Leap from Beginner to Intermediate Developer PART III

TIP # 3: Learn good programming habits

Quality makes the application masterpiece and it's the responsibility of the developers to focus more on high quality coding. Nothing marks an inexperienced programmer like bad variable/function names, poor indentation habits, improper formatting, confusing/un-wanted comments and other signs of being sloppy. All too often, a developer learned how to program without being taught the less interesting details such as code formatting. Even though learning these things will not always make your code better or you a better developer, it will ensure that you are not viewed as an entry-level developer by your peers. Even if someone is a senior developer, when variables are named after their favorite verbs as opposed to meaningful names or their functions are called “doSomething(), they look like they do not know what they are doing, and it makes their code harder to maintain in the process.

Let me take example of indentation. It’s really a bad practice to use spaces to indent; instead use tabs. A tab character represents a virtual indent. If you want to indent two levels, use two tabs. The problem with spaces is that nobody ever uses the same number of spaces for indentation, even within the same file. Some people use eight spaces; others use four; some use two; and still others use some crazy in-between variation. Manually adding or removing indentation is tedious and error-prone because you have to add or delete the proper number of spaces.

You would be glad to know about Octaware’ initiative of a developer session being planned by senior industry architects on “Practices for becoming a better programmer”. This session will cover good habits one should follow in day-to-day programming. Stay tuned for the announcement of the upcoming session.

-Aslam

Social Activity Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

It is possible to create a dashboard that monitors activities on various social media sites by using the new dashboard capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Monitoring social media sites is important for small, medium and larger businesses. By doing this a business can keep track of the conversations that people in social communities are having about their brand or service, or even about their competitors.

A small business that sells a product may want to have a solution to track some of the things as follows -

1.What are the latest updates from the brands that I sell?
2.What does the social media activity around the various brands look like?
3.What are some of the biggest conversation topics related to my product these days?
4.What is the current set of conversations happening around my product?

Social Media Widgets for CRM Dashboards

Such information could be displayed on a CRM dashboard. Fortunately, the solution was not too hard to find. There are several web sites that provide social media widgets free of use. One just has to grab the HTML\Java Script code for these widgets and add them into a CRM Web resource. Having done that we are ready to create a "Social Activity Dashboard" - we just have to add these web resources on the dashboard.

Haroon

RFID Technology

RFID Technology:

Many of us have heard about RFID Technology. RFID Technology is being used slowly in the industry for ROI in the long run. Most of us know about RFID on high level that it is used for identification purpose. This is Right!!!. This identification of object using RFID can be planned to work in various Business scenarios such as Asset Tracking, Vehicle parking, Document Search etc

 If we know the principle of RFID (How it works?) then we can think of RFID usage in any business area.

Below is high level Principle of RFID Technology:

  

If you think for a while, operation of RFID is very SIMPLE

CONCLUSION: Tags are placed / fixed on object. When object with Tag comes into vicinity of RFID Reader, antenna reads tag Id and sends it to Reader, in turn Reader sends it to computer where our Business logic processes this event as per our requirement. SO SIMPLE!!! Isn’t it.

So we can think of using RFID application in any area around us. Such as Asset Tracking, Automatic door access control, Animal Tracking, In Retail Shop etc

So, you can think of innovative Ideas using RFID application and share with us. May be some of reward is waiting for you :-)

Cheers!!!

-Shahnawaz

Octaware Wins Red Herring's Asia.s Top 100 Tech Award - Press Release.

Hello Friends,

Its back to me... Najeeb!. So hopefully the week gone by has been fine and you all have been enjoying a rocking weekend.

Rather than any brand management gyan, I would like to share with you my happiness... Happiness on my organisation Octaware Technologies having won the laurels of being acknowledged as Asia's upcoming Tech Start-up, an honour previously shared by the likes of Google, Skype, FaceBook, etc. and yes we have beaten competiton from many countries including India, China, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong kong, Korea, Vietnam etc. So frineds, that sure us one big achievement.

Heres a good look at the Press Release doing the rounds of various PR Sites and newswires... :)

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Octaware Technologies Selected Asias Top 100 Tech Start-up Of 2010 – By Red Herring



Red Herring announced its Asia Top 100 Awards for 2010. Octaware Technologies, a Mumbai based software development, enterprise solutions and consulting firm wins laurels at the acclaimed Red Herring Asia 2010 Awards. This award acknowledges Octaware Technologies’ presence in the exclusive league of Asia’s top 100 Tech Start-up companies considered as drivers of growth and Future Technology.


Mumbai, India – 21st November,2010 : At a power-packed function in Shanghai on 16th November,2010, Red Herring announced its Top 100 Asia Award in recognition of the leading private companies from Asia, celebrating these start-ups’ innovations and technologies across their respective industries.


Red Herring’s Top 100 Asia list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Former winners such as Google, eBay, Skype, Facebook, and YouTube were discovered early on by Red Herring, who identified the potential of these companies as future Technology leaders changing the way we work and grow.


Hundreds of Technology companies across Asia including India, China, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, and Vietnam had submitted their applications for the prestigious award this year. A stringent review process, saw the short-listing of Finalists and after a further rigorous evaluation Octaware Technologies was announced as a winner.


Red Herring’s editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. This assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track record and standing of start-ups relative to their sector peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models in Asia.


“Choosing the companies with the strongest potential was by no means a small feat,” said Alex Vieux, CEO of Red Herring. “After rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed our list down from hundreds of candidates from across Asia to the Top 100 Winners. We believe Octaware Technologies embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. Octaware should be proud of its accomplishment, as the competition was very strong.


Commenting on this achievement at Red Herring Awards in Shanghai, Mr.Aslam Khan, President, Octaware Technologies said “It was indeed a very strong competition with companies having some of the most refined ideas and innovation being a part of the Finalists and it was indeed inspiring to see them present their ideas. Needless to say having been part of such an august gathering is an accomplishment in itself. After being considered over some of the great achievers and having won the award is surely a great honour.”


Reflecting on the company values Mr.Khan added “It is an appreciation of the vision that Octaware stands for which is much higher than creating material wealth. It is more about adding value with growth opportunities, not just for itself but for the entire society. We are thankful to all our valued customers for their continued faith and to Red Herring for having acknowledged our services. This is recognition of the efforts expended by the entire Octaware family and I accept this award with all humbleness on their behalf.”


This award has provided a great boost to the confidence of all Octawarians and all are highly elated.


Mr.Sajid Hameed, Executive Vice President (R&D), Octaware Technologies said, “It is a hallmark of our continued endurance, consistent performance and excellence. This great news has been welcome by our well-wishers not just in India but even our customers abroad have appreciated this and have approvingly said that we deserved it. Having won this award is not an end but it is the beginning of our next endeavour and a motivation to continuously perform better and deliver. We have to live up to the expectations and exceed them.”


Mr.Khan added, “Participating in this competition has brought us face-to-face with some of the excellent ideators, innovators and entrepreneurs in the industry and it is such sense of innovation and entrepreneurship that we would like to see being imbibed with every individual of our society.


About Octaware Technologies :

Octaware Technologies is a software development, enterprise solutions and consulting firm known for excellent project management, exceeding expectations of customers and delivering high quality solutions. With offices in Mumbai, Seattle, Doha, Jeddah and development centres in Mumbai and Pune, Octaware is dedicated to help clients improve their business productivity by building and implementing high-quality, comprehensive and cost-effective solutions to meet the client’s business requirements.


Web Link : http://www.octaware.com

# # #


Syed Najeeb
Head – Corporate Communications
Octaware Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
74/p Khan Estate, Kherani Road,
Sakinaka, Andheri East.
Mumbai - 400059

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Leap from Beginner to Intermediate Developer - PART II

TIP # 2: Finding Information Technique


Most of the time re-usable components and sample code are available on internet for the module which you are planning to develop. Being a good developer is not just your skill, but your skill at finding information. An expert programmer is the person who is expert at using a variety of reference tools and documentation to find out how to achieve their goals. One has to be good at looking at a problem, figuring out approximately what is wrong, and being able to quickly find the solution. The real talent is knowing how to rapidly research and turn your findings into usable information.

Modern languages and development frameworks are too large for most people to remember much of them. As a result, your ability to get work done is often dependent upon your ability to perform research. Unfortunately, knowing how to find accurate, high-quality information is more than just typing a few words into your favorite search engine. The research (research of R&D) will be very effective and result oriented against Re-Search (repetitive search) if performed with right approach. You need to understand techniques, tactics and strategies involved in the research.

The techniques you need to learn are the advanced search systems of your favorite search engine. How many of us really use “Advanced search” option of our favorite search engine during our research? Have we ever spent time in reading and understanding “Advanced Search Tips” of search engine? You need to learn things such as the search operators, how to filter results (negative keywords, domain restrictions etc.), what role word order plays, and more.

You should learn tactics such as knowing how to approach any particular search and knowing what you should actually look for. Errors are easy — just look for the error code — but keyword selection on many searches is much more difficult. If you are searching on error messages, instead of just copying the entire error string, you might want to add keywords of the error source, language, context of the error message etc to help search engine return the best result.

Regarding strategies, you need to learn things such as what search engines to use. General purpose search engines are not always the right answer. Which sites to visit before going to a general purpose search engine, and even which message boards to look for existing post regarding your problem.

-Aslam

Octaware Wins the RED HERRING TOP 100 ASIA AWARD!!!

A great gift on the Happy occassion of Eid...

Octaware Technologies is on of the winners of RED HERRING'S TOP 100 ASIA AWARD, a prestigious list honouring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the Asia business region.

The awards were declared today at a glittering function in Shanghai, China.

Thanking all our well-wishers & Congratulations to one and all from the Octaware Family!!!

More on this soon.

Importance of Brand Image for Start-ups

What do you mean by branding?
According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary : branding (noun), means “the act of giving a company a particular design or symbol in order to advertise its products and services.”

The dictionary definition of branding is simple but it is amazing how few business leaders understand its importance. There have been directors from large, international businesses who do not see any reason for investing in fresh design, in PR, in web innovation or in core messages.

How a business, product or individual is branded plays a big role in whether they succeed or fail. A brand is not just a logo, it is all your ethics and persona. This includes your style of design, your execution of that design, your attitude, your logo, your marketing, your internal policies and even your business process can all influence your brand image. If image is everything then this image needs to be right.

If it is a start up company, it is common to be branded as such. The benefit of this is that one is young and enthusiastic – the downside is far worse. People are less likely to invest in something that does not carry much experience or credibility. So if one wants to look like an industry leader, how to go about that?

Well one thought is that it all starts, with your target audience. If you can get inside their heads you can appeal to them. If you do not you may find that you offend them, upset them, or put them off. You may have a few target audiences but try and consider your key audience.

More to follow... How to communicate using your brand!!!
 
Posted By - Najeeb

Leap from Beginner to Intermediate Developer

I feel we have been fortunate enough to have experienced (at the same time young and vibrant) marketing guru on Octaware’ board who has taken up the initiative of taking Octaware into Social Media arena. The biggest advantage which I personally see about social media platform is, opening up the door for sharing the knowledge with internal team and external world.
I am planning to share few tips on things which a beginner in programming world can do to make the transition from beginner to Intermediate, not Expert of course as research shows that it takes about ten years, or twenty thousand hours of deliberate practice to become an expert. So to begin with,

TIP # 1: Learn additional language
It might sound little suprising as typical mind block with beginner is that they want to stick to one language. Remember career is all about “development” not “language”. It doesn’t matter which language you learn, but learning another language will make you a better developer. Even better is to learn one that is significantly different from what you already use on a regular basis. In other words, if you are a C# developer, learning VB.NET or Java will not help you as much as learning Ruby or Groovy.

There are three important realms of learning a language: 1) The syntax, 2) The built-in operators and libraries, and 3) “How to use it.” The first two are easy; I think that an experienced developer can pick up enough of a language’s syntax to maintain code in 30 minutes to a few hours depending upon the language. The operators and libraries are just a matter of slowly accumulating knowledge and ability to check reference materials. But it’s the third item — “How to use it” — that can only be learned over months of working with a language and that’s where the real magic happens. I suggest doing a project that is well suited for that language and doing it in that language’s style.

Truly learn another language, and believe me that your abilities as a developer will start to blossom. In my next blog, I plan to share TIP#2 Finding Information Technique.

-Aslam

JavaScript Libraries in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4, it is a very tedious task for system customizers to manage and track JavaScript. System Customizers/Developers have to write JavaScript on every event handler on the form. But Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 provides JavaScript libraries that can be utilized on events and forms across the solution. Now common JavaScript functions can be written at one centralized JavaScript file and utilized across solution.


Moreover, multiple JavaScript libraries can be created. For example, one common library for general CRM Service calls and one common library for UI manipulation and so on.

Haroon

Windows Phone 7

Here is Microsoft’s new baby in Mobile platform.

Microsoft is trying to regain its position in the mobile arena with the launch of Windows Phone 7.  It is an Mobile operating system akin Android which many hardware vendors are deploying on their devices.

It has been touted by some as a iPhone killer, some as a good competitor and others as a damp squib. The results are yet to be seen, but it shows a potential of a good  platform for applications on the mobile.

Though there are many exciting features available in this phone but one of the main loveable core feature of copy & paste is missed out by Microsoft for some reasons : ). But MS promises it will be available by start of 2011.

It has managed to gain quite a bit of visibility in the market (thanks to Microsoft’s aggressive marketing). Find more reviews and write ups available on the following links.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/default.aspx
http://www.engadget.com/product/windows-phone-7-series


and here is what Steve Ballmer has to say about Windows phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIxiEnqAM8U&feature=channel

sRj

Debugging of JS in MS CRM 4.0

To debug a JS of MSCRM 4.0


First Step

Go to Tools --> Internet Options --> Under Advance tab uncheck "Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)"


Second Step

Whenever you place any JS on any of the event in a form. Just type debugger at the start of the Js

Ex: debugger;

var Feild = crmform.all.feildname.value

if (----)
{
---
---
}

When published entity is run at that time a window will pop up depending upon the events, saying to debug the Js in MS Visual Studio.

Can we Shutdown INTERNET completely?

One day I was talking to my son about Internet, its benefit and usage in daily life. He abrubtly asked few questions "Who created Internet?", "Who is controlling this?", "How we can shut down so that no body can use it"? I know answere of first question but what about others. It was not easy for me to give these answeres. I told him about his good question and promised to give answere later :(-

Then what I did, to find answere, went to internet to find out its answere and found something which was similar to my son question but WITHOUT ANSWER. :-)

Please read below.

THE INTERNET


It was born around 40 years ago, in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles. Today it wraps the entire planet and features in the daily routine of more than 1.5 billion people.

Of course, it's easy to take the internet for granted and forget that it's very much a work in progress.


So what forces are shaping it, how big has it grown, and will it ever evolve a mind of its own? To find out, New Scientist posed eight simple questions

1.Who controls the internet?
The official answer is no one, but it is a half-truth that few swallow.


2. Could the net become self-aware?
In engineering terms, it is easy to see similarities between the human brain and the internet's complex network of nodes, so could conciousness be the next step?

3.How big is the net?
In 2008, Google announced that its systems had registered a trillion unique pages – but even this might represent a fraction of what is out there

4.Is there only one internet?
The internet is a disparate mix of interconnected computers, many of them on large networks run by universities, businesses and so on – so what unites them, if anything?

5.Is the net caught in the credit crunch?
Real-estate prices crashing, a big drop in growth, the threat of infrastructure collapse, and authorities printing more money to stave off disaster – that's just the virtual world

6. Where are the net's dark corners?
There are plenty of places online that you would do well to steer clear of: some could leave your computer infected with worms or viruses – then there are the "black holes"

7.Is the net hurting the environment?
Sending an email across the Atlantic Ocean does not burn any jet fuel, but the internet is not without its own, huge carbon footprint

8.Could we shut the net down?

When even the biggest cyber-attacks have failed to bring down the web, governments might not fare much better

GOOD Question to THINK!!!

Internet of Things - IPV6

It’s the story of Jan 2000. A very close friend of mine used to work in downtown, an hour drive from home. It was Monday morning, as usual he woke up early in the morning, prepared a quick "bulls eyes" with left over eggs from the refrigerator, finished his breakfast, put the frying pan in kitchen sink and left for his office. The day started with weekly meeting and hectic schedule. Around noon, he received a call from Fire department where they broke the window to enter his house to extinguish the fire caught due to smoke erupted out of the electric stove. The thing which he had forgot before leaving home, was to switch off the electric stove.

As we all were technology folks and internet was booming with dotcom, we started thinking about solution to avoid such accident. What if all the household devices have an IP address through which we could access the device over the internet and then control the behavior of the device. But the real challenge was the limitation of assigning the IP addresses to all the household items given the fact IPV4 is 32 bit. The industry forecasts for exhaustion of the unallocated IPV4 address space range from 2011 to 2014.

With the emerge of IPV6 developed by the IETF in response to IPV4 address depletion could be the answer to this problem. The significance of IPV6 has to do with the abundance of assignable IP addresses. IPV6 addresses are 128 bits long. This means IPV6 comes with a total of 2^128 (2 to the power of 128) unique addresses – an astronomical number which is sufficient to dole out unique IPV6 addresses to any conceivable networkable object on earth into the indefinite future. One of the most important value propositions of IPv6 is its role in facilitating the emergence of the “Internet of Things,” which pertains to a network interconnecting common objects equipped with embedded miniaturized intelligence modules. The enormous address space of IPv6 will enable support of smart appliances, mobile devices, and associated services that will underpin the envisaged Internet of Things. Futurists have speculated the Internet of Things could potentially result in one of the largest transformations of human civilization subsequent to the Industrial Revolution.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft SharePoint integration

Now that the Microsoft CRM 2011 Beta is out, so is the much awaited feature of integration with Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft SharePoint has nailed Document Management and the ability to collaborate on documents is very rich. The versioning control, simultaneous editing, checking in/out are some features in SharePoint that makes SharePoint as powerful as it is.

In CRM, there has been a constant need for a rich Document Management functionality as documents are commonly used in sales cycle and are associated with opportunities and quotes. Customers also associate documents with products and many other entities. In CRM4, the ability for associating documents with a record has been through attachments which have quite a few limitations. Attachments are a passive store which does not help in collaboration scenarios. Users really need to be able to access documents in context of a CRM record, add more documents, edit and share them.

In CRM2011, this problem is addressed. It provides the ability to associate SharePoint Document locations to a CRM record and hence enabling the ability of accessing documents that are stored in SharePoint within the context of a CRM record. Users can:

a) Create a new SharePoint location(folder) to start storing their documents in
b) Use an existing SharePoint location where the documents are already stored.

It supports SharePoint 2010 and 2007 and both MOSS and WSS flavors.
Automatic creation of SharePoint folders : For this to happen, you need SharePoint 2010 with the CRM list component for SharePoint installed.

Replacing Room Keys with Mobile Phones

Swedish hotel replaces room keys with mobile phone

Visitors to a Stockholm hotel will be able to use mobile phones instead of keys to unlock the doors to their rooms.


Assa Abloy AB, the world's largest maker of door locks, has launched a pilot in which Clarion Hotel Stockholm will lend customers mobile phones with close-range radio chips, much like devices used for contact-less payments at gas stations.

Repeat visitors during a four-month trial will be able to check in through their phones before arrival and have their phones activated as "keys." They will then be able to skip the registration desk and unlock the door by holding the phone next to it.

The short-range radio technology, known as Near Field Communication, is expected to be built into smart phones in the coming years. It is also envisioned for ticketing and card payments. Assa Abloy says it wanted to test the system before expanding it to other hotels, commercial buildings and homes.

Greger Johansson, a telecommunications analyst at research firm Redeye, said NFC is a hot technology in the mobile phone market. But he said few models have incorporated it so far and it will take "several years" before it becomes widely used.

"It's not just a matter of incorporating the technology into the phones," he said. "You need someone who can read it too. There are quite a few players involved so it will take a while until it works well."

The head of Assa Abloy's mobile keys division, Daniel Berg, acknowledged that participants in the trial may find it cumbersome to have an extra mobile phone.

But once people have the technology in their own phones, he said, it will save them time at check-in and improve security because the access credentials in a lost phone can be revoked remotely.

He said the phone technology works with existing radio-enabled locks, so hotels can continue giving key cards to visitors who don't have the new technology in their phones.

The Brand Image - Part - 2

Your brand image or your company image sets the stage for how receptive a target audience is for your messages. For service businesses, your image takes on an even greater importance because you are essentially the company's raw material, machinery, inventory and product all rolled into one. Therefore as an owner you and your employees comprise your company's image.


As an example, a wardrobe consultant who wears outdated clothes that don't fit to a potential client meeting won't create the image that attracts and retains clients.

Similarly, for an IT company even if you may have an average development team, but the confidence of your sales consultant is what shapes the client confidence and drives the business. Having said that, it does not mean that the development team can shy away from gearing up itself for challenges. The better the learning the more refined would be the output.

Some people confuse reputation with company image. Your reputation is only one component of an overall image. For example, you may have a reputation for always delivering quality products on time, but your company image also includes the quality of your presentation materials, your advertising, and your pricing and your Brand image.



More to follow - on the importance of Brand Image in start-up companies. Keep watching this space.