Birthday Bumps

This birthday, which is today, to me is kind of depressing and enjoyable at the same time.

Enjoyable for obvious reasons. I learned today that I know a lot of people who actually know me. The flat mates had a nice time smacking my bottom yesterday night at 12. I even got a call from my great friend Sajith from Chennai. Mom and Dad called early in the morning followed by Sis. Shilpi sent me an greeting in SMS. When I reached the office I got the same 'Happy Birthday' from all my colleagues. The bouquet came shortly after. Its Chetan's birthday today as well and we exchanged wishes. My Orkut was filled with wishes and I personally felt obliged to reply to each one of them personally. I always thought I was kind of a loner but hey even I am being watched or observed rather !

Its depressing when I think about my age. 25. Now thats not old my any means. But its one of those ages when we brood over those sweet twenties ( 20 -24). Feeling young is not right any more. More weight/mass. Grumpier feeling. Stressed out after 5 minutes of play. Thats what happens. And I tend to give in to the fact that I am losing it ..

I am still in my twenties though. Not for long as time flies by.

A Busy Week

The past week (or rather 2 weeks ) was tedious. Work was at its best not letting any time for the poor worker. Stowe Boyd was here in Delhi, were he talked about his visions and ideas for his new baby 'Workstreamr'. To say the least I was taken aback by his eloquence. He was stern with what he wanted but was open to new ideas as well. His short (or rather long) speeches he gave were absolutely great. Of all the people I have heard speaking, he attracts and keeps his listeners interested.

He talked about the concepts that he wanted, his visions on how the product would look like and the concerns he had. He was one of those people who would sell a dime for a dollar. Persuasive is the word if the above analogy was crap. We had a great time with Ben and Sam when we zig zag -ed through those Noida Highways, without even caring the signal lights. Ben and Sam better get used to those as they are going to be here for some time now!

My role has slightly shifted from a ROR programmer to an HTML programmer (if that could be categorized as programming). Standardizing the actual interface. I have always liked JavaScript but I feel I would have more time off that those other guys now. The problem that I faced, and all those HTML guys would agree to this, is not to make HTML with great style sheets but to make them work with the ever crappy Internet Explorer. I can't figure out why IE has become the most used browser. Its as Dracula says 'You suck more than I do !!'.

Java to Ruby transition

I was one of those who made a transition from small time Java programming to small time Ruby programming. I have tried to understand the differences between them, in convention, usage and concepts. It was when I 'Stumbled Upon' a mind blowing piece of code that I understood that I don't even know 1% of Ruby. This was the Arc Challenge. It also dealt with a concept called Continuations.

The problem statement was simple. Implement 3 pages - the first one would get an argument from the user, the second one would show a link which says 'Click Me' without the argument passed and the final page would display 'You entered #{argument}". And what I saw was pretty confusing code which made me go and browse the basics of the language.

I managed to get hold of some content which I thought was pretty useful. It dealt with what to expect from Ruby if you are coming from a Java background. Some questions were also raised like Dynamic Languages v/s Static Languages. Some of these are pretty old content but its worth the read.

The links are as follows.

• 10 things that every Java programmer must know about Ruby
• Coming to Ruby from Java
• Dynamic Languages replaces Static Languages ?

Google Apps team Edition is out ..

Google has come out with another of its 'bundled' suites. This time they have bound Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google talk and a Start Search page for the members of teams - and they have called it Google Apps Team Edition. All the users have to do is to sign up with a domain (like abcd.gef@creekwood.com where creekwood.com becomes your domain) and you will get a mail sent to this address. After clicking the confirmation link you are all set and ready to access these apps. You could invite other members of the same domain and then the collaborative effort kicks off with messaging, document sharing and Calendar scheduling. We even saw the collaborative effort in the case of Google Docs when they introduced the Forms in Spreadsheets. The Google Docs have been revamped and the UI looks great !

Anyway this seems to be a great way of collaboration but still it is under Google. Major organizations may consider this as threat full ( I feel so). Small companies with a distributed workforce may consider this as a blessing in disguise. Anyway Google Rocks yet again. Heres the Video.