vahid.ca

“The project”

Hid — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:53:43 +0000

I’ve always hated meetings and this project is all about meetings and this makes me uncomfortable. However, I believe this is normal in the few first sprints and will eventually resolve to more coding and less meetings.

I’m replacing another tech lead from our company. A nice guy with a lot of technical knowledge and native Canadian which helped him communicate better with the client. So far have seen nothing really surprising and hope this trend linger till the end of knowledge transfer. They need help with the policy search and retrieve and have not had time to focus on Financial yet which I’m hoping to be able to do when I settle done.

Cheers,

Vahid

Winnipeg, right from Guelph

Hid — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:15:06 +0000

Started a new project at Wawanesa Insurance and already love it. It’ll give me the challenge I have been looking throughout the last part of my stay at the previous project. Although it was a fantastic client and I had absolutely no problem with the team, the work had gone from somehow interesting to almost boring which wasn’t their fault, a well planned project is always boring right before production deployment.

The new client is in Winnipeg (may be the only down side) which I haven’t had time to explore and also weather doesn’t let us to walk may be more than 100 meters. It’s a fairly straight forward implementation which my experience with Cooperators makes it more like a walk in the park (I should knock on the wood). Same issues, same integrations and same challenges. If all goes well, this will be a lot easier than Cooperators and we move much faster than that project. All said, I still miss that team, I had some good friends there.

So let’s see what Winnipeg, Manitoba has for me.

Cheers,

Vahid

Eclipse 3.5 on Ubuntu 9.1

Hid — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:59:51 +0000

I decided to move to Ubuntu for my Android development and for this, I installed Eclipse 3.5.1 but noticed Eclipse is behaving strangely. The buttons didn’t work properly and install new software was completely useless.

After spending hours searching Net I found that this is an issue with the new GTKWindows which. To solve this, you need to use "export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true" in a terminal and then start Eclipse in the same terminal.

This off course is an interim solution till Eclipse team figure out what has been broken.

Cheers,

Hid.

Qibla Compass

Hid — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:03:17 +0000

After a month of fidgeting with Android I finished my first Android application. It’s a Qibla Compass (Qibla is the direction from each point on Earth to Ka’ba which is important for Muslims when they want to pray). The application has a simple interface (partly to keep it simple and light and partly to keep the main focus on functionality and not aesthetics). For more information about the application you can check it’s page.

Next stop is to improve the application, add prayer times and work more on the cosmetics if I see the need. Till then, I’m digging a little deeper into Android to work and it’s inner parts to get some idea what my next application will be.

Cheers.

Toronto 3

Hid — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:45:15 +0000

How to Manage Your Reputation Online – Gadgetwise Blog – NYTimes.com

Hid — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:27:35 +0000

Excellent article by Azadeh Ensha in today’s New York Times on how to manage your online reputation. May be next time you think twice before you post that nasty comment about your friend or cracking a joke online.

How to Manage Your Reputation Online – Gadgetwise Blog – NYTimes.com.

Ubuntu 8.0.4 (Hardy Heron)

Hid — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:12:41 +0000

After months of inactivity, I updated my Linux installation from Ubuntu 7 to 8 and boy, what a difference.

My experience with 7 was kind of disappointing at the time. I couldn’t make my bluetooth mouse and keyboard to work, the dual monitor didn’t work and these were enough for me to say goodbye to it. This time, after updating and making a couple of tweaks here and there, and thanks to the expanded Ubuntu forums, everything’s ticking and I’m enjoying my Linux machine for the first time.

The next step though will be setting up ClaimCenter and then benchmarking it with Windows. Hopefully that will work and I will switch completely to Linux.

Goatee

Hid — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:36:04 +0000

Well, believe it or not, this is true. The Sudanese man married a female goat after taking advantage of poor animal. He also had to pay 50 bucks to the original owner for this marriage to take happen. Pfffffff…

Windows live writer

Hid — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:53:16 +0000

Just came across newest Microsoft attempt to dominate Internet space: Windows Live Writer. It’s part of the new Windows Live Messenger installation along with some other tools (photo gallery, email client …). It has a nifty setup process which runs through your existing weblog (in my situation) and correctly figures out the publishing software as well as other settings it needs in order to set up the client correctly. It also some how captures the feeling of your template (background image, fonts, colours) and uses them as the background in client screen.

It’s still in it’s 1.0 version (although it’s passed a rigorous beta testing).

Take a look and let me know about

Technorati Tags: Windows live writer,Windows live,windows

your experience.

Good bye Chicago

Hid — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 23:00:46 +0000

I’ve been working in Chicago for the past two months. Although I didn’t see much of the city but I can say I like it. It’s a city which has its own character. Much different than boring Toronto which doesn’t give you any sense of personality. Tall building mixed with Roman structures and post-modern high rises makes it a unique combination which is difficult to find anywhere else.
The interesting thing about it, or may be the area that I stay, is the number of colleges and universities. I never tried to count them but I’m sure not less than 15-20 different schools are located in a small area. The huge public library also adds to this intellectual character.
Another difference between Chicago and Toronto was the way people interact with each other, I guess this is partly because city has a lot of black people. I haven’t seen this sense of unity in Toronto which I attribute it to the Irish/English background of the people there.
Anyways, this is the last night I stay here, although it’s possible that I get assigned to this project again but for now, good buy windy city.