We know the power of Ruby on Rails and what convention over configuration could do. We realized this without any doubt when we built Suggestica and iPolipo. Convention over Configuration is more about built in structure and configuration. All the developers need to do is to use the built in structure and configuration and just focus on the code that will perform the function required by the application. This saves a lot of time in terms of architecture and design and can really help in delivering solutions very quick. With steaming success of Rails and focus on Web 2.0, the industry has started realizing the importance of such framework rather than complex configurations.

Now Grails is another entry in this arena that uses the Groovy language for its framework. Groovy is an agile dynamic language for the Java Platform with many features that are inspired by languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk, making them available to Java developers using a Java-like syntax. As we move on there will be more frameworks like this coming up catering to the languages that are used for web application development. If you want to learn Grails here is the free e-book “Getting Started with Grails” that you can download from InfoQ (needs registration).

Take a look at Linutop. A system that is just suitable for surfing the net. I mean why does one need a huge desktop sitting there and occupying space and if one needs it only to surf the internet? Less physical space, yet powerful enough.

Firebug is another cool FireFox extension that will extensively help web developers. For developers working with AJAX and finding difficult to debug the AJAX features here is a good article “AJAX Debugging with Firebug“.

You might be ambitious and have a vision to become someone and have a deadline to reach there, but have you considered the steps to get there? If you need to reach a floor through stairs you cannot skip the steps. If you try to, beware you could trip and fall down. Achieving what you want will require you to understand the steps involved in it and go through those steps.  You can fast track but then you cannot skip the steps that will take you there. I have heard of newbie’s in the industry wanting to become leads and managers in very short period of time, I am not saying it is not possible but one cannot miss the steps necessary to be there. A designation doesn’t necessarily mean the person understands and performs the roles and responsibility of the position. At least in India, still promotions and designations are based on age rather than the experience and capability to take up particular roles and responsibilities. So watch your steps,  being there means going through  what it takes to be there.

Note:- This post is part of the Foundation series

A humorous quote I recently came up.

“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots.  So far, the Universe is winning.” - Rich Cook

I think competing against Universe and being idiot is OK

Happy Weekend!

My friend Thiyagarajan had an interesting thing to share with me that happened in his company. For the sake of this post I am calling this person John. John had joined this Multi National Company (MNC) that my friend was working, as a software engineer with a lucrative pay.  Large IT corporations in India recruit people in mass for the growing demand and for the cheap labor cost. Being an MNC and having thousands of employees in single location it is very difficult to neither know each and everyone nor monitor everyone. It is difficult to keep people occupied every day through out the year as a lot of people are recruited to meet resource demands of projects in pipeline. After six months John quits the company and joins somewhere else.  Except for few, the organization does not know that John had made use of the advantage of MNC’s huge crowd and the difficulty to keep each and everyone occupied the whole day. It seems John was planning to construct a house and wanted to be in the construction site every day and monitor the progress. So he joined this MNC, went to the construction site everyday, monitored the work, came to office in the noon and left again in the evening early.  Once the house was complete, John quit the MNC and joined somewhere else.

On one hand it looks like John made use of the MNC but on the other hand think about the attitude that John had.  A person having an attitude like John is more interested in personal gain even during work and is not bothered about his career or the company he/she is working in.  Maybe John can survive by doing such acts and survive on a shorter run but does not understand what this could impact him in the long run. A person such as John will lose out the value in the longer run and it will be difficult to be competent on the job and also difficult to get a job.  It will be easy for an MNC to shortlist people who are not productive to the company and send them home one day.  And a person like John could be the first in the list.  Ultimately it is easy to understand who the loser is.

If you are new to build automation refer my series of posts on build automation.  If you are interested to learn Apache Maven2 you can take a look at the tutorial “Introduction to Apache Maven 2” published in IBM developerWorks (needs registration). You can also refer to Mergere’s whitepaper on Better Builds with Maven.

As the power of internet grows I don’t know what not will get hooked on to it. The more and more it becomes cheaper in terms of affordability and resources and at the same time increased bandwidth, everything going digital, live and distributed will be the mantra of future technology. As I was surfing through the net I read two news articles that have got into hooking up internet more into common man’s life.

• Skype founders move into net TV
• Instant viewing — Netflix delivers over the Web

Entertainment will become more intertainment in the coming years