cleanliness is NOT next to Godliness

cleanliness is NOT next to Godliness, it is GODLINESS. - BVN

will write about it soon...just posted the side heading to remind myself.

06th November - thunders and sparks

I am so ecstatic that I got my ROYAL ENFIELD THUNDERBIRD TWINSPARK delivered today. Lets call it TB.

It has been pouring cats and dogs...since a week or so, but somehow I made it to the showroom around 5:30pm, the delivery process is all done in just less than half-an-hour...but no way out for me...it was like as if some one made a big hole in the sky, there is no stopping and no signs of that either...njoyed sometime from balcony and sometime going thru automobile magazines...and finally sick of all that.

I waited till 9pm...and bored to hell..atlast I told the showroom guys to show me the way with my TB. TRUST ME...It was fun driving in that hell like RAINNNNNNNNNN...its heaven infact. I was changing gears so very carefully, as if it hurts him and he will cry...when I reached the third gear...the legendary throttle sound propagated into the air and then on to my ears...so soothing it was...In just a minute...there was no dry place left on my skin...its like you are driving under a waterfall...roads are like small ponds and some ponds are really big you know... the focus of the headlight in that rain is worthit to experience. I should not be crossing 40kmph till i complete the first 500kms...but driving this bike at 40kmph in 5th gear is like buying a mainframe computer inorder to execute a quick sort program. I have to cross 5000kmph asap...to keep the world behind me :):):) But after 2000 kmph Im allowed to cross 60 kmph...that itself would make the heads turn I suppose... As if I care for those heads :):):)

Back home around 11pm, on the way backhome...there is a ganesh temple just a few yards away from my home, which was closed at that time (obviously)...parked my bike right infront of Ganeshji and asked him to have a look, did a namaskar & ran away...and then ...

changed everything...took a hotwater headbath...and waited till 2am for the rain to stop and to CONQUER ROADS WITH MY BRAND NEW BULL...and and and that can be considered as one of the best moments of life...huh...hardly anyone on the roads...literally played with my bike up and down the flyovers...till 3pm...travelled around 40kmphs at a stretch within the city...on the very first day(night)...

backhome around 3:10am...only because it started to bristle again...otherwise i had no plans to get down from my bull atleast till I finish off that 500rs petrol...:):):)

hit the bed around 3:40am...got up around 6am again and went running to look at that smarty(TB) from the balcony, without even checking what I was wearing during the night...thankfully I have some clothes on. As there is no separate parking place :):) my bull had to stand on the road (inner roads...ok)...there are dozens parked out there...satisfied to see that it was safe ...

it was still raining..slept again...and got up at 11 am...it was still raining...

hmmm i got to know finally that life can be so very interesting with this so called brand...royal enfield...

may be oneday i will grab that 500cc bullet classic as well...im just 20 days early to pay the advance to this handsome guy (TB)...otherwise i would have opted for that WAR MACHINE for sure...

but there is no doubt this "ROYAL ENFIELD Thunderbird Twinspark" brought thunders and sparks into my life...

...thats it for now...chalo then...njoy your weekend in your own way (don't copy mine..he he )...it is still raining huh...

damnit 6:48pm...im waiting since 4 hrs to getout of my room...its raining...

"2 States" by Chetan Bhagat

sunday evening...took lunch and then been to that second hand bookshop, if im at home on weekends, it will be evening by the time i take lunch. CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING.

I had nothing in my mind about the books for that day...just thought of going through the racks...and ChetanBhagat's latest grabbed my attention, since I have already read his last three books.

He is cashing more on the INDIAN-Student(or)Youth-Romance factor most of the time, i suppose, there is very little in him to compare with international authors...but still...it is a timepass kind of stuff...nothing serious about it.

I saw the price, it is 95rs...i asked the shopkeeper for a discount...im used to this habit in bookshops since my college days. In response...Interestingly the shopkeeper pulled a book under the desk (it is hidden intentionally somewhere )...and said..."this copy is just 65rs"...i was like wow !!! how come he had a duplicate so soon, because "Two States" is pretty new...hardly a week i suppose. The shopkeeper continued ..."same same...everything same as the original...just the paper"...he said.

I said..." duplicate should only be 50rs, isn't it?"...in reply...and to my surprise ...the shopkeeper replied..."ya you are right, that will be 50rs for sure...but 2 weeks later"...i could not stop laughing loud at him, I liked his attitude...finally he agreed to deduct 5 rs...and the deal done for rs 60...

Since Im not intending to be a modern Gandhiji and I dont want a great paper quality for a chetanbhagat's book...and hence i hve selected the duplicate copy...(the only difference is the paper quality...rest everything has been copied to perfection, including the cover page, color, etc)...

Poor Chetan...definitely losing money here...sorry dude...35rs makes more sense to a smart Indian...!!!!

if that is AYN RAND OR JEFEREY ARCHER...i dont mind 100 bugs more to grab an original copy...because i can read those books many times in my life...

I cant help !!! Im born like this :-)

HYPOCRISY

coming up....

CAN YOU CHANGE ?

question : can you change anyone ?

answer : No they have to change themselves.

Coming up.

POLITICS IN SOFTWARE

COMING UP...

What a Crash : DAILY TRADERS POUNCE

wauve what a crash...

two days ago i have sold all my stocks...only 20% of the amount is leftout...plain lucky.

As a daily trader I prefer taking out all at times as I cannot continue with huge losses and wait for them to comeup after a long gap. October has been so frustrating to me becuase market has been doing good...but Im in losses.

So thats the time we have to do something different...GETOUTOF all those stupid stocks immediately (no sentiments on stocks) and make your new LIST...It gives you a chance to re-enter with all your money, though you book some loss at that point of selling.

Thats what I have done 2 days ago. I WAS NOT GUESSING ANY CRASH of this sort. NOT AT ALL.

Accepting that minor loss is NOT an easy thing for 90% of the investors...thats the key:):):) esp. for daily traders. I did this n number times and I go full swing nexttime ...by not giving enough days gap. Let me give an example.

for say...you have 2 lakhs invested and you are getting around 20 thousand loss and you feel like that it is going to more...get out of it right away...and choose a better stock which is showing some momentum at that point of time...rather than waiting for that 20 thousand rupees to coverup in an year. Im saying like this so easily...but who would book 20 thousand loss...90% of salaried guys wont... But I do. I have learnt through years. Waiting is so boring in stock market.

GUYS keep collecting in small quantities now...every stock is cheap now. Shhhhh...pick ALOK, ROLTA & YES BANK atleast :):)

Our Fools in USA

will draft this soon...pls wait.

Mental Imbalance

Since many years, I have been so very fascinated about the concept called BRAIN...dont remember from where it got injected into my mind, whenever I had free time... I used to google on these words..."Mind", "Einstein", "RIGHT BRAIN", "LEFT BRAIN", "Einstein's Brain museum", "Weight of Einstein's Brain", "Research on Einstein's Brain", "Weight of the Brain", "What a human brain consists of", "BRAIN vs ANGER", "Mental Imbalance", "GREY CELLS", "The power of silence", "listening skills", "How do you get dreams, after asleep", "Story behind Dreams + Mind". Try it out...you would know what im saying...it will be interesting and entertaining. (May be, one reason could be that I love Einstein's Quotes ...since my childhood.).

Now in this regard, the most useful day to day life concept of all, for general public and for that matter to everyone who is working & not working...is the concept of Mental Imbalance. It is not something that a person is completely mentally handicapped, people often mis-understand the word Mental Imbalance. It could be situational. But this so called mental imbalance effects your life in a great deal. The decisions that you take during that time, sometimes, could make you suffer throughout your life. It happens to every human being, on some or other situation that you feel that you are not at the best of your mind, most of us can manage and control, which is a natural GIFT to humanbeings.

But there are some who cannot handle this...when it happens to them, it is visible to all...forget about decisions, their emotions wont be under their control. Iam not an expert nor a doctor here, it is like how people get to know when some body is sad, angry or happy, as simple as that. An extra pinch of experience on life and years of observation of various human characters, talking to them & dealing them professionally in day-2-day software life...gives you an edge, in understanding them better.

One of my classmate and close friend, used to take depression tablets during exams, otherwise he is very humorous and alert. One of my friend used to sweat a lot whenever he was in some kind of tension. One of the managers in HCL usedto BARK like a dog, shiver and talk like a fool about technicality...during the course of ANGER.

to be continued...bcoz its too late ...00:53 a,...and have a lot of things pending... before I hit the bed...

Intro of "The Fountainhead"

The following lines were picked up from the introduction pages of the world famous AYN RAND's Novel...THE FOUNTAINHEAD. I would not get bored reading them any number of times...Infact I would have read them some thousand times by now...especially the last paragraph shows her attitude and confidence...here we go....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is not in the nature of man--nor of any living entity--to start out by giving up, by spitting in one's own face and damning existence; that requires a process of corruption whose rapidity differes from man to man. Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it. Then all of these vanish in the vast swamp of their elders who tell them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one's mind; security, of abandoning one's values; practicality, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few hold on and move on, knowing that that fire is not to be betrayed (using the word that two times here is absolutely correct), learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential.

There are a few guideposts to find. The Fountainhead is one of them.

This is one of the cardinal reasons of The Fountainhead's lasting appeal: it is a confirmation of the spirit of youth, proclaiming man's glory, showing how much is possible.

It does not matter that only a few in each generation will grasp and achieve the full reality of man's proper stature--and that the rest will betray it. It is those few that move the world and give life its meaning--and it is those few that I have always sought to address. THE REST ARE NO CONCERN OF MINE; it is not me or The Fountainhead that they will betray; it is their own souls.

AYN RAND
NEW YORK, MAY 1968
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Selected Stocks Progress

On June 26th I have selected the following stocks (exposed them to public in this blog)...checkitout. Lets have a look at the progress.

June 26th --- October 25th

YESBANK 194.95 --- 256.85
BIOCON 226.00 --- 274.30
SATYAM COMPUTERS 72.75 --- 110.70
JAIPRAKASH ASSOCIATES 220.70 --- 237.70
ANDHRA BANK 83.30 --- 119.10
IDBIBANK 115.45 --- 128.00
RELIANCE NATURALS 91.10 --- 84.35
ALOK INDUSTRIES 22.20 --- 21.25
NTPC 194.95 --- 214.85

Though, I dont like holding on to a stock more than weeks, but still I would prefer a good stock even for intraday, the reason being is ...if you select a stock which has not got any good track record then the chances of surviving from a bad phase of that stock would be nullified.

For say, you have selected a stock for intraday, for suppose, and it went down drastically...in that case if it is a good stock then you can sit back and relax. If it is a not so good stock, then you are doomed. Because, you never know when it would rise again. For say JaiprakashAssociates touched 270 two days ago, now it is 237...which is absolutely fine. Thats the way the confidence on the stock should be. Alok never crossed 25, but still it is a good stock. It gave me so many opportunities in these three months, I used to buy 3000 stocks of alok, so 2rs profit is too much for me.

Offlate Im betting on ROLTA. I have rotated money around 4 times on ROLTA, sometimes for rs 10 and at times for rs 15 or so. Amazing growth, it started around 40rs in march, now its around 200. Huh....1 lakh in march is equal to 5 lakhs in oct...even after hearing this... you are still so calm and cool...getup and screammmm. If not, then stock market is not for you. You dont have that current in you. The zeaL FOR MONEY.:):):)

Our Cities

coming up...im drafting it...its going to be fun...:) Its about people.

Missing Noida

November 9th 2003, Sunday, was a new turn in my life, a special day. Because I landed in Noida from Mumbai, that day is still crystal clear to my eyes (stored securely in my photographic memory). Cool breeze, climate was pleasant, the auto guy took a little further than the actual address, I saw a big board of HSBC from far, looked pretty neat. I was enjoying the weather and looking all around the new place...least bothered about the address. The auto guy was shouting at me..." tikh tikh batou kahan pe jaana hai, nahin toh utaro yahinpe..." I was like wow...I have something to handle here. I replied, as calmly as possible to me..."Ab tak sow baar bolchukahun, Sector - 15 jaana hai mujhe, aur wahinpe utarna hai mereko". He looked at me as if he wanted to murder me right there...I continued to enjoy the nature. Autoguy calledup some other rikhsaw guy...to find where the hell this sector - 15 is...? on the other hand I was shocked to see a ricksaw, I remember something of that sort in my grandfather's village, the place where I was born, but even there I doubt whether they have rikhsaws till today...im sure they must have upgraded themselves to auto by now(2004)...even in that hardcore village.

The serene weather thing slowly goingaway from my mind... i was thinking like this..."is this so called NODIA a sick remote place?...my decision of coming to HCL & Noida is wrong ? Damn I was in mumbai...what a place !!!...and where Im I ??? !!! ". I said cool down BVN to myself. RICKSAW...the thing which I was seriously not comfortable at that point of time was...how can a educated man in today's world simply sit when some other person is carrying you and pulling you in a ricksaw !!! (hehe later on I got so used to it...everyday I usedto travel in that).

Now, lets come back to the addressfinding issue, the ricksawGuy said..." you have to goback to the next laalbatti"...this murderer autoguy was like..."oh laalbatti...i know that better"...meanwhile I hve sent the input to my mind as laalbaatti...interpreted, compiled and executed...the final output was...REDLIGHT...laalbatti means redlight....ooohhhh...fear gripped all over my face...i thought today is NOT my day...this guy is taking me through a redlight area ...my goodness...firstday in the city and hope he is not trying to give me more trouble...what the hell I thought.

But still, I had to use all my experience to keep myself calm...the auto guy took a U turn and took me 1 km backwards...stopped again...and started telling me..."yahin hai woh laalbatti...ab toh utarjaou...merekotime horahahai". I thought enough is enough...i was a bit furious this time...I said "mereko lalbatti pe kya karna hai...pagal hai kya ???...sow baar bolchuka hun...mereko sector 15 mein jaana hai...samja.." I was a bit loud this time.

Then he called somebody again and they told the autoguy to go further backwards...and the place where the whole drama of addressfinding was happening is a big four-road-meeting-junction this time and all of a sudden some bikeguy from nowhere... almost came inside the auto, so very fast...just missed...then the idea struck me...laalbatti means...SIGNAL...redlight (laal means red, batti means ...for say a candle ...kind of). so it means a Traffic Signal Post. huh...relieved I was...i said to myself wow noida !!! Crazy.

Finally he dropped near the guesthouse in noida, sector - 15...i got down with my luggage and the autoguy was asking for more...this time somewhat peacefully !!!...i think i gave him 10bugs more...he was quiet thistime as he didnt expect me to give that 10bugs..hehe...finally LEFT me in peace. Relieved.

Entered, the building looked decentEngough, some other guy from hyderabad staying right next to my room, shouting in high pitch...fully drunk, enjoying...obviously a new joinee like me, becuase that is a company guest house. I got inside my room and bolted the door. Took a nice bath...watched TV for 15 mins...jumped out of the bed to explore the nearby roads...it was around 9pm...saw some guys having roadside food...saw a 3rd grade stinking theatre out there...forgot the name of that theatre (will google and let you know):):)...I was liking that little walk so very much because of the climate...I felt like Im in a picnic spot...that chillness...and finally back to the guesthouse after about 45 mins or so. Little excited thinking about my firstday in HCL...watching TV but my mind was all about office...couldnt sleep much that night. I switchedoff A/C around 11 as I felt the weather was quite comfortable without a/c...and back to watching TV with ua fan ON...I think I fell asleep around 1Am.

I Dont remember the exact time...as I was in deep sleep :)...slowly getting into senses as I felt like someone kept ICE all over my body...it was damn cold...I gotup in a flash and sat right in the middle of the bed...dark and i could nt locate anything out there...hurried & searched for the LIGHT switch...and switched it ON with a bit of fear inside. The room was so coooool, may be like a mortuary. Immediately I switchedoff the fan, hesitantly kept my foot down...wooo...floor is like ICE. Then I understood...why they have placed such thick blankets on the bed...I was not using them at all. Relaxed after that silly realization...I smiled at myself...took some water and it took some 5 mins for me to start enjoying the chill...FRESH NOW...switched on the TV again...UNDERSTOOD that it gets really cold out there in NOIDA...hahaha. Back to the IdiotBox (TV) for some more hours...and slept again...this time with that thick blanket...:):):) Every night thereafter ...Till March 2004...ha ha ha

So much happened after that...everyday was eventful & memorable...met all kinds of people there and some animals too...:)

Bored ?

THE FOUNTAINHEAD

I Always regret...why none of my friends & elders had ever suggested me to read the novel "The FountainHead", when I was going to school. Why it happened to me only a few years ago.

What a book...!!! What a person she was !!!...been to USA on a visitor visa at a very young age and stayed there forever till death. Look at the confidence when someone says ..."I dont care about the people who dont get the actual meaning of my writings (in fountainhead), they are not my concern".

How much she struggled to be what she wanted to be...she took almost 10 years to complete ATLAS SHRUGGED (her second greatest book and the best book of all), its been 50 yrs and this book is still breaking records.

How can a woman know more than what a man knew about himself and feel about Man's capability and brilliance ...more than what a man does !!! ...in this respect I guess she is the only woman of that kind ever existed in this universe !!!

She is one such personality for whom I regret that she is no more now...

stocks LifeLine

anybody who has been witnessing the stocks graph since last 2 weeks...would recollect & also experience the lifeline graph of a heartattack patient...

everybody wants money overnight, hence the volatility of the market...and hence most of the predictions are going for a toss...

but as usual the old trick is doing good...the fundamental stocks, with good business roadmap, foresight and an agressive management...whoever it is...they are sustaining...

for say : andhra bank, yes bank, rolta india & zindal steel...many more.

Hindi

interesting narrow minded person !!!...

this was none other than one of my good friend...he says he doesnt like people who unnecessarily speak in Hindi leaving ones own MotherTongue

Its not that im supporting something here...nor I disagree with something here...it is an interesting comedy behavior of an EDUCATED person in today's world...

1) is it the person's behavior you hate because of the language he is speaking ?
answer yes or no for point no. 1 and select the options a, b, or c from point no. 2

2)
a) u hate the person ?
b) or the behavior ?
c) or the language ?

It is one of the best example how a mind can become so very narrow...and how much junk can be injected into it and how it works on an individual's mind....

The point I wanted to make here is...religion, caste, untouchability...all those things are already well established in INDIA...and now ...not now already since a long time by now...the language aspect also has also entered the list...this is yet another opportunity to divide people...divide india...and RULE.

my good friend actually HATES people who unnecessarily speak in HINDI....HATES THEM, to explain it further, he hates them because they can very well speak in their mother tongue, the reason for him is...as we all have a common mother tongue inplace. He feels that it is a show off to speak an alien language!!! If it is a show off of the person who is speaking a different language then it is a feature of that person's behavior I suppose, he will behave the same in many areas of life...he will show off...so then what is about the language here ??? You will have to dislike his show off attribute....just incase if you dislike it.

May be he (my good friend) doesnt know on which topic to strain his mind...there are many like him in today's world...

nothing wrong in loving your mother tongue ( I love my motherTongue too...which is NOT hindi)...its great to acknowledge that you love your mother tongue...but why hate other languages & whats wrong in speaking them, its an additional skill...its one's own interest...why closing mind and hating people on stupid things. How can one learn to speak a language without actually speaking it ? (without a showoff ?). Its easy to practice a language by showoff ? Rather than moving around other cities/states and finding people to talk !!!

Why dont we go fight in Kargil or do something similar !!! instead of propagating and injecting funny ideas to others... what is there in a language ? many funny things like this...hating people for the reason of taking RICE as their intake(or) for taking ROTI (or) for taking RajmaChawal. also some hate people for eating with their hand (or) for eating with both the hands (...roti) (or) eating with a spoon.

Hate people if they dont take bath, hate people if they come to office with stinking socks, these are much better reasons to hate.

Many states of India are seriously into this kind of mind set. Started by politicians (for sure), some believed, some inspired, some gone mad with it...and the foolish environment is being transfered for generations...this will be around throughout their broughtup...and finally we endup seeing NARROW MINDS (tell them anything they wont get it). Irrespective of their education.

in India, if guys can reject a better girl (for marriage), just by saying that our stars didnt match (or) my parents didnt like it...then...then in that case the above topic is hardly anything...very minor ...

life is too small for things like this...

AndhraPradesh's Ex-Chief Minister

AndhraPradesh CM's tragic death lead to hundreds of suicides. It's an astonishing fact that people can commit suicides for politicians in today's world. Truly UNBELIEVABLE. One should not find a reason to take his/her own life. The death count was more than SWINE flu victims in the state (at a better pace, rapid). Life is so precious, and it is a wakeup call for the society to find out the actual reasons for those indirect deaths (of Rajasekhar Reddy).

Is it the media that is bringing politicians unnecessarily close?, by which people think their life is nothing without their leaders ? (Or) due to some genetic or pschycological reasons (depression) those deaths happened?, Are they still people existing on this earth ? who can actually dedicate their own invaluable life to someone who is already DEAD ?. One has to give it a thought to findout whether the DEATHS were because of the weak hearts, media or really by the true mesmerism of the leader's leadership qualities. Those days are gone I suppose, when Mahatma Gandhi gave a call and thousands of people were ready to face bullets (please remember, those were not depression suicides).

HOW many times those people who sacrificed their lives would have actually seen the CM directly, inlive and alive, and took a shakehand with him or had a word with him ? I seriously doubt how many of them had this experience ? Now today they all committed suicides. Interesting isn't it ?

So how the CM happened to be so close to those 400 odd people, who are no more now ? by reading papers and by watchin TVs ? right ? (or some say...by the welfare he has done and by the schemes...no comments on that).

Lets NOT blame TVs, Newspapers and movies, people should be able to differentiate between reality and life. People should know what to take, what to learn and what to leave. One has to have the courage to withstand emotional adversities.

Keep those 400+ adults aside for a minute. Now, the kids who have been watching various programmes, what must be running in their mind, who is looking after this issue. Who is working on making the kids differentiate media from life ? parents ? government ? Schools ?

I repeat, the problem is not with the media, it is the people who watch it and who read it. Dont STOP watching and reading, thats very important to do, and stopping is not the solution.

Solution is to prepare yourself MENTALLY on how to be EASY and INTELLECTUAL on various other which happen around us, closing the ears or stopping the sound is not the solution. Which needs Practice.

Hence this is certainly a wake-up(more worse than any flu) call for the intellectuals who have not committed suicides just by reading newspapers or watching tv to create an environment for strong HEARTS, may be this has to be a subject for children right from the begining of their schooling ? so that one can actually face any kind of adversities in life, stand stubborn and move ahead in life. There is no such hint so far in any of the MEDIA or by any person propagating this kind of a thought, some people are even crazy to an extent that they are expecting a guiness record on the number of deaths. INSANE. They are proud that our state has givenup so many lives for a single man. Are you ?

For those, if any, who are still thinking about taking his/her own life on somebody's death news...i would like to stress upon One interesting line from the editorial column of EENADU, by Ramoji Rao. (actual source : from the great MahaBharat epic), here we go...

"YAKSH asks DharmaRaj : What's the most surprising, astonishing and at the same time 'the funniest thing' in this UNIVERSE ?
DharmaRaj's answer : Someone who is going to die tomorrow (someday)...crying continously and getting depressed without doing anything further in life... FOR someone who has died today.

one more quote, my favourite...by Narayana Murthy, former ceo of infosys...

"its all in the mind, stupid" - narayana murthy.

here is a colorful, luminous, eventful and an altogether New Morning ahead of us...all of us, and the SUN doesn't stop rising ...its on time, everytime, relentlessly, no matter what happens...to gift us the most beautiful thing...MORNING...to PRESENT our FUTURE.

Once again ...life is precious. Please Live it through.

THANKYOU.

Welcome back !!!

I have had some severe internet connection issues. Finally things are back to normal and I am back to my blog. Please stay connected...as there is a lot happened in this big gap...technically. Will fill this gap as soon as possible. Happy Reading.

Regards,

BVN

Shorterm Investors : Best time to book profits and Exit

I repeat, our INDIAN companies have not done THAT Great...there is no reason for the sensex to touch 14600+, but it did. Be clever, book profit and wait for the big FALL, sooner or later. Stay invested only if you are a longterm investor and you have got the stocks at a very low price. First it was stable government, then the budgest expectation and now overflowing with joy by looking at the sparks in some of the us-companies.

Mistakes in msdn for MS-Velocity-SessionStateProvider

Hi,
it is a frustrating and a laborious exercise evaluating and adopting new technologies which has not got proper documentation, i hve seen hell with the blunders, which gives you a wrong direction and upsets your focus often. In CTP3 for SessionStateProvider configuration, there is nothing like
Microsoft.Data.Caching.SessionStoreProvider,
it should have been Microsoft.Data.Caching.DataCacheSessionStoreProvider,
and the help file, what they have provided along with the software downloads is age old...not the latest one. You will be in all directions using the documentation of Velocity. So keep a note that you have to make the above mentioned modification when you copy the information from the below link in msdn
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd169031.aspx

kambakqt ishq - useless movie

infact fools movie, i couldnt watch it for more than 15 minutes, i dont know why this akshaykumar is acting since ages without any kind of mark in the industry. Oh lets not talk anymore about stupid bollywood movies. Guys/Girls save your money and dont promote these 3rd class movies. Im worried about the people who had gone all the way to the theatres for this crap...are they safe ???

NANDAN IS the BEST ARTICULATOR OF INFOSYS - SAYS NARAYANA MURTHY

wonderful interview, i also liked his comments on phaneesh murthy's capabilities...goahead...read them now...

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/exclusive-narayana-murthy-on-infosys-after-nilekani/96866-7-p0.html

JP'S z RUTHLESS on 'the budget 2009'

Talking to the media, Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said that Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had formulated the budget with an eye on the elections in a few States in the next few months. He talks in numbers...more here...
http://jayaprakashnarayan.blogspot.com/

google's operating system

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

is this a new begining ? are we really heading towards a day where people would talk more about google chrome OS and less about windows ? You never know ? Keep your fingers crossed.

So what is the microsoft's undercover operation to tackle this competetion ? There must be something.

We are all here to enjoy the benefits ...chilllllll.

more correction ahead

sensex up around 85% since the new government formed, but how long it will continue the expectation without any great support, companies are not doing so very extraordinary to match 85% sensex growth. So more correction ahead, those who have enough money in store can start investing in smaller quantities from now.

still...banking is the best

Yes, atleast for the next 2 to 3 years, it is a stable government...and there is nothing like it....and people in INDIA save a lot :-):):) as if they are going to live forever and ever...he he :):):)

hence....banking would be the best bet, though there are no big surprises for the market in today's budget...banking would always be on the cards...I must confess that even my banking prediction went crashing today...:):):) People are ready outthere to suitcases ...waiting for this cRash....they will bring them up tomorrow....dont worry guys.

thought of booking profit...but human mentality...greedy

ya exactly....around 11 am in the morning DLF was on FIRE....357...almost all the infrastructure stocks...i thought of booking some profit...but greedy...i was like...."you never know...it might cross 400....he he"
but no big deal...as always....you never know....
doing things in a hurry is never good ...good stock is always a good stock. Just a matter of time. Your wait and doing NOTHING is so important at times. All you need is money to get more money. Such an easy formula.

Up for the GRABS

whatelse u need, guys who have been expecting the disaster...cHILL...its your time...start investing...
someone who listing out the stocks to buy today would be a fool...because everything is down, except ITC...
you can pick any damn share...
but with a little caution (10% may be)....because there is more correction ahead...dont know when...if somebody knows that ...then he is the millionaire.

BUDGET SHOCK

people over reacted a bit, but at the sametime budget is not at all entertaining, looks like Pranabji has not got enough time to make it more detail (most of the things are like HEADLINES), anyways he held the record of pulling it down with both the hands...Well...whatever, there is nothing to panic, if you dont have any more money dont do too many things with your existing investments...things will stabilize...but yes more correction ahead....dont you think so ? what has the companies done so drastic that the share market has gone up 85% up since the new government formed ? So now all crackers gone, nothing left. Time to stabilize. Once again buy satyam whenever it touches 80...its easy money there. NJOY. This time around UDAYAN MUKHERJEE's predictions are nearly right. He has gained some experience...haha.

I LIKED WHAT DR. Narayana Murthy of INFOSYS commented on the would be BUDGET. Around 15 days before the budget...Cool...goodread...
http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3054883

too many opportunities

Yes, dont be shocked at that line...i mean it...too many opportunities now a days...companies are getting big deals (projects) and they are on the lookout for people...market is not doing bad at all in India and to me it looks like on track offlate, mails all over from NESS, IBM, HCL, etc.

nice weather

guess where Iam ?, it is a place where we have only three seasons throughout the century...and those are HOT, HOTTER & the HOTTEST. But you know...its been great since 2 days...cloudy, cool breeze and showers every now and then...truly unbelievable :-)

insane politics by chandrababu

The way chandrababu has been commenting offlate is INSANE, his latest comments on the Loksatta party shows his insecurity for sure. He has to understand that people are watchful and aware of the facts. Leaders at that range needs to be responsible while talking. You cannot win by badmouthing.

Interesting shares for the budget day

textile industry, sugar, automobile.
export related decisions by the government would affect all the export oriented companies including software. So keep your fingers crossed.

Budget Day Best Bets

Banking Shares are my best BET for the budget day. SBI, IDBIBANK, ANDHRA BANK, YES BANK, INDUSBANK, AXIS BANK.
Next comes the construction shares.

Budget day Mantra

if you can see a gain of 20% on your capital, just sell them to book short-term profit, no issues if you are a long-term investor.
Market is bound to correct for sure.

my trading philosophy : indian share market

1) buy only fundamentally strong shares
2) track the political situation of the country w.r.t your stock
3) check the company news
4) check the company results for the last two quarters atleast
5) check the fluctation level
6) check the high and lows of the share for the last two years and also the months of high and low and why
7) dont be greedy, know when to exit if you are a short-term trader
8) if you are a short-term trader and in losses, best thing is to forget the share for sometime and re-enter, rather than selling the share in loss and re-investing in some other.
9) if the market is not doing well, dont do anything just keep your current shares as it is
10) follow the company's roadmap
11) follow the stability of the company against the sensex and nifty, some shares perform irrespective of the sensex, it grows or falls depending on its own merit, one needs to watchout for this kind of shares carefully.
12) short-term traders needs to exit early, means, if you think that the share can grow up to 100, exit at 80 rupees itself, dont wait till the last moment. You never know.
13) I personally feel, if the loss is not that great (for say...10%) and if you are dare enough to exit and reinvest in something good. Then you are the best. Rather than waiting for the loss to happen even more...for say till 30% and then waiting for it to come up in a year or so. What do you say ?

Unified Communications with OCS 2007

As the name suggests, unified communications is not a single product, it’s a solution formed by integrating a set of products. Another core aspect has been conveyed by the name itself, which is “communications”. Before actually going into the details of “unified communications”, we will have to question ourselves that why do we need yet another technology solution to communicate? Here comes the prolonged answer…

Though there are a number of benefits of using unified communications solution, the primary aim of unified communications is to reduce the delay in communication in a corporate environment (The response time, latency, etc)

It is also important to understand that UC is not just about Office Communications Server 2007, it is the cornerstones of Microsoft’s UC solution. UC is the platform for presence, instant messaging, conferencing, and enterprise voice for businesses around the world.
Message sent through one medium can be received on other (i.e you can send a mail, and see to it that it is delivered on to a mobile). It gives you confidence that you can actually communicate with the people anytime (or) most importantly depending on their availability and in many ways.

It also lets you to empower your existing applications, not that these things did not exist earlier, but it comes as a suit with everything at one place and give you a chance to SELECT and unleash on a supersonic platform (servers, api’s etc). (Two users from within a healthcare solution talking using the audio facilities & also being able to see each other. You never know the doctor might be able to diagnose the patient’s condition sitting miles away…are you not delighted ?)
PBX, IP Networks, IP telephony, messaging, video chat (web cam), instant messaging & now we have Unified Communications evolved with the idea of making use of all the facilities (all of them), under one single umbrella, in a more effective way. UC integrates telephony, messaging with business processes and requirements based on presence capabilities.

Software professionals who would love to travel around the globe would not like UC, because UC’s business tag line is to cut travel costs & the list is continues…travel costs, training costs, facility costs, telephony and conferencing service charges, etc.

Business gets benefited by productivity, faster completion, shortened sales cycle times, faster resolution of customer issues, attract and retain employees, etc. MS also claims about reducing power consumption by using UC (i.e by using USB phones over conventional phones). So during these recession times the tag lines like “cost cutting” and “business development” are definitely attractive, isn’t it?

UC presents a consistent unified user interface and experience across multiple devices and media types.

1 Capabilities of UC
Ø Enterprise Voice
Ø Audio/Video/Web Conferencing
Ø Group Chat
Ø Instant Messaging and Presence
Ø Public Instant Messaging Connectivity
Ø Mobility
Ø Operations
Ø Platform Extensibility

1 SIP
Session initiation protocol came into existence in the year 1996, it’s a tcp/ip based application layer protocol. It is independent of the underlying transport layer, means it can run on tcp, udp, or sctp. It is a text based protocol with all the ingredients of http and smtp. Also called as a signalling protocol, accepted as a EGPP ( 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
There is something called SIMPLE – “the session initiation protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions, is an instant messaging (IM) and presence protocol suite based on session initiation protocol (SIP). Simple is an open standard.
Similarly we have one more open standard called XMPP – Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, XMPP based software is deployed on thousands of servers and millions of users using them. The most popular examples of XMPP based softwares include Gizmo project, Nimbuzz and Google Talk.

1 Unified Communications Vs Unified Messaging

In order to realize the value of adopting technologies like unified communications, it's crucial to first understand the difference between unified messaging and unified communications.
Unified messaging allows users to access e-mail, voice mail and faxes by a common interface via a variety of means including PCs, telephones, wireless devices, PDAs and the internet.
Unified communications is a superset of UM. In addition to the message-management capabilities of UM, UC allows enterprises to maximize the connectivity of their workforce with their customers while enabling the individual worker to choose the best method for them to communicate and access corporate information at any given moment. Location and call control play a key role for the UC solution through two factors:

1. Tools (such as those for filtering and routing) to manage and control communications.
2. Multiple interfaces like speech, telephone and GUI to optimize business processes that use human communications as part of their workflow.
UC connects two resources (pc or human) that have a desire to communicate (or) access information in real time.
For eg:- with a UC solution, an employee who is walking on the road can use voice commands via the telephone to access enterprise solutions for real-time contact.

1 Third party competitors

There are many. To name a few we have Cisco, hp and Microsoft. Cisco is dominating by offering UC and collaboration on mobile devices since ages. MS is more of IP communication and replicating most of the Cisco stuff slowly but surely. Cisco has sold millions of IP phones and desktop software clients; Microsoft has nothing of this sort, it’s new to this area. Microsoft’s focus is on making UC a desktop issue. Cisco delivers it from the network. Microsoft advantages are its developer support and its knowledge of user workflow and desktop experience. Cisco excels in building networks and integrating features, such as voice and UC, for a service based delivery model.

1 UC Softwares

I had no clue on how to start and where to start, even after days of studying hundreds of pages on msdn, and then I stopped studying the business benefits and the deployment details. I wanted to understand the types of software required and what the software is actually meant for? This confusion finally resulted in preparing a productive list, because it is so important to understand WHAT we really do NOT need with respect to our goals of application development, but for that purpose one has to go through the entire list.

1.1 a) Client side code:
For contact lists, presence, IM capability inside a line of business application
Use Communicator Automation APIs - basically here we can control and invoke the Communicator already installed in the system from your application. We dont need to do a lot of coding here, you are done once the Communicator (or relevant IM window for e.g.) is invoked.
UCCA - UCCA stands for Unified Communications Client API. This is what Communicator 2007 is built on. One would use this if you have a need for custom rich features and/or want to embed UC features in your line of business applications. This is the most powerful client side API set.
CWA - An AJAX web based client for communicator. Stands for Communicator Web Access. The name says it all. Use it for browser based client applications.
Communicator Extensions - To create custom tabs that can show up in the Communicator UI itself.

1.1 b) Coding at SIP layer, Server side:
For automated response to certain events/messages in application and to send custom IM/SIP calls as a part of such responses, to access archived messages/sessions, to embed interactive voice response/guide features into the applications.
UCMA - stands for Unified Communications Managed API. It is a low level API providing access to the SIP layer. For e.g. you can create a bot that can auto respond to certain events or messages using this API.
Speech Server Core API - Use this to create applications that have speech recognition, synthesis and IVR kind of functionality. Builds on top off a Speech Server installation.
OCS Server API - Uses MSSPL - Microsoft SIP Processing language. Used for routing, archiving and logging of messages. We can create plug ins to the OCS Server using this API. This is different from UCMA in the sense that this is more of the API allowing changes over the message routing and control (as opposed to UCMA - an API that gives access to the data inside the message).

1 AJAX Roadmap in 2007
In Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Microsoft only supports the UC AJAX API in case you add a CWA Server of OCS 2007. The UC AJAX API will not be updated beyond the 2007 release, and programming directly the UC Managed API will be the recommended way to build applications. Yet if you want to deploy any existing UC AJAX application, you will need to go through some pains.
Till date there were many limitations reported by the developers online on UC AJAX API, such as that it does not support more than 15 concurrent IM end-points per web page. UCMA in any case remains the better choice for solutions.

1 ROADMAP
Microsoft wants to capitalize on UC through desktop applications market, because Microsoft has already established in this sector in many ways. Office communicator, presence and messaging have been proved successfully in great numbers for Microsoft.
So the platform is set for customers to upgrade to UC with little effort (little effort interms of mindset not in terms of cash).

Microsoft’s UC for mobile is also catching up fast, so the roadmap for mobile applications is as follows:
Ø Flexible for all UC contacts, simple to use, consistent with the desktop user experience, and interoperable with desktop communications.
Ø UC supports its Exchange Server 2007 unified messaging, outlook and calendaring applications with speech recognition and text to speech user interfaces for mobility.
Ø To facilitate enterprise application mobilization and making wireless mobility more corporate liable for localized voice over wi-fi campus environments.
Ø Speech interfaces are needed for mobilized applications and hence Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 will have built in IVR capabilities that will support traditional and future interface needs.

Also check the GUIDANCE column for a roadmap kind of feel.

1 GUIDANCE
UC implementation for any corporate is not a get-set-go operation, to actually achieve it one has to undergo a long process, and in that process we have to sort out
1. Business process priorities
2. Key individual /group needs associated with those business processes, wherever they may be located.
3. Current Communication capabilities and operational costs
4. Budgetary considerations
5. IT support capabilities

1.1 I . Migration

Before migrating on to UC the organization has to identify the
a) critical business processes
b) the key people involved with those processes
c) and the communication inefficiencies that contribute the most “human communication latency”
d) identify key end user communication needs associated with priority business processes.
Presence, call and video conferencing would bring revolutionary changes to any health care application, because the faster the communication, that much better care one can provide by reducing the time gap.
Critical functionality needs to be identified in LORENZO (LRC or Clinicals) and these facilities need to be integrated with UC.
For instance for any application, if there is tremendous human interaction and the need is critical (like healthcare) then the integration of non-real time communications (such as messaging) & real time communications (such as voice or telephone) with business processes and requirements, based on presence capabilities would yield remarkable benefits.
Defining the business process and the need of the users is of high priority as mentioned earlier, because only then these facilities would see light and bring higher perks to the business by reducing cost and in a much faster timeframe.

1 System Requirements:
OCS 2007 R2 Hardware and OS requirements: UC setup is a whole new environment altogether, so it comes at a cost.

1.1 Platform
64 – bit only, 32 – bit versions of ocs 2007 will no longer be supported in production. This lines up with exchange and other products moving this direction.

1.1 Software
The 64-bit edition of windows server 2008 standard or the 64-bit edition of windows server 2008 enterprise. (or)
The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard with Service Pack 2 (SP2), or the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise with SP2 (or)
The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 Standard with SP2, or the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise with SP2

1.1 SQL
· Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (32-bit or 64-bit edition)
· Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with SP2 (32-bit or 64-bit edition)
For an ideal enterprise environment setup you need a group of servers, like
a) Front-end server
b) Back-end Server
c) Edge Server
d) Mediation Server
e) Communicator Web Access Server
The servers are of high configuration; more or less the minimum requirement for any server would be something like this CPU : Dual processor, quad-core 2.0 gigahertz (GHz)+, 4-way processor, dual-core 2.0 GHz+, Ram : 8 gigabyte (GB), Disk : 2x 72 GB+, 15K or 10K RPM, Network : 2 x 1 Gbps network adapter.

1 UCMA 2.0

I’m not giving code based examples here, because I myself didn’t get a chance to implement them, but I would give a try to generate some interest in readers on what UCMA coding is all about. Looking at the features and capabilities, it is very easy to envision that UCMA holds the future of Microsoft’s way of UC.

The events mechanism is somewhat like “Subscribe-Notify” concept. In UCMA the idea is to send a SUBSCRIBE message to an endpoint specifying that you are interested in a particular event and the endpoint sends you NOTIFY messages whenever that event occurs. Though UCMA API is much more complicated than this definition, but precisely this is what happens.
Irrespective how big UCMA is, but there are five main classes in UCMA 2.0 called conversation, conference services, localownerpresence, remotepresence & contactgroupservices FOR features like conversation, conference scheduling and management, presence publishing, presence subscription, contacts and groups.

Various SDKs in UCMA for different purposes, each SDK of ucma has a lot of depth in itself, hence a quick glance of what each of it does is here.

1.1 Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core SDK

The Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core SDK is a managed-code platform that provides access to and control over instant messaging, telephony, audio/video conferencing, and presence. It is intended to support the development of middle-tier applications targeting Microsoft Office Communicator and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
UCMA 2.0 Core SDK abstracts away most of the Office Communications Server protocols by offering an API that exposes almost all of the features of the protocol.

1.1 Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Speech SDK

The Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Speech SDK enables developers to build Office Communications Server applications that utilize speech recognition and text-to-speech features.

1.1 Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Windows Workflow Activities

UCMA 2.0 Windows Workflow Activities can be used to quickly build workflow-enabled speech and instant message applications on OCS. UCMA 2.0 Windows Workflow Activities can be used to provide solutions for simple scenarios such as call routing, or for complex scenarios encountered by large enterprises, such as audio collaboration and business process workflow integration.

1.1 Unified Communications Client 1.0 SDK

A developer can use Unified Communications Client API to create an application that enables integrated multimodal real-time communications within or across network boundaries. The resulting application can help to make the computer the center for business communications in real time. Audio and video calls as well as instant messaging (IM) and collaboration are all integrated into one user session on the computer. In addition to computer-to-computer communications sessions, the user can also create computer-to-phone calls, phone-to-phone calls, or text-only IM sessions.

1 Useful Links

There are thousands out there, on MSDN UC is like an epic, but I really liked this one, please try to find out why!!!.

http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-research/uc-analysis.aspx

1 Conclusion

Throughout my life I have been observing a common scenario in the world of software, that whatever Microsoft does, has already been there (some other existing technology) in some form and in some proportions since long time in the market. But when Microsoft picks it up, a greater part of the world would be well aware of it, talking about it and finally doing it. Professionals mostly talk about the technicality behind MS products, but the open secret here is that the Microsoft’s way of marketing things is amazing. It’s like dog-feeding things, creating a dependency and rest is assured, because afterwards there is no other way for you, except to follow. At the most what you can do is, restart your machine, update the latest patch (sp1, sp2…sp100), upgrade your hardware and keep learning the software and by the time you start liking it, yet another latest version is ready in the market which would require 100GB RAM, 1lakh GB hdd, 100gHZ processor. In a way, creating business for others, like IBM and Intel. Same scenario continues with UC as well. MS has been selling UC smartly, by packing it in a fancy and colourful wrapper and already too many developers tasted & infected.
It is huge, vast and gigantic, it is not something like velocity ( a light weight component), UC can be called as the backbone of enterprise architecture (depending on your needs and business processes). For a developer it gives real pleasure to code on MS’s UC platform, because it is communications and presence, but yes it doesn’t come cheap, the infrastructure cost is high for UC. There is so much more but I want to end this document somehow, I have not discussed things like custom presence, web access server, ajax and how to configure and consume each and everything, etc. Happy coding and hopefully I will release something better on UC in the coming days, because it has not been included in our healthcare solutions so far, so there is a lot of scope.

My Share Picks for today

I have read loads and loads of stuff about the following shares, analyzed a lot about them, to me, for now, these are the best and safe bets. Also please have a look at the disclaimer down below the article. Thanks.
NTPC
Trademark indian govt power share, one can buy around 190.
YESBANK
very strong fundamentals, good management model, good quarterly results and on the uptrend, very positive outllook as far the current govt foresight is concerned (hopefully ok), different and dynamic from traditional banking,one can buy around 125.
SATYAM COMPUTERS
Tech mahindra bought satyam cheaply, dead cheap i would say, one can buy around 65 for now
JAIPRAKASH ASSOCIATES
NO.2 after dlf, stable when you compare it with DLF (not that fluctuating), not so costly, not just into construction but diversified into many businesses - one can buy around 190 levels.
ANDHRA BANK
not many aware of its revenues, its all set to explode all over india - one can buy now, right now.
IDBIBANK
well established infront of the competitors like icici, got name as a faithful bank, strong homeloan sector accounts, doing well offlate, one can buy around 100.
RELIANCE NATURALS
Won the recent court hearing, once people minted money with this script, its available at a decent price now, can pick up this script around 80.
disclaimer : Im holding all the above, but you guys please dont rely on me, its ur money, you are the best judge on that, so you decide. Its my blog and just my opinions.
ALOK INDUSTRIES
a textile stock, i love it because it is around 20 rupees, but thats not all, its a strong company, this rules the textile industry in many areas of INDIA, and it is currently at very low levels. The textile industry has been going through a rough patch since more than 2 years, and hence the low price...and there are lot of promises ahead from the new MP Mr. Maran, he is in the news everyday. Alok industries is in good profits if you look at the past quarterly results and aggressive in its expansion plans through out India. I think its a very safe Bet, allows us to buy volumes.
BIOCON
is a gold mine for me, pick it up with both of your hands whenever the market is down, if you are a long term investor then you have struck gold i would say. Biocon's latest release of the cheapest diabetes drug would be a trendsetter for the company in the coming months (or years). Biocon has been waiting for this kind of success since ages, whatever, its always been a strong Indian biotechnological company.

Family Politics : Shame on us.

This article is not in particular about any particular politician of INDIA, no criticism, its a discussion about our welfare, well being and foresight on our Nation's Pride. We, the People of India, even after 62 years of independence, have the same mentality of casual acceptance, means we dont have a problem if a politicians son is getting on to the heir by default. Often, even highly educated people take it for granted, and more ridiculously they praise a politicians son in acceptance, crazy. Some talk about their looks, their speech, their body and their smile. This is INDIA my dear...not a TOY to play, more than a billion precious souls, lets come out of this shameful acceptance of politicians sons and families by default. Think about his zeal, experience and capabilities to lead this precious soil but not his birth star. Let's Wakeup.

Even a kid can tell that the stage is being setup for RAHUL GANDHI's would be primeministership. Im not against him personally, but this is INDIA, every Indian needs to have high regards for the highest post. So Mr. Manmohan singh and Mr. Rahul Gandhi are one and the same ? Astonishing !!! I know there is no qualification for Indian politics, but what is interesting to me is the mere INDIAN thinking.

Why should we be happy if someone's son is becoming an MLA, MP, CM or PM ? insane isn't it. It's like a servant being happy about his master, it's like ages back we had RAJA and his sons's. Laloo and then his wife, NTR and his son-in-law, Karunanidhi and his son, Rajasekhar Reddy and his son, Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and now Rahul ? Also lets not get into the concept of "one guy is better than the other guy", let's start thinking about the best ?


INDIA is so easy ? Family Property ? is it ? Lets be ASHAMED of accepting sons and families just like that, for decades and decades. Have very high regards for the country. It's high time. Lets think. Thanks to Mr. JaiPrakashNarayan for making educated minds mature.

Microsoft's Velocity - Distributed Caching

Introduction

The rate of change of position, in physics, is termed as VELOCITY, has very little coincidence with the concept of “Distributed Caching”, but MS-Velocity is definitely catching up slowly but surely more on its conceptual merits and on the need of the hour of the “software applications world”. The terms scalability and availability are becoming a default necessity in today’s software applications, hence ‘ms-velocity’ is here.

Scope of this Article

Thorough understanding of, “The Microsoft’s way of Distributed Caching”

Who is making this noise

A project team/code named “VELOCITY” within Microsoft. It is at beta stage (Beta is nothing but just one step to go live, though beta version might also have several sub-versions in it). Microsoft has a much fancier name for beta; called CTP, “community technology preview” in full and the versions are called CTP1, CTP2 & CTP3. Currently velocity is at CTP3. Frankly speaking, to me, it looks like an alpha version and gives you a feeling of integrating bits and pieces. For eg:- For most of the time CTP3 bits were ready but the CTP3 samples were missing, ofcourse they are ready now, now the help file to understand the sample code is missing.

Caching Story

A cache is a type of dynamic and high speed memory that is used to supplement the function of the central processing unit and the physical disk storage. As the microprocessor processes data, it looks first in the cache memory and if it finds the data there it does not have to do the more time-consuming reading of data from larger memory. The cache acts as a buffer when the cpu tries to access data from the disk so the data travelling from the cpu and physical disks can have synchronized speed. Disk reading and writing process is generally slower than cpu function.

Caching in Web Applications

We cannot imagine the MSN portal or the Amazon web site, or the corporate SAP financial application being down when we need it. Same is the case with any online banking website in the world. Fundamentally, applications need to be available all the time to support access at any time, and from anywhere.

Another major expectation, especially from application developers and from datacenters is that of scalable and available applications at a low cost.

One of the most important factors in building high-performance, scalable web applications is the ability to store items, whether data objects, pages, or parts of a page, in memory the initial time they are requested. You can store these items on the Web Server or other software in the request stream, such as the proxy server or browser. This allows you to avoid recreating information that satisfied a previous request, particularly information that demands significant processor time or other resources. Known as caching, it allows you to use a number of techniques to store page output or application data across HTTP requests and reuse it. Thus, the server does not have to recreate information, saving time and resources.

Distributed Caching is not entirely a Brand New invention.

Distributed caches are not new – during the last couple of years several caching products (memcached, ncache & sharedcache) have emerged to address the performance and scalability needs of applications. Most of these support key-based access. Other than memcached (by Danga Interactive), which is an open source technology, most others target enterprises and enterprise workloads and scale. I think the web workloads require considerably large scale, with 1000s of cache nodes in a cluster. The web scale distributed caches not only require mechanisms that can scale and provide availability in very large clusters, they must be easy to manage or self-managed.

ASP.NET Caching & How Velocity is different

Velocity is all about caching & only caching (exclusively); prior discussing Velocity, I would like to brief the basics of ASP.NET caching. In ASP.NET caching we have two types of caching a) page output cache & b) application cache. Page output caching saves the output of page processing and re-uses the output instead of re-processing the page when a user requests the page again, where as application caching allows you to cache data you generate, could be any object like for eg:- dataset or any business object.

ASP.net cache object runs in the same process as your web application, it could be an advantage depending on your need and at the same time it could be a disadvantage. Whatever, it makes it clear that it is not a distributed cache, which means the ASP.NET cache cannot be shared among multiple servers. If you want to share the same ASP.NET cache among multiple servers, you must duplicate the cache for each server.

The greatest advantage of ASP.NET is that it works great for web applications running on a single server, but when you have a web-farm scenario consisting of multiple web servers then there is no straight forward implementation. Similarly whenever a server fails the natural thing we would do is to reload the data programmatically in to our objects. These two issues can be considered as limitations because situations like this doesn’t help sites which has millions/billions of users. Scalability is an issue with ASP.NET caching, unless the programmer does a brilliant work around.

Velocity addresses the above limitations of ASP.NET caching.

In the near future, “Velocity” envisions being an integral part of the .NET application stack targeting both enterprise and web workloads (and scale).

As applications start using the caches for data access, it’s easy to believe, they will demand richer data services like query, transactions, analytics, synchronization etc. We never know that the requirement of LINQ queries on distributed cache on most of the .NET applications could be one of the most programming requirements in the coming days, just like they query the backend SQL Server database. Microsoft envisions “Velocity” to become a comprehensive distributed caching platform. The performance, scale, and availability functionality of “Velocity” along with its rich data services will allow for rich web and enterprise applications development and deployment.

Distributed Caching fits here

In general, distributed caches are especially ideal for applications with the following characteristics…

Ø There is a considerable number of data requests that are mostly read (e.g. product catalogs)

Ø Large concurrent access to such data can be provided by replicating the catalog data on multiple cache nodes. Since updates are infrequent to such data, maintaining consistency (synchronously or asynchronously) is not very expensive.

Ø Applications that can tolerate some staleness of data
Such applications can provide better performance and scale by not requiring immediate updates over refreshing of caches

Ø Applications that can work with highly partitioned data (e.g. session data, shopping cart)

Ø High scale and performance can be supported by partitioning and distributing data across multiple cache nodes, and thereby distributing data processing across the cache nodes

Ø Applications that can work well with eventual consistency.

1.2 System Requirements & Prerequisites

Supported Operating Systems:
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 3

How to attack Velocity in notime

Download the CTP3 samples, do the setup for shared folder kind of caching on a single machine (your pc or laptop). Do not get confused by powershell tool and all that help on that, forget it. Simply open the velocity administration tool and try to start the cluster by typing Start-CacheCluster (remember this works happily only if you are using CTP3 dlls and the CTP3 samples, also remember you have to copy the installation dlls to your sample application folder and add references). That's it you are all set.

You will get to see more on velocity day by day here, im delighted at its ease and especially with the shiftover from the existing session code to the distributed cache plug-in just by few changes in the configuration file. Cool.