access mechanisms such as VPN key etc ready and active.
Create a situation specific check list which you will need to check in the and before shouting "Im going home !!".

Copy all data and code and the works to new location and test it. Recommendation use server to server transfer servers are on high bandwidth so its usually faster. Also saves you one step.
Useful commands on Linux.

scp
ssh
rsync

On Amazon EC2, you will need to allow port wise access to get the server accessible via you aws console.

Stage 4:
Notify users on upcoming maintenance.

Stage 5:
Put the old site on maintenance so that new data does not get added during migration after and repeat stage 3 for new data and files.

Tip:
Have a team check and double check every thing. Get your bosses to sign off on working status so that the responsibility is joint. Expect migration issues due to human error. Address it pro-actively as far as possible.

Important:
Just one more thing have monitoring tools automatically notify you of downtime as you are in a new setup may be text or email you. Having a blackberry will help for push mails. It better for you to handle it before someone says hey server is down. Media Temple is infamous for unannounced downtime.

Plan for the worst because the best will take care of itself.

All the best for a safe migration!

IOS 5.01 Update Released

2011-11-15T04:51:00.001-08:00

Hello iOS Lovers. iOS 5.0.1 is available for download.

Fixes Batter life
iCould
Voice over (Australian)

Let us see if Battery Life is better. But I will tell you what . Looks like WIFI is more active now.

Let me know your experience.

Apple Filesystem HFS+ is cool becase .....

2011-11-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some reasons why HFS is cool

1) It has built in defgrag ( works when needed / possible )

2) Shrink you Filesystem when need. This is a really cool feature!!! Microsoft must learn this trick. But for now MS can depend on GParted under Linux ;P. What is better it moves the recovery partition when system partition resizing! Intelligent resize! MS are you listening!!

3) It can act as a version control system for your files ( want to go back to the old one 2 hours ago? 2 days or 2 months. Sure Time machine will allow you to do that )!

Note: TM need HFS.

IOS 5.0.1 is in Beta

2011-11-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

iOS 5.0.1 is now in Beta.

Download from. http://developer.apple.com

Apple says "

iOS 5.0.1 beta is now available on the iOS Dev Center. It introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations.

"

Does this mean another XCode update ? God Forbid.

I also feel that Apple has started releasing unstable products. Is this a way to tell the world that the are still some capable hands in Apple. If it is, its definitely not working now!

Create a Lion Recovery Disk using the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

2011-10-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a good think that i like about OSX Lion.My Mac came with built in rescue disk. Neat !

Press Option Key during boot and it will turn up. This is not an alternate to backups. But people using macs seldom say they had a crash.

This is for those time that you are unable to do that. So plan ahead and stay protected as possible. That could happen. So here is the solution. Needs to be done before hand.Plugin you USB Dirve ( after backing up you data ). You will loose all of it. Create at least 2 partitions one with 1GB and another with the rest of the space.

Here is a trick. If you are going to use NTFS. make sure the second partition is the 1GB drive else Windows wont like it !Lion Recovery Disk Assistant should be downloaded form here.

Mount the DMG and run it.Allow the app to run. Choose the 1GB partition and allow it to do its job.

Test it by rebooting while holding the option key and choosing the orange recovery disk.

Once booted you can

Run Terminal
Repartition / Reformat
Use Safari
Restore from Time machine ( So take your backups !)

Recommended backup software:
Carbon Copy (Donation ware -pay if you like it!)
SuperDuper and ( Paid easy to user
TimeMachine ( You already have it )

Update: New Update of VBox Allows you to see device but does not hand it over to the VBox Guest OS.

Soultion to problem of mounting external disk drives on Virtual Box on Mac OS.

2011-10-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

Hey All !

Are you a Mac OS user ( Lion Possibly). Did you ever think of virtual-izing the Win XP / Wind 7 on your machine with VirtualBox. Well then you have seen that the External drives ( thumb or external HDD) do not turn up or are greyed out ? How annoying !! I have lost a ton of time on that.

Edit :
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9762

Looks Like i am not the only one.

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=45376&p=205964#p205964

Well after a bit of reading forums and and experimenting here is what i realized / learnt.

Note: VirtualBox (VB) will re-create /dev/vb* entries every boot ! Why ???

So any permission set on this via command line will be lost.

To get your device to work you will need to do the following

Create a file called runvb.sh in your home directory.

# BEGIN SCRIPT  
# I call this by the name runvb.sh
 
sudo kextunload -b com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass
#sudo kextunload -b com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass
#sudo kextunload -b com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass
# note the commented code above un-comment if you find the kext is not revived. 

sudo open -a VirtualBox.app
## END SCRIPT

Note : Unmount and unplug your device first.
Once that happens. Plug in your device only after the VB fully loads.

Try running this with sudo sh ./runvb.sh in the terminal .

next time you want it unplug the device after unmount and restart VB via the script!

Best of luck

Working with MySQL Partitions - Part 1 - Check if it is Enabled.

2010-07-22T01:58:00.000-07:00

PHP Goes HipHop

2010-03-25T02:33:00.000-07:00

PHP Performance has particular point of interest for many developers and companies. All the more true for FaceBook the second largest* site on the internet.

Facebook recently released HPHP (HipHop).

Supposedly, Facebook sees about a 50% reduction in CPU usage when serving equal amounts of Web traffic when compared to Apache and PHP. Facebook’s API tier can serve twice the traffic using 30% less CPU. Not Bad Eh?

Final result : A binary with a built in web server. Note: It does not process .htaccess yet.

HipHop has been developed on CentOS and Fedora, building on other operating systems may not currently be functional. Support will be added as soon as its ready.
At the moment, HipHop can only run on 64 bits systems.

HipHop currently supports PHP version 5.2 and will be updated to support 5.3.

Should be on debian soon.

HipHop for PHP transforms PHP source code into highly optimized C++. It was developed by Facebook and was released as open source in early 2010.

You will need the following to build

* cmake 2.6 is the minimum version
* g++/gcc 4.1 is the minimum version
* Boost 1.37 is the minimum version
* flex
* bison
* re2c
* libmysql
* libxml2
* libmcrypt
* libicu 4.2 is the minimum version
* openssl
* binutils
* libcap
* gd
* zlib
* tbb Intel's Thread Building Blocks
* Oniguruma

Modifications/ Patches

* libcurl
* src/third_party/libcurl.fb-changes.diff
* libevent 1.4
* src/third_party/libevent.fb-changes.diff

Pretty Nifty and Pretty Uber Cool !!

Go HipHop!

Get Gmail ( java ) and Opera Mini to work on Samsung star or Tocco lite

2009-06-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

This is for all those who have not been able to get the Gmail app to work on your Samsung Star Phone. Do NOT forget the read the section that is labeled "Important" especially if you use a Samsung Phone.

For starters you need to have an internet access account with your mobile service provider such as T-Mobile, Airtel or Etisalat or any provider who offers the GPRS service.

Second your set should be Java enabled

Should have enough memory.

First install the 2.0 version of Gmail

At this point you will get error that tells you that you do not have the "appropriate certificate".

Then install the 1.5 version (http://gmail.com/app/v1.5.0/L1/gmail-g.jar)

This does the tick.

What is better is , now you can install opera mini as well.

IMPORTANT ::
When you start an unsigned java app on your phone to protect your privacy it will ask you want to allow the application to connect to the internet. Choose end-call ( right soft key). If you are not using the Samsung touch screen phone choose yet / ok / enter. On the Samsung phone, This will cause the application to ask you if you want to quit , simply choose no. Remember that you will need to do this a ton of times in the initial week ( it is frustrating ) but keep at it and you will succeed. I had to do it approx 20 times.

Also note, it is ideal to remove the proxy setting on the Airtel Mobile office. It slow the request down or kills it.

Relaiable Development Companies in India

2009-06-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to list down some reliable software development and companies in India.

Infosys - Banking related and SAP
Wipro - Systems related and SAP
Real Consulting - Web Site Development
Mind Tree - Telco related
NIIT - Good Co work for.

Is PMBOK against Agile ?

2009-05-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Development organizations work towards optimizing software development and delivery. Development teams generally use the Project Management Institute's "A Guide To The Project Management Body of Knowledge" a.k.a (PMBOK).

They may also investigate Agile development methodologies such as Scrum or XP as their popularity. To Generalize Agile is a Delivery methodology.

These clash, when it comes to earned value measurement and few other measurement parameters. PMBOK admits that the project requirement is only "Incremental clear" and will fully be clear only when nearing completion. This is in full alignment for PMBOK. So the truth is delivery is the KEY and marriage of PMBOK to agile is is what can set development process to achieve what it started out to do.

The PBMOK talks about

Initiating
Planing
Executing
Controlling
Closing

Agile process

Envision
Speculate
Explore
Adapt
Close

So if you read the above carefully. One is written with the thought of bringing in formal note the other is about working with the client. Then the question what do you need. The answer is obvious we need both.

For those who are in a relationship or are married clearly know that we need to accept the other instead of trying to get them to change. So I guess it is time for Agile and PMBOK to hug each other.

Let me tell you this is a long term thing -yes pun intended ;) !

Rolling With Rails

2007-03-17T03:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Its been a while and I want to give you some good news. The good news is this . Ruby on Rails is HOT!!. Sure Is.

Rails is a MVC imptementation for ruby on Windows / Linux
Can Run under CGI / FastCGI
or as Standalone server such as Mongrel / WebBrick
Yes they can be clustered and can be tucked behind Apache via a PROXY ( more on this later ).
If Properly configured, its quite comparable.
Yes , there is a small effort of learning a language ( but is worth it)
Ruby developers prefer SVN as the version control mechanism
Supports popular DBs such as Oracle, MySQL and DB2 and more.

In summary its a great framework for RAD based development.

Check it out at

http://rubyforge.org/

:)

Qucik MYSQL PHP Tips ( IN CLAUSE)

2006-11-01T08:27:00.001-08:00

MYSQL 4 does not allow IN (Select ...) .
So what you do is execute a query , generate a long set of values in then execute the query .

Cavet : SQL buffer can over flow

MYSQL Supports ( Select ..... in ( .... ) )

Understanding empty fucntion in PHP

2006-11-01T08:22:00.001-08:00

Here is a quick tip:

empty and is_blank

empty

$var = 10;

// Evaluates to true because $var is empty
if (empty($var)) {
   echo '$var is either 0, empty, or not set at all';
}
?>

PHP easter egg

2006-05-31T14:07:00.001-07:00

add ?=PHPE9568F36-D428-11d2-A769-00AA001ACF42 to your PHP code and check it out .. should show a sweet dogie or something . This will work only if Expose PHP is on (php.ini) !

Oracle and PHP Tutorial - Easy

2006-05-23T02:21:00.001-07:00

Here is how to install Oracle XE

Oracle's PHP tuorial

Here is one more using adodb

PHP Interview Questions Part I

2006-05-21T07:27:00.001-07:00

I hope this would be helpful for the jobseekers.

This is "three part" article

1. What are the differences between Get and post methods in form submitting,
give the case where we can use get and we can use post methods ?

Ans:
Get- sends requset in the form of qusery string and post hides the
data, and send directly to system.out

2. Who is the father of php and explain the php versions

Ans: Rasmus Lerdorf

3. How can we submit a form without a submit button

Ans:
1. image button 2. button. 3. java script form.submit() function

4. How many ways we can retrieve the date in result set of mysql using php

Ans:
4 ways, 1. mysql_fetch_row. 2. mysql_fetch_array. 3.
mysql_fetch_object 4. mysql_fetch_assoc

5. What is the difference between mysql_fetch_object and mysql_fetch_array

Ans:
mysql_fetch_object -- Fetch a result row as an object
mysql_fetch_array -- Fetch a result row as an associative array, a
numeric array, or both.

6. What is the difference between $message and $$message

Ans:
$message- is a varibale. $$message is a variable inside varibale

7. How can we extract string 'abc.com ' from a string 'http://info@abc.com' using regular expression of php

Ans:

$line="http://info@abc.com";
if (eregi ("http://(.*)@(.*)", $line, $add))
echo $add[2];

8. How can we create a database using mysql

Ans:
mysql_create_db in php. Create database name....

9. What is the differences between require and include, include_once

Ans:
include: warning require : fatal-error
include_once should be used in cases where the same file might be
included and evaluated more than once during a particular execution of a
script.

10. can we use include("myfile.php") two times in a php age "makeit.php"

Ans:
yes we can include twice.

11. what are the different tables present in mysql , which type of table is generated when we are creating a table in the following syntax : create table employee(eno int(2),ename varchar(10))

Ans:
MYISAM, ISAM, MERGE, HEAP, INNODB, BERKLEYDB. The Default Type is
"MYISAM"

12. Functions in IMAP, POP3 AND LDAP

Ans:
Please check in the manual (some people say RTFM... no offence !)

15. Shopping cart online validation ie how can we configure the Nobel Pay

Ans:
It is done thru curlfunction card details will be sent to the page in Nobel pay site which is already given to us by them. Only we have to send the parameters which is required for calling that page.

PHP Interview Questions Part II

2006-05-21T07:26:00.001-07:00

16. What is meant my nl2br()

Ans: like

19. What are the reasons for selecting lamp(Linux, apache, mysql, php) instead of combination of other software programmes, servers and operating system?

Ans: All are Open-Source and are related internally

20. How can we encrypt and decrypt a data present in a mysqltable using mysql

Ans: AES_ENCRYPT() AES_DECRYPT()

21. How can we encrypt the username and password using php

Ans: md5() sha1()

22. What are the features and advantages of OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

Ans: Encapsulation and inheritence and ploymorphism

23. What are the differences between PROCEDURE ORIENTED LANGUAGES AND OBJECT ORIENTED LANGUAGES

Ans: procedural programming executes serially, and OOPS - memory is
alloted when the objects are created. no step by step execution.

24. what is the use of friend function (many say it as array)

Ans: we can use that function any where in the module not necessary to
create an instance of class.

26. What are the different types of errors in php

Ans: Fatal errors, Parse errors......

27. What is the functionality of the function strstr and stristr

Ans: strstr -- Find first occurrence of a string
stristr -- Case-insensitive strstr()

28. What are the differences between PHP 3 and PHP 4 and PHP 5

Ans: Every time they will include some new functionalities and some new
functions.....

29. How can we convert asp pages to php pages

Ans: There is a saperate tool for that

30. What is the functionality of the function htmlentities

Ans: htmlentities -- Convert all applicable characters to HTML entities

31. How can we get second of the current time using date function?

Ans: today = date("H:i:s");

33. What is meant by urlencode and urldocode

Ans: to encode urls, returns a string in which all non-alphanumeric
characters.

PHP Interview Questions Part III

2006-05-21T07:23:00.001-07:00

some more interview questions here..

34. What is the difference between the functions unlink and unset

Ans: unlink deletes a file, and unset unset a given variable.

35. How can we register the variables into a session

Ans: session_register("name", "value");

36. How can we get the properties (size, type, width, height) of an image using php image functions

Ans: getimagesize -- Get the size of an image

37. How can we get the browser properties using php

Ans: get_browser -- Tells what the user's browser is capable of

38. What is the maximum size of a file that can be uploaded using php and how can we change this

Ans: upload_max_filesize="size"

39. How can we increase the execution time of a php script

Ans: set_time_limit -- Limits the maximum execution time

40. How can a take a backup of a mysql table and how can we restore it.

Ans: Backup databasename

41. How can we optimize or increase the speed of a mysql select query

Ans: By indexing columns

42. How many ways can we get the value of current session id?

Ans: by a variable PHPSESSID

43. How can we destroy the session, how can we unset the variable of a session

Ans: session_destroy() to unset a variable session_regirster("name"
,"new value")

44. How can we destroy the cookie

Ans: by seeting its time to a old time

45. How many ways we can pass the variable through the navigation between the pages

Ans: cookies, sessions, hidden variables

46. What is the difference between ereg_replace() and eregi_replace()

Ans: case insensitive

47. What are the different functions in sorting an array
Ans: sort, ksort, asort, usort

48. How can we know the count/number of elements of an array

49. What is the php predefined variable that tells the what types of images that php supports
Ans: count()

Why UML : Reverse engineeredd Diagrams

2006-05-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

Just imagine this :

You boss wants you to read 25000 lines of code and wants you to understand what and why each class exists. The solution is this .

Ask for UML design better still generate one from the code .That will give you a fair idea. But of course you will java doc it . Remember one does not replace the other. JavaDoc only tells you what the code does no how they talk to each other . If you have reverse engineered via a decent tool the likely hood is you have an Interaction diagram. So read it .

If this article saved you time just bookmark my blog or place link to it .

Chow then.

Java Server Faces (Whats that ?)

2006-05-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

JavaServer Faces technology simplifies building user interfaces for JavaServer applications. Developers of various skill levels can quickly build web applications by: assembling reusable UI components in a page; connecting these components to an application data source; and wiring client-generated events to server-side event handlers.

Currently, Sun is responsible for the reference implementation, which will work with any standard servlet container. They also support JSF in their recently announced NetBeans-based rapid application development tool, Java Studio Creator. Creator 1.0 was recently released at JavaOne in June of 2004.

Sun isn't the only member of the expert group, though. It includes key IDE and J2EE vendors, including IBM, Borland, BEA, Macromedia, Apache Software Foundation, Oracle, and many others. Oracle has announced support for JSF in an upcoming version of JDeveloper. Borland has also announced support, and IBM has also added full support for JSF 1.0 to WebSphere Studio 5.1.2, which is currently available. Most of the other members have made their intentions of supporting JSF known. To keep up with the latest JSF products, check out the products page or subscribe to the products RSS feed.

EJB Roles

2006-05-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

These are some roles in the EJB systems. In reality though, one or more of these roles are perforemed by a single individual. However this need not be the case.

Enterprise Bean Provider

Application Assembler

Deployer

EJB Server Provider:

Orion / BEA etc.

EJB Container Provider
Same as above but the later specs allow loose coupling via XML that is APache we server with BEA Container

System Administrator

Simple : Encrypt passwords in database

2006-05-15T02:36:00.001-07:00


The crypt function lets you encrypt text
here is how

= crypt('mypassword'); // let the salt be automatically generated
// do this to encrypt the password

//use $password in your  (insert into.......) code
}
?>

For retrieval


if (crypt($_REQUEST['pass'], $password) == $password) {
echo "Password verified!";

.......
?>

Browser Sniffer in PHP

2006-05-15T02:22:00.001-07:00

Why should one know what the browser is ?

The broser Javascript is differnt across browsers NetScape vs IE vs Opera. So if you are sending JS for all browsers to the client then its a bad thing because

1) Your server is under more stress.
2) The code will need to resolve the user agent at the client end
3) The cleints might not visit your site again due to the slugginshness!

so this is how you do it :

global $HTTP_USER_AGENT;
$b = $HTTP_USER_AGENT; $vers = 0.0;

// detect browser brand and version number
if (eregi('Opera[ \/]([0-9\.]+)' , $b, $a)) {
$type = 'Opera';}
elseif (eregi('Netscape[[:alnum:]]*[ \/]([0-9\.]+)', $b, $a)) {
$type = 'Netscape';}
elseif (eregi('MSIE[ \/]([0-9\.]+)', $b, $a)) {
$type = 'Explorer';}

Hey smart guys , obviously you will use this code in a function or class library right . Keep it maintainable .... right ?

Back Door entry (Hack) -White Ht To phpBB

2006-05-14T13:57:00.001-07:00

1st Steps
- Open your phpMyAdmin or any database manager.
- Browse through phpbb_users table (replace phpbb_ with your current prefix)
- Look for your username and select "edit"
- Look for the field user_password

2nd Steps
- Now go to http://www.acecoolco.com/tool_md5.php (This is a password Generator)
- Type your new password in the field
- Copy the code on the row After:

3rd Steps
- Paste the code in the user_password value field
- Press "Go" or submit (depends on your db manager)

2nd Method
If method 1 don't work, try this one

1st Steps
- Register a new account

2nd Steps
- Open your phpMyAdmin or any database manager.
- Browse through phpbb_users table (replace phpbb_ with your current prefix)
- Look for your new username. Click "Edit"
- Change the user level to 1
- Press "Go" or submit (depends on your db manager)

FYI : Note that phpBB user levels
0- Normal User
1- Administrator
2- Moderator

IF VS Switch (FBI MOST WANTED ?)

2006-05-14T12:19:00.001-07:00

switch ( $action ) {
case ( 'FBI Most Wanted' ) :
$counter++;
break;

case ( 'Most Fuel Efficient Car' ) :
$counter++;
break;

case ( 'Most Expensive Car' ) :
$counter++;
break;
}

if ( $action == 'first' ) {
$counter++;
} elseif ( $action == 'Most Fuel Efficient Car' ) {
$counter++;
} elseif ( $action == 'Most Expensive Car' ) {
$counter++;
}

Obviously Switch is a lot cleaner to read !

Zend PHP Certification - How to

2006-05-14T10:21:00.001-07:00

Step 1:	Purchase a Zend PHP Certification Voucher

Step 2:	Schedule to take the exam at one of 3500+ testing centers.

Step 3:	Study for the exam using the Zend PHP Certification Study Guide, Zend PHP Certification Practice Test Book, or get a bit of extra help with the Certification Preparation Online Course.

Step 4:	Pass the exam! Your name and credentials will now be published in the Yellow Pages for PHP Professionals. Download the ZCE Logo and add it to your resume and link it to your ZCE Authentication Page from your Website.

Echo Vs Print

2006-05-14T09:28:00.001-07:00

...echo is faster 6 times out of 7*.

Tested on manyl servers with different configurations.

So Spend some time on chaning echo to print

Want to uplaod large files and the page is timing out ?

2006-05-12T15:05:00.001-07:00

Here is what you do !

set_time_limit(0);

or

set_time_limit(x);

where x is your needed time out !

Yes its that simple

This code was working eralier - Check Ini

2006-05-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

How many times have we heard that before ! Not only does it make you look like a fool , it also happens so precisely at the time of a Demo.

Yes ! Crap happens !

I was running Drupal the other day and suddenly the code stopped working . I had switched to Wampserver! A quick look at the PHP.INI told me that
the

short_open_tag = Off

was the problem

the ini files describes it thus

" NOTE: Using short tags should be avoided when developing applications or
; libraries that are meant for redistribution, or deployment on PHP
; servers which are not under your control, because short tags may not
; be supported on the target server. For portable, redistributable code,
; be sure not to use short tags.
"

that is the code in does not work any more if its short_open_tag is off

So what do we do ?

short_open_tag = On

and save the ini file

now restart the server

Suggestion

use instead as a coding standard . It could save you a lot of trouble.

P. S : this is on PHP 4.x

J2EE V 5 - new relase by Sun JCP approves

2006-05-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

Sun Microsystems, Inc., ... today announced that the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 5 specification has been approved by the Java Community Process (JCP) Java EE/SE Executive Committee in a unanimous vote

Read This
Time to renew your certification

Java Vs PHP

2006-05-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hi ,
Agreed Both are great technologies ! Just wanted to ask which is better and why ?

Remeber the Precomplied C code is available (as library - Should it not be way faster than Java) . PHP compiles (Encodes) and runs even on IBM servers and Yahoo chose php ! I love my java anyway. Please do let me know what you think.

-Cheers

Sharing Info

2005-08-17T00:41:00.000-07:00

As Projects continuously grow in size in a dynamic country like India , attrition can not be stopped. So what do you do ? First Reduce Attrition.

And Capture as much info as possible. Capturing info is not just documentation.

Training Sessions (peer2peer ) and otherwise
Post Project Examination (post-mortem)
Summary across Projects.
Post Project Personnel Interview

These are just some tips. You will need to Innovate anyways

Project Estimation

2005-04-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Estimation

The hardest thing is in successful project development is estimating the size and hence the time correctly. There area wide verity of formal methods. Most important factor , IMHO , is the experience of the the team. I have always felt that if the Project Managers can put their head together to estimate the task durations, their vast experiences will finally start having some meaning as it will become a valuable resource for the organization.

This also means that the knowledge of the experience Project Manager will be shared across the team making other equally skilled.

After all , when we share knowledge we multiply it. Live , Learn and Pass it on.

OffShore and outsourced Projects

2005-04-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

Off-Shoring Projects
Projects are offshored for many reasons such as derth of people in a given technlogy, cost , location of client and a whole lot more. For whatever reason you are outsourcing it, the key factor is successful implementation.

There are two varieties of outsourced / offshored Projects

Self-mananged and
Client Managed.

In Both the models start out wiht having faith.

Don't Fire people in the first week : They need to audjust to your style of doing things.

Language: People mess up when they speak. Dont watch the words. Understnd the meaning.

Adopt small mouldes .Use Xtreme Pograming or Agile techniques to get control over the tasks.

Last but not the least Have a Mentor.
To achieve success start with the best foot forward. Have Faith ! Oh yes !

Some Best Practices In XP

2005-03-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Let it Sync

Mentor your Team

Don't Force Pair Programming

Continue to Test

Refactor Code

Backup your code
Last but not the least -Innovate -Every project has it own challenges.

Roles In eXtreme Programming

2005-03-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

Two Main Roles
On-site customer
Developers
Supporting Roles
Team Lead (Coach)
Tracker Checks in every now and then. do you have this checked in yet?
Project Manager

The Rest Of the crew is not seen and is above the PM.

Steps In eXtreme Programming

2005-03-24T07:37:00.000-08:00

User stories are written.
In this phase, a 'Small Spec' is written out. It often includes the developers too.Not just the functional team.

::FACT:: There can huge advantages of not writing a whole lot in the Spec. That does not mean you miss conveyaing the requirement. This is because the reality in Project Management is that People Know what they really want only after they see half the piece.

It is a bit like shopping for the decoration items for you house. It takes a while before the customer can see what he wants. This is very true if the company /project is less than 10 years old. And the fact is there are a lot of them.

:: FACT :: Dont Jump Into Coding ! Read the User Story.

Iteration Planing Plan a small increment /changes
Helps Make Make frequent small releases.

Release planning creates the schedule.

Small releases Help Track Bugs and helps you to plan for them.

Note : Track Your Project :: But Don't Mess up the happyness of your developers! Have faith in them. ::

Note :: Plan Buffers and track Buffer Absorbtion a the Project Level. ::

Agile Project Management Vocabulary

2005-03-24T02:49:00.000-08:00

Vocabulary
Customer: the person or group defining the need for the system.

Story: a feature or capability of the system that a customer values.

Estimate: the cost (usually time) to implement a story. In XP, estimates are relative; a story is estimated as costing 1 to 3 "story points."

Programmer: the person or group that estimates and implements stories.

Team: the customers, programmers, and managers who are jointly working on the system.

Release: delivery of system (usually to end users).

Exploration: part of the release cycle: when customers create stories, and programmers estimate them.

Iteration: part of the release cycle: a fixed-length time for implementation of stories. An iteration is time-boxed: if all stories can’t be completed, stories are dropped rather than the iteration extended.

Release Plan: a flexible, overall plan that tells which stories are expected in which iteration, for a whole release.

Iteration Plan: a small plan that tells which features are expected in the current iteration.

Java Generics

2005-03-24T00:41:00.000-08:00

Generics: is a Mechanism in Java 1.5 (aka JDK 5) that allows us to template paramters while using Java Objects. What this does is tremendously reduce code to typed in.

import java.util.*;
public class Test { public Test() { }

public static void main(String[] args) {

List words = new ArrayList();

words.add("at");
words.add("bat");
words.add("cat");
words.add("dat");

for (Iterator i = words.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ) {
String s = i.next(); // Look MOM not CASTING !!!
System.out.println(s);
}

String s1="";

// new Kind of Looping with Generics

for(String x : words) // read as: For each x in Words
{ s1+=x;
System.out.println("s1 is " + s1);
}

System.out.println(s1); }
}
}

AutoBoxing : Tiger [a.k.a Java 1.5]

2005-03-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

AutoBoxing :
Formerly we could not do stuff Like

Integer a = 6;

instead we did a :

Interger a =new Interger (6);

This is now automatic.

We can also do
Integer b = a *5 +1; // compiler unboxes for reference

Neat dont you think .

If you use JDK 1.5 specific features ,needles to say, you will need the same or better runtime engine.

Warning : This Messes up you Interview / SCJP preperation study !!!

On the other side it save you a lot of text while coding . A small price to pay.

Java: Not Just a Technology

2005-03-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

Java And Xtreme Programming are a Two to Tango :

Xtreme Programming: is the result of certain Amount of settling down that takes palce in the SDLC models. It can be skinny or Massive . The Process is after all defiend by you

Java: has been around for a while and most of us know it as a programming language alone. The Programmer will be quick to tell you that it is a Language. That is true ! But that is not all.

Java is :
IT is a Programming Language
An Embed Systems
and Virtual Machine

and for many of us a Entire new way of Thinking.

Most of the people would tell you 'I Love it ', and I'm no Exception :) .

The Most Happening thing these days (Mar 2005) is J2SE 1.5 (a.k.a )

Tiger (Lots of new Trick with this cat.)

POJO and POJI

and a Interoperablity between Java and .NET

J2EE on the other hand is a Java Standardization method for Enterprise Apps

I will soon Be soon adding some Info on my site / this blog . Keep reading

www.i-unknown.net/