Personal Software Process Developer Exam

I stumbled across this new PSP (Personal Software Process) Developer Certification Exam. For a long time, I was looking for a certification on this line. At work, we follow a home-grown process rather than the standard SEI/ISO certified process. So this certification could be a chance for me to showcase my knowledge on *process*. I have just downloaded the PSP Body of Knowledge. It lists the competency areas for PSP with links to various other references. With 91 pages, it is not really bad comparing the PMI’s PMBOK.

Oops! The exam isn’t available in India yet but I see a centre in Milan, Italy. One more reason to visit the client 😉

Hall of shame

The sense of achievement that lingered in the hearts of fellow Indians after Rathore‘s victory came to a sudden jolt by the disgraceful behavior of two Indian weightlifters following their failed dope tests.Soon the Finger pointing game followed the allegations. The lack of unity among our sports persons and officials have surfaced once again. Perhaps this is one of the main reason why we Indians often perform awfully in world sports.

The increased number of doping incidents in weightlifting warrants a stringent action against the offenders.Hope the Indian government, Indian Olympic Association and IWF take some punitive measures soon. Only such actions,can prevent the sport from getting tainted further.

Creative zen touch – too good to believe

Creative has announced a new Creative zen touch player. The visible USP of this player is it's battery life which is 3 times more than Apple's iPod. Even if the manufacturer's claim is 75% true, it still amounts to 15 hrs. Sounds too good to resist. Rest of the features include the 20 GB hard disk, Touch pad, USB 2.0, MP3/WMA and the usual 97dB SNR. May be this time when I stop at Dubai during my travel to India, I shall it pick it up and dump by Creative MuVo 1.5 GB player which I bought 6 months back.

I wonder if any bloggers have tried this product and vouch for it?

Bravo major!!!

Just now saw the news in rediff that Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has won a silver in Athens olympics for the
double trap shooting event.

I came to know about Mr.Rathore just 3 weeks back when I was flying from Milan to Dubai in Emirates. There was a lady sitting next to me who looked like an Indian.After few hours of flight, we introduced to each other and I came to know that she was Mrs.Gayatri,an Army doctor and her husband is a major who is representing India in olympics for the double trap shooting event. Things started getting interesting and we continued with a good discussion on a variety of things ranging from Politics, Culture, Life at Italy, Her culinary skills,Shooting and so on. Then we landed in Dubai airport and bid goodbye as she was heading to Delhi where as I was having a plan of staying in Dubai for a day before I start to Chennai.

After this I started closely watching the Olympics. The media was writing that Anjali Bhagwat will win a medal for India in shooting where as Rathore‘s name was in shadow. But I firmly believed that Rathore would win a medal and it has appened. I really feel happy and wish him for his wonderful performance par excellence.He has started the medal counter and hope it continues further.

Bravo major.India is proud of you.

p.s. I forgot to ask for Mrs.Rathore‘s address. Can someone help me to find it,so that I can send my wishes to her family?

Finally I was able to find Major’s address from news paper articles and sent flowers 🙂

Richard, Ci vediamo dopo

Richard Monson-Haefel has recently blogged about his new role in the Java industry. He has accepted a Sr.Analyst position in Burton group. The nature of the new job has forced him to resign from the various JSR’s and open source projects he has been involved. He could have stayed until the release of EJB 3.0 specification and Apache Geronimo has achieved the J2EE certification. But time and tide waits for none.

I wonder whether he will be able to continue writing. I still remember that I and many of my friends were introduced to EJB through his book. The cover page of the book, comes with the photo of a small wooden train and we all fondly named the book as “Train book” 🙂

Richard, thanks for your contribution to the Java community and good luck on your new job.

Gmail fanatics

Gmail has kickstarted a revolution in the webmail arena. The Gmail offer of 1GB eventhough if it's still in the beta with limited invitations, has created a shockwave among the leaders in the market space. Yahoo and Hotmail have come up with their new increased storage plans. Even localised providers like Rediff.com have silently come up with a 1 GB offering. And there are numerous sites that have popped up recently to facilitate trading of Gmail invites like gmailswap.com,gmailster.com,freegmailinvites.com and so on. People trade for money, return of favour, good will and all kinds of weird things one could imagine. Although Google has banned the trading of invites, there is still a fleshy market for Gmail invites in ebay auction site. Infact I got one for $6.After all,who doesn't want a fancy gmail account?

I wonder whether there will be a similar war for the among the free webspace providers.Only time can answer

– A Gmail fanatic