Top 5 reasons to use Eclipse

Posted on June 5, 2010 by sureshkrishna

A group of Eclipse enthusiasts along with few Indian University students discussed on “Why many use Eclipse ? “. Here are the TOP 5 reasons. Due to lack of time, i am making this blog very short.

  • Easy to Use : As a user/developer/tool developer/customer, we find it easy to use. The fact that MANY adopted Eclipse and they love it says that Eclipse has “something” that others don’t.
  • Platform : Eclipse is designed and coded for stability and re usability. They exactly know the problems tools developers would face (or are facing). It has stable APIs that works and anyone can reuse MOST of what Eclipse uses. Eclipse provides the building blocs with a strong foundation that others can build on. A Real Platform.
  • Community : The fact that Eclipse made a complete successful Eco system of consumers and producers of the Eclipse Plugins and various other technologies makes it interdependent and trustworthy. We observe a lot of integrity and timely help among the community members.
  • Documentation and Examples : Developers, Customers and others… who wants to try something using Eclipse needs an entry point. Something they can start with and “feel good”. This entry point could be documentation or examples or code snippets. We need something that you can refer to and it takes you few steps ahead in solving your problem.
  • Free and Open Source : Well, these things do matter now and Free helps you to easily access something. Free, lets you try out and not regret about the decision. If you like it, continue… else throw it in recycle bin. Open Source helps us to feel confident, explore new areas by extending the functionality, independence from the vendor,  etc… If something worse or annoying happens, you can fix it yourself.

To conclude, Eclipse just works. Human brain works with some assumptions and pre-conditions to achieve a task. It is good feeling for any human being to ” get what you expect” and “when it happens exactly how you imagined”. That’s what Eclipse did. Can’ wait to test drive Helios.

Other references…

t just works :  Human brain works with some assumptions and pre-conditions to achieve a task. It is quite a nice feeling that “you get what you expect” and “it happens exactly how you imagined”. That’s what Eclipse did.

Posted in eclipse, technology | Tagged | 10 Comments

Tip 2 [Ecl2JDev] – Discover External Tools

Posted on April 20, 2010 by sureshkrishna

A very useful feature in Eclipse is the ability to configure external tools. This enables us to configure ant scripts and others tools which otherwise are not part of the development environment.

The real value is the ability to use java, jvm, work space settings and run the external tool with in Eclipse.

A similar feature in JDeveloper is “External Tools…”. You should be able to navigate to this option from “Tools -> External Tools…”

JDeveloper integrates the external tools like Directory Explorer, Notepad, Internet Explorer and Word.

In this example you will add a simple ant script and run it form JDeveloper. Click “New…” from the External Tools dialog.

Select Apache Ant and click “Next >” . Yeah… i never jumped from Step 1 to Step 3…somehow it is that way!

Select the ant targets from the list.

Click “Next >” and in the next steps you can select ant properties, ant version, java version, java arguments, working directory and any additional class path entries. I am going to deliberately skip the steps from 5 to 8 and you can always experiment with them. Step 9 allows you to enter the Caption for the Menu Item and Tooltip text.

You can selectively add the Command to Tools Menu, Navigator Context and Main Toolbar, etc…

The final step is a very interesting part where you can specify when this command is available. e.g. you could choose the build is available only when java file is selected.

Once the configuration is finished the newly created “Deploy HelloWorld” is added to the external tools.

You can now launch the “Deploy HelloWorld” from toolbar.

The HelloWorld ant script is successfully executed and finished.

In summary, you can take the full advantage of the “External Tools” and configure any external tools.

Posted in eclipse, JDeveloper, reviews | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Tip 1 [Ecl2JDev] – Play with Application Navigator

Posted on April 12, 2010 by sureshkrishna

With my previous post (Top 10 JDeveloper Shortcuts), i started my blogging series on JDeveloper. Being worked on Eclipse for a long time makes me look for similar features in JDeveloper. In the process of understanding/discovering JDeveloper and Extensions, i am finding many interesting things to share. From now on, i am starting the “Tip X [Ecl2JDev]” series where i mention tips to work with JDeveloper. I hope this helps the community out there who is adopting JDeveloper and are in same phase as i am.

I will keep these tips crisp and small, so its easy to follow.

For a typical Java/JEE project it is common to work with the “Package Explorer” and “Navigator” views. Package Explorer shows the relevant content for an application developer and the Navigator reflects the folder structure on the disk.

JDeveloper has the “Navigator Display Options” in the Applications Navigator‘s toolbar menu. You should play with display options to view the content in more meaningful way for you.

There are many combinations that one can work with and choose which ever view you like.

Posted in eclipse, JDeveloper | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

My Decision on Business (MBA) school in Bay Area!

Posted on April 9, 2010 by sureshkrishna

This post is supposed to be a private notes. However, i thought this post would help many more out there who are deciding between colleges. The decision of choosing the college is a mix of quantitative, qualitative, personal and emotional analysis. One might get so many conflicting opinions and finally one may be totally confused about the DECISION.

I applied for 4 different colleges in Bay Area. # UC Davis Bay Area Part-time MBA program # Santa Clara University Professional MBA Program # University of San Francisco # Golden Gate University. These 4 universities are more or less famous in the Bay Area and i see many colleagues and friends who did their MBA and are in good positions in their respective organizations. I had discussions with many students from each of the university that I applied and debated a lot on one over the other. Trust me, I had almost 4 months of decision time and research. I did also attended the guest classes from each university.

Without wasting your time and my time, following are the considerations 🙂

  • Reputation of the School
    • Is this school recognized out side Bay Area ?
    • Is this school recognized out side California ?
    • Is this school recognized out side USA ?
  • Total Cost of the Program
    • Is it affordable? Is it Worth ?
  • Campus
    • Is it necessary to be in Campus ?
    • What do you want to do with Campus ?
    • Do you have much time to hand around in Campus ?
  • Alumni
    • Do you have powerful Alumni ?
    • Is Alumni active ?
    • Can you benefit from Alumni ?
  • Industry Connection
    • Does the school provide good exposure ?
    • Can you get connections from School ?
    • Do you get access to best people from Industry ?
  • Diversity of Students
    • Do you want same mind set of people or different ?
    • Do you want to stick to same field of profession even after MBA ?
    • Do you respect the opinion of a person in other profession ?
  • Faculty
    • Do you have a guest faculty or a full-time faculty ?
    • Do you get the professors from undergraduate program ?
    • Are they well qualified and well experienced in Industry.

Once I had the criteria, it was easy for me to decide. I never had the Commute or Schedule as the critical criteria as most of the classes are over the weekend and i don’t mind the commute at all. I also had the “easy factor” in the application process. I definitely wanted to join something that i felt “GOOD” and “CONVENIENT”. Following is my general impression on the application process for each University.

Golden Gate University : Had to send the GMAT score, TOEFL waiver essay, 2 Recommendations, 1 Application Essay/Statement of Purpose, Transcripts directly from University and the application fee. It was a very smooth process and i had no issues with the communication or the way they handled the application. They offer an MBA with in 21 months and the tuition fee is relatively less in Golden Gate. I had a personal interview with the director of the program where we discussed my experience, why i want to do my MBA and my future aspirations. All in all, it was a nice experience.

University of San Francisco : Had to send GMAT score, waived the TOEFL, 2 recommendations, 2 application essays, and Transcripts sent to WES (World Education Services) and application fee. This is one University that made me bit frustrated. I had no idea why this university asks people to send the Transcripts to WES where as ALL other universities asks them Transcripts sent directly to them. The problem is the WES support system is very lousy and i hated interacting with them. They have a customer support and email that does not respond. Repeatedly interacting with them just made me frustrated and angry most times. They also charge around $260 to review your transcripts. I have no idea, why this university does this. My university sent the Transcripts to all the universities including WES and the WES says that it had not got it (where as other universities got them). Also, the fact that i had to put so much of pressure on USF to get a reply from a “person” (and not IVR) from WES was too huge and not desired.

However, my experience with this university was tiring and i don’t recommend this for International Students.

Santa Clara University : This needed GMAT score, waived the TOEFL, 2 paper based recommendations, 2 application essays and the Transcripts sent to them directly. I loved the campus and the class rooms (i took guest student class) and the professors looked very knowledgeable. Students that i talked to gave a very good impression of the program. This program has mostly students from the IT/Software industry. Probably people looking for diversity may not find this as a best choice.

My over all impression was that this is a great school and i had a smooth communication. The admission team is nice and professional.

UC Davis : This needed GMAT score, waived TOEFL, 2 recommendations, 2 long-essays, 3 short-essays, 1 personal interview and the Transcripts sent to them directly once you get admitted. Bay Area campus is an extended one in San Ramon and i liked the class rooms too. Santa Clara University and UC Davis Bay Area had similar class rooms. UC Davis is known for the diversity of students and it stands in leadership position in the Industry and events. I had to go to the San Ramon campus for my personal interview. I had an interview with the panel and a 5 minute presentation with the panel. The presentation topic could be any thing and i talked about my parenting experiences.

My overall  impression was great and very satisfied with the way they answer the questions/queries about the program.

Of course, i finally decided to take the admission in the UC Davis for the various reason i discussed above. Everyone have their own priorities and expectations. Depending on what your goals are, the decision parameters and the end result might differ. However, it is worthwhile to consider all the options available and take a careful decision on the MBA program that’s going to get added for rest of your life. I consider deciding an MBA program is like decision of marriage. One needs to be very careful with personal expectation and the spouse’s. If your mess up the expectations, you screw up the complete relationship. It takes a lot of effort to analyze and decide what each one of us wants.

My decision is my decision. I want any readers to take my opinions with a grain of salt and use your own discretion. My situation may not be your situation.

Posted in as-a-student, management, reviews | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Next 3 years at UC Davis for my MBA !

Posted on April 9, 2010 by sureshkrishna

Finally the moment of triumph is here! I decided to join the UC Davis part-time MBA program and today (08-Apr-2010) i got the confirmation.  Officially I am admitted to the program and i will need to go for the UC Davis orientation on August 28th. I am really excited to see the fellow students, professors and the campus. The feeling of going back to school is exciting and also challenging. For my under graduation, i had no responsibilities and the only thing i did was to study, enjoy and workout ;). However, in contrast, i am married and have a 10 month baby now. Yes, with a young family and work during weekdays, it is very challenging to balance everything.

I am glad that i worked hard to get to to this DAY! Giving GMAT, Writing Application Essays, Looking for Recommendors, Follow-ups with the Recommendors, Deciding the Schools, Preparing for Interviews and finally DECIDING a SCHOOL really gave me a different perspective of my self. Though it all took 1 year 4 months of process, i fell so happy that i did it. This is the indication that i was very serious to do my MBA this time and all the effort had paid off. The complete MBA Application process makes you think a lot about your self.

The UC Davis part-time MBA usually takes around 3 years and may be some Heros do it in less than 3 years. This year schedule is already out and the Classes start on September 10th and ends by December 11th. Wow, after 10 years i will be writing my exams again. Need to see if these exams are in anyway different than the undergraduate ones. I like the Facebook updates from the UC Davis MBA Graduate School which are very crisp and informative.

I am super excited to go to school and get the business fundas. I cant wait anymore to attend classes which i have been waiting from past 7 years. In 2003, i took a complete GMAT orientation and i had to give my GMAT in a week when i got an opportunity to go to Germany for long term project. I was somehow more fascinated to go to Germany than doing my GMAT. And after 6 years, i decided to give GMAT and continue to live my dream.

For now, my MBA expectations are very clear.

  • Understand the complete Organization, Business Functions and their dependencies
  • Get the fundamentals of the Entrepreneurship (my planned specialization)
  • Increase the Business network in Bay Area and get help from vast UC Davis alumni
  • Find like minded people and venture a start-up by the end of MBA program
  • Finally, to live my dream of MBA!
Posted in as-a-student, management | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

JDeveloper Top 10 Shortcuts

Posted on April 2, 2010 by sureshkrishna

In 2007 i wrote a post on the Eclipse Top 10 Shortcuts. Recently, working on JDeveloper, i discovered similar shortcuts too. Of course, if you are living day-in and day-out on any Java IDE, it makes sense to know the short-cuts. This time, i want to post my JDeveloper Top 10 Shortcuts and also some other frequently used. If i miss anything, please add them on to the post’s comments.

Note : These shortcuts are based on the JEE Application development.

My Top 10 JDeveloper Shortcuts

  1. Find Usages Ctrl+Alt+U
  2. Go To Java Type Ctrl+Minus
  3. Go To File Ctrl+Alt+Minus
  4. Show Overview Ctrl+Shift+ Back Quote
  5. Extract Method Ctrl+Alt+X
  6. Introduce Variable Ctrl+Alt+V
  7. Run Project F11
  8. Debug Project Shift+F9
  9. Quick JavaDoc Ctrl+D
  10. Reformat Ctrl+Alt+L

Find Usages (Ctrl+Alt+U) : This is pretty much the shortcut i use all the time. This helps you to find the uses of a method or class in the project or application.

Go To Java Type (Ctrl+Minus) : Coming from Eclipse, this is one short cut that i cant live without. This is one short cut that is used the most for me.
Go To File (Ctrl+Alt+Minus) : Very useful for searching the various resources other than Java files.
Show Overview (Ctrl+Shift+ Back Quote) : Especially when the Java source file is very large. This view is very useful to inspect and quickly navigate. The interesting part i loved in JDeveloper is this option to show the structure from the Inherited Classes too. Its so helpful.
Extract Method (Ctrl+Alt+X) : Select few lines of code that is reusable as a method.
Introduce Variable (Ctrl+Alt+V) : Often i start out with inline statement and later on decide to reuse.
Run Project (F11) and Debug Project (Shift+F9) : These may not seed any explanation why we need these shortcuts.
Quick JavaDoc (Ctrl+D) : Eclipse shows the help on Hover of a Java element. In JDeveloper, this short cut helps very handy to understand your own and other’s code.
Reformat (Ctrl+Alt+L) : After few lines of coding or after few methods, the code gets cluttered and this helps to format the code and feel good 😉
Other Shortcuts that i use very often (less frequently as my Top 10 shortcuts)

  • Search
  • Code Highlight Ctrl+Alt+H
  • Clear Code Highlight Ctrl+Alt+K
  • Auto Code Highlight (this makes the code always highlighted)
  • View
  • Structure Ctrl+Shift+S
  • Property Inspector Ctrl+Shift+I
  • Component Palette Ctrl+Shift+R
  • Break Point Ctrl+Shift+R
  • Miscellaneous
  • Copy Path Ctrl+Shift+C
  • Go To Line Ctrl+G
  • Go To Window Ctrl+F6
  • Go To File Ctrl+Alt+Minus
  • Build
  • Make Project Ctrl+F9
  • Rebuild Project Alt+F9
  • Run
  • Resume F9
  • Step Over F8
  • Step Into F7
  • Step Out Shift+F7
  • Java Editing
  • Organize Imports Ctrl+Alt+O
  • Select in Navigator Alt+Home

If you have other interesting shortcuts that missed out, please add it in your comments.

Posted in java, JDeveloper | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Boss 4 : What if your Boss cant make a Decision ?

Posted on March 5, 2010 by sureshkrishna

I see that many Leadership development and MBA programs talk about the “Leadership Skills” and “How to be a Good Manager”… and others. Interestingly, no one is interested in “How you should not be as a bad leader/boss/manager”.  This is my attempt to write on my own experiences and those of my friends and colleagues. Decision Making seems to be one of the inherent quality of a Boss (this Boss could be a leader or manager). Never the less people are often surprised and confused thinking why their Boss can’t make a “Decision”. You would think that it is the time to make THE Decision irrespective of a GOOD or BAD decision. A Decision is needed for many people in Personal and Professional life because of some obvious reasons…

  • A Decision gives you the Direction of Action. Without which one would be wandering in space without knowing what should be done.
  • A Decision helps you to Focus. If not, one is doing some part of many things and may feel that there is no sense of fulfilment.
  • A Decision helps you to Eliminate other Options and Pick One. One can reach destination only by choosing a Single Path and not by choosing more than one Path.
  • A Decision removes the Feeling of Unknown (and confusion).
  • In the end, a Bad Decision can be reworked but you can not do anything about No Decision.

There could be many bad decisions taken by bosses but at least that gives a sense of direction to the team that works for him. And now, there will be so many instances that you think your boss is not able to take a decision and you are paying a heavy price for that. You are driven in to more and more uncertainty and confusion when your Boss postpones or procrastinate a decision. Following are some of the issues that may and could cause your Boss’s inability to take a decision.

Obligation

At times your Boss is given that position not because he is worth that position but there is no one to fill that position. So, this Boss always feels obligated to his Boss (Super-Boss). He can not even approve a purchase order worth $25 as he is not sure if his Boss will approve the same. In this case your Boss knows that he is not worth that position and so does the Super Boss. The Boss is very paranoid about each and everything that you do. He may even think that you are his competitor.

If you get 1 million dollars in Lottery. You may not feel bad to pay 40% tax to state. It’s Free money any way.

Super Boss’s Pet

This Boss is given the position because Super Boss thinks he needs some one “Who knows him” and “Does not question him” in whatever he does. In this case even if your Boss knows what is the “Right” decision, he will not make it unless it comes from Super Boss.

You lick mine and i lick yours.

Contentment

Some Bosses feel that they achieved a great thing in life by becoming “Boss”. Once people become content, their urge to do “Good” work and “move ahead in the ladder” dies. This is not to forget that the manager may be definitely capable and intellectual…its just that at this point of life he feels content and they don’t have the drive.

Contentment curtails growth.

Fear of Failure

Some don’t want to make a decision unless it comes from his Boss. These people like to take the credit if some thing is a Success else they feel nice to pass the Failure back to the Boss. They want to say that, “I did this because you asked me to do”. Where as they themselves would want to postpone the point of decision as long as possible.

Biggest failure is not to make a decision and not to fail.

Of course, you may have seen many more reasons or subsets of above. This kind of Boss seems to be very painful as working with him will not give you any sort of contentment or growth. Sometimes the only way to get out of the situation is to come out of the team or company. Though, i have seen very few who took the charge and jumped the hierarchy to become his boss’s peer.

A Boss is a Boss. If you can’t change him, learn to handle him.

You may be interested in …

Posted in management | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Boss 3 : Bad BOSS can make you quit!

Posted on February 22, 2010 by sureshkrishna

I resisted to write such an article for a long time (almost 3 years). I thought it is best written now. In the previous article about “How to be a good BOSS” few desirable characteristics are mentioned. What is not mentioned in that article is “How to be a BAD BOSS”. While i do want to write about the BAD BOSS, for this article i want to restrict the scope to few experiences that made one of my friend to quit his organization.

My friend (i call him “GoodFriend” in this article) joined this corporate in Mid of 2008 in Bay Area. He is a great quality assurance engineer with eight years of experience in Financial and Medical domains. GoodFriend joined this organization as this corporate “seems” to have good work culture. The hiring manager is same as his BOSS in the work too. So, at least the expectations of the candidate and the skill sets are known to the BOSS.

This BOSS seems to have a very bad mouth when it comes to employees and he had 4 tem-members for him self including my GoodFriend. The BOSS is an authoritative machine and wants to know each and everything that team-members do. Following are some of the questions that BOSS asks all the team members…

  • You look so relaxed, don’t you have work ?
  • BOSS sees the GoodFriend in cafeteria and starts asking about the work, results and deadlines.
  • If the GoodFriend turns up to office later than 9.00am, he asks “Why were you late and why did you not call me”.
  • If the GoodFriend needs a leave (even if it for 1 or 2 days), he needs to approach the BOSS at least 2 weeks earlier. Else, the BOSS is very angry and rebuke in front of the team.
  • It’s been almost 2 years this GoodFriend has joined but till now he could work from home only 17 days. He is afraid that the BOSS would ask the details of each and every hour at home.

While the above are only some of the other non-technical stuff. Following are the sarcastic and insulting comments that this BOSS does. Some times GoodFriend feels that the BOSS nay be feeling that he is in a race with him (Boss).

  • How many tests did you execute today and how much time each of them took ? And what did you do during the execution time.
  • “Hay… GoodFriend, just listen to me. Don’t use your brain.”
  • During the meetings, if the GoodFriend suggests some process or technical aspects, the BOSS would say, “Just follow what i say”.
  • You are a good Quality Engineer but you should also learn Java and C# coding. You should be flexible. When the GoodFriend says that he has no interest in programming. He is labelled as “Rigid” , “non-cooperative” and “Non-obedient” employee.

Once the GoodFriend has gone thorough all this humiliation and workplace sarcasm, he finally decided to QUIT the job and joined another small company that he worked previously. He could not take this any more and everyone else in his department seems to believe the BOSS than him. Anyway, he joined his previous company and feels GREAT about the move. He says, he feels so relieved, relaxed and works with high enthusiasm.

Lessons Learnt :

The BOSS is the window to any Organization. If that window is bad, your doors to the Organization are almost shut.

You can not give your best, if you are not satisfied with Work and Morale at work place.

Your BOSS’s attitude can ruin your years of expertise and may make you feel devastated.

Posted in management | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

A close look at Google Privacy Policy!

Posted on February 13, 2010 by sureshkrishna

For many Google seems to be a very cool Internet company and Google has become synonymous to Internet. For the people who are not in technology/computer industry, it seems to be too hard to believe that Google is more than just an e-mail service and Search Engine.

I compiled few important legal privacy notices from Google Website and you can imagine how your data, emails, chats, mobile apps and Buzz can be used.
“Google may know you more than your parents, wife and kids”

Google Buzz

Website : http://www.google.com/buzz/help/privacy.html

When you first enter Google Buzz, to make the startup experience easier, we may automatically select people for you to follow based on the people you email and chat with most. Similarly, we may also suggest to others that they automatically follow you. You can review and edit the list of people you follow and block people from following you.

When you use Google Buzz, we may record information about your use of the product, such as the posts you like or comment on and the other users with whom you communicate, in order to provide you with a better experience on Buzz and other Google services and to improve the quality of Google services.

If you use Google Buzz on a mobile device and choose to view “nearby” posts, your location will be collected by Google. If you use a mobile device to create a post which shares your location, then your location will be collected by Google and displayed to other users, as described when you first attempt to use Buzz on a mobile device. You may thereafter opt out of the collection and display of your location on a per-post basis. You can also choose to exclude your location from all of your posts.

If you chose to delete your Google profile, your Buzz posts will be deleted, but the comments and “likes” you have made on other people’s posts will not be deleted. You have the option to remove your comments on others’ posts individually if you’d like. Residual copies of deleted material may take up to 60 days to be deleted from our active servers and may remain in our offline backup systems.

Google Chat

Website : http://www.google.com/talk/privacy.html

Account activity. You need a Google Account to access Google Talk. Google asks for some personal information when you create a Google Account, including your email address and a password, which is used to protect your account from unauthorized access. A Google Account allows you to access many of our services that require registration. When you use Google Talk, we may record information about your usage, such as when you use Google Talk, the size of your contact list and the contacts you communicate with, and the frequency and size of data transfers. Information displayed or clicked on in the Google Talk interface (including UI elements, settings, and other information) is also recorded.

We use this information internally to deliver the best possible service to you, such as improving the Google Talk user interface and maintaining a consistent and reliable user experience.

You can uninstall the Google Talk software at any time through your computer operating system’s uninstall process. You may delete your contacts information or chat histories you have stored in your Gmail account by deleting them through Gmail or by deleting your Gmail account from the Google Accounts page. Because of the way we maintain this service, such deletion may not be immediate, and residual copies may remain on backup media.

Google Mail

Website : http://mail.google.com/mail/help/privacy.html

Gmail stores, processes and maintains your messages, contact lists and other data related to your account in order to provide the service to you.

When you use Gmail, Google’s servers automatically record certain information about your use of Gmail. Similar to other web services, Google records information such as account activity (including storage usage, number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI elements, ads, links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL).

Google maintains and processes your Gmail account and its contents to provide the Gmail service to you and to improve our services. The Gmail service includes relevant advertising and related links based on the IP address, content of messages and other information related to your use of Gmail.

Google’s computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering advertisements and related links, preventing unsolicited bulk email (spam), backing up your messages, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail.

Posted in reviews, technology | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Design Patterns at a glance!

Posted on December 8, 2009 by sureshkrishna

There is this short test on the web floating around. I captured the screen for everyones reference. I felt this is a simple, precise explanation of patterns. Enjoy.

Simple and Precise wording.

Posted in java, software, technology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment