Angular2 is the latest buzz word in web programming and frankly speaking, I am in love with it. It seems to be the “Docker” for web! Well I am also in love with “Docker” and the good part is that both Angular2 and Docker do not mind me loving them at the same time ;). Jokes apart, I particularly like Angular2 because of the component concept and its inherent support for TypeScript (TS). Components truly allow for creation of re-usable web components since they also encapsulate the “view” aspect. Hence no more grappling / switching between a model/view/controller. Everything is inside a component. You use the component and you get an automatic binding with the needed controller and view. This takes re-usability to the next level. Also for someone like me whose background is systems programming, components can be seen as class object exposing certain methods/properties (i.e. basic encapsulation). Components also allows for extension (i.e. inheritance) and can be tested individually, so once confirmed working, they are always working without any external dependency. That said, there are quite a few tutorials out there which creates a basic ToDo app with Angular2 and yes, it is pretty cool. But when you try to make something useful out of what has been learned from the ToDo App, the details bog us down. In any case, #FreeCodeCamp (#FCC) project on Pomodoro Clock was my trigger to use Angular2. I have the project hosted on Plunker (Pomodoro Clock) which uses Angular2, TS and Semantic-UI. I am also a big fan of Jade so have used it a little bit in the index.html but using it inside a component template seems to be a bit awkward. Though we can do so, I have used normal HTML since the components are broken down and are quite simple. Pomodoro clock is basically a countdown timer which alternates between a session time and break time and increases productivity (Google it if you want to know more).

Docker is amazing! It is a gift to mankind. Next best thing after sliced bread! Lets start using it yeah. OK, lets say you want to get started with docker quickly and install a host of services on your local machine that enables you to get your big-data analytics SW into a real-time visualization. Don’t go about searching the net on how to install different servers. Instead, use Docker (I bet you knew this was coming)!

Okay, I know, the title says it all right? And there are hundreds and thousands of tutorials out there that allows you to do this right? Show me one tutorial which tells you what different partitions are needed when you are doing fresh install of Linux especially whose installers do not support LVM/LVM2 installations. Lets take an example of Manjaro, the latest talk of the town. The graphical installers do not have an option to support LVM. Even if you do manual partitioning, it does want to install anything over LVM and it wants the root and swap partitions. Besides, it will forget that we also need a smaller boot partition to install GRUB/SYSLINUX right? Well, atleast it did that to me and either I am too stupid to understand it or I didn’t read the instructions properly. In any case, I headed over to the CLI installer which thankfully had an option to use LVM (which was misguiding) since it wanted to do partitions manually and did not provide any guidance as to what partitions should be created. Instead it more felt like an GUI menu for creating reminding the steps namely partitioning, creating physical volumes (PVs) and creating volume groups (VGs).

My thoughts on why and how metrics/measurements of ongoing tasks should be done.

I will start with the practice. The problems we are trying to tackle is:

1. How to make our team believe in their own estimations?
2. What is our cycle time?
3. How do we project the probability of fulfilling the sprint goals?
4. How do we track the state of the task?
5. How do we ensure continuous development of processes?

For the last 3 questions, I suggest referring to the self-explaining Cumulative Flow Diagrams (http://www.slideshare.net/yyeret/explaining-cumulative-flow-diagrams-cfd). Martin Alaimo writes on measuring sprint progress in the Scrumalliance community blogs (https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2011/may/measuring-sprint-progress). Essential Scrum: A practical guide to the Most Popular Agile Process by Kenneth S. Rubin (p.357-359) defines how task metrics can be visualized (though in a table formation) (https://books.google.se/books?id=3vGEcOfCkdwC&pg=PA357&lpg=PA357&dq=visualize+tasks+in+scrum+boards&source=bl&ots=-BBbkkfr_l&sig=KqO_9xWDIEM3hVqe-9QSi0IQKQQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZk9ztxurKAhWFs3IKHYioBLE4FBDoAQg9MAU#v=onepage&q=visualize%20tasks%20in%20scrum%20boards&f=false). An electronic task board showing the progress (https://www.targetprocess.com/content/uploads/2013/11/lists-sketch-for-Targetprocess-3.png). A detailed article by MSFT on Task board (of course tailored towards VS Team edition usage but has lots of details) (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vs/alm/work/scrum/task-board). Another article (https://blog.taiga.io/q-id-like-to-measure-the-sprint-progress-through-closed-tasks.html) very good on why sprint progress should be monitored regularly and not at the end of the sprint.

My last blog entry was on 1st July 2015. It has almost been 6 months and I am not that proud of the lapse in time without writing down my thoughts. It is as I see not only bad for my readers but also for my mental health ;). In any case, one of my new year resolutions is to jot down atleast some of my thoughts every fortnight, if not every week. Hopefully, this new year resolution does not go down the drain as every other till date. My detailed retrospective for 2015 is below. But the key takeaways were that 2015 was an average year. A lot of things happened, some good, some bad, but they haven’t been able to satisfy me and I feel that the time spent could have been done in a better manner furthering towards my goals, both material and spiritual.

My most recent adventure in Android/Multi-platform applications is CrickBoard! It is hosted on github.com and is licensed under GPLv3. The application is still under construction and there will be some time before it becomes fully operational. Most of the work is remaining in the UI and further utility functions related to UI data handling. This also is my first application following Google’s Material Design guidelines. I initially had planned to use a multi-platform SDK so that it can run seamlessly on at least Android, iOS and WP. But that would branch out later I guess as my first target is Android with the material design. I am using some design libraries that I got from Android-Arsenal.com. Most of these libraries are open source licensed under very constructive opensource licenses. So for the record, as of now, CrickBoard is using MikePenz’s MaterialDrawer and Dexafree’s MaterialList. Both are great components providing ready to use material design libraries implemented and updated according to Google’s guidelines.

As usual, I prefer writing down what I did to solve a particular problem or set of problems so that I can myself refer back to it for solutions in future and someone having similar/any troubles can use this as a starting point to try and fix the problems faced. For me, the problems started when my wife started complaining about my Garmin Nuvi 2545LMT not working properly.

There were basically 2 problems with it. It needs the full address to really search for the location and the maps were old (2013.10). So basically I fired up the webupdate in a Win7 machine and started with the updates. It took a whole lot of time (almost 8 hours) before I knew the outcome of the update. The update brought its own problems.

Dear Mr. Narendra Modi,

I am an ardent fan of yours right from the start even before you became a national hero. So much so that my family hails from Vadnagar and I am told that my grandfather was good friends with your father. Like million others, you are my hero and I look up to you as a source of inspiration. I have been regularly ridiculed by everybody of being a “Modi Bhakt” and all the associated abuse that generally comes with it. I have been following in your footsteps, being patient enough to not react and try to find the best from the assaults, hoping that one day, truth will prevail (“Satyamev Jayate”). I am one of those who celebrated when you/BJP attained majority and you graced the prime minister’s office.