Sunday, May 22, 2005

Personalized google homepage , Jini

Google has launched personalized homepage , check it out !
In case you have worked on portal server and relative stuff (I have not directly - but have friends who do) , you will know the difficulty of what they have achieved - drag and drop portlet windows !
Not sure if they have a proper full fledged portal server running in the background or just a bunch of scripts which spew up the markup.
Whatever be it - it is damn cool and "sexy" :-)
Now , if only they allowed you to syndicate your own content based on atom/rss feeds - maybe someone should file that as an RFE with them ;-)
But the stuff that has been done is damn cool already !

While we are at it , got to this through Google Blog - check it out , you might pick up something interesting.
From the blog entry here , it looks like the personalised homepage is implemented (atleast in part) in python , so all python "fans" can rejoice :-P

Also , finally decided to plunge into JINI - reading the tutorial here.
Also check out Jim Waldo's blog here. If you are interested in distributed computing like I am , you will learn shitloads from the posts and the resulting discussions/comments.
Also try reading this - very very interesting piece.

6 Comments:

Blogger Kousik said...

That drag-&-drop of the windows was one cool piece of hack. I wish I knew enough javascript to grok it!

I think bring-your-own-rss will evantually come; my yahoo lets you do it (I think).

5/23/2005 10:11:00 AM  
Blogger Noufal said...

Google's web interfaces simply blow my mind. Some of them are more responsive than completely offline applications I've used.

As for python, if you go the the testimonials page on their site, the first quote is from Google. Gotta love them /and/ the language. :)

5/23/2005 11:20:00 AM  
Blogger Mridul said...

Should check my own blog comments more often ;)

@Kousik -
I hope so too that own rss will get into google.
The problem of how this will scale would be an interesting challenge : since typically these might not be common for most users and so "cacheability" would be poor. Considering the normal "hitrate" of google - they better have something which scales well !

@Noufal
Might try out the python language sometime in future , but as of now , the ones which I use are suited for the problems I normally solve. No idea about how "good" the language is - just have heard lot of "perl vs python" spats where it usually comes off poorly :)

@MMN
Yep , it does look visually very very appealing ! though functionally the options are limited now (I assume it will become richer as the service improves).

5/25/2005 10:04:00 PM  
Blogger Pallavi said...

cool am checking it now... have you checked out Yahoo 360 beta

6/07/2005 01:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh yes, Google totally rocks. These guys do amazing stuff with js. "Suggest" totally rocked and I thought "Search History", though simple, was implemented in a good way...unlike Yahoo! where the site links in the results get totally messed up.

I came to your blog from Chimpu's. Did you graduate from CREC too ?

- Vinay

6/18/2005 01:16:00 PM  
Blogger Mridul said...

@ Vinay

Yep , was chimpu's batchmate.
Not much of a y! user (other than member of some of the y!groups and the messaging client) so cant compare much there :)

6/18/2005 07:12:00 PM  

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Friday, May 20, 2005

Post Secret

http://postsecret.blogspot.com - some are so so nice , others make you feel so lonely , all of them cheer you up !

Also check out http://www.aseltine.com/rhee/ - V learn something fom this :-D

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

d00d postsecret link is amazing. its not much of a surprise that truth comes out best when there is anonymity attached.

LOL @ reasons not to post pic :)))))))) hav seen it earlier but does'nt make it less funny.

5/20/2005 01:39:00 PM  

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Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Sith

Check this review out : http://www.newyorker.com/critics/cinema/articles/050523crci_cinema hilarious :)
I think MMN can learn a thing or two from them ... both seem to share the same "style" ;-)

2 Comments:

Blogger Noufal said...

Ouch man. One hell of a caustic review. :)

5/17/2005 04:39:00 PM  
Blogger Mridul said...

To say that the review was cutting and sarcastic would be grossly underplaying its venom !
It is destined for better laurels :-D

5/24/2005 06:49:00 PM  

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Monday, May 16, 2005

Bill Joy

Most of my close friends know that I am a HUGE fan of Bill Joy : what he has accomplished , and more so created an environment to be accomplished in breathtaking ("Innovation happens elsewhere").
Came across a nice set of pages while going clicketty click this weekend .... brought joy to my life :)
Ok , puns apart : really nice read !

http://archive.salon.com/tech/fsp/2000/05/16/chapter_2_part_one/index.html Interesting article - part of a book : should get it someday... I have read Rebel Code in the past and was very disappointed with the book - hope this is different.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/billjoy.html cool ! (read the part about Linux ;-) )

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html Whoa ! The "controversial" article.

I keep hearing a lot about JINI from BillJoy , James Gosling , et al ... should try to understand more about it - I just have a vague idea that it is an ultracool network based code and services.

Came across this book - "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System by Marshall Kirk McKusick, George V. Neville-Neil" , need to buy and read it too ...
When in 2nd year in college , I remember reading a book by Tanenbaum about the Minix operating system - what I enjoyed about the book were the code walkthroughs - made it look so easy to author an operating system ! ( Give the Minix book a whirl if you are not yet initiated into this world : a really nice read - one of the design goals of minix is precisely that : make it easy to teach OS).

Ok , other news/rants :

* AJ is doing great in his college. Results are out and as usual he is "top" :) Congrats buddy , you rock !

* Aparup is back in Bangalore - and getting married in July end ... Shireen has already agreed to let me "test" her cooking during the weekends :-D (or has she ?! ;-) ). Aparup vouches for her cooking and says it is excellent though she denies that - atleast it will be 1000x better than what I can dish out :-P.
So /me gonna be one happy guy when I get back to Bangalore - now only to get a house close to his and I can have late night card games , some heated tech discussions , food and all round great time :-)
And before I forget to mention it publically - "Congratulations Shireen and Aparup" ! (note : higher priority to Shireen ;-) ).
July end ... around the same time I came there 4 years back - I feel soooo old :-(

* Wont be making it to Bangalore this month ... manager might turn up there mid next month , so will reschedule trip for then.

* I think I have Alok's Emperor's New mind with me ! (Just found it while searching for "An Eternal Golden Braid" - a book I bought and never read ...). Should return when I get there ... how did I miss this one while moving ? More importantly , how did he miss it ?! :)

* The fire is back - getting highly irritable nowadays : should immerse myself into something in my freetime else will go nuts !
Rajesh is after me for documentation (which I am keeping on forgetting : note to self - complete them !) and most probably will shoot down any project idea before I deliver those. So should try my hand at some other task. Now where was the opengl book I was reading ? .... GURU need help with ideas here !

* I am getting irritated with people who go ga-ga over any and every open source software just 'cos it is open source.
If two competing products with functionally similar feature sets were presented to me , I might prefer the opensource version - but the operative word is functionally similar : UI is a part of the app and a functional requirement (if it is not , re-prioritize) .
Being all religious about opensource just 'cos it is opensource (btw, open source does not mean "free" : read fine print in license) is plain stupid - use what is best , and if you have choice among the best - choose wisely.
There is absolutely no point in reinventing the wheel (unless abnormal circumstances exist) - that being said : I do it all the time - but for fun , not to "solve world hunger problem".

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for pointing to "Why the future doesn't need us" article. Was a wonderful read.

Hey susk, lucky you did not join us for elephanta. Was extremely hot.

5/17/2005 10:03:00 AM  
Blogger Noufal said...

Bill Joy is fun to read/listen to. I have my reservations about /some/ of the stuff he wrote though (csh comes to mind).

Have you heard his lectures at technetcast.ddj.com? Quite good.

I do wish he'd start using a comb though. ;)

5/17/2005 11:54:00 AM  
Blogger Mridul said...

@NY
Its an old article - just put it up since it was in one of the tabs :)
Hope you enjoyed the trip ! Pics , we need PICS !!

@Noufal
I have seen some of the lectures sometime back .... should listen to them again and again and again :)
The way some people think is at such a different plane that one can only wonder whether we will even udnerstand the design considerations which go into such things !

5/18/2005 12:15:00 PM  

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Sunday, May 08, 2005

Found them !!

This weekend has been one of the best so far in my life till now !
Some of the very best school memories I have are from KV Pallipurram (near Trivandrum) where I did my 7th till 9th.
The the school , the teachers , the library (I used to devour books there !) and most importantly the friends from that school : I had such a load of fun it is not imaginable !
At that time , I was yet to be interested in computers - and so all my time was devoted to enjoying life :) And enjoy I did !
Like all good things coming to an end , first dad got transferred from Attingal to Trivandrum , and then from there to Coimbatore - after which I completely lost all touch with that amazing batch of friends : something that I have regreted ever since.
Some of you might be knowing how I have made futile efforts to get back in touch with them again - have not been very very persistent in my efforts , but attempts nonetheless.

This friday , was trawling the web as usual before going to bed through google when I found this website !
I can never thank Jeevan enough for putting this site up - contacted him , and he very genourously added me to a y! group which had most of my batchmates from that class !!
I was so surprised - still not got over it !
Still not got over the very heavy nostalgia attack I had since then :)
Wanted to get lot of things done this weekend - but everything is on hold while I reminisce about that "era" of my life *sigh*

Lekshmi C Nair , a real good friend of mine from that class replied to me this weekend ... hopefully will be able to get in touch with more people !
Man , how I miss them :-(

6 Comments:

Blogger V said...

W00t... I am so much happy for you.

5/08/2005 07:53:00 PM  
Blogger Asif said...

What a conicidence. Over the weekend I sent a mail to my long inactive yahoo group of KV batch mates. I agree to the point that it is a great pleasure to be with your old friends.

5/09/2005 09:45:00 AM  
Blogger Kousik said...

Always cool to find old long lost friends. I have started my school classmates Y! group, and it is really interesting to follow the exchanges. That's the last level where I have friends who diverged a lot. Like in sales, medical, clerical ... Unlike my degree/masters classmates, who are all in a place called software industry now.

I am sure you had good time.

5/09/2005 05:24:00 PM  
Blogger Mridul said...

@ all :
Yes , it has been absolutely brilliant getting in touch with all those friends again :)
To follow their lives after so long (ok , the "long" part is partly my fault ;) ) brings back fond memories of the school again !

5/09/2005 08:44:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

mridul, I got to ur blog from google... searched "version hotel california mallu" and got the link to the rap of mallu ... 50 cents I guess... its hilarious.... :p

5/14/2005 11:17:00 AM  
Blogger Mridul said...

@swaps :
Friend of mine sent me the Hotel Callifornia "mallu eshtyle" long back (yep , at office I am usually the butt of mallu jokes ;) ) ... not sure if I put it up here - highly possible since I dont think I found the actual author.
By the way , the actual site which hosts the "mallu rap" is here : http://home.no.net/ullam/rap.htm - I found it _after_ I posted .. should have edited the post to show credits : missed it I think.

PS : The ":)" on an earlier post (http://mridulm.blogspot.com/2005/03/in-bombay-finally-in-bombay-sorry-for.html) was directed at which part of the post ? :)
Looks like I was sorely pissed when I wrote that post ... so not sure what part you found funny :-D
And it is way too far in the history ! What are you doing there !!! ;)

5/14/2005 04:47:00 PM  

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Friday, May 06, 2005

Some interesting links

Lot of you might have seen this : An Automatic CS Paper Generator (if you have not , give it a whirl - it is pretty cool !).
What is even better is that the authors nearly pulled off a coup - they took a randomly generated paper and almost got it presented at a conference ! Read more at the site.
Some of the responses from the conference committee and analysis of them are damn cool ... I especially enjoyed this.
While you are at it , read this too.
(I have come across the above links from the SCIgen site ... )

I happened to comment to vipin about how I did not really enjoy modern art - my definition here was very vague and based on what I have seen ... I am not very knowledgable about it , neither have I really seen many styles/pieces of art.
Usually , I really enjoy paintings like these and the ones here (courtesy vipin).
Ofcourse , he pointed me to a Dali's site (not fair not fair at all !!) and yep , as you can guess ... no more , not liking modern art sweeping statements ;) (While you are there , check out the quotes by Dali ... esp the one "Every morning when I wake up, I experience an ..." such a statement by anyone else would be termed arrogance ! but for Dali ... it is different :-D)
I still dont fancy cubist paintings and those splashes of colors style stuff ... I rather prefer more "traditional" paintings of people , landscapes - more "real" ones ;-) (coming from a guy who is almost always in front of the comp - this is rich !) ... and considering my near to zero skills in all of these , I think /me should just shut up and enjoy the work of others :-)

While we are at this , take a look at this - all you perl guru's might have some way of improving it :) And yes , from what I read , Tim Bray did mention this to Larry Wall ... who said perl 6 is gonna change it :-D (Note - this is a niche : not a general comment about perl's regexp parser).

Joined new team ... and already learning so much that it is akin to drinking from a fire hose !
Some really cool code has been written in this product , and using things I was not very comfortable with since I never used them before ... nio , xml streams , etc.
Reading up on xmpp , related JEPs , ... - exciting stuff !! and the team is small and damn good - should be interesting times ahead :-)
Hopefully , I should be in Bangalore on 15th or so ... not yet confirmed !
Will try to catch up with friends then (will be at Vipin's place : so will be definitely meeting him ;-) ) - though I will be quiet busy trying to catch up with the new team.

Ok , I downloaded the quake code (again :-P) and this time I am a bit more serious in trying to understand its mysteries !
And I am going to do it solo ... without any books to help me ;-) - ok , ok , some of you can already see this attempt ending in a failure but who knows , who knows indeed !

I have said it in the past , I will say it again ... maddox rules :-)
Check these out from the archives 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , - just a random sample of what I have opened up here ;-)


Now , it is time to get back to work ... oh wait

Forgot to flog Fali.
He tortured me through 3 hours of the most boring and senseless movie _ever_ - called Kaal.
It is small consolation that he regreted watching the movie himself :-)
Ok , for people who dont know who fali is , he is a class mate of mine from college - a damn cool dude - goes by the official name of Fouzan Ali.
/me met him after almost 4 years , and yep he has not put on any height since I last saw him ;-)
Met him , Vijaya (his wife) and NY ... hmm , I should attribute part of the blame on Neeraj too - the idiot should have stopped fali from buying those tickets !
*sick* movie people , really really pathetic.
Vivek Oberoi (name correct ?) is such a lousy actor and keeps sprouting the dialogue "Cut the crap" or some such asinine drivel - and his idea of looking pissed/irritated/angry/etc is to make a face as though he is constipated.
I dont even want to start off about the other "actors" and props (read actresses).
Ok , I will shut up now about this topic - opens up way too many wounds which I am trying to heal :-(

2 Comments:

Blogger Noufal said...

Sounds like you're having fun. Nice link to the Perl/Java regexp bit.

There was a link somewhere. A parody Oreilly cover that had a combination of various animals and a "Perl 6! There's more than one way to mess things up!" title.

I've been using it for a while now and it's got /some/ neat stuff but on the overall, it's just too "non orthogonal". Wall likes to call it a "diagonal" language. :)

5/06/2005 05:32:00 PM  
Blogger Asif said...

Didnt know that Fali watches Hindi movies nowadays. More surprised about him taking another person to watch a Hindi movie. :-) Maybe marriage changes people a lot. he he

5/09/2005 09:43:00 AM  

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