Posts for October, 2008

Oct 30, 2008

Google Too Offers OpenID, But With A Twist

Google too steps towards supporting OpenID now. However, nowadays supporting OpenID has started to take different meanings. Most of the new supporters are providing OpenID, none of them accepting it. [Continue]

Oct 29, 2008

Windows Live Will Soon Work As Your OpenID

You will soon have your Windows Live ID work as an OpenID. Though many have supported OpenID, it is commendable that the Windows Live team has announced the commitment and has invited feedback. As a provider, this is one of the best things you can do, involve the user in making the system more usable. [Continue]

Oct 27, 2008

Arguments For Python’s self

Bruce Eckel has perfectly articulated the rant against Python’s self parameter. The response to arguments about self in Python is “explicit is better than implicit.” In a discussion at Pycon Brazil, I realized that we do need self in the body of a method, but being forced to place it in the argument list is redundant. I’m not actually expecting it to change, but I want to try to establish that this isn’t a dumb argument. [Continue]

Oct 24, 2008

A Little More Than Language Skills

What do you look for when you hire a PHP programmer? Or a Java developer? I would like to ask this question to someone putting out an ad for one. [Continue]

Oct 23, 2008

Updated Feed URL and Feed Ads

The all-articles feed for this blog has been updated. My FeedBurner feed has been migrated to the Google’s own version and hence this feed has a new name now - http://feedproxy.google.com/ifacethoughts/entries. I am going to experiment with adsense for feeds. [Continue]

Oct 22, 2008

Android Open Sourced

Google has finally open sourced Android. There was some disappointment when it was announced with opening it up. Hopefully this will lead to some crazy ideas from the followers, and even the rivals. [Continue]

Oct 21, 2008

Use HSS To Use Variables In CSS

Nicolas Cannasse has gone ahead and added variables to CSS. There have been efforts earlier to improve CSS, like CleverCSS and Sass. However, by adding variables Nicolas has perhaps lightened the argument of non-semantic CSS names in CSS frameworks. [Continue]

Oct 20, 2008

Think Solution, Not Software Solutions

The more I think about ROI of software, the more I believe that software is being given undue importance. It sure is an important piece of the puzzle, but it should not overshadow other pieces like process, people, and more importantly, it should not overshadow the solution itself. We end up talking about the software so much that there is no bandwidth and budget left to make use of it properly. [Continue]

Oct 16, 2008

Linux Education Is The Key To Popularity

Ryan Paul reports that Linux notebooks have not been a hit with the consumer world. They have a higher return rate than the Windows counterparts. And the reasons cited hover around hardware compatibility and usability problems. [Continue]

Oct 15, 2008

Dealing With Boredom At Work

One of my juniors, working as a software programmer, recently asked me a way to make his work interesting. He was working on 5th or 6th project with the same tools, with similar needs and wanted to escape the monotone. Sometimes he just waited for the management to finalize the deal, doing nothing more than checking his/her emails. [Continue]