August 11, 2011

On Quora: Workspace, Problem Solving, Tools for Python Developer, Real time in Python or Ruby

Category: Personal development,Software development,Work — by Amit Chaudhary @ 11:01 am
Rooms with different engineers followed by Open space are the best among the other choices. It
-Encourages collaboration, idea flow & camaraderie.
-promotes visibility & transparency.
-is efficient in terms of cost & time to setup.

The biggest drawback is that it does not leave space (mental, sound & time kind of space) for flow to happen easily. Hence you will see productive programming start in late afternoon or lots of head phones. This is less so in shared rooms than in Open space.

Personally I prefer silence during work and have worked in startups with Cubicles, Office(great view of Mt. Rainier), Shared rooms & Open space and would rate individual offices as worse of the lot due to the walls, real and virtual.

How does one become good at problem solving?

Work at becoming a better solver in addition to solving new problems.
See Topcoder tutorials such as How to find solution and how to dissect a problem.
http://www.topcoder.com/tc?modul…

Use Charlie Munger‘s “Mental models” method as another approach, they are covered in this pdf http://www.focusinvestor.com/Foc… & better in his book, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, http://www.poorcharliesalmanack….

What tools should a modern Python developer have under his belt?

I would like to propose a 6-12 month list, instead of a 5 year list.

Find out & use
-details of python REPL including dir & help command

-the Python coding standards, PEP 8 & Python API documentation standard, PEP 257.

-Read pythonic code, options include Guido’s essays likehttp://www.python.org/doc/essays… or Dare Obasanjo’s python code and followup posts,
http://www.google.com/search?hl=…

-Code to write: Runtime object alteration, even if you do not use it latter. Write an iterator.

-the Python standard library including string, date, persistence, regex, etc.

-create a python package & upload to pypi.

-write some unit tests with unittest\PyUnit\nose, http://docs.python.org/library/u…

For using Python, consider Tornado (web framework) by the FriendFeed (nowFacebook Inc. (company)) team.

Go through their documentation & excellent demos, https://github.com/facebook/torn….
If you prefer a book, go through “Building the real time user experience” by Ted Roden

For using Ruby, you can use what VMware Cloud Foundry Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) uses, Thin webserver, Ruby 1.9 fibers and async DB drivers, see this article http://www.igvita.com/2011/04/14…

For Ruby I have also seen references to orbited & juggernaut.

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On Quora: Best iPad Apps, What to do in LA, Toddler foods, Kettlebells & Making Friends

Category: Entertainment,Health,Life,Parenting,Personal development — by Amit Chaudhary @ 10:54 am

What are the best iPad apps?

Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore is an inter-active book for kids, see the making at http://www.morrislessmore.com/?p…

The Disney\Pixar apps Toy Story & Dr. Seuss books are great on iPad.Flipboard is very useful & well design, it is a photo, news & social discovery magazine.

KardCombat is a fantasy card game which is quite addictive, it has a nice multi-user mode through OpenFient.

Slice HD is a puzzle game with good use of multi touch & a nice concept, the blood is so realistic, it is cringe inducing.

Planetary is a way to play & browse your music using Suns, Planets & Moons. The UI is smooth and easy to get hang of.

What fun things are there to do in LA?

Some of the beaten path (Disneyland, Universal Studios, Hollywood Star Walk & Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum) in addition to those already covered.
Architecture: Do the guided or self audio tour of Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry

Beach: If you have visited the Energetic beaches of Venice & Santa Monica, go to Zuma beach for nice sand & water and a bit more quieter setting.Downtown & Food: Stay in downtown, watch a modern dance for free (http://www.grandperformances.org) & eat at some fabulous restaurants including Border’s Grill, Mixt Green (It is a SF original) & Cafe Pinot near the LA library.

Here are some approaches which worked for us. Our little one did not even try ripe mangoes
  • Eat it a bit yourself.

This tickles their curiosity.

  • Leave it out there and wait for hunger.

Some sliced apples in a small bowl get attention when hunger happens

  • Keep the food simple

Peas or boiled baby carrots instead of Broccoli, etc.

 I liked those used by our trainer & sold by American Kettlebell club\World Kettlebell club best. They work well for Swings as well as more complicated ones like Press & Clean or TGU.

They have a good medium grip, same size bell for different weights. They are expensive, specially when shipping is added.Kaizen\Budo kettlebells have better prices & have a good finish. The large grip means I use it primarily for Swings.

The best option for beginners or anyone doing one handed routines like TGU, is the adjustable kettlebell by Jillian Michael, available online & in Target stores. It goes from 5 to 20 lb, while classic bells start at 8kg (18 lb.)

Good or close friendships will need one or more of these, some can be made more likely to happen.
Give it Time: Good friendships take time to develop. Which would mean, one meets in same place for a few years, school or work are a good example.

Shared mission: Good friends would have shared something in life, typically a mission, a project with full effort, a great road trip, a hardship.

Respect: Eventually, there needs to be respect for each other,
this trumps politeness, good nature, hobbies and other general social traits, they do smoothen the path.

Chemistry: There are times where things click, it is the human chemistry. Once you notice it happen, help it expand.

Follow through: Which brings us to, follow through by staying in touch
A great follow through person is Warren Buffett
as per the book Snowball, even earlier in his life, after first meeting with someone, he would decide he wants to be a friend & makes place for them in
his life, invites him\her to golf or tennis, to their company, requested his wife
to ask them to club, etc.

Make place for spontaneity in addition to plans: This is staying late once something gets going, showing up on request & more.

Make time for outside activities: Be it Poker, Eating, Yoga, Hike, Pub, Dancing or Squash, make time for outside activities & try to do these with like minded folks. I cannot mostly program, browse the web or meditate & increase

Changes & Time: After this change will be the big one. As we live, aspects ofour lives change, externally, we play new sports, our career gives us different interest, have families with kids, move to different locations.
There is also change internally, we worry more or less about things than we use to, we enhance our selves to do a few things better, we drink & eat something else or not all.
This will distant one from some earlier friends. It is a time to be open to new friends who will one day become close friends, it is also time to open to a different tribe.

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