browngeek

has finally arrived! go get it here.

here are 2 kick-ass indie bands

Hard-Fi (Single - “Tied Up Too Tight”)

She Wants Revenge (Single - “Sister”)

Title - Broken Window



focal-length 28mm, f/7.1 @ 1/125 sec, ISO 100.

Here are more

Is AJAX for real? Is it really the next web revolution? More importantly, can it dethrone desktop apps as the defacto standard for rich user experience? I say a vehement YES to all three questions!

Traditionally, web apps are known as “thin-client” apps and desktop apps are the “thick-client”. Now, the fight is on for who will be the “smart-client” - an app that can provide a rich user-experience without the need for installing a gig of binaries. I’m sure you were as amazed by Google Maps as I was. How can a thin-client app achieve something so cool and thick-client like MSFT Encarta did not? How about GMail vs Outlook? Well, jokes about “who is smarter” aside, such coolness was deemed improbable on the web. With AJAX now a reality, you will see a wave of such coolsmart-client apps.

AJAX is the next webolution. MSFT is in a cluster-fuck right now. Invest more in the Avalon desktop to fight the webolution and giveup on IE ? Or invest in IE to join the webolution and lose the desktop supremacy? It is also ironic that XMLHttpRequest (the underlying technology of AJAX) was first introduced by MSFT!

Smart-client apps will replace the thick apps. AJAX will cleanup your desktop. The desktop will eventually consist of just a browser.

Now, about that name…AJAX? Can we get a better name for something that is about to change the world…

Apparently, Dan Brown has prevailed in a lawsuit accusing him of plagiarizing. My negative disposition of Brown aside, I am inclined to believe that he did not infringe on the copyrights of the accuser’s novel. This is simply a case of suing for money. That said, Dan Brown still sucks! He cannot write and all his books have the same plotline.

well, almost Read the article “Hitting the High Notes” by Joel Spolsky and you’ll see why.

Joel’s point is that if companies skimp on programmers, they get crappy software…and eventually spend more money on maintaing that crap. I believe that this is the case with offshore development. Almost all software companies, ranging from giants like Microsoft to a tinies like PostX, are on the offshore bandwagon - all in the name of “cost reduction”. Heck, if you are a fledgling startup looking for funding, the first question VCs ask is - “Hmm… you idea is great, but what is your plan to setup an office in India?”. They are looking for a cheap alternative. They want to show more income (note- income, not revenue) to Wall Street. They figure by hiring 3 to 5 developers for the cost of hiring 1 here, they can get the same product out. Sure. But you get what you paid for. Shitty product. With lots of shitty code. And by the time companies realize this, its already too late. The product is out in the market and the maintanence nightmare begins.

I am not generalising here, nor am I against globalisation. India (China, Ukraine etc) do have top-notch developers. But companies are not looking specifically for them (Besides most of them are already in the US/UK). They are looking for quantity rather than quality. Wrong approach! Would you rather see the movie with 5 mid-riff baring, deep-cleavaged, average-looking women or see the movie with one (and only) Angelina Jolie (no mid-riff, no cleavage - just the lips) ?

Duh!