A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

I was in the networking section of Future Shop the other day, standing by a couple of guys looking at routers.

Younger Dude: So wireless-N is the fastest right now?
Older Dude: That’s right.
Younger Dude: Yeah, but is it going to be too fast?

We all know how annoying fast internet connections can be.

Before I left The Co-operators, we implemented a system that we had been working on for quite some time. Without getting too deep into the technical details of the project, I’ll just say that it was going to serve as the backbone for managing the company’s client information. To use a more trendy term, it was the guts of the Customer Relationship Management system. I was glad that I was able to see the deployment of the system prior to making my move back to Saskatoon since I had put so much work into it. Two years have now passed, and about a week ago my old Project Manager contacted me with some exciting news.

Guess what…. Our CIF won an “IBM Innovation Award for Best Use of Information as a Service in an SOA Project”. The award will be presented at the upcoming IBM Information On Demand (IOD) Conference in Las Vegas. Add that to your resume.

I am incredibly happy for The Co-operators Information Systems department since I had been a part of it for six years, and know that there are some great people there . Speaking from experience while being on the CIF (Customer Information File) team, I know that a lot of hours went into getting that system out the door, and the award is well deserved. I also appreciate that after two years management remembered my contributions, taking the time to let me know of the accomplishment. Now I just need to convince them to fly me to Vegas for the celebration.

IBM’s all-new, global Information On Demand Innovation Awards honor best-in-class applications and solutions from among IBM information Management customers and the customers of our business partners. This prestigious Awards Program recognizes organizations that are using IBM-based solutions to significantly improve efficiencies and gain competitive advantage for their organizations.

Wednesday was the last full day I had in Los Angeles and we had a trip planned to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. There is only one tour a week so today was the only day we could do it. For those who are not familiar with JPL and what role they play in space exploration, here’s a short excerpt taken from the JPL website.

“Do not go where the path may lead,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail.” That could be the motto of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Trailblazing has been the business of JPL since it was established by the California Institute of Technology in the 1930s. America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, was created at JPL. In the decades that followed, we sent the first robotic craft to the Moon and out across the solar system, reconnoitering all of the planets. Pushing the outer edge of exploration, in fact, is the reason JPL exists as a NASA laboratory.

The tour was scheduled for 1:00 pm so Connie and I were planning on picking Ryan up at work (his first day back since I got here) and have lunch at the “Dirty Truck”. Apparently a mobile catering truck would stop by their office everyday at lunch serving pretty good Mexican food. The truck came to be known as the Dirty Truck, even though it wasn’t really that dirty. For some reason I was really excited to try it out.

Connie and I arrived at the office on schedule at 11:30, giving us enough time to grab a bite to eat and head to JPL which would be about a 30 minute drive. They recommended checking in around 12:30. Ryan met us outside the office by the “Dirty Truck” and asked Connie if she had brought their passports. Apparently you need them to get into the facility if you are not an American citizen. I carried mine with me at all times while here, so I had mine. There must have been some miscommunication because Connie knew nothing about bringing passports. The real story is still under investigation.

We looked at the time and decided we had no time for lunch and would have to drive back to Rancho Cucamonga (about 15 minutes), grab the passports, and then drive to JPL in Pasadena. We would be cutting it close. Ryan jumped in the driver’s seat and we were off at breakneck speeds. Luckily the freeways weren’t too busy. We picked up the passports and headed to NASA. As we got back on the freeway the fuel light came on, adding another element to this adventure.

We finally arrived at JPL at about 12:45 and had no problems getting through security. We got to the visitor’s building and they were not checking people in yet. We made it just in time As we were waiting in the lobby, I overheard some people talking about Saskatoon. I went over to them and asked, “Did I hear someone say they were from Saskatoon?” I kid you not, there was a young software developer for Dreamworks Animation whose parents were visiting from Saskatoon. What are the odds of that? We chatted for a couple minutes before we checked in with our tour guide.

The tour started off by watching an interesting film (narrated by Harrison Ford) giving an overview of JPL and what unmanned planetary missions they’ve been responsible for. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Once the film finished the tour guide took over and started to talk about the replicas of satellites in the room including Voyager and Galileo. Ryan and I noticed that he seemed to repeat himself quite a bit.

After we finished in this area we moved on to another place that had more replicas of famous unmanned probes including the first one launched into orbit by the United States - Explorer 1. There was also a display for the world’s lightest material called Aerogel. It was pretty neat how it looked like it was there, but kind of like a hazy hologram. Here’s a picture of Ryan checking it out.

After this piece of the tour we moved on to another facility where JPL’s mission control was housed. This room was pretty cool and you could see live telemetry coming from actual spacecraft in real time. There was also two giant screens showing the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and countdowns to their next two missions. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it. Well, our tour guide went into about a ten minute talk on UTC, continually repeating statement after statement. Ryan, Connie, and I were having a tough time keeping our composure. It was ridiculous. There were fairly young children in the group (one was wearing an orange NASA flight suit), but come on - they likely weren’t following much anyway. Then when the guide finished his big lecture on UTC and how to tell time, he asked if anyone had questions. One of the children raised his hands and asked, “What is the UTC on those clocks?” It may have been the most hilarious thing we’ve seen in while and I can’t believe none of us cracked up. The tour guide started explanation again, but made it real short this time. I’d like to think that the child was actually sticking it to the tour guide - mocking if you will….but I highly doubt it - he was only about four.

The guide then started to talk about the planets and the distance between them, making it difficult for spacecraft to communicate efficiently with mission control. He continued to repeat himself over and over. Another child asked the question, “Can I sit on the edge of Saturn’s rings?”

We then moved on to the final facility that housed the test room for the Mars Rovers. This was easily the best part of the tour, especially since a different tour guide made the presentation. She proceeded to explain (without the repetition) how they used the test room to run simulations prior to missions, and how they still use it to mimic problems the rover may encounter or is currently encountering on the Martian surface. She was pretty thorough and did a good job of explaining the rover to us.

This wrapped up the tour and we were lead back to the visitors center. The tour was decent and I liked getting to see what I did, but I was disappointed with how elementary it was. I’m not saying I’m a genius or anything, but they didn’t talk about anything I didn’t already know (and I’m pretty sure that most people who are even interested in going on a tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a basic knowledge of the solar system and the major unmanned missions). The only thing I really learned about was the history of the facility. The last tour guide did mention there was an open house in May where the actual engineers are to speak. That would probably be more interesting, but I’m not going to be around.

Since we had to skip lunch we were all pretty hungry. I wanted to make sure I had Mexican food while in California so we hit a place Ryan and Connie had been once before. It was quite good, but I mistakenly ordered a burrito that had no meat in it. We’re not sure what was actually in it, but it looked like a pancake. You can see more picture from the day here.

In an attempt to attract youth to the province, the Saskatchewan government in May will launch a new ‘wireless hotspot’ program in four of the province’s cities - Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, and Prince Albert. As exciting as this sounds I really hope the service is top-rate. Nothing will be more frustrating if one has to constantly battle with dropped connections, or really poor bandwidth in the hotspots.

I’m not sure this is going to retain or attract youth to the province, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Major props to Lorne Calvert and the NDP government. I’ve included the article from the Star Phoenix for your reading pleasure.

Free wireless Internet to be offered in city
By Janet French of The StarPhoenix

It’s time to add the phrase “wireless hot spot” to your vocabulary — Saskatoon is about to be covered in them.In a move the Saskatchewan government hopes will attract and retain young people in the province, a new free wireless Internet service is set to launch in May in four Saskatchewan cities.

“I think it just opens up possibilities,” says Victoria Morris, one of the facilitators at the province’s first youth summit held three weeks ago. “If you’re at the Broadway Roastery or you’re in a park and you want to check your email or you want to surf the Internet, you have a place to do that.”

Free wireless Internet access was one of the recommendations emerging from the SaskatchewanYouth Summit, Morris said. Although the service is one of many changes youth are looking for, they’ll be excited that government heard their voices and took action, she said.

On Monday at the Broadway Roastery cafe, Premier Lorne Calvert and Andrew Thomson, the minister responsible for information technology, announced the province will provide free wireless Internet access downtown, on university and college campuses and in trendy areas of Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert.

Once the government spends $1.3 million installing wireless transmitters the size of coffee cans on light standards and telephone poles and a central antenna within each coverage zone, people with laptops and other wireless devices can surf the web and read e-mails around Saskatoon. Socalled “hot spots” where people can connect to the Internet will include River Landing, downtown, the University of Saskatchewan, the Kelsey campus of the Saskatchewan Institute for Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) and on and around Broadway Avenue, north of Eighth Street.

NBA All-Star Weekend hits Sin City this year, and as if the glamour and excitement wasn’t enough already, the NBA is taking this year’s festivities to the next level. The All-Star Saturday Night and All-Star game which are slated for this Saturday, February 17th and Sunday, February 18th, respectively will be breaking technological boundaries as it will be the first live sports events to be broadcast in High Definition 3D. Yeah, you heard me right - 3D.

Now before you get too excited, the broadcast is only going to be available to special guests of the NBA at Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Hotel since the NBA is saying it is an “experiment”. Either way, it’s a pretty cool concept and may be the first step in delivering this service to regular Joes around the world. Here’s an excerpt from Variety.com explaining the process.

Technology company Pace has designed five 3-D HD camera systems that will cover all of the action at the Thomas and Mack Center. The Pace blueprint calls for two HD cameras to be built in to each of the five systems, working together to transmit the 3-D images. Invitees will need glasses to get the full 3-D effect.

A special director will take charge of the 3-D coverage, said Steve Hellmuth, senior VP of operations and technology for NBA Entertainment, “but the widescreen depth of field is so immersive that there’ll be far fewer cuts than in the standard-definition version, and the cameras won’t have to move as much.”

Hellmuth bills the experience as “about as close as you can get to having courtside seats.”

This technology might be exactly what I need to get back the feeling of watching a Raptors game at the Air Canada Centre that I miss so much….without having to pay $8 for a hot-dog.

You can read the full article at Variety.com here. Engadget also covered the story here.

This is actually a housekeeping post, rather than a journal entry. It is just to ask anyone who subscribes to this feed to use this new link in their aggregator :

http://feeds.feedburner.com/NaidssNonsense.

I’m using the FeedBurner service so I can track statistics more accurately. If you haven’t heard of this service, I encourage any blogger to check it out. Here’s a little blurb from their site describing their service.

FeedBurner is the world’s largest feed management provider. Our Web-based services help bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers promote, deliver and profit from their content on the Web.

FeedBurner also offers the largest advertising network for feeds that brings together an unprecedented caliber of content aggregated from the world’s leading media companies, A-list bloggers and blog networks and individual publishers.

Also, if you feel so inclined, you can check out my Technorati Profile.

As you browse the internet, you may come across little orange images with the text, ‘rss’, ‘xml’, etc. Those who are tech savy tend to know that these images refer to something called an RSS feed. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and can make the way you read news and articles on the internet a whole lot easier. Hopefully I haven’t lost any of my readers yet who think I’ve gotten too technical with this article. Believe me, I will keep this truly informative and keep the ‘techy geek talk’ to a minimum. The reason I’ve decided to post this article here, and not on ‘Let’s Get Technical’ (my technical blog) is that I hope it provides you with a new way of reading the articles you are interested on the internet.

I’m not going to get into its history, or the way RSS works, but I’m going to explain the way you can use it. Traditionally, users go from site to site with their web browser, looking for articles they find interesting. Over time, these user’s tend to return to the same sites looking for new articles to read as they are updated. These users will re-visit each of these sites, looking for updated articles, not knowing if the site has actually been updated.

This technique of getting your daily news fix works just fine, but can lead to you wasting your time looking for updates. Imagine if you ordered 3 books from 3 different stores, but didn’t know the exact date they were going to arrive. It wouldn’t make sense to go to each of these stores 3 times a day for 6 weeks until it arrived. It would be a lot easier if the bookstores would give you a call when each one arrived. RSS works the same way. You no longer need to keep going to each of your favourite sites to see if new articles have been added - With an RSS Aggregator (an application), your articles are ‘pulled’ from the sites who’s RSS ‘feed’ you subscribe to. So, all you need to do is open you Aggregator and all of your new articles will be there waiting for you. In fact, the new versions of web browsers have this functionality built right in. As you browse internet sites, a ’syndication’ button will light up, notifying you that you can subscribe to that site’s data feed.

It’s rare for a website to not offer an RSS feed (or ATOM, a similar type of technology). If you like to read a lot of blogs, RSS is a great way to keep informed as to when each blog is updated. For instance, if you wanted to subscribe to my blogs, you would add :

• http://naiduworks.blogspot.com/atom.xml
• http://hemantnaidu.blogspot.com/atom.xml

to you aggregator (for those who are interested, click on one of the above links to see what a syndication feed looks like under the hood). The next time I updated one of my blogs, you would be able to read it in your aggregator, without ever actually visiting my blog. This works great if you read a blog where the user doesn’t post on a regular schedule.

If you want to give it a try, install one of the aggregators below:

• FeedReader
• SharpReader
• Google Desktop Sidebar

Once you get the program installed, all you need to do is add the link associated with one of these little orange ‘xml’, ‘rss’, or ‘atom’ images you see all over the place (there’s one at the bottom right of this page). To copy the link, just right click on the image, and choose ‘Copy Shortcut’. I’m not going to get into detail of how add the link to your aggregator, since each one will differ slightly. Check out the documentation that comes with the aggregator, or just ask me for some help and I’ll gladly provide some assistance. I just hope this article will motivate you to take advantage of these data feeds. I really think it will increase your productivity on the internet, letting you spend more time reading what interests you.

For more information on RSS, visit www.whatisrss.com, or on www.faganfinder.com.

I knew before I started my new job that it was going to be ‘fast paced’ - that’s pretty much how it was sold to me. I found myself excited to be part of a team that would constantly push the limits of my brain and leverage the cutting edge technology that the world is constantly bombarded with. It’s not that my previous job was a cake-walk - the last year consisted of pushing out a system that high-priced consultants said would be impossible. Six months of sixty hour weeks and a huge team effort, we were able to successfully implement the system. I knew I was ready for the next step.

After my first week at the new company, I knew what they meant by fast-paced. In daily stand-up meetings (where we actually do have the meeting standing up - a part of the Extreme Programming methodology) it was not out of the ordinary to hear people saying things like, “we managed to get it working at 3:00 last night”. And these people don’t say it as if it was a bad thing, or in a comlaining tone. They like it. This was one of the main reasons I wanted in this company - they only hire developers who are genuinely passionate about technology. Everyone is always running around. My team lead will usually stop by my office to see how things are going. After talking for about ten minutes or so he’ll finish his last sentence while running out of my office cause he has to be somewhere else. Seriously, this happens every time.

With my previous company, I never had any code I wrote actually go into production for at least three years. Not that it wasn’t good enough or anything, but just because the projects were so large and controlled. At my new place, I had stuff go to production in less than three weeks. We release software patches and upgrades weekly. And now, I have a major issue assigned to me that has to be ready for 6:00 pm Monday. For a guy who is still trying to figure out where scratch pads are stocked, that’s quite a bit of pressure. But it does feel good to jump right into everything and get something accomplished.

It is definitely like night and day between the two companies. I don’t think one way is better than the other, but they are just very different. It will definitely be cool to be doing things that are pretty much the same, but just in a completely different manner.

After about a month, I finally start my new job in a couple of days. After living in Guelph, Ontario for almost six years and working in a huge insurance company’s I.T. department, I will transition into working for a small, fast-paced software development company in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Even though my title stays relatively the same (Senior Software Developer), I’m not too sure as to what my responsibilities will be in the new company.

When the job was offered to me, I was told that they wanted to, “bring me in to mould their young developers”. I’m not sure what to make of that statement, but I still consider myself to be young - I mean, I’m only thirty years old (but could pass for at least 23 - haha!). I guess they meant, “mould thier less experienced developers”. I guess that makes a little more sense, but it still makes me a little nervous. I suppose the VP who hired me knows what he is doing.

I was told to show up at the office at 9:00 am. Since I don’t get possession of my townhome until December 1st, I will be commuting from my parents’ place in Wilkie, Saskatchewan for the first month. This will consist of a 90 minute drive each way which I’m sure will start to lose its appeal after about a week. I guess knowing that I will be getting mother’s home cooking for a month will be good incentive. Plus if need be, I may split the week up slightly and stay a couple of days a week in Saskatoon. I know enough people there that this shouldn’t be a problem.

Well, since I’m going to be molding some young developers starting tomorrow, I better start reading up a bit on Microsoft’s .NET Framework for C#. This may not mean much to any non-techies out there, but since I have been a J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) guy my entire career, this is a little bit daunting. Ahh - once you know one programming language, they all look pretty much the same - right?