JigarShah.net Blog Posts

rediff.com: Narayana Murthy on the coalition govt he would prefer, In India, articulation is mistaken for accomplishment

2009-05-03T14:18:00.002+05:30

Narayan Murthy: ".......Secularism is not about forgetting who you are; secularism is about saying I will respect you for what you are and that we will take all decisions without considering what religion you belong to. That is secularism. ......."

Read ....

'In India, articulation is mistaken for accomplishment'

"......here (In India) in this culture, if you do anything with your hands, it is considered less honorable that anything to do with your brain.
Here everybody wants to be an engineer, nobody wants to be a technician. So when a society does not value implementation, execution, what happens is you create more and more reports and nothing gets done. ....."

Read ....

Humanity Still Lives....

2009-02-21T21:11:00.000+05:30

Creativity...

2008-11-23T22:29:00.001+05:30

I was going thorough blog post of one of my friend Sunil on creativity. In his opinion people need relax for being creative. I was seriously looking at that aspect, but most of the time i find that when people rest instead of relax and they start 'rusting'. But yes, if people always kept busy in non creative and manual work for long time they really cannot manifest creative ideas. I am of firm opinion that creativity has lot to do with work environment. I recently saw a video by Tim Brown. He speaks about different aspects which can help people unleash their creativity. Excellent video with lots of techniques we can use at our home or organization.

Tim Brown: The powerful link between creativity and play

Mark Shuttleworth » Blog Archive » This is not the end of capitalism

2008-11-06T21:19:00.000+05:30

Excellent post by Mark (Man behind Ubuntu and a capitalist :))
Mark Shuttleworth » Blog Archive » This is not the end of capitalism

I totally agree with him on a point regarding regulator. Do we really know what are the backgrounds of regulators ? Whether he has any direct interest in any concerned industry / department ? What track / success record he has if he is from the same industry ? What salary does he draw ?

Next (Capitalistic) era will and should decide on quality and responsibility of regulators.
I believe same issues discussed by Mark (especially "A great regulator needs to know a lot about an industry, but be independent of that industry.") applies to our politicians as well. They are also becoming sort of regulators (They should not be, ideally). (Remember MNS (India):))

Threaded mails in Yahoo Mail..!! ?Coming soon..

2008-03-10T09:36:00.002+05:30

I was trying to add Yahoo Mail Tips. And i saw some strange arrows in my subject Line..And what i see...!! "Go to next thread" And awesome feature that was missing since a long time and since gmail provided this people switched. This is particularly useful for discussion forums and to track of communication. But as soon as reported this .it was pulled down...:) and reply to mail was "It was temporarily added. Will be added in some other form soon". Hope fully in much better format.

Update : Its back... but i think it need some better user interface. I would like it to be similar to gmail but simple button with dropdown displaying list of next and previous thread will do. :)

Live documents : "Future of Office" Or "Future for Office" ?

2007-12-07T21:56:00.000+05:30

Sabeer Bhatia has announced a Microsoft Office Killer Live Documents. Is this a real killer to Microsoft’s core business application, Office ? Sabeer Bhatia, one who received millions from Microsoft for purchase of Hotmail. Now he is targeting Office. Google has already made a huge attempt by introducing Google Docs with core applications (Documents, Spreadsheet and Presentation); Combined with Google apps for domain. Perfect suite for Small and Midsize Enterprises.

So what MS is doing ? It started an attempt to share and collaboration for it Office suite. But Where is real killer ? So This time also They are gonna buy it from Sabber Bhatia ? Is that's in Sabeer's mind too? Overall look of LiveDocuments is similar to Office 2003. It offers synchronization of desktop Office too. And much more for MS Office like sharing and offline editing etc. A ready mixture for Microsoft ?
Remember Hotmail made online presence of MS on web significant in 1998 ? So is this time for it again ?

Lets see what real promises like and Interoperability and Shareability. As per their description, Application like spread sheet are built using Flex. Now Thats where we will see how it gets on the Open web ? Will Microsoft buy something like this when Its already investing on Silverlight ?

Wait and watch.! Invitations are open. Get one for yourself.
Sabeer Bhatia has another reason for celebration. Congratulations to India's most eligible bachelor. He is getting married...!

Update : Opps..! I am late..!! Microsoft has already launched it own service. Office Live Workspace Its still in private beta. (I haven't got any invitation yet..!). Unlike Live document; It has not released any details on How the product will really look like but says "You can Edit Your Document". Lets see What it really delivers.

Internet Explorer 7 on Linux ..!!

2007-08-08T09:56:00.000+05:30

We always have issues with testing web application on IE. So here is the solution. IE4Linux.
It works well. CSS and colouring is not as per Windows but it better then nothing. Rendering engine is still of IE.

Installing Flashplayer plugin on 64 bit firefox on linux.

2007-08-08T09:54:00.000+05:30

From Ketan's Blog
Installing Flashplayer plugin on 64 bit firefox on linux. It worked fine for me on Fedora 7. Try it.
Flash Player Plugin for 64 bit Firefox on linux
It works for other plugins like adobe reader
NSPLUGINWRAPPER

Those Who Can, Code; Those Who Can't, Architect

2007-04-23T01:31:00.001+05:30

i-Technology Viewpoint: Those Who Can, Code; Those Who Can't, Architect

— At the moment there seems to be an extremely unhealthy obsession in software with the concept of architecture. A colleague of mine, a recent graduate, told me he wished to become a software architect. He was drawn to the glamour of being able to come up with grandiose ideas - sweeping generalized designs, creating presentations to audiences of acronym addicts, writing esoteric academic papers, speaking at conferences attended by headless engineers on company expense accounts hungrily seeking out this year's grail, and creating e-mails with huge cc lists from people whose signature footer is more interesting than the content.

Microformats for newbies....

2007-04-18T14:46:00.000+05:30

Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patterns (e.g. XHTML, blogging).

You visit some website and you want it to want to see similar pages bookmarked on del.icio.us or you want to search photographs similar to one from his website at flickr; Either that website has small chiklets as you see on the footer of my posts. or you visit del.icio.us and do everything manually. Consider there are 20 such services so just consider the length of the post ..!! Look at my friend ketan's Blog. Its really useful to have "search similar pages on del.icio.us with tag x y z" But see how much space is occupies for just about 5 such services...!

Lets make another case. You visit my website and and you want my contact details to be added to your yahoo/google/outlook address book. ? Search for contact page or profile, open address book copy details etc.

What if i visit a website and and my browser detects my contact details and with single click i can add it to my address book...!! What if my browser detects tags on my blog or wepbage and list me with a single click on my status bar....!!

Hands on ....
Lets see demonstration of this concept. Firefox 3 (Code named Grand Paradiso) already has microformat detection on it list. As a proof of concept Michael Kaply has developed Operator Extension which detects microformats and allows you to do various operations on it. (Since it involves parsing and duplicate detection; tab switching is bit slower, But native support in Firefox will definitely make it faster)

1. Get Firefox
2. Install Operator Extension
3. Visit this site again...:)

April Fools 2007

2007-04-01T22:02:00.001+05:30

Some of my favorites this year:

Mozilla Foundation Sues Microsoft - Over Tabbed Browsing

Gmail Paper - Your mail printed out.

Yahoo mail beta vs Windows Live Mail Beta

2007-02-06T19:33:00.000+05:30

Update : Yahoo mail Beta has added lots of features and fixes to make mail more usable and faster. Making it more intuitive the Live mail. I have added Update: to all headings to describe changes.

Yahoo and Microsoft both launched Web 2.0 mail betas. Namely, Yahoo mail and Windows Live Mail.

cool. Its just similar to simple desktop client like thunderbird. Tabbed viewing of messages, vieWhen i first saw Yahoo mail beta I said Wow..! simplywing pan, inbuilt news reader, etc. Windows mail beta had issues with compatibility with Firefox browser. But now things are changed a lot. Both of them are testing their Betas since past one year. It looks like Windows Live Mail will come out of bet much sooner then Yahoo mail. Here is the comparison of various features and issues with both.

1. Feedback Mechanism: Here Windows Live mail wins the race.
It has Feedback Link On the frontpage itself.
In case of yahoo mail it comes in only when you try to switch back to original yahoo mail... :) Thats ridiculous. Might be because of spam they receive. But its really annoying for honest users who wants to give feedback.

2. Speed: Yahoo mail is much slower then new Windows Live Mail. New Ymail has lots of 3D graphics involved So loading is quite slower.
In contrast Live Mail has learned lesson from Hotmail and Gmail. Hotmail has lots of graphics involved and that makes it slower. While gmail has minimum graphics so its lightening fast. Live Mail has clean and elegant look and very less images. It loads much faster.

3. Compatibility: I was expecting Microsoft making application incompatible with Firefox. But this time its other way round. Ymail Beta throws lots of javascript error on firefox (You can see them on javascript console). Even it has issues with css. for example Selected folder box is displayed distorted, even search field and Text fields also gets trimmed. This behavior is indifferent on Linux and Windows.
Surprisingly, Windows Live Mail is totally compatible with Firefox. It does not through any javascript error, Text and graphics is much more cleaner then Ymail and its consistent on both Firefox and IE.
Update : I realised that this is not problem with YMail beta but firefox. Firefox 3 (Grand Paradiso) ; which is web standard compliant displays everything correctly. And newer update also has fewer javascript error on firefox.

4. User Experience: Ymail beta has Horizontal Viewing Pan Something similar to Thunderbird. And Live Mail has Vertical Viewing pan. I think both of them will add option to choose between vertical or horizontal viewing pan.
Selecting email (for performing batch operation like delete) is also quite handled nicely on Windows Live mail. It displays check box to select mail. In case of Ymail, Its similar to desktop client. Pressing ctrl and click on individual mails. This process is quite slower as compared to Live mail.
Windows Live mail also displays notification while is executing request (It was difficult to get Screenshot..Its damn fast...)
Update : Selection box feature is been added back in newer update.

5: Features: Ymail has tight integration with Calender and Address book. Its old feature...sync with Desktop client like outlook with IntelliSync software is simply cool. But in new Interface Yahoo has removed categories from Contact. Now it just has Mailing Lists. I hope they put it back soon. Calender is still in its older interface (Non AJAX).
Another exciting feature is ; you get timeline at bottom of your mail window. Which displays most recent events. You can add them without going to calendar. Inbuilt News reader is also cool. It allows to forward and save post.

Update: Recently YMail also added Yahoo Messenger to mail. It has all new cool features like Avtars and smilies. It displays how many contacts are online in the Near Contact. for more information see this post. Ymail also has announced unlimited Storage which they will start rolling out from June.

Windows Live mail Beta has converted its Calender and Contacts (Address books) to new interface. windows Live mail has migrated everything to new Live mail.

6. Security: Yahoo mail Displays all the content in the mail. Even if its a spam. Where Windows Mail blocks content and displays option to view content.
Update : YMail beta also has option to enable/disable display of images in the mail. However, it does not disable links in the mail but that is not a security threat.

Skinning the tiger....

2006-12-05T15:38:00.000+05:30

When we talk about geography class when someone says Australia what comes first in your mind ? Kangaroos ...!! Isn't it..? We often address Australian team as Kangaroos. Because they are the national pride.
And what comes first when someone says India ?? Elephant, Lion, tiger..!! Tiger...!!
National animal of India. But often that does not come to our mind. Yes, because most of us have never saw them except in texts. And They are disappearing fast. One of the major reason for this is illegal trade of their skins to countries like China. Report shows how well organized this trade is.
Lets spread the word. WE CAN MAKE DIFFERENCE. Wildlife Protection Society Of India is working with other organization to prevent illegal trade.

Lets Help Them.

Jason Fried on Hiring Good Employees and development methodologies

2006-11-14T23:13:00.001+05:30

Hire curious people. Even if they don’t have the exact skill set you want, curious, passionate people can learn anything.

Podcast from IT Conversations :
Jason Fried of 37signals discusses lessons learned while building Basecamp, a hosted project management tool that is extremely popular among its thousands of users.

Jason shares his experiences about what works and what doesn’t in web development and how the unconventional development methodologies followed by 37signals give it an edge. From the advantages of working as a team with members in different continents to getting the word about your product out effectively, Jason covers it all. Listens to this podcast

I am sorry...

2006-09-30T22:37:00.000+05:30

I noticed some crap photos on my flickr stream yesterday. I realised that my flickr account was compromised...someone used my flickr account and posted crap photos on that. I think someone has used any tool for posting it. I might have left it without signing out on some public computer. Sorry for that.

Blogger for group communication - alternaive to e-mail Forwards.

2006-09-07T13:09:00.000+05:30

Here is how we can use Blogger for group networking.
Its something like webpage for group; which can be dynamically edited by multiple users.
I will put each functionality of group email replaced by Blogger one. And how it can prevent unnecessary hassle of chain mails and forwards.

One more point, Blogging is little more time consuming then chain forwards. But Its more convenient for reader. It save a lot of time of reader by giving an option for what to read and what not. And as it takes some more effort then forwarding it will surely protect those "easy chain mails"

Blogging for group can be useful.

1) Posting photos : almost all blogging software have options to upload photos to post. You can also use services like flickr to create albums and share it on the blog. (As you can see in sidebar, i displays random photos from my collection from flickr. Also you can see some this posts which contains photos from flickr)

Alternately you can use soft wares like Picasa to blog images (see my post)

2) Posting videos : you can use services like google video or youtube to share you videos online. (See my post)

3) Reply to a post : There are options like comment (as you can see option below).

4) Forward : You can forward an article to those who just read their mails. (see Envelope below)(Not recommended; again forwards..!!)

5) Allowing membership: You can decide on what emails can view this blog. You allow/disallow email addresses. (See this). You can decide who can post in this blog. Its known as team blogging. (See this)

6) Reading Options : Most important functionality is getting updates and read posts. Its generally reffered as "Subscribing to a feed". Its just like subscribing to a news magzine. You need to have a reader like i mentioned below. If you see something like this [XML] (See in sidebar). just click and put it to your reader.

update : Ofcourse, You can view everything online too. These are the other options.

There are various options:
1. Stand alone clients like feedDemon which also has plugins for mail client like outlook and yahoo messenger .Other mail client like outlook express and thunderbird(recommended..!!) already have this functionality.

2. Online reader like like google reader and newsgator.

3. Extension for browser like Sage and WizzRSS (for firefox) and ----- for IE Pluck.

4. If some one is interested in getting updates via mail; You can subscribe to it.
(As you can see in my right-sidebar)

On right pane i have other options for subscribing to feeds. Test Them...!!
Apart from all these; all of us can have their own blog and those who are interested can subscribe to these blogs.

hurray..!! I have created one such blog for us to experiment. I will add users and customize this blog. Send me your email if you want to experiment with posting. (Preferably, gmail address)

http://coolhostelites.blogspot.com/

Awaiting your comments and questions..

Salam Mumbai....

2006-07-27T19:00:00.000+05:30

Salute Mumbai's never-say-die spirit and Light a Candle for those who
succumbed to the blasts or got injured. For every candle you light,
CNN-IBN and Channel 7 will donate Re 1 for the relief of the victims.
http://clients.ibnlive.com/features/mumatt/index.php

Quote Of the day....

2006-07-25T14:51:00.000+05:30

A conference is a gathering of important people who individually can't do anything but together can decide that nothing can be done.

Pandit Nehru on reservation

2006-06-02T14:21:00.000+05:30

Jawaharlal nehru On Reservation. He never wanted a second class country. This is excerpt from Letter of jawaharlal nehru to prime minister. Its from Indian express. click on image to read full article

Narayana Murthy's views on staying late in the office

2006-05-31T18:46:00.000+05:30

It's half past 8 in the office

but the lights are still on...
PCs still running,
coffee machines still buzzing...
and who's at work?
Most of them??? Take a closer look...
All or most specimens are 20-something male species of the human race...
Look closer... again all or most of them are bachelors...
and why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!!
Any guesses???
Let's ask one of them...
Here's what he says... "What's there 2 do after going home... here we get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee.. thats is why I am working late...
importantly no bossssssss!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the scene in most research centres and software companies and other off-shore offices.
Bachelors "time-passing" during late hours in the office just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do...
Now what r the consequences... read on...
"Working"(for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture.
With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback,(oh, he's a hard worker... goes home only to change..!!).
They aren't helping things too...
To hell with bosses who don't understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!!!
Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.

So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family... office is no longer a priority, family is...
and that's when the problem starts...

becoz u start having commitments at home too.
For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regulartime... after doing the same amount of work.
People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labeled as work-shirkers...
Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays... though) leave on time are labeled as "not up to it".

All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not realizing that they r spoiling the work
culture at their own place and never realize that they wuld have to regret at one point of time.

*So what's the moral of the story?? *
* Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!
* Never put in extra time " *unless really needed *"
* Don't stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues.

There are hundred other things to do in the evening..
Learn music...
Learn a foreign language...
try a sport... TT, cricket.........
importantly get a girl friend or gal friend, take him/her around town...

* And for heaven's sake net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.
Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: *"Life's calling, where are you??"

"I don't like any of the politician" then go for 49'O2

2006-05-31T12:50:00.000+05:30

It says :

"In a particular constituency, if a voter has dislike to all of the

candidates competing there,
Then he can show his dislike to all of them by registering for 49'O .
Steps for doing this :
1. while registering the name by the time of voting, convey the booth
officials that "I want to go for 49'O".
2. Register your signature in the 49'O form available there.
Done.
Now, if the number of 49'O count is larger than that of the winning
candidates total vote count, then a re-election is called there.

Referrence http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm

Java inches closer to open source | CNET News.com

2006-05-19T17:37:00.000+05:30

Java inches closer to open source | CNET News.com

The company released the source code of more of its applications built on Java, including its portal and integration software, on Tuesday at its annual JavaOne conference in San Francisco. And as previously reported, it discussed the Java Distribution License (click here for PDF), which makes it easier to bundle the desktop Java Runtime Environment with Linux.However, the event didn't see developers get their hands on the source code for the actual Java programming language--something that open-source advocates have urged Sun to hand over for years.However, open-sourcing components of the Java language remains a possibility, said Rich Green, the executive vice president of software at Sun, who rejoined the company earlier this month.
Read More...

BPO Organizations Acknowledge Need for Better Data Security

2006-05-18T16:26:00.000+05:30

Apani's Net-News 0506

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has announced plans to create a self-regulating security watchdog organization to oversee security issues surrounding outsourcing in India. The effort is just one of Nasscom's recent efforts to improve data security in India and promote the region as a safe place for IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

In January, Nasscom launched the National Skills Registry as a way of registering IT employees and performing background checks to help improve Indian IT security and reduce the security fears of outsourcing. Nasscom claims the registry now includes 70 percent of the Indian IT workforce.

These actions come after a number of security breeches have caused US companies to question the security of overseas operations. In one widely publicized incident, former Mphasis call center employees were accused of stealing $350,000 from U.S. consumers' bank accounts.

A recent report by Gartner indicates that data security threats are adversely effecting the growth of outsourcing projects. Sunil Mehta, vice president of Nasscom stated that “data security and privacy concerns are now the largest barriers to BPO in India.”

In light of data security regulations like GLBA, PCI-DSS, SB1386, and HIPAA. US companies have become more focused on the issues of internal theft and misuse of consumers' personal financial information in call centers and BPO organizations.

While the new regulatory organizations formed by Nasscom are steps in the right direction for data security, they are not alternatives for company-specific global security solutions enforced across the enterprise.

Leading global organizations are now utilizing innovative security software to help secure their data within their organizations across multiple SBUs and over multiple continents. The software ensures that confidential data remains secure, allows segmentation by application, and offers the central management and reporting capabilities US compliance officers require.

Utilizing software that ensures enterprise data security across borders is now giving a competitive advantage to those companies looking to achieve the cost benefits of outsourcing without the increased risk of data theft from insider attacks.

Global Terrorist Go Back

2006-02-27T00:47:00.000+05:30

Global Terrorist Go Back
Lots of Blog on Bush and hi tactics

Life of a Software Engineer

2005-12-30T23:23:00.000+05:30

I always wonder why software Engineers are paid so high. Life of a software Engineer is not that easy. We are always taught that good documentation is must, if design is perfect than u will end up with exactly what you are upto etc...But be aware all engineers. these all things are important to all at higher level.I mean its also necessary at developer level. But If you get some code which does not have any documentation, design and you have to add or modify some functionality??? And worst if you have time limits. You do the unecessary patch work for the mistakes of others. And in turn spoil it more. And Even worse when Requirement changes and everything to be rebuilt !!!! Woooh...