Year: 2010

Microsoft Community Tech Days [Ahmedabad 2010]

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It was time for community Tech days at Ahmedabad on 11th Dec 2010. I was attending the community tech days for the first time and was eager to listen to noted MVP’s and MS Tech evangelist’s like Pinal Dave , Rushabh Mehta, Jacob Sebastian and Vinod Kumar.

The Event Began with Jacob Sebastian presenting a talk on ‘SQL tips and Tricks for .net developers’. The focus of the talk was on ‘server side paging’. he stared the talk by comparing application side paging and server side paging. then, after explaining the application side paging and it’s drawback, the discussion was steered towards server side paging. He then demonstrated the method to apply server side paging. For SQL server 2000, he discussed the concept of temp tables. For SQL server 2005, he discussed the concept of CTE and ROW_NUMBER. For SQL server 2011, he demonstrated OFFSET/FETCH. The OFFSET/FETCH is very convenient to use. The best thing about it is that it keeps our code clean. i can’t wait to try my hands on server side paging. Thanks sir, for sharing such an amazing optimization tip with us.

The next talk was delivered by Pinal Dave. i have been following his blog for quite some time now and i proclaim that it has increased my knowledge on SQL Technology. i had heard him before when he came to my college – Nirma University, to give a talk on ‘Database optimization’. He never ceases to amaze me. The best thing about him is that he discusses a serious topic in a light mood. He gave a talk on ‘Best Database practice for Sharepoint server’. The three key things to be remembered where 1) keep the statistics on for most cases 2) Set Auto create statistics and Auto Update Statistics to TRUE 3) Pre Size Database for Insert queries. Thank you sir!

The next talk was delivered by Rushabh mehta. He shared his knowledge on ‘Self Service Business Intelligence’. i must admit that i had ceased to Blink for the entire session. He demonstrated jaw dropping, Ultra cool technologies. He had a perfect metaphor for a ‘self service Business Intelligence’ and that was ‘a fancy train that everyone in the organization want to hop into’. He elucidated the difference and i realized the difference between BI and self service BI: Business Intelligence enables an organization to make better decisions. And with self service Business Intelligence enables the user to customize reports without the help of an IT personnel. In other words, it’s a user friendly Business Intelligence. He also demonstrated an Excel 2010 add on called Power Pivot . It’s an Amazing Tool. he also showed ‘SQL server reporting service’. Thank you Rushabh Sir for Igniting a spark!

The next talk was delivered by Vinod Kumar. He gave a talk on ‘Managing your Future, Managing your Time’. The talk was very inspiring. The talk was peppered with great videos and it made the talk more interesting. Thanks for inspiration. It will help me when i step into the real world!

Prabhjot singh Bakshi and Dhananjay Kumar also Delivered Talks on Interesting topics.

Thank You Team Community Tech Days at Microsoft and MVP’s for an amazing event!

Read Pinal Dave’s Event Report: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2010/12/17/sqlauthority-news-a-successful-community-techdays-at-ahmedabad-december-11-2010/

Thanks again!

Ted video: The web secret stories by jonathan harris

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The idea behind the tools demonstrated are simple yet profound. They revolve around a concept that ‘humans desire to express themselves’. The tool fetches data from the blogs around the world and mines it to give useful insights. The speaker demonstrated couple of tools and in both tools, the data visualization methods employed was state-of-the-art. such videos deepen my fascination for data mining and information management. you can watch the video to get an insight into how ‘feelings’ can be mined (‘analyzed’) to understand the world around us.

Book review: Getting Real by 37signals

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The Book “Getting real” is a paradigm shifter. it’s worth reading for anyone who is remotely connected to the field of making software. i devoured one article after after another and stopped only after reading the entire book. The book has fresh ideas that are worth reflecting upon and the approach is unorthodox. it defies the conventional software engineering approach and tries to explain simple steps to build a web application. Couple of ideas like ‘ask the customer, what they don’t want’ and ‘cutting down on unwanted features’ really struck a chord with my belief system.

In a Nutshell, a must read for anyone who wants to make a world class web app/software

Link: 37signals web page

Hans Rosling’s Ted videos

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I am a fan of Han Rosling’s Ted videos:

Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen:

Hans Rosling’s new insights on poverty:

Hans Rosling on HIV: New facts and stunning data visuals:

Hans Rosling: Let my dataset change your mindset

Hans Rosling on Asia’s rise:

Hans Rosling on global population growth:

Hans Rosling: The good news of the decade?

[Fiction] Letter from a Geek who lived in the unglorious era of ’99 !

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Today i got an email from an unnamed geek (geek_1999@gmail.com). the email was written in year 1999 and the uber-cool features of ‘delay-send’ enabled him to send me email almost 10 years later.

The email read:

hey!

congratulations on finding this email. it is 11 pm on 31st december 1999. I’m writing this chronicle of my era to the clack-clack-tuck-tuck of the keyboard on my state-of-the-art ibm desktop. Can you imagine? 366 MHz. what do you have? i guess not more than 1000 MHz. And unlike the desktops you may have, it’s like I have put a maruti on my desk. I only hope I’m able to reboot after midnight, hope problem y2k is a charade.

You know wat, folks. The modem that i am using is louder than a dog barking at the middle of the night. Tut…tut…tut-tut-tut…tu…stop it!

And Do you know how I got this connection? I waited for 9 long months for the connection and this computer guy charges me 100 bucks every time I call him to fix a problem.

For me it is a ‘technological’ golden age. My 1.44 MB floppy drive can hold 1/3 of a song ( yippy !! ). I can’t even imagine the cool games you’re playing on the desktop’s by now( you still call it desktop,rite? ). It’s like we’re living in The Matrix — except in a good way. Are you living in the Matrix sequel? I hear it’ll be better than the original.

But the people of 1999 aren’t perfect: We sometimes fall victim to fads. Can you believe that some “innovators” think we’ll read electronic books ( duh ) ? And that 1 million people hang out on a “social network” called facebook.com and linkedin.com ( duh duh ) ?
They think we are fools. we are smart you know. we are not going to believe any rubbish they throw at us.
Don’t tell me you people use such websites. Do you?

I can’t wait to see what’s next. I preordered the new ‘ maruti 800 ‘, which signals a new golden age for small car segment. You’re probably driving around in hybrid cars that run on half potatoes, half grain; I can’t imagine what you people get to drive.

People of the new millennium, best wishes for the future of mankind. Or have you forsaken God for Ronald emmerich’s aliens? Just kidding.

Party time! it’s 12 am and it’ a new year.

cheer’s!
– GEEK

P.S. i am also sending you the hard copy of this mail in floppy drives. they will reach you in 3-4 days. i hope you still use floppy drives. if not, throw those 7 disks away.

——- THE END ————–

the second email read :

yippy! i was able to reboot my computer. y2k was a charade!

—– REAL ‘ the end ‘ —–

[Quote]

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Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.

– Bill Gates, Microsoft

How to Include Charts in Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition using Microsoft chart controls

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I recently learned how to include charts in visual studio 2008 express edition. If you want to do the same then you need do following things:
1) Get visual studio 2008 Express SP1 or higher version
2) Upgrade to .net 3.5 sp1 (if you use lower version of .net)
3) Download Microsoft chart controls : Download Link and then install it.

After you are done with Installing a ‘charts’ option will appear in the Data Tab in Toolbox. If you still do not see it you will need to add

1) System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting

2) System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.

Just right-click pane -> choose items -> select the above namespaces in the .net framework components!

here’s a tutorial after you are successful at seeing the ‘charts’ option. click me .

And Let’s connect! I Look forward to Interacting with you on any of these people networks:

paras doshi blog on facebookparas doshi twitterparas doshi google plus

Book review : If god was a banker by ravi subramaniam

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This is the insider’s fictionalized account of how Indian professionals experience the world of foreign banks. The novel has all the ingredients that keeps it very interesting read till the vey end. Ravi Subramanian is an IIM-graduate.
Ravi’s style is very similar to Chetan bhagat. Like Chetan bhagat’s novel, this story too has dark background and then story heads to bright ending. Two young management graduates, with nothing similar in family backgrounds and temperament, join New York international bank on the same day and take entirely different routes to success. Both rise up the ranks at breakneck speed. One is aggressive and will stoop to anything to get ahead while the other guy is mature and sensible, with high regard for good old ethics. Then there is a top notch banker who plays the benevolent god whenever crises loom over the young guns. The story is peppered with ambition and frustration, deceit and malevolence, love and lust, struggle for power and status. The story reveals the nuisances of a corporate life and at the same time has idealized the importance of ethics in professional life.

– This book review was published in Rotaract club of Nirma university’s annual magazine Reckon.

I stumbled upon a video on youtube. the title is ‘is information management just another hype?’. it’s a paradigm shifter!

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Ted Video: The shape shifting future of mobile phone by Fabian Hemmert AND videos on similar innovative Human Computer Interaction concepts

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it’s a 5 min video which describes what’s in store for us in the domain of future mobile phone. the speaker is working to bridge the divide between our physical world and our digital world. this video answers the question what can be done to make our digital content graspable?. he describes three characteristics namely mass, shape and intuition that if embedded in mobile phones can help bridge the divide between our physical world and digital world. I had seen a similar video on ‘sixth sense’ in which the speaker pranav mistry (a MIT phd candidate) is working on a technology that bridges the gap between our physical world and digital world. The above mentioned technologies fall broadly into the ‘Human Computer Interaction’. you can watch video’s here:

Ted Video: Pranav Mistry on sixth sense

Yet Another video on Human Computer Interaction. it’s very innovative!
Ted video: David Merrill demos Siftables