Node.js : npm v1.0.17 hangs for every install …

Having problems with npm V1.0.17. For every npm install <package> it just hangs after

npm verb cache add [ 'express', null ]
npm info addNamed [ 'express', '' ]
npm verb addNamed [ null, '' ]
npm verb GET express
npm verb raw, before any munging express
npm verb url resolving [ 'http://registry.npmjs.org/',
npm verb url resolving   './express' ]
npm verb url resolved http://registry.npmjs.org/express
npm verb url parsed { protocol: 'http:',
npm verb url parsed   slashes: true,
npm verb url parsed   host: 'registry.npmjs.org',
npm verb url parsed   hostname: 'registry.npmjs.org',
npm verb url parsed   href: 'http://registry.npmjs.org/express',
npm verb url parsed   pathname: '/express' }

But when I do the following it works :

curl http://registry.npmjs.org/express
and get the tarball url.
wget http://registry.npmjs.org/express/-/express-2.4.6.tgz
and then run npm install http://registry.npmjs.org/express/-/express-2.4.6.tgz
This works.!!!
Why is npm install failing?

Interesting model for hosting providers for the future (Cloud hosting) …

http://gigaom.com/cloud/can-heroku-become-the-official-cloud-of-facebook-apps/

Was reading this interesting article on heroku and other cloud hosting services. The social apps space is growing at a steady rate and with facebook showing no signs of relenting its growth, social apps and associated hosting options seems a good deal.

AWS is surely the winner with all this, but hopefully some of the VAS that some of the providers can offer on top of AWS might make life a lot easier for developers. Will keep eyes open for more on this direction.

Sicilian Defense, Goals, Why, When and How

As black what are the goals of sicilian defence, what should the black expect and fight for.

What is the history of the opening and variations.

test agile post

test agile post

MongoDB : Getting Started on Mac os …

A nice blog post on installing mongodb on mac os.

 

How much buffer should we allow for in a sprint ?!

Was in a coaching session today and a discussion about buffers within a sprint came up.

Why do we need buffers?

Why do all buffers always get consumed much before the project deadline ?

Do we buffer tasks or do we buffer a project ?

Does the scrum way of task management and release management align well with buffering best practices?

Book Suggestion : Critical Chain By Eliyahu Goldratt

Nginx now used on wordpress.com in place of litespeed …

Have been interested in the new model that nginx comes with. I have been a apache guy for quite some time and it is interesting to see a new paradigm in webservers with nginx and others coming along.

Nginx to say the least was an interesting change in the past few years. But with this change according to Netcraft looks like we are seeing nginx in more large scale installations.

Interesting stuff .

Whats good about eclipse

Eclipse comes about as a very effective IDE, compared to a lot of other proprietary IDEs like the netbeans, etc. The growth of plugins that have been developed for eclipse, the flexibility to customize it with your own perspectives and ease of use to build plugins helps build great tools for optimizing the development experience.

Building “Liberating Concepts” that’s what keeps employees the motivation up …

As a self funded startup, we have a lot of challenges, but the most critical of all of them is the need to keep employees engaged and motivated. With many other options and possibilities that are attractive in terms of salary and comforts the best way to keep employees sticking to the startup are the ability to :

1. make work interesting,
2. give them a feeling of ownership on new and creative ideas,
3. getting them to build “Liberating concepts” in specific domains that we work with.

So what are liberating concepts !? For me innovations, that can be simple or complex but drive a feeling of WOW when customers use them that really bring about a feeling of “Oh yeah thats cool, did not think about it like this!?” is what developers like most to hear. There are so many such things that we are seeing these days and we are lucky to see them develop, grow and take over the markets.

When teams appreciate these kinds of concepts and can question themselves on how some thing like that can be built in our own products, thats what is exciting to our teams and keeps employees in startups engaged and motivated.

Eclipse – EclipsePluginCentral contributed to Eclipse Foundation …

Eclipse Plugin central was contributed to the Eclipse foundation recently, looks like we are going to see a lot more adoption of EPIC and many more interesting plugins.