Psychic thinking, technically of course

Posting on behalf of Usr.Web.Speed - My previous job had been to architect and develop websites for various customers. During that time my team and I have architected and developed various web applications mainly for enterprises. (But below info is not restricted to enterprises) Other than the usual development and testing tasks involved, our focus area was to abide by multiple SLAs. One of the primary SLAs was to provide the users of our websites a very low (usually subsecond) response time (or page load time). To adhere to this SLA, we did multiple activities, in code, process as well as infrastructure. These include (but not limit to) - Using best practices including (http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html) Determining the optimum number of calls to the databases, open connections, etc. Providing the fastest mechanisms to download associated content (such as stylesheets, JS files, etc. over CDN) And debugging the reason for the slowness of the websites, when ...

To allow remote machines to execute PowerShell scripts on your machine, the Windows firewall should not block port numbers 5985,5986. You can open up the ports by following the instructions at  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows7/open-a-port-in-windows-firewall or using the following PowerShell scripts  -

We were setting up a small cluster of  Hadoop for some requirements, and decided to go with the HortonWorks release of Hadoop. ( HDP 1.1 for Windows ). After installing, we realized that for some reason the Oozie service was not starting up . (we tried both the CLI command provided with the HDP installation, as well as trying to manually start the service via services.msc). Looking through the log files (<HDP 1.1 installation path>\oozie-<version>\Service directory, specifically the oozieservice.out.log file) we found the error -    and so realized that Oozie server is dependent on JDK. It does not work with only JRE. To correct this we uninstalled JRE, and installed JDK. We also manually modified the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the new installation path. And then Oozie server started working all fine. But all the rest of the services (hadoop jobtracker, hadoop datanode etc.) stopped starting. Checking the logs of the services, we fou...

Snip from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4182615.cms   “entirely new type of data storage using magnetic nanowires”    

I enjoyed using the site…. pity I will not be using it anymore. Just read about what happened, after my friend told me. And did he have that stupid grin on his face (the one which says “I told you so”). Had painstakingly collected all those links… and many of them related to the “language for the passionate” (JavaScript).     …………… I don’t even have a backup in an OPML file.   It will not be easy getting back all those links :’(   This is the worst week of my life!!!!!!!     This post relates to the current home page at http://ma.gnolia.com/  

Planning to read “The Green Tourmaline Adventure”, ( http://www.deccanherald.com/CONTENT/Jan162009/sesame20090115112675.asp ).

Knowing technology is inconsequential. Knowing what to do is the problem!!!! -           Sachin Nayak, 2009  

"We are all subjects to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not," said the witch, "or die of despair".                                                                  -- An excellent snip from the book "Northern Lights" by Philip Pullman

I can’t speak about what I do in office. (ok, not yet). But I need to write something. So here goes:     A “small” algo to retrieve number of days in a month. Don’t ask me it s efficiency (modulus is never fast , an alternative would be something similar to isInt function ):     /// January = 1, February = 2 and so on. /// year will be used only if month = 2 function daysInTheMonth(var monthNumber, var yearNumber) {                 // if February, and year is divisible by 4 but not divisible by 100, return 28. Else return 28.                 // since years which are divisible by 100 should not be leap years                 if(monthNumber == 2)  { return (yearNumber%4 ==0 && yearNumber...

There are some articles which I usually skim thru, and read only the interesting parts.   But here is an article which is not only well written, but also indicates that there are things other than money to think about.   Do read this: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1843839,00.html   Waiting to read the book,  

Some years back we found a flash video known as EPIC 2014. After a real long time I again decided to watch that all over.   In case you have not seen, see : http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/   Also they have a sequel with some corrections, called as EPIC 2015.     Enjoy maadi!!!!  

So one of the points I pointed in the previous post was “We need a single point of entry for all the data which is flowing from you to the outside world”.   Consider Google, which provides the following -           they have a Orkut, social networking site, thru which they have a list of your close friends (It would be pretty simple to ask you how you know that person), so they understand what kind of relationship you have with your friends. -           they provide you a mail service, so they know whom you contact most/least often. -           They have your chat (talk), so they know whom you communicate instantly with. (this + the social networking site’s scrap feature) -           The OpenSocial was initiated which allowed sharing friends info (of course it could not be ...

A few of us regularly have these arguments (which of course ends up with physical damage to various human bodies), about artificial intelligence. As to whether any computer will ever beat the “ Turing test ”. Or will that be an insatiable dream.   My friends feel that the computer will never be able to decipher patterns which it has never previously seen. ( What I mean here is if a computer is given a sequence, and is expected to predict the next item in the sequence, if the computer has never seen the pattern it will fail.)   But here I insist that humans also work on a similar pattern recognition algo. So if you see a pattern which you have not seen, you will ask your friend and learn. And this learning is what I feel is the actual problem. A kid for example, does not understand anything when it is born. Then the parents/surroundings teach it. It falls, learns from the mistake and the next time it comes across the same scenario it takes a different cour...

Tried out Google chrome…. And my only response is, I am addicted!!!!   I had started off expecting that I won’t stick to it for long, considering that I am pretty happy with FF3. But after using Google Chrome, I realized the advantages of having a separate process for each tab. Yes it does not have the add ins, but I am sure those will follow.   Even IE8 beta 2 takes a couple of seconds to open a new tab (with no content displayed, except their usual about:tabs). Chrome opens up a tab, and also displays an intelligent page, in less than a second :O.   These guys know how to build a browser!!!   Things I love to do with this browser. -           I enjoy draggin a tab out of the window…. The dragging UI is pretty cool -           The rendering engine is pretty fast.   The only problem I seem to be facing is, I am not able to open go...

I still have not yet succumbed to Apple products (I still have an iRiver payer as against buying an iPod). Anyway, i was searching for a Nokia N82, and found it to be costly, even now…. Had expected the prices to come down when iPhone is launching. Guess I have to wait for some more time. I am pretty sure the Nokia will pretty soon floodthe market with 3G + Symbian phones. And then I ll buy one J . But first, should start development!!!!

best_firefox_wallpaper Originally uploaded by prashantvictory Found this neat wallpaper. Wonder whether it is a genuine firefox wallpaper

An excerpt: “The RD350 by Yamaha was the premier sport lightweight of the early 1970s. Ahead of its time, it featured an air-cooled, two-cylinder, six-speed, 350cc two-stroke engine. The bike made about 32 to 35 rear-wheel horsepower, very fast for when it was made.”   From: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2006/11/22/stories/2006112200840100.htm   I remember (i.e. I am not going to forget) the one time that I managed to ride it… What an awesome bike!!!!!     Dreaming, Sachin  

So many feeds, so many blogs, so many web sites. And what do I face???? … an information overload!!!!   Trying to find out how to clean up the clutter, I came up with many suggested solutions. (Eg. Meme s, follow/track using twitter, Yahoo! Pipes, lifestreams, etc.)… and again I messed up. I realized that the problem I faced is of “missing out something important”. i.e. I keep getting the feeling that if I don’t follow a particular topic/person using one or many of the above technologies, I may miss out something.   Pondering for some time made me realize that there is another similar scenario where information overload has occurred.   Consider journalists. They have been collecting decades, if not centuries of news items, information pieces which may or may not have been published. But kept with the hope that they may be useful at a future point of time. So they have gigabytes (or petabytes?) of information. This information ...

F22 - Raptor Front Shot Originally uploaded by P.Sachin.Nayak This bird is known as the F22, also nick named Raptor. It is one among the most stealthiest, and during it s time has been considered as the (whew!!!) plane... of course they are getting out the F34 now..... I had seen this and many other planes in action.. and i guess these are the real things which i do miss about the United States!!!! But in India the one plane which i feel would make my heart skip a beat would be the Tejas (prev known as LCA). This was one indian plane whose poster i roamed around with when i was a kid. ( Tejas (LCA) . I heard started last year. Neat!!!! Maybe i ll get a chance to se it in the next air show (which i feel should be done on a more regularly)

Guys, I have finally decided to quit Infy... Instead I have decided to do something really worthwile such as maybe stealing money from some financial union. And what made me take this drastic decision? This video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgNEon7vG4k Man… This R15 sounds realllly good. And I don't have enough money to buy this beast… even if I manage to buy it I wont be able to pay it's maintenance and the police guys (who will be bugging me at every signal… am pretty sure) So do drop me a comment, in case there is a 50% discount sale going around somewhere.... Tags: Yamaha R15