Book Review: Slide:ology

The book stands out immediately
from any other on this topic not just because
of great design of it, but the infamous author
: Nancy Duarte of Duarte Designs, one of the
largest design firms in Silicon Valley. Nancy
is a leader in presentation development and
an authority in design. The book beautifully
crafts the understanding of the Art and the
Science of creating Great presentations.
A color rich smorgasbord of design insights,
must dos, and all the elements required to
create impactful presentations. I thorougly
enjoyed reading this book, and got a completely
new mindset on how to build great Presentation.
Also included are great presentations and their
creators and what was the thinking behind them.
I recommend this book to anyone who fears preparingd
and giving presentation. I know each one of us
realise how important is to know and to create
presentations in our day-to-day life. And to all
of them, just go and grab this book. You will
thank me forever :)

With this, I would like to share some my finds on
great sites that would enlighten one and all on
the Art and the Science of Great Presentations :-

1. www.presentationzen.com by Garr Reynolds.
2. sildeshare.net - Everybody knows that
3. ww.TED.com

Movie Review : Hotel Rwanda

An outstanding epic of one common man's
stand against the brutal massacre of
a tribe of people in Rwanda. He is not
a soldier, he is not a politician, he is
an ordinary Hotel manager of a 4 star
hotel in Rwanda. using his wits, humour
and people skills, he builds a network
of white friends who he hopes will help
him and his family in any trouble. But
it all backfires when civil war erupts
in Rwanda. This war was a fight between
two tribes of the country, fighting for
power and one's revenge over another.
It was his leadership skills that saved
over 1000's of people in Rwanda from
the Genocide, when the whole world
had shown their back to them.
This real life incident depicted in
a great poise by Don Cheadle, is a must
watch. I just happened to see the trailer
of this movie, and got the urge to pick
it up from my neighbourhood DVD Rental
store. And I was surprised.
In my book, i would rate this movie a 5/5
at any day.

Movie Review: Jashnn

My friend from college urged to go for a movie,
and the movie was newly released Jashnn
staring Adhyayan Suman. It came out as a poor
story telling about a man in search of the Music
within him. Its just like any other rags to
riches story, his struggles and finally winning
the prized Music competition. Totally predictable,
and a tear jerker. The newcomer isn't any good,
and apart from Shahana Goswami, none stand out.
So in the end, i suggest better take a nap in
afternoon than wasting the precious tears watching
this crap.

Rediscover Failure

Torry Harris ka Josh

For the first time, I am releasing the video that excited,
sparkled and made everybody look forward to every morning
in Torry Harris. Check the video, and let me know your
comments :-

My Issues with Reliance Broadband

With all fanfare, I recently upgraded my Reliance
NetConnect High Speed Wireless internet account to
a Broadband one, with speeds upto 3.1 MBps.

But alas, my excitement died very early, as I found
the modem had some issues with my OS (Windows XP
and Ubuntu). It refused to get detected
most of the times, and I had to go for a complete
re-installation. Things became worse, when I used to
do this procedure all the time whenever I need to access
the Net. No doubt, the speed was great, but this flaw
really hurt me a lot. The Customer care people had no
clue, and neither did the people who sold me the device.

Then finally, I came across a document regarding the modem
stating the problem and the solution for it. The problem
was with Device not being detected by the Dialer Software.
Hence I was instructed to go to the Device Manager of the
Windows XP OS and go for UPDATE DRIVER Option against the
modem listing. This could solve the issue. Now All I am left
is to try this out today when I reach back home and pray that
the solution works.

Non Stop Work

I had a very hectic last week, with almost 12 - 15 hours in
office. Hence, I was not able to release the Tag in time.
However, work has subsided, and now I can look forward for
a release in time.

So all set for the Tag release now.

What I am Building - II

After a lazy weekend, I am here to update all of you about
the ListTag which I am developing. I am building a Project
on Sourceforge today, and by afternoon will host it.

It will come with a JAR file, and a TLD (Tag Lib Descriptor)
which has to be imported in the project. Also, I will be
enclosing Documentation to explain the finer details of the
Tag usage. The Source also will be available for free.

More on the features soon coming :-
1. AJAX support. Already implemented in the ALPHA scope of the
Project, but will not be released until this Wednesday.

2. Some new UI patterns are being included, for which I will
provide Screenshots for all of you to have a better understanding.

So looking forward for reviews & comments.

Am I Reading anything ?

These books have been lying on my bedside for sometime (3 weeks).
And you cannot really finish reading any of the below books.
I got to learn it, rather than read it.
And thats what I am doing.

Comments welcome from Everyone

Thanks all for great comments. As you demanded, I
have enabled comments from all, even if you are not
a Google Account holder.
So comment, criticize and add value to my posts.

Thanks!!!

Movie Review : The Greatest Game Ever Played

This movie reminds me of Iqbal. Remember !!. Shreyas Talpade as a dumb and deaf budding bowler trying hard to make a name for himself in the big bag world of Cricket. And in the end he defeated the dislikes of his dad, the naysayers, by reaching the Indian Cricket team. This movie is not the same, but follows the mood. A poor peasant boy raised his parents to believe that, the rich will never allow the poor to excel, goes against his Dad to play his passion. A God gifted hand for Golf, this boy fights the bureaucracy, and the opposition of poor to rise up to the ranks of master of the game.

I am no golfer, and do not understand it well, but this movie has
heightened my curiosity and interest in the game. The movie
dramatizes the game of Golf into a battlefield with amazing visual
effects that truly brings alive the different nuances of the game.
The concentration, strategy and competitiveness of this sport is
expressed in such elegance, it literally keeps you hooked till the
end.
Marvelous performances and believable characters make this
touching underdog story a must watch.

The Mistaken Identity

Its sad that a lovely city like Melbourne is now in
news for all the wrong reasons. Racist attacks, brutal
wounds of Indian students, and what not. For the time,
I was staying in Melbourne, i didn't even have a slightest
hint that this place would turn into a battlefield.
I found the people ever approachable, extremely
caring and jovial. I was put up in Fairfield, a fairy
tale part of Melbourne and would daily train to city.
For not even once, I felt a sense of discomfort travelling
alone at nights and roaming around the city. Instead I
was overwhelmed by the calmness and peace of Melbourne.
A lovely place, and surely one I wanted to stay a little
longer. Its sad that these events have, if not tarnished,
spoiled the image of Melbourne. I still believe these
incidents are acts of selective few and does not
in any way reflect the mood of the city.

Hope this episode gets over and the life in this
lovely city comes back to normal.

TED : Gift to the World

How many of you have heard about TED : The premier
conference on Technology, Education and Design,
bringing some of the most creative and expressive
people around the world, and giving them the stage
for 20 min only. I am a TED addict. Watched hundreds
of TED presentations from last 2 years and still
craving for more. What delights me in each TED
talk, is the sheer passion and creativity that
the speaker tries to portray in order to make sure
his thoughts are spread around the world in less than
20 min. TED talks are freely available for anybody to
download, and they have a growing user base, where you
can share, express and exchange your TED tidbits.

And what more can I ask. TED is coming to India, this
November at Mysore campus of Infosys.

Check out www.ted.com and experience the power of changing
the world.

SAPNET and the story behind it

SAPNET was started in the year 2005 by enthusiastic team from Sapthagiri College of Engineering, Bangalore. Its initial agenda was simple: To empower students to create the next big thing in Technology.

We conducted programs, workshops and seminars in the college as well as allow some of our members

to spread the word to other institutions. And we did amazing work no doubt.

The present avatar of SAPNET has a different purpose and its agenda has changed to :

Contributing to the advancement of technology through collaboration.

Keeping this thing mind, SAPNET organises weekly meetings around Bangalore where group

members come and share their passions in technology and entrepreneurship. We host Brain-storming sessions, Code demos and technology discussions. Also as a part of the new initiatives, we are creating start-up teams to come out with innovative ideas and implement them in limited time. Then these implementations are carried forward through our contacts into the general audience. This initiative already has a team working on a solution to solve Traffic Snarl in Bangalore through Social Networking and Collective Intelligence.

We are marching towards this new phase by getting new people who are excited to work with technology and have a passion to create outstanding solutions for the world.

Now coming to the problems that we are having in the regular operations of SAPNET :-

1. Firstly most of the members are Engineers employed by IT MNCs and are running short of

time to participate every week in the meetings of SAPNET thanks to gruel some Deadline issues in their

respective projects.

2. Previously we used to hold the meetings at our college premises which was easy and convenient

for everybody to attend. Now as we moved out of the college premises, Space is one issue that is

holding us. But we have some support in the form of some temporary establishments where we hold

our meetings.

Apart from the above two issues, the others are minor to describe. We are trying to find the solutions to

above problems by either holding our meetings online through Web Conferences.

On the web we run a blog which is open through membership :-

http://riseofphenix.blogspot.com/

Thanks and Regards,

Vivek Juneja

Chief Co-ordinator, SAPNET

India

The Wave is Here

Google has done it. On May 28, it presented to the

world, its shiny new toy for everybody : Google Wave.

I was blown away by the Google Wave webcast i saw

somedays back. They have truly reinvented Email for

21st Century. The features, some of them uniquely

intuitive and some out of the world. If you have not

yet seen the video, please rush and have a look. A

80 mins. of pure Technology bliss.

Some of the cool features I loved :-

1. Ability to reply to a part of a mail, instead of

the complete mail.

2. The awesome Spell Checker that comes as an

Extension.

3. Document Collaboration where participants

can see in real time, what the other user is

typing and making changes to. This really

rocked.

4. HTML 5 really rocks.

5. Ultra cool UI effects and functionalities.

6. Wave as an Real time component which

can be embedded into any existing Communication

tool like Blogging or Twitter.

and lastly,

6. The Out-of-the-World Language Translator

Extension which comes as an Extension to the

Wave. And boy it does awesome Real time

Language Translation.

Some links you must go through :-

http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

ListTag : End to Data Listing woes

After a short break from my passion, I am back to what I can do best.

Code. This time around I am working on an Independent project

called the ListTag.

A Custom tag to solve all your Pagination, Sorting and Listing woes.

My experience with the Engineering teams here at work, made me

feel that we spend too much time re-inventing the wheel. Take the

case of Listing a set of records, Paginating it and Sorting it. I know

Flex, .NET have great custom controls to automate this stuff. Even

Java has some of them. Not that popular though and each having

cryptic API which makes them implementing quite a task. So I

experimented with a brand new way of abstracting the

Web Developer on this trivial and repeated task, by building the

ListTag. It extends the JSTL TagSupport class and provides great

new features, with integration in a matter of seconds.

The initial BETA is being tested and I will release it to the World by

next week.

I am adding pretty neat AJAX features now which will attract more

audiences and greater performance.

More updates on this as I near the deadline.

Happy Coding.

Movie Review : Ladder 49

I picked up this DVD primarily because I enjoy watching

Travolta. The charisma of this guy really shines in every

film I saw before. And one more reason to pick it up

was the great soundtrack, especially As I am Leaving

by David Gray, one of my personal favourites.

I dont want to review the story as you can easily get

it from any other site. Its the sheer experience of

wide range emotions that the film makes you go

through, one of the highlights of the movie. As it is

nicely said, after you have seen the movie, you will

never see Fire truck in the same way. I am sure

most of us have never even paid a single pint of

attention to a Fire truck or the people behind it.

This movie dedicates itself to the countless Fire-

fighters around the world, and celebrates their

emotions on screen.

A must watch. Joaquin Phoenix is great.

And so is Travolta.

Movie Review : Death at a Funeral

The title sounds spooky isnt' it.

But dont go by the name, its one hilarious

cracker-jacker. I must admit, i was wary of

how the movie would be. I mean, never heard

of it. The DVD carries some great comments

from Critics and some mention of wins at

Internation Film festivals. So I picked it.

A complete roller-coster ride into one event

that brings all in a family in London.

It showcases real characters, much believable

coming together with their own differences,

and nuisances for a funeral. And the hell breaks

lose. A comedy that i enjoyed with some really good

laughs. All in all, I nice movie to enjoy on a cosy

Saturday afternoon. Watch it, and you will not

repent.

The patience of an Indian customer

I didnt even think for a second coming up for

a title for this post. The Patience of an Indian

Customer. I am sure most of us could easily

relate to this. Are we the most impatient

or the most patient customers in the world.

How many times, we go to a shop and compromise

on a sub-standard customer experience. Waiting

endlessly in a line that never ends, or dealing with

a terrible shopping experience.

It really makes me sick, when we as a nation cannot

understand one simple thing about being competitive

in this global market. The word is Customer Experience.

The recession is a proof that the world has changed.

No longer you can sell on cost margins. No longer you stay

in market because you are the cheapest provider.

The recession has hurt all, the all mighty to the lowly

hawker. So isn't this the time to rethink about how

we think about selling. I liked the book

"What the Customer wants you to Know" by Ram Charan.

A good read and a valuable one. Great insights with

some engaging examples by the champion of management

consultants. And as soon I finished the book, i started thinking

how many times, I was tested for my patience as a Customer.

Be it buying a computer or standing in line to pay the bill.

The Experience is missing. Is it because, we as a Customer

dont pay for experience, we just own the goods, and throw it

once our gratification with it is over. Or is it something else.

I think we all need to relook into what is the competition and

what are its essentials. Customer Experience being one of

them, and the one we dont really count much as far as

Indian standards are concerned. I heard so many asking

what Indian has to do to become a product development

leader. I say we need to know what makes the customer

Experience as delightful as possible. India for many in the

world is its Back office. So many support projects, Call

center and Outsourcing work, we essentially need to be

the front runners in providing the best experience a Customer

can ask for. And I feel thats the next competitive edge.

More on this in my later posts. For now, Start thinking.

Hackathon Pictures

  

 My Hack -Tool for the HackDay

 

Some Entertainment for Hack Gurus

Its midnight, but no stop for Hacking

Hacker and the Bean Bag

The Hack Day Stage for the 90 seconds battle