Internet Explorer Upgrade and Lotus Notes Sametime

Recently I did upgrade my Internet Explorer to 8 Release. The IE is great, but I never imagined how bad the effect would be on Sametime.

Another discovery after that, Sametime is directly dependent on your default browser for rendering the chat sessions into a window. It showed a very weird behavior of not able to wrap long chat lines in the sessions. So horizontal scroll shows up for those long chat lines. The chat sessions became more and more annoying if I have to read it with scroll over a scroll (I blame it on people who like to write essays in Chat windows).

I found a link at IBM site which need you to modify a CSS file under notes folder and it sets up everything.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/stforum.nsf/DateAllFlatWeb/e0487e6064116620852575860076c1cc?OpenDocument

VMware Workstation and Multi-Core processors

Recently when upgraded to my new dual core laptop, all my development guests started freezing for a few seconds are random intervals of few seconds. As impatient as I am when developing, it was very annoying to wait till it resumes. Tried a lot of fruitless searches on Google and led me to start rebuilds on Virtual PC. The rebuild was really pain because of enormous time it takes to install the OS and then excruciating time taken to install all software and data migration.

Finally thanks to Code Journey’s blog post, it is quite simple solution to make.

It could be because of the fact that if the computer is dual core and the virtual machine is set to use both cores, then BOTH cores must be available every time CPU is needed by the guest. This might be the problem for some, and setting VMware to use 1 CPU core for clients may help, but for me it did not.

Add following line to your .vmx file.
mainmem.useNamedFile = false

The pauses should stopped now, and it does not matter if you use 1 or 2 cores on clients.

Anyways, however it did, thanks Code Journey.

Software Architect – Best job of 2010?

Software architect named top on the best job of 2010. Surprisingly it was missing in earlier year’s listings, does it also mean that this is newly created “Job” in 2010? I am also a Software Architect in a fortune 500 company. I love my job but I would not necessarily put that on top of the list. 

I can say the description matches with what is listed, but their job does end at creating blue prints, sometimes it is important to write code also, unlike building architects, they don’t put brinks together, do they? Software architects do. It is usually said that architects don’t have to know the technology, but it is seldom practiced, they are also humans, they have their preferences for technologies. Technology agnostic architectures are very likely to be modified when it comes to design and develop those.

BEST JOBS IN AMERICA

Money/Payscale.com's list of great careers

1. Software Architect

Chaiken, a software engineer for more than two decades, relishes the more collaborative work.

Top 100 rank: 1
Sector: Information Technology

What they do: Like architects who design buildings, they create the blueprints for software engineers to follow -- and pitch in with programming too. Plus, architects are often called on to work with customers and product managers, and they serve as a link between a company's tech and business staffs.

What's to like: The job is creatively challenging, and engineers with good people skills are liberated from their screens. Salaries are generally higher than for programmers, and a typical day has more variety.

"Some days I'll focus on product strategy, and other days I'll be coding down in the guts of the system," says David Chaiken, 46, of Yahoo in Sunnyvale, Calif., whose current projects include helping the web giant customize content for its 600 million users. Even though programming jobs are moving overseas, the face-to-face aspect of this position helps cement local demand.

What's not to like: You are often outside the management chain of command, making it hard to get things done.

Requirements: Bachelor's degree, and either a master's or considerable work experience to demonstrate your ability to design software and work collaboratively.

Best Jobs in America 2010 - Top 100: Software Architect - Money Magazine on CNNMoney.com

Project Codename

Recently a very interesting project came my way and making headway thru its architecture and design now. The project is making me think more than ever, surprisingly not about the use cases as much as name for the project.  We picked the concept several times before but was dropped due to politics, financials etc etc. Somehow I feel this is it… we are making it.

Here now comes the important question, what do we name it?

1. Microsoft has very exciting tradition for naming their pre-production releases with a codename based on places
2. Apple names their OS as cats
3. Firefox as Nature parks
4. Open source projects have weirdest traditions of naming the projects, not yet figured out yet.
5. O’Reilly has chosen their book covers as animal kingdom
6. Microsoft press chose the toolbox.
7. webMethods uses product line major versions by alphabetically.

Longhorn, Leopard, Indigo, Poseidon, Gran Paradiso, Yukon, SharpFreedom, Supertanga, Revolution, Lightning, Lambrate, Orcas, Q98, Fiji, Pendolino, McKinley, there is absolutely nothing in common.

We need to have some fun with the project, pick a mythology and name the components. It is very monotonous to use very overused acronyms that make you feel geeky. Nothing makes sense anymore, use of boring version numbers is monotonous and dry. There may be a need to use these names in pre-release discussions, can be used in namespaces where needed in codebase, naming the codebase with the mythical project name. There are several reasons to name the project with the name that attracts the team.

Still wondering what should be the name of my project?

This time for Africa.... eh eh

You're a good soldier
Choosing your battles
Pick yourself up
And dust yourself off
And back in the saddle

You're on the frontline
Everyone's watching
You know it's serious
We're getting closer
This isnt over

The pressure is on
You feel it
But you've got it all
Believe it

When you fall get up
Oh oh...
And if you fall get up
Oh oh...

Tsamina mina
Zangalewa
Cuz this is Africa

Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh

Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa aa
This time for Africa

Listen to your god
This is our motto
Your time to shine
Dont wait in line
Y vamos por Todo

People are raising
Their Expectations
Go on and feed them
This is your moment
No hesitations

Today's your day
I feel it
You paved the way
Believe it

If you get down
Get up Oh oh...
When you get down
Get up eh eh...

Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa aa
This time for Africa

Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh

Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa aa

Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa