Evolution of UI of ApartmentAdda - 2

I had written about the Evolution of UI of ApartmentAdda in March 2009 how the design evolved over the last 2 years.

We launched ApartmentAdda with the following UI designed by Cicada Media on Nov 12, 2008. It was a simple yet highly functional UI. Also it has got burnt into my retina - seeing it so many times a day :)



Somewhere down the line we realised it was time to give the site an upgrade. We kicked off the site redesign process with Leafgrafica in August. After a lot of designs and meetings ( and corner house's death by chocolate which was close by) - the following design won our hearts and mind.




I would like to thank both Cicada Media and Leafgrafica teams for having designed these beautiful sites ( and having put up with creativity stifling requirements from us :) )

How Windows 7 will "really" save money

I read an article on infoworld where Steve Balmer cited an article by Gartner research how Windows 7 will save money. Now as you all know Gartner is a very trusted and honest research firm. They have earlier published how Linux is actually a wolf in sheep's clothing - Linux claims it is open source and free and all that - but you need expensive system engineers, expensive training, expensive hardware etc. So many ignorant CTOs were saved from making a wrong decision and continued to recommend Windows - because of Gartner..may God be with them ( and Microsoft's funding ).

Anyway, here is what Gartner missed in the report and I am filling in the gap to prove why Windows 7 will save lot of money for a company :

1. Save on Coffee, Milk, Sugar & Snacks

The Vista folks when they come to work and start their day, they switch on their laptop like every one else. But as you all know that it takes some where between 20-30 minutes before the machine is actually responsive, these folks go for coffee. Along with them they pull the other Windows XP, OS X, Ubuntu folks who have already started breaking the build.

With a record 10 second boot time of Windows 7 - these ex-Vista users will become super efficient and will break the build within 1 minute of them starting work. There by the organization can save money on Coffee and snacks - because the whole team will be busy fixing the build.

2. Save on Cooling charges ( applies only to Hotter climates )

In Vista the processor always runs at 100% - it is good because you are using all the GHz you paid for - but downside is machines and the room get hot quickly. Now with the super efficient kernel and indexing - Windows 7 will run lot cooler. If you are in Bangalore, you can turn off the AC and open the Windows ( the physical kind ).

However for our friends in cooler climates where they have to heat their building, I recommend all to switch to Vista - you will save on heating charges.

3. Save on Bandwidth

This is kind of negligible, but the kind of reporting Gartner does even the minimal saving should be reported - because they don't leave even a toothpick behind.

Because Windows 7 is "Vista correctly designed", there will not be any UI confusions like trying to understand UAC, or how to view the file name fully in the explorer window etc. So the users need not do a google ( or Bing ) search to find out how to turn off these annoyances - there by saving a lot of bandwidth.

Guess this makes the report complete.

and Mr. Balmer, you are welcome.

Getting into the zone!

Have you ever experienced being in "the zone"? You might have experienced for sure - but never noticed it. Once you are able to notice how it is to be in the zone - you can plan to get into the zone more often - for better productivity and happiness.

What is the zone?

The zone is a state of mind when time stops, creativity flows, your breathing is relaxed and steady, new ideas spring up and it leaves you energized wanting for more. In spite of working for hours at a stretch, if you are in the zone - you never feel tired.

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, Anna Karenina - are two books that I have read where they talk about this state of mind. Zen book says about getting into the zone on any activity that you do - could be washing dishes, could be fixing a motorcycle, could be writing a blog post. In Anna Karenina, one of the characters - Levin goes to cut corn along with his laborers - this chapter in the book is a masterpiece. Leo Tolstoy beautifully describes how it is to be in the zone - proving why he is one of the greatest brains of all time.

It took some time for me to discover this "getting into the zone" thing. Whenever I am in the zone the code that I produce is beautiful and bug free. New ideas, hidden potential bugs show up and I squash them even before they get a chance to show up.

How to get into the zone?

You need a ritual. Here are some of the things that I do to get ready to go into the zone

1. Music

Either classical music or some movie songs that I have heard a million times before - mostly AR Rahman songs - so they wont distract but will quieten the outside noise.

2. Clear out the feeds and empty inbox

I clear out all the feeds in bloglines, and also empty my inbox - so there is no thread running silently in the head draining resources.

3. Busy status in IM

IM is a big distractor. I educate my buddies not to disturb when I am on busy-status. If they do not respect - I either block them temporarily or sign off from IM.

4. Load up with water

I keep a big jug of water and keep sipping. It will keep the brain hyderated for the upcoming power session !

After this - when I hit the editor I will notice that time would have stopped, and the things around me will disappear and I will not even hear the music. It will be just me and the editor - and things will start flowing. Because now I will be in the zone!

What is your ritual to get into the zone?

Fuses blowing off is a good thing

Can anyone spot what is wrong with this picture? Look closely - there are no fuse carriers and the lines have been shorted by a thick piece of wire.

Wondering what it means? - When an electric surge happens - there is no fuse that will blow and break the circuit. The surge will go right into the homes and kill all the devices which are On at that time - TVs, bulbs, mobile chargers...

I am not trying to educate BESCOM electricians - they are lazy & crazy and they don't read my blog - but this post is about unit tests.

Last week I answered a questionnaire for a friend of mine who is doing a course work about Agile - one of the questions was - Is it not absurd to write unit tests?

The above picture is the answer to the question. Unit tests are like fuses - they blow up in your build and prevent a blow up in production in future. Commenting out an unit test is like shorting the circuit with a thick piece of wire - like in the above picture.

For eg., when a developer forgets to do a null check - and the failing unit test is not fixed, but instead is commented out - your users will be greeted with a Null Pointer exception on the last screen of a payment page. Imagine how mad your client will be?

Anyway I rest my case - next time when you comment out a failing test - think of that picture - and imagine a surge happening and hitting a 52" Plasma TV showing the last ball of a 20-20 match...pattt...bshhhhhh - and a bunch of hideously laughing BESCOM electricians.

Microsoft's battles

Microsoft is fighting lot of battles - that is one problem of being big.

OS : Windows vs OS X, Linux, Solaris, and now Google Chrome OS

Email : Hotmail/Live vs GMail, YMail

Search : Bing vs Google,Yahoo..

Database : MS Sql Server vs Oracle,MySQL,PostgreSql..

IM : MSN Messenger vs GTalk, Yahoo Messenger,IRC,Pidgin

Programming platform : .NET vs Java..

Languages : C#,VB.NET,ASP.NET vs Java, Ruby,Python,PHP,Perl..

Mobile OS : Windows Mobile vs Android, OS X, Symbian..

Media player : Zune vs iPod, Creative, Sony..

Office Suite : Microsoft Office vs OpenOffice, Google Apps

Browser : Internet Explorer vs Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera

Gaming Platform : XBox vs Nintendo, Sony and now iPhone

Vector graphics for web : Silverlight vs Flash, Flex

My head is spinning. If you notice the ones on the right of VS - for instance Opera - that is their entire life - the reason for their existence. They are focusing all their energies and souls into their products -yet Microsoft is able to match them and give a good fight.

Even though I am a MS baiter, I have to admit - Microsoft is good.

The above list is not complete. What other battles you think Microsoft is fighting?

Staples Print Center's gift to me - Khatra.exe

Last weekend I went to Staples Print Center in Marathahalli - Printo has closed shop and moved out. And when I got home I plugged the USB drive into Vista and AVG Anti Virus did not complain - but I saw a program called Khatra.exe asking for Admin privileges to run.

Then I rebooted into Ubuntu and was horrified to see the files that were there. There were folders and lots of exes. Now I am upset with 2 entities here.

1. Staples Print Center

Printo always scans the flash drives ( even if it used to take time ) and not once they loaded viruses on to my USB drive. Wish Staples learns from their competitor and educates their employees to follow proper process ( I am sure Staples will have it in their employee handbook ).

2. Vista

I did not give administrative privileges to Khatra.exe, still it managed to copy itself in the registry in some 10 places, got itself added to startup , and had the guts to ask again for administrative privileges when I rebooted.

I am shocked that inspite of all the zombie Windows XPs on the net, Microsoft has not learnt a thing - it is still a MG road platform - anyone can come, sit, pitch their tent and start doing business.

I am seriously considering investing in Codeweaver or trying out Virtual Box for Ubuntu - Office is one thing that forces me to reboot to Windows. It has wasted a few hours of my time - imagine the billions of hours people will be losing all over the world because of poor security measures in the OS.

ApartmentAdda Interview & an update

TheIndianStartup.com interviewed us recently - you can read about the interview in their blog.

Now for the update, my startup is no more a sole-proprietorship. It is now a Private Limited firm - 3Five8 Technologies Pvt. Ltd. When I started - sole proprietorship made sense - because it did not cost anything, nothing to register and I can concentrate on building the portal.

However, after the launch and after winning Adda's first premium customer and the subsequent customers I dealt with all had this uneasiness doing business with a sole proprietor. I understood that sole proprietorship was not sufficient any more. Finally kicked off the process in April sometime - took close to 2 months in my case because of various reasons.

Having a Pvt. Ltd. company gives confidence to my customers.

And it did cost quite a bit :

1. It costs quite a lot to register.... around 27k.

2. Every year the company has to submit its audited finances - even if it makes a loss. This is again around 25k every year.

3. You cannot simply shutdown a company. The procedure is very cumbersome and one has to get NoCs from every possible nook and corner.

4. Had to deposit 1 Lakh as initial investment - or show assets worth 1 Lakh to start.

I cannot imagine what the formalities will be for making a Public Ltd. company. If I do it one day I will blog here :)

Are you wondering what is 3Five8? - There is a sound reasoning behind the name but I am still debating whether to explain it or let people keep guessing what it means !