Entries from May 2006 ↓

The best thing about BarCampMumbai so far, has been the interaction. It’s a like a large BoF session. I have already met more geeks here than I meet in a quarter. My intention of coming here is served - meet hackers and geeks. And learn what they are upto. The most common discussions I witnessed have been about RIAs (Rich Internet Applications), comparing BarCamp with the local Linux User Group meets, dearth of good programmers and exciting latest technologies. In between knowledge sharing and pulling another’s leg.

We started around 10. Shantanu had the first session on YubNub. I moved to the next room to setup for my session around 10.50. People started coming in and we began at 11.05. The room was packed and I talked about Building RIAs with OpenLaslzo and Flex. People were interested and asked quite a few questions. I believe some will even consider developing a RIA in near future.

As I write this, Manish is talking about Flex. He is through the initial marketing slides and now on some tech stuff about Flex. So I will drop writing and focus on the talk!

The tables have turned. The situation in the IT market is now employee hunting and not job hunting as it used to be.

My first two hours at BarCampMumbai have been filled with discussions on the current situation in the IT market. Employers are not able to find good programmers. Or even programmers! People have almost given up on finding the right person for the job, it’s more like finding a person who can possibly fit the job!

And I have heard many stories about candidates. People using each organization as a transit camp for the next. People with little experience wanting to do bigtime jobs. And the complete mess that prevails in big companies with competencies and the kind of work people do.

It’s everywhere. And I think the tables will turn again in the next two years.

Till that time, we have to find alternates. Training is the most preferred right now - take anybody with reasonable aptitude and train him/her into coding. Again, this is proving to be a sword with double edge for small companies. But that’s what it is right now.

I have a few thoughts on training.. but wait a bit for that…

Did you know that men die younger because they have to fight to find a mate? They pay the ultimate price to get women - their life!

Read this story on Yahoo! that explains! Scientists have studies various male species and say that it was recognized as early as the 18th century that the life span of males is shorter.

Human males don’t always have to wrestle to get a woman these days, but the pressure to succeed sexually hasn’t changed much, the researchers argue. Only the methods have been revised.

Now, if you buy all this logic, here’s the critical part: To impress women, men remain prone to risky behavior, just as they have been for millennia and just as other male animals are.

In caveman days, being good with a club was one way to get a mate. Now, the ability to purchase a blinged-out SUV has similar value, the scientists suggest.

So if you smoke / drive rash / get into a fight - you now know why you do that!

While you are reading the story, also check out The Rules of Attraction in the Game of Love. And if you are a geek, I am sure you would love the book covers of Understanding Girls for Geeks!

Good read for Friday morning

We had a screening of Apollo 13 yesterday. This was the first movie in the Leadership workshop, and everyone enjoyed it.

I was thrilled to see the various types and perspectives of leadership in the movie. Right from the flight director - Gene Kranz, Jim Lovell (the commander) and everybody else. The different moods of the flight director, how he managed the whole mission, Jim taking control of things, providing opportunity to team members, the trust on the team, commitment demonstrated by everyone and the whole experience of the mission. Everything felt real, everything felt so much true to life.

I was inspired the most by Gene Kranz. His famous quote too: “Failure is not an option”!

I listed down some ideas for my session at BarCamp this weekend. Thought I should also check up the wiki page to see what’s up.

Checked up the BarCamp Mumbai page, and my jaws dropped! Man, this thing is getting hotter everyday! There are some great sessions lined up, most of the geeks I know of in Mumbai (and around), and there is even food. And I could even find some girls in the attendee’s list

Jokes apart, this event is going to be some serious fun!

I liked the poster, the punchline is pretty mumbaiya, and these are the sessions I am very keen on from the current list:

* “The Web 2.0 Paradigm: Design Principles for Smart Companies” - Rahul Gaitonde
* Mobile Applications: A FOSS Model - Shantanu Oak
* Mobile Computing: Thinking beyond the PC - Atul Chitnis
* Creating Wealth on Blogging+Business Networks - Ajay Sanghani
* ASP.NET seems to cripple traditional web programmers II - Vikas Yadav
* TracBac - Design Collaboration Demo - Narain, 360 Degrees
* Semantics BluesMoon
* Open Source Eye Candy Shreyas(shres)
* A Group is its Own Worst Enemy: Dynamics of Virtual Communities - Srinivas Chemboli
* Video on the Web (Flash), Manish Jethani

See you there!