Go MacBookPro..

I had been thinking for a while to choose between Macbook and macbookPro. It was really a bit Agonizing choice to make. But i made my choice to Go Pro.

Here are my compelling reasons:

• The Screen real estate is sooo much important. and ofcourse it does feel damn good. 17″ would be bit bigger for normal usage i felt somehow.
• The Graphics card performance. Its awesome. I havent played any games yet though.
• As someone said, computers become obsolete once you get the receipt. So its better to get the better one
• The keyboard does look great with backlit LED. I didnt care too much about this before i bought. But it will grow on you quickly.

ChangeThis..

I just bumped into  and i am so glad i did.

So What is the deal? I browsed around few aweseome manifestos and i checked out whos behind and read their FAQ. 

I was wondering how do i introduce some kick-ass concept like ChangeThis and realized i cant do better than their self introduction!! :p

Are you an optimist?

Sometimes it seems as though our disagreements—over everything from politics to business to the designated hitter rule—are more serious and more divisive than ever before.

People are making emotional, knee-jerk decisions, then standing by them, sometimes fighting to the death to defend their position.

And yet, we’re optimists.

People call the team at Change This optimists because we don’t believe it has to be this way. We don’t believe humans evolved to be so bad at making decisions, so poor at changing our minds, so violent in arguing our point of view. We’re well aware of how split our country and our world have become, but we don’t think the current state of affairs is built into our very nature.

The problem lies in the media.

In the old days, we had the time and inclination to consider the implications of a decision. Everyone wasn’t in quite so much of a hurry. At the same time, most conversations (and most arguments) were local ones, conducted between people who knew each other.

Today, it’s very different. Television demands a sound bite. A one hundred word letter to the editor is a long one. Radio has become a jingoistic wasteland, a series of thoughtless mantras, repeated over and over and designed to fit into a typical commute.

To find out more, please download our ChangeThis manifesto.

Bluetooth 3.0 and Ricky Bobby..

So Bluetooth 3.0 is getting out today!

If you read further, it only adds a nice trick to re-use WiFi for speedier transfer while pairing is managed by Bluetooth.

Interesting that the underlying assumption is the devices WILL have both Bluetooth AND WiFi. Ofcourse there are only few exceptions at the moment.

I liked the comment from Mike Foley, Bluetooth SIG.

“Like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, this latest version was ‘born to go fast,’ said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. ”Utilizing the 802.11 radio was a natural choice as it provides efficiencies for both our members and consumers – members get more function out of the two radios they are already including in devices, and consumers with Bluetooth 3.0 + HS products will get faster exchange of information without changing how they connect. We are excited to expand the possibilities of the PAN.”

 

Ricky Boobby? Here is my 2 cents to add to support Mike’s statement!!

 

Is Twitter out in your street?

Is Merging a nightmare for you?

I have been following up the hype with Git and DVCS lately.  Well.. to be honest, i didn’t know that DVCS existed until i heard of Git. I always thought Centralized version control  is the only one choice we all had. (Oh..thats what the name of the category which CVS, Subversion belongs??!!!!)

Subversion is the super-simple configuration management tool i ever worked with. Even though i am starting to appreciate clearcase, i am very happy to keep goodold subversion for my pet projects.

I have seen developers who dread committing their code. Why? Because, they keep working on their tiny little bug too long and the LATEST code base is already couple of versions ahead. So when they try to commit, it fails asking them to merge before.  And ofcourse if you lucky, the trivial merge is very well managed by the tool itself.  Non-trivial merges needs to be  done manually with your whole of consciousness. This is where many have problems i think.  I know this shouldnt be too hard if you know your code or atleast the few lines that you added/modified in your fix. But if some other fix involves modifying exact same region of your code, you have to sit with the other developer to agree to merge (or even redo sometimes) so that both fixes are in. For me, this already sets the bar up in your understanding and hence the maturity.

When i was reading through DVCS and DAGs, i loved the way Eric takes you along the route and to the situation you end up in

This is lovely. This means each member your team already has a better understanding of SCM and which ones (node) they work with. They have the control when to take others changes and when to merge with others.

In Subversion also you can have this kind of situation, where you create a branch for every fix you work with. And you merge to the main branch when you are ready (you of course have to merge if some others have merged their branches into the main branch before you).

But on a node level? It is cool..

I think DVCS is the natural way to progress in SCM.  So if you use Subversion and think your team members are adults enough to resolve conflicts, you can promote them by switching to DVCS.

I am sure they would love it for the benefits..

Ofcourse, Its a matter of taste and you can choose how you like.

As Eric says,

1. Those who handle this problem in ways that I like.
2. Those who handle this problem in ways that I do not like.

And, My opinion,

1. Those who thinks resolving conflicts is a nightmare
2. Those who loves resolving the conflicts just as they fix a nasty bug

What do you think?

Moneymaking from Twitter?

I dont really get twitter (or atleast yet). First i didnt think its so interesting, and to support that i heard joel’s reference in the Stack Overflow podcast

So i didn’t pay much attention until i realize Guy Kawasaki’s multiple posts.

Read on more at:

• How to Use Twitter as a Twool
• Looking for Mr. Goodtweet: How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter

So… Are you into twitter?

Nothing is original.. So is this post ;)

Tasks are finally IN Gmail!!

I was wondering how Google was ignoring tasks feature for a long time.  Ofcourse, it gave a very good chance for RTM! It provides a nice integration with google calendar as well.  But google finally introduces Task (atleast as a Lab feature for now..)

I am quite happy to use this.  Ofcourse, it has the Due date for every task!!

Though i had a hard time finding it after enabling from Settings->Labs.

Make sure you read the text fully so that you dont miss it like me!

Tasks
Keep track of what you need to do with a lightweight task list right inside of Gmail. Just click and type to add new tasks, convert emails into tasks, and (most satisfyingly) check them off as you’re done. Once you turn on this Labs feature, look for the Tasks link to the left of your inbox under Contacts.

Google gears on WordPress.. NO CHROME..

I wanted to enable Gears for WordPress on one of my machines. The Turbo screen showed like

So, I thought i have gears installed in my machine.  But i never could press the button Enable Gears. Nothing ever happens. I suspected, maybe gears is not installed. so tried to install. Visiting gears.google.com in Chrome never showed the Install Gears option!  Somehow it is convinced that gears IS installed.  I thought i’ll do the usual trick of Uninstalling/Re-installing any windows application hoping to resolve issue without breaking the head. Guess what?  I couldnt find Gears in “Add/Remove Programs”.  Then i am convinced that maybe Gears is NOT insalled..  Now its time for me to realize that i am doing all this in Google Chrome (being google fanatic, thats not surprising!)

Just out of curiosity, launched the dear old Firefox after long time and directed to gears.google.com!

Voila, there it is the Big Blue Button to “Install Gears”.  I am clicking that button, and installation progressing..

OK. Installation is completed. Time to restart “all browser windows”. Will do and see if wordpress lets me it offline.

So whats the problem??? Why does Google Chrome thinks gears is installed when it is actually not??

Any ideas?

EDIT: Apparently, chrome has some issues it seems. Even after installing gears, the button does not show any effect on pressed. Trying on Firefox immediately pops up a dialog asking if i am sure to enable gears.  So i guess i have to go back to firefox if i want to use gears for wordpress! What a shame!!

Micro blogging?

While there are few compelling suggestions to have your Blog, this one struck me first and kept me thinking for a while.

Anyway, apart from full length blog posts (which might not be for everyone), for the lazy ones who still want to be in the blogosphere without spending too much efforts on writing, apparently there are too many options to blog (or Microblog as they call..)

Here’s what i came across so far.

• Tumblr and my attempt at (http://whose.tumblr.com/)
• Twitter (or is it macro blogging now?) and my dull & almost inaudible tweets are here
• Posterous Post through email and auto-forward to facebook and twitter(for super lazy twitters?) My preposterous trial is at http://arunprakash.posterous.com/

I will try and update this list as i get lost in more of these.. If you know and recommend any, do comment.