One of the things I learnt from my first job is, if you differ from your colleague(s) on anything, check if you are differing or your ego is. The "incident" that lead to this was an eye opener, it showed us(team) how different people could be and how pre-conceived false personal notions could be affecting communication. Also the things that lead after that "incident" proved that you don't lose anything by apologizing or offering a sorry for a mutual mistake. I know I am still not best at this. Also over the course of years I learned that an intern would have a better(uncorrupted) grasp of concepts than a guy who has worked on some technology for years.

Guys like Jeff Atwood, make me not blog. At any moment there are atleast 50 feeds that are waiting for me to read and If I am not working on something cool, the passion to blog is zero.

Having said this Jeff Atwood has compiled an awesome list of pointers that are worth a read for any programmer.  Let me try to give the links that I liked from his compilation, with my words and a couple of my rants. I know I am not perfect, but....

• Understand and accept that you will make mistakes. Never take things personal.
• Being Humble teaches you a lot than being head strong.
• Ask Questions.
• You are not your code. If someone judges you by your code, then GOD help him.
• Treat people who know less than you with respect, deference, and patience, even if they are juniors to you.
• The only true authority stems from knowledge, not from position or years of experience.
• Don't try to dump your knowledge into someone who doesn't care. This is just an utter waste of time.
• Fight for what you believe, but gracefully accept defeat. There is no harm in saying "I was wrong" or "I am sorry"
• Share your knowledge whereever possible
• Don't be the guy in the room.
• Don't restrain yourself from raising red flags, you can never be a leader if you cannot speak your mind (this could be scope creep, staffing or lack of leadership/direction)
• Make hard problems look easy(I know this is tough, at times, but still)
• Dont over-analyze things, get your hands on.
• Your colleagues are your best teachers
• Some people are -------(add the adjective of your choice here).
• NEVER fake being nice, friendly, honest.
• NEVER EVER under estimate yourself. Everyone gets a chance to shine or to walk out of the door
• SMILE  - It can do wonders to people you work with.

Credits : Dare Obasanjo, Omar Shahine, Michael McDonough, Andres Taylor

3/25/2007 6:24:19 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

I sometimes get paranoid about deleting code/data or modifying them, especially if you are not sure about backup.(based on previous work experiences) But again time and time again you see people "accidentally" delete

3/22/2007 1:31:11 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

It has been a long time I posted anything here. Am not sure if this is a writers block or am not doing anything cool to post here. Anyways, I am sure I will be back, untill then ciao

3/4/2007 11:24:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [1] 

Deploying web applications can become a painful task if you have to check for a number of settings that you have to modify your code to make it work in production environment. There are chances that developers might miss something if there are a lot of deployment pushes. Features like debugging, tracing, error message display could be a big performance issue if they are turned "on"  the production environment.

ASP.NEt 2.0 has a solution for this...and that is by adding on key to your machine.config

<configuration>
   <system.web>
      <deployment retail="true"/>
   </system.web>
</configuration>

Also, you can block download of specific file(for example.xps) types by registering those file extensions to HttpForbiddenHandler

<add path="*.asmx" verb="*" type=
    "System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler" />

Continue reading here

2/15/2007 1:47:12 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Mail forward's are very annoying, but occassionaly you stumble upon something really good, so here you go

Interpreting Employment Ads

Having difficulty finding the right words to convey just what your project is like when placing those recruitment advertisements?  Here's a set of terms that may help!

Competitive Salary

We remain competitive by paying less than our competitors.

Join Our Fast Paced Company

We have no time to train you.

Casual Work Atmosphere

We don't pay enough to expect that you will dress up.

Must be Deadline Oriented

You will be six months behind schedule on your first day.

Duties will vary

Anyone in the office can boss you around.

Must have an Eye for Detail

We have no quality control.

Seeking Candidates with a Wide Variety of Experience

You are replacing three people who just quit in disgust.

Problem Solving Skills a Must

You are walking into a company in perpetual chaos. Your first task is to find out what is going on.

Self starter

You will get absolutely no support from management or your co-workers.

Pay based on experience

We'll hire the cheapest worker we can find.

----------

Software Development Cycle

1. Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.
2. Product is tested. 20 bugs are found.
3. Programmer fixes 10 of the bugs and explains to the testing department that the other 10 aren't really bugs.
4. Testing department finds that five of the fixes didn't work and discovers 15 new bugs.
5. Repeat three times steps 3 and 4.
6. Due to marketing pressure and an extremely premature product announcement based on overly-optimistic programming schedule, the product is released.
7. Users find 137 new bugs.
8. Original programmer, having cashed his royalty check, is nowhere to be found.
9. Newly-assembled programming team fixes almost all of the 137 bugs, but introduce 456 new ones.
10. Original programmer sends underpaid testing department a postcard from Hawaii. Entire testing department quits.
11. New Project Manager steps in with a new QA finds 783 new bugs.
12. New CEO is brought in by board of directors. He hires a programmer to redo program from scratch.
13. Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free...

and finally,

It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. It cannot be done in one month by impregnating nine women.

2/9/2007 5:47:33 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0]