Jawed’s Blog

Do you dream your programs? Do dreams help you sovle programming logic?

Yes, they do.

I have experienced that dreams do help you solve some critical problems. When you engrossed in  programming to solve something; you start dreaming about your problems when you sleep and eventually you end up with a solution. Its a such a wonderful experience that nobody can help you feel it, you have to experience it your self.

How many times your dreams solve your problems?

Today on my way to office I stopped at Shell gas station, between Teen Talwar and Shaun Circle underpass, to fill my gas tank. It was unusual for me to stop there because I prefer to fill my gas tanks from stations associated with Pakistani companies like PSO or Parco.

But today’s incident has changed my mind. I was very surprised to see that that gas station is selling CNG at official government rate i.e. PKR 43.85. When I inquired why they are selling CNG at this rate, the cashier answered me, “Company has asked us to sell CNG at official government rates “. I said, “Then why are other stations selling at different rate?” he smiled and replied “Woh to badmashi hai”.

I don’t know whether all Shell stations are selling CNG at official governement rate or not?

I was reading an article about Reasons to write bad code !!, the author was sharing his experience about having problems with some bad code, written by his senior colleague. He further elaborated that his fellow wrote bad code to avenge his company for stress and frustration. But I don’t agree with it completely because developer alone can’t be blamed for his bad code and there might be very few exceptions that will avenge the company. My argument is; what the project manager, team lead or test team was doing when the developer was writing that creepy code. These problems could have been mitigated early in the project cycle if you had conducted peer reviews, implemented proper coding standards and verified them during testing etc.

You can’t develop quality product in tight schedules and stressful environment. Many companies often ignore long term consequences over short term gains. Quality is a company driven activity, unless company is not focused on developing quality product, people will continuously face such problems.

So what are good practices of developing quality in the code, here are some practices that will help you develop good code and quality product.

• Quality is a company driven activity. (Very important)
• You should allocate justifiable time for each activity in the project life cycle.
• Encourage peer reviews among the developers and team lead should be responsible to look after this activity.
• You should have a quality assurance team capable of doing white box testing, performance and load test etc.
• Follow good coding standards and verify those standards during testing and peer reviews. Automated testing tools for verifying coding standards save lot of time.
• Encourage your employees to learn new technologies, we all know older technologies have deficiencies and limitations.
• Company should try to integrate new versions of the technologies, its not always required but it helps.
• Unit testing must be compulsory for developers.
• When you have time review your own code, you will find few issues yourself. I personally experienced that when developers do load testing they improve their code a lot.
• Train your employees, specially inexperienced ones, on how to write good code and about good practices. To argue about code is bad, you must know what is good.

There might be more practices that will help you improve your code and skills. Please use comments to extend the list or argue about the practices .

Firefox 3 has been launched and with notable impact. Downloads crossed the 10 million mark on day 2. Last download count, while writing this post, was approx. 13 millions.

To promote Firefox 3, Mozilla has created Download Day campaign designed to persuade users to download Firefox 3 the same day as it ships in an effort to set the Guinness World Record as the most downloaded software in 24 hours. For users who want to display pride in their effort to help set a world record, Mozilla is offering certificates. By going to http://spreadFirefox.com and clicking on the ‘ Flaunt It‘ tab, Firefox 3 Download Day participants can print out a personalized certificate.

Some of the features Firefox 3 offers:

• Password Manager: Remember site passwords without ever seeing a pop-up.
• One-Click Bookmarking: Bookmark, search and organize Web sites quickly and easily.
• Improved Performance: View Web pages faster, using less of your computer’s memory.
• Smart Location Bar: Find the sites you love in seconds—enter a term for instant matches that make sense.
• Instant Web Site ID: Avoid online scams, unsafe transactions and forgeries with simple site identity.
• Full Zoom: See any part of a Web page, up close and readable, in seconds.
• Platform-Native Look & Feel: Browse with a Firefox that’s integrated into your computer’s operating system.

Firefox will soon enter into the mobile market with Mozilla’s mobile web browser, which is under development as part of Firefox 4 platform and code named Fennec. The team is planning to release the first alpha version by the end of August and a viable beta by year’s end. But Fennec won’t launch until 2009 and is expected to reach another milestone on June 20 with the release of M4.

I was reading an article “11 keys to success at work“, the author jotted down 11 keys that will lead to success at work and job satisfaction. These 11 keys are :

1. CONFIDENCE
2. CURIOSITY
3. DECISIVENESS
4. EMPATHY
5. FLEXIBILITY
6. HUMOR
7. INTELLIGENCE
8. OPTIMISM
9. PERSEVERANCE
10. RESPECT
11. SELF-AWARENESS

Getting success might depend upon how well you observe these keys to success. Let see how successful I could be at work, by making these keys part of attitude and skills.