Life in Balance: Amit Chaudhary’s Blog
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The results from the Google CodeJam 2006 are out, but where is the code?

I noticed there is no code from earlier code jams on their main website. One would think the main reason of a competition is to show case the best coders (if I may, though I would prefer Developers or Programmers) and their output. What better way than to show the different approaches and what the points were for.

Maybe it is Google’s secretive behavior taking over areas it is not suppose to or just a high road of saying, our money, we give without explaination. It is definitely not fun or worthwhile reading about it.
As for it might help future contestants, so be it, use your brains to come up with new contest questions.

Ran across an article on the CodingHorror blog: Opting Out of Linked In

In my experience, I have founded Linkedin to be quite useful.

Uses of linkedin:

-It is a good way to find out latest email or phone nos about people one has known earlier but is no longer in regular touch, like after moving to a different place.

-It automatically tells you when known acquaintances change their information on linked in, it was great to know two of my friends moved from being employees to founding their own company.

-If looking for some new contacts (To find someone interested in your company’s product or for referral in a company you are considering employment in), just search on it on linked in and maybe you can just send a forward request. I have not done it yet(Need to seek more aggressively maybe?!!), but know people who have.

So, yes it is worth being on linkedin. It does make networking easier and some part of keeping up with people automatic. It is part of what Chad Fowler says in his book, 52 ways to save your job, Coding is no longer enough.

Some basic guidelines for using linkedin:

-Accept invitations from people you would do atleast a minor favor for (co-workers, general and co-students and so on)

-Send invitations as per the above guideline.

-In your profile, add previous companies you have worked on and atleast some basic information.

Technorati Tags: Linkedin Networking

Update: Guy Kawasaki has written two articles on linkedin that are worth a read, Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn and LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover.

I wrote earlier about Netflix prize: Netflix offers US $1 million and US $50k for improving it’s movie recommendation

As NetFlix user, I believe there are some more ways to a better Netflix. This is not to take away from Netflix’s recommendation system and those of MovieLens.
1. Better text search

The search on netflix is quite average. Searching for anything not popular shows it’s lack of accurate results. Try a search for Sardar which is the exact name of an Indian movie and it is not even on the first 5-10 results.

2. Better category in browse and search

It should be possible to find, say all movies in a category (Anime, Indian\Italian, Independent), or to limit results for movies released within a decade or certain years.
GreenCine, a smaller rental service has better search.
3. More emphasis on ‘add to queue’ and actual rental instead of matching algorithm’s expected movie rating to the actual rating which is what the prize is about.
A two part answer. Part one, It is important to add a movie to queue than to rate a movie correctly before the user does. A typical user, If I may speculate might rate an art movie like Schindler’s List higher than Die Hard With a Vengeance, but is more likely to rent Die Hard or another popular Hollywood fare.

Part two, adding to queue invariably leads to a hugh queue which in turn overflows. It is more important to see what the user ultimately rents than add to queue. This also takes covers the users who do not rate.

4.  Better user list management

The user movie lists\queue  does some have some simple features such as rename, merge, move across queue\lists, remove duplicate, remove rented, etc. This is specially useful for long term netflix customers,
These and other similar user focus will result in a better netflix.

Technorati Tags: Netflix User Interface

I finished reading the book My Job Went to India And All I Got Was This Lousy Book: 52 Ways to Save Your Job by Chad Fowler sometime in the last week or so.

Summary: It is a book for those in the field of software development with some focus on software developers particularly in the field of enterprise software (Java, Web, etc.) The goal of the book seem to be to kickstart thinking about career management and tips on getting better at your job. It reaches these and beyond very well.
Score: 4.5/5

I tried earlier to do a blog series on the book, but it fell off due to lack of time and also I wanted to provide enough information to make the decision on buying the book worth it, but not give the information away.

It was also my first pdf book purchase and found it to be definitely worth it. I still miss the feeling of having a solid book on my bookshelf. But having it in a free and clear pdf, makes it easier to search, read at work or home (Linux systems at both place), restart at the last point, make notes and so on. I would be definitely considering buying my next book in pdf form, especially the Pragmatic Programmer Titles.

Detailed review:

Here is a small portion of the takeway from the book followed by the chapter they are from.
Practices to bring into normal working and career:

-Work in a team with members smarter than you. Ch 8: Be the Worst and Interact with more people in your field using mailing lists or local groups, ch 41: Making the Hang

-Strive to maintain a daily, weekly and monthly todo list and plan. Ch 20: Daily Hit

-Create schedules on your own for how long certain tasks will take and track these. Ch 30: Say It, Do It, Show It

-Be humble, specially with non technical people at work and in life in general. Ch 32: Adventure Tour Guide

-You need to come to work with a mission. ch 36: Change the World

-Follow an alpha geek (Bram Cohen, Linus Torvalds, Steve Yegge or those in your field) and visit book stores to keep an eye on where the market is heading. Ch 46: Watch the Market

-Do self career reviews regularly. Ch 47: That Fat Man in the Mirror
Things to do or learn:

-Make a conscious decision to decide your field of expertise (.Net), it’s demand (Jobs, Salaries and so on) and Supply(Competition around the world). Then do the same for area of work (software developer, tester, manager, etc.) From Ch 1: Supply and demand .

-Understand revenue model, customer usage and other business aspects of your product and company. From Ch 2: Coding Don’t Cut It Anymore

-Every 6 months, take a look at technology field, see what is new and ahead on the curve. Consider learning about it. Java in 2000, Rails in 2005. Ch 3: Lead or Bleed? and ch 42: Already Obsolete

-Ch 12: Find a Mentor and Ch 13: Be a Mentor

-Do lots of work in your field to keep yourself sharp. For example, code code code. Use Code Kata or Programming Pearls From Ch 14: Practice, Practice, Practice

-Consider learning some methodology like Agile. Ch 15: The Way That You Do It

-Find areas of big gaps in your product and fix them. Ch 19: Mind Reader

-Learn to write and properly: emails, IMs, technical documents. Use a development diary to explain decisions, design, tradeoffs. Write articles for magazines. Learn to touch type. Ch 33: Me Rite Reel Nice

-Search for youself on Google and see what it tells about you and your skills to someone who does not know you. Ch. 38: Build Your Brand

-Be remarkable in your field, the authority. Ch 40: Remarkability

-Create a map so far of my career and plan future map. Ch 45: Make Yourself a Map

Technorati Tags: Software Development Programming Career

As part of working for Granite Edge Networks, I made changes to PF_RING, originally by Luca Deri. Over the last year or so, I have sent changes as patches to the ntop-misc mailing list, though that has not been possible of late. On a recent request, I have put up the latest PF_RING version with bug fixes and one feature on the Software and Projects page and also sent it to the mailing list.

I will follow up with a changelog later.

Technorati Tags: Linux PF_RING Networking

Google brought YouTube for $1.65 billion and the blogsphere is buzzing with posts on the topic.

Robert Scoble speculates What if Microsoft bought YouTube? and there is a Seattle Times blog with the post What Google’s YouTube deal means for Microsoft?

IMO, the key though is that YouTube runs Linux and probably has developers with Linux skills. This runs against both the Microsoft Corporate DNA and the derived Microsoft Employee DNA.

The Corporate DNA shuns all Non-Windows Companies, the key being that buying Windows only companies means among other things:

• it encourages other startups to develop on and buy Microsoft Software Windows and Servers(SQL, IIS, etc)
• Having brought a Windows startup means they can move developers around with minimal learning curve.
• Most Linux\Unix developers anyways hate Microsoft and would leave anyways. I have heard this from more than one person.

This might be one the the reasons Microsoft has so few silicon valley acquisitions. As far as I have noticed they rarely even buy hardware running on non-Windows platform, the only exception being from F5 Networks.It also means they will redevelop a website or product in\on Windows rather than buy it on Non-Windows OS. Don Dodge of Microsoft suggests reasons that is better.
I have seen signs of these in the last one year or so of discussing with Microsoft employees, for startups they would prefer Windows Server 2003\SQL Server over Linux\MySQL without regard to cost, etc, For personal development .Net over Rails due to syntax highlighting and makefile support in Visual Studio and that it is 80% discounted to them and so on.

So, that is another reason, Microsoft\MSN\Live (Or Microsoft MSN’s Live Division as Torres mentions it is) will not buy Zillow which again runs Linux or change it to Windows when they do buy it.
Technorati Tags: Linux Microsoft YouTube

Update: Roughly Drafted has an article on Microsoft’s failures: The Secret Failures of Microsoft

Update 2: Someone I know correctly pointed out Hotmail use to run on Unix(FreeBSD) when it was brought by Microsoft,