I have been working a lot lately and enjoying every moment of time spent working on some exciting projects. Other than learning about programming and other new things about internet, I today discovered something which was not linked to projects and development, but was to do with "fun".

Are you fun to work with?

As a client are you fun to work with? As a person are you fun to work with? We should all ask ourself this question and see what reply we come back with.

Since I have come back to India from New Zealand, I have been getting myself setup to work and manage my finances in India.

Banks in India are all on board with e-banking which is really good. The e banking solutions which the banks provide lets you do most of the banking tasks you want to do.The one thing the two banks which I have an account with share is having a really bad user interface to their banking system.

Concentration / maintaining focus is something most people struggle with, myself included. With multiple tabs / alt tab switching and wanting to get more things done, most of us are always moving from one thing to the another.

So I got thinking the other day if all the multi tasking provides any good value and do I actually get more things done?

This has been bothering me lately. Most of the websites I visit off late, seem to be based on templates I have spotted long time back while trying to learn HTML/CSS. This on some level, gets me disappointed. Is this how things are headed in the web design industry. Are we quick to adopt templates just because they are available for a low prices or in some cases for free?

It's always sad to leave a project and move on to the next thing. About 2 months back, I said good bye to one of my side projects www.couchrated.com ( domain no longer active ) .

I have been reading and hearing a lot from most people successful in business to “stop watch fucking lost” and use that time to build the business you wanted to build or work on the product idea you have in mind. What they mean is for you to “get started”.

Following up on my previous blog post, I thought I would share a few tips on how to do well in the interview. I claim to be not expert and have been myself been successfully rejected from IBM and a few other web design firms I applied.

These are tips I would give myself, the next time I go for a interview.

I was part of an interview panel 2 weeks ago, helping a company I currently do consulting work for, hire a new developer. I took up the offer wanting to learn something new as I had previously not been a part of hiring process for a developer. I like getting to know people and other than programming/designing/sketching etc, human behavior is something I am very much interested in.

I have been looking for a login screen design, to use across most of the application backend I have been developing. After looking for some inspiration online, I decided to code my own login screen. I started with only one constraint, could not spend more than 30 minutes on it.

Click here to see a bigger version

This is the design I came up with. If you like it, feel free to download.

If you have visited my website before, you would have noticed that my website www.sunilshenoy.com was powered by Posterous. The current version, the one you are currently looking at, is not powered by Posterous.

I am proud to say that this website is not powered by any Content Management System(CMS).

One of my resolutions for 2009 was to read at least two books a month. I came really close to achieving that goal(19 in total instead of 24). Here is the list of all the books I read in 2009.

Most of them are either Self Help or Business/Management Related. 2010 would be the year I implement most of what I have learnt.

Any book you recommend I read, let me know.

It will be two years, today, since I started going to the gym and exercising. I am happy to report that after two years I am still going to the gym, 4 to 5 days a week.

Things I have learned about gym and exercising, till now:

1) Have a goal

If you are just starting to exercise, have a goal in mind about what you want to achieve. For some it might be to reduce their weight, for some to gain weight, good abs, good body shape etc. Workout out accordingly. It's ok for the goal to change later, when the goal changes, change your workout routine.

Here's the thing: In the end, language doesn't matter THAT much. Understanding data and control structures and design patterns does matter very much. Every language—even a simple scripting language—will have elements that you'll use in other languages as well and will help you learn. So, don't get hung up on what language to learn first. Pick the kind of development you want to do, and just get started using one that works.

a advice i would definitely give to anyone wanting to get started with programming.

If you live in India, I am pretty sure you know what I am talking about here.

If you live outside, I will let you in on something about most of the college graduates in India these days. Most of them are obsessed with MBA. Everyone I speak to off late seems to wanting to get into an MBA college.

The reasons

• Not happy with the current job.
• Thinking that MBA will get them an higher pay package
• "Just having a bachelors degree is no longer enough to survive in this market"
• "everyone is doing it"

Fear: “I’m going to lose because someone else is going to beat me to market (or is already there).”


Truth: In business, there can be lots of winners in any niche. Look at how many shoe makers, Italian restaurants, and furniture manufacturers succeed. You can do well in a crowded field as long as you’re doing something that sets you apart from the pack. It can be price, style, substance, personality, positioning, or storytelling. There are tons of ways to establish your company as unique.

As a developer, I am sure you must have faced this choice. A choice between building something new vs using something which is already built. I am currently facing a similar choice while developing a CMS for my application.

I decided weigh the pros and cons of both choices