Creating MEAN stack application using Bitnami launchpad in AWS

My earlier Harvard course on Bigdata Analytics had given me enough exposure on AWS (Amazon Web Services) and professional and personal curiosity on emerging technologies taught me enough about MEAN stack.  MEAN stack is a full stack development tool kit that includes javascript based techologies MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js and Node.js.

I wanted to take this learning to next level by hosting a MEAN stack application on AWS instance. While self exploring some intricate details of configuring and using AWS, much of the documentation was scattered to address individual needs and I had to connect the dots to meet my needs. Some of the documentation was old and some of the screenshots were obsolete. I decided to make a video along the way so that people who look for such information also get to learn. So here is the video of Creating MEAN stack application using Bitnami launchpad in AWS

I intend to do further videos explaining about other parts such as how to connect to the newly created VM, using Rockmongo, etc

Feel free to ask any related questions by leaving comments below this post or comments in youtube video page.

Big Data Analytics at Harvard Extension School

Quest for upgrades in technologies and skills are indispensable traits in software field. Although it was my impulsive decision to join this course, fortunately everything worked out very well to start the studies at Harvard extension school in Boston, Massachusetts. Big data analytics subject that a friend had enrolled intrigued me as I have been thinking of learning about this subject for a long time. Big data also aligns very well with my existing knowledge of over 15 years of Business Intelligence, ETL and databases related experience.

I have been working on Healthcase analytics for over 3 years and it seemed like a best fit course coupled with the thirst to learn were all solved by this course.
Here is my project that i presented at the end of the course. It was one of the very few projects selected to be presented at Harvard to all our class.

This course instantly prepared me for the next logical shift in my career and as a result of all the curiosity, I ended up creating a BigData Technologies Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT3bqK2QL93j-IFYFYbvjWQ  to share my technical explorations.

Wish list for Software Systems integration in every country

Recently I visited RMV in Watertown, MA for getting my driving license updated. They all did their job as best as possible. Being an Integration Consultant, every time I visit any government agency like this, I keep thinking about this.

They all have every bit of information already about me in their (at least one of their) systems. WHY DO THEY ASK ME TO FILL THESE SAME QUESTIONS IN EVERY FORM?
They waste

• My time in finding the information, filling, correcting, printing, taking time out of my office hours 
• Govt agency's time in validating every details of hand written (with human errors) applications, providing facilities for.
• National resources - Infrastructure for buildings etc.

My wish list for future (you would think that this is right out of a sci-fi movie) is

1. When you walk in to airports, No visa, passport, ticket or any other document to be presented instead scan my iris, palm or an embedded device. Do not ask me the purpose of visit, you must already be knowing it with verified documents (air ticket, valid visa and passport)
2. Our medical records
1. They should be shared by all physicians/clinics.
2. I should not be filling all those forms again with detailed clinical history at every clinic.
3. If I need to transfer my driving license/car registration etc, System should already know that i moved from Texas to Massachusetts and should present me a confirm button with every update its going to do namely,
1. Insurance update
2. New driving license issued by the state
3. Car and other vehicles registration transferred 

There are numerous use cases like these where we can automate
Although these might sound like next to impossible task given the different agencies involved that govern the data, but we already have most of the information stored in multiple systems and its not an impossible task to integrate these. 

SoapUI - A powerful web services testing tool

Recently I happened to Review/Test a few web services implemented for one of my client. 

SoapUI is the defacto standard for validating webservices. Apart from technical deliverables, I also got to evaluate the product and compare it with free version. I downloaded free version and Pro (14 days evaluation) and was pleasantly surprised at the advancements and ease of use. I developed webservices a few years ago and hardly any useful tool was there to test it. 

 










Some of the notable features I liked and used are

• Dynamic Duo/The Editors - You can visually enter data rather than searching though XML and entering the data. I used this extensively and is a very neat feature. 
• Point and Click Testing - Almost ready to test the webservices just with few clicks. You can click on the web service response xml contents and right click and few more clicks and SoapUI writes the xpath qeury and associated test case. Its that simple. 
• Test Debugging - Helps creating test flows, other testing related constructs like conditional execution, looping etc. I mostly utilized connecting to DB (data source) and groovy script.
• Data Sources - Provides options to connect to most popular data sources. You can write queries/get the data from these sources and then use use the data as part of inputs to your webservice calls or compare the data to validate the webservice response.
• Multi-Environment Support - If you have multiple environments on which you need to do same webservice testing, this is a major timesaver. I created my own config file and imported those settings as project's properties. Client code, end points. connection string, user name and such commonly used strings were stored and the imported properties could be used in test cases as variables with a few clicks(Again I did not type any of these).
• Reporting - Provides nice reporting of all test suites/cases executed with their status. You can also customize the template of reporting. I mostly created HTML reports as they were very easy to use and store but PDF, CSV and other formats are also available. 
• The SQL builder - Sql builder allows you to visually choose the tables and build query, our huge database with few thousand schemas was too much for SoapUI . I preferred using my ready to use queries and it worked flawlessly.
• Stop the Hackers - XML Bomb, sql injection, malformed XML and plenty of other ready to use test cases are available under security category  - Just few clicks away.  

SoapUI had plenty of other features but these were the features that I ended up using and was pleased with the self explanatory and user friendly interface.
You can take a look at their SoapUI : 12 reasons to go pro page for more details.

SoapUI also has a free version. Free version is very limited but lets you create your test cases with basic features.

Adobe LightRoom

Tried Adobe LightRoom software today on some of  my not so beautiful looking Raw images (of course bluebonnet flowers and kids are always beautiful)

What a difference. 

 I always wondered at those blank skies in my images and now i know how to deal with them. Pictures from Heavenly Bokeh group on Facebook and references from a few friends there inspired me to install and try out these effects. Burning midnight oil was well worth it. 

Youtube is scanning your videos

Yesterday I uploaded a video on Youtube that I created with photos and used some background music that i downloaded from net. In an hour, Youtube sent the following email to me.

Dear sanjaykattimani,

Your video, RishabHomeVideo.m2ts, may have content that is owned or licensed by Yash Raj Films Pvt. Ltd..  No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information.

Sincerely,

- The YouTube Team

 © 2012 YouTube, LLC
901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066 

So whats Google/Youtube up to?
Youtube is scanning all the videos that you are getting uploaded and scanning for music that matches their video/audio library. In case it matches, sends out the above warning message. This is a smart way to reduce/fight copyright infringements.
May be this was part of Googles privacy policy changes. I didn't read them. Did you?

I feel this is the best for copyright owners as they are suppose to get their share. At the same time if they start going after users like us to collect royalty, we would rather drop those songs and use some general public licensed music. Or better, I may end up creating my own music?? :)


Update 1/22/2017 - Noticed that YouTube still lets you continue to upload your videos, It certainly does not let you monetize (Earn on the ads) your videos. Its not hard to find royalty free music for most of your compositions though.



Spamming gets innovative.

Spammers Hakckers keep finding new and innovative ways to reach out to the masses. Since facebook has been immensely popular social network, it becomes vert attractive media for spammers. It also seems to be very easy to convince users to click a few buttons and steal all your data. They also post links on your friend's walls to attract more visitors.

Found a couple of my innocent friends posting these materials again and again.
How do you safeguard youself?

• Dont click on any link that you do not know or is suspicious.
• If any application asks you to approve/join/like do not do it unless you know the website/link
• They will have very attractive images/text - Eg. Osama bin Laden's uncensored pictures. If its too good to be true, it may not be safe link.

What do they get by spreading these kinds of links?
Any of the following

• Viral marketing - Website may be trying to make some product/website popular
• Stealing your details - They may be collecting your name, geographic location phone etc to sell it further.
• Stealing your id and passwords .

So please safeguard our accounts and share the good messages/links/videos with your friends. Do waste your and your friend's time and energy by clicking the wrong links.
Happy socializing.

QR Codes

Do you know what is QR Code?
A QR code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.

Was checking a barcode reader and found that app that i was testing can read QR codes so this was it.
Here is a QR code of my Kannada greetings site.

These are easily readable by most smartphones with camera by installing small app.

Garmin nüvi 1450 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

My previous Tom Tom XL got banged inside car many times as the suction holder gave up because prolonged direct sunlight/heat. It had lost the speaker for some time, and recently after it was handled by a friend, it died completely. Time to buy a new GPS. Its a very valuable tool if you travel even little bit and not sure about your local roads. It saves lot of time, gas and most importantly guides you back on the correct road when you go in a wrong route. Gramin is one the most popular names in navigation today I have found this invaluable tool to navigate specially the urban part of western countries. Update:  5 years writing this article, Both cars i bought have inbuilt GPS so that i do not have to scramble to connect gps or hook it to the windshield on need basis. In future they will all be tightly integrated in in cars rather than being optional. I already see this in cars like Tesla that has auto pilot that heavily uses GPS data.

50th Post- Sony HDR-XR150 Full HD 120GB HDD, 25X Optical zoom

My Ex-Neighbor Mr. Ron asked me to suggest him a good handycam for him. Sony was the defacto brand suggestion for him. Other reasons for selecting this model. 1920 x 1080 pixels Full High definition videos It had a large 120GB space to record lots of videos 25X optical zoom. I never had that much of zoom so far in any of my camera/handycams. Other specs like Exmor R" CMOS sensor Smile shutter Face detection 4.5 User review ratings Not buying a memory card as it doesnt need one, it has 120GB HDD :)

Hope he enjoys it for years to come.

Sony TX5 Waterproof, HD

Its time for another camera. Read about my earlier camera review.

My expectations from digital camera have increased over period of time.

Reasons for concluding on this camera.
* Water proof camera - Hope this does not disappoint me. I also dont have any deepdive plans.
* Small and very handy - Almost fits in the palm
* Reliable brand- Almost every one agrees, Sony is one of the best in electronics
* 10 FPs capability-Should be a good option when we know about a great shot.
* 720P HD video recording - This was another must have feature i was looking for. HD is awesome on TV.
* Sweep Panorama mode - Yet to really use this feature
* Design - Many others with similar features didnt look as good.


10 MP Camera!! I didnt see any change in this from my last camera. Having water proof was a great addition compared to increased mega pixels. Also higher mega pixels does not mean better picture :) Surprisingly many cameras have always been promoting higher mega pixels and have been successful in convincing the users.
Some more tips:
* Higher the class of your memory card, faster will be the save/retrieval operation (note the Class 10 memory card)
* Compare the best price you got on this blog, amazon should automatically show you the best possible price.


My latest wish list (I already miss some of these in this new camera)

* DSLR quality pics (highly desirable)
* 10+ optical zoom (highly desirable)
* Full HD video (Desirable -Well digital cameras are meant for pics not for great video, but if it can replace video camera that would great)
* Wifi Capability
* Bluetooth (Low priority)
* Projector? (Low priority)
as usually all these in a compact camera.

Convert Youtube to other formats

Ever wondered how to play youtube video in your cd player or how to watch it offline?
For those of you who havent explored or asked this question, here is some gyan.

Lot of freeware applications exist (do check their reliability from the reviews) that can take youtube URL (song address) and download it for you to almost any format.

http://www.vidtomp3.com/ Converts the URL in to standard or high quality mp3 file. You can play it strait in your car(Provided you have a mp3 player in your car). Found this site very handy.

Just search for download youtube + format you want and some website will convert it for you withought even downloading/installing any software.

Avatar & 3D Technology

I saw Avatar movie after 2 weeks of its worldwide release . I am writing about this movie now because its effects are still alive in my memory and worth blogging.

I wouldnt talk about the storyline of the movie or the facts and figures of the movie. You can read more about it on wiki. I watched it in AMC iMax 3D theater in harahan, Louisiana.

Stunning picture clarity and real to life characters keeps viewers on their toes. visual effects are a feast to every sci-fi movies fan. As James cameroon said, he had to wait close to 10 years as the technology wasnt advanced enough for the making this movie. That wait was worth the wait. This movie also bagged many Oscar awards.




I am sure this was a game changing movie. Future holds lot more innovations towards multi dimentsion movies.

My predictions: In the coming years more and more 3D, 4D movies and other new formats will be made and slowly 2D movies (which are most popular around the world today) may disappear (it may take few decades).

Why am i writing about it after 10 months of its release?
I see 3D technology penetrating in daily life and couldnt help but to blog about it. Here are some of the examples.

Televisions that can show any content in 3D format.

ESPN boasts a 3D channel.

Laptops are available with 3D technology.

Most of the future display technologies and games will be available in 3D which makes our brain "think" that real life characters are infront of us.

Google voice new revolution in how we send receive calls

I hadn’t imagined the next level of telephoning, although i had seen some glimpses of it when i worked on a voice mail application about 10 years back ;)
Here is the first cut review of Google voice.
Google guides us again and competes head-on with others in the business for decades. This time even the telephone carriers around the world may be forced to accept how little services/features they provided and how heavily they charged all of us all these years.

What’s new in Google voice

1. Screening spam call:

Anyone who heard my ringtones must have heard the spooky tone (Everyone asks what’s that for the first time) that’s set specifically for spam calls. Now Google lets me set a specific greeting for such calls including the one that says "I am sorry that number is not in service". Now that’s the right way to treat spams :)

2. Routing the calls:

You can route the calls to any number/carrier anytime. That relieves me from changing my number and potentially loosing connection with most of my friends. This is also a big boon for my friends back in India who went back from US. They usually want to have a local number which people here can use to keep in touch with them, but they end up paying for monthly service fee. I haven’t checked this in detail, but it should be possible to link a US number to Indian phone number.

3. Rignging multiple phones:

I can have one number that rings all my family numbers(including cell phones and home phones) so that any one can pick it up. Changing them is as simple as a few clicks.

4. Voice mails as text:

Set up Google voice and it can send voice mails as a text and a link to its voice. It may be very useful tool to read your voice mails instead of listening if you are busy person in meetings or pubs :) This can also be sent as email. Reply to email can go as SMS.

5. Customize greetings for each caller:

You can customize greeting for each caller or group of callers (cool ones for friends and professional one for colleagues and so on)

6. Conferencing:

Even if your phone or carrier does not provide options to conference with multiple friends, Google voice lets you do that.

These were the features that i was impressed with; you may find your own. Check them out at https://www.google.com/voice Telephony industry in on right track now.

Future cars tell you where they are parked.

One day cars could tell you where they are parked without you needing to remember.

Background : 5 floors of large parking lot with hundreds of cars often confuses me about where did i park my car. Going home for lunch doubles the confusion as i need to search my car twice. As most of you know during winter basements and parking lots are some of the coldest parts. Its drives you mad searching your car in the cold. I found that I am not the only one to find it hard to remember parking spots after checking with some more people on the way to parking spots. Almost everyone has the same problem once in a while(specially when they are pre-occupied with some thoughts and foget to actively remember where they parked the car).

I was wondering if we had the technology that could tell me where my car is parked on my iPhone.


Options: Yes technologies are already existing to achieve some of these. Here are some of them.

iPhone app can locate your parked location- This is the closest option for me. Yes this application can tell me only if I tell the app that i parked my car here(need to choose park here in the application). This does not track your car but remembers the location where I marked the location.

Your Car lock key can also beep loudly to tell you where it is located. I do have this feature, but if i am far from my car it does not reach the car.

OnStar service of GM is another closest technology that can track your vehicle. But no iPhone app or a website to track your car.

There are some keychains availavle that can mark the car location just like iphone app. This makes it a little bit easier, but again those compact devices arent yet as reliable and advanced as other GPS devices are.



Some advanced thoughts...
If there are 5-10 floors, GPS only marks the location in 2Dimension, so you wont be able to find out the floor where you parked it. There should be some way to figure out the height and map it to the floor number. I am sure some one picks this idea in future and makes a fundo gadget to locate your car.

Conclusion: Man finds more and more ways to get lazy and handover the thinking to machines/gadgets. This is one of mine. I am sure future holds lot of such smart features in cars.

Presentation Skills for corportate presentations - Download ppt

Presentation skill is one of the major must know trait for any higher role in the organization ladder. It also boosts your confidence in multiple areas.



My Presentation skills
The time that I have during business wait is very well used in sharpening some of my less confident skills. Presentation is one the major skill that I acquired during this period. Public speaking is an art which can be mastered only over a period of time. Before this my presentations (rather there was no formal presentation till this year) were fairly limited to my project team and contents were limited to the team/project only. Now this new unit exposed me to much larger audience (minimum of 80 employees) and i was the first one to cash the opportunity. I started organizing some regular presentations and there by i got an opportunity to address everyone for a small duration. It slowly built the confidence even to talk on some surprisingly new topic to fill the time gaps.

Presentation download
There are 101 things to talk about presentation. Find many of them neatly organized in the PowerPoint slide show. You can Download and use the following presentation if you would like to give a presentation on "Presentation skills".

Off track story
Presentation skills come naturally to teachers or should i say some teachers are very bad at presentation?? It reminds me of all my teachers of early childhood and their impression on me. Although I never thought I would ever write on one of them after nearly 20 years there was one very bad point that I would like to high light. One of my teachers constantly used to uplift his trouser at least once every minute (Fun apart; he was excellent in science experiments and use to make firecrackers himself with raw materials). Any presenter who is in the eyes of public should mind these small gestures; else they become a reason for imitation and laughter.

Conclusion:
Corporate presentation skills are a must for every manager or any one who faces clients. Your investment of time to acquire this skill will not go waste. It will take you a long way for the rest of your life.

Recession time - When the going gets tough, toughest gets going

With many people on business wait for more than 6 months in most of India IT service companies, they are bound feel the sharks circling around them sooner or later. Lets access the situation.

Economies are down globally, which means limited funds are available for IT expenditure. As a result Some projects get canceled and others get delayed. This situation affects every stake holder of the projects.

When employees are working for projects they are hammered all the time with work. When they come to business wait most of them spend time time aimlessly. Companies spend great amount of money to keep the team united and up-to-date. In the times of tight situations the incompetent employees get elbowed out by their unhappy managers. fair enough for the companies., To be in business they need nurture the best of the talents and get rid of the weeds.



Here is a list of things that you can do to utilize this precious time.

Get Trainings - Check your company's training calendar and attend every possible training thats useful for your career.

Get certifications - what better time to study & take those pending exams than this free time? You are going to get paid while you learn.

Volunteer for Internal projects - Most people disregard internal projects(they can be dummy projects too), but they are the best ways to
1. Keep in touch with technology
2. Switch to a new technology
3. Trying out new roles and responsibilities.

Work as shadow resources - You may not generate revenue for the organization, but you can surely become one dependable resource for the project in the times of need.

Volunteer for organizational initiatives - Some initiatives like recruitment drives or Road shows need volunteers, if you are experienced in that, jump in and make a difference.

This list is also useful to defend how you utilized your time during business wait. If you have used this time to your advantage, the business wait can be a boon to boost your career with new roles and responsibilities.

Firefox 3 - Be a part of Guiness world record

FireFox 3 is here. Mozilla wants to create a guinness world record. More than 7 million are already downloaded. I haven't explored the plug-ins or other features yet.

Although i have affection for Internet explorer and most of Microsoft products ;) I do like to explore and compare other products. I found was that FireFox has definitely become better compared to its previous versions (yes i have tried version 2 also)
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord
Go ahead, download and be a part of the guiness world record.
checkout how this blog looks on mozilla firefox 3.

Although this blog had perfectly fine layout,
Kannada greetings website was slightly different from how it is in IE (FireFox isn't looking good).That's fine, we have a better performance compared to Internet explorer in FireFox which is the best reason to download. Rest of the new features you can read on its features site. I might post again when i explore some new plug-ins.

PMP - A certification for Project Managers.

Its been a long time I sat down and studied something seriously. Its time to get certified again. PMI (Project Management Institute) is the de facto standard in Project Management methodologies.
PMP is a certification offered by PMI after a rigorous test of PM methodologies. So I am heading towards PMP certification. My time starts from 13th March 2008, Saturday. Target it to complete in 2 months that’s 13th May 2008.
In addition to MCSD and Six Sigma+ I am sure this certification will become another feather in my cap.

Henceforth a few blog posts will be dedicated to many topics related to project management methodologies. I am sure this will also serve as a quick reference.

I am refering PMBOK Guide by PMI, Project management Jump Start, and Head first PMP.
I will write a review of these books when i am done with them.

If you are interested in sharing your experiences of PMP feel free to post comments at the end of this post. I would love to share my experiences.

Glossary related to PMP

BAC= Budget at completion.
CPI= Cost Performance Index.
CV= Cost varience=EV-AC.
ETC= Estimate to completion.
EAC= Estimate At completion.
EV= Earned value - Budgeted amount of work actually completed on WBS.
PV= Planned value - Budgeted cost per WBS scheduled to be completed.
SPI= Schedule Performance Index

SV= Schedule varience=EV-PV.

Sony Cybershot DSC-N2 Review - Migration from 3 to 10 MP

Sony Cybershot DSC-N2, Review of a versatile, lightweight, compact and easy to use camera that comes in attractive champagne color. I have tried 2 other Sony models in the past, this model clearly out performs all cameras i tried before.

Some of the things i had in mind while considering this model - Sony DSC-N2

1. Awesome 10 Mega pixels - there are very few brands that have compact cameras with 10MP. There are 12MP models in the market too, Most of them are too expensive and for professionals. 2. Sony Brand - As almost (well i think so) every one agrees that Sony is a reliable and one of the best in electronics brand. 3. Huge 3" touch screen LCD adds to the fun - some one said on the net that "LCD works like citi bank ATM". 4. Whole bunch of features - I am a geek and like all fundo features being packed in such small devices read more at http://www.sonyindia.co.in/index_n2.html 5. Battery life - 300 to 400 photos can be clicked. 6. Market review of camera. To read more about the camera go the product site

My old camera is in fully working condition as it was 3 years back.
I had a Olympus C-310 model a 3.2 Mega pixel camera bought in Sept 2004.


Some of the considerations that made me change the camera are

Batter life was very limited 10-50 photos only (of course it depends a lot on the batteries used)

There was a 2-8 seconds delay after clicking a photo. This is one annoying thing.

Audio wasnt there, and videos almost doesnt make any sense without audio.

No connectivity to TV.

Video captured wasnt almost like VGA mode, and wasnt of good enough quality to share.

It has 3 Mega pixels and now you dont find cameras with less than 5 Mega pixels.(Ah.. technology changes so fast..)

Evening or night mode photos were not acceptable.

Small LCD.

No slide show opion.. had to browse through the photos manually.

When I bought this camera it was one of the best looking, highest mega pixel camera in the market and was in the budget that was about $400 including a 128MB XD memory card). But over a period of three years i had started missing above listed features.
Its was high time i changed my 3Mega pixel camera with a new one.

Bargain tips * Ideally wait for some bargain time like new year, christmas, thanks giving etc to buy anything at great prices. * If you are in hurry, still check some sites like deals2buy.com, froogle.com and other favorite sites of yours and compare prices. * Checkout taxes and shipping cost. * Ask your friends who make lot of research on prices (they will be more than happy to share their experiences). I bought 4GB memory stick and additional battery throught amazon.com

All photos (well almost) that you saw on my blogs so far were clicked by this camera. Probly Niagara trip was its last journey with me.

-- My wishlist of features ---

Shockproof (most cameras are)

Waterproof

Projector

High definition video recording

DSLR quality pics

About 20X optical zoom

And all these features...i still want my compact camera :) Technology...Show me the way...