Missing the spam from me?

I love feeding on bits of information. The world is full of interesting things and the Internet has a thousand ways of feeding you all that.

If you are not this type of a person - and like to live in your own shell (nothing bad with that) - you can stop reading now - and use your time well doing something else. Like living in your own shell.

Back to the topic - I do skim most of the info dished out at me. Some I keep in my "hmmm" folder of my brain (you guessed it - doesn't stick long), some I delicious-mark. The rest are the really interesting ones - I find it hard to not share with people I know.

Like this - http://bit.ly/17q25 written by @zen_habits
(this article is on how to use twitter well - I have a truckload, or maybe a trainload of people I know, who tell me - "What is twitter anyway? Just another Social Media Platform? Why would I want to go to yet another site? Is Facebook/Orkut/MySpace/insert-your-fav-social-media-network not enough already?" This is an excellent article on why and how twitter.)

How can I not make my friends read this? :-)

Now if it was 3 months ago, I would have snapped the link up in an e-mail and sent it to all of you, hoping that you'll also read it and like it and apply it. This group of people would include at least all interesting folks I know in India, NY and Seattle - that's a lot of people right? And most probably won't even read it (yeah I know - it's ok)

No more - I just twit it now - with the knowledge that whoever wants to eat info-blurbs like I do will follow me and read it.

That's why I urge you my friends/social-beings/netizens, give the article above a read - here it is again for effect - http://bit.ly/17q25

If you do get convinced that twitter is a big idea, can be useful to you and actually help in reducing spam, get an account fast.

You can follow me if you like - http://twitter.com/arnab_deka
Or check out the people I follow - there are some interesting folks - and follow them instead.

And finally, here are some interesting/info on why/how etc. of twitter: http://delicious.com/arnab.deka/twitter

If you are still not convinced and take nothing else from this blog, take this back - you can rest assured that you'll get spam from one less person now on.

On RubyRef - Ruby Doc on iPhone

Just learnt from @IndianGuru's tweet about RubyRef - it's an iPhone app for Ruby Doc.

Sound like a nice idea - however redundancy was already a thought by the time I went to the Appstore to check it out. However I am spoilt by free iPhone app already - and seeing a tag of $0.99 I didn't care to even try it. Here's why -

1) There's hardly any time I am coding Ruby/Rails I am not online. And there's really great free doc (rubybrain, railsbrain, and the excellent one stop shop gotapi). When I have these at a keypress away, why will I turn to the iPhone?

2) I find myself copy-pasting most of the time I am looking up some obsecure Ruby functionality. Agreed, Ruby makes it concise. It's not like you have to a) code up an Iterator, b) have a while loop to go thru it c) and finally iterate, like in some other languages - Ruby is good at being concise. But still, you gotta cut-paste sometimes right?

3) I find myself working with different Ruby/Rails versions all the time. Ruby 1.8.7/Rails 2.2 at home, Ruby 1.8.6/Rails 1.2 at work (don't get it started on why) - so I find rubybrain/railsbrain very useful for this purpose. I haven't tried RubyRef yet - but looking at the screenshots it probably supports one version. Especially with Rails evolving all the time, we definitely need something like that

4) I haven't talked about ri/irb combo yet - I find them very useful for Ruby docs. Right in the shell, no context switch to move to the browser/phone. Even if you don't use them, having a downloaded copy of the doc (from rubybrain for example) will probably be much more easier to refer to than the iPhone.

I mean, I don't see myself coding Ruby/Rails without a computer (at least now). As long as I have a computer won't ri/irb/rubybrain/downloaded-doc be easier to refer than the iPhone?

I had all the intentions of trying the app out - but given so many good, free alternatives I don't think I'll try a 99 cent app.

What about you?

A take on 2008...

So I have not blogged for the 2-3 months now... That consistently keeps going the other way of my resolution to blog more frequently. Twitter has not helped either - http://twitter.com/arnab_deka

I find that twitter adequately satisfies my urge to burp out bits of info effectively... and thousands of other excuses... So lets stop that thread right there and concentrate on how the year was instead.

At the start of the year, I had just moved into a new city. Another 2000-3000 miles away from home. And at least another 1500 miles away from anyone I could call a friend with an honest face (so that takes out Social Networking Online pals). Agreed I knew Diganta (from college) here - and he was a cool guy to hang with. But he lived in Bellevue (10 miles from Seattle) - I did not have a car and we probably met once in 2 weeks. And he moved back to India in Feb! I had moved from the safety and security of an Indian company into an entirely different kind of organization (I moved from Infosys to Amazon.com in Dec/Jan).

Looking back - it wasn't a such a bad decision after all -

1) By now I have made a group of good friends - ok - you can't make college buddies after starting work - but these are a cool bunch of guys. Apart from other things, playing cricket with this lot will be a memory to treasure. The feeling of doing consistently good in a sport is cool (our team, Eagles, finished 3rd in the Cricket league this year - and got promoted to the next division for the next season starting in Feb. And (to a bit of my surprize) I did really well!

2) No regrets about my job - actually with each passing day, I am liking it more and more. I think Amazon and the bunch of incredible enginners have opened me up to a new world. I always knew I loved tech - but not how much. It is definitely an experience to work in such an energetic company and work with such geeky (no offense at all) brilliant people.

3) Got exposed to Ruby! For me, getting exposed to Ruby was by pure chance. The group that I joined was heavily into Ruby and was probably in a handful of Ruby-pro teams in the company at that time. I was open to experiencing a new technology while joining but did not know that it will change how I think about programming. Ruby is now mainstream and by no means I am an early adopter - but I am thankful that I joined the boat early. I was thrilled when I had started to play with Java and all the cool stuff with it (Unit testing, Continous build/integration etc.) - but Ruby has fundamentally changed the way I think about Programming. It is a joy for me now - I think I am a better coder now and I am making the right moves in my career.

4) And most of all - I met this beautiful person - Ujwala. If there is such a thing, she definitely fits me! And the happiness is doubled when she also gives back as much as you do... (We are getting married in summer'09)

I could probably come up with a few other things - but these are the highlights. So, all in all, not a bad year at all. In fact, it could be the turning point of my career/life - time will tell when I revisit this in 5/10/15 years from now!

So -signing off on 2008 for now!

Grand Coulee Dam Trip

Update on 12/24 - finally updated the photos. They have come out really well!
Here's one of the sunset - http://tinyurl.com/ArnabPicsSunsetGC. And another one of the highway along the hauntingly beautiful landscape - http://tinyurl.com/ArnabHighwayGC.

View the full smugmug gallery: http://tinyurl.com/ArnabAlbumGC

---

My Maa is here for a month. Reached here this week.

This weekend we (Maa, Ujwala and me) are off to Grand Coulee Dam - the biggest concrete dam in North America - generates about 6500 Mega Watts - the highest for any dam in the world.

The drive from Seattle is beautiful - it passes through the Seattle hills/lakes, the Snoqualmie area (water falls, snow-capped mountains and passes), beautiful farm-lands and then on to the arid eastern Washinton area. The route follows the Columbia river and there are some really amazing viewpoints over the gorges along the way. There is a sound and laser show on the dam every evening from 8:30 PM (May-September) - the lasers use the dam as the screen! It is supposedly the largest such sound and light show in the world! The Columbia rivers history is depicted - so all that this weekend.

and the trip weather looks good: weatherbonk link

iPhone 2.1 upgrade crashes!

Now I seriously didn't expect this from Apple. I was so-waiting for the 2.1 update to iPhone - and iTunes couldn't install it or me! :-)

and look at the awesome error message!

Go Apple!


Update after fighting for 20 min or so:
I did a restart of Windows and iTunes - still got the same error.

iTunes documentation says I might need to upgrade my iTunes. So I go and click Check for latest version - and hey I am already on the latest one (iTunes 8).

Then I tried to upgrade iPhone to 2.1 again - and this time it worked. I have to agree to one of my colleagues - is Apple going the Microsoft way???

Mariners vs Yankees at Safeco field

Went to the Mariners game vs the Yankees last night. Was at Safeco Field, right next to my office.

It was a win-win for me any way, cause I love the Yankees and cause of the NY connection; and of course Mariners are from Seattle! Mariners don't win often (and this season had not won any yet) - however they command a lot of local support.

Matter of fact, A-Rod was getting booed big time (A-Rod used to play at the start of his career with the Mariners). I was on the handful side of the Yankees supporters, with a Yanks t-shirt and all...

And guess what - Mariners won 3-1... Their yound pitcher Morrow was awesome... read more here.

On the whole - loved it. The atmosphere was awesome... and so was the view of Seattle as a backdrop against the ballpark - with the sunset and everything.

Here are a couple of pics, one before sunset and one at night...

Bumbershoot'08

Bumbershoot is Seattle's Arts and Music festival. It takes place during the Labor Day weekend (September first weekend usually) every year at the Seattle Center.

Me and Ujwala had gone for day-2, last Sunday... Quite a few shows on. We saw School of Rock (Paul Green) - really amazing how great kids are! School kids rocking with electric guitars, drums and amazing powerful vocals. Loved it!

Heard Paramore from the sidelines and saw a few other things as well.

The other highlight was Offspring - I always wanted to go to one of their concerts. It was fast and good! They even called the fest much bigger than Bumbershoot - it was "BumberSHIT" :-)

Here's a pic from the Offspring concert...

Some pics of my cricket team Eagles

taken with the new iPhone! After the win this saturday.

League details here: http://arcl.org/Pages/UI/TeamStats.aspx?team_id=1235&league_id=8&season_id=13

iPhone 3G!!!

yay! yay! yay!

My T-mobile contract got over end of July and I finally gave in to the temptation - I got the iPhone 3G today!!! :-) (yes in spite of all the bad things ppl are saying about the battery and Exchange integration). I get 14 days to return it so why not try it!

Only two problems till now:

1) Yahoo mail won't sync! I figured it was the non alphanumeric characters in my password! So apple could not figure out this advanced piece o technology - people do have passwords with non-alphanumeric characters in them. Well it's only been, umm, 20 years since this "technology" started! :-)

2) While setting up the phone, it crashed my OS twice. A-ha - Windows XP. So it's a classic case of Microsoft v. Apple :-) And apple slam-dunked you twice Windows! :-)

But other than that, I love the phone!

Weather Bonk

So I want to drive from Seattle to NYC. No really I want to do that once. Coast to coast.
Well I'll leave that dream to come true in another blog. It's a different topic I wanna talk about right now.

So I wanna start at 6 PM from Seattle, let Google Maps (or some other maps) decide the way for me, AND, AND tell me hows the weather gonna be all the along the way.

Now look at this rad site: http://weatherbonk.com/weather/routeWeather.jsp?
Start from Seattle, at 6 PM today, and reach NYC in 3 days. And it tells me how the weather's gonna be along the way. Isn't that cool?

And there are loads of other options! Cool. Now check out their home page: http://weatherbonk.com
I know all this is there in weather.com too but, this is like, presenting all the relevant data in the relevant manner!

Burma Shave Slogans

Don't stick
Your elbow
Out so far
It might go home
In another car.

This is a Burma Shave Slogan. So it this:

Passing cars,
When you can't see,
May get you,
A glimpse,
Of eternity.

I was reading Head First HTML and CSS - I really like the presentation style of Head First books. It's fun and their way really works (with me at the least).

And I came across these interesting things called Burma Shave Signs. Very interesting...

Burma Shave was a company that made brushless shaving cream in the 1920s and 30s. They used to advertise their products with roadside signs and that turned out to be very popular. There would be a group of 4-6 signs one after the other on the roadside, each with just one line from a slogan. The last sign would almost always be the name of their product, Burma Shave.

At one point, they had 7,000 of these signs on the roads throughout the US. Now most are gone, but the book says there are still a few left. Maybe I can see one before I leave the US...

Now, I had seen these kinda signs in ads on TV, in skits in school etc. But never knew that they originated from this Burma Shave cream! :-)

It's funny right? And to read this stuff in a technical book is even more fun (the book even explains in a note what these signs are)

Anyway, do explore more. They have funny ones there:

Wikipedia on Burma Shave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave
Another page that shows how it looks like: http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma.htm

Got API

I used the Sun Java API Docs online when I used to code in Java: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/

And the for Ruby, Ruby Brain is a nice place - http://www.rubybrain.com/ and http://www.railsbrain.com/

Even for DB, the MySQL API docs are good: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/index.html

But today I was introduced to Got API!
You get most of the stuff you are looking for, all in one place. They have CSS/XML/Javascript, even the famous AJAX libraries, C++, Java, Ruby/Rails... you name it! And a nice interface too.

Check it out: http://www.gotapi.com

Infra Recorder

Infra Recorder is a free, open-source (GPL) CD/DVD burning app (sadly, only on Windows).
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net

I haven’t tried burning DVDs but CDs work just fine.

(BTW, I came across this while I was downloading the Ubuntu live disk)

Ruby private class method

The follwing is just so I can remember it... You need not read all this.

In Java, if you need a class whose constructor is private - so you can’t instantiate it from anywhere else (.but not a Singleton too) , you'd do:

public class AClass {
private int a;
private AClass(int a){
super();
this.a = a;
}
}

In Ruby, it's a bit different. The why will come later (dynamism of Ruby), but just hiding the initialize method is not enough. You can still create an object coz you are actually calling the new method:
irb(main):001:0> class AClass
irb(main):002:1> attr_reader :a
irb(main):003:1> private
irb(main):004:1> def initialize(a)
irb(main):005:2> @a = a
irb(main):006:2> end
irb(main):007:1> def some_other_method
irb(main):008:2> "ha"
irb(main):009:2> end
irb(main):010:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):011:0> obj = AClass.new(100)
=> #
irb(main):012:0> obj.a
=> 100
irb(main):013:0> obj.some_other_method
NoMethodError: private method `some_other_method' called for #
from (irb):13
from :0
irb(main):014:0>


You'd have to hide the new method:

class AClass
attr_reader :a
def initialize(a)
@a = a
end
def self.test
"test"
end
private_class_method :test
end

puts AClass.test


that shows:
test.rb:12: private method `test' called for AClass:Class (NoMethodError)

zembly super!!!

Ok Ok Ok... I've not been posting regularly. Mostly a fault of companies like BMW, Nintendo and Amazon...

Yeah, so since my last blog, I got a BMW 3-series, an Amazon Kindle (as a gift, that too!) and a Wii. So life's been busy... driving, reading new stuff and playing fun games! Oh and the introduction of a new person... who keeps me, let's say, engaged? :-)

So all that and stuff like what-I'm-going-to-write-about now is basically what is keeping me from writing more blogs... Believe me, I hardly get to stop a think a moment nowadays... Time's just flying... what with nice increase in office work too. Thank God I like it - I would have stopped coming to office otherwise. No, really!

So I have turned to micro-blogging... Don't get me worng, I love to write here... but where's the time? So I turned to twitter recently. If you haven't seen that yet - try it out - it's the latest fad. Like sms-ing and blogging... It's called Twitting! I mean it - go to twitter right now and see the demo video. It's cool... and as most people believe, it's the future... of smsing/blogging/mailing all-in-one.

So if you still wanna see my updates - whatever handful you are anyway - get on to twitter and find me (arnab_deka) and follow me. I'll still continue to write blogs, but they will be rare - like this.

So today I came across this new shiny thing called zembly.

I think I blogged about : http://heroku.com/ The first online IDE I saw... but that won't interest most of you as it was only for RubyOnRails.

Look at the new zembly: http://zembly.com/

Visual-coding in Javascript in a nice IDE (read Visual Studio, but much nicer, AJAXy and with lots less errors. AND FREE!).

and the IDE is online! Get APIs for free (like, from, Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Flickr etc.) and publish your WebService/idget/app for free! Quick and easy...

Here's a Hello-world type WebService I created (I should say it created for me - it was so damn easy):
http://zembly.com/things/a7085d0638fb4ec799379ab499eefe71;exec?

and put your name in and see:
http://zembly.com/things/a7085d0638fb4ec799379ab499eefe71;exec?name=[your%20name%20here]

Never thought it would be so easy to craete a web-service! :-)

BTW, they are open for beta users now - check it out, it's nice...

Awesome gmail!

Now you'll really know why love gmail so much - send mails from your past! What a rad concept!
Check it out here.


And hey this is my first post in April'08!

Xobni

You guys know my love for gmail - I just love the cool features it gives me - shortcuts, awesome search features and the like - I love doing things fast and without ever touching the mouse. But I do use Outlook in office, let's say for the lack of a better or maybe more popular e-mail client? I tried some Linux clients for some time but I am so used to Outlook that I will have to wait for Gmail's corporate adoption before I switch.

I agree outlook is an awesome app and very popular at that, but like most Microsoft products, it is intended for the layman, not the developer. Just as Firefox (with it's addons and the hundreds of GreaseMonkey free scripts) compares to IE! You just can't do things fast enough without these things. And Dialog Boxes (with questions like "Do you REALLY want to exit?" I mean, come on!) or views to navigate which you must use the mouse are common.

But to come to the topic of this post, Xobni does not add these things to Outlook (and so these things still remain on my wish-list for Outlook). It does something else - Just check out the awesome demo video the Xobni folks have created.

I bet you'll love it. Yeah it probably does not make Outlook anymore developer friendly (and that probably will never happen anyway) - but it does make it cool! It brings the elements of social networking to Outlook (among other things). And when you get to work/play with fun/cool things you are happier (and so more productive).

The whole point is, it looks like it can make Outlook fun. Oh wait, that's not the whole point, wait, wait, wait!

I usual have good motivating factors for writing blogs, and most of the time they are selfless. You agree? So once in a blue moon I am allowed to do something for myself? Right, read on.

Xobni is in beta right now and is invite-only. You can sign up and you will _eventually_ (you know how eventually usually goes with free, cool and fun?) get it. Or you can advertise it and if enough (that you figure out) people use your advertising to get to Xobni you get it faster.

Yeah that's the whole deal - So go ahead. I have put a Xobni widget right there on the right side of my blog (and that too on top of "About me") . Please click it and add yourself to the beta list. "Show me some love", as they say :-)

The faster you do it, the faster I get to try it - so help me out. And remember if you get onto the Xobni beta list any other way (other than clicking my idget and signing up) I get nada! So please, guys.

And that's the whole point of this blog :-)

And yeah in case you still have not figured it out, Xobni is... you guessed it now, Inbox reversed!

An ultimate Web 2.0 experience

So I had lots of ideas for Friday night - called up lots of people to accompany me into movie, tennis or just-going-somewhere. But no one was free - everyone wanted to do either Saturday and Sunday - which is fine.

So I settled down with a nice movie. And I felt like pizza - last time I had was in New York! Long time...

Checked out Domino's and Pizza Hut (I usually like Pizza Hut better - and that they serve Pepsi helps - my close friends know I'd pick Pepsi over Coke any day - although now I hardly have any of them!). But soon figured out that Pizza Hut cannot deliver at my place - which is odd, considering I am smack in the middle of Seattle downtown! Anyway saw that Domino's did.

And then the cool experience started. Just use their Web order process once - even if you are not a fan of Pizzas!

Ordering was cool! You could edit your pizza in all sorts of cool ways (add this topping only to l/right/all sides, add that too etc.) Nice!

But the best part was after ordering - Just after I confirmed the order a "Tracker" dashboard appeared. And it showed five stages - Order Placed, Prep, Bake, Box and Delivery.

Each stage had a width proportonate to the time it would take (estimated). And as soon as a stage is done it turns Green, the next stage starts blinking and a status message appears at the bottom saying something like "Matthew put your pizza into the oven at 9:03 PM"


Cool ha? Don't believe me - see the attached screen shots - I was so amazed I had to take the screen shots!

Of course there was a glitch with it - after the 4th stage it went back to the 3rd! And I was not so worried about the pizza as I was helping out these guys carry this super idea. So I called them up (and the direct number just flashes on screen - no searching for it) and let them know.

Definitely one of the best web experiences I'hve had in the recent times. Now that I work in a web-based company I've started noticing these things and have become a good netizen!

So this definitely counts among the better Web 2.0 experiences I've had recently. Others include Google Map's public transport times. So you just enter the Source and the Destination (which I have got stored) and click the "take public transport" - voila - it shows you for the current time 3 options for you to take. Like go to this bus stop (walk 2 min) take the bus # 522 at 8:32 PM and get down at this stop (at 8:43 PM), walk home (1 min) and you are done!

And Amazon's "we'll-call-you-back" thing! Everyone whose tried calling customer care anywhere knows how much a pain it is to wait for someone to answer (after all the music or the mech voices _heliping_ you out). So you go to Amazon's customer care page - and they'll say - ok you can call us here at this number (and then identify yourself and give the customer care dude your 12-digit Order #). Or give us a number (or most of the time just select it from a drop down) and we'll call you back! Right now.

And I was amazed - my phone started ringing the moment I clicked "call me" - and since I had used that feature the dude knew who I was and which order I was talking about. Less hassle everyone!

Things like these make me feel good about what I do - it's exciting to be part of the Web 2.0 experience and specially when you are a part of making it!

Which reminds me - voting for the Best 100 Web 2.0 apps is on (alas I did not see Domino's there) - but you can vote for your best apps. It ends March 31st - so go do it now!

An interesting talk I attended today - Consensus in distributed systems

Went to an incredible talk today and was so damn impressed with the presentation and the concepts behind. So wanted to share it with you...

Basically the talk was on Consensus among Distributed Systems. So if you have a Master DB and two Slaves - and if the master dies, how do you choose which Slave to promote, automatically?

Or consider you have some sort of a pool of managers who decide what to do and a bigger pool of workers who do what the managers say. Let's say a manager dies - how do you choose which worker to promote to a manager? Because all of them might be equally eligible to get promoted (we are talking about systems here not humans).

The simple way is - go for the majority. So every worker votes and one of them is elected. But then take in some factors such as message losses, network disturbance and partial network failure - now your vote might not have been so accurate after all ha?

Good Robust systems built to be successful must be fault-tolerant and self-healing. It has to take care of its own - if some process fails, it has to figure out a way to fix it by itself - no human intervention - coz that takes time and money - which is not always easy or affordable. Now if it's just one system you could somehow make it think of these situations. But make a distributed system where each worker has its own mind! The group (distributed system) has to come to _correct_ decision somehow right?

To build such (distributed) systems we need to be able to solve this problem of consensus. A few people have started or already have implemented this (including Google Chubby, Microsoft Autopilot, Amazon S3 etc.)

So this talk was about all this - must say it was done in a very lively manner - with a skit showing the different parts of the system, the network (where volunteers passed messages and took parts of the system - some _crashed_ too ). Was fun!

The idea stems from ancient ages and has been modeled to meet the requirements we have today. It's called Paxos Protocol. Do read up on it - very interesting... You will definitely have nothing but appreciation for the great minds that created the mathematical model in those ancient times and the other great minds who translated it to modern day distributed systems and the other minds who have/are implementing these ideas!

Here are some links:

• The Consensus problem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_%28computer_science%29
• The algorithm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paxos_algorithm
• Part-Time Parliament by Leslie Lamport: http://research.microsoft.com/users/lamport/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf (I highly recommend this one - very interesting read - and begins in an interesting manner)
• Leslie Lamport: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport

Clipboard diary

Typing something in an e-mail and you need to copy some site's link. What's the big deal? Select, Ctrl+C.
Whoops, just lost the all important 100-line-complicated query that you had made 2 minutes ago? Or maybe something as important that you given to the windows clipboard to keep?

I used to find myself in this situation a lot - then I found ClipBoard Diary! http://softvoile.com/clipdiary

A very convenient and non-intrusive way to remember all the clipboard entries. (Just Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down to see all your clipboard entries). And it remembers the entries even after a reboot (or a crash - we are talking about Windows here remember?) - how? uses a Database.

Enjoy!

Solitude?

Sometimes you feel lonely when you are alone - other times you feel in touch with yourself.

During my growing up days (not that I make any claims that that phase is completely over :-)) I used to spend a lot of times by myself - and I used to feel so good afterwards.

Today I am getting that feeling back again. Have you ever felt this feeling of being alone but not fully too? It's nice I tell you - or maybe it's just me.

So I woke up at 6 AM today (I have almost forgotten that there exists single-digit AMs nowadays - oh wait - there is 2 and 3 AM! Right! But anything after that - naaah!)

And I worked after that - believe me - I worked at 6 AM although there was no real urgency to that effect. But this somehow ruined my day I guess - I went late to work and the whole day just passed like that - meetings and discussions. I did manage to scrape in the bare minimum work anyway...

But the whole day I was feeling like I wanted to spend some time with myself - just doing nothing. Enough of doing something all the time.

So I went for a movie - I wanted to see these 4 or 5 movies since 2 weeks - and I finally made 1 today. Definitely, Maybe. Turned out I liked it a lot - reminds me of my life in some ways - anyway it was a nice movie. Then I started having these solitude/melancholy feelings - yes these words generally are associated with a negative state of mind - but from my personal experience - it's good for you - as long as it's short time. Considering tomorrow morning I have to go play cricket at 8 AM and have lots of other plans for the day there's not much scope of this mood getting extended.

Anyway - right now I am sitting in my balcony - with lights dimmed out - and Nirvana's acoustic tracks playing in the background - looking at the streets 23 floors below me, the mild rain and the people - the lights from all these high-rises around me. Nice... Nirvana just does something to me...

Basically just enjoying the atmosphere - thinking things slowly in a relaxed manner (ok with a beer too - I love European beers by the way) - and that's it.

Quite an abrupt ending - but I never much to say to start with :-)

The eternal wait

Of course you know what I mean right? You have had to wait for something sometime right?

But I feel I am always waiting for something. Always this or that. Kabhi ek mast job, kabhi job satisfaction, kabhi cricket, kabhi koi dost ke liye, kabhi kisi type ka approval ke liye.

But it's always the waiting that gets to me!

:-)

That's it - no elaboration of any of the above... people who know me well enough will know what I mean. Some will know one or two of the "waits", hopefully some will know it all!

A memorable flight

This has got to be the most beautiful sights I have ever seen! No second thoughts whatsoever.

So I miss my friends in NY and not yet full used to my life in Seattle - so to get a taste of how life was, back in NY, I am traveling there this weekend. Right now I am about 30 min away from Seattle - wait, that's flight time - so it should be around 300 miles (since an Airbus A320 travels around 560-620 mph in good weather conditions and I cannot say there is even a small blemish in the clouds today!
So I must be flying over the Rockies right now - seems like it anyway - Maybe the gorges that I am seeing are parts of the Bryce Canion.

I wish I was a an artist - I wish I could draw this thing - but only if wishes were horses :-)
Maybe even the best artist cannot draw this beauty in a physical medium - you have to experience it.

This is my 5th cross-country flight - Coast-to-coast non-stop and I always liked the flights.

At the east coast nothing can beat the majestic show of pomp that NYC skyline is - if you land/take off at night. Oh I don't know if you'll get a more engrossing skyline anywhere else in the world - you just have to see the skyscrapers of midtown and downtown rise out (as you descend) of the vast see of light that is the tri-state metropolitan area (NY, NJ and PA).
If you fly to NY from inside the US, you'll get to see the orange glow of NYC about half an hour before you are anywhere near it. Then you'll see the sea of light and then in the last moments of your flight you'll see the Grand NYC skyline emerge from there! It's like a Hollywood movie - I have to tell you.

On the other hand, if you land/take-off from Seattle during the day - that's another sight. It's not called Emerald or Green City for nothing. Seattle is an isthmus surrounded by quite a few water bodies and mountain ranges.
It's between the Lake Washington and Pudget Sound (which connects to the Pacific ocean about 50 miles west of Seattle) and surrounded by modern satellite cities like Redmond (Microsoft), Kirkland (Google) and Tacoma/Renton (Boeing), Bellevue (residential area).

And the whole area is so beautiful - you have to see it once in the summer - if you are in the USA.

But tonight's experience is quite different from these sights - tonight is the first time I am flying out of Seattle at night. And I thought why do they brag that Seattle is the west coast;s 2nd largest city. Well I live and work in the heart of Seattle - and I always got the impression that it's s small city (maybe 10 miles by 10 miles). Now when we took off - I saw that the story is indeed like the tri-state area - vast sea of lights!!! No doubt I am a prouder Seattlite (is that what we are called?) now!
That's nowhere near the best part thought...

I always say and believe that man can never meet nature's beauty.

So right now - I am over the Rockies. It's 30 min pat midnight. And a few days after a full-moon (I think 2-3 days). For the record, it's 2 days after the lunar eclipse that I saw while playing tennis!
There is a bit of cloud in the sky - more like a mist coat strewn here and there.

And the mountains below me are full of snow.

You can guess what I am about to say - Soft moonlight falling on the deep gorges and peaks on the mountains below me - strikingly highlighting the ravines and the whole terrain. And the misty clouds diffusing the moonlight in a dreamy sort of way!

Oh man - I really have never seen anything like this - Is this what you call ghastly beautiful?

There is not a single sign of humanity as far as I can see - only white snowy mountains and deep gorges - shining off the moonlight. Brings a mixture of feelings - lonely, scared and hauntingly beautiful. yes even though it's so haunting - it's so beautiful!

If you are reading this blog - please do take a flight out of Seattle at night - on a clear night - with abundant moonlight around. Well yeah - you are right - you need luck to see things - and I guess some people have all the luck! heh heh heh...

As for me, my colleague was talking of a hiking trip to the Bryce Canion sometime this summer - now I have to do it!

Good night - see you tomorrow at NY!

night-outs : my take on it

"Practice what you preach"

So here I am - writing a blog about night-outs at 5:30 AM after an interesting night-out.

The night started with a late work-day. It was a very interesting day at work and I got that that feel-good thing that I did something today. You know the feeling of achieving what you aimed for at the start of the day? and doing a bit more?

I got introduced to Ruby and Rails recently. I was a skeptic first - never having tasted a dynamic language and also being under the heavy influence of Java.

But like so many other developers - and I have to say that - I am loving Ruby and Rails more and more each passing day. It's fun! And you are at your best when work is fun!

Anyway so the aim of the night was to read on Ruby and Rails (with dinner/music and TV all side by side!) and sleep by around 2 AM. BTW, The Cult is coming to Seattle in March and so I am kinda deciding if I should go for it - so listening to their sound all the time to see if I like them. You can preview them here.

So anyway, I got engrossed in the music a bit too much - and someone reminded me about some Aerosmith stuff - and I realized that I don't have some albums from them. How could I not have "Pump", "Get a Grip" from the band that grew up with? So I bought them!

And some TV - let's forget what - that's not important ;-)

And then I caught and got caught by a few good friends on gtalk... (I have to note this new friend that I made - I am surprised by the amount of strikingly similar traits that I share - I am really startled sometimes). So anyway it was 1 AM already...

So the thought of a night out started lingering on my mind. Specially I have a lot of work today (today -> it's already morning, duh!)

Still I thought, ok let's sleep by 2 (try actually) so started off again on Rails. I got so involved that now it's 5:30 AM!!! That's how a night can go if you find your passion! No pun intended. The question is - most of you will be divided in answering this question - "so is this a good sign that I spent a night reading something - and more importantly that became the passion of the night?" I leave that to you to decide... Maybe you'd think I have gone mad, maybe I am turning into a geek. But remember I respect all sorts of people - you don't have to - AND I GIVE A RAT'S A$$ ABOUT THAT!

So it's morning now... And I am not gonna sleep tonight anyway... But I loved it. So here I am ending it with something I love doing more nowadays - a blog.

Now that we are through with the boring part (about how I spent the night) lemme try to analyze a night out - so that you can take something from my experience.

The following is purely based on my experience, your mileage may vary. However, note that this encapsulates a lot of night-outs - since my college days. A ballpark figure would be probably 35 nights in the last 8 years. "Ballpark". Oh, is that nothing? Then why the hell are you reading my blog? Go write your own analysis on a night-out.

A typical night-out goes like:

1. The decision period: You decide it's a night out. It can happen anywhere from a week in advance to the wee hours of the morning (before point #2, below) Lemme advice you here - you better a have a good reason - that's where the passion comes in. Whether it's -

catching up with some old friends (like so many times in my last few days @ NYC - 2007 end, catching up my school friends in Delhi and college folks at Bangalore - Jan 2008),

finding something passionate to do (project work with my class mate Nitin in college - 2003-04 and tonight with Ruby and Rails),

just bakkar (so many times in college and in NYC)

or maybe just driving the whole night :-) (Cape Cod trip - Apr'2007)

Maybe you'll have something passionately being thrust into you the whole night (no pun intended again, seriously) like in so many movies - you know what I mean. So why am I quoting movies and don't I have an example from my life on this? Heh heh, Smarty pants, I am not gonna let you in on that!

You've got an exam and you dont know what the hell to do. I've been in this situation a lot of times but I am too un-motivated (when it comes to exams, or is it over-confidence?) to give up sleep over this. However you'll see this often in hostels.

You've got an exam and you DO know what the hell to do, and you have already prepared thrice. But you can't sleep - you need to revise at least 2 times more. I can not imagine why people do this - but I can understand (more like I understand an empirical formula) that they do! Maybe it's striving for perfrection? My friends Dutta (and Debarshi and so many others from college) can explain this very well - what say Dutta? ;-)

The point is, you have to find something interesting to do. Or something bad enough (like a Moral Science paper in your engineering Course) Else it's not worth it. Take my word for that. Anyway, the point is, you just gotta find "it".

2. The smooth period: Upto your normal bed-time (between 1-3 for me) you'll enjoy like hell. Knowing that you don't have to sleep allows you to do what "it" is you are doing in a relaxed planned manner. As always, knowing how much time you have always helps in any activity right?

3. The dangerous period: This usually starts around 15-20 min after your normal sleep time. You feel more and more weary and wonder whether it's worth staying up all night. This is the worst part of the night - but as you have more and more night-outs you start to enjoy this period too - knowing that if you overcome this one - you are done! It's like a challenge.

Like tonight, it was 5 AM already - so I didn't bother to sleep - One of the golden rules of a night out is that if you decide to have one, you cannot falter. If you do - the next day is hell. You feel weary the whole day.

However, there is a sort of cut-off time for this decision too - you will figure it out with experience. For me, the cut-off time to effect this decision (whether to give up and sleep) is around 330-4 AM.

If I sleep before this time , although I am already in the "Danger Zone" it's likely that the next day will still turn out okay. However if you sleep past this point it's highly unlikely that you'll wake up in time or will be at even half your peak. I have seen people miss exams because they fell asleep in this period - so beware - this is really the most dangerous time of the night.

Then comes the best part:

4. The sunrise: The human body is tuned to feel less weary and fresher as soon as they see sunlight (okay things like "global-working-hours" and call-centers are striving hard to alter this. And they are successful to an extent too, right? But remember they are fighting against nature here. So let's see).

Anyway this is the best part - look at the morning light outside and realize that you have done it! You feel much better now - a bit weary maybe. Take a shower and some nice breakfast - you are off man!

I sometimes feel more at my peak when I take a night out and I am feeling like today is one of them! So a blog to finish it off!

Post note: You know how everyone (from your Grand-Ma to your Vet) advices you eat regularly? 3 times a day, on time? And the same sort of people also advocate "fasting" - A day (or part of it, or maybe multiples of it) when you don't eat anything. It's supposed to help the body right? Why Islam advocates a month of fasting!

So why not a night out? The same folks advocate "regular sleep". So why not break the routine once in a while and see if that works for you? Isn't that the point of a "fast"?

For me it definitely works - nowadays I have a night out on an average every 45 days. Lets see - maybe I'll have to tweak the frequency - but I do get the feeling that I am onto something here. Initially I used to feel weary - but with time I am getting better. Now I actually have better days just after a night out rather than a normal sleep day. (Maybe it's like those instant shots of energy - but we do need them once in a while ha? And not sleeping is much better than taking those energy shots)

Maybe some day these people will see the benefits and start advocating "night-outs" :-)

So here's to my supposedly wonderfully productive day at work! And potentially some of yours too!!!

Heights of e-tailing

I was not a big fan of online shopping till recently - I needed to see and feel the product before buying it. Then I joined the world's biggest e-tailer (and I have to say with pride that e-tailing is not the only thing Amazon is doing well - see wikipedia to know what I mean)... and that need to see and feel the products has magically disappeared. Oh, the employee discount helped - and did I mention I am a prime member now? (which means free 2-day shipping) :-)

Anyway. I am moving to my new rented apartment tomorrow and went to Ikea today to get some stuff (Bed frames etc. TV stand, some furniture)... and figured out that it's a time-consuming clumsily organized (or maybe I don't have enough interest and/or intellect to SPEND at shopping. No pun intended. Oh, BTW, are you a typical gal? hmmm... I really did not mean any pun).

Another anyway... :-) I am observing that I am digressing too much today (maybe it's the shopping)... ooh there I go again...

Anyway anyway, so I figured that Ikea will take up-to 2 weeks to deliver the stuff to me. And the bed or the book shelve might be in like, umm, 72 pieces, which I have to install myself... So when Amazon does the same (I mean 72 piec-ed thingys that I have to install myself) why don't I go for it (with a free 2 day shipping and discounts on everything?)

So yeah I decided to do that - I am like, 10% done now and am tired (I don't know how you girls do this). So here I am taking a recreational break... Do check out my effort here - mind you, it's ongoing.

Anyway. ummm I know I have said this enough times now - no more, I promise. So I made a list of things I think I need and started researching for the cheapest and the best (if there ever is such a thing) on Amazon. Of course Amazon's "People who bought this also bought these..." does make my efforts longer and more interesting. Like I needed up checking at least 57 different types of bathroom floor mats.

(Ok I won't say any more anyways right). So... :-)
Pretty soon I was checking adding unbelievable things into my shopping list. Like TPs - yes Toilet Papers. Online. One year ago I would not have believed myself.

I know that there are amazingly hilarious things you can buy at Amazon: like, Uranium Ore!!!
But something absolutely made me laugh like mad - Comments about Toilet Papers. Yes people actually write reviews about TPs. Some people actually laugh while writing them (oh is that kinda like me? I am laughing while buying it - just one step away now :-))

Check out some - you'll know what I mean... Lemme quote just one line: "Sure, this bath tissue isn't going to be the softest you'll ever find--but it does a great job"

Go and read them if you need a good hard laugh!!! :-)

Seattle and the Rain!!!

Ok it really does not rain that much here - but it's overcast most of the time. And drizzling... yada yada yada... But statically it's less than LA, NYC, Miami and most eastern-seaboard cities.

However - "RAIN" is a big part of of Seattle life (It's not called Rainy City for nothing! That reminds me - it's also called Emerald City - but I haven't seen any lying around yet)...

Anyway so much so that our intranet has a full wiki devoted to jokes on Seattle and Rain (which is not a big surprize since the Amazon intranet, rather wiki, is full of, ummm, ANYTHING - from comparisons on Grocery Stores to Even-Horizons/Black-holes and to some really good tech material).

This page has a load of jokes - here are my top three:



#3 You can apply the old Mt. Rainer forecasting guide.

1. If you can see Mt. Rainier it isn't raining but it will be soon.
2. If you can't see Mt. Rainer, it is raining, and if not on your head, it will be shortly!

(Mt. Rainier is a range of mountains to the SW of Seattle - there are 2 other ranges, Olympics and Cascades surrounding Seattle - hence the rain!!! Go read up on Seattle in wikipedia)



#2 "I can't believe it," said the tourist. "I've been here an entire week and it's done nothing but rain. When do you have summer here?"

"Well, that's hard to say," replied the local. "Last year, it was on a Wednesday."




#1 A newcomer to Seattle arrives on a rainy day. He gets up the next day and it's raining. It also rains the day after that, and the day after that. He goes out to lunch and sees a young kid and asks out of despair, "Hey kid, does it ever stop raining around here?" The kid says, "How do I know? I'm only 6."

Lunchtime, Soup and a crying beggar

Have you ever seen a grown-up man cry? I've seen myself a few times... But that never invokes the kind of emotion that I experienced today...

I was stuck in office and had almost forgotten about lunch. I noticed around 2 PM and since this-thing-I-was-doing was interesting enough, I thought about getting a quick soup from Specialty's (it's one of the 15+ cafe/restaurants near my office) - and when I am in a hurry and not very hungry, I go there... Nice thick soups for around $3-5.

Anyway, so I was just outside when I saw a beggar (it's usual to see one in Seattle - and IMHO, more so in Seattle than in NYC). On an average, I usually see 1 beggar in a day (maybe because I travel back home around 9 or 10 at night? Maybe my opinion would have changed if I went home earlier, or if I was out around this time more regularly in NYC)
It has become so regular that my instinct has been honed to murmur something like "I am only carrying cards - no cash" with a sad-smile and walk away. I won't be lying if I say that I really don't have any cash on me 99% of the time.

But this guy was different - most guys are used to such a reply and give a damn about it. This guy asked me again, "Please if you have any part of a dollar - even a penny" and I could see the pain or the need in his eyes... But I was walking away so fast - my brain could not catch up to my heart.

Once I got the soup I saw this guy again from the window - he was crying now - and I could see the pain in his eyes now again, only much worse. I checked my wallet but I really did not have any cash at all. And I had just paid for the soup with my card. I wanted to help him but did not know how... Anyway, I was still not so emotionally charged as I would be 2 minutes from then and so, started back to the office...

Just when I was about to enter through the door, I HEARD him cry... yes - he was crying loudly now... I felt so bad I stopped and looked back... I felt like giving him the soup I had with me... But before I realized he was already walking away.

Once in the elevator, I felt this sudden depressive emotion - man it was an awful feeling. I wish you never have to see that face or hear that cry/sob - of a grown man in real (emotional) pain.

I remember giving away $20 to a stranger in Jersey City one day - and earning a lot of flak from my friends... But I said it then, and I say it now, this guy looked like he needed the soup/$20 much more than I did.

I know (or at least, I perceive, like most of us) that most of the beggars are well-capable of acting. But what if this guy was not acting?

All this happened in a matter of 4-5 min, but left a lasting sad feeling in me. I know I cannot do anything for that man now but maybe putting this down in a blog will make me feel less guilty?

And a very un-important question - what the hell do I do with this soup now?

Pluggable Storage Engines of MySQL

Came across a very nice feature of MySQL - thought to share it with you.
Well actually, it is one of the main reasons why MySQL is succeeding - so not really an obscure nice feature at all!!! In fact, very well known and appreciated by the community...

(MySQL is a GNU Public licensed Database - and FREEly available. You can go for enterprise option and get support too. Recently Sun bought MySQL!!!)

Anyway, coming back to the point - it has a concept of a Pluggable Storages Engine. So when you write the DDL for creating the table, you specify which engine should be used to store the table - like so:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS MY_FUNKLY_TABLE (
MY_FUNKY_ID CHAR(4) NOT NULL,
FUNKY_DESCRIPTION VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
IS_IT_REALLY_FUNKY ENUM('Y', 'N') DEFAULT 'Y',

PRIMARY KEY (MY_FUNKY_ID)
) ENGINE=InnoDB CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin
;

So what's the deal? Well you can specify whether you want the table to be stored in memory or actually in storage; you can kinda tell what it's used for - Archiving? Have BDB (BerkleyDB) type features!!! Different types of engines are MyISAM, InnoDB, BDB, Memory, Merge, Archive, Federated, Cluster/NDB, Other - read more about each type in the links given below...

Moreover, you can implement any engine (MyOwnEngine) and plug that into MySQL - cool ha?

The best part is a story I heard from someone recently - a table was taking up around 1.5 GB - after converting it to Archive engine, it became 47MB!!!
A 32 times reduction in space!!!

Yeah yeah yeah - I agree it depends on what sorta data was there in the first place - but still 32 times (3200% to put it differently :-)) is a lot man!!!

Read more at:
Wikipedia
An article about this from MySQL

Betting on weather

There was the Amazon Developer Conference last 2 days (Jan 16th and 17th ' 2008) - it's yearly event... Among others was Tim O'Reilly presenting "The O'Reilly Radar" - basically talking about the new things in the internet/tech space!!!

I hope to write more about it and the other talks... but before that I have to tell you about this idea that I loved a lot: www.weatherbill.com

This thing startled me... It's like an insurance on weather... on top of that... you can bet on the weather and if you win they pay you!!!
Go to the site and try the quoting thing. You put a condition (like I am saying it's going to snow above 5 inches each day between 1/27 and 1/29 at Zip Code 07310 - if that happens you pay me $10 a day!!!)

Now it takes your details and uses its own weather predicting algorithm (at the minimum I would assume it to be very very complicated) and gives you a quote - you buy that quote and if it really snows above 5 inches each day in that period you get paid)... I am sure you got the analogy - it's like an Option - but on weather!!!

That and much more - go to the site and read blogs about it!!!

BTW: Started by an ex-google guy... :-)

More to come - watch this space...