Ashish Prasad's Blog on Technology, Business and Personal Life

Jumpbox - Open Source In A File

2009-10-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was trying to experiment with some of the open source solutions such as Drupal, Joomla and Sugar CRM. They are all pretty popular in their own space; although I must say they can be extremely painful to install and configure, especially for someone coming from Microsoft world. You could be pulling out hair for a long time. Do I need Windows or Linux as OS? What about a database? Perl or Python? I don't want to answer any of those questions.

Gone are those days, where you are struggling with myriad of Linux distributions and packages to try an open source product. Here comes Jumpbox, an all-in-a-box solution in a virtual disk. All you need is free VMWare and a copy of the VM image from Jumpbox. The image file is usually not that large. So far, I've got Joomla and Drupla installed and running in minutes. Installation is a breeze, and most of them require simply 256 MB of RAM to run.

Needless to say, I am still struggling with the further configuration of these products, which is another story; at least I am one step ahead in the game, thanks to Jumpbox.

Andy Jordan's Tech Diary: Online Hookups Get Geo-Aware. - WSJ.com

2009-04-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Andy Jordan's Tech Diary: Online Hookups Get Geo-Aware. - WSJ.com

Saw this video about the power of "location based services" LBS on WSJ. I have a feeling LBS will sooner or later be the next sensation in the social networking space. As true with most of the computer technologies, they usually start with retail consumers, and then find its way into the corporate world. From just being a service to hookup like minded people in the near vicinity, it is very likely that LBS may become the next thing to perform trade in the neighborhood.

Listen up quietly: I am giving out a business idea. What if I there is an online LBS service that can list the handyman in the neighborhood. Suppose I am in need of a plumber to fix my kitchen sink, all I need to do is check on my mobile phone for a plumber near me. I will post the job, and hopefully get couple of bids in few minutes. Based on previous ratings, I will pick the best person to get the job done in the best price I want. The guy will come and get the job done. More than likely, I will pay through the online system, and give a rating. Craigslist is so passe.

Anyone willing to monetize this idea of Craigslist 2.0?

Ding-dong, DRM Is Dead — But Here Comes Variable Pricing - Giga OM

2009-04-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

Ding-dong, DRM Is Dead — But Here Comes Variable Pricing - By Giga OM:

Here is my take on the subject:

"Variable pricing is not uncommon in entertainment (or for that matter, in any industry). Retailers like Wal-Mart and the likes always sell DVDs with different pricing. On the extreme end, the eBay model is all about variable pricing…it’s actually auction. I hope we don’t see mp3s being auctioned on iTunes, although that’s a selling model too, where buyer bids and pays what he/she likes."

Embedded vs. In-Memory vs. Server Databases

2009-03-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

Software developers often interact with server oriented databases. However, there are at least two other types of databases, embedded and in-memory, which are less known to the software developer community. Here are the three types I would like to broadly classify the databases into:

a) Server Centric: They usually require a separate installation of the database server component. These are the most common types of databases, for example, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Postgres, DB2, and so on. The database engine of these databases are hosted in a separate process. The applications trying to access data in these databases need to first connect using a database connectivity technology such as ODBC, OLE DB, ADO.Net, etc., and then execute SQL commands. The actual execution of the SQL queries are performed by the database engine.

b) Embedded: These databases do not require installation of any database components; often they are called as server-less or embedded databases. Some examples are SQLite, Firebird, MS Access, Derby, etc. The applications making use of these databases can create and manipulate databases from within their application itself, without requiring any additional software to be installed. These databases support SQL types command. There advantage is that they are easy to setup and require very little maintenance.

c) In-memory: These are the fastest of the breed. The database engine becomes part of the application accessing the database. Few common in-memory databases are Berkley DB, Microsoft's ESENT, Perst, etc. In order to make the data access faster, these databases do not provide support for SQL type command. In any other database type, the support of SQL forces additional layer of parsing to perform data access, and hence make them slower as compared with in-memory datavase. In fact, applications are required to use special APIs to access and manipulate data.

The in-memory databases are hardest to implement, although they have the best performance. However, there are wrappers available to ease out the development process, but still they do require additional work on the developer's end.

Delicious vs. Blogger

2009-03-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

I am an avid Delicious user. I bookmark a lot of content on Delicious. Half of my content are technical stuff (software, technology, etc.), and the other half are business news (trends, strategy, analysis, etc.). The business bookmarks are primarily from WSJ.

The other day, as usual I was half way through an article on WSJ; and was getting ready to bookmark that on Delicious. My wife popped up from behind and asked if I ever read the articles bookmarked on Delicious. That made me ponder, I hate to say, as usual she was right this time as well. I hardly go back and read them, although I do refer to technical articles from time to time, but not on the business ones.

From now on, I am planning to add the business articles in my blog as opposed to just stuffing them on delicious. While delicious is painless to use, blog requires some effort to come up with the right choice of words. Will see how it goes.

Bypassing Enterprise Security Through Firefox Extensions

2009-03-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

Firefox is gaining momentum in terms of its install base. Most corporates are installing this browser on their typical desktop image. In a typical enterprise environment, a user's desktop is quite locked down. The person cannot install any software as such; has pre defined set of mapped drives, remote backup software, anti virus, and any other enterprise application, all pre installed.

However, there is one catch. Firefox allows extensions to be downloaded and installed without requiring any special permissions. In theory, an enterprise user can download his/her favorite extension on Firefox and do all the things that typically is not allowed to do. This is very similar to the availability of applications on browser such as Google chat, Meebo, Yahoo chat, etc. without requiring any software to be installed locally.

For the enterprise security group it's always a race against new technology, what to block what not to block, and more than often they are too late in figuring that out :)

ISV: Targeted software selling in enterprise

2009-03-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

By no mean I am an expert in selling software. However, based on what I know so far, I can tell selling software to an enterprise needs careful planning and above all a good strategy.

A large enterprise has many departments, which mostly function independent of each other, having their own budget, resources, projects, SLA, etc.; a good analogy can be the small boutique shops in a strip mall.

In my experience, there is usually very little inter-department coordination as far as creating a unified solution is concerned. ISVs need to know exactly how many departments are going to be impacted by their software, and try to keep them on board from the get-go.

Departments usually prefer full ownership on software, as opposed to working with other units. Take for instance if your software primarily runs on server, with a bit of desktop component as well. The server group will love to work with you as you are solving their problem. On the contrary, the desktop group will not welcome your solution as it adds burden on them without any perceived advantage.

My advise would be to keep the deployment environment in mind from the very beginning and target your software for 'a' department as opposed to the entire enterprise, unless it's a true enterprise software like SAP and the likes.

Happy selling!

2008 Bear Market - No where to hide

2008-10-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

What a dramatic fall of equity indexes all across the globe. Look at the chart above from Barron's (Source: That Was Way Too Close for Comfort). So far Canada has held well compared to other indexes.

Beijing Olympics 2008 - a crowning glory for China

2008-08-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

I am still trying to find out why the Beijing Olympic is getting such a profound attention than the previous ones. At least that's what I am thinking, the last time I paid serious attention to Olympics was while reading about the great athletes in text books back in India. Nadia Komenich, Carl Lewis, Muhammad Ali, were all parts of our high-school syllabus.

Despite the initial criticism of lip-syncing and illusions in the opening ceremony, Beijing has exceeded expectations. It is noted that Beijing has spent $6.5 Billion just on security, about 4 times more than Athens. In my mind the key reason behind the overwhelming response on the games is that the event is happening in China, a so called developing nation. China has once again made its presence felt in the world, and that it can live up to its promises.

I spoke to few people who recently visited Beijing on business, and they were taken by surprise after looking at the infrastructure built around Olympics in Beijing. It looked so surreal, especially the bird's nest and the basket ball stadium, they hadn't seen anything like that in North America here.

India is bidding for 2020 Olympics, we have to see if India can win that bid, and if it does then how it fairs with Beijing. I believe Beijing has raised the bar; UK will need some serious planning and investments to meet or beat that standard in 2012.

Beer Growth in India - 25% YOY

2008-06-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

Yet another example of how India is growing in terms of consumer spending. Beer market in India is growing at 25% per year over the last few years. The figure is as per a TV series on BBC that I saw yesterday (can't find its link though). Having similar growth in North America is a dream; Wall Street is usually happy if you can maintain single-digit growth.

The series also talked about the new pub culture in India. Some folks at a hustling pub in Mumbai said: "..Beer is now the coolest thing to drink, ...I am drinking because everyone else does...".

Needless to say the pub culture in India is at rise, and so is the beer consumption. The international brands are entering to tap into this growing trend, aiming to grab a pie out of it. Indians are quite brand-savvy, we have to see if they are willing to shell out extra mullahs for the international brands.

The TV program made another note that Beer is about to get expensive as cost of Barley (a key ingredient for Beer) has surged in the recent past; in-line with price-rise in other food grains in India and world-wide. So far Indian economy has defied fear of recession in the US and elsewhere, we have to see how consumers behavior change with oil shocks and other economic uncertainties that lies ahead.

Airlines running lighter

2008-06-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

New York Times ran a wonderful article To Save Fuel, Airlines Find No Speck Too Small about measures taken by airlines to deal with soaring oil prices. I am amazed to note how fast these large companies adapt to new business realities. They are not leaving any stone unturned, right from dusting off the plane-exterior to carrying less amount of water. The logic being dirt causing drag while airborne, and water weighing more than fuel. I should have known this from my engineering background :), but obviously didn't strike to me. Apparently, the little science tidbits that we least cared about are becoming significant today. Like, carrying a larger plastic bottle of soda in place of cans. Earlier all we cared about was convenience, now it's about cutting cost to survive.

Everything counts when you multiply these cost savings spread across hundreds of thousands of flying hours.

There is virtually no company large or small that doesn't depend on oil; albeit some are more dependent than the others. We have to see how other companies are dealing with the oil problem. Are the Government agencies going to change as well? Are we going to see utility personnel like postman or meter-readers riding a bike instead of a car/van. I am not trying to be pessimistic here, but it's prudent to change now and innovate new ways to do things.

SQLite - a good alternative for MS Access in 64 bit

2008-05-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

For those around the Microsoft platform long enough know that, Microsoft has had a number of database technologies; to name a few, they include: ODBC, DAO, RDO, ODBCDirect, OLEDB, ADO, ADO.Net, and now LINQ. Obviously, the newer ones are better than the previous ones, especially ADO.Net, which has made using SQL Server in .Net platform a breeze. However, in our recent endeavors to move to 64 bit computing platform, we found that Microsoft dropped support for MS Access Jet driver in native 64 bit environment. The only easier alternative is to use SQL Server Express. SQL Server Express is free, but not as lightweight as MS Access. Many forums are filled with complains on why Microsoft dropped support for Jet in 64 bit without any warnings. Many used MS Access in IIS for low volume web sites; they are all being suggested to use 32 bit capabilities of IIS in 64 bit environment to continue to use MS Access.

SQLite is a very good alternative for MS Access in both 64 bit platform and 32 bit platforms. Just like MS Access, it is a single-file based requiring minimum maintenance. There is a nice ADO.Net binding (with 64 bit support) to use it in any .Net programing language. It also has very easy to use C/C++ bindings. The SQLite Administrator is a very handy tool to perform most of the database operations. One place where SQLite lacks is MS Access type reporting capabilities; MS Access has very easy to use wizards to generate reports from tables and queries in no time.

SQLite is backed by industry heavyweights like Adobe, Mozilla and Symbian. I believe Google Gears uses SQLlite for offline features as well. Needless to say I am a big fan of this database platform and will write more in due time.

Encryption - Symmetric, Asymmetric or Both?

2008-03-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

I wish the choice be as simple as ordering Frys at your favorite fast-food restaurant, small, medium or large. Well in a way, it is. I should say although encryption terminology seems confusing at a glance, but actually the underlying concepts are not that difficult to understand. As the name implies, symmetric encryption requires same keys for encryption and decryption, whereas asymmetric needs different ones. Of course, hybrid encryption means a combination of both.

Asymmetric encryption is often referred to as PKI (Public Key Infrastructure), where both parties have two paired-keys, public and private. Private key is retained with the owner, whereas public key is available for public to use. The premise here is that any clear-text encrypted with one type of key can only be decrypted with the other type of key. In simple words, if something is encrypted with public key it can only be decrypted with its equivalent private key, and vice versa. So, if I need to send an encrypted message, I would pick up your public key (as it is readily available, or alternatively you might have given me earlier), then encrypt with this public key and send across to you. Since you are the only one in this world with the corresponding private key, you are the only person who can decrypt the message. That makes it secure. This infrastructure usually meets the "confidentiality" part of security ecosystem.

One should know that majority of the encryption algorithms are released in public, which puts a lot of pressure on safe storage of keys. No matter how hard your encryption algorithm is, the keys to the kingdom literally are the encryption keys here. So always store it securely.

Due to the complexity of the PKI algorithm (it is actually based on prime-number based mathematical formula), the entire encryption and decryption process becomes very slow as compared to the symmetric process, where only one key serves both the purposes. The disadvantage of symmetric encryption though is that key management becomes very difficult. If one can get to the key at any end, one can decrypt very easily. In fact the transportation of keys is a know risk, and needs due care is needed for its distribution. In today’s world, there are not too many inexpensive ways to send information but to send electronically via email, http, ftp or IM, which are all very insecure as far as a medium to key-exchange is concerned.

So, what is the solution, asymmetric is slower, symmetric is risky? Good guess, a hybrid one. That’s right, establish a session using asymmetric encryption, and then do bulk of encryption using symmetric key. For example, if server 1 and server 2 need to communicate securely, server 1 will create a dynamic symmetric key, encrypt with 2's public key and send over to 2. This encrypted symmetric key can only be decrypted by 2's private key, which is available with server 2 only. Once server 2 decrypts the message and extracts the symmetric key, both the servers have the same symmetric keys, they can now both communicate securely using symmetric encryption which is much faster than the asymmetric one.

Tata's Nano - DIY Car?

2008-02-28T13:09:00.000-08:00

Learning from Tata's Nano

The above is a very interesting article talking about distribution strategy of Tata's newest innovation, the Nano - $2500 people's car. Article essentially is talking about DIY(Do it Yourself) car making. Well, not exactly like a Lego toy! One would still need some sort of assembly-plant to bundle-up the car. Ratan Tata is adopting a dealer/agent model, something that is very common in India, specifically in financial sector such as insurance and banking. The company will have designated agents with the know-how to build Nano from boxes and sell it to customers. This will help the company penetrate into regions not accessible earlier like small towns or rural areas.

I am a bit skeptical about this approach as making car is no child's play, especially when it's a passenger car, potentially carrying up to four persons. Safety is a big concern, what if the guy forgets to install brakes for the rear wheels :) I hope that's not the case. However, I liked the concept, and can't wait to hear more on this.

Future of SaaS

2008-02-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

Recently I replied to a question on LinkedIn on SaaS impact on Software Industry, in particular to the people developing software. Below are my thoughts:

SaaS is a rapidly growing space, with lots of interest from the enterprise. There are good case studies to indicate that it will reduce TCO both in the short and the long run. However, it is yet to prove itself as a viable substitute for critical business application running today's Fortune companies.

Do you think Banks are going to trust any third-party vendor to store critical financial transactions, who [Saas] by the way, can potentially host their competitor's information as well? I think besides "Confidentiality", "Availability" is the other question that SaaS vendors need to address. Recently Amazon's web services were plagued by multiple outages leaving many customers in lurch.

SaaS seems to be the next exotic thing on horizon for SW industry, albeit I think companies will continue to develop and use traditional software unless SaaS proves itself as a viable "bread-winning" avenue for software developers and ISVs.

iPhone mail client - not up to mark

2007-10-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

I have been playing with the iPhone's email client for a while, and found it to have a number of issues. Few I can list below:

1) Can not easily mark an email or a list of emails as "read", a feature that is so common in traditional desktop based mail clients. The only way to mark an email "read" is to actually read it, which can take a while for larger mails as they need to be downloaded in full first.

2) Email notification is not instantaneous. The minimum time one can set for auto-retrieval is 15 minutes; albeit, it can be downloaded manually any time.

3) Email and Phone do not work together in EDGE network. It works fine in Wi-Fi, but who has free Wi-Fi besides home and few other places. I think this is a shortcoming in all the major hand-hand held devices.

4) Erratic email notification - This is the most notorious of all; I am still struggling to find out how it works. Needless to say the 10 pager pocket guide that comes with iPhone doesn't have all the information to dive deeper into the gadget. It appears that the notification is made (sound or vibration) only when count of unread messages increases.

Let’s say iPhone is setup to store 50 messages on phone, and it so happens that 20 of them are unread, with the last one being unread also (50th mail). When a new mail arrives, iPhone pops out the last (50th) mail to make room for the new one. At the end of it, it still has 50 mails with 20 unread, as the decrease in unread count by the popped-out mail was just balanced by the new upcoming. And hence, no notification. If this is what it is, then it isn't that intuitive.

5) Can't create/reply/forward emails in rich text. For example if you receive an email in rich text, and reply to it, it may or may not preserve the rich text from the previous mail, but it will definitely not allow changing of fonts, etc. in any new text that you type.

However, I must admit that the rich html view of mails and finger-scroll is quite slick, and worth the money. Needless to stay iPhone is one of a kind and I am thoroughly enjoying it

Wal-Mart loosing steam

2007-10-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

I have been following stories related to Wal-Mart for last 5-6 years. I couldn't resist my temptation to blog when Wall Street Journal wrote about Wal-Mart loosing steam in the article "Wal-Mart Era Wanes Amid Big Shifts in Retail". The retail sector in general had been lagging behind for last few quarters, mainly due to meltdown of sub-prime mortgage, credit crunch and rise in unemployment. Little did I know that company is also struggling with other macro issues as change in consumer's taste and competition from other discount retailers. It almost appeared that the company had perfected it's game-plan, after all in just over 30 years it became the world's largest company with a humble beginning in rural Arkansas.

Wal-Mart competitor's are offering convenience, quality, larger selection and better service. Most of all, consumers are now preferring quality over price. They want new things to show up on shelves; this is something that's not very easy for Wal-Mart to achieve given it's humongous size. Perhaps, Wal-Mart's Supply Chain is not geared for such rapid change in product offerings. Target, which has just-about one-fourth Market Cap as compared with Wal-Mart, offers better products, cleaner stores, and best of all almost at the same price.

These days consumers also demand quality along with better pricing, and in many cases they are willing to pay an extra for better service. For instance, take the case of Apple stores. Apple stores are widely successful, mainly due to "friendly hospitality" and the "cool-factor" at the store; none of which are seen at Wal-Mart stores.

We have to see how Wal-Mart reacts to the new dynamics of the retail-place and maintains its position.

Surge in Food Prices

2007-09-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today read this interesting article on Wall Street Journal titled "Historic Surge In Grain Prices Roils Markets", which essentially is predicting that the food prices are going up. I hadn't thought that the growth in emerging markets will have an impact on food prices in North America. It's a well known fact that there had been strong demand in metals and related commodity due to tremendous growth in infrastructure in countries like China and India. As a result energy and metal stocks have rallied for several years around the world including North America, but who would think that the food industry is about to get touched as well.

A new middle class society is being created in these developing countries, where people are willing to consume any thing coming on the way, you name it, they buy it. Things like slick mobile phone, branded shoes or clothing, watches, TV, cars, etc. As evident from Indian newspapers Indian youth are spending a lot on movies, restaurants, travel and other non-essential leisure activities. The WSJ articles makes a subtle observation, which seems obvious after reading it, that this new class now has a larger appetite too, yes, they like to eat more and indulge, specially milk and meat. But, how does it affect grain prices? Well, milk and meat comes from livestock, which feed on grains. Basic grains as corn, soya bean and wheat have been in great demand, countries are importing them to keep up with demand. As a result food prices are increasing.

May be it's time to buy some stocks from the food sector :)

Desktop Search Tools: Comparing Yahoo, Google & Microsoft

2007-08-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Until recently I was using beta version of Yahoo Desktop Search called as X1 for searching my years of emails in outlook. I must admit it was one of the best search tool I ever used on desktop, has all the bells & whistles one needs, search as you type, search attachments, documents, Boolean search and so on. All of a sudden it stopped working without any warnings, probably because the beta had expire. The release version costs around $50, which seems reasonable given the rich feature-set it offers. However, paying for a search program seems odd. After all Google became what it is today by offering a good quality search service to the masses, all with no cost.

Needless to say I felt helpless on search after losing on the Yahoo’s search tool. Relying on Outlook 2007’s search for little things was a painful experience, given that Outlook 2007 takes a fair amount of time to just get started; on top of that, search on the fly is devastating. It's almost like having a flat tire on the driveway and taking a bus for errands. I decided to try alternatives. Tried Google Desktop Search first, which was slick, but found to be quiet intrusive. All of a sudden it listed my blog in a little side bar without me doing anything. I figured, it’s probably using my saved Gmail id in the browser to map by web presence. If it is what it is, then it’s invasion of privacy. So, decided to get rid of it and tried Windows Desktop Search (WDS). I had dreadful experience with beta versions of WDS, where CPU spike and instability in general was the norm. The release version seems slick and fast, the Deskbar comes handy, however, it’s not as powerful as X1. For now, I will stick with WDS and see how it goes.

In either case, I must say desktop search is a no longer a luxury, it’s rather a necessity to skim through the wealth of electronic data we have amassed so far on the desktop.

StartForce - Desktop on Your Browser

2007-08-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

Just happened to spot this video on CNET about a cool new web application called as StartForce, the name chimes with SalesForce [.com], one of the prominent provider of software as a service (SAAS). My curiosity dictated upon me and made me create a quick account on the site. Registration was very simple. It is surprising to find how closely this application resembles a typical desktop (Linux or Windows). Presence of a start-button, popping up of menus and sub-menus, drag and drop, messenger, media player, files, sharing, and even a web browser. I decided to give the browser a try, which looked amazing too. The browser has the typical out of the box address bar, back and forward buttons, search options from sites like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Amazon, and so on.

Little bit of digging around here and there indicates that this application uses Ajax to present the user interface, and underneath uses services from other web 2.0 applications as Zoho and Box.net for file storage and collaboration. It appears that the application was first published for Japanese audience. The app seems very cool from the get go, but not sure if I will stick with it as it offers way too much than what you really need, at least that’s what I think for now.

Amazon S3 - Storage on the go

2007-07-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

Amazon recently announced Simple Storage Service or S3 allowing users to store data on the web at a relatively low price. Coming from a storage background, I decided to do little bit of reality check.

Unlike many other popular web 2.0 services on the web (Flickr, YouTube, Photobucket, Picasa Web Albums), it’s not free at all. However, I must say the costs are very low, for instance 10 cents per month to store 1 GB worth of data, another 10 cents per GB for uploads, and 18 cents for downloads. Wall Street Journal assert that S3 coupled with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud or EC2 is a boon to tech startups. These companies can tap into world-class storage and computing system at a fraction of the cost, permitting them to focus on their core-competency rather than hardware management.

However, I could not find any downloadable application provided by Amazon to use this service out of the box. It appears that one needs to buy application from third parties to leverage this service. There are lots of technical articles on the website giving sample code for developers to create application for S3. I have opened an account for myself to give it a try; will do some digging and post updates here as I get free time from other commitments.

Book Review: Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) for JavaScript Developers

2007-07-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Off late I have been following the latest developments in Adobe AIR technology. Recently I stumbled upon the book “Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) for JavaScript Developers “, which is written by Mike Chambers, Daniel Dura & Kevin Hoyt in 2007. I have been able to get a free electronic copy of this book from both ajaxian website and Adobe’s website . I am likely going to be getting a paper of copy of the book at the on AIR Bus Tour SUMMER ‘07.

This book has been written in a very simple and easy to understand language. It offers good discussion on evolution of web technologies in the recent past. It notes that Macromedia coined the word rich internet application (RIA) through a whitepaper in 2002. Essentially this paper says that the RIA clients should be able to support not only desktop operating systems, but also other platforms as smart phones, PDAs, set-top boxes, game consoles, and Internet appliances.

Some of the initial pages have been dedicated towards limitations and challenges faced by current web sites. It essentially says that existence of multiple operating system, and multiple browser environment poses grave difficulties to web developers. Developers are required to develop and maintain separate code for the same functionality to support the diverse operating environment. Moreover, web-consumers do not get a consistent UI experience across web-sites, specially back-button handling is very erratic. Besides, the current web applications do not have access to the desktop resources such as files and folders.

AIR has been developed to addresses such issues. AIR allows developers to create one unified application capable of running across all the operating systems. AIR applications can be written in both JavaScript and ActionScript, however, the book only talks about JavaScript. A very simple example to create “Hello World” example is provided; later on areas as cookies, windowing, Ajax support, security, file system calls, drag and drop, embedded database, networking, and sound have been discussed with sample code.

Frankly I have not played with all the examples, just a handful; however, I found them to be useful. I must admit that the very first example “Hello World” was a bit frustrating to deal with, as the sample contained some typo. As we all know Adobe AIR was formerly known as Apollo, it seems that this sample was half-converted to the new naming convention. It would have saved an hour of my time troubleshooting and hunting through the forum if “ApolloHelloWorld.html” would have been mentioned as “AIRHelloWorld.html” on page 30. Anyway, I have noted it here just in case someone else needs it. Besides, the typo I think the book has also been silent on other features of a desktop application such as threading, inter-process communication or ability to access registry settings. I am thinking none of these are supported.

I will post more on this after I attend the upcoming on AIR bus tour next week.

Efficiency and Innovation

2007-07-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

Recently BusinessWeek came out with a very nice article talking about efficiency and innovation. The article discussed at length on the organizational culture at 3M. It immediately caught my attention as I had done fair amount of research on this company while completing technology management specialization for my MBA. 3M is indeed an amazing company which successfully created innovative products as masking tape, Thinsulate and the Post-It note.

The article wanders around James McNerney’s leadership style at GE and 3M. Motorola originated the concept of Six Sigma in 1986, which was adapted by many companies in 90s including GE. GE is well known for its commitment on quality, after all GE exits from a business if it is not No. 1 or No. 2 in that sector. McNerney embraced Six Sigma along with everyone at GE, but made the mistake to carry it forward to 3M.

GE is known for implementing efficiency in the workforce and removing defects on the production line; however, the culture at 3M is very different, where the company is all about innovation, risk taking, and tolerance for failure. Employees at 3M had the option to work on their pet projects, something that Google believes in currently.

Things changed at 3M after McNerney took charge as CEO; he made many radical changes such as slashing budget for R&D, letting go older employees, and emphasis on return on investment. Wall Street cheered the new focus on profitability, but the enthusiasm faded away soon after, as the company could not bring any ground-breaking product to the market, something 3M was known for. After all, innovation and efficiency does not go hand in hand. McNerney eventually left for a bigger opportunity at Boeing. In the meantime, Gorge Buckley, an old timer at 3M took over as CEO, trying to do the damage control by his predecessor.

In my mind, what is needed is a good balance of risk and control. We have to see how Buckley strikes this balance and brings back 3M’s old glory.

Web 2.0 on your desktop. What's next?

2007-06-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

It appears that all the leading software companies are trying to bring web 2.0 technology to your desktop. Google recently announced Google Gears which provides Javascript centric APIs for web-site developers to store and retrieve online content locally; content is stored in SQLite database, which is installed on the desktop by Google Gears. Likewise, Adobe recently announced AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) beta allowing developers to create Rich Internet Application (RIA) for the desktop. AIR was previously called by code-name Apollo. Adobe provides a rich AIR SDK that not only gets all the desktop-centric processing done, but also has easy hooks to tap on the web technology.

One thing good about these tools is that they provide a Rapid Application Development environment to create powerful applications with access to both the local file-system and the internet, something that was not possible earlier, except for ActiveX and the likes. Although I've not explored the SDK in great details, looks like the desktop-functionality is close to that of VB.

One question that comes to mind is - are we running in circles here? Earlier the talk was to take everything to web, contrast that to bringing them back to desktop now. Google made so many acquisitions in last one or two years to make office applications like word processing, email, spreadsheet, photo-album, calendar and presentation delivered through web. None of these required any software to be installed locally, but for a web browser. Now it seems that we are coming back to the good-old desktop. We are talking about installing a runtime or a framework on the desktop, which will be the new launching pad for web applications. Well, things are a bit different here this time though, these applications are meant to be developed once and run anywhere, which was the old Java mantra. It is claimed that application developed for Windows can run on Mac, Linux, and yes on the mobile phone too.

However, coming from a storage background, I still wonder how we would go about syncing our data across so many platforms. There’s still a need to store data at a centralized location so we can carry it anywhere and work with it, perhaps we need a mechanism to replicate data. Replication seems alright, but given that content is growing at a very fast pace, it may not be a viable to replicate TBs of data; may be we would need a better technology to intelligently classify data and manage them efficiently. I guess we will know the answer in times to come.

Wii and Me

2007-05-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

As soon as I got to play Tennis on Nintendo’s Wii at my friend’s house, I immediately got hooked up to the device. After coming home I phoned the local retailers about the console, needless to say they were all sold out. So, I waited a couple of days, and then finally spotted it on Wal-Mart’s flyer thrown on my door. I immediately rushed to the store and got one for myself.

I must say I am not a video-gamer, last serious computer-game I played was probably in mid 90s. Actually I got a Xbox free from Microsoft a few years ago by participating in a technology webinar and later getting selected in a giveaway draw. I didn’t find much use of it so gave it away to my nephew.

However, Wii is much different though; as far as I can see, it’s not really a gaming device, it’s actually a tool to do some workout at home with lots of fun. Immediately my whole family got captivated with the device, and switched turns trying to beat the console on Tennis. Although I do both cardio(elliptical) and some strength training (Bowflex) at home, for a couple of days I woke up with sore muscle here and there. I think the sudden hand movement caused the stiffness. Well, I am going to keep working on Wii and see how far I can go with it. It is going to be really handy in winter where you don’t get to go out that often.