21 Nov 2008
We wanted to have a scalable storage system. So I went ahead and checked out the cost of buying [NAS] from various vendors (NetApp, Dell, etc). I figured out, it was going out our of budget. Then I started learning, what it takes to build a [NAS] for a small teams like ours.
I started evaluating various [FOSS] [NAS] options for our office. I checked out FreeNAS and OpenFiler, finally decided on OpenFiler.
I chose OpenFiler for simple reasons - stability and production-quality. Whereas, FreeNAS has a lot more features, than OpenFiler, but doesn’t look that stable. Perhaps, in future I might go for FreeNAS for it’s various cool features (UPNP, iTunes streaming, etc).
We are using an old server based on Intel’s Server Entry Board, Pentium 4 processor, one Gigabyte memory, one IDE drive and two SATA drives. Both SATA drives are under RAID 1 configuration using OpenFiler’s software RAID. I am planning to get RAID controller card so we can use more disks.
OpenFiler boots from [USB] flash-drive, to make this happen it took some extra effort, Thanks to h@nnes. FreeNAS provides images for flash-devices, so it’s lot easier to boot FreeNAS from USB flash-device. BTW! Booting OpenFiler or FreeNAS from USB flash-drive would save one IDE/SATA port on motherboard, which can be used to plug-in another harddrive for better purpose (not for booting small NAS OS).
Anyway, we are using Intel NAS Performance Toolkit to benchmark our NAS server. We are also doing a lot of tests (semi)manually. The idea is to cover all cases and also come up with disaster recovery strategy.
I would post more details on our findings/benchmark-tests, so it helps you, if you plan to go for it.
Technorati tags: openfiler, NAS, freenas
18 Nov 2008
My macbook has started having problems now, after 29 months. It had some problems around an year back but I got it fixed at a local reseller more on personal terms than professional (via Apple Support).
Apple has great products but any great product without good service is of no use. Specially, now I am in a city where I would not find any Apple reseller or service-provider. I don’t want to travel to New Delhi or even Lucknow, there is no certainty that things would be done in time or would be done at all. I am not sure, if local service-providers are trained enough to do quality service?
Apple needs it’s own centers.
Anyway, it seems Apple is yet to grow in India. Perhaps, they would, since their products are quite competitive with other brands in India.
BTW! My macbook might qualify for battery-extension program, but Apple tech support and customer relationship deny that. They say, your macbook is too old (29 months) and battery should be replaced, oh that means I am going to pay at least 4-5 K (INR)?
BTW! I am quite impressed to see HP’s support in Kanpur, if not India. They are amazing, we have got some 4-5 HP notebooks and it’s really impressive to see how HP has been good to us. They don’t even keep our notebooks, if hardware procurement is required and it might take days, they would rather call us as soon as hardware is available and replace things on spot. That’s nice thing, they really understand how important a notebook is to it’s owner.
I was avoiding to write about Apple Service, but I couldn’t resist specially after being denied to the support I am supposed to get, even when I explained them how hard it is to get service done here.
13 Nov 2008
If you ever liked and appreciated how Creative Commons has made this world a better place by bringing all the good things (creativity, freedom, collaboration, etc) - Then why not support it in this crunching times?
Technorati tags: creative, commons
17 Oct 2008
I just thought to post an update about me, yeah shameless stuff :-)
I am busy doing some interesting flash/flex and web projects. I have been playing with PureMVC, flex parser/compiler code and other stuff. A part of schedule goes in streamlining processes (development, recruitment, HR, etc) in a company, which my brother and I co-founded some years back though it’s known as different name but seed is the same :-)
Whatever time is left goes in building new office space for our team. We would be moving to new office in couple of days. I hope, our team finds this new office relatively better. I hope, we would be more productive and have fun.
You can check out my flickr-stream to see how it looks, photographs are little old. Some more pics from my brother’s photo-stream.
It’s done using limited budget and customized furniture, not modular workstations; unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out a local vendor, for modular workstations, who can do it in our budget. When we do well in coming months, we might put some good modular workstations/cubicles.
Things are not easy in this part, Uttar Pradesh, of country. It seems, government is not really interested to support businesses/entrepreneurs. Corruption seems to be at it’s peak in various government departments, which makes it harder to do things right way (without bribe or favours). Bribing seems like to be an integral part of the system here, but if you are determined and know laws, you can get work done without it, though things might take longer (sometimes very) to get done.
I believe, we are fortunate enough to be in an industry (Software, Internet, Web - in general, IT), where location of business doesn’t matter as long as we have three things - electricity, internet and talent pool. I might be missing something in the list.
We have managed to take care of electricity by having good electricity-generator, though it costs a lot per day, considering we have to pay minimum electricity bill to government even when consistent power supply (around 5-6 hours power cut everyday + random power cuts). Internet is not a problem here, BSNL is doing good job and I find, it’s only goverment department that is relatively better than others.
The last one “talent pool” is something missing here in this city “Kanpur”, or rather entire state “Uttar Pradesh”? I guess, there are not many companies here which can attract and retain good talent. Another thing is temptation to move to better cities like Bangalore, Pune and Delhi for better jobs or life? I think, it’s good idea to do and get more exposure - one must do, it makes you better and allows to see the world outside of the city.
So it’s challenge for us to attract good talent or create talented people. I believe, recruitment of smart people (freshers or experienced) and training are going to be the key. I have stopped expecting to get any experienced person, so I am going to fall back on hiring people with passion, integrity and aptitude. Training is going to be the one of the important things in this company.
I believe, we would be able to build a good, if not great, culture in coming months. I don’t talk about compensation, it might not be the main factor for passionate people but such people should be appreciated in all possible ways (recognition, great work, great compensation and any other thing). We do pay the best in the city, AFAIK, we would keep doing that.
I am learning a lot of things and life is full of challenges now - I feel I am more motivated now than ever. It’s a journey, that’s going to be exciting.
Wait a second, did I tell you what we are doing and plan to do?
We are into graphics-design and development services (RIA/Web-app development and design - logo, identity, user-interfaces, illustrations, web-layouts, promos, flash-animation, etc) right now, but I am personally more interested into products, hence we are going to have a part of budget for [R&D] activities, where we would encourage people to create reusable libraries (be it code or design), internal-tools, experimental/fun projects using upcoming/existing technologies, etc - these can be used in our service projects. I believe, we would be able to turn some of our R&D activities into products in coming future.
That’s it for now - if you have read this far, thanks for doing that. Please leave your suggestion, those would really help me in this new journey of mine.
04 Sep 2008
I heard about IDE Factory via AXNA a couple of weeks back. I managed to check it out today and I must say it rocks.
If you have done Java development using Eclipse IDE, you are going to love IDE Factory. IDE Factory brings a lot of features to Flex development. Following is the list of features (brought by IDE Factory in FB3), I think would be super useful:-
- Package Explorer, I love the SWC and Flex/Flash framework stuff
- E4X Expression Builder
- Format Flex Source Files - Yup, it can format all source files in the project
- Extended Wizards for creating ActionScript class/interface and MXML components
- Cairngorm support
Apart from these, there are some other stuff like asdoc generation, flex-unit tests generation, UML generation, etc.
I am sure, it’s going to evolve to be super useful and would become must-have tool for Flex application development.
It would be great, if they can add support for other Flex frameworks (PureMVC, etc).
Technorati tags: idefactory, flexbuilder, extension
10 Aug 2008
As you know, it’s impossible to buy Adobe’s software from India, I mean using their website. I have raised this issue couples of times in past. Actually, there is no India store and you can’t even change your country to India in Adobe account details.
Anyway, this time, I wanted to buy Adobe Flexbuilder 3 upgrade for one of my team member, I don’t need it because I am very happy with VIM + Flex/AIR SDK.
I requested a friend of mine, who is in USA, to buy Flexbuilder upgrade for me, he tried many times to buy the same using his all cards and what not, no success.
This time problem is with Adobe US store application, which is done in Flex, it throws weird errors as you can see below:
Technorati tags: adobe, store, flexbuilder, upgrade, issue, error
04 Aug 2008
I got to know (via Manish) about A List Apart’s survey 2008 for people who make websites.
There are some interesting questions, I would wait for survey results.
Technorati tags: survey, 2008, ALA, A List Apart
02 Aug 2008
I just read Ryan’s post on Flex SEO contest.
My entry for the contest is done in ten minutes. I have not used any SEO optimization technique in HTML, let’s see if it gets crawled by Google or other search-engines.
Technorati tags: flex, seo, contest, fleximagically, searchable
01 Aug 2008
Just curious:
Which are your favourite features in Flash Player 10?
I find new Text engine very useful in most of the application-development. Text layout engine is powerful enough to solve various use-cases, true bidirectional text support is being one of those.
I like other features too. Hopefully, I would post my views on those as well as text-layout-engine later.
Technorati tags: flash, player, 10, favourite, feature
29 Jul 2008
I am available for consultancy, training and development services. Following is the rough list of things, I can provide consultancy, training or development services for:-
- ActionScript 1.0, 2.0, 3.0
- Adobe Flash/Flex
- Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
- Training on Adobe RIA technologies
- Architecture for RIA
- Web Application Development
- Design and Architecture
- Development for LAMP
- Integration Services for Flex/AIR with existing Web Apps
Development Setup for small teams
- Subversion Version Control
- Bug Tracking System (Trac, Wiki)
- Training on Development Life Cycle
- Backup Strategies
- Development Sandbox Setup for RIA development
JFYI! You can check out my linkedin profile to know more about me. I am based in India and have around ten (10) years of experience, during this period I have worked for Macromedia/Adobe, Yahoo!, Mixercast and TIS and worked as independent-consultant, freelancer, trainer and co-founder. I have been working on various technologies/platforms (some listed above).
I am a programmer who enjoys solving users’ problems whatever it takes (technology is no constrain). Having said that, I am passionate about ActionScript/Flash/Flex/AIR and Web (in general) which happen to be my core competencies.
PS: Do you think, this is a shameless sales pitch :-)
Technorati tags: consultancy, development, services, lamp, actionscript, flash, flex, adobe, AIR, architecture,training, ria