Mayank's Blog

"The Data Access layer should be in its own project", was one of the points that I came across during a discussion with another architect from my team. The reasoning was that if it is separate, it wouldn't impact the service using it. While on the surface the logic seems sound, do we ever stop and think, hmm do we really need to introduce this complexity? How many times do we see us switching from SQL Server to Mongo DB? Is the additional complexity and work really worth it? Software Developers, especially those from object oriented language background (C#, Java, etc.) tend to love complexity. I too have been guilty of the same. But recently I came across a tweet which made me pause and take notice. .NET folks take a look. Remember that not everything has to be 150 projects and many layers. Imagine a complexity slider bar and sync it to YOUR business needs. Make it as simple or as sophisticated as you need. https://t.co/UujO05oWEb — Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) F...

Google wants people to use its Cloud Platform for connecting and managing IoT devices through IoT Core and use other GCP components like BigQuery to analyze data produced by those devices. While these products are fantastic, they also have some real world challenges. IoT Core provides a managed service for connecting IoT devices. It talks with both HTTP and MQTT protocols and features one-click integration with Cloud PubSub easing most of the infrastructure tasks. However there are some limitations: You cannot use any random MQTT topic to send/receive messages as you would expect on a custom MQTT bridge. There are special topic formats to send messages and also to receive commands. IoT Core uses Public-Private Key cryptography to secure devices. All IoT devices must first authenticate using the Public Key in a JWT token and then start sending and receiving messages. While these may seem like reasonable restrictions, one has to keep in mind that hardware vendors are still s...

Imagine getting into a fight with your partner. Perhaps you are not happy with something your partner has said or done. What do you do next? Do you talk things out or do you threaten to divorce your partner unless they agree to your demands. Even if they agree in the short-term, do you really think that your relationship would be same as before? Same goes with resignation. I have seen many of my colleagues stomping feet, saying that they will resign from the organisation if their wishes are not fulfilled. Sometimes these demands are justified, sometimes not. Either way, before resigning or threatening to resign have you talked to your manager about your concerns? Have you gotten no support or only empty promises from your manager? Do you feel that there is no scope of things improving in your workplace? If your answer is yes to any of these, please by all means resign. This applies to managers as well. If you are not able to support your employees during their tenure; don...

Some experiences mark the end of one phase of your life and beginning of another. The signals for this change might be approaching for quite sometime but either you didn’t understand them or chose to ignore them. Like I did when MTV Roadies slipped through my important to-do things on a weekend. Or when Channel V Dare to Date stopped being hilarious and started being cruel and mean. Or when Love Kiya Toh Darna Kya seemed like a stupid show where ignorant kids ruin not only their reputation but also that of their families. I guess I was going through “Being a cynical asshole” phase. You're Getting Old Tags: SOUTH PARK Stan Marsh , Randy Marsh , more... These signals turned into a full-blown experience when I saw Delhi Belly yesterday. I know that we are supposed to rave about how hilarious and awesome the movie is but I didn't find it so. There are only a finite number of times when visuals of ass-cracks or loud noises of farting tickle your funny bone. T...

Boy, what an year 2010 was! It was an year riddled with scams; so many of them that we have to invent a new search engine to just wade through them. Then there was Obama’s visit, Sarkozy’s visit, Hu Jintao’s visit. But that’s not all to the past year. It was also the year when I decided that I have had enough of the comfortable environs of Pune and that it was now time to brave the icy winds of Delhi. Delhi hasn’t let me down. Every morning it sends a chill down my bones when I get out of my warm and cosy bed. It is said that some people in Delhi don’t feel any cold. I had heard and read about them in magazines and movies but never quite believed it. But its true! Delhi girls don’t feel any cold. They have waxed off their goose bumps and apparently live and die by the tagline “ Jitna kam pehnoge, utna hot dikhoge ”. They are a burning topic (no pun intended) for scientific study to find out what kind of heat insulating/generating system they have which helps them wade through chilly w...

When I asked one of my friends for his comments about my last post , this is what he had to say -, " as an MBA i know hw imp ads are so i dont quite agree wit u " (reproduced verbatim from GMail Chat History). This was the same guy who had a great sense of humor when he was working as a programmer. He quit his job as a programmer and bam!, his sense of humor went away. Now this presents a burning question in front of us - why do all good programmers need to have an innate sense of humor? It is an established fact that computers can become boring , especially to a programmer who keeps talking to it day after day without getting any response or appreciation. It never happens that you log in to your system and the computer chimes, "Hey Bro! Where have ya been? How 'bout a cuppa coffee before you begin?" If it happens, it means that it was written by a fellow developer who had his manager breathing down his neck to complete the project. Enjoying such greeting is ...

The other day I was at my friend's house discussing the flavor of the season - The Commonwealth Games mess. My friend was getting animated and brought on the topic of falling of the false ceiling. His grandfather, a typical Haryanavi tau , who was listening intently to our discussion suddenly spoke, "What's a false ceiling?" On hearing our  explanation , he was shocked, "Why would anyone use such flimsy materials to construct ceilings! They ought to fall down. In our days, houses built with solid stones would last for centuries unlike the apartments you live in."  His comments made my memories flood back to the days when my grandfather would proudly show us his decades old Usha ceiling fan. "Not once has it been to a mechanic's shop and still working fine as new." As if to support him, the fan would merrily continue on its slow-motion journey. Another thing that my grandfather was very proud of was his Godrej almirah. It was so heavy that it ...

Nothing can be a better example of "India Shining" than the fact that today I was on an airplane for the first time in my life - flying from Pune to Delhi. Low-cost airlines have made it really affordable for poor people like me to have enough moolah in the pocket to buy an air-ticket. Like first love, first job and various other firsts (which are left to the reader's fertile imagination), this was a special occassion for me. The event was made even more special by the admiring looks that people gave me when I told them I was flying to Delhi. It was like having a mobile phone in  1995. The first reaction of people when they hear about someone's flight details is like "Oh! You are flying X airline. Y airline is much better. You know when I flew,.... blah.. blah.. blah". You just want to scream out, "Look I get it. You probably own an airline. Just let me enjoy my moment." So let's get on with my story.