Abhishek: On E-Learning, Flash and Related Topics

Rinikka!!!

2010-11-02T18:07:00.000+05:30

Rinikka, our daughter has been the focus of our attention for the last 4+ years. I am using the term "4+" because that is how she is telling her age now "Dad, I am 4+ years old". I don't know honestly where these 4+ years have gone but they have been so much of fun.

It is so enduring to see her grow, ask questions, make faces, love, kiss, fight, get angry. I am go on and on with the numbers of emotions she comes up with everyday but that is not the point. The point is that I feel I am not spending enough time with her these days, and by her I don't mean only Rinikka but my wife as well. The reason for not spending time is the kind of attention my job is taking over my personal life, it sounds so lame when I write this but somewhere the age is also adding up to the stress level body can take!

I wish the time could slow down and each passing minute will give me an additional hour to spend with them, I wish I could go with her on holidays more often, I wish I could give her bath, dress her up and cook her breakfast everyday, I wish I could drop and pick her from school everyday, I wish we could go to a park and stroll endlessly. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride them...so damn true!!!

So what can be done?? I think going forward I have decided to do 2 things, one work from home atleast once in a week and try to minimize my time spent on laptop on weekends to 2 hrs each (preferably when she takes the afternoon nap). This is in addition to our unsaid protocol of 2 vacations per year. I am hoping that I am able to meet my expectations and give Rinikka and Trisha what they least deserve.

Tampa, Florida!!!

2010-09-02T01:08:00.001+05:30

Just landed at Tampa Airport and this is my second visit to Florida state, first one being to Orlando in Nov'09. Exited and looking forward to the trip!!

NYC-Wilmington-NYC

2010-05-15T01:59:00.001+05:30

WOW, what a week!!!!

continuing from where I left, we (me and Banerjee) reached NYC on Sunday, May-09 from where I left to Wilmington to meet one of our client teams and it was quite an eventful visit. Work accompanied by pleasure is always good, and it was this time as well. I met some amazing colleagues of mine and we had so much fun, with a loads of work and business as well :)

Back from Wilmington to NJ and went to meet one of my long time friend (Vijay, I hope I can call you that) and my boss to see his famous and lavish apartment. Our initial reaction was like WOW...so let me describe his apartment, bang on the Hudson river overlooking at Manhattan on one side and statue of liberty on the other. Another round of drinks and long night chat and back back to NYC.

Now is my last week in the US and I am off to Atlanta tomorrow to meet my family and a week of vacation, can't wait to meet my darlings...babes, here I come...

In the US, having fun!!!!

2010-05-09T23:25:00.001+05:30

I am currently in the US, off to NYC and laving loads of fun, here is the story so far...

I started my travel on 30-April to Chicago via New York. I was very skeptical as I was travelling Air India for the first time on long haul. I must say Air India did surpised me, pleasently i.e. :) The food was good, the plane was brand new and clean, the hostess were very pleasant etc etc.

I reached Chicago for a 1 week training (management training!!). Yeah, I know what you are thinking but there was another surprise, the training was really GOOD, it was one of very few instances where I came out asking for more :) I met some amazing new people and co-workers. I also met my career counsellor for the first time and that was quite an experience as well. He is a very interesting person and he has influenced me in more than 1 way in those 3 meetings, thanks Raj!

From Chicago, I went to Bloomington to spend the weekend with 3 friends. We had soooo much fun, cooked, boozed around and chatted till late nights. It was like back in my college days and nothing to worry for 2 nights. Thanks Shaleen, Banner, and Gunjan!

I am off to NYC tomorrow and will keep you posted...more to come...

1st Day @ Nursery School

2010-03-26T14:36:00.000+05:30

Day before was my daughter's first day at the nursery school. I am not sure if you've been reading this blog regularly but this is the end of about 6 months of exercise and running around. School selection, filling, submitting application, interactions, lists, lucky draws, fees payment etc etc etc...am so glad it's over and done with!! PHEW!!!

Also, I think we were extremely lucky in the process; our daughter got through all but 2 schools which was a very pleasant surprise and then choosing between the schools was not that difficult. My wife was instrumental in getting all this done, I was not able to give time due to the office chores and she was the one draining herself out. Also, need to thank Shaleen, a friend and a colleague and support and helping us taking the final decision. Thanks bro!

I think now the difficult part begins...I am sure there will be a lot of conversations, controversies, issues, problems in the next 14 yrs of schooling., but as I said earlier one bit is done, another one on the way!!!

My baby Graduates...

2010-03-25T22:46:00.000+05:30

from the play school i.e. WOW!!!

I never work a graduation gown EVER, but my 3 yr old daughter already has a photograph in a graduation gown while I am not prepared at all looking at her like that!!! Well, times are changing and time for me to change or bend my rules I guess :(

6 month old @ Accenture!

2010-02-20T23:30:00.002+05:30

I turned 6 months old today in Accenture :) I completed the necessary probation period and got a letter of confirmation. I must say I never realized the pace at which this period ended, the life has been absolutely fast lane in these last 6 months. There were so many changes I encountered, most of them pleasant. I must say that I have made some excellent personal and professional relationships which is one of the best.

Must thank a lot of people, particularly my family for all the support. This job has been very harsh on my family and they have taken a definite toll. My focus going forward will be to make up for all the lost time.

Nursery admission and us!

2010-02-09T22:37:00.003+05:30

Tomorrow is a very important day for us, we are finally going to get our daughter admitted to nursery. It may sound funny to some and familiar to some of you, what I can guarantee is that the people whom this sound funny have never been close vicinity of a 3-5 year old kid.

I am not sure about the other cities in India but in Delhi, getting admission to a "good" nursery school is a pain at all the wrong places. I think we were lucky to see our daughter get through more than a couple of schools. Once you get through a school the next step is more painful, getting ready and paying through your nose. Take this, the average admission fee of any school here is 50K to 90K and then you have to pay quarterly fee of anything from 15K to 30K. The books, dress, shoes, etc etc are on the top of this amount.

My sense is there is something fundamentally wrong with our education system, the primary problem being confusion between the school and govt laid processes, another being no transparency in the admission process. Noone is sure of the final criteria and the no. of points you would have got as a parent. My worse experience was with a school which asked for grandparent's education qualification, my and wife's yearly income, our 3 year ITR, the car we drive and if we live in a owned or a rented house.

I hate to say that the whole system stinks, but are we ready to stand up and say a firm NO. Unfortunately, the answer is a firm NO.

Reincarnation of my blog!!!

2010-01-24T12:23:00.004+05:30

It's been really really long since I last came here. The last year has been quite amazing in all sense of the word :) I changed my job in Aug'09 and joined the whole new world of Management Consulting, at least I thought it was the whole new world ;) It is quite different from the world i have been used to for the last 4 yrs at IBM, the first and the foremost was the personal life which took the hit! I was used to WFH atleast 3 days a week while at IBM, my family was so used to seeing them at home. These days I have to go to office everyday, sometimes on Saturday as well.

Of course, my online life took a beating as well, Post coming back from the long rip to the US in May,I hardly got any time for the blog posts. My friends have been pestering me to write stuff, updates, etc...but honestly, no time at all. I have so much to say, so much to share, I guess I need some serious sessions on time management.

Anyways, new job brought new challenges and new learnings of course. Some of it has been overwhelming and very difficult to cope with at times. Having said that, I am very exited and anxious...to learn, to contribute, to make a positive change, so copy book.

I will try and keep my bog alive, I hate to see it stale and would try and make sure there are some updates. Look forward to the excitement and happy blogging!!

In Orlando, Florida!

2009-11-29T08:19:00.000+05:30

Am headed to Orlando, Florida for about 2 weeks. This will be my first time in Orlando, I know some of my friends have been there and I am looking forward to call/meet them.

This is a business training I have to attend and look forward to meet some of my colleagues I have been interacting over the last 6 months but never met.

My new dope, my new car :)

2009-10-16T23:43:00.000+05:30

The new entrant in my life, we recently bought a new car, a Scorpio :) Some of my friends and family members were kinda critical of the BIG entry but I managed to convince them. For those of you who may not know, Scorpio is a 7 seater SUV manufactured by Indian company called Mahindra.

Absolutely love the drive and space inside, gives me a feeling of empowerment! Pics coming soon!!!

Out on the streets of NYC!

2009-03-23T05:54:00.004+05:30

I really don't know how to start off with this post but I want to share with you all what has been one of the most memorable weekend of my entire life!! We were off to New York this entire weekend and man, it was fun!!!

Me, Debashish, and Upinder hit the NYC early morning and by the time we came back it was 10 at night and we are dead tired and we slept like dogs!!

One of the nicest part was that I met with my one of the best and long lost friend, Nishant. We were in the school together and he came to the US for graduation just after the we completed our school. So, I met him after some 12 yrs (damn, I still don't believe it's been so long since we were in school). It was so much fun catching up with him, I was literally in tears when I saw him (though I did not admit that to him :). I am hoping to visit NYC real soon again when I will be staying over for a couple of nights at Nishant's place, really looking forward to that!

We had loads of fun, went all around the times square, empire state and so on. I also shopped a lot at the ToysRus store at the Times square for my daughter. I am hoping she will like watever I bought for her.

All and all, it was the trip and I was looking forward to this one for so so long...am so glad I finally made it!!

20 Days old, another 2 months to go!

2009-02-26T06:41:00.000+05:30

It's been 20 days since I landed here in Philadelphia and may I say that the going is getting tougher. Not so much professionally cause I am learning new "Tricks of the trade", but because I am really missing home. Not that I have not stayed away before, I was in Hyderabad for about 1 year with GE and then almost 3 years in B'lore (2 years Infosys and 1 year IBM). But that was different, Hyderabad I was a bachelor and Bangalore I was with my wife and kid. I have not stayed away from them for more than a week in the last 3 years, so that's the thing killing me.

Also, we came back from B'lore in Aug'08, been almost 1.5 years. In this time I was comfortable (or rather too comfortable!!) at home. IBM spoilt me by giving this "Work from Home" option so luckily I didn't have to go to office more than twice a week (actually a devil in disguise). I can spend more time home and thus more time with my kid, which of course I rejoice so much. I have avoided coming alone to the US for sometime now, but this recession took it's toll on me.

Anyways, not much I can do except for cribbing. Trying hard for my wife and kid to make a short visit to the US, with crossed fingers. That will be awesome, atleast I will have someone to go home (or hotel) to! Help me God!!

First week in Philly!

2009-02-16T17:22:00.000+05:30

It's been around 10 days since I handed in Philadelphia and I am beginning to find new ways to kill time. I got majorly bored the whole of last week with work and everythg and by the time it was Friday, the last thing I wanted to do was sit at the hotel doin nothing. So what do I do, I hitch hike with a colleague and went to New Jearsey to meet another friend, Debashish who is also on the same project.

On Saturday, we drove back to Philly and hired a car. To be honest, I was kinda hesitant to get into the car at first but then I decided, wat the heck!! I must tell you the following as they say, is pleasant history!! Both me and Deb had the most awesome weekend of our lives. We drove all around Lansdale, found couple of gems around and had loads of fun!

On Saturday we found a Patel Store here in lansdale and went there to buy some parathas and shahi paneer. In the evening, we went to a mall and then to Best Buy, I bought myself a GPS and a mobile phone, down 200 dollars. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant and ate Burritos with ice tea. By the time we came out, it was snow showering...did I tell you that it was beautiful!! For dinner, we cooked some chicken curry and rice which BTW came out amazing as well.

Sunday morning, post our breakfast at the hotel, we decided to hit the roads again!! First we went to an Indian temple which is close by, was an interesting experience and feeling is how I will put it. Then we went again to the same mall and spend some time. Came out at around 1 and decided to look for an Indian restaurant nearby. Our GPS was very helpful and found us a gem, "Sultan Indian Cuisine", had a lunch buffet there for 10$ and ate like there was no tomorrow. Post that lunch, it was hard for both of us to get up. Did that with difficulty, got into the car, drove to the hotel and hit the bed straight. Deb left to NJ around 5.

Now am just waiting for another Friday to hit me and we will be off again, for the ride of our lives!

Philadelphia, PA, US

2009-02-08T07:20:00.001+05:30

I reached lansdale in Pennsylvania this week for a 3 month assignment. This place is close suburb of Philadelphia and about 30 miles from the downtown. I came to Newark and then took a connecting flight to Philly on Thursday. Its blurring cold here, the temp today is -7 celcius and it's snow all around. I had some difficulty getting off my jet lag, so I slept all of yesterday which was Saturday and I am doin fine today. I am planned to be here till April end and am already starting to miss my wife and daughter...I wished they were with me :(

New times, new age, new bond, new salvage...Happy New Year!

2009-01-12T10:27:00.004+05:30

Am I am being too philosophical here?? Well, yes and no...details follow but let me start off with wishing everyone a prosperous 2009!! May this year comes with less (I wish I could say "no" instead but deep down I know that will not be!) terrorism, less strikes, less political crap, even less politician crap (dunno if they are the same), more happiness, more hope, greater vision and a happy nation.

The year did not start off though with what I wished for in the first para. There was blast in Assam on the day 1 of the year, then there was Satyam saga which continues till day, and then the strike by Oil PSUs and Trucker's union. Not to mention the 26/11 drama with Pakistan continues with both side talking more than doing anything substantial on the ground. I don't wanna say much here but I really feel that I am living in some sort of a jungle where anyone (and I mean ANYONE) can stand put, pull out a trigger and hold my life at ransom. Be it the government, the private player, neighbour country or the well established IT organisation...u name it and my country has it!!

And my assessment remains the same, we are too used to all kind of crap now to react to anything under the sun. We fail to raise our voice, we fail to react in a way that matters, we fail to learn from our mistakes, and we fail to do ourselves or our country proud. This post is fast becoming another crib post of mine but this is the only way I can get my vent out!!

Is there hope, I don't know to be honest but I hope and pray for the HOPE!

What's happening? Recession, job cuts, pay cuts...

2008-12-19T15:29:00.003+05:30

It's been quite some time since I wrote about what's happening on my professional front, what is it I am doing and am I going the way where I intended to? Well, come to think of it, it's more of a philosophical question than a straight objective one. Don't agree with me, well...that's what I think.

Anyways, these days I am working on creating a major chunk of online training for one of the global electronics major (can't disclose details for obvious reasons). We are creating web based trainings for them, been a very tiring project so far largely due to lack of clarity on what they want. It's very difficult to manage a client who is not even sure about the basic requirements. Another is quite an interesting project, we are developing a small mobile app which will used in the EMEA region of our organisation. Am really missing my flash development days!!!

Been hearing a lots about recession, job cuts, pay cuts. Touch wood, but nothing much has drilled down here in the IT industry in India. Of course there have been cuts, but those are more of waste cut than the cost/job cuts. I agree with Abdul when he said the more you talk about it, more you get worried about and more you get distracted from your work in hand. I am pretty clear on this one, we will think about crossing the river when we reach it :)

I am sure prople here have different views, tell me yours for sure!

Angry, Disturbed, Disgusted: My emotions!

2008-12-04T11:46:00.002+05:30

It's been over 3 days since the Mumbai Mayhem ended and it's been 2 days since our very dear politicians have started doing what they are best at: Barking!!

I read a placard in one of the peace marches yesterday "The politicians speak and divide us, the terrorists fire and unite us"...so true, I mean the least these idiots can do at this time is shut their f***ing mouths and sympathise. NO WAY!!!

Their insulated and inflated egos make them speak in patronising tones to a martyr's father. They make fun of a multitude of mourners. They make light of a calamity that has not only claimed lives but scarred whole families. They continue to show the world that if there is one are India exceeds everyone else is the lack of brains, heart and all the vital organs in our political system.

What we need as someone rightly said is another no-cooperation or a Quit-India movement here. We need to show these idiots that we don't need lame donkeys to sit on their asses and keep gulping my (taxpayers) money to feed themselves and their dogs (actually, am still ok feeding their dogs!!)

I am angry, disgusted, and disturbed.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/03mumterror-remove-politicians-security-now.htm

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/03mumterror-kerala-cm-deeply-pained-by-controversy.htm

Mumbai Terrorist Attack: and I feel sick!!

2008-11-27T19:53:00.008+05:30

This is crazy, is it that easy to enter our country and create mayhem like this?? There is something terribly wrong in the way policing and intelligence is being managed here. These terrorist just keep on repeating the attacks and we are so sanitized with these that these have become a part of our daily lives.

I hate to say this but this is sick!!! These guys need to be taken to task in the worst sort of manner. I wonder why post 9/11 there has been not a single incidence like this in the US. Are we too scared or are we simply chicken at taking action??

Condolences to the families who got affected by this attack and my salute to all who unfortunately laid their lives just so that we could live!! Am really short of words now....

Updates 11/29: It got over today morning. Salute to all the security forces who killed the bastards. Condolences to the family of the deceased.

Updates: Stacy Mulcahy - Project Management from the Developer's Perspective

2008-11-21T18:11:00.003+05:30

More posts from Stacy on the same topic. Very interesting and definitely worth a read!

http://www.insideria.com/series-project-management.html

Flex Learning Paths @ Adobe DevNet

2008-11-21T17:36:00.003+05:30

I stumbled upon this post on Abdul's blog and Flex Learning Paths is really fantastic step from Adobe in developer's network.

I quite liked the Manager's section as well ;) that's pretty much what a Manager would need from estimation or scheduling perspective. Go through it and am sure you will learn!!

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/learn/

Russell Peters Live!

2008-10-30T08:24:00.002+05:30

I had an awesome experience yesterday watching Russell Peters live! man, it was too good to be put in words, you have to watch him perform to believe me.

In case you don't know Russell Peters is a famous stand-up comedian. Too hilarious and can get nasty sometimes as well to the people in the front row. In case you haven't seen, take a look at some of the videos below and am sure you will end up laughing your guts out!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3712334209880055660

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2579833089500205658

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5209176590989471022

Happy Diwali!!

2008-10-29T11:35:00.000+05:30

Happy Diwali to all the friends and my readers. Apologies for not being regular with posts. I can blame it on loads of work lately!

Google Turns 10

2008-09-28T16:29:00.002+05:30

This not the reason I am writing this post :) I am neither an employee nor a share holder of Google (unforunately i.e.)

I write this post to highlight the site for the tenth birthday. It's a nice timeline kinda feature which tells you about the history of Google. Groovy...or is it Googley ;)

http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday#start

Project Management from the Developer's Perspective: Series by Stacey Mulcahy

2008-09-28T16:23:00.004+05:30

This is something very close to my heart, so just could not resist posting this up!!

I've been a Flash developer myself for about 7 years and been managing Flash Development projects (with a host of other technologies) for about 5 years now. Stacy post is very real life and also talks about some of the daily issues we face (as developer or a PM).

She plans to write a series on the topic going forward and am surely will be looking forward to the same.

http://www.insideria.com/2008/09/series-project-management-from-1.html

Adobe Flash CS4 Announced

2008-09-25T18:07:00.001+05:30

As you have surely already read, Adobe Flash CS4 was announced today. It's been quite a while since I last used Flash (coding part that is; I continue to solution and manage products/projects based on Flash) I really was impressed with the overall Flash CS4 look. Some new features are really impressive and hit hard!!!

You can find more information on Flash CS4 here.

You can find more information on all of the new CS4 tools here.

Driving Adobe: Co-founder Charles Geschke on Challenges, Change and Values

2008-09-10T18:06:00.001+05:30

One of the best interview article you will ever read in your lifetime!! Do read the embedded PDF, it has the Adobe corporate philosophy, really cool. A definitely must read!!

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2038

Google Chrome: The Comic

2008-09-08T19:35:00.002+05:30

You must have by now heard and maybe have started using Google Chrome. It's a new browser by the big daddy himself. I've been using it for about a week now but today I sawand read something real interesting about it.

Google has come up with a comic, (yes u heard right!!) to explain what went in the development of Chrome. Not only it is very interesting it's also very innovative way of explaining the users whys and whats of the product. Another first from Google!!! (or is it ;)

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

AS 3.0 STRING-Concatenation Error: Very Interesting!!

2008-09-03T11:38:00.005+05:30

A very interesting post by Colin Moock in which he discusses a very common error thrown by AS 3.0 compiler because of String concatenation.

A more interesting and very details explanation is followed as well by Francis Cheng.

http://www.moock.org/blog/archives/000283.html

Left alone in the sun!

2008-08-23T03:15:00.004+05:30

One of my very good friend, Amit is leaving IBM and I am really feeling this awkward pain in my stomach. We have worked together before at GE, but the IBM stint was different. Not only did we integrated well professionally, we also came close as a family. Both of us with our wives and kids have had some real fun time lately. I also have learned so much from him during recent time.
Brother, am gonna miss you a lot and I hope we do get a chance of working with you again. We will be in touch for sure. Best of luck for your future and I know you will go great guns where ever u may be!!
Update: Amit has joined back Genpact in the Business Development function of their Learning competency. He will be heading a product line for the same.

ERP Training - It's HOT!!!

2008-08-09T12:23:00.002+05:30

I've been with the e-Learning (read online Training) industry for over 10 yrs now. The industry has evolved in these years from being just creating page turners to interactive to "Content is King" to "Context before Content" to simulations to 4-Tier Blended learning (BTW, this is patented by IBM). While we see a lot of technical (Java, C++ etc) and soft skills (we created 6 hrs e-Learning induction programme while at Infosys!) e-Learning content, these days ERP trainings seems to be the hot topic in our industry.
So what is ERP training some may ask? Organisations like IBM, Oracle, Accenture implement ERP software like SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards etc. for large organisations. While implementing ERP is no doubt a big task for any org, training that organisation's employees to use that ERP software is a greater challenge as it has been experienced in the recent past.
So how do we train these employees effectively to use the new ERP software? We have seen lot of training cos. creating WBT or CBT or ILT for delivering training. While it may be partially successful, it has been observed that what works best is the Blended Learning solution. What it means is that you have the basic overview trainings through WBT, then have classroom sessions where the instructor teaches the topics at length and then the learner practices in the simulated environment to get the hands on view of the software.
I would like to hear some views on what you think of the above, there may be situations where you took a different approch and succeded, I would love to hear about them.

What Non-Flex Resources Have Helped You with Flex?

2008-07-31T15:23:00.002+05:30

That is exactly the question Matt Chotin is asking the Flex community. Go ahead and comment on his blog entry about your learning experiences and source.
My personal take, I learnt Flex (of watever little I know) from the online community reads, blogs, Flexcoders, and ofcourse Adobe site reads. I have not read a single book till day but would like to read atleast a couple of them :)

Classic Mistakes in Development Projects

2008-07-23T11:03:00.003+05:30

I got this link from one of my friend and this is definitely a read. These includes the very day-to-day mistakes we made from the people, process and product perspective.
http://www.stevemcconnell.com/rdenum.htm

Adobe MAX 2008 - Enjoy the Experience

2008-07-15T14:06:00.004+05:30

MAX is an experience unlike any other — an opportunity to connect with thousands of designers, developers, partners, executives, and Adobe staff for education, inspiration, and community. MAX 2008/2009 will be held in San Francisco, Milan, and Tokyo.
Adobe MAX 2008/2009 will be held in San Francisco (California, US), Milan (Italy, Europe) and Tokyo (Japan). Speakers and Session registrations are open.

MAX 2008 USA - San Francisco, CA - Nov 16-19, 2008
MAX 2008 Europe - Milan, Italy - Dec 01-04, 2008
MAX 2009 Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Jan, 2009

To view the interactive experience on Adobe MAX 2008/2008 and click anywhere outside the informational window.

Flash Lite eSeminars in APAC by Adobe

2008-06-26T12:22:00.002+05:30

Adobe has organized some eseminars on on Flash Lite content. Here are some for the coming weeks:

July 9th - Adobe Flash Lite Widgets for the Chumby
July 23rd - Reactive Mobile Content with Adobe Flash Lite
Aug 6th - Persistent Data in Adobe Flash Lite
Aug 20 - Tips and Tricks for Effective Adobe Flash Lite development

Each of the sessions can be accessed here, and start at 2pm (AEST - +10 GMT).

[via Alessandro]

Was not keeping well

2008-06-20T12:30:00.002+05:30

I was not well and was hospitalized for about 3 weeks. Been back home now for a week and now and have just about started working.
It all began on the fateful Wednesday (28 May). I was at office working and suddenly I felt a severe headache around 11:00 AM. This is pretty usual and I just popped in a pain killer. After a while I suddenly felt my right side numb and also starting feeling a little drowsy. I shut down immediately and headed home, THAT turned out to be the biggest mistake of all. Instead of driving down 30 km, I should have gone to a hospital near office and consulted a doc there. Anyways, by the time I reached home, I was vomiting heavily and had almost lost consciousness. My blood pressure sky rocketed and headache turned into severe body ache. All this went on for the whole day and some medication did the trick by midnight and I slept. The next 3 days were fine and I was also able to work on Friday, 30 May.
On Sunday night, it happened again around midnight. Started off with severe headache and slowly I lost conscious. I was taken to the hospital of our family doc by the morning and was admitted there. They did all kinda of tests; ECG, EEG, CT Scan, MRI, and what not. Nothing, Absolutely nothing came out of any of it. They concluded that it was Migraine and suggested medication and exercises. Again, by Tuesday, I was again good and was going to be discharged.
On Wednesday (4 June) afternoon, it came back again, and this time it was the severest. Started off again with the headache which turned severe and then I lost consciousness. By this time, my family panicked and they decided to shift e to a "bigger" hospital. I was immediately shifted to "Sir Ganga Ram Hospital" and straight into the ICU. By this time, I had lost orientation and could not even remember my name. This hospital is supposed to have the best Neurologist in India currently, Dr. P.K.Sethi. He is a Padamshree and Honorary doctor to the President. I was lucky to have him as my doc and he started off again with some tests, phew!!!
To cut the post short, I was in ICU for 4 days and then in a normal hospital room for 6 days for the 10 day therapy for the infection. Turned out, it was a bacterial infection which is airborne called the "Herpes Menilegitis" which can get into any part of your body and start infecting the blood. Then when this infected blood travels through the specific part of the body, that part either gets numb or starts paining. In my case, that blood travelled through certain part of my brain and so I got headache and disorientation.I am fine now, out at home working. I will be going for a checkup to the same doc today just to be sure everything is fine and will be joining office by first week of July.
Lastly, Thanks to my family and all my friends who called, prayed and wished for my well being. I guess all those prayers were indeed necessary!!

NIIT, Genpact form JV; to impart IT training

2008-06-19T11:50:00.002+05:30

Just read on Economics times, one time rivals have joined hands in a JV to impart IT training. BPO firm Genpact and IT training institute NIIT today joined hands to form a new venture - NIIT Institute of Process Excellence -- which will offer training in business process services where the training institute would have 75 per cent stake and BPO major would have 25 per cent. The two firms would invest Rs 25 crore in the first phase.
The first centre would come up in Gurgaon in September this year. Both the companies expect the new institute to have over 250 centres by 2012.
Read the full article here.

Adobe Captivate wins CODiE Award

2008-05-22T09:26:00.003+05:30

The CODiE 2008 awards were announced in San Francisco and Adobe Captivate won Best Corporate Learning Solution in the education category.
I have been working on various e-Learning projects over the last 3-4 yrs using Captivate and this award just shows how far it has come from a simple screen recording utility to the 'best-of-best' e-Learning authoring tool. Not only it is easy to use but turns out it is really popular among the most effective training development tools.

You can go ahead and put your feature requests for the coming versions of Captivate.

Flash Player 10 is out!!

2008-05-19T09:51:00.004+05:30

Adobe Flash Player 10 is available for download from Adobe Labs. Code-named Astro, the latest Flash Player is available for MAC, PC and the Linux users.

Following are some of the highly anticipated and requested Features:

3D Effects — Easily transform and animate any display object through 3D space while retaining full interactivity. Fast, lightweight, and native 3D effects make motion that was previously reserved for expert users available to everyone.
Custom Filters and Effects — Create your own portable filters, blend modes, and fills. Shaders in Flash Player are about 1KB and can be scripted and animated at runtime.
Advanced Text Layout — Fully supported Bi-Directional Text Support. A new, highly flexible text layout engine, co-existing with TextField, enables innovation in creating new text controls by providing low-level access to text offering right-to-left and vertical text layout, plus support for typographic elements like ligatures.
Enhanced Drawing API — Runtime drawing is easier and more powerful with re-style properties, 3D APIs, and a new way of drawing sophisticated shapes without having to code them line by line.
Visual Performance Improvements — Applications and videos will run smoother and faster with expanded use of hardware acceleration.
Dynamic sound generation — Dynamic sound generation extends the Sound class to play back dynamically created audio content through the use of an event listener on the Sound object.
File Reference runtime access — Files can be accessed as a byteArray or text using a convenient API in ActionScript without round-tripping to the server. You no longer have to know a server language or have access to a server to load or save files at runtime.

Oracle University Training at Bangalore

2008-05-15T11:20:00.004+05:30

I am in Bangalore these days for a 3 day long (May 11 - May 14) training by Oracle University. I hate to say this but it was a huge disappointment. I had high regards for Oracle University (couple of my friends work there) and thought this would be a great learning experience. Unfortunately, that is exactly what it did NOT turn out to be.
To start off, the training could have easily be over in 1 day flat. It was stretched beyond limits; both the instructor and the training material were designed to discuss and ponder over useless information. The instructor manual was over 300 pages and may I add that it was an absolute waste of human and natural resources. There were topics like "Find and Replace" and "Spell Check" which were discussed at lengths.
The instructor too was a huge disappointment. I think he had never experienced scenario based trainings which is very critical for these kinds of tool based training. He, instead went word by word in the manual and wanted us to behave like "brain dead" students. He was absolutely unwelcoming to the questions and to top it all, inspite of him having worked on the tool for 4 years, he had no clue about a lot of topics like LMS/SCORM implementation. I wonder how they deploy their online trainings at Oracle!!
Lastly, I would like to suggest the Oracle training folks to come to IBM and attend a couple of trainings here. They boast themselves to be the best online training center in the world but they have a long way to go through. I hope they learn fast!!!

MXNA is back!!

2008-05-08T11:55:00.004+05:30

It has been some time that I was wondering about MXNA and just now I read this blog post, MXNA is back up as feeds.adobe.com.
Christian Cantrell has all of the information on his blog and background. He has been instrumental in putting it up, upgrading it to CF8, and making sure it’s real quick.
My daily dose of blog reading was incomplete without MXNA, glad to see it back!!

Blog template change!!

2008-05-05T19:44:00.000+05:30

Like it, love it, hate it...lemme know ur thoughts.

Flex Showcase

2008-04-21T11:45:00.005+05:30

I have been majorly out of touch of Flash and other Adobe (or Macromedia :) technologies. One of the things that I started studying but could not continue was FLEX.

Just stumbled upon one the sites I used to refer for the latest in Flex, Flex.org and it now has a “Showcase” section that lists a variety of public-facing Flex apps. Great reference for Flex apps.

Adobe MAX 2008

2008-04-08T10:25:00.002+05:30

Adobe MAX 2008/2009 will be held in San Francisco (California, US), Milan (Italy, Europe) and Tokyo (Japan). Speakers and Session registrations are open.
Adobe MAX is an experience unlike any other, an opportunity to connect with thousands of designers, developers, partners, executives and Adobe staff for education, inspiration, and community.

MAX 2008 USA San Francisco, CA Nov 16-19, 2008
MAX 2008 Europe Milan, Italy Dec 01-04, 2008
MAX 2009 Japan Tokyo, Japan 2009

I am looking forward to MAX India but not sure if that's gonna happen :(

Adobe Launches Photoshop Express

2008-04-02T10:48:00.001+05:30

Adobe today announced Adobe Photoshop Express public beta, a free Rich Internet Application available to anyone who wants to store, sort and show off digital photos with eye-catching effects.
As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe’s best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience. Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2GB of images online for free, make edits to their photos, and share them online, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook, Picasa and Photobucket to start with.

Off To Shimla!!!

2008-03-20T20:54:00.000+05:30

I'll be on vacation for the next 4 days. Off to Shimla with family!!

Transition: From College to Corporate

2008-02-09T18:47:00.000+05:30

I went through a 2 day training at my workplace recently (Building Relationship Versatility) and today I read a nice article on Rediff, and it prompted me to think...and go back in life. I have changed a lot from what I was as a person, an individual from my college days. I was an introvert, very shy and would never dare to initiate a conversation. I was almost scared (well, almost!) to strike a conversation with the opposite sex (blush!!!). Things have changed, and may I add for better...

In the training, I was categirized as a "Driver" or essentially a leader. I am also now seen as an extrovert from people around me (I asked this question recenetly to a group of coworkers). Working in a corporate environment and being successful (or atleast thinking am successful) gives me confidence to approch people, strike a chord and initiate a conversation (and thereby a relationship).

I am pretty confident of the fact that most of us go through these tranitions. Life teaches us a lot and so does our environment, our workplace.

You can read the full article here: http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2008/feb/04coll.htm

Game spirit!! Whatz that mate?

2008-01-07T15:46:00.000+05:30

It has always been the case...Australia has always used sledging, unfair umpiring, lying on the field (when asked about a decision) as their area of competence at being cricket successful. So it came as no surprise when Mr. Ricky Asshole Ponting used the same measures to log their 16th consecutive test win.

Everything was done. Umpires on the field were blind, dumb and deaf to hear see the Aussies getting out (Ponting once, Symonds and Clarke twice). They were equipped with extra sensitive equipment when it came to India; they heard the nicks which were not there, saw the catch which was bumped (Benson, u fool, when in doubt consult third umpire not the other captain!!). Even the third umpire acted weird, Symonds foot was up in heavens when Dhoni picked his stumps...but such was the fate of Indians, he was ruled no out.

Sunil Gavaskar raised a valid point. When u know that a player was out earlier in the match and did not walked out (Roy the cheat!!), how can u believe his integrity when he says he's caught someone.

Shame on u Aussies!!! As Kumble rightly said "Only one team played in the spirit of the game."

Security changes in Flash Player 9

2008-01-02T21:48:00.000+05:30

I am a little late with the this update, but nevertheless this is importanat peice of info for all Flash/Flex developers. Adobe released new version of Flash Player 9,0,115,0, and there are lots of security changes are being introduced. Some are already there in the current release, more expected in later releases.

For more information on specific changes, you must read the detailed article on Adobe Developer Center.

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-01T17:49:00.000+05:30

Wish all my friends, colleagues, and readers a very happy and a prosperous year ahead.

Happy 2008!!!!

Updates!! or lack of it

2007-10-12T14:39:00.000+05:30

It's been some time since I last updated my blog. Couple of friends recently asked me what happened, and well to simply put it, I've been a lazy bum. I am not at all proud of that, but thatz that.

Anyways, some updates, been some 4 months since I relocated back to Delhi. It was high time I did that cause Bangalore was really sucking out the mozo outta me. EEEKKS!!! I see a lot of frowns and eyebrow raised; but the fact remains I did not like that city, not a single bit. True, the city gave me two of my top jobs, last one at Infosys and recent one at IBM. I also make couple of lifelong friends in the city, but nevertheless am happy to be back home.

IBM was kind enough to see my plight and gve me a transfer (phew!!!). So now I commute to gurgaon on the express highway and am in office in no time. Imagine this, my office is like 30 KM from my home and it takes me 35 min. to reach there...AWESOME!!! Its about the same time it took me to reach office in Bangalore which was 5 KM from home.

WOW!! This is turning out to be an anti Bangalore post ;) Trust me, that is not at all intentional.

More updates soon...

Is elearning Really Growing in India?

2007-05-11T21:06:00.000+05:30

Amit raises a very valid question. Is e-learning really growing or all we are doing is filling gaps? There are no doubt loads of jobs available for people to pounce upon unlike some years back, but the important questions remain: "Are we there yet?"

I still meet a lot of clients who are not sure of India's capabilities in e-learning. Majority of them speak from their past experience. So in spite of e-learning as an industry growing, everyone hiring, blah, blah....are we helping solve the problem?

I wish I had an answer...

Adobe CS3 Launch Events

2007-04-13T14:48:00.000+05:30

Adobe launched CS3 sometime back and now its time for launch events in India. It's great to see that Adobe is organising events in as many as 9 cities. Great going!!!

Creative Suite 3 is here
Come join us and scores of sharp creative minds for the launch of Adobe Creative Suite 3 in India.

You can register for event here.

Flash CS3 is here!!!!

2007-03-27T15:22:00.001+05:30

Just learned from Mike Downey's post that today Adobe announced Creative Suite 3 which includes a huge new release of Flash, Flash CS3 Professional.

This is huge cause now you can actually do AS 3.0 development in Flash. A host of other new features are also listed in the post as well as on Adobe's website. One of my favourite new feature is:

Convert animation to ActionScript
Instantly convert timeline animations into ActionScript 3.0 code that can be easily edited, reused, and leveraged by developers. Copy animations from one object to another.

Read the full post here.

What will I use Adobe's Apollo for?

2007-03-20T10:54:00.000+05:30

I found a really interesting post by Kristin on "What will I use Adobe's Apollo for?". Lists out all new amazing possibilities Apollo offers for developers. In case you have anymore ideas, please share.

You can read the full post here.

[via GalaxyGoo]

Apollo alpha on Labs

2007-03-20T10:02:00.000+05:30

Today Adobe released an alpha version of Apollo for developers on Labs. You can download it from here and get started on learning more about the new cross-platform desktop runtime.

You can also lay your hands on free pdf copy of Adobe Flex Developers Pocket Guide by O’ Reilly.

Project Managing E-Learning

2007-03-08T16:41:00.000+05:30

Just completed a book called "Project Managing E-Learning" on my org's Intranet. We are lucky to have an amazing intranet and access to loads of books online. So, any free time can be worthwhile (trying to) read and learn something or the other.

I have been into managing e-learning projects and I found a lot to learn from the book. I must say it's one of the few good books I have read about managing E-Learning projects. The author seem to have worked (and suffered) a great deal managing e-Learning.

You can check out details of the book here.

MAX 2007 announced!!

2007-03-01T14:19:00.000+05:30

Dates for MAX 2007 are out. Following are the details:

North America MAX 2007
September 30-October 3, 2007
McCormick Place West, Chicago

EMEA MAX 2007
October 2007 Barcelona, Spain

Japan MAX 2007
November 2007Japan

[via Matt]

Apollo alpha on labs soon!!

2007-03-01T14:16:00.000+05:30

This is very exiting and cool!!

Mike Chamber blogged about Apollo alpha release on Adobe Labs.

Adobe Captivate content on video iPods

2007-02-28T10:58:00.000+05:30

Just checked this new article on Adobe Mobile Devnet site, really cool read for people interested in m-learning.

Adobe Captivate content on video iPods.

Bangalore Blues!!

2007-02-06T10:44:00.000+05:30

The cauvery tribunal dicision came yesterday, and as expected Banglore got tense. We were asked to leave for home immediately. Roads were all cramped up with people rushing home, tensed faces around, it reminded me of the time when Dr. Rajkumar passed away and there was a major riot in the city.

This is really a serious issue, Bangalore has come to terms with rioting at a slight provocation. Not that the Cauvery issue is not serious but there are other peaceful ways and means by which we can protest. I hope better sense prevails and there is no serious incidents in the city.

You can read related news here, here and here.

Never fly Deccan!!

2007-01-21T06:37:00.000+05:30

Air Deccan really sucks!!! I took a flight yesterday from Bangalore which was supposed to leave at 4:20 PM. It got delayed endlessly and finally departed at 9:00 PM. I was supposed to reach Delhi at 7:00 PM and reached 1:00 AM in the night. WTF!!

To top it, Bangalore airport was a mess. It took me 40 min. to give my baggage for check-in and another 1 hr. for security check. Airport was worse than a rickshaw stand forget the railway station. I really wonder if this is the IT hub which India wants to portray to the world.

Update: Surprisingly my flight back was on, rather before time. Left Delhi at 5:45 AM and landed bangalore at 8:10 AM.

Apple Launches iPhone!

2007-01-10T12:22:00.000+05:30

If you haven't heard already, the big news is that Apple announced their latest hardware invention, the iPhone at the Macworld 2007 in San Fransico.

The iPhone combines a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod (with touch controls), and an Internet-enabled communications device, in one smart handheld.

For a product that's resulted in over 200 patents, the price is reasonable: $499 for a 4GB unit $599 for an 8GB unit. However, I was a little disappointed to see that Apple has planned Asia launch by 2008.

Will you Migrate?

2007-01-05T12:32:00.000+05:30

I read an article today in TOI and was thinking all way through the office about it. The article was about people who migrate from India to foreign shores for different reasons (mainly better career prospects). There has been a change of trend in the last couple of years where number of migrants has reduced drastically and also people who migrated are coming back.

I know couple people who have migrated recently for better jobs (or so they think!!) Other day, one of my friend asked me if I would be interested in an offshore job, the answer was a firm NO.

If it would have been some years back, probably I would have given a different answer but now, I think I have better prospects here than anywhere else. Some time back also I had couple of opportunities for offshore jobs but they were not lucrative enough and some did not materialized.

Right now, I am happy and better off in my country!!!

"Making The Cover" is ultra cool!!

2007-01-03T10:44:00.000+05:30

Making The Cover is a Flash based RIA from HP and Time Warner that allows you to put your face on the cover of one of Time Warner's magazines.

You choose the magazine, the background colour, the headlines, and your photo, and using a very easy to use Flash interface you assemble the magazine cover online. One thing I missed was that I could not edit the headline on the cover. The magazines currently available for use are: Sports Illustrated, People, Time and Entertainment Weekly.

P.S. That's the pic of our daughter Rinikka ;o)

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

2006-12-26T10:33:00.000+05:30

Wish all of you and your family Merry Chrismas filled with joy and happiness and a Happy & Healthy New Year.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta available

2006-12-15T12:00:00.000+05:30

Adobe has finally decided that it is time to share it with all current Photoshop customers new CS3 Beta.

You can find both Windows and Mac (Intel & PowerPC) builds of Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta popularly known as the Red Pill in its beta is now out on Adobe Labs as a Public Beta. Also, read the FAQ section before you download and start using the beta. The final product is expected to be launched in Spring 2007.

Top 10 Myths about Adobe Flex

2006-12-12T07:11:00.000+05:30

Ted Patrick has written an amazing post on top 10 myths about development in Flex. It's very useful for the developers who are looking at moving to Flex in near future. As far as I have seen, the most popular myths are about the cost (that its higher than buying a luxary sedan) and also about problems moving from Flash to Flex.

Read the full post here.

Flash Lite 2.1 Player for Symbian Devices for Free!

2006-12-06T13:21:00.000+05:30

Read this in Bill Perry's blog. There is some additional information you can read in the Adobe Flash Lite 2.1 FAQ posted on Adobe's mobile and devices dev center. I personally think this is a great step from Adobe in making Flash lite player more popular. In case you did not know, earlier you needed to pay 10$ to get a licenced copy of Flash Lite Player for your mobile.

You can read the full post here.

Am with Big Blue!!

2006-12-01T17:38:00.000+05:30

Today is my mom's b'day, so first Happy Birthday mom, am really missing you!

Now, I posted some time back about my leaving Infosys. The question of where I was headed to remained unanswered, so here goes.

I have joined IBM India, it was one of the organisations I was looking forward to working with for a long time. I was luck enough to work with Infy and definitely GE which too were my dream organisation. Though GE was an absolute pleasure, Infy was a mix bag; but I have no one else to blame but myself for that.

All said, am looking forward to my association with IBM and I hope this one lasts real long. Wish me luck!!!

Flash Trivia!!

2006-11-30T20:16:00.000+05:30

A very interesting post on FlashDen cought my eye while going through MXNA this morning. This is about some interesting facts about Flash. As he puts it:

"You probably think you know a lot about Flash, but with a bit of scouring of the web I have put together a few things you probably haven't heard"

My favourite amongst all:

"Did you know that more than 11 years ago Adobe had a chance to buy Flash and declined?"

Call it back to senses, Adobe? Huh!! Read the full post here.

Flash Creators leave Adobe

2006-11-23T09:58:00.000+05:30

It came as a rude shock when I recently found out that the two creators of Flash (Jonathan Gay and Robert Tatsumi) have left Adobe. These are the guys who actually created Future Splash, which went on to become Flash. They also took with them the creator of ActionScript and Flash virtual machine Gary Grossman. Gary was one of the primary architects responsible for shaping the Flash Player into what it is today.

Apparently, these 3 guys have teamed up with ex-Macromedia VP of Engineering, Peter Santangeli, to start a new company called Software as Art. We can only wait and watch for things to come out of the stable.

Speculation is, there were some disagreements about where Flash was heading (after being taken under the wings of the Creative Suite). As I said, it’s all speculation, but none-the-less, its a sad day when any key figures leave a company.

Testing new waters

2006-11-20T11:16:00.000+05:30

It's been almost a month since I last blogged; my apologies for not the same. It has been quite an eventful month and I was dead busy with whole lot of stuff to keep track of things. I still have to check on MAX news and also there are some events coming up in SA region. Will try and update as frequently as possible.

I mentioned some related news to my coming to Bangalore in the last post, so here goes. I left Infosys about a week back so now I am an ex-infocion. It was not an easy decision to make but the reasons for doing the same seem too many and so the switch. Where am I headed? Well, let's just say wait for a while and you will know.

In any case, you can mail me at abhishekkapoor[at]gmail[dot]com and keep in touch.

--1 from my life!!

2006-11-05T12:25:00.000+05:30

Today I am entering an important phase of my life, the 30's. It does feel a little odd but am feeling a bit old just by writing this ;o)

Anyways, yesterday was my last day at Infosys and raring for my new assignment. People, wish me luck.

Happy Diwali

2006-10-19T14:02:00.000+05:30

It's that time of the year again. Lots of sweets, lights, fireworks, gifts and also loads of pollution (that's the sad part). But nevertheless, wish you a very happy and bright Diwali.

Incidently, my tenure in Chandigarh is over now and I am moving back to Bangalore end of this month. There is one more related news but I will take some time to divulge.

SO, for now be happy, celebrate Diwali and enjoy to the fullest!!

Nectarine Flash animations

2006-10-12T12:08:00.000+05:30

I saw them some time back and again stumbled on today. In case you have not seen'em, go ahead. They are really amazing peice of art!!

Flash Animation for launch of Flash 8

Flash Animation on 10th Anniversary

Good Agile, Bad Agile

2006-10-11T14:42:00.000+05:30

Read this beautiful peice of write up from Steve Yegge. He works for Google (am really jealous) and explains how Google uses and perfects the art of Agile working.

My favoutite peice:

"Back in Ye Olden Dayes, most companies approached software development as follows:

- hire a bunch of engineers, then hire more.
- dream up a project.
- set a date for when they want it launched.
- put some engineers on it.
- whip them until they're either dead or it's launched. or both.
- throw a cheap-ass pathetic little party, maybe. This step is optional.
- then start over."

and

"- there are managers, sort of, but most of them code at least half-time, making them more like tech leads.
- developers can switch teams and/or projects any time they want, no questions asked; just say the word and the movers will show up the next day to put you in your new office with your new team.
- Google has a philosophy of not ever telling developers what to work on, and they take it pretty seriously.- developers are strongly encouraged to spend 20% of their time (and I mean their M-F, 8-5 time, not weekends or personal time) working on whatever they want, as long as it's not their main project.
- there aren't very many meetings. I'd say an average developer attends perhaps 3 meetings a week, including their 1:1 with their lead.
- it's quiet. Engineers are quietly focused on their work, as individuals or sometimes in little groups or 2 to 5.
- there aren't Gantt charts or date-task-owner spreadsheets or any other visible project-management artifacts in evidence, not that I've ever seen.
- even during the relatively rare crunch periods, people still go get lunch and dinner, which are (famously) always free and tasty, and they don't work insane hours unless they want to."

All I can say is Sigh!!!!! Read the full article here.

India does a star turn to Adobe

2006-10-10T09:38:00.000+05:30

"Adobe India is on a roll. In the past one month, the San Jose-based parent of the Indian unit has commercially released three products, completely "Made in India".
Contribute 4.0, the latest product to have been released in the United States on Friday, was fully engineered in India, as were the other two, Captivate 2 and Premier Elements 3.0. "

Read the full article here.

Google To Acquire YouTube

2006-10-10T09:27:00.000+05:30

This is HUGE!! Google has acquired YouTube for a whopping $1.65 Billion in stocks. The market was buzzing with the rumour for some time but $1.65 Billion is a heafty sum even for stock/cash rich Google.

I wonder how Google plans to get the investment out of YouTube!! Anyways, great day for Flash Video.

Read NY Times and Google press release.

Got Mugged :o(

2006-10-08T22:55:00.000+05:30

Someone stole stereo from my car when I went for some festival shopping yesterday. It was a rather expensive peice with CD player and other stuff.

More than the stearo what hurt me was all the shopping we had done also went with it; the guy did'nt even spared change money on the car. Man, am I sad or what :o(

4 Day ID Workshop by PohMoi

2006-09-22T10:14:00.000+05:30

We just completed attending 4 day Instructional Design workshop by Pohmoi. She has over 20 years of experience in ID and apprently known as "The Grandmother of ID" in south east asia. She flew down from Singapore for this and it was truly an enriching experience to say the least.

The training included the concepts/best practices/principles and theories from ID as well as project management perspective which we can use in the elearning development life cycle. Now the very visible change; the next time you ask any of the team members to work on anything, be ready for they will ask you for "Objectives" ;o)

Thank you so much, Pohmoi!!

Infosys 25 years Timeline

2006-09-21T21:58:00.000+05:30

This is something me and my team has been working on for quite some time now. The project is live now and you can view it here.

http://www.infosys.com/infosys-25-years/default.asp

Views/comments/feedback are welcome.

Sneek Peek to Flash 9 (Blaze)

2006-09-13T12:21:00.000+05:30

Aral Balkan has a post live from Flash Forward which has a sneek peek review of some of the new features of the Flash 9 (codename Blaze).

For me, one of the revolutionizing features is:

There is a traditional timeline animation of a bug moving around the stage, following a motion path, changing size, alpha, etc. So it’s a complex timeline animation. Select any span of animation, right-click, Copy Motion as ActionScript 3.

So the feature walks the timeline and converts the timeline-based animation into an XML structure using E4X and then copies it to the clipboard. He creates a copy of the first movie clip and then adds the code. The timeline-based animation and the coded animation are identical.

You can also use this animation code into Flex Builder and it will work in Flex.

This is one thing a lot of developers/designers has dreamed of over the years. Other features like import PSD into Flash with layers intact is also worth waiting for.

See the whole post here.

Most Influential Site of the Decade

2006-09-01T21:51:00.000+05:30

Its official!!!

2advanced has been voted the "Most Influential Site of the Decade". You can take a look at the archive site which won the award here.

2advanced has indeed inspired a lot of designers/developers across the world. Its heartening to see one my favourite site win the vote of majority.

Flash Anniversary Celebrations

2006-08-11T11:22:00.000+05:30

Couple of posts on Mike Chambers blog regarding anniversary celebrations.

First, a podcast of an online discussion between Mike Chambers, Mike Downey, Kevin Lynch and Eric Whitman on the history of Flash.

Secondly, video of Flash 10 Year anniversary held at Adobe / former Macromedia HQ in San Francisco.

Also, check out recording of Mike Downey's radio interview about Flash 10 years anniversary.

Enzoy!!

Happy Anniversary Flash!

2006-08-09T09:19:00.000+05:30

Flash is now 10 years old!! I came in contact with Flash roughly 7 years ago. We used to work on Flash 3 that time. Time, people and the world has evolved and so has Flash. We now work on Flash 8 (already one year old) with features we would have never imagined.

It all started with as SmartSketch, an illustration program for the stylus-driven Tablet PC. It was created by John Gay and Robert Tatsumi of Future Wave Software. The next version of the product renamed FutureSplash Animator came in 1996. Macromedia purchased Future Wave in December 1996 and renamed the product Flash. The rest, as they say is history.

Adobe is celebrating this event in a big way. Also, there are interview by Mike Downey, Flash Product Manager on cnet news and wired news.

Been 2 years Blogging

2006-08-07T19:07:00.000+05:30

I was going through my blog's archives when I realized that it's been 2 years since I started blogging. I started off after getting inspired by couple of co-workers and friends who started blogging at almost the same time.

I really don't know how many people read my blog or are regular visitors, but in case you are one of them, a big thanks. Do keep coming and I hope I can offer some interesting reads.

IFBIN goes open source cause "Programming is Hard"

2006-08-02T20:41:00.000+05:30

Actually these should be 2 different posts but I decided to combine them.

Firstly, IFBIN is now completely free to anybody and everybody, which means that all Flash 8 Source files are now free to download, amongst hundreds of other examples by some of the best developers in our community.

Also, Programming is Hard is a code snippet repository that covers a number of useful languages, including Actionscript. You can download and upload your code snippets to help the community.

So, some great stuff online for free now. Enough reasons to go and learn some new stuff.

Configuring FLV files for hosting on a web server

2006-07-25T10:11:00.000+05:30

These days I am involved in a project which uses a lot of videos. This project need to be delivered as a CD version as well as a web version.

The obvious choice for videos was FLV. It was working fine for the CD version which was delivered successfully. The problem came when we hosted the same version on our local IIS. The video files will not play. It was a funny situation because it was working locally, on Apache server but not IIS.

Then we came across this. Apparently, you need to add FLV as a MIME type to your IIS server. The exact type which should be added is "video/x-flv".

Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview now available

2006-07-18T14:34:00.000+05:30

First time in the history of Flash, Adobe has released an alpha build of the next release of Flash on Adobe Labs.

This preview of the next release includes only planned new features that are related to ActionScript 3.0. Other features planned for our next release are not included.

Do read the FAQ and the RELEASE NOTES. Also check out the Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview Discussion Forums.

Download Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview

Adobe releases Flash Player 9

2006-07-10T21:27:00.000+05:30

I am just back from a 2 weeks long vacation (though it feels like I never went off work) and one of the news items that instantly stuck me was this.

Adobe Flash Player 9 has been released finally. You can download/install the Flash Player 9 from here.

Adobe Flash Player 9 has totally overhauled virtual machine with a better language (ActionScript 3 or AS3), JIT compiler, better garbage collector, new display-list architecture, binary-sockets and much more.

In short, its simply gonna rock!!!

LIVE from Mohali

2006-06-20T13:05:00.000+05:30

Yep, I am currently in Mohali, Punjab for some time under a tranfer from my current organization. I was really looking froward to this change as this place is really close to home (Delhi). So now I can visit home every weekend. Yipeeeeeeee!!!

Mohali is a satelite town of Chandigarh (which is capital of Punjab and Haryana). Its a big and spacious city with most people having a laid back attitude towards life. Big bunglows, broad roads, lots of greenry, delicious Punjabi food, its actually a contarst of Banglore where I was posted for the last 1.5 years.

I am looking forward to the time I spend in this beautiful town. Hope this stay is stretched much longer than anticipated ;o)

Adobe LIVE 2006: Mumbai

2006-06-13T13:44:00.000+05:30

Adobe is conducting a 2 day seminar (11th and 12th July 2006) at Mumbai featuring loads of cool sessions and presentations. As per the event details "Adobe Live is the best place to see how we're revolutionising the creative industry!"

The agenda, dates and location can be found here. The seminar should be interesting and I hope I will be able to attend the same.

As for you, go register now!!

Update: The event has been postponed indefinately due to heavy rainfall hitting Mumbai region over the last few weeks. [www.adobelive.in]

Are you a crappy programmer?

2006-05-31T13:25:00.000+05:30

Well, according to Damien Katz you are if you can relate to the practices he points out in his post. I guess everyone of us have been through times when we do crappy progeramming for reasons which we realize later were equally crappy. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and make sure to avoid them going forward.

Interestimg read though!! My favourite points:

Your users are stupid. Really stupid. You can't believe how stupid they are, they constantly forget how to do simplest things and often make dumb mistakes with your applications. You never consider maybe it's your application that’s stupid because you're incapable of writing decent software.
You take great pride in the high volume of code you write. Being productive is good, unfortunately producing lots of lines of code isn't quite the same as being productive. Users never remark "Wow, this software may be buggy and hard to use, but at least there is a lot of code underneath." Far from being productive, spewing out tons of crap code slows down other devs and creates a huge maintenance burden for the future.
Copy and paste is great, it helps you write decoupled code! You defend your use of copy and paste coding with odd arguments about decoupling and removing dependencies, while ignoring the maintenance drag and bugs code duplication causes. This is called "rationalizing your actions".

Places you should (not) use AJAX

2006-05-05T09:53:00.000+05:30

Alex Bosworth offers his list of10 Places You Must Use Ajax and a few more places where you shouldn’t use this fancy JavaScript trick. Quite a nice read!!!

BarCamp Bangalore Concluded

2006-04-24T11:00:00.000+05:30

As posted earlier, we had BarCamp bangalore at Yahoo! Bangalore office on Saturday, 22nd April. To say the least, It was really amazing. Had around 25 sessions in total during the day of which I attented some 10 sessions. I also presented a session on "Effective E-learning" which came up as a nice discussion and ideas platform.

Of all the sessions, I particularly liked Pete's session on SCRUM. Its a project management wrapper which Yahoo! uses across the world. It basically generates the benefits of agile development with the advantages of a simple implementation.

You can see more info regarding the event here. Also you can find the event photographs here and here.

Am I a Nerd !!

2006-04-17T11:52:00.000+05:30

I just had to take this quiz. And although I did not expect, I scored 89%.

Phew!! Wanna try?? Go here.

Bangalore burns!!

2006-04-12T23:50:00.000+05:30

Dr. Rajkumar's death created a major outburst of emotions in Bangalore today. We got the news in office at about 3:00 PM and soon everyone was rushing home. Tomorrow was declared an off and suddenly Bangalore turned into a ghost city.

There were rumour mills turning rounds and there was actual violence in terms of pelting stones, burning buses and cars. I wonder is this a way to pay homage to someone we love and respect (as per the argument given by some.) Soon, there was a cerfew situation and not even a road side paan shop or a grocery shop was open let alone food bazaars and worlds of the city.

I wonder is this is the image Bangalore wants to portray to the whole world. Its been called a hitec hub, cosmopolitan and what not. It all boils down to events like these which can tarnish the image of the otherwise peaceful city.

Update: 13th was a day full of violence and hoodigans all across Bangalore. Stones pelted, buses burned, policemen thrashed, the list is a long one. 95% of IT and BPO offices were shut down and the loss is estimated at 160 million USD.

BarCamp Bangalore

2006-04-05T20:48:00.000+05:30

This came into my notice through Abdul's blog. Though my post is coming a bit late, but that's ok I guess.

BarCamp Bangalore is going to happen very soon (22nd April to be precise). You can go and register for the event, the seats are limited as I know so better hurry up!

"Developing Accessible E-learning using Flash" Workshop

2006-03-31T13:30:00.000+05:30

I attended a fantastic workshop yesterday titled "Developing Accessible E-learning using Flash". It was conducted by Shilpi Kapoor - Director, Net Systems at Gateway Hotel, Bangalore.

The first session talked about "What is Accessibility", "What is Disability" and "Kinds of Disability and aids available for them". We also learned what the hinderence are for the challenged people in learning environment specifically, E-Learning. We were also shown the different Assertive Technology (AT) tools such as Screen Readers, Tectile diagrams and Braile manuscripts.

In the next session we learned about the laws related to Accessibility across the world (i.e. US, UK, and Australia). It also included the laws related to the learning environment for challenged people, like Article 504, and the famous Article 508 of the US laws. I was surprised to know that laws for Accessibility also exist in India.

In the last session we learned about how to implement Accessibilty in our e-Learning courses developed using Flash. The learning also included the steps/precautions to make e-Learning courses accessible. This session was quite an eye opener for me primarily because I have been developing e-Learning apps in Flash for quite some time now.

Shilpi, I would like to thank you for the session and the support but more importantly for making us feel how lucky we are. You make me realize that disability is just a state of mind and we all carry some sort of it.

We all carry disablities but one who can recognise his/her own disabilities and help himself and others overcome them will be an "Able" person for me. As of me for now, I still have a long way to go!