Have you checked out the new my yahoo! ?
link: Announcement
nice tip about scaling out your database
I was reading the Top Five Scale-Out Pitfalls to Avoid article. I knew about 4 of the 5 techniques that they mentioned, however, this one was new to me
- Avoid Mixing Hot and Cold Data
Similar to #3 is mixing hot (frequently-changed) and cold (more static) data, especially when it comes to write activity. Since database writes are more difficult and expensive to scale, it is advisable to keep this type of data away from data that does not change that often. Again, separating the data onto different databases and/or servers can significantly enhance your application's performance.
# Title:
I am at the Delhi airport and the secne here is chaotic. I am
travelling by Spicejet airways and it looks like the whole world is
planning to fly in the same aeroplane. The queue managmnet for
Spicejet is t3h suck - I don't think I will travel with Spicejet again
unless I am in a major financial crunch. A good thing about the
airport though is that there are enough electrical points - if you are
willing to sit on the floor. The seats next to electric plug points
are occupied by fat, sleeping middle aged women 
.
Before leaving for this Delhi trip I had setup a very nifty mail setup on my laptop which allows me to read my mail even offline. It involves dovecot and offlineimap.
Delhi weather is really crappy right now - too damn hot. The people here are as ill-behaved as ever. I hardly see anyone standing in the queue or waiting politely for their turn to come.
That is all the update that I have from the Delhi airport.
my home ?
I have lived in Bangalore for the past two years. Before Bangalore, I
was in Delhi for ten years. I was born in Bihar, and I lived there
for around sixteen years. When someone asks me, "Which place do you
belong to?", I usually answer "Bihar". But it is hard for me to
consider Bihar a home now. I have not been there for around ten years
now. I think I will call Bangalore my home hence forth. I think it
is one city which has rewarded me the most. It is one city that has
not discriminated against me for being a Bihari (all North Indians are
treated equally badly here ).
cleaning the logic in your web forms
Added another article to my website. The article shows a nifty (I hope) way to make the logic part of your web forms cleaner.
bihar
I was born in Bhagalpur, a small town in Bihar. If you have ever been to Delhi, you might have noticed that calling someone (or something) Bihari (i.e. someone from Bihar) is a popular form of dismissing him or her as mostly illiterate or gaudy or irrelevant. Atanu Dey has a blog entry that sums up pretty much why Bihar has been left out and why I have not been to my home for around 10 years now.
Sitting on in the de-briefing meetings, a picture of gradual and steady decline began forming in my mind. The signs were apparent. The power failed intermittently. Bihar produces no electrical power of its own. Somnath informed me that Bihar gets about 1000 MW of power from outside the state, 700 MW of which is unaccounted for. Patna consumes 300 MW, a good bit of which appears to have been used by the Rabri Devi household. It is reported that when she vacated her official Chief Minister's residence, they had to remove 53 air conditioners.
Heh. I remember the days when we used to go without power for at least a week (stealing power cables and selling the copper used to be good source of income for some people). Enough reminiscing - those days are behind me now.
Update: Changed the blog title
some good learnings from startup school 2007
Was reading the notes from the startup school 2007 and some slides/quotes caught my eye
- Limited Life Experiences + Over-Generalizations = ADVICE
- When someone tells you, "That's impossible:" it should be translated as "According to my very limed experience and narrow understanding of reality, that's very unlikely."
- Try adding words "that actually works" when briefly describing your product. (i.e. "search, that actually works", "email, that actually works")
- When you build something, you're trying to create value
- Most valuable things are hard. Most hard things are completely useless — (picture of someone smashing their head through concrete blocks kung-fu style). Hard DOES NOT EQUATE TO BEING valuable
- There is a big confusion between people with Talent and "people like us" Research shows diverse teams are more innovative. It is easier to hire people who look and think like you than it is to have a truly diverse working environment, which can be more innovative.
- Take culture seriously — every action & inaction sends a message
- Walk the walk yourself — mind the gap between stated values and actual practice
- Hold people accountable — are you tolerating abusive behavior by star performers
The major takeaway seems to be
- be focused on what you are doing
- it is not necessary to heed to advice