Scribblings

Monday, January 23, 2006

SOAP vs REST

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Open-source Vs closed-source

Bugs are common in all softwares be it open source or closed source, but how fast it is discovered and fixed really matters.
If you discover a bug in some software you use, it's
better not to complain privately to the vendor. Scream loudly about it
in every Web forum you can access because

Last year, Microsoft issued about 55 critical
patches for Windows XP. According to the Washington Post, it reacts
very significantly quicker on public complaints. On average, MS took
134 days to patch privately-reported vulnerabilities whereas it
responded inside 46 days for publicly-reported bugs.

Oracle
(which works off open-source platforms) issued over 80 patches in 2005.
That suggests that, even if open-source has more bugs, those bugs are
also addressed efficiently
. Apple has taken much more time than either
Oracle or MS in addressing known issues in the QuickTime player.

MS took just 10 days to patch a very serious flaw in
the Windows Meta File (WMF) that was flagged in late December. That's
commendably quick by corporate standards. But it's glacially slow in
the context of the Web. By the time the official MS patch arrived,
independent security consultants had written "hot-fixes"; the crackers
had written new malware and antivirus vendors had updated signatures to
deal with new malware.

The amazing thing is that WMF flaw has been there
for at least five years. It's embedded in every MS operating system
since Win2000. Several other flaws and vulnerabilities in WMF have been
picked up earlier. Steve Gibson (writer of the popular SpinRite and
Shields up! utilities) suggested that it was a backdoor written into
the system by MS.

Read full article here...



Thursday, January 19, 2006

A Presentation on SOAP

Its superb.
Watch it here

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Kalam's 10-point vision for a competitive India

Inaugurating the
Confederation of Indian Industry's Partnership Summit 2006 in Kolkata
on Tuesday, President APJ Abdul Kalam emphasised the need for
'spiritual connectivity' in the 'dynamics of leadership.'

The
President said that the country's primary challenge was to uplift the
260 million poor in India and remove poverty by 2020. He said that this
could be done through a network of connectivities encompassing a
knowledge grid, a healthcare grid, e-governance grid and the knowledge
grid.

He said the focus should be on integrating the entire country economically as it transforms itself into a knowledge society.

Read Full Article here


Nice One !

Year 2005

He and She are engaged. Both are working in Bangalore, while their parents are at Chennai. They are going by the same train to Chennai. Incidentally, the first time they are traveling together

Time 10:00 PM

She: Ivlo seekram station vandaachu. Naan usual aa 10.45 train kku, 10.30 kku dhaan varuven!

He: Naan direct aa cantonment la dhaan eruven

She: Hi hi hi. .

He: Seri adha vidu. Water bottle vaangindu varen

She: Seri

He comes back in 2 minutes, catching his breath

She: Yaen ippadi odi vare? Porumaya varalaam la?

He: Illai ma. Nee thaniya irukke illa. Adhaan

She: Ayye. Idhaan first time naan yaar koodayavadhu poren. Usually naan thaniya dhaan varuven

He: Hmmmm

She: Seri train la yeralaam vaa

They get into the train

She: Side upper, side lower aa book panne?

He: Aaamam. So that we can talk for sometime. Matha berth la yerina udane ellarum thoongiduvaanga

She: Adhuvum seri dhaan

Train starts

She: Adutha varusham, idhe neram we will be going to Chennai for our first pongal after marriage

He holds She's hand tightly, and gives her one Cadburys temptation chocolate

She: So sweet.

She splits the chocolate into smaller bits, and feeds him the first bit

He: You know what? Naan nenachi kooda paakale. That I will fall head over heels for someone.

She: Same here da

By this time, almost all passengers are asleep. And someone tells him to talk slowly since he is too loud

He: vaa. Door kitta polaam

He and she are at the door. He opens the door, and they sit at the steps

She: Yappa. Kulurarudhu.

He puts his hand over her shoulder. After some sweet nothings for some 1 hr, they get in and sleep(Ofcourse at their respective berths)

Year 2006.

He and She are married for 9 months by now

He and she get into the train.

She: Endha berth?

He: Rendume upper berth. No disturbance

She: Hmmmm

He: Seri. Thanni bottle kodu

She: Station la vaangikalaam nu kelambachaye sonnen la

He: Munnadiye solla vendiyadhu dhaane! Ippo p! aar train kelamba innum 5 nimisham dhaan irukku

She: masa masa nnu pesinda irundha andha 5 nimisham kooda irukaadhu

He: cha!

He runs and gets the water bottle, just when the train starts

She yawns and says

She: Seri. Naan thoonga poren.

He: Ok

After the TTR checks the tickets, he also gets into his berth and tries to sleep. He is not able to sleep after a while, due to some conversation happening below.

He turns towards the couple in the side-upper and side-lower berth

He: Excuse me. If you don't mind, konjam medhuva pesareengaLa. We all are sleeping here!

The side-upper side lower couple walk towards the door

Its me !


This is me !

Saturday, January 14, 2006

The What, Why and When of Free Software in India


Free software is not yet as media-visible as its breakaway sibling open source. Consider GNU/Linux, for example, which you hear about much less often than you do Linux. Quietly, however, and away from the glare of publicity, a small group of committed techies in India is using its skills to bring more attention to free software.

Some of the Free Software Foundation India's (FSF-India) accomplishments include helping to fight patent threats in the country and promoting the use of free software in schools, government and other cultural institutions. In mid-2005, FSF-India put together an ambitious four-nation meeting in Kerala, India, which featured representatives from Venezuela, Brazil, Italy and India.

Some of the FSF-India techies have achieved amazing feats, spurred on not only by their skills but also by the underlying ideology of free software. For them, free software isn't only about producing good quality technology. It's also about sharing and ethics, as the group explains on its Web site...
Read Full Article here.....