My takeaways from Barcamp Bangalore 6

Its always been that one post for Barcamp Bangalore is not enough. Its always that I have had multiple posts. This one could not be an exception. I not being an RIA fanboy did not care to attend the marathon hijack sessions on it. Neither did I care to attend Myspace thing. I kind of hated the fact that those RIA guys did not care but take a room for themselves for the entire time after lunch. Not that I did not like it happening but would have loved if there were people talking about other things also. After all this was not an RIACamp.

Anyways there were these interesting parallel sessions which happened. Among the first which I attended was Blogathon India. Me being an planner for Blogathon India started the session. Later it was taken over by Sanjukta. Next I preceded to help people with their wifi connections to the extent I could Happy. Anyways gurus Akash and Cruisemaniac aka Ashwin were always there. After some loitering met a few people who were interested in my idea of BuddyHere. This was probably one of thing which made me feel that probably my idea can take off as an OSS App. But then I am still as much confused about how to do it as I was before.

One thing that felt really good was when I saw a guy put labels on the Tea and coffee containers. Before that everyone was asking someone else which is which. But this guy just took the post-it notes and pasted them over the containers. After all its your barcamp. Please feel free to do anything. Now that the spirit of Barcamp.

There was this talk on saving Nanda which tried to come up with solutions. Ways to prevent the awesome trees which are there on the beautiful Nanda Road but very soon they will be chopped off to make way for the Namma Metro. But isnt it a bit too high price. It was good to meet such enthusiastic people.

Akash took a session on how to secure your ever vulnerable Windows XP with free software. No doubt that windoze is inherently a lousy OS as far as security is concerned. So the best way is to make sure we use Firefox with NoScript plugin. Another thing is to not install anything. Another interesting thing that he talked about was to disable all plugins in IE. Because if may not be IE but some other s/w which uses IE for internet be the source of problem. Sure to keep ur comp secure you can use virtualisation software too, but what about the data was the question Akash said to one of the participants. I think it was good learning from Akash about all the simple ways to prevent an attack on your PC.

Among the sessions worth mentioning were the legal aspects of Voip, SaaS and Horoscope-- Truth or Fake. It was interesting to know from the session by Rajeev that Voip is not allowed in India. All the while I thought its been made legal now. But it seems that its still illegal and we pay a hell lot of money for it. All in name of security but actually to save the VSNL from incurring losses. He is has created a community, a google group at http://groups.google.com/group/voiceofvoip. Let work towards making VoiP legal in India.

SaaS is sort of a buzzword today. But the fact is something that I know nothing of. The only thing that I can think of as SaaS  is Google Docs and similar services. I was introduced to the term, multitenent Database and SaaS for large corporations. Now thats something new.

I think this is very much what took from the last barcamp. I hope there is more of knowledge shower in the next one too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[24th November 2024] Interesting Things I Learnt This Week

Image
1. AI Makes Tech Debt More Expensive - The core argument is that generative AI significantly widens the gap between codebases with low and high tech debt. Companies with clean code can leverage generative AI to write code much faster, while companies with messy legacy codebases struggle to adopt these new tools. This widens the gap between the two codebases, making tech debt even more expensive for companies with outdated systems. My Take : Legacy systems inevitably accumulate technical debt. A common analogy for this is the state of urinals over time: missed targets lead to increasing mess, keeps pushing people away from urinals and leading to more mess in turn. AI-powered coding tools could potentially accelerate the accumulation of tech debt. However, skilled engineers can leverage AI to reduce and even eliminate it. Ultimately, AI is just a tool, and human judgment remains crucial for making informed decisions. I hope AI will be used responsibly to drive positive outcomes. 2. Make...
Read more

[17th November 2024] Interesting Things I Learnt This Week

Image
 1. Booleans are a trap : Booleans, while seemingly simple, can introduce complexity and limitations into domain modeling. When used to represent complex states, booleans can lead to unclear code and potential errors. To avoid these pitfalls, consider using enums or enum sets. These approaches provide a more expressive and maintainable way to model complex states in your applications. My Take : I wish I had learned this earlier in life. When working with Google Docs, I realized the limitations of booleans. Expanding boolean-based behaviors often led to adding more fields, making the system complex. Enums would have provided a simpler solution. The problem wasn't just the booleans themselves, but also the need to pass them through multiple layers of the stack, often requiring additional parameters. Another important aspect of enums is the inclusion of an " enum not specified " state. This state explicitly indicates that an enum value hasn't been set, which can be usef...
Read more

[1st December 2024] Interesting Things I Learnt This Week

Image
1. C++ Pitfalls - this article, explains some of the pitfalls you can fall into when programming in C++ and shares their experience with them. This includes Operator precedence, Arithmetic conversion rules, Right bit-shift, Implicit conversions and Order of evaluation.  My Take : We've all read about JavaScript's quirks, leading to unexpected outputs. But let's remember that such behaviors aren't unique to JavaScript. Even languages like C and C++ have their share of ambiguities and compiler-specific behaviors. While it's tempting to dive deep into these intricacies, I've found that focusing on clear, consistent, and unambiguous code is often more practical. However, understanding these nuances is essential for any experienced programmer. It helps us avoid pitfalls and write robust, reliable code. Remember, mastering a language isn't just about writing "Hello World." It involves delving into its intricacies, including its counterintuitive and ambi...
Read more