a Microsoft Technology Roadshow
been to a Microsoft Technology Roadshow last Friday (20-02-2006).. despite Venki's suggestion that there won't be much to learn, I took a day off to attend this one.. but I really do regret that decision.. a whole damned day wasted! left the hall feeling ridiculous about the whole damned session..

what went wrong? well, maybe I should rephrase that to be 'was there anythin that went right?'.. can't remember a thing that was right, but with exception of the food, which was more sensible than that in the Visual Studio 2005 Launch Tour..

there were two parallel tracks.. one for the web developer and the other for the mobility developer.. I chose to attend the mobility track coz I xpected to learn somethin form the session.. there were 3 presentations wholly.. two before lunch and one after that.. first two basically covered Symbian vs .NET for developin mobile apps.. some general awareness stuff..

I was late to the first presentation, but dint really miss a thing.. that guy was explaining about some features like a Windows CE mobile (Tablet PC etc..) being able to sync up with a Microsoft Exchange Server and some cool features like getting notifications about ur mails etc.. as n when ur Exchange Server receives em.. honestly, that's not the coolest tech I'd like to hear abt.. it's fairly standard, so please don't bug me explainin how it works.. show me an actual application demonstrating how to use that thing.. anyone with half-a-brain could use the net n find out how it works.. it's definitely not worth a presentation.. in fact, anyone wit half-a-brain could also find sample apps on the net, but then that's where I'd like to see the differene.. I usually xpect to learn some tips/tricks form the demos they'd give on stage.. somethin like that's not available elsewhere, or at least the approach, coz it's pretty difficult to find a thing that's missing from the net n present it here :D

next presentation was a lil interesting, but got a lil annoying later.. it was the usual Microsoft vs the-best-rival-to-Microsoft-technology thing.. in fact, even the previous one was Symbian vs .NET, but let's leave it there.. this one was J2ME vs .NET.. hmm.. it's not that I hate .NET/Micrsoft.. in fact my current project is an ASP.NET app.. but then, there should be limits to where you draw the comparison.. the competitors were J2ME with the JTWI standard (which endorses MIDP 2.0 with CLDC 1.0) vs .NET CF.. hmm.. for me, not very sensible.. I dont wanna elongate this entry getting down to details.. but in short, there were some valid points.. but the whole thing was a futile attempt, justifying the existence of .NET CF for mobiles and tryin to convince us of it's superiority over J2ME/JTWI..

I was tired already.. they were so boring.. I'm a dev guys and I came here coz u labelled it a Technology Roadshow with a track for the Mobility Developer.. show me some code! I can read the reviews and get to kno more abt the features n evrythin.. but don't waste my precious time shootin bullshit at me.. I'm here xpectin somethin more technical.. not for ur product review..

I thought I shud leave, but before leavin I thought I shud xpress my opinions to one of the presenters.. I told pretty much the same to him (well, same words wrapped around with some politeness that is :D ).. he said the initial presentations were to create awareness.. the one after lunch would have some code to demonstrate.. so I decided to stay for the latter part..

but this one happened to be a worser bullshit.. it was called the storage side story.. the demo was xtremely frustrating.. at least for me.. he gave some intro abt the SQL Server CE, during which I had a nice nap :D.. for the demo, he created a new Mobile application.. imported a Northwind DB, SQL CE version.. dragged and dropped a table from there to the form, which became a DataGrid.. huh.. who was the demo for? for a 10 year old kid?

well, I'm not much xperienced when it comes to Mobile app development.. but the others in the room seemed to be from the stream.. when I feel the demo was bullshit, do u think the demo was worth anythin for an xperienced pro?! still, I held on to my patience, tellin myself that there'll be somethin worth learnin comin up.. that this demo was just for the complete novices.. convincin myself that the demo was intended to start off simple.. then the presenter came to the last slide, givin some links, includin one for the great demo that was just shown!

for the lack of stronger words, I'd just say that I was simply pissed off! a leave wasted for no reason at all! this happened to me even in the VS.NET 2005 Launch Tour.. I xpected somethin big, n all I got were some nonsense presentations.. their explanation for that was that it was merely an awareness event.. well, granted.. but what abt this Technology Roadshow?

I've decided never to attend another Microsoft Technology Roadshow again.. neways, my only request to the event organizers is to brand their events properly and make their intent very clear.. if you'd please call your marketing events as just that, instead of branding them Technology Roadshows, I'd be glad to stay away from those, n you'd be helpin many like me.. well, thanx in advance if any of u happens to consider my request..

what would an hour of idle time yield?
read on, but only if you could find nothin better to do :D

You Are 32% Abnormal

You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at medium risk for having a borderline personality. It is somewhat likely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at medium risk for having a social phobia. It is somewhat likely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at medium risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is somewhat likely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few. But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

Your Birthdate: December 23

You're not good at any one thing, and that's the problem. You're good at so much - you never know what to do. Change is in your blood, and you don't stick to much for long. You are destined for a life of travel and fun. Your strength: Your likeability Your weakness: You never feel satisfied Your power color: Bright yellow Your power symbol: Asterisk Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

What Your Face Says

At first glance, people see you as strong willed and stubborn. Overall, your true self is passive and thoughtful. With friends, you seem logical, detached, and a bit manipulative. In love, you seem intelligent and a bit intimidating. In stressful situations, you seem selfish and moody.

What Do People Think Of Your Face?

How You Are In Love

You fall in love quickly and easily. And very often. You tend to take more than give in relationships. You tend to get very attached when you're with someone. You want to see your love all the time. You're secretly hoping your partner will change for you. You stay in love for a long time, even if you aren't loved back. When you fall, you fall hard.

How Are You In Love?

Your Love Life Secrets Are

Looking back on your life, you will only have one true love. You're a little scarred from your past relationships, but who isn't? You prefer a quirky, unique person to be your lover. You're easy going about who you're with, as long as they love you back. In fights, you are able to walk away and calm down. You are able to weather the storm. A break-up usually comes as a shock to you. You always think things are going well.

Your Love Life Secrets, Revealed

You Are Homer Simpson

You're just an ordinary, all-American working Joe... With a special fondness for pork rinds and donuts. You will be remembered for: your little "isms" and philosophies on life Your life philosophy: "Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel."

The Simpsons Personality Test

a lil Photoshop'ing
here's some modern art I did when I was a kid ;)..
hmm.. can't believe it? neither do I :D
this isn't some painting, but just some scrap made out of remaining water colours after the actual painting was done.. if I remember correctly, the actual painting was for some assignment, possibly for the infamous Mr. Sharanappa (a.k.a. ... well, u wouldn't wanna kno)

somehow, my mom chose to preserve this one.. she says it looks nice..
neways, just wanted a subject to play around with Photoshop.. so here're the results..

This one's after the original painting (?) was brough into Photoshop, smoothened out and made a lil nicer.. all other images are after applying some filters over this one..


After Chrome Filter..


Added some Texture..


Some filter called a Graphic Pen Filter.. the name doesn't make much sense tho..


Another one called the Note Paper Filter..


And finally, the original crap that I created.. :D

completion of one great year! =D>
today's the day I complete an year @ ThoughtWorks :).. exactly an year ago, I started as a Thoughtworker with the first official 'Bootcamp' (as it was called ;) ).. I started with so many dreams.. and started very unconfident.. wasn't really sure if I was good enough to be a thoughtworker.. sometimes I thought it's a mere coincidence of events that I got in.. (the year hasn't changed much of it tho :D )

it's great to complete an year because I never thought I'd stay here for an year.. in fact I never thought I'd stay in any company for an year :D.. well, it's coz my words, before being placed in TW were, - "I wouldn't settle down in any company for at least two years, and would change at least 4 companies before I'd settle down in my dream company" :D.. that makes it a company every 6^th month! hmm.. maybe I wasn't being very realistic then.. maybe was just a lil overconfident.. but then, maybe I'd have really done that if I were in any place other than TW :D.. after getting into TW, I stopped even attempting for any other company..

in fact, I feel a lil bad about not attempting for another company.. well, the reason being my egos.. couldn't tolerate it when someone got into some biggie and rejected that offer, but then roamed around bragging that he was the only one capable of gettin thru that.. huh.. I felt I should've at least attempted it, even if it was just to reject the offer.. but well, that's another story

I never really thought I'd make it into TW.. it was my dream company.. don't really know why.. first time I heard about TW was when Manju mentioned it, sometime during my 6^th sem.. (I still wonder how, but he even said I'd definitely make it into TW and suggested me to wait till TW comes to the campus! I dunno his reasoning, but he for sure didn't kno abt TW then..) somehow, over time, TW settled in my mind as my dream company.. the place where I'd settle down (of course after switching 4 companies :D ).. even when I wrote the TW test, I was pretty calm n relaxed.. one reason being the pretty decent offer I had.. but mainly coz I thought I can't make it and would be writing it again in another year.. couldn't really believe myself as I cleared through every stage of the process.. (most surprising part being that I was the only one to clear it :) )

well, honestly it's a great place to be in.. it's the work environment, the people around, friends and (to a certain extent) the work itself that makes TW so fascinating to work for.. the cubicles in my friends' offices seem so repelling.. I really don't kno how (and if) I would ever survive if I happen to get out of this place :D.. of course there might be (and of course there will be) companies where the work environment is so friendly, and the people around so bright.. but at least I haven't been able to find one..

this year has been pretty good.. well, in fact I can't really decide if it was good or bad :D.. this's the year that has left me the most confused.. it's only now that I realize I'm not really sure of whatever I'm doing.. this's the year that has taught me a lot, beyond what I can grasp, both professionally and otherwise.. the year when I've swayed between complete extremes.. from some of my happiest moments till some of the most hurting and embarrassing moments.. from the most hopeless moments till the brightest ones.. (guess the extremes go hand in hand with XP ;) ).. this's the year when I've been the craziest, most insane ;) done acts that're the most stupid and nonsense (which I hope I'd never repeat again :D ).. this's the year that has changed me a lot (another XP thing? ;) guess I blend into the eXtreme Programming model pretty nicely :D )

to sum it all, an experience that I can never forget (even if I wish to)..

The Mensa test
finally, the much awaited Mensa Test was today (hmm.. that's 12-02-2006, Sunday n not the posting date.. clock ticks past midnight twelve and it's the next day already.. huh!), conducted by Mensa Bangalore..
much to my surprise, there were no mathematical questions! every other IQ test that I've seen gives some mathematical problems.. neither were there any verbal questions! that was quite surprising to me after seeing many other IQ tests..

all the questions were diagrammatic/visual or whatever you call them (there's a term for that but I don't remember).. it's kinda reasonable coz they wanna be fair to everyone.. missing math questions can be attributed to the reason that not everyone could be good at math.. I mean that the Science/Financial stream guys would be more comfortable with math than the Arts stream ppl.. but I couldn't see a reason why there were no verbal tests.. well, there could be one reason.. ppl might not be very good at some language, the language in this case being English.. hmm.. thinking that way, I can even argue that ppl might not be good at solving pictorial sequences coz of some reason.. well, that kinda sounds dumb tho.. neways, that way, the test should've had the verbal and mathematical questions.. doesn't matter if that appears biased.. coz if you really try to be fair, then you'll have to eliminate every other question ;) so I think it'd be better if they follow the standard format..

there were no explicit logical reasoning questions either, but solving the pictorial sequences involved enough logical reasoning to justify not having a dedicated section labelled Logical Reasoning :D

I think I didn't do well in the test.. wasn't much prepared.. but neways, the result'll be out in 6 weeks.. (dunno why they've to take 6 weeks to evaluate, say around 250-300 papers)

I remember reading somewhere that a proper IQ test should assess all your abilities and each one of these tests is for one of those abilities.. so after the test, I left the hall feeling a bit of incompleteness.. neways

Shift+F6 (F2?) Bangalore -> Bengaluru
hell, I missed out writing my opinions about this.. haven't been very regular with blogging u see :D.. I'm not even sure if it's the right time.. maybe the renaming is already done.. (honestly I'm not sure coz I usually don't go past the comic strips in the newspaper, which're on the second page btw.. :D )

neways, the people in my mind while writing this opinion are the shitheads who've managed to snatch some votes from the stupid voters.. btw, I'm not in the stupid voters list ;) I have never voted till now.. Sidda argues that it's people like me who let the 'bad guys' win by not using our powers.. but well, I've a different opinion.. u can vote for someone if u want him/her to win.. but what if every candidate is just another shithead? would u like to vote for any of them? Sidda again argues that not evryone is bad.. I agree.. but it so happens that there's a good guy Mr X from the party XYZ, whom I'd like to support, but his local representative for my area is just another loser.. or maybe the other way around.. my local representative for the party XYZ is good, but supporting him would mean supporting another loser fighting for a higher position.. a Catch-22 situation? no matter whom do u vote for, u end up being the loser.. the only way to win is to get into the dirt and play games to snatch votes for urself.. in other words, enter the filthy world of politics, even thinking of which makes me sick..

neways, I just went off-track.. that's not what this post is abt.. coming to the renaming, I'm against it.. here's why:
Bangalore isn't just a name that someone could choose to change at his will to satisfy his whims.. more than a name, it's a brand.. and when you rename a well known brand, there are always repercussions..
how's Bangalore a brand? I think I don't have to explain this.. but still.. I've heard that (not so recently), the word Bangalore was added as a verb to some dictionary along with Google, Fed-Ex etc.. Bangalore to mean outsource, with the usage somethin like 'we bangalore'd our work'.. not sure about the authenticity of the news, but it's sensible nevertheless.. my point here is that the word Bangalore is very well known, but Bengaluru isn't..

one more thing I'd like to quote is a simple usability rule.. of course, the primary intent in designing something usable is to make it as user-friendly as possible.. but suppose you've pushed something not so user friendly to the user and the user finally has become comfortable with it (obviously after going through a steep learning curve), it's preferred that you don't change it.. maybe you think your new idea is really mind-blowing which would revolutionize the way user would use your product and make it hell of a lot easier.. but for the user it's just an added confusion and the frustration of unlearning all that on which he's spent so much time to become comortable with.. if it's so for a mind-blowing idea, I don't think I've to be explicit about changing things for reasons which can't even be justified, leave alone the mind-blowing part which simply isn't there :P

one name that comes to my mind when it comes to renaming is Borland.. one of the few companies I like for the quality of their products.. Borland used to be good (and still is good, but I'm speakin of the past here :D ), until Microsoft came into the arena with it's aggressive marketing strategies which took down Borland's products.. QBASIC taking over Turbo-Pascal, Access and FoxPro taking over dBase and Interbase.. well, after that Borland changed it's name to Inprise in Nov 1997, and many think that was disastrous step to take.. Inprise never really caught up.. so much that they chose to revert to Borland in Jan 2001.. That goes with my branding point.. don't try to change a well known brand name.. the cons are far worser than the pros, which in this case are invisible to me, or at least far beyond my comprehension..

finally, let's take up a hypothetical situation to analyse how'd it be to have Bangalore renamed.. let's take someone who doesn't know abt the rename.. now don't say evryone will be kno abt it, coz that'd leave me without companions :D what'd be his reaction when he hears abt Bengaluru? well, a city that kinda sounds like Bangalore, but just another city nevertheless.. similar to New York and Nu Ark (both of em somewhere in US).. but now even though later he might kno that they're the same, first impressions are harder to be overcome.. I mean it takes a little while to digest the change.. it's not something impossible, but pricey for sure..

so what'd be the advantages of this rename? hmm.. as I said, the people who're planning this rename are simply some superior species whose way of thinking just beats me ;) that's why the reasons seem pretty transparent to me (i.e. invisible or in other words, not existing, if you ask me :D ).. but based on what they say, it has something to do with saving our culture.. hmm.. well how'd a rename save my culture?! wonder who comes up with these brilliant ideas.. I've to accept that I can't understand them.. isn't it simply wonderful that a simple renaming saves your culture?! never in the history of mankind have I heard of such a case.. that's the reason I consider them among the superior species..

saviours of the culture.. hmm.. or is that savages hungry for power? playing just another game in their political life, which if succeeded would mean a few thousand more votes for the heroes who saved our culture..

neways, I feel like puking when I think of these filthy barbarians who lack even the most basic of the manners.. people who never seem to have any other rationale behind their actions apart from saving their position.. saving their positions just to dump another lump of the national wealth to their personal accounts..

DBC - Design by Contract
this one's another idea in Software Engineering.. the basic idea being that any object/routine has to satisfy certain rules at all the times for it to be accepted as working properly.. i.e. you specify the contract for the object/routine which says the conditions just before and after the usage/execution of the object/routine that it must satisfy.. the objects/routines that satisfy the contract ensure that the software does exactly what it's supposed to do.. and in DBC, we start by defining the contract and then we write code to satisfy the contract..

I see some concepts of TDD lurkin in there, only they're a lil better.. in TDD, we start by writing a test that tests the behavour of the object/method once it's in place.. in DBC, we specify the contract which's pretty much the same except that it also ensures the conditions that must prevail before an object comes into existence for the object to satisfy the contract..

I kinda liked the idea.. first impressions are pretty good :) but I'd like a combination of TDD and DBC.. call it whatever ;) but write tests and the contract both and make your code pass them.. of course it's extra effort, but I the quality of the software generated makes it worth the effort..

there are problems that I could see abt this.. say for example, it's not always feasible/easy enough to describe the contract succinctly.. theoretically, one might say that the class/method shouldn't exist if it's purpose can't be defined crisply.. but in practical situations, it's a bit hard to say so :(

but then the same applies even to TDD.. it's not always possible to start off with a good test for the code you're writing.. well, theoretically it's possible, but practically, at times the effort for the test overshoots the effort you put to write the code for you functionality.. but then, that's not the point of TDD right? all these practices that we ('re supposed to) follow are for the code quality and to help us in the long run while modifying the codebase..

neways, the arguments and counter-arguments can always be made.. but I think both are good practices and believe that a combined approach would be far better..

one major problem I see with DBC is that all the material I found has been Eiffel centric :( Eiffel provides certain constructs which make it easy to do DBC.. maybe we can write external tools for other languages.. just like JUnit/NUnit etc.. but I'd prefer a builtin language construct for that.. hope Microsoft guys integrate all these in the next release of C# (a.k.a C# 3.0) :) or maybe we can use the C# attributes to do all these stuff, in a pretty clean way.. but not sure how clean would that be..

follow these links for a nice presentation describing DBC (using Eiffel of course ;) )
http://www.eiffel.com/developers/presentations/
http://www.eiffel.com/developers/presentations/dbc/partone/player.html?slide=
http://www.eiffel.com/developers/presentations/dbc/parttwo/player.html?slide=

a possible SQL injection victim?
check out this page: http://indiavilas.com/indiainfo/pincodes.asp
I suspect this one's vulnerable to SQL injection.. this has some useful info.. lists all the PIN codes in India..
but well, seems very vulnerable.. I dint try to get any 'confidential' stuff out :D in fact I dont even think there's any ;)
but you can get real nasty wit it.. I suspect you could do some stuff like... well, lemme try to be a lil creative..
hmm.. nope.. a lil correction.. I meant destructive >:)
guess you could ask the DB to drop some tables/databases and I expect it to obey you ;)
I'm not giving any ideas, am I?
n btw, I havent checked it in a long time.. maybe they've fixed it by now coz I informed them about my suspicion.. it's been well over 15 days since I informed them.. but well, if they havent fixed it, then I think the site aint worth its life >:)
my only sentiment against getitng nasty is that it has some valuable data and it hurts to think abt destroying it :D couldn't find a better collection of PIN codes elsewhere..

My new Diary :) ...
well, back to blogger after quite a long time :D
a lot to write about, but no time :(

here's my new diary.. it's been over a month since the new year n I'm gettin my diary now :D
(lazy as usual ;) )

liked the art on the cover page.. it's nice, isnt it?

(Photo courtesy: my phone :D )