A resume is just a document, but a blog is an idea. An idea that has all those branches and sub branches. And each part has its own significance. I always thought before this 'why do even people waste time in blogging ?? Dont they have anything useful to do !?? ' > now I tend to differ. They were and are doing some thing significant and the greatest part is that they are sharing it with the world. Just like Open Source(Yes I am a fan). Free as in people are allowed to read, comment, criticise, like, dislike or plainly ignore.
I am diverse when interests are taken into consideration. But I like the concept of having to tweak code. I am a developer and not a cracker by any standard( atleast I have not grown to that standard ). But I try my luck with most of the things. I like to experiment and go on. I dont stick to most of the things I do. But I try to get some thing out of it.
But what have I done ? Nothing much but I will discuss about somethings in my future blogs ( God Bless) .. Some of my interests are
- Java (all flavours). The thing about Java is that even if you have a general idea of a framework or a standard you are still in the middle of the god damn ocean. Theres a lot to learn and a lot to adapt and understand. I have tried ( trust me when i say tried) Core Java, Java with XML (all those apache packages, the DOM packages, the excellent and life saving Tagsoup parser but not the SAX parser :( ), Atlassian Jira application(Web Works X Works and loads of other stuff whew !! ), Atlassian Confluence ( same as above) etc. I whole heartedly thank the ECLIPSE community for developing on of the best softwares ever without which me and the rest of the world would be in total disarray.
- Some architectures (some thoery and some by practicals). I have been facinated by the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and its peers. The concept of reusability and agility are made the base here. The flexibility that any application can hook into another application (different platforms, different code but the required data) is great. And I have gone through the Head First - Design Patterns (though some of those patterns went straight over my tiny brain).
- Ruby and some python and perl. These are one of the best languages ever. They are some times draggy and slow but I get to do some cool stuff using them. Siting an example I have a small python script which I use to make the folder from which I call the script as the base of the http server. For some that might be like 'thats easy' but for me thats a BIG deal !! Ruby and Ruby On Rails for its flexibility and usability. Now I intend to dive deep into ROR as I have found Django (ROR for python) a little cumbersome (Sorry Python Fans). Perl's CPAN is the one of the best archive maintainers as yet. I have also wet my hands with Scala but not a fan.
- JavaScript (YEPP !!! ). I am a big fan of JavaScript (As all those Yahoo ! Guys are). I consider it a under estimated language ( but people may tend to differ after the wonderful things that Yahoo! has done with their web sites). The prototype helper and AJAX have all been great helpers to the development of this nifty language and now we have packages that do wonders with your website. Its not difficult now a days to set up a smooth looking web site with all those cool Styles (CSS thanks ) and great effects (courtesy script.aculo.us and moo ). ROR has a done a great job here by using all those features and I guess thats one of the reasons that they have a lot of developers thrilled in working in Rails. Douglas Crockford ( founder of JSON) is my idol when it comes to Javascript and DOM concepts. His videos about the Javascript language are excellent and a must watch.
- Firefox. What a tool. I use a Windows XP system at work( I denounce that still) but my favorite browser is definitely FireFox. I even had the original Mozilla source downloaded but did not get the time to work on it. I have some of those neat plug ins installed( FireBug is my favorite ) as well. When Safari came for Windows I had to try it as I had heard that it is the fastest of the browsers. But after using it twice or thrice I had to revert back. Its not because Safari is bad, its just because FireFox is better. Want me to talk about IE ? NO COMMENTS !!
- Gtalk - what a tool man. These people have just rocked the entire world with their ground breaking tools. Be it Picasa, or the new Gmail. The do it and they do it with class. Google Maps and Google Earth where nothing like things the people saw. They were different and they were glorious. I have to say hats off to you guys for supporting Open Source and even conducting Google Summer of Code. I have even used Java to interact with the Google Desktop Application (which I would say is what i use to search and not windows search) and it feels it (SOA comes into picture here). Yahoo! Messenger was some thing that I have been using for a long time but it would sometimes stall my system( and believe me I get really UNHAPPY when my system gets stalled). Pidgin( the famous Gaim) has been my next love. The concept of getting your own jabber server up and running is great. I have tried out with WildFire XMPP server (I like XMPP too ! surprise ..) and the experience to set it up with and authentication system like LDAP is great. I really wished that my organization had a WildFire Server properly maintained and that every user who uses the Knowledge sharing platform (Confluence in my case) used this server for chat purposes. There is some amount of configuration but at the end of the day we get a system that integrates our ideas along with the ones of our customers. Its is some work to have an interface (pretty much like the small pop up chat messages that we see in GMail) work with confluence, but once you have it, software engineering becomes a piece of cake. I have also been using Trillian, Meetro and Exodus (if a jabber fan go through the list of recommended jabber clients ).
- For the concept of getting to host web site from your own system, I thank Apache. They have been pioneers in the field of Open Source and their Tomcat has laid the base of the whole Web Application Server. Apache is just not Tomcat though. Its a whole set of applications and projects that make your life easier as a developer and as a user. I aspire and hopefully will be a part of one of their Open Source initiatives ( may God bless).
- Linux. Though I know a little, it still makes me want to know more. Thats Linux for you. The whole concept of giving the user more data, information and control is what makes Linux kick ass. An of course the user does not get to be a dumb nut head sitting in front of a system that crashes even if a fly sits on top of the monitor( Yeh !! you know whose nuts I am striking !! ). I love linux simply because its like break it or make it. You will learn some thing about this great piece of art if you even try to do one of them.
- Stumble Upon has been one of the best things that has happened to me. I suddenly start reading articles, seeing interesting stuff and killing time(in a constructive way). The plug in with FireFox makes things easier. Previously I used to be a regular with Wink but now its all about stumbling now !!
- I have also done some work in PHP and its excellent connection with databases like MySQL. I found php to be very powerful. So powerful that Yahoo! has developed their own PHP that they use in their applications(both internal and external I suppose). Installing something like XAMPP where every thing is set up for you and you just need to code is some thing that is too easy for any developer. I should have mentioned PHP along with Ruby and python but thought of having this separate as this is a whole new area.
I have had a great life where in I enjoyed more than I studied and there were many people who supported me and made me what I am today (If I am someone at all).
I here by solemnly swear to blog almost frequently so that I could share what I have experienced during these very few years.
Dinesh
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