Nauman Leghari's Blog : Productivity

Erlang Cheat Sheet

laghari78 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:10:00 GMT

I have just uploaded v1.0 of my Erlang cheat sheet. There are too many things which are still left out so please provide comments and suggestion on what you would like to see in the next version.

Download Erlang Cheat Sheet 1.0 (PDF)

GmailSync - Free backup solution using Gmail

laghari78 — Mon, 01 May 2006 19:58:00 GMT

GmailSync is an automated backup tool to synchronize files on your computer to your gmail online storage. By using this, you can theoritically use almost unlimited amount of free space available on your gmail account.

Read more about GmailSync - Free backup solution using Gmail

BookNotes I - Refactoring Workbook (Willian C. Wake)

laghari78 — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 19:38:00 GMT

For future reference, here are few things to look for during refactoring the source.

Comments
- Lots of comment explaining a piece of code -> Extract the code in a separate method
- When comment explains preconditions -> Use Assertions

Long Method
- Look for comments to extract methods
- Extract methods semantically

Long Class
- Extract class if there are too many responsibilities
- Extract interface if you can identify subset of features that clients can use

Long Parameter List
- See if the method is being used to do more than 1 action and the logic is controlled by the parameters ( eg. Add/Update in a single method )
- If the parameters come from a single object, pass the object or extract an object out of parameters

Names
- Avoid Hungarian notations
- Name the method so that it communicates to other people ( Avoid One or Two Character names, Numbered variables, Odd abbreviations, Misleading names )

Unnecessary Complexity
- Dead code
- YAGNI principle ( avoid unnecessary generalization )

Duplication
-          Magic Number -> Replace numbers inside code body into symbolic constants
-          Extract Methods to pull duplication code and put it inside the most appropriate class. Otherwise, extract a class and use it.
-          Combine classes if two classes are doing mostly similar stuff.

ZiePod :: A better podcast receiver/player

laghari78 — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:52:00 GMT

Until now, I have been using Juice Podcast receiver as my favourite application for subscribing to podcasts. The main reason for using Juice is small footprint and fast execution with a fairly decent user interface.

Yesterday, I found ZiePod, which is another Podcast receiver and after using it for a day, I am totally converted to the new application. For beginners, ZiePod has a much better interface than the Juice podcast receiver. And don't think that it is a bloated application because of the user interface. I found it as fast as the juice receiver if not better. The other notable features is that it has a built-in media player for running files and a three-pane interface which is much better suited to view podcast episodes and the show notes.

Some benefits that I see in Juice receiver is that it is Open Source (GPL), and has versions for other platforms such as Mac and Linux. But, if you are a windows user and don't feel anything against closed source applications then ZiePod is definately an application to give a try.

Download

Technorati Tags: podcast | ipod

"WinFS Junior" :: A Poor Man's File System

laghari78 — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 23:52:00 GMT

"WinFS Junior" is a small utility which will help you organize your downloads into categorized folders. It is really good for people who don't want to manually organize their files into folders. "WinFS Junior" does your task automagically :).It is built on a concept application developed for the article "Building an Automatic Pattern-Based File Router" by Arian Kulp.

Try it out yourself. It is free along with the source code.
http://weblogs.asp.net/nleghari/articles/winfsjunior.aspx

PStart - Start menu for your portable applications

laghari78 — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 21:56:00 GMT

"PStart is a simple tray tool to start user defined applications. Designed to run portable applications (like portable Firefox & Thunderbird), you can start anything runnable from USB key devices or removable disks."

Added to my tools on USB.

RssMix - The De-Bloggers List

laghari78 — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 14:36:00 GMT

I recently discovered RssMix, which looks like an interesting service to combine similar feeds in a single feed. I'm not sure whether this feature is available in Squeet otherwise I'd used that instead. Although it is now possible to get the mixed Rss feed through Squeet in your email.

Anyway, the reason for this post is not just to tell about RssMix, but I have created a mix for some of the MSDN blogs writing about debugging.

You can directly subscribed to the combined list here

Otherwise just visit it at http://www.rssmix.com/u/9021/

The list of bloggers included in the mix are:

http://blogs.msdn.com/yunjin/rss.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jmstall/rss.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/dougste/rss.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/marklon/rss.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/toddca/rss.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/mvstanton/rss.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jorman/rss.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/maoni/rss.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/tess/rss.aspx

Another nice feature of RssMix is that you can create a new list by extending an existing list. Therefore feel free to share it with everyone.

A Technique for Producing Ideas

laghari78 — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:22:00 GMT

We consider an idea as something which comes to our mind as magic. What we don't realize is the process that every one have gone through before producing an idea. In this book, James Webb Young describes this process as five easy steps. It is a very thin book and a very enjoyable reading.

Along with that, I also made some notes as reference and put them online.

Read BookNotes : A Technique for Producing Ideas

hacks.

laghari78 — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:01:00 GMT

http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/q/all_hacks

Jump to:

How to get latest (tech) news on the internet?

laghari78 — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 23:36:00 GMT

This is something for the news freak. If you are always looking for the latest news then there are few places where you can keep you eyes to get everything.

The first source of everything new is digg.com as you'll notice that there are several dedicated people trying to get their news to the front page.
TopStories
Digg Front page
Digg Spy - A new feature where you can see the live activity in terms of news submitted and then digged by the users.

Apart from digg, you can track del.icio.us for everything that people are tagging.
LiveMarks: A service developed by Alex Bosworth which tracks del.icio.us.
Populicio.us: Another site which gives you a static view of the things that is tagged by del.icio.us

Some other general news websites which headlines popular news:
TailRank
Memeorandum
Topix
Google News

For .NET News, I personally follow Larkware as the latest news source.
Another website that is new but growing is DotNetKicks which is built on the same model as of digg.

How do you track news?

Search your PC/Mac from any Mobile device

laghari78 — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 22:35:00 GMT

How many times do you need some files from your PC when you are on the road? Your resume, a client presentation or any other file.

Maybe none in your case :) but I badly needed this on several occasions. Well, you don't need to worry about it any more as you'll see here how to access/find anything using any device which support a decent browser. The solution is FolderShare + Google Desktop Search.

Yahoo MindSet: Intent Driven Search

laghari78 — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 23:43:00 GMT

While hanging around Yahoo Research area (http://next.yahoo.com/), I found an interesting search application called Yahoo MindSet. Yahoo Mindset is the classification of your search towards commercial and academic results. By using this, you can have total control over your search results.

" Mindset: Intent-driven Search
A Yahoo! Research demo that applies a new twist on search that uses machine learning technology to give you a choice: View Yahoo! Search results sorted according to whether they are more commercial or more informational (i.e., from academic, non-commercial, or research-oriented sources). "

It is always interesting to know what's coming out from the big three. Check it out.