Saturday, August 30, 2008

4 things a web developer must be aware of

Here I have tried to put together a list of web developer must know items... feel free to add more items or to add more details to a particular item.


1. Tables layout days are over!
There was a time when almost all the web developers were using HTML tables for creating the page layout. Tables are not meant for creating page layouts rather they should be used only for displaying tabular data.

Its not only that CSS layout helps you in doing semantic markup but also helps you in escaping from the following damages:
- Search engines crawling goes well with CSS layout than the tables layout
- Tables layout is not accessible as alternate browsing methods almost does not works with tables layout
- Add more points that you follow and/or know

In addition the CSS layouts gives you following advantages:
- Allows extreme flexibility in positioning
- Keeps the HTMl/text ratio at a low level thus decreasing load time
- Allows the display of main content first while the graphics load afterwards
- Add more points that you follow and/or know

2. Performance is no more a tweaking or repair work!
In earlier days performance (load time and round trip) was not given much importance! At least at the development time. Most of the times performance was a tweaking and repair work. Things have changed a lot, performance is now a integrated part of web development. Few things that must be considering (maybe at the time development and planning itself) are:
- Use CSS Sprite model for all the image rendering
- Minimize, merge and gzip the css and javascript files at the time of rendering
- Use Content Delivery Network for page assets (images, css and js) delivery! If the company that you are working for is not aware of what it is... try to educate
- Place all the css inclusions at the top of the html and all the js inclusions right at the bottom of the html and avoid having inline css and js
- Add more points that you follow and/or know

3. Search Engine Friendly design rather than Search Engine Optimization!
Similar to performance considering search engine crawling, indexing and ranking has become a part of development itself rather than some expert having a look at the completed and maybe live site and advice and give tips for search engine optimization. Here are few things a developer himself can go ahead and practice:
- Use alt/title tags for all the images and links
- Use rel=nofollow attribute wherever its applicable
- Do logical URL rewriting
- Add more points that you follow and/or know


4. MVC is the way to go!
MVC which stands for Model-View-Controller is the architecture for any application in general and web application and website in particular. Following MVC does not mean that you have use any existing framework (which most of the times does not suits for our specific needs) or develop one of your own that can be used by all your applications. You can keep things simple if you understand that MVC is used to separate out presentation (view) layer from business logic (model) and control and similarly business logic and control from the other two!!

Also you can follow even if your code is not object oriented! Its a myth that MVC can be done only object oriented coding!!

If you support MVC write the practical problems that you faced and how you solved them and your other experiences. If you have counter argument or points against MVC please write as comment... it will be a interesting debate!!!

Contribute to the community by adding more points (as comments) that you feel a web developer should be aware of!!

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Friday, August 29, 2008

5 ways you can screwup your life!

Here I have tried to find out what are the top 5 ways of screwing up your beautiful life....

1. Developing bad habits...
Anything that can do damage to your body or mind can be considered as bad habits. To list a few smoking, watching porno movies, sleeping late in the nights, taking drugs, gambling, spending more than the earning, having extra marital affairs, anger, drinking... I will leave this open for you to add more items or to debate on the items I have listed.


2. Developing bad company...
We meet many people at different stage of our life, they can be classmates at school, batch mates at college, colleagues in office, neighbors, cousins and we spend significant amount of time with them. We develop mis-understanding with few of them and start avoiding, we consider few of them as friends and extend the tenure of relationship beyond the place where we met them.

But at times we fail to do one thing, that is time to time cautious rethinking about our companies, I mean if we think a particular person's or group's company is changing our character and leading it in the wrong direction then we should reconsider that person's friendship and try hard to cut it off in the best possible way and as earlier as possible. And if we fail to this exercise we are bound to screwup our life which otherwise would not have!


3. Night duty as career...
Night duty for few weeks at some point of time in our lives is fine, but if we make it as regular thing believe me we are setting up stage for irrecoverable damage and disaster. Nights are not meant for works, they are meant for rest and sleep. For some stats... One work night consumes seven work days energy, and I have seen many people who do night duty even after marriage dying of stroke! What else you want to know? If you are one of those who either love night duties or who got entangled in the night duties because of career fears... go ahead resign your job right away!

If you have counter argument about night duties please reply to this post... it will be a interesting debate, and I am sure many people reading this blog agree with me!


4. Selecting life partner with dual mind!
"Life partner" I will say this is wrong term used for spouse, actually it should be "life" and thats it! You can buy your shoes, you can by your shirt, you can spend 100 bucks with half mind or dual mind but can you jump from the 20th floor of a building with half or dual mind??? I believe obvious answer is no! Similarly marrying someone with dual or half mind is something like jumping from 20th floor... in fact I will go to the extend of saying jumping from 20th floor is better because you die only once and only you die! You know what I mean!!


5. Unhealthy lifestyle...
Here by lifestyle I mean two things...

Unplanned diet - meaning eating whatever we like and eating how much ever (it can be both less and more) we want to. And eating while watching TV.

No exercise - I always say this... best lifestyle is to eat healthy and do good amount of exercise and the worst lifestyle is just cutting down your diet and not doing exercise!!

Feel free to add more things to this list :-)

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Yahoo! Local - India launches 2 more cities

Already rocking Yahoo India's Local have launched for 2 new cities Hyderabad and Kolkata. I tried few queries and got satisfactory results. Well done Yahoo!!!

They have added two localities under both the cities. They have added Park Street and Alipur for Kolkata, and Charminar Area and Banjara Hills for Hyderabad.

Other things I liked about this site is its users participation, Yahoo knows how to get its users to optimize its service. You can contribute on almost all the features they are providing. The best part of the user contribution system they have created is its simplicity... I have never seen such a cool service, at least in India. There are many more local sites in India but this one I found very different and very interesting.... it gives me a feeling of seeing myself in it.

Few other cool things I discovered here includes:
Essentialist!! What is this essentialist?? Its a kind of wrapper provided over the search... yes this is how I felt about it... actually in short its like well thought short and quick list of businesses that you need for many occasions and needs!
iLocal!! Yes this is another cool side of the service, if I have made any contributions I can see that and more interestingly world can see it!!

I love this service from yahoo! Do you?

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Saturday, August 2, 2008

Islam: a religion of peace

My argument in this blog is very clear, I say 'Islam is a religion of peace' and I have many points to prove it!

I will start with a quote of Imam Ali ibn al-Hussain (a.s.):
"He who acts according to what Allah has enjoined to him, is of the best people"
- Imam Ali ibn al-Hussain (a.s.)

Ali ibn al-Hussain (a.s.) is son Hussain (a.s.) who is the biggest martyr of all time who gave his life for the cause humanity.... so Ali (a.s.)'s words can be taken as authentic from Islam's world!

Now lets proceed with the above quote to find out more about what Allah has recommended... so where to look for what Allah has recommended for the people. I will say Quran is the best place to look for what Allah has said, meaning what Islam as a religion is recommending... or in other words according to Islam what is the best way of leaving, then we can come to a decent conclusion of whether Islam is religion of peace or not!!

Following are few verses from the Holy Quran:

'
Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error...' - Chapter 2 Verse 256

'When you are greeted with a greeting, return it with a better greeting or its equal. Surely, Allah takes account of all things.' - Chapter 4 Verse 86

'But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and trust in Allah: for He is One that heareth and knoweth (all things). ' - Chapter 8 Verse 61

'. . . Do not say to one who offers you peace, "You are not a believer," seeking the spoils of this life. For God has abundant treasure. You used to be like them, after all, and then God blessed you.' - Chapter 4 Verse 91

'Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.' - Chapter 60 Verse 8

'Fight against those who fight against you in the way of God, but do not transgress, for God does not love transgressors.' - Chapter 2 Verse 190

'O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)' - Chapter 49 Verse 13

If you observe the above verses closely Islam is not at all recommending to fight or create mischief but at the same time Islam is not asking you to remain oppressed. Islam does not ask people to fight when there is no need, in other words unless you are attacked, but at the same time silently tolerating is not going to lead to any good! Further Islam wants you to follow humanity and not to be transgress even when you are defending!!

I hope my argument is convincing enough, Islam is definitely a religion of peace and please do not doubt before looking deep into it :-)

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dus or Panch??

First things first.... These days no TV show is creating any excitement!!

For the title Dus ka Dum is much funnier, time pass, and njoyable than many other things that are being shown on TV... I don't know whether this is because of the state in which Indian television is!

Well moving on... Panchvi Pass is boring, repeated stuff, and question & answers is not always a thing that entertains you! Shahrukh Khan is doing his job well, kudos to him!

On Indian Television part!... What is missing is different thinking and big change!!

For now all I can say is Dus is greater than Panch! I think I know math and I can go to Panchvi (and hope to pass)!!

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