Out-of-the-box use of ATX chassis

Notice board

'Keeds' on railing

Two wise men on MS, Yahoo and Google

pkbehera: does yahoo use LCS now?
BJ: they seem to have married with "msn msgr" ...if you mean it is LCS...then yes
pkbehera: well MSN is LCS
BJ: I believe LCS is lot more than MSN messenger
BJ: messenger is a front end to LCS
pkbehera: perhaps they have opened up some web services like stuff on LCS for YM to talk to
BJ: IMHO lcs is a middleware + backend
BJ: perfect
pkbehera: right
BJ: btw web services are "default" mechanism for IPC in .NET
pkbehera: well yahoo tried best to enter enterprised and did not have much success, so LCS is one route of getting into enterprises for them
BJ: possible...
BJ: the main magnet for both MS and Yahoo is the following
BJ: 1. Large existing user base for yim
BJ: 2. large existing users for msn IM
BJ: take union of 1+2 ...and get even 10% to click on the ad links...a potential million $ mkt for them
BJ: and many orgs already using yim unofficially for their multi-site collaboration
BJ: now both yahoo + ms want to exploit that potential too
BJ: btw...did u notice unprovoked apperance of ads in latest YIM tool?
pkbehera: yes
pkbehera: thats irritating
BJ: yeah...call it "ad sense" in yim
pkbehera: and keeps shouting at me "u fool, swith to ggle talk"
pkbehera:
BJ: yeah...but all ur peers too need to move to ggle talk then...i see that happening very slowly
pkbehera: which much less lightweight, less fancy
BJ: these IMs are a sticky tool...my father and your father if they are used to yahoo...will not switch to ggle talk easily
pkbehera: thankfully that adsense is limited to the main ym window
BJ: next version will be those popping on and off as u type
pkbehera: yes
BJ: i have a feeling that ggle wants to come out with a whole suite of tools for "collaboration on the web" and go to big enterprises and reduce their bills on MS Office licenses ...
pkbehera: yeah thats their plan
pkbehera: ggle docs is already very impressive
pkbehera: there is few other such players too
BJ: and all these nuts and bolts like gmail, talk, picasa, calendar etc...are pre launch feelers to get the mind share of peple on the web
pkbehera: yes
BJ: yeah...ggle is acquiring small players in the arena ...
pkbehera: with gmail they introduced a whole new concept of conversations, rather than messages and folders
pkbehera: thats getting hugely popular
pkbehera: www.thinkfree.com, seen this?
pkbehera: and www.zoho.com
pkbehera: they give a little more than ggle docs as of now,
pkbehera: MS office has got serious competition
BJ: yeah...billy has already set his best drivers to steer them home with "windows live" adventure

Sight...

Saw a dumbbell formed lady just emerging out of a local gym sporting a T-Shirt proclaiming... "Misson Impossible" !

Wow - What a Ride!

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave
with the intention of arriving safely
in an attractive and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in broadways,

Haywards in one hand - Goldflake in the other,
body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming

Wow - What a RIDE !!!

Don't know who said this- but very well said indeed!

Post lunch chat

BJ: howdy
BH: good, u?
BJ: good
BJ: I have a wonderful weekend planned for you...wanna hear? ;;)
BH: ??
BJ: why don't u accompany us coming weeknd to G'pule? Shirin would love to see the ocean and the matter that occupies more than 3/4 of the globe...and u get a chance to drive to the country and a much needed vacation...sounds good? :D
BH: u guyes are going in bus
BH: i will be bored to drive alone
BJ: no...i am driving and planning my own acco/food etc...MTDC resort...probably i mite just join the fun there...:)
BJ: they are returning next day...i plan to spend the nite on saturday there itself and return on sunday :)
BH: ok.
BH: sounds great
BH: so u need a company car or company passenger?
BJ: nah..:-/
BJ: I'm driving my wgnR
BH: ok
BJ: u can drive ur matiz
BH: i then have to buy a car seat
BJ: hmm...good idea...u can actually buy 1 u need it for 2-3 yrs least to think
BH: ok, i will ask jaya and then confirm
BH: when are u doing the booking
BJ: don't 'ask' X-(
BJ: u have to 'sell' the idea :P
BJ: wednesday...Poushali can do the MTDC booking
BH: ok, i will sell, but it requires approval.. otherwise she would not let it happen
BJ: ok...the plan is :
BH: what is the journey plan?
BJ: 1. Book Konkani House at MTDC 700-800/- per day per family for twa nites (Friday and Sat)
BJ: 2. Leave on Friday morning arnd 6AM...reach there arnd lunch
BJ: 3. spend friday nite and saturday nite on the beach
BJ: 4. return on Sunday morning ...start after BF
BH: ok
BJ: On friday night and saturday morning...in between I will join the EIPL gang for Boyish fun :P
BJ: ok...check and update
BH: ok.. i will update tonite or tom morning
BH: is home loan @ 7.75% fixed rate from SBI sounds good
BH: is it good enough to swith from HDFC to SBI, (I already have hdfc approval and paid them 5k as processing fee)
BJ: may be...
BJ: i don't know how difficult it would be to deal with SBI...I have a S/B account with them at NCL branch and its a nightmare dealing with them...i just use it as a conduit for trfring money to my father :)
BH: this is some corporate deal with TIPL
BJ: i wud go for HDFC than SBI...if the diff in money is not by 50k at the end of loan tenure
BH: and they say that they would surve me in office
BJ: think of your years when u r not at TIPL :)
BH: :)
BJ: ur housing loan will follow u for 15yrs...?
BH: i may soon be out of TIPL
BJ: got a place to go? ;)
BH: a virtual resignation is already been sent
BH: :)
BJ: Ahh...now whats this VR?
BJ: and whats ur backup plan?
BH: its a threat, unless they do something about harassment in parking, i will resign
BH: i followd up with a reminder
BH: they said they will take it once my boss return from vacation (today)
BH: backup plan is to find a job in 1 month
BJ: hey negotiate a damage claim of 10k...and replace wheels :)
BJ: in US...technically u cud have got a claim under similar circumstances :)
BH: lets see what my boss has to says
BH: they ignored my first mail ( no reply)
BJ: u shud see at "what ur boss has to Offer" :D
BH: i sent a reminder saying that if this mail is ignored, i assume my service is no longer needed
BJ: ah great :-h
BJ: i meant =D>
BH: i can get a job in 1 month, i believe a better pay too.. 7 years exp in c++ does have some demand in market
BJ: oh sure...u do have a chance...let me know if u wanna try VSIL?
BJ: or EIPL :P
BH: it depends on my meeting with boss
BH: it will happen sometime this week
BH: he has not show up till now..suppose to join office today
BJ: in EIPL...they will hire u for c++ and most probably make u work on .NET :(
BJ: ok
BH: :))
BJ: b.t.w. i gladly continuing...since they are funding my .NET learning :)
BH: here too they hired me for c++, i have additional work in perl, unix shell script and core java
BH: c+= is only 10% of the job
BJ: yeah...thats the world...pick squares and fill them in circles :(
BJ: and that 10% may be just abt grep *** and replace with && :D
BH: :)    

MS Exchange sans Outlook...

Recently my employer's decision to move to MS Exchange for providing a collaborative platform in the enterprise sparked off exchange of opinions between my peers who had been using UNIX and similar systems, and Windows aficionados . One such topic that was hotly debated was how to circumvent the MS Outlook and still be able to use the MS Exchange Server (MSE).

Many a times, whatever be the reasons classical, traditional or political, UNIX 'bigots' resist to 'condescend' and use Outlook or similar integrated GUI clients (e.g. Web Client on IE) for MSE and instead devise ingenious ways to acheive connectivitity by using traditional UNIX scripts like Pine, Mutt, Elm, Fetchmail and so on. While, most of these work to provide simple SMTP, POP/IMAP access + Filter capabilities, they miss out to exploit MSE's rich collaborative features.

Though, personally I am not a big fan of M$, yet, I don't snub at anything and everything good in life, simply because it is from M$ or they are also used by dorks :-). MSE is not an email server only that most of us think (and believe) it is. Win2k, Kerberos, Active Directory, Exchange and Outlook forms a potent collaborative platform for an enterprise. Just look at its suite of offerings: Calendar, Tasks, Follow-up reminders, Delegation, Public Folders, Rich Text support, Enterprise Directory and so on (some of them may have ideated from products like Novell GroupWise or Lotus Domino). One good reason to stay close to Outlook/WebMail via IE is that, we get to use all these feature which, I think, any combination of Pine/Fetchmail/Elm et al can't do? However, MSE has earned a bad reputation for proliferation of viruses and worms that choke networks. But, most of the times, it is proliferated due to gullible outlook users and ignorant System Administrators, a fact, cleverly exploited by mischief mongers- also called hackers. With proper security planning, user awareness and hardening of Windows Systems, I feel, such a menace can be reduced to a great extent.

We the Developers, have our own preferences towards tools, platforms, configurations and almost everything, held and cultivated over the years, either by choice or by compulsion (lack of alternatives, too good to detach etc.). We make our own 'indirections' for every problem we face in our daily setup and cling on to them religiously...all these ideas work for individual and I am sure some of these would be hard to promote or override lest it leads to acrimonious exchange and thrusting of ideas. Nevertheless, for a large setup like enterprise, deciding and using a collaborative tool is a part of wider corporate 'strategy' and most often taken with a democratic or populistic view and as far as I know, usability of a Outlook + Exchange combination will defeat any *IX based collaborative tools available in the market today. At least, think from the perspective that such tools are used by people right from marketing directors to front office executives and they need to fix an appointment sometimes, with developers too! Also, think from the perspective how easily and cheaply you will find trained staffs to sustain such a platform- it all affect a TCO.

Further refs:
What Is Exchange Server? http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/whatis.mspx

Microsoft Exchange Server resource site http://www.msexchange.org/

MS Exchange Blog http://hellomate.typepad.com/exchange/