Magnet March 28th, 2007
* Nearly boiling temperature here at Ahmedabad right now. Well, not that much but you can see..
* Like March Ending season, I am reviewing my all packages and doing updates daily 1 package. Hope that this will make things better 
I still need to steal time to answer PP questions 
nirav March 27th, 2007
Over the last 8 years, we have used various systems to manage our software development projects. From paper sheets, to diaries, to home grown task and calendar systems, to activeCollab, to Wikis, to various other things in between. Nothing has worked as desired! As Magnet has grown, we have faced a variety of issues with our project management systems - insufficient or too much details, resistance from the team, chaos once the system has grown etc. So we are setting out (again!) to find out the best project management solution for us. We are tilting towards building our own system, but are looking at various options again to find out what will work best.
You may be using some project management system. What has your experience been with such? Any recommendations?
nirav March 26th, 2007
Noticed two interesting articles from Sacha Barber on CodeProject.
The first one talks about developing applications using .Net 3.0 and XAML. XAML (pronounced Zammel, as in Camel) is Micorsoft’s language to develop user interfaces in the upcoming Windows Presentation Foundation. To make it simple, imaging XHTML/MXML doing the whole of your operating system UI. The technology is very interesting, and I have been impressed with the work Microsoft has done on it so far. So the article got my attention. Sacha does a good job on explaining how to develop a simple XAML application, using different tools - including the Expression Blend (touted as the Flash killer!)
The second article was about a tool that can generate class diagrams from CLRs. That was quite interesting for me because of two things - one using reflection to find the classes and the structure of the CLR, and two, actually generating a diagram that makes sense out of it. I have seen a number of reflection tools and frankly, it takes a while to get used to them and to actually make sense of the application. AutoDiagrammer makes this job easy.
Good reading for a .Net programmer!
nirav March 24th, 2007
Scott Young wrote about doubling your reading rate. I have tried many practices myself, and they actually make a big difference. I especially liked his 5th point - find your motivation! Over the next five months, I have more than 15 books scheduled to be read, and it’s really important for me to read faster! For anybody who spends a good amount of time reading - emails, sites or books - try these principles out. They work!
via LifeHacker.
nirav March 22nd, 2007
I got engaged yesterday! It was one of the rare days when I did not check my emails! Ok ok, let me talk about something non tech!
I enjoyed the whole day! The engagement function was superb, loved meeting all friends and relatives and celebrating the occassion with them. The food was good. And the smiles were authentic! Went out with Nikita in the after noon, saw Just Married (quite appropriate, uh?), and talked a lot. Spent good time with sisters and niece in the evening.
Have put up some photographs (only some.. the others were taken by a professional photographer, and will come in a while). Oh, did I tell you Ashok splashed the cake on my face? I think that was one of the most memorable moments of the day too!
More later.. catching up with work now!