Good post on interviewing process should work in a software company.  Would be interested in setting up such process within our company.

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Difference between framework and library

Good quote to differentiate between framework and library, "framework calls your code but your code calls library".

Stay @ Ocean Spray, Pondicherry

Had a nice little break from regular tasks by taking a small vacation @ Ocean Spray, Pondicherry. Went there during the last week of december 2011, when the rates are exorbitantly priced. Gone are the days when my kids were small enough that I can beat the peak season and get good deals on rooms, now i have joined the rat race that plans the vacation surrounding the school vacations.

Quick info for anybody looking to stay @ Ocean Spray : It's about 2 hours drive from chennai on ECR road towards pondicherry. This is not a sea side resort, so please avoid this if you are looking for a sea side resort. The sea would probably be a good 1-2 kms from the hotel and there is no proper walk way to the sea. We stayed in "Heavens Room" and we enjoyed the stay very much. It's a small room with a queen size bed and a sit out with Jacuzzi. The resort is build in a huge area with a big artificial man made lake covering a good size in the center. We found the food to be pretty good but little expensive. There is a huge swimming pool in the center of the resort and a outdoor kids play area. It is a good place to spend a weekend. It would be good resort for travelling with small kids. This might not be the place if you are someone looking at a place with tons of activities.

Artificial Intelligence class by Stanford Univ

I have always loved to read about Artificial Intelligence and I just heard an awesome news, Stanford University is offering Artificial Intelligence fall class online conducted by couple of eminent folks in this field Sebestian Thurn and Peter Norvig. The course runs from Sept 26, 2011 to Dec 16, 2011. All you need is high speed internet connection and you could be listening to this class, get access to identical materials(typically offered to folks attending the course directly) and take exams associated with it and get graded.

For more details visit/signup in the website http://www.ai-class.com/

Learning jQuery

Many people recommend jQuery in Action as the best book for learning jQuery, but I didn't like the style that was laid down in that book. I am not saying anything about the content of the book, it's a very good reference book for jQuery and offers plenty of details for many frequently used APIs, but I feel the layout of the book certainly doesn't offer step by step introduction to somebody new to jQuery.

Folks interested in learning jQuery would benefit greatly by visiting this video tutorial by appendTo folks, it offers jQuery fundamentals in a way very easy for anyone to grasp and also the materials are laid down 4-5 mins each per topic(like khan academy tutorials).

I would also suggest using jQuery in Action book as a reference material which it fits pretty well.

Khan Academy - Awesome site that you want your kids to spend time on

I am continuously amazed by the wealth of information available in khan academy. Having started my career long back as a trainer in a software training institute, I have always loved sharing knowledge with colleagues/friends. Like any other profession you need passion to teach someone and the key is knowing how to break down complex things so people can easily understand. Sal khan has taken his part time job of teaching his cousins into this amazing wealth of information across multiple areas, I thoroughly enjoy watching his videos whenever I get time.

I want to get my kids involved with this site so they can start understanding complex topics broken down to nice smaller pieces. Kudos to sal khan for putting up a great job and doing it as a non-profit which makes it even more awesome.

Watch sal khan talk about his work in this ted video.

Nice Idea by McDonald

Pretty interesting marketing stuff from McDonald -- a new ad campaign that invites pedestrians to play a game of Pong on a giant Mickey D's billboard, using only their smartphones. Last thirty seconds, though, and you'll get a free treat of your choice.

Windows 8 is going to be cool

Came across a cool video in msnbc website in which microsoft gave first look of windows 8, I should say I was amazed of what they have done so far. I have always thought microsoft did not do anything different from the UI perspective from Windows 95 all the way to Windows 7 the start menu remains the same just that the size of start menu and the graphic of start menu has changed, I got tired of not seeing any drastic/cool UI improvements coming out of Microsoft. I certainly hope windows 8 doesn't become another windows incarnation with a different button for start menu and I was really amazed to see the first look of windows 8, microsoft are at last looking @ UI differently (should I say the Apple way ;) Take a look at the video

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Cool tool of the day - SSMS Tools Pack

When I am troubleshooting production issues, I always have problem with having multiple SQL Server windows open trying to do update/select across different regions (I am not saying that we do updates in production on a regular ad-hoc basis but there are times we have to do that).

Fortunately, I came across a cool tool today that would reduce the confusion of which sql window I am currently in, is it development/UAT/production. SSMS tools pack is an excellent set of tools and contains the windows connection coloring feature that you can use to set which color you want to display on top of the different sql windows, probably red for your production connections and green for your development environments.

Take a look at the tool for yourself, you will sure appreciate the value of it.

Tips and Advice for Students, Teachers, and Parents

Really liked this post discussing about tips and advice for students, teachers and parents, posting it for future reference

Students

Pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students. Pull everything out of yourself. Work hard. Then work harder.

Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.

Learn by trial and error, and don’t avoid the errors. Consider everything an experiment.

Learning doesn’t happen in class, it happens when you get home and look at the wall. Don’t forget to make time for looking at walls.

Be self-disciplined.

Be a self-advocate.

Learn from your mistakes. There is no win and no fail, there’s only honest effort.

Assume that others are always doing their best.

Work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things. Worrying about work doesn’t get it done, it only makes getting started harder.

Get good at something other than school-related work (like skateboarding or cooking).

Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.Subscribe to many magazines, the more pictures the better. Don’t feel bad about not reading them cover to cover, just have them around and read what interests you, even if it’s just one article.

It’s the process, not the product that counts, because you can use it again and again and it transfers.

Don’t do school-related work under pressure. Allow lots of extra time for things that are hard, and for everything else, too.

Learning opportunities are everywhere, not just in academic settings. The more stuff you do, the more you learn. But, don’t overdo it and spread yourself too thin.

Read anything you can get your hands on. Comic books involve decoding just as great literature does.

Read billboards and road signs.

Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes.

Learn how to touch-type.

Write lots of letters.

Learn to read and use maps.

Learn to read and use indexes.

Learn to use a library.

Learn to cook and deal with food.

Watch movies, regularly.

Learn to ask questions without feeling stupid.

Travel whenever and wherever you can.

Save everything; it might come in handy later.

Give others some slack; it makes life easier.

Give yourself some slack; it makes life easier.

Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s your life.

Teachers

Pull everything out of your students.

Extend yourself.

Be creative.

Don’t assess a student’s capabilities based on his or her I.Q. test scores. There’s more to people than test scores.

Don’t be scared to make a mess (mistakes) in front of students. If learning takes place through modeling, you must model the process of working things out, from scratch, mistakes and all. Few teachers do this, more should.

Assume that others are always doing their best.

Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s your life.

Parents

Be there, but don’t smother kids. Don’t be a “helicopter parent.” Not enough interest is neglect; too much involvement can smother and enable.

Keep the pressure low.

Assume that others are always doing their best.

Learning how to read and write takes a lot of time and work. Make sure you give your kids enough time and space for them to learn.

Make sure kids practice reading and writing every day. Don’t let them miss a day for anything. Sit on them, but not too hard.

Make sure there’s a World Book Encyclopedia in the house. Any year is okay. Buy it used. Using an encyclopedia is very different from using the internet. Make sure you have both.

Learning takes place after the fact, while your kid is looking at the wall, not while he/she’s in a classroom at school. When they get home, give them the time and space to look at walls.

Don’t romanticize your past too much, kids resent it and it probably wasn’t as good as you think it was.

Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s your life.