RX Framework

I recently attended a presentation on RX framework. I have been hearing about RX framework for about a year now but haven't really used it yet. The recent presentation however convinced me that it can be useful for me in my project and I should start using the framework. I like the idea of IEnumerable being wrapped in an IObservable. Also using declarative style of writing code blends in really well with the use of the framework. I will be spending more time on the framework and documenting my experiences here.

Task failed because "resgen.exe" was not found

I am using Team City on the build server and have run into an issue while building the client on the build machine.
I get this error:
Task failed because "resgen.exe" was not found, or the correct Microsoft Windows SDK is not installed.
In order to solve this problem, we need to install Windows SDK. However i have read on line that sometimes this does not solve the problem if you are building for Windows Phone 7 or using Ms test. In that case you need Visual Studio to be installed on the build server (Dirty!!!)

Roger Federer vs. Marat Safin - Australian Open 2009

Roger has reached the third round of Australian Open 2009. He will be facing Marat Safin to reach the fourth round. Ironically both roger and marat are my favourite players. Marat has exceptional talent maybe only matched by Roger Federer.But as federer mentioned in his last interview, both of their careers went very different ways after 2005. Federer went up and up, Marat went down and down.
I think Federer will win it easily in three sets, but it should be a high quality match.

Roger wins Kooyang. One of the favourites for Aus Open

Roger has won the Kooyang 2009 tournament in style. Roger defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in 57 minutes!!! I thought Wawrinka was playing well and looking in good form. But does that mean that is playing at an excellent level that he defeated Wawrinka so easily? I think fed has a good chance of winning the Australian Open 2009, if he does not run into any long matches early on and if he beats djokovic(expected opponent) easily in the semi final. I think if Roger was to play Murray in the final, it not going to be a straight three set win for Federer. I think its going to be a bit tighter than that, but Fed should prevail without much difficulty. If roger was to play Nadal in final, roger might win in straight sets or maximum four sets. We will know all in a fortnight!!!!
Best of luck roger

Moving to WPF

Is there a learning curve to WPF, when moving from Winforms. Well okay, i know there is a learning curve. The question is how big that learning curve might be? Time to find out!!! Yes, I am doing WPF

Jumping from Windows to Mac . No Windows7 for me?

Last two times at the release of the new microsoft operating system, I got the new pc with the new OS. It was great using Windows XP and to be frank i have enjoyed using Windows Vista. It never crashed on me and i always had a good peformance. My PC was pretty good at the time i bought it (time of vista release - Jan 2007)and is still very good with 4 GB of Ram, Intel Core2 Duo and 160 Gb hard disk. (i dont use much digitla media, so 160 Gb was fine for me).
Now as we are expecting Windows7 release osmetime this year, its time to buy a new PC with the new OS. However i am not sure about it this time. Mind you Windows 7 seems good. I have it installed on my test PC, though i havent done much on it.

However i am planning to jump the ship and move to Mac. I do use Mac occassionally at the uni and i find it really hard to use it, but still i want to move to Mac. Why then i want to move to Mac? Its the iPhone which has convienced me that i got to get the Mac. I got to try it fulltime as my only workstation. Only then will i know if its good for me. As i use Visual Studio for development, i will need to use VMware Fusion. So i ahve decided that my next comp is Mac.
When? - I plan to buy a Mac around summer time. I am still deciding on wihch one..
I dont know if i will ever have a Windows7 PC. Let see what happens in the next 6 months.

Covariance/Contravariace generics in C# 4.0

One of the things that we’ll have in C# 4.0 is covariance/contravariace. 

Co-variance means that a generic type e.g. an IEnumerable of type string can be used as a generic of any supertype e.g. IEnumerable of type object.

Contra variance means that a generic type e.g. an IEnumerable of type string can be used as a generic of any subtype e.g.IEnumerable of type object.

Mocrosoft to unviel cloud computing efforts

Microsoft To Unveil Windows 7, Cloud Computing Efforts Next Week

Microsoft is going to make announcements at the PDC next week about cloud computing. They have already announced the support of Windows Server and SQL Server on Amazon's EC2 cloud . This could be a major step as micrsoft tries to make a push in cloud computing. 

In my opinion cloud computing is the future of computing, however it might take a while before it catches on for things related to everyday work for common people such as storing all of your data on the cloud, every user request being processed by the cloud and users being confident that the service works.

The major challenges in cloud computing over the next few years would be:

• Security
  
• Scalibility
  
• Reliability
  
• Good business model
  

Amazon, IBM and to some extent google have already taken the lead, so its up to microsoft to catch up and porve the point.

Securtiy hole in Googel Android

Hacker finds a security hole in the Google Android software on the T-Mobile G1

Well, i am not surprised that a security hole has been found. in such a large software system, it is quite expected that something could have gone unnoticed in terms of security. The main thing to watch out is what action Google takes. Obviously they will take action, but will it be a quick one, will it convince people that Google is serious about their security? Earlier it was usually only Microsoft which use to bear the brunt of the journalists and others because of the huge install base of their operating system. But now we have the Apple as well as Google in the game as well. It will be interesting to see how these companies handle such reports.

BBC SPORT | Tennis | Federer on course for Halle title

BBC SPORT | Tennis | Federer on course for Halle title: "Federer on course for Halle title
Roger Federer
Wimbledon champion Federer is chasing his fifth Halle crown

Roger Federer reached the final of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle on Sunday with a 6-1 6-4 win over Nicolas Kiefer.

The unseeded Kiefer was the last man to beat Federer at the event in the 2002 semis, but he was swept aside by the Swiss world number one.

Top seed Federer has now served 39 times without being broken at this year's tournament, and has extended his winning streak on grass to 58 matches.

Federer will face Philipp Kohlschreiber who beat James Blake 6-3 7-5."

Federer wins his first match at the French Open 2008

Federer won his opening match 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 yesterday over Sam Querrey of the United States. He was more aggressive than usual and seemed to go for his shots, especially his forehand down the line. He will now face either Spain’s Albert Montanes or close friend Kristof Vliegen of Belgium for a third-round spot.

Visual Studio 2008 and ReSharper v3.0

I have been using Visual Studio 2008. The official version of Resharper ot be used with VS 2008 is v4.0 However the version 4.0 is still not out (expected anyday this month) and the bank has no plans to approve it soon.
So i had to find a solution to use my ReSharper version 3.0 to work with VS 2008. After searching for a while on the internet i found the solution.
After installnig VS 2008 you have to manually install it from the command line as follows:(because by default it only installs it for 2005).
C:\Program Files\JetBrains>msiexec /i ReSharperSetup.3.0.2.VS80.CSharp.msi VSVERSION=9.0

Product Owner role in Agile Teams.

I am currently working on my assignment (from Oxford University) Adopting Agile in a project and while doing that i started wondering as to what exactly is the role of the product owner? What does a prodcut owner do, day in day out. I came across a few points after searching for product owner role on the internet.

• As the Product Owner you're responsible for the features that get delivered.
• You own the Product Backlog.
• Plan one iteration ahead of the developers.
• Prioritise effectively so that you get the biggest bang for your buck.
• Identify what is valuable to your company and find out the cost of each backlog item by getting provisional estimates from the development team. Then prioritise.
• Managing expectation between the business and the project team.

Is that it? Is that all what a product owner does and gets paid a huge sum of money for? Let me know if anybody out these has any other pointers.

Roger Federer at Estoril Open

Roger is starting his clay season at the Estoril Open in Portugal from Monday 14th April.

He will look to improve his perfect 5-0 record against Olivier Rochus in the 2008 Estoril Open first round. Federer has been drawn in the same quarter of the draw as sixth-seeded Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, who he could meet in the quarterfinals. That wil be an interesting match.

Best of luck to roger

Roger federer gets a coach..

Roger Federer arrived at the Estoril Open in portugal on Saturday with tennis coach Jose Higueras.

Federer has been without a coach since splitting with Tony Roche almost a year ago. After suffering a bout of mononucleosis at the beginning of the season, he has not gone beyond the semifinals in any of the four events he has played this year. His title drought has triggered speculation about a slump and calls to bring in outside help.

Higueras has previously worked with Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Sergi Bruguera and Jennifer Capriati and is known for his conditioning and clay-court expertise. Nobody knows yet if this is a short- or long-term coaching arrangement, nor whether Higueras will be regularly traveling with Federer to tournaments.

But i fell that federe will be back to his best soon and is a real contender for the french open 2008.

My iPhone

I got a new iPhone. Though its been a month now, but i thought i will post it here anyway. Its an awesome piece of device. Functionally my windows mobile does everything what the iPhone does. But the difference is the way iPhone does it. Yes..Its all about the user experience with the iPhone which i am really enjoying.

Agile Methods course - University of Oxford

Tomorrow i am going for the "Agile Methods" module to Oxford university. I have been working feverishly to finish my pre-assignment which is a presentation on "Scrum on a large distributed team". After doing lot of study on scrum in last 2 weeks, i have really started appreciating this practice. Though in my current project we are following scrum(daily stand up meetings, release backlog and usage of wiki for task tracking), but what i have learned in my last week of study has truly been an eye opener. More details to come from tomorrow
Next post from oxford..........

How will i prepare for my dream MBA?

I am planning to apply to the MBA schools in Fall 2009. Thats gives me roughly 18 months to prepare. I have to plan every step to the minutest detail and got to feel good that it is the right time to apply.

My preparation will involve:

1) GMAT.
2) Essays preparation.
3) Geeting the right recommenders.
4) Top notch experience including leadership.
5) Successfull completion of Oxford University degree.

I am back after a 3 month gap

Its been a long time since i last blogged. Its been a strange and absolutely wonderful time from Nov to Jan 2008 end. A lot happened during this time, some was good some was ok.. I have some sweet memories.
But now after three months of letting myself loose, i am back in business. I will blogging much more regularly from now on.

FogBugz based on Event Bsed Scheduling

Fog Creek is currently demo-ing their new bug/task tracking system FogBugz.

Most of the systems which we currently see (for example Jira, Bug tracker) are based on the fact that they are good at reporting, maintaining and tracking (somewhat) bugs and tasks. That's it. The role of a bug/task tracker system usually ends there. (if you been making more use of a bug tracking/task management system, drop me an email).

There is where FogBugz is different from rest of the systems. Probably the most interesting part of FogBugz is Evidence-Based Scheduling, which uses a statistical technique called bootstrapping (a variation on Monte Carlo) to determine the probability that you'll ship on any given date. In short, this is how it works. You estimate features as usual. But then, instead of adding up all the developers estimates—instead of taking them on faith—FogBugz does a Monte Carlo simulation looking at what speeds developers worked at in the past, vis-à-vis their estimates.

In Joel's words:
Using that same distribution of probabilities that we had in the past and if we run a simulation of 60 futures each of which will occur with equal probability, what we get, instead of a date, is a probability distribution curve that shows the probability that the product will ship on such-and-such a date.

Now thats what i call an awesome sfotware tool, which really stands out. Well how reliable and accurate FogBugz is, is another question.

I think i got to try it to find out!!!