Thought Garage

Source : darkgreyindustries.com , thanks to Arvind for the tip

Just a few days back (on 12th, April 2010 precisely) Visual Studio 2010 was released along with .NET 4.0.  While most of the .NET developers are excited to see an improved version of .NET framework and itching to try the latest and greatest of all, it is totally a different ball game for businesses, for they prefer  and wish a stable framework that doesn’t change, well, forever. As every new version comes with a new set of challenges and often hit bottom lines pretty hard. A new version is always quite an expensive proposition Its not at all a surprising fact that even today most businesses are running their business applications on .NET 1.1 or even some still run on classic ASP. Because, more often than not, upgrading to a new version proves to be quite expensive and doesn’t offer enough benefits or improvements that justify the cost of upgrade. A new version comes about once in a year. If not a new version altogether, a new SP that fixes a whole bunch of bugs a...

Trying to download a Wordpress plugin and saw this cute error thrown by Wordpress. When something doesn’t work in software, you often get annoyed and may well get infuriated some times. But errors like this immediately put a smile on your face and let you forget all the hassle you have been going through. More over, you are more likely to love the software, a bit more than ever. Goshdarnit! Something has gone wrong with our servers. It’s probably Matt’s fault. We’ve just been notified of the problem. Hopefully this should be fixed ASAP, so kindly reload in a minute and things should be back to normal. Yet another reason to love Wordpress.

Cricket Lovers, here is a great news. You can now watch IPL semi-final and Finals on Youtube LIVE for FREE. Willow TV’s Announcement on the Offer As part of Willow TV's continued efforts to bring widespread exposure to the sport of cricket in North America, we have partnered with YouTube to bring the Indian Premier League 2010 semi finals and finals live on YouTube. These matches will be available live and free of cost starting on April 21, 2010, at http://www.youtube.com/ipl . The matches will be available in the same high quality streaming experience available from http://www.willow.tv . This is the first of many other such initiatives from Willow TV to popularize cricket in North America, with a particular focus on highly entertaining Twenty20 format. Please stay tuned to Willow TV for many more exciting announcements in the near future!

Thought Garage is my personal blog featuring seemingly ramblings and dabblings, but otherwise quite invaluable insights. About software, India, technology, politics and Entrepreneurship. And a little bit about how the world could be a better place if it ever listens to what I say. Here are some thought lines that I have been working on for some time, which are set to be released as Books: The Road Not Yet Taken : My tray of Ideas/thoughts on how to make Democracy in India really work. The Off-beat Investing : An accidental investor’s game plan of making sense and money using often written off investing strategies/tips/tricks. In-Vested Interests: Thoughts on how capitalism influences human behavior. The Silver Lining : Getting real with developing Cloud Applications. Steps.NET : Strategies for Winning in the market place and realizing Career aspirations with .NET Technologies Here are some of my social and/or business Id...

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Proponents of Green, watch this video. If you believe in 80:20 rule, go and hit the 80% part of it with just 20% of your decisions. And leave the rest of 20% of going green, that essentially need and demand 80% changes in life styles for future study. In a short, funny, data-packed talk at TED U, Catherine Mohr walks through all the geeky decisions she made when building a green new house -- looking at real energy numbers, not hype. What choices matter most? Not the ones you think. Catherine Mohr builds green http://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_builds_green.html

Believe nothing, No matter where you read it, Or who has said it, Not even if I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason And your own common sense. -- Buddha Via Arvind’s Shared Items on Google Reader

Lots of people are puzzling through the SEC's fraud allegations against Goldman Sachs, trying to work out how it allegedly committed fraud. The way Paddy Hirsch sees it, it's a bit like a bookie and gambler teaming up to fix a horse race. SEC goes after Goldman from Marketplace on Vimeo .

Vonage World Plan that gives unlimited calling to India and 60 other countries is now only $14.99 per month (for first six months). Sign up Now and Get another Extra Month FREE! Vonage started a while back offering UNLIMITED Calling plan to India along with 60 other countries for $24.99 a month. This international calling is on top of full month unlimited calling within in USA. The plan is only $14.99/month for the first six months and $25.99/month then onwards and need a 1 year agreement. Take it Anywhere. If you don’t know, You can take the Vonage Modem anywhere you go, as long as you have an internet connection.

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This is always a very tricky question to delve into. Will there be any chance the  H1B rush we have witnessed in 2007 and 2008 may come back this year in 2010 or just like last year, will the cap remain unfilled till the end of the year? I think, it will be a repeat of last year. May be, the cap could be reached little earlier than last year. The official H1B year 2011 starts from October 1st of 2010. USCIS has already started accepting petitions starting from 1st of April, 2010. As we can see, the rush of 2007/2008 did not happen this time. Last year I wrote that I would be surprised if cap limits are reached any time during the year. That proved to be true. This year, while the situation remains the same in many aspects, the improvement in market conditions may accelerate the filings just a little and may reach the cap little earlier.

Well, I haven’t bought an iPad. But I can fancy looking my blog, Thought Garage on iPad through iPadPeek.com .  I believe, true innovation of iPad lies in the user experience interacting with site, by physically holding the ‘magical’ piece; definitely not the way it looks. For that matter, its the same Safari Browser that renders a page. Having said that, what’s the point of this post?, Well, just want to say, I wish I already had an iPad. Trust me, this is my first ever blog post on iPad. The picture looks awesome though, with a wide black border.

Stack Overflow has been making available ALL public data on its site as a dump every month. Though, it looked obvious now (after Stack Overflow did this) to release community contributed information back to the community, it is the first of its kind and the only site as far as I know. The community has selflessly provided all this content in the spirit of sharing and helping each other. In that very same spirit, we are happy to return the favor by providing a database dump of public data . Any body can play with that data, like do some profiling on usage patterns of the site or something. I really can’t think of any better use at this point.  Or, upload on an intranet server so that all employees can use the knowledge shared on this site (Some Indian IT companies don’t allow employees to access internet at office).