if ( programmer version)

if you can write code and debug it
if you have not written but can debug
if you can visualize multiple threads and their execution

if you can treat bugs and optimization opportunities same and spend equal effort on both
if you can debug issue for days together without any progress
and still don’t give in but focus and spend more time to make some progress

if you can accommodate change requests and not get frustrated by it
if you can change your/not your’s code without any request but for beautifying it further
if you can feel less about bugs in code but as much as you would not repeat it

if you can treat PM(product manager),QE and your self as equal
and treat all of their suggestions with some importance
but not to give in completely for the whims and fancies of others

air deccan web site woes

I had few recommendations (to put them softly) to the air deccan guys regarding their web site. I found a place to send them feedback. But it says it will use my mail program to send them as email, which i do not have installed on my machine. So i am putting them down here If they will find and fix that will be great else some one who reads can be careful about these.

1. previously when i login all my history of booking used to be shown, so that i do not have to remember any thing. Now I can not see my bookings, so to get a ticket i have to remember my pnr number

2. this is very important: when i tried to reschedule my booking, it accepts payment only by credit card (the booking was made using debit card). Also the credit card information is submitted via http not even https

3. If i want to submit them feedback i need to have some mail client, which luckily i do not have so atleast i have one article in my blog.

I do not understand why they ignore their web site so much where as the ROI on that would be huge, they need to spend less money per ticket if the booking is via web. But still many people ignore that. Also web site is face of your company so better have a simple user friendly one then a jazzy advertisement gimmick.

All you guys out there Please do not compromise credit card numbers in http sites. here the ordinary booking is via https but i think the rescheduling was ignored/forgotten.

What consumes my Time

I would like to inspect where do i spend most of time…

1. 10-12 hours goes in work…

2. 1-2 hours reading rss feeds

3. eating  1-2 hours

4. rest of time resting sleeping etc…

It is good that i have made a habit of reading blogs, you feel more connected to the world.

I would like to mention on blog which is good and getting better http://weblog.raganwald.com

Also these days indian stock market is doing great, seeing those figures give a different kind of high.

I think as it is suggested to have a portfolio that is diverse in order to reduce the risk, I think your work and activities comprise work portfolio, It is alway good to have them diversified.

Since obstacles/failures are in-evitable and when u have failure in one path u can spend some time on other part of the portfolio. this really eases risk of succumbing to the work wounds

It will take a long time for me to write some good blog, but till then…. this is oneof my goal…

gwt form submit mac safari problem

This is one nice problem, we at our work observed…

we are creating a web app using gwt, which has a form which has a submit button, onclik of that some validations are done and if successful form is submitted if failed the submit event is cancled.

interestingly this is not working on mac safari, the form gets submitted even if canceled the event explicitly.

The work around we are using is to keep that button out of form and doing submit explicitly.

just wondering what could be the problem..

is the way js is executed in safari different? but it uses the same engine as firefox on which it works

the threading model of the browser could have such an effect? do not know much about it

any ways this I just put it up here so that at least some workaround can be found by people. will update here once know a solution or more information regarding this.

Usability vs Functionality

First I must admit the power of entropy, It’s been a long time since I have not updated this, I have not done so many other things which I wanted. Well busy is the excuse I prefer to use for now.

For now lets see which one is more important than the other.

I my self am a developer, so my brain is some how trained to appreciate the Functionality than Usability . The example would be I liked spending time to understand the remote of the high end tele-vision which would be one of the least usable gadgets. Where as on the other hand I spend a lot of time on ipod which does not have much functionality.

But like every other debate, this also has several points supporting both sides. Slowly now my scales are tipping towards the usability. Almost all biz opportunities are solving usability issues now a days. I would say 60% usable and 40% functional would be good.

Evangelising web

the web with its ever increasing bandwidth and availability, the way it is used has to be changed.

I foresee,

1. copy-paste kind of functionality at least in java script or web browser so that we will not download/upload we will only copy/paste
2. ip-tv will be pervasive
3. services like anti-virus and data back-up will become more reliable/available on internet
4. internet will become aware of biometrics, so the online security paradigm will change as a whole

reminiscences of independence day celebrations

• primary school– njoying the celebrations at school and the sweets that were distributed

• secondary school– little bit of revolt on why we have to come to school even on this day

• college– rebellion watch movies, hangout with friends probably celebrate with beer

• now– ???

looking back at this pattern as awareness grew the celebration lost it’s charm
now i can conceptualize independence and freedom better than in my childhood days and that brings me to some inferences

1. independence is impossible we are all interdependent
2. freedom at a philosophical level is always there
3. freedom at a physical level is not there
4. freedom at political level never used
5. freedom at social level rarely used

After all this I still am impressed with all the freedom-fighters and the entire movement. they were more committed in solving their problem compared to people today. now a days problems don’t get solved much they are transmitted.

I still do not understand why we celebrate independence day when it was freedom movement and freedom fighters were involved (some where some discrepancy).

probably as a whole India wins independence and each of its citizens wins freedom?

This is one amazing video a friend has referred to me on youtube

Satisifaction matrix

this is a small idea on basis of satisfaction levels of you and your superior, here by the word superior i mean your work is delivered to him/her and it is at his/her disposal. There are 4 possible combinations and the logical out come of these combinations according to me are the following…

• u are satisfied and u r superior is not – learning opportunity
• u r satisfied and u r superior is also satisfied — take up more responsibility
• u r not satisfied and u r superior is satisfied — job switch on cards
• u r not satisfied and u r superior is not satisfied – career switch

DimDim work space

this is company where I work (http://www.dimdim.com)…

today we moved our office, now we have got a office space (on a funny side this reminds me of the movie with the same name ). the place is amazing though it is small, this is a no non-sense office.

looking back, i have seen office spaces which are plush, costly etc… so i do not want to use the same word for this because this space the one to which i can relate more so i call it “work space”

today we also met our investors which was a pleasure.

I still do not understand why companies spend so much money for office space where software has to be developed? all i think developers care is, good computer, internet and a good chair. not receptionist, sofa sets, fountains, landscaping blah blah…

HP Pavilion and problems

This is a rant…..

This is the mail content i have put in the support request for my hp pavilion on hp site…

First of all why does the other link where i can mail hp prod manager does not work????

I am irritated by the way HP is handling things, I have a bought a pavilion recently and I was in a hurry so i formatted the entire hard disk. Now i found out that the OS and other drivers are put in a hard disk partition instead of giving me a cd/dvd.
The support is pathetic, dont seem to understand my problem I had logged an email support, then i got a response with instructions on how to back-up, the recovery cd that was given will not work with out that partition…:((

I have tried taking a chat support, here also i did not get any better response, one thing useful information conveyed to me was reseller will give me back up media if warranty is still valid…

Now i call up the shop where i bought they say they are just package movers so they do not have any idea…

Now i have a laptop, on which i have installed Linux, i have paid for windows which i do not have. I have downloaded and installed vista ultimate (whose license expires in a month or so) in this i do not get drivers, the web site is like obsolete…
I will publish my experiences with HP as it goes….