Latest happenings

As usual, I blog on and off every now and then. There's been lot of changes in my career and life, since my last post.

I became a father on September 30th. I had a son. He is keeping me busy and its fun to see him grow.

On October 6th, I joined another project with the same client, Kaiser, as a Tech lead. Its a new project and I have a team at offshore. Its nice to work in a elevated role, except the offshore challenges. The work is challenging and timeline is aggresive. We are using Seam framework which will run on Jboss Server, ESB Services on WSO2 Server.

Pleasanton DMV Behind the Wheel Driving Test Routes

When I was searching for DMV test routes for Pleasanton, I couldnt find one. So, I just collected some of the possible routes from friends and uploaded here.

Route # 1

->> Come out of DMV
->> Left @ Hopyard
-->> Left @ Parkside
-->> 2nd left
-->> Right @ Hopyard
->> Right @ W Las Positas
-->> Left @ Williow Road
-->> Left @ Inglewood ->> This is residential area usually they will test curb parking and straight reverse here.

-->> Left @ Denker
-->> Left @ Dorman
-->> Right @ Hopyard
-->> Left into DMV
->> Then he will ask you to park

Route # 2

->> Come out of DMV
->> go straight on W Las Positas
-->> Left @ Hacienda
-->> Left @ Gibraltor
-->> Left @ Williow Road
-->> Right @ W Las Positas
-->> Right @ Hopyard
-->> Left @ Inglewood ->> This is residential area usually they will test curb parking and straight reverse here.
-->> Left @ Denker
-->> Left @ Dorman
-->> Right @ Hopyard
-->> Left into DMV
->> Then he will ask you to park.


Route # 3

->> Come out of DMV
->> go straight on W Las Positas
-->> Left @ Hacienda
-->> Left @ Gibraltor
-->> Right @ Williow Road
-->> Left @ Inglewood
-> Go straight you will cross Hopyard junction- >> This is residential area usually they will test curb parking and straight reverse here.
-->> Right @ Denker
-->> Right @ Stoneridge
-->> Right @ Hopyard
-->> Left @ W Las Positas
-->> Left into DMV
->> Then he will ask you to park.

Passed PMP

On May 24th, I appeared for the PMP Certification and passed it. I studied for 2 months and finally cleared it. My secret of success is as follows:

• Read Rita Mulcahy Guide
• Read PMBOK
• Read Rita Mulcahy Guide
• Read PMBOK
• Read PMBOK
• Pmstudy exams
• Exams from other books like Kim, Joseph Philips
• Again PMBOK

My PMP experience was very enlightening. Acquiring PM Knowledge is indeed an enriching experience and the confidence which I got, once I acquired the certification is worth all the hardwork. One thing I learned - I found the test to be very focused on application of knowledge/concepts in real world projects, as opposed to knowledge itself. It is very important to understand all concepts. The exam tests the concepts thoroughly.

Right & Left Hand Driving

Last week, I was chatting with my friend who lives in France and we were discussing about the driving system in US and France. I was thinking, it was only the countries in North America which follow the "driving on the right" system. It looks like there are around 166 countries which follow the system including France. Others follows the UK System(around 76), that is "driving on the left".

Another interesting thing is that, how the system actually started. It is very well described in the following link.

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/driving%20on%20the%20left.htm

No Blogs for a long time

Its been a long time since I updated my blog page. Lots of exiciting things happened both at home and at my career.

I added additional certifications both at Process Improvement (ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt) and Technical front (IBM SOA Certification) and currently in the process of becoming PMP Certified.

During the little time which I got during these times, we visited Yosemite, Tech museum, Point Reyes and places in and around bay area. Bay area has become very cold during winter season unlike Los Angeles.

CSC acquired Covansys

Yesterday evening, there was an exciting and interesting development at Covansys. It was acquired for 34$ per share totalling to 1.3 billion $. Some of the notable things in this deal for employees are:

• Covansys will function as separate division under CSC for sometime
• Benefits for Covansys may change according to CSC's benefits
• Employees working with temporary visas at US are not affected

So far, so good. But no one knows about the future.

Players in the IT Services market also tend to grow by mergers and acquisitions. Cap Gemini acquired Kanbay. EDS acquired Mphasis. Finally, CSC acquired Covansys.

J2EE Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern describes the mistakes what developers make when faced with a common problem. They are basically the pitfalls.

Some of the reasons for anti-pattern spread are:

• Cut and Paste Development
• Unreadable Code
• Inexperienced Developers

Architectural Anti-Patterns:

• Excessive Logging - The disadvantages are [ Too Much design time is required, Complex Code, Speed(performance) may be affected ]
• Leak Collection - [ To avoid this, set unused objects to null. Otherwise, leaks might lead to Out of Memory Exception ]

Presentation Anti-Patterns

• Magic Servlet - It is the only servlet that does everything
• MonoLithic/Compound JSPs
• Overstuffed Session

EJB Anti-Pattern

• Everything is EJB
• Round-Tripping - To avoid this use Facade Pattern
• Stateful when Stateless will do

Last day at CBRE

Yesterday was my last day at the client place CBRE. It was an emotional and touching moment. We all were working like a family. Though I enjoyed working there, I asked for a release in order to work in project with higher responsibilities. I could remember my colleagues standing to give me a farewell. Hope I would land in a similar client like CBRE in future.

SOA

Service Oriented Architecture is an architectural pattern for implementing a system, using loosely coupled and interoperable software services.

SOA can be implemented using REST, RPC, DCOM, CORBA and WebServices.

Cons:

• XML is used widely, which involves parsing. This might affect performance.
• Services are by default stateless. Difficult to implement Stateful services.
• WS- Transaction and Security are evolving.

Passed SCDJWS

I gave the Sun Certification Exam for Java Web Services and Cleared it with 88% score. It was an excellent exam covering almost all of the important concepts in Web Services like SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, JAX-RPC (Now its called as JAX-WS), JAXR, JAXB, SAAJ, JAXP and development and deployment of Java Web Services.

Myself and My friend Thangamani took it as a challenge that we need to pass this exam in month's time. We started somewhere around the mid of November seriously. I gave the exam on January 7th. I drove a long way from my apartment in Torrance to Irvine valley college along with my wife. I left my wife in the car and went to write the exam in the prometric center. After 2 hours of exam, I came out successful. We drove to an Indian Halal Restaurant and had Buffet lunch in Shan Restaurant, Artesia.

Thanks for Thangamani for clarifying my questions, expert advice and my wife for taking care of other things during the course of my preparation.

Happy New Year

Its been a long long time since I stopped blogging.
Happy New Year !!!!

Hope I will start blogging soon.

Interesting Article

I came across this interesting article in the internet.
http://java.sys-con.com/read/192403.htm
Its about what you should do after you have been fired from a job and how to avoid that situation. As elder people have said, "Prevention is better than cure", we should plan and learn atleast 2 hours a day (Dont ask me whether I do that), so that we are on top of others, in this global IT market, where "survival of the fittest" is always true(both mentally and physically).

Life...

The following is a translation of a song in the movie "Kal Ho Naa Ho". When I watched this movie yesterday, I couldnt understand the song as it was in Hindi and Iam not that fluent in Hindi. Fortunately, the translation was available in English and I grabbed some of the sentences which I liked. Though it may not suit everyone, I think some of the sentences are real.
Life's changing every moment
Life is now a shade...
Life is now sunshine...
Every moment on earth... Live life to the fullest
whetever time you have is yours...for tomorrow might never come

Someone to love you with all his heart...is difficult to come by
Should there be someone like that...he's the one for you, be sure
His hand you must take..
For all you know,...Tomorrow might never be...
Every moment on earth, Live Life to the fullest, for tomorrow might never come...

Birds view of my apartment

Microsoft has released virtual earth, (http://local.live.com/), in which the pictures of earth were taken from plane and then they were merged together using software.
The resolution is too good, though it is not as user friendly like Google Earth.
You can see the picture of the apartment where I live.

Good Links

Some of the links which I came across in the web.

http://www.yazgulu.com/Guller/146.swf

http://www.friendshipland.net/Inspiration/friendship.htm

Hilarious Video

I came across this video showing how some of us, behave when we go to back to India.

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=JjvzQm4bJ8s

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Men Vs Women

I came across an interesting survey showing, what men and women look in the internet.

http://news.com.com/Men+want+facts%2C+women+seek+relations+on+Web/2100-1025_3-6011557.html?tag=nefd.top

Hats off to Lakshmi and Sattia

Sattia and Lakshmi have passed the PMP certification exams, which is one of the steps for becoming a project manager. As per Lakshmi, who gave the exams for the recent syllabus, the exam was tough. The suggestions from lakshmi for pmp buddies is that, "It took 3 months of preparation. With the new format and new set ofquestions, he thinks its necessary. He read PMBOK, PMP Exam Prep by RitaMulcahy and used Rita Mulcahy PMP Simulation software CD.".

Read and Laugh

These are actual ads on a matrimony site. I just read this and burst out laughing. Grammar and spell errors have no place in a profile description as everything is straight from the heart! Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you forget your basic grammar after reading this blog.

- Hello To Viewvers My Name is Somesha , I am single i dont have Famale, If any one whant to marrie to me u can visite to my home. I am not a good education but i working all field in bangalroe.. if u like me u welcome to my heart... when ever u whant to meet pls viset my resident or send u letter.. Thanks yours Regards Somesha ~*

- i want very simple girl. from brahmin educated family from orissa state he is also know about RAMAYAN, GEETA BHAGABATA, and other homework (Homework?)

- Wants a woman who knows me better and can adjust with me forever. She may never create any difficulties in my life or her life by which the entire life can run smoothly. thank you (The principle of running life smoothly was never so easy!)

- She should be good looking and should have a service. She Shoulsd have one brother and one sister. She should be educated. (ain't it unique !! 1 brother 1 sister criteria !)

- I am a happy-go-lucky kind of person. Enjoys every moments of life. I love to make friendship. Becauese friendship is a first step of love. I am looking for my dreamgirl who will love me more than i. Because i love myself a lot. If u think that is u then why to late come on ........ hold my hand forever !!! (The dilwale dulhaniya effect)

- My wife should be as 'Parwati' as in Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and as Tulsi as in KSBKBT...... (Ok I haven't seen these soaps but I am sure he must be demanding too much, ain't he?)

- i want a girl with no drinks if she wants she can wear jeans in house but while steping out of house she should give recpect to our cast (by not wearing her jeans? ahem...)

- HYE I AM A GOOD LOKING GUY,WHO HAS THE CAPABILITY TO MAKE ANY BODY TO LOUGH.I BELIEVE IN GOD AND ACCORDING TO ME FRIENDS ARE THE REAL MESSENGER OF GOD. THE 3 THINGS I AM LOOKING FROM A GIRL ,THEY ARE 1.THEY MUST BELIEVE IN GOD.2. THEY HAVE TO LIKE MY PROFFESION AND THEY SHOULD NOT GET BORED WITH ME WHEN I WILL TRY TO MAKE THEM LOUGH. (all of us are loughing)

- whatever she may be but she should feel that she is going to be someone bride and she must think of the future life if she is toolike this she would bde called the lady of the lamp (I am clueless, I feel so lost. Can anyone tell me what this guy wants)


- i'm looking out for who lives in bombay, girl simple who trust me lot should be roman catholic, LOVE ME ONLY. (Now that criterion is a must, isn't it?)

- to be married on jan-2005. working woman perferable (this guy has fixed the marriage date too! But he is yet to find a bride. I wish him best luck on behalf of all of us. I am sure he will get one soon.)