Del.icio.us (sorry, it’s just plain old “Delicious” now) 2.0 finally launched a few days ago and the response so far has been mixed. But now that the dust has settled some, it’s time to think about just how we got here and if it was really worth all the trouble. According to the official blog post, the new and improved Delicious brings us speed, usability, and oh so good looks among other features and it was a long time in the making. The Yahoo acquisition was announced on Dec 9, 2005 and the new site finally went live a little over two and a half years later on July 31, 2008. So why did it take them so long? ...

MySQL is generally an all-around kickass piece of software, and like any good open source application, there are a host of tools you can use to squeeze every last drop of goodness out of it. Nearly all of them, however, are geared towards the operational DBA, leaving the wayward developer out in the cold.

I’ve been to a bunch of shows lately and even though they were all really good I haven’t been moved to write anything about them. Well, here they are… recorded more for my poor memory than anything else. March 25 - Crystal Castles with Health (Studio B) April 8 - Explosions in the Sky (Terminal 5) May 5 - The Teenagers (Bowery Ballroom) May 18 - Black Kids (Bowery Ballroom)

Indians are everywhere in the software world — from engineers to CEO’s — but they all share one thing in common: the products they’ve helped build are all for companies based outside of India and for the most part in the US. I had this very conversation with one of our developers in Chennai on my last trip to India. He’s also spent time abroad, in the UK, but had not noticed it until I pointed it out to him. My guess is that there’s just no domestic market for many of the products being developed abroad. Especially with regards to the Internet, with access at home out of reach for most people, it’s not hard to see why most entrepreneurs might end up in California instead of Bangalore. ...

I still intend to finish the series of posts I started earlier, but this quote pretty much sums it up: In this regard management is also to blame, especially when it comes to dysfunctional schedules, wrong incentives, poor hiring, and demoralizing policies.

Is just getting the job done always enough? One of my personal philosophies is that if you’re not learning, you’re not improving. If you’re not improving, then what have you really accomplished? In fact, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve even gotten worse, if only because everyone else has gotten better. It’s like a television or movie series that comes back year after with the same old, tired formula. No better than previous iterations, and doesn’t even meet the expectations set by its predecessors. Think Bond, James Bond.

“Commitment means being prepared to do extra things, going the extra mile” Without a commitment from all the concerned parties, how can one expect any enterprise to be successful? Be it business, government, military or otherwise. My group has shown it’s commitment time and again, but we haven’t seen the same from others. How do you find the motivation to stay committed in a situation like that? I think I’ll just go to sleep instead. ...

I clocked out at 12:30am last night and I felt “guilty” about it. Why? I left the office at about 7:15pm today and I felt “guilty” about it. Why? I worked about 70 hours this week and I’m planning to work Saturday and Sunday. Why? If anything, the events of the week have made it clear to me that they don’t get it and I shouldn’t be working this hard. So… why? ...

Saw some cool sneaks today, but, alas, they only carry up to UK12 and I’m a UK12.5.

The traffic here is out of control, and, with the introduction of the 1 lakh car (which I think is fantastic, btw) it’s bound to get a lot worse, at least in the near term. For a while I thought a big part of the problem was the lack of traffic signals at most intersections and a complete lack of order on the road. The heterogeneous traffic mixed with the all out war mentality creates an extremely hostile environment. ...