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11/8/2008 Check the Current Geographical Location of any Indian Railways TrainIndiaRail Info is an interesting Google Maps mashup that helps you visualize the current geographical location of any train in India. Just type train name or train number and check its exact location on the map.
India Rail Info has a database of all trains and railway stations in India. For example, the Bandra Garib Rath Express (2910) has crossed Kota junction at 8:23pm IST. Unfortunately this site does not extrapolate this data to guess the location between two junctions, so the train is still shown at Kota. Thanks digital inspiration. 10/21/2008 Waterfall "Printer"This waterfall installation located in the Canal City Hakata shopping complex in Fukuoka, Japan can form intricate patters using water sprayed from hundreds of nozzles that are precisely controlled by computers.
10/16/2008 Signs You'll Live Longer Than You ThinkSurprising Signs You'll Live Longer Than You Think
Sign 1: Your Mom Had You Young  If she was under age 25, you're twice as likely to live to 100 as someone born to an older mom, according to University of Chicago scientists. They suspect that younger moms' best eggs go first to fertilization, thus producing healthier offspring. Sign 2: You're a Tea Lover  Both green and black teas contain a concentrated dose of catechins, substances that help blood vessels relax and protect your heart. In a study of more than 40,500 Japanese men and women, those who drank 5 or more cups of green tea every day had the lowest risk of dying from heart disease and stroke. Other studies involving black tea showed similar results. Sign3 : You'd Rather Walk
 "Fit" people—defined as those who walk for about 30 minutes a day—are more likely to live longer than those who walk less, regardless of how much body fat they have, according to a recent study of 2,603 men and women. Similarly, overweight women can improve their heart health by adding just 10 minutes of activity to their daily routine, says recent research. So take a walk on your lunch hour, do laps around the field while your kid is at soccer practice—find ways to move a little more, every day. Sign 4: You Skip Soda (Even Diet)
|  Scientists in Boston found that drinking one or more regular or diet colas every day doubles your risk of metabolic syndrome—a cluster of conditions, including high blood pressure, elevated insulin levels, and excess fat around the waist, that increase your chance of heart disease and diabetes. One culprit could be the additive that gives soda its caramel color, which upped the risk of metabolic syndrome in animal studies. Scientists also speculate that soda drinkers regularly expose their taste buds to natural or artificial sweeteners, conditioning themselves to prefer and crave sweeter foods, which may lead to weight gain, says Vasan S. Ramachandran, M.D., a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and the study's lead researcher. Better choices: Switch to tea if you need a caffeine hit. If it's fizz you're after, try sparkling water with a splash of juice. By controlling blood pressure and cholesterol levels, preventing diabetes, and not smoking, you can add 6 to 9 1/2 healthy years to your life. Sign 5: You Have Strong Legs 
Lower-body strength translates into good balance, flexibility, and endurance. As you get older, those attributes are key to reducing your risk of falls and injuries—particularly hip fractures, which often quickly lead to declining health. Up to 20 percent of hip-fracture patients die within one year because of complications from the trauma. "Having weak thigh muscles is the number-one predictor of frailty in old age," says Robert Butler, M.D., president of the International Longevity Center–USA in New York City. To strengthen them, target your quads with the "phantom chair" move, says Joan Price, author of The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book (Adams, 2007). Here's how: Stand with back against wall. Slowly walk feet out and slide back down until you're in a seated position, ensuring knees aren't beyond toes and lower back is pressed against wall. Hold until your thighs tell you, 'Enough!' Do this daily, increasing your hold by a few seconds each time. Sign 6: You Eat Purple Food
 Concord grapes, blueberries, red wine: They all get that deep, rich color from polyphenols—compounds that reduce heart disease risk and may also protect against Alzheimer's disease, according to the new research. Polyphenols help keep blood vessels and arteries flexible and healthy. "What's good for your coronary arteries is also good for your brain's blood vessels," says Robert Krikorian, Ph.D., director of the Cognitive Disorders Center at the University of Cincinnati. Preliminary animal studies suggest that adding dark grapes to your diet may improve brain function. What's more, in a recent human study, researchers found that eating one or more cups of blueberries every day may improve communication between brain cells, enhancing your memory. Sign 7: You Were a Healthy-Weight Teen  A study in the Journal of Pediatrics that followed 137 African Americans from birth to age 28 found that being overweight at age 14 increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes in adulthood. Adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to develop heart disease than those without the condition, according to the American Heart Association. Sign 8: You Don't Like Burgers
 A few palm-size servings (about 2 1/2 ounces) of beef, pork, or lamb now and then is no big deal, but eating more than 18 ounces of red meat per week ups your risk of colorectal cancer—the third most common type, according to a major report by the American Institute for Cancer Research. Colorectal cancer risk also rises by 42 percent with every 3 1/2-ounce serving of processed meat (such as hot dogs, bacon, and deli meats) eaten per day, the report determined. Experts aren't sure why red and processed meats are so harmful, but one of their suspects is the carcinogens that can form when meat is grilled, smoked, or cured—or when preservatives, such as nitrates, are added. "You can have an occasional hot dog at a baseball game, but just don't make it a habit," says Karen Collins, R.D., a nutrition advisor at AICR. And when you do grill red meat, marinate it first, keep pieces small (kebab-size), and flip them often—all of which can help prevent carcinogens from forming. If you're baking or roasting it, keep the oven temp under 400°F. Sign 9: You've Been a College Freshman
 A recent Harvard Medical School study found that people with more than 12 years of formal education (even if it's only one year of college) live 18 months longer than those with fewer years of schooling. Why? The more education you have, the less likely you are to smoke. In fact, only about 10 percent of adults with an undergraduate degree smoke, compared with 35 percent of those with a high school education or less, according to the CDC. Sign 10: You Really Like Your Friends …
 "Good interpersonal relationships act as a buffer against stress," says Micah Sadigh, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Cedar Crest College. Knowing you have people who support you keeps you healthy, mentally and physically: Chronic stress weakens the immune system and ages cells faster, ultimately shortening life span by 4 to 8 years, according to one study. Not just any person will do, however. "You need friends you can talk to without being judged or criticized," says Sadigh. Sign 11: … and They're Healthy
 If your closest friends gain weight, your chance of doing the same could increase by 57 percent, according to a study in the New England of Journal of Medicine. "To maintain a healthy lifestyle, it's important to associate with people who have similar goals," says Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., the study's lead researcher. Join a weight loss group, or train with a pal for a charity walk. Sign 12: You Don't Have a Housekeeper
 Just by vacuuming, mopping floors, or washing windows for a little more than an hour, the average person can burn about 285 calories, lowering risk of death by 30 percent, according to a study of 302 adults in their 70s and 80s. Sign13 : You're a Flourisher  About 17 percent of Americans are flourishers, says a study in American Psychologist. They have a positive outlook on life, a sense of purpose and community, and are healthier than "languishers"—about 10 percent of adults who don't feel good about themselves. Most of us fall somewhere in between. "We should strive to flourish, to find meaning in our lives," says Corey Keyes, Ph.D., a professor of sociology at Emory University. "In Sardinia and Okinawa, where people live the longest, hard work is important, but not more so than spending time with family, nurturing spirituality, and doing for others."
9/3/2008 Google Chrome EULA Claims Ownership of Everything You Create Using Chrome, From Emails to Blog Posts
While downloading and installing Google Chrome you might want to take a closer peek at the end user license agreement. Because according to it Google owns everything you publish and create while using Chrome. 8/20/2008 Free e-book: Writing Secure Code, Second Edition, by Michael Howard and David LeBlanc
7/23/2008 Top 10 Concepts That Every Software Engineer Should KnowTop 10 Concepts That Every Software Engineer Should KnowWritten by Alex Iskold
The future of software development is about good craftsmen. With infrastructure like Amazon Web Services and an abundance of basic libraries, it no longer takes a village to build a good piece of software. These days, a couple of engineers who know what they are doing can deliver complete systems. In this post, we discuss the top 10 concepts software engineers should know to achieve that. A successful software engineer knows and uses design patterns, actively refactors code, writes unit tests and religiously seeks simplicity. Beyond the basic methods, there are concepts that good software engineers know about. These transcend programming languages and projects - they are not design patterns, but rather broad areas that you need to be familiar with. The top 10 concepts are:
10. Relational Databases
At the core of the relational database is the concept of representing information in records. Each record is added to a table, which defines the type of information. The database offers a way to search the records using a query language, nowadays SQL. The database offers a way to correlate information from multiple tables. The technique of data normalization is about correct ways of partitioning the data among tables to minimize data redundancy and maximize the speed of retrieval. 9. Security
Authentication is about verifying user identity. A typical website prompts for a password. The authentication typically happens over SSL (secure socket layer), a way to transmit encrypted information over HTTP. Authorization is about permissions and is important in corporate systems, particularly those that define workflows. The recently developed OAuth protocol helps web services to enable users to open access to their private information. This is how Flickr permits access to individual photos or data sets. Another security area is network protection. This concerns operating systems, configuration and monitoring to thwart hackers. Not only network is vulnerable, any piece of software is. Firefox browser, marketed as the most secure, has to patch the code continuously. To write secure code for your system requires understanding specifics and potential problems. 8. Cloud Computing
Cloud computing grew out of parallel computing, a concept that many problems can be solved faster by running the computations in parallel. After parallel algorithms came grid computing, which ran parallel computations on idle desktops. One of the first examples was SETI@home project out of Berkley, which used spare CPU cycles to crunch data coming from space. Grid computing is widely adopted by financial companies, which run massive risk calculations. The concept of under-utilized resources, together with the rise of J2EE platform, gave rise to the precursor of cloud computing: application server virtualization. The idea was to run applications on demand and change what is available depending on the time of day and user activity. Today's most vivid example of cloud computing is Amazon Web Services, a package available via API. Amazon's offering includes a cloud service (EC2), a database for storing and serving large media files (S3), an indexing service (SimpleDB), and the Queue service (SQS). These first blocks already empower an unprecedented way of doing large-scale computing, and surely the best is yet to come. 7. Concurrency
Concurrency is about parallelism, but inside the application. Most modern languages have an in-built concept of concurrency; in Java, it's implemented using Threads. A classic concurrency example is the producer/consumer, where the producer generates data or tasks, and places it for worker threads to consume and execute. The complexity in concurrency programming stems from the fact Threads often needs to operate on the common data. Each Thread has its own sequence of execution, but accesses common data. One of the most sophisticated concurrency libraries has been developed by Doug Lea and is now part of core Java. 6. Caching
Caching comes with a cost. Only some subsets of information can be stored in memory. The most common data pruning strategy is to evict items that are least recently used (LRU). The prunning needs to be efficient, not to slow down the application. A lot of modern web applications, including Facebook, rely on a distributed caching system called Memcached, developed by Brad Firzpatrick when working on LiveJournal. The idea was to create a caching system that utilises spare memory capacity on the network. Today, there are Memcached libraries for many popular languages, including Java and PHP. 5. Hashing
Beyond the basic storage of data, hashes are also important in distributed systems. The so-called uniform hash is used to evenly allocate data among computers in a cloud database. A flavor of this technique is part of Google's indexing service; each URL is hashed to particular computer. Memcached similarly uses a hash function. Hash functions can be complex and sophisticated, but modern libraries have good defaults. The important thing is how hashes work and how to tune them for maximum performance benefit. 4. Algorithmic Complexity
Your code should (almost) never have multiple nested loops (a loop inside a loop inside a loop). Most of the code written today should use Hashtables, simple lists and singly nested loops. Due to abundance of excellent libraries, we are not as focused on efficiency these days. That's fine, as tuning can happen later on, after you get the design right. Elegant algorithms and performance is something you shouldn't ignore. Writing compact and readable code helps ensure your algorithms are clean and simple. 3. Layering
Lakos contended a good software follows the shape of a pyramid; i.e., there's a progressive increase in the cummulative complexity of each component, but not in the immediate complexity. Put differently, a good software system consists of small, reusable building blocks, each carrying its own responsibility. In a good system, no cyclic dependencies between components are present and the whole system is a stack of layers of functionality, forming a pyramid. Lakos's work was a precursor to many developments in software engineering, most notably Refactoring. The idea behind refactoring is continuously sculpting the software to ensure it'is structurally sound and flexible. Another major contribution was by Dr Robert Martin from Object Mentor, who wrote about dependecies and acyclic architectures Among tools that help engineers deal with system architecture are Structure 101 developed by Headway software, and SA4J developed by my former company, Information Laboratory, and now available from IBM. 2. Conventions and Templates
Naming conventions enable software automation. For example, Java Beans framework is based on a simple naming convention for getters and setters. And canonical URLs in del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/tag/software take the user to the page that has all items tagged software. Many social software utilise naming conventions in a similar way. For example, if your user name is johnsmith then likely your avatar is johnsmith.jpg and your rss feed is johnsmith.xml. Naming conventions are also used in testing, for example JUnit automatically recognizes all the methods in the class that start with prefix test. The templates are not C++ or Java language constructs. We're talking about template files that contain variables and then allow binding of objects, resolution, and rendering the result for the client. Cold Fusion was one of the first to popularize templates for web applications. Java followed with JSPs, and recently Apache developed handy general purpose templating for Java called Velocity. PHP can be used as its own templating engine because it supports eval function (be careful with security). For XML programming it is standard to use XSL language to do templates. From generation of HTML pages to sending standardized support emails, templates are an essential helper in any modern software system. 1. Interfaces
Among the many books, Agile Programming by Dr Robert Martin stands out because of focus on modeling correct interfaces. In modeling, there are ways you can iterate towards the right solution. Firstly, never add methods that might be useful in the future. Be minimalist, get away with as little as possible. Secondly, don't be afraid to recognize today that what you did yesterday wasn't right. Be willing to change things. Thirdly, be patient and enjoy the process. Ultimately you will arrive at a system that feels right. Until then, keep iterating and don't settle. ConclusionModern software engineering is sophisticated and powerful, with decades of experience, millions of lines of supporting code and unprecidented access to cloud computing. Today, just a couple of smart people can create software that previously required the efforts of dozens of people. But a good craftsman still needs to know what tools to use, when and why.
6/8/2008 Upcoming Webcasts (Aspiring Architects, .NET Framework 3.5)Aspiring Architect Series 2008 June 16th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Introduction to the aspiring architect Web Cast series June 17th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Service Bus – Beyond the hype June 18th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – TOGAF and Zachman, a real-world perspective June 19th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture (Web Cast in French) June 20th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Interoperability (Web Cast in French) June 23rd , 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Realizing dynamic systems June 24th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Web 2.0, beyond the hype June 25th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Architecting for the user experience June 26th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Conclusion and next steps .NET Framework 3.5: Create Connected Applications MSDN Webcast: ADO.NET Data Services Overview (Part 1 of 2) (Level 100) Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time MSDN Webcast: Beyond the Endpoints with Windows Communication Foundation with Juval Lowy (Level 100) Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 10:00 A.M.–11:30 A.M. Pacific Time MSDN Webcast: geekSpeak: Workflow Services in .NET 3.5 with Jon Flanders (Level 200) Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 12:00 P.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time MSDN Webcast: Calling Services from Silverlight 2.0 with Jon Flanders (Level 300) Monday, June 23, 2008, 9:00 A.M.–10:00 A.M. Pacific Time MSDN Webcast: ADO.NET Data Services Overview (Part 2 of 2) (Level 100) Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 10:00 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time MSDN Webcast: Windows Workflow Communication in Depth with Matt Milner (Level 400) Thursday, June 26, 2008, 9:00 A.M.–10:00 A.M. Pacific Time 4/27/2008 50 Ways to Help the Planet
1. CHANGE YOUR LIGHT
2. TURN OFF COMPUTERS AT NIGHT
3. DON'T RINSE
4. DO NOT PRE-HEAT THE OVEN
5. RECYCLE GLASS
6. DIAPER WITH A CONSCIENCE
7. HANG DRY
8. GO VEGETARIAN ONCE A WEEK
9. WASH IN COLD OR WARM
10. USE ONE LESS PAPER NAPKIN
11. USE BOTH SIDES OF PAPER
12. RECYCLE NEWSPAPER
13. WRAP CREATIVELY
14. RETHINK BOTTLED WATER
15. BAN BATHTIME!
16. BRUSH WITHOUT RUNNING
17. SHOWER WITH YOUR PARTNER
18. TAKE A SHORTER SHOWER
19. PLANT A TREE
20. USE YOUR CRUISE CONTROL
21. SECOND-HAND DOESN'T MEAN SECOND-BEST
22. BUY LOCAL
23. ADJUST YOUR THERMOSTAT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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