- September, 2004
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to GET or to POST
As Macbeth would have said "To GET or to POST , that is the question". The general consensus is :
- Use GET when you want to give the user the ability to bookmark a page (as all the data is held in the URL and does not rely on an existing session on the server.) The "get" method should be used when the form is idempotent (i.e., causes no side-effects).
- Use POST when a form causes side effects (for example, if the form modifies a database or subscription to a service).
Defined tags for this entry: geek stuff, programming -
mp3 blogs
I knew that a whole different universe of mp3 blogs existed, but was never motivated enough to go out and investigate them. In my office, I have cycled through most of my music collection (I like to hear Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ministry of sound, Yahel(sp?) while working) and decided to find out what these blogs offer. A good starting point is Fluxblog. There is also MP3 blog Aggregator (however it does not show full postings and there are just a "lot" of blogs being aggregated). This article MP3 blogs serve rare songs, dusty grooves, points out some good mp3 blogs too. I have bookmarked the following sites
- Looking for askance
- Said the gramophone
- Royal music
- Music (for robots)
- The number one songs in heaven
Defined tags for this entry: link -
Interfaces for Staying in the Flow
There is a very interesting article at on interface design, which I am slowly reading and digesting. The authors say that a good interface has the following properties which allow the users to get "into flow"
- Challenge and require skill
- Concentrate and avoid interruption
- Maintain control
- Speed and feedback
- Transformation of time
Defined tags for this entry: link -
law of the lost idea
The law of the lost idea states that
Any idea not put down on paper/harddisk within 10 minutes of it occuring will get lost.
Yesterday morning, I had thought of an ingenious workaround for a problem that we had been facing in one of our projects (while putting on my shoe). Now I have forgotten both, what the problem was and (quite obviously) what the workaround was.Defined tags for this entry: My take on life -
Go, kiss the world
My good friend, Teju, had pointed out the link to an inspiring speech (titled "Go, kiss the world") by Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer, MindTree Consulting to at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. The original url appeared to be quite shady. I have mirrored his speech at my site
Original link and on my site
Defined tags for this entry: India -
To all those who think that I have left this blog to die, am sorry to disappoint you. My site had been suspended due to some misunderstanding, about which I will write down once the dust has settled on the matter at hand. It was a hard time but I have learnt my lesson. I think it can be best expressed by the following two quotes.
The first one is from The Prince.
And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.
The second lesson learnt is
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.
(That is from the book The Dune by Frank Herbert. Though there is no online book available for Dune, you should check out the great collection of its quotes at Wikiquote)Defined tags for this entry: My take on life - August, 2004
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BW interview with Linux
Business Week has an interview with Linux Trovald. Very interesting and quite insightful. My favourite quote
Q: Some say Linux and a lot of open-source projects really aren't innovative, that they're copies of commercial products. What's your reaction to that?
A: I disagree. It's an easy argument to make. One reason people make it is that, in open source, they don't see the revolutionary new versions magically appearing. In comparison, look at commercial closed systems. They make a new release every year or three to four years with a huge marketing splash. They make it look very different. But it's a circus to make it look like a sudden innovation.
In open source, you don't have a circus. You don't see a sudden explosion. It's not done that way. All development is very gradual -- whether commercial or open source. Even when you have a big thinker coming along with a new idea, actually getting it working takes a lot of sweat and tears.
There's innovation in Linux. There are some really good technical features that I'm proud of. There are capabilities in Linux that aren't in other operating systems. A lot of them are about performance. They're internal ways of doing things in a very efficient manner. In a kernel, you're trying to hide the hard work from the application, rather than exposing the complexity.
As a result of these innovations, you get good performance, better security. Linux is actually very stable. People complain about how long it takes us to develop new versions, but we made sure that with new upgrades, old programs continue to run. We have programs written in 1992 that will run on the latest versions.Also it's good to copy good ideas. It should be encouraged. We don't say Einstein was a really smart guy and we should come up with a better theory of relativity. We build on top of his good ideas and have new exciting quests.
Defined tags for this entry: linux
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