Thursday, May 31, 2007

Some good blogs ...


Some good blogs found on the net:

  1. Scott Adams Blog: http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/
  2. Dave Barry Blog: www.davebarry.com


Below are popular blogs by people of Indian origin:
    1. Great Bong's Blog (this is the best known blog by a person of Indian origin): www.greatbong.net
    2. Blog of any IIM Calcutta Alumnus (humor blog): www.mydayzwithmyself.blogspot.com
    3. Blog of a female NRI software professional (humor blog): www.meghalomania.com
Brilliant piece of writing. Some strong language, but very well written.

Long, but definitely worth reading.





Link: Inside the Monkeysphere

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Developer cheat sheets

Lots of languages, commands, etc.



Link:Our Favorite Cheat Sheets - a definition from Whatis.com

Windows: Repairing and re-registering the WMI

If every you get any error related to WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation), then this might help.



Especially the

  • net stop winmgmt
  • Rename Repository
  • net start winmgmt
worked for me.



Link: Repairing and re-registering the WMI

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Developer Cheat Sheet Compilation

Lots of cheat sheets for developers. Enjoy !!



Link: Bookmark Bliss: The Developer Cheat Sheet Compilation by Fuzzy Future

10 Eclipse Navigation Shortcuts Every Java Programmer Should Know

SNIPPET:

Man, I’m such an impatient guy. I cringe whenever I see somebody
squint and frown, looking for a JSP file in Eclipse by browsing
painfully through the gazillion JSPs in multiple folders in the Package
Explorer. I squirm whenever I see somebody looking for a Java class by
clicking through packages, one by one, backtracking if it’s the wrong
package, and so on, until he sees the correct Java class.


I mean, any resource in the workspace is literally seconds away. Ditto to classes (and interfaces, and members, and so on).



END SNIPPET



Link: 10 Eclipse Navigation Shortcuts Every Java Programmer Should Know

Monday, May 21, 2007

House Search at Pune - A big joke

*** Author unknown ***. This piece is about Pune, India.



I work in a Small IT firm at Pune. I have been looking for a house at Wanawadi area for last six months. I have visited several new Constructions as well as contacted various dealers.

i have had discussions with agents, who quoted Rs 45 lakhs on PHONE FOR A 3bhk and which went up to 55 lakhs the moment he come to know that I work in an IT Company.



I finalised a Dupleix for 30 lakh only to see the owner jack its price to 40 lakhs because some agent in his society told him that he is selling him cheap and he should sell at 40 lakhs. Till now the flat is unsold and i am now quoting 25 lakhs for it.





I have visited new constructions and they keep on hiking prices by 200 every week till last month. Its a another fact that most of the units are not yet sold.



One Builder in Lullanagar keeps on increasing his flat rate by 8 lakhs every four months with atleast 30 flats not yet booked. He has completed his construction four year back. This alone shows the type of demand.





In one society the rate has gone from 1800 to 3100 in one year and with the fact that only 50% of the flat has been sold and most of them at below 2100.

So what make them think that they are worth 3100 per sq feet or 60 lakhs for a 3 BHK when the going rate was half a year back.





The common answer is - IT is coming. They have very high salary and low mental aptitude and can easily be fooled into paying that rate.

There is an another angle to it. It is the agent lobby. They have now started to work on anything beyond X is mine policy.Talk to any agent and you find that They have flats at baner worth 1 crore and if you dont buy it in a day it will go. If you happen to meet the same agent six months back, he had said the same thing abouth that flat at Baner, but at 25 lakhs.





Suddenly Baner, Kharadi has become as expensive as the heart of Pune.

Its a another fact that it still resembles a Village and if you have not got your own car, you will be skimmed big time by any auto that you find after waiting for one hour.





House search is a big joke. I have simply laughed at whenever any agents tell me that if I dont take a decision in another Ten minutes,someone else will buy the flat. Trust me, no one is going to buy that. Ask your wife to call that same gentleman again after 2 months and he will still be selling you at the same time.



I have the following suggestion for any flat hunters-



1. Tell them beforehand that you are from IT and listen to whatever price they quote.

2. Go and see the flat.

3. Meet the owner.

4. Quote him and not the agent around 10-15 lakh lower than its price.

5. Come out.



Trust me, if he really wants to sell he will follow you after a month.

Till the time you can live on rent. At the maximum a 2 BHK will cost you 10000. Please remember that if you buy anything for the rate they quote and if you need to shift to Bangalore, you wont even get half of it. The same agent who sold you at that rate will quote 75% when you plan to sell.





Remember all the resale flats are owned by investors who themselve are feeling the pinch of high interest rate and want to get out. Its the greed installed by the agents which is stopping them.





Call every builder you get. Tell them that you work in Oracle and IBM etc. They will tel you that only two units are left. Then say that you dont want because you need a choice. They will then say that there is lot of flats from which you can choose.

Now ask for the price. The moment they quote laugh heavily and say that they must be joking and then disconnect. Please remember to give them your phone number. Trust me I still get calls from these guys.





This strategy has worked for me. Prices have come down from 65 lakhs to 50 lakhs now and I have become greedy. Remember Pune is not Mumbai. Just drive through 10 kms and you see so much empty land.





This is just greed where they have assumed some wrong things about IT

Industry--

They all are idiots.

Every IT person makes 1 lakh and above.

Again they are fools.





Remember there are guys out to exploit you.



Friday, May 11, 2007

Disable Ctrl+Enter shortcut in Outlook

If you press Ctrl-Enter in an Outlook compose email window, then it sends the email without any warning at all. This can be very annoying, especially if you didn't want to send the email just then.



You can turn this feature off by doing the following:



Original Link: Outlook Tip Request - Disable Ctrl+Enter shortcut





You can disable CTRL-ENTER
in Outlook by adding the two following registry keys:



Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes

String
Value: CtrlEnter

Value Data: 13,8



Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes

String
Value: CtrlEnter

Value Data: 13,8



NOTE: I'm using Office 2003 = 11.0
(XP = 10.0, 2000 = 9.0)





Step-by-Step Instructions:



1. Start
--> Run, type REGEDIT press OK

2. If you can locate the folder
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\

Microsoft\Office\11.0\ skip directly to
Step #7



ELSE: We'll need to create the necessary Registy
Keys



Locate and click on the folder
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\

Microsoft\

3. From the Edit
pull-menu, select New, then Key

4. Type Office

5. Click on the new Office
key folder you just created

6. From the Edit pull-menu, select New, then Key,
type 11.0



Note: Office 2003 = 11.0, XP = 10.0, 2000 = 9.0



7. Click
on the new key 11.0 folder you just created

8. From the Edit pull-menu,
select New, then Key

9. Type Outlook (the second time type Word)

10. Click
on the new Outlook (or Word) key folder you just created

11. From the Edit
pull-menu, select New, then Key

12. Type
DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes

13. Click on the new key
DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes folder you just created

14. From the Edit
pull-menu, select New, then String Value

15. Type CtrlEnter

16. Double
click on the CtrlEnter String Value and enter 13,8 in the Value Data
field

17. Return to Step #7 substituting Outlook for Word

18. Close
REGEDIT and restart Outlook for the changes to take
effect


 

Friday, May 04, 2007

Docs Change the Way They Think About Death

Very interesting article. Might change the way people with severe injuries are treated in the hospital in an emergency.



Link: Docs Change the Way They Think About Death - Newsweek

MoD opens its files on UFO sightings to public

UK: The Ministry of Defence plans to open its "X-Files" on UFO sightings to
the public for the first time. Officials have not yet decided on a date
for the release of the reports, which date back to 1967, but it is
hoped to be within weeks.



Link: MoD opens its files on UFO sightings to public

12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know

Good article on the US laws that concern blogging. Useful for US based bloggers ...



Blog Law » 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Revolution OS


The film by J.T.S. Moore is about the growth of
the free software movement, and its eventual
co-option by the open source movement.
Has FSF (Free Software Foundation), GNU,
Linux, Open Source.
 
Worth watching. 
 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409 
 Duration: 1 hr 25 min