Google Android has come to life

Android enthusiasts can now check this ... It is impressive and works pretty well in US market with high speed data connectivity for cell phones. Just have to see, how and when they roll it out in Asian market and then how effective it will be.

See the snap shots here.

IT Failures

Some of the posts that I recently ran into. I do not think these are new findings, but probably good read for people out there.

1. 8 tips to avoid being IT scape goat
2. 10 reasons for IT failure

There is also a post which talks about the prevention plan - 5 ways to prevent IT failure. But I do not think the prevention plan really addresses the point of failures.

Probably, one of the critical items that is not addressed is PEOPLE. Corporates do have some processes and use them as selling points, but I still think that the industry is people dependent and first thing we need to do is staff the project with right skill set.

For people who are following the HP-EDS deal, I give you this (EDS' troubled legacy of failed IT projects) to read.

Making Java Easier

Shlomo Schwarcz's write up name Making Java Easier on TheServerSide is pretty interesting one.

Some highlights are:

The Java language itself is not the problem, nor the JSP syntax or the JRE API packages. It’s what’s around the language that makes it so difficult to step into.

He suggest simple deployment model, dynamic reloading of classes, a simple web server GUI console and a Visual IDE GUI designer.

Sure, it's a great system for professionals managing large projects but what if I just want a 20 page interactive web site? Why can't I simply write a Servlet or JSP or even a single Java class, copy it to the server and execute it?

The fact is that if you are not a Java guru, then it will be almost impossible to perform the simple task of visually designing a form in NetBeans and then deploying it to a Tomcat or Jetty server.

One interesting comment by Ron Grimes which I pretty much agree to:

For me, the biggest drawback to being a newbie to Java is feeling like you're not a "real" Java developer unless you speak fluently about EJB and all the garbage that came before you decided to jump into the stream. A lot of developers feel like, in order to learn Java, you not only have to learn what is current (frameworks like Spring), but you also have to learn how to maintain all the legacy frameworks that came before it. And, maybe you don't have to learn all that, but you feel lost on Java forums because of all the antiquated features of Java that fewer and fewer people are using, but everyone still talks about.

I agree to a huge extent.

1. It is a nighmare to port a EAR on to different App Servers like WebLogic, WebSphere, JBoss etc especially when I am using data sources and JNDI lookups. I need to write all sorts of App Server specific descriptors.
2. The smallest of fixes in the servlet class forces me to redeploying the WAR again.
3. So many frameworks coming out(it is chaos) from all places and there is no standardization.
4. Cannot bank on one framework for long as it may be replaced by another one in less than an year


I hear Groovy/Grails a lot here ...

Free Software?

Quick tip on installing SOAPpy on Python 2.5

While you install as per the instruction given, you will run in the issue as you see below:



Now, do the following to resolve it.

1. Open the file Client.py and make "from __future__ imports" line to be the first import
2. Open Types.py, Server.py and GSIServer.py and do the same
3. Run - python setup.py build
4. Run - python setup.py install

Now you can start writing your SOAP server and clients.

Happy hacking !

Google bids to lose

Google has lost the wireless spectrum bid to Verizon, but the reality is that they were never in the game to win.

Read this.

Interesting and it shows the way Google not just focuses on business, but how they want to change the lives of people.

Quick questions on crisis management

What do you do when you have to deal with a mismanaged project? Here are the constraints:

1. You cannot rewrite the application because client is still strict with timelines
2. Unit testing was not done properly and a bunch of requirements were never coded
3. While fixing defects, more and more defects are getting introduced
4. Resources are not competent enough to handle all the technical difficulties and few of the good ones become heroes are are over worked
5. After being mismanaged, the senior management suggest to go on a 24x7 repair plan and completely over seeing their responsibility in having the project in this situation in the first place. This has resulted in people getting overworked, and resulting in stress