TWIN e-Book Volume 1

Volume 1 of the TWIN e-book is available for free download at http://www.twin-india.org/.

It is an enormous effort to compile posts from past 5 years at the TWIN mailing list into a useful, searchable, downloadable e-book. Read more about the effort, planning and the team at http://infodeveloper.wordpress.com/tag/twin-book/ .

It's amazing what you can achieve with merely an idea, leadership and volunteers.

STC 2008 Conference in Pune

Some of us are attending STC India's 10th Annual conference this Friday (12th) and Saturday (13th Dec 2008) at Le Meridien, Pune.

About the Conference

After a 4-year hiatus, the STC India conference returns to the burgeoning metropolis of Pune for a historic third time. The STC India conference is the largest gathering of technical communicators in the country. On December 12 and 13, 2008, the thriving city of Pune (Maharashtra) will play host to the technical communication fraternity from across the country, and even the world. Read more..."

Related sites: Society for Technical Communication (STC), Technical Writers of India (TWIN).

Error in Perforce: Can't clobber writable files

I use Perforce for source control of the Teamcenter documentation files. Today, I noticed some files were revised and checked-in by other users. When I tried to get the latest version of the files by Sync to Head Revision, Perforce gave the following error:

"Can't clobber writable file..."

I found it was because some of the files on my local drive were not in read-only mode. Its a known fact that when we check-in a file after modifications, Perforce marks our local copy of the file read-only. However, in this case, it was not known why that did not happen. It assumed that since the local file was not in read-only mode, the file was open for edit. If Perforce allowed the Sync to Head Revision, the files could have been corrupted.

The solution was to manually mark my local copies of the files read-only. On Sync to Head Revision now, Perforce did not throw any error message.

Click here to read about other users who encountered the same error message and their possible causes.

Why Another Blog - Part 2

I look back at this outdated blog - mysoa corp at http://mysoa.blogspot.com/ - I started only for the purpose stated below. Today, I've moved on to different jobs, aspirations, and faced challenges. So, here we have, a new purpose and address. I wish it were this simple to re-invent and move on with many other things in life!

Get ready to read about my career spread across several jobs, dilemmas, and official trivia.

For the sake of history, here's why I started this blog originally.

Automated Technical Writing?

The other day, we had an interesting discussion on minimalism and the future of Technical Writing (TW).

Someone said the way the standards and guides are being framed, there would be a day when TW would have templates and almost no scope for errors.

• Does it mean TW is moving towards automation? 
• Can TW be automated at all? It would be definitely beneficial to someone. Who would benefit the most if TW is automated? Is it the documentation itself, end-users, writers, project schedules or budgets?
• Does it mean minimal intervention from the writers?
• Or, do you think a human writer would always hold an edge, and rise like a phoenix with new skills? (Well, talking about the future skills is another discussion in the pipeline!)

How to Make Great Presentations

Source: How to Captivate an Audience from How to Change the World by GuyKawasaki.

An extract:

"The four horsemen (horse-people?) of presentation skills are Garr Reynolds, Nancy Duarte, Bert Decker, and Jerry Weisman. Over at the American Express Open Forum blog, I just published an interview with Nancy Duarte called "How to Captivate an Audience." In this interview she explains the"how" of making great presentations, so check it out."

Business Analyst Blog

8 Hints to Applying for the CBAP

Systems thinking

An Extract From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

•

Systems thinking is a unique approach to problem solving, in that it views certain 'problems' as a part of the overall system so focusing on these outcomes will only further develop the undesired element or problem. Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when the systems relationships are removed and it is viewed in isolation. The only way to fully understand why a problem or element occurs and persists is to understand the part in relation to the whole.

Interesting posts from IWillTeachYouToBeRich

"Why don't companies ever hire me?"

Considering a career in consulting? Avoid these 5 stupid mistakes

Guest Post: Just got married? Here’s what you need to know.

Meeting on Center of Excellence - Extracts

Source: http://www.soa-consortium.org/podcasts-webcasts/podcast-DC2008-coe.htm
Center of Excellence: Speakers and Roundtable / SOA Consortium Meeting, March 13, 2008
The 3 panelists - Bruce Henderson of Savant, David Butler of HP, Richard Reba of CSC, and Melvin Greer of Lockheed Martin - were asked to answer 4 questions in respect to SOA Center of Excellence.

1. The first is what are the three most critical skills that you should staff in your SOA COE?
2. The second is where do those skills come from?
3. How do you develop those skills or find those skills on the street?
4. And then what is any skill that they often see in the Center of Excellence that really just does not belong there?

Some interesting answers:

• Vision, Politics/Business/Management, Communication
• Business, technology, and management skills, first of all.
• Foresight, Innovation, Leadership - "True leadership is when the rest of the organization does not necessarily report to you, yet you are able to influence change within the organization anyway. So that combination is very important..."
• Passion, "people people", tenacity - "...You have got to hang on through some very challenging times..."
• Entrepreneurial ability
• "...you need people who are familiar with the culture and the way that the organization works..."
• "...You have to have somebody who is actually a practitioner if you want to build a competency center."
• "...The most important one that we find very difficult to get people to do it is design for reuse. Design for reuse simply means being able to build something today that is coarse-grained enough that somebody else can easily pick it up and use it, but actually deliver some technical functionality that is tied to a business process."
• "Now the thing that I do not necessarily want in my competency center, that I struggle sometimes with, is vendor representation. I love our vendor partners because they provide us tools, and they provide us insight, and they help us understand capabilities. But what I am finding is that they want to hijack my competency center."

Apun Master of Science!

Samjha kya...apun ban gaya Master of Science in Software Systems! Look for yourself...I got it in the middle of April, 2006.

Received MS Provisional Certificate/Transcript last Friday [3 Feb 06]

I received the Provisional Certificate/Transcript last Friday (2/3) for my 2-year M.S. course in Software Systems. The final degree certificate is expected sometime in May 06.

The CGPA is 6.59 which is a little sad - it includes only the marks/grades of the first 3 semesters. The dissertaion has been graded "Good" which is about 8 of 10.

Nevertheless, the bottomline is I've passed and I'm thrilled at having completed this in 2 straight years in spite of many distractions and challenges! :-)

I thank my Mentor Dr.Shrinivas Gorur and Addditional Examiner (and ex. Manager) Mr.Satish Guttikonda - for their valuable time and support at making this day happen. And not to forget all the backend help I received from family, friends and team-mates.

Thanks in 65 Million!

An Interview with Sridhar Machani - 14 Dec 2005

This is a pleasant surprise when I walk into office today - to find this published on my company portal - we had this discussion some time during the 3rd week of November. All credit must go to our Business Unit head Bharani for pushing me/Jayant for an interaction of this nature. Also, there is a correction - I've only one younger brother and no elder brothers - as mentioned in text (which otherwise depicts more or less what we discussed).

Interview @ hp on BITS

Alternate URL for those @ hp...
http://gdic.india.hp.com/IPG_Int1.htm

BITS Pilgrimage - 2 to 4 Dec 2005

As Assistant Dean Prof.Venkat put it, this was indeed a pilgrimage. To travel a long way (fly from Bangalore to Delhi for 2.5 hours; travel in Qualis on the adventurous roads to Pilani for around 200 kms for 5 hours); visit and explore a holy place (read BITS campus), have darshan (read project VIVA), have prasadam (read the hostel food); stay for a while (read hostel); face exciting conditions (0.6 degree celcious min temperature); delight local chai; and finally get some gyan and enlightenment. The most surprising part is that Prof. Nataraj came in to the orientation room held by Prof.Venkat before VIVA and called out my name...I raised my hand...and he said he had been reading this blog. It's surprising because I had mentioned the URL to this blog somewhere in the middle of the Final Project Report. Gosh...they do read some reports!!! :-)

A quick info...we went in Air Deccan on 2nd Dec early morning flight and reached Delhi after 2.5 hours. We had booked a Qualis for the round-trip from Delhi-Pilani-Delhi. On thw way, we had breakfast at Haldirams around Gurgaon which was a huge and neat complex. After reaching Pilani - which is a small village in Rajasthan and a native of the Birlas - we checked in to the VFAST Boys hostel and had lunch. We still had time - so explored the BITS campus. It's a city in itself with all facilities. No one needs to go outside for anything. It was exam time so we didn't see much crowd. Next day - 3rd Dec - was our VIVA. After the orientation, VIVA was over for all 5 of us by around 3.30pm. So, we went around BITS again - this time with the knowledgeable and entertaining company of Siddarth Nini (a cousin of my friend Panda). Then, we went back to a the rooms after dinner at 8 - the Sun sets at 5.15pm and then it starts chilling out rapidly. Next morning we set out to Delhi where we got to spend some time roaming around - with the help of Joshiji (our driver). We returned back to Bangalore on the flight at 10.45pm. Thanks to Venki for dropping and picking me up from the Bangalore Airport!

What I must mention is the chai we get in rady (tea stall) around BITS campus - hot and gingerly, yummy! As Jagadeesh put it - in most places we get tea but this is chai!

As they say, a picture tells you a story of a 100 words...

On Bangalore to Delhi flight - nice sky and amazing texture of clouds all the way


BITS VFAST hostel campus - nice comfortable place to stay and hygienic food as well


BITS campus - neat, clean and cold


The famous and historic Clock Tower - which appears on all BITS magazines


The serene and peaceful Saraswati Mandir - white marbles, peacocks and pigeons all around


The BITS Museum - wide range of models on all subjects


That's me - outisde the Museum


And our group which went from Bangalore together to BITS - Panda's cousin Siddarth (extreme left), Shyamtanu, Jagadeesh, Raj, Kiran and me!


BITS library


And then back to Delhi - where we got to spend a few hours before our flight back to Bangalore
Qutab Minar


India Gate


Rashtrapati Bhavan


The center of Power - Parliament


This pilgrimage to BITS, Pilani for the Dissertation (final project) VIVA completes my last formality for the MS Degree. It was an experience I will always keep close to my heart - now that I'm a BITSian! :-)

All snaps here.... BITS Pilgrimage snaps on Flickr (Updated Dec 2006)
Alternate set on Yahoo Photos

Delhi flights booked for Viva

You might be aware - my BITS project Viva is on 3rd Dec (Sat).

I pinged yahoogroups and found 4 others in Bangalore having same Viva date. Some of them had already booked Air Deccan flight tickets - so I also booked the tickets for Dec 2 (Fri) 5.50AM flight to Delhi and back on Dec 4 (Sun) 8.10PM flight to Bangalore.

Pilani, Rajasthan is about 4 hour-drive from Delhi on road.

And once I'm back on 4th midnight, I'm on leave on 5th (Mon), 6th (Tue) and 7th (Wed) Dec 05 - my friends Deepak and Rashmi are getting married on 6/7.

Final Project Report Status

Things happen when they are most unexpected, that's what the Murphys' Laws are all about. And it was no different with me (days of insanity and 12 days later) - which led to too much of delay and pain over and above this project.

Nevertheless, with the timely help from Gun, Satish, Office folks and lots of friends - I were able to come up with a final report by yesterday (3 Nov) evening. Then, Venki ran around with me for the Xerox, binding and speed-posting until this afternoon. Thanks to India Post at Jayanagar 11th Main which is open even on a national holiday like Ramzan today!

Meanwhile, my viva date has been announced at http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/dlp-home/viva/sshz13.htm. Look for Serial Number 73 which says it's on 3rd Dec 2005.

Email me or call me for anything you may have.

Cat is out of the bag: VPN

Since afternoon today, this nagging message popped up again - every time I tried to bind web services dynamically. I thought "Oh God, why am I going backwards when I dont have proper time to go forward?"

---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
The underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to the remote server.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

I thought there is something I changed - oh yes, I changed the namespaces of both web services. But that did not work. I tried changing proxy settings in machine.config and web.config files. No use.

I tried running the webservice directly from their original location - http://localhost/webservice1/service1.asmx/HelloConcept - this gave me a cute string output!

All this while, I noticed from the corner of my eyes at the taskbar icons - the Skype messenger was trying to login continously - but for some reason it couldn't.

Were they co-related? You bet...I remember changing the VPN server today since my regular server disconnected twice early in the morning.

Now - I disconnected from the VPN tunnel - with just the Internet connectivity on. You know what - Skype connected!

And you know what what - my application was able to bind to web services dynamically - without any unwanted messages!

Now you know the cat is out of the bag - VPN - now I can't help wondering if this might've been the reason from some nasty errors a few days back??!!

Lesson: You never know if one's solution is a problem to something else, or if one's problem is somebody else's solution!!! So, focus on whether you want to deal with a solution or a problem - one at a time. So much for peace and harmony!

The story so far...

This is sort of building the infrastructure for the actual implementation of the project (I would say it is 80% of the hard-work!):
1)Getting IIS to host ASP.Net web services
2)Creating a web service from .Net, describe and publish it on test UDDI registry provided by Microsoft.
3)Using WSDL and UDDI SDK, I'm able to find a method exposed by all services on the UDDI registry - ie. get details of all published web services which have exposed a function/method along with their accesspoints and binding keys. I can do this at run-time or at design-time by adding a web reference.
4)In short, my application can search for a service (from UDDI registry) which does a specific task - dynamically and invoke it. All we need to know is some understanding between the service providers and my application - on the interface of the exposed method.

Things to cover in this week (by 23rd - I really hope so!) - basically this is moving on to actual implementation of the project items:
1)Build the web services
2)Implement GUI - for a customer and for a Technical Support Engineer
3)Expose a web service hosted on a Linux box - this may take some time (considering I need to - get Apache web server to host web service and re-write the web service in Java).

Coming up...
1)24th to 30th Oct 05 - Prepare and validate the Final Project Report from Mentor/Examiner (mind you this is not a project demo).
2)31st Oct 05 - Courier the hard-copy of latest Final Project Report to BITS
3)Between 7th Nov to 11th Nov 05 - Demo of Project to Mentor/Examiner
4)Someday in Nov/Dec 05 - Viva at BITS Campus at a date BITS announces.

Somebody had called BITS office today and they told her BITS would announce the Viva dates by the end of this week (23rd Oct 05). That's the flash news!

On a finishing note, I even dreamt of invoking a web service for a handful of hours I slept yesterday!

Discovery of discovery?!

Having done that, now my goal was to find a way to search for a business/service at run-time ie. programatically discover services from UBR.

On one night, I let my system download and install MS Platform SDK (~450MB) - I turned it on and woke up in the morning to find it had done it so well.

After some good amount of playing around, I realized I was adding reference to C:\Program Files\Microsoft UDDI SDK\2.0 Beta\Microsoft.Uddi.Sdk.dll instead of the latest from C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK. This I got to know when I found (or rather did not find!) some class members of microsoft.uddi.

Then, I went through C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK\Bin\UddiReadMe.htm to "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SDK\Bin\UddiSdkRegister" - a utility to get the latest UDDI SDK listed in the MS VS.Net Global Cache of references of assemblies. Mind you - run this from VS.Net command prompt - else it says gacutil.exe is not added to path.

Created a C# Console application to find no. of business listed on UBR:
//establish connection to UDDI server for inquiry
UddiConnection uc = new UddiConnection();
uc.InquireUrl = "http://uddi.microsoft.com/inquire";

//create an onject to find a business
FindBusiness fb = new FindBusiness();
fb.Names.Add("Microsoft");

//send the prepared find business request
BusinessList bizList = fb.Send(uc);
Console.WriteLine("Businesses found=" + bizList.BusinessInfos.Count.ToString());

Then, this is what I get:
---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
The underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to the remote server.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Tried some things on the references to this error at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/819692/
http://weblogs.asp.net/tmarman/archive/2003/04/06/4948.aspx

But what really helped me was this one:
http://geekswithblogs.net/ranganh/archive/2005/08/29/51474.aspx

Found machine.config file at C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\CONFIG

Made changes like this at a portion which gives you instructions to add your custom settings for . Mind you - open this file in textpad or VS.Net for better indentation (notepad gave me some strong feelings!). Note that I have inter-changed the tagging characters "<" and ">" just to get these lines on this post:


>defaultProxy<
>system.net<
proxyaddress="address:port"
bypassonlocal="false"/>
>/system.net<
>/defaultProxy<
The following entry enables reading of the per user (LAN) Internet settings.
Adding additional proxy settings, without first setting to "false",
will individually override. Note that "Automatic configuration" and
"automatic configuration scripts" cannot be read.

>proxy< settings:
usesystemdefault="[true|false]" - Read settings from Internet Options (see above)
proxyaddress="[string]" - A Uri string of the proxy server to use.
bypassonlocal="[true|false]" - Enables bypassing of the proxy for local resources.


use this section to disable proxy use for matching servers
example:
>bypasslist<

>/bypasslist<


Voila - I got the result:
C:\Documents and Settings\machanis\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug>ConsoleApplication1.exe
Businesses found=18

Don't you see I'm having fun in crumbling, faltering, getting lost, hanging on to the ropes and - then getting upto this point??!! :-)

Senor...some updates for you

They say if you dont have anything to say, then either you're rocking or else rotting so much you cant say anything.

Well, in my case thankfully it was on the side of gliding gleefully - though not exactly rocking.

There are lots of things I did in the past few days on this project. Hmm, er...let me try to document it until my patience runs out of me - you'll see a lot of posts on top of this.

To begin with, after my OS was re-installed fresh, ASP.net started dancing on the IIS floor.

I kicked off my odyssey by a simple web service (WS).

Then, I thought of hosting a personal UDDI registry for this project - but voila, it turns out we cant do that unless we're running Windows 2003 Server - it has UDDI services to do that. I pondered on a dual-boot OS on my system - but then, soon decided to use a public UDDI Business Registry (UBR) by Microsoft (MS). They have a replica on test UBR where folks like me can play around.
http://test.uddi.microsoft.com

I created a MS passport > created a provider > published tModel > published service ....and created a sample VB.Net web application with a button which invokes the registered web service on click. I found this MSDN seminar very useful to come up to this point...
Introducing UDDI in Microsoft Windows Server 2003