Happy Holi

Happy Holi to All. Enjoy all colors of Life

 

Cloud Computing

 

Cloud computing is a buzz word these days.  Its used as metaphor for internet. If you have a high traffic website / web based application and you don’t want to spend too much into hosting high end dedicated servers – cloud computing / cloud hosting is what you are looking for. Cloud computing relates to the way we design, build, deploy and run applications that operate in an a virtualized environment, sharing resources and boasting the ability to dynamically grow, shrink and self-heal. You can look at cloud as a virtual server that provides single-point access to a distributed (often across the globe) collection of hardware/software. It generally incorporates combination of the following.

1. IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service. A good example is Amazon EC2, where you basically get a virtual machine (Amazon Machine Image) on which you install what you want.  IBM Blue house, VMWare, Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure Platform, Sun Parascale and more are examples of this service. Here they mainly deal with physical assets as services. Apart from Amazon EC2 there are other reliable and efficient providers such as GoGrid and Rackspace.
2. PaaS: Platform as a Service. This adds infrastructure software to IaaS so you don't start from scratch. Examples are Google App Engine (GAE) and Salesforce Force.com. They are resources on demand. Developers create applications on the provider’s platform over the Internet. PaaS providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway software installed on the customer’s computer Force.com, (an outgrowth of Salesforce.com) and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS. This mainly deals with Middleware, Intergation, Messaging, Information, connectivity etc. AWS, IBM Virtual images, Boomi, CastIron, Google Appengine are examples of this kind of service.
3. SaaS: Software as a Service. Here, you get the full package that you tweak/customize to your needs. SaaS is a vast market. Services can be anything from Web-based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is free to use the service from anywhere. Best example of course is Salesforce.com. Gmail, GoogleCalender,Payroll, HR, CRM, Sugarm CRM, IBM Lotus Live etc are such examples of services on demand.

 

Clouds have many benefits, most importantly:

1. You don't need to plan/invest in hardware/software upfront
2. You don’t need to worry about heavy traffic and high bandwidth requirements.
3. Your infrastructure will scale as your business/needs grow. Just pay as you grow.
4. You system will be fault-tolerant and secure
5. You don't need to maintain/manage the setup. Very low maintenance.

Sachin, Tussi Great Ho! Tohfa Kabool Karo!!!

wow what a great stand by Sachin. What a knock it was. At the age of 36, what a perfection it was. Its not a joke to stay on the pitch for the complete 50 overs and break the record for the highest individual score in an ODI innings, that too with a double hundred. Yesterday would be one of the most memorable moment to any indian cricket fan and also to the history of world cricket. All answers to his criticizers by him in one word. He is just born to break the records or create historical records in cricket. 440 Matches played / 17394 runs, scored ,46/93 ... 50's/100's , 200 notout Highest score... and the records keep on growing for the legend...! Long live Sachin Tendulkar...!! The greater has become greatest with his double ton yesterday. The only topics that were trending yesterday on Twitter were #SachinIsGod #ODI & "Sachin Tendulkar”. Abhishek Bachchan on Twitter tweets about Sachin: I finally know what God really looks like!! He is about 5"5, Maharashtrian and plays cricket!! Tendulkar Bapa Morya!!! Some of the Nostalgic moments when sachin is younger can be seen in the following Interview. All I can Say is , Sachin you are the God of the Cricket. A Legend of the Legends.

 

Book Review..

I'm losing count of the books I've read/is reading, so trying to jot them down as crisp as possible...

Only Love: This novel is my first encounter with Erich Segal's work. He's got an amazing style of writing. It is about an amazing love story and also intense love of music the male character in the book has. The book deals with a complicated love story between two doctors. The guy a music virtuoso and the girl heir of famous Italian buisnessman. They fall in love in africa and then suddenly she disappears what happens then is the story. Its true that there is a bitter part of life. No matter how deeply we love someone, to live the rest of our live with them will depend on destiny, family and ofcourse themselves. The book just fell flat in the end. On the whole the book is a fantastic quick read, and it certainly dragged me towards eric segal other works The Class, Man Woman and a Child.

 

 

Man Woman and Child: A compelling story of a husband and wife with trust lost and love regained. It's a story of love,a story of forgiveness . A story of acceptance. If there is any author who knows how to bring out emotions and make you sob like a baby then it is Segal. Sheila and Bob were a superb couple. Perhaps even better after Bob's son's brief episode in their lives. They have two beautiful daughters Jessica and Paula. SUddenly she got to know that her husband Bob had a brief affair with Nicole, a French doctor, when he had been to France on a business trip. And Bob fathered a son , about whom he knew nothing until the day he received a phone call informing him of Nicole’s death. Now, Jean Claude(Bob's son) is an orphan and the responsibility falls on Bob, to take care of him. Sheila reluctantly agrees to let him stay with her family and thus begins ,the couples new journey towards accepting one another for being not so perfect. A 9 year old boy bearing the fault of his parents illegal relationship and his innocence being able to change a woman's heart. It’s a good read. Totally recommended.

Random Ramblings

The days are hectic, life is so busy, it seems I don't even have time to remember each and everything that happened. So just want to rewind and playback what happened in past few weeks.

• Place: Same old place, Home alone again. Looks like Quarter life crisis is hitting me badly.
• Friends: Met some of them. Reconnecting with old friends and bringing those nostalgic moments back into life is always fun.
• Movies: Watched lot of them. Nothing really impressed except Rann and Paa.
• Books: Again a lot, and everything was impressive. Dork by Sidin, Only Love, Man Woman and a child by Erich Segal . Segal has got an amazing style.
• Life Lessons: Life is so idyllic. It hasn't been smooth for me., still fighting against all odds to get the very best... and it seems it will continue for a while. Started to look at it through the eyes of "experience".
• Blogging: Totally active. I didn't want to do this earlier..but now I can't resist...
• Technology: Not upto date, haven’t updated my other blog in a while. Haven’t responded to the comments either. Should get back to it before people loose interest in it.

Not much to say other than this. but there exists a hope in time,I hope that the three will surely meet the fourth line.

Windows Phone 7 Series

 

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For the first time ever, Microsoft is bringing together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience to phones. And Smart thing is that they have integrated popular social networking (like facebook) instead of just pushing windows live.  Phones are the new PCs. PC guys are the new phone guys.  I am simply amazed at the innovative UI. Awesome Windows Mobile team! Many many many Congratulations! It looks quite impressive and I am willing to wait for one. Certainly its going to be the replacement for my iPhone.

 

Bing maps + augmented reality

 

This bing map is pretty impressive. I should say a game changing app for maps. Great to know that Microsoft  have created something that is beyond the current generation of Map features. Checkout the feature, flickr integration with streetside. Its just brilliant.  With this feature you get to see individual user contributed photos seen right into the streetside imagery.  I have been looking forward to this since the first previews of Photosynth.

 

Here is an example in Vancouver

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#/ttx56k60vpzxvptv

try toggling the image on/off by clicking the thumbnail in the left panel like this:

Check out this video too.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Z3NSff3I0&feature=player_embedded

 

Photosynth integration in Bing maps is another cool feature which has become even more incredible over the last couple of months. If you haven’t tried it in a while you should check it out. Here is a synth just taken at the Olympic opening ceremonies:

 

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#/hkm3bc0oqjko4co9

after navigating around in there a bit, hit the overview button:

 

Hover your mouse through the point cloud and note the preview images and the cone showing where the photo was taken. Click one to swoop back into 3d. and when you want to step outside of the stadium, click the globe icon to the left of the 4-way control.

Google Buzz - New attempt at social networking

Google Buzz got enabled on my Gmail this afternoon.  Well what it did is it just picked some 45 people that I have in my chat list based on some formula that god only knows, and automatically added to my followers list. Its definitely not the people who I regularly chat with. It also have the option of adding other people from my contacts list and it suggested adding some others I talk to often. It’s similar to Google reader – the paradigm here is social networking and status messages instead of news articles and blog posts. It combined addictive aspects of Twitter and Facebook quite well: frequent status updates with the ability to “like” and “comment” on them. You can even update your status on Buzz through your status on Gmail – the same way it was done before.

This seems to me like a desperate attempt to piggy back on the popularity and massive user base of Gmail users. It could be because it has lost its nerve to bring the users into new experience through Google Wave. Google already owns www.orkut.com which is almost not known in US, it is quite popular in India and Brazil.  Almost anything done on Orkut also reeks of desperation.This may dilute the use case of Gmail – which is to be a mail service. Windows Live already does this. There is more of it in Windows Live wave 4.  But this feature is barely used on Windows Live. The same reasons the “social” features in Windows Live haven’t worked apply to Google’s current implementation also. Looks like there is an ongoing consolidation war amongst Twitter, Gmail, and Facebook for communication use cases like Social Networking, Offline Messaging, Status Updates, Online Chat.

Don’t Judge Too Quickly

How often we do that?  How often we judge based on something we think we heard. How often we judge based on something we think we saw...Don’t be judgemental. Don’t judge life by one difficult times of yours. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later. Never listen with a predetermined notion.

 

There are the four things that you cannot recover after said/done/gone.

The stone… after the throw!

The word…after it’s said!

The occasion…after the loss!

The time…after it’s gone!

 

 

Google’s Superbowl Add

 

I have no idea what this add is supposed to convince me of? What is it trying to show off? Is it trying to create the brand impression on me? I probably don’t need one. Google advertising that they are a search engine in 2010 is like Antarctica taking out an ad letting people know it’s cold down there. If you don’t know that Google’s the magic answer machine yet, you probably don’t own a computer. It was an odd sign of weakness, in my mind at least, that they felt they needed to do this. I mean for Nexus one, its ok but for Google Search, come on. They are trying to cash the power of emotional design commercials by trying to  connect with the audience through humor or storytelling.  The Google ad could be compelling, fun and educational for non-techies. I’d love to see some one from Microsoft or Yahoo take this commercial and do a side-by-side split-screen demo with Bing and Yahoo search.

Dork, The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Vargheese : Book Review

I pre ordered this book when @shreeni tweeted about it and I am glad I did that. This book is an excellent light, quick, and fun read with amazing sense of humor and lots of chuckles. The story is about  Robert “Einstein” Varghese who goes to Mumbai to work on his first job in a company called Dufresne Partners which he got in the day zero of the campus placements. He graduates from one of the top B-Schools in India, and keeps a short goal for himself which is being promoted as Associate in less than a year. The story is recorded in the form of diary notes through the book. He tries to hold down his classmate from B-school Gauri as his love partner by cheating and saying she made “animal love” to him while she is fully drunk.  The book is all about corporate culture, romance, girlfriend goof-ups. For the people who want to read, Dork is a witty, funny light read. Its funny at most of the places. The Ball Bearing story, Gauri Sms which is exactly how girls think, "COFFEE, PROBABLY NOT. TOO MUCH TO ASK. I DON'T KNOW I BOTHER. YOU'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND". is quite funny indeed. I am little bit disappointed with the CNBC interview Transcript in the end, It could have been more funny and hilarious. I do not want this review to be a rant, saying what is good and what is bad about it. I thoroughly enjoyed the book while reading, and it pretty much got me glued to my seat till i finished the book. Go for it, If you want a funny light read.

Onto Booooks….

What is it with books that make you want to lose yourself in them?
Become a ghost
Live between the words
Trapped and yet free

 

My friend was saying, I have started a book marathon. I should say, I picked up this book reading habit from one of my friends. My mother says there is life beyond books. I agree with her. You open the bookshelf and find 35 unread books waiting to be consumed - it is times like these that put me under more pressure than any other project deadline(I don’t give a damn about them anyways).  The "library" has setup in my new house finally, and the entire book shelf is filled with books. My books. Stuff that I had bought. Bought. They are not stolen or borrowed. The books I borrow I would return them anyways. It is in fact a wonderful feeling to get lost in the book, like a ghost creating a parallel world with every character in the book. Here goes my to Read List. I will keep the blog updated when I am done reading all these books.

 

s.no	Title	Author
1	The Camel Club	David Baldacci
2	Lost City	Clive Cussler
3	Shan	Eric Van Lustbader
4	Acts of Faith	Erich Segal
5	Prizes	Erich Segal
6	Class	Erich Segal
7	Flirting with Pete	Barbara Delinsky
8	The Collectors	David Baldacci
9	Silver Bells	Luanne Rice
10	When the Lion feeds	Wilbur Smith
11	Monsoon	Wilbur Smith
12	Kane & Abel	Jeffrey Archer
13	Only Love	Erich Segal
14	World without end	Ken follett
15	Shall We Tell the President?	Jeffrey Archer
16	Man woman and child	Erich Segal
17	Karma	Mitchell Smith
18	Undue Influence	Steve Martini
19	Lie down with Lions	Ken Follett
20	Jian	Eric Van Lustbader
21	Harpoon	C W Nicol
22	The Amber warning	Robert Ludlum
23	The First Deadly sin	Lawrence Sanders
24	Black Cross	Greg Iles
25	The Laws of our fathers	Scott Turrow
26	English August	Upamanyu Chatterjee
27	Mitla Pass	Leon Uris
28	The Seduction of Peter S.	Lawrence Sanders
29	The Perfect Spy	John Le Carre
30	The City of Joy	Dominique Lapierre
31	Dork : The Incredible Adventures of Robin Enistein Vargheese	Sidin Vadukut
32	Paths of Glory	Jeffrey Archer
33	Family Matters	Rohinton Mistry
34	To Kill a Mocking Bird	Harper lee
35	The Secret	Rhonda Byrne

 

I hate parting with my books, but I have two copies of Alchemist to give away. If you promise me that you will give that money to any charity of your choice, I will give away those books. Due to space constraints, I am planning to buy an ebook reader. Heard very good reviews from my senior, will give it a try some time next week and then go for it.

Paa : A Heartfelt Movie

Paa is a movie about a kid Auro,an average mischievous 12-year-old, except for the fact that he has progeria, a rare medical condition that accelerates the ageing process. So although he's only stepping into his teens, Auro has the body of a 65-year-old.Its actually a mother son relationship story. Vidya Balan plays single-mom Vidya, who raises Auro with some help from her mother, after dumping her selfish boyfriend Amol(played by Abhishek) in college, who says he is not ready for the marriage and he suggests an abortion. Its a surprisingly entertaining and an ultimately engaging film. Most of the scenes between Auro and his buddies, are a pleasure to watch. One of the best scenes in the film is a hilarious telephone conversation between Auro and a classmate of his, in which the latter explains just how frustrated he is with his father. He tries to take similarities between him and his father out of his frustration. Amitabh Bachan who played as Auro in the film is super cute. I was awestruck with his unbelievable performance.

Special mention about R.Balki , the director of this movie, who is able to derive the natural performances from the actors. He is got his own kind of style with the dialogues which are making his films subtle and sweet. ILayaraja’s background music is a plus to the movie. Vidya Balan’s ease in striking up a warm maternal chemistry with Auro is amazing. Mr.Perfect Abhishek Bachan as a new generation Politian tried to deliver too much coolness to the character. For the realistic cinemautography with Loads of emotions, subtle Expressions, Tilt of humour, Loads of Fun, outrageously funny conversations between Auro and his friend Vishnu, Paa deserve a thumbs-up. Go Watch It.

Mudi mudi kahaan kahaan, kahaan main mudi mudi ittefaaq se….

What is it with songs that make you want to dance?
Even though you cant
Not with a gun to your head
Not even when no one's watching

                              -- Vinaya

 

Yes she is my class mate and I picked those lines from her blog. Imagine the pleasant morning.. You wake up and open the eyes to see the running sun into the room….yawning..rubbing your eyes get up searching for your IPOD and switch on to just listen the songs “GummSummGumm” and “mudi mudi kahaan kahaan, kahaan main mudi mudi ittefaaq se” from PAA. Part me, enjoying the perfect morning, a part, lost in the tunes of Ilayaraja, what more do you expect over the lazy Suzy weekend. How can IlayaRaja compose in such a beautiful, Melodious and in a magnificent way? His music is still so fresh and pleasant to your ears. When you are unaware of the reason behind the excitement running in the veins and nerves….When you are not sure if it is it the wind or is it the Track that is blowing around your ears, When you wonder which of the 3 ears are listening (third being your heart) and dancing to the tunes, When you open door of your heart and start humming, and you hear someone singing, a slight hum, one of your recent favorite  songs, and you wonder for a few seconds before realizing where it was coming from, What follows is a series of incidents where your colleague comes and says to you, Dude calm down, Entire MS can hear your voice?, only then you realize the state you are in, and then you decide to share the song to him followed by both of us listening to the same tune. Truly music has no bounds. Go People Listen!! You’ll love it!