A refreshing way to see metadata @GIDS

Scott Davis showing a refreshing look at metdata. Showing how iTunes, TiVo and alot of the top companies and service providers owe their success to metadata.

iTunes success over napster , paid music vs free music is because of the ability to match other music based on the metadata on the playing music. How it drives cross sales and related sales.

TiVo another example of how it succeded not because it could record TV but it could link programs based on what you already like and record.

GIDS Day 1

GIDS Summit on its Day 1, had some fantastic sessions, for beginners we had the enhancement on input devices and how to optimize the way we code from Mark Miller from devExpress. He showed some really handy tools to optimize the way we code by using short codes. That was followed by a awesome demostration of witing code using his toy guitar which we could all get used to :) .

we had a another very interesting session on Test driven development (TDD), really efficient way of writing features.

Azure caching API's were an eye opener regarding the scalability of windows azure apps. can wait for the API's to come out later this month. Already working on implementing then on my ongoing project.

Design patterns in .NET and how to efficiently use them was a highlight of the day with interesting use of lambda expressions, creating restricted classes and so on.

Rounding it off were couple of interesting session on NOSQL by Gary short. Is NOSQL the way in the future was answered very tactfully by Gary with a short yes and a no. hats off to the guy , holding the audience for a complete hour. looking forward to have chat with him later on NOSQL.

Finally some basic application of facebook hosted on Windows Azure, really interesting way to look at scalability with respect to social media sites. hope i can do something on it soon. Though .NET is not quite as flexible as PHP when it come to facebook . Will try to get a sample app soon.

Looking forward to Day 2 of GIDS and hope it will be as awesome as the last one.

Joy of Giving Week

The Joy of Giving Week (JGW) is a "festival of giving" that aims to bring together Indians all across the country and abroad through different acts of giving- money, time, skills or resources. The goal is to convert it into a fully publicly owned festival, just like Diwali, Holi or Thanksgiving, none of which are owned by anyone. The Week was launched in 2009 and will be held every year starting on a Sunday and ending on a Saturday, containing October 2 within.\

Several organizations and people including Goonj, Riverside School, JAM, ISB, Toofles, the various Media Houses of India, celebrities and individuals have come together to make it possible. The Joy of Giving Week is 100% volunteer driven & co-ordinated. City level volunteers anchor different "verticals"- corporates, schools, colleges, media, celebrities, NGOs and others, engaging with them and helping them plan, execute and participate in "Giving Events".

As a part of this year's JGW, there have several events planned across the twin cities. One of those is “Giving Campaign” during the week of 26^th sept – 2^nd Oct, 2010.This includes following

· Clothes collection

· Grain collection

· Unused Electronics

· Footwear

· Toys/Stationary/books

· Blood donation (if possible)

The proceeds from this event will go towards charity of people/organization choice or Rotaract Hyderabad social service club of Cyberabad will help in channelizing the collectables to the appropriate NGO’s.

We have arranged to collect these items across Hyderabad. You can walk into the nearest location of collection and drop the items. In the nearby area we have identified couple of places which you can choose according to your convenience. The locations are

· Senior Citizen Welfare association (Behind B.K. Guda Park)

· Sundara Bharati Community Hall, Sunder Nagar Colony ( Near St Theresa’s Hospital)

Contact us at cyberabadrotract@googlegroups.com or call us at 9885218169 (Praveen) / 9885330753 (Poojitha) / 9985813600 (Kaustav).

You can get more information on the website www.joyofgivingweek.ning.com / www.joyofgivingweek.org .

Event details can be found at http://joyofgivingweek.ning.com/events/youth-giving-campaign

To my Nation.....Vande Mataram

It has been a long time since I had decided to start blogging but being the lazy self I am , never really got around doing it. So here goes my first post if for my country and my inspiration.

What better way to start my blogging than the day of India's 60th Republic day, The day that India was truly free and was given to the people. We have come a long way since that day. The cities have grown , the people have grown so have a few things which should not have grown have flourished, but this is not to discuss all depressing things such as corruption and poverty.

26th January has become like any other holiday day for a average Indian. A break from the daily stress of bosses and work , a day to relax and spend time with your family. Put up national flags on the vehicles and pin up the tricolour on their pockets and dresses. ohh yes they do watch the repulic day parade on their televisions one of the rarest days when "Doordarshan" makes a appearence on the TV Sets.

I distinctly remember my school days where we used to do the Republic day parade, a group of students gathered from different schools and march around the ground in a unsynchronized way. Boy did we used to have fun then staring at the girls ( should mention at this point that mine was a all boys school).We used to give it all that we had with hands and legs flying in different directions. we used to shout "Vande Mataram" literally meaning "I do Homage to my Mother" at the top of our voices and sing the national anthem with pride. we celebrated the 50th republic day with such vigour and passion.

Now 10 years down the line most of my friends from that day all have grown up becoming IT Professionals (the so called high paying and preferred job in India, a whopping 75 % of students do a engineering in India and another 75% among them end up in IT companies). All of them just have one dream "When will i get a onsite opportunity , when will i go to US and earn in Dollars" or some other company with a higher salary. Where did all those dreams of doing something for my country go, where did the passion for the country die, where ..................

Thanks to Mr. OBAMA and his policies probably Indians will have a find out a way of the IT and outsourcing mess and finally do something else.

See i promised you a little bit of gyaan waiting for the response to my gyaan.