Joy of Tech - Linux Lovers

When i bought my present PC for home, it came with Turbo Linux distribution. The PC is a Compaq make with AMD XP 2400+ processor. It was 2004 July when i bought it. I first decided to keep the Turbo Linux distribution. Later i experimented with a few more distributions (Fedora Core 2, SuSE 10.x, RH 9). It was a good setup and i was gradually getting used to the habit of doing common things from command line (like playing music using mplayer). It was a dream like phase for me as i saw the developer tools which came free (vi, xemacs, and GNU GCC toolchain, linux kernel sources) and felt very passionate about someday becoming a linux systems programmer geek :). Those days i used to be learning unix systems programming, linux kernel development and fundamentals of embedded systems programming - all of it in self-taught way. I read some books then like - Linux Kernel Development by Robert Love, Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment (almost completed it) by R Stevens, An Embedded Software Primer by David E Simons and some books i started but did not complete like Fundamentals of Embedded Software Development (read only first few chapters) by D Lewis and Assembly Language Step-by-Step: Programming with DOS and Linux (only read half of it) by Duntemann. That phase did not last very long with me (wanned in about six months) as i found that i could teach myself to program in assembly using the nasm assembler for x86 even on Windows using the DJGPP port of GCC plus i was more used to Windows as a user, and whatever the Geeks of the world have to say, Windows appeared to be more stabler an option when running RAD tools (IDEs) and other daily use applications (browsers like firefox and opera, email clients, chat applications etc). I lost my patience with Linux desktop at home and bought and installed WinXP Home edition.

Now, i feel i need a Linux system (systems programming, driver development) preferrably Kubuntu distribution, together with a Windows system (for email, chat, java dev etc). At work for the last one year i have not used any unix so i miss my Linux setup at home sometimes. Upgrading my present system with another hard disk where i can install linux is one possibility or will get another system (this time a laptop when i have the dough :) and install both win and linux in dual boot partitions. Ubuntu linux is good choice (as its all fats removed distribution of linux) with only the essential software (no more 3 word processors, 4 media players, 3 browsers etc as is still common with many other linux distros). Read more on the latest Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft release.

H1B Visa Stamping Experience

I got my H1B visa stamped yesterday (8th Sept, 2006) at USA Consulate in Chennai, India. My appointment time was 8am in the morning but i was allowed in at 7am itself. Then i was asked to wait for my turn in a seated queue in the first building where the documents are verified before you are asked to proceed to the next building (where the actual visa interview happens). At about 7.30 i was asked to stand in the queue of the first building when all people who had their appointment at 8am where asked to stand in the queue. Here they verified the documents and matched the barcode on the visa fee receipt with the passport number as mentioned in their system and finally they took one barcode sticker from the yellow receipt and pasted it on the back of my passport. They also put one form which reflected at what stage i was in, in my visa stamping process (ie docs verified, finger printed, visa approved). Once the docs verification was done we were being asked to go to the next building. There again we had a queue outside the building. I waited in the queue for some 10mins and then a security personnel allowed us in based on our visa appointment time. Once in, two ladies were coordinating the seating of ppl asking them to keeping moving in a seated queue. First, one of them asked us to stand in the queue for being finger printed. This counter was in the center of the hall. First the left and then the right index fingers were scanned and this record was stored against our passport details (as the lady on the counter took first the passport and then asked to put the finger on the scanner). OK, hereafter, i was in another queue waiting for my turn for the final visa stamping interview. The guy just before me was from TCS and he got a 221(g). His was an L1 case. I saw a few oft repeated questions to L1/H1B:
1. What is the project on which you will be working in the USA?
2. Whether you will be working at the client site or in your company's USA office? If you said client site, then you may be asked to present the client invitation letter and probably if the client is lesser known name then some photographs of the client and probably its annual revenue etc.
3. Why have you been chosen to go to USA for this project (why not someone else from your company)? Basically i think they want to know how your skills map to the requirements of the project and how confidently can you state them.
4. Your academic qualifications? If you are not a comp. sci. graduate then probably you will be asked to tell where/how you learnt software development skills.

The communication skills matter alot. Some ppl i saw were asked something and they answered something else, and this irritated the VO. Note: The VO has a very short time span to gauge you and so you should give all positive signs about you (especially so by communicating well - ie speak good english). As they say, if you have the right skills then it shows by the way you talk.

My visa interview was brief (lasted 1min or so). The questions asked were the following:
1. Which project was i going to work on in USA?
2. What client?
3. What is my academic qualification?
4. Since i am a non comp. sci grad (a BE in electronics) she then asked me how i learnt software development skills. (any training etc). I said i am working for the past 7yrs in the industry (so most of the skills were acquired on the job plus i had a post graduate diploma from National center for software tech).

Thats all! I hope this post is useful to you. May you have a good experience in your visa interview as i had :).

Editing blogs with Windows Live Writer

Microsoft just launched Windows Live Writer, a new publishing tool for WYSIWYG blog authoring on Windows Live Spaces, Wordpress, Typepad and other blogging services. Found this software via Digg and it looks pretty good so far. The Live Writer is pretty similar to the Word and so I’m not sure how this product will be positioned in the future. With all the blog editing tools in Office 2007, this is an interesting offering but I guess it could be the free tool that doesn’t have all the features of Word 2007.
My initial impressions of this tool are fairly positive. The WYSIWYG blog authoring is really good and allows you to edit in GUI mode or directly edit the HTML being generated. The image tool is pretty cool that will allow you to add images to your post that can uploaded to your blog directly.
Writer supports RSD (Really Simple Discoverability), the Metaweblog API, and theMovable Type API with more blog platforms and API coming in the near future.
Another feature that’s interesting is the ability to insert a Windows Live Local map directly into a post. For now, only Live.com maps is supported but the SDK that is also shipping should allow anyone to create interesting add-ons.

How i find it? Well i must confess that i was not able to figure out how to add a title to my post on the blogspot editors. Also editing in the context of the template in use is not possible when you use blogspot editor. This is one of the most attractive features of using a standalone application client to do the editing rather than editing your posts online in the less-than-mature rich text editors on blogspot and similar sites. In short, i would say, Windows Live Writer from microsoft is a useful contribution (currently being offered for free) and it simply makes the user experience of blogging easier.

My Studies so far...

I have read the following books in order so far since Nov 2005 when i made a move from embedded systems programming to the J2EE world:

• Head first servlets and JSP by Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates
• Mastering EJB 3rd Edn. by Ed Roman et al
• SCJP 5.0 Study Guide by Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates
• JBoss at Work: A Practical Guide by Tom Marrs & Scott Davis
• Struts: The complete reference by James Holmes (only first 10 chapts).
• Oracle University: Introduction to SQL
• J2EE Webservices by Richard Monson-Haefel
• Designing Webservices with J2EE 1.4 by Inderjeet Singh et al
• Head First EJB by Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates
• SNMP, SNMPv2, SNMPv3 and RMON 1 and 2, 3rd Edition, by William Stallings.
  

My plans are to complete the following books by November 2006:

• Head first design patterns (for sure - started 25 Oct)
• J2EE Design and Development by Rob Jhonson (May be)
• Network Management: Principles and Practice by Subramanian (read 2 chapts.)
  
• Oracle University: Program with PL/SQL (Oracle 9i)
  

Together with the above mentioned readings i have some certifications taken and planned for:

• SCJP 5.0 CX-310-055 : Passed with 90% on May 15 2006
• SCDJWS 1.4 CX-310-220 : Passed with 88% on Aug 10 2006
• SCBCD 1.3 CX-310-090 : Passed with 85% on Sept 30 2006
• SCWCD 1.4 CX-310-081 : Passed with 82% on Sept 18 2006
  

And some trainings:

• Oracle Workforce development program:Introduction to SQL: Completed in May 2006
• Oracle Workforce development program: Program with PL/SQL: Completed in Aug 2006.

Thats all about it till Nov 2006.

Learning Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE)

I started my learning of J2EE 1.4 late November 2005 with the book Head First Servlets and JSP by Kathy Sierra et al. It was a good book and i could understand what a MVC pattern means to the web application development. I took about 2 months to complete this book (in parallel i started developing a small application from my team in my place of work). I used the learnings from this book and by beginning April i could also read up Mastering EJB 3rd Edition by Ed Roman et al. It was excellent but a tome and i needed to revise the concepts from the beginning chapters by the time i could reach the end of the book. So i was not able to understand the sample application initially and did not give much effort to understanding in the first go as i thought i needed to make study notes to burn in the matter in the initial chapters. But reading the whole book in a go gave me some confidence in my approach to learning Java EE based development.

Then i thought of taking the Sun certifications and found that SCJP was a prerequisite so i bought the book SCJP 5.0 study guide by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates and prepared for the exam. I scored 90% in the exam which i took mid of May. I then resumed with Mastering EJB book and started making my notes. By the end of this learning i strongly felt the need of some good book which explained how a real-world J2EE application is being developed. I had this notion after having read about Hibernate ORM being a preferred choice on the persistence tier and books like J2EE desing and development without EJB by Rod Jhonson which cautioned the developers against unwanted use of EJB in enterprise application development. Fortunately i found the mention of JBoss at work: A practical guide by Tom Marrs and Scott Davis book on jboss.org site. I could also get an Indian edition for that book which was released in October 2005 thus was reassuring enough that what it talked about must be latest practices in the developer community with regard to J2EE based enterprise development. I started reading the book and could cover most of it in 2 days. Yes it was easy cruise considering my sound foundations of Java SE edition and the knowledge i gained from Mastering EJB and HF Servlets & JSP books. Also this book gave me the knowledge of how the XDoclet and Hibernate can be used. This is where i am now in my learning cycle as of this writing.

As for my plans for the coming months, i want to complete my notes from HF Servlets & JSP book (for the sake of completeness and also to accumulate APIs i did not use in my small project work before i move on), then i want to start with the Struts: The complete reference book and finish that in 8 days gathering as much as possible in that time. Then the plan is to read J2EE Webservice book by Richard Monson Haefel. This is all for the month of June. After that in July i plan to read 3 books in order - Head First Design pattern (8 days), Core J2EE Patterns(10 days) and Mastering BEA Weblogic Server 8.1 (12 days). In the following month of August, i want to take SCDJWS certification exam and cover a book - Ajax in action which i bought long back but have not had the time to cover so far. The idea is to understand J2EE development on all tiers (web/presentation, business, persistence). In the month of september, i have not planned for yet, but what seems most logical to me now is that i will want to cover Mastering JSF and Hibernate in Action.

In october this year, i plan to start some open source project work, probably related to my field of expertise (network management systems and SNMP). I have contributed in the past on one open source project http://www.mibble.org in the UI development for SNMP MIB Browser using the mibble parser and westhawk snmp library in Java. I am still not sure what work i will be doing in october but it has to use my learnings on J2EE in some way. The idea is to gain enough expertise on the J2EE development and also to be in touch with the SNMP/NMS domain before i start my job search again.