On my Android phone, finally!

I have been waiting for BSNL 3G for over three months now, but unfortunately BSNL just doesn’t seem to care! Well, it’s amazing that BSNL has decided to ignore both the tech savvy cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore so far! I definitely see something fishy over here.

I would have still continued to wait for them to roll out their 3G services, but over the last weekend I got my CDMA phone’s circuits fried in salty sea water! So, I was left without any mobile connection! Now, I didn’t want to buy another CDMA phone, especially since I had my Android phone waiting for me! So, well, that’s when I decided, enough is enough! I would rather take a reliable GPRS connection and start using my phone rather than wait endlessly for BSNL’s 3G service!

From all the options available, AirTel’s GPRS connection seemed to be the most reliable. So, that’s that then! Just got my phone activated with GPRS from AirTel! However, the only down side is that I have a new number now, and I need to make sure everyone gets to know about it.

1-0-8

Not so long ago I wrote about the lack of respect for value of life in our country. Well, things don’t change overnight. However, things seem to be improving, at least to an extent. 1-0-8 (an emergency number for any distress situation in some specific states in India starting with Andhra Pradesh) has played a major role in this regard! For instance, before 1-0-8 was introduced I would have never had the guts to report an accident, I wouldn’t want to get into a mess with the police and all that!! But with 1-0-8, you can be assured that once you report a case, the emergency team only follows up with you until they get to the victim, and after that they just won’t bother you. Their focus is only on saving a life!

Personally, I called 1-0-8 a couple of times to report a couple of accidents on Necklace Road, and the way both these calls were handled was really good! This is what happens generally – you call 108, they quickly take down the details (remember that 108 is not specific to your city, and you might need to be a bit more elaborate), the operator messages the nearest ambulance and let’s you know about it, within minutes one of the paramedics in the ambulance gets in touch with you for more specific directions and tips until they get to the spot, and once they reach the spot they take over the case and make sure that the patient gets all the needed medical attention!

1-0-8, which intends to serve us on the lines of 9-1-1 in the US, is the brainchild of Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam, and was backed by late Y.S.R. Reddy. Though both of them might have been neck deep in all kinds of controversies, this is one great deed that we should always remember both of them for!

But, do remember, never hesitate to call 1-0-8 when needed! Your call could make a difference between life and death for certain victims. Further, make sure you respect those ambulances on the roads – make way for them!

Input tags of type ‘image’ & forms

Someone randomly complained to me that an input tag of type ‘image’ was acting like a submit button on the form. We spent around 10 minutes doing various things to check why it was happening, and after making sure that there was nothing wrong with the code, I finally decided to crosscheck on the web, and what we found was slightly embarrassing – “input tags of type image ARE supposed to have a form submit action by default”. Why else would you use an ‘input’ tag for an image!! Ooops! It’s amazing how certain small and trivial things like these can be overlooked by us when we start debugging an issue randomly!

Android Dev Phone is simply superb!!

I finally got myself a smart phone, the Android Dev Phone 1 (basically the HTC Dream) and I just can’t wait for BSNL to launch their 3G services in Hyderabad. I have been using it at home connected to the home network, and so far it feels great! It might not be as sleek as an iPhone, but it feels a lot more ergonomic. The camera takes good pictures, and the video quality is decent too. GPS works just fine too!

Pros

• Physical keyboard – I just love it, so much more practical than the on-screen keyboard!
• Android interface – It’s perfect, I like the way they made space for widgets!
• Openness – It’s so open, you could directly download media files from any website and use them as ring tones, wallpapers and do a lot more! So much more closer to a desktop
• Overall usability – It’s more usable than an iPhone (no kidding, serious, iPhone suddenly feels so handicapped in comparison)

Cons

• Slow – It does not come with a powerful processor, and is definitely a bit slow at times.
• Restriction on buying apps – The developer version cannot be used to buy apps, but that really isn’t a huge issue.

Well, this is not a complete review, but this is just to endorse the fact that Android rocks! I will keep writing about it, and hope to write some apps for it too, when I get some free time.

Reviews can be positive too!

Have you ever tried checking for reviews while searching for a product or service? I do it all the time, and generally do it more often for electronics and consumer durables. One thing  that I have realized recently is that it is really difficult to buy an India-centric product/service based on these reviews. The reason seems to be pretty simple, I asked myself if I ever wrote a positive review myself, and if I know enough Indian friends around me who take their time to thank someone for a good product. Unfortunately, most of us in India, are always there to caution people on not buying a product, but we hardly ever go out there and tell people that something is good – yes, may be by word of mouth we do, but for some strange reason, we don’t like to write positive reviews. I have tried to check reviews for several products/services on Indian sites, and they hardly have anything positive about them, so I can weed out certain bad ones, but it’s difficult to pick the good ones. People express themselves only when they are frustrated about a product! There are a few who do write in their appreciation, but that’s very rare! Check out the reviews on MouthShut (where you can review Indian products/services) and compare them to what you see on American websites like  Amazon or Yelp, and you will know what I mean.

Well, I believe this needs to change, so I will try my best to write a positive review when I really like something, and so should you!

A couple of presentations on Ajax

I thought of sharing a couple of my technical presentations here after a friend complained that I hardly write anything technical on this blog. So, here are a couple of links :

An introduction to basics in JavaScript - This is an interactive presentation where you can modify and execute the sample code provided along with each topic.

Ajax patterns and optmization techniques – This is a plain vanilla presentation on certain simple JavaScript optimization techniques, a few words on changes to client-server integration and finally a couple of slides on choosing the right framework.

6 years officially, 8 unofficially!

That’s how long I have been around working on software! From the days of coding to IE standards and making RAD apps on Visual Basic, through the days of Java and Web Objects, including a small stint in the magical world of C, and now in the era of web application dominance, things have come a long way, peppered with lots of other interesting technologies that I have come across every now and then. People often ask me if I have a plan for the future, and that’s when I immediately look back, to wonder if I could have ever planned anything at all to be where I am today, as a programmer. All I know is that I want to continue to churn out code that keeps me motivated, for a long time to come!

Thanks a ton to everyone out there who helped me, in some way or the other, at some point or the other – knowingly or unknowingly, noticed or unnoticed, acknowledged or unacknowledged! Even that one word of encouragement, or just that one small question, or even the criticism that I deserved – thanks a lot for all of it, every bit of it!

Are we in for a surprise?

On the 16th of May, when the voting machines are pulled out, and the votes tallied, we might see something that might surprise everyone, especially those who thought we had a triangular fight in Andhra Pradesh! Actually, we had a bit more than that – the fourth alternative!

Interestingly, for some people, especially for the educated (middle class), who had enough exposure to campaign literature and tons of YouTube campaign videos from the fourth alternative, things became a lot more simpler – the elections suddenly turned black & white, what looked like a three dimensional mess, turned into a two dimensional choice between good and bad! If you haven’t guessed yet, the fourth alternative is the newly formed Lok Satta party. By the way, talking of YouTube videos, I got to watch this interesting video shot at San Francisco’s Gadar Memorial, where Lok Satta supporters gathered to declare the second freedom movement (Gadar Memorial is known to be the heaquarters of a party founded in 1913 to fight for Indian independence).

LokSatta never got much attention from the Indian media, but that could be because they were so boring straight! You see, the Indian media needs some masala – you need to say something stupid once in a while, that’s when you are considered to be cool enough for a prime time slot! Like Varun did .

But following the elections from out here in Fremont, I discovered that the cyber space is flooded with Lok Satta supporters. Yes, there are others too, but it’s dominated by Lok Satta, and that just peaked up in the last few weeks. Most of the people I know, except a few, told me they voted for Lok Satta during the first phase. A lot of traditional followers of the other big parties claimed they voted for Lok Satta too.

People are calling it a ‘Silent Revolution’. Well, we will know how big a revolution this really is on the 16th of May, but to think about it, it’s interesting – for the first time the urban middle class citizens came out in big numbers and voted like never before!

There were these other bloggers talking about this too – one of them mentioned about how a few labourers asked a student if he voted for Lok Satta on seeing the mark on his finger – they were so sure all the educated people voted for Lok Satta in Hyderabad, though they themselves were all set to vote for another populist party. Yet another talked about a magazine vendor telling a buyer that he would vote for Lok Satta. So, there seems to be a good deal of awareness, but we will only know three weeks down the line if all these votes for Lok Satta will be enough for them to make a mark.

I definitely have this feeling that Lok Satta may get enough seats to get noticed. Let’s wait and watch!

In Fremont Again – Missing Elections ‘09

Out of the blue, I am here in Fremont again. I was in fact planning to get some much needed rest over the Ugadi long weekend at Hyderabad, but well, that wasn’t to be. So I have had a couple more of those busy weeks since then. It’s been hectic for the last several weeks now.

Well, a quick note about the journey – I flew British Airways this time, which was fine, but nothing much compared to Jet Airways and Singapore Airlines. The only thing I hate about Jet Airways on the other hand is the Mumbai stop-over.

So, being in Fremont, unfortunately I will be missing the election day at Hyderabad, which is on April 16th. Well, if you are lucky enough to be in a position to vote, please do vote! And don’t vote just for the sake of voting. Make sure that you understand the Indian electoral process – weigh your options carefully – examine the candidates carefully, while you might still have to think about their parties and ideologies! Talk to people, gather as much information as you can, but validate all that info, it’ll help. Anyway, though I am going to miss out, I have already made my decision! Hope you are ready too!

Just a small note though – Please don’t get sold to people who talk a lot or who promise a bit too much . Remember that it’s all your tax money! They have no other magic wand with them. So, I don’t want people to laze around television sets with my tax money, nor do I expect people to get  ‘married’ using my tax money! Those are the craziest promises I ever heard! Well, I wouldn’t however mind if my tax money comes back to benefit everyone of us in general – like something that would enable producing more food, and ultimately cheaper food, something that’ll create better infrastructure right from the smallest of towns, and something to improve our healthcare system too! Think about it! Well, in the end it’s upto you, but I see two choices – to either wave a hand or blow a whistle!

Electoral Process : Do we need a change?

I have always felt that we, the citizens of the ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic of India’ don’t understand the very essence of our democracy – the electoral process! Our electoral process allows us to choose parliamentary and legislative representatives, and those representatives are supposed to choose our prime minister and chief minister respectively. Term after term, that’s what we are doing, electing representatives, well at least according to the process.

At the outset everything seems to be fine, but the problem is that in most cases we don’t intend to caste our vote to select our legislative or parliamentary representative, and instead vote for a representative in the process of choosing a chief minister or a prime minister. Now, that definitely does not do justice to the intent behind our electoral process. We end up choosing representatives without even knowing them, without even trying to learn about them, just because we believe in their party or in their prime ministerial or chief ministerial candidate.

At the same time, however, there is always a risk of loosing out on choosing a good leadership for the country or state if we don’t blindly vote for their candidates as our representatives.  For instance you might choose a good candidate as your representative, and in the process make your favourite candidate for the premier post, a bit less powerful.

This makes me feel that the parliamentary system of democracy is not perfect! We need the right to pick a chief minister and prime minister too! But that will only come at a huge cost, and with lots of rules and regulations in place, while I completely agree that it might seem too radical. It’s obviously tough to change the system to adapt to new procedures. However, here are some rules I’d recommend to support such a system -

• The candidate should be an existing member of parliament or assembly to contest for the prime ministerial or chief ministerial post respectively.
• In addition to that, the president should be able to nominate a maximum of two candidates who are not already public representatives.
• Votes are still counted at the constituency level. So in the end it’s about how many constituencies have voted for a candidate.
• Now the tough part is to choose the council of ministers, especially if the supporters of the premier are not having a majority. We don’t want this to go the presidential democracy way! So here’s the catch, the number of representatives supporting a candidate will also count equally along with the number of constituencies that have voted for him. This will ensure that the importance of choosing the right candidates as contestants for representing a constituency remains intact, and also ensures that the premier’s support group does not get reduced to a minority.

Well, just a few crazy thoughts! But I believe this might work out better than our existing system.