Madikeri Trip

Dear Reader,

Below are the pics from our recent madikeri trip on 19 Oct 2012. The places we visited were

• Kushalnagar
• Madikeri
• Abbey falls
• Mandalpet

Our first landing was at kushalnagar just around 30Kms from madikeri. We had to visit our friend reception ceremony. The event went good and it was fun to be part of this event. We did enjoy with lil bit of wine and dine and at last a bit of dancing

Next visit was to abbi falls, and it was wild and good. One pathetic problem is the human dirt (plastics) were all over the place. Damn! Then we stayed overnight in madikeri, nothing much we did at madikeri except visiting raja seat place for a good sunset. Then nice food and an over night stay in a good home stay was worth it for that night. Next morning we planned to visit Mandalpet.

Mandalpet, a hill-side place with  an awesome view of the beautiful nature aka western ghats.  It’s the most stunning view one can except. It’s very peaceful and mind-blowing. The road to this place is pathetic and hence its suggested to hire local jeeps available on the way. For 5 of us, 800 INR was charged. I must say the money spend was total worth it. This hill-top view was spectacular, and then wind was blowing madly. It was total fun standing still and enjoying the view. I am sure images does speak more than words.
Do note that, some of the scenes from movie Gaalipata (kannada) is shot at this place.

Following noon, we departed from coorg towards bangalore. On the way we visited kaveri nisargadhama and then dubare forest for some water fun. That night back to bangalore. Damn the funs over …

Njoy the pics then yea!

hmm…New style of waiting for Miss. Right

ello paining…

yea the style king..

A beautiful area outside mandya

AnnaBond bandru, Jaga bidi

…

Another purpose of our trip!

Lovely couple

4 eligibles

Single….

3 Eligibles

K, Good photography

Hmm…good

Fantastic view + Beautiful Sunset + Chicks – Beer = 1 step to heaven.

Chasing never stops!

Spectacular View

On the way to mandalpet

Road to Mandalpet

Road is very pathetic. Don’t prefer own vehicles

Forest officials office





I did really wish to settle down

Hmm..Was very windy



Starting point to heaven

Point where forest territory starts

Take 1

Take 2



Ready for water

Off to Row

Enjoying swim

Free style

Tired and then departing to hell (bangalore)

Couple of videos shot at these places:

Okey folks, thats all for now. Hope you enjoyed as much as i did.

Thanks & Happy Diwali ahead,
Zen

Software Industry humor

Its really funny and at the same time very weird and pathetic how the industry has turned out to.

Zenwalk 7.2 is a bliss

Dear Reader,

Today i am very happy to write about the upgrade i did on my laptop last night. As always, upgrading my boxes to the new version is an exciting thing to me. Not just because its super easy, it’s because the new things i am going to experience about it and the post tweaking stuffs i am supposed to do. It’s always brings excitation on the table. I must say, i am proud zenwalk user since past 4-5 years, and ever since it always kept me happy and made me proud user of it.

Anyways, zenwalk 7.2 released after almost 7 months or so. So i previously had 7.0 which had xfce 4.8 on it. XFCE 4.8 infact had very good interface and good application as well. It was fast, slick and snappy . But hey common, who doesn’t need a new version every now and then? But for me it was never a mandatory to look for an updates. I was very happy with the performance of XFCE, Zenwalk, Kernel 2.6 and its total performance.

So downloaded the new ISO file (700MB), this is one of those reason i love about zenwalk. That is, its philosophy: “One App per Task”. However, in the new 7.2 Live version this has been ruled out, hence live version is available only on DVD style. Anyhow, once downloaded, backed up all my tweaking settings and even had to brainstorm a bit to remember what ever else changes done. Once all done, off to installation.

Installation is pretty much the same old style (CLI) since zenwalk 6 or earlier, but amigo, do not make a weird face reading this line. Though you might think WTF about this, but still its very easy to install and very simple. I again applaud for this great job done by the zenwalk folks. One such screen shot is below:

Courtesy: http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2011/04/13/zenwalk-7-review/

The new version installation is done almost within 20 minutes or so (didn’t calculate accurately though). Once installation is done and remaining configuration is done, the system restarts within 21 secs approx till login screen on my i7, 4 GB laptop. That’s a pretty much surprise and happy news. I never estimated it with 7.0 earlier, but with 7.2 its definitely better, faster and i am happy about it.

The redesigned login screen was pretty much a surprising thing to me as soon as first reboot was done. And i am happy to share the screen with you. I am sure you shall love it

Once logged in, did couple of tweaking as per my needs. Next step was to wander around and see whats working and whats not in the new version. The first thing i noticed was the new revamped interface design of XFCE 4.10. The design, theme and icons, etc. are really awesome. I just wandered around it for a while. I must say great job folks.

Next impressive change is network app. Both wireless and wired interfaces were configured automatically and loaded by the network manager. Immediately i noticed that in 7.2, zenwalk team has chosen network manager applet for managing networks and i must say its way better than WICD used in the 7.0 and earlier. WICD did give me some pain in the ass moments when i was in 7.0.

Zenwalk 7.2 comes out with Firefox 15 and immediately i upgraded to 16 from the repos. So its pretty good to see a support for the latest version of my favorite browser. Next few things i wander around and noticed was my graphics chip recognized and working good compared to 7.0. So by default zenwalk 7.2 supports nouveau driver, but i still preferred official nvidia driver and hence installed it because it provides a configuration app for me to do some tweakings.

Next step was to see if sound is identified and voila, it’s there and working kool. So immediately i see if music app provided or upgraded is good? Yep there it was Gmusicbrowser, I must admit that i never used it before though i remember it being supported in the older versions, so i always preferred exaile so far. But this one seem to provide same kind of features and the whole UI is highly customizable, so its kool. My touchpad is now officially recognized by the kernel and appropriate driver is loaded as well as XFCE provides more mouse/touchpad options for it, hence again its kool .

Last but not least, one problem i found is that my bluetooth isn’t working OOTB (Out of the box). I have reported to the zenwalk team and hopefully i shall get a solution soon, but it’s not a show stopper issue. So i am not left disappointed.

There is a lot to say, but at this moment i am still exploring. So far i could see a lot improvements in terms of applications, artwork, performance, memory, etc.. Almost all apps i came across so far is upgraded to the new versions and they have their own improvements in terms of usability and bugs fixes.

Hence all in all, i am very much impressed and again happy. All hail to teams of kernel, zenwalk, xfce and other apps. Kudos to all of them for their great hard work.

Thanks & Happy Linux-ing,
Zen

Related articles

• Zenwalk Live 7.2 Has Linux Kernel 3.2.5 (news.softpedia.com)
• Distribution Release: Zenwalk Linux 7.2 “Live” (distrowatch.com)
• Distribution Release: Zenwalk Linux 7.2 (distrowatch.com)
• Zenwalk Linux 7.2 aims for “100% Slackware compatibility” (h-online.com)
• Zenwalk Linux 7.2 Wants to Be a Really Fast OS (news.softpedia.com)

Better if feature wise subclassing

Dear Reader,

I am working on a legacy code base which not only is quite challenging but troublesome as well, sometimes shit, sometimes pleasant, all in all its a roller coaster ride for me. So lately i picked up a task of implementing a feature where in had to provide a functionality of Import and Exporting some data by other indirect means i.e no manual user intervention. Based on my analysis, i found out that this feature is already present for one particular type via GUI intervention. Now i need to replicate this feature as a background activity.

Yes it might sound like what is the big fuss to blog about it? Right, even before writing this blog i though of this point many times. But i did face 1 challenge in solving this problem w.r.t design issue which i am going to share it soon. But before let me give you a brief overview about the current design and then later i shall share how i got stuck for like half day thinking about possible best solution.

Below image shows the current class design:

As you can see from the above hierarchy design structure which looks pretty much good, but for this feature which i am implementing poses a challenge because this feature which is already provided via a manual invocation via GUI menu is only supported for Master Types specifically supported for MasterC type. But unfortunately the earlier developer didn’t see this through well and implemented all the code in base class i.e BaseType.

But the similar feature which i have to implement should only be supported by all Master types which is almost similar to already implemented for MasterC, but remember the full implementation is in BaseType which logically is wrong but i am guessing that original developer didn’t had the requirement at that time of supporting all other derived types, but still it was wrong.

Any way, to implement my feature for all Master Types i had this problem of how to override this already implemented code which is in BaseType.  So i came up with couple of possible solution which has pro’s and con’s. Lemme list them below:

Solution 1:

•  Just move the code (marking that method as virtual and override in MasterC type) which is already implemented for MasterC from BaseType to MasterC, because as of now it just only supported for MasterC as far as i know.
• Very simple and easy to do, but has problems.
• Product is legacy, so its high risk to move it. I never know which corner test case i could break.
• Overriding this feature in MasterC, poses another problem where in, the feature which i am implementing should world in the background as well as same functionality (Import and Export) should work when manually invoked via GUI menu for MasterC.
• So overriding this method for my feature will break the manual intervention feature.

Solution 2:

• Implement subclass for this feature for MasterC, lets call the feature as FeatureX, thus naming the class as MasterCFetureX as shown, since MasterC is the odd type here having both features to be supported.

• This way, as thought in solution 1, i can mark that method as virtual and override in MasterCFeatureX to execute a customize version of the same code already implemented for my requirement/feature and when manual invocation is done which is already existing feature for MasterC, then the virtual method in MasterC will get execute. This way, i get what i want and existing functionality is not broken.
• But the problem is, the source where the object MasterC is created based on the menu action is not implemented via any creational patterns viz Factory. If it had been, for this sub menu item action i could create object of MasterCFeatureX an played with it. But since it is not there, implementing such patten at the UI level till business is  huge and very risky because changes and impact is huge in terms of effort and time.
• Another problem is the level of hierarchy could grow more, thus making code maintainability tedious.
• Many test cases are risk to be broken if chosen this way. Hence dropped.

Solution 3:

• Very simple and straightforward but crude and filthy which i myself still do not like. But i am forced, so that feature gets delivered in time.
• The method which is already implemented BaseType takes an argument (some container from another library). So i added a enum type called ViewFeatureTypes which had None, FeatureX, FeatureY, etc. into this container. Now when i am invoking this call for my feature from View, i set this enum type value in the container and check this value in the code in BaseType.
• This enum can be used in various other places where i am sure such design constraints exists. So for future purposes added Enum than a bool member to this container type.
• As said, very safe and simple yet crude and dirty.

Thanks & Happy Designing,
Zen

P.S: Please drop your feedback. I am not a good designer, but see myself there in career. So any suggestions are welcome.

Good_Results = Testing as Experimenting;

Dear Reader,

This is one of the learning activity i went through recently which i would like to share. Lately i am kinda doing testing as part of team effort so that task can be finished off soon and well with in the time line.
Any way, so this module which was tested earlier was given to me for 1 final round of testing before it can be certified as complete and tested by our internal tester. So at first i just though i shall do as simple as a testing person shall do with a testing mindset, hence i borrowed all the test cases already defined.

My testing continued for a while with all the test cases given. As soon as i was finished with all the test cases which were exhaustive, all of them got passed. I was happy that all passed and i did not find any bugs. I actually felt we gonna finish off the task way ahead of dead line. So i took a break for 5 mins and went for a coffee.

This break did really kicked me hard and kept me worrying that i must have missed or i did not do enough testing. Basically i was not contended about the results i got from my activity. Though, i finished off my activity way ahead of time, still i was bit unsatisfied about the outcome.

As i immersed myself into my coffee, it did strike me up with couple of questions which i started asking myself as “what would be the output if i did this?”, “what would be the output if i do that?”.

Basically i started adding a lot experimenting test cases in my head. I heard somebody calling it as monkey testing, but its not really it is, since it is done during unit testing and not as part of module testing.

Hence i got back from my coffee break, and spend another 2 hours doing my experiment with this module with almost 10 test cases, i came up with. Gladly at the end of an hour or so, all my experimenting test cases failed. Even some resulting in complete application crash.

I was completely satisfied about my work and i reported to my colleagues and to be frank, they even appreciated my experiment

Happy Coding,
Zen

The 6 People You Need in Your Corner or Career

Very nice
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2012/07/17/the-6-people-you-need-in-your-corner/

Word power – Mishap when failed to notice

Dear Reader,

This is about the incident i faced with one of my colleague today wherein a word which was not noticed properly impacted in judging me completely different.

Normally I read technical books (Mostly C#, Unit testing, Refactoring, Design patterns, etc.) while i travel to office in the bus. As usual today i started reading Art of Unit Testing by Roy book. Not to forget, this book is amazing if you wish to improve your skills.

So as i kept reading, after a couple of stops one of my colleague boarded the bus and it happen so that he has to take seat next to me, hence i made some space for him, then i continued to read further. After a couple of minutes this guy turns towards me and says what is this book your reading.

I smiled and said its w.r.t to my work thinking that he does not belong to the IT field (yes i casually know this guy), he then says ok, about what specifically. This was the awkward moment for me because i did show him the cover of this book.

His immediate response was, is there a text book on unit testing too? He made a gesture and face expression as if i am a newbie in this field and was learning just now because he knew i am not. Although i did not feel embarrassed at that moment, but his weird smile made me further uncomfortable. He then started asking, why are you reading this text-book. This was another moment i felt awkwardness since he had already referred this book as “text-book” because most of us have a feeling that a text-book is just like a starter kit which is studied by college students.

He continued making further funny gestures which made me uncomfortable. I turned away from him for a moment to control my embarrassment because there were other folks who on-looked at our conversation. After a second, it suddenly occurred to me that he failed to spot one good meaningful word on the book cover. Immediately i turned back at him and smiled, which suddenly made him feel weird about my reaction. He kept staring at me for a second, after which i once again pointed him towards the cover of the book.

I pointed him towards the word “ART” on the book cover and said it’s not a text-book but It’s about improving your skills and its about writing better unit tests and maintainability code. At that instant, he felt some thing good in his mind and made a surprising face and immediately acknowledged that he did not notice the word “Art” in the title. He then said “oh nice” and went back to his sleep.

This incident kept me thinking and wondering about how just one word when unnoticed makes a big fuss or poor judgement about the person and his capabilities. I must say it was a whole new experience to me. Perhaps this is why communication is a very good topic to master in. Thankfully i came up with a good explanation to convince him that i am not a kid.

Thanks & Happy Reading/Coding,
Zen