OSSCamp Delhi Summer Edition is the fourth unconference in the OSSCamp series. It is a platform for promoting Open Source Projects from India. Details of the camp can be found at http://osscamp.in/index.php/OSSCamp_Delhi_Summer_Edition.
Some of the sessions listed there definitely look interesting. I’m hoping to increase my gyaan on some of the open source products that I use/like.
Firefox 3 – the latest version of web browser from mozilla would be available for download tonight here. These guys are attempting a World Record by clocking 1 million downloads in the first 24 hours. By the no of pledges that they have received so far (~ 1.5 million) I wouldn’t be surprised if they manage to do it.
World Record or no, I’m really looking forward to this newer version of the web browser which apparently has a lot of improvements. I have tried the beta version and it *looked* great. Unfortunately didn’t use much since my add-ons were not supported. Hope that the release will come along with all popular add-ons
In the last couple of months for some reason or the other I have faced a requirement to send/receive SMS for the applications that I have been working on. This post talks about how I achieved the same.
There are plenty of SMS vendors that provide simple APIs (typically HTTP based) that allow one to send an SMS. Once you register with any vendor (typically after paying), then all it takes to send an SMS is to invoke a URL programmatically. I have been using http://sms.sms2india.info for my last project and have been pretty happy with their service. The service gives me 500 credits (500 SMS) for Rs 300/- (60 paisa an SMS – which I’m okay to spend). To know more about the API format, visit their website and click on Developer API Link.
If for any reason, you don’t like this option; There are other ways of sending an SMS. I had earlier written a simple application that could interact with a handset connected with the computer over serial cable through AT Commands and instruct it to send an SMS. It could also read the inbox in similar manner. Other options include professional services that provide interface with an SMSC over simpler APIs. Check out this product from Simple Wire. Though I haven’t really used it, but it looks fairly neat.
I’m pretty sure there are plenty of other options that exist and might probably be better for one reason or the other. If you know of some, please feel free to add a comment.
To receive an SMS, you would need to set up a short-code. There are plenty of vendors that allow one to do this. Searching Google with keywords like “SMS Shortcode India” for example will expose you a list of vendors. Once you get a short code registered for yourself (again by paying some amount), for a particular keyword, your vendor would allow you to configure handling of this keyword. If your application requirements are static in nature, it will provide tools to send you notifications (email or sms) on every sms that comes to your short-code. If your needs are dynamic, then you can set up the key-word so that it hits a URL (of your application) passing on the incoming sms along with the sender’s mobile number and whatever you return (in plain text) is sent back to the sender.
Its been six months since I quit my last regular job. I have been working as a freelance software developer in this duration. I have really enjoyed freelancing and provide below a few good reason for you to consider it as well.
Increased Productivity
As a freelancer, I’m more productive at work. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand – I concentrate on completing my work. There are not too many meetings; There are not too many coffee breaks; there is no office politics to be worried about. All these things that usually have a negative impact on a person’s productivity are not there at work any more – Hence a boost in productivity.
Sharper Learning Curve
This one too is not difficult to understand either. Since the duration of work at different assignments would be shorter as compared to regular job the learning curve would obviously be sharper. For example, in the last 6 months I have written an application to simulate increasing load on a web-site and monitoring its performance; I have worked on building an application over salesforce’s force.com platform; I have written a scrapper application that can compare prices of similar products on different websites & last but not the least I have built a website – http://www.chahiye.info with a partner.
More Hands On
If you have a decent number of years of experience in IT industry in India, you would have noticed how quickly on joining an organization you are given a team to mentor and grow. Gradually as the team grows, your daily routine moves away from actually solving technical problems to helping your team solve them for you. This definitely takes away the fun out of work. With Freelancing there is no team to worry about. Its only you and the problem – the stronger one would win (and here I hate to lose)
Better Paying
Freelancing work usually fetches more money as compared to a regular job. The organization hiring you (as a freelancer) does not much over-head in maintaining you as an employee. There is no PF, no medical insurance, no stock options, no annual increment/bonus, No need to worry about under-performance; no need to worry about quality of work assignment etc. All these reasons are good enough for an organization to dish out slightly more than a regular employee of similar back-ground.
Leaves with you more CPU cycles
With a regular job, a work assignment was more like “My Work” which resulted in my mind spending more time thinking about it. Even after work the mind was usually at work. A bright idea could strike in the shower or any where else. However with freelancing the association with work is not that tight – Somehow that association with work is weakened. Though I still think about work when away from it, but the frequency has reduced. As a result you are left with more free thinking time.
Stand-out in the crowd
Not many people in India seem to be doing what I have chosen for myself. This can be considered as an advantage as well as a disadvantage. When relatives ask me what do I do – I’m at a loss at explaining them. However I’m already getting exposure to meeting a lot of interesting people at a lot of interesting companies doing a lot of interesting work. This advantage clearly out-weighs the disadvantage.
I just downloaded Windows Live Writer and the tools looks great.
It allows basic editing capabilities that I get directly from blogger. I’m hoping to use this as a single window for managing my own and chahiye’s Blog. Setting it up against my blogger account was a breeze and I hope it would be as easy with chahiye’s blog (wordpress based) as well. It appears to support features like editing & supports adding tables and provides a neat way to organize un-finished posts. It also allows to publish at a later date (I’m sure I can use this feature sometime).
I’m sure there would be plenty of other tools out there doing similar things. If you know of other such tools, please let me know about it and your experience of the same.
