Chandra's Blogs

Welcome 2011

2010-12-30T21:49:00.001-08:00

Well, 2010 is coming to an end today and I decided to write a little bit towards the fag end of the year.

This year has been a game changing year in most aspects. Both career and family had a lot to contribute. Overall nothing to complain about except the usual :-) without which life would be mundane (don't you think so?).

Chess had taken a back seat initially but later had brought it to the forefront and spend atleast 30 mins every day (almost) playing chess online. I could spend a lot of time with family this year, thanks the change in jobs.

Nothing new in terms of new interests or initiatives for 2010. I just have to do something about this in 2011. Oh! I forgot, I started going to Gym, almost every weekday. Trying to keep myself fit.

That is all there is to blog, for this year! Let us see if I can be consistent next year.

Welcome 2011!

Chess.com - good place to learn chess

2008-08-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

Chess.com is a good place to start solving chess puzzles and learn chess simultaneouly. Become a member (it is free, if you like) and you will be able to play online chess as well.

Try it out!

Chessing - A new passion

2008-07-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I have taken up to chess as a newly found passion these days (for the past one month) and am studying various techniques.

Chess has become my passion, probably forever, as I did not find any other for the past few years. (And ofcourse, I can now throw some words like Sicilian Defence, Kings Indian Attack, Queen's Gambit etc... to dazzle acquaintances :)).

Chess might interest any of you as well, if it is not of interest already. Please check http://chess.about.com/.

Djinn, Demons & Afrits!!!

2008-01-23T20:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I am diversifying a little here from my original technological babble that you usually see. I am so 'into' this now that i could not resist writing a small note to the people who drop-by here.

I was reading a new fiction these days by Jonathan Stroud called 'The Bartemieus Trilogy' and got hooked to it. See the title once again and the subject strikes like a lightning. Yes, it is about those and magicians. Not anything like Harry Potter, though (I am sure this bit would help a lot of folks who despise Harry Potter books).

I, specifically, liked the wit and the plot that makes the book unputdownable. Wit is very subtle and enjoyable. Look for 'Amulet of Samarkand' to start with which is the first in the series.

HNY 2008

2008-01-01T08:17:00.001-08:00

A very happy and prosperous New Year 2008 to everyone reading my blogs!

Let us look forward, towards 2008, with renewed enthusiasm and faith.

Google Android

2007-11-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

Is this a robot that behaves like human? hardly...

Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. It is built to be truly open.

Certainly the news of Google Android release created a lot of hype, but will it sustain? Google Android is a Linux-based mobile software stack incorporating everything from os to apps.

To attract developers to Android, Google has launched a $10m (£5m) competition to find applications that can be run on the various handsets that will use the platform.

We just have to wait and see how Andriod turns out to the mobile users!

Product testing in single day?

2007-09-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

Can a product be certified and released within 1-day of automated testing?

This is a goal Google Test Engineering group is talking about setting for themselves. Patrick Copeland, Test Engineering Director at Google, talks about testing at Google in his keynote address at GTAC 2007 (Google Test Automation Conference).

Every Software Engineer (and Test Engineer) should watch the video of this talk.

Google Docs Rocks!

2007-09-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

Google explains how Google Docs (Create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations online.) works, with example in this Google Docs in Plain English YouTube video. check it out.

A flip for Worldcup win

2007-09-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

India won the T20 Worldcup Final match yesterday against Pakistan. Misbah played a flip shot (he should not have done this) and a stroke of lightning luck struck Indian team. Well, Misbah must have cursed himself (and everyone else must have cursed him too..) for that shot.

Our own Bhajji also added to the frustration by giving away runs in the last few overs that turned tables in favor of Pak.

Anyways, what seemed to have been a Pakistan's turned to become an Indian one, because of one flip. In the years to come T20 Cricket can change the Indian cricket scenario (and the world's too..) dramatically.

WATIR

2007-09-19T03:56:00.000-07:00

While Selenium is a good solution for functional / UI automation, WATIR seem to be picking up steam. Web Applications Testing In Ruby (WATIR) is becoming more and more a standard for functional automation of web apps.

Please read more about it @ http://wtr.rubyforge.org/

Test Automation with Selenium

2007-08-22T02:18:00.000-07:00

I have designed test automation frameworks based on Visual Test, QTP, and Winrunner for a long time and started working with Selenium (about an year back) an open-source test automation tool. Very interesting and powerful tool that allows testers to use multiple languages (Java, .Net, Perl, Python, and Ruby) to code in.

Best thing is that it is open-source and hence free for anyone to use. A number of product companies are identifying the power of this tool. Check it out at here.

look at the back of the business cards

2007-08-18T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well, it is Saturday evening and I was watching a movie and surfing on the net and found some interesting stuff. One of my colleagues recently mentioned about www.changethis.com site and I got hooked to it since then. It has some wonderful and useful information on it. This is where i found an article posted by Hugh MacLeod called How To Be Creative.

Though this an old post (Oct 2004) I decided to download it and check it out. Once I started reading I was really thrilled by the idea and the website Hugh mentioned in the article called www.gapingvoid.com. Very interesting idea and novel by any standard, I think. I was laughing at some of the cartoons he made (I guess he made tens of thousands by now) and really enjoyed them.

I wanted to share this article and the site information with someone immediately. Hence this blog. Check it out when you find time.