Month: April 2009

Fallacies of Agile Development


About the event

Venkat Subramaniam is in Chennai on the 20th of April and will speak on Fallacies of Agile Development.

Date: Monday, 20th April, 2009

Time: 6 PM

Where: Gandhinagar Club, Adyar (Map)

Duration: 2 hrs

Cost: FREE

About the speaker

Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, founder of Agile Developer, Inc., has trained and mentored thousands of software developers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Venkat helps his clients effectively apply and succeed with agile practices on their software projects, and speaks frequently at international conferences and user groups. He is author of “.NET Gotchas” (O’Reilly), coauthor of 2007 Jolt Productivity Award winning “Practices of an Agile Developer” (Pragmatic Bookshelf), and author of “Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer” (Pragmatic Bookshelf).

 

Venkat is an agile developer who teaches and mentors. He has significant experience in architecture, design and development of distributed object systems. He has worked in positions, from Programmer Analyst to Systems Architect, at organizations like Halliburton, Raytheon, and Simulation Sciences. Venkat has trained more than 2500 software professionals around the world. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and teaches the Professional Software Developer Series at the Technology Education Center – Rice University. He is also a regular speaker at various conferences and user groups.

Venkat is the coauthor of the book “Practices of an Agile Developer: Working in the Real World”

For Registration visit http://chennaiagile.pbwiki.com/20-April-2009-Venkat-Subramaniam

Interview with Mr.Kaviraj, Founder areapal.com


It is indeed nice to be with Mr.Kaviraj, Founder areapal.com… Kavi is a prudent entrepreneur and always takes leaps to reach his goal… I’ve known kavi when his idea was a dream and he was selling his idea… Today I’m happy to see him making his dreams into a reality and in fact flourishing well… Let us shoot out question to kavi and get to know more about his experience…

 

Q. Hello Kavi. Can you tell us about yourself?

 

My native is Thanjavur . My father is a government servant . My brother is a farmer . I finished my B.E( I.T ) in Annamalai University . M.E ( Computers ) in Sathyabama University .

 

Q. When & how did your entrepreneur desire started & blossomed?

 

A.  Am basically a WEB 2.0 enthusiast and was an addicted user of Various sites like Orkut , Facebook etc. Always thought these networks were not for India.  India is very different and our people always want a face to face interaction.

 

So wondered how it would be to build a network that helped people to find the same frequency persons in their neighborhood itself. That is when we started building this network.

 

Q. What are you hobbies other than your business?

 

A. Watching movies, reading books and roaming around with my friends.

 

Q. Tell us how areapal.com took shape?

 

A. As mentioned, when I got this idea of root level INSTA NETWORKING, I went to Anna University and started telling my friends about this idea. They were excited and so instantly we formed a team of interested students and started building this project. So we got contributions from lots of students from various colleges. That is how we have built the product which you are seeing now.

 

Q. Tell the challenges you faced (Pre formation & post formation)?

 

A. Our initial problem was lack of funds. We somehow managed to get some small loans and also put our own money for renting servers etc. Distributed different modules to various people / freelancers and got it done. We all took different roles in developing the project from designing, strategy to coding, DB designing etc.

 

Q. Tell us about areapal.com’s business model?

 

A.   “ The most interesting person you have been searching for all over the ( web )world may be just a street away – areapal.com helps you find him “  – as per our slogan , areapal is a platform that helps people to connect in a very drilled down manner based on their locality ( area ) . We are trying to remove the 6 degrees of separation and connect people in the first degree itself.

 

Q. Have you accomplished everything you dreamt about areapal.com?

 

A. Nope, still there is a lot to accomplish J

 

Q. What is your experience in approaching VC & angels?

 

A. In India we feel that approaching VC’s is a bit difficult at the idea or seed stage. But approaching angels is a bit easier.

 

Q. Will this recession have any impact in your plans? If yes how do you plan to overcome this recession?

 

A. ‘ areapal ‘ is a community driven project with contributions in various verticals from a wide pool of enthusiastic youngsters / students .  In fact we are also in plans to convert this project as a FOUNDATION and help all the youngsters own a particular city in areapal and earn via. it. So we are fully equipped to face the recession J

 

Q. What are your future plans?

 

A. Connect full India “area by area wise” and help user contributed local data flow in a more consumable manner to all the people .

 

Q. What is your advice for new startups and wannabe entrepreneurs?

 

A.  I always liked the line “… You should first START to become GREAT “   . Guess it was told by Abraham Lincoln.

 

Thank you very much Kavi for sparing your valuable time with us and it was really inspiring to be with you. We wish you all the very best…

Mark Zuckerberg Turns Investigator


One by one, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has driven away his cofounders and close confidants. The latest to go: chief financial officer Gideon Yu.

Now Zuckerberg is tracking who has leaked the email memo sent to CFO and you can see his instigative tactics in the email… Please read the email carefully…

Catch the differences? One says “will report,” the other says “will be reporting.” One uses treasurer Cipora Herman’s last name, the other omits it. One says “we are fortunate,” while the other uses the contracted form “we’re.” And one says Peter Currie will be “an advisor,” while the other says only “advisor.”

 
That’s not the only oddity about the email. “Several versions I got of this memo had different punctuation in various places,” Swisher notes in an update.

COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL–DO NOT FORWARD

Hey Everyone–

Today ends the first quarter of 2009, so I wanted to send out an update on our growth and financial progress, as well as a couple of changes we are making.

Our user growth has been extraordinary over the past year and has continued to be strong throughout Q1. We are getting very close to reaching our 200 millionth active user. This is pretty remarkable considering we just reached 100 million actives a little more than seven months ago. We have become the top site for sharing information on the web, and this gives us a good strategic position to help people share even more.

I am also pleased that our financial progress has been very strong as well. While we came into this year wondering how the recession might affect us, our financial performance in the first quarter surpassed our expectations. As other businesses around us are slowing down and cutting back, we continue to grow around the world. Our advertising products are becoming more attractive for advertisers and we have seen strong growth in both our domestic and international direct sales and online sales channels.

Even in the current economic environment, we are confident that this success will continue. Based on our first quarter results, we now believe we are on track to see our revenue grow by at least 70% this year. We just completed our fifth straight quarter of EBITDA profitability. And most importantly, we expect to achieve free cash flow profitability next year. That’s an important measure of financial success and sustainability because it means we’d be able to fund all of our operations and server purchases from the cash we generate while increasing our cash reserves in the bank. Hitting these numbers will require continued hard work, discipline and execution by everyone here at Facebook, but we are on the path to achieve these goals.

As we ramp up to take on these challenges, I want to let you know that Gideon Yu will be leaving the company. Gideon has played an important role in helping us achieve our financial success, building a strong finance team and establishing the core financial operations of our company. I will always be grateful to Gideon for his contributions to Facebook and what we are trying to accomplish. As those of you who know him know, Gideon’s family is his highest priority and it’s certainly not the usual cliché to say that he plans to take some time off to be with his wife and son. Gideon and I have often discussed that the next stage of his career will likely be as an investor, and I fully support him in this regard.

We have retained Spencer Stuart to search for a new CFO and we will be looking for someone with public company experience who can help take us to the next stage in our growth.

In the interim, the finance team will report to Cipora Herman in her capacity as Treasurer and Ted Ullyot as mteam lead. In addition, [Facebook is] fortunate that Peter Currie, the former CFO for Netscape, has agreed to serve as the advisor to Facebook until a new CFO comes on board.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me or to others on mteam if you have any questions about our finance plans or organization. I’ll discuss this more at the Q&A on Friday and I will be happy to take questions then too.

Congratulations to everyone on a great start to the year and on all the momentum you have all helped build for the rest of 2009.

Mark

WORKSHOP – The Journey Within INNER


Sometimes we really find ourself not being our best.

Sometimes we wonder what is that which guides me.

Sometimes we need to change the “inner thoughts” to produce “outer results“.

We need to take the ‘The Journey Within’

CHENNAI ENTREPRENEURS CLUB & LIFE ACADEMY

Presents a workshop

” INNER UNIVERSE ” – Exploring the Inner World of Thought

YOU are invied for a different journey. The journey in to your own self – your inner world of thoughts.

We weave the fabric of our life in the factory of our mind using the threads called thoughts. We fashion our destiny everyday by our mental designs.

We welcome you to explore the inner structure of your thoughts and unearth the mysteries of living.

FACULTY

Mr.ASHRAF is a corporate trainer and the director of Life Academy– a lifeskills training organisation based at Chennai. He is a certified Master Practitioner of NLP( Neuro Linguistic Programming – the Psychology of Excellence) from National Federation of Neuro Linguistic Psychology, U.S.A.

Mr.Ashraf has conducted training programs for organisations like Reserve Bank of India, LIC of India, Airtel, Sify, Nokia, Areva, Metlife India, JP Morgan, Elsevier, Bajaj Capital, Sundaram Finance, Eicher Motors, NASSCOM, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and educational institutions like Anna University – Madras School of Social Work.

Over the years, Mr.Ashraf has actively trained and inspired thousands of people fron diverse backgrounds to “Use more of their potential“. He shares his incredible knowledge in a “hands on learning environment” in all his programs.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

Date : 5th April 2009 (sunday)
Time : 10.30 am to 1.30 pm
Venue : L.A.Training Center (A/c),
36, Aziz mulk first street,
Thousand lights
(near Greams road)
Chennai – 600006.

Guest Fee : Rs.300/- per participant.

As seats are limited, please confirm your registration if you like to participate in this workshop.

To Register Contact Mr Padmanabhan  98414  38486 /  Mr Ashraf   98412 92715.

The real Slumdogs


Last Sunday I was in Bangalore… I reached Bangalore very early in the morning say by 5 AM and reached home by 5:15 AM… When I opened the gate I was chased out by a mother Slumdog which wanted to protect itz puppies from me…

 

I got scared and didn’t enter the gate… Since it was dark I was unable to see both mother & itz puppies as they were black in color…

 

I was still standing in the road thinking the tenants would wakeup soon and help me to get in… The wait lasted for 15 min and there was no progress then I made a bold move to enter the house and I successfully entered the house without any damage :)…

 

After entering the house I had to laugh at myself because I was denied an entry into my own house by a Slumdog… I just remembered a famous Tamil saying “Anda Vandha Pidariya Oor Pidari Thorathuna Kadai” (Story of a Guest Devil driving away the Native devil)…

 

Then I took a nap and then started to BOCC and I didn’t want to take a chance again and thought I must befriend the mother and the puppy… So I fed them with a pack of Good Day biscuits and befriended them… When I returned in the evening mother Slumdog didn’t make any noise and let me freely into my house :)…

 

Here are the snaps of the true Slumdogs…

 

Flaunge – Small in size Big in investment


Last Sunday I’ve been to Bangalore to attend B’lore OCC and then went to 13th floor to honor my promise to host Hrish Thota for a treat… Only then I came to know Hrish was a documentary film maker and it kindled my eagerness to know more about film-making…

 

Hrish said that he is going to his office to finish some editing work and I asked him if I can accompany him to have a look at his office…

 

The name of their company is Flaunge and it is a home-cum-office housed in his friend’s house… By entering his office I was thrilled to see this small fish tank… This really pulled my attention… Positioning of tank was well done where in visitors don’t feel the pinch of waiting…

 

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Then I went into their office and I was really amazed to see such a small office… It must be a 10 * 6 Sq.Ft. office… But the equipment used is expensive… You can also have a peep into their office…

 

 

dsc006724This is the size of Sweet little Flaunge & you can see all the equipments fitted within that room…This is Hrish working in his MAC… 

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Then Hrish showed me their sample work and I really liked Tour De Nilgiris… Here is the video…

Tour Of Nilgiris – Experience Nature from Tour Of Nilgiris on Vimeo.

 

In the mean time if you have any requirement for short film-making or ad film-making you can contact Flaunge…

 

I’m a Word Press Boy


I’m a WordPress Bhoy boy looking for a WordPress girl 🙂 yes for last 2 days I’m using WordPress… Not it is not a fools day prank… You can check this blog is on WordPress… I’ve been using Drupal CMS for my blog for last 4 years and I’ve great love for Drupal… There were lot criticism and cry from Drupal world… Even I got a shout from a buddy in twitter…

tronathan@anandnataraj Why on earth would you go from drupal TO wordpress? please enlighten me…6:19 AM Mar 29th from TweetDeck in reply to anandnataraj

For Drupal lovers or WordPress lovers let me confess I’m still a Drupalian by heart and WordPress is just a mask… I still challenge everyone that Drupal is the best CMS in the world than any other CMS… So, you can ask me why I converted from Drupal to WordPress… Here are my justifications

  •  
    • WordPress is quick in giving updates and more happening now-a-days
    • WordPress has all the tools for running a blog, which drupal must improve
    • WordPress admin interface is very simple to use
    • WordPress has more plugins and themes compared to drupal
    • Last but not least I get lot of enquries on wordpress customization… So using the system will help me understand client’s challenges and expectation…

I decided to convert to WordPress a month back, but I researched a lot on reading other blogs on lessons as I didn’t want to take a change… But itz all done within an hour and the process was very simple… This is what I did;

 

1.)    Installed WordPress in a folder /blog…

2.)    Make sure both wordpress and drupal tables are in same database…

Please use below SQL queries to export the posts and comments from drupal to wordpress 2.7.1. I used phpmyadmin to write queries

 

This sql will export all posts from drupal to wordpress 2.7.1

 

# Use the Drupal database

use db261070012;

# Remove all current posts from WordPress

TRUNCATE TABLE wp_posts;

# Insert posts from Drupal into WordPress

INSERT INTO wp_posts (id, post_date, post_content, post_title, post_excerpt, post_name, post_modified, post_type, `post_status`)

SELECT DISTINCT

n.nid `id`,

FROM_UNIXTIME(n.created) `post_date`,

r.body `post_content`,

n.title `post_title`,

r.teaser `post_excerpt`,

IF(SUBSTR(a.dst, 11, 1) = ‘/’, SUBSTR(a.dst, 12), a.dst) `post_name`,

FROM_UNIXTIME(n.changed) `post_modified`,

‘post’ `post_type`,

IF(n.status = 1, ‘publish’, ‘private’) `post_status`

FROM cms_node n

INNER JOIN cms_node_revisions r

USING(vid)

LEFT OUTER JOIN cms_url_alias a

ON a.src = CONCAT(‘node/’, n.nid)

;

            This sql will export all comments from drupal to wordpress 2.7.1

 

TRUNCATE TABLE wp_comments;INSERT INTO wp_comments (comment_post_ID, comment_date, comment_date_gmt, comment_content, comment_parent, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url, comment_author_ip, comment_approved)SELECTnid,FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp),FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp),comment,0,name,IF(mail=”, CONCAT(REPLACE(LOWER(name),’ ‘, ”), ‘@’, hostname, ‘.localhost’), mail),homepage,hostname,1FROM cms_comments;

This sql will update the number of counts in wordpress posts table

 

# update comments count on wp_posts tableUPDATE wp_posts SET comment_count = (SELECT COUNT(comment_post_id) FROM wp_comments WHERE wp_posts.id = wp_comments.comment_post_id);

3.)    In Drupal, I used url alies which was like /my_post_title_name and I wanted to have the same url alies.
To do this I updated the WordPress Permalink settings:
Custom Structure : %postname%    

4.)    120 posts and 98 comments were successfully imported from drupal to wordpress…

5.)    Finally pointed my site’s destination from /anandnataraj (location where drupal files reside) to /anandnataraj/blog (wordpress files)…

6.)    Changed rewritebase in /anandnataraj/blog/.htaccess from “/blog” to “/”…

7.)    Changed the site URL and blog URL in wp_options table to http://www.anandnataraj.com

 

It took 30 minutes to migrate from drupal to wordpress 2.7.1… So far, everything seems to be working just fine…

 

Yesterday I designed my own WordPress, brought a coffee mug and printed it there, also shot some snaps with it :)…