Hussu Linux

Blogger to Wordpress Migration

2009-01-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

This is my final post in Blogger. I have migrated the blog to Wordpress.

Please catch up more updates at http://blog.hussulinux.com

I will NOT be updating this blog anymore. Thanks.

create your own twitter client

2008-12-16T07:34:00.000-08:00

I this video somewhere...

You can create a twitter mobile widget by drag and drop :)

GridMACD FOREX Algorithm Explored for Meta Trader

2008-12-04T06:22:00.000-08:00

Ive been lost in GridMACD Forex trading algorithm and I tried to explore it more and more.

Then I just came across this wonderful flowchart.

Then I came across someone who added another logic to enhance it for better performance. (none other than my brother Johan from Indonesia!)

Will someone be interested to write an OPEN SOURCE version until I write it?

Click on the image for a larger view

Barcamp Pune 5

2008-11-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

I'm going to speak at Barcamp Pune 5.

I will be talking about a framework on mobile phones and the topic is:
Building Enterprise Mobile applications without programming.

Some interesting topics I'd like to listen to:

Microsoft Windows Mobile Development - Mayur Tendulkar
Rapid Robotics Development using Microsoft Robotics Studio - Nikhil Dandeker
Mobility application development with moblin - Sachin Kelkar Intel
Performance Tunning on Application Server -Tara Lodh

Yes I'm lazy

2008-11-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

I'm known to be a lazy person. The whole world tells me, I tell myself. But what to do.

Here are some TOP secrets to cope up with my lazy attitude while running an enterprise solution..

1) I don't re-invent the wheel. I use what is available. 'Google it' is my favorite dialogue. People misunderstand this with lack of creativity but whats so wise in doing something already done!

2) Use open source. I just love open source. Everyone who believes in open source are my team mates.

3) Automate. This is perhaps my one word advice to ALL. Try to automate everything. Try to make it "one touch and done". (If I could, I would have automated something to scratch my back...ha ha ha .. ok back to serious stuff)

4) Plan to be lazy from the start: Always design to scale and make it generic. Always think of huge numbers. Assume double the size of scale than the scope. Always make your designs generic to adapt to change at minimal cost and time factor. Some tips for young lazy enthusiasts.

5) Sometimes things may have to be manual, Use monitors - Open source monitoring tools are available at call. Use them. They are quite good.

6) Use schedulers. I must admit, many of my emails are just scheduled to send out automated replies. I just type them and choose date/time for sending. Let your clients feel you're there for them 24/7/366!

7) Test your apps. I believe in thorough testing and benchmarking. Believe me all the clients should know this. Don't release anything just for the sake of releasing, it has a bad impression about your quality of work even though you may have won the battle by delivering on time.

8) Communicate when needed -Here's another tip to be laze around. Communicate with the fastest channel. It may cost a bit, but it will buy you a lot of laziness to enjoy with! Trust me, it works...

9) Use the proper tools and technology. Don't pick up some xyz technology just because you know it. My experience says that its a mirage of laziness. If at a point your xyz technology is not suitable for the client, the client will take away your laziness..

10) Now that you have so much time to laze around, try to find more ways to be lazy..Facebook, orkut, You don't have to be so hard. Just laze around all the more...

Rediff.com Coding Standards: An Analysis

2008-10-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

By Hussain Fakhruddin

hussulinux@gmail.com

Rediff has a lot of portals within its main portal.

This is how they organize their re-usable code.

The first thing I did is logged on to: http://indian-railways.rediff.com/

I opened my Fire Fox’s Error Console and found this:

The next thing I did was to open up the source code:

I was shocked. I could really figure out that this type of code was

1) Written by just “Jugard” of code from their own paces here and there!

2) Not at all reviewed!

3) Done in haste to meet the deadlines!

I will put some screenshots to prove my point:(Please enlarge them as needed)

Are these written by the same programmer?

Subsequent lines of code, but one in caps and other in small.
- Seems like they have just copied it from some previous page.

Dirty CSS to look good? : Reuse of CSS codes, but not at all arranged in a proper manner. They are probably using the code which is lying here and there.

Code lying here and there + insert what is needed and get the things done!

JavaScript in the middle of an external CSS.
Why not place it together along with the code above!

Just Wow: Internal JS > CSS > External JS > Internal JS
CSS surrounded between JavaScript and JavaScript surrounded between CSS!

Where are your code conventions Mr. Rediff?
See the CSS classname ‘Naming standards’

Rediff’s way of importing external JS!

They are using JavaScript to import another JavaScript code!
Look carefully!

Debugging debris remains…

Reuse the code, but not in the same page man!
I saw this CSS defined AGAIN somewhere below the code!
What a waste of memory!
Everything commented inside the function, what does this function do then?!

Agreed we all use broadband, but what a waste of Bandwidth?

Why so many wide spaces!

Don’t you guys know browser ignores them but bandwidth network doesn’t!

Broken Link

Wanna report?

Total time over 512KBPS
No comments!

19 Requests to the server! Woah!
Thank you that I have an advance browser to do these for me!

So many DNS resolutions
My ISP might think I am doing a DNS attack!

16. Best of all:
Around 8 MB of Memory occupied by just 41KB of HTML code!

Life without Apache : Meritocracy in Action.

2008-09-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

I am obsessed with Apache. Yes! I am and I am proud that I am!

I was just wondering how life would be WITHOUT Apache!

We would still be doing ASP. Many of us would have gone into ASPX and C#
CGI and PHP wouldn't have come out..
Total no. of websites in the world would be less. I don't know how much % but yes, it would surely be less.
There would all be Windows Hosting Services everywhere and the prices would be higher and higher...
Who can forget the popular Tomcat. Java wasn't open source before, other app servers were not that comfortable interms of price, simplicity and ease of use. Every newbie in JSP/Servlet starts with Tomcat. People crib that Tomcat doesn't have EJB, who needs EJB these days?
No Java projects would compile using Make, so Ant came it. Imagine how difficult life would be without ANT scripts.
MVC the most popular design pattern: Struts is the name you think of. If it weren't there, you'd still be writing your own servlets and JSP and controller logic.
Almost 80-90% of GOOD Java EE developers would use Apache Commons. I mean who doesn't use it?
Logging your application for debug and support, What would you do without Apache Logging Sevices
Forget all programming, there is still no comparision with Xerces for XML. I challenge.
Make your code as Webservice? No words about Axis, yet again apache product!
You want a middleware java messaging framework for your JMS? Use ActiveMQ
Object relation model: Try iBatis, you wont leave it again.

All in all, If there was no Apache, Life wouldn't have stopped but would have been SO SO damn difficult. My many many thanks to Apache...

Some Javascript Tips

2008-09-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a lot of JavaScript these days. Each day I learn newer things and each day I am starting to like it more and more.

I am going to compile a few queries where I broke my head.

Q) If I do window.open('anotherPage.html'), How can I change the DOM of the parent window.
This problem arrived when I was trying to add more rows to a table from another window itself.
Problem: Firefox allows it. But IE doesn't allow.
Solution: Use cloneNode() for FF. For IE , create the row again by attachRow()
Now for each cell, loop through it and do insertCells() and then copy the innerHTML to it.
All this is done in a simple loop through the table.

Q I have 3 frames on a page, I want to submit requests to page 2 and 3 at the same time
Do: document.forms[2].functionName();
yes, its as easy as this...
in your functionName(), you can add code to submit the form.submit();

Q Recursive Ajax calls.
Problem: To keep refreshing content of a page through Ajax.
One might typically use setInterval() but what if setInterval fires while a request from your ajax is coming back?
Solution: Use a global variable called "lock". Everytime you make a request set this lock, the call back function should release the lock.
When setInterval fires your ajax request function it should exit if its locked.

Q. getElementById('idname'). Don't use it too often, Try to traverse though the DOM by your code.

Q. Always give IDs to your form. Someday you'll find that this is very useful. You can submit a form from anywhere if you do this by getting the refrence of the form and then yourform.submit()

Q. Try to avoid excess IDs, This will occupy more browser memory interms of DOM parsing.
For example, If you have a table, don't give ID to each row. instead give the id to the table and then traverse the table.

Q. Do overuse Ajax and submit multiple requests simultaneously. Browser might allow this, but your database will not. Specially when you're doing connection pooling. In connection pooling , you have the same connection object and multiple execution of sql queries on the same object from different clients will result in failed transactions.

Q. attaching events is a good idea , but beware, IE and FF behaves differently. The API is completely different.

Q. Always use a common Javascript Browser detection Module. Make the detected browser global and then customize your scripts that way.

Q. Often while debugging we use alert("debug msg here.."); and waste time in commenting and uncommenting it. Instead use a global variable called "debug=true". And use if (debug) alert("");
You wont have to comment or uncomment it all the time.

Q. There are some good Javascript debuggers. Use them. The simplest one is FF error console. But what about IE? Yes, now you can use FF error console to debug IE related Errors too.. Install the FF IE tab plugin and have fun.

Q. Another great FF extension is Firebug. MUST MUST have for all you JS guys....

PHP Camp 2008

2008-09-13T02:25:00.000-07:00

Barcamp, BlogCamp.... and now Introducing PHPCamp

I am attending PHP Camp on 20th Sept 2008. I will be presenting on

PHP Vs Java:But I love them both...

Practical DWR Guidelines

2008-07-01T23:53:00.000-07:00

I have written a Paper on Practical DWR (Direct Web Remoting) Guidelines. You'll enjoy it if you're a J2EE guy who wants to do some Ajax.

Click here to view it (will open on GoogleDocs)

Hussu Linux: DWR : Direct Web Remoting

2008-06-14T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hussu Linux: DWR : Direct Web Remoting

DWR : Direct Web Remoting

2008-06-14T02:57:00.000-07:00

Direct Web Remoting or DWR is the future for Ajax and Java.
DWR is a tool which allows you to invoke a Java Method residing on your AppServer from the browser through JavaScript.

Here's a little introduction about it and a small tutorial which you can try out.
You will also find all the necessary ingredients' links as you move along.

| View | Upload your own

TIBCO GI (General Interface) : A boon for Open Source RIA

2008-05-15T03:33:00.000-07:00

Tibco GI is OPEN SOURCE.
Tibco GI is cool.
Tibco GI is fascinating.
I like TIBCO GI

Tibco GI (General Interface) is a small little tool for building RIA.
The most amazing part of TIBCO GI is that it provides a fine IDE. And the IDE itself is built on the same framework. You don't need any installer to run the IDE except a standard browser. And yes, ANY browser. I have tested with IE and Firefox and it runs smooth!
I have used Flash, I have used Ajax, I have used Flex, I have used Laszlo.. I like them all but I like this GI a lot! I always say : Rich User Interface = Rich User Experience! And TIBCO GI is quite satisfactory in that.

I would like to mention some cool things you can do with TIBCO GI:

- Integrate it with all major J2EE Frameworks: Struts 1.1, 2.0, Spring etc etc....
Links for some tutorials:
http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajax-crud-with-struts-2-and-tibco-gi
http://www.adtmag.com/blogs/blog.aspx?a=19387

- Javascript based: Runs on browser, no other downloads required.

- One page application: Just like flex, Single Page Application.

- Drag and Drop IDE: Just like flex builder, Drag and Drop Components and do lots of stuff with them. What's more, remember the old days with VB6, It provides an IDE just like VB!

- Javascript: Organize all your business logic in Javascript. Add javascript functions and just call them from component's events. Yes, the components have events and they can call other javascript functions or directly write code into that.

- Java Like API: If you download and goto the help section, You'll see all the API's are well structured Java Classes. Very well documented.

- COOL TOOLS: I must say some really really cool tools: Everyone knows how difficult it is to debug javascript(Until firefox came out with an Error Console) . TIBCO GI provides a small window where you can paste your JavaScript code and it can run it for you! No need to write functions! I use this for checking some external JavaScripts too!

- Error console. Before you actually deploy your application, the IDE checks all the javascript errors for you and lists them out.

- Another cool tool: XML Mapping. TIBCO GI has thought for Web 3.0. When websites become webservices. Expose all your business logic on webservice and call them by a WSDL. You can drag and drop your components to say what's gonna be your input and what's gonna be your output. You really gotta try this!!!

- Integrates quite well with All other TiBCO Products like TIbco Businessworks, Iprocess etc.

- Charting: Add in components provide a bundled set of charting tools. You will really like it if you're into charting. It can give tough competition to FLEX Charting!

- The TibCO framework size is just around 350 KB. Bye bye dial up users. Web 2.0 is not for you!

- Lastly, TIBCO is open souce. I love open source. I have been into open source for quite sometime and something like this is really a boon for RIA World.

A challenge to non-vegetarian, if they can contradict the answer

2008-04-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

I'm a strict vegetarian as a result, I'm always taunted. I always felt embarrassed. I always used to think that why in our religion we are asked to have vegetarian diet and not the non-vegetarian diet. As all the non- vegetarians used to tell the various benefits of non-vegetarian food. I used to feel that there should be some very strong reason that why vegetarian food is preferred. Something which can make all other reasons appears trivial. I always used to search for that reason.

But, after surfing a lot of internet I have finally got a possible answer. The very reason of why we eat food is the answer to this question i.e. the survival of the human being on this earth.
How?

I have found on many websites which says that eating meat causes increase in the global warming. Probably all the readers must be knowing that if the temperature of our earth increase by few more degrees then our planet will become like any other planet. Then, probably the aliens (if they exist) from other planets will come and search for evidence of life as we search for evidence of life on mars and moon.

All this happens because of the concept which I had read in my ninth-tenth standard. I won't go in science of the concept. But, in the laymen terms I will say that from a plant to animal and from animal to animal only 1% of the total energy is transferred.
For example:

If we need 3000 calories per day and from each plant only 1000 calories is obtained. Then we need to eat only three plants.

But suppose if we eat beef rather than plants which can give say 3000 calories. Then most of you will think that the beef is a better option. But, I would like to say that for accumulating those 3000 calories we would have to feed cow at least 300 plants which means that we need more space and energy to feed one person.

Now greater the energy used, then greater will be the demand for energy and greater will be the burden on our natural fuel resources and hence greater would be the production of the greenhouse gases.

So, with greater consumption of meat, there would be more and more increase in greenhouse gases which will make the global warming condition worse.

Now, I think you all can conclude that by maintaining a vegetarian diet we are actually saving ourselves.

However, probably one may point out that what about the various diseases at which we all are at risk if eating of non-vegetarian food is stopped. To this point, I would like to say that many people in India are vegetarian and all those who take a balanced vegetarian diet with regular exercise always live a healthy life.

Meta Trader 4 : Auto Forex Trading Platform

2008-02-23T10:53:00.000-08:00

I took a session on MT4 in Barcamp Pune 4. Here are the slides

| View | Upload your own

Barcamp Kolkata : Why Kolkata still doesn't have a Barcamp

2008-02-18T02:52:00.000-08:00

Why Kolkata still doesn't have a Barcamp

October 2007, I went to Kolkata for a conference called WebOSS '07 and I can probably make out why there's no way Kolkata can have a barcamp in near future. I tried to carry out a Barcamp in Kolkata. My sympathies to the wonderful city where I grew up.

1. What is BarCamp? A 'Drinking Bar' may be...I'm not interested.
2. People don't know what a WIKI is. They don't know how to edit it despite the instructions.
3. No one willing to take the effort. They have all the time to sleep.
4. The so called 'open source' community sucks big time. The so called HEAD of LUG group look out for publicity more than helping to get a job done. I am not afraid to take the name of Krishnendu Paul who promised and suddenly disappeared.
5. The student community is suppressed by the colleges.
6. The colleges are more interested in Placements rather than knowledge sharing.
7. College professors are trying to get some freelance projects all the time.
8. Big shots like IBM, TCS etc. are least bothered to even have a look.
9. Free T-shirts = Bring in all your friends and leave in next 1 hour.
10. Free food = hog as much as you want.
11. The IT dept of the government want to just hold on conferences and publicity stunts to make their place in the newspaper. I am again not afraid to blame the minister for not checking his Mailbox which is always full. And also to be not available to common people without a PROTOCOL!
11. What is sponsorship? What will I gain. How many people are going to come? This is the question which all news/publicity media ask!
12. Lastly, Who's wanting to spoil their weekend!

Way to go Kolkata, I don't see a Barcamp Kolkata until some revolutionary thing happen!
Dear City of Joy, I left you some time back and I don't feel like returning!

Barcamp Pune 4

2008-02-16T06:21:00.000-08:00

"Barcamp Pune 4: Love for technology" took place today at Thoughtworks Pune.
I gave a workshop on PHP & Ajax along with Priyank. This time I didn't develop any website but rather a Proxy server using PHP!
We also conducted a BOF session on PHP and Ajax Security and Meta Trader the online forex platform.

Get some pics here:

Barcamp Pune 4 Logo

PHP & Ajax workshop

Barcamp schedule.

Preparing for workshop

Slides and Video to come next..

Gnunify 2008 Pics 2

2008-02-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

With David Axmark, Co-Founder of MySQL

With Robert Adkins, Alolita Sharma and Manish Singh

Me, Manish, BC Shekhar, Shridhar

Helping Hand?

In Atul Kahate's Session

Gnunify 2008 Pics 1

2008-02-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

Rush to get inside my workshop I

Rush to get inside my workshop II

Gnunify 2008 Ajax Workshop

2008-02-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

I attended GNUnify today took a 3 hour workshop on PHP and Ajax. The session was jam packed with people. Here are some pictures.

Gnunify 2008 Banner

With Volunteers

Schedule

Workshop that I took

Me, conducting the workshop

Workshop scene.

More pictures to come soon..

Gnunify 2008

2008-02-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

I am going to speak in Gnunify 2008. This is a yearly event organized by students of Symbiosis Institute of computer studies and Research(SICSR), Pune. The event is a dedication towards Open Source.

I am going to take a workshop on PHP & Ajax.

Catch up some more events at : www.gnunify.in

Will keep updating about the events.

Yet another Camp

2007-12-18T12:37:00.000-08:00

You've guessed it right:

BarCampPune4 is coming up yet again! This time on 16th Feb @ ThoughWorks. I will be speaking but haven't yet decided on the topic.

I am excited!

For more details:http://barcamp.org/BarCampPune4

Business Buzz

2007-12-09T04:38:00.000-08:00

I have started another site: BusinessBuzz (http://www.businessbuzz.in)

There will be different topics like BusinessGyan,IT & ITES, Marketing, Stock, B-Schools etc.

It will work this way:
We'll have bloggers who already blog in their respective site. They will also blog on this new site.
It will be like a group 10-15 bloggers blogging/writing articles on different topics.

Check out the screenshot:

Happy Birthday to me!

2007-11-29T10:56:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday! I just had a great party with some great friends.

Thank you to all my friends for making today special.

Sachinism.com Widget

2007-11-11T02:35:00.000-08:00

Yet another of my widget creation! This time a widget for Sachinism.com

Get you own Sachin Widget @ SACHINISM.COM

Sachinism site launched: www.sachinism.com

2007-11-07T12:04:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce the launch of www.SACHINISM.com - My latest site on God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar. If Cricket is one's religion then Sachin is the GOD and the religion he spreads : Sachinism.

I was lucky to have got this domain. The response was awesome. The was live countdown being followed by fans and over 100 registration in the first 3 hours! The site is in continuous development with new features getting added each day.

Thanks to all the guys(specially Ved and Bhel) who have made this site come true.

The site was developed completely from scratch using simple php scripts with modular design. There is a good security which I have implemented: HTML syntax checking, SQL injection attacks etc. Currently we're developing an admin panel to give it a good backend for moderation.
I am also planning to launch an E-Magazine for Sachin which will be completely like the normal magazines that we get but in the form of a PDF which can be distributed on the internet free of cost.

Lots more to come... Stay connected!

Here's one of the banner which fan's made:

Flex builder free for students

2007-10-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

If you're a student or a faculty at educational institutions worldwide, its time to rejoice. You can now get Adobe Flex Builder 2.0 for free!

Adobe Flex 2 will be available to qualified education end-users for free download on Adobe.com in early November.

Catch the full news here

WebOSS 07: The Event

2007-10-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

On 13th October Teknowledge Software conducted the first "Free for All" Open Source Web Technology conference called WebOSS '07.

The event was the first of its kind to be held in Kolkata. Teknowledge Software, a software house based in Kolkata hosted the event along with WBUT as the venue sponsor.

Volunteers dressed in white T-shirts with WebOSS '07 logo worked hard to put the event together.

The event started at around 11:30. I was the first one to speak and spoke on RIA: Which technology one should choose? Slides can be found here

I attended the next session by Pradeep on how to build application with AJAX. Pradeep's presentation can be found here

There was a lunch break after this which contained burgers, cakes, ladoo! and Frooti!

The next session was of Shabbir's on Speeding up your websites. A great session which included tips and tricks to speed up the sites from network and client browser point of view. Shabbir's content can be found here

The next session was of Naveen. He really went dirty into the code like Pradeep. It was really a good session and I have started respecting Perl (i'm more a PHP Guy!)

It was a good conference, the jam packed audience was eager to know more and more!

Overall, a fun event like barcamps! Its great to see such events happening in Kolkata! Go ahead Kol!

You can find ALL pictures here:

Hussain on RIA

Pradeed, Naveen and Shabbir

Jam Packed Audience

Pradeep, Naveen and Shabbir again.

WebOSS '07 : The Web Technology Conference

2007-10-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

The first of its kind Web Technology Conference on Open Source Technologies, WEBOSS ‘07 is being organised in Kolkata on Saturday 13th October, 2007.

I am the organizer and speaker.
The conference is going to be held at West Bengal University of Technology Main Campus.
Topics include: RIA, AJAX, ROR, PHP VS PERL, speeding up your websites. I'm going to speak on RIA and RoR.
There is also going to be a panel discussion on Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.

Hope to catch some action!

Apache Ant

2007-09-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

My slides on Apache Ant. Ant is really a powerful and object oriented tool.

www.livinonjovi.com Launched

2007-08-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys,

As promised , I have launched http://www.livinonjovi.com/

Bon Jovi Fan club

2007-08-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

I have started a forum on Bon Jovi for their fans(I'm one).

There are some really die hard fans out there. The forum basically has two sections: 1) Bon Jovi the band 2) Bon Jovi Fans which have forums on General talks, Downloads, Music News. Apart from these, there are forums on RockTalk, Gossip, Polls and to top it all, Bon Jovi Vs Other Bands.

You can catch the site at: http://bonjovi.teks.co.in

There are 133 articles in just 2 days of its opening. Great start!

I will book the domain soon and keep you updated.

Single line of HTML crashes IE 6

2007-08-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

A Japanese blogger who goes by the name Hamachiya2 has discovered a single line of HTML and CSS that crashes IE 6. The line is:

<style>*{position:relative}</style><table><input></table>

If you’re brave, you can click here to try it out. The code is rendered correctly in Firefox, Safari and Opera (didn’t get a chance to try any other browsers, but presumably they work too). But in IE 6 it raises a fatal error in mshtml.dll.

Deep Linking How to avoid

2007-08-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

A deep link is a direct link to a web site's resource without accessing the main page of the site. For example your site is http://www.abc.com and your contact page is at http://www.abc.com/contactus/contact.html. If a user types the 2nd link without going though the main page, he is called as The Deep Linker.

It becomes a problem for many of the sites which display ads on their first page(the index page). The HTTP protocol doesn't bother if the user is asking for a resource via a deep link or via a normal link. After all, the request which goes to the server is something like this :

GET /contactus/contact.html

for both cases 1. When you access it through a deep link or 2. When you access it normally via first page's link.

So, how to avoid people from linking deep?
Here's a small trick:

1. Check for a cookie at each deep link. If it doesn't exist, redirect to index page.
2. On the index page insert a cookie which gets killed when the browser is closed.

Anyone knowing a non cookie based solution to this problem do post it in the comments

BarCampPune3 - My Slides

2007-07-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

I gave a brief tutorial on How to make a Flash Widget

I also talked about my research topic on Mobile Navigation - Point and Locate buildings

BarCampPune3- My Experiences

2007-07-07T04:29:00.001-07:00

9:30: I am attending BarCampPune3 and am at Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd. I got some cool logistics - Tshirt, pen , pad. I am also having breakfast! The weather is lovely!

The Barcamp Schedule

10:23: I am attending the first session by Rakesh Raju on TVGuide.in
Feedback: This session was the first one and packed with people. Rakesh discussed about how he created a TV guide because India didn't have one which could crawl contents across 100+ channels daily!

The next session was on Micro$oft $ilverlight by Aditya Thatte. He talked about M$ answering to JRE and Flash plugins. $ilverlight is still novice and at least I am not going to move to it seeing the amount of code one has to write!

The next session was again by Rakesh Raju on 2D and 3D game development. He was talking more on what games his company had built rather than on the framework. Marketing might be the right word but I don't want to use it as he did show something in the end to develop a scenario out of Torque and TorqueScript! But still everything was pre-made and a person new to game development would never know how to get started.

13:52 After having attended three session, and a wonderful lunch. Right now I am all set to give my first talk of the day: Flash Widget Tutorial. Looking forward to see many questions!

There were a fewer questions than expected.

The next session I attended was of Abhijit: FaceBook and RoR. It was again a complete NO NO for novice on RoR. I am happy that I had worked with Facebook API for PHP before else RoR went above my head!! It was a good session otherwise.

The next session was again mine on Mobile Navigation and boy! I got so many queries. I am happy I got a new idea into people's mind!

I regret to have missed many sessions like:
How to start a company(I am sure Jatinder attended it and will blog on it).
IPR and Cyber Laws
Writing a Firefox addon by Vinod

I also missed Abdul Qabiz and I found that I wasn't the only guy who missed him!

BarCamp the night before

2007-07-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

And so finally it comes - BarCampPune3.

My desktop is cleaned(less icons),
My wallpaper is set to its logo!
My Slides are almost done!

and I feel good about it!

There are some really cool sessions which I'm really looking forward to attend:

Wishlist includes:

MySQL using JRuby - Priyank Kapadia
Microsoft Silverlight, A new dimension to build rich UI applications by Aditya Thatte
Indian Technology Laws, Indian laws on cyberspace, copyright, trademark and patents by Gokul Narayan
Self Hosting - Is it the future ? by Milind Pandit

I'm disappointed I'll miss sessions by Abdul Qabiz. I don't know why he has cut his name!

So see you guys tomorrow at BarCampPune3!

BarCamp3 Preview

2007-06-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Finally BarCamp3 is here and I'm already excited.

The event will take place at Persistent System Pvt. Ltd, Pune on 7th July(Sat) 2007.

I will be speaking on two topics:

1. Mobile Visualization.
2. How to make a Flash Widget.

Free Software Song by RMS

2007-06-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

Recently I found the lyrics of The Free Software Song by Richard Stallman.

Before the lyrics here a short history of the song: Richard Stallman was attending some get together where everyone had to either sing or perform something. He knew his turn was coming so he quickly scribbled this song. He also thought of the tune that very moment. When he sung the song, people said it sounded like an anthem and one lady said that he should show it to Richard Stallman. He replied that he was Richard Stallman!

Join us now and share the software;
You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.

Hoarders may get piles of money,
That is true, hackers, that is true.
But they cannot help their neighbors;
That's not good, hackers, that's not good.

When we have enough free software
At our call, hackers, at our call,
We'll throw out those dirty licenses
Ever more, hackers, ever more.

Join us now and share the software;
You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free

Original Posting : http://www.gnu.org/music/writing-fs-song.html
Wikipedia Entry : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Song

VB6 and IE7 problem

2007-06-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

One may no longer be able to use the ieframe.dll when using IE7 with VB6's Web Browser Control

Here's a quick tip:
On your component selection dialog box, Point the Microsoft Internet Controls to SHDOCVW.dll instead of ieframe.dll and bingo!

Add external deployable files to Java EE projects on netbeans

2007-05-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how you'd deploy external CSS/JavaScript with servlets or JSPs?
This article will guide you on how to add a CSS/JavaScript (.css, .js) or any file in your project so that it gets inside your .WAR file too!

Here's how to:

1) Start your netbeans: I am using 5.5
2) Goto Tools>Template Manager
3) Select or Expand "Other"
4) Click "Add..." and select the file which you want to include.
5) After selecting the file will appear in your "Others" list
6) In your project navigator, add a new file of this type.
7) Give a name to this file and feel excited!

Netbeans - My Favorite IDE

2007-05-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

Netbeans is my favourite IDE when it comes to Java. Although its too slow but the way it arranges stuff for me is quite COOL!

Some facts that I have noticed so far:

1. It takes request from doGet or doPost and sends it to another method. So it doesn't matter if the parameters come from GET or POST, you simple work with them! (Really cool for beginners)

2. It creates a dist directory for each project which means you don't have to explicitly make any such deployment folder. You'll never want a WAR file unless really required. Just copy the contents of this folder and paste it to your deployment folder.

3. It has also got this feature of starting and stopping the bundled Apache Tomcat server as and when required. You can even configure server's port with a GUI which netbeans provides.

4. Netbeans mobility pack is just so awesome. Just drag and drop all basic components(reminds me of VB6).

5. Netbeans generates codes for such UML style drag drop behind the scene. Its got this wonderful feature called as Lazy Initialized. This feature is a coding style where the main thread will not initialize all the form elements instead call methods as an when the form/component is required.
I personally find this very interesting as when I program in J2ME, Its really good to initialize the forms as and when the user needs them. For example: Why would you initialize a form which contains About & Version infomation. It will use up unnecessary space if that form was never visited!

6. Netbeans can also adhere to different Mobile environments and JDKs. For example, If you have a Black Berry's JDE installed, you can make netbeans to compile/run/use Black Berry's APIs. Which means you work with your favourite editor even if the platforms differ.
My Netbeans is configured with mobility pack which has configured sun's WTK 2.2, Black Berry JDE 4.1 & JDE 4.2.

7. If you're connected to the internet, netbeans' welcome page displays latest happennings with Blogs, articiles posted daily. I always make a point to check out whats the latest there!

8. The overall look and feel is quite good. I have been using it since v.4.x and it has improved a lot.

Although Netbeans is slow(Tell me which one is not!), I'll still give it preference over any other IDE available for the complete Java Technology I.e Java SE, Java EE and Java ME platform. I wont give preference to Eclipse (from where netbeans has derived!).

Flash and JavaScript Integration

2007-04-13T00:04:00.000-07:00

Flash and JavaScript Integration

Follow these easy steps to make flash communicate with JavaScript code and vice versa.

a) Flash to JavaScript: Making Flash call a JavaScript function

JavaScript Function Code. To be put in the HTML

<script language="JavaScript">
function alertMe(){
alert("Hello, world");
}
</script>

Flash Code. To be put in any event of button, frame, where ever required:

import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
function callJavaScript(){
ExternalInterface.call("alertMe");
}

Please note that due to default security these codes will not work if the flash is loaded locally.
To test this, you will either need to upload your .swf and .html to a server and request the files from the server.
OR you will need to set the global security settings( Google it to know how!)

b) JavaScript to Flash : Making JavaScript call a Flash Function.

Flash function code that needs to be called:

import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
function startPlaying(){
play();
}
ExternalInterface.addCallback("startPlaying", this, startPlaying);

Java Script code to call the method in the flash:

<script language="JavaScript">
var myflashref;
function getReference(){
if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1 )
myflashref = window.flashObject;
else
myflashref = window.document.flashObject;
}
function playFlash(){
getReference(); //getting the flash reference.
myflashref.startPlaying(); //call the method in the flash
}
</script>

Well, I leave it up to you now to do some R&D and make data pass through flash and JavaScript and vice-versa!

Feel free to leave clarification requests.

GNUnify '07 : My Experiences

2007-01-28T23:45:00.000-08:00

GNUnify is a very sweet event that takes place at Symbiosis Institute of Computer studies and Research(SICSR), the very same place BARCAMP, Pune was held. I was glad to be a part of it on its 5th year on 27th and 28th January 2007. It gave me double pleasure! On the first day I was a volunteer while on the second day I was a speaker.

The event that attracted many students and IT professionals from Pune was very well organized and had a lot of good sessions. I myself conducted many installation sessions of Linux for novices on day one. I also managed to catch up some interesting sessions like "RIA with Lazlo" by Vijay Khambalkar and Debugging apps with GNU Debugger" by Prakash Varandani and some glimpses of jam packed session of Network Security by Atul Kahate.

The evening has a wonderful Networking Party at Symbiosis Institute of Management Sciences-SIMS poolside. Dinner was quite good with some interesting talks with Mr.Narain who had come from Chennai. I also managed to get a good number of pictures along with other volunteers.

Day two started with my workshop on LAMP(Linux Apache, MySQL and PHP) along with Gaurav Pant. It was a 2 hour workshop which lasted for over 3 hours. The very thing that surprised me was there were more number of people who were turned down due tounavailability of space. Instead of Gaurav and me taking simultaneous sessions, two separate tracks could have solved the problem. May be next year!

After I finished with my workshop, I managed to get into two more sessions: "Identity Management" by Pradeep Sinha and "Backup Management" by Anand Bhalve.

I really liked this product Amanda which Anand talked about. I was wondering to create a UI for that! At the end I attended Matt Barker's session on the next version of Ubuntu called "Feisty Fawn". He was like a rock star with all girls going crazy about having a photograph with him!

There were many sessions that I missed due to my own workshop.Session that I MISSED and REGRET were like of Tony Wasserman about "Management of Open Source Projects", "Open Solaris" by "Moinak Ghosh". Hopefully I will get to see them on the video recording.

Day-2 ended with a photo shoot of all the volunteers.

At the end, another successful event! Hope to see the same next year!

Feel Good

2007-01-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

It feels really good after winning the technical quiz at I2IT.

On the first thought I never wanted to participate but when my friend Manish insisted, We formed a team and went there. It was a 3 day event. The questions were from all streams of computers and weren't easy! The best thing I liked was the last round in which a caselet was given and one had to present a solution to the given problem in about 7 mins. We were given "Air Traffic Modelling". I remembered my friend Naved doing a case study on Air Traffic System the very instance we got the caselet!

Finally there was an award ceremony where we were given certificates and a gift vouchers from crossword worth 2k(Atleast something as ROI).

Overall experience was good but really really poor management. Anyway, All's well that ends well!

Steps to receive your bike from Railways.

2006-12-23T02:55:00.000-08:00

Are you planning to move to another town with your bike? or Are you in another town and planning to get your bike by Railway's Luggage and Parcel service. This blog is meant for you!

Today morning I got my bike- At LAST!

I am sorry as I wasn't the person to book the bike in Indian Railways..(Thank God!). But I went to receive it.This was how I got my bike:

I took a platform ticket and went to the luggage room. There a person took my receipt and searched for the bike. Not found. We both went to search my bike on the platform. After searching 2 platforms we finally found my bike at a place very near to where people commit nuisance. Hopefully it was packed nicely.

The person who accompanied me stood by the side and said "Give me my share here itself". "Chai" "Pani" are the most commonly used words. He asked for 50 bucks. I gave him 30 and said that even I could take my own bike from here. He agreed and we went to the luggage room from platform 5 to platform 1.

At the luggage room, they made a gate pass for me and another person accompanied me from luggage room to the road. I had to pay him another 30 bucks for just taking my bike out.
This person shook my bike and said "There's a lot of petrol in here!"

I was shocked. When the bike was ported the tank was empty. How on earth can petrol go inside?!

We went ahead and there was a checking counter. Another man accompanied me. He said, I will take your bike outside. Just give me my "Chai" , "Pani" later. I agreed...

I left the gate pass with the gatekeeper and he took me to a higher official. On the way he said "There's a lot of petrol in the bike". I said "I never filled it".

Higher officer came in and said "Open the tank". I did. He shook and said "There is a lot of petrol. More than 1 litre".

I said "But I never put the petrol in it. I can even show the receipt where it says the tank was empty when it was loaded on the train".

He said : "So you think the railway will put petrol in it?" "Look sir, I have to fine you. I don't leave people out of this checkpoint. " " Go to the court and pay 1000 bucks". And he went to bring the fine receipt book.

The 3rd man who accompanied me took me aside and said "Look sir, don't argue with him. Just give me 200 bucks and I will make things work for you. Don't talk to him directly. I will make things OK for you." "Sir, these people will cut the receipt if you argue with them"

I gave him 200 bucks and then he went to talk to "Higher Officer". Suddenly he came back. For a second I felt that the officer didn't agree. He came to me and said "Boss, Give me 50 bucks more". I gave it immediately. He went and gave it to the Officer and took my bike outside.

After going outside he said "Come quickly, come quickly! See I saved so much money of yours. Now give me mine and I will leave. Give me 100.

I said "100 is too high. I will give 50." and I took out 50 rs note and handed him.

He hesitated to such an extent that I had to take out another 20.

This is what actually happened:

Rule says: When your bike comes, it shouldn't contain a drop of petrol. Fine for defaulters is 1000 bucks.

Railway ensures this by: During time time of acceptance, the officials check for the petrol tank is empty or not. The receipt handed over has it documented as "Petrol Tank EMPTY".

When the bike is in railway's custody. They somehow back force petrol inside the tank. The can even do that in the train(who knows!).

There is high amount of understanding between the railway and transport department regarding this. The transport authority or rather say "Higher Officer" never checked for any of my bike's documents. Neither the registration, nor the NOC.

Question which would amaze anyone at first time:
How did the petrol go in there while at the time of booking one empties it and the OFFICERS assures it by documenting it as "Petrol Tank EMPTY".

However I am amazed at: I had my bike's keys, Still how did they manage to put the petrol in the tank? May be some day I would get to know this .... I am still in search for enlightenment....

So for all those who are bringing their bikes from their home town should do this :
While you're in search for the bike. Instead of paying the man just 30 or 50, give him straight 200 bucks and tell him to take out all the petrol anyhow. This way you will save 200 bucks.

If anyone has any other bright ideas, please do comment to reduce the cost...

Pune Barcamp2

2006-12-19T20:24:00.000-08:00

Pune Barcamp2 was simply fantastic! Organised in Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research last Saturday(16th Dec) was heard to be one of the most well managed Barcamp of its kind.

I wanted to speak but hadn't registered myself. When I reached SICSR, I found one of the evening slot was still empty. Dibya inspired me to "JUST fill it in" and I did it! The topic was "RICH UI using FLASH + PHP +MySQL"

I wasn't prepared at all! Went to a quieter place and started to prepare! After two hours I managed to modify some of my earlier animation and bring up something like a presentation!! Haha!!

Meanwhile I attended Freeman's session. He was talking on "How to start a start up". Nice talk. Wanted to know more of it but immediately was lunch break.

But somehow the lunch got delayed and I very quickly managed another session on Mobile Application. It was a nice session based on PDAs. The speaker was from TCS whose name I forgot.

Lunch followed. Nice fried rice and sweeties....

I had a session at 5pm but It somehow got preporned as Brajeshwar's demo on Photoshop CS3 got postponed or I DUNNO! I talked the stuff which I had developed some time ago. One small flash weather widget which would fetch data from weather.com and also an online showroom which website which I did for West Mill USA shoe store.

I also showed some code in Actionscript and PHP.

My session was followed by Abdul Qabiz's talk on Apollo, the product coming up in 2007 by adobe.

Networking dinner followed at SIMS and this time I was a volunteer! some good amount of networking happened. Excellent food!

Thanks to the "So Called Organisers", The volunteers(including me) and all the speakers and everyone!
Catch up some pics of the event...

I wonder Kolkata never had any such events?!! I am very serious in Organizing it in Kolkata!

My first Blog again

2006-12-19T20:19:00.000-08:00

Technically this aint my first blog. I had started many blogs but failed to keep them alive due to several reasons. But then someone would ask me why this now? I would answer: Just Like That!

But this time as the new year is coming up, I am planning to keep it alive!