Live From London Heathrow Airport Terminal 3
I am on my way back from San Francisco to Pune and have a stop over at London Heathrow. I am writing this live from the ‘Internet and Additional Seating’ area at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 3.
How Trees & Birds Grabbed Prime Land In Pune City!
Nature shows the way to healing the city…
Like most Indian cities, Pune has crumbled quite rapidly over the past decade and most citizens are convinced that things can only get worse. So thought I would write about a positive development in the Deccan Gymkhana area in Pune. About a project that highlights how things can change if citizens decide to ‘be the change’ and about how citizens are enjoying the benefits of returning prime city real estate to mother nature.
Royal Challengers Is Obvious Surrogate Advertising For Alcohol
It’s good to know that the Health Minister has challenged the name of the Bangalore Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team, “Royal Challengers”. It’s however sad that it takes the Health Minister of the country to speak up before the authorities looked at such an obvious and blatant form of surrogate advertising for liquor brand “Royal Challenge“.
Magical Men Of 21st Century India
“The Key Selling Point Of The GodMen Is Their Talk About Things That Make No Sense”
Right from childhood, stories that had their foundation in magic and ‘chamatkars’ always appealed to me. I must have watched 10s of combinations of stories like - Ramu’s son is ill and no doctor is able to cure him; Ramu goes to a godman who whips up a magical powder; Ramu applies the powder on his son’s forehead and the kid is magically cured. As a child, I remember being in awe of the godman and thinking, “Wow! This man is amazing!”. Friends readily contributed their own stories of how the godman was indeed magical.
Experts talk RIA, Agile, Project Irritants, Late Hours, Future of Java …
Check out this discussion about emerging trends in software development that I recently conducted on IndicThreads.com.
>> The IndicThreads Software Technology & Emerging Trends Conversation 2008
Project managers & architects from Cognizant, Infosys, i-flex & Persistent discuss the changing nature of enterprise applications as well as the impact of RIA and SOA. They share their thoughts on Agile, project execution models, project irritants, late hours work culture, the future of Java and also give their take on the quality of software education.
A must read for anyone in the software development business. You are sure to get meaningful insights into the software development scene today, particularly in the Indian software industry.
Reverse Migration - Get Me Out Of The Big City
On our way back from a beautiful village on the Konkan coast, me and my wife got talking about why Indians are abandoning the vast countryside and moving to ever so cramped and inhospitable cities. We have long toyed with the idea of moving out of the city but never have actually done much in the matter. So we decided to list the things in the city that mattered to us. We rated them on a scale of 1 to 10 and found that only a few made it over 5. Basic amenities like electricity and water got a 10 on 10, while business amenities like banking, transportation and Internet connectivity got an 8. Schools, hospitals and security got 7. Social life and recreation facilities got a 6. Surprisingly the hotels, restaurants, multiplexes and shopping malls that take up so much of our attention in the city barely made it on our charts.
The Stupidify Spell Has Been Cast. Can Brains Fight Back?
A commonly used spell in the Harry Potter books is “Stupefy”. When a wizard says the incantation, a jet of red light flies out of the tip of the magic wand and if it hits the target, the recipient gets stunned and knocked out of his senses. I am unsure of the date and time when it happened but sometime early in this century, I am sure that not “Stupefy” but a “Stupidify” spell was fired through TV screens across India. The spell dulled the senses of all who were hit and since then all those stupidified have been running on minimal grey cell usage. One of the obvious effects of the Stupidify spell is a complete failure at keeping ones brains switched on while in front of a TV screen. I believe that even I am regularly under the influence of the spell. So in this brief interval when I do not feel all that stupidified, I am writing to let the world know of this sinister spell.
Grails Web Application Development Using Oracle JDeveloper IDE
Check out my new article on OTN about building a Grails web application using the Oracle JDeveloper IDE.
Excerpt-
Following the Ruby on Rails (RoR) wave, most software developers have considered, if not tried out, either ROR or some other framework that promises to deliver ROR features. The Grails framework also rode the Rails wave to popularity but is now shaping into a powerful framework in its own right. Grails uses the Groovy
programming language; Groovy syntax is similar to Java’s, but it also adopts some concepts from other languages. Like Java, Groovy generates bytecodes and runs on the Java platform, so it has the power of Java but also adds a few niceties and simplifications.
In this article you will get an introduction to developing Grails applications using Oracle JDeveloper as your IDE. You will also get an overview of Groovy concepts as you go about developing your Grails application.
Visit - http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/oak-grails.html
Related -
* Groovy bridges the scripting and the enterprise Java worlds (Interview with Groovy Lead)
* Grails is a breath of fresh air for Java developers (Interview with Grails Lead)
Land Of The Young, Rich & Healthy - Welcome To Youngistan
A new Pepsi ad has coined the phrase ‘Youngistan’ by combining Young & Hindustan. The actor in the ad claims to be an alien from the planet Youngistan. However is Youngistan really a planet in outer space or is India and Youngistan one and the same? I say this as I can’t help but note that India is being totally customized for the young, rich and the healthy. I certainly don’t have anything against the Youngistanization of society. The young definitely should enjoy the prosperity and the growing disposable incomes of new India, but not by steadily ignoring other segments of society.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Case Of The Missing Paisa
I get into arguments at billing counters so frequently these days that I wonder if it has subconsciously become one of my favourite pastimes. I have a fairly wide range of causes for these disputes. However the most common cause is that of the cashier gobbling my hard earned paise. The amusing and strange part of the story is that I seem to be losing these arguments with alarming regularity.
The events normally go something like this - I buy goods worth Rs. 99.25 and the cashier announces Rs. 100 as the payable amount. I ask him why he could not even show the courtesy to tell me that he was charging 75 paise extra. The reply is “Ok, Pay 99″. I tell him that it is not about the 75 paise but about business ethics. I next complain to the store manager who barely listens to me before ordering his staff “Take one rupee less from Sir!”
