Words of Wisdom

We gone through a training on “object oriented analysis and design” by Mr. N. Ramakrishnan. He has a rich experience of 30 years in the industry and training was a great insight to many software aspects which goes far beyond the training topic.

The main attractions of this training were his precise answers and practical relevance. When you see a person relating technical jargons to real life problems, you realize that it is a juice of long experience. Following are just few of his quotes he used in the training which are quiet amusing to say the least:

• Radio and software are similar in nature. If you touch it even if it is working, it will stop working!
• A programmer or designer is just a spoke in the wheel! (In the relation to stress that if you understand something, doesn’t mean everybody understands it.)
• Computers are just high speed idiots!
• In software design, knowing more is almost always less!
• Use the design patterns only if software is complex!
• As a software architect, you must know what you don’t know!
• Bollywood movies are best example of multiple inheritance!
• Don’t take any pattern as it is. Always improvise on it based on project!
  

Software testing: How foolish is to try to make a fool proof software?

A human is a most sophisticated machine ever developed and for this very reason, humans tend to loose sight of original intention when working to increase productivity or results. As someone said “your worst enemy is none but you”.

JavaScript Hijacking- A security threat with AJAX applications

Today morning, I was going through the security section of IEEE newsletters, and came across to know about a new security threat called “JavaScript Hijacking”, which I think shall be worth sharing with you all. 

Agile Programming – Microsoft View

Updated article posted. First posted in March 2007

Agile development methodologies have been gaining acceptance in the mainstream software development community. While there are numerous studies of Agile development in academic and educational settings, there has been little detailed reporting of the usage, penetration and success of Agile methodologies in traditional, professional software development organizations. This is a report on the results of a specific study conducted at Microsoft …

Top 5 most used commands in MS Office

Here is an interesting post I came across. Can you guess what are 5 most used commands in MS office?

Here is the answer from Office 2007 UI designer!

Moving to .NET platform, A difficult choice?

I am working on a product which is developed using Delphi for Win32. Originally Delphi 7 was used and we then moved to Delphi 9 (Delphi 2005) and are now planning to move to Delphi 10 (Delphi 2006).

Programming in C ?

It has been years since I last programmed in C, but it looks like I will need to do it again. As a result I am seeking information rather than sharing it !

Any ideas or suggestions of good websites to use to get back up to speed ?

Programming in 2027?

What will programming be like in the year 2027? Will there be any programmers, or will everyone be a programmer? What programming languages and methodologies will we be using? How will teams of programmers do their work? What changes in our world will affect programming? Will climate change or advances in technology and education set a new course for programming along the way to 2027? Will economic and geographic changes affect programming?

Full article…

Microsoft & Kitchens ! Yes…

Inside Microsoft’s future kitchen

By Peter Price
BBC World Service’s Digital Planet

Computing giant Microsoft is centring its plans for future growth less on the office and more on getting consumer-friendly devices into every room in our homes – at least if the projects on display at the country’s research centre in Cambridge are anything to go by.

A “kitchen” at the centre is full of a whole range of the company’s new designs – and few of them are suited to the office environment.

Article on GUI Principles

First Principles of Interaction Design

The following principles are fundamental to the design and implementation of effective interfaces, whether for traditional GUI environments or the web. Of late, many web applications have reflected a lack of understanding of many of these principles of interaction design, to their great detriment. Because an application or service appears on the web, the principles do not change. If anything, applying these principles become even more important.

Plans for Delphi and C++

Future Delphi features and technologies will focus on:

* High performance Windows applications with rich GUI requirements
* Client/Server application development
* Database application development
* Business Web application development
* Exploitation of PC hardware advances

Future Delphi releases will be tailored for:

* ISVs and MicroISVs
* VARs, Consultants, and System Integrators
* Small to medium sized businesses

As always, this roadmap indicates plans and intentions…

More

Why is Barney talking to Barney?

Did you know Microsoft made dolls? No, I am not joking… read on.

History of Delphi (oops… Pascal)

This is a very good compilation of the history of Pascal (as driven by Borland), now morphed into Delphi, morphing into … ???

Product Name	Code Name	Release Date
?Delphi 200N	Commodore	Somewhere in 2009
?C++ Builder 2009	Barracuda	Middle of 2008
?Delphi 2009? – Unicode/improved VCL	Tiburon	First Half 2008
?Delphi 2008? for .Net 2.0/3.0	Highlander	Second Half 2007
C++ Builder 2007	Cogswell	2007, early June

Agile Programming – What does Microsoft say about it?

Read updated article posted on 26 July.

Agile development methodologies have been gaining acceptance in the mainstream software development community. While there are numerous studies of Agile development in academic and educational settings, there has been little detailed…

GUIs: To skin or not to skin?

Do users want more or less choice when it comes to the look and feel of their operating systems?

Read the full article here.

What will Windows 2008 look like?

What a joke !

Q: What will Windows 2008 look like?

A: Microsoft is waiting till their research division (Apple) release their next operating system. Then MS will take the most ballyhooed features of that release. Make a bad copy based on a misunderstanding on what makes computers easy to use. Release the product, making millions of PCs and peripherals less than a year old “Obsolete”.

And the sad truth is that this is the development cycle of every MS product since Windows 1.0

Work in progress …

This is a new blog site designed to share information amongst our technical teams. I will be sending out invitations and more details later.

Watch this space…

—- Guru —