Sarath Chandra Pandurangi's Blog

Speaking of RIAs, MIT has been the source of all this - Starting with protoype. I was groping for some thing and I stumbled upon this app . Check the ease of use. The quality of presentation. Kudos to good design principles used. Not only that check the data presented - very nice easy to depict flow. Here is another such app with very informative data.

Eclipse is moving more towards OSGi platform and very soon (in its next big Ganymede release), we will see how big a difference it is. Provisioning is the new Equinox platform for Eclipse installation, distribution and maintainance. Code named P2 this will replace the Update manager with more (desired) features . For starters, It will have shared plugin base, greater install and uninstall support for plugins, easier upgrade and managability. Keep it coming Eclipse.. Lots of Lov..

GAE hosting is available for Everyone . (Is this the end of hosting providers?) This is very welcome for all those people who have an ambition to put a free website with no adgood features, reliabilty and scalabity. For Starters, - you have to know or learn python (it is the only language supported on GAE right now) or just get started - If you want your own domain name, You have to have one or you have to understand DNS , subdomains , CNAMEs , ANAMEs, MX records. Next, - Create an app in GAE (I will skip the whole tutorial on how to do it ) - Create a domain (buy it from a domain hosting service like godaddy - always keep hosting and domains in seperate places for better control) - Create a Google Apps Account (Again I will skip the whole tutorial ). - Verify your ownership of the domain and connect it to google App - Modify DNS MX Entries, set up your email. - Create Custom urls for services (calendar, docs, etc) with custom sub domains urls. - Add your GAE app in Google App Admin

I developed my new blog/site template on my vista box. I tested the site on IE7 and FF2. I was so happy the glossy looks, and shadow on the background and eye candy I was able to produce with minimal images. Little did I know that this was going to break (baadly) on IE 6 and versions before. Ok.. what happens is this . IE versions before 7 donot have capability of rendering alpha channel of png well. Microsoft did well in IE7 but the market still has those dirty 6s still (I said the same thing about 5.5 when 6 had earl releases - Microsoft is getting the optimist out of me..). A quick google resulted in The problem and possible solution(s) . Its too late for me to test that out now.. But You can see this is a very basic design element and I face so much heat because of MS. Clearly almost EVERY other browser on the planet has support for PNG. Damn you!! IE. Soon there will be Firefox every where. Good for us. Good for Designers and developers.

Look ma.. New site.. My yesterday's post was only the beginning of my "chasing" the development of v3.sarathonline.com . Actually, by the time you see this post, it might very well be sarathonline.com . My Grand weekend plan, went very well. I was able to finally re-do my site 3.0 template for sarathonline.com. The new logo, The template design, even the FAVicon - all these happened in the last two days. What is more exciting is I have moved from my PHP host to Google App Engine. The plan to keep the 2.0 version till it expires this June, and then it is all FREE GAE hosting, Google Mail hosting (which I joyfully migrated to, 4 months back). Moving to 2.0 had a few considerations at that time Minimal Template (no images) Introduce DB features Introduce Ajax Hosted Gallery But that was in 2006.The newer release is a complete re-write GAE hosted, with Python and Rapid development CSS Template, web 2.0 Images Redisigned Blog, with its own sub domain more to come.. In this pr

Long weekend. Time off after a long time. What to do? Lot of things on list. SarathOnline, Ubuntu, GAE, Grails, IBM MQ implentation et al. I started off the first one. You could see the new logo in the home page . Expect more changes.. Coming Soon.

Linux, I am a big fan. I am still to upgrade my ubuntu to Hernon. This has been long awaited weekend for me.. I am squeezing a lot of things in. Upgrading ubuntu is on my list.. Coming to linux, By natural ability, I am not a big fan of 3d and WarFare games. So I am not even concerned about the ability to play them on Linux. But.. In the very beginning, When I used to advocate for Linux amongst friends, the big straw the windooze users would pull on me was "Could you play PnS games on Linux?" . And many a time, That was when I just used to duck and say.. "You know, you may not, NOW, but soon you will be..". And the Day is not far off.. Here are some of the VERY popular games that you can play on Linux with how-to details. Eat it Microsoft.

Yes.. Slowly but peacefully, The Application we are developing (at work) is getting stabler and more release-prone [Trademark :)]. I am getting an hour more in my day for myself.I would like to share some of my personal Lessons-learnt from the last two months. I would consider we are more Agile a project than the ones I worked in before. However, we don't restrict much to methodology. The first noticeable lesson for me here was - No matter how much you want to avoid bureaucracy, There will be some. Even in the most Agile development. And I feel the easy way to put this situation in control is to standardize this bureaucracy. Leaving the loose ends open to bureaucracy will only keep your Agility down. When ever you see such kind of things, repetitive or inhibitive, wrap it into a standard routine. Bear in mind, don't make it into a process - you will only make it more bureaucratic - be open for changes, but establish a routine. Terminology and Conventions - of all things, speed

My Project at work is near release. Its a grueling yet exciting time here. Too much work on desk to handle. Deadlines visible closer than ever. Shifting priorities, severities, what can be delivered, what can be patched later, Its a very tough time for all of us in the team. But I feel we are doing well. Things are much in control, as I see it, than what they were when I first came on. Life is fast now.. but On this memorial day weekend, I am assuming, I will be relatively free and will start on SarathOnline again. Till then.. Shine on..

Another off time for me on this blog. I have some good news and bad news. The good news is I got an invite to Google App Engine. Kewl ha.. But The bad news is I am SWAMPED with work. My project is due release this month end, we are running drill migration on the 10th, So I am unable to write often. For you to research on it, Here is what I am working on now. Hibernate Optimisation and Profiling applications with TPTP (requires registration) in eclipse. I will post some of my findings soon. Try to catch up.. byee..