My body is far from being ready to face 55 miles right now but I want to do this some day. In the next few years. Before the years wither and wane this body I carry around. 2011 might be the magic year and I’ll hopefully be able to conquer this distance. Time will tell …

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What is interesting about the article is that, personally, I’ve been naive enough to assume every one of those 5 fallacies at one point or another. Every time, I think I’ve learnt and think that I can’t make the same mistakes again, but a slightly different situation always brings me back to the same coal pit, without even a hint of the downfall. And that is the beauty of nature, and why you and I, have to strive constantly to work towards training the mind to understand that fooling yourself, even for your own good, is dangerous.

But, what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger, eventually. And that is an axiom I do believe in strongly. And so we move on …

PS: I wanted to ask ‘Is common sense, common’ but considering that it is more of a cliche, I settled for the above title.

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Since I’ve been doing this the past few years, I’m not going to repeat all the fun facts about PI. But I will nevertheless give you some more interesting facts and links I found recently.

1) The Pi day Sudoku puzzle.

2) Things that equal Pi. Btw, the 360 blog has some really interesting posts and you should definitely subscribe to it.

3) Oh and of course, the recent appreciation of the reverent number even by politicians. Check this out.

4) And if you want to buy some swag for your PI day party, I suggest getting these beautiful PI shaped ice maker.

5) Update: Just found out that old Al’ was born on PI day. How fitting ?! Thanks to Neatorama for the piece of trivia.

Hmm.. Another year. Another day. Time is flying I tell you …

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Of course, if you do not understand the background, it is based on an Indian epic `Ramayana`. The epic is the story of Rama, an Avatar to symbolize the perfect human, the perfect son, the perfect brother, the perfect king and follows his struggles with ethics and societal morals to do everything right. His wife Sita is another symbolism for the perfect wife who abides by her husband’s word and loves him immaterial of the inflictions and abuse she undergoes as a result of Rama’s pledge to uphold virtue. In simpler words, she is the epitome of womanliness emphasized throughout ancient Indian literature.

The movie though is based on this tale, is focused on the jazz music of Annette Hanshaw. And it has also been released under the Creative Commons share-alike license.

For those Indians who take offense to the depictions of Sita as a busty, gloomy woman, please relax and enjoy the animation and retelling of the epic tale with a different twist. Now grab some snacks, go to the site and enjoy.

Watch “Sita Sings the Blues” on Reel 13.

1) Official site
2) Wikipedia article

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I am disappointed that Nuclear engineering is rated at Rank 41 although what I feel is most certainly very different from the people who compiled the list. I am encouraged enormously since my work in the field requires me to be 1/3rd part Mathematician, 1/3rd part Nuclear engineer, 1/4th part Computational engineer and 1/12th part Physicist. And there you go: My job description.

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1) Universe
2) Life
3) Death
4) Free Will
5) Sex

Michael Brooks on five mysteries of the universe.

Update: In a tangential topic, here are couple of things few others are worried, about the solar system: The Unknown Solar System.

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History:

• Biblical References: I Kings 7:23 II Chronicles 4:2
  In Kings, it states, “And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one brim to the other: it was round all about, and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about.”
• In 240 B.C, Archimedes of Syracuse, Sicily (287 – 212 BC) did the first theoretical calculation of . He used methods similar to the ones used by Euclid by inscribing a regular polygon inside a circle. He started with a hexagon and then polygons of 12, 24, 48, and finally 96 sides. He also used one of Euclid’s theorems to develop a numerical method for calculating the perimeter of the polygons. Archimedes obtained the approximation 223/71 < π < 22/7.
• 150 A.D. Ptolemy found π to be approximately 377/120 (or 3.1416)
• 480 A.D. In China, pi was found to be approximately equal to 355/113 or 3.1415929 …
• 1150 Bhaskara (a Hindu) gave 3927/1250 as an accurate value of π
• 1579 Viete used polygons having 393,216 sides to evaluate π correct to 9 places
• 1610 Van Ceulen used 2^62 sides to compute π to 35 decimal places
• 1949 ENIAC (first modern computer) spent 70 hours to compute π to 2,037 places
• In September 2002, π was computed to 1,240,000,000,000 decimal places by Professor Yasumasa Kanada at the University of Tokyo. It took over 400 hours on a Hitachi Supercomputer.

Facts and interesting stuff:

• All the digits of Pi can never be fully known.
• William Jones, a self-taught English mathematician born in Wales, is the one who selected the Greek letter π for the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter in 1706.
• Thirty divided by ten gives a value of 3. However, it is interesting to note that the word circumference happens to be spelled with an extra letter. Since in Hebrew all letters are also numbers, if we take the ratio of the value for the word as it is written (111) to the normal spelled word (106) we get the number 1.047169811… If you multiply this number by 3 you get 3.141509434… An amazingly close approximation to π!
• The 1983 Guinness Book of World Records lists Rajan Mahadevan from India as having recited 31,811 places of pi from memory !
• PI poem by Lorreen Pelletier: The number of letters in each line corresponds to a digit in the number π, up to 35 decimal places.
• The value of π can be computed using the fibonacci sequence ! Link.
• How do you prove that the π exists ?? Here’s an interesting theory.
• Can you decipher the digits of π using a Sanskrit sloka ? Here’s a demonstration. Interesting read !
• Here’s π to 1000 digits:
  3. 14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825 34211 70679 82148 08651 32823 06647 09384 46095 50582 23172 53594 08128 48111 74502 84102 70193 85211 05559 64462 29489 54930 38196 44288 10975 66593 34461 28475 64823 37867 83165 27120 19091 45648 56692 34603 48610 45432 66482 13393 60726 02491 41273 72458 70066 06315 58817 48815 20920 96282 92540 91715 36436 78925 90360 01133 05305 48820 46652 13841 46951 94151 16094 33057 27036 57595 91953 09218 61173 81932 61179 31051 18548 07446 23799 62749 56735 18857 52724 89122 79381 83011 94912 98336 73362 44065 66430 86021 39494 63952 24737 19070 21798 60943 70277 05392 17176 29317 67523 84674 81846 76694 05132 00056 81271 45263 56082 77857 71342 75778 96091 73637 17872 14684 40901 22495 34301 46549 58537 10507 92279 68925 89235 42019 95611 21290 21960 86403 44181 59813 62977 47713 09960 51870 72113 49999 99837 29780 49951 05973 17328 16096 31859 50244 59455 34690 83026 42522 30825 33446 85035 26193 11881 71010 00313 78387 52886 58753 32083 81420 61717 76691 47303 59825 34904 28755 46873 11595 62863 88235 37875 93751 95778 18577 80532 17122 68066 13001 92787 66111 95909 21642 01989 …
• Here’s a palindrome for you : “I prefer PI” !!
• e raised to the i*pi power equals -1 (e is the base of the natural logarithm and i is the imaginary number which is the sqare root of -1)

Alternate π addendum:

Book:
The life of PI – Here PI is an Indian guy’s name who gets stranded in the sea for more than 250 days. Its a good read although it has nothing to do with the π we are dealing with here. Just thought that might be an interesting trivia !
Movie:
PI – The movie starts with the line “When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so when I was six I did…”. Now with a line like that, how could i not watch it ! I’d recommend this movie to anyone who’s a little perceptive and frankly, a bit obsessed on math or anything for that matter. I watched the movie and loved it but few of my friends hated me for recommending the movie. So, there you go. But seriously, if you get some time, and are a math fan, watch it !

Links:

• Wikipedia
• The Joy of PI
• The story of pi
• 14 different ways of computing π

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Bird flu has overshadowed the year 2005. The abominable virus claimed many bird lives in South East Asia before heading across Europe to Russia and Ukraine. However, the more scientists and officials talk about the deadly threat, the less credible it looks to people. Some people believe there is no such thing as bird flu. They think the whole story stemmed from the fights over the world market between the poultry producers. Others blame the pharmaceutical companies that are keen to spread panic and therefore make us buy more medicines. Which story should we believe in? Does the bird flu really exist? Does it pose a threat to humans? Did other threats of the worldwide proportions materialize?

It did not take long to tackle the problem; doctors found a pathogen and a vector – coronovirus and a palm cat, a viverrine animal normally used for food in China. However, the urgent measures could not stop another myth from spreading far and wide. The myth said that the SARS problem was made up to lower China’s economic growth and disrupt the exceedingly profitable tourist industry in South East Asia.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Sandakhchiyev:

“Discovering a new more dangerous type of previously unknown coronavirus in the patients was direct evidence of a real threat. The ‘spinning’ of that epidemic stressed the importance of international cooperation. Many people did realize that humankind was destined to face new or recurrent infectious diseases. Therefore, a system of global and domestic monitoring is highly required.”

Spent nuclear fuel

Following a heated debate in 2001, the Russian president signed into law the bill on storage and reutilization of spent nuclear fuel from foreign nuclear power spent nuclear fuelplants. Specialists were unanimous while explaining to their opponents that spent nuclear fuel was not just the waste material from the nuclear industry. According to them, it is a high-tech product that can be used for extracting raw materials and energy. Despite potentially huge profits Russia could make (one ton of spent nuclear fuel costs $1 million; total estimated amount of spent nuclear fuel is 200 thousand tons), environmentalists have been relentless in their opposition to the new law.

Nikolai Shingarev, Director of the Information Center of the Federal Agency on Nuclear Energy:

“No spent nuclear fuel is being brought into Russia despite the law. We will probably sign the first contract under the new legislation for a small consignment of spent nuclear fuel from a research reactor in Uzbekistan. Today Russia is receiving nuclear waste from the nuclear plants built in the Soviet era in Ukraine ($370 thousand per 1 ton) and Bulgaria ($600 thousand per one ton). Reutilization waste materials will be stored in Russia only if the governments OKs the storage and only if fuel had been originally produced in Russia. 75% of revenues will be allocated for environmental programs and the remaining 25% will make part of local budgets.”

10 myths of the past, which never materialized

Steam-driven locomotive: serious scientists were asserting that cows would stop bearing offspring and produce milk at the sight of a locomotive. They also clamed that air would be squeezed out of train carriages at 20 km per hour and passengers will suffocate as a result.

Robot: intelligent machines will shake off dependence and take command of the world; humans would submit to the power of the machines.

Spacecraft: spacecraft were making holes in the atmosphere during the takeoff; the earth’s protective anti-radiation layer of the atmosphere will be eventually destroyed and thus the earth will be exposed to dangerous space particles.

Microwave oven: fried sausages can irradiate in the dark; radiation from food cooked in the oven will pile up in the human body and cause cancer.

Cell phone: radiation emitted by a cell phone receiver can affect the brain by liquefying it. Paradoxically, a cell phone phobia could not stop the massive spread of cellular communications all over the world.

Vaccination: the danger of vaccination is one of the longstanding fears in the world; the first objectors appeared shortly after the first vaccination campaign launched by Dr. Edward Jenner in 1796; many objected to vaccination in Russia at the end of the 1990s.

Environmental pollution: some people feared that the civilization would come to end by 2020 due to sky-high levels of industrial and communal pollution which should result in a lack of oxygen and poisonous evaporation.

Asbestos: Micro particles of asbestos cause lung cancer. Asbestos was produced in Canada and the USSR. Canadian asbestos companies went bankrupt following an anti-asbestos propaganda campaign instigated by the competitors. Russia’s asbestos makers have survived the bad times. The incidence rate of cancer in the town of Asbest does not exceed an average national incidence rate of cancer.

Global warming: industrial emissions of carbon dioxide cause the greenhouse effect that leads to overheating of the earth’s surface. Consequently, polar ice will melt away causing the global ocean level rise by one meter.

Ozone holes: Freon used in refrigerators and deodorants will destroy the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which protects Earth against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. As a result, the number of cancer and other deadly diseases will grow.

via PRAVDA

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And what’s more cool is that all these tricks are based on scientific facts ! Awesome. Gotta give some of this a shot soon.

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A potential problem with the emergency reactor core cooling system at the nation’s largest nuclear power plant went undetected from 1986, when it began producing power, until last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) and the plant operator confirmed Thursday.

The issue was identified when engineers at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station did an analysis after NRC inspectors raised questions at a detailed inspection early last week. The NRC was following up to see if earlier cooling system problems had been fixed.

The review showed the emergency cooling system may not operate as expected to provide water to reactor cores after a small leak in the reactor cooling lines, NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said.

Practically, for this flaw to lead to any kind of disatrous results, lots of redundant safety systems need to fail together. Well, i am not refuting the fact that such an incident could have happened anytime in the past 19 years of its operation but chances for a complete failure and a meltdown are slim. Nevertheless, this is definitely a serious issue and hopefully, the NRC will bring in a stricter system to check all the flaws in all operating reactors.

God, i dont even want to begin to imagine what the media fuss will be, on all this.

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I see that our PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh has made nuclear energy one of his prime priorities. Check out an excerpt from the article.

Keeping global energy requirements in mind and the necessity to combat global warming, India and France recognize the need to strengthen energy security and promote the development of stable, sustainable, efficient and affordable energy sources in order to meet their growing energy requirements. Both sides also recognize that nuclear energy provides a safe, environmental friendly and sustainable source of energy and the need to further develop international co-operation in promoting the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

France acknowledges the need for full international civilian nuclear co-operation with India and will work towards this objective by working with other countries and the NSG and by deepening bilateral co-operation.

France appreciated India’s strong commitment to preventing WMD proliferation and the ongoing steps it is taking in this regard. In this context, both countries will also work towards conclusion of a bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement.

After the recent trip to Washington in July, this new collaboration is definitely going to take India, up a notch in terms of nuclear power. The potential opening of nuclear power business between India and US has allowed other Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) members like France to start active negotiations with India on supplying nuclear technology, and perhaps fuel as well. I would not be surprised if the next stop for Dr. Singh is Moscow. While I think that these are positive developments, I remain skeptical about how much the cooperation from both these nations is going to be extended keeping in mind the security aspect of the whole thing.

Well, only time will tell us the future scope of these collaborations. Let us see.

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Enough introduction. I have added a new section on my sidebar called My DeL.IciO.Us. It shows the list of my recent bookmarks in DeL.IciO.Us. So look into my sidebar every time you visit my site for some great new links or you can subscribe to the exclusive RSS feed of my links here.

No more LinkoMania posts on my blog.

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• “Dr. Feynman’s Doodles” – How one scientist’s simple sketches transformed physics – A very nice article about some of the contributions of Dr. Feynmann. He was one of the most revolutionary physicist of the century. It is commonly said that “Feynmann is to second quarter as Einstein was to the first quarter”. I also recently read his autobiography, which is not all physics but includes incidents from his life that are very interesting. Will quote some of them sometime soon.
• Earth may be reaching capacity on ability to absorb carbon – Oh crap. Isn’t it already late in our venture to save the earth ? Please avoid using Fossil fuels as much as possible. Well the oil prices have been fluctuating a lot recently, thanks to Saudi’s King but the only language that politicians will understand is when oil prices increase beyond any affordable consumption. Can’t wait to see what happens then … Maybe we will build more nuclear reactors
• The Future of Physics – From a theoretical physicist’s point of view, some of the important topics of research that might gain more interest in the future …
• Einstein and the Bomb – Hiroshima the Hidden Story – A semi-political historic view of the events during WWII that triggered physicists and politicians to look at the construction of an Atomic bomb – It is from a paper Dr. F.H. Knelman presented at an international Einstein conference.
• ‘The Matrix’ vs. Reality – Written by Dr. Michio Kaku and Sarah Lane. Eventhough Matrix was a sci-fi, Dr. Kaku analyzes the accuracy of physics and logic behind the movie. It is kind of an interesting read though i might not take the arguments too seriously. I love the movie and is probably one of the best sci-fi’s i have ever seen. Way to go Wachowski !

Alrighty. That’s it for now. Will be back later …

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• Why I Will Never Have A Girlfriend – Alright. I sometimes do crib about that but this guy has taken it to a whole new scientific level and proves why the problem is not with the guy or the girl who shares the same feeling. Definitely, a paper on the subject does seem a bit crazy. He’s got way too much time on his hands Also don’t forget to see his FU-Q pages …
• Lost in Translation – What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth between 5 different languages? The authors of the Systran translation software probably never intended this application of their program. As of September 2003, translation software is almost good enough to turn grammatically correct, slang-free text from one language into grammatically incorrect, barely readable approximations in another. Run your favorite phrases through and laugh through the horrors of bad online translators …
• StellaAwards – The Stella Awards were inspired by Stella Liebeck. In 1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages, but that’s not the whole story. Ever since, the name “Stella Award” has been applied to any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits — including bogus cases! There are some interesting stories here …
• Internet killed the video star – A very funny flash movie which is a parody of the original video and is on the same lines as the famous song “Video killed the radio star“, the first video ever to be aired on MTV. It involves lots of people(AOL, Bill gates, MTV, MJ, Britney and others) and the animation is not that bad too. You can definitely waste 3 minutes to see this …

Alright. My break time is up. I did enjoy the links i have posted here. Read them during your spare time and loosen up a little …

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Now if only i can just create a blackhole and get a computer with a mega huge cpu power to solve a billion variables accurately, i will be done …

Now read on about “A User’s Guide to Time Travel” – All it takes is a grasp of theoretical physics, control of the space-time continuum, and maybe a ball of cosmic string.

A very interesting and captivating article about some of the theories and concepts you need to know before trying to even talk about time travel to anyone ! Definitely a nice lay-man’s intro to the subject …

Also, here is the author’s site. Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of String Field Theory. If you have never had the chance to read anything on Field theory, then believe me, after the basic reading i’ve done, i’d salute him a 100 times ! He’s got a great site going on, full of technical information. A nice site if you like theoretical physics and many other scientific phenomena.

Update : Saw this article “Realistic Time Machine? New design could forgo exotic ingredient” and found it interesting and relevant to the topic. While all the suggested theories seem good, nothing can be commented about them until a practical model is developed.

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Listen to what great a silence they behold;
Sun in the clear blue sky, the vagrant breeze warm and dry.

The prelude draws its overtures from the reprise.
Slow and steady the tune is built.
With the flats and sharps as they gather,
Tempo together with the minors and majors.
Into an experience of this astounding resonance. The voice of orbital orgasm!

Whither the moon? Whither the waters? The roar!
As the scale descends, the roar drowns into a death,
Only to pass the dying refrain as the theme to the next.
The roar speaks in a million accents: of triumphs, of disappointments,
Of convictions, of negotiations , of a variety emotions and naked reasons.

In this brutal might there is beauty – austere or magnifique;
but nothing is permitted to last more than the lifetime of a wave.
This is no ordinary orchestra.
This is life, the concert writ against the horizon of constancy.

via Deja-vu

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• Mind May Affect Machines – Researchers at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program, or Pear, have been attempting to measure the effect of human consciousness on machines since 1979. No one can hear them, but they can see their apparent effect: balls that go in certain directions on command, water fountains that seem to rise higher with a wish and drums that quicken their beat — Very interesting and very Matrixy …
• ‘Human-brained’ monkeys – Scientist warned that their latest experiments may accidently produce “human-brained” monkey. In this world gone mad, we won’t spank the monkey, the monkey will spank us — WTF ?!
• Pseudoscience or Quantum Physics ? – A very interesting article on the most beloved theory in Modern physics …
• The Birth of Google – Larry thought Sergey was arrogant. Sergey thought Larry was obnoxious. But their obsession with backlinks just might be the start of something big — A very good read on how the idea behind Google started growing into the behemoth that it has now become !
• The Machine Doesn’t Stop – A very very interesting post about what will become of the Machine in the future. The machine that they refer to is the whole consciousness of machines that are connected to each other through the internet and which could breathe and work as a single entity, some time in the future ! A beautiful vision that reminds me of Terminator !

Well that’s it for now .. I am almost sleeping on my keyboard. Adios !

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Read more on “If these words were people, I would embrace their genocide“. I have linked to this site previously and as before, this one too is a very funny article.

Actually, I do share the same feeling about many of the dumb blogs I come across every day, but hey, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure !”. So live with it.

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Wishing won’t change your skin,
Still less what lives within;
Undoubtably the instinct to begin
Repenting without admitting sin:
Too often this deceit alone will win
The victim dim or doctrine thin.

via Philosophical Poetry

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• A neat site with lots of links and lots of junk news and trivia. Nice site to spend some time.
• Live, Jobs Tells Stanford Grads – I’ve seen a similar talk of his before but this one makes me think that he’s going nuts. Well but thats just me !
• Jackie and the Brain – A neat story about the evolution of an AI being !
• Who Will Google Buy Next? – If you are one of those people who love Google and are interested in what they are going to do next, then check this story. Nevertheless, it gives you lots of links to many other interesting services, free and paid which could be very helpful.
• ScienceMatters@Berkeley, June issue - Not much but if you are scientifically motivated, then watch the issues regularly. The boys at the Big school do post some nice research material here.
• The Simnuke project – Sheer craziness if you ask me but oh well, who isn’t ???
• Why We Need Friendly AI – Nice site with all the Asimov laws. Frankly, i’ve got to confess that i was blown away by the book(I Robot) and there are some other interesting perspectives in this site which are weirdly cool !
• Toll Free 800 Directory provides information about 1-800 numbers, reverse lookup and tracing 1 800 numbers – Well if you are stuck in the US, like I am, this could be a handy reference at times you never expect !
• Cool Fractals @ freaky-fractals.com – Its all about Fractals. I’ve always loved the idea behind them. Nice site.

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Anyway, as our quest for a free .NET IDE continues, here’s one to quench that ! Check out Eclipse for .NET ! Infact, i think i picked up this link from one of the replies, but not sure though… Eclipse as most of you would have heard is an awesome product which was developed by IBM and then later opensourced. I have heard quite a lot from fellow Java devs that the IDE is powerful compared to IntelliJ‘s IDE. Well i’m not the judge in either case but i definitely think that the plugin will help all those cribbing for a good IDE with C# support.

Again, #develop as many of you already know, is a very flexible IDE completely written in C# which is opensource and freely available. There is rarely something extra needed apart from #develop and ASP.NET Webmatrix for developing WinForm and WebForm code in .NET. What more do you want ?

And apart from all that, for the most hardcore developer who doesn’t care for IDE features, there is one really cool app to write code in C#. Ofcourse it will not work at all for enterprise level apps but for smaller projects, definitely useful. Check out Textpad. FYI, its got syntax highlighting functionality for C# too .. Download the file here.

Code on …

I guess, this is a pretty decent list of free IDEs to work on .NET right now. I might have missed a lot of other ones here but these are the ones that stand out quite prominently, i should say

Update : Just found out that the Notepad2 free utility provided at Flo’s freeware site also supports syntax highlighting for C# ! And the best part is that the whole thing is customizable, just like Textpad’s syntax highlight feature Cool.

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• A KB Article that provides a fix for a very common error in ASP.NET. Fix for “Server Application Unavailable” error message if a DLL is loaded in the 0x33A20000 address space and you request an ASP.NET page.
• A very detailed article on Code Access Security (CAS) and Design Patterns.
• Latest Channel 9 Video with Ward Cunningham – How did you come up with the idea for the Wiki ?
• Read about the review of the new book : Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham.
• There is a free online course on security at the microsoft E-learning center. Check out Clinic 2806: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers. This online clinic provides students with knowledge and skills essential for the creation of applications with enhanced security. Students will learn about the need for implementing security at every stage of the development process and best practices for applying security principles. Students will also learn how to use established threat modeling methodologies and tools with other best practices to minimize vulnerabilities and limit damage from attacks. Finally, students will learn how to implement security features to enhance security for Web applications and Web services that are built by using Microsoft ASP.NET. via Sudhakar Sadasivuni
• IronPython: A fast Python implementation for .NET and Mono. A pretty neat article with lots of benchmarks and some real advice on how to improve the performance in the managed world.
• Design Guidelines Update: Enum Design via BradA
• A nice article on Document-Centric .NET which stresses on the principle “program to an interface, not an implementation”.
• Clemens gives an acronym to SOA. Guess it before you click
• Betting on Managed Code – An exclusive interview with Somasegar who is the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Developer Division, talks about Microsoft’s new Partner program; the future of the .NET platform, in both the short and long term; and how Microsoft has learned from the open source community.
• Read more about the Rules engine in Biztalk 2004.
• Check out HTML-Kit - A full-featured, highly customizable development environment that can be used to create, edit, validate, preview and publish web pages and scripts.

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Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, “It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my own damned liver.  - Jack Handy

Definitely a very cool perspective huh ;-) Will work for beer !! Ok. Time to check out these bunch of interesting links now…

• There are a series of support webcasts from Microsoft that have been posted recently. Most of them talk about the internal workings of the ASP.NET infrastructure and the general nitty gritties of programming in ASP.NET. Check out the bunch of links that i found below …

• Microsoft ASP.NET Server Controls : Learn about the internal workings of custom ASP.NET server controls such as ViewState, PostBack, Events, and Rendering.
• Microsoft ASP.NET Threading : An in-depth look at the Microsoft ASP.NET threading architecture, and what it means to your Web applications. You will learn how to monitor the ASP.NET ThreadPool in real time, use the real-time ThreadPool information to tweak the machine.config to yield the best performance for your application, and avoid threading trouble when using COM components from ASP.NET (especially when you are upgrading from ASP).
• Microsoft ASP.NET: An Overview of Caching : Hear about the features of the different types of caching that are available in Microsoft ASP.NET, and where to use them. This also includes information that will help you gain a general understanding of how caching can improve performance in Web applications.
• Data Binding in ASP.NET Web Forms : Learn how to retrieve data from different data sources and populate it in data bound controls. You will hear about various ASP.NET Web controls and the binding techniques related to them. You will learn about simple data binding, but the WebCast will focus on complex data binding.
• Microsoft ASP.NET: Side-by-Side Execution with ASP.NET : A brief introduction to the side-by-side concept, which involves running multiple versions of programs and .NET Framework on the same computer. It will then discuss how those concepts apply to ASP.NET applications, both at run time and during their development, including using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET to create Web applications.

The list of presentations done at the EMEA Architects tour 2004 in Helsinki. Very very nice Don’t miss this one.

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• This is a new site where there are architecture related articles, links and news. Just seen it. Nothing to comment yet. Check it out.
• Building a Defensive Perimeter Against Malicious User Input - Simple and true.
• The SOA Implementation Framework White Paper. See here.
• A cool article on creating SQL Based RSS Feed !
• A bit old article but found the idea very interesting. Yet to try out the code. Read about Circular Buffer here …
• And Google’s stats show that Win XP, 2K and 98 comprise almost 87% of the OS that are used to access Google worldwide !!! Wow ! But i still can’t beleive that 22% of those people are still using Windows 98 ! hmm ..

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MS presents the online SQL Server 2000 System Table Map.

Included in this document:

• Log Shipping Tables in the msdb Database map
• SQL Server Agent Tables in the msdb Database map
• Database Maintenance Plan Tables in the msdb Database map
• Replication Tables in the msdb Database map
• Backup Tables in the msdb Database map
• Systems Tables in the Master Database Only map
• Systems Tables in Every Database map
• Replication Tables in Each User Database map
• Replication Tables in Each Distribution Database map

Pretty cool.

On a sidenote, a friend of mine pointed me to a post on a small performance test wrt sorting and filtering of custom collections on 1 million custom objects… Not bad. Not bad at all !

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