Entries from April 2007 ↓
April 30th, 2007 — Flex & Flash
I am a bit late to write about this, but Adobe has decided to open source Flex fully by the end of the year. It will be released under MPL. The Flex SDK, the compiler, debugger, flex components and AS3 libraries - all will be open sourced.
This is a major move! A very strategic one I must say. Adobe is certainly trying to kill competition - whether it is OpenLaszlo, or the upcoming Microsoft technologies including WPF/E & Silverlight. Making Flex open source will not only get a lot more visibility for Adobe & Flex, it will also mean a lot more developers who can contribute to Flex, while Adobe focuses on Apollo as a delivery platform for Flex and HTML. I am sensing that Adobe’s got plans to push Apollo real hard. They may even have a couple of very strong products using Flex coming out in the near future. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them is related to entertainment!
But heck, whatever is the business agenda behind this, it’s a great news for developers! We will see more news from Adobe soon!
And for all those who did not notice it yet, the announcement comes right before Mix 07 - the Microsoft conference where they are going to do a lot of talk / demos on Silverlight. (it was also an eyebrow raiser to notice the similarity in name of this conference with Adobe’s MAX!)
April 26th, 2007 — Business, Recommended Reading
Read an interesting note from boss to employees on ExecPundit. Naveen sent the link and I felt if everyone would follow those suggestions, things would be so much better! The post also has a few notes from employees to the boss, and they are also a good read! Here’s a sampling of the note from boss to employees:
- I am sometimes under enormous pressure from upper management; pressure that you seldom see. Anything that you can do to make my job easier will be greatly appreciated.
- I will make mistakes. Please give me the same understanding that you’d like me to give you when you blunder.
- If I do something dumb or am on the verge of doing so, please tell me. Don’t hint. Tell me.
- I expect you to take initiative. If you keep bouncing things to me, I’m going to wonder why I have you around.
- Don’t let all of my talk about meeting goals and producing results lead you into unethical behavior. You always have my permission to be ethical.
- If either of us has a problem with the other’s performance, let’s talk about it.
So true!
April 25th, 2007 — Personal
I have been thinking about doing an MBA for more than a year now. Wanted to do it when I was in college, never did it because I started Magnet in last year of college. Was talking to Naveen the other day about personal MBA, and it came up again.
What’s the best MBA program for me? At this stage, I can’t do a full time MBA, since Magnet is in growth phase. Time is a constraint again. I understand there are different programs, and the value of each is different. Executive MBA, Part Time, Distance Learning and of course full time. There are tons of institutes offering the program - including foreign ones.
I asked Ashok, and he said why do you want to do an MBA! The purpose is to get a degree and to grow the network. I certainly will get to learn a lot of theories, but that’s not what I would do an MBA for. There is still some time for the entrance exams etc, but I want to think about it in advance!
At this stage, I am unclear.
Any advice?
April 24th, 2007 — Photography
It was a hell of a day! Everything in extreme: energy, photographs, hurting legs, heat, batteries and the city itself! Mumbai Photo Marathon 2007 was a great success. I should be writing a detailed note on this - the whole journey starting from the 5.26am train from Borivali station to 6.26pm back home. I would let the photos tell you the story for the time being. There are tons of (150+) photos in the gallery, and I am resubmitting the best shots on Flickr! Comments welcome!
Thanks to all the people who participated. All the people who allowed us to shoot. Kapil, Ameya Ashok S & Prakash for the contribution in organizing the event. Nikita for celebrating our engagement anniversary in this special way!
Whew! That’s the collection of some of the best images I have shot so far. Definitely the best in a single day! This was certainly worth the effort and I look forward to the next photo marathon!
April 20th, 2007 — Photography, Updates
We are ready to shoot! The first ever Mumbai Photo Marathon will happen this Sunday. We have a little different style of doing things compared to other Photo Marathons, considering this is the first time we are doing it! But we will have lots of fun, lots of great pictures and many new friends!
Rules of the game:
- Capture all themes. 12 Photographs to be submitted in total.
- Meet the rest of the participants at at least two spots during the day
- Be creative
- Have fun!
Themes
- Roadside Mumbai
- Mumbai Rush
- Tourists in Mumbai
Day Plan
- Juhu Beach, Vile Parle W - 6.15AM (meeting spot # 1)
- Bandra - on the way
- Dadar Station – 10AM
- Haji Ali – 12 Noon (meeting spot # 2)
- Crawford Market / CST Station / Flora fountain / Fashion Street - 2 PM to 5PM
- Gateway of India – 5 pm to 6pm (meeting spot # 3)
- Marine Drive Girgaum Chowpatty – Sunset time (around 6.45)
Participants so far
Ready for it?
Updates:
- This is a free event! There is no registration fee! You pay your own expenses though, so no sponsorship either.
- One problem we may face, as Ameya pointed out, is that we may need permission to shoot at some places. We are preparing some letters for this, but be ready to deal with such a situation if it arises. Same way, taking permissions on candid shots is advised!
- At the end of the event, we will collect the photos. Put them up on Flickr, or some other place (we can use my gallery) and enable rating on them. That will allow visitors too, to contribute to the event! Later we can do a dedicated site for Mumbai Photo Marathon.
(thanks to Ashok S for the logo)
