How to be a program manager

A great blog post by Joel Spolsky on "How to be a program manager".

Application Provisioning in the Cloud

Interesting article i ran into about applications in the cloud.

Video Contest: I'm Linux

The Linux Foundation, a Non-Profit Organization, is sponsoring a Video Competition to create a commercial for Linux on the lines of "I'm a Mac'" and "I'm a PC" as done by Apple and Microsoft respectively. Linux is owned by its community and its only fitting that the community should participate in its promotion on Television, hence this Video contest. The winner gets no cash but a an all expense trip (airfare and hotel for 3 days) to Tokyo, Japan to participate in the Linux Foundation Japan Linux Symposium in October 2009.

There are some basic guidelines:
- Keep the video under a minute
- Comply with their ToS
- Watch your language and keep it clean
- Make it original and interesting

For more details check out their website and more importantly, get busy.

PEP 8

Ran into PEP 8 (Python Style Guide) written by Guido. It was nice to realize that i follow majority of his recommendations. At the same time i learned some new things which i had never thought of.

Good read!

Snip Snip Time

In the current tough economic conditions (I am kind of getting sick and tired of hearing this phrase) downsizing is preeminent. The stories of how someone had to change city, state or country to find another job have become commonplace.

During the last bubble burst a lot of first-time CEOs and Managers were entrusted with the task of guiding the companies through similar times and not all of them were successful at it. In fact in almost all cases the complete downsizing process was deemed ruthless. This was a problem not just for the first time leaders but even for seasoned campaigners.

This time good advice is more forthcoming. People who were burnt or involved in those times are giving out advice freely. One such interesting post i came across was by Guy Kawasaki. I recommend reading it even if you are not at the downsizing stage.

iPhone Firmware 2.2

Its strange but since I have installed the 2.2 firmware the cell phone signal strength has improved slightly. Prior to this update the max i ever got was 2 bars but now its almost always 3 bars.

This is strange as i always thought that the signal strength received was a function of power transmitted by the cell phone towers and antenna design. The iPhone antenna surely hasn't changed and i haven't read/heard of ATT putting up new towers around my apartment so its got to be the firmware update.

The developers at Apple must have really messed up the 'check signal strength and then make calls' part of code or maybe they just add some artificial gain to improve the signal strength representation with each release. Either way currently i will accept anything that will improve my iPhone calling experience.

I also noticed that now apps are updated in place unlike earlier where the new version was downloaded in a different location and then moved to the current. Subtle but slick.

-------------------

Oh on a side note, still no sign of my replacement USB power adapter.
Hurray to Apple support.

How to send a courier Apple style

Trips to the Apple Store - 1
Calls to Apple Support - 2
Alleged couriers sent by Apple - 4
Days since first attempt - 35
Minutes spend on hold - 50
Amount of frustration - Infinite

...... still no sign of my replacement for the iPhone 3G power adapter.

The Me Meme

Take a picture of yourself right now.

Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
(used my iPhone to take the snap)

Post that picture with NO editing.

Post these instructions with your picture.