Ajay Mungara's random scribble pad

Top 15 Ways to Extend Your Laptop’s Battery Life

2007-07-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

Top 15 Ways to Extend Your Laptop’s Battery Life

Thanks to Friedbeef's Tech for some very useful tips for extending the battery life when you are on the go. I wish I knew how much impact each of the tip on the battery life. Lot of the tips are really common sense, but couple of things that I was not aware of were "defrag you hard disk", "prevent the memory effect", and "turning off the auto save button".

Hope you find these tips useful as well.

The Simplest Weight Loss Tips No One Follows

2007-03-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

"Will Brink" has done an awesome job in summarizing some of very simply easy to follow tips. Really Useful Fitness Blog: The Simplest Weight Loss Tips No One Follows (with little to no effort).
Tip #1: never ever go food shopping hungry
I have done this and paid a heavy price, as I ended up buying so many "big bad" junk food items. You crave for food you know is bad for you, but buy it anyway because your body/mind is only thinking of food.
Tip # 2: never keep snack foods in the house
Absolutely - somehow you can very easily conquer your craving by the virtue of the fact that it is not easily accessible when you really crave for it.
Tip # 3: eat off of smaller plates
Simple to follow and a very effective strategy - I went to an all-you-can-eat-buffet last weekend and I successfully employed this strategy. I did not stuff myself to the brink -- always a good thing.
Tip #4: Know Thy Self
well, I have not done it yet, but I will definitely document my triggers and develop strategies to cope with them

I will add another tip to this list (my little value add to a very well written blog post by will).
Tip #5: Drink lots of water
hmmm .. simple enough? Although, drinking water alone does not directly help with weight loss, but it helps in portion control and is really good for your body. It is a habit you have to consciously develop .. I was somehow under the habit of drinking water only towards the end of a meal and not while eating -- but, once I started to develop the habit of drinking some water along with my meal made me eat less and I really felt contended with smaller portions. Easy portion control strategy!!

Freedom from Text Chat clients!!!

2007-02-27T09:38:00.000-08:00

meebo.com

Text Chat or Instant Messengers are becoming increasingly popular. If you are anything like me then you must have become increasingly dependent on text chat to connect with friends, family and business contacts. The popular clients such as AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, MSN instant messenger, etc. all have one fundamental problem .. they are not compatible with each other. If you have one contact on one client and another contact is using another service then the biggest challenge is to have access to them both. I have a whole bunch of these clients installed on my laptop(which are really annoying because they take up a lot of memory) and the other problem being the firewall at my work place does not allow some of the clients to connect. I always wondered if there is a way to solve to this problem by allowing me to connect online at one place … then I came across Meebo which allows you to connect to any number of text chat services all in one window and the big plus being it is web based. I encourage you to try this out .. It is really useful.

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

A great video from Michael Wesch that demonstrates the evolution of digital text to hypertext to web1.0 to web2.0. In this video Michael demostrates very simplistically the web2.0 in action. I really liked the definition where web1.0 is about linking information (websites, webpages, etc.) and web2.0 is about linking people .. people sharing, trading and collaborating.

Web 2.0 is all about creating a PUBLIC SPACE for ordinary users

2007-02-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

Last night I was browsing on some new social networking sites around the internet just to learn more about what they are doing to attract the conversations and build online communities. My day job is really all about building a network of developers using Intel technology and to build a vibrant software developer community. I happen to come across the top web 2.0 websites from eSnip. Looking at all these websites it seems like the overarching theme is really centered on creating a personal public SPACE easily for ordinary people.

Share personal views, stories, podcasts, photos, opinions, videos, etc.

Participate in online conversations, discussions, answer questions, etc.

Aggregate user driven content, blogs, feeds, comments, knowledge, etc.

Connect with people across the globe, make friends, exchange ideas, meet business contacts, etc.

Engage in conversations, discuss, chat, participate in a community, etc.

Web 2.0 is all about creating a personal public SPACE (Share, Participate, Agrregate, Connect, and Engage) for people in the virtual world of Internet. It is all about giving you SPACE in the internet for you to blossom, thrive and grow without any traditional restrictions. You own this SPACE and you share your personal life, opinions, pictures, videos, etc. I call it PUBLIC space because email also gave you a personal space, but it was private to you where you could connect with the world through your unique email id, but only a select few people you choose had access to your SPACE (and spammers!!).

Any company which can successfully create this public space for everybody to thrive and contribute are really going to be the winners in this new age of the internet evolution.

Movers 2.0 - Follow the Web 2.0 traffic trends

2007-02-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

Movers 2.0 - Follow the Web 2.0 traffic trends

Here is a simple website that lists out the top web2.0 sites with Alexa rank. Check out the graphs for each website that tell you the daily reach and page views. If you are web2.0 company then surfacing to the top of such lists means a buyer waiting for you .. and it could be your exit strategy. I had not heard of some of the websites listed here, so it is time to check them out.

Google Press Center: News Announcement

2007-01-24T14:57:00.000-08:00

Google Press Center: News Announcement

I tried some of the new features of google groups announced today. I really liked the page customized look and feel with graphics along with file sharing. I think the drag and drop customization capabilities is really nice .. I am hoping that "blogger" takes some of the concepts to make the blog pages more customizable. Although, I should admit the new capabilities of blogger are right on target, but the drag and drop features for the google groups are really nice. Way to go google!!

How boring!

2007-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

How boring!-Bangalore Times-City Supplements-NEWS-The Times of India

There was a time where staying in a job for many years meant seniority and in turn career growth, but it has completely changed today. People have become very restless and want to see unprecedented and extraordinary career growth very quickly. There is a strong urge among young techies to learn enough about a technology to update the resume and move on to the next new thing. Based on my experience, I suggest that staying in a job or a project (not recommending for ever) for enough time goes a long way in shaping a strong & sustainable career. Both the extremes are bad … Staying in a job for ever or switching jobs/projects very frequently.

When you walk into a book store you notice all the tech shelves filled with books like learn something in 10days or idiots guide to something or tech dummies book, MBA in a week, etc. Well I really don’t think you can master any technology or topic in such a short time. You need to really go deep in a subject and eventually the learning process gets easily carried over when learning a different technology. As we have seen in the last decade or so …. Technology becomes easier and easier to learn and come to think of it … if you can master a technology in less than 10 days, don’t you think everybody can do it. So, what is your real career differentiator?

It is very important to learn the human and business dynamics in any project beyond the technology in order to successfully define your career. Trust me that the experience you gain by seeing a full life cycle of a project goes a long way in building the right momentum in your career. So, don’t get bored when you think you have learnt the technology associated with a project, look around and you will see opportunities to learn. (like the business process, the management dynamics, issues with support, etc. are all the other things you can learn beyond just the technology that will keep you from getting bored).

Do you have any Principles that guide your career decisions?

2007-01-15T16:09:00.000-08:00

What Next Syndrome

Changing a job is often viewed by many people as a ticket or short cut to career growth. I seriously believe in sticking with a given job till you attain a certain level of experience and become really good with what you are doing. You need to really spend some time in your job to overcome the initial hurdles in order to get really productive and then success & growth will automatically come to you.

I have mostly designed my career based on some principles partly imparted to me by my first real manager Jyotirmoy Chakravarty (also known as JC) @wipro Infotech. I can never forget some of the things he told me early in my career and I am really grateful to JC for his career guidance:

· If you are very comfortable with what you are doing then it is time to move on. He always suggested that you should not get very stagnant with what you are doing. He did not suggest that you change your job all the time, but he recommended that you take on more responsibilities and move outside your comfort zone.

· When it comes to your career buck stops at YOU. Never depend on your manager to design your career. He always told me that an employee owns his own career & employability and he is the one totally responsible for it, so do not look for your manager to define your career. Take suggestions/guidance from your manager or anybody, but ultimately your career decisions has to be owned by you and you alone.

· It is always YOU who can define the scope of your job. In any job he recommended not to wait for opportunities to come knocking at your door and he said do not always wait for your manager to tell you what to do. He was a big risk taker and he always fished for opportunities and ideas that went beyond the scope of his job. He said look around you closely and you will see opportunities which in turn translates to growth at your job.

· Know exactly when to move on. He always said that successful people know when the jump ship and do not wait for the ship to sink or wait for you to be evacuated. He always said that your career is much more than one manager, one goal, one location and one company. Oh well .. this is very hard to implement and I should admit that I have not been successful at this at all. You get easily comfortable with your location and with people around you ..and this clearly influences the choices you make.

Anyway .. JC shared this career philosophy with me almost 9 years ago and I am sharing it in this blog post today. I really have no idea where JC is right now .. but I would really like to thank him for being such a great manager.

So, do you have any principles that guide your career decisions?

My first impression of iPhone was great, but ...

2007-01-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

I was simply impressed with the innovation that went into iPhone and I was carried away by the coolness wave. But, I asked myself "is this product that great that I am willing to spend $500" ... and my conclusion is "not really or not yet" because of the following reasons.
30GB memory on my iPod is no match with the 4 or 8 GB on iPhone. Support for office tools like word, xls, ppt, etc. was not obvious .. if all I wanted to do was view photos & videos and listen to music then iPhone seemed great, but that is not enough. Since it support OS X I am sure it does support some office type funcionility, but 4GB memory is not enough to the job done. I am not sure about the battery life either. So, after succefully riding the coolness wave for a day or so .. the reality bullet hit me hard and I am not ready to shell out 500$ on this phone as yet.

Really kool phone service

2007-01-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

JAJAH - web-activated telephony
I tried this phone service yesterday and it is simply an amazing service. Jajah is an innovative phone service that integrates with your regular phone device(phone to phone) thus you can talk without the need for any headphones, speakers or having to install any software. It stands true to its tag line "free your voice".

You simply register your phone number on the website and then you ask your family/friends to register (they can be anywhere in the world). All calls to & from Jajah users is free. You place the call using their website and both the phones ring and you talk for absolutely free. Depending on the type of phone (mobile or landline) and the country you are calling to or from Jajah charges a very reasonable fee.

I was naturally concerned about privacy of my calls as all calls are routed through Jajah, but the website claims that the service is absolutely secure. This is my mind is the future of telephony. Try it out and let me know your experience with this service.

Apple - iPhone - WOW it is amazing

2007-01-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

Apple - iPhone

WOW .. it is simply an amazing innovation. Everything about this phone is really cool. I simply love the touch screen, key pad less integrated phone and iPod. They have even put some sensors to control the brightness of the screen and they seem to have eliminated the problem of accidentally operating the touch screen display with your ear. It supports Bluetooth, WiFi, Web Surfing, email, video, music, etc. and happens to be ergonomic from the looks of it. Hmmm .. I will probably wait for a couple of months for the prices to come down before buying it. iPhone is on my list of things to buy in 2007.

Time also has a good article that talks about the innovation behind the iPhone.

I am starting to love Google Reader

2007-01-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

Google Reader (100+)

I am begining to like Google feed reader. I have tried various readers over many years and most of them were desktop versions with a major limitation being they are tied to your computer. Couple of months ago my laptop crashed (I did have a good data backup, but it did not include the feeds) and in the process I lost all my favourite feeds. This time around I was really keen on an online feed reader and I am really glad I choose google reader. It works very well with the Firefox browser, but it is not working at all on IE or Maxthon (my other two browsers).

All I wanted to do was book a train ticket online

2007-01-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

India is well regarded all over the world as a hot destination for software technology. Last time I was in Bangalore I was simply amazed with all the technological advancement where a pan shop owner, a vegetable vendor, a bus conductor were carrying cell phones and all the internet café were filled with enthusiastic students. I have no doubts about the advanced software skills India has to offer, but I am really not impressed with the basic utility type of websites to get your job done online.

I heard that The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation has introduced online booking for train tickets and I wanted to try out this service. All I wanted to do was book a train ticket online from Pune to Bangalore and I was thinking in my mind that this should be easy.

Alas!! not really .. website The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is not only confusing, but it is very very poorly designed. Too many ads on this page, it forces me to login for finding any useful information , the registration is too cumbersome and even after all that it does not really show the availability, etc. And after trying for about 30 Mins I gave up. I thought calling an agent to get this done would be much easier. If a tech savvy person like me is turned off by the design .. I can only imagine the plight of an ordinary user.

I wonder why can't the web designers for Indian Railways learn from so many examples all over the internet to come up with an intuitive design. I think users like me have to wait another couple of years before attempting to conduct business online in India.

New York and recycling

2007-01-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

I was in New York city for the holidays and stayed with one of friends in Hoboken. I was really surprised to see the pervasive use of plastic without any concern to the environment.

Being from Oregon I learnt to really care for nature, our environment, global warming, etc. I really take time to sort things for recycling for example use proper recycle bins for plastic, aluminum cans, nickel cadmium batteries, card board, paper, etc.

First thing I noticed in New York city is that there is absolutely no recycling system is in place -- everything goes into the same garbage. I was also told that recycling as a concept does not exist in the east coast (even if it does it is minimum)… I could not stop thinking about it all the time I was in the New York city.Maybe the city takes care of sorting the garbage for recyling and does not throw that responsibility to the consumer, but asking the consumers to do this basic sorting of garbage goes a long way in building awareness. .. I sure hope the concept of recycling comes to play very soon in the east coast especially in the New York city before it is too late. This is my rant for the day!!!

Blogging at Intel

2006-11-03T21:40:00.000-08:00

I have started to actively blog on Intel Software Network website externally. Well .. it is targeted specically around Manageability related technology. Do check out my blog. Well, this is not the only reason I have not been active here .. I will get back to scribble my thoughts here soon.

Read/WriteWeb: Search 2.0 vs Traditional Search

2006-07-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

Read/WriteWeb: Search 2.0 vs Traditional Search

Although, search 2.0 seems catchy and following the ever growing fad around web2.0 but I think the whole concept of social networking and users driving the relevancy as opposed to a search engine is a concept nobody can dismiss. The new era of community driven search engines is where you will find the "next google". I am really impressed by "swicki" and "rollyo" as they enable you to narrow your search based on the collective wisdom of the community thus making the results more relevant.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3

2006-07-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

My favorite internet browser for sometime has been Maxthon. I simply love the tabbed interface and the important "Ad Blocker" capability. I also use Maxthon as my RSS feed aggregator. Couple of downsides of Maxthon include the support of custom toolbars like google toolbar and del.icio.us buttons.
The promise and capabilities of Microsoft IE 7 seemed pretty good, so I decided to install the beta 3 product. I have been using this only for a day ... and my first impressions are really POSITIVE. It appears to me that Microsoft is finally listening to its users and have incorporated some of the key capabilities that I have come to expect from any browser (like the tabbed interface, integrated RSS capabilities, popup blocker, etc.). I will blog more about my experience with IE7 after I start using it more regularly.

Reinventing this Blog

2006-07-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

I plan to reinvent this blog and bring some clear focus to it. Originally I wanted this blog to be purely a collection of ramdom thoughts and notes with the target audience being just me and maybe a couple of my close friends, but I have realized that this lacks passion around any specific topic. So, I intend to reinvent this space to talk about my passion which is all about web and mostly around web2.0. "Tune-in" to hear me rant about all the great things happening around this amazing phenomenon "web2.0".

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

2006-05-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

I often spend time looking at new book releases related to Technology & Marketing and I have actually noticed this trend of “learn X in Y days” type of books. If you seriously believe like I do that it takes time, effort and practice to master any new thing(spoken language, programming language, some new technology, etc.) then you must read this article as it clearly reinforces this message.

Dog Mountain Hike (Columbia River Gorge)

2006-05-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

I went for the dog mountain hike this weekend. I think this one ranks as one of the best hikes around the Columbia river gorge area at least during this time of the year (May – June). The best part of the hike was the spectacular wild flower blooms around the trail. I think we picked a perfect day for this hike because it was not too hot and it was an incredibly clear day. Very clear unobstructed views of Mt. Hood, St. Helens and Mt. Adams …. Not to mention the stunning views of the Columbia Gorge.

Hike: Dog MountainDetails: 7 mile loop with a total of 2900 ft. elevation gain. Rated as Difficult because of the elevation gain.
Views: Unobstructed views of the Columbia Gorge, Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens and dazzling wild flower blooms in May/June
Notes: Carry plenty of water, require good shoes (some loose gravel at some spots), and a light jacket (it can get a little windy closer to the top). You will need to carry the NW forest pass for the parking.
Directions:Take 84E (exit #44 cascade locks), Cross the Bridge of Gods, right on Washington highway 14 (12 miles) and you will see the dog mountain trail head on the left.

How to stretch your major muscle groups

2006-02-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

I am begining to see the great benefits from stretching after a regular cardio routine. A 10-15min stretch after the cool down period can make a big difference the next day, it basically gets the body prepared for the next day and prevents long term injury. Check this great link from Mayo clinic http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/SM00043&slide=1 for some regular routines.

Math will rock your world

2006-01-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

I really feel that this article is a must read for all the mathematics professors out there, because universities should teach mathematics from a practical stand point. Most of the focus in schools is highly theoretical and it would be really great to give some real life examples where these theories can be applied and put to practical use.

Also, my secret intention here is to influence my Mother-In-Law who happens to be a Mathematics professor in the Mysore University. I would like to see that see adds a practical touch to her classes. :-)

iTunes Phone

2005-09-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased an iPod color (30GB) as a gift to my wife on our wedding anniversary. Both of us have really fallen in love with this product. Excellent usability features and really elegant design. The best part of the interface is the famous iPod dial. When I heard that Apple has introduced a new iTunes compatible cell phone the first thing I wanted to see the product interface and frankly I was very disappointed to see the dial missing. It almost looks like a regular motorola phone with a MP3 player built in with the iTunes software. What happened to the creative Apple design in this case? Looks like they were really in a hurry to release this product. I am sure the next version of the product will be very different ... so I am going to wait before buying this product.

Visual Studio: Contract First Web Services Interoperability between Microsoft .NET and IBM WebSphere

2005-07-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

Visual Studio: Contract First Web Services Interoperability between Microsoft .NET and IBM WebSphere

I am presonally a big fan of contract first webservices development, but I don't think there are any good tools that support this form of development. At the end of day we should be able to define a contract that ensures interoporability, versioning and specifies the intent of the service (including the interface, all the business exceptions, usage model, etc.) and then eventually generate code from the contract. The challenge is to keep the contract and the code in sync, and this cannot happen without having some kind of an integrated tool along with a well defined change control process (change in this case is any change in the contract, theoritically the contract should not change, oh well the reality is that it does all the time). I have seem some tools which illustrate the concept with some very trivial examples, but I have not seen anything that can scale to the enterprise needs. While we wait for the industry to come up with some tools .... we should make sure that one person or a team of people with a good understanding of the business capability around the service should manage the contract.