Coding keeps me fit

Exercise keeps you fit physically and what about your programming skills? Code regularly?Yes, to some extent. But good programmers keep practicing. Practice is the key to a good developer.

It is so unfortunate that coding is considered a menial task in companies around and good developers have become a rare thing in the market. The common misconception is after 3 years of experience you should do less coding and try to become a team lead, and eventually the damager (umm Manager!). The FAQs are "You have x years of experience (x > 5, btw) and do you still code?" Damn! and another question - "You are an architect, do you still code?" What the heck!

Considering all these, how to be a better programmer, follow these simple steps:
1. Read books (hmm, I know you have given up reading, but read Code Complete atleast)
2. Read blogs and keep yourself up to date on the happenings in the industry
3. Be a problem Solver
4. Practice, Practice and Practice.
5. Visit codekata and solve the katas.
6. Understand the dynamics (NOT politics) of the organization.
7. Do not get carried away by the misconception of becoming a damager.
8. Last but not least, code regularly.

We lost a good manager

It is sad to know that Subbu is leaving Dell. Subbu was my first manager at Dell and is my icon for a manager. We are going to miss you, Subbu. All the best for your future endeavors!

Advancement and Innovation

A recent post on James McGovern's blog prompted me to write this entry. Read the entry here. If I were asked the same question, my answer would be YES.
It is a very conspicuous thing to notice among the folks (includes my friends as well) to grab the title of Manager as earlier as possible. I do not mean to undermine the role of a manager, I worked with some excellent managers and I respect the position.

One for the reasons for the rush to be a manager is to hide the technical incompetence. 95%(perhaps even more) of the poeple in IT industry should not have entered the software field, and the shortest way they found out to save their jobs is to become a manager, rather damager.

Another reason is folks are too lazy to learn new things and apply them to their work. The mindset is "I'm asked to do this and have done it". Arrive Late, leave early, take big break in between (play badminton, 2 hr lunch break, ...) have become quite common. Most of them dont even know what a BLOG is and the last they read something from a book is only during their college days. Innovation is given a damn.

Let me stop here!
Disclaimer: This entry is by no means to undermine the managers nor to demean the Indian IT folks. Any resemblence is purely coincidental and not intentional.

JEE6

Someone pointed me to a pdf on the EJB3.1 that is part of JEE6. Have a look at the pdf here. It has many nice features which shold have been available (much) earlier. Read carefully and if you have worked with Spring, Hibernate and Quartz (my favorite frameworks, btw), you'd notice some overlapping concepts.