Adnan on Technology, Research & Development
Archive for January, 2012
“Web 2.0 Architectures” – A Big Picture Architectural Overview of the Web 2.0
108 days
If you are trying to decipher web 2.0 related terms, acronyms and buzzwords, you are definitely not alone. It is hard to quantify what exactly a web 2.0 design entails; “I know it when I see it” does not help explaining the characteristic features of modern web architecture including design patterns, core models, reference architectures and solution patterns. “Web 2.0 Architectures” by Governor, Hinchcliffe and Nickull attempts to crack the code of web 2.0 jargon and strives to help reader make sense of this ever changing web ecosystem.
The well written and organized book is divided into eight chapters which discuss design patterns, reference models and architecture artifacts. The web 2.0 patterns discussed in the book includes Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Collaborative Tagging (folksonomy), Synchronized Web, SaaS (cloud computing), Persistent Rights Management, Mashup, Rich User Experience, Participation/Collaboration, Asynchronous Particle Update, ,Semantic Web Grounding and Structured Information. This categorization helps distinguish salient features of a web 2.0 architecture and help define what richness actually means in a rich internet application.
If you have been working in the field long enough, the meme map on page # 63 will help skimming through chapter 3 (which contains web 2.0 example sites) so you can get to the core of the book. Chapters 4 to 7 discuss specific patterns for web 2.0, models, and reference architectures. As mentioned in the book’s title as well as title of this review, “web 2.0 architectures” is focused on big picture architectural overview of the Web 2.0. Even though it’s not a 10000 ft. abstract overview whitepaper, it also does not converse nitty gritty details of building a 2.0 app using jquery and node.js. This text is about concepts, models, reference architectures and common recurring themes in web 2.0 sites. It does not concern itself with specific technologies and implementation details but rather talk about the common paradigm. Therefore, if you are considering it as a cookbook/recipes book for web 2.0 applications, you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you are a web engineer / architect or a technologist interested in the underlying design patterns and attributes of web 2.0, this book is for you.
Session Notes – Practical AppFarbic @ SoCal Code Camp Fullerton
109 days
One of the great benefits of speaking to a group of peer developers and engineers is the valuable feedback and learning. In my yesterday’s session on Practical AppFabric Caching, there were various great questions from audience pertaining to app fabric development, deployment and configuration in the wild. The questions were about use of local cache, appfabric security model, local cache vs. global cache scenarios, high availability, performance monitoring and health monitoring / SCOM in appfabric. I am planning to do detailed blog posts on these topics in near future; but for now, these links should answer the immediate concerns.
As discussed, AppFabric 1.1 can be downloaded from here which introduces read-through and write-behind provider support, graceful shutdown, domain account support, new ASP.NET session state and output caching providers, compression and multiple cache client application configuration sections to the existing appfabric feature-set. The sample app can be downloaded from here. CacheWebAppSample.
Links
- AppFabric Home @ Microsoft
- Caching Algorithms
- Installing, Configuring and Using Windows Server AppFabric and the “Velocity” Memory Cache in 10 minutes
- Microsoft Windows Server AppFabric Cookbook
- AppFabric Cache Feature Comparisons
- Velocity vs. HA Velocity
- Windows Server AppFabric Introduction
- AppFabric Client API
- Windows Server AppFabric Learning Center
52 Books in 52 Weeks
109 days
Based on popular blog movement, one of my new year resolutions is to read 52 non-technology related books in 52 weeks. I realize that being techies, we naturally tend to focus on technology books leaving other genres unattended. To accommodate for this deficiency in literary well-roundness, the books I’ve selected for this task are on wide variety of diverse topics. The list can be found on my urdu blog.
Hearing this, Stephen Soong, a friend and avid sci-fi reader made his own list and promised to let me borrow from his sci-fi collection. Here is Stephen’s list.
Sports
- The Game, Ken Dryden
- Moneyball, Michael Lewis
- The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons
- Breaks of the Game, David Halberstam
- Once a Runner, John L. Parker
Adventure
- Annapurna, Maurice Herzog
Science
- Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens, Patricia Duffy
- The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
- The Panda’s Thumb, Stephen Jay Gould
- Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan
Religion
- The Old Testament
- The New Testament
Chinese Classics
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義), Luo Guanzhong
- The Water Margin (水滸傳), Shi Nai’an
- Journey to the West (西遊記), Wu Cheng’en
- The Deer and the Cauldron (鹿鼎記), Louis Cha
English Classics
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
- Call of the Wild, Jack London
- Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
- Watership Down, Richard Adams
Sci-Fi
- I Robot, Isaac Asimov
Fantasy
- A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin
- Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
- Mistborn Trilogy, Brandon Sanderson
- Legend of Drizzt, R.A. Salvatore
Graphic Novels
- Watchmen, Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
History
- Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
- The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris
- Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
- A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
Other Non-Fiction
- Freakanomics, Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
- The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
Other Fiction
- Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
- The Stand, Stephen King
Project Euler
111 days
I recently have joined Project Euler, introduced through a friend an co-worker Linh Vu. A simpler, more mathematics oriented top coder (for the TC fans out there), Project Euler is defined as ”a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve.” The problems increase in the level of complexity starting from simpler ones like “Add all the natural numbers below one thousand that are multiples of 3 or 5.” to building bozo sort or a A Kempner-like series. The site keeps track of your progress and you can make friends on the site, via a guid like key. Yes, that’s social networking the nerd way. Here is my key “friend key”. 49113135298912_6fda96436085285581e71ee6fb83e3c9
Try it out. http://projecteuler.net/
MicroConf 2012: The Conference for Self-Funded Startups and Single Founders
112 days
by Adnan Masood
in Events
A shot out to te MicroConf 2012: The Conference for Self-Funded Startups and Single Founders to be held April 30 / May 1 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, NV and Hosted by Rob Walling and Mike Taber
The Speakers Include Peldi from Balsamiq, Hiten Shah of KISSmetrics and CrazyEgg, Rob Walling, author of Start Small, Stay Small, Patrick McKenzie of Bingo Card Creator, Mike Taber of Single Founder and many others…
Anyone launching a startup with no outside funding who wants to hang out with and learn from 128 of today’s leading founders and entrepreneurs.
I have heard great feedback from attendees. So if you can, go!
Six years of San Gabriel Valley .NET Developers Group
113 days
by Adnan Masood
in Events
About six years ago, Rob Walling and I started San Gabriel Valley .NET Developers Group to facilitate the needs of developers and IT professionals of the San Gabriel Valley area. We quickly joined INETA and had been a member ever since. I recently receive this recognition certificate from INETA on completion of our six years of membership. Time does fly!
I would like to thank every one who made it possible; including my partner in crime Richard Trinh for his tireless efforts and consistent help, Green Dot Corporation for it’s constant support and sponsorship of the user group and to all our members who make this wonderful user group possible, month after month. This award is for all of you.
SoCal Code Camp Fullerton – Practical AppFabric Caching and Session Management
121 days
SoCal codecamp Jan 28th – 29th is only couple of weeks away. Like always, there is a great list of sessions and speakers.
I’ll be presenting on AppFabric; Being a technical editor for an upcoming book on AppFabric, it’s a great opportunity for me to test out the specific interests around this area. Following is the abstract.
Would you like to learn about high availability, scalability and distributed cache management using Microsoft platform without getting all cloudy? Windows Server AppFabric is a set of application services focused on improving the performance and management of Web, Composite, and Enterprise applications. AppFabric provides a highly scalable in-memory application cache for all types of data. With the caching features of AppFabric you get Scalable in-memory, distributed cache for any serializable data, Seamless integration with ASP.NET, High availability and dynamic scale-out of cluster nodes, Optional local cache with eviction policies and cache change subscriptions and notifications.
In this demo-centric session, we will cover end-to-end implementation of a web solution using AppFabric for caching and session management. Intended audience include web developers who want to build high performance applications leveraging web programming techniques (e.g.ASP.NET, MVC, RESTful services, etc) and enterprise developers who create service oriented middle tier applications using .NET.
Please do try to come, it’s a great event for developers to get together and learn about new (and existing) technologies from their peers.
Caltech-MIT Enterprise Forum – Venturing in the Privacy Tug-Of War
126 days
by Adnan Masood
in Events
Venturing in the Privacy Tug-Of War: Opportunities in Controlling Personal Data
Great event tomorrow morning @ Caltech. Details below.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Registration and Continental Breakfast: 8:00 a.m. Baxter Lecture Hall
Program: 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Networking: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Baxter Lecture
Jan 18th – Parallel Essentials – Using .Net TPL w/ Nuri Halperin and Steve Bearman
127 days
by Adnan Masood
in Events
Abstract: Essential multithreading guidance on using .NET parallel features. We will explore the what, why and especially HOW to use the newly available parallel and multithreaded features of the .NET framework. Whether you are writing server code, website code, Silverlight or desktop apps.
About the Presenters: Nuri Halperin: Principal for +N Consulting Inc (Santa Monica, CA), Nuri brings over 15 years of development and leadership experience in internet, E-Commerce and corporate space. He currently serves as Solution Architect focusing on .Net technologies and platforms. Nuri has successfully championed initiatives in ASP.NET, database, data mining, E-commerce, integration projects and custom component development for specific business needs. In recent years Nuri has been active in the coding community, providing training, mentoring and contributing to the coding community, focusing on cutting edge technologies, C# and core framework programming. His passion for efficient computing and his SDLC perspective bring a unique and valuable contribution to every project he engages in.http://www.plusnconsulting.com
Steve Bearman is an independent software developer with his company, Suzy B Studios. He innovates and develops web and client software for all sectors from science and engineering through business and finance–especially the thorny, complex problems where architecture, algorithms, mathematics, innovation, and performance are critical. Always available to help develop software, he often leads development teams. Along the way he has managed both marketing and operations for a manufacturing corporation, taught graduate computer science, and published technical papers dealing with data. He has a special fondness for good algorithms and appropriate technology.
Meeting Agenda
* 6:00p Mixer/Networking/Pizza
* 6:30p Presentation Starts
* 8:00p Raffle
Directions: Park in parking structure at 570 E Huntington Dr, Monrovia, CA 91016 . Meeting is across the street in 605 E Huntington Dr. Once parked, use the overhead walk way to get to the building. The meeting will be right inside the door after the walk way.
