Top 10 Concepts That Every Software Engineer Should Know!!

Last Tuesday, RWW carried an article on the concepts that a software engineer should know. Interested ones' can read the article here. The concepts enumerated were pretty obvious except for one that caught my attention; & that was the inclusion of what is being referred to these days as "Cloud Computing". Such has become the power of network and computing these days that they are an inseparable part of us.

Cloud computing, at its simplest, refers to the relocation of data & computation from the users' personal computers (notebooks, laptops & desktops) to servers hosted in the internet cloud. The users are oblivious to the practical manifestation of the cloud. With the ever increasing demand for accessing & sharing data independent of the geography, cloud computing is only going to grow in scale!!

For those still wondering about cloud computing, if you have ever used Google Docs or Windows live spaces, you have already had a taste of what cloud computing can offer!!!

Back to the topic! As much a good write-up it is, I wasn't personally much impressed with the article. Most things mentioned are what we read/gather during our academics. What is important rather, is material which can help prepare/transition a software wannabe to real world software engineering. In that regard, I should acknowledge, that I found "Pragmatic Programmer" a very good book. It makes for a light reading but packs a lot of really useful material & holds true to it's name; being pragmatic in its coverage. I am thankful to KD, my mentor at my previous employer, for having handed me a copy of the book just about the right time; when I was trying to firm my step in the industry. It helped a lot in tuning my approach to software. One can take a better peek on the book here. I guess it's available for download too!! :)

Google's Knol..a death ring for Wikipedia?

An important development in the world of web this week was that Google opened up Knol, an authorship service to general usage.

A knol, Google claims, is an authoritative article about a specific topic. Knol for KNOwLedge!

Well! Curious as I am on every word I see, I hit my wordweb? & guess what? I was directed to the word "Knoll" & here is what it's semantics partly read -

Knoll [pronounced no'wl]
Noun: [archaic] The sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something
Verb: Ring as in announcing death

Isn't it just incidental? Looking at what Google is aiming to do with Knol - acquire authors, are we seeing a competitor for the famous Wikipedia here? Knol is sure very lucrative for authors.
- One, it is backed by Google who spends an enormous amount of money in building its online properties so users can have the best of tools available.
- Second, the lure of revenue from Google's "AdSense"!!

No wonder at all if content generators move towards Knol!! So, would "Knol" ring a knell for Wikipedia? Only time can tell!!! Let us wait & see :)

In case you wanna try it yourself, go here.

My we(B)log. Again!!!

Ahh! Finally! Here I am! Onto my we(B)log :). Again!!!
Wondering why those exclamations? there are reasons. This isn't the first time I thought of blogging. I started long back.. almost 2 years I suppose. & then, the typical, I was so busy with work; where was the time? laziness caught my time. ;)

& there stayed my first blog, the only one flagging my presence on the web, orphaned. All I wrote then was...Ahh! not "Hello world" my dear programmers; it read "Test blog"; after all I carry an engineering(software of course..need i be explicit?) paradigm where "Test First/Driven Design (TFD/TDD)" is paramount!!

Orphaned blog? Yes. But that doesn't mean I ain't a netizen. I spend a lot of time on the web. The web is such an amazing place, has so much to offer. There is so much information..I always find myself lost zooming-in on the information highway. (Thanks to Bill Gates for the phrase. It really is a super highway. Only, there is no end!!)

Why then did I not continue on the blog?
Well! Mainly because I never thought I could write something that is not already on the web! Avoiding duplication is a s/w engineers' mantra..isn't it ;)
Also, I wondered who at all would want to read me!
& then..the inevitable ..what at all do I write about?
....Do I write on my time at work?
....or on the hassles of today's city life there by vent my frustration out!
....Do I write on the things I muse about in solitude?
....or Do I write on my experiments with all these wonderful things, innovations so to say, that are happening on the web?!!

Hmm..Thanks to two of my friends. I seem to have interested readers; & more convincingly, readers interested in whatever I have to say. They have, through their persistence (read praise, flattering..) managed to get me back onto blogosphere; & hopefully 'll keep me active. ;)