Thus Wrote a Desi Amreekan

Novak beats Rafa in epic 5-set final at the Australian open

2012-01-29T16:43:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Novak. I have a begrudging respect for how he has overcome his inner demons, thereby allowing him to walk like a colossus among men in tennis. Unfortunately, this post is not about the winner; it is about the loser.

My heart weeps for Rafael Nadal. Though he will live to fight another day, I wonder how he can recover from this. Andy Roddick and Fernando Verdasco are not the same after their epic losses in the years gone by. In fact, they have faded into oblivion since their epic matches in 2009 - Wimbledon final for Andy and Australian open semi-final for Verdasco. For that matter, two of the greatest tennis players of all time could not overcome such defeats - Federer has not beaten Nadal in a grand slam since he lost the 2008 Wimbledon to him, and Bjorn Borg retired prematurely after John McEnroe beat him in the epic Wimbledon final of 1981.

So let it be with Rafael. If this is how it ends, it will be a fitting final chapter to a storied grand slam career.

Or, can he use this loss, like he used his 2007 Wimbledon loss to Federer, to realize that he can beat his nemesis? Belief is half the battle. The rest is preparation, perseverance and practice. The latter are Rafa's signature moves. He lacked the former against Novak.

I hope this isn't "all she wrote" about the man from Mallorca.

FMGG - definition

2012-01-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

(noun) - Abbreviation for Fece Master Go-Go.
(definition) - Typically used to address a person that is either adding negative value or completely not living up to their potential.

Tebow is such an FMGG; Brady had more touchdowns than Tebow had completions in the 2011 NFL Divisional Playoffs.

The East Coast freeways SUCK!!

2012-01-15T21:52:00.000-08:00

1. Apparently, I-95 in Pennsylvania is not I-95 in Jersey. Go figure.

2. Every freeway has multiple toll booth(s), but the quality of the roads does not reflect the exorbitant tolls charged to drive on them. Tolls between Philly and Jersey amount to about $15 one-way. Caveat driver.

3. There is no, repeat NO, public transport system that provides a practical alternative to driving. Refer #2 to understand why if you have to drive, you're almost signing up to be waylaid by the toll booths. State sponsored daylight and night-time robbery at its insidious best. I said "practical"; Amtrak is neither practical - train schedules and trip durations are from an era that passed in 1975 - nor cost-effective.

4. Did I say something about tolls yet? Another point of reference - NYC congestion tax is now $12, but the roads into the city are 10 times worse-for-driving than the 520 bridge at its worst!

5. Finally, I mean I can go on but for the purposes of brevity, you might argue that there are state roads that are not toll-ways. Right these exist; wrong if you think they are viable alternatives. Expect to drive for at least 45 minutes longer and stop at ludicrously out-of-sync stop lights if you choose state routes. And oh yeah, people can join these roads from side-rights on the right, cut you off as they take left turns into side roads, or do both at the same time with impunity.

But wait, this is the right coast. Or whatever.

Great line from a Steve Ballmer interview

2012-01-13T17:40:00.000-08:00

Read in Bloomberg Businessweek:

They talk about fast twitch and slow twitch muscles, and I forget, long-distance runners have one and sprinters have the other,” Ballmer says. “Well, in some senses all product teams kind of need a bit of a fast twitch and a bit of a slow twitch, because there are bigger innovations that take longer and there are other things that you can do in shorter periods of time.

Bloomberg's involvement in Businessweek has turned that magazine around. Their issue dedicated to Steve Jobs a few months ago gave me goose bumps. This interview with Ballmer provides a unique insight into the mind of Ballmer. Visit the link for the full story, and start reading half-way through for the interesting bits.

Samsung is a great artist

2012-01-10T13:35:00.000-08:00

Great point by Gruber at Daring Fireball:

If you want to defend Samsung, don’t do it by arguing that they don’t copy Apple. Go with the “good artists copy, great artists steal” argument. Argue that Samsung may be shameless but they’re not stupid; that it’s no coincidence that the Android handset maker that’s selling the most phones and growing the fastest is the one most closely mimicking Apple.

Defense contractors are fat cats

2012-01-07T09:10:00.000-08:00

This NYTimes article opens with the statement:

The wellspring of this prosperity is not just the Defense Department’s vast payroll, nor just the fat profit margins of its contractors.

I am honestly glad that military spending is being cut over the next 10 years because heretofore, my tax dollars are lining the pockets of these purveyors of death and destruction. Defense budget reduction aside, this system of reaping profits from government contracts seems odd to me. My ideology is slightly different: For me doing anything as a citizen of a country is not about making profits. Representing the country is a noble cause, an honor even. Mixing profits with a cause so pure tarnishes its virtue.

Then again you can argue that precious little is pure in this world. Look no farther than the infractions of <insert religious body here>.

Eating better

2011-12-31T00:26:00.001-08:00

Keeping it simple in 2012. No Chips. No Cookies. Workout 4 times a week.

The cupcake fiasco...

2011-12-25T17:50:00.001-08:00

...or how the TSA thinks a cupcake is a threat to National Security.

Talk about an epic waste of my tax $$

Why should I switch off my tablet and headphones during take-off?

2011-12-25T14:01:00.000-08:00

Planes now have WiFi and DirecTV service, and the cockpit is constantly communicating with a tower. How is my phone connecting to a Cellular/3G tower going to cause an issue?

Let's say that the attempt to connect to a Cellular tower does bad things. What's the problem with the following devices being switched on during take-off and landing:
- noise-canceling headphones
- DVD player playing a movie
- iPod playing music

Do these devices create a harmful electromagnetic field only during take-off and landing? Airlines and rules need to update themselves to be relevant in the 21st century.

Update: Airline pilots can use iPads in the cockpit for the duration of the flight. Read this followup for some EMT findings: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/disruptions-tests-cast-doubt-on-fcc-rules-on-kindle-and-ipad-html/?hp

The Microsoft futuristic videos remind me of some dark days at MS

2011-11-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

Gruber at Daring Fireball says about the Microsoft futuristic videos that went viral:

The designs in these concept videos are free from real-world constraints — technical, logical, fiscal. Dealing with constraints is what real design is all about. Institutional attention on the present day — on getting innovative industry-leading products out the door and creating consumer demand for them — requires relentless company-wide focus.

These videos remind me of the time when Windows codename Longhorn was being conceptualized. The successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 was going to ring the death knell for Mac OSX; be the proverbial knockout punch that KO'ed "Apple Computer". The employees bought into a grand vision depicted that told a futuristic story full of glitz, but the program managers could not speak to specific design details. For the six months that ensued, none of us questioned where the project was going, whether the interaction models depicted were realistic or possible, and whether we could ship in time.

That year at Microsoft's PDC, a build of Longhorn was demo'ed to the world. Only insiders know how much wrangling was needed to get the build into a state to be demonstrated at the conference. The build was riddled with hacks and one-time fixes to show the world that the vision was indeed possible. We all know what happened next: Dave Cutler happened to Longhorn. The project got a royal dressing down, its wings got clipped, a more realistic set of features was decided upon, and the final product was the turd we all grew to love called Windows Vista.

Long story short - futuristic videos skew customer expectations, let program managers think they have rope to design unrealistic features (ergo hanging themselves with the rope), and lead developers into designing and re-designing frameworks and modules.

A wise company knows not to take an axe to its feet.

The 500 Greatest Songs of all time

2011-11-01T09:07:00.001-07:00

Added an item on my bucket list to listen to all of these songs, at least once. Some of these I have already memorized. The rest? In good time...

HSJDI: How Steve Jobs Did It

2011-10-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

Walter Isaacson for the New York Times:

He told me he began to appreciate the power of intuition, in contrast to what he called “Western rational thought,” when he wandered around India after dropping out of college. “The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do,” he said. “They use their intuition instead ... Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.”

If there was a stronger endorsement of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, I haven't read or heard it.

Filed Under: The Steve Jobs Way

Nokia Lumia 800 US availability

2011-10-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Read at BGR:

Sadly, Nokia has confirmed that the Lumia 800 will not launch in the U.S. this year. 2012 may be a different story but in the meantime, the phone will launch this month across several European countries and in additional markets by the end of the year for €420 before taxes and subsidies.

Truly sad because this is a phone worth coveting. The script isn't written to the end, but this might be the turning point for Nokia and Microsoft. Still many acts in this story...

thisismynext: Exclusive insight into the philosophy of Android ICS

2011-10-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

Joshua Topolsky got an exclusive sit-down interview the head of design at Android. This excerpt from the interview talks about some of the key user interface changes. As I read these, I realized that Android has adopted ideas from other platforms, ideas that are potentially patented. "Favorites Tray" is a synonym for the iOS Dock, the swipe gesture to dismiss an app is a keystone of interacting with webOS, etc. Keep an eye open for news on handset makers (Samsung to begin with) being sued anew by Apple and/or HP.

Along the bottom of the homescreen you have a “favorites tray,” which can be customized, in the center is a button to get to your applications. Google search is always present on homescreens in the launcher, kind of like “Just Type” in webOS. When you want to create a folder now, you simply drag an icon onto another icon, similar to iOS. Inside folders, app icons will rearrange themselves, also like Apple’s software. Widgets can scroll and be resized, as in Honeycomb. Everything is smooth and fluid; new animations have been added throughout the system.

The multi-tasking icon pulls up a list of app snapshots similar to Honeycomb, but those applications can now be killed by swiping them to the right — like vertical cards. Gestures are all over ICS. “Gestures are much more fun than hitting buttons. Touching and moving things; way better than buttons,” Matias says while moving around the device. Even the calendar app didn’t escape the touch treatment; you’re now able to pinch-to-zoom on your schedule to expand or contract the view, which seems incredibly helpful.

The notification window is now slightly translucent with a glowing dot when you pull it downward. Notifications can be swiped away one at a time, mirroring webOS 3.0 behavior. You can access your notifications on the lock screen if you’re not using a passcode, and you can jump quickly to your settings through the window shade.

iCloud snafus point to the darker side of consumer cloud

2011-10-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

iCloud was launched with much fanfare but has run into issues that can be directly attributed to volume and scale. Other salient observations made in this article that we have discussed in the past for are:

1. Getting consumer-grade Software as a Service right is a challenge
2. Moving data from traditional data stores to the cloud is difficult and error-prone
3. Data privacy/protection is still an issue with cloud services (also refer Facebook privacy nightmares)

Restoring consumer confidence is not a perfect science; AWS customers seemed happy with a public post from the company detailing the reasons (technical and infrastructural) for the outage they experienced about 6 months ago. The past week has not been good for consumer-centric cloud services, what with the Blackberry outage and the iCloud issues. Both these companies can restore consumer confidence by explaining what went wrong and the adjustments made to provide virtually uninterrupted service in the future.

Windows Explorer getting it wrong

2011-10-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

"this is Microsoft’s own research, cited in the same post: nobody — almost literally 0% of users — uses the menu bar, and only 10% of users use the command bar. Nearly everybody is using the context menu or hotkeys. So the solution, obviously, is to make both the menu bar and the command bar bigger and more prominent. Right?

LOL. Microsoft cannot design UI, except maybe the Windows Phone team!

The World is Ending? Yes and No.

2011-10-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

Two master narratives — one threat-based, one opportunity-based, but both involving seismic changes. Gilding is actually an optimist at heart. He believes that while the Great Disruption is inevitable, humanity is best in a crisis, and, once it all hits, we will rise to the occasion and produce transformational economic and social change (using tools of the Big Shift). Hagel is also an optimist. He knows the Great Disruption may be barreling down on us, but he believes that the Big Shift has also created a world where more people than ever have the tools, talents and potential to head it off. My heart is with Hagel, but my head says that you ignore Gilding at your peril.

How to live the rest of your life

2011-10-11T21:48:00.001-07:00

Words to live by.

I hope the message that people really take, really internalize is that being yourself, as hard as you can, is the way to have important and lasting impact on our world. That might be in the context of technology. It might be in the context of technology, or the arts, or sports, or government, or social justice — or even in the context of your family and close friends.

It almost doesn’t matter. The thing that matters most is to figure out what’s important to you, what’s core to you, and do that. Be that. And do it as well as you possibly can, every single day.

Steve Jobs passes away. An era ends...

2011-10-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

I can't think of another person who I have followed with fervor bordering on the fanatical as I have Steven P. Jobs. Last night, for reasons I can't explain, I decided to see his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005. What started as scribblings on a W postcard is now in the mailbox headed home as a cheat sheet for how I should lead my life. Not only was Steve a visionary and a genius, he also had a way with words that made you stop and listen.

The seer is no more; he lives on in our hearts and in Apple's products - present and future. Thank you Steve: You found your own dogma and shared it with the rest of us. For that, we are forever grateful.

The Android tablet problem, nicely summarized by one review’s conclusion

2011-06-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

This, not how closely a manufacturer can mimic the iPad’s hardware, is what reviewers should be asking about each new tablet: Why would a significant number of buyers choose this instead of an iPad?

I asked a similar question to the Zune pricing strategy team when we were about to launch Zune v2. The iPod was (and is) the King of the MP3 player market, and the social features of the Zune weren't features that would compel a customer to buy it over the iPod. The product needed further differentiation, and in my mind a lower price point would be the nudge that customers needed to try it.

My idea was summarily panned and the Zune launched at the same price as the iPod; when the price drop was eventually announced by Microsoft, the race was ever. The Zune was a great music player that didn't make it because it never reached critical mass. There is no point in being able to share a song with another Zune if there isn't another one within sharing range. Mimicking hardware isn't sufficient; it's selling the mimicked hardware to a sufficiently large group of people that's key.

The commoditization of the American lifestyle

2011-05-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

Strongest argument made in this article IMO. Emphasis is mine.

Its first line of defense is to commodify its enemy. You can all supply your own favorite, most nauseating examples of the commodification of love. Mine include the wedding industry, TV ads that feature cute young children or the giving of automobiles as Christmas presents, and the particularly grotesque equation of diamond jewelry with everlasting devotion. The message, in each case, is that if you love somebody you should buy stuff.

Rafa looks very vulnerable

2011-05-26T11:29:00.000-07:00

To return back to his form of yore, Rafa needs to make slight adjustments and corrections to his current game. His game of 2010 might be a good one to revert to as well, but that might not be possible; people don't have Time Machine-esque features. In my opinion, here are some things that worked for him in the past:

1. The lefty kick serve out wide, especially on the ad-side.
2. Pinpoint precision ground strokes that jumped after hitting the lines
3. Deep balls, especially down the line
4. Impenetrable service games - in 2010, he held the ATP Tour record for being broken the fewest times

Something he needs to add to his game is the ability to take the ball early and from inside the court. Djokovic has been beating him by stepping into the court and taking the ball early. The long grinding matches he is playing aren't really doing him any favors.

The next two weeks will dictate the rest of his year. Vamos RAFA!!

How Apple botched my laptop's repairs

2011-05-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend and today has been quite an ordeal. I found out that the great deal that Apple had about out-of-service warranty can, for people with luck like mine, become quite an ordeal. Here are my grievances with the process:

1. I took the Macbook Pro into the Apple store about two weeks ago because the battery was draining faster than it did a few months ago.
2. After about a day of running diagnostic tests, I was asked to come by to pick up the machine because it had no battery issues whatsoever.
3. It was at this point that I was told that there are other things wrong with the machine that would all be fixed if I availed of the out-of-warranty service/repair.
4. I went back to the Apple store last week to avail of said service.
5. The technicians at the Apple repair facility found that the battery was indeed draining faster than it should. They ran the same diagnostic test as the one run in the store; why did the 2 tests produce conflicting results?
6. I was asked to come in to pick up the repaired laptop on Saturday, but two of the issues they were supposed to fix (documented in the original work-order and communicated over the phone to the repair facility) weren't fixed.
Mind you that by this point, I had been to the Apple store 4 times to have my laptop fixed. That's a lot of time commuting and extreme inconvenience; I haven't had a laptop for about a week now!
7. I got an email today that my machine is ready for pick-up. During my conversation with Brooke, an Apple Store Genius, on Saturday afternoon I was told that the machine would be shipped via FedEx-overnight the instant it was ready. I am hoping I don't have to make another trip to the store because that is going to *really* suck!

Let's wait and see how this unfolds.

Update: They are waiting for another part to come in. ETA: Saturday, the 28th of May. Time spent at Apple: 14 days.

Update 2: A trip to the local FedEx office was needed to get my laptop back; to Apple's credit, the repairs were thorough and my machine is working like new!

Road Runner Sports - missed revenue opportunity

2011-05-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

Running, though one of the most boring athletic activities, is one of the easiest to get into. All you need is a good pair of shoes, and you're ready to conquer the miles and miles of asphalt paved all around you. Wait, did I say *good* pair of shoes? How does one differentiate good from bad? This is where a store dedicated to runners comes in - Road Runner Sports.

Road Runner has a wide selection of shoes, but before you buy a pair, you can get a complimentary gait evaluation. Often times something sounds nifty but is a scam; not this gait evaluation, not one bit. Using sensors and cameras, your foot's stability and strength, and your gait's form are evaluated. This evaluation is used as input into determining the shoe that maximizes your endurance on the road without compromising your performance. Road Runner goes one step farther - no puns intended - and builds a custom pair of orthotics so that the shoes you buy fit you perfectly. Sadly, the asking price on this custom pair breaks the bank for too many buyers.

While I was at the store this past week, I saw a number of these pairs made for customers who decided against buying them. Running shoes go for upwards of $75 these days. The orthotics are priced at $80, and they have a life of about 6 months. Based on my non-scientific observations, there were 5 pairs of orthotics that were consigned to the trash can the evening I was at the store. That's cold-hard revenue that Road Runner is letting go to waste.

A basic study of the American consumer's psyche indicates that the sweet spot for discretionary and frivolous spending is $19.99. Spend one night watching late-night TV and you will be bombarded with promotions for all manner of products that bring comfort and utility to your life that is already so comfortable. The one gimmick used by all these products is their $19.99 price-point. In this recession, infomercial sales have skyrocketed so much so that legitimate companies are piloting new products using this marketing and sales channel. Some back of the envelope math tells me that if Road Runner priced their custom orthotics at $19.99, the product will be a more attractive value proposition than it is today. Given that every customer that gets an evaluation has these made regardless of whether they are eventually purchased, they fixed costs accrued by Road Runner don't increase. The company can gather data on the sell-through rate by offering a 2-week promotion on the orthotics at $19.99; I can bet, with some confidence, that they sell more than 4 pairs of orthotics on promotion for every pair they sell today. Let's say they don't ever get to this blog post or promotion; if you were the one swiping your credit card at Road Runner, would you be more inclined to spend $20 or $80?

Dealing with the unknown

2011-05-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

When we were younger, almost every situation we encountered was one we had no prior experience with. We hit an inflection point at a certain age, and most of what we do or experience from that point on is more of the same. If enough time passes without a new experience, the part of the brain that responds to the unknown begins to atrophy. This is when panic sets in...

Our initial reaction to the unknown is panic; the heart rate increases, the ability to think clearly vanishes and breathing gets labored. In such a situation, the key is to take a step back and regain a measure of control over your surroundings. Often times, the onset of panic is triggered as a para-sympathetic reaction to humiliation or embarrassment. The social beings that we are, how we are perceived by other people drives a lot of what we do. The feeling is fresh in my system; I experienced it when getting on the bus with my bike today.

Buses in Seattle have a bike rack up front; riders secure their bikes on the rack prior to hopping onto the bus. Last weekend, I learned how to secure my bike onto the rack thanks to a bus driver's timely intervention. Today, I figured would be a cinch now that I knew how to use the clasps. When I walked up to the front of the bus though, the rack needed to be opened up before I could put my bike onto it. My brain froze...

As the seconds ticked by, the paralysis spread from my brain to my limbs. As I floundered, I heard the driver mention a handle that needed to be pulled, and by some inexplicable instinct, I looked at the middle of the rack. The yellow handle was like the rip-cord that broke my free-fall. I pulled the rack down, regained my composure, fastened my bike securely, and took a seat on the bus.

The rush of blood to my head was invigorating, and it taught me not just how to deal with this situation in the future, but how to handle new and unforeseen circumstances in the future. With a new job and a new role on the horizon, I am going to face a plethora of unknowns. How I react and handle these situations will underscore my future. As the synapses fire in my head, I must remember to stay calm, not worry about being embarrassed because I don't know something, and use my experience to figure out a solution. Net result: profit!

Mantra for success in any job you do

2011-05-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

2 words: Manage expectations. How?

Set them appropriately
Schedule time correctly
Deliver on stated expectations
If anything requires resetting, report it immediately
Never get out of sync with your boss

Panties in a bunch over Bin Laden raid

2011-05-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Everyone that has their panties all bunched up because of either the specifics of the Bin Laden raid, or the unilateral nature of the US Navy's action, or for any other reason kindly take a chill pill and unbunch them under-wares. The guy was responsible for one of the most heinous crimes inflicted on innocent civilians. The retaliatory action of the US military wasn't without fault, but really, if you put your hand in a lion's mouth, there is a good chance he will bite it off.

Please, celebrate the death of the figure-head of International terror.

Unemployed - Day 2

2011-05-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

A typical unemployed person's story doesn't start at 4:45 in the morning. Well, this one does and it's atypical for any other story in my life; I never wake up that early, not even when I am jet-lagged. As some friends have already pointed out, there is a lot of irony in this statement - I used to struggle to wake up before 8 when I was working at Amazon, and couldn't get out of bed before 9 when I was at Microsoft. That I went to bed before 10pm last night has something to do with why I woke up as early as I did, but it can't be just that. It's more because a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and a stress-free Manoj is a better sleeper.

I veered between torpor and hyperactivity yesterday. I had a few things on my list of things to do, one of which was having my laptop looked at. Instead of lazing at home, I started my day with a trip to the Apple store to have them investigate "the case of the draining battery". Yes, all batteries drain eventually, but my relatively new battery was relieving itself of its charge even before the obligatory two hours I expected it to last. After a long chat with the Apple Store Genius, I was told that more extensive tests were needed to ascertain the cause of said mysterious drainage, and that I would hear from them once they had more information. My Mac is 5 years old now, so it's a Vintage. I was informed by the Genius that Apple has a great deal for out-of-warranty Mac owners like myself; bring your old Mac in and for a flat $310, Apple will fix and replace anything that is wrong with it. In effect, you walk into the store with a problem-Mac, and you walk out with an almost refurbished one, complete with a 90-day warranty. If the technicians find a lot of things busted in my Mac, I'm going to avail of this killer deal. No sub-500$ PC is going to be as good as my 5-year old Macbook Pro!

Leafing through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest at the Barnes & Noble in the U Village was utterly relaxing; I needed it after my hour at the Apple Store (rolls eyes). Justin and I had planned to workout a little after lunch, so I headed over to the gym for a workout at 2pm with the self-proclaimed workout machine. It was a bust! He was eating lunch as I walked into the club, and am glad I didn't wait for him to be limber again - he hadn't started his workout even after I left the facility two hours later. For my own part, I interval trained for twenty minutes on the bike, and followed it up with a solid chest workout. The soreness is beginning to kick in right about now.

The evenings are hard to pass without having a real objective, so I am open to suggestions from you on what would be a meaningful way to spend the hours post a workout. I experimented with lying on the couch and intermittently reading, watching TV and reading the news online. Two problems with the couch setting - it's sleep inducing and leads to binge eating. Help an unemployed person be productive, please...

Unemployed - day 1

2011-05-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

There used to be a time when I couldn't wake up before 9am. These days, I sleep before midnight and I am up by 7:30. One of these days, summer will rear its head in Seattle and I will be able to actually go out for a run in the morning. For now, I am up and ready a little before 9am, but without an office to go to, I am going to have to become creative about how to spend my days.

You read that right: I am unemployed. And already, I feel the batteries recharging! It's my first weekday since my emancipation from the clutches of drudgery, so my words might be colored by ephemeral euphoria. Regardless of how long the happiness lasts, damn it feels good to be happy again. I plan to use my time off to read, rejuvenated and recuperate. The adult version of the 3Rs...

Drop me a line if you have interesting things to do or read this summer. I will most likely join you in your endeavor.

Multiple black eyes to software as a service this past week

2011-04-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

1. The AWS outage: written about, discussed, and dissected to the nth degree.
2. The PSN outage and corresponding theft of data by an "unauthorized" individual. http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/26/update-on-playstation-network-and-qriocity/

Which is the next service to suffer a similar catastrophe?

This is what I will miss...

2011-04-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

We create things because we want to delight, entertain, and empower our users. While the specifics of how they did it may be interesting from an academic point of view, the important part is that they did. People really seem to like this app. I can be a jerk about it and point out the trap doors, but then I’m just that guy who awkwardly ruins the show for his increasingly disinterested date.

In design, opinion is currency. But being negative is a cheap trick, too. And if I can get past that, maybe humility isn’t the only lesson this app has to offer me.

Eloquently captures the reason why we build not just software, but why we build everything.

What EC2 and S3 do so well - manage abstractions

2011-04-24T20:36:00.001-07:00

Today we’re the driving force behind NodeJS, which sits on a very different place on the abstraction curve than Smart did. We’ve pulled lots of ideas and lessons from Smart into our hosted NodeJS offering, no.de, but we did drop as much of the magic as possible. The end result is a service that’s tremendously simpler and in many ways less feature rich, but it doesn’t make promises we can’t fulfill and our customers can understand it.

In fact, when something goes wrong they can log right in with a shell and see exactly exactly what’s going on. We’ve paired the transparency with ground-breaking observability tools. NodeJS and no.de are huge successes, largely, I think, because we walked the fine line of abstraction level better this time. It’s only a black box when you want it to be. When you need to look inside, you can. You can evaluate the risk level of the technology and approach yourself.

Great read for anyone interested in technology and how to architect a mission-critical service.

10 years, 8 teams, 2 companies

2011-04-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

And I finally am where I want to be. I gave my 2-week notice to Amazon today, and the future is looking good. What's my next job going to be? Whatever it is, it's going to be something I really and truly cherish and want to do. No more settling for a job or a city or a ...

This time, I'm going to do it right. I've learned a lot about what I want to do and who I want to become in the 10 years since I graduated. I know I don't want to write code for a living. I have known that for a few years now, and I was told that I'd accomplish the goal of switching to another role before I started on my last team. That it didn't happen is now in the past. I have a great future to look forward to. First up though, I'm going to recharge my batteries.

Microsoft Windows Phone 7

2011-04-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

Karan and I often end up talking about technology trends as they pertain to Microsoft. Here is a snippet of a conversation we had this morning on Windows Phone 7. They in the context of this conversation is the Windows Phone 7 team. Enjoy!

Manoj (7:45 AM): problem is, they need a wild card
Manoj (7:45 AM): maybe Nokia is that WC
donna (7:45 AM): i think you will also be able to write your own agents that run in the background
Manoj (7:45 AM): but at this point, there is a very high switching barrier (inertia, investment in apps, etc) and no real incentive to switch to WP7
donna (7:45 AM): true true
Manoj (7:46 AM): WWKD?
donna (7:46 AM): the untapped market world wide is still larger than the existing base
donna (7:46 AM): by far, no?
Manoj (7:47 AM): yes by far
Manoj (7:47 AM): But, the untapped world market cannot afford 100$ phones
donna (7:47 AM): how many people buy _a lot_ of apps you think?
donna (7:47 AM): so much so that it would be a barrier
Manoj (7:48 AM): ok ready? if people aren't going to buy apps, then the massive investment in an app store isn't justified. The idea isn't how many apps people buy. The idea is that they have a choice to buy.
Manoj (7:48 AM): remember, people like the idea of choice. whether they exercise said choices is their call.
Manoj (7:49 AM): they must feel like they are in control, even if they aren't.
donna (7:49 AM): agreed completely. but the question is if my i want to switch from apple and i have bought $20 worth of apps or $500?
Manoj (7:49 AM): Circling back to my opening argument. The apps need to be there, all of them, so that every segment's needs are served.
donna (7:50 AM): the apps need to be there. yes. no argument against that.
Manoj (7:50 AM): it's about knowing that if i want to spend my next $ on an app I covet, will I find it in the joe schmo store.
Manoj (7:51 AM): you know it's going to be in the iTunes store. The only set of apps that gets advertising,word of mouth or viral publicity is the App store.

Stress and haste make waste

2011-04-12T00:36:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to mtenpow.

The last few weeks have been very stressful. Unforeseen issues have cropped up every day. I'll have accomplished something important when all is said and done, but it has extracted a very heavy price. Everything seems to have conspired against my best laid plans, and executing under pressure has made reaching the destination that much harder.

I'm not writing this because I want to complain about the stress. Instead, I want to talk about how dealing with stress is more important than succumbing to it. Stress has gotten the better of all of us at some point or the other; how does one deal with it effectively?

I'm no expert on the matter; I needed a reminder today to slow down, because being harried was messing me up. The stress was making me hurry, clouding my judgment, and not letting me find the cure of the symptoms I was observing. Spinning around in circles incessantly, I couldn't see some obvious problems with the environment I was working in.

How do I plan to counter future stressful situations? Take a deep breath, slow down, write out the causes of the issues, and separate and clarify concerns. Tackle one problem before going on to the next one, and then the next one. The end goal: Avoid getting frazzled, stay focused and find the thorns in my side. If all else fails, take a walk and clear my head.

Let me know what works for you.

Fighting to shut out the real India

2011-04-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

More often than in years past, I get to read a piece about India in the NYTimes or the Economist. More often than not, these articles talk about the huge economic disparity in the world's most populous country, and how the minorities are exploited for more than just monetary gain. This piece by Manu Joseph for the NYTimes starts out with the premise that affluent Indians find every way possible to isolate themselves from their less privileged kin.

In fact, daily life in India is a fierce contest between the affluent and the educated on the one side, and the brooding impoverished on the other.

The pursuit of India’s elite is to protect themselves from India — from its crowds, dust, heat, poverty, politics, governance and everything else that is in plain sight. To achieve this, they embed themselves in their private islands that the forces and the odors of the republic cannot easily penetrate.

The article goes on to back this hypothesis up with examples of people seeking refuge in their air-conditioned homes, their cars with windows raised, their exclusive clubs, etc. Having lived in the US for more than 10 years, I don't see how this is different from American society. Let me back my claim up with some data points:

1. The affluent live in the suburbs. The poor live in the inner city projects. This division brings itself to bear all over the country with a few exceptions. There is little to no inter-mingling between the 2 strata of society.
2. The affluent send their children to private schools if they can afford the exorbitant tuition. The public school system is broken in ways that doesn't really educate the poor. The public schools in the suburbs are among the best in the country, but accept pupils only from nearby localities, not from the inner-cities. The city public schools are under-funded and are in municipal regions that don't receive too much help from tax-payers (poor people don't pay high taxes, which means there is less tax money to go around, which means ...)
3. The rich live in gated communities or by the water-front and hire the poor as nannies or butlers or gardeners. I don't think the immigrant or blue-collar population in America can dream of being affluent. They dream of meeting their daily needs and not being caught into the debt trap that has ensnared so many Americans.
4. This leaves the upwardly-mobile middle-class: people like you reading this post and me, its author. There is an entire population of Indians just like you and me - not living on the fringes, yet not living in the lap of luxury; making a little more than we need, using some of it and putting the rest of it away for a rainy day.

Social structures exist everywhere, for reasons that can't be dissected or fully comprehended. It grinds my gears when authors present just one side of a story, especially when they are being critical.

New age doctors have short attention spans too

2011-04-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

In a separate interview, Dr. Kate Dewar said that treating chronic conditions like diabetes and high cholesterol — a huge part of her father’s daily life — was not that interesting. She likened primary care to the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the same boring problems recur endlessly. Needing constant stimulus — she e-mails while watching TV — she realized she could not practice the medicine of her forebears.

“I like it when people get better, but I’d rather it happen right in front of my eyes and not years later,” she said. “I like to fix stuff and then move on.”

Short attention span disorder is endemic in modern society; yes, I just made that disorder up. Unfortunately, no amount of Ritalin can cure this disorder. I wish there was a way to infuse our humdrum routines with a dose of adrenaline, but then, like what we consider mundane today, the infused humdrum will become the new routine.

In short, don't have boring diseases and expect to get good treatment!

Team India, dismantled and analyzed

2011-02-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

Update: Dhoni said this in his post-match interview, but I was seething after the game so didn't stick around to watch it. Listening to the water while walking around the shore aimlessly cooled me down and let me reflect on the games to come. India has one thing going for it: its batting. A batting effort can only go so far to hide the inefficacy of the other 2 departments: bowling and fielding. Being unable to defend 338 runs sends a message to both India's batsmen and the opponents. The batsmen psyche themselves into taking undue risks because they know they have to score a lot of runs at better than a run-a-ball - an unsustainable feat even for the likes of Sachin and Viru. The opponents believe that they are always in the game regardless of the enormity of their target; if England could do it, so can they. Both messages are detrimental to India's chances of holding the Cup aloft. The captain, team (bowlers, I am talking to you), coach and selectors best get their heads together and devise a plan. Or, kiss the Cup goodbye.

V Sehwag
- Nothing to add about Viru. He sticks to his game-plan, which is a rarity in this motley crue of cricketers.
SR Tendulkar
- For some reason, his centuries are almost always in vain. India loses because hubris sets in after a huge score has been posted on the board. He walks out with his head held high, gives it his best, and walks off with his head - and ours - held higher.
G Gambhir
- Great foil to the aggression of Sehwag. Only thing he needs to work on is his fielding.
Yuvraj Singh
- Mercurial. Inconsistent. Sublime and ridiculous. The mood of the team derives from his mood, so he needs to be upbeat, always!
MS Dhoni
- Winningest Indian captain, so can't really call him out for his decisions, but his bowling changes today were rubbish.
YK Pathan
- All-rounder and great fielder, so the only thing I'd ask off him is to work on his bowling in the death. He tends to bowl short and stray on the leg-side. As a bowling strategy, this isn't really one to write home about.
V Kohli
- Touted as the best fielder on the Indian team, but hasn't lived up to this billing. Needs to lose the sunglasses, hunker down, and inspire his teammates with his dives and jumps on the field. A treat to watch as a batsman, but in today's game, that isn't enough.
Harbhajan Singh
- The 2nd Indian spearhead. Bhajji bhai, you need to reach out to the junior bowlers in a manner they can digest, and dispel wisdom on how to deal with batsmen that aim to dominate. Piyush Chawla really needs this guidance.
Zaheer Khan
- The spearhead. The thinker's bowler. Enough said.
PP Chawla
- Has turned in a run of mediocre performances but he takes wickets. Tends to be inconsistent, too short, and bowls the wrong line. To let tail-enders hit 2 sixes off your last bowler, the 49th of a massive run chase, is plain unacceptable. You need to aspire to the greatness of Shane Warne, not the mediocrity of the last bowler you replaced on the Indian squad.
MM Patel
- Refer notes for Piyush Chawla. Good in sparks, but there aren't enough sparks to warrant praise.
Suresh Raina
- 12th man, young kid who isn't doing his due diligence to merit inclusion in the playing 11. When you're a substitute, you need to pull back runs, latch on to impossible catches, and make the 11 uncertain of their position on the team. With you waiting in the wings and playing the way you are, there is no fear in any of the 11 that their position is in jeopardy.

To summarize:
- Inconsistent performances need to be penalized.
- Bowling is sub-par, but there are simple things that can address the issues. First thing to do: have a plan. Second: stick to the plan. And don't forget, bowling short and/or bowling on middle and leg is a bad idea regardless of the conditions.
- Hubris is entrenched; it needs to be eviscerated. There is no place for hubris in modern sports. You're not the anointed champions; you can earn the right to be called champions, but nothing is ordained.

What I shipped in 2010

2011-01-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

In the Corporate world, you are what you ship. Here is who I am:

1. The AWS SDK for .NET updates for EC2, CloudFront and S3
2. AWS S3 Console:
a. Large Objects support
b. Usability improvements
c. RRS Bucket notifications

Though small, each item on that list had big implications for AWS developers and customers alike. Nailing the user experience, defining the API, determining which interactions to simplify and which to further flesh-out took a lot of research and hard-work.

Here's to 2011 being another year of features, both small and large, that improve the AWS customer experience.

Another knock against the "Multitasking is good" argument

2010-12-28T02:20:00.000-08:00

Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we're getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don't actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process.

No one is exempt from this, but some people are better at switch-tasking than others. For my part, I try to put my all into whatever I am doing, ergo I am a big proponent of single-tasking.

The Chaos Monkey

2010-12-16T12:40:00.001-08:00

One of the first systems our engineers built in AWS is called the Chaos Monkey. The Chaos Monkey’s job is to randomly kill instances and services within our architecture. If we aren’t constantly testing our ability to succeed despite failure, then it isn’t likely to work when it matters most – in the event of an unexpected outage.

Cool.

Firefox's new Infallible memory allocators

2010-12-15T10:36:00.000-08:00

When working on Windows, we were trained to write and test code under low memory conditions to ensure that code was resilient to allocation failures and the like. The question that always came up was, "What is the apt behavior when an allocation fails?"

Well, the good folks at Mozilla have given us one answer - crash.

How can memory allocation be infallible?

The term "infallible" means that your memory allocation request is guaranteed to succeed: your code can never see a failed request, and so doesn't need to check for failure.

Inside the allocation routine, the situation is different. Under extreme memory conditions, it's possible that the allocation will fail; however, the allocation routine will not, in this scenario, return to your code. Instead, the application will terminate. This should be rare, because the memory management system will do everything it can to find the memory you've asked for.

Choosing a memory allocator

As you write new code that needs to allocate memory, there are some simple rules to follow to help you decide whether to use a fallible or an infallible memory allocator:

If you're allocating what may be a large chunk of memory, you should allocate the memory fallibly (using moz_malloc() for example), and check the result to be sure it's not null. You should do this for large memory allocations because in extremely low memory conditions, as described in How can memory allocation be infallible?, the application may terminate if an infallible allocator can't find the memory you requested.

If you don't know whether or not the memory will be large, use the standard malloc() routine, which is currently fallible but will eventually become infallible. Be sure to check the result for null.

When instantiating objects, the new operator creates them infallibly by default. If you want to allocate them fallibly, use the syntax new (fallible_t()) Foo().
When in doubt, use the infallible allocator and don't null check.

Interesting concept in my opinion, as long as the application has a chance to log its state, failure code, and die "gracefully".

File under engineer makes something that no one needs: Facebook messaging

2010-11-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

This solution doesn't actually solve any user problem. Humans were successfully texting, IMing, and emailing each other, before SmartEngineer came along & decided to slam them all together into a mixed up mess, in the name of "abstracting away the transport."

Way to have your finger on the pulse of your users.

Comprehensive Windows Phone 7 review

2010-11-11T18:46:00.000-08:00

There’s a lot of complaints in this blog post and that is indicative of this being version one of Windows Phone – I used the word “unfinished” a couple of times and that sums up the whole phone pretty well. Happily the majority of these irksome foibles are not core to the phone and can be easily fixed and I’m sure that will happen in the not too distant future. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m not enjoying the phone –I am, I’m loving it- but be aware of its shortcomings before you decide to jump in!

All of the complaints were issues in the original iPhone as well. We all know how that cookie crumbled, so let's hope that Microsoft is serious about this platform and ready to ride the wave of good press its unique Metro interface is garnering. They need to innovate early, often and if the stars align, they will become not just pioneers but the leaders in this space.

You like cheese?

2010-11-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

Americans now eat an average of 33 pounds of cheese a year, nearly triple the 1970 rate. Cheese has become the largest source of saturated fat; an ounce of many cheeses contains as much saturated fat as a glass of whole milk.

...

Consider the Taco Bell steak quesadilla, with cheddar, pepper jack, mozzarella and a creamy sauce. “The item used an average of eight times more cheese than other items on their menu,” the Agriculture Department said in a report, extolling Dairy Management’s work — without mentioning that the quesadilla has more than three-quarters of the daily recommended level of saturated fat and sodium.

Still? Time for a rethink... And for people to stop hating so much on Whole Milk!

Cutting taxes for the rich truly boggles my mind

2010-11-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

The richest 0.1 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut of $61,000 from President Obama. They would get $370,000 from Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. And that provides only a modest economic stimulus, because the rich are less likely to spend their tax savings.

At a time of 9.6 percent unemployment, wouldn’t it make more sense to finance a jobs program? For example, the money could be used to avoid laying off teachers and undermining American schools.

I think the American people need to understand one simple fact - taxes form the main revenue stream for the government. The government uses part of this money to fund programs all over the country. More importantly, taxes serve to reduce the national budget deficit. I have heard politicians talk about lowering taxes and lowering the budget/trade deficit in the same breath; this is a mathematical impossibility. It is, I repeat, IMPOSSIBLE.

Republicans complain that income redistribution - the act of taxing the rich and distributing the taxes among the poor - isn't in the Constitution. I agree. But, vetoing and blanket dismissing initiatives that increase taxes on the rich using the fear of "Income Redistribution" is specious and misleading. The revenues from such tax increases can be put to other uses.

Update: Gruber has an interesting take on this as well

iOS in MacOS

2010-11-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Dave Winer posted about a "eureka" moment he had when using his iPad yesterday: Angry Birds on Macbook Air

Well, I predicted the addition of this feature to MacOS 10.7 maybe a week prior to the OSX Lion announcement :here:.

Just setting the record straight...

webOS 2.0 review -- Engadget

2010-10-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

"If Palm wants to survive in this game -- let alone truly compete -- it needs to push killer hardware into the marketplace now. The faithful are dwindling, and the smartphone race is getting more crowded every day -- webOS 2.0 is a big improvement, but if this and the Pre 2 are Palm's hail mary, they just lost the game."

What he wanted to say, "Even Windows Phone 7 will overtake Palm in the smartphone biz." :-)

The Windows Phone 7 review - Andy Ihnatko

2010-10-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

High praise for the new Windows phone platform.

With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has created the first really fresh and successful approach to a mobile platform since the iPhone. They’re competing with iOS and Android the same way Apple chose to compete with Blackberry, PalmOS and Windows Mobile in January of 2007: by not competing at all. They didn’t build a knockoff: they built something new.

The next 18 months are going to be some of the most exciting months for all phone owners looking to upgrade. It remains to be seen what Microsoft comes up with for its fledgling platform, but from what I have heard, there is reason to be optimistic. If Microsoft can avoid its tendency to mire its successful products in a quagmire created by egos, politicking and internecine rivalries, I believe this platform is a genuine threat to iOS and Android. Microsoft, I am rooting for you, if only so that MSFT goes past 30 again.

How to avoid becoming a victim of your own success?

2010-10-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

Here's one idea - reinvent the space you're working in.

Another? Sell your company before your stock becomes worthless.

A third - I'm outta ideas... The firebug folks might know a thing or two about this. They were pioneers in the field of live web development and debugging. Now, Firebug has been eclipsed by the tools built into Chrome and Safari - read more :here:

The Long Tail Principle and Monopolies

2010-10-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

To continue a thought that I conveyed in a previous post - we are slowly arriving at the point, if we aren’t there already, where the iPhone is the de facto mobile development platform, in the same way that Windows is the development platform for desktop apps. In any space, the established leaders maintain their position because of the “Long Tail principle”. The rest of the competition that has been pushed to the fringes, has to pick a particular area and excel at it in order to stay relevant. The conventional wisdom is that it’s better to be everything to someone than something to everyone. This is what Bing needs to do if it is to compete with Google, how Apple has carved a niche for itself and stayed relevant despite the Microsoft juggernaut, how squashgear.com competes with Amazon, etc. Once there is an established leader, only specialty/niche-players can compete because they become everything for a small subset of the population.

Windows Phone 7 Review: TechCrunch

2010-10-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

"Might I recommend buying a Windows Phone 7 handset? Yes — but not right now. Between iOS and the myriad Android phones available, there are simply way too many good options out there that have fewer or none of these shortcomings. If Microsoft can quickly crack away at these gaps whilst managing to not slip behind in other ways, I could quite easily see myself toting a Windows Phone in the future — but for now, at the end of the day, all WP7 really has to offer over the competition is a pretty face."

Tsk. Tsk.

So what's next for Mac OSX?

2010-10-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

I've been using Macs for a long time now; for the last couple years, a Mac has been my primary machine. Let me start with this so you don't think I am either a Mac fanboy or an apologist. I am not under any misconceptions about the Mac platform in the Enterprise - a Mac is as frustrating to use in a corporate environment as Windows is to use at home. The primary driver for the frustration is the lack of tools and services designed to be used with anything other than Windows. That these corporate services are made by Microsoft might have something to do with this, but that's how Microsoft makes money - one division rubs the others' back. Support for other platforms is an after-thought, and rightly so - Windows owns 90% of the enterprise. I forgive Microsoft for this "protectionism"; what baffles me is Open Source applications don't work on Mac as well as they sometimes do on Windows.

Let's take Eclipse for example. Or Firefox. Or, well name an Open Source app that is cross-platform that actually treats the Mac as a first class citizen. New Firefox features are first designed for Windows. Eclipse is a DOG on my Mac (it has 4GB of RAM and a 2.2 GHz processor). NetBeans, Wireshark, etc.; the list is endless. You must wonder why I endure rather than get a PC...

Well, I have started having a crisis of confidence in my choice too. For many people like me that have used Windows 7, the gap between the 2 platforms is fast closing. My Mac is almost 5 years old, which means it will soon be time for me to buy a new laptop. With what I know about Windows, the $500 plus dollars I can save at the checkout register by picking PC (Sony Vaio for instance) is tempting. The buzz around Windows 8 is slowly picking up too, and I don't know much about what's going to be in there, but that team has the wind behind its sails. It's not like Steven Sinofsky to squander the momentum that the Windows team has picked up with the 7 release (he ran Office, and we know that's a slam-dunk). I want Apple to give me a sign, to show me something that keeps me from jumping ship. What does that sign need to be? Glad you asked; here's my categorized wish list for Mac OS 10.7:

I. Platform features
1. Resiliency
A single rogue application shouldn't bring the OS to its knees. Flash in Firefox and Eclipse both have a way of deadlocking my Mac to the point where I have to hard reset my box. If an application does get into an unusable state, there needs to be an always available "Force Quit" menu or a magic key combination like Ctrl+Alt+Del that lets me identify and kill the hung app.

2. Crash Recovery
I made this suggestion to the Windows team a few years ago but they had bigger fish to fry - Application hibernation. The feature has been implemented to some degree in iOS and Android - this is how the state of background applications is saved and how crashed applications are restored. The idea is simple - periodically, the state of all your currently executing applications is saved (usually on your hard drive) so that if they unexpectedly crash or the machine reboots or they need to be forcefully killed, you can recover all the information and resume from where you last left off. How many of you have lost that all important presentation or document or paper due to a reboot. This video might resonate with you:

Ellen Feis is a cult figure for all the wrong reasons, but her point remains. An OS crash shouldn't make me lose all my work.

3. Integration with Cloud services
Either Apple's new cloud services or those of a provider like AWS (Apple is not about to get in bed with Azure). It's about time that I can backup my data via Time-Machine to S3 or equivalent service. I don't want to entrust a 3rd party with this task; I trust Apple more than I trust some Joe-Schmo development house.

4. Reduced boot time < 5sec Load only the absolutely essential services at boot-up. Opportunistically load the other services based on the user's usage. By streamlining boot-up, fewer people will feel the need to leave their Macs running (even in Sleep mode, the Mac consumes power). If boot-up was almost instantaneous, and the state of all my apps was saved so that I could resume from where I left off, I would never leave my Mac on.

5. Better Java support
Apple, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to vet all Java releases rather than let Sun release the Java Virtual Machine for Mac along with its releases for Windows and Linux. What this means is that the Mac platform usually lags behind its counterparts when it comes to Java support. Apple, stop trying to do too much; let Sun/Oracle release Virtual Machines for Mac. With HotSpot, they definitely know what they are doing. Focus on your core competency - building great UI for the classes.

II. iOS, Mac OS. How does it matter?
Bring a few cool features of the iOS platform to Mac OS. Enable a few features that allow the 2 operating systems to talk to one another seamlessly. Blur the lines so that customers of either can barely tell them apart.

1. Wifi Sync - I should be able to sync my content over Wifi between my laptop and iOS devices and vice-versa. Even I have the Internet now, and even when I didn't, I had not one but two wireless routers in my house. The Zune had Wifi Sync Circa 2008!

2. Native iOS Emulation/iOS Virtual Machine
Like Classic Mode and Rosetta, OS X.7 should have an iOS mode that can run iOS applications. This would enable the native execution of all my iOS applications in a specialized virtual machine. Apple could engineer this Virtual Machine to be aware of its host operating system and apply a slew of optimizations that make the iOS mode run at > 90% efficiency. Can you imagine playing Angry Birds or some of the EA games you downloaded for your iPad with enhanced graphics? I have numerous friends who swear by their iPad applications, RSS readers and the like. With iOS applications costing a fraction of their Mac OS counterparts, people will buy apps rather than pirating them, enabling more sales from the App Store. And Profit.

3. Facetime for Mac OS
'Nuff said.

4. Backup and Restore from an older version a la iPhone backup
Tied to the Cloud Sync services, I should be able to save an image of my operating system to either the cloud or to a backup drive. In the event that I get hit by a virus or I get a new hard-drive, I should be able to restore my entire computer to an older, known good state. It's unclear whether this option exists in Time Machine today, but it isn't surfaced enough for a computer nerd like me to know of it.

I almost made it to 10. What features would you like to see in the next Mac OS?

Great early morning reading

2010-09-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

Sontag believed that it was up to novelists to create “a stipulated shrinking of the world as it really is — both in space and in time.” I think it’s journalists who need to take up that challenge — to learn how to spin something coherent and absorbing and contained and in-the-moment and satisfying from the chaos of the world around us. Think of it as a New Urbanism for news: a retrenchment from endless sprawl, the construction of concentrated experiences, a new consciousness of how we obtain and consume. A new shrinking of the world.

I used to suffer from content overload until I stopped logging in to my rss reader. All I read these days is news from the bbc and the nytimes, and I listen to the radio every night before passing into the nether world. And yes, the economist. How many news sources do you consume daily?

Nifty extension for Firefox: Link Target Display

2010-09-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

I hate every browser's Status Bar. That's right, I said it. Give me back my screen real estate. Why show the status of things like, "Hey dude, the page you wanted to see is done loading", in the status bar when I am smart enough to see that the "Reload" button is now visible? Well, I'll give you at least one reason why we still need the status bar: to get a quick look at the URL that you're about to visit when clicking on a link.

I scratched my head for a long time (and no, that's not why I am bald) to find another reason for the Status Bar; I couldn't conjure one up. Yet, Firefox and IE persist with the decision to have a Status Bar occupy valuable screen real estate. If I could figure out that the bar is superfluous, why couldn't their crack team of designers? Browser users everywhere continued to put with their screen being occupied by something they needed only momentarily and not that often - come on now, I'm not always hovering over links! And then, we all got a reprieve...

The folks building Chrome blazed a trail - like they were reading my mind, they figured that the Status Bar was useless and did away with it all together. To satisfy my desire to view URLs before I click on a link, they came up with a nifty solution - URLs appeared in a small toaster like window at the bottom-left corner of the screen. If I moved my mouse away, the toaster disappeared. Q.E.D. I tried to build an extension that did this myself, but got sidetracked by Elasticfox. Then I got busy with the .NET SDK. Yet, like a loyal dog, I didn't quit using Firefox; the browser had been good to me through the years that IE languished. I commented and voted on the bug to bring Chrome-like functionality to Firefox to no avail. Finally, someone out there heard the requests of the masses and built an extension that did just what I wanted.

It is: Link Target Display, built by Dão G. He's the man. Everyone, give this man the praise he deserves. And of course, install the extension so that you can "Take Back Your Screen!"

Sacrifices made at the altar of the bottom line

2010-09-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

It was my younger brother's birthday yesterday, and all my attempts at getting in touch with him came to naught. Being away from family to be employed overseas has started to take its toll on me, and though the cracks aren't apparent, I get maudlin around this time of year. It eventually passes, but a part of me doesn't recover from the enveloping sadness of being quasi-orphaned.

Since I couldn't reach out to him, I wrote him a letter. I was sad when I started writing it, but the act of putting my thoughts down transformed my mood and gave me hope for the future. I hope this letter helps you somehow:

My dear Nikhil,

Today is the first day of the 31st year of your life. I wasn't thinking about this specifically, but it dawned on me this evening that it was 15 years ago that I left for Pilani. That's half your life! It has been that long since I celebrated your birthday with you. Of course, I am not counting that first trip you made to Pilani as a birthday surprise for me, and the one time I came back home and we had a party at Karma. I do wish that some day, hopefully soon, we'll live near each other and can celebrate some joyous occasions together. But this isn't a time for regrets or remonstrations; instead, this is a time for celebration, so let me banish such pointless thoughts and get on with what I wanted to say to you.

In the interest of being transparent, I want to admit - there was a time when I was worried about what you would do with yourself. Don't get me wrong - I always knew you to be a standout person of good character. Where I thought you were lacking was in your willingness to succeed, to persevere and see a task to completion. I make long-term bets, and I was hoping that you would be one of those late bloomers - start slow, but finish strong. And I can say with a measure of confidence that you have just about hit your stride; couldn't have been better timing...

Nikhil, it has brought me immense satisfaction and filled me with pride to see you become the man you have. I saw the transition take place before my very eyes, and it vindicated the faith everyone had bestowed in your innate abilities. I have said, and I maintain, that you're the better man among the two of us. You are loyal, trusting and honest, and if you believe your best interests are taken care of, you endeavor selflessly. These qualities are the mark of a dying breed of men - gentlemanly yet worldly. Stay on this path; you might not get as far ahead as some of your contemporaries, but you'll be happy when you arrive at your destination, as will be the souls you have touched along the way.

The first 15 years of your life were spent in school. The next 15 in becoming a man. I am not going to ask you to invest the next 15 in any pursuits that anyone else believes you should undertake. Instead, I suggest you use the upcoming years to chart a map of the rest of your life. I believe the time has come for Nikhil to decide what he wants to become. It's time he asked himself some difficult questions because the answers will inform the decisions he makes going forward. Why? Because you're at a crossroads Nikhil; where you go from here is entirely up to you. You're not going to be alone though. Rest assured that I will be there for you, in all the ways I have been in the past, and in every conceivable way I can be in the future.

All my love,
Manoj

Change is hard

2010-09-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

Whenever I embark on a new journey or try something I didn't think I could do, something I learned years ago fills me with hope and inspiration: "Human beings have the unique trait of being infinitely adaptable." Sometime later whilst experimenting and experiencing, I realize that the truth is far from that ideal. In no part of my job is that realization brought to bear more often than in User Interface Design.

Firefox was the first mainstream browser to introduce Tabs in its interface. The innovation is credited to Opera, but with its infinitesimal market share... The Internet Explorer 9 team posits that the average number of tabs used by a customer is 8; they get this number by crunching a lot of user information. Hmm, I wonder if I signed up for my information to be relayed back to Microsoft! Back to the User Interface - IE9's new interface is beautiful and minimal. Microsoft has taken a page out of Apple's playbook and removed UI features while adding tons of under the covers functionality that makes IE a viable browser again.

At the other end of the spectrum, Firefox is in a quagmire of its own creation. It's no longer seen as the browser at the cutting edge, but rather viewed as an example of what bureaucracy can do to innovation. I think Firefox 4 is the company's last chance at redemption, but they might have bitten off more than they can chew with 4. For example, a lot of basic user interactions have changed. One that bites me to the day - and I've been using the beta release for a month - is the *new* position of the "Open in New Tab" entry in the right-click context-menu. The Firefox team has prioritized all Tab activities over Window activities. Ergo, Tabs are front and centre in this release; existential question - can a Tab exist without a Window? But I digress. Here is why this is a problem. Over four years, I've grown accustomed to the following flow:

1. Find a link on a page that piques my interest
2. Right-Click
3. Scroll to the 2nd entry in the list, Left-Click
4. Link opens in a new tab.

Today, the 2nd entry is - "Open in New Window". Muscle memory is a bad thing - I don't even read the contents of the menu any more. But now that the Firefox team has changed the ordering of the menu, I have to teach my programmed muscles something new. What's even more annoying is that all the other browsers order the entries like the old Firefox did, adding yet another inconsistency between browsers. Geez!

Away from User Interface complaints, I am proud to say that after trying to change my sleep schedule for a few years now, I finally succeeded this past week. By making an effort to get into bed a few minutes earlier every night, I finally got my conscious brain to switch off around 11:30 last night. Getting out of bed at 7am this morning wasn't hard any more, and staying awake didn't require an infusion of caffeine. We'll see how long this lasts, but as the adage goes, I have adapted. Eventually, I'll adapt to the browsers as well. Or, I'll switch to IE9 on my Mac. Wait...

In the battle between Movies and TV shows, why the latter is winning

2010-09-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Look back over the past decade. How many films have approached the moral complexity and sociological density of “The Sopranos” or “The Wire”? Engaged recent American history with the verve and insight of “Mad Men”? Turned indeterminacy and ambiguity into high entertainment with the conviction of “Lost”? Addressed modern families with the sharp humor and sly warmth of “Modern Family”? Look at “Glee,” and then try to think of any big-screen teen comedy or musical — or, for that matter, movie set in Ohio — that manages to be so madly satirical with so little mean-spiritedness.

I swear, I’m not trying to horn in on my colleagues’ territory. But the traditional relationship between film and television has reversed, as American movies have become conservative and cautious, while scripted series, on both broadcast networks and cable, are often more daring, topical and willing to risk giving offense.

I agree wholeheartedly. Besides Inception and The Dark Knight, both Chris Nolan blockbusters, I can't remember the last time I went to a movie theatre and enjoyed what I was watching. For all of you thinking Avatar should be in this distinguished list, I disagree. My review: movie - too long, story - threadbare.

Fix for the "Upgrade are failed" error when upgrading Linksys firmware

2010-08-30T23:42:00.000-07:00

Almost everyone I know - even those that I don't really know - are shocked when they find out that I don't have an Internet connection at home. The responses span the gamut from, "What kind of techie are you?" to "How do you survive?" Let me tell you this - not only have I survived, but I have thrived. I am no longer an insomniac, I don't wake up more tired than I was when I went to bed, and I don't think I have read as many books in my life as I did these past 17 months. In my eyes, this experiment was a resounding success.

Alas, like all experiments, this one has to come to an end. The process of returning back to being online started with me finding a roommate who is perennially oncall. To facilitate his work, I picked up a Clear Internet connection device from my friend Shari's store in Bellevue at the start of August. Given how much he needs the Internet and that my Wireless router was with Jyot, I let him have the wired connection in his room. I thought I'd hold out for a little longer...

It all ends today. That's right ladies and gents, I am once again among the online netizens of the world. Being offline is dead. Long live being offline! Like everything else this past month, the transition wasn't without its share of trials and tribulations. I plugged my Linksys WRT54G in, reset the settings, and setup my wireless network with the right security settings. At this point, it was brought to my attention that the firmware on my router was a few years old. Old isn't good, right? Like a good techie, I downloaded the latest firmware, and pointed the router to the new firmware file using my trusty Firefox installation. Bad idea!!

Here's why:
1. Firefox is known to cause firmware upgrade issues for Linksys routers. Avoid using it at all costs
2. If you get an error message that says, "Upgrade are failed", searching through the Linksys forums will not provide you with any answers to fix your router. The most dire news you can get is that you have officially bricked your router. Don't believe the hype, or in this case, the bad news. This is just opinion, not fact!

After spending an hour trawling the web for information, I got what I needed at a Linksys "jailbreaking"/modding site. In hindsight, I should've started my search there because these guys surely know what their doing. So, here is the fix:

1. Download the appropriate firmware for your router's version. My router is a Linksys WRT54G V8. The V8 is KEY.
2. Connect your computer via an Ethernet cable to port 1 of your router (the order of the buttons and ports from the Left is: Reset Button, Internet (Connection to your modem), Port 1, Port 2, 3, 4, Power).
3. Manually configure the connected computer's IP settings to be:

  IP Address: 192.168.1.100
  Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
  Gateway: 192.168.1.1
  No DHCP configuration

4. Unplug your router's power cord
5. Unplug the cable that connects the router to the modem
6. With a pen, press down on the Reset button. The button is recessed, so please ensure that the button is actually pressed.
7. Plug the router's power cord back in
8. Keep the Reset button pressed for about 25 seconds
9. Open up Safari or Internet Explorer
10. Browse to http://192.168.1.1/

You should be presented with a screen that says "Management Mode Firmware Upgrade". Follow the prompts and upgrade your router's firmware with the downloaded .bin file's contents!

If you need images or have any other questions, follow the more detailed instructions :here:

Working week: Day -1: Flying to my destination

2010-08-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

The samba beat ringing true in my ears, I sit in a tiny cafe by the beach. A long walk on the beach with the warm sun baking the sand was exactly the change I needed from a hectic two months of ceaseless and unrelenting pressure at work. Moving to a new team is hard, but none of my moves in the past have been anything like this one.

The flow of events changed when I touched down in Dallas. Nishant is a great host and an able partner in crime, and this meeting didn't disappoint. The craziness started on the ride back to his place, continued at this really cool bar a stone's throw from his apartment, sputtered through the taqueria food we chowed down while inebriated, and ended with a viewing of The Soup. Juggy style driving was on full display, and being back in The Lone Star State reminded why I love it so much. Texans are proud of who they are, comfortable in their skin, and extremely friendly. That part about Southern Hospitality: it's true.

Back to the present. The positive energy emanated by the people of this place is recharging my cells. I had completely stopped writing; the rigors of my routine taking a toll on my ability to look at things as an observer rather than a participant. People are milling about without a care on their minds, going in and out of conversation with complete strangers with ease and abandon. Nothing seems scripted or orchestrated here, and best of all, I am not worried about responding to the next pressing email from someone, anyone!

My tendency to take things as they come has been an aid through my travels this past year. My last trip to the East Coast, my sojourn in India and now this journey; the unexpected is at every corner if you expect just the basics. My aim is to embrace the unexpected, mingle with the local folk wherever I go, and make merry as the sun shines. Who knows when I'll be back to gray skies in Seattle...

Jailbreak and Unlock your iPhone 3g on Windows

2010-07-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

Previous generation iPhones, 3g in particular, are available for cheap these days. If you got your hands on one of these devices and don't want to be tied down to either AT&T or deal with Apple's walled garden, you're going to want to Jailbreak and/or Unlock your newly acquired device. I've tried to distill the information from a plethora of websites so that you can accomplish said goals. Read on...

FWIW, these instructions only allow you to have iPhone OS 3.1.2 on your 3g device. If you want to have 3.1.3, these instructions might work, but caveat emptor.

The Prerequisites
I. Download the necessary files
1. The Apple iPhone Firmware: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=750
a. For 3.1.2, get this file: http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-7265.20091008.Xsd32/iPhone1,2_3.1.2_7D11_Restore.ipsw

2. Recboot: http://www.sebby.net/443-recboot-final-release/

3. Redsnow 0.9.2: http://wikee.iphwn.org/howto, http://xs1.iphwn.org/rs/redsn0w-win_0.9.2.zip

Download all these files to a location that you can easily access again. I used: c:\temp\iPhoneUnlock\

II. Cellular Network or Wifi Connectivity
Ensure that you have either a SIM card in your phone or have it connected to a WiFi network. I can't stress the importance of having some sort of network connectivity when you are jailbreaking your iPhone.

Now, for the real work; you need to do three things in order to unlock your iPhone 3g:

1. Follow the instructions on how to Downgrade to 3.1.2 from: http://lifehacker.com/5572003/how-to-downgrade-your-iphone-3g%5Bs%5D-from-ios-4-to-ios-313
- Only difference is you need to downgrade to 3.1.2

2. Jailbreak the iphone firmware using redsn0w.
a. Launch the RedSn0w application
b. Point it to the ipsw (Apple Firmware file) for 3.1.2 that you downloaded earlier (c:\temp\iPhoneUnlock\iPhone1,2_3.1.2_7D11_Restore.ipsw)
c. RedSn0w downloads some files and patches the iPhone Kernel. After it is done, it asks you to switch off your iPhone and ensure that it is plugged in to your machine. Do this!
d. Follow the onscreen prompts to put your device into DFU mode
e. Once your device is in DFU mode, redsn0w will do the rest. When the RedSn0w application moves to the next screen, you can stop pushing down the "Home" button.
f. If you get a "Flashing NOR" screen on your iPhone, the correct process has been initiated. Sit back, relax and enjoy your soon-to-be-jailbroken iPhone.

Unlock
a. Launch Cydia
b. Upgrade or update any packages it prompts you to update
c. Install ultrasnow using cydia: http://www.redmondpie.com/unlock-iphone-3.1.3-3g-3gs-with-ultrasn0w/
- You don't need to specify a new repository url. The latest version of Cydia locates ultrasnow 0.93 automatically.

Once ultrasnow is installed, your device will reboot and you will see the Pineapple logo. After your device does start up, it will be carrier unlocked!

Jailbreak and Unlock your iPhone 3.1.3 on a Mac

2010-07-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

The instructions are pretty detailed. Unfortunately, the tool is currently Mac-only. I'll put up some detailed instructions on how to do this for Windows shortly.

HTTP Headers are a multi-map

2010-04-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

RFC 2616:

Multiple message-header fields with the same field-name MAY be present in a message if and only if the entire field-value for that header field is defined as a comma-separated list [i.e., #(values)]. It MUST be possible to combine the multiple header fields into one "field-name: field-value" pair, without changing the semantics of the message, by appending each subsequent field-value to the first, each separated by a comma.

Today, I found and fixed a cool bug in the AmazonCloudFront client for .NET. The original implementation of the client used the System.Net.WebHeaderCollection.Add() method to specify headers for a CloudFront request. An example of one of the request headers is If-Match - this header uniquely identifies a CloudFront distribution, and the value associated with this header is the ETag specified for the request.

Using the Add method is fine if a new request object is created for every CloudFront request; the issue arises when an attempt is made to reuse an existing SetDistributionConfigRequest object to perform another CloudFront request, albeit with new parameters. In the reuse case, the new header values will be appended to the existing headers' values.

Let's take the case of If-Match: when the request was sent over HTTP, CloudFront received a comma-separated value for If-Match containing all the ETags specified during the lifetime of the request object. When CloudFront received this string, it couldn't verify the identity of the distribution, and rejected the request.

The fix: Use the WebHeaderCollection's [] accessor to set a unique value for every request header. Fixing this bug makes it now possible for the same request object to be reused for multiple calls.

Critiquing the iPad, and getting it wrong!

2010-04-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

I like Cory Doctorow, especially his unique take on technology and all things geek. In fact, Boing Boing was the first RSS feed I subscribed to, ever! His latest piece on why he dislikes the iPad is a miss though; he doesn't get some basic tenets of why the iPad will succeed.

if you can't open it, you don't own it.

I consider myself to be quite the technophile, but when it comes to unscrewing the back off my laptop and fiddling with its innards, I *seriously* consider my alternatives. Most people that own computers panic when it runs slowly, panic even more when they get a Virus alert, and suffer a melt-down when their computer crashes or their hard drive fails. You think the average computer owner can bring out their screwdriver set and start tinkering with their computer? A laptop or desktop, as open as a hardware platform as can be, is still very intimidating to a regular Joe.

The iPhone was criticized for being a closed hardware and software platform. Did this stop the really inclined tinkerers from peeking inside and figuring out how these devices worked? No! For proof of this phenomenon, you don't have to go farther than Mumbai's grey market. For a very fair price (10 - 20 US$), you can pick from a number of "technicians" who can open your iPhone, replace your battery, tweak the hardware settings on the LCD, jailbreak the device, et al. Mumbai, Delhi, Moscow, Seattle - hardware geeks everywhere know everything they need to repair an iPhone, to hack an iPhone, to replace the software on the iPhone. What's that about not being able to customize the device?

The way you improve your iPad isn't to figure out how it works and making it better. The way you improve the iPad is to buy iApps. Buying an iPad for your kids isn't a means of jump-starting the realization that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it's a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals.

Isn't that what you do with a car, or a TV, or a DVD player, or a clock radio, or ... Why is this a bad thing? Why is it such a blasphemy that a device is locked down so as to enable scenarios that make it simpler to use and interact with than any other device available? In this age of information overload, the iPad offers me the ability to never have to learn how to make it work other than pressing its power button. Brain cells saved only to be wasted on something else that might help me find a job or improve my life!

What made me write this post though was this paragraph:

But with the iPad, it seems like Apple's model customer is that same stupid stereotype of a technophobic, timid, scatterbrained mother as appears in a billion renditions of "that's too complicated for my mom" (listen to the pundits extol the virtues of the iPad and time how long it takes for them to explain that here, finally, is something that isn't too complicated for their poor old mothers).

My mother isn't stupid, but she does struggle with using a computer. When did our measure of stupidity become proficiency with a computer? My mother could whoop most people's behinds when it comes to most things not related to using her computer; that she can't use her computer is not so much her fault as it is the fault of Microsoft or Apple or the other software makers. But I would buy the iPad for her, like I would buy an iPhone for her. She took to my iPhone and my Macbook Pro like a duck takes to water. In fact, my mom doesn't know how to use Copy/Paste and until a few days ago, didn't even think she needed such functionality!

April 3rd is tomorrow, and let me tell you something - the iPad will sell, and the 2nd version of the device will outsell its predecessor, and so on. When I used to walk around the 1st Gen iPhone, my friends used to mock me. These same friends now connect to the world with said iPhone. We have severe technological amnesia - being critical of something today doesn't preclude owning the thing tomorrow (or a year from now). I hope Cory wakes up and smells the coffee at some point; the rest of us common folk have already seen the light.

Mobile platform multi-tasking revisited

2010-03-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

Everyone is clamoring for multi-tasking on their mobile smartphones. android has it, windows mobile has it but the iPhone and the new dangle windows phone 7 don't. This isn't that hard of a ponlem to solve you would think, but it really is. Reason - constrained resources on the phone and no good user interaction model for users to kill rogue applications.

The biggest issue with multi-tasking on phones though is reduced battery life. Right now, my iPhone barely gives me 5 hours of usage; I shudder to think what my battery life will reduce to once multi-tasking becomes du jour. Single-tasking is plain not good enough because switching to another app means all context is lost in the current app. There are times when I am listening to an episode of fresh air in my browser and the phone rings - bam, need to start the episode from scratch! So we are at an impasse, unless...

Yes, there is a third solution; an idea which is more of a hybrid approach - application hibernation. Switching to another app puts the current app into a form of suspended animation, kinda like the pause button for media playback. The application's state is saved to persistent storage and room is made for the new application. It would be trivial to provide a list of "suspended"/paused applications, with a cool ui that allows a user to literally press Play on the application they want to turn "On". It's going to be really interesting to see what strategy the 3 leading mobile platforms will adopt.

Is High Fructose Corn Syrup good for you? The debate rages on...

2010-03-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

I happened to switch on the TV last Thursday around the time of ABC’s nightly news programme. Under normal circumstances, I would have switched to a recorded program or to another channel, but the story being featured was on the deleterious effects of Fructose on our body. It turns out that the food industry has been lying to us, repeatedly; imagine my shock and horror! Even food dubbed healthy is full of fructose – probiotics, fruit juice, yoghurt, Special-K; the list is endless. Unlike sucrose, fructose tampers with the body’s Leptin production , which results in the lack of appetite regulation (we continue to feel hungry even after our body has received the necessary nutrients).

Of course, the Corn Growers lobby in Washington was also mentioned. Corn is pure starch, and it is the most abundant crop in America; some Corn in my food is to be expected. Was it really *some* thought? I had to know exactly how prevalent the grain was though, so I conducted a small “Corn” experiment this weekend at the grocery stores I frequent. I have a list of maybe 20 items I buy on a regular basis – some from Safeway but most from Trader Joe’s. I went down my list and read through the ingredients of the processed foods (including the unfrozen kind) - mostly juice, yoghurt, cereal, veggie patties, peanut butter pretzels, etc. It’s hard to get exact amounts of individual ingredients, so I just put a check against items that contained Corn or Fructose on the list; my findings were eye-opening!

Regardless of provenance and seller, about 75% of all processed food I purchase contain corn in one form or another (syrup, powder or whole). Fructose came in at a slightly lower 54%, the remaining 46% contained sugar. You should know this – I am a careful, anal even, shopper and read the ingredients before buying anything. Even I haven’t staved off the corn growers onslaught on my system. I guess the cost of healthy eating is a lifetime of vigilance.

What am I going to do now that I have this information? My findings suggest I need to eat more real food, less fruit juice, more fruit pulp, and cook more. I’m going to see how long this latest revelation makes me cook fresh meals before I succumb to the convenience of packaged food. Stay tuned.

Being profligate in a recession - NYC sports teams

2010-03-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

In this time of recession, it seems profligate, reckless even, for American sports teams to be erecting billion dollar pantheons for their respective sports. Take the professional baseball and football teams of New York City for instance.

At the same time, the Jets and the Giants are moving to yet another new stadium in the Meadowlands, which will replace a perfectly good Giants Stadium, to accommodate shrimp-and-wine tastes. The new place will still hold major soccer matches, particularly if the United States is chosen to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

Parts of the world are so in debt and in need of funds that people don't have enough to put two square meals on the table. These teams are/were playing in perfectly functioning stadiums and ball parks; such excess!

System.Uri constructor makes the host lower-case

2010-03-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this cool property of the System.Uri class today; the .NET Framework's Uri class knows that DNS names are case-insensitive. If you pass a string to a Uri constructor with mixed or upper case letters, the constructor will make the DNS/host part of the string lower-case.

So,


Uri uri = new Uri("http://WWW.YAHoo.com/FoO");
Console.WriteLine(Uri.Host);

will print: "www.yahoo.com"


Console.WriteLine(uri.AbsolutePath);

will print: "FoO"

Apple might be setting itself up for a Mobile Search Fail

2010-03-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

APPLE and Google remain partners in certain areas. Google pays Apple millions of dollars annually to make its search engine the default on Apple’s Web browser, on the iPhone and soon, perhaps, on the iPad.

But there is wide speculation in technology circles that Apple is preparing to give Google a public black eye: by making Microsoft’s offering, Bing, the preferred search engine on the iPad, and perhaps even on the iPhone. One Apple employee says that Qi Lu, the president of Microsoft’s online services division, was recently seen visiting Apple’s campus in Cupertino to discuss such a deal. Microsoft declined to comment.

At the time of this writing, there is no physical device that runs Windows Phone 7 Series, but the initial buzz around the new platform and devices is frenzied. The devices are going to have an application store and an SDK out of the gates, and all of the Windows 7 phones will have Bing as their default search engine. If the platform catches on, and Android continues its onward march at the steady clip it is today, the default search engine on Apple will no longer be a priority for either Google or Microsoft. Why would either of the two companies pay a third almost a billion dollars to feature its search engine on *another* mobile phone platform?

Thinking about this some more, Microsoft might still make such a deal with the *perceived* devil, simply because it is the underdog in search. So yes, Apple will give Google a black eye, but really, will it even make a dent in Google's armor? In true Google style, it might just yank out the blackened eye and replace it with another commodity eye it bought for cheap on the open market!

Thoughts on the iPad

2010-03-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

My friend Ishmeet and I had a spirited discussion on the iPad a few weeks ago. The linked article was sent my way by Ishmeet earlier today; reading it literally broke the dam holding back my thoughts; it is time I let my opinion join the steady stream of opinions and conjecture on the device. Bear in mind, this is based on an email response I wrote to him on my iPhone.

The author makes some good arguments - Apple is trying to define a new market segment, which is difficult; the $499 price point might be prohibitive for some; we are in the throes of a recession. But I think the rest of his arguments and scenarios fall flat. In particular, his logic on the whole "connectivity aspect and 3g" is specious. We live in an infinitely connected world - I can't go to a single place these days without my phone finding at least one open wireless access point. The need for 3g connectivity is so minimal and the available 3g network is so clogged (at least AT&T's), that watching movies would be more of a problem with 3g and shouldn't be a problem without the 3g device. Also, his point about content consumption vs creation is only partially valid. Content creation seems conceptually harder on the iPad than it would be on a traditional netbook, but that's what they said about typing on a touch only iPhone keyboard. We know how that claim has been debunked. To wit: it took me about 10 minutes to type this out on my iPhone and I chose to use this keyboard even though I am sitting in front of my laptop. The difference in typing time is insignificant enough to even be a factor. Regardless, there is a Bluetooth and tethered keyboard accessory available that should mitigate a lot of the content creation issues, if not all of them.

The issues that the author hasn't touched upon are the ones that concern me more - expandability, peripheral support, camera and screen. Software shortcomings are easier to overcome than hardware oversights. There is another tablet out there, developed by an Indian company, that is the clear choice when compared to the iPad. It remains to be seen whether the technical superiority of the Indian innovation will translate into real sales; my hope is that other hardware vendors will take cues from the Indian outfit and build a viable competitor to the iPad. This shouldn't be a 1 horse race, and Microsoft's answer isn't that far along in development to factor into this conversation.

To Apple's credit though, there is no doubting the brilliance of the iPad's software interface. Herein lies the true gem, and the real reason people other than loyalists will buy the device. Finally, there is a computing device that is larger than a phone that actually gets out of it's own way and let's a user do what they want. Granted that a user can only do a few things today, but the possibilities are limitless. For further proof of this, read the initial press coverage that the iPhone received. Apple got a lot of feedback from the early adopters, incorporated the feedback in subsequent releases, which further fed the frenzy around the iPhone. I think this is an appropriate moment to say, "the rest is history"...

My stake in the ground is that the v2 product will address a lot of the issues raised by the early reviewers and adopters. The v1 for my mom? Maybe!

Led by Energy, U.S. Wholesale Prices Fall - NYTimes.com

2010-03-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

"In subdued economic conditions, there just isn’t the demand to support higher prices,” said Paul Dales, an economist for Capital Economics in Toronto. "Companies have to cut prices to survive.”

The Labor Department will release its barometer of consumer prices on Thursday."

The market is going to be volatile tomorrow and Friday, but one thing's for sure - it's not going to start way higher than the previous night's close as it did this morning.

My thoughts on the 2010 F-1 season opener

2010-03-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is culled from an email exchange with one of my close friends Karan.

Every time the FIA come up with new regulations, it does little to change the trend started by Schumacher. Once a person takes off at the start, it’s well nigh impossible to overtake at the front unless the leader has a reliability problem. The new breed of *good* drivers is very accomplished, and there is very little that separates these drivers from one another. Mind you, I am only talking about the cream of today's crop - Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, and their ilk. In other words, it has boiled down to the car – how else would you explain Jenson Button winning last year after 10 years of stagnation, and Alonso’s win after a season in which he didn’t win a single race or sit on pole? The argument that changing regulations help with lowering costs is specious at best. Take KERS for example – billions of dollars were spent by multiple teams to integrate KERS and test it in the cars last year, to what end? As regards Schumacher, it’s only his first race back. It would be fool-hardy on anyone’s part to expect him to return to his form of yore immediately upon locking his seatbelt into a new formula-1 car. Comebacks are hard for a reason!

Speaking of trends, a similar trend is emerging in MotoGP races – the Ducati bike is so much more superior than the rest of the pack that if their main driver, Casey Stoner, is healthy, he almost always wins. Rossi wins by the sheer force of his indefatigable will and some good fortune. Be that as it may, some races are still very close; two come to mind immediately – 2008 race at Laguna Seca and the breathtaking battle at Catalunya last year. I do foresee a day when the MotoGP races will become as boring as today’s F-1 races, but that day isn’t here yet. You know the lack of overtaking is one of the biggest reasons for the sport waning in popularity, especially in markets like the US where people want to see real competition and no holds barred driving. Hate it or love it, stock car racing has a surfeit of both those elements...

Best online music service - Grooveshark

2010-03-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

Move over Pandora, this service is hands down the best I have used. You can control:
- Songs in your playlist
- Go back a song
- Skip a song
- Search for specific songs and add them to to your list
- Like that last line in the current song - rewind :)
- Create playlists
- Radio mode!
- Social networking built-in

Even though Apple won't approve their iPhone application, this is simply the best desktop music application out there. As regards Apple and its walled garden, that's a whole new can of worms; this certainly adds more fuel to the fire brewing over Apple vs Android. In related news, the latest salvo in the Apple vs Android battle was fired by Tim Bray, a prominent developer who has defected to the Android camp. Details :here:

Are Smart Brake Pedals the answer?

2010-03-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

They just might not be. You can make the pedals as smart as you want; they are only as smart and safe as the driver using them.

But based on my experience in the 1980s helping investigate unintended acceleration in the Audi 5000, I suspect that smart pedals cannot solve the problem. The trouble, unbelievable as it may seem, is that sudden acceleration is very often caused by drivers who press the gas pedal when they intend to press the brake.

From the mid-1980s until 2000, thousands of incidents of sudden acceleration were reported in all makes and models of cars (and buses, tractors and golf carts). Then, as now, the incidents were relatively rare among car crashes generally, but they were nevertheless frequent and dangerous enough to upset automakers, drivers and the news media.

What is a brand?

2010-03-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

Wise words that provide the missing answer to a huge question:

"A brand is not a logo. It’s not a slogan. It’s not a product.

A brand is the soul of who you are and what you’re doing and it pervades every aspect of your business from your attitude to your interactions with customers. A great brand inspires other people with its passion. But you knew that already."

improving JavaScript performance with J�gerMonkey ✩ Mozilla Hacks – the Web developer blog

2010-03-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest salvo in the browser Javascript wars - Mozilla's new Jagermonkey engine. Highlights:

1. Tracing
2. Nanojit
3. Nitro assembler

all used in conjunction to create screaming Javascript performance. This is all great news, but in this Javascript-arms race, we're soon going to hit a wall. I believe it is time for browser vendors to start looking for the next performance goldmine. From current trends, Google Chrome might be the first one to hit the mother-lode, but I know that Firefox and Safari won't be too far behind. These are great times for us consumers of web browser technology.

On a somewhat related and otherwise tangential note, I was listening to an interview this morning in which a scientist was expostulating the view that soon, the browser in its current avatar won't exist for much longer. Reaching out to the web will become so intertwined with our daily activities that the "obtrusive" and "unintuitive" browser intermediary will be replaced by something else. My thought is the browser will become the only way to interact with our computers and phones, albeit with a dramatically modified and enriched interface.

Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal

2010-03-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Schwartz, has this interesting insight into the ramifications of Apple suing HTC/Google over the infringement of iPhone patents:

Having watched this movie play out many times, suing a competitor typically makes them more relevant, not less. Developers I know aren’t getting less interested in Google’s Android platform, they’re getting more interested – Apple’s actions are enhancing that interest.

I tweeted a similar thought when news first broke about the lawsuit, which I believe is not just frivolous but unnecessary gamesmanship on Apple's part. Ir remains to be seen whether the suit will actually go to court, but something needs to be done with the whole Patents shenanigans in the software world. To wit: It all started somewhere, so live and let live; thrive and let thrive.

Berkshire Hathway's 2009 Annual Report

2010-03-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

Insightful as always; Mr Buffett's style is inimitable. If you want to learn about making the right trading decisions, these Annual Reports are a must-read.

:Link:

How Firefox has fallen...

2010-03-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

The linked discussion thread is about plugins running in their own process in Firefox. Internet Explorer has had this feature since the launch of IE8, Google Chrome has had this feature since as far as I can remember, and even Safari, with its negligible market share, has this feature. I am using an unheralded browser on the Mac called Stainless - even that browser's team of maybe 10 developers has figured out a way to do not just plugins, but tabs in their own process. Whither Firefox?

I started using Phoenix 0.1 back in the day because I was sick of IE being stagnant, slow and bloated. Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox's claim to fame was it innovated faster vis-a-vis IE. Ironic isn't it - Firefox is the IE of today - slow, bloated and almost stagnant. Almost because it is the slowest innovator; Chrome is innovative, Firefox is derivative. Sad!

Windows Phone 7 - interesting observation

2010-03-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

Best to use the words of someone else when they state everything you wanted to, only better!

WHO’S THE COMPETITION?

The big three mobile platforms right now are iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. (Feel free to add Nokia as a fourth.) I think Windows Phone 7 is most competitive with Android, because that’s the one with the same business model: licensing the OS to OEM hardware makers. They’re even competing for attention from the very same hardware makers, especially HTC. Google’s been undercutting Microsoft with free (or nearly free) services for a few years now: Google Docs against Office, Gmail for Business against Exchange, and soon, Chrome OS against Windows. But this one, Android vs. Windows Mobile, is the first one where Google seems poised to take the lead. Windows Phone 7 doesn’t just have to be better than Android, it has to be better enough to convince handset makers that it’s worth the licensing fees.

Specify a (Default) value for a registry key in an MSI

2010-02-18T14:19:00.000-08:00

After reading a few interesting posts about why there is a (Default) value for a key in the Windows registry, I got down to the task of specifying a REG_SZ value for said (Default). I got a clue of how to do this when I read the following:

To read the unnamed (default) registry value, enter the key path without name (with trailing backslash character). For example: "Software\Microsoft\Windows\"

Bearing this in mind, I followed these steps to specify a (Default) value for a key in the MSI I am building via Visual Studio:

1. Right Click on the Setup project -> Select View -> Registry
2. Construct the path to your registry key. In this case, I was creating a new key for the AWSSDK assembly as HKLM\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework\AssemblyFolders\AWSSDK.
3. Right click on the AWSSDK node and select "String Value"
4. Leave the "Name" field blank in the properties window but specify the correct value; in this case, it was the installation path for the SDK.

When you have entered a value, you will notice that the empty name field gets replaced by (Default).

This is a good explanation of why there is a (Default) value for registry keys: Why do registry keys have a default value?

Also, the Microsoft Orca tool is a great aid when debugging MSI issues. You can get Orca by downloading and installing the package from :here:

Visual Web Developer Express Download Link

2010-02-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

For those like me who don't want to deal with downloading the Visual Studio Web Platform Installer just to get their hands on Web Developer 2008 Express, here is the file you need to download: http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/5/4/A54BADB6-9C3F-478D-8657-93B3FC9FE62D/vwdsetup.exe

Enjoy building new ASP.NET applications!

The Best Cameras $300 or Less Can Buy - David Pogue

2010-02-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

The Fujifilm F70EXR is superior in low light (and has that 10X zoom). The Panasonic Lumix ZS3 takes great hi-def movies (12X zoom). (The Nikon S8000 is extremely similar, but costs more.)

There, I did the reading for you so you can jump straight to the best part.

Great advice for budding authors

2010-02-01T12:55:00.001-08:00

I'm a three-time (soon to be four-time) published author. When aspiring authors learn this, they invariably ask what word processor I use. It doesn't fucking matter! I happen to write in Emacs. I also code in Emacs, which is a nice bonus. Other people write and code in vi. Other people write in Microsoft Word and code in TextMate+ or TextEdit or some fancy web-based collaborative editor like EtherPad or Google Wave. Whatever. Picking the right text editor will not make you a better writer. Writing will make you a better writer. Writing, and editing, and publishing, and listening -- really listening -- to what people say about your writing. This is the golden age for aspiring writers. We have a worldwide communications and distribution network where you can publish anything you want and -- if you can manage to get anybody's attention -- get near-instant feedback. Writers just 20 years ago would have killed for that kind of feedback loop. Killed! And you're asking me what word processor I use? Just fucking write, then publish, then write some more. One day your writing will get featured on a site like Reddit and you'll go from 5 readers to 5000 in a matter of hours, and they'll all tell you how much your writing sucks. And most of them will be right! Learn how to respond to constructive criticism and filter out the trolls, and you can write the next great American novel in edlin.

And like everything else on the web, if you happen to get to this link, the advice is free...

This is how bad the TSA's screening process is...

2010-01-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

"Myth: The No-Fly list includes an 8-year-old boy.

Buster: No 8-year-old is on a T.S.A. watch list.

“Meet Mikey Hicks,” said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. It’s not a myth."

No wonder the TSA officials never catch the terrorist carrying a bomb in his undies!

Can California's problems boil down to something so simple?

2010-01-14T12:11:00.000-08:00

To quote an oft-used principle in deductive analysis, Occam's Razor states that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" and the conclusion thereof, that the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one. With this in mind, this simple hypothesis could be the root cause of California's ailings:

"The simple tragedy of California is that its tax and budgeting restrictions — voted in by citizens’ initiatives — make it impossible to pay for the prison, school and health mandates OK’d by those same people."

Another day of honest labor completed

2010-01-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

Time to go home, recharge a little and then workout until it's too late to do anything else. Good start to this week - challenging bug fixes, some good refactoring and the satisfaction that with each iteration, this product's appeal is widening.

My constant stream of updates have stopped since I decided to unplug myself from the world once I leave work. Not having the Internet at home has been a boon, and though I miss blogging, I have found an outlet for my immediate thoughts on Twitter. I have resolved to write more often just before leaving work this year - hopefully your readership will make me want to keep that resolution.

Cheerio...

Sorting a List with a specific String Comparer like Ordinal

2010-01-12T16:25:00.000-08:00

Sorting strings is always a tricky issue and a cause of subtle bugs that are hard to unearth until a customer encounters a weird corner case. The AWS SDK for .NET had a bug that resulted in S3 metadata being incorrectly sorted because the SDK used the default String Comparison algorithm. The fix was two fold:
1. Change the ArrayList into a List
2. Specify the correct StringComparer - Ordinal in this case.

            List list = new List(headers.Count);
            foreach (string key in headers.AllKeys)
            {
                string lowerKey = key.ToLower();
                if (lowerKey.StartsWith("x-amz-"))
                {
                    list.Add(lowerKey);
                }
            }
            // Using the recommendations from: 
            // http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973919.aspx
            list.Sort(StringComparer.Ordinal);

Amazing writeup on the rumored Apple Tablet

2010-01-08T13:12:00.001-08:00

Then again ...

... And, of course, assuming there’ll even be an Apple Tablet, or an iSlate, or whatever we think they’re going to call it.

My course is clear. My airfare is non-refundable. During the final week of January, I hope to be sitting in an auditorium at Yerba Buena Gardens learning about the Apple Tablet.

If I fly out there and Apple doesn’t hold their rumored launch event, then I’ll drive down to Cupertino. I’ll stand outside the Apple campus in a trenchcoat holding a boombox over my head, playing a Peter Gabriel song up at the upper windows until Steve Jobs is so touched by this romantic gesture that he sends me away with an engineering sample.

Dammit, something needs to be done. This frustrating state of affairs simply can’t continue.

Some day, I wish I can conjure up a single idea that moves the press to wax poetic and yearn for just an *Engineering* sample...

Nexus One won't work with AT&T 3G

2010-01-05T13:05:00.001-08:00

U.S. users can also use the unlocked phone with AT&T, although the phone’s radio isn’t able to use AT&T’s 3G network.

Random thoughts on the last day of 2009

2009-12-31T13:35:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a collection of random conversations, thoughts and memories from the year gone by.

1. Bar Stools

I posted an ad on craigslist for 2 bar stools at $45.
a guy responded saying he will give me 25 because there are other comparable postings.
I'm like, douche this isn't a flea market. If there are other postings that are within your price range, contact them.
45 for 2 new bar stools isn't much.

Shop at Amazon and support me

2009-12-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

Time is running out folks! Shop the best online deals at :Amazon: and support me without doing anything extraordinary.

Avatar - the review by Roger Ebert

2009-12-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

The story, set in the year 2154, involves a mission by U. S. Armed Forces to an earth-sized moon in orbit around a massive star. This new world, Pandora, is a rich source of a mineral Earth desperately needs. Pandora represents not even a remote threat to Earth, but we nevertheless send in the military to attack and conquer them. Gung-ho Marines employ machine guns and pilot armored hover ships on bombing runs.

Hmm, sound familiar?

U.S. Retail Sales Rose 1.3% in November - Staggering!

2009-12-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

"While sales reached $352.1 billion last month,"

This number is staggering because I just did some simple math in my head.
From census.gov, the US population is approximately 308.1 million.
This article states that 352.1 billion dollars were spent on retail purchases in November 2009.
Ergo, each person, on average, spent: 352.1billion/308.1million ~= 1130 dollars

People, what's wrong with you? :-) I am quitting this software engineering job and opening up a retail store. My parents have their heads screwed straight - 3 stores and counting...

Hell is freezing over - Mozilla tells you how to switch from Google to Bing

2009-12-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

And here's how you can easily switch Firefox's search from Google to Bing: link.

Wanna shop sample sales at Rue La La?

2009-12-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

Here is how you get started with one of the best sites for sample sales: Rue La La

Happy Holidays!

Describing EC2 instances using the AWS SDK for .NET

2009-12-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

Here is some sample code that shows you how to enumerate the EC2 instances currently associated with your AWS account.

DescribeInstancesResponse resp = ec2.DescribeInstances(new DescribeInstancesRequest());
if (resp.IsSetDescribeInstancesResult())
{
DescribeInstancesResult result = resp.DescribeInstancesResult;
foreach (RunningInstance inst in result.RunningInstance)
{
Console.WriteLine(inst.InstanceId);
}
}

Watch this space for more snippets of code that will help you manage your AWS resources using the SDK for .NET.

Chrome OS And The Microsoft Squeeze - Reaction

2009-11-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

What utter bs - until Chrome OS and Mac OS X are adopted by the enterprise, they are always going to be the outsiders looking in. Techcrunch writers really need to get their head screwed straight so they see the light. Or go to PDC...

AWS for Windows Developers

2009-11-20T16:58:00.000-08:00

If you are:
1. A Windows developer
2. Curious about AWS
3. Using AWS services but want to manage your infrastructure

Get the AWS SDK for .NET Development :here:

Getting started with AWS is simple using the built-in Visual Studio templates, project samples and AWS reference documentation is integrated into Visual Studio (hit F1). Post a message to the AWS Windows development forum and tell us about your experience with the SDK.